Welcome Frederick Blayne MacDonald

On Labor Day, September 4, 2008, my cousins wife, Quincy, gave birth to a 3rd generation of Frederick's. Frederick Blayne MacDonald entered the world at 11:30 am, weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz and was 21 inches long. He was 4 weeks early and as healthy as we could have hoped for!
Before we went to Canada we got a chance to meet the new little Mac! He is just so precious and I can't believe that Cutter was once that little. Grandma enjoyed meeting him for the first time and she was just so smitten by him! Cutter is going to have so much fun having a cousin so close to his age.
Frederick Jay Mac with Blayne and Grandma
Blayne has the intials of our Great Grandfather, Frederick Beers MacDonald - what a great way to carry down such a great family tradition.
Welcome Blayne to this wild, crazy family! We love you and can't wait to watch you grow into a handsome young man!

Diary: First 24 hours!

About 3 months ago when Greg and I were discussing what we were going to do for our 3rd anniversary and my vacation I expressed concern that I wasn't quite ready to leave my little man for more than a couple of days. He agreed and we set out to find a place that we could go to as a family and still be "baby" friendly. I immediately phoned my family up in Canada and decided that we would go for a visit, they had yet to meet Cutter and I was eager for them to meet my handsome little man before he graduated high school. So away we went.

Before we left on our long journey to Canada, I needed Cutter to get out as much energy as possible, so I gave him his walker and let him loose in his Canada shirt that his Aunt Bette had sent him. He was just as anxious to get going as we were. We gave Cutter a bath, a bottle and off to the car seat he went. Before we were out of the block, he was sawing some zzzz's and slept til 6 a.m. the next morning, we were well into Nebraska by then. After a morning bottle, a few kisses and lots of smiles later, he drifted back off to sleep til about 1030.

By that time we were entering into South Dakota he was waking and ready to play. Luckily I had prepared for such a long drive, I loaded up on books, movies and lots of patience. Much to my surprise, little man is such a good car rider that not much patience was needed.

By noon, we were eating lunch and switching drivers. Daddy had driven all night long was getting pretty tired so it was mommy's turn at the wheel. While I was driving Daddy did a great job at keeping the little man occupied. Within 2 hours Daddy and Cutter had had a nap and Daddy was ready to take the wheel again. So I jumped back in the back and took over keeping him busy. I tried a new Winnie the Pooh video, but he just isn't into movies yet. So back to the books we went. I can't tell you how many times I read the same 10 books I brought. We went over our body parts - nose, eyes, ears, chin. I repeated it so many times that I thought by the end of our day he would be repeating it as well, but I was out of luck, he's still not saying it, can you believe it!?! :)

After a stop at Subway and another nap later in the afternoon we were arriving into Canada and our family was anxiously waiting to greet us. By 8 pm we were sitting and sharing stories about our drive to seem them.

Stay tuned for the next 9 days!

10 exhausting days, 2 - 24 hour car rides, and 24 new friends and family to love!

Over 300 pictures and many stories later, we are getting back into the groove of things after a 10 day trip to Canada. For the next week I will post a diary of our trip! We are exhausted and ready to get back on a schedule. Cutter is an amazing travler and everyone fell in love with him. We are so excited that we got to take him along to meet family and friends that were just as anxious to meet him. He was a total hit and just as good as I expected him to be.

Be on the look out for a day to day diary of our trip to Canada!

September 11, 2001

Yesterday as Greg and I were getting ready for today, September 11, we reflected upon how fast the past 7 years have gone by. I remember where I was (in Utah), what I was doing (getting ready for flight attendant training) and who I was (a merely 20 years old, with no direction in life).

I could still, to this day, tell you exactly how I felt when those terrorist attacks happened. I was numb, scared, I felt insecure, and was unsure of how my career choice was going to work out.

I had been contact by "my airline of choice" weeks before September 11 and had chose to attend training starting Oct 15. I was excited, scared, and looking forward to starting a new beginning. Then Tuesday, September 11 happened and by Friday they were calling me to tell me that training had been canceled and they were unsure how long it would be before they started training classes up again. Me being me, I told them I was still looking forward to going to training and to please let me know when they started again. About a week later they were calling to let me know they decided to keep going with the training and that my class would still start October 11, needless to say I was super excited. Deep down I was scared. I went on to complete training and became an official flight attendant on November 16, 2001.

Two months after September 11 I was up in the skies flying, I wasn't going to let those people (if that is what you want to call them), ruin what I wanted to do with my life. Initially I was scared, fearful that it would happen again, but now I feel safer than ever flying in the friendly skies.

