18 Months

Where has the time gone?! 

McKay is already 18 months old. 

Some of McKay's favorites right now:

Food: Mac and Cheese- GRAPES. He loves grapes

Game: He loves taking my wooden spoons from the kitchen and hitting his ball. 

TV Show: When I can get him to sit down for five seconds he likes Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.

McKay is talking a lot more and it's cute to hear his little voice. 

He loves playing outside. Because it's been warm outside I try and take him outside everyday, I know this warm weather wont last forever. 

McKay is also really good at folding his arms during our prayer. But we have learned that if we leave food in front of him he'll take sneaky bites while we are praying. 

Also the fridge became his favorite thing. He learned to open the fridge and before we knew it McKay was bringing us whole gallons of milk and trying to drink out of the gallon. We now have a lock on our fridge.

McKay loves to dance. His newest dance trick is spinning in circles. I think it's funny because he get's this look of intense concentration.

We have a little catching up to do...

As I have been a full time stay at home I have leaned what a full time job it is.  I have also learned that I strive on a schedule and it's been quite an adjustment.

Tavo has loved working at Volkswagen! I am so grateful that he has a job that he loves. I am a true believer of loving your career, because you end up spending so much time at work. I also think it effects our family life. When Tavo has a job he loves it makes us a better family.  Tavo has also met the requirements for his internship and has now finished his degree completely! We were talking the other day about what a weight it is off our shoulders not to constantly have school work hanging over our heads. It really is freeing.                                                 

Tavo has officially started his new permanent job at Volkswagen! We feel so blessed that he has gotten this opportunity. I also feel a sense of security knowing that we will be in Michigan for a while. 

We are really enjoying Michigan. It's not ever somewhere I thought we would be, and maybe that's what's so exciting about it. One thing I really love about Michigan is the thunderstorms. I had not seen rain until we moved here and I really love it. There is nothing better than being woken up in the middle of the night by thunder.  One thing that I don't love so much is the humidity. I didn't realize until I went back to Utah for a visit how dry it is there and how humid it is here. You just walk outside and feel stick, I know it's gross. 

Time for a funny story....

I had never seen lightning bugs. Ever in my whole life. The only time I have even been interested in the bugs has been while watching Princess and the Frog. (hence the picture above) A couple weeks ago I went out for a walk to go grab our mail, and I was on the phone with my mom. Out of the corner of my eye I kept seeing these little strings of light. Like when your about to faint you start to see stars. (Please tell me I'm not the only one who has experienced this.)  I even remember telling my mom something along the lines of "If I faint call Tavo." It only took me a minute to realize what I was seeing was lightning bugs! I ran upstairs with pure joy at what I had discovered. After explaining to Tavo I could see he was not impressed. I  on the other hand was facinated. What can I say I 'm easily entertained. 

McKay is eighteen months. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I am learning that I am enjoying this stage in his childhood. I can see him beginning to learn and grow. I am also learning a lot about his little personality and who he is. He has been such a joy in my life and I am so glad that I have chosen to stay at home with him. I know this is a time I will never get back so I am trying to enjoy every minute. 

That's a quick update at what's been going on in our family. I will soon post a more detailed look at McKay now that he's 18 months old!

15 Month Update

I can't believe McKay is 15 months old. The time is going so fast. When McKay was born everyone, told me to enjoy McKay while he was little because before I knew it he would be walking and talking. And here we are and McKay is walking and starting to say his first few words.

Even though the time is going too fast I am really enjoying to get to know McKay and who he is. One of the things that I am starting to notice is that he is independent. He doesn't want to hold my hand when he walks, and if I try to feed him he pushes the food away and grabs it to feed himself. He really loves doing things on his own. During meals he is really good about using silverware, but he still makes a mess. 

It is finally getting warm enough to go outside! The nice weather has made me so happy. It's really hard staying at home all day and not going outside because it is too cold. Now that the weather is warm we are enjoying going outside. Sunday we went to the park. I think McKay loved being able to just run and play in the sun.

We totally have a boy trying to go up the slide the wrong way.

Last month McKay and I took a trip back to Utah to visit my family. We had had so much fun visiting.

We went with Carter to get a haircut.

 And we did some shopping.

And McKay had his first ice cream cone.

My dad also introduced McKay to Barney, thanfully he wasn't too amused.

My dad also got McKay his first build-a-bear, which is really a dog. He really loves his little dog. 

We had a lot of fun visiting with my family.

Yesterday I gave McKay a haircut. His hair in the back grows so fast, and it's curly and a little fuzzy. It was really bothering my so I sat him in the sink and cut all of the fuzz off.

