Finally.......Pictures!

Here are some pictures taken at McKinley's 5th Birthday Party (finally)! We all had a blast, even though the wind was COLD! Thanks to those who were able to celebrate with us!

McKinley blowing the candles out on her Princess cake!

Hitting the Princess Pinata!

Standing next to her Barbie Jeep Power Wheel!!

McKinley and Shaylie in the new Barbie Jeep!

McKinley is 5!!!!

Well, it's official ......... McKinley is 5 years old! In honor of her birthday I'm taking an idea from others and am going to write 5 things I love about McKinley. I have to say it's hard to choose only 5 things because I love that little girl so much and there are many wonderful qualities that she posesses.

1. McKinley has a very bubbly personality! She can make friends with anyone in no time and loves to play with her friends whenever she gets a chance. McKinley has the type of personality that lights up a room when she enters.

2. McKinley genuinly cares about others. She can't stand it if someone is hurt or sad, she wants to know what happened and what can be done to make it better.

3. McKinley is very smart! We've been working with McKinley to get her ready for kindergarten and she has picked up on everything very quickly. Her preschool teachers are very impressed with her learning ability as well.

4. McKinley is a very funny little girl! She loves to make you laugh by telling jokes, making faces and just being herself.

5. McKinley loves her family! McKinley loves to go on walks and bike rides with her family and play with mommy and daddy, but one of her very best friends is her big sister Shaylie. McKinley LOVES to play with her big sister and tries to do everything just like her.

There are many more things I love about my little girl, but I will save them for the coming years lists.

This is McKinley wearing her birthday crown from preschool and holding the presents her big sister, Shaylie, gave her.

***McKinley's party is on Saturday so don't worry there will be plenty of pictures to come!!!!

McKinley is turning 5!!!!

As bittersweet as it is my baby McKinley is no longer a baby and will soon be turning 5 years old! McKinley's birthday is on May 7 and she is absolutely THRILLED that she is having another birthday and that she will be 5 years old. Since her birthday falls in the middle of the week we are doing her party the Saturday after. In preparation I was trying to get McKinley to decide what invitations she wanted (so I can get them sent out before the party, LOL) and Marc had a great suggestion that we just make her one online and do them that way. Well we took her daddy's suggestion and look AWESOME! I decided not to use just any old snap shot we had already so I got McKinley all dressed up and did her hair and then we went out in search of a great picture (Even though it was FREEZING this morning and I made her wear a dress, she was a great sport!). Poor McKinley was sooo cold that she had to wrap up in her coat between pictures due to the frigid wind. All in all it was worth it cause we got some beautiful pictures of her and she had fun doing it. Here is what her invitations ended up looking like.........

Here are a few of the other pictures from our "photo shoot" this morning.

A look back.............

As I look at my two beautiful girls I can't help but be a little sad over how BIG they're both getting! So to make myself feel beter about my "babies" not being babies anymore I decided to post some pictures of them showing their growth through the years. Enjoy!

Here's my chubby baby Shaylie! She was about 3 1/2 months old!

Here's Shaylie at about 7 months old!

Shaylie at 14 months!

Shaylie at 2 years old!

Shaylie at 3 years old!

Shaylie at 4 years old!

Shaylie at 5 years old!

Shaylie at 6 years old!

My BEAUTIFUL 7 year old Shaylie!!!!

McKinley at about 2 months old!

McKinley at 3 months old!

McKinley at 7 months old!

McKinley at 15 months old!

McKinley at 2 years old!

McKinley at 3 years old!

My BEAUTIFUL 4 year old McKinley!!!!

My Dancing McKinley!!!!

I was organizing videos on our computer and found this one of McKinley and had to share it! LOL She is sooo freakin' funny. Enjoy!

Easter Bunny and Guns?!

Well I hope all of you had as great of an Easter weekend as we did! After getting to sleep in (which at our house is a rare occasion for mom) McKinley woke Marc and I up telling us "Mom, that big Easter bunny left us CANDY and eggs!". After getting up and doing the regular morning activities (baths, breakfast, hair, etc...) we went over to Marc's mom's house. After visiting there for a bit, and the girls getting some very cute porcelain tea sets (with Disney Princesses on them), we packed up and headed out to Goshen to go shooting. Marc has purchased a few guns and we took them out shooting on the west side of West Mountain. The girls have fun shooting the guns and hunting for caterpillars while we're up there! After our shooting fun we went to my parents house for a BBQ (first one of the season, WAHOO) and Easter Egg Hunt! The girls got to color Easter Eggs, hunt for eggs in the backyard, and play outside in the FRESH AIR! Here are some pictures from our fun filled day, enjoy!

Shaylie and McKinley in my parents backyard. Easter surprises! Hunting for caterpillars! (After finding them the girls keep them in the empty shotgun shells, LOL.)

Shaylie shooting Marc's new .223 rifle, and McKinley shooting the .22.

Coloring Easter eggs!

Hunting for the Easter eggs!

Awards, Hair Cuts, Tea Parties, and Jiu Jitsu!!!

It's been a while since my last post on here so I decided I should do a "catch up" post and let you know what's been going on since Valentine's Day.

To start it off, Shaylie received an award at school for basically doing her VERY best work in all areas. Shaylie is on the highest reading level in her 1st grade class (the level she's on for take home books would normally be for 4th grade), she gets 100% consistently on her math and spelling, and is an all around great student! She was thrilled that her daddy was able to make it to this award assembly to see her.

Both girls were in need of getting their hair trimmed up so I took them to Great Clips here in Springville and had my friend Bailie cut their hair. Ok, Shaylie got her hair cut and McKinley got a trim (as many of you know we can't actually cut much off of McKinley's hair). Shaylie and I decided to go short with her hair so instead of her hair being down below her shoulder blades it is now a little above her shoulders, and she looks ADORABLE! For McKinley it was the same thing as usual, a trim, just to even out the left and right sides, and she still looks as CUTE as ever! (Maybe someday McKinley's hair will grow and she'll get an actual hair cut instead of a trim.)

Just look at those curls!!!!

Shaylie's cute short hair!!!!

One morning after dropping Shaylie off at school I was busy cleaning and realized I hadn't seen or heard McKinley so I went into the playroom and found that she was busy having a teaparty with her dolls! Let me just say it was too cute! She had set the table and had "everyone" in their own chairs.

And last but not least, the girls had evaluations in Jiu Jitsu last week! Both of them did AWESOME! Shaylie recieved 2 stripes towards her "high yellow" belt in the youth division, and McKinley earned her "green strip belt" in the Samurai Kids division!

Working the heavy bags! (I was able to get both girls at the same time!)

Hopefully you enjoyed this round of pictures! I'll try to be better about posting more often. Have a wonderful Easter weekend!