Two of a Kind

These two have a funny relationship. Sometimes they LOVE each other to death and Conner will just bust out laughing at the site of Kellen. Sometimes Kellen gets in a total mood to tease and harass Conner, or smother Conner or lay right on top of him. Sometimes Conner plays along with this. Sometimes he gets mad and annoyed about it. I guess it depends on how tolerant he is feeling for the day.
Luckily (and gratefully) there is not really anything mean that goes on between the two. Kellen is really quite loving and gentle with Conner. If he is rough it is out of immaturity and being too overwhelming or strong for Conner. But he never really tries to be mean or gets really mad at him. (This is not always the case in the relationship between Kellen and Makenna)

It has been fun watching their relationship evolve more over the last month or two. I am starting to get more of a feel for how they are going to get along and interact with one another once Conner is getting around even more and the age gap closes between them. I am optimistic that they will be really good little buddies. I think Kellen will enjoy the shift in power and sort of "get a kick" out of being able to be in charge and be the bigger one and boss Conner around. But I think it will all be done pretty innocently. They have a sweet love for each other and I can already see how their personalities are going to balance one another out. Just the way that Kellen and Makenna bring balance to each other and challenge the other person in ways that is good for them. It is just so neat to watch the way the personalities within a family sort of all fit together like a big puzzle. How could you say that we were not all destined to be together as a family??

This is what I see most of the time I look down at my feet during the day. My little blond, blue eyed shadow that I adore.

One of Kellen's new activities when he is out in the backyard is to load his pockets up with rocks. He has decided he enjoys having a rock collection. He calls them his "collection rocks". It makes me smile every time I hear it. Now any time he or Makenna are outside playing with each other and they find a rock the will run and show the other person "Look, it's a collection rock!"

Something Missing?

You think that you are taking your kids to the dentist for their normal, routine cleaning and check-up. But I should know by now that often times with children the unexpected happens, probably even more often than the expected happens.

The good news: both kids were cavity free. The not so good news: Makenna is going to have a harder time biting into an apple for the next year or so that she did a little over a week ago.

Upon doing x-rays of Makenna's teeth they quickly noticed in the x-ray that there was something "not right" going on with Makenna's top left middle tooth. Even to my untrained eye it was evident that things were not as they should be.

Once the doctor was able to look at the x-rays it was quickly determined that Makenna's tooth had developed an abscess above it. At some point she must have hit the tooth hard enough to damage the roots of the tooth. I can't remember any particular time that this would have happened, but I can attest to the fact that there have been some cut lips and bleeding mouths before as a result of falls or running into things. Just nothing that I had ever thought would have done serious damage.

Anyway, an abscess had developed and was becoming infected and so the tooth needed to be pulled. It just happened to work out that she had not had anything to eat or drink before her apt since it was so early in the morning. So they were able to pull the tooth then and there. It was nice being able to just get it done, but it also caught me (and the tooth fairy) very off guard.

Makenna was a trooper about the tooth being pulled. She didn't really know what was happening until the tooth was out. They gave her a tiny little pink treasure box to take the tooth home in (cutest thing ever!!). That night she put her treasure box under her pillow. She had expectations that the tooth fairy was going to bring her a coin (don't know why she thought that, but that works for us!). The next morning there was a bright gold dollar coin under her pillow next to the tooth. The tooth fairy had agreed to allow Makenna to keep the tooth, seeing as it was her very first tooth she has lost.

It is still a bit strange seeing Makenna with her new smile. It certainly makes her look older and more grown up. We better get used to it though because she will probably have this goofy smile for a good year or so until the adult tooth works its way down. She is the envy of her preschool and primary class, since she is the only one in there with a missing tooth.

All the fun adventures with children. It keeps things exciting!

It's kind of hard to tell she is missing a tooth in these pictures, since you just see her bottom teeth right through the gap. But I promise, it is gone. I'll try to get better pictures. Still cute though!

