Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Baby Mac 3 and 1/2 months old

Our big boy
It is crazy how fast baby is growing! He was born weighing 5lbs 9 oz. and was 17 in. long, and now he weighs almost triple that...according to my bathroom scale...at almost 14 lbs and is now 2 feet long!  I don't think that surprises anyone, however, with his chipmunk cheeks and thunder thighs! 

Some recent developments:
  • He is now eating about 6 oz. each meal and I am still breastfeeding, which I love, and feeds are down to about 12-15 min.! Which is amazing considering the first 3 months he took on average 45 minutes to an hour to feed. He is getting much more efficient!
  • He is on a 3 hour eat, wake, sleep schedule up to the minute most times.
  • When he hit 3 months old I decided I could finally fully implement Babywise. However, instead of McKay sleeping better with an 8:00am wake-up time and an 8:00 pm bedtime, he slept incredibly worse, waking 3 times a night like he did as a newborn!  Since that miserable, sleepless week of dedication, I have since sworn off Babywise for the past 2 days and have gotten 7 beautiful consecutive hours of sleep each night...go figure!
  • With him sleeping through the night, he has dropped 2 feedings, his dream feed which was around the 10 o'clock hour and his middle of the night feed which was in the 2 o'clock hour.. I am looking forward to more much needed beauty rest!
  • Not only is he dropping feedings, but he is also dropping naps, mostly in the evenings. Which means he also gets very fussy and cranky about 7:00pm after he has been awake for 3 or 4 hours.  When his fussy time hits there is not much we can do except swaddle him up as quickly as possible, give him his Binky, and hope that he will finally give in to sleep. During this time he refuses to be put in his bed and will cry and cry. He knows daddy is home and he doesn't want to miss out on any fun or attention!
  • Speaking of crying, we also cannot implement "cry-it-out" tactics with him as we live in a condo with residents above and below us with paper thin walls in between. In fact, our neighbor above us has a one year old and when she hears McKay cry she will check on her daughter, thinking it is her!
  • Mac is definitely my child! He is quite the talker! When we play with him and ask him questions he talks back with his "oohs and ahhs," smiles, and giggles. It is one of my favorite things! 
  • Another reason he is my child...he loves attention! If you stop playing with him he rustles his legs and makes a little noise so you will look at him and keep playing! For this reason he also loves baths and diaper changes, because he gets your full attention! 
Bath time!
Diaper change
  • He is a total car baby and will fall asleep as soon as we start driving and will wake-up within 5 minutes of getting out of the car.    
Our car baby
  • Sadly he is also a tv junky and loves to watch with us and see all the flashing lights.
  • He is holding up his head really well and only bobbles just a little now.
  • My favorite time of day with him is mornings. He is sooo smily and happy when he wakes up! We pull him into bed with us and he puts on quite the show until he breaks into tears when he remembers how hungry he is.
All smiles!
  • He still sleeps in our room with us...oops! It is going to be really hard for me emotionally to move him into his own room, but for now I am doing it in the name of convenience of breastfeeding. Thankfully that is enough to pacify Les for now!
  • He can do independent playtime for 20-30 min at a time, but after that he is ready for some interaction and lets me know it!
  • He is gaining good control of his hands and fingers and loves to grab anything from my shirt, hair, necklace, or his blanket or binky strap. He is also staring to not only eat his hand as a sign of hunger, but is learning how to put his thumb in his mouth...which is so cute to watch now but won't be as cute when he is 3 years old with buck teeth. So I am constantly shoving his binky in his mouth instead. Also, he likes to put his thumb in between his pointer finger, it is pretty cute!
Look what I can do with my fingers!
Holding my Binky strap
  • Because he is learning to gain more control over his hands, he is also very helpful and loves to help hold his bottle or binky in 
  • He has gotten more saliva in so now one of his tricks is to blow bubbles with it.
  • He loves to pump his legs and is quite the wiggler!
  • He is incredibly ticklish!
  • He officially has brown eyes.
  • He is rubbing some of the back of his hair off but has grown in a ton of hair in on the hairline of his forehead. I have also given him a trim because the tips of his hair were getting so long!
Growing some new hair!
Before my much needed haircut!
After my haircut!


The mushy mom post

All I have to say is I love being a mom! It is the BEST thing I have ever done in my life! It has been so neat to have my heart expanded and filled with so much love for our little guy. He is so much fun! I love nothing more than seeing that huge gummy smile. It melts my heart and yes, it even makes me cry sometimes! I am a total sucker for him! He has completely taken over our lives...he is the king and has us totally wrapped around his tiny fingers! Nevertheless, he makes me so incredibly happy. I love knowing that he is our boy I want to do everything in my power to live so that he can be ours forever. When I was pregnant, Les gave me a blessing and one thing that has stuck out to me ever since was that McKay would be a "light in our lives and bring great joy into our home." Truly, he is our little ray of light and I know that he will continue to spread that light and joy to the people around him. I love to stare at him and see what a miracle he is. Sometimes when he looks back at me, his spirit shines right through him and I can sense that a very mature spirit is within his little body. I know he is a special child of our Heavenly Father and sometimes I wonder how Heavenly Father can love him more than I do, but I know He loves him with a perfect love. Which makes me so grateful that parenthood is a calling and with it comes a mantle of power that helps us become the kind of parents Heavenly Father wants and needs us to be to His children. I am so grateful to be a mom and to be trusted with such a wonderful and sweet little boy and hope and pray that I can be a good mom to him. I love you baby Essig!


