A Wife's Dream Come True!

 Looking at these photos, I don't even know what to say. Honestly, this kitchen felt like a nightmare a majority of the time. Sure it will hold a small place in my heart being as it was the kitchen where I cooked my first meal for my husband, the kitchen I made midnight snacks in while pregnant with my children, the kitchen that was in the first home that has ever been my own. But beyond that I have to say Good Riddance!!! Ugly cabinets, ugly hardware, terrible drawers with the bottoms falling out. An old oven that had a thermostat with a mind of it's own. A electric range with slanted coils. I finally convinced Todd that if he wanted fancier meals he needed to give a kitchen that a real chef can work with :)

Todd and Pa pretty much had the kitchen completely demoed in about a day!

 Of course Kellen and Conner needed to get their hands on the tools and get in on the dirty work!

 While Todd was painting the kitchen he let each of the kids come in and paint their initials on the wall before the upper cabinets went in. The kids loved this and were all so proud of their own initial on the wall! Both Makenna and Kellen agreed that it was the very best part of the day getting to paint on the wall with Daddy.

 It has been really neat to watch my Dad build and install our kitchen. Yes, he has been doing this my whole life, but this is the first time I have really been able to see the process myself and watch him at work. It will be neat to have his "masterpiece" in our home.

Yes, it is still a work in progress but it is getting there. And as long as I keep my eye on the prize then I can handle it. It is going to be a dream come true when it is done!

When You Are 18 You Won't Think This Is So Cool!

When you live up the street from a trolley stop, all of your children inevitably go through an "obsessed with the trolley" phase. That is where our youngest has been for the past little while. And of course the passion he holds for the trolley then transfers into excitement in his brother and sister as well! 

So on Memorial Day we decided that it would be a good opportunity and a fun chance to take a nice family trolley trip. 

 The kids waited very anxiously but patiently. We learned all about the different "lines" for trolley destinations and where each line goes. Now when we see a trolley Kellen always asks "Is that the green line, the orange line or the blue line?" And he still remembers where each line takes you! (Probably because on our way home we almost got on the "blue line" instead and took a family trip to Mexico by accident!)

 All aboard. Of course once we were settled with our destination in mind Todd looked at his phone and discovered that we were about to embark on a 40 minute ride, just to get where we were heading. Though there were some "are we there yet?"'s towards the end of the ride, the kids handled it quite well!

 We took the trolley down to Old Town. Meet our new Amigo. 

 After a nice dinner of burritos and quesadillas we went over to the Mormon Battalion and went on their tour. At the end of the tour they have a place where you can pan for gold. The kids each got to bring home 2 pieces of gold....the kids couldn't believe their eyes!

 The Battalion does a really neat tour. The kids had a lot of fun and I enjoyed it myself. It will be fun to go back again when they are a little older and can understand even more of it.

 On the way back home....another 40 minute trip.

 Living up every minute of it!

Todd and I both thought that the nice long ride to and from Old Town would be enough to satisfy the youngins for awhile. We were so wrong....we only added more fuel to the fire! They keep begging for the next Trolley Ride. Kellen has his heart set on a ride down to the baseball field to watch a game. I tell them that when they are 18 they won't think riding on the trolley is really all that exciting. They disagree.

You Can Handle It!

I am sort of in blog survival mode right now, so you have to bare with me for a few posts while I overwhelm you with pictures to accomplish the speedy version of documenting our life. But you know what, with kids as cute as these ones you can't complain. And I promise you, you will be entertained. The McKamey kids Always entertain! ;)

 You may look at this picture and think I am a bad mother. Not just for letting my child do this on the toys at the park, but for capturing it as a kodak moment as well. But really, when you know Makenna you understand that this really can't be stopped! At least I keep her off the roof and off the tops of the slides. That is a big enough task. 

 Kellen/Mommy lunch date at Costco. He has sensitive eyes and needed mommy's glasses

 The kids LOVE the slip and slide. There is not always a lot of traditional running and sliding the way a slip and slide is meant to be used, but they have a total blast running and splashing and falling. 

 Can't believe I am such a lucky woman to be surrounded by such handsome boys all day long!

 I don't know if I have ever put up a picture of this before on here, but yes, this is how our precious Conner sleeps. I find it quite adorable. He does have the nastiest blankets because of it. Never touch the corners unless you want to be slimmed. But hey, he is a good sleeper so I am not complaining.

 What an angel. I seriously LOVE watching my kids sleep.

 This year we are doing summer right!

Yes, there is Makenna having the sprinkler spray her bum. I totally remember doing this as a kid. But I had to capture this moment to make sure I have it to embarrass her with later on.

What cutie pies....working together to survive the spray ground. Love these pics!

 Mama and the kids on Mother's day. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I feel by my children in my life each and every day. My children are my life. They are my all. They are my heart! They have blessed every single part of my life and changed who I am forever, for the better. Thank you Makenna, Kellen, Conner and Carys for bringing me more happiness and love than I Ever thought would be possible. 

