We should buy hand sanitizer in bulk...UPDATED

I'll update soon but Maggie and I are sick...again.

I have a sinus infection and Maggie has a cold.

I have a lot of cute pictures but I just don't have the energy to post them right now.

Katie

_________________________

Okay, so we are doing much better today. So, what is new with us...

We had a pretty relaxing weekend. We went shopping and ran errands south of Las Vegas (Henderson) on Saturday afternoon. Maggie was the hit of the crowd at PF Changs on Saturday night. She had a lot of fun with the people sitting near us.
Sunday we went to church and a birthday party for one of the moms in playgroup.

Maggie has turned into quite the monkey these days. I tried to sit down and do this about three hours ago but I was constantly having to get Maggie out of her dresser (yes, you read right). She has figured out how to open her dresser drawers and climb inside. I just about had a heart attack when this happened the first time. So, I took all the drawer pulls off. That only worked for about 24 hours. Today she figured out the child safety lock (great...). So, now it's just a constant battle and I am this close to just taking all the drawers out. I guess it's just the age, right...

She has a lot of new words lately. The favorite being Elmo. We even had to buy juice boxes the other night just because Elmo was on them. Other words...I love you, Lego, and Amen. She is trying to say the entire blessing with us (God is great, God is good...) but only the Amen is clear right now.

Isn't it hard to believe that January is almost over????? It's time to start thinking about planning a second birthday party...Scary.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!!!

Andy celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday!

Maggie and I (along with the help of his employees) decided to throw Daddy a surprise birthday party on Friday at work. I was rather nervous that Andy would somehow find out about it but the party was a success and Andy was very surprised.

For Christmas Andy got me a bunch of cake decorating tools. So, his birthday was my first attempt at decorating an actual cake (I had practiced but not on a cake). It was harder than I expected but now I know to either freeze or refrigerate the cake next time before I decorate it. Now I feel a little more prepared to do a cake for Maggie's birthday in April.

Andy got XM radio for his birthday from us and spent most of the weekend installing it and getting it set up. His boss and her boss are in town this week and they will all be interviewing candidates for his senior accountant position that is open. Maggie and I will be meeting his boss and her boss tonight for dinner so I'm a little nervous and I have no idea what to wear!

That is all for now. I'm in the middle of my Monday chore of getting laundry done- fun fun!

Random thought…. Gran got a catalog from the store, Orient Expressed. They have the cutest clothes for girls and boys and also home decor items. It's worth a visit to their website.

Katie


IMG_1204 Happy Birthday Daddy!

IMG_1203 Surprise!!!!!!

IMG_1199 The goodies and decorations

IMG_1202Look at all those candles!

Quickly- NOW UPDATED

I'm sorry I haven't updated recently. I'll try and get more pictures posted tomorrow but here is a picture to hold you over.



This is how Maggie prefers to eat her meals now...at the table and she actually prefers to eat off my plate (that's one way for me to eat less).

There will be more pictures and writing tomorrow. I'm just busy getting ready for someone's 30th birthday on Saturday!!!!!


Let's see, what else has been going on with us. We are all feeling much better this week. I finally started feeling better on Sunday- yeah!!

It has been really cold here in Las Vegas. It's been in the 20's in the mornings for almost a week now. I think I heard on the news that this is the coldest it has been here in fifteen years. Crazy.

Here is a video of Maggie's new hobby...



And now, some pictures. You do not have to click on the pictures any more. All the pictures are below.


IMG_1187 Maggie had fun with her food during lunch
Originally uploaded by kennedytales.

IMG_1185 Look at those curls!!!
Originally uploaded by kennedytales.

IMG_1175 Having fun with legos
Originally uploaded by kennedytales.

IMG_1168 Music to Mommy's ears
Originally uploaded by kennedytales.

IMG_1162 Snowing in Las Vegas...just a few miles from our house
Originally uploaded by kennedytales.

Katie

Sniff Sniff Sneeze Sneeze and a Birthday

First off, we celebrated a birthday this weekend- Jack Pete turned 5!!!!! He's now older than all of us. Ha!

Those are the words that can sum up what we have been doing lately. All of us. Maggie started it. She started running a fever on Saturday and we took her to the doctor on Sunday when she still had a fever. She was quickly diagnosed with a cold and both ears infected.

So, as Maggie started feeling better Andy and I got worse. We are all feeling better now but we had a rough weekend. However, I was still able to get some good pictures and a video.

Katie

This is a video of Maggie doing her favorite new activity. I guess she will want to take gymnastics judging by this. I will apologize for the sound that you hear- it's Jack Pete and one of his Christmas toys and it squeaks- a lot.

www.flickr.com

Help Wanted

I just thought I would throw this out in the off chance that it might work. I'm hiring a senior accountant for my accounting department. If anyone knows of someone who would like to get some good work experience in Las Vegas, let me know. You can read about the job by clicking here.

Andy

Happy 2007!!!

Happy New Year from the Kennedy's!!!!!

We hope you have had a good start to 2007. Over the past few weeks, Maggie has become the biggest daddy's girl there is and Andy is loving every minute of it. She is also learning new words every day. She has recently added head, ear, eye and mouth to the list. She can even point to her ears, eyes, etc... and tell you what they are. It's so neat for us to watch her learn all these new things.

We celebrated New Years Eve by going to a party hosted by one of the families in Maggie's playgroup. Maggie had a blast and somehow talked 2 other moms, besides me, into giving her a piece of cake. Sugar rush...she was running around until about 10pm.

