1-year-old pics

We finally, finally got McKenzie's one-year-old pictures back.  We've been loyal Kiddie Kandids fans since Cambrie's first days...but it took three weeks to get these pictures back.  Frustration!  But, my anger is quelled somewhat because they turned out really cute.

Preschool Princess Projects

Cambrie is absolutely loving preschool.  We have a preschool blog for her and her little friends, but since it's private I've decided to post some of her projects (okay, basically all of them since I haven't been staying up to date).

I is for ice and ice-cream.  The girls painted with ice paintbrushes and made their own delicious ice-cream. 

They also had to melt their snack from a giant ice-cube.

K is for kites.

L is for lovebug, lion and lamb.

We have also done some of our own random projects at home.  Cambrie decorated Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman.  The wrote their names.  I told her what letters to write and she did it!  (Unfortunately her success if very dependent on her mood, and she hasn't been willing to repeat this since.)

She also made this glittery, googley-eye creation.  Sparkley...

Primary 5

Today as Cambrie was cuddling with me in bed before I got up, she told me that she doesn't have snacks in Primary.  She told me she gets one if she sits in her box when she's in class, but not in the Primary room.  So I asked her what they do in the Primary room, and she told me:

"I have to fold my arms and be reverent.  I need to stay in my seat.  I have to hold my feet still.  My lips have to touch, and I use my ears for listening."

She told me these rules so mater-of-factly that I had to hold back my giggle.  She didn't sound like it was hard or horrible, it's just the way it is.  But she told me that she still has fun and likes Primary.  So that's good.  On Sunday she wore a skirt that is covered with brightly-colored butterflies and a shirt that is orange and red.  She looked like she was definitely ready for summer.  I was speaking with Katie, the Primary President, today and she said that it put her and all of her counselors in very happy mood because it was so colorful.  I have to admit, that I'm ready for summer too.  Cambrie was happy inspiration.

Cowgirls and rodeos

Just so you know, in another life I would like to be a cowgirl.  I have always felt this way.  I love going to rodeos.  I love the thrill of watching the cowboys ride for their lives.  I love the rodeo clowns.  I love the unexpected behaviors of the rodeo animals that keeps me on the edge of my seat.  I've secretly wanted a pair of cowgirl boots my entire life, and I love the fact that Cambrie has darling pink ones.  I think rodeo queens have really cute outfits.  I think cowboys are very attractive.  I absolutely love country dancing.  And there's something about farm life that appeals to me.  Unfortunately, I don't live near a farm.  I know nothing about riding horses.  My hair will never be as big as a rodeo queen's.  And I'm actually allergic to horses, hay, cows, dogs, wool, and all other smells that go along with country life.  So the chances of it happening are zilch.  But I can still dream right?

Kyle and his wife Rachel invited us to join them for the rodeo at the National Western Stock Show.  I was so excited when I found out.  I wore the closest thing I have to cowgirl boots, buckled up the girls, picked up Jeremy from work, and headed down to the coolest cowboy party in Colorado.  The rodeo was a lot of fun.  Even though our seats were as high as you could possibly get, we still had a great view of the action.  Cambrie liked learning about each event and watched the show for a long time considering she's three.  When the mutton busting came out, Jeremy and I tried to convince her that she should do it next year and win a trophy that was literally taller than the she is.  But she didn't think that falling off a sheep sounding like a very good idea.  She did however want to be a cowgirl.  She thought they looked beautiful and couldn't take her eyes off them.

When the rodeo was over we took some time to look around the exhibition hall.  I'm afraid I can't recall with perfect clarity exactly how everything was laid out and what was there.  By then the allergies had attacked and I was seriously lacking oxygen.  All I really remember is that it was huge!  There's no way we could have seen it all during one visit.  We found the kids' corner and Cambrie played on some playground equipment, she played with wheat seeds, she wanted to ride the ponies, and she came home with a sand creation.  I'm glad we went and I think we had a good time.   I just wish I could share some better stories...but oxygen deprivation is not the best thing for memory recollection.

Slides and cushions

I haven't posted forever, but it seems as though life has been going by way too quickly and I haven't had time to think of the fun everyday stuff we're doing at home.  So here's a quick peak into our living room from the last few weeks.  McKenzie finally received her birthday slide in the mail (who knew they were seasonal items and no stores had them in stock?), so we pulled it out and have spent a lot of time playing on it.  Cambrie goes down it as creatively as possible, and when I'm not around to help her to the top, McKenzie loves watching her toys slide down the slide.  It's been great. 

However, as I was looking through pictures to post of the slide, I discovered that McKenzie has the same strange perk as Cambrie and Jeremy, she's obsessed with her tongue!  Jeremy's and Cambrie's always stick out when they're concentrating.  It's not my weird habit, so I know Kenzie got it from them.  Rats! 

Cambrie has also loved taking the cushions off our couches to build forts.  This picture was taken right after she popped out of the top like a jack-in-the-box.  What crazy eyes!

