Trip to the aquarium

Today we visited the aquarium & it was a blast. We started getting Mckinlie excited last night and we kept telling her we were going to see the fish. She knows what fish are and couldn't wait.

We set-off in the afternoon after a nice long nap! Mckinlie came out of her room with her baby in the carseat and ready to go. So cute!

All the exhibits were so cool. Our favorites were the penguins, turtles and sharks. Mckinlie has really been into turtles because her favorite bath toy is a turtle.

Kennedi had fun hanging out in her carrier and watching everyone. When I took her out, the front part of the carrier was soaked in drool. She didnt make a peep and was just happy to be along for the ride.

After, we let Mckinlie choose one toy I wasn't surprised when she chose a penguin "gab". She was THRILLED. On the way home, Kennedi was crying in the car & Mckinlie was trying to comfort her. She kept saying, "Hold on Kenna, Hold on Kenna" in THE sweetest voice ever. She is such a loving girl and best big sister.

We had such a fun day together! It's so much fun doing things with Mckinlie as she gets older and understands more. DAILY I think about how much fun this summer is going to be with the girls both running around and doing activities as the best of friends. I really CANNOT wait! 

Toddler Territory

Mckinlie is 22-months right now & SO much fun.

She:

*constantly comes out of her room all dressed-up. She loves to wear heels, jewelry, "purses and gabs" (bags) and fun headbands.

*while she is dressed-up she loves to push her doll stroller. Sometimes it has a baby in it, other times it has random toys like: her phone, a sippy, her snacks, etc. She is so awesome at being a little mommy. She gets dressed up, makes sure she has her diaper "gab" and hangs her toy keys on the handle of the stroller. It cracks me up.

*is talking SO much. She repeats everything, and knows exactly what she is trying to say even if we don't understand it. Just this month she started stringing words together. This morning she came up to me and said, "more crackers" "more juice". It's so crazy to think that she used to be as small as Kennedi and now she is a big girl.

* loves to dance & sing. She sings. "The Wise Man" song from nursery & does almost all the actions to it. She heard a song with actions on this show and picked it up pretty well the very first time. There are a few songs that she randomly just LOVES and goes crazy when they come on.
This is her current favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7_nponhytw


* still loves her "pilla" (pillowpet). She WILL NOT go to bed without it & don't you dare try. She gets this pained look on her face and cries out, "Pilla! Pilla!". We just got her a few full-size pillow-pets for Christmas and she is in heaven.

* is an awesome helper. She throws things away for us and unfortunately I think some prized belongings have ended up in there. We are missing 2 remotes, one of which is pretty pricey to replace. She is awesome at going and finding a binky for sister when she is crying, rocking her carseat, etc. Every morning and after naps, she will come out of her room and search for Kenna. She runs up to her to say, "Hi Kenna" and is back to playing.

                                        She got into her dresser & found a fun hat to wear during snack

                                         Demanding treats as she relaxes and watches a movie

                          She loves to dress-up in dance clothes, and random things of mine that she finds

           I found her like this one morning. She had taken her pajamas off & was wearing the feet as mittens.

                      She is obsessed with lotion and finally found a way to get it off her dresser

 I have an outfit almost exactly like this and wear a pearl necklace with it. I dressed her one day and she ran to her dressup box and came out wearing her play pearl necklace.She is so smart.

 She loves to get ready while I am and comes into the bathroom to show me how pretty she is

 I love to dress her up and have her be my little doll. I use all of my energy on her and sadly I don't have much left to make myself look good, haha

                                               She loves to wear sunglasses and be "cool"

       This little girl loves to wear snow clothes. We took Dad to work & she didn't want to take them off

                                                     

She is an awesome shopping buddy. I love to take her out at night after Kennedi is in bed. One day we went past the baby clothes and she grabbed a shirt and said, "Oh pretty, Kenna". I of course had to buy it. After all, she picked it out just for her sister.

Dad's thoughts:

Mckinlie is at a very fun stage right now. She is almost two but at times acts older. She's very observant and smart and wants to copy everything we do or say. She loves attention and making people laugh, that will benefit her long term because she will always find a way to be happy no matter what struggles she will have. My favorite thing right now is how loving she is, she's alway making us kiss the pillow pets or other toys she has. She gives randoms hugs and pats on the back to show her love.

We love this little girl & her fun personality. In the next few months we are going to be potty-training, getting rid of the binky, switching to a big girl bed, and getting ready for her to turn 2! We can't believe it.

I can't believe my baby is 5-months!

I cannot believe Kennedi is already 5-months. Next month she will be half-a-year old. How did that happen?
Time really does just fly by.

Kennedi at 5-months:

*still only 11 lbs. She eats like crazy, so it blows me away! We have tried some rice cereal and some pureed fruits and she has sucked them down from the very first try.

