Merry Christmas!

Big Brother, Little Sister say MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Mackenna's fav present if I do say so myself! Holdiay Elephants Diaper. She shared with her cousins!

Our handsome big boy!

Cousins in their Holiday Elephant Mud Butts!

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas! We sure did!

Crib update..... it's back up. Uggh. At 2am, after an hour of going back and forth to M's room to put her back in bed we decided to put the crib back up. Not exactly 'Baby Whisperer' or 'Super Nanny' approved but we were at our wits end after no naps for days. Anywho, we are training her to stay in her crib...turned around and backed up into a wall so there is only one way out. She only climbed out once at nap time and is currently sleeping. Praise God! I do have to sit in front of the crib with my back to her (playing endless games of Angry Birds) but it took about 1/2 the time today before she fell asleep than yesterday so I think we are on the right track. I AM ordering a crib tent tho since we have to go stay at my folks in a couple of days.... Mom and Dad, expect a package!!

Big girl bed...

Ok so I just have to say this is not a happy woo hoo we have a big girl sort of announcement. If I was in charge our monkey would be in a crib til at least 12 maybe even longer. You know, to get through that hard teenage phase... having a hormone induced episode? No problem. Lift that 110lb 14yr old into her crib for a good old nap.


But.


We. Did . Not. Make. It. That. Far. We didn't even make it to 22months. I shake my fists. Nooooooooooo! Jaden was in a crib until ummmm...... don't laugh. Almost 3.   And..... he still wont get out of bed until I go in to get him. (Don't you dare tell him anything different!)

Anywho. Mackenna, our cute little inquisitive monkey climbed out of her crib 3 times. Yes. THREE! I was unwilling (and still am) to accept the fact that she can't be in there anymore. Waaaaaaaaaaaaah. (That's me crying in the corner)

Unless some miracle happens I have no idea when she will sleep next because in her mind she doesn't belong in a cute little day bed. Never. Sleep? What's that?

Some extra prayers tonight please.

And yes.... I realize I am being a bit over dramatic. Throw me a bone.
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A good case of the Mackennas has forced us to relocate the gifts! Hope this is high enough! What a precious monkey we have!!  She will either be an engineer or a pro climber!

Watch for pics from Jaden's theatrical debut!

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Cilantro Hummus Monster

Cilantro Hummus Monster
One wont eat anything remotely creative and one loves anything unusual!

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Riding rides at MOAA

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Our little engineer

True to her personality she grabbed the little engineer hat... and jaden grabbed the 'boss' hat at gym time today.

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Test

Test

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Go go go Jaden

Go go go Jaden.... you're welcome for that ear worm! Jaden just got finished with the story of Joseph at preschool so the fav thing around the house these days is definitely the coat of many colors!

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Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

We decided to get the party started early and celebrated Jaden's birthday on Oct. 1. Jaden has been talking forever about having a spider man cake so we made one for him. He is a great baker, so he helped. We both came out with some battle wounds, however, his being cake batter all over his face and mine being carpal tunnel from all that frosting!

Mackenna the Houdini

Mackenna is our houdini! She can get into and out of everything! She most recently likes to get out of all of her clothes and diaper during her naps and nights. You can imagine that this can be a bit of a messy situation. There were many days that I was changing her sheets twice a day. We finally figured out a situation that will work but of course had to wait til it was cool enough to dress her this way. This was the first really cool night. We put her in a sleep sack backwards. This green one I made last winter. I even had to sew up the neck and arms so that she can't wiggle her way out of it. We have had 3 nights and naps now where she has not been able to strip down! Hooray! I give it about a week before she figures out a way to get out of even this.

Daddy and Mackenna love oranges.

Jaden loves his moon dough. His set makes puppies. He likes to make as many as he can.

Uncle Jay-Jay is one of Mackenna's favorite people!

Special thanks to computer guru Trevor who taught me a super duper secret computer thingy so that I can now actually post these from my computer instead of creating it and then having to use my phone to post it (which I can't do now anyway thanks to my current technology crisis which is the demise of my Crackberry) Thank you Trevor.

