Baby it's cold outside!

A huge blizzard blew through last Friday. Winter definitely came with a vengeance - it's still currently 30 below (probably lower with the wind). It has been a few years since I've been in a full on Southern Albertan blizzard. We got snowed in and skipped church on Sunday and Mom skipped school on Monday. Mom and Dad decided to go to Lethbridge on Friday and took 2 hours to get home that night. Im just glad they made it. It was beautiful though and I actually quite liked being stuck at home.  

They thought they were picking up snowmen at Costco, but but when they opened the box it turns out it was full of chubby baby! Surprise!

Oh no! It's the abominable snowman!

Oh wait, it's just Grandpa! Yippee!

I have a new appreciation for video chat. Brenan feels so much closer than he is! If you look closely, he is working hard on his mexi-stash. No, it's not just a shadow like he originally assure me of. He says it's my Christmas present. Lucky me.

Such cute shots of McKay with his Babu and Shosho. And no, he's not ALWAYS in his exersaucer although this post makes it look that way.

Our little lizard-child. How we love him! Please disregard the mis-matched socks. The dryer eats them I swear. I just pass it off as the eclectic look.

Brenan, McKay and I have enjoyed a great week together for Thanksgiving here in Cardston. We love spending time together with our families. Some of the events we enjoyed this week were Keston's 5th birthday party, Grayden's grade 8 basketball game against Mountain View (Grayden schooled them all), Mexican Train Game with Mom and Dad (Dad has decided he doesn't like the game), roast beef dinner at Patti and Alans - so delicious (I rarely cook red meat for Brenan so it was a welcome delight), a Thanksgiving feast at the Halls - Dad stuffed every nook and cranny of that bird while giving me a great lesson on the anatomy of a turkey, a temple session with half of Cardston as Jenae Beazer went through for the first time, celebrating our 2nd anniversary, and just hanging with the fam. 

The week went by way too fast as Brenan left this morning for Utah with Dillon to finish up their classes and finals. McKay suggested we stay here to spare him the awful 12 hour ride strapped to his lovely car seat. I consented. Hopefully Brenan can handle freezer food and an empty house for 2 1/2 weeks. Miss you already, Bren. 

A beautiful twilight picture of our backyard here on the farm

He might just suck off his bottom lip one of these days.

Gimme that!

Beatle-ing it up rock band style.

One very tasty microphone

Babu is our bumper. McKay has gone bonk a few times so Babu is playing a very important role here.

Moo, Baa, La la la is one of his favs. McKay likes it alright, too.

Trying so hard to make cool sounds can take it's toll.

I'm already feelin the jingle and jolly and holiday cheer

Our tree, that requires a rigorous 3-step set up process:

1. Remove from box

2. Assemble by placing smaller portions atop larger

3. Fan pre-lit branches

Just another one of so many modern-day conveniences.

"I don't like those poky things!"

Isn't she a beaut?!

Vinnie, do you recognize some of the ornaments? I LOVE the ones you gave me - thank you!

McKay getting aquainted with Mr. Christmas Tree

Still unsure about those poky things

"Man I love standing here by the tree all by myself"

-doesn't that smile just say "I've been such a good boy this year and I deserve SOOO many presents!"

This looks awesome in real life

I know I'm a little early - but Merry Thanksgiving and Happy Christmas!!

Brenan's 2-5!

Happy Birthday to my Brenan today!! We've been celebrating Brenan's birthday for a few days now, the party never stops. Unfortunately today he is at school pretty much from 8am-8pm. On Sunday we cooked some chicken and ribs, since Brenan clearly loves ribs. Ribs for some reason are a hot topic in this blog.

This particular rack looks pretty, wouldn't you agree? Brenan said they were the best ribs he's ever had... I doubt that, but they were still pretty delish. McKay offered to take a picture of us. He's pretty good with a camera. Ha, Dillon came over for dinner to celebrate with us.

Best birthday present ever! Here we are at Red Robin, where we ate dinner last night - one of Brenan's favorites. Scott Fairbanks and John Woodly stopped by to say hi and gave him this! Apparently John always says Canada is America's hat, and Brenan responds that America is Canada's gaunch. Oh, and we weren't sure of the spelling (gaunch/gonch), but Scott and John confirmed in the Urban Dictionary the correct spelling as displayed below.