Rite of Passage

I'm just finishing up giving Conner a bath. I hear Kellen crying outside and know Todd will intercept and figure out what is going on. 30 second later Todd calls for me and says "Kellen is bleeding, a lot!" Of course I am thinking "How much is a lot?" and "Where is he bleeding from?" I pull Conner out of the bath and rush into the living room to find Todd holding a blood soaked paper towel on the back of Kellen's head. One look at his head and it iss evident that we will be taking an ER trip that night.

Apparently Kellen and Makenna were outside in the backyard playing. It sounds like Kellen was trying to climb up the small hillside in our backyard and fell backwards, hit his head and sliced it open. It's a pretty good gash...probably a good inch long and relatively deep.

Once we get the bleeding slowed down I wrap his head up with some gauze on the wound. Grammy quickly comes over to stay with Kenna and Con (yet another moment where I find myself incredibly grateful to live only a block away from my mom). Poor Makenna is quite sad to see us go. It is hard to tell if she is sad because of Kellen being so hurt or seeing Mommy and Daddy have to take off on such short notice. I think a bit of both.

By now Kellen has relaxed and calmed down pretty well. He looks both hilarious and adorable with his head all wrapped up. A story or two on the drive over and we are at the hospital.

Luckily we don't have to wait more than about a half hour. The nurses and doctor are wonderful! They load him up with stickers and he is a happy camper. Apparently cuts on the head (in the hair line) are closed up with staples, not stitches. The nice part about this is that it is faster and there are no needles involved at all. A little gel to numb the area, a bear hug from mom and two staples in the back of the head later and he is good to go!

I'm still amazed at how tough he was. While they stapled him up there were some tears and an "Owe" here and there, but that was it. I was glad to be the one holding him because that seemed better to me than having to see his face and watch him cry.

I know a million parents experience similar ER trips all the time. I am certain this will not be our only one. But I have to say it was a bit emotional a couple of times. Just seeing my baby boy sad and hurting and scared. Thinking of how grateful I am to have strong, healthy, happy children. To think of how painful it is to watch your child hurting. It's always good to count your blessing and be reminded of the important things in life.

Kellen, you are a stud! So cooperative and brave and tough! You make me smile every day and brought some good smiles to the ER staff tonight. Love you boy!

Mama and Kellen reading books while waiting in the ER. Not a bad wrap job on his wounded head if you ask me! Score one point for the mama!

Lookin cute in the hospital bed, accompanied by his "b's" and "baby Toby"

Two staples, a little ointment and we are good to go!

The Little Artist

A couple of weeks ago Makenna had her Preschool art show. It's the cutest thing! Throughout the year the teachers save some of the children's artwork and then display it at the art show at the end of the year. It is so fun to see all the little munchkins running around so proud, finding their names on their artwork and showing their families. For me the night was a touch sad because it was Makenna's last Preschool event. It is still just so weird to me that we are only a few months away from embarking on the kindergarten adventure. Seems like she just started Preschool the other day.

However, seeing her holding her little best friend Katie's hand and walking around by herself, talking to her other friends, checking out the art, grabbing cookies, she seemed like such a big girl. It was all too easy to see the pre-Kindergartener in her.

I love Makenna's Preschool and am so happy that Kellen will be Preschool age next year so that I can still go by there a couple of times a week.

Kenna and her best little preschool buddy Katie. These two are so cute together. It's fun seeing her play and be buddies with another little girl since she is so often around little boys.

A true work of art.

Kenna and Mrs Silva. An amazing teacher. She will be greatly missed by Makenna! She has set the bar high for the Kindergarten teachers to live up to.

As much as I think Conner looks like his Daddy and the McKamey line, I can totally see resemblance to his Grammy as well!

Kenna's Preschool hatched baby chicks in one of the class rooms. This was one of the baby chicks 5 weeks old. It was such a neat thing for them to get to do!

Rah Rah and Brookie were down during the art show so they got to join in the fun. Brooke was perfectly happy to be there, as you can tell! Such a doll! Love her!

