New blog site...

Hey everyone! I have been working hard at creating a new blog site so that I can post about Kyndal, the new baby, and whatever else we want :) So there will be no more posts here on kyndalaune.blogspot.com. I actually integrated all of her old journals from babyaune.com onto the new site. However, your email subscriptions are not going to be working from where you subscribed to this site. I am trying to get that functionality working on the new site so be sure to visit it frequently to see the new posts.

So come on over to http://www.followtheaunes.com

Be sure to catch up on all of the recent blog posts that I have put out there. If you look to the right you can click a link "Baby Boy Pregnancy" and see some blogs that I have written over the last several weeks. Make sure you read the following posts about Kyndal.... Summer fun has just begun, Pre-k here we come, Our little tumbler, and Mother's Day. Be sure to leave us a comment while you are there.

Rusty Jackson Aune

Ha, better keep reading before you assume anything!

So one day while picking up Kyndal from school, her teacher said that Kyndal told her we decided on a name for the baby. She said it was Rusty.... well Rusty is the wrench from the Disney morning show "Handy Manny" that she loves so much. Now Kyndal is not one to ever lie or tell stories(she often tells on herself), but she did tell her teachers we were having a baby before we were ever pregnant. She informed them of the sex (a girl) before we found out it was a boy. And now she is sharing her wish list of names! Something about having this baby has made her imagination go a little crazy.

When talking about names again, she said she likes Jackson. In case you don't know, Jackson is Hannah Montana's brother. She then once again informed her teachers that the name was going to be Jackson! She then decided to combine the two. Our friend Teresa has endearingly when along with Kyndal's imaginative mind and they both call him Rusty, now Rusty Jackson!

I guess they are both nice enough names, just really not our favorite. But if Bret, Kyndal and I can't agree on one, I suppose we have a back up plan and he shall not go nameless!

Time to brag

Of course I do blog because I love my child and want to leave her a book of written memories. But part of blogging is bragging about your child, I mean don't we all think our own child just hangs the moon? What makes you feel really good as a mother is when OTHER people compliment your child, or give you a good report, right?

So onto the bragging...
Kyndal got her first "report card" a couple of weeks ago. It is really two assessments that show how she has improved over several months. Well between the two reports there was no improvement.... why because she had mastered all of the skills when she was first assessed! They mark how they do on tasks like listening to direction, standing in line, sharing with others... etc... and then they mark all of the letters, numbers, shapes, and colors that they recognize. Everything was checked on both assessments!

All About My Mother

Kyndal brought home a little survey today where she filled in the blanks ... it is all about me!!!

My mother is 5 years old. (She didn't answer the next two, I didn't conveniently leave them blank!)
My mother is ____ tall.
My mother weighs ____.
My favorite thing to do with my mother is pet the kitty.
What does your mother do all day? shop
What does your mother say a lot? lets go walk
My mothers favorite food is Spaghetti
My mothers favorite tv show is Ellen
Does your mother sing in the car? yes
Can your mother dance? yes
Where does your mother work? at Daddy's work
How much do you love your mother? a bunch

Daddy, does our house float?

So this is the question that Kyndal asked on Sunday. I was regretting watching Evan Almighty with her on Thursday evening, but how could I have known the events of Saturday and Sunday? It is also ironic that I brought the group bible study the previous Sunday and the subject that I chose was storms and we studied much about the great flood.

It is surreal what has happened to middle Tennessee this past weekend! Many of you probably don't even know the devastation that has hit the areas surrounding us, as it has not been spoken about much in the national media. We were very blessed to all have been out of the area on Saturday when the first round and flooding hit, and also very blessed to have gotten back to our house safely before the second round hit on Sunday.

Flooding caused only by rain has caused our rivers to crest higher than they have in 80 years. Beloved landmarks through the city have been destroyed. Homes have been destroyed and people do not have flood insurance. Lives have been lost. I encourage you to read this blog post, which I think says so much: http://www.section303.com/we-are-nashville-4366

I was all set to present a new study this Sunday about God's promise from Genesis chapter 9, but we canceled our group meeting due to the weather. More importantly we were going to study 2 Peter 3:1-17, and I encourage you to read it too and to please keep the people of this area in your prayers!



"But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness" 2 Peter 3:13

Separation Anxiety

It hard to believe that my daughter at 3 1/2 would be going through a bought of separation anxiety. I don't think she has ever experienced this before.

Bret and I decided to use a business trip as a chance to have a get-away just the two of us. His conference was in San Francisco and although we have been there before we decided to extend the trip and a few days in Napa Valley and then enjoy some parts of San Francisco that we missed before and visit part that we loved again.

