Love my Grandma and Grandpa

Snuggling with Grandpa before bedtime.

Playing like a big girl with Grandma after the morning bottle. She loves reading her nursery rhyme book.

Catching up again.

We've been so busy these last couple of weeks settling in and getting ready for a garage sale that I have let the blog slip once again. Kennedy has been having such a good time playing with her Grandma and Grandpa Kaufman. She is getting so big and changing so much everyday. She is sitting up on her own pretty much all the time. She still throws herself backwards some so we still have to sit with her or put her in her boppy. She is becoming very independent. She really likes to sit by herself on the couch and play with her toys. She does such a good job of entertaining herself. She sits next to Grandma while she drinks her coffee and plays with her toys and her dolly. She is eating 2-3 meals a day now and just today went into her size 3 diapers. She is pretty much growing out of her 6 months clothes and is into the 6-9 months now. She loves to grab onto your fingers and pull herself into standing. She will do it all day long like she is doing her calisthenics. She laughs at everything, especially her daddy. She has learned to say "Da Da" we are working on Ma Ma. She is also learning Patty Cake and can clap. She also loves it when Tom lets her fly like "Super Baby" and she even flaps her arms and kicks her legs and squawks like a weirdo! Still no crawling but she hates tummy time so we are doing what we can. She is just so cute.


Showing off on the couch. Holding herself up on her elbow.

Loving on her Dolly! Oh, what a little Princess.

Hanging out before her night time bath.

Hanging out with Great Grandma Kaufman before her picnic with Daddy.

settling in

We are settling in pretty good now. I have been here a week today and we have already done a lot. Mom and I have pretty much got all of our stuff put away, we even made a trip out to the storage unit to put the rest of the stuff I brought in there and out of the way. We also made it to Colo to visit Great Grandma Kaufman. Tom and Dad got a lot of the outdoor work and weeding of the flower beds done as well as cleaning out the gutters. Tom and I drove around some of the small towns around Ames to see where we might want to live. We also went to one of my cousin's birthday parties.


Sleeping on Daddy. What a cutie!

Daddy and Kennedy, cheek to cheek...


Mommy gets some cuddle time too, thanks Kennedy!

Heading out to the birthday party. Oh so tired baby is going to be asleep in just a few seconds. What a precious girl.

hard at work on the farm

Tom is taking to country life quite well. Mom and Dad have had a lot of storm damage in the past few weeks and have a lot of clean up and maintenance to do. Tom got a quick lesson on the tractor and got to taking down trees and hauling them to the burn pile.


he's a natural farmer :)

Dad working the chain saw making some firewood.

The dogs are having the time of their lives out here on the acreage. They have been splitting their time between running in the prairie grass, swimming in the pond, chasing squirrels and sleeping under the shade trees. Not a bad life for a dog.

Kennedy loves being outside. It's a little cooler here in Iowa so she was dressed up all warm Saturday morning.

the big move

The move from Tennessee came sooner than it was supposed to for me. I sat at home Friday night in the empty, lonely house thinking about my baby and Tom being so far away from me and decided that just wasn't going to work. I got myself together and got the house packed up and cleaned all weekend, with the help of Mindy and Robert. I called work first thing Monday morning to see if there was a chance that I could leave any earlier since I had no patients on my schedule all week. They said it would not be a problem and I could leave as soon as I wanted to go be with my family. I finished my packing and cleaning on Monday morning and afternoon and headed out to St. Louis to split the drive up.

I got to Ashley's around 10pm on Monday, hung out with her for about an hour and then off to bed. We got to spend a little time together in the morning and then I headed out for the rest of my trip. I haven't seen her son, Will, since her was about 6 months old, so as you can see, he has grown up so much. He's two now and such a big boy. I can't believe how well he can talk!


Will getting ready to go to the babysitters on Tuesday.

First family picture living in Iowa. It was a long trip but so worth it. I missed Tom and Kennedy so much and am so happy for us to all be together up here!

She's such a morning person. My little happy girl!

Kennedy's first teething biscuit. She loves them so much. They make her little toofers feel so much better. She already has two!

The next leg of the journey.

It's been a long time coming and it is finally here. I can't believe this is the day we are moving back home. Well, most of us anyway. Tom left this morning at 6am. Kennedy woke up just in time to see Daddy off.


Last family picture at Tea Garden Way.

