Malaki's First Birthday

Happy Birthday Malaki!! This year has been a blast and has flown by!

"I'm number 1!!"

Yes, this is the face of amazement! Dan Zanes books!!!

We gave Malaki the greatest Birthday party! We had balloons, balls, and bubbles. The atmosphere was perfect! Our yard was a paradise for a 1 year old.



We also got Malaki's favorite foods. We had hummus, pita, dolmas, falafel, rice, and fruits and vegies of all sorts.

Nicole baked a really neat cake. It was a strawberry and blueberry coconut flour cake. It was really tastey. No sugar, no wheat, and no dairy. When Mandy brought the cake out, we all sang "happy birthday". He got really shy and snuggled mom. He quickly got over being shy, and grabbed and ate one of the berries.

He loves to share his food. He is sharing his strawberry with Kennedy.

Nicole also made a really neat "ice cream" It too was sugar and dairy free. It was a mango strawberry ice cream made with coconut milk. It seriously was amazing.

Cake and Ice Cream Time!!

When we sat him in his chair he laughed and laughed. He looked up at the balloons and laughed. He was also so excited to have a bite of his cake and ice cream.

He insistsed on feeding himself. As well as everyone within arms reach.

The party was great. We were so pleased that so many wonderful people came to celebrate our little Malaki.

After the party he was exhausted, and WAY excited to get into bed. Here he is when we took him into the bedroom. He rolled around and squealed with delight.

After about a half an hour of trying to sleep, we realized he was too wound up from the party. We decieded to relax with a stroll through the neighborhood with some left over pita. Here he is kicked back and relaxed. What a wonder way to end a magical day.

Holiday Photos!

Go Katy! Ring that bell!

On Christmas eve we rang the Christmas Bells. We made dreams come true. Mandy was helping Malaki with his bell.

Malaki and Grandma Chris Spendlove (don't tell Chris we published her picture!)

Malaki and Kylee

Malaki LOVED his new stacker toy he got for Christmas. When he first got it he sat and played for a really long time.

Old Halloween!

These are pictures from Halloween 2009. Kennedy had a ton of fun decorating the yard. You can see she did a very good job! Mandy and Katy came over and we went trick or treating. It was all good fun. Happy first Halloween Malaki!

Kennedy Through the Years!

I scanned in all of Kennedy's school pictures today. I thought I would share them. I love to look at pictures and see how she has changed. It's fun. Enjoy!

Remembering Malaki's First 2 Months

Malaki is now 12 weeks old and we have a TON of pictures. Here are various pictures from June & July. Hope you enjoy! Kennedy has been an awesome big sister! She gives him lots of snuggles, sings him songs, reads him stories and can even calm him when he is upset. She is an excellent "shhhhh"er. Malaki definately loves his big sister, when ever she talks to him he automatically smiles. Sometimes they just lay in bed next to eachother and giggle.

Bath time has been interesting! It is always a surprise when the water first touches his skin. He gets this look on his face that exclaims "...I don't know about this..!" Whenever we sprinkle the water on him he gets pretty intense. For the first few weeks Malaki thought that bath time was a great time for potty time! But now he is getting the hang of things (& so are we!) and it has gone much smoother..and cleaner. He usually is pretty calm during the actual bath. He lays there and looks around, kicks his feet and munches on his fingers. He loves to just lay around and giggle in his towel. He very much likes to be without his clothes. He squiles and yipes, and says things like "aroo, and geeee!!" Even when he just needs a change, he loves to lay on his changing table and talk to Mom and Dad about all sorts of things. These are some of our favorite times with Malaki. Malaki already loves to learn! He constantly studies his surroundings. Within the first week he had a favorite book and a favorite page. The moment we would lay him down he'd look for his lion. He and this lion had some wonderful conversations together! He loves to study pictures and look at flash cards. Mom even had to go out and find "ready for school" preschool flash cards to keep him entertained! At this rate he will be reading in no time!

