McKynzie 7 Months and Thanksgiving

I'm a little late on McKynzie's 7 months last week, but it was Thanksgiving so we're lucky I took pictures at all.

She is a mover and a wiggler. She scoots on her tummy all over the place and is much quicker than you think. She is starting to try harder to get her tummy of the floor but she forgets to move her hands and so just falls on her face. But she is getting there. While I am excited to watch her learn, I don't really think we are ready for a crawler.

She still is not a great sleeper, getting up at least twice a night. And if anyone but mommy comes in to comfort her she just yells louder. If we let her yell too loud she wakes up Josslyn who will never go back to sleep so I'm just used to being quick and grabbing her. Fortunately she just wants to eat and go back to sleep.

She doesn't really have much interest in baby food. She's just kind of like, eh...whatever. So we're working on mommy not being the only one who feeds her.

She really is the happiest kid. She loves to smile and play. She is always quick to giggle and scrunch up her nose and smile big at you. She loves to wave and play with Josslyn.

Last week was also Thanksgiving which is by far my most favorite holiday. I just had to make my girls matching outfits and they looked pretty cute if I do say so myself. Josslyn wasn't feeling great that day and so was kind of grumpy, but we all still managed to eat a lot of food so I'd call that a success.

We put up our Christmas tree this weekend also and so far McKynzie is doing great! She really likes to look at it and smile at the lights. She hasn't grabbed too much at it and I think she is doing better than Josslyn who keeps taking things off and running around singing Jingle Bell Rock. I don't have much experience with a mobile baby at Christmas, Josslyn was one at her second Christmas and was much more interested in the presents underneath, so it will be interesting to see how a baby reacts to everything.

Tiny Dancer

We went to Josslyn's dance class yesterday to see what she's been learning. It was really great to watch her and loved seeing how much fun she was having. Obviously this is where my money will go for the rest of my life, and I'm totally fine with it. Here are a few videos. Kind of long, but totally worth it.

 

We love seeing what she's learning, and love how much she loves it!

Birthdays and Halloween

McKynzie has turned 6 months! I can't believe she is half a year old! And like a good mom I totally forgot until the day after. Rock on.

She weighed 16 lbs. 11 oz. and was 27 inches long at her appointment on the 29th. She is growing great! She is one of the happiest babies I know. We are starting to work on sleeping through the night. She really wants to eat still at night, and while I'm happy to do so if she is really hungry, I would love an extra hour of sleep at night or even (gasp!) 6-7 hours straight.

We have started her on a few foods, but she mostly seems interested in playing rather than actually eating anything, so this might take a while, but since she's so happy and growing great, I have little concern about solids until she really wants them.

Last week was my mom's 50th birthday so of course we threw a party!

We had a great time and I'm glad it came together so well. I hope my mom enjoyed having a few old faces there. I hope she knows how much I appreciate her as a mom and (as I've had kids) a friend and advice giver! She's one great lady!

The first picture at the top is one we've wanted to do for a while but kept forgetting so we made sure this time. It's four generations of girls. We don't have a lot of girls on the Gadd side, so we had to get a picture of the line from my mom's mom, my mom, me and my girls. I'm the ONLY ONE with just girls, everybody else has boys!

Last of all, Happy Halloween! I am not a fan of the holiday, but Josslyn is clearly enthralled. She LOVED LOVED getting to dress as a princess all day. She was so excited that she didn't eat a single piece of candy! She just wanted to walk around being Elsa, and she took the role seriously. I had to call her Elsa all day, she referred to Kynzie as Tinker Belle and she swirled her dress and sang songs to her heart's content.

Kynzie loved being in her stroller and seeing all the people and smiling at everyone. She didn't really care for candy obviously or even her outfit. But was excited that Josslyn was excited.

Nate has been gone for much of October for different conferences and trips. He was gone for something like 18 or 19 days out of the last like 30. He missed out on Halloween, so we took a lot of pictures for the prince. So we are so glad to have him back home with us. By the last couple of days Josslyn was really struggling to be good and her nursery teacher even commented that Josslyn sure has some ants in her pants! She missed her daddy and didn't like him being gone for so long. I really hope we can give her some one on one time soon before the holidays start so she knows we aren't trying to ignore her and that daddy still loves her even though he had to be gone for so long.

Now on the holiday season! I love this time of year and especially Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to including McKynzie on all the traditions we have started with Josslyn and maybe start some new things! Happy holidays!

Parades and the Zoo

Last weekend was so busy and Josslyn had the time of her life. The USU Homecoming Parade was in the morning, and if there is two things Josslyn loves it's parades and the Aggies.

