Fountainhead Studios Bella Portraits

Annabella had professional portraits done by Bob Shireman of Fountainhead Studios when she was two weeks old. He did an amazing job!  Check him out at www.fountainheadstudios.net

MIA

So, it's been a while since we have last been able to write a post. Annabella is now 5 weeks old and it has been so great learning her and having her in our lives! We've been busy adjusting to life with a newborn and trying to find a schedule that works well for all of us. Sleep was one thing we didn't get any of. We would usually get about 3 hours a day. Because of the sleep deprivation for several weeks, Temarie became extremely  ill with acute bronchitis with walking pneumonia. So, we were focused on just surviving and our schedule got set back to like it was the first week again. Temarie's dad was able to come stay with us for about a week to help out so she could recover and get some rest. His help was so appreciated and we can't thank him enough for all that he did!  Temarie is still recovering from the illness but is doing SO much better and able to enjoy being a mom again! With all of this going on, we've been unable to update the blog.

When Annabella was first born, we were trying to figure out who she looked like because we didn't think she looked like either one of us. When we got home from the hospital, Temarie was looking at the baby book her mom made and found her newborn picture taken at the hospital. Sorry it's a bit fuzzy!

Here is what Annabella looked like when she was first born: (we don't have the best frontal picture of her the day she was born :-/ )

 This one was taken at 4 weeks, so she's a little older. She always has that same furrowed/thinking look like I had :-)

We've taken Annabella to her doctor's appointments and she's done really well! They said she is really healthy and is in the 99 percentile in height! So, we think she has mommy's face and daddy's body :-) She is already wearing her 3 month old clothes because she is so long, but they are a bit baggy on her because she is so lean!

We'll leave you with a video of Bella's favorite time, play time! She loves to play and laugh with us! She'll kick her legs and make a laughing sound, it's so cute.

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A Baby (Bella) Story

I wanted to share briefly about the amazing experience of labor (hint sarcasm :-)). Friday was the night of the opening ceremony for the Olympics. I had taken a shower, like I had for the past week, just in case I did go into labor during the night. Being 8 days over my due date had really finally gotten to me with the acid reflux, really, really bad keratosis pelaris (itchy and hurtful skin condition that became worse during the last few days of pregnancy), swollen feet and legs, the high heat records, etc. I finally just broke down and cried to James and felt like she was never going to come. We prayed about it and lifted it all to the Lord and went to bed around 12:30. I was suddenly woken up at 1:30 with my water breaking - praise the Lord! We got to the hospital around 2:30 and my contractions were starting to get worse. An hour and a half later, they were getting unbearable and the pain level was a 10. I was progressing really fast - a lot faster than the nurses thought I would. They said that I had to finish the first bag of IV fluids before I got it. We had to end up waiting over an hour before it emptied with the pain getting worse by the minute. I asked for the epidural and anesthesiologist got there really late. He finally came in and apologized and said he wanted to make sure someone got a message he sent :-/   He then had to apply and reapply the epidural about 5 times all while I'm having level 10 contractions! Finally the medicine kicked in and both James and I were able to rest, which was really nice since we only had an hour of sleep.  

I really started feeling pressure around 11:00 and they checked to see how far I progressed and I was a 10 already! They wanted to try to wait another hour to make sure she was down as far as she could be before pushing. I started pushing a little after noon and Annabella was born at 12:54 weighing 7lbs and 15 oz and was 21 inches long - she's going to be tall like her daddy!

Overall, I am really blessed that Annabella was able to come on her own time and that the labor process went fairly smoothly and well and fast for a first baby! We were also very blessed with a great Dr. and amazing nurses who helped us so much during this time! As soon as Bella came out, they laid her on me and she had her eyes wide open staring at me. It was one of the most precious moments James and I have ever experienced! She stayed this way for the first 24 hours of life and only slept maybe 3 hours! She loves to look at us and us at her. She is an amazingly sweet and happy baby! Her first and last name means "loving grace and joy". We've been praying that she will live up to her name and show love and grace and joy to others and so far, she has :-) Here are a few pics of that memorable day! More pics to come later of her hospital visitors.

