Thanksgiving at Siesta Key Beach

This year we spent Thanksgiving week at my favorite spot: Siesta Key Beach. We stayed at a condo that was only a short walk to the beach. Check out their webcam: http://www.sarasotasurf.com/accommodations/webcam.cfm.

We had a great week with 4 out of 6 days of great weather (one day of rain and one day a little chilly bit sunny). Thanksgiving day was spent walking the beach then dinner at Grandpa's with Grandpa, Margaret, one of Margaret's children and her husband and my mother in law, who came with us for the week.

Here are a few of my favorite pics of the week:

Marissa and Mason in front of the condo.

Marissa and her brother hanging out on the beach. Mason had to stay in his stroller most of the time we were on the beach because when we put him down he tried putting the sand in his mouth.

The sand castle Marissa and Daddy built.

Rough day on the beach for the little guy:)

Marissa and Mason outside the condo. They had Christmas decorations everywhere.

Marissa and Mason with great Grandpa on Thanksgiving day.

The family in front of our favorite restaurant in Venice: Sharky's on the Pier. Timmy has been going there since he was a kid.

One of my favorite Christmas decorations.

weekend at the lake

We recently went to the Ozarks for the weekend with some of our good friends. There were three families and a total of 6 kids: Mason (2 months), Ayla and Chloe (3 years old), Gavin (4), and Marissa and Loralie (6). So we had 6 kids ages 6 and under. The men got ahold of a fishing boat for the weekend although I don't think they caught many fish. Mr. Mason decided he wasn't going to nap on Saturday so I didn't much chance to get in the lake.

It was still a great time and I got some good pics of the kiddos.

Miss Ayla enjoying a popsicle

Marissa and her best friend, Loralie. They have known each other since birth. Marissa is only a month older than Loralie even though she stands atleast a head taller.

The girls partying on the deck

Mason is already a party animal:)

My husband worries me.....

My friend Alexis bought Mason a Build a Bear with a Blues Hockey outfit to match his nursery:

My husband had a bright idea to take the outfit off of the bear and put it on our son to use for his announcement picture. Yes, he wanted our son to wear an outfit made for a teddy bear. The result didn't actually turn out though because Mason's head is too big for the jersey. The paints worked out but we had to lay the jersey on him. We definitely will not be using this picture for our announcements. Had the jersey fit, I probably wouldn't have minded....

The poor baby is not even 2 weeks old and he is already being subjected to his father's wonderful ideas. I guess it is better for him to get used to it at an early age so that maybe he thinks our family is normal:)

Mason Elijah Kempf

Mason with Marissa

Mason Elijah Kempf

Born at 3:42 p.m. on May 1st. 8lbs 0 oz. 21 inches

The enthgrader

The other night my family was hanging out in the family room when Marissa announced that she knew where the enth grader was. Tim said, "the 8th grader? what are you talking about?"
"no Daddy, the enthgrader, you know on a map?"
Oh! The equator...............
Its so cute when she says things like this but she hasn't been mispronouncing it since we corrected her. When we laughed she thought we were making fun of her but Tim explained that we just think she's too cute!

Shower for Baby Kempf

Anyone who reads my blogs knows that my husband and I are Saint Louis Blues fans. I also wrote a blog about our son's Blues themed nursery. Well my friend, Alexis, wanted to throw me a baby shower and called to ask me what our nursery "theme" was so she could plan the shower to match the nursery. I told her we tried to use a Blues theme but to do whatever she wanted because I didn't want her to have to go through too much trouble. She decided to stick to the Blues theme anyway even though after she starting the planning she realized it would have been much easier if we had been Cardinals or Rams fans (they don't sell alot of Blues items in the stores). I told Tim he had to come and atleast see everything after she had it decorated. Of course he couldn't stay long because he was going to a Blues game that evening!

My friend and her husband made the diaper cake. It took 215 diapers! It is sitting in our nursery because we don't want to undo it yet.

Marissa with her "big sister" shirt on.

mommy and Marissa with the cake

Party favor cookies

She even had blue and yellow balloons, plates and napkins.

My favorite, the Blues piggy bank. There is also a really cool picture frame that says "future Blues fan" but I need to get a better pic of it.

Awesom cake!

Special thanks to Alexis for the shower and thank you to everyone that came! Hopefully we will get to meet the little guy soon. My due date is next Friday! Also, special thanks to my ever patient husband for being so loving and understanding the last 8 months:)

Happy Birthday Marissa!

My little girl is 6 today. She has been my baby for six years and yes, I still call her the baby. I have been told that she will not be my baby any more when my son arrives but I just tell everyone that I will have two babies. Your kids are always your babies no matter how old they are. They just get to a certain age where you can't say that in front of them.
This morning I tried to remember exactly what I was doing at this time 6 years ago. Well, obviously I was having a baby but what where our thoughts and actions at 8am? I had Marissa at 1am (an hour past April Fools Day). I was probably asleep at 8am. If not I was looking at my new daughter wondering what in the world had we gotten ourselves into! Just kidding.... (kinda)
Anyway, Happy Birthday to My Marissa! You are a wonderful child and bring way to much joy to my heart and your fathers. We love you!

Marissa's first Halloween. My mother bought this lovely costume.

Fall of 2003

I think this was late August of 2003

The little monster now