I'm walking.........well............kind of!

MaKena has started to take more and more steps every day. I took this video on Sunday. She is getting more comfortable with walking all by herself. But when she doesn’t want to walk, she won’t. She certainly has a mind of her own. It’s funny to watch her walk; Lane says she walks like Frankenstein! She doesn’t really bend her knees. Hope you enjoy the video.

Play Date

On Saturday, MaKena and I (Jacob was at his dad's and Lane was busy in the basement) were invited over to Katie and Aaron’s house for a play date with Maddie. (Maddie will be 2 in April.) When MaKena and I got there, Maddie was a little shy at first but within a few minutes she came out of her shell. MaKena was sitting on the floor checking out all of Maddie’s toys and Maddie kept going to her room to get Kena (as Maddie called her) more toys. At one point MaKena had a pile of toys covering her but she didn’t seem to mind. She was in 7th heaven checking out all of Maddie’s fun toys. When we were sitting at the table eating the two girls were having their own conversation. It was a lot of fun to see them interact with each other. MaKena isn’t walking yet so she would crawl around the kitchen and Maddie decided to get down and crawl with her. Then she would bark like a dog. I could go on and on about our first play date with Maddie. The girls had so much fun. We look forward to many more fun play dates with the Andersons. Thanks for having us over!!

When Maddie saw MaKena crawling on the floor she started to crawl around with her.

MaKena really liked Maddie's dog Bandit.
Maddie and MaKena played so nice together.

Maddie being goofy!

MaKena loving all of Maddie's toys.

MaKena and Maddie.

Funny Videos

Below are a couple videos of the kids playing one night. Jacob was hiding under the blanket and I would ask MaKena "Where’s Jacob" and she would start pulling the blanket off him and when she saw him she would giggle and giggle. It was funny to see her reaction. She loves her big brother.

Derby Car

This is how far behind on pictures I am. On January 20th Jacob had his Pinewood Derby race for Cub Scouts. Both Lane and Jacob made a car for the race. Jacob was so excited to make his car. Lane let him pick out his design and what colors he wanted to paint it. He was in 7th heaven. That was all I heard about for a week straight! The night of the race Lane and Jacob headed to the race before me and MaKena. When I showed up Jacob was so excited. Everyone got a medal for making a car. I was surprised I got it off his neck when he went to bed that night! He thought that was great. His car did pretty good but he didn’t win a trophy. They gave out trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. He’s already talking about what kind of car he’ll make next time. Lane’s car did really well. He took 2nd in the open race. The adult’s race was just for fun so they didn’t give out trophies. Lane’s already talking about how he can make his car better for next time. I’m so glad MaKena is in the house with me. We’ll play Barbie’s or babies when the boys make their cars!!

Lane putting the wheels on Jacob's Derby car. Jacob eagerly waiting for his car to be done!!

Jacob and his Derby car.
The Derby race track.
Some of the cars that raced in the Pinewood Derby Car race.
More of the cars that raced. Can you see Jacob's? Its the red and white car towards the back of the picture.

Jacob watching the race with all the other Cub Scout boys. He's in the orange shirt right by the chair.

Jacob's car on the race track getting ready to race. His is the red car with the white stripe in the red lane.

Random Pictures

This post is just some random pictures of the kids. We weren’t doing anything special this day but I pulled the camera out and took a few pictures. Some of the pictures of MaKena are blurry. I think I had the camera on the wrong setting but I had to post them anyway because they were too cute!

Jacob outside sledding. We made a little hill in the front yard so he could go sledding. Its a lot of fun. I even went out there with him!

MaKena just being MaKena! Notice how wet her shirt is up by her neck. I can't wait until all the drooling is done.

