It's Officially a Boy

Wow.  Finn is now a week old.  My water broke Saturday July 11 at 6 in the evening and Finn made his appearance a few hours later.  Nana Marty came to visit as did Sissy and Murphy.  Grandma and Grandpa will be here in a week and a half to see him too.  We cant wait.  Check out my facebook page for more pics.

Slip Slip Slip and Slide.

Wow.  OK There were so many good photos that I couldn't decide which ones to show off.  God knows how Sissy and Rich do it daily.  So instead of writing all about how darn cute she was on the slip and slide I will just post the monstrous quantities of photos and let you see for yourselves.

She is a Graduate.

Wow.  She is gowing up so fast and has officially passed a milestone...Preschool graduation.  Graduation was a ceremony with lots of singing, awards, and the pledge of allegiance and sign language.  Kenzie won an award for best builder / future architect.  It will be interesting to see if she continues that interest past this stage of her life.  She was adorable and I will be spending the rest of today editing the ceremony.  She also recieved a yearbook/scrapbook about her pre-school year.  It was adorable and included a question sheet answered at the beginning and end of the school year.  Some of my favorite responses-

If you could buy your daddy anything what would it be?

"An elephant cause thats what he talks about alot"

I'm not sure if this is because daddy has mentioned elephant poop quite often or what.

If you could be any animal what would you be?

"Of course, a butterfly because of the gorgeous wings"

When you listen to Kenzie talk she answers of course, quite often.

What was the most important thing you learned at school this year?

"not to put my fingers in my mouth"

This just made me laugh because clearly that was an important lesson that the school was trying to impart.

Memorial Day Madness

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend starting with taking MJ to the bounceland with her friend Alli and letting them bounce and run for an hour and a half.  We accomplished some work around the house, including fireing up the smoker and making our own pastrami.  Yum.  When we asked Kenzie what she wanted to do for Memorial Day she quickly replied that she wanted to learn to surf.  It was one of the cutest things that I have ever seen.  As cute as some of the pics are, they don't do the actual event justice. 

May

MJ has been into everything lately.  She made me the cutest Mothers day keychain.  She even went so far as to explain the significance of the color choices on the beads.  She FINALLY is showing some interest in something athletic and is scootering all over the neighborhood.  We finally got her to switch to a 2 wheel scooter 2 weeks ago.  At first she was very very hesitant but is now so confident on it that she is going down the steepest driveway in our neighborhood.  All the while with a huge smile on her face.  Her best friend Alli had given us her old 2 wheel scooter- a firebird, that has egg shaped wheels for more stability.  She is so comfortable in only 2 weeks that now she wants a razor scooter just like Alli, Chase, and Matther have.  At first we were concerned as we thought that there weren't any gift opportunities coming up and didn't want to just buy her something like that for the heck of it but Jim came up with a great idea.  May 28 is Kenzies preschool graduation- complete with cap and gown.  Wait until you see the picture.  Anyway, Jim and I will be getting her a razor then so expect to hear more about it over the next few weeks.

Easter

MJ had a great Easter weekend.  On saturday, we went to an egg-stravaganza at her friend Matthews church.  She played a bunch of games, had her face painted, and went on her first egg hunt.  She participated in an egg toss- and didn't do badly until Matthew accidentally hit her in the head with the egg.  She was concerned about egg in her hair but once it was out she was fine.

Saturday night we headed out to the Flashlight egg hunt which was interesting but Mackenzie had a blast.  She loved seeing her teacher outside of school.

Sunday we went to secret beach to have yet another egg hunt which she enjoyed but not as much as she enjoyed hiding the eggs for each of us.  After kayaking, we headed back to Matthews house to swim and hang out.  We had one more egg hunt and an egg cracking contest before we ate a huge meal and called it a night.

Anyway, Kyle has an interview at Community Christian Academy tomorrow and I will keep you posted on how that turns out.  Talk to everyone soon.

