8 months old

Dear Mackenzie,

You turned 8 months old on Christmas Eve!  In the hustle & bustle of the holiday season we did not get to take pictures on that day with your "8 month" sticker but we have a lot of pictures to remember your first Christmas!  Let me start by saying that your mommy is learning patience this month & so are you!  You have always been an active baby hitting all her milestones on time or even early.  You rolled over from belly to back super early! Then came babbling, grabbing toys, sitting up on your own and.... crawling!  Just kidding you have not even attempted to crawl.  You are rocking on your hands and knees MAYBE once a day if your in a good mood.  I believe thats the most common question this month!  I think people expected you to crawl early... so I did too and now that you haven't we are just in waiting.  Your not even late at it either!  Perfectly normal to not crawl up to 10  months is what I keep telling myself so you will do it on  your own time and God knows already when you will.  He  is probably saving me from a bit of chaos :)

Lets see... this month you went from having 5 bottles a day to only 4.  You maybe were not 100% ready for this transition but because of naps & scheduling it had to happen.  You love your sleep & being on a schedule has helped you know what to expect and helps mommy & daddy too.  You really are such a predictable baby and rarely have days of no napping & fussing.  We are very thankful for this especially after maybe a rough day here & there.  So, your daily schedule looks something like this...

6am wake up & bottle right away - 7oz now!! Its hard to believe you used to only do 3!!
8:30 1st nap (usually an hour)
9:30 solids (we did yogurt the later part of this month - you are loving it so far!)
10am 2nd bottle, 7 oz
11:30 2nd nap (usually an hour & a half)
2:00 bottle
3:00 mini nap maybe
4:30 solids
6:00 bottle & bedtime

You are slowly transitioning from 2 naps to 3.  Some days when your up right at 6 or a little earlier you have three naps!  But some days you sleep in till 6:30ish and then you end up only having 2.  From 3 o'clock on your usually up and this is when we entertain and do many activities to stay happy :) Some days you don't nap at all from 12:30 on and this becomes a long afternoon!  I am thankful on those days when Dad comes home from work and we can be a team together.  I am not sure how much you weigh or how tall you are since you haven't been in to the doctor since 6 months.  We will go next month though and thats always the most exciting thing to find out!  You fit well into 9 month onesies and pants.  You can wear 6-12 month t-shirts which we have started to do more this month.  You are still in size 3 diapers.  Speaking of diapers... my oh my!  You must think your car seat is the poop place because nearly every time in the past couple of weeks you poop in the car!  We went from maybe pooping every 2-3 days to lately its every day.  This is a good thing and your body is adjusting to solids & the formula but oh man!!!!  Sometimes I can't even handle changing you.  Every time this month when we went to Grandmas you pooped and it leaked and we had to run into the house and change you on a towel in the living room.  Crazy baby!!! So, on Christmas Eve & Christmas we put you in weird outfits when we traveled just in case :) We could not get poop on your pretty Christmas dress!  Your solid feeding is becoming more established.  You do 2 times a day and sometimes 3 times if your really hungry.  Favorites this month are:  Yogurt, green beans, carrots, sweet potato, prunes.  We are moving on up soon to stage 3 or thicker purees.  I have made most of your food so far but may end up buying some stage 3 so you can get used to the thickness.  I plan on making you some chicken at home for you to try soon!  You eat anywhere from 2-8 oz a day in food and 28oz daily on formula.

This month was all about Christmas.  We put it up right away after Thanksgiving and you were afraid of it.  We had a small one in your room and I think this is what scared you the most!  We have played with our christmas decorations and really tired to do some new Christmas traditions.  We always listened to Christmas music to break up the day and come sit by the tree.  You or course loved pulling on it - no matter how many times we said "nice".  We visited Great Grandma this month and saw her to celebrate Christmas with her.  We had Christmas at Great Aunt Barbs and you stayed up way past your bedtime... you were ripping paper open and looking around at everyone!  There was so much going on and so much to see!  On the way home Dad sneezed as you were trying to fall asleep and you just screamed the rest of the way :) :) On Christmas Eve we went to Nana & Papa's house and celebrated with them during the day.  We had fun with the dogs & you got some new 12 month cloths!  They fit already but will for awhile (hopefully) !  We went to Church and you did great in the nursery.  Afterwards we celebrated with aunts & friends coming to Nana's house.  You went to bed early while we ate.  Christmas day was special with your new pj's on all day.  We did gifts here together as a family.  Dad got you some of your first shoes- Nike ones!  How cute they are!!! Then we headed to Grandma & Grandpas house for the day.  You got lots of toys to keep you entertained for a long long time!  Here are some pictures from the month.