The best place to study and learn about new things is out side! There are so many colors and sounds. The best part are the bright green leaves against the blue sky. Malaki loves to be out side and loves to be moving! Our sleepy wrap is the best thing to keep him comfy and give him what he wants, lots of walks. There are many days that we would go out 3 or 4 times! June had been abnormally WET! It rained almost EVERY day after Malaki was born for 3 weeks straight! The wrap was very useful for protecting him from the sudden rain showers that we would wait out under a near by tree. The sleepy wrap is also great because it gives Scott the sensation of being pregnant, which has been fun for Nicole! He says he even gets a little indigestion.

Life at home has been pleasant, but Mom was itching to get out after 3 weeks at home. Grandpa Nolan had a specail trip to the Zoo planned for him and Kennedy, so we decided to see if we could tag along. Mom had a great time look at all the animals, and Malaki enjoyed the movement and the sleep!
We even went on Vacation! We atteneded the Atkin annual family reunion, "The Atkinder" at Bear Lake from July 11-14. Malaki and Mom mostly stayed in doors eating and sleeping and trying to relax. Malaki got to met a lot of his relatives for the first time and enjoyed socializing. He was the youngest to attend. Here are some pictures from that weekend:

Malaki thinks his Mom is really funny. Somes he'd rather laugh at her then eat. He will even try to laugh at her WHILE eating. The above is a picture of him taking a break from dinner to laugh.
Malaki loves his Dad. He already takes him on lots of adventures. We have gone up Big Cottonwood Caynon to roast hot dogs and marshmellows, went to Bear Lake and explored Minnitonka Cave. The picture above is of Scott and Malaki playing in St. Charles Canyon. Scott keeps saying he can't wait until Malaki is old enough to ride in the bike trailer and go on the bus. When Scott and Malaki are together, Scott never stops singing. He makes up songs about everything and anything. Malaki seems to enjoy it.

Malaki was very pleased to find out his aunt Mandy and cousin katy would be coming with us to the reunion. His aunt Mandy can always get him smiling! He loves to play with her and tell her stories.

Waiting For Malaki

Nicole's due date was May 23. We know that a due date is actually just a guess of about when the baby will be born, and very unlikely that that would be his birthday. But, none the less, we became quite excited and restless as that day approached.

May 23 was a Saturday. The Saturday before that, Nicole had been very content and patient. People would always ask her if she was ready to pop, and she would say, "no, I can wait tell he is ready. I am enjoying being pregnant." The next day, Sunday, Nicole, Kennedy, and Scott went to the park to get organized for the birth. We put together a hypnobirthing folder worked on Nicole's "special place." A special place is a hypnobirthing tactic to have the mother think about and visualize a special place during labor to help them relax. Nicole's special place is the park. The park that day was so beautiful. We had a great time as a family. Scott tried to find a bird that had the most beautiful song. We think it is a little gray bird with a red head. Kennedy played in the sand and on the swings. Kennedy loved the park. Scott baked chicken and made mashed potatos to eat while there. It was just a great day at the park. It was a start to a wonderful week out in nature as a family. After the trip to the park, Nicole decided, "Ok, I'm ready for Malaki to come."

On Wednesday, we payed a visit to the midwife for a check up. Nicole was really swollen. Her ankles had completely disappeared. Her toes even had fat rolls on them. Nicole had also been having lots of braxton hicks contractions. The midwife was very pleased with Nicole and thought the baby would be coming very soon. She then did a check up only to discover that Nicole was dialated to a 3, almost 4. Honey, our midwife, told us she would be surprised if Nicole made it through the week without having the baby. We were very excited. We thought for sure Malaki would come during the weekend.

Nicole continued to go to work through out the week. On Thursday, during the Youth City celebration Nicole began to have regular contractions and was certain she was going into labor. After she got home, at about 9, the contractions went away. Nicole is very proud about the fact that during the contractions at the end of the Youth City celebration the kids had a dodge ball game. Kids vs. Parents. Nicole of course played for the kids team, and did awesome. She stayed in for a long time and got several of the parents out, and ultimately helped the kids gain victory!

