Daddy's little girl or Mommy's little girl?

People are always trying to guess who Kenley looks more like so I've put together some photos to compare. What do you think?

Happy Father's Day!

Matt and I had a very full weekend celebrating his first Father's Day. Our weekend started Friday with dinner at Hacienda Colorado, one of Matt's favorite restaurants, followed by some game playing at Dave and Buster's. Kenley got to spend the night with the Yeagers and Taplins while mommy took daddy out to honor him for being so great! I wanted to have one night focused on Matt since the remainder of the weekend was going to be spent with family honoring all dads everywhere. I also needed to take Matt out so he could be surprised by Chris and Brittany who flew into town as a Father's day gift to Matt and Doug (Matt's dad). Matt had no idea they were coming and it was really fun watching his reaction when he realized they were there. Thanks Yeagers and Taplins for making the surprise possible! Saturday morning we spent the day relaxing and simply enjoying each other's company. We walked to Starbucks (mainly so Chris could "Bjorn it" with Kenley), Matt and Chris made us girls lunch and then we drove into Boulder to walk around Pearl Street. Doug has been playing in a golf tournament in Omaha, so he flew in Sunday morning and drove to Boulder to meet the rest of us for the day. As he walked into our house, it took him a moment to realize Chris and Brittany were there too but once he did he started laughing and asked "what are you doing here?" The whole Walker family was together for the first time since Kenley was born. Katie and Deb prepared brunch followed by a family picture (which I'll post once Katie edits it). Sunday afternoon we headed into Eben G. Fine park in Boulder for some Bocce ball and to tube Boudler Creek. Even though the water was running high and it was a little rainy, the Walker men braved the Boulder Creek rapids. Around 4:30 my parents, Scott and Scott's new GF Libby met us in the park. We stayed and played in the park and the creek until 6pm at which point we went home to clean up and then to BJs in Westminster for a big family dinner. While it was action packed and slightly exhausting, it was a great weekend with family! I hope in the midst of it all, my dad, Doug and Matt felt celebrated.

I Work Hard for the Money

I just put Kenley to bed and Matt is out longboarding with some Young Life guys, so my house is very quiet. As you might be able to tell from my one lonely post over the past 2 weeks, I am starting a new stage in my life as a working mom. I am working from home 3 days a week which makes working full time possible. It is such a blessing that I even have that option and that Matt has the flexibility in his schedule to take Kenley whenever my job doesn't allow me to watch her. At work, I have gotten right back into the thick of things which I like, but it also makes the balance challenging while working from home. For someone like me, who is a planner, having a baby makes you anxious because there is no way to predict what comes next. I am learning about letting go of control, slowly albeit, which is really good for me. I'm sure once the fall hits Matt and I will need to revise our plan, but for now it seems like it's going to work for us. As for Kenley, she has been developing new skills every day it seems. As you can see from the videos, last week she developed the ability to reach and grab for things AND she learned to roll over, which she is now a pro at. It's hard because I know I am going to miss things while I'm at work, but the fact that she is with her Daddy or her Memaw or her Grandma makes it okay.

5 Full Years

Today Matt and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. The past 5 years have been the most FULL years of my life. Full of adventure and joy and frustration and surprises and change and discomfort and wonder and love...and I can't imagine having gone through it all with anyone else! Last night, to honor each other and our marriage Matt took me out to dinner and then we stayed at the Magnolia hotel in downtown Denver. Matt's original plan was to make the entire night a surprise, but after getting suspicious that he might be planning a night away from Kenley I made him spill it and prepare me to be without my baby. Although I ruined part of the surprise, I knew if I wasn't thoroughly mentally and emotionally prepared I would not have been able to be fully present with Matt all night. I had previously begun putting together a binder with helpful information and a copy of Kenley's schedule for potential babysitters, so I spent a portion of Friday finalizing that so I knew everything would be covered. Kenley spent the night with her Dobbie (Matt's mom) and aunt Katie while Matt and I enjoyed being able to focus our full attention on each other for the first time in 12 weeks. We went to dinner at Osteria Marco, an authentic Italian restaurant (with amazing cheeses made in house) followed by dessert at a nearby gelato place. You may have noticed a theme...well that's because my anniversary gift (really our gift) is a trip to Italy in January. Matt had already done all the research and set-up all the plans, he just needed my go-ahead to book everything! The trip is going to consist of us flying into Rome and then traveling down to Naples and the Amalfi Coast including Sorrento, Positano and Isle of Capri. Check out details @ http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/italy/amalfi-coast-and-capri/. While it was hard to be away from our Kenley bean, it was really nice to have that time with Matt to really celebrate 5 years of a great marriage. I'm excited to see what the next 5 are full of!

3 Day Weekend

Happy Memorial Day! This weekend was a crazy one for our Kenley bean. In Boulder, every Memorial Day weekend they have the Boulder Creek Festival which consists of hundreds of vendors setting up tents including everything from face painting, to homemade jewelry, to the Boulder Atheists and even The Sham-Wow (which I purchased...I'll let you know how it works). There are also carnival rides, funnel cakes and roasted sweet corn - the best of everything! We had planned to meet up with 8 of our friends and their kids (14 of us in total) at the festival on Sun after church but of course as soon as we parked it began to rain. Matt, being the eternal optimist, was convinced it would pass but, alas, after an hour of seeking shelter under a tent trying to sell us liposuction and botox, we finally gave up. Instead we: went home and dried off, met everyone for "lunch" at 3:00, went to a movie at 5:00, went back into Boulder and met the Boccis for dinner at 7:30. All in all, Kenley was out and about almost 12 hours. Today, we made our second attempt at hitting up the festival and this time with success! We met Ned, Molly and the kids and got to partake in some delicious roasted corn and, as previously mentioned, purchased ourselves a Sham-Wow. From there we headed to the Boccis to finish celebrating Memorial Day with some mexican food and Nuggets basketball.

First Swimming Adventure

While giving Kenley a bath last Friday, Matt and I decided it would be fun to take Kenley swimming for the first time at the Lousiville Rec Center. We put on her adorable swimsuit from uncle Chris and aunt Brittany and hit the pool! It was so fun and she did great. Daddy was excited to share his love of water with his daughter. As Loudon Wainwright put it "That's my daughter in the water, everything she know's I taught her....everything she knows."

Still sleeping...

It's 8:45 and I am trying to find ways to distract myself because my baby is still sleeping. I put her to bed after her 9:30 feeding last night and she's still asleep. I woke up around our usual wake-up time at 7:30 but she wasn't up yet so I fell back asleep. Next thing I know I'm waking up at 8:30 to a still sleeping baby. The past 3 days she has been so sleepy. I feel like I have gotten hardly any time with her and it's been a very busy 3 days. On Sat we started our day with a baby shower in Castle Rock. She slept the whole way there. She behaved herself well and hit it off with everyone. She's excited to meet her net friend Driggs soon. From there I drove us home, while she slept. When we got home I fed her and we both fell asleep right away and took a 2 hour nap. Sat night we had a surprise birthday party to go to. We got to party for a couple of hours and then it was bedtime. Sun morning we went to church where Kenley slept and then headed to lunch with my family. We had to make it quick because Kenley and I had a wedding shower at 2. Unfortunately during the shower Kenley got hungry a little earlier than expected. This normally wouldn't be an issue because I'd just throw on a cover and feed her during the shower, but I tried to look cute by wearing a dress...not conducive to feeding in public. After the shower we headed home where Kenley could take a nap in her crib, which she did. Sun night we all had to get to bed early because Monday was the Young Life golf tournament, which is an all day event (5:30am - 11:00pm for Matt). Monday Kenley and I had our normal morning (just a little less play time and little more sleep time) while Matt and my parents headed to the tournament. Matt's mom watched Kenley for a couple of hours in the afternoon while I headed over the the tournament to help in whatever way I could. Kenley joined us on the golf course around 3:00. I'm glad she wasn't there any earlier because it was so hot yesterday...mid-90's. I'm not sure if it was the heat but Kenley slept most of the afternoon as well. We were at the tournament until 9:00ish but I felt like I should bring her home so she could go the bed in her crib..and that she did at 10:00 last night and she is still there at 9:00 this morning! I think it may be time to go get her up...