My crafty fall day...

I had a football game yesterday afternoon so my Saturday, day of rest, was wasted. I left the house around 9 and got home at 5:15. As soon as I got home, I laid down to try to take a nap. Unfortunately, I was unable to fall asleep and I just laid around until about 8:30. It was then that I finally fell asleep, and that was it. I woke up around 10 just in time for Tom to call and say goodnight then it was off to bed. I felt kind of bad for missing church this morning, but I think God will understand that I needed the sleep and the rest. Once I got up I was feeling very rested and spent the morning watching some TV. I then got the motivation to use all the fall pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn that Mom and Dad gave me last weekend. I took a little trip to Michael's and got some raffia and some ribbon and made these beautiful wall hangings. I also got things to make a fall wreath but didn't have time today. My Mary Kay lady came over at 1:30. I gave her one of these and she thought it was pretty too!


Here's the one I kept for myself. It is hanging on the wall right by the front door. I am so proud of my work and it took less than 5 minutes to make and less than $2!! My kind of craft project!.

Here are the other 2. I gave the one on the right to Anne-Louise. I am not sure who I am going to give the other one to. I will have to think about it!

It's been a rainy day today and I was craving something sweet. I had some apples still in the fridge and I have wanted apple crisp ever since Mom has been bragging about making the apple crisp from the apples from her trees. I make some pretty good apple crisp I have to say. I think I could give Mom a run for her money if I could just grow my own apples! Mmmmmm... It was yummy!

I love Fall!!!

This is absolutely Tom's and my favorite time of year. The air is so fresh and the chilly breeze feels so good. We get to spend so much more time outside and even the yard work is enjoyable when it's nice outside. The rain has settled down here for the most part and it has been sunny skies in the low 70's during the day dropping down to the 40's at night. We have had our windows open for several days now and it is just great. The dogs are getting more exercise; they hardly want to come in the house anymore. Hopefully this weather will last and the rain will hold off and when Tom gets back from Mississippi we will have some time to spend outside at night by the fire. Soon it will be the right kind of weather to start a fire in the fire place.

24 Week Belly

She's getting bigger!!!

Everyone that saw me had not seen me since I was only 16 weeks and not really showing, so everyone was suprised to see how big my belly was getting. I am definately starting to feel more pregnant now. She is moving all the time and it feels like little muscle spasms in my lower belly. She has even started nestling up in either side and I can feel her head or her but pushing up against my side so I rub her until she moves. It is so neat. A couple of nights I have even been able to see my stomach jumping around like she's having a little party in there. The coolest thing is that she is most active when Tom is talking to me. She's already a daddy's girl!!

Coming back home...

Saturday night we stayed up kind of late, at least for me. Drew and Kendra came over to the hotel to hang out with us and watch the Iowa game and they stayed util after 10. The beds at the hotel were so comfy! I slept really good Saturday night and got to sleep in a little bit on Sunday. After we got up and ate breakfast we packed up our stuff and headed out to Target and BabiesRus so that Mom and Dad could help me start my baby registry. I was looking at the "Registry Check-Lists" last week and got completely overwhelmed with everything they say you "need". So I thought it would be best to have someone that's been through this before help me out with figuring out what I really do need. They were a really big help. There are still some things that I will have to add but we got a great start and I am definatley more prepared now.

After the registry fun we met Alan and Cate for lunch at the MaidRite and then it was time to head home.


Mom, Dad and me after eating lunch at the MaidRite.

It was a long drive home last night but definately worth the trip. I most likely will not be traveling anymore through the rest of my pregnancy. I am sure Tom will not have the patience for how many times I need to stop to pee and stretch. Hopefully I can get some people to get down here to visit me, especially since we will be stuck here for the holidays.

