That's Our Daddy

I know that I speak on behalf of all the kiddos when I say that we are blessed beyond words to have the best Daddy there could be.
It was Kellen's year to pick out the Father's Day card and he chose a great one with a SuperDad superhero on the front.

I don't think he chose this just because he happens to be into superheroes and action figures at the moment. I don't think it was solely because his Daddy would look amazing in spandex and a cape. I know that it is because to Kellen, Makenna and Conner their Daddy is someone they look up to! And not just because he is "Big Daddy", towering over them at 6'3''. But because he loves his kids with all his heart and his kiddos know it. Because he sets the example of someone our children want to grow up to be just like.

We love you Daddy. Happy Father's Day. Thank you for all you do for us. We are the luckiest!

I love this picture so much! We'll get the kids to work on teaching Daddy a new silly face for next years silly face picture!

Makenna giving Daddy her handmade Father's day gift. Very proud of her handy work.

The kids and I got Daddy a "Paul" book for father's day. The kids know how much their Daddy loves Paul and share in this love and affection.

The other day I was in the middle of putting up Makenna's hair in pigtails when Con woke from his morning nap. He was quite unhappy in there, so I asked Kellen if he would go in the room and give Conner a toy to play with while I finished Sissies hair. Well, there was A Lot of laughter coming from the room. And when I walked in Kellen had literally put EVERY toy in Con's room that was within his reach into Conner's crib. Needless to say, both boys were very happy, excited and proud of this!

Such silly kiddos.

Conner is already looking forward to the next time I ask Kellen to "babysit" again.

Daddy and Kellen were having some fun dressing up Kellen in his blankies. Well, they have become his blankies but they truly are sarongs...it's a long story. The point is, they were being silly and it was totally cute! I love Kellen's silly side.

A little blurry, but such a good pictures of the bud bud and his sis!

Such a handsome boy. And a good wrap job by Daddy. I was impressed!

Kellen is really into bringing his pillow and blankets out of his room and tucking himself, his toys, his stuffed animals, baby Toby in bed. Today Daddy joined in the fun as well.

Blue airheads. A new favorite treat in the McKamey household.

I love his hair. I love his eyes. I love that he holds his own bottle when I need him to. (My other two were completely lazy and always required/demanded mommies assistance at bottle time). I don't love that when I look at him now I am seeing less and less of a baby...

Makenna loves this picture of herself. She says it really "catches her missing tooth". And it does. Recently she has been very anxious for another tooth to come out. I told her she is going to have to wait for that. I tried explaining that the only reason she already has a missing tooth is because the dentist had to take it out early, but it really was not ready to come out on it's own. She gets a lot of attention for the missing tooth, being that she is really the only one in her group of friends with a missing tooth yet. We all know that Makenna likes attention. And we all know she is constantly looking for even more.

A friend of hers told he that if she hits her tooth on things enough times it will start to get loose. She has already done this once or twice now. It has not been easy trying to convince her that this is a Very Bad idea and she wants those teeth to stay in. Here's to hoping we don't see the tooth fairy again for quite awhile!

Compare and Contrast

...Just because it is fun to look at the kids and see in what ways they look alike and look unique from one another. Here is a look at all 3 kiddos right around 10-11 months old.

Makenna

Kellen

Conner

Kellen

Makenna

Conner

A Crazier Con

This silly boy is something else these days. He really is full of smiles almost all the time. He is such a cheery little guy. He is just so full of love and laughter. He loves to laugh and he has the silliest laugh ever. He very much likes to mimic and join in the load laughter from his older sister and brother all the time.

He is also into everything. Really, the boy doesn't stop moving from the moment he wakes up. And he loves to get into things that he is not supposed to. I don't remember Kellen being this way. He was pretty manageable and was pretty responsive baby when told to leave something alone. Conner on the other hand seems to have his older sisters love for getting into things and seeing just how much he can get away with. You have to really watch the boy around outlets. He loves to pull thing out of outlets, mostly my plug in air fresheners or nightlights in the bedroom. Seriously, no matter where I put my plug in air fresheners, he finds them and find a way to get to them. He loves the bathrooms, emptying the trash, pulling the t.p., flushing the toilet. I just feel like all day long I am having to move him and try to contain him somewhere/somehow that he won't cause trouble and get into things.

