Happy 1st Birthday!

I can't believe our little girl is 1 today!  This has been the most amazing year! Mckenzie is such an amazing blessing!

Just a little walk down memory lane...

Mckenzie Ashton

Born November 13, 2010

8:42am

8 pounds

21 inches long

 Newborn Pictures

  3 month Pictures

  6 month Pictures

  9 month Pictures

 1 year pictures

Some family pictures....

We ended up in the ER yesterday evening, she had been running a fever in the afternoon and then was making random breathing noises last night.  After talking with the advice nurse we decide to have her checked....she has a mild case of pneumonia. She got an antibiotic shot and has to take antibiotics for the next 5 days and re-check with her pediatrician tomorrow.  She actually is in great spirits and you wouldn't know she was under the weather.  Praying for a speedy recovery!!

She is scheduled to go for her 1 year well baby check on Friday. Not sure if she will be able to get her vaccinations with the pneumonia

I will try to do better keeping this updated! :)

Hello!

Ahh! I've been a horrible blogger!

All is going well, our little lady turns 1 tomorrow, I still can't believe it!

We had a birthday party in Oregon last weekend! She had no interest in opening gifts but was interested in what she got! I made the lady bug cupcakes too :)


We did our family pictures and her 1 year photos today.  I made a huge cupcake for her to tear into, we decided to do that last so of course she ended up being tired - we got some good pictures, I can't wait to see them all!

Seems weird that this time last year I was in labor but wasn't really sure it was the real thing since my contractions were really hurting.  Jeremy went and got dinner at one of my favorite restaurants Flatbread Community Oven!  We didn't ended up going to the hospital until around 11:30pm when the contractions started getting closer together (3-5 minutes).

Mckenzie is such a joyful little girl and an absolute blessing! I will try to keep this more update, thanks Valerie for reminding me to get in gear! ;)

6 month pictures

We had Mckenzie's 6 month pictures taken last weekend at our house and the park by our home by a photographer.  We had over 100 pictures that turned out amazing! :) I LOVE them all! I love that you can see her personality in all the pictures ;)

6 months old!

Mckenzie was 6 months old on Friday the 13th! Haha!

She had her 6 month appointment yesterday

She got 1 combo vaccine in one leg and then another vaccine in the other leg and one oral.  She didn't cry for one of the shots but let us know she was NOT happy on the other leg.  She stopped crying as soon as we picked her up.

She is now weighing 19 pounds 11 ounces (97th Percentile)

27.5" inches long (90th Percentile)

Head circumference is 44cm (90th Percentile)

Everything checked out great and the doctor was pleased with how well she is growing! :)

The nurse said that she is the size of some 1 year old! Got a healthy baby girl! :)

Although at 5:30am we woke up and I noticed she was warm, fever of 101.4 which they said is normal after vaccines.  I gave her some Tylenol and at 7am it was at 100.

Mckenzie started at daycare last week and had a great week! She did much better then I expected her to. Well, daycare's fever cut off is 100, they said it was up to me to bring her but if it didn't go down I'd have to come get her.  I decided to just keep her home.  Jeremy and I are both slammed at work but I decided I'd stay home and will try to get some stuff done when she naps. I really like her new daycare, the people are great! She is also enjoying being around the other babies too.  They also have a camera so we can log on at anytime during the day to see what's going on which is nice.  I've been popping in at lunch to feed her which I will probably stop doing next week, I figured it'd help her get adjusted but she is doing so well :)

My mom and Dan came and visited last Thursday to Sunday! We had so much fun! I took Friday off and we went yard sailing, picked up a doggie pool and mom found a cruiser bike to ride when they visit. We also went and got Shaved Ice! When we lived in Hawaii - that was one of my favorite things to get (next to Spam Musubi) and when we moved to Idaho I was so excited to see shaved ice stands all over town! No complaints here! They even have sweet cream too, just like Hawaii! Love it!

We also checked out the Boise Farmers Market which was a blast!  We planted flowers on Friday as part of Mother's Day tradition, normally mom and I plant flowers for her Mother's Day but we did it here this year

We did a wine barrel and 2 pots in the front of the house too

Bentley and Tank checking out the dog pool! They loved it! Especially Tank, he'd jump in it every time he walked by!

Mom's new beach cruiser for Idaho! She got this brand new $200+ bike for $60 at a yard sale!

Ahhh! 1st shaved ice of the year!

Family picture at the Farmers market! See my arm...burnt from planting flowers on Friday!

Mckenzie have a little water from a sippy cup!

Sitting up on her own in her bouncer! Good thing they have seat belts in them!