Around the House

Con is just about everywhere these days. He is doing what a 10 month old should be and is getting into everything. It's half cute, half difficult. One thing he Loves is the dishwasher. Any time I am in the kitchen and he sees me open it up he comes bookin' over and gets his hands in their right away. It's fun when the dishes are clean, not so helpful when they are dirty. Still, he always looks cute doing it.

I love being a mommy of 3....such beautiful faces, tons of laughs, different personalities, So much fun! Really, can't think of anything more wonderful than being a Mommy to these kiddos.

This girl has so much spunk. Love it!

Kellen is becoming goofier and goofier the older he gets. It's fun to see him growing and maturing and coming into his own. He can be such a reserved and shy boy, that it is fun to see his wild, silly, light hearted side busting out more and more. He was getting a kick out of pretending like he was sleeping while I was trying to take the picture. As soon as I gave up and put the camera away he sat up and laughed out loud and said, "ha ha mama! I tricked you. I'm silly!" He's right.

Kenna is such a little mommy with Conner. It's still so fun seeing this side of her come out more. She's never been the type of kid to play much with dolls or play pretend mommy. So seeing her comfort and nurture and sweetly care for Conner is just so sweet to me. It is a big contrast to the way she "takes care" of Kellen. She prefers more to be Kellen's Sgt. and just boss him around all day long. It's fun to see the different dynamics/relationships between the kids.

Makenna and Kellen have adopted this new activity of making "gates" or "cages" for themselves using a serious of pillows, blankets and furniture. They then pretend to be an variety of animals while in their "gate". Makenna is often times Rudolph or a river otter (though in this picture she appears to be being something a bit more vicious). Kellen is always either a Rhino or a Kitty.

Poor Conner wants so badly to hang with the big kids outside. Almost any time they go outside Conner will go to the screen and stand there whining, screaming, yelping or just watching with envy as they ride their bikes and swing and run. He loves when Bella comes over and licks the screen and says hi to him. We spend a lot of time outside swinging because honestly, he is probably happier outside or swinging than he is anywhere. This is the main reason I am anxious for him to walk. It will be much easier to let him to keep up. My kids are just not the indoors type. I can't blame them.

Goofballs. What else can be said.

"Wild Zoo Animal Park"

An unexpected and very spontaneous trip to the Wild Animal Park with my mom and sister turned out to be one of the most fun days I have had in awhile. We go to the Zoo so often (which the kids love), so the Wild Animal Park was a really fun way to mix it up. We had a blast and the time flew by there. We need to go back again some time soon so we can actually walk through the rest of the park. We stayed busy the whole time seeing the Butterfly Jungle, going through Lorakeet Landing (where you can buy nectar and the birds land on you and drink it from a cup) and then riding the tram through all the wild animals. It was a blast and the kids keep wanting to know when we are going again. The answer is Soon! I can't wait to go back.

Here is just a portion of the pictures. The rest will be posted as soon as I get them off the other cameras. That's what happens when you having 3 people using different cameras all day :)

Is this not the cutest picture? I mean seriously, that many kids all looking at the camera and looking more than decent?! It was a miracle. And such a fun thing to do and remember.

Conner already has ideas about wanting to get out of the stroller and walk along. My baby is getting bigger! And cuter every day I might add!

I thought Kellen would be in heaven when he saw this giant Rhino (the kid is In Love with Rhino's! He pretends to be one ever single day, multiple times a day). But much to my surprise he was a bit stand offish. But he got aboard with everyone else and, once again, such a cute picture! We had good luck that day!

If I thought Kellen was having issues, Brooke took the cake!

These little girls are just the cutest things together. They have such a sweet little relationship. I really think they are going to be like sisters for each other, which is nice since they both have younger brothers. They really love each other to pieces. But I tell ya, those two are going to get into some mischief! We're keeping a close eye already!

Gotta love the Mama of all Mama's!

Beautiful ladies. Love em!

And then there's my sunshine!

