Chels

So I call our little girl 'Chels' all the time.

This weekend I notice Carson has added a new word to his vocab. 'Chels'

It is SUPER adorable!

Hmmph!

My honey started school this week.

2 LONG years of homework, study groups, missed meals, and a lonely wife.

No more weekends for us.

I hope this MBA is worth it!

I LOVE YOU DAVID. thanks for all you do for our family. We notice your sacrifice and admire your dedication. Good luck with classes. You're our superman. A full time job, YM responsibilities, and now school--all while being an awesome daddy and wonderful hubby.

Chelsea Month:3

I love my Goo!

This little girl is the BEST baby out there. She is always happy. Chels never cries unless she's been hurt or is extremely hungry. She will whine a bit to let you know she needs something but just a whine. I could have a dozen more babies if they were all like Chelsea.

Here are some wonderful things about our princess...

*She LOVES to coo and babble--she gets angry if I'm not able to talk to her sometimes. (hmmm, a key thing to know for the future?!)

*This girl is super intelligent. She understands moods in the room and responds to them. She also focuses on details

*She is a tender heart. If she senses danger, she will cry out; eg., if Carson comes up to her suddenly and she can't see me, she cries out.

*Chelsea is HUGE! At 2 1/2 months she weighed 15 lbs 13 oz
--this is off the charts for her age! Luckily she is also off the charts in her height so she is balanced!

*Due to her size, she wears 6 mo clothes

*She sleeps 7 hours, nurses and sleeps 3 more at night. This started at 3 weeks of age.

*Her hands are the most interesting thing--besides mom:)

*She loves getting her diaper changed and taking baths. If she is whining, these will both make her stop

SHE IS ADORABLE. I LOVE YOU CHELSEA GOO.

New Years Eve

This year we did a Murder Mystery party for New Years Eve. It was really fun.

Our theme was Reformed Disney Villian's Caribbean Cruise. My brother-in-law, Bryce, wrote the whole thing. We probably didn't really know what we were doing but everyone stayed in character and had a great time. It was really quite humerous. I'm anxious to try a real MMparty.

Here are David and I dressed as Cruella de Vil and Hades; respectivly.

Christmas Morning 2010

Carson really got into opening presents. Lucky for him the event lasted 4 hours!


There was plenty of time while waiting for his next turn to try out his new stuff!

As I was behind the camera, there are no pics of me. And Chels didn't appear til later.

We stayed in jammies all morning, played with new toys and games. Worked on group puzzles and ate a delicious ham dinner.

Family Time this Holiday Season

The best thing about the holidays is Family Time

Our 2010 Timeline Recap

January
-Came home after the New Year to a house full of extended family
-My sister Andelyn stayed with us for 2 weeks
-Found out a baby would arrive in 9 months!
February
-Flew to help Mindy try on wedding dresses (Her and Nathan are engaged)
-Carson turned 1
-Put our house on the market so we could go back to school for an MBA
March
-David offered a job that would allow him to work AND go to school (means we won't go to BYU)
April
-Flew out to look at housing options for our move
-Visited both families for Easter
-Found out we are having a GIRL!
-Flew to Tennessee for half marathon with David's family
May
-Mindy and Nate married for time and all eternity
-Pack up our house and say goodbye to the last few years of adventure
June
-Move in with the in-laws
-David starts new job
-David turns 26
July
-Extended stay with my family
-Bring back a sibling to stay with me every week
August
-We become renters and landlords
-Family vacation with David's family in Spokane
September
-Labor Day with my family
-My dad turns 50
-My due date comes and goes
October
-Chelsea Mckinley FINALLY enters the world
November
-Chelsea is blessed
-Pamela delivers a healthy Camryn Elizabeth
-I turn 25
-Thanksgiving with my family
December
-Weekend trip with the hub to Sundance
-Christmas, family, GREAT times!

Our Family Faces

We have some new "looks" going on lately!

Carson is trying hard to be like Daddy. With a little construction driver mixed in!

Our spit-up queen is showing off her double chin quite well these days.

And the mom got a new hair cut.


I'm not quite sure what I think of it yet. It's exactly what I wanted but I don't know if its the style for me. We'll see how the next little while goes and if not, then short it is.

Utah Birthday Trip

My sweetheart took me away on a surprise weekend getaway for my birthday this year. We went snowboarding, ate at some of our favorite UT places, visited friends, and committed to making it an annual event.

It had been 4 years since I had gone snowboarding and 7 for David! He found his groove much faster than I did but hey, I did just have a baby 2 months ago. For 9 months it was a chore just to go up the stairs. I am pretty sure my body is still recovering just a bit:) By the end of the day I was feeling great. I was the last one on the mountain cause I wanted an extra run in.

Thanks to Grandma for watching Carson back home, thanks to the Gills for the wonderful accomadations, food, and FUN! Thanks to siblings who love us enough to play games with us, babysit Chelsea, and let us bum some major discounts from them.

(Sorry to all my UT buddies who I didn't get a chance to see:( Time is never on my side! I was thinking of you though. )

Christmas Newsletter

Hello all....

