Love this!

I've made mistakes being a Mom, more than I'd like to admit. I am not perfect at all. But I will always be there for you, to hear you, to cheer for you, to laugh or cry with you, to protect you with my life and tell you things you don't want to hear. I will love you forever, even when you don't love me. No matter how old you get. No one will ever love you more than I do, because I am your Mom. Love you Baby Girl!

Pictures!

Finally have my frames filled!

Cake Smash photos I took for our party invites!

And here is a little snippet from her birthday party (her 3rd birthday party!)!

Letters to Makenzie

On the night you were born,

The moon smiled with such wonder

That the stars peeked in to see you

And the night wind whispered,

“Life will never be the same.”

~Nancy Tillman

Dear Makenzie,
A year ago you made me a mom and you made us a family, a wonderful family. Since the moment I knew you were going to be in our life I kept wondering what the next day would bring. Each day you have brought more and more happiness, which I didnt think was possible. I look forward to each and every moment I get to see you and spend time with you. I am excited to get you from your crib in the morning and snuggle with you until you wake up. You get so mad at me when I have to wake you to go to daycare. All you want to do is snuggle up in my arms and I treasure every second of that. I go through my whole day at work thinking about you and looking foward to picking you up from daycare. My favorite is when you see me from across the room and give me a give ol' smile and come over to me as fast as you can. You give me your giant bear hugs that I love so much while you nestle yourself in my arms and you start talking (babbling) up a storm. I think you are telling me all about you day. I love this.  
 
Since the moment you were placed in my arms I knew our life was changing.From our daily routine and holidays to feelings and emotions. You bring me new challenges everyday. It is true that a mother's instinct kicks in, even at the hardest times. You've taught me more in the past 12 months than I could have ever imagined. I now know what a mother's love is and how it feels. It is the most amazing feeling I could have ever dreamed of. I feel like my heart could burst out of my chest with the amount of love you have given me. It is a love that I didnt know exhisted. It is like no other and I truely would do anything for you. You've made me a stronger person.
 
Everyday you are learning something new and everyday you find ways to make me laugh. I love tickling you and could tickle you for hours just to hear that cute little laugh of yours, especially when it is a deep down belly laugh! Even on my worst days, all I have to do is look at you and see our family and you show me that nothing else matters. I enjoy watching each and every thing you do and I love to try and see in your mind at how fast it is moving and how fast you are learning and exploring the world. You definitely keep me on my toes, you are such a busy busy little girl and I tend to chase you around a lot. But I enjoy it and I get to watch you take in everything as fast as you can. You still love to snuggle with your mama, and you love to play with your daddy. He can make you laugh in a heartbeat. But my heart melts everytime you say mama and reach your hands out to snuggle with me. Your daddy and I peek in your room every night to check on you before we go to bed to see how you are all snuggled up with you babies. You love all of your babies and have your arms wrapped around as many as you can every night. One day you are going to be such a good little mommy. You are such a loving little girl.
 
I love you more and more everyday and I thank God everyday for bringing so much joy into our lives. Happy 1st birthday my baby girl, Makenzie Laine!
 
Love you forever and always,
Mommy

We officially have a 1 year old!!!

First of all, I can not believe I missed Makenzie's 11 month update! I mean seriously how could I forget?! Its not like I have had ANYTHING going on lately...It's not like we were on a super fun vacation or planning lots of birthday party fun! So here goes our LAST 1st year month update...

12 Months!

Weight: Well, I think Kenz is starting to thin out (I miss my super cubby cheeked little baby!) Once again we were at the doctor just before our trip and she was like 20.15 lbs (cant remember the exact #), and that was with her diaper and clothes on. We go for her 1 year apt this friday and we should have a better idea of her weight then.

Length: Still have no idea...I'll find out Friday, but I do know that she has shot up like crazy! And her feet are growing because I put the cutest pair of sandals on her for her bday party and they didnt fit! I just put them away a month or 2 ago because they were too big! I'm so sad because they were REALLY cute! But then again that happens with half of her clothes too! I always forget what I have!

