The adventures of two sisters

Santa Barbara

2012-01-18T16:59:00.000-08:00

In November the family took a little weekend trip to Santa Barbara to visit Tucker's aunt Denise. We didn't do to much. We went to the beach, went out for dinner, went on a boat, went to a children's museum, watched the surfers. We had a fun time.

Kayla turns 1

2012-01-18T16:51:00.000-08:00

Kayla turned 1 in November. We celebrated her birthday on Thanksgiving with the family.

Ain't she cute! Happy Birthday!

Photo Shoot Nov. 2011

2012-01-18T16:07:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law, Kristin, took our family photos a few months back. Here are some of the shots. She did a great job. Thanks Kristin! I love them.

McKenna goes to preschool.

2011-09-20T22:52:00.001-07:00

Mckenna started preschool last week. We are doing the joy school type thing, its only once a week. But she was so excited. She has been wanting to go to school for awhile now. This is the outfit she picked out with her backpack. She looks so cute and grown up. Love her!

P.S. I totally sent this blog post from my phone! Amazing. Maybe I will post more now that I can send them from my phone.

Miss Kayla

2011-09-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

My fiery little girl! She is almost 10 months old! She is the exact opposite of what Mckenna was as a youngster. She is very vocal and loud. She knows exactly what she wants and if she doesn't get it right away, she will let you know. She is crawling now and pulling herself up onto things. She has 4 teeth and 1 more on its way. She likes to play with McKenna. She is not really a cuddlier. She will let you cuddlier with her for a few minutes before bed or if she is sad, then she wants to be put down.

Let me tell you one thing, this is Tucker in the female form. She is so much like him its a little scary. Same temperament, appetite, attitude, and many more. Its crazy.
She hates getting dressed. Doesn't mind so much getting undressed, but trying to put a short on her is like committing murder.

I can't wait to see what the next few years bring me with this little girl!

Catching up....again

2011-09-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

Here is my little fish. She loves to swim.

We went to the State Fair this year. I think Mckenna had a great time. She got to ride on a horse.

Milk a goat. She was a little unsure at first, but jumped right in.

This was by far her favorite ride. This was her first time riding rides by herself at the fair or anywhere. She is finally tall enough.

My two girls! Aren't they cute. I love them!

Kayla

Tucker's brother and sister-in-law came into town so we spent a few days with them. We went swimming while we were there. I thought this was a cute picture of Mckenna and I liked it even more when I saw that Katie was in the background as well.

We rented a boat and went on lake Oroville. Mckenna still talks about how she went on a boat and wants to go again.

She didn't enjoy it as much. At least not that part when she had to be in a life vest.

Mckenna going into the lake for the first time. It was a little cold for her, but she enjoyed it anyway.

Kayla hated the water. It was definitely to cold for her. She finally relaxed a little bit and almost fell asleep.

Look at the clear water! ;)

This was on the way back to the dock. She was warn out.

No post would be complete without my little smalls!

Mckenna turns 3

2011-09-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

My baby girl turned 3 last month. I can't believe she is already 3 years old. I sure love this girl. She is so sweet but also feisty. She knows her ABC's, can count to 20, knows a few of her colors. She is learning to write, by tracing words I have written out. She comes up with some funny things and will say things I didn't even know that she knew. She has bee such a joy to have in my life. I'm so glad she is mine!

I love you Mckenna!

Here are a few pictures from her party.

Opening presents on her birthday morning.

One of her requests....a Tinkerbell cake.

Opening presents

Enjoying her cake and ice cream.

Its been awhile...here is a quick update

2011-07-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the some of the things we have done the past few months. I will try to complete another post of the girls. We'll see! (P.S. I'm not a fan of this new "easier" format for editing and moving your pictures. It doesn't work half the time) Not sure why there is a box around some of the pictures and I'm not caring to figure it out. Like I said, me and this editor are not getting along.

we've painted

Kayla LOVES the jumper! She will stay in it for 30+ minutes

Went on walks. This was the first time Kayla sat in the stroller without her carseat.

Tried to take cute pictures

Went Swimming

Made cute flowers

Went to visit Elisha and Coleen in Arizona. (Sorry Coleen, I didn't' take any pictures while I was there)

Went to Peter Pipper Pizza. McKenna had a blast!

Rode the merry-go-round

Went camping. This was the baby's first time. She did great! Both girls did.

We planted a garden.


Got a little pool

Ain't she cute!

Kayla learned to sit up

Mckenna got her own house

Two months old

2011-03-12T23:25:00.000-08:00

Here are my girls at 2 months old They weigh exactly the same amount at their two month check up. Thats kind of funny to me. However, McKenna gained more weight, starting at 8lbs 9oz, than Kayla who started at 9lbs 12oz. I can't really tell if they look very much alike. McKenna's head looks a lot bigger than Kayla. Kayla just looks smaller in general to me, but they are exactly the same weight.

Mckenna - 11 lbs 14 oz, 23 1/2 inches

Kayla - 11 lbs 14 oz, 23 3/4 inches

A little about Kayla

2011-03-12T23:02:00.000-08:00

My sweet girl isn't always this darling. She has been a much more difficult baby than McKenna ever was. I guess I deserve it after McKenna. She was so easy. Kayla definitely likes to use her voice and cry a lot. The very first night I had her in the hospital, she cried the whole night! Well unless she was nursing she was happy. But I ain't open 24 hours! I knew from that day that this road was gonna be a bumpy one. She hasn't let me down since.

There were days when she would cry for 1-2 hours. This is not just a small cry, she doesn't know how to cry like this, this was a full scream. Not fun to deal with at all. Made me start to go a little crazy. As I look back, I think she was just hungry. I don't produce very much milk, and I'm guessing that it wasn't enough for her. She seemed content after nursing, until the next hour. Then all Hell broke loose. It was awful. I hope to never have to go through that again. I'm not sure why I didn't think of that at the moment.

At about 6 weeks, a miracle happened! She stopped crying, well not all together, but more like a normal baby. I started supplementing formula, but I don't exactly remember when. Probably around that time. In the last 1 1/2 - 2 months she has been so much better. She has had a few days where she would cry like the old times, but it was never consistent.

Here are a few fun facts about Kayla:

1.She has a temper. Don't let her go hungry or she will let you know.

2.She gets so hot and red and very sweaty when she cries/screams. She gets sweaty a lot of the time, not just when she cries. Its kind of weird. McKenna never did that.

3.She HATES the car seat. Cries just about every time I put her in it. It used to bother me, but now I know I can't do anything about it. I have learned to tune it out.

4. She is a mommy's girl. I really don't like this at all. She will hardly go to anyone, even Tucker! She is finally starting to warm up to. She will cry with my mom for hours when she is baby sitting. But for some reason, she likes Kristin.

5. She has the sweetest little voice and smile. I love talking with her and hearing it. It makes all the crying go out the window for a bit.

6. She is a very alert baby. From day one, she has been wide eyed and looking around.

7. She hasn't figured out that sleeping is good for her. She will take little cat naps throughout the day. Every once and while I will get lucky and she will sleep for a couple hours. She does do pretty well at night though, most nights.

8.She loves her blanket. That thing will calm her down instantly(most times). You wrap her in it, or put it by her face when she is in her car seat, and she will go right to sleep(well, sometimes. It doesn't work everytime)

9. She is a fighter. She fights sleep like no-buddy's business. If she wants something, or doesn't want it, she lets you know.

