The Zoo!

Last Friday we spent a fabulous day in western Washington. First thing on our busy agenda was to stop at UW hospital to visit my friend Crissy who was there on bed rest and to see some of the nurses I had while I spent 4 weeks there. After being there so long it was pretty easy to run into nurses that I knew. In the picture is Lorraine and Robin. We also saw Nancy on our way out the door. They were a few of my favorites!

 It was wonderful to see them and show off our little angel, especially since they didn't get to see the end result after the 4 weeks of hard work they put in. I was especially happy to see Robin, she was my nurse for all of her shifts she worked, every week I was there! For me, that morning was really reflective on everything that happened. On our way over snoqualmie pass I realized the last time that I was heading to the west side, I was 29 weeks pregnant, lying absolutely terrified in an ambulance. When I realized that, I of course started to cry and immediately count my blessings that things turned out so well. When we got to the hospital, I could see a little bit of apprehension in Makenna's eyes. When we got to the escalator in the parking lot she started yelling "No stay here Mommy! No stay here!" and repeated that phrase several times during our visit. She was afraid that I was going to stay there again. I had to reassure her many times that we were only there for a visit and we'd all be leaving together. She was SO happy when I left with her. It was great to see Crissy and know that she was doing so well also, she even got to come back home to Ellensburg last weekend. 

After we left the hospital we headed to the woodland park zoo for the afternoon. Here is Mailey when we first got there. Snug as a bug in the stroller. 

When we got there Makenna was SO excited! She kept asking "see amals? (animals)" When I answered  yes, she asked what kind and I told her we'd see giraffes, monkeys, lions and elephants. After hearing about the Elephants she then asked "like pumbo? (dumbo)"  She loves that movie and it made her even more excited to go see the animals!

When Mailey woke up we stopped for a picnic lunch break so I could nurse her and everyone else could eat also. It was really fun to have a picnic there. We've always purchased lunch at the zoo, but we thought we would save some money by packing a lunch and we found out it is a lot more fun to have a picnic. 

Little miss with her shades. If Nick or I are wearing sunglasses, she wants to where hers too. Makes us giggle. 

Every time we've previously been to the zoo the hippos have been sleeping/catching rays up on the rocks and they were actually playing and swimming around this time. They were pretty awesome!

Watching the "pippos."

Here is a video of Makenna watching the hippos, before you watch scroll to the very bottom of the page, press pause on the music, turn up the volume, and then press play on the video. 

At the zoo through out specific times in the day you can feed some of the animals. We just happened to be to the giraffes (my favorite) at the perfect time so we hopped in line and Makenna and I got to feed them. She thought it was AWESOME and so did I! She would giggle when they stuck their tongues out and kept saying they were cute. The zoo keeper also makes it an educational experience as well. Did you know that giraffes only have 7 vertebrae in their necks like humans? Theirs are MUCH bigger than humans of course. They are each about a foot tall. A female giraffe is pregnant for 15 months (no thank you!) and a newborn giraffe is about 6 feet tall, which sounds even worse than being pregnant for 15 months if you ask me!

  

Makenna held out her hand to feed them too and thought it was pretty cool. We just didn't get a picture of it. 

Here are a few pictures I took with my phone up on the platform.

Another video!

Warthogs! 

The lions have also been duds the previous visits we've had to the zoo but two of them were awake and RIGHT next to the glass. It was really cool! 

"Dare's a wion (there's the lion)"

"Where he go?"

These next two pictures crack me up! Makenna and Nick have the exact stride in both pictures. She is very much so a daddy's girl for sure!

This picture was taken a little over a year ago when we took Makenna to the zoo for the very first time. She had just mastered walking, didn't talk yet, and had maybe 10 hairs on her whole head. Now she runs pretty much everywhere she wants to go, doesn't stop talking and has a full head of hair! We thought she was so big then, and we had no idea! It is so fun to watch her grow up and change. 

Elephant! 

"It's pumbo! (dumbo)"

Mailey's still sleeping. She was an absolute angel the whole day. She did fantastic on the long drives and was content sleeping all day in the stroller, woke up only once to eat while we were at the zoo. Quite opposite of Makenna at the age! 

Run Kenna, Run!

She loved her horsey ride on the carousal

  

She loves the monkey statues! She's talking to them like they are her best friends. Very cute!

She even gave this little guy a kiss! 

After the zoo we went up to Gig Harbor to see Nick's family for the evening. They are moving into their new beautiful house this weekend. We can't wait to go visit for a few days when they get settled in. It was all and all a fantastic day! We'll have to go again soon! 

