Montana (July 9-18)

We always love our annual Montana trips. It is so fun to get away for a week or so, and Montana is always so beautiful during the summer (the part that Curtis is from, anyway). This trip was especially fun because it was Mckenna's first visit to her dad's hometown. We spent time with friends and family, ate lots of huckleberry ice cream (a trip to Montana wouldn't be the same without it), went out to eat a lot, went on a beautiful boat ride with some very generous friends, and had a great time all around. On our way home from Montana we made a detour to Sandpoint, Idaho to see Curtis' aunt. We saw a lot of beautiful scenery on the way. There are a lot of pictures that follow - so prepare yourself.


Curtis' friend Fletcher from growing up. This picture reminds me of that line in the movie Sweet Home Alabama: "Look at you, you have a baby...in a bar". Yeah, that picture was taken at the Garden bar in Bigfork where Fletcher works.


Mckenna's first taste of huckleberry ice cream. It was hard to pry her away once she tasted it.






We found this great little place to eat called Somersbay cafe. It will be a place we visit everytime we go from now on - the food was unbelievable!






Aunt Whitney had Mckenna wrapped around her little finger. She LOVED Whitney, but Whitney definitely had to work for it.






Right before we got our motorhome, Curtis' brother bought one just like ours. They're so cute together!
























This trip we decided to venture outside our normal hang out places and try to eat somewhere new. This picture was taken at the WORST restuarant EVER (which I will not name...wouldn't want to hurt anyones feelings). The place was completely empty except for 2 tables. It took them 10 minutes to even come out and seat us. And then we waited for 30 minutes to order our food, and another 45 to get the food we ordered. When we got our food, let's just say it was disgusting. I ordered a crescent with chicken salad. The crescent was hard as a rock and underneath it was stuck to the plate with apricot jam... really weird. Curtis and Whitney had similar food experiences. We will not be visiting there again anytime soon.






To say that Mckenna hated the boat ride would be a major understatement. She screamed pretty much the whole time.

Our new toy (June 27)

We have been wanting to buy a motorhome for a while. We have talked about it several times, and thought it was a purchase we would make years down the road. However, we had many trips coming up this summer and we thought now was as good of time as any for us. So, the weekend before 4th of July, we found "the one", Curtis and his brother drove out to Colorado to look at it, make sure it was the right one for our family, buy it, and drive it back. It has been absolutely wonderful and we love it. So far we have put about 5,000 miles on with various trips, and have used it as a guest house for friends and family who have come to say with us.







This is Mckenna's crib that Curtis and his brother James made. It's awesome, and very useful on trips.





These are just a few pictures from our various trips this summer. I'll go into further detail of each trip in other posts. But isn't she a beaut? We have had a lot of fun so far, and are excited to make more memories as a family.

Spring Photos

I have an addiction to pictures. I love them. In fact, I have a folder with just pictures of McKenna in the almost 8 months of her life, I have well over 1,000 pictures in that folder. That's nothing in comparison to some of my sisters or sister-in-laws, but that's over 125 pictures per month. I think that's alot. Anyway, I used to work at a children's photography studio, and even after I quit, they continued to allow me to take my own pictures when I went to the studio. I always got to take pictures of my nieces and nephews, and was excited for the same perks for when I had my own child. Unfortunately, a month after McKenna was born, this studio claimed bankruptcy out of the blue, and I was never able to reap the benefits for myself. I was dissapointed to say the least. Since then I have been looking for a studio who I thought had as good of quality pictures, and who took the time to make my baby smile, unlike a lot of the studios out there. Long story short(or atleast shortened), I went and got McKenna's pictures taken for Spring at JCPENNY. Although she's not smiling in most of them (the photographer really did try...as soon as McKenna sees a camera, her face goes completely straight...no joke), I think they turned out pretty dang cute. Here are some of the pictures we got... Happy Spring!

Easter

We had a simple, yet enjoyable Easter this year. We woke up and had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, sat and watched General Conference, took a nap, watched more General Conference, and then went to a family dinner. It wasn't the most relaxing day, but it was fun.


We had a visit from the Easter bunny this year. I put the Easter basket full of goodies in front of McKenna to see how she would react, and this is pretty much what happened...


She was really excited at first with all the colors and different things to play with.


She immediately grabbed her little stuffed lamb and threw it aside to get to the eggs.


She played with the eggs for a few minutes...


...examining and sucking on a few of them


And then she spotted the grass (you know the plastic easter grass you can buy for like 50 cents a bag)... and that was her very favorite part of the basket.


Once I took the grass away from her, she liked the toys again, but only when there was nothing else there to distract her.

Next year, the Easter bunny is only going to be bringing plastic grass. :)

I am grateful for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the real reason we celebrate this wonderful holiday. I am grateful for His atoning sacrifice for us, and His life. He lives! Happy Easter everyone.

New Tricks

McKenna is growing up so fast, it's a bittersweet time for me. I love seeing her grow and learn new things, but she doesn't seem like a baby to me anymore, and that makes me sad. Curtis is SO excited for when she starts walking and talking, he welcomes any development happily.

McKenna started rolling over from back to front quite a while ago, but then she'd get stuck and cry until we'd put her on her back again, and start all over. However, a few weeks ago she learned how to roll front to back and back to front, so now she is all over the place. She loves being so mobile and moving on her own. The only problem for us is, she's also learned to pick thing up out of the carpet and put them in her mouth. We really need to baby proof our house.

We started feeding McKenna solids about a week before her 5 month mark. She was very open and accepting of the change, and LOVES to eat. She gets bored with the same old rice cereal (and HATES oatmeal cereal), but is very eager to try new things, and we love that. On a similar note, this week she also learned how to suck out of a straw...which doesn't seem like a big deal, but she loves it and it is the cutest thing in the world to watch. She gets a mouth full of water and then doesn't know how to take her mouth off and swallow it, so she'll suck it in, and spit it out and then suck more in, etc. She is absolutely soaked by the time she's done, but it's her new favorite thing.

One of my favorite things that she does now is her facial expressions. We started feeding her applesauce a couple weeks ago and she would make this really sour face. it made me laugh so hard, and she quickly caught on that that was what I was laughing at. So now, anytime she takes a bite of something, sour or not, she makes a sour face and then waits for my reaction, and does it again. I LOVE IT!


She loves to be read to and sung to. She loves to cuddle with mom and dad, and is a pro at taking naps now a day. We love her more then we could have ever imagined, and she makes our lives so much better. It's so amazing to see her grow and learn new things, and I love being a part of her world.