Moments after birth

Our amazing nurse Holly

Our incredible doctor Dr. Tahtawi

Finally in getting to rest with my sweet baby Bella! 

She looks exactly like me at birth - we could be twins 

I'll post my newborn pic and hers later :-) 

Welcome to the world!

Annabella Khara Kendall, whom we will call "Bella" made her entrance into the world at 12:54 PM.  Temarie did a great job, and Bella came after 11 1/2 hours of labor.  She weighs 7 lbs. 15 oz. and is 21 inches long.    She has been an awesome baby so far.  She stayed wide awake for the first three hours of her life and was watching all the world around her and moving her hands all over the place.  She has not cried for more than 10 seconds yet.  I'm sure she is saving that for three in the morning.  She only let us have an hour of sleep last night, and I'm sure tonight will be no different.

 Getting weighed and measured.

 James called her length correctly and was only off by two ounces on her weight.

 Holly, our awesome nurse!

 Mommy and Bella chilling after being moved to our room.

Bella's first visitor from Salem (it helps that she works at WakeMed and knew we were there before anyone else.)

At the hospital

After staying up until 12:30 watching the olympics opening ceremony, we were excited to get into bed.  We were woken up an hour later with Temarie's water breaking which started a mad dash to get all our bags thrown into the car to get to the hospital.  Temarie is resting comfortably now (praise the Lord for epidurals and modern medicine!).  Temarie got halfway there in the matter of a few hours; hopefully she will make it the rest of the way in the next few hours.  The doctor said the baby should come in the next few hours, but with Bella seeming to have no desire to come out, it will probably still be another three weeks!

We will update with pictures once she comes.

James

41 weeks pregnant + temps feeling like 110 degrees = misery

It's another bright, steamy, hot day in NC! We have tried walking a lot and usually go right before it gets dark, but it's really hard to walk when you can barely breathe outside and it's still 96 degrees at 8:30 pm. I also can't walk at the gym because my poor feet are so swollen I can't wear anything but one pair of flip flops. So, we went walking around Walmart for a while last night :-) Not sure yet where we'll walk tonight - I'd like the mall, but that may not be a good idea!

We went in again for another non-stress test today as scheduled by our Dr to make sure Bella girl is still safe and sound. Apparently, the test is good for 3 days, so we'll be taking it every 3 days. The nurse from last time forgot to write down that we were coming in today, so the other nurses had no idea we were coming in and pretty upset with the other nurse about that :-/ They checked her heart rate and my contractions for a good 30 mins and everything seems to still be going well! Every time I had a contraction, her heart rate would go up - not too high though! We are scheduled for another non-stress test for Monday - if Bella still doesn't want to come out. When we left, I saw a woman in labor walking around and another one checking in - I was so jealous :-) Please keep praying that Bella will arrive on her own and that we won't have to force her out! Thanks so much for thinking and praying for us through this long journey!

So, it's been a while!

