Growing Old Together!

I told Nat this is what we have to look forward to in a couple of years. Nat in her little red wagon and me on my four wheeler, I can't wait. Life is good, Mackenzie is doing well and is continually making more noise each day. She is now to the stage where you say gibberish to her and she says it right back to you. I don't know if it is more entertaining for her or me? Between school, spending time with both Mackenzie and Natalie, my platter is pretty full. I love my classes so far this semester though. I am taking the advanced physiology class, histology, head and neck anatomy and first aid. I really enjoy head and neck. The other day we got to dissect on a cadaver's cranium. Checking out the human brain was pretty amazing, not to mention complexed. Don't worry next time I'm in the lab I will take pictures and post them on the blog, I am sure many of you are disappointed this time. Natalie seems to be loving being done with school and hanging out with Mackenzie. The only draw back is that it is always below zero outside and so she can never take her for walks. Mackenzie is getting on somewhat of a schedule of sleeping. Last night she slept the whole night through but tonight she decided to wake up right around ten and wanted to play, hence I am still up writing this. I have to say that Nat and I keep counting are blessings and are so thankful for the things the Lord has provided for us- not to mention one of His children to be a member of our family. I knew having a child would be so worthwhile after the joy I have felt with my nephew and nieces. Words can't describe the joy that comes from raising your own child and watching them develop and grow. I can't imagine anything bad ever happening to her or to Nat but know that the Lord is in charge and that regardless of what happens in this life if we are faithful and follow the Lord that we will be able to be together forever.

Recent Pictures of our beauty

I love this girl so much! I feel so lucky to stay at home with her all day. She is smiling all the time (especially with a full tummy) and grows more and more each day. We're so grateful for the blessing she is in our lives and we really couldn't (and don't want to) imagine our lives without her!

Mackenzie's Blessing

On the 10th we blessed Mackenzie. All of Keith's family came from Utah including Aunt Linda and Aunt Rebecca. We really appreciated all of the love and support. The blessing was really beautiful and I'm so grateful for a worthy husband who was able to do it. We didn't get a lot of pictures so we'd love it if those who did get them could e-mail them to us!

At Least Someone Likes His Singing....

Naptime

Christmas Break

With the new shorter semesters at BYU-I, we now have a very long Christmas break- 3 1/2 weeks! We've loved every minute and Mackenzie and I were sad to have Keith go back to school today. It's a really weird feeling to know that I'm done and won't have to deal with the stress of homework and studying anymore. Our break started off with an incredibly lazy week; one in which Keith and I said we would get a lot done but didn't. We had planned on staying in Idaho until New Years but a little twist in our plans occured when Keith's Uncle Dave passed away. We went to Utah the Sunday before Christmas and came back on Tuesday so it was a quick trip but worth the drive. Uncle Dave was battling cancer and was in a lot of pain. We were sad but so grateful that he could finally find peace. The funeral service was really beautiful. His daughters gave amazing talks reflecting upon Dave's life and I was grateful again that I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Uncle Dave a few times before his death. He was a wonderful man that will be sorely missed but I have no doubt in my mind that he is in a better place. With his death being so close to Christmas, it also provided the opportunity to reflect on Christ's atonement and the opportunity we all will have to live again and to have our families forever.

We were so lucky to have clear roads for our trip. Once we got back to Idaho, the snow started and didn't stop. Rachel and I had a fun adventure on the Friday after Christmas when we went shopping. I was pulling into my parents neighborhood and got stuck. The snow was so deep and the roads so icy it was really embarassing. We were finally rescued by an old man who pushed us back out of the neighborhood so we could come in a different entrance. A couple days later the Beckers got stuck a few times going home (only 5 minutes down the road) and Keith and I got stuck a couple times on the way to church (a mile down the road). Needless to say, we spent most of the break indoors. Christmas was a blast with Rachel and Heath's kids there and my parents got Guitar Hero World Tour so we had a lot of fun playing that. Mom made her yummy cinnamon rolls and we drank Stephen's hot chocolate which is my favorite. We spent the rest of the week at my parents and went home Monday only to pack up and go to Utah the next day. We spent New Years Eve at Keith's brother Kirk's house and stayed up late playing Rock Band. For New Years, we went to Dallas and Julie's house and partied with the Shaws. It was a great group of people and I loved getting to know Keith's extended family better. We stayed the night at Kirk's again and Mackenzie surprised us by sleeping for 8 hours!!! What an awesome night. She did it again the next night and I'm hoping that now that we're home, she'll get into a good schedule and keep up the long nights. To summarize the rest of the trip, I went to the dark side and dyed my hair brown. My roots got exceptionally dark when I was pregnant and I knew there was no way I could keep up blonde at this time in my life. Keith was scared to death to have me do it but he's pretty happy with it and so am I. We had the chance to see Katie, Jon, and their cute little girl Halle who is two days older than Mackenzie. I was also able to go see my Grandma Anderson (thanks for the yummy food!) and my closest cousin Michelle who was in town from Florida. Her two children are darling and it was a lot of fun to be able to catch up. On the 3rd, Mackenzie turned 2 months and Keith's mom threw me a baby shower with all of the cousins and aunts. Two of my good friends Amber and Holly were able to come and it was really fun to see them. Mackenzie ended up with bags and bags of cute clothes and headbands, all I want to do every day is dress her up! After that we had cake for Grandma Lovell's 90th birthday. It was a really fun day, thanks so much Joan for putting it all together!

Christmas Pictures