Brooklyn's 1st Birthday

Yummy yummy goodness! From the tips of my fingers to the tip of my nose.

Here is a  piture of our set up.

 Mom, Why don't we eat this much more often??

 Three of Mommy's Monday night girls: Katie Jenny, and Dana

Jack and Daddy

Jason and Cora

Peek-a-Boo

"Mommy I am all done with my nap." Brooklyn was on her knees wondering who was coming to get her today. It is amazing the difference just a week will make. She is going from sitting to hands and knees and then back to sitting. She can crawl in a circle but hasn't decided she wants to go anywhere too far away just yet. I bet in another week things will be different.

Makena's First Day of Pre-School

Makena is attending Butterfly School at Riverside Church of Christ this year. She was so excited about her school supplies and even more so about her cute little backpack and lunch box. Here Daddy is helping her get her backpack on. She quickly decided it was too heavy.

Isn't she the cutest!??! She seems like such a big girl for two years old.

We arrived at school at first a little cautious as she heard the crying inside the room. However, we managed to "sort" her backpack items (lunch, sippy cup, folder) at the door and then hang up her backpack inside. I gave her a kiss and she imediately saw the magnetic blocks then I was no longer "needed".

She had a great first week. She didn't potty at all on Tuesday, but didn't have any accidents. She also didn't nap but she napped when she got home. On Thursday she conquered the potty and naptime. Go Makena!! I have mixed feeling about my little girl being gone but know it will be good for her to socialize for extended periods of time.

Dreams by Makena

It seems Makena has begun to have dreams and actually be able to remember them. Yesterday she woke up in a panic that she needed her toenails and fingernails painted. This morning she woke up saying "Can't find Grannie B" over and over. I asked her if she had a dream and she said "Yes, can't find Grannie B". She was certain Grannie was here and that she was missing. I asked her later if she was playing hide-n-seek with Grannie B and she said yes. Not sure if Makena even knows what hide-n-seek is but evidently Grannie B was really good at it.

Brooklyn - 7 Months

My sweet Brooklyn Kennedy is 7 months old. She weighs about 15.5 pounds and is healthy.

Sleep: She is doing pretty good now. She usually goes down between 8 and 9pm and stays down until 5am or so. She eats then and goes back down until around 8am.

Mobility: Brooklyn is learning the inch worm. She rocks back and forth on her knees but doesn't go too far unless she is rolling. Just a couple of days after turning 7 months old she decided to pull-up from sitting to standing in her crib. Her crib has now been lowered. She can sit up very well but can't get there from laying down just yet.

Eating: She nurses 6-7 times a day and is now taking solid food twice a day. She doesn't really love just any food yet but seems to like green more than orange colored foods. She has had avocado, banana, brown rice, apple sauce, peas, carrots, squash, sweet potato, pears, green beans, and peaches.

Sister time: She loves her big sister almost as much as her big sister loves her. Brooklyn loves to see Makena's big smile every morning. Most mornings Makena wants to "go see sister" which means she wants to go sit in her crib with her and make her laugh. Such sweet giggles!! Makena is starting to take things away from her so we are having to manage that.

Church: Brooklyn has spent the last month or so in the nursery on Sunday mornings. She seems to like it a lot.

Favorites: Pink bunny blanket, lamb noise maker, bug toy

Teeth: 1 bottom (the very first one!!)

Long Weekend Away as a Family of 4

So really we are a family of 5 if you include Riggins but he stayed home for this trip. Last Friday we packed up (who would have thought packing for 4 would take so long) and set out for Horseshoe Bay Resort. It was a bit of a long drive for what was supposed to be 4 hours but we made it!

We ate at Pizza Hut in Marble Falls. As the waiter delivered the water, one glass fell over and splashed all over our sleeping Brooklyn. A few tears later she had recovered from the shock and was perfectly happy. The waiter was very apologetic and gave us a free salad. This stop marked Brooklyn's first time in a restaurant highchair. She looks like such a big girl and sat up so well.


Makena enjoying the crust and sauce. Yum!Then off to our room with a view...oh well it was a great price and we had our own built in white noise. Really I didn't notice any noise.

Brooklyn and Mommy ready to head to the pool on Saturday.

Pool time. Makena loved swimming and Brooklyn enjoyed floating.

Our Family of 4. Riggins would have had a ball in the lake.Nap time hair.

Down at the Big Pool...

Eagle Pool.


Hotel Pool...lots of fun with Daddy.

The weeble wobbles were fun in the water. Daddy got his workout.

Brooklyn hanging out...

Laughs and chuckles with Daddy.

I love Daddy!

Sisters...or best friends. So much fun in our future.

Makena looking at the lake at the River City Cafe in Marble Falls.

We enjoyed ourselves so much we stayed an extra day. We stopped in Burnett on the way home and ate at Storm's which was delicious.

As we approached Hico on the way home, a man flagged us down because an SUV had just gone off the road and flipped over a fence and he was not getting a cell phone signal to call 9-1-1. The SUV was smashed on one side, Don called 9-1-1 and quickly a sheriff showed up. By the time Don made the call and then got over the fence, a lady and child were climbing out of the car. Praise God they were ok.

