Today She's Two!

Today is Mckinley's birthday! It is hard to believe that just two years ago she looked like this:

A year ago she looked like this:

And today, she looks like this:

Even though we had her party on Saturday, I wanted to make sure that her actual birthday was special too. I woke her up and sang her happy birthday in bed, to which she proclaimed "no, no mama happy party all done". Apparently, she is still a little confused about the whole birthday thing. We then went downstairs and she had this for breakfast:

A little later in the morning we went and met Grandma Cheryl, Owen, and Kylee at the park where Mckinley got to swing on this gigantic swing and have a ton of fun playing with her cousin (he also was confused as to why we were celebrating Kinley's birthday again).

After playing hard we went and had some lunch and then headed home for a nap (yep, even a big two year old has to nap--mommy will be really sad when those days end!).

When daddy got home Mckinley got to open her presents from mom and dad--as soon as she saw them she new exactly what to do. I guess by two she has really got down that there is something fun inside those packages!

She lined up all her presents in a row (she actually was pretty particular about it--I'm thinking she may be a Type A personality like her mom. Great.). 

After presents we had homemade pizza for dinner--same thing we had on her first birthday too! :)

Then it was time for the cupcake that Mckinley had been eyeing all through dinner. She thought it was super funny to try and blow out the candle. She wasn't blowing hard enough so the flame would just dance and then when it actually went out she was completely startled. This is something we will have to work on for next year.

Finally!!!!! Yum!

 The whole family with the birthday girl!

She's two. This is crazy to me. Happy Birthday Mckinley! We love you SO, SO very much!!

Happy Anniversary Kev

Today is Kevin and my 3rd wedding anniversary. It has been an amazing 3 years of marriage and a lot of big moments have taken place. The day after we celebrated our first anniversary Mckinley was born. We therefore spent our second year of marriage as new parents, basically stumbling through each day. I decided on a complete career change shortly after that. Then, just shy of two months before our second anniversary, we bought our first house. Not long after our second anniversary we found out that we were having our second baby. That brought months of ups and downs--ultimately resulting in the incredible little boy we have now.

I cannot imagine going through these moments with anyone other than Kevin. We met when I was 15 and I have known since then that he is the man I am meant to be with. He is an amazing husband and even more amazing father. Every day I am so thankful that my kids get to have a father that loves and cares for them as much as Kevin does. I have told Kevin many times that I feel like I have the most amazing dad in the world--he truly is nothing short of extraordinary. I have also said that if my kids have a father who is half the dad my dad is then they will be set for life. Kevin easily surpasses this marker. He is everything that I could dream of for my children.

However, being a good father is not all that is necessary to being a good husband. Kevin is an amazing partner. I honestly believe he strives each day to ensure I am happy. I know without a doubt that he would do anything for me. This means more to me that I can describe.

As sappy or corny as it may be, and as embarrassed as Kevin will be by this post :)--I really don't care! This post is for us, for our family, to remember that during these years of incredible change, ups and downs, that it was made easier and more enjoyable because I have a partner by my side who is more than I could have ever imagined.

Love you Kev.

Kinley's 2nd Birthday Party!

Saturday we had Mckinley's 2nd birthday party here at our house. Less a few minor accidents, (I'll explain later) it was a huge success and Mckinley had a blast. Over the last year Mckinley has grown a great love for Elmo, so of course I had to give her an Elmo party. We had Elmo cupcakes, Sesame Street colored decorations, and treats from Elmo's friends. We grilled up burgers and let the kids play on the play-toy and sandbox in our yard. Most importantly Mckinley had so much fun with all of her friends and family--thank you everyone who was there to celebrate her big day! We are really lucky to have such amazing family and friends to share in special moments like this with us.

Mckinley has been enjoying all her fun presents since the moment we opened them. I think we have used/played with every single gift in the last 24 hours (MANY times). As I type, Mckinley is pushing her new baby around in her new cart--"going to store" apparently. :)

So on to the "minor" accidents that Mckinley had the day of her party. First, she fell from the top of her play-toy ladder (about 4.5 feet-5 ft up!!). Luckily I was in the house and did not witness it, but I heard the thump she made hitting the ground from inside our house. Even more lucky, and most important, is that she was totally ok. She obviously was freaked out and I'm sure it hurt like crazy, but no injuries to speak of! Thank God. Then a little while after that incident, she was accidentally hit in the head by the hard plastic seat of a rope swing--ouch! Again, after a little mommy-time and a few gummy worms she was off and playing (just with a small goose egg on her head!). She didn't let any of these things affect how much fun she had at her party though.

