BBQ & Pool Party

We ended July with one last family gathering. This time is was Brian's side of the family. All the Crowley Clan (minus just a couple) spent the day at Brian's cousin's awesome new house in Santa Clarita. There were some cousins in from Texas that we only get to see every few years, including a new little one, so the whole day was a treat!

The newest Crowley descendant, James


It was really hot and the pool felt so good! The kids had so fun splashing around with Daddy & Grandpa & cousins.















Everyone else had a good time too!

Keegan's friend Brian & Mike Quigley


Keegan & Eric (the host. I never got a picture of our sweet hostess Gabi! She was too busy cooking, I guess!)


Nancy, Tim, Timmy, Grandma, Kathleen, Jim & baby James


Aunt Kathleen & Grandma


Fisher


Grandma Crowley and her great grandkiddos


The whole clan. I think we're only missing 5 members here.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

(Sorry for my bit of a blog break! We've been busy this summer and it was nice to rest to my blogging fingers a bit! But McKenna's update has got me rolling again.)

Our 2nd family get-together of July started out a little rough. First of all, we had to go without Daddy. I wasn't kidding when I said in my last post before McKenna's update, that July was full of family events! We were double booked. So Brian spent the day with his extended family at a volleyball tournament in honor of his cousin that passed away a few years ago and the kids spent the day with my extended family on my mom's side.

And then my little girl went and burned the dessert I was taking! I suppose she did me a favor cuz I didn't need the calories. I had all the best intentions of making some simple cookies and then I found pinterest.com. And became addicted. Thanks Becca! It's a great site for sharing all sorts of ideas - crafts, recipes, decorations, etc. And I found this...



That would be a dessert consisting of layer of cookie, a layer of oreos and a layer of extra fudgey brownies, all baked together into one yummy gooey goodness! I couldn't NOT make it!

Unfortunately it came out like this...



Yeah, not nearly as appetizing!

While I was busy gathering stuff to take to the picnic, my naughty little girl decided to play with the oven knobs. Turns out that while the child-safety knob covers keep a kid from turning on the oven, it doesn't keep them from turning it UP. So for some unknown amount of time, my cake cooked at 500 degrees instead of 350. And burnt my poor little cookie-oreo-brownie goodness to a crisp! The edges were hard as a rock, but the center was still pretty gooey, so it sunk. That's why it looks like someone stepped on it!

But despite it looking so darn pitiful and despite the top layer having the consistency of cement (seriously, it hurt your hand to knock on it), it was stinkin' delicious! The center part that is. Once you chiseled a piece out. I swear! Other family members can attest to the yumminess!

Thankfully that was the worst of our day, (as well as having to explain why the poor dessert looked that way and why the heck I still brought it despite looking that way!) cuz the rest of the day was a ball!

Austin LOVES his cousins! His good buddy, Monkey, was there. He gets to see a few of his second cousins once a month when we go a'quilting and he was so excited to get to spend the day with them! All I heard about was Eric & Nick for days beforehand!

You can just see the exuberance!



The cousins had brought simple little kites with them and wonderfully there was an extra one for Austin to play with too. He had never flown a kite before and he was in heaven.







After getting good and tired from running and running, we did some good eating! For a change, my kids ate!





Of course, McKenna has never been known to turn down sweets!



Then there was time for more playing. The kids (big and small) wanted to climb trees.









Austin wanted to...until he got up there! (this branch is approximately 3 feet off the ground, by the way)



After come coaxing, I got a kinda smile out of him



And Uncle Scott got a good one



And some miscellaneous cuteness...

My sweet Katelyn and her momma


My cousin's little guy, Gavin. How cute is he?!


My peanut sporting the dress I made her!


It's so good to have good family!

17 Months

I have a good excuse for being late on this one! Vacation!! Blog post on that to come soon, I hope! I know I'm behind on lots of posts, but I really want to do my vacation post, so I have aspirations of getting all caught up this week so that I can get to that one!

