Ford Earle Kennedy

So it's been a while since I posted. I guess I have an excuse being a new mom and all. 

Here's what's been going on:
July 1st I had a baby.
He is the sweetest easiest baby in the world.
I love him more than words can describe.
I am quite literally obsessed with him.

 Meet Ford Earle Kennedy
6 lb 10 oz
19.5 inches
10 fingers & 10 toes


Early in the morning on the 1st I was having subtle contractions and my water was leaking. I tried not to think much of this, mostly because my contractions were very manageable.
Seven o'clock finally rolled around. Forrest woke up for work and I eased into the subject of going to the hospital. He was excited at the thought that today could be the day that we had a baby.
So, he went to work for a few hours and I waited until he got home to go to the hospital. 
When we got there they hooked me up to monitor the baby's heart and my contractions. The nurse tried to run a few tests to see if my water had in fact broken, but they weren't able to get a clear answer. They monitored me and sent me to walk around until they could admit me. After an hour I had dilated from 1 cm to a 3 cm.
I was admitted 10:00 and it was time to wait.


My husband and I watched TV for hours. It was a nice change since we didn't have cable. My contractions at this point were still very manageable. I barely felt them.
At five o'clock they broke my water (because it had a high leak) and after that things started moving pretty fast. 
I got my epidural after not so much consideration. Prior to my water being broken I thought 'these contractions are no problem!' 
After my water broke... that's a different story. I decided I wanted to not have to go through another 5 hours of that horror.


After I received the epidural I slept through the rest of my labor. Up until it was time to push.
The nurse that came in to coach me was the best.
She was motivating and just what I needed. 
After 30 minutes and a broken blood vessel in my eye I had a sweet baby boy to adore.

He's really the most perfect human being I have ever laid eyes on.

His first visitors were grandma and grandpa Kennedy

Then grandma and grandpa Sliger came!

This is Ford at two weeks (even though it says one month I missed the boat on a one month picture ;)

Now he is two months old. 
Ford likes:
+ His dad (like A LOT)
+ His swing
+ When I sing Such Great Heights by Postal Service
+ Snuggles in the rocking chair
+ Watching TV
+ Being carried in our Solly Baby Wrap
+ Being outside (too bad it's like 100 degrees every day and we barely leave the house!)

Home stretch

 Thirty-six weeks. 

I am in awe of how fast the time has gone. Like am I really going to have a baby soon? In less than a month?

This is happening.

Life has been easy for the past few months.

Besides my ribs being sore from him hanging out up there pregnancy has been very kind to me.

This kiddo gets hiccups on the daily,

I'm pretty sure his head is down, 

And I am a whole centimeter dilated! 

(probably from jet-skiing and boating at Lake Powell recently... I'll take it!)

The doc says that he doesn't think I'll be waiting past my due date,

And I sure hope not! Because I'm anxious.

 

I've been really feeling the nesting impulse. 

I was feeling it before, but I've since gotten to act on it because I finally had my baby showers!

We hadn't spent any money on Baby K because we were waiting to see what we got.

I was having nightmares of him coming early and us having NOTHING.

Talk about stress.

And talk about feeling so blessed. 

My favorite thing about the showers is that I got to see just how loved my little family is.

 

 While we were at Lake Powell I felt something I really haven't through out this pregnancy.

I felt jealous that I was going to have to share this hunky husband of mine.

Don't get me wrong, 

I am over the moon excited to see Forrest be a Father.

As we were getting quality time in I realized I need to take full advantage.

I need to be completely happy with this precious time without babies.

I just adore this guy so much.

We had a lunch date this past weekend at Blaze Pizza (SO delicious)

Lets just say I was hangry before we got there...

Hungry + angry = Hangry.

I'm just grateful that he loves me and puts up with me. 

And for the millionth time I'll say he's going to make the best dad ever.

My Little Man

We recently found out that our little nugget is a little man! To say ecstatic is an understatement. It might be because I was a sassy little girl that steered me away from wanting my own sassy little girl. What goes around comes around, right? It will happen eventually I'm sure. But these days I'm seeing lots of blue, planes, trains, and boats, and precious little outfits that will match his daddy.

