Oh Christmas Tree

We were at Lowe's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and saw that their garden section was full of Christmas trees. Loving all things Christmas, I convinced Keith to come check them out with me. I became hopelessly nostalgic remembering past Christmas's picking out trees with my family and then basking in the smell of the woody pine that would fill the house for weeks. After seeing how decently priced the trees were ($15 for a 6') I begged and pleaded with Keith for one until he succumbed (I can be annoyingly persuasive if I want to be). They wrapped it up and we packed it into the trunk of the Impala- I knew that car was good for something. And here it is in all it's glory. It's been a few years since I've been in a house with a real tree and I'm convinced I can't go back to fake for a few more years. Mackenzie's been pretty good about leaving it alone. It helps that we ran out of lights and so the bottom third of the tree is not yet decorated.
Kenz turned 13 months on Thursday. We celebrated my birthday and her thirteen month milestone by going to the pediatrician. Poor little girl still has her ear infections. It's hard to tell with her because she doesn't run a very high fever and she still has all the energy in the world . She just tends to get a little more clingy when all is not well:

She perked up a bit after her first dose of the new antibiotics and a nap and was an angel at Costco and at my friend Christina's house. That night, we met up with Keith for dinner at Red Robin where the Robin stopped by to visit our table and paralyzed Kenzie with fear for a good 10 minutes. Later, we watched
"The Santa Clause" and she climbed up on the couch and laid her head in our laps, she was so miserable. She seems to be doing a little better now and hopefully she'll be good as new when we fly out in a week!

I thought I would include this little video. It's a couple weeks old but it shows the gorilla crawl she was constantly doing between her walking. It's so fun to just watch her toddle around now. She seems so old to me. Notice the bow popping out with the balls. She stuffs everything from wooden spoons to tampons in that thing. Which reminds me, how do you style a baby's hair who rips out everything you put in it?

In 3 weeks we will be flying to Utah!!! In the meantime...

..I have been babysitting a little boy named Alex. I was referred to a sweet woman named Nikki through a woman that a girl in my ward babysits for. As you can tell, it was complete luck that I fell into the job and Kenzie and I had a fun week at their house. She practiced her walking skills on slippery wood floors (quite entertaining really) and I soaked up all the cuddling I could from this sweet boy who is dealing with some major separation anxiety. It was fun earning some extra cash and breaking the routine.
I have also been reading quite a bit. I'm almost done with The Chronicles of Narnia and I had to interrupt that reading for Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. If you haven't read The Hunger Games read it!! Then read the sequel Catching Fire, I loved them both! The books are fast paced, easy to follow, and are completely clean as far as language and sexual content.

Keith is ready for Thanksgiving break! He's really liking school but starting to feel the pressure of finals so he's started to study a bit more and I'm sure we won't see much of him after Thanksgiving which is fine because he'll have 3 weeks off for Christmas. He's been playing basketball every Saturday morning with the ward and last Saturday was their first game. They have a great team! I love that the other wives come and watch the games so we can get in our girl talk. Keith also took me out to dinner a couple weeks ago to Logan's Roadhouse. Our neighbors, Justin and Neha, watched Mackenzie for us. We REALLY appreciated the opportunity to get out of the house and go on a date. Tonight we're dropping her off again to see "The Savior of the World." Ah the benefits of having a one year old that is no longer nursing!

Speaking of our little one year old, I finally got her into the pediatrician for a one year appointment the day after her birthday. She tips the scale at a whopping 18 pounds:) and is 30 inches long; Long and lean, just like her daddy. Walking is her main mode of transportation these days. She tends to only crawl when she's trying to catch me before I go into another room. Yes, she's a momma's girl and she's gone back to wanting me in every room she's in. She's also getting over a double ear infection. I feel really lucky that she was so healthy her first year of life. This ear infection is the first health issue she's had. I'm so grateful for antibiotics!
She's got some spunk. Yesterday, she kept trying to get Alex to follow her upstairs. She would climb up the first couple and turn to him and smile and wait until he'd follow. When I caught them, I asked her to get down off the stairs (she knows they're off limits) and she'd turn to me, flash a wicked smile, shake her head and say "na na na" and continue to climb.

Sorry for such a boring update! We will be flying into Utah on the 12th and leaving for Idaho on the 14th. We'll be in Idaho until the 22nd, then back in Utah until the 29th. We would love to see anyone who will be in either place while we're there, just let us know!

$15 free at CSN

CSN.com is offering $15 to anyone who creates an account with them Really simple all you have to do is click here and enter your e-mail address. I found this deal on "Deal"ectible mommies and everything she has posted thus far has been legit. For every friend you invite after you sign up, will get $15 in their account and when they make their first purchase, you'll get $15 in your account too!

Kenzie's First Birthday

We had a little Birthday party for Mackenzie Tuesday night with some good friends in the complex and in our ward. My good friend Amber came over and helped me frost all of the cupcakes for this cute caterpillar.

Dad helped Kenz blow out her candle

She LOVED the buttercream frosting...
And then came the gifts...

Thank you everyone who shared this special night with us! And thank you grandparents for the fun gifts! Grandma and Grandpa Shaw, here's a video of Kenzie opening her puppy. Sorry Mom and Dad, I haven't recorded her playing with the train yet, but she loves it!

Kenzie's First Year

One year ago, I was more scared, selfish, less nurturing, and less understanding than I am today. One year ago, I thought I would die in labor from the excruciating pain. One year ago, Keith and I experienced the greatest miracle of our lives. I would go through a treacherous labor seventy times over again if I needed to for you Mackenzie! Thank you for the extreme happiness and sunshine you bring into our lives. How lucky we are to have you for eternity. Happy FIRST Birthday sweetie, we love you!
*If you have facebook, you can watch it full screen by going clicking here

Lots of moisture + no reason to pull up the blinds =Which has resulted in a double ear infection for about a month and a persistent wheezy, barky cough for me (still working on healing from both). I guess the silver lining is that I found out I'm allergic to mold