Temper Temper

MJ loves her new room except when she is mad at the world and decides to yell I hate my room, I hate you, I hate anything else I can think of.  Which of course, is happening about once a day.  She is such a drama queen.  That is a girl for you.  Thank goodness we're having a boy this time.  Anyway, we are headed off to two egg hunts today.  Well, Kenzie and I are at least.  I don't think egg hunting is high on Daddys list of fun things to do.  We are off to a morning hunt and then tonight we are going to a flashlight egg hunt.  How cool does that sound.  So anyway, we should have some great pictures for you tomorrow.  We were also thinking of taking her down to build- a - bear for an easter gift.  Has anyone done this and is it worth it.  Let me know.

Happy Easter 

What We've Been Up To

Imagine Ikea

MJ loves her new room.  We found a bunch of organization/ decoration ideas at the biggest store I have ever been in.  The best thing was the random wall cabinet that was on clearance that I turned upside down and added baskets to create a nightstand, for a whopping total price of 15 bucks.  I was amazed.  We also got drawer organizers, a princess bed hanging, a cool garden wall light, and hanging cup holders for the chalk and magnets.  We need chalk and magnets for the cool magentic chalkboard wall- thanks to Sis and Rich for that idea.  MJ's favorite is the princess bed hanging.  We had it out yesterday with the hope of putting it up but didn't get to it.  MJ had a fit last night refusing to sleep in her 'hideous' bed.  She is much happier today now that it is installed.

So now it's on to the nursery room.  We have decided to keep the Disney tree and replace the rest of the stuff.  We are going to go with a forest theme since the disney mural has a great tree included.  Any ideas are welcome.

Ponies and Princes

MJ loves to hang out down the street with Matthew, Danny, and Chase.  She normally plays boy games but last night she managed to convince them to play ponies.  There is just something funny about a bunch of little boys hanging around the pile of pony stuff so I thought I'd share.  Of course, it shouldn't have come as a surprise seeing that Murphys favorite toy while down here visiting was the pony ferris wheel.

And the Winner is...

Was there any doubt that she would get to pick her own outfit.  I can only be so lucky once. She headed off to school this morning to have her graduation photos reshot.  She was clad in a complete pink outfit- including the pink sparkly nailpolish that she is showing off.  Anyway, tomorrow is her easter party at school so we will be making and decorating cookies this afternoon.  Every time I turn my back she is eating the dough, the icing, whatever she can get her hands on- except for maybe raw pasta that she can do without. I can't wait for the sugar high that will undoubtably follow...   

Missing Photos, Sushi with No Rice, and Egg Hunts.

So I picked Kenzie up from school today and found a big important notice on the door.  Turns out that Lifetouch photos, who came last week to shoot graduation and class photos, has managed to lose all the graduation photos of the kids.  We will be having a reshoot later this week.  I managed to get Kenzie in the outfit of my choosing last time do we really think I will manage that again. Ugh.

 So we are making our Easter plans and will be headed out to secret beach for a brunch on the beach.  We will be having an Egg hunt for the kids and are looking for ideas for things to stuff inside the eggs that isn't candy. Anyone,Anyone...Help.

Lastly, we went out for dinner this weekend and headed to our new favorite sushi place.  Now this is our new favorite sushi place based on the quality of the food not the service.   Of course, after this meal I may have to doubt the quality of the food as well.  So we show up for our sushi meal and are seated at a booth.  After we place our drink order the waiter comes over all apologetic to tell us that there is no sushi rice. So if we could please stay and order something else off the menu he would be grateful since they needed the business and he needed the tip.  No kidding thats what he said.  At this point Mackenzie being the smooth operator that she is starts yelling about how can a sushi restaurant not have sushi and we should leave.  Hard to argue when the kid is right but Jim and I felt bad and we stayed.  What a mistake. Ticked off kid...check.  No rice...check.  Fun meal...no check.  Anyway, we ordered a meal of appetizers and thank god that they had edamame to subdue the insane-o child with.  For those of you that have heard MJ lately I think her tirade went something like this.  I am never eating here again.  Do you hear me.  I said NE-VAH.

