Peace Out 2008

What a year, the highlights...

JANUARY
The Howards moved to Hawaii! I got to spend a ton of time with my neice and nephew. Lots of memories, not enough time together for sure! Kaci turned 6 months and was so little and not sleeping through the night yet. Liam and Jessie moved to the mainland and we missed them terribly (still do but now they are in Hi and we're in Va--oh how the tables turn).




FEBRUARY
Brad turned 24 and we saw a seal at Goat Island. You remember the gigantic seal that scared me to death! Yeah, that one! We also broke our camera on this trip. Kaci started sleeping through the night!



MARCH
Kaci got her FIRST tooth, one of the bottom ones. Brad flew to Virginia to interview at JMU. Krystal came to visit and we had a lot of fun (remember our crazy trip to Diamond Head and me making you walk like 5 miles to save 2 dollars, hahaha!) Kaci got a horrible rash that wasn't caused by Kiwi, infant something that starts with an "r". Kaci wore two amazingly adorable Easter dresses! Who's going to make her one this year? Up for it Krys, Mom? Anyone?




APRIL
3rd Annual Ice Cream Challenge! Brad got accepted to JMU. Brad graduated from BYU-Hawaii. We had a swarm of visitors (5 visitors plus the three of us in 410 sq feet!) We moved out of TVA R235.




MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST
Our 4 months of visiting people began and traveling began. Hi, Az, Ut, Va. The Howards, The Teos, The Hebners, The Listers, Eyera, The Calls, The Calls (in VA, Brad's uncle and aunt). Thanks again! Kaci turned ONE July 26th! Kaci started walking mid August!





SEPTEMBER
Settled into our little apartment in VA. Brad started graduate school. Kaci
started using baby signs.



OCTOBER
I experienced my first Autumn, we explored Virginia's mountains.

NOVEMBER
Hayley came to visit! We had a blast running around DC with her!


DECEMBER
Brad got straight A's in his first semester. We were sick for Christmas, but happy as happy can be about the new year!

Front tooth!

Kaci got some pretty fun stuff from her extended family for Christmas. But the best present she got was one she gave her self... her other front tooth! It is her eigth tooth. She's been missing it for the past few months. One came in but the other one didn't. It looked like she had lost a tooth because the ones around it had already come in. Her toothy grin is now complete!

Kaci's Christmas Dress

Kaci was adorable in her Christmas Dress. My mom did a fabulous job with the dress and matching coat. Kaci was excited to wear her new dress. She pranced around in it all day because she refused to take it off. Normally I remove the church clothes the second we get home to keep them nice. This poor dress will get its fair share of wear and tear.

This is the face I get when I tell her its time to take off her dress. Isn't that the saddest face ever!

3 years STRONG!

We were sick for Christmas again this year. I'm glad I didn't give into the temptation to travel. Kaci had a double ear infection and was taking an awful antibiotic that gave her an upset stomach (a plane ride would have been awful) and Brad got the stomach flu. We tried to put on happy faces and make life merry, but reality is that we mostly slept and cleaned up messes. I had the stomach flu the week before and still didn't have an appetite. When I get bored at home I normally cook and bake, so that's what I did even though none of us could really eat. I packed our fridge with all my yummy creations that we would only sample. Kaci would help me when she was awake and feeling ok. One day Kaci and I made over 100 chocolate chip cookies to give to our friends, she is an awesome helper!
My yummy creations included:
banana nut bread (my grandma always made little loafs and I'll always eat one)
cookies
virgin strawberry daiquiris
bean dip (loving referred to as poop on the platter in the Hebner home)
BBQ wings with my own BBQ sauce
a smoked turkey
mashed potatoes
mozzarella sticks

Rocking around the Christmas Tree

We finally got the most amazing video of Kaci dancing. Brad has been teaching her all kinds of sweet moves, shaking the hips was the most amusing to watch him teach her. The classic finger move, spinning around, and stomping the feet are all good too! No dance party would be complete without adding her own flare.
"Rocking around the Christmas tree have a happy holiday... everyone dancing merrily in the new old fashioned way!"

The Classy Gal I live with!

Aren't pictures Grand! I could never describe what Kaci looks like in the morning "crazy hair" just doesn't do justice to this mess of hair she's got going on! She wakes me up and says "mom, eat!" We then proceed to the kitchen for some yummy oatmeal. She can officially feed herself now and gets more food into her mouth than anywhere else... for the most part!

