Christmas

We had a great Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went up to the Loomis' home and had a dinner and Santa came, most of the kids seemed to love it.

McKinley did much better Christmas morning than Robbie and I thought she would. Of course she tried to eat the ribbons and the paper, but she actually seemed to like seeing what was inside. Here is what we woke up to:

Opening presents with Dad:

Wow, look it's an elephant!

We hope you all had a great Christmas too!

Yep, Still Suckers!

Remember when I just couldn't help but buy McKinley those cute Halloween clothes? Well, it happened again with a couple of cute Christmas shirts, the one above says "Santa Loves Me" and the one below says "Good Things Come in Small Packages".....what a spoiled girl!

Who needs a REAL baby pack?

December was a busy month, so I didn't blog much, but some pretty funny things happened.
We had our first big snow fall and I was busy, but Robbie needed to shovel the walk, so he decided he would take McKinley out to do it with him. It was then that we realized that we never bought one of the baby carrier things. So, we have tons of back packs for an array of different activities. We found the back pack that best matched up with McKinley and here's what we got:

They didn't actually make it out to shovel the snow, but at least we know we could carry her in something. Who needs one of those nice comfy ones anyway, MK looks completely happy in this one!

Unprepared....AGAIN!

Ok, so here is a funny story, accompanied by some adorable pictures to show you just how truthful I am being. We've been parents for just about 8 months now and the time has really flown by. We've found ourselves on numerous occasions slightly unprepared, but I think tonight's unpreparedness is probably the funniest we've had in a long time.
We had a really nice lazy day, something that hasn't happened in a long time. Around 3 pm we decided we should probably all get dressed and do something with our day, so we did. Here is McKinley ready to go, in her cute pink onsie with flowers and brown pants, but she is a little sleepy.

We decided to run some errands and then go to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner (thanks Mom and Dad for the gift card!). Our first errand took us to Office Max. When we arrived we returned something and then did some looking around. The cashier thought we were serious when we joked about buying $50 of Slim Jim's...gross can you imagine that many Slim Jim's. Once we convinced him we were kidding, we started shopping and then McKinley started making her terribly embarrassing "I'm using the bathroom" noise. It's this really weird shrieky, high pitched, gaspy thing. Everyone always looks and there is my adorable daughter with a very red face obviously working diligently at....well we all know what. So, I looked at her and I said "Really, we just left the house" and then laughed at her. I figured it could wait 15 minutes while we finished shopping because then we were headed to Joe's Crab Shack and I would change it there.
Roughly 15 minutes later we got to Joe's Crab Shack and were seated. We ordered our meals and then Robbie decided he would change her diaper. He picked up McKinley, who I forgot to mention was wearing a new outfit she got for Christmas and off they went.
They were gone for a long time. I kept wondering when they were going to come back. I finished a glass of water, read the dessert menu, ate some of the appetizer and continued to wait, then our meals arrived and still no Robbie. I was starting to think I was going to have to go check on them. Then, all of the sudden there they were at the table, only something was different. McKinley was wearing Robbie's rain jacket. I thought it was a little odd and so I looked at Robbie. He said "Oh yeah, she's naked under there except for her diaper".
She had apparently had a HORRIFIC diaper and had gone through all of her clothes. The experienced parent or prepared parent would have an extra set of clothes in the diaper bag for just such an occasion, but not us, we had nothing. So, we sat down and enjoyed our dinner with a naked baby wrapped in her daddy's jacket! Here she is as we finished dinner and put her in her car seat. I'm pretty sure she's wondering why she's naked in public.

Once we were done, we paid and left. At this point, with the naked baby, the falling snow, the freezing weather and being out of wipes, most parents would call it a night, but not us, we still had errands we wanted to run. So, we took our naked baby (who did still have a clean beanie and socks on) out in the snow, to the car and across the street to Children's Place, where conveniently enough they were having a sale. We talked about what outfit to get her and debated several options. Robbie kept telling me "just pick something, she's naked!" Normal people with fully clothed children walked by and snickered at the naked baby out in the winter weather. We finally bought her some clothes and at the checkout stand I said things I never had even thought about saying before. "I promise she wasn't naked when we left the house" and "we won't need receipts or a bag, can I dress her here on the counter". So, yep, we dressed McKinley right there on the counter in the store. I have to say though, her little outfit only cost us $12 and I think it's really cute. Poor McKinley and her crazy parents!

Starting to Get on Her Knees

This is a quick post of McKinley getting up on her knees! She's also sitting up on her own (thought we have to place her there, because she can't get into the sitting position by herself yet).

Happy Birthday Robbie!

Wednesday was Robbie's birthday, we had a nice small dinner, just McKinley, myself and the birthday boy. Very low key, kind of nice in the middle of the week when everything seems to be going crazy around you! I made the usual cupcakes (this time from scratch, it was nice to have the time) and Robbie got his favorite dinner....pizza!

