Spoon Fed

Makenna fed herself with a spoon for the first time today...lasagna! She's growing up so fast.
It seems that she has just taken off over the past week or so.
I'm celebrating and crying at the same time.

Makenna's Birthday Party

We invited our family over for a small get together at our house for Makenna's first birthday. We had a salad bar and tator tot casserole and of course - cupcakes and ice cream. Makenna was an absolute champ when it came to eating her birthday cupcake. SHE TORE IT UP! It was hysterical...and she didn't stop until she started rubbing her eyes with cake all over her hands.

Makenna got some cute clothes, some fun toys and a complete time capsule to open on her 18th birthday. My dad made her a beautiful wooden box to house all of the items that each guest brought to represent the last year and/or something personal. I look forward to many more birthdays to come and the "treasure" that lies ahead.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Birthday Lunch

We went to Firehouse Subs for lunch after church and Makenna got a grilled cheese sandwich. I'm only recording this because I recorded what Peyton ate for his birthday lunch and because this picture turned out so cute I just had to use it! (because I'm the mom that's why....!!!)

I'm 1 today!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

In an attempt to keep Makenna's upcoming birthday completely seperate from Christmas (per the MANY people I've talked to about growing up with a late December birthday), Brian and I feel that it is important to have all the Christmas decorations up and out of the way. Makenna will be 1 in a couple of days and boy do we have our work cut out for us! But it will be her special day and with having family and friends here the place has to be in tip top shape....and all the women agree...(laughing).

cleaning...grocery shopping...cooking...baking...wrapping...the list goes on.

I got up early this morning and ran downstairs to the laundry room and the tree elf (my hubby) had already taken the tree down! Wonderful! But there is still so much more to do....better get busy....

Christmas Morning

Once grandpa sent Peyton around to knock on everyone's door we gathered around for some traditional homemade hot chocolate. Makenna tasted her very first marshmellow, with much apprehension I might add. But she loved it! She also loved the hot chocolate. Too many pics to post them all...but here are some highlights...

Merry Christmas everybody!

Christmas Eve

It's a good thing that Peyton emailed Santa to let him know that we wouldn't be at home for Christmas but that he could deliver our presents at Granna and Grandpa's house. We went over to Granna's house after we opened gifts and our plan was eat dinner and then spend the night.

This year, the whole family was together. Eric, Lisa, and Sid were all there. We feasted over low country boil and it was DE-LISH!

and Peyton even did the dishes...ha ha...

We had a great time just being together...that's what it's all about right? Later that evening, we put Makenna in her Christmas gown and let Peyton open his one Christmas gift which is traditionally pj's. This year he was less than enthusiastic about a pair of pajamas...typical five year old. In any case they looked super cute!

Peyton sat out a plate full of cookies for Santa and off to bed they went...and we never heard a word out of either of them until after 8:30 the next morning!

Christmas Eve Day

I had to work until 1pm on Christmas Day but when I got home, we ate lunch, packed for Granna and Grandpa's house and then opened all of our gifts. We had so much fun watching the excitement in Peyton's eyes and Makenna was happy to finally get to tear some paper!

Makenna Walks

Makenna really took off with her walker this past weekend and she also started walking around the coffee table really well. She's been walking with assistance for a little while but she's really starting to show her independence now...in more ways than just walking.

Makenna Blows Kisses

Makenna's Temper Tantrum

Papa Chuck

Papa Chuck came into town this past weekend. We always enjoy his visits. We ate a lot of cookies, did a lot of shopping, played a lot of Wii, and just really enjoyed his company.

Whew Hoo!

I passed accounting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think all of you know how much of a struggle this class has been for me. I was sooooo excited when I found out yesterday that I passed! Whew hoo!

More Pictures from Previous Post

Mainline

We went to my brother and sister in law's church last Sunday evening to enjoy a performance put on by my brother's group "Mainline". They were A-W-E-S-O-M-E! They had the most beautiful sound. And of course, I cried most of the way through it. My brother and I are 9 years apart but one thing we have in common is the fact that we are both tender hearted especially when it comes to spiritual matters. Listening to him sing all of those songs about the baby Jesus...it just puts all things "Christmas" into perpective. ANYWAY...we had a good time and we also got to see my sister in law's family who we don't get to see very often. We took the opportunity to take a lot of pictures. Here are some of my favorites. (My brother is on the far left)

Splish Splash

These are some pictures that I ran across from a couple of weeks ago that couldn't go un-blogged.

Makenna is almost a year old and this was her first tub bath! We've been bathing her in the kitchen sink but her legs are getting too long and her splashes are getting way too big! She hated the baby bath tub that she had when she was an infant so we started bathing her in the sink and it just stuck. We decided to take a chance at the big tub and she had a great time playing, especially with this

rubber duck...

