Just Dance

McKenna loves Angelina Ballerina the movie, and so when I told her we were going to put her in a dance class she was sooo excited! She is always dancing and twirling around the house and she loves music.
We went out and picked her out a dance outfit and of course she had to put it on right away, and of course it had to be all pink just like Angelina Ballerina. She looks so cute in it and is looks forward to going to class every week.
She had her first day of dance class yesterday and she had so much fun! It is kind of funny because she is so tall that she towers over all the other girls there. If she wants to do ballet she will have the perfect little body for it since she is tall and skinny.
She listened to her teacher really well and had a lot of fun doing all the dance moves. I was really surprised at how good she was at doing the things they asked her too. She was really sad when it ended, but she will have something to look forward to each week.
I can't wait until she has her dance recitals, she is going to look so cute and it will be so fun to watch her dance. I hope she will keep on with it later in her life, but for now she has fun and likes it so that is all that matters.
I love my little princess dancer!

Escape to Nauvoo

So I know I should have posted this a few months ago but things have been a little crazy. We went to Nauvoo in May for about 5 weeks while Travis was in China. I had to do something to keep my mind off him being gone so I wouldn't go crazy since he was gone for 3 whole months. I had a really fun time with my parents and sisters and brother and all my neices. My mom and dad always had a full house while we were there and we loved it!
McKenna was especially so excited to be able to play with all her cousins She doesn't get to do that very often any more so it was really nice for her. Graysen of course just was as happy as ever and just loved all the attention from everyone. It was his first time meeting his Uncle Brett and Grandpa and our new addition to the family Uncle Don whom he just loved.
Can I just say that my kids did amazing on the plane. I seriously couldn't have asked it to go any better then it did. I was very blessed because I thought that it was going to be a nightmare. They got extra brownie points with me that is for sure.
We got to go to Iowa city and spend time with my brother and sister and law and there kids and go to the Amana colonies which was really fun. I got to meet my nephew Everett for the first time too and he is adorable! We also went up to Galesburg and stayed with my sister and her two kids for a little bit which was really fun too. I got to be Annie's patient which was nice cause I got my teeth cleaned and it felt good.We were always doing something, my parents spoiled us a lot! We went to see a lot of the little things in town that I hadn't seen yet and we went to the pioneer park a lot and to Carthage again and just had fun doing whatever.
We went on oxen rides and horse carriage ride, it was a blast. We went to the zoo and played outside a lot.
I got to go to the temple with my sister and her fiance which was really nice. I am so glad he will be part of our family cause he is a great guy.
My mom and I went on walks in the mornings and got our excercise on.....the hill with a double stroller that wasn't a jogging one was not especially fun, but oh how it gave us a workout. I was dying by the time we got up the hill, but at least we made it. We would also sit out on the porch or in the back on the swing and just look for fireflies and watch the sunset and just talk. It was those times I think I enjoyed the most and will always remember them. I love my parents and I feel like I became closer with them and with my other family while I was there since I don't get to see them that often any more.
Graysen had his first bath in the sink which he thought was so fun!
He also cut more teeth while we were there so that was a little hard on him but he was still a good trooper all things considering.
We also all took the kids horseback riding at these people's house my parents know. It was so much fun, the kids were extactic and were talking about it all week. It was the highlight of McKenna's trip that is for sure. It was so fun to see how much fun they were all having and to see the joy on their faces. It was a fun day.
I had so much fun spending time with my family. I just love visiting Nauvoo. There is a special spirit there and I just feel kind of at home in a way. I have decided I love small towns now and wouldn't mind living in one.
So that is my little escape to Nauvoo and I am actually going back to Nauvoo in August now for my sister's wedding and then for Christmas so I am super excited. It will be so fun!

All about Kenna

Kenna had her four year old check-up today and all is good with her. I am glad to have two healthy beautiful children.
Just in the past couple months I have seen McKenna mature so much and it has been a joy to see her growing into a beautiful young lady. She seriously amazes me at her wisdom and her kindness and her willingness to help and for her compassion and freindliness. She just has that personality that just draws you in and she has so much zest for life and makes you want to be so happy. She gets so excited about everything and I love that!
If you would have asked me about a year ago I would have told you that I will always have a wild child, but now I am pleasantly surprised to say that she is becoming more mellow which I am very appreciative of. She still has her exuberance don't get me wrong, but she is a lot more contained in her roudiness and will actually sit down with me for more than 5 minutes.
Now that one is finally settling down I have another who is into everything, but I guess that will always be the case right.
McKenna will be starting dance classes in a couple weeks and preschool which she is so excited about. She keeps asking if she gets to go to dance class and school yet and I know she will have a blast with both of those things. I am interested to see how well she will do in both those aspects of her life. I am sure she will be great.
She is really excited about Halloween too. She keeps asking me if it is Halloween time yet and I have to keep telling her it is not for a couple of months, it is a ways away yet....lets just say she doesn't quite grasp the concept of months, because the next day she is asking me again.
She has become a little mother to everyone and everything. She is always telling Graysen what to do and helping him with everything and she does this with any kid she sees. It is so sweet to see her to take on that nurturing roll and be so kind and soft with everyone. I just love her to death and am so blessed to have such a wonderful daughter.