Here is McKinley smiling at her dad as she wished she too could eat the pizza, but instead has her rice cereal smeared all over her face from her attempt to dive at my pizza while I was feeding her!

On Friday, my sister Jenni and her husband Christian were nice enough to come babysit McKinley while Robbie and I went out for his birthday. We did dinner and a movie and although we missed the little one, it was nice to get out. We haven't been out on a date just the two of us since our anniversary in June! Needless to say, the new James Bond movie was great and we had a fun time. Happy Birthday Robbie!

Chili Fest

About this time of year each year at work we hold a chili cook off and we call it the Chili Fest. Several of my colleagues at work bring in chili, then others bring corn bread, cookies or drinks. I usually make a chili and bring it in to enjoy, but this year I just couldn't get my chili made the night before.
Anyway, chili fest was great as usual, but on the way home I noticed something in my car that made me reminisce a little. There I was driving home in the Xterra and I looked at the floor in the passengers seat. There in the rubber mat (and this is completely embarrassing for me to admit) was the remnants of a small spill from my chili from LAST YEAR!
A lot of thoughts went through my head when I saw that chili.....First, I can count about 3 times my entire pregnancy when a smell made me nauseous and last year's chili fest was one of them. There I was sitting at work with 9 or so crock pots full of chili boiling around me all day, the smell almost made me sick to my stomach and I usually love chili! Second, I now completely understand what people say when they talk about it only taking a short time to break a habit. You see, I am a neat freak...or at least I once was. I used to dust everything in my house 3 times a week, vacuum twice a week, 409 switch plates, plug covers and walls once a week, wipe down all of the base boards once a week and polish my wood floors once a week (vacuuming them at least 3 times) just to name a few things. Flash forward, nine months of pregnancy, one new baby, two months in a wheel chair, a month in a walker, multiple falls and a month on crutches and what do you get...someone who is out of their habit! I'm lucky to get the whole house cleaned in one day at all, it's only happened 3 times in the last 7 months, let alone find the time to clean up a small chili spill on a rubber mat in my car! Third, after thinking about the past days of my neat freakishness, I remembered a time probably about 3 or so years ago. I came home from work to find Robbie in the living room in his usual t-shirt and cargos, but this time also wearing an apron. He had dinner in the oven and was ironing some clothes while he was watching Oprah! Everytime I think of that memory I laugh!
Anyway, chili fest was awesome. The chili was delicious and I just keep thinking one day soon maybe my house will be really clean again! Oh, and I have not seen Robbie ironing, cooking and watching Oprah since!

More Weddings!

You may remember that back in June my sister Leslie got married. It was such a nice day. Well, back in June we didn't think we'd have another wedding so soon! My other sister, Jenni, got married on Friday. It was an early day (at the temple by 7:50), but a great one. They had a luncheon and a reception and everything was a lot of fun. I didn't get many shots of the bride, but I'll post some when she sends me some, but I did get some cute ones of McKinley and Robbie. McKinley looks a little dazed in this one, but don't let it fool you, she had a stellar time at the reception.

This is the closest thing we have that sort of shows her dress. She and her cousins wore the same dresses and they looked so cute.

There's my happy girl!

Robbie is one lucky guy huh? :)

Pass the Peas Please

On Wednesday last week we gave McKinley her first "solid" food (besides rice cereal I mean). We're trying to introduce her to fruits and vegetables now. We decided to start with the vegetables, because who would eat veggies if they tried fruit first?
Here is a little video of how it went. I'm thinking peas are not her favorite food.

6 Months Old!

Well, it’s official, McKinley is 6 months old. She seems so big now! She’s really starting to get her own little personality. Here is a little about McKinley:

• She loves to pull the CrAZiesT faCes
• Sometimes she ignores Robbie for fun
• She rolls all over, but sometimes when she’s on her tummy she forgets she can roll to her back and just lays there and whines until we remind her she can get to her back on her own
• She enjoys eating rice cereal and is really pretty good at it
• She recognizes her spoon and bottle and when they start coming toward her she starts shaking her head back and forth with mouth WIDE open
• She loves books
• She plays with toys and every toy goes in her mouth
• She can sit on her own for a few seconds
• She babbles a lot, but her absolute favorite thing is to growl
• She loves to PuLL Robbie’s glasses off of his face
• She also likes to sit on Robbie’s shoulders and hold on to his hair
• She hates cold wind! She doesn’t mind the cold, but if there is a wind, she is one unhappy little girl

Halloween

Well, McKinley had her first Halloween and would say with a few minor glitches it was a pretty good one. They had quite the party at daycare and she even made her own Trick or Treating bag. Glitch 1: she was going to come into my work in the afternoon for a killer party, but the Suby was in the shop and took longer than we thought...oh well, maybe next year. When we got home we handed out some candy and then went to see a couple of her cousins near by. She had a good time in their wagon! Glitch 2: After all of that pumpkin patch fun, we didn't get a chance to carve our pumpkins! I think Robbie is still going to carve his like a halloween something, but I think I'll carve mine Thanksgiving like. Anyway, after a day full of partying our little butterfly was tired and went to bed, but not before a few fun pictures. Happy Halloween!