I am going to send out our first Christmas newsletter. If you think I might not have your current address and would like me to send one to you, please either comment, message me on facebook, or email me at toodels1@hotmail.com.

Thanks!

Our November 25th

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family. We missed my 3 brothers and other extended family. We seem to have smaller gatherings sometimes even though our family is growing! We look forward to the day when we will all be together again.

I love the weather here. We went to the park, played basketball and tennis, went to yoga classes, and enjoyed plenty of football!


Would you guess these girls are 5 weeks apart?! Hopefully over time, these cousins will close the gap a little tighter but for now, I think Chelsea is at least double Camryn's size!

Oh and yes, Happy 25th birthday to me. A quarter of a centry. We celebrated my day of birth just before Thanksgiving with dinner, cake, and a luxurious mani/pedi. I feel so young, so blessed, and so spoiled.

Thankful for...

This face. It greets me every morning, whenever I've been away and I totally love it. My joy is full. I love life with my 2 kids.


His favorites lately include:
-Playing Duck, Duck, GOOSE! with Simba, Nala, Scooby, and Lamby
-Saying prayers with Simba, Nala, Scooby, and Lamby
-ANYTHING with Simba, Nala, Scooby, and Lamby

The group usually must also include Daddy and Chelsea if available.

Chelsea: Month 1

This little girl is growing up SO fast. Time is just flying by these days. I don't think it will change either. I guess with the more kids you have, the more there is going on, so life just fills up and the busyness takes time away. I can't believe she's almost 6 weeks.


Chels pretty much is like this all the time...chill. She doesn't need me to entertain her. As long as she is not tired and has a very full tummy, she is good to go. Phew, and I thought that my #2 was going to be harder since Carson was a pretty dang good baby. Nope. She is EASIER!

I'm not sure what she weighs right now. I'm going to go use my Wii Fit to find out. hang on. K, wow. According to wii fit, Chelsea weighs 14.3 lbs. That seems crazy. But then agian, she is in 3 month clothes. Speaking of Wii Fit. I've been using that in the past few weeks to get started on my workout:) It actually is doing something. It was sad to see that I have 15 lbs to go before I am back to my skinny self. I'm not sure where I'm hiding all of it because I have been in my own jeans since she was a week old. This time its a bit different since I didn't have a c-section. Now I know where the 'jelly belly' reference comes in. YUCK! My tummy is gross. I'm not sure how much skin itself weighs but if all this extra around my middle adds up to 15 lbs I wouldn't be surprised. Anyway, back to the girlie.

This picture is mostly for my mom. Just in case Chelsea balloons before I got a picture, I want to showcase this sweater that Grandma Facer (or 'Anny M as she wants to be called) made for the little girl.


Here are some things about Chelsea we've discovered or that she's accomplished in her first month:
-she is a chunker
-she sounds like a girl. her cry is so girlie
-she is a strong baby. she pushes up on her legs all the time and she loves to try and look around
-for 10 nights (nov.6 -16) she slept at least 6 hours through and even did a 7 1/2 hour block!!
-most nights sleeps 4 hour blocks
-eats like a champ
-drinks a bottle of formula every night...very well i might add
*this is something new I tried. with carson i was so anti formula and bottle. I was worried he wouldn't nurse well if i gave him a bottle too soon or too much and blah blah blah. I decided I wanted her to be versitile. it's AMAZING being a second time mom. so different and much more relaxed then the first! LOVE IT
-grunts all the time...mostly when she's asleep! it sounds like she is constipated. very funny!
-sleeps on her side and back. this is new for me too. carson would get the best sleep when on his tummy so i put him there. she however is the opposite.
-broke out in baby acne week 4. it is the WORST case i've ever seen. poor girl. I wonder if her being a girl means more hormones so its worse? she still has it. we'll see how long it lasts
-rarely scratches herself. like maybe 4 times. but she has scratches on her face all the time---thank you brother carson.
-started smiling last week. she smiled at her Mama of course and has done it every day since.
-has begun the cooing stage. not a lot has come out but you can tell she is trying so hard. we get little sounds here and there.

We love you baby chelsea. You are so beautiful and you make your family smile.

Chelsea's Blessing Day

We had Chelsea blessed on Sunday. It was a good day with lots of family. My parents came up from San Antonio with the 3 youngest kids, David's parents and 2 youngest were here, his brother Bryce and his family came, and his cousin Kevin was here with his son.

Other than the picture of us in the hospital (me in that lovely gown), this is our first family of 4 pic.

Carson was crying through most of her blessing so I didn't get to hear it. Luckily my mom is a great scribe and I got to read it later!

She's such a beautiful little girl. You will notice that she has a big scratch on her left eye. That would be from her brother the night before. Poor girl. Battle wound and all though, I thought she looked adorable.

Happy Fall

We went to the Pumpkin Farm twice this year. The first time was at night and then Saturday we saw everything in the daylight. Carson really liked the animals and picking up all the pumpkins he could carry.

Carson was a pumpkin (again, yes; I did just have a baby ya'll!) He actually kept his costume on quite well. He had no idea why he was in costume but he was a good sport.

We're already listening to Christmas music at our house!! We are SO excited for this holiday season.