Snow!

Well last week was really nice weather, and I mentioned how we went to feed the ducks on Saturday (when it was 60+ degrees) because the weather was supposed to turn.  Well, for once the forecasters got it right.  It snowed all day on Monday, and by the news that night, they said we had anywhere from 3-5″ of snow.  It has snowed some today but not much, and I think we’re supposed to get more later this week.

But we had a nice warm Fall so I guess we can’t complain too much.  Lucas loves the snow and we had a small snowball fight.  It would have been bigger but he didn’t have any gloves and he froze his hands pretty fast.  We were at the mall the other day and they had Christmas decorations up and Christmas music playing and now with the snow, it feels like Christmas is already here!

Updates

Well things are going good in the Kotter household, just busy as usual.  McKinley has continued to grow.  Her next doctors appointment isn’t until the end of this month so we decided to weigh her on my postage scale and she was 9 lbs. 1 oz.  So she is gaining weight really well, a lot better than Lucas ever did.  She isn’t the best sleeper at night but it could be a lot worse.  She usually likes to be up late, around 1 or 2 am.  She then sleeps really good the rest of the night.  The last few nights have been better so hopefully it is a sign of things to come.

We were finally able to get Lucas off of his pacifier.  It actually wasn’t that hard once Kryssi and I actually buckled down and stopped being pushovers.  He cried for maybe an hour or so the first day, during nap time, and then about an hour that night, and since then hasn’t needed it.  So now we need to work on potty training.

Lucas still loves McKinley a lot.  He always wants to hold her or lay with her, and he is always giving her kisses.  Too much love for one little girl!

We have to be extra careful whenever she is on the floor, as Lucas is constantly running around, jumping, diving to the ground, basically always in motion.  He has hit her a few times, on accident, and she hasn’t complained much.  I think she is already used to being the little sister.

Feeding the Ducks

The weather has been really nice this last week but it is supposed to all change next week.  So we figured we would get out one last time and enjoy the warm weather.  We decided to go down to the greenbelt and feed the ducks, as Lucas loves that.  It was perfect weather and the fall colors were amazing.  To bad next week (and probably until next May) is supposed to be pretty cold with a chance of snow.

Lucas loves running off on his own. It's hard to keep him reined in. Temple with all the fall colors. Getting ready to throw some bread.
This was McKinley's first time to feed the ducks and she just slept through it all.
Kryssi liked how all the geese lined up on the edge of the falls.

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year. Lucas got a cool monkey costume that Jill found for him and we actually found a smaller monkey costume for McKinley to wear. We ended up going to 4 different events, so Lucas ended up with a lot of candy. But he seemed to really enjoy it this year and didn’t get scared too many times! It was also really nice weather so that made it even better.

Lucas dressed up as a monkey for Halloween. McKinley was a monkey, too!. Our cute little monkeys.
Kryssi dressed up as a witch McKinley enjoying the trick-or-treating. Waiting in line at the Trick-or-Treat Street.
There was a bunch of RV's decorated and people handing out candy in front of each. On the steps at Grandma's house. More trick-or-treating.

Pumpkins!

Well we carved our pumpkins for FHE this past Monday.  I don’t know if they’ll last till Halloween, but we couldn’t wait!  We got a pumpkin for  each of us from my parents house.  They had a pretty good crop of pumpkins this year and Lucas loved picking them from the garden.

I did my own plus Lucas’ and Kryssi did hers and McKinley’s.  Kryssi’s first one didn’t work out, part of it broke off, so she had to throw that one away.  But the three we were successful with turned out really good, in my opinion.  Lucas wasn’t sure about it at first because I told him he could help me get the pumpkin guts out.  But once he saw the “guts” were just seeds and other slimey stuff, he helped out and liked it a lot.  But he got bored with the actual carving part and didn’t stay around until I light the candles.

Lucas sitting on one of our pumpkins. Cleaning out the pumpkins. Lucas finally helping me out after he saw it wasn't that bad.
On Kryssi's first pumpkin, she made the top hole way to small. She could barely get her hand in to clean it out! Getting all the seeds out. Our three finished pumpkins.
Lucas in front of his cat pumpkin. McKinley had a pumpkin with bats on it, Lucas had a cat, and mine was a face that said Boo. All lit up on our front step.

New Pictures

Well I can’t believe that McKinley is almost a month old already! I guess time really does fly when you are having fun. She has been such a good baby, maybe not sleeping as much as we’d like at night but nothing bad at all. She rarely cries unless she is hungry and Lucas has been such a great help and he loves his sister. I think his favorite thing to do is look at her and give her kisses. He is learning to be gentle with her so that is good.

McKinley has been gaining weight good, or at least at last check she was.  We had to bring her into the doctor at two weeks, and she was up to 6 lbs. 7 oz. I believe.  So after dropping under 5 lbs. when we brought her home, she has gained weight well.  If she keeps it up she’ll pass Lucas soon!

Our next step is to move her from her bassinet in our room to the crib in Lucas’ room.  I think that will be a little harder adjustment for him to have to share his room, but hopefully it goes over well.  I’m most worried about him bugging her and trying to play with her during the night.

