Coolest dinner ever!

With Mackenzie being so excited about letters, numbers, shapes , etc these days, I thought she'd LOVE these potatoes and she did! She said each letter as she devoured it:
Ready to eat!( Not sure what's up with the K)
Eating:
Eaten:
And a pic of her in her favorite puppy jammies:

The face in the mirror

Is looking more and more familiar! When I down loaded this picture, my brain actually wondered when and how did I get a picture of my mom on my camera:

A comparison pic:
I think it's especially evident now that I have lots so much weight and my face is thinner.

The best bib ever!

Aunt Meg found a pattern for this bib which fits more like a shirt. It fits easily over the head and arms and prevents any " schmutz" from getting on the wearer. She dropped it off before Mackenzie's bed time last night. When I told Mackenzie that "An Meeg" was coming over, she waited for her at the window until she got there. When Aunt Meg arrived, Mackenzie had to show off all her toys and new tricks.
Here are a few pictures of this awesome bib. Mackenzie likes it so much, she even wanted to wear it while she played in her kitchen today!
Back view:
Action shot:

It has the cutest little print and Mackenzie ( and I ) really love it. I almost don't want her to wear it for fear she'll get it dirty! HA!

Crafty girl

The other night at dinner, Mackenzie took a Wet One ( hand sanitizer wipe) into tiny little pieces. It kept her entertained for quite some time . Since then, we've been making tissue paper art. Today we made a heart and yesterday, a pumpkin. She loves to tear the tissue paper apart but her favorite part by far, is using the glue stick. Here she is working hard on her heart:
She has really started to love coloring. I found some triangular shaped Crayolas which make it much easier her. I can't wait for her attention span to grow even longer- all those long hours of doing lesson plans for my day care kids will come in handy!

What's daddy cookin' up?

Mike had a "brew date" with one of the guys from work ( it's amazing to me that there is another guy on his floor that brews beer, too!) so he got out his big brew pot. Mackenzie thought it was pretty neat!

Twice the Toddlers!

We spent the afternoon with Ben and Jeanette today, which was so much fun! The kids really love playing together. The day is usually filled with Mackenzie laughing at Ben's physical comedy ( such as sliding down the slide head first and on his tummy). Here are pics from the day:

Look at how big she's gotten! She's nearly out grown the foot rest on her stroller:
Slide time:
They can finally teeter-tot together!
What a gentleman!
I am so proud that Mackenzie can climb this! It's a big "fish" that starts at the ground and climbs to the top level of the jungle gym. Of course, I am usually right behind her, but man! Look at her go!
Sure would be convenient if they ended up married one day. We sure have enough embarrassing pictures!

Farewell summer...

We are trying to soak up the last drips of summer at our house. It's hard to believe it's already September and talk about Halloween costumes and new babies ( Will and Erin are expecting their new little one in Oct) fill the air!

So squeezing in play dates and one last trip to the zoo, the farm or the village is on our minds. As much as I look forward to jogs in the crisp and crunchiness of October, I am not quite ready to let summer go! But , as tight as my grip, I am already seeing a few rebellious Maple leaves skitter to the ground. Here's a quick update on what's been going on:

Mike's working hard but on his days off, he's been working to keep his hands busy. He's found that he really likes knitting ( How awesome is it that I can say my husband knits?!) and does that while he catches a Tigers game on T.V. He's always working on getting our garage "winter ready" and recently installed our garage door opener.

Mackenzie...What to say? She's amazing! She's learned almost all of her letters by sight, can count to ten and recognizes several numbers by sight, knows all of her shapes ( although she's not very fond of squares for some reason). We've been keeping busy with simple art projects like making scrap paper pumpkins or hand print flowers. Her sentences are growing by the day and she's now stringing three and four words together at a time. She loves to sing, even when she doesn't know that words! We are going to start a toddler music class next week, which I think she will LOVE. Her 18 mo well child exam is next week and we can't wait to see how much she's grown. We're still waiting on those bottom molars, which pop up one day and disappear the next.

Me...I am still jogging every day. I usually run 5 or 6 miles a day and am really loving it. I have reached my first weight loss goal and have lost a total of 64 pounds since Nov. 08. I have about 6 more pounds to go before I am at the weight that my doctor recommended. I am looking forward to be able to maintain my weight loss this winter and not have to work out so much ( and so hard). I am feeling very blessed to be able to be at home with Mackenzie every day. I notice the little changes that I might other wise miss. I enjoy being able to teach her through play and watching her soak up each droplet of knowledge she can. While things get tight at times, I wouldn't trade this job for anything in the world.

We are looking forward to U of M football Saturdays and starting a new Sunday school class at church. And even though I am sad to see the summer go, there is nothing like snuggling up with the ones you love most under a polar fleece blanket and watching the leaves fall! Maybe it won't be so bad , after all ( Remind me of this when I am complaining about the long Michigan winter in Feb).