Mckinley

Before I start this post, I want you to notice that there is in fact a picture of me in here and one of Brandon. So I am keeping my promise to not only blog about Mckinley. But who are we kidding? She is the center of our world. Every day when Brandon gets home from work I proceed to tell him every little thing she did that was cute. He does the same for me when he's alone with her. We just love her so much and can't get enough!!

Anyway, life has been really good lately. Just the same old. Working a tiny bit here and there, spending lots of time with my parents, and just watching Mckinley grow and learn so much so fast! We wouldn't have it any other way.

One of the things Mckinley loves to do is pull the wipes out of the wipes container. And for some reason she loves to put them in her mouth.


Life has started to get really fun lately. Mckinley is getting more and more mobile, crawling everywhere and getting into lots of fun stuff. Here she is after she proudly pulled out all the DVD's. Good thing we don't collect a lot of movies. :)


Mckinley's very favorite toy is her music table she got from Grandpa Salmon for Christmas. She walks around and around it and stays entertained for long periods of time.

It's funny now with her crawling everywhere, sometimes I will look into the family room and not see her anywhere. This one day I looked for her and barely saw her little feet sticking out from her car seat. This is a toy she really likes as well. By the time I got the camera out, she wasn't as far into it as earlier, but still super cute.

Then she realized I was taking pictures and sat down and gave me a big cheeser. I love that she smiles for the camera now! Even though with our point and shoot she just looks super chubby. But oh, chubby cheeks are the best. So fun to squeeze and kiss.

If I had photoshop I would take Mckinley's head from this picture...

and add it to this one. Bryn's little smile is just too cute!!!!


Mckinley is giving me lots and lots of practice with doing her hair in a ponytail on the top of her head. She pulls it out multiple times a day. Yesterday I spent the entire day at my parents' house just hanging out and after one of her naps, Mckinley had pulled her ponytail out and had some awesome hair to show for it.

Looked like a mohawk from the side. Ha ha ha. Love it. I think I did her hair 6 times that day.

Mckinley is starting to get a little more cuddly and we are soaking up every minute of it. Brandon lucked out the other night and had her fall asleep on his shoulder. He said it was the best day of his life. :) This picture isn't from that night, it was just yesterday after we got home from Walmart and she had fallen asleep in her car seat.

Her newest trick is climbing up the stairs. Time to really keep an eye on her. She's so proud of herself. Even while climbing up I just said "Mckinley, look at Mom" and she turned around and smiled for the camera, then kept going. She got all the way to the very top, laid her head down on the floor, and sighed. It's tough work climbing up stairs when you're just 27.5 inches tall. :)

Today is an awesome lazy Friday. Brandon and I had no idea it even snowed till he opened the door to go to work and then we saw there was like 6 inches on the ground. Yuck. My only plans were to go to lunch with Brandon but then we had to cancel because he's going to lunch with someone for some business something or other. So yay, I get to stay inside. I keep meaning to take Mckinley to baby book time at the library on Fridays but here she is almost 10 months old and I have never taken her. I guess I really need to plan for it, because even when I have nothing to do on a Friday, I just still stay here at home. I need someone to go with me. Kristi, you up for it?

I guess that's the update for now. Especially because I can hear Mckinley starting to wake up from her nap. We always go in now and find her standing up just waiting for us. It's so darn cute! Love love love this little girl...

Random Stuff

Oops, posted this to the wrong blog! Sorry for those of you who are seeing it twice.

Just a few random pictures from the past few days.

Best Friends. Brynlee and Mckinley.

We took Mckinley to the Bean Museum for the first time over the weekend. She was pretty tired, but I think she liked it okay.

Mckinley and Dad.

My parents spoke in Church yesterday and then we had a family dinner after. My dad was showing all the grandkids pictures of their parents (my brothers) from back in the day when they had mullets, long hair, and thought they were too cool for the world. The kids were all laughing so hard. Wait till their kids look at these pictures of them!

And here's one of the pictures we emailed to Brandon at work today. We sure miss him while he's gone....


Today had been a fun Valentine's Day. Brandon always finishes eating before I do so when he was done but I was still eating he went around the house hiding heart shaped notes for me. I've found 3 so far and each one has been awesome!!

Thorougly Impressed

Last night I was lucky enough to go see Phantom of the Opera at Pleasant Grove High School. I wasn't sure what to expect out of a high school theater performance, but wow, it was so amazing. Seriously, it was so good!


I have seen Phantom of the Opera 2 other times. One in some awesome building in Sydney, Australia and once at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake. PG High seriously did as good as the Salt Lake performance. The cast was perfect and they all had such beautiful voices. I wish I could tell you guys to go, but every performance for the rest of the week is completely sold out. There were tons of people waiting to just try to get in stand by. I doubt any of them did. The place was packed!

It was super weird going back to my high school 10 years later...

I actually completely forgot I was even going till the night before and I hadn't told Brandon about it at all, so luckily he was nice enough to stay home with Mckinley with last minute notice while I went out and had fun with my mom and sister.

Of course we weren't allowed to take any pictures but here is me and Kristen during the intermission.


Anyway, it was too awesome not to blog about. That's all.

