5 months old

I can't believe she has been in my life for 5 months! I think I say that every month. But it is just going by so fast! She is really coming into herself. Getting her own little personality. She is such a happy baby, I love her!
Achievements of the last month:
1. She can sit up on her own
2. Can roll from side to side
3. Has rolled over from stomach to back and back and stomach. (has only done it a few times and none since)
4. Laughs a lot more
5. Eats rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, applesauce(in her rice cereal) and loves it!
6. Has some nasty poop
7. Has found her toes and likes to pull off her socks and suck on them
8. Has found her high voice
9. Likes to pull my hair
10. Is in a new position in the morning than how I layed her down at night.
11. Is turning into a mama's girl.
12. Looks at me when I call her name.

This was her first time of grass. She just kept feelin' it and feelin' it.

Pictures of McKenna

Tucker and I went up to the Sacramento Temple to eat lunch and let smalls run around on the pretty grass. I thought it would be nice to take some pictures of McKenna. They turned out pretty well. She is just so cute!

Just some random pictures of her. I got her this hate to wear out side since its a little cold at outside.

Just loungin' on the couch before church. (NO this isn't what she is wearing to church. This is the clothes she wears under her dress. I didn't want to risk anything getting on her dress before church)

Just some cute pictures of her. I was bored and needed some January pictures of her.

This is McKenna's wic-y. We call it this because the WIC program gave it to her. It is probably the uglyist thing she owns, but she wears it anyway.

Video of McKenna. Make sure you listen for the thud!

Smalls loves a good heater

Its been a little while since I posted about my smallers. She is 10 Months old! We have almost had her for 1 year. Time she does fly by. She has gotten so big compared to when we first got her. She was just a little puff ball back then. Smalls has turned into a pretty crazy dog that is in desperate need of some training. She can be out of control at times and needless to say she can not go outside in the front yard. She will run in the road and it takes a while to get a hold of her. It is very very frustrating! Anyway, but she is still cute! Here are a few pictures, Enjoy!

We got small's hair cut a few weeks ago. She has been cold since then. When we went up to Tucker's moms house in Oroville this is where smalls spend most of her time. She is always looking for a good heat source to lay in front of. She is always good for a laugh.

We went to Oroville to see Tucker's brother, Tyler, and his wife, Katie. They met McKenna for the first time. It was love at first site!

McKenna liked them from the start. She never pulled out the lower lip when she first met them. This is a good sign. But it sure is cute to watch.

Katie and McKenna

Tyler and McKenna

Katie, McKenna, and I

Videos of McKenna

McKenna is learning to roll over. Here is her attempt. Sorry, both of these are quite long. Well less than 1 Minute.

This is her eating, this is the long one. When ever she eats she always talks her way through it because it is sooo good, i'm assuming. Anyway, enjoy! and Please leave a comment!

Rice Cereal & Carrots

Last week I started giving McKenna some food and she loves it! Before I gave her cereal she would always watch me eat, lick her lips, and suck her tongue. She was pretty ready to eat some big girl food. She does really good with the rice cereal. I do add just a little big of apple sauce to it. I don't think it makes it taste any better, but I don't tell her that. I give it to her twice a day, morning and night. When she eats her food she sings. Its pretty cute to see. Lucky for you I have a video of it. Its not a good good one, but you can get the gist of it. (its in the previous post)

This week I started giving her carrots. Well I gave her a snick peek at carrots last week. She gave a face that says, "these are gross mom!" But needless to say she still ate them. When I started giving them to her this week she seemed to be ok with them. She doesn't eat to many of them but at least she will eat them. What a trooper! I also gave her a snick peek of sweet potatoes and she gobbled those down, she loved them! To bad she will have to wait until next week to start those regularly.

Now that she is really a big girl at 5 months old (almost, I can't believe it!), she is sitting up on her own. Granted she can't stay there for a long period of time, but will do good for a little while. Most of the time she will just flatten over like a pancake.

Just a cute pictures of my McKenna, standin up.

This is what happens when I don't post often enough, I have lots to say. Just so you can read all 5 of my posts, there are going to be two that are on the next page. I wouldn't want you to miss anything that has happened to the Dowds!

Mckenna is 4 months old!

My little girl is 4 months old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. She has been such a joy! She now weights 14lbs 12oz (75%) and is 26 3/4 inches long(98%) and her head is in the 20%. I never thought she had a small head.

At 4 months she can:
-Will talk your ear off
-Can almost sit up
-Can roll onto her right side, can't quite get to her stomach
- Reaches for toys in front of her and pulls them to her mouth
- Wakes up once during the night to eat.
- Goes to bed at 9pm (most of the time)
-Laughes and smiles
- Watches people
- Grabs onto Smalls hair. Smalls doesn't like this much!
- Can hold her bottle
- Will be finding out she has feet pretty soon. She has been reaching for them.