Forrest's boss, Craig was also ecstatic that we are having a boy. Mostly because he has four boys, so he's biased, but also because he has boxes and boxes of baby boy clothes that he wants to unload on us. I say, bring it on. We'll gladly accept all that we can get! My mom was hoping for a boy for us as well, but my dad had other plans. He wanted a sweet little granddaughter... Either way, they are both so excited for us and I can't wait for them to come down when he's born! I'm sure I'll be very thankful for the help. And then we have the Kennedy's. They were totally not shocked that this babe is a boy. Probably because Krista is having a girl and that there are an even number of boys and girls, so I had to keep up with the pattern! All in all we are so excited and it's no secret that this guy of ours is going to be SO loved.

This is the bump at 20 weeks, the day we found out the gender!

This is the bump in Hawaii at 21 weeks. Oh man do I miss that place.

Being naughty at work and sneaking a peak at my little man. This may not be the clearest ultrasound, but seeing his little heart flutter makes mine do the same.

Things have been going very smoothly for me and this dude. I've gained around 10 pounds so far (half of which are definitely from Hawaii). I've gotten killer leg cramps a handful of times. I'm over that morning sickness nonsense (it wasn't even that bad to begin with thank goodness). The weirdest symptom of all, and the most annoying in my opinion is that I keep on getting nose bleeds, and If my nose isn't bleeding I'm having a hard time breathing through it because of the scabs from it healing. I think a humidifier would make a world of difference (since in humid Hawaii I had no more nose bleeds at all!), but Forrest can't stand  them. I'll just have to put one in the nursery when the baby comes and shack up in there. 

Just last night Forrest finally felt the baby kick! I'm convinced he felt it a couple of weeks ago, but he said that he didn't believe it because he thinks I just flexed my abs. Last night it was undeniable! He had his hand on my belly for a good couple of minutes and only little flutters were happening, but when that big kick came we both turned to each other with looks of excitement and shock.

Currently I'm about 24 weeks, and have only 16 weeks to go! Can you tell I'm excited?

Our Poppyseed

So, it's been a while. My mandime and I moved to Las Vegas and it has been an adjustment. I started working at a cardiologist office full time. It's been a stressful learning experience to say the least. It is constantly busy and always keeps me on my toes, but I'm thankful to say that I am learning a lot. One of the things that I truly enjoy is getting to know the patients that I encounter. I get to show them that although I don't know them very well, I care for them deeply. 

Another change to our lives is that we got a puppy. I can't believe after all the nagging and persistence that Forrest finally gave in. Forrest wasn't an animal hater, he was just firm in the fact that he didn't want to get a dog at a time in our lives when we couldn't stay at home with it. My rational? People do it literally everyday. What won him over is that some friends of ours got a dog and that gave him puppy fever and quadrupled mine. So we started our search. In the beginning it was leisurely perusing on craigslist, but with my infatuation with all things cute and furry I quickly became obsessed. I wasn't having much luck with the Las Vegas pool of pups. There were too many phoney ads stating that "Playboy" was 100% schnauzer and in great health. With the owners giving him a name like Playboy what's to trust? So, I set my searches little broader, like Arizona.

Long story short, we found our furry little soulmate. Her name is Indiana and she is the love of my life. We bought her in Arizona and on the four hour drive back home she did great. She nibbled on my fingers, cuddled, and slept. For the first few days all this little pup wanted to do was lay and sleep on my chest. If any of you know me, you should know that I am a HUGE cuddler. It breaks my heart that Forrest never wants to but I was over the moon happy about this little one sticking by my side for the first week or so.

 

Things have been going pretty great for our little family of 2.5. Indie graduated puppy training classes, she doesn't have as many accidents in the house, and she loves to play. The only really unfortunate thing is that she goes insane around tiny humans. Not midgets (I don't think), but children.

This is especially funny because in a few short months she will be forced to get used to being around a screaming tiny human. 

That's right.

Little Kennedy is making an appearance this July! Remember how I said I'm horrible at this whole blogging thing? Well I'm already almost halfway through the pregnancy. I'm eighteen weeks today.

I guess to start off with this story I ought to mention that before we found out we were having a baby we were just about to buy plane tickets for a European adventure with our two friends. This made finding out a little bit bitter but a whole lot of sweet. We have since come to terms that we will just have to make it a priority to travel after baby comes. What I also should mention is that we got our sweet little puppy Indie so that myself and Forrest would not be as lonely and not as baby-hungry. 

