What a Christmas

What a first Christmas we had with McKenzie! It was three straight days for presents and tissue paper and bow eating! We started at our house on the morning of the 23rd. When we finished opening our presents we packed up the car and headed to Nana and Papa T's house. The 23rd was a Tuesday and that made day 5 of McKenzie and the stomach virus. The poor little girl had diarrhea so badly by the 23rd that she had welts on her bottom and we had to put prescription burn cream on them. Christmas Eve day came and McKenzie was no better. I called the doctor back again and this time they told me to take her off of all formula and just give her Pedialyte, Gatorade, and water for 24 hours (I had to switch her from milk based formula to soy also). Brian, Amber, and Tate arrived at the Farm that afternoon with Tate bringing a Christmas fever with him of 101 +. Amber had taken him to the doctor that morning and he had a virus also. Tate and McKenzie opened their presents on opposite sides of the room. It was so sad at one point they just reached for each other and wanted to play with each other so badly. We just could not let them.

Christmas morning we got up and had breakfast. McKenzie still had awful diarrhea and Tate still had an awful fever. We loaded up our car to head North to Young Harris and Brian and Amber loaded up their car to head South to Warner Robins. We had to stop 3 times on the way to change McKenzie. It was the longest ride ever. When we arrived at Grandma and Papa Norton's house we opened presents. Jeffrey had bought and wrapped our presents before he left for Africa so that was really neat. We got to open up presents from him. He thinks of everything! Christmas night McKenzie was still no better. She was up several times sick in the night and by the 26th I was at my wits end. So, off we went to the ER to look for an answer to having diarrhea for 7 straight days. The doctors there were no help and told us that it could last up to two weeks and printed us off a paper about keeping your baby hydrated while having diarrhea. The only good thing about this was that McKenzie continued to drink. She drank and drank and drank. It was such a blessing because she never got dehydrated. We left to come home on the 27th and by now McKenzie is just absolutely exhausted. You can imagine. We packed up the car again and headed for home. She seemed to feel a little better and her diarrhea was not as often. The ride home 3 hours was not that bad. By Monday, day 9 her diarrhea was gone and she was back to squealing her little squeals! She seems to be all better now. She is still getting up several times a night to eat. I am guessing that she needs to make up for lost time. However, getting up several times a night again is very exhausting! All in all we had a great Christmas and we all received many very nice presents.

McKenzie learned how to do several things over Christmas while having the stomach virus. She can now pull herself up all alone. She can crawl/climb the stairs. Today she even stood all by herself! She is growing up so quickly. I just can't believe that 9 months is around the corner.

I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and will have a great New Year!!

Baby's First Christmas

Our Family


McKenzie on her new ride from Papa Norton

What a very special little present!

The ball popper from Uncle Jared!

Daddy and McKenzie with Minnie Mouse

Grandma with a mouse pad of McKenzie from Jeffrey!

Minnie Mouse!!

McKenzie loves tissue paper!

Look at all the present!

Nana giving McKenzie another bottle of Pedialyte.

Tate in his new rocker with his Christmas fever

McKenzie in the car

McKenzie loves her new rocker and is clapping about it!

McKenzie and Tate trying our their new rockers from Nana and Papa T

Santa Came!

Opening presents with Mommy

McKenzie opening her stocking from Santa with Daddy!

Playing on Christmas Eve before going to bed and waiting for Santa to come!

A Christmas Miracle

It is a Christmas Miracle...I just published my last post and everything on the side of my blog reappeared! I worked on that thing for hours one night and I could not figure it out to save my life...and then it was just there again! I am so excited! It has been MIA for months now! Yeah I am so excited!! :) Merry Christmas!

Stomach Virus

Hey everyone! I just wanted to update you on McKenzie. I took her to the doctor today and they think that she has the stomach virus. She still has awful diarrhea and diaper rash from it. We had to change her formula from milk based to soy based until after Christmas. She thought the taste was funny at first but now is drinking it okay. Hopefully tomorrow will be much better with her on the soy formula for 24 hours. We are leaving tomorrow afternoon to begin our Christmas rounds. First to Madison and then on Christmas Day we drive 3 hours to Young Harris, then home on Saturday. Hopefully, all happy and healthy! We hope that all of you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy 2009!