Gingerbread House Tradition

The Call family tradition continues. When we chose not to fly in for Christmas I thought it meant no gingerbread house decorating, but ours arrived via mail! Lynda made us our own house and frosting and mailed it with tons of candy! WHOO-HOO! Of all their traditions, this one is my favorite! I think it is SO much fun. I don't know who threw up this year, it wasn't us. Kaci ate more candy then I even want to admit. We covered our house and still had leftovers. I think it turned out fabulous!
Brad is says "It's a good thing we didn't fly home because our house would have won the best house contest... again."
For reference there actually is no contest, everyone wins best whatever they want to be. Well, maybe there is one between Brad and Bryan, but they both always claim to win too.

What I wake up to!

I painted my window for Christmas too! I love doing this! It is a blast! What is super fun about my silhouette idea for the window is that I get the silhouette effect in the morning when I wake up because of the sunshine on my window. I love it!

Christmas Decorations

Okay, I realize this post is extremely late as our decorations have been up for almost a month now, but I worked so hard on my decorations I HAVE to post about them! I splurged and bought a fake tree... $15! I love it. It's bushy and not at all pathetic like a lot of fake trees (asthma, "no can do" that pine scent). With our tight budget the tree pretty much took all our play money. So I went through my house trying to find a way to make some ornaments. I found some sand, some cat eyes (little shells from North Shore), and some juice from concentrate tops. I set to work and came up with some half way decent ornaments. Then I spent a dollar and bought some glass rocks and glued a string to those for ornaments. I also found a couple of shell leis, I tied those together and made a "way too small" garland for the tree. I used Brad's lei from graduation as the tree topper.


With my home made ornaments ready to go I set out to make stockings. My favorite thing about Christmas morning is the stocking. My mom goes nuts with these. Every year they are different and can knock you socks off. I love waking up to see what she came up with. In memory of that, I made surfboard stockings. I gathered up all my fabric scraps and an old aloha shirt and some cardboard and tadaa-surfboard stockings. I wondered if anyone would know they were surfboards, but everyone can identify them -whew! They are always shocked when I tell them they are stockings, not just a tree decoration. They aren't big, but neither is the bag full of goodies Santa is bringing to our house, so they'll work!

A special thanks to my mom and Katy's grandma-in-law for the lights, garland, and wreath! Couldn't have done it with out you! Quick litte ditty about the garland... my mom always put up a lighted garland in the front room. I loved it! We always said it wasn't Christmas with out the garland (she hated putting it up and I do now too). I wanted a garland so bad but just couldn't afford it. It's Christmas so I just kept wishing for one and then my friends grandma-in-law decided to give away all her Christmas decorations and let me have first dibs. I not only got a garland, but icicle lights, a wreath, a cute little snowman wall hanging, and colored lights for my room on a white garland! My little apartment is decked out and I LOVE IT!

Thanks Nicole!

These are pictures from Nicole and Ian's wedding last May. Thanks for sharing them with us Nicole. Kaci has grown so much in the past months. Holy Cow, she used to be so much little-er.

KIM McGOWAN is ENGAGED!

Kim, Eyera, Topper however you know her, is engaged to Isaac. June 13th 2009 is the date. I can't wait to see her in a wedding gown and to meet the man of her dreams. Congrats Kim! Thanks for emailing me a pix (a miracle!)

p.s. For those of you who don't know her at all, she is one of my best friends. Known her since freshman orientation in high school.

Boo

Kaci playing "boo" with Brad's hat. What a character!

National Cathedral

Hayley: We'll go to the DC temple, the zoo, and the Cathedral because they're all on the same street.
Kerri: Great, what street?
Hayley: I don't know.
Kerri: Did you look it up?
Hayley: I thought you knew.

Don't worry, we did find it. Luckily we had a map and after all of us looked at it a few times we figured it all out.
Brad: Do you think the Cathedral will be cooler than the temple?
Kevin: No, is that even possible?
Hayley: It's gotta be cool!
as we walk up to it
Brad: Ok, they've got us beat!


Absolutely beautiful. The stained glass was my favorite. Kaci's favorite (of course) was sitting on the chair.

Did I Mention We Saw the President

George W that is. Hayley knew a friend of a friend that got us on the lawn of the white house to stalk the President. That's what I felt like at least. We stood outside his front door on the lawn with all the snipers in the freezing cold to catch a glimpse of his majesty as he boarded his helicopter to get out of town for Thanksgiving. At least we weren't alone. Lots of people showed up for the grand event. Although I mock the reality of what we did, it was cool to see him at his cool house. I really enjoyed standing on the lawn of the white house. Such a cool place. I must have seen at least a thousand pictures of it and now I'm in one of them!

on the lawn

in front of THE white house

Kaci and I with the Prez himself

Mr. W struttin' his stuff

Kaci fell asleep waiting for the helicopter and slept through the landing and takeoff. Holding her for so long (we were there for like 2 1/2 hours) was ruff, but at least I didn't have to endure the blasting frigid winds of the helicopter. Brad and Kevin chivalrously stood in front of me so Kaci wouldn't get blasted.