Amazing Adventures of Nate & Kalli

Yes, I know, it's time. It's beyond time. It's so far past time, you can't even see time anymore. I have officially launched my NEW BLOG! No more blogspot!! At least as far as my professional blog is concerned. For the "Amazing Adventures of Nate & Kalli", we will still be working the blogspot. So check it out at

kallibarkerblog.com


And as an additional incentive, I have posted some pictures of Mackay's birthday party. And feel free to leave me some love. :)

I really hope to not to make this a monthly ritual. I want to update this thing more often than that. But life sure gets busy! So for right now, here is a February re-cap.

Since Southwest is an official sponsor to the NBA-All Star stuff, he got some free tickets to a jam session. We had no idea what it was, have no interest in basketball, but thought it would be something fun to do that was out of our norm. And while we were a little out of place, with two strollers, and not buying into the $80 basketballs, we still had a fun time walking around.

And there would have been no point in going if it weren't for this.

As soon as we walked in I saw everyone with them. I immediately looked at Nate and without speaking, he knew I had to have one. When we found where Taco Bell was set up, and saw what it was going to take to get a giant taco shaped hat, my heart sank. It was for kids, and it was an agility course. There was no way I was going to dribble, pass, and shoot in front of all those people. So I looked to Nate. And he said no. Just before we were to leave, I was trying to come to grips with the fact that I wasn't going to be getting a hat. What was I going to do with it, anyway? I think Nate saw the disappointment on my face, so he walked up to the ladies handing them out and asked them for one. They looked at him, looked at me, and then looked down at Mackay. Instead of a pleading look on her face she had a look of, "What are you looking at me for? It's not for me, it's for my mom." Luckily they don't read children very well, because they handed us one. Wahoo! So now I have no idea what to do with it. I randomly will wear it around the house for a while. I have no place to put it, and there is no way I am throwing it away.

Moving on.... Mackay saing, "Mom, take my picture!"

Nate was watching the kids one Saturday afternoon, walked out of the room for a minute. When he walked back in he found this: Is it a baby? Or a taco? Poor Zack.

My two kids hanging out.

Mackay is getting into this phase of always making faces for the camera. Here she is just out of the shower, still in just her towel, sitting at the kitchen table for breakfast.

This Sunday afternoon Mackay wanted to paint some Curious George suncatchers we got for her. So I took her dress off so she wouldn't get it dirty. She still has her underwear on, but Nate and I thought this looked so funny. Painting naked in her boots.

I ran to the grocery store one evening, and came home to this. I am so blessed to know what real happiness feels like. I love my family!

1.6.10
It was Zack’s well-check day. His appointment was for 10:30am, which means a busy morning. (That might sound ridiculous, but with two kids, 10:30am IS early, and getting everyone ready and happy by that time is quite a feat.) I explained to Mackay that Zack needed to go to the doctor’s, and that is why we were getting ready so quickly. She stood by me in the bathroom while I was putting on my make-up.

M: Zack is going back to the doctors?
Me: Yes. He is going back to the doctors.
A couple minutes later:
M: Zack is going back to the doctors?
Me: Yes. I already told you. Zack is going back to the doctors.
A couple seconds later:
M: Zack is going BACK to the doctors? She was starting to look concerned, and I was getting annoyed with how often she was asking me the SAME question.
Me: Yes, Mackay. Zack is going back to the doctors.
Mackay: He doesn’t like our house?

I immediately stopped what I was doing, scooped her up, hugged her as tight as I could, and sat her on my lap. I then explained to Mackay that we weren’t leaving Zack at the doctors, he was just going to visit. What a sweet-heart! I felt so bad for the emotions that she must have been experiencing when she thought we were returning Zack. And how annoyed I had been. I’ll try to pay more attention next time.


2.1.10
Backstory: Nate and Mackay were pretending to eat each other with Mackay’s play forks and knives. