Introducing the Newest Member to the TDW Family!

So last night, Mackenna had her first class at The Dance Warehouse aka TDW! We were so blessed to dance at Dance Esteem this past year, but I always knew when Mackenna hit 3 that wewould go to TDW!The teachers that I grew up with, opened this studio back in 2004 and I just thought it would be so cool to have the same teachers (and some new ones too!) teach my daughter the art of dance!

Her teachers are Miss Kari (I used to teach her!) and Miss Carrie (confusing for lil kids, LOL)! It's a 3 week summer program and a perfect way to get her acclimated to the studio and the teachers in time for her official fall class! She did very well and while she's still in her 'mama, don't leave me stage!', Kari let me sit in there and they assured me it's perfectly ok to do so until she gets out of that stage, they just want her to enjoy and find a love of dance :) GREAT way to approach in my opinion!

I became extremely happy when the first thing they did with the kids was marching with sticks!!!! I did that at that age and it's so fun to see them using it for Mackenna...they even use the same lil kid song to march too! They did some fun tapping activities and great things around ballet and of course ended with the mat where they even took out a fun balance beam :)

We're excited to go back and thankfully Mackenna agrees with me when I say that!!!

The sticks!!!!

Getting ready to march...

So excited!!!!

Sitting patiently behind her blue part ofthe mat - they had the kids line up on the mat the way we did back in the day too. "If you're wearing blue, come find a spot!" SO FUN to see the same memories being created with my lil dancer!

She even learned to walk backwards on the balance beam :)

Mastering the Potty!

With the day yesterday being all about Mackenna at her birthday party, she did whatever she could to make sure it really was ALL ABOUT HER :) In the middle of the party, she went #2 in the potty!!!!!! As you all know, it's been a task, so getting her to do it the first time was a HUGE accomplishment! She came right upstairs and announced it to the party too :) True Mackenna fashion!!  She actually went 4 separate times the rest of the day; lil bit each time, but thankfully she realized it's not that hard!!!!

Grandma Sheryl opened her big mouth last weekend :) and told Mackenna if she went poop in the potty she would buy her a princess bike and helmet, so of course, the second she went and right after she told everybody, she looked at Grandma and said, "I'm ready for my bike and helmet Grandma!" So after everyone was gone and Aunt Erica and Eric came to see her, we headed to Target with Grandma Sheryl to pick out her new bike! She was VERY excited...now the next task...getting her to learn how to ride it :)

Introducing her "ALL THE PRINCESSES" bike!!

It even has a place for her Cinderella baby that she already had :) We can't wait til she figures out how to pedal and we can go for some fun walks around the neighborhood!



Mackenna's Birthday Party - Part 1

We had Mackenna's Family birthday party over the weekend and we had so much fun! Of course the theme was princesses or as Mackenna calls it, "All the princesses!"





The Princess table!!

We had a HUGE turnout with just over 30 people...as my mom put it, I went from a very small family to quite the large family just by marrying into Nate's :) And she is right! It's so great to have so many cousins for Mackenna though and she loves them all so much, it makes it even better!
We had lots of yummy food and as soon as everyone was there, we got right into presents :) Can't make a 3yr old wait too long!

Opening presents was fun!! She was spoiled as usual :)

She got a new Cinderella dress from Grandma & Grandpa Harrison and of course had to put it on immediately!

I think mommy put on the Cinderella headband and the kids thought it was funny :)

Then it was time for cake and ice cream! Oh the cake...it was in one word, AMAZING! It was hard to cut into because it was so pretty! But once we cut in we realized it tasted just as amazing! Plus, the best part for me and Nate was watching her reaction as we all sang to her!

Birthday Girl!

This just warms my heart...this is pure, candid excitment!!! She was beyond thrilled when we all sang to her!!!

Doesn't get much better than this!

Blowing out her candles...we had to do it twice :)

YUMMY cake!

Beautiful princess!

Aunt Erica and Eric came over as soon as they got home from their time up north and surprised Mackenna with her very own Ariel dress :) so stinking cute!!!!!

Tea Parties!!

