Like Mother Like Daughter

My little scrapbooker

Tae-bo anyone????

Cleaning out the closet

It is a new year, so I think it is time for a new me. I have all of these plans and ideas that I want to do, but I never know where to start. So first on my list is to get organized, I am going to clean out my entire house and get rid of all of the junk that we do not need and do not use. Then I am going to catch up on my scrapbooking, I am a year behind and that just kills me. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have never been this far behind, so I am going to get back on track. I am on a kick to start eating healthier and to work out harder, on Feb 7th I am doing the body fat testing where you get dunked in water and you can get your true body fat percentage etc. I am doing this with other moms for 3 months and then will see what my improvements were, so cheer me on, no more late night cookies, oh that just kills me. Now I know I will not be doing all of these changes alone, my little buddy will be right by my side the entire time.

When I start scrapbooking Mackenzie gets all of her papers, stickers etc and says that she is scrapbooking too. My favorite is when we are out somewhere and she says, "momma we have to go home so I can scrapbook", the reactions of people are priceless. Mackenzie also has to workout with me, the other day I decided I would start doing Tae-bo so Mackenzie got her bands and was right by myside, it is a little hard with the kicking, but we made it work. Lastly I started cleaning out my craft closet today and who was right there, you got it Mackenzie. Doing this type of task she isn't very helpful because she takes everything and moves it all around, but we had a blast looking at all old pictures. I will keep you posted on all of my new years goals, I just really hope that I stick to them. I have one thing in my favor and people always say to achieve your goals it is always easier to do them with someone, and I definitely have my someone!

My Little Gymnast

Ready for her first day of gymnasticsI couldn't believe she could do this

Sooooo cute

Getting brave, all by herself

What a good girl, listening to her coach

Mackenzie is now in gymnastics. I am trying to expose her to many different sports and activities as possible and then will let her choose what is her favorite and what she wants to do. We have done soccer, swimming, preschool and stroller strides so now it is time for gymnastics. I signed her up two Fridays ago and then we went shopping for a leotard, it was so cute shopping with her, she calls it her unitard. Mackenzie still doesn't have a handle on time so she just didn't understand that she couldn't do gymnastics that day. So each day she would wake up wanting to know if she was doing gymnastics that day or she would ask how many more times she had to go nigh-night until she got to go.

When it was finally the day for gymnastics she was ecstatic and felt like a princess in her "unitard". At the place that we take her to the parents are not allowed to go in with her, we have to watch from behind windows, I was a little nervous that she wouldn't want to go by herself, but I couldn't have been more wrong. When her coach told her class that they needed to go she jumped off my lap and into the gym she went. I just wanted to cry, I will be a mess when she goes off to college. Anyways the 3-4 year olds warm-up with the 4-5 years olds so I thought Mackenzie would be a little intimidated, not my little one. She held her own and just had a ball, she would look at Bret and I and just smile, she truly was having the time of her life. Me on the other hand was about to have a melt down. My little girl was so grown up, I had such a huge feeling of pride, that she was independent and was just having fun that I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. I guess it is just called being a mom or crazy, it's your call.

After the warm-up they were split up in their age ranges, it didn't really matter Mackenzie was as big as all of them, my poor little baby. They did all kinds of tumbles and rolls and swinging from the bars. It was amazing and it has been all Mackenzie can talk about for the past few days. It is always fun to see her experience new things, dance and basketball are coming up in March so stay tuned.

Football, Football & more Football

Our little party chef

Eating with Daddy, yum, yum

Where's Mackenzie???

Today and every weekend around our household is all about football. Sunday is our day to sit around, do nothing, but watch football. Mackenzie loves it as well especially all of the snacks. I am in a predicament, so the Arizona Cardinals are going to the superbowl and since I am now an Arizonian I feel that is who I should be rooting for, but on the other hand my husband, ever since I have known him has been a die hard Steeler Fan. So.... who do I cheer for???

Our little daughter makes football Sunday even more entertaining. Everytime you yell at the t.v. there is a little echo so we definitely have to watch what we say. She screams at the top of her lungs, "go, go, goooooooo" even when a commercial is on. Mackenzie also believes that the only way to celebrate is to eat. She loves to take all of the food out of the pantry and set up a picnic. She passes out food constantly, so Bret and I are extremely full tonight. There are times however when she gets bored and goes and plays on her own. Today Bret and I were laying on the couch so involved in the game that we jumped up to go find our daughter because it had gotten way too quiet. She was in the exercise/play room being such a good girl, but my poor house was a mess since she pulled out every toy of hers, I attached a picture of the mess.

We still aren't sure what we will be doing for the Superbowl, but I am sure it will be fun. I only wish that I could have a jersey that on the front was the Steelers, and on the back would be the Cardinals. I just would never be able to turn around when my husband was in the room. Hope you all had a great Sunday and go CardSteels, I can't lose, what a great Superbowl!!!!!!

