!!! Kayla Jo Dowd Has Arrived !!!

Melissa and Tucker are so very proud to introduce Kayla Jo Dowd to the world!!! Kayla was born one week over her due date on 11/25/2010.... Thanksgiving morning. She was born at 2:26 a.m. weighing 9.12 lbs and measuring 20.5 inches. We are thankful to say that she was born perfectly healthy.... besides a slight resemblance of her father(paternity test still pending).

She was delivered at Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, CA... The delivery was a breeze for Tucker, as he didn't feel a thing. Melissa was admitted to the hospital to be induced at 5:00 pm on 11/24/2010. Her initial measurement was 1 centimeter( For all you without kids and all the men reading this, it takes 10 centimeters to extract the kid from the mother) . Melissa's water was broken by her doctor at 7:30 pm and a hour later was administered Pitocin and a Epidural at 11:30 pm. The pushing started 2:15 am and Kayla was here just a few minutes later. Melissa did so well with the delivery(she took the pain like a CHAMP and didn't make a peep) that the nurses and doctors were astonished with her performance. They basically wanted a autograph.

So far Kayla enjoys sleeping, eating from mom's ANNOYINGLY large utters, and being kissed by her sister.

Enjoy the pic's below AND LEAVE A COMMENT.

Kayla's First Scream

Momma's First Look

Kayla Jo Dowd

McKenna Meeting Her Sister

The Dowd Girls All Together

McKenna Holding Her Sister For The First Time

You Can See The Love

A Proud Big Sister

Kayla

Kayla Doing What She Does Best

Daddy's Little Girl

Cutest Pic Ever

The Girls

The last few months

Not to much has happened in the last few months. Just trying to get threw this pregnancy. I will be glad when its done.

Here are some random pictures of Mckenna. Her 2 year old personality is really starting to come out. She is still sweet as ever, but that terrible two side is starting to shine more and more. It makes for a very challenging day.


I've been writing down a list of things that McKenna has been doing in the last few months. Here are a few:
She is obsessed with picking her nose. Its gross and she even will eat it.
She will spit on people ever so often, another gross habit. Not sure where she is picking up of these.
If you ask her what she dreamed about, she will say "bubbles." I'm came up with that one all by herself.
She is really starting to talk well.
She loves to sing the songs she learns in nursery. Just recently she wants me to play them on the piano and she will sing along.
We started potty training her back in Sept. It has been going really well. We almost go accident free when it comes to peeing. She will still not go poop on the toilet. No one tells you how frustrating this process can be.
Over the past couple months, sleeping has been a trail for us. She wouldn't go to sleep, She wouldn't sleep in her bed. She would just fight going to sleep, then she would usually fall asleep on the floor. During the night she would come into our bed. I've been trying to think of solutions to this. I stopped giving her naps, I made a "bed" on the floor. That actually worked for a little bit. But I have finally got her a big girl bed. This seems to be working the best. She will fall asleep in it and stay in it, for the most part, all through the night. I now take her back into her bed if she comes in during the night. It seems to be working. Keeping my fingers crossed.
She has learned to peddle the wheels on her new bike. She still can't figure out how to turn at the same time.
She is learning to pray better. She will repeat what I say and sometimes she will say a prayer on her own and say the things that I usually have her say. Its really cute.
She loves to pretend she is talking on the phone. She will have little conversations and laugh. Makes you wonder what is going on in her head.
She has mastered the skill of putting a movie into the DVD player and starting it all on her own. She likes to watch Toy Story, All the Tinkerbell movies, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Its a little scary how she can pick up on things just by watching me.
She loves sticker books
She can get herself dressed, for the most part.
Just in the past few weeks she has started the "why?" phase. Oh my gosh, this is a very annoying word.
She is still the bully in the nursery at church. That is a work in progress.

Moving on to more exciting things. Here is our trip to the pumpkin patch. It was pretty fun. She enjoyed walking around, looking at all the animals, and picking out her pumpkin. There wasn't to much to do at this patch. I think next year we will try a different one.

