Date Nite

This past Saturday, Jason and I were able to go on a date. The "reason", if we needed one, was for my birthday. That's what I wanted for my gift. Just some time alone with my honey. This was our first time alone without the kids since we were on our cruise and the kids were in the daycare on the ship. We were overdue!

I told him to surprise me on the details, so after church and getting the kids settled in back at home with Mammaw, we got in the car and started driving.

We ended up at the Promendade. I found out that we had 9pm reservations at PF Changs, but it wasn't quite 8pm yet. So, we parked the car and Jason told me that he wanted me to go shopping and buy something special for myself. He said he didn't care what it was, but gave me a "budget" on what he wanted me to spend and gave me some rules. It had to be for only me and it couldn't be anything for the house or the kitchen or anyone or anything else. I was shocked! I don't normally buy stuff for myself like that, unless it's way on sale or way cheap. So, I told him I would have no clue what I would want to buy.

He said he wanted to buy me some diamond earrings, but he wasn't sure what I would want, and he didn't have time that week to go shopping for them. I remembered that long ago I did tell him that's the next piece of jewelry I wanted if I got the chance. We talked about it for a while and I decided that's what I would get.

We went in all of the jewelry stores to check out what they had/ prices, etc. I told him I really didn't want to spend the money and he told me I didn't have a choice.

So, I ended up with these:

Aren't they gorgeous?! They're 1/2 karat diamond earrings. I love them and have worn them every single day since. I'm so nervous I'm going to lose one, so I'm constantly checking to see if they're still there.

I can't believe he insisted that I do something for myself like that. I appreciate my husband so much. I'm thankful that he appreciates what I do for our business and our family. It just makes me feel so good. Talk about a nice bonus! In my book, this beats the bonuses I used to get when I worked out of the home. I'm so glad I'm married to him!

We had a wonderful dinner. We didn't take a picture because I was too embarrased to take it in such a dark, quiet restaurant. I was afraid people would think we were goofy for doing it! Jason was all about it though, believe it or not.

After dinner, we went and saw the late movie. We saw Julie and Julia, and being such a Food Network nut, I absolutely loved it. I thought it was sweet and funny. My favorite part was the underlying love stories, though. And now, I'm dying to have Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" cookbook. I have a need to cook her "Boeuf Bourgennone" (did I spell that right, I didn't take French...) or "Beef Burgundy". I will cook it someday. I promise I will. And I'll let you know how it turns out.

Jas, I can't wait for our next date night! Just don't try to make me buy diamonds on the next one, ok? I love you.

Raised to Walk in Newness of Life

This past Saturday night marked a special day in Braden's life. This past winter, he prayed to ask Jesus into his heart and to make Him the Lord of his life. He's been asking us about being baptized ever since. Our church was having a special baptism service and he really wanted to be a part of it.

They had it set up and did it outside too, which was something we've never seen before. It was pretty cool. At our church, they encourage the dad's to baptize the children, because they are their spiritual leaders, and Jason certainly wanted to be a part of it. (Of course, he was nervous, but he did great!)

Here's the pictures from the wonderful evening.

Braden, I pray that you will love Jesus more and more everyday. Never forget the commitment you made to the Lord and keep Him first in everything you do. We are so proud of you!!

Dance Fever!

I know the grandparents will especially love seeing Gracie's latest dance performance. So here ya go! This is the end of her 3rd dance class. I'm seeing some improvement already!

First Day!

Back to School! The boys started back to school yesterday. They were so excited to start their day. Rhett wasn't completely convinced he was ready, but as we walked down the sidewalk on the way to school, he said, "Mom, I'm glad it's school time again."

Braden has been ready for a few weeks now. Ever since he found out he was going to be in a "technology enriched" class. Meaning: lots of computers, laptops, smart board, digital cameras, etc. This little techie is gonna be in heaven!

Sissy was also excited to take the boys to school with me. She had her grapes and refused to be pushed in the stroller to the school. She insisted on walking. It was a beautiful morning and I wasn't in a hurry, so why not? Could you say no to this precious face? Let me tell ya, it's hard! We won't mention how sad she was when we had to leave the school without the boys. And that I had to carry all 33 pounds of her all the way back home...

We walked down and picked them up after school (Gracie rode in the stroller this time!). They were ALL smiles. I heard things like, "Awesome", "So nice", "Friends", "Cool", and my favorite, "I wish it was already bedtime so I could go to sleep and it would be time to go back!"

I'd call the first day a BIG SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so proud of both of my boys! I love and adore you guys. I hope 3rd grade and 1st grade are your best years yet!!!

G.N.O

I have the best group of girlfriends! We try to go out a few times a year to celebrate the birthdays of the group. When we moved away, I wasn't worried that they'd leave me out. I knew we'd still figure out how to get together. They were all so supportive. Since we all lived in a small town, we always had to drive at least an hour to go somewhere fun anyway, so sometimes they just drive over my direction and pick me up for some fun in the "big city!"

This past Friday night they all came over and we celebrated Me and Betty's birthdays.

We went to dinner at Shogun.

Most of us had never been there before. We loved it. Turns out, if you tell them you're celebrating a birthday, they bring you ice cream amidst flashing lights and loud music. And everyone claps and hoops and hollers.

Our friends wanted us to stand on chairs but, ahem, this was as wild as it got for me! Wooooooo! I'm ONLY posting this because Tasha told me I HAD to. There. Yikes.

Here's Betty and I with our ice cream. Yummmm!

After dinner, we went bowling!

Me and Lyd

Sandra, Betty and Jenn

Tasha and Me. We have been friends for 21 years this year! It's hard to believe we're old enough to say that...She'll be having the next big "milestone" birthday in December! Me, I'm the baby of the group and I just entered my last year in my 20's. I plan to live it up this year!