Mckenzie is growing so fast and has such a cute personality! She is ALWAYS smiling, no complaints here! The only time she cries is if she is hungry, overly tired or has a teething episode, and generally doesn't last long.  Over a week ago she started sitting with her boppy pillow behind her and she can now sit on her own! 

Relaxing on my boppy with Sophie the giraffe! I heard about Sophie and thought I'd bite the bullet to get her one, she LOVES it! Bentley gets confused since it squeaks like his toys and somehow he hasn't snagged it yet!

We're going to be getting Mckenzie a new convertible car seat, her current Chicco KeyFit goes up to 30 pounds or 30 inches.  I found an excellent deal online for the Britax Marathon seat which I think is what we'll end up getting for her.  She is getting heavier and I can barely get her infant carrier into our lifted truck! 

We also celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on May 17th! We went out to a nice restaurant in town called Kahootz! :)

Julie's Baby Shower

I threw my best friend Julie a baby shower last month in Oregon! It was a blast! A lot of people came!

We had sandwich wraps, croisant sandwiches, veggies, guacamole, chips, dip and of course home made cupcakes.  We did Lemon poppy seed, red velvet and carrot cake all with cream cheese frosting - all from scratch! They were a hit and even people asked where I bought them :) I so need to open a cupcakery! - Someday I will :)

Mckenzie laughing!!!

This video makes me laugh! We were on a walk and for TWO blocks this went on, she was getting tired and started crying on our walk and so I picked her up! We laughed for 2 blocks and believe it or not she crashed before we got home!

Mckenzie had her first full day of daycare today! I mentioned before we would be switching her into daycare.  She was supposed to start on Wednesday (& Thursday) but our nanny told us last night she was at the hospital and wouldn't be able to come in! Argghhh! So I called her new daycare center first thing this morning, to see if she could come today and thankfully they said yes! So she is going tomorrow too.  She did much better then I expected and even napped in the crib they have.  They have those mini cribs for each baby (so they have their own bed when there).  She took 3 naps and did well with her bottles.  Lately she had been drinking 1/2 a bottle and then not drinking the rest until later, so that was good.  I went and popped by there during my lunch break, they have an open door policy and said I can drop by whenever I want which is nice and its only 5 minutes away.  They also have cameras you can log in and check on your child anytime.  I felt good about today and even better when I heard she had a good 1st day!

I can't believe our baby is going to be 6 months old on Friday! She is so happy and smiles all the time.  She still lunges her self back (rocking like but backwards) all the time.  She is doing well eating her rice cereal and likes to grab the spoon but usually makes a mess by the time it gets to her mouth!  We go in for her 6 month appointment next week, I think she's nearly or over 20 pounds now! She has the rolls on her arms and thighs which I just love!  She is also laughing so much more and is random at times or we can get her to laugh by kissing her or tickling her!

We went to Oregon last week for Julie's baby shower which was a success! I didn't end up counting but there was a good 35 people there! We made lemon poppy seed, carrot cake and red velvet cupcakes all from scratch that we a big hit! I still need to get the pictures from my mom's camera.

My first mother's day was wonderful! Jeremy and Mckenzie took me to brunch at a new restaurant called the Cottonwood Grille which was yummy! We then went to Costco and picked up some stuff including some yummy chocolate covered strawberries! We then relaxed at home and had dinner.  They got me a beautiful necklace that is a heart with a mother holding a baby! I love it!

Hey Hey!

Here is Mckenzie enjoying her saucer this evening! She loves it and just started this today!
All is going well here! Just been keeping busy with working and baby love! Mckenzie is still very relaxed and only gets angry when she's hungry.  We just started rice cereal a little over a week ago which is going well.  She gets mad sometimes if the spoon is not back in her mouth fast enough! :)

Here is a cute shot of Mckenzie on Easter :)

We're off to Oregon this weekend since I'm throwing my best friend's baby shower this weekend! So excited for it!

4 month stats

We took Mckenzie for her 4 month appointment today and shots.

She weighs 16lbs 10oz (95th percentile)
25 5/8" long (90th percentile)

We think she has started teething, no teeth coming through but the last few days she has been fussy, drooling, chewing on her hands and crying :( We've given her some tylenol because she was just crying and crying.  We were trying all kinds of things, teething rings, frozen water in her pacifier.  She needed some Tylenol to help because once it kicked in she was much more comfortable! I tried to get some teething tablets today but couldn't find any, our pedetrician said they took them off the market but thought they were back on.

She did good for her shots, it wasn't until after the 2nd shot that she started crying and we were able to calm her pretty quick.  The doctor said she looks great and is nice and healthy! :)

4 months old!

