Tenley turns O.N.E.

I'm already feeling the guilt from not documenting each and every cute, funny, and priceless moment child number two has shared.

It was bound to happen... but man, I feel like a bad mama.

So... this milestone will not be forgotten!! Tenley is now the ripe age of ONE! My baby... my booga... she's a year.

Let me fill you in on a few awesome traits of Tenley Jane.

- her grin. It's cheesy, it's crinkly, it will make any frown turn upside down.

- she is the fastest crawler in the wild wild west.

- spunky... that would be the one word I'd choose to sum up her personality.
The girl is spunkerific!

- she has awesome hair. It's grown in even, it's fun and fluffy, and it's going to be bright blonde once the sun gets some rays on it.

- her toes. They are still those same goofy grandpa toes she came from heaven with... and let me tell ya, they look hil-ar-i-ous in sandals.

- eating is her all time favorite thing to do. So opposite of my other child. She will down a piece of toast, an entire banana, some cereal, and juice... just for breakfast.

- she loves the bottle. I nursed her up until a few months ago, then she decided the bottle was a quicker and (I'm sure) more fulfilling meal. Another new love my first born was never fond of.

- she isn't afraid of making a mess. Whether it's with food, toys, my jewelry, or all of the dvd's.

I got her this book for her birthday because I thought the monkey looked like her!

- she is adventurous and wants to explore everything around her, but still get's nervous if I'm not in sight.

- she absolutely LOVES her big sister. If Taryn laughs, she laughs... if Taryn's crying, she's starts too. One of my favorite things is seeing these two get so excited to see each other every single morning.

- she is a social butterfly. She will make sure she's noticed and can keep an entire room (or wedding party) entertained.

- she loves to flirt, and does with Daddy all the time.

Even though my girls look a lot a like, they definitely have their very own personalities. I am loving this adventurous, flirty, giggly, spunky gal of mine! She makes me laugh every day and keeps life fun and simple. I am so grateful to wake up to her gap toothed smile every morning. She keeps me on my toes, and even though she likes being on the go, she still has her snuggle moments.
I wouldn't trade those moments for the world.

...As for the Reno celebration....

We headed out to The Wild Island Adventure Park here in Sparks to have some fun and celebrate last Monday night. Next time we will have to bring some friends, but the girls loved climbing around and throwing balls around in the "High Ballocity"

Lucky for us there weren't too many kids so we had lots of room to play.

The next day was her actually birthday and Taryn insisted we make her a birthday cake. Luckily she settled for funfetti cupcakes. :)

What began like this...

ended like this...

told ya she could eat.

Taryn wanted to help document the event.

short, sweet, and to the point :)

A big hit has been the present from Grandma Go-go. The girls love this crazy ball popin' machine.

and I'm sure glad I stumbled upon this while visiting my happy place...

Target.

I'm sure she will be walking in no time, but I'm in no rush. Luckily she hasn't quite figured out how to push this walker around yet. She's more interested in the fun gimmicks on the front.

All in all we had a fun time celebrating Tenley's first birthday. I feel like I just posted her birth story! She sure knows how to make an entrance. :)

LOVE YOU SWEET TENLEY!!!

Party time at Mickey D's

While we were back in good old Utah... we celebrated the most spunky one year old's birthday.

~~HAPPY BIRTHDAY TENLEY JANE~~

This little lady is a crack up.
I love how adventurous and excited about almost anything she can be!




Taryn has been so excited for Tenley's birthday. According to her, we're still celebrating. Today at the grocery store she said we needed donuts for Tenley's birthday.
Tar loves donuts.


Tenley loves food.


She out eats Taryn (and sometimes me) at every meal. For reals.


These two are inseparable. Moving them away from one another has probably been one of the hardest parts of this move. I love Ava as if she were one of my own.




We did the best we could with a last minute Harmon's cake.
- if you're going with a theme... go all the way! -
(btw - our theme was "ghetto")




Best part of the night... sharing the celebration with the other play place kids! My mom said we should gather them all for a picture so it looks like we had an awesome party with a whole bunch of kids! (apparently she's familiar with that idea...)
I thought it was a nice touch, ya know... to our "theme"

Next post...
How we celebrated in Reno.

stay tuned!

Wedding Bells are Ringing

Last week was the week we had been looking forward to!

Home Sweet Home!!!

We arrived Wednesday morning and the very first stop was Cafe Rio. They seriously have something addicting in their creamy dressing. I practically drank the stuff while I was pregnant with Taryn.

After Cafe Rio, we were non stop busy. I did some haircuts. We met up with Kim and the kids. We watched Taylor's baseball game. Then headed out the door for the wedding dinner.

