My heart…

....belongs to Wyatt.




I feel like I haven’t posted about my sweet baby in sometime. Dax is so easy to post about. Every day Dax is learning new words and phrases and doing something crazy to make us laugh. He is wild and carefree and still oh so daring! He’s humorous and loving and he makes my heart melt when he looks at me with those big big eyes. I just love him.

But my Wyatt is no different.

He too is learning something new everyday and getting so big! He thankfully has conquered his crazy cat nap ways (cross your fingers) and he loves to spend his time hanging out on his belly. He evens sleeps on his stomach now too, one of my favorite things. I love seeing his little diaper bum up in the air! He rolls over in a blink of an eye and just today I laid him down and before I had put water in the pot on the stove, he was onto the tile, at least three complete rolls away. Dax gets such a thrill at making Wyatt laugh, but we don’t spoil it for Dax and tell him that Wyatt smiles, laughs and coo’s for anyone, or anything he can see. He truly is such a happy little guy.

I love his face. His chubby cheeks, his little nose. He has the biggest eyes that turn red when he’s tired and his lips make the perfect O shape when he’s talking. His hair is still super light and his eyes are a beautiful blue. He cries real tears now, but we don’t see those too often. When he’s awake, either he’s smiling or I’m smiling and I can just tell, this little guy is going to have my heart for a long, long time.

The Pool

Last week Dax started his first swimming lessons ever. You may think it’s a bit early to start swimming; it is only May. But, as the weather gets warmer and warmer, the pool is more and more refreshing. In fact, last Monday, on his first day of lessons, it was a whopping 108 outside!! I’m kinda a whimp when it comes to cold water, but even I wanted to get in the pool!

Dax was SUPER excited. The lessons are right around the corner from us, and there are 4 little boys in his class, one being his cousin Kruz. Miss Katie, their cute swim teacher, lead the boys straight to the water and Dax excitedly jumped onto the top step and played with the rings to wait for his turn. She taught them how to kick, pushed them under water and find the wall and how to monkey walk. Dax only swallowed a little water before he caught on to closing his mouth. The first day was a huge success! He was happy, energetic, loved splashing around and even said that swimming was so fun.

Then day two rolled around……

Tantrums flared, screaming started, he was jumping up and down and not in an excited way and yelling for me to come and get him. “I want out pwease mommy!” The pool is fenced in so all us moms sat on the bench and tried to ignore the screaming. Once one started panicking it was a chain reaction. They all looked like they were behind prison bars wondering why we were just sitting there and not moving to rescue them. At each turn Dax would go straight to Miss Katie and have his turn and do awesome, but as soon as he made it back to the step, the water works would start all over again.

Day three was a little better. Then day four and five were cancelled because of a crazy storm that rolled in. Yesterday was the first day back and I think he would have been fine, except the water felt like the ocean but without the waves from all the rain. Even Miss Katie was in a full wetsuit!! Dax was shivering from head to toe and had purple lips.

But, even with all those distractions and between all that screaming, he’s getting it. He’s flapping his arms and kicking his legs and you better believe he is closing his mouth. Every lesson he gets taken a little further back from the wall and some how he makes it there and finds it. He isn’t afraid to put his head in the water anymore and he isn’t afraid to jump to Miss Katie. At the end of each lesson, he gets a sucker. I think that makes it all worth it. And, as long as he is happy at the end, it makes me feel like it was all worth it putting him through that torture! I love to hear what he has to say as we drive home and his eyes are red from the chlorine and his nose is running and he is still taking big gasps from crying so hard.

When I showed Dax these pictures, here is what he said.....

“I a swim in the big big pool like a Dooooory! (Finding Nemo”) “I a do a monkey walk!”

“That water is so cold!” (and he shivers as he's sitting on my lap)

"I a close my mouff and reach for the whall"

"Dax crying." Why? "'Cause I swimmin' in the big big pool"

Yup, that about sums it up!

The Classics

Pictures are priceless. They bring back memories, put smiles of faces, remember the good ol’ days. Pictures are classic. There are the ones that will be your favorite for years down the road, that capture the moment, the personality, perfectly.

