Home again, home again jiggity jig

On our vacation Mckinlay tried a lot of new things. She started eating solid food three times a day and took to it very eagerly. She has liked everything new that we have given to her with the exception of water. She refuses to drink it. I've tried to put it into a bottle, which she will grab for, but as soon as she tastes it, she wants nothing to do with it. The other night we were out to dinner with Grandma Loveless and Ty kept giving her water from the end of her straw. Here's what she thought of it.Over and over he'd offer it to her, she take it, and then make this face. Hilarious! In contrast, we we're out to dinner the night before and Ty gave her a little ice cream. Strangely, she didn't have the same reaction...

We had a fantastic trip. Since Mckinlay and I were there for a month and Ty for a little over a week, we did way too much to blog about in detail, so hows 'bout some captioned pics?

Mckinlay got in some quality grandma time.

I got to get together with my gals from high school and my old roomies.

Had a fabulous wedding shower for Breezy along with attending all her other wedding festivities. Here she is with my "mystery gift" a scrapbook of us, of course!We visited Great Grandma Loveless.

Mckinlay got to play with "almost twin" cousin Peyton.

And we did A LOT of swimming!!

Not to mention all the movies we went to/watched and that we went out to eat just about every day (Did I mention we gained a pound or two!? Well, Mckinlay and I did...maybe not Ty...).

It was a wonderful and much needed break!! It's kinda nice to be back home now and to get to all the things that I need to do, but it was sure fun to spend time together with out any studying or disctrations. Thanks to everyone who made our trip so fab!! We love you!

A whole lot a love

We're done and we LOVED it!! We're so sad the Harry Potter chapter of our lives has come to a close. Too bad about Hermione (Whoopsie--for those who have not read the book yet, disregard this comment). Sigh...at least we still have the remaining movies to look forward to!!

We're headed home to Boston in a few hours. Our Utah trip has been fantastic. We'll post more on that later...but we just wanted to leave you with a little bit of advice:

PLEASE GO AND SEE HAIRSPRAY!!

We saw it last night and lo-UH-ved it! Pretty sure we had a smile on our faces the entire time!

"Ve are Swedish People..."

Breezy and Megs. Those two names are pretty much inseparable.
My dear friend and cousin got married yesterday. Now she's Mrs. Stewart. It was a fabulous day! She was glowing and looked absolutely stunning! Lucky, lucky Adam. I was so glad to be a part of the day. It was like my sister was getting married.

Breezy and I grew up together in Hawaii. We had sleepovers just about every weekend and did pretty much everything together. We have so many memories--dreaming of being on "The Price is Right" and bidding $1, going to Punahou together, grabbing Chinese food just before we said "Amen", singing "Rise Up Oh Shephards Run" every Christmas, telling stupid jokes (that we thought we so funny even after telling them a million times), wishing we were from Sri Lanka...the list goes on and on. After I moved to Utah Breezy would spend a few days at my house every summer and in college we actually fulfilled the dream and were roomies, not "room roomates" but roomates all the same!!
I love you Bri!! I am so happy for you and Adam. You two are darling together and I can tell he knows what a special girl he's got.

How I love you Breezy!!!
XXXOOO
Megs

"I love baseball"

He's finally here!! Our vacation can now officially begin.

This morning we went to Magelby's Fresh for brekky (which is always a favorite). Then Ty, Papio and I went to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls. I have never been golfing before (well, unless you count the one time I went on a date with the "Wolverine"--but we've tried to forget about that experience.) let alone to the driving range, but I so look the part! Look at that stance? I mean seriously, it's a wonder I don't just go ahead and go pro, right?

But it doesn't compete with Ty's killer form.

Oopsie!! I meant this killer form...

Thanks Papio for the fun morning!
And what would a day in the hot sun be without some quality "refresherment!?"

As soon as Mckinlay wakes up we're going to the pool and tonight we get to celebrate Maddle's 21st birthday and go to Beauty and the Beast. We so love being on vacation!!

(If you don't get the post title--please rent Thoroughly Modern Millie.)

Our "chairman of the boards"

Hurray!! The boards are over!! Ty will be here with us in Utah in only one more sleep!! We are so glad the test is over and now it's time to play. Thanks to everyone for all the prayers and thanks to everyone back in Boston who took care of my guy for me while Mckinlay and I have been away. I appreciate all the meals and I know Ty did too. It got to the point where he would tell me he had Snickers for dinner and I would ask "make sure you eat a little beef jerky with that too OK!?" And thanks to the Hartvigs for throwing him a "chairman of the boards" bash! (And thanks Seely's for the pics.) You guys are the best!

To celebrate here in Utah, we went to the pool. Maddle and Jeff came too and Maddle got to show off her new birthday suit--I mean--the new swim suit she got for her birthday on Sunday. She got it from an online vintage clothing site. How cute are my little matching Betty's!?We are SO excited for tomorrow night to come. And now you can expect posts that include pics of Ty and not just me talking about him studying all the time! Hurray!! And hurrah!!

Tomorrow is "B" Day...

We love you Daddy!! Good luck on your test tomorrow!! We can't wait to see you in only two more sleeps!!

So much!!

Your gals

6 months already!?

