NEW BLOG

I have decided to move Koen's blog to www.veenis.wordpress.com

I'm currently working on transfering the posts, so new posts will come soon!

**Please visit us!!**

Nashville 2010

Why Nashville you may ask (or actually, many of you did!).....Well, Kyle and I are both big country music fans, neither one of us had been there before and we thought what better place than Nashville to introduce Koen to great music! So we packed up the car on Monday night and started driving south first thing Tuesday morning. We made it to Chicago (our first stop) with enough time to hang out on Michigan Ave, do some sight seeing and then head over to Adam Sieve (Kyle's college friend) and Micaiah's place for a dinner. They grilled us an amazing feast of kabob's, veggies and of course a few beers. Koen was entertained by Micaiah the whole time, it was great! After a night of amazing food and great conversation, we bid farewell to them in the morning and were on our way. After passing through Indianapolis and Louisville....we we arrived in Nashville just 7 hours later! For spending the most part of two days in his car seat, Koen did a great job! He napped, smiled, babbled, ate.....Kyle and I took turns entertaining him in the back seat. He loved being on the road!

When we arrived in Nashville, we took the hotel shuttle right into downtown and spent some time walking around and shopping. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock and then called it a night, as we were all exhausted. The following day, we spent touring the Country Music Hall of Fame...we loved it! We shopped a bit, tried to get into the CMT building (since we weren't famous they turned us down!), had a few beers at the only bar that let Koen in the door :), and enjoyed the great weather. Friday we spent the majority of the day at the Grand Old Opry. We had a behind the scenes tour and walked through the Museum of Country Music. Again, Koen was so well behaved and HAPPY! There was country music playing everywhere and he loved being outside! We tried to get a hotel room at the Grand Old Opry Land but they were full so we took it as a sign to start heading north. By midnight, we arrived in Chicago again! Enough time to grab Koen out out of the car and crash at Sieve's place for the night. Saturday morning we shopped around their neighborhood....had burgers for lunch....and sushi for dinner. Sunday morning, we packed our bags and headed north to Madison for a short visit with the Gustavson family! We went to a place called Ella's.... the perfect place for kids. I've never seen anything like it! A merry-go-round in the parking lot, trinkets everywhere, ice cream, great food.... It was a great last stop on our first road trip with Koen!

We are already planning our next trip down to Nashville :) Pics to come!

9 months!

Koen turned 9 months on the 9th (Gma's bday!) and finally had a doctor's visit without shots! Dr. Saxton said he was a 'perfect baby' and he was growing very well!

Here are the stats:

Weight: 21.6 pounds, 60th percentile

Height: 26 inches, 50th percentile

Head: 50th percentile

The way Koen's been eating lately, Kyle and I would have sworn he was more than 21 pounds!

Milestones:

*pulling himself up to standing and he's starting to get the hang of walking while holding onto things

*waving

*almost sleeping through the night, usually wakes up once!

*eating more solid foods! loves to sample mom and dad's meals!

*has 4 teeth now! 2 on the bottom and 2 on top and he thinks it's hilarious when we brush them!

*spent his first night away from mom and dad...with gma and papa

*first road trip with mom and dad (Chicago, Nashville, Madison)

Things he loves:

*listening to dad sing country music

*traveling, (Lutsen, McCannel Cabin, Chicago, Nashville, Madison)

*spending time with his new cousin Reed and of course with Finn

*grandpa's Corvette

*hanging out with his friends, he's starting to interact a bit more!

*ECFE class, he's met some friends there too and loves showing off in class!

*food, especially Cheerios and fruit from his fresh feeder.

*walks

*running with mom in the jogger stroller

*going through dvd/cd collection and making a mess in the living room

*anything electronic: remotes, phones, cords, laptops, etc...

*sockets, somehow he finds them in every room, thank God for the safety plugs!

*watching mom play broomball

*happy hours with dad

*Billy's patio, Groveland Tap

*spending time with his aunts and uncles

*crawling around in the grass

*being outside

Happy Birthday Gma and Papa

Grandma and Grandpa Hemenway both celebrated their last year of their 50's this past week! Koen helped them celebrate by having his first 'sleep over'! I had a broomball tournament down in Iowa (we won the whole thing!) and Kyle was at TK's bachelor party.....so we had our first night away from the little guy! It sounded like he did great and even slept in until 8:30am (a nice change from the regular 6:30am wake) and only woke up once in the night!!! Papa said Koen cruised around the kitchen in his 'walker' and is going to be a Nascar Driver the way he maneuvers around things....look out Tony Stewart!

