6 months later......

So a blog every 6 months is not very good!!! I keep thinking I'm gonna get better at this, but I don't. Naturally lots has happened in the last 6 months. I'll try to stick to the important stuff. Summer came and went way too quickly. I took one summer class but was still able to enjoy most of summer. We spent a few days in Las Vegas and had a BLAST. Vacations are the best. We spent most weekends camping this summer which was wonderful. We also got to see lots of our family which was also wonderful.
Kenadie turned 3 in August which was a big affair. She had a pool party and she was spoiled rotten of course. Randy and I also celebrated our 4th anniversary in August. My mom was awesome and kept her overnight while we went to Tucson and we got to spend some much needed alone time together. It's so hard for me to believe that we've been married 4 years already. It's gone by so quick. We enjoy looking back over all the things we've done over the years and look forward to whatever else is in store for us.
August also meant that school started for me again. But, I'm finally in the NAU program so I'm doing my last two years now. The end is definately in sight and I'm way excited. It's been difficult for the three of us in different ways, but we adapt and overcome :) Before we know it we'll be looking back remembering when I was going to school.
Randy is busy with work. He still loves what he's doing and I admire him more and more every day for what he does. I definately couldn't do it! Of course he says the same thing about teaching. He also has a car project going right now. He's restoring a '66 Mustang which is his current pride and joy. He's been going back and forth between enjoying it and cursing its existance, so it's been sort of entertaining to watch.
I began substitute teaching at Morenci. It's been real fun and I've enjoyed going back to work. Some days are more trying than others but I'm hoping it will get a little easier as time goes on. It's definately good practice if nothing else.
Our world revolves around Kenadie, and she knows it. Although the terrible 3s have set in, she's still a joy 98% of the time. She is so full of energy and has so much character. She is also begging constantly for a little brother. Hopefully we can make that happen for her soon. Her only requests are that the baby brother doesn't cry, doesn't touch her stuff, and doesn't eat all her food. Lol....that girl, I tell ya....
That's pretty much all of it in a nutshell. We are going to be taking a trip to Disneyland at the end of October so we are super excited about that. Kenadie is going to be Cinderella for Halloween and is so excited to go trick or treating with Mickey Mouse. It's a good thing she has her papa and her "fairy godmother" Sandra to make things like that happen. Xoxo
God bless. Until next time....

I love spring

Spring is one of the best things in the world in my book. I love everything about it, but especially the fact that it means that summer is just around the corner. Well so far this year is off to a pretty good start. A few bumps here and there but we can't complain too much. We had a really great Easter this year. Last year Kenadie didn't really get into it, but this year she was a blast. It's always at holidays that I am reminded what a spoiled little girl she is! She not only got an easter basket from us, but one from her nana and grandpa BK and one from her Papa and Sandra. She thought it was Christmas all over. Papa and Sandra even got a bunny, named Tony, that she thinks is the greatest. The other night she was going over there and she packed a backpack full of snacks for her and a bag of carrots for Tony. She had a sleepover with Papa and Sandra this last weekend, which was not only awesome for her, but for me too. They were so nice to watch her so I could go out on a ride along with Randy. Kenadie got to eat icecream and watch Cinderella all night long, and I got to just exist for several hours with no worries and no responsibilities. I was really excited to get to go out with Randy for an entire night. We hadn't been out for awhile, and although he was working and it wasn't really a date, it was nice to just be together. I love watching him at his job. The next morning we went to pick Kenadie up about 10 and she refused to leave her papa's. She told us "It's okay Mom and Dad, come back for her later, bye." lol. So she got to hang out for the rest of the afternoon.

We've been getting the yard ready to plant grass and it's been surprisingly fun. The weather has been so nice and even though we still have a good 5 or 6 more truck loads of dirt to shovel this week, we know it will pay off. Kenadie is of course an excellent helper when we're working in "her" yard.

I only have 5 more weeks of school!!! I am so excited to graduate. I didn't think this day would ever come and it's actually coming up pretty quick. Even though it's been a struggle in so many ways, I'm so glad that I've stuck through it and have an amazing husband who has always been 100% supportive of me. When we got married I didn't think I could love him more than I did at that moment, but I was wrong. Everyday I seem to love him more and I'll never know what I did to deserve him, but I will always be grateful.

