Beautiful Day, Beautiful Baby (oops, big girl)

Yesterday was a gorgeous day--plenty of sunshine and warm weather! We were also excited because Dad is done with school for the quarter and can play with us even more-yea! So we decided to go to the park and have a picnic lunch. We had sandwiches and chips. Makenna decided she wanted some chips instead of baby snacks. So I would break tiny little chips off into her mouth. She didn't like that--she wanted a whole chip! I was afraid to give it to her, afraid she would get the sharp edges stuck in her throat, but she handled it like a pro! I forget how big she is! She also decided to give her dad some chips (but not many-she was really greedy with those chips! lol):


After lunch, Makenna got out her books and decided to just sit and read for a while:

We only played on the playground for just a little while afterwards. But it was still a really nice lunch and afternoon!

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Today we had stake conference. Because it was such a beautiful and warm day, I put Makenna in her new summer dress from her Grandmom. Grandmom bought this dress on clearance and just added sleeves to it--but it matches perfectly and you can't even tell! It makes such an adorable dress! And I thought Makenna looked adorable in her dress, ruffle socks and shoes, pretty hairbow, and bracelet. Thanks Grandmom! Makenna looked like a princess! (She thought so too--she loved how the dress poofed out and she loved looking at herself in the mirror!)

A Sick Day that Ended Pretty Sweet

Makenna got up during the night last night with a horrible cough! Then she got up this morning with a horrible runny nose! I said, "Oh boy, not another sick day!" The poor baby is honestly sick more than any other child I know of! Well not only did she have her runny nose, but she had runny eyes and a cough. She also just really acted like she didn't feel well--she wouldn't eat anything and in the middle of playing she would just start crying! Well we thought she was just whiney and we took her to Babytime anyway (Austin didn't have class until 1:00 so he got to go with us--yipee!). We brought her home and put her down for a nap and she just was so fussy and wouldn't sleep. So I called the doctor and we made her an appointment for this afternoon. The verdict? Fever, upper respiratory infection, and an ear infection! No wonder she acted like she didn't feel well! Well I went to get her meds and I also picked myself up some clearance Valentine's Day candy. I felt like I deserved it after dealing with a very sick, very destructive, very unhappy almost-one year old! Makenna found the candy and dove in before we could stop her:

Can you see the chocolate candy in her little fist? When she saw us coming to take the candy away, she grabbed some up and stuffed it in her mouth! She has already learned! She looked like that chubby kid on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Lol. I think the candy made her feel better because right afterwards she was running around and being her usual silly self! No wonder people bring sick people candy! The new saying is, "A chocolate a day keeps the baby at play!" [I made that up--pretty clever, huh?]

A New Hairstyle...

Yeah! We are excited to present Makenna's first pig tails!

So stinkin adorable! I didn't get them very straight, but it is awfully hard to get this little girl to sit still for very long! Love it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We were so excited about Makenna and her first Valentine's Day! She got up at about 7:30 and we let her open her presents. She loves her puppy, book, and big girl keys!

Makenna and her Valentine's Day puppy. Look at that sweet smile!

At about 7:45 Makenna had some friends come over and play while their parents went to the temple. Natalie and Adam loved Makenna's new toys too! It was good to have a play day on Valentine's Day! It was also nice because Austin made us all a yummy breakfast!

This afternoon we just relaxed and played all day. I think we heard the wedding march in Makenna's new book about a million times! Why do parents buy their children toys that make noise?!?

Austin went to check the mail and... surprise! We got a package from Grandma Becky! Makenna loved her card and outfits! But she especially loved the yummy animal crackers! What a great, fun snack! Little "Max" (sorry Austin, I think Max may stick!) also got some new outfits! Which is absolutely fantastic because so far we are going to have a naked baby! And so cute! And we love our candy and gift card! Hopefully Austin and I can somehow manage a grown up only dinner sometime soon. Any takers on babysitting one night? : ) Thanks for the package Grandma Becky!

Next Annie and Logan came and gave Makenna her very own Valentine! She loved the card (yes, she mostly just ate it!) and her sucker.

Here she is eating her very first sucker! Yum, yum! We love the soft stick!

We ended the day with me cooking dinner and Austin and Makenna playing. Dinner took a while to make so Makenna was able to have dinner and a bath and go to bed while I was cooking and so Austin and I actually had a meal alone! I have to admit, I think I made a pretty good dinner for us! We had an Italian chicken with broccoli, angel hair pasta, salad, and garlic bread. Yum! It was a great Valentine's Day!

