Mackenzie Mary...in 3D!

It's crazy to think that two days ago (February 15th), I was exactly two months away from my due date with Mackenzie. I have no idea where the time has gone!

Today I had a 3D ultrasound and we were able to catch some cute photos of our little peanut! She was facing the perfect direction for the photos, but unfortunately the umbilical cord was in the way most of the time, so getting that perfect, unobscured shot was tricky! I did get to see her yawn, smile, swallow and stick her tongue out though which was really neat!

The sonographer took some measurements while I was there and she said everything looked great! The heartbeat was 131 which she said was good, and based on the measurements it looks like our little girl is weighing about 4 lbs, 5 oz! Three more pounds and she'll be good to go! :) I seem to be able to gain that in a week these days, but I'm thankful she isn't plumping up quite as quickly as her mama is!

We were given a DVD of ultrasound so we have everything that was captured. Here are the pictures that were printed out for us.

Here's a "standard" ultrasound photo she gave me that's a profile picture of Mackenzie, with her head on the right side of the photo...

The umbilical cord crept into these two photos over Mackenzie's eye (on the right side of the photo), but they are still adorable!


And these two photos are my favorite! At the end of the ultrasound, she fell asleep and was resting her head on her arm. And the umbilical cord managed to stay out of the way for just enough time to capture the moment! She's a cutie pie!


We are getting really excited to meet Ms. Mackenzie and are having fun putting her nursery together. Well, I should say that it's actually been David putting the nursery together so far and he's done a fabulous job! We have the crib and dresser in place and will hopefully be bringing the glider into the room this weekend and maybe putting Mackenzie's name up on the wall above her changing table (like how it is in Maddie's room). Slowly but surely we are getting there!

My next checkup appointment is on Wednesday the 23rd. It's so strange to think that I have an appointment two weeks after that and then I'll be 35 weeks and go for weekly visits. It is all getting so close!

We love you!
Nile, David and Maddie with a special guest appearance by Mackenzie in 3D!

Our Gold Medalist

I'm so sorry that it's been an eternity since we posted! January 29th was Maddie's last gymnastics class - the course was 10 weeks long but it felt like it went by so quickly!

Looking back to when Maddie began the class, and where she was at the end of January, was so great - she had accomplished a lot in those weeks and was doing so much more than when we first began. She used to hate walking along the balance beams and would lift her legs up high so that her feet wouldn't touch the beam. On the last day, she walked along those beams and at times wasn't even holding David's hand! She had overcome that fear and hesitation and did such a great job on her own! I think the only thing she continued to dislike were the rings, but that's ok! She did them and enjoyed climbing through the rest of the course, including a small rock climbing wall. And of course, her favorite thing from day one until the very end was the trampoline. That girl can jump! She absolutely loves it and would've been completely content spending the entire class time on the trampoline!

At the end of the last class, they had an awards ceremony for all of the kids. We took some long overdue photos that day of the different activities Maddie did in class, of her teacher (Ms. Gail) and the ceremony. The ceremony was really cute - they had Olympic music playing in the background and they gave each kid a gold medal to wear and a wand to hold up during their time on the awards stand. We were (and are!) proud parents!

Here are some of our favorite photos...

Maddie on the balance beam - they start off walking along the slightly higher beam (to the right of the one she's on here) and then hop down to the lower beam. I am so proud of her for the progress she made in this area! She had no hesitation that last day of class!

Here's one of the rope swing...someone is always holding on to Maddie and the rope as she swings, so it's not nearly as dangerous at it may sound!

I hopped into the class quickly and walked alongside Maddie while she was on the balance beam. After the rope swing, there's a tunnel the kids can crawl through and then a balance beam to walk on that brings them back to the line for the rope swing. That is the balance beam she was on here.

Maddie never stayed still long enough on the trampoline to get a picture of her that wasn't blurry! She was just constantly jumping and loving every second of it, as this blurry photo will attest!

Here she is flopped down on the mat at the end of the trampoline, with a fuzzy Jonah landing by her side.

Maddie is swinging on the bars here. This was another area that she hated in the beginning and was much more open to by the end. It still wasn't her favorite and the rings followed the bars, which didn't make it any more appealing (since she still dislikes the rings!).

Maddie popping out of the circular tube for a great photo op!

Here she's starting up the rock climbing wall, following her classmate Jonah who has made it to the top (those are his parents beside him)...

Maddie is sliding down the ramp here, sitting on top of a little skateboard type thing that glides down the ramp - she really liked this!

After getting off of the skateboard, she would walk down a ramp to where the large rings were...

And here she and Jonah are looking at each other in the rings!

Here are a couple of Maddie with her wonderful instructor, Ms. Gail...


And now she's sitting contently with Daddy waiting for her turn during the awards ceremony...

And her moment of triumphant glory! Isn't she adorable?!


We love you all!
Nile, David and our little gymnast (aka Maddie)