{the past few days}

how crazy is it to think that TODAY is the day max was supposed to be born?! we feel like he has been around forever and feel so blessed that he decided to show up a few days ahead of schedule. we were able to leave the hospital monday, but were in no hurry to get home because it's kind of nice being taken care of and pampered by the hospital staff. so we took it easy, and took lots of pictures of our little man. the outfit we brought for him was a little bit big on him so we took a picture of him in it and then just used a blankie for his lower half.



i am absolutely in love with him, and i love playing with his little feet. they are adorable.



we left the hospital around 1:30 pm and max loved the car ride home. {he doesn't like being put into his carseat, but once we get going he doesn't make a peep!}



life has been a little crazy since we got home on monday, but we are surviving and slowly learning how to be the best parents we can be to this little guy. monday after arriving home we spent the day napping, eating, and oohing and ahhing over every little thing max did. {he is pretty entertaining!} we went to bed expecting a restful night, but apparently that isn't what max had in mind. the second the lights turned off, he was WIDE awake...and didn't want to sleep for another thirty minutes. then, around 3:30 he woke up and stayed that way until 5:30. danny was supposed to get up at six for seminary but next thing we both knew it was 8 and danny had almost slept through his entire first period! luckily danny works with a very understanding staff--and they all welcomed him to daddy-hood.

last night went much better than monday night so i'm hoping that from here on out it will continue to get a little easier to sleep. but either way, we wouldn't trade our little guy for anything in the world.

Maxwell Scott McKinley

September 26, 2009

1:13 pm
7 lbs. 5 oz.
20 in.

DRUM ROLL..........

HE HAS ARRIVED!!



our happy little family! {apparently max listened to my pleas and decided to surprise everyone by showing up early! boy are we glad he did!}

{six hours earlier...}



this is us just hanging out waiting for everything to go down (not literally, well, kinda)


this is how happy jess was, not nervous at all. and me getting excited for the baby.



one of the first pictures ever taken of his cute self.



first time parents. love at first sight.



minutes after birth, they whisked him away to hook him up to a nasal cpap machine. his lungs were having a hard time expanding fully so they attached this little device to him. not only that, but they had to insert a thin little tube into his stomach to get out a bunch of junk. after two hours they finally brought him back to me! {danny got to go hold him after the first hour...but not me}



adoring our little guy. we sure do love him. LOTS.



this is just minutes after he was born. i'm still amazed that he is mine.



his fingernails are extremely long...and he loves clawing himself...so he gets to wear these little mittens {boxing gloves as danny calls them}. but we think he looks pretty cute.



danny changing his FIRST diaper. EVER. he did a fantastic job, and he is already a pro {because max is a pro pooper!}



he loves sticking out his tongue! {but don't worry...his eyes aren't always cross-eyed}



our little burrito baby. we could just eat him up!



baby's first bath. he screamed the entire time



and this is our little angel.

we love our max and couldn't be happier about how wonderful the entire "labor day" went. {more details to come}

{tick.tock}

one. two. three. four. five. six.

days until baby mckinley
is supposed to be joining our family.
{but in case you are listening baby, i wouldn't mind one bit if you decided to come a little earlier...}

according to my doctor, this baby in my belly is NOT going to be born in september. at this point in a pregnancy, that is not something a soon-to-be mommy wants to hear. he says "october is a great month! and conference weekend is even better..." {also something a soon-to-be mommy does not want to hear!} up to FIVE days late??? not cool.

i'm trying to stay positive about that because who knows, maybe i'll prove him wrong. maybe i'll go into labor tonight. maybe my water will suddenly break and i'll have to rush into the hospital.

but...maybe not. either way, i'm glad to know that our baby should be happy and healthy...whenever he decides to come!

until then, we are trying to fill our lives with productive activities. in the past few days danny and i have canned twelve quarts of fresh grape juice straight off the vine, i finished my quilt, {which will be a blog post all to itself very soon...it has quite the story behind it...} my bff threw me an awesome baby shower, {which will also have its own blog post} and we've gotten a few more things checked off the to-do list for baby. {pictures all to come very soon!}

so, for all of you waiting to receive the text/blog post saying "HE'S HERE!!" you may have to wait just a little bit longer.

i'm up for trying anything to get him to come though...any suggestions???

