New Look

While I was in Texas, Emily and I decided it'd be fun to go for a new look and change up our hair. Emily got a really cute bob and cut off her long hair, and I decided to get bangs. It's fun to change things up and have a little different look for the new year! I'm still getting used to it, but I really like it!

McKinley is 4 months old!

I've been a little behind in my blogging! Travis, McKinley and I have been out of town for almost 3 weeks! It was quite an eventful 3 weeks! Posts will be coming about our adventures soon, but first I wanted to post about our little McKinley turning 4 months old! It was her 4 month birthday on Christmas Eve! She gets cuter and sweeter everyday! We're loving our little girl and having so much fun watching her grow and change. She is definitely no longer a newborn! She's a healthy, active, fun smiley baby girl :) We took her for her 4 month appointment today, since we just got home from traveling and here are her stats:

Weight: 14 lbs. 12 oz. 75th percentile
Height: 24 1/2 in. 70th percentile
Head: 43 cm 90th percentile
Weight/Length: 60th percentile

McKinley has grown so much since her 2 month check-up and is right on track in her growth! We were so happy to hear that. Here are some things she's been doing recently:

• She's been holding her up steadily for quite a while now! She loves to look around and checkout her world
• She's been trying to sit up. She can sit up on her own for about 10 seconds before she'll fall back down. If we lay her on an incline she'll try and sit up so she can see what's going on around her! She's a strong little girl!
• She's been smiling a ton! Which is so fun! She loves to smile at her mom :) My favorite! Here she is smiling on Christmas morning!

• She's squealing and laughing a little. She laughed for the first time while we were at my mom and dad's house for Christmas. We were changing her into her PJ's on our bed and while we were doing so, Travis was blowing on her belly and she started laughing! It was one of the cutest sounds I've ever heard! She's done it a few more times since then and I love it!
• We took her swimming for the first time and she LOVED it! She sat in the hot tub at my mom and dad's house for 30 minutes and didn't make a peep! She loved the warm water and watching her cousins splash around. She even got splashed in the face by a cousin who was trying to swim and it didn't even bother her! It was the cutest thing!

• She's starting to love toys. She likes to chew on them and can grab for them now. She loves to be entertained and gets bored easily if she's not. So lots of toy playing is in store for this little girl. We got her a crinkle toy and that seems to be her favorite. She can hold on to it and put it into her mouth! Its so fun watching her play with her toys! Here she is with her crinkle toy.
  

• She can roll over from her tummy to her back. It was funny while we were at my parents house my sister was asking me if she could roll over and I told her, no not yet. Minutes after I said that she rolled over onto her back from her tummy! It was the craziest thing. It was as if she heard me and was like, "Ya right Mom, I'll show you!"

We love our little girl! She's getting so much fun! We love playing with her and she can always make us smile. She's getting less fussy which makes her so much more enjoyable! We can't imagine our life without her :)

Our little 3 month old!

McKinley is officially 3 months old as of Wednesday! We've loved the last 3 months we've got to spend with our little girl and we look forward to the many, many more! Our little 3 month old:

• Is holding her head up all of the time now and she loves to hold it up! She loves to look and see what's going on
• Loves to stand up all the time! She loves it when we hold her up so she can stand and check out the world
• Smiles a lot more, we love to see her little smile :)
• Sleeps for 7 straight hours some nights, we love those nights and hope she starts sleeping that long every night
• Loves watching TV, we call her our "TV junkie". If the TV is ever on she turns her head so she can see it
  
• Going along with the last bullet she loves watching Baby Einstein videos! Those are her favorite thing to watch on TV and definitely hold her attention the longest
• Loves watching her Dad play basketball on Wednesday nights. She'll sit there and follow all the men as they run up and down the court and loves every second of the action
• Recently started enjoying watching kids, she likes watching her cousin Clay and checking out what he's doing
• Likes to talk to us when we talk to her. The other night I would say something to her and she'd make some noises back to me and we carried on a long conversation

She's getting cuter and more fun everyday! We love our little girl so much :) Here are some pictures of her taken in the last month...

Family Pictures!

While we were in Nebraska for McKinley's blessing, we got my sister-in-law Emily's friend Staci to take some family pictures and some pictures of McKinley in her blessing dress for us! We love how they turned out! What great pictures to have to remember our little McKinley as she continues to grow and get bigger everyday! She'll be 3 months old on Wednesday... I can't believe it's almost been 3 months that we've had her here! Enjoy the pictures!

Something Blue!

I was excited to throw my little sister a bridal shower while I was in Texas! Emily and I have always been close, being the 2 youngest sisters! I had so much fun planning for this shower for her! I decided on making the theme of the shower "Something Blue", going along with the old wedding saying, "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue!"

These are the invites I sent out for the shower:

The shower was complete with "something old":

Wedding pictures of Emily and Basilio's parents, our grandparents, and Emily's sisters

"something new":

All of the presents

"something borrowed":

Pages for all of the guests to write advice for Emily on marriage and her wedding day.
I put all of these pages together in a book for her as a keepsake.

And "something blue":

All of the decorations

And all of the guests clothes :)

At the shower we played some pretty fun games! The first game was called "Spice of Life" where the guests had to identify 6 different spices by looking at, tasting and smelling them. The second game was a game where Emily had to guess the answers to 20 ?'s I had asked Basilio about her before the shower. Every question she guessed his answer wrong, she had to put a piece of Bubblelicious bubble gum in her mouth! By the end of the game she had about 13 pieces of gum in her mouth :) It made for a fun time and a lot of laughs!

All the gum after the game was over :)

For the next game, the guests got into groups and made veils for Emily and she had to pick which one she liked the best! I was impressed with what they came up with!

The shower turned out to be so much fun! I'm so glad I was able to throw this shower for my sister! For her shower I made her a quilt! The first quilt I've ever made, with the help of my mother in law. I'm so happy with how it turned out! And now that the shower is over I can post a picture of it on here:

We all had a great time at the shower! Here are some cute pictures of everyone enjoying it!

My weekend in Texas!

This weekend, McKinley and I were able to take a trip to Texas for my little sister Emily's bachelorette party and bridal shower. We got in Friday morning, and by Friday night my whole family was in town. It was great getting to see my parents, all my sisters, my 2 nieces and my nephew. My parents got to have all their kids and grand kids together for the weekend! We had fun playing cards, visiting Emily's new apartment, and just hanging out all together!

This picture cracks me up because all 3 of us are standing the exactly the same way!

Having fun with Gabby!

Meme and McKinley

Pepe and McKinley

Saturday night was Emily's bachelorette party. We went out to dinner at a yummy Mexican food restaurant, Ruthie's, and then went bowling!

Here is the bachelorette all decked out for the evening!

Here she is opening her presents!

Having fun at dinner!

Sisters and our babies!



McKinley and the bachelorette! McKinley got to go to her first bachelorette party!

All the girls at the bowling alley!

While I was there I got to see 2 of my best friends from college Kari and Michele! It was so much fun to see them again and introduce them to McKinley for the first time! I miss those girls!






We had a great trip and had so much fun! I'm so glad we were able to go to Texas to be a part of it! Travis was happy to have us home Monday night. When he went to get McKinley out of her car seat when we got home she gave Travis a nice big smile! She missed him and was happy to see him when we got home! We're glad to be back home, but had a wonderful trip!


Check out my next post about the bridal shower I threw for Emily!