7 Peaks

We went to 7 Peaks tonight for the Nu Skin summer party (Brandon's dad works there for those of you who don't know). They had the whole place rented out and we had a lot of fun. I only got my camera out once. Here is Mckinley snuggling up with her towel after some time spent in the wave pool.

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It was a lot of fun. There was all sorts of free {junk} food for us to eat. Nachos, churros, ice cream cones, snowcones, pretzels, fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, drinks, and more. I hadn't been to 7 Peaks in years and years. There's not a ton you can do with a 3 month old, but we still enjoyed ourselves. So much so, that we are probably going to buy one of those sweet season passes for next year that includes Trafalga and Owls games. Hopefully it helps us have a fun summer next year with a curious little one year old on our hands. :) Ahhh, can't wait!

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Yesterday I took Mckinley to the mall and made a lot of people think I was the meanest mom ever. I got Mckinley's ears pierced. And oh, did she scream. But I think she'll thank me later. Hopefully.

Here she is asleep after all the trauma.

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Aren't those the cutest earrings ever? I might borrow them when she's done with them. :) The holes are a little uneven and I am still on the fence about whether to have one of them (this one in fact) redone or not.

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Mckinley finally has a girl cousin close in age!!! My sister in law Jessica had a baby on Sunday. We didn't know what the gender would be and I am very happy that it's a girl. They are just 3 months apart. Mckinley and Mia. Hopefully they grow up to be best friends. Here they are taking a nap together in the hospital.

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And a picture of me since I'm not doing very good at including picture of me and Brandon on here. This is me and Mckinley watching Lincoln's football game.

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PS. Have I mentioned lately that I love summertime?!! I can't believe it's almost over.

3 Months

I have a 3 month old. Someone pinch me.

I've been having a hard time getting a picture of Mckinley smiling over the last few weeks. Not because she doesn't smile. Not because she's not happy. Because she found her hands and LOVES to have them in her mouth. See what I mean?


This one I just threw in because it's cute. She was watching Baby Einsteins.


Mckinley's cousins sure love her a lot. They always run up to her when we walk in the room and want to see her and play with her. It's adorable.


Now that Mckinley is 3 months old we figured it's time to move her to her own room and upgrade her bed from the pack n play to a real crib. She LOVES it. The first night she set her new record and went 10 hours 45 minutes in between feedings.

Oh yeah, I finally put her name up on the wall too.

Proof that she loves her crib. She looks so peaceful. (Recognize that blanket McKenzie? She loves it!!)

At 3 months Mckinley:

• Still sleeps like a champ. She is getting really good at putting herself to sleep.
• Coos and talks all the time.
• Has the cutest laugh in the world. We spend a considerable amount of time trying different things to get her to laugh.
• LOVES her binki.
• Holds her hands together like she's praying when we're holding her in our arms rocking her to sleep.
• Always has her hands (or blanket or burp cloth) in her mouth.
• Is starting to pick things up and put them in her mouth.
• Loves her bouncy chair.
• Is starting to recognize her own name.
• Rolls over from back to front (ever since she was 2 months old) but still can't figure out how to get to her back from her stomach.
• Loves her car seat to death. She would probably stay in it 24/7 if I let her.
• Still only poops every few days. It's awesome.
• Has never been sick (knock on wood).
• Has transitioned from kicking off her blankets to picking them up and bringing them close to her face. So cute!
• Has her mom and dad wrapped around her little finger.

Annie and Jordan

Last week we went on a FIVE day road trip to Arizona to see Annie and Jordan get married. Jordan is Brandon's little brother for those of you who don't know.



We stayed the first night in Flagstaff to break up the trip and then drove some more the next day. It wasn't the funnest thing packing up all our stuff every night.

We were all excited to stay 2 nights in the next hotel in Benson, AZ. Until we got there and found out the city was infested with bugs. Which meant all the hotels were infested with bugs too. This is our welcome mat with lots of little bugs around it and a beetle and a cockroach. (At least we didn't have big beetles in our room like some of the others we were with.) The town was so small that there wasn't a lot of options for hotels...



Our little family of 3 at the wedding dinner the night before.


Jordan and Annie coming out of the temple. They got married in the Gila Valley Temple, it's a new one. It was pretty but oh so hot outside.


We could barely stay out there long enough for the family picture, then we made a mad dash for the car and some much needed AC. Mckinley is not a fan of the heat.

Mckinley and Daddy outside the temple. If there is one temple in the world that needs a fountain out front, it's this one. But they didn't have one. Don't know who was in charge of the planning on that one...

