| Almost 6 |

This kid is SO fun right now. I love her age.

The five-almost six age is too cute and sweet.

Kennedy loves school and talks my ear off non-stop with stories about her friends and school-life.

It is awesome to watch her enjoy it so much and special to see her starting to make important friendships at school. We had her Kindergarten parent-teacher conference back in November and it went so well. She is doing great academically which of course we were thrilled to hear but I was even more thrilled to hear how great she is doing socially. Her teacher, Mrs. Williams, told us how well she plays with other students and how she easily plays with many different students. It was music to my ears and Sean and I both felt so proud of her. Raising a kind, well-rounded kiddo is my ultimate goal in life.

 Kennedy with school friends Stella and Claire at Stella's birthday party

Kennedy and her BEST school buddy, Becky, at Christmas Eve Mass

These two have hit it off famously.... Becky is a constant topic of conversation in our house! :)

Writing is a major focus in her kindergarten class and her teacher was impressed with how often Kennedy chose to "write" in the classroom and the variety of different topics she thought to write about. I thought her writings from the first part of Kindergarten were too adorable not to share so I have scanned in some of my favorites. Writing at this point in Kindergarten means she chooses a "good news" or "sad news" for the day, draws her picture and then one of her teachers writes down the words she uses to describe her picture.

 

This one made me teary for obvious reasons. Lexie is a comfortable and frequent topic of conversation in our house especially for Kennedy. It is both a sad and happy reality for me. But it is healthy and true and it is how we keep Lexie ever present in our family. It makes me happy to know Kennedy thinks about her sister even when she is out and about during the day. When we told Kennedy we were expecting our new baby boy she said "well, now we will have SIX people in our family."

 My thoughts exactly sweet girl.

Love my girl to pieces.

 

| Grandparents Tea |

St. Vincents had their annual Grandparents Tea in December.

Kennedy was lucky to have her Grandma Nay, Papa, Grandma Patty and Great-Grandma LeeAnn come for it. Kennedy has a few cousins (Roderick, Moraiya and Roman) that also attend St. Vincents so it was a fun cousin and grandparent filled morning!

 

 

| Tree Hunting |

The weekend after Thanksgiving we drove out to Orting to chop down our Christmas tree.

This has become a yearly tradition and it's always a lot of fun.

This year though it felt really chaotic... we had a big group... and a lot of whiny kids...

ours included!
But I know in 20 years we will look at these photos and forget that little detail...
it's the beauty of time. :)

| Thanksgiving 2014 |

I am so super behind on blogging! Attempting to catch up so bear with me on the backdated posts!

We hosted Thanksgiving this year which was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, the week of Thanksgiving started out with two sick little girls...

They spent much of the week on the couch watching a lot of t.v. and napping.

By Thanksgiving, they were good as new but by thanksgiving night I unfortunately caught it

(along with a nasty migraine!).

 

 

Fortunately, we were able to enjoy the day and it was filled with food, fun and family.

Just as it should be.

2014 Santa Photo

It was a successful year with Santa!

No tears, no expressions of terror AND we are doing the matching dress thing this year which the girls both loved. They look so big to me this year - two little girls, no longer babies.

Sniff, sniff... :)

 

Every year, I make an ornament with the girls' Santa picture... it's so fun to hang our growing stack of ornaments each year when we decorate the tree and to look back on all of these cute

(and super funny photos!).

 

These are our Santa photos so far since 2009, Kennedy's first Christmas!

 

| 2009- Kennedy, 10 months|

|2010, Kennedy - almost 2, Rachael - 6|

 

|2011, Kennedy - almost 3, Mara - 5 1/2 months|

|2012, Kennedy- almost 4, Mara - 18 months |

 

My personal favorite! ;)

 

|2013, Kennedy - almost 5, Mara - 2 1/2|

 

 

A Rainbow in the Works

Meet baby BOY McKenna.
Our newest baby. Our newest blessing. He will, God-willing, join us in June.

 

Because of our Lexie-experience and our now increased risk of a congenital heart defect we were able to have some early blood work and ultrasound scanning done. While we were thrilled to learn that we were expecting a little boy, that news came in as a distant second to seeing his gorgeous, four-chambered heart complete with a developing pulmonary artery. His precious sister Lexie did not have either of those things so the relief we felt was enormous.

 

We learned we were expecting this little guy the same week that Lexie would have been due.

Pretty cool, right? I stared and stared at the positive pregnancy test and the bible verse

 "When God closes a door, he opens a window" kept playing through my mind.

 

We chose to keep this news to ourselves for a couple of months and only just last week, after a reassuring 12-week ultrasound, did we decide to share with the girls and our family and friends.

The truth is I didn't care to share with anyone. I needed those two months to process this new pregnancy and to continue to process our loss. Though we are moving forward and though I feel so excited for this baby, I still spend so much time looking backwards. Looking for her.

 

2014... what a year.

This one year brought me two babies.

One baby that I will forever miss. Forever wonder about. Forever cry for.

And another... one that will hopefully be ours for keeps. Not to replace. He could never replace.

But he will (and already has) brought renewed hope... and faith ... and a whole lot of love.

These two babies will be forever wrapped up together in my heart... my storm and my rainbow.

I have grown as a person because of these two babies and my perspective on so many things has been altered. Some say it was meant to be, it was the path we were meant to take.

I guess so ... though that brings others more comfort than me.

I will always, always wish we could have had our three girls and this little boy.

 

I thought I would be an anxious wreck this pregnancy.

I have been pleasantly surprised to find that, for the most part, I am not.

I am oddly calm. Oddly optimistic. Oddly excited.
Oddly filled with a whole lot of faith.

I use the term oddly because after everything I went through, I do find it odd that I am not a complete, freaking basket case!

 

This experience has taught me a few things about myself ... one of those being that I am, at my core, an optimistic person. I believe, for the most part, that things will work out. But what I know now is that if they don't work out... things will be okay. They will be hard. They will be painful. But they will be okay and I will get through it. They will be okay because they have to be. Because life goes on. Because we learn to live with a new normal and we learn to process and accept things that we never thought we could. That we could never even imagine. I have learned that soul-crushing disappointment will eventually fade into acceptance. Sad acceptance... but acceptance. It's empowering to know all of this now. Because I know all of this, I am able to feel more at ease during this pregnancy. I understand how much is out of my control. I understand that we can make all the plans we want but it doesn't matter. The real plan will show itself, one way or another.

Now we get to wait.
We get to wait to meet this little guy, our little "yet-to-be-named" son.
It will be quite a day when we meet this little man. Quite a day...
Oh my do I look forward to it.