Golfing

Here we are at our annual Freedom Festival golf night. I love living here close to so much family and I love that Brandon's family has so many yearly traditions like this!!!

T minus one month

Well, it's official. We're moving. In just one month! Most people dread moving and for some reasons, I do too, but for the most part, the question that's always on my mind is "what else can I pack?" Since we'll be living at my parents' house for 9 months, we are storing most of our stuff at Brandon's brother's house and then just taking a little bit with us. So, we've been packing some of the stuff that we can just put in storage that we don't use now. Which is actually a lot of stuff. Makes you wonder why you have it if you don't use it?

Anyway, I love dejunking and going through things and I am just excited for CHANGE. We were so lucky to be able to find renters in less than 24 hours! We're renting to the first people who came and looked at our place. If my camera wasn't broken I could show you the packing mess. We've already moved a few things and I'm starting to drive Brandon crazy because all I want to do is pack and move more things.

Pictureless posts are not very exciting. If my camera wasn't broken I would post a picture of Mckinley climbing into her baby bouncer and bouncing up and down so high that it hits the ground. And a picture of her climbing into her diaper caddy. And up into her old carseat. And doing a flip into an empty box that she tried to climb on. Can you tell she likes to climb? She is so stinking cute and we are just having a blast with her every day.

We went miniature golfing at Cascade on Monday, a yearly tradition we do with Brandon's family. My sister-in-law Jessica took a picture for us and when she sends it to me, I'll post it. We've got a fun week ahead with the 4th of July coming up. Summer is really here.

Bishop Family Vacation

Before I start on the new post, a few things from the last post about Mckinley being a big girl. Well, I did my post as she was napping, first thing when she woke up she looked around her room and said "shoes!" She wanted her shoes on first thing. Shoes is her first word that she says really clearly and has a perfect understanding of what it is.

Then I put her in the car and we went to run a few errands. At the drive through at the bank, they heard me tickling Mckinley in the car and her laughing, so they asked if I had a kid with me and if they would like a sucker. I thought, wow, Mckinley is big enough to eat a sucker. So here she is in her car seat eating her sucker, happy as can be.

And speaking of car seats, last Saturday we upgraded her to a front facing car seat. She looks little again in a big car seat. But see, I wasn't kidding about her growing up.

Here she is in the car seat box. I thought for sure I'd be able to shut the lid with her in it but she was a little too tall. I think I still feel like she's little but it's time to realize she's not.

Okay anyway, enough of that. So on Tuesday this week my whole family got together to go to the zoo and then we stayed overnight at a fun resort at Snowbird.

It's been so long since I've been to Hogle Zoo. It seems like they got rid of some of the real animals to make room for these big fake dinosaurs that move and make noises and some of them squirt water. I'd rather see real animals, but oh well.

It was a super hot day and there were tons of people at the zoo, but I love the zoo so much so I was still glad we went.

Mckinley wasn't as in to it as I thought she'd be. She always gets so excited at home when she hears dogs or birds and stuff so I thought she'd love all the animals but there were times when we couldn't even get her to look at them.

She wouldn't sleep in her stroller at all so she was pretty overdue for a nap by the time we were done.

Checking out the snake. Mckinley will say "tssssss" if you ask her what a snake says. It's so cute!

I think maybe she could beat up an infant gorilla...not that she would...

Isn't this cute? We just asked her how big she is to make it look like she's smart enough to hold her hands out to the side. Ha ha ha.

Mckinley and Ammon looking at the gorilla.

Usually the hippopotamus is my favorite animal at the zoo (don't ask me why, just always has been) but since there are apparently none of them at Hogle Zoo anymore, this gorilla was my favorite of the day. He wrapped himself up in this sheet and had one leg over the other knee, just like any human would do on a hot day.

All of the grand kids except Mckinley and Bryce on one of the many fake dinosaurs.

After the zoo we headed over to our resort at Snowbird and jumped straight into the pool. It was kind of cool swimming in a heated pool right next to the snowy mountains.

On Wednesday we went down the zip line, Brandon went on the tram, and the kids played on the bungee trampolines and other stuff they had there. Too bad the alpine slide was shut down because there was still too much snow. This picture shows the cool resort we had. We had our own little private hot tub out on our balcony. It was cool. (and that's Bryant on the zip line)

Here's me struggling up the easiest course on the rock climbing wall while my 9-year old nephew Brecken schooled me on the hardest one.

The view from our room. It looks all cold but we were constantly putting sunscreen on and wearing shorts. The weather was awesome.