Leg one of the baby relay is finally complete. I left the house at 6:30 this morning after dropping Kennedy off at Debbie's and went to work. I got off of work at 11:30 and got home and packed up Kennedy's things, picked up Kennedy and was on the road at 1:15. We made it half way... Just past Marion, IL around 5:00. We chatted for a little bit and had a snack at Arby's and it was time to say goodbye for a week. Alan and Cate will keep Kennedy over night and finish the relay tomorrow with Mom. I drove back home and made it in around 9:30. I am beat and ready for bed.

Kennedy with Uncle Al and Cate, taking a break from the drive for the hand off.
Kennedy is looking forward to getting to spend the night with her Uncle Al and playing all morning together with him and Cate.

Tom should be pulling into Mom and Dad's within the hour. I can't believe he is still driving, but I am sure he can't either. He has been a real trooper today and just taking it slow and steady. I am sure he will be tired and ready for bed when he gets there. I will be staying here in Nashville tying up loose ends and finishing up my last week of work and then heading to Iowa starting next Friday. Wish us Luck!

Packing up...

After Tom got home Monday night, we knew we had a big day ahead of us on Wednesday. We spent a little bit of time together, catching up and watching the last of our TV for a while then it was off to bed. Wednesday morning we got up and got right to work. We spent the majority of the day packing up the rest of the "stuff", mowing the lawn, trimming the bushes, cleaning out the gutters and whatever else we could think of to do for the last minute. The big packing day however, was Thursday. We finished up the little stuff in the morning and then took Kennedy's crib apart and got organized for our moving helpers to arrive. Our friends got their around 6pm, it was still over 100 degrees with the heat index, and we got to work.


The van in front of the house. 26 ft plus a hall behind trailer. Tom has his work cut out for him.

Kennedy has been spending a lot of time at Debbie's house this week. This is Kennedy's babysitter and our neighbor and friends. (That's Sarah to the left of Debbie and Rachel next to her)They brought her over to see us a few times during the day. We are going to miss them so much! Kennedy loves them all so much and has such a good time over at their house. The only better option she could have is to be watched by our family, AKA Grandma, and that's where we are going so they know she will be in good hands.

The van is almost full! And Boy is it still hot at 10 o'clock at night. Mindy, Robert and Mike, you are great friends for sticking this one out!

Trying to get the trailer hooked up in the dark. It took a while but we finally figured out to park the Tacoma behind the trailer and use the headlights to see. Ahhhh... Pure Genius!

Missing Daddy.

It's been a long couple of weeks and we have been going though a lot of stress getting ready for our big move. Tom's last day of work was July 9. To celebrate our move and to say goodbye to some good friends, we had some people over to our house that Saturday. Sunday we packed up some more stuff and had one last "hang out" day outside and then out to dinner together that night. Bright and early, well dark and early, Monday morning; Tom left to go to Birmingham for a couple days to outprocess from his reserve unit and make up his August days early. He got everything turned in and made it back Tuesday evening. Tuesday night before Tom got home, I met another friend, Lisa, out to dinner so that we could say goodbye to her too.


Kennedy all dressed up to go out to dinner with Mommy and Daddy.

Kennedy sleeping in on Tuesday morning, dreaming about Daddy coming home, I am sure!

Prunes make me sleepy

4th of July Weekend!

We had a really fun weekend! Saturday we hung out around the house and outside as much as we could. In the afternoon we got the puppy pool out and used it as a baby pool since the doggies aren't here. Kennedy had so much fun. She loves kicking her feet and jumping up and down!


Swimming with Mommy. Look at those legs!

Lil Diva Girl! Loves her Daddy!

Saturday night we met our friends, Mike and Candice, and their boys out for dinner and then headed over to the Smyrna park for some fireworks. We figured Kennedy would fall asleep before we got their but she surprised us. She ended up taking just a couple of cat naps but was awake at 9pm for the fireworks. You would think that she would have been scared of the loud booms, but she LOVED them! She watched every bit of them and barely blinked. Every time a big, bright, loud one went off she laughed hysterically and she had a lot of ooos and ahhs in between. She is so cute!

Hanging out at the park before the fireworks.

Sunday, we got up early and went to church, then we did a whole lot of sitting around the house yesterday. Kennedy was a little cranky yesterday, very understandably, because she was up so late on Saturday night. She took a couple of 2 hour naps. Other than that she just played and played, like usual. We ended last night after Kennedy went to bed sitting by the fire, enjoying the nice night and our backyard since we only have a couple of weeks left to enjoy it.

Getting a little play time in before church yesterday.