Our baby just turned 1! It is hard to believe that it has been a year since Mackenzie arrived into our family. Since the day she was born she has been the perfect baby. Grampy even tells us that. She was a perfect fit to our family and quickly adapted to our controlled chaos. She has endured numerous ear infections and we never knew she had them. She is just that content. Her smiles will melt your heart. Norm and I ask her every day if we can just keep her little. She has recently started to hug and there really is no better way to end my day. Kenzie, as we call her, is walking all over the house. She has great potential for basketball in the future as she has perfected the pivot and at times does donuts on the floor because she can't figure out to pick up the other foot. :) I know it's her first birthday and I should post more recent pictures, but she really was just a beautiful baby. And being our last it has been just a little more difficult to exit babyville.
Mackenzie loves the outdoors and spends a lot of time in this swing still just watching her siblings run and play all over the yard. Of course this is not done without the aid of a snack. She has a VERY healthy appetite despite the single tooth that occupies her mouth. Yep, just one tooth...and she got it back in January!
A photo from her joint birthday party with cousin, Franny, and big sister, Cassie. As you can see the eyes are starting to glaze over. It was 7:00 which is an hour past her bedtime. That's right, she goes to bed at 6:00....and she sleeps until 6:30 in the morning, all night. Like I said before, she is the perfect baby. We couldn't have ordered one better.
The cake was a bit puzzling for her. She looked at us in amazement that we put the whole thing in front of her. She loved the frosting, but really didn't care about the cake.
Like I said, there is nothing like her smile!
Her pretty party dress!
She was pretending to talk on the phone.
One more goofy smile! Time passes so quickly with the kids and as much as we will miss the baby stage and snuggling with an infant, we are eager to be without the diaper bag. I feel bad, thinking that we are wishing away our little girl's childhood. Mackenzie is such a little blessing and we cannot imagine our family without her. She made us complete and perfect. We look forward to her talking because we can only imagine what a sweet little personality she is going to have. The next year will be a fun one as speech develops, her balance and coordination become better and she becomes the fourth child running through the house. I hope her and her siblings are all close and I hope especially that she develops that wonderful sister bond with her big sister. Happy 1st birthday, baby girl!
We have been promising a swingset to Dominic for several years now. It was something that he wanted badly, but we were hesitant to just throw one up on the yard. Five years ago we bought the adjacent lot with the idea that one day it would be an awesome, open yard for our kids to play on. Our dreams were ambitious as the lot was occupied by a half dozen trees, over a dozen shrubs, yards and yards of concrete sidewalks and pads, a single-wide trailer and a 30 by 60 garage. It took us four years to clear the lot and it was time this spring to make good on our promise. Below is what used to be the "house next door." The concrete on the right is half of the slab that the 30 by 60 garage used to sit on, instant basketball court! The garage bordered us within 3-5 feet of the property line.
This was the start. A night of mommy and daddy getting the base ready and finding a fairly level spot to call home for the swingset. This started to raise a lot of interest as to what the final project would be.
Soon after adding some floors at the different levels the upper level went up and our neighbor called her husband at work in disbelief. LOL
The lowest level has a picnic table perfect for our four kids to sit at. In the final pictures it is difficult to see as it is hidden behind the rock wall.
Once the roof was installed Grampie was called for assistance in adding the walls and railings as well as to help finish the project. Daddy was at the point that he needed an extra set of hands and Dominic and Jonathan didn't qualify.
We had a regular construction zone, but things progressed quickly.
It was difficult to keep the kids away from the action and soon they were "overseeing" the project. This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole project.
The rockwall and slide went on and the kids were soon enjoying the swingset. Even Cassie and her little legs quickly mastered the rockwall.
So excited to have a slide!
The perfect swingset for 4 very active kids. Kenzie's baby swing has replaced one of the regular swings for now, and she loves sliding with her brothers.
It was a very exciting week as this project unfolded. Norm took a couple of days off from work. He took his time and let the kids help. Dominic was so excited to use the cordless drill. It will be the source of lots of fun and laughter for many years to come. And we know that we helped build it together!
