Lots To Say!

Maya's speech has taken off lately and she is starting to repeat more words/sounds that she hears on a regular basis. Here are some of the things she says: Dada, Mama, Nenna (Makenna), MyMy (Maya), NighNigh (Night Night), BaBy (Bye Bye), TeEe (Teddy).




"I'm so excited! I found something I'm not suppose to have!"


"Maybe if I climb up onto the fireplace mom won't notice me" Yeah right!


Big girl with her 4 teeth and her strip of mohawk hair :)


"Teddy where'd you go?!"



And Maryn has entered that adorable stage where she starts saying all kinds of grown-up phrases that just sound hilarious coming from a 3 year old. Here are a few examples...

"Mommy/Daddy, just be patient!" (And she usually uses it at all the right times! Guess who hears this ALL the time from Mommy and Daddy?!)

"Daddy/Mommy, don't be grumpy!" (Again, typically pulls this one out right as she's going to be getting in trouble).

"Mommy, don't worry. It will be okay."

"Mommy, just be happy."

There are so many more but of course I can't think of them right now. And of course now I realized almost all of these are used surrounding her getting in trouble or trying to stay out of trouble :)


So grown-up!


Doesn't she look like a mother gazing at her newborn child... I think that's how she feels about puppy though :)


Pondering life


Look at these big sweet eyes and pouty lips :)

Makenna Lost A Tooth!

On Wednesday evening (1/20) we noticed that the gum directly below Makenna's loose tooth had turned a bright red color. Concerned that something was wrong, we called Papa Ken to find out what we should do. He told Josh to pull the tooth to see if that would clear up the gum issue (which it did). Josh was so nervous about pulling her tooth... he didn't want to hurt her. Josh and Makenna worked on wiggling the tooth for a long time and got it really loose. Finally Josh just yanked it out with a kleenex. Makenna said a simple "Ow" but she didn't even realize it was missing until she ran her tongue across her teeth. She is so proud of the fact that she didn't cry ;) She was SO excited! We put her tooth under her pillow that night for the tooth fairy (actually she pulled it out and set it next to her pillow to make sure the tooth fairy didn't have a hard time finding it!) and she was excited to find a shiny $1 gold coin the next morning :) It's so cute to see her new gappy toothless smile! Our baby is getting so big! I remember when her first teeth came in and now she's losing them.


Trying to show me where she lost the tooth...


A little better view of her new gap...


Makenna's new smile :)

Makenna - 5 1/2 Years Old

All about Makenna at 5 1/2 years old!!!




Nicknames: Kenna, Nenny, Nenner, Nenner Benner, Nen, Buddy, Peanut
Weight & Height:Still off the charts for height and weighs somewhere in the low 50s. A lot for her age, but not for her height. She is very proud of the fact that she is the second tallest girl in all of Kindergarten at Echo Hill (over 90 kids!)
Hair: Medium length blond hair (we finally got it cut!!!). It's so cute! Not sure why it took me so long to cut it! We are still (and probably will be for years) growing out her bangs! Right now we pull all of her bangs back in little barrettes or ponytails to keep it out of her eyes.
Favorite foods: She's not a picky eater at all. And she eats a ton. It seems like she's always growing (which she probably is given her height). She also loves trying new foods and takes great pride in the fact that she will try anything. There are very few foods that she will turn her nose up at.
Favorite Drink: She still drinks skim milk, water and watered down apple juice almost all of the time. I'm one of those strict mommies that doesn't think it's necessary for kids to drink obscene amounts of sugar in strawberry and chocolate milk everyday at school... therefore she is allowed to pick something besides just white milk to drink at school on one day a week and that is always a highlight :)
Favorite toys: Markers/pens and journals, her Leapster, and I can't really think of anything else. Honestly she spends most of her time making up games with Maryn using all the random items from around the house.
Favorite stuffed animal: Duckie
Favorite Books: Anything she can read by herself. Her reading has taken off since she started school and she is already reading at a level E . She enjoys the challenge. She also has taken an interest in chapter books and likes to have me read a few chapters to her each night. Currently we are reading a book from the The Tiara Club.
Bedtime: We start getting ready for bed between 7:30 and 7:45 and she is in bed shortly after.
Wake-up time: She has to be up by 7:50 in order to make it to school in time. She does well and wakes up on her own at about 7:45 or 7:50 probably on half of the days. The rest of the time I have to drag her out of bed... she still likes to sleep in :)