Oh, another really cute thing Kenadie's done recently. Poppies are all over the place right now, and I wanted to make sure Kenadie got to play in them so we took to a place covered in them last week. When she got out of the car her jaw just dropped and she got this huge grin and she looked up at me and said, "mommy, it's so beautiful!" It's really no wonder that girl gets whatever she wants, she so stinkin cute! So she got to play in the poppies, and she picked huge handfuls for her (everything is "hers" lol) Uncle Jake. It's these simple things that make life so amazing.

I'm officially the worst blogger ever

Let me just say that 5 months have never gone so fast! So much has happened, so I'll try to make the update as short and sweet as possible. So since August I have been really really busy with school naturally. Last semester I had a full schedule and hardly any free time. Randy and Kenadie ate lots of leftovers and entertained themselves quite a bit, but we all survived. I have a full schedule again this semester, but I'm hoping not such hard classes. We are only one week in so it's a little too soon to say. But so far I'm enjoying it and I'm really excited this will be my last semester at EAC. If all goes well I should be applying for the NAU program in February and 2 years from now, be a teacher. Randy has been an amazing support and so understanding through all this schooling and I'm very grateful for a husband who helps me accomplish my dreams. I couldn't do any of this without him. Other than school I keep busy with life and church stuff. I still do activity days but I was recently released from teaching my Sunday school class. I was pretty bummed about it, and I miss my kids, but I'm enjoying being able to go to Sunday school and Relief Society. I fractured my foot snow sledding the day after Christmas and I am still stuck in a boot cast. It was and is still a very painful experience. Other than that, life is just the day to day basics but I'm loving every minute of it.
Randy has been busy as ever with work. He is in training in Phoenix right now for 2 weeks to become a DRE (drug recognition expert, sounds impressive, right?) and me and Kenadie are missing him like crazy! I cried like a baby when he left and for a week before, but I find it comforting that after 4 years of being together, I never want to be away from him. He still loves his job and he does an amazing job and is one of the hardest working people I know. He recently recieved an award for outstanding performance. He did 38 DUIs just in the last year. I am endlessly proud of him. He bought a banshee in the last couple months and it's his "baby girl." Sadly he doesn't get a whole lot of time to ride it, but atleast he has it he says. Between that and his mustang he feels pretty happy about what toys he has.
Kenadie is absolutely the most wonderful kid ever. She is so much fun and always keeps us on our toes. She has so much personality and is very strong willed. Things I hope never change. She is very busy and is just growing too fast for my liking. It seems like just yesterday she was an infant crying all night. Now I have this toddler that talks back and makes me me laugh, cry, and lose my patience, sometimes all at the same time. Being a parent is awesome and both me and Randy indulge in every moment with her.
We moved into a new house this last week and it is AWESOME!!!! We love it. We had put in a tranfer in September but didn't think we'd ever really get it. Then, totally out of the blue we find out we got a new house. We moved in record time, which I might add was no easy task with a hurt foot, but alas, we are mostly settled in and we don't miss the old house at all. The house we are in now is newer and it has TWO bathrooms, central heating and cooling, and lots and lots of cupboard space. Things we desparately missed in the other house! Needless to say this has been an exciting time for our little family.
That's a little bit of what has been going on. We had an amazing holiday season and we feel so blessed to have so much family and people around us to love. We are all looking forward to the new year and all that will come with it.

