What Really Matters

I don't have the emotional energy to do this post justice right now, but I have to take the time to quickly express my gratitude and appreciation to the Lord for watching over my family...my baby girl!

Makenna almost drowned in the pool today during a pool party. She was found upside down, limp, not breathing, face and lips blue. Our friend KC had decided to come with his wife and family to swim today instead of working...certainly not by chance. He is in the coast guard and quickly took action and began CPR and was able to resuscitate her after about a minute or so. I have never felt the pain, the anguish, the fear that I felt during that minute and a half. It was without a doubt the scariest, most difficult, traumatic thing I have ever been through. No parent should ever see their child like that. But KC brought her back to life. He saved my baby girl and for that I will forever hold a huge place in my heart for him. No amount of thanks, not even the grandest gesture in the world, could do justice to how grateful I am to him for what he did for my daughter.

The paramedics arrived, examined her and brought us quickly to the hospital. By then she was responsive and talking, but she needed to be monitored for 6 hours after the incident. She looked great and was sent home with us with a very promising, optimistic report. She already seems back to her old self and one would never know by looking at her that only 12 hours ago she was fighting for her life.

My heart is so full of thanks to our Father in Heaven. I know he watches over and cares for each and every one of his children. Today I truly saw his hand at work in my daughters life. He knows us and is aware of us, and he protected my family today. I love the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and soul.

And to my little Makenna. You mean the world to me. You are my love and my joy, my angel every day. You mean everything to me. There is nothing in this world I wouldn't do for you and that you don't deserve. I love everything about you and always will. You have my heart and it is yours forever. You have changed my life and brought love and meaning to it that never existed before. You have changed who I am and made me a better woman than I could have ever been. You make the world a better place simply by being in it. You are too loved to leave us now. You are my baby and always will be. I love you! Always!

"Happy Day, Brooke!"

Yesterday Makenna, Kellen and I got to go up and see our sweet baby Brooke. Brooke was born on July 18th and Makenna has been so anxious to go and see her baby cousin for the whole day!

When we told her that Brooke was born on Saturday and that she would get to visit her on Tuesday Makenna said, "It's baby Brooke's Happy Day?" (Kenna's way of saying Birthday) And I said, "Yes, it's Brooke's Happy Day!" (Because it very literally was!) Makenna then wanted to make sure that Brooke's "Happy Day" would be accompanied by "Happy Cake" "Party Hats" and "Whistles" And so we figured sure, why not?! My mom made a cake, I bought the party hats and party horns and we threw Brooke her first little "Birthday Party". It was actually so sweet and the kids had so much fun with it that I decided this will be a tradition in our family when we bring babies home from the hospital. I think it is a great way to get the little ones to have fun, be excited and feel involved verses be sad about the attention that is taken away from them or get jealous in any way. So the party, though small and simple, was a lot of fun and very sweet. Happy Day Baby Brooke!

A very happy party girl!

Truly the cutest baby around!

No wonder this boy has his mama wrapped around her finger...he is such a goof!

I just love my little niece to death! She is the cutest little thing and is such a sweet little baby. It has been so neat to see my sister as a mommy. She has wanted this for so long and you can just see the happiness and joy written all over her face. Life is good for them. And we are so happy to have Brooke in our lives. She is such a doll!

Kenna was great with the baby and loved to hold her! She was so gentle and sweet and very interested in helping out and being a good big cousin to Brooke. It amazed me how much different she is now from when Kellen was a baby and we brought him home. It makes you realize how much they really grow up in just a matter of months. She is so much bigger and more mature now. It makes me excited to see how she will be as a big sister to the next baby we bring home, which still won't be for awhile :)

The proud cousin holding her baby

Sweet little Brookers!

I can't wait to see what good buddies these two will be

The cousins together. Kellen was being very lovey and kept giving Kenna kisses!

Funny Conversations

"Kenna, it's time to get dressed. Do you want to pick out your clothes or do want mommy to?"

"You do it mommy."

"okay"

I go and decide it would be fun for her to wear a dress today, so I pick out summery one and come back with it to put it on her.

She stares at me.

"Mommy. What's that? It's not church today!"

(Apparently I am bad at having my daughter wear dresses on any other day than Sunday)

"Mommy, Kellen is silly"

"Yes he is. He is a silly boy!"

"He's not a boy mama! He's a baby!"

"Yes, he's a baby boy"

"Yeah"

"Are you a girl or a boy"

"I a Girl"

"Is mommy a girl or a boy?"
"Mommy is a girl."

"Is Baby Brooke a girl or a boy."

"Mama, that is silly....Baby Brooke is a belly!"

