a fun filled weekend

The past few days were packed with fun plans with great friends. This weekend our friends came into town from NOLA for a fun visit. Im a dork, so I liked having our first guests in the new house and new guest room =) We ate out WAY too much and had WAY too much fun. Saturday we also had a birthday party to go to for my cousin Angie's son. He turned one and had a party at a gym here, Flip Factory. It was SO cool with the bounce houses and fun stuff for kids to do. Kennedy mainly stayed on the slide, thats her choice of play if there's one around! Here are the fun pictures from the weekend.

Kennedy fell asleep on the way to the party, which I knew she would, it was past her nap time for that day. It didnt take her long though to realize there was things to play on, cupcakes to be eaten, AND it was an ELMO birthday party. HER FAVORITE!



Kennedy was fascinated with baby Brant. She always wanted to know where he was. Even today when we got back from the Gymboree class, she came in and said "Baby" and looked around for him. I dont think she realized they all left. It was SO cute, but a little worrisome too. She would seriously have squished him to death or gouged an eye out. We are still working on the whole gentle thing...The babies at Peg Leg Pete's
I had bought some stuff to make a peach dump cake of sorts that I saw on Bakerella, and I was excited to eat it. However, I mistakingly mentioned something about a Reese's cake as well and Justin Varnum was ALL about it. So on the way home from Peg Leg's I ran into Publix and got the stuff to make it. It was so easy and so yummy. I got the main recipe from here, but I didnt feel like making my own icing so I bought Betty Crocker's triple chocolate fudge chip and it was DELICIOUS! i even put on a thin layer of peanut butter before the icing to make it even more peanut buttery. here are the dogs having fun too! arent they cute
We all went to the Oar House, one of our faves around here, on Sunday night with my sister and her husband too. It was nice bc there was about 10 other people and they all were sitting in the bar area, so we had the main restaurant part all to ourselves basically. K does get antsy so it was awesome to just let her run around and there were no people for her to interrupt =) We got there just at sunset and it was gorgeous outside so we took a few pictures. There are some steps down to the water and Kennedy was not pleased with me refusing her to go down to the water. Sorry dear...
fun with aunt B!

Well, Ive finished the dishes and the laundry is in. Good thing its a nasty day bc I am making myself get the house back to normal! We had fun Varnum's. cant wait to see you again soon!

craziness this week

It's been an interesting week around here.

Monday, Kennedy and I woke up, watched some sesame street, went and met our friends Christi and baby Charleigh for lunch, came home and when Kennedy was taking a nap I watched some more TV. After she woke up, we went to my mom's house to meet her to head to a wedding shower. Then Justin met me to pick up Kennedy so I could go have dinner with my sisters, and somewhere in there, our TV decided to die =( He was texting me at dinner wondering what happened during the day, and I told him nothing happened to the TV. I had just watched it earlier and it was acting fine. So weird. Luckily its still under warranty and will be fixed by tomorrow, for free. PTL!

Tuesday night Justin was doing some work on the compute. Before he came to bed he shut down the computer. When I got up, I turned on the computer to look up the number for the people who would fix our TV and our computer wouldnt turn on! It made a noise that I was sad to say...I had heard before. Our laptop made the same noise when the hard drive in it, crashed. So...I called Apple, they couldnt help me over the phone, which I told them they couldnt bc I knew it crashed, and then said I had to take it in. LUCKILY, its still under warranty too, so we had it back last night, which was awesome that they worked on it so fast. PTL. Oh, and good thing I blogged about Vday already bc those were the only pictures that were somehow not restored when we did our restore from backup (yes we had a back up hard drive plugged in that backed up every hour, so nothing was lost really!) so I do have some pictures from Vday. I took like 30, but those 8 will have to suffice for our memories of that day...

Where was I, ah yes, Wednesday. I was washing clothes and I went in the bathroom while some stuff was running thru the wash, and the floor was SOAKED! I mean puddled up good! I called my dad and he had a guy over here within just a few hours and he ran some snake thing all the way thru the pipes and voila! good as new! I guess no one living here for a while caused some gunk to build up. Thanks dad for getting on that so quick. You are the BEST landlord!

