The McKinnons

September

2011-10-22T11:52:00.008-06:00

Lily's crazy tooth dangled and hung for days before coming out. She swallowed it! Not the first time for that - she swallowed her first tooth that fell out about a year before. She loses them while eating and doesn't even realize it! This makes for funny notes to the tooth fairy!

September 11th in Sandy where they had a flag for each life lost (more than 3000) from that terrible day

David's birthday dinner (postponed because he was out of town on the actual day). We made veggie egg rolls and rice. Family famous recipe with delicious sweet and sour pineapple sauce from Tookie (Grandma Gentry) made vegetarian!

Cutting green beans from our garden

Grayson's 5th birthday decor ready to great him in the morning

Birthday dessert (#1) at Red Robin

Cookie cake

Birthday camp out in the back yard - big kids and Dad

First day of new school. The girls switched to a charter school in American Fork about 10 minutes away. Now we drive, but we love the school. It's half the size of the other school, smaller class size and a lot of other advantages. Plus they look so cute in their uniforms!

They are doing okay adjusting. Lily had a hard time starting first grade at the other school, as she did for kindergarten. A couple of teary days. She wrote this letter on one of her first days (at the old school). She abbreviates when she wants to write more than fits on the paper: "Derr M.F. (McKinnon Family) I meiss you wen I am at school P.S. Nothing is mor B.t.o.F. (Better than our family). P.P.S I love you." So sweet and sad at the same time!

Caroline - 5 months. We love this little baby. The kids adore her. She is still a toy to them - until she fusses. Then they are very good at bringing her to Mom. She spends a lot of time in the wrap (Moby wrap - lifesaver). She gets tons of kisses, including wet ones from Grayson.

Her first food was bananas. We mashed it up after she practically stole Lily's out of her hand and sucked on it for a few minutes. She loves baby food more than any of the other kids did!

August

2011-10-21T12:31:00.002-06:00

David & I had our 10 year anniversary! Here is the cake to celebrate.

Having fun with Grayson's hair before buzzing

The girls and I along with lots of McKinnons went to the Sound of Music at Sundance.

Kids trying to sell junk at a neighboorhood garage sale.

Caroline at 4 months

First day of school

Halloween costume preview

July

2011-10-21T12:18:00.000-06:00

The kids sold their parade candy and made $13!

On my birthday, I took the kids to see Ramona and Beezus at the kids summer movies. We loved it! Then we went to have lunch at Pei Wei with David. Then the kids and I went to the Museum of Ancient Life. Great day...

...But of course not tear free!

Fairview Pioneer Day Parade (cousin James behind)

Caroline - 3 months

June

2011-10-20T23:21:00.001-06:00

Gammy, Papa, and Keri came to visit for a week! Fun filled good times. Thanks for all the great pics Keri!


Lehi Round up Rodeo

Babies should not go to rodeos!

Baptism and Blessing

2011-06-19T15:19:00.000-06:00

Well, we have had a lot more going on than this blog shows! So busy with yard work, gardening, four kids, church, family stuff, school (yay for summer), and much more. But most important lately was Emma's baptism and Caroline's blessing. It was on June 4th and Emma's cousin James was baptized too. Everyone came to our house afterwards for lunch. It was a very special day!

Also, my brother Ryan came to stay with us the night before he went to the MTC. It was good to see him before he is off to Anaheim for the next two years!

Caroline's pictures

2011-06-19T14:57:00.000-06:00

When she was two weeks old, a friend took these sweet pictures of Caroline.

Sweet Caroline

2011-06-18T15:24:00.001-06:00

(I wrote this two months ago, but didn't get the pictures on it, so here it is finally)

Our sweet baby came two weeks early, on April 10th. So here's the story: (skip it if it bores you!)
My water broke at 8 in the morning on April 9th. It was Saturday so David was home. I had to stand in the shower for half an hour. I called the doctor and he said get to the hospital soon. I didn't have anything packed and had a lot of things I wanted to do! I did pack and do a few things because I still had no contractions. Then I went over around 10:30 by myself. David was going to pick up our bountiful basket (produce co-op) and figure out where to take the kids. His parents live two blocks from the hospital but they were on a trip to Egypt. After getting to the hospital, I had a few contractions spaced out, and I was only dilated to 2. My plan to labor at home for most of it didn't work! I walked the halls for hours with hardly a thing happening. David took the kids to his brother Greg's (later they went to Mark's and slept over with their family and had so much fun) and eventually made it to the hospital at about 3:00. He was taking his time because nothing was happening! At about 4:00 and only dilated to a 3, the doctor made me start pitocin, and I almost cried. I wanted to go without an epidural and I knew the pitocin would make it difficult. Finally about 10:30pm I was dilated to 5 and feeling hopeless and miserable (and starving!). The doctor was surprised all day that I was not dilating faster, and this labor was so long. When it was almost 11pm I asked for an epidural and I cried because it wasn't turning out how I wanted. A couple contractions later, I made David go ask when the anesthesiologist would be there. He asked the nurse and they said he was on his way from home! I cried again. I have always had an epidural by about 5cm and never felt this much pain! About 11:25 got the epidural and begging inside for relief to come faster than it was. The nurse checked me and I was a 10! Yay! Should I have gotten the epidural? I didn't care, I was in heaven for a few minutes, and then it was time to push. The doctor took his time and even waited a couple minutes for midnight to come because I said I like even numbers so why not wait until the 10th. After a few pushes during contractions, it got a little stressful and they didn't let me have a break because the baby's heart rate was slowing. The doctor told the nurse to get the vacuum and I pushed and pushed because I didn't want that. He didn't need it after all. She was born at 12:11am, and David cut the cord.