Eats: Wow, how this has changes since 10 months! We started on whole milk when she turned 11 months. We started replacign her morning formula with milk and it went really well, so then the next 2 weeks we did milk for 2 bottles/sippy cups and finally last week we are completely dont with formula! She still gets one bottle (well its a bottle with a sippy cup nipple and handles, its kinda her nightly comfort/calm down thing and only gets it before bed) but that is with cold milk and she doesnt even notice the change from formula. As for food, we give her anything now, but she has become pretty picky! She coudl live off of fruit, yogurt or puffs/cereal. She still likes oatmeal too for breakfast. But I have had the hardest time getting her to eat her lunch and dinner lately. She used to be so good about eating anything, but now she seals her lips shut and turns her head. Needless to say, mealtime has become a bit of a frustration for me. I'm planning on asking her pedi about it, especially with her losing weight (however everyone tells me she doesnt looks skinny at all and still has lots of "chub." I guess I am just used to how chubby she was a few months ago)

Sleeps: Amazing, the only time she doesnt sleep well is when she is sick. We put her to bed between 8:30-9:30 and we wake her up at 7:15ish on the weekdays and she wakes up between 8-9 on the weekend.

Likes: She STILL loves the stairs...I dont think this will ever go away. She just loves climbing things in general. I love to see her problem solve. For example she will push a toy ove to another toy as a step stool so she can climb to the higher toy (piano thing) so she can sit on it. Even this weekend I caught her with her car up against the end table and she climbed on the back of the car to sit on the table...lil stinker! She loves to hummmmmm while she eats (unless she doesnt like what she is eating!) Another favorite is patty cake. As soon as she hears it she smiles and starts clapping, she even has the "roll it" part down too. Still loves her baths, and she LOVED the beach on our vacation! I was bummed we didnt have longer there. It makes me wish we lived closer to a beach so she could be a beach bum, well I would like to be a beach bum too!

Dislikes: Hates eating protein, getting dressed, getting changed, having mom check her gums for more teeth coming in, being at her high chair without snacks in front of her, being told no (of course, who likes that!?) Other than those things, not too much. Pretty happy girl!

Milestones: I have a WALKER! She started walking on fathers day and then off and on since then, but over the past few weeks she really took off. EXCEPT at her birthday party she wouldnt even think about walking! Crawled everywhere, then as soon as everyone left she was back to walkign all around! Seriously, I wanted to show her skills off and she let me down! LOL Too funny! She also has a molar! I didnt think molars came in kids until way later! But it turns out she got it the day before we left for vacation and I took her to the dr thinking she had another ear infection, nope, it was just a big tooth coming it! She now had 9 total. There could be more, but she wont let me look in her mouth :) She is talking way more....well kinda talking. Still dada, mama, baba, ha, etc. But I think she is connecting words to actual objects now. Like ball is ba and hot it ha, dog is da, etc.

I will post later on about her 3 birthday parties and our vacation! And of course some pictures!

Happy 10 months baby girl!

Weight: Just so happens we were at the Dr again on Makenzies 10 month bday and she weighed 20.01lbs! She is finally pushing 20lbs! Time to switch car seats! :) Well I already switched but she is still rear facing in mine. Jason is using her old car seat until she weighs a little more because the seat he got is only a forward facing ( for some reason we didnt pay attention to that when we got it. Yeah I know, duh right?!)

Length: I have no idea! But she is almost as tall as a little boy in daycare that is almost 2 (but he is really small) :)

Eats: What doesn't she eat now!? We pretty much let her try everything. And I think I am officially done with pureeing her food. As easy as it was, I was getting sick of our freezer being full of plastic bags of food and its just fun to be able to get her real food and she can eat with us. I admit I've been giving her some of the premade toddler meals by gerber just because they are convienient if we are going soemwhere and I need a back up. But for the most part I've been trying to give her anything we eat. For breakfast she usually has her baby oatmeal mixed with fruit or greek yogurt mixed with fruit and some cheerios while she is waiting for me to get it ready. Then for lunch she has been eating whatever daycare makes, anything from lettuce wraps to mac and cheese and she seems to always have a fruit and veggie there too. She has a snack there, usually crackers or something. Then at dinner she has whatever we have, usually. :) And she still gets 3 bottles a day, but I think we are going to start to get rid of one and eventually go to no bottles and just putting her formula in a sippy cup. In about 2 weeks (once she is 11 months) we are going to start transitioning to whole milk! So excited for no more formula! We will probably work on the transition for her whole 11 month so by the tiem she is 12 months she will officially be off formula! Yay!

