4th of July

I'm just now finally getting around to posting some pictures from our busy July, starting with the always fun weekend of the fourth. For the past several years in a row we have been at the cabin in Barnes, WI, near Hayward. This year was no exception. The small town of Barnes has quite a bit bigger population for it's 4th of July events, including a pancake breakfast at the church, the parade down "mainstreet", a concert on the lawn of the church in the early evening, and of course the fireworks, which are set off at the town park... pretty much right in front of all of the onlookers. Here are some pictures of our weekend!

The sign on this float in the parade says it all... decades of fun at the lake! :)


Matt's Uncle Dave was able to join us for the weekend, so that was fun to hang out with him.


All of the floats were throwing candy, and a few had other items too, like this necklace that Mckenna got, and promptly put in her mouth.


And this festive mini beach ball, the perfect size for Mckenna to play with. She plays with this at home quite a bit too - she loves it!


Matt's parents are really involved in this church when they're at the cabin - Barnes Community Church.






And what small town event is complete without the presence of John Deere? ;)




On to the evening fireworks display. Mckenna was going strong as we waited for the fireworks to begin, but as you'll see below, soon faded fast...




I promise, she isn't mad or upset in this picture, even though it really looks like it. I remember that when this picture was taken, she was literally falling asleep. And no loud booms had started yet, but I was covering her ears in anticipation... I knew they were going to start any second.




I wasn't sure how she would react to the fireworks, and I was prepared to go inside if she seemed scared, but instead this is what she did the entire time - slept like, well, a baby! She fell asleep before the fireworks started, and stayed asleep the whole evening - she didn't even flinch at any of the loud sounds. That's our girl. :)


And we got her in the car smoothly, and she slept the whole drive back to the cabin. We got her into bed without incident. Mckenna's first 4th of July experience... mission accomplished!


The next day we continued our great weekend by enjoying Mckenna's first ever boat ride at the cabin. It's funny to think that even though we live in Minnesota and go to the lake in Wisconsin a lot, she had been on a boat in the ocean (in Mexico) before being on a lake. Go figure.




Can't wait to go back for the fun again next summer!

9 months old!

Well, to be exact, Mckenna is now about 9 1/2 months old, but since I'm behind on posting, everything is a few weeks behind.

How did 9 months fly by so quickly? I have no idea... we definitely do not have a little baby anymore, but a big girl who is rapidly approaching toddlerhood. Mckenna seems to be doing something new and fun every single day. Like I said in the previous post, she now has 4 teeth - two middle lowers and uppers. She loves to clap, play patty-cake, wave hello and bye-bye, smile, giggle, crawl and explore, pull herself up on furniture, play with toys and look at every little detail like grooves or little holes, hold the toothbrush to brush her own teeth, play with Nemo, and throw her hands up in the air when you ask her, "How big are you, Mckenna?" She loves watching other kids and gets a special kick out of those she really loves, like her cousins and grandparents. She is such a sweetheart - very calm and mild-mannered, very cheerful, with what seems like an ultra sunny disposition on life. She is healthy and happy, and we feel very blessed to have her in our lives!

Here are a few pictures of Mckenna from the last few weeks, ending in pictures from her 9-month pediatrician visit yesterday. I hope seeing her makes you smile like it does for us! :)















Here are Mckenna's 9 (and a half) month stats: 20 lbs, 6 oz. (73rd percentile), 29 inches long (88%) and 18 inches head circumference (89%). I have to throw the head measurement in there because Matt thinks it's kind of funny... we Person family members tend to have rather large noggins. :)


When I was holding Mckenna on my lap, she would look at the doctor every few seconds with curiousity as he was listening to her heart and lungs. Pretty cute...


Getting her finger pricked to check her hemoglobin... she didn't make a peep about the pinch!


Another pediatrician visit, another Dora bandaid. The nurse told us to make sure to take the bandaid off of her finger before we got in the car because she might try to eat it. Smart, I would've never thought of that! :)

Catching up on summer fun...

