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.

Home With All Ten Toes

He's home!! He said he it was "a lot of fun and a great campout". I still don't get it.

A Moment of Silence...Please

Keep Dave in your prayers tonight. The poor soul is currently up on some mountain freezing in the 22 degree weather. He was just called as the assistant scout master in our ward. His first campout is...yes, snow camping. It is forcasted to be a low of 16 degrees tonight! May he make it home with all his fingers and toes.

Scouts are crazy. What's the point of camping in the snow? I don't get it.

Dave Cracks Me Up

There was a great sale on cereal last week. Here is what happens when you buy too much, there's not enough room in the pantry, and when you add a very creative husband to the mix.

A cereal fort!! McKenna LOVED it. What a funny Daddy.

So the other night Dave needed to eat sugar after I had gone to bed. Apparently he was shocked at what he found. And here's what I found on the table the next morning...
The note says "Natalie, We need to talk...I'm worried about you...I think you have a Reese's addiction...Not to eating Reese's, but to collecting them! We can get you the help you need. Love, Dave".

In my defense, the miniature cups were a great deal after Halloween! How could I pass it up!? AND...Dave bought me the fun size Butter Cups for Christmas. I am not at fault for that one!

That was one of the things that drew me to Dave when we first met. He has always been so full of life and a great person to be around. Things haven't changed much...he still cracks me up...daily!