Lately...

First off, thanks to everyone for all the sweet comments about my dad. I have been thinking about him a lot lately because we loved watching March Madness together, it's not the same without him. Speaking of March Madness, I vow to never pick Georgetown to do well again! It seems like I have been disappointed with them in years past...and Kansas, well there are not words to describe that disappointment. Nevertheless, I can't complain about all the great, close, buzzer beater games.

Here is what this little girl loves doing lately. She will be 10 months old tomorrow, I sort of just want her to walk already now.


Oliver went ice skating for the first time and surprisingly loved it. He of course threw a tantrum when it was time to go...ahhh, gotta love the three year old.

My Father the Hero

My dear dad passed away two days ago due to ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). He was a true hero in many ways to many people. Thank you for the legacy of love, service and Christ-like example you leave behind. We love you and will miss you dearly.

The big THREE

Oliver turned three last month and we celebrated by having a lot of family squeeze into our tiny little house. It was cozy, but fun. The highlight for Oliver was running around with his cousins playing "bad guys." You may notice there are a lot more than three candles on the cake. That is because while I was busy during the day, Oliver put the entire box of candles on his cake "all by myself mom!"

Kiddos

Here are just a few recent pics of the kiddos per requested by the two people who have asked. (That is how much I love you guys! Plus I do enjoy seeing pics of your little ones as well, so I won't be selfish.) Oh yes, the babe is now five months old.

Phoebe pics

2 Weeks

4 Weeks

6 weeks

Just the FOUR of us

The little babe is here...Phoebe Malia MacKay. She was born Sunday, May 24th at 3.30am, weighing 7 lbs 4 oz. Let's just say the American experience of having a baby was 100 times better than the British one!

Silver Beaver Award

What is the Silver Beaver Award you say? Yes, I was thinking the same thing when my mom told me dad was going to receive it. Apparently, it's a pretty big deal...in the scouting world that is. This is the highest award you can receive in the scouting program. You don't earn it like the eagle, you give a lot of years of service in scouting and then somebody nominates you (usually unknowingly). These are pictures from the annual Silver Beaver Award Ceremony. Congratulations dad, you are the best!

Cousin time

I'm so happy we have an unofficial "family photographer". I never take my camera anywhere anymore because I know Dave will have his on his hip the entire time! So, thanks Dave for all of the following pictures.


For Valentines Day (I know, a little late) we ended up going out to dinner with the entire MacKay clan, except for one of Mike's sisters and her husband. I know, very romantic right? Oliver stayed at my parents house and helped shovel the snow. Dave of course took this photo of him.

My dad likes to have sleepovers with the grandkids. It usually only consists of my sisters three oldest boys, but the little ones got in on the action this night. Can you tell they're a little bit frightened by what they're watching? The older boys have graduated from cartoons to the Star Wars triology. Oliver still talks about how he saw a scary movie with Maya and Dominic.

My dad is such a good sport to watch everything with them. He even sleeps downstairs with them!

Not two, six

Oliver turned two in January and he had two birthday parties, one with each side of the family. I think he understands that his birthday is officially over now. For some reason he has an obsession with the number six. When we tell him that he's two, he says "not two, six". Gotta love two year olds!

Here are two of my favorite pictures from Thanksgiving/Christmas. Grandpa Trump's lap is a very coveted place to be for those three and under.

My personal favorite...Mike's Grandpa Hubbard reading his gift tag with his trusty magnifying glass.

Oh yes, one more bit of info...we're having a GIRL!

Can I blame this on being pregnant?

A few years ago Mike locked the keys in the car with the car running...how does this happen you say? Thats a good question, all I know is that we were lucky the Jazz game was sold out that night and were only gone for about 20 minutes. Mike's brother brought us the spare keys, since it was his car after all. I have been giving Mike a hard time for that ever since.

Well, I guess you could say that karma eventually catches up. The other day, when the high was about 15 degrees outside I locked the keys in the car with Oliver buckled in his car seat...I know!! Again, how does this happen? Well, I will tell you. Have you ever been carrying a two year old along with your purse and maybe a bag of shopping? It's pretty hard to put that toddler in his car seat holding all that stuff, right? I have gotten into the habit of throwing everything (but Oliver, of course) into the front seat while I get him in and buckled. That day I accidentally pushed the lock button on my keys while I was getting Oliver into the car, completely ignoring the fact that the horn was going off, meaning the doors were locked. I hurried and threw everything in the front seat right then so I could finish getting him in, keys included. I closed his door then went to open the passenger door to get my keys, oh know! Instant panic right? I could see it now, a mug of my distressed face on the news telling of how I locked my toddler and keys in the car in freezing weather, and now he was in hospital with hypothermia. Followed by an obvious warning to parents to never do this...duh! Okay, so luckily it ended way better than that. I hurried back into the UPS where I just was and told them of what I had done (pretty embarrassing). Another customer said he had the number to the Orem police on his cell phone. I know, a little weird he had the police on speed dial, but thats besides the point. I called and about the longest 15-20 minutes later they were there and opened the door with no problem. Oliver was perfectly fine, it was actually me that was freezing because I was standing outside that entire time.

