The Macy Kate Update

Emily and Austin's Annual Halloween Spectacular

2011-11-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

This year our Murder Mystery Dinner was Western Themed. The title was "The Good, The Bad, and The Guilty". I didn't want the fact that this was a Halloween party to be lost on the "western-ness," so I tried to incorporate the colors, pumpkins, candy and the like to mix them together. We had such a good time! I love this Halloween tradition more every year!

This is my proudest achievement- I used the "Hello, Cupcake" book for inspiration for the "coal" cupcakes, and kind- of the "hamburgers" (the book has the hamburgers as rice cakes colored with food coloring- I thought coco rice krispie treats would be yummier). The "ribs" are all mine though- they are twinkies covered in candy coating (like cake pops) and then a layer of strawberry jelly mixed with chocolate syrup. They were a little over the top as far as sweet, but I think they look pretty real! I was excited to think of something I haven't seen before.

This is my "Halloween" dinner- Chili in a pumpkin and "Candycorn" Cornbread (the top of the triangle is is white butter and then the cornbread is orange and yellow layers).

Here's everyone in their costumes- all guests were good sports and really dressed up- I think that makes it so much more fun!

Val and Dave

Me and Austin (I'm a Spanish Black Widow...kinda hard to see)

Em and Dan (Chief Breaking Wind!)

Candice and Tom

One more close-up of the coal cupcakes and ribs =)

sorry so long again...

Bella's Dino Hat

2011-09-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

My newest creation =) (Macy agreed to model! What?!)

Rapunzel Birthday Party!! Invitation and Food

2011-07-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

Birthday Girl!

Can't Believe My Girl is 3!!!

Invitation...obviously I guess

Macy is the "Wanted" criminal instead of Flynn Rider-thanks Honey!

Food Table

My fabulous friend Emily painted this for me- she is amazing!

(The Snuggly Duckling is the pub Rapunzel and Flynn go to get food)

Rapunzel's Tower aka The Birthday Cake

(please disregard the lack of wood paneling on the "house" part of

the cake...imagine it's there for me)

Pascale Pops!

(Cake Pops-Yum!)

I wanted "Hazelnut Soup" to be represented in the food since it is mentioned so much in the movie- my rendition is little pie crust bowls filled with Nutella (hazelnut spread) as

soup with a pretzel "spoon"

Flynn and Rapunzel's Boats of blue Jello and orange with sail- this idea was from supermommoments.blogspot.com- thank you!

Brush, and Brush, and Brush My Hair (cheesy) Bread- from the first song in the movie- Macy loves to imitate that part...the whole movie really...

"Golden Flower Punch" ( The Queen drinks this to be able to have Rapunzel in the first place)

Maximus the Horse's Apples- they're his fav in the movie

Macy and her friend Bree eating Birthday Cake- Yay!

Rapunzel Party: Fun and Games

2011-07-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

These were so fun to plan!!!

Game Number 1: Swing Out of Rapunzel's Tower- The kids used "hair" (yellow rope) to jump off a low step stool into a baby pool filed with balls and packing peanuts. It was a really big hit!

Game Number Two: Help Rapunzel Paint Her Tower's Walls!- Kids used Color Wonder Paints and Markers to decorate Color Wonder Paper- in case you don't know about this stuff, check it out! The paint and markers ONLY show up on the specific paper- not on clothes, walls, etc. I thought it translated the whole "artist" Rapunzel thing minus the big sloppy mess!

Game Number Three: Wack-A-Guard- I made a Palace Guard out of Paper Mache (the main guy- Maximus' owner? Hopefully he's recognizable) and he was the pinata! The best part was that instead of a bat, we used a for-reals cast-iron frying pan to hit it!! Just like our heroine! Didn't get a picture of that though.. (I also served some of the food in the bigger pans, as a sidenote)
Decorations- Sun Flags Bunting just like the Town Square- Emily's wonderful work again!

Presents!! Trampoline from Grandma!

Rapunzel Tutu- these will be on sale for Halloween at: And Tutus For All on Etsy!

So happy I got one...I mean Macy got one ;)

Lanterns also used for decorating- thank you so, so, so much again all my friends for helping!! Many people helped at the party and also had Macy for playdates (Val!) so I could do dumb cake stuff haha- thank you!!!

Treat Bags I painted and the contents of some- hair, rapunzel-ish iron ons, treats for girls and Pascale lizard buddies and mini boyish lanterns and treats for the boys.

Yay! Thanks for reading!

Rapunzel Party: Extra Pictures

2011-07-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

I can't help it- when I scrapbook, I include almost every photo taken...these aren't that many, but just ones I want to remember...
Our Location: Newhall Park

Close-up of Pascale Pops...I was sad I didn't have time to finish making all of them- at least these were cute =)
The Tower Cake in progress- Oatmeal containers covered with rice krispie treats.
The yarn braid used to decorate- LOOOONG!!!

Macy's New Book

2011-06-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

I have seen that there are books out there that you can personalize with your child's picture. I decided to make one myself based upon one of Macy's old favorites which I think is by Tana Hoban, also titled "Where Does It Go?". Some of these pictures are from when Macy still had a binkie! Making a book, not just a scrapbook, takes a long time! (sorry the pictures are so blurry...I'm too tired to take them again)

Letter Project Part 4

2011-03-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Here's how the wall looks now...
It looks pretty messy- I'm going to take it down soon and just put it all in a book...I just had wanted her to be able to see it all at one time. (the open book shows the picture of King Mosiah's sons- that is the picture I used for the K week, but of course I wouldn't rip it out to hang it up...)

Is this getting boring? I'm sorry if it is...I'm still hanging on, so I'm still gonna blog it.

Letter M:
I have to be honest, over the holidays I totally relaxed my plan again. For M we still talked about Mary on Day 1, Made an M out of a picture of Macy on Day 2. Since it was Christmas, we did a lot of Mary and Merry Christmas. We also wrote and talked about her name, since it's "her" letter.

Letter N:
Day 1: We did Naomi this week so I could talk about Ruth, who I love.
Day 2: We made an N out of a Necklace
Day 3: We got special "Toy Story 3" mac and cheese and Macy got to keep several Noodles shaped like Buzz, Woody, Alien guy, and Hamm (I think?. She had fun making them talk- that girl can turn anything into a "baby".
Day 4:I had seen an Easter craft in Parents magazine where you could make a Nest out of that poster tacky stuff and sticks- pretty easy and fun little thing to do. I decided to try out their other craft too of cutting an egg carton and setting an egg in it to make a little chicky to put in the nest. cute.
Day 5: I made a little "flannel board" (though just paper...) out of the story of Naomi, Ruth, Orpah, and their husbands- and how they triumphed.
The Nest

Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth "Flannel Board"
Letter O:
Day 1: I'm not sure if it's really...umm, sanitary? But we made our "O" out of orange peel- people use them in potpourri right?
Day 2: I know it's slacker-ish, but I had Orpah be my letter "o" girl- a woman with an "O" name? Just gotta do it.
Day 3: Again with the slacker mentality- we played with our paper doll story board to tell the story- mostly so we could talk about Ruth again.
Day 4: We made Owl cookies- "WHOO is your Valentine?"
Day 5: We made an Octopus out of cool bubble wrap we stamped.
Owl Cookies

Visit to My Fam

2011-02-09T21:39:00.000-08:00

Meet Sheriff Woody!

