I dressed myself today!!

Yes, Mommy picked out the outfit (note how it is a one piece) but I insisted on wearing my leopard print rain boots!! I even put them on myself (as you may suspect if you look closely). It is a great start to a beautiful (sunny and humid...no chance of rain) day when you look and feel fabulous like me!! XOXO - Mackenzie

PS - my boots were sooooo popular at day care, they had to be given a time out to keep everyone from fighting over them.

everyday is a new adventure....

(hope the pic quality is ok - I took it on my cell phone)

So today, we went to the pool - first time in a while, and as always, Mackenzie had a BLAST!! Granted getting there wasn't so easy - as she refused to wear the first swimsuit we tried and also insisted on putting her own shoes on (the wrong feet, too - i might add). As we were waiting for Gracie/Parker/Sarah to arrive - another little girl came over to play with Mackenzie - and Mackenzie screamed NO, and ran over to me crying! Quite odd behavior for our social butterfly. She insisted on sitting on my lap until Gracie arrived to play. She did go down the BIG slide once with Sarah and then twice by herself (b/c she refused to wait for Sarah to take her)!! But she did do quite well going by herself. She and Gracie went down the smaller slide countless times on their own as well. However, the best moment had to be as we were packing up to leave and Mackenzie ran into the pool, fully clothed (shoes and all) - to the delight of all the other adults (Sarah included, myself EXCLUDED) in the kiddie pool section. No pics of that event. But she didn't seem to mind being all wet on the drive home. Upon arrival at home - I stripped her down to her diaper for her long overdue nap. And a few hours later, was informed "mommy - I pooped." And yes, she had - all over her bed, as she had removed her diaper awhile ago. Now that was a fun time! And this is unfortunatly not the first incident we have had with the naked baby, but the first time poop has been involved. We did however, go out shopping the past few nights to find one piece and/or onsies we could be putting her in to hopefully eliminate the access to her diaper. Shopping - that brings on a whole 'nother story....Mackenzie loves the "buckles" on everything and likes to do them herself. Which lately has meant climbing in and out of her stroller to do and re-do the buckles. Unfortunatly - the past few times - it is has meant more time out of the stroller then in it. And tonight, we had brought along one of her baby's and baby stroller to hopefully keep her occupied (funny side note - this particular baby has a pink bow on it's head and wears a pink tutu. when asked what the baby's name is, her response is "Daddy") In the end, the baby doll (aka "Daddy") ended up riding in the nice, big stroller with Mackenzie pushing it while the big, real Daddy was left carrying the doll's pink stroller and helping to clear a path for the crazy stroller driver that can't see where she is going. I suspect the terrible two's are coming on....meaning it will probably get harder before it gets easier.

Just to melt your heart

Mackenzie and Caleb dancing together.

Ah - young love!

The bride

All this talk about KB's wedding - maybe I should include a pic of her??? Here is Mackenzie with Kelly for the $1 dance. I was personally surprised Mackenzie handed over her $$ because she was quite happy to get it!

At least she looked cute...

Despite all of her mischief - at least Mackenzie looked cute for the wedding. Here are some shots from our impromptu stop @ VanderVeer to let her blow off some steam, in transit from wedding to reception.

Not pictured: her attempt to climb into the fountain, by going over the stone wall.

Yummy

After saying a little prayer at the church (maybe for good behavior guidance??) - Mackenzie helps herself to wedding mints at the reception.

And I'll say a little prayer for you

Mackenzie practices her reading skills and seeks spiritual guidance at KB's wedding today.

Random-ness

First - thanks to the monkeys for the award!! I am touched and honored and hope you remember your inspriation and motivation when you are rolling nekkid in your millions for a book deal!! :) I will post the award soon, just to lazy this week to do much. Guess I am still coming down from the benefit. And the big wedding this weekend, and house cleaning....Ahhh, summer - where has the vacation gone???

Anyway - the randomness....so we are cleaning the house for appraisal. Fun times. Tonight, we decided to move our bed out to clean underneath it. WHOA! I think there was enough fur to make up a third pet underneath. And we also discovered where Mackenzie likes to hide things. 3 different shoes - all different, but one shoe of the set. And an additional pair of shoes WITH THE TAGS still on, that she had run away with and lost before she ever wore!!! Guess those can be added to the garage sale/vintage baby pile. And just yesterday at the our Children's Museum date with friends, Ann was commenting on how well dressed Mackenzie is and how sad she was that her newborn son wouldn't be able to enjoy Mackenzie's hand-me-downs, to which Val (with newborn Ava) smiled! :) Also funny, Mackenzie now calls my good friend Vicki "icki", which of course cracks me up!! "Icki's" 4 year old Caleb also calls "Pa-Kenzie's" pig tails her "horns", which I enjoy too! And some days, I do think she may very well need a set of horns with some of the mischief she gets into! But back to more goodies under the bed - 5 sippy cups, unfortunatly some had some milky remnants that had become a science experiment of sorts...and went right into the garbage. I kept thinking I was crazy b/c it seems I am always buying more sippy cups, but then we never have enough. Well no wonder, when she stashes them places. One of her favorite pink fleecy blankies. Lots of random cat toys (it was the cat's original hideout and still preferred hiding spot). 2 of Mackenzie's books. and my personal favorite....a bar of half used soap!! Awhile ago, she got a tubtime Elmo doll that she LOVES to wash in the bath. And awhile ago, she took a shower with Daddy and Elmo - and they used the soap to wash Elmo together. And when I showered later, I realized the soap had gone missing....we looked and looked and couldn't locate it anywhere, so we figured maybe she had thrown it away. But nope, it was in her stash. As for tubtime Elmo, ironically - I had just snuck him out to the garbage this afternoon as he seems to attract fruit flies, and no matter what we have tried - he has always got a few swarming around him. So he is going to a better place (the local landfill) to breed and host all the fruit flies he would like.

