Mckell blurbs

I know how lucky I have been with Mckell- she has really been the best baby, so easy going, and every parent's dream child- seriously (she's been sleeping through the night since she was about 2 weeks old and has been taking two, two hours naps a day with sleeping about 12 hours at night)! Side note, I know I'm probably doomed with this next baby- I can't have two good ones in a row! ha
But she finally has decided to retire to just one nap a day- it's still over 3 hours long though!
Today she was contently playing in her room and suddenly came into the living room and said, "go na-night peas"- what parent wouldn't love this child? And two seconds later she was down for her afternoon marathon nap. Oh and of course the "thank you, ba-bye" after I put her in her crib.

One other cute thing she did today:
We were sitting on the couch looking at pictures in my old phone and she saw a picture of Lucy. So she yelled out, "come here now wucy" and patted her knees doing kisses to tell Lucy to come. When Lucy came, she grabbed her face and gave her big kisses on her nose and mouth- she just loves our little dog.. well that is when she's not chasing her around torturing the poor thing.

Mckell moments..

Fun facts about this little 1 1/2 year old:

Mckell's 18 month check-up stats:
weight: 20lbs 11oz, 6.2%
height: 31.5", 46.3%
head circumference: 17.9", 22%

She's getting really smart- when she realizes it's time for bed she starts saying everything she can think of to not go to bed such as, 'eat' 'drink' 'go' 'mazie' (dog next door that she loves playing with) 'side' (for outside) 'bath' 'barney' 'elmo' and my absolute favorite and hard not to give into 'nuggle' (for snuggle). Then when we actually lay her down in her crib she always says, 'thank you, na-night' how cute is she!

A new word she says not quite right: fork but she says f*** (we're going to have to work on that!)

She loves the tub and once she's in, it's extremely hard to get her out (we sometimes resort to bribing her to get out, is that bad?)

She insists on being outside practically all day long- so we have to be VERY careful when using the words 'go' and 'outside' at our house because once you've said it, she demands that's what we do. For example if you say, "go get your toy" you've said the word 'go' and she immediately runs to the door and says 'go' and if you then say no, she gets VERY upset.

Below is a picture grandma Astill sent us on her phone

The park a block from our apartment that we visit daily- notice Lucy in the background, whenever other little kids try to play with her Mckell runs over to protect her and tells the other kids 'no no!' I guess Lucy is just for her to play with..

As every parent knows, when it gets quiet that means your child is up to no good! So when we were watching the BYU basketball game we realized it was suddenly way too quiet and Mckell wasn't competing for our attention so I shout from the living room, "Mckell what are you doing?" And her reply is "no no, messy messy" and of course that can't be good so this is what we find...

She got a bag of cheese left out from dinner and was throwing it all over the kitchen and when I tried sweeping it up, she quickly began shoving as much as she could in her mouth- such a funny girl!

And my favorite- this is a video of Mckell snoring up a storm which she most definitely got from her daddy!

Sad thing is she was out cold after a long night of no sleep and an ER visit. She turned 18 months on Tuesday and started out the day going to the ER at 4am. She had a temperature the day before but we had lost the thermometer and didn't know how high it was. So after she went to bed I went to the store to get one. On her fourth time waking up in the night just before 4am, she woke up saying eat, which I think she said because her tummy hurt and threw up all over. And when I took off her jammies her arms, legs, and bum were bright bright red and burning hot- which I'd never seen before and I took her temperature and it was 104.1! My doctor had told me if her temp is ever over 103 then take her immediately in, so that's what we did. But at the ER they didn't really say anything (practically making me feel like an idiot for bringing her in) and we went back home. This frustrates me so bad because my doctor made it seem like such a high temp was extremely dangerous and the ER made it seem like no big deal- so which is it??

Anyway, she is better now and her body was probably just working something out and that was it's defense.

So the video is Mckell that morning pasted out from exhaustion of a long night and it does not do her justice to how loud she actually was. I wish I would have got her on video when she actually woke me up- I thought she was having a hard time breathing and startled me until I realized she was just snoring- ha! So I adjusted her position which made the snoring a lot better and that's what the video is.

