a ton of posts - trying to catch up!

i feel like ive failed to blog about SO many good things lately and what i have blogged about didnt seem complete.. so after adding captions to the zoo pics.. i made myself a list and started writing. nap times can be so productive. if you havent been here in the last few days (or hours) you're going to think ive gone post crazy!! but i needed to catch up and this was the only way!!! believe it or not.. there are two more that i havent finished yet! i cant believe korb is 10 months old! and one month down..one to go (a mid-summer update on kennedy's vacation). i have a few days before they are late.. happy reading!

a new blog is born!

yeah!!! something new to read! jenny has joined the wonderful world of blogging... http://www.theshoffners.blogspot.com/ i will add it to the list of blogs i enjoy.. and i cant wait to read all about life with my amazing nephew dalton, aka dubbers.. im sure jenny will do an awesome job of keeping us current on the ins & outs of H-Town. thanks for giving in to the pressure jenny.. you wont regret it!

kelly, you're next!!!!

a new business...

not sure why i havent blogged about this yet.. im very excited to announce that i have started my own small business. no, not an in-home daycare (that would be a late announcement!). i have actually decided to become an independent mary kay consultant. i know what you're thinking.. now shes really lost it. we thought she was crazy when she said she wanted to leave neiman marcus to babysit..and now shes gonna go door to door peddling lipstick. but the business isnt really like that at all. the women involved are so loving and so supportive! though i dont miss retail.. or my job.. i do really miss co-workers.. and selling.. and grown-ups (shhhh dont tell the babies!). i had my first class last night and i think it went very well!! thank you to kari and christina for being good sports! even though i have no false hopes of driving a pink cadillac in the next year, i am excited about a new opportunity. and i already use & love the products so it makes a lot of sense. dont worry im not going to beg everyone i know to 'support' me by buying..however, if you'd like to check out my website and see what its all about.. here's the link. www.marykay.com/jammi.palmer


i think kyle might look good in a pink cadillac...

the three amigos!

THE THREE AMIGOS!
friday night.. after our long day at the zoo. we showered, packed up the kids, moved korbs carseat from one tahoe to another for the third time that day and headed to the kanuths. the drive, from oklahoma (where we live) to arkansas (where they live) was long but well worth it! just kidding! their new home is in rockwall. the entire area was beautiful.. and the house is great! congrats to them and thanks for letting us crash for the night! by the time we made it out there it was night-night time for all the little ones. but we did get some quality pics of them playing on saturday morning. i cannot believe how tall korb is! i mean i know that he's tall..but it seems so much more obvious when you stand him up next to the girls.

as if you couldnt tell by looking.. thats elle kanuth (aka little rob) in the blue and ava cardwell (aka little aaron) in the pink. and the ladies man obviously just woke up!

to the zooooooooo!

on friday team cardwell and team palmer made their first trip to the zoo.. we were sure, before we left, that it would be the first of many... but after a VERY late start, a CRAZY long drive to ft worth, a HOT-HOT afternoon, a TON of traffic on the way home and not to mention the invention of Discovery HD (discovery hd was kyles thought..definitely a boy thing)... it might be awhile before we return. HOWEVER.. despite all the set backs we did have a really good time! we were sad that kennedy was not with us.. but korb and ava were so good. they were red-faced, hot, sweaty, shiney and sticky from all the sunscreen.. and they were little troopers! we did not have one single melt down or fit. (out of the kids anyway!) we are completley blessed with amazing children!

and were off..finally! proud daddies & their babies!

ava grace!

korbin nickolis! i know this is blurry.. but its priceless to us! that little monkey scared the poop out of our little monkeys! there was only glass between them when he came to say hi!
thats a happy boy!!

korb and mommy!

korb and daddy!
we dont have many pics of all three of us.. thanks to auntie kel for taking this one-even if the little man didnt wanna smile anymore. he was so hot!

thats a big alligator!
korb, do you see the cooger? (that cooger supposed to be funny)
i love this..its totally like they are talking about us! i can only imagine what they might be saying.. dude, do you see anything out there? our parents are weird... is it naptime? got a nuk i can borrow?

he was not about to touch that goat...

oops, i missed fathers day.

i didnt really miss it.. i was around. i said happy fathers day to the dads in my life - but i didnt post anything and im feeling guilty. as many of you know.. im am guilty of being a daddy's girl. and since my father thinks days like fathers day are just like any other sunday.. meant for worshipping our heavenly father. i guess thats the mentality i was going with...the dont make a big fuss attitude. nonetheless.. i do have a few belated wishes that i would like to make public.