Sandy (Tucker's mother), McKenna, and I went to Applehill. We got some apples to make apple sauce. Yummy..it turned out good. Grandma Sandy treated McKenna to a pony ride. She LOVED it. Has a smile on her face the whole time.

For halloween McKenna was Tinkerbell. She de-seeded her first pumpkin. Took a few minutes for her to stick her hand inside the pumpkin. I forgot how gross it really is. Next year I think we will stick to painting the pumpkins, instead of craving them.

Here is McKenna with her Tinkerbell bed. I found this bed frame on craigslist for $20 dollars! I couldn't pass up that deal.

Here is a picture I took of my pregnant self last week. I'm due on Wednesday, 11/17. I sure hope she will make her appearance this week.

Last but not least, we bought a new car for me! Well not new new, but new to me. Its a Chevy suburban. Its HUGE, and I love it. So much nicer than my last car. It was a nice surprise by my hubby. Its taken a little bit to get used to driving this vehicle, but I'm getting the hang of it.

McKenna turns 2!

My sweet little McKenna turned 2 last week, August 23rd. We had a little party for her at the park. We played, threw water balloons at each other, ate pizza, had cake, opened presents. Here are some pictures of the party. Below you will find a video of McKenna opening up her tricycle. She has been wanting one of these for a long time. Make sure you see her reacting, its within the first 10 seconds of the video. Its priceless.

If you notice on the cake, the second picture, that there is a serving spoon shoved into the cake. That would be McKenna's doing. She had been trying to get to that cake all morning and when I wasn't looking, that is what happened.

Opening presents. She needed a little break during this time, so she sat down on the grass for a few seconds.

Cake time!

A few days after McKenna turned 2, I wanted to get a picture of her. This is what I got. She wouldn't let me take a picture. She would run and hide her face. Silly Girl.

At 2 years old McKenna,
-weights 25lbs (31%)
-is 2 feet 10.5 inches tall (70%)
-is learning new words every week. One of her favorite sayings is, "No, I'm good" I'm not sure where she got that from. She also loves to say, "Mine!" and "I don't want it"
-likes to bit, hit, and pinch
-every object is yellow. Its the only color she knows
-likes to run and jump
-likes to play and harass smalls.
-likes to sing songs. Currently her favorite is Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
-likes stickers
-likes to explore and get into things she shouldn't
-likes to pretend she is talking to someone on the phone
-likes Elmo and Mickey Mouse Club
-likes to eat hot dogs, pizza, cottage cheese, frozen go-gurt pops, crackers, some sandwiches, bell peppers, lettuce. (all the good foods, I know!)

Summer

It sure has been a long time since I've blogged. I feel like I should blame it on the events of the summer, but really it didn't seem to be that busy. Here are a few things that kept us entertained this summer. Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a comment!

McKenna LOVES to go be in the water. These pictures start from May-Aug 2010. She looks so little in the top three compared to now.

We completed our first art project, went to a July 4th celebration, making her room a mess, (If you look closely, you will see she is reading the ensign in her diaper basket) being silly (she came to me looking like this, with her hat and glasses on. I thought it was pretty funny).

She had bubbles for the first time in her bath. I don't like using bubbles much, we have sensitive bodies around here. Didn't want to cause any rashes. We went on the carousel. She was nervous and crying at first. She was crying during this picture, but I asked her to smile and this is what I got. She feel asleep while she was eating dinner. One of those no nap days. And our little friends, the mice. I've caught three so far and I hope that is it!

We went to clear lake for a weekend with our friends Jen, Lucio, and their baby, Belan. We rented a pontoon boat with a little raft thing(I can't remember what they are called!). We all took a turn riding it. It was a pretty fun trip. McKenna was a little nervous about the water. This was her first time swimming in something other than a swimming pool. She wouldn't let go of who ever she was next too.

We went to the State fair. She went into the petting zoo. She wasn't as into it this year as last year, but I think she enjoyed her self. She went on her first ride. Since I can't go on the rides and Tucker didn't go to the fair. Our friend Lucio took her on the ride. She seemed to be having a good time.

