Happy 1st Birthday McKenzie Grace

Today McKenzie turned 1! We cannot believe how fast the year has flown by. Today we went to the Zoo to celebrate her 1st birthday! It was so much fun! She loved every minute of it. She was not afraid of any of the animals. In fact she waved to all of them! She just waved her little arm off. She only slept for about 2o minutes of the entire trip, not wanting to miss a thing! She had a wonderful 1st birthday. McKenzie got tons of phone calls today to wish her a happy birthday! We are looking forward to years and years of birthdays with McKenzie!

A quick picture with the Birthday Girl!

Waiting in line to get into the Zoo

Strolling along

Just for you Jeff!!

Daddy and McKenzie looking at the rhino.

McKenzie and Daddy

McKenzie and Mommy

The Gorillas

Loving all the animals

Too much Zoo!

McKenzie and her new Panda!

The Last 12 Months

April 9, 2008-One year ago today!

1 Month- McKenzie is wearing my dress from when I was baby!

McKenzie has always been a smiling little baby!

2 Months-McKenzie and Tate at the beach, McKenzie sleeping with

Uncle Jeffrey, and the last picture is the face that

McKenzie would make when she was waking up!

3 Months-McKenzie loved the Bumbo seat!

4 Months-I love ewe outfit- used for grandparent's day

pictures and rice cereal for the first time!

5 Months-McKenzie got to eat baby food for the first time!
Sweet peas were her very first food.

6 Months- McKenzie was a chicken for her first Halloween!

Then McKenzie dressed as Mrs. Claus for Nana's

Christmas open house. Tate was Santa!

7 Months-McKenzie loved to get into the Christmas presents under the tree. McKenzie can now sit up! This is McKenzie and her great-great grandmother. (Jason's great-grandmother) Amazing!

8 Months-McKenzie could hold her own bottle!

9 Months-McKenzie loves her rocking horse!

10 Months Old-Playing at Cousin Tate's 1st Birthday Party!

11 Months Old-McKenzie loves books!

April 9, 2009- 1 Year Old Today!

5 Steps

Hey everyone! I just wanted to brag on Kenzie! Last night Jason and I were in the playroom with her and she walked 5 steps from him to me! We were going crazy clapping and cheering for her so she decided that she had done something really good and turned right around and walked the 5 steps back to him! It was so exciting! I just wanted to update you on her walking progress! Have a great rest of the week!

Our Little Cupcake is Turning 1!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to share with you about McKenzie's special day today! First of all, we cannot believe that she is already about to turn 1 on the 9th. This year has just flown by. She has just grown and grown and grown from a little 7 lbs. 13 oz. to a healthy 21.6! She had an amazing 1st birthday party today. She was surrounded by all her family and some wonderful friends as well that we consider "family!" In the middle of her celebration we got a very exciting phone call from Africa! Uncle Jeffrey never misses a beat! He was right on time and got to speak to everyone here. It was wonderful to hear from him!


McKenzie's birthday was a cupcake theme and everyone went all out with it! It was so much fun! Grandma Norton had a cupcake painted on her nail when she had her nails done and Katie had a cupcake painted on her check from a kids program this morning! McKenzie had lots of presents wrapped in cupcake paper and cupcake gift bags as well. It was really fun to have a theme!


I made McKenzie a giant cupcake and let her have at it. At first she just looked at me as if to say, can I really have this? She just poked it at first and then she just dug her little hands right inside the middle of the cupcake! It was everywhere! Then she ran her fingers through her hair! Some of the cupcake ended up on the floor. It was so funny to watch. She did such a great job of devouring her special cake!


Enjoy the pictures to follow and have a great rest of the weekend!







Katie and her present to McKenzie...the "M" place set!

This was not today but I thought it was too cute not to post!



This one too!

Birthday decor!

Presents Galore!


McKenzie eating her 1st birthday lunch

Ms. Ellen and her sweet daughter Hattie


McKenzie and more lunch!


McKenzie playing catch with Jason and John Russell


Erin, Jason, and Lobello...what great family friends!

Cousin Tate is loving lunch!

McKenzie and her balloon string!
Again

The dessert counter


More desserts!


