Hair Cut

That's right, McKinley got her first real haircut! When she was a baby the top was growing in a lot faster than the side, so I would periodically cut it so it would not look as much like the "reverse mullet" that we called it.Well, after 21 months of cute little curls hiding the craziness that was her hair, she was starting to look a little shabby, not even the curls could hid it anymore. A few Saturdays ago we packed up in the car and took her to Cookie Cutters. She LOVED it!

When we first got there we had to wait a few minutes, but that was ok because the have a big playhouse and slide...it's a toddler's dream! When McKinley's name was called she (I) picked out a pink car to sit in and an Elmo video to watch. McKinley is SUPER shy, so I was worried she would cry and be sad when a stranger started touching her head, but these people really have it figured out. Between the car and Elmo, holding my hand and the occasional reassurance from Mom and Dad, McKinley was happy (though tentative) the whole time.

It was awesome. They ended up taking a few inches off to even it all out. But somehow they only took like 15 minutes and they even roll brushed her hair while they blew it dry. Quite the experience for a toddler who is used to a quick snip with fabric scissors on her hair.

Here she is, it looks to me like she's trying to decide if she's ok with this experience:

For the first little while she wouldn't let go of my hand cause she was a little nervous:

Here is how long her hair was before the haircut:

Here she is enjoying a little Elmo:

I think this one is funny, I've decided she's thinking, "lady, leave me along, I'm trying to drive a car and watch Elmo here":

Finished product, though not an awesome shot:

Picking out her balloon:

*Next new experience...the Dentist. I don't have an appointment scheduled for her yet, but I'm just sure it's going to be interesting!*

Skiing with Robbie

So, you might remember that last year I tried skiing for the first time post-femoral neuropathy and I made it two full runs before my legs were too exhausted for me to walk anymore. Well, I've spent a lot more time working really hard and building the muscle back in my legs. So, Robbie and I decided it was time to try skiing again. The day couldn't have been more perfect is was warm and not windy at all, but the snow was still soft; a gorgeous day!

Anyway, it was really funny because Robbie went picture crazy, there are tons of pictures of me skiing, like he was a proud dad or something. I was laughing so hard. I can only imagine that he will do the same thing (only probably worse) to McKinley on her first day of skiing!

The skiing went a lot better than last time. I was able to ski for a half day and not be so tired that I had a hard time with stairs afterwards. It wasn't quite like skiing used to be. I used to love doing the black diamonds and moguls and going off jumps and through the trees and trying to stuff that was too hard for me and crashing all over the place and just being crazy. I'm not quite to that level but we did a lot of blues and some greens and I played in the trees a little and went on some bumpy runs. It was so fun to be up on the mountain again, I had a blast!

She's just so cute!

Lately McKinley has been loving a tea set she got as a gift from my sister and brother-in-law. She always wants to play tea party and she makes cute little noises as she fills the cups wit the pretend tea. Well, one day she poured herself and Robbie some tea. Robbie started to drink his, but McKinley sat there with her arms folded. After a second Robbie realized she was whispering things and had her head down. Then it dawned on him, "Want to say a prayer?". She enthusiastically said yes and they prayed over their fake tea. I guess I must be doing something right if she WANTS to pray!

p.s. this was not the Christmas post I promised before, Christmas is too far gone, so regardless of what my last post said, I'm skipping the Christmas post! But I will say this, we had a great one and McKinley got some cool gifts.

Christmas Eve

I hope you all had a nice Christmas, we had a great Christmas this year. Robbie and I had several days off of work so the three of us were able to hang out a lot. We had a lot of fun. McKinley discovered the art of sleeping in and on Christmas morning didn't wake up until 8:00 am...Merry Christmas Mom!

On Christmas Eve we had dinner at my parents house and had a delicious spread of mexican food. We laughed all threw dinner and the little girls sat at their own little table that was fun, but proved to be a little too much freedom for McKinley...I'm not sure she ever ate anything! Here we are right after dinner, we don't often take pictures where all 3 of us are in it, so it's fun to take a few at a family gathering with a willing photographer (thanks Dad!):

Then we packed into the living room around my Mom's Nativity tree and read the story of Christ's birth from Luke in the Bible and opened just one present. Here we are in our pajamas (the customary Christmas Eve present):

Cali, McKinley and Abi modelws their pajamas for me while they sang and danced to Once There Was a Snowman.

Then the girls made Rice Crispy treat presents to leave out for Santa and had a great time. McKinley even decorated as she ate all the decorations this time:

We were very tired when we got home. McKinley fell asleep on the way home and Robbie and I finished wrapping presents. It's fun and different to be the parent on Christmas Eve...making sure everything is just right. We put together a table and chairs for McKinley and set out some more gifts. It was a fun evening. I'll post about Christmas day soon!

5 Things I Learned From André

1. Traffic School can be fun.
2. André (the teacher) wanted out early just as bad as we did.
3. One hour is totally worth the speeding ticket not hitting my car insurance.
4. André's time is worth more than mine; there must have been 25 people in class tonight all paying a $30 admission fee for one hour under his tutelage.
5. If you happen to be the driver of a hearse with a corpse in the back it is debatable whether or not that qualifies you for the carpool lane, so André suggests not trying it because you may get a ticket.

***ps, I'll post something about Christmas soon!

Baby Love

Oh how my baby loves HER baby! We bought her a baby doll a while back because she was totally loving on the dolls at daycare. I had no idea how much she could love a doll. She is so cute with it. She hugs her and kisses her. She carries her around the house and most of the time she takes her to bed. On the way home from daycare she'll say "where's Dad?" followed by "Where's baby?". It is really very sweet.

Well, the other morning she took it to a new level. She just HAD to have her baby with her and breakfast. And this is what baby got:

I guess baby was hungry too! And here was my favorite picture of the morning:

Thanksgiving with the Loomi!

This year we had Thanksgiving with Robbie's family. It was a lot of fun. His brothers and sister all came to town with their families. McKinley had a great time seeing her cousins again...it's been a long time.

The grandkids ran all over in Nana and Papa's basement and had a blast with sidewalk chalk. Nana also bought them gingerbread cookie kits to decorate. McKinley, having the sweet tooth she does, mostly ate the decorations instead of putting them on the cookie.

After discussing it, Robbie and I decided we would stay at his parent's house over the Thanksgiving weekend. The drive is only about an hour, but that two hours each day and that just isn't fun. John and Marla were gracious enough to let us invade their house and I have to say it was more than worth it. We stayed up late playing games and talking with all the siblings there, it was a lot of fun! The night before Mike, Monica and Rennick left town we met in Salt Lake and saw the lights. It wasn't too cold or too crowded, it was great and the lights looked beautiful as usual.