Hoppy Easter 2012

Its crazy to think how much has changed since Easter last year!! Since a picture speaks 1000 words, here's 2,000 to show how much our little lady has grown!!

The top one is pretty much the best picture we could get of the two babies of the family, haha!! Things improved a bit this year if I do say so myself!! :) This may be something we have to try every year!

Blake & McKenley 2011 & 2012

 AHHHH!! These pictures make me smile! I can't believe how happy these two people make me!

Miss McKenley also got to visit the Easter bunny for the first time. I was extremely nervous she would freak out at the site of the life-size, furry bunny, especially since it was a bit on the creepy side, but she LOVED him!! She sat there for so long and even started petting him, haha!!

Turned out SOOOO cute!!

McKenley had a blast this Easter! She didn't get to do much egg hunting because it was like a MONSOON outside :/ I'll be super excited when her and Cousin Blake can hunt for them together.  

We were also super lucky to have most of Casey's family join us! His brother, sister-in-law, and cousin Andrew came in from WYOMING!! and came to Gigi's house to enjoy an Easter lunch with us! She had so much fun with them & really took to them fast, we were sad they couldn't stay for longer & can't wait to see them again! Hopefully it won't take 3 years until the next visit!! :)

Love spending holidays with my amazing family & McKenley makes them all the more special!

And a "Good Friday" it was!!

Friday before last (aka, Good Friday, haha) McKenley's Mimi, Aunt Rachel, and Aunt Katy, and I loaded up and headed to Fort Worth for the little princess's first trip to the zoo!! She has started to take such interest in animals of all different kinds, we thought it couldn't be better timing. It was a bit on the crowded side because all the schools had out for Good Friday, but since its such a big zoo, the crowds weren't that bad.

McKenley had THE BEST time!!!! She couldn't stop staring at all the animals. She would point and point and make the only animal noise she knows, "ruff! ruff!" -- and no, they weren't all dogs, haha.

First stop, PRIMATE HOUSE!!

The gang!

Loved standing at these exhibits and "talking" to the animals!! haha

Had lots of fun playing with the fun souvenirs!

 On to more fun in the African Safari!!

 We were actually in front of the lion exhibit when he started roaring!! In all my years of visiting the zoo, this was the FIRST time I'd ever seen the lion roar!

McKenley was SPEECHLESS!!

 She loved the penguins!! I think they reminded her of watching Happy Feet! haha

 FISHEES!!! She loved all the bright colors, Casey says now we need an aquarium, haha!

 Last stop... Flamingos!!! And boy were they entertaining!! They were making so much noise and we even saw some of them fighting!!

Thanks Mimi for taking us to the zoo!! Can't wait to go again :)

And can you believe, that was only the FIRST part of our day!!  As we left the zoo, our little adventurer didn't even make it out of the parking lot before she passed out!! We headed back to Mimi's house and decided to take our adventures to Southlake Town Square for some shopping! Of course McKenley got a treat from her Mimi, she said it was a "pre-Easter gift" an adorable stuffed chick that baby LOVES!! Aunt Rachel got a dress for graduation and we had a great afternoon walking around and enjoying the weather!!

Finally, we were off to dinner! It wasn't the smoothest experience, but all in all, McKenley LOVED the Mexican food (like her mommy), the company, and most of all the live band!! She danced the whole way through dinner.

I have to say that I am so happy that I have such a trooper for a daughter. She was in great spirits all day, no matter where we took her! We were EXHAUSTED by the time we finally got home! But we sure did have a "Good Friday"!!! :)

Beautiful Bluebonnets!!

I was so bummed that I didn't take McKenley out to the bluebonnets last year! But, things were a bit crazy around here at that point in our lives, so I can't be too hard on myself, haha

I took McKenley to two different fields here by our house. First, we went to a field in Frisco by the JCPenny Headquarters building. I had no idea this field even existed, but they were beautiful!! A few days later, we headed towards Little Elm to the field at the Mt. Zion cemetery. No, we did not go romping around through headstones to get the pictures!! haha. This was a separate part of the cemetery area, it was a field of bluebonnets and these gorgeous yellow flowers throughout. Supposedly, those yellow flowers are overtaking the bluebonnets and aren't good, but they sure were pretty!!