Mackenna has had some fun over the last couple weeks attending some tea parties! Aunt Erica took her to her very first one not too long ago and even bought her, her very own tea party dress! Then this last weekend she went to her friend Rebecca's 3rd Birthday Party which happened to be a tea party! SOme adorable pics to capture the memories...

Aunt Erica and her girl!

Two cute ladies!!!!

Erica got some awesome candid shots of the lil peanut :)

Apparently Mackenna instrumented flower picking at the tea party - not surprised she was leading the group :) Erica said all the girls loved that part!

Just picking some flowers :)

This face just cracks me up! Daddy taught her this one...go figure!

Sweet girl!

The tea party crew! Thanks Aunt Erica for a fun day and for giving me and Nate some time together :)

Mackenna and her daycare crew :) Fun party for her lil friend Rebecca's 3rd birthday!

Almost 3...

In 1 week, Mackenna will be 3!!!!! I don't know where the time goes and sadly enough, it just keeps going faster and faster! With the move taking up so much of our time over the last 60 days, I thought I'd sum up a few BIG moments and fun things going on in the life of Kenna :) 

* SO independent - sometimes too independent. She knows who she is and doesn't want to change one bit about that! It's been hard as parents to let her spread her wings - we definitely have to pull on the reins at times!

* She is incredibly stubborm - gee wonder where she gets that?!?!

* She is beyond obsessed with anything and everything princess! She cries when we try and put jeans on her and prefers to only wear dresses. If we get pants or leggings on her, it's with the compromise that she at least as a princess shirt on; preferably Disney Princess :) I always said I wouldn't have the 'character' child and well...here we are - FULL ON CHARACTER CHILD! But a cute one at that.

* She's 1 week into being potty trained - HORRAY for being DIAPER FREE! And boy does her lil butt look adorable in those undies...princess of course :)

* Her vocabulary continues to amaze us - I can't even document the words she says anymore as she is well beyond that type of documentation. The articulation she has is so amazing and her intelligence speaks volumes when you hear her talk. While she can't understand everything we might say or what it means, she does her best to figure it out and we are able to have the best conversations with her now.

* She loves and she loves hard...a blessing and a curse if I can even say that. She has been so attached to me as of late. She's been having some separation issues with Daddy and all his traveling again - so while I try and take full advantage of it all, there are times, I have to tell her to step away and try and teach her to be that independent lil girl I know she is.

* She's been more instrumental in getting herself ready. She loves to help pick out her clothes, brush her teeth, wash her hands and TRY and brush her hair :) Not too long ago, she started putting her shoes on by herself too! They may be on the wrong foot, but she loves to do it and feel like a big girl. We coach her through as much as she'll let us :) As of late, she loves to pick out her undies too and put those on all by herself.

* We know she's talented and gifted musically, but for the last couple months, she is quite the little singer on top of being a dancer. She can sing along to so many songs and truly knows all the words. Her favorite, and I swear I never even taught her this, is Justin Timberlake to the point where she even says, "Turn on JT, Mom!" and get super excited when she hears anything by him. Many of his songs are "her songs"! Outside of JT her talent with memorization and singing is just amazing and Nate and I both agree when we say we could listen to her all day :)

Outside of some of these note-worthy documentations, we just continue to be so amazed by her everyday. While not every day or every moment of the day is perfect, SHE is perfect and turning into the most incredible, amazing, intelligent, witty and loving little girl we could have asked for and been blessed with. With her birthday sneaking up on us once again, I sit back and reflect on just this last year and while my heart always feels love, more than ever I realized I have felt more proud of her this year than any of her years. I am so happy I get to call her my daughter every moment of my lift and hope she feels the same way about calling me mom!



Potty Time!

I cannot believe I am writing this post to document that today, June 8, 2013 marks the 1 week milestone of Mackenna being POTTY TRAINED!!!!!

Last Friday we were at our neighbors having a bonfire and I was listening to all the moms of 3 year olds talking about their experience and it just hit me that Saturday was going to be the day (the next morning) that we were just going to do this and COMMIT! She only had 2 diapers left and while my plan that morning was to go buy more, I said NO, it's time to DO THIS :) And what an amazing decision that turned out to be!

