Dancing Queen Mckinlay

Mckinlay had her dance recital yesterday.  Words cannot express how much I loved it.  I cried I was laughing so hard.

How I wish I didn't have really, really bad quality video footage to share with you, but it's all I got.  It so doesn't do it justice.  She was flitting and posing all over the place.  

So. Darn. Cute.

{She's the second one in on the left, obviously.}

Here's dance #2:

{Remind anyone else of the holoku days?}

Here she is with fellow dance classmate, preschool classmate and general bff Mishayla.

Love this girl
So much.

1st birthday

I think Liza likes birthdays.
Or at least the hands in the cake and balloons part.

On Tuesday morning we rushed out the door to get Mckinlay to preschool and found a little package with this balloon tied to it sitting on our back stairs.  It was from Pam & Archie.  Our across the street Grandparents.  Pam knit Liza a sweater.  You can kind of see it in the bottom left picture.
{I'm so in love with these neighbors of ours.  They have totally adopted my girls as their Grandkids.  It's too cute.}

On her actual birthday Ty had to work late, so we saved her presents for this weekend so he wouldn't miss out. 

Ty and I painted and recovered this rocking chair for her and I made her a monkey of her own.  She has been eying Mckinlay's so I figured she could use one too.

She's been rocking and snuggling
"Browna Browna Monkia"
{I'll give you one guess who came up with that name...}
ever since.

Happy Birthday Liza Rose!

Seriously!?  Has the past year gone way too fast for anyone else?



Liza has about a million nick names.  Most common of which is "Liza Rose" {after "Lida Rose" from the Music Man}.  We sing it to her all the time, and let me tell you, it's just about the cutest thing in the whole entire world to hear Mckinlay sing it to her.

I can't believe my babe is one!
Here are a few  things about Eliza on her 1st birthday:

Some of her other nicknames are "Lizy" {pronounces with a long i, as in, but not after, Liza Manella}, "Cutes", "Rose", "Rosie", "Lizy Lou", "Lou", "Little Lizy" {or if you are cousin Addy "Little Lizy Lizy Rose"}

She says "Mama", "Dada", "Amen", "Jesus", "Dog", "Hi" and "Bye"

She smiles.  All the time.

She loves to flip through books and talk on her play cell phone
{she puts it by her ear and says "Hi Dada"}

Everywhere we go people comment on her bright blue eyes, blonde hair and huge grin.  Maybe because she waves to everyone we see.

Crawls up/down the stairs in 3 seconds flat.

She likes to face forward in shopping carts.  Usually standing up with the strap around her bum.

This girl doesn't like to miss a thing.
And we love her for it.

Happy birthday sweet, sweet girl!!

Snow!

We spent the morning watching it,

playing in it,

& making up songs about it.

{Oh, & listing to Christmas music about it.}

Minute to Win It Boot Camp

Is it normal for your 3-year-old to wake up and ask 

"Can I play 'Don't Blow the Joker' while I eat my breakfast?"

Don't know what Don't Blow the Joker is?  

Sounds like you need to head on over to:

Last night for Family Home Evening did some Minute to Win It training.

We played:

Don't Blow the Joker

Nut Stacker

{Look at that concentration}

Mouth to Mouth 

Keep the Change

& Face the Cookie

{although some of us just preferred to eat the Oreos}

We even had prizes courtesy of Mckinlay.

Hers was, of course, a werewolf.  

Surprised?

Those of you who weren't around to ask Mckinlay what she wanted to be for Halloween, she went a good solid month saying "I want to be a werewolf for Halloween because I love werewolves and I'm not afraid of anything."  

I showed her all sorts of pictures of werewolves trying to convince her otherwise, but she was set.  She'd creep around the house hissing {you didn't know werewolves hissed!?} and saying "I'm a mean scary werewolf who is not afraid of anything!"  

Thankfully I was able to talk her into being a lion, like Eliza, but only on the condition that she could be a mean, scary lion.

Anyone else up for a challenge?

All the games and rules are listed here .

HALLoweening

We got a lot of Halloweening in this year!  

Wedensday we went trick-or-treating at the John Carroll University Freshman dorms:

Costume look familiar?

Thursday Mckinlay had a preschool Halloween Party

Friday we had our ward Halloween Party

And Saturday we went "Halloweening" with friends at our place.

