MacKay-grams - February

Suzy says, "I love you" Sounds more like "Ah hhyooo!"

Valentines Cookies! Yum!

I am so grateful that Jason and the guys muscled this piano to the little nook upstairs.  I love this little space for my lessons and my desk.

 I only have two beginner piano students and one voice student, but I am hoping for more!

"Mom, look at my earrings!"

We are stylin' now! Ow! Ow!

Every now and then, I get five-for-five asleep!  I think the flash woke up Brookie.

We love playing at the park in January in Vegas!  Suzy thinks she's every bit as big as the other kids.

Springs Preserve with the Nielsen and Bunn families!  Springs Preserve had a super sweet deal in February so we decided to go for it!  Love these kiddos!

It's garden time!  We can only do a few pots on the porch this year, but I am determined to get some basil!  Hopefully the tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, and beans grow too!

February 2016

Happy Valentine's Day!

I like starting traditions with my family.  For Valentine's I like to wake up early and make a special breakfast for Drew and the kids before school.  We use a real tablecloth, fancy dishes and everyone receives a valentine from mom.  It may seem simple but I try to make it special too. 

This year Drew was on shift at the fire station on Valentine's day so we decided to celebrate early.  We farmed out the kids and I prepared a special overnight date for Drew.  We went out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and then I surprised him with a night at the Hampton Inn!  It was a wonderful respite from home and the family and the routine.

Just in time for Valentine's day - I got my new ring back.  If you hadn't heard, I had my wedding ring re-done.  I absolutely LOVED my 1st ring, but it snagged on everything, I lost a stone, and was constantly getting it repaired.  So I went to a jeweler friend of mine and she helped me redesign my ring to fix these issues AND add Drew's wedding band to mine.  (He doesn't wear his for safety reasons= fire.)

Well, I think it turned out beautiful!  It is very similar to my 1st ring, but still different and unique too.  I love it!

Ava continues to be a straight A student.  In Activity Days they completed this adorable activity.  I was asked to submit a few words that describe Ava, and then the other girls in her group also wrote down what they think of her.  It was all put on this board to display all of Ava's wonderful attributes! She really is Be-You-Tiful! 

Brycen is still in Taekwondo and he LOVES it!  He has been working hard and has passed off over half of the requirements needed to move up to the next level: Yellow Belt.  I am loving the confidence and excitement that I see coming out of this kid.  It is a great program!

Suzy is TWO!

MY BABY IS TWO!!

Here are a few stats:

Nickname: Zuzu

Favorite food: Candy! I try to keep her from it but she is such a sugar hound!

Weight: About 24lbs. Still such a tweety bird!  I used to call her my"handbag baby" because she loves to be carried and I could just hug her in one arm like a handbag-- I still can, but she is getting heavier. 

Favorite toy:  Baby doll and her Mo-mos- monkey blankets 

Favorite thing at the Park:  Slides; she likes swings too, but slides definitely take the cake

First words: Mommy, Daddy, tee-too (thank you), Da (that), Joo (juice, shoes), My(mine, me, my name is Suzy)

Favorite accessory: Suzy is a shoes girl!

Gateway Ward - White Elephant Dinner & Gift Exchange

This is the BEST party of the year!!  I was soooo excited to go!  This year they did a "progressive dinner" going from room to room in the church for different courses.  Each room was decorated as a different country.  Then the party began -- it did not disappoint!   We laughed sooo hard.  I think my favorite goofy gift of the evening was the "breif" case--hahaha!!  It ended up going to a lawyer in the ward!

MacKay-grams - January

Dance party! Awwwww yeah!  We love to just turn on Pandora and go for it!

I love the pure kid joy on these faces.  January Vegas weather is the best-- plus I've gotta rub it in to those people enjoying their tundra--hahahaha!

Coloring at Bella's house.  Auntie Shannon does preschool, so she has some sweet butcher paper to color on when preschool is over!

 This Brookie-girl LOVES  the swings!  We will spend over an hour at the park, and she will spend 90% of that on the swings.  Brookie is also very proud to be able to pump herself!  Love this face!

 January at the park ROCKS!

 

I love it when these two play together.  They have a magic that is all their own.  Notice Brooklynn's outfit.  It is one of her favorites, and one of my least favorites (it actually looks kinda cute in this picture, but trust me it's funky.)  So, we made a deal-- I call it her "pirate princess" dress-up and she can only wear it in the house-- she changes out of her clothes and into dress-ups mulitple times daily.  