It's been a while since I have posted, not because we don't have anything worthy of posting, but because we are out and about and don't have time to sit down at the computer! Here are some pictures from June and I will do my best to post more pictures from July later this week. Enjoy!

After school ended and a few days before we went to Mexico, Mckenna and I got together with our friends Kelly and Caleb Johnson for coffee and a walk in the park. Kelly finished out her school year teaching in Forest Lake, and they are going to join JJ at his new job as program director at Lake Beauty Bible Camp in Long Prairie, MN. It was so fun to see them!

Mckenna loves being around other kids, especially her friends. I love how she is looking at Caleb, so cute!


We went to a park near their house that has several great fountains that spray out of the ground every few minutes. Caleb was enjoying checking these out. He was bold enough to run up to one of the spouts when the water stopped, look down into it, and wonder where the water went...


...and get sprayed when the fountain came back on!


Mckenna was oblivious to all of the water fun - she was sleeping in her stroller the entire time.


Mckenna soon woke up and Caleb gave her a kiss before we had to go home. Have fun at Lake Beauty - we hope to visit you sometime soon!


Mckenna continued her "modeling career" (hahaha) with another photo shoot in June at Gopher Sports, the same place she did a shoot in April. Gopher Sports has a division for infants and toddlers called Play with a Purpose, and that's the catalog that Mckenna will be in. The pictures she took with them in April and June will be in the same catalog, which comes out and will be online in August. When I see it, I will post the online link so you can check it out too. Matt gets Gopher Sports catalogs in the mail for his P.E. classes at MA, so it's funny that his daughter will be in some of the pictures!






We couldn't take pictures with our camera in the actual photo studio, but we did take a few in between sets in the waiting area. As always, Mckenna was a model model - very smiley, cooperative, and good natured. :)


Note the bib... Mckenna was teething and drooling like crazy, and now has two more teeth - four total! She had her bottom middle two teeth, and now has her top middle two. It is just too cute for words. She definitely doesn't look like a little baby anymore with her chompers!


In early June before we went to Mexico, we went to a joint graduation party for three boys from the Bloomington Covenant youth group that graduated from Bloomington Jefferson. During the grad party we were babysitting our neighbor across the street and Mckenna's good friend, Carter. Carter just turned one a few days ago, and it's fun to have the two kids so close in age. When we got Mckenna and Carter in the car to drive to the grad party, they were all smiles and ready to go.


About 10 minutes later we got to the party, and this is what we saw in the back seat. Cuties! They both slept through the majority of the grad party. Party poopers! :) Congratulations recent grads - Peter, Brock, and Matt!


Also in June, our nephew Thomas turned four! We went to a family birthday party for him... can you guess the theme?




Big brother, Jacob.


Our best Spidey impersonations... Thomas, Julie, Matt, Brad, and Jacob.


A birthday song for Thomas before digging into his birthday cake. Watch how he tries to blow out the candles at the end, very cute.


Tommy and his sister and brothers have a lot of fun at their house, and I know that some of Tommy's favorites right now include superheros (Spider Man!), fireman and firetrucks, and anything to do with music, including any and all instruments. His family birthday party included all of those three favorites. Cool guitar glasses! :)


Here is Thomas's birthday present from Matt, Mckenna, Kristi and I. He loves this firemans outfit and accessories. Honestly, I'm not sure that he's taken it off very much in the past month that he's had it! :)


Cousins Mckenna and Ayla, hanging out with two of their aunties, Abby and Kristi.


The kids had fun playing outside in the backyard. Mckenna seemed to like sitting on this little car. You can't see her very well in this picture, but cousin Sarah is sitting in back of her. Anytime Sarah and Mckenna are together, Sarah seems to stay very close by to Mckenna at all times, it's very cute.








The Person cousins, minus baby Joel who was napping - Thomas, Ayla, Jacob, Mckenna, and Sarah. We love these kids so much, and can't wait to watch them grow up together as friends!