 This is a little questionnaire that Makenna filled out in school. I love this! So sweet!

Have you ever read Fancy Nancy? Well, these pictures were inspired by Fancy Nancy. We were getting ready to go to dinner at my parents house one night and Makenna had the idea for us to dress up fancy for dinner. So that is just what we did. I love every one of their outfits and love the way that they do such a great job expressing each child's personality and likes and definition of "Fancy"

 Yes, Mom got in on the fun as well. Even Grammy put on her tiara when we got over to the house and she realized it was a fancy dinner

 Apparently this is Conner's "Fancy" pose....love it!

 Toddler Heaven!

 One day Grammy got each of the boys a tattoo out of the quarter machine at the grocery store and then put them on their bellies. After that they were obsessed with tattoos on their bellies! I even had little Conner running around saying the word "tattoo" clear as day. It was a cute phase, but I have to say I am happy it is passed....it was a job to keep up with a fresh tattoo at all times!

It Could Be Worse

She may looks sweet, but she is a Maniac!

Back in March Makenna official met the ER. I have to say that I am honestly amazed that we made it this long without an ER trip. I know I was a regular there long before Makenna made her debut. She is such a monkey and so daring and brave, it really is a miracle that nothing like this has happened before. So I will pat myself on the back for that (or just consider us very lucky and looked after!)

Well, one evening Makenna was in the backyard doing one of her normal play set tricks. She stands on the crossbeam of the playset that is nearest to our rope swing. She gets the rope swing between her legs and then jumps off to the side, swings back and forth a few times and then jumps off the rope with a perfect landing. Often times when visitors would see her do this they would comment on how crazy she is, but to me it was just Makenna doing her Makenna thing.
However, on this particular evening she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. When she was nearing the end of her trick and was jumping off the rope swing she came down right on top of Bella's dog bone. Sure enough she hit it just right and totally sliced her foot right open. Just hearing the scream alone told me we would be going to the ER.

 A couple of hours later we walked away with a 3 staples in her foot. I have to say I was Really pretty impressed with Makenna. The doctor that put the staples in did a good job of making it clear to her that she Had to stay still while he put them in, and she did. She held her breath and did not move a muscle. But once they were in, then the hysterics let loose. It took a good 10 min (?) to calm her all the way back down. I kept her home from school the next day, which she spent all day hoping or crawling everywhere (I can't blame her...I would have been afraid to walk on it too!) But by the end of the 14 days with the staples in, she was at a full on run with those babies in there. 

It looked pretty nasty for awhile even after the staples came out. But now days it is a nice, pretty scar and a precious reminder of our first trip to the ER with our big girl. Congrats Makenna. Let's just make is an every 5 year occasion :)

Sugar and Spice

It looks like the McKamey household is going to start seeing a lot more pink around once again. Before getting pregnant I would have never expected it, but sure enough we are having a baby girl! Before we got pregnant I felt sure that our next child was going to be another boy. I just thought we had 3 boys coming our way. But then as soon as I looked at that positive pregnancy test, I got an immediate, very strong impression that this baby was going to be a girl. As time when by I got more and more excited about the prospect of having another girl and it started to become very hard to even imagine it being a boy. This made me nervous that I was getting too invested in the whole "girl" idea. But apparently that was not a fear I needed to be concerned about. 

We went to a 3D ultrasound clinic right at 14 weeks to find out the gender. We brought the kids with us so it could be a family affair. Makenna was hoping for a girl (partially because she wants bunk beds) and Kellen was rooting for a boy. Of course baby was not cooperating initially. Legs crossed or a hand covering just what we needed to see. But eventually the tech got a look and let us know we were expecting a baby girl!

Sweet baby Carys at 13 weeks. She always seems to have one hand up by her head.

Conner cracks me up. This totally happened unplanned as I was trying to take a belly pic with the timer on my camera. So cute! 

 This pregnancy has definitely been a different experience than my previous pregnancies. I went through a period of a couple of weeks where I was having migraines almost every other day or so. Thankfully they seem to have passed and not reared their head again. We just had our 20 week ultrasound. After a small scare where they told us there was something mildly abnormal found in the ultrasound (a choroid plexus cyst), we were eventually put in touch with my doctor and geneticist and have been reassured that our little girl is healthy and well and going to be totally fine. Even one day of worrying that there was something seriously wrong with the health of our baby was a very long and painful day. I count my blessings every moment and these days I am so incredibly grateful for the health of our precious daughter. 

 Baby girl parts. 2 girls and 2 boys now. Never knew we would get so lucky!

 Cute baby feet and toes at 20 weeks. I can already tell she is going to be adorable, even based on those toes alone! Love her! And I can't believe that we are already half way to having her in our arms!