Thanksgiving

McK found these goggles and thought she would use them as sunglasses when we went to the park.

The kids at the park killing time before the Turkey Bowl

We had a really fun Thanksgiving and hope that everyone else did also. McKenzie and I started our vacation on the Tuesday before, we rode down to St. George with Leslie and her kids and met my parents down there. Everyone else came down on Wednesday. The weekend was filled with a lot of food, movies (Bolt and Twilight for me and the James Bond movie for Bodie), shopping, and golfing. It was so fun to be down there with the whole family, except we were really sad that my niece Kaysie couldn't come down because of work and Amanda and family couldn't come because they live in Hawaii, but they will be here for Christmas!!!

We got some awesome deals shopping at the outlet malls Thursday night at 11:00 then I turned around for more fun and met my sisters at Target Friday morning at 6:00. Let me just tell you, my 17 year old nephew Taylor, who really didn't want to come to St. George anyway is the best person to have with you when shopping on black friday. He can find anything you want. I left Target with everyone on my list and a little more thanks to him and Meredith who is not afriad to throw elbows and butt in front of people in line!

We also had our annual Dangerfield Turkey Bowl, which I am very proud to announce that Bodie was the winner. Every Thanksgiving in St. George, my dad takes us bowling and whoever wins gets to keep the trophy until the next year. Bodie having his own bowling ball and shoes has finally paid off!!!

On the way home, we stopped in Monroe and surprised McKenzie with a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Topham. For about the last month or two every time I tell her that we are going to Grandma's house, she gets really excited and asks if we are going to Grandma Topham's. The only bad part about the visit is that it had to be so short. But, Christmas is coming up and we are planning to make it down there sometime over the Holiday.

Anyway, we had a great Thanksgiving weekend and are very thankful for all of our friends and family. We are really lucky to have the best families ever!

Observation Day at Dance

I know I am a little slow getting this up, but a week before Thanksgiving was McKenzie's observation day at dance. I got some pictures, but most came up kind of blurry because my camera was on a different setting and I didn't know how to change it. The dance class is really cute and she gets to take it with her cousin Lucy, which she loves.

Fun Stuff

So, as I mentioned earlier, my birthday was the day before Halloween. Bodie and McKenzie (and my sister and friends which we'll get to later) worked so hard to make it special. They made me a cake and spelled mom with 30, yes 30, candles. They gave me new crocs with fleece lining on the inside which are so cozy, and they bought wii fit for me. I have been telling Bodie to just get me the crocs, and like every year, he does way more than I want him to and got the wii fit, which I love! I highly recommend it to all of you wii players. My favorite is the Yoga, which I am terrible at.

Now, to my sisters and friends.....exactly 15 days before my birthday I was at work complaining to my friend Kristin that I feel to young to have so much responsibility what with being the Primary President and our program coming up, selling the house, buying a business, moving to another state (even though it is just next door to Utah), etc. Oh yes, and lets not forget about my car getting stolen. Anyway, later that night, there was a knock at my door. When Bodie and Mck answered it, there was a note and some candybars reminding me that there were 15 days until I turned 30. That started the 15 days of gifts. I automatically assumed it was my friend Kristin and the girls at work, who are so sweet they would totally do something like that. Then, I started getting gifts in all sorts of places while I was out and about that I couldn't figure out who it was from. During this time, I was told there was a UFC fight night at my sister's house on the Sat. after my birthday. I decided the girls should get together for dinner before the fight and have one last GNO before Aly moved to Idaho. So I got our night all planned. Back to my birthday, I found out it was my sister Leslie and friend Melissa giving me the treats. Okay, back to the GNO. We got to my sisters house and walked in to find that she and Aly had planned a surprise party for me. My whole family was there along with my friends. It was so much fun, and thanks to my wonderful family and friends for all the love!

McKenzie is growing up so fast. She loves preschool and dance class and now as she puts it "is not shy to people anymore" which means that she tells everyone everything and sometimes gets it a little mixed up which is fun for us. The other day she told her nursery teachers that she was late for church because she was at the movie theater. Really she was late for church because she was up tossing and turning all night and didn't really fall asleep until 4 in the morning. She makes me laugh and I am so happy to have such a great kid.

