A McKinlay Summer Day...

We’re loving our life in Irvine, Ca right across from Sweet Shade Park. Lewis is a happy, sweet 3 year old who loves his new little brothers. Rowan and Clark are 9 months old and are keeping us busy! Rowan is steady eddie with his big infectious grin while Clark is our nonstop energizer who doesn’t want to miss a beat. The 3 boys enjoy each other’s company, and it’s so wonderful to see these life long friendships forming already.

McSummer 2012

My oh my...how the summer days pass by! We kicked things off in June with a Purdy Family vacay to Sedona. I finally saw the Grand Canyon for the first time in my life while our twinners saw it before they even turned 1! Lewis enjoyed his experience there too and called it the "Grand Candy Cane". Upon our first steps to the massive world wonder Lewis says, "Don't fall in!" Many good memories were made and seeing the Grand Canyon was all the more special having our whole Purdy clan together. Fast forward to August where we took another 8-hour road trip this time to Zion's for the McKinlay Family vacay. We were "unplugged" and enjoyed awesome family time in the great outdoors

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Let the Good Times Roll...

Big Year! I forgot to mention one of my milestones this year of 2012... I turned 40!!! No big deal, haha! Let me just say it was much more fun turning 40 being married to my sweet Lance and having 3 healthy, adorable boys than when I turned 30 and was single! Yes, I am one happy wifey and mama bear:-) Feeling good about life at 40, and I even got to celebrate it with my twinner which made the event all the more fun. Here's to another great 40 years of kids, family and fantastic memories..

Life is Good!

Holy Smokes!!! It's been awhile... Ok, so we had twin boys and now they're almost 5 months old! I guess I've been a little busy, but here I am finally at the computer posting the latest on the McKinlay Family. Lewis is doing great as big brother and is really sweet to his baby brothers...most of the time. After the initial shock of the twin invasion into his world, Lewis has adjusted and is adapting well. He loves to give his twin brothers hugs and pet their soft head. Sometimes he gets a little too excited about it and I have to remind him to be gentle and soft. I think he gets it now.. These twin babies are here and they're here to stay! Rowan is our big boy weighing in at the 97th percentile and height in the 95th percentile. Dr says his legs are "scholarship material". What parent doesn't want to hear that:-) Clark is our little guy at 30% weight 50% height which was similar to Lewis. In fact he resembles Lewis with his big baby blues and hair color. Rowan is a cuddle bear who eats and sleeps with ease and just goes with the flow. He's really smiling a lot and loves to look up at your face with his big open grin. Melts my heart... Then there's Clarky who is the energizer bunny who flaps his arms and kicks his legs like he's about to fly away. He's a little charmer with his grin and side tilt of his head. He looks at you with the cutest smile like he's ready for a party whether it's 6am or 11pm. We think he needs to be a doctor since he can go on little sleep and doesn't want to miss a beat. We've had quite a few family members come and visit since the twins were born which has been so much fun. Nothing better than having family here in the sunny OC. Lance and I are loving life with all the crazy good times that comes with 3 little boys. We count our blessings every day!

Oh Boy, Oh Boy!!!

It's official.. We're having twin BOYS!!! We're very excited and grateful to be adding to our family with double the fun, joy, (stress?). Lewis's world will not be the same, but we think he will be a great big brother. I guess that leaves me seriously outnumbered. At the 20 week ultra sound check up, we were happy to hear that the twins are just the right size, weight, measurement, etc. I'm feeling pretty good in my 2nd trimester and sometimes ask myself, maybe I can do this one more time? Guess I should wait and see what life will be like going from 1 boy to 3!
So to kick things off for our growing family, we sold the Lexus and bought a new mini-van!!! I've entered a whole new world and I couldn't be happier:-)

Early Summer Days...

Lewis's latest fascination has been Volcanoes which he pronounces enthusiatically, "Wahhhh-too"! He loves to take his little red toy that he thinks is a volcano to the park, the pool, and in the bathtub. Whether he fills it with sand, water, or bubbles he'll gently tap the top as if it's erupting and it entertains him for quite awhile.. If he doesn't have his handy red volcano with him, he loves to make his own out of wet sand, blankets, or pillows. Even when I hand him a triangle shape tortilla chip, he says, "Wahhh-too!" Lewis is starting to get into waterfalls now and can easily access them on youtube with my iPhone. One of his favorite things to do remains throwing rocks or anything that will make a splash into water.
So that's been our play theme to start off the summer and we've been having a lot of fun with it... Kaaa-Boom!!!