Ok, so I know I haven't posted anything on here for a really long time, but I have a reason why - I promise! I'll share that with you in a later post. For now, I want to use this blog to keep everyone updated on Annabella. We have a lot of sweet people who keep asking how things are going and progressing, so we figured we can keep everyone posted on here! So, if there's ever an update, just keep checking this blog and we promise, we will keep you up-to-date as much as possible!
We had our past-the-due-date doctor's appointment yesterday. They did an ultrasound to check to see how she is looking and to make sure her fluid levels are still good. For those of you who don't know, they check the fluid levels because they can start to decrease after the due date which can harm her. She was obviously really hard to see since she's so big! We saw a nice round head, her sweet face with both of her hands up near her eyes, her femur, heart, and spine. The U/S tech said she looked great and the fluid levels are great! We were so happy to hear that and happy to see her, but would be much happier to see her in person!
The bad news the Dr told us is that she seems perfectly happy in her little bubble and my body seems perfectly happy keeping her there for now. She said that she didn't want to induce yet because my body wasn't ready and that Annabella looks great and didn't want to mess with a good thing. We were so glad to hear this! We don't want to induce unless it starts getting dangerous for her and we have to.
 After the appt. the Dr sent us to the hospital for a non-stress test. Again, for those of you who don't know, a non-stress test is done to check her heart rate and my contractions for about 20 mins. They're checking to make sure she is sounding good, so she can stay in there longer. That test also went really well and I was having contractions - just not the kind that are doing anything yet :-/ We are scheduled for another non-stress test on Friday if she doesn't come before then.
The Dr. said that if she doesn't come in a week, then she'll have to discuss having an induction done because I'll be about 42 weeks and that's when fluid levels really start to decrease and her protective little bubble isn't as safe for her at that point. So, please pray that she will come soon!
It has been really, really difficult and rough the past 2-3 weeks of this pregnancy!  I was born with acid-reflux and have been dealing with it my entire life. It's drastically increased being pregnant and now that Bella is so big and there's literally no more room in there, the acid's been beyond painful and unbearable! I'm really worried about the damage it is doing to my throat and esophagus! I usually can't sleep at night because of the pain and have decreased my diet to about 5 things I can eat that are really bland. I really miss food and have been so discouraged by it! On top of that, it's also been the hottest summer ever on record! This has caused my feet to swell beyond recognition and hurt so bad - they feel like they weigh 10 lbs each :-)
With all that said, please pray that she will come soon, so my pain and misery can end soon and so we won't have to have an induction! Thanks for checking on us and keep checking back for more up dates!

Catching Up

It seems the past several weeks have flown by and so much has happened! Unfortunately on Memorial Day, we learned that James' grandmother, Catherine Telford, passed away unexpectedly. We were all so sad and miss her so much still, but at the same time, we are all rejoicing that she is in Heaven with her Father and husband! The funeral  was a nice and simple one, but the trip to Georgia and back was a fast and long one! We were there for about 21 hours and then made the trip back home. James' older brother Robert traveled from Maryland and rode with us, so he traveled a lot more! It was so great to ride up together and catch up!
Since we've been back, we have both been so sick! James and about half his family caught a stomach bug or something a day after the funeral and then I think I had laryngitis mixed with something else. Both of our illnesses knocked us out for a good 24 hours straight, but at least it was only that! So, we are both now getting better and healthier and we were able to go on a nice date last night, which is one that we've been trying to go on for several weeks - yay!!
Several weeks ago, my friend Grace and I got to go to the Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham. I met Grace about a year ago through our really good friend Janice. Grace moved to the area from Philadelphia and is a doctor completing her residency at the hospital at The University of Chapel Hill.  Since she lives about 45 mins. from me and is busy completing her residency, we don't get to see each other as much as we would like, but when we do, we have so much fun! This time we met up at Foster's Grill in Durham (which is an amazing place and I highly recommend it!) and then went to the gardens. The gardens are just as beautiful as Duke's campus! It stormed a lot that morning, but after lunch, it was a beautiful day! There was even a wedding that had just taken place and the bride and groom were taking pictures around the different gardens. I wish I could make my back yard look like a nice garden, but I do not have the time or the money, so it's nice to go to a place that does! The gardens are so big that we spent most of the afternoon there. Here are a few pics we took:      

The main garden area - the picture doesn't do it justice

Can  you see the bee?

My beautiful friend Grace!

A beautiful pavilion

Sitting in front of my favorite tree - a Weeping Willow

So many different beautiful flowers! Makes me think of the verse
in Mathew where Jesus says that God cares about dressing
the lilies of the field and how much more He cares about us!

I thought this was a pretty door :-)

                                                                   

A Busy Memorial Day Weekend!

James' brother Robert and his wife Paula were in S.Korea adopting a little girl they have been waiting for a few years to get! It was so touching to hear their stories and see the pictures of their time in Korea and the long anticipated wait of seeing their little girl for the first time in person! I love adoption and love to hear adoption stories! They serve as such a great example of how we are adopted as sons and daughters of God! Just as an adopted child is paid for and longed for and waited for, so is our adoption into God's family. The price paid was a sacrificial and bloody one, which we never deserved. This is where God's grace and love are so evident and makes me fall to my knees in wonderment and thankfulness. I have been reading Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss (which is a great book so far!). I like what she said about this: "Guilt, grace, gratitude are the heart of the gospel. All three are freely given. Our gracious, giving God generously and gladly bestows grace on recipients who deserve His judgement and wrath. Those who have received such an undeserved gift of grace, respond to the Giver in generous and glad gratitude." Have you accepted His free gift of grace? If you have, do you live your life in gratitude of the gift you received in spite of the punishment that you deserve?
Since Robert and Paula were in Korea, James' parents (who live in FL) watched their children and came up to our house for a visit this past weekend on their way back home (in Maryland). It was a very brief visit but a lot of fun! It was so great to get to see them especially since we don't get to see them very often! Here are a few pictures from their visit!

