Update on the Lil Peanut

Life is always changing these days for Mackenna!  Her vocabulary is growing like crazy, her personality is really coming out and we think she might even be working on her 2 year molars!!! 

Here are a few new words to add to her vocab:

• Bubbies (Bubbles or could also mean Bubble Guppies, one of her favorite shows!)
• Choo Choo
• Nana (banana not Grandma)
• MOM (this is what she calls both her Grandmas)
• PaPa (this is what she calls both her Grandpas)

She has had 2 big moments using the potty!!!!!!  Her first incident was a fluke #2 which of course we celebrated and then more recently she asked to use the potty and actually went potty!!!!  We know she's getting closer to making the switch, but we're not pushing and will start to focus more if she's not doing it more on her own by her 2nd birthday!

As I said in a previous post, she absolutely has fallen in love with airplanes and every time she hears one, she stops whatever she is doing and says, "WHAT'S THAT!!!" and gets extremely excited :) Because Nate is traveling these days, I think her love for planes is even stronger.

She prefers NickJR to Disney these days with The Fresh Beat Band and The Bubble Guppies, but we still watch Disney here and there and of course Sesame Street and our friend Elmo.

She is very much into Wrigley these days and Wrigley is learning to love Mackenna, especially when she throws the ball.  We've moved Wrigley's food and water upstairs now so Mackenna loves to make sure Wrigley is eating and even this morning, I let her pour her food in her dish and she thought that was pretty cool!

Things are going very well at Pati's and her personality is shining.  She has her best friend Rebecca who she embraces on a daily basis in bigger hugs than she gives me or Nate :)

I can't believe my lil lady will be 2 in less than 2 months!  And I'm stoked to start planning her Elmo & Cookie Monster Birthday Party!

Kenna's #1 Fans!

Here are some fun cute pictures of us with Mackenna...

We took her to the Mall of America when Daddy got home from LA and got her some cool new shades :)

We took her on some of her favorite rides too - the 'WEE' as she says :)

Kenna has been getting into books again lately, so I had to get this shot as she was so content reading Dr. Suess with Daddy!

A New Chapter in the Book of Schlieman

The Big Man upstairs has finally answered our prayers! I'm happy to report that Nate is now a sPORTS Product Marketing Specialist for a wonderful company called Shock Doctor, based in Plymouth, MN!!!!!! He has an amazing job description including being the main point of contact for ALL endorsed athletes of their product. He started last Monday the 16th and has already been to LA to visit Ryan Matthews of the SD Chargers and Carlos Santana of the Cleveland Indians (not the singer :) He is very happy and we are so excited for this new chapter in our lives!!!!!! With this job comes 60% travel responsibilities, so that's going to be an adjustment, but so far so good! Mackenna is VERY into airplanes these days, so it's been fun to explain to her that Daddy is in an airplane :) I took her to the airport on Saturday to pick him up after being gone for 4 days and it was one of the most heartwarming experiences we've had with her thus far. She patiently waited for Daddy and couldn't contain her excitement! !!!!!!

When Daddy came through those doors - her reaction was enough to make any grown man cry and although he didn't cry, he did get choked up :) She loves her Daddy so much and although travel will be rough, we know we can get through  - we have a pretty strong family with all we've been dealt over the years! CONGRATULATIONS to the best man I've ever known - you deserve all the success in the world and Mackenna and I are so proud of you!

Special Delivery from the BUNNY!

We were up and all bright eyed and bushy tailed come Easter morning :) Kenna woke up to finding what the Easter Bunny left her - she was thrilled!


She dug right into the basket and her one gift and had so much fun with the Elmo theme! The bunny really knew what she has been into these days ;)




She wanted to go right outside with her new chalk and Elmo slippers - even though it was cold, she still wanted to stay out there...



...so we had to throw a jacket and hat on! She wasn't too thrilled at first :)


But got used to the idea and continued playing!!!

Easter Festivities Part II

On Easter Sunday we had another fun-filled day! We started out meeting Grandpa Mack and Ian for brunch at RedStone in Eden Prairie. It was really yummy, but somehow we forgot to take some pictures :( Kenna did really well! She sat in a booster seat next to mommy and ate a TON of yogurt (and a lot of it got on mommy's shirt too!), she really didn't want much of anything else! She loved seeing the Easter bunny - so that kept her entertained!

After that, we headed over to "MOM" and PaPa's house to meet them all after their own brunch they had. We got there before anyone else so she could take a nap, but 30 minutes passed and she was up ready for some more partying!


Once everyone got there, we dug right into all the goodies that everyone brought for her! She had Easter baskets from Grandma and Grandpa, Great Grandma, Aunt Erica, Great Aunt Nancy and even her second cousin Kirsten! Her favorite part of the day had to be playing with the easter grass from all the baskets!





Erica got her a cookie monster which she loved and Grandpa Mack had gotten her a cookie monster that ate cookies earlier, so she was in COOKIE MONSTER heaven!



After all the goodies, we had lots of "KK" aka cake and treats and Kenna was able to run around with the other kids before we headed home to CRASH!!!!



It was a perfect Easter Sunday and a perfect Easter weekend with all the people we love!!!!

Easter Festivities

What a whirlwind of an Easter we had!!!!! 2 full days of celebrations with family - it was perfect, but utterly exhausting :)


Saturday, Nate and I hosted an egg hunt for his side of the family! All the kiddos came over and of course it had to rain that day, so the egg hunt was in our teeny basement, but it worked and they all had a great time. Heck, they didn't care, they still got tons of candy and goodies!







Kenna and I died some eggs for my deviled eggs recipe the night before - she had a really fun time just sitting by mama - her company made it all worth while!




We had a really good time and were so happy it was able to work for everyone, despite the gloomy weather.

Visting the Como Zoo

I ended up taking the day off on Friday after a long week at work and we took Mackenna to the Como Zoo for the first time this spring - with her another year older, she seemed to enjoy it a bit more and could actually look in the direction we were pointing at and see the animals and ask, "What's that?!" hundreds of times!




I think this was her favorite part however :)

Wacky Wednesday

It's wacky hair day at Pati's today!!! Here is what Kenna's hair looked like when we left home...


And an hour after drop off, here's what it looks like now...


Not surprised at all with my stubborn little lady :)

Twins Day at Daycare

For Mackenna it was Vikings Day :) For the Easter Week Pati decided to have some themes for each day and today was Twins Day, but since we didn't have anything that fit and we didn't want to just buy something for one day cuz Daddy says we're not a Twins house (HEHEHE) Pati also said we could also do any sports team, so we went with our mini MVC!!!! Mama's proud :)


Tomorrow is wacky hair day, so stay tuned as I'm sure we'll have some great pics :)

Easter Bunny Fun

We went to the Mall of America this past weekend for some fun with Grandpa Mack to ride some rides :) We ended up doing way more than that! We got to see the Easter Bunny which as you can see, she FELL IN LOVE WITH!




Such a sassy little lady - love this one!!!


And she was also able to meet 2 characters from the Wonder Pets (Nickelodeon) and she LOVED them - well she loved the chick and wanted nothing to do with the turtle...as you can see!






It was a great couple hours and from the look on Mackenna's face, she had a perfect day!!!