MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM MACKENZIE

We all hope everyone had a great and safe holiday. Mackenzie got some really nice things and she is still working her way through all of them. It was a nice and mellow Christmas and I'm looking forward to putting the decorations away and get the house back to order.

MORE SNOW FUN...

Tonight we got home and Daddy went out to dig Mommy's car out for tomorrow. Since he was outside already he offered to pull us on the sled. Whats one work out followed by another one?
Most the time she was laughing while we were moving. So much better then last year!



By this point she had seen the light from the garage and she was wanting to go up the driveway and just wouldn't cooperate for a picture with Daddy.

OUT FOR A WINTRY WALK

I still can't believe how much snow we've received. I keep saying that and my husband always responds with "believe it". He actually doesn't even get up anymore to see if it's snowing. He is happy to be inside with his electronics. Now if the power goes out, then he'll be grumpy.

All the snow is very amazing and it makes me wonder if I'll see this much again in our area in my lifetime. It can be a pain and limit your destinations but it is truly beautiful. And also it looks like it will still be around for Christmas.

Tonight I decided to take Mackenzie out for a walk while it's still around and still beautiful. There is so much out there and the majority of it is still untouched.

BOOTS

Mackenzie has now reached the stage of wearing big shoes...

In the first picture she was at home with Dad and he said he heard this clomping around. He went to see what she was up to and saw that she had put on her own boots AND she got lucky and actually put them on the correct feet.

Later that night I still had my snow boots inside by the front door and she had put one of them on, backwards, and was walking around. I went over and put her in them correctly and she continued walking around in them.

MORE SNOW...

Because Mackenzie got a hold of that hand,foot,mouth rash she is unable to go to daycare on Wednesday. And with all the snow we're getting it made it difficult to get her out to my parents that live out in the country or for them to come in. So I took a sick day to stay home with her.
It started snowing in the morning and it didn't stop until late afternoon. It was so beautiful and it was nice to be at home and not have to be anywhere.
Here are some pictures of Mackenzie out in the snow yesterday.

This is that obnoxious screaming she does. I actually got it on video too but I won't subject you to listening to it..

Here she discovered that she could eat the snow. She was at this bush for quite some time...

MACKS NEW KITCHEN

We got Mackenzie this kitchen for her birthday and she totally loves it! One of the first things she did was open the microwave, then closed the door and proceeded to hit the buttons!
Numerous things on it make noise and one of the burners makes a red color bubbling noise when a pot is on it and then it will speed up the longer it's on there and then will stop. The kitchen came with a 17-piece accessory set. Grandpa & Grandma gave her some food to go with it and so did cousins Tim, Amanda and Paisley. Some were even hand made and they are super cute.
I went through her food items last night and put up the older style pieces until she's ready. I still need to get out and buy a closed tote to put all the extra pieces in.
But she loves it and loves all the stuff it does and I'm sure as she gets older she'll get even more into it.

Mackenzie Turns TWO!

Mackenzie started off her morning eating a teddy bear cookie that I brought back from the bakery.

Despite the snow and cold weather, Mackenzie had her birthday party today. Just small with family. They came over around 5 for pizza, present opening and cake and ice cream. Mackenzie hardly ate any of her cake. She didn't even dive into it. She has never been one of those kids that digs right into things.

Mackenzie gets a little overwhelmed when there are a lot of people over and she wasn't really into the gift opening but she started seeing what was inside and then would play with it. She got some really nice things and was still playing with her new toys after everyone left.

And today everyone heard her say "two". Her voice is so cute now that it's starting to come out a little more.

With the snow today, family coming over and her party it was a really good day and we didn't feel a bit guilty for spoiling her all day and making it all about her.

SNOW FOR BIRTHDAY!!!

Not a lot of postives of having a December birthday but waking up to falling snow is pretty awesome! Mackenzie turned 2 today, and 2 years ago when she was born we had snow while we were in the hospital too.
This morning I got up and drove into town to pick up her birthday cake, it was actually worse the more East I went. But as I got home it was coming down more and we figured we better get out in it while we could.
We took Mack out for a little bit before lunch and she actually enjoyed it, more then last year. And her last years snowsuit still fit her!
We didn't get the sleds out, we just went out and enjoyed it.

Made it to the zoo lights tonight. This was my first time ever going there. We attempted last Saturday night but it was crazy with crowds and there were extra parking lots open and busses for shuttles with very very long lines so we changed our mind and decided to try a week day. Better yet, we accidently stumbled on $2 Tuesday and got in super cheap!

First thing we did as we walked bundled up through the entrance was head to the train. We were in earlier then it opened so we had a little bit of wait but we were the first group to board and enjoyed the ride.

The zoo was not very crowded and it was beautiful to see all the lights and visit some of the animals that were out. We had the polar bear all to ourselves, which never happens. Also was able to see the baby elephant that was born during the summer.

We started out with Mackenzie in the stroller but after the train ride we either carried her or let her walk. She seemed to have a great time and lately it was one of our better nights with her.

Hubby had packed us a thermos of coffee w/creamer and we just wandered around enjoying all the lights. It was a fun night.





here are some other sights we saw...