Here is our baby love today at 4 months! Time sure has flown by! She is certainly developing her own personality! She smiles ALL the time!  However, it seems that when I get the camera out she stops, put the camera away, smiles again! Today I caught a smile on camera! I am LOVING my new DSLR camera I got for my birthday!  Mckenzie and I are headed to Oregon on Tuesday, works out nice that my office is in Portland so they pay for me to come out.  I'm staying with my mom and Dan when I go.  My mom is going to watch her Wednesday and Friday and then our friend Lisa will watch her Thursday!

Mckenzie I think is around 16 pounds, I tried weighing her in my arms and then just me, not sure how accurate it is with me holding her.  We were supposed to do the 4 month appt and shots this week but with my work trip and us flying Tuesday it would have been too hectic so we go later this month.

Overall, Mckenzie is doing really well, she is still sleeping really good.  I'm hoping to get her sleeping in her crib here soon! All is going well, she likes to hold stuff in her hands and doesn't mind tummy time at all! :)

Bentley is doing really well, he does wonderful around Mckenzie! Very gentle! We started him in a group puppy class here in town and is doing well with it. He didn't really like other dogs at first but is doing much better.  We took him to the dog park today and he barked briefly and then ran and frolicked with all the other dogs :)

Update!

Here is a video of Mckenzie talking to me the other night! She has been discovering her voice lately.  She just woke up from a nap a bit ago and was talking to herself in her crib :)  She is such a happy baby!! She smiles all the time, "talks,"tummy time is usually me getting her from rolling over back onto her tummy.  She really enjoys it! She also has a play mat that she is really good at kicking the toys that dangle down.  We obviously put her to sleep on her back but lately she will immediately turn and lay on her side.  She can be in a deep sleep and we can put her on her back and she turns to her side, several times.  Most often then not I wake up to her on her side! What can you do?  She is an amazing sleeper! She is sleeping a good 8 hours a night! Sometimes she wakes up and wants her pacifier and goes right back to sleep, she loves sucking on a paci!

I've been back to work since last Friday, returning has been much easier with Mckenzie here with the nanny.  The nanny was sick 1 day this week which I assumed I'd have to take vacation, but my boss knew I wasn't super busy so it worked out and she was asleep a good half anyways.  Mckenzie is doing well taking a bottle since she was pretty much exclusively breast fed, we would give her a bottle about once a week since I have friends that their baby wouldn't take the bottle upon returning to work.  She does great, even if I feed her one.  The nanny does great with Mckenzie, our plan was to do it for a few months and then slowly transition her into daycare.  If we stay under $1,700 for cash wages for the nanny then we don't have to deal with a bunch of taxes since they are considered a household employee.  If we consider doing it long term then we have to pay a few different type of taxes.  The tax place doing our taxes can handle it all and the W2 we'd have to produce at the end of the year.  I'm not sure if we'll do it long term or not because we'll be paying more in daycare expenses if we do the nanny since there are tax regulations and pay regulations.  We'll see, we just started so we can see how it goes and then decide.

We went to the breastfeeding bunch which St. Luke's has once a week. It's a group where new moms, moms with 3, 6, 8, etc month olds get together and chat, feed their babies, weigh them and there is a lactation specialist that puts it on.  Last Thursday she was 14 pounds 11 ounces!

I have to go to Oregon once in March and April for work and am staying the weekend too! I'm throwing my best friend's baby shower at the end of April, she just found out she's having a girl today! I've been saving all of Mckenzie's clothes in case we have another girl, so Julie's baby can get some use out of her clothes too.

We're in the process of finishing our taxes, we decided to hire someone this year with the baby and relocation expenses wanted to do it right.  Thankfully they caught that my W2 was wrong, my company didn't switch me over to working IN Idaho until 8/18 when it was 8/2 so it messed with my state taxes.
All and all everything is going well, the transition back to work went much smoother then I expected.

Bentley is doing great! He does wonderful with Mckenzie, he is very gentle with her and often will stop her swing from swinging to give her a kiss on her hand.  If he can reach her he will always give her a little kiss, she usually shoots him a look like what are you doing?1 LOL  He is starting a puppy class next week, we did one with Dixie and was totally worth it! He is really a smart Pup! My mom & Dan got Tank from Bernadette (who we got Bentley from) who is a 4 year old show Aussie.  Bernadette has been competing him with agility and what not but he is on the smaller side for a male so he wasn't really placing, she decided to keep Mojo (Bentley's brother) when she heard my mom would be interested in taking Tank since she only wanted him to go to a loving family and not just anyone.  Bentley's brother Mojo is 35 pounds! Big boy! Bentley is only about 20 pounds!

