A Little Bit Of Sass

she is changing so much lately. maybe it's part of being two? she puts more words together and talks about new things that kyle and i haven't taught her. she's constantly making us laugh and we both find ourselves running through the house to find the other and share whatever the newest addyism is. we enjoy her so much. kyle and addison have a special bond. kyle acts like more of a friend to her sometimes, asking me if she can come out of bed because she's not tired yet, or can she please be done with dinner - she's just so full and wants a cookie, or how asks me how i can ever say no to that face. he makes me feel like a meanie sometimes. some days i give in.

she is still so skinny and has to hold up her pants when she runs so they don't end up around her ankles. she's so skinny, in fact, that she still wears her 12 months jeans and they are finally getting tight. i'll be glad to retire those pants that looked more like bermuda shorts on her.

love her huge mouth!

we have a hard time when we are away from this squirt and find ourselves passing the time by acting like her or quoting her. then we bust out laughing. try it. it's so much fun.

we gave addy the green light to act crazy and run around for these pictures, so it was hard to reign her in for a few with me, as you can tell. her faces just make me laugh. what is she doing?

her 18 month shorts just slide right off her bum. we'll have to wait a while longer before they really fit her well. otherwise i do love "unerwear" on a cute pair of squishy buns. sometimes she'll come up to kyle and i and let us know we can pinch her buns. so of course we take the opportunity and pinch away, and we are always sure to thank her later for letting us. she is just so nice to share!

she totally needs to be a model. i would just tell her where to stand and she would do her own thing for me as i walked around getting different angles. give it to me baby!

she's so happy!

it's so hard to contain all that cuteness when you're newly two and totally awesome! thanks addy, i'll be sure to book you again.

Terrible Twos - Here We Come

addison's birthday snuck up on us. she has really changed since charly was born and especially this last month. it's so fun to see what she learns by observing the things around her, she catches on so quickly!
we celebrated at papa mckay's the day before her birthday. aunt jen helped addy light the candles... and then she blew them out. love the leftover dinner on her face.

opening her first present from jen. if anyone has been around addison lately, they know her favorite movie is finding nemo so it wasn't a suprise when her gift was her very own...

NEMO!

and she's in love. the rest of the day was spent making nemo swim and playing hide and go seek with him. (yes she still talks to her animals and kyle is their voice. so cute.)all the grand kids go matching clothes. all the girls have this cute pink shirt from grandma with matching pink shorts and cameron has a coordinating outfit. love it!

more books!

her favorite present was having uncle kirt come home for a week from flying planes in oklahoma. kirt loves her too. below: jen, addison, and kirt.

the next day at papa mccleve's addison got her own water and sand box to play in. she loves the attached umbrella and detaches it so she can walk around with it.

kyle and i gave her a few more books, some doggy slippers, and her own pink sunglasses. the sunglasses are her favorite and she goes everywhere with them and shows them to everyone. she even shares with charly every once in a while.

most of the time i can't believe she is two already, but then she gets sassy, and i believe it. love you addison. you'll always be my baby girl!

Kyle Turns 26

four days after our little charly was born we celebrated kyle's birthday. it's gonna be crazy fun to have two birthdays so close together. we didn't do any big celebration, but we did go over to kyle's parents where they made his favorite dinner - taco soup and homemade rolls. addison helped kyle blow out the 26 candles on his cake after dinner. to her that was better than actually eating the dessert and afterward, she spent some time mutilating the cake with the spatula and candles. it's always fun when you're allowed to be messy!

we haven't gone out yet to pick up kyle's present. he wants black sunday shoes and reef sandals. no toys for kyle, seems strange to me.

Love This Girl

it took a second for her to cry when she was born and she still doesn't cry much. charlene mae mckay was born on monday morning just a few minutes after eleven. my membranes were stripped last tuesday, the day before i was 38 weeks pregnant, and i was scheduled for an induction sunday night. i checked into the hospital at eleven pm sunday and after monitoring the baby and myself for a while, my nurse hooked me up to pitocin at 1:40 am. then she told me that i was dilated to a three. i was so mad i had only progressed 1 cm since my membranes were stripped. i called kyle (who dropped me off at the hospital and drove a mile away to my parents home with addison - stinker) to let him know what was going on. then i went to sleep.

remembering that my contractions became painful within 15 to 20 minutes with addison's birth, i wasn't expecting to sleep for very long. it surprised me every time the nurse came in to check on me that i still wasn't in pain. thirty minutes, forty five minutes, and hour and a half passed without any pain. i could feel my stomach tighten every couple minutes, but there was no pain. when i compared that to addy's birth, i knew this labor was going to be longer than hers. at four a.m. i finally started to feel more pressure with each contraction and knew that pain would soon follow. i called kyle and told him to come to the hospital.