9 Months

Mckinley is 9 months old today. She has been out of my stomach for as long as she was in it. Well, in a week that will be true since she stayed in an extra week. :)

I love love loved having her in my belly but I love her outside of it even more. Look at that face, how could you not?


Anyway, we went to the doctor today and here are her stats.

Weight: 18 lbs 6 oz (43%)
Height: 27.5 inches (49%)
Head: 17.75 inches (81%)

At 9 months Mckinley:

• Crawls!
• Is a pro at giving kisses.
• Is starting to wave a little.
• Likes to copy you when you say "Ah!" (she'll copy you over and over and over, it's so fun)
• Pulls herself up on anything she can and walks along it.
• Finally got to meet her Grandma and Grandpa Bishop!
• Still just has two teeth on the bottom (although I think I can see one of her top teeth getting close).
• Doesn't say very many words with consonants but she loves to jabber.
• Understands a bunch of words and does lots of tricks.
• Will always turn her head and search for him if you ask "Where's Daddy?" She L.O.V.E.S. him.
• Can be found standing up in her crib now when she wants to get out (like twice in the last half hour since I put her down).
• Still wakes up in the night to eat, but last night we decided to put a stop to that. Brandon hung out next to her crib at 3 in the morning this morning till she went back to sleep. And she had her record night of 13 hours!
• Loves to go to sleep with her binki but we have lost 2 out of 3 of the ones she likes so once the 3rd one is lost, it's all over.
• Takes 2 good naps every day, and sometimes a 3rd nap in the evening.
• Loves to eat anything we're eating, but still loves rice cereal and baby food.
• Has almost eaten more cheerios than her body weight.

Anyway, we just love this little girl so much and are so blessed to have her in our lives.

February: Week 1

Wow, what a week! It has been so fun having my parents home. I love it. Here's what we've been up to.

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Tuesday. My parents both slept in, my dad till 10 and my mom till 11. They were both exhausted from travelling. As soon as Mckinley woke up from her morning nap I took her over there so they could see her when she's fun and not just super tired. We had a good time. Later that night the whole family got together for a dinner. We had an awesome time just talking with my parents and everything. They brought home lots of presents for the grandkids and some stuff for us too.

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Our little family.

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All the adults.

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Mom and Dad with all the grandkids.

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Wednesday I went to work early, then did some major grocery shopping. I didn't see my parents that day. It was Groundhog Day so we watched Groundhog Day with some of Brandon's brothers.

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Thursday my little sister came over and babysat Mckinley so I could go do some work at Brandon's office. Then I went over to my parents' house in the afternoon to see them some more. I can't remember what we did Thursday night. Maybe just relaxed at home?

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Friday. We went to lunch at Olive Garden so my mom could see her two sisters again. Here are the three of them.

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Amy, Kristen, and my cousin Sarah at lunch.

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Mckinley and me.

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Mckinley was loving sucking on a piece of a lemon.

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Friday night Brandon had a basketball game and then he went and helped his brother clean his house while I chilled at home by myself. :(

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Saturday was a big day. My niece Holly got baptized so we went to that and then had food at my brother's house after and stayed there for a while just sitting around and talking. We loved it. I didn't take any pictures, but this is Holly.

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Then we brought a very tired baby over to Brandon's mom's house so she could watch her while we went to the temple with my whole family. My little sister Amy (who is going to Hong Kong on her mission at the end of next month if you don't remember) went through the temple for the first time. We ate at the temple cafeteria after and the food was actually really good. Amy is going to be such an amazing missionary!!

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Today is Sunday and in a couple of hours we are going over to Brandon's brothers to eat some good food. Some of them are going to watch some football and others of us are going to watch the funny commercials.

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Mckinley's 9 month appointment is tomorrow. This will be the first time she doesn't have to get shots. Woohoo!

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Anyway, that was our week in a nutshell. I'm sure this next one will have lots of exciting things in it too.

They're HOME

Well, last night was the big night. And it did not disappoint. My parents' flight did get delayed about an hour so it made it an even later night for poor, sick (again) Mckinley. But it was worth it.
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This was at about 9:00 last night. I was getting so so so excited to see them. Me and Mckinley headed off to Kristen's house.

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We hung out at Kristen's waiting till it was time to go to the airport. Everything worked out perfectly. We only waited in the airport for about 5 or 10 minutes before we saw them.
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Here's Mckinley, just woke up, at about 12:30. Such a trooper for letting me drag her around in the middle of the night.

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Kristen, Amy, and me, waiting and so excited to see Mom and Dad.

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Kristen and Amy went ahead and I hid with Mckinley behind a big pillar to surprise my parents. And boy, were they surprised. Check out the video HERE.
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Mom and Dad meeting Mckinley for the first time. She was so tired and super mellow but we didn't expect much more than that from her in the middle of the night.

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My parents and 3 of their girls. Mom's eyes are mostly closed. Classic.

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The girls being silly while Dad was busy getting the luggage...

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My mom got to sit with Mckinley in the back of the car and she didn't fall asleep the whole way, so my mom was in heaven. Now I am just waiting for Mckinley to wake up from her morning nap so we can go back over there and play! Wahoo!! This is awesome.

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Real quick, if any of you want to reminesce with me, click HERE to see pictures of when they left. It's so awesome to think of all the ways our family was blessed while they were gone. Number one for us being our sweet little miracle we named Mckinley.