So, overall her party was a great success--memorable to say the least. Since her actual birthday is not until Wednesday I am still holding on to the fact that she is not quite two--just 1 year, 11 months, and 27 days!

Now pictures!!

 Presents for our friends....

Me and the birthday girl!

3 Entire Months!

This past Saturday Kyan turned 3 months old. I can hardly believe it. On one hand it seems like just yesterday I was sitting in that hospital room for what seemed like an eternity playing the waiting game, and on the other hand, it seems like Kyan has been a part of our family forever.

Currently Kyan seems to be changing so quickly. He has left behind the days of a newborn who only sleeps and eats, with little to no interaction with anyone around him. He now has a relationship with each member of our family. A real relationship. Happily I can say, he loves me! :) We have a cuddly, over-the-top in love with each other kind of relationship. I can always get smiles and sweet noises from him. He and his daddy have a similar relationship--they sit and stare at each other each and every night. Kyan obviously trying to get to know his daddy, and Kev enjoying the daily moment with his son. Then there is Mckinley. The relationship between Kyan and Mckinley melts my heart. They absolutely love each other. Mckinley has this new found care-giver desire. She goes to him to pat his back, give him his pacifier or toys, or simply hold his hand. She asks to hold him all the time. She knows the every detail of his day. Kyan breaks into a wide, gummy smile any time he catches sight of her. It quite honestly is amazing to watch.

Sometime around Mckinley's first birthday I remember looking back at the monthly pictures we had taken of her and thinking that at about 3 or 4 months she drastically started to change. I have been waiting to see if this is also true for Kyan. While he doesn't seem to have such a drastic appearance change that she did (she got REAL round and chubby!), he does have the look of being older.

He is beyond sweet and incredibly handsome! Kyan, we love you so much!!

You would never know how smiley you are by these pictures--apparently you hate the photo shoot I put you through monthly!

Things new this month:

- You are a full-fledged thumb sucker. Most times when I lay you down you stick your left hand thumb in your mouth and you rub the back/side of your head with your right hand. You also now prefer your thumb to your pacifier when you are put to bed (you will actually gag on your pacifier and spit it out!).

- You make the cutest sad face in the entire world. You have a really cute cry also. More of a whimper/"feel sorry for me guys" kind of cry.

- You are sleeping between 7 and 8 hours at night (woo hoo!) and you take 3, 1 1/2 to 2 hour naps and 1, 1 hour nap. 

- You have acid reflux—boo! We're working with the doc trying to figure out how to best treat it.

- You do not eat near as much as your sister did, but you are still gaining lots of weight. 

- You love your swing--it works miracles when you wake early from your naps. 

- You have learned to cope well with your noisy sister--you don't often get woke by her! :)

- You smile at almost anyone who will pay attention to you. 

- You are becoming aware of toys. You still do not hold them, but you bat at the toys on your playmat. 

I am so excited to see what next month brings (since technically I'm writing this in what is your fourth month I can say from experience that there is fun stuff to come! :) ). 

PS -- I am a blogging machine this week, huh? Hope everyone is sticking around for all the fun updates! :)

Thumb Sucker

Kyan has become a thumb sucker. Cute now, right? But for how long? I do have to say though it is a nice self-soothing mechanism--he can't lose it.

"Good" Girl Bed!

Last night we took another step down the path of Mckinley growing up super fast. For the first time, she left her crib behind and slept in her big girl bed, or as she calls it, her "good girl bed" (side note--she also calls her big girl panties her good girl panties, weirdly cute). So I thought that it may be a disaster because, you know, she wasn't trapped anymore, but she actually did really well. She stayed in bed all night. Let's see how long that lasts--I'm pretty sure it will not be a permanent thing. For now though, I will take it. Night one was a success!

