23 - Let it Snow!

McKenzie loves dancing to this snowman that sings Let it Snow over and over and over that Grandpa Gyorkos got her for Christmas last year.

I used to really like that song!

22 - Fish are friends...not food!

McKenzie's Grandpa Gyorkos bought her a fish tank for Christmas. We finally managed to get it all set up and get the fish for it. I have managed to keep them alive for 4 hours! I am very impressed by that record.

Here is our tank and new tank stand. Thanks to Shelby and Kaeden for entertaining McKenzie on Boxing Day so Mike and I could trek around to find one.

Here's a close up of our fish. The girl at the fish store said that these two types are very hardy and hard to kill. These are the fish for me! McKenzie has not yet named them...so far they are "there ya are" or "where'd ya go". If they make it a week I will hold a name the fish blog contest. The little black/grey one is fairly aggressive with the other two but the last to venture out and explore. The white one is always first to explore and the other one seems a gentle soul...as much as you can tell when talking about fish!

I did not finish getting the fish into the tank until after McKenzie went down for a nap. When she woke up it was all set to go. This is her watching them. She thinks they are great. If we manage to keep everyone alive for awhile (can you sense the confidence I have in myself to do this...oh the things we do for our kids) then we will introduce some more colourful species.

21 - Merry Chirstmas! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noel!

We had a great Christmas. We were all spoiled rotten. Thank you to everyone. Here are a few pics from today.

McKenzie opening her Santa gift.

Very excited about her own Mega Blocks.

And she wanted to play with them RIGHT NOW! This is how most of our present opening went. Open a gift. Play with a gift. THEN open another gift. It took awhile to finish up.

Playing with the new computer she got from my boss Sandy.

"Reading" her new flash cards from Grandma and Grandpa.

Uncle Ryan and Aunty Bobbie hit one out of the park with the aqua doodle. She LOVES it and had to play with it right away. We took it to dinner with us and she was engrossed in it there too.

Playing dress up with her new beads from my friend Richard at work.

We went to my Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Harry's for dinner tonight. McKenzie was showing their granddaughter Stephanie all the ornaments on the tree.

DINNER!

We also brought this little catch the fish game I picked up for McKenzie in the 1.50 bin at Michaels. It is a huge hit with her...best 1.50 I ever spent. Stephanie and Daniel seemed to enjoy it too.

And the best dressed baby award goes to.....

I'm already on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor Mom and now you want me to SMILE too!

McKenzie got a little cleaning set from Mike's Aunt Anne and Uncle Howard. She loved playing with it tonight. She has not quite perfected her "sweep swing" yet.

Thank you again to everyone. If your gift was not showcased here on tonight's exhibit it is not because it is not loved and played with. Likely it is because the picture did not turn out or she was not standing still long enough with it for us to snap one. She is truly loving everything she got and we feel so blessed. Thank you. Oh yeah, we love all our stuff too! :)

20 - Keep 'em busy!

Whenever we get out the broom to sweep now we hear this little voice say, "I try?" So, never one to say no if someone else wants to do my cleaning I always say, "Sure." Here is McKenzie very happy to be "helping" sweep up.

Hmmm does this face look familiar Mom and Dad...I'm sure you have about 100 pics of me making the same one!

The artist today hard at work in her "studio". This is a familiar sight in our house these days. McKenzie absolutely loves anything to do with drawing, colouring, or painting. She focuses so intently on what she is doing and we have seen a definate improvement in her skills in the last few weeks. She can draw shapes with much more control and is getting much better at colouring in the object she is intending to instead of just scribbling everywhere. It is so neat to watch her develop.

She also counted to 13 the other day. She routinely goes to 10 now and often to 12 but did 13 for the first time the other day. My new favourite word is 11. You have to hear her say it. It resembles nothing like 11 except it has all the right sounds totally mixed up said after 10 and before 12.

Blog updates

I caught McKenzie catching up on her blog reading tonight. DeeAnn's blog has a dedicated reader in this little girl. She was scrolling through the posts and every time we passed a pic of Kaeden she would say "There ya go! K".

No pictures of this but tonight we had our first pee pee contact with the potty! YEAH! I was getting McKenzie ready for bed and we were chatting away and before I put her diaper on she took it and said "I do it" so I asked if she would like to try sitting on the potty and she said Yes. So I put her on it and she sat there quite happy chatting with me for a few minutes. Just as I was congratulating her for sitting up there without crying for the first time and about to take her off she started to pee...which scared her and she tensed up so she stopped but lots of cheering and clapping relaxed her. No more pee but we wiped and then she got to flush and wave bye bye to her pee. I think she thought it was neat. The first step on what I am hoping will not be too long nor difficult a road to potty training.

