Summer Fun

Today was a ton of fun! I called all my high school girl friends to get together for a picnic in the park. I won a 6ft Subway Party Sub a year ago and we never had a good reason to use it. So, I ordered up the beast and got some girls together to chow down. Clearly we couldn't eat it all, so the rest went to the lovely teachers at EVHS!

We just played in the park and had a little photo shoot, of which I of course included Macklin!

After that, I came home to find that Justin had hung our hammock in the yard and then we shot some more cutie pics of Macklin!

One of my favorite pics with these girls!

Hayley, Amanda, and Me (man, I am good at taking these pictures!)

Macklin loves Kiah!

Just look at that face!

Sarah and Chris Came to Visit

Justin's aunt Christine and her daughter Sarah came for a visit while they were in Colorado. Besides Macklin's Grandma Kathy, these were the next Kleekamps to meet Macklin! It was great to have them. They got to see Mack and Justin took them for a wild ride on the Colorado River.

Just Cute Pics of Macklin

I have found that as a new mom, my camera is not far from me. I love taking pictures of Macklin, no matter what he is doing. Sometimes I put him in outfits just to take a picture of him! It is kinda like "dress-up" when I was a kid. Now I just have a little baby to play with! So here are some pics from the past few days and a little video of Mack with his daddy.

I love this huge smile of Macklin while he is in the tub. He is getting so expressive!

Something so sweet about sleeping babies!

How does he fall asleep like this???

First day in cloth diapers! Not the biggest fan. I think he will grow into them!

He looks like a little sumo wrestler here!

We are using the One Size Bum Genius 3.0 Cotton Diapers

Find out more info here: http://www.cottonbabies.com/

Sporting the retro-attire. Justin and his cousins wore this 26 years ago!

Little Smirk

His cute little baby leggins! I love these. You can find them here: http://www.babylegs.com/Leg-Warmers.aspx

One of my favorites. I went out for a run and left Justin in charge. Macklin started waking up in his crib so Justin went to grab him. This is how I found them when I got back! Love my boys! Too bad Baxter wasn't squeezed in there with them :)

Macklin Has Been Announced!

So...in hopes of saving money, I set out to make the coolest baby announcement for Macklin using Photoshop. After a couple hours of frustration, I asked my friend Abby Rittmiller to help me learn Photoshop a bit better. When I told her what I was hoping to create, she quickly responded, "It would be faster if I just did it for you." So, below is the sweet announcement that Abby created for us (I will learn more about Photoshop another day!) and it was everything I was hoping it would be. So....announcing.....Macklin has arrived! While no one really needs one of these to know he has arrived, I still get very excited about it! And...I get even more excited to state that I printed them for 13 cents each (regular announcements cost at least 29 cents each) and hand delivered most of them on our trip to MO. That's right...I am learning to be thrifty! Thank you Abby for your help!

Macklin's Noises on Video

Funny video of Macklin.

Includes....smiling and noises of his bowel movements that catch me off guard.

Baxter's Birthday Pawty

So, I did it. I planned for a week for my dog to have a birthday party..."pawty" to be exact. I sent out an invitation and invited his doggy friends over for a romp in the yard. Here was the dog party invitation....

I'm having a pee in the grass, run around in circles, bark at humans, whine at the table, canine cake, bones and balloons kind of Birthday Pawty celebration -- and you're invited! (oh yeah... your human can come too)

Birthday Pawty For Baxter!!!!!

Human Hosts: Melinda, Justin and Macklin Brandt

Date: Sunday, May 23, 2010

(only a week away, but how much do we, dogs, have on our schedules!)

Time: 2pm til the we get tired!

Place: My house

Bring: Have your humans bring a dish to share.

Burgers, brats, dessert, and drinks will be provided!

My humans will be making a special cake for all of us to eat!

Bark Back: To this email

Woof, Woof,

Baxter Brandt

Here is the sweet sign that greeted everyone. Baxter did a good job posing for the picture!

So many dogs came (like 8-9 or so). Here is Kobe and Ripley. They are Kari and Jake's dogs.

