Today we went out and bought our first sled and of course planned to try it out. We bundled Kennedy up in snow pants and boots and headed out for the hills. She loved it and it was so cute to see her waddling around in her puffy clothes. She reminded me of the kid (ralphie maybe?) in 'A Christmas Story'. 
This picture says it all for Iowa winters. The freezing rain is crazy here and we CANNOT WAIT to be done with cold, snowy winters!!! St. George...here we come!!!
I wanted to see what Kennedy REALLY thought of Santa at the ward Christmas party as she sat on his lap. I didn't think she would be scared because she LOVES saying Ho Ho Ho when we ask her what Santa says or whenever she sees a picture of Santa, but as you can tell from the picture I WAS WRONG...WAY WRONG. Every kid has to have one of those pictures, right? 
Our ward had a Christmas party last weekend and Kennedy was asked to play an angel in the manger scene play. I wasn't sure if she would stay up there, but thanks to Olivia Cryer for holding her hand the whole time and taking care of her, she did fine. Melts my heart - I love my LITTLE ANGEL.
Our friend, Jessica Peterson, is in the performing arts program at St. Ambrose College (a catholic school here in Davenport) and she worked her magic to hook us up with tickets to a performance of Seussical Jr. Brent was able to meet us during his lunch break so the whole family was able to go. Kennedy LOVES music so we were excited to see how she would react. She was definitely the youngest one there, so it helped that our seats were in the front row. She was really into the fast songs with a lot of dancing, but when the slow songs came so did the distractions we have for her (food, toys, etc.). She lasted about 20 minutes and then she decided to take her own intermission. She came back a few minutes later and lasted another 20 minutes. They did a great job and we had a lot of fun at KENNEDY'S FIRST MUSICAL.
We had a REALLY good thanksgiving this year which included all of the most important things; good food, family, the festival of trees, and a little bit of black friday shopping. Scott, Amy, Bristol, and Beckam came and stayed with us for a few days to help us celebrate the holiday. Thanksgiving day weather was gorgeous so we played a little football and corn hole in the back yard. We also made tons of VERY YUMMY food and made way too many pies for 4 people to eat, but I'm not complaining. The next morning Scott, Brent and I made our way to Target at six a.m. for our FIRST TIME SHOPPING BLACK FRIDAY sales. It was awesome; we got pushed, shoved and even yelled at twice. We just laughed everytime something like that happened, because really people are WAY too into it. I love a good deal and all, but people take it a little, or ALOT, too far. The ironic part to me was everything we came to get was still there in plenty of quantities an hour later. Weird!!! None-the-less...I loved it and will for sure do it again next year. We came home and rested from our shopping adventure and then went to the festival of trees where I played the guitar in one song with our ward choir. I am definitely NOT A PERFORMER, so it was a bit of a stretch for me, but turned out well. At the festival they had a ton of beautiful trees, gingerbread house contest (which got me thinking about ours this year), and a huge train that Kennedy adored. She got into it SO much that the next day we set up our own at home. She LOVES it, and to our surprise, is VERY careful with it and doesn't play with it at all during the day (unless supervised, of course). THANK YOU KENNEDY!!!
For at least a month I have been looking for some mittens and a hat to go with Kennedy's winter coat (I found her coat at a second hand store for a screamin' good deal - Nothing better than a good deal!!!) and I finally found some polka dot mittens and hat on my favorite new store...ebay. They worked perfect and when they finally came I was pretty excited for Kennedy to try them on. She really got into the excitement because for the next week or two is all she wanted to do was wear her hat and mittens...yes, even indoors. I thought it was pretty funny at the time, but unfortunately it didn't last long and now I can't get her to keep them on for more than 5 minutes in the car, but it was nice while it lasted.
