Parade of Lights

Last Friday night we went to the Parade of Lights here in Denver (Downtown).  It is the big Christmas Parade.  It was so much fun, except we wish we had gone about an hour or more earlier to get a good spot to see.  But we still had a wonderful time with our friends Chelsea, Nathan, and Luke. 

Mackenzie had to sit on Adam's shoulders to see, and she sat there almost the enitre parade.  We left maybe 15 or 20 mins before the end, and it was a LONG parade, so she did awesome!  She was amazed by all the lights, loved the balloons, and danced when the bands came down the street playing music.  I am so glad we went.

Kenzie on her daddy's shoulders

This was the first of I think 4 big balloons that they had.

Luke, Nate, and Chelsea

Thanksgiving

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving this year to see some of Adam's family.  It was really fun to get to spend time with them.  It was also great to let Mackenzie "re"meet her cousins.  It has been so long since we have been with them.  We stayed in Bountiful with Adam's sister Alison and husband Ryan, and spent lots of time in Provo with Adam's brother Joe and wife Tina and his little sister Amy and her boyfriend Mike.

Here are a few pictures of us there.

Alison holding Samuel and Mackenzie with Joseph peeking in...they were watching Disney stuff on the computer.

Then we went to Temple Square on Sunday night because we ended up staying a few extra days.  We were planning on leaving Sunday morning, but they had a big snow storm (as you can see) and we didn't want to drive on bad roads. 

It was fun to see Temple Square in Salt Lake again!  The Christmas lights are just so fun!

Mackenzie and me with Ali and Ryan

The Salt Lake City Temple

Thanks everyone for making our Thanksgiving so fun!

Toy Store Visit

A LONG TIME AGO...we went to Toys-r-Us because they were having lots of fun stuff going on.  It was a new store opening.

So we got a few pictures and Mackenzie had fun being there with all the other kids.

But Sunshine Bear, Barbie, Iron Man, and Geoffery were there to visit.  There was a clown doing face painting, and other little things.  So we got a few pictures.

Sunshine Bear

With Barbie, except Mackenzie was staring at the next little girl ready to take a picture.

Mackenzie's #2

Ok, so I am a bad mom!  Mackenzie had her second birthday 2 1/2 months ago and I haven't blogged about it!  Well, here are some pictures to show her party...and then I will right more.  But this was just a party for Mommy, Daddy, and Mackenzie.  We didn't do a big party this year like we did last year.



Mackenzie helped me decorate her cake!




She loved blowing out her candles...we sang to her 3 times so she could blow out her candles.  Yeah, she wouldn't blow out her candles unless we sang Happy Birthday. 



She got some cute sunglasses.

And some awesome new tennis shoes.

A new baby doll.

And then she ate her cake.  Most kids are funny because they get really messy, but not mine.  When she gets messy she gets upset and tells me she needs a napkin!

Grandma Rankin sent Mackenzie 2 new blankets.  Her other one is kinda falling apart because she carries it with her every where we go!  So Thanks Grandma

We also had a party for Mackenzie when we went to my parents house a few weeks later.  For some reason I don't have those pictures but I will have to get those and write about that later. 

I haven't disappeared forever!

So life has been CRAZY lately.  But here are a few little blogs about things that have gone on in our little lives.

So one thing...a few months ago, before my friend Auburn had her baby, the girls went out to lunch just to have fun together without any babies! 

Here is the only picture we got to remember the lunch.  We got a host to take the picture, and lets just say he didn't know what in the world he was doing.  I thought everyone these days could take a "decent" picture.  I was wrong.  But it was so fun to just sit and chat and eat for a couple hours!

The four girls! (Me, Chelsea, Auburn, and Tanya)

Chelsea can't help herself at Macaroni Grill...she had to right on the table!

Finally pics from NC

Mackenzie and I went to NC for almost 3 weeks and had a great time. We were able to go for my nephews baby blessing. I just have to say that I have the greatest husband in the world. I go to my parents house for weeks and he loves me enough to let me go without complaining.

We had so much fun!

Mackenzie played with blocks. Poppy even built a bridge for her to crawl under...



Kenz ran around outside after church while the family was all taking pictures...


Kenz got dressed up for halloween and went to the trunk-or-treat at church...


We went to the planetarium and Aunt Katie put on a puppet show with Kenz...

We went to the park...

Mackenzie was teaching cousin Kaden how to play with his toy...

She hugged him...

and talked to him...

Got lots of treats out of the pantry...

Worked on her abs...

and helped cook dinner...

What a great time!

Another Form of Torture

Who really likes Day Light Savings Time...
Teenagers
People without kids

I guess that is about it. For those of us with toddlers, infants, other kids that don't understand that we get an extra hour of sleep...this night is just torture.

Mackenzie went to bed around 9 (which is later than normal). I went to bed soon after because I knew it might be a very very early morning.

Then around 5 AM I hear little pitter patter footsteps in her room, a door open, and then a little girl showed up in my room telling mommy HAPPY GIRL WAKE UP!

What is this? 5 AM? She usually wakes up around 630 or 7. 5?!?!? There is just something about change, even if she doesn't know there is a change. She just never does what she is supposed to do!

But I guess I can't complain because she was really tired yesterday because I was trying to get her to take her nap a little later. She went to bed at 730 and then slept in this morning until 730. But 5 AM....IT WAS A LONG LONG LONG LONG MORNING yesterday!