10. She loves her sister. Not when McKenna is throwing things at her head, or pocking her in her eye's. She will smile and talk to her. Its pretty cute.

11. Here are her stats from her two month check up: Weight: 11 lbs 14oz(78%) Height: 23 3/4 inches(93%) Head: 15.75 inches (81%)

A view from Mckenna

2011-03-12T22:32:00.000-08:00

For the past few months, McKenna has learned how to take pictures from my phone and the camera. She does pretty well at times. She is becoming quite a pro. Here are a few of the pictures she has been snapping over the past few months.

(No, I am not nursing in this picture! Just FYI!)

Christmas

2011-03-12T22:20:00.000-08:00

I am way behind in my blogging. I'm gonna catch up real quick with Christmas and the last few months.

Christmas Eve was spent with my family. We celebrated at my Mom's/Brother's house. My brother(+family) and my sister(+family) were here from Arizona. It was fun to hang out with them for a bit. McKenna got to open a few gifts that night. The cousin swap gift and the gifts from Grandma. She enjoyed the excitement of unwrapping gifts.

Late Christmas Eve we drove to Oroville to spend Christmas morning and a few days with Tuckers family, the Dowd's.

McKenna made out pretty good on Christmas. Kayla, not so much. She was asleep during the present opening. Next year will be better for her. A few things Mckenna received for Christmas are....a kitchen set and play food, a Tinkerbell tent(with a sleeping bag, that she loves), a baby doll set, a pillow pet. I can't remember to much else, but she enjoyed Christmas this year.

It was fun being with family over the Christmas season and trying to get McKenna to understand what Christmas is really all about. Next year we will try harder for her to understand about Christ's birth.

Pre Christmas

2011-01-15T14:28:00.000-08:00

December was an exciting month for us. We had a new baby at the end of November, Moved to a new house, had my family here for Christmas. It was a good month, but also a very stressful month. Here are a few picture and some activities we did.

McKenna and Kayla. Kayla was just a few days old here.

McKenna and Kayla(a few weeks old)

McKenna and our christmas tree.

Helping decorate the tree

McKenna and Kayla

We went to San Francisco with my sister and her family. This is at Ghirardelli Square.

Rode the cable cars. McKenna with her cousins. Addison, Braydon, and Logan

We stopped at the Oakland Temple. It has been a long time since I've been there. It was nice to visit. Kayla:3 1/2 weeks

The cousins

McKenna and Mommy

We took a tour of the Jelly Belly factory

My time has run out so my Christmas post will have to wait for another time.

!!! Kayla Jo Dowd Has Arrived !!!

2010-11-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-08-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-29T14:28:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

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......

2010-07-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-05-15T23:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-02-09T21:04:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-27T21:59:00.000-08:00

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!

McKenna walking Smalls

2010-01-24T00:16:00.000-08:00

Smalls actually does really well when McKenna is walking her. She doesn't run fast towards people, she just walks close to McKenna. Its cute.

McKenna

2010-01-23T22:25:00.000-08:00

Oh boy! This little girl is starting to hit her terrible 2s and she is only 17 months! What am I going to do. But even after all the dirty looks, the wining, the tantrums, the getting into everything, wanting food on demand, not wanting to go to sleep and staying up until 11!, she is still my little lover. She is so sweet. I love it when she comes and wraps both her arms around my neck and give me a kiss. Its the best feeling in the world. Nothing beats being a mother! I haven't blogged about her for a few months. She has advanced so much in those months. I'm amazed everyday about what she comes up with. She understands so well. It scares me at times. She is now 17 months. (only 7 more months and I can stop counting in months!) 4 more Sundays and she is in nursery. I had in her nursery for just a few minutes a few weeks ago and she managed to make a girl cry. That's my little girl, the little bully. She loves to bite, hit, and pinch. What a fun combo, NOT! Any good ideas about how to stop the madness??

Here are a few facts about McKenna at 17 months:
-She can say so many words. Here are a few: Movie, eat, doggie, mommy, daddy, meme, Hi, Hello, outside, eyes, nose, shoes, socks, juice, milk, water, crackers.
-She likes to open the front door and leave without any warning. We have to keep the door locked at all times. If we forget she is out the door.
-She likes to take smalls on walks. I had a picture and a video, but they are on my phone. I will get them off sooner than later.
-She loves to talk on the phone
-She has become a picky eater. I hate it! She won't even eat a sandwich! Any sandwich!
-She can put her shoes on all by herself. Most of the time on the correct feet.
-She loves fruit and some veggies.
-She loves candy and anything sweet and knows exactly what it is.
-She says WEEEE. She said it for the first time out of the blue. Tucker and I both looked at each other confusion and said, "did she just say weeee?"
-She can point to all of her facial features and her toes on demand. When we say teeth, she will chomp her teeth together. When asked where her eyes are, she squints them
-She is in love with her blanket. If she sees me put it in the washer or dryer, she has a fit. She tires to open the dryer and bangs on the washer. Its quite funny to watch.
-She loves smalls, but who doesn't?
-She uses a pillow now. I say use very lightly. Sometimes she will use it, other times I find her on the otherside of her bed.
-She is learning to color and to drink out of a big girl cup.
-Shes likes to stick things in the toliet. Not fun
-She loves to give kisses.

Well I can't think of anything else. This seems like a good list. Enjoy these pictures of my little girl.

She loves it when I take pictures of her them show them to her. This was just the case. I would take a pic by the tree. She would run to me, look at the picture, then run back to the tree and smile. This went on for probably 5 minutes. Its so cute.

This was at a children's museum in Phoenix.

This one as well.

I just think this picture is so cute. There is just something about it that I love. Maybe its just the mother in me.

McKenna really doesn't play with others. Pretty much the whole time we were in Phoenix, she didn't really play with the other kids. She would just pay all by herself. This is her playing alone.

She LOVES to get into my shoes and put them on. She's so funny.

Her other favorite thing to do....get into our food storage. She likes to put the cans in her shopping cart. At least she knows what its really for.

This is her computer. Santa brought this to her. She loves it. She LOVES electronics. She will carry one of our old cell phones around and talk into it.

Look at that face! She was giving me this look because I wouldn't help her off the coffee table. She used to be able to do it, but suddenly she has forgotten. I told her since she got up on her own that she has to get down on her own. I guess I'm just a mean mom.

Nothing would be complete without my Smalls. Ain't she cute??

Catching up....

2010-01-23T21:49:00.001-08:00

I know my blog is Christmas. But I really like it, so I don't care that Christmas is over. I'm keeping it up for a while. Keeping the spirit alive!

Has it really been almost 2 months since I have blogged? Time sure has flown by. It doesn't seem like it has been that long. Anyway, So since my last blog there has been Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and McKenna. She is quite a crazy little girl.

For Thanksgiving we spend it with my family. We all ate at my brothers new house. Its very nice and roomy. The food was really good. Probably the best Thanksgiving meal I've had in a long time. I failed to take any pictures of this event.

