Mckenna's Summer

Mckenna's summer was very busy but filled with lots of great things.  First I wanted to show this picture because it is one of my favorites.  Just because she is so sweet and she really loves her brothers.  

The next few are of her 4th birthday.  She was so excited and that morning had a dance party with her friends in the park followed by a party with her family at home.  She got some really great things and I took lots of pictures but I just wanted to show a few for now.  Here she is opening her first gift. 

 All year long she told me she wanted a hippo cake.  I didn't know what I was going to do about that but luckily I didn't have to worry because Heather came to my rescue.  She put a dancing hippo with a tutu as requested by the birthday girl on her cake.  And it turned out great.

 Next was swimming lessons.  She was doing really well until the day she almost drown.  Yes it was awful!  I think back on that day and I still get chills.  I was sitting on a chair with Tyler just watching a talking with one of the other Moms when I had this thought to look at Mckenna.  At first I couldn't find her and then I see her little hand trying to grab for the side of the wall.  I start to yell and just jump up to go help her.  When I get to the water I could see her scared face under the water and her hand reaching for me.  I pulled her out of the water and she coughed and spit for what seemed like for ever.  I was so in shock that I didn't really get to mad at her teachers but I wanted to yell and scream at the life guard who wasn't paying attention to anyone two feet away from her.  I tried to not make a big deal out of it for Mckenna either because I didn't want her to be afraid of getting back in the water.  So I let her sit with me for a minute and then I got her back in the water with me not letting her out of my sight.  She did go through two lessons but was a little afraid to go under the water and so I didn't feel as though we really got our moneys worth for her.  But we are going to do it again next summer and I hope by then she wont be scared and might be able to touch the bottom by herself. 

Here she is doing back floats.

 Going under water with her teacher holding on to her.

 After the whole incident she got to wear a noodle to help her.  She really liked it.

 There wasn't and still isn't a day that goes by that she isn't trying to torture Tyler one way or the other.  On this day I just got proof of it. 

 Last but not least here she is on her first day of Pre School.  She loves school and is so smart.  I miss her when she is gone but love how she lights up the house when she comes back.  She is always smiling and making us laugh.  We love you Mckenna!

Tyler and how he's grown

Tyler Cade Wharton just a few weeks after he was born.  He was still little enough to be held by the kids while being propped up by the Boppy.

Here he is a few months later.  He was just starting to smile at us and we just loved it. 

In this picture he is about 6 months old.  Mckenna just loved rolling on the floor with him.  It didn't take long and he was army crawling to get to the kids toys.

Now he is crawling, sitting and standing.  He is so fast when he wants something.  I can't even leave the front door open for a minute or he is right there ready to go explore the world.  He is almost 10 months old now and I can't believe how the time has just flown by.  He is such fun to have around and we are so happy he is here. 

Skiing with the kids

I know it's summer time but I have to post these fun pictures. Just before Tyler was born we went to a ski swap and got cross country skis for Keith, Eli and myself.  We would have gotten some for Mckenna too but they didn't have any in her size.  Then for Christmas Allen gave us year round ski passes on the mountain.  So here we are putting our great gift to good use, except for me since I was pregnant and so big I was just in snow shoes.  Any way here are the pictures of our fun night skiing.

Eli, Keith and Mckenna in the sled.

 I was so proud of Eli because skiing is hard and he took to it really well and did a great job.

Keith rigged up the sled to stay behind him with pvc pipe.

Mckenna had so much fun and was using Eli's poles to go faster.

 We were all cold and hungry by the time we were done so here are the kids with their red noses eating all of Keith's granola bars.

Tyler Cade Wharton

All day on January 17th I was having contractions.  I even went into the doctors office for my appointment and my doctor told me that I would be having a baby soon.  The only problem was I was only dilated to a 3.  My contractions weren't that bad but they were really close together and the doctor told me that since this was my third baby that I should be really careful about not waiting that long to get to the hospital.  So I got home and about an hour later my contractions were about 10 minutes apart.  Long story short Keith came home from work at about 3 and we waited for Eli to come home from school and we were off to the hospital.  It was just after 5 when we got there and my contractions were so hard and about 2 minutes apart.  The nurse checked me and I thought for sure I would be at a 7 if not more.  I WAS STILL AT A 3!  They hooked me up to their machines and she couldn't believe I was only at a 3 too since my contractions were hard and only 5 minutes apart.  They let me stay for an hour without admitting me since technically they couldn't since my water hadn't broke and I wasn't at a 4 yet.  So I sat with Keith waiting, hurting and hoping that I would be admitted.  After an hour I did make it to a 4 so they broke my water and got me in my room were I would be delivering my baby.  This picture is of us all just waiting.

Sandra, Judy, Eli, Bob and Mckenna.

 Here I had been given an epidural and had to keep moving from one side to the other so that the medication wouldn't make me more numb on one side compared to the other.  It didn't work, my left leg still went completely numb and in my right side I could still feel everything.

Still waiting!

 Judy had brought some fun things for the kids to play with and here Bob is helping Mckenna color. 