Sleeps: Its been way better. I started actually trying to stick to a bed time and giving her her bottle at 8:30ish and then putting her in her crib at 9:30 even if she isnt asleep. We have never really done this, because she alwasy fell asleep while eating ehr bottle but stopped that a couple months ago and woudl rather start to play again after she ate. So now our routine is, she eats, plays for about 45 mins, brushes her teeth and then at 9:30 I just put her in her crib and she barely crys! The trip I found is she wanted a couple stuffed animals in her crib to snuggle with! See below :) She has become very fond of snuggling with her animals. It is so cute! I love that she grabs the husky one...I wonder if she knows that it is like her own puppies? (I know, I know, she shoudlnt have anything in her crib and she shouldnt have bumpers! Call me a bad mom, but it works for us so I'm sticking with it!)

Likes: Still loves climbing the stairs, she has learned how to climb on her lion walker  (even if she gets on backwards!) and she love to push it around. So cute! Loves her stuffed animals, loves snuggling with mama. Everytime I go to put her in the car seat and sit her on my lap while I move the straps she lays her head down on my chest and snuggles until I get her seat ready. Its only for maybe a minute, but I love it and think it is so sweet! She loves humming the whole tiem she eats...well only if she likes what she is eating. Its so funny when we are out and she does it, she is so loud! She loves going to the zoo and going for walks in her stroller. Her new liking is to try and stand up in the shopping cart at Target, even with the strap on her! Naughty girl! So she will cry until you hold her. Loves swim class! Her favorite is when we sit her on the side of the pool and she pushes her legs off to jump into us. It just blows my mind how fast she is growing and to think this time last year she wasnt even born yet! She is turning into such a little girl! I love this stage so much!

Dislikes: Mostly just getting dressed and laying on her back while I change. Oh yeah, hates getting lotion on still.
Milestones: She is officially a stander!!!!! She finally stands now for a little bit at a time, I think she is going to be walking ANY day!

I havent uploaded her 10 month pics yet so they will come later!  But here are some others for now!

 Her first kiss! How adorable!

 Some of her "Little Girls With Big Closets" modeling pics!

Had to get the picture with her in IA and NE 

Styling with her shades and pigtails in her new stroller (She even has adorable little peace sign sandals)!

First baseball game...she wasnt too thrilled if you cant tell! LOL 

 Told ya she like sto snuggle!

 Cutest little shorts ever!



Makenzie's First Swimming Lessons

Makenzie's First Swimming Lessons

Happy Mother's Day

My mom came into town this year for my first mothers day....I can't believe we didnt get a picture of her, me and kenzie. :( We will just have to get a belated one this summer on our next visit. Anyways our mothers day was um just eh. The time before and after was good...just not the actual day. Our brunch wasnt the best and the worst was Kenzie was sick. :( We didnt take her to the doctors until the next day, but I am glad we did because she ended up having a bad ear infection. At first we thought it started out as allergies, but then she was getting worse and worse. Poor baby...as you can see below she was not digging mothers day. Is that not the sadest face ever?! Breaks my heart! But at least I got some snuggle time with her since she isnt into that too much anymore! But I did get a pretty ring with Kenzie's birthstone (which just so happens to be my favorite color) from my hubby!

9 months already!

9 Months!!!Seriously, why is it that I used to have this blog post the DAY my baby girl hit her month bday and now it takes 2 weeks!? Oh well, better late than never I guess!!!

Weight: To my surprise she was only 18.11! I thought for sure she was pushing 20!