2011-01-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

Macy is Obsessed with all things Toy Story- we took a very, very short break from the Rapunzel "night-down"- and made this silly little Woody costume. Five minutes after I made it she said "Mommy can you make me a Jessie one now?" Oh brother....
p.s. please ignore the lovely mac and cheese on her face...

Letter Project Part 3

2011-01-05T14:38:00.001-08:00

Well, I pulled a muscle in my back and so that means I can't really fold clothes or do dishes right? My doctor said only blogging is allowed...or something like that. I feel retarded that it's been so long since I posted about this because now that adds up to a lot of letters, but hopefully it's not too boring for everyone (aka the 2 people who read my blog).

Letter I:
Day 1- We made our "I" out of "ice cubes". I used the clear plastic that batteries
come in and scotch tape to make three dimensional squares. It took awhile but
I think it looks pretty cool- I think I will keep them after this project is
over for play food.
Day 2- We talked about Issac and Rebecca. I never realized that when Rebecca
served the water to the animals that it was Issac's kinsman there and not
Issac himself. I always thought that's how they fell in love- maybe it was,
but indirectly. Am I the only one who didn't know that?
Day 3- We made an igloo! I used stale marshmellows and vanilla frosting piled over
an upside-down bowl. It was fun!
Day 4- We made Irish Creme hot chocolate and read books about Iguanas
Day 5- We played with Ink- (stamps)

Letter J:
Day 1: Macy is OBSESSED with Toy Story right now (and Rapunzel haha), so we made
our "J" out of pictures of Jessie the cowgirl from that movie.
Day 2: I felt like we needed to talk about Jesus for "J"- I told her different
stories each night and looked at tons of art.
Day 3: Ate JELLYBEANS of course!
Day 4: We made Jello and drank special "little" Juice boxes
Day 5: We made a Jester hat out of construction paper =)

Letter K:
Day 1: We made a "K" out of "kisses"- putting on lipstick and kissing the paper!
Day 2: We read and learned about King Benjamin
Day 3: We made a Kitten mask from my mil's notebook of activities
Day 4: Austin's company is called KPMG- we made cupcakes and wrote the letters on
them.
Day 5: I was excited to think of making Kabobs with fruit and cheese for Macy's
dinner.

Letter L:
Day 1: We made "Ladybugs" out of little red stones by drawing black polka-dots on
and made our "L" out of them.
Day 2: We talked about Lehi and his family- we used those Book of Mormon stories
that are drawn- almost like "comics"?
Day 3: Another activity that was in our little activity book was to make scones
and build them into a little alter like stones to use to tell the story
about how Lehi made an alter to pray in thankfulness for saving him and his
family.
Day 4: Lucky for me we inherited a cool bug puzzle where you "build" the bugs- and
one of them was a Ladybug ( I know, lots of the same, but give me a break!
haha).
Day 5: Our wonderful cousins passed down some boy clothes for us to give to
neighbors, lucky for us, though, we caught BUZZ LIGHTYEAR pajamas before we
gave them away! Macy has only worn two things for the last 6 weeks- her
Rapunzel nightgown and these pajamas...

Thanksgiving Mantel

2010-11-25T22:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know this is super late notice- Thanksgiving is today and the event itself if over...but I guess I really like how my mantel turned out so I still wanted to post it. I swear it has been up for the last three weeks!=)

Alphabet and Scripture Project Part 2

2010-11-23T16:59:00.001-08:00

Sooo- I have been wanting to post about my alphabet & scripture project, but with all the things in the way and also not wanting to post every week, I have just been writing down what I did with her. Well, lucky for me Macy likes to spill liquids on everything important... yeah. My list is gone. I'm going to try to remember, but sadly my mind is 1/4 of what it use- to be.

Week 5: E

Monday we talked about Eve (I'm trying to focus on the awesome women) and we looked at several different pictures of her- I was surprised how much art has been done of her. I just told Macy that the "Adam was a prophet" Adam and Eve are the mommy and daddy of all the people on the earth. Sorry if that is weird for anyone?
Tuesday we made our little scrambled Egg letter "E"- Macy thought this was cool- I think because of the felt food I've made her.
Wednesday we made a construction paper "Earth" and I got stickers at the dollar store of plants and animals that had neat facts about them on the back. We talked about how Jesus made the earth
Thursday we actually did do an Easter Egg Hunt! I recommend doing this! Why do we wait until Easter? I didn't even put anything in them- she just thought it was fun finding them in the family room!
Friday I got out a "new-to-us" train and track or an Engine if you're being creative haha.

Week 6: F

Monday when I started with "F" I had a hard time finding anyone scriptural that had a name that started with F- come to find out after looking it up online- names with F don't exist in all of the scriptures! So I decided to go with Faith, since in Nursery they had made little bean plant cups. (that's what the cup above F is)
Tuesday we made the Feather letter F
Wednesday we made butterflies- because they Fly- with an amazing little binder of "projects" my mother-in-law made for Macy (and to help me keep her busy!). You use plastic baggies- the ones you just fold over, not ziplock- and strips of different colored tissue paper and a clothespin. You fill the baggie with the tissue paper, either scrunched or just spread around, and then cinch it in the middle and make it stay with the clothespin. Then we drew a little face on the clothespin. Super easy and cute (especially when all the stuff is prepared for you! I think a binder of "stuff to do" with all the things prepared would be an awesome gift for birthdays- I gotta figure out how to do it!)
Thursday we went to Ross and got a bucket of those little plastic beads that you melt with an iron to melt them together. I loved these when I was younger and I wasn't sure if Macy would be old enough yet, but I could always save them for later. Yeah- she wasn't old enough as you can see by the picture...she dumped the whole thing out. Oh well. So she "helped" me make a "Fortress" (really a castle since we got the princess set) and we melted it together.
Friday we made Halloween Finger puppets just out of paper.

Week 7: G

Monday we talked about the angel Gabriel and how he came and told Mary that she was going to have a baby and he was going to be baby Jesus.
Tuesday we made our G out of Grass
Wednesday we read Halloween books about friendly Ghosts.
Thursday we made cupcakes and took them to Give to people in our ward. Someone started a "Boo-ed" little chain letter thing where you leave anonymous treats at people's doors and the people who got the treats have then been "boo-ed" and they have to put up a ghost so they don't get hit again. It was a fun idea!
Friday Macy got to eat Gold coins I had saved- and frozen!!- from St. Patrick's Day (sorry if that's gross- really they were fine). We talked about colors and treasure.