Even with the extra week since my peanut actually turned 17 months, it feels like my last update was ages ago! Full and fun month!





New this month...

With the exception of how much Austin was talking at 17 months, I think I can just copy his 17 month update! Seems like almost every paragraph could be written this month about McKenna.

She is turning into quite the naughty little thing! Right on cue she found the loose door pin that Austin found at 17 months. And just like him, she makes sure you see her being naughty! Actually she goes a step further and will come and show you what she's doing wrong, rather than just catch your eye. She will bring the pin to us. She will put just about anything in her mouth and come and show you the choking hazard she has in there. Which, I guess, is better than just choking on it! And just like Austin, spankings on the hands have so little impact!

We kept with the pattern of good-month/bad-month with regards to food again. Sure enough, just when I was thinking she was getting good at this big girl food stuff, she goes and stops eating just about everything! At least it feels that way. She will have a few bites of whatever I've given her and then refused to eat more. And by refuses, I mean she will either spit her food out or refuse to swallow it by holding it in her cheek or under her tongue. She can even hold liquids under her tongue for forever! Her only constants are yogurt & the Gerber jarred meats. It's incredibly frustrating! I was hoping it was molars coming in, but they have yet to make their appearance, so who knows. The upside is she has started drinking more milk from her sippy cup or camelback bottle. So I can feel a little more comfortable missing a nursing session with her.

Enough negatives though - she really is too much fun to focus on the hard stuff!

She has started giving very silly shy smiles. If someone says hi to her she does this funny should shrug with her arms together either in front of her or behind her.

She LOVES to tell people hi. She still constantly tells Brian "Hi Dadda", over and over. But now she'll say hi to everyone she sees, over and over, until they return the favor. This is always accompanied by the sweetest little princess wave! Although as soon as they say hi back, she gets all shy again!

Looking back at Austin's 17m update, I'm amazed at how much more McKenna says. And clearly! Her word of the month was "water" and she's probably the only person I know that pronounces it with a "t" rather than a "d"! I love how high pitched she says it. She has a ton of two word sentences. Her other favorite word of the month is "out". She uses is for everything though. It means "out", "up", "off", "open", "close" and probably about 5 other things.

She loves to "wink" (blink) at us.

She's becoming quite the little snuggler. She loves to run up to my legs and hug them. And after naps she loves to just sit on my lap and let me scratch her back. Some of the best moments of my day!

We have reached a new level of tantrums with this kid. I guess I should have seen it coming. Austin didn't have his first tantrum until 18 months. McKenna started at like 8 months! So it makes sense it would escalate by now. She almost always refuses to hold your hand while walking, instead sitting down and flailing herself back on the ground. She only sometimes walks in the direction you need her to. And she will always throw a tantrum if you pick her up instead. Good times! We've had several during mealtimes too, when she insists she's done eating after 2 whole bites. I worry about what the terrible twos will look like!

I love watching her play! She's getting really good with her shape sorters and is starting to take a little interest in puzzles. I'm hoping to have to puzzle lovers! She gets down on the floor and pushes cars around making vroom noises. Austin didn't do this for another month or so, but I think that's the difference between a 1st kid & a second kid. She sees him doing it and mimics him. But she's always done more "pretend" type playing than he ever did. Drinking tea is a favorite! And she LOVES to draw on her magnet drawing thingy. If you give her crayons she draws a little and then eats them, so we use the magnet drawing thingy mostly!

And I love watching my kids play together. They make each other laugh all the time. And while Austin still isn't incredibly gentle and often makes her cry, McKenna really has a lot of fun with him. He loves to tickle her and she likes to poke him and chase after him. They can make the most annoying sounds together to. I think Austin usually starts it but she is good at hitting his exact pitch. We've started putting them to bed at the same time in their room (rather than staggered or Austin in ours) and they laugh and laugh for a good 10 minutes or so before settling down. I love love love that they enjoy each other! I hope it always continues!