Length: According to "percise" measuring they do at the pediatricians (LOL, so far from precise!) she shrunk like an inch or something! Haha, I think she measured at 27.5" or 27.75" (I forget, its been so long since we went to her apt!) Too funny becasue when we got her last measurment and we measuring her on our little growth chart at home we could not figure out why she was so much shorter...so I just blamed it on my husband hanging the chart an inche off! :)

Eats: She is eating quite a lot now! We are giving her more of what we are eating and more finger food. She LOVES self feeding! We tried deli meat so she could get some protein sicne I am SO bad at pureeing it (not bad at it, just bad at bringing myself to make pureed meat for her....yuk!) Well she hates it...I dont know if it is the texture or the taste but she spits it out whenever we give it to her. She also had been holding and eating bananas and absolutely loved it! However, her belly must not like naners because she always gets a bellyache when she has them. :( So sad because I loved watching my lil monkey hold onto it like a big girl. Let see...she has had rice (didnt like that either, thinking texture again) I've broken down and given her a couple of the prepackaged organic meals. I think they are actually a lot better than the jar food. But I needed somethign with meat in it so I give her those every not and then. She also has had blueberries and loved them! And right now her favorite it gragham crackers and gold fish!

Sleeps: Eh...off and on. Definitely not bad by any means (compared to most babies) but not a perfect breeze like it used to be. It just takes us a little longer to get her to bed, she just fights it so much. We still have to wake her up in the mornings durign the week and she sleeps in until 7:30-8:30ish on the weekends. Still my absolute most favorite time ever with her is in the morning after I get her up and snuggling with her while she is waking up. If time could stand still ever morning I woudl be in heaven. 

Likes: Climbing stairs has become the most entertainign activity for her...EVER, chasing the dogs around her activity table, running (crawling) away from us when we try to pick her up (all while laughing hysterically), swim lessons, walking with her lion walker toy (pic below), hmmmmming while she eats, saying dadadadadadadadada, the best is when she "whispers" ba or da or ma consistently super quite. Its like she is just trying to pronounce something and cant get it completely out. :) LOVES the grass and being outside. (Thats my girl!) Favorite toy by far is her elephant stacker toy (below)....she loves it!

Dislikes: STILL ABSOLUTELY hates being dressed, undressed, changed, whatever. Hates it! She doesnt like sitting in her highchair UNLESS she has food to play with/eat. Ummm...doesnt like to keep her mouth closed when she goes under the water at swim lessons...hates sitting still or on her but at all, imediately crawls away when you put her down, doesn't like to wave bye to me when I drop her off at daycare (enter super sad face right here) I just dont get it...she waves ALL the time and to everyone but for some reason daycare she is just to preoccupied in everything else that she could care less to wave to me. :( Oh yeah, she also hates her cute lil nike tennis shoes we got her. Good thing we got them on sale for $13 instead of full price! LOL

Milestones: First swim lessons, waving, walking with her lion....think thats it for now.

Time for pictures!



I always forget

For some reason why I am writing my monthly blog updates for Kenzie I always forget what nicknames I have for her. But then I realized the majority of the ones I use I never even list! LOL Not like it is really important or anything! :) Here are the MOST used nicknames!

1. Punkin
2. Freddy
3. Freddy Betty Letty Jetty
4. Honey Bunches of Oats with a cherry on top (Yeah, I make long names!)
5. Kenzie K (I have no idea where the K came from, but it fits well) :)

Yup, those are the most used and so udderly riduculous. I know Miss Kenzie K will look back at this when she is older and say "Seriously mom, Freddy Betty Letty Jeddy, seriously what were you thinking?" Haha, Oh I can't wait!

Happy Easter weekend!

My lil bunny!

What is Easter without a trip to see the big scary Easter Bunny!?

She has a death grip on Mr. E.B's hand! LOL



8 Months! (SUPER late!)

8 Month Stats!

* Note...I did not get 8 month pictures to match the previous 7 months with her on her white blanket because this little sqwirmer would not sit still! She moved as soon as she was down, so we went outside where she could sit in the grass. She still wasnt too sure of the grass so she sat there. But now, she even crawls away in the grass when I put her down. :) Oh well! At least we will have the pictures of her in her chair, although that isnt working too well either! LOL

Weight: I think she is probably between 18-19 pounds...I think with her being way more active now, her weight might slow down a little. As long as she doesnt lose her cute rolly polly thighs I'm ok with that! :)

Length: Just slightly taller than last month. Maybe by a centimeter or 2...so just over 27 inches I guess?