Party Party Party

Yes, that is me doing a keg stand!!

Drink it up ladies

Happy New Year....2009

10..9..8..7..6.........

Cha Cha anyone, do you love my boombox????

Happy New Years Everyone. Ever since Bret and I have been together we have always celebrated New Years BIG. We have always spent time with the same group of friends and on this night have always acted like idiots. It is the one night a year that we can act like teenagers and forget that we are adults. It is hilarious we have people with their Masters, Professional baseball player, parents, law enforcement, you name it, they are there and on that night all brains and talent are put to the side while we ring in the new year in style.

This year we had the party at our house and all of our friends came out from CA, that's how much we all look forward to this event each year. My mom and sister also came out and watched Mackenzie at a hotel. It was so cute, she went shopping with me for all of the party stuff and she so desperately wanted to come. I had to explain that this just wasn't an event for little ones, but that she could have her own party at the hotel. She picked out New Years plates, cups, party horns (she called them her instruments), food etc. She had a blast with my mom and sister and made it until 10:30. My sister was a genius, she found the ball drop on t.v. early for other places in the world so Mackenzie got to experience counting down from 10-1, giving kisses and using her instruments and then bless her heart she fell fast asleep.

Little did she know that her parents were acting like idiots. Each year for our New Years Parties we all wear silly, crazy and sometimes crude t-shirts and our pj's and then we just drink, dance and act crazy.... Keg Stands anyone?????

This year we played glow in the dark football outside, danced to the cha cha slide at midnight while all wearing glow in the dark hats, bracelets etc, and just acted crazy. Almost everyone made it to New Years....except my brother in law James, maybe next year James:) We all had a blast, blew off some steam and then were ready to return to our regular lives the next day!!! Happy New Year everyone, hope this year brings you everything that you hope for.

Christmas with the Nielsens

The day after Christmas we headed down to San Diego to spend time with the Nielsens. Every year we always go and look at Christmas lights at Star Light Circle in Santee where me and my family lived when I was in high school. I love this tradition, we always get hot chocolate and walk around the circle and look at the Christmas lights. It is always freezing so we all get bundled up and just have a blast, Mackenzie's favorite is always the sesame street themed house. This year there weren't as many lights because we went the day after Christmas, I was very irritated, don't they know that you don't turn your lights off until after New Years.

Our second day in San Diego we decided to go to Sea World. It was such a nice day, we weren't in a hurry just there to have fun and we actually got to go on a lot of rides and see some great shows. Mackenzie had so much fun.

Mackenzie had a blast visiting with Nana, Ken and her auntie Titten (Kristen). She got to open presents again, and this time her favorite present was a cleaning set. Now you know she loved it so much because all she does is see her mommy clean all the time:) Mackenzie was in bed by 6:30 each night we were there because of being so tired from all of the activity. Nana Lorraine and Frank came over one night and she was already in bed, they were so disappointed, but I explained to them that it is no fun to be around a cranky Mackenzie, so we stopped by on our way home to visit them and we got some great pictures of them.

Christmas is over for 2008 and the Nielsen's were exhausted. We were then headed home to plan our big new year's eve party. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!!!!

CHRISTMAS MORNING

What a cruel mommy

Reading her letter from Santa

What a cutie, covering her own eyes, trying not to peek
Mama Mia....Yeah

I know I am way behind so here I am at 2 am, I can not sleep so what do I decide to do... update my blog, I know call me crazy. We are now in the middle of January and I am just updating on Christmas, but I guess better late than never.

When I was growing up, Christmas morning we always had a tradition of having my mom or dad cover our eyes while we walk down the stairs until we got to our Santa presents. No one ever wanted my dad to cover your eyes because he would walk you into walls and then walk you into a corner and then say look at all the presents and then open our eyes only to be staring at a corner, he would then laugh and take you to another corner and do the same thing... this got so old, but it was tradition. So what did I do this Christmas, I know I am cruel, but I carried on the tradition and walked my poor little 3 year old into corners, it is so much more fun when you are the adult.

Mackenzie had such a blast opening her Santa presents, you can tell from the pictures how excited she was, and had the same open mouth expression over and over again. Mackenzie definitely doesn't hide her emotions. Her favorite present this year: The Mama Mia DVD, I know this sounds weird, but I took her to the movie and then bought the sound track and she knows all the words to the songs. It is adorable to listen to her sing Dancing Queen. We enjoyed a calm Christmas day with Mackenzie playing with her presents, and then we were off to the Nielsens in San Diego for continued Christmas celebrations the day after Christmas.... stay tuned.

