Mother's Day

My very first Mother's Day. I can't believe it!! I spent the morning with Toby and Makenna and we went out to breakfast at IHOP along with what seemed like all of the other mom's in the Redlands area:-) Oh well...it was tasty food and while we waited everyone commented on how cute Makenna was. As a mom I love that, so I didn't mind the wait too much. I had set in my mind what I was going to order when I got there but now they have the calories listed on the menu. I don't know if I like that because it made me feel guilty getting what I wanted to and swayed my decision on what to eat. It is probably for the better, but it was still yummy food.

In the evening my sister's and I set up a surprise for my mom on Mother's Day. She was going to be returning from a weekend with her sister's family and was thinking that all of our family was going to celebrate Mother's Day on a different day. Since we now all have our husband's family, and in Alycia's case fiancé's family, to visit also my mom was graciously telling us that we could celebrate another day so that we didn't have to run all over the place. She was so surprised when she walked in to our house and everyone was there to celebrate Mother's Day with her. We made a special dinner and dessert for her. We had stuffed pork chops, rice, green beans, and for dessert we had Raspberry Napoleans. Thanks to Rebecca the dinner and dessert turned out great! If I was left to cook for everyone by myself who knows how dinner would have turned out. Basically I worked on making the boxed rice, green beans, and the instant pudding while Rebecca was in charge of making the pork chops and puff pastry (the difficult things). I was so excited too because it was the first time that I got to use my china dishes, tablecloth, and cloth napkins. I guess I didn't look too carefully at the napkins though because I had forgotten to take off the tags...hehe. It was fun to get everyone together just to hang out and talk because it is getting more and more difficult to have that time together.

The Living Desert

On May 1st we decided to go the Living Desert out in Palm Desert. It was going to only be in the low to mid 80's so it was a perfect day, not too hot. The directions said that from our house it would take about an hour to get there but, let's just say that it took us two hours to get there. We took the scenic route right through downtown Palm Springs by accident because I got us lost:-) Oops!! After a few phone calls to our relatives to give us directions from our location in Palm Springs we finally made it to our destination. We walked around the gardens and saw the animals throughout the park. Makenna slept through most of it but it was nice to just get out and do something. Toby and I are used to going places frequently and so even if Makenna didn't really get much out of it, except a nice nap, we enjoyed ourselves and had fun just walking around.

No More Toothless Grins

On April 21st Makenna got her first tooth and on May 1st her second tooth came in. I can't get any pictures of them because they are on the bottom and she likes to put her tongue in the way. Maybe once her top teeth come in we can get a picture, although I am not too anxious for those top teeth to come in.

Our Little Rollie Pollie

This is just a quick update to show you Makenna's new acquired talent on April 15th. She has been able to roll over from her stomach to her back since she was two months old. She has finally mastered rolling over from her back to her stomach. YAY!! Her arm used to get in the way but she finally figured out how to maneuver the arm so she can get over. Now you can't keep her on her back. Diaper changes are getting more tricky.

Makenna's Quilt

This quilt is a tradition. Here is the story behind it: My parents were part of a church group before my sisters and I were born. That church group slowly moved from being a young married couples group into being a young families group. When the group had a baby shower, the first child in the family always got all of the practical items that you need for a baby: clothes, diapers, towels, blankets, etc. After your first child, that family had most of the things that they needed for their second and/or third child, so they instead made a quilt block. The blocks were put together into a big quilt for the new baby. I, being the first born in my family, did not get a quilt, but I am not bitter at all...hehe. Well my best friend, Kristen, that came from that group, and who is the first born in her family too, decided that we needed to keep the tradition alive but also needed to make a quilt for the much neglected first child. So here is the beautiful quilt that Kristen and her mom Kathy worked on. Makenna is so lucky. A special thank you to Kristen and Kathy and all of the family and friends that made the quilt for Makenna so wonderful.

God Save The Queen!

On April 10th we went to the Renaissance Fair in Irwindale, CA. It has been a tradition of ours over the past few years. We went with our friends Kristen and Daniel. The weather was perfect. Usually when we have gone it was in May and the weather was well into the 90's but this time it was around 70 degrees and beautiful. That really helped when I had to hike all the way back out to the car to feed Makenna half way through our trip. Needless to say we decided that when she needed to eat again that we were going to be going home. We did pretty well though, we went from about noon until 5:30pm with only one trip to the car to eat. Makenna loves to be out and always manages to sleep better when she has been somewhere besides home all day. Toby would love to dress up sometime in the future but we haven't done so yet. Huzzah!

Easter

We celebrated Easter with my (Shanelle's) family on Saturday with a wonderful dinner. We were lucky enough to get to have not only my immediate family but also two of my cousins and my grandparents there to celebrate also.


Then on Sunday we braved the early morning and made it to our church's sunrise service. We did think that it was a little wrong to wake up a sleeping baby at that time in the morning but she did really well all through church. After we went over to our pastor's house for fellowship and food. This is a picture of all the mommies from our church with their kids. I think that Makenna could be starting into teething. Do you see her trying to get one of the mom's fingers into her mouth in the group picture. And her dress is in her mouth in our family picture. Hehe!


We were all exhausted by the evening time but had a great two days of Easter celebration. Here are a few more pictures from Easter day.