|| 4 Things Friday || What We’ve Been Up To!

I know it is supposed to be 5 things Friday, but I wanted to catch people up on what we have been up to and well, there just was not 5 things so you’re getting 4 things friday. We have been pretty busy lately, life has been keeping us on our toes and when I am lucky, in bed by like 9:30……but that does not happen nearly enough. I thought it may be easier to just break down what we have been up to in this format versus a zillion different blog posts – though I know my aunt would love a zillion different blog posts. Sorry!

|| ONE ||
We celebrated our 3 year anniversary back in March and I had no idea what I wanted to get Kyle for his anniversary gift. I didn’t want to get him the normal clothes, video game, books, whatever that I normally did, so I thought I would get him Darius Rucker concert tickets since Kyle always says he misses our date days. WELL…our super babysitters {also known as the grandparents} were traveling so I then had to get creative. Well. I ended up getting us tickets to Tree Top Quest in Buford and let me tell you, it was A LOT of fun. Terrifying at times [there may have been one part where I told kyle, “I am frozen, like cannot move” and I also told kyle multiple times, “we have a baby at home, we cannot die”], but the ziplines were fun and the challenges were challenging at times {for example moving logs} but we had a great time. There was one “course” that was literally just zipline after zipline and that was refreshing after Course #4 where I literally thought I may have a heart attack {it did have one really long and fun zipline though}. We got to just spend time together and have fun together – something that we rarely get to do.  Totally recommended for anyone who wants an out of the box  day in Atlanta and I was shocked we had something like this that wasn’t in the mountains of Georgia.

|| TWO ||
Little Sassy had her first {and last} Saturday Gymboree “session” or play date – whatever you want to call it.  The poor girl was a trooper, she was teething {and got 3 teeth at once} and she had a double ear infection {that we didn’t know about} so she was a little out of it and not so sure what was going on. Honestly, I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. But… I think this place would be a great idea for a future birthday party or maybe when she is crawling or running or just moving around better – but everything there she has at daycare.  We just do not see the added value since she gets all the same things Monday – Friday …and right now she can’t even crawl to move around on the various “activities” so truthfully, it was kind of a waste – which was a bummer because I had such high hopes and expectations and thought it would be a great addition to what she gets at daycare to keep her learning and busy and it just was not that.  BUT.. she did LOVE their waffle balls and she may have had 3 at one time. I do still want to do Mommy and Me tumbling classes when she is like 2 … so hopefully we have more success then. 

|| THREE ||
We had a little mini vacation in Orange Beach, Alabama for my best friend’s wedding #takenbyclaytonn and we had so much fun.  The grandparents had a long, fun filled weekend with the little one.  We disappeared Thursday morning to meet up with an old college friend and his wife and then stay with his family in Gulf Shores. On Friday we ventured over to Orange Beach and after the Bridesmaid Brunch laid out by the pool, floated the lazy river, drank some beers, and got a little sunburned {sorry dermatologist, I just missed a few spots}. We just had fun catching up and doing nothing and for reals, I need a lazy river in my life full time OR I need a full time job that is just floating a lazy river. It was just relaxing to get away and make it a point FOR ONCE to be on PTO and actually be on PTO.  We had the rehearsal on Friday night, the dinner, and then we all {Kyle, my friend from college, his wife, and me} headed to the FloraBama – which I had never been to before and probably was not missing anything.  But, I can now say I have been there & evidently, I was supposed to drink a Bushwacker or something like that. Whoops. 