Nicknames: Kenzie, Kenzie K, Baby girl, Sqwirmy Wormy, Princess, Baby, Hunny, Bugger, Baby Boo, Hugabunch, Lovie, Missie, Miss Priss, oh the list goes on....

Eats: So I figured out how many more cans of formula we will need and we only need to buy probably 6-9 more cans which equals $120-180! Woo hoo! I am SO glad to have that stage over with. Although I think I will miss giving her a bottle when she doesnt need it. I love watching Miss Makenzie grab onto the bottle and try to hold it and then she will hold on the the nipple part and just keep pushing it down. So cute and she hmmms and is just so relaxed. Yup, I am going to miss it. Anyways, I dont think we tired too many new food last month....more I guess this month. But since I am SO behind I have also forgotten what she has had! We are still pretty much on the same schedule...although I think I may have been over feeding her a littl ebecuase she has been spitting up quite a bit lately so I am trying to cut back on the portions.

Sleeps: Oh how I miss the days of swaddling and have totally realized how incredibly lucky we have been! So now we are trying to get her to have a bottle a little bit before bedtime so she doesnt always want to eat right before bed. Plus I think that was giving her some gas pains during the night. So we try to feed her an hour or two before her bedtime which is around 9, however sometimes we dont get too far away from her bedtime! So we give her a bottle and she will usually calm down and relax, but then "pops" up and goes into this crazy silliness super tired mode and giggles and smiles and climbs all over you and we have been having a tough time getting her to sleep after that. So at her bedtime then, we go upstairs and rock and she usually falls asleep easy while being rocked but the minute I reach her out to put her in her crib she freaks out! Flips ove rto her belly and crawls as fast as she can to the side of the crib and tries pulling herself up and then just starts nawing on the wood. (BTW we have a great crib protector on the front, but she always goes to the side and we cant find a protector that works right so now we have chewed up marks all down the top of the one side) After singing to her and rocking and rubbing her back, face and hair, she will FINALLY fall asleeps usually like a hour after all of that. Its still not awful compared to most babies, I htink we were just too spoiled and now we are getting a little taste of newborn sleeping habits. :) But at least she is still stayign asleep once she lets herself fall into that deep sleep

Likes: What doesnt this girl love!? Oh wait, we are starting to see her personally and is letting us know what she hates! LOL You could sit her on the floor with a pile of toys and she will be happy for hours. She still loves walkign round and round and round her activity table. She started crawling and crawls EVERYWHERE. One of my favorites, she loves snuggle time in the moring right after I wake her up and she just wants to snuggle for a few minutes before she wakes up. And then she loves when the dogs come to tell her good morning and she giggles and then is awake :) (Thats our weekly routine) Still loves her baths and could stay in the forever if we let her. She loves pulling herself up on everything she can, including the stairs! As always, the list could go on and on!

Dislikes: Still not too thrilled with the idea of me not having her if she has a choice between two people in a room. Her poor Daddy just wants to be loved too! But that will come when she is older. Baby girls cling to their mama as babies and then usually cling to their daddies as they grow up. She ABSOLUTELY still hates being dressed, undressed, changed, whatever. Hates it, I mean really throws a fit every time I change her clothes. And diaper changes have gotten hard because she immediately rolls to her belly and then I have to try and hold her down which then makes for unhappy diaper changes...she has also definitely started noticing that her mama puts clips or headbands in her hair and always pulls on them now. There are still some times I can get away with her not bothering it.She still isnt too fond of her veggies...btu if I mix them with something she does like, she will usually still eat them.

Milestones: Crawling like a pro, climbing stairs, sitting in grocery carts without her car seat, sitting in high chairs...this baby girl is growign way too fast!

Theres a hint of a smile!

Trying to keep her occupied with a bow...not even a chance of her looking up or stay seated for more than 2 seconds. :)

This is how our photo shoot went...

Nothing like Mama and her girl!

Climbing the stairs!!!

 Can you tell she LOVES bath time!? She stands there and gets SO incredibly excited and tries so hard to pull herself into the tub. 

    2nd time to the zoo, she was only a few weeks old when she went on her first zoo trip and slept through the whole first one. This time, she left for at least half of it. :)

This would be her sleeping :)


Playing at the park with Aunt Lynn!