Here are some pictures. You can view the pictures the same was as the last post. Just click on one of the random pictures below and that will take you to all the pictures.

Katie

www.flickr.com kennedytales' Bubbles and New Years Eve photoset

A Very Vegas Christmas

We hope you had a great Christmas. We did. Maggie had a really big time and was worn out by yesterday afternoon.

Click anywhere in the picture below and it will take you to a website to view all of our pictures from Christmas. THE PICTURES THAT YOU SEE BELOW ARE RANDOM SELECTIONS FROM THE GROUP. IF YOU WANT TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES, YOU WILL NEED TO CLICK ON ONE OF THE PICTURES. After that you will need to click on the link to the right of the picture that comes up to view all 74 pictures. I know this is a little more time intensive than the old method but I just can't get the old way to work.

The pictures are of our trip to Mississippi two weeks ago, our playgroup's holiday party, Christmas Eve, Christmas morning and our trip to the mountains yesterday. The mountains are only 45 minutes from our house and there was about a foot and a half to two feet of snow up there. We got to have a "White Christmas".

Katie

www.flickr.com

Guess How Much The Suitcase Weighed???

We're back from our trip to Mississippi to visit with family and friends for Christmas. I had planned to take an extra suitcase (the biggest one we own) to bring stuff back in. When I finished packing on Monday to come back, we decided to weigh the suitcases to make sure they were 50 lbs. or lighter. Ha, ha, ha. One weighed 60 lbs!!!!! So, we borrowed a suitcase and all was well. Oh, but we are having stuff shipped to us from Jackson.

We did so much while in MS that it would take forever to write about it, but I there are a few key words that would define the trip:

1. Carousel rides (and lots of them)
2. New words for Maggie (oh wow was the most repeated)
3. Maggie would have stayed outside the whole trip if we would have let her.
4. Good times with friends and family.

The craziest thing was the weather. When we left Las Vegas on the 12th, it was pretty cold but when we arrived in MS it was not cold. The weather was much warmer than I had packed for but we survived. Oh, and when we got back to Las Vegas on Monday, it was snowing. All the mountains around the valley were covered on Tuesday morning but it has since melted.

Here are some pictures but there is no way for me to post all the pictures I want to from our trip- there are almost 200! If you are interested in seeing all the pictures, you can email me and I'll send you the Snapfish link.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and safe travels if you plan to travel for the holidays.

Andy, Katie, Maggie and Jack Pete

Pictures

Okay, so as promised here is a more thorough update of the marathon weekend.

Saturday, we had to go to the marathon expo to pick up our race number and chip (a timing device that is attached to your shoe to record your time). We soon realized how many people were participating in the marathon- about 20,000. Crazy.

Andy and I went to a Christmas party on Saturday night while Gigi stayed home with Maggie and went to bed early to prepare for the marathon.

Sunday started really early for Tara and me. We had to get up a little after 4 am in order to get to the Strip, park and get in place for the race to start at 6 am. There was a 40% chance of rain on Sunday morning and it rained on us on the way to the Strip. Thankfully, the rain stopped but the wind didn't. It was between 20-30 miles an hour for the entire race (which is not fun when you are walking into it on the last half of the race)! The temperatures weren't as cold as I expected but it was pretty chilly before the sun came up.

Tara and I were excited to get to see Andy and Maggie waiting for us at mile 6.5 with a pretty sign wishing us luck. But the race didn't end there. I had walked up to 9 miles in training so after 10 miles I was getting tired and my legs were starting to rebel.

Thankfully, Tara was there to get me to the finish line and we made it in 3 ½ hours (my goal). Once at the finish line, they took the chip off our shoe and we got our medal and Andy and Maggie had flowers for each of us!!!!!

Tara and I are both sore and have blisters but I think we both agree that it is worth it.

We are heading to Mississippi bright and early in the morning (we have a 7 am flight) and will be back in Las Vegas next Monday night. We are looking forward to seeing all our friends and family back home.

Katie


We finished!!!!!!!!!!! 


At 6 1/2 miles with our cheering section. 


Here we are. 


Look at that great sign!!! 


Somewhere between mile 2 and 3. 


Before the race. 


An attempt at a family picture. 


Maggie and Gigi at lunch on Saturday. 


Pre-race day at the Expo. 

13.1

Well, I did it. I completed a half marathon yesterday. My official time was 3:30:42. My goal was exactly that so I couldn't be happier. I will post more information later (including pictures) but I am in the midst of cleaning and packing for our trip to Mississippi tomorrow.

Katie

The Party and the Park

Sorry it's been over a week since the last post. We spent most of last week preparing for a dinner party on Saturday night. We had a great time and Andy and I enjoyed throwing a party.

Yesterday afternoon we decided to take Maggie to the park to play for a little bit. We didn't realize how cold it was until we got there so we didn't stay long. Maggie didn't like leaving the park one bit. But she had fun while she was there.

Here are the pictures.

Katie


Despite, our disbelief this summer, the weather in Las Vegas does get cold. It was so cold at the park yesterday that we could only stay for about 15 mintues. 


Such a happy girl...until it was time to leave. She was so mad at us. She didn't really stop being mad until we got home. 


She spent most of her time throwing sand. I'm not sure why that is so much fun. 


Having fun with Daddy 


Daddy having fun...sometimes we still feel like being a kid. 


The placecards from the dinner party on Saturday night  


The table... 


The Christmas tree...it's a little big for our condo but we really enjoyed seeing all of the ornaments since we didn't put up a tree last year. Maggie hasn't been interested in the tree at all.