Here are a few of my favorite pics from both of the fields:

A few from both fields

This one shows the blue and yellow perfectly... needless to say, she was NOT cooperating!!

Of course she tried to eat them!!

Can't wait to make this a tradition we do every year! The bluebonnets are here for such a short amount of time, I was so glad we got to enjoy them this year :)

Spring is here & things are a changin!!

Welp, it has happened! One of the things that I have been dreading the most... 

McKenley has officially weaned herself to only one nap a day!!!! AHHHHHH! 

I was really hoping I could put this off for a few more months, I don't know why I am so surprised that our little princess had a different plan in mind, we all know she's been this way from day 1, LITERALLY!!! haha

I had just gotten used to our routine of two naps a day, scheduled all of our activities around the 2 nap schedule and now all of it needs to change. Ohhhh, the things we'll do for a good nap :) 

So, "officially" (because we all know a schedule with babies is never official!!) her new schedule is as follows:

8:00am - McKenley wakes up

Within 30 minutes of waking - Breakfast

9:30 - 10 - Mid-Morning Snack

11:30 - Lunch

12:00 - fingers crossed 2pm - the ONE nap of the day!!

3:30 - Afternoon snack

6:00 - Dinner

8:00 - Bedtime

Whew!! Makes for a busy, and sometimes very long day! I am very excited though, that we have a little more time in the morning to do some fun activities like Babies and Books at the Library that used to conflict with her morning nap! 

And that's NOT where the changes end!!! As of last Thursday, this house is OFFICIALLY bottle-free and formula-free! Our little princess is becoming such a big girl, drinking only from a sippy cup with whole milk at meals! It was so liberating to pack up the bottles! No more cleaning all those tiny parts every night, we're LOVING it! 

Casey and I are constantly amazed by how smart she proves to be everyday! She changes so much, right before our eyes shes becoming such a little lady with the cutest personality! Can't wait to see what changes she has up her sleeves next!

And now for your viewing pleasure, a few impromptu photos of our little angel enjoying the spring weather!!

Havin fun with mommy!

Well I think it's safe to say, I have been the WORST blogger ever!!! It's my goal to get back on track with atleast one post a week!!! I have all sorts of things to update on including, her birthday, all her new stats, and just general goings on around the house. SO, instead of taking all of this on at once, I'm going to start small today and just get started again.

Haven't you missed this face!!

Eesh!! Rough goin around here!!

It has been soooo long since my last post... but for good reason! It has been somewhat rough goin around the Boyd house as of late.

The last two and a half weeks we've had teething, an ear ache, busted lip, no sleeping... and the list goes on!

Two weeks ago Casey and I started feeling yucky. I just kept getting worse and worse, and it wasn't helping matters that McKenley started being super cranky! So last Thursday I finally dragged both of us to the doctor, it was time to start feeling better! McKenley's appointment was first it it took just a peek inside her left ear for the doctor to spot an ear infection :( She prescribed us some Amoxicillin and sent us on our way. I am really hoping that this first ear infection does not lead to more. Later that day it was my turn. The doctor said it was an upper respiratory infection and I got a Z-Pack.  I could tell with in hours of her first dose of medicine that she was feeling better!

Along with feeling yucky, McKenley's 5th and 6th tooth are coming in!! I have been able to feel them under the gums for about a week and a half now, but those little suckers just WILL NOT break through!! 

Both of these things have totally thrown us off our smooth routine of bedtime!! McKenley has been "sleep-trained" since about 5 months, Casey and I have gotten quite used to sleeping through the night!! But, with an ear infection and teething, we were starting to see McKenley wake up several times throughout the night and then this week she would NOT go to bed when we laid her down. We're talking 30 minutes of SCREAMING!! She's always been so easy to put down, Casey and I did not have the "tools" to know how to deal with this new behavior. Needless to say, we called in some advice to friends and tried to figure out how to get her back on schedule. Everyone's answer... just let her cry it out... bleh!! 

Oh yeah, and also throw in a busted lip on Monday! Poor girl has been put through the ringer!! :( I guess this comes with the territory of an adventurous little one. 

