Kendal is THREE!! July 22nd was her birthday and we had a big party for her! I'm so grateful for all our friends who came to help celebrate Kendal with us! She is such a WONDERFUL little girl and we had such a wonderful party for her!
Grandma Leeann made Kendal a special cake! Grandma let Kendal lick the mixing spoons! YUM!
The inside of the cake. Very yummy!
The master at work!
(I guess I never got a photo of the finished product! I'll have to see if my mom did!)
At the party, we went swimming and had a BBQ. Pretty simple for a hot summer day!
Kendal's party was a princess party. Her and her "boy friend" as she calls Jay...She doesn't really know what a boyfriend is...just the fact she can't remember Jay's name and he's a boy. I think it's pretty smart!
Opening presents...Kendal was half alseep!! It was funny to watch her cuz she had no expression the whole time! Such a tired little girl. But the day after the party she sure had fun taking all her stuff out of boxes and playing!
Love her outfit? I tried to make it look "princess-y"
My mom has really bad feet...so after a long day of being on them she iced them. And of course, my curious daughter wanted to see what it was all about!
Everything is out of order on here but oh well. Here is another shot of how Mylee sleeps. She's not quite asleep here, almost though.
For some reason I love this photo below. She is ready for her nap and yet still flashing smiles! We LOVE our "Smiley Mylee"!
She's getting really good at grabbing EVERYTHING! She even grabs with her toes! Daddy leaned over to give her a kiss and she started touching his whiskers with her toes! It was so cute!
Mylee has been playing with her toes for a little while now. I've just had no time to myself so I haven't been able to blog. But for some reason, Kendal decided to lay on my lap today and take a nap!! BEAUTIFUL day! She NEVER EVER NEVER takes a nap. I'm soaking in this quiet time for sure!!
When I was trying to take a picture of Mylee playing with her toes, SOMEONE got a little jealous, wonder who? Kendal went and pouted in the corner. I asked her to turn around to look at me so I could get a picture of her and this is what she looked like when she turned around. She is hilarious! (She likes to be in her panites. Probably cuz it gets a little warm in our house. I don't mind. No one ever comes to visit)
Kendal's new trick. Well not really new, about a month ago she learned this on her own. Now she does it ALL THE TIME! Crazy girl!
This chore chart has saved my life! For the past month, Kendal has been sick. Luckily she is over it all now, but last month was a VERY trying month for me! Even though I knew she didn't feel well, her whining and crying really bothered me. Anytime I asked her to do something, clean up her toys, she cried. Ah! So with the idea from a friend, I made this chore chart! It really has flipped everything around. She doesn't throw fits, unless she's tired. But that's whatever. Her chores consist of:
Eating all her meals
Making her bed
Brushing her teeth
Putting clothes away
Taking a shower
And some other ones I can't think of
Simple easy day stuff that she would just cry over. Now she doesn't. If she does though, she doesn't get her "stick in her chore chart" At the end of the day, if all the chores have a stick, she gets a sticker. If she gets a sticker everyday that week, she gets something special. Haven't done this long enough for that something special. This Saturday, if she gets all her stickers, she'll get something special. We are having another birthday party for her with the Buck side. Going to Peter Piper Pizza, so we can find something special there. :)
Kendal is OCD, as I mentioned in my last post. Took some more photos of her OCD-ness. She puts away her toys now by color.
Myee playing with Kendal and letters! Right before she rolled from her tummy to her back for the FIRST time! She's rolled back to belly. Still need to try to capture that on video. She's too fast or it's not when I have my camera ready.
Another OCD thing. She lines her things up. Coloring books.
Ok, story to go with this. Tanner thought it would be fun to teach Kendal how to pose in a break dancing pose. Make sense? Basically, you lay on your arms with your stomach and lift your legs in the air. Well, after trying a few times, Kendal sort of got it. But the next day, she made her ballerina barbie do it.
And lining her barbies up too! She got these from her birthday and LOVES them :)
She is so strong and loves to be on her tummy. Well, until today when she learned how to flip over!
So life is going really good right now! Hopefully moving soon. There was some bad communication about the place we want to move to. It's a REALLY long story and I don't feel like typing it out. Basically we'll find out on the 1st of August if we're moving. Now that I have figured out more about Kendal and getting Mylee into a nice routine! Life is sweet. I do have some funny stories to share. I think they're all about Kendal....