Out of the mouth of Makena...

Before I forget, I wanted to capture a few sayings from Makena:

"My do it myself!!"

"Daddy Don"

"Momma T-NaNa", "Momma T-Ana"

She has become miss independent and wants to do everything herself. It usually includes doing things twice. Mommy or Daddy do it then it is done again because Makena wants to do it herself.

A couple of weeks ago we were sitting at the table and I asked Makena if she knew my name, so after going through my name and Daddy's name she was hooked. It always comes out at the funniest times. Like tonight she just randomly turns to her Daddy and says "Hi Don", then turns to me and says "Hi Tianay". She seems so big as she recites all of her actions of the day. She will walk through every step of the process of getting dressed and any other activity we have done during the day. So Cute!

Cosmic City VBS...

McKenna and MakenaKatelyn and Makena


McKenna, Heidi, Cooper, Sully, Katelyn, Caleb, Eagan, and Makena.

Ice Cream = Quiet 2 year olds

Ms. Chelsea helping with self-portraits.

Brooklyn and Daddy

Makena singing

Makena's first year in a VBS class was wonderful. I was fortunate enough to teach her class with a good friend. The week was so much fun. We learned about how awesome our God is. We can trust Him, count on Him, worship Him and believe in Him. Rather than meet during the day on Friday, Prestoncrest had a VBS Extravaganza to celebrate with parents. It included pizza, singing, and snow cones along with laser tag and other games for the bigger kids.

Makena had a great time but missed one day due to another "fever virus". She stayed home with Daddy while Mommy and Brooklyn went to VBS for the morning. Brooklyn spent time in the nursery with our amazing nursery staff.

Makena is known to be very quiet in front of others but she defintely takes in every little detail. She proved that once again after being very quiet all week in class. I was trying to get all the kids things ready to go on Thursday while the rest of the kids went to the auditorium and she was playing at the table. She went around to each seat talking to every person in class. She called them by name and somewhere in the conversation meantioned something that had happened that week. She gave Katelyn and Heidi frogs and Caleb his "daddy" toy. It was so cute! She and Katelyn became buddies because they went to the potty together. It is funny to hear potty conversations with 2 year olds. I love both of my sweet girls and I look forward to doing this for many years.

Catching Up

May was a big month for the Carroll family and it somehow flew by faster than I could keep up. I am going to post some updates over the next few days and will date them according to events in May. So if you keep up with us, take a moment to scan back a few post over the coming days.

I hope June has started off wonderful for everyone. June started paci free for Makena. She is struggling with naps a bit but overall doing very well. We are still practicing on the potty and I intend to start more intense training over the next few weeks.

Brooklyn was still not sleeping well until about 5 days ago. She has gone at least 5.5 hours for the last five nights with her longest being 10 hours. The 10 hour night had one paci fix and all was well with the world. Thank you God for answered prayers.

Makena and Brooklyn both had a "fever virus" this week. Some of our friends had it but for them it resulted in a stomach bug. Prayers are still with them as they get better.

We also have had visits from Grannie B, Grammy, Uncle Marcus and Auntie Amanda. So fun to see them for a few hours or a few days. We are looking forward to our summer and what the months will bring.

Weekend with Grammie and Gramps

What a busy month. We wrapped up the month with Gramps and Grammie...so FUN!

Gramps and Makena talking on the phone.

Grammie's Toy Tower...so fun!

Talking with Grammie.

Cuddle time with Grammie.

Project Paci - Week 1 Complete

Night 3 and beyond: Night time has gotten progressively easier for Makena without the paci. As of night 3 she has stayed in her bed at night. She tends to get up a little earlier than before since she has issues soothing herself back to sleep. We may spend a little more time with her to get her ready for bed but other than an extra book, song, or a second prayer we really haven't had much trouble. She may try a few more stall tactics but ultimately at night she has done pretty well.

Naptime however...totally different story. She has a hard time going down for her nap and if she ever wakes up too soon we have a screamer on our hands.

She confirms daily that she "gave paci's to mommy" and we then walk through what Mommy gave to her. It is so precious and is hard sometimes to stick to our guns but again we know it is for the best.

A couple of days ago she found some of her old 'little" paci I had stored in a box. She did very good saying they were the baby's paci until she came across one that was more her size. I found her sneaking it into her mouth but after only one time telling her she didn't attempt it again.

I love my big girl! Sometimes growing up is a little hard but she has done great!

Makena's First Ponytail

Up until know my sweet little girl has been blessed with little hair. It has been a blessing because she is hot natured and it is cool as well as the fact that I haven't had to fight the tangle wars or spend extra time getting it fixed every morning. However, getting a little extra hair on top has enabled us to finally have a little ponytail.

Here she is sporting her new do as she comes back from getting the mail with Daddy. This is a special time for Makena and Daddy every night.

Makena's cute little ponytail. Looking forward to many more.