Cutting the cake...

Isn't this picture precious? I love sleeping pictures!!!

After 2 nights in the middle of nowhere, we headed back to Flagstaff for one more night to break up the trip home. Luckily their small pool was super warm so Mckinley could get in.

We spent 30+ hours in the car and Mckinley earned the award for the world's best traveller. She did awesome. She seriously slept almost the whole time. It worked out pretty well to just feed her a bottle in her car seat. Then she would go right back to sleep.

Usually after the last vacation of the summer I am sad that there's nothing else to look forward to. But after going on 3 trips in the last 4 weeks, I am happy to be HOME. And I don't want to go anywhere for quite a while. :)

2 Month Shoot

Answer me this. Is this girl cute or is she cute? Thanks a million to my friend Ashli for taking pictures of Mckinley again. I know I'm putting a ton of pictures on here but give me a break, my parents are in Hong Kong. :) They need to see lots of 'em. Enjoy. :)

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Oh, I can't get enough!!!

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Mckinley joined me today on my first day back at work and was an absolute PEACH for 8 and a half hours!!! She would have even lasted longer but I wanted to take her home and play with her, so I did.

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After work she decided she would laugh for us. Don't feel obligated, but here is a link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9LTdgILzMo

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Um, I think we're in love.

Bear Lake #2

This post is going to be long.
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Let's start out with an adorable picture of Mckinley in the bumbo chair. Maybe it's just cause I'm her mom (still so surreal), but I think she's pretty darn cute.

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Mckinley is growing so fast. She'll be 3 months this Saturday. She has learned two tricks. She rolls over from her back to her stomach, and she puts her own binki in her mouth. So cute! This is usually how we find her in bed now. Sleeping on her side with her head arched way back. When she gets super mad, she keeps kicking and rolls all the way over.

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A week ago my baby sister Amy turned 21. We had a family dinner at the park.

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We always have to take comparison pictures of Mckinley and her little cousin Bryce. So cute!

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The next day Kristen and I went with Amy to cold stone and upgraded her free ice cream to this massive thing...the three of us shared it and we were all sick. It was worth it though.

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Okay, and now for our (2nd) trip to Bear Lake. I have a lot of pictures on here. Not necessarily in any order. This was a big extended family reunion on my mom's side. We have them every two years and everyone comes, I think we had around 90 people this year.
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This is my little nephew Jack. The last time I saw him he was 8 months old. He is now 3. My brother moved to Iowa and we HATE it. But we enjoyed the time we had with their family. Jack is seriously the cutest thing ever and we had so much fun with him. Well, mostly Brandon. He loved Brandon. He didn't ever warm up to me very much but oh well, it was fun to just watch him run around.

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This is Ian, another one of Todd's kids we never see. He's 6 and a half. He kept calling me Kristen but it's okay, I'll take whatever I can get.

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And that's Jens on the left of this picture. It's crazy how much they have all grown up. Brandon could usually be found somewhere with any number of my nephews surrounding him. The kids love playing with him! It's so cute.

And here's their dad, my brother Todd. It was so fun to see him. Who knows how many years it will be before we get to see them again.

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Todd wasn't the only uncle Mckinley got to meet this weekend. This is my brother Ken who lives in California. She got to meet him and also his wife Kjersti. Man, I just wish no one in our family would ever move away from each other. Oh well...

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Kristen and Amy shared a cabin with me and Bran.

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Jack at the beach. Oh, I could just take this kid home with me. He makes me want a little boy so bad!

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And now get ready for a few sleeping pictures. How is in all this sleeping I never managed to get a nap in the whole trip? I was wasted yesterday when we got home.

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Bryce sleeping at the beach.

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Brandon and Mckinley taking a nap in the cabin.

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Ammon passed out at the beach. He looked so cute.

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Amy found an interesting spot for a nap...

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Amy loved snuggling with Mckinley.

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Anyway, I suck at writing about stuff (hence the large amount of pictures), but we had a great time. It's always fun to see all the cousins. I felt like I didn't get to spend as much one on one time with some of them as I usually do since I had Mckinley to take care of. But she is more than worth it.

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PS. The count of pictures in my July folder went up to 332. But now we're in to August. Phew!!

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PPS. This was my last official week of maternity leave. Next week it's back to work. Kind of. I'm just going part-time. Very part-time. I am actually spending most of next week in Arizona for my brother-in-law's wedding. Wahoo!! I feel so lucky that I'm not dreading going back to work like most people. I am so lucky to just be able to work a little bit and spend most of my time with Mckinley.