OurLittleMcFamily.com

Here’s some awesome sledding video from our trip to Washington. Where it gets really interesting is at about 1:50. Adam’s true colors shine through. I love being married to this guy!!!

Adam uploaded all of our sledding videos here.

Tio Brian and I took Danny, Ezzy, and Brooklynn up to White Pass on our Christmas vacation. It was the first time for the whole McFamily. It was Brooky’s 2nd time and about the 10,000th time for Brian :) We had a blast. Danny was a natural - he went with Brian and Brooky on a longer, higher run, while Ezzy and I got lots of practice on the lower slope.

Brian got some pictures also that can be seen on the Hirschi’s blog. Stay tuned for more Christmas adventures!

Felt. Felt. Felt. That is what I am up to these days. I don’t have a cool picture of felt like Jaime, but I did buy 28 yards of it. At half off, I walked out of the store only spending $60. Why felt you ask? We are making felt playhouses for Christmas. See Here

I don’t sew, but my girlfriends do. They are determined to teach me. So far, I have kept myself busy with cutting, stuffing, and pinning the pieces. Jaime and Jena have helped me with the sewing. Adam also sews so we borrowed a machine from a wonderfully generous someone. We are excited to finish the project together for the kids.

My kids are a little too big, and our space is a little too small, to make use of our kitchen table. So I came up with the idea of making panels that will hook onto the kids’ bunkbeds. Two for the girls and two for the boys. My panel themes are: Cupcakery, Grocery Store, Stargate, and Buried Treasure. The ninos are great at imaginative play, and playing together in general. So this is the perfect gift. They can pretend to walk through the stargate–ready to conquer another world one day, and then go shopping pastries and tea at the cupcakery the next. So Cool. I am planning a beauty parlor for Nikki’s birthday in February. So many ideas. So little time. I will definitely post pictures of the finished project.

The best part about this project is that I have been super productive while spending wonderfully abnormal amounts of time with my girlfriends the past few weeks. We could quite possibly never stop crafting for that reason alone.

This Halloween was soooooooooo much better than our first. What a difference a year makes! No meltdowns over the food. No confusion over people dressing in strange costumes. The kids knew what I meant when I asked what they would like to be for Halloween. They knew how to say trick-or-treat. They didn’t freak when I took their candy at bedtime. It was AWESOME!!!!

Just for the record, I made both tutus. Ezzy wanted to be a bee and Nikki wanted to be a fairy princess (go figure). I even broke out my scrapbooking glue dots to adhere the antennas to the head band–genius! Thanks, Jena and Jaime, for helping with the tutus and the “bee wing” crisis.

The boys were good sports to go as superheros. Danny wanted to be Harry Potter, but I refused to pay $40 when all said and done to get everything I would need. Wompy wanted to be a chocolate chip cookie–so that people could eat him. But that didn’t work out so well. He became Superman at the last minute. Actually, the costume fit him much better than it did Danny last year. Oh yeah, I also made Danny’s shirt. Well, I bought a plain red t-shirt and sharpied the design.

We trick-or-treated at grandma’s. Took pictures with the Demarco’s. Won first place in our church’s chili cook-off!!! And brought home more great candy than any one family needs for the year. Seriously! It was a great Halloween.

If you live in Vegas, or anywhere similar temperature wise, then you know not to carve your pumpkins until the week of Halloween. We broke the cardinal rule this year since Grandma and Grandpa Penning were here for the baptism. It was worth having to “deep-freeze” the pumpkins so that grandpa could help carve. We also dipped carameled apples and made Squished Witches with Grandma McCracken.

The next Saturday, we had the McCracken clan over to paint pumpkins and decorate Halloween cookies. Yeah, the kids have been celebrating for two weeks now. :) The ninos had a blast with their cousins.

Check out more pictures here and here. The amount of candy that was piled on top of the sugar cookies is totally kid ridiculous. Don’t you think? And yet, they ate the whole cookie. :)

So, the plan was for all of the kids to help make breakfast for mommy and deliver it to her in bed. Mom tried to pry the secret out of them during the day on Friday, but they stayed strong! Saturday night trouble landed the girls in their bedrooms though, so it was just Daddy and the boys; they were super excited to help with Mommy’s special treat. We made French Toast and eggs, with juice and some strawberries. Bon Appetit!