Visit with Gabby and Lukas

Sunday morning we had a visit from one of my girlfriends that lives in San Diego. She was up for a quick trip to see family with her son Lukas who is 1.5. It was so good to see them even though it was a real short visit.
Lukas loved playing with all Mackenzies toys and typically they didn't really pay too much attention to each other.

Who says bubbles can't be played in the house? Anything to entertain a 2 year old.

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

Mackenzie is pretty good around the tree but she is loving all the cutesy ornaments. We keep telling her no and to leave them on the tree but somehow we either find her carrying them around, on the floor or a pile of them laying low on a branch.

This particular night she was running behind the tree and bringing me small fuzzy pieces of something. I figured she was up to something so I went and grabbed my camera. I caught her picking off the fuzzy ball on top of Santa's hat on this homemade ornament from a friend.
Needless to say, that Santa got moved about a foot north.

So for everyone that knows us they know Mackenzie has been a slow talker. She is delayed in speech and at times it's been some concern of ours and other times we feel she's very stubborn and is just moving at her own pace. She plays, laughs, climbs, runs, dances and claps but she just hasn't been so open about communicating with us. Her Dad and I both didn't talk until we were age 2 so there is hope that is the road she's going down.

The past few months she has shown some improvement and she will say "baby","look","duck and "hot". She tries flower but it's a lot of "fffff". No Mommy or Daddy. She said Dada back when she was about 8 months old but we realized that was just the babble of sound and it didn't mean anything.

Last Saturday we were at my brothers house and they noticed that she's doing a little bit of talking so that was nice to hear. That others recognized her sounds.

Last night my brother and sister in law were over and she was riding her 3 wheeler in the kitchen and I went to see if she wanted her sippy cup. While she was riding she reached her hand out to push it away and she also said the word "no" and kept riding. I was shocked! I don't think I had ever heard her tell me with so much authority that she didn't want something. It's usually just the push of the hand. So in a way, this was an accomplishment for us. I know that "no" will be the first of many and we will most likely tire of hearing it but last night I was pretty happy to hear such a small and strong little word come from her.

FAMILY PICS AND 2 YEAR PHOTO

Went in today to get Mackenzie's 2 yr pictures taken and also do a family picture as well.
I started off telling the photographers that they really need to engage to make her smile. Well, they did a great job and had her really laughing. Once we were done with the Christmas/family photos we changed her shirt for her 2year old set. Unfortunately she was done and she didn't want anymore to do with picture taking. At that point we felt lucky to get what pictures we had gotten.

TRIPLE PHOTO

My nephew Tony put together this photo. He's got a pretty cool photo program and he's always amazing me with different pictures.
This was taken May 2008.

BOLT MOVIE

Today I took Mackenzie to her second theatre movie. She did pretty good. She walked in today and loved looking around at all the big poster boards of all the movie pictures. Until she saw a huge T-Rex looking thing looming over her head, then she got a little nervous.

We went inside and sat down and the previews started a few minutes later. She sat on my lap rubbing her blanket and her puppy's ear. I think the sound and the big screen keeps her attention easily. About 3/4's through the movie she was getting restless so I broke out her snacks and water. I kept expecting her to fall asleep but she stayed put and awake the whole time. There were some slow scenes toward the end that I could tell she was getting bored with but then it would pick back up and grab her attention.

The movie was very cute. The girl is an actress and Bolt is her dog in the movies and they fight crime. His whole life has been built in sound stages and he doesn't realize that he doesn't have super powers on his own. Bolt runs into a cat and a hamster in a plastic ball and they make for some entertaining side kicks. Especially the hamster.
Pixar sure comes up with good story lines.

PLAY-DOH ANYONE?

I was away all weekend and when I got home today I decided to get some Play-doh out. This is Mackenzies first time playing with it. She had a good time stacking up the small containers. She didn't really get "into" the doh but once I rolled them into balls she grabbed those and just sat there happy, holding all of them at the same time. She loves to carry small round objects.
She was in a very goofy happy mood which led to some cute pics.

STACKING...

I went to a friends house last night for a few hours. When I came home I saw this in the kitchen. Steve said that Mackenzie did that so he left it for me to see. I thought it was cute and also realized that we, or I, really need to put some shoes away.

Chuck E Cheese

Last week we took Mackenzie to Chuck E Cheese. We went in the morning and were the first ones there for about a half hour. I can still hear the silent bliss!

This was Mackenzies first time there and she enjoyed watching all the older kids and liked to push buttons on the games. She liked the carousel and the toddler slide. She's getting much better on the slides and when she goes down she doesn't lay back so far like she used to. This particular carousel she really liked because she noticed something...her reflection in the mirror! I was proud of her that she hung on and would just sit on it and go around. That was our first time to let go of her on something and stand back and watch. You just never know if they are going to quickly bail off.

Chuck E Cheese also made a visit. She quickly wanted me to pick her up. She seemed curious about him but wouldn't hold out her hands to touch him like he was asking. Later on I was following a little bit behind her and she started walking towards him. As she got closer she turned around to see if I was near by. We tried to visit again and he got down on her level but she was still unsure. We'll keep trying.

My camera got bumped to a wrong setting and I didn't realize it till later so the pictures look a little odd.