Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for so many things.  First I am thankful for the health of my kids.  As we battled the stomach flu for the last week I am happy for their renewed health and energy.  I am thankful for every bite of food they eat for every smile on their face.

I am thankful for my husband who loves me more than anything but loves our kids a close second.  He is a true family man and I love him for being there for us all the time.  I am thankful for his love of cooking because my love of cooking is not quite there.  He is my perfect match.

I am thankful for my friends who have taught me so much about parenting and friendship.  They are amazing and I am thankful everyday because they are here to walk beside me on the path of motherhood.  They inspire me to be more creative, push me to be more driven, and are always encouraging.  They love my kids like their own as I love theirs like my own. 

I am thankful for our parents, who love my kids and spoil them like great grandparents do.  I could not ask for better people to love my children.

What are you thankful for?

A little road trip with a lotta love!

We took the best little road trip today out to the Sequoia National Forest.  It was a great drive along the Kern River and we ended up finding the perfect camp out spot for this summers vacation.  Andy was so happy to take us out Jeeping.  He loves sharing his hobby with us.



 
It reminded my of a podcast my friend Candice is listening to by Gary Chapman about love languages.  I think we spoke his love language today by going out for a road trip and spending the day with him.  His love languages are physical touch and quality time.  It is so great knowing this because it helps me show him better how I love him.  My love language on the other hand is words of affirmation.  I am easily pleased with "I love you" and other great compliments.  This he does for me abundantly.  

Here are the 5 love languages
1.  Words of Affirmation
2.  Quality Time
3.  Receiving Gifts
4.  Acts of Service
5.  Physical Touch

What is your love language?

Captain Andy!

We have been pacing the curb waiting for the postal carrier for days.  Nervously flipping through the stacks of mail every day.  Finally today was the day, the results are in for Andy's captains interview and test.  They were ranked based on performance on the test and interview.  The process started with about 60 engineers, only a little over 30 continued on to the interview.  Of these 30+ Andy is ranked # 2!!!  Wow, I could not be a more proud wife at this point!  His drive to succeed amazes me.  The love he has for his job inspires me.  I am in awe! 

Now we wait some more, probably not long before they do another interview to place him into a station so he can officially be acting captain.  This was a long and tedious process, but was so worth it!  He is an amazing firefighter, and will make an amazing captain as well!  Good job hubby!

Date Night

Andy and I don't get out much. We don't really have anyone to babysit for us except a few good friends, and we would rather just have all of our families together. That being said, it had been since November since our last date night. Yes, 5 whole months. Sad isn't it.

That all changed last night. We got to go out for the Firefighters Ball last night. We got all dressed up, hair all done, and went out for a night of dinner, comedy and dancing. It was an evening to remember. Andy and I had so much fun going out spending great quality time together. We spent time with some amazing co-workers of Andy's and their wives.  We made new friends and reconnected with old friends.  We are so lucky to be apart of such a great organization and family. 

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Five on Friday

This has been quite an eventful week here in the Kennison houshold. 

1.  Andy had his first interview for the captains position.  He has been working so hard, studying, and practicing it is nice to finally get it done.  He did great and we are waiting to see his score which should arrive in the mail next week. 

2.  Emily has finally started feeling better from her strep infection.  It has taken her quite some time to feel better.  She ended up getting a reactive arthritis from the infection.  She will have no lasting side effects but it could take up to months to fully correct itself. 

3.  Will has officially given up nursing.  It is so sad.  A step I was not really ready for.  Even though it was his own decision I cannot help but feel tremendous guilt that I could not make it longer.  He is happy though and that's what matters most.  Fortunately we still have lots of milk to feed him so he will still have the great benefits of breast milk for some time.

4.  I finally got a picture of Will with his first two teeth!  He is now getting the top two also but I am so excited to finally get a picture with teeth!  He is growing up too fast.  Love my boy.

5.  Lastly, I am so excited that little Paisley Mallon Boyer has finally arrived today!  We have not yet had the pleasure of seeing her cute little face, but hope to make it over this weekend.  We are so excited to have this little girl around!  She will be so spoiled.

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Our hero!

The nerves are high. His suit is clean, his shirt pressed, his hair cut, and his resume done. Tomorrow is the day we have been waiting and preparing for. Andy has his first captains interview.

He has amazed me in his determination through this process. I have never seen him so focused on anything like he is with this promotion. Andy loves his job and I am so excited for the possibility of him becoming even more. I am so proud of him. Words cannot describe the pride I have in him.

So tomorrow at 8 am keep Andy in your thoughts and prayers. I know he will do an amazing job and no matter what happens, I am so proud.

Five on Friday

1.  Today we hit another milestone with Will.  He finally got his first tooth!  It is so weird to me that it took almost 9 months for him to get a tooth.  Emily was just 5 months when she got her first one.  So we are excited to have something to help him eat better, especially with the way he loves his food!  I will be so happy to move on to more solid food.
2.  We started Emily on the Disney Preschool on-line and she is having so much fun playing games on the computer.  It is a little beyond her level but she is starting to learn some letters.  She amazes me all the time with things she can do!
3.  Andy has definitely passed his captains test!  He is still one step away from being a captain though.  He still has to go through the interview.  We still don;t know when that will take place but we hope it will be fairly soon.  I know he will do a great job and I am looking forward to it being over so he spends less time studying.
4.  This week I started my goal of working out more and I have gotten to work out almost everyday this week.  It is feeling great and I am starting to loose weight again.  Although I am 12 pounds less than pre-pregnancy weight I feel like I would like to loose a bit more.  I am also happy to be showing my kids that an active lifestyle is great!  
5.  My dad recieved his first shipment of books last weekend.  It is now for sale on the publisher's web site!  I am so excited for him.  It is such a huge accomplishment and I can only hope to follow his footsteps one day.  Check out his blog!  http://thegodwhisperer.blogspot.com/