January 2016

The 1st month of the year is already over and it's been a busy month for sure!

It all started with my birthday.  Drew surprised me with a fancy night out to Barbacoa.  It is a Mexican/Argentine restaurant and it is A-MAZ-ING!  I'm talking juicy, mouthwatering, and light it on fire amazing!  That's right, fire was involved.  It was so delicious...drool.

Inside Barbacoa - this is one of the many chandeliers throughout the restaurant.

Ava had an exciting month.  DeAnna nominated Ava for an "Incredible Kid" to the radio station and... she won!  

Ava won tickets to Wahooz Fun Zone, donuts from Krispy Kreme and a Pizza Party for her entire class at school.  She was so surprised!  The radio called us at 6:30 in the morning to break the news and then played the interview on the radio.   Ava was so shy on the phone but when she hung up she did a happy dance and I knew the shock had worn off.  Thank you Grandma for such a special surprise.

Then last week, Ava and I had the unique opportunity to go skiing at Bogus Basin with her school.  Every year the school takes the 4th and 5th graders to ski night where they receive 2 hours of instruction and then 3 more hours of free play on the slopes.  This little fireball did awesome!  She looked like she had no fear and went zipping down this mountain with no problems!  I'm a proud momma!

A special 'Thank You' to my mom for watching the boys while Ava and went skiing and Drew was on shift.  They had a blast with Nana!

Ava and her best friend Clara

Carter is potty trained!  I have been trying for months with no long-term success.  He would usually try it for a day and them quit, with absolutely no interest in continuing.  So finally, I decided to take away the diapers and put him in underwear.  I resolved to ask him every hour on the hour if he needed to go potty, and somehow it worked.  He didn't need bribes or rewards.  He just decided he was "big enough" and that was it.  It took about a week and a half to make it a regular thing, but now I don't even have to remind him.  He just goes #1 and #2 on his own.  He does need some help with the finer points like wiping, and I haven't let him go overnight without a pull-up yet, but he is doing an amazing job! 

The look on his face is a mix between excitement and worry!

On January 26th, Drew celebrated 1 year with the Star Fire Dept!  It has flown by and we couldn't be prouder of our firefighter!  

Finally, Brycen has started taking Tae Kwon Do lessons.  He loves it.  I love watching him.  When he started he was so quiet and shy, but now he is loud and confident and having so much fun.  I think this class will be really good for him.

Whew!  It has been a busy month.

Gratitude - The Generous One

I originally wrote this last December after listening to Elder Uchtdorf's Christmas Devotional talk about the background of the song "Carol of the Bells" or as he called it, "The Generous One."

It's been a whirlwind these past few months.  I plan on back-dating this post, along with several others that should have been posted over the holidays.  But I thought it might be something everyone would enjoy now too.

In October we found out that our time at the Huntington house was up.  It literally sold overnight, we scrambled to find a new place, Jason's sister Shannon led us to the perfect house -- across the street from her!, Mom and Dad gave up their Thanksgiving so that Mom could help me move, Jason's business license FINALLY came through, and so many other amazing things have happened.

Truly the Lord's timing is evident in our lives.  The place Shannon found just happened to be recently vacant as we were looking for a new home.  Along with that, she found us a bajillion boxes from someone in her ward who had moved and didn't need them, and a lady I had barely met in my ward offered us a ton of bubble wrap!

So many wonderful friends came to help us pack, and helped watch my kids-- the Schwuracks, Kacey Nielsen, Sister Preston, and of course the new and old ward families.  I was amazed at how many people -- many of whom we didn't even know-- showed up with trucks, trailers, and hands to help us move.  Then, Mom and Dawn and Sid unloaded my kitchen and put together beds.

Mom was my sanity!  She helped me organize, kept me laughing, and even helped put up my Christmas tree before she left.  How grateful am I for this generous one in my life!

After a little over a YEAR of jumping through hoops, waiting, and praying, our company's Contractor's License FINALLY came to pass in January.  Just then, we also got a great job in Mesquite for a whole complex of bathroom updates.  Jason worked non-stop for the month of January.  This entrepreneurship things is a roller-coaster, but I have hope and faith.  We will keep working hard and we'll find the way we're supposed to go.