I will write more of our escapades later on.  Enjoy.

Only Marty

Part 2- For those of you just tuning in, read the paragraph below first.  Marty is safely home after 33 hours of dealing with the toyota dealership, the toyota company in the virgin islands, and the sewage treatment plant where she ended up trying to find her keys.  She ended up getting a key from Toyota but not one of the awesome clicky thingies that locks/unlocks/pops the trunk.  Anyway, she is going to continue to try to work with the St. Thomas Toyota and see what she can do.

Another saga in the wild adventures from Marty, I began ,my trip today rested, relaxed and on time so I made a slight detour in Walterboro, SC to visit the SC Artisans Gallery. It is filled with a beautiful new bldg attached to a historic home and over 300 SC artists. By noonish I was in Columbia, SC and stop at my [use to be] favorite coffee shop Starbucks. I carried my thermos in with my car keys and wallet. Went straight to the bathroom sat down to pee , washed, rinsed out thermos , bent over with keys and thermos in hand flushed and my keys slid out of right hand down into toilet. I reached in only to watch a high velocity intense vacuum suck my keys halfway to hell in.001 seconds. GONE!!!! Starbuck called upper management and a special 200 flush daily, low fill, fast moving water removal system had been installed. I had at least 9 keys with some weight. Needless to say the story just begins.............I call AAA to send out a locksmith, he unlocks my slightly cracked window, alarm goes off for 15 minutes. I call AAA back to send a tow truck to take me to the dealership as they are the only ones authorized to duplicate the keys. I get there and find because I got the car used original purchased vehicle came from St Thomas , Virgin Islands the keys could not be found in the US data base to get another set. The dealership will have to call St Thomas first and if they can get the combinations then they need to remove the computer in the car and wipe off the key system and issue another code. Who knows when that can get done. I got a hotel and am going to dealership EARLY AM and hope to get the ball rolling. Tune in later for a further update.

Fairies and Aliens

March 26 - Well, Kenzie loves reading.  She is frustrated that she can't quite get it herself but it doesn't stop the endless requests for us to read entire chapter books with no pictures.  She loves the Rainbow Fairies series from Daisy Meadows.  She is so into the stories that now she has to dress up like the fairy on the front cover to be totally involved in the book.  See the new pictures.

  Well the little man is moving around so much so that people on the outside can feel him kick now.  Jim had his hand on my stomach and squeeled like a baby when he felt it.  His comment was something to the effect of it feels like an alien.  Nice huh.

March Madness

March 20 - Ummm So... We just got back from the bike ride.  It went surprisingly well.  Every so often we passed one of those professional spandex clad psycho bikers and Jims speed increased but after a few minutes he tended to remember me.  We had one 'interesting' moment.  Riding on the sidewalk we tended to come across alot of bikers and walkers, most of whom gave Jim towing MJ the right of way.  That is until we came across a little old man on an electric scooter.  Jim stopped and moved halfway off the sidewalk giving the man plenty of room to pass on the left side.  The guy didn't move out of the center of the sidewalk and was within an inch of hitting MJ.  After seeing Jims response I figure that it might be a good thing that MJ doesn't seem too inclined toward sports.

 Well I am about to head off on a 16 mile bike ride with just Jim, Kenzie and I.  This could either be great or awful.  I have excersized with Jim before I was 5 1/2 months preggo.  He likes to go fast and push himself.  I can't keep up normally.  I have mentioned this and he says he's going to go my pace.  We'll see.  I figure worst case scenario, when he gets so far ahead,  I can just pretend I am on a long bike ride by myself. 

