Little Miss Independent...Already!

Macie loves learning how to do new things by HERSELF. It's fun to watch her grow and figure things out, but I just can't believe how fast her baby stage is slipping away. Here are some pictures of a few of the things that our little girl likes doing lately...


She LOVES playing with Daddy! She gets so excited to see him in the morning and when he comes home from work.

Macie loves to eat! She especially loves anything her parents are eating. This is her eating the apple she stole from me. She refused to give it back after I gave in and gave her a taste. I think she hung on to it for a good two hours! I really can't complain though...she eats anything we give her now, she loves it all! I have to ration her food because she will never quit eating until it's all gone...sound familiar?:) Yes, I think she takes after her MOM.

She's also discovered emptying her laundry basket! So now I just put toys in it and let her take them all out. This is a new favorite.

I think I left her to play for a little too long...she just turned around and went to sleep.

Picking up cheerios will usually keep her entertained for quite a while. Sometimes she can't quite get it between her thumb and finger, and she'll balance it on top of her finger until she gets it to her mouth. That's my favorite, she has to concentrate pretty hard to do that. But I am amazed lately at how fast those cheerios disappear...I have to really keep 'em coming!

And last of all, Macie loves to sit on the ground and play with her toys!

"It won't be like this for long..."

For the last week or so Macie has been a little bit of a handful at night. She would cry and cry, and she just wanted her parents. She wanted us to hold her and play with her in the middle of the night! She just got over a bad cold and she had been sleeping in the same bed as Reed and I while we were on our trip. So I think she just needs to get back to her normal routine. Anyway, the last few days I was stressing a little thinking that she was never going to sleep well again. I just kept praying, "Please let her sleep for just a few hours straight. Please help her go back to sleep..." But yesterday when I was on my way home from Winco I heard a song on the radio that felt like an answer to my prayers. I've heard it before, but this time I really listened. (It's the first song on my play list, so when you are done reading this, you should listen to it) I realized that she is only a baby for such a short time, and I need to Cherish it. I need to enjoy those moments I get to hold her and play with her and rock her to sleep because "it won't be like this for long." So last night I fed her and put her to bed. She started to cry and cry, so after a while I got her out of bed and she came and played with me and Reed for a while. She was being so cute and happy, and we loved spending that time together. When I noticed that it was 10:00 I put her back in her bed and she didn't make a peep, she just fell right to sleep. And she did MUCH better during the night. I also put another song on my play list that's called Let Them be Little, so you should listen to that one too:)

Our Vacation to Mexico

Last week we got back from our vacation to Puerto Vallarta. We had so much fun and the weather was absolutely perfect! We went with Reed's parents and two younger brothers, which made it really fun. Macie especially loved it, and I think she misses the constant attention she got while we were down there. Let me just warn you, there are A LOT of pictures...
Macie's first ever plane ride!

Taking a bus to Wal-mart the day after we got there, she loves her Grandpa Jody.

Same bus ride.

This is Macie and Daddy in the "lazy river" at the resort we stayed at. She is such a little water baby! She was probably her happiest self in the pools.

Back at the condo after a long day for Macie.

We took a canopy tour up in the mountains that was really fun. This is just where we started from. I think there was about 14 different zip-lines that took you through the jungle.

Me and Macie waiting at the little restaurant for the canopy tour.

This was at the beach on our resort. Macie loved it and it felt SO nice just to sit in the sun for a while!

Macie soaking up the rays...Not really. I slathered her in SPF 70 sunscreen. Aveeno makes a really good spray on one for babies, thanks Mom!

Daddy and his little girl at the beach.

Macie was doing the biggest grins this day. I guess she just really loved the ocean...that means we'll have to go back:)

Her first time ever in the ocean!

Macie didn't even mind when the waves came in and got her, she was just happy to be in the water.

Daddy and Macie playing in the waves. I think this was the hardest diaper of hers I've ever had to change! The sand just clings to all the little crevasses, and Macie has a lot of those.

Poor little girl, I think we wore her out just about every day. But she was a trooper and was almost always happy to be there.

We took a little boat ride around the resort. These are just a couple pictures from that. Isn't it pretty?

I wish I could go back, it looks so warm!

I thought this was a neat picture. This is Macie and Uncle Troy in paradise:)

This one is Macie driving the boat. Everyone down there seemed to be drawn to her! She was always getting her cheeks pinched and her hair touched. When we'd leave the airport or airplane or boat, people would always being calling out there goodbye's to Baby Macie. They probably had no idea what her parents names were;)

This was us in the evening. It was so nice to be able to be outside, I can't wait 'till summer!