For Christmas, we all headed down to Phoenix. My brother, Erik and his family, moved down there last summer. It was the year to go to Arizona. A few months ago when everyone was getting their plans together, we had decided not to attend Christmas in Phoenix. At the beginning of November, Tucker surprised me with tickets to Phoenix! I was pretty excited, and I think he was to, even though he didn't exactly say that. We decided not to let my family know, except for a few people. You always need people on the inside of your surprise to keep you in the know. Plus we needed someone to pick us up at the airport. After many weeks of my Mother asking me questions about Christmas and asking me why I couldn't take her to the airport(we were leaving the day before she did) and was glad to surprise her at the airport and get my secret out in the open. NO one asked any questions about anything, well except for Teaghan, except for my mother! It was starting to get hard lying to her. A few more days and she would have figured it out. So we got there the Sunday before Christmas. Doug, Kristin, and fam left that morning and drove there. So we got to surprise them first. Doug knew, but no one else did. They were surprised. That night, before doug and family arrived. Coleen took a picture of all of us eating at the table and sent it to Elisha. She was the one person who gave me the hardest time about not going there for Christmas. Just about everytime we talked she would say something. She even got a little mad at me and Tucker for not "Wanting" to come down there. Elisha said she got a little tear in her eye when she saw that we had come after all. Micah, Elisha's hubby, was in on the secret. We would try to have secret talks but elisha knew something was up. She probably would have figured it out. So the next day, Monday, my mom was coming in. Coleen, Teaghan, and I went to the airport to get her. Coleen and Teaghan meet her at the gate and went to the baggage claim. While she was grabbing her bag I snuck in behind her and pretended in was my bag and tried to take it from her. I got a little bit of a dirty look before the smile came along. She was happy that we had come down for Christmas. We had a fun time while we were there. We didn't do much, but we had fun playing games after the kids had gone to bed and having to smell all of Joe's farts. Oh my gosh! That was not very pleasant, but at 11ish it was pretty funny. Christmas was enjoyable. McKenna really needed some food in her belly because she was pretty cranky and didn't really want anything to do with her presents at first. She finally came around after she got some juice in her belly. We also took some family pictures. They have turned out so nice. I should be getting the CD this week. So I will post those later. But you can get a sneak peak here. They turned out so good. I can't wait to see more.

This is our tree in our apartment. How we got the tree there is a funny story. But for another post.

Eriks back yard. McKenna loved this swing. She would climb in and sit all by herself for a while. With her, Zac(left) and Treaven.

McKenna on christmas morning. She doesn't do good on an empty stomach.

This is Addison. My sisters kid. When these two first meet, McKenna didn't want anything to do with her(that was about 4ish months ago). But as you can see now all she wanted to do was kiss her. Addison doesn't seem to be enjoying it as much as McKenna.

For New years we went to Tuckers moms in Oroville. Since we ditched her for Thanksgiving and Christmas we thought it would be nice to be there for New years. We spend 5 or so days there. It was nice. I didn't get any pictures of that either. Oh well. None of us stayed up to bring in the New Year. McKenna had a cold and was having a hard time sleeping. So we all just went to bed. Oh well, there is always next year.

All in all it has been a great few months. It was fun keeping the secret and then surprising my family, taking family pictures, being together with my family, seeing my sister and tricking her, and spending time with Tuckers family. It sure was nice to be home though. After almost 2 weeks of being away it was nice to unpack the suitcases and put them away. For a while I hope. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone who reads my blog.

McKenna 15 months

2009-11-24T21:13:00.001-08:00

My little girl is 15 months old. Only 3 more months until she gets to enjoy nursery. Yeah! It won't really affect me that much since I am already in one of the THREE nursery's in my ward. Yes, I did say three! And there are about 15-20 kids in EACH one. So I don't have her anything during the last two hours of church. But it will be nice for Tucker, Doug, my mother, and now Kirstin who watch her while I am "working" in nursery.

She has grown so much mentally in the past few months. At 15 months she:
-understand so well. I can ask her to get me an item, lets say the phone, and she will go get it. Or I will ask her to give something to Tucker and she will go do it. Its just so amazing to watch her little brain working/thinking
-She's a climber. She can now climb on and off the couch. No one ever taught her how to get off the couch. She just picked that up on her own.
- She loves wearing her shoes. She will go grab them out of her room and bring them to me saying, "shoo, shoo" Its pretty cute
- Is starting to figure out how to use a fork.
- loves to color anything and everything. If there is a pen and a magazine she will sit herself down and color all over the pages. Now its not real coloring and it doesn't last that long, but its cute. I never showed her how to color she just did it one day. See she is smart!
-Loves to drink water, juice, milk. She has a sippy cup out on the table just about all day long.
- She loves phones and remotes
-She is starting to enjoy movies
- She has so much energy and is busy all day long
- She hands me her pacifier every morning when she gets out of bed. She knows she isn't supposed to use it during the day.
- She knows what her sippy is, her pacify is, what a phone is, smalls, daddy, mommy, bye bye is, juice, crackers. She definitely knows what she isn't supposed to do.
- She loves playing with her toys.
- She can say mommy, daddy, hot, me me , shoo(shoe), Hi, juice. I think she says eat and bite, but those are iffy.
-She is just started to draw out her "words" when she talks. Its really cute. Almost like she is whining, but cuter.
-She will tell you something and if you say what, she will repeat the exact same sentence over again. Sometimes 2 or 3 times. Its pretty amazing.
- She has found the piano and loves to play it.
- She has 8 teeth. 4 on the top, 4 on the bottom
- She weights 22 lbs and has for the last 4 months or so. Maybe longer. She is 32 inches tall.

She is developing so fast and growing up so fast. She is such a joy to be at home with. I wouldn't trade it for anything else.

Day 19 - Day 24

2009-11-24T20:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, I am really behind. I didn't think I was such a slacker.

DAY 19
Flip Flops
Nike flip flops are by far the most comfortable shoe I have ever worn. Amazing!

DAY 20
Reality TV
I love survivor and the amazing race. Plus all some other reality TV shows and dramas out there.

DAY 21
MY CELL PHONE
All modern technology is wonderful.

DAY 22
MEDICAL INSURANCE
Even though it can be such a rip off at times, I'm glad I don't have to pay the full for those big emergencies.

DAY 23
MOVIES
Not necessarily this movie, although it was quite good. But good movies in general.

DAY 24
MUSIC

Day 18 I am thankful for.....

2009-11-18T18:33:00.000-08:00

......the time that I got to spend with my dad. He is such a great man and is missed greatly. I'm thankful for all the memories that I have of the time we spend together. Here are just a few pictures of him and I.

This was at the one of our family vacation we all took to Big Bear Lake. Summer 2006

We went to the state fair many years ago. Had a great time. Aug 2005

When we want on a cruise. April 2005

At my wedding. July 2003

This was at one of our outings to 6 flags. This picture used to always bother me because I wanted a nice picture of just Tuck and I. I even airbrushed my dad out one time. But not I like it just how it is. Oct 2006

Like father, like daughter. Kristin wanted to get a nice picture of my dad at Teaghan's baptizem. I thought it would look better like this. April/Mayish 2005

Things I am thankful for....

2009-11-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

A few of my friends have been doing "things they are thankful for" on their blogs or facebook. I've been thinking about the things I am thankful for and thought I would join in. I'm going to start today and make a list of all the days I've missed. Then start doing one everyday for the rest of the month...hopefully. I'm not good at blogging every day but I will try!

