Strawberry Pickin'

A couple of Friday's ago I had a spontaneous thought to take the kids to Washington Farms to pick some strawberries. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! Not too hot (for once) and a little breeze. So as soon as Mack woke from nap, we headed out!

Rhyan loves to push the stroller for Mack. What a sweet big sister!

We picked a row and got started. We could see lots of red berries.... unfortunately, they were all pretty small due to the lack of rain. Not that they were any less tasty...

Rhyan was quite the helper and spotted lots of nice berries!

Mack was quite content in his stroller.. until I let him taste a strawberry. Then he got a little fussy. The fatty loves berries :-) Rhyan fed him one at one point and the piggy ate the whole thing in one bite. GREEDY! ;-)

Gran was in the area so she stopped by towards the end of the picking and helped us finish filling up the bucket. And on our way home we went!

Definitely something fun and easy to do with the kids. And the strawberries were to DIE FOR! mmmmm.....

Mckinnon: 11 Months

MACK! You are 11 months old! (at least you were 2.5 weeks ago :-) ). 

Oh, my little boy... you bring so much joy to our home! You are happy and loving and cuddly! You make yourself and all of us laugh all the time and we LOVE you!

Your hair is a little out of control, here lately! Look at those CURLS!

You have lots of fun new tricks and this one is a favorite. You will do this little head stand and then sit down and laugh and laugh at yourself. You are TOO cute!

But sometimes, even you bonk your head while doing your own cool tricks. HA!

Hey, look! Rhyan can do it, too! :-)

Unlike your little sister who had almost no sweets until she was well over a year old, you enjoy a treat every now and again. Your Grammy makes sure of it.

Just fyi, right after I give you a bath, I can tame your hair and you're super cute :-)

Onto your monthly pics. These are so hard to do these days because you are ON THE MOVE!

Your big sis helped me again this month...

Again with the crazy hair :-)

Rhyan is such a good big sister and loves to feed you each morning! You dont seem to mind who is holding you as long as someone feeds you!

Mack, at 11 months (to the best of my memory) you are:

-sleeping from 7pm(ish)-7am(ish)

-napping from 9:45am-11am and 1:15(ish)-3pm(ish)

-wearing size 4 diapers

-in 12 month clothes (although some onesies are getting snug)

-cruising furniture like crazy

-trying to let go and stand alone but only for a second or so

-anticipating me dressing you. you offer me your foot for your sock and arm for your shirt, etc...

-eating 4 bottles at 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm

-eating solids around 8am, 12pm and 6pm

-loving your sippy cup and water

-getting bored with cherios but you'll eat them because you're a piggy :-)

-saying "mama", "dada", "rhyrhy" and "nahnahnah" (no no)

-HOWLING at Spud. Its our favorite thing that you do!

no new teeth this month that we found. You love EVERY food we've offered you and you have a special love for strawberries and really any fruit :-)

We love you sweet boy! STOP GROWING! :-P

Liz's BABY shower!!

My sister in law is PREGGO!!! Have i mentioned that yet on here?! I'm gonna be an aunt to a little GIRL: Avery Elizabeth. How very very sweet! And EXCITING!!! Rhyan will have a girl cousin :-) 

I had offered to throw a shower for Liz when we first found out she was expecting and I ended up pairing up with Lori King and Liz's BCF (best college friend) Carrie Cork to throw a baby books shower. Liz had thrown a shower for me when I was preggo with mack that was this theme and it was super cute! So we repaid the favor!

The thank you's were little note pads that Lori and some friends MADE. Cardboard backing, 50 or so pieces of white paper and then a pretty cover page. Apparently if you put abotu 6-7 layers of rubber cement across the top and then peel off the extra glue when it dries, it makes a note pad. Clever! We paired it with a book mark that Carrie made :-)

A collection of books that I gave her: God Gave Us You, On the Night You were Born and Good Morning Good Night. 3 of my favorites :-)

Liz has gotten a TON of great gifts but i have a feeling that this boppy will get TONS of use!

We played two games. One that i inappropriately named "baby scategories" except you dont compare your answers. Basically, if you could come up with a baby related item that started with each letter of the alphabet, you win :-) They got creative!

The other game was to create your own baby out of playdough. This was our winner.. "tummy time baby"

Every good contest has a final 4, right?! Cute swaddles, ladies!

Ok, in the pic above, the girl on the left is named amanda and she is the one who MADE (from scratch, by hand) the cake below. The girl is MEGA talented! And she does it for FUN and free for her close friends! What an amazing gift she has! She even made Liz's wedding cake and it was FABULOUS!

We had a WONDERFUL time celebrating little Avery and I cant wait to meet her!!!! (Due July 15!)