View of the temple from my room. It snowed the first day and I couldn't see it.

She was 7lbs 1 oz, my smallest baby. My two other girls were both 7lbs 2oz, and Grayson was 8 lbs 1oz. The first thing anyone said about her was the nurses commenting on her cute dimple. She has one on her left cheek. She looks mostly like Lily did, in our opinion (some think Grayson) but Lily didn't have a dimple as a newborn.

Her name is Caroline Rose. Caroline is David's grandmother, his mother's mother. And Rose is David's mother's middle name. All of our children are named after family. Oh, and it is Caro-LINE (pronounced like the word line, not like Lyn). We might call her Callie, which was also a nickname for David's grandmother, but we haven't really yet. Maybe it's because we love singing "Sweet Caroline" to her!

We surprised Grandma and Grandpa. They had no communication with anyone here while they were in Egypt. We were at their house when they came back, and they were very surprised to meet Caroline early!

Grayson always wants her to fall asleep in his room, so now we have the portable crib in there.

She is sweet and wonderful and perfect of course. We have all loved having this little baby in our family. The kids are all old enough to help and they love holding her, checking on her, and just being near her. We are so blessed to have another healthy baby! She had jaundice and we had to have her on lights at our house for a day, and she had to have her bilirubin level checked every day for the week. She slept a lot during the first week, except when she had the lights which she didn't like, and I actually had to set an alarm at night to wake her and feed her because it helps get the bilirubin out. Now she is fine and waking on her own. She is perfect.

Our Winter

2011-03-21T00:06:00.002-06:00

How about a post to catch up a whole season of what's been happening? Here's some of it:

December

Emma - school concert

Lily - school concert

We celebrated Grandma and Grandpa's (Gary and Linda) 50th Anniversary. We had so much fun having an adult dinner and then a family celebration too!

Christmas was so fun of course, except that Lily was sick Christmas Eve and Christmas. She watched from the couch as she let Emma and Grayson open her presents. She hardly smiled or moved a muscle. Poor little girl!


Christmas Eve doughnut tradition, and talking to Gammy and Papa on the webcam


Pillow pets

Train set and Daddy sleeping on the side

But she was better for her birthday on New Year's Eve. We went to Laurel's (David's sister) for her big New Years party and had so much fun! We held out until midnight, but the kids were asleep in the basement at about 10pm. I think Emma was the only one to wake up for the midnight excitement. We also celebrated Lily's birthday the day before with dinner and a movie (Tangled) and David taking work off.

My sweet girl is six years old, and here are a few things about Lily: she is rarely seen without a notebook and pencil. She loves to draw, color, trace, and is enjoying writing more as she learns spelling (and that it's okay to guess the spelling!) Almost every day she takes a survey in her notebook of each of our favorite things - movie, food, dessert, color, animal, etc. She hated Kindergarten for the first four or five weeks of school, but loves it now. She loves salad, or really just lettuce and asks for it every lunch and dinner, and will gladly finish off Emma and Grayson's if they have any left. She loves animals, and is really wanting pet fish. She picks her nails and skin too much! Bandaids are needed frequently. She plays so well with her brother and sister, and Grayson is always asking if Lily can miss school so she can stay and play with him (which can last an hour or two before he is bugging and/or hurting her somehow). She falls asleep within a minute of her head hitting the pillow. Even with lights on, Grayson still running around, whatever, she is asleep. Big change from her first year or two when I would have to drive around the neighborhood to put her to sleep. She is still a very shy girl and I don't think she ever talks in primary or school, except to a few girls she is getting used to at school. Grayson calls her "his Lily" or his "puffy cheek sweetie." We all love our big six year old girl!