1. I am thankful for my hubby, Tucker. Even though he is quite crazy at times.

2. I am thankful for my little girl, McKenna

3. I am thankful for Smalls.

4. I am thankful to have a roof over my head
5. I am thankful for ear plugs. They help me get to sleep while Tucker is busy snoring

6. I am thankful for my own bed and that McKenna doesn't get to sleep in.

(this isn't my bed, I didn't have a picture on my computer)
7. I am thankful for my family and friends

(I don't have many pictures of my friends and family on my computer)
8. I am thankful for Target.

I am a targetaholic. Tuck things I go there way to often, but I don't think that I do. I go there when I need something. Sometimes its 2-3 times a week, sometimes I don't go at all. It all evens out in the end.
9. I am thankful for Hawaiian pizza from Mountain Mikes. Yummy!!

10. I am thankful for my DVR/TV. No more commericals!

11. I am thankful for internet and my mini computer.

12. I am thankful that I don't get sick. I hope I didn't just jinx myself

13. I am thankful for soda. I LOVE soda!

14. I am thankful for my car. Its not the prettiest car, but it gets me from point A to B. And it was my dads car. So I like it.

(my car has 4 doors and isn't so shiny)
15. I am thankful for being apart of the LDS church.

16. I am thankful for the many days that McKenna makes me laugh.

17. I am thankful for Tuckers job.

That's all for now folks!

Halloween

2009-11-17T20:51:00.001-08:00

This years halloween was a bit more exciting than last years. McKenna was Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz. She turned out real cute. I enjoyed myself. I wanted to get the most use out of her costume, since they are so expansive! So we went to our old wards trunk or treat and my wards trunk or treat and Tucker's aunts Halloween party. She had a great time. She would giggle and walk a little faster in between the cars. It was real cute. Next year should be even more exciting since we will be able to go door to door. I thought it would be silly having me say trick or treat at the door since she doesn't know how to talk yet.

Jen and McKenna at the first trunk or treat.

McKenna and I at the Halloween party. I was a witch. Not a very thought out witch, but one none the less. She never got scared of me with my green face. Just gave me a smile and walked away. I just love her.

At the picture station at the party.

Enjoying her treats. This girl loves candy and anything sweet.

On Nov 1, McKenna thought it was a good idea to put her hand on a light bulb! This picture was taken about 3 or 4 days after it happened. This was the day I took her into the doc because it didn't look very good. This was the worst that it got. It looks so much better now. I do have more pictures but they are on my phone and I can't seem to get them off. So one day I will be able to post them. But after 2 weeks, it looks so so much better and almost completely healed. The doctors seem very positive about its healing. We have been going to Shriner's hospital to their burn center. They are great there. So nice and helpful. And best yet....its free!

Here is McKenna's winter coat! I think she looks so cute. It makes me laugh when I see her in it. She is so funny. Speaking of funny...this little girl has so so much energy. She bounces off the walls all day long. There is never a dull moment at the Dowd house. She laughs, tries to jump, climbs up on anything she can get up on. She just makes me happy! She is such a card and has quite the little temper. Right now I laugh at her because its cute when she gets up set. I just love her! I'm glad she is in my life.

What have we done lately??

2009-10-28T21:32:00.001-07:00

This month hasn't been to eventful. In terms of McKenna and her development she is now 14 months. Where has the time gone? Can gets into everything, and I mean everything! She knows when she is doing something she isn't supposed to be doing. She understands me amazingly well. I don't know how kids at this age usually are, but she seems awfully smart to me. and I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom. She is to smart for her little age. She is on the go from the time she gets up in the morning, which is 8:00am btw, to the time her head this the mattress at night, which is 8:00pm. This girl loves her sleep. She still take 2 naps per day and can range from 1 hour to 2 hours. Its wonderful. She is starting to climb onto things and gets in to things, such as suitcases and laundry baskets. She can say Mommy, Daddy, hot, outside, no, yes, cheese, hi, bye, eat, night night. She will also copy what you say and what you do almost exactly. She has 8 teeth. She is finally starting to go to bed without her bottle. She loves going through my purse and snacking on my gum with the wrapper still on. She is a biter. (any ideas on how to stop that habit?) She is definitely a people watcher and looks at everything. She will stick her arms and legs into her clothes now and will pull her shirt off her head. Helps in getting her dressed and undressed. She LOVES her shopping cart. She will push it all around putting different items in it, usually her diapers. I can't really think of anything else, she has stolen my brain and memory. I just can believe how big she is and how much she has grown mentally and how much she can do. I didn't think her little brain could hold so much. I love her!

I don't usually let her run around naked because I don't want any accidents to happen on the floor, but I thought....why not? She would run from the front room to her bed room and back again and smalls would follow her smelling her behind. It was quite cute.

McKenna loves to rub her food stained hands through her hair, so I thought this might do the trick! But she HATES and I mean hates having things on her head so it didn't last long. She may look happy here, but she was really miserable.

Lately she has been really mesmerized with the TV. She will stare at it for a few minutes. Its quite funny. I'm gonna have to start paying attention to what she is watching here in a little bit.

This picture is a little dark but you can see her on the far left side of the picture staring at the TV.

Yeah for Halloween!! This year is really her first Halloween. Last year she was just 2 1/2 months. This year she(really I, hehe) can enjoy it more plus I get to eat some candy! What could be better? This year she is Dorothy. I think she looks pretty cute. She wouldn't hold still long enough to take a picture, so Tucker had to hold her down for me.

This was at the my old wards Trunk or Treat. She didn't like Jason very well, plus I just took a piece of candy away from her. I know, i'm a terrible mom.

Doing what she does best, getting into everything!

I just think this is the funniest picture. She had just woken up for a nap and was resting on my moms shoulder. She was trying not to smile at me and was making just these funny faces. I think I'm the only one who thought it was funny. I guess its the mom in me.

A few weeks ago we got on a plane and heading to Indiana for Tuckers 10 year HS reunion. She did awesome on the planes. She was awake the whole way there and fell asleep as we were landing in Indiana. We had to get up at 5:30am to get to our plane in time. She was a trooper. Just looked out the window pretty much the whole way there. And she slept the whole way home on the plane. Tucker enjoyed his reunion and seeing all his old friends. There won't be a post of that part, because I didn't take any pictures. Silly me!

Lately she will put her blanket over her head in the car when she is trying to sleep. She is a funny girl.

While we were in Indiana, we stayed at Tucker's brothers house. They have stairs. Yeah for me! She LOVED the stairs. She even fell down them when no one was watching her and hit her head on the nice and hard floor at the bottom. Even after that, she still continued to climb them.

Tuckers brother has a dog and Mckenna decided it would be fun to climb into the cage. I did open the door, but she climbed in and closed the door.

We went to the Sacramento Zoo on free day. We had a fun time. Here are just a few pictures.

And NO blog would be complete without my smallers! I love her too!

Just because....

