Dec 30, 2007

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation in Casa Grande with the Dick family. Here are the highlights for Megan:

*All the balloons on Christmas morning
*Riding on her new push-toy
*Playing at the park: swinging, sliding, eating sand, etc
*Running around at Makutu's (a fun indoor kids jungle gym). Megan kept running in circles and putting her head on the ground
*Eating treats
*Having fun with any accessory she could get her hands on: Grandpa's hat, Lindsay's necklace, etc.
*I don't know if this is a "highlight" or a "lowlight," but the ride to Casa Grande was less than enjoyable mostly because of her - she really struggled.

December 7, 2007

Megan has discovered her love for technological things. One of her favorite toys is our cell phones. And she knows just what to do with them when she has them. She puts them right up to her ear like she is going to call someone.

I went and got pictures taken of all three kids. They were all good sports while we were there, but it sure is hard to get a good picture of all them at the same time. One of my favorites was when Ben and Caelan are holding Megan's hand and she is trying to pull it away...but she has such a cute little look on her face (like she is "Miss Independent"....which she is).

November 25, 2007

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving Day in CA with most of the Sorensen family (Garrett and Melanie and Amber couldn't come). The feast was delicious and we enjoyed it with Great Uncle Dale and Great Aunt Debbie and their kids as well as Great Grandpa Sorensen. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cheesy potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn, stuffing, homemade rolls, green bean casserole, raspberry jello pretzel salad, drink and pies for dessert. Megan LOVED it all. She just ate and ate and ate. We played some football at the park (while the kids played, we ate, we lounged around and we played games. It was a wonderful day. We drove the 4 hours and 15 minutes home today and Megan woke up half way through for about 30 minutes to drink her bottle. Other than that she slept the whole way (all the kids did actually). Ahhh.

November 18, 2007

Megan is a full blown walking girl now. She still has to watch her balance, but she can walk all through the house....and she does. When she falls down she gets herself back up right in the middle of the room. She leans over and pushes herself up with her hands. Sometimes her balance isn't quite right and she falls back down, but then she just does it again. It is very rare that she will crawl to the couch or chair or something else to pull herself back up. She has been doing it this way since she first started taking multiple steps in a row. It's pretty impressive.

November 6, 2007

Today is Mega Moo's first birthday. We are so blessed to have a healthy, happy and growing little girl in our family and in our lives. We love her to bits. We had a pretty mellow little party: dinner, gifts and eating banana cream pie. Then she practiced walking some more, and really got going. She got a little puppet dog that barks when you open and close it's mouth (to the tune of "How much is that Doggy in the Window). She was quite fascinated by that.

Oct 31, 2007

Megan got to dress up two times for Halloween this year. The first time was for the library Halloween activity. I dressed her in Ben's little dragon costume - so cute. Then on Halloween we went to a 3-ward Halloween trunk-or-treat party. I dressed her up as a mouse (although I totally forgot to put the whiskers on her). She was adorable anyway. She went around with the other kids , and of course people dropped candy in her bucket, but after a while I took her back to Dad to help pass out candy to kids coming by. She loves this whole idea of candy though. She has figured out and decided she LIKES it.

Oct 30, 2007

Megan took 3 steps today (actually she took a lot more that that; three was just the most she did in a row). YAY!

October 5, 2007

We moved to Kingman, AZ. We were sad to leave our friends in Boulder City but are excited for this new adventure. That is the first move for Miss Megan (but I'm sure it won't be the last - not in this family). We took a trip down to Grandpa and Grandma's house just a couple of weeks after we moved (Dad had to check out a house site down in that area). We were only there for a couple of days, so we just played and relaxed. While we traveled on this trip it dawned on us that maybe Megan gets carsick. She is our worst traveler (BY FAR) - she has always had a hard time in the car, especially on extended trips. After about an hour (or less) of driving she starts getting really fussy and pretty much stays that way until we stop. We've just assumed she is a bad traveler, but when we drove down to Arizona she threw up the night that we got there. She threw up again later that night. Then she was okay for the next couple of days. But it got us thinking about the number of times she has "had the flu" around the same time we have been on a trip...and it's more times than seems coincidental. Sure enough when we drove home she was sick again. The next day we were just driving around town (about 15 minutes) and she started getting fussy and threw up again. I think her stomach just doesn't do too well while she is traveling. It's a bummer...but at least now we will know why she struggles so much in the car. She was so sad and grumpy on the drive to Casa Grande that when we got there we put her on the front porch of Grandpa and Grandma's house and rang the doorbell and hid. She wasn't very happy about that. Grandma scooped her up immediately.
Megan is crawling regular all over the place now (no more of the army crawl for her). I don't think it will be too long before she decides to walk - she loves climbing up onto things and walking along things.

