It's a Boy!

Well, I think it's about time we make our announcement. :) Mckinley is going to be a big sister!


This lucky thing is getting a little brother.....


AND a little sister!!!!

That's right, I am pregnant with twins and we are BEYOND excited!!!

Here is the very first picture of our two little babes back when they were growing in a lab...

We had an ultrasound at 5 weeks and only saw one sac. We were way sad that one of our embryos had died, but then surprise, at 7 weeks this is what we saw!!! It was awesome.

I am 13 weeks now and have been throwing up ever since I was 6 weeks. It is definitely not easy being pregnant and having a toddler to take care of, and it won't be easy to have 3 little kiddos under the age of 3, but it will all be worth it and we just feel so blessed!!!

Mckinley

Time to blog about what really matters: Mckinley! She is almost 23 months, just a month away from her 2nd birthday, so hard to believe. She is so much fun right now and learns so much every day. She is getting better and better at talking, I even noticed a change when we got back from our 4 day trip to Florida.

A lot of times she doesn't want her picture taken so we get shots like this.


Here we go, there's her cute little smile.


In case you're wondering what she'll look like with super long hair....Kristen put some extensions in her hair. Ha ha ha, it was so great.


She actually left them in for quite a while.


I finally got the pictures and videos from Brandon's phone uploaded and there were tons I had never seen, like this cute picture of her sleeping. She is in the BEST sleeping phase ever. We discovered that she really like sleeping on a pillow and with the help of the super soft pillow case Brandon's mom made her for Christmas, going to bed is like a treat and sometimes she even asks for it. She always gets so excited to lay down on that pillow!


Her friend Kenzey came over to play again. I have cute pictures of them playing together at a few different stages of their lives. They always change so much in between getting together.


Mckinley is in to doing the splits, and even did them when she laid down in bed one night.


Mckinley and her best friend/cousin Brynn. Mckinley follows EVERYTHING Brynn does, it's so cute!


Probably the one thing that will keep her entertained for the longest amount of time right now is playing with the squirt bottle. She will walk all around the yard spraying anything she can and it is so fun to her! If only we could give her a spray bottle during Sacrament meeting...

One of the main reasons I wanted to get all of Brandon's stuff uploaded was for this cute video of Mckinley "reading" a book. She is starting to have little jabber sessions and this was the first one, a few weeks ago. I'm pretty much putting this on here for my mom and dad's sake, but if anyone else wants to take a look, go ahead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0ZkcbsJK20

Long story short. We are in love with Mckinley and every stage just gets more and more fun.

Florida

Believe it or not, you are about to get a post without any pictures of Mckinley. Reason why: We just went on a trip without Mckinley.

Between the camera, and both of our phones, we had a LOT of pictures from this trip. Brandon and Jason qualified for the MetLife Leadership Conference and it was in Orlando, FL. Shannon and I tagged along of course. Somehow I didn't get one picture of the four of us together, but we did go with them.

We stayed in an old Disney resort somewhere in the middle of the huge area that is called Disney World. Man, that place is so spread out! I prefer Disneyland a million times over Disney World.

Here's a picture at our resort.



The was the opening dinner, a buffet on the beach. It was a little windy so the food wasn't super warm, and of course none of us drink so we left pretty early.



We got to spend an afternoon at Sea World. It would have been more fun if it wasn't so HOT.
We did enjoy the Shamu show and the Dolphin show though. They were pretty awesome.


Brandon took a ton of videos of both shows, mainly to show them to Mckinley when we got home. I'm not even going to bother trying to post one on here.



The next day we were able to spend the afternoon at the Animal Kingdom. I heard the safari was cool and really wanted to go on it. It really was fun but the park didn't have too many other rides to go on.


This is us heading out on the safari ride.



Rhinos.


Some of the animals were super close to the road, which was pretty cool.



This is us with Disney's giant man-made tree in the background. It was so cool to see.

This is us after our dinner the last night. We left early again because pretty much all there was to do there was drink. Not to mention we had a super early flight home Saturday morning.