Merry Christmas Eve

playing with one of her new gifts

A picture of all of the gifts

All of us in matching PJ'S

Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year. I love the lights, music, christmas cookies and spending time with my family. I love visiting my family, not only because I get to see and spend time with them, but also I get a mommy break. My mom does everything,I get to sleep in, read a magazine, go for a run all by myself. I know this sounds selfish, but all mommies deserve a break now and then.

On Christmas Eve we open all of our presents and on Christmas day we only open Santa presents to Mackenzie and then stockings at night. So needless to say there are tons of presents to be opened on Christmas Eve, I think this year we started at about 3 and ended after 10. Mackenzie had so much fun, but then got too overwhelmed and had to go to bed a little early. It has become a tradition that we all wear matching pajamas, which we always look so adorable in, even the dads!

Mackenzie wrote a letter to Santa and left him cookies, milk and carrots for the reindeer. We then went upstairs and read the Night before Christmas and then it was time for her to go to bed. My dad had told her earlier that if she heard the dogs barking it meant that Santa was there. So while my mom (get that my mom put her to bed) was putting Mackenzie to bed she heard the dogs bark and began to panic, she said Santa is here and he won't stay if everyone is still awake. She told my mom to tell everyone to go to bed immediately.

Santa did come and Mackenzie got everything that she wanted.

Crutches for Aunt Bibby

Before the injury having fun

After the injury..not so much fun

After our snow trip we headed to Orange County to spend the week with my family. We were just going to rest on Monday and then Tuesday we were going to take a trip to San Diego to go to Sea World. The weather wasn't great so we decided that we would skip Sea World and just stay at my moms and relax. Until my sister, Aunt Bibby to Mackenzie being the wonderful aunt that she is decided that she didn't want to disappoint Mackenzie so she looked up fun places to go for little ones. She found Pump It Up, one of the inflatables places. We decided that we would all go because when we go in AZ we always have a blast.

So we packed up our stuff Tuesday and headed out of the house early because play time was only between 10-11:30, and Aunt Bibby didn't want Mackenzie to miss out on any play time. Mackenzie and Tracy took off and were sliding and climbing and just having a great time so Bret and I decided to have fun to and play a game of air hockey. After the game, I won just in case you were wondering, we decided that we better be parents again. So we start looking for them only to find Mackenzie walking around by herself. As I see her I look into the bouncy and see my sister hunched over. She can barely talk so I climb in to see what is going on. Mackenzie had fallen down a ladder and Tracy caught her (I am still stunned that she caught her to this day, because my sister God love her, is not the strongest or most coordinated person), but by saving Mackenzie she had rolled her ankle.

Tracy does not handle pain well and starts to pass out anytime pain is felt, so here we are stuck in this bouncy where we have to climb out and my sister is putting her head between her legs. So I start talking to calm her down, like I was talking someone down from a building. I finally lift her out of the bouncy and then Bret took care of her from there.

Tracy then went to the ER to find that she had a foot fracture and an ankle sprain that would probably take 24 weeks to heal. She was put on crutches (Mackenzie calls them crunches). Can you say Merry Christmas. Tracy was a trooper and is getting better day by day. Sea World in the pooring rain would have been a lot better.

WE LOVE SNOW

Mackenzie and Julia, best friends, waiting to open presents

Mackenzie throwing a snowball at daddy

the Nielsens...see our name in the snow

Our snowman, Jacco made most of him

Just the girls making snow angels

Boy do I have a lot of catching up to do. The Nielsen family took a week vacation before Christmas. On the Saturday before Christmas we loaded up our car and was ready for our fun filled week. Our first stop...Wrightwood...incase you don't know where this is it, it is a small town in the mountains of CA, close by Big Bear. My best friend Katie grew up there so her family has a vacation home there. We were meeting Katie and her family to celebrate Christmas. I can not believe how much it snowed, it was gorgeous.

We didn't arrive until 7pm so it was dark and snowy, very scary because Bret had never driven in the snow before, but we made it there safe and sound. Bret and I were so excited to start the holiday season off with a white Christmas. Our daughter on the other hand was not so excited. The whole ride she kept saying, I don't like snow, I don't want it in my hair, it's too cold. Bret and I were no longer traveling with our 3 year old, yet a 90 year old woman. However once she got out of the car and touched it for the first time she was hooked.

We built a snowman, had snowball fights, rolled in the snow, made gingerbread cookies, ate dinner at a little cabin and just had an overall blast with our friends. Bret has told me a story about how when he was little he fell in the snow and was covered up to his head and he even lost his snoopy boot. So he was a little hesitant to get into the snow. Once he stepped in the snow was up to his waist, if you have ever seen a 200 pound man panic it is hilarious. You would have thought he was going to drown in the snow, he started yelling that he couldn't get out. He didn't think it was funny, but it took me a good 10 minutes to stop laughing. All in all our snow fun was a great way to start our trip.