Spring Trip to Utah

We had a wonderful visit and got to see all of our families. Lewis loved seeing his grandparents, cousins, and especially the rocks in the river! After a long day of fun, out door activities Lewis was plumb-tuckered out...
Here's a link to see video at the river: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEQvyGp3l8I

BREAKING NEWS

Deanna has been spotted in the kitchen!!

No seriously, this is Lance, and I am making a rare posting to our blog to express my gratitude to Deanna for finding such a great place for our family in Irvine. I give her a lot of credit for making it happen after telling me about her favorite park and "dream neighborhood" for so long. We love our new home!

Home Sweet Home

We moved to the promised land... Irvine!!! We've only been here 2 weeks now, and it's everything I was hoping for and more..
When I first discovered Sweet Shade Park, I knew it was where we wanted to be. For the past 2 years I've been driving Lewis out to this park. And now there it is, right outside our front door! The park, the pool, the great neighbors and schools and don't even get me started on the shopping. Hello, Whole Foods! It's everything a mom of a 2-year-old boy would ever want. Lance has taken Lewis to the pool and hot tub 3 time this week and it's February, people.. We're living the dream, baby!

It's 2011!!!

We're looking forward to a whole new year...

Let It Snow!!!

Ok, so maybe Lewis is still too young to fully appreciate experiencing his first snow fall. I know there will come a day when he's begging us to take him to the snow! The photo of me in front of the apartment building is West Cambridge, aka, Condo Row, just south of BYU campus. That 1st floor window is into the living room where "The Purdy Sisters" lived during most of college. Lance lived just 2 condos down at East Cambridge, and we were in the same ward for 2 years; however, we don't remember ever meeting each other. Now 15 years later we're married with a 2 year old, and life is good! Crazy how things turns out. Lance and I enjoyed visiting our old college stomping grounds together with Lewis and truly appreciate our family. It was worth the wait! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation in Utah visiting our families and look forward to seeing more of them over Christmas.

Our baby boy turns 2!!!

We had a great time celebrating Lewis's birthday with family and friends, but we decided we'll give Chuck E. Cheese a rest for a few years!
A little story about Lewis just before he turned 2 years old... Lewis and I were at the water park where I was feeding him fish crackers. To my dismay, each time I handed him a fish cracker, he would throw it into the water, then after a while pick it up and eat it. This is something he has never done before, and I was so worried he would get sick from the germs!
A few days later, we were reading a book together and it finally hit me... As I pointed to a page showing fish in water, I realized that Lewis had thrown the fish crackers into the water before eating them because he knew that fish belong in water!
This is one of the many examples demonstrating that kids know more than we think. There was a method to his madness. What an insight into the beautiful minds of children… I realize more and more every day that it's the small moments I appreciate the most.

Go Catch a Wave!

A couple weeks after Yosemite we went to Lance’s family vacay in San Diego. We stayed at a beautiful, big beach house with the whole family just steps from the beach. Lewis had a ball on the beach and loved playing in the waves. Even after getting knocked down a few times, he wanted to keep on playing. At the end of each day we had hot tubs to relax in while watching the sunset over the ocean. Alex and MK created a McKinlay family movie that pulled together years of family memories from video and photos With all the family activities, around the clock yummy food and CSB's (cold sweet beverages), and being surrounded by loved ones, we did not want this vacation to end!

"Go Climb A Rock"

Yosemite was incredible... We loved staying at Yosemite Lodge where we could walk right out to Yosemite Falls.. What a sight!
Here are some of our highlights:
Deanna: spending memorable time visiting and reminiscing with family in the beautiful outdoors, eating s'mores, hiking Vernal Falls and the talent show.
Lance: hiking Half Dome (not sure which was better, reaching summit or being received
by Deanna and Lewis .5 m from the bottom on the way down and getting hugs, kisses and fresh water.
Lewis: throwing rocks into rivers, streams and creeks, being surrounded by all his fun cousins, and getting dirty.
So many great memories made here, we will definitely come back again...

Summahhh Time!

Ok, so summer is more than half way over, but better late than never! Just packing up for our big Yosemite 2010 Purdy Vacay and I'm sooo excited!!! Will bring back lots of great memories and pics for sure. Here are a few summer time pics in the mean time..