happy birthday korbin nickolis!

i cannot believe it! he is so precious and so amazing and so smart and so handsome. i am in love! i cant believe ive known him for an entire year.. yet at the same time i cant remember him not in our lives. he definitely completes us as a family! he the perfect mix of both of us.. and he and his big sister share an amazing bond. when he laughs it makes me smile.. when they laugh together it brightens up my whole world.

he has grown from 6lbs 15oz to 24lbs 10oz. and from 20in to 31in! in addition to growing.. he has learned so much! he can do everything you can expect him to do and more... he walks -- he's been getting around really well for about 2 weeks. he talks -- he can say so many things. just this weekend he added nana, papa, bye-bye, ni-ni (night-night), thank you and bat to the list. he does a ton of cute little tricks.. somethings smelly, somethings funny, feeling sick, hands up (of course) and my personal favorite..pretty blue eyes just to name a few. he is quite a little dancer and he loves to laugh! i will try to get a video posted after our ITS ALL ABOUT KORB party on monday. and btw - i heard from someone today that they had not yet rec'd their invite - however, my parents rec'd theirs yesterday. crazy mail system! anyway.. everyone was invited. we left no one out.. come on over! monday 2pm! help us celebrate an awesome first year with korbin nickolis!

these amazing photos are by none other than terry smith of clarine smith photography! http://www.clarinesmith.com/ she's really the only person thats ever photographed korb.. except for the one time we went to the picture people. pretty lucky kid with his own personal photographer! thanks again terry! you can view the rest of the shoot on her site..its under featured session on the gallery tab. so handsome!

is he really one?!?!?!?

the last weekend of summer.. & the first day of second grade!

monday was kennedys first day of second grade!!! we had an awesome last weekend together.. saturday we spent the entire afternoon..literally.. 2-7 shopping for school clothes. most days kennedys personality reminds me of the dads in her life.. and then i have to take her shopping. by the time its over i always end up calling my mom to apologize for being such a picky little terd as a child (and teen).. and now, i guess.. anyway - back to kennedy!!! a few of the phrases i heard during our shopping adventure.

• i cant wear anything with characters on it..
• backpacks are out..messengers bags are in..
• why does it matter if everything is the same color if its a good color (pink & brown everything)
• still dont like jeans
• tell me again why i cant wear skirts everyday?
• the character rule applies to lunch boxes too. duh!

nonetheless.. we had a good time! she was actually pretty good at picking things out on her own. imagine that! im starting to appreciate that she knows what she likes. starting to.. kyles fantasy football draft was that day so we were dad-free for almost 24 hours. we invited a few girls (and babies of course) over and had a slumber party. kennedy got to stay up with us really late! i think she finally laid down around 1AM! she spent sunday playing with the neighborhood kids.. and then to bed early to get ready for the first day of second grade! nana and papa drove down after church on sunday night.. they got here around 1AM.. they wanted to surprise her for the first day. i dont think theyve missed a first day yet.. i took the day off as well. we got up on monday. got her ready. went for donuts (healthy i know) and then walked her to class. nana and papa stuck around until just after lunch playing with korb and having lunch with sara & tim (mom's cousins-remember the giant dog...). korb and i picked her up from school and heard all about her awesome day. she loved her classmates.. and couldnt stop raving about her teacher. all in all i think it was a success.. and we are off. officially a second grader. someone slow things down please! my head is spinning...

one more funny set of pics.. mom took them - so it will take a little imagination! after dropping her off and before meeting up with sara and tim. we went to get a little breakfast. we did not get home until 915am or so and korb cant possible stay up one minute later than 9am... he totally crashed in the truck. papa was really worried about the leaning factor so he was holding the babies head up - and then decided to follow korb's lead. good times good times...

this weeks news..

it has been such a crazy week.. and honestly we havent really done anything.. the weekend was busy - but they always are. its just been one of those weeks where you wake up on thursday and think it totally has to be friday.. but no. you still have another full day of work.

