Kenney Family News

Kenney Family News

2010 was a pretty exciting year for the Kenney Family. January started off with the birth of our ninth child, Matthew, who is better known as “Mamu.” He was nicknamed by Jada who was just over a year old at the time of his birth and who couldn’t say “Matthew.” The name just stuck. In May, Amy was hit by a car while cycling and lived. :) Thank goodness for helmets and angels! We had a crazy fun summer in July and August seeing nearly every local attraction from Snowbird to Burston Ponds rope swings with a family friend that was visiting. In September, the family, minus Aura and Christian, who had school, spent a week in Kauai. It was beautiful! Jada falls asleep many nights looking at a photo book of our trip. Shawn especially longs to return. By inspiration, we moved out of our house in October of 2009 and rented another home nearby. After remodeling our vacant house and preparing it for sale, we were inspired to move back into it in October of 2010. It seems we are still getting settled. We had a great holiday season as we were able to carry out a long planned and big surprise for Aura’s 18th birthday this year. Her best friend came for a visit and we again had a great local vacation sledding, skiing, snowmobiling and relaxing at Crystal Hot Springs.

Current News:

“Stand Strong,” the movie we made in 2009 was just picked up for distribution and will be released in Septemer 2011! We are preparing to film another movie in May. We are also working diligently to pay off our house in preparation to serve a mission as a family in three years.


Shawn is still working hard as the broker/owner of North Star Realty and is working on launching several other new businesses. He has been enjoying outdoor winter activities with the family and enjoys taking us on all the outdoor adventures he loves. He and Christian are currently working on mastering kite boarding. Up until Amy’s surgery, he was winter cycling outside with her. He loves setting goals and working toward achieving them. He was also just asked to be the presenting speaker at a Blue and Gold Banquet for scouting on an outdoor adventure and goal setting topic.

Amy just had a shoulder surgery to correct ligament and bone damage caused in the bike/car accident and will be wearing a sling through the end of April. All her cycling is now indoors on a winter trainer. Perhaps Shawn will set up the trainer on the deck a few times for some outdoor rides. :) She is working on the writing and details of the next movie during early morning and late night hours and is busy with the kids and their activities and schooling the rest of the time. Well, she does sleep too. She enjoys preparing and teaching the New Testament Sunday School lessons for the 15 yr.old class along with Shawn. She also loves studying the Book of Mormon, temple trips, and date night with Shawn.



Kenney Kids

Aura (18) is a full time student at Salt Lake Community College working on her general studies. She is taking 17 credit hours this semester. She just applied to transfer to BYU. We are waiting to hear if she was accepted. Please keep her in your prayers! She is in the second year of a business she started, teaching ballet and jazz dance to girls age 4-10. She is still dancing, singing, and enjoying all sorts of outdoor sports. She is a huge help with her younger siblings and a great example to them. She is very wise, loving and compassionate and consequently has many friends of all ages. She loves the gospel and sharing her testimony. She plans to serve a mission as soon as she is old enough. She has grown into a beautiful lady inside and out. She will be sorely missed when she goes away for school! We hope she gets into BYU Provo so she can come home lots!

Christian (16) is attending Juan Diego Catholic High School this year. He particularly loves his TV Production, Website Design, and Weight Lifting classes. He hates American Civilizations and Math! He also recently bought a 9.5 meter kite for kite boarding. He has a season pass at Brighton and snowboards every chance he gets. He just got his driver’s license and will be helping with lots of errands and some work through our real estate brokerage. He’s also interviewing along with some friends for a job at a local grocery store. He seemed to have grown about a foot in the past year and is quite a handsome young man. He is very fun, witty, and has many brilliant and inventive ideas for businesses and inventions. He is skilled at cinematography, everything outdoors, and working with his hands (definitely got this from his dad, and not from his mother.) One fun past time he enjoys is providing funny and witty responses to “yahoo questions” which is a public forum where people pose questions of all sorts and choose the best answer for their topic. He uses an alias and loves responding. His responses are often voted “best.” He is hilarious!


Sierra (14) is an amazing artist with a flair for interior design. She painted three of her bedroom walls different solid colors, and the fourth wall a tedious and complicated horizontal stripe pattern. She even had to “fix” the pattern when Noah took to the wall with a paintbrush. It looks great and fun with the clear beads she has hanging from the ceiling too! She loves to draw, sing, ride her dirt bike, play with her brothers and sisters, listen to music, do word puzzles, make things, and stay up all night. She is sensitive, funny, happy, smart, and very beautiful. She loves animals and has been begging for a dog or a horse. Aura is allergic to both, so the answer has always been “no.” She was very glad to move back to our house and be close to her best friend, Ashley again. She is looking forward to attending girls’ camp, Trek, which is a pioneer simulation, and EFY, which is a weeklong church youth activity, this summer.