2009-09-22T23:01:00.000-07:00

I just love my little girl. She is so smart. Its hard to believe how many things she understands. The other day she was acting a little cranky, I knew she was ready for a nap. So I asked her, "are you ready to go night night?" She gots off my lap and walks into her room, gets her pacifier and blanket out of her crib. How is that for a great kid?? She goes to sleep with out any problem, she has gone to bed bottle free for the past few nights. She has so much energy! She just goes and goes all day long. Except for the times when she feels like she needs to relax in her little chair. Its so cute. When she is hungry everything else stops and its time to eat. She is worse than her father when it comes to food. She needs it now!! She goes over to the kitchen when she is ready to eat. I will ask her to get her chair for me and she will go and bring it over to me so I can put her in. She can open doors, she knows what outside is. When you ask her to get her shoes to go bye bye she will try to find her shoes. She loves smalls. They play together. Its really cute. She loves birds. The other day we were at costco eating their wonderfully cheap food. You knew how there are birds all around trying to beg for food. Well McKenna was so excited to see them. She was in the back of the basket while we were eating and she was jumping around, eyes wide, arms waving around. It was pretty cute. I will have to video tape it sometime. Its funny. Tucker and I were laughing pretty hard. She will say "cheese" and smile a cheesy smile when you take pictures of her. She is starting to climb and she loves the toilet and anything that is in a cupboard. I just can't believe how much she understands. Everything is so exciting and interesting to her. I would love to get inside that little head of hers. How did I get such a smart and funny girl, Who is also so lovable and easy going?

She eat corn on the cob for the first time last week. She loved it. She would angle that corn anyway to try to get every last piece of corn off of it. She is just so cute.

Her sweet face.

The family, minus smalls

Just checking out whats going on outside.

This is how we do laundry at our house

This is her cheesy smile. She loves this little corner. She goes and sits there all the time. I'm not quite sure what draws her there, but something does.

Ain't she cute??

Air show

2009-09-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

We went to the air show this year. Well we went to a friends house who's back yard backed up to the air port. We had perfect views. The planes were hard to take pictures of. My camera isn't that high tech and these planes were fast. Most of these pictures are simular, since they are all airplanes. It was pretty cool. This was my first time going to the air show. The videos are pretty neat, long but neat.

California state fair 2009

2009-09-22T22:12:00.001-07:00

McKenna and I went to the fair this year with a few of our friends. She absolutely loved the animals!! I can tell already that she will be an animal lover. She gets so excited. Her eyes are all wide and she waves her arms in the air. Its the cutest thing. I took her into the petting zoo and she loved it. She tried to pick up poop, grab the animals ears and fur. She even tried to kiss them. There were deer, pigs, goats, and I think that is all. All I can remember. There was the one goat that kept harassing this little deer. McKenna got knocked down by this goat a few times when it would push this poor deer around. Poor little deer. I think she really enjoyed herself. She did a great job at the fair. She is such a easy going little girl.

This bull was HUGE!! It had to twist its head around because his horns were so big they would hit the railings. Whenever I tried to take a picture he would turn around so all I could see was his behind!

Night Terrors

2009-09-17T00:31:00.000-07:00

The past few nights my McKenna has been waking up about 30 min - 1 hr after I put her to bed just crying and crying and her hair is sweaty. She throws her head back and arches her back while I'm holding her like she wants me to put her down. Then I put her down and she cries even more. Nothing I do calms her down and it last for about 15-20 minutes. I'm not exactly sure if that is what it is, but from what I've read online she has most of the traits for night terrors. It said online that they have their eyes open, but hers are mostly closed. But other than that one point it seems that this is what is happening. Its very frustrating. Tonight was much better than the last few nights. After her episode she would be wide a wake and wouldn't want to go back to sleep for way to long. But tonight after she calmed down she went back to sleep about 10 minutes later and I haven't heard a peep from her. I've found that giving her ice chips in a plastic bag with a little hole cut in the end makes her stop crying. I'm not sure if this is helping or hurting but its makes her stop crying and really in the moment that seems to be my main goal. Does anyone know why this happens or anything I can do to stop it?? I need it to stop! Please help!!

1 year old!

2009-09-17T00:15:00.001-07:00

I can't believe she is already one! Where has this year gone?? I couldn't have asked for a better little girl. She is so sweet and loving. She does have a little 'tude at times and it seems to be getting worse, but over all she is sweet! I just love her. She started walking about a week before her first birthday. I'm a little late posting this so by now she is really good at walking and getting faster and faster every day. She is also starting to climb up on things and open doors (we have the easy knobs to open) . She has 7 teeth, 4 top 3 bottom, and doesn't look like anymore are coming any time soon. She loves to eat and will eat pretty much anything and at anytime. If you are eating, she thinks she needs to be eating as well. She is still a great sleeper, except for lately, but that is for another post. She loves to just sit back in her little chair and relax. Its so cute, she will kick her little legs back and forth. I can't seem to think of anything else that she can do at 1. I'm sure I will think of them later, at a more normal hour not at 12:30am. What am I doing awake anyway??
Anyway, So we had a little party for her. It wasn't anything huge just a few friends and family. Here are a few pictures...

Notice how she is looking at her had. Tucker shoved it in the cake and she started crying. She was doing just fine pinching the frosting with two little fingers.

She enjoyed opening her persents. Thanks everyone who came!

She will bring her blankie in here, toys, you name it she will bring it to her seat and lay back and relax. Its pretty dang cute.

Walking

2009-08-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

McKenna starting walking earlier this week. She is still learning and prefers to crawl than walk, but she is starting to get the hang of it. She gets so exciting when were are on either side of her and she walks to us. She will just keep doing it over and over because she is so excited! Its pretty cute. Here is just a little video of her walking. It doesn't really show much but I didn't like any of the other videos I took.

McKenna loves this little frisbee, thanks Coleen!. She will crawl arond with it in her mouth. I guess its just the right size.

Smalls just being Smalls

McKenna will be 1 on sunday so stay tuned for pictures of her from her birthday party!!

Arizona

2009-08-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

My sister had her baby a month ago, so my mom, Brittnee, McKenna, and I all headed down to Tucson arizona...by car. It wasn't to bad. McKenna did really well. I got her a new car seat...a big girl car seat. There was no way I would be driving with her for 14 hours with her in a rear facing. She was very pleased with her new seat.

For the two weeks we were there, we really didn't do much. Mainly stayed around the house, with the occasional visits to target and the grocery store. We did leave all the kids with Micah, my bro in law, for a few hours while the ladies went and got our nails done. It was nice. Here are just a few pictures, mainly of McKenna, of our trip. I didn't take to many.

This is the newest addition to my extended famliy...Addison. Weighing in at 9lbs 1 oz and was 2 weeks early!!

Me and my sister Elisha

My sisters other kids are twin boys. This is in their room and McKenna found that she could get in here and she loved it. It would keep her entertained for a little while.

McKenna didn't really like her newest cousin very much. But she did enjoy bouncing the bouncy seat and watching addison's head bounch around. I thought it was funny, not sure how much my sister though it was. Don't worry everyone, I didn't let he do it for that long. There was no permant damage to the baby.

McKenna was very protective of her grandma and I whenever we would hold little Addison. She would quit what she was doing and craw as fast as she could to which one of us was holding her and cry and try to climb up. When she would get where she wanted she would contiune to push and hit the little addison so she would leave. It was pretty funny to watch. She did get better over time.

Last but not least.....This is what McKenna was like when she left for Arizona. Very sweet and innocent and she came back home like this......

.......a little tempermental! Look at that face. She is still pretty sweet but does have a little tude at times.

My sisters boys were a little possive of Addision. Whenever McKenna would touch her they would tell her to leave her alone. I don't think they liked McKenna much either. She would pull their hair and shirts and would take their toys. Where did this girl come from? Anyway, this video is of McKenna bouncing Addison. You can hear Brayden tell mckenna to not touch her.

More pictures

2009-07-09T22:51:00.000-07:00

This is what McKenna currently looks like. She is getting so big.

Say Cheese!