We took a boat ride out to a beach and stopped to do some snorkeling on the way. Macie is with her uncle Casey.

I'm not sure that our baby girl loved the long boat ride. Reed and I felt kinda sick, so I'm thinking she might have as well. As you can tell, she wasn't in the best mood.

This was the view from the hotel.

This was the lazy river that Macie LOVED, and one of the pools. I think there were about eight different pool areas.

Reed, Troy, Casey, Grandma Donna, Grandpa Jody, Me and Macie.

Our final hours in Puerto Vallarta :(

One last walk on the beach before we headed to the airport. We had an amazing time! And a HUGE THANKS to Grandma & Grandpa, Casey & Troy for helping SO much with Macie!

Going Private

After thinking about it for a while, we decided that it would be best for us to make our blog private. We love looking at your blogs, so any of you that would like to keep looking at ours please leave me a comment with your email address. Or you can contact me another way if you don't feel comfortable leaving your email for everyone to see. We won't do this for a couple weeks (probably first part of March) so just let us know. Thanks everyone!

Food Storage Reply

Sorry it took me so long to answer your questions and comments you had about my last post. To find out how much basic food storage my family needed for survival for one year, I went to lds.org, then clicked on "home and family," then down to "family home storage," then to "long term supply," then, at the right, "food storage calculator.

I also got a hand out from church that had how much sugar, salt, oil, and milk you would need for each person to actually be able to make things out of your basic supply of food:
Powdered Milk: 16 lbs
Cooking Oil: 10 quarts
Sugar: 60 lbs
Salt: 8 lbs
(I am still working on the oil)

And for an emergency 2 week supply of water you need 14 gallons of water for each person. I hope this helped! Even though I am way excited to get this basic storage done, I am still working on my 3 month supply of food we eat every day.

Food Storage

Today we were finally able to get the last of our food storage for one year. Yay! It feels so good to know that we have food and water there if we need it. I was just happy about that so I wanted to share!

Macie with the Giggles

Macie thought Sonja was being SO funny, all she would have to do was talk in a deep voice and she would crack up!

Happy Birthday Reed!

Today is Reed's 26th birthday, so I just want to let everyone know what an amazing husband I have. I could never imagine my life with anyone else, he is the perfect man for me:) I love you Honey, happy birthday!

Teeth!!

So Macie has been drooling a lot the last week or so, and everyone keeps asking me if she is teething. She loves to chew on everything, and when she sticks my finger in her mouth she can bite down pretty hard with those gums. Yesterday she had a runny nose and she didn't sleep very well last night, she just wanted to be held, which is not at all like Macie. And this morning when she was chewing on my finger I felt something sharp at the bottom! Yikes, I am so scared to feed her again! I cannot believe my baby girl is old enough to have teeth, she is growing up way too fast.

More Pictures of Macie

Our little girl loves to stick her tongue out, it makes us laugh.

This is Macie in her new Bumbo chair she got for Christmas. She thinks she is so big in it.

I started her on some solid foods after Christmas. Her favorite is mashed bananas (the real stuff) and cream of wheat. She doesn't like any of the yuck in the jars, but I can't blame her. It stinks, I wouldn't eat it either. So I am going to try and make her some homemade baby food from different fruits and veggies and see how that goes. Macie always wants to hold the spoon when she eats, so she gets pretty messy!

Reed was trying to hold Macie and brush his teeth at the same time, but she kept grabbing the toothbrush! So hear is Macie brushing her gums. It's kind of gross I know, but we thought it was funny.

And here is our sleeping little angel.

Christmas Morning

We had a great Christmas this year. Reed and I had colds, but Macie managed not to get one, so that was pretty lucky. We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's home with lots of family. We played games and opened presents and had lots of fun! Then On Christmas morning we stayed at our house and opened our presents to each other. We had to wake Macie up at about 9:30, but I don't think we'll have to worry about that in a few years. Christmas Eve used to be the longest night of the year! In the evening we went over to Reed's parents' home for dinner and more presents, an then the grand kids acted out the nativity. It was a really nice Christmas, and I am so glad I got to spend it with family. Here are a few of my favorite pictures...

Macie got her first solid foods in her stocking. She tried to eat the box of cereal as soon as she got it.

Macie and her Daddy with her new toys. She loves anything that she can chew on!