(I had thought that Makenna understood that baby Brooke was IN the belly and that now she is OUT, but I guess not. Maybe seeing her in real life tomorrow will connect the pieces. But it was so funny...I was cracking up!)

Kellen Boy, Babe, Bud

Well, I recently gave a good update on Kellen, but I wanted to add a few pictures and videos of the little guy getting around and doing his thing. Kellen seems to have aquired some nicknames from Makenna these days. She rarely calls him Kellen. It is almost always Babe or Bud...mostly Bud. And now I find myself calling him Bud all the time. It's adorable when Makenna wakes up in the morning. She will come out in the living room and say "Hey Bud, how you doing? I missed you Bud!" and give him hugs and kisses. And his face just lights up sooo much when he sees her! They are going to be such good little pals.

So here is our little Bud!

Our big stander. Apparantly my kids like to stand and cruise before they crawl. They are just in too big of a hurry to get to walking. Makenna did the same thing as a baby.

Kellen Loves Bella right now! Here he is getting some Doggy Love. I swear he says "dog dog" when he sees her!

Such a happy baby boy...most of the time!

Kellen is a splash'aholic. The kid is insane in the bath. Seriously, insane! This video proves it. It is quite a clean up job at the end of each bath time. Some days Makenna enjoys it, other days she doesn't at all. This particular night she was quite annoyed, as you can tell in the video.

Kellen is finally army crawling, in his own fashion. It is hysterical to watch. But you feel bad for the little Bud. He works so hard to move....life would be much easier for him if he would just crawl. He does get on his knees a lot, so I think "real" crawling will happen soon. But here is him for now.

"Just Kenna!"

My little Makenna Mae is just starting to seem not so little anymore. I mean, yes, she is still very young, needy, dependant, small, innocent (mostly), and just a wee one. But she is growing up, and it feels like it is happening right before my eyes. Actually, more than growing up, she seems to be maturing so much. Her vocabulary has just exploded. It still cracks me up to find myself in the middle of full on conversations with my little toddler daughter. She is quite funny too. There is no way I could record every funny thing she says, but she has me laughing all day. If you ask her her name she will say "Kenna." (which sounds like 'tenna' since she has a hard time with the K sound). Then I will say, "Is your name Makenna?" And she'll say, "No mama, Just Kenna!" She loves to tell me every day that she is getting "Bigger and bigger and bigger!" She will often invite me to do something with her and when I say yes she will respond, "Sure Mama, that be a good idea!" She uses very good manners when she talks. A lot of "Oh, thank you mama, Thank you so much!" She loves her little brother and any time he stands up she says "Look mama, baby Kellen ('Tellen') is standing all by himself. He's learning to grow up!" It's just so cute!

She is also so much more fun to hang out with now that she is putting the confrontational, two year old side behind her. She is so much more cooperative, easy going, friendly, and just much less feisty than she has been. I think she is learning how to control her frustrations and anger and is less tempted to test her boundaries. This all comes as a big relief to her parents! I feel like I have my sweet little daughter back that has been possessed for the last little while :) I was thinking the other day about how much I adore this little girl. In a lot of ways she feels like a little best friend. We spend all day together, every day. We have conversations and inside jokes and silly things we do together. We bug each other sometimes but are always quick to forgive and move on. She is my little side kick. My little mini-me. Though she looks sooo different than I would have every pictured my daughter looking (well, at least in terms of her coloring), she acts exactly like I would expect a daughter of mine to act. She is a wild, strong little spirit with endless energy, but she is also so sweet and kind hearted and such a good, loving little girl by nature. I love Kenna Mae. My little Sissy Roo!

The other day I was taking Makenna off time out and we were talking about what she had done wrong. In the middle of me asking her to apologize she TOTALLY did a HUGE eye roll! It caught me so off guard I started cracking up. I know it may not have been the best thing to do, but I couldn't help myself. So we took a couple of pictures of it. It was just so funny coming from such a little person! Such attitude sometimes!

Makenna's version of swimming in her pool in the yard. More jumping and splashing than actually swimming.

She can get some serious air! White girl can Jump!

At Cameron's 2nd Birthday party we took a tour of a fire station. It was exciting for me, as well as the kids. It was really neat. Makenna loved it and has been talking a lot about fire trucks since.

Kenna and Cam holding hands. She was all over him...she wears the pants in the relationship, for now at least. :)

This is at the sprayground at Santee Lakes. It was all a bit intimidating for Makenna at first (which doesn't happen often). She started on the sidelines observing...

Then she got a little more comfortable and splashed around in some puddles.

Finally she went for it. After this she was a wild woman running through everything and not wanting to leave when it was time to go home.