Although we have been through quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, I am happy to say that I think we are over the worst of it. The teeth STILL haven't cut through, so I know she is still a bit uncomfortable, but we seem to be back on track with her sleeping, FINGERS CROSSED, because we have had 2 nights of minimal to no crying at bed time!!!! 

We've been so lucky to have such a low-maintanence baby thus far, I guess we have to have some bumps in the road here and there :) COUNTDOWN TO ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY!!! :)

10 months!!! WOW!

I think I say this every month, but I really can't believe our baby is 10 months old! Time has really flown by and the thought that we are only 2 months away from her being a year old is CRAZY!!!

This month McKenley has been making incredible progress with her motor skills, we are knocking down milestones one after another! It has become quite the task to keep up with her lately :) In fact, these monthly pictures are becoming more and more challenging!

Case in point....

I was out of breath by the time we were done!!!

Accomplishments:

- McKenley is now a full-on crawler! She still goes down on her belly occasionally because she still moves faster that way, but most of the time it is on her hands and knees!!

- She can go from a crawl, back to a sit! This was huge as I was getting very tired of having to sit her back up when she got tired of crawling! haha

- She got a fun new walker for Christmas and started taking steps behind it!! It is only a couple with mommy or daddy right there, but it is precious to watch her take little steps.

- Her favorite new thing is pointing...

... love that little finger!! Except when it is pointing back at me when I tell her "no! no!" Yes, I am serious, she really shakes her finger back at us when we tell her no. Boy, we're in trouble, haha

- Now that she is so mobile, she has started playing independently soo much better. It is so cute to watch her crawl from toy to toy and play. She was so excited to find that when you bang two blocks together it makes a very loud (and somewhat annoying) noise. 

- We now have 4 teeth! I love seeing her toothy little grin in pictures :)

- She successfully made it through 2 more holidays!

- AND loved her first visit to the Gaylord ICE exhibit...

Our very own Princess Fiona:)

Speedbumps:

-TEETHING!!!! Ahhh... I wish they would all just come in at the same time. We barely made it through the top two coming through and now that they are in, we got about a weeks break, and now 2 more are coming in on the top. I feel so bad for her because it couldn't feel good at all :( So, we just power through and applaud when they finally break through!!

- McKenley is starting to develop QUITE the stubborn side, don't really know how to handle this with a 10 month old, haha, but lets just say she definitely understands the word "no" :)

- Because she is becoming more mobile, we are starting to have more and more spills and "ouchies." This month we encountered our first serious "ouchie" that required a trip to the doctor!! This is a picture of her head after it met the corner of our coffee table :( She's all better now, after a bit of surgical glue was used to hold it all together!

Stats:

Length - 27 1/2 inches

Weight - about 20 lbs.

Head - 17 1/2 inches

Food - McKenley has pretty much decided to take pureed food off her "menu," haha. She has little to no patience for mommy and daddy spoon feeding her and would much rather move along to the independent portion of the meal :) She still has not found anything that she doesn't like, she shovels it all into her mouth without discrimination, haha.  We have found food that she CAN'T eat :( Her poor little skin does not agree with the strong acids in pineapple and tomato. You can see in the New Years picture above the red splotches STILL hadn't completely faded :/ Her love for "real food" has presented a whole new set of challenges for me, I have to take a whole new person into consideration when planning meals. Will McKenley be able to eat this? If not, what can I make her instead? She now has her very own shelf of food in the refrigerator! and if we go out to eat, I have to think about if that restaurant will have something for her to eat or if I need to pack something. I feel like my brain is on food overload!

Diapers - Still holdin strong in 3's :)

Clothes - She is mostly in 6-9 month clothes. There are a few 3-6 that I can still squeeze her in :) and some things that she has to go up to 9-12mo. Love our little peanut!

Sleep - Her new schedule that I mentioned last month is still going GREAT!! She takes 2 solid naps a day and is still sleeping from about 8pm-8am at night!! Its so nice to have a predictable schedule and makes it easier for me to get things done around the house :)

I honestly feel like everyday I can see a difference in her! She is changing so fast and we are trying to soak in every minute of it! I can't believe how much Casey and I love this little life, I didn't even know it was possible, every little thing she does amazes us... its a little sickening honestly :)