This is you scooting backwards and getting stuck :)

We try.

Below is all of your Christmas photos!

Playing with the decorations.  You thought this was hilarious.

Visiting Great Grandma.

You & Dad at his office in the atrium!

visiting santa

You did a great job.  No tears & you just looked at him!

Christmas at Great Aunt Barbs

Christmas Eve @ Nana's

Below is a set of "selfies" :)

 

pretty tired baby ;)

Christmas Morning

Christmas Day @ Grandmas & Grandpas

Closer to a year than being born!

It may seem like "well duh" but mike said the other day... "Mackenzie is closer to being 1 year old than a newborn!" We cannot believe she is 7 months old. We have had 7 months with our precious baby girl. Lately I have been thinking back to the day she was born a lot. I loved the whole experience of starting labor (not even knowing I was actually having contractions!) to calling my mom and asking her if she thought I was really in labor and should go to the hospital! It is so fun to look back on that day. How special a day it will always be to me and Mike.

Now Dear Mackenzie - a lot has happened this month! We have met your great grandfather on Daddy's side. Then we had your first Halloween, you got your second tooth, we have experienced the trials of teething & you've had part of your first thanksgiving!!! You slept through most of it or were grumpy...

Since the time change in early November you have been sleeping from 6:30pm to 6am. We go up and start bath and bottle at 6 and your usually asleep by 6:30! For a while you were waking up between 4-5:30am and we would give you a bottle and hope hope hope you went back to sleep!! It was a while that you went about 10 hours in between night bottle and early morning. Since you've been sleeping through the night since 5.5 months it was weird to have you go so long in between bottles. I would justify getting up if you slept 10 hours and couldn't let you cry! But since about 6.5 months you've been going pretty much 12 hours in between! You still have 5 bottles a day. Every 3 hours you eat- 6oz ,6oz ,6oz, 5oz, 7oz at bedtime! This is in addition to two solid feeds a day! We have tried lots of food and are still seeing what you like or don't like. Surprisingly you liked carrots and green beans. You hated peas and no longer like acorn squash.  We still puree very thin.  I tired giving you some banana pieces and you just gagged.. and made yourself throw up :( :( It was not good!!

You started making a clicking noise with your tongue mimicking me & daddy. You also said mama & dada!!! We know it's just you babbling but it's fun to hear you trying a bunch of sounds now instead of just vowels. You've had your first snow and didn't know what to do with it. We took you outside and you just looked around and did not really even notice the snow...
When mom & dad come home you recognize us and get excited. Your regular babysitters are Grandma, Nana & Aunt Kyla. Aunt Rachel has babysat you too!  Dad and I still try to have one date night a month and take a trip away once every 3 months or so.  We love you very much & miss you when we are gone but we want you to have time with other people also.
We are finding out the right amount of prunes to help you go # 2!  You had your first official blow out where I had to run you to the tub! It was so not fun ;) Its such a learning process with food... someday you will be eating finger food & that seems very weird to me still.
Your favorite toys are Kiki the elephant, dumbo, books to chew and your jumperoo. Thank goodness friends let us borrow it - you jump once or twice a day for about 10 minutes!! The best thing (when your in a good mood) is you just sitting up and playing with your basket of toys. This is done independently and I can go do some things around our house.
You love ice cubes in your mesh feeder for your teeth and your sippy cup to chew on :) your growing so fast! Your now 17+ pounds and in size 3 diapers!!!
Here are some pictures from this month...