Getting ready to take flight!

With her cousins in the wagon. Two butterflies and a cute little poodle.

Pumpkin Patch!

We found this cute little pumpkin patch down the street and decided the get our pumpkins there this year. Robbie and I love to carve pumpkins and this year we get to carve an extra one for McKinley (we don't think she's quite old enough to do it on her own). Of course we took some pictures! Robbie trying to show McKinley the art of picking a pumpkin, I don't think she's paying attention though.

In these pictures you can see that McKinley is trying to really study the pumpkins to pick the perfect one. She ended up just letting mom decide.

As you can see, all three of us went (we made sure not to do it on a school night)!

Doesn't she look stoked to in this wheel barrow? I think she just figured out how cool pumpkins are!

Of course you can't leave the pumpkin patch without a picture on the tractor.

Seriously, have you ever seen cuter cheeks? I know I haven't.

Road Trip!

Well, we took our first road trip with McKinley last weekend. We decided to start small, so we went up and back to Pocatello, ID in one day! It's a 2.5 hour drive each way and the kiddo was great!

We headed up because my Grandma and Grandpa Marler just came home from serving a mission in the Canary Islands of Spain and were reporting in church. Here she is in the awesome bib that GiGi (that is what we call Great Grandma, haven't decided on what to call Great Grandpa yet) brought home for her!

McKinley had met them when they came through SLC, but had not yet met my Grandma and Grandpa Thomas. Here is McKinley with GiGi Thomas

Here she is with Great Grandpa Thomas. Grandpa is 97 and McKinley is 6 months, quite the age difference.

McKinley LOVED seeing her great grandparents and was a great little traveler. Though, I must say she really knows when she is home. Her cute little talkative personality came out even more when we got home that night! Who knew little kids could tell where home is?

The Newest Member of Our Band

We decided to try McKinley out at Rockband the other day, she's pretty good. The only problem is, she is great at every instrument!

She has skills on the drums....

But look at the way she takes command of the microphone!

And who can resist playing the guitar....although, I admit this one is a little big for her!

Halloween Outfits

My entire life I have had a deep seeded desire to find deals on clothes, food, going out dinner....everything! Some may say I'm cheap, I like to call it thrifty. I always head straight for the clearance rack when I'm shopping and constantly am on the look out for coupons or discounts. There is one particular store I like to frequent, but the prices are more than I like to pay, it's called Layers and about twice a year they have a HUGE sale. I like the deals so much that when McKinley was three months old or so and I was sporting my fancy walker with the awesome tennis balls I braved one of these HUGE sales. I'm talking nearly day after Thanksgiving kind of crowds, it's craziness, but it's all worth it. I digress....
I was out shopping the other day, picking up the essentials....formula, milk and food and I happened to be at the Walmart. Well, Walmart is pretty smart and I think they really know how to cash in on parents, that's why they put the formula back in the baby section of the store and not with the food. So, on your way to the formula you pass all of the baby clothes. I am a sucker for baby clothes. Well, I found a deal, $3 for an awesome onsie for McKinley, so of course I bought, she needs some Halloween clothes right?

Did I mention that it even glows in the dark?

Have you ever wondered what your child might look like if you turn off all of the lights to try to get a glow in the dark picture and accidentally leave the flash on?

Well, Robbie apparently has the same "SUCKER" stamped across his forhead that I do. I mentioned in a previous post that he went up to the outlets to buy McKinley some clothes. Well, while he was there, he too fell captive to the oh so cute Halloween clothes.