korb's upcoming birthday party has been a focus.. ive really put off planning it. i mean- we chose the day for the party a while ago. it took some planning because of the holiday - but other than that i think ive been in denial. i cannot beleive he's already having his first birthday. seems too fast. we went to cash cannons bday party on sunday.. both the kids had lots of fun! it definitely made me realise that i need to get on the ball!! ill attach some pics from cash's bday. i have used all of my free nap time this week to make korbs birthday party invites.. decided to try to be creative and kennedy really wanted to help. so i searched and searched for an original idea -- and finally (after a lot of time on the computer) kennedy was done with helping. she was so bored. i told her that i had to find something.. she had a jealous moment and said to me ITS ALL ABOUT KORB isnt it? and i decided that was it! so the theme is ITS ALL ABOUT KORB. when she figured out that it was her idea (whether or not she had good intentions with saying it) she was back in help mode. we drew and colored and pasted.. and the invites are in the mail today! in other korb news.. he has been walking everywhere for almost a week now. and he seems to have it all figured out.. i think we can officially call him a walker! one more cute pic.. on tuesday i was filling sippy cups and when i came around the corner into the play room.. this is what i saw. sort of. of course they got down while kennedy was getting the camera. sippy cups are priority. but we restaged them and its just as cute! unfortunately it was around 430 and sam was napping.. but its most of the gang. love my job!and in other kennedy news.. on tuesday evening she was bit by our neighbors dog. maybe thats why the week has seemed so long. we've spent some extra time taking care of her for sure. she is ok.. but it was very scary. she'd love to tell you the story, im sure you can imagine her detail -- basically a nice dog, a terrior, that got startled. he bit her arm, hand and chest. pretty ugly. but we called the pediatrician and she said there's not a lot that can be done..just keep it clean and only bring her in if it seems to be showing signs of infection. so far.. no signs of anything. keep your fingers crossed.

so.. next week we will officially have a second grader and a 1 year old. craziness!

stroller fun

ok.. these are backwards in the true blog sense.. but you should watch this one first. its just korb crackin up over getting to push kennedy! and the next post is the actual pushing. so funny!!!

stroller fun cont

this is so funny!

...nurture over nature-i know thats backwards but read on..

i think i have already told this story to every one who will appreciate it.. but i feel the need to write it down. kind of like the booger picking contest post..

this morning i was working on a blog post during nap time.. kennedy was keeping me company. we heard diego start to fuss so she asked if she could go get him and play with him here in the game room. i said sure, but there are a few things you'll need to pick up off the floor. as soon as she got back with him she started cleaning up the things he was not to play with.. a cylinder of cdr's.. a folder of cd's.. a picture frame.. just stuff that had gotten left out. she stacked them on a low table near the computer. he quickly found them. as she was moving them to a higher table i heard her say.. "what? you guys have a better idea? are you laughing at me?" of course i asked who she was talking to.. she replied, "dirk and stevie nash...sitting up there bobble-in and smilin.. like they know everything." i just busted out laughing.. i only know one other person that sincerely talks to dirk and steve... they both make me smile. kennedy & kyle - not dirk & steve.

she's back!!!!

ive been working on this post for a few days.. just so many pictures to go thru! anyway.. kari- she is here, i promise! this should prove it...

kennedy came home last tuesday..and not a moment too soon! we have missed her terribly this summer! korb was very excited to see his big sis! we spent the whole week and weekend enjoying her company and hearing all her stories about her trip. she got to do so much!!! i am helping her update her blog with all her stories... i'll link them when we are finished. we have two weeks before she has to go back to school. i see a lot of hanging out, visiting friends and swimming in those two weeks!

the reunion.. at the pool.. i think she missed christian a little too.

hanging out with korb.. tv watching

the return of the tent.. i told them they could build it just for the day. last thursday. still up a week later.

she got to attend christians last basketball game and then go out to dinner with the carello's nick, jenny & dalton surprised her for the weekend!

saturday she got to see most of the crew at the cusano's.. she loves those cusano boys!!

kennedy & jackson

kennedy & tucker

she has also been busy teaching korb how to walk..this is his new favorite game - somehow she squishes herself into that baby doll stroller and he pushes her endlessly. very funny to watch...youtube to follow! in the first pic she had her foot down like a brake so i could get a pic and he was yelling at her to go! she says shes not sure what she was doing with her teeth..but the laughter on their faces is too priceless not to post...