First story...Remember how Kendal had pink eye? Well, we had to put eye drops in her eyes. 3x's a day 2 drops in each eye for a week. After doing eye drops as directed for about 4 days, I couldn't find the eye drops anymore. In a way I was sort of relieved. Putting these drops in was KILLER! Kendal screaming the whole time and us having to pry her eyes open. It was hard. Anyway, I always left them on the counter so I would know where they were. Well, after looking for a while I never found them. A few days later, like 2 days, I found the drops on the TV stand behind our thermometer. I picked it up and said to Kendal "Look what I found!" Kendal's reply was this "haha! I hid them from you!" I couldn't believe she did that! I didn't think she was THAT smart. I thought wrong!
I have been pumping now for a week. All meals. It's so nice! Some people who I tell, think I'm crazy. I don't see why. Mylee is still getting breastmilk and pumping is much easier than trying to nurse. I'm going to talk to the Dr about this at Mylee's 4 month check up. Maybe we can find a solution to fix nursing, but for now...I'm pumping every 3 hours. Mylee eats like every 5 hours and eats about 6oz every feeding. I'm pumping extra so I have milk in case she does another growth spurt and decides to eat 9oz every 3 hours! Crazy times! But I do LOVE knowing how much she eats. Anyway, back to the story. One day, can't remember what day it was, but I was making banana muffins because our bananas were about to go bad. Mylee had woken up but had fallen back asleep. Before she fell asleep though, I warmed a bottle and had it ready. But like I said she fell back asleep. I left the bottle out cuz I knew she'd be waking up soon. About 30 minutes later, she woke up. I got her out of her bed, laid her on the nursing pillow on the floor so that I could fold her bed and put it away. As I was doing this, she began to cry. My sweet Kendal rushed over, got the bottle and started to feed her! I was so impressed! Kendal feed her the whole bottle as I finished the muffins. About the time I put the muffins in the oven, Mylee was done eating. It was so awesome!!
I guess this story really isn't a story or about Kendal. But I absolutely love Mylee. She is so easy to please! The thing I love most is how easily she falls asleep. With Kendal it was so difficult. I never let her self sooth, mainly cuz I didn't want to hear her cry. But naptime was impossible. She never slept through the night. But Mylee, I just lay her in her bed and give her her binky and blanket and she's out. At night she sleeps 8 or 9 hours and is up to eat then back to bed for another 3 or 4 hours. Love this girl!
It's amazing how sweet my life is now that I've given up the computer. I really only get on when I have alone time, which is very rare! I've also made it a goal to not go to bed until my house is clean. Makes the mornings nice and the days better! Never trying to catch up because I'm always ahead! It's especially nice now that I'm pumping every 3 hours. That is somewhat time consuming. Anyway, another update this weekend, hopefully. We go in for Mylee's 4 month check up! A few days early but our insurance is up at the end of the month! Got to get her in before that is over! :)
I find it funny that I try somewhat hard to hang out with some friends. I call or send a message trying to set up a day to hang out, but it ALWAYS turns into...."I'm busy, how about another day." But we never hang out. I quickly began to get sick of this. I find it funny though because certain people say "oh ya, call me let's hang out." But then I do and nothing ever gets set up. Now know this about me, it is very difficult to go out of my way to call someone up or set something up because it's just not me. I don't feel comfortable doing this. My point I'm getting at...most these people who say they want to hang out are new friends we meet. Fourth of July weekend I realized who my good friends are. For 4th of July we hung out with 3 couples. One who was in the first ward Tanner and I were in after we were married. We've hung out with the family every now and again, but not all that often. The 2 other couples I have known growing up. But we never actually hung out, just had common friends. I find it funny that they have been friends all along, I just never saw it. Does this make sense? I always like to have friends that I can hang out with and it seems that after getting married, we really have only had one family we love to hang out with. The McDowell's! Love you guys! But...it's difficult cuz they live so far. Having friends close by is great!
Anywho....so about our 4th of July. I can sum the day up with one word. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Great friends, great food and LOTS of fun!!
Ever since Kendal had swimming lessons she has become a FISH!! And quite the daredevil! At the party she was jumping off EVERYTHING and ANYTHING and swimming EVERYWHERE! It was so fun to watch her and it was so awesome that she had little friends there to play with!! The day was perfect!