She has only had 1 potty accident in 1 week and 3 accidents all surrounding the lovely #2 piece. I knew that would be the hardest and I also know that when she finally does it, it will get easier each time. Actually last night, while she went in her night time undies (pull-ups, but we don't call them that since I actually think pull-ups are the worst invention EVER) she was in the bathroom trying to clean herself up before we got up there to help her. I think we're close to having her do it for the 1st time in the potty and I can't wait to document when she's fully trained! She's woken up EVERY morning with dry night time undies and goes straight to the bathroom - we are SO PROUD of her!!!!!!!  With her 3rd birthday next week, this is a pretty great way to ring it in with her :)

A cute lil shot last weekend - 2 days with no accidents!

Aunt Erica celebrated by giving her a couple cute gifts to reward the monumental occasion!

Last Tuesday Pati decided to start rewarding all the kids that are "potty training". If they go all day accident-free they get to take home a GOLD star to mommy and daddy. Wednesday June 5th was the first day she got to take one home and she was BEYOND excited!!!

"Check out my star, Mom!"

Dancing around as happy as can be with her star! Pati and Jess sent home a couple gold stars this weekend too, so it'll be fun to continue the celebrations at home! We will be hanging them in her room each time with the date on the back - of course we'll save them so she can see how dorky we were when she was little :)



Saints Game to see Ryno!

Nate's buddy, Ryan, was in town to play the Saints (he plays for the Wichita Wingnuts). So just like last summer, we headed to the game to see him play and have a family fun night!

Watching Ryno stretch...patiently waiting!

So she's only met Ryan once, but she just loves him and he is clearly in love with her. For this visit, she brought him a box of his favorite cereal all decorated in princess stickers. He brought her a little something too :)

Daddy and his girl at the ball game - she's sporting her new 'dress' Ryno got her :)

Watching the game, cheering on her buddy!

Cotton Candy time! STICKY MESS!

Just like last year, she had to see her friend, 'Mudonna' and thankfully as we were making our way to the car, we saw her!!!!!!  She would have loved to be on her lap again, but she was happy the many high fives and hugs and of course a picture to document the reunion :) This child has NO FEAR when it comes to these characters!



Kenna's 1st Dance Recital

Well we made it to the BIG recital day and I'm proud to report that Mackenna danced up on stage and loved it! She was so proud of herself and Nate and I both got tears in our eyes watching her up there. It was one of the first times in her little life that we realized how fast she's growing up! Grandma and Grandpa Harrison, Uncle Rob, Aunt Erica, Great Grandma, Grandpa Jeff and Uncle Ian all came to see her and were all so very proud of her!!!!

Beautiful lil dancer!

Mackenna with her 2 best friends from Pati's - Tatum and Paige

Love that smile!

Innocence at it's finest!

Just coloring waiting for her turn to go on stage!

Waiting in the hallway - almost ready to perform!

SHE DID IT!!!!!!!!! I still get choked up just thinking about it :)


First year of dance done with Dance Esteem and it was a great first year. Now we're off to The Dance Warehouse where all of my dance teachers have gone....they have sinced opened a studio and I'm thrilled to have Mackenna take class from my teachers :)

Had to share this pic...we had the family back over to our house when it was all said and done and this is how we found Mackenna playing outside :) Such a princess, but she sure does love to get dirty!

Finally in our New Home!

April was a crazy month to say the least and mainly because we finally made the BIG MOVE!!!! We are so in love with our new house and thankfully it felt like home on that very first day :)

Our first morning together waking up this is what I found in the kitchen....I LOVE my family! They eat cereal together every day and for some reason waking up to this was the hightlight of the move weekend for me!



Twins Game - April

We got to go to our 1st Twins Game of the season to see Zach sing the 7th Inning Stretch - it was a pretty big family affair and Kenna had a great time!

If only Kenna would just cooperate with the camera this would have been a great family pic...still pretty cute of me and the mister :)

Token kid pic by the statue :)

What a pose!

NO FEAR!

Kenna and her best bud, Emily! She talks about her ALL THE TIME. Shhhhhhhh...she says she's her favorite cousin :)

DIVA!

I just love this little girl so much...such a joy!