THEN, as if we hadn't had enough fun....

we went to the midnight movie and saw The Time Traveler's Wife. SO good! I cried through the entire movie, but I cry easily at movies. Some of the the girls didn't cry at all. I really did love the movie though. In fact, I bought the book the next day. I can't wait to start reading it!

I didn't get home until after 2am! And those poor girls had to drive home, so they didn't get home until about 4am! What a night!

Thank you girls for the BEST birthday Girls Nite Out ever! I had a great time and I miss all of you already!

New Blog Posts

Howdy to all my faithful blog readers! I made use of my Saturday by preparing several posts and planned to post them 1 a day for a few days. What I did not realize is that I guess I should have posted them in the same order that I created them, because I posted them out of order and they're now posting BELOW the others because of the date they were created. I'm sure I could fix this, but I don't know how!
So, make sure you read down past "Gracie's Dance Class" for 2 other new posts. AND tomorrow I will post 1 more from the camping trip that will probably post below these.
Just wanted to make sure yall didn't miss the new updates since you've been asking me for them!
Love you all! Have a BLESSED day!!

Gracie started dance class!

I have been dreaming of the day when Gracie would be old enough to take dance class. The time has come! She started a couple weeks ago and will go once a week. So far, she LOVES it! Emily at Elite Dance Studios is THE BEST teacher!! I've been so impressed so far! Here's a video from her 2nd class. At the end of class, the teacher shows them some fun, simple choreography in about 5 min or less and then all the parents get to go in and watch them "perform" it. Today's little dance was "YMCA". You can see that she has a tendency to get a little caught up looking at herself in the mirror and making faces. :)

Picnic at Daddy's Work

Jason recently moved into a new shop building and spent a lot of time there for the first few days getting everything moved and organized. One night, he was going to be late and we were missing him SO much, so we packed up dinner and went to have a little picnic with him.
The boys especially enjoyed playing darts and practicing their baseball skills.
Gracie loved playing on the trailer and with all daddy's "workin' stuffs".
They were all FILTHY by the time we left. I had almost forgotten how hard it is to scrub grease off of skin. Until we got home that night and I remembered. It doesn't want to come off!

S'MORES!!

I you know me, you know I love s'mores. Love, Love, Love them. When I was pregnant, I was known to make them at home in the microwave! So, when we go camping, there's always s'mores! We all have very different opinions as to what makes the perfect s'more, but we all love them.
On our last camping trip, we made s'mores every night we were camping except for 2. On the last night, we were trying to get everything cleaned up in order to leave in the morning, so we opted for making them indoors over the gas stove instead of making a fire outside.

First Camping Trip of '09 (Finally!)

Devils Den is our favorite place to go camping. There are several reasons why. It's close. There are full hook-ups, including sewer (which means we can use the potty and water all we want! Can you say nightly shower?! Woo Hoo!) There are so many things to do.
We went down on a Sunday afternoon and stayed until the following Saturday. 3 of those days Jason's parents and his Uncle Bruce and Aunt Jill from Pennsylvania joined us with their campers. We did lots of visiting, ate good food and had lots of fun!

Day 1

Before the rest of the family got there. It was hot. We went to the pool!



Day 2

Family arrived. The guys all played in the 4pm afternoon baseball game.

Rhett


Braden


Sharin' some love between innings.


Uncle Jeff looks like he's trying to take out a camper in the outfield!


Day 3. It was HOT. We went to the pool. Again!

Gracie and Mammaw

Aunt Jill and Braden

Rhett, relaxin' and lookin' fine!

This would be where Rhett gets those good looks from!

Rhett getting ready to go down the slide!

Aunt Jill and Rhett.

Braden coming down the slide!

We hosted a little card party in our camper. It wouldn't be a Kennett Family gathering without a game of Allcers. (Kennetts, did I spell that right?!)

Rhett finally lost his 1st tooth while we were there. We've been trying to get that tooth out for over a week. When Rhett noticed it was gone, he didn't know when it had fallen out or where it was. We searched and searched, but never found it. Good thing the tooth fairy accepted a note of explanation in lieu of the actual tooth!

Later that night a "Killer Moth" invaded our camper and nearly caused Me, Braden and Gracie to have heart attacks. Rhett was sleeping at the time. Thank goodness for brave daddy to save us!

Jason's mom later informed us this was a Luna Moth. I thought for sure we'd discovered some rare prehistoric creature. We'd never seen one before! After getting over being FREAKED OUT, we realized how gorgeous it really was.

Mom and Dad were on their big 30th anniversary trip to the North West US so we were dog sitting my little brother Goober during the camping trip. He liked being a camping dog!

Home Sweet Home! I love our camper!


Here's Jason grilling us THE.BEST.STEAKS.WE'VE.EVER.EATEN.

We went to the Yellow Rock overlook on our last day to use the phone and check messages. While I was on the phone, Braden came to the car, grabbed a Sharpe out of the console and headed back to the overlook. When he came to bring the marker back, I asked him what he was doing and he said he'd just take a picture of it. I gave him my phone and he came back with this.

His daddy didn't even put him up to this. How cute! Of course, he shouldn't have done it, but he saw that the place was covered with similar markings and sentiments and he didn't know any better. I thought it was a super sweet gesture on his part!
Rhett and Gracie shared some snuggling on our last evening.

And Goober took a minute to peek out from under the covers of me and Jason's bed (where he likes to sleep). At this point, I think he was ready to go home too!

There goes another camping trip! Hmmm... Wonder where we'll go next?