Spring Break 2009

For our spring break we went to the tropical and exotic destination of Elgin, Illinois. Well, maybe not tropical or exotic, but we had a great time! We went to visit Matt's parents, and also got to see Cam, Grandma Fran, and Uncle Dave. The weather was actually really nice for several days while we were there, and one day it even got up to 74 degrees! So our spring break did turn out kind of tropical... I guess it depends on your definition of tropical, especially when you're used to below zero winter weather. Walking outside of the house in March without a jacket on is a novelty for us!

We left our house early afternoon on Saturday and stopped several times along the way, so we didn't get to Elgin until that evening. I believe I commented to Matt more than once, "Wouldn't it be so much easier to fly?" :) When we finally arrived, Mckenna was excited to see her Grandpa Craig, Grandma Karen, and Uncle Cam. Linnea, Gwen, and Sonja were in Florida for the week visiting Linnea's grandparents, so we missed seeing them. But we'll be in IL again for Sonja's baptism in April, so Mckenna will get some cousin time then.







Mckenna is currently into grabbing - wrapping her cute little hand and fingers around something and holding on tight. Toys, hair, jewelry, and more, but this was a new one... she was really into grabbing Uncle Cam's nose for some reason - funny!


A few naked baby pictures... and a video with some cute belly laughs and squeals!




Mckenna is still into reading her books, more than ever. She loves looking at the pictures and colors and hearing the words and rhyme. Linnea, Cam, Gwen and Sonja gave her this book, "BIG, Little."


Karen made a fabulous St. Patrick's Day meal, complete with corned beef and cabbage. It was really yummy! Matt's Grandma Fran and Uncle Dave were able to come and spend some time with us. As always, it was wonderful to see them.


"Holding hands" with her Great Uncle Dave.


Mckenna is now rolling over pretty much every time she is playing on the floor, usually within seconds of putting her down. She is a strong little girl, and props herself up to play and look around when she's on her tummy. She is such a cutie!


Playing with Grandma Karen. Mckenna was really enjoying her quality time with her grandparents, and I think vice versa. :)




All ready to go out for a walk in the nice weather...






We walked to a park and Matt and Mckenna had some fun on the slide and monkey bars. Matt and Cam went to the school in the background, Hillcrest Elementary in Elgin. Now Matt is a P.E. teacher, and it was fun to hear him reminisce about where they ran the mile outside the school and played games for P.E. Life comes full circle...






The day it got up to 74, we went to walk around an outdoor "lifestyle" mall. Even though it was sunny and warm, it was really windy, so Mckenna had a light jacket on.


Tired from our day out, in the car on the way back to Elgin. Gotta love those cheeks!


Mckenna, Grandma Fran, and Uncle Dave.






These next few were taken after we got home from Illinois. Note the saying on her shirt! :)




I don't know if you can tell from this picture or not, but Nemo likes to be near Mckenna at all times. :)


Last picture - another new thing Mckenna is doing is grabbing her feet when she's sitting or laying down. She'll grab them and just hold on, or sometimes put her toes in her mouth.


We can't believe that Mckenna is already 5 months old - she'll be 23 weeks this next week! Where has the time gone? It was so nice to have a week off from school to rest and relax and spend time together as a family, and we had such a great time in Elgin. Thanks for having us, Craig and Karen - we'll see you again soon!

Did You Know?

We're having a great time in Illinois on spring break! Stay tuned for fun pictures from our trip. In the meantime, here is an interesting video to ponder from YouTube. I saw this a few weeks ago on the blog of one of the computer tech guys at Minnehaha, Keith. His blog is really good and focuses on education technology. You can check it out by clicking on the link down the right hand side of our blog page - "Keith Kostman - Future Education Tech." I think I'll show this to my business students in class at MA when we start our unit on International Business in a few weeks - an interesting intro to grab their attention. Enjoy!

5 months old!

Mckenna is 21 weeks old today - we CAN'T BELIEVE that she is already 5 months old! Time has really flown by. We are constantly reminded of how lucky and blessed we are to have her - every day, every smile (a lot of smiles!), every squeal, every snuggle... she is just the best, best, best part of our every day, no doubt. It is so much fun to watch her grow and develop. Every day she can do something more or something different than the day before - more "talking" and laughing, more sitting up, more playing, more rolling. We really have to watch her closely because she moves quickly and unexpectedly... I can't imagine what it will be like when she's actually crawling and then walking!

Here are some pictures from the last week. We have a lot to look forward to coming up in the next few weeks. This next week is our spring break at Minnehaha, and Matt, Mckenna and I will be heading to Elgin, IL to spend time with his parents. We come home mid-week, and then will be getting ready for a fun Saturday baby shower for Abby - can't wait! And then of course - what I've been calling the wedding of the century - Janna and Robby get married on Saturday, March 28th. Our good friend and college roommate Janine is coming into town for the wedding from Denver, so that will be awesome to see her and her cute family. So much fun ahead!