About this time, Kennedy began to become very excited. Scott and Nicole were thrilled that she was so interested. Up until that time, Kennedy kind of seemed a bit nervous, and at other times apathetic. Kennedy did not want to leave Nicole or Scott's side. It was as if she thought that the second she left, the baby might come.

Nicole woke up Saturday morning, the 23(her due date), more swollen then ever, and puked. Nicole felt very different. Even her face was swollen. She was continuing to have braxton hicks contractions every 6 minuets. She was certain that today was going to be the day. While she was shopping at Toys'R'us she thought she was in labor. Because Scott figured that this would be the last Saturday before Malaki came, Scott took Kennedy up to Neffs Canyon in the late afternoon for some good time together. Just the two of them. Neffs Canyon was absolutly beautiful and Scott and Kennedy had some great bonding time. On the way home from Neffs Canyon, Scott and Kennedy stopped at Little World Chinese Food and picked up some fried rice and picked up Nicole to go to the park. Kennedy wanted to know when ever Nicole had a contraction. She kept asking how long her contraction was, and how long it had been since the last one. Scott and Kennedy laughed and played on the swings while Nicole enjoyed her fried rice. We all had a great time at the park

After the park we decided to go for a walk to help the contractions continue. Kennedy was very excited to go for a walk. She was willing to do anything to help Malaki come. She kept asking about the contractions. "Tell me when you have another one. What time is it? How long has it been since the last one?" She was just glowing she was so excited. The braxton hicks contractions continued to be about 5 minuets apart. Nicole was unsure of what a labor contraction would feel like, but she had never had one so she thought that the braxton hicks might be real contractions, and they might get stronger and come closer together. As we walked, we ran into neighbors who seemed to certain that we were going to have the baby tonight.

After the walk we put Kennedy to bed. Kennedy would only go to bed on the condition that if the contractions got to be 4 minuets apart, that we would wake her up and let her know. Before Nicole and Scott went to bed, they packed everything and got all ready to go to the Birth Center thinking that they would be heading in that night.

Nicole woke up at 7 am on Sunday. No contractions. No baby. Kennedy was a bit frustrated. Scott and Nicole were surprised, but Nicole knew that Malaki would come when he was ready. Scott was kind of glad that the baby didn't come on Saturday, because Sunday, the 24 was Grandma Barbra's 90th birthday. He thought that it would be really neat.

After church, Kennedy went to her moms to watch a movie, and Nicole and Scott thought they would go out to nature again and enjoy some time together. Scott decieded to return to Neffs Canyon. It was gourgous again. We hiked around a bit. Took some pictures and found a nice place to relax in the woods. Eventually a thunderstorm chased us back home. Later on Sunday, we sat down to dinner. Nicole decided to eat dinner while rocking on the birth ball. The contractions had started back up. Kennedy was so excited now that she had gotten out pencil and graph paper so she could graph the contractions. With Dads help she graphed the contractions for almost 2 hours. She ran to Nicole and said, "according to this graph you are going to have the baby tonight!" We told her he might not come today, but Kennedy had confidence he was coming. We had a really hard time getting her to bed again. We finally got her to go to bed telling her that she needed to be well rested for the birth and that we would wake her up if we were going to head in to the birth and family center.

Monday came, and no baby, and again, the contractions had gone away during the night. Ok. We were going to get serious about having this baby. We knew that he would come when he was ready, but we decided it wouldn't hurt if we helped a bit. So we (Scott, Nicole, and Kennedy) decided to climb Ensign Peak. Nicole was dialated to a four and having regular contractions (braxton hicks) and we decided to climb a mountain. Ok, it's more of a hill, but still, it was great. We started our hiked close to sundown and it was absolutly beautiful. Kennedy had never been before up there before. Both Nicole and Kennedy did really great climbing. We got to the top just as the sun was setting over the lake. We took some pictures of us at the bottom after the hike.