Birthday Celebrations

First, we'll update you on the smoker experience from last weekend.  We made some rookie mistakes and the meat didn't turn out quite as good as it could have.  For the brisket, it it didn't reach temperature until about 10:00 PM.  We were so hungry that we didn't wait long until we cut into it for serving.  Unfortunately, it was still pretty tough and half the moisture spilled out onto the cutting board.  The pork loin turned out pretty good though.  This week, we are trying a pork shoulder.  We learned our lesson and started it at 8:00 AM this morning... too bad it is still cooking as of 7:30 PM.  Maybe we'll update you next week.

Kennedy sure does seem to be feeling better.  She continues to wiggle, crawl, and pull up. She's also getting better at walking, with assistance of course.

This week was filled with birthdays. Braydon, Rachel's cousin's son, turned 1 on Wednesday, Jason had his 29th birthday on Thursday, and Friday was Jaxon's 7th birthday (Rachel's best friend's son). For Jason's birthday Rachel and Kennedy got him a new shirt and a carrot cake. We also celebrated by going to dinner that evening.

On Friday, Jason's parents, Whitney and Nate came to town to continue the celebration.  To our surprise, Jason's parents shared the news that they recently got a new dog.  Apparently it was one of those stories where a trip to PetSmart ended with a new dog a couple of days later.  The dog's name is Yoki and she is dominantly a Japanese Chin.

On Saturday, we did a little shopping.  For Jason's birthday, Rachel wanted to get him a video camera. She let him shop around and pick out which one he wanted. Saturday, Keith and Jason found the winner at Best Buy.  After all, Kennedy is getting pretty close to walking and we'd like to capture her first steps on video.  It will also come in handy with all of her other developments too.  Below is a small sampling of a video we took.  That afternoon, we all headed over to Jason's Aunt Linda and Uncle Lindy's new house in Plano.  We all had a good time visiting and catching up.  Kennedy got her hands on a magazine, which didn't end up surviving our visit.  They have a swimming pool in their backyard and we look forward to some potential visits in the summer time.  That evening, we had dinner at an italian restaurant names Buca di Beppo.

Becoming a Busy Body

This week, Kennedy has started to learn how to splash in the bath tub. Bath time was already fun for her, but now she really enjoys to take a bath.  She has also continued to crawl and pull up.  She's not walking yet, but it's not because she doesn't want to.  The little busy body is into everything these days.

On Friday, we had an opportunity for a date night.  Kennedy's school offered to watch her in the evening so we saw a movie in Fort Worth.  It was nice having the opportunity for mom and dad to focus on each other.

We must have worn her out on Saturday because that evening, Kennedy started to fall asleep while she was eating.  Sure enough, she fell asleep as Rachel was trying to feed her carrots.

On Sunday, we went to a birthday party.  One of Rachel's co-workers had a son that turned one on Sunday.  Before the party, we met up with Matt and Courtney at a German restaurant in Roanoke.  It was fun getting to experience something new.

For Valentine's day, Rachel surprised Jason with a smoker.  On Sunday, we smoked a brisket and a pork loin.  We didn't quite time it properly so it's still smoking now.  We'll have to tell you how it goes in next week's post.

Sick Baby

Kennedy continued to cough quite a bit.  Last Sunday evening, she had a pretty hard time going down.  Jason had to hold her in the rocker for the majority of the night.  Other than that incident, she didn't seem to be feeling too bad.  On Friday; however, Rachel got a call at 3:30 PM that Kennedy was running a fever.  Rachel picked her up and made her an appointment to see the doctor.  They made it in around 4:30 PM.  The doctor examined her and ran a few tests.  As it turns out, she has RSV.  We were sad to hear the news, but it was almost inevitable that she would get it at some point.  We later found out that another infant in her room has it as well.

That evening, Jason's parents made it into town for the weekend.  They drove in for a quick trip to see Kennedy.  On Saturday, we did a little shopping.  That evening, we made it by Hard Eight Barbeque.  Jason's dad hadn't been yet.  Not surprisingly, we all enjoyed it.

On Sunday morning, Jason's parent left to head back to Amarillo.  They ran into a little winter weather on their way back, but they made if safely.  We ended up spending the rest of the day doing our chores.

Busy Body

Kennedy's crawling has opened up a whole new world to her.  The house is like this new territory with endless opportunities for exploration.  She does a pretty good job of keeping herself entertained, with the help of a bucket full of toys on the floor.  When she gets bored with her toys, she seems to want to go for every dusty dirty spot on the floor.  

Believe it or not, she's already started to pull up.  Not all the way to her feet, but she's grabbing on and pulling up to her knees.  She would go all the way up, but she's just not coordinated or powerful enough to make it happen.  We even had to lower her bed and her play pen because she was pulling up on the side rails.

On Friday, she had her six month doctor's visit.  She is 16 lbs 5 oz (50%), her head cirmcumference is 45 cm (30%), and she is 27.5 inches long (93%). Kennedy also got another round of shots, which seemed to make her feel a little under the weather.  She's a trooper though.

On Saturday, we tried feeding her peas for the first time.  She didn't exactly like it them, but it provided for some good entertainment.  Hopefully the pictures below will help illustrate how well she "likes" them.