Baby Boy

It was a long almost 2 weeks waiting for Owen to come. Mom came on the 31st and my due date was June 3. He did not show up until June 10. So we went to the zoo, did a lot of sewing, sang songs, played outside, did a lot of walking, played in the kiddie pool, watched some movies and celebrated Peter's birthday while we waited. It was getting pretty miserable for me and I am sure Mom was worn out from telling the Big Mouth Frog story and singing Little Bunny Foo Foo one too many times.

But finally the day came and contractions continued so we headed to the hospital and delivered my first boy. Yeah! He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz and was 21.5 in long. It was a typical delivery for me, so no progress until the pain killers then suddenly the baby is crowning. Don't push, the doctors not ready yet. He was very healthy and has just been a sweet eating and sleeping machine. I am so happy to be done being pregnant for now and to finally have a sweet boy to add to our family. As you can tell from the pictures the girls and the Daddy are pretty pleased too. We chose to name him Owen Alun. Owen after Peter's Grandfather and Alun after James Allen with the Welsh spelling.

Carsten in his Prom tuxedo and sneakers

He had so much fun doing this.  His teacher, Mrs. Anderson, had this tuxedo and let us borrow it.  His rose was huge and beautiful.  The sneakers were a big hit with the high school students and teachers.  It was just me and Carsten, like a date.  :0)  I wore a matching black dress with white polka-dots.  He even got a remote controlled monster truck as a gift for his help.

McKays: grandma's birthday photo

McKays: grandma's birthday photo: "Grandma Haderlie turned 80.  We took this picture (at G.Bird's request) to send to her.  We love you!  I thought my kids migh..."

Addie's Hair Cut

Addie is styling!!  A girl on Brigham's basketball team had this adorable hair cut.  When I talked to her mom she said it was so easy to fix and fast to wash.  I thought that is exactly what Addie needed.  She loves it.  She can fix her own hair every morning(as long as I blow dry it after her shower) and wear the cutest hair bows.  Thanks Aunt Amy!  Her brothers want some of the spotlight too.

McKays: Louisville Zoo 11/12/10

McKays: Louisville Zoo 11/12/10: "So BIG! Maren is licking the glass.  What a goose!   Must be the closest I've ever stood to a tiger.  Wow! Easton and I at the sea lio..."

Blogging tech. update

A new way to share.  Now you can post here then click share to facebook or your own blog.  Try it out!

A homemade Christmas

Here are our exchange names.  A couple of us wanted to have our kids exchange with each other.  We might start that next year.  This year I'd encourage the kids to be involved in the homemade projects.  Have lots of fun!!  Remember when we used to do secret stockings.  That was so great!!

Mike's family has Johnny's family 

Jackson's has Katie's

Johnny's has Matt's

Katie's has Amy's

Matt's has Isaac

Amy's has Jackson's

Isaac has Mike's

;0) Funny how that worked out, all of us in a row sort of.  

Christmas xchange?

Christmas is Coming!!
So what should we do for gifts this year? Does anyone have any fun new ideas? Or would you all just like to draw names again, rotate? Any themes or price limits?

I think we should do a name draw and then give home made gifts.

What are your ideas. Time is getting close. Lets get this settled. Love you.

Adelein's Baptism 10-16-10

      Addie was double dunked!  The first try her hand  wasn't completely immersed.   Daddy baptized and confirmed her, Mom and Grandma Bird gave talks, her brothers sang "When I am Baptized" (Rainbows) with her.  Then we enjoyed the beautiful Fall day with a picnic lunch.  Since then she has been busily recording everything in her baptism journal.  Everything was so special, we wish you all could have been there.  She even wore the dress I wore for my baptism.  I love it when my kids make good choices!!  

Check out the licorice sword fight.

Look what we can do!

The girls have been getting much more adventurous the last few weeks. Lily and Maren have learned to climb the little tree in the back yard. I am scared of having more broken arms but I and not stopping their progress. Lily was very proud of herself tonight writing her name all alone. She called me in and said "Mom you're gonna love this" She must be practicing a lot when I am not around because when I ask her to write letters they look nothing like this. The last picture shows true life every day for us...Cute as can be and equally ornery.

picture update

Cousins are awesome!!

When do we get to play again?

We miss all of you!!!

Our Bird Story

Hello Bird Family.  We have started a blog for the Jackson & Rachel Bird family.  You can link to the blog site by several ways.  Either you can click on the link in the contributor column on this blog under Rachel - Arkansas or you can visit http://www.birdsatheart.blogspot.com/ and check us out.  I recently uploaded pictures from Jackson's recent elk hunt.  We want to do a better job keeping everyone updated on our lives and let you see pictures of our cute and growing family.  We love you all.

Hansen Happenings

Marie loves to smile for the camera.

She was so happy to have everyone so focused on her. She didn't like the hat much but the girls wouldn't let her take it off. So she tolerated it here.