January through March were typical winter months: snowy sometimes, cloudy and cold most of the time, and not too exciting. We went to a play and a Cinderella ballet, which were Christmas gifts from Gammy and Papa. Lily and Grayson had strep throat. One exciting thing that happened a couple weeks ago: my brother Ryan got his mission call to Anaheim California, and leaves in June!

And some sad news this past week was the passing of my cousin RJ Snyder. At age 26, he was married for one year and had a baby boy. A viral infection caused heart problems and he was not able to get a transplant. It all happened so suddenly, and it is so sad. It is these rare tragedies in life that make me stop and think more than ever about the most important people in my life, and thank Heavenly Father for my blessings.

We're having a girl!

2010-12-13T21:53:00.001-07:00

Grayson will be "girl trapped" as Emma and Lily have been telling him! Among my cousins, five girls were born in the past month, and one more coming soon. Crazy! I wish my scanner worked, but just imagine any ultrasound picture of a baby girl! We are so excited and it sure does make it more "real."

Thanksgiving Thanks

2010-11-25T21:53:00.007-07:00

My thankful list:

My family. Isn’t that at the top of everyone’s list? I am so grateful for the people in my family, their love, sweetness, and the lessons they teach me every day. I couldn’t have a better husband and children. They make me better and make me want to be a better person. I love them so much. My parents, siblings, in laws, and extended family are also amazing and give so much love and support to me and my family.

My life. I was reminded from Emma’s thankful list. Ten years ago I couldn’t have imagined where I would be or what my family would be like. I knew I wanted to get started on it, but I couldn’t have known all the events that would take me here to this point in life. I’m thankful for them all, good and bad, and the things I have learned. I’m glad we have time in this life to experience and learn and grow.

My Church. I wouldn’t be who I am without the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful to be a member of the church. I am thankful for the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, that can teach us and bless our lives if we read and follow its principles. I am so grateful for a living prophet to lead us and give us much needed council. I love the support and community our church gives.

My health. There are so many things that can go wrong with our health. A few months ago I was diagnosed with psoriasis, which is something I will apparently have forever. 2-3% of the population has it. It’s not debilitating and mine is certainly a mild case, almost nothing compared to many of the cases (pictures) I’ve seen and heard about. I had never heard of it. I guess getting older you realize how many health problems there are, and I’m grateful for all the good health I have. I have never had a broken bone or had stitches. I have great pregnancies.

My home. I love our house. It’s not perfect. I’m not really finished decorating (will I ever be?) We have weeds. But I love love love having a house and it is perfect for us.

The earth. I love nature. It’s amazing and incredible. Our neighborhood is surrounded by farms and fields. We see cows, horses, and over the past few weeks, incredible flocks of hundreds (maybe thousands at times) of birds flying overhead . I love the mountains. The snow. The trees, especially in spring and fall.

Many other things:

Freedom, pilgrims, pioneers, hard working ancestors, our car, David’s job, pianos, good music, computers, heat and hot water, backyards, great neighborhood and community, being a stay at home mom, phones, easy communication, Christmastime, cameras, kisses and hugs from my kids and husband, and a million more things.

My Vegetarian Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T21:34:00.003-07:00

(This is a long post on my thoughts and I don’t mean to offend anyone so please don’t be! I just have some thoughts as I've learned a lot about this!)

Turkeys everywhere! When you’re vegetarian, I think the time of year that makes you think the most about your diet is Thanksgiving. Last year I was new at this, and of course I was thinking about it. This year, I still feel like I’m learning a lot, but when I start seeing turkey cards, stickers, kids school stuff, children’s books, grocery store ads, and basically turkeys everywhere for “turkey day”, it has made me think more.

Many children’s books are about animals, and the characters have personalities of course! Animals do have personalities, which everyone who has had a pet realizes. Turkeys are just birds, right? I have had three parakeets and have seen each of them have distinct personalities. Emma brought home a book about a goose that almost got eaten. We learned her personality first, so of course we didn’t want that to happen! Good thing she knocked over the farmers’ wife just in time, and flew away, leaving the other geese, whose personalities we did not know, to be picked from instead! It is interesting that authors of children’s books, who most likely are not vegetarian, write in a way of compassion for animals.

I try to teach my kids about it. Ignorance is bliss? I don’t think so. I am so glad to know what I know now. David is really supportive. He tells them it is okay to eat animals, that we have been given them so we can, but not every day. I go a little further. I tell them about factory farming and how different it is than the happy cows we see grazing in the fields around us, the mothers with their young nearby. I try to explain to them the conditions the animals are living in. When they are older, I bet they’ll see the pictures and watch the videos, and read and understand for themselves like I have. If not, that’s okay too. But I know that knowledge is power.

I haven’t cooked meat in over a year, but my family eats it. David has to eat out for work often. Even then, he doesn’t eat meat a lot, probably twice a week. The kids eat it maybe once. It’s offered and available almost constantly even though I don’t buy it or cook it.