Tucker, McKenna, and I went to San Francisco for a very quick trip. McKenna went on the carousal with Tucker. The picture with McKenna and Tucker on the hourse gives me a good laugh. Good times.

We went camping for 3 nights and had a bear come eat our chocolate 2 of those nights. It got into one of my food bins and into a much bigger one the next night. McKenna loved to play in the dirt. Within the first hour she was covered in dirt. After the first day it wasn't as fun and she stayed a bit cleaner. She liked to play in the tent and did really good about sleeping in there. The picture of her sleeping is fake. I asked her to pretend to sleep so I could take a picture. We went a bike ride with her strapped to the back. She had a good time, me, not so much. It was hard and I was dying slowly. I barely made it back to the camp site.

Finally, its the picture you have all been waiting for....Me! Just don't look at how dirty this mirror is. I didn't realize just how dirty it is. I'm a little embarrassed to be showing this to the world, the mirror that is. Anyway, this is me at 28 weeks and 1 day. Only 12 weeks to go!

We also celebrated McKenna's 2nd birthday. That will be on the next post.

The bink

Over that past few months I have been thinking about the dreaded day of taking away the bink. I wasn't sure how to do this with the least amount of tears from McKenna. I knew I wanted to have it gone before this new baby came, but was just dreading it. Her bink is her love, its her safety, its her comfort. How can someone take that away from an almost 2 year old and feel good about themselves? Striping her of all her comforts. She goes to her room to grab her bink when she is tired, sad, if she got hurt, or mad. Just about every emotion she has, she will share it with her bink. So to take that away was something that I didn't want to do and that I didn't take very lightly.

3 nights ago, July 1st, Tucker, McKenna, and I were playing in the bedroom. Tucker likes to steal away McKenna's bink and pretend to suck on it to make her mad. But this time he decided to "swallow" it. So this is how we got rid of the bink. The bink is no longer with us because it is in daddy's tummy. The past three days/nights have gone better than I have expected. Here is a little day by day play book for everyone to enjoy, mostly so I can remember.

Night 1: Since we took her bink away in the late afternoon, we didn't have to deal with the loss of the bink during the day. Just at the critical part of bedtime. When bedtime rolled around, we did our normal routine. She got in her Pjs, she got some milk, we said prayers, and then it was off to bed. As we were putting her into her bed(btw..she is still in the crib. I'm glad for this because she can't get out while we are going through this transition) she asked for her bink. We told her that daddy ate it and that it was in his tummy. She then proceeded to open tuckers mouth to see if it was in there. We put her in her bed and left. She wined and cried for a few minutes but nothing to extreme. After a bit of this I went in to comfort her a little bit. After a little talking it was determined that she wanted to sleep with her Jesus book. So I brought that in and placed the picture of Jesus right next to her head. Then I left. This didn't last for very long. She started to cry again. I was outside walking the dog so Tuck went and got her. Gave her some milk and calmed her down, then put her back in her bed. After this there was not a peep from her again this night. I was thinking, "How could it have been so easy? What made her believe this story that is impossible to be true?" But non the less it worked. She didn't wake up for the rest of the night.

Day 2: That morning she woke up at 7:45am. This is early for her because she usually sleeps until 8:30-9:00. I know, I'm spoiled. I knew this sleeping in was partly due to her bink. So I was expecting it. That morning she didn't ask about her bink at all. When nap time rolled around I was nervous again because I wasn't sure how she would react. When I put her down for her nap, I put something in her bed to keep her occupied for a few minutes. She only cried for about 5 minutes and then was fast asleep. That night she again asked for her bink and we told her it was in daddy's tummy. She probably cried/wined for about 10 minutes and then went to sleep. I'm thinking, this is a piece of cake.

