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.

1 month old

Joshua is 1 month old today!! Wow what a wonderful month this has been. Matt and I are so blessed to have such a wonderful baby. Josh is easy going and not much gets under his skin. He loves the sound of running water and really likes being in the water. He smiles a lot when he sleeps and you don’t know how long it took me to get a picture of him smiling while he was sleeping! He has started to make more noise and likes to stay up late to see the TV flash at night. He has had many people in and out over the last month and has had a few road trips. We spent a few days with Grandma Kathy and Papa Wayne while Matt was out of town for a week. Grandma Lori and Grandpa Don have been down twice to see him. Great Grandma Nina and Aunt Linda have also got to spend some time with him. He has also got to see Great Aunts Uncles Great Great Aunts and Uncles and many cousins. Aug 1 we will be going to Tribune to see everyone and Uncle Jason and Aunt Vic will get to see him for the first time. Grandpa Max got to see both of the babies; he had a blast as you can tell in the picture. Joshua is just over 8 pounds and I seem to call my sister Beth and Mindy and ask a LOT of baby questions the big one is he fat enough. Thanks for you help ladies I’m sure that first time mommy thing is in full swing. On the on the hand Mr. Hoss has I think adjusted well. He of course doesn’t have my full attention and I know it makes him sad as it does me. I love that dog and he is still a big part of the family I just haven’t had a lot of time for ball. It seems all I do is feed that baby and sleep. I hope to keep the blog more up to date I feel much better in just the last week and starting to feel like I’m getting in the swing of things.

2 weeks old

What a good baby we have. He loves people who come over to see him and really is very easy going. He has had a lot of people in the last 2 weeks come and see him and really likes to be held. Went to the tub a few times and really likes it as long as you don't wash him just let him float! He is very happy to sleep all day long, and sometimes I wake him up because his belly is asking for food! I have put him in his crib grandpa Don made him and he loves to look at the fish light the Mike McKenzie crew got him!! Sorry we have not got a lot of pictures up it's been a very very fast 2 weeks.

Happy 4th of July

Ok, we're a little late on the 4th of July, but these were some cool pics we got this year. We're lucky that we only live a few blocks from where the city puts on the show. We can sit in our driveway and get the full effect.




The guy that puts the show on each year is a local native who started his firework business in a small stand outside of town. It has grown into a huge fireworks distributorship and he does displays for major events. He is the guy who does all the fireworks for the Colorado Rockies.


This year's show was another good one!


Josh decided to sleep during the show. He's hanging out in his 4th of July outfit!

Joshua Dean McKenzie
6-25-2008
7 pounds 2 oz 20 inches

Our first week has gone by so fast! We all went home on Sunday June 29th and wow what a week it has been. Grandma Lori and Aunt Linda came home with us and have been a great deal of help. Josh is a great baby and it has been a wonderful week. We have had a few set backs with nursing but we had been told it could happen. Joshua still needs to learn how to suck, swallow and breathe!! He was born closer to 35 weeks and not the 37 weeks the doctors thought he was. This is why we are having a harder time with breathing while being too cuddled and eating. Other than that we finally have a post and are very happy to have this little man!!! Thank you to all for all the phone calls and emails!!! Matt, Jena, Josh and Hoss!!