These next photos crack me up! Jay and Kendal became such great friends this day and followed each other everywhere. So why not be crazy and jump off things together!?
My sweet Mylee. She enjoyed swimming for a while but it sure wore her out. She crashed on me while still in the pool Such a sweetie!
Being crazy with Daddy now. He must have launched her 20 times that day. It was fun!
This was taken about 5 minutes after leaving the pool party!
After hanging out all morning with friends, we met up again for fireworks.
"Look Mommy! Fireworks!"
My lame excuse for firework photos. I've never taken any before so these are good.
Now...on to the week....
So It's been a while since I've updated...this is why...I've said in previous posts that Kendal is CRAZY busy. And if I even sit down for ONE minute she is into something. So...I'm only getting on the computer when I make Tanner take Kendal to nap with him on Sundays. Once a week, I get ME TIME! This week was..um...HARD! My poor Kendal has been sick since the end of June. We went to an indoor playground and from there we all have been sick. NEVER going back. I'm now a paranoid freak who uses hand sanitizer 24/7. Well, Kendal has had a cold for three weeks. Some weeks it was worse, others it was sort of gone. This past week was the worst yet. After only getting a few hours of sleep at night due to Kendal and her nightmares Friday morning I decided to finally take her to the doctors. I've never had to take her in because of sickness before so I really didn't know WHEN the right time was. But after waking up Friday morning, her eyes looked as though she was getting pink eye. So I called the doctor right as they opened. We scheduled for 3:15. She had "the runs" all day and messed her pants once. Not fun. We got to the doctor and found out she had an ear infection, pink eye in both eyes, a fever along with her cold she's had for 3 weeks. My heart just broke! I had no clue she was this sick. We got her some medicine and after 48 hours, her pink eye is gone and fever seems to be gone, but it does come back in the evening. I really really hope she is 100% better by Friday for her birthday and party! Poor girl! I can't believe that she wasn't complaining about her ear though...I would assume it was bugging her and if she would have said anything I would've gone to the doctor right away. But I had no clue! So after a week...more like three weeks...of crying 24/7...even in her dreams...and horrible night terrors...I think I've had my fill of this sickness crap! What makes me laugh...even through all Kendal's crying, nightmares and just flat out not feeling well...she wouldn't just sit and rest! She was so busy and always wanting to play. Which is fine cuz that's how she normally is....but I would think if one didn't feel well, one would just want to sit and relax. Although, this week she has snuggled a whole lot more and I learned that when she is crying...and this crying is not like a fit...she sincerely is sad....I just have to sit and "love on her" as she says. I can't count the times that Kendal has cried for me to just sit and love on her...aka...snuggle. It really did break my heart to hear her so sadly ask just to snuggle. I guess the Lord really gave me what I wanted. I had mentioned last post about how much I missed rocking Kendal to sleep and how bad I felt about getting so frustrated with it...I definitely got what I asked for this week...but I didn't even ask for it! I was really hard to not get frustrated, and I did a lot this week, with Kendal and her crying for everything. I especially hate it when we are out in public or out at someone else's house. I feel I have to explain or hurry to hush Kendal so they don't have to hear her crying. I feel they all judge me and watch my every move. Who knows if they really do or not, but that's just how I feel. I also am so sick of Kendal being pushed away by people. It's hard to see Kendal being told to "be quiet" or "get out of the way" by the people she loves most. I know she is overly busy. I know she needs a lot of attention...but DANG! She just wants to play! What's more important...your dumb show or Kendal who is just trying to get your attention to tell you something or to play. It's really hard when family does this. I know I have done this too...but I'm learning and I try hard not to do it. I have given up a lot of things so that I can spend more time making memories with my Kendal. Facebook is gone. This I only update once a week. Kendal needs me and needs friends. Friends whether it's family or not. I'm not going to make excuses anymore. I'm tired of just letting people push Kendal away and get frustrated with her. Yes, she is crazy busy and it sometimes can be annoying...but dang...she likes to have fun. And yes, my three year old still cries. Sometimes that's the best she can do as she tries to tell us what she needs. I don't care anymore. It is what it is. Accept it. (Sorry....I didn't intend on writing this...but it does feel good to get it out.) I really honestly feel so bad for Kendal. My current ward doesn't really have any kids her age...and the few her age live far. I'm really hoping this new ward has kids her age. She needs friends. Although...she does have her imaginary friends..."Howel, monkey and kitty cat" She plays with them all the time. It really is fun to watch her and her wild imagination. Kendal amazes me. She says some of the funniest things and is really just a smart girl. Her birthday is Friday and I can't wait for her party. We are having lots of friends come over and play. She will love it!
