Merry (Belated) Christmas

Merry Christmas all! I didn't have my act together enough to actually get cleaned up, take pictures as a family, find everyone's address, make Christmas cards, go to the post office and send them. Maybe I'll be more organized next year. In the mean time, I thought I'd share a bunch of pictures I took to commemorate McKenna's first Christmas. I tortured her the way my mom used to torture me... "Just 500 more pictures McKenna, hold still...smile pretty..."

This is the best one I think:

Here is a small excerpt of the photos I took to get the one good one:








We also went to about 734 Christmas parties over the course of the last week, not that I'm saying they weren't fun, I'm just saying there were a lot of them... we started with the Church staff Christmas party, moved on to Jim & Lynn's, Stambaugh Family Christmas, and on and on and on and on... did I mention we weren't done yet? We still have my office 'Holiday' party on the 9th. It's like the gift that keeps on giving. Here are some pictures from Stambaugh Family Christmas, notice McKenna's Christmas dress... courtesy of Lynn... I've heard that it looks remarkably like something her daughters would have worn when they were McKenna's age; old habits die hard ;-).









And, finally just for fun, McKenna's witness protection photos:



I noticed that she covered her own face with a sock while she was playing on her play mat. Just hanging out there with a sock over her eyes, for who knows how long. She's a strange child. It's a pretty soft sock, maybe she liked the combination of soft and dark?

That's all for now. I hope this post finds you happy and healthy and ready for the new year. Talk to you next year!

Who do you think she looks like?

For the Church Christmas party last week, Deb asked me for some photos of John and I when we were little at Christmas time, and some photos of the three of us. As I was going through our photo albums, I found some pictures of John and some of me from when we were babies... I'll let you decide who she looks like. I still think it's open to debate.

Family Christmas!

Hi All, I know it's been a long time since my last post... we've been busy around here, and are about to get busier with Christmas coming soon. We have been in California for the last week visiting family and going to our annual "Tomblin Family Christmas" party, and then having an early Christmas with my Mom, Step-Dan, Sister and Brother-in-law.

I wanted to post some pictures of McKenna getting a bath in Grandma's kitchen sink, I thought they were pretty cute. I removed the x-rated ones out of consideration for our younger viewers.


Tomblin Family Christmas was an interesting experience as usual, it's fun to see every one even if it is only once a year. It's a little weird to see all of my cousins that are around my same age (most are much, much older) with their own careers and kids.

Then we went to my sister and Jared's house for our gift exchange, it was great spending time with everyone.

I would like to make a small complaint regarding my flight home... beyond the fact that we had to get into our car when it was -8. McKenna had a devil child behind her on the flight home. She was sleeping, minding her own business when 'Chucky' decided that it would be an awesome idea to kick her seat 5,000,000 times and scream at the top of his lungs to get his parent's attention. I think the armrests at my seat have permanent finger marks from me gripping them so hard to avoid choking the kid first, and the parents second. My favorite part of their dicipline for the little jerk was when they said, "I'm mad at you, so I'm going to pretend that you're not here" which made him screech at the top of his lungs until they decided to pay attention to him again, thus (in my opinion) reinforcing his horrible behavior. I also appreciated the "I'm going to take away your shoes if you keep kicking that chair..." So he just kicked it without shoes, SUCH and improvement. My poor little Mac was wide eyed and shaking because he was screaming so loudly, she was scared to death. What a way to be woken up from a Tylenol induced coma... Anyway... I had a screaming baby on the plane, so people were staring at me (she was inconsolable, because everytime she quieted down, that awful kid started in again with the screeching and kicking) which could have been entirely avoided had these parents been able to control their kid. I should have chose my seat more wisely... I saw him pulling on his 'leash' in the airport and they couldn't control him there either.

I realize I've been a parent for about 10 minutes, so maybe I don' t know what it's like, but c'mon, seriously...

Enough ranting for one post I think.

Our First Experience with Rice Cereal...