Then we went to Boo at the Zoo at Willow Park. Josslyn got to wear her Elsa dress and was in Princess Heaven. Not only were there about 30 other Elsa's but many other princesses as well. As soon as she saw one she'd yell and say 'I have to go see ____ (insert princess name here)!' and then she'd run up to whatever princess it was and say 'Hi ___(insert princess name) it's me Elsa! Let's play!' It was hilarious. And if Kynzie was nearby, she'd say 'This is Tinker Bell.'

Kynzie lasted about 15 minutes in her outfit before she pooped all over it. Good thing I'm a mom who carries extra clothes around at all times. There were games and animals and fun craft activities. It was so fun!

That night was an Aggie Football game. It was a late game, so I knew we wouldn't last the whole time, but Josslyn would never forgive us if we didn't go. So off we went.

The surefire way to get Josslyn to wear a hat is to get one with snowflakes on it and tell her it's an Elsa hat. Wouldn't take it off. She normally hates them and I have to strap it on so she won't take it off (obviously so it won't mess us up her hair), but she loved this one I found with snowflakes just like Elsa. (Can you tell we are a little Frozen obsessed over here?)

Also, once again in my life I had to explain football rules to the boy sitting behind me. I think I made him feel bad as he was obviously trying to impress the girl he was with, but I didn't want her to be confused. I'm nice like that.

Nate is off on multiple trips the next few weeks, and will sadly miss Halloween, so it'll just be the three girls for a while. I'm going to need to nap for like two days when he gets back. Wish us luck!

Sleeping

This is a picture of a girl who only slept 4 hours last night...

I won't show you a picture of me with that much sleep, because it's not near as cute. McKynzie is trying really hard to crawl this week. She can scoot a little bit and she yells hysterically while she does it. Seems like if she would quit yelling she'd have a whole lot more energy and focus to scoot across the floor, but I'm not really complaining. She has not been sleeping so good the last little while. Naps are almost non-existent. I've tried many ways to get her to sleep, but no matter what I do the sleep doesn't last. I feel terrible for two reasons. 1: she obviously is not getting enough sleep, and 2: Josslyn is unfortunately been left to her own devices a lot because I have to spend so much time helping McKynzie. Hopefully I can figure out the sleep thing, but if not then Josslyn is definitely going to need some one on one time to make sure she knows I'm not trying to ignore her on purpose.

Josslyn has decided what everyone will be for Halloween. She wants to be Elsa (of course) and even though there will be a million other girls dressed as Elsa, I'm really excited for her because she is SO excited about it. She has a ton of hair so I won't have to get her a wig and it'll be adorable. Josslyn has decided that McKynzie will be Tinker Bell. Which is convenient as that is what Josslyn was for her first Halloween. I in no way suggested this to her seeing as how I already have the costume, but I readily jumped on board. I'm supposed to be Belle. As in with a big fluffy yellow dress. I don't think that is really going to turn out well...

McKynzie Month-by-Month

This is McKynzie at the hospital. Probably not even a day old.

This is her going home outfit. Josslyn has a matching one that says Big Sister. This was way to small for her. But I made her wear it anyway. They were going to match dang it!

My mom came to help for a bit and she was about 2 weeks old here. And entirely comfortable wherever.

One month old!

Two months old!

Three months old!

Four months old! (Note how she continues to get more wiggly.)

Five months old! She kept taking the sticker off her belly. It was very annoying.

McKynzie's Birth Story

At our last doctor appointment the Wednesday before Easter, our doc made a joke that he had to teach Sunday School on Easter and he'd rather not, so he was hoping to get a call Sunday morning that I was in labor. But it was not to be. I didn't feel huge, but I was extremely uncomfortable and ready for the pregnancy to be over. We celebrated my birthday on Saturday and Easter on Sunday. By Monday, which was our due date, I was totally ready for the pregnancy to be over and hoped that a lot of walking on Monday would do the trick. Monday night I was feeling some contractions, but they didn't every get too close. But I decided to sleep on the couch instead because I just couldn't get comfortable in the bed. I had contractions all night about every 20 ish minutes. I felt much better pushing through them this time than I ever did with Josslyn.

In the morning they were about 8-10 minutes apart, so I woke Nate up at about 8 a.m. and told him to get started, get dressed and ready to go and we would see where we were at. After getting Josslyn up and dressed and fed, and the rest of us dressed, fed, and packed, we headed to Nate's parents to drop off Josslyn. In the car the contractions slowed down a lot and I was pretty disappointed and worried that I would be sent home, but we decided that since it was already 10 a.m. and Nate obviously wasn't going to work, we would head in anyway. They still were pretty slow all the way in to the hospital but since I was a day after my due date they went ahead and admitted me anyway. After getting settled, they checked me to see if I was progressing any, and I didn't expect any at all, but the nurse announced I was already at 4 cm!

