Sunday, March 1, 2009

Girls night!

Saturday night the "Bethel Roomies" - minus Janine :( - came over to hang out and spend the night! We had a great time, as always, and we have even more fun to look forward to together... a baby shower for Abby in less than three weeks, and then Janna and Rob's wedding in less than four weeks! Here are some pictures from our fun evening together.

Janna, Ang, and Katrina. Such cute ladies! Notice the plentiful snacks on the table... where there is college friends, there will be snacks a plenty! :)


Dr. Brandes and Mckenna hanging out - they were immediate friends! Ang and Katrina got to meet Mckenna for the first time, and I'm pretty sure they both think she is pretty darn cute. :) It was fun to chat with Ang about baby talk and being a new parent, and to hear her doctors perspective. Yes, I do love my fabulous, smart, successful, inspirational friends - these girls are awesome!


Next it was time for some presents. Abby and Dan (my brother) are due with their first baby in April. Is it a girl or a boy - no one knows! Abby and Dan decided to be surprised, and we're all so excited to find out! Katrina made the baby a really cute quilt... I must say, I am rather jealous of Katrina's wonderful quilting skills. I would love to someday learn how to do that. Mckenna loves her quilt from Katrina - she sleeps with it every night!


And of course we also wanted to shower the bride-to-be. Here is Janna with a cool cherry wood salad bowl and bear claws. I was tempted to keep it for myself, but since it is from her and Rob's registry, I guess I had to hand it over.


Katrina, Ang, Janna, Abby, and Julie. Thanks for a fun girls night, my fabulous gals. And Janine, we missed you, but look forward to seeing you in a few short weeks!

19 weeks!

Mckenna is already 19 weeks old, almost to the 5-month mark! It's hard to believe that almost 5 months have passed since she's been born... the cliche is true, it's hard to remember what it was like before she was with us. She is such a huge and awesome part of our lives - what a blessing!

Last week we went out to run some errands around town, and stopped by to say hi to my friend Jamie and her new little boy, Asa. Jamie and her husband Jonathan are now the parents of three boys, and Asa is just 3 weeks old. Such a little cutie! He isn't too happy in this picture, but Jamie and I had fun with it, joking that Mckenna was going to eat Asa for breakfast. Asa weighed more than Mckenna at birth - it's hard to remember her being so tiny!


As many of you know, Minnesota got a big dump of snow last Thursday, but Wednesday the sun was shining and the four of us (Matt, Julie, Mckenna, and Nemo) decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. It wasn't really that warm, but the sun was calling, so we ventured out. This is the first time we had Mckenna in her stroller facing out. We've always just had her in the carseat and set the carseat in the stroller, and she'd be facing us as we walked. I think she liked this new perspective!




My Dad has continued to come over on M/T/Th mornings to watch Mckenna while Matt and I are teaching, and it has worked out great. Mornings are a great time for Mckenna - she is so awake and smiley and ready to play after her long 10+ hour sleep. I had to snap a picture of the two smiling faces before I left one morning last week. It's so wonderful to know that she's well loved and taken care of when we're gone!

A prayer request for my parents, Bob and Mary Person - they went out for dinner on Friday night, and while they were gone a part broke in the toilet of their upstairs main bathroom and completely flooded the whole house - ceilings even fell in and everything is ruined and the house totaled. So now they are staying in a hotel for a few nights and figuring out where they are going to live (a rented apartment, house, etc.) for the next 3-4 months while their house is being gutted and re-done. Please pray for them during this very stressful time as they are in shock and are saddened that this has happened and so many of their things and memories, etc., are gone. Thank goodness they are okay, and they know and trust that God is in control and everything will turn out alright. Thank you for your prayers.


This picture goes with a funny story... Mckenna needs a passport because we're going to Mexico in June. So on Saturday we went to get her picture taken and fill out the paperwork to get her a passport. Well, the picture was taken in front of this white screen in the main area of the post office, and there was a line out the door to mail things, so everyone was watching while the woman who helped us was trying to get a usable picture. Matt had to kneel down on the floor and hold Mckenna way up above his head in order to get the picture... she can't yet sit up on her own, so we needed to do it this way. And his hands couldn't be in the picture, just Mckenna, so it was a process figuring out just how to hold her. Picture everyone looking at this baby-passport-picture spectacle saying out loud, "oh, she's so cute!" and has a huge, gummy smile on her face, whipping her head back and forth to look at everyone in line... all she needed was her hand waving and she could've been on the red carpet. So it was humorous trying to get a picture with her head still and looking straight on at the camera! I took this picture of Matt and Mckenna after the big spectacle was all over... as you can see, she's still hamming it up for all of her admirers in the post office. Too funny!


Every night we read to Mckenna before bed, usually sitting on the couch or in the glider. Well this night we were both just too tired to sit up, so we had to lie on the bed and read together. :)


Cute video alert! Mckenna has been rolling over quite a lot the past few weeks, and we've gotten it on video a few times. Three things to watch in this video - you may need to watch it more than once to catch them all!
1. Mckenna grunts right before she rolls over - pretty cute.
2. Watch her face when she looks up after she rolls - she loves the camera (and the camera loves her!)
3. Watch Nemo, not only when she comes up to the camera, but where she comes from. (Do you think she wants in on the attention too?) :)