My Big Kindergartner!

I CAN'T believe my little big girl is off to Kindergarten! For about a week before school started, I would tear up at random moments, just thinking about how fast time flies by. I mean, I remember being in Kindergarten myself, and it just doesn't seem like that long ago! (I'm sure being pregnant doesn't help with my emotional state as well!) I was also terrified of putting my 5 year old on a school bus and just assuming that she made it to school, and not really knowing that she was safe until 3 1/2 hours later when she would supposedly return on the correct school bus! Doesn't that freak anyone else out?!! Well, it didn't phase Makaylee! She was so excited to go to school, she was just beaming!

She looked way too old, way too big, and way too independent!

Walking to the bus stop. . .Little girl, BIG backpack!

She was as cool as a cucumber while we waited for the bus with her cute friends!

Here the sad part of the story begins. The school had given all of us the wrong bus schedule, so we all missed the school bus! When we realized how late it was we all grabbed our kiddos and drove off to the school as fast as we could. When we pulled up the bell was ringing! I had planned on following the school bus and taking some cute pictures of her at school, but there was no time! I rushed her to the outside of the kindergarten room, and knocked on the door (hoping her teacher wouldn't make us go in through the office.) She opened the door and swept Makaylee inside as I was saying "We got the wrong bus schedule, I need to talk to the office, can I go in through your room?"

"No" She said "You may go around." And literally shut the door in my face! I wasn't even able to give Makaylee a hug, a kiss, a good luck, NOTHING! I stood at the door, watching my baby girl walking to her seat, and and just kind of stuttered to myself for a moment.

I am extremely lucky in the fact that my sweet mother is a reading teacher at Makaylee's school! She gave me a good shoulder to cry on and also promised me that she would make sure Makaylee got home on the right bus. That eased my anxiety tremendously!

She's was still beaming when she got home from school! What a sweetheart! I was so happy to see her! (And it has just gotten better and easier from here!)

Funny Little Writer

Lately Makaylee has been so expressive, when it comes to pen and paper! Her little letters and pictures are SO ENTERTAINING! She will disappear into the computer room for a little while and come out with handfuls of letters and pictures.
She draws them when she is mad at me:

She draws them when she is irritated with her little brother! This cracked me up, Rowen had gone in her room and messed up her bed so she drew this picture and actually taped it to her door!

She draws them for me when I am being an emotional preggo. This one broke my heart! I had some random meltdown one day, and apparently she thought it was her fault so she wrote me this letter:


And she writes them when she is happy! This one put a grin on my face from ear to ear:

Cute Little Artist

I hate to brag. . .but of course I think she's talented! I'm the mom. . . that's my job right!
Isn't this the happiest picture ever! I am so in love with it.


I love that this bear is eating a HUGE GREEN carrot!


I love that she tries to draw things that she has never drawn before, this Christmas tree makes me anxious for Christmas time!


And this little Christmas Elf sure made me giggle!

I like to think she will be a great artist like her Daddy!

My Brave Girl

I stubbed my toe yesterday, and made a small production out of it by hopping around and saying "Ow, OUCH!"

I guess it concerned Makaylee because she asked me: "Mommy, when you get hurt, does it hurt the baby?"

I said, "No, not unless someone was to hit or kick me in the stomach hard, that would hurt the baby."

"Well, if someone was going to do that to you, I would scare them away!" she said.
"Oh really?" I asked "How would you do that?"

She thought for a moment and said, "Hmm. . . I would tell them that if they ate too much cereal they would turn BLUE, and that would scare them!!"

I stifled a giggle and said "You're right, that is SCARY!"

It's a Girl!

We had our ultrasound on Thursday and found out that we are having another. . . GIRL! We are so excited to be thinking pink around here again!

A few months ago, just after I had found out that I was pregnant, we went to a clothing store. We walked by the baby section and Makaylee picked up a hot pink infant robe and threw it in my shopping cart. I said "KK, why did you put that in the cart?"
She replied in a matter-of-fact way "It's for my baby sister."
My jaw dropped for a minute, because I had not even told Makaylee that I was pregnant yet!!! (I wish I had written that story before, so that I would have proof.)

The morning before we had the ultrasound I said "Makaylee, today is the day we find out if we are having a girl baby or a boy baby!"
She said "MOM, it's a girl!"
"But what if it's not? It might be a boy." I said
"Mom, it IS a girl!"
She was so sure it was a girl, that she had us all convinced! We were not surprised one bit when they told us that it actually was a girl!

I was so excited to get a 3D ultrasound because I have never had one before, (but I hate to admit that they are just a little bit creepy looking.) I was hoping to see just a little bit more detail, but it was really cool seeing her wiggle around and kick in the 3D mode though!

Baby Girl, we are so excited to meet you!

8 Beautiful Years. . .

8 Years ago. . . I knew that you would make me happy, but I never could have imagined how beautiful our life would be! I love you so much! Happy Anniversary!

For our anniversary we stayed in the awesome Castle Inn Bed and Breakfast in Sandy.
Our room was the Kings Lodge, and included a King size bed, a King size jacuzzi, and King size pool table in the room! It was so much fun to get away for the night! We have stayed at quite a few different Inn's and B & B's including Anniversary Inn, and this was by far our favorite room!

My Knight in shining armor! 8 Years have gone by, and he is as handsome as ever!

Happy Birthday Rowen!

I can't believe you are already 2!