First day of school!

Jaden had a BLAST at his first day of Preschool! He was very excited to go, so much so that he woke up ready to hit the road at 5:45am this morning! Try again buster! He wasn't afraid one bit. He didn't even look back once! He just walked in, didn't even say 'good bye'! Off we went to do a little 'down to one kid' shopping! I thought it was going to be a breeze but Mackenna wanted to open every box of cereal and box of baggies we put in the cart. She even bit right through the outside wrapping of a big dark chocolate bar. (she has exquisite taste- 80%Cocao!) When we went to pick Jaden up we got to wait for just a bit with all the other parents and younger siblings and then his class started filing down the hall. He saw us and made a mad dash to us. He was absolutely giddy, jumping up and down and making his wierd little noises. He couldn't contain himself. he sort of paddled both of us with his hands in our faces. We will have to work on other ways of expressing sheer joy! OUCH! From what I can gather, they played...a lot, inside and outside. had a snack, he went potty in the big potty but someone flushed for him while he covered his ears. They sat in a square, 'not a circle, mama' and sat 'criss cross applesauce' and had some sort of story. I'm sure they did more than that but that was all he could get out! He wants to go back so that's good!!

Ready to go

Finding his 'cubby'

He got to hand in his first homework ever! It's a placemat that they will laminate and use for snack time. He got to pick pictures to put on it.

The last pic is of him, a classmate and Mrs. Groen, his teacher!

Pastas and the Theology of a 3yr Old

Before I forget...

Pastas and the Theology of a 3yr old

Actually the first installment came in the car this morning on the way into town

Mama- Jaden, Wendy, Dane, Emily and Aliesha are going to pray for you tomorrow that you day at school goes well. They want God to be with you.

Jaden- Where is God?

Mama- Everywhere. God made you, yada yada yada (boring non-3yr old definition of God)

Jaden- God made birds and animals and Mackenna and God gave us french fries!

Second installment at supper over Pastas (his fav meal)

Jaden- Where is God?

Mama- God is everywhere and God is in your heart.

Jaden- God is in my heart? Why he in my heart?

Mama- because God wants to be there. God loves you.

Jaden- with a little wry giggle putting his hand on his chest, "I squishing God."

Mama- you're funny, Jaden

Jaden- God gave us grapes and apples and Mackenna and sippy cups.

Amen.

Back already!

Grammie and Grandpa were here yesterday and today so I thought we would do a little photo shoot on the Nest Lake bridge. Here ya' go. Got some good ones!

Summer Wrap-up

Ok, so it seems I am not the best blogger. I can't even really call myself one when I post so rarely. oh well. I thought I would give you a summer wrap up. These are just some highlights. I am missing alot but I would have to get up and get my other memory card and that's just too much work for a Sunday night. Ha!

So we can say that we are successfully potty trained! We are still working on going on the 'oh so scary' Target potty but for now a 'potty on the go' potty has made a new home in our minivan.

Summer is awesome when your BFF lives next door!

Jaden and Mackenna loved the Growmobile this summer! We got lots of great books out of the deal and a whole lotta fun, not to mention some mommy time with the other mommies when not chasing Mackenna. Who am I kidding, though, it was a lot of the latter. Next year...

Dawn came with us to the Growmobile when she visited!

Just HAD to get a picture of the giraffes at the zoo in Mackenna's giraffe diaper!

Jaden's 3rd ride. He loved it!

A lot of flag-waving this summer at various parades, yes, we still have parade candy!

Fun with corn

Nothing perks Jaden up more than mentioning the word 'Park'!

Cutie pie!

Anybody looking for child models?? A great visit with Brett's cousin, Seth and his family!

Great Grandma Nana

Mackenna's first jet ski ride. She LOOOOOved it. I give our sensitive Jaden man about 10 years before he attempts!

Hope to write more later with some more pictures!