Have I mentioned how amazing David is? This whole thing started when we were watching an episode of Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel I think. It was not that bad, but it was bad enough to me. It was about cows. I don’t remember all of it, but it showed a mother cow give birth to her calf and then moan and cry out after it was taken away (to be killed or sold for veal). There was more, but I don’t remember. We both agreed we should cook meat only about twice a week, and eat less dairy. That lasted about a week, over which time I learned more, and was a vegetarian from there on. David learned more too. My husband, the hunter, eats mostly vegan most days of the week. That is quite supportive!

Yes, animals are a gift to us. It used to be more of a necessity for survival. Now we have fruits and vegetables and almost all food available all year. I am so glad there are farmers out there with good ethical values, who show compassion to animals. I wish that their products were the ones being sold in grocery stores, restaurants, and what people were supporting, but for the most part they're not.

I guess I just try to teach the kids that we shouldn’t eat animals (or animal products – eggs and dairy) that have been raised in a way that we would not do ourselves. They kind of get it. But then they go to school and learn about how important it is for us to drink milk from a cow, and how we need three servings of meat a day! Then we talk about government, business, and economics and how people want to make money so sometimes they lie. Then I pretty much lose them. So maybe my best bet is just keep reading their books to them!

It seems from the school things they’ve brought home, Thanksgiving is more about turkey than it is about pilgrims, family or giving thanks. I wish I could scan these because they are pretty funny, but our scanner is broken. Lily brought home a poem that says something like “Big fat turkey, I’m going to eat you up,” and she loves it because she said she loves turkey. Emma wrote a story on paper that had a roasted turkey at the top, so it was supposed to be about our Thanksgiving meal. She wrote about the dinner cooking, but the turkey came back to life and ran away. Then her dad killed it again with an ax and we ate it. There was a lot more to the story, and her details are quite funny.

We had our Thanksgiving meal at Grandma and Grandpa’s (David’s parents) and Greg’s family minus Rachael and their new baby just born and still at the hospital.

The foods David and I brought were all vegan (but not really health foods!). I cooked chickpea tart, apple cake, green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole. David made cranberry sauce. Grandma made turkey, potatoes and gravy, orange jello, rolls, corn, and pumpkin pie. We enjoyed it and we're still extremely stuffed hours later. But I have to say, this day and meal wasn’t even much about the turkey. Can we stop calling it turkey day?!

Halloween and more

2010-11-02T09:01:00.002-06:00

Grayson turned 4. Two days before we took his cake to Brad’s since there was a shower for Dylan’s fiancé and a BYU game to watch. Then on his birthday we had more cake of course (since it was from Costco) and he wanted hot dogs for dinner so Costco it was. We watched a reptile show at the Bean Museum too. Who says birthdays have to be so much work?

David turned 31- celebrated with a date - Pei Wei, a movie, and cheesecake.

Lily lost two teeth

David and I went to Montana for four days for his work because they wanted me to go with him. It was fun and relaxing but the sad thing was we had to miss David’s nephew Dylan get married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. We are so happy for him and Bryan!

Cornbelly’s corn maze

Grayson got his hair cut at a salon for the first time, and now wears his first dress suit for church. He loves both. He felt so grown up going with Daddy to the salon.

First snow – October 27^th – melted before noon but it was exciting!

Halloween weekend - Friday with the girls school parades and parties, and that night the Trunk or Treat and dinner at our church. Saturday trick or treating was fun after waiting out the rain for a while. And Sunday was Halloween celebrated with dinner in a pumpkin.

The kids went through seven costumes with all the Halloween celebrations and a closet full of dress up costumes. Emma’s costumes included a princess for school and a leopard the rest of the time. Lily’s costumes- Supergirl, Doctor, Pioneer, and Cheerleader (thanks to my sister Keri’s old FSU one – I remember when she got that for Christmas!) Grayson was one cute tiger (he wanted to be a white and pink bunny – also thanks to Keri’s old costume he loves to dress up in!)

Other news:

I have been vegetarian for over a year now! (had fish a few times)
And finally, I am sixteen weeks pregnant, so we are all looking forward to April!

Kindergartner and Second Grader

2010-09-04T13:12:00.000-06:00

Emma started school last week and Lily started this week (they start Kindergarten one week later). Lily goes for three hours in the afternoon and they get to ride the bus home together. Their school is a five minute drive, but there's a bus and they were excited for it before the time came to ride it. Emma just started riding the bus to school the last couple days. She had a hard time going to school the first week, but she's doing better. She has never been sad to go to school until this happened, so I'm glad she's doing better. Of course, bribing with double chocolate cookies never hurts either! Lily got off the bus the first day and cried. She said she missed me and she was scared. After she got that out for a few minutes, she excitedly showed me everything in her backpack and talked nonstop about school for a while. She's doing good.

