CHERRY SEASON

We like ourselves some fresh cherries around here, if you can't tell

8/10

8/12

MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS

Tuesday August 9th - Monday August 15th

- Mattie is very good at her manners. She almost always says please and thank you without needing to be reminded. Lately, though, she has gone the extra mile and pretty much begs, "Please, please, please, please, please!"

- Also, I have to mention - because it makes me laugh every time I hear it -  that Mattie calls her nursery leader, Sis. Miller, "Misteh Miweh" :)

- Update on our family scripture reading: we haven't been as successful as we'd like to be at reading every single night...sometimes we just have to get the kids to bed without any stories or songs or anything. And it's slow-going when you're only reading 10 verses a night (sometimes only 5). But on the flip side, the kids are always excited to read - they even have their own Books of Mormon in their room that they bring out. And CJ really enjoys the Book of Mormon Stories book that we have to go along with what we're reading. But the best part is when we see that they're actually retaining some information. Like the other night (8/9), after we read scriptures, CJ said our family prayer, and in the prayer he thanked Heavenly Father that Nephi got the gold plates (we had just finished reading about that). Bryce and I looked at eachother and smiled. It was a great feeling!

- 8/10 Mattie finally went pee on the toilet today! It's the first time since we started potty-training 5 days ago. Of course, the weekend was a total bust because we were in Seattle and then at church, so she wore pull-ups almost all weekend. Then we've been running errands and whatnot in the evening, so we've been putting pull-ups on her then too. I haven't dedicated myself to it like I did with CJ...maybe because it still took CJ 9 days, even though we were homebound, and then he regressed anyway. So this time, I figure I'm not going to be so high strung about it. If I need to get something done, then I will. And if we need to go somewhere, then we will. And if Mattie regresses after the baby is born (I'm hoping that doesn't happen, but many people seem to think it will), I figure she'll be like CJ was and totally get it within a day or two of the second time around because she's been exposed to it now. Here's hoping by the end of this week we've got a girlie who is accident-free!

Happy Monday!

PRACTICE BABY

Bryce's brother and his wife, Tyler and Gaby, welcomed their second baby a couple of weeks ago. Domenic Thomas Mackay was born Saturday August 6th in the early morning. Since we only live a couple of hours away, we drove over that day to see the baby. Besides being excited to see our new nephew, we were really excited for CJ and Mattie to get to see a newborn and hopefully better understand what's growing in Mommy's belly and what we soon will be bringing home to our house. Plus, we think seeing Gaby and the baby in the hospital helped prepare them for what to expect when Mommy first has the baby. We explained it to them and CJ really got it - that first Mommy would have the baby in the hospital, and they'd go there to see him, and then we'd come home with the baby. It was a great experience and we think CJ really enjoyed it.

8/6  CJ was intimidated at first, but quickly warmed up to his new cousin, Domenic

This is about as close as Mattie wanted to get to the baby in the hospital

8/14 Domenic was blessed the next Sunday. Just a week later and the kids were already more excited. CJ wanted to hold Domenic all by himself this time, and Mattie actually got close to him...we don't know how happy she was about it, but she let it happen (which she won't do if she doesn't want to do something) so that's a good sign. Can't wait until it's their baby brother they're holding!

MATTIE POTTY-TRAINING

Thursday August 4, 2011

So we finally started potty-training Mattie a couple of weeks ago. Even though the program we have is supposed to take 3 days, we're being a lot more lax this time than we were with CJ, so needless to say, it has not taken 3 days. But that's ok. With two kids and tons to be done around here, we'd rather it take Mattie a little longer to get it and we still have lives than drive ourselves crazy for three days straight :). As of a few days ago, we think she's got #1 taken care of. Now we've just got to get #2 down too. Not too bad. And it's a much happier place around here than it was when we potty-trained CJ :). Here's some cute pics of Mattie in her first pair of big-girl undies:

Mattie after nap time...photo courtesy of CJ

  

MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS

Tuesday August 2nd - Monday August 8th

- Ever heard of Zingo? Well I'm sure CJ could tell you all about it because it is his new favorite game and we play it multiple times a day, almost every day.

