Thanksgiving 2016

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving together as a family.  Craig got the day off, but of course had to work Friday and Saturday which really stunk, but that is another story for another time.  My sister Sunni came in town from Rexburg with her family and so we spent a lot of time over at my parents house.  Brooklyn was in Heaven with all of the cousins she got to play with over the weekend.  Although we spent most of our time at my parents house, we ate dinner at our house with two of Craig's brothers, Brian and Eric, and their families.  We split up all of the cooking duties (Craig and I did the turkey and we are quite proud of how it turned out) and ended up with a delicious dinner and way way too much food, but that was just fine by me because I didn't have to cook for 3 days after.  We really enjoyed all of the time with family and are very grateful that we get to live so close to so many of our family members.  We of course missed Nana and Pops who are serving their mission in Alaska and my brother Tucker who is serving his mission in Arizona, but they were there in spirit and we talked with Craig's siblings who weren't able to be there either.  My older sister Tiffany had her baby bright and early Thanksgiving morning, Rykker William.  So they were missed for dinner, but I guess they had a good excuse.  We truly have so many things to be thankful for and know that everything we are blessed with is from our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.  What a wonderful time of year to focus on all of the things we have been given. 

McKay and his cousin Brenner who is 2 and a half months older than him

 This was our attempt at a quick family picture and somehow these were the two best ones:

3 Months Old

November 15, 2016
10 lbs 11 oz (2nd percentile)
Size 1 diapers
Size 0-3/3 month clothing

McKay is such a smiley and happy baby.  He will give anyone a huge smile as long as they smile at him.  He is starting to giggle a little bit, which is absolutely adorable. He is very expressive with his eyes and eyebrows. He likes his binky and when he doesn't have that he likes to suck on his hands. He is still sleeping pretty well.  We of course have not so fun nights, but most nights he just gets up one time around 5:00 am to eat and then will go back to sleep until 8ish.  A few times he has even slept all the way until 7:30.  His naps are pretty good compared to how Brooklyn used to nap.  He still naps 4 times a day and his first and last nap tend to be pretty short like 30-45 minutes but his two middle naps of the day are typically about an hour and a half, which is awesome.  He is still a finicky eater.  He is not so keen on nursing, he had a growth spurt a few weeks ago and it just wasn't coming out of me fast enough so he wanted bottles and since then he prefers the bottle and I can only get him to nurse maybe once or twice a day.  Pretty frustrating, but as long as he is eating I guess we are good to go.

At McKay's 2 month check up with the pediatrician he was concerned about his snoring and had us try some steroid drops in his nose to try and clear some congestion, but that didn't work so he sent us on to the pediatric ENT.  They stuck one of those little cameras up through his nose and down his throat to get a closer look and the Dr. decided that he has what's called Laryngomalacia.  So there is a tissue that is swollen just above the vocal chords and it gets in the way when he takes a breath in, which causes the loud breathing and the snoring.  He said that a few babies will have to have surgery to fix the problem, but most babies will grow out of it by the time they are 12-18 months old.  He prescribed McKay some reflux medication because he said spit up can irritate it even more, so hopefully if we can cut back on his spit up that will help a little bit.  So for now we give him the medicine morning and night, which he hates.  He makes the funniest faces when I give it to him, but he swallows it and does pretty well. We also have to go in for regular check-ups with the ENT to make sure that it is getting better and not worse and that he is not having any other breathing issues. We haven't noticed any difference with the snoring yet, but he isn't spitting up as much now so hopefully that is helping.

Other than the whole breathing thing, McKay is doing great.  Brooklyn is still a fabulous big sister.  She loves to play with him and "babysit" him.  She is awesome about going to get things for me that I need when my hands are full.  She is the best about throwing diapers away.  She does get a little sad sometimes when I can't go play with her because I'm feeding McKay or finally getting into the shower after I lay McKay down for a nap, but she is a good sport about it all.

McKay's Baby Blessing

We were able to bless McKay at church on Sunday, November 6th.  We were so lucky to have so much family there with us.  We of course dearly missed Stan, Diane, and Tucker who are on their missions and Lisa's family and Sunni's family who live out of town.  Craig gave McKay a beautiful blessing and there were a lot of men in the circle that love him: Craig, Mark, Brian, Eric, my Dad and Grandpa Williams, Dallin, Llyr, Bishop Jackson, brother Palmer and Ferguson and also President Ahlquist.  It was a lovely day and I am so grateful that Craig holds the priesthood and was able to give McKay a blessing.

He wore the same blessing outfit as my brother Tucker.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Through the power of the Melchizedek priesthood that we hold, we take this infant in our arms to give him a name and a blessing. The name by which he shall be known is McKay Matthew Moss.  At this time McKay we wish to give you a blessing.  McKay we bless you that you may have a strong and healthy body, we bless you that your body will grow and develop properly as it should, and we bless you that you may have all the energy and strength both physically, mentally and emotionally, that you may be able preform every task that thy Father would have you do on this earth.  McKay we bless you to have the knowledge that you were born into this family for a reason and that your family and parents love you very much and that we will all try our hardest together to learn, to grow and develop so that we may all be able to return and live with our heavenly father. McKay we bless you that you may have a desire to learn the gospel, to read the scriptures, and to follow the prophets and that you may learn of your Savior Jesus Christ. McKay we bless you that you may have a loving and kind heart. That you may be able to always look for opportunities to serve others, love others, and to help others feel  happy. McKay I bless you that you may have the opportunity to serve a mission for thy Savior Jesus Christ and that you may be able to do that to the best of your ability. We bless you that you may also have the opportunity to go to the temple and to also take a beautiful daughter of your Heavenly Father to the temple as well.  McKay we bless you with all the blessings that your Heavenly Father has in store for you at this time and we say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Halloween

Our Halloween festivities started a week before with Brooklyn and I painting the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch and also the one she got out of Pop's garden.  She had so much fun painting with her new paints.

The Thursday before Halloween was her preschool Halloween party.  They let the kids dress up and they played a bunch of games and went trick-or-treating.  She was so excited to tell me what all of her friends had dressed up as.

On Sunday, Brooke threw a Halloween party for all the Moss clan that live in town.  The kids all had such a blast.  She made a yummy dinner and had 3 desserts to choose from and then had games for the kids to play.  First they did a pumpkin toss with the little pumpkin candies into cauldrons, then they played Halloween twister (which Brooklyn was surprisingly really good at), and then they got to hit a witch pinata. Brooklyn was so excited to take a whack at the pinata.  She loved seeing her cousins all in their costumes and getting to play with them for a few hours.  The party was definitely a success.

On Monday (actual Halloween) my parents watched the kids while Craig and I went to a movie and then when we picked them up we got Brooklyn ready for trick-or-treating.  She was excited that Tiffy and her kids stopped by and that she got to see them in their costumes.  We then headed over to Eric and Kim's house to trick-or-treat with their family.  Their street really knows how to do Halloween.  I couldn't believe how many people there were.  Brooklyn had so much fun running from house to house.  McKay just slept in the stroller and then I went back to Eric and Kim's house to feed him while Craig finished with Brooklyn.  Brooklyn was so sad when the night was over, but was so happy with her candy stash.  She is already asking when Halloween is going to come again, I'm surprised she hasn't choose her costume yet.  Maybe next year we will actually dress McKay up too.