Cake, Spiderman and gearing up for the Super Bowl

Angela here!  We finally celebrated our final January birthday this weekend and no one was more excited than Hudson.  For the past couple weeks, he had been pleading to make his daddy a "rainbow cake with sprinkles and skittles."  He picked out all the supplies and demanded no help in mixing, stirring or pouring.  He wanted everything to be a surprise so he would run up to Chris and say: "Daddy I'm making you a rainbow cake, and it's a surprise!"    

He was sweet enough to let Adley watch him create his decadent masterpiece.  They not-so-patiently waited 30 minutes staring at the oven.  Hudson would loudly announce, "It's not growing!  It's taking too long, this is hard work!"  And I kept telling Adley to step back because it was hot.  Now whenever she walks past the oven, she will "blow on it" to "cool it down."  Hilarious! 

In case you missed the fashion trend in this post, Hudson is OBSESSED with his Spiderman pjs.  They are worn at least three times a week.  It's going to be a sad sad day when that jumpsuit breaks or becomes too small...

It's been a little over a month since Penny Lane left us and I think our other furry friend is missing his buddy.  Mr. Jack has been more clingy and needy lately; it's almost like he knows PL is gone forever and not just staying at LollyPop's house.  He is forever sleeping on Hudson's "Penny Lane blanket" that K'Ma and Bo'Pa got us.  Let me remind you that this cat would do anything and everything possible to avoid our 3 year old walking tornado.  But now he is sleeping in Hudson's room and hangs pretty close to the little guy.  Kind of creepy and cute at the same time.

Next on the agenda...SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!  I thank the Lord that the Patriots won last week, as both of my boys would have gone mental if their Tom Brady man-crush didn't beat the "bad guys."  During last weeks game, insanity swept through my house!  I had to put everyone in time-out.  Even Chris had some electronics taken away so he could calm down.  I designated a corner for each child to serve their time.  They were the cutest little bad kids I had ever seen...

I am fearful/nervous/anxious about the big game next week.  Of course I don't want the Falcons to win, but I am more concerned about the health of my family.  Even if the Patriots do win, I see blood pressure rising, furniture breaking and teardrops flowing.  Keep me in your prayers!

#GoPatriots

Penny Lane - Forever Loved

I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to say goodbye to a pet.  I had no idea it would be this difficult.  Penny Lane was one of those dogs that it was impossible to not fall in love with instantly.  Her resting face was hands-down the loneliest-looking face you’ve ever seen on a dog.  I don’t know how many people upon meeting her, would look to me and say, “Chris, she looks so sad.”   It practically compelled anyone to immediately hug her at first glance! This goes back to when she was just a puppy…and being a college senior back then, I can’t tell you how advantageous a sad-looking puppy-dog was to my social life!!! 

But Penny Lane, obviously, was way more than such trivialities.  She was the greatest dog companion a self-consumed college boy could’ve ever stumbled into.  Penny Lane actually found me the week after July 4^th, 2005.  I was playing a round of golf with my roommate and some buddies when she came crawling out of the woods on hole 8 looking absolutely pitiful – maybe 6 weeks old at most, she limped around, unable to walk on her right front leg, and the poor thing was being consumed by the ticks crawling all over her body.  Still, she came out with her tiny little puppy-tail just wagging…as if she just knew that among us guys, one of us was destined to take her home. 

My roommate & I decided we’d bring her back to our place, clean her up, and take her to the Humane Society.  After cleaning her up though, and after painstakingly tweezer-ing all those nasty ticks off, we realized Penny Lane had reeled us in just as effectively as she would everybody else that would meet her.   “Ahhh, what the hell?” we said,  and blindly decided to keep her, not considering such things as how a couple of broke college guys were going to pay for her, or more importantly, who would ultimately be her owner.   Who cares!!   We were dog owners! 

