Happy Halloween!

We lucked out again this year with front row seats to the kick-off basketball game at BYU. Magelby's catered the dinner before the game and the food was awesome.

Us at the game last year:

This year: (uh...someone is growing up!)

Best seat in the house. Front row, center court, again. This picture was from 2010.

Exact same seat for 2011. :) I think it's Blake Roney's spot. I actually ended up switching to the 4th row because Mckinley did not want to sit on my lap for longer than about 5 seconds. We went with a bunch of Brandon's family and had a really fun time.

Here is my cute little bumblebee. This picture was taken a while back when we were trying on the costume. She loved the headband so much that it ended up broken and the stores were all out of replacements. :(

She still looks cute without it. This was at our ward Halloween party last night. Mckinley had fun playing with her new little friend Charlotte who is the little girl of one of my old favorite friends, Sara, who is in town.

This picture is a little fuzzy. I am still trying to figure out my new iPhone I got this week!

Yesterday before the ward party we had a fun family part over at my brother's house. Mckinley had a blast playing in their little kitchen. Turns out it's actually my mom's kitchen and my sister-in-law told us we should take it home because her kids don't play with it. I think I know what Santa is bringing Mckinley for Christmas this year. :)

Fuzzy iPhone family picture.

Mckinley loved the soup Emily made. She was covered in it by the end but she enjoyed every bite.

Just like cereal, she wanted to drink the stuff at the end.


Then she started getting silly and was lapping it up like a dog.

Too Young for Chores?

Nope! Mckinley loves to help me unload the dishwasher. Today she got a little independent and did it on her own.

I can't believe she's tall enough to put the silverware in the drawer by herself but apparently she is.

So proud of herself.

The finished product: (now tell me that doesn't put a smile on your face)

A kiss for a job well done.

It's funny the things she picks up on that you would never think of. She got Brandon's keys and tried to unlock the door (from the inside, ha ha ha).

She LOVES putting our shoes on and walking around the house in them.

The poor little thing has been sick the past few days. She loves her pink blanket (thank you McKenzie!) and was lounging around on the kitchen floor with her doll.


A self-family portrait in the backyard when the leaves on the tree were beautiful. Those leaves can now be found on the ground waiting for us to clean them up.

Sneak Peek

I tried Mckinley's Halloween costume on her the other day and when we were done, she still wanted to wear part of it. I bet you can guess what she's going to bee, right?


She LOVES her Christmas present from last year Shannon and is getting really good at it.


Trying to walk in Kristen's boots. Ha ha ha.

Loves walking on her knees!

Even in the tub, Mckinley feels the need to kiss and hug her bath toys.

Conference Weekend

We had a really nice, relaxing conference weekend at home. Mckinley was awesome and either played with toys or was napping during conference, so even with a kid we actually got to listen. It was great.

Why is it so fun to give your child a sucker? I love that she sets it down on the carpet to go play with a toy or that she will hold the sticky end in her fist and put the stick in her mouth because she thinks it's funny. No concept of "sticky."

Mckinley has the cheesiest smile and I just love it!

She is so good at folding her arms for prayers and it's adorable!

So Saturday morning we got up and made an awesome potato, egg, bacon, cheese breakfast that my niece Haley named R2D2 for some reason. Then we watched conference and in between sessions we went for a drive up the canyon to see the leaves and have a picnic.

After the priesthood session we got together with all of Brandon's brothers and had pizza that was so delicious. Sunday morning we got together with all of his siblings again and made an amazing breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon. We all watched the morning session together. Then we came home and put Mckinley down for a nap while we watched the 2nd session.

Usually I feel like conference takes your weekend away from you but for some reason this time we both just loved it and felt like it was over too fast.

Last Week

Brandon informed me today that I haven't blogged in a while. He is great to keep me on my toes like that. :)

Anyway, after the fun flu-filled weekend we had, I got a cold/sore throat/annoyningness that still hasn't left me. But it didn't stop me from pretty much having a normal week, which I am grateful for.

Here is the one picture from the flu weekend. Brandon sent me and Mckinley out to get him some ginger ale the night he was throwing up. Which then came in handy the next day for me while I was throwing up. :) I got Mckinley dressed warm since it was raining when we left and I thought she looked so cute and grown up in her new jeans and shoes that I just had to take a picture.


Me and Mckinley just chillin at home.


Cute pigtails!

One of Mckinley's favorite things to do is push things around, strollers, toys, and chairs. She found out she can push her rocking chair around and this one day she decided to push it right up to the TV to get a good view.