Daddy wanted to get Makenna some balloons the other night, just to do something special to show he loved her. They had so much fun playing with them together, Makenna was thrilled with them and they were around for almost a week!

What a good Daddy!

Kellen 9 Months Old

We got Kellen's 9 month pictures back and I think they turned out Great! He was in such a good mood that day and was being all smiles. It was one of the easiest photo shoots I have ever done with a child.
Kellen is such a big boy already. I can't believe how fast they change and grow. He has certainly come out of his shell a lot in the last few months. He is a rowdy little boy who likes to hear himself make noise, and a

lot of it. He is Finally army crawling but is not up on his hands and knees quite yet...he will be any day now. He is pulling himself up on things and loves to stand and is just barely starting to cruise a little. He is in love with the dog right now and wants to be outside with her all the time. He is clingy with mama, which is flattering and difficult all at the same time. But he is a sweet, sweet baby, so cuddly and loves to give kisses all the time. He still adores his big sissy and she adores him right back. He has fun climbing all over daddy and pulling on his nose. He really makes our house such a fun and happy place to be. It is hard to remember what it was like without his sweet little spirit in our family.
We love you so much Kellen!

Fair and The Fourth

I know it's a bit sad that this is just going up now, but things have been a bit crazy lately and life has just been too busy to allow for posts on the blog. But, as of today things have slowed down a bit, thank goodness. So now I can share our fourth of July fun!

On July 3rd we went to the San Diego County Fair. Makenna got to ride on a pony, as I let her do every year. But this year she really loved it more than years in the past. She loved waving to everyone as she passed.

Smiling and happy with a belly full of fried fair food.

Makenna riding on "Big Girl" rides for the first time. She loved them and was so brave. It was a good warm up for when we take her to Disneyland for her birthday at the end of the summer.

We spent the Fourth at my parents house bbqing and swimming. We do this most years because my parents have a great view of the fireworks right from their backyard. It is so much better than having to go and fight traffic somewhere else.

Playing outside with glow sticks before the fireworks began.

The silly side of Todd coming out :)

Uncle Bicky and Auntie Rah Rah....Sarah is going to have that baby ANY DAY!

Back To Life, Back To Reality...

It took a little while, but we are finally back into the swing of our normal lives and schedules. And although we had a blast while we were out of town, it has also been nice to relax and get back into our every day routines.

The little ones have been a ton of fun lately. Even though Kellen is going through a VERY NEEDY stage right now, he is also a big ball of energy and a total crack up. I swear the kid comes out of his shell more and more every day. When he was just a little guy he was so laid back, very mellow, sort of an observer, quiet. He just had a very calm sense to him. Well, not so much any more. He is still easy going (in most ways) and is really good at adjusting to whatever is happening around him. But he is loud (and I mean LOUD), he is always moving and getting into things and full of excitement and energy, and he has a temper when he wants his needs to be met and he's not getting what he wants immediately. The boy has an opinion and is not afraid to share it! And though it is exhausting sometimes, I think it is a good thing that he has a bold personality (which he will need in order to keep up with his sissy). He also just had his 9 month check-up. He is 25lbs 6oz (still off the charts for weight) and is 30 1/2 inches tall which puts him at the 95%. He is the average size of a 16 month old....I know, he is a giant among babies! He just recently cut his two top teeth, so he now has 4 little chompers. And he is overall healthy as can be and developing just as he should be!

Makenna has been a lot of fun lately. I feel like she is finally starting to leave the terrible two's in the past. She is a lot less confrontational these days and much easier to get along with. She has seemed highly emotional these days....she seems to cry or get offended and get her feelings hurt very easily, which is weird for her. But I would rather have that then have her easy to get angry. Overall it just seems like she is growing up so much right now. Her vocabulary is insanely huge! We have full on conversations now and it still blows me away. I love the words and phrases she picks up. She is suddenly playing make-believe all the time and I really see her using her imagination. She loves to pretend that monsters or dinosaurs are going to get us and have us run and hide places. I am starting to look at preschools for her and it just makes me feel like I am losing my baby girl and she is starting to leave the toddler stage and become a full on Kid. It's been giving me a little separation anxiety...I just love my little dudes!

Kellen...pretending like he's low maintenance

I've learned if I give Kenna a sucker then she will sit still long enough for me to do her hair...score for her!

She loves when Echo comes to play with her and Bella. She would stay outside all day if she could

Playing in the tunnels...he kept getting stuck, but he thought it was so funny.

Daddy tough her to put her glow bracelets on her ears...no Sarah, I won't get her earrings yet.

Our little Chomper!