How Does This Toy Work Again?

Ok...I just had to post a few of Makenna's funny moments with toys. She definitely has a personality right now and she likes to be silly.

How the car stayed upright with her sitting on the front of it, I do not know.


She decided that the turtle shape sorter shell would be funny to use as a mask. And then she figured out a way to walk around with it using no hands.


She puts the wrong foot over her riding toys a lot and then can't figure out why she is facing the wrong way.
Oh, by the way: Toby wanted to point out there's football in the background.

Christmas 2010

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was so great. It was so fun to watch Makenna open gifts this year because she has the opening thing down. She can even open up wrapped packages now. Maybe next year though she will enjoy the gifts more than the wrapping:-) We went over to Toby's parent's house on Christmas Eve and celebrated with Makenna's aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins. We had a great time and we were even able to stay later than Makenna's bed time because we put her to sleep in the same room as her little cousin Wyatt and they slept peacefully together until Makenna woke up at about 11pm and didn't know where she was at. Sorry Wyatt.

On Chrismas day Makenna opened up her stocking gifts (my mom made her adorable stocking),


her Santa gift,

and a few other gifts from mommy and daddy.

Then it was off to my mom and Jim's house for our traditional Christmas breakfast and more gifts. Poor Makenna hadn't gotten her usual morning nap so she was having a difficult time staying awake to open up all of the gifts at their house. Makenna had such a fun time opening up stocking gifts at their house because she liked to go around to each of us and help us open our gifts and then just being silly and goofy so all attention was on her:-)

We decided that a nap was in store for Makenna and then off to my grandparent's house we went for a huge Christmas party. We got to visit with a lot of my family members that we don't get to see all of the time so it was great. We had a lot of fun.

Such a great Christmas!

The Happiest Place On Earth

Toby and I had done the "Give A Day, Get A Day" volunteer program way back in January and each got a free ticket to Disneyland so off we went to get there by opening...thank goodness it didn't open until 9:00am. We had a bit of a rough car ride as Makenna was way too excited to take her usual nap in the car but instead graced us with her crying and whining. Since she hadn't taken her morning nap, I was expecting the day to be a difficult one, but thankfully it turned out well. My mom and my best friend, Kristen, came along with us and we had one of the best days ever.

Let's just say that the longest that we had to wait in line was 15-minutes and even when we got a fast pass for Indiana Jones they told us that we didn't need it because the line was so short:-) When does that ever happen? But anyways...I am getting ahead of myself...back to Makenna. So I am a big nerd and decided that I would send Makenna a Disney greeting where a Disney character calls your child. I knew that she would really not understand but it was something fun anyways. Well, the call ended up coming right as we were getting on the tram to go into Disneyland so we really couldn't hear it, but it was the thought that counts:-) When we got our tickets, Makenna was given a "1st Visit!" button that we ever so secretly had to sneak away from her because she loved that thing so much but we were worried about her poking herself with the pin on the back. Makenna is usually the most animated and over exaggerated kid that I know and we were really excited to see what she thought of Disneyland with all of the people, Christmas decorations, music, and excitement. Well she was shocked all right. She was just kinda expressionless all day; some of that was from the lack of sleep but I think most of it was from the over stimulation.

So the first ride that we went on was "It's A Small World" because there is a commercial on that plays that song and every time she hears it she stops what she is doing to go and listen and dance to the music. She enjoyed the boat ride but didn't really show any emotion while going on the ride.

After that we went over to Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion,

and the Jungle Cruise.

Makenna was getting sleepy, so luckily she fell asleep in her stroller which allowed the four adults to take turns watching her and going on Space Mountain. After we all had lunch and watched the Star Wars Training show, we went two at a time on Indiana Jones while Makenna went on Tarzan's Treehouse and then we switched adults and went to the Tiki Room. Makenna had the most fun in the Tiki Room. She absolutely loves music and loved watching all of the flowers and birds singing. Her particular favorites were the bird of paradise flowers.

We all met back up again and went over to the Winnie-The-Pooh ride, took turns going on Big Thunder Mountain, the Carousel, Pinocchio, Snow White, and Alice and Wonderland. I will have to say that Makenna was not too sure about the Carousel

and the rest of us were a little confused in the Snow White ride. The dwarfs were in the forest and you see the evil witch and then it says "And they lived happily ever after". We think that ride might have gotten cut short due to the new area to see the princess from "Tangled". And on any normal day that would have taken us all the way until closing to make it to that many rides but again we went on the best day ever so it was still only 3:00pm by then. So we went to the Buzz Lightyear ride where Kristen, Toby, and my mom scored big points and I couldn't hit anything:-)

Makenna was getting tired again and started to fall asleep so Kristen, Toby, and I went off to Autotopia while my mom and Makenna went looking for a stuffed animal to fall asleep with. Makenna decided that the little Donald Duck was the funniest one and the ironic thing is that the stuffed animal that I got when I went to Disneyland for the first time was also Donald Duck. Like mother, like daughter:-) Toby and I went to feed Makenna while my mom and Kristen went back to the Buzz Lightyear ride and then it was time for us to go home. Makenna had finally had enough of the excitement.