Thursday night this week we went to the BYU v. USU soccer game. Brandon's little sister plays for USU. They had a heartbreaking loss against BYU but it was fun to watch anyway.

Mckinley FINALLY decided to like peaches, just when we were about out of delicious fresh peaches from our neighbor's tree.

Friday Brandon took me on a fun date to the temple and then we were lucky enough to go watch the BYU game with box seats.

Yay for free balloons!!!

Yesterday we had my sister Heidi over and Mckinley of course figured out how to push her wheelchair around the house too.

We also had a fun, delicious dinner at Carrabba's, thanks to Brandon's hard work at his brother's house. Thanks Ryan and Jess!

That's about it. I'm a little sad that it's getting dark early again, which means summer is over. But, on the bright side, Mckinley has an adorable winter wardrobe that I bought forever ago and pretty much forgot about. Yay for cute girls who are so fun to dress!

The Flu

This post has no pictures. You'll thank me later.

I have always dreaded the first time Mckinley would throw up. Well, the dreaded day arrived. So, Wednesday night I went to bed early knowing that I had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning on Thursday to go to work. I went to bed at 10 and at 2 I woke up to Mckinley crying. She doesn't usually make a sound all night so I thought hmm, that's weird, but I'm tired, and I have to wake up soon. Hopefully she'll go back to bed. I did get up though and just went and listened by her door and it sounded like she was falling back asleep. So I got back in bed.

The next thing I know Brandon is holding her by my bedside saying "she threw up." Can I just tell you how grateful I am for Brandon and what an amazing dad he is? If it wasn't for him, I would have left my child to sleep the rest of the night in her own vomit. I felt like such a horrible mother.

Anyway, we got her cleaned up and changed and got her bed all taken apart and had all the stuff in the washer. Then I was holding her and we went down in her room to put her back in bed. While I was still holding her she threw up again, all over herself, me, my hair, and the carpet. So we got her in the tub and Brandon bathed her while I scrubbed the carpet clean and all the clothes and everything. I was surprised to see that cleaning up her throw up wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it hardly bothered me at all.

When I work that early on Thursday mornings, I pretty much roll out of bed, throw my hair up, brush my teeth and go. But, since she had thrown up in my hair and all down my arm, I knew I would have to shower. It took an hour before we had everything cleaned and had her back in bed. It was 3:00 a.m. and I decided I would just get in the shower then and go to work. Yeah, that is early. So I went to work for a bit and then luckily I got to come home and sleep for a few hours before I had to get up and work from home again.

Anyway, moving on. Thursday night Brandon and I were laying in bed talking and hoping that Mckinley didn't throw up again that night. Brandon was thinking about the last time he threw up and we couldn't remember exactly when it was but we were thinking probably about 3 years ago.

So Friday I am hanging out at home, Mckinley is napping, and all of a sudden Brandon shows up at home at like 3:30 and just jumps straight into bed. He told me he had thrown up at work. So he threw up for the rest of the night and I took care of him. We went to bed and at 4 in the morning on Saturday I woke up feeling like I needed to throw up. I was hoping it was because I had eaten pretty much an entire bag of candy corn late the night before, but no, I woke up every hour and threw up and just felt horrible.

All day Saturday I was sick and luckily Brandon was feeling good enough to take care of Mckinley for me or else I don't know what we would have done. Finally today we are all feeling almost back to normal but yuck, can I just say that I hate the flu! And I have had it 3 times in the last year, once at Thanksgiving, a few days after the 4th of July, and now. Darn it I should have gotten a flu shot. I used to get them every year working at the hospital and since I'm not there full-time anymore I haven't gotten one since I was pregnant. I will not be making that mistake again!

That was our weekend, I thought about taking a picture of our bed, with a throw up bucket on Brandon's side and and other one on my side (which thankfully neither of us had to use), but ew, it's just gross and I don't want any visual memories of this weekend. I'm just glad it's over and I finally feel better!!!

Lagoon

Oops, I forgot to post about Lagoon. We got to go to Lagoon with the NuSkin summer party last Friday night. It was so much fun! Mckinley got to go on more rides than I thought she would and I went on all the rides I love as well. It was perfect.

Mckinley with Haley and Brynlee.

These two were so cute on the little boat ride!

Gotta love the carousel.

Family picture.

Up on the sky lift, even though you can't tell. Mckinley wasn't afraid to be up that high at all, she was holding on to the bars and looking over the edge.

On the train.

We rode the Ferris Wheel! I haven't been on that ride since I was little.

It was a late night so she was tired by the end of the night but overall she did so good!!!

And just a few pictures for fun. She loves pushing buttons!

And this was just too cute not to post.