We got this fortune cookie two weeks before we found out that we were pregnant. I even took a picture of it and sent it to my mom saying "How funny is this! You never know!" Well it's true. You never do. What tipped us off is that I was obviously late. I just wrote it off as having been early the time before, so my bod 'twas balancing itself out. Wrong. We got pregnancy tests, but I wasn't getting my hopes up because I wasn't having symptoms and I just wasn't pregnant. 

Then that night we were watching Saving Mr. Banks. A movie about the making of Mary Poppins. This subject already gets me a little weepy because Mary Poppins never fails to make me think of my Grammy, BUT out of the blue in the scene where Mr. Disney takes her to Disneyland I started hysterically crying. Like ugly crying.  "I want a child that I can take to Disneyland," is all I could get out. Forrest informed me that I was acting crazy and that I needed to take a pregnancy test pronto. 

The rest is history. 

It was positive. We were shocked. We laughed. I cried.

This is our babe the length of a green olive at nine weeks

 This is our babe the length of a peach at thirteen weeks

Next time: we find out the gender  and we are also going to Hawaii for a BABYMOON!

Viva Las Vegas

Well people, we finally have a semi-permanent place to call home. Here's a little hint:

I always thought we would be moving to warmer climates after leaving Rexburg (pretty much everything it warmer compared to that place), but I never thought it would be Vegas. In fact I hadn't put that much thought into Vegas ever. Maybe it's the whole 'I'm-Mormon-and-I-don't-drink-or-gamble-thing'... But now that we are here I'm so excited.

One of Forrest's first interviews was with a company here in Las Vegas. That was right before his las semester of school and needless to say he didn't get the job. I was pretty sad about it because I had been getting used to the idea of settling here for a bit, but them I shut that thought out when we couldn't make it happen.

Well here we are now. Funny how things work!

So we got the call on Tuesday that it was a go (we were in phoenix at the time) and that Friday we drove up. The good thing is that it's only a 5 hour drive from phoenix and it is central to everything like Utah and California. Also there are cheap flights headed to almost everywhere we need to go.

Like I said it was a pretty hasty move, so it was a little hard to be motivated for setting up shop in our new apartment. This new home isn't all I have ever dreamed, but it sure gets the job done. There are numerous windows aka lots of natural light and high ceilings aka a nice homey feel. I got into a craigslist frenzy before we left Idaho so we had to buy and are still buying some furniture that we sold. I'm actually pretty excited about it because I want to bring in a midcentury modern feel to the place. I'll update with pictures once everything starts to shape up, but for now it still looks like we are living in a collage apartment.

BUT I think the point to all of this is that my fantastic husband found himself a job. I knew that guy was a keeper!

Bye Bye BYUI

Forrest is DONE with school! This means we are DONE with Idaho! Can you tell I'm excited? It's been a good five years for this girl up in potato country, but I'm ready to be done. I thought I'd take a little time to remenise on my college years, as well as talk about what is next for this Kennedy clan of two.

First of all, I have to admit that I will actually miss BYUI. Not because I love tunneling through snow to get to a 7:45 class, but because I will miss my friends dearly. I thought my life couldn't get better when I graduated high school. I didn't really want to move away because I had the best friends I could ever ask for up there. Each with their own personalities and their own strengths to lift me up with. I am still so grateful for these friends, but I am also so incredibly blessed to have found the people I have been calling my best friends for the last 5 years.

First, there is Hailey and Alexa. I first met them in the dorms. There was a freshman night celebration thing where they split us up into our buildings and our wards. I spotted them from across the circle and it was love at first sight. Just kidding, thats weird and makes me sound creepy. I thought they looked cool and wanted to be friends with them... but it kinda was actually love at first sight... whatever. Anyways, as soon as Hailey spotted me she told Alexa that she bet that I was their roommate. I don't know how she knew, but she was right. Boy, I'm happy she was because our adventure was a great one for the next 2.5 years. We went on roadtrips to California, Washington, Utah, and Boise. We had roommates that thought we were stoned because we stayed up all night laughing at the stupidest things (P.S. we weren't). We had One Tree Hill marathons and ate entirely too much rice and popcorn.