19 - Haircut

Not so long ago my dad pointed out to me that I may not want to get McKenzie's hair cut anytime soon since growing it seems to be difficult for her. I was fully on board with this way of thinking but lately I have had a lot of people mentioning that I should get it cleaned up and this will likely help it to grow stronger and healthier too. Soooooo.... today we went for a haircut!

McKenzie got to sit in a pink car and didn't really pay much attention to what was going on. It is much more "cleaned up" and looks a bit boyish but will grow out much nicer I think. Mike will have to learn to put pigtails in or McKenzie will just have to learn to tolerate a headband until it grows out a bit.

18 - Tea Party

McKenzie got a tea set from our friends Daphne and Ed and their kids Ashlynn, Owen, and Ryan for her birthday. I wasn't sure if she would be into it yet but she so was. Her and I had a tea party last night. It is a cute set that makes music when you tip over the tea pot. She was very cute as she would first serve all the guests (Mommy and Lambie) ensuring to give us milk and sugar in our tea and stir it up and then would wait until I offered to pour her a cup to which she replied "Oh Thank you". TOO CUTE.

First you pour the tea.

Then you add sugar and milk and mix it up.Then you pass it ot your guest...trying not to spill any.

Then a toast to your health.

And drink it all up.

I am constantly amazed by her. She is growing up so fast.

17 - Dress Up

McKenzie got a dress up set from my boss Sandy for her birthday. Last night she tried out all the pieces. She was game to try and walk in the shoes too but they had a heel and I did not feel like a trip to emerg with her broken ankle so we left those off.

She finally tried the earings too...she was not too sure about those but enjoyed the rings, necklace, crown and wand very much.

16 - Dollhouse

Unfortunately, we had to miss my Union Kids Christmas party on Sunday due to technical difficulties*. Today one of our reps brought me McKenzie's gift. A My First Dollhouse. I don't know who was more excited...her or me?

She really seems to love it. She was almost asleep since she missed a nap today and woke up as soon as she saw it. Even dog tired she played with this for 40 minutes until dinner was ready and again after dinner kept roping new people to play with her. She loves it.

15 - Two-rrific

Hmmm...this darn weather! Don't know if anyone will be able to come to my party.

Thank goodness for the "Chibry, Bentley, Carriere party in a box!"
Luckily DeeAnn, Kaeden, Shelby, Heather, Lawrence, Kari, and Maks were able to make it to the house. Scott made a cameo near the end of the party. My mom flew in yesterday but based on weather warnings was able to change her flights until earlier in the day so she made it to Calgary for the weekend.

Here's McKenzie playing with the "Chibry, Bentley, Carriere" gift. McKenzie loved this easle. Luckily I found some chalk. After McKenzie saw this she wanted nothing to do with anything else. Kaeden and I "helped" her opening the rest.

She did stop playing with her chalk board long enough to inspect her new Barbie.

Shelby quite liked playing with all McKenzie's new toys, Strawberry Shortcake, the puppy with a puppy (shown here) and her Barbie. She also got money and a cute jacket and vest. Thank you to everyone who sent or brought gifts.

Cake time. The very cool sign in the background was made by my friend Jenien. Unfortunatley, Jenien was stuck and could not get to the party.

BLOW!

Yeah! We blew them out.

This party was FUN! Thank you everyone!

14 - How many sleeps until Grandma comes to visit...

Four!

13 - Just a lazy Saturday morning...

...checking out the flyers

12 - Ho Ho NO!

McKenzie visited Santa today. Her look seems to be saying, "REALLY?! AGAIN!" She is not Santa's biggest fan yet.

For those of you that got a blank email from me today this picture was supposed to be on it but it did not attach to every email. Don't know why. Sorry about that.

11 - someone's birthday is coming up

Here's McKenzie driving her little car. In this picture she is backing up...she backs up better than I do!

She likes to stand at one of the house with the car and yell out 1...2...GO and race to the other end or until she hits something and then laugh hysterically.

Bought a table at Ikea for my craft area and McKenzie decided to "help" me put it together this afternoon.

While she was napping I moved most of her toys to the basement and set up her new table and chairs. Technically they are her birthday gift from Mike and I but they would be a little hard to wrap anyway and she won't know the difference.

Enjoying her "birthday" present.

10 - How to...

A little too cold to go to the park? Really want to slide? Don't wait until it warms up kids...use the stairs!

This easy to follow step by step guide will show you how to effectively slide down the stairs.

Step 1 - go to the bottom of the stairs.

Step 2 - crawl up the stairs

Step 3 - Straighten out your body

Step 4 - Slide down the stairs. Shoulder check every now and again to be sure you know when the bottom is coming.

Step 5 - Stick the landing for a perfect 10.0