Thursday, November 4, 2010

A Killer Halloween

This Halloween was one of our funnest to date! Hollie Derosa and I put on a 1920's themed murder mystery party for a bunch of friends in our ward called, "Murder At The Four Deuces." Everyone came decked out in their costumes and got way into their parts! We had such a blast spreading rumors and making up lies about each other. Les ended up getting murdered, Hollie was the killer, which we had no idea when we planned it that she was, and I am proud to say that I won best costume! Yes!! I love this dress! I bought it at the D.I. 4 years ago because I thought it was so awesome. I had no idea where or when I was going to wear it, but I knew I had to have it. It finally came in handy for our party as I was the jazz singer, Carrie Crooner. You gotta love homemade prom dresses with sequence and puffy sleeves. I am definitely a fan! So Les and I are total losers and forgot to charge our camera so these are all the pictures we got of the night. Hopefully we can get a few from friends.
All the gangstas
All the Ladies
Big Jim Ravioli and Carrie Crooner-Ravioli
Meme Wannabe (Sadie Anderson) and Carrie Crooner-Ravioli (Me)
The radio station DJ and Vicki Ravioli (Big Jim's ex-wife), The Jamesons
Mr. Smith and Color Pencill, The Strongs
The Politican and his wife, The Wassons









Penny Cheatum the lawyer and Sly Sleaze the Horse Race Gambler, The Mausdleys
Waiting for the guests to arrive
Eating and chatting
Big Jim







Michael Jackson Jam!

Our cute friend in the ward, Donna, and I both love to dance.When we realized this fact I was 8 months pregnant and not able to move so gracefully! We thought it would be fun to throw a Michael Jackson Jam listening to only his tunes once McKay was no longer a fetus. Here are some pics of the party! We had so much fun even though there were only about 4 of us dancing the whole night! This jam was almost as good as the D.R. (Dominican Republic) Michael Jackson! This past summer Les and I went to the DR with some of our good friends, the Andersons and the Furnisses. The first night there our entertainment was an entire DR Michael Jackson production! Although very talented, I swear this guy thought he was MJ resurrected! Following the production, he even did photo shoots with the fans! Of course we had to get a pic with him! It was probably the funniest night of my life!
Please notice MJ's  green face make-up and the angel girl behind him. Too bad she wasn't flapping her wings behind him in the pic!
Jammin'it up at the MJ jam!
Please notice the awesome MJ cut outs!
McKay's designated babysitter for the night
More dancing!








Go Aggies 2

 We returned to Cache Valley for the Homecoming game over the weekend of Oct. 22. We made it into a business trip and went with Les' business partners, Chad and his family, and Joe Barnard. We stayed at Chad's family's cabin in Hyrum and had a great time! We ordered pizza, watched "Camp Rock 2" and played hiding-go-seek with the little ones. Then we played, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and watched Iron Man until the late hours. We woke up to a gourmet french toast breakfast, compliments of chef Joe, and headed to the Aggie Leadership reunion.  We enjoyed a fun lunch catching up with Les' old friends then headed off to the game. About 20 minutes into the game it started to downpour so we raced McKay to the car and finished watching the game back at the cabin! It was a great weekend!


Chef Joe making the most amazing french toast I have ever eaten!
Good morning!
Chad's kids enjoying breakfast
YUM!!!!!!
At the game!
McKay bundled up for the game. He melts my heart in his teddy bear outfit!
Love those cheeks!
In his car seat, escaping from the storm!

Go Aggies!


As you know, Les and I met up at Utah State when I was a Freshman and Les was a Senior. Les was running for Student Body President and I was campaigning for the guy running against him. When I saw Les coming up the walkway on campus in his suit and tie, I quickly realized I was helping out the wrong guy! Let's just say by the end of the week Les stole my vote! That week I told my sis Meg, "I would drop any guy I was dating to go out with Les Essig!" After a long time coming, Les finally asked me out a year and a half later! It would have been too convenient to ask me out when we were both living in Logan in the same apartment complex and in the same ward. Instead, Les waited until he was graduated, living in North Salt Lake, and for me to have my Misson papers to finally ask for my number. During a crazy semester of us asking should I stay home or should I go on a mission, we finally decided I should go on my mission to Kentucky. I went, and loved every minute of it, but when it was time to come home I was ready and hoping things would be as good with Les as they were before. We found out quickly that they were, and were engaged just 2 months after I got home from Kentucky, and married on Dec. 28, 2007. Even though I wasn't able to graduate from Utah State, but from the U, Les and I are still 100% Aggie fans and are hoping we rub off on McKay. Therefore, we have already taken him to 2 games this year. Of course we had to attend the BYU v. Utah State game, and although we usually have an embarrassing football team, we are proud to say that we beat the Cougars this year!
Joe and Katie
Alyse and Mac excited to be at the game
Landon and Alyse with Mac (my cute in-laws)
Our little family at the game, side shot
Middle shot








Les and baby
Mom and baby
Scoreboard!!! 31 Aggies to 16 BYU
Excited Aggies rushing the field
More Aggies rushing the field.