Santa Does Exist!

Christmas came late this year thanks to the local weather. Santa wasn't able to deliver all the presents to the good little girls and boys in our area until today when a snow plow and FedEx finally made it down our road.


McKenzie and Matt's final Christmas present arrived today and was a huge hit, as you can see from McKenzie's face above, even though we only got to play with it inside. When I was trying to figure out what Santa would bring for McKenzie I remembered something that Matt had said jokingly earlier in the year - that he wanted to rig up a remote control car that he could drive McKenzie around on. When I put this query into Google what to my wondering eyes should appear but that very item! I had so many different models to choose from it was hard to pick until I saw the Mini Cooper and I knew it was the one.

For years I have wanted a Mini Cooper but I could see how impractical it would have been for my life with two big dogs and kids. I even went so far as to make my sister meet me in Fife home of the only Mini dealer in the state a few years ago so I could try putting one of her car seats into a Mini to see if it would be possible. I finally decided to give up that dream (for now) and got a cross over SUV that can handle the amount of stuff I am now required to haul on even the shortest trip from home.


So this car can be driven by McKenzie or controlled by remote by Dad - fun for everyone especially Mom who was glad to sit on the sidelines and watch the two of them enjoy the car. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to take it out for a spin in the neighborhood now that the snow plow has been by.

Silent Night!

• Doll Stroller from the Variety Store in Chelan $4.99
  
• Setting Up McKenzie's Big Girl Room Free from Grandpa & Grandma C
• Monkey Sheets from Pottery Barn $59.99

• McKenzie sleeping in her big girl bed Priceless!

Yesterday my mom spent all day over at our house helping me clean and organize the old guest bedroom into McKenzie's big girl room. Then my Dad and Uncle Eric came to deliver her big girl bed. We got it all set up and made some adjustments today and got it ready for the trial run.

McKenzie has been a great sleeper her whole life - I'm praying to the sleep gods that I'll be as lucky this second time around. She started sleeping through the night in her own crib in her own room at a month and a half and has only had a few hiccups on that sleep schedule since. The biggest issue actually has been if we aren't at home and she has to sleep in the same room as us. She is definitely not a co-sleeper, she doesn't want to just cuddle up and lay with us instead if we try to bring her into our bed she seems to go crazy, jumping on us and laughing. Not too funny for us when all we want to do is keep sleeping. I was a little worried about how the transition to a big girl bed might go given her desire to just play while on real beds.

Matt headed out to the gym and I got McKenzie ready for bed, we brushed her teeth, put on her pj's and then gathered her stuff - multiple babies, flat monkey and a blanket and headed for her big girl room. We read three books laying down in her bed and then I got up and told her goodnight and I'd see her in the morning. She sat up and waved at me and so I closed the door... and went into the office next door with the baby monitor and started scouring the Internet for articles on how to make the transition from crib to bed... better late than never I figured. I could hear her in her room playing, knocking on the door and just making noise for about 45 minutes and then the action slowed and gradually became silence. It's pretty typical for her to play for that long before falling asleep, we usually hear her in her crib for that long.

Matt called on his way home from the gym and I told him to call again when he reached the driveway so I could let the dogs out without them barking, terrified we'd wake her up. When he got home we got the camera and crept upstairs, pausing to peek under the door thinking we'd see her laying on her floor. We were pleasantly surprised to find her fast asleep in her bed with her many babies and her beloved baby stroller.

We'll see how the rest of the night goes and the morning but I'm relieved that is is possible for her to fall asleep in her own bed by herself! Here's hoping for a silent night!

Yes, we did remove the baby stroller from her bed after taking the picture.

Christmas!

Christmas 2007

Christmas has gotten a lot more fun with the addition of McKenzie in our lives. It's so exciting to see her experience the different elements of the season from the music, food, family and the presents! Last year's Christmas she was much more interested in the ribbons and wrapping than she was what was inside. This year she was a little more interested but clearly she was easily overwhelmed with multiple new things at once. She was able to open presents on her own but often became distracted before she got it open and wandered off to play with something else. Next year will be a whole different world.

Here's McKenzie at Christmas last year checking out some presents under the tree - it's amazing how much she has changed and learned in this past year.