Last we have the video of when Makenna opened her presents. We had to post it; she looks so dang cute and excited! I tried to post it at the very beginning of this blog, but for some reason it kept going to the end. But here it is for your viewing pleasure:

It's all from scratch!

Well I have finally done it! We downloaded a free trial version of Photoshop so I could jump on the digital scrapbooking wagon with everyone else. Well, today I completed my very first page. Well, this is my very first page that is completely from scratch. I had made the header that's now on our blog too, but I used a mostly all ready put together page for that: I just added pictures and a green box and text! But this page I did today was 100% from scratch! It had like 8 layers in it! It's not a perfect page, but it's a pretty good for a first time from-scratch page, right?

I'm being way homemaker-ish lately, aren't I? I have scheduled out a weekly cleaning schedule so I have been keeping the house pretty clean (except when company comes over--then my house is a mess!). I have been cooking at least one meal a day. I have been playing with Makenna more and doing lots of activities and songs and things with her. And now I am doing crafty projects! I heard, when I was pregnant with Makenna, that women get in this phase when they actually have a little bit of energy and start "nesting." I totally did not do that then! But I think, even though I go to bed pretty exhausted every night, that I may actually be experiencing that! Or maybe I am turning into a Molly-Morman housewife! Nah, I am not even close to that yet! I still have my veg out for hours every day where I watch TV and read! Shh, don't tell! Let's pretend I'm a real "super mom/wife!" Now if I can convince Austin and Makenna to go along with it... We could fake you all out! ; )

What a day!

Yesterday I was super mom! I'm not kidding--I was so proud of myself! Why was I super mom? Well, this is what I accomplished yesterday:

• cleaned two bathrooms
• cleaned the kitchen
• swept and mopped all tile floors
• dusted bedrooms
• cooked TWO meals (this is huge for me! I never, ever cook!): I made a Chicken Ceasar Salad Pie for lunch and for dinner I made Italian Soda Bread (yes I baked!), a Chicken Casserole, and a Fruit Salad! All from scratch! You may not think this is much, but for a non-cook I feel like I flew to the moon!
• washed a couple of loads of laundry
• had a friend come over for about an hour
• made two homemade birthday cards (which look pretty dang cute)
• And took care of an 11 month old who thinks she is already in her terrible twos!

While I'm on the topic, let me tell you what my crazy little girl did yesterday. She is finally starting to leave the room I am in and play on her own. I totally encourage this because she has been my little shadow for 11 months! So I let her wander (or is it wonder? wander I think...) on to other rooms and just go and check on her every five or ten minutes. Our house is pretty open so this is no problem right? Well, this got her in some big time trouble yesterday. Here is Makenna's list of what she did yesterday:

• Took a washcloth out of the dirty laundry and used it to soak up water from the toilet and wash the bathroom floors for mommy! By the time I got there, I had an inch of water on the bathroom floor and zero water left in the toilet. Thanks for helping clean Makenna! : 0
• Went to her bedroom and was playing so nicely! I checked on her twice and she was just playing with toys or making faces in her mirror. Well I went and checked on her again and she had all of her trash dumped out and thrown all over the room! She had also went in her closet and pulled out everything!
• Decided her new favorite place is the cabinet with all of the scary cleaning supplies in it. I don't know what to do about this one! We can't put in the little child locks because we can't drill into these cabinets; they aren't our cabinets and I personally don't want to have to pay for cherry cabinets! And we can't tie them shut because they are flat cabinet doors and don't have knobs! Any suggestions?
• Tried turning the stove on (she got her hand spanked for that one--she can't turn on the stove! Soooo scary and dangerous!).
• Turned the dishwasher off mid-wash.
• She also helped mommy clean: mommy found toys and shoes in the garbage can! Thanks for cleaning up! : 0
• She also decided to wash her shoes. Mommy found shoes in the dishwasher. How did they get there? The only time the dishwasher was open I was right there loading and unloading it. Really, how did that happen?
• And last of all, made Daddy's lip bleed by smacking him with the remote.

Whew! Mommy was super mom and Makenna was super... umm... super... "helpful." Who would have thought--terrible twos at not even one! If she wasn't so darn cute we might have to give her away to someone! : )

My turn to Digital Scrapbook

Jillian was talking about digital scrapbooking and I wanted to try! We don't have Photoshop on our computer, but I did find this thing called Picasso that I guess Austin uses to look at slides for school. I decided to try my hand at my own scrapbooking page. This is from our trip to the zoo (we already blogged about this, but I figured the zoo trip would be a good start to my scrapbooking). I think the page turned out pretty good for my first try! Also, my first time to even use the Picasso program!

What do you think?