It's the Holiday Season!

Randy sat Kenadi on his lap and asked her what she wanted for Christmas. This is her telling him that she wants a piano, "a PINK piano! It's broken. Yea, it's sad" She was talking about one she saw in Target that didn't work. She was pretty sad about it.

"What else do you want?" "Um, I want shopping." "shopping?" "Yea, PINK shopping!"

I LOVE the Holidays!

This year we aren't going home for Christmas... it will be the first. We are really sad to not be with our family up in Washington, but we are also excited to start some of our own traditions.

Tradition #1, we put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving! Kenadi loved it, and runs into the living room everyday saying, "it's Chritmas!" (I know it looks like I spelled it wrong, but she doesn't say the "s", so that's how it sounds)

#2, we went to the lighted boat parade on the Oklahoma River this year. It was fun. There were fireworks, and boats with lights on them. I couldn't get any pictures of the boats or the fireworks that weren't blurry. Emma is hiding under the blanket on the other side of Randy. It was too cold to bring her out for the picture. In all of the other pictures Emma isn't in them because she's attatched to me, and I'm the photographer.

I don't mind if this becomes tradition...
I love this picture because Kenadi didn't know that I was going to take her picture, she just looked up at me and had that beautiful smile on her face while she was starting to tell me something. I wish I could remember what she was saying...

We raked leaves and I told her to jump in them. It was fun, except that my leaves all got scattered so much that it took me twice as long to rake them. Oh well... memories, right?

Not a tradition, but just something I wanted to show you:

Our sweet neighbor comes over about 3 times a week to take Kenadi on a walk. He's her Oklahoma grandpa. He is so nice to us, and Kenadi. We love him. Anyways, they go on a walk down the road to this stump and sit on it and talk for a while, then they come back. Isn't that cute?

Abandoned

I cried after Randy's dad and step mom Anna left because that was the last of our company for a while. I felt so abandoned! I really felt like we were left here alone when we are supposed to go back! I feel better now, and really do like Oklahoma... I just miss my family and friends in the NW. Here are some more pictures.... some of Randy's mom (Donna) and John, and his dad (Ken) and Anna. We have had a blast with everyone who came and wish they all were longer visits.

Here's our happy 6-week old baby! I love her smiles...

Randy, Kenadi, his mom Donna, and step-dad John. We are at the memorial.Kenadi always had to sit in between them for scriptures. I was trying to get a shot of her staring at them, cause that's what she did.

We took pictures at the park that's by our house. This is on Emma's blessing day.

There is something about a man holding a baby that melts my heart. Oh, they're so cute!

Kenadi always lays next to Emma when I'm changing her diaper and wants me to take a picture of them. This is one of many.

These are some beautiful shots of the memorial at night.Anna and Kenadi under the blanket Anna made her for her bed.

We made the men sit in the back seat. I figured they could get some bonding time back there.

Kenadi, Emma, and Grandpa Hempel.

I'm the photographer, so I don't get to be in pictures very often... Anna, Randy, Kenadi, Ken, and Emma.

Goodbye everyone! We loved having you come and visit, and we REALLY miss you!

Busy

Kenadi was a lady bug. She is standing by the youngest Dr. ever, Owen. He's her little friend. She sings..."I love Ownen he loves me, we love_________ yes siree..." it's cute.

Baby Emma was a little pumpkin.
Randy was a tree (unwillingly) and I was Joanne the plumber (thanks Ash, for the idea). I LOVE dressing up... therefore, I LOVE Halloween.


We've been enjoying visits from our family lately, and have been very busy! I haven't forgotten to add posts for everyone, but I just haven't taken the time. Sorry. Everyone's doing well though! We love having family visit... and we will be in shock when it's over. Empty nest syndrome. Randy's Dad and Anna are here now, and I'll post pictures of everyone after they leave so I have a few to chose from. Emma is 5 weeks old now! She is so much fun. We all enjoy her.

More Pictures

Here are more pictures of Emma. It's hard to get different poses when all she does is eat and sleep and mess diapers, but here she is, with LOTS of different poses. I worked really hard to get them, so enjoy!


Kenadi always wants to burp Emma like we do... so I have to help her.
I LOVE all of these faces she makes. They just make me laugh, and kiss those little cheeks more!

I'm okay, we're okay!

Big Sister, Little Sister

Yahoo! I am so happy to not be pregnant anymore! Not that I don't like pregnancy, but that I can move around so much better now, I can breathe better, and I feel little with all that baby gone! Major things have happened since I last wrote. Luckily, Randy has been keeping you updated. Yes, I finally had the baby, Oct. 10th, and isn't she a big one for a newborn? On Monday I took her to her 1st check-up and she was already 9lbs 2 oz. She is gaining weight fast, and that's good! She's a great nurser, so I guess that explains it. Emma (you can call her Emmy if you want... I still love that name) is such a good, sweet baby. So cute and mild mannered. She sleeps so well at night, and only wakes up to nurse and go back to sleep. That's nice, except that I don't sleep well. I'm constantly checking on her to make sure she's breathing. I do get nice long naps during the day, so that's good.

My mom got to come and help out for a week. She came on Sat. the 11th, and left on the 18th. I LOVED having my mom here. She was so good with Kenadi, and Emma, and me, and Randy (couldn't leave him out). Kenadi was having some jealousy issues for the first couple of days, but I think having Grandma here to give her extra attention helped her deal better. Anyways, mom cooked for us, and cleaned, and kept me emotionally stable... mostly. =) I was really sad to see her leave. I had a hard time wanting to relax, though, because I wanted to have fun with mom and show her around and stuff. We did a few things, but not nearly as much as we could if Emma was older, and me all recovered. I guess she'll have to come visit again! Anyways, here are some more recent pictures of Emmy's first week home, and things we did. (not in the order I wanted, but I couldn't get the pictures to rearrange, sorry)


There are some statues that we took mom to see, and Kenadi tried to feed her apple to the dog statue. I thought it was cute.

We carved pumpkins...

This is the first whole day that Emma was home. We soak up every minute with her.

Had to see the bombing memorial... I wanted a picture with us girls, but Emma was sleeping, so it's just us three.Proud daddy of 2 little girls!

She is so alert and likes to just look around at everything when she's awake. What a cute girl!

Of course, October is my birthday month. I love birthdays! I got some great gifts!

It seems like we always forget to get a picture with just us two. I'm going to do it more often.

We are excited for more Grandparents to visit us soon!