Tank is beautiful, with gorgeous blue eyes!

3 months

We did Mckenzie's 3 month photos last weekend.  Dani who did the newborn ones did a wonderful job

This rocking chair was Jeremy's when he was little.  His grandma refinished it a few years back :)

I made Mckenzie a tutu, they are so expensive to buy already made, but I found out that it was way easier to make and only cost me about $7 to make!

I returned to work on Friday and our nanny did great with Mckenzie.  I even heard Mckenzie laughing at one point and went to check on her, the nanny was making noises and got her laughing it was so cute! Going back to work with Mckenzie being watched in the house was a breeze since I work from home, made going back to work much easier! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Daddy bought Mckenzie a Valentine's card, she's been getting good at holding stuff and held onto this for a few minutes.  We just went to dinner at Red Robin last night, which was yummy :)

3 months old!

Mckenzie is 3 months old today!

We had professional pictures done here at the house, Dani did her newborn pictures and did a great job that I can't wait to see them.  Our friend Shalane made her some more hats and a diaper cover :)

Can you tell I love my new camera? I LOVE it!

Mckenzie weighs 14 pounds now.  The hospital has a breastfeeding bunch where you can go and weigh and feed your baby to see how much they're eating.  She has definitely filled out.  I love the rolls on her thighs and arms :)

She is still a very relaxed baby, and is sleeping great! She's now doing 7-8 hour stretches! We are trying to transition her into her crib and have been having her nap in there.  She is smiling all the time now, every morning when she wakes up with a ton of smiles! She usually eats around 7am ish and sleeps until 10am regularly, eats and is up for a bit and then naps for a good hour or two.  I've been noticing that around 3pm she usually crashes for a good 2-3 hour nap.

I return to work on Friday, I'm think I'm ready to go back. I absolutely have enjoyed every moment being home with her these last 13 weeks! We're going to have a nanny watching her here at the house so that'll be nice and then late spring/early summer.  We'll slowly transition her into a in-home daycare that we found that was recommended by someone who takes their little boy there. So that makes going back to work a bit easier.

My family came into town this weekend and we had a wonderful visit with them :)

Baby Love!

Sorry I've been MIA lately! I'm good at uploading pictures onto Facebook! ;)

Mckenzie and I went to Oregon last weekend for a long weekend and stayed with my mom and Dan. It was a nice low key weekend.  My Auntie Connie mentioned that we should open a cupcake shop one day...and I've always wanted to check out the cupcake shop Saint Cupcake in Portland.

                                  
                                    

It was a neat little cupcakery in the Pearl District.  The cupcakes looked really good, but we were a bit disappointed.  They only had 4 cake flavors - red velvet, vanilla, chocolate and carrot cake.  The cake wasn't moist and airy like my cakes are and they put way too much frosting on them.  So Auntie Connie and I are certain that we would have an awesome cupcakery! Its just a dream for now but we can dream right? :)

Mckenzie is doing great! She's growing and changing! She is such a ham, wakes up smiling and has started a new thing when I'm nursing her and go to switch sides - starts grinning up a storm at me! I love it!  Her neck is still super strong and she enjoys tummy time and playing on her play mat - she's really good and kicking the toys that dangle above her, I should video it!  She's always cooing and talking up a storm, in fact about 11pm last night she was talking away! She also LOVES bath time! :) Even Bentley enjoys coming in the bathroom and watch us give Mckenzie a bath :)

I go back to work in about 2 weeks, I'm not dreading it [yet].  We had an idea on what we wanted to do with daycare but didn't make any decisions until last night.  We got the name of a daycare provider that does it in her home and checked her out this week.  We had checked out 1 center, 2 in-home daycares and interviewed 3 nannys.  We were torn on what we should do.  So we decided to hire a nanny that will watch Mckenzie here at the house for the first 3 months or so and then transition her into an in-home daycare.  She's just starting to nap in her crib but loves napping in her swing, and I would prefer to work with her on napping in her pack -n- play so when she goes to daycare its an easy transition for her, us and the daycare. We'd love to do the nanny all year but there are a lot of tax hoops, doing a W2, and what not we'd have to jump through if we had a nanny all year.  I figure by the time she's 6 months she'd probably enjoy being around other children too :) I feel good about our decision!

Bentley is doing really good - he's such a lover, and likes to nap during the day when Mckenzie is napping. :)

We have my mom, Dan, Scottie and Nathan coming into town next weekend.  Jeremy, Scottie and Nathan are going to go snowboarding up at Bogus Basin when they come, we had got them gift certificates for Christmas, so they're excited to go snowboarding with Jeremy :)