Day 3: McKenna wakes up at 7:00am. The times are getting early and early! She was in a good mood. The day went by pretty smoothly. I took her to a 4th of July festival right before her nap time, so she fell asleep in the car on the way over. No wining about her bink. Then night time comes. We did out normal routine and put her to bed. Immediately she starts to cry and she doesn't stop. I eventually go into her room after about 15ish minutes of hysterical crying. I couldn't stand hearing her cry anymore. She is on day 3 with no bink and she is all alone in her room crying. I felt so bad for her. How could I just let her cry all alone when she is having a tough time tonight going to sleep? I couldn't so in I went. Right when I went in to her room, she wanted me to pick her up but I wasn't going to do that. So I did the next best thing....I climbed into her bed with her. lol That can be pretty scary at times. Never knowing if this crib will hold you up. After getting adjusted in her crib and Mckenna getting someone comfortable in the little space that was left, she started to calm down. About 5 minutes or so later after she was able to speak again, she looks up at me and says "thank you." Talk about melting a mothers heart. I was glad that I came into her room when I did. She apparently needed someone to be with her and calm her down. It was a special moment for me. After singing to her for about 15-20 minutes she was asleep. It was now time to attempt to get out of this small crib without making to much noise. I was 98% successful. I was standing up and had one leg out of the crib, when my foot, the one hanging out of the crib, cramps up! I was trying to stand still but it hurt and I needed to un-cramp it. So needless to say, she woke up. It looked like she was having a panic attack when she saw that I was leaving. She was still half asleep and trying to stand but not having very much success as it and starting to cry at the same time. She wanted me back in there. As much as I love her, I wasn't going to climb back in. So I sat on the floor and that was good enough for her that she calmed down and laid back in her bed. I sat on the floor for about 10 minutes waiting for her to fall back asleep. She wanted me to hold her hand, all while holding her baby and her elmo doll at the same time. After about 30 minutes I was able to leave the room with out her waking up. Thank goodness. She didn't wake up again after that. Tucker says day 3 is the worst day when you are changing a habit. So I guess he was right.

Day 4: She wakes up at 6:30am! What is going on here? Thankfully she fell back asleep until just before 9:00am. The morning was good because we were at church. Many distractions to keep her from thinking about her bink. After church she ate a little lunch then went down for her nap. It was the WORST nap ever. She slept for like 1 hour or less. Cried for a while before she fell asleep. It wasn't a good nap at all. She was a cranky pants after she woke up until we went to our friends house for dinner. She LOVES their little baby so she was glad to be going to their house. We stayed up late and watched the fireworks. By the time we got home it was about 10:30 and Mckenna went right to bed with out any problems. Until about 20 minutes later, she starts seriously crying. So I go in and try to figure out what is wrong with her. Soon to find out her foot is caught in her bed railing. Poor girl. So I get that out and she went right back to sleep. Easy night compared to the night before, thank goodness. I'm not sure how many of those nights I can handle.

Day 5: She woke up at 8:15am! Yeah. Actually we woke her up. That day went off without a hitch. She cried a little bit at nap time, but took a good nap and was happy. Up to this point, she has only asked for her bink a handful of times. I am so surprised about how this process is going. I thought it would be a lot harder. At her bed time, 8:30pm, we put her down for bed. And she cried and cried. So I went and got her. Got her something to drink. And we watched tv for a bit. I don't think she was very tired. At about 9:00pm, I put her back in bed. She cried for a few minutes, then off to sleep.

Day 6: Woke up about 8:30am, very happy. She did good throughout the day. Nap time comes and I put her down. I put her in her bed about 1:30 and I still hear she is awake at 2:30 and she is starting to cry. I figured she wasn't going to go to sleep so I went and got her and put on a movie and give her a few snacks so I can finish up what I was doing. She is still pluggin along. Acting like she is not very tired. It really made the day seem so long without that break. Dinner time rolls around and while she is eating she determines that its a great time to take a little nap. She falls asleep in her highchair. I would normally not let her sleep this late because I don't want my child up until 10 or 11:00 at night. But I let her sleep for 45 minutes. I figured it wouldn't hurt. We went swimming, which she loves. I decided to wait until about 9 to put her to bed. I layed her down and she was happy as a lark. Not one word about the bink, not one cry, and off to sleep she went. Amazing. For the next 2 nights she is staying with grandma, so we shall see how that goes without the bink.

