my friend, meredith

some of you may have heard me talk lately about my friend, meredith. as you can see by her picture she has an infectious smile that every one noticed. i met meredith about 14 years ago when she came into the salon, her 2 year old son justin needed to go 'potty'. and so our friendship began. she met the love of her life, bekah, around the same time i met mike. they were so happy and showed everyone what love really was all about. i remember many times spent with them at parties we had or mike taking meredith on a 'harley' ride, and of course every few weeks getting their hair cut. yes, she was one of my favorite clients, but even more she was my friend. she has such a big heart and cried & cried when we moved to north carolina. when we moved back, she cried and cried again. meredith was so excited when we told her we were finally going to be parents and adopt. yes, your right, she cried many happy tears for us. we still have the dr.seuss books she gave kenadeee when she was born. our lives became very busy and we lost touch for awhile, but when we saw each other again a year ago it was like we never lost a day. she still had that amazing smile and zest for life. meredith had an amazing spirit about her. if you knew her or even saw her you would understand. she was my friend.

meredith passed away on january 15th as a result of injuries from a car accident in december. mike and i went to her funeral yesterday and what a beautiful service it was. i have never been to a memorial service that was so incredible. we laughed, we cried and mostly we were inspired. mike and i talked after and we both agreed. 'it was inspirational' just like meredith. she had touched so many lives with her own. she gave so much of herself to others and her community. she absolutely loved bekah. her 3 sons were everything to her as well as her 3 grand children. meredith lived life to the fullest and enjoyed every minute of it!!! meredith knew what was most important and that was family, friends, love and giving of herself to others. she gave everything 100% and more. she inspired so many.

meredith, thank you for being my friend. i hope i can follow in your steps and inspire and live life as you did. meredith, you are our angel and you will be greatly missed by so many. we will carry your memory and your love with us always. bekah, anthony, cj, and justin...my thoughts and prayers and love are with you now and always.

smiles for you meredith.

kenadee's pictures and messages

kenadee got her very own camara for Christmas. she has really enjoyed taking pictures. (kes&s girls...i did not post your photos, although the were pretty cute!!) she has taken pics of the TV, everything in her room, her fingernails, and toes, the carpet, crazy pics of mom & dad (which are also not posted) and more. here are the ones she chose to 'post on mom's blog'. enjoy

kenadee' silly picture with a 'mustache, glasses and a silly nose!!'








"my pillow that hangs on my door that i got at 'baby kenna's' birthday party"







kenadee's princess pillow 'that we bought one time'









'twinkles' my littlest pet shop.








"my puppy 'posh', she loves to dance and eat pretend doggy food!!"





hope you enjoy my photos.
from kenadee

not too bad for a fisher price camara!!!
she is quite the little photographer, we are so proud!!

mother goose

HAPPY
NEW
YEAR!!!!!


for those of you who do not know about mother goose, here it is...grandma donna (my mom)has a party on new years eve for all of her grand kids. (all grand daughters!!!) it is great because it lets the parents enjoy the evening too!!! any way...the girls have pizza and watch movies and in the morning the floor is covered with feathers that they immedietly pick up. mother goose comes in the night, (only to grandma donna's house) and leaves a lot of goodies. t-shirts, hats, jewelry, candy, fruit, lip gloss, etc. this year was 'hannah montana'. you guessed it...everything was hannah montana. bless grandma donna, she had 5 girls, charlie (11), madison (11), shantel (9), hali (6) and kenadee (4). my brother and his wife were there to help out, (i was not...i did my mother goose duty for the last 2 years...i spent the evening with my husband!!!) everything was going well until kenadee decided to not sleep until 12:30!!! (last year she didn't sleep and we went home at 3 am!!!) ohhhh it gets better...she then woke up at 1:30 and woke up grandma too. she went back to bed. grandma wakes up at 3 am to check on kenadee and she is not in bed...she is down stairs picking up feathers!!!!!! she tells grandma "i just couldn't help it, the feathers are so beautiful". again grandma puts her back in bed. she then wakes up at 4 and at 5!!! and does not go back to bed!!! well the girls found their goodies from mother goose and loved it!!! grandma donna was exhausted!!! and so was kenadee.



mike and i had a great time with family and friends at dave and christine's. we talked to grandma at 10 pm and she said kenadee was going to bed!!! we didn't worry the rest of the night!!! we figured grandma got kenadee to bed....we were mistaken. mike and i have not spent new years together for 2 years...it was a fun night of playing games and ringing in the new year.
christine...dave...top of jim's head...
mike...keri...darren...judd...jill...heather

when we got to grandmas kenadee was crying, not necessarily because she only got 2 hours of sleep but because madison burned her ear with the flat iron...ouch!!! i did get a traditional stair picture of the girls in their matching t-shirts and hats...notice kenadee!


kenadee...madison...charlie
hali...shantel

needless to say it was a very very long day.
kenadee fell asleep on the way home at 6 pm
but woke up and would not go back to sleep...
we put her to bed at 8:30 and she finally
fell asleep at 10!!!

here she is peacefully sleeping..finally.















hope you all had a great new years CELEBRATION.

MAY WE ALL
HAVE GREAT
2009!!!

celebrating CHRISTMAS

Christmas has come and gone but what a great season it was. We really enjoyed the holidays this year. Kenadee was so much fun and really understood the meaning of Christmas. She is such a blessing to our family and has added so many laughs and smiles.


here are some of our Christmas memories!!!

Christmas eve dinner at our house... my family; grandma donna and grandpa andy, mike, keri, kenadee and koko.
mikes family...dave, christine, makena, madison, roxy (dog), judd, jill, bella (dog) grandma betty, mike, keri and kenadee...oh and koko (dog).

santa found kenadee and brought just what she wanted...a hannah montana guitar!!!


and a few other special things...

and of course every little girl has to have a new baby doll!!!

we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that we can all carry the joy and love that we feel throughout 2009!!!