I was so surprised! They then ordered my epidural and we only had to wait about 30 minutes for him to come in. I have been really blessed (especially after hearing MANY horror stories) to have two really excellent epidurals. I could still feel the pressure, but was not uncomfortable. I could still lift my bum and move my legs. It was wonderful. I felt totally present in the moments of my children's birth because I wasn't totally bent over in pain, but wasn't so numb that I couldn't participate in what was happening. From this point it was a waiting game. My doctor came in at about noon and broke my water and I was at about 5-6 cm then. After he left things really moved quickly. The nurse came in to check on us about every hour and kept telling me the other nurses had told her to turn down my pitocin because it was obviously too high if my contractions were going that crazy and she kept having to tell them that I wasn't on any! This baby was just ready to come!

When my doctor had come to break my water he joked that he was sad he'd had to teach Sunday School, but he had a board meeting that day at 3:30 so I could make it up to him by getting him out of that instead. Well at about 3:20 I started to feel a lot of pressure. The nurse came and checked me and I was at a 10 and ready to go! She called my doc, who was happy to skip a meeting and come over to us instead! He came in at about 3:30 and I started pushing and baby girl slipped right out at 3:38 pm!

She was so big! I knew she would be bigger than Josslyn, but she was about a pound and a half bigger than her sister! She weighed in at 8 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long. All of us were surprised at how I had been able to keep this big girl in me. I also realized that all the adorable newborn size outfits I brought for her to wear were NOT going to fit her. But we were happy to have her, and quickly! And glad I hadn't changed my mind about going in when the contractions slowed down in the car. From start of really active labor to birth was only about 7 hours. I have said a lot since then that I if raising kids were as easy as my pregnancies and especially this delivery had been, I'd have a whole bunch.

We love our two girls to the moon. They are happy and beautiful. They are so smart and we love having a house of princesses and pink! We have frequently heard how much McKynzie looks like Nathan and Josslyn has always looked just like me, so looks like we have one of each of us!

The Laursens

It's been a really long time since I've published on this blog, but I would really like to keep up on the blog, if nothing else than to just to be able to remember these things about my babies when they were young.

Currently we live in Logan. Nathan is working for Utah State, and though he is busy and it takes him from home a lot more than we would all like, I think he really likes working there. He likes the people he works with and he likes working with the students and helping them learn and do better. He likes when he goes somewhere and works hard to improve something and I think that he has done that here.

I am busy being a mom. I love being able to stay home with my girls. It's really hard and some days I count down until bed time so it's quiet, but I love being a mom. I love watching them grow and learn. I love seeing how smart they are and watching them figure every little thing out. I feel bad when I sit in my pajamas until 3 pm, but who doesn't do that?!

Josslyn will be turning 3 soon and I just love how smart she is. She is so quick to catch on to things, and remembers every little detail of everything you ever tell her. Which obviously is hard sometimes when she remembers things you don't really want her to, but I wouldn't change how smart she is for a second. She recently started a ballet class, which is literally the light of her whole week. She loves going to see her teacher and it really is amazing to watch her shriek with excitement when Thursday rolls around. She has always loved singing and dancing. She knows more words to songs than I do and can memorize songs and dance moves like it's nothing. She continues to surprise us everyday with how articulate she is, how smart she is, how outgoing she is, and how much she loves life! She is especially a really good big sister. I definitely believe the oldest are meant to be because they naturally have this amazing ability to look out for their siblings. She doesn't love sharing her toys, but I think this is mostly because McKynzie is a baby who slobbers all over everything and Josslyn says "that's gross mom, SPIT!" Now the next challenge is potty training, which of course, she is smart enough to realize she'd rather wear diapers and not worry about having to take a break from toys or playing to go to the bathroom.

McKynzie just turned 5 months old. Despite a recent inability to stay asleep, she is really the joy of everyone's lives. She is so happy. Loves to smile and play and gets really mad when you leave her in a room by herself. Wherever you are going. McKynzie has to go to. Where Josslyn was my tiny, petite little baby, McKynzie is my chunker. She continues to grow like crazy and is so much bigger than Josslyn ever was. In fact she wore a dress to church the other day that I'm pretty sure Josslyn wore when she was about a year old. She can roll all over, she loves to sleep on her belly in particular. She is starting to sit on her own, she usually does much better when she has something to hold on to, but falls over when she tries to look around. She'd really love to crawl. When something is out of reach, she lays on her belly and yells at it until someone comes and pushes it closer. She is starting to push off things with her feet so crawling is not far behind!

Our family is so blessed. And even though sometimes we are not sure what path to take or what things to do with our lives, we know we are trying hard and our happy girls make it all worth the struggles we face.

Hopefully I'll keep better track of our lives. I know there are little things that I would like to remember that I never will unless I take a picture and write it down!