Bob and Judy were so helpful with the kids. 

 At 9 at night the kids were getting tired and so Judy and Bob took them to their house for the night.  My doctor was ready to give me some medication to get things going because I was still only at a 4.  It was so frustrating because I had all the pain but no gain. So the nurse came in ready to go with the medicine but had to leave because of another girl was getting ready to have a Cesarean.  So once again we just waited, until I became horribly sick!  This same thing happened with Eli and I remembered the nurse telling me that that is your bodies way of helping you get further along.  So after hurling my guts I told Keith that I was feeling the need to push.  So he ran out to get the nurse and when she checked me she said that she was off to get the doctor because it was time to deliver our baby.  The crazy thing was I was feeling so ready to push and I thought Keith was going to have to deliver our baby because the doctor or nurse didn't come back for about 10 minutes or more.  Then when he came in it took 2 pushes and he was out.   

Just arrived.

 For this baby we didn't know if he was a boy or a girl.  I had no idea and kept thinking it might be a girl.  I had Keith give me a blessing and right in the middle of the prayer he asked that "he" would be ok during delivery.  After the blessing Keith and I looked at each other in shock and Keith said, "I'll feel really dumb if it's a girl." (:  But when he came out I had my eyes closed and all I could hear was Keith yell, "It's a BOY!"  I was so surprised and happy!  He weighed 7lb 8oz and was 20.5 inches long.  He is such a joy to have in our family and we can't even remember how life was without him.



So cute all bundled up.



Opening his eyes just for Dad.

Christmas 2011

I love Christmas time but I have to say I am always relived when it's all over with. It was a fun morning with us opening our stockings and then digging into our presents under the tree. We all got such great gifts from all our family. THANKS so very much to everyone for all did for us! Our Christmas for 2011 was a great one!

Here is Eli holding his orange that was in his stocking from Santa.

Keith opening his stocking present.Mckenna digging to the very bottom of her stocking to get all her candy out.Mckenna did this same thing last year where she wanted to take all the tag off her gifts first before she ripped the paper. So here she is again this year doing the same thing.
Here are Eli's and Mckenna's Santa gifts. Eli got Kre-o Bumblebee and Mckenna got a Tag Reader.
Hey a picture of me. (: I got a fondue pot!
Here is the outfit that Mom (Grandma Metcalfe) got for Mckenna and of course she had to put it on right away.
The kids helping Keith open his present. He got a book from Eli and bike gloves from Mckenna.

Heather got Mckenna a barbie. She was so excited I only wish I would have gotten the picture of her hugging the box after she opened her gift.
We can't have Christmas without Eli getting Hero Factory.I caught this picture at just the right time. Here is Keith opening one of his gifts from Mom (Grandma Metcalfe). It's the movie Jeremiah Johnson. The reason he is laughing is because the last time Mom saw Keith he had quite the beard. So here is his reaction to the little joke behind the movie. After we opened presents at our house we went over to Allen's and opened presents there. Since Christmas was on Sunday we had church at 1:00 for an hour. After we headed over to Judy's and had dinner and more presents. It was a great fun filled day!

Here are my kids with their new pillow animals they got from their uncle Brent. They just wanted to hanging out and read from Mckenna's new Tag Reader. It was nice to just relax after such a busy day the day before.

Visit from Brooke

We were able to have Scott and Lindsey's cute little girl over at our house for a few days. She was fun to be with and Mckenna had a blast with her while Eli was away at school. At one point Mckenna had brought out a few blankets and some stuffed animals for Brooke to play. Oh to be a kids again and to be able to have fun with such fun easy things. Brooke was acting so cute with all this stuff I had to take her picture.

Judy wanted to have pictures taken of the kids while Brooke was here. So we got them all dressed up and to the park to attempt it. I was the one with the camera and these are the few that I got. I was dumb and didn't check my battery and so I didn't get very many. Not that the kids really wanted to have their pictures taken any way. After just a little bit they were just done. Here are the pictures that I did get and I think are really cute.

Of course they couldn't all just be looking at the camera at the same time.
Handsome boy!

Cute girl!Mckenna and Brooke were the only ones that wanted to take pictures and so here are a few of them hanging out together picking grass. SO CUTE!!!

Right after this my camera died. I was so mad but at least I got a few good ones.

The Falls

While Keith was away hunting this fall the kids and I went out to the Falls at Casper mountain for a little fun. I went a little crazy with the camera taking all kinds of fun pictures. I can't help it I think my kids are so cute! So here are just a few...I promise.

These first few pictures are of us making our way to the falls.

Mckenna at the falls. With it being September there isn't a lot of water. The kids liked it though because they could climb all over the rocks without falling into to much water.
Eli was feeling how cold the water was. It was really cold!
My two cuties!
Like I said not much water.
I wanted to be in a picture too so Eli took this one of us.Mckenna wanted to take a picture as well and I was happy to let her so that I could be with Eli too. This was her fist attempt. The camera was just a little heavy for her. (:
Second try was much better.We had a great time playing around and then we sat at a picnic table and had some lunch. All in all it was a great day spent with two great kids!