Our new toy (June 27)

We have been wanting to buy a motorhome for a while. We have talked about it several times, and thought it was a purchase we would make years down the road. However, we had many trips coming up this summer and we thought now was as good of time as any for us. So, the weekend before 4th of July, we found "the one", Curtis and his brother drove out to Colorado to look at it, make sure it was the right one for our family, buy it, and drive it back. It has been absolutely wonderful and we love it. So far we have put about 5,000 miles on with various trips, and have used it as a guest house for friends and family who have come to say with us.







This is Mckenna's crib that Curtis and his brother James made. It's awesome, and very useful on trips.





These are just a few pictures from our various trips this summer. I'll go into further detail of each trip in other posts. But isn't she a beaut? We have had a lot of fun so far, and are excited to make more memories as a family.

Spring Photos

I have an addiction to pictures. I love them. In fact, I have a folder with just pictures of McKenna in the almost 8 months of her life, I have well over 1,000 pictures in that folder. That's nothing in comparison to some of my sisters or sister-in-laws, but that's over 125 pictures per month. I think that's alot. Anyway, I used to work at a children's photography studio, and even after I quit, they continued to allow me to take my own pictures when I went to the studio. I always got to take pictures of my nieces and nephews, and was excited for the same perks for when I had my own child. Unfortunately, a month after McKenna was born, this studio claimed bankruptcy out of the blue, and I was never able to reap the benefits for myself. I was dissapointed to say the least. Since then I have been looking for a studio who I thought had as good of quality pictures, and who took the time to make my baby smile, unlike a lot of the studios out there. Long story short(or atleast shortened), I went and got McKenna's pictures taken for Spring at JCPENNY. Although she's not smiling in most of them (the photographer really did try...as soon as McKenna sees a camera, her face goes completely straight...no joke), I think they turned out pretty dang cute. Here are some of the pictures we got... Happy Spring!

Easter

We had a simple, yet enjoyable Easter this year. We woke up and had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, sat and watched General Conference, took a nap, watched more General Conference, and then went to a family dinner. It wasn't the most relaxing day, but it was fun.


We had a visit from the Easter bunny this year. I put the Easter basket full of goodies in front of McKenna to see how she would react, and this is pretty much what happened...


She was really excited at first with all the colors and different things to play with.


She immediately grabbed her little stuffed lamb and threw it aside to get to the eggs.


She played with the eggs for a few minutes...


...examining and sucking on a few of them


And then she spotted the grass (you know the plastic easter grass you can buy for like 50 cents a bag)... and that was her very favorite part of the basket.


Once I took the grass away from her, she liked the toys again, but only when there was nothing else there to distract her.

Next year, the Easter bunny is only going to be bringing plastic grass. :)

I am grateful for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the real reason we celebrate this wonderful holiday. I am grateful for His atoning sacrifice for us, and His life. He lives! Happy Easter everyone.

New Tricks

McKenna is growing up so fast, it's a bittersweet time for me. I love seeing her grow and learn new things, but she doesn't seem like a baby to me anymore, and that makes me sad. Curtis is SO excited for when she starts walking and talking, he welcomes any development happily.

McKenna started rolling over from back to front quite a while ago, but then she'd get stuck and cry until we'd put her on her back again, and start all over. However, a few weeks ago she learned how to roll front to back and back to front, so now she is all over the place. She loves being so mobile and moving on her own. The only problem for us is, she's also learned to pick thing up out of the carpet and put them in her mouth. We really need to baby proof our house.

We started feeding McKenna solids about a week before her 5 month mark. She was very open and accepting of the change, and LOVES to eat. She gets bored with the same old rice cereal (and HATES oatmeal cereal), but is very eager to try new things, and we love that. On a similar note, this week she also learned how to suck out of a straw...which doesn't seem like a big deal, but she loves it and it is the cutest thing in the world to watch. She gets a mouth full of water and then doesn't know how to take her mouth off and swallow it, so she'll suck it in, and spit it out and then suck more in, etc. She is absolutely soaked by the time she's done, but it's her new favorite thing.

One of my favorite things that she does now is her facial expressions. We started feeding her applesauce a couple weeks ago and she would make this really sour face. it made me laugh so hard, and she quickly caught on that that was what I was laughing at. So now, anytime she takes a bite of something, sour or not, she makes a sour face and then waits for my reaction, and does it again. I LOVE IT!


She loves to be read to and sung to. She loves to cuddle with mom and dad, and is a pro at taking naps now a day. We love her more then we could have ever imagined, and she makes our lives so much better. It's so amazing to see her grow and learn new things, and I love being a part of her world.