It's That Time Again

New bathing suites have been bought, the sunscreen is always within reach, and the kiddie pool has taken it's place in our backyard. It's not quite warm enough to get in the big pool yet, but it's not too far off either! I love this time of the year. The kids are happy, they spend the day away outside running, splashing, having fun! They are literally putting on their shoes and going in the backyard in their PJ's at 7:30 in the morning. It just seems like people get along better, they rest well at night and just live it up all day long!

This is Conner with Carter, his Twin from another mother. Conner and Carter were both born on the same day, just 4 or so hours apart. Carter's older brother Peter is just 4 months older then Kellen. There are some good little boy friendships and bonds being formed here! Suzy and I are both hoping to get lucky and have girls together next....which still won't be for awhile!!!

Sadly Conner did not too much enjoy his first swimming play date with Carter. He loves splashing in the bath for as long as he can, so I thought that buying this little tiny pool for the babies to play in would be a huge success with Conner. But apparently Conner does not do cold water. Carter just thought he was being ridiculous and lived it up himself!

The big kids got a fancy pool this year, all equipped with a slide and everything (only because that is all they had left unless I wanted to buy and 8 foot pool, which I didn't). The nice thing is that the kids just now stay busy running in circles going up and down the slide. This keeps them from getting bored in the pool attempting things like jumping off the patio table into the pool, or swinging off the rope swing into the pool.....we will see how long the slide excitement holds out!

Kellen and Peter....Buddies

Bud Bud sliding in style!

Kenna does not do anything conventionally.

Out of deep love for this little boy, I kindly carried buckets of warm water outside from my sink to fill up Conner's pool the next time we had a swim day. He was much appreciative of this and the outcome was a much happier water baby!

I just love this picture. Kellen cracks me up. He can be so serious one minute.....

and then a complete goofball the next!

Conner wants so badly to keep up with his big Sister and Brother....it's cute and sad all at once. He has no idea what he is in for.....he needs to learn to enjoy the peace of his safe little baby zone while it lasts!

Mixed Emotions

My little Bro just got his mission papers turned in last week and now we are all excited and waiting for him to get his mission call, find out where he will be going and when he will be leaving. I'm totally excited for him! I know that his mission will be an amazing thing for him. But I am sad for me that my little brother will be gone for awhile. And even more sad for my kiddos that they will not have their Uncle "Ding" (or Dingy as Kellen calls him) around to get them all wound up, push them too high on the swings, throw them around, use them as weights to work out with, etc. However, I am grateful for the wonderful example he is setting for our kids and showing them how important the Lords work is. We love you Dave!

Eater Best

Early morning hunt for eggs and baskets after evidence was left that the Easter Bunny surely had come, eaten his carrots, drank his juice and even left bunny tracks!

Baskets were discovered after a moderate search. Kenna got a new "ballerina" (aka tutu), a water bottle and candy. Kellen got a new game (Don't Spill The Beans...he Loves playing games), a water bottle and candy.

The kiddos thought the bunny tracks, left by magic dust, were the neatest thing. It was fun to see the magic in their eyes while they looked at them and hopped along the trail.

A little while later the Con was up and, with some eager help from his older siblings, discovered his basket. Puffs, crunchies and yogurt melts for the little babe, though he has been after some easter candy of his own and always looking for something left behind on the floor.

Our adorable children all dressed up on Easter morning, ready for church. I just thought they all looked Soooo adorable this year. I LOVED Makenna's dress and the boys were just too handsome in their matching outfits. I figure I should enjoy having them match while they will let me do it!

Mama with her tired, worn out, sugar high kids.

A very happy Daddy with his little ones. They are starting to look so big!

Kellen was just focused on candy all morning, afternoon, evening. He does want to eat it, but I think he equally enjoyed looking at it, showing it to people, putting it in his basket, then in eggs, then in a baggy, back in his basket, into a bucket, then back in the eggs, etc. Silly boy.

Daddy pulled some good manipulation and somehow got a hold of Kellen's Jelly Beans and then tricked the kids into thinking he was being very kind and generous by sharing his Jelly Beans with them. It was pretty funny!