So here is Thursday and surprisingly Im not waiting for something else to tear up, Im just thankful for what I do have and that good people took care of all our situations this week. I think the sunshine helps too. I know, that may sound crazy, but I think I have that Weather altered mood thing. If its nice outside I feel happy no matter the circumstances. When its nasty and grey or FREEZING, it can make a good day yuck. Dreary days make for a dreary mommy...

So thanks Jesus, for the sunshine and warmth...

day o love

It's Valentine's day, and while I agree that it's a day for greeting card companies to make money and those who sell flowers, chocolate, and cheesy stuffed animals (that end up in a good will box one day) to also profit as well, its not ALL bad. I see it as a day that reminds you to show the person you love that you do indeed love them, in a fun more unique way on this particular day. Now, some of you gals out there may have a prince charming that does romantic stuff all the time or something, but I aint gonna lie to you, my husband is not Mr Romance 365. Some men need a day that is specifically made for this sort of mushy stuff to nudge them to do something silly or of the wall to make their woman feel special. Sure, Justin does it in small ways just about every day, and thats what matters most to me, but its nice to have big surprises too sometimes, to spice it up!

So, this valentine's day, we didnt just say "to heck with this greeting card holiday," but instead chose to have a romantic night to ourselves. We did, however, go out the night before vday, since our babysitters were my parents, and I wanted them to get to go out on the actual 14th. Their very first date was on Feb. 14th 35 years ago, so I figured the day actually means something special to them. Justin and I had a night out alone, including a movie, Macaroni Grill (I really want my leftovers now that I mentioned that) and some Marble Slab. Dressing up, good conversation, and no baby on board for the night was just what we needed!

This morning we woke up and gave Kennedy her little Valentine's day treats. I got us some mailboxes from the dollar section at Target for fun, and put the valentine's cards in there. It was a fun little morning exchanging our home made cards.

Treats for my Sweet
Playing with her goodies
Me and my sweetheartMaking a Valentine for Nanny and Papa
Taking daddy his mailbox!
"Do you like it daddy?"
"Can I have my sucker now?"Hope you all had a good Valentine's and felt some love!

dont hate me, but...

...this is a pictureless post. I hope you are ok with just words of what's new around here...

We have now been in the new house for one week. It's weird to say new house, since its really old, to me anyway, but its new to Justin and Kennedy. I have spent many a night here with my grandma and grandpa, but its our first time in it as a family, so its new in that way. It's going well so far. Justin REALLY likes his new job, which makes me very happy to see him enjoying his work. He loved what he did back in Cincy so I was nervous that this job wouldn't be as enjoyable, but so far so good. I on the other hand am an official Stay at home Mom, for the first time ever. I have always had Kennedy with me, since I was nannying, but now I have no where I have to be, which is new to me. Kind of weird, but in a good way I suppose...Monday, we went to Target three times, thats how bored i was and how bad i wanted to get out of the house =) I need some playdates or mom groups. I also need some sunshine and warm temps for some beach days with my girl!

I miss cincinnati so very much. i miss our friends there most of all, but I also miss having the know how to do all the fun family stuff and kid stuff. It took me a while to find the good storytime, the fun parks, the events to definitely go to...it's going to take me time to find all of that here since I never lived here with a family before. I knew where to go as a high schooler, no where, there was nothing! But Im hoping that as a mom I can find some fun places to take Kennedy and cool things to do as a family. I know some of you may know of some stuff, so if you have any you think I should know about, definitely let me know!

So, the best thing so far about being here is definitely being close to my family, finally! Monday and Tuesday we spent at my parents house for dinner, which I have never had the opportunity to do before. I was able to just call up my mom and say I wanted to have dinner, and viola, dinner was served! its awesome! today, my sister called to see if I wanted to come to my nephews' school tomorrow for a presentation they are doing, and I can actually go. I no longer have to miss all the ball games, birthday parties, and other family get togethers. Im so excited to grow closer to my sisters and be there for all my nieces and nephews.