Mandy's Wedding

Tom left for Mississippi for Reserve "stuff" last Tuesday and was gone all week. Mandy Coyle got married on Saturday and I really wanted to go to the wedding so I could see all the Coyles and also see all my family too. I decided to make the 6 1/2 hour drive by myself because I figured it would be the last time I would be able to make it that far by myself before the baby gets here. I had a football game Friday night so I had to leave really early in the morning on Saturday. Luckily our neighboor girl, Sarah, was able to come over and watch the dogs for us during the day on Saturday and we hired a puppy sitter, a girl I work with, to come spend the night with them Saturday night. I made it to the hotel in Peoria with only 10 minutes to spare to change to make it to the wedding on time. The wedding and reception was beautiful. Kim and Mandy did a great job organizing and planning the wedding.


Tom walking Mandy down the isle. I can't believe I used to baby sit her, now she's married!!

Me and my Joey. Doesn't he look so handsome in his tux! I really miss him :(

The family got to meet Alan's girlfriend, Cate. We've heard so much about her, it was nice to finally get a chance to meet her. They are so cute together. They make a great couple. Hopefully she will get Alan to come visit us down here in TN.

The family, minus Kimmy, but she was there in spirit :) It's not too often that we all get together as a family and actually spend time together. It was really weird being back in Brimfield where we grew up. Almost everything is still the same. We drove by our old house and it was like we never left. Hopefully some day we will all live at least a day trip away from each other so we can do this more often.

Anniversary Date Night...

It was a long week this week with the high school and Tom working and I was sooo tired. That didn't stop us from having a great day yesterday though. We spent most of the day actually just being lazy and lounging around the house. Tom was nice enough to spend the night Friday night cleaning up the house while I was at work so we didn't have to on Saturday. I was able to sleep in a little bit and catch up on a lot of our DVR'd shows. The Baby Story and Friends are the top two right now but we also got to watch the season premiere of The Biggest Loser.


My Anniversary flowers that Tom surprised me with on Wednesday morning.

Tom is still brave enough to pick me up even after I've gained 15 pounds. We'll see if he still tries after 30. He's so strong! :)


We finally got around to taking showers and making ourselves presentable around 4:00 after we went outside and played catch with the dogs to give them some exercise. Tom made us reservations to eat at The Melting Pot. I ate there once about 8 years ago when I was living up in Tinley Park and thought it was good and have wanted to go back with Tom since then and we finally went. Before we went to dinner we decided to hang out downtown at the bar we both like and listen to some live music. It's nice to go now that most of the bars downtown are smoke free so Tom had a couple of beers and we sat and talked together and just enjoyed each other's company. It's been a while since we did that.

We had a great time at dinner. It was definitely a different dining experience and not something we will do very often, it was a pretty expensive date, but definitely worth it!! We enjoyed a 4 course meal starting with a cheese fondue then a salad, then a meat and veggie fondue entree and then a chocolate fondue dessert! We both ate way too much.

We got home and played with the puppies for a little bit, watched some TV and then headed off to bed. What a wild Saturday night! Not what we would have done on a Saturday night 5 years ago but I definitely think I like what we have now 10 times as much!! Every year seems to get better and better. I'm excited to find out what next year's anniversary will hold for us as Mommy and Daddy! I'm guessing even better than this year!

Our Anniversary!

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary!! I can't believe how time has just flown by these past three years and how so much has changed in our lives. We haven't been able to see each other much lately because of our working opposite shifts and Tom traveling to Birmingham so much for the Army. It has made us really appreciate the little time that we have together on the weekends that he is here and Monday mornings before I go to work.

Tom was gone last weekend for his Reserve weekend and I saw him briefly on Monday morning. Tuesday we just saw each other in passing during the lunch hour and this morning only for a half hour. Tom was so sweet though. He knows how much little gestures mean to me and on his way home last night he stopped and got me flowers and some cheesecake. He snuck them in last night, which wasn't hard because I was already in bed when he got home. He had the flowers in a vase for me when I woke up and got up early just to see me for a little bit before I had to go to work to wish me a Happy Anniversary. It really helped me get through the day.

Things have been kind of rough for me at work lately. It seems like all I ever do is get up, go to work, come home, do house work if I feel up to it, go to bed and start over the next day. There hasn't been a whole lot of positive vibes coming from work lately either so I usually come home quite stressed and to be by myself 90% of the time and hormonally pregnant doesn't make me feel very good. I am just looking forward to the day when I can be done with outreach athletic training and be a mommy and move back home closer to my friends and family.

