He arrives

We've had so many fun times this past week...going on a hayride to look at Christmas lights, building a snowman and sleding at Mt. Lemmon, going to Old Tucson, roaming around Tombstone, Santa even arrived at the house and delieverd presents to the kids (just to name a few) but the best present arrived on Monday, December 22, Cooper Kenya Popovich was born...mom and baby are doing great!

This past week

Kendal and Daddy riding on a stagecoach in Tombstone.


Kendal on her way to a Christmas Party.

Building a snowman at "Snow Mountain" aka Mt. Lemmon.

Cole, Doug and Jack sliding down the mountain.

Riding on the Hayride at Winterhaven.

This week

Twinkles in her candy cane outfit

And you thought I was kidding...



Kendal ready to go to the party

Yesterday for playgroup we went to a friend's house to decorate cookies, I think Kendal had the best time and probably made the most cookies (she made 2 full plates). We briefly went home to nap and then it was back out for Riley's 5th Birthday party. Oh man, picture 30 kids running around screaming for 2 hours pausing only briefly to eat and sing Happy Birthday...it was a riot.

Gingerbread House

Before

After

Not that I had to tell you which was which... dirty face, clothes off...

I knew it was going to be a good day when I heard Kendal waiting to let the dogs outside (so we could go see our Monday morning friends, Colin and Claire) singing Good Morning to my protein shake! Tonight we decided to make our gingerbread house that I bought over a month ago. Before we started Kendal kept saying, "go to art class" and what sounded like, "bad man". Finally it came to me that two weeks ago in art class we painted a gingerbread man and she obviously was remembering doing that. Thank God she wasn't saying "bad man", I think Brian and I almost had a heart attack for about 2 minutes until the neurons finally fired.

Weekend in Review

Christmas is so exciting this time of year especially if you have kids or are surrounded by them. Over the weekend we hit a hay ride (waited in line over an hour for a 4 minute ride around the parking lot), attempted to sit on Santa's lap, went to Michele's baby shower and finally watched the golf cart light parade in Sam and Michele's neighborhood.

The dads were watching Riley, Channing, Royce and Kendal during Michele's shower...when they walked in after the party Kendal was just "one of the guys."

Here's our attempt to sit on Santa. As you can see one of us made it but it wasn't the high hopes I was going for. Kendal looks terrified and I was terrified I was going to tip us all over...even Santa looks terrified!
Daddy and Kendal, she loved those horses pulling the hay ride!!!

Today

In addition to going to dog park today, Kendal got to decorate Christmas cookies with Peyton and Cooper. Believe it or not but unfortunately mom forgot to bust out the camera....luckily this won't be the last time for cookie decorating (after all she does live with me).

The best part about Kendal helping add ornaments to the tree, they're all in the same spot so if the dog knocks one off she puts it right back.

I guess I was feeling the pink stripes today.

A walk (more like run) in the park

Kendal at the park today!

Weekend Update

Daddy and Kendal picking out a winner of a tree.

Helping with the lights (even though we had to run across the street 50 times to see the raindeer and polar bear).

Kendal swinging from the rings (notice the tounge is out...Michael Jordan of gymnastics in the making?)

Over the weekend we did many exciting things...we got and decorated our Christmas tree (and only managing to break 2 ornaments), put up a few lights, went to open gymnastics and met Brian's coworkers for lunch. Here are a few highlights.

She even does a pike...

Shakin' what her mama gave her

Watching XM radio on Direct TV

need I say more...

Gymnastics

Action shots

Today I took Kendal to "open gym" at a gymnastics facility, boy did she love it. It was a huge place with multiple trampolines (including 2 tumbling trampolines - basically long trampolines), balance beams, 2 floors, bars, "the pit"...you name it they had it. Basically Kendal jumped for 2 straight hours and in between she walked on the balance beam and hung from the bars. She didn't stop once to get water, she was having too much fun.

This may not be that exciting to you but here's her jumping anyway.

What She's Doing Now

December 2, 2008 (Almost 22 months)

Kendal is currently fascinated with....turning the lights on and off….at home, in the car…she will do it about 100 times if I let her.

She loves to say...”see, see right there.” She finds something and I’ll ask her where she sees what she’s looking at she’ll point and say, “see, see right there.” She also is getting the concept of order. I’ll say we’ll have to do something first and then we can go do something else. She’ll repeat it back, “go to the grocery store and then go outside.” Today we were at the house and she told me, "go to Target, "apparently I go there a lot.

She recently did something so funny/cute when she...told me her favorite part of the zoo was “the monkey playing in the blanket”. She is the only almost 2-year-old that I know that loves to watch football, she asks us at least once a day to watch football (a true Popovich).

The personality trait I see beginning to develop that is rather new is...her shyness (well, it’s not rather new) but sometimes she won’t even look at people… I wonder where she got that from??? Kendal also likes to go to her classes at the community center, she’ll say, “Kendal go to class” and when we're finished she'll say, "Kendal fun at class".

