Journey Church Picnic

On Saturday the girls and I headed off to our church picnic. They have it annually at Irvine Rgional Park. We have never been to it in the past. Daddy couldn't go because he was working. But fortunately our church family is so helpful with both the girls that there were lots of hands to help. I just love our church family! Courtney was too young to play any of the games, but she had fun watching and Ariel's girls took good care of her. She followed them around and they were sweet to include her. They treat her like a sister. She had two popsicles and a chocolate chip cookie. What a sticky mess she was. Caylee got to play with her friend Sadie. It will be fun with Sadie and Caylee are old enough to really play with each other. It scares me the day that Caylee starts running around. What am I going to do?

Our "Minnie" Vacation

Daddy has been working long hours and has been really busy lately. So as a surprise for the girls and I he planned a trip for all of us to stay at the Disneyland Hotel for a few days and a day at Disneyland. Daddy made the mistake of telling Courtney a few days before and all I heard for 3 days was, "Disneyland mama?". I explained to her the plans, "we have breakfast, nap time, dinner, night night time, ..... Sadie's birthday, Disneyland Hotel, Goofy's Kitchen and then Disneyland.

"Ok, so we have Sadie's birthday and then the Disneyland Hotel ..." So on Saturday, we went to Caylee's best friend's (Sadie) 1st birthday party. We had fun watching all the kids play and seeing Sadie so happy on her special day. She loved her cake and having all the attention. Too bad Caylee slept through most of it. But Courtney trailed along with all the older girls. I have never seen her so ok to leave The Mier's house before.

"Then the Disneyland Hotel and Gooky's Kitchen ....". As soon as we got to the hotel, Courtney's eyes were so wide. The short cat nap she got on the drive over was going to have to do, because their was no getting these girls to rest with all the excitement around. We made our reservations and had a few hours to kill. We settled into our room, I fed Caylee and then we explored around. Daddy spoiled Courtney as usual and bought her a few special things.

"Then Gooky's kitchen, then Disneyland, ok?" The time finally arrived and when it was Courtney's turn she sprinted for Goofy and gave him a big hug. The restaurant was perfect for Courtney. Lots of food, variety, loud, and characters coming around every few minutes. Courtney was in Heaven! The look on her face each time a character came up was precious. They all spent so much time with her. Even Princess Belle kept chatting with her and Pluto barked.
Each character even got Caylee's attention. Caylee had huge smiles on her face. We finished dinner late and I took the girls back to the room to get them ready for bed. Then I loaded them back in the stroller and headed back out. I never do
this, but it was a special
trip and I didnt want to miss out on the fun. Daddy's friend Eric, whom Courtney just adores, came out with us to ESPN Zone. Courtney stayed up for a long time, not wanting to miss a moment. Caylee on the other hand was fast alseep. We played some
games and stayed out way too late.

Sunday morning Daddy was doing worship for church, so he took off early and I got the girls ready and we went and grabbed a quick
breakfast, walked around a bit and headed for church. I was hoping that Caylee would fall asleep and get a nap in, but she didn't. That was
the set up for a frustrating afternoon. Both girls were fast asleep on the ride back to the hotel but neither made the transfer into the stroller then into bed. Back in our room, both fed off of each other and screamed and screamed. I was getting frustrated. We had it all planned that the girls would nap and I could go and get a massage. I just knew that if this was going on I wouldn't get to go. I tried taking Caylee out to calm her down, I fed her, nothing worked. Courtney wasn't any different. So we packed up some food for the girls, loaded them in the stroller and Daddy had to walk them around Disney Walk for 2 1/2 hours while I got pampered. I felt really bad that the girls were being so bad. But the massage and pedicure was really nice and it was so relaxing to get away and be pampered. I wish I could do that every week.
Once I was done we attempted Goofy's Kitchen again even though Courtney was being a Monster. She continued to be a monster all thru dinner, but was fortunately very preoccupied by the all the characters and it was so loud in the restaurant we were able to get by without too much trouble. The characters once again spent so much time talking to the girls. "Gheppeto" whom Courtney thought was Santa was really sweet to both. He must have spent over 5 minutes with them. As soon as we were done we went straight to the room and put both girls to sleep. It was much needed for both.
Our last day was spent at Disneyland. Courtney was so excited she could barely contain herself. We did everything she wanted to do at Disneyland. Daddy suggested we go to Ariel's Grotto and eat lunch with the princesses. It was a great experience. The food was super good, Courtney loved meeting all the princesses, eating the food, and the atmosphere was so fun. Definitely worth it. Our friend Laura met us at Disneyland in the afternoon. We went on several rides and let her experience Disneyland with Courtney. We were all pretty tired by 5 and ready to go.
It was a really great trip. Everyone had fun and it was so great to see Courtney's eye's light up so much.