Ethan (12) is a hard worker and is helpful from everything from babysitting to house and yard work. He enjoys Knights of Freedom which is a boys’ book club, scouting, playing with his brothers and sisters and friends, and going to work with Shawn. He is very wise and likes thinking and talking about gospel subjects. He has a quirky sense of humor and is constantly entertaining us with his impressions and zany dance moves. He was just ordained a Deacon and will begin passing the Sacrament this Sunday! He is very excited about that and to finally be old enough to attend the temple with his elder siblings.

Elijah (8) was so excited to be baptized in June. He attends Knights of Freedom with Ethan and also enjoys scouting, dirt biking, swimming, hiking, nature, outdoor adventures, playgrounds and waterslides. He is a nature lover with a very gentle heart. He loves having fun and will suffer through chores and school quickly to get to play. He has a fun and easygoing personality that is very enjoyable to be around. The little kids love him! He has a ton of energy and loves running, jumping and chasing. He is looking forward to starting soccer in March.

Dara (7) loves to draw, read, write, attend church, and do math. She loves learning and is an eager student. She attends a girls’ book and activity club called Liberty Girls where she learns many handicraft skills. She loves playing with her brothers and sisters. She takes good care of Noah, Jada and Matthew and is a great helper from babysitting to doing chores in the home and yard. She, like Sierra, Aura, Jada, and her mother is a late nighter who just thinks and works better after 9 PM!

Noah (4) loves coloring, playing with legos, drawing, listening to stories, playing in the sink with Jada, destroying things to see how they work, teaching Matthew, playing in his sisters’ makeup and nail polish, and asking questions all day long. He is definitely inquisitive and is always asking “why” and “what about…” He is fun and friendly, but also has a very serious and brooding side. He thinks a lot and makes some really interesting and wise observations. He has asked to learn to play the piano. We only have keyboards, so it looks like we are getting a piano soon. It can’t be emphasized enough how much he enjoys playing in nail polish and has a knack for finding it wherever it is hidden!

Jada (2) is the spitting image resemblance of Amy as a toddler. Her big blonde curls are the same “fraz-ma-taz” mop Amy’s were at that age. She is very independent and smart. She, Noah and Matthew spend their days exploring and playing together. She is very expressive and makes the best faces when explaining things, or just to get a laugh. She is essentially Noah’s conscience. We often hear her saying “No Noah!” throughout the day. Too bad her warnings are often too late. There is currently a nail polish mess on Noah’s hands and in the master bedroom closet that will take a miracle to get off.

Matthew (1) Mamu is the happiest baby ever. Not only does he follow all the kids around laughing at their antics, he belly laughs in his sleep. He is very sweet and cute and adored by everyone. He loves mashed potatoes and gravy, yogurt and oatmeal. He went through an applesauce stage where that was nearly all he would eat. He must have overdosed on it because now he won’t have anything to do with it. He is very small, wiry and agile and capable overall. He climbs shelves and chairs and it is common to find him up on the table. He loves dancing to music and has great rhythm. He follows Noah and Jada wherever they go. He can't walk yet, but he's got great climbing and jumping skills!

We’d love to hear what you are doing! Call, write, or stop by anytime!

We love you!

Love,
Shawn
Amy
Aura
Christian
Sierra
Ethan
Elijah
Noah
Jada
Matthew

Friday Night: Date Night

Shawn and I have been going on Date Night religiously, nearly every Friday night since we got married. It seems that we always live for Friday and the dedicated time we know we'll get to spend together. Our kids know it's just as a solid commitment as attending church on Sunday and plan their own activities accordingly.

Our Date Night activities vary depending on whether or not I am pregnant or nursing. With nine kids over the past 17 years, it's easy to see that being pregnant or nursing has been a constant. Partially due to those date nights, I'm sure! :) We've enjoyed many years of temple trips, movies, plays, hiking, eating out, double dating with friends, camping, staying overnight at a hotel, going for drives, parking, rock climbing, performances in the various arts, taking walks, planning or starting a business, visioning a project or goal, sitting in the hot tub at the gym, jogging, shopping, whatever. Last night was something new, and it was good!