Tom has been very diligent lately about looking for jobs in the midwest for when he graduates from his Master's program in December so hopefully we will have little baby Kennedy, get her settled into the world and then move her up north somewhere. However, if we end up staying down here for a while I am pretty confident that I will still be able to get out of the outreach athletic training biz and everything will be just fine here too.

I think it is time to say goodnite! I have had a long day and have yet another one ahead of me tomorrow so it is time to veg myself infront of the TV and munch on my Anniversary Cheesecake and then snuggle off to bed when Tom wakes me up when he gets home. Hopefully I will have some pictures to share soon. Tom is taking me out to a nice dinner on Saturday so we can celebrate our Anniversary in style!

Sunday September 6th

Today has been yet another lazy day. We got up this morning and pretty much just sat around until about 10:3o when I got motivated to do some laundry and Tom brushed Riley, which both were long over due. When that was done it was time to start lunch. We had the best lunch ever today. We had BLT's with the fresh farmer's market tomatoes from yesterday with sweet corn, that was pretty good, not as good as Iowa sweet corn but pretty close and watermelon. YUMMMY!!!

After we cleaned up lunch; we filled up the pool for the dogs to play in and I layed in the hammock and let Tom, Shirley and Riley entertain me.

relaxing saturday afternoon...

I got home really late on Friday night from the football game; almost midnight, and Tom had night class until 9:30 so he was late getting home too. We were able to sleep in Saturday morning which is very rare because the dogs usually get us up around 6:30. I took Tom to the walk-in clinic first thing in the morning to get a cyst removed from his neck which was giving him a lot of problems. After we got home from that and ate lunch we decided to go to the farmers market and got some fresh Tomatoes and a yummy watermelon. Tom wanted to stop at the Yazoo brewery downtown and fill up a couple of growlers with beer for the weekend. We also stopped at the grocery store and picked up dinner. Salmon, yum!


It was such a nice day that I had Tom hang up the hammock after he finished mowing the yard so I could lay down and rest for a while outside. Riley decided to join me!!

It wasn't long after hanging in the hammock with me that Riley noticed the sprinkler going and she can never resist a good romp around in the sprinkler water. She's such a goofy dog!

Here's Shirley in her usual pose. Tom caught her at a good angle. I think he should go into business in photography. She always looks so intense yet so pathetic with all her tennis balls. She will sit there for an hour staring at that thing just waiting for someone to pick it up and throw it for her. A little obsessive compulsive, don't you think.

Tom has really enjoyed the changing weather down here. Since its been getting cooler (it's been steadily in the low 80's upper 70's for about a week now) Tom has been spending a lot of time outside playing with the dogs and piddling in the yard. We've put so much time and energy into the yard, that it's nice to get out there more often and hang in the hammock or sit by a fire.

19 1/2 week ultrasound

Better late than never, right... I have been so busy with football and so tired when I get home that I just haven't had the time or energy to get these scanned on a disk from Walgreen's in order to put them up here. So what I did was take a picture of the picture. Some of them are good and others you can kind of see my reflection in them but you get the point!!!


Kennedy Ann Donohoe at 19 weeks 3 days! Already precious!

Here is the fullest view the ultrasound lady could get on the monitor. You can see her little hand going up to her mouth, she was trying to suck her thumb a couple times while we were watching her!!!

Here's another face view.

This one you can really see my hands in the picture, but if your wondering what the heck this is a picture of... It's how we know she's a girl. There is an obvious lack of parts between the legs! :) Who knows, we still could be surprised at the birth with a little boy because they won't say for 100% that it is a girl but Tom and I were pretty convinced. The lady looked around for quite a while and wasn't able to find anything...

We had such a good time at the ultrasound. It lasted almost an hour and we have a 30 minute DVD of the ultrasound that we got to take home. It was just amazing to see everything. I thought it was the coolest when we were looking at her face and I could see her little mouth opening and closing!!! I just can't wait to meet her and give her lots of hugs and kisses!!!