Notice the birthday hat that Kobe is wearing!

We finally cleaned our deck off! Nicest it has looked since we moved in! Notice all the doggie treats. I made carob-powder dipped dog bones!

I wrote each doggie's name on a water bowl, with Baxter's big bowl in the middle!

It was Cayle's first outing! Way to be a tropper Natalie! I think he was 4 or 5 days old here!

Here is Baxter with his cake before we cut it. I found a dog cake recipe online. It includes....chicken baby food, carrots, flour, lots of eggs, yogurt icing, pepper-onnis (dog treat, don't know how to spell that), and bacon pieces on top! All human stuff except the pepper-onnis. I love this picture.

Here is the human cake....brownies covered in chocolate icing! Yum!

Baxter enjoying his birthday cake!

Special video of Baxter at the pawty!

Nursery is Finally Complete

We had a green room and a yellow room in our house when we found out we were prego. I thought the green one would make a nice nursery, and since I sure as heck wasn't painting anything else (after painting our whole house last summer), the green room it is! I wanted something non-babyish for Mack's room. So I started looking for fabrics that I liked and the room just came together. I really like it and hope it can stay like this for a while as Macklin grows up. I made the crib skirt and curtains with some instruction from my mom (thanks!). Also hung some spice racks to use as bookshelves, but now we have way more books than they will hold; we will have to deal with that one later! My favorite part is the art rails holding all of the pics of family and friends back home. I got this idea from the website www.knock-offwood.com and it was super easy to make. They have tons of great design plans for that awesome designer furniture that you love but can't afford to buy!

7 Week Video

Another video of me just playing with Macklin.

Special appearance by Baxter.

Again, not super exciting, just so you can see him!

Macklin's New Buddies

Macklin has two new friends as of recently....Cayle Brummer came into the world and we got to meet him on his second day of life. Nick and Natalie (awesome couple that teaches at Gypsum Creek Middle School) were so excited about his arrival and Natalie was just working away at her baby book when we arrived at the hospital. He was so light (8lbs I think) compared to our growing Macklin (at 10lbs)!

Earlier today, I got to have lunch with Caroline Sterkel. Justin and I took a four-week birthing class with her and her husband Ty. They had a precious little son, Brody, and we got to meet up and share all of our early mommy moments together. I would have never guessed how cool it is to talk with other mommies! So fun!

And here is just a pic of Macklin being sweet!

Smiling!

Sometimes Macklin will smile for me but not his daddy!

We know who his favorite is! (just kidding)

6 Week Video

Here is just a video of Macklin.

Not super exciting, but you can see how his mannerisms are starting to develop.

Yard Clean Up!!!

After having a huge tree fall three weeks ago, we are finally having it cut down. After it was taken out (and finding ourselves $1400 poorer) Justin got some guys to start cleaning up the yard! I am so excited to be getting moving on this, although I know it will take most of the summer to get things finished!

FYI - One pic has the tree...one doesn't! Also included the only flowers in our yard! Yah for the little things in life!

Moab

We were invited to go on a little weekend getaway with our friends, the Leonards. We camped out, mountain biked (the guys), and went to Arches National Park (us girls with the kids). It was a great Mother's Day Weekend.

Macklin slept great in the back of the truck with me and Justin...and Baxter! One happy family!

Using my Moby Wrap! I love this thing: http://www.mobywrap.com/

Cara with Hannah in the background at Arches.

Dipping Mack in the Colorado River.....just wanted him to have a taste!

Happy 1st Mother's Day

I am so obsessed with these pictures that I couldn't not post them!

On the way home from Moab (on Mother's Day 2010), we grabbed Eric in Grand Junction and got to go for lunch/dinner all together. It was such an honor to be with my boys, adoptive son and precious new son. We went for dinner and then went to get ice cream at Dairy Queen. While I was inside ordering, Eric snapped all of these pictures of Macklin as he was making some funny faces! I just love them.

In addition to a great weekend in Moab and dinner with Eric and Mack, Justin gave me a wonderful card and some hanging flower baskets for our home. What a great first Mother's Day! I am so blessed to have my family!