HBD X 2

My mom's birthday was last Thursday, April 14th and as usual it was no birthDAY....it was here birthWEEK!

Along with lots of fun celebrations with her friends throughout the week, we celebrated her birthday with two special parties!

The first...
Brian, Kristen, McKenna, Ben, & I celebrated Mom's day with her on Thursday night. The kids & I were at her house when she got home from work and then we cooked her a special birthday dinner - taco night!

always so much fun with Aunt Krissy!

snuggling with the birthday girl!

McKenna had no interest in opening up her own birthday gifts, but just one week later she attacked my mom's! Too funny!

We got her a Keurig!

walking for GranMom's birthday!

GranMom's special helper!

The Second...
My dad planned a special surprise birthday party for my mom on Sunday, April 18th. After an agonizing morning of shopping with Kristen...my mom hates to shop...she came home to a full house of friends and family! We had a great time and I'm pretty sure she was surprised!

She's the Birthday Girl...the Birthday Girl!

it looks like a healthy treat...Jody dipped the celery in frosting!

Mackenzie, Aunt Lynn, Brayden, Mom, Vaca, and Jody

Lizzie & Jordan

Mom opening up Mackie's gift

Grandpa Witkowski & Benny

Kenna & Ben's BFF, Brayden

a birthday scotch

Bobbie, Kenna & I

I think Jody was a baby hog! :)

I love my sisters!

Momma & her girls

B4

where's Punky?!

Kristen's boyfriend, Brian hanging with Kenna

Grandma Witkowski & Benny

Superfan Pete!

Brian & Kris

Happy Birthday, Momma! I hope you had fun at your par-tays! We love you so much!

1 Month Old

Dear Benny,

You're one month old! I can't believe my sweet boy was born one month ago...where has the time gone?!

1 month old - April 14, 2011

You sure are one sweet baby. You take in your surroundings with your big blue eyes, always keeping an eye on your sister and on your puppy. They provide you with lots of entertainment!

Your favorite thing to do is to snuggle. You love to be held. You'll fall asleep pretty quickly once someone cuddles with you. You love to lay your head right under our chin and if you're too low you'll crawl up our body until your in your favorite position.


You are wearing both newborn and 0-3 month clothes...it depends on the brand! Some newborn clothes are too snug and some fit you just right! You are wearing size 1 diapers.

You are sleeping for 3-4 hours at a time and you are now only getting up once during the night to eat, usually around 3:30-4:00am. You are awake for longer periods of the day, looking around and watching everyone around you...or looking up at a fan or light fixture.

this is Mommy's rocking chair from when she was little!

just about had it with the pictures!

yep! he's had it!
what a sweet face that is though!

I'd say I'm one lucky Momma! Snuggling with my sweets!

Just know that you are the most perfect little boy in the whole world.

I love you sweet boy.

Love, Mommy

A Year in the Making

I couldn't wait to host McKenna's First Birthday party. I thought long and hard about just how I want to spend this special day. A party at our house with all of our friends and family seemed to be the perfect fit. I also decided on a puppy theme because we all know how much our girl love love loves anything puppy...stuffed, real, in books, in pictures..puppy puppy puppy! Handmade invitations went out and the planning continued. We ordered the food, I made the decorations, and with help from Mackenzie and my cousin, Megan I decorated the cupcakes and the smash cake...all we needed were the guests!

Kenna's party was on her actual birthday, Saturday, April 9th at 3:00pm. We happened to have the most perfect sun-filled day, you couldn't ask for better.

I have a ton of pictures from the big event, but decided to just post some of the highlights.

a banner of Kenna's monthly pictures

puppy cupcakes and smash cake

present table

birthday girl just woke up from her nap

priceless
GP and Benny

a princess needs a princess car!
Thanks Aunt Mackie!

guests watching the present opening

more of the guests

time for cake...this girl LOVED it!

who wouldn't love to just jump right in?

sweet girl

The Godparents!

Generation photo!


Thank you very much to everyone who came and helped us to celebrate our one year old sweet girl! I can't believe we've already celebrated one year. McKenna is so lucky to have each and every one of you in her life. We love you very much!

12 Months Old...1 YEAR!!!

Dear McKenna,

One year ago on April 9th, we were blessed with the most amazing little girl. You came into this world at 8:11pm with your big blue eyes open wide already taking in your surroundings.

April 9, 2010

It was the best day of my life. My sweet sweet girl who I waited so long for was here. Never could I have imagined just how special a little girl you'd be. And now here we are...12 months....1 year later. I am blown away at just how wonderful the past year has been with you in our lives.

April 9, 2011

Watching you experience things for the first time is pretty amazing. The smallest things make you giggle, laugh, and gasp in awe. You've shown me just how wonderful those small things are; you remind me to not take life for granted, to take time to giggle, laugh, and gasp in awe.

McKenna Jo, you make life better.

You are so observant and inquisitive. You are a quick learner, we usually only have to show you how to do something one time and then you are able to do it. You are also able to figure things out on your own just by using your observant nature, and because of this, you can be pretty sneaky! You like to get into things you're not supposed to, shaking your head no the whole time giggling.

You are still wearing 9 month clothes, but you'll soon be in 12 months, 9 month clothes are just beginning to get a little snug. You're wearing size 3 diapers and size 3 shoes. You're definitely still our little peanut!

You haven't started walking full time just yet, but you've taken tons of steps! You'll stand up on your own and take a couple of steps and then you'll sit down and crawl. The most you've taken is 9 steps at one time. You just don't seem to really want to do it yet, at this point, crawling is working out pretty well for you! But, everyday you seem to try to walk more and more, so we're thinking it may happen soon!

We're working on getting rid of bottles. The only bottle you're still drinking is your morning bottle when you get up. We tried to get rid of it this week, but you wouldn't have it. It's hard for you because you see Benny drinking his bottles. Funny because before Benny was born you could have cared less about drinking from your bottle. We have switched you to milk and you love it, just as much as Daddy loves milk! (Mommy says, YUCK!) You also love drinking from your sippy cup, the one with the straw, of course! You're such a big girl.

You love to try anything and everything we're eating. You're way more interested in what we're eating, even if you're eating the same thing and it's in front of you already. You'd rather have ours right off of our fork! Your favorite foods right now are mandarin oranges, mac and cheese, mini pancakes, Daddy's waffles, string cheese, and your special cookies. Lately when we feed you yogurt or anything that requires a spoon to eat it we have to use 2 spoons. You like to feed yourself with one of them and then we use the other to feed you and keep it moving. You'll even dip your spoon into the dish to get more, or you'll hand it back to us to get more. We can't yet just let you do it on your own because you'll pick up the bowl and dump it. You still love to throw bits of food down for Trippy, which usually signals that you're done eating....it drives me crazy...we're working VERY hard on the sign for 'all done'!

You are awesome at going up and down the stairs. Grandma & Grandpa Witkowski taught you how to go down the stairs on your own and you were a quick learner. We all figured that if you're going to love going up the stairs so much, you're going to have to learn how to get down on your own! We, of course, don't let you do it on your own, someone is always right there with you. Although on a couple of occasions, we have found you upstairs or half way down. We have a gate at the bottom of the stairs and somehow you seem to know when it's moved! That's scary for Mommy!

Your favorite place in our house is the basement. Daddy takes you down there every night when he gets home from work. You love to jump on the couch. Another party of your routine when Daddy gets home from work is to play in Benny's crib. Daddy will ask you where the soccer ball is and you find it on the blanket right away! You can also find it on bumper and on the sheets. You are just so smart!

You got so many nice toys for your first birthday that we had to move them down to the basement. We ran out of room in the living room! We spend a lot of time down there during the day playing. You love your new play door, your sportstastic slide, and crawling through your tunnel. Trippy loves the basement too, so we spend a lot of time watching her run around like a crazy girl. (Thanks Uncle Brad!)

You still love your puppy the most of all of your toys. Puppy goes everywhere with you. Puppy goes to bed with you every night and then when we go to get you out of your crib, Puppy is the first thing you hand to us. Ahhhh puppy!

You became a big sister this month! You have loved being the big sister. You give your brother squishey's and Ahhh! every chance you get. When he is crying you go over to him and you try to hand him his binkie or just give him some ahhh! You also try to help me feed him his bottle. When I'm changing him you'll pull wipes out of the case for me, but I don't usually need 15 wipes so we always have to put some back! You sure are a good helper!

Your favorite word is AH!...you say it ALL the time. Ah! means lots of things...take me there, get me that, I want that snack, the microwave is done, Trippy is bothering me, I love Trippy, I'm done, I want more, Ben!, I love you!...yeah actually you use Ah! for everything... We've worked on identifying body parts. You can now find your nose and your belly! You can also find them on puppy and on anyone who asks you.

sitting in Mommy's chair from when she was little

I've just had 12 of the most wonderful months of my life. Life couldn't get any better...could it?

Just know you are the most perfect little girl in the whole world.

I love you sweet girl.

Love, Mommy