Christmas is here

We have had fun decorating and enjoying the Christmas tree so far this year. Last night we watched "It's a Wonderful Life." It's a favorite Christmas tradition of mine!

We hope you all have a merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We got some family pictures taken over Thanksgiving...

Is that true cousin love, or what? Ha ha. McKay looks so happy to be hugging Luke.

We had a great Thanksgiving with some of Kimball's family in Enterprise. We stayed over a couple nights so that McKay could wake up early and go with grandpa to "daddy's dairy." McKay likes to wake up early at their house. :) I have been really grateful lately to have a cute little boy, another boy on the way, and a big boy named Kimball who I get to be married to. Lots of boys around these parts.

I need to complain...

I hate, hate, HATE daylight savings time. We were up at 5am.

This is the most ridiculous facet of life when you have a little kid who has no comprehension that getting an extra hour of sleep is really cool. Why do we even do it??????????? I don't care that it's going to be light at 6 am now. I don't want it light then anyways. Now it just means that it's going to be dark every night when we eat dinner at 6 pm.

This is when living in Arizona would come in really handy. I plan for a week or two of a messed up sleep schedule for McKay. Great. Makes me excited.

:) Okay, all done complaining.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Aren't they cute?

That's right, folks, Christmas music has begun at our house this season! I feel totally okay in this decision now that Halloween has passed and it is getting chilly outside! Right now we are experiencing a great wind storm. I love storms this time of year. It just makes me want to snuggle up with a good book or a good little boy and read his favorite books which consist of "aminals" and "tractows."

Lately we have been spending the majority of our days reading books, coloring, talking about colors (McKay tells me what color EVERYTHING is. I must say it is a good review from my pre-school days.), playing play-do, and playing with tractors and trucks.

Funny story about the Halloween candy: the next morning after trick-or-treating, McKay woke up saying, "where'd candy go?" I told him that the candy went bye-bye and it was all gone. So for the past few days he keeps repeating to himself, "candy all gone, candy all gone." I feel so tricky....ha ha ha. I am enjoying this trickery because I know he won't fall for it next year. :)

Yesterday we went swimming and we were the only ones in the pool for an hour and a half (along with 6 lifeguards...I seriously don't know how this pool will stay in business). McKay had a blast. They didn't have the water spraying from the big climbing tower thing, which was nice. McKay was able to play up there without getting his face all sprayed (normally he doesn't like to go up there). So he spent a good half hour going from one steering wheel to the next and driving "McKay's truck" as he would call it. I just sat in the warm water and enjoyed watching his excitement at driving his truck.

That's all for now. I just had a few extra minutes and wanted to share. :)

Halloween

This year was a fun Halloween, complete with a Halloween recital for my students. My 5 students were good sports about dressing up and some of their little siblings did too.

McKay was our little monkey this year. The costume fit him well because he likes bananas, likes to climb all over and get into stuff and likes to say "eee eee, ooo ooo, eee eee"

Trick or treating was really fun. Kimball and I accompanied the little monkey. He caught on very quick that you have to say "twick o tweat" at every door and then "tank oo" when we leave. I must say, we were very enamored with him. McKay made it really fun because he was so excited--jumping all over and walking so excitedly from house to house. It was a great evening!

Happy Birthday

2 Years! I can't believe it!The highlight of the night was McKay's new car

His Bowler cousins. It was so cute how eager they were to help him open his presents. The party was way more fun with other kids around!

The football cake: I must say this was the easiest and cutest cake I have ever made

He enjoyed being sung to and when we put the cake close to him so he could blow out the candles, he kept saying, "hot, hot."

McKay's birthday today was more fun for me than him, I think. I just wanted to make it so special for him because birthdays are a big deal! We went to the park, went swimming, and even ate lunch at McDonald's so he could play in the germ-infested play place (that's what I call it). :) Oh how I love McKay!

Flight Museum

As part of the flight museum, we got to fly right by Mt. Rainier....
Just kidding, but it sure was fun to see lots of amazing airplanes at Seattle's flight museum, which is right near the headquarters of Boeing

McKay enjoyed getting inside one of the planes

Our trip to Seattle has been so fun! I love it here. Mom & Dad just moved back up here after 2 years in Missouri. They are glad to be back and I am enjoying the rain, the green, and the vacation!