Mckinley stayed with Brandon's mom he whole time we were gone. She was so sweet to take care of her for us. She stayed there with Jason and Shannon's two girls and I think they all had a blast together. We missed her a lot while we were gone but it sure was nice not to have to take care of her while we were there! Vacations are a lot of fun but I think I'm getting old or something because I think I enjoy getting back home the most.

I forgot to mention the resort had an awesome pool that we really enjoyed swimming in. There are a few pictures of us by the pool but I don't want the one of me posted and I'm pretty sure Brandon wouldn't want the one of him posted either. Man, we really are getting old. :(

Disneyland

Well, it's time to post about Disneyland. We had a good trip and are so glad we went. Mckinley learned how to say Snow White's full name before we left and all she would say is "I want Snow White." Over and over and over. Every time we would talk about Disneyland.

I think she was a little confused when we got there and she saw that there are actually other things to see besides Snow White. But we did make sure she saw her.

We had to wake Mckinley up a 4:20 a.m. to catch our flight. I thought for sure she'd fall asleep on the way to the airport. Or at the airport. Or on the plane. Or on the way to the hotel. Nope. She stayed awake the whole time! Yikes. She was still pretty good though. When we got on the plane all she wanted to do was look out the window at the other planes in the airport. She didn't realize we were sitting in one.

She did fall asleep for like 15 minutes when we drove to go buy our tickets for Disneyland that day. And then I ended up walking back to the hotel with her later for a nap because she wouldn't fall asleep in her stroller at the park. We were as close as you can get to the park though so it was no big deal.

The first ride we went on when we got there was Toy Story. That ride wasn't there the last time I went and it was so fun!

These pictures aren't in order anymore, but the second morning of Disneyland Shannon waited forever in line and we jumped in with her to see the princesses. They only have 3 princesses at a time and we were very lucky to find that Snow White was one of them.

Mckinley was happy to see Cinderella. She knew who she was.

Then we saw Sleeping Beauty and Mckinley just kept saying "I want Snow White."

Last was Snow White and Mckinley was more than happy to meet her and give her a hug and take a picture with her. It was so cute.

The Little Mermaid is the only girlie Disney movie we own so Mckinley watches it over and over. She thought she met Ariel just from seeing her picture on the wall, which was perfect.

This is what she looked like the whole ride. She was mesmerized by everything and wouldn't look away no matter how hard we tried to get her attention. She didn't laugh, smile, or point on the rides. She just stared at everything.

Mckinley's very favorite ride was the carousel. She asked to go on it a few times

Once we taught her to wave, it was so cute, she would wave even when there was no one to wave to.

The first night we were in the park at the end of the day we were wandering around wondering where to go and we went over to Toon Town and walked through Mickey's house. It's usually so crowded but there were no people there and we walked straight through to the end and got to meet Mickey without a wait at all. It was awesome. Mckinley gave him a big high five and was so happy to meet "Me Mouse."

We also went on the Snow White ride and once again, just from seeing a picture of her on the wall, she thought she had met Snow White. (This was before we met her in person.) This ride actually scares a lot of kids but I think she was too young to notice. It didn't seem to bother her at all. It was also the end of the longest day in her life so far, so maybe she was just tired. Either way, it worked out great.

We watched the awesome water show at California Adventure. It was a really cool show but way too long.

Monsters Inc ride with her cousin Brynlee.

We watched the parade one night (and my brother Ken and his wife joined us so that was really cool) and Mckinley was so excited when she saw Snow White coming on the float. She just yelled over and over "Snow White!! Snow White!!" So funny how she was so obsessed with her.

We walked around Downtown Disney one day and Mckinley was hilarious in the Disney Store. She was so excited to see any of the princess barbies. And when she saw some dress up shoes next to the Snow White costume, she sat on the ground and immediately started trying to take her shoes off. It was hilarious. I need to bring her to the Disney store in the mall. She'll probably think she's at Disneyland again. So easy to please at this age.

We spent a very cold, windy day at the beach (not my favorite day of the trip...to say the least).

Mckinley wouldn't touch the sand or the water.

Family picture.

