september

thankfully, this month started with the temple. i love the House of the Lord! kent and i are both teaching this sunday about president uchtdorf's talk "grateful in any circumstance" and practicing gratitude this month has been a blessing as well. oh and for book club this month we all chose our own book and i listened to "daughters in my kingdom". i had read it before, but i swear i must be an audio learner- i get SO MUCH out of listening to the scriptures and talks and manuals available on my phone app. what would we do without the gospel? 

i have this page a day calendar by my sink and i loved this quote so much i took a picture. isn't it so true! i can honestly say i love to work hard and see the fruits of my labor. i am still learning to love work that is immeasurable, when i work hard and little or no progress is visible. but this quote made me redouble my efforts to not let opportunities pass by because they would involve invisible work! one of those that i am working on right now is giving hugs to my family. well, and also just physical contact like a pat on the back, a high five, and kisses too! i had been praying about some things and several days in a row i came across articles or talked about hugs with someone and realized i had my answer right there. did you know that embracing for 20+ seconds has been proven to release oxytocin in your brain which reduces stress and increases your sense of security and happiness? well it has. i also read several studies about the huge benefits of children receiving hugs or the like 8-12 times a day. so 12 hugs x4 children in the roughly 12 hours they are awake means every 15 minutes i should be giving someone a hug. WOW, right? but i figure if i aim for that, even if i don't reach it then there will be a lot more love shown than if i hadn't tried =o] bring it on.  

here we are at service club. LOVE IT! i am going to do this every month for the rest of my life with whoever will do it with me. why not! 'what comes next for willing hands to do?'

we got to go to magic mountain with kent's work! i am so grateful we got to go because i LOVED seeing the look on kent's face as he introduced us to his coworkers and employees. i can't really explain it except that i felt like he was proud of us. and i am also so proud of him! sometimes i forget he has this whole other life almost with so many people depending on him and reporting to him. it was pretty funny actually to hear people call him "mr. mackay". people bring him back presents and stuff when they go on vacations so i knew he was a good boss, but it was fun to see it too =o] and lastly i am so grateful for DISNEYLAND. enough said ;o]

anyway, here is a photo dump from the day:

we didn't have cash to get my favorite treat that i remember eating as a kid whenever we came here with bob or my uncle rodney, so we got ice cream instead.

and here is caleb sobbing after finding out he was a hair too short to ride my favorite roller coaster the "goldrusher". it was a sad day =o[

and here is natalie holding up the traveling bear blossom that she got from her cousin and who we will be passing on soon...

we already decorated for halloween. i didn't mean for it to happen. i told the kids that if we deep cleaned the house we could decorate. they just kept working and working, seriously for day! and then the day came when i realized i was actually going to have to live up to my promise so out came the halloween stuff!

and to be perfectly honest, we have already made these TWICE in the past week lol

oh! and the huge thing this month is that we started school! it has been awesome so far! 

seriously the hardest part is keeping caleb and jenna engaged and happy =o]

there has been less time to just hang out, but when we do it is good times =o]

their favorite thing recently has been "mountain climbing" in our back yard lol

natalie's love of all things magic continues! she actually has a few cool tricks up her sleeves if you ask me =o]

she is still loving karate! and we are learning to adjust to the schedule of evening lessons twice a week. 

caleb continues to make us laugh every day with his photo bombing and face pulling =o]

this is the only random picture of jenna i could find but i am posting it because it shows her NEW BLANKET and sheet. when we went shopping for seth's birthday we found jenna's bedroom set accessories and got her a new sheet (because heaven knows she needs another clean set) and she voluntarily traded her disease-ridden-falling-apart-at-the-seems-gray "baintee" for a new one! i am trying (and failing) to only let her carry around the old one and sleep with the new one and leave it in her bed, but turns out she is not the sentimental type and just wants the"softee baintee" all the time. pick your battles i say!

and then there is seth. our little merry mackay!

we all just adore him! he is becoming more and more a kid and less and less a baby each day! 

 so long september! hello holiday season!!

A Very Merry Birthday to Seth!

our little merry mackay is one!! he is such a sweet little guy and i'm so grateful that he is a part of our family! our birthday week celebrations seemed subdued compared (yuck i don't like that word!) to natalie's. possibly because he is just one. but also possibly because natalie is all about HUGE celebrations and so a lot of it was spurred on by her, and since seth can't talk to encourage me, his celebrations were the same size as him =o]
it started with this chair:

soak this story up people because i don't get sentimental often. all of our kids have used this hippo chair until they started to climb out of it. we have loved it and used it every day literally for years and it served us faithfully. i was planning on keeping it for when nieces and nephews come to visit. possibly even grandchildren okay, like that is how much i like this chair. well one of the legs was getting stuck more and more often when we tried to take it off to clean it or tote it somewhere with us and finally one night even jimmying it wasn't working so i asked for kent's help to get it off. he got it off alright... and now one of the legs is completely bent. i know he was just trying to help and there really wasn't another way to get it off (i tried for like 20 minutes) but it still made me sad. it is just a chair. i know. but it held my babies and i wasn't really ready for it to retire. seth had been standing up in it for a couple weeks and so i was planning to switch to a booster for his birthday anyway, but it was still sad to me. so long hippo chair. thanks for the memories:

(these are all at 10 or 11 months old. seth has more hair than all of them combined lol)

i have been wanting a double jogging stroller since my other one died over a year ago, so we finally got one in honor of seth's birthday! (okay so kent's company was doing this special program for their management team to get reimbursed for up to $200 spent on exercise equipment. yes please! so it was perfect timing =o]) we went shopping for it along with a front facing carseat, and each of the kids got to pick a gift for him too. it was adorable. anyway, the kids had a grand time "helping" me put it together =o]

my littles =o] 

seeing them brought back so many memories of me training for a marathon when natalie and caleb were roughly those ages. ah the crazy good times! 

caleb begged to take them on a spin around the cul-de-sac 

and then of course he and natalie had to give it a whirl =o] they are HUGE lol

that week we also updated seth's scrapbook, picture book, and journal. we decorated. we decided the theme for his party should be dinosaurs because he gets so excited when we get out the dinosaurs to play with, it is so cute! 

finally friday came and with it- kent's last summer friday! i have to admit that i am EXTREMELY impressed with kent: he took every single one of his summer fridays off this year! seriously, this is a huge deal! kent is a workaholic (like both our fathers before him) and so for him to move his schedule around and keep his commitment to spend those days with us meant more to me than i can explain. it was seriously just the best summer! how are we going to top that?!?! 

so in honor of seth's birthday we went to disneyland!

here is the birthday boy in his car seat. he LOVED it! he was literally dancing around and laughing as we drove down the street =o]

we made a quick stop at a meet and greet picnic for natalie's school so that she could meet her teacher in person, and then hit the road again. 

when we got there we were directed to a parking structure we had never been to before, and then had to take a bus to the park. apparently 'dapper days at disney' is super popular and the fall decorations were up so the park was way full...but it wasn't bad at all, i think just every adult who came drove their own car but whatever. i only mention this because it effects the end of the day as you will see. 

the kids were beyond excited to be back! it's amazing how a couple months can clean the slate!

we always take turns choosing what to do when we are at disneyland. natalie chose pirates of the Caribbean  

while caleb and kent went on the haunted mansion. 

kent chose star tours with natalie and caleb, while i walked around with the littles hoping they would get a bit of a nap. my hopes were dashed but at least they got a nice rest in the stroller as i walked around in the shade and air conditioned shops. 

we opted for an early dinner since we had basically just snacked through lunchtime on picnic items. the kids wanted to go to pizza planet as usual but i did NOT want pasta or pizza which we have at home all the time! so i protested and went and got a sourdough bread bowl with broccoli soup at the first opportunity a little later. heavenly!

natalie ate all her pizza, most of jenna's and some of kent's, as well as pasta from seth. here she is waiting for more leftovers lol

then i chose it's a small world because i have to admit that i love it! =o]

and you know what... SO DID SETH! he was dancing around and singing along the whole time!! he would look at me and smile big as day and wave his arms and kick his feet excitedly! i watched his reactions more than the dolls =o]

then we went up to toon town thinking maybe we could meet mickey but the line was way too long and it was super hot up there so we had seth choose something else instead...

the tiki room!! it was a total hit! the kids love going around to each of the tiki gods before the show inside starts and listening to the Polynesian legends they tell. good times. 

okay so you can't really see what this picture is, but the kids are ROCKING OUT in the back row! lots of people scurry up and sit in all the front rows or right by the door, but the back corner is where it's at! we LOVE the tiki room!! =o]

then jenna made her choice: woody. she had been saying it ALL DAY and for days before we went so i knew it was inevitable, but seriously, that toy story ride is so far away!! but we made the trek because we can only go on that ride with kent. a couple of times while we were walking there seth (i carried him so caleb could ride in the stroller) took his hand, placed it on my cheek and pulled my face around to look at him. once he smiled and gave me a kiss, the other time he just looked up at me like "where are we going mom? why are you doing this to me?". i guess he just needed some acknowledgement. i need to remember that about him. when i told kent about it he said, 'yeah i know how he feels. i want to do that sometimes too.' it has really made me think these past few days since then, how many things am i doing that i think are for the benefit of my family, but all they really need is for me to look them in the face and acknowledge them?  

here is seth hanging on for dear life and chewing on some of my left over sourdough. i'm not sure if he actually likes it or if he was just desperate enough at that point =o] 

so blurry, but he was so cute with the 3D glasses!! 

so were they =o]

we were hoping to get a rex shirt for seth to go with the dinosaur birthday theme but couldn't find one. ah well! then after getting a special treat, we were done. we walked all the way over the bus loading zone and rode a bus back over to a parking garage which took forever! and then when we got off, we realized it was the wrong one. natalie started freaking out because she was already upset that we didn't park where we normally do. the bus driver hadn't left and said we could go back to the park and try to find the right bus, or just walk to the other structure. this girl was also at the wrong place and honestly, i think we got on that bus just so we could help her. if we hadn't been there she would have been lost and alone at night in a not safe place! she walked back with us and it turns out it was her first day on the job as a disney princess! i'm pretty sure by her looks that she was snow white because they totally typecast, but she couldn't say anything except that she was a face character. talking to her as we walked helped me to forget that my arm was literally about to fall off from holding seth (who was in silent survival mode by that point), and it calmed natalie down too. she found her car near ours thanked us for the help. once we all got in our car i told them my theory about heavenly father needing us to help that girl, peace just swept over all of us and we had a great ride home despite the long day and detour. here are all the kids on the bus holding on to the pole. you can the the flower print of the princess' dress in the background =o]

the next morning everybody slept in a bit and then we had our pancake breakfast. here is seth trying whole milk- he LOVED it!!

he opened a couple present before his morning nap. the poor kid barely had the chance to ever try to rip things open himself much less play with his new things unhampered. the life of the littlest is rough!

here he is kissing the little bear at the end of the book =o] he LOVES these peekaboo kind of books with textured parts. 

after that i put seth down for a nap and got in the shower. i came down ready to finish wrapping his presents with each of the kids and make his cake but found everyone working in the garage. i love the man, but sometimes kent is on a different schedule then i could ever imagine lol he had decided it was high time to clean out and reorganize the garage. alrighty then! =o]

i made seth's cake, brought each of the kids in to wrap their present for seth, cleaned up the kitchen, made and then ate lunch and then finally seth woke up a little past noon. so i fed him and then took him with me to micheal's to get the frame for his blessing pictures which i am finally getting around to putting up, and also to find a picture album for his temple book. i love my job of record keeping for our family! 

anyway, here is his cake. the kids wanted to decorate the cupcakes again- i am sensing a theme happening here...

we kind of missed the window for seth's afternoon nap since he had woken up almost at the time when i put him down to bed, so it really threw off the day. and to make matters worse, he has three teeth coming in poor little guy :( he slept for about an hour while i ran to the store for ice cream and some other groceries and then woke up again not a happy camper just in time for us to run to costco. 

natalie and jenna did a great job comforting him in the car- jenna even shared her blanket!!

here we are picking up our costco pizza for dinner- mother of the year, right? at least we also had broccoli, which is seth's favorite vegetable =o] that and cooked carrots. he loves all vegetables really. in fact, it is safe to say that literally half his diet is vegetables.  

after dinner the kids each gave him their presents and it was so sweet to see how much they wanted him to love the gift they chose. they get that from their dad for sure- kent is great at giving gifts and i am grateful they can learn that love language from him. 

caleb got him bongo drums

jenna got him this music player. here you can see the problem we had during this session... i don't know how many times kent and i had to tell the kids to back up and let him play with his own toy! lol

and natalie got him this clock puzzle 

then came the cake. i'm not sure how he felt at first but once we lit the candle and started singing he got into the spirit. 

in a classic scene he grabbed the side of the cake as we were trying to cut him a piece =o] he really hasn't had sweets, maybe a handful of bites is all, so this was a big deal for all of us to get to watch!

forget the finger licking, i'm going for the fistful!!

and then trying some ice cream =o] 

then it was time for baths and bed! the party would continue the next day, because that is just how we roll =o]

the next morning before church he got to open a couple more presents 

and then after church a few more. it was literally boiling hot outside and our electricity went out! thankfully i had made a crock pot dinner so it was done and we could eat! 

poor sweaty kid! 

here are the cupcakes we all decorated =o] they were supposed to be dinosaurs in various habitats...

fun and yummy at the same time =o] (sometimes i just go with the flow and my life works out so much better lol do these look cute? no. did anyone care? no. ha ha)

we talked to some relatives on the phone who called for seth's birthday. kent gave seth his first birthday blessing. and then right as we were putting the kids to bed our prayers were answered and the electricity came back on. it was 91* upstairs! it would have been miserable to try and sleep like that!!

on monday seth went in for his 1 year appointment with dr jabaji- sadly i didn't get a picture :/ he is healthy and developmentally on track despite being skinny =o] he is 31 inches tall and weighs 18lbs 10 oz. here are some interesting age one stats: natalie 31 in. 19lbs 12oz, caleb 32 in. 23lbs 10oz, jenna 29 1/2 in. 17lbs 10oz. it is just crazy to me because they all started out essentially the same height and weight (21 in. and just under 8 lbs) except that seth was a pound more because he wasn't early like the rest of them, and then just one year later they are all so different! (i was almost crying to kent that i hope i didn't stunt jenna's growth, or even seth's, in some way ;/) anyway i think it would be cool to make a graph and track their growth patterns. =o] 

at least they are all happy and healthy and strong regardless of height or weight!! i consider us greatly blessed for sure. 

and we are especially blessed to have this little guy around.

so there you have it. i hope he feels celebrated!

Happy First Birthday Seth! We love you!!