Carving Punkins

We are at grandma & grandpa Thacker's house and we had so much fun carving our "punkin" as McKay calls it
McKay wasn't too fond of the pumpkin insides, but he really wanted to help cut

Just one kid

Having just one kid is great and fun and enjoyable and *easy* (by easy I mean easier than I think two will be). The other day, as I was walking along with McKay in the stroller, I had some deep thoughts come to me that made me so grateful to be McKay's mom and so grateful that I have had almost two years alone with him! This time with just one kid is precious!!!! Although I really get excited when I think of our second one joining us soon, I can't help but think how different things are going to be and how my relationship with McKay is going to change. No longer will he be the only one I can think about all day long. I'll be honest, McKay sometimes stresses me out, but for the most part, I have really enjoyed him the past couple years. He turns 2 next month. I feel lucky that he is our only one until January. Things are going to change. In a good way. But a different way. I hope I am not alone in feeling this way. I am excited for more kids, just really happy to have enjoyed McKay all by his little self!

Lately McKay will ask me to play with him. He'll say, "go play. go play." He knows so many more words and is talking a ton now, which is making things really fun and funny. We tell him he is cute or that we love him, and he always replies, "I know." We are working on the word "thanks," but he is not picking up on it too fast, probably because we laugh every time he says, "I know." He is still so enamored with us, which I love. Everything around the house is "daddy's." He will point to anything that reminds him of daddy and say, "daddy's." ALL DAY LONG. :) :) He loves his daddy!!!! McKay's most recent accomplishment is he can spell his name. At least he can recognize the letters in his name. He probably has no idea that it spells his name. This all started with him learning the "Y" for BYU. We wear a lot of BYU apparel, so he quickly learned what the "Y" meant. When we watch the games, he notices the "Y" on the helmets and he gets so excited.

A couple weeks ago, we made our way to Parowan for the Iron County Fair. McKay loves to look at animals. He's not too keen on the petting part, unless they are much smaller than him (like a kitty).

Big Boy News

McKay is proud to announce that he is going to have a baby brother January 21st!! I am 20 weeks today and feeling really good. I don't think McKay actually really understands at all what is going on. We taught him that mommy has a baby in her tummy and now he goes around pointing to his and daddy's tummy's saying, "baby." It is pretty funny, but I wouldn't want him to do that to someone else, so we kind of just stopped talking about that. :)

The ultrasound was fun. People kind of had me convinced that we were having a girl because I was more sick in the beginning with this baby. We had a girl name picked out and I was buying (just a couple) girl outfits. But we were excited to see that it was a boy because now McKay will have a little buddy who will like balls and trucks just as much as he does.

McKay turns 2 in October, so I am feeling good about the spacing of these kiddos. I am sure once the 2nd one comes, then I will be thinking why in the world did I have them so close????? ha ha. I think it will be good. The first 3 months will be hard, but it is probably hard regardless of how far apart the kids are. I am not looking forward to the first little while. I have gotten so used to sleeping all night since McKay was about 6 months old, so I have been spoiled. It will be another adventure.


So there you have it....our big boy news!

Even though McKay is definitely all boy, I think he is getting in touch with his feminine high-heel side. :)

Lately

A few weeks ago, McKay discovered the art of lining things up. His trucks and tractors have become the toy of choice lately and he is very good at sharing his smile with everyone these days!

This is one day's picking and we get this much about every other day. I think we have learned our lesson after 2 years in a row.....only plant ONE squash and ONE zucchini plant. I have already frozen enough zucchini for the rest of the year. ha ha ha.

Holt Reunion

Kimball's family's reunion theme this year was "Families Are Forever." There have been a lot of emotions in the past 6-7 months with JoAnn passing away and Bob getting remarried. What a wonderful theme for a reunion, huh? We love Marge, Bob's new wife, and we feel like the Holt family has pulled together and gotten closer through the hardship of losing their mom.

Us with Marge and Dad

He knows what it means to smile now. :)

We swam at Veyo Pool and everyone loved it! The big boys played some game that involves catching a ball and it gives them a big thrill. I guess little boys are the same way. :-)

McKay's favorite part of the reunion was playing in grandma and grandpa's sand/dirt box. With shovels and pails and tractors, what else do you need?

More posts below

The wedding

McKay's grandpa Holt got married August 6th! We are happy for him to have found such a wonderful lady and hope the best for them! We enjoyed being in the temple all together and then having a blast at their reception. They had a live band and we danced the whole time!

Bob & Marge with all of his kids
Marge chose green, yellow, and orange for her colors. The decorating was absolutely beautiful!