but charlene was in no hurry. when kyle got to the hospital, any pain that was starting to build left completely and we both fell back asleep.

dr. huff came in at 7:15 monday morning and broke my water. at that time i was dilated to a four and was upset with how slow i was progressing. i just knew this baby had to come within the hour like addison came 30 minutes after my water broke. this labor couldn't have been more different than addison's. one hour later and i was just starting to get pain with my contractions. i was so excited! gradually that pain became more and more intense and they continued to give me more pitocin. at 10:30 i asked for an epidural and had it at 10:45. my experience with the epidural was much better this time. with addison's birth i had a severe case of the itches for several hours, so when i told the anesthesiologist her answer was to give me less of the drug fentanyl. because of the lower dose of fentanyl, my epidural wasn't as strong and i could partly feel each contraction throughout the rest of the labor. it was perfect because i could feel when to push later on with out being in pain. my nurse checked my progress at 10:50 and told me i was dilated to a 9 1/2. she figured i was probably a seven or eight when i got the epidural.

five minutes later (10:55) she checked me again and told me i was complete! i was so excited. dr. huff came right in and i was pushing at eleven. charlene was born at 11:06. just over five minutes of pushing, it was so fast! i got that epidural at the perfect time. i wasn't in as much shock as i was with addison, but i remember right before i saw her i couldn't imagine what she could possibly look like except for exactly like addison. it was a shock to see how different she was.

she came perfect with all her finger and toes and i got to hold her right away. charly has a sweet bunch of long hair on the crown of her head. her ears lie straight back (thank goodness). she has adorable chubbiness tucked away in every little crevice possible. charly is completely her own person and looks nothing like addison or any of the mckay's except for her slight dimples. when looking at baby pictures, she shares similarities with my sister kenna and me.

interesting thing i learned from dr. huff about big babies: they mature slower than small babies and are happy to stay in the womb while small babies are under stress and mature quicker so they can come out sooner. so i have happy, healthy babies! as delivery approaches, babies shed their coating of vernix, but charlene was born with a thick coating if the creamy vernix all over, indicating that she hadn't started to plan her exit yet. if she had come on her due date (dec 15), she would've weighed about the same as addison (9 lb 7 oz); and if she would've gone four days overdue like addy, charlene would have been around 10 lb 1 oz! thank goodness i was induced!
quick facts:
name: charlene mae mckay
born: december 6th, 2010 at: 11:06 a.m.
weight: 8 lbs 14 oz height: 21 1/4 inches
hair: long and dark

note: even though she weighed less than addison, she measured bigger. addison was 21 inches long and charly was 1/4 of an inch longer. addy's head and chest were both 12 inches while charly's head was 14 1/2 inches and chest was 12 inches. i had three deep tears with addison and no tears with charly. healing has been a night and day difference so far. i wrote with addy's story that my recovery was great, and now i wonder why i said that. it was horrible; this recovery has been great!
charlene was named after her great grandma charlene brown (the one that was recently married) and her great-great grandma ella mae mccleve. we fell in love with that name a few months back when i realized that by naming her after grandma charlene and calling her charly, we could pay tribute both to my grandma and my late grandpa charles. how many people can do that?!

charlene is a beautiful baby, hugged and kissed to death by big sister addison who loves everything about her. two beautiful girls. i am completely happy!

McKay Family Time

for every person that celebrates a bithday in the mckay family, that person gets to choose what they want for breakfast as well as where they want to go out for dinner that night. kyle and i didn't eat breakfast with his family, but we went with them that night when shawn chose to go to King's Fish House for dinner.

we got home, sang happy birthday, had cake, and roasted marshmellows. addison was too excited to roast any, she ate them right off the skewer. the rest of the night was fun with grandchildren hiding in forts while being chased by kyle and shawn trying out his present - a remote controlled helicopter.

it's so fun having everyone in town. they're all leaving this weekend, but will be back in a week and a half to two weeks for christmas!

My Perfect Day: 22 Years Old

(this pic was actually taken on the 5th, but pretty much shows how big i was on my birthday)

i had a great 22nd birthday yesterday. i woke up smelling stuffed french toast and bacon. addison came to me while i was lying in bed and said "day" to me, wishing me happy birthday. so cute! the breakfast was heaven and then kyle cleaned everything up. wonderful.

i spent the day hanging out with my hot hubby and gorgeous girl. kyle got mesomething i had wanted so much for my birthday - a fixed sewing machine! i love him. i have found so many things i want to make and now i finally can. he totally spoils me!

because i was craving sushi, he took me to the restaurant ra (pronounced "raw"). it was his first time having sushi and i am so glad he liked it. i didn't actually eat anything raw, just veggies and cooked crab and eel, but kyle tried the spicy yellowtail roll and loved it. i'll have to try it as soon as i have this baby!

afterward we went over to kyle's parents where kyle's mom had thrown a surprised birthday party for his dad's 60th birthday! how awesome to share the same birthday. shawn and neesha even surprised him and came down for his birthday!

this afternoon, grandpa mckay is taking the grandchildren and anyone who wants to go on a hike to sycamore creek. i am going to take the opportunity to go fabric shopping for addy's christmas present and i am so excited!