2008 in a nut Shell

This year sure went a lot differently than I had planned and it sure went by really really fast! I was thinking about how at this time last year I was only like 6 weeks pregnant and now I have a 4 month old little girl. Amazing how time flies, even when you arn't having to much fun.

Some significant events that happened this year are:
1. Tucker graudated from California State University Bakersfield with his degree in Business Management with his concentration in Sports Management! I am so proud of him and he finished school. It has been a long road.
2. We took a big leap of faith to leave a secure job and a place that I was beginning to love to move back to Sacramento for Tucker to attend graduate school, without any type of job for either of us. I was do in 6 short weeks and was having to start over at a new doctor. This move didn't go exactly as planned. First, Tucker decided he didn't want to go to school after all. So our move was kind of for not, since that was the reason we packed up and left Bakersfield. Second, finding a job didn't go as easy as we had hoped. We didn't take in to consideration the bad economy and that not to many people were hiring. I wasn't going to get a job, because that would be silly to have to leave in a month. After a long long 6 months Tucker does have a job. He is enjoying it because he can make his own schedule and it pays pretty well when he is getting jobs assigned to him. He is working as an insurance auditor for US Reports. It seems to be working its way up to being a more dependable job.

3. We welcomed a little baby girl on August 23rd at 1:43am, McKenna Elise Dowd. Weighing in at 8lbs, 9oz and 20 1/2 inches long. She has been such a joy to have in our home. She has come to have her own little personality. She needs to get a lot of sleep during the day otherwise she is grumpy! She loves to sit up although she can't do that on her own yet. She "talks" so much, it is so cute to hear her little voice. She is starting to laugh more often. It is a quite nasely laugh. She is now 4 months old and weights 14lbs 12oz and is 26 3/4 inches long.

I am actually glad that this year is over. Not to say it didn't have its great moments but this year has probably been one of the hardest years finanically that we have had. We had to rely on the Lord to help us and I am truly amazed that we made it the last 6 months since we moved to Sacramento. It has really been a true struggle. I am glad that I payed my tithing even though it was so hard to pay not knowing if there would be enough to pay all the bills, but there always was. A true testimony builder! I want to say thank you to those people who have helped us out when we needed a little extra umph.

Merry late Christmas!!

This one's for you Lisa!

So after Christmas we went up to my moms house. We had a good time with my sister and her family. We always have a good time together. I miss them already!

Isn't she just so sweet! I love her!

While we were at my mom's house, she wanted us to help with some yard work. The boys were only to eager to help out.

His little butt just makes me laugh.

We put McKenna in the pile of leaves and thought it would make a good picture. I just can't get over how dang cute she is! But I guess I am bias!

Just another picture of her cuteness!

The boys helping out again.

Aunt Elisha with little McKenna. Holding her while I raked, isn't she nice.

Smalls was hiding from the big down that was walking down the street. She eventually came out from behind the "tree" and barked at the dog. I'm sure the dog was scared!

Just some cute pictures of the boys that I took with my camera. I was testing out the black and white feature. Arn't they cute!

**Please click on Older Posts to look at 2 more new blogs**

Christmas 2008

This year was a good christmas. My sister and her family came from Arizona and stayed at our house until christmas. Then we went to my mom's in Paradise. Here is our tree in our house. I just relized that there are presents right in the front. I suppose I could have moved them before I took the picture. Oh well, the tree is still pretty.

So on Christmas Eve we went to my brothers house here in Sacramento. We had our Christmas on Christmas Eve since everyone wouldn't be able to be there for Christmas. We had a good time. We played bingo and I acutualy won some things. (my mom buys a bunch of things so we can have prizes when we get bingo's) Last year I had the worst luck. I think I won once and my mom cheated so I could get a bingo.

This is McKenna with her presents.

This is Me opening up McKenna's presents. Next year should be pretty fun. I'm looking forward to that year.

This I McKenna's Christmas Dress, posing in front of the tree.

McKenna and Smalls. She was pretty much done at this point.

McKenna in her Christmas dress sitting with Aunt Kristin.

Can't forget about smalls, sporting her christmas shirt. It says 'Naughty or Nice' I think we all know that smalls is nice!
On Christmas we opened presents with our own families, then went over to my brother's to have brunch.

Here is Smalls with all the trash.

McKenna with her presents from Tucker and I. Yes I wrapped them just to unwrap them. What fun is un-wrapped presents even if you know what they are when you open them.

Tucker and McKenna on Christmas Day.

My sister and her family were staying at our house, so they opened their presents there as well. This is Logan opening up his presents.

Here is Brayden opening up his presents. They both got some Thomas the train stuff that they loved!

Since we didn't do the normal Christmas day things with my family we headed up to Tucker's moms house early to spend Christmas day with her.

McKenna with one of her presents.