All about the G-man

So Graysen had his 12 month check-up on Monday and all is well with the G-man. He is getting so tall, he is 30 inches and is now in a forward facing car seat since he grew out of his other one. He is only 21 lbs. which I was surprised at because he only gained 1 lb in like 3 months. Guess it went to his height instead. He absolutely loves the forward facing carseat and is a lot happier when we go anywhere. Kenna got a new booster seat so of course she is happy too.
Graysen had to have 5 shots which was kind of brutal on all of us. The first two shots he was just like oww ok this hurts, but then after they kept coming he was like mom what are you letting them do to me. It was so sad and I hate seeing him cry like that. He does really well with shots though as far as not having any reactions to them so I am blessed in that department. Kenna was crying and getting upset at the nurse again which was so sweet and funny at the same time. She looks after her brother so well and is such a good big sister. The nurse just kept saying "I know I hurt him and I am sorry, it will help him though so he doesn't get sick." I felt bad for her cause she had to deal with the wrath of Kenna.
Graysen is walking all over the place now. He was taking a few steps here and there in July but nothing major until the 27th, the day Travis came home he decided he would walk all over the place. With this new found freedom he has decided he will just get into everything and try to climb on everything now so I have to keep a close eye on him at all times. He has 6 teeth now with one more coming in, which is why I cut him off about a month ago and have introduced him to cows milk. He doesn't really like it that much but I think he is getting used to it.
He is still the happiest little boy I know and does so many cute things. Whenever he hears music he will start bouncing up and down and tries to twirl around, it is the cutest thing ever. He also tries to wave his arms like he is trying to bust a move, it is awesome. McKenna and him love playing with eachother and when he gets up in the morning he is so happy to see her and climbs all over her.
He points to everything and says "wassat" and tries to neigh like a horse and trying really hard to talk in general. He is really curious about everything and just wants to see and touch and taste what he finds.
He loves being outside no matter what we are doing. Rocks and dirt are among his favorite things to play with as well as put in his mouth....he is all boy. I am amazed at how entertained he is with just one little thing and it can keep him busy for so long. Kenna was the total opposite.
Graysen really isn't a water person though which I am kind of bummed about because he will only go in the little pool with Kenna for a little bit and he won't get wet at the splash park because he doesn't like being wet all over. I hope he will grow out of it.
I am so glad he is happy and healthy and that he is learing so much and enjoying life. I love this age and am so grateful for him. My favorite thing is when he gets up in the morning and we cuddle while he drinks his milk and then Kenna will come in and we will all just lay on our bed and look out the window and play, it is moments like that I hold close to my heart and enjoy life and love being a mom.

Graysen's 1st Birthday!

I can't believe my little boy is one years old! The time has just flown by, it feels like yesterday that I brought him home from the hospital.
He is such a happy little boy and loves everyone! He always has a smile on his face and is so happy go lucky about everything. He is walking all over the place now and is so proud of himself. He points to everything and says "wassat" and is always giggling and laughing at everything, especially big sister. They love to play together and I love watching them have fun with each other.
For his birthday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Allen's house. We had a really nice dinner that Grandma made. It was so nice outside so we had it outside. Aunt Melanie was here from Utah, and Uncle Tyler came over and celebrated with us.
We opened presents after dinner. He wasn't quite sure how to open the presents at first, but towards the end he started to get a hang of it and started opening them by himself. He started to eat the paper though instead of unwrapping it. Of course McKenna was so excited and more than happy to help him open his presents and play with them afterwards :) He got a lot of fun toys and a cute outfit and book and pillow pet and shoes. McKenna and him have been playing nonstop with all the new toys.

We sang him happy birthday and had cupcakes after the presents. He devoured his cupcake, he loved it! He was a mess afterwards of course, but it was so worth it to watch him have so much fun. He didn't know what was going on but I think he still had fun and enjoyed everthing.
We love him so much and we are so happy to have him in our family. He is the sweetest boy and so cute! I love his little personality and I am so excited to make many more memories with him and to watch him grow.