So pretty for church :)

Love you <3 

Mom & Dad

This Weeks Menu

Here is our menu this week filled with *Pinterest* recipes!  Enjoy! Disclaimer - I believe in homemade meals but not *always* SUPER healthy cooking.  So yes sometimes its packaged & sometimes it may not be the most healthy - but its better than McDonalds or take out! Plus its homemade and love was put into it :)

This week I made two breakfast muffins so Mike can take them to work and I can heat something up quick.  They are "somewhat healthy" compared to donuts or just coffee!

The first one I made was a hash brown & egg bake.  It turned out good!  I think next time I will add more hash browns & actually buy the right sausage (I bought italian sausage instead of breakfast - it does give it a kick though!)  The recipe I used is this one.

Just today I made oatmeal muffins and they are SO GOOD! Let me be upfront and say I did not use stevia sugar packets - instead I just used regular sugar.  I also did not use any oil just added a bit more banana.  Instead of milk chocolate chips I used white chocolate and I cut the recipe in half.  The muffins are thick and maybe that has to do with no oil?? Oh I did add cinnamon as well - so so tasty! Here is the link.

Monday - We just had breakfast for dinner.  Some pancakes & breakfast sausage links. Easy & delicious.  Plus some coffee makes it a great evening.

Tuesday - Roast beef sandwiches & some Arby's fries (easy quick meal with a baby is always a good idea!)

Wednesday - Okay here we get to the Pinterest meals.  We are making zesty italian chicken pasta.  You can find a link to the recipe here !  I will update on if its good or not.  It sounds good & looks good (pictures lie though!) so we will see!

Thursday - Left over night.  We always do one left over night to try and clean out the fridge.  Plus Sunday night has become pizza night so we most likely always have some pizza left.  This week it will probably be the italian chicken pasta.

Friday - Ranch Pork Chops.  We will see how this turns out.  It does call for   4-6 pork chops and 2 cans of soup but I am just doing 2 pork chops and maybe 1 can of soup.. we will see if thats enough liquid ! Recipe Here

Saturday - We usually order out and Sunday is pizza day!

Im working on making my own recipe book from recipes I have made and actually liked.. I have so many books that I pull from but having them all in one will be great.  Have a great week.

<3 Alisha

Dedication

Mackenzie Joy Lankford - Dedicated in front of family & friends on October 19th, 2014!

What a precious day we will always remember.  We wanted to have Mackenzie dedicated in front of family & friends to show our commitment in raising her to know the Lord and in a God- honoring way.  We believe that Mackenzie will have her own choice to know Jesus someday but want to surround her with examples of Christians who are trying their best to follow Jesus and be holy like Him.  Mike & I cannot wait (and already do) to read her bible stories, to tell her about all God is doing in our life and actively walk out our faith in front of her.  We are thankful to be saved and are blessed to be given the gift of being her parents.

We are very thankful to have so many family members and friends who know Jesus and who will be such great examples of how to live a life filled with love, joy, surrender, patience and peace!  We had a house full of people we love who Mackenzie will get to know as she grows up!! 

We can't wait to see how she grows to know the Lord and pray daily that she does come to know Him.  We pray for her salvation, her walk with God to come early and clearly, for her to be gracious and kind to others, to love easily and openly those with disabilities or people who are different than her, for her to be patient and obedient to her elders, to be filled with JOY, to be childlike in her faith, to continue to be healthy, for her future husband to know the Lord at an early age and have a beautiful walk with Him, for her to be an example to her classmates and peers, for her to have every opportunity that she wants, for her to try her best and so on... 

Here are some picots of her dedication! 

Great Grandma Jo

Mackenzie loved Barbs hair! 

My god father Dan.

Kyla, Mom & Dad (Aunt Kyky, Grandma & Grandpa)

Great Grandma George Anne

Monty & Kathy (Papa & Nana)

Hanging out Watching the Bears

Mackenzie got to go out to dinner past bedtime.. 

It was a beautiful day!  Thank you everyone for coming out & supporting us!