- For some reason, CJ has been really into teeth lately. He keeps talking about his small teeth adn how he wants big teeth. And he does the same thing with hands. He keeps talking about babies and little kids having small hands and grown-ups having big hands. I guess he's just being super observant.

- And CJ's new thing to say when he is frustrated is, "Oh maaans!"

- We started potty-training Mattie this week (8/4), but since I'm pregnant and feel like I never have any energy, and I swear we never have just three straight days of not needing to be anywhere, we're taking a real casual approach. So far, we've learned that Mattie can hold it FOREVER! In a period of several days, I've only cleaned up about 4 accidents. I don't mind that, but it would be nice if we she went a little more often so that she could have more opportunities to recognize it and maybe get on the toilet, and then get rewarded. Anyway, we've also learned that she likes to cry wolf. After rushing her to the bathroom several times after her telling me, "I'm peeing! I'm peeing!" I learned that when she really is peeing, she doesn't say anything - she just looks at you wondering what you're gonna do. I'm not a huge fan of this process and I'm hoping that by next weekend she'll have it down.

- Mattie and CJ also met with the pediatrician this week. CJ had his 4 year check-up which included 5 shots! I didn't realize that until we were there in the room. I wish I had known earlier because I would have tried to better prepare CJ. That's ok though because CJ is such a trooper. When it comes to medical procedures, he's as tough as nails (wish I could say that about other things :). He had to get two shots in one arm, and one in the other arm and one both legs. And one of those shots was a tetnus shot, which really hurts. But our little guy didn't cry at all. He barely even grimaced. The nurses kept commenting on how he was the best 4 year old they had seen. Later though, and the next day, you could tell he was hurting, poor guy.

- Besides getting shots, everthing seems to be great with CJ. He's perfectly proportional with his height and weight, and he's smack dab in the middle - 50th percentile - for his height and weight too. Knowing that Bryce is 6'1'' and I'm 5'8'', Dr. Jantzen seems to think that CJ will hit a growth spurt as a teenager and be even taller than Bryce. That's great news...but I'm a little skeptical. I didn't tell Dr. Jantzen about how Bryce and I both have short genes in our families too. Anyway, for CJ's sake, I hope he is tall.

- One more thing about CJ at the doctor's office: athe appointment, he and Mattie were eating their suckers watching Cars in the waiting area while I made another appointment for Mattie. Suddenly I hear CJ calling for me and I look over and he is on the verge of tears. When I went to him to find out what happened, he pointed to another little boy who had taken his sucker! I was totally bugged that some other kid had the nerve to just walk up to someone they don't even know and take a sucker out of their mouth! I often have to remind myself that children are children and that, as an adult, I cannot be mad at them or hold them too accountable. So I guess my frustration was more at the parents. Where were they? Why are they letting their kid do that? Or why are they not aware of what he's doing? Anyway, I'm not the type of person to try to parent other people's kids - especially strangers - so I didn't say anything to that little boy and just got another sucker for CJ instead. And then as we were leaving I talked to CJ about how it's not ok to just take things from people. CJ knew it. He told me how you need to ask first. And then I went on and on telling him how proud I was of him that he wouldn't do something like that (because he wouldn't), and that he reacted the right way. A lot of kids would have freaked out - maybe thrown a tantrum, maybe hit the other kid, I dunno, but that is just not CJ's personality and never has been. I hate that he's on the receiving end of some many things with other kids most of the time (getting pushed, hit, things taken away, bossed around, put down, turns lost, accused of things he didn't do, etc), but I am so grateful that he's not the aggressor. He's not the one pushing or yelling or taking (most of the time :) and I hope he's always like that. He really is an example to me and I love him so much!

