The Mac Kinnon Family

Last weekend Holly took the kids for ice cream, Mac had a meltdown about his melting ice cream, while Emily's is dripping everywhere....this video is pretty amusing......

The kids and I spent this week at our church's vacation bible school. I volunteered for the week and Mac had a program in his age group. They provided childcare for Emily which was great. I was a first grade guide, I had 6 children that I was with all week going from each section of the program. It was great and exhausting at the same time. I think I learned as much as the kids! We finished up with an ice cream social this evening and the kids all sang their songs they learned this week, it was pretty cool. Mac knew his songs but appeared to have some stage fright! Here's a snippet of our first song.

We seem to always be juggling stuff here in the Mac Kinnon household, I can't remember the last time I had nothing to do, I always feel like I'm behind the eight ball. Anyhow, something always seems to happen right before John deploys, usually one of the kids get sick, last time both Emily and Harley were sick, now Willie decided he needed to join in the family fun. He has a history of belly issues and anytime he eats something he shouldn't he vomits, I treat with some meds and he usually gets over it. We'll he started vomiting last Friday, hadn't eaten since then, I used meds I had but my stash of fluids and meds are depleted, so off to the vet we went today. He either has a nasty case of an inflamed bowl or something in his belly. There was something that looked abnormal on the x-ray, so after an expensive visit and some meds and fluids at home were praying he gets better, if he doesn't he will need to have surgery. UGGGHH!!!!!

Emily is doing things independently much more than Mac ever did. Everything from feeding herself (until she gets frustrated with some foods), to going down the stairs to walking (instead of being carried). Today in the bath tub the water was still running, Emily stands up and grabs the wash cloth. As I'm getting ready to ask her to sit down, she rinses the wash cloth under the water then washes her hiney, one cheek at a time, then to her girly area. I wish I had a camera, it was so funny to see her trying to wash her self. Mac didn't have any interest in bathing himself until this year! Girls.......

John and I had a fabulous time in NYC this weekend. Our flights were late, both ways, but we had alot of fun. We walked all around the city, times square and central park. Last night we had dinner with friends, a really enjoyable evening. Today we rented bikes and rode around central park, it was beautiful. We even saw the "Naked Cowboy" who happens to be running for mayor, as we were eating lunch today he drove out of a parking garage in an escalade, so he must make decent money wearing his undies in Times Square! New York is such a fun city and we love it every time we get to go, although it's expensive there, we always see new stuff and the people are so much fun. They recently added lawn chairs around times square so you can sit and just people watch, which is alot of fun! Holly did really well with the kids, they had a "party weekend". Back to the grind tomorrow, we've all got a busy week ahead!

John and I are off tomorrow morning early for our weekend getaway. I'm so looking forward to some quality time with John, but sad to be leaving the kids. I haven't been away from Emily for a night yet and Mac is equally as long. I know they are in excellent hands but the tears were flowing when I put them to bed tonight. I don't know how John does it every time he goes...... I guess it gets easier.......looking forward to New York!!!!!!!! I'm sure Holly will be exhausted by the time we get home Sunday, look for an update then :)!

Mac loves to wake up in the morning when he hears John go downstairs. He loves seeing Daddy and also loves to get to watch TV as John will usually turn it on for him which happened yesterday morning. This morning he woke up after John had left, came into our room crying that he didn't get to say goodbye to Daddy and he really wanted to watch TV. Such a sad way to wake up in the morning!

During our trip to PA a few weeks ago I snapped this pic with my phone, it was too darn cute. I peeked in the back to see Mac and Emily holding hands, just chilling out. There's no sibling rivalry yet, it would be nice if they always are this cute, but I know how much my sister beat me up so I'm not holding my breath!

Aunt Holly arrived tonight for her 3 week school in Yorktown. We picked her up and took her to the base to check into the officer quarters. She will be staying with us alot but will need to be on the base some too. Anyway we pull up to the front of the building, Mac excitedly asks her if it's her "hotel", we all chuckle, base quarters are very basic and offer a bed and a toilet, not much more. As we are lugging in her bags and helping her get to her room, Mac asks "where's the pool?". We get into her room and he's all excited, it's small, as two twin beds (she's likely to have a room mate) and a basic shower, no TV, very basic. Mac still thinks it's great, got to love him :)!

John cleaned up Harley's house today and set it up for the kids, adding the benches on the front that came with it, we didn't think Harley needed! The kids loved it, were already having so much fun in it. I'm sure Harley is looking down tickled that the kids are enjoying his house as much as he did! I also got a few great pics of Emily wearing Mac's hat, she was strutting her stuff, too adorable!