Grayson is doing okay without sisters around all day. He's actually napped two days this week, and then it's fun to have time with just me and him for a couple hours. He is a funny boy, and sweet too. He tells me about ten times a day that he loves me, that I look pretty and that I'm the "bestest" mom. He also gives lots of hugs and kisses. I wish he could stay this way forever. His birthday is coming up and unfortunately time moves on so quickly. I love my sweet kids.

Update!

2010-08-29T22:12:00.021-06:00

Updating is just so difficult when I'm so far behind! Here's a quick one anyway:

We have been in our new home in Lehi since May! Our first home - after nine years of marriage! We put in sod, trees, fence, etc - still need flowers. David and his dad built the trampoline in the ground and the kids love it almost as much as we do. We love our neighborhood and our ward. There's a zillion little kids. It's great!
Lily finished preschool, Emma finished 1st grade.

We've had two birthdays - Emma turned 7 and had a fun party at the park. I turned 28, and David and I celebrated our nine year anniversary.
My family came skiing in March. It was fun to see them.

We've had some fun times with the McKinnon's this summer, baptisms, the cabin and just hanging out.

My mom and Aunt Gretchen came to visit a couple weeks ago and helped me with the house - painting and hanging frames (still need pictures in them) and fixing things.

David's job is going great. He travels almost weekly, mostly to Idaho. He likes his job which is great!

Emma just started 2nd grade and Lily is starting Kindergarten. Grayson will be pretty bored with no girls to terrorize.
Here's a few other things that have been happening:

Goodbye to our '97 Civic. David has a work car, so we didn't need it.

Playing with cousins

David playing ball with McKinnon's

Our backyard

American Fork Canyon

Lehi City Parade our ward participated in

Emma's 7th Birthday

Cascade Springs
McKinnon Cabin

Also, I will be a better blogger from now on. Seriously!

New Years, Lily's Birthday, and Haircuts

2010-02-11T22:04:00.007-07:00

New Year's Eve - Lily's 5th birthday! We were still in Tallahassee. We had fun just chillin, and she had a party the next day with a few cousins and friends.

She cried when she opened the movie Snow White because she's scared of the witch. Poor girl.

For her party, they played games, did a small craft, and off course more cake and presents.

The day before we flew back to Utah, my mom cut their hair short. We love it tangle free, and we donated their hair to charity (wigs for cancer patients).

Christmas

2010-01-16T13:05:00.026-07:00

The day we arrived in Florida, we went to Bristol to Grandma (Tookie's) house for Super Christmas Family Home Evening with a lot of family and friends. Lindsay's cousin Pam recites the birth of Christ, Aunt Doris reads (recites?) The Night Before Christmas, Grandma makes announcements, we sing/shout songs like the 12 Days of Christmas while Aunt Glynis plays the drums, Aunt Gayle plays the piano, and sometimes there is guitar and random instrument playing. Then we eat and sing/shout some more, passing the microphone around and having fun. Lindsay sang with cousins, Keri sang with her friend Candace (Suzy Snowflake is the greatest), and Ryan, (yes Ryan) sang with cousins and Berkley.

Aunt Keri with the kids

Grayson is our bravest and he loved the spotlight almost as much as Landon (on the right)

Gammy and Grandma dancing, and here's how the highlight of the night began:

Notice Grayson on the right, innocently admiring this:

Little Gammy ornament

Grayson being butt bumped

Grayson falling all the way down

And laughing it off with the rest of us.

Here's the replay:

Santa came to the Snyder house two days before Christmas! This is not unheard of, as he came two years ago also. He even brought an early present for each of the kids. Emma got a barbie, Lily got a stuffed panda (medium as requested), and Grayson got a truck carrier with cars. He read them The Night Before Christmas and we shared some cookies and milk with him. Then he whispered something to each of them. I think he told them to be good and help clean up all the toys. They would neither confirm nor deny when we asked.

Christmas Eve dinner: we had salad, rolls, smoked turkey, maple roasted sweet potatoes, green beans, and tomato pie. David, the kids, and I took some to Papa at the hospital (I think we did that two years ago, but last year didn't cook early enough) and we had a tour of the ER. Lily had been really excited to see "inside" a hospital. We also made the traditional doughnuts for Santa and finally called it a night.

Christmas morning

We intended to awake at 5:30am. Papa had to leave for work at 6:30, so we wanted to open presents before he left. We all overslept. We opened presents but saved some for when he got off work in the afternoon.

Keri was seen awake before 2pm! A Christmas miracle!

