David and Jennilyn

The first time Kadence laughed was when I gave her a bath. I had put her ears underwater and the Lord inspired me (which must’ve been the Lord because who else would think of crazy things to do) to snap my fingers underwater. She chuckled briefly and I laughed in amazement. I always thought that I would miss out on so many of Kadence’s firsts because I’m at work most of the day. I’m sure I’ll miss things in the future, but I’ve been blessed to been the first to experience some things.

The video above of yours truly performing raspberries on Kadie’s belly was a few days after her first chuckle. Again, out of the blue, I decided to lift her up and blow on her tummy. Her laughter was adorable. I love watching her learn how to do all these simple things I’ve taken for granted—and to live life anew through the eyes of someone experience everything for the first time.

Here’s a of Kadence’s facial expressions self-check: going through as many facial expressions as possible under 90 seconds. Sometimes I wonder what is in that baby brain of her’s.

Kadence has started using her voice more. We laid her on a mat with Mr. Incredible and we’re certain she has some very important things to say to him.

Now, if we could only get her to tell us what she wants instead of crying…

As we were writing our Christmas letter this evening, our creativity got the best of us. We had our own version of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas,’ appropriately themed around Jenni’s pregnancy.

All my life I’ve dreamed of becoming a wife and mother. I confess that when I got out of high school, all I really wanted to do was get married and have a family. But there were no prospects, and I didn’t want to sit around and wait for who knows how long till that happened. So off to college I went and I discovered life after high school was good after all.