Birthdays and Grandparents

On Sunday my parents left our house and headed back to Idaho. It was so nice having them out here. They were so helpful. I was really sad to see them go and so was McKinley. She is still asking where Grandma and Grandpa are all the time.



My parents were such a great help. My dad cooked almost every meal and while he was out here he built some shelves for bretts desk and a barbie doll house for McKinleys birthday. Meanwhile my mom did laundry, cleaned, and helped with McKinley and Annabelle a lot.
We have been so lucky to have so much help since we had the baby. Bretts parents came out the week we had Annabelle to help. All the extra help has been wonderful. Having our parents out visiting made us want to move closer to home even more. We really miss our family.
While my parents were out we celebrated our birthdays. Brett was really excited about all of the great tools he got and I am really excited about my new sewing machine, and having my parents out to celebrate my birthday with me made the day even more perfect.
We got some family pictures while my parents were here. They aren't great, but they will have to do until I am willing to leave the house with Annabelle.


Thanks again to both sets of parents for coming out to help. We really appreciated your help.
P.S.- McKinley has been enjoying the slippers you left Grandpa.

Anna"Baby"

Annabelle turned 4 weeks old yesterday. I can't believe how much she is growing and changing already. Today I tried to put one of her baby outfits on her and it was an inch to short. I knew she had gained some weight, but I hadn't realized she had gotten so much longer. She is such a good baby. We are so blessed to have her in our home.

Our Cute Girls

I haven't been able to update my blog lately. Two children are definately more difficult then one. My mom helped me get some pictures taken of the girls today. It was quite the battle, but we got a few cute ones.

I love watching McKinley with Annabelle. I can tell these 2 are going to be best friends.

Big Sister

For the past few months I've been very worried about how McKinley would adjust to having a sister. She has been the center of attention in our home for a long time. I was afraid that McKinley wasn't going to like her new sister, but I was wrong. McKinley loves her Anna"Baby". She loves her so much that we really have to watch her when she is around Annabelle. We'll find her trying to pick Annabelle up or laying on her giving her kisses. She loves to give Annabelle kisses and she loves to show Annabelle how she does big girl things.


Today we had one of our friends drop off a baby present for Annabelle. She brought her an activity center. We had McKinley show Annabelle how to use it. McKinley was very excited to help Annabelle use her new toy. (Thanks for the fun present Sue)


We've enjoyed watching McKinley step into her big sister role. Annabelle is so lucky to have such a great big sister.

Annabelle Jo

At 4:54 PM on December 30 we welcomed baby Annabelle Jo Maxfield into our family. Everything went very well, and both mom and baby are home and doing well. Well, enough talking, here are the pictures that I know everyone is really wanting to see.

Christmas

What a great Christmas! Originally we had hoped to spend Christmas in Idaho with our family this year, but doctors don't let you travel at 40 weeks pregnant. Even though we just had a quiet Christmas here with the 3 of us, it was still wonderful. Since Brett is in school we knew that this was going to be a small Christmas. A few months ago we found this cute kitchen set and shopping cart at an outlet store for McKinley. I have been so excited to give it to her for Christmas. We also got her a little princess tea set and an MP3 player. Even though we were on a much tighter budget this year, I think she got more for christmas this year than any other. She loved all of her presents. She has been cooking us food and having tea parties with us non-stop since Christmas. One of her favorite presents was her high heels that she got from her cousin Mason. She is always wearing them. We can't even get her to take them off to go to bed.

On Christmas Eve we watched the Polar express and then decorated Christmas cookies.

Before we went to bed we let McKinley open a present. She got some new princess pajamas, and she was very excited about them until we said that she could wear them to bed. She put her pajamas back in the box and tried to re-wrap them. Apparently she wasn't ready for bed yet. Once we explained that Santa wouldn't come until she was asleep she was willing to put on her new pajamas.

I think this was my favorite Christmas yet. Mainly because we got to spend the day together as a family, but also because I loved watching McKinley's face light up as she opened her presents. Kids sure do make Christmas fun. This year McKinley finally was old enough to understand what was going on, and she was so excited for Christmas. MP3 player-$10. Seeing the excitement on McKinley's face when she heard it playing her favorite disney songs- Priceless!

Some other exciting news is that I hit my due date today. My baby countdown is on zero. However, it would be more exciting if I actually had a baby. My doctor has been telling me the baby would come "Any Day Now" for weeks. She also told me that she didn't think I would make it to my due date. Well, I guess I proved her wrong. So does that mean the jokes on her or me? I'm scheduled to be induced on Tuesday. So one way or the other the baby will be here by then. Bretts parents are flying in tomorrow, so they will be here to help for the next week. It will be nice to have someone here to take care of McKinley while I'm in the hospital. We'll let everyone know when the baby comes. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Christmas Countdown

I can't believe that Christmas is a week and a half away. This is going to be an extra special Christmas for us. This Wednesday Brett's little brother Tom is coming home from his mission. We are so excited because Brett's parents and his little brother are going to come out and visit us the week after Christmas. We can't wait to see Tom! My due date is also sneaking up on us. Last week when I saw the doctor she told me that the baby could come any time now. I hit my 38 week mark yesterday, which is how far along I was when I had McKinley. However, I have a feeling this baby is going to hang in there until the end. Whether or not we have a new addition to our family yet Christmas is going to be great. Mainly because Brett actually has that day off, but also because McKinley has hit that age where she is really excited about Christmas. Every morning when we wake up McKinley will turn on the Christmas tree lights. If we leave the house, even just for a few minutes, she comes home and runs over to the Christmas tree and gives it a hug. Then she tells it how much she missed it.


On Friday night we had our Ward Christmas Party. It was a lot of fun, and we had a special visit from Santa Clause. McKinley was so excited when we told her that we were going to see Santa, but I thought she would be to afraid to sit on his lap. I was wrong. It was fun to watch her face light up when Santa walked into the room.



In the last week McKinley has become addicted to the movie the "Polar Express". She wants to watch it all the time, and when she isn't watching it she is walking around the house singing the hot chocolate song. On Saturday when we told her that we were going to ride the polar express she was so excited. We went with some of our friends to Crossroads Village. It was a lot of fun. While we were waiting for our turn on the train we walked around the village and visited Santa Clause and we saw a real reindeer.




It was such a fun night. Thanks for letting us tag along with you Hinds family, that made it even more fun.



This last picture is for my mom. She keeps asking for me to take a picture of myself while I'm as big as a barn. So here is a picture of me at 38 weeks.

I hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season. What a wonderful time of year.