Mac wasn't with it today at swimming, didn't do with the instructor asked him to do. Grandma Jan took him today while John and I went to a meeting and dinner, when we got home we asked him what was wrong today. His response "the water was soggy". Yes, another speechless moment, what does this mean? Anyone?

Mac did a little 4 week gymnastic camp once a week and had his last class today. He really enjoyed it, loved all the rolling and jumping stuff. It was funny today they walked across a balance beam, all the girls did it like it was nothing, the boys all looked like weeble wobbles, pretty funny.

John got Emily this outfit at some point in time. We had stored it away as it was way too big for her when he originally got it. Tonight John put her in it and she looks so sweet. He taught her how to "bow", she was too darn cute!

We had such a wonderful and fun time in PA, we got home LATE last night. We spent the day at Hershey Park yesterday and had a blast. Mac LOVED the roller coasters and wanted to sit in the front. He screamed like a girl but loved the entire ride, it was so cool. Mac and I did alot of rides while Pappy, Grandma Jan and Karen watched Emily. We did lots of ride and were pretty exhausted by the end of the day. Jan and I decided to drive home last night since our drive to PA was so horrible. We made it home in 4 1/2 hours and while we were tired (arrive home after 1 am) we were glad we did it, today was much smoother. The kids were so excited to see John today and were stuck to him like glue, such a wonderful sight to see!

Mac wanted Grandma Jan to see Pappys caverns today, then they went to the popular chocolate activities in Hershey. Then some of the Shaffner family came to hang out, it was a wonderful day and fabulous to see everyone.

We spent the day touring Amish Country today. Mac thought the horse and buggy's were pretty cool and the toys were probably the highlight of the trip. We toured an Amish family home, ate some good old Amish food and are now exhausted and stuffed. As I was putting Mac to bed tonight I asked him if he would like to live like the Amish, he said NO! I don't know if it's the lack of TV or electricity, but I think the TV would be the cause..... Oh and you'll see in one of the pictures below, one of the Amish towns is called "Intercourse" that's real and not made up......

We arrived in PA safe and sound after a very long drive. DC traffic was miserable, it took us 8 hours, when it should only take 5 or so. UGGHH!! The kids did great with the long drive and had energy to burn. Mac loved chasing the fire flies, Emily thought they were pretty cool too. Enjoy the 2 video's on the bottom!

Ugghhhh........

Emily's doing a little better today but she sure has a chest full of yuck. She still has some discomfort and her cough is awful. I'm having to nebulizer her every 4 hours, she did well with it last night and went right back to sleep. I'm hoping she'll be a little better tomorrow. Grandma Jan was supposed to be here tonight but opted for a free ticket so we won't see her until tomorrow. Mac is super excited, he'll be a little sad in the morning when he wakes up and she's not there, but hopefully he'll be excited about going to the airport to get her.

We spent over overnight in the ER once again last night. Mac has had a cold for 5 or so days, Emily hadn't really shown any signs, Sunday night she was up in the middle of the night with a fever, I gave her some motrin and she was fine. Monday she was her normal happy self. After their bath Monday night her nose started to run and she sounded a little congested so I gave her a breathing treatment, per the pediatrician anytime she gets a runny nose. Around 10:30 she started fussing, I went to check on her and she was trembling. She didn't feel feverish, I changed her diaper and put her under the covers with me. Poor things was grunting as she's done in the past with her respiratory issues and trembling, I couldn't get her comfortable, so a few minutes later I wake Mac up and off we go to the ER. Upon arrival we were triaged right away because of her breathing issues. Poor thing had a fever of almost 105, even with having Motrin a few hours earlier. After some tyle...

Tonight at the dinner table we had green beans, both kids just loved them and ate the all up. I commented that they help build big muscles and Mac flexed his muscles, I catch Emily out of the corner of my eye flexing hers, it was way too cute. I was able to get her to repeat it, but it wasn't quite as spectacular as the first time! Enjoy the video, too adorable.......

We went into colonial Williamsburg this morning to enjoy the start of the 4th festivities. They had a really neat fife and drum performance along with the firing of the muskets and canon type guns. Mac loved and and Emily seemed interested and didn't freak out with all the loud gun noise. They fired the cannon's 13 times and the muskets a few times. After this we walked around and Mac found a hat he just had to have. The last pic is a video of some of what we saw today, it was pretty cool. We didn't make it for fireworks this evening. If I didn't have to go it alone I would have done it for Mac, he would love them but for me not getting them to bed probably until almost 11 until we would have gotten home was way too late for me. I hear them going off all around my house now though, it's LOUD! Am I getting old? Happy 4th to everyone!