Sept 28, 2007

We had a Sorensen Family Camping Trip at Navajo Lake (outside of Cedar City in Southern Utah). We camped just across the street from the lake in our pop-up trailer. Jenny and Kelly and the boys met us up there for a couple of the days. One day we drove over to Escalante (a pretty long drive), but we had fun climbing on the all the rock formations. We hit a deer with our minivan on the way back to camp that night. Another day we drove over to Mammoth Caves (in Duck Creek - just a few miles) and walked through the cave. We also took a little hike along a pretty shabby (and falling apart trail) to a small waterfall and a beautiful view. Megan was pretty happy to ride in the carrier on my back. We even braved the water in the lake one afternoon. It was pretty chilly, so we were only in it for a short time. The morning that we were packing up it decided to down pour (you know, one of those Utah storms that comes in with a vengeance). We drove down to Cedar City and stopped at the park at the base of the mountain. We barbequed and played volleyball. The kids played in the little creek and then in the mud. Then we headed home.

August 27, 2007

Megan has mastered the army crawl. She can crawl the regular way too, but she doesn't do this as much as the army crawl (she is still much faster at the army style). She loves to be able to get herself wherever she wants to go. Because she can move all over the place, she can now get herself to things that she can pull herself up on. And she loves to stand and walk along the couch. She feels so grown up.

Daddy has a really early schedule for work these days. He goes in at 4 AM and gets home just after lunch, which means he has the afternoon to play. He also likes to catch a nap in during this time on most days. When he is on the floor Megan loves to climb all over him (sometimes this wakes him up and sometimes it doesn't phase him at all).

August 8, 2007

I went an got professional pictures taken for Megan. She is the first of my children that I have done this for, but I had a free coupon and wanted to take advantage of it. They turned out so cute that I couldn't resist buying another print for $20 - I guess that is how they sucker you in.

July 19, 2007

Megan's first tooth came in. It's one of the front teeth on the bottom. This is the earliest any of my kids have gotten teeth so far. I don't have to worry about biting with her though because she stopped nursing about a month and a half ago. When we went to Hawaii my milk supply went down for a week or so (I thought I was going to have to stop there), but it came back. Only by then Megan had lost interest - I don't think it was fast enough for her. She pretty much weaned herself off (at just over 6 months). I was sad to end so early, but she was done. She takes the bottle easily and is eating other foods and is happy with that.

She has a pink blankie that she has really started to grow an attachment for. Up to this point she has been pretty happy with any blanket we give her, but now she is starting to know the difference. And she loves her little pink one.

July 11, 2007

We went to Utah with a quick jaunt up to Rexburg too. I drove up with the kids myself on Wednesday and Dad came with my family on Friday night. For such a short trip we sure packed in a lot of things. I stayed with Charity and Chad for a couple of nights. We went to visit Great, Great Grandma Blatter. Charity and Chad and I were crazy enough to hike up to Timpanogoas Caves on Friday with all three kids. Each of us carried a child for almost the entire way (I did have a child in my arms every step). I thought Caelan would walk for a bit, but she was pretty tired and kept complaning about her legs hurting. It was fairly hot outside too...and man, that hike is really a serious HIKE (uphill). We made it to the top and went into the caves at which point Megan lost all control. After about 8-10 minutes of trying to console her I had to take her out of the cave. So yes, I hikes all the way up carrying a child the whole way and didn't even get to see the caves. It's a good thing I've been through them before. I waited an hour for Charity and Chad to go through with Ben and Caelan and then we trekked down the mountain. That night we went to a birthday party for cousin Logan. The next day we went to the Nielson Family Reunion. We slipped out a little early to go to the baptism of our newest Uncle (Kelly) who was baptized by Dad. On Sunday all of the Sorensen family met at Brittney and Porters ward for the blessing of baby Launa. After the baby blessing we needed to get on the road. We convinced Aunt Melanie and Uncle Garrett to let us bring Genevieve home with us to stay for the next two weeks. We also ended up taking Caleb and Corbin home too. So we have had a houseful. What fun! Megan is loving all of the attention.

