Christmas 2011

Time to blog about Christmas. We had fun spending lots of time with family. This is the 3rd year in a row that my parents have been out of the country for Christmas. As sad as it is, it's kinda nice to not have to juggle time with two families. We did get together with my family one night, but I don't think I have any pictures from it. Most of the time was spent with Brandon's family.

On the Tuesday before Christmas my visiting teaching companion was nice enough to do our visits without me so we could go to a BYU basketball game. Mckinley did really well and it was a really fun game to be at. She doesn't like Cosmo and pretty much freaked out when he got really close to her, but she'll wave at him from a distance.

I'm pretty sure you can't try harder than this to smile.

Family picture.

Lincoln leaves January 4th to the MTC. Mckinley loves coloring on his giant list of things he needs to bring.

Christmas Eve we had dinner at Brandon's parents' house.

I got to talk to Amy on the phone for a few minutes while we were over there. Mostly I just wanted Mckinley to talk to her, which she did. It was pretty cool.

Mckinley on Christmas morning all ready for Church.

I really love comparison pictures. We got a family picture by the same tree as last year.


At least we got a smile out of Mckinley this time. :)

Mckinley did pretty well opening presents. She had to make sure she set down each piece of wrapping paper on the ground before ripping off more.

Mckinley was following Bryn around everywhere (as usual) with these little computers.

A rare picture of just the two of us.

My mom had a gift that she bought for Mckinley for Christmas before she left for China. It was this adorable pink marshmallow coat!! Mckinley loved it and wouldn't let us take it off of her.

Her presents from us were simple things like books, a puzzle, clothes, and some bath toys. She had a blast in the bath today.

Lincoln's Farewell

Brandon's sister Tara flew into town over the weekend for his little brother Lincoln's mission farewell. So Thursday night was Chuck E Cheese, Friday night we had a big dinner and did our Christmas gift exchange since not everyone will be in town for Christmas.


Sunday was Lincoln's farewell. His talk was amazing. He will be a great missionary and we will miss him while he's gone. We got our picture taken with him but it's on someone else's camera.

Mckinley and Sam doing puzzles on the iPad before Church.

Fun Stuff

Mckinley is in heaven with this play kitchen that my sister-in-law returned to my mom's house. Even without any food or dishes, she has a blast putting her diapers, wipes, and shoes (or anything else she can find) in the cupboards. Maybe Santa will bring her some play food for Christmas.


The other night I babysat my brother's kids. Mckinley and Bryce are just two months apart so they had fun playing together.

They both have the same cheesy grin...

They just don't show them off at the same time.

Getting ready to change both their diapers.

I love this picture!

Last night we went to Chuck E Cheese with all of Brandon's family and had an absolute blast!!!

I think Brynlee was the funnest kid to watch. She would run around to everyone saying "I need more money!" and then she would go put a token in a ride, ride it for 2 seconds, and then get off while it was still going and find something else to spend her "money" on.

Even some of us adults had fun. (Brandon doesn't know I took this picture. Ha ha ha. Surprise!)

Mckinley is getting quite addicted to our iPhones. She knows how to navigate them by herself and Brandon even taught her how to unlock the phone. Darn it. I was going to hold out on that one as long as possible. Oh well. She's only deleted one app so far and it was my scriptures. Nothing a few quick downloads can't fix.

Mckinley says "cheese" now when we take her picture.

This photo booth is my favorite thing at Chuck E Cheese.

We have a fun weekend ahead of us. We have a big family party tonight with Brandon's family and then we are sleeping over there, and Lincoln's mission farewell is this Sunday, then a party with my family on Monday night, and then just a few days and it will be Christmas!

Pictures

Ugh, my pictures are a mess. Every time I upload pictures from my iPhone, all the old ones upload themselves again. Anyone have any advice?

I have a lot of cute videos but I haven't found the time yet to upload them to youtube or whatever so I can put them on here.

These pictures aren't in order but they're all adorable so who cares.

Mckinley sleeping. The bumb in the air is her most common position.