The Great Park

We had such a busy, and fun day today. We started off with Starbucks with our friends then a walk to the park. The girls play and us moms talked. A little boy bit Coco several times. She handled it well and didn't bite or hit back. Parents watch your kids and don't let them bite, oh and his nose was running all over!

Then we met our Mom's group at The Great Park for a balloon ride. They have a huge orange balloon that is tethered and goes up 400 feet. It's pretty cool. I've been wanting to try it. We also took 2 rides on the carrousel. Courtney ate snacks and played with her little friends.

We headed home for naps. Everyone napped including a very tired mama.

When Ben got home we went to dinner at Chilis and then to watch Daddy's softball game. Courtney loved watching the game. She cheered and grabbed 2 foul balls for the ump. She was so proud of herself for helping.

Courtney has been really sweet and good for me this week. I've been incorporating some concepts from the book "the Five Love Languages of Children". I have a ways to go to finish, but I have been trying to spend more quality time with her. It has been super helpful. Just spending 10 minutes with her before making dinner allowed me to make dinner with very little interruptions. I love when stuff works immediately.

Big Sunday

Every May our church closes it's doors and goes out to help the community. We have never done it as a family before because it just seemed difficult with the ages if our kids.

This year I signed us up to collect food at Teader Joes. We stood outside, both kids in the stroller and asked people to donate food for a local foodbank. It was fun and nice to see how giving some people were. It made me check my heart a bit to see how giving I am.

I don't think Courtney really understood what we were doing, but she had fun saying hi to all the people. Both girls did great considering they were in the stroller for 2 hours. Coco got a cookie as a reward for her help.

She was super sad that we didn't go to church that day. She cried for a while saying, "I want to go to church!". I love that she loves going to church. She would be devastated if we ever took that from her.

No Wonder I Went Into Labor

The night before Caylee Love was born was incredibly stressful, no wonder I went into labor. Here is the recount, for Caylee:

Thursday afternoon Courtney started getting sick. Our dog Romo had been sick (pooping blood, nice!) for the last 4 days. So I had been fixing him gourmet food and he wasn't getting better. I had a doctor appointment and Courtney was not being good. She didn't feel good and was just being bratty. The doctor didn't have any good news. I hadn't dialated anymore (was at 2-3cm) and he said see you next week, meaning the baby isn't coming anytime soon. This was actually somewhat good news. Ben was on call that night and for the next 3 days, so having a baby in the next few days was just not going to be convienient if Ben was to be there.

That evening we went to our friend's house to watch baseball and then as I was putting Courtney to bed, she did not want to go down (which is very unlike her) so I let her actually watch TV in our bed for a long time. I figured since she was sick she could snuggle with us. Meanwhile, Romo had another pooping episode and I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the carpet and spraying room freshner. Fortunately I was able to get her to bed about 11. Just as we were about to settle down for the night Romo pooped again. Ben was so frustrated that he kicked both dogs outside for the night. They had only been out for about 15 min., but long enough for us to be sound asleep. We woke up to furocious barking by our two dogs, Ben looked out the window to yell at them and saw a giant coyote about to jump into our patio. He yelled, "A coyote! Go get the dogs!". So nine months pregnant I sprint down the stairs and let the dogs in.