The Meltdown

It is sooooo tough being Mackenzie Jean....this was the response to being told "No, we don't eat suckers for breakfast" this morning. Someone, please alert the authorities for her....it is too much too handle!

Kung Fo Mackenzie

Can't sleep, due to thinking about benefit stuff - and this funny keeps going through my head!

our girls on the 4th

We had dinner together tonight/last night as our big blended PF family. Mackenzie was in RARE form, quite the handful yet very entertaining. She had spent some time with Sarah & Parker in the afternoon and all she wanted was Sarah. At one point, we had to call Sarah on the phone so Mackenzie could talk to her - as she was crying for her so much (probably didn't help that Daddy was parked outside the house talking to Mat). So Mackenzie is bouncing around our booth from us to Sarah and back again. And loving on everyone - Gracie included. Unfortunatly, her loving tonight was a bit more KungFu style then Gracie would have liked - meaning tight hugs around her neck as Mackenzie was kissing her head (as that is what she is allowed to do with Parker). Gracie spent most of the evening trying to evade her overly affectionate friend. And Mackenzie lavished affection on everyone - including one trip for kisses to Mat with a handful of ketchup (that at one point, we saw her dip her yellow crayon in to suck ketchup off of) and when we yelled our warning about the ketchup handful to Mat - he did an incredibly fast ninja defence move, cracking us all up. Fun times. But so fun to see how the kids all interact and love on each other innately, in our big blended family! :)

happy times together at Great America

Nap Time

When I looked in to check on Mackenzie during nap time today - this is what I found.

Someone has figured out how the diapers work - much to our delight. As we repeatedly say - she is too smart for her own good some days!

Anime Mackenzie

Justin (or some other comic book loser) will probably tell me this is not classified as "anime", but whatever it is - it is cute!!

Mackenzie's caricature from our GA trip.

Who is this BIG girl???

And where has my little baby gone??????

So I started taking a picture to show off Mackenzie's newest hairstyle - with the small clip on the side.


But "Magpie Mackenzie" (as my dad calls her) had to pose and say "CHEESE" alot. So I kept snapping. She was eating her lunch, so she even shows off her smarts but flashing cheese to the camera as well.

And then there is Foster, patiently keeping her company during lunch....hoping for a morsel to come his way. My babies, no matter how big or old they are.

A teaser.....

Oh yes, we did!! More pictures to follow - Sarah has to burn me a CD from her camera for alot of them. But they have a WIGGLES WORLD! And many of you know about the little Wiggle fan in our family!

Time Out

So Mackenzie experienced her first time out at daycare yesterday, for repeatedly hitting another little girl. Nevermind that she had been being hit by her continously as well - but I did witness Mackenzie make quite the swing right at her head - so it was best she was timed out.

But boy was she mad!!! Which speaking of mad - she was NOT happy to have to try on flowergirl dresses for Uncle Jon/Aunt Karree's upcoming wedding. She did like one with a train on it, but had a hard time walking in it. The other two were met with screams of "no" and "ow" - but even then she still looked cute! This pic cracks me up. In Mackenzie's mind - this dress is a No-go, but Aunt Karree, Mommy and Grandma all liked it alot!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Mackenzie shows off many of her patriotic ensembles.

Jammies - and yes, they quite fittingly say "Miss Independant"

Casualwear - At the Bettendorf Parade, eating donuts. And did she ever LOVE the candy being thrown - screams and squeals of delight.

Evening Wear - At the park with Daddy & Grandma Sharon - wearing her dressy dress from uber-patriotic Nana Jane.

The swimwear portrion - complimented by her "firecracker" piggy tails and flag swimsuit.

Our family had a wonderfully long weekend, celebrating our nation. Hope you did as well.

the F-side of the family....

Our "blended" family - PF.

Mackenzie and Daddy watch the fireworks. Right before they started, I asked MJ if she was going to be scared and she empatically nodded "yes". We laughed, as we all doubt she has ever been frightened by anything in her life. As soon as they started - she was enthralled.

5 minutes later, the lack of a nap caught up with her.