We were on our way to the movie theater, when in conversation, we both agreed that there was really nothing worth seeing. So, we were without a plan. We decided to take a drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon to see how steep and far it is to get to Alta because Shawn has a goal of cycling to it this summer. He just summited Suncrest a couple of days ago and was looking for a new challenge. Baby Matthew was also with us, as he is nursing and would have been nursing happily at the theater. We drove to the top, talking, laughing, and having a great time, all except for Matthew who wasn't so much enjoying himself. Since there was really no place to park, and Matthew was getting increasingly displeased, we half-heartedly began the drive home. We were both sad that Date Night was ending because it really was still too early to end our date and go home. We usually stay out til midnight and often, later.

Shawn had another idea. He proposed that I just hurry and nurse Matthew and leave him with Aura at home so we could go out again. Sounded good. It was almost 11:00 PM before we were again in the car and backing out of the driveway. As we reversed, Shawn said "So, where we goin?" "I dunno," I said. No sooner had I said it, that he changed directions. Literally. He stopped the car, and put it in drive, rather than reverse. He drove straight into the backyard. We were laughing our heads off as he drove across the acre lawn and parked inconspicuously under a tree in the far corner of the back yard. He rolled down the windows, turned off the headlights and the engine and slid his seat back. We kept laughing for another ten minutes it seemed, as we had finally found a good place to park, right in our own back yard. We were completely undetected by our children who were all inside the house, expecting that we'd left again. There was something so satisfying, dangerous, and funny about that situation.

After talking for twenty minutes or so, still laughing at our stealthiness, we were eyeing the backseat. Full of stuff. Too bad. "Hey, what about the RV?" I said. In a flash, Shawn was out of the car and opening my door. We walked hand in hand back across the acre of grass, back to the driveway. We quietly opened the RV door, and slipped inside, completely under the radar.

With a cloud cover that hid the moonlight for the most part, it was very dark. Perfect for hiding out. Now that our date night was literally in our own driveway, it was extra exciting, lots of fun, and totally free! We didn't spend a dime on Date Night and had the best time ever. It topped off the night that we got to listen to the rain on the roof of the RV. It felt just like camping. At midnight, we quietly made our way back across the grass, again hand in hand, feeling the cool mist of the new fallen rain on our faces. Shawn opened the car door for me and we drove back across the lawn to park the car in the driveway. We were home. We giggled on the porch until we could keep a straight enough face to open the door.

The kids who were still awake rushed to greet us when we entered the house. They asked "Where did you go?" "Nowhere really," we said, and we meant it. :)

Amy Kenney

Team Shawn and Amy

Shawn cycled with me a couple of days ago. It was the first time in a month. Our schedules haven't worked to enjoy a ride together. By that, I mean that Shawn hates going at the time I go, and I find it too difficult as the mother of nine, to go at any other time.

I get up at 4:45 AM and feed the baby until 5:45 AM. Monday through Saturday, I leave on my ride at 6:00 AM. It takes me an hour and forty minutes to get my 25 miles in, so I am home by 7:45 AM to start breakfast. Shawn is just getting up at that time and gathering everyone for scriptures and prayer. We realized long ago that our sleep requirements are very different. If I get more than 5-6 hours of sleep, I am useless, overtired, and apathetic. Shawn is just the opposite, if he gets any less than 8 hours of sleep, he has the same results. Early morning riding didn't appeal to Shawn at all because of either the cut into his sleep time, or the mandatory earlier bedtime it would require.

Despite his distaste for an early ride, we each compromised on the departure time and decided that we'd go at 6:30 AM. He was groggy and found it difficult to perform well. Out of frustration he said he wanted to go home about five miles into the ride because I was so far ahead of him most of the time. He hasn't ridden in a month, I reminded him. I became more conscientious of where he was behind me and decided to slow down. He continued on and finished out the ride.

After the ride, and throughout the day, he complained of being absolutely drained of energy. I ended up taking all the kids for a drive with me to Provo to bring Aura's scriptures to her on the BYU campus, as she forgot them that morning in her haste to leave for EFY. Christian drove us down there in the Excursion. I was so impressed with his calm focus under the stress of crying kids, road barricades, traffic congestion, dark, and lack of an address on campus...but that's another story. Our absence and the quiet that ensued, allowed Shawn to go to bed early and catch up on much needed sleep.

Because of his exhaustion, I assumed he wouldn't want to go again the next day, so I went alone again at my 6:00 AM time. When I got home he said he had gotten ready to leave at 6:30 and was disappointed that I'd already gone, so disappointed in fact, he went back to bed :) I apologized for my assumption. I made sure to wake him up the next day to go with me again.

