Wednesday, November 24, 2010

12 Week Ultrasound

For this baby, mom and dad are really letting us three girls be a part of the pregnancy and learn a lot. Today mom had a doctor's appointment in Richmond to do her first trimester triple screening. She just tested her blood and got the probabilities for Down Syndrome and Trisomy 13 and 18. We took all of the information with a grain of salt, however, because no matter what this baby will be so loved and adored. However, thankfully the results were all good and the baby and mom are both doing well! Here are some pictures from the day:

The 6.4 cm baby!

The clinical stats. The baby is 12 wks 4 days and is due on June 4!

Modern day technology is AMAZING!

Profile of the baby's head.

Rachel is happy as a clam!

Suzanne!

All the girls at the Doctor's office! So exciting to be a part of this awesome journey!

We ended with lunch at Schlotzsky's Deli! Delicious!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Duplos are the Greatest

This picture is from August 2, 2004. Rachel was 6 and Harrison was still 4. One summer night they decided to build a Duplos tower with Dad all the way up to the ceiling. It entertained them for a long time.


Now, six years later, Ryan and Dad brought out the Duplos tonight and found themselves doing the exact same thing. Pretty cute. It's funny how the towers were built the exact same way too, with a wider and sturdier base, and narrowing into single blocks. Now that I'm looking at it, check out Dad's outfits in the picture above and the one below. The EXACT same. Scary.


Thursday, November 18, 2010

Look up "Hypocrite"

And you will find, in BIG BOLD letters the name Whitney Kemmey. Or at least you should find his name when you look it up!

Usually, when I get in trouble around here it is because I am up too late doing homework, or snuck staying up late doing homework, or I set my alarm for 3 am to get up early and finish homework. I have a procrastination problem, and it is very well recognized. I try and do work on the weekends, but I am seriously the most productive between the hours of 10 pm and 4 am. I am a night owl--I can stay up super late without a problem, and usually I can always get up the next day for school. Granted, I'll be dozing in English class, but I'll technically be there. As for punishment for my rebellious late night homework activities, I've gotten kitchen forever (which is a horrible sentence in this household), my dad's taken away my homework before, and he's banned me from babysitting.

But, my dad is the BIGGEST hypocrite. I swear I inherited my procrastination and late night productivity from my dad. I blame genetics. Should I really be getting in trouble for this? This morning I woke up for seminary at 5:15 am, and all the lights were on in the basement still. I walked over to dad's office, and lo and behold, there dad sits at 5:15 am still doing homework (he's in his master's program). Now, he juggles a full time job, his family, church callings, and school, so he does have a little leverage over me. However, he spent his weekend playing Magic (some nerdy card game), Black Ops, Mass Effect, and some other random XBox games. He could have planned out his weekend a lot better and began the assignments he knew he had due this week. He seriously waited until the last minute.

Unacceptable, dad. You need to manage your time more effectively and use the weekends to your advantage. Your sleep is important and you need a good nights rest each night to be more productive.

Hey dad, does all that sound familiar? Yeah. You're busted. :)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Orienteering!

Today we had our orienteering field trip. It was awesome, and our group did really well. Ann, Amanda, and I won first from our site :). For orienteering, you strategically go around the woods with a compass and a contour map looking for posts, and racking up points. We found twelve posts, and got 44 points in three hours.


Our group--Amanda, Ann, and me. We all wore red scarves and gloves.

We went a while without finding a post, so when we finally found another one it was exciting.

There was a little grave in the woods from 1937. It was really neat. Right near it was another broken headstone that was empty, but there were flowers by it.

Our group!

Amanda and an arched tree


Post!

It was really fun :) And JROTC won nothing, again. Riverbend got the stone of shame, again.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

One More

Twenty years ago , my mom and dad got married.

They knew they wanted children. My dad wanted 12 kids and my mom thought she would have about three. But I guess kids are just such a joy :)

Gray was born on February 8, 1992. Mom always said he was such a good baby. He was 7 pounds and a half ounce. He came on his own, and was born at 4:23 am in Rhode Island.


Next came me. I was 7 lbs, 11 oz. I was born on August 16, 1993 at 11:59 am in Virginia Beach. I wasn't the worst baby, but I did give my mom some trouble when it came to eating and naptime. I would always want food, and never want to sleep.


Suzanne was third. She was born on October 7, 1995, and weighed 8 lbs, 3 oz. She was born in Fredericksburg and was born at 11:23 pm.


Rachel, another girl (which Gray didn't really like), came on July 20, 1998. She weighed 8 lbs, oz and was born at 1:18 pm. She SCREAMED as a baby--constantly. It annoyed us all, but she sure is cute.