{homecoming 2009}

i have got one sweet husband.

he is working at timpview high school as a seminary teacher and this past weekend was their homecoming game. since a few of his students are on the football team, he wanted to go and cheer them on.

so he asked me to homecoming.



we went to the game for the first half {when we left timpview was beating orem 19-0} and then he took me out to pizza factory for a much needed date.



i love him. he is so thoughtful, especially during these last few days {can you BELIEVE that?!?! we are down to N.I.N.E. days.} when i am suuuuper uncomfortable and just want this baby boy to come out!

{free hair cut!}

hello, hello! i hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are getting ready to welcome fall {right around the corner...} for any of you that are in the provo/orem area and are in need of a hair cut, listen up!

my cute sister, alli, is going to hair school at renaissance academy in provo. on september 30 she needs a few assistant models for a hair cut and/or color.

if any of you are interested, send me a comment via this blog, and i'll get you her contact info so you can set everything up {or ask any questions that you may have!}

{jon schmidt}

last saturday was practically perfect. i got to spend the evening with my husband, while listening to jon schmidt perform his amazing songs, all while being surrounded by {man-made} waterfalls at thanksgiving point. not bad, huh?

i got the tickets for danny and i to {continue} celebrating our anniversary. the show started at seven, so we left provo around 5:40. we were NOT expecting it to be even half as crowded as it was!! it took about twenty-thirty minutes to get to thanksgiving point just from the freeway exit! it was insane. once we were out of our car, we had to stand in a line that was foreverrrrr long {see pictures below...}



it was all well worth it though. we made it into the waterfall amphitheater at about 7:10 and jon didn't come out until quarter to 8 because they still hadn't gotten everyone through the gates yet. some band went before him...they were a little crazy...but it was fun.




i've never been to one of his concerts before, but danny has, and he definitely did not disappoint! who would have ever thought a piano player could be so entertaining?? i didn't! yeah, in the picture below he is playing up-side down. his latest song, love story meets love story {a remix of taylor swift's song} is a definite fav of mine. and he played it twice! not only that, but when he played his song "waterfall," they turned on all of the waterfalls behind him...it was pretty sweet. he is one incredibly talented man though, along with his cello player. holy cow.



we didn't want to have to sit in traffic for an hour after the concert, so we stayed and read a little catching fire. can't you just see how excited danny is to read that book?? yeah, it's that good. for any of you harry potter fans out there, read this. {i know i've already recommended this book TWICE on my blog...if you're smart, you'll go get it!}



thank you sweetheart, for making date night so fantastic! i love you.

{WHOA}

i just received this email from babycenter.com:

"Congratulations! Your baby is full-term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away. He weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long."

WHOA.

how crazy is that?? this little guy can join us at any moment, and everything will be ok. i'm feeling a little overwhelmed by it all--i feel like this pregnancy has just FLOWN by. but i'm also feeling extremely excited. i can't wait to kiss his little hands and feet and see his beautiful face for the first time.

{goodies}

it is probably one of my all-time favorite things to receive a little something in the mail. i remember when i was little, living in arizona, i was the designated "mail retriever." i don't know why; probably because i got the most excitement out of it compared to any other member of my family. i would always forget to put on my shoes so the cement would burn my little toes as i ran to our mailbox, key in hand. not many people mail letters to a six-year-old girl, but when i did get something, i was happier than ever.

same holds true for today. {except for the fact that the mail man occasionally delivers unwanted bills with my name written on the envelope...} the past few days however, he has brought nothing undesirable--quite the opposite actually.

first, i received these adorable hand-made shoes from my cousin's wife, jessica. i have no idea how someone even BEGINS to go about making a pair of baby shoes...but these definitely turned out super cute. thank you jess for being so thoughtful and thinking of us!! we LOVE them.