The Elipses Tag

I just noticed my friend Kirsten tagged me, so here I go:
I am...a mom, an employee, a sister, a wife and a friend.
I miss... going to bed at 2 am and sleeping in past 9!
I think...life is what you make of it.
I know...families are forever.
I want... to eat chocolate donuts everyday and not reap the benefits of a growing waist line.
I have...a crazy need for things to be clean.
I search...for ways to win millions of dollars (notice I said win not earn!).
I wish...I had some more new clothes.
I hate...mean people.
I am...excited about McKinley's Halloween costume.
I fear...not reaching my potential.
I always...laugh when someone gets hurt (only if it's not too bad and it's terrible I know).
I love...drinking hot chocolate and watching the snow fall.
I feel...content.
I hear...the hum of my computer.
I smell...the hamburgers we had for dinner.
I don't...enjoy the sound of cardboard rubbing on cardboard.
I wonder...when McKinley is going to decide that rolling over is fun and not just something random she can do.
I care...about dusting my ceiling fan at least once a month.
I regret...not sleeping more when I had the chance.
I am...hoping everyone gets out to vote.
I believe...that people are good.
I dance...less often than I used to.
I sing...in the car at the top of my lungs.
I write...down the things I always want to remember.
I win...at stratego, but only when I cheat.
I lose...at stratego if I follow the rules.
I never...like confrontation.
I listen...to all kinds of music, but try to keep it to soothing stuff when I'm frustrated.
I can...walk 2 miles!

I tag Leslie, Jenni and Kathleen.

A Little Serious I Guess

I don’t usually put things like this on my blog, but I thought this time I would. This weekend we had our Stake Conference meetings for church. To be quite honest I sometimes dread the adult session on Saturday night. I’m not sure why, I always enjoy it, but getting there can be tough. This time I was exhausted and didn’t want to go try and keep McKinley happy on my lap for 2 hours. But, I did it anyway and I was really glad I went.
I thoroughly enjoyed the speakers and as usual, they opened my eyes to some things I should work on. One of the speakers talked about a man who had undergone 3 heart surgeries, all of which were last minute and either slightly extended (to make it to the next surgery) or saved his life. After the third surgery was successful, he was finally being discharged. The day before he was discharged a friend found him sitting on the edge of his bed at breakfast time, looking very upset. Thinking that something was terribly wrong the friend asked if he was ok. His response was the oatmeal isn’t warm and the milk isn’t cold.
The speaker went on to talk about how this man had used up all of his “coping coupons” during this ordeal and now he couldn’t quite cope with cold oatmeal and warm milk. Is it ok that I feel like I can understand where this poor guy is coming from? Really, after you’ve gone through something hard is it too much to ask to for a little warm oatmeal? I know that I didn’t die and in fact nothing all that tragic happened to me. Here I am 5 ½ moths later and basically some day with continued hard work, I will be the same as I once was with only a few things that will remain and cause discomforts. But I often find myself “out of coupons” (even though Robbie is so great and incredibly patient with me). I spend so much energy trying to physically heal and take care of every day life, that I find myself exhausted and I can tell you right now, I would not be thrilled if I had cold oatmeal and warm milk. I don’t think I’ve been a terrible person through this ordeal, but I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s time to move on. I still have to work hard and try to get better every day, but it’s time; it’s time to get my patience back and be thrilled that I have oatmeal at all!

Speaking of Cold Weather

As we've been getting McKinley dressed the last few days we realized her supply of warm clothes was not very big, so Robbie went shopping! He happened to be going to Park City for work, so he stopped at the outlets to get her some clothes. McKinley is now the proud owner of her (first of many I'm sure) very own Columbia, purple fleece jacket! Robbie also bought her this jacket thing that clips into the car seat, so she can stay warm in her car seat. Long story short, we ended up returning the car seat jacket and are going to get her something different, but when we tried it on her, we couldn't help but take some cute pictures. Her little arms only went half way up the sleeves!

Cold Weather

Well, it's official, the cold weather is coming. In fact, this morning at my house it even snowed a little. I use the term snowed very lightly, because it didn't even stick. I'm sure many of you know this, but for the last 5 years during winter I have given in to Robbie's need for the house to be cold and have spent them FREEZING. His arguement was it's easier to put something on when your cold than to take stuff off becaue you're hot. So, I've have spent my winters inside the house in a lot of different ways. The first two years were spent wrapped in a down comforter (thanks ot Marla for giving me that much needed gift!) huddled next to the vent that blows out the hot air or under my coat sitting on the LoveSac.

The third year I spent wearing my coat inside, wrapped in a blanket. Our fourth winter was better because we spent it living with my parents while our was house was being finished, it was nice and warm. Last winter was our first winter here, but I was pregnant, so in general I was warmer, though I always had on my slippers and sweat shirt. So, here we are in our sixth winter, I guess the last two haven't been bad, but I was preparing myself for the cold again this year. We got home from work and daycare yesterday and the house was 61 degrees and McKinley was COLD. I put warm clothes on her, wrapped her in a blanket and expected her to quietly endure the cold as I have so many times, but maybe this time we could help each other out with a little body heat from cuddling. Well, that didn't happen! Robbie saw her all wrapped up, snuggled up against me and he felt her little hands and they were cold. Right then, he flipped the HEATER on! Our house is a lovely and comfortable 69 degrees, yay! One more reason to LOVE McKinley; Robbie can't stand it if she looks a little cold!