President's Day weekend #2

So, if you want to read about our weekend from hell last year, please feel free to read here first.......but to sum it all up, we went camping with Curtis' brothers and their families on Friday the 13th of last year, and everything that could have gone wrong, did (we got in a bad car accident, had to go to the hospital, etc., etc) It was a nightmare, but when all was said and done, turned out to be a fun trip.
This year, once again, we decided to get together with Curtis' brother and his family, but since it was too cold to go camping, we had to make other arrangements. We ended up going to stay in a hotel in Heber City that Curtis and I used to stay at all the time when we wanted to "get away" without paying a fortune, but still feel like we were on vacation.
The day was going really well. We checked into our hotel room, watched some t.v., went to the swimming pool with the kids, and had a really good time. Later that night we went out to dinner at a nearby little BBQ place, ate good food, talked, and overall it was a lot of fun...until we got back to our hotel room around 8:30.
When we pulled up to the hotel and went inside we headed up to our room when we heard a single fire alarm coming from someone's room on our floor. We didn't think much of it, so proceeded to go into our room. Curtis needed to go talk to his brother down the hall in their room, so he headed down there for a bit. Not two minutes after he left our room, the fire alarms for the entire hotel started blaring, and the lights flashing; the doors that separate the hallways to help control fires shut and locked...with me and McKenna on one side, and Curtis his brother and his family on the other side. I wasn't sure whether or not something was really wrong, so I stayed put until I could talk to one of the hotel staff. Meanwhile, I called Curtis' cell, his brother, and my sister-in-laws phones trying to figure out what was going on, but nobody answered, so I started to get a little panicked. I got McKenna in her carseat and strapped in just in time to hear one of the hotel staff run up the stairs and yell for everyone to get out, that there was a real fire in the building, and everyone needed to evacuate immediately. I only had enough time to grab McKenna and get out the door before Curtis came runnning down the hallway to meet me, and help us out to the car.
We got out to the parking lot and were greeted (not in a friendly manner) by the entire fire departments from both Heber and Park City... my side of the story isn't as exciting as Curtis'... so now it's time for me to tell his side.

So, as soon as he left our room to go talk to his brother down the hall, he knocked on his brothers' room door, and while he was waiting, noticed a guy running behind him into a room right acrossed the hall. As soon as the guy opened the door, there were flames shooting out of the room. Curtis banged on his brothers door again and told him to open up NOW, there was a fire. His brother opened the door...his poor pregnant wife had been in the jetted tub with their son, and was trying to cover herself up while the men (Curtis, his brother, and some random guy trying to help put out the fire) ran in and out of the room scooping up buckets of water out of the jetted tub to put the fire out. Finally one of the guys grabbed a fire extinguisher and was able to put it out before the fire department got there and before anyone got hurt.

We found out later that the room was not occupied by anyone at the time, but the fire was caused by an lamp using and oversized lightbulb that had tipped over and caught the mattress on fire. The sprinklers didn't go off like they were supposed to, and things could have been a lot worse then they were. We didn't end up staying there that night because it smelled too much like smoke, and we didn't want McKenna breathing that in all night...tha and we live 30 minutes away, so we just went home. I told Curtis that if we go out next year on President's day weekend with his family, and something bad happens, that is the last President's day weekend we are doing anything with them... I think the God's are trying to tell us something.

The moral of the story... only use lightbulbs that are recommended for the light you are using (example: if it calls for a 60 watt light bulb ONLY USE A 60 WATT LIGHTBULB!!)

Sorry this is a long post, and we don't have any pictures.

Baby Blessing (Feb. 7)

We blessed McKenna today in the BYU singles ward that we have been serving in for the last (almost) 2 years. We had a lot of family and friends come for the blessing, and it was a really good experience for us. It was especially fun because you don't get to do that kind of thing very often in singles wards. Curtis gave her a beautiful blessing, and she looked amazing in her dress.

We got a couple pictures with a portion of the group of those who came to support us. Unfortunately, most people had other committments following the blessing, and had to leave half way through the meeting, so they are not in the pictures. But we are grateful to have the love and support of so many family and friends, especially on McKenna's big day.