Mckinley's Vegetable Garden

The other day two of our neighbors brought over some starter plants from their vegetable garden. They thought that Mckinley would have fun having her own garden---so sweet of them! Well, they were right. Mckinley was so excited when I showed her what we were doing. Of course, she currently has no idea what is going to happen to these little guys (well, actually I'm not very optimistic that I will be able to grow anything. I do not have the best green thumb).

We will have to wait and see what happens. They told me that these plants are pretty hearty, but I am not so confident. Right now we have peas, squash, cucumber, and leafy greens. They say we will get watermelon too if it ever gets warm enough.

Here's keeping our fingers crossed that our little gardener gets a taste of her hard work! :)

Buy That!

Today we were out running some errands (yes, on Father's Day!), picking up some stuff for Kinley's birthday party, and grabbing lunch when Mckinley decided she was going to starting shouting a new phrase: Kinley buy THAT!!

While I know that she learned the concept of buy from me, I used it in a much different context than she did. I use it to explain to her "no you cannot have the goldfish crackers right now, I have to buy them first". Mckinley used it as we were walking around the kid section of Ikea screaming, pointing, and crying, "Kinley, buy that!!!!". Real awesome. Kevin is ticked off and embarrassed by this so he talks right back to her, "no, Mckinley does NOT get to decide what we buy!".

I'm really starting to love the two-year-old communication we've got going lately.

Potty Trained!

We did it! Mckinley is potty trained! I cannot believe it! We started just over a week ago, and honestly in the beginning I was skeptical if she was ready, but she has proven that she was. She still is wearing a diaper at nap time and overnight, but I am hopeful that at least the nap time diaper will be gone soon too.

This was one of the most foreign areas to me that I have come across since having kids. Before having kids of my own I had watched kids most of my teen-hood, so I was somewhat familiar with feeding, bathing, changing diapers, etc. It is obviously much, much different when you have your own kids, but it at least wasn't completely foreign to me. Potty training on the other hand was. I had never been a part of any sort of diaper-ditching efforts. To put it lightly, I was terrified! 

I am utterly shocked at how smoothly it has gone though. While I know we are not completely out of the woods (i.e. I totally still expect accidents) and I have not mastered going out of the house on long ventures, Mckinley has done amazingly well and really picked up the concept pretty quickly. 

There have been tons of milestones that Mckinley has hit that have signified to me that she is growing up, but I don't think any of them have been quite like this. She is becoming this little kid right in front of my eyes and honestly, I'm really excited about it. Maybe it is because we now have another baby, but I have finally let go of my need for Mckinley to stay a baby/toddler (maybe it is also because the toddler year are ridiculous in most aspects!). While I do not want her to "grow up" completely, I am really excited about how quickly she is becoming this little contributing member of our family. She contributes to conversations, laughs, playtime, and a million other aspects of our day. 

Now if I could only get her to drop the phrase "poo-poo-potty" as her signal for the need to use the bathroom we would be set. :)

12 Weeks Old!!

Memorial Day Weekend in Spokane

This Memorial Day weekend we headed over to Spokane to visit with some of Kevin's family. Kevin's grandma and his aunt and uncle had not yet met Kyan and they hadn't seen Mckinley in almost a year. It was a fun weekend to visit and for them to get to know our kiddos a little better. Even better is that Kevin's parents met us over there too. So Mckinley got to spend a fun weekend with her Grandma B and Grandpa D. 

For the most part we just took time to visit, but we also spent a beautiful Sunday morning and afternoon at the park downtown. Mckinley could not have had more fun! 

We played some music with Grandma B.

 We stared longingly into the camera! :)

We drank at the "bar" with the big kids--the Uncle Des special of ice water!

We ate dinner with the whole family.

 We played on the big wagon slide at the park with our Grandma B and GG!

We found other fun stuff to play with at the park. 

 We put some pretty flowers in our hair.

 We walked on the bridge over the waterfalls and loved getting sprayed with water! :)

 We paused for a family-hand-holding picture!

 We LOVED the water fountain in the park!

 We also rode the carousel! 

Such a fun weekend with family! It makes me SO excited for summer weather and more fun to come!