Thought you all would like to see how much McKenna enjoyed her first experience with rice cereal.  She loved it so much that she stopped me while I was feeding her to thank me for sharing such a delicious treat with her.  I captured the precious moment on video for your viewing pleasure:

 

Turkey Weekend & Laura's Visit

We had a busy Thanksgiving weekend, filled with lots and lots of snow, which was a nice change of pace from the 70 degree weather we had for most of November. We rented a condo at the base of the Super Bee lift at Copper Mountain for the weekend, and headed up the mountain after work on Wednesday. You can see from these pictures how McKenna feels about John's driving... notice the white knuckles:
McKenna basically was never put down for the entire weekend, and is going through 'being held' withdrawals now that we're home, here she is sitting on the table with her great-grandpa:
We went to the Stalders(family friends) for Thanksgiving dinner, ate a huge dinner and took some family photos in front of their fireplace:

On Friday we decided to go for a walk around Copper Mountain, since we didn't bring our skis (there were only 6 runs out of 120 open) so McKenna was able to don her new snow suit:

Had to take a picture in this giant Adirondack chair:
When we came home on Saturday my friend Laura came over with her son Josh, her Mom Nancy, and her sister Sarah and Sarah's boys Mason and Riley... it was so fun to see them. Here's a picture of Laura, Josh, McKenna and Me:

Baby Dedication Sunday & Other Randomness

I know it's been a while, but I haven't had time to even look at McKenna's blog, let alone update it! So maybe I'll make this a long post, we'll see how I feel as I go on.

Last things first, I took McKenna to her four month check up today. She weighed 15lbs 4oz and was 25 3/4 inches tall... which means she's grown 3 3/4 inches and gained 4 lbs since her last visit to the doctor! She's in the 80th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for height... I'm guessing she doesn't get the height from me.

Every day McKenna's becoming more of a little girl and less of a baby, which is fun but sad all at the same time. She's more interested in playing with her toys and lying by herself than cuddling with me and falling asleep on me anymore. Here she is playing on her activity mat:
The Mercer's lent us their Bumbo seat, and she thinks it's fun to sit on the coffee table in it and stare at the TV:
This is what happens when you watch too much TV:

My mom (aka, Grandma), came out to visit for the weekend because McKenna was being dedicated at church on Sunday; Grandma Christy, Ma & Pa (John's Grandparents) and Aunts Mary & Catherine were also on hand to witness the event. Instead of baptizing infants, our church has dedication ceremonies. A baby dedication is a commitment that parents make to raise their children as followers of Christ, and when the kids are old enough to make a faith decision of their own, then they can choose to be baptized. We wanted to dedicate McKenna to say publicly that we realize that McKenna is a gift from God and that we need His help, shepherding, strength and guidance to raise her... and to tell others what a joy she is in our lives! We can't imagine a world without her in it, she is an immeasurable blessing! Here are some photos from the dedication:


Of course I had to use the picture of her in the tub for the screen...I had to solidify her position as 'cutest baby ever.'
Next to us here are the Osborne's and their son, Brody (McKenna's boyfriend):

On our other side are the Britton's and their son Malachi, and the Turrill's and their daughter Mimi:
Here's John praying for McKenna:
Later McKenna will think I'm a loser for all of the strange faces I make in pictures, for now she doesn't mind:
That's all for now... we're off to Vail for Turkey Day, I'm sure there will be pictures from our mountain adventures, and of course from Laura & Josh's upcoming visit. I think I'll end with an exclamaition point, since I've used about 72 of them in this post! One more for good measure!

The Many Faces of McKenna...

As I was trying to capture of film (ok, technically not film, digital SD card if you want to be precise) the fact that McKenna's eye color is starting to change...hopefully to mine, so she'll at least have ONE of my features... I noticed all of the different expressions that she makes. So after you look at her new, half-baked eye color, please take a second (or 30 minutes) to paruse the different faces that this little baby makes.


See, don't you think her eyes are changing:

Here are all of her expressions...

Stunned:

Giddy:

Goofy:

Confused:

Contemplative:

Inquisative:

Satisfied:

Elated:

Mischievous:

Sly:

Plain old happy:

Concerned:

Spastic: