McKenley's first Gingerbread house!

Our fabulous Mommy Group had a party last week to decorate Gingerbread houses, so of course, McKenley and I were there!! We had so much fun & believe it or not, she actually helped quite a bit!!! Oh... and she also ate a TON of candy!!! Here are some pics of the festivities...

One of the amazing moms made ALL of these house for us!! They were all ready for us to load with candy and icing!!

The house McKenley "picked"

 She was VERY serious about putting the M&Ms on the roof!

 And she would get SO excited when she would "accidentally" get icing on her finger and had to lick it off... just like her momma :)

 

 She also helped me with the windows, the snowflakes on the front, and the snowman!!

 The finished product!!! ... this is her "cheese"... yea, we're working on it!! haha

 And then it was candy time!! It was her first time to try candy canes, jelly beans (her favorite), Twizzlers, and Snowman Peeps... can you say sugar high?!?!!

 She is sooo proud of her "ginger house" as she refers to it & it is proudly displayed at our house!

Can't wait to do more fun Christmas activities like this with her... its been such a fun December already and I know there's more fun to come :)

How to plant bulbs -- with McKenley and Mimi!!

This past Saturday, Daddy and Grandpa David laid the pretty hardwood floors in Parker's room (pictures to come!!). While they were hard at work, we had to keep the princess busy, so her and Mimi headed outside to plant tulip and daffodil bulbs so we would have pretty flowers in the spring (fingers crossed I don't find a way to ruin them!!). Here are some step-by-step instructions on how its done McKenley style!! haha

FIRST... you should make sure you are very educated about flowers and the bulbs... McKenley told me all about them :)

THEN... dig a hole and toss the bulb in!

 Make sure to cover up the hole.

 Its ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to stomp all over them to pack in the dirt... this was probably one of McKenley's favorite parts!!

 DON'T FORGET they need lots of water!!!

 This was her other favorite part...

 can ya tell :) haha

We can't wait until these bloom (again assuming my "brown thumb" doesn't find a way to mess them up before then!!) McKenley is going to love visiting them everyday. We love our little gardener and are so lucky her Mimi loves to do things like this with her!! Thanks MIMI!!!

Happy 21 Months Princess!!

Again, a few days late...

I can't believe we are just 3 months away from our little baby turning TWO!!! I feel like she is changing so much everyday, I can't even figure out where to start this update!!

Accomplishments and Changes...
- McKenley is turning into quite the little parrot!! She repeats just about everything we say and is starting to use 2 and 3 word phrases to communicate with us (unless shes just screaming at us... see struggles, haha). Her favorites right now are, "Thank you momma/daddy," "more please," "whats this?" and "whos dat?"... so polite and sooo inquisitive!!

- Her swimming skills are becoming more and more advanced with each week!! She is SUCH a little fish, absolutely NO fear in the water!! I can now drop rings down on the second step and she will dunk her head under and pull one up, it is the cutest thing. She is swimming under water for 10 seconds, and jumping from the side of the pool or the tower in the middle of the pool :). Her teachers say she is more than ready to move up to the class where momma no longer gets in with her!!! Don't know quite how I feel about this, is she ready? Am I ready?? So many changes, my little baby is growing too fast! But, this will help a lot when Miss Parker arrives!!

- MOO, OINK, NEIGH, QUACK, SSSSSSS, ROAR!!! I think she communicates most thoughts through her animal sounds!! She pretty much knows all of her animal names and sounds and is SOOOO animated when she tells them to us :)

- Colors!! We are now working on memorizing colors and it is pretty darn cute :) She is OBSESSED with coloring right now and if we could just get her to associate the right color with the right crayon it would be great... everything is "BU" (blue) right now, haha.

-Counting - She is familiar with numbers and LOVES to count things down, the digits just don't always come out in the correct order... "3, 4, 2, GOOOOO!!" haha, so cute!

- The pretend play is just getting better and better. Yesterday she was trying to put her baby to sleep and was patting her on the back saying "shhh, shhh, shhh, shhh" just like her momma does to her. She makes herself "lunch" and "dinners," and was even trying to get Minnie mouse to balance on the rocking horse because I guess she wanted a pony ride :)

Struggles:
- McKenley has decided she is going to be a picky eater again!! I am hoping if I stay persistent this too shall pass. We pretty much stick to a pasta, hot dog, chicken nuggets, yogurt diet!! haha... those and snacks!! Eesh

- The lovely 2's are just around the corner, and the fits and tantrums are starting to rear their ugly head! We are trying to do the timeouts and reason with her... but unfortunately that doesn't always work, haha... should be interesting with a new baby around the house... prayers are appreciated!!

- Our daughter is a TORNADO!!!  nuff said :)


Overall, I'd say we are pretty luck. She definitely makes us laugh NUMEROUS times a day and if we are lucky enough for Parker to be just a fraction as cute as McKenley is every day, then we are going to be kind of a perfect family of four :) And now to leave you with another classic McKenley shot to make your day...

Fall and Halloween....

Ok, I know its a bit late, but better late than never... right!?!?

We had SUCH a fun time this year! I love that she is actually understanding more of what is going on and is really getting into the holidays. We explored the pumpkins at the Arboretum...

went to look at pumpkins with Daddy, went Trick-or-Treating with all of our friends, and just had so much fun!!


We had so much fun celebrating with our little Abby Cadabby!!