The other day I was feeding Mckenna her bottle and noticed that she was sucking on the bottle AND sucking her thumb at the same time - so funny and cute! So I took her thumb out, and she again put it back in. I couldn't resist getting a picture. She has really been enjoying her thumb lately!

I'm sure you read about my parents' house flooding - if not, see the prior post below. So they are living in a residence hotel at the moment, and Mckenna and I went to have breakfast with my mom one morning. She loves her grandparents!

Last week Minnehaha had parent-teacher conferences, and we were done early on Friday, so the three of us headed to the good old Mall of America for lunch and walking around. As most of you know, Matt is a UMN Gophers alum (me too!) and absolutely loves the maroon and gold, so everytime we go to the mall we ceremoniously have to stop in the "Goldy's Locker Room" store. You maybe can't tell in this picture, but Mckenna's modeling a hat that says "Future Minnesota Gopher" - too cute! Daddy was so proud...

You've gotta stay warm here in cold Minnesota! Matt thought she looked like a bishop with this adult winter hat on. :)

Mckenna has started to hold her bottle with both hands... not exactly feeding herself yet, but she's getting there!

A short sit down rest and nice photo op by a fountain.

Matt and Mckenna were sitting and playing together while I was trying on some things. As you can see, they're really having a good time!



Time to go and one more photo op, by the shark cage. Does Mckenna look like she is about to be chomped by a shark? I don't think she's too amused...

We watched Dancing with the Stars on Monday night while playing with Mckenna before she went to bed. Matt and Mckenna were dancing together and enjoying some of the band's tunes.

Make sure to have the sound turned up for these next two. This is a cute video taken by Matt last week. Mckenna still likes to be swaddled when she sleeps - it calms her down and keeps her from squirming around and waking herself up. This was taken one day after waking up from a nap. She normally stretches a bit more when we unwrap her than in this video, but you get the idea.


One more video, and this is a fun one! Like an earlier video that I posted, I took this one sideways and have no idea how to turn it the right way... if anyone knows, please share! One night Matt was taking her hands and patting his cheeks, and she just started laughing and laughing... I could hardly hold the camera still, her funny laughing was making me laugh! And I love her cute belly laugh - if this doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will! :)

She is Love

The other day I saw a commercial for Nivea with a really pretty song in the background. So I went to search for the song online, and found it on YouTube and iTunes. It's called "She is Love" by Parachute VA. I'll post the YouTube video with the song here.

I was listening to the song this morning while I was getting Mckenna out of bed, snuggling with her, changing her, and feeding her... you might remember from a post long ago that I sometimes like to put favorite songs on repeat and listen to them over and over. Well, I did that this morning. As all of you parents out there know, having a child brings about the most amazing love - such strong and deep feelings that you can't even fathom having them before you are actually a mommy or a daddy. No matter how my day has gone, what my past looks like, what my future holds, today Mckenna is looking at me, smiling and holding my hand. This morning I literally gasped because it felt like the wind was knocked out of me for a second... this beautiful little girl loves us, and we love her. Amazing! What a blessing to have her in our lives... she is love.

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?) :)

Mckenna's Dedication

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
-Mark 10: 14, 16

Mckenna was dedicated at Bloomington Covenant Church last Sunday, February 22nd. It was a fun and very special day. We had many family members and friends with us, including Matt's parents from the Chicago area.

Matt and I helped with the praise music for the morning, so we had to be at church early to practice. Mckenna's two sets of grandparents hung out with her in the nursery while we were going over music, and when we were done she had fallen asleep and we put her in a crib to nap. I walked over to the crib to check on her, and this is what I saw. She's even being cute when she's "napping" - cute and smiley!


Up from her short rest and ready to go into the service. A side note about Mckenna's dress - I bought it before she was born for her to wear at Christmas. But when we were asked to play Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, the dress went by the wayside. But it's so cute, and I really was hoping she could wear it at some point... so this was the perfect event for it!


Linnea, Cam, Gwen, and Sonja sent Mckenna this bracelet in the mail. Linnea makes beautiful jewelry, and this looked just adorable on Mckenna and went perfectly with her dedication outfit. They couldn't be with us over the weekend because Cam had a class to attend for work in Chicago, but they were there in spirit.


Our Pastor, Tim Johnson, talked to the kids about what dedication means during the children's sermon. We thought it was neat that he explained it to them and then went right into the dedication, with the children watching on.


Both Pastors at BCC, Pastor Tim, and Pastor Greg Ellis, took part in Mckenna's dedication. They are both so wonderful!





After the service, family came over to our house for lunch. We of course had to get some family pictures!



I love how Mckenna is reaching out for Nemo in this picture... she can't get enough of her puppy!


After a long and full day, Mckenna was pretty pooped.


But of course, she woke up again soon and wanted to play some more! Here she is with Grandpa Craig.




Thanks to all of our special family and friends who joined us to celebrate the dedication and blessing of our sweet baby girl to God!