Halloween Fun

I know Halloween was a couple weeks ago, but I am just now finally getting up pics of Mckenzie's Halloween. She partied all week that week. She got to wear her halloween costume to dance on the Wednesday before halloween and have a party with her dance class, where she gave treats to all the girls in dance class and they gave her treats....her halloween bag was about half full at this point. Thursday was the halloween party at school, where they did a little program (I am going to try to get the video up) and went trick-or-treating to all the parents watching. She came home with a full trick-or-treat bag and it wasn't even halloween yet! On top of that, it was my birthday and she had made me a birthday cake, so we got to eat birthday cake also. On Halloween they do trick-or-treating down main street in Tooele, so we went down to that and stopped at Bodie's work and Cole and Lindsay's house where she got lots of fun stuff. So, we had a pretty good Halloween and have our candy supply for the next year!

A Busy Week

McK on the Elephant at the Zoo, don't let the smile fool you, she was pretty nervous!

It has been a pretty crazy week around here! We started with Bodie's birthday on the 12th. We had my family over for sunday dinner to celebrate. McKenzie had picked out a cake with balloons...which she was so excited to eat. In all the excitement, I forgot to buy birthday candles, so Bodie had sparklers on his cake....because that is what Hugh Hefner gets on his birthday cake. The same day, McKenzie insisted that we have birthday cake with Cole (Bodie's friend from work) and his girlfriend Lindsay. Cole and McKenzie have the same birthday, so she expects Cole to always eat birthday cake with her! The next day, Bodie had the day off work, so we ventured out to the zoo. It was a pretty cool day...which kept all the people away. There were maybe 20 cars in the parking lot - just perfect for Bodie. After the zoo, we drove up Emigration Canyon and just happened to end up at the outlet malls in Park City where we finally found McKenzie some princess light up tennis shoes that she has been wanting for the last month or so. It was a really fun day.

Mck and Dad on the Bronze Tigers

The next day, Bodie left to go to work only to find that our Geo had been stolen. That's right...it was no longer in the carport. When we called the cops, they said it was the 4th car in 24 hours to get stolen. Luckily, my parents have extra cars parked at their house and so generously let us use one. It sucked, but I had gotten used to the idea of my car being gone and to make myself feel better, I was planning to buy something else. Imagine my surprise when I pulled up in my driveway yesterday after work and my car was back in the carport. It was missing the stereo, air vents, and most important...the cup holders. I mean come on, who steals cup holders? Actually they just took out the whole middle section of the dash where the stereo was. The funny thing is that they found the car in the parking lot of our old apartment complex. Anyway, they also got away with McKenzie's bike, carseat, our DVD player with her favorite movie in it, tool kits that were in the trunk and the old 6 disc CD changer that they will be dissappointed to find out that it doesn't work since it got soaked with the sprinklers one night. When Bodie talked to the police officer that found the car, he said they thought they knew who it was, but didn't have him in custody yet. I hope they catch him and he goes to jail for a long time!


Saturday was my sister's birthday so a bunch of us got together and took her out to a place downtown called Keys on Main. It is a dueling piano bar. It was awesome...those guys can play any song. They were really good. I highly recommend that place. McKenzie felt pretty cool becuase she got to be babysat by Cole and Lindsay...who she conned into buying her another Charlie Brown Pumpkin movie which is the one that got stolen.


So, as you can tell, we had a busy and interesting week! We hope things will calm down a bit for a while now.

Her new favorite pass-time is "making mud". Thanks to Lily and Lucy for teaching her that trick!

GNO

McKenzie and I had a little girls night out last night. It was so much fun. She worked very hard the last couple weeks to earn all of her stickers so I told her she could have whatever she wanted. I was a little nervous to offer anything she wanted, but I did and she decided that she wanted a puffy vest that she saw at Children's Place a while ago. So, we went to South Towne Mall and got dinner, rode the carousel, and shopped. We got the puffy vest and even found a shirt to go with it. She was very excited when we found some frog pajamas and couldn't wait to wear them home! I am a little nervous for her to grow up and be a teenager because last night she was already showing a great interest in the shopping and buying stuff. When I told her we were leaving the mall, she said that we couldn't leave yet because we only had 2 bags, and she wanted lots of bags. We went in a couple more stores and got mad when I didn't buy the "really cute shirt" I was looking at. We passed Claires on the way out of the mall, so we had to make a stop in there and look at all of the "beautiful things" in there. Then, she talked me into a cookie from Mrs. Field's when we were really leaving the mall. It was so much fun to hang out with her. I love having a daughter!