and just yesterday i got another little goodie in the mail from this sweet girl, marie. a while back she did a give-away on her blog...and i was the winner! i got to pick out an adorable t-shirt {hand designed/sewn by marie} and boy was i excited to see this package from the post man. isn't it CUTE???

thanks to both of you for being so sweet and sending me such fun goodies in the mail!
it made my week.

p.s. happy 9-9-09! make a wish at 9:09 a.m. it'll only come around once!

we didn't start the fire...

all i have to say is:

you should read this book.

you're = your...psych!

ok, let me preface this by saying that idon't even pretend to be a grammar whiz. idont even capitalize my i's or put spaces between them and other words. but there are a couple things that mainly my friend caleb perkins does that are grammatically incorrect that bug me; and so many other people make these same mistakes that idecided to write a blog about it. ps this is danny.

1) you're = your...psych! it doesn't. you're is a conjunction (shout out to school house rock!) for 'you' and 'are' and it does not imply possession of something.

2) to = too...psych again! it doesn't. idon't even know where to start with this one. ex: a friend says he is attending a certain party and you say: we are going TO the party TOO. notice the difference? ex: my wife says she loves me even after imake this ridiculous blog post, and i say: ilove you TOO. iguess icould have said ilove you TOO much to say, but icouldn't have said ilove you TO much to express.

3) are = our...you get the point!

4) its = it's...nope! this one doesn't follow the norm. "it's" does NOT show possession and is just a conjunction of "it" and "is." "its" shows possession. listen to my first example: it's too late to go play ticket to ride (notice i'm saying IT IS too late...). if you're talking about your dog's bone you couldn't say: where is it's bone? (you are really saying where is IT IS bone?) weird huh? "where is its bone?" is the correct answer.

this blog is to tell caleb istill love him and we still want to be invited to ticket to ride night! the blog-off has begun a long time ago my friend, where is your response?

and here are a few pics just to keep jenny entertained since she doesn't read my posts because they are too long, sorry jenny.

grandma with her son and his son

mama and daddio, aren't they hot?!

me and greg trying to surf!

{friday night date}

so i have this goal to write a blog post every day until little max is born.

...

it is now 11:08 p.m. and i haven't written anything yet. dang. i'll keep it short and sweet because i am one tired pregnant girl {and i don't even have any sweet pictures to put up from our outing yesterday evening...} but last night we got together with our awesome friends caleb & lauren and emily & elliot. we met up at the olive garden at 8:30 and took advantage of the all-you-can-eat pasta/breadsticks/salad that they have going on right now. little did we know our waiter was going to be the sloooowest waiter ever {and that he would spill my drink ALL over the table/floor} so we didn't walk out until about 10:30. but the food was good and it was fun talking and laughing with our friends.

then we went to caleb and lauren's for some ticket to ride!! i have this winning streak whenever we play with them, but last night lauren and i tied fair and square. {i still have yet to lose...}

life is pretty darn good though. and, if this baby comes when the doctor's say he will, we've only got 25 more days to go!!

{full moon lift ride}

last night danny and i

went with our friends:

emily & elliot



and braden & shara



to sundance to ride the ski lift during the full moon.

it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. {and the coldest!} we brought jackets, borrowed braden's blanket, and sipped yummy hot cocoa with TONS of whipped cream on the way up to keep warm {it's crazy how much colder it is up in the mountains}. the moon was super bright, so you could see for miles and miles. pretty cool.



there were quite a few people who had the same idea as us but it was still way fun {and romantic}. danny kept taking pictures and it was hurting my eyes...so i closed them and we ended up with this beautiful picture:



emily and elliot brought delicious brownies {which they decided to throw at us during the ride}.





and afterwards we stopped in at a little shop so i could go to the bathroom {it's awesome having a bladder the size of a pea...} but the boys were able to find these beauties:



...and i found this one: {can you believe how HUGE my belly is getting?!?}



last, but not least, elliot had the grand idea of having a contest to see who could keep their feet in the ice, cold river the longest {yeah...he's pretty smrt.} braden and elliot were the only two who actually wanted to play...and even though it was elliot's idea, he chickened out first. good effort though.



thanks for the fun night, all! we had a blast.