4 Month check-up (Feb. 4)

McKenna turned 4 months old on Jan. 25th, and had her four month check-up today. The nurse took us back to the room and weighed and measured McKenna. After doing so, she told us that our doctor would be right in, and then left the room. Not even 2 minutes later the nurse returned and said, "Um, we need to measure her again. It looks like she is a little short for her weight", at which point Curtis dropped his head and sighed, making a comment under his breath about her taking after her dad already. It turns out the nurse measured wrong, and she is growing perfectly proportionate. :)

Her stats for this visit were:

Height - 24 1/2 inches - 50th percentile

Weight - 15 lbs. 14 oz. - 90th percentile (exactly 8 lbs. more than she was when she was born. :)

Head circumfrence - 42 1/2 cm. - 90th percentile.

She also got her second round of immunization shots at this visit. This time around was not as awful as the last time... but honestly, it was still pretty unpleasant. Our nurse this time was a lot better. Although, Curtis and I were talking about it after we left, and decided we would both make a lot better nurses than any of the pediatric nurses that we have dealt with. :) Our reasoning being that McKenna didn't even react when she got the first shot. Curtis was keeping her entertained, and she was happy and distracted, and because she was happy, the nurse was nice and gentle. But on the second shot, the nurse got a little rushed so she could get it over with, and McKenna definitely felt that one and started crying. Because Mckenna started crying, the nurse went even FASTER for the third one to get it all over with, and that one was awful for her. So, if she'd gone slow and steady for all three... she probably would never have cried for any of them. Whatever, I'd rather her poke my kid than the last one, so I'll just live with it and shut up. All around though, this was a much better experience then the last time.

Our doctor said McKenna is right on track for everything. He asked a few questions about things she's doing, and told us it sounded like she was about ready to start eating solid foods...but that's an entirely different post for an entirely different day. Until then, here are some of my favorite pictures of our beautiful baby girl from this month.

Twas the night before Christmas...

Although we have all (Curtis, McKenna, &I) been unbelievably sick and miserable this whole week, we have had a wonderful Christma Eve today. The day started with the three of us sleeping in until about 10:3o this morning, We then got ready for the day and went to my parents house to meet Santa and get pictures with him. We have a good family friend who is now a professional Santa Claus, and the closest thing to the real Santa I have ever met. It was a lot of fun getting family pictures taken with him, and taking pictures of McKenna on his lap. She has just recently found her hands and really figured out how to use them. Once she found Santa's beard, she wasn't about to let go of it. Good thing it is the real deal or he would have had a lot of disappointed little kids, and a lot of explaining to do.

My family has this Christmas tradition that every Christmas eve we have a big family feast of all you can eat Nacho's. It's kind of a long boring story about how that came about. Lets just say I LOVE that tradition, and it didn't disappoint this year. So following our visit with Santa, we had our usual big Nacho feast. It was wonderful.

As soon as we were done with dinner and said our goodbyes, we came home and took a long, nearly 3 hour nap as a family...my favorite thing in the world! So far, it has been an absolutely perfect day (with the exception of being super sick), and we are excited to celebrate Christmas tomorrow. We are grateful for our Savior who is the real reason we celebrate this wonderful holiday and for his birth and life. We are grateful for our beautiful daughter who is joining our family this year, and are excited for many more Christmas' to come.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

Autumn Nelson

We have a new niece on my side as of this morning, and we are SO excited. Autumn Mary-Hazel Nelson makes the 11th grandbaby on my side of the family. My sister said that she was born around 10:30 this morning after only 3 hours of labor from start to finish, and that she is absolutely beautiful. She is small, weighing only 7 lbs 1 oz and is 19 inches long. We haven't ventured out to meet her yet because we have been sick, but we are so excited for Emma and Andy, and can't wait to see how big brother Calvin handles the new addition. Congratulations you guys!

Cooing

As I mentioned before we went to the doctor a couple of days ago for McKenna's 2 month check up, where she also received all her immunization shots. She was measured at the doctor, like they always do, and here are her stats from when she was born until now:

At Birth -

weight 7 lbs 14 oz; height 19 inches

They kept telling us that she was a very average baby.

Now, at her 2 month checkup -

weight 11 lbs 14 oz - 50th to 75th percentile

height 23 1/2 inches - 75th percentile

Head circumfrance 40 cm - 75th percentile

One of the questions our pediatrician asked us was whether McKenna was cooing or not yet. We told him that she did little ones here and there, but not very often. He told us to watch for that because that is a big developmental sign. I don't know if she heard that and that was all the encouragement she needed or what, but that night she started cooing and babbling like crazy and hasn't stopped since. When we talk to her, she'll get a big smile on her face, kick her legs excitedly and just start babbling like we can understand every word she's saying. It has been so much fun watching her grow and learn new things. She is already so smart and expressive, and we have so much fun with her. Our baby is anything but average.