Gammy smiled about a box with raincheck note for a CHI (from Keri)

The most memorable gift had to be the enormous "Synder" (sp. Snyder) gingerbread house. No photo.

We stayed in pajamas most of the day and played.

Grayson played with his Cars tracks

Emma and Lily played with their Littlest Pet Shop

David played with Brandi

Brandi tried to play with Jake and the hungry/sad/scared one (Riley- unavailable for photo - there was no food in the general vicinity)

Everyone (except me) played all the varieties of guitars in the house. Emma attempted to learn.

Then Papa came home and it was time for Presents Round 2.

Our gift to Gammy and Papa (Gina/Matt). Lindsay made it at a Relief Society activity.

Later, it was time to go to Dorothy Oven Park and see some fun lights.

We had a great Christmas. A few days later, December 29th, Lindsay's cousin Adam and his fiance Lindsey got married, so Lindsay went to Orlando with some cousins for the sealing. It was a fun (long!) day and it was beautiful. They are a great couple, and Lindsey was a beautiful bride!

Adam and Lindsey at the Orlando Temple.

(Borrowed your pic Leslie!)

Not as monumental as a wedding, but we did have the traditional eggroll feast (at some point per visit it is required) - veggie ones for me! Why is this underlining?!

California Dreamin

2010-01-16T11:50:00.007-07:00

The week before Christmas we went to California because David's nephew Trevor and his fiance Kelsey were getting married. Of course we went to Disneyland again and this time with David's parents (Grandma and Grandpa) and Laurel and her daughter Courtney. It was the most fun we've had there of the five times we've gone as a family this year (ever!) 2009 was the year of Disneyland!

The San Diego Temple was beautiful and Trevor and Kelsey are an awesome couple!

Brad (David's oldest brother) and Sherry; Kelsey and Trevor

Grayson slept during the sealing

We left San Diego the night of the wedding and stayed in Las Vegas. We drove back to Utah the next morning to have a few hours before our flight to Florida. We landed in Tallahassee less than twenty-four hours after leaving Vegas. It was exhausting!

Fall Fun

2010-01-16T00:27:00.007-07:00

In October we found ourselves at Disneyland again for two days!

Halloween:

Dorothy, Buzz Lightyear, and Lily the Leopard

with cousins

Thanksgiving at Brad and Sherry's

Summer review

2009-09-08T01:27:00.026-06:00

Yes, we're really bad bloggers. We have been living in American Fork, Utah. We loved living in San Luis Obispo. It is the best place! We made a lot of great friends and had good experiences there.

So here is what's been happening in the McKinnon family:

June David graduated. Emma finished Kindergarten. Lily finished her first year of preschool. We packed up and left SLO. David left for his three week trip to India and China for his last course. Great footage starring David here. The kids and I flew to Tallahassee for a vacay with my familly. Beach house and pool lounging fun!

David and Lily

Cape San Blas, FL:

Lily, Keri, Emma

Gammy and Lily and Keri's turtle

Ryan and Grayson

Brandi blowing kisses

Girls and Gammy

Kids and Papa

Lily, Lindsay, Emma

July

Fireworks at my parents house- it was a blast! McKinnon family reunited in Utah! My birthday (27!) with fun presents from China! Pioneer day/ McKinnon reunion at the cabin.

4th of July

There was great food.

There was water fun.

There were great fireworks.

And fun!

Keri and Grayson

McKinnon cabin in Fairview, UT at our engagement tree:

August

Eight year anniversary! Emma started first grade. Big McKinnon reunion.

September

David's birthday- 30 years! Grandpa's birthday. Grayson's birthday - 3 - celebrated with chocolate cake and cheesecake! And finally, Grandma's birthday! Four birthdays in this house over two week period!

We've had a fun summer!

Disneyland X 4

2009-05-28T01:04:00.011-06:00

We've gone disneyland crazy. We went there and California Adventures for three days in March, for Emma's birthday in April, one day in May and also David and I went when his parents came and watched the kids for us for a couple of days.

David and I went to Hollywood too and it was amazing to get away and have a break. I can not thank my parents in law enough for the much needed break!

Michael Jackson and his moves

I stumbled upon my namesake Lindsay Wagner

More D-land

Coupon Crazy

2009-05-27T23:24:00.011-06:00

Yes I've been absent on the blog but I have a few good reasons. One is that I have recently become a Coupon Queen. As lame as it sounds it has been really fun! Don't think I'm wierd for posting my deals (David already assured me I am)- I just want a record of my first few deals to compare for later deals and see if I can do better as I learn how it all works. Here are some of the deals I've done over the past month or so.

It all started at CVS

A few weeks ago I bought shaving cream (not pictured) for $2 or so and got ECBs(Extra care bucks - in store credit) for like $2 or whatever the price was to buy the shaving cream.