Naps: I think I can delete this category for her now...
Favorite person: Mrs. Agnew... she adores her teacher. Wants to be her when she grows up.
Latest Accomplishment: Reading with more proficiency and being able to write in almost complete sentences already! She can sound everything out and has the ability to write almost anything in "kindergarten" spelling! I love to watch her just sit and write in her journals and draw pictures to go along with her writing.
Likes: recess, her friends from school, playing in the snow, drawing and writing, singing songs from "Annie", Daddy's days off, the stories Daddy tells at bedtime, having her bed made, comfy clothes
Dislikes: the school's bread and cheese (it's processed cheese... we don't eat that at home), being scared (she gets nervous even by commercials on TV and covers her eyes at everything... hence, why we watch so little TV at our house)
Fears: Bad dreams and the movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks". I took her to that movie with a friend and she was absolutely terrified and still is. We talk about it on a regular basis even though we saw it over 3 weeks ago. Daddy has to tell her a special story every night before she goes to bed and we say special prayers so she won't have bad dreams at night. I don't blame her... she's told us what some of her dreams are about and it's absolutely awful.
Favorite shows: Annie, Barbie and the Diamond Castle, Barbie and the Three Musketeers
Health: Makenna has been very healthy this past fall. I was nervous with her going to kindergarten and getting exposed to so much but she did well. She was sick with a virus of some sort twice within a few weeks of each other in October and then had a bacterial infection in her head around the holidays (lots of eye goop, cough, etc). Both were relatively minor though.
Interesting Tidbit: Makenna has her first loose tooth! Well actually it's been loose since Thanksgiving! Just recently it's gotten even looser but the darn thing just won't fall out. She is so excited at the thought of losing her first tooth! :) She also somehow chipped one of her upper middle teeth just before Thanksgiving.

Fun At Our House

Here are some fun pictures of what a typical day at our house looks like. LOTS of imagination play :)



If you look close enough I think you can see some of Makenna's princess lip gloss :)


I think we were playing "Princess and the dog" in this picture... or something like that.


Love it! Maryn telling Makenna what to do! I was surprised that Makenna picked to be the puppy... usually that's Maryn's role.


So sweet...


Sheer Silliness! Love this picture! Especially the messy moosh!


Sisters being silly


And Maryn continues the fun even when Makenna's at school...

Little Bear

Maya has been an absolute pickle lately about letting us change her clothes or her diaper. She screams and screams and SCREAMS and SCREAMS and tries to do everything in her power to get away from us! It seriously sounds like we're torturing her. We're not sure what spurred this on, but it has not been a pleasant stage. Well after one of those fine fits one afternoon, I gave up and let her roam the house without pants on since I was tired of fighting with her. She quickly figured out that her knees didn't feel so good crawling on the wood or tile floors so she figured out a new way to crawl! Josh has been calling her Little Bear ever since :)


The pictures were taken after I finally got her pants on, but the new crawling style continued. This is a first for our family... We've never had a child that crawled like this before :) I think it might be a step towards walking because she is also starting to stand by herself a lot more lately and she walks with help. Maybe it's just her way of prepping for walking??

Special Daddy Time

All little girls need special time with their daddy, but my little girls seem to be drawn to their daddy more than most. He is truly their hero. I am so glad he is the man these three little girls look up to. I wouldn't want it to be anyone else. He understands how important his relationship with them is to building them into becoming strong young girls and eventually young women. God knew what He was doing when he gave this man three little girls!

Every night when Josh walks in the door there is sheer pandemonium. Three little girls screeching as only little girls can screech and the sound of six little feet (okay well one is still on her hands and knees) running as fast as they can to the door to greet Daddy. It's absolutely adorable. I honestly think that's Daddy's favorite part of the day as well... who wouldn't like being greeted like that every time you came home?!

Makenna has been having bad thoughts and horrible nightmares ever since she saw the Chipmunks movie over Christmas vacation. The only thing that makes it all better is if Daddy tells her one of his famous stories to make her feel better right before bed. Last night Daddy had a late meeting and she was scared he wouldn't be there before she fell asleep. Well he got there just in time and her face just lit up! And of course they love all of their Daddy dates. Josh took Maryn and Makenna out for ice cream and to the movie store for a special movie this weekend. They love their one-on-one time with Daddy almost as much as he loves it :)


A typical night snuggling on the couch with Daddy (after Maya went to bed).