More recently, I really wanted a kitchen table that all of our family could fit around-- we had been making do with a card table and my little - seats four- cherry table.  I have been combing craigslist and just finding nada, when I decided to post on a "Fancy Ladies"-- a Facebook page Shannon invited me to that basically connects the RS women of our new ward.  I simply said that if anyone had an old table they wanted to sell, we were interested-- figured so long as it was the right size we could always have Jacob put a corian top on it.  Just so happens, a gal who is sort related by marriage to Jason's aunt had gotten a new table and was getting rid of hers.  She offered to give it to us free!!  I still slipped her cash, but again -- timing -- generosity -- gratitude.  It's truly amazing sometimes.  For the first time since we only had two kids, I can sit at dinner and see all of family's faces.  Love it.


I have a testimony that the Lord knows us and loves us.  He cares about our needs and our wants and blessings are around every corner when we have eyes to see.  He truly is the Generous One.

MacKay-grams - December

Putting up the kid's tree.  They love it!  However, I think we did have quite a few broken ornaments by the end this time.  Suzy figured out that if she ripped the little balls off the tree, her fingers would fit right into the holes left by the hanger parts still clinging to the tree.  Oh well!

Suzy loves boots-- especially Brooklynn's boots.  *CLOMP! CLOMP! CLOMP!*

Per Mom's fun suggestions, Jasper had some fun this year.  He hid in the utensil drawer, was found hanging out in the fridge, etc.  I have to say this chess game with Spiderman was my favorite though. 

Crafty Christmas gifts.  I saw this on Pinterest and couldn't resist making one for Mylie and Brynlee.  It hangs on the front of bunkbeds to make a cute fort.  The boys helped me pick out fun buttons to put as the middles of the flowers.

Sugar cookies = Sugar high!

Brookie makes funny faces!

I was so excited to receive this invitation to go caroling with some members of the Gateway Ward.  The tradition we started lives on!  It was such a joy to connect with friends and visit some sweet people--like Quinn Baysinger in her bedazzled hat!

Bravo Jakey!  Playing piano at the Galleria Mall!

After-piano-dinner at..... Costco!  

You almost see Susan's eye's dilate with the sugar.....mmmmm.... soda!  

I've taken to calling her Zuzu lately.  I think it fits her sweet spunky personality and I like that I remember the classic "It's a Wonderful Life" whenever I call her.  

We LOVE living so close to our cousins!!!!  Every so often Shannon and I do a kid-exchange.  Playdough continues to be one of our favorite things!

Cannot get over the cuteness of this girly girl!  I know I take way too many pictures of her, but I can't help it.  She's my last one and I just have to squeeze all the goodness I can from these sweet moments!

Had some fun being creative with a birthday present for Landon Takos's party.  I've been wanting to experiment with making "gak" with borax and elmer's glue, and I found some other cool science experiments online.  So, I got all the stuff, threw in some safety goggles, and voila!

Did you know that Krispy Kreme will award a donut for every A on your child's report card?!?!

First donut.  I think Suzy is a fan!

A while back I posted about toys that are special to my kids.  At the time, I put the monkey-blanket as a hopeful for Suzy.  Turns out, I was right!  She now insists on sleeping with both of them and calls them "Mo-mo."  Adorable.

The Jolley Christmas Party was pretty tame this year.  We had a lovely dinnner, Pauline's great-grandkids sang a song, the grandkids sang a song, and we tied quilts for a charity organization.  It was so nice just to talk and catch up with everyone.  So grateful to be a part of this family.

We opened a few presents from Grandma and Grandpa MacKay early this year.  Brooklynn was OVER THE MOON about her Princess Elsa dress, shoes, and crown!  Love this little girl!

So grateful my kids are good travelers.  

This is what Brook and Ethan did to stay entertained on our way to Boise

-- Hiding in their pillow cases!  Boo!!  Haha!  

This was probably the most incident-free trip we've had yet-- only one barf--yay!

This is what I did to stay entertained on our way to Boise.

We drew Avery and Teancum for Christmas this year, so I made them each a cute hat!

.  However, I just couldn't stop there!  And with 24+ hours of driving to Boise and back, I had to do something.... so I made Lincoln a Mike Wazowski had, and Shauna's new baby Ryker got the Star Trek insignia (soooo tempted to put #1 or commander on it too, but that's too much stitching for me!)

The Baker clan was only here for a couple of days after Christmas, so we made the most of it! 

Bowling with cousins! STRIKE!