Week 8: H

How awesome for me that the "H" week was Halloween week! I broke my "rules" (what rules?) and we just did Halloween things all week long.
Monday we did talk about Hannah and how she really wanted to have a baby, but she couldn't, so she went to the temple and prayed for a long time and then Heavenly Father helped her have a baby! And that baby grew up to named Samuel who was a prophet!
Tuesday we made our H out of Halloween stamps ( kinda hard to tell in the picture, I know)
Wednesday we worked on Halloween costumes (this was a continuing thing) and trick or treat bags (or purse in Macy's case)
Thursday we got Halloween candy to pass out.
Saturday I am on Activities Committee and so we went to the church and decorated for the Halloween party that night- it took a while! (I'm counting that for Friday)

Macy and I are now on the letter K but I haven't taken a picture of the wall yet because my camera memory card is full...and I am retarded enough not to know how to put the pictures on the computer. Plus, that would make this post REALLY long- I wonder if it's already too much? Anyways, thanks for reading. Having this to do has really been nice because my days have a goal I can reasonably accomplish and checking things off a never ending to-do list is always good. =)

More pictures from Halloween

2010-11-18T10:19:00.001-08:00

Doesn't this picture look like me and Rebecca at quick glance?

Her shirt says "Short and Sweet" with a candy corn- I think it might be a boy shirt- but I love it!

I promise this is the last of the Halloween pictures!

Homemade Halloween

2010-11-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I didn't sew them from scratch, but I certainly sewed and finagled and made up stuff more than I ever have!! They are mostly homemade. Macy wanted to be Snow White for Halloween (since like May) and I am all about the theme (cue reader's eye roll) so I decided even though I wanted to be a princess too- or something cute- I could sacrifice for my daughter...what? We have to like do that for kids? Since when? So, yeah, I became the "BAD Queen" as Macy liked to inform everyone. "What are you going to be for Halloween little girl?" "Snow White! And Mommy's going to be the BAD! QUEEN!!!" Austin got to be the prince- of course...I think it turned out okay. (the last pic is her trick or treat bag =))

Murder at the Malt Shop

2010-11-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

Emily and Austin's Annual Halloween Party this year was another Murder Mystery Dinner. I love the idea of solving a crime and eating and most especially being with awesome friends while doing so. I was lucky enough to find one of the boxed games of "How to Host a Murder Mystery" at the thrift store for $1! I have been saving it for a year!

The theme of this particular one was the 50's and took place in a malt shop. The 50's to me says pink and teal, which is certainly not typical Halloween colors, and as we all can obviously tell, I'm a little into the holiday so I didn't want to have to give up my spooky vibe- so I mixed the two. The food is the main way I did this, by using a Rachel Ray birthday party idea, I made all the food "Twilight Zone" hugely out of proportion. The little menu has all the catch phrases. Of course the fact that we were trying to solve a murder was spooky too! This was so very fun and I am thankful to all you guys for coming and really getting into it! It always makes it more fun! =)

The whole gang hanging at "Monster Maltie's Falcon Malt Shop"

after our High School Reunion- "Roley High" Class of '54 where our friend the famous "Rock" N. Roley performed and is now gone missing...dun,dun, DUN!!!!!!

Cate and Doug Hopkins

Cheerleader "E.C. Leigh" and Football Star "Del Toydes"

Val and Dave LeMieux

Jitterbug Champ "Bea A'upper" and Quarterback "Jock S. Trappe"

Me and Austin

Femme Fatal "Dee C. Deucer" and Genius "Cal Q. Later" (I just have to say is that not hilarious about Austin? When picking our parts I was cracking up)

Josh and Dustie Sube

Mogul "Joe K. Awledge" and Hometown Girl "Penny Lofer"

Candice and Tom Macari (and Baby Evangeline)

Studious "Priscilla E. Teene" and Rebel "Rick C. Alcitrent"

My Jukebox- I'm certainly not an artist, but I was excited it turned out okay.

The "Chandelier"

]
Here's the menu and the main way that I tried to try Halloween to the Malt

"Monster Maltie's Falcon Malt Shop-"

"We'll SCARE you with our STRANGELY Substantial portion sizes"

"Bizarrely Big Broccoli" and "Uncanny Carrots" with "Dramatically Devilish Dip"

"Monumentally Macho Nachos"

"Horrifically Huge Hamburgers"

"Mysteriously Massive Milkshake"

(plus cute nerd) =)

"Creepily Colossal Cupcake"

Decorations of 50's candy to also go with the Halloween season

More little touches

Checkerboard Floor (not quite finished, but the idea comes across...)

The End!

(thanks for reading this whole post if you got this far!!)

My Halloween Mantel

2010-10-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

This Subway Art was inspired by several other blogs, but I did not use any of their words or layouts and I cut all the letters myself. This is much harder than in looks! ( I was excited it worked- I made it out of a back cover of a otherwise ruined scrapbook and packing labels)

Someone asked me if I always store my knives in this jar- of course I do...mwha haha (evil laugh)

If you look closely you can see that the portraits are of Hitchcock, a girl with horns, and a woman in a noose. They were inspired by the Stretching Paintings at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. (My favorite place ever btw)

Spiders for dessert anyone?

In case you can't read this, because the shimmer was hard to photograph, the spiderwebs have "Trick or Treat" written in them.

Pook-a-Looz

2010-10-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

In the Disney Store in our mall, there are these little stuffed animals/dolls that are puffy and kind-of anime looking (you know, like sailor moon or pokemon?). They have a Snow White one that I wanted to make for Macy. I still want to make one...I hope for Christmas. Anyway, I found out they are called Pook-a-Looz and they have a million different Disney characters! This is what the Snow White one looks like:

And this is MY interpretation of Sleeping Beauty. Macy's friend Claire loves Sleeping Beauty and as many of the characters as they have, the Disney store doesn't have her. So, I decided to try making her for her birthday. It was really fun to see her open it and give it a huge hug! I was a little worried, I have to admit, that Claire wouldn't know it was Aurora, but she totally did!

I made the back blue to go with the cute movie thing where the fairies keep changing her dress...

And she lived happily ever after!

Halloween Decorations Part 1

2010-10-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

So here is the Halloween wreath I made for our front porch- I made it completely from things I had at home- our old wreath is sad and Macy was sleeping so I couldn't leave. I'm not sure if I love it...what do you think?

Complete with random cat from our neighborhood- makes a good pic I guess...

And here are pictures of my kitchen table before and after Austin bought me wonderful flowers for no reason at all just because. *heart melting*

Notice the ominous Ravens?

White roses...yay =)

Our little Singer!

2010-10-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

Macy jumped on the piano bench after church today and graced us with this little concert.

2010-10-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

I decided to start a project with Macy to work on one letter of the alphabet a week. Everyday in the week, we would do a different thing having to do with the letter. Mondays, for Family Home Evening (which we do in the day), we would talk about a person from the scriptures with a name starting with the letter. We focused on that person and their story all week too. This is how I have the letters/scripture people hung up in her room so we can look at them all week.

