The Mac Kinnon Family

John was getting ready for his annual Reno trip last night, as we were heading to bed a few of his buddies called, then texted him. He was texting back and had such a fun boyish grin on his face. I asked him if he was excited, he was very giddy about going, just like a kid, it was very cute. It warms my heart to see him so happy. While we'll miss him as our time is so valuable these days with all his travels, seeing him being able to relax and visit with old friends is timeless (like a MasterCard commercial)! He'll be back late Tuesday then off about a week later for the rest of the month!

Mac got a drum set for his birthday, it's a little noisy so we keep it in his room. Mac plays it often, Emily likes to join in as well! She is a cutie.

Mac's class at preschool has been doing special colors the past two weeks. Yesterday and today were "brown days" that the kids were allowed to wear their pajamas to school. Mac thought this was the coolest thing and LOVED being able to wear his PJ's out of the house (wouldn't we all)! They made pancakes in his class for their snack which also was a highlight. Each child was also assigned a day to bring in a snack of that color, Mac was assigned to this Thursday and the color is yellow. I'm going to make rice crispy treat and dye the marshmallow yellow, it should be yummy!

Poor Emily has yet another bug of some sort. For a child who spends less than 10 hours a week in a childcare setting (either at the gym or church) she sure seems to be getting sick alot. Toward the end of last week she developed bright red cheeks, seemed to be feeling crappy and lack of appetite. This lasted for a few days (no fever). Then Saturday she broke out in a rash on her arms. After a call to the pediatrician, they figured it was some sort of virus and told me to bring her in today if she still had the rash. It was almost gone but I took her in. Turns out she has an ear infection and probably some sort of GI virus which caused the myriad of symptoms. So she's back on antibiotics for the ear infection, we'll see if that helps. I know it's good for kids to be exposed as it helps build up immunity but give the poor girl a break!

John came home yesterday and we picked him up at the airport. John had been up for essentially 24 hours at that point, poor guy was exhausted. The kids were all over him, Mac kept saying "Daddy I missed you" over and over. It was very cute. We got home and Mac couldn't wait to see what Daddy brought him. We all received some lovely gifts, Mac's favorite seems to be "magic rings" and the musical instrument that John brought back for Emily. I received a cool broom (not to ride :)) and a lovely set of pearls (earring, necklace and bracelet). John also brought back a great bottle of wine, a new tradition we are starting. He'll bring back a bottle of wine and we'll toast to his safe arrival home. John has been settling back in today, everyone was in great moods and we all are glad he is home, if only for 4 days! He journeys back out to his annual Superbowl trip to hang with the Reno crew. As he's snoring away now, trying to readjust to our time...

One of Mac's friends, Kensey, invited him to her birthday party at the WISC. It was 45 minutes of gymnastic fun, then pizza and cake. Mac had a blast, Emily seemed to enjoy herself as well. They had all the standard gymnastic equipment along with 2 huge trampolines and a rope swing that the kids jumped into a pit of foam blocks. Kids were everywhere and I wish I had another set of hands. Keeping track of Mac and Emily was tough since Emily wanted to be everywhere!

Emily has turned into a really picky eater. I'm a bit picky myself, more so for diet reasons than anything else but Emily even though cannot talk yet, certain let's me know what she doesn't like. Some of her favorite things are mac and cheese, yogurt, hot dogs and grapes. If she doesn't like what I put in front of her, she squishes it and throws it to the ground, or spits it out almost immediately. Emily reminds me of both her cousin Brian and her Aunt Holly, both of which are very picky eaters! This is so different than Mac who eats pretty much anything. He has developed a few dislikes but overall he is a good eater. I always said I won't fix two meals in my house and if you don't eat at dinner, you'll be hungry. While this will be true once Emily can understand the concept for now there is some juggling going on.

I've been trying to get to the gym at least 5 days a week. I work out on cardio equipment, weights and take some of their classes. I've been wanting to try a class called Zumba. Today I got my chance. There were about 20 women in the class varying in ages from young to 70's, so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. We'll lets just say those 70 year old women showed me up! It's a cardio class that uses dance as exercise. So there was alot of shaking and wiggling going on and my lack of coordination made me look like I needed some help. I got most of the leg movements, cha cha, rumba, grapevine, etc was all pretty familar to me, but doing this while shaking your boodie or chest was very difficult. Lots of dancing like you'd see on a shakerra video, hip hop type of stuff. I sure tried and I'm sure it was quite hilarious as I just couldn't get it together. I'm not sure if I'll go back or just stick to my other cardio classes.......

All day Monday the news kept talking about a winter storm with "serious" accumulation of snow that would be coming into the area Monday night into Tuesday morning. Of course 2" of snow everyone freaks. Mac was so excited with the prospect of snow, all he could talk about was being able to play in the snow. As soon as he opened his eyes on Tuesday morning he ran to the window and pulled back the blind to find there was no snow. He was disappointed but optimistic is was still going to come. Poor guy never got his snow.....the storm pooped out and only North Carolina got significant snowfall. He keeps asking for snow. I told him in February when John is gone again maybe we'll take a trip to Pappy's if he has snow so Mac can have some fun in some real snow!