First Day of Pre-school

Here is McKenzie as we are getting in the car for her first day of preschool. She goes to the busy bee pre-school which is taught and run by a good friend of mine. McKenzie doesn't usually have much separation anxiety, so I wasn't too worried, but of course being her mom, I was a little concerned about how she would do. Well, she loves it. She has been there for 3 weeks. She has great teachers and they do lots of fun activities. Because her birthday is in June and they won't be in school then, they celebrated her birthday last week. When they do that, the parents send a poster with pictures of the kid and a treat for all the kids and they do a spotlight on the birthday person. It just happened to work out that we were in Monroe visiting Bodie's family the day before her birthday celebration at school. Bodie's sister Tori is amazing when it comes to scrapbooking and especially making cards, so I had her help me cut out some stuff for the poster on her Mom's cricuit machine. The poster turned out so cute. Reine (McK's teacher) said that the only problem with it is that it was too cute...especially since her son's birthday was this week and she had to do the next poster. Oh well, we had fun!!!

McKenzie's Tutu

So we were at dance the other day and this little girl had the cutest tutu on. We went to the mom to find out where she got it and it turns out that she made it. I thought it was so cute and McKenzie would love it, so we went to the store today to get stuff to make one. It turned out really cute, but of course McKenzie doesn't like to wear it. I did get her to wear it long enough to take this picture though!!!

Dancing Queen

McKenzie has been a dancing fool this last week. About 6 of our Young Women in our ward are on the Tooele High drill team. They had a dance clinic last week, so they called to see if McKenzie would like to go to the dance clinic. They practiced Tues, Wed, and Thurs night from 6-8 and then on friday night they performed at the football game. I was a little nervous that she wouldn't want to do it, which would have been fine. But I also kind of thought that she would get out on the football field and start crying (sound familiar Amanda?) Well, she did it and it was so cute. The video is of their dance and then they lay on the grass for a few minutes while the older girls do their dances. The second clip is at the very end, they all jump up and step and clap. I was so proud of her...she has obviously inherited my dancing skills (not her dad's as he's got rythm) McKenzie also started a tap/ballet class with her cousin Lucy this last week. She loved getting all dressed up in her leotard and tights and tap shoes! Really, she had so much fun dancing and she gets a huge smile on her face when anyone tells her that she did a good job. It has been a lot of fun.

Party Attire

So, I told McKenzie the other day that we had to get ready to go to a party at Grandma Diane's house and this is what she ended up with! She is a very social girl...as long as she knows the kids she is playing with....when we are getting together with people she doesn't know she is pretty shy. A lot of times she will warm up a bit though. She had a pretty good time trying to get my friend Kelly's daughter to laugh when we went to lunch when they came in town for a visit. She is such a fun kid. I couldn't ask for a better daughter...even though she tells me to leave her alone every time I try to correct her behavior! She still says that I am her favorite Mom and she is my favorite girl. I am going to enjoy that while I can!

4th of July

McKenzie at the parade

Bodie after the run

McKenzie's tumbling at the park

Bodie started out his 4th of July holiday with a 5K run with his friend Cole. He really hasn't run much since high school, so I am very proud that he even finished! Also, he proudly wore his Topham T-shirt. McKenzie and I watched the parade at Cole' s house, which is conveniently located on the parade route. We had a lot of fun. McKenzie got help picking up candy from Cole and Lindsay's family. by the time we left, her purse was full to the top. I think she was wondering how things could get any better!

After the parade, we went home and got re-grouped before heading off to the park where McKenzie was doing a tumbling performance. We got there a little early so she could play before the performance and we were glad we did. There was a bounce house and huge blow up slide for her to play on until it was time to do her tumbling. She of course was the best tumbler there, it is always fun for me to watch her. When the tumbling was over, we were in line to get a balloon flower when we saw some friends that have a daughter McKenzie's age, so we stayed a bit longer so McKenzie could play in the bounce house with her friend.