Week 1: A

On Monday we talked about Abish and how she was helpful to King and Queen Lamoni (we talked about Ammon too, but I like to focus on the women- we need good examples for our girls)
Tuesday we made our "A" with Animals together
Wednesday we played an game where I hid flashcards all over the room with Animals on them and when you find a card, you have to act like that animal until you find the next one.
Thursday we talked about Acting and dressed up to pretend we were actresses.
Friday I got out my apple corer (?) and we peeled and cored several apples into curly slices- Macy has requested this daily now =)

Week 2: B

Monday we introduced the story of King Benjamin and how he talked to lots and lots of people and they learned about Christ. Also, how he helped people on the farm, even though he was a rich king and didn't have to.
Tuesday we made our "B" out of beads.
Wednesday we made Bracelets.
Thursday we went to visit our friend's new Baby, Rusty- so sweet!
Friday we did a Bean Sorting activity with egg carton and different color beans that she worked on separating into different colors.

Week 3: C

Monday we talked about Captain Moroni and Macy was very captivated (as I remember being- and still am I guess) by the idea that he was so passionate about his family and freedom that he ripped off his shirt and wrote on it and made a flag. We talked about the Strippling Warriors too. ( On a side note, Macy recounted the story to me the next day by saying very loudly while banging her fist "For our Mommies and our Daddies and our Babies and everyone be SAFE!"- pretty accurate, no?)
Tuesday we made our "C" out of Candy
Wednesday we melted old Crayons into big "new" ones- this was so fun and easy btw!
Thursday we made a Castle out of Cereal boxes ( I saved them for a while thinking about this- it's still obviously not done- it takes a lot more than you think!)
Friday we cut out "Candy" on the cricut machine to hang up as Halloween decorations- Macy loves to press the buttons...can be a good and a bad thing... (this might have been Thurs? I can't remember now...)

Week 4: D

Monday we talked about Daniel and the Lion's Den and King Darius ( this was easy because Macy LOVES this story and loves to imitate the lions with stuck mouths- "mmm-mmm" she says- pretty funny.
Tuesday we made our "D" out of a picture of a Dog (This was hard! I planned to do lots of pictures of dogs, but they were all so big! It worked out-she got the point)
Wednesday we played with our little neighbor lady's Dogs- Mimsy and Bugsy- they are French Bulldogs and soo cute! Our neighbor Marie walks them often when Macy and I happen to be outside- she lets Macy hold the leash and everything!
Thursday we Decorated our "candy" cut-outs with beads and sequins and glitter (to be shown later...)
Friday we Decorated for Halloween ( I realize this is two of "decorating," but home decor is different than crafts!) We also put a police tape line over Macy's door that says "Danger Do Not Enter" as part of the decorating- it's true!!

Week 5: E

This is week we are on now- we talked out Eve yesterday and today we made our "E" out of "Eggs". I plan on going on a field trip to get Edammame from the grocery store one day, doing some kind of "Earth Day" thing another and maybe an Easter Egg hunt- we'll see. I try to plan out a few things, but the days are so crazy I feel like it's hard to commit and sometimes I just come up with stuff on the fly. Hey, she doesn't know either way right? =)

Macy's New Bed

2010-09-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

We converted Macy's crib to a Big Girl Bed. I decided to try out my "new" sewing machine from my wonderful Grandma and I did it! I sewed the comforter and all the pillows myself! (The bed skirt and original bumper, quilt, and curtains are from my wonderful mother-in-law)

Lunch is Served!

2010-09-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

Delicious Turkey, Swiss, and Avocado Sandwich with Chips and Apple Slices

Or Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jelly

Or Grape Jelly

Or Toast with Butter and Jelly for Breakfast

I am making another set for a Baby Shower (the baby is already 6 months old, so I thought "toys" would be okay to give). Here are the two sandwiches and sets of apples together.

I got a little nuts since the second set is a present and decided to make it a "Brown Bag Lunch," complete with Oreo Cookies, Personalized Lunch Sack, Napkin, and Ziplock Bags for each. ( I have to say I was excited putting the "blue and green zip-seal" on the bags... I had been trying to think of how to "package" everything since Macy's is just like in her playhouse and doesn't need transporting- I wish they had "clear" velcro but I think it still gets the point across?)

Ta-DA! =)

Princess "Belle" Dress

2010-08-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

Macy got this dress for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa Lewis. She calls it her "Belle Dress". I loved to be able to make a really fancy headband since the dress was soo princess!(sorry so many pictures...just thought this was a great shoot)

Bunny's 2nd Birthday Party!! (part 1)

2010-07-26T22:14:00.001-07:00

Well, anyone who is reading this blog probably knows that I am a little bit into parties... and following my nature, Macy's Second Birthday Party certainly was going to be something I planned for a long time. I decided to go for the theme of Bunnies because, as you probably also know, that is Macy's nickname. So, here we go:

Here's the Birthday Girl!!

The invitation...

I wrote the little poem- I can't figure out how to turn this picture...

Here's some of the other invitations I made...

Here's the front yard where we held the party!

Pretty proud of my little salad display...

Really, carrot cake =)

I love my girl!

Bunny's Birthday Part 2

2010-07-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

Here is Macy's Bunny Birthday Cake!

She was happy, this is a weird face...but the best picture haha

Then we went to presents

Here are all her cute little friends

After presents, we turned on "The Bunny Hop" song and had the kids "Hopscotch" their way to the backyard

A close up

Then all the kids splashed around until they were ready to go home!

Here's the party favor for big kids on left and babies on right

YAY!
It all went wonderful and Macy told me "Thank you, Mommy for my birthday party" I love her!!

Grandma and Auntie Becca's Visit

2010-07-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Auntie Becca were nice enough to come up from LA to help with the (very unnecessary) Bunny Birthday Party. Here's some family pictures after church.

Headbands! Again...

2010-07-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

A ribbon one...

Grandma modeling ooh la la

A jewel one...

Backyard Makeover (on a teeny tiny budget)

2010-07-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

My "backyard" is not so much a yard as a big porch, but it needed some attention and this is what I came up with from several months of garage sales and thrift store shopping since we absolutely do not have a "redecorating" section in our budget...

Here are some closer pictures and explanations:

This "relax" sign was made from taking apart free wooden pallets I got from Ace and nailing them back together. I was pretty proud of myself using power tools! I made the stencil of letters out of my cricut. Does it look "boardwalk-ish"?

All three for a dollar at a garage sale. I plan on putting woven balls inside sometime...

This "tablecloth" is actually a shower curtain! It fit my colors perfectly and fits over my ugly storage box in a (lame) attempt to create a little wet bar. The candle holders were 99 cents at Crate and Barrel...oh how I love thee, store- someday I promise to buy everything in you! Austin was nice enough to indulge me in getting them.

Our cement is the type where it's all rocky- why does anyone do this?- so Macy doesn't like to walk on it. I needed something waterproof, durable, and cute of course... I got the idea to use Yoga mats and had to look forever to find three of them- a dollar each, baby!! I actually had to spray paint a pink one to get the green- I was tired of searching after a month- I used outdoor paint. My friend Jane has this adorable rug in her boys' room that is made from carpet woven together- I love it! It gave me the thought (thanks Jane!) of how to use the mats to customize the length and width I needed for my "rug".