If you look closely, you can see two little top teeth peeking through

Her new favorite place to play

Tucker and I found her like this during one of her naps

I left the room to answer the phone and I come back to find this....Smalls eating the rest of my lunch. Its a good thing I was done. Can you see that she is on her tippy toes?

McKenna...she is just to cute

2009-07-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

I love her!!

This is her little dolly. She will hold it and rock it. Its very cute.

This is her cousin Zak. She loves him and every time we go over to their house, She will follow him around and try to hug and kiss him. It is very cute. I'm sure Zak doesn't think its as cute as we all do.

In deep thought...with piggy tails

On our most recent road trip, I took some pictures of McKenna. I thought they were cute.

This was in the car during our road trip.

Camping

2009-07-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

Last month we went camping with our friends at a place near Ice house. Its in between Placerville and Lake Tahoe. It was a very nice place and I would like to go there again sometime. We did a little hiking, swimming and the normal camping stuff.

This is one the first night. McKenna did wonderful. She is such a trooper.

Our campsite, our tent is the one on the left.

McKenna hanging out in the pack-n-play. This is were she mostly hung out.

Meal time!

During one of our hikes.

At the end of our hike. It was a very pretty lake.

McKenna being cute.

On a different hike.

Some of us went swimming. It was pretty cold. Little McKenna wanted to play in the water. Right when I set her down her lip started to shiver and she had cold chills all over. But she still had a smile on her face.

These ducks came and surrounded us. It was kind of creepy

No words can describe this picture....lol

On our lasts night there it rained on us. It got pretty cold but we still stayed out by the fire. We are real campers!

It was a great trip and I look forward to our next camping trip.

McKenna at 10 months old....a little late

2009-07-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

So, I am little late in posting this, but only by 2 weeks. My little baby girl is 10 months old. It still blows me away every time I look at her. She is getting so big and growing up so fast. I can't believe it. She is getting quite the personality and gets up set when something she wants to happen doesn't happen right when she wants it.
At 10 months old McKenna can:
1. Crawl like a champ
2. Still sleeps for 12 sometimes 12+ hours a night
3. Plays very independently
4. Walks around with the furniture as support
5. Loves, I mean LOVES smalls
6. Has just about outgrown her infant car seat. Just about time to get a new one
7. likes to feed herself and loves food.
8. Loves to take baths and to go swimming
9. Loves to explore and get into things.

I sure love my little girl!

What have we been up to.....

2009-06-05T22:50:00.000-07:00

(CAUTION: OVERLOAD OF PICTURES!)

Playing.....
This is McKenna playing in her little play area. She doesn't really see this area anymore since she has the whole house to explore. I hardly ever have to pick up her toys anymore. Not sure which one I think it worse...that I have to watch her more carefully or picking up her toys every single night.

Getting new toys...well new to us!
I went to a couple yard sales with my friend and got this toy for McKenna for 4 dollars! What a deal. She will walk with it for a few steps if we put her up there to start.

Getting new summer clothes....
I used to have one of these when I was little. Its sooo cute!

More of her new summer clothes. Remind me never to go to the Carters outlet when there is a sale going on.

Getting my hairs cut....
This is my latest hair cut and I think it is the best one I've ever had. Thanks Kim!!

The back.

Trying to take pictures of us.....
Don't look at me in this picture, I'm still in my pjs. But when ever I would try to take a picture, McKenna would look up at me like I was acting weird. It was pretty funny.

Crawling....
My baby is crawling! I can't believe it. She has been pretty busy exploring everything. She can get going pretty fast with her crawl and can pull herself to a standing position. As a side note. You might notice Smalls is very close to McKenna butt, well McKenna had gone poop and smalls was following her around the house smelling her butt. It was funny. I guess I don't have to smell her butt anymore. I will just look for smalls.

Breaking things...
Elisha will probably be the only one to think this is funny. She got to witness the last time Tucker fell out of a chair. I am laughing right now just thinking about it. This chair was determined to break apart. It was already half way there and it was only a matter of time before it did. Tucker just happen to be its culprit. He was getting up and the front legs broke off and won he went. Oh my goodness...I am still laughing.

Just another view of the chair...

Coming down with some sort of rash...
We thought maybe she was getting chickenpox, but she didn't have them. The doctor said it was just some viral infection. She had a fever and everything. You feel so helpless when your kids are sick. She wasn't feeling good that day. The dots eventually went away in about a week.

Swimming.....

McKenna got her first swim suit and went swimming for the first time and LOVED it!

The arm floaties didn't last long, she didn't like them much. Maybe when she is a little older.

She loved being in the water. It wasn't warm at all. It was actually pretty cold. I got in for a little bit and I could hardly stand it. But she loved it. She would kick around the pool. She's our little water bug.

Going to Six Flags....

I went to six flags with a few of my friends. We had a great time. It was fun riding all the rides. I love roller coasters!

Does this really look comfortable?

And last but not least...Smalls.

She had another run in with the vet. This is the 4th time she has got to the vet in her short 1 year and 3 month lifetime. Let me tell you about her latest visit. Smalls, McKenna, and I were going on a walk, as we normally do just about each day. We were at the houe next door and Smalls was smelling the grass as she normally does at that location. All of the sudden she starts violentally sneezing. Not just once or twice but 10-15 times in a row. She would stop for a little bit then start up all over again. So I put her in the basket of the stroller and hurry back to the house to see what is going on with her. Tucker looks and we are both unsure. We assume that she got something stuck up her nose. She has a little bit of blood on her face. But we aren't sure if that is from her sneezing or when she ran into the screen door on the way into the house. (poor smalls) So we decide to take her to the vet. It is about 7pm. I call over to the vet to see if they are still open and of course they arn't. They instruck us to go to this vet ER hospital. We go to the hospital. I walk in and explain what is going on. The very young, tan, beach bum, surfer doctor tells me that he thinks there is a foxtail in her nose and wants me to spend $409 to get it out. I ask...does that price include the $100 exam fee? (I guess all hospitals are a like, over priced!) He said yes it does. I go on to ask a few more questions and decide that I want to take her home and see how she does. $145 later, (we got some antibodicts) we head home. She is doing better but still having sneezing fits. The next morning, she is still sneezing, Not as bad as before and with some blood, and has no energy. I call Tucker and tell him that we need to take her in. So I take her into the vet.(the real vet, not the over priced hospital) and he tells me the same thing. So I tell him to go ahead with the proceedure. Which includes putting her to sleep and sticking a comb up her nose to check out what it up there. I am a little skeptical. How can a foxtail get up into smalls nose. Has he seen how smalls her nose is? But low and behold, he calls me a few hours later and tells me the news. "I pulled out a rather large foxtail and it was pretty wedged in there" How in the world? So another $259 later Smalls is all better. Which I am glad about. It makes me worried when she doesn't act her normal self. After this experience I have come to believe that Smalls is accident prone.
*See below for a picture of the foxtail that came out of smalls nose*

I couldn't get a good close up so this is as good as it gets.

McKenna laughing

McKenna swimming. Look at those cute legs kickin

This was also Smalls first time swimming. I don't think she liked it much. She was shivering for a while after getting out of the water. It was fun to watch her swim though.

McKenna is crawling and lots of pictures

2009-05-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

Here is a little video of McKenna crawling, some pictures of her adventures, and lots of random pictures and videos. She has gotten a little quicker since this video. She has pretty much mastered crawling this last week. It happened pretty fast. I guess she is a bright child, what can I say?

