Mattea 3 years old

3 years old at last! In some ways it feels like she is older because we can't imagine life without her, and at the same time, I can't believe we have a 3 year old! Mattea is full of spunk and cracks us up with all the crazy things she says and does. She is also very observant, meticulous - she definitely doesn't miss a beat! 

At her checkup today she weighed 36 lbs 8 ounces and was just over 40 inches tall - so still at the highest end of the charts in terms of size. WNBA here we come???

She loved her time at daycare, but says she would rather be at home with Mommy, so she couldn't wait until summer time and it was no surprise that she had a long list in her mind of "things to do" which include going to the beach...going to the zoo...going to the pony farm...etc etc etc! Not sure how many of those things we'll be able to cross off but so far she seems pretty happy with just be home and doing a whole lot of everyday "nothingness":-)

We did get a great deal on some 2 day Wonderland passes, so we went with the girls and to our surprise, Mattea LOVES rides. She was not afraid of anything and went on literally every ride she could and the faster the better in her mind! Because of her height she was even tall enough for the Ghoster Coaster - which was her favourite ride of all!

She loves doing any kind of craft or activity and desperately wants to learn to write (she is forever asking me to make outlines of letters for her to trace!). She also loves games and can actually beat us at memory games etc! I'm hoping over the next month or so to get in as much learning with her as I can before the new baby comes along!

The "Epic" Event

Okay well not quite epic, but in the mind of this 3 year old it certainly was! Mattea has been literally counting down her birthday since Christmas time and had grand plans of what this party was to entail. She had every detail planned out - and I'm not even sure how she knew all of this information but she did! "There will be goody bags, and streamers, and balloons with strings on them"... "there will be a princess cake....or a robot cake...which will be blue, grey and red". She was also inviting every person she knew to this great event (teachers from daycare, sunday school teachers - little did she know that this was going to be a simple family party!)

 It took a trip to the party supply store in order for her to finally decide that she would go with a Tangled theme for her party which I may have swayed just a little bit because making a Rapunzel cake seemed a whole lot easier than trying to make a robot! And she was quite happy to pick out a few small trinkets for "goody bags" for her cousins, Kayla and of course herself (Lol...there was no telling her that you don't get a loot bag at your own party)

Here are a few pics from the day of....

 She literally gasped at each room seeing her decorations (a few dollars spent on some balloons and streamers were well worth the reaction:-)) Even Kayla walked around going "wow...wow". Yes, my kids are easily impressed:-)

 Mattea and Kayla are eating birthday cereal carefully selected by the birthday girl. Honeycombs...certainly would not have been my choice, but she seems to love them!

The much anticipated cake....to Mattea this is the most important element of any party. She always asks what kind of cake will it be! This was my first time working with fondant, so after watching Darla's marshmallow fondant tutorial - I was on my way!  I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out! and more importantly, so was Mattea!

Princesses for the day! 

okay well more like princesses for an hour or two....they didn't last long in these outfits! Puffy dresses get in the way of running and playing!

We could not get a decent picture of Mattea all day - this was as good as it got! And somehow she looks like she is attending a funeral instead of her own party!

Kayla was very proud of her outfit and her especially her tiara! (at least for a little while!:-)

So all in all, it seems that the day fulfilled all of Mattea's dreams (seriously...balloons and streamers was all it took! lol...) and she is already busy making plans for her next party! "On July 10...when I'm gonna be 4...I'm going to have a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake...."

Greeeeeeat........only about 357 more days to go!:-/

Kayla 16 months old

Well I'm a still a bit behind in posting but I'm getting better!

Kayla  was just at the Dr today and although we like to think of her as our small little girl...it turns out that she is only small to us! She is way off the charts for her height (I think it was like over 120th percentile???), measuring in at 35 inches tall and is around the 85th percentile for weight (at 26 lbs 6 ounces).

Kayla continues to be our crazy girl who keeps us on our toes as she loves to try anything she is not supposed to do! She loves to jump off things - chairs, beds, picnic tables, stairs...you name it, she has tried it and doesn't seem at all bothered by the amount of bumps and bruises she gets as she simply gets up, says the occasional "ow" and does it again (in this way she is NOTHING like her older sister who is still too cautious to attempt even half of Kayla's stunts!).

She is a big time copycat, especially of Mattea and will always take whatever Mattea has said or done and then repeat it in excess. A true younger sibling!

She could go down in the record books as the world's messiest eater...refusing to be fed by anyone, she loves her food but will literally need a bath after every meal.