I really hope McKay isn't the only one that crawls all over everything. He now stands on our side table by our couch and tries to jump on the couch. I can see we are going to be in trouble with his crazy stunts.

We love having McKay. He brings so much happiness to everyday life. 

We are enjoying Michigan and this is Tavo's official last week of school!!! YAY!! It will be so great to enjoy our evenings and weekends together with no more homework! 

Sunday

I LOVE Sundays!

It's the start of a new week. During the day I have time to reflect on things that I did well throughout the week as well as things I can improve upon. It really is a fresh start to a new week, where I can become a better version of myself. 

 

 One thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is the role that technology plays in my life. I work from home which means I am usually on the computer for hours at a time. Lately I have noticed that I have gotten used to having the T.V. on for background noise and my phone is always within an arms reach. 

 After several people posted an about how technology should not be a form of entertainment for toddlers. To be completely honest I would jump for joy if McKay would sit and watch even 10 minutes of T.V. to keep him entertained. He is just too busy to stay entertained with television or a movie. But I began thinking about how I am not always able to give McKay my full attention with technology always at my fingertips.

This week in the name of self-improvement I am going to leave the T.V. off during the day and leave my phone on the table so I am not constantly on my phone.  

Hopefully but not letting technology hog all my attention I can enjoy McKay while he is little, because he is already growing up too fast.

Growing Boy

I still can't believe that McKay is one and he's technically already 13 1/2 months.

(I just wiped a tear from my cheek)

 Lately I have been feeling a strange mix of emotions.

 On one hand it's hard watching my baby grow up, he's losing that baby look and looking more like a toddler, and he's needing my help less and less. 

On the other hand there is almost nothing more exciting than watching him learn a new skill or say a new word!

But with these new skills he's learning McKay definitely keeps me busy all day.  

We are in a new stage of development called "destroy anything and everything" 

As you can see from the picture below our favorite thing is taking the pots and pans out of all the cabinets. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when I go the get a shirt out of the close and hit my foot on the pot I have been looking for. (I have learned to keep all the doors shut to keep the mess somewhat contained.)

But it's a little hard to contain a boy who's walking!! He finally found the courage to take those first steps, and now we can't get him to stop. He loves to walk and play tag. He thinks it's hilarious if you chase after him, and boy is this kid fast. I fear for the terrible two's. 

Sit in the cart at Wal-mart?  No Way! 

Video chatting with Uncle Carter showing him the proper way to ride my "bike" 

(excuse the diaper, it's starting to get difficult keeping pants on this kid.)

McKay is now learning to use his spoon to eat. But it is much more efficient to use our bowl as a cup and bypass the whole spoon thing. 

McKay loves corn. Last week I made chili and rice, both with corn, and instead of eating dinner he went through his whole plate and picked every kernel of corn out.

McKay is starting to talk a little. His vocabulary right now is 3 words:

 mama, 

dada.

 and

 agua (water in Spanish)

Even though McKay is growing and learning to do things on his own, he's never too big for snuggles with mama.

Here we go again...

We moved to Chicago about a month ago.  It's crazy to think that we are already moving again. 

Sporting our VW shirts!

Tavo got an internship with Volkwagen Group of America.Which means we are relocating to Michigan!

Anyone who knows Tavo knows that this is a dream come true. Getting this amazing opportunity takes me back to when we were dating. As we were talking about our career goals and the plan for our future family, Tavo would tell me about  his dream was to work with Volkswagen. I guess I wasn't a super supportive girlfriend at the time because I remember nodding my head and smiling. In my head I was think the reality of that happening were slim. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't believe in him right away. But now I have all the faith in the world in him and I am so proud of him,  he is making our dreams come true.

The past couple weeks have been busy. Moving is hard work. Especially with a one year old who takes things out of the box as soon as you put them in. His new favorite this is to climb in the boxes along with all our junk.

We have been busy searching for an apartment, and I think we finally found a place! 

We make the move Saturday. 

Wish us luck during this busy week.

Happy Birthday

Today is McKay's first birthday. 

I can't believe it. It feels like just yesterday I was pregnant, and now I have a busy and active little boy. 

We didn't celebrate too much today because while everyone was in Rexburg for our graduation we threw McKay a Dr. Seuss birthday party.

When McKay was in the NICU they had "A PERSONS A PERSON NO MATTER HOW SMALL" all over because the majority of the babies were pretty little (Including McKay at 4 pounds 1 ounce). That inspired the theme for the celebration.