This is Smalls water dish. Notice how smalls it watching, wondering what is going on. McKenna already dumped out all the food out of the bowl. But I think she enjoyed the water better.

You always have to lick the bowl when your finished.

McKenna learned out to clap a few weeks ago. Its pretty cute.

This is McKenna cousin Peyton. They are just a few weeks apart.

Such a sweet face.

This is her little sweat suit. Its pretty cute.

HELLO!

I painted her toes last week. They look cute now, but let me tell you. I just about gave up half way throug the process. She better not get used to having painted toenails, that is an expensive habit.

This is how McKenna usually greats me in the morning and after her naps. Not always with a smile, but a lot of the time.

She is such a happy baby! She just got her first tooth (if you count having it poke through her gum getting her first tooth). It has been a rough few weeks in the evening because of that tooth. Can't wait for more to come through. hum??
Lately McKenna loves to watch herself (or maybe she likes watching the other baby) on the camera when I take videos of her. So I have taken a lot of videos because its funny to watch her. She is so cute. I feel so blessed. She has grown up so much just in the last few weeks, with crawling and getting her first tooth and clapping. She is turing into a little toddler. ;( So sad, my little baby girl isn't so little anymore.

THE END! haha

Canning

2009-05-06T21:45:00.001-07:00

Tucker and I thought it would be a good idea to get some more food storage. So we took a drive over to the cannery. We weren't going to do any canning, we were just gonna buy some food that was already canned. But as it turns out, not everything comes pre-canned. So we got lucky and a station was open. So we canned out goods.

For those of you who have never canned before, like Tucker and I, this is how its done.
You first grab 6 cans.

Then you place them in this white bucket

Open your product,

Then pour your product.

As you can see they are not all filled to the top and not even close to even, so....

You give them a little shake to pack the "goods" down as far as it will go. Then...

..you top them all off.

Next, you move them over to the table....

and place the oxygen absorber thingy in with your product.Then you place your lid on top.

And place the can on this contraption, like so.

You then proceed to push the lever over to start the spinning

Then you remove the can after it has finished spinning and magically the lid is sealed onto the can.

After you have sealed your cans, you label the can with the correct label, in this case it is Flour.

You then place the finished cans in a nice box, with a couple white lids.

This is what we canned that day. We also bought spaghetti and pancake mix. Which you don't have to can. We canned sugar, flour, milk, and refried beans. It was pretty fun and really quite easy. I would recommend it to everyone.

This is what McKenna did while we canned. She is such a good sport!! Thats why I love her!

8 months old

2009-04-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

McKenna turned 8 months old last week. She is growing so fast. She is starting to get more active. Moves around like crazy. She wants to crawl and can get up on all fours and tries her best to move. Probably soon enough she will be on the move. But she can move around pretty good for not crawling. She loves to eat! I have been trying some other foods lately. She loves all food. We went to the doctor last week. She weighted 18.4lbs. She gained less than a lb in the last 2 months. However, she grew almost 3 inches. She was 26 1/4 and is now 29 inches. I think she is gonna be a tall girl. Her head is still small according to the scales. But I think it looks fine. She has come to love smalls rawhide bones. I'm not sure why she sucks on them, makes me wonder what they taste like. But she doesn't get to chew on them for very long before I take it out and throw it far away. She is also starting to get very vocial with what she wants. It used to be cute, but not anymore.

My sister-in-law, Kristin, took this picture and the first one. She does a wonderful job. Thank Kristin!

McKenna, boxes, and other pictures

2009-04-13T23:32:00.000-07:00

McKenna is learning that she can scoot around on the floor. I really haven't seen it, but I will leave and when I come back she is in a different place. Anyway, she loves boxes, as most kids do, and she continued to scoot her way into this box. She started farther than the picture on the right.

Yeah! I made it in the box.....now what? She started getting upset soon after because she couldn't figure out how to get out.

Since McKenna has been a rolling over like a champ, she rolls around her bed all night long. This is currently her new sleeping position. I think its cute with her little bum in the air. (The picture isn't very good because I didn't want to use the flash and wake her up. So I had to lighten it up alot) If you are wondering where she is sleeping in this picture, she is on the floor in her homemade bed at Grandma Sandy's house.

My mother finally sold her house. We went up on Saturday and packed it up. What a project! Just wanted to have one last picture of the house before it is no longer ours. I can't really say that I will miss the house, but there are some good memories in that house that I will miss. It was a good house and it was good to us throughout the years. Good Bye house!

Smalls likes to find odd places to sleep. This is our laundry basket with our clean neatly folded clothes in it. She is a funny little dog.

Easter pictures

2009-04-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

We had a nice easter this year. It was a beautiful day. We spent the weekend with Tucker's moms and had a little photo shot on Sunday. I've learned that sun and pictures don't always get long, but for the most part they turned out good.

The Family

Miss McKenna

McKenna

McKenna..again

McKenna and Smalls. I thought McKenna's face was funny.

Jumping and snot

2009-04-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

We got McKenna this jumper and she loves it! She will stay in there for about an hour before she wants to get out.

After about a week of having this, Mckenna was jumping, Smalls and I were sitting on the couch. Suddenly Smalls jumps off the couch and goes over to McKenna and starts licking the floor. I go over and take a look and guess what?? McKenna had pooped out of her diaper on to the floor and Smalls was licking it off the floor!!

Tucker quickly grabbed smalls and washed her mouth out with water(I thought that was pretty funny) and I grabbed the camera! McKenna didn't know what was going on and was quite happy to be jumping. The poo was all in between her toes and all over her feet. It was quite the experience. She did end up getting a bath after that one!!

McKenna experienced her first cold. I don't think she liked it very much. It is still going on, but has gotten much better. She hates it when I pull out the greenish blue sucker to suck out her nose and she hates it when I wipe her nose. She also hasn't been sleeping well because she couldn't breath at night. It was just a fun and joyful experience ;) I'm glad she is getting better day by day.

McKenna is 7 Months..... 2 weeks ago

2009-04-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

Another month has gone by, 7 Months old. I didn't really take any pictures in March. I will have to work on that. This is all I could dig up.

At 7 months McKenna can:
-Sit up like a champ
-Rolls all over in her crib at night
-love to play with her toys
-Is generally happy.
-Laughs more
-She can not say any words yet and has no teeth.
-wants to start crawling around.
-loves to eat. We have found that her favorite is sweet corn casserole. It actually smells pretty good. I havn't tried tasting it, and won't be trying.
-Love to jump
-She is a very sweet little girl
-Is trying to pull herself up on things.

Her little personality is starting to come out. Although she is very sweet and loving, she gets a little temper when her food is not there when she wants it. She also hates it when I wipe her face after eating. She will scream. It was cute, but now, not so much. I can't wait until she is a little older and can participate in holidays and fun activities, such as an Easter egg hunt. Its not fun when you can't walk. Her second year should be fun with Halloween, Christmas, and all the other fun holidays and activities.

A long a crazy road trip.