On the 4th of July we had a barbeque with the Armantrouts and played in the swimming pool. Then we headed over to the church parking lot to watch the fireworks. Megan was completely mesmerized. She wasn't afraid of the sound at all - she just watched in awe.

She loves to be standing (all the time), so she is very happy in her little saucer toy and walker toy in the backyard. She's gone in the pool a couple of times with us, but she doesn't like it for very long (it doesn't get very warm, so I think it is just too cold for her). But she loves being outside while the rest of us take a swim.

June 12, 2007

The cuteness that is Megan.

May 28, 2007

We took a trip down to CA. While we were there Dad and I went to Magic Mountain to play for the day, and Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen not only watched the kids, but took them to the Wild Animal Park. It was Megan's first experience with any zoo-like place. She didn't get too excited about the animals, but she sure did like being pushed around in the big wagon all day.

May 11, 2007

Megan can do a new trick that she thinks is quite neat. You know how I said she loves to put everything in her mouth? Well, she has even found a way to get her toe into her mouth...and she does this quite regularly. She likes it the best when her feet are bare.

Megan has been eating baby cereal for over a month now, and she just started branching out with some other fruits and vegetables (or whatever gets put in her mouth....or anywhere near her mouth). She pretty much likes it all!

April 20, 2007

I was taking a picture to put on a birthday card to send to Grandma Sorensen. Each of the kids was holding a paper that had a word. Since Megan is obsessed with putting things in her mouth that is right where the paper went. Caelan and Ben thought she was HILARIOUS!! It was a crack up.

April 15, 2007

Dad and I spent five days in Hawaii with some friends from the ward. When Sean first mentioned it to me I didn't really even consider it because Megan was still so young. But the more I thought about it the more I really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity (our friends were going through the temple for the first time there), and since Megan has been easily taking a bottle when I need her to (when I'm at mutual or stocking the water stores, etc), I figured she would probably be fine. So we did it. She has been sleeping through the night since she was about two months, but I guess she was a little out of her element because they said she woke up pretty often (and would then go back to sleep, but it wasn't a solid nights sleep). Lindsay and her became really close while she was there. Megan slept in the crib in Lindsay's room. Lindsay said that there were a couple of morning when she really needed to use the bathroom but she knew as soon as she moved Megan would be awake for the day....so she would hold it until she was just about to lose it....HE HE HE. In Lindsay's words, she and Megan "became tight like Sprite." We loved the trip, but were happy to get home to the kiddos.

April 8, 2007

Megan is loving bath time these days. She loves to lay in the water (just a couple of inches) and kick her legs like crazy. I can really get a shower if I'm not careful. And her legs are just so delicious when they are naked like that (all roly and poly). She also just started sitting up...and she is so happy about it. Now when there are toys on the floor in front of her she can easily reach down and grab them (and she currently loves to put ALL toys (and other things) in her mouth).

Feb 10, 2007

We took another trip down to Arizona - this time for Aunt Jenny and Uncle Kelly's wedding. They got married at Grandpa and Grandma Dick's house. We helped where we could, but most assignments were given out and taken care of, so we just spent a couple days enjoying time with family. Megan helped all the girls get beautified that morning (actually she was just content and happy so we could do so). Caelan and Ben were in the wedding. They walked down the aisle (Ben had his binkie in his mouth and was holding his blanket in one hand and a bag of Cheetos in the other). What a site. Megan got to meet her great Grandpa and Grandma Anderson, and they were thrilled that she let them hold her and love on her. And she gave some awesome giggles to everyone. She is very good like that.

Jan 20, 2007

Megan has started to chunk out. I think she has taken the longest of the three to fill out her 0-3 months clothes and move onto the next phase, but she is definitely getting there. Her little cheeks are getting so plump and full. She is full on giggling these days. She is happy and content. She has recently started to like being propped up on the couch or in a seat so that she she is sitting up and can see everything that is going on. So far she hasn't really tumbled over (although I'm sure that will come soon).

Jan 9, 2007

Megan is so lucky to have such a good big sister. Caelan LOVES to help out with Megan in any way that she can. She loves to hold her and give her her binkie and play with her. I let her stand up and carry her as long as we are close by. One day when Megan was just a few weeks old I came into the living room from the kitchen and noticed Caelan carrying her down the tile hallway. I calmly told her to make sure we are near when she stands up with the baby.