Merry Christmas!

It seems like this time of year always passes in fast forward. It's already Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is Christmas. How did that happen?
Christmas is my favorite. I love absolutely everything about it. I love the music, the lights, the tree, the treats, the chilly weather (which we've actually had a little more of down here this year), finding the perfect presents for the people I love, and most importantly celebrating the birth of our Savior. I'm grateful for this season. I'm grateful it provides an occasion for all of my very favorite things. For a whole season full of magic and giving, remembering years past with my family and dear friends and creating new memories too. Inside I'm still a little girl. I still get excited on Christmas Eve. I know what's coming and I still find it hard to sleep. I sort of hope that I always feel that way. My mom made Christmas so magical while we were growing up. I'm so excited to be able to create that magic for my little boy! Merry Christmas everyone!
Love,
Kim, Glenn, and Tate

Sleeping

I didn't want to jinx it earlier by actually recording it, but Tate has been sleeping ALL NIGHT LONG for the past few weeks! Yep, that's right folks, at nine and a half months old Tate started sleeping from 8pm to at least 7am. Before that he was still waking up at 4, 5, or 6 and screaming for a while. It's wonderful! We've been all over the place for the last six months of his life so it's been hard to get him on a schedule and to feel like we can let him just cry and figure out when it's okay to be awake when we're at other people's houses or in an apartment with thin walls! We got home after Thanksgiving and felt like we could let him get himself back to sleep. So we did. It only took 3 nights for him to figure it out and he's been sleeping through the night since. Oh I love being in my own house.

It's funny how I have everything figured out for just a short period of time before things change again. Tate has a set schedule. He gets tired at about the same times for naps. He eats around the same times, and he goes to bed at the same time. And for just a week or two I think I have it down. All figured out. Then it changes again. These past two weeks he has been so much more mobile and has decided that he'd rather play than take a nap. He gets grumpy, rubs his eyes, and fusses around "nap time" so I put him in his crib. Then he plays, chats, scoots around the edge of his crib, and fusses for an hour or more before he decides that he's ready to actually fall asleep. What's with that? He eventually does give up and he takes good long naps, but I feel really bad just listening to him and waiting for him to give it up and get his rest. So I am, again, trying to figure him out.

Here's how I often find Tate when I go to settle him back down during "nap time". He has discovered that he can take off his socks and his pants too if they are big on him. So he does. Pretty much all the time. Then sometimes he throws his clothes and his pacifier out of the crib and then cries because he sees them out there and he can't reach them. Silly boy.

Tate at 44 weeks old.

Fun Run

Last Saturday Glenn, Tate, and I "ran" another little race. We signed up for the Zilker Holiday Fun Run. The race was around Zilker Park, this great park in downtown Austin. It started after dark they had the park decked out for Christmas. One part of the path we jogged along had tons of different light displays that were set up by different groups or churches. It was really beautiful.

Tate had a good time snuggled in his stroller.

We found some people with costumes again. Here are some presents. And Dreidel boy.
There were also a few very brave souls who felt like the rest of us needed to see them jogging in teensy holiday themed speedos. I, personally, didn't need to see that. One man even had a teensy speedo strung somehow with twinkly lights. Then there was a very special lady who ran in a bra and underpants. Let's just say my thought as she ran past was not "Goodness, that lady is in tip top shape!", but it was something like, "Ohhh, you shouldn't have." Anywho, that was interesting.
Here is Zilker Park's Christmas tree. It's a huge pole with lights hanging down. So there ya go.
And here's the fam. No, that is not snow. That is ash from the bonfire nearby.After the race they had hot chocolate and cookies! We had a great time!

Impressive or just plain gross?