This week I spent most my days trying to keep Kendal busy. I really think I can do better though. Anyway, This week I started doing "lessons" with her. She has practiced tracing her shapes. And also learned about staying in the lines when she colors. I'm a bad mom and just now teaching her stuff. I will admit...I put a lot of other things in front of Kendal. But I am learning my lesson and she comes first. We are both happier when that happens.
Day 2 of "lessons" she sat for a long while just ripping the paper off the crayons. She's a funny girl...I'll explain why later down a little. Just remember OCD! haha
Kendal LOVES her little sister. Always wanting to help with things. This week as been a huge battle of trying to keep Kendal away from Mylee so Mylee won't get sick. But I'm so happy that Kendal is doing better and I don't have to be so bossy and controlling anymore!
I always love hearing Kendal tell me "Mom, isn't Mylee just so amazing." I love it! And I hope her love for Mylee will continue as the years pass.
There was a day this week where is was bearable to be outside. So after being cooped up for like a month...we went out and played for a while. Kendal loves it outside, but I'm a wuss with the heat...like 110+ is just too hot to move...but this day was around 95 or so. Kendal played in her sand box I made her for an hour or so before lunch. After lunch...I wussed out and we just played inside.
Grandma Sandra got her this Strawberry Shortcake dolly and Kendal LOVES it! It goes EVERYWHERE with us. I love how Kendal does things to it that I do to Kendal. Like for treating Kendal's pink eye I have to put eye drops in 3 times a day. Well, you can guess what Kendal does now to her dolly. It's so funny.
Lately Kendal has been learning about volleyball. I played all through high school and one year of college so I can only hope that she'll get Tanner's height and my talent. I've been teaching her how to properly hold her hands and how to pass the ball. It really makes me happy that she is catching on so fast! So coach able at such a young age! ;)
Crazy Kid!
Kendal thinks it's fun to use her legos as skates. No clue where she learned about skates from...probably Super Why on PBS...but I think it's hilarious! She "skates" all around on the floor.
Such a princess!!
Now on to her OCD thing...I'm not sure I've mentioned this before...but Kendal bits her nails, picks her scabs, hangnails or really any imperfection on her body. So after Daddy showed her his REALLY bad sunburn he got and now was peeling REALLY bad...Kendal enjoyed picking at the skin! YUCK! But it is what it is.
Saturday we went to my parent's house so Tanner could fix my sister's car. Kendal wanted to go swimming but because of her ear infection we decided to play in the sprinklers. When we first started she didn't know what to do...so Mommy had to show her. I was not in my swim suit but I sure did have fun trying to keep cool!
With Kendal being so sick, she has napped a few times. After playing in the sprinklers for a little bit she came in, got her eye drops and I told her to lay down with her eyes clothed so the medicine could help make her eyes better...well....she crashed.
Now on to Miss Mylee...with Kendal being so sick and Daddy being so sick...I'm so grateful Mylee has not caught anything but a little stuffy nose. Mylee is a perfect child. We have gone to strickly bottle feeding now. I made this decision about 4 days ago after I spent all day feeding Mylee every 2 hours, growth spurt, and with every feeding she struggled so bad. No clue why...but her feeding source was bleeding and so extremely sore. So I have been pumping for 4 days and bottle feeding and LOVE it. She takes the bottle so much better than she has ever taken the boob. So happy about this. And my breasts have healed from that day of ripping them apart. Mylee is tooting and pooping better again. She still has a fussy time where she just flat out screams...but I can normally get her to calm down by holding her tummy on my forearm and up rocking back and forth. It amazes me that I have been able to find all these little things here and there to help Mylee stay happy or in less pain. It really is awesome. This week has also been a milestone breaking week. Mylee rolled over on Monday for the first time! Just barely at 3 months old!! This kind of scares me! It was sure cute to see her facial expressions after she rolled...it was that "what the heck just happened" kind of look. She has rolled over a few more times since Monday but her new thing to do is just to roll her lower half of her body to her tummy and her upper body stays laying on her side. She looks so twisted! Mylee is also giggling a whole lot more this week. I'm not sure if Tanner has gotten her to giggle, but man...she sure giggles at me! I think she is a Mommy's girl for sure! And I love every minute of it! She really makes my life complete. I think that's kind of all of her new tricks she's learned this week. Time is just flying by. If you haven't noticed already but I am taking my camera every where I go and taking a million pictures as we go. In the month of July I have already taken over 700 pictures. Most of which are me trying to capture a smile from Mylee, she loses me once I go behind the camera so I don't really get smiles...that's when I switch to video mode.) Mylee is talking up a storm these days! I'm grateful that I have video because I love looking back at Kendal's videos.