Christmas at Granny and Granddaddy's new house

Granny and Granddaddy's Christmas Tree

Granny and Granddaddy's pretty front door

An umbrella stroller...YEAH!!

Kenzie crawling on her big present!

Hanging out with Papa Norton

McKenzie got a Raggedy Ann doll from her cousins!

Yummy...this bag tastes great!

McKenzie shredding her tissue paper!

McKenzie kept crawling to the corner!

Granny in her new kitchen!

Granny and Granddaddy's New House

Hey everyone! We hope you all had a great weekend! I am sure it was busy for everyone. Ours was too, of course! Friday night we had Jason's company Christmas Party at Medieval Times in Atlanta. If you have never been to something like this I would say go! It was fun! It was a bunch of knights on horses fighting each other with swords and many other weapons. Whatever section you sit in is the knight that you cheer on. We cheered for the blue knight but he lost! After it was over the knight that won was outside talking to people as they left and we stopped to talk to him. He said that they practice 5 hours a day! That was just amazing to us! So, that was a fun night for us and McKenzie stayed with Jason's grandparents.

Saturday we had Christmas at Granny and Granddaddy's new house; which by the way is very nice and very roomy! Jason's cousins from SC came and we were all together. Everyone except Jeffrey. It was very weird not to have him there. However, we prayed for him and we know that he is doing great things in Africa. He was already asked to be in a wedding this passed Saturday! He is so funny! He has only been in his new place a few weeks and already in a wedding of some African person! Anyways, Granny had amazing food like always and then we opened our gifts. McKenzie's favorite part was the tissue paper. She shredded it into confetti size pieces. She was so proud of herself that she clapped when she was finished! We got home late last night and we were all tired!

McKenzie must have picked up a bug along the way. Starting Friday night she has had diarrhea. She has not run a fever at all with it though. I called her doctor this morning and we have put her on pedialyte. She seems to like it but is still has diarrhea. We will be taking her to the doctor tomorrow morning if she is not better. We were so upset about her being sick because she had a birthday party to go to today. However, we did not take her because we did not want to chance anyone else getting sick. The doctor this morning said it sounded like a virus. If we passed that on at the party there would be lots of upset parents on Christmas morning dealing with sick babies! Hopefully it will pass soon.

We hope everyone has a great Monday! :)

PS: If you are a blogger and know how to post pictures at the bottom of the blog after you have typed what you want to say please let me know! Thank you! I really wanted all those pictures to come after my writing.

A Painful Little Tooth and a Full Week

Hey everyone! I am sorry it has taken me so long to post another blog, it has been crazy here. Jason's Aunt and cousin from FL came up on Tuesday and left yesterday. They came to get some of our extra furniture for Michelle's (Jason's cousin) new apartment. It was so good to see them. We always have so much fun with them! I was in the kitchen working on dinner and Michelle was palying with McKenzie and she held her up so that she could see me in the kitchen and McKenzie just started to wave to me! It was the sweetest thing ever! So now McKenzie can wave all by herself! :)

As you know from my last post McKenzie has a tooth on the bottom. Well it has really started to come in. That poor little girl has had such a hard time getting this tooth. She has had a fever, diarrhea, and been very "Mommy needy." Wednesday was the worst, she just could not get comfortable. She didn't want to play or be set down. She just wanted me to hold her so that is what I did. Yesterday she was much better with a little pain here and there. She has been up lots at night with this tooth though because the pain from it wakes her up. So bless her little heart, she is still sleeping this morning.

McKenzie is crawling all over the place now and has already unwrapped 3 presents that are not hers! She loves to pull the bows off the presents under the tree and chew on them! She is so funny! She also has started to pull up now. McKenzie pulls up on anything that is still long enough so that she can stand, including Baxter! Baxter has been so good to her, he just stands there and lets her pull his fur until she is standing and then he stands ever so still until she falls over and then he licks her as if to say..."Good Job!" Then McKenzie claps for herself and laughs!

I have started to give McKenzie some "real" food here and there. She seems to be over baby food. She doesn't really eat much of it any more. So, I thought what could it hurt. She loves mashed potatoes, crackers, and even will eat a real banana! My girl who eats NO fruit from a jar loves the real thing! Can you blame her?