Saturday was the wedding day. Kyle and my friends got to spend all day by the pool – with one strict instruction – do not drink too much – while I was with the bride getting her ready and myself ready. It was a fun wedding, a gorgeous wedding, and I could not be happier for Greg and Heather.  T hey are 2 of the nicest people in the world and I wish  them just a zillion years of happiness, good times, great memories, and lots of beautiful babies. And I was honored to be part of their day and to help H-Bomb get ready and to love on her and Greg!  And, I may still be using the sunglasses because well, they were awesome and such a fun touch and I could use some more sweet potato fries. I loved having a reason to escape reality and celebrate 2 amazing people and their families.  We cannot wait to go back and bring McKenna with us because we think she will have the best time on the slides and the lazy river.   CONGRATS TO HEALTHER & GREG!!

|| FOUR ||
We ran our annual 5k together {The Brookhaven Bolt} and I pushed McKenna in the stroller. Kyle ran ahead of us like he normally does and then he came back to get a few more miles and ran to the end with me. Kyle and I were not happy with our 5K times, but Kyle did forget his water bottle with me so he had to start farther back than he likes to so he did lose time weaving in and out of walkers and strollers and slow people. My time, truthfully, wasn’t bad – it was faster than the last 5K we ran where I pushed McKenna by a few seconds, I just thought it would have been faster. Granted, the first half mile or mile I couldn’t find my groove – when I did, I was golden – and this race is pretty hilly so it was harder. but still. I thought it would be faster.  As always, this was a great race. The turn out seems to get bigger and bigger each year, but it is always very well executed and it is a challenging course which is always a plus.  It does benefit an elementary school so I hope McKenna’s school and PTA puts on a similar event. I would LOVE for her to be part of some kiddie run club that preps for a community race like this.

…I think that is a pretty detailed life update… we have some house improvements on the list for this summer that I am looking forward to. and should provide some blog content – maybe. But all in all life is good. we are looking forward to the summer, even though we have no plans.

M is for McKenna (and Monday)

I have not done a post about McKenna lately. I slacked on her 9 month picture taking and blog posting and then her 10 month milestone has kinda come and gone. Granted, she is still 10 months and we could do it. …we need to do it… But I thought I would do a quick update on all things McKenna Marie.

Well. She is 10 months and 3 feet tall. She is rocking 18 month clothes.  I am wondering when we can sign her up for volleyball or basketball.  She is so tall we should use that to our advantage and maybe she can go to Alabama on an athletic scholarship. The ladies at daycare always talk about how tall she is.  She is 24 pounds – or at least she was at her 8 month appointment.  She has 6 teeth – maybe 7 – but we aren’t 100% confident that the 7th has grown all the way in so we don’t really count it as a tooth.

Girl loves to eat.  We cannot seem to get her to eat her veggies – daycare can, we cannot – but she loves pretty much every fruit she has tried.  She does like Cheerios; however, the dogs get a lot of them.  Actually, the dogs get a lot of food.  McKenna has started hand feeding Mulligan things she does not want to eat. Mainly her veggies. And when I catch her she immediately snaps her hand back up and looks at me like “what, I am not doing anything”.

She still is not crawling, but she is scooting across the room and she can scoot FAST. Which basically means we are all eyes on her all the time. And we are pretty confident she is going to be a handful once she starts walking because she already gets into pretty much anything and everything.

We recently had to drop the mattress on her crib because she has a new trick. She likes to sit up on her own now and jabber until we come and break her out of baby jail.  We figured it was only a matter of time before she started pulling herself up.  And this new trick means the days of leaving her in her crib and letting her jabber herself back to sleep are long gone.

She moved from the 100 room to the 150 room at 9 months so she is now with the bigger kids and does a lot more arts and crafts. Sadly, we don’t get any of her artwork sent home, but she did make me two pretty awesome crafts for Mother’s Day.  But, we need to buy her crayons and coloring book and some play-doh since she loves those things at school and we are always looking for new things to do with her at home.  But, I think the move from the baby infant room to the little walker room is helping encourage her to move around a little bit more.  And the lessons are a little bit older as well so she is theoretically learning more advanced things.

She still loves the stroller, but now she likes to sit up and look around and smile at dogs as they pass by.  And she really just likes to look at pretty much anything and everything.  We have started going back to the greenway on the weekends so she gets to see a lot of people and nature, before she just passes out for naptime.

