Merry Christmas!

I know it's a little late.  We struggled to get our Christmas cards out on this year (we sent them after New Year's) and I didn't order enough (sorry if you didn't get one, I'll do better next year).  I remember my friend Lauren saying that she went MIA with cards the first year after Liam was born.  I thought to myself, how hard could it be to send out a card?  Well, a baby really has no concept of etiquette like that so they throw obstacles in your way so you can't even stamp an envelope, let alone a dozen.  And good luck getting to the store to buy the card, if you even remember that you need a card because you're so sleep deprived. 

Anyway.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from the Haus of Kendi!

Cheers!


Here is the picture we used on our cards this year:

Not the original pose I was going for, but that one didn't work out so well. It's still funny though...

And here's one that was almost our card, but I wanted to see if I could get a family pic:

 

First Halloween

We kicked off Gunnar's first Halloween season by participating in an event at our Babies R Us.  I didn't have his costume ready yet, so he wore a pirate onesie that I though was hilarious.  We got to meet Geoffrey!

The next weekend we went to a "pumpkin patch".  It was the best FLorida had to offer and I had to get my picture.  Little Punkin got a little pumpkin and we had fun posing him with all the pumpkins.  The guy that was running it had his puppy with him, so we got to pet the doggie too.  After the pumpkins, we went strolling around Stuart, cuz it was such a nice day.

This is what Gunnar thought of the Florida pumpkin patch

 

Boardwalk in Stuart

Finally, on Halloween, we went trick-or-treating at Publix for a few and came home to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids.  Its worth it to note that these costumes go great with Chester and Freeman's convict costumes from 2009.  The whole family participated in Cops and Robbers 2014.

Can't wait til next year!  I already have Gunnar Bear's costume figured out!

Cheers!

Baby's First Oktoberfest!

With a last name of Schwemmin, clearly we are German.  I was so excited to take Gunnar to his first Oktoberfest.  Kevin and I go every year and we want Gunnar to appreciate this part of his heritage too.  Someday, we hope to catch the real Oktoberfest in Munich...

Cheers and check out that baby leiderhosen!

Happy Mother's Day!

Love,
The Kendi Haus

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  We hope everyone had a great day with family and friends.  It was a lazy day here at the Kendi Haus.  We went to church and after I made a nice Polish meal for Easter.  I even added peppercorn eyes to the butter lamb!  Then we all took a nap.  It was nice.  I hope Little Man liked his first taste of Polish food, cuz he's gonna have it every Easter.  :)

Cheers!

Love,
The Kendi Haus

My Polish ancestors would be proud.  Cutting up real kielbasa from the Polish deli for Easter dinner, and pregnant no less. :)

Kielbasa, pierogi, butter lamb, beans and rolls!

Lent 2014

It's Ash Wednesday!  For all the Catholics out there, this means the first day of Lent.  You've had your packzis and now you are ready to go through 40 days of some sort of fast.  This year, Kevin had a great idea.  He heard that the new pope was trying to encourage more charity.  He then read about this man that gave up his six figure a year job and downsized to a one bedroom apartment and is happier than ever.  Kevin put both of those things together to come up with our goal for Lent 2014.  We are going to donate one item from each of us every day.  This helps us in two ways: we get rid of things we've hoarding (cuz really, two people don't need this much stuff), making our lives easier and we give to those who need.  I can't think of a better way to celebrate Lent.  I'm so proud of Kevin for coming up with it.  

To make it more like a fast, which should be difficult, we are also doing the Dave Ramsey Financial Fast.  This basically means that we buy food and gas and that's it, unless we absolutely need it.  So, no more eating out for us, no more shopping for me.  THIS is probably going to be the hardest Lent I have ever done, but I think it will be the most rewarding.  getting healthy physically and financially will help us get healthy mentally and emotionally too.  

We didn't really plan for starting today, which was our bad.   We got off to a rough start, both of us needing breakfast since we had cleaned out our supply at home.  I think we will be better prepared next week.

Wish us luck and I'll keep you posted!

Cheers!