Grace and Ethan

Abby

She borrowed my necklace - she thought it made her look like a beautiful princess,
which she does even without the necklace :-)

Photographer: Abby Kendall

Another Abby Kendall picture

Picture taken by Abby Kendall - isn't she a great photographer?



Us with Abby, Ethan, and Micah - Micah loves Onyx and
really wanted her in the picture!



Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Saturday was the St.Baldrick's Saved and Shaved event that we told you about a couple of months ago. It is an fundraiser that is used to raise money for cancer research. There are shavees who voluntarily have their heads shaved at the event and donors who will donate money to the shavees/organization to have the heads shaved. Each shavee must raise their own support, which is why we asked for your help. Many people from our church attended the event on Saturday and many men from our church head their heads shaved. Our church helped make this particular event the 4th largest St. Baldrick's Saved and Shaved event ever in NC! Can I just say how amazing my church is? We are so very blessed to be a part of a church family that genuinely cares about people and will do anything to help anyone in need! The people who attend our church are some of the most amazing and self-sacrificing people I have ever met! They helped raise over $40,000 for this event! The total amount raised for this particular event was around $70,000! That is $70,000 that will be used to help find a cure for cancer.
We heard about this event through a little boy in our church named Cameron who is 9 years old who has been battling cancer for over 3 years. He has accomplished so much in his life! He has helped raise so much money for cancer research in his short life already. He is one of the most amazing little boys I have ever met! He is so strong and courageous! When you meet him, you can't but help to see Christ reflected in his attitude and demeanor. All of the men came out to raise support in honor of Cameron. It was such a great day for the event - it was bright and sunny and no rain (it has been storming here almost every day!). Some of the men who shaved their heads made some great sacrifices because they really loved their hair! There were even 3 women who had their heads shaved. One of them being Cameron's grandmother.When it was James' turn to get his head shaved, the DJ tried to raise more support since James was not able to raise that much. He suggested that James shave his eyebrows if people would donate more money! Everyone shouted "NO!". Many people around me said that he should not get his eyebrows shaved, because they probably would not grow back right. So, everyone started to give money and chanting, "Save the eyebrows!" They were able to raise enough, so the eyebrows are safe and I am so thankful :-)
Here are a few pictures from the event!

James starting to get it all shaved off!

His sweet hair stylist, Susan, volunteered her time to help shave!

Pre-shaved picture of the group

Post-shaved picture. They all look so great!

Happy 29th!

Sorry it has taken me so long to put a post up! I accidentally left my camera in a friend's car and just got it back. I can't blog well without pics showing you what's been going on :-) May 1st was James' birthday and 4 days later on May 5th was my sister's birthday. Yes,  you read that right. They are only 4 days apart. He snagged an older woman and I married the youngin'! They will both now be 29 for the rest of their lives. Speaking as an older and wiser person, I have told them that 30 isn't so bad :-)
My dad and James' sister both came over to celebrate his birthday with us. We went to Homegrown Pizza, which is the best pizza place, and had a great dinner! We mostly went there for their wings - they also have the best wings! I worked all day to make my first made-from-scratch cake. It took me a lot longer than it will in the future because I wanted to make sure I made it perfect. I usually just get the cake mix in the box and the frosting in the plastic container but wanted to make his birthday special. I got the recipe from my Real Simple magazine. I love this magazine because it has tons of helpful little things in it like recipes, budget advise, neat facts, decoration advice, etc. My favorite section is the New Uses for Old Things where it will show you many different ways you can use something like aluminum foil or a q-tip to help clean the house or practical uses for it. For example, did you know you can use an antacid tablet to lift bouquet residue from the inside of a vase? or you can use it to clean your toilet? I even bought the Real Simple book called 869 New Uses for Old Things :-)
The May issue had a great section on making homemade cakes and frosting from scratch. They had all kinds of flavors of icing you could make and fillings. It also had great cake decorating advice and great cake topping ideas. James said he wanted a chocolate cake with vanilla icing. For the cocoa powder, I bought Ghirardelli cocoa. James loved my cake! My first cake ever turned out tasting so good! It didn't look the prettiest, but I am working on that! I don't have a frosting kit yet and am hoping to by the time I make my next cake. I was amazed at how easy and simple it was to make the entire cake! It is definitely not the healthiest cake, but it is the best tasting cake! And, it's ok to eat because calories don't count on people's birthdays, right?  Now that I've had made-from-scratch cake, I don't know if I can go back to Betty Crocker!

