Happy Birthday McKay!

We started celebrating McKay's birthday by going to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park the day before (Saturday). It is very different from the zoo but we really enjoyed it. Here Maxwell is pointing to animals just like Daddy.

We went on the African Safari Tram which takes you on a 25 minute tour of the park and allows you to see animals you can't otherwise see due to the way the park is set up. The exhibits are set up the way the natural habitats of the animals are. We wanted to see the cheetah run (click on the link and you'll have a better view than we did!) at 5 pm so we waited until a little later in the day to go to the park. Maxwell slept about 20 minutes the entire day so he was on the move the.entire.time!

McKay was so excited to go on the ride and see more 'amimals'!

Our tour guide was very entertaining. Flamingos!

It was very interesting to see the different terrain based on what habitat the animals needed. We learned that Grevy's Zebras have to be alone because they are mean to other animals. They bite & kick!

Looks like Africa doesn't it?!

Lions napping in the sun.

We went to a show where some acrobats from Africa performed for us. This guy doing the limbo has knives pointing down and nails pointing up from the ground. They were incredible!

This guy is doing a hand stand on 4 chairs placed on 4 glasses, arranged on the coffee table. He did all sorts of tricks getting to this point, one chair at a a time.

When Jordan went to park the stroller before the show, he looked at the elephants that were nearby and then started coming to join us. Small problem: he forgot to get Maxwell out of the stroller! He was a bit confused at my waving arms until he remembered. Max was patiently waiting in the stroller, looking back to see where everybody was!

Wow, they were impressive!

They offered to let people take pictures with them. I had to bribe McKay to sit with me for the picture and Max strongly objected when one of them tried to hold him for the picture. As you can see, he isn't too sure about that stuff hanging in front of the acrobats face!

Max thought it was so fun going down the steps with Jordan. He hasn't quite figured out how to do it yet so he just steps off the step rather than stepping down.

The elephants were my favorite. You can see them on a web cam here. There are several baby elephants at the safari park.

The boys had fun looking at the elephants too. McKay loves that he is big enough to climb up on the fence by himself!

McKay's birthday was on a Sunday this year. Here he is having his favorite cold cereal, Lucky Charms, for breakfast. It was a real treat because we haven't had Lucky Charms for quite a while. What a lucky boy!

McKay got to open his presents before church at 11 am. Maxwell couldn't understand why he didn't get to open any this time but kept himself busy by pulling the wrapping paper McKay had put in the trash bag OUT and attempting to reach gifts McKay hadn't opened yet.
McKay loved opening his presents and was excited to see what was in each one.

McKay was happy to be sung to in Primary and was very excited to get a special red scripture marking pencil.

After church, McKay talked with Nanna, Papa & Chantelle on the web cam and one-by-one showed them each gift he had received. Jordan had taken his gifts to McKay's bedroom so he had to make several trips back to the computer.

We invited some friends from our ward over to have cake and ice cream for McKay's birthday. McKay and Melody Jacobson have become good little friends so it was like a birthday party for him playing with Melody. They enjoyed the toys and all the balloons we had blown up. Maxwell is about 6 months younger than Violet but they still play around each other. The great part about it is that they have awesome parents too so it was a lot of fun.

McKay wanted a Toy Story cake so I did Andy's bedroom. Jordan frosted the 'wood floor'. I warned him he better not do too good of a job or he'd be the official birthday-cake-maker. :) It turned out great and McKay loved it!

Jordan carefully put the candles in the bed, we sang happy birthday and McKay blew them out. That is when I noticed he'd only put two candles in the cake! OOpS! So McKay got to blow candles out again with four the second time!

Happy Happy birthday to my big 4 year old boy!

We finished the night off with a movie night. We watched Wall-E, a movie McKay got for his birthday. It was a fun day.

The following Tuesday at McKay's swimming lesson I heard him telling them that he will be 5 on his next birthday! Let the countdown begin!

McKay - 4 Years Old

I can't believe McKay is 4 years old! We've been looking forward to and counting down to his birthday all year! A few things about my four-year-old McKay are:

• He loves to sing, dance, and listen to music. He can often be heard singing primary songs such as 'Follow the Prophet' while he is going to the bathroom.
• He is and always has been quite independent. Once he has done something on his own he (typically) doesn't ever want help again.
  