  When she got tired of putting the cushions up time and time again, we decided that they made great lily pads.  She's becoming a great hopper, and her frog skills were superb.

One-year-check up

I know it sounds crazy, but I enjoy taking my girls to their well-visits at the doctor's office.  I love knowing how they're progressing and how they're growing.  McKenzie hasn't been to a well-visit since we left Philly, and that's a really long time for a baby.  I've been anxiously awaiting the time when we had insurance and could actually go get her checked out. 

Not surprisingly, she's doing great.  She's knows what she needs to know and is growing up way too fast.  She knows three words now: bah-bah (banana), mamamama (mom), and oh (uh-oh for when things fall).  She likes to feed herself, tries to put on her shoes, brushes her hair, dances whenever she hears music, and loves dragging her blankets around the house.  Now that she's one, I was wondering if it she was heavy enough to switch her to a forward-facing car seat.  She doesn't particularly like the car anymore and it would be a nice change for her.  But, my little munchkin is just too little.  She weighs 17 lbs, 3.2 oz, and is 27 1/2 in. long.  That puts her in the 3rd percentile for weight, and the 5th for height.  She's always been small, so I guess I have nothing to worry about.  It's just such a change from my chunky Cambrie who hung out at the 90th and 75th percentile for awhile.  So her front-facing car seat will have to wait. 

McKenzie also got her one-year immunizations and was a little trooper.  She looked confused for the first shot, then screamed for the remaining shots.  But as soon as I picked her up she started playing with my necklace and thought it was the silliest thing ever.  She would throw her head back and just laugh and laugh.  The nurses thought it was hysterical.  When we got home I couldn't resist taking a picture of her neon bandages on her legs.  Don't they make it look like she went through something more traumatic than immunizations?

For my friends

I've been called to be the Beehives Advisor in our new ward.  When we moved in we speculated about what kind of callings we would have...I was secretly hoping it wouldn't be Nursery or Primary President.   I was also secretly hoping that I would have a calling in YW so that I would have full and immediate access to all sorts of babysitters.  I was thrilled when the Bishop asked me to help with the Beehives.  So far it has been great and I really do have wonderful girls in my class.  There are 10 of them, and they seem to be pretty friendly with each other.  I haven't noticed any bad relationships yet or seen any girls left behind.  I am really excited to spend my Sundays and Wednesdays with them. 

Tonight we had a stake fireside introducing the new theme, "We Believe."  It is centered around the 13th Article of Faith, and each speaker tonight spoke of searching after things which are virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy.  Most of them mentioned making good choices and choosing good friends.  It made me think of the friends I had while in junior high and high school.  I had some really, really, really good friends.  They all went to church.  They all went to church activities.  They all had high standards.  They all made good choices.  They all stood up for what was right.  They all had strong testimonies and shared them with each other.  They all believed in our Savior.  They all had a goal of a temple marriage in mind.  And they all helped me be a better person.  I never had to worry about what we would be doing when we hung out after school or on Friday nights.  I never had to worry that they would force me to compromise my standards.  I'd like to think that I was very, very blessed and extremely lucky for the friends I had.  So for all of those friends who grew up with me in the Grovecreek 1st, and 8th wards, and for those friends who ate lunch with me in high school, thank you so much for being awesome friends.  You all hold a dear place in my heart and I have so many fond memories of you.  Growing up with you was fun, exciting, and relatively easy.  You accepted me for who I was, accepted others for who they were, and always made people feel loved and welcomed.  I sincerely hope that as my girls grow up that they have friends as strong and as remarkable as you are. 

Miss McKenzie's birthday!

Hooray!  It's my birthday! 

Little Miss McKenzie is one-year-old!  She had a couple days full of birthday fun, and here is a recap of all the excitement.  We started off her special day with a pancake breakfast.  McKenzie apparently loves, loves, loves, pancakes.  She went through her balloon, a number "1," and a letter, "M," before she finally slowed down.   

We went to Little Monkey Bizness later that day for some excitement (see next post).  But we had her birthday party on Saturday since my family was still in town, and Alysha, Brody and Deja were also passing through.  Say hello to Deja, the puppy. 

So she had a lot of family there to celebrate.  We decided to do presents first, since she was in a good mood, and began the festivities with a rousing round of Happy Birthday.  McKenzie just looked at us very confused, wondering what on earth we were singing about. 

But after that was over, she was thrilled to open up her presents.  One of the first presents she opened was a new dress from her dad.  What did she do with it?  Immediately tried to put it on of course. 

But once she opened her xylophone, it was hard to get her to do anything else.  I think I actually hid it until she had opened up the rest of the presents. 

I was expecting for her only to have a few presents, since it was just after Christmas and really what does a one-year-old need?  But she had a pretty good haul this year.  She got some new building blocks that came with building block cars from her Grandma and Grandpa, a new dress, some crayons, and a little milk truck from me and Jeremy, a xylophone from Alysha and Brody, and a mini tricycle from her Nana and Papa. 