Happy Birthday, to the sweetest, cuddliest, silliest, pickiest, tickley-est, little buddy in the whole world! I couldn't ask for anything more! (And he's potty trained to boot!)

He looks so old in these pictures! It breaks my heart!

Oh, how I love you, my BIG boy!

Now, if you would just eat a little bit more than yogurt and french fries, I really would be the happiest Mom in the whole world! :)

Congratulations Makaylee!

Preschool Graduation!

I can't believe how big my little girl looked in her graduation hat! She went to the cutest preschool, and learned so much, I am so proud of her I could just cry!

Proud Grandma!

Makaylee's darling teacher "Miss Collette." Makaylee was constantly drawing her pictures and telling her that she loved her:) I can't believe my 5 year old is off to Kindergarten after this summer!

One, Two, . . . THREE!!!

We are expecting #3 to arrive January 3rd!

Everybody's Boy

Edited to add: This draft has been on my dashboard waiting to be edited for a few days. But today was the perfect time to finish it because we lost Rowen at an Art's Festival today for about 10 minutes (AN ETERNITY!) and I am feeling so SO thankful to have my sweet boy home safe tonight!

I love to say that Rowen is a 'Mama's Boy'. I say it because he likes me to rock him to sleep at night. I say it because when he comes running to me, and gives me a huge unsolicited hug and kiss, he makes me feel like no one else is in the room. I say it because it makes me feel good!
But the truth is. . . When he is with Daddy, he is a 'Daddy's Boy'. He loves to wrestle with him, and tickle him, and he gives him huge hugs too!

And. . . When he is with Makaylee, he is 'Makaylee's boy'! He copies EVERYTHING she does! He sings when she sings, he dances when she dances, he is constantly hugging her, and wrestling with her too!

When he is with Grandma, he is definitely Grandma's Boy! When he is with Grandpa he is Grandpa's Boy. Basically, he is everybody's boy! He makes everyone he is with feel special! He loves to hug everyone that he knows! He has the silliest, sweetest, most easy going spirit that could ever be packed into 24.5 pounds! Every moment I spend with him I am so blessed to have! I love you RO!

Scandinavian Festival

Memorial Day weekend we went down to Ephraim for the Scandinavian Festival with hubby's family. It was a fun get away, and being down there brought back a lot of memories ( I went to Snow College.) Everything went really well, until it was bed time. Rowen had missed his nap, and I had worked a graveyard shift the night before, so we were all really tired. We went to our room (at a Bed & Breakfast) at 9:00, but for some reason being in a new place made Rowen so hyper-- manic really! He wouldn't sleep in the pack & play because he can climb out of it now, so we finally laid him down in between us, but the kid was practically doing somersaults! He was bouncing up and down, shaking me, patting my cheeks, yelling "MAMA" in my ear. We decided to try to completely ignore him but it didn't work AT ALL! This went on for 2 hours! Finally, Terry pulled him out of the bed, put on a jacket and went to the car with Rowen. I thought he was just going to drive him around until he fell asleep, but they didn't come back! I was so worried about them that I didn't really even sleep! I guess what happened was that the bed & breakfast owner went down and locked the door before Terry made it back inside, so they ended up camping out in the car all night! So sad! Terry was so mad, "I paid 89 bucks to sleep int he car!"

There was a cute (VERY LOW BUDGET) parade that the kids really enjoyed.

Cute cousins

This tortoise stole the show, (and he was only there as somebody's pet!) Makaylee followed that thing around for about 1/2 hour! I have to admit, I was pretty awestruck by it too! I am surprised that Makaylee hasn't asked for a pet tortoise yet! (It sure would beat the snails she is always making into pets!)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this cool looking crumbling gravestone. ( Wish I had my good camera with me!) This is one of Terrill's relatives.

Now That's Some Good Stuff!

Today Makaylee had her first experience with laughing gas, and well, let's just say that it went REALLY well! A few seconds after I finished filming this clip KK said "Mommy, this mask is CoMfY!" I was tempted to ask the dentist if I could get me some of that!

Sunday: Baby, Monday: Big Boy!

Sunday was like any other day with Rowen, he was a little bit sick, he was cuddly, and he was my baby. But Monday Rowen woke up as a BIG BOY! I was doing the dishes, and I was armpit deep in dish water, so I was trying to hurry and finish before I went up to get him. The monitor was right beside me, and I could hear him talking to himself. A few dirty dishes later the direction of his voice snuck right up behind me because my big boy was WALKING down the stairs! He climbed out of his crib for the first time! After breakfast I was so curious that I put him in his crib to see how he did it. He was a total pro and was out in about 3 seconds without even faltering. So, we decided that it was time to convert the crib to a toddler bed. It was kind of a sad moment for me. I can't believe how fast he is growing up!


This picture was taken about a week ago, (in the pitch black, that is why it is so fuzzy, I couldn't hold my camera still enough for the whole minute the shutter was open!)


And here is my big guy in his toddler bed!

(Well, he doesn't seem so big when he is laying next to his 5 year old sister!)

To top the day off, Rowen came into the kitchen and announced "POTTY!" I figured that he was just starting to get curious about the potty, as he sees us come in and go out of the restroom. So, I brought him into the bathroom, set him down on the toilet and surprise! He went Poop on the potty! (Sorry, too much info!) But I was so shocked! I had no idea that he knew what happened on the toilet!

I feel like I entered a whole new dimension of motherhood, with two big kids, and no babies!What a weird and exciting day!