the BIG thirteen

It is official, we are living with a teenager. I am a little late, but McKinley turned 13 on April 10th. I remember how excited Matt and I were when we learned that we were expecting our first baby. With my other pregnancies I remember feeling a little nervous that everything would go fine, but for some reason, I'm not sure why, I didn't feel that way with McKinley. Matt and I decided not to tell anyone until I was 12 weeks along, and for those of you who know me (I am not that great at keeping secrets) that was really hard. Matt and I went on a cruise when I was 11 weeks and Matt wasn't very happy when I told the people who sat with us at dinner that we were expecting our first. I just had to tell someone and I figured that I would never see those people again. My pregnancy went really well. Everything looked really great at the ultrasound and we had decided not to find out what we were having. Like all of my pregnancy, my biggest complaint was the heartburn. Everyone would tell me that they had heard that if you have heartburn during your pregnancy it meant that your baby will have lots of hair. I don't know if that is true, but McKinley was born with a ton of hair. I was actually due on the 5th of April. I went in for a non stress test after my due date because the babies movement started to decline. As a result of that test we found out that the fluid in my uterus was below normal and we should probably have the baby soon. We were scheduled to be induced the morning of the 10th. I remember going in early in the morning to be induced. Matt was really tired because he was in the middle of finals. It seems like the contractions got really hard all at once. Matt was sleeping soundly in the chair until I started to yell a little (he would say a lot). I was expecting them to come and go, but they didn't seem to ease at all, so we called for the anesthesiologist to come and give me an epidural. After that was administered I felt 100% better, but Matt never got to back to sleep. My doctor stop by around 10:00 and broke my water, which made everything move much faster. My doctor checked back on his lunch break and McKinley was ready to be born. With very few pushes our beautiful baby girl was born at 12:27 P.M. weighing 7lbs 14oz. Now it has been 13 years and I can hardly believe it. I am so proud of what a beautiful young lady that McKinley has become. I am also grateful for what a wonderful sister and daughter that she is. We Love You McKinley!

This is a picture of the original picture so it looks a little blurry. McKinley is 6 months old.

McKinley wanted to go to the play Wicked and Matt spent an entire day trying to get her a ticket. As you can see he was able to get her one. We sent her on a scavenger hunt to find her ticket. For one of her tasks, she had to let her little sisters and brother paint her face green. I think that she had figured out that it was a ticket to Wicked, but it was a lot of fun. We can hardly wait to go.

This is McKinley, friends and cousins getting together for her birthday.

Happy Birthday!!

McKinley's first broken bone

Ok, so this is old news, but I wasn't doing much blogging when she broke her foot, so I am back tracking. McKinley has such an adventurous personality, she is not afraid to try anything at least once. Because of this personality she tends to find herself with pulled muscles, deep bruises, cuts, and scratches. All of the times that she thought that she had broke something it would turn out not being broken, until now. We were sledding with the Young Women the end of January and her and another girl decided to go down one last time before having hot chocolate and doughnuts. The sled headed the wrong way, and they ran into a metal sign. I was at the top of the hill with some of the other girls when they hit, and we laughed for about 3 seconds until I heard the scream. I knew it was McKinley and ran down to see what was wrong. Her foot was hurting her REALLY bad, but I reminded her that she doesn't break bones. I decided that we had better take her to the ER just in case. It ended up being the end of her no broken bone streak. With the help of my brother Cole we were able to get her into Dr. Foxx who said that she broke a small piece of her heel bone completely off. To avoid future problems, she needed to have it screwed back into place. Her Grandpa told her that he had a couple of grabber screws down at the shed and he would do it for her, but she opted to let the pros do it. Everything went as planed and the only signs of the accident is her small limb and insurance papers.

Talking to her Dad right before surgery.

Don't want to do surgery on the wrong foot.

McKinley did really well waking up from the surgery. Notice the Dr. Pepper in the back, that always help.