13 months

It feels kind of strange to be updating every month now that she's 1, but here are some new pictures. Mackenzie still isn't walking, still only has 1 tooth, and is sweet as ever. Her personality is really coming out lately, she loves to do funny things and really loves to play with Rylan and his toys. She's learning the meaning of 'no' but sometimes just smiles and goes for it anyway. She's also more of a cuddler lately, especially when she has her blankie. She will snuggle right in to you when she's tired and I love it! She's our sweet, sweet girl and she never stops smiling!

She loves to talk.

Daddy, that tickles!

So big!

Date Night

Rylan and I had our first date earlier this week and it was so much fun! Lately I've been able to spend more time alone with each Rylan and Mackenzie and I love it so much. We're going to start having regular date nights with each of the kids so they get to feel really special.

For our date, Rylan and I went to Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Green Thumb, then out for ice cream. He loved it! I actually did too. The show was 90 minutes long and I figured I'd be really sick of it by the end, but it went by really fast and was such a cute show. The characters were so cute and I was amazed at how well they could dance in those costumes. And I don't know why, but I always figured Ernie would be a better dancer than Bert, but no, Bert's got moves you've never seen! He can groove! Rylan's favorite character was Big Bird, which I didn't know. When Big Bird was off the stage, Rylan kept asking where he was. Thank goodness he was satisfied that Big Bird "needed to take a rest from all the dancing."

I was also very thankful that Rylan is so content and understanding when I tell him, "no, we're not going to buy that." He usually always responds with a sweet, "maybe next time Mommy." I'm so glad I didn't have to deal with a tantrum just because the kid in front of us got an $8 Elmo balloon and we didn't. It also helped that I told him we would go have ice cream after the show, which we did. We went to Dairy Queen and had crunch cones as a treat. He still is very messy with a cone, but he enjoys every little bite!

A few pictures from the show, they aren't the best, but you get the idea.

A self-portrait at intermission. Nice face Rylan.

Mmmm, DQ!

Night at the Park

First a few pictures from last weekend at the lake. Great Grandma Mac has an awesome tire swing and the kids love it! I was worried that Rylan wouldn't hang on to Mackenzie very well, but he did great and she had more fun than anybody!

Okay, back to the park. Last week, our city hosted a free event at a nearby park for kids. There were free hot dogs, ice cream and lemonade, inflatable games, a magic show by a clown, balloon animals, a kiddie parade, live music, and other stuff. So I took the kids right when it started so we wouldn't have to wait in the lines. This was the first thing Rylan wanted to do. He was the youngest kid in line and I didn't know how he'd be once he got over the first slide and couldn't see me anymore, but as you can see, he loved it! Actually, once he saw me at the end, he turned around and was going to go back, but then realized he couldn't climb back up the slide and had to come out.

In the bouncy castle. It was awesome, they only let 4 kids in at a time, so they had plenty of room to jump and didn't run into each other.

Local cheerleaders were spraying hair for a fundraiser, so I thought, why not. This is what Rylan picked.

He got a lion balloon animal and was so proud of it, but sadly, it popped in the car on the way home. He had a minor meltdown, but I got him talking about all the fun stuff he'd done and it was okay.

And poor Mackenzie couldn't really participate in any of it, but she had a blast watching all the people from the stroller!

Funny Story

We were at the grocery store today, walking past the meat, when Rylan said to me, "It hurts" pointing to a mosquito bite he got on his eyebrow. Before I could respond, he grabbed a package of bologna out of the cooler and pressed it to his head, saying, "now it better, Mommy!" I couldn't help but burst out laughing. He's a problem solver, that kid of mine!

Lake Pictures

I promised, so here are pictures from the lake. Oh, and I remember why I haven't been updating as frequently, blogger has been a pain in my butt. For some reason, it messes with our internet connection so I'm constantly having to unplug and replug the modem and wireless router. I can't even go to other people's pages, it kicks me off every time. I think it might be a problem with our computer though, we've been having issues lately, so for all of you who have blogs, I'm very sad that I haven't been able to check them! Sometimes the text will load before I get disconnected, but I can never see the pictures. We've got to get it figured out though because I'm going through withdrawl not seeing everyone else's pictures, especially all the cute kiddos!

Anyhow, here are the lake pictures! Enjoy!

Love the hair!
Concentrating so hard.

Such a helper

Rylan's sweet face...

and evil face.

Rylan loves to throw rocks in the water, and Ace thought it was something he should try to retrieve, so he kept jumping in to look for them. Rylan thought it was hilarious! Poor Ace though. I didn't want him to get discouraged, so we found a stick he could retrieve instead. He would do that all day!

New House

The other thing that has been keeping us (at least our minds) busy is our new house! You may remember about 2 years ago we bought a lot just out of town and planned to build a new home there. Well, it's been started and we're so excited! Here are some pictures of the progress up to now.

The first day of digging.

About a week and a half ago, footings done, foundation walls in progress.

This past Friday, foundation walls done, everything back-filled. (I love that our neighbors seem so far away, it's going to be awesome to have so much space!)

The plumbers started working today to prep the floor heat system and by the end of the week, we should have the slab poured. Next week the walls should start to go up! Yay!

I'll start to catch up

It seems like we've been so busy lately, I'll try to catch up on photos and what we've been up to. First, just some random photos.

Daddy and Mackenzie watching TV and not fighting over the remote! :)

A brother/sister duet

Daddy sticking foam letters all over Kenzie in the tub.

Last week, we took a quick trip out to western ND to Medora. It was unusually cool weather, but was better than being too hot, so we didn't mind. We did some shopping downtown, ate at an awesome pizza parlor, took the kids to a couple of parks, and did the pitchfork fondue and musical. If you ever get the chance to do this trip, it's awesome! And if you don't know what a pitchfork fondue is, it's when they line up 12 oz ribeye steaks on a pitchfork and deep fry them so they are perfectly tender on the inside with just the right amount of crisp on the outside, so good!!! Add in the baked potatoe, fresh fruit and veggies, garlic toast, and baked beans and you've got one hell of a cowboy meal. After the meal, you get to sit back and enjoy an awesome show, the Medora Musical which is on it's 44th year in production is a beautiful outdoor ampitheater. We brought blankets and bundled up while watching the great show and the kids were perfect. I intended to take pictures, but was first told that you couldn't take pictures during the show, but it turns out you could. By that time, it was too late to run back to the car and get the camera. But you can check out all the attractions at http://www.medora.com/. They have an awesome golf course as well.

Anyhow, so I was bad again and didn't take many pictures, this is it.

The beautiful western ND landscape.

Rylan, Papa, and Orea, who we met in downtown Medora.

On the way home, we took a scenic tour on the Enchanted Highway. There are these huge metal sculptures every few miles and Rylan got a kick out of them. We only stopped to take a picture at this one, the pheasants. You can see more here: http://www.enchantedhighway.net/

And you can't tell from the picture, but those pheasants are about 40 feet tall.

Caterpillar

Mackenzie got a huge stuffed caterpillar for her Easter gift. I think Rylan likes it more than she does, but I caught them playing together the other day! They were both in her room playing while Nick and I were making dinner and all of a sudden, this is what came out of her room!

Rylan got Mackenzie to stay on the back while he dragged her around, it was hilarious, and she was having so much fun! It was so cute to see them play together like that! They came into the dining room, then went back.