Wow! Almost three months have passed since I've posted anything. We had one crazy summer. I'm not even sure where to start. Let's see, in June we went to California. We had so much fun and Kenadie loved it. It was her first time flying and she did pretty awesome. She loved Disneyland and her favorite ride was It's a Small World. She went nuts in there. I took one class in July and that took up pretty much all my time. I also worked part time during my class so it was a pretty rough 4 weeks but it was definately worth it in the end. Randy was awesome the whole time and never once complained about eating whatever most of the time and having a not very attentive wife for a few weeks. Keeps 'em humble right? Once the class ended it seemed like I had endless time before me but I didn't. Me and Kenadie went to Texas with my dad and little brother the last week of July into the first of August. It was a long drive but overall a pretty good trip. Kenadie again was an awesome child. She travels so well and I am very thankful for it. Randy and I had our 3rd anniversary on August 5th. Hard to believe it's been 3 years already. I feel like we've accomplished a lot in a short time. It was an awesome feeling celebrating 3 years and I am looking forward to many more. Kenadie turned 2 on August 8th and we had her birthday party that day. It was a lot of fun. I am still having a hard time believing I have a 2 year old, but I do. She is growing up way to fast for me. It seems like everytime I blink she changes. So far this is my favorite stage. I've loved all the stages but she is so much fun now. Minus 100 tantrums a day. She talks so much now and learns things so quick. It's amazing. She got tons of toys for her birthday and even made quite a bit of cash for a 2 year old. Randy and I went to Wet N Wild in Phoenix the next day and Kenadie stayed with her Grandma Tammy and her aunts and got even more spoiled. It had been a long time since me and Randy have done anything together so we had a ton of fun and I enjoyed every second. Randy went back on nights when we got back so I've been pretty sad. I get so spoiled when he goes on dayshift and I absolutely hate being alone at night. He got in a minor accident last night but he is okay. It amazes me how calm and strong he can be, but I guess that's his job. I was so relieved that it wasn't worse than it was. As Randy always says, somebody sure likes him up there. Jacob started his first week of school on Thursday. So far he is liking it, but it's only been two days. I hope that we can have a good year this year. Randy has promised to buy him a gun if he gets atleast Cs and better this year. Hopefully the bribe works! I've had him the last couple nights which helps a lot when Randy works nights. Jacob is really great company for me. I start my classes on the 24th so I'm getting pretty excited, nervous, but excited. I am definately ready to be done for awhile. So all in all, we are all doing great. We are busy but life is really great. I will try to stay on top of this better :)

I don't even know where time has been going! I can't believe May is already half over. I think I'm ready for it though. May always makes me kinda sad. It's hard for me to believe that it's been 3 years now since I graduated high school. Doesn't seem like it can be possible. Time goes by way to fast. Every year though I get more thankful for the friends I've stayed close to since then. It's crazy to look at where we all are now. I have gotten to spend time with Monique since she's been home for a couple weeks which has been wonderful for me. There's nothing like spending time with someone you've known most of your life. I love that no matter how much time passes between visits it all feels the same. It's nice to know that some things don't change. Briana's bridal shower is on Saturday and I can't wait to be around some of the girls who are in so many of my most precious memories and who I love dearly.
We have all been keeping pretty busy. Randy's working a lot as usual and I've been keeping busy with Kenadie and church stuff. Tomorrow night is our mother daughter night for my girls so I'm glad that the stress is almost over. Tomorrow I'll be running around crazy but then it'll be over. Randy and I have our first nephew. Randy was so excited. I'm sure we'll do our fair share of spoiling the boy rotten. I'd already forgotten how small and fragile newborns are when we went to visit him at the hospital. Didn't make me want another one though so that's a good sign I suppose. Maybe in another year I'll get baby hungry. My friend Amanda had another baby a couple weeks ago and we had her daughter Libby for the day. Her and Kenadie had a picnic for lunch and we took them to the park when it cooled off to go play. They had a good time. I don't think I could ever survive twins though.






Kenadie was so cute the other day. Randy was sleeping on the couch and she was so tired because she wakes up at 5:30 in the morning so she got her blanket and crawled up with him and fell asleep. They look so much alike! I never thought I could love anything as much as I love Randy and Kenadie. They are my world.

Kenadie playing in her little pool Ran built her at the river last week. She was so excited. I have a video but once again for some reason it won't let me upload it but I'll keep working on it.

Life is really good for us. We are going to Casa Grande Wednesday to see Randy's mom and sisters and for Kylie's graduation so we're really excited. I can't wait to get outta town and see them. I completely lucked out in the in-law department. It's not very often I don't think that a girl gets along with all her in-laws as well as I do. I'm thankful that Randy's family has always treated me so well. From the very first time he took me to meet any of his family I have always been treated like part of the family. I love them for that. I love that even though they're not perfect there's so much love between them all. The older I get the more I realize how important family is and in the end it's the only thing that really matters. So I'm very grateful that out of all the girls out there, Randy chose me to share his family with. In a few weeks we'll be leaving for California and we can't wait. Oh, sad story real quick, Randy lost his wedding ring working on his friend's car. I keep crying about it, haha. But I've made sure it's not when he's around because I know he was upset too and I don't want to upset him more. But his wedding ring is gone! So silly, I know, but I can't believe it's gone. I know it was just a ring, but it was like THE ring, ya know? I had it personalized and everything. No other ring will ever have the value to me that that ring had. What a silly girl I am. Anyway, that was my sad story, but I hope that everyone is also doing well and we love you all! Xoxo