- Now about Mattie. We met with Dr. Jantzen about her VCUG results and it was great news! He doesn't seem to think that she needs to continue to take her prophylactic that she's been on for the last year and half and that she won't even need to have another VCUG because her reflux grade is low enough that it's not a huge concern. He even said that they've recently done a study where they question whether someone with a higher grade (Mattie is a grade two and the study was looking at grade 3) reflux even needs to have another VCUG, so that was all positive news. He did suggest a urologist in the area who specializes in children that we could talk to to get a second opinion, which we decided to do, just to be safe. So that was much welcome news and such a blessing. Now I'm just worried about Mattie and potty-training. They say that kids are more prone to UTIs when they're potty-training because they're holding it, which Mattie does...forever! So here's hoping that we can get through this without any yucky UTIs.

- My sister-in-law Gaby had her baby on Saturday so we headed over to see our new nephew/cousin. Little Domenic Thomas was 7 lbs 3 oz (CJ was 7 lbs 4 oz) but seemed so tiny! I don't remember CJ ever being that small (and Mattie never was :), and it makes me so excited to get this little baby inside me here! But I still have 7 weeks to go!! Everyone keeps asking me when I'm due because, I can only assume, I look like I'm due right now. I already know this is going to be the slowest 7 weeks ever. Ugh. Anyway, we were really excited to have the kids see the new baby, especially CJ because he seems to get it more and is way more excited about a new baby brother than Mattie is. We hoped that seeing the baby would really help them understand a little more what is in Mommy's belly and what we're going to have in our home soon. CJ was excited - a little timid - but happy and curious. Mattie wasn't that interested. I'm guessing it won't be that different when it's our baby next month.

- Speaking of next month, I feel like I still have so much to do before the baby comes! Mainly just organizing and cleaning. The kids are all moved into one room, but I need to finish organizing the baby's room, go through CJ's old clothes to see what we want to keep and use again, organize the closets in both rooms, plus general cleaning and organizing, in our room too. And then on top of all that, we have things that need to be done in the yard (namely staining the fence) and around the house. Ugh.

- We did however, get the Expedition fixed this week...or rather, we gave the go ahead on the 3k of repairs that need to be done. The car should be up and running and good to go this Friday. So excited! And praying that those repairs will keep us covered, especially on road trips, until we can afford to buy another car (so like, 5 years or something :).

- And to end on funny note, Mattie's new thing is to shake your hand and say, in a silly voice, "Nice to meet cha!" :)

Happy Monday!

OTHER THINGS IN JULY

7/17  Bryce took this cute picture of the kids watching a movie at the kitchen table. Love their little faces!

7/19 Paige was straightening up the kids' room when Mattie sat down on a bucket behind her and started to brush her hair. It was the first time Mattie wanted to play with Mommy's hair...and it hasn't been the last. Paige is just grateful Mattie hasn't started experimenting with anything other than brushing yet :)

7/21 CJ got his new soccer tee at soccer on this day and was so excited he wanted to put it on immediately. All the other kids saw CJ with his shirt on and went running back to their parents to get their shirts on too. It was pretty cute! 

CJ playing with some of his birthday toys

7/31 Mattie and CJ playing together

Just some pictures CJ has taken throughout the month

OUR NEW FRONT YARD

Saturday July 30th

A few weeks ago, Bryce's parents sacrificed one of their few free weekends (which wasn't entirely true because they had to leave around 2 PM to get back for a stake function that night) to come over the help us do something about our unlandscaped yard. Don't get me wrong, we had sod laid last year, but that was it. Besides our grass not thriving very well, we had this huge dirt pit next to the front porch and then no plants or anything anywhere. Pretty sad. But in less than 12 hours, Greg and Sheila had our front yard transformed!

Greg and Sheila came over Friday evening and Greg and Bryce got the dirt pit filled. Then Saturday we were able to actually add some plants, including a Japanese maple tree (all thanks to Bryce's parents). Here Sheila, Bryce, and Greg are working hard getting everything planted. With her big belly, Paige wasn't much help :)

Hard-working Mackay boys

And here are the final results:

This used to be a virtual pit that would fill with water every time it rained and grew nothing but weeds. Now look how pretty it is!