McKenna's 4th Birthday

So I can't believe my little girl is already 4 years old. She has grown up so fast and I love seeing what a young lady she has become and watching her figure out the world in new ways.
She is such a joy in our lives and I am so grateful for such a beautiful, happy, loving, and wonderful little girl. She brightens each day and gives me resolve to be a better person and live life to the fullest. I love her so much and could have not asked for a better daughter.
Since daddy was gone for her actual birthday we waited to celebrate it until he got home. I did however take her up to grandma and grandpa's house and we went out to lunch at Burger King (her choice) and then we went and saw Cars 2. She was happy about that and liked the movie even though it was kind of long. We went to the speghetti factory with grandma and grandpa Allen which was really good. Aunty Abbey and Uncle Trevor gave her a princess doll you could change clothes and some jewelry and she absolutely loved it! We waited until later to open her other presents.
Travis came home the next week so we celebrated her birthday then. She was so excited that it was her birthday and made us sing the birthday song to her about 50 times. She helped me make her cake which was a princess castle cake that she wanted. I used the wrong kind of cake so it was really crumbly and hard to frost, but good thing she is four and doesn't care if it looks that good :)
Grandma and Grandpa Allen came down to Salem and we took Kenna to Chucky Cheese. She hasn't been there since she was like less then 2 so she was so excited! I think her favorite part was putting all the tokens into the games and rides. She really had a blast and it was so fun to see the joy she had and the pure excitement that exuded from her. She played tons of games and rode a lot of rides and she redeemed her tickets for a slinky and some squishy ants. It was so fun and Graysen had a blast too looking around at all the pretty lights and flashes from all the games.
Kenna said she wanted french toast for dinner so we decided to go to Sharis which was really good. After dinner we came back home and opened presents and had cake and ice cream.
Kenna got a princess tent, hello kitty backpack and watch, a super cute outfit, a pink piggy pillow pet (what she calls it,) a book, some makeup, angry bird toys, tops that light up when they spin, candy, and two remote control cars. She loved everything she got and it makes me happy too because she has new toys to entertain for a while. Graysen loved all the paper when she was opening presents and he loved the princess tent because there is a tunnel that is attached to go into the tent and he and Kenna had so much fun playing in it together.
It was a such a fun time for McKenna and I am so glad she enjoyed herself and that she is so happy.
I love my little girl so much and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with such a wonderful daughter. She is such a sweetheart and I am lucky to be her mom.

Emergency room trip

So I was talking with my sister in law Amy the other day and saying that I was really surprised that McKenna had never had to go to the emergency room yet. Needless to say I jinxed myself because the next week where did we go but to the emergency room.
My mom and dad and I were all out on the front porch enjoying the warm Sunday evening and Mckenna was playing on the front steps. The next thing I know Kenna is crying and I see her on the ground. She told me she hurt her arm so I gave her kisses and hugged her. Usually by this point she gets up and just goes right back to playing but she just wanted to be held and kept crying. She wouldn't really use her arm and kept saying it hurt.
I took her inside and got her ready for bed thinking she would just shake it off, but she was not her normal energetic self. Her arm was kind of starting to swell a little so I was worried she might have broken it. After much debate in my mind we decided to take her into the emergency room in Fort Madison Iowa.
She had to take some x-rays of her arm which was actually the worst part because they had to bend her arm and straighten it out and she was screaming because it hurt so bad. The doctor didn't find anything on the x-rays but said that a radiologist was looking at them tomorrow and if they saw anything they would call me.
I was hopeful that nothing was wrong, so we went home. Kenna was happy cause she got a cute bear and 4 stickers for being so good for the x-rays and everything.
The next day her arm had swollen up pretty big and she was still not really using it and was not playing like she normally was. I got a call from the hospital that afternoon saying that the x-rays actually showed a hair-line fracture on her elbow. We were referred to a Orthopedic and took in her a couple days later.
They didn't put a cast on her because they said at that age they just grow so fast and heal so quickly that a cast wouldn't be the best. Instead they gave her a sling.
I was really skeptical that she would actually keep it on and that it would do any good. To my surprise she not only kept it on, but if I forgot to put it back on when she took a bath she would remind me she needed to put it back on.
She was so brave and good considering what happened and she went right on using it and adapting to the sling like it was part of her arm.
She was pretty sad daddy wasn't there to show him her arm and tell him all about it but at least we were able to tell him over the phone. It was quite the experience and now I can no longer say she has never been to the ER.