This past Sunday during Sunday School Glenn took Tate into the next room to change his diaper. A minute later he stuck his head around the corner and said, "You have to see this." I went in the other room and there was Tate, soaked from head to toe in his own pee. Glenn was changing him, he started to go while Glenn was reaching for another wipe and the diaper block was just a little too late. Glenn described it as fire hose strength flow. Tate had pee on his face and neck, his sweater vest was soaked as was his dress shirt underneath, and he somehow shot his dad's arm too. Glenn had a streak of pee on his shirt from shoulder to wrist. (Of course the title of this post is relating to the amount of pee, not how we dealt with the situation.) We laughed really hard and then thought, "Hmmm, what do we do now?" I didn't have another outfit or even a onesie to change him into. (Yeah, I'll be doing that again now. For some reason I thought that stage was past.) I thought about just stripping him and taking him to class wearing a diaper and a blanket. So hard to decide which was worse. We couldn't go home because Glenn was teaching Elder's Quorum, in his urine soaked shirt. So we just put his wet shirt back on and I took him to class. I thought to myself as I walked into RS, "What would Grandma Nina say if someone came into RS and sat next to her holding a urine soaked infant?" Oh the horror.

Good Morning Mom!

Tate at 43 weeks old.This is how Tate greets me in the morning. Great big smile. Messy hair. Standing up and occasionally bouncing on his mattress and chattering away.

Good morning little man.

Family Photos!

A friend in our ward took pictures of our little family a bit ago and we just got them back. I love love love them. It's so great to have nice pictures taken once in a while by someone with a professional camera who knows how to use it. Mmmm. We were a little worried because little man missed his nap and was not in the mood but she caught a lot of great moments. Her name is Courtney Paul and she is just fabulous. If you live in the Houston area that's where she'll be...when she and her family get back from their study abroad in Switzerland this winter semester. I know, how lucky are they? Here's her photography blog if you wanna look her up. http://www.courtpaul.blogspot.com/

So here are our favorites. Prepare for cuteness overload.

Just Stay Little

Tate at 42 weeks old

Tate is having one of those spurts of rapid discovery and growth. He thinks he's really big. I keep telling him to just stay little and he won't. He started pulling himself up to stand in the past week and today he was standing by the couch ottoman and saw the remote control on the rocking chair ottoman. He thought about it for a minute, reached for it, realized he couldn't reach it, then took a couple of quick and wobbly steps(which was really more like falling onto the other ottoman) and he got his remote control. Tate also thinks he should climb up things. We have a little drawer unit in our office and Glenn looked down yesterday to see him hanging on the top with both feet on the bottom shelf climbing up it like a ladder. It's so strange being excited and yet feeling a little bit of loss every time he does something new. It's like he figures out a new fun trick and then some of the things he's been doing for a long time just stop. Every once in a while though, there is a fall, or a bump, or just a nap time that didn't last long enough and Tate needs me to just snuggle him to make it better. I love those moments even thought it is kind of sad that I love when he's upset and wants to snuggle me. Those moments he's still my little baby.

Whirlwind

We have been literally running all over the country the past few weeks. We spent a week and a half in New Hampshire to spend time with Glenn's family over Thanksgiving. This year we stayed at Gregor and Amy's house for the first time and they were so wonderful. They fed us delicious food, let us take over an entire corner of their house, leave things all over their kitchen, borrow their car, and talk to them for hours on end late into the night. We had a great time! Thanks guys.

We took a drive up the white mountains one day. I had never been to that part of the state on previous trips and it was wonderful. The kind of scenery that makes you take a deep breath and think to yourself, "What can I do to slow my life down a bit and feel like this all the time?" We stopped to take pictures at Rocky Gorge. Tate needed a break from the car seat. Beautiful.

We also took a few pictures of road signs you will likely see only in New Hampshire.
Love it.