In the last 7 years I have met, loved and married the man of my dreams. We have had a beautiful son, whom will never know the true feelings of such a terrible attack, but will know why his Uncle James is fighting for our freedom.

Life has gone on, but this day will never be forgotten! I will always reflect on where I was and how I felt, as I do not want to forget how uncertain I felt that day!

Echo.

Anyone in there??

Cutter loves hearing himself as he talks into this empty bucket. He continually goes for this toy when put down to play. I am assuming that he likes hearing the echo that comes along with hearing his voice. It is actually a bucket that has a top with the square, rectangle and triangle on top and then you place the coordinating block into that hole, but since Cutter isn't quite into placing the blocks in there yet, (I mean, I know my kid is a genius but hey I have to be realistic here), we took the top off. One day here soon, I will start teaching him that the blocks go into the top accordingly. Until then, he can enjoy the thrill that comes along with hearing his echo.

Ouch!

We have our first big boo-boo. On Friday Cutter was making his way over to our end table when he took a lunge and struck the corner with his nose. He cried, we cried and I continued to cry. At first it didn't look like it was going to be much of any thing, but by Saturday morning it looked like this. So I am Neosporian-ing it up at night hoping that it will heal up within no time.

I am baby proofing everything around here! I never knew crawling could be so dangerous! :)

Oh please, Oh PLEASE...

..tell me how I can get my kid to stop grinding his teeth! Two days after he got his bottom tooth he started grinding them non-stop and it is driving me insane! Grinding teeth to me are like finger nails on the chalk board - it makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it. He doesn't have much of a bottom tooth there yet, I don't know if it is because of the grinding or if it just hasn't made its way completely out there yet.

We have made forward progress on the crawling, Cutter had been either moving backward when he crawled or would crawl a few steps and then plop down on his belly, but as of yesterday he is moving full steam ahead. He is finally figuring out that he can follow me just about every where I go and can get to any toy (or couch) that he wants. The fireplace is my next thing to baby proof, I am going to attempt to make some kind of barrier to go there. I''ll show of my crafty side if it looks ok.

Cutter has also started clapping. I don't know if he picked it up from patty cake or if he saw me do it so many times when he did something new. If I say "Yea Cutter!!" he starts clapping! He is so proud of himself and he gets a huge toothy grin on his face that you just can't wipe away.

Next on our list of tricks to learn: Waving Bye-Bye!

Labor Day = Laundry Day

Since our usually scheduled laundry day was not spent at home, we made Monday the day to get it done! The last time we did laundry Cutter was not mobile, today was another story. Since Cutter has become more and more mobile by the day, getting him to sit still is nearly impossible. Today we (meaning I) attempted to fold the laundry while the little man played with his toys near by.

Yeah, what was I thinking? I dunno either!

So I gave him his own laundry to fold, err I mean, play with. What is more fun than a basket full of miss matched socks!?! This kid had a blast! I'm telling you he might have a carrer at the dry cleaners one day!










And the best picture yet of those two top teeth!!

Our Labor Day Weekend!

We spent most of the weekend in my hometown and had an absolute blast! Uncle James is home for his 2 week R&R and the lil sis had a BBQ for him. In the morning the boys played golf and most the girls got their manis and pedis done. Cutter and I went to visit some family that he had yet to meet.

Great Uncle Leslie had been out of town doing some work in another country, because of that this was our first opportunity for him to meet Cutter.

Great Uncle Leslie and Cutter

Great Grandma Homan and Cutter - we think Cutter has gotten those pretty blue eyes from this side of the family.

Papa Homan and Cutter - sharing some special time outside!

At the BBQ we spent a lot of time outside, the weather was beautiful and the kiddos were in a great mood. Cutter loved playing the green grass and feeling the blades between his toes. He only tryed to eat the grass two or three times, if he had been a little older I probably would have let him, but I figured I better teach him that we don't eat grass - yet!

Emilee just got this swing set for her birthday and because the weather has been so miserably hot this was her first time to be able to enjoy it. Everyone, including the adults, had a great time going back a few years and going for a swing!
Emilee enjoying her swing!
Aunt Amanda and Aunt Katie taking a jump back in life and enjoying the swings.

Abbey was no different, she loved the swings as well.

With the weather cooperating, I had the opportunity to have a nice photoshoot with Cutter!












And some random shots of the family:





We had a great weekend! Cutter is such a good baby, with all the running around we did this weekend, you would have never known that he was cutting his BOTTOM right tooth! Thats right, Cutter now has a bottom tooth to go along with those two top teeth. Before we know it the tooth fairy may be visiting my house! Oh please help me slow the time down!! :)