I really do wish I had some new pictures for ya, but I have taken none! which is so out of character for me. I'll try and take some of the new digs, and Im sure I can catch Kennedy doing something crazy soon...

Have a good week everyone!

The Move

Justin's dad arrived in Cincinnati on Saturday and they went to pick up the truck and immediately began packing. I loved Floyd...fresh off the plane and an EARLY morning, and already prepared to work hard and get the house packed into the truck. I was not nearly as prepared. I was actually getting my hair done when they arrived and the truck was half way packed when I showed up, only an hour after they had started. These boys were speedy! We had SO many friends to help us. Girls to help get the boxed packed, and boys for the heavy lifting. It was incredible to have all of them there. It, of course, made me not want to leave and made me all the more sad to say to goodbye to these INCREDIBLE people...
We ran out of boxes and all the big things were on the truck except for our bed, so we stopped for the evening, grabbed some dinner, and went back home to get ready for bed.

Sunday was our last day at Mt Carmel and it was definitely going to be difficult. Saying goodbye to these people who had made us feel so loved and at home in a place that was definitely not home, was going to be hard. I had to sing at all the services and Justin of course had work to do, so we had stuff to take our minds off it being our LAST day there. I did however get sad going back to the sanctuary to sing at the end of last service. I love singing with Tim, he is such a passionate worshipper and truly loves praising God and leading others to do so. I realized this was my last time getting to do that, and it all started to hit me, that this was it. I stood there leading those people in that last song and was so grateful for the opportunities God had given me at this church in so many ways. That church means so much to us and we will always remember that time in our lives.

Here are some pictures from our last Sunday there

Kennedy loved playing in the nursery, especially on the slide. She had some awesome people in there taking care of her!

Where you could find him on Sunday mornings, not as blurry though, in real life
They had a reception type lunch for us after church. Catered by City Barbque of course =) It was so very sweet and we loved getting to see everyone




with all the Anderson'sIt's going to be tough adjusting. I have already woken up one morning crying and another just closing my eyes picturing us back in our home there. I am a very sentimental person, if you cant tell, and so it will take me longer than Justin to close this door...

It's time for a different season though.

The Final Days in Cincinnati

Well, we made it to Pensacola and are finally getting all settled in. Someone came and turned on the internet yesterday, so I thought I'd give a little update. Its weird that now my updates are for those back in Cincy...

Ok, so Im looking through all my photos, trying to remember all that I wanted to update on (thats how I remember what I've done...I have to look at the pictures...Im getting too old to remember). I took a lot of pictures the last few days in Cincinnati so there are going to be a few posts to recap.

These pictures are from the week before we left. We had full days of Storytime, our last Small group, Jumpin Joey's, saying goodbye to the girls I had been working with, and a surprise party for our friend Steve, in which I was able to see A LOT of my favorite people that I already miss SO much! BTW, I am already crying from looking at these pictures, so I hope you all know how much I really do love and miss you =)

Kennedy actually sat there this time and clapped to the songs and listened to the stories...amazing...
Playing with the trains at the bookstore
We headed to First Watch for some brunch afterwards. K REALLY enjoyed the chocolate chip pancakes...Last Small Group
Kennedy didnt want to be in the girl picture. She wanted to be in the picture with all the boys...oh dear...

Thursday was Kennedy's last day to play with Kristin and Kelsey. She really did love these girls, and so did I. They were AWESOME to be a nanny/driver for. They were also really good with K, like big sisters. We will miss them!We had to squeeze in one more trip to Jumpin Joey's. I hope I find a fun place like it in Pcola
Steve's surprise party was well timed for me in particular. I was glad to have a time and place to see all these people that I were our first small group and were the reason I finally felt comfortable and happy in Cincinnati. It was a fun night chatting with all of them and spending one last night laughing and being together. Sorry to be so incredibly cheesy, I just LOVE them!

I have a ton more pictures that I'll post on facebook at some point or another. And I'll make sure to update on the move tomorrow. Have a great weekend everyone.