Side note- she insisted on sleeping with us that night saying 'nuggle' every time I tried putting her back in her crib. She also HAD to be touching the whole time, every time I was certain she was out cold I would reposition and if we weren't still touching she would wake up and scoot closer to me- pretty cute, she definitely gets that from me- I'm a snuggler. So we ended up with about 3 hours of sleep between Courtland and I and a full day of school ahead- not a fun day for turning 1 1/2 years old!

32 weeks

For the record books, my 32 week picture (14 lbs gained).. oh the ever growing belly! Love being prego!

So many changes coming our way . . .

I think if I just write about all the changes that would stress a normal person out past their limits will help so I don't have to stress about them.

1) 7 weeks: Courtland and I both graduate from BYU! And let me say just thinking about it makes me cry because it has been a long time coming for me- I have been in school WAY too long! Courtland is getting his master's and I'm getting my bachelor's- both in accounting.

2) 7-8 weeks: We have to put all our stuff into storage for the summer, clean our apartment, and move out up to my parents

3) 8 weeks: Our baby boy will make his debut! My doctor said if all is well he'll take me a week early- but my actual due date is May 5th. (I'm actually hoping just maybe he'll come two weeks early on his own and my professors will just give me a pass on my finals- ha! I do go to BYU but probably not likely..)

4) 9 weeks: Courtland will move to New Jersey to start our last summer of 'summer sales'

5) 12 weeks: Mckell, baby boy, and I will join Courtland in New Jersey for the rest of the summer (until about the end of August)

6) end of August: We will drive back from New Jersey, purchase a second car at some point, get all our stuff out of storage, and move to San Jose, CA.

7) September: Courtland will start working for PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) full time- (which if you know about the big four is way more than full time which applies to me as well)

8) October: I will start working for Ernst & Young (EY) full time.

So many huge changes are fast approaching and I have so many mixed feelings it's just easier not to think about it and let it happen as it comes. Life truly never does slow down, it just brings new adventures and challenges at every step of the way!

30 weeks

My 30 week update picture (12lbs gained)- pretty sure I'm bigger than I was with Mckell . . . But as Courtland now knows- I'M the only one allowed to say that! ha

This pregnancy has been completely night and day compared to when I was prego with Kell. I swear I've felt this baby moving since like 8 weeks- which I'm pretty sure is impossible, but he is SO DANG ACTIVE. He is constantly kicking and squirming around- even waking me up in the night from all the moving. I don't really remember not being able to sleep until about 37 weeks with Kell, and it's already super uncomfortable just in general all the time (maybe because of the bigger thing). I constantly have heartburn and eat tums like they're candy and before rarely had heartburn. I want to eat all the time, where with Kell I never felt like eating. I was much MUCH sicker with this boy (I started feeling better with Kell at about 14 weeks) not feeling better until about 22 weeks this time around. My skin is always burning like it's been stretched way past it's limits and looks like I got rug burn. . . and on and on- Oh the joys of pregnancy! But I am so excited to meet this little man so soon and can see the end coming- I am especially curious to see if he looks more like me and is chubby like I was. . . hopefully not though- I really don't want to birth a big baby- Kell was the perfect size at 6lbs 15oz.

One of the many faces of Mckell

Because we had no school President's Day- Courtland went ice fishing with some friends. One thing I have learned about Courtland since we've been married is that he LOVES to fish, who knew?

Courtland insisted on taking this picture and the only reason I'm posting it is because there is a story. . . he is OBSESSED with this hat. I never knew what a big deal a hat could be. It took three different mall visits to finally decide on it and is brought up in our conversations at least twice a day- pretty soon it's going to magically disappear! ha (and I'm sure all of you are scratching your heads wondering what I am talking about- you just don't want to know!)

Some people have started saying Kell's looking more like her mamma- but I still don't see it. I think she's all Courtland, with a bit of my sassy personality!

This girl LOVES bath time- she runs to the tub anytime it's mentioned and tries to get in on her own (once actually getting in and falling on her head- ouch).

Don't mind me in the pic, but this is what happens when you tell Kell no- big alligator tears, it's as if you just broke her little heart, which makes it so tempting to just give into what ever she wants- we're in trouble for sure!