Kyndal had an opportunity to spend time with two sets of her grandparents. We missed her terribly and she missed us. I think she did okay without us, but it has been a bit hard to get everything in our house back to normal. She has not wanted either of us to leave her side. She is okay if one of us is around, but if we both need to leave there has been a few tears and fussing. I think she is getting better now as the last time to drop her off at school she didn't shed a tear. Then Mommy left again for a girls weekend. It will be the last time leaving her for a while, until I have to go into the hospital to have this baby. I do pray that she continues to be excited to have her baby brother and doesn't have any issues with the newest addition and the split of Mommy and Daddy's time.

Of course no post is complete with-out a picture of our baby girl.

Some more April pics

April

We continued our Easter celebrations with a few more Easter egg hunts and coloring eggs. We spent some time with Nana and Papa on Saturday for the neighborhood hunt and Sunday we went to church after a quick peak at the Easter basket. Mommy coordinated collecting candy and eggs and the hunt for the three services we had at LifePoint preschool. Since I had to be there all three hours, Kyndal had a total of 6 hunts this year!

To be honest when we went to bed Saturday night I could barely choke out the words that the Easter bunny was going to bring her a basket. There are so many activities that these children have around Easter that do not reinforce the true meaning of Easter and the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and how he died on the cross to save us, that I just had issues with the Easter Bunny. I am thrilled that through our teaching, her school, and church Kyndal could tell you the story of Easter in more detail than I thought a 3 year old could. I am not sure if I will talk about the Easter Bunny for future Easters, maybe it is time for some new traditions. I think because Kyndal has such a greater understanding of all things, I am just getting more cautious about what we tell her and what she learns as truth.

Enjoy the pics....

Neighborhood Hunt



A little Egg Toss with Daddy. Daddy got hit with the Egg, LOL... Mommy was just helping :)

Egg Coloring

This one is for Baby Brother





Flipflops in my Easter Basket? So Silly!

Church Hunt

Easter Celebration at School

Kyndal had another Easter celebration at school yesterday. We decided to make Easter Bunny Cupcakes for the kiddos. Kyndal helped me make these.




I came to see her Easter Egg Hunt at school. The class made their own buckets out of milk cartons and I think they are adorable!







At the end of the day the kids participated in a balloon launch to celebrate our resurrected Christ. Kyndal is the one in the middle with the pink balloon (of course). They said their Bible Verse "Jesus is Alive" as they released their balloon. I can't tell you enough what a great job the school did at explaining what Easter is about. Kyndal told me many details about what she learned at chapel that day.... she even told me about the disciples and that is certainly not a word I knew at 3.

Spring Break

Last week Kyndal was on Spring Break.... we had a few nice warm days and a few rainy cold days but we still mananged to have several activities. It was nice to spend a whole week with her!
We made a trip to the zoo on a nicer day. She was excited to see the Lorakeets again even though she was scared of them last time. She did great until one landed on her head. Wish I had a picture of me with one on my head trying to get the one on Kyndal's head off, LOL!








We met some friends at the bounce place, look how excited she was that her friends were coming.

We also went to Chick-fil-a after the bounce place and got to have a behind the scenes look! We love our Chick-fil-a.

Saturday we went on her first egg hunt of the season, the Town Of Smyrna. It was CRAZY there and Kyndal was a little overwhelmed. She managed to get quite a bit of candy, but had more enjoyment of hunting pine cones so she can make a "Pine Cone Craft". This girl is all into her crafts. She also got to visit the firetruck while we were there.




Sunday we were off to church and I tried to get a picture of her in her new outfit, made just for her. It was a lot colder on Sunday and she really wouldn't stand for a pic though :(

A great day for golf

Today has been a gorgeous day!!! We spent a lot of time outside this morning and Kyndal thought it was a good day for golf.

She is wearing her golf gloves (aka winter mittens), LOL!

She sometimes approaches the game a little more like Happy Gillmore, in fact she likes to call it hockey.

Happy St. Patricks Day

We wore our green, cooked Irish Pie for dinner, and even had Shamrock doughnuts for dessert.

Here is a few pics of Kyndal, she got the first shirt dirty so she found one that had green dots. She was all about the green!

February Zoo Trip

I plan on doing a catch up post soon, but didn't want to get any further behind.
In February we had a very rare beautiful Saturday and weather was good enough to be ourside. We had extra zoo passes so we invited our small group. It was fun... we so love the zoo and this will be the first of many trips this year.

Our small group Mama's and kiddos minus a few kiddos.








This little owl was a nice addition to our normal exhibits; he is not normally on exhibit... they brought him out for this day.