Chocolate Cake

1 c. unsalted butter at room temperature

3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder, spooned and leveled

2 c. all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled 

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2  c. sugar

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs at room temp.

1 1/2 c. whole milk

- Heat oven to 350 degree F. Butter the pans, line the bottom with parchment, butter again, and dust with cocoa, tapping out the excess. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt; set aside.

- Using an electric ,mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high until fluffy, 2-3 mins. Beat in vanilla, then the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

- Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix just until combined. 

- Transfer the batter to the prepared pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  

Vanilla Icing 

2 c. unsalted butter, at room temp.

1 pound confectioner's sugar sifted

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract.  

Pinch kosher salt

- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on high until light and fluffy, 3-5 mins.  Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually add the sugar, then the vanilla and salt, and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. 

James and his sister Catherine

My first cake!

 

A few days later we celebrate my sister Tracey's birthday. I made her homemade lasagna and  ice cream cake. The cake was so easy to make too and it was so good also! I made it when we were invited to dinner with a family from our church. Their kids liked it so much that they wanted me to make it for their birthdays :-) I used to get the Kraft Food and Family magazine until they started making you pay for a subscription. Now you can get all of their recipes online for free! 

Oreo and Fudge Ice Cream Cake

1/2 C. fudge ice cream topping, warmed

1 tub cool-whip, thawed and divided

1 pkg. jell-o instant choc. pudding

8 oreo cookies

12 vanilla ice cream sandwiches

1. pour the fudge topping into a medium bowl. Stir in 1 c. of the whipped topping with a wire whisk until it's well blended. Add in the dry pudding mix; stir 2 mins. or until well blended. 

2. chop the cookies into chunks. Stir into the pudding mix

3. arrange 4 of the ice cream sandwiches, side by side on a 24x10 inch piece of foil; top with half of the pudding mixture. Repeat the layers. 

4. top the pudding mixture with the remaining 4 ice cream sandwiches. The layers create a neat stripped effect when sliced. 

5. frost the top and sides with the remaining whipped topping. It doesn't have to look perfect. (This part was hard for me, b/c by this point, the ice cream sandwiches are starting to melt so it's a little messy!)

6. bring up the foil. Double fold top and ends to loosely seal the packet. Freeze at least 4 hours before serving. Let stand at room temperature to soften slightly before serving.  

Tracey's birthday cake ( I didn't have a 9 candle, so there are 9 singular candles beside the 2)

Tracey and Cody

We love the sunshine state!

During my Spring Break week, we decided to take a trip to sunny Florida to see James' family. We love traveling to FL. because we both love the warm weather and the sun- just as long as we don't get too much sun :-) Plus I love visiting my in-laws and just spending time with them especially since we don't get to see them very often - maybe twice a year. I am very blessed to be a part of an amazing family!

I would like to introduce you to my nephew Michael and my niece Hannah.

 



We visited them the second day we were in FL at their house in Gainesville. They are aspiring photographers! Right now, they are not very expensive, and will probably work for candy, but in a few years their work may become very  famous and you will wish you bought their work! Here are a few amazing pictures that they took: 

This is their mom Lydia

This is their piano



This is their sister Charis



I am not sure whose cup that is?!