One Year Older and Wiser Too...

above: addison blew out her candle all by herself!

...happy birthday to you!

it happened. even though i have been looking forward to this day, i also dreaded my baby growing up. yes, i know she'll still need me for a while yet, but february 19th made the inevitable one year closer. so, because i knew it couldn't be avoided, i let addison turn one. aren't i nice? i sure think i am. there are so many precious things that she does, cute ways that she thinks about things, i am terrified that she will suddenly stop. on the other hand, i love watching her continue to learn about the world around her and figure out how to accomplish the things she wants. she is mi bebe guros (baby laguage for my baby girls) and i absolutely LOVE her.

she had a family birthday party at our new house. it was a great turn out with kyle's parents, my parents and sisters including michelle and jesse, both great grandmas, and great, great grandpa breinholt. we ate amazing food - hawaiian burgers - a great recipe kyle's dad found that includes mango, pineapple, bacon, and a mango sauce with anything else you like. way better than regular burgers.

above: jalee trying to get addison to eat her cake by example. addison was having fun being quite the tease - right when jalee would lean forward to take a bite, addy would pull the fork away and laugh. below: addison opening her presents. favorite toy thus far - balloons, go figure.we totally didn't think to get pictures of anyone but addison until afterward, sniff sniff. but, we are so lucky to have such great family who loves addy there to wish her happy birthday.

she is growing up so fast, and i'm gonna enjoy every minute of it. i am the luckiest mom in the world. i know everyone says that, but only this mom is right!

Happy Birthday Kyle!

kyle,

i remember the first time i ever saw you in june of 2007. you were in the ballroom at nau and efy

was in session. i could tell you were a great counselor by the way you interacted with everyone around you. you had some crazy energy that whole week as you bounced down the halls and made sure your group had spirit. i remember thinking, " the poor girl who marries him, he's all over the place!"

michelle loved you as her counselor, and when she asked me to write on your facebook page and say hi for her, i was excited to write you a message. your reply came back, and i was so afraid that our conversation would end there. so i wrote you again, pretending michelle wanted me to. when you replied and asked for my number, i was shocked. excited. thrilled. and nervous. i was going to go on a date with a counselor. an efy COUNSELOR. you seemed so much older than me, with with much more experience in dating. i knew you were fun, and i was terrified to disappoint. i had a wonderful time that night.

i couldn't believe you liked me enough to ask me out again. but you did. over the next four months as we dated and got to know each other, i fell in love with you. i loved how you could make me laugh. you were so clever with the way you talked and i found myself laughing for days as i reflected on a single conversation or a look you gave. i loved that you had the ability to talk to anyone around you, even strangers, and be completely comfortable. you were great with kids of all ages, and it impressed me that you got along with my sisters so well. they still love you. that was very important to me. i saw you dig in with the work at your house and you even looked to be an extra help with things you thought needed to be done. you made chores fun. people who were normally considered "different" in society always had a friend in you. they knew to call you for a ride or a visit and you would be there. i appreciated the trails you had gone through and was amazed at how much stronger they made your spirit and testimony.

once i knew that i wanted to marry you, march 7th couldn't come fast enough. i had the jitters that whole week. in the temple i was so nervous that i nearly threw up, but when i saw you smile at me and take my hand, i knew everything was going to be fine. that day was perfect. i will never forget it.

in the whole year and ten months we've been married, we have accomplished so much. moving, going to school, counting pennies, and having a baby. and consequently, you have been the rock through it all. i have never doubted your ability to provide for our family or achieve anything you want in life. as i continue to get to know you better, sometimes what i learn drives me nuts, but i can never stay upset at you for long. i learned that you never let the small things get to you, which is completely opposite from me. you always encourage me to be more than i am. when it come to school or hobbies, you say if i want to do it, then i can. you help me see how i can accomplish my goals and road map a way for me to get there. you stick up for me and support me. you let me cry. you love me, and so much more.

i can't get enough of you and addison together.

you are so good to her. you are going to be a perfect doting father to all of our children - just like your dad. addison lights up when you get home each day and loves talking to you on the phone. i know a you'll always have a special place in her heart.

thank you for being the husband and father that you are. thank you for your love and patience. thank you for your service. i will forever be greatful i was the lucky girl that got to marry that energetic counselor from efy. i love to be with you and i am so excited to do just that for eternity. i hope you have a wonderful birthday! i love you so much.

with much love,

brittney