Serving plate: $2 at thrift store! I used glass etching cream (thanks Mandy!) to put the "L" on it. I used super glue to make a "hook" to hang it.

I used 6 place mats (all 6 for 1 buck!) sewed them together for this "rug".

Cricut for stencils and board was a kitchen picture, $1, from thrift store again

Free wood from Ace- I found out they just let you take wood from the "scraps" pile- so awesome! Rope and hemp I already had and used my trusty friendship-bracelet-making skills to make the edges. Paint from another project. Idea from American Eagle store display =)

This was a cutting board that a used the drill to engrave the pattern on and then lightly painted, sanded, sealed, and drilled holes to finish. The rack is for over the door hooks that I just bent into place.

And that's it! Was this post long enough for you? Anyways, I'm pretty happy with the cuteness and Austin's pretty happy with the almost freeness.

Vote for me!!

2010-06-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

Hey guys- so I entered my fridge I painted in a contest- I didn't realize it was voter driven! So, if you have a minute could you please go vote for me? Just click on the link below:

diyclub.com/?p=472

and vote for the little purple fridge- number 10. Thanks!!

Newest Headbands

2010-06-06T14:05:00.001-07:00

Here are my newest "designs" HA! =)
p.s. Thank you Auntie Carolyn for our Island Style gown!

Recent Pictures

2010-06-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

Girls that Grill

2010-05-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

Macy made hamburgers for lunch today..yum yum!

Baby Blocks

2010-05-14T17:12:00.001-07:00

I made these blocks for my friend Nicole's Baby Shower- her little guy will be named Rusty. She has a theme of her room of "antique" boy's toys- like bi-planes and things. I was really excited to get a huge 4x4 cut into blocks at the hardware store and try this out. Well...it was a lot more work than I anticipated, but I have to say I'm pretty proud of them!

I had to make a chart so I could figure out where to put the letters and corresponding pictures so they didn't end up on the same block. I think it ended up being able to spell out 9 different things!! I used my cricut to cut the letters out of vinyl (or wall stickers- is that the same thing?) and painted the blocks one color (after sanding them for 5 years- I need an electric one I decided!), then put the sticker on, then painted a layer over top in the opposite color. Then I sanded them all again and rubbed brown shoe polish into them. Whoo! Tired yet? It was worth it though! Oh- the "pictures" too were from the cricut, but I didn't have all the images I wanted on my cartridge, so I had to draw some...the cricut is much better! It was a fun project.

Cute Flowers

2010-05-14T17:10:00.002-07:00

My sister Claire and I were playing around and made some headbands for all of us and a corsage(?) for me. I have been wanting to make headbands for Macy for awhile because I have had a hard time finding any colors than pastels. I was so excited about the results! Thanks to all the numerous blogs with tutorials on how to do these tattered flowers!

Macy's New Closet!

2010-05-14T17:10:00.001-07:00

Macy's dress-up stuff is getting out of hand, so I tried my hand at making a jewelery holder for her. I love this face! I saved these ribbons from her baby shower because I loved them so much. I had little pieces of wood left over from a long time ago project and I just used my glue gun- don't look too close! =)

Homemade Fridge

2010-03-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

When Macy got her new little playhouse, I wanted all the "extras" like the sink, stove, washer, etc. We found most of them, and the rest that go with the set I hope to find on Craig's List. There was one problem though. The set doesn't come with a fridge! What?! That is so weird to me and especially when we got some play food (more on that later...) and it didn't fit anywhere! You can't keep your food in the sink! The oven can hold some things, but not all. So, I decided to "make" a fridge! This is what I came up with. I found a wooden chest at Joann's for $24, so using my half-off coupon, it was 12 and the paint was 89 cents and I used 4 bottles. The sealer was $4 with my half-off coupon, though I found it at the dollar store the next day (boo!). Anyways, a little more than I would have liked to spend, but I think it turned out pretty good- matching all the other pieces and providing storage. I think it's cute! Macy loves it! ( I have to say- my fav part is the "fridge magnets") =)

Easter Creations

2010-03-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

Yay! I am so excited to post my first real project. I have been obsessing about blogs (thanks, Brit...) for about two weeks now. I never realized before that you could just read anyone's blog and that girls are out there posting tutorials and awesome ideas just to help! I'm new to blogs, needless to say. Anyways, I have been wasting hours everyday going from one blog to the next, one link party to the next, and I saw a wonderful idea at Domestically-Speaking.com (how do you put links into posts- anyone?). I have been wanting and Easter wreath and loved this idea and took my own spin on it. I bought this "tray" at Goodwill for $2.50 and the moss at the Dollar Store. I had the eggs and twine and paints (which I had also bought at the dollar store for a previous project). So this project cost $3.50! I am pretty proud of it! What do you think?

Chicken Dance

2010-03-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

Macy loves the chicken dance. Here is proof:

It's Christmas!

2010-01-01T09:41:00.000-08:00

We went to Grandma and Grandpa Westbrook's house for Christmas this year. While we were there, Richard's present to the family was to get family pictures taken. It was pretty hard to find pictures where everyone had their eyes open, but the pictures turned out really well.

Here are some pictures from our trip

Macy's big present was a big Red Wagon from Grandma and Grandpa. When she first saw itk she was intrigued...

but, after sitting in the wagon for a few seconds...

I guess Christmas is an overwhelming day for little kids...

Our car was very full on the drive home.

The Westbrook Christmas party at Grandma Marianne's house.

Macy made a new friend in her little cousin Riley.

Here's Macy's friend Gracie.

This picture was too cute to leave out.

Christmas Videos

2010-01-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving videos

2010-01-01T08:12:00.001-08:00

Here are some videos we took when we were in Denver for Thanksgiving

For some reason, Macy kept calling Grandpa "papa." Now, when she watches the video she says grandpa, but that week, it was papa.

Macy loved playing with Chance.

Every time Macy walked by this little Santa statue she would give it a hug and kiss.

Thanksgiving, and other stuff too...

2009-12-20T20:51:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving in Denver with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis. Macy loved playing with Papa (grandpa) and Mimi (grandma). (we're not really sure where she got those names). She also loved playing with her aunt Whitney and uncle Ryan and Taylor. And she made a new friend: Chance. She loved to give him hugs and kisses and telling him to "sit" and "shake."

She loved this little Santa. Everytime she walked by she would hug him and kiss him over and over.
Here's Macy's very own stocking that Grandma Lewis made for her.
Macy put these bows on herself. She thought she was so pretty (and she is)

As soon as we got back from Thanksgiving, it was time for us to move to a new place. We rented a duplex right around the corner from our apartment complex and our move-in date was the day after we got back. So, these pictures are of us decorating our new place and getting ready for Christmas.