• McKay loves to exercise and do things that are 'good for [his] body'. He is a fast runner with excellent endurance. He also loves to jump, do summer saults, and ride his bike.
• He is learning to read by recognizing words when we read books and wants to read the words he knows when we read scriptures. He often figures out what things say such as 'I Am A Child of God' in the hymnal at church.
• McKay has an excellent memory and constantly amazes us by what he remembers. He remembers things we did or said when we lived in our 'old house' and has learned Articles of faith #3 & 5 and almost has 4 learned (if his mother would ever remember to practice it with him!)
• McKay loves to talk on the phone and webcam and knows how to call people he knows on each.
• He is very proficient with the mouse and has picked up on how to exit out of things, shut the computer down, etc and is very good at navigating starfall.com
• He enjoys going to the library, attending story time, reading books to himself, reading books to Maxwell, and having books read to him.
• McKay loves attending primary and listens to what he is taught. When we ask what they talked about he can tell us!
  
• I have had several people tell me how impressed they are with his manners and good behavior, particularly his 'no thank you'.
• McKay is signed up for soccer this fall and is currently taking swimming lessons, which he loves. After completing a challenge I had given him (put his head under the water at the end of 'ring around the rosies') he gave me a big thumbs-up which totally made my day.
• McKay loves 'm-e-m's' and watching 'shows'. He has a lot of favorites but Toy Story, Cars, Word World, and Mary Poppins are definitely at the top of his list!
• He loves to 'do something fun'. Some favorites are crafts, particularly painting, making things to send to 'Dustin in Peru', working in his workbook, watching shows, dancing, playing with Max, etc.
• He loves saying his prayers by himself and Maxwell has picked up on folding his arms at the appropriate time like McKay does. McKay chooses to interlace his fingers.
• McKay gets 'so excited' and loves to anticipate and look forward to things such as his birthday, Christmas, and going to Nanna & Papas house, to name a few. He likes to 'check what day it is' on his calendar and count how many more days until whatever we are counting down to at the time. Since he had his birthday he is counting down the days until we go to to Nanna & Papas house.
• McKay can usually recognize where we are or what we are close to by what he recognizes around us ie, the library, Henry's (grocery store), swimming pool, almost home etc. He is also frequently asking what street we are on.
• He usually explains to me what a red or green arrow means as follows: "If you want to turn this way you have to stop right now!"
• McKay likes to sing songs to get them stuck in my head. A favorite is 'Lets go fly a kite!" *sigh* Unfortunately for me, he is very effective!
  
• McKay talks a lot. He gets it from Jordan (according to his mother). Maybe that is why it drives Jordan crazy. :)
  
• After a string of nonsense words, McKay will say "that means (insert whatever) in spanish".
  
• McKay likes to do or say 'tricky' things.
  

It is hard for a 4 year old boy to smile while his mother tries to get the perfect picture.

So we took a few silly pictures too. This is McKay!

The promise of "m-e-m's" for a good smile definitely helped!

It is truly a delight to have McKay in our family. I feel very privileged to be his mother and am so lucky to be able to stay home with him all day.

Trendsetters

My dancing boys
McKay and Maxwell are setting a new trend. A fashion trend that is. In McKay's defense, he only has a couple of shirts that match those shorts and both were dirty. He is actually really good at matching his clothes. Maxwell LOVES to wear shoes. Actually, he just loves shoes. He is constantly getting our shoes out of our closet and bringing them to us. Jordan is happy to have someone else to blame for his shoes being all over the house. Max always brings us pairs of shoes too, which is actually quite nice. Sometimes he'll even ask to have shoes on when he already has some on. It is becoming a rarity for Maxwell's shoes to be where they 'go'.

Here you can see their 'outfits' a little better. McKay loves to dance and often tells me it is 'good exercise'. Max can't sit still when he hears music.

Maxwell loves having McKay push him on the lion and has gotten good at holding on tight and keeping music playing by pushing the lions nose. McKay likes to go fast and Max loves it.

Maxwell even takes a turn pushing sometimes.

Notice all the balloons under the table. No wonder Max can say 'ba-lloon'; the boys get at least one balloon each week when we go to the store where they give them to the kids. Max loves balloons and sees them everywhere whether or not they really are balloons, including the jellybeans in his ABC book.

In other news, Max is showing signs of his age. Walking at 11 months pushed him out of babyhood and into toddlerhood but he is starting to get REALLY busy these days! He is constantly opening these three drawers and taking their contents all over the house. I guess I should just be happy that he doesn't totally empty them every time (yet).

He is also climbing on EVERYTHING! Most of the time he can get down by himself. Other times he calls for help. Maxwell loves when it is time to brush teeth and runs to the bathroom after prayers saying 'teeth'. It is so fun to watch his excitement. This picture was taken just before his bath. I am constantly amazed (and alarmed!) at what he can reach!

McKay started swimming lessons this week and is absolutely loving it. The first day he said over and over 'that was so.much.fun!' and 'I really really really liked that!" I was relieved! He asked if he could go again sometime and was happy when I told him we would be back the next day. I took this picture of Maxwell after we got home. The picture does not do his cheeks justice. They were very red. It was so hot and there is NO SHADE. I was glad I had my sportsbrella in the van and made friends with a couple of other moms there and one of them had an extra chair since I didn't have one. I am glad I only have to keep my busy Maxwell entertained for 30 minutes!

One week until McKay's birthday and he is so excited!!

Independence Day Weekend!

I didn't take very many pictures this weekend but we sure had a lot of fun. In fact, McKay put 4 pictures on his calendar for the 4th. In his mind more pictures = more fun. So he has 2 pictures of fireworks, a party hat and a present all on one day. I made this calendar for McKay after he kept asking me what day of the week it was and what the date was and if it was still spring or not and how long until July, etc. It is just a simple calendar I created in excel and then laminated. I use a wet-erase marker to write in the days of the month and what we have planned for that day. Then I have the months, seasons, and various little pictures laminated with magnets on the back. He loves his calendar.

Saturday morning we went to Santee Lakes and Jordan and I ran with the double jogging stroller for a couple of miles and then Jordan took off to get a real run while the boys and I went around one lake another time so McKay could run too. It is the first time I've been jogging in a really long time. McKay is a fast runner and I really had to run to catch up with him when he first took off and then had to walk/run to keep up with him. We enjoyed 'getting exercise' together. Then the boys played on the playground until Jordan finished running. The boys had a lot of fun playing on the playground and McKay (as usual) made a few friends to play with. We all went and bought some food for the weekend and then headed home for the afternoon. After Maxwell woke up from his nap, we went swimming in our bishops pool. It has been super hot and humid here so the cool water was very refreshing and we had a lot of fun.

Sunday we had a delicious salmon dinner and then while Max napped, Jordan and I both fell asleep (not intentionally but also not unwelcome!) while McKay watched the home videos I burned on Saturday.

Early Monday morning Jordan took his camp chef and went to the church to help cook breakfast for the ward. After the boys woke up we also went to eat breakfast. It was a great breakfast (with delicious turkey bacon!) and we were fortunate to have cloud cover for the majority of the time we were there. Both boys ate really well and then McKay had fun running around with other children of all ages in our ward. Just before leaving he rode his bike around a bit and proudly showed Sister Gess (the primary chorister who is his 'friend') how well he can ride. While Maxwell napped McKay went with Jordan to get a movie for our movie night during the day. :)

The boys ready to watch Gnomeo & Juliet. It was a cute show, thus the smile on Jordan's face. Usually Max isn't awake for our family movie nights but since we had this one during the day, he was awake to climb all over us and dance to the music. :)

Jordan barbecued ribs for our lunch and found out he is good at that too. :) Around 5 we went to some friend's house for a party (when we had lunch we didn't know they were having ribs... Jordan's were better of course). We enjoyed visiting and the boys enjoyed playing until dark when we walked to a nearby ball field and watched the Santee fireworks. They were NOTHING compared to the Santa Clara fireworks show but we suspect we may not see another show like that again. Max watched for the first 5 minutes!

McKay and Maxwell love to dance to 'fast music' no matter the genre or the source so I try to mix it up a bit.

We successfully wore ourselves out this weekend!