Penny Lane’s magnetism was so great she could even attract an avowed non-dog person to become attached to her.  I'm sure Angela will protest that she was never a non-dog person, but I question if there’s anyone else who’d agree.  Angela never had a dog growing up and never wanted one.  When we were dating, she wasn’t swayed by Penny Lane’s Jedi mind tricks.  Her sad-dog resting-face had no bearing on Angela, and when we moved in together in Chicago, and got Penny Lane back from my sister, Angela told me point blank, “I’ll give it a month before we give her back to your sister (who would’ve been all-too-happy to take her!)”.   Fast-forward one month, and Angela not only turned into Penny Lane’s biggest champion, but had PL size me up, and tricked my dog into thinking I wasn’t the alpha male in the house!  Angela was her master now, and I had been demoted to second-in-command, to be obeyed only when it didn’t conflict with any orders coming from the new boss lady.   Penny Lane followed Angela around EVERYWHERE, and really, is there anybody in the world who can resist such loyalty in a faithful companion?  Angela fell in love with my Penny Lane, who was now our Penny Lane.  And the rest, so they say, is history.

Penny Lane was witness to such a transformative period of my life and Angela’s.  My story of Ole Miss and the story of our time in Chicago cannot be told without her – from the walks in the park to the doggy dates on Montrose Beach, to the all-of-a-sudden racist dog who, during our walks would instinctively give a sinister growl whenever she crossed paths with black people...and only black people (It wasn't our fault, promise!  I guess you could take the dog out of Mississippi…) - every moment, it was a privilege.  Honestly there was scarcely a day that went by that I didn’t gloat to Angela about how Penny Lane was, objectively speaking, the greatest dog on the planet.  Trust me…Angela can vouch, she quickly became annoyed at the repetition in how often I’d say it!  We were lucky to have her, and we both knew it…every day.  I feel blessed to be able to say she was ours.  

When Hudson was born, and then later Adley, she would sleep next to their cribs, as if protecting them.  They ADORED Penny Lane.  Hudson loved to take her on walks with Daddy and hold her leash, and one of the indelible images that'll be forever etched in my mind is Adley giving Penny Lane one of her big Adley bear hugs.  She loved doing it, and it was super cute, but poor Penny Lane.  She most assuredly received zero pleasure having it done to her, but she gladly let Adley do it anyway...and never once complained with a growl.  That was Penny Lane.

Now the simple thought that the two of us are forever parted, and that we shall kiss your face no more, seems to me, even now, utterly inconceivable.  We are all crushed by the pain of your absence.  And while it’s very easy to say you’re in a better place, I would personally just like to be selfish enough to say I wish you were still here, with us.

Thank you Penny Lane for all the love you gave – I just hope we were able to give even a fraction of it back.  We miss you so profoundly, and will never forget you.  We love you Penny Lane, now and forever. 

Love,

Chris, Angela, Hudson, Adley, Lolly, Pop, Shannon, Andrew, Anderson, Claire, Mr. Jack & Annabelle.                    

Christmas and Chaos

Hope everyone is having a great New Year thus far!  The Kemps are so so ready for a healthy 2017 with good things to come.  We ended the year with a bang, and not a good one....we all fell apart.  It started with Hudson getting pneumonia and was out of school the week before Christmas.  He was healthy right in time for the Wilson visit and for Santa.  Soon after the holiday, Adley started to go downhill.  No appetite, fussy and a temperature ranging from 101-105 for 4 days.  She went to the doctor twice and we left with no diagnosis other than a virus and to take some Tylenol.  Poor Lolly had two weeks of watching our sick children.  By the end of that week, both Chris and I contracted a stomach bug that left us debilitated and in bed for over 24 hours.  We couldn't eat or hold anything down and struggled to stay hydrated.  "Thankfully," Adley was sick so she was sleeping more than usual.  But Hud was active and energetic, so he went to a movie with LollyPop and the cousins and stayed overnight.  Assuming everyone was on the mend, we woke up the next day to discover Hudson had nausea and vomiting and a bad stomach all night as well.  So we were in a whirlwind of disease and disaster, and were slowly taking LollyPop down with us (at least mentally).  

