We saved a bird today! He was stuck in the window well outside our house for 3 days. I helped Mckayla say a prayer to Heavenly Father that the bird would climb into the bucket we lowered down there so we could lift it out. It climbed in and we pulled it up and let it out on the grass. Then we said another prayer to thank Heavenly Father for helping us save the bird. It was a neat little faith promoting experience :)

William Vaughan

Announcing William Vaughan Kissee. Born June 7th at 8:03 A.M. weighing 6 lbs 11 oz 18 inches long. He is strong and healthy! Aunt Cindy came to stay the night with Mckayla while Josh and I went to the hospital after my water broke. I was in labor for about seven hours and then he came out in 1 1/2 pushes! I was shocked how fast and easy it was! I don't have beautiful words to describe the love and joy I felt when he was born, but suffice it to say my heart grew immensely when I held him. It was like I always knew him and life would be incomplete without him. He was a little jaundiced for a few days but got over it quickly and never needed photo therapy. It was hard to have to take him back to the hospital every day and get his heel poked to check his bilirubin level. It was a lot of blood they took from his tiny body! Luckily Nana was here as the live in, multi-tasking, make your life a breeze, angel mom! I still haven't thought of the best way to thank her. William got a typical new born rash on most of his body the day after he was born and it comes and goes still. I think having Nana wash his clothes in dreft helped a lot. But mostly he is doing well nursing and sleeping. A little colic makes him fussy for a while each day. Mckayla is very sweet with him and loves to pet his head and give him the binkie. She really seemed to understand that the baby was in my tummy and now he is out! She was excited to see him and hold him in the hospital! She's always eager to show him to everyone that we see and says, "this is my baby brudder Willi-um." So cute! Speaking of cute, I'm probably biased but I think he is adorable. Overall things have been way easier the second time around. I've been able to relax and enjoy him because I'm not so uptight about everything like I was with Mckayla. I've done this before! Daddy is very proud of his fine new son! He loves him and is very sweet with him. Of course Gramma and Grandpa are smitten. They and other angel people have been wonderful to help with taking Mckayla so I can sleep and so she doesn't get bored out of her wits. Thank you to everyone who has helped us in welcoming William to our family. We are thrilled and couldn't be happier in our lives. We have a little piece of heaven in our home.

About Mckayla

Our sweet little bug has been so enjoyable lately! She is growing up and changing so fast! She is 3 1/2 and weighs 32 pounds and is about 39 inches tall or so. We love her gorgeous honey blonde hair with natural curl. We hope nothing happens to it! (i.e. cut cut) We would be distraught!
A few things she has been into are:
Butterflies! We went to the Children's Discovery Gateway museum a few weeks ago with our friends Rachel and her daughter Kylie and went to a class about butterflies. We learned all the stages of life from egg to caterpillar to pupa to butterfly. She loved it and even did the craft where you create the stages of life on a paper with glue, pipe cleaners, and sequins and stuff. I showed her some videos on You tube and she was hooked! She watched them and talked about them every day for a few weeks.
She loves to sing! She makes up random lyrics that often transition into familiar tunes and words from primary songs. Sometimes she sings super loud and I have to ask her to sing quieter. She knows I am a child of god, sunbeam, book of mormon stories, baptism, popcorn popping, five little speckled frogs, row your boat, head shoulders knees and toes, the rabbit in the woods song, tiny turtle, and others. Josh and I found a song we liked called "somebody that I used to know" and listened to it a lot. She sings it with us and says "ruff" like a dog when the word "rough" comes up.
She has been playing outside now the weather is warmer and plays with squirt guns, sticks, chalk, her trike, bouncy balls, and the neighbor kids.
She still loves her Whitney dogs! She has three of them now. Whitney, Charlie, and Oola. She brings them into our bed in the morning and wants me to talk with them. She drags them around the house with her to play too. It's my favorite thing trying to locate them before bed time. (not really though)
She's also been interested in insects in general. Grandma gave her an insect encyclopedia that she likes to look at and ask tons of questions about what the different kinds are. She even enjoys the nature DVDs like Planet Earth and LIFE. She likes to see all the animals and different parts of the world. (mom and dad do too)
We have tried to be better about doing Family Home Evening using the "behold your little ones" nursery manual and we watch the living scriptures DVDs. On Sundays too. She responds well and seems to enjoy the special time with Mom and Dad.
She loves to play chase and hide and go seek with Daddy. She started hiding when we hear the garage door opening signaling Daddy's arrival. She hides until he goes and finds her and gives her 5 "woop-d-doos". Let me emphasize 5. It is the magic number for everything the last while. Any time an amount needs to be specified it is always 5. 5 jelly beans, 5 snuggles, sing it 5 times, just 5 books, 5 bites, etc. She always asks, "just 5"?
She loves movies! Some she likes to watch are: Cinderella, Mulan, Little Mermaid, Incredibles, Nemo, Jungle Book, Tangled, 101 Dalmatians, Despicable Me, to name a few. There are a lot more she likes too!
When you ask her what her name is she says, "kayla kumrie".
She still gets to spend a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpas house. She gets super loved and spoiled (in a good way) when she goes to their house. She gets lots of love and attention. She loves to make cookies with Grandma, play toys, play outside, go for walks, visit neighbors and play on the new beach they made on the pond. Shes been to the rock climbing gym twice with Grandpa and he takes her to lunch and to the park on occasion and really helps me out. She has a special relationship with them and it's very touching.
Your family sure loves you bug!

One more month

I know it's a little grainy, but hey, it was a phone picture with no flash. I have one month left before this baby makes his appearance! We are super excited to get him here and meet him! I've got almost everything ready. I just have a few odds and ends to wrap up like buying a diaper bag, finishing the clock for his room and packing my hospital bag.

Easter 2012

For Easter this year, I read a couple things out of the "friend" magazine to Mckayla to explain to her why we celebrate it. She knows that Jesus loves her and that he "died and came back to life". That's about as complicated as it gets for a three year old. Then we did a miniature egg hunt in her bedroom with about 12 eggs and jelly beans and put this basket on her bed to find. She really loved it! And we really enjoyed watching her discover everything!

Rock Climbing

Mckayla's Grandparents took her to the Quarry rock climbing gym today. Look at her go! Such a brave kid. I'm so glad she gets to have adventures like this! Thank you G&G.