Grandpa Eric flew in for the weekend.  Grandma was going to come too, but she was sick and wasn't able to make it!  Major bummer!!  Grandma was going to throw us and a few friends a Halloween party on Saturday, so she sent all the party supplies with Eric and we had our party anyway.  She sent treats and door covers so we could go "HALL-oweening" 

{trick-or-treating down our hallway}

What a darling idea, right? 

and she sent a story called Miss. Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pie.  

Here I am filling in as Miss Fiona:

The kids helped add the "special ingredients" before I topped it off with whipped cream.  Look at Tyler's {Mario} faces.  He said "Uh, you expect us to eat that?"  It was pretty funny.

It was a great weekend.  

We sure missed you Becky and thanks for all the fun and help Eric!!

Happy Halloween...

from the two cutest lions in town.

{click to enlarge}

No cavities!

Mckinlay went to the dentist for the first time today.  

She was pretty excited about it and was lucky enough to get to see Dr. Hatch {a.k.a. "Keegan's daddy"}.
Thanks Brian!!
{Since I know you're clicking refresh over and over waiting for your blog appearance. :)}

No cavities, a new toothbrush, flossers, a pencil AND pony stickers?  

I think it's safe to say her first trip to the dentist was a success.

 

Well, maybe we should say it was her first "official" dental visit.  

Remember this:

Definitely one of my all time favorite pictures/memories.

And just for the record, I finally went to the dentist this week too.  

{the above picture may or may not have been from my last check up...}

 I'm also cavity free.  No one was more surprised than myself, except maybe Ty.   I was positive they'd say something like "Let's just pull them all, unless you want 12 root canals."

Phew!

Mckinlay's self portrait:

I love the necklace.

She is turning into quite the little artist.

Hi friends!

Thanks for reading our blog.  I'm the first to admit private blogs are a pain,  

{if google could just make them show up in reader...} 

so thanks for stopping by.  We feel pretty loved that so many of you care what our little fam is up to.

Fall in Ohio is the best.  Here is a little of what we've been up to:

 

{Archie and his wife Pam are our across the street grandparents neighbors.  

They deserve their own post.  

My kids pictures hang on their fridge.}

Yo ho ho and a load of fun!

Ahoy thar land-lubbers!  

Yesterday be our 4th annual family pirate night!

We cheered "Yo ho!" as we initiated our newest addition into the crew.

{remember this?}

Yar!

We hunted for treasure,

played pirate-y games,

feasted on salty grub
and ate treats.

Side note --
It comes in handy having an oral surgeon husband when you want to decorate for pirate night.

You know, just in case the conversation turned to dental work?

Since this little pirate is now a "big pirate" she got her own mug for her frothy grog.
Gone are the days of plastic cups...

'Til next year me hearties!

{To check out years past click here, here & here.
I can't believe how much Mckinlay has grown!}

**Our blog is going private.  If you want an invite and haven't let me know yet, see the post below and send me your email.  Thanks!**

Going Private

I've decided to take the blog private.  If you want an invitation email me or leave a comment below {even if you've never commented before}.  I'll moderate comments so your email address won't be posted. 

Thanks guys!  We love our blog readers!

So I don't forget.

{photo by em}

Last night Mckinlay and I were dressing up in my jewelry.  We were getting ready to go to our weddings where we were going to marry princes.  

While getting ready our conversation went like this:

Mck:  What prince are you marrying Mom?

Me:  I'm marrying Prince Ty.  He looks just like Daddy.

        Who are you marrying?

Mck:  His name is Prince Sam.  

He looks just like Charles Muntz.

{You know, from Up?}

She also has a new "imagination friend." 
His name is Rico.
He's a skunk.

Where does she come up with these things?

An update in {mostly} photos

Lately we've been:

 

Doing

 

{Yes, I realize that says "starging."  

Call me lazy.Too many steps to fix it.}

  

{click to enlarge}

Yuck.

Frost, please hurry so they all die.  

I'd like to open my windows and doors again. 

{did i really just wish for the frost to come?}

 

 

Don't worry.  We're all fine.

A Little Preschooler

The long anticipated day has arrived.

Yesterday she laid out her clothes the on floor of her room just like there was a little body in them.  Shirt, pants, shoes and a bow.
Funny how she knows that is what you do the day before school starts.

She woke up 3 times last night in anticipation.

"No Mckinlay, it's 2:30 in the morning.  It's still nighttime."

Call her a brown-noser if you will, but she was insistent that we take Miss. Bridi a treat for the first day of school.  

Is she my child, or what!?