Trip to Missouri and McKenzie's first birthday!

Gasp! I know! she can't be one already! But she is! Weird. It has been a strange reality check.
We were in Neosho with the Fosters during her birthday. We decided it would be easier and cheaper to visit them for Christmas after Christmas. We all had a fantastic time! It was so good to see everyone and watch Kenzie react to the family, especially Grandpa's beard. I felt on vacation with so many willing babysitters!
The first day Sara let me ride her new horse, Belle, while she rode on Frost, now Jacob's horse. I forgot how relaxing and fun horseback riding is. Sara is so smart with horses. Kenzie had her first horse "ride". She was pretty suspicious but we got her to smile. :)
The next day was McKenzie's birthday. Grandma Jamie made decadent blueberry pancakes with blueberries straight from the bush! Josh and Jacob went horse riding and I started on the cake. It was a zucchini butterfly cake!
I cheated and just used heart cookie cutters for the wings. Emily, Chelsea and Sara all helped, it was really fun! I decided everyone would rather eat chocolate cake than zucchini cake so I made another 9x13 of chocolate and decorated it sort of like the Hungry Caterpillar to go with the butterfly. Josh and I helped blow out Kenzie's candle and get through the gobs of frosting to the yummy cake. She didn't appreciate the frosting sticking to her hands at all but it made us all laugh :)








Josh was teasing Kenzie and putting frosting on her head. To make sure he didn't feel left out, I smeared frosting all over his forehead and face. He then preceded to put cake on his forehead and let Kenzie take it off and eat it! Yum! I have a tendency to put some kind of sticky food on Josh's face while we're at his parents' house; probably my domineering side takes over a little to much. :)

That is one happy Birthday Girl!!




Josh's Grandpa steadily warmed Kenzie up to him until he could come pick her up and she would be just fine walking around the house with her Great Grandpa! It was great! By the time we left, she would give him high 5's and smile big for him. :)

Sunday evening we had our Christmas together. We had fun exchanging gifts, McKenzie definitely scored some awesome presents! Emily gave her a talking puppy for her birthday that could learn her names and favorite things. Kenzie loved it! And the Foster's gave her a little TV that will wind up and play lullabies and a cool giraffe toy that still keeps her entertained for at least 10 minutes at a time (it's wonderful!) I got beautiful earrings and money to buy an easy mop that attached a rag at the bottom. Josh got another SD card (good thing because the one we were using had just filled up!) and cash as well. I'm really glad everyone liked their presents they got from us too. I made the girls crocheted ear warmers with flowers on them and we gave Kevin a camera and Jacob and knife and chain male making tools.

Josh had to fly home the next Wednesday to get back to school, but Kenzie and I stayed an extra week which was great! I still missed Josh but I still had a lot of fun, it was well worth it. :) Kenzie warmed up to her Grandparents and would stretch out her arms to be held by them, which was awesome! There was an afternoon where we were trying to get a picture of Kenzie frowning because it was so funny. Kevin tried speaking in a low voice to provoke the look but that didn't work (which explains his face in the picture :).


Grandpa Foster was so nice to invite us all to Golden Coral! It was a lot of fun! They have great food and the people were very friendly. Grandpa fed Kenzie most of her dinner and she ate very well for him. The table almost broke out in a food fight but we gained our composure in time for dessert. :)



Jaime had the great idea to bring out the bubbles and bubbles for Kenzie to see. She was entranced and so curious! It was hilarious when she would pop one on its way down and she would jump and shake her hand to get the soap off, it was great! Kevin sang Kenzie a song, "oh my darling", it was very sweet.




It was super fun to go to the farm and see all the animals. Kevin rode Belle around and Jamie and Kenzie got a good look at Frost, and then Kenzie got a good look at her Grandma! :)






After a while, Kenzie really liked Grandpa's beard. Stroking it seemed to relax her. And Kevin loved it :)














On the drive to the airport, Jaime gave me her sun glasses so Kenzie would stop wanting my prescription glasses, I think she looks pretty good don't you!

I guess it's farewell to MO for now, until next time!