This is their baby sister who they will get to meet in August

This is grandmother

While in FL we also helped my mother-in-law throw James' dad a surprise party. It was our job to get him out of the house for at least an hour and a half. It is so hard to come up with things to get him out especially for that long! So, we came up with an idea! We told him that we wanted to take him out for lunch for his birthday on Saturday with just James and I (his real birthday was on a Sunday). He agreed to it! We really did want to get to spend some one on one time with him and it was good time to talk and catch up! Then, James' mom said that she needed a few things from the store to help us distract him longer. After getting all of the supplies, we headed back to the house. He didn't know a thing until we pulled into his neighborhood and he saw all of the cars! He then said, "Oh! I see what's going on here." Inside waiting for him were many friends and Daniel and Lydia came up from Gainesville to surprise him! It was so much fun!

We also took out James' youngest sister Grace for some ice cream at Brewster's ( I love that place!) to celebrate her high school graduation. She doesn't graduate until the end of May but we can't attend her graduation because it is the same day my preschool kids are graduating :-(   It was so great to get to spend some one on one time with her too!

 My work was so gracious and let me take the Monday after Easter off so I could celebrate it with my in-laws! It was such a beautiful day! We spent most of the time outside after eating a wonderful meal that my mother-in-law made! Then, we had an amazing cake designed by Anna who is an amazing artist and aspiring cake decorator! Here are a few pics from the day!

Anna's amazing cake depicting the story of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection!

Anna, Lydia, and Grace

Hannah and I with Onyx. She is scared of dogs, but she loved Onyx!

Charis in the infamous Kendall swing

Michael being silly!

Most of the family gathered for Easter! We were missing James'
older brother and his family and James' sister Catherine and wish they could be there!

Beautiful Anna!

Anna and Charis on the Kendall swing

Also, while in FL we helped James' brother Aaron create his rap video :-) He is a great musician and wrote a rap of his resume! It is really good! He has been having a hard time finding a job, as is everyone in this economy. So, he decided to get creative and market himself in a unique way!  If your place of business or church is hiring, let us know! He would be a great addition! I will put up the video once it's complete! But in the meantime, here's a little video of how much Michael and Hannah enjoyed the song:

We were able to take a day to travel down to Orland to meet up with our good friends the Root's! For those of you who don't know, our friend Adam was in a bad motorcross accident last May. He had been in a coma for a long time but has been coming out of it! God has done amazing things in Adam's life and has used his accident to reach and touch so many people! His wife Amy has been such an amazing wife to him through all of this! She has been such a prayer warrior and a great example of what a godly wife looks like. If you haven't read their blog, you should! Their story will touch your heart! You can read more about their story at:  www.adamrootfamily.blogspot.com

It was such a blessing that they were even in FL the same week we were! Adam had been in a facility up in Boston for the past several months, but was able to transfer to an amazing facility in Orlando. This facility is located in an amazing community that seems like Pleasantville! You can walk to all kinds of restaurant, shops, grocery stores, bakeries, the YMCA - everything you need! There's even a church they can walk to! We had the honor of taking Adam, Amy, and their daughter Mackenzie out for their first dinner together since the accident. Adam even picked out the restaurant! We ended up going to a cute little family-owned pizza place that had the best pizza I've ever had! Afterwards, we took them to get some ice cream! We had so much fun together and a great time of fellowship! Adam's life is a testimony of the amazing power of God! You will have to read their blog to see their journey from the beginning to now and see how much God has worked in them! 



Amy and I



I apologize for such a long post! I hope you enjoyed getting to know some special people in our lives! It was a great week not only being able to be with family who we rarely get to see and sweet friends who we also rarely get to see but also was a great week to reflect on the purpose of Easter. Easter is not about bunny's and eggs but about Christ and the cross. It was a punishment that Christ paid for us - for our sins - so that we may live eternally with Him. If you believe what Christ did for you, I would encourage to take your focus to the cross every day, not just on Easter, and to reflect on what Christ did for you. God is a gracious, loving, and merciful and what He did on the cross testifies to that!  If you don't know Him personally and never accepted what He did for you on that day, I would encourage you to seek out why He would do that for you and why you haven't accepted that.