Sadie

Here are some fun pictures of our day with Sadie! She loves to ride in her new Radio Flyer Wagon her daddy bought her. She also loves to make a mess at dinner and bath time is her favorite! She likes to get on her belly and pretend to swim! She even puts her face underwater on purpose. :-)

Sadie Walked :-)

Sadie took her first steps on January 22!! She did it for Uncle Jeff...not fair! But the very next day, without any warning or convincing on my part, she just let go of her changing table and walked straight at me with open arms!! I just died of happiness in that moment and I will never forget it! Later that night, when Tom got home from his buisness trip, Sadie also walked to him! Since then, she will walk only when she wants to. We cannot get her to do it when we want her to. She doesn't perform for anyone except herself! What a smart cookie.

Also, no more bottles....:-( Makes me so sad! But it is adorable to see her becoming such a big girl. She is actually doing okay with whole milk, just like her DR said she would. Her digestive system has matured enough to handle the milk proteins. She LOVES yogurt! She can say Dada, Mama, ball, no!, ChooChoo!, and lots more. I thought this past year was amazing but I have a feeling Tom and I are in for another great year!

Sadie has decided also that she HATES a wet or dirty diaper and will change herself if needed. LOL Lets just say poor Tom had a HUGE clean up last Saturday morning while Amy was at work....poop EVERYWHERE. How does a one year old know how to take off a diaper already?? My mom said I used to do that when I was nine months old! Goodness!

Missing My Thomas

So Tom is off to a Winter Wonderland at a beautiful lodge resort called Pinehurst in the mountains of NC for a LabCorp 4 day meeting/trip. I thought I would be happy to get some time to myself, but the reality is that I really miss him. So I thought I would take some time to make a list of things I love and miss about him right now.
1. Having dinner ready for me when I get home from work
2. Having Sadie all fed, bathed, in pj's and ready for bed
3. Takes out the smelly trash
4. Offers to start me a lovely bubble bath
5. Takes Skip outside before bedtime and puts him in his cage
6. Sets the alarm/Locks the doors
7. Missing watching American Idol together this week!!!
8. Missing talking with eachother in bed before we fall asleep about our day as I put my icicle toes on his tummy and make him gasp for breath....lol

Anyway, I think we all can sometimes take the ones we love the most for granted. And with my husband gone for the next four days, I am realizing how much I love and miss him! He is a wonderful husband and father. I know Sadie misses playing with her daddy too.
On a really good note, I do have my brother Jeff helping out BIG TIME! What a life saver. He has helped and will help all week with picking up Sadie from daycare the two days I have to work and also staying with me at night because I am a scaredy cat; even with an alarm, two loud dogs, my brother and a gun! Jeff and Sadie are buds and she gets REALLY excited every time she see him. She is starting to TRY to say Uncle Jeff.....its a work in progress.

LuLu

My "grammy" left to go back home to MA on Saturday. She spent the last month and a half with our family. While we had some trying moments, (mostly due to me being overtired and cranky)...it was an absolutley wonderful time. From home cooked dinners to ironed pants, shirts and underwear (yes....she ironed tom's boxers); we will miss her greatly. But while we will miss her for the help she gave us in our home, we will miss her mostly for how wonderful she is with Sadie. "LuLu", as Sadie calls her, has a special bond with Sadie. LuLu has a way of calming Sadie down and ALWAYS gets her to fall asleep in two seconds...LuLu was Sadie's best play pal while she was here and Sadie is already missing her!!LuLu has the patience of rock. She truly loves all children with all of her heart and would do ANYTHING for a baby. Some people may take it the wrong way and think that she is too lenient and not strict enough with enforcing rules and behaviors, but it is just that she can't stand to see a baby or child upset. LuLu just had open heart surgery in the fall/winter of 2008 and the woman has more energy than me on a good day. She has gone back to MA to attend all of her MD visits and to make sure everything is still going well. Tom, Sadie and I are looking forward to welcoming LuLu back into our home this fall.