Brrrr...cold.

We drove to Huntington Beach to get some fries at Ruby's out on the pier. We saw some dolphins swimming in the ocean on our way back which was pretty cool. I can't think of anything I love more than seeing dolphins in the wild. Or anywhere really. I need to go to Sea World!

And just for fun, this is a picture of me and Bran on almost the same spot on that pier over 5 years ago the last time we were there. I almost forgot for a minute that I used to have braces. Ha ha, good times.

Anyway, it was a great trip. Mckinley won't remember any of it, but we will. It's so much fun going with kids and watching them enjoy everything. Good to be home too though.

Lack of Posts

There is a reason for my lack of posting: Lack of pictures. I seriously haven't taken hardly any pictures lately. Reason why. Our camera sucks. I am so disappointed with it and I wish I would have realized how much I hated it before it was too late to return it. All of our pictures are blurry. Not to mention it's winter outside and there is nothing to do so we never go anywhere. Also, most of the cute stuff Mckinley is doing these days is more things she's saying, not things she's doing. She is learning so fast! She recognizes the entire alphabet now except for a few letters. She knows most of her shapes, a lot of colors, and a few numbers. And she is way into it all! She loves playing games on the iPhone with shapes, letters, etc. Every time we drive in the car she points out letters she sees on signs, and she gets so excited about them. Lately in the car too she will sit in the back and say "I like...circles! I like....stars!" Ha ha, it's so cute.



As for the iPhone, I feel like a lot of the pictures on there are blurry too. But, the main reason why I don't take tons of pictures on it is because Mckinley is usually playing with it. Lots of the pictures on there look like this.

Anyway, Mckinley is a dream. She is so much fun and we still, after 21 months, cannot get enough of her. She finally decided she likes bread so she eats sandwiches like crazy, crust and all. She even eats the sacrament bread now. She still wants to eat 24/7 and I dread the day when she is strong enough to open the fridge by herself. She asks me to open it for her countless times a day.

We decided to join Brandon's family at Disneyland in a week and we are so excited to take Mckinley and watch her enjoy it. She is excited and knows we are going to see Me Mouse, Arilla (Cindarella), Snow (Snow White), and she knows we are riding on an airplane to get there. She is obsessed with planes and although she probably won't really understand that she is inside one, I'm excited for the trip anyway.

Sick

It's been a while since I've posted. And there's a reason. Mckinley has been SICK. Yuck. I am so tired of winter and her being sick! Brandon vows she will not go to nursery again for the rest of winter.

She's now totally addicted to watching "shows." Heaven help us. :)


The day my parents left Mckinley got a cold. Then that weekend she got the throw up/diarrhea sickness and oh my gosh, it was the worst. We scrubbed so much barf and poop out of her clothes/blanket/sheets/mattress pad, and yes, even her stuffed animal. And did SO many loads of laundry. It was by far the hardest time I have ever had of being a mother.

She finally got over the stomach crap and has still had a little bit of a cough and runny nose this week. Yesterday we took her to Church, just sacrament meeting mind you, and then last night she had a horrible cough all through the night. Does it ever stop?

She is still so happy and adorable even when she's sick. But oh, I just feel so bad for her and want her to be 100% healthy again.

Lonely

Well, my parents are gone. And this house is LONELY!! I miss them. Mckinley and I dropped them off at the airport yesterday and now the house feels so empty.

I realized I didn't even take a single picture of them with Mckinley while they were here. Oops.

Speaking of Mckinley, remember how I said she likes her shapes? Here is a video (it's a little long, I won't be offended if you don't finish it) of her naming some of her shapes. This was back when the only letter she knew was R. Just now I drew an M, H, W, O, A, R, D, B and she recognized all those. She is learning so fast!



She has been watching a lot of movies lately and now she is a little addicted. One of her favorites is our wedding video. Now after having watched that a million times, anytime she sees someone kiss on TV she has to reach around and kiss Brandon. It is so stinking cute! On a side note though, we are thinking maybe we need to hide all the DVD's for a while. Out of sight, out of mind. We hope.