She did wonderful at Grandmas house. Slept great, no problems at all. She is now bink free!

P.S. I wrote this back on July 4, 2010. I wanted to wait until the week was over before I posted, but then I forgot about it. Oh well. So she has been bink free for a month and a half now. It seems like the bink we never in our lives.

McKenna

Its been awhile since I've posted about McKenna. She is coming into her 2 year old status. Most days are pretty good, but she does have her moments. She is currently 22 1/2 months and is so smart. She picks up on this so fast. Sometimes I have to watch what I say or do because she will copy me.
A few things that she has done lately that are cute/funny.....
-She has this little step stool that I got at the dollar store. Its pretty much her best friend. She carries it around with her and uses it to give her about 5 more inches of height. She can reach pretty far when she stand on it.
-She loves to swim. I recently got her new floaties and she will swim on her own. Its amazing to see her in the pool. Things that she wouldn't do a few days ago she is doing now and is not afraid anymore. She will go underwater and not swallow water. She will jump off the edge into the water. Two weeks ago she wasn't able to do any of these things. I have some videos that I will put up so you can all see.
-If she see's something and she likes it, than its automatically hers. "It's mine" she says.
-She is paying better with other kids.
-She loves to say prayers, even though I have no idea what she is saying, but she will say Amen real loud at the end and give a little laugh. Its cute
-She is a picky eater
-She is learning how to take her pants and shirts off. She still hasn't quite got it, but I think it will be mastered soon. Then next will be her diaper.
-She just started to say yes, but she says yes-ch. I don't know if you can get it from how I'm spelling it, but its really cute when she says it.
-She enjoys coloring more. Even though Smalls likes to chew on the crayons. Annoying.

I can't think of anymore. My brain has shut off. Here are a few pictures of her.

She loves her sunglasses. She will wear these for a few hours if we are out side. Its crazy to me. But she sure looks cute in them.

This is her being a little crazy.

At the swimming pool. Well its actually the hot tub. The pool has been to cold for her. She is growing up so fast.

We are having a......

Girl!

As much as I am excited about having a girl and this is what I wanted. I'm a little sad that its not a boy. Having another girl will make Tucker happy because I won't be out shopping buying new things. Maybe I can sneak in a few new items along the way. Anyway, I think it will be fun seeing how McKenna is around her and seeing them play and grow up together. I think it will be cute. My due date has been changed to November 17. It was originally November 8. Oh well, maybe she will surprise us and come early.

I remembered!

So I remembered what I wanted to share on my blog. Plus there are a few other things I want to share that McKenna has done lately that have been funny.

McKenna loves to look at pictures of herself and everyone else. So when we look at pictures of her I say, "That's you" So about a month ago we are looking at some pictures of her and she points to the picture and says, "you!" She thinks her name is you! What have I done. I need to start saying, that is McKenna. I just laughed to myself the first time I heard her say that. I was thinking, how in the world did you pick that up? I would love to know what kind of thinking process goes on in her head.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I will share it anyway. I have Smalls(the dog) food in the bathroom with a baby lock on the door so she can't get in. Everyone once and awhile I will forgot to close it after smalls is done eating and I will find Mckenna practically laying on her tummy sucking water out of smalls water bowl. She likes to drink like smalls does. Don't worry, I don't let her do this if I see her. Sometimes she will ask me if she can have a drink if we are in the bathroom. Its just so funny to me that she does this.

She has recently gained an obsession for Elmo. She calls him Elno. Its pretty cute. She wants to watch him all day long. I don't have a dvd of him, but I record Sesame street everyday, so she usually ends up watching it on there, but then she has to watch the whole thing. Sometimes she will get bored halfway through sesame street and leave, but when she hears the song for Elmo's world she will come running. We were at DI today and there was an Elmo doll there for $1.00. It was the best dollar we've spent in a long time. She loves it!