Then I bought this:

6 3m command hooks for $1.31 tax only and got $5 ECBs.

Then I got this:

2 Loreal color juice lipstick (75% off), Loreal lip glam shine (75% off), NYC eyeshadow, NYC lip plump color - both 50% off and coupons
used the ECBs and spent $1.74. The total would have been like $38 regularly!

Next up Target 30 minutes away but I keep going back for more!

First I got these paying just tax $.35.
2 dry idea deodorants

Then I got all this for $7.70 and got a $5 gift card.

3 quaker granola bites
3 hersheys bliss bars
5 travel size Kotex packs
4 easy macs
2 travel colgate toothpaste
tide travel size
olay soap
2 johnson baby shampoo travel
4 boxes fiber one bars
4 boxes fiber one cereal

Then I got all this

for $15.88 and got another $5 gift card plus I'm getting a $10 rebate from swiffer!
3 quaker granola bites
3 hersheys bliss bars
3 chex mix
3 100 calorie boxes
swiffer sweeper
2 swiffer dry pads
3 swiffer wet pads
4 small purrell
2 small baby shampoo

With that last $5 gift card I got this:

2 shirts for Emma (clearance)
8 more Hershey's bliss bars (free with coupons)
and still have $.25 left on the gift card

Walgreens trips along with Target out of town. Walgreens is trickier to me and I messed up a little but lesson learned.2 2pks magic eraser
right guard deodorant
Neutragena mascara
2 colgate sensitive toothpaste
ecotrin
3 4pks bayer quick release crystals
tampax
2 sally hershberger hair mouse things
4 sally hershberger hair texture things
lip rx lip plumper
2 physicians formula bronzers
2 revlon nail polish
6 small aveeno lotions
3 aveeno travel kits (6 or so lotions and stuff)
3 aveeno smoothing ageless lotions
1 bonus lotion stuck on the back

Total spent after two rebates coming: $33.17 - yeah kind of a lot but that would be like buying just the bronzers at regular price or just the aveeno travel kits, so still amazing deals. But I have a headache just thinking of going back there again.

Kmart double coupon week

4 Dove ultimate deodorants
2 dove body spray (bonus stuck on back)
Denteck flossers
Veet
2 Skintimate travel size
3 soft scrub scrubby pads
latex gloves

Spent $8.27 Regular price that would have gotten me just 2 deodorants!

I've also had lots of great grocery store deals. David thinks I'm crazy but this has been fun! Thanks Jen for posting about your deals which led me to do my research!

February

2009-03-06T01:58:00.006-07:00

Grandpa and Grandma McKinnon came to see us! We had not seen them since December 2006! They were called to serve at the Joseph Smith birthplace Memorial in Vermont for two years and we never had a chance to go visit them there. They got back to Utah in January so now every McKinnon is in Utah except us! It was a fun visit. We went to Santa Barbara Zoo, they took the kids to Pismo beach, Morro Bay and Atascadero Zoo and David and I went to Fresno and on a date (extreme rarity) and we loved every minute of their visit. I didn't even get a picture of grandparents and kids with their faces showing, I am so bad at thinking of these things.

video sliding down the hill coming soon!

January

2009-03-06T01:27:00.006-07:00

Avila Beach - record highs in early January! We love it here!

December

2009-02-28T02:17:00.017-07:00

December - Christmas in Tallahassee!

Snyder Christmas party

We made gumbo all day and it was exhausting, but fun!

Mom on left; Dad in middle doing traditional "Wright family" white elephant

Kristin, Leslie, Kyers, Whitney, Whitney's friend, Keri, Lindsay, Lily and Emma

Gentry Christmas FHE/ party

Baby Kye

Grandma/ Mawmaw

Lily, Madison, Sydney, Emma

Christmas Eve

Somehow David keeps convincing me homemade doughnuts instead of cookies for Santa will be our tradition. I don't think I can keep doing this, it is so much work and we made way too many and got so sick of them! It was still kind of fun.

We've given the kids pjs the past two Christmas Eve's but not this year. They just have too many already! We still kept the book tradition to add to the collection!

Christmas

Instruments! Tyler - guitar, Ryan - electric guitar, Keri - violin

David and his deer

New Year's Eve/ Lily's Birthday

Lily's party - pinata

New Year's Eve - Keri and Ryan had a bunch of people over with a big bonfire and the kids bundled up with a little fire and a movie on the laptop!

Keri's dog Brandi will sleep through anything! The girls piled blankets pillows, cuddled her up with a stuffed animal, and read books to her for at least thirty minutes and her eyes did not open once!

Update: November!

2009-02-27T22:19:00.017-07:00

Brief updates since November!

