On June 29th my little angel turned 3 years old! Words cannot begin to describe the amount of love I feel for this little girl. She has been Kevin and my first experience at everything parenting related. She has shown us how all encompassing the love for a child can be. She fills my soul to the brim with happiness and adoration. She has the most wonderful little personality-definitely full of emotion! :) She is smart. She is a free spirit. She is silly. She is inquisitive. She is stubborn. She is a lover of the outdoors and the water. She could run and spin in circles for hours. She makes my heart burst when she laughs uncontrollably. She finds connections in her experiences. She is surprising and predictable at the same time. She goes until she crashes. She has an incredible memory. She ADORES her family. She always includes Max in discussions about our family (or pictures!). She misses people when they are gone. She is emotional. She is beautiful. She is part me and part Kevin. She is increasingly concerned about how things affect Kyan. She sings constantly and makes up songs regularly. She smiles with her mouth wide open. She loves to teach Kyan and takes great pride in his learning. She has eyes that sparkle. She makes some sort of noise 80% of the day. She has a special stuffed elephant. She is not much of a snuggler, which makes those special moments she does even extra sweet. She is very dramatic about getting hurt. She loves books just as much as she does the TV and iPad. She has a believing child spirit in things magical. She is amazing.
This past year has been wonderful and trying. The terrible twos were present on most days. The transition of adding Kyan to our family was, I believe, more difficult than I thought at the time. However, she has grown tremendously. Her listening skills and understanding of the importance of being kind have started to take shape. She is definitely emotional, but she is beginning to learn how to handle those emotions, as am I.
I am beyond excited to see the person she becomes. As I think back over the past three years I can so easily remember having this feeling many, many times. Even with that, it has been so dramatically better than I ever could have imagined.
Mckinley, my little angel bug, I love you so much!
A couple weeks ago we were SO LUCKY and got to go spend four wonderful days with Kevin's family in Ocean Shores. Thanks to some amazing family friends (thank you Gregg family!) who lent their beautiful beach house to us, we were all able to stay under one roof. Kevin, the kids, and I met up with Kevin's parents Wednesday night and then his brother's family came in the next night. While things can certainly turn crazy in a second with kids aged 1, 2, (almost) 3, and 4, it was such a fun time! It was really exciting to watch the three older ones really play together. Up until now they have always played next to each other but not together. This weekend was full of games and make believe though. :) I see many years of fun times like these to come!
The trip did have many a challenging moment however, as both of our kids were sick with colds. Kyan got one the day before we left and Mckinley woke up at 3am our first night yelling "something's wrong with my nose!" So they were a little on the crabby/needy side to say the least! Even that couldn't spoil a fun weekend though. And it is ALWAYS awesome to get to spend four whole days together!
Thank you so much B&D for making this all happen, and thank you again Gregg family for so generously sharing your home with us-we'll take you up on that offer any time! :)
Here are the very few beach pictures I took...
By the title of this post you can tell this is our first beach trip of the summer. We have a different beach trip planned for later this summer...stay tuned!
So life happens. And that makes it difficult to blog. Really it is work that happens and then I do not seem to have one ounce of free time. Not any longer though! :) I finished work last Friday and I am officially on SUMMER VACAY! We are already getting ready for our first trip of the summer--more on that later. Obviously, much has happened since my last attempt at a blog post. Here is a quick run down:
*We celebrated Kevin's 29th birthday-last year until the big 3-0!
*The Hinton grandparents came into town and we had a great visit with them on Cinco de Mayo!
*We celebrated cousin Ashyln's 4th birthday (how are these kids getting so old?!).
*I had an AMAZING Mother's Day complete with breakfast and dinner out and an AMAZING new toy!
*I have been applying to jobs like crazy, but in all honesty, I am a little nervous about my chances! Subbing may be in my future.
*Kevin traveled for almost two weeks straight during the crazy end to my long-term sub position! It was hectic to say the least!
*And last, but certainly not least (and my personal favorite highlight of the last month!), Mckinley started swim lessons! Here will now begin the many pictures and videos I have taken! In my defense for two of her first three lessons Kevin was out of town and I was sending him all these while he was away.
Let me just start off by saying I was pretty sceptical after our first lesson when she literally screamed for the first 10 minutes of a 30 minute lesson! However, my quick thinking and awesome parenting skills came into play and I resorted to bribing her. Worked like a charm! 20 minutes later we had a pretty successful first lesson and were on our way to getting a new toy and candy! (lucky for us she picked out a toy that cost $3.99 and a bag of gummy bears!).
The next three lessons have gone SO well though--she LOVES every second of them! She has definitely inherited all the water loving traits of her father! I am so excited to continue a summer full of these lessons!
Ok, you get the point...it is so fun to watch her enjoy something so much!
I will end with a picture dump of all the random things we have been up to lately!
Getting ready for pool time in the backyard...
Mom's Day Dinner!
Me and my love!
My sweet girl.
How do I get this kid to not love tv?
Smiling for a picture for daddy while he was away.
Kyan spending time with the granparents during Mckinley's swim lesson!
Papa and Kyan taking a walk at swim lessons!
Me and my girl!
Sleepy kids after a fun night hanging out with the cousins!