Happy Birthday/Mothers Day to me! + photo catch up

I apologize for not updating sooner. The last few weeks have been a bit crazy to say the least! Nick has been busy with school and picking up shifts at the fire department and I've been busy wrangling the cutest little girls I know! Having two kiddo's has been fun but just like everything in life comes with it's own challenges. My house is an absolute disaster! I try, try and try to keep it clean in between feeding, changing, bathing, playing, reading, & cooking but it doesn't work so well especially when I have two year old tornado that follows behind me to make more messes in the room I just cleaned. It's a little maddening but, one of these days I'll figure out my grove and my house might be clean-ish again one day. 

 Makenna is doing really good as a big sister. She loves to sing to Mailey and always wants her around. She likes to do whatever I'm doing for Mailey to her dolls. She will dress her babies and even "nurse" her babies while I feed Mailey. Just like any other two year old she needs to be reminded about being gentle, and to not pick her up 100 times a day but other than that she's great! 

Here are a couple of pictures of my pretty little girls over the last couple of weeks.

Sunday was Mother's day and my birthday! It was also Mailey's first Sunday at church. Here we all are in our Sunday duds. The girls even had matching dresses! They looked so cute!  

We spent the afternoon at my parents house with family. We had a BBQ per my request. We had shrimp, chicken, steak & veggie kabobs, asparagus, pasta salad and potato salad. We had a ton of food to say the least and it was all DELICIOUS!! I can't forget we also had cheesecake for dessert. It's not often that you get to celebrate two holidays at once so I was living it up, at least in the food department. Nick and the girls got me a really beautiful necklace for my gift and we went to the zoo yesterday (pictures to come) for my birthday also. We realized that we hadn't had a picture taken with all of us since Mailey was born. So we now have pictures of us as a family of 4!

I think we may have a blue eyed beauty on our hands. :o)

Busy Weekend!

Last weekend was a little crazy but fun none the less. Mailey's umbilical cord stump fell off when she was about a week and half old, and she got to have her first soak in the tub kind of bath. She loved it! Mailey also was back to her birth weight by her two week birthday and even passed it by 3 ounces! She had lost so much weight initially, she dropped from 6lbs 5oz to 5lbs 11oz and I was really worried about her gaining weight back fast enough. I was so happy when she made it back to her birth weight and is now growing like a weed! I weighed her yesterday and she was 6lbs 12oz and has also grown an inch in two and a half weeks! 

Mailey spent most of her weekend getting to know many important people in her life. Thursday Alice, Libby and Casen joined us for a visit. 

 Sunday she met Great Grandma Dorothy (Gram) for the first time. Gram has been out of town since she was born and got to meet her when she was two weeks old! 

 Saturday, she also got to meet her cousin's Ally, 

 Jared and Carys too. Carys wasn't interested in pictures. She was more interested in playing with Makenna. 

We watched Jared's t-ball game in 80 degree weather. It was beautiful out and the game was so fun! Jared provides some great comedic relief! I didn't get to watch the whole game because my mom, the girls and I went to a baby shower, but I can't wait to watch a whole game soon. It should be pretty entertaining! Hopefully we'll get more days with good weather! 

 Mailey spent pretty much the whole weekend in someones arms. It must be a hard life being passed around and sleeping all day! 

 Makenna was Papa's big helper with yard work and in the garden after the game. She LOVES helping my dad and being outside so it is a win, win to get to do both together. My dad had fun too! He had opened a package of seeds and sprinkled them around in the garden while she watched. Well, he left another package in Makenna's reach and when he wasn't looking she had ripped a package of radish seeds and dumped them all over the yard. LOL! It should be interesting to see what happens to their yard this summer. 

 Watering the garden! Whenever Makenna works outside with my dad she asks to wear a hat like him to. It is really funny to see her toddler sized head in an adult sized hat. 

After yard work was finished, she was rewarded with Bubbles and the first BBQ of the season! 

 Sunday was another gorgeous day and we spent most of our afternoon playing outside in my parents yard! My parents have accumulated a bunch of awesome outside toys and they have a fenced yard so if we want to be outside, I like to take Makenna there to play. I know she will have fun and be safe there.  

We also finished pictures for Mailey's birth announcement with these two beautiful pictures of our girls! Keep a look out in the mail for one coming your way hopefully soon! 

Happy Birthday Nick!

Friday the 13th we celebrated Nick's Birthday! He might get mad at me for sharing but he turned the big 3-0 this year! Even though we had a brand new baby I still wanted to do something fun for his big day. We kept it pretty low key and went out to dinner and later had ice cream cake for his big day. My parents and brother Mitch came to join us. Sadly our other family members in town couldn't make it but we had fun none the less!

Thank you for all of the hard work you do for me and our beautiful girls! I couldn't do it without you! You have been my rock through so many things, especially the last 8 weeks. You are a good man and I am so lucky that I get to call you my husband! I love you!

When we got home from dinner Makenna wanted to hold "her" baby. She is doing a great job being a big sister. She really loves Mailey and always wants to be where she is. I love seeing the two of them together. I hope they will always be great friends!

That afternoon we also took a few newborn photo's of our little angel. Here are my favorites so far. :o)