November

We had a fire on the mountain right by our house! We almost evacuated but they had it under control soon enough. Our fire detector went off and it was pretty crazy. 100 acres were burned I believe.

Thanksgiving - fun! From Utah, Brad's family except for Dylan (on a mission in Italy) and Mark and Laurel's family except for Makenna came to see us! It was fun. We went to see Twilight, went to Hearst Castle and to see the elephant seals and of course had a great dinner on thanksgiving with the help of Sherry and Laurel. We played fun games while the kids watched Wally and Kungfu Panda. It was so fun to have them here! Here are a few pics.

Emma and Tyler at Hearst Castle

Emma at Hearst Castle

Grayson looooved James

Days at the beach
I try to take the kids at least once a month even in the fall and winter and it's not hard when we have warm weather. In the first week on January, we had record highs (in the 80s) and it was really fun! Here are some pics from November at Avila Beach.

And it begins....

2009-02-15T15:11:00.003-07:00

Okay, so maybe Emma has always had an attitude, but this was funny. Lindsay and Emma were arguing the other day so Emma went upstairs. She wrote on a piece of paper "my wrc fred is mom." It was supposed to say "my worst friend is mom." She inherited her spelling skills from her dad.

We haven't posted in a while. I figure it has been a few months. Lindsay gave a spectacular talk in church today about family history. She did awesome. She's such a good speaker. We had a great Valentines Day yesterday. The kids love Panda Express so we all went there for dinner. Romantic, right? Actually Lindsay and I went to dinner on Friday night while the local fitness club (where Lindsay works) provided babysitting.

School is insane. I love it and I love the things I am learning--but it never ends. Test after test, case study after case study, project after project, presentation after presentation. I have the easy part. Lindsay has the hard job but she makes it look so easy. She is such a sweet wife and mother. I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day.

Halloween

2008-11-05T22:06:00.008-07:00

We had a great Halloween week going to trunk or treat, making orange frosted oreos, Emma's class party, Halloween Hoopla at Farmers Market, the children's museum and actual trick or treating which we did early from six to seven. We had our 50s girl, Belle, and a cute monkey all worn out from sugar and ready for bed at eight!

School carnival

2008-11-05T21:15:00.004-07:00

Emma's school carnival was fun for the kids and they won a lot of fun little toys, and had fun dancing with Daddy too.

2008-10-12T15:40:00.007-06:00

My cousin Melissa takes pics of her kids before church on Sunday's, so while I'm not nearly on top of it as her, I think it's a great idea. We're always running late but at least we took some right after church today! I cut Grayson's hair with clippers yesterday because I was so tired of the amateur scissor cut that took forever. It's so short but I think he looks so cute and grown up and with his new church clothes, he's my handsome little dude.

Our proposition 8 sign in our front yard. The church is very involved in California trying to get the signs up and knocking doors which we couldn't do because of David's schedule, and we have had a couple of special meetings about it in our ward/ stake. It is scary what could happen in our church, imposing on our beliefs and teachings and what will happen in public schools (like in Massachussetts) if this is not passed.

The kids had fun playing while David enjoyed watching the BYU game with Ty (from our ward) last week, and it's so funny that he's going to be teaching David's strategy class in the spring, and David's dad taught Ty and Alison in MBA school at BYU and they knew Greg and Rachael too!

Here's Grayson flying/ running down the slide and the kids playing with friends.

Finally settled (kind of) and having fun

2008-09-23T06:24:00.012-06:00

It was hectic here the first three weeks because of David's schedule but we think the worse is over. He had a break last week and we got mostly moved in and settled finally. The kids have been having fun and they've already been to three birthday parties. Plus we've had David's and Grayson's to celebrate as a family! I made David a delicious cheesecake and Grayson a train cake (pics of that below).

As the picture above shows, Emma lost her second tooth, her front top left one just 8 days after her first one (so now she has a diagonal gap thing going on) and this one wasn't loose, it just popped off when she was pulling the water bottle cap up with her teeth.

He cannot open his eyes when he tries to blow the candles, he does have some great faces!

His BYU hat from the girls, and FSU jersey from Gammy and Papa

He did this on his own honestly, just instinct, right? GO NOLES GO COUGS!

Pismo Beach Pier

I had a little too much fun on the swings after sunset - my keys fell out of my pocket right there but we didn't realize it till we were all the way in the parking lot and it was very dark! We found them whew!

Kindergarten

2008-09-23T06:00:00.010-06:00

Emma is in kindergarten! Here she is on her first day of school. We walk sometimes because it's just half a mile away. It's a great school, and she is really loving it and doing well. Lily is sad sometimes and wants to go to a school, so she will probably start preschool in the winter when there are openings available.

Emma's head tilt pose

Lily coying the pose