We love the simple symmetry of our new front bushes!

And the front of our house just looks finished with these bushes framing our garage

Yea for a real front yard! We owe so much to Bryce's parents, who not only sacrificed their money, but their time and energy as well.

Thank you, thank you Sheila and Greg!!

WENATCHEE YOUTH CIRCUS

Wednesday July 27th

A few weeks ago, we met up with some other moms down at Walla Walla park to see the Wenatchee Youth Circus perform. Besides some clowns, one of the MCs, and the crew, the entire circus was made up of kids all under the age of 18. And I hear they're pretty renowned, actually traveling all over to perform. They were pretty entertaining, and the kids enjoyed most of it (except they did start to lose interest after the first hour and a half...two hours is too long). And for an entrance fee of only $1 per person, I think we'll definitely go again next year!

Not a very good pic of the kids, but you can see all the contraptions set up in the background

CJ and his two buddies, Owen and Bennett. CJ sat with them most of the show

After the first hour, this is where Mattie spent most of her time: under the bench

Happy circus!

SWIM LESSONS

Monday July 18th and Wednesday July 27th

CJ and Mattie had their first swim lessons this year. CJ was in a level 1 class for beginners and Mattie was in a Bobbin' Babies class for kids under 3 and their parents. The classes were 25 minutes long, twice a week for two weeks. The kids were pretty excited about it, but nervous on the first day. You can see it in some of the pictures below: 

7/18 Even though CJ was a little apprehensive about his swim lessons, he still participated in everything and did a great job listening and following instructions

CJ all finished with his first swim lesson

7/18 Daddy and Mattie doing the Bobbin' Babies class

7/18 CJ's swim lesson was first, and so while we waited for Mattie to have her swim lesson, CJ enjoyed not only watching the water aerobics at the other end of the pool, but following along as well. It was pretty hilarious!

All done with her first day of swim lessons. Happy because she had so much fun, and sad because we had to go home

7/18  The pool had a snack shop so the kids got a little treat after their first day of swim lessons...which then became a tradition. Each time they tried something new: candy necklace, ring pop, air head, and laffy taffy

7/27 CJ and Mattie's last day of swim lessons

CJ's swim results. Not bad after only 4 swim lessons over two weeks

All done with swim lessons for this season. So fun - can't wait until next summer!

CURTIS JASON - 4 YEARS OLD

July 23, 2011

On Tuesday July 26th, CJ turned 4 years old! Can you believe it?! Here's some special things about our 4 year old CJ:

Height: 39 7/8" (50th percentile)
Weight: 37 lbs 8 oz (50th percentile)

- remarkable tolerance for physical pain
- some favorite foods: chocolate milk, watermelon, taquitos/tacos/Mexican food, gum, mints, popsicles, cheese, carrots, bacon, oranges
- loves to sing and dance (especially loves to sing in the car)
- favorite game: Zingo
- loves to play soccer, ride his bike, play with his marbles/marble works and his car race track, play tag, play in the water (sprinklers, pool, tub, sink), and take pictures
- can count to 30, then by tens to 100 (30, 40, 50, etc)
- can recognize all the letters in the alphabet
- can read and almost write his own name
- loves to draw people
- loves to paint
- common phrases: "oh mans!" "darn it!" "what the heck?!" "sorry, sorry, sorry"
- when he's referring to something in the past, he'll often say "yesterday" or "last year" even though it may have been a few minutes or a few days ago
- still enjoys an afternoon nap (of his own free will)
- has many nursery rhymes, books, and songs memorized - has a fantastic memory!
- is very excited about his baby brother coming next month
- wants to be a missionary when he grows up
- favorite tv shows: Spongebob Squarepants, Team Umi Zoomi, America's Funniest Home Videos, So You Think You Can Dance
- mentions how he's thankful for Papa and Gramma in every prayer, as well as asks Heavenly Father to bless "Jesus and Heavenly Father"
- when "A Whole New World" from Aladdin comes on, he will only let boys sing Aladdin's part, and girls sing Jasmine's part
- loves clothes - buying them, wearing them, changing them - but hates it when they get wet; would change his clothes 5 times a day if we let him
- has no appetite in the morning
- knows what red, yellow, and green lights mean and has become a backseat driver :)
- knows right and left
- enjoys reading the scriptures
- every morning is the exact same: he comes into Mommy and Daddy's room when he wakes up, goes to Daddy and asks, "Daddy? Can I have some chocolate milk and cereal and watch Spongebob?" Every morning. And then usually he'll ask, "Mommy, where are we going today?" :)
- has become extra helpful
- Mattie is his best friend