Almost a month ago now Marie had her first birthday. What a fast year that was. The cake was delicious, of course chocolate. I love choosing everyone's treat flavors. Marie loved eating it and loved spearing it around to make the mess even more. We celebrated with friends at the Zoo and water park on her birthday and then Sunday had more friends to eat cake with us. Fun times.
We just got home from this years Stake Fall Festival. Peter felt good enough he manned our ward ball toss booth while the girls and I played for 3 hours. We played in the Scooby Dooo jumping booth, watched kids get dunked in the dunk tank, went Velcro fishing, played the cupcake walk and got faces painted. Lily was so happy to have a beautiful butterfly face. Maren liked getting her face painted but just kept wanting more so they gave her a ring and faked several other places on her face until she was satisfied. Funny girls. I am totally pooped!

33 weeks and husbandless:(

Today I am 33 weeks and next week I have an ultra sound with my specialist! I'm so excited to see my sweet little boy again but sad that Matt has to miss out. I don't know if everyone knows this yet but Matt had to go on a TDY(kind of like a mini deployment) as soon as we got back from Montana. He is in California at Edwards AFB. They keep having some set backs and are a week behind schedule. He hopes things will get better so that way he doesn't have to catch a last minute plane home to come meet his new little boy! If all goes well he should be home in the middle of Sept so keep us in your prayers!! For now I'm just trying to keep myself busy and make this baby hold off until daddy gets home! We love and miss you all very much! Hope everyone is doing much better!!

Stress Reliever

We dressed up for all of 20 minutes to celebrate Pioneer Day. But the girls thought it was fun. We took Mom to the zoo and found a new place where we could feed the Lorakeets. The girls thought it was fun and wanted to hold them like the baby chickens at Peters brothers house. The birds thought Moms hair was the perfect perch. Marie kept reaching for all the birds in the tree but never saw the ones a foot away from her. Thanks for coming to help and entertain us Mom. I love you. Peter is about the same as he was when we left Missouri. He is going to physical therapy 3 times a week and will see a neurosurgeon soon. So hopefully things will start to improve more quickly.

Easton's Blessing

Sherry found James' blessing outfit for Easton to wear.  It fits him really well, it's just funny for our fourth son to get the outfit instead of the first.  We sure are glad to pass it on though.  James, Grandpa Bird, Uncle Isaac, President Turner, and a friend Bro. Nichols were in the circle.  It was a very special blessing.
This makes me think of the song "Fathers Are So Special . . . with a very special love."

Easton is our biggest baby which is probably a good thing.  With his crazy, rowdy, older siblings he will have to hold his own.  It's neat to see how similar each baby is and yet how different.  Each spirit is so special and individual, but as far as looks, they've all got MCKAY stamped in their genes.

It is such an amazing blessing to have a family.  Knowing we are sealed for eternity makes every day more full of joy.  We love you! 

A CAST!!

Those stinking monkeybars!!  We must have forgotten to feed Addie her banana because she wasn't very monkey like.  She fell on her wrist on Sat.  It wasn't feeling any better on Tues. so we took her in.  It was a small crunched area on the outside of her wrist.  That was 2 weeks ago.  All they had was white casts, a little disappointing for Addie.  So her artist mother used it like a canvas.  She loves it and is excited to show it to everyone.  She let her family and some of her friends sign the back.  Today she went to get it checked with James and came home with just a little brace.  The doc said it was healed enough to let her swim and that way she wouldn't miss out on too much summer.  I think that was the easiest and shortest cast and am thankful for a healthy happy family.  She said "Now she has something fun for show and tell next school year."

Hospital Peter

You can get a photo play-by-play of the water baseball game on Peter's sister Katie's blog at http://deargoodness.blogspot.com She got a shot of Peter on the ground just after the fall. These pictures were taken after the first couple days. You can see how much Lily had been missing and worried about her Daddy. You can just see the facial slackness and eye problems in these pics.
His blood thinness is finally in the correct range. It just needs to stay there and he will be able to be released. I can't wait to get back to my own house, but I am so glad this happened by his family instead of in Kentucky.

We made it back from vacation in colorado. We had a great time. The highlight was floating down the Arkansas River. We found a rafting company that would take Bowen even though he is only 4 (they said the youngest age was 5), but since he wasn't scared of water and fit in the life jacket they took us. We did a 14 mile float over a lot of rapids. At one point Bowen - who was dressed as a giant banana in his yellow wet suit- said "Now this is what I call white water rafting, let's get this show on the road!". He said this as we were going through the 'shark tooth' rapids, it was so rough our paddles would not reach the water! Brendan and Brice had a blast too. Brice had a wet suit on too and looked like a skinny little walking stick - he was funny.

We had lots of fun and are now dreading going back to work.

Easton Arwell McKay

Yippee!  He's here!!!         8lbs. 6oz.     20 in.     A healthy, happy baby.

Easton was breach when I went to my last appointment.  He had been head down and dropped for over a week.  So it was a surprise to us all that he decided to be a gymnist and flip around.  The doctor sent me right over to labor and delivery for an ultrasound to confirm his position and an attempt to turn him.  The turning attempt was put off a few times for other mothers who were in more emergency situations.  By the time we were ready to try I was in labor.  The turning didn't go well when there was only 4 minutes between contractions.  Blood pressure and heart beat dropped so we headed to a c-section.  All went well, it just wasn't what I was planning on.  I had to be doubly dosed with the epidural to be numb which made the next day or two miserable.  That stuff just stays in my system and I couldn't get out of bed for what seemed like forever.  Thankfully much better today so I can enjoy being a mommy again!