What more could a girl want?

No, honestly! If someone asked Mack if there was anything she needed or wanted, after this last week, she'd have a hard time coming up with anything! Not only is this girl completely spoiled but she is totally loved. From cards, to phone calls, texts, Facebook messages and emails to gifts, the girl is covered in love.

Mack's birthday party went off with out a hitch and she had a great time! While a few of our favorite Colorado loved ones couldn't make it to the party, most of those on our guest list arrived to make it a great day for Mackenzie. The cake, made my Samantha, was just gorgeous and everything that Mackenzie could want- both tasty and beautiful:

With Mackenzie ( technically) having a winter birthday and us living in Michigan, I never thought we'd get to throw an outdoor party. I also never thought we'd find ourselves back in Colorado again, either! But with forecasted temps in the mid 60's, we opened the windows and doors and the kids played in the Mike's homemade bubble solution, wrote with sidewalk chalk or played on the new play set! Everyone had a great time enjoying snacks, cake, and a few of Mack's new toys.

Mack contemplated wearing one of her princess dresses but soon realized this would hinder her ability to run, slide, swing or hop along with her friends. She traded that idea for a pair of comfy jeans.

The only thing missing from our day was those we love in Arizona, Michigan and numerous other states who would have made our celebration complete. We hope that you could feel our hugs and kisses on the wind and wish we could share our birthday cake with all of you!

Happy Birthday, Big Girl!

Mack has always loved play grounds. She loves them so much that " swing" was one of her first words followed not long after by " slide". As much as we'd love to have had the luxury of swinging and sliding in comfort of our back yard, we never actually had our own back yard. Well...Now that that's changed we couldn't help be be giddy at the thought of finally making her dream of having swings and a slide in her own back yard. Since we're on the cusp of spring, all of the local stores have been advertizing their model play sets and each time we pass one, Mack can hardly explain how badly she NEEDS one. Lucky for her, Mike and I decided way back in December that our back yard was definitely in need of a play set.

The only way we could imagine giving it to her was by surprise. The anticipation of giving a gift to your child that you know they will absolutely love is intoxicating. Our only option for surprising Mackenzie was to work on putting the set together the day before her birthday so she would see it when she woke up on the actual day. I would take her out for the day while Mike ( going on four hours of sleep after working three in a row! ) worked on putting the play set together, a job that was said to take up to 8 hours with two adults. Thankfully, my mom offered to come over and help Mike while I entertained Mackenzie away from the house. We played at the play ground, celebrated the last day of "3's" with a mini- blizzard, hung out at the library, successfully ( though Mack did wear her ear muffs) saw " The Lorax" and had dinner at Chick- -Fil -A. We were BOTH exhausted by the end of that afternoon:


Mike and mom worked diligently and got about half way done by the time it was dark enough for Mack and me to come home. Mike and mom closed up all the windows that faced our back yard ( including Mack's bedroom window). When we got home I quickly ushered Kenzie upstairs for a bath and put her right to bed. From there, Mike and I worked another three hours and got the play set to with in an hour of being done. At that point it was 10 pm and we decided to call it quits before the neighbors were disturbed. We turned off our work light and set our alarms for 6 am.

6 am -Sore and exhausted, the thought of surprising our little girl on her birthday was the only thing that pulled us from our beds. While the weather the day before was gorgeous- full sun with 70 degrees- things had changed drastically over night.We were now faced with a 50 degree temperature drop and were being pelted with tiny beads of frozen rain. But we were so close to finishing and a little freezing rain and wind wasn't going to stop us now ( even though the screws for the play set froze to the structure as soon as we set them down)! FINALLY, all the lumber was used up; the roof top tarp was the only piece left to hang. Mike worked to secure the first side and I glanced at my watch to see that it was nearing 7:30, when we heard a tiny knock coming from above. Mike and I looked at each other and then up at Mackenzie's window where we saw a bed-headed, super excited little girl with a look of disbelief written across her face. I raced ( well, race-waddled) into the house , up the stairs and swiped up the newly 4 year old girl, put her coat , boots and hat on over her pajamas and set her free to see what waited outside for her.



She could hardly believe it was true. She hugged Mike and thanked us for such a great birthday present .She made comments like " I never KNEW I'd get one of these!" or " I'm gonna swing ALLLLLL day long!' and " Great work, Daddy!" Mike and I smiled at each other ,knowing that all the exhaustion, stiffness and frozen fingers were completely worth it for just one look at our sweet girls contented face as she hurried onto a swing, kicked off and threw her head back with an excited "WHOOOOOHOOOOOO" , on her way to swinging allllllll day!


Even with all the excitement, it was hard for even Mack to shake the yawns:

4 going on 40

While we were at the hospital for my appointments last week, we had a bit of time between them and decided to stop for a snack to waste time ( and appease my growling belly). After getting our snack, Mike wanted to stop into the gift shop and told Mackenzie that she need to hold off on opening her snack until after we finished in the shop. To this, Mack's shoulder slumped down, her head dropped and, in a defeated tone, she replied replied " You're always bossing me around." I could hear the cashier of the store giggling as I responded " That's pretty sad. When you're the mommy, you can be the boss." And in the same defeated voice, she responded " Oh. Okay, Mom."

Later that week I was trying to entice Mackenzie into playing doll house with me. She said she didn't want to do that so I suggested that we play kitchen or read books or do a puzzle. Mack , with her best exasperated voice, said " Why are we having all of these issues? You know I don't like issues."

