Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Happy Two Month Birthday McKenna! Updated!



It's hard to believe that McKenna is two months old today. She's already changed so much. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so we'll find out then how much she's weighs. McKenna has started to stay awake for longer periods of time during the day and she has started to coo and babble a little bit. McKenna also smiles now in response to my voice. I'll give you another update on her tomorrow! Our lives are so blessed!
McKenna's check up was today. She's a fussy girl right now because of her shots, but I was thrilled to find out that she weighs 11.2lbs. That means she gained two pounds in the last month! WooHoo! Remember that it wasn't that long ago that we were worried about her gaining weight.

Catching Up

To all of you blog junkies out there who check in daily, sorry I haven't really had anything new or interesting to post. Our lives have been pretty quiet for the last couple of days, which is great! So here's a few random pictures to keep everyone happy!



Nate loves his cousin McKenna. Today I heard him call her "tiny girl." How cute is that??
Christian helping me with laundry. He uses his green bucket as his laundry basket, fills it up and then throws all the clothes over the railing down into the family room. Then Abby collect all the clothes and puts them in the washer. Are they well trained or what?? Actually they usually love helping with laundry because they like to throw the laundry down on top of one another.
Emma took this picture of McKenna. She'll be happy to see that it ended up in the blog. That girl is something else. How many other seven year olds do you know who totally know how to take a picture on a digital camera and then ask if it will be posted on the blog? I'll bet there's a few million forty year olds who still don't know what a blog is and Emma even knows how to log on and leave her own comments. She's so smart. I got her a book making kit this past weekend and she spent over an hour yesterday writing a dinosaur story. I just might post it when she's done. I think it's going to be really cute.
The things I do for a few extra minutes of sleep: Abby and Nate arrive at my house around 7:30am on the days they stay with me. That seems awfully early to me these days since little Miss Mckenna is still figuring out how to sleep for longer than 3 hours, so the night before I lay out their pillows and blankets on the living room floor so they can have a picnic. Then I set up the breakfast tray and put their breakfast in little sealed containers on it. I fill their sippy cups and put them in the fridge ahead of time. The next morning Ryan sets out their cups and turns on the TV to the Disney channel. When Abby and Nate arrive they hang out in the living room eating their breakfast and watching TV. This usually buys me an extra 20-30 min. of sleep before they come trotting upstairs to wake me up. Abby usually wakes me up to tell me that Nate made a mess with his breakfast and I usually don't care as long as it's not before 8am.
A typical morning at our house.
Reading books with daddy before bedtime!
I love Nate so much! How can you not??? Look at that sweet face. How blessed I am to be able to love and kiss and hug on that boy!
I'll have you notice that there are three pictures in this post with no binkie!! We are making progress. Nate actually reminded me today of the "no binkie" rule at church (the one I made up). When we arrived at playgroup he asked me what we were going to do about his binkie. I had forgotten. But he was a great sport about leaving it in the car.

I never know how wise it is to leave Christian alone in the same room with McKenna, but sometimes I just have to for a minute or two. Christian was alone with McKenna for about 3 minutes today and this is what I found when I walked back into the room. He had gotten his pillow and put it next to hers and he let her have his new blue doggie that our neighbor Ms. Peggy just gave him. He was being so sweet. Talking to her in a soft voice. My little boy is getting the hang of this "big brother" stuff.

Monday, April 7, 2008

I take it all back!


Remember all my lamenting in my previous post about how Ryan and I were not handy and how we were a little overwhelmed by the idea of changing out our ceiling light fixtures?? Well, I started to put the lights together at the end of last week and that turned out to be the most complicated part. Believe it or not Ryan and I got all three light fixtures hung by Sunday night. I won't confess just how long it took us, but we both felt great that we accomplished this little project together. And it only took one phone call to my brother, Tim!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Thomas the Tank Engine



On my way to the grocery store I pass a tractor dealership. I almost had a heart attack when I saw Thomas the Tank Engine in their parking lot. I rushed through my shopping and headed home as soon as a could. I left all the groceries for Ryan to put away and loaded Christian into the car for a "big surprise." He spotted Thomas before we even pulled into the parking lot. He spent the next 30 minutes hugging Thomas, climbing on Thomas and driving Thomas (for pretend of course). Whenever a car would drive by Christian would pretend that he and Thomas were racing the car. I think this was one of the most exciting moments of Christian's life. We just might have to go back tomorrow to visit Thomas with our cousins (although then we'll all have to take turns...hmmm).
This Thomas is really just a shell that sits over top of a tractor. It's really quite an ingenious design. I totally think Grampy Chatt needs to buy this to have on the farm. He could make some serious money pulling little boys around on this thing!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Announcing...

The birth of Zavier Andrew Chatterton!
Son of Robert and Lindsey Chatterton (Ryan's brother)
Little brother of Gracey Chatterton
7 lbs 4oz
March 31, 2008 @ 10:32pm
Click here to see his pictures!
Zavier, Welcome to the family!! It will probably be awhile before we meet you, but know that we love you so much already! You hold a little piece of our hearts. We are so thankful that Jesus brought you into this world safely. We've been praying for you for months now! It's our prayer that you will grow into a man of strength and integrity who loves the Lord above all else.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."- James 1:17
Zavier, you are a treasured gift to our family!
Love,
Uncle Ryan, Aunt Judy, Christian and McKenna

5 Hours

That's how much uninterrupted sleep I got last night. I actually got a total of 8 hours of sleep. I feel like a new person. I haven't had that much uninterrupted sleep in about 6 months!! I hope McKenna can do it again tonight! I know I'm going to be working hard to keep her awake during the day today!!

Bath Time

McKenna loves bathtime. I know she looks a little scared in this video, but she's not. She always has that wide eyed look. She never cries until it's time to get out of the tub! Sometimes she stays in her tub for 15 min. Make sure you watch her little tongue in this video. She always tries to lick up some water.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Gorgeous Girl

Little Miss Abigail got herself dressed today and she did her own hair. Isn't it gorgeous?!! I love the bows (thanks Millicent, they're the ones you made for McKenna) with the headband. The shirt is even on backwards, but she hasn't noticed yet. Abby is also the one who gets the mail around here. I always watch her walk to the mailbox and back because many times an envelope will get dropped and start blowing away and then she's never quite sure what to do. Should she drop everything and go after it? What if it goes in the street? Should she come and get me? So needless to say I'm watching closely. Today she did a little dance and had a little skip in her step as she made her way out to the mailbox. There were three pieces of mail in there. She dropped two of them and then tried to juggle her bear, that she insisted on taking with her, as she picked up one piece of mail and then the other. Then she managed to close the mailbox door with her elbow. She is pure entertainment! I love this girl so much. She brings a smile to my face and puts joy in my heart!