I cleaned off out little patio at our apartment. McKenna loves to play out there. She loves to be outside. She also has started climbing up her highchair. I have to keep the tray on there to keep her off of it. She will push it over to the table and use it to get her on the table! She is a smart cookie. Just recently she learned how to strap herself into her highchair.

She is getting more interested in watching movies. Today the Sandlot was on and she watched the whole thing! With a little intermission at the swimming pool. That water was cold! But it didn't bother Mckenna at all. I wasn't going to even put on my suit because I knew it was going to be to cold for me and I can't get in the hot tub, so it would have been silly. She just played on the stairs going back and forth from the hot tub to the swimming pool. She really liked it and didn't want to get out. I can't wait until it gets warmer so I can get in with her. I think she is a fish at heart. She loves the pool! But its cute to watch her watch movies. I wonder if she even understands whats going on? She would have to a little bit to keep her interest right?

She has recently started say "No" to almost everything. Its funny and annoying all at the same time. I know she wants something but she says no. I usually do it for her anyway. She is throwing more fits and screaming more. She is getting into the terrible two's! Oh no!

I got her a little potty a month or so ago. She was pretty interested in sitting on it. She even went pee on it once. She said she had to go potty and ran to the toilet. Now she just plays with it. She likes to put stuff in it. But she did go potty on it again just about a week ago. I haven't started potty training yet, just trying to get her used to the idea. I have a package of panties and I let her put a pair on. She looked so cute. I wanted to get a picture but she wouldn't stand up for me. I think she was embarrassed. The thing that was funny was that she put all 3 pairs on that were in the package. I guess she needed a little extra padding. Made it feel more like a diaper, I guess.

She loves going to nursery. She is the bully in there. That's probably why she likes it. She likes to interact and watch the other kids. More watching then interacting going on I think. Well besides the pushing and hitting and biting she does. And she listens during the music time. I am also in Nursery, but a different nursery. (There are 3 nursery's in our ward. Crazy, I know) And I sing the songs to her and she will do the hand movements with me. That makes me happy that she sits, listens, and hopefully behaves while she is there. I don't know why she likes to bully. I certainly didn't teach her those things.

She says please and thank you. Its the cutest thing, I think, that comes out of her mouth. She always says them in her sweet soft voice. And at random times. Like today, I she wanted me to pick her up, but I didn't want to because I was going to get her some juice and wanted to use both of my hands. But she insisted and I couldn't say no, and she says "thank you" in her cute soft voice! It melted my heart. Its just so precious. She will say it at other times to and it is just as cute. She says please like pease. And she kind of draws it out. She is just so darn cute! She is just growing up so fast, its crazy! She will be 2 in 3 months! I can't believe it. She is turning into a cute little girl!

This small post has turned into a long post. I guess I had more things to share than I thought. I need to write these cute things in here more often so I don't forget.

As for me, I'm feeling good. I'm way more emotional this time around than last time. Its kind of annoying. Also my gag reflexes are in full force. Well only when I brush my teeth, but I never had that with my last pregnancy either. I didn't really have anything going on with my first pregnancy. All of this nausea stuff and being emotional stuff is all new to me. My energy is coming back. I'm not quite as tired all the time, but I do have a few stretch of days when I am more tired than the other days. I will be 15 weeks on Monday(05/17) and I'm starting to look fat. My pants still fit good, but my shirts just make me look a little more plumpy. The dang in between faze. Oh well, I will just have to deal with it for a bit longer. Then I will wish that I was looking plumpy instead of HUGE! Anyway, I just relized that it is after midnight and I have been typing on this thing for almost an hour. (I did look at some other things in between, I'm not that slow of a typer people)

Time for an update

It has come to my attention that it has been a while since I have blogged. So I am here to update my life to everyone. Since my last post,