Mckinley definitely tries to hold her own with all her cousins. Here she is fighting her way into the bowl of popcorn.

And there she is with a mouthful of it. Anyone who knows Mckinley knows this girl loves her food. I'm pretty sure she'd eat all day long if we let her.

Thanks to my mom and dad for ALL the pictures from our vacation. I made sure to charge my camera battery and have it all ready the night before our trip, then when I pulled it out to take pictures of the zoo, it wouldn't turn on. Brandon said he accidentally dropped it when he was getting it out of my purse, but only a few inches. Apparently when your camera is four years old, a few inches is far enough. It's broken. :( We got a really good 4 years out of that camera. And now we get to buy a new one. It's not all bad.

Life is good, I can't believe the 4th of July is coming up. It's so weird that we're doing things this year that we did with Mckinley LAST year too. Is she that old? Every year just gets better and better. It's so nice to go places and not deal with nursing her, binkis, and other stuff like that.

We are also getting ready to rent our house out so we can go live in my parents house while they're in China. We posted it on KSL Thursday night. Friday we had someone call and come look at it and they want it. Then today we had three people want to come and look at it. So we deleted the ad for now. I feel bad for the people who want it but won't get it. I'm glad I'm not in their shoes.

Anyway, this is enough for now. I'm off to go continue enjoying my summer....

Such a big girl

If it wasn't official before, it's official now. We don't have a baby anymore. Mckinley acts like she's such a big girl. She is so adorable and we just love her more than we ever could have dreamed.

She is starting to smile on command. This was at 7 Peaks the other day.


She'll even smile now when no one's behind the camera. I love it.

Look at her looking all grown up and stuff on a chair helping me make (eat) banana bread.

She's really into dipping things. She was eating a cracker and wanted to dip it in the batter so I got her a little bowl of it and she went to town. Other things she has dipped: crackers in fry sauce and in potato soup and in cottage cheese (and banana bread batter), PB&J in ketchup (ewww) and in potato soup.

I have been wanting to do Mckinley's hand and foot prints for a long time. We stripped her down the other day and took her out in the back to attempt it. I thought it would be easier with two people (I tried it on my own when she was like 6 or 7 months) but we still barely got one hand print and one print of each of her adorable feet. I guess one is all you need though, right? Anyway, she had fun playing with the water coming out of the hose.

A little trip down to Utah Lake last night to see how full the lake is. The dock we usually go to is buried in water. See that cute smile, and I don't even think we asked her to this time.

Enjoying a very large lolly pop. :)

Mckinley will sit forever and play with her little container of hair bows and bracelets. She always picks up the hair clips and tries to put them in her own hair. This morning I decided to help her out. She is wearing all of her bracelets and all the bows. :)

June 9, 2011

Here we are on our 5 year anniversary. We went to Cafe Rio for lunch, then got pizza and a movie to watch at home that night.

Friday we got Brandon's mom to watch Mckinley so we could go see Kung Fu Panda 2 and afterwards we ate at Red Robin.

I got this delicious smoothie and it's a good thing I did, otherwise we would have been sipping water for FORTY minutes while we waited for our food to come. Yeah, that part wasn't too fun. But it was nice to go out on a real date.

Man, we might not ever need to take this girl to Disneyland. She gets just as excited to have a lick of sugar. Look at that face!

Here's what she was so excited for. That lollypop is as big as her face!

June 9

June 9th might not mean a lot to you, but it does to us! Today is our 5 year anniversary. It's not even lunch time and it's already been a great day. Lucky me, I got to wake up at 4 and go to work, but then I came home and we made pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream on top. Yum.

Then Brandon told me he got me a 1-hour massage! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to use it.

We are going to lunch today and then tomorrow night we are going to dinner and a movie and hopefully Mckinley will be having a sleepover somewhere else so we can sleep in!!! My guess is that she'll sleep over somewhere else and then we'll wake up early on our own anyway, but I'm sure going to try my best to sleep in till 11.

Looking back...

June 9, 2006


June 9, 2007


June 9, 2008

June 9, 2009

June 9, 2010

June 9, 2011

Looking back at our previous anniversary's, they pretty much always include dinner and a movie, and sometimes a hotel. It's pretty easy to see what we like to do. :)

1 year anniversary

2 year anniversary

3 year anniversary

4 year anniversary

Brandon is the best husband anyone could ever ask for. I would be so lost without him. I love you Bran!

Back to back Vegas trips

We seem to be repeating what we did 2 years ago. We went to Vegas and stayed at Tahiti Village and then went back to Vegas like a month later. This time we only had a week after our first Vegas trip before we went back again. Anyway, we just got back from a week long vacation with Brandon's entire family. We stayed at Tahiti Village again and had a really good time.