One last " Mackenzie-ism" - Mackenzie doesn't like loud noises. She dislikes them so much that she doesn't like to go the movie theater any more because the noise is so loud and the room so dark. In effort to ease her past this phase, we bought her some ear muffs to block out some of the loud noises that plagued her. It's since become her ritual to wear the " muves" while I vacuum. On this day I had gotten Mack set up playing on starfall.com, an early reading preschool website, and lugged the vacuum down the stairs. Mack, upon seeing this, requested that I get her ear muffs for her and I told her that if she wears her ear muffs, she won't be able to hear the game she was playing. With out blinking an eye and a slight shrug of her shoulder, Mack said " Well, I won't be able to hear it over the vacuum either." Off I went to get the ear muffs.

And so it goes these days. Mack, with complete calm in her voice, tosses out a bit of timeless wisdom that leaves me wondering if she's my daughter or I'm hers...

A whole lot of maternal sappiness....

There are few things that can bring a mother to tears like seeing pictures of her growing child set to sappy music. Every year, after spending countless hours constructing Mack's birthday video, I sit down with a box of Kleenex at the ready to watch it. This year I can't help but notice that the imagines flashing across the screen show times' progression as ,with each passing picture, Mack's face shows a little less baby and a lot more " girl".

Though I'm a "new" mom by all accounts, having only four years (and 1.75 kids ) in the game, it seems like an eternity ago that I held this little chubby cheeked baby across my chest, feeling her tiny lungs breathing in new life, amazed that this tiny baby package contained so much potential and wondering who she would grow up to be.

Four years later, I still marvel at her but now there are a few less unknowns. I know that Mackenzie will always love to laugh and love to make others laugh. I know that she will be the first one to offer help when someone needs it. I know that she will always be hungry to know why something is the way it is and " I don't know" won't ever be good enough to satisfy this hunger. I know all of these things because on a daily basis, Mackenzie coaxes out true genuine laughter from me with her made up knock knock jokes or her silly antics. She is the first one to wipe away my hormonal pregnancy tears with her bare hands and kiss my cheek with a gentle pat on the back. She amazes me with the questions she asks and the ability to solve problems with out any help at all from me.

March 7th is a day that changed my life into something so much more meaningful than I could have known then. That tiny body that grew from mine has taught me so much , transformed me and pushed me to be better than I was . And because she laughs, I laugh. Because she loves, I love. Because she learns, I learn. This is the beauty of motherhood and I am so honored to be one of the hands she holds as she finds her way through life.

Happy 4th Birthday to the girl whose hand I proudly hold,
( click the little box underneath the red bar to enlarge the picture and turn your volume up )


A note about the songs: The third song " Big Yellow Taxi" is a favorite of Mackenzie's and it's a strange choice for a bed time song. One night, well over a year ago, Mack asked Mike to sing " The Taxi" song. She was requesting a children's song that is sung on Nick Jr. about riding a taxi across town. Mike hadn't heard this song at the time, so he sang the only " taxi" song he knew of, " Big Yellow Taxi" . Though this wasn't at all the song Mack had originally asked for, she loved it and it's now a part of our nightly bedtime routine.

The Crocuses are here!

Last week I heard Mack's excited voice calling for me to come see what she found. Her voice came out in a squeaky screech ( that I'm pretty sure only moms and dogs can hear) so knew it must have been something good:
And it was! Crocuses! And since Crocuses poking their heads out in Grammy's yard was always the first sign that the long Michigan winter was coming to a close, we all did the " Yay, it's almost spring!" Dance. Too bad those beautiful flowers will be covered in snow by morning. So goes life, right? At least after tomorrow's snow, we have highs in the mid to upper 60's to look forward to, just in time for a special birthday!

Did you know?

That Mike has a blog, too? Initially, it paired up two of Mike's many hobbies, beer brewing and wood crafting. Right now, it's mostly about Mike's love for snobby beers and his quest to create his own perfectly snobby brew. Sound interesting, right? Check it out! Here's the link .

31 weeks

It's been a busy pregnancy week around here. Monday marked the start of my 31st week which means I have about 8 weeks to go! It's unreal to me how quickly this pregnancy has flown by and there are days that, in the busyness of life, I forget that I am pregnant.

I am feeling bigger than a house although I am actually quite a bit smaller with this pregnancy than I was with Mackenzie. Sometimes this belly feels every bit as heavy as it looks:
The side view angle didn't turn out and taking another means I have to actually put aside my second dinner and get up to take one. Doesn't seem likely at this moment. But I did ditch my long locks for a new " baby on the way" hair cut. I left behind 8 inches of hair and use way less shampoo and time blow drying these days.

Today was our third trimester growth scan. It's not a " routine" ultra sound but one that I am required to have because I have an auto immune disorder which could inhibit the baby's growth. Luckily, that isn't he case and the ultra sound revealed that Mason is a BIG kid. His weight is on par for his gestational age ( 4 lbs 7 oz) but the boy is a budding basketball star with his legs measuring more than two weeks ahead! Because of those legs, Mason is in the 71% as an average and is measuring the size of a baby that is 33 weeks old . The tech grabbed this shot of him and at first , I admit, the picture looked a little creepy because he was in the process of rolling over when she took the picture. BUT looking at it more closely, I can see that his mouth is open and it looks almost like he's smiling! I also see the beginnings of some chubby cheeks and his sister's knobby chin. I love this boy so much already:
So with less than 8 weeks to go, I've got my " every two weeks" appointments schedule with Dr. Appleton, Mike's got his paternity leave scheduled, my mom is ready to pencil in her week off as soon as we get our official c-section date, the room is ready and Big Sister is keeping her eye on her dinner, increasingly worried that mommy might snatch it up if she isn't careful. All that's missing is our baby boy and, though he can't be heard, he is sure to make his presence known with lots of big movements and kicks, some that wake me up at night. Just 8 short weeks.....