*has started to roll from tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy.

*started grabbing toys and putting them in her mouth. She can't move much still, but if they are right near her she is able to get them.

*started grabbing her toys and eating them. I love it! It's one of my favorite things that my babies do.

*will only sleep on her side with her head turned up. I swear her neck has to get sore. Trevor calls her "little neck-cranker" and "round facer". They are endearing terms, haha

Kennedi is still behind developmentally since she was early, but I'm thinking she will catch-up quick just like Mckinlie did.

Dad's thoughts on Kennedi at 5-months:

Kennedis 5 months of life has gone fast. Shes has had a surgery already but She is though and recovered well. She has a very pretty smile and is pretty talkative. It's fun waking up to her talking in the mornings. She loves to look at herself in the mirror above her swing. My favorite thing is that she how easy going she is, just likes to hang out and enjoy life whether it's playing on the floor or being carried around while chasing mckinlie. 



She is such a happy and content baby. She is so sweet and always has a smile for us. I can't remember what life was like before adding her to our family. We couldn't be happier! I'm so excited for the next stages, they are my very favorite and I'm excited to see her start interacting more.

We love you, Kennedi!

Christmas 2012

This is the first year that Mckinlie is old enough to somewhat understand Christmas. We were so excited to celebrate with her.

We didn't really talk with her much about Santa, because we thought she wouldn't understand. Boy, were we wrong. One day, she saw a Santa on tv and said, "Santa! Ho,ho,ho!" . We have no idea where she picked it up from but it was so adorable. We tried to visit him at the mall and waited in that long long line. As soon as we got up there she freaked out and we didn't end up getting a picture with him. Sad days! 

We had our ward Christmas party & they had a cute photo booth there. That had to serve as our "Santa" picture for the year.

On Christmas Eve, we wanted to start some new traditions. We had a random dinner on the floor in front of a movie. Our dinner consisted of some of our favorite appetizers. Some of them we bought and some we made. We LOVED it and it's for sure a keeper.

Then we made cookies for Santa. I procrastinated and the only frosting left at the store was pink with pink sprinkles. Luckily Mckinlie was too young to notice or care. She sat on the counter and did awesome at spreading frosting on the cookies, and oh, eating them too.

   She always eats like this. I'm not sure where she got this from. We try to get her to use her fork, but it was
   too cute this time.

 I don't have many pictures of opening gifts but she got a cute doll set that has a pack-n-play, car seat, highchair, bouncer, etc. She loves it! She also got a little people car, pillow pet, clothes, etc. Her most favorite thing that morning was the cartons of goldfish snacks in her stocking. She had all of these new toys all around her and she just wanted to be left alone to eat her goldfish. She did get a wagon from Grandma & Grandpa and she was in heaven. She pulled it around the house all day with the dog and her dolls in it. She so badly wanted Kennedi to get in, too. She was so devastated that it had to go into the crawlspace and be put away that night. We can't wait to use it this next summer. Kennedi will be 1 and old enough to sit up in it. We can't wait!

Kennedi just hung around mostly. We didn't think she would be too into it this year, but she LOVED looking at everything. She got an exersaucer and it's been so nice. My arms get tired from holding her up because she loves to stand 24/7.

It was so much fun celebrating with the kids this year and will be even more fun next year when they are older!

Kennedi's Blessing

Our sweet Kennedi was blessed & given a name on December 2nd, 2012. She was just over 4-months-old. We wanted to do it in November, but we had her surgery that month so we postponed.

Sadly I only took 1 picture. I really have to be better at taking more. Trevor gave a beautiful blessing & it's exciting to think of all that's in store for this little girl. 

c

Zoo Visit with the Simister's

In November, we went to visit the zoo with some friends. We love our neighbors, the Simisters. 

Camille has 3 boys & she brought her two youngest. The kids stayed in the stroller all bundled up, but still had fun. I didn't take too many pictures, but I love the ones that I got quickly. We've taken Mckinlie 3 times so far in her little life, but I've taken kids a ton in my nannying years. I've never seen so many active animals, like we did this day. It was so fun! 

I let Mckinlie out of her stroller for a little while. Her poor little legs can't keep up & She was just getting ran over by all the people there. She mostly enjoyed all the animals in her cozy stroller, while eating her lunch. 

Kennedi just came along for the ride & enjoyed it

It was a fun, quick trip. We love having such awesome neighbors. It's been fun for sure as we didn't really have friends when we lived in Heber. We rented in a VERY well-to-do neighborhood and everyone was much much older. Camille is in the upper level of the house & takes my monitor to listen for Mckinlie during nap so I can run errands. It's SO nice to have someone to do that. She has a baby a few months older than Kennedi and we switch off with nap-time duty so the other can get out kid-free. Here's a little funny fact: Our kids all have presidential names with the exception of 1 who is a city. 