In the midst of this friendship with Hailey and Alexa we met Natalie. She was the beautiful girl next door. She was friends with one of our roommates in our second year of schooling. (P.S. our roommate who shall not be named turned out to be CRAZY). We hung out a lot with our new roommate and with Natalie. Some stuff went down with the roommate, she then proved to be crazy, so we ditched her and stuck with Natalie... And that turned out to be the best decision ever. I would just like to briefly summarize the moment I knew Natalie was the one. One night us ladies (Alexa, Hailey, Natalie, she who shall not be named, and I) went out on the town. And when I say that I mean we went to Applebee's. Natalie and I sat next to each other and for the first little while we were just polite and making smalltalk. When the others took a bathroom break it was just us two left at the table. Natalie leaned over to me and in a hushed voiced asked, "Is it okay if I fart?" That moment on I knew we would be the best of friends.

Now before I speak of these next friends I would just like to mention how HARD it is to find couple friends after you get married! You have to work 4 times as hard because you need to find a girl that you are compatible with and a guy that he's compatible with, then vice versa. He needs to get along with the girl, and you with the guy. It's entirely too much work. But Sidonia and Michael made it so easy. This power couple fell into our laps. Alexa became friends with Sid because they played soccer together. I had met her a couple of times and liked her and Mike. It wasn't until Alexa and her husband Ricky moved away that we would start a real friendship with Sid and Mike. We all realized that we were the last married friends left. We started hanging out every weekend. We went on a roadtrip to Utah for Sid's soccer game and then we decided to take a 14 hour roadtrip to San Francisco with them. Even though they are the newest addition to our BYUI friends we will miss them just as dearly.

Now, on to the new. After careful consideration, we have decided to move to Arizona. More like we couldn't find a job anywhere else, so we moved back in with the in-laws until we can find a job. We are excited to be here though! There were thoughts of moving to Las Vegas (eww) and Seattle (I wish!) but here is where we are meant to be (as far as we now know). Right know we are on the hunt for jobs, but I know that it will all work out! Out with the old and in with the new!

Potatoes: not just for eating

Let's be real. My top three foods are Spanish rice, ice cream, and FRENCH FRIES. Potatoes are a glorious creation. My life wouldn't be complete without them. But potatoes aren't just one of the best foods to eat, they are a great food to craft with. 

Sounds weird, right? Well I'm a believer. What do you do when you have a duvet insert that you got from your wedding registry that was not accompanied by the cover you wanted? You can't buy a cover because you are a poor college student and your husband won't let you. So you make your own like I did. 

What I really hate/love about home fads these days are that designs that I prefer are very simple. I like dots, stripes, and any and all geometric shapes. When I see people selling a blanket that I can make for myself for one tenth the cost I get a little ticked. Then I remember I can do it, so I do. 

So I present to you the:

You might be able to recognize by now that I love triangles... So naturally I used all the artistic skill I posess to make a triangle stamp out of a potato. I didn't think to take pictures of it at the time, and I don't have anymore potatoes on my so you have to use your imagination. 

I chose a charcoal color because I am also obsessed with gray. And I picked up some texture medium from Porters craft store. You mix two parts color with one part texture medium (2:1). The color won't be diluted, so don't worry about that.

Next, you apply the color to the potato stamp and get down to business! I used a sponge brush to apply the paint so it wouldn't be caked on an you could see the texture from the potato. I let the paint sit fora out a couple hours while I had a little "me" time at Target. After the paint dries you need to set it in. You can do this by putting the blanket in the dryer or by ironing it. I used the dryer for the full 80 minutes because it was too big to bother with the iron. 

You can also do this with clothes, curtains, pillows... Anything! And it's so simple. 

Cheers to being poor and fabulous!

My life

Just updating on my life and the little things that make me happy. 

Sitting in my makeshift hammock on perfect summer afternoons.

Looking at pictures of Forrest and me when we were younger and imaging how adorable our kids will be.

Throwing it back and getting bangs again.

Getting new gems, like clutches, dresses, tank tops and vintage cameras.

And going to the lake and camping with good friends.

A Washington Weekend

Where do you go when you have a three day weekend, you haven't seen your family in 5 months and you have a friend from Wisconsin with you? You go home. I'm my case this meant Washington. I'm from Yakima which is located centrally in the state. Because my friend Natalie had never been to the PNW we took her with us happily played the roll of tourists in Seattle and Leavenworth.

That's us in Seattle. Pretty self-explanatory. Less than two hours from Seattle however, nestled in the Cascades, is a little Bavarian town that goes by the name Leavenworth. It's full of novelty shops, bratwurst, and sweets. It's a beautiful and fun little city. I'd regard it as a must see when visiting the evergreen state.

It was a very fun weekend. I got to spend it with my family, my friends, and my babe in a few of my favorite cities.