Good friends Christy, Chase, Emily, Jason and Jordan. Thanks for celebrating with us!

Bryz and Kelly holdin Baby McKay

Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat!

McKay stumbled across our candy stash for trick or treaters. Hmm.. Rice Cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, Reeses. Why not?

The plastic wrappers were exceptionally delicious

Of course our Halloween day included a quick skate around the parking lot with Dad. This may be a little safer in a car seat, rather than free-flying as posted previously. We're learning to be responsible I guess.

Amongst other activities, this Halloween day we drove up to Heber to pick up an exersaucer that we bought used off KSL. It was actually really fun to drive up the canyon. The sun was just coming up and it was foggy and made for a somewhat eerie drive.. very appropro for the day.

Turns out the exersaucer is actually pretty girly. It's okay, McKay can't tell. He CAN hear the scary sounds, though, that the plastic balls make in the toys. VERY FRIGHTENING! Hopefully he'll get used to it soon, because I'm counting on him liking this item!

Sucking the bottom lip: a favorite pastime and makes for a very sweet face.

Yes, that is the snowboard movie double decade playing in the background. Brenan is getting pumped for the snow. He even brought his board to Heber in case he spotted a patch of snow, just to stand on it all strapped in. He was disappointed: no snow.

I was so excited when I came home with McKay's first Halloween outfit: a cow! NOT! Brenan pointed out that it is actually a giraffe.. although you can't see the horns in this picture (or are they antlers? I think they look more like antennas). You can look at the 2nd picture in this post to see them.

This costume was quite fitting because McKay is so long!

For Halloween night, we handed out candy to some neighborhood kids which was so fun. McKay helped open the door when they came trick-or-treating. We then went to visit some favs from our old ward that we were in for a year and half. We miss 6th ward so much. We visited Anne Bates who is a lady I absolutely adore. She is so fabulous and although she has already raised all her children and we're at different stages of life, I feel such a close friendship with her. We hadn't been to see her since we moved, and she needed to meet McKay. She was so surprised to see us standing on her porch - with a 5 month old! Time sure flies.

We also stopped by Aunt Jackie' s and Aunt Christy's to show off McKay's cute outfit. It was a great night.

What a dashing young lad.. Happy 22nd, Dill! So glad we're here to celebrate with you!

McKay was ENTHRALLED with the sparkler

you can see the sparkler reflection in McKay's eyes. Don't mind the brewskies (aka sparkling cider) bottles on the counter, left over from our mad Thanksgiving partay.

Swing, swing, swing. I love to swing. I need to install one of these in my house. Literally. McKay would spend hours on this if he could! Check out the chubby legs! That's my boy.

BATHTIME! McKay's 2nd love, next to swinging, is tubby time. Brenan ensured the modesty here.. :) His favorite thing these days is to suck on his feet while in the tub. At least his feet are clean that way.

"I should splash that camera that's always in my face while I've got the chance."

Fingers are a great post-tub snack

This is McKay's tactic to get a nightly tub. That is a genuine Brenan expression, not just a pose for the camera. The honesty is stunning. This was actually a silent explosion. Usually McKay lets 'er rip when he's doing his business, but not this time. It played out like this:

(Brenan and Beth are sitting at the counter, McKay is in his bumbo on the counter)

Beth, upon smelling something foul in the air: "Brenan, did you toot?"

Brenan: "No."

Beth: "Are you sure?"

Brenan: "I didn't toot!"

McKay was the silent culprit!

The clean up process required:

Mom and Dad both getting poop on our hands

11 wipes

Poop on McKay's arms, head, and legs

Poop on the changing pad cover despite our efforts to put down wax paper

Wax paper stuck to McKay's body

Mom running a naked baby upstairs to the bathroom before more explosions occured

A warm and relaxing bath for a relieved baby :)

ps: what are the physics behind more poo being outside a diaper than in?! It defies nature! Nevermind that - the better question is how did it take this route out the diaper?!

I absolutely love being a Mom to my sweet McKay. Next to marrying Brenando, it is the best thing I've done with my life!