Just chillin in one shoe (that she put on herself) and her diaper. Nice look Kinners.


Last Friday night was my work Christmas party. We ate at Molly's and took some fun pictures in the photo booth (that I haven't bothered to scan in yet, otherwise I'd post them). After the party Brandon and I decided to go to a late movie with his parents so we asked if Mckinley could go over and sleep at Dallin and Shellee's for a few hours. They were already having Haley and Brynlee sleep over. We ended up just leaving Mckinley there the whole night and we crashed at Brandon's parents' house and then went over for waffles in the morning. Mckinley did awesome. Geez, she's grown up.

We went and stayed in a hotel one night in Salt Lake with all of Brandon's family. It was so fun to take Mckinley swimming again. She had a blast on the stairs and was still good about going under and jumping off the side.

This is us at the hospital last Monday taking a peek at our new neice Abby. We have had fun going over this week and helping out and holding her.

Mckinley doesn't want to go anywhere these days without these three things. Bay (blanket), baby, and "aff" (giraffe).

Playing in the laundry baskets at Grandma's house.

Brandon and I saw Hugo with his parents the other night and it was the first 3D movie either of us had ever seen so we kept our glasses and boy has Mckinley gotten good use out of them. She thinks they are just so fun.

Mckinley and Bryn enjoying their brownies last night. We made dinner for Jason and Shannon and went over to eat it with them.

Anyway, I think that catches us up on everything since Thanksgiving.

Mckinley is so fun at 19 months. She is saying tons of words, she will pretty much try to repeat anything we say. And she is starting to group words together saying things like Where is she? I want some, I don't know, and help me. She thinks she is big enough to walk up and down the stairs now instead of crawling, and it scares me half to death. She is a little clingy which can drive me crazy when I'm trying to work in the kitchen or when I need to do something on the computer, but we are surviving.

Just a month left until we get to see my parents again for a few weeks and we are so excited!!!!

Thanksgiving

I forgot to post about Thanksgiving. I'm thinking the main reason is probably because I didn't take very many pictures. But I do have a few.

Like I said at the end of my last post, we headed over to Brandon's parents house to spend the night before Thanksgiving there. It was fun sleeping over, so fun that we ended up staying the next night as well even though we weren't planning on it. Mckinley screamed when we put her in the pack'n'play (she has become quite the crib snob, ha ha ha), but eventually she fell asleep.

We bundled up the morning of Thanksgiving and walked over to the park where Brandon was playing football.


The annual turkey bowl is something Brandon always looks forward to.


It was pretty cold but Mckinley had fun playing on the playground while we were there.

Brandon's dad planned a bowling party, I think on Saturday. Mckinley lasted about one frame and we spent the rest of the time chasing her around the bowling alley.

I didn't take any pictures of the dinner but we ate lots of good food and had a good time hanging out with Brandon's family.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we are getting ready for Christmas. I went through all my mom's boxes and found the tree and ornaments and we put them up last night, as well as her candy cane lights outside that I love.

Mckinley helped me put candy canes on the lower branches. I love that there are big clumps of candy canes.

I didn't even bother fixing them. I'm sure she'll arrange them a few more times before Christmas is here.

Not sure how long the awkward smile stage is going to last but we're enjoying every minute of it!

Mckinley's First Sleep Over

A couple weeks ago Mckinley had her first sleep over with her two cousins, Haley and Brynlee. They had a blast, of course. If you ask me, you are never too young or too old for sleep overs.


Of course the two younger ones had to try on each other's shoes.


For some reason one day every time we changed her diaper Mckinley put her hands behind her head and just relaxed. It was so funny.

Mckinley and I have such a great time just hanging out together all day.

She is super affectionate and gives lots of hugs and kisses. My favorite is when she gives them to the neighbor boys and they don't want them. :)

She sure is figuring out my iPhone pretty fast.

We are off to another sleep over tonight at Brandon's parents house to enjoy Thanksgiving with them. Yay for holidays and lots of time with Brandon!