We have another busy weekend planned. We are off to Jason's grandparents new house for the night. Jason and I have his work Christmas Party tonight so his grandparents will be watching McKenzie. Tomorrow we have Christmas at their house with the whole family. It will be fun! Granny is such a good cook! This Sunday we have our amazing service about Christ's birth at church. We look forward to that each year! Sunday afternoon McKenzie's friend Brock is having his 2nd birthday so we are off to a party for him! Sunday night we have Christmas with our friends Erin and Jason. What a busy but fun weekend we have ahead of us!

We hope that all of you are enjoying is wonderful time of year!

What a Big Day!

Well it is offical...McKenzie is now crawling!!! She has mastered the skill as of this morning! She can get up and go! She is so cute...a little woman on a mission. When she sees something and wants it...she goes and gets it!

We have been checking her mouth everyday for a tooth and nothing. This morning was kind of a rush around the house and I was trying to get ready to go and get her ready and I did not check her mouth this morning. I took McKenzie to Uncle Brian and Aunt Amber's house for the night because we are having a Christmas party at our house tonight. I was getting off of our exit from coming home when my cell phone rang and it was my mom. She is also at Brian's and so is my Dad. So, I said hello and my mom in a very enthusiastic voice said..."Did you know that McKenzie has a tooth?" I said "What?" So, low and behold the one day that I do not check, of course is the day that her little tooth grows in. I am very excited to see it tomorrow when my parents bring her home! I'll post pictures when she returns!

So all in one day she has mastered crawling and has a tooth!! :)

8 Months Old

Today McKenzie Grace is 8 Months old. We can't even believe how fast time has go by. She is still not crawling yet but rolls all over and sits up when she gets where she wants to go. She is making all kinds of noises and still sings to herself when she gets really tired. As of yesterday she claps. She thinks it is so funny that she can make a noise so she claps and then laughs and then claps some more. It is so cute! McKenzie has loved our house being decorated for Christmas. She rolls under the tree and pulls the bows off the presents and eats them. She does not bother the tree at all. She loves to look at the lights on the tree. McKenzie is also still toothless! She smiles all the time and is such a great baby! She is so much fun to be with and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to stay home everyday and raise her.

A Fun Weekend and a New Trick

Hey everyone! We hope all is well with you! We had a very fun weekend! We spent Friday night in Heflin, AL with Jason's cousins and great grandmother. That would be McKenzie's Great, Great Grandmother...how cool is that! We had a super fun dinner of junky, snack foods and then exchanged presents! We had a great time!

Saturday morning I took McKenzie to a local church where our friend Katie Henry is in charge of the children's department. Katie organized a Whoville for all the children. She did an amazing job! It was really like walking into a Dr. Suess book. There was everything there to do. You could get your hair done Whoville style, listen to Mrs. Claus read Christmas stories, take pictures with Santa, make nativity scenes, and tons of more activities. It was so fun! Way to go Katie, you're the best!

Saturday afternoon we took McKenzie to Stone Mountain for A Stone Mountain Christmas. Our friends Brad, Brooke, and Brock went with us. We had a really good time! We saw The Polar Express in 4-D!! It was really cool! Poor Jason had to stand outside with the screaming McKenzie while the rest of us enjoyed snow falling on our heads, mist spraying in our faces, and our seats moving! We rode the train around the mountain and they played Christmas carols as we rode. We ate yummy funnel cakes, kettle corn, and drank hot chocolate. It was beginning to get dark so we claimed a front row seat for the Christmas parade. After that we headed to the car because it was so cold outside.

Sunday we went to church and hung out around the house the rest of the day!

As of today McKenzie has a new trick...she now claps all by herself! It is so cute! She claps a little bit and then laughs at herself and the funny noise that she can now make. It is just amazing how fast she is growing.

The white house at Stone Mountain

There were so many lights! It was beautiful!

Santa's float from behind

Santa saying "I love you!"

Here comes Mr. and Mrs. Claus

The train in the parade

LIGHTS!!

More lights!

Still more lights!!

All different colors of lights

Brock, Brad, and Brooke

Daddy and McKenzie looking out the train window.

Riding the train

Eating on the train!

The pretty tree going into the 4-D Polar Express!

Decorating sugar cookies!

Jason-the snow angel!

The gingerbread house!

Jason on the Jazzy!

Stone Mountain

McKenzie all wrapped up...it was so cold out!

McKenzie and her great, great grandmother...very cool!