CJ is such a mild-mannered boy who melts our hearts with his sweetness and his passion for things. We're so grateful to have him in our family and love him more than we can express!!

CJ's 4TH BIRTHDAY...HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY

Tuesday July 26th

CJ's 4th birthday started with Mommy and Daddy and Mattie singing him "Happy Birthday" around the kitchen table, and then a yummy breakfast of donuts, orange julius, and watermelon. CJ specifically picked four pieces of watermelon to eat :)

After eating breakfast, the kids wanted to play with some of CJ's birthday balloons, so they each got to choose one from the bouquets

After some playtime, CJ got to enjoy one of his favorite things: a bath!

Then after getting all clean and dressed up, Mommy wanted to take some pictures of her big 4 year old boy. CJ has learned to cheese it up for the camera

Per his request, lunch was spent at "old McDonald's." Daddy met us there and CJ had a blast playing

Then, after naps, it was finally time for CJ's birthday party. He couldn't wait! A week before his birthday, CJ and Mommy hand-delivered his party invitations to each of the kids in his Sunbeam class (4 others besides himself). And to CJ's delight, they all came!

Here's the birthday crew (L-R): Bennett K., Charle C., the birthday boy - CJ, Cierra P., Owen T., and Mattie. Because CJ's party was in the evening, the kids first had something to eat: pizza, fruit and veggies, and Capri Suns to drink

After dinner, it was time for some games. Since CJ wanted a bug theme, we sent the kids on a bug hunt in the back yard. They each got their own magnifying glass and collection bag, and were sent out to collect all 48 rubber bugs Daddy had planted in the backyard. After they were all found, the kids counted up the bugs they had and prizes were given (everyone got a prize for something)

Then it was time to unveil CJ's surprise - his pinata! He'd been asking for one for months, and unfortunately, we couldn't find a bug pinata, but the number 4 worked just great. Each kid got a couple of turns, and CJ got 3 or 4 turns, before Daddy finally had to bust the thing open so the kids could get the candy :)

Then it was time for presents! This is what the hearth looked like before the party (Mommy waited to put out CJ's gifts so that he wouldn't be tortured by them)...only Grandma Forsgren's package

But this is what CJ got to open! Spoiled kid! We did learn that maybe next year we'll do the family gifts separately from the friend gifts

All the kids were SUPER excited to give CJ their gifts...and to help him open all of them too :)

This is what he made out with from all his family and friends. It's like Christmas! Mental note: if he's having a party, we should probably scale back a little bit on what we give him :)

Then is was time to sing to the birthday boy! Thanks to Grandma Forsgren, everyone got a blower and a hat

And Mommy went a little different this year. To follow the bug theme, instead of a cake, Mommy made earthworm parfaits (brownie, ice cream, pudding, whip cream, oreo crumbles, with gummy worms and jelly bellys to look like rocks). Then all the kids went home with a butterfly catcher filled with all sorts of goodies (flashlight, stickers, bubbles, candy, bug catchers, straws, sunglasses, etc) as their party favors. All the kids got along so great and it was a huge success! Though it was exhausting for Mommy and Daddy, to see how much fun CJ, and his friends, had made it all so totally worth it  

Happy Birthday, to our sweet 4 year old, CJ!

We love you like crazy!!