Then it was time to get messy with the cake. 

She thought we were still crazy as we sang another round of Happy Birthday...

 ...and thought I was even crazier as I encouraged her to put her hands into the cake.  When she first got the frosting on her fingers, she tried to wipe it off on her pants, and was disgusted by the whole thing.  I literally had to force her fingers to her lips.  Once she tasted the frosting and realized that that it was pretty good things went much more smoothly.

  She dipped her hand into her slice of cake over and over, then licked the frosting off of each finger.  She finally stopped when Cambrie sat down close enough for McKenzie to reach her cake and I had to swoop in to rescue Cambrie's cake.

You can tell by that smile that she really enjoyed her party...and was very loaded with sugar.  Happy birthday McKenzie!

Monkey Bizness

Since we had already celebrated McKenzie's birthday with cake and ice-cream, we decided to go have a little family fun time on the Munchkin's birthday.  We went to Little Monkey Bizness, which is just a fun place to play.  They have a bounce house, a small obstacle course, a blow-up slide, a maze-type jungle gym, and a couple of playground sets for the kids to play on.  The girls were both in heaven.  McKenize is old enough to walk around and is learning how to climb up equipment to get to the slides up top.  We couldn't wipe that smile off her face. 

Kenzie learned how to use the slides by herself.  She treated them just like the stairs at home-she'd get to the edge, pause, turn around, and would go down backwards...over and over again.

When she was lucky enough for Cambrie to be close by, the two of them could go down the bigger slides together. 

The twisted slide was pretty fast, and McKenzie would cruise down that. 

Cambrie looks like a little Tarzan swinging on the vines in this picture. 

When the girls needed a break from all that running around, we went into the painting room and painted a few pictures. 

Then it was back to the play room until the girls simply ran out of energy.  The best part about the day was Jeremy and I were able to play with the girls.  It was exhausting trying to keep up with them of course, but the toys they have set up were even fun for us. I was able to sneak a picture of Jeremy and Cambrie as he was teaching her how to do tricks down the slide.  We had a blast and it was so much fun to be able to play!  

Sunbeam

Cambrie is old enough to go to Primary as a Sunbeam. 

I can't believe it.  She has been so excited these last few weeks, and I hope that excitement lingers as she learns that there aren't toys...or snacks...or play time all through church.  But her first day was awesome.  I snuck a peak through the Primary door just in time to see her helping with a song during singing time and doing a great job, she even knew most of the words.  There are three sunbeam classes in our ward, but she at least has one of her preschool friends in her class.  We're not sure who her teachers are yet, since the assigned teacher was just called to be Relief Society President last week, but I'm sure whoever they find will be great.  I'm just glad that Cambrie loves going to church and and I love hearing what she has to say each week about what they learned in class.  Little kids are a hoot.

Butterly Pavilion

I have seen signs for the Butterfly Pavilion all over the place, but never really understood what it was.  While the boys were watching their New Years Day bowl games, the girls decided to go find out.  The first thing we discovered about it was that they have an entire section of the museum devoted to tarantulas and spiders.  The even let you hold Rosie, a tarantula who is about 10 years old.  Now, I'm scared of spiders.  The only time I will kill one is if I feel as if my daughters' lives are at stake.  Otherwise, I will call for anyone else in the house to come kill the creepy crawly things before they disappear.  Of course, I don't want Cambrie to have a spider phobia, so I insisted that she hold Rosie.  I was a good example and showed her how it was actually kind of fun and that her eight legs tickle the palm of your hand.  The whole time I was trying to put on a calm showing for my daughter but I was shaking inside and trying really hard not to flip out.  But Cambrie was brave and let Rosie crawl right up onto her hand.  She even asked to hold the spider twice.  I was very proud of her, but I still get the heebie-jeebies thinking about it. 

After we left the spider and beetle room, we found the tropical rainforest we had set forth to see.  At first we didn't think there were very many in the room.  But we soon realized that there were tons.  Most of them liked to congregate on the windows next to the warm vents, but there were just as many sitting on fruit plates eating, or resting on the leaves and trees all around.  We just had to be patient and look carefully.  Once we starting seeing the butterflies, it was beautiful and fascinating.  Cambrie thought their long, curly tongues they use to eat were pretty neat.  And I loved all of the colors on their wings. 

The Butterfly Pavilion routinely gets about 1000 different species of butterflies throughout the year.  Right now they have a lot of owl butterflies.  Looking at this tree, I almost didn't see the two butterflies at first because they are so well camouflaged.  

I was hoping to get a really sweet shot of Cambrie and a butterfly, preferably of one landing on her but that was too much to hope for.  This was the shot I got instead. 

 Cambrie took this picture of the butterfly near the ground. 

And I like this picture of Camille checking out this orange one. 

There was one particular branch near the presentation area where a lot of butterflies were just hanging out.  They had very bright and vivid colors on their wings.

Here it is up close. 

And finally here are some of my favorite butterfly-only shots of the day.