Macy is obsessed with Santa. Every time she sees a picture of Santa, she says "Santa! Santa! Santa! Ho ho ho!! ho ho ho!!" But then, at our church Christmas party, Macy finally got to sit on Santa's lap. She wasn't too sure how she felt about it though...

Rebecca came out (with Grandma Westbrook) to help watch Macy while we packed out our old place and moved into our new place.

Sometimes Macy sleeps in funny positions...

Here's Macy sitting in timeout

All of the sudden Macy broke out in a weird rash.

Halloween!!

2009-11-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

For Halloween we went trick or treating down in Pleasanton with Emily's aunt Diane so she could go trick or treating in a real neighborhood with her cousins Evan, Jack and Ryan. It was really fun. Macy was excited the whole night and practically running from house to house.

I mentioned down below in the video posting, but our costumes were: Macy - Cheshire Cat; Emily - Alice in Wonderland, and me: The Mad Hatter.

Trick or Treat!!

2009-11-01T18:59:00.000-08:00

Here is Macy's first time trick or treating. It was so great. She was so excited and was carrying her bag around with her all night. She refused to let us carry her bag and got mad anytime we tried to hold it for her. And she walked right up to every house and said "trick or treat" (sounds like she she she) and then she'd say "Thank you" to each person. It was so fun. She really loved it and it made so fun for us. And, as a side note, she was dressed as the Cheshire Cat, Emily was Alice in Wonderland, and I was the Mad Hatter.

Here's Macy knocking on the door.

Macy is obsessed with pumpkins. She walked around saying "Puh-kin! Puh-kin!"

Marshmallows, butterflies, and 5 little pumpkins...

2009-11-01T18:52:00.000-08:00

This video is super cute. Marshmallow and butterfly are the cutest words she says, and this video has both...

Here she is doing all the signs and motions to the 5 Little Pumpkins song

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-01T18:46:00.001-08:00

Here is Macy's second visit to the pumpkin patch. It's weird to think that we took her to this same patch a year ago. Now she is walking and talking and in love with pumpkins and choo choo trains. She was kind of grumpy the whole time, but it was fun to go.

This picture has nothing to do with pumpkins, Halloween or anything else in that realm. But it is just one of those pictures that we have to post because it's so funny.

Halloween Party!!!

2009-10-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

This is the Halloween Party Austin and I had last night- sooo fun! I made "dessert" for dinner and "dinner" for dessert. We had "Cherry Pie" (ham and tomato quiche) and "Cupcakes with Frosting" (meatloaf and mashed potatoes) for dinner and "Grilled Cheese" (french toast ice cream sandwiches) and "Margarita Pizza" (cookie, jam, mascarpone cheese, mint) for dessert. We played a murder mystery game where everyone was a character and dressed up- SO fun! Thanks for coming everyone!

"Oh, HE'S so cute!"

2009-10-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

I was in Safeway yesterday getting some last minute supplies for Emily's Halloween party we had last night. I had Macy with me and I had dressed her up in a very cute outfit which consisted of a pink polo shirt (emphasis on the word PINK), a cute little jean skirt (emphasis on the word SKIRT) and white socks with pink trim and some cute white tennis shoes.

So, she was walking around how she usually does and went up to this random lady and said "Hi!." The lady was charmed and kept saying "oh, you're so cute," or "oh, you're so beautiful." Then as Macy and I were walking away she says, "Oh, he's so cute!." I thought maybe I heard her wrong and she had actually said she. But I just kept walking. Then, a second later, I hear the lady again. "Oh, I'm so sorry! Is that a girl?"

"Yes," I said, "She's a girl."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I thought she was a boy. But as she walked away I saw the trim on the socks and realized she must be a girl!"

Are you serious?!?!?! A pink shirt and a little skirt? And the socks are what tipped you off? And, I understand that Macy's hair is kind of short, but does she really look that much like a boy? Come on!!

People are always calling her a boy, but this struck me as odd because of the socks being the tipoff.

It's a crazy world.

2009-10-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

New videos

2009-10-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

Here she is saying Westbrook names and a bunch of other stuff (beware, this video is long)

Here's Macy saying some Lewis Family names among other stuff (beware again, this one is also long)

Here's Macy's first time in the ocean. This is at Newport Beach.

Macy decided to eat an onion...and she loves it.

Poo poo...

2009-09-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

Macy is the funniest girl.

We went to LA for Labor Day weekend. I had to be back to work on Tuesday, so we left Moday at around 3:30 p.m. Macy had only taken one nap in the morning and by 3:30 she was overdue for another nap. So, we loaded her into the car and took off. Almost as soon as we left, she started grunting which we recognized as her pooping noise (the sound she makes each time she poops). So, we decided to keep driving and let her get it all out and we'd pull over right before we got on the freeway and change her.

By the time we got down by the freeway she was super tired and almost asleep. We pulled in to an In-n-out parking lot and her eyes were glazed over. We look at her and she was just staring into space. We called her name and waved our hands in front of her face and nothing. She didn't move a muscle and her eyes were still off in space.

Then we asked her, "Macy, do you have poo poos?" And, sitting still with her eyes glazed over, she whispered in a pathetic, tired little voice, "poo poo."

There was something so hilarious about watching her. Only half conscious, hearing us say poo poo and then somewhere in her subconscious knowing that she had gone poop. It's probably not that funny reading this, but at the time it was hilarious. I'll never forget that.

Cute Helper-Girl

2009-08-27T19:42:00.000-07:00

Macy is not allowed into our kitchen, but she has figured out how to get past the chair we use to block it off, so she ends up getting in there whenever she wants really (surprise, suprise). She has been especially fascinated by the dishwasher and how it opens and closes- she's really into opposites right now- and she loves how there are tons of fun "toys" (forks and knives) to play with when the dishwasher is open. This freaks me out, because I can just see her seriously injuring herself in two seconds before I can get a steak knive away from her or something, so anytime she tries to take stuff out of the dishwasher I tell her to "please give it to mommy-thank you". So yesterday, this happened and she started to keep handing me silverware (I took all the knives out- don't worry I'm not that bad of a mom) and kept saying "tink you" everytime she handed me something. So I was like- hey! teaching moment! and kept praising my "helper-girl" and now I think I'm going to have her do this everytime I empty the dishwasher! It was so cute, first of all, and second of all, I love that it's teaching her to help out. Plus she was really proud of herself- especially when I pulled a chair into the kitchen and had her hand me the plastic plates and cups! You could tell she was like "I'm a BIG girl!" Sooo cute! Oh, and I plan to do this also during the witching hour of fussy/crazy Macy because then there was no freaking out with tantrums every two seconds because she was too busy! Sorry- long post for a little thing- I guess that's my "mom world" brain talking..

2009-08-23T16:16:00.000-07:00

These are just some cute pictures of the cute dress she wore to church today.

Macy is wearing Emily's outfit from when she was little girl
We went to downtown San Francisco for our anniversary and rode the cable car and ate at a little Italian Cafe in Northbeach.

cute outfits...