to my brother.. i am so proud of you and the daddy you've become. the special bond you have with dubbers is enough to make any father of a "mama's-boy" jealous. you guys are absolutely perfect together and it makes me so happy for you.

to my daddy.. i love so many things about you. i love the way you love unconditionally.. i love the way you give and give even when your cup is empty.. i love the way you do not judge.. i love that you always see hope in people.. i love that your 'comfort zone' is beyond measure.. or maybe its just that you prefer to be on the outside of it. i love you for your faith. i love you for your gentle hand. i love you for loving my mom.. i love you for being the best papa anyone has ever known! i love you for being strong..and for showing your weaknesses to help others. i love you for being you and i love you for helping me be me.

to my husband.. thank you for being an amazing dad to our children. thank you for using your life experiences.. good and bad.. to teach all three of us. thank you for helping me to be a better parent. thank you for letting me spend so much time with them in the last year... i know its a sacrifice for you to work harder and be away from them more. thank you for being the softy this time around. it's kind of nice to be the 'push over parent' isnt it? most of all thank you for making us smile. nothing beats the sound of the little kid yelling DDDAAADDDDDYYY and jumping on you or the smile on the little mans face when you peek around the corner at him for the first time in the evenings.

you guys are special to me everyday..

missin my baby girl!

havent seen kennedy in 2 whole weeks.. well 2 weeks tomorrow. and i cannot wait til she is home! she seems so grown up on the phone.. i hate it! i know she has to grow up - but at least she has always seemed younger over the phone than she is. but not so much this summer. before she left i helped her create her own blog.. its private so you have to be invited to visit. if you'd like to read about her adventures i can probably get you on the list. just let me know. she has posted once a week..not too shabby. my baby..the blogger! the pics below are downloaded from her last post about her trip to the carlsbad caverns. ive also added a ticker to my blog to help us countdown to my little angelbug's return. if you're reading kenners - have so much fun.. and keep telling us all about it! we love you so much! korb misses you big! and so do we...

what a beating..

does anybody remember aaron? (not cardwell!) he's the little boy from kennedy's 6th birthday party that rob had to practically tackle to keep from 'borrowing' kennedys toys, terrorizing our cat and generally being a little terd.. he also bloodied some one's nose and kept trying to leave while kennedy was opening presents. i'm sure those of you who were not there probably heard the story... well it turns out that he gets all that craziness from his mom! a few months ago she heard that i was doing childcare from home. she called to ask if i'd like to 'sub' for each other. i could take her kids if she needed a day off and vice versa. well, it turns out that she has needed lot of days off. and while i love children..it was never my intention to have tons of them around here everyday. kinda defeats the purpose of getting to stay home and spend time with my own kids. the last time she called needing help..she told me that she was feeling overwhelmed, anxious, depressed.. she asked if i ever have those feelings. not so much..i stay home all day.. and play with little kids.. while demanding at times - its not all that stressful. anyway... i met a family thru subbing for her. they wanted to move their little girl to another home daycare. just someone a little more reliable and maybe not so overwhelmed (not to mention anxious and depressed!) so i agreed to take her in. she's a wonderful little girl.. a few months older than all my babies. and they all really like playing with her. korb follows her everywhere!!! i figured whats the worse that can happen.. crazy lady gets mad at me and doesnt speak to me anymore-not a bad trade off. well it turns out that she wants to speak to me - actually more like yell at me - a lot. yesterday she showed up on my step for the second time in as many weeks wanting to hold the little girl.. and blabbing something about integrity. when i closed the door in her face, after asking her to leave several times, she started calling my cell!!! can you say psycho! a police report has been filed.. restraining orders and trespasses are in progress.. im hoping its all going to go away soon! i started not to blog about this ... but i decided that the best posts always end with reflection and things to be grateful for. while i am grateful that im not crazy! im also grateful for all the support ive rec'd from my friends, family and "families" (meaning the other childrens parents). im thankful that i can let things go!! i guess mostly im thankful that im not overwhelmed, anxious and depressed! life is not always easy.. but it could always be worse.

what a weekend..

on friday we drove korb to nana & papa's.. so that we could have a weekend to ourselves. and i must tell you it was exhausting! we are not nearly as young as we once were! we went to two professional sporting events.. saw a few long lost friends.. had an interesting moment or two with duce the dog.. got a little sunburned and a few mosquito bites.. very little sleep and a whole lot of 'grown up' fun. today.. we are getting one of our kids back! that's a good thing. not sure how much more fun i can handle! i think that's exactly what duce was thinking in these pictures too!!