At 2 Years Old

I am doing this kinda for me, but enjoy if you would like...


At 2 years old, Mackenzie is just doing so MUCH. She has such a personality and really is so funny.


- At night we go through a whole routine...watch cartoons with chocolate milk, go brush teeth, say prayers as a family, then she hugs daddy goodnight and gives kisses..over and over...and then gets daddy to help her pick out 2 books to read with mommy, gets in my lap and then does the funniest thing. As Adam leaves he says see you later alligator and then she replies crocodile (pokadile) and then over and over laughs saying alligator, crocadile, alligator, crocadile until he leaves.


-She likes to tell me what songs to sing a night
Night Night Song (A made up song about going to bed)
Prayer Song (I know Heavenly Father Loves Me, primary song)
Chocolate Milk Song (Another Made up song)
Church Song (any Primary song)
Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting...)

- I have to give all of her animals a hug and kiss at night or she won't go to bed.

-She repeats everything you say, and doesn't forget anything!! If you say something about going to the park after her nap...that is the first thing she asks when she wakes up.

-She loves riding in her stroller.

-She has to be involved in EVERYTHING...If I am cooking, doing the dishes, or unloading the dishwaser, etc. she wants to put on her apron, stand on a chair, and help.

-She loves to play hide and seek. When she hides she usually goes to her closet and hides in the corner and closes her eyes (If her eyes are closed you can't see her). SO we go around the room looking everywhere else for her and she loves it.

- Now she wants me and Adam to hide, so we close our eyes and she walks around the room saying things like "door? NOPE!", "under bed?, NOPE"! It is so funny.

-She knows our house when we are riding down the road. As we are driving she starts saying "this house?, NO, this house?, NO!" until we get to our house and then says HOME!

-She loves "talking" on the phone. She walks around with her play cell phone and talks to everyone.

-She doesn't like being dirty. If we are eating and her fingers get ANYTHING on them she has to have a napkin. It can be annoying when we are all trying to eat and every bite she wants to clean her hands.

-She is doing much better in her carseat. She loves looking out the window and telling us what she sees.

-She is just talking soooooo much. There isn't anything she doesn't talk about. And if we really don't understand what she is saying (which isn't very often), she will grab our hand and try to show us things to help us understand. SO SMART!

- She is ready to be potty trained, but I am waiting until January when we get back from all our traveling. She has to be in the bathroom whenever we are and she sits on our potty and even wants toilet paper to "Wipe" even though she is still fully dressed)

- She loves to brush her teeth. I brush them first and then she always wants to make sure she gets all the plaque off herself.

-She loves to sing especially the Wiggles. It is the funniest thing to watch in the car because she does the moves and everything. I am impressed with the amount of songs she knows.

-She loves to watch movies...everything from Snow White and Cinderella to Barney and Mickey Mouse and everything in between.

I can't really think anymore right now...but I will try to post some more if I can remember.

So there is a little more information about my big big 2 year old!

2 Years Old

I can't believe my little girl is already 2 years old. Except if you ask her, she replies "Almost 2". We have been working on changing this response with no success so far.

For her birthday this year, we didn't do a big party. We just celebrated with Mommy, Daddy, and Kenzie. We went to Red Robin for dinner because she loves the big bird in the restaurant. After dinner, we came home to have cake and presents. There will be pictures to come later.

Last Sunday after church we decided to take a drive up in the mountains. We also thought this would be a great time to take some 2 year pictures of Kenzie, so thanks Adam for the very cute shots! Here are just a few.








This is a signature look of our little girl. If she doesn't want to listen to what you have to say!

House Update

So I haven't put up any before and after pictures of some of the stuff we have done in our house. Ok, I don't even know if I put up before pics when we first bought the house...so I am going to try to start doing some. We have done a ton to the house, but still have SOOOOO much to do. So here we go....

Upstairs bathroom:

Before-

We painted the walls from the beautiful bright pink, took down the sliding door, refinished the tub, switched all the fixtures (except theh light) to bronze and cleaned a LOT!

We still want to tile the floor, and get a new vanity, mirror, and light fixture!

Our extra bedroom upstairs...which will be our new nursery whenever we have a second child.:

Before-

The Robins egg blue is now a cute purple (this was going to be the room we moved Mackenzie into once she got out of a crib, but we decided just to keep her in her nursery, so we might have to paint this room again at some point. We will just see...for now it is good.

We painted this room and put up a new fan.

(The dresser needs to be redone, I just haven't done it yet.)

The Master Bedroom:

Before-

We painted this room and put in a new fan.

Mackenzie's Room:

Before-

We Painted, and put in a new fan.

In all of the rooms we had to clean a ton, got the carpets cleaned (they were disgusting), built new closets, they were all a single closet with just one bar along the top, and we changed them all to a double closet to hang more clothes. We also had to paint all of the ceilings because they were the same tanish pink color as the walls were. So they are all white now. We also had to put new outlets and outlet covers everywhere because the people who left this house ripped them all ot of the walls so there were only wires hanging out of the walls. We also had to put new doors on everything because they took all of those too. We haven't put a ton of doors up yet, but we are doing that slowly.

We need to get new carpet in these bedrooms and then they will be completely done.

I will take pics of more of the house soon. THis is just a start!