SHIRT PROJECTS

Since I had no real plans this weekend I decided to get the 2 shirt projects out I bought several months ago for Mackenzie. The first one was a tie dye. I have always wanted to try tie dying and for this being my first time I must say it didn't turn out too bad. The other was a monkey iron on transfer, been years since I've done one of these let alone use an iron. Here they are...

DORA

Mackenzie really likes Dora. She likes her shows and it's a familiar face she recognizes when we're in the stores and that girl seems to be everywhere!
I don't really like the licensed character outfits that are out there but I know kids do. The other day at Target she saw a Dora tag that was connected to a bathing suit, which I was shopping for, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. In a pool with a large picture of Dora was more then I could handle. Then I spotted this nightgown and figured I could handle that.
Here she is in her first nightgown. After she wore it I realized that I will save this for warmer night temperatures then 30 degrees. Anytime I checked on her that night she was uncovered and her legs were cold. Long sleeves will be nice for this spring/summer when the air is on.

FIRST HAIRCUT

Yes it was time to give some curly locks a trim. Her Dad had been worried that she'd come home with hardly any hair. I'm like, don't be silly. I'm just having it trimmed and cleaned up a little. She still had all of her baby fuzz on the ends and it was getting hard to run a comb through.

So Saturday I took her up to a salon that specializes in kids cuts. They only take walk ins and on a Saturday I wasn't sure how busy they'd be. So I was heading there thinking that we might not be doing this that day.

I got there and filled out the form and as soon as I was done they were ready for her. This place has little cars to sit in and a movie plays on the TV's. Mackenzie sat in the firetruck car watching the movie Ratatouille. She really loved the car. They put a cape on her and started to spray her hair down. Mackenzie didn't really like the spray but she did very well and sat there while the lady combed and snipped away. Then they put a little barrette in her hair and she was done.

I was so proud of her that she cooperated. I sometimes never know how she's going to be in situations and she really surprised me.

I snapped about a dozen pictures of her sitting in her car, looking like a big girl. I came home and showed them to Dad. Then yesterday I went to load them on my computer and they were completely gone off my camera. Those and quite a few videos that I had taken within the last week. I have no explanation. All I can figure is maybe I deleted them without knowing?? I have no idea. I was pretty upset that her first haircut pictures were gone and who knows what else. After I had a good cry I wasn't going to give up and kept trying to find them and thinking they were in another folder somewhere. No luck, they seem to be gone.

So here is the one picture from the salon that they snapped for her 1st hair cut package.

doctor visit

Daddy snapped this picture with his phone yesterday at her 2yr checkup appt.
Getting to be such a big girl these days being able to wear a smock.

Cute Homemade Gifts

My niece made these cute veggies and fruits for Mackenzie's kitchen. They are so adorable and I loved them and couldn't believe she made them. So much detail!
Then for Christmas Mackenzie received this little monkey lovie. Don't you just want to snuggle her?

Here is her site that she is selling them on... Paisleys Playhouse

Mackenzie Update

December is a busy month for us. We have her birthday and Christmas and this year we got some of the most snow we've seen in many many years. I never did hear the full total but someone told me it was between 1 and 2 feet on the valley floor. It was breathtaking but in the same sense it got old, really fast. This area is not equipped to handle that much snow so quickly so it made for an interesting couple weeks around here.

Mackenzie is now a big 2 year old and into everything these days. She loves to push the chairs over to the counter or sink. And of course it never is the closest chair, she always seems to pick the farthest one.
She has found a brand new Kong toy that we had for one of our dogs and seems to think it's her own personal "chewie". At least it's durable and exactly meant for that. Her older brother asked us why she was chewing on a dog toy? I'm sure that looked strange.

Mackenzie just had her 2 year check up today and is now 36 1/4" tall and weighs 31.2lbs. She is in the 95th percentile for both categories. She is wearing 2T but also can wear some 3T clothes. Just a couple weeks ago she moved up to size 5 diapers. She was in size 4 since she was 8 months old. She was chunky at first and off the charts as a baby but has really slimmed down but seems tall for her age. When we did the estimate of her adult height the results were 5'9. I'm 5'6 and her Dad is 6ft. It will be interesting to see what she gets to and even if that height predictor is accurate. I think it's more just for fun.