Their kids:  Jackson (Jaxon), Lincoln & Boston.

Our kids: Mckinlie & Kennedi

That makes me giggle. Our boy name is Carter. We seriously did not at all plan that and didn't realize that they were president names for awhile. If we ever have another girl, her name might have to be Reagan after our favorite president. 

Kennedis surgery

My sweet baby finally had her surgery to fix her breathing.
She has Laryngomalacia. The best way I can explain it, is that she has floppy tissue that partially blocks her airway and makes her breathing noisy.

We went on November 9th for her surgery at Primary Children's. We had to go in super early in the morning, as she couldn't eat from midnight on. The poor thing did not at all understand why we were not feeding her when she was so hungry. I felt so bad. Grandma Heber came to stay the night before with Mckinlie.

Waiting to be admitted:

They prepped her for surgery and did a quick-check. They checked her throat with a tongue depressor and she latched onto that thing and sucked like crazy. When no food came out of it, she flipped. She was so starving. Poor thing was exhausted, hungry and in a new environment but was still so good. She is really the most complacent baby ever. Kennedi has the super easy-going personality of her dad.


They dressed her in her little gown and we had to carry her down the hall. We got to the doors and had to hand her over to the Dr. I felt so sad that we had to just leave her and knowing she had to be put under and go under the knife, but the Dr was so loving with her that I was comforted.

We waited in the waiting room, had snacks, surfed the internet and kept watching for the Dr to walk down the hall. They called our names and they explained what they did, showed us pictures of the inside of her throat while the actual surgery was being done, and told us how she did. The Dr said that he really didn't think that she was full-term when they induced me. He said that she had a hard-time breathing while putting her under, and something about her acting like a preemie in that way. That def didn't make me feel better about agreeing to be induced. But at the same time, we didn't know how my pancreatitis would effect her if there were another flair-up, so it was really a toss-up.

They let one parent go in for awhile to comfort her and then the other can join when you get put in your room. I followed them to her hospital crib & my heart was so broken. The poor thing was all bundled up with wires everywhere. She screamed a lot while I rocked her & they said it was from waking up and still being drugged up.

Poor thing had some issues with not having enough oxygen and had to have the mask for the first day. The day of the surgery was so rough and she hardly took a break from crying.

Trevor went home to stay with Mckinlie & send Grandma home. I stayed until  6pm and then we switched. I had a migraine and was worn-out from rocking my constantly screaming baby for 6 hours. I had my share of hospital stays in the past year, so he stayed overnight with her and I took Mckinlie home.

The next day, her pain was managed, her oxygen was great & she was MUCH happier. It had snowed and the roads were so bad so Trevor bundled her up and took Trax home that runs right in front of the hospital.

Kennedi's breathing is better, but is still there. Most people are curious, but super nice about her breathing. We have had a few people during church that look back at us multiple times and give us looks. Sorry, I know it can be a little distracting but she's not going to stop breathing by you looking back here a million times. I even had someone tell me that she needed to have that noise checked out because she was obviously sick and we should be taking care of that. Yup, we just let our poor baby suffer and don't take care of her AT ALL. *sigh*

This whole process has made us super grateful for our healthy children. This was just a small set-back and we are lucky that it's not anything more serious. It has made me more empathetic to families with sick kids. I saw a lot while we were at Primary Children's and it broke my heart.

We love you, Kennedi!

BFFs

I'm so glad that we had the prompting to have Kennedi when we did. Mckinlie is loving being a big sister & they are already so close. As soon as Kennedi gets a little older, they will have so much fun playing. I really can't wait. 

Mckinlie loves to play with Kennedi. I think Kennedi must feel the same way ;)

She constantly asks me to put the baby in her doll stroller and her lego wagon so that she can push her around. It's adorable and Kennedi just goes with the flow. While Mckinlie runs around playing, Kennedi will lay on the floor and watch her. If Mckinlie notices, she'll go over and show her some toys and pat her back. Kennedi grins SO big when she sees sister coming. Lately, Mckinlie has been really into shoving her fake food into Kennedi's mouth and making eating sounds. The first time that happened, I thought that Kennedi would be annoyed and cry, but she LOVED it and couldn't stop smiling through her mouth-full of plastic cupcake. 

Mckinlie loves to bring toys over, pry Kennedi's fingers open and put a toy in her hand. 

Sometimes I'll ask Mckinlie to hold her sister while I do something and she will happily stretch out her arms and hold her while she watches a movie. It's so cute. 

I love to watch them interact together all day & look forward to watching them become the best of friends.