Macy LOVES bathtime with Daddy. She could sit in the tub for hours if I let her. But apparantly she hates bathtime with mommy and fusses the whole time. It's funny how she acts differently with the two of us.

Macy loves to snuggle things

2009-08-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple cute videos of Macy snuggling some different things. She is so funny. She loves to snuggle her little stuffed animals (babies, as we call them). And now, we've discovered that she loves to snuggle anything soft. And when she picks up here "babies" and gives them loves, we always say "ohhhh" and now she makes the same sound. It's pretty funny. She'll pickup a stuffed animal, put it upto her cheek, and say "ohhh." Ironically, though, she still refuses to snuggle mommy or daddy.

Then, the other video shows her cuddling some cotton balls, and then she walks over to the fridge to look at the pictures. She's starting to recognize peoples faces in picutes. She loves to flip through Emily's scrapbooks. She'll see a picture and start cracking up and then say "Daddy!!" or "Mommy!!." It's so cute and feels so good to see her little face light up like that.

Professional Photos

2009-08-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

Macy is 1 now and so we took some more professional photos with her. We wanted to do both outdoor and indoor photos, so the photographer suggested we come at 4:00 so the lighting outside would be good. Well, that's great for the photos, but Macy's brain is genetically programed to initiate a metamorphis from a cute, busy little girl into a crazy, grumpy little girl at around 4:00 every day. And sure enough, when we got to the photographer's house, Macy was not happy. She was cranky and fussy. And she remained that way through the whole photo shoot. Emily and I left feeling very frustrated with her and feeling like we weren't going to get any good photos. But, a couple days later we got the pictures in the mail and they actually turned out great!! Our photographer is awesome and if any of you live out here in the Bay Area we highly recommend her. The best part is she sends you a CD of all the pictures and you get to keep all of them and print/share them at your discretion.

Here's her website:

www.robynbasso.com

Anyway, we hope you enjoy these photos:

Other cute pictures

2009-07-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some random, cute picutes of our baby.

Macy's birthday party

2009-07-26T21:29:00.001-07:00

Macy's first birthday party! We had quite the little shindig. We had the party on Saturday the 18th and had it out by our apartment pool. We grilled burgers and hot dogs, had a little kiddie pool, the regular pool and even had a bouncy house! The party was strawberry themed with several strawberry birthday cakes, red balloons decorated like strawberries, red untensils, etc.

Emily's family also got to come which was so nice to see them and also so nice to have the help witht they party.

And we want to say a HUGE thank you to grandpa Westbrook, auntie Claire and uncle Richard for driving up from L.A. Just as they got over the grapevine, the A/C went out in the van. That might not be of big concern except the temperature outside reached 113 degrees!!!!!! They spent over four hours in the car where the otuside temperature never dropped below 100 degrees. And Rick is right in the middle of his treatments. We really appreciate it and are so glad you could be there with us to celebrate Macy's birthday.

Here's the plate we made for Macy on her birthday

This is the boucy house

Blowing out the candle of her cake

She's ready to dive into this cake

Cake + baby = happy baby

Swimming with auntie Claire

Grandpa and his girls

Macy has the best mom in the world

A couple of the strawberry cakes Emily made for her party

Macy's First Birthday

2009-07-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

We can't believe it. Macy is 1. It seems like the last year has flown by, but at the same time, it feels like Macy has always been a part of our family. I know it sounds cheesy and parents say it all the time, and I'm sure we sound ridiculous since it's only our first child and she's only turning one, but she really is growing up too fast. It wasn't long ago that we brought her home from the hospital and I could hold her in my hand. She used to be the size of my shoe. Now she's walking, kind of talking, throwing tantrums, laughing, smiling, running, playing with us and all kinds of things that big kids do.

At first we were a little sad not to have her party on her actual birthday, but it turned out to be really nice to spend her birthday with just our little family. In the morning we took her to Gymboree so she could play. She really loved all the new toys and things to climb on and she loved being with a whole bunch of kids. Then, we took her to an elegant lunch at Burger King. After that, we went to downtown Walnut Creek to a make-your-own potter studio and made a plate with her hand and foot prints. And finally, when we got home, Emily baked her a cake and decorated it like a strawberry and we put her out on the porch and let her go to town.

It was a really nice day and a really good family bonding experience. We are so thankful to have Macy in our lives and that she's healthy and happy.

Here's the cake mommy baked on her birthday

Let the madness begin...

She started out a little timid, and was eating slowly...

Then, after realizing she liked the cake, she went crazy

And here is the aftermath:

The poor cake

Mommy and daddy got her a little seahorse doll as her birthday present. (She LOVES holding little dolls and giving them hugs and kisses)

This is a picture we took at 3:12, the exact time she was born.

Here's Macy at gymboree trying to grab the bubbles

A cute litte birthday hat

A cute birthday sign Emily made.

Trip to LA

2009-07-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our trip down to L.A. It was nice to be down there and for Macy to see her grandma and grandpa and her aunts and uncle Richard. We also had a great time celebrating daddy's birthday. Macy gave him the wonderful gift of pooping all over her sheets. Luckily for Claire and Rebecca (and unluckily for mommy and daddy) it happened in the morning while mommy and daddy were home to clean it up!!

Uncle Ryan's Wedding

2009-07-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures from our trip to Salt Lake for uncle Ryan's wedding. It was a crazy couple of days but we had fun and it was great to see all our family. We are also so thankful to my parents and to Taylor and everyone else who helped take care our little crazy daughter. We had a lot of fun and we're so glad that Ryan and Whitney had such a great wedding and reception. It was beautiful and we're so happy for them.

This is a little play area in the Salt Lake airport where we waited for our flight.

Giving mommy a big kiss...

giving her cousin Lucy (1st cousin once removed?) a big kiss

Just chillin' in the hot tub with daddy

playing with grandpa Lewis at the temple

daddy's little girl

I think this is a really great picture of Emily and Macy together

Here's Macy with her new aunt Whitney

So, how long until they have a little one of their own???

Just a cute picture of a cute baby

Great-grandma Lewis

Here's Ryan and Whitney coming out of the temple

The Cutest Strawberry in the Patch

2009-06-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

The Newest Videos of Macy

2009-06-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

Macy's First Easter

2009-05-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

Macy, Austin, and I went down to my parent's house for Easter and my birthday. We had so much fun! I realy wanted Macy to have a big, poofy dress, so I looked forever for this pink one- it was hard to find a fancy dress for a 9 month old! (She's 10 now- I can't believe it!) We loved going to my Grandma and Granpa Berry's for dinner and seeing all the aunts and uncles. Good times.

Macy's First Steps!