Mackenzie loves to giggle and loves the game "this little piggie". She loves to be chased around the kitchen table and also likes to play hide n seek in the house. She really loves her Dora, Wonderpets, Shrek, Veggietales and Backyardigans. Not in any particular order, it seems to vary in whatever mood she is in.

She laughs at our cat Murphy and sometimes will go up to him and give him a little pet but mostly just stands back and laughs at him. She will snuggle her stuffed puppy up to her chin and real sweetly will say "baby". Everything like that is "baby".

She is saying "up, bye, baby, look, pretty, oh nooo, woah, choo choo, flower, two" and I can't remember what else. She also acts like she counts when she lines up her little people. When we count in order she will sometimes say two, six and eight.
She is also giving us five when we ask for it.

Lately she is really into yellow ducks. And she tries to make the sound of a duck or quack. We haven't quite figured it out. We were at Toys R Us a couple weeks ago and she saw an end display of baby towels and washcloths and one of them had a yellow duck on it. And she just kept standing there and making the duck/quack sound. It was cute and a little hard to pull her away from it. I felt she had made a friend!

I just looked at her the other night sleeping soundly in her crib. As I stand there looking at her it's hard to realize that little person was inside of me. I can still see her baby similarities but also can see the change of the little person she is becoming.

From Mackenzie...

"Mommy wanted to show you all one of my tutus that she got me. And of course I wouldn't cooperate and I kept pulling it up and trying to take it off."

Gee.....Hard day Mackenzie?

Came into the room one night last week and this is how I found her. Watching one of her shows. She was there long enough for me to snap her picture then I told her to get down. She knows better but always tries.

Stormtrooper Baby

Trying on Daddy's helmet...

Talking To Her Reflection

This is a video I took the other night of typically what she does when she see's herself. Of course she was doing it for a little bit before I got a chance to grab the camera so she does it for awhile. It amazes me how expressive at times they can be.
*reminder to pause the music playlist before playing video

"TWOOOOOO"

This video is kind of dark. It was already filmed in low light and then it's a video of a video because I just wanted to show this particular part.
As of December we have been able to get Mackenzie to say the word "two". Here is an example of how she says it and sometimes how adamant she can be.

All Aboard!

Finally opened up Mackenzies Leapfrog train set we got her. Bought it over a year ago on clearance and saved it till this year. She likes it but of course she pushes it off of the tracks any chance she gets.

MORE SNOW...

...it wasn't much, but it was something. We would have liked to have taken the kids up to the MTN sledding but with the road closures from mudslides we opted to stay around home. So they went roller skating and then we said we'd see a movie later. I stayed home with Mackenzie today and right after I got her up from her nap I saw it snowing...and it was sticking! So the kids were pretty excited, since they live in Mesa Arizona. So after the movie we went outside in it. But the night was cut short when Austin slipped and fell and broke his front tooth on the recycle bin. They were using the bin to make blocks of snow!
He's alright but will now have to get it fixed. And he just recently got his braces off too.

OMSI

Last Sunday we took all 3 kids to OMSI for a few hours. We found it a little challenging at times with the age differences but Mackenzie ended up finding whatever the kids were doing interesting. Lots going on and plenty to see. I saw quite a few stations that I remember from seeing as a kid. I can't believe they still have the earthquake shack. Mackenzie really liked being inside that and dancing to the song they play.
Here are some pictures of our day...

The object of this is to move the metal ring and not touch the sides or the buzzer sounds. I think Mackenzie thought hearing the sound was the point.

What can I say? She loves looking at herself, even if it is in a funky mirror.

Mackenzie loved looking down to the first floor.

Valerie and Mackenzie building a bridge.

Mackenzie loved this music light show she was making.

Valerie making a boat move....Mackenzie just playing in the water.

Austin and Val making bottle rockets.

This thing was pretty cool, it's an infrared camera.

Watching fireworks for 2009

Outside watching the kids and Daddy lighting fireworks. Her reaction to them was better then it was 6 months ago which is getting us more excited for July 4th. She was actually interested in watching them and wasn't freaked out.