After the park we went home and had a BBQ, just the three of us. Then, we loaded Conan into the car and went to the top of the mountain to the Kennecott overlook. We watched all the fireworks shows in the Salt Lake Valley. McKenzie fell asleep on the way up there and when she woke up the next morning, she asked when we were going take Conan up in the mountains and watch the fireworks. Luckily she hasn't said anything since then!

McKenzie's 3rd Birthday

I know I am a little late posting this, but McKenzie is now three years old. She was so excited for her birthday because she wanted to be 5 so bad. She is now dealing with the fact that she has to be three first. It has only taken a few weeks! Bodie made McKenzie a doll house for her birthday. It is big enough for her Barbies to fit in and McKenzie thinks she can fit in it too. She loves to crawl in the rooms on the bottom, but makes it very clear that I am not to try to get in because I am too big and will break her doll house. She had a fun birthday party with family and friends on saturday night, complete with a pinata and an Ariel cake.

McKenzie painting her doll house

On her actual birthday, we went shopping with Leslie and her girls and my mom. It was a perfect day. I was happy to be shopping and McKenzie was happy to be with her cousins! We came home and made her favorite dinner, chicken nuggets and corn on the cob and ended the night with cupcakes and more presents. It was a good time for all of us!

"Camping"

So the other night, we decided to take Conan up in the mountains and let him run around a bit. We also decided to take stuff to roast hotdogs and marshmallows. McKenzie thought this was great. All night she kept saying "Dad, this is really fun camping." She especially loved the part where any food that fell on the ground, or anything we didn't want to eat, we got to throw to Conan. While we were roasting marshmallows, I took the top burnt/ashy layer off hers and not thinking, left the sticky part on the end of her stick. She didn't want it and thought she would throw it to Conan. It was so funny because she would try to throw it and it wouldn't come off her hand. She took it with her other hand to try to throw it, and then it was stuck to that hand. She ended up getting it on her finger and it almost came off when she tried to throw it, but she gave up and finally went and wiped it on Conan's ear. So now, she has two really sticky hands, and Conan has a marshmallow stuck to his ear. She thought she was the nicest kid ever to share and she went and patted Conan's back...with sticky marshmallow hand...and said "there you go buddy". She tried to lick her hand clean, but stopped (thankfully) when she saw all the dog hair stuck to it. It was so funny, all three of us were laughing so hard. I tried to get a picture of the marshmallow on Conan's ear, but it had fallen off by the time I got my camera.

Life is good again!!

The weather is finally nice enough (again) to lay in the hammock in the evening! Now that it is warming up McKenzie likes to spend time outside playing in her sandbox or driving her pink Barbie Jeep. She also likes to throw the ball to Conan and then get mad at him when he looks at her like are you crazy, I'm not getting up just to get that ball! She loves her puppy, but he is a little clumsy and I don't think he knows really how big he is an often knocks her down. She usually gets mad and calls him a naughty puppy and then five minutes later she is chasing him down again so she can pet him!

We are all doing better since the last time I posted. Most of you know by now that I had a miscarraige (I was 10 weeks along) a few weeks ago. We were all a big mess for a few days, but we are okay now. Thanks to everyone for all your love and support (that sounds kind of cheesy!) but really, we have the best friends and family ever. It has really helped to have McKenzie around to focus on, she has gotten pretty spoiled the last few weeks. Bodie and I felt so bad that she was so scared because of how upset I was and how "sick" I was that anything she has wanted has been hers. We are trying very hard to get her over that now! I guess we kind of shot ourselves in the foot when we started doing that, but it made us so happy to see her happy. She is a great kid. Yesterday was memorial day and Bodie got most of the day off, so I asked Mckenzie what she wanted to do and she told me she wanted to go shopping. Then today she asked me if I wanted to play "money buying stuff". She told me that the way you play is that you pretend you are going to the store and buying everything. Yeah, I think we're in trouble!

I went to Lily's preschool graduation last week with camcorder in hand so grandma could see it when she gets home from China. Lily did so good. I am so proud of her. McKenzie watches the video everyday and tries to sing all the songs with them. She is getting excited for her birthday coming up in June, but is a little frustrated that she is only going to be 3 because she really wants to be 5!