It is Mckinlay family tradition to celebrate your first 1/2 birthday with a 1/2 chocolate cake. Here's Brennan's. I think it is a form of initiation to the Hallstrom/Mckinlay clan. Your first exposure to chocolate. (side note clarification--if you are totally confused, those of you who don't know Mckinlay is my maiden name as well as my daughter's name).Yesterday was Mckinlay's 1/2 birthday and how fitting that we got to celebrate it at Grandma Happy Jo's house (since she is the chocolate-meister). I made a cake for the fam and a 1/2 cake for Mckinlay on Saturday night. I even made party hats! I was so antsy for church to be over so we could have our big party and what did my girl do!? I put her down for a nap after church and the little thing decided she was down for the night! So last night while Maddle and Jeff were here, we donned our hats and ate our cake without the guest of honor.
As great as that was, round two was so much more fun! Tonight we got to celebrate with the birthday girl. We set up the web cam so Ty could get in on the party action too. It was so cute, she kept looking over at the computer screen so she could see him.
At first she was more interested in the plate...
...then she got a taste...
...and went to town!! All the while looking to the computer for Daddy's approval.
Before you think I'm a bad mom for letting my 6 month old eat cake--I'll have you know it didn't so much make it into her mouth, but all over her mouth and mainly here:
I'm not sure who had more fun--her with the cake? Or us watching? I can't believe my little girl is 6 months already! Time flies.

We hope you all had a happy 4th! We sure did. Ty took an hour off studying yesterday morning so we could all go to breakfast down in Brighton Center. Fillmores came too and it was delicious! Ty took another hour off for dinner and we went to the park and had a picnic with some friends. It was such a treat to get to hang out with him!

Jonathan , Melanie and I all went down to the Charles River to watch the big fireworks extravaganza, while Ty stayed at home with the babes and to study. It was definitely not ideal firework watching weather (basically it rained all night) but we were quite content to sit in our rain gear and read Laffy Taffy jokes.

I think Jonathan is holding up the Golden Laffy Taffy wrapper. It had the two best jokes of the night:
What is yellow and wears a mask? The lone lemon
What do astronauts eat for dinner? Launch meat

Haa haa.

The Fireworks were fantastic and we made it out of there in record time due to Melanie's and my speed walking skills and her excellent driving. So despite the weather, it was a fourth of July to remember, even if only for the quality jokes we heard.
Mckinlay and I are off for Utah tomorrow. So we'll be posting from the west soon!!

"...moderation in all things..."

For the past several months, I've pretty much had my nights to myself. Ty has been hitting the books pretty hard core, bless his heart, for his upcoming board exams. Several of you have been congratulating us on our completion of dental school, so I think we need to clarify. These are his 2nd year board exams. He has another set of board exams at the end of his fourth year, and that is the end of dental school. Then he goes on to a specialty program (oral surgery is still the top choice) which will be another 4-6 years. So pretty much, we've only just begun. But it's cool. Money is so over rated anyway...

So what in the world have I been doing with my oodles of time you ask!? Well, I am now a regular at the Brighton Library. Almost embarrassingly so. I borrow a stack of movies (usually about 4-5) and then I'm back 4-5 days later, to get my next stack. I'm sure the librarians think I am a pathetic lonely mother with a strange fetish for old musicals. I'm pretty much a Fred Astaire aficionado now. I must say he is much more believable as a leading man/love interest paired alongside Ginger in his earlier films than he is in such movies as Funny Face and Daddy Long Legs, (although he is pretty cute in those red cowboy boots). No matter how good of a dancer he is, it's kinda hard when he is 70 and and the girl is 19...but no matter. He is still "smarvelous!" And does anyone know how An American in Paris turns out? The library copy is scratched, so I couldn't see the ending! I don't know who Lise choses. Jerry? Or Henri? It's keeping me up at night.

I've listened to 3 books on tape, watched Pride and Prejudice (the long version, and the short version for that matter), Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea (Check out those links. I thought I had a lot of time on my hands!?).

I've made bows for Mckinlay and as gifts. I've completed one scrapbook for her and started on a second one. I finished a mystery gift for someone I love so very much (which can be revealed later). And did what any other girl with a lot of time on her hands would do, I made stuffed animals for Mckinlay, duh!

It all started with Francis.
I found the pattern here. After I made this Ty and I thought, "How easy/fun would it be to make more of these little guys?" So we drew up some patterns and I made some more. Many more. Maybe too many more. I turned into a stuffed animal machine!! I couldn't stop. It got so bad that there was a talk in church about doing things in moderation and the words "stuffed animals" kept running through my head! There was some serious guilt going on, I'll tell ya! But look how cute my, I mean, Mckinlay's new little friends are!?
We have Winston the Beaver, Erma the Cow, Beatrice the Mouse, Henry the Gorilla, Penelope and Dot the Kangaroos, Maxwell the Frog, you've already met Francis, Bernard the Monkey and Arnold the Pig. Ty calls them my hoard. But wait, they get even cuter. Look at the Gorilla bum. I mean seriously folks!

Lest you think I'm a complete animal hoarder, I did make a few gifts. Not that is was easy to part with them...but they went to good homes. So those of you who received these gifts, know they came with a whole lot of love!
It's a good thing Mckinlay likes playing with them. This all started because she has a little University of Utah bear that she received as a gift (don't worry, she still bleeds blue) that she loved. I made Francis as a replacement for it. Ty hated that she loved that bear so much. So really, you can blame the U for my stuffed animal obsession. Dang Utes!