We had such a wonderful day and on the way home Makenna had no issue with falling asleep in the car. Our day couldn't have been more fun!!

First Dental Appointment

At one year old they are supposed to start going for dental appointments so I decided that I would take her since I had gotten a recommendation for a great pediatric dentist. I also figured that since Makenna already had seven teeth that I should make sure that they are doing well. The dental appointment at this age is more of getting them used to coming to the dentist than anything else, but that's great. The dentist looked at her teeth and then went over all of the tooth growth patterns, brushing, and oral hygiene information for a toddler. Makenna did well and we will be going back in 6-months for another check-up. I had to get a picture of Makenna sitting in the dentist chair, although this is a little misleading as when she was getting checked up I was sitting in the chair and she was sitting on my lap. But doesn't she look so grown up sitting there by herself.

The dentist gave her a toothbrush that she loves to carry around and imitate me brushing my teeth. She also gave us a finger toothbrush...I love this thing! I was always trying to shove a toddler toothbrush in her mouth and although she did pretty well with it she still would fuss some days and I am sure we weren't brushing so well, but with this finger tooth brush she laughs and giggles and lets me brush her teeth for a lot longer...although I am still waiting until she bites down on my finger.

Makenna's 1st Birthday

We had a big birthday party for Makenna on Saturday, November 27th with family and friends. I can't believe that my little baby is a toddler now. I absolutely love planning parties and decorating for parties and this was the first large party that I have gotten to plan at my own house. I love that we have a big enough house now that we can have large gatherings. The theme to Makenna's party was "These are a few of my favorite things..." and the colors were pink and yellow. We had people make name tags because Makenna loves daddy's badge that we call a "tag". We had rubber ducky decorations and cookies because a duck is her favorite animal. Thanks to my mom and Rebecca we got everything done in time for the party.



I went online to see what type of special 1st birthday outfit ideas they had. I found the most adorable tutu outfits and decided to make her an outfit myself. It wasn't much work and she looked absolutely adorable in her tutu. We were worried that after the time that I had put into making the outfit that she wouldn't like the tutu but that wasn't the case at all, we had a hard time taking her out of it when we put her down for a nap; she loved that thing.


We had heard that most kids don't like their first birthday party because they are overly tired with their nap schedule being thrown off and that there are too many people and stimulation for them to handle. I am happy to say that Makenna LOVED her party. She loves people and didn't really know that they were all there for her but she had fun anyways. I was very impressed how well she did. She was a little hesitant when we gave her a cupcake as she has never had anything given to her in that large of a piece before. She needed a bit of coaxing but as soon as I turned away she stuffed that cupcake in her mouth and quite enjoyed it.

We had been practicing gift opening before her party and she got the hang of opening the bags with tissue paper and taking out the gift inside but she still didn't have the concept of pulling off wrapping paper from a gift.


She loved all of her gifts but she took a liking to one particular gift the most; a pink plastic chair from Kristen. After she opened up that gift she did not want to open anything else up because she had found her "precious". She was carrying it everywhere with her and then for the first time she decided to climb. Needless to say we can only get that chair out when we are ready to follow her around because she has no concept of falling as she will stand on the chair and then step off like nothing bad will happen:-)

The party turned out great! And best of all Makenna had a good time.

Thanksgiving

I can't believe that we are already beginning to recycle holidays now. Makenna was only 2 days old on her first Thanksgiving and now she is a year old; my how time flies. This year she got to enjoy Thanksgiving a little more because she got to eat all of the yummy food. She especially liked Grandpa Venable's mashed potatoes and Grandma Secord's raspberry jello. Makenna is more of a vegetarian as we have tried numerous times to give her puree meats (yuck!!) or real meats and she turns up her nose at them every time. I have even tried mixing them in with other food that she likes and she still won't eat meat. We were a little shocked when on Thanksgiving she was eating little pieces of turkey until we found out that she was just storing them in the side of her mouth and spit them out when she was finished with all of the non-meat food...hehe. Maybe one day we will be able to get her to eat meat.

On Thanksgiving we went over to Renee's house (Toby's older sister) in the early afternoon where all of her food was made from scratch; it was so yummy. Makenna got to see five of her cousins and have fun playing with cousin Zachary's toys. In the evening we headed over to my mom's house and we ate our second delicious meal over there. At the end of the night we put Makenna in her pajamas and she relaxed with Grandpa Secord on the couch. The funny thing is that this is exactly what she did last year on Thanksgiving too; only she was sleeping last year and not holding the remote control.

I am coming to the realization that it is very difficult to get any good pictures of a one year old because she moves too fast for the digital cameras. By the time it actually snaps the shot she is making a funny face or only half-way in the frame. So with thanks to my two very patient sisters, amazingly we did end up getting one good family picture.