Two Months Old

Joshua is now 2 months old and is getting bigger all the time. He had his 2 month old appoinment today and he is up tp 12 pounds! He is a fun baby and really enjoys going out with me. He has learned how to get his hand to his mouth and most of the time he can get his thumb to suck on. He likes to be in his swing and sleeps in it a lot. He is not a fan of people messing with his belly, but everyone wants to pinch it because it's so chubby. Still not the best with holding up his head and he still sleeps like a new born baby. Our family Dr says this is all still very normal for being early, she told me to enjoy it while I can!

Seven Weeks Old

Josh is now seven weeks old and is growing like a weed! He is a very happy baby and is very easy going. Time is going to fast and he changes so much everyday. Matt really can see him change if he has been out of town for a few days. We both said his car seat is getting a little more weight to it. He is now 10 pounds and 21 inches long, his head is still floppy but his doctor said most early babies are. We can sometimes get him to smile and I did get him to make a little noise last night. He did laugh in his sleep a week ago it was so cute! We all are doing great and I feel much better than I did 2 weeks ago. I hope to start back to Massage Therapy soon!! Matt is keeping very busy with Pioneer. He has to be out of town a lot this week but is home most nights. Hope you all enjoy the pictures I'm a little picture crazy I have 500 pictures for the month of Aug. and still have another week for more!

What's In a Name

My newest post is about why you have the name you have. My sister Beth has challenged me to post a blog about why Matt, Josh and I have the names we have.


Matthew Spencer McKenzie

When I asked Matt why he was named Matthew he told me he didn’t know. So I emailed his mom and dad and they had some very fun facts to tell me. So very fun in fact I have decided to post the email.

Since we did not know if we were having a boy or a girl, we had to come up with a lot of options for names. I remember agreeing on most of the girl names, Melinda and Melissa are two I recall, but we did not see eye to eye on the boy names. Don always had something he did not like about a name I came up with. For example: If we named him Wade, when we went to the lake, everyone would joke "there's Wade in the water". If we named him Justin, he would be called "just in time". See what I had to put up with. :) We came really close to naming him Casey Dean, but finally agreed on Matthew and I liked the way it sounded with McKenzie. We knew all along the middle name if we had a boy would be Spencer (my maiden name). Don's Mom had used family names for middle names and we liked that idea. Here's a funny story on my brother Jim. When we called to tell him we had a baby boy and his name was Matthew Spencer, Jim asks "What's his middle name?"

Don sounds a lot like myself I tried to make sure it wasn’t a name that could be easily messed with. I guess Matt married someone a little like his dad. I know Mat has told me that he was always glad he could go by Matthew or Matt. He said when he was younger he really didn’t like Matthew at all. Names I have heard people call Matt include Matthew, Matt, Harry, Mattie, Tommy and Kenzie. I have a really bad habit of calling Matt a different name all the time. I guess when Josh gets older I better stick to his name so when people ask he won’t say something crazy.

Jena Marie McKenzie (Younger)

When I think back of what mom and dad have told me about how my name was picked it’s not the same story. Dad has said it was after His mom Ramona Jean Younger. He said the just reworked the middle name. When I asked mom she said we wanted a “J” name to match your brother Jason. They also wanted the twin’s names to start with the same letter. Mom if I remember right was going to go with a G for my name and the dad said Jeno’s Pizza started with a J. I still hear my uncle call dad Jeno (G No). So not really sure how it came about but I usually tell people the grandma story it sounds a little better. My nicknames have included tinny because I was smaller than Jill when we arrived and Bean by a few of my college and coworkers friends. I have ALWAYS had my name mispronounced and told Matt I would NEVER EVER name our child something that could be mispronounced.

Joshua Dean McKenzie

We had Joshua’s names picked out for awhile before he was born. We didn’t tell anyone because we really wanted to make sure he was a Josh when we had him. We had other names picked out but they did not have as much variety as Joshua. I probably pushed for his name to be a simple name that has been around forever and that no one could misspell or mispronounce. At first I told Matt I wanted to call him what we named him, but then he told me he really liked that he had the option to shorten his name so we started to look at names we could do that with. I did want a name that if we did shorten it that it was still a real name. I told Matt growing up with a name no one can pronounce makes you really think about how you name your baby. I joke that when you have a set of parents with simple easy names that can’t ever be said wrong you usually get some interesting names. We had a fun time naming Joshua, Josh or JD and we really hope he likes his name.

Can you all say "Grandma Kathy"

Fair weekend in the big town of TRIBUNE!! Glad to see it come and go. This weekend was like any fair weekend, hot and crowded. It’s crazy we can all still fit in the house. I thought 5 kids was a lot when we grew up but try 5 kids and spouses. Did I forget to tell you all how many kids? Nine kids total and 3 of them babies. Mom and Wayne tolerate us all so so well. Grandma Kathy got to hear "Grandma Kathy" all weekend long for eveything big and small. The word "Grandma Kathy" got to be a little much. All in all the house gets messy with all the stuff we all have to bring to survive the weekend but it's lot of fun.

We did the usual and went to the parade on Saturday morning. Wayne has an old JD tractor he put in the parade. Adam was in charge of driving it this year with all the kids throwing lots of candy!! Jacob, Titus and Zekke had a blast throwing candy and did a good job. I’m sure it was one of the few times the kids had been told to throw something at people.

We had lots of little people over the weekend that could NOT stay out of the water. Gracie, Jacob and Titus loved the hot tub while Miss Tatum did anything she could to get in some water. One of the water misters sprung a leak and Taty took full advantage of it! We also had three new babies this year! Thad is very happy to hold them and as you can see they are not. Maddix in brown Joshua in green and Thad in white.

We also celebrated the life of Angel Emma on Aug 2nd; it was hard to think she would have been 2 this year. Adam, Mindy and Thad made a cake and we sent pink balloons with messages on them to heaven for Emma. The kids loved it and it was a great way to remember her.

All in all it was a fun time to see everyone and Joshua survived his first family function! Monday and Tuesday have been a little slow for us to get things done. I have a baby who thinks he needs held all the time I wonder why he would think that! He sure loved all the extra attention and can’t wait to see you all again.