Mac had the day off today from preschool and I let him pick something fun to do. He decided he wanted to go to Jumping Joeys with Ana, Austin and Amber who just returned from their 6 week adventure to Florida. Ana's husband is deployed as well so we had dinner together twice this week, it was great for the kids to play and for us to have some adult conversation! Anyway the kids had a blast and Emily was like the energizer bunny. She was so darn cute, she is unable to steady herself on the bouncy stuff but she sure loved to try. Mac was all over the place and Austin pretty much followed him around. The boys are cute together. Fun was had by all and everyone took a great nap!

Most of you know this experience of being home with the kids has had it's ups and downs. I love the fact I am around for the kids spending invaluable time with them and able to take them to their various activities, on the other hand I really miss working and having the mental challenge of work. Being a stay at home mom is a full time job in itself and I have no idea how these women with multiple kids manage to keep a clean home, be on top of their housework, get all kids activities done and have dinner on the table. I think it's a myth. IT IS HARD WORK. John as been gone on his first trip for 12 days now, I have gained an even greater respect, not only am I a stay at home mom, I'm also a single mom when John is traveling. It has been an interesting journey these 12 days and I truly believe working a FT job is easier than being the equivalent of a single stay at home parent. John traveled alot on our last tour but I worked, granted it was only Mac and I at that time,...

Yesterday when I bathed the kids, not only did they both fart in the bath tub (which cracks Mac up and refers to as blowing bubbles out of his butt), but I caught both of them playing with their "under carriages" (as we like to call it). Most of the time the kids are cute in the bath tub, but this moment made me wonder if there should be some sort of bath tub etiquette!

We had a very busy day today which included Mac's 4 year old check up. He weighed in at 41.6 pounds (80th percentile) and is 40 3/4 inches tall (60th percentile). His body mass index is 93! Doc says he looks great and all is well. He will need 4 more shots before kindergarten, poor guy, I thought kids got a break from all the vaccines! I opted to wait as he has been poked and prodded alot over the past year and wanted a happy doctors visit without getting poked! It's so hard to believe he's 4, such a handsome young man. Next visit is to the dentist for his 6 month checkup!

John is overseas right now, with this being his first trip we weren't sure how all the logistics would work out. We've been very fortunate that he has Internet access and we've been able to Skype on a daily basis. We hadn't used Skype before and I'm so impressed with the ease of use. I am very thankful for it, it's made our time apart easier for all of us. Emily will wave and say Hi Daddy, Mac carries on conversations as if John were right next to him. It's pretty cool. While we won't have this access for all his trips, it's nice to have it for this first one. It's definitely been a learning experience for all of us!

Mac had a grand day today. He woke up this morning, we got John on the webcam and let him open a few presents before he had to go to preschool. We had breakfast and were off to school. At his preschool he had a grand celebration. They made him a neat crown, gave him a birthday book with a poem and artwork from each of his classmates, then everyone dug into the cupcakes. Several kids said, ymmm, these cupcakes are the best. This made my 4 hour cupcake creations worth it! It was funny watching the kids, all the girls sat at one table and the boys at the other. I asked the teacher if they are supposed to sit that way or does it just turn out that way. She said they pick their own seats, I was suprised, I didn't realize the male/female stuff starts this early! After school we headed off to speech, then home for a nap. I let Mac choose a fun activity and dinner out tonight, he chose to go to the arcade to play games then to Pizzera Uno for dinner. The arcade was great, the look of aw...

Last time Grandma Jan visited she brought me a book with a whole bunch of different cupcake designs. A few weeks ago I got the grand idea (at least I thought it was until today) that I would let Mac pick out one of these designs for his birthday. He is having a party at his preschool tomorrow. He first wanted the "shark ones" which were way complicated, so I asked him to find another, pushing toward the bug ones that looked appropriate for a first timer. I have zero design ability so I knew this would be a challenge. Of course Mac doesn't like the bugs and chooses the Panda Bear ones. The kids went down for a nap around 1 pm today and I began what turned out to be a major undertaking. I got the cupcakes baked (18 large and 24 small) and was just starting to icing the little ones (panda bear heads) when Mac woke up. There is an assortment of icing, mini kisses, mini reeses pieces and mini oreos for the ears. The the big cupcakes had icing, rolled in crushed oreos with oreo...

One of the gifts Mac received yesterday was Horton Hears a Who board game. It's a silly game, you place 6 colored clovers in places throughout your home, when you land on the clover you have to put on this silly hat and go pick up the clover, without using your hands (it has velcro as do the clovers) before the timer runs out. You get so many "who" cards for getting back with the clover or landing on spaces on the board game. In the end whoever has the most "whos" wins. We had a good time!

We had Mac's first birthday celebration today. Since he just started his new preschool a few weeks ago, his buddy across the street is still in Florida and being new to the area we didn't know a whole lot of kids, I asked Mac what he wanted to do. We decided we would go bowling and invite a few of his friends that he has met through speech class, which he talks about alot. So Kensey, Kara and Ainsely (Kensey's sister) joined us for pizza and bowling. He was the young man hanging with 3 (5 if you count the babies) beautiful girls! Everyone enjoyed the pizza, even Emily! Bowling took a while, as you can imagine with 4, 3-4 year olds, we then sang happy birthday and enjoyed some cupcakes. Mac was a bit shy when we sang to him. He then opened a few presents, he got 2 new games which is awesome and a drum set. Jenn (Kensey's mom) said they girls really wanted to get it for them, as they have one and it's really not that loud....we'll see how loud it is :)! Emily was ...