It’s almost guaranteed when you look through a baby’s album, there will be those traditional shots that will be captured in every single baby book you look in. For example, there will always be the first day of school shots. I know my mom has mine, and what a hoot it is to look at them! Most likely you’ll find pictures of the first steps, pictures of the child screaming with Santa Clause, pictures of a child running around in their diaper outside, pictures in the snow, in the pool, their first trip to Disneyland. You’ll most likely see pictures in the bath tub, in their Easter dress, at their school talent show, swinging on the swings, and learning to ride their bike. These are all classics. As a mom, you know you always take them, you don’t want to forget that memory.

Well, for me, for some reason, there is another category that is a classic. No matter how old Dax gets, I still have to pull out the camera for this one. I know one day he’ll outgrow it. It most definitely will not always be cute. In fact, I probably only have a few more years of this shot before it gets so NOT cute. But for right now, when he does this, when he looks this way, it always causes me to pull out the camera. I’m not exactly sure why. I’m not sure if it is the sly little smile, or the twinkle in his eye, or the joy you can tell he is getting out of looking this way. Either way, whatever it is, I love it!! See what I mean?

My mom has always told me that I was her piggiest eater. If there is one thing that Dax takes after me, it's that he is a piggy eater too...and to me, it's adorable! Next month, we'll start Wyatt on cereal and I'm sure I'll have a million pictures of his cute, messy face as well.

What shots of your kids can you never resist to take a picture of?

The Backyard

It has been a long time since I have been able to enjoy a backyard…...

Growing up, I was lucky enough to live in the same house in HB for the first 18 years of my life. When I was 4 or 5, although we lived a ½ mile from the ocean, my parents put in a pool. I spent so many summers swimming around watching my hair turn green. I use to pretend our little Jacuzzi attached to the pool was my own personal swim area. As I got older, we made up the craziest, funnest games to play. I can remember boys jumping from our roof into the pool. Something I never did, but witnessed many times. We always had end of the school year parties and end of the season sports parties. We had a HUGE light in the back that would light up our entire cul-de-sac and then the next morning we would find hundreds of June bugs dead in the water. Gross I know, but they just meant we spent the night swimming under the moon with great company.

My backyard had a little playhouse nestled in the corner that my dad and grandpa built. It had little pavers walking up to it, a door with a lock and cute little windows. When my mom would make curtains for our house, she would use the scraps to make curtains for the playhouse. And when pieces of furniture got too old or dingy for our house, they were moved to the playhouse. We loved re-decorating that playhouse. We didn’t too much care for the bugs that found their way inside, but overall it was a great place to run and play.

Every summer we had a great big garden with string beans, cherry tomatoes, squash, zucchini, corn on the cob, you name it. I spent so many hours sitting on the brick retaining wall picking weeds, and I’m sure a few occasional plants, and watering that garden. On the opposite side of the yard we had a huge area with raspberry bushes. We loved picking them and putting them straight in the pool to “wash them” off and right into our mouths. These raspberries made the best jam, malts and ice cream toppings.

My backyard was where the opossums fell into the trashcans, where we sat on lawn chairs and played cards on summer nights, where we took pictures before high school dances, where we would rinse off all the sand after being at the beach. It is full of so many memories. I am so grateful for those memories.

I didn’t realize how grateful I was for that backyard until now—10 years later. Since I left for college at 17, now 10 years later, this is the first time I have had the chance to enjoy a backyard. Between college dorms and apartments, married campus housing, basements and so forth, I have not had a backyard of my own to enjoy. Granted, our house in Utah did have a great big yard, there was just nothing fencing it in. That kinda defeats the purpose if you ask me.

Now finally, we have our backyard! And only recently have I learned how important it is for a little child to have a backyard so he can start having those memories about this house that I have of my first house. It is Dax’s favorite place to play. We spend at least an hour out there each afternoon. There’s nothing fancy about it. Grass, a sand box, his playhouse, some planters, and a little baby orange tree, but this is completely Dax’s territory. He has the freedom to throw, to run, to kick, to jump, anything he wants. The baby pool from last summer has been replaced by the 8 foot slip ‘n slide this summer. And maybe next summer that will be replaced by the blow up water slide at Costco. The activities in the backyard will keep changing as the kids keep growing. Whatever they are, I am so happy that we have a backyard. Dax may not remember the fun he had these first few years, but I know I will always remember how much I loved watching him play in the backyard.