Anyhow, lesson learned. 1-Never make fun of someone for making a mistake, especially your husband. (Mike was very understanding when I told him, which almost made me feel like more of a jerk). 2-The police can fix some idiotic mistakes. 3-Always keep your keys on you!

This is proof that Oliver is not traumatized by the whole experience.

Rewind

Even though I was out of commission for a few weeks, life still went on its usual course. My brother Dave and his wife Ashley had their first baby, Dominic, in October. We're all so happy that he's here and is a healthy baby boy. Oliver did not know what to think about Dominic when he first met him. We carved pumpkins this year with the MacKay's and were very excited to use these cool stencils. Our neighbors carved some amazing pumpkins this way so we wanted to try it out. Too bad it took so long that everyone else was done carving, cleaned up, with pictures taken before we even finished! We went to my sister's house on Halloween night for trick-or-treating. Oliver loved wearing his dog costume and thoroughly enjoyed all the candy!
As I mentioned before, we stayed with my sister-in-law and her five kids for three weeks while I was on bed rest. One of Oliver's cousins is about six months older than him, it's a love/hate relationship with these two. One morning I woke up to find Oliver's face looking like this (Kate has a vicious claw...or fingernails). However, Oliver wasn't completely innocent in this little cat fight...Kate had a nice big bite mark on her chest. Oliver was in desperate need of a haircut and Mike insisted on doing it himself. Unfortunately he made some mistakes and therefore his hair kept getting shorter and shorter! I personally prefer the long hair on him, but it's still a face to love.

Number two

Well, we're taking the plunge, baby number two is on the way. We had a little bit of a scare early on and I went on bedrest for a few weeks. It wasn't completely miserable because my amazing sister-in-law took care of Oliver and I in addition to her five kids. So, 12 weeks and counting...only 28 more to go!

I finally found the time and energy to blog

I'm not a good blogger, that has previously been established. Then we moved and did not have the Internet, so I had an excuse. Well, we finally got the Internet a couple days ago and for some reason I feel obliged to post something. Here is what we have been up to:

We made the huge move south to Provo at the beginning of August. Everyone up north (Davis county) keeps asking us how it is to live in 'happy valley'. My reply is that we're actually in 'little Mexico' and that no place could be more White and Mormon (aka 'happy valley') than Davis County, more specifically Centerville/Bountiful. I'm just saying...

Oliver had to sleep in the port-a-crib for the first couple weeks, luckily he still had his binks.

We immediately went back to Centerville for a week and a half in August because my brother went to Arizona on vacation and apparently my parents need babysitters. My dad and I canned tomatoes and made salsa that week, I have to say that I was pretty impressed with myself. Mike's brother Marc also came home from his mission to Arizona that week. No worries about him adjusting, we all went and saw The Dark Knight an hour after he got released.

Mike turned 30! He didn't think it was a big deal, so we did not do anything special or overly exciting. However, we did go drop a load of money eating sushi that night. It was very tastey.

For Labor Day my brother Adam and his family came into town from New Mexico. We had parties galore and Oliver was loving the cousin time (not to mention late nights and lots of sugar). Oliver was really thirsty in the picture below and this was the only source of water.
Last but not least, Mike started his job at BYU and is loving it. Who would have thought, Mike MacKay a BYU professor, I'm so proud.

Yellowstone

I finally went on the MacKay Yellowstone trip after being in the family for five years. This is my father-in-law's favorite place in the world and he knows it like the back of his hand. One MacKay gene that Mike did not get was the OCD for planning and organization (which can be good and bad). We of course got our itineraries six months ago by email and subsuquent emails with further details after that. Not to mention frequent reminders at Sunday dinners. All in all, we had a good time with family and were pretty exhausted when we get home...isn't that a sign of a good vacation?

This is the bike/hike we took on the first full day there to a place called Osprey Falls. I think this was the only place my father-in-law had not been, hence he did not know how long or steep the hike was! We did a round trip of 9.6 miles to the falls, but it was worth it when we got there.


Wildlife...we had a picture taking contest so everyone was doing their best to get pictures of the animals. We haven't had the official judging yet, so we'll see. These are some pictures Mike took with his dad's very nice camera (a lot nicer than ours!).

The hike down Uncle Tom's Cabin where you walk down a steep staircase. Not too bad on the way down, but a little more effort on the way back. At least I didn't have a child on my back like everyone pictured below!

Suspension Bridge

Swimming at some random part of the river and at the 45th parallel, where hot springs run into the river.

More pictures from various parts of Yellowstone.

Okay, this post took me freakin' forever...that is why I do not post very often or very much at one time. I'm spent, it may be awhile now.