Happy Birthday, Emma!

Our dearest Emma turned 2 on Sunday! She is a joy without measure! We are so grateful that she joined our family!

Sweet baby smiles!

Emma getting her first teeth

Yum...cereal

Emma in her beautiful blessing dress

Emma's birthday picture last year.

Emma's first ponytail.

An update on the Iowa McKee's

I haven't posted very much lately. Things have been crazy!! We closed on our house, packed up and moved down the street (which is way more annoying than moving across the country), we celebrated Ben's birthday, I was at Girls Camp for 4 days while Ben had to take care of Emma and take finals and see patients, and we had to quickly get unpacked and settled in to our new house because Ben is now in Honduras for 2 weeks! Pheww. This summer is already awesome and busy and crazy. It will be like this until mid July when I get back from Idaho.

Here are some pics of what has been going on since April...and fyi, they are totally out of order. I'm too lazy to fix that. Just kidding...they are now mostly in order...

For my birthday this year Emma and I got to spend time with my parents and my sister's family down in Dallas. We had a blast...here us girls (and baby Zachary) are eating lunch at The Cheesecake Factory...divine!

Emma has a fascination for drinking water out of big cups (and spilling it all over :)), sliding screen doors, and bubbles. The week before we moved from our beloved condo we spent a lot of time out on our deck.

Eating at The Outback for Ben's birthday dinner (I scored a free gift card for there)! And Ben totally wanted steak for his b-day, so it worked out nicely! My man is 28!! And I don't know what it is about posing for pictures, but Emma just doesn't appreciate having to do that.

In May my brother, Dave, graduated from med school and MBA school...and his wife, Elizabeth, graduated from dental hygiene school...they both have a lot of letters behind their names now! We went down to Kansas City to see them! After graduation we went to this awesome park and walked around. Emma loved smelling the roses and running around.

As you can probably see Emma loves being outside...as much as possible! We generally go to a park everyday, or at least sit out on our back steps and blow bubbles.

Girl's Camp was at Camp C.S. Klaus this year. In this pic one of the girls from our branch is about to repel down a 40 foot wall!...I did it, too...twice! Girl's Camp was a blast...I think going as a leader is way more fun than being a participant! Us leaders got to just hang out (no 5 mile hikes for us) and chill all 4 days...except we got the least amount of sleep!...probably 3 or 4 hours/night. The weather was perfect except the last night it we had a major thunderstorm, but the girls loved it! We had a skit night and our branch's ROCKED! We did a parody on Johnny Lingo!...instead of saying Mahana was a 10 cow wife, she was a 10 rock (or ring) wife...and we had her wear 10 BIG ring pops on her fingers...included in our skit was Captain Jack Sparrow, a Seventeen magazine, shoe stealing, and a few other random things that fit perfectly, actually. We also had awesome costumes!...the camp director brought a few big bags full of costumes and we took advantage of that!

As you can tell I had a great time at camp inspite of the Jiggers that attacked my neck and head and the daddy long legs everywhere and the lack of sleep!

SOLD!! Woohooo! The purchaser of our condo wanted a pic with us...so we got one, too. Why not? I just noticed that Ben, Emma, and I are all coordinated...blue, brown, and white. It was super surprising to us that we sold our place so quickly...we thought we would be living there until we move to Washington this fall! But the Lord blessed us and that load was lifted off our shoulders! I think the buyer will love living there...we sure did. But I am grateful for our new place...I feel very comfortable here and we have more space which is a huge plus!

Ben is now in Honduras for a Clinic Abroad...our friend Aaron England is posting updates about their trip...check out the England's blog...its on my blog list. Ya, Ben ate raw, squirming clams...gross! But he is helping soooo many people down there with his chiropractic skills! Chiropractors rock! And I miss him a lot!...10 more days to go!

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I totally want to win this dress!

Now I Know My ABC's...

We made this video last month of Emma saying her abc's...she learned them through these awesome Signing Time DVDs. Her vocabulary is quite extensive...of course she is naturally very smart, but learning sign language has helped to expand it...I'm sure! Emma's favorite letter's are K and M...she points them out everywhere! Right now we are working on learning colors...her favorite (non) color is white...she definitely knows the sign for that one. Yesterday she learned the Hokey Pokey song and the game "red light, green light"...its so fun to see what brings her joy. She loves fun songs and games and anything that has to do with animals. Our neighbors have pets and she knows their names and everything. Its so fun to see her learn about the world!!

The Real Forks

While visiting Ben's parents in Seattle a few weeks ago, Becky (his mom) and I decided to visit Forks. I wanted to see what the town and area were really like as opposed to what my imagination had. Visiting Forks on purpose must officially make me an official crazed fan...and that's okay...I accept that. I must say that Forks, La Push, and even Port Angeles has embraced their new found fame. At the Forks Chamber of Commerce there was an employee there just for Twilight fans! And I was (pleasantly) surprised that we weren't the only "Twilight tourists" visiting Forks. There were some college students there for Spring Break, some teenage girls on spring break, some groups of moms, and even a few families (husbands, sons, and everything) there, too. We had a blast! Here are some highlights from Twilight

Here we are at the Forks Chamber of Commerce. They found a truck that looks like Bella's. And yes, we really were in Forks...it just happened to be a beautiful sunny day!

This bumper sticker made me laugh

Dr. Cullen's parking space at the Forks hospital.

The real Forks high school. At least for they got the sign right for the movie

This bed and breakfast was dubbed "the Cullen's house" on our tourist map.
This whiteboard was on the porch of the house...pretty cute.

In Forks we also saw and got pictures of the Police Station and "Bella's house."

We then made our way to La Push...apparently this is the boundary line. :)

There wasn't a whole lot in La Push to take pictures of, but when we got to 1st beach I took a ton of pictures! I love the ocean. It is so beautiful and the noise of the waves at high tide is amazing.

On our way back home we stopped in Port Angeles for dinner and we had to eat at Bella Italia. :) The food was pretty good...but I enjoyed Emma's pizza more than my own fancy salad.

And the bookstore was on the same block as the restaurant...and the movie theater, too.

What a busy day! We left the McKee's house at 8:30am and got back about 8:30pm. Pheww! What am awesome day!

Dance Dance EMMA-lution!

Tonight Emma was hilarious at dinner. The music was pretty loud at the restraurant and she just started dancing! Her favorite songs to dance to were "Jack and Diane", "Footloose", and ALL of the hip-hop songs. When that girl turns 3 she is taking dance lessons. She was pretty entertaining. She can shake those hips!

The Scriptures Rock!

For whatever reasons, I have had a really tough winter. Plus, I really hate the snow and the cold! I have good days, but sometimes life can be just crappy. Thankfully, I found a scripture that has helped me to feel better.

Alma 36:3 reads:

"...whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, in their troubles, and in their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day."

I really needed that today. I am so grateful for the scriptures. They can definitely help push away gray clouds and reveal a beautiful sunny day! I know that trials are meant to help us become better, stronger...more Christ-like. And thank goodness for the scriptures to help us get through those storms!...and these crazy Iowa winters! :)