McKee Manor Adventures

Moving in and getting settled were a pretty big adventure in and of themselves...but there was no relaxin after that because Emily's wedding was within a month! It was a hustlin' and bustlin' time at McKee Manor getting everything ready. But of course everything turned out beautiful and amazing...and we were very grateful when the wedding was over! When Emma gets married I am hiring a wedding planner!!
Here's me and the girls the day before the wedding...people were still decorating the cultural hall for the reception. We took Emily out for a little bachelorette party.

Emma and Daddy dancing at the reception. Emma and the other nieces wore these ridiculously cute tutu's and they LOVED them. I was asked to be a bridesmaid, too...I was honored! I will have to put a pic up later of me and Emily together!

Emma loved these little lights that lit up the potted trees. She would gather them from the other pots...she had 5 or 6 lights in one pot at one point. She eventually got one for christmas in her stocking.

Emma still asks to wear her tutu! Its like little girls just know that there is something special about tutus!

Emma saw Santa twice this year...once at Ben's office and the other at Fred Meyer (they were doing free pics with Santa!). Both times I sat with her for the pics. I'd rather have a smiling child for photos and I would prefer not to scar my child for life! ha jk She will probably have a better idea of who he is next year.

Whenever Grandpa comes home Allison & Emma immediately start saying "Incredibles"...but it sounds more like "care bears". It means that they want to sit in Grandpa's lap and watch The Incredibles. Usually their persistence works.

Decorating the Christmas tree with two 2 year olds was quite entertaining. They had a blast helping Grandma.
These ornaments are called "bubbles" by Emma. When Emma and Allison first started putting the "bubbles" on the tree they only needed one branch to hang them on as you can see! :) That branch got pretty heavy! Eventually they started spreading out the ornaments more.

The end result was adorable and hilarious! All the ornaments only made it about a third of the way up the tree.

Poor Santa!

We went to Zoo Lights at the Point Defiance Park Zoo on Dec 23rd. The lights were spectacular! It was a fairly chilly night...I am loving the Washington winters....Iowa winters were a little harsh!
The indoor aquarium was still open during the Zoolights and we had fun looking at all the fish and sea creatures until my new brother-in-law David was eatin by a shark!!! That kindof ruined the evening.

Yay...Christmas Eve dinner with the McKee Manor Clan. The newlyweds were visiting for a week (David wasn't really swallowed by a shark) and we all enjoyed a super yummy dinner! BBQed salmon with twice baked potatoes and all the fixins'. And for dessert we had vanilla ice with strawberries.

Emma and Allison were super excited about their matching pj's they got Christmas Eve. It was a tradition in my house growing up that you got to open 1 present Christmas Eve and it was always pajamas. You gotta look cute Christmas morning for pictures!

We had a great Christmas! And we are excited about this new year! It is going to be another big time of transition for our family...but things just keep getting better!

A New Post!

So I have started this post about 5 times and am finally finishing it! Hooray!
Our little family moved about a month ago from Iowa to the Tacoma, WA area! Ben is in his last semester of school and is precepting with a chiropractor here. It has been a crazy month since we arrived here in Washington. But this post is about the fun times we had in Iowa before moving.



We went with our good friends the Turners to a River Bandits baseball game...which is a minor league baseball team. We had a blast and got about 6 free twinkies...it was the last game of the season and they were throwing them out like confetti!



For my last Young Women's activity we decorated mini pumpkins. Here is mine. It turned out much cuter than I originally planned. Serving in Young Women's was such a treat for me. I treasure the time I had serving there!

Miss E and I would go to the Eldridge library a couple of times a week for storytime or to just let Emma play in the kids corner. So it may sound silly but I sometimes miss that library.

The hardest thing about moving for Emma was saying goodbye to her best friend, Lily.

Ben got one last round of golf with a few of his Palmer buddies. Torrential rain did not stop these guys from playing!

We finally visited the children's museum within a week of moving. Emma can find a stuffed animal anywhere we go!

The Rocket Park was Emma's favorite park. We went to this part dozens of times. There isn't a park like that here!...that I have found at least.

Lagomarcino's was divine! I wish we would've visited it earlier. We had a delish lunch and then shared a yummy sundae. On our way out of town we ate breakfast at The Machine Shed...definitely want to eat there again in Feb! The cinnamon roll could feed 4 people!

We lived in Iowa over 3 years and we finally visited the John Deere Museum within a week of moving! What's with that? Emma loved playing in the tractor and other ridiculously ginormous riding machines! I wouldn't want a big sugar cane harvester coming at me!!

Our last Palmer Trick or Treat. Miss E got to pick out her costume this year...she chose to be a ladybug. I was excited about her choice. She insisted on carrying her pumpkin even though it was getting way heavy with candy.

En route to WA we stopped at my parent's house for a few days. It was a good breather during the long road trip! We played outside quite a bit. Her favorite thing to do was running away from this cute black and white cat that would come into the yard. You can see it right behind her. I just really liked this pic, anyway.

We have already had some adventures here in WA, and I promise it won't take 4 months for me to post again!

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!