Sunny Christmas

Sunshine at Christmas? Unheard of? Not in Southern California!! We spent the holiday with CeeCee and Poppa in California and had a wonderful time playing in Kenz's red rocking chair, opening presents and seeing lots of wonderful friends.

Chrismikkah... Hanumas...

Whatever it is in our house it means family!! Although I lit the candles EVERY night for Hanukkah (not sure that I've done that before), Mackenzie was only able to light them with me a few times! I told her to say "happy hanukkah" and she says, "happy chalk-ca!" My heart melted! After Hanukkah was over we decorated our house for Christmas and picked up our tree from our favorite farm, Enchanted Winds in Issaquah, our annual tradition. We also went to see Santa, our friend Mike, and Kenz was NOT having as much fun as last year!! She was scared of Santa and his friendly horses.

Freeman/Laidlaw Turkey Run

The Freeman's are coming! The Freeman's are coming!! It was almost like an invasion but a wanted invasion!! My dad, Mom Gen and my sisters came to conquer Covington and that they did! There were many highlights that included food, football and fun family times! From a game of Apples to Apples to celebrating Hanukkah, to seeing more family to eating A LOT of food, we had SO much fun with my family. Here are a few (okay a lot of) moments that were captured...

Luncheon with the Cousins

Coloring time with Nana G

don't mind the marker nose

Chill time with Zeyda

I'm a little scared that she looks so comfortable in this position!

Washington and Wisconsin playing at the SAME time... what to do???

2 televisions of course!!

Blake and his turkey!! YUM-O!

Peek-a-boo Mommy!

Kenz is LOVED!!

Aunties Marissa and Rachael

Freeman/Laidlaw Turkey Day 'RUN'

Snow, Snow and MORE Snow!!

Is it really November and snowing THIS much? In the last 2 days we have had about 8 inches of snow at our house. I stayed home with Mackenzie on Tuesday since daycare was closed and I took Wednesday off to prepare for the Freeman/Laidlaw Thanksgiving! Here are a few pictures from our snow time!

The Real Boss

The snow fell hard and fast today while we were all at work so daycare closed early. Since our daycare loves us, well really Kenz, they took her to their house so Blake could work a bit longer before calling it a day. Blake ran to pick her up and took her back to his office to pick up a few things and Miss Mackenzie was quick to jump into the boss role!

new bundle!

Moving and a new bundle!! Wow, what a month it has been. Blake and I are expecting a new little one in July... hold on tight, it's about to get interesting!

Commuting to daycare

It sounds ridiculous that we commute Mackenzie to daycare, but yes we do. We LOVE Ages in Stages so much we, really I mean Blake, drives her the 45 minutes to daycare before he takes himself to work. Our previous 5 minute dash home has turned into a show time for Blake and Kenz. It's a time filled with singing songs, playing peek-a-boo (keep your eyes on the road Daddy) and talking about their days. I have to admit I'm jealous of their time together but so glad that they have it. Since Blake is in Portland on business this week, I'm filling in as Kenz's driver. I had to capture this on film, of course! I would take this commute any day over the train into the city!

18 months!

It's official, we will no longer count months again in Mackenzie's life. From the moment of conception we counted days, weeks and months... over 2 years later we make the step to counting years. It's momentous as a parent to see those brief minutes of the last 18 months flash by and think of the next 18 plus years that will likely flash by just the same. Blake and I are so proud of the big girl Kenz has become. She's speaking in full sentences at times and knows so many objects by name and sound. She is learning Spanish and sings many songs with Blake and I, her favorite is "itsy bitsy spider" and "bumble bee". Many times Blake and I catch each others eye and beam with pride together when watching our girl play, sing, talk, and run. Kenz is content with coloring or playing with her toys by herself. She went for her 18 month check where she weighed in at 25.6 lbs which puts her in the 67% of growth percentile (just slightly less than her 15 month check up, likely due to increase in activity level). She is now 33" tall, which is 2 feet 9 inches and puts her in the 86% of growth percentile... our little munchkin... is so big!