A few pictures from our week at home in between the two Vegas trips.

Mckinley sitting on a pillow watching cartoons. So cute!

Mckinley with an awesome bed head sitting on her little stool brushing her teeth. She's in a "sitting" stage. If she sees something that's her height, she will turn around and walk backwards till she reaches it and then sit down. It's so cute.

Brandon's youngest brother Lincoln graduated from high school.

I got to go to PF Changs for a lunch shower for my friend Lisa. I told her not to have the baby while I was gone, but she didn't listen. Her baby girl was born on Thursday. My other friend Anna also had a baby the day before we left so I have two new babies to visit this week and I'm so excited!

Okay, now for the trip. These pictures are not in order but I don't want to bother switching them around so we'll just leave it as is.

Mckinley and two of her cousins playing in the pool.

This might be my very favorite picture. We ate dinner at Cheesecake Factory one night and they have this huge aquarium outside the entrance. Mckinley loved watching all the fish and sting rays go by. I love her little pigtails! And aren't her legs just cute in those little capris? Michelle, aren't you the one who gave me this outfit? I love it.

Tahiti Village is right by the Las Vegas airport and Mckinley loved watching the planes go by. She would point and get really excited to see them. There is a tiny plane on the left in this picture that she is looking at.

Me and Mckinley in the pool. We went to the pool at least once every day. She loved wearing my sunglasses.

She is usually pretty mellow when she's in the water but she loved it when we would come "chase her." That's how we got this smile.


Best friends. Mckinley and Brynlee. Waiting for dinner at Cheesecake Factory.

We saw a few things on the strip. This is in the garden room at the Bellagio.

And of course we always have to watch a few water shows at the Bellagio. I could sit there all night and watch them. Mckinley was ready for bed by this time though.

Vegas is so pretty at night. We had a sweet view of the strip from our hotel room.

Family picture in the pool.

Brandon and Mckinley chillin in the pool.

Brandon has some cousins in Vegas that we had a sweet BBQ with and then later in the week his cousin's husband invited us to come to the airport and tour this 60 million dollar private jet. My camera battery died before we got to go inside so I'm waiting for some pictures from Shellee. ;)

I was lucky enough to go and see The Liong King. Brandon decided not to come. It was such an amazing production.

Mckinley did awesome sleeping in the pack-n-play during our trip. She still found her way to the corner and had some other pretty cute sleeping positions.

If Mckinley ever got fussy by the pool we could just take her over to the hot tub and let her dip her feet in. She loved it so much and would just sit there relaxed forever.

The pool had a little sand beach and I didn't know if Mckinley would like it since she hates grass but she actually enjoyed it.

One day out on the balcony Mckinley kept giving Haley hugs. Then Brandon and Haley both got down to see who Mckinley would come to and she went to Haley. Needless to say, Brandon was quite jealous and Haley was super happy. It was cute.

Most of the time in the water Mckinley would have her feet crossed just hanging out in her tube. Then if you asked her to kick her legs she would. I'm so glad she liked the water.

Mckinley also loves to push things. She's been like this for a while, but now she's been pushing big things, like a shopping cart around the store the other night, and her pack-n-play and her stroller and her music table. It surprises me sometimes that she has the strength to push some of the big things. This was at Concert in the Park on Sunday night.

There are a ton more pictures I could have posted from our trip. It was a lot of fun. I still haven't adjusted back to normal life and I am dreading going grocery shopping.

Today marks Mckinley's 13 month birthday. Just a few things about her at 13 months:

She knows what sounds a dog, cow, and snake make.

She is starting to climb on things.

She tries to repeat the words "amen" and "all done" or "all gone".

She can say shoe. She loves to have her shoes on.

She has 10 teeth with another one close.

She still doesn't like getting dressed.

She takes 2 good naps a day and sleeps about 11 hours at night.

She will cover her eyes if you say "Where's Mckinley?"

She is still super ticklish and loves to laugh. She loves to be chased and loves to play peek-a-boo.

I think that's enough for now. She is so much fun and such a good baby. We always said we would wean her off her binki after our Vegas trip so Sunday night we put it away in the closet and she has done really well without it. She cried for 20 or 30 minutes the first night but every nap or bedtime since then she just whimpers a little and then goes to sleep. She has started being a lot more cuddly and will lay down on our shoulders and just snuggle. I don't know if it's because the binki is gone or maybe because she's teething right now, but we love it!