Kensley is 11 months old

I'm kind of using my blog as my journal because I'm more likely to sit down & type something up quick than take time to write in my journal... so today's entry is an update on Kensley (pardon if you get bored). She turned 11 months old yesterday. I really can't believe she is almost one and it's time to plan a party. She is a pretty funny kid and a good baby. She's making this noise now where she opens her mouth really wide & makes a sound like she's sucking air in... and then she laughs. She loves it when we laugh at her. She does things over and over to get attention. She said bye & waved a few weeks ago, but only for one day. This past weekend she picked it up again & waves & says "bye-bye" to everyone, even sometimes when we don't say it to her. She's still making "the face" when strangers talk to her or if she doesn't like what you say. She is responding better to "no" when we say it & most of the time will stop whatever she was doing after giving her look that she's is not pleased. She's loving finger foods & eats most everything. She loves sweet potato baby food, but I discovered tonight that she does not like real, cooked sweet potatoes... odd. She eats baby food most of the time, but some of the 3rd food she doesn't like. I think it's the texture. She's pulling up on most anything now & she's starting to cruise around the furniture more. She still loves her thumb & her pink bear. She has started throwing it out of the crib in an attempt to not go to sleep at naptime. She also started screaming & yes, I mean at the top of her lungs like a toddler or older child would do. She's definitely a girl. Most of the time it's when she's mad about something or you took something away that she wanted. She loves to watch her Baby Einstein or God Made Me video's... it will calm her down if she's fussy almost every time. She loves to look at books. I'm trying to be more consistent & read with her in hopes she will like to read when she starts school. So, I guess that's a wrap up of my baby girl.

School is getting better with Chandler & Carter is excited because two more of his friends were moved into his class today. That makes 6 friends... 4 of them are pretty good friends.. in his class. What are the chances of most all the kids he knows in kindergarten being in his class. I'm happy about it too, because one of my good friends... well, her kid.... was one that was moved to his class. That means buddies for parties & carpooling for field trips. Yippee!

Lake Junaluska Vacation

Well, we are back. We had so much fun this weekend. We went to Lake Junaluska (above Asheville & near Waynesville) with Corby's family.... all 22 of us!!! (My father-in-law couldn't make it because he was out west on a job, but his mother "Grandmaw Haneline" joined us this trip). We rented a huge house on the lake. It wasn't directly on the lake but we had a pretty view & plenty of stuff to do. The weather was wonderful... even a little cool if you can imagine a break from the 90+ heat we've had here in Shelby. We went up Friday night and came home after lunch today. All the cousins had such a great time playing together and MamMaw Wanda had some great games & activities planned each day. We played a family trivia game that was hilarious...the "in-laws" had a set of questions & all the siblings had a different set of questions. All of the questions pertained to members of the immediate family to see how much we actually knew about each other. My mother-in-law brought stuff for all of the daughters & daughter-in-laws to make fall wreaths... we got to use our crafty side & made some pretty decorations for our doors. We played a relay game, a taste test with the men against the women, sling-the-pudding game where one person took chocolate pudding & slung it with a spoon to the opposite side to see who could get the most in one persons mouth (we laughed really hard a this one...fortunately, I was the slinger and not the receiver), all the kids made t-shirts with all the cousins hand prints, and we played games. Each family took turns to cook a meal so we didn't have to take 5 cars to a restaurant and ask for "a table for a party of 22 please!!!" We played games, relaxed, played pool in the game room in the house, we took walks around the lake, canoed, paddle boats, tennis, shuffleboard....and a few other things too. Uncle Corby even taught Grant to ride his bike there. We are all exhausted from staying up late every night, but it was worth it to spend time with family. I've got so many pictures you can just check out the link to my snapfish album. Click on the album Lake Junaluska.