Really, In Both Ears?

We've taken some little videos of McKinley lately, because we think she's so stinkin' cute, so we put a couple funny moments together in this little video. I think when she's talking it sounds sort of like "Hi Dad", but Robbie doesn't necessarily agree.

McKinley hasn't been herself the last week and half or so. It started off with a crazy fever for several days, followed by a cold that has never gone away. I noticed a second tooth coming in, so I figured that must be it. She's been waking up several times a night and been a little needy too. By last weekend though, the tooth was through, so I thought she'd be back to normal soon. Then on Thursday she suddenly got a rash on her belly and her back and I decided if it wasn't gone by Saturday we should probably take her in to the doctor. Well, Friday rolled around and she was crying every time she tried to sleep, so enough was enough we took her to the doctor. Of course when we got to the doctor she started talking to him and playing with him and smiling everywhere. I'm sure the doctor thought we were crazy...but checked her out anyway. Turns out the poor kiddo has a double ear infection. I felt terrible, she's been trying to tell me for a week and a half. So you don't all think I'm a terrible parent after reading all of this, here is a video of how she was acting 90% of the time, who would guess this kid needed to go to doctor because she had a double ear infection?

My Sweet Grandpa Thomas

My Grandpa is an incredible man. Throughout my life he’s been there for a lot of the special events. He was there when I was blessed, when I was baptized and when I got married. I even received my patriarchal blessing from my Grandpa. I have a lot of fun memories of Grandpa playing with me in his front yard and showing and watching the squirrels with me in his HUGE tree. When I was little he and my grandma would come to Salt Lake each winter, check into a hotel down town and my family and aunts and uncles and cousins all would go see the Christmas lights they put up at Temple Square. When I was a teenager and my grandpa was in his late 80’s he even beat me in an arm wrestle and I was trying as hard as I could. He had a way of always making you feel like you were special…and you were always special to Grandpa.

This Thanksgiving Robbie, McKinley and I had a nice visit with Grandpa. We dropped in on him during lunch and he was excited to see us. We had a great time visiting with him and talked for quite a while, I always loved seeing my grandpa.

This morning my grandpa passed away. He was 97 years old. I will miss him a lot. I will always remember the love he had for everyone, his smile, his happy demeanor and his hugs. I like to think that from time to time he’ll check in on us from heaven and I hope I can make him proud. I love you Grandpa!

2008 in Review

2008 really flew by. It's been a year filled with ups and a few downs for us, crazy fun stuff and the normal day to day, but we learned a lot, appreciated each other more and all got a year older! Here are a few things to remember:
Best New Thing: No contest, that title belongs to McKinley for 2008.
Funniest Moment: Right now Robbie's hit and run comes to mind :).
Something I learned: I have the best friends and family in the entire world...thanks for everything guys!
Biggest Accomplishment: Walking, enough said.
Something I enjoyed: Quilt night with my awesome friends...does it get better than food, talking and the best ladies around, I don't think so.
Coolest Perk: Showing up at the DMV, seeing a 2.5 hour wait and having a really nice DMV guy give me "quick pass" and being done in 15 minutes!
Something Rediscovered: I'm tougher than I think.
Person I couldn't have gone through the year without: This year, the list could be pretty big, but I do have a number one person I couldn't have made it through the year without...ROBBIE. I am one lucky girl, I have the best, most supportive and wonderful husband ever and that's puting it lighlty!

Happy New Year everyone!

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!