Thursday was the wedding. Emily's prayers must have been at the top of the list that morning cause the snow that was expected never made it. Lucky lucky!! It was a beautiful wedding, and it brought back many memories for me. She had her reception at Heritage Gardens, the same place we had ours almost 8 years ago. The same jazzy band played, and my mom's friends who arranged our flowers brought their magic to Em's night too. It was lovely. Taryn was in heaven. She said she really wants to get married right now! The other morning as I was fixing her hair she said, "mom, let's talk about the wedding, and Emily's hair, and her sparkly in her hair, and the pretty long thing that came out of her hair..." She doesn't miss a detail.

Friday morning we finally took it easy. Lounged around with grandma in jammies, then finally got ready and met Kim and the kids at the mall for some corn dogs and craziness. It's always craziness when we are outnumbered by our children, in the mall, on a day everyone else decided to hit the stores.

We didn't last long.

Then it was back to grandma's for some much needed naps.
After naps we got ready for Tenley's birthday shin-dig! We are totally high class and had a rockin party at.... McDonalds. oh yeah. It happened.

The kid loves to eat. Seriously, I think the big kid kids meal hamburger and fries was the highlight of the evening. This birthday celebration deserves an entire post of it's own, especially a catch up of just how fun loving and hilarious my Tenley Jane is.

Saturday morning went by quick. We had a photo shoot of Tenley (and some of Taryn as well) at Cactus and Tropicals for her first birthday pics. Jeanette worked the camera and got some amazing shots. I can't wait to get a sneak peek of them on her blog! :)

After that, Tenley napped, I packed, Taryn played and giggled with aunt Lisa.

We made another stop at the beloved Cafe Rio....
Then it was off to the airport we go.

So now we are back home. Back to reality. I'm already planning our next visit to Grandma's house. Taylor will be getting his mission call soon, so we definitely cannot miss out on that!

Tomorrow is Tenley's big day. I love that booga baby more than I ever imagined could be possible.

Next post: All about her.

Now here is an abundance of wedding photos for all those who want to see!!

Taryn jumped right in for a picture as soon as they came out the temple doors


All the McClellan girl cousins (minus Amy)


Cute flower girls!


She was sooooo excited!!!


Her little flower ball. She said it looked like Tinkerbelle's house.


I know it's blurry, but I LOVE Tenley's face!


My Girls


Me and the Bride



There was a lot of crawling going on


Some of the beautiful flowers


Amy made sure to catch the bouquet


Uncle Tay ROCKS!


Brett can always get a laugh out of her.


These gangsta's decked out the car




FUN TIMES!!

and this was my favorite....

Living in the new

I know I know... I've been M.I.A. for a couple of months now. Where do I begin...

We moved.

422 miles away.

You know that feeling you get the very first week of school. Let's make it a little more stressful by saying it's your first week of junior high. Every class is new, you're nervous about the homework, there are so many new faces, some are smiling... some are serious... some, just don't care. You cling on to anyone that makes you feel at ease. A nice teacher, or an old friend who passes you in the hall.

I know for me, 7th grade was one of the hardest and biggest change's of my life. It may sound silly... but it was.

I feel like I'm starting junior high all over again. But this time, I have to a be a little stronger. I have two kiddos to raise. They look to me for comfort and love. When I'm happy, they feel safe. So as hard as 7th grade was, I did make friends and I did end up having some fun. It took some time, but it happened.

Time...

oh why is it always the thing that makes life so hard. In time, spring will come. In time, I'll go back home to visit family. In time, the blessings from this new job will start to flow. In time, life will feel normal again.

Lately time has felt r.e.a.l.l.y.s.l.o.w.

The girls and I head back in one week! ONE WEEK!!! for my cousin's wedding. I can hardly wait! It's not easy packing up from a home that's 5 minutes from your parents house and heading west... far far west.

I truly am counting my blessings. I love that I get be a stay at home mom. (and let me say, that's exactly what we've been doing) Of course life couldn't just be dandy by leaving our other troubles behind... Robbie's jeep blew a tire on the freeway heading to work last Thursday and thankfully no one was hurt... but that left us with one car. And who needs that car the most? Daddy. So for the past 3 days I've tried to keep my sanity and entertain my kids in this foreign land we now call home.

We explored outdoors yesterday while the sun was out.
It made me excited for warm weather.
We've colored
and painted.
We've watched shows...
and more shows.
We've had snacks
and made cookies.
We've played barbies
and dress ups
We've had tantrums...
and more tantrums.

Hopefully we will be back to two cars sometime this week, then we can explore even more.

I have missed my blog and I promise to keep up! My emotions are so back and forth. One minute I'm so excited to start this new adventure... then I remember we can't go hang out at my mom's house this evening...

but we will next week!!

Stay tuned... pictures will be coming soon :)