Anyway, there is our little update. Not much going on (anymore), but that is a good thing, I think! Again thanks to everyone. We love you all so much!

McKenzie and her friend Blake...all he wanted to do was be spiderman, but she made him be her prince!

A Fun Day

We all had a really bad day on Wednesday, especially McKenzie. We felt really bad, so we decided to take Thursday last week and just focus on her. Bodie took the day off work and we went into Salt Lake to the Gateway. We told McKenzie we would take her to Build-A-Bear so she could make a piggy like Lily's. Well, we got there and there were no piggys. She wasn't upset or disappointed or anything and she picked out a turtle instead. Then when we were looking for clothes for the turtle, she came across an Ariel outfit. Most of you probably know that she loves Ariel anything and had to have it. So...we bought her the turtle with the Ariel costume. I have posted a picture so you all can see how "cute" it is. She loves it though and it made her happy, so it was worth it!








After we made the turtle, we went to Taifoon for dinner...it was so good. Thanks Melissa for turning me onto that restaurant! Then, we spent about an hour or so just playing in and around the fountains. McKenzie's favorite part was throwing money into them. She had such a good day, it made everything better to see her so happy. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful kid!

This is the BEST therapy!!

Playing in the fountain with Dad (I didn't want to get wet!)

Oh yeah, she ended up getting soaked and I wasn't prepared, so she also got a new outfit because it was too cold to get all the way back to the car with wet clothes. It was a good day for her!

Vegas again!!!

Bodie and I in front of the Paris...I think!

Me and Amanda outside the Paris

Amanda and David

So, we went back to vegas last weekend. My sister and her husband and bodie and I all went down with no kids. It was great. We went down to see the Bodies exhibit at the Tropicana. It was so cool. Other than that we mostly just walked to strip to get cheesecake from cheesecake factory and eat at the seafood buffet at the flamingo....sooooo good! We met up with Bodie's sister Jordan and her husband and kids for some shopping at the outlets. We found lots of good deals and it was so fun to see the Cecil's. They have the cutest kids. It's amazing how fast they grow. Mostly it was nice to have a weekend without kids and hang out with Amanda and David since we only get to see them about once a year.

Vegas!!!

So, I just got back from Vegas on sunday, and there are no pictures becuase I found out about a day before I left that my camera was broken, so you'll just have to use your imagination! I went down with my sister and three other friends. We all left husbands and kids behind...it was so relaxing and very much needed! We got down there on friday and did our shopping on the strip...we had to get that out of the way so we could go to the pool all day Saturday. We had spray sunblock and it was kind of breezy, so we all got really wierd sunburns (lots of patches of sunburn). We headed back up to our room at the excalibur around 3 to get ready for the Bon Jovi concert which was at the MGM grand. We also had to give ourselves plenty of time to go to In-n-Out Burger for dinner before the concert. The concert was awesome. I was a Bon Jovi fan before, but now I'm a huge fan! Sunday we spent the day shopping more and then decided it was time to come home. By the way, Jordon, sorry I didn't get a chance to come see you, but Bodie and I will be back down in a couple weeks!

McKenzie had a fun daddy-daughter weekend. She got to spend friday with Lily, Lucy, and Luke. When I told her they were coming over and I would be leaving she said that was okay and she volunteered to babysit Lucy and Luke and Lily could be in charge. I still haven't really asked (nor do I want to) about how that turned out! Then Bodie took her down to spend the night at Grandma Topham's. I am glad they got a chance to go down...McKenzie was crying for her Grandma Topham the other day! She also got to see her Leavitt cousins and see their brand new house. Overall...it was a good weekend for all of us!

Happy Easter!!

McKenzie in her Easter dress...posing like a princess

McKenzie's Easter basket

McKenzie and Taylor

We had a great Easter and hope that everyone else did too! The Easter Bunny came to our house friday night while McKenzie was sleeping, so she woke up Saturday morning to a basket full of Easter candy and the movie Enchanted. She was so excited and watched her movie 3 times on Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa Topham came up for a visit with Ethan and Emma (McKenzie's cousins) saturday night and they stayed until sunday. They had lots of fun playing with toys, dyeing easter eggs, and driving McKenzie's barbie jeep around the front yard. They left Sunday afternoon, just as Kaysie and Taylor (cousins on the other side of the family) got to our house. They came over because Tyler had to work and the rest of the family was in St. George. We spent the day playing the wii, watching Enchanted (again!) and of course...eating. It was so fun to spend time with the family this weekend!