all kidding aside, i must say that i feel very blessed to have a great family, cool friends, and an amazing husband. with out my parents dropping what they were doing to come get the little man.. weekends like this would not be possible. and if the thought of hanging out with my husband didnt still give me butterflies in my stomach.. weekends like this would not be planned. im a pretty lucky girl...............

the adventures of kp2

just a few cute pics of korb from this week..

hangin with keno paintdawg..

there was a kenny p sighting last night!!! his first interaction with the little man... i think it went well. team cardwell came over.. we cooked dinner.. the spinach and artichoke dip was very good. kyle made amazing chicken. the salad was awesome.. the pasta was not. but hey 3 out of 4's not bad, right? we had good wine..great conversation.. and surprisingly we did not listen to sublime! over all a very nice evening with friends... hopefully we will see kenny again before he runs off with some latino princess and makes little brown salsa dancing babies!

i think wooden blocks are good..

there aren't many days when you can truly say you love what you do.. & see evidence that what you do is good. yesterday afternoon.. i realized that all of my 'kids' were playing with the same toys. they were all laughing.. they were all having a good time. and it made me smile.

she has done it again..

my favorite photographer took family photo's for us a couple of weeks ago and they are awesome!! i just love them. im attaching my favorites and a link to see them all on shutterfly. but of course the best place to see them will be in person on the walls in our home.. i cannot wait! terry you are the best! team cardwell had an appointment today - cant wait to see theirs either.

ok.. so 10 of my favorites! it was so hard to choose. believe it or not there are 20 or so more. heres the link if you'd like to see!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN2zhs3btGLuw

what a weekend..

friday was kennedy's last day at home for the summer.. she spent most of the day just playing with korb. she was very sad about leaving him. the first pic below is her in the crib with him after morning nap.. and the next two are of him and his very own rescue. cute story.. on kennedy's first birthday i gave her a TY (beanie baby company) stuffed animal. a beagle named rescue. she hasnt been anywhere without him since! rescue has traveled the country with kennedy and thru the mail several times when she has forgotten him at someones house. a few years ago kyle found a new rescue in a book store and thought it was amazing to see the difference between what he looks like now..and what he is supposed to look like. so we bought the new one to save and compare when she finally out grows him. (which might be never!) anyway..last week she asked if she could give korb her 'new' rescue to keep him safe while she is away. so sweet. we will have to find one more to go back in the box to compare when they both out grow their rescues. anyway, she gave korb his on friday. i did not get a good pic of them together but you can see that he is in love!

when kyle got home we took her to get a haircut, which i am embarrassed to say i did not get a good pic of, what a loser! it is so cute. all one length just below her chin. she looked adorable. and then we took her to get a new cell phone. she let korb 'play' with hers. at this point in his life 'playing' with anything just means putting it in his mouth. not the best thing for any electronic device. we went to tin star for dinner with the carters.. finished her packing and all went to bed. korbin was not much help with the packing. in fact you can see that he decided if mommy would not let him unpack everything maybe he would just go with... saturday morning was the dreaded trip. its always bitter sweet. i am sad..but i have to help her not be sad.. she always has an awesome time..and somehow i always survive her not being here. she was awakened by korb..pretty cute. he shook her and kissed her.. and then she helped him with his morning bottle. and then we got on the road.. a bit late of course. it was a long drive. she and korb played and napped all the way to wichita falls. after a long good bye..he and i drove home. it was his first car ride with out her in the back seat. big change for the little man. to say the least he is dependant on her. when we made it back to mckinney, phase two of the weekend began. we unloaded and reloaded the truck and headed for east texas. we got to kyle's dads around 530. we were able to see a few family members and friends that we only seem to see in the summer. i guess that means despite all the rain summer has officially began. around 830 we made our way to jeremy and brandi jenkins home. jeremy is kyles best friend from his days in cayuga... their little boy tyson is one year older than korb (almost exactly-his bday is 8-23-2005). we had the best time just hanging out and relaxing with them! these pics were taken the next morning. tyson was a little apprehensive about kp. but he finally warmed up for one good shot of all the boys. who knew all he had to do was offer to take him outside! sunday was a lazy day at kyles moms.. we got to visit daphne. she seemed happy to see us. the beagle 500 was on as soon as she recognized kyle. and she and korb had a sweet reunion too.. it was really nice to just relax on the sofa and hang out with kyles family. kyles sister came over.. i dont think aunt kelli had seen korb in a few months. oh how he has grown and changed! we started home around 5pm. 24 hours in east texas.. we should really do it more often.

i would not normally post a pic that is fuzzy..but i had to get one on the blog of kelly. kel, happy?