Really, the older he get the more he reminds me of Makenna, both in looks and in personality. He doesn't have the feist that Makenna has, but he has the same energy, same persistence, same ideas. At least it keeps me busy.

Look at that face! How can you not just want to smile right back?!

Such a ham!

We have two of these small tables in our house, and these tend to be Conner's favorite place to hang out. He is climbing in and out of these and laughing at himself for it all day long! Sometimes getting stuck going in and out, but that doesn't stop him!

Cute and trouble, all at the same time!

Con Loves, and I mean LOVES the vacuum. He is a nut about it. So much so that I can hardly get the job done if he is around. It's sweet and challenging all at once.

Just tonight Conner was standing at a footstool and let go and confidently took two wobbly steps on his own. His first independent steps. I knew it was coming! He has been starting to let go of the furniture and stand on his own a lot more and you can tell he has big ideas about walking. But to see him let go and take off and try it out and actually get a few steps in, it was a bit of a surprise! Walking is just around the corner!

My Buddy and Me

I can't even begin to express just how cute, sweet and adorable my little Kellen is to me. I just love that little boy. He knows how to have some feist in him when he needs too (and sometimes when he doesn't need to but is choosing to). But really, he is such a little lover.

One of the things I love about him is that he just loves to be together. He knows how to entertain himself when he needs to, but really he loves to just be with someone else as much as he can. Not in a bothersome way (most of the time). He is my kid that is content to just walk around the house with me, helping me empty the dishwasher, watching me fold clothes, following me when I am changing Conner's diaper, just talking and having cute little 2 year old conversation.
The other day I needed to was my car and I just knew he would jump at the opportunity to join in the fun. So we did a quick car wash together and it was the cutest, funnest thing. He got completely drenched and had fun doing it. But he also took the cleaning job very seriously. He helped move the heavy buckets of water all around and commented on how strong he is and how big his muscles are so that he can move the buckets all by himself. It was, for whatever reason, one of those moments and memories I will always have with me.

A few things about Kellen that I love and that just melt my heart:

-The way he comes and takes my hand in his when he wants me to come with me and play with him somewhere.

- The way his voice goes high pitched and excited when he says "you want to play with me?"

-How every night when I tuck him in bed and give him a kiss he says "I'm going to miss you out there" (meaning he is going to miss me while he is in bed and I am in the living room)

- When he has me sing lullabys to his baby Toby and gentle tucks her in bed.

- The way he comes and sits down on my lap and curls into me still. Or when we are sitting together or I am holding him and without even realizing it he runs his fingers through my hair or along my face.

- The fact that he has no perception of personal space. If he his sitting by you he has to be touching you!

Kellen is just a sweet boy...there is no other way to say it. I already think about how lucky his wife is going to be some day. He will be the type of man that is a total romantic, knows how to show affection and is loyal as can be. He is going to be an amazing father and his kids are just going to adore their Daddy. I promise you. I can see it already, even in his little 2 1/2 year old self. And some day I will show his fiancee this post and make her promise me that she is going to treat my boy good and take good care of his heart.

Because, after all, I loved him first.

The Many Faces of Makenna

Dull moments? What in the world are those? Not when you have a Makenna in your family. One of the things I always cherish about her...She is always able to put a smile on my face!

Amused

Excited

Cute

Goofy

Shy

Insane

Optimistic

Swagger

Cheery

Makenna

I Guess He's Grown a Foot or Two....

Because my little Brother is going on a Mission.

On May 20th David's mission call came in. Normally you get the envelope in the mail on a Thursday. But Thursday had come and gone with nothing for Dave, so we were all thinking it was going to be another week of waiting before he got it. But then, very surprisingly, there it was in the mail on Friday.