Sadie Renee's Baptism

Besides Sadie's First Birthday and First Birthday Party....we also celebrated her baptism this weekend. Her Godfather Uncle Jack (Tom's only brother) flew in from San Jose, CA. Godmother Aunt Kelly (his wife) is 6 months pregnant and unable to travel such a long distance; but she was there in thought and Grandma Kern stepped in to stand in her place during the ceremony. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Kern for picking out such a LOVELY Irish Baptismal Gown, with matching clover bib and leather shoes. (yes, Sadie is part Irish :-) Tom's mom's maiden name is MALINGER!) Sadie looked like a doll. And a big thank you to Grandpa and Bapshi Nordman for the beautiful engraved cross box and cross; we will hang it in her room and keep the box out of her little hands for now! We could not have picked a better mass for her baptism; the teaching of the mass was about Jesus's baptism! Father Ross performed a beautiful ceremony. The church photographer was also there and is using Sadie's baptism in the church's photo album! :-) After the mass and baptism, all 20 of us headed out to lunch at Paula Deen's restaurant The Lady and Sons....yummy!

First Birthday Party

Well, the day has come and gone too quickly. Thank you to everyone who took part in Sadie's Princess Birthday Party! Sadie enjoyed the company and was in great spirits, thanks to a 3 hour nap beforehand. The weather was perfect; it was 74 degrees and perfectly sunny! The guys were in shorts and flip flops. She ate her birthday cake like a lady, even though we wanted her to make a mess! She LOVED all of her presents, and has in particular been enjoying her rocking horse "Candy" and her princess castle tent and crawl tube. I am already thinking of ideas for next year, and I've got a few. It is very hard to have a birthday right after the craziness of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. But a lot of people helped to make the day seperate and special. I feel bad for my brother Jeff whose birthday is December 26th; he gets shafted. Not by some family, but by most people. Anyway, it was a wonderful party!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY SADIE!

Our baby is ONE today! A mix of happiness and tears! It is truly amazing how they change in just one year; nothing can prepare you, no matter how many people tell you! A year ago today at this exact moment I am writing this.....I was suffering through contractions with no pain medicine...they say you forget, but I am here to say that is BULLPOOP! I will NEVER forget the pain, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't do it again! ;-) And at 10:00pm on the dot, our lives changed FOREVER for the BETTER! :-)

Friends

So did I ever tell anyone about the bestest friends anyone could have? Their names are Keith, David, and Lauren. They flew down from VA just to see us and our baby girl for her big weekend! Of course we had to go out and have fun just like the old times. Thanks great grandma LuLu for babysitting! (82 years old, just had open heart surgery in Fall 08...and the BEST sitter we have EVER had! she is truly amazing with Sadie) So enjoy the pictures, because we sure enjoyed creating those memories!

Washing Machines

Washing machines....can't live with em, can't live without em. So Tom and I just purchased our THIRD washing machine in THREE months. Our first was a Kenmore that lasted 4 years. In the new home it died after 3 months of use. So we bought a GE. Died after 3 MONTHS, brand new! (yes....we got our money back, thanks Lowe's! :-) they were very nice about it) Now we have a Maytag. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Time Flies

Our baby girl will be ONE year old January 9th!! HOW TIME FLIES! We are getting very excited to see all the family and friends who are coming from near and far (CA, NE, CT, MA, VA, SC) to celebrate with us. We feel very loved that everyone cares so much for Sadie! Sadie will also be baptized on January 11th. A busy weekend, so look for lots of pictures to come!

I Hate Blogs

Okay....so we try this blog crap again. Come to find out......when I signed up to be a "follower" of my friend's blog three years ago, I used the same user name and password as my new blog account. Not a good idea, but hey! I forgot! It was THREE years ago! So I lost my blog, unable to ever access it again. So it is no longer in use. This is the official "The Kern Family" blog site. Enjoy!