A new sport in our house

I hope this doesn't ruin my chances for the " Mother of the Year " award ( you know, the one I was sure to get *sarcasm noted?*) but there's something I have to admit:

My name is Missy and I play fetch ( or "fet" in Mackenzinese) with my daughter.

AND she LOVES it! And...even worse...I took pictures of it!


She yells " Ready? GO! " as she's running down the hallway. Look at that form!:

And it's a great way to burn off any extra energy:

Showing off those pearly whites!

Mackenzie had her 6 month check up with Dr. Cullen, her dentist, this week. She passed the exam with flying colors! She even held the mirror so that Dr. Cullen could see inside her mouth. The dental assistant and Dr. Cullen were both very impressed that Mackenzie was so cooperative. She said Mackenzie's teeth look perfect and was glad to hear Mackenzie enjoys brushing her teeth ( she brushes at least three times a day! )Mackenzie left the office grasping her new Dora tooth brush and the ball she picked from the prize box!

Breaking in the new brush:



Showin' off those teeth:

The dentist did say that Mackenzie is getting in the four canine teeth- this was no news for us! We are ready to be done with teething and all that it entails. Thankfully, once these teeth are done coming through, she'll have 18 of her 20 baby teeth!

Hope chest

Grammy Mary has been on a mission to get her house cleaned out and reorganized. Part of doing that was going through her hope chest with Mike so that he could keep the things that were sentimental to him and Mary could keep the things that were to her. While it was certainly an emotional experience, everyone seemed to enjoy taking a glimpse back in time. Mary saved the receipt from their ( she and Ralph's) first grocery shopping trip. It was longer than an arms length and the total was less than 50 dollars!

Mike and Mary going through the hope chest:
Always an extra " helper":
It's a good thing Aunt Janet came! She and Mackenzie had a great time playing while Grammy and Daddy made their way through the box:
Mike prepared a salmon fillet and made potatoes Au gratin from scratch for the occasion! There were no left overs and Mackenzie ate more salmon than I did!

Here's the repurposed hope chest as it looks today:


It's a big hit with Mackenzie!

Free for "fall"!

The leaves have finally started to change so Mackenzie and I went on a "leaf hunt" along the trail that I jog . We later used the leaves to make a center piece for our table.

Mackenzie helped me collect acorns ( and rocks, and a rolly poly, too)
Next up, we needed some colorful leaves and pine cones to go with the acorns. The trail was nice and quiet so Mackenzie got to stretch her legs a bit. I'm sure that in her head she was screaming " I'm free!":

But it sure makes a mom feel good when they turn to make sure you're still coming:

Here she is checking out a "Fussy Pillar" ( fuzzy caterpillar)
The end result:

Clean up, clean up! Everybody, every where!

Mary puts LOTS of work into making her yard so beautiful so naturally, it takes lots of work to get it ready for winter. This year, Mike , Meg and Mary got teamed up to get this job done. Mack and I were there, but we weren't as helpful. We took pictures instead! Here are the fruits of our fall photo shoot:

Shy girl: ( She calls this boa " boo-ha"

She's sure gonna miss this swing over the winter:

"Pie-cone!"
"Tickle tickle!" Incidentally, the name of this grass is " Karley Rose"
Inside and warming up with a kitty!
Then Daddy made brownies to go with our Pizza dinner! Aunt Janet even came to eat with us!
Mackenzie doing " Eye winker" with Aunt Meg.
This is how her hair looks at the end of the day:
And this blooper picture is too funny not to share:

"Eye-styes"

Before Mackenzie was born, we were given a set of Baby Einstein videos. They are targeted for babies 3-12 months. . Mackenzie never really cared for them as a baby but is totally in love with them now! Any time she comes any where near our bedroom ( where the DVDs are kept) she comes running yelling " EYE-STYES!" She's allowed to watch one half hour video per day ( sometimes two ) When she's watching them, she's in total relaxation mode: body propped up on pillows, hands behind the head, feet crossed at the ankles:


I think she enjoys them so much because the video content is all stuff that she knows. For instance, her very favorite video is the one that covers shapes and each time a shape comes on the screen, she shouts out the name of that shape. What makes the videos really neat is that there is very little speaking ,instead the DVD's are set to classical music.

While the mom's are away....

the husbands will get together and have a pizza party with their daughters!

Erin and I had a mom's night out last night so Mike and Will ordered a few pizza's and had a daddy/daughter play date session! No pictures of the event were taken but I would LOVE to have been a fly on the wall at that party. I bet those girls had a blast! I would have asked Mike, but he was fast asleep by the time I got home ....at 9 pm!