If you ask MaKena to put her bib on this is what she does. She'll pull it up to her neck and then you have to fasten it. Its so cute. She also tries to put her socks on. I haven't been able to get a good picture of that yet.
She loves playing with this toy but gets frustrated when she can't get the blocks in the right spots. This was one of Jacob's old toys.
MaKena's messy hair! The picture isn't the best but you can see how wild her hair was one morning when I woke her up. She must have slept good!
Another picture of the messy hair. You can't see it as good in the one but its still messy!

Christmas Program

Back in the middle of January Jacob had his Christmas program for Sunday school. Originally it was scheduled for the middle of December but it stormed that weekend so they rescheduled it. All of the 2nd graders had a reading part in the program. He wasn’t too thrilled about it at first but once Grandma Ivy and Auntie Carol (Grandma Carol as Jacob calls her) told him how special he must be to have a part then he thought it was OK. It didn’t matter that mom had told him earlier that she had a part in one of her Christmas programs, he still didn’t want to do it until Grandma and Carol talked to him. He did great. He had his part memorized and he spoke clearly when it was his turn. He was so proud of himself. And I was too!

Jacob singing in his program. That's McKayla right next to him in the black vest.

MaKena sitting with daddy at Jacob's Christmas program. She was digging in mommy's purse!

Jacob singing.

Jacob and McKayla.
Jacob and McKayla after the program.
Jacob wearing his sweater and tie he got from Grandma Ivy. He was excited to wear it!

The Fort

About a month ago Jacob wanted to make a fort in the living room. Those of you that have been to our house know that our living room isn’t really set up very well for a fort but we managed. (I remember when I was a kid my siblings and I would always make forts in the living and family room.) We don’t have a lot of stuff on our end tables to hold the blankets up because Little Miss MaKena doesn’t leave anything alone! But Jacob and I managed to build a little fort. I wouldn’t let him put a blanket over the top because I knew MaKena wouldn’t like that and he really wanted her to play in the fort with him. So we put a bunch of her toys in there so she wouldn’t get bored. But she eventually got tired of be confined to the small area and started to rip his fort apart. By that time Jacob was done playing in it anyway so we took it down. But not before I got some cute pictures of the two of them in their very first fort. I’m sure we’ll have many more forts in the years to come!

This was before Jacob built his fort. He was watching a movie and MaKena decided to join him. I couldn’t resist taking the picture. How cute are they?!

The view from the back!
The kids in the fort. Notice all of MaKena’s toys!!
Playing so nice in the fort!

Jacob really enjoyed playing with MaKena in the fort. Can you tell by his big smile!

The Kids

I am really behind on pictures and updates. Sorry, we’ve been a little busy with house stuff lately. Lane has been working really hard in the basement the last few months. He finished the sheet rocking a couple weeks ago and we had someone come over and do the taping and texturing. Now that that’s finished we started to paint over the weekend. Jacob even helped!! I’ll post those pictures later. I have so many pictures to share I decided to break them up into several posts.

This first batch of pictures is of Jacob and MaKena playing. MaKena is starting to get more of a personality every day. I’m excited to see the bond she will have with Jacob when she gets a little older. They play so well together and Jacob just loves her. And I think she loves him too because every time he comes home she giggles and smiles when she sees him. Hope you enjoy the pictures below. I’ll have another post coming soon!!

Jacob and MaKena playing peek-a-boo. Jacob would hide under the blanket and MaKena would pull it off and giggle and giggle. I was cute!!MaKena giggling when Jacob appeared under the blanket. Finding Jacob again.
MaKena got this toy for her birthday from Uncle Jason and Auntie Jerene. She just loves it when the balls come flying out. Sometimes she’ll put her pacifier down the hole that the balls are supposed to come out and then she can’t figure out why they won’t come up the hole. Goofy girl!

Pushing the button to play again!

MaKena got this Zoo Cruiser for Christmas from Grandma Kathy. She just loves it but she has to have someone push her around because her feet don’t hit the ground yet. I made them stop so I could take a picture of the two of them with the animals that came with it.

MaKena loving her Zoo Cruiser!