Baby Lucy!

Kids can just say the funniest things, can't they? Yesterday Mackenzie came up to me holding her favorite baby doll all wrapped up in a blanket.
Mack- Mom look... she just cracked out of my tummy and was born!
Me- Oh really... she just cracked out?
Mack- Yeah she just went (making a cracking sound) like this and cracked out!
Me- Congratulations....what is her name?
Mack- Lucy
Me- How much did she weigh?
Mack- 36 pounds inches
Me- I bet she did crack out of your tummy if she was that big!
Mack- Yeah, mom look at her, isn't she so cute?

Lucy has been her favorite doll since she was about 2 years old. It was her cousin Morgan's which makes it even more special. She has slept with her every night ever since I can remember! My mom always reminds me to write down the funny things that the girls say!

Kate's 1 yr

Now that Kate has had her 1 yr well child checkup and had her 1 yr pictures taken...she is now officially ONE! My friend Rachel has been taking the girls and our family pictures for about the last year now and is starting up a photography business...doesn't she do a good job!






Kate's stats at her 1 yr checkup: 20 lbs 4 oz. (37%) that is down from the 85% when she was 4 mo.....I like the percentiles that they give you. 29" tall(I can say that now instead, of long, now that she is walking and upright) (50%) which has been pretty consistent and head was 46.2 cm(75%) and we hope she puts that to good use! We got a report back that she has just under the normal level of iron, so we are starting the iron drops in juice which proves to be a bonus to her since we haven't given her a lot of juice in the past!

She is starting the basic 1 yr vocab... Da, Ma ma, Bye bye, Pa pa, Uh oh, Hi, and my favorite NNNNO! She has this high pitch squeal that I'm hoping goes away with teaching her more signs. She has "all done" down and sometimes "more."
She is officially a walker...no more crawling. It was so much fun watching her walking process. She was very determined and you could tell she really wanted to walk. She would never get frustrated and if she fell she would just crawl over to where she could pick herself up again. Now that she has mastered picking herself up in the middle of the room she is constantly on the go. We are getting lots of the normal bumps and bruises......she had bruise on her cheek from falling on the office chair leg that I was hoping would go away before pics....it did!
She likes to be doing whatever big sis is doing....which poses a problem at times. It is a trick trying to balance teaching them to play together and giving Mackenzie her space with certain things that she is playing with. She has had a taste of trying to feed herself with a spoon and now I'm afraid there is no going back! I have to say she is pretty mild mannered. She is doing ok with understanding what "no" means, as you can see above.....and she says it just like that. Her favorite thing right now is going and getting a book and taking it to sit in her little chair. I need to post of picture of that and her new trick, standing on her head....soon! I have to say that MY favorite thing that she is doing now is putting herself to sleep.....so has always been a good sleeper, but this just puts the cherry on top!


We are thoroughly enjoying our little blued eyed girl and again I say.... We can't believe she is already 1!

Simple Pleasures Day!

If you haven't noticed already my posts this month have been sparse and in chunks. I haven't had quite as many free moments this past month or so....I (along with many others) have been busy planning a women's event at our church! A couple years ago when I joined our Women's Ministry Board I got the idea for a women's expo...well I didn't just come up with it on my own(I'm not that creative), my parents church had done something like this and I got the inspiration from that. Since I brought the idea up, guess who got to take it on? We are so blessed in our church to have women that enjoy volunteering and helping in any way that they can. That was my prerequisite....I had to have lots of help and God has blessed me with just that! Last years event went great and everyone wanted do it again. This year we are deciding to add a couple more things to the agenda, so that means more work. I really enjoy planning things...in fact I would enjoy it even more if it was my "job!" Check it out and here is an official invite for all you women out there! It is a ton of fun and you won't regret it...Hope to see you there!

Every women needs a day to totally rejuvenate themselves!

Come and take some time out of your busy schedule to relax, laugh, have fun with other women and think about what God has planned for you! Everything from complete makeovers to checking out local vendors......gourmet lunch to learning how to pinch your pennies ....come and join other women who are looking for a break from the day to day and indulge in the simple pleasures in life!

Music * Speakers * Lunch * Door prizes * Exhibitors * Workshops

Registration: $12 before March 23rd, or $15 at the door

Register by mail, online or Sundays in the E-Free church foyer

March 28th, 2009 8:30-3:30

First Evangelical Free Church 2008 24th St. Ames, IA 50010

www.amesefc.org

Check out our women's ministry blog here for more details such as the list and description of the workshops and list of exhibitors! You will also find a link on here to register online!

Kate is 1!