*Mckenna now goes to nursery
*She talks a lot. She is getting more words in her vocabulary such as, No, Yes, outside, smalls, mama, dada, juice, hello, grandma.
*She understands amazingly. I can talk to her like a normal adult and she will respond as if she understand exactly what I'm talking about. She is so smart.
*She also has learned to climb on the chairs and then onto the table. I have to keep the chairs somewhere else. Then she learned how to climb up onto her high chair then onto the table. She is such a stinker.
*Sometimes when I give her kisses I put my hands on either side of her face. Everyone once and while she will do it to me, its so cute. I feel so loved when she does that.
*She loves to read books and can play well by herself. Even when she has play dates she still plays by herself. One of these days she will get it.
*She likes to color, but only using a pen. She eats the crayons.
*She won't make eye contact with her uncle Doug. Never has, not sure why. She will sit on his lap or let him hold her, but no eye contact. Sorry Doug.
*She doesn't like it when her daddy teases her.

There was something that Mckenna did that I wanted to remember and blog about. But of course I can't remember now. Dang it! I will have to start blogging more often. Maybe one of these days I will remember. She likes to escape and run outside into the parking lot, at the same time letting Smalls out as well.

McKenna on her first day of nursery. Isn't she cute! It has since come to my attention that Mckenna is the bully of the nursery. She likes to hit and pinch. Where did she learn this behavior from?

At her first birthday party of a girl her age. She enjoyed the frosting on this cookie.

She LOVES my computer and its just her size. I try to hid it, but she always finds it somehow.

Just thought this was cute.

I went to take smalls outside and left McKenna with Tucker. This is what the bathroom looked like when I returned. Looks like Tucker was watching her pretty good, huh?? :)

Easter was pretty low key this year. We had her first Easter egg hunt the Friday before. She seemed to enjoy herself. We also celebrated Tuckers birthday on that day with our friends at Johns incredible pizza. It was pretty fun. Saturday we spend at my moms house. Joe and Elle were in town so we went over there for a visit. There was a hunt at a local golf course that we attended on Saturday. Not sure I would call it a hunt, more like a hurry and run for the eggs. On Sunday, Easter, it was pretty low key. It was conference so we stayed in our PJs for a while, then went to Moms house for dinner. It was fun watching McKenna participate in her first Easter. Can't wait for the years to come.

During her first Easter egg hunt.

Her basket after the hunt.

At the golf course hunt.

Her Easter basket from Tuck and I.

Enjoying her stickers from her basket.

I think I need to take more pictures. I don't think I've taken pictures in about a month. I guess my brain has been out of it a bit. Life has been pretty boring lately. Not much to blog about. Just enjoying our life with McKenna and Smalls. (Can't forget about our first born!) Tucker is busy with work and I'm busy with wife/motherhood. Oh and by the way, I'm pregnant. Due November 8th. Seems sooo far away!

Just because...

McKenna has been doing a few funny/cute things lately that I wanted to share before I forget. The past few weeks she has been praying. It is the cutest and sweetest thing. She usually says her night prayer before she goes to bed. She will fold her arms and just start talking. I have no idea what she is saying but she will go on for about a minute or so. Its so sweet. She has also been randomly turning in circles. She thinks its pretty funny. She will spin until she falls down, then she will get up and doing it again and again. Its fun to watch her laugh at herself and get excited that she can do something new. She also likes to walk backwards. She also finds this to be funny. She will walk backwards until she hits something, then will re-aline and start over. I love sitting and watching her while she plays or tries to figure something out. To see her mind work, to try to figure something out, facinates me. It blows my mind how a little girl that is 1 1/2 years old can already understand so much and talk so much. Its crazy to me. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for my little girl. She is truely a blessing in my life. I love her so much, I just can't get enough of her. (Sorry there are no pictures. They are all on my camera still. Soon, I promise.)

Family Pictures

While we were in Phoenix for Christmas. We got our family pictures taken. Yeah! I've been waiting for this for a long time. My sister-in-laws friend took them for us, Amy Hill. You can find the link to her website a few posts down. She did an amazing job! All the pictures came in black and white as well. You can decide which one you like better. Enjoy!