Summer

I don't know about you, but I am so glad it's getting to be summer. We continue to spend lots of time at the river since the weather has been so great. Last week we went twice. One day Randy, Kenadie and I went exploring on some of the less traveled places at the river and found some great spots. It was a great day. The next day after we picked Jacob up from school we went with Brian, Stephanie, and their two kids Brookie and Tucker and we cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and the boys fished with no luck unfortunately. We had a great time. The kids had a lot of fun. I am so greatful we have friends like them here. The Xterra still smells like campfire unfortunately though. Randy continues to be really busy with work and between Kenadie and Jake and church stuff I am staying plenty busy. I start school at the end of June and some days I wonder how on earth I'll manage balancing anything, but for some odd reason I'm not happy unless I'm running crazy. So I'm pretty excited to be going back. Exactly when I said I would too :) My broken toe continues to anger me. It was doing much better until Kenadie ran it over with a shopping cart at Walmart and it's been swollen again ever since. I wish it would hurry and heal so I could go running again. Running or walking everyday was making a huge difference in my attitude and ability to deal with Kenadie when she got in one of her moods. So needless to say I have really missed doing that. I went walking in my flipflops the other day which resulted in blisters so I'm thinking I'm just gonna have to suck it up and figure out a way to not think about how it hurts to wear enclosed shoes. Maybe tomorrow would be a good day to try. We shall see... Kenadie is constantly throwing temper tantrums these days. Sometimes it's so hard not to laugh at her, but laughter is usually what gets me from one day to the next. I think that's one reason me and Randy get along so well. Even when I want to be mad or irritated with him he always makes me laugh. Laughter is such a wonderful thing. Kenadie is still hitting no matter what we do so I'm trying to come up with a way to put a stop to that but I've come up with nothing so far. Nothing affects the girl. She is very smart and knows exactly how to play her cards. Somehow at the end of the day though she's worth it all. We hung curtains in her room today so I'm hoping that it will darken her room a bit in the morning and maybe she'll sleep past 6. Probably not though. Here's a few pics from the last couple weeks:

Kenadie in one of my activity day girls' boots and playing with her bucket at the river

And the three of us. XoXo

Nighttime...

Tonight I am baking cakes. It's a little after 10 and I am finally doing the last one. We're celebrating my dad's birthday tomorrow night and I am making him a Dale Jr. cake. He and his girlfriend went to the Nascar race in Phoenix this last weekend so it's appropriate. As much as I love to bake and decorate the cakes, I don't think I'll be up to eating any of this one. I made one for Jake's birthday party a week ago so I'm kinda caked out. But I do love to do them. I wish I got to do them more often. I made Jake an army cake with tanks and army men, the works. I thought it turned out nice. It was yellow cake with strawberries in the center and whipped cream frosting. It was so good. Dad's is going to be same only with buttercream frosting.
It's so quiet in the house after Kenadie goes to bed. As much as I want peace and quiet all day, it makes me kinda sad that it's so quiet. She's getting so big. Lately it seems everytime she falls asleep, she's grown a couple inches by the time she wakes up. She's talking so much now too. It's amazing how she goes to bed one night then wakes up the next morning and can do all sorts of new things. She's been wanting to pretty much live in her red wagon her grandpa Ramie bought her for Christmas last year. Yesterday my mom, Heather, Jorden, and Destany came up for a visit. It was so nice. I love getting company at our house. Destany spent lots of time pulling Kenadie around in the wagon. The kids are so cute with Kenadie. We had our trip to Scottsdale a couple weeks ago. It was so great to get out of town. I didn't want to come home at all. We stayed at the Orange Tree Golf Resort and it was so nice! We had so much room and it was so comfortable. I loved it.

This is Kenadie taking a bath in the huge tub that was in our room. We turned the jets on in it for her but she didn't really like it. Randy learned a lot in his training and it was a wonderful little get away for the three of us. I'm greatful that both Randy and I need to get outta town periodically. We're usually pretty happy to be coming home, but we both appreciate the need to get away.
Kenadie had a good Easter and scored big with everyone of course. I have a video, but for some reason it won't upload so I will have to try again later when I'm not so tired. That is a little of what's going on, more to come, promise, but for now I need sleep. Xoxo