Wow, that was a big weekend

As a mostly stay at home mom, I go through times where I feel guily about leaving home to go to work.  What makes it not so terrible is Andy being home when I am gone.  We have a great system that keeps our kids out of day care.  This last two days I spent working while Andy played Mr. Mom.  Sometimes, I am embarrassed to admit, he does a better job staying at home than I do. This was one of those times.  My house is clean, laundry is done, dinner is made and the kids are happy.  While I was at work though I had a major break through in the job dilemma.  I walked straight into my bosses office today and asked for a raise.  Whoa, now I'm getting bold, so not like me.  Well, she didn't even think about it before she said YES!  So now I am getting a raise and I don't feel like I need to run out and find another job that will pay my true worth.  It really is no small raise either. Today was a good day.

I am one lucky woman!

I work. Not to often, but I do. Today was one of those days. Actually I am working now. My day here is horribly busy and stressful. But while I slave away helping make the kids of kern county healthy, my husband is at home making my house clean. Not just clean but CLEAN. That is awesome. I am so excited to go home tonight.


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Location:Mt Vernon Ave,Bakersfield,United States

Five on Friday

1.  This week was another week of illnesses in our family.  First I was sick, then Will, now Emily.  Hopefully it will skip right over Andy.  I am really looking forward to a couple months of great health.  It may be a dream, but I think we have earned it at this point.  Although we have been staying home a lot, the weather has been so great, we have been out enjoying our backyard.  I am so glad to have this great oasis at home!

2.  It has been almost a week since our potty training adventures with Emily.  I am SO thrilled to report she is definitely potty trained!  She has had only one day time accident and a couple at night but even that has been a few days.  I am so proud of her!

3.  As her potty training present we went to get her a tea set.  We painted it earlier this week at Color me Mine.  It was fun and she absolutely loves it!  We picked up the finished product today and she had to play tea party right away.  The gift she really wanted was a ride on a train.  I thought it was funny, she is obsessed with trains right now.  We are going to take her in April for a little train ride.  It should be fun.

4.  We have yet to hear news on Andy's captains test.  It is getting frustrating as we are so anxious to know how he did, but as of today people have started receiving fail notices.  So no news today was the greatest news.  So keep your fingers crossed for another few days at least.


5.  Will has gone from just learning how to crawl and stand a few short weeks ago to being a down right monkey.  There is no limit to what this boy can do.  All the minor safety measures I had been ignoring such as the shoulder straps on his high chair, now are a requirement.  He is going to be a handful!

Adventures in Potty Training- Day 3

So I am at the end of this 3 day potty training book and experiment.  I don't really know what to think at the end.  It was a long three days.  I don't really know if I would call my girl fully potty trained.  But its close.  Today, day 3 was really great.  She woke up wet, but at least I was prepared for that and she had a clean bed within a minute.  Not a great way to wake up, but not the worst.  The rest of the day she was fantastic.  Had some small tinkles in her panties but stopped herself before I stopped her and told me she needs to potty and her panties were yucky.  No big accidents all day.  We even got out of the house today.  We went for a 3 mile walk in the morning and she did great, then she went to Costco with Andy and did great.  So all in all I guess, yes she seems to be potty trained.  I just don't trust her completely.  That Im guessing comes in time.

Next:  We are going to tackle pants!  I promise!  Thank goodness it was so warm this week! 


We had the best day outside today.  It was so beautiful and warm.  The kids loved being out, running around in the backyard playing with Andy. Both Emily and Will were happy to have him home.

At the end of the night, Emily put all her favorite things to bed in front of the TV (hoping we would let her stay up).  It was so funny because next to her dolly and her bears was her shoe!  Haha what a funny kid!  I have no idea where she got that from!

Five on Friday

1.  This week has been full of growing for my little boy.  He started some crawling earlier this week and started pulling himself to standing.  Im afraid he's going to be a big boy soon and I will be without a baby.  That is so sad.  But He wants so badly to keep up with all the other kids, it will be nice to see him play with them soon. 

2.  Andy took his captains test this week!  So we will see in the next few weeks how he did.  It will be a great promotion for him and he is looking forward to it.

3.  Tonight we had a great dinner with friends to celebrate Andy not having to study anymore.  It was so nice to have our favorite families over at our house.  The Crites, the Monges and the Boyers!  The kids had so much fun and stayed up late.  Im so glad to have such great friends. 

4.  Emily is having her friend Alyssa over to spend the night tonight.  Its the first time she has a friend here, and Alyssa's first sleep over!  We are so excited to have her here.  They are being so good, they were so tired from all the excitement and fell asleep right away.  I can't wait till the morning when they wake up together!  Alyssa loves Emily.  She is

already 4 and thinks Emily is a little sister.  Emily is lucky to have such a sweet girl around!

5.  Andy is off for a few days so we are going to be having fun the next few days haning out with our friends.  Im so excited for the weekend!

Emily and Nico

Erin and Isabelle

All the kids

Alyssa and Isabelle

The guys: Javier, Greg, Justin and Andy

Baptism party

Today we celebrated the baptism of our niece Maggie. She is such a beautiful little girl. She is only a few weeks older than our little guy so we watch them grow together. Andy is her "Nino" and so we feel a special closeness to this little girl.


Here is a proud uncle/niño.
We are so happy to be here to celebrate Andys brother Matts LSAT score. He is an amazingly smart guy and now will have his pick of any law school in the country. I am so proud of him.

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