Tate spent a lot of time with his cousins. They were very sweet with him and it was fun to watch. He spent time snuggling with cousins on the mattresses at Sam's Club,
Getting his first taste of ice cream from Paige who was so sweet to share with him,Shopping with Brynne. It was adoreable. Brynne walked beside the stroller the entire time and just held his hand. And listening while Cope and Nelson performed for us.
I am so glad that I was able to spend more time with their family and get to know these kids a little better. At least for now. Next year they'll all grow up entirely too much and be entirely different people again! Little Miss Paige loves dresses right now. She comes down stairs with a different dress on a few times a day. She is a girl through and through. She also loves Ariel and walks around singing "Ahhhh" all day long. Here is my favorite ensemble. Striped tights plus blue fluffy coat plus blue sequinned clogging dress equals FABULOUS!

We had another big family event this year. Si Nguyen came from Vietnam and lived with the Makechnie family as a teenager. This year he was officially adopted and became "Steven Arthur Makechnie".
On Thanksgiving morning a select few of us ran the Lake Sunapee Turkey Trot 5K. It should definitely be a tradition from now on. I'd never run a 5K before and I had so much fun. Well...to say I "ran" would be a bit of a stretch...but I did keep up a slow jog the whole time which for me, is great! The scenery was so beautiful. Jogging next to a lake with tons of trees, huge houses, and a lighthouse in the distance, and passing the occasional pilgrim, turkey, chicken, or indian. Yep, they encouraged the runners to dress up. It was a blast. Tate had a great time all bundled up in Amy's jogging stroller. Amy is a real runner. She is so inspiring to someone like me, who is just figuring out that my body feels better after I exercise. Baby steps Kim.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, as usual. Gregor, Amy, and Arthur cooked. Wow. So much awesome food. Gregor is seriously a genius in the kitchen. I leave their house wanting to find new recipes and try new things.

Thanks for another great Thanksgiving Makechnies!
We flew home on Friday after Thanksgiving. Then we flew to New Orleans on Monday and came home again on Tuesday. One of Glenn's job offers was from Shell in New Orleans and I was pretty hesitant about living in New Orleans so they flew us out to check it out. The city was about as I imagined. It's pretty worn out still. The French Quarter was really neat and we took a trolley ride down town and saw some of the wealthier neighborhoods that had enormous homes with columns and balconies...just like I imagined the wealthy deep south looked 100 years ago. Just stunning. I mean, who would want to live in a house like this!
A lot of them reminded me of the Haunted mansion in Disneyland...but maybe that's because I really love Disneyland.
By this time Tate was done with all of the travelling. Here's a melt down in the airport. This is what happens when the food is gone. So sad.I'm glad we went to New Orleans and found out that I could live there. I'm also glad that we've made a decision. Next summer Glenn's going to start working with a company called Newfield. It's a Houston based company with offices in other places too. He's being hired to work in a division that is working on a new area in Pennsylvania. So their plan for him is to have him start in Houston for 2 years and then move us to Pennsylvania when the office opens out there. So that's our plan right now. I'm grateful that we had such good options to choose from and I'm even more grateful that we both feel so good about this job. Hooray for having a plan!

Picture Tuesday

So I've gotten myself a bit behind on picture Tuesdays so here's what Tate's been up to the last few weeks: We had his 9 month appointment. He is 28 inches long and in the 50th percentile, and 19 pounds 3 ounces which puts him in the 25th percentile. He weighs ten pounds more now than he did when he was born. That blows my mind.

Tate at 39 weeks old

In the Proctor Academy gym watching Uncle Gregor practice with his basketball team.

Tate at 40 weeks old

After church in New Hampshire with Glenn.

Tate at 41 weeks oldOn the trolley in New Orleans.

Tate is a great little boy. It seems like he's in another spurt of figuring out how to do new things. He's making new noises. He likes to say "T", "P", and "B", and "F", sounds over and over. He also says "mamamama" and "dadadada" over and over but we don't think he knows what those particular sounds mean yet. He started pulling himself up and standing by the couch a few days ago. He thinks he's a big shot. Sometimes he'll start leaning away to grab something and try to take a step and then promptly fall on his bum. He's started to get the hang of picking up food and getting it to his mouth. Anything more solid than baby food still makes him scrunch up his face but he's figuring out how to get more food down now. We sure love our little man.