Finally a boy!! Harrison popped into the world on September 28, 1999. He weighed over 8 lbs, 7 oz, and was born around 3ish in the afternoon. He was an excellent baby, my mom says--so easy.


Tanner was number 6, and came on February 1, 2001. He was born at 1:15ish pm, weighing 8 lbs, 6 oz. He was another easy baby boy!


The boys wouldn't stop coming! Bryce was our Christmas baby, and he was born on December 19, 2003. He weighed 8 lbs, 15 oz--the biggest baby so far! He was born at 2:53am. He was a good baby, but he had a HUGE head!


Ryan was number eight. He was born on May 25, 2006, on Grandpa Gray's birthday. He weighed 8 lbs, 6 oz and was born at 3:23 pm. He was a HORRIBLE baby, because he would NEVER sleep. But he made up for it, because he was/is so cute and so smart as he got older!


Finally, mom and dad are having NUMBER NINE! We are all hoping that it comes healthy and happy, but I would be really ecstatic if it was a girl! All of us kids are SO excited. There will be a FIVE year gap between Ryan and the new baby! Mom is about 11 weeks right now, and the due date is June 4th--my graduation! Mom will get induced around 38 weeks, though. We cannot wait!!


New Baby!! :) What a cute little blob.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Oh Boy

I am going to be a zombie this week. 1500 word research paper about global warming due in just a little over 24 hours. Total words right now. ZERO. I am the golden student.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Goodbye

Everyone that really knows me is well aware that I am not the biggest fan of pets--all kinds. However, for some reason back in April we went to Virginia Beach for spring break and I got two hermit crabs just for fun. I brought them home and then did pretty well. I initially took good care of them and kept their cage clean and moist and made sure they always had water and food. I was an okay little pet owner. However, over time, I became more busy and those poor little hermit crabs just fell lower and lower on my to do list. They are extremely boring, and you aren't even supposed to take them out of their cages and play with them. So they just sat.

After a while I felt guilty and again took care of my pets, but they wouldn't eat. They just sat there ALL day and ALL night looking pathetic and hating life (or so it seemed). I hemmed and hawed over whether I should just let them go and be done, but I felt guilty if I did because I knew those two little hermit crabs would never, ever make it.

On October 10, I just decided that they HAD to go. I couldn't keep them any longer. I decided to just set up their cage with their food open and lots of water near a shady tree in my backyard. I left them, and about an hour later I went back to check on them. They were gone and I couldn't find them anywhere. For some reason, it was kind of sad. Let's just think they are off having a better life somewhere.

Their previous home--in a cage sitting on the counter.

The crabs: the orange and black shell was named Herman and the tan one was named Winston.

Ryan helped me "set them free"

Their set up

Monday, November 1, 2010

New York

This past weekend Andrew, one of our long time friends, invited Gray and I up to West Point. We left on Friday afternoon and Mr. Brimer drove for a long time. I used the car ride to catch up on some sleep. We stopped at a hotel in New Jersey, about an hour out from the academy and stayed the night. The next morning we got up and finished the drive to West Point for the football game.

We got there at about 10:30 and eventually met up with Andrew. Army was playing VMI this weekend, and they won 29-7.

They had parachuters drop out of a helicopter and land on the field before the game started. The parachutes were West Point flags.


Close up of one of the parachuters


Army vs. VMI


The flag they unrolled on the field during half time.

After the football game was over, Andrew showed Gray and I all around West Point. The building designs are very pretty, but Andrew said the gray walls get old. The view by the Hudson River is awesome, though, so we stopped and took a few pictures near it and Trophy Point.

Near Trophy Point


Andrew and Gray--They've been best friends since 5th grade.


Andrew and I in front of the Hudson


Gray and I

We finished walking around and met up with Mr. and Mrs. Brimer. West Point has an awesome library. Mr. Brimer was creeping, and took some pictures of us walking.


We left West Point and we went to Out Back. We enjoyed some good food and then we went back to the West Point Motel where we were staying, hung around, and then got ready for the Halloween dance. Pretty simple but very fun.

All of us before we headed out.

The dance was pretty fun. West Point plebes are pretty interesting to watch. We ended up leaving early and then just walked around the little town outside of the academy, Highland Falls. It's a pretty dead town, but there was a McDonalds, so we went over there and got some ice cream and talked for a while. We all were getting pretty tired, so we dropped Andrew back off and then we went to the hotel. I crashed pretty quickly--practically the instant my head hit the pillow!

Mr. Brimer picked up Andrew the next morning and we all drove around to find some breakfast. We ended up in Newburgh at a diner that was really good. We ate some really delicious food and had a good time just driving around.


We had to take Andrew back. Around 1ish we dropped him off near his barracks and we got on the road back to Virginia. It was definitely a fun weekend--I never thought I would be going up to New York. Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Brimer for everything!

One last picture!