McKenzie is growing up so fast and has a very active imagination. Every day she pretends to be Belle or Tracy Turnblatt, or Ariel, or Giselle, or any other princess. I usually have to be the Beast. When she is pretending she is someone else and I ask her to put her toys away or clean up her room, her answer is always well.....I'm Belle.....appearantly princesses don't have to help clean up!

Murder Mystery Weekend

Ali and Damon...ready for the murder mystery dinner
Les and Nate
Me and Bodie
Troy and Melissa

Okay, so I know am way slow at putting this up, but I finally got the pics on the computer from our murder mystery dinner. Every year, we go with some friends up ogden canyon for a murder mystery weekend. We usually get there friday night and the boys play x-box or playstation or wii while the girls hang out, eat snacks, talk, etc. Saturday morning the boys get up bright and early and go snowboarding all day. The girls start the day by driving down to the maverick and getting fountain drinks to take to the hot tub. Then we spend most of the day sitting in the hot tub, only going back to the condo for a lunch break. When the boys get back, we all get cleaned up and have our murder mystery dinner. We have been doing this for 5 or 6 years now, and I hope we don't ever stop. It is something I look forward to every year. McKenzie, Lily, Lucy, and Luke got to spend the weekend with Aunt Janece and Uncle Tyler. They were in heaven. McKenzie loves spending time with her cousins!

Lily, Lucy, and McKenzie at Janece's house
Madi, Lily, McKenzie, Lucy

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I think that this is the very reason McKenzie enjoyed Valentine's day so much!! Bodie was out snowboarding all day, so McKenzie and I decided to make cookies. I got out the heart shaped cookie cutters, but I guess they weren't fun enough for her, so she got out the halloween ones. By the time we were done, we had about half of them frosted and the bottle of sprinkles only made it on about 3 cookies. McKenzie was pretty excited also when her dad brought her home a huge stuffed animal, and she got a princess valentine card, and new cinderella lamp, and some princess markers. Her love for all the Disney princesses makes me so excited to take her to Disneyland to see all of them. I was shopping last night with my mom and sister and her kids and we decided it was good practice for Disneyland as I was pushing my stroller with McKenzie in it, Lucy was holding on to the stroller so she didn't get lost, Leslie was holding Luke (the baby) and pushing her double stroller (empty), while Grandma was holding Lily's hand. Oh...and kids were crying, needing potty breaks and diaper changes, and wanting snacks! Despite all that, I am still really excited!

McKenzie and Conan

I thought I would post this picture because I think it is so cute. This was the day that we got home from Hawaii, after being gone 10 days. Our other dog died just before our trip and McKenzie heard Bodie and I talking about how we were a bit concerned about Conan...not having Maggie around, and us being gone for over a week. When we got home, McKenzie was so excited to see Conan. He is starting to be more of an inside dog becuase he has become a lot more mellow in his old age, and he has no one outside to play with. McKenzie loves it when I put her in charge of watching Conan and making sure he doesn't get into things that he shouldn't. She'll hold on to his collor and stand there with him thinking that she is the reason that he is not moving. When he does start to move, she will not let go of his collar and she'll let him pull her around the house. The whole time she is so proud of herself because she is in charge of the dog. She finally has someone that she can boss around, and she really thinks that he listens to her. She does get a little frustrated when he won't lick her face when she tells him to...for some reason, she loves it when he licks her. She also loves to put on her leotard and make Conan watch her dance and do some of her tumbling tricks. It is pretty fun to watch!

I actually did it!

Okay, so I finally started a blog. I have been telling the girls at work that I would do this for a while now and here we are!

Here is my sweet McKenzie who told me the other day that if I didn't let her have a drink of my diet coke, she would not invite me to her birthday party. I guess she doesn't understand who throws her the parties! I did let her have some...and those of you who know how much I love my diet coke, that was pretty good of me! It was just so funny, that I couldn't help but share!