6 Months

Our baby girl is 6 months old today and what an amazing 6 months it's been! I've been pretty bad at keeping up with her milestones so here's what she's been up to:

*She has two teeth (her bottom 2) and she's ready for a couple more to come through.
*She can sit independently, though she still takes an occasional head dive
*She rolls over in both directions
*She sleeps about 9 hours straight
*She loves rice cereal and oatmeal and hates her veggies!
*She has more than doubled her birth weight but is still a pretty petite girl. It seems she has the Shaw genes- long and lean the lucky girl
*She is an avid hand, thumb, finger, and toe sucker and after a rough weekend without the binky, she'll no longer take it
*Nor will she take the bottle which means we are attached every few hours which is a time I've come to look forward to
*She is getting pretty vocal which means lots of laughing, screaming, whining (she sounds like a puppy-it's pretty pathetic) and our favorite- she started saying "baba" all of the time and I'm pretty sure "mama" just slipped out of her mouth, yes I am the favored one.
*She is army crawling which means we have to be pretty careful about what we put on the ground. She is most passionate about paper which also means that she has eaten her fair share of scraps when she beats us to it. She also got her first paper cut the other day, streaking my book with blood which made me feel pretty bad and I now try to ban her from paper.
*She mouths everything she gets her hands on
*She passes objects from hand to hand
*She LOVES little kids, especially her cousins and will giggle easier for them than for anyone.

We are currently in Vegas where Keith is selling Pest Control so if you're in the area give us a call, we'd love to hang out. This is Keith's 4th (and hopefully last) year selling so he knows the area pretty well. We're lucky to be in Summerlin which is a pretty nice area and we're about a 5 minute walk from the library which is pretty ideal for me. And to prove again that global heating is SO not happening, Vegas has been in the 70's and 80's which is cooler than normal and feels AMAZING to our poor white Idaho skin. I'm glad we're getting a chance to adjust a bit to the sun before it becomes blazing hot.
I'll try to post some pics next month when we're home, I don't have internet access at our apartment and am able to type this because Nycole and Scott were nice enough to invite us over for dinner. We love you all and will hopefully get a chance to see a lot of you in the next couple of months before we leave for Kentucky!

Good Reads

I'm sure a lot of you know about this website already but I just discovered this gem through my lovely friend Devanie and I'm really excited about it! The website is goodreads.com and on it you can track what books you have read, are currently reading, and want to read. You can join groups, read reviews, see ratings, ect. Membership is free and signing up is quick and easy. You can add friends which I love so you can see what's on each others bookshelves. So if you sign up, add me as a friend and we can start sharing our good reads!

By the way, I just finished The Hunger Games and I LOVED it and highly, highly recommend it.

And what's a post without an updated picture (or two) of the lil' girl?

Our Famous Child

Yesterday was a momentous day! Keith graduated and we were able to walk in convocation together. Thanks to Johanna who made Mackenzie a cap and gown for graduation, she made the 6 o'clock news. She looked pretty dang cute and we now have video to document it. Here's the link: http://www.kidk.com/news/local/42825292.html

Little Princess

Mackenzie was good enough to model the tutu I made for her this week. At first she loved flying around....

Dancing around....

and then realized she wasn't so sure she liked the whole model deal...

Yep definitely not her thing....

Baby It's Cold Outside

Praying for warmer weather:

I've realized that I prefer to stalk blogs instead of updating my own. Every day is pretty much the same though: Mackenzie wakes up around 6 (it was 5 before the time change-yuck!) and eats. Usually she lets me put her back down and I unsuccessfully try to sleep while Keith's alarm proceeds to go off every 5 minutes for a good half hour. We're usually up around 7 and the rest of the day is filled with Mackenzie's eating, playing and sleeping while I try to squeeze in a few chapters from a book.

In the past couple of months I've read: Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng, Multiple Blessings by Kate Gosselin, P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Uglies, Pretties, and Specials all by Scott Westerfeld, The Host by Stephanie Meyer, and I'm currently reading Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama. The Secret Life of Bees was my favorite read but Life and Death in Shanghai was a close second. I learned a lot about China and felt again how grateful I am for the free country I live in. This book is a must read for those who believe socialism/Marxism is the way to go. I really enjoyed The Host once I got into it and for the past few nights I've had dreams about it. Scott Westerfeld's books are aimed at young adults and I think that's why I didn't like them as much as I wanted to. The first and second ones actually kept me fairly engrossed but with quite a bit of eye rolling. The third was a complete waste of my time but I had to find out what would happen to the characters. I hate that I do that; I can start an awful book or movie but I have to finish to see what the conclusion is. That brings me to the Presidents book. I'm about 60 pages in and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get through the rest. He's a great story teller which is no surprise but the voice of the book is one of superiority and haughtiness. I really am a book worm when I have the time for it!

On the 3rd, Mackenzie turned 4 months. She is growing so well, still on the long and lean side which is the opposite of what I thought my babies would be but with Keith for a husband, she has a good chance for height. She is typically a really happy baby full of smiles, especially for those her size. Mackenzie's been teething for a few weeks now and has recently developed the habit of chewing on her tongue which is pretty cute.

I finally feel as if my life is pretty normal but more fulfilled than it was pre-Mackenzie. I actually enjoy nursing her now and love to take her on walks. The 40 degree weather here lately feels like heaven and I'm so grateful for the chance to venture out of our little apartment and introduce Mackenzie to the outside world.

On the 7th, we went to my great grandma Wixom's funeral. Pauline Owens Wixom was born in August 1911! She was one tough woman who was orphaned at 14 and a convert to the LDS church. I remember her strong will and I only have fond memories of her. One in particular sticks out of her eating watermelon at my Grandma Pearson's house. Everyone was getting on her case to stop eating the watermelon because she was a diabetic. She proclaimed that if she was going to die, she was going to die happy eating what she wanted. If you're interested in reading her obituary click here.

Keith had a couple basketball games this past week with the ward team. He usually plays Saturday mornings at our church building but hasn't been able to lately with all of his weekend tests. He was glad to get back on the court and they won both of their games and they are now in the playoffs.

On the 14th, we went to the Idaho Falls school district 91's production of Grease. David is currently playing Danny in the play and did a fabulous job! The play was really well done and we had a lot of fun watching it.

Nycole and Scott flew in from Vegas and Grandma Anderson and Aunt Peggy came from Utah to see it. Keith and I spent the weekend at my parents so we could be with everyone and had a fun time being with all of my family again. Rachel and I encouraged a family picture but didn't have much success.

You think my family might not like having their pictures taken?