Settling down again for sleep, I wake up to hear Courtney crying for me and not feeling well. I held her for a bit and got her back to sleep. Then she woke up again. Back into her room I went. Meanwhile, I was having contractions and they were slowly getting closer. I fall back to sleep and wake up to a horrible stench in our room. I get up to find Romo had pooped blood and poop all over our nightstand, wall and chair. So back on my hands and knees to scrub the carpet, the wall and the chair. Just as I finished, I hear crying in the monitor. Ugh! Will this
night ever end? I locked the dogs in our bathroom and lay back down, iphone in hand as I start to track my contractions. They were getting closer and closer. But I wasn't sure how real they were. Was it the fact that every time I got up I had another contraction, or the gas from my Taco Bell lunch, or the stress of the evening?


I prayed that the Lord would give me wisdom. I didn't want to be that pregnant woman who shows up at the hospital only to be sent home. I also prayed that the Lord would comfort Courtney so I wouldn't have to get up anymore. I kept counting the contractions, they were getting closer and closer. Once they were 3-5 minutes apart for an hour I was starting to get concerned.
It was 4:15 am and I didn't want to gave to wake anyone, especially Courtney who had finally been asleep for a few hours. So I let it go another 30 min just in case. After 30 min of them being 3-4 min apart I figured it was time to call the on call doctor. I called him at 4:45 then woke up Ben and called my friend Katly to come stay with Courtney. Fortunately Karly lived just a few doors down. I grabbed my packed hospital bag and We were on the road by 5 am to the hospital.

Once we were admitted they checked me and they said I wasn't dialated enough to go into labor but they would check with my doctor once he did his rounds in the next hour. So we waited. Once he came around he confirmed that since I was still two weeks before my due date, I was too early to induce and he needed to send me back home. But just to double check he suggested taking a walk around the hospital for an hour and then have me re-checked and if I hadn't progressed much then home we would go.

Fortunately it was a shift change and I got a new nurse. Dr. Capobianco had the new nurse check me so she had something to go by when I returned. After checking me she looked up at me with a puzzled look and said, "How far along did they measure you?", I replied, "2-3 cm". She said she needed to check with the doctor because either she is wrong or I was in labor. So he came and checked me again and sure enough I was 5-6cm. What a relief! In the bed I stayed and medicines began pumping. Since I was diagnosed with Strep, I needed to have medication for a minimum of 5 hours for saftey of the baby, so they slowed me down quite a bit and waited for the 5 hours to break my water.

A doctor came in around 12 to break my water, and then my nurse said she was going on lunch and to have her back up nurse page her if there was progress. She hadn't been gone for 2 minutes before I said, "Uh? I think something is going on, can you check me?". She checked and sure enough Caylee's head was crowned! There was a flurry of nurses and action going on in our room as they prepared for Miss Caylee Love. The doctor was paged and was on his way. I wasn't allowed to push because she would have been born without the doctor there, which I was fine with. It was so painful waiting. It seemed like an hour that we waited, but it was only about 15 minutes. Once Dr. Capobianco arrived, he scrubbed up and told me to push. I pushed 3 times and she was out!


Caylee Love McKinsey
Born September 24, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Weighed 6 lb 11 oz 18 inches long

Picnic by the Lake

On Wednesday nights Ben helps out with the youth. Every so often I try to do something special for the girls while Ben is gone. So this week I took the girls thru the In N Out drive thru and got Courtney her first hamburger "hamger". We took the food to the lake in Woodbridge. We set up a little picnic and ate our hamgers, fries and a chocolate shake. Courtney loved it. She kept saying how much she loved the hamger. She was calling it chicken.
To her everything is chicken. Caylee had fun just sitting in the grass and watching all the action.