Our last bad news of the year was that our sweet Penny Lane passed across the Rainbow Bridge and left us right before Christmas.  We have all been grieving, even weeks later.  It was a devastating event, but we are fortunate to have had such a lovely animal in our life that impacted so many people.  She will be dearly missed.  Chris will be updating the blog with a Penny Lane tribute hopefully soon.  The pictures below were our last night with our sweet girl.  I almost postponed taking pics because we were all sick.  I feel so blessed I could capture a boy and his dog at the final moments.  And reflecting back, Hudson seemed way more aware than I gave him credit for about understanding his dog's illness.  He still talks about her almost every day.  It breaks my heart.

Now for a positive note, THANK THE LORD, we are all healthy (at least, at this very moment).  And we rallied through the trials and tribulations in order to enjoy the holiday with family and friends.  The kids got to spend a couple days with their cousins Hannah and Nate, who now live in Germany.  It was special treat to have them all together.  These kiddos are growing up so fast.  They loved playing together and sharing their Christmas gift-lists with each other!

Adley is not quite ready for staged group photos yet....

But she does love to play with the big kids.  Hannah had no problem entertaining our lil bit.  Pushing strollers, "feeding" babies and playing with dolls and jewelry are her favorite past times.  And she is still captivated by all books.  Adley is also learning her body parts.  Showing us her "belly-button" and "tongue" are the most entertaining moments to watch.  And she will make an "hmmph" sound as she points to each part.  She can also identify about 10 different animals and can sound-out a couple animal noises.  But let's be honest, almost every animal sounds like an elephant in her little world.  Very cute to watch her grow.  She just turned 17 months!

Christmas Eve entailed church and then dinner at the Bockelmans.  We were able to get a cute family photo op of the fam...

Group photo!  We had the pleasure of Karen and Bo (LollyPops neighbors) joining us for dinner as well.  The kids know them as K'ma and Bo'Pa, their honorary grandparents, who get to share in all the crazy commotion with us adults.

Then came Christmas morning!  I was so excited and arose early, all happy and giddy.  And then I waited...and waited for these dang kids to wake up.  This was the first day in a long time that BOTH children slept in late.  After drinking a nice (hot) cup of coffee, I couldn't wait any longer and woke them up at 8 am.  Hudson was more concerned about his elf Damien leaving, rather than the excitement of Santa and gift-giving.  Adley was befuddled about the entire situation; skepticism was deep in her eyes.  But it quickly faded once Hudson "helped" open her presents and she discovered fluffy, furry stuffed animals!

Hudson is still obsessed with horses.  He got over a dozen small plastic "horsey's" and will not put them down.  I have limited him to only sleeping with two horses, as he wanted to pile them (along with his 20+ stuffed animals) all in his bed.  And he has a couple farms now, so all of his horses have a home.  Football trading cards have been his next favorite thing to play with.  Weeks later, he will still trade cards with everyone in the family.  And we had to make a "special place" to keep the cards so they wouldn't get bent/ripped/lost.  First it was under the bed, but we have transitioned them to his nightstand drawer.

After nap time, we headed to LollyPop's house for another round of presents and then a yummy dinner.  The picture below would make any grandparent proud, right?!  I mean, the excitement and love displayed by ALL the children is impeccable.  

Again, Adley does not like a planned photo op.  Hilarious.  And she will immediately stop once she is removed from the lineup of children.  Hudson was having a moment as well.  I would be upset too if I had to wait more than a minute to open up all those presents.

Overall, we had a great day.  The boys helped pass out and deliver presents to everyone, which was cute to watch.  Adley cuddled with more baby dolls and cousin Claire was outfitted in numerous princess dresses.

Even Pop got some cool gifts!

After all the chaos of presents and sugar-overload, we turned on Paw Patrol, which immediately silenced the children.  Each one curled up in their shark or mermaid blanket that Aunt Missy got them.  The blankets stay at LollyPops house, so I'm sure they will get plenty of use!

Now we're in birthday mode.  We have already celebrated cousin Claire and Uncle Drew.  Anderson has a big party this weekend, then Chris is up next.  Hudson has picked out fun-fetti cake mix and sprinkles to make his daddy a cake.  His favorite colors are blue and "rainbow."  And he's still working on how to keep a secret.  Chris asked him what kind of cake he would get and Hudson said; "Shhh daddy, it's a rainbow cake....and it's a secret."