Mylee is just like her sister when it comes to blankets! She is such a blanket girl! It cracks me up. I go to lay her down for a nap/bedtime, lay a blanket by/on her face and she is out. That is opposite from Kendal though. Kendal NEVER self soothed and that's the only way Mylee falls asleep.
See...no smiles for me when I'm behind the camera!
I missed her rolling over the second time...but look how strong she is getting!!! Isn't she still only a week old?! How did time fly by so fast!!
I love the fact that both my girls loved to play with their hands. Mylee and Kendal both always had their hands by their face.
Or...in their mouth! Kendal not so much. But Mylee always is trying to find her thumb. I won't let her though :)
So...the other day...the day Mylee was eating every 2 hours and ripping me apart. I feared that she wasn't getting enough to eat. I tried formula...no way she was taking that. So I tried rice cereal. Yes, I KNOW it's early and I only gave it to her once...WHY DO I FEEL THE NEED TO EXPLAIN MYSELF...who cares...it was a decision I made. Don't judge lol
Anyway....So we tried rice cereal and she LOVED it! I only gave it to her one day but doctor wants me to start baby food at four months..so only a few weeks away. I took some photos of her eating...pretty dang cute.
Her shirt says "Smile if you think I'm cute." I smile every time I see this picture. Cracks me up!
First bite...not so sure about it. But she did enjoy a few more bits!
With Mylee not smiling at me when I put the camera up to my face, I have to get Daddy's help.
hahaha this picture above was taken right after Daddy was kissing her with his pokey face. Got to love his beard!
And finally...a photo of her twisted up. This is how she lays pretty much the whole time she is on the floor...unless she rolls completely over, the obviously she gets lots of tummy time!
Thought it was cute how she was relaxing in her stroller.
Tanner, along with myself, has been sick for about two weeks. I was sick for a week then he got sick. I'm pretty much over it all...but Tanner not so much. I think the fact that his new office at his new job is just covered in dust. Probably doesn't help. Speaking of his new job...he is loving it! Or at least I think so. A little background on this new job...he is the head mechanic at a golf course. Doing what he has done for the past 2 years...just a different place and he's the only mechanic. No one to boss him around and Tanner is able to run the shop how he wants to. Raven is the name of the golf course. So...background on Raven...let's see if I get this right...it's confusing. Back when the market crashed along with everything else, Raven hit hard. Went bankrupted and owed lots of money to lots of people. After a few years of struggling the sold the course to the current owners. This selling of the company just recently happened which is why there was a spot for Tanner. Tanner now has to basically rebuild the company name and all the equipment. Everything is broken there and he doesn't have any tools to fix them...makes it sort of difficult. He is extremely busy during the day, which is so good for him, and he is able to make decisions based what he feels is best, which is also really good for him.
I am an amazing wife. Believe it. Look what Tanner bought himself.
It's a 22 and fun to shoot! After he bought the gun we went out shooting...of course!
Kendal enjoyed collecting all the shells. Seems to be a popular place to shoot now...they've made restrictions and the only places to shoot are here and at a shooting range.
Don't freak out yet...this gun is super quiet and has no kick. Kendal shot it four times and then was done.
The whole time while we were out shooting, Mylee was smiling and talking to herself. She is awesome!
Mommy had to try out the new gun! (Don't judge the weight. You know you will....lol...I stopped working out due to the fear of losing breastmilk...so no working out for me for a while. This is by choice.)