She is incredibly endearing though with the sweetest, most loving personality...and gives the best hugs and kisses ever. Her vocabulary is expanding daily and her newest thing is to answer every question she is asked with either "Yeah" or "Yup" or the occasional "noooo". She constantly apologizes with "sarry" ...she says this after she falls down...or drops something. She also asks herself  "You okay?" every time she falls over - which is ALOT. She also never lets a sneeze go by without adding "bess you"!

Some of the pics in this post are of Kayla in May, some in June and the last two were taken today!:-)

Happy Birthday Brent!

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT #2
Our expected June baby came 7 days late on July 4th. We became the 'million dollar family' with a girl and a boy!

His birth announcement was white cards with embossing around the perimeter which I had purchased at a store. I then hand typed all the announcements. Unfortunately I only kept one for Brent's scrapbook and all the rest where given away. I then had to type out a replica for our family scrapbook. Since Brent has his album in AB and we are in SK I am not able to scan it, but here is the wording. Perfect when the father of this baby was the Inventory Control Manager for a book publishing company.

    KENNEDY PUBLICATIONS

are proud to announce the arrival of
their new cloth-bound publication

BRENT MICHAEL HAROLD.

    This limited edition came hot off 

the press on Friday, July 4th, 1980

at 1:40 p.m. at Scarborough Centenary

Hospital.

   Copywrited at 7lbs. 6ozs. & 21 ins.

Author and Illustrator - David & Beccy

Royalties are held by Darla Janette.

Brent was named after my (Beccy) baby brother Brent Michael that passed away in 1968. And the name Michael is also shared by 2 brothers-in-law on both sides of our families. Another factor was that the first time we ever talked about baby names Dave suggested Brent saying "you know a boy's name I really like is Brent".  It was decided very quickly that our first boy would be Brent Michael and that would have been Darla's name. The third name concept was decided during Brent's pregnancy. Harold is Dave's father's name as he had been diagnosed with cancer and was very concerned about having a grandson to carry on the family name. We then decided to do a third name as a namesake for sons.

Brent was an extremely active baby, toddler, and child. He has grown into a careful, responsible, and respectful adult. He is loyal, passionate and a hard worker. His youthful energy has been channeled through his Lord into his life, his wife, his children, his vocation, his friendships, and his hobbies.

What an incredible journey his life has taken us on and we have enjoyed the ride!

Kennedy Klan

Here's the majority of the Kennedy Klan all together at Davis and Danielle's wedding on June 30. Mark, Lauryn, Mattea, Kayla and baby couldn't make it due to Lauryn being due shortly!

 

Also, for a sneak peek of Davis and Danielle's wedding photos, click here!

We joined the band wagon!

Apparently this was the year to buy houses, and we figured since there were pictures of Kaden and Davis' places on here, we should post pictures of our new home as well for people to see! You can see our new home here.

Kaden's House

Kaden bought a house for a good deal, but it needs quite a bit of work with remodeling/new floors and drywall. Brian rewired and grounded the entire house while he was in town, saving Kaden quite a bit of money on an electrician. {Lets hope it doesn't burn down - Brian!! lol}. Basically nothing inside was salvagable due to 1) being very old 2) 50 + years of cigarette smokers in there!

drywall down in the livingroom

One of the bedroom is completely filled with all these built ins. They are coming out!

Kitchen cabinets coming down...new kitchen coming up!

Janessa pulling down the ceiling, and Brian re-wiring the basement.

room in the basement

2nd bedroom upstairs

Upstairs bathroom. New vanity (and new everything else) will go in soon!

Bedroom with built ins, again

Dining room. A built in hutch. Something else to rip out

wall between the dining room and the kitchen will be removed, and the ceiling in the livingroom/dining room will be vaulted

Other side of kitchen with cabinets to come down

Brian, Brent, Dad, Kaden, Amy & Janessa really put in a lot of work there the week before the wedding! Many hands...make a big mess, in this case:-)

Speech

Logan's Best Man Speech was really funny!!

D + D

Here are some pictures of Davis and Danielle`s home...

Jillaine quilled this for them out of paper. Gorgeous!

From the front entryway. Open concept making for easy entertaining

The kitchen

Love this!! Dining area off the kitchen

Their bedroom is grey, white and a teal-ish navy blue

Davis put these up in the bathroom. Plumbing parts (or clamps) and mason jars!

Deep tub. Sort of claw foot style, only built into a tile surround

Spare bedroom is dark grey, white and yellow

They have great pictures put up all over

Marshall and Grey, playing cars

Livingroom shot, full of family