Baby Doll

This picture was taken the morning of Makenna's baby dedication. This dress was given to her in the hospital when she was born by a family friend. The rocking chair was mine was I was a baby. My dad restored it and it was also used by Peyton. Makenna is absolutly my little baby doll.

Early Christmas from Aunt Kristen

We received our Christmas gifts from Aunt Kristen and Uncle Nate and the kids had a blast! Peyton received the movie "Surfs Up" and a transformer. Makenna got OU sippy cups and a super cute OU cheerleader outfit. Brian got an OU Sooner book (kind of a scrapbook of sorts) and I got a bag full of Bath and Body goodies. Thank you Aunt Kristen and Uncle Nate!

PS We'll have to take another pic of Makenna. The one I took with my phone came out too blurry.

Friday Night

Brian and I took the kids to On the Border and discussed the possibility of getting a Wii. We had already decided to purchase one but it was a matter of do we buy it for Christmas or get it this spring? Our OTB experience was something else. I realized that I had a coupon for a free kids meal that I forgot. We spilled a whole glass of water not five minutes after sitting down. Makenna was throwing her sippy cup and gold fish all over the place and Peyton was whiiiiin-ny! What a night!

We went to Game Stop afterwards to look around but never did make the decision. We loaded the car back up and on the short drive from Game Stop to Walmart to get milk (we got the go ahead from the doctor that we can now give Makenna regular milk! whew hoo!) she fell slap to sleep! All we did was drive through 2 parking lots and she was out like a light!

We got home and with Peyton helping us carry stuff in realized that the bottles we brought home from the daycare had been turned upside down in the car and I now had milk all over the back seat floor board. UGH!

The night ended well when Makenna decided to crawl! She's been walking while holding on to your fingers but last night something clicked and she was crawling by us. It was so cute. Milestones in reverse order...that's ok.

Makenna's Baby Dedication

Last Sunday (the 7th) we had the opportunity to dedicate Makenna at church. I didn't get any outstanding pictures because Pastor Dale kept getting in the way. But that's ok, the important part was the pictures but having our little girl prayed over and dedicated. Below are some snapshots of being in front of the church and some afterwards at Olive Garden.

Rudolph

Last weekend while the whole family was in the car driving to a Christmas party, we were talking about the moon and the two planets that were visible. Peyton didn't want to see Mars because "that's where the aliens live". There were a couple of jet airplanes that were in view as well. In the distance was a red light and Peyton asked what it was. (This brought on the memory of the bright red light told in the following post.) I told him that it was Rudolph and he got so excited! He asked if that meant that Santa was coming that night. Brian spoke up real quick and said no, Santa and Rudolph are just making a trial run to make sure the sleigh was running smoothly. Whew...

Favorite Christmas Memory

When I was about 6 years old and living in Oklahoma, my brother (6 years older than me) came into my room on Christmas Eve and lead me over to the window. He showed me a bright red light up in the sky and told me it was Rudolph. Of course looking up to my brother I believed him! YEARS later I learned that it was actually a radio tower!

Cheese and Crackers

Makenna and I had a girls night in tonight. I brought home some assorted cheese and crackers from an after hours function at work and we had some fruit on the side. I cut up small pieces of cheddar cheese and gave her a couple of different crackers. While she was playing with that I was spreading brie on my cracker. When I looked over I noticed Makenna carefully putting her pieces of cheese on her cracker. But of course whenever she would pick up the cracker the cheese would fall off! It was too cute watching her.

Lunch with Peyton

I went and had lunch with Peyton today. His face was so cute when he saw me waiting in the school foyer. We walked hand in hand to the cafeteria and then he showed me all that I had to do. He chose pizza and I chose a fish sandwich. He also had carrots with ranch dressing and peas with chocolate milk. I had peas and applesauce with mine. We sat at the "boy table" and I got to talk with all of his little friends. Another mother came in and had lunch with her little boy and they sat at our table as well. After lunch (started at 10:25 and was over by 10:45) we walk back in a single file toward the classroom. I stopped back in the foyer and gave him a big hug and a kiss and thanked him for having lunch with me....his little face was beaming as I walked away. I will definitely have to make a once a month (at least) habit of "doing lunch".

Cookies

Peyton's class is doing a Christmas project that requires a 42 ounce oatmeal canister. Brian LOVES no bake cookies so I thought I would make some with all the oatmeal that I'm now storing in a Ziploc bag. While I was at it, I asked Peyton if he would like to help me make Rolo cookies. Brian jumped in as well. We had a good time...even though I did wonder at one point if I would have enough rolos with Brian snatching them behind my back!

Friends

Sunday afternoon we had our dear friends from Greenwood up for dinner...Denise and Drew. They used to be our neighbors and we miss them terribly but we try to get together and stay in touch.

Makenna had a great time with Drew. She just kept starring at him and smiling. We couldn't figure out if she was flirting with him or if she thought he looked like her daddy (glasses, baseball cap, etc)