The Kinne's Spring 2009 ~ Raleigh, NC

We could not waste the opportunity yesterday to enjoy being outside in our community. The weather was perfect - sun shining, cool spring temperature and the smells of new plant life popping up everywhere. Raleigh is on the backside of the "pollen days" (more to come on this craziness) and will be getting into the warmer months soon. Nothing compared to TX, but still gets a little hot and humid. Natives think it is terrible...we just tell them to go to Houston any month besides December.

Anne is doing much better now that she has entered into the 2nd Trimester. Booger Kinne is at 14 weeks and still growing. Well I guess there is not much more we should expect out of he/she for 6 more months.

The pictures above are from the front of our house. We love the tree in the front and then the bushes have now bloomed as well. Just in case you were wondering how we keep it maintained so well...we currently borrow child labor from our friends at church. They needed me to watch her for a few hours and I needed the flowers watered - perfect match!!

Actually, Rachel is a near and dear friend of mine. I have learned a lot from this 2+ yr old. I will not call it baby sitting any longer, rather baby learning...as she has exposed many parenting techniques that I am horrible at. Good thing for now is I can turn her back over and have her parents (Jarrad and Anna Giles) straighten her back out. I better get my act together soon or I will be a push over for Booger Kinne.

Happy Easter!

We wish you all a Happy Easter!


It was a glorious day in Raleigh and we were blessed to spend time with friends during this holiday. Over the past few weeks we have also been thankful to get the chance to see family. From a trip to Plains, TX for a surprise 50th Birthday Celebration for Brad (Anne's Dad) and then a visit by Karen (Brendan's Mom), Sean (Brendan's Brother) and Ambyr (Sean's Fiance) to our home in NC for the weekend. March madness basketball was sprinkled in there throughout both of the trips...GO TARHEELS!


The trip to TX was a wild one - fighting a snow storm (Yes snow in TX), to a big surprise party for Brad...which he had no clue about..., to even providing more surprise with our baby news. On that front, Booger is at the 13th week mark. Website indicators tell us that Booger is at 3 inches (head to toe), 1 ounce and comparable to a medium shrimp. (Ha - should we look to rename him from Booger to Shrimp?? May be we need to setup a poll on that!!) Anne is gaining back some energy and starting to lose her mind a bit. More to come on the latter in future postings.


The visit to NC from Brendan's family was great. They helped us jump into action on a few home improvement projects that we have been delaying. Just when you might have thought that the "popcorn elimination" days were behind us...think again! The garage was covered and it looked terrible. In one quick day, Sean helped Brendan (under the guidance of Karen) knock out the ugliness. Pictures below. THANK YOU FAMILY FOR THE HELP!!


Our house in the spring...notice the garage open with stuff in the driveway!



Picture from in the garage...making room for improvement




Another pretty ceiling...without POPCORN...successful elimination

Surprise!!

Brendan and I will be welcoming the newest member of Team Kinne in October 2009! Just so we're all clear...I'm pregnant! I am 11 weeks along, so we are expecting our little one around October 20th (ultrasound pic is from 9 weeks). Brendan has affectionately named our child "Booger", a name I'm sure "Booger" will appreciate when he's (or she's) older.

We got to share the news with my family last weekend when we visited Texas for my dad's surprise 50th birthday party. He got a surprise of quite another kind...he's going to be a grandfather!

Brendan and I are very excited about this new stage in our lives. We are not in the least convinced that we are prepared to be parents and be responsible for the life of another human being. :) But the joy of trusting God is that we aren't losing sleep over trying to figure out how to be parents...we are so grateful that God didn't wait until we were "prepared" to bless us with children. Wow! That could have been a long wait! We know that God will enable us to do what He's called us to do, and right now He's called us to be parents. An awesome responsibility, but one we are anxiously awaiting.