Showing Off Maya's New Teeth!

Maya got 4 new teeth (2 top, 2 bottom) all within about 3 weeks in December. Here are some pictures of her showing off her new pearly whites! Looks like little one inherited mommy's not-so-favorite gap between her two front teeth. You gotta love the faces she's making in all of these pictures... but at least I could see her teeth this way! :)

Mommy's Little Helper... Well, Not Really!

Now everyone will understand why I have trouble getting the dishes done at my house lately... it seems I have a little helper!! Or so Maya thinks! All she really does is make a bigger mess! She loves to pull everything out and throw it on the floor, she doesn't really care if it's clean or dirty.


CAUGHT!! Red-handed! Gotcha Maya!!


Peering in to see if there's any more damage she can do!


What?! Me?! You can't be talking to me?!


Just hanging out in the dishwasher!


Now it's turned into a fun game!! And she thinks she's a funny lady!

Christmas 2009 - Part 2

Maya got in on some of the gift opening action!


Makenna was absolutely thrilled to finally own her new favorite movie!


The best present ever! A Dora house!


Makenna, Eden and Maryn singing "Jesus Loves Me"


Maya watching her big sister try out her new toy...


Now trying it out for herself!


Smiley Maya!


Serious Maya


Eden with the Curious George we got her :) Big smiles! George is her favorite!


Makenna and her pink guitar from Poppy and Peepie!


Maryn helping Maya try out her new sled :)


Maryn in awe of her new gift!


Maya taking the new sled for a test drive!



The girls favorite gifts from Christmas 2009 -

Makenna: Make-up set, guitar, Easy Bake Oven
Maryn: Dora house, Dora mermaid doll
Maya: anything else the other girls are playing with :)

Christmas 2009

Despite the constant bad weather over the Christmas holiday this year, we were still able to enjoy our holiday with loved ones! We spent Christmas Eve day with the Budkes, Christmas Eve and all of Christmas day at home by ourselves, and then Sunday was the Boutott Christmas. The girls enjoyed themselves immensely and we loved celebrating Jesus' birthday with Maya for the first time! Here's our holiday in pictures...


Maya's 1st Christmas! She's so smiley! We've never had a baby in the mobile stage at Christmas, but she actually did really well with the tree and all the decorations. She tried to eat the lights on the tree a few times and she would throw decorations on the floor but other than that she was fine!


All three of our girls at Christmas Eve church!


Makenna showing off one of her favorite gifts... a make-up set from Papa and Nana!


Maryn talking on her new phone "just like Daddy's!"


Opening gifts at Papa and Nana's house


Our house after Santa stopped by...


The girls before we let them dig into their gifts on Christmas morning!


Maryn with her new Dora Mermaid doll. It was a BIG hit!


Makenna's Easy Bake Oven! She's been talking about this gift for months! Good thing Santa listened!


Maryn and Maya with the new ball pit. One of the hilarious things Josh and I have talked about is that the girls all seem to want to play with everyone else's gifts. Maya loves Maryn's ball pit and all the balls that go in it!


And here is Maryn playing with Maya's new blocks! And yes that clock is right... we stayed in our jammies extra long on Christmas morning!


Maya enjoying the ball pit some more.


Maya got a little tired of all the gift opening and decided to go hang out with all of her old toys in the other room :)


Baby's 1st Christmas! We love you Maya!


Maryn checking to see if her new Dora Mermaid can really swim in the sink!


Maya taking a rest in the ball pit.


Me prepping my first big holiday meal. I made a 9 lb brown sugar ham, sweet potato casserole, green bean with feta cheese, fruit salad with a poppyseed dressing, and Hawaiian rolls. It all turned out very well but took a lot longer to get ready and cook than I thought... we ate an entire hour after I thought we would. Maybe it was a good thing we didn't have any company.


Our Christmas dinner table. It was my very first big holiday meal and there was no one there to eat it except us five. Oh well... we enjoyed it and ate really well! And I am my mother's daughter... had to have the holiday tablecloth and all!


Maya's 1st Christmas dinner... ham, kiwi and pineapple. Yum!


Happy Birthday Jesus! Of course we had to make a birthday cake for the guest of honor!! The girls did all the decorating!


More pictures to come of our Boutott Christmas....