2009-04-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

For Tuckers work he gets to travel at times. Probably once a month or so. This time I went with him and I will never go with him again. This was one crazy and long 2 days of driving. We left on a Thursday morning about 7ish and drove to Lower lake. Then to Ukiah, Willits, Fort Bragg, and Mendicino. By this time it was about noonish. I really don't remember. But I hate the drive to Ft. Bragg now. It just isn't any fun. After driving North of Mendicino on Hwy 1(which I hate) we went to this little town called Leggett. Where they have a redwood that you can drive thru. We were gonna do it but they charge 5 bucks to drive thru a tree. I thought that was pretty stupid, so we took a picture of the sign instead. (see below)

After driving to Leggett and attemping to go thru the tree, we went to this place that I hope no one will ever have to experience. Its called Alderpoint. Go ahead, look it up on the map. Its in the middle of no where and I'm not kiddin. It was 20 miles off the hwy on a 2 laned road that went winding thru the mountains. There wasn't even a town limit sign. After that "Gosh forsaken" place, we drove to Eureka were we stayed the night. We got there at about 7-8pm. A nice 12 hr day.
So that was day one! It makes me tired just thinking about it. On Friday, Tucker does 3 local jobs in Eureka, then we pack up and head North around 11:00. Our next stop is Bayside. A nice, small, cute town. If it wasn't such a long ways up to Eureka and north of there I would visit more often, do a little camping. Anyway, after Bayside we drove up what was left of the california coast to Crescant City. We drove all the way up the state of California so Tucker could inspect a pron shop! I'm not kidding! I didn't go it, but from what Tucker said there was movies and magazines, toys. Probably anything and everything you could ever want, if you were into that sort of thing. After Crescant City we had to drive South back to Eureka, then east to a small campground north of Hoopa. Another "gosh forshaken" place that I will never go back to!! As we drove the the 299 (i think) we passed quite a few towns that had less than 300 people. I don't know how anyone could live like that. Crazy! Our second to last stop was in weaverville. Not a bad little place. Had dinner there. A good touristy place. Then it was off to redding to stay at my grandmas place. We got to Redding at 10:00, another almost 12 hour day. Can I say that I never want to drive up north again!! It is pretty, but it is just way to long. Not worth the drive!

We stoped here on the way back to Eureka. Took a few pictures with Paul Bunyan. We didn't stay long because we were behind schedule. As we were the day before as well. It was like driving with our heads cut off, a long day of racing with the clock.

If you can't tell, Tucker wanted McKenna to touch this big blue bulls balls. I guess this makes him a guy.

This was taken at Patricks point. Where we paided 6 dollars to get into this park because we thought it would be better than this. and Tucker thought the "tree in the rock" was here. Needless to say, after we payed the 6 dollars I told him that the tree in the rock was in Monterey. I would have rather waited my money on the drive thru tree!

Anyway, that was our very crazy road trip. I have had my fair share of windy roads. I can say that I do not like them! Glad you could all share in my misery!! On the other hand, McKenna did wonderful. Not a cry came out of her. It probably helped that I sat in the back with her the whole time, but she was a wonderful traveler.

The End!

Smalls is 1 year old (in human years, of course!)

2009-03-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

What a year this has been for smalls!! She has been to the vet 3 times for something other than normal check-ups. She is just so sensitive. Its been a tough year for her. Hopefully this next year will be a better one. I remember when we first got her, she was so tiny! Weighing only about 2 lbs or less. Just a little puff ball. She is such a sweet dog and I love her. She has lots and lots of energy and could use some obedience classes. She loves to eat your food and right out of your hand! She can go completely crazy at times and will drag her butt on the ground and on in circles. Its quite funny. She is always there for a good laugh or just to sit on your lap when you are feeling down. She is quite the cuddlier and will snuggle right up to you all night long! She still doesn't like other dogs. When she is inside the house she will pretend she is not afraid of them and will bark and bark at them. But when we are out side and next to them, its a totally different story. She gets to scared. I took her to the dog park the other day and she was so scared of these dogs. She would stay so still and look down when the other dogs would come over to check her out. When they would leave she would sniff around all by herself. Like a little loner! I'm trying to work on getting her socialized. It took her quite a long time to come off the couch with Archie (my brothers dog), so I think its going to be a long journey. Her official birthday is March 10 2008.

She just got a hair cut. Doesn't she look super cute with short hair?

This is smalls the first day we got her. She was just about 8 weeks old. Isn't she cute?

Smalls

This is one of her favorite places to be. Looking for leftover food.

Loungin' around. Notice the back legs. They are spread out on the sides. I love it when she lays like this. Its very cute.

I can't do a post without putting some pictures of McKenna in here.
Today she learned that she can pull herself up, Well just to her knees but that is a good start. This is the first time she has done this. I might have to lower her mattress pretty soon. If you look at the picture closely, you can see that she is "white knuckling" the banister. Holdin on for dear life!

Playing with her blocks and her Auntie Teaghan (Britts was there to, just not in the picture)

I thought this look was pretty funny/cute. I'm not sure what she was looking at that made her have this look. She is such a cutie and is growing so fast. 6 1/2 months old now!

I forgot...

2009-03-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

...to tell you McKenna Stats from her 6th months doctors appointment. She weighs 17lbs 8 oz (75%). That is a almost a 3 lb increase from her 4th month. Her head is 41 cm (65%). Her head is way bigger. She used to be in the 20th percentile! She must be getting smarter. ;) She she is 26 1/4 inches tall (75%). She didn't grow anything there. And I think the last time we were there she was 26 3/4 inches, so I guess someone messed up there. Or I guess she could be shrinking. Anyway, just wanted to share this with all of you.

6 months old

2009-02-28T18:14:00.000-08:00

At 6 months old McKenna can,
-sit up all by herself
-eats baby food and loves it
-is starting to drink out of a sippy cup
-is sleeping though the night
-moves all around in her sleep
-gets constipated
-can hold her bottle and sippy cup
-goes from happy to crabby in 1/2 a second
-wants to go places but can't figure out how
-is the cutest baby you will ever see
-loves to grab smalls fur
-loves to suck on my face and grab my hair
-has a soaking wet shirt by the end of the day
-has been pretty crabby lately, maybe those teeth are closer than we think.

In her valentines outfit

Smalls and McKenna

Fort Bragg

2009-02-14T22:25:00.000-08:00

Tucker had a little business to do near fort bragg. So we all decided to tag along. We just stayed there one night then drove home on hwy. 1. Let me tell you that is a very very curvy road! It gets old very quickly and you wish you went the other way. But non the less we went and took some good pictures of the ocean. I probably took 50 pictures. You can never get enough of the ocean. Its just so pretty!

McKenna and I. By the way, I got my hair cut. This is my new due.

Tucker and McKenna

McKenna and I close up.

The three of us!

Random pictures of the ocean

Tucker took this pictures, isn't it beautiful?

My big girl

2009-02-07T16:00:00.001-08:00

Since McKenna is sitting up all by herself now. I thought I would give her a shot at taking a bath in the sink. She did pretty well. Sat very good and tried to grab her toys. I just think this picture is so funny/cute. She just makes me laugh.

Just her sitting and splashing in the water.

So you can't really see anything, but this is McKenna when she first woke up from her nap. It was to cute not to video tape.

5 months old

2009-01-30T19:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-30T18:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T23:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T22:32:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T22:12:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-02T23:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-02T23:23:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-02T22:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-02T22:22:00.000-08:00

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.

Santa Clause

2009-01-02T21:57:00.000-08:00

I took McKenna to see Santa Clause this year. When I set her down she starting crying and was not very happy. But she managed to calm down with the help of her pacificer. I think it turned out cute.