Sitting in her chair. She loves this chair, especially since she has had a cold lately so she can breath better sitting up. Beautiful eyes. Lucas gets jealous of all the pictures of McKinley so I had to take this one of him.
Dressed up in a new outfit from Aunt Kara. Watching TV together. Lucas' new thing is to bring his pillow and blankets out onto the couch.
Proud mommy with her beautiful little girl.
Again laying with his sister. Lucas is such a good helper. He loves getting out the changing pad, wipes, and diaper when McKinley needs her diaper changed. Taking a rest with mom.

Bear World

On October 9th we went to Bear World with my parents.  They were having a discount that day and we thought it would be fun to get out and do something while the weather was still good.  We had never been to Bear World so it was a lot of fun.  After driving around the park and seeing the animals, they have a little gift shop, where we got free fudge samples, some carnival rides, baby bears, a petting zoo, and a place you can feed fish.

Lucas wanted to go on a train ride they had but first we took him on a car ride.  I was going to sit with him to make sure he was okay, but a girl, who looked to be at least in her teens, decided to take my spot so he had to ride alone.  Needless to say, he didn’t like it and was done with the rides after that.  But he loved feeding the fish and petting the animals.

McKinley enjoyed the whole trip. She just slept basically the whole time! An elk. They had a open roof caravan you could pay to ride in and they would throw bread to the bears, which seemed weird to us. Kryssi even swore she saw them throw powdered donuts.
A bear walked right in front of our car. Lucas wasn't too sure about sitting in front after that. Bear walking by my window. The car ride Lucas went on. Notice the girl that took my seat sitting behind Lucas. She seems a little old for this ride.
The car ride went in a circle but also up and down, which I think that is what scared him so much. One of the baby bears. Getting ready to feed the fish and ducks.
Such a cute baby bear. Bambi Black bear

More McKinley Pictures!

We got to go home from the hospital on Thursday morning, so we’ve been on our own now for a few days.  Everything has been going really good.  We’ve had to take McKinley back to the doctor a few times already to check her weight and jaundice.  Luckily she checked out better for jaundice the second time.  Both times she had gained weight, so hopefully she’ll keep doing that.

Lucas has been great with her.  I keep expecting him to have issues but so far he has been great.  He loves giving her kisses and hugs, and he loves looking at her.  He is a great help with whatever we need done.  There’s only been a few incidents: he hit her with a ball, that I guess was more my fault since I pitched it to him and he hit it.  He licked her after she was sticking her tongue out so I guess he decided to show her his tongue.  And he tried to get her out of her bassinet, so grandma had to explain to him that only mom or dad gets her out.  But all in all he’s adjusted great so far.

Getting her pajamas on.  Nothing fits her very well, since she is so small. But she’ll grow into them!

Lucas checking out his little sister.  He loves looking at her and every time she opens her eyes, he has to tell her “Hi, I’m Lucas.”

Her first smile caught on camera.  She smiles a lot when she is sleeping.  She has even laughed a few times.  So she must have good dreams.

Brother and sister hanging out.

She sleeps a lot, like most newborns, but when she is awake, she is wide-eyed and loves looking around.  She seems to have a pretty strong neck and she’ll look from side to side.

McKinley Colleen

Well for those that haven’t heard, we welcomed a new baby girl into our family on Tuesday at 6:22 am.  We chose McKinley as her name with Colleen as her middle name.  She was small, only 5lbs. 7oz. but after how small Lucas was, and being 3 weeks early, we figured she would be small.  But she was healthy and everything went great.

Lucas checking out his new sister

Lucas checking out his new sister with two happy grandmas!

After getting a bath

After getting her first bath.  All nice and clean!

Getting a kiss from her big brother

Lucas has been a great big brother.  He loves give her kisses and he loves telling everyone about his little sister kinley

Has some dark hair

She has more hair then Lucas did and it is dark.  She has even more hair on the back of her head but it will probably wear off.

Wide eyed checking out the world

After being born, she was wide-eyed for at least an hour.  Now every once in awhile she wakes up and is wide-eyed and loves just looking around.  She is so amazing!

Baby Update

Well we’ve had a rather interesting last few days.  On Tuesday, Kryssi was having some pains so she went to the doctor and found out she was in early labor.  This was rather unexpected for us both, and it definitely got my heart racing.  They told her it could be any day, or it could stop on its own, but they thought it would happen within a few days based on how far along she was.

Well on Wednesday morning she was having worse contractions and they were pretty consistent so we went back to the doctor.  We should have just gone to the hospital as we waited at the doctors for probably an hour before getting in and then waited some more in the office.  But she wasn’t any farther along then the day before so they sent us home.

Now today she is feeling a lot better with not nearly as much pain so I don’t know what will happen at this point.  I wish this little girl would just make up her mind!  But before all this happened, Kryssi was having a lot of dreams about the baby coming and I think on Friday or Saturday she dreamed the baby was born on a Sunday so maybe that will be the day.

So I went from feeling unprepared, thinking I had stuff to still get done and what not, and now we just wait and wait so it would be nice to have resolution one way or the other.  But Lucas has been great with it all.  He knows he gets to go play with Grandma when baby sister comes, so he is way excited for that.

Dressed for the BYU game

Lucas got this awesome BYU jersey from Grandma Kotter and he loves it.  He wants to wear it all the time.

Dad and Lucas in BYU clothes

Both of us dressed for the game.  I thought it would be lucky but they lost anyway.  Oh well.

Reading at the table

Kryssi thought this was pretty funny so she had to take a picture of both of us reading at the table, waiting for lunch.