Making a house your home

After 4 and 1/2 wonderful years we have lived in West Seattle in a townhouse that Blake bought while we were dating. It was a home we got engaged in, brought our pup Hudson home to, got married in and brought our first baby girl home. As many memories as that home gave us, it was just time for us to go. We found a wonderful home southeast of West Seattle that has a big yard for Huddy to play in and has only one level for Kenz to conquer. Although we are a bit farther from the city of Seattle it is so worth it! When preparing to move one must ready the house for the new tenants... Kenz wanted to help! Kenz helped pack the kitchen with me and helped clean up the yard with Daddy. Pictures of the new house to come...

Our little Big Mac(kenzie)

We thought it would only be appropriate that Mackenzie who sometimes dons the name Big Mac, be a burger for Halloween. Well, a burger isn't a burger without ketchup and mustard!! Yes, yes, we are that cheesy and we loved every second of it! To celebrate the holiday we went to our friend Addy's first birthday party and trick or treating with Auntie Courtney and Uncle Harry!

Bringing a little ALOHA

We've been hoping for the last year that maybe one day Auntie Kristy would come and visit from Hawaii! And she did!!! Unfortunately I couldn't take time off of work to play with her during the week but we made up for it at night and over the weekend. We made delicious dinners together and got caught up on some much needed girly time. I am so grateful to see my friend again and just wish that she could be here always. Kristy and Kenz got their girly time too... they went to the pumpkin patch, played in a furniture store and started a wonderful friendship together. Hurry back Kristy!!

Spoiled!!

Our little Kenz is very spoiled by family and friends... little gifts arrive in the mail frequently but some are hand delivered! Ceecee brought a "hard hat" from Poppa and just a few days later a package from Grand Aunties Mary and Kathy!! She got her first set of Micky Mouse ears with special lights and princess, duh, tiara. She also got a fun ABC book of doggies, one of Kenz's favorite subjects! Lucky and spoiled!!

CeeCee Time!

CeeCee came to visit us again! Even though Kenz was a little under the weather, she had a great time with CeeCee. She has already figured out that if she doesn't get what she wants from Mom and Dad, she should ask Grandma! When crying out for us in the middle of the night she realized that mommy and daddy weren't come to save her so she called for CeeCee! Thank goodness for grandmas! We loved having her visit and so grateful for our time with CeeCee! Although Poppa couldn't come he did send a sweet story/note and a personalized hard hat for Mackenzie! Next time Poppa has to come too!

3 Years Later

Almost 3 years ago I bought a jersey to surprise Blake with when we got pregnant. 9 months later I could finally give him the jersey and today, 2+ years later Mackenzie finally put her jersey on for our first Seahawks game day! Thankfully we got to celebrate a win! GO HAWKS!

Freeman's and Tobin's

My dad has come into town for his annual football trip and has brought along Marissa for her first year attending UW! We dropped her off at the dorms today to headed straight over to Lila and Joe's for breakfast were we got to see half of the Tobin crew (cousins of my grandparents). Although we missed the other girls Lila, Goldie and Joe were wonderful company and made a delicious spread of goodies for us!! Lila brought out her sheep collection for Mackenzie to play with and captured a few precious moments for us.

Oops!

While sitting on our bed with us early this morning, Mackenzie was listening to our conversation when Blake says, "that's bull sh*t". To which Kenz turned and looked at him and said "bull sh*t". My mouth was on the floor and my eyes bugging out, I couldn't help but chuckle. My sweet little angel said her first swear word! Oh dear.

Endless Summer... don't we wish!

We ended our summer with a final trip to Crescent Bar and had a BLAST! Kenz filled her days with playing in the sand, napping on the beach, jet skiing, boating and soaking up the sun! We went with the newlyweds Amy and Coulter and the Lanham family, Matt, Jenn, Dylan and friend Trey. As we did last year, we posed Kenz in the sand to commemorate the fun except this year there was no face plant into the sand!