I can't believe just one year ago I was in the hospital with my brand new baby girl! All day today I keep trying to remember what I was doing and feeling one year ago! I know it is a worn out cliche, but time has really flown by! I just remember her like this

It's hard to believe that in just one year a baby can change so much.....
From sleepless nights to a great sleeper
From feedings every 3 hrs to..... today officially being weaned!!!!
Days in the bouncy seat to walking all over the place
Last but not least from your first toothless smile to a huge 6 toothed smile


For Kate's 1st Birthday Party we celebrated a couple days early over the weekend. My whole family got to come up and be with her! Saturday night we did the whole cake thing and opened presents! Here are a few of the highlights!

Her own little cake to dig into!

The cake for everyone to enjoy.....we had so much!

Not a big fan of the bib and hat!

After removing the bothersome bib and hat she was just fine. As you can see she was enjoying having Happy Birthday sung to her! We were trying to show her how to blow, but instead she grabbed the lit candle.... There is no evidence of a burn so it must have been that we scared her making her cry again! She quickly became happy again as we showed her how to dig in!

At first she was looking at us like, "are you sure I can do this?" As you can see she quickly figured out that it was ok!

She had plenty of help opening her presents!

We have been wanting to get the girls a wagon.....thanks Papa and Grandma Massner! I'm hoping that with the nice weather today we can give her a ride!

She enjoys her bouncing- spinning Zebra!

Happy 1st Birthday to my beautiful blue eyed Girl!

We love you~ Daddy, Mommy & Kenzie

Here is more pics to enjoy!

Beauty and the Beast!

Ever since Mackenzie has started Gymnastics we have wanted to take her to a Iowa State Gymnastics meet. This past weekend they had a Beauty and the Beast event where there was a gymnastics meet and wrestling meet going on at the same time on the floor! Since I like wrestling this was perfect. Aaron decided to stay home with Kate and my sister and brother in law were coming up so Amy came with us for a girls night out!

Mackenzie was excited to see Cy, but wasn't really sure about getting too close. Here is her first picture with him!!!

Mackenzie spotted people eating the famous Clone Cone and thought she needed to have one!

Shawn Johnson was there! She was signing autographs from 4-6, but we couldn't make it that early! At least we got to see her from a distance.....Mackenzie was pretty excited about that!
She is the one at the end of the table in the greenish-grey shirt! We really didn't see her do anything, she must have been doing something with reporting.

Can't wait to see her on Dancing with the Stars this season!

Mackenzie was pretty interested in watching until we moved to sit beside some friends and then she was a little distracted! It was a fun evening and Iowa State won in both meets!

Father Daughter Date Night!

This Valentine's Day was pretty special.... We got to share it with many people we love! Isn't that what the day is all about? Friday night Aaron and I got to go out and celebrate. We actually got to go to a movie....I can't remember that last movie we went to the theater to watch together. Then on Saturday my parents and brothers came up. We made dinner at home and just hung out and played games. Then on Sunday.....

Mackenzie showing off her Valentines!

Kate showing off her favorite part!

Father Daughter Date Night!
Our church put on a "Dance Party" for Valentine's Day. They brought in a Christian DJ couple from Florida who does events just like this. They were so good at involving everyone and not making you feel dumb if you didn't know how to dance! They choreographed dances, made you get a real workout and made it so much for for all generations!

Mackenzie was so excited...we had been talking about it and she kept wanting to know when the "dance party" was and her and her friend Kayley at gymnastics the wed. before kept yelling "Father Daughter Date Night!" It was so cute to see her excited about it! I asked my dad to come up and go with me while Aaron separately took Mackenzie....we debated over taking Kate and decided that she really has no clue and it would be a lot more fun for everyone involved if she stayed back with Grandma!

My dad got me a corsage.....the traditional picture of a date pinning on the flower!

Mackenzie all dolled up and ready to go!

Daddy putting her corsage on!

Mackenzie proudly showing it off!

My dad and I went out to eat before hand at The Cafe` a nice restaurant in town while Aaron and Mackenzie went to her favorite place Pizza Ranch!

Part of the package was we all got our picture taken when we got there! The whole evening was coordinated so well.... Snacks and all!

Aaron and Mackenzie had a blast! He wanted us to stay away from them to not distract her!

They had different times where the dads would be in the middle while the daughters stood in a circle around them and clapped while they did their thing and vice versa! Here's the dads rockin out to their air guitars!

Several of Mackenzie's friends were there and they literally were dancing and running around all night. Mackenzie actually had some rhythm in her dance moves....don't know where she got them, but they were pretty good!

The last dance Mackenzie and Papa finally got a dance!

Thanks Dad for the honor of a date with you!
Aaron thanks for making such a special night with our daughter that I hope she doesn't forget!