We all went out and got some Mexican food from "hot burrito" that night and talked/joked about where we all thought Dave would be going. Todd was confident (cocky even) that he was going to be called to Ohio. I was hoping that it was somewhere foreign but nothing too nuts. Either that or somewhere in the southern states. I think David was just praying it wasn't Idaho or Utah! You could tell he was feeling quite nervous about the whole thing. Makenna kept teasing that she was going to sneak the envelope and open it up before him...(I was grateful that really didn't happen....would not have been pretty!)

Once we were back from dinner we got all the family members on the phone(s) and everyone listened in while he opened the envelope and began reading out loud his mission call.

I think we were all quite surprised when he announced Culiacan, Mexico. (none were as surprised as my mom....see the picture below!)

Everyone was immediately very excited for him. I think there was a long moment of shock and surprise for Dave. I can only imagine how crazy and overwhelming it is to find out where you are going to spending the next 2 years of your life. Pa and Damo had a good time teasing Dave and trying to look up everything scary and intimidating about Culiacan (any of you that know Pa are not surprised by this at all). But we are all excited for Dave and he is happy and excited to serve the people of Mexico.

It is weird to think that in 2 years he will come back older, wiser, matured, rattling off everything in Spanish and probably thinking that "hot burrito" is only slightly better than Taco Bell after living 2 years on all the great Mexican food he will be fed while he is there.

And Makenna is just excited that he gets to go on a Mission where Dora lives!

Congrats Dave! We love you!

Doing Something Right

Makenna in the car tonight on the way home from a picnic at the park for FHE:

"Mom, what is your favorite thing that you have? Not your family, Mom. I know you love your family. What is something you have that you love?"

One of the most important things for me as a parent is to make sure my kids always know just how much I love them. It was rewarding and reassuring tonight to know that I am at least succeeding in this part of parenting.

I love my family!

Walkers, T.P. and Saving the World

Half scary, half exciting to think about and say, but our little Con is not too far away from being a 2 footed traveler. We seem to be inching closer to walking every day. The other day I set him in front of his little walker to see what he could do with it. And I swear, within seconds he was across the room!

Walking with his lion is now one of his favorite things to do. He is doing really good with his walker. He's got fast feet and he can definitely move along, balance himself well and even catch himself and recover if he is about to fall. Today on a couple of different occasions I saw him let got of the furniture and stand by himself for a few moments. And today he was also trying to stand himself up from a crawling position without holding onto anything. He is getting ideas. Big Ideas. And if he is anything like his older siblings then these ideas will translate into action at a fast pace! He sure does look cute and grown up moving around like the big boy he is!

They all do it. At some point or another we all unroll a roll a t.p. Other's of us will later go on to unrolling t.p. in peoples bushes, on their cars, over their trees, etc. But this is where it all begins. And that is where Conner is. Feels like a cute milestone....and then begins to drive you nuts when you are going through a whole roll of t.p. in a day! Still love you Con!

This is not an attractive picture of Makenna's mouth full of cupcake. But I thought it was cute in it's own way and, mostly, thought it did a good job capturing here missing tooth!

Once again, sort of an odd picture, but very cute to me. I love my boy and his stunning, big brown eyes! He totally melts my heart!

Grammy (sweet as she is) made Makenna and Kellen each a cape. I was sort of hoping I would get one too, but I guess Mom's are supposed to remain superheroes in disguise. Anyway, if you know my kids at all then you know what wonderful, appropriate gifts capes would be! So if you are over visiting and you see a flash of red fly by, that would be my superhero children on some mission or another. A day or so ago I was in the kitchen and Makenna was helping Kellen put on his cape. She finished buttoning his and was getting hers on herself and said "Wait Bud Bud! Don't go Save the World yet. You need to wait for me!" The world has been saved numerous times in just the last week. You have the McKamey children to thank!