We rode together and I made a greater effort to watch his pace. Halfway through the ride we had a brief upset and exchange of frustrations. I complained that his pace was too erratic , he complained that I was holding back. As with all our disagreements, a two minute burst of passion is all it takes to voice the problem and clear it up. We immediately agreed that we each have unique strengths in riding. He is incredible at the hard riding--steep, brutal, short bursts of power, I am a distance, endurance rider, requiring a good pace that allows strength over long periods of time and conserving power for a strong finish. When our skills are combined, we equal one phenomenal rider. Such is our marriage, really.

With four miles left of the ride, I hit a rock that caused an immediate and completely flat tire. Shawn had the tube changed out and the bike ready to go in under five minutes. I could have changed it if it had happened while I was alone, but it would have taken me at least 30 minutes!

After the ride, when Shawn went into the office to work, the kids and I spent several hours yesterday morning digging through a long lost plastic tub of family photos. I came across an article about Shawn from 1990 when he was 17 years old. I'd read it before and he told me the story years ago, but it wasn't until reading it again, and having years of first hand knowledge and understanding about Shawn, that I really appreciated the inspiration I had while reading.

Shawn and a friend had hiked to the top of Rock Canyon in Provo in t-shirts and shorts on a December afternoon. They planned to rappel down. They rappelled partway down a sheer cliff ledge and accidentally cut their rope on a rock. This shortened their rope considerably and made it so they could not complete their descent to the canyon floor. They were stranded on a cliff ledge for hours and were very cold when it got dark. They yelled, sang loudly, and flashed help signals with a flashlight. Someone saw their light and called police. An eight man rescue team brought them down off of the cliff. The ignominy of the situation was only heightened by the article in the paper in which their names were used.

In all the years I have known Shawn, he has always had a strong penchant for preparedness. Everywhere we go, everything we do, he is always more than prepared with everything from first aid, to food and water, money, to gear and back up supplies. It hit me yesterday, that he learned this lesson on that cliff ledge twenty years ago. I talked to the kids about it as we looked at pictures. They know how prepared he is too, so the lesson seemed very obvious to them as well. When Shawn returned from work, he passed me holding a new bike tube and several CO2 cartridges on his way to put them in my underseat bike pack. It reminded me to tell him about the observation I made. I got the article out and he re-read it. He said he had never consciously thought about when he started being so prepared, but realized that the experience had changed his life and did teach him the life-saving importance of being temporally prepared.

This morning we rode together again. This time we were both conscientious of our pace and were enjoying our shared ride. I was listening to the Book of Mormon on my ipod, and was at Alma 32. I had just summited a long hill and was resting happily on a descent. I was completely engrossed and enraptured in Alma's sermon on angels ministering to men, women, and children and a discourse on faith being like a seed that when planted and nourished, grows to a great tree from whence the fruit of eternal life can be picked. I was in such a state of reverie, pedalling along at 30 mph, that I did not hear Shawn when he yelled to me. I didn't know that he was trying to get my attention, until I caught the blur of something orange in my peripheral vision, and turned my head. Shawn was pedaling furiously to catch up to me on a newly finished road that had not been open the day before. It paralleled the road I was on, with a rocky park strip between us. He was excitedly yelling "Amy! Watch out!" and pointing ahead. I looked ahead and saw a concrete barrier spanning the entire road in front of me with no way around it. I grabbed hold of my brakes and squeezed as hard as I could, praying I could stop in time. I stopped about five feet short of slamming it head on.

I stood there, staring at the thick, 2.5 foot gray wall in front of me. I was stunned and speechless, then the tears came. I couldn't believe I had not even noticed the danger up ahead. How could I have not seen or noticed a concrete wall? If Shawn had not gotten my attention and warned me of the danger, I would have hit it with tremendous force. There is no doubt it would have done some serious damage to me and my bike.

Shawn was also surprised I didn't see the concrete wall, but noticed that I seemed to be smiling and enjoying myself, caught up in the moment. He noticed that my eyes were on the road directly in front of me, and not on the horizon and what was ahead. I was reminded of the need to not only be aware of the immediate choices and decisions of the moment, but to look beyond them often, to the eternal perspective, the big picture, the vast vision of the future ahead to better make course corrections in the moment that would facilitate the safe arrival at the pre-determined course in the distance.

When I got back on my bike and started again, this time on the parallel road next to Shawn, my mind took in the many applications for this experience. I realized that I had just been greatly humbled. I wasn't aware that I had been in such a state of pride. The pride I suffered is one of independence. I can get that way from time to time. I had been riding on my own for the last month and was confident in my own ability. I also thought of those parallel roads. They were both going the same direction, but one was deadly. What a metaphor. This experience reminded me how much I do need Shawn and how great we are for, and with, each other. Sometimes he warns me of a danger I don't notice, and sometimes it is me warning him. This state of interdependence is the whole point of marriage. We do make an incredible team.
Today I will be thinking about the blessing that is my marriage to Shawn, the big picture, humility, and interdependence. I feel so grateful and blessed I was spared physical trauma or death and have the luxury of contemplating these truths. I will also continue to ponder the importance of not only spiritual preparedness, but temporal preparedness as well. It does take both to achieve any kind of real safety of body, mind and spirit.