Christmas 2008

We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Kacey and Uncle Eric's house for a fantastic prime rib lunch then on to Matt's Uncle Dick and Aunt Gayle's house for a fun filled evening with the lots of extended family. Christmas morning we were at home and we opened our presents. Minus the 'big' gift for Matt and McKenzie which still has not arrived - stay tuned for a future post once that arrives! Then we headed out to Monroe and spent the rest of Christmas day at Grandma and Grandpa Z's house. We were beat when we came home and were happy to be home.

McKenzie got spoiled with fun gifts the highlight so far seems to be her new babies (twins!) and a mini stroller. She loves babies so much and just wants to 'help', I'm going to have my hands full when baby boy arrives in 32 days! She was very helpful with cousin Claire, always trying to give her a bottle and even tried to pick her up twice! We're going to have to really work on that once we bring the new baby home. Here's McKenzie helping Aunt Jennifer with Claire while we opened presents.


It snowed every day here through the 26th - while it was really nice to have a white Christmas it gets a little old trying to drive around in the snow. We were really happy to see some rain today which melted some of the snow but there's still a lot out there! Let's hope the weather continues to warm up.

Here's McKenzie on Christmas morning looking at her stocking - I love black and white pictures and the contrast that you can get in them. Picasa is such a great tool to work with photos in!


Hope everyone had as merry of a Christmas as we did!

Virtual Christmas!

Since the Northwest has turned into a 'Winter Wonderland' just in time to delay almost all our holiday packages we are celebrating Christmas minus some very important items we ordered online. In the spirit of the season I'm sitting up late on Christmas Eve printing out 'you would have gotten this...' letters to the family. The one gift I can deliver on that is delayed is the yearly addition of photo books featuring the grand kids that we've been making for the Grandparents.

Photoworks has a great feature where you can make your books and then without even purchasing them you can share them with people. Since the real copies didn't arrive I'm posting the links here for the Grandparents to check them out while they wait for their real copies!

Merry Christmas to all!!

Click Here for McKenzie and Claire

Click Here for McKenzie, Kayla and Nathan

Dreaming of a white Christmas...

What is this white stuff? This is not McKenzie's first snowfall, we had a couple of snowy days last year and then we took a trip over to visit Grandma and Grandpa C in Chelan where they had over three feet of snow! Last year McKenzie really didn't appreciate the snow since she wasn't even crawling at the time it wasn't that much fun. Here she is clearly having the time of her life riding in a sled - good thing we strapped her in since she couldn't even move in that snowsuit.


This year after some initial hesitation and a little frustration at the snow for getting onto her boots she has learned to love it. Thanks to Kayla and Nathan for showing her how much fun snow can be.

Behold Our Family Christmas Tree!

Clark: "The Griswold family Christmas tree."
Ellen: "Isn't it a little big?"
Clark: "It's not big. It's just full."
Russ: "Dad, that thing wouldn't fit in our yard."
Clark: "It's not going in our yard Russ. It's going in our living room."
~ National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

McKenzie 'helping' her Daddy cut down the tree! Not quite as big as the Griswold's tree but still huge!

We love to get our Christmas tree early in the season and enjoy it for as long as possible. This year we headed out after have a 'Thanksgiving brunch' on November 30th with Grandma and Grandpa Z, Uncle Chris, Aunt Jennifer, Aunt Anne, cousin Patti and cousin Claire. We met up with Aunt Kacey, Uncle Eric, and cousins Nathan and Kayla at the tree farm.

Two years ago we waited until two weekends after Thanksgiving to get our trees and we got turned away at our usual tree farm because they were out of trees. So we set out exploring for a new place to get a tree and stumbled across a new tree farm that was down by the river and had been flooded a bit with all the rains. The price was right but we all discovered our trees were two toned from the flood waters. This year we tried that tree farm again and were surprised at the size of the trees - no need to worry about two toned trees since we would all have to cut several feet off our trees to get them in our houses. We got a beautiful tree and had an adventure trying to get it to stand up in our tree stand because the trunk is very narrow but it looks great and McKenzie is enjoying looking at all the pretty lights and ornaments.


McKenzie loves to look at the pictures on a digital camera - unfortunately she doesn't always allow you to actually take a picture because she's too interested in looking at them!


The cousins scouting for trees...

Matt loading our trees onto the tractor bed - these things were huge!

Christmas Elves!

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