After we ate we walked over to where the ducks were. Thanks to Courtney and I the ducks were well fed that night with out leftover stale bread. She laughed and giggled and ran back and forth. Once we ran out of bread I put the girls in the stroller and walked around the lake in an attempt to get some exercise for the day. We ended the evening at Barnes and Noble searching for a book for me and ended up buying 3 books for Courtney. A fun evening with my girls.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last week was so busy that I have made the last two days mellow and in our routine.

Tuesday: I took the girls to Disneyland on my own. We had a great time, the girls were perfect and it was just a great outing.

Friday: Ben's dad got here in the morning and we hung out and then went to lunch. Courtney was so excited to see Gak Gak, she practically ran into his arms when he got here. Friday night, Ben's mom, sister, her husband and their baby arrived. We visited for a bit and then headed off to bed since we had to be up early.

Saturday: I was up at 4:45 am to get the girls ready and out the door by 6:30. We headed to Riverside to Auntie Elisabeth's graduation at Cal Baptist. The girls did ok, considering the circumstances (college graduation with 750+ graduates). Once that was over we met all the family at the graduation party for Elisabeth and her sister. Then off to the Angel's Baseball game. The girls had so much fun at the game. Daddy bought Courtney popcorn and put M&Ms in it, then he bought her cotton candy in which she absolutely loved. She held that pink sugar in her hands until it literally disinigrated. She bounced between family members and was on a pure sugar high. When the Rally Monkey came out "Easter Monkey" she was completely enthralled. Daddy bought her one and she bounced it and danced with it. She cheered and loved every minute. Fortunately the day was surrounded by family which kept Courtney and Caylee busy and their minds off our crazy schedules. By the time we got home it was 10:30 pm.


Sunday: Mother's Day: We went to church and then to lunch. The girls took turns trying to be the worst child of the day. Caylee was cranky because her day was off yesterday and again that day. She finally went to sleep but then was woken up by Courtney who bopped her on the head. Courtney was just being crazy. She was a mess, she was throwing food, screaming, rocking her high chair, etc. Just being plain rude. I finally had to take Courtney to the car as she screamed and kicked her way out and then continued to scream in the car. I didn't get to eat my lunch and was not a happy mommy. We went to South Coast Plaza with the family and fortunately Courtney fell asleep in the car and slept almost our entire time at the mall (4 hours!). Caylee took much longer to fall asleep and screamed her head off for the first 10 min at the mall. She eventually gave up and we had both kids asleep. So we shopped around with the family until it was time to wake Caylee to feed her. An exhausting day even though we didn't do much.

Monday: Disneyland! The family all left and as our little family we had decided we would do the entire day at Disneyland. We have never done a full day like this before. We were there from open to close. We had a lot of fun. The girls did pretty good, but Courtney didn't nap again. At one point, Ben was taking a break and I took the girls around to look at the sights in Disneyland and we arrived just in time as all the characters were coming out. We stood in line for Donald Duck, then we saw Goofy, next Pluto. She had brought with her a Pluto stuffed animal and a Donald stuffed animal. She brought the Pluto stuffed animal up to Pluto and he was really sweet to her and was acting goofy. She laughed and laughed. He even came and gave Caylee a kiss in the stroller. Then he spotted her Donald and grabbed it. He then grabbed Courtney's hand and ran with her all the way down to see Donald. The two characters danced with her and played around. It was so cool! All the while both had long lines waiting to see them.

At around 3 We met up with our friends Gaddiel and Karly and they were with their friends. So as a group we traveled together. We took Courtney on the "Big Ferris Wheel", we rode with Gaddiel and Karly. They were screaming, Sadie was scared and so was Ben. Courtney freaked out. She was so scared and of course was being held by daddy who was also being freaked out. It was pretty funny. I think that ride is great. They were going on bigger rides and I think Courtney was getting pretty bored sitting in the stroller, so she was really acting up at the end.

We got home late again. So many crazy days we spent the next several days at home doing the bare minimum. It took Caylee about 4 days to get back to normal.