I Will Miss This When It's Gone...I Will Miss This...I Will Miss This...

That's a good thing to repeat when you find moments like these..."I will miss this when it's gone"..."I will miss this when it's gone"...sigh...

Hey, at least she still has all her eyebrows! Right, Tara?! And there's no glitter to clean out of her hair! Right, Laurel?! And there's no paint to scrub out of her clothes! Right, Jana?! Reading blogs sure helps me stay positive. This was minor! :)

Dear Water Guys,

We are without water today until 2:00 and...Derek decided today would be a good day to stay home "pukey" sick. Nice. So far so good, but we still have hours to go. And I discovered that my tub drain doesn't hold water long. I filled the tub for added backup water and it's almost gone now. Hurry water guys! Bring back my water!

Draper Temple Open House

A few weeks ago we were able to take a tour of the newest temple in Utah before its dedication. I was excited to show the boys what the inside of a temple looks like, especially since they are always so excited to point out the temples they see on the drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

A shot before the temple...a rare glimpse of McKenna in a headband. She pulled it off about two minutes into our drive to Draper.

The tour started at a chapel where the missionaries showed us a brief video about temples. After the film we loaded into a chartered bus and it took us up to the temple. The boys were extremely excited to take a bus ride.

And like all temples, everything about it was gorgeous. They give you a brochure that explains the temple and contains pictures of certain rooms. Derek carried that pamphlet and used it like a map. He got excited when he found a room that matched one of the pictures. I had to remind him to stop worrying about the "map" and look at the temple. The boys asked questions about what certain things were for, but it cracked me up when Derek pointed to a crystal vase on a random table, in a random hallway and asked "What is that for?". We took a minute and sat in the Celestial Room and looked around. As we were leaving McKenna pointed up at the chandelier and said "ooh, ooh, ooh" several times. It was sweet... and reverent (don't worry). After the tour we walked down a long covered path to a church across the street. The gym was decorated with displays of other temples and a table full of cookies and water.

Inside the chapel's cultural hall.

It was cold and windy outside and it was hard getting the kids to smile. Here's the best shot we could get.

During the bus ride back to the church, I asked the boys what part of the tour was their favorite. Taylor said "I like the place with all the bull things. The baptism." Derek said "when we got to see the part where people get married in there, and the cookie place, and the baptismal font". Apparently he thinks that the temple passes out cookies. :) It was a neat experience to share with my little family. I am curious to see how much they will remember. I can't wait for the day, many years from now, when we can all enter a (dedicated) temple together.

A Traditional Valentine's Day

I love traditions....I always have. They provide consistency, familiarity, unity, something for the kids to anticipate, and they ease the pressure of being creative year after year. Traditions allow you to get stuck in a creative rut and it's accepted! However, traditions also create the same blog posts (aka journal entries) year after year. Sorry!

Our Valentine's Day started with the annual hearts taped to doors and the trail of hearts to a surprise. I mixed it up this year and put a homemade valentine to each child at the end of their trail. I figured that they didn't need candy this year. Taylor followed his trail first, but I noticed that he didn't have his valentine, so I asked him, "did you follow your trail to the end?" and he replied, "yes, and there was just a big heart there." I had to show the kid that it was a note to him from me and then he got excited. Poor kid was bummed when all he found was some "big heart". He carried it around the house for most of the day. Very sweet. McKenna enjoyed gathering the hearts. Taylor tried to eat one of the foam hearts as he thought it was candy.

We ate heart-shaped pancakes and pink milk. Yum!
Then the boys decorated sugar cookies and very colorfully, might I add.
Dave brought home flowers for his valentines. Red roses and white daisies for me...
...and a single yellow rose for McKenna. What a cute daddy!!

(Hey Gayle, I used my macro setting for this picture!)

Daddy's valentines

Janene and Devin babysat for us in the evening and Dave and I went to a nice restaurant for dinner. (A kind doctor gave Dave gift cards.) It was a great day!

McKenna Turns One!!

Normally one would think that a one year old doesn't understand birthdays, oh but McKenna KNEW this was a special day all about her. I provided the typical birthday traditions of decorations, cake, and presents and she loved all of it.

She loved the balloons....

Dave flew McKenna through the balloons over and over. And you should have heard the squeals and laughter coming from that little girl.

...she loved the presents...

We bought McKenna a pink sippy cup, a box of cookies, and an inexpensive little doll, since the free Cabbage Patch seems too big for her still. Oh how she loves this baby! When she saw what it was, she gave out squeals of joy. Whenever we ask her "McKenna, where's your baby?", she walks over to it, grabs it and gives it a big hug. So cute!

I was so excited to make a girly birthday cake for the first time. I think I'll need a lot more practice. My original plan didn't seem to work, so I had to change my idea in the middle of decorating and it just spiraled out of control. Here's the end result....please don't laugh. :)

(I'm going to a cake decorating class tonight. We'll see if they can help me.)

...she loved the cake (eventually)...

(This second cake was free from Macey's. We are never too excited about eating the cake that the baby mutilated.)

At age one, our boys were pretty shy about digging in their cakes, but with McKenna's personality we thought for sure that she'd go crazy. We put the cake in front of her and she waved her arms around and kicked excitedly, but did not touch the cake. After a little while she started to gently touch the flowers and then after a few minutes she picked off the sprinkles. It was making all of us very weak. We wanted more action! We decided to cut a piece for her and let her dig in that. So just as I turn off the camera, she takes a bite out of it!!

I've never seen a baby bite their cake, but whatever works I guess.

After about twenty minutes of play, she did get messy enough for us to cry "uncle".

...and she loved the birthday bath!!

McKenna has added so much love, joy, laughter, and excitement to our family. We have felt her beautiful spirit this past year. She is a super easy baby. She sleeps twelve hours at night, eats whatever you put in front of her, and plays well on her own and with her family. She loves to play peek-a-boo, loves to be chased, and loves to "get comfy" on pillows with her daddy. (He puts a pillow on the floor and she hurries over and plops her little body on it.) McKenna walks full-time now and has the cutest little walk. We've noticed that her knees do all the work and her hips don't really move at all. She has 7 teeth and a couple on their way in. McKenna loves to imitate others, which scares me a little. :) If you take a drink, she takes a drink...if you start to dance, she'll start to dance...if you yell out, she'll yell out...she likes to feel a part of things. We are thankful every day for this precious daughter and sister. She has been such a blessing to our family and we can't wait to watch her grow. We love you, McKenna! Happy Birthday!

McKenna Lynn one year ago.

A special "thank you" to everyone that sent presents, cards, and made phone calls, to wish this girl a happy birthday!

As Seen On TV

Our beautiful little McKenna had her 1 second of fame. If you blinked you missed it, but she was on "Good Things Utah" this morning. And, may I just say, she was the cutest of the birthday babies! Here's a video of her picture (sorry about the black line...that's what you get when you are video taping a tv):

Here is McKenna's reaction when she sees herself. So sweet! She knows she's special! And yes, the birthday girl was still her jammies...it's her birthday, she can do what she wants! :)

Happy Birthday, McKenna!!

(More birthday celebrations to come.)

Her TV Debut

A local talk show called "Good Things, Utah" airs pictures of babies on their 1st birthday. Just for kicks I thought it would be fun to submit a picture of McKenna. So watch tomorrow and see if she makes it on the show. GTU is on channel 4 at 10:00am and the segment is during the last 10 minutes. Anyway, it's not a big deal. I'll try to get video of it on the blog tomorrow.