2009-04-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

Macy took her first steps last week!! And...we got it on video!!! I was doing the dishes and Emily and Macy were on the floor playing. Macy can stand and take steps while you're holding her hand, but has never done it on her own. Well, Emily noticed that she seemed like she was getting close so she said to me, "I think this baby is going to start taking steps really soon." So, I said, "OK, let's get the camera and see what happens." So, we got out the camera, started rolling, and believe it or not, she took her first steps!! (you can watch the video below all these photos)

Macy's great-grandma Lewis knit this sweater for her

Grandma Lewis bought these sandals for her
Macy's friend Sophie (Mike and Amy Nielsen's baby)

She's not really Irish, but she sure looks cute in this shirt
Poor thing fell asleep in the car while eating her "puffs"
Daddy gave his baby some baby roses for Valentine's Day
What? It wasn't me...
I love my grandma Westbrook!
and my crazy grandpa!
working on the computer with Daddy
My auntie Rebecca and momma

2009-02-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

We had another photo shoot with Macy and behold the result:

Macy is eating real food!! -- She's growing up :(

2009-01-21T16:53:00.001-08:00

So, in the time since we last posted (Christmas time) and now, Macy is eating foods (rice cereal, carrots, sweet potatoes), can sit up unassited (she can't get to a sitting position, but when we sit her up she can sit there by herself) and can make consonant noises (da da da da). She is growing up too fast! (sounds lame when you hear someone say that, until you watch your little sweetheart start to get bigger)

She is growing out of her 3-6 month clothes so today we were reorganizing her room and it was so sad to have to take all those cute clothes out of the rotation. Hopefully we'll have another little girl someday who can wear those clothes.

She is so precious and we just love her so much.

She got sick last week and the doctor said she had an upper respiratory infection and a double ear infection. It's the first time she's been sick and it was so hard to see her in so much discomfort. Her breathing sounded so congested and her little voice was hoarse and raspy. It was so sad! The saddest part was that we had to use a nebulizer 4 times a day (a crazy-weird breathing mask hooked up to an electronic pump [see picture below]). But, luckily, she's all better now. Back to her normal self of being cute and smiley and NOT sleeping at night!

We love her so much! Hope you enjoy these pictues and videos (we started posting her videos on Youtube, so I embedded some here in the blog).

Macy's First Feeding!

Macy Eats carrots for the first time

Cute sounds

Swinging in the park

Macy's First Christmas

2008-12-25T18:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Macy's first Christmas! It was so fun to spend this week with our little munchkin. It was funny to watch her, as she was far more interested in chewing on the wrapping paper than anything else.

We are spending Christmas in Denver with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis. It was quite an adventure getting as we flew with Macy for the first time. That poor little baby is all off her schedule and

totally out of sorts.

To get to the airport, we took Macy on her very first BART ride. It was nice to take BART on a Saturday when it was empty and we could walk around the train with her.

Once we got to the airport, we were lucky to see that Frontier airlines had hardly any line and that our plane was right on schedule. So we checked in and had only about 1/2 hour to get to the gate before the plane started boarding. Once at the gate, we requested to get the very last row of the airplane so that Emily could nurse Macy with a little more privacy and that hopefully she wouldn't bother quite as many people. And to our astonishment, she actually did very well. Especially for being such an active little critter. It was a little stressful, since every little noise she made we were certain that the people in front of us and to the sides wanted to rip our heads off (I'm sure they were nice people, we were just paranoid) (And come to think of it, they weren't nice people. What kind of person decides to recline their seat in front of a 6' 2" person holding a baby?!?!?)

After a long Monday full of traveling, we finally arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It has been so nice to have so much help with her. Mommy and daddy actually get to sleep in! It has also been nice to be at a house that actually has food in the refrigerator.

One thing about Denver is that it made us realize how nice the weather is in California. It has actually been very nice here. Blue skies and not terribly cold. But there is snow on the ground and it is definitely colder than our little dwelling out in the Bay Area.

We have also been treated to some gourmet, four-star meals prepared by Uncle Ryan. Uncle Taylor has also been a big help playing with her and watching her while mom and dad take naps.

Christmas morning finally came, after 3 days of

napping and stuffing ourselves with candy and other various fancy foods. The picture on the left here is the picture of our little family waking up on Christmas morning (at 6:00 am, thanks to our little bundle of joy). And Grandma and Grandpa gave Macy a few presents to open the days before Christmas and she got a little present outfit that was too cute to resist.

Christmas was great and Macy got TONS

of presents. In fact, so many presents, she couldn't count them all. But we had fun pretending like she could and letting her grab on to the wrapping paper and letting her rip it. (All the while, taking about 6,000 pictures. Have we mentioned that we are absolutely obsessed with her? Not that you hadn't noticed by now...)

Here is the best present of all

I think our favorite part about Christmas was giving our special mom and dad gifts. Daddy recorded a song on the acoustic guitar for Macy and mommy bought her the "Runaway Bunny" book. We're starting a tradition that each year daddy will give the kids something musical and mommy will give the kids something to do with reading/literature.

Another fun thing we did was taking Macy

out in the snow. Our poor little baby suffers endless torture in the harsh elements all so her self-absorbed parents can take photos to put on the blog and show the grandparents.

It has been a very nice week and we are so grateful to have a happy, healthy baby. We are also so grateful for parents who are so generous to us and so helpful with their granddaughter.

Here is the one and only picture we have where you can clearly see Macy's two teeth. (You might have to click on the picture and look at the larger picture)

Now, I don't have anything else to say but we have a bunch more photos to post. So, here you go. Behold the Macy-ness:

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-07T20:39:00.001-08:00

It's Christmas time! Grandma Lewis sent Macy the cutest little Christmas dress so we couldn't resist putting a bunch more photos on the blog.

Yesterday we went to the Christmas tree farm (a.k.a. Home Depot) and got a little tree for our little apartment. It was so fun to take Macy to get and decorate her first tree (even though all she wants to do is shove everything in her mouth). It will be so fun to have our first "family" Christmas together.

Thanksgiving in Los Angeles

2008-12-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

I guess since this blog is called the Macy Kate Update, we ought to do a better job of actually providing an "update," instead of just masses of photos and videos. So, here goes...

This last weekend we drove down to LA for Thanksgiving to spend with Emily's family. We left Wednesday evening and were lucky enough to experience a dose of California traffic. It was slow moving all the way from the Bay Area into the LA area. But we made it and had a great time. Macy is an angel and slept almost the entire way.

It was so fun to show Macy off to everyone. And I know we have a slight bias, but I'm pretty sure that I can objectively say that Macy is the cutest baby of all time. We had fun taking her to Newport Beach and letting her look around at all the exciting sights.

We can't belive she's almost 5 months old! She is laughing and smiling now. And two days ago, we noticed that her first tooth is coming in. You can barely see it, but it's there. And today, juts a few hours ago, Emily called to tell me that she rolled over for the first time! We love to watch her grow up but it's kind of sad that she will never be this tiny again. So we just try to enjoy every second with her.

So, without further delay, here are some pictures and videos...

This is from out trip to Newport Beach. We finally got to use her cute litte jacket!

This was Macy's Halloween costume. (I just threw this one in here because it's too adorable)

Thanksgiving dinner at the Berry's house

We love making this baby laugh!

This is Macy all bundled up in her cute little outfit at the beach.

More laughs!