Cousin REED is here!

Joe, Brooke and Finn welcomed their newest addition on Saturday, April 3rd 2010! Reed Phillips Hemenway was born at 6:35am, 8lbs 4oz and 21.24 inches long! We are another player closer to a full hockey line! Reed was named after his Great-Grandma Sally Reed, one incredible woman! He has big shoes to fill!

Koen is especially excited to have another boy around to wrestle with...one that he is finally bigger than! We can't wait for all the fun!

The happy family...look how proud Finn is!

Uncle Andy kept Koen and Finn busy at the hospital!

Spring Madness!

I think my prayers were answered when I begged for warmer weather about a month ago! We were all getting a bit too cooped up at Club 1117 St. Clair and dying to get outside and PLAY! It's been gorgeous....perfect weather for walks, runs, bike rides, zoo visits, etc. So, the spring has started off on a GREAT foot (even though Kyle is still job searching....his last opportunity did not work out, so we get him home for a while longer!). Lindsey and I took Koen and Finn to see the Farm Babies at the MN Zoo! Finn loved talking to the animals, specifically the goats and chickens! And Koen was a little more interested in his Cheerios than the animals, however, he did love watching the monkey swing around on his tree! We had a great day!

We spent Easter at my parents place and took a walk down to the lake, looking forward to swimming soon! Kyle, Koen, Sam and Abby!

We had a playdate with the Aafedt's and Gustavson's and FINALLY got to meet little Evelyn Gustavson! She is absolutely adorable! It's hard to believe how fast the group of kiddos keeps growing! (from the left, Reese, Fuzz, Koen, Cullen, Tyra and Evelyn).

More Zoo pics.....too funny!

Wrestling with Dad!

It has been a difficult week for us here at the Veenis Household. Kyle was let go from Heritage on Monday. They said they could not afford him. Bummer. And on top of that news, a friend of mine from broomball went into full cardiac arrest on Monday, was put in an induced coma and died today. It truly puts life into perspective and helps us to re-prioritize what is important. We will miss Rose greatly and just hope for peace for her husband and young daughter. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers please :)

On a much brighter note, Koen and I have been able to spend more time with dad this week! We've loved it! Dad is teaching Koen how to wrestle.....


Check out that look on his face!

Happy boy with dad!

The latest job update: Kyle flew out to Baltimore, MD for an interview with OraPharma (dental divison of Johnson and Johnson) on Wednesday. He is down to the final two. The territory is close to home, so we have our fingers crossed this works out. We will find out more next week!

We love March!

March is a great month...for many many reasons! We get to celebrate lots of Birthday's, the weather starts to show signs of SPRING, and we get to party on St. Patty's Day! First, Grandpa Neil turned 60! We celebrated with a great meal that Granny cooked....and a delicious Kowalski's-Syle Birthday cake (Happy Birthday Neal!)...Koen did get a little taste of the buttercream frosting. LOVED IT. Happy Birthday Grandpa! Then on Sunday, we celebrated Uncle Matt and Uncle Joe's Birthday's and Grandma and Grandpa Pop's place. Koen enjoyed playing hockey with his cousin's....and wrestling with Finn! Happy Birthday Matt and Joe!

St. Patty's Day was absolutely beautiful! 60 degrees and Sunny all day! We had a great group to watch the parade in St. Paul: Joe, Finn, Tini, Keelin, Jennifer, Zoey, Amaya, Malik, Koen and I. The kids loved hearing the bag pipes and watching the crazy Irish-folk in the crazy attire! It was a great day!

We continued the Irish celebration with The Morud's (the real Irish) at the Wild Game. Koen and Keelin are just starting to interact! Here is Koen taking Keeling down.. :) Probably the first of many wrestling bouts!

Cheering on the Wild!

8 months!

I feel like it was yesterday that I posted his 7 month pictures....well okay, it was just a few days ago, but I was too busy with broomball to keep up with my posts :) It's so hard to believe Koen is already 8 months! As soon as I get used to saying how old he is, he's a month older! Koen has been obsessed with electronics...computers and cell phones to be exact! His Grandpa V got him his own cell phone...maybe he can get him a laptop too! Here he is looking like a little business man...in his business suit :)

Today we had a pre-birthday lunch with Grandpa V and Meg at Noodles. They both have birthday's on Saturday! (March is a popular month...Uncle Matt and Uncle Joe also have Birthday's!) Meg hasn't seen Koen since he was 3 weeks old! She was amazed that he's grown so much and how active he was! It was a great lunch!

We had Finn over for a few hours tonight and we got some fun pics in the tub! Koen absolutely LOVES watching Finn run around the house. He sat in his high chair and smiled and laughed while Finn was being 'crazy'!

State Champions!

Who would have thought at age 31, I would be a State Champion! Seriously. I just started playing broomball a few years ago and fell in love with it. I'm now playing pretty competitvely....and even roped Lindsey into playing with me! The month of March is tournament time....state for women's, state for co-ed and nationals for co-ed....Kyle, Brettski and Koen have been our biggest fans! However, it wasn't hard to convince them to come out when Coors Light was the sponsor!
This past weekend, Grandma and Grandpa Veenis even made it out for the double-over-time victory for the Women's State Championship!

I got the ball and Lindsey is above me!

Koen may have smuggled in some beer for the guys :)

Cheerleaders!

Linds and I.

Gotta go to the Auto Show!

Koen was lucky enough to join his father and grandfather to his first ever Auto Show! Start 'em young, as Kyle would say!!!! So the tradition starts! Kyle and his dad go to the Auto Show every year....and dream of the cars they will someday own! I gave Kyle the camera in hopes he would take a few pics, but in reality thinking that he probably wouldn't! He proved me wrong! Here they are!

7 months in pics....

The milestones for the month:

CRAWLING! Once he figured it out, he's been moving faster and faster each day!

Pulling himself up into standing mode...scary!

Still giving us his HUGE smile!

LOVES to babble.....

Kissed his first girl. Seriously. Crawled over to his friend, Isabella, at ECFE class and planted one right on her cheek... The whole class laughed!

Giggles....a lot~

Is finally sleeping without a swaddle. But still waking up OFTEN. Too Often.

Starting to get some stranger anxiety... :(

Here he pulled himself up in his crib...time to lower it!

He's over at his Autie Elly and Uncle Ali's house....crawling on the table!

He loves to play with his hockey stick!

Cheering mom and Wingy (Lindsey) on at Broomnball!

7 months...

Wild game...a lot better than the very first one we took him to!

The smile...

Hanging out with his buddies, Barrett (9 months!) and Ava (3).

7 months, a major milestone and a new friend!

Our Crazy CRAWLING boy! Koen turned 7 months on the 9th of February and seems to have the energy of a 2 year old! He finally figured out how to crawl and he has not stopped moving since :) Gone are my days of setting him on the floor to play with his toys while I fold the laundry... He wants to be a part of everything that I am doing...OR he's getting into something he shouldn't! The baby-proofing has begun! Along with crawling, he's still LOVING his food and has shown quite the interest in our food as well. He's a hungry boy....and he definitley has his dad's appetite! I've started making his babyfood because he's eating so much! He's started squeezing his hands together (sort of like the sign for milk) when I show him his food.... maybe his cousin Finn is teaching him sign language...or maybe just a coincidence. He's chatting a bit more and saying 'uh oh'... Again, probably just a coincidence, but when Kyle and I say "uh oh' to him, he repeats it!!! We're just waiting for the flood gates to open when the chatting really begins...he does have a few relatives that like to talk :)



On February 17, 2010, Koen's two friends, Tyra & Cullen, welcomed their new little sister to the world: Evelyn Claire Gustavson. She was 6lbs 15oz and 18 inches long. Her pictures are beautiful. Congratulations Gustavson's, we can't wait to meet her!

Koen's favorite toy!

This is Koen's latest thing....he loves running around in his walker! He's at the Dells here in his swimmer...so he looks naked! Funny!

Wisconsin Dells 2010!

The Annual Hemenway Christmas was pushed back this year to January where we continued our long tradition of going to the Wisconsin Dells. This year we decided to stay at the Wilderness Resort instead of the Kalahari for a change. We were shocked to find the waterpark so packed! We had a blast though....and Koen absolutely loved being in the water and watching his older cousins (Sam and Finn) splash around. Sam even took Koen down a mini slide! We had an amazing weekend!!!! Here are some of the highlights:

Little Swimmers on the head....

Finn wearing Sam's goggles. Too funny!

Matt, Sam, Joe, Finn, Grandma, Pops and Brooke!

Grandpa Pops and Sam, flexing his big muscles!

Happy Baby....the whole weekend!