My Aunt Sonja

On Sunday, December 11th, my Aunt Sonja passed away from complications of leukemia. I was sad to receive the news, but happy to know she was no longer suffering!

She was a wonderful Aunt and will always be remembered for that! McKinley and I were fortunate to be able to fly out to Asheville, North Carolina to attend her funeral in Franklin, North Carolina.

Despite the circumstances, we had a fun time catching up with extended family and getting to see my parents, sisters, brother-in-laws, nieces and nephew so soon after Thanksgiving.

This is a really fun picture we took with all of my Aunt LaRessie's girls. She has 4 girls, like my mom, and here we all are sitting next to our cousin in the same age category in the family :) My Aunt Sonja loved all of her nieces, so it was nice to be there at her funeral and honor her memory! We all loved her so much! We sang a song together during the funeral for her, it was a sweet moment.

McKinley had a great time! She loved spending time with her cousins and running around enjoying herself, unaware of what was going on and why we were really there. Her and her cousin's sweet demeanor brought a smile to many people's faces and brightened many people's spirits who saw them enjoying themselves and having fun just being kids! It's always nice to have a reason to smile, especially at such a sad time!

15 months old!

Our sweet McKinley is now 15 months old! She has grown and changed so much over the past month! At 15 months McKinley's stats are:

Weight- 24 lbs 4 oz (70%)
Height- 31 in. (66%)
Head- 19 in. (99%)

The doctor said she's proportional and still looks healthy and happy! She is thinning out a bit, which I think is from starting to walk. Her baby fat is starting to disappear and she's turning into quite the toddler!


She does so many funny things that I don't want to forget! One funny thing she does is loves to play dress up! She loves to put necklaces and my scarfs on! She knows exactly where they go and what to do with them. My Mom gave her some Mardi Gras beads when we were visiting, and she puts them on at least once a day! She is quite the girly-girl, because she also loves to carry her purse around too!


The other day, she was over at Brad and Emily's house and she went into Mya's room and found her necklaces and put them all on! What can I say, this girl loves jewelry! I can't blame her!


She calls both Travis and I "Mamma". When she wants either of us she'll point to which one and say, "Mamma". Yesterday at Church, she was talking to the people in the pew behind us and pointed to Travis and said over and over, "Mamma, Mamma, Mamma" letting them know that he was her momma :) It was quite funny! If I ask her, "Where's dad?" She still points to Travis, but says, "Mamma"! Last night when we were putting McKinley to bed, after we read McKinley her bed time stories, Travis left the room and McKinley kept saying, "Mamma, Hi! Mamma, Hi!" letting me know she wanted Travis back in the room. It was quite cute and I was impressed with her ability to string two words together!


She is becoming more and more independent everyday! She walks around everywhere and is starting to run a little. She even climbed to the top of the play-place at Runza, all by herself!


She loves to shut doors, put things in her purse then take them all out, and then put them all back in again. She helps me put her coat on and buckle her in her car seat by reaching out each of her arms on at a time. She likes to brush her own hair with her brush and rub her hands together when I put lotion on my hands. She tries to put her shoes and socks on, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of that yet! She understands almost everything I say, and can bring me something if I ask her to. She can reach almost anything and is always trying to get her little hands on everything!


She makes some great faces! She loves to stick out her tongue!



See what I mean! These are the faces she makes when I ask her to smile :) Quite the cheese smile!


She is learning so much! When you ask her what a puppy says she replies, "woof, woof" When you ask her what a duck says she replies, "wack, wack". We're still trying to work on other animal noises, because right now when she sees any animal, besides a duck, she says "woof, woof"! She also knows how to blow kisses, and does the cutest version of it by putting her hand to her face and making a slight "kissy" noise. She also knows to put both of her hands in the air when we say "touchdown", what can we say we're a football family. Especially this time of year with all the college football we watch! She has learned you're supposed to blow on your food when it's hot, so she blows on almost every bite of food, even if the food was already cold to start out with :)


We are still so in love with our baby girl and are so grateful for the smiles and laughs she brings us everyday! She is a ray of sunshine to our days!

Thanksgiving in Texas!

For Thanksgiving this year, we had the opportunity to go to Texas to spend it with my whole family! All 4 of us girls and our families were there to celebrate the holiday together! We had a wonderful time! I always love getting to spend time with my family! Here is McKinley and I on our last flight, finally in Texas!


On Thanksgiving morning my sister Natalie and I organized the second biannual Beck Family Turkey Trot. My Dad mapped out the course throughout their neighborhood. Travis, Natalie and I all ran the full 5k, 3 miles. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to start out a day designated for eating!


The older kids even participated in the race on the new John Deer Power wheels Meme and Pepe got for the grand kids.


We even had t-shirts made for the occasion. Natalie and I designed them. On the front they said "Beck Family Turkey Trot 2011" and had the picture of a turkey head. On the back they said, "Move your feet or be dead meat" and had a picture of tail feathers! I thought they turned out pretty cute!




After the race the rest of the day was spent cooking and eating!


That night we watched the Texas vs. Texas A&M football game! We were happy to watch Texas pull out a win over Texas A&M!! After the football game and the kids were in bed, all the girls and Bossy and Travis went to a local mall at midnight for some Black Friday shopping. We had fun fighting the crowds and scoring some great deals. It was really fun to all go shopping together! Friday afternoon was spent with the boys home watching football and the girls going out and getting pedicures! One of my favorite past times with my sisters. Gabby even got one too!


That night we had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Fulshear, a small BBQ restaurant in a gas station called Doziers. It's yummy Texas BBQ at it's best! I was so happy that one of my best friends Michele and her husband Justin made the drive out to Fulshear to meet up with us so we could see them while we were in Texas! It was great getting to see them and catch up for a bit while we ate.


After dinner we went over to a candy shop and watched the Fulshear Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It was fun to eat some yummy candy, listen to some Christmas carols and watch the Christmas tree be lit! It was a fun way to get into the Christmas spirit! Here we are at the ceremony!

One of my favorite things about getting together with all my family is getting to see my nieces and nephews. It's especially fun now that I have my own little girl. She loves kids and loves to interact with other kids! She especially loved her cousin Oliver. He is 6 and is so good with babies! McKinley loved him and loved playing with him! He loved her too. They make the cutest little buddies!




It's also always fun to see McKinley and Melia together since they're so close in age! I know these 2 are going to grow up together being best friends!

Here they are together after stealing bites of pie from Meme!


We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for and being surrounded by family only made us realize even more how blessed we all are! While talking about being blessed, I'm going to leave you with a few fun pictures from Thanksgiving of one of my greatest blessings :)




I am very blessed!

Family Pictures!

In October we got our family pictures taken by my friend Anna. She did a great job! I love how they turned out! I love the fall, so I thought the changing leaves would be the perfect backdrop for our family pictures! The day was a little chilly and windy, hence McKinley's not too happy faces and rosy nosy in some of the pictures :) Enjoy!