McKenna did get her first ear infection last month. And it was a doozy. It was a double ear infection and she hated her medicine so we had to sneak it in her bottle.  She was a total cuddle monster when she was not feeling well.  And to make matters worse, she was teething at the same time so she was just one unhappy little baby.  BUT – that is all past us now and she is back to the happy, perfect little thing that she is.

Needless to say, it has been a fun and busy last 2 months.  McKenna is keeping us on our toes, but it is all just so fun.  She is figuring things out and jabbering all the time.  She is starting to FINALLY say mama, since she was just saying dada all the time.  We feel like she is always learning something new or getting into something that she shouldn’t be [for example, my bookshelf is her favorite thing ever since she can pull every book onto the floor and then shake them]. But. It is just fun.

I am probably missing something or a lot of somethings. But, I wanted to do a recap on what the little lady has been up to.  And hopefully we will take those 10 month pictures and 11 month pictures and 12 month pictures.  Mom needs to stop slacking!!

Last Year–> This Year

This picture is so fun to me. To quote my friend Mary, “this actually looks like you ran a race, then had a baby pop out by the end”. =D

The left is Kyle and me last year (plus McKenna since I was 7.5 months pregnant) at the Brookhaven Bolt last year.   The picture on the right – Kyle, McKenna, and me this year at the same race.

What I love and think is fun is:

1) I planned to wear the same outfit on purpose. For this side by side picture. Kyle on the other hand. Evidently he only has 1 outfit he likes to run in, so he runs e.v.e.r.y race in the same thing. {boy needs more race wear} So while it looks like we planned this, only 50% of it was planned.

2) McKenna. Girl. Get it together. She looks SO not amused and SO unhappy. I promise. We don’t torture her. But evidently, the dramatics are high and her teenage years just may be painful

We had fun this morning. Of course, my FitBit no longer wants to sync so on a good “step” day no one will EVER know. First World Problems. Kyle and I were not happy with our times, I am more content with mine. But… another year done, now we just wait till the 2016 Brookhaven Bolt.

|| 6 || Health. Always Taken For Granted.

I was supposed to post this post last week { again. running a week behind on this gratitude challenge thing } but life seemed to just get in the way of sitting down and blogging. typical.

 

When I first decided to jump ahead on this gratitude challenge and discuss why I was thankful for health I was going to focus on myself and how I was thankful I made it through all my health challenges last year - with scars { literally } but I made it through. I thought it would be a good idea to talk about it since may is melanoma awareness month and I wanted to urge everyone to take the time this month to go to the dermatologist to get checked.   ....seriously, though - go get your body looked at... I was ready to explain and talk about how years of baking in the sun and tanning beds probably led to it.  And I will still say that no tanning bed is good and you may think that a good burn will turn into a good tan, but there is no such thing as a "good burn" and to wear sunscreen. But right now I just don't feel led to talk about how I am thankful for my health.

 

but I just read the news that my sweet friend from high school is having one last test done on her 3 week old before they put her on the heart transplant list. her 3 week old is suffering from heart failure. it just puts everything into perspective for me. I am healthy. my husband is healthy. I have a healthy, happy, beautiful daughter. who may have been cranky this weekend since she was cutting 3 teeth, but she was not in the ICU fighting for her life surrounded by my family. 

 

I feel like we take for granted our health and we just assume that our kids are immune to bad things and then WHAM they just hit us or someone close to us it hit with something hard.  My heart hurts for my friend and her family and her sweet baby girl.  It makes me want to hug McKenna just a little tighter each night and get less frustrated with her when she feed her cheerios and strawberries to the dogs.

 

I have a happy and healthy family and baby girl and grandparents for her to grow up with and brother and extended family. For that. I am so very very thankful.  And yes, I am thankful that my husband urged me to go to the dermatologist, if it was not for him my melanoma would still be on my back doing who knows what. I am thankful that it was caught early; after all, early detection really does save lives.

 

So if you have like .349885 seconds to spare. Just send a good prayer up or good thoughts or whatever you do in tough times for my friend and her family.  And hug your family a little tighter and tell them how much they mean to you. Because you could be hit with your wham moment at any time.