The 'Scary' Quiet

Have you ever had one of those moments where your mind is telling you one thing, but your body is doing something completely different? That's happened to me....many a times. Almost daily.

Well, yesterday was no exception.

It was very quiet. You would think I would be rejoicing in the fact that I managed to get both boys down and successfully sleeping at the same time, and time that both were sleeping had past the horrible half-hour mark when Wyatt thinks he is ready to wake up and is rearing to go---this boy thrives on the cat nap. Happily, we had already had that kind of quiet earlier in the day where I took great advantage and sat on the couch and watched three television programs and ate a post-lunch lunch. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that, but since it doesn't happen as often as I'd like, I'm okay with it.

It was the other kind of quiet. The quiet when your 2 year old is awake and playing, you're in another room, and you can't hear them. The scary quiet. I run when this happens. Dax is anything but quiet. He crashes cars loud, yells "TIMMMMMBEEERRRRR" loud when building high high towers with his block, jumps off furniture loud, and sings songs loud. And usually it happens to be taking place right next to me. There aren't many times throughout the day that Dax isn't within an arms distance reach. I've mentioned this before. He doesn't need me playing with him or isn't shy and scared to be away from me, he's just the first born that follows his mom from room to room.

But, yesterday, this wasn't the case. I was in our bedroom and Dax was awake, and it was quiet. The TV wasn't on, he wasn't outside, and he was quiet. I wanted to move. I knew I needed to move. Every fiber told me to go check on him to see what he was up too. He's getting smarter these days...it is causing more trouble. But my body couldn't move. I knew I was going to pay for it later, but I could not move. I couldn't jinx those quiet, still, precious moments of peace.

It didn't last long. Five or ten minutes maybe and he came bounding into my room, "Hi mom, what are you doing?" I asked him the same thing and couldn't get any answer that made sense. I went to the front room where I knew he was playing, and found no evidence of foul play. Everything looked as it should be. Nothing was broken, nothing was cut, and nothing was drawn on the walls. I was feeling pretty good. But what had he been up to?

It wasn't until I downloaded my pictures off my camera from this weekend that I instantly realized what he had been up to.




What a crack up! He only took five pictures, and these are three of them. The funniest part is he turned on the camera, turned it onto himself, and got it to take black and white pictures. I can barely do that half the time! I was actually kinda impressed. If a camera can keep him quiet in another room for a few minutes, I'm all for it.

Needless to say, today's errands include a stop at Walgreens for a disposable camera just for Dax.

The Pecans

Yesterday we had our contest winning photo shoot with Mindy! We had so much fun! We met her in a beautiful custom home development right here in Queen Creek where lots for these homes costs more than our house! It was the perfect setting and the perfect atmosphere for pictures. There was a perfect office with great big wrought iron and wooden doors, stone walls, curvy paths lined with trees, a clock tower, bright green grass and rows of stunning flowers. Mindy was everything we expected and more!! She was so great with Dax and just let him dictate the pace and the style of the shoot. He didn’t really want to stay in one place too long and had a TON of…let’s call it, energy. How does that happen even with no nap? Mindy captured everything we had hoped! It was pretty difficult to get a shot of Dax and Wyatt together, especially with Dax having no interest in holding his brother and Wyatt not sitting up yet, but some how Mindy managed to capture the two of them in what might just be my favorite picture of the bunch. It is featured on her photography site’s home page. How cool is that? Check it out for yourself and let me know your favorites. I need help picking our 2 free 8 x 10’s.

Go to http://www.mindykiddphotography.com/ and enter the site. Click on CLIENTS and enter macgillivray for the password.

Thank you again Mindy for your time and talent! You are truly truly great at what you do! How did we wind up so lucky to win your fun contest?! We can't wait for the next one! :)

...brings May flowers

Happy May! Sadly, May flowers around our house means fake flowers. Dax loves to smell flowers but also has a little issue with jumping from one flower bush to the next like leap frog. Who knows where he comes up with these things. Wyatt wanted to eat these flowers anyway, so I guess it's a good thing they're fake. Wishing everyone happy wishes this month!

11th: Happy Mother's Day

17th: Happy Birthday Grandma Kreipl, Jennifer and Melody

26th: Happy Birthday Dad and Happy Memorial Day

27th: Happy Birthday Miki