Obsessed with ducks!

Mckell is obsessed with ducks and it finally felt warm outside so we went to the duck pond. She was in heaven the whole time throwing bread to the ducks and eating it herself, blowing them kisses, and making 'quack' noises.

Our valentine's was low key this year because we both had lots of homework, but Courtland did get me roses and my favorite candy. I got Courtland a new wedding ring (he lost his over a year ago). And we went to dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe- the place we thought would be the least crowded. (almost 28 weeks)

Poor little thang...

I swear Mckell has been sick since before Christmas and hasn't really gotten better. Over the Christmas break she had the flu twice followed by ear infections. Then the day after she finished her antibiotics she got a bad cold- runny nose and bad cough thing with diarrhea followed with throwing up for a few days. Then constipated. Which brings me to last week- She's had a fever on and off since last Monday and the diarrhea returned (which makes for TONS of blowouts and laundry). So I took her to the doctor last Friday and he didn't really say much. All the while she refuses to eat- literally, not even treats. And Sunday she some how woke up with pink eye even though I haven't taken her out. So we went to the doctor again and found out she also has ear infections- again! Poor girl! She just can't seem to get better but it doesn't seem to slow her down too much- she still runs and plays but has had much more snuggle time with mom and dad.

Mckell is getting smarter and learning new things everyday which is so fun to watch. Some of her most used words are 'hel peas' (help please), 'cracka' (cracker), 'coo-kie', book, eat, 'thans' (thanks), mine, baby, elmo, 'belly butt' (belly button), 'bah bah' (bottle- I know! I'm weaning her off still, she still has one at bedtime, ops), 'na night', dance, and many more. She will pretty much say anything you tell her to or at least try to. She loves looking at books and pointing to things saying what they are. My favorite is when I say, "Do you want to sing" and she says "a, b, c" to start singing the alphabet. She also loves doing the itsy bitsy spider and just singing and dancing in general. Another thing I love is when when she tells me she's ready for bed or her nap (the girl still takes two naps a day and sleeps 12 hours at night). She'll get her blanket and baby and say 'bah bah na night.' What parent wouldn't love this?! She is so much fun at this age and I can't believe how big she's getting. Sometimes I just look at her and wonder how she's gotten so big because I still think of her as my little baby. Now if only we could get her all healthy again....

Our baby loves to cheese it!

I finally cut Mckell's bangs because they were getting ridiculous. They look pretty choppy but I did the best I could with this little wiggle worm.

Mckell loves to say 'cheese' and show off her growing number of teeth- notice the huge gap between her front teeth, I've heard that's actually a good thing? Makes for straighter teeth or something? Anyway, she currently has her 4 front teeth with two molars coming in on top and 3 front teeth with the other one and two molars on bottom coming in and the girl likes to use them. She'll out of no where come up and just bite you as hard as she can- and it HURTS! Who knew such a little thing could draw blood and how do you teach a 17 month old not to bite?

Mckell wearing daddy's hat

love the after pony hair

And my 27 week picture update (8lbs gained)- for some reason it's not as fun to take 'belly' pictures the second time around- especially when people tell you you're bigger than with the first. Seriously people?! No girl wants to hear that- just always tell her she looks good and you'll be much better off.

Mckell's 15 month check up stats

Courtland is figuring out Mckell's new 'big girl' carseat in the background. We finally got her a convertible carseat to ride forward in even though she's still a little under 20lbs- we caved! And she's much happier in the car now, loving that she can see us and out the windows.

Mckell's 15 month check up stats:
weight: 19lbs 11oz, 8%
Height: 30.5", 53.3%
head circumference: 18", 46.5%

What happens when you're pregnant...

When you're pregnant, you make crazy decisions- it's what I call 'pregnancy brain'.

How long my hair.... was

BEFORE

AFTER... darker and all chopped off! Thanks Ali- love it!

My first belly picture (funny how you take tons of them with your first and avoid it with the next).

23 weeks and 3lbs gained

2nd instance of 'pregnancy brain'... I ran into my mom's parked car while parking- driving forward- PATHETIC!! There are no words but plain stupidity!

This one, not my fault. I got rear-ended on my way to school. When it rains, it pours.