Mentored by the Best: My Best Friend, That Is

I love the wide bike lanes in Draper. Shawn and I can ride side by side on most of the roads we cycle. On the roads with a narrow shoulder, he always insists that I go ahead. He often proves that chivalry is not dead. He says he likes the view. But I know better. This is how he leads. When he taught me the ins and outs of cycling and the rules of the road, he would briefly edge in front of me to demonstrate, and then slip into place behind me, letting me set the pace. This is how he is. He leads from behind, like a shepherd driving his flock. He is an amazing leader, teacher and example. I'm often vocal, animated, and larger than life. He happily encourages me to be the visible one--the one out front. He prefers silent anonimity. If there is something great to accomplish, and we set out to do it together, rest assured, he is the driving force behind making it happen. The truth is that he is my better half, observant, thoughtful and kind. On our rides, I watch his shadow touch mine and marvel at how blessed I am to go through life with him. Tonight as we made our way home from a ride just as the sun was setting, I looked at him as the sun shone across his face. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and love for him. In that moment, I began thinking about how all the cool things I know, I learned from him.

Before I met him I didn't even know how to mow a lawn. Crazy, I know. I had no brothers and my dad loved his Honda mower too much to let his daughters mar its awesomeness. A week after a brief mowing lesson, Shawn arrived home to see me finishing up the back yard. He saw me pushing with all my might and chuckled as he walked up and held down little bar that turns on the "self propelling" feature. I guess I missed that part of the previous instruction. I wondered why it seemed so hard. He was pleased with my effort nonetheless and praised me for my attempt at mowing neat lines.

Never before had I been rock climbing. He was excited to introduce me to one of his passions. He beamed as I donned my first climbing shoes and a harness. He belayed me with a patient and encouraging attitude when I took my first overhang and struggled against it for what seemed like an hour of total frustration. He smiled at my hard-headedness and didn't ask me to quit. He congratulated me when I was able to tie a figure eight knot myself and was out of his head ecstatic when I knew the climbing jargon and could speak his language, put on all my own gear and make it to the top.

He taught me to rappel, ice climb, and how to ride a motorcycle. He even rode on the back! What trust. He took me on a three day, 25 mile backpacking trip when I was five months pregnant with our eighth child. That's how much faith he has in me, that I'd be able to make it! Because of his belief, and his walking along behind me, I did! He taught me to play chess, and didn't complain when I started to beat him. He taught me how to snowboard, how to change a bike tire, how to use a camp stove and filter water out of a stream. I went to Moab for the first time in my life with Shawn. We camped and took a morning run over the slickrock at sunrise. I'll never forget it. The first time I ever saw the natural beauty of Delicate Arch was alongside him. He signed me up for an introduction to paragliding class that got me hooked. We flew the mountains of Mexico together. A couple of days ago, he installed new cycling pedals on my bike, bought me my own cycling shoes, in my size (all on his own, without my knowledge,) and taught me how to clip into the pedals. He put the bike on the grass, had me climb on and carefully held it steady as I learned how to clip in and out safely. When I mastered that, he did the same setup on the concrete driveway. When he was sure I could do it, he turned me loose to ride on the street. He complimented my aptitude. I knew it wasn't my aptitude, but the skillfull instruction of my favorite teacher.

Without his influence, undoubtedly my life would not be as wondrous and rich. Shawn and I have been reading "Driven: The Autobiography of Larry H. Miller" together this last week. We've both been teary in many parts. I don't think the tears are necessarily for the story of Larry H., but for the feeling of catching a glimpse of our future together; the confirmation of events to come. We have much to do, and in many ways, we're just getting started! Aura recently asked me how I knew that Shawn was who I'd marry. I thought back on the similarities of many of the young men I dated. Then, I thought of the great difference in Shawn. After only a couple of dates, we were discussing our visions of the future, and in no time at all it seemed, our visions became entwined. We knew we'd fulfill those visions together.

Nine kids, at least ten houses, and innumerable businesses and experiences later, we're well on our way. I hope and pray we are granted many more years to dream, plan, work, create, grow and learn together.

There is an area in which I am still greatly, or rather, grossly, lacking skill. These are cookies I made last week. Shawn, can you teach me how to cook?