Well Jim and I randomly filled out our NCAA Mens Basketball brackets and we are having a small discrepancy.  We used yahoo sports to create them vs. the traditional pen and paper way.  However, yahoo is keeping score two ways and we didn't realize this.  It is keeping score the normal way and also keeping score using bonus points for upsets.  I am winning one way and Jim is winning the other way.  So should we use the traditional method or the method that rewards upsets...

The Great Name Debate  

March 19 - After reading Sallys comment on the names I have to laugh as we have such similar opinions.  Finley / Finn and Winn/Wynn are two of our favorites but we loved Joss too.  Surprisingly we did know Joss Whedon was the creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse.  Although I must say Dollhouse really isn't that good but there is something about it that makes me keep watching. 

It's a Boy...But she's all girl

March 18 - Kenzie has her school pictures today and she insisted on having her fancy dress on, her hair curled with a bow in it, and her fingers painted.  Of course, all of these had to be in the exact same shade of blue.  I have not yet found a great place for cute hair bows so any ideas would be great.

Well we found out that we are having a baby boy.  We have a few names that we are tossing around.  Let us know what you think-

Archer

Campbell

Carson

Finley -Finn

Sawyer

Hudson

Jameson

Joss

Palmer

Rowan

Sullivan

Seamus

Winn- Wynn

For those football fans out there, I didn't even realize Carson Palmer was on the list until someone pointed it out- Thanks Sis.

So we have been renovating the house, trying to find space for another baby.  Luckily for us, Mackenzie wanted to move into the bigger room so that wasn't a battle we actually had to fight.  After having Sis, Rich, and Murphy here for 10 days MJ is firmly moved into her new bedroom.  As a small side note- I had to call the gas company yesterday because we ran out of propane- therefore hot water- since we had to do so many loads of laundry with company here.  Thanks again Sis.  Or maybe I should thank Murphy as he is the one who required multiple extra loads of laundry due to his wonderful pukey mcpukerson impression.

While Sis, Rich, and Murphy were here we went to Disney World and had a blast.  Since it was Kenzies Birthday she actually got a gift card to spend in the park for 63 bucks.  After visiting the princesses I thought for sure she would spend her money in the gift shop but she couldn't be swayed.  Nothing was the perfect gift to herself.  Nothing that is until we randomly found Jasmine and Aladdin in a back corner.  As we stood in line Kenzie saw a Jasmine outfit.  She mentioned reasonably to me that since she has all the other dress up costumes but not the Jasmine costume wouldn't that be a great present.  I was thinking that since there was no way could Disney charge more that 63 dollars for a costume this was a great idea.  After the line closed behind us- Did I mention how lucky we were that day- Mackenzie got to drive the Jungle Cruise Boat as the guest skipper.  Then we purchased the 64 dollar costume complete with 6,000 sequins 3,000 of which we nicely left for disney employees to clean up.  Everytime MJ sat down on a ride when she stood up there were a whole new set of sequins left there.  However, she did look adorable in the costume and was even serenaded at the beginning of the parade.  

Anyway, enjoy the few photos that I have already uploaded and more will be forthcoming when I go to edit the video.  

With love, Kyle, Jim, and Mackenzie

P.S.- head to the family page to see more video of Mackenzie as well as links to her cousins pages!     

Kindergarten Already

March 23 - It is time to start registering Mackenzie for Kindergarten.  We have found out what school she is going to go to and it is just down the street from us.  There is a good chance she will have some of the kids that are in her pre-k class in her class next year as alot of them will be attending the same school.  However, most of the kids attending Seawind are the boys from her class.  It's ok though since she is very friendly with the boys.  At what age do I need to get concerned about this friendliness.

Anyway, I got the registration packet today and am absolutely shocked at all of the requirements.  The biggest one is the dress code.  I remember the dress code from Grand Island and it wasn't crazy.  I am going to have to purchase the kid a boat load of new clothes because one of the requirements of the Seawind dress code is that all shirts or dresses must have a collar.  Kenzie is going to have a fit as she hates collars.  I am not looking foward to this one.