stroller fun..

she has also gotten to spend lots of time with the cardwells and mincheys in the last week.. but somehow i did not get pics. im sure there will be lots of kennedy pics to follow... as you can see - she's pretty fond of the camera. we are very glad to have her home.

happy birthday mom!

today is my mothers birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! she drove kennedy home on tuesday and just left this morning.. so we got to spend lots of time with her this week! we've really enjoyed her company! she got to see some of korb's first steps.. and snuggle with kennedy for 3 sleeps (which, in my opinion is not a treasure..but she loves it). thanks mom for driving all the way here..even though it causes you to lose sleep! and thank you for always be there for us! you are our rock.. and we dont always appreciate it the way that we should. we love you so much! we hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

finding the silver lining...

this weekend was filled with friends..fondue..and family!

seeing that saturday was supposed to be the big night of the weekend.. i thought that we would have a quiet friday night at home. kyle got off early on friday and golfed the afternoon away with ryan rowland. then they decided to get a small game of cards together...and before i knew it - there were 20 people here. that does include little ones, but they count too!!! korb, bex, ava and elle had a great time hanging out passed their bedtime. and elle showed off her walking skills. so cute! like most late nights at team palmers. the camera didnt make it out til really late. however, i thought this pic was definitely worth posting just to show the randomness of the crowd. it also happened to be brye carters birthday - and we are complete terds for not remembering! that will not happen again... happy belated birthday brye!!! though it wasnt what i had in mind for friday night, it is nice to have good friends...

yep..thats mike bledsoe and blake arnold. ???

this months GNO was modified a bit. we decided to invite the guys along for a nice dinner out. we chose the melting pot.. the vibe was not exactly as we had hoped it would be. but we made the best of a few bad attitudes and had a good time despite their negativity. it was really good to see everyone! and as i said a million times on the way home - thank you to kyle for being a good sport! it means a lot...

thats me and my man!!!

jason & mark clearly having a terrible time...

the way the entire night probably should have been.. GNO.

korb shared a sitter with the cusano boys during our fondue event. afterwards we went back to the cusano compound ourselves and crashed for the night too. we did catch some slack from the kid-less about not hanging out longer. there are those moments when you'd like to hangout and not have to worry about picking up the baby. but when you see how happy they are to see you.. they quickly pass. someday there will be little b-dubs smiling at them from the back seat on their way to the sitter for a night out and they wont mind going home right after dinner either! love ya nikki!

look at my handsome blue eyes.. not my thighs!!!

when korb finally got up saturday morning, a little before 10am, we made our way downstairs so that he could play with jackson for a little while before we loaded up and drove home. he and jackson had a great time together! he played with one of jackson's golf clubs the entire time. maybe we have a little tiger on our hands... and speaking of tiger - we spent the afternoon doing chores around the house, watching tiger make a fool of rory sabbatini, eating two out of three meals that day with team cardwell, celebrating a little with kurt busch and watching the first pre-season NFL game. finally..football again!!! in between eating and sports we found time to take korb and ava to the pool for a little while. and out for icecream. as you can see they are becoming as good of friends as their mommies and daddies.

at the pool..

korb & ava holding hands on an ice cream date!

maybe the sweetest pics ever...

we also got a call from my brother on sunday.. looks like there's a really good possibility that we will be spending a lot more time with them this fall!!!! korb and dalton might even get to hangout a few days a week... more details to come. i think they are seeing the silver lining to the h-town cloud this week too!!!

now..if you will excuse me ---- KENNEDY will be home in about an hour!!! and i have a few things still to do before her arrival... it stinks for her to be away, but the joy of reunions and realizing how much you mean to each other is definitely the silver lining there..

has it really been 11 months???

wow.. i know i say this every month but i really cant believe it. we visited korb's pediatrician last week. 9 month check up a little late.. we had to reschedule it twice. oh well, seeing that he is perfectly healthy and did not need any shots. no harm no foul. the good news is i have current 'stats' for this months update. he was 24 lbs and 10 oz.. 31.5 inches long. still over 90th percentile for both. that's our boy!!

trying something new for this months baby update.. enjoy!!!

just a few things korb can do at 11 months...