This One Is For You Daddy!!!

Standing

Makenna has been briefly standing on her own for about two weeks now. Everyday she becomes more brave and does it more often and longer lengths. I was finally able to capture her accomplishment with a picture.

Texas - Day 5 "Kissin' Cousins"

Today has been a pretty relaxing day. It has consisted of a lot of movie watching, Wii playing, and baby wrangling. Jacob had his 2 month check-up today as well. He was such a trooper with his shots.

I'll leave you with a few more pictures we took today.

Makenna and Momma

Makenna getting excited to "play" with Jacob.
Jacob "playing" with Makenna

Makenna giving Jacob some kisses!

Bouncing Jacob

Texas - Day 4

It has been a bit cooler today than it has been the past couple days, so we decided to do some things outside today.

This morning the girls took a trip to the local outlet mall to do some shopping. And the boys stayed home to relax and take a much needed nap. After lunch we went to a peach orchard to get some home grown peaches and homemade peach ice cream. The ice cream was delicious and I cannot wait to eat some of the peaches.

Here are a few pictures from the peach orchard.

Texas - Day 3

Today started with church. We got the kiddos all dressed up for church and to take a few pics. They both did great during worship. Jacob slept and Makenna enjoyed looking around at all the people.

In the afternoon Jason's dad, sister, and some friends came to visit and eat a late lunch. Makenna had a blast playing with the older girls. She was definitely the center of attention with them.


Jacob spent most of the afternoon sleeping and cuddling with whoever was holding him.

It was a busy day but it was great to get together with our Texas family!

Texas - Day 2

Makenna slept amazing our first night in Texas. Which makes her momma very happy. Her napping could use some work but I am not complaining because overall she has adjusted amazingly!

This morning Jacob was in a great mood and full of smiles.

And Makenna decided that the best way to beat the heat in Texas is to go swimming.

Texas!

We made it safe and sound to Texas yesterday. Our flight left Des Moines at 10:20 and we landed in Dallas around 12:15. Makenna did excellent. She fell asleep almost immediately after we boarded the plane and slept almost the entire flight.

Here are a couple pictures for Makenna right after she woke up and waiting to get off the plane.

It was great to see my sister, Jason, and Jacob. Jacob is such a cutie and he loves to snuggle. Which makes it a ton of fun to hold him.

Once we got to Erin's house Makenna made herself at home. She found all the toys right away and her favorite thing to do is stare outside at the puppies.

Makenna has not seemed to be bothered at all about being in a new place. I do think she misses her daddy, though!

Pics of Makenna

Allison's mom posted a couple good posts involving Makenna.  You can read them here.

iMac

I am happy to announce that we got a new computer. Yep, that's right we joined the in crowd and splurged on a Mac.

Needless to say we love it!

Here it is proudly displayed on our desk.

Makenna talking

Makenna is at such a fun age.  She is starting to say bababa a lot. She crawls like crazy, climbs on everything and lets go and tries to balance.  Pretty active girl for 8 months.

Fathers Day

My first Fathers Day as a father was a pretty good one.  My folks came down and we cooked hot dogs, then we surprised them by taking them bowling at the new Perfect Games in West Ames.  I think everyone had a fun time.  I'm sorry to say somehow I lost the battle, finishing 4th out of four.  

Dad and I attempted a game of Guitar Hero.  We both stunk.  I think the machine was broken.

Dave and Jeanne came up for awhile in the afternoon as well.  They treated us to some Culvers and had fun playing Makenna.

Last Weekend

To continue with the weekend updates, this past weekend my parents came up to babysit and work on the house. Friday they babysat so Jared and I could go to a wedding.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early. My mom and I went to a couple garage sales and found some great deals on a bunch of clothes for Jacob. While we bargin shopped, Jared and my dad painted two more rooms. Saturday evening we headed to church and then left my parents to babysit Makenna again while Jared and I went to a friend's birthday party.

Sunday we all took a trip down to Des Moines to go to the Home Show. On the way we stopped to eat brunch at IHOP. We had a great time at the home show and Makenna did awesome. Jared and I both came away from the show with some ideas we may possibly use in the future. We were both inpressed at how well Makenna did while we walked around all the houses. She sure had a busy weekend, but she sure was a trooper.

Here are a couple pictures of the swing and "Flinstone" car my parents brought up for Makenna. They found some amazing deals on both of them.

Sauerkraut Days

Two weekends ago Jared had more family come to visit the Willis Dairy Farm. This time his relatives came all the way from Alabama. It was the first time I got to meet his cousin Ben. It was also a first for all three of us to meet Ben's wife Carloyn and daughter Grace.

We met for lunch in Ackley at Pizza Ranch and then took a stroll around the town square. It just happened to be Sauerkraut Days, which is Ackley's annual town celebration. Makenna got to see a goat and some old tractors.

After seeing all there was to see at Sauerkraut Days we headed for the farm. Makenna and Grace had fun playing with each other. And I was glad to meet Ben and his family and Jared enjoyed catching up with Ben.

Dam to Dam

A few weekends ago we took a trip to down town Des Moines. The plan was to meet up with a college friend of mine who was running in the race. And and then spend some time enjoying the Farmer's Market. It was good to see some friends we haven't seen in a long time. Makenna did great and loved watching all the people.

Here she is chillin' in her stroller.

Ba Ba Ba : Makenna Talking

Memorial Day Weekend

I know it is a bit late but I wanted to blog about our Memorial Day weekend.

Saturday we headed up to the farm to spend some time with Jared's parents and relatives from Arkansas. It was fun to enjoy being outside on the farm and seeing Gabe, Dorothy, and Liam.




(The very cute sweatshirt we borrowed from Liam)

Sunday we didn't do much. We painted the nursery and worked in the garage.

Monday we woke up to see that several of our neighbors had placed flags in their front yards. It was a great reminder of why we celebrate the day. mMy parents came to visit and helped with more painting and more organizing the garage. We got quite a bit done and got to eat some pretty good food too.

Look Out!

Makenna's new favorite toy is her car. She loves riding on it and will go for a ride whenever we are willing to push her around.

I figure that since it as almost been a month since we updated our blog, and some of you who read our blog live far away and haven't seen Makenna in a while, I will start with a few updates about Makenna.


- She loves to eat. She will eat pretty much whatever we offer her and whenever we offer it to her.

- She started to crawl about a three weeks ago. And she has since mastered the skill.

- About a month ago she got her first tooth. A few days later the second one followed.

- She can pull herself up on things/people very well. And will sometimes stand alone for a few seconds.

- She will drink 8oz of milk before bed and will sleep through the night (REGULARLY)! Before we were only giving her 4oz and she would wakeup and need to be rocked back to sleep once in a while. We found out that she sleeps better with full tummy. Who would've known? First time parents....geesh!

- She really enjoys listening to her daddy play the guitar.

- She also will feed herself her snack. (gerber puffs). It is fun to watch her think and work so hard to pick up one small puff.

- She will drink from her sippy cup if someone will hold it for her.

- When sat in front of the piano, she will "play".

- She will grab anything and everything in front of her. She can even reach thing that we consider to be a safe distance from her.

- One of her favorite things to do is play outside.

And We're Back

After moving, attempting to unpack, and a computer problem, we are back to hopefully updating our blog more often.


Here are pictures of the inside of our house that I promised to show you.

I'm looking forward to all the changes that we are planning to make to the house. I'll keep ya'll up to speed on our progress.