Even more!

McKenzie's giant cupcake!

McKenzie and her waiting for her cupcake and wondering what is that song that everyone is singing to me!

Ohhhh it was so good!

Yum!


Some even ended up on the floor!


Eating the icing off of her fingers!



Singing about how good this cupcake is and how fun it is to play in!



Gettin' tired...no nap today! Look at what a good job she did with her cupcake!

McKenzie's new sun hat from the Slocumbs!

Opening presents

Cousin Tate is helping too!

Family pic of the day!



Fighting over the present from Hattie! It was a huge hit!


Opening up Uncle Jeffrey's present...he sent this from Africa!


It's a chair from Uncle Jeffrey! It is just McKenzie's size and she LOVES it!!

These are the cupcake decorations that I painted for the party!

All the painted cupcakes

Dog Food

Well...I knew it would happen some time. McKenzie is so intrigued by Baxter's food and water bowls. She likes to pick them up and dump the water out! So, Baxter's dishes stay on the counter most of the time. However, last night I was trying to make dinner and McKenzie was sitting on the floor in front of the refrigerator playing with her letter magnets. I fed Baxter and went back to make dinner. I looked up and McKenzie had crawled so quickly across the room to Baxter food dish that I did not even see her move. Her sweet little mouth was just a chewing! Not only did she have a piece of his dog food in her mouth but, both of her hands were squeezed tightly shut with handfuls of food also. Baxter was just eating what was left in his bowl. So needless to say, I had to pry open her hands and give Baxter his food back and then finger sweep her mouth for the last piece. Yummy! Oh... she is a funny girl!

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today I was completely huge and expecting the arrival our first child. We still had no idea if it was a boy or girl and we could not wait to meet this little baby! Would we have a Jackson or a McKenzie? Also a year ago today as I am huge pregnant with swollen feet at school I get a call from the office that I need to call Jason on his cell phone right away. I knew it must be urgent because teachers are not really "allowed" to step out of their rooms to use the phone. So, I called him right away and with all the fear of God in my voice I said, "What is wrong?" He replied with a "Nothing...I just sold my truck today and I need you to come to work and pick me up and we are going to buy a new truck tonight." I thought I was going to go through the phone and then I thought it was an April Fool's Day joke. First of all, I had no idea his truck was up for sale. We had talked about how he wanted a 4 door truck for when the baby came so he/she could ride in his car if needed but that was the last I heard of it. Jason had put his truck up for sale on the Internet and someone wanted to buy it. They drove to his office and paid cash for the truck and drove it home that day! I was not excited about this at all. I had a baby due in 3 days...April 4th and my response was, what if I had called you and told you to meet me at the hospital it was time? He said he would have gotten there somehow! All in all it turned out very well. Jason has a very nice truck that did come in handy having 4 doors so McKenzie can ride. I also got Arby's and Krispy Kreme out of that deal! Any day could end well with a dozen of Krispy Kreme donuts!

It is just so amazing to me what a difference one year makes. Now our little baby girl is about to be one in just 8 days. (April 9th) It is just so funny to think that one year ago today we still had no idea what this baby was and now she is almost one. She is so close to walking it is not even funny. She just needs the confidence and she could do it. She will take about 2 or 3 steps and then realize what she is doing and sit down. She is talking all the time now and sings as well. She has the best little personality and is truly just a blessing to us. She is in that in between stage of eating. Some "real" food she likes and other times she just wants her rice cereal. She is drinking whole milk now with her meals but still has a formula bottle at night. (That will last until the formula is gone and that will be whole milk as well!) Whole milk is so much cheaper! McKenzie has really started to wave! She waves at everything and anything that she sees! I have started to only let her have her pacifiers when she sleeps. So when her naps are over I tell her to drop her pacifier into the crib and she does and then she waves to it! It is so so cute! Same thing in the mornings! She goes for her one year check up on the 14th of April. I will report all the stats then.

We are getting so very excited about McKenzie's first birthday party on Saturday! We are going to celebrate on her due date! Her party is a cupcake theme! It should be lots of fun!

We hope that you all have a wonderful week and weekend and I will update again soon! Happy April Fool's Day! :)