How does a new mom of four celebrate Rachie Day:

1. French Toast and strawberries in bed

–delivered by the most adorable brown-skinned beauties you have ever seen.

2. Gorgeous flowers arranged in my grandmother’s carnival glass vase

–arranged by mine truly. 

3. Watching three of the four ninos sing (I Often Go Walking…) their hearts out with the primary

–the fourth was, well, singing his own tune in the van with daddy. :)

4. Dinner with the McCrackens

–the men planned, prepped, and cleaned a “Tour of Italy.” (I am sure it was delicious)

5. One yummy back massage, and another amazing card from Adam

–a perfect ending to a perfect day…………as a new mom!

Easter Egg Preparations!!!

Easter Egg Hunt 2009!!!

So the second video I am putting up against my better judgement. Oh yes, I am oh so fat these days. And I don’t want to hear it. I know what I need to do. Get off the ice cream and start running again, McCracken. DUH!!!

I can do it. I can do it. I can do it.

It is the beautiful Easter season, and I feel compelled to share this beautiful video. It reminds me of our Savior’s sacrifice, and helps me remember that Jesus has been by my side through every fertility struggle, every lonely moment, and every difficult decision. I am grateful for his sacrifice in death. And I am even more grateful for the hope and glory his resurrection provides.

If there are any among you who are confused as to what we believe, or who doubt our devotion to the Lord Jesus, please take this as a small testimony of our faith, of our belief in his divinity, and of his power to heal our hearts.

In the next two posts we will be sharing our son’s (Danny) baptism, and our family trip to the temple. I am excited to share it with our family and friends who live far away. I also can’t wait to share our special weekend with those of you who we have never met, yet think of as friends, regardless of our different religious backgrounds.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! Okay, so it is January 12th–I know. But I can’t seem to post anything 2009 related until December is caught up. The kids woke up to stuffed stockings and hot chocolate. Grandparents McCracken and fam came over in the afternoon. And Grandparents Penning flew in around 2:00 p.m. The lucky little ninos had both sets of grandparents here to share in their very first Christmas. I will never ever forget that day. Because of our adoption expenses this year, Christmas was a little sparse, but it totally did not matter. The kids were grateful and cheering over their socks. They loved every little dollar trinket in their stocking. And the big gift for the year (two family scooters) were the hit of the day. I continue to be overwhelmed by our children’s gratitude for everything. And I am also overwhelmed by the generosity of grandparents, family, and friends toward our children.

Adam and I strongly disagree that it takes a village to raise a child–but we are blessed to have the companionship, support, and love of the village all around us. The village we have created for our family is the best bonus we could ever hope for. We also realize that although our Christmas was a little on the lean side, it was more than our kids had ever seen or imagined. In addition, there are so very many families either out of work and/or in poorer circumstances than us. Our prayers and thoughts go out to them. And we continue to count our many many blessings.

One interesting McCracken adoption fact is that the children didn’t really have Christmas at their orphanage. From what we gather, Juan Pablo did get presents from Santa–last year he got his Batman motorcycle and his Spiderman sweat suit, which are both going in his keepsake chest. But he was the only one to receive gifts because he was in the “baby” house. The older kids’ casas did not receive any presents or a visit from Santa. However, they did get to do some kind of activity to participate in. Danny explained to me that all the boys in his house got to go to a big pool and swim last year.

In short, the kids knew about Christmas and had a few glimmers here and there, but now they go to weekly worship service where they learn of the Savior, they pray in the name of Jesus Christ, and they understand a little more of what Christmas is all about. Adam and I did not exchange gifts this year, but Tia Jaime Lynne took the ninos to the dollar store and let them each pick out a present for me and Adam. We received silk hangers, school folders, pin-wheels, and other trinkets. And they were the best, most thoughtful Christmas presents EVER!!!!!!! We wouldn’t change our new world for anything.