Her favorite toy of the moment is...the trampoline, horses and cars (although she did really like Brody’s 12” dinosaur).

I can occupy her easy by...coloring, she loves to color

Kendal's favorite time of day is...in the morning, she’s ready to go.

When Kendal is in a bad mood, she...just says “No” and screams or squeals but really is one better than the other?!

She melts my heart when...The other day she saw me cry and she came over to me and gave me a hug, it was so sweet.

Thanksgiving weekend

I tried to put Kendal's nikes on but she said, "no" and went and got her sparkly pink shoes instead.

Reese's 1st Birthday party!

Daddy and Kendal at the zoo

The players

The cooks

We hope you all had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday. We enjoyed some family time with Grammie, Grandpa and friends.

Friday we decided to do something fun so on a whim went to the zoo. Grammie won the award for best dressed, believe it or not but we didn't see anyone else with a skirt on or Ferragamos! After we left I asked Kendal what her favorite part of the zoo was and she said, "the monkey in the blanket". At the monkey exhibit there was a little monkey playing inside a sheet that the zookeepers obviously had given them to play with apparently Kendal enjoyed watching him hide inside the blanket...ha.

Today we went to Reese's 1st Brithday at the Morgans, can you believe he's already 1? It's time for #3.

Big helper

WOW, Kendal is such a big helper when it comes to helping us with the dogs. As you can see she will just keep feeding Rusty if I don't stop her, it's a good thing Harley's bowl isn't right there because Harley really would eat it all.

Every time we leave the house Kendal loves to give the dogs a treat and put them outside. She carefully holds 1 treat in each hand and says, "here Harley, here Rusty" and hold them out so then can take them from her...it's such a thrill.

Don't be surprised if the next time you see the dogs (and me) are 20 lbs heavier.

Park

Kendal hanging out with her friends yesterday at the park.

Random video

Brian thought you all would enjoy this video....it's hilarious!

Vegas baby Vegas

Love the sweatshirt with the earrings? But hey, fashion faux pauxs happen when you're willing to sacrifice your outfit for comfort...ladies you know what I'm talkin' about.

I'm surprised this picture even remotely came out (which is probably good since I look exhausted)...I had to tell the guy which way the camera faced after pointing it at himself and saying, ready.

This was waiting for us when we got to our room, a great way to start the evening. By the way our room was huge, it had 2 bathrooms, speakers in the bathroom area (which Brian thought was great that he didn't have to miss football while in the shower) and the closet was bigger than ours at home.

Over the weekend my fantastic husband took me on a surprise trip to Vegas. As it turns out he "had" a charity golf tournament to play in so he arranged for my parents to watch Kendal and he whisked me away. Since we didn't have Kendal we were determined to tear up Vegas like we unsuccessfully did several weeks ago when we were there with Kendal for the TCU game. We stayed out late, slept in, had a few adult beverages and gambled...now I know why I don't do this often...or ever. I have to mention while I was losing at "my game," roulette, Brian was on fire...he even bet 8 twice and it hit twice - that's insane. While furthering my losing streak at the craps table I opted for just watching Brian the next night. Thankfully he was winning money while I was losing it. Next time I'll just go straight to the shops and actually get something in return for my money!

A week later

The hostesses (we wish Lara was here)

At Pinnacle Peak, can you believe we got them all to sit still?

On the train

At the Veteran's Day Parade

Photo De Jour

Okay so I admit I have been slacking a little bit lately here and I apologize. It seems that my week in Tucson sucked all my energy from me but I'm back up and ready to go. Last week I headed to Tucson for Sarah and Michele's #3 to-be baby shower. It was a blast and along the way we had a few other events with "Action Jackson" and "Cousin Cole", Kendal is fasicnated with them and they provide much entertainment!

Vegas

I forgot to post this the other day but last weekend Brian, Kendal and I headed to Vegas to see TCU play UNLV. The Bonjour's were there and we had a wonderful time seeing Vegas with a child (who knew Vegas had more to offer than bars and dance clubs). We went to the aquarium at Mandalay Bay (which I really enjoyed too) and strolled along "The Strip" but we were too early to see any of the light/water shows, I guess it was only 9:00am...and BTW the only people out that early are those with kids (which aren't many) and those energetic overachievers going for a morning run.

Go Frogs!

In honor of tonight, TCU#11 vs. Utah #10

Tonight as Kendal and I were watching the TCU game she said, "Go Defense" with the fist pump and all...then she said, "Hi Superfrog" when she saw him on TV. I can't believe we lost, ugh.

Need a smile today? I do!

Since I am still trying to swallow the election results I thought I would post this picture because it can make anyone smile. Between the expression on Kendal's face, her stance and her shoes that she obviously put on herself I cannot stop laughing.