The Kern Family Update

I do not have any other baby news but thought I would update on how the rest of life is going for those that don't already know. With summer quickly approaching we are as busy as always with racing among other things that consumer our lives on a daily basis.
Jay is racing in the Midwest Champion Series for the dirt and the Mid-America Pavement Series. We have raced one Midwest Champion Series race in Waverly, NE and have another one coming up in a couple of weeks in Greenwood, NE. We have raced two races for the Pavement series in Jamaica (Iowa) where he got a 3rd place finish and we got rained out on Sunday then recently raced in Cedar Rapids where he got a 2nd place and a 1st place finish. Pavement racing has always been his "baby" and he has refounded his love for it as has his wife with the checkbook, no prep game and a lot cleaner! : ) These first few races have been a great benefit to us; however, as they are relatively close to home and close to family/friends that don't get to see much. So the Nebraska races we get to stop in and spend an evening with our good friends, Brian & Becca, and our beautiful god-daughter, Meliah. And this past weekend in Cedar Rapids we got to spend the weekend with my cousins, Joe & Emily, and their two sweet girls, Avery & Carly!
In addition to racing keeping him busy, I am pursuing and have completed about 40% of my masters degree. I am doing this online with the University of Phoenix and while I am glad to be doing it and look forward to reaping the benefits in the long run, I have come to realize that the time committment it takes and decided to take a short leave of absence when Baby K is born. So I should have been done in August of 2011 this will be prolonged slightly and I will be completed in October instead.
Other than racing and my school work, we continue to find plenty of other things to do to keep us busy and probably more than this mom should be doing! We each golf in a league (Jay on Tuesday and me on Thursday) with some friends of ours, Matt & Katie Jermier, who deserve a little time away for themselves as well with their new boy, Kale, keeping them on their toes!! We have a lot of birthdays, weddings and other events that will keep us plenty busy in the next several weeks; actually there isn't a free weekend until September which complicates getting the baby's stuff ready so we have determined that things will have to be cut out a little bit to make that more of a priority as we know that October will be here before we know it as fast as the rest of the year as already gone!
I must not forget to mention our current "baby" who has realized that something is going on and is very clingy to mom. We have had EmJay 2 years in July and it's hard to believe that it's been that long already! But she is also adjusting and I have heard is normal for dogs to know what is going on usually before the parents do and I am believing that more and more. She is enjoying not having to stay at home during race weekends though and has become the new racing mascot for the year : )
I suppose that about wraps up our crazy, busy, chaotic lives and have been told numerous times that it doesn't get any better after the baby so I suppose I will just accept that this is our lives as we know it! Until next time...have a great & safe Memorial Weekend and hopefully will have Baby K news in the next post!!!

Baby K at 16 Weeks

Catching up the last few weeks (approx 16 actually)

As most of you already know, Jay and I are expecting our first human addition to our family. We are due on October 30th and are looking forward to the adventure ahead. October is turning out to be a very special month for our family as we share our wedding anniversary and Grandma Teresa's birthday on the 25th of October and only a few days earlier is our "dating anniversary". So we have learned to cherish this month and anticipate a lot of special things to celebrate each year!
Just a brief preview of the last 16 weeks, we found out officially that we were pregnant on March 1st and have continued to anticipate the feeling to become real since then (which it still has not to me!) We had our first ultrasound on March 17th which helped the feeling become a little more real but still seems like a dream.
We are anxiously awaiting our June 3rd appointment when we will #1) Get to see Baby K again after 9 weeks and #2) Hopefully have a cooperative baby that will show us what he/she is! A majority of the votes so far are going towards girl accept for one family friend who guessed an 11 lb, 5 oz boy (OMG, I hope you are wrong Matt H!!) Otherwise, a lot of girl guesses have been made which will be special because it will be the first Kern girl to be born into Jay's immediate family; who has 2 brothers and 2 nephews. But regardless Baby K will be special and loved entirely!!
Jay is looking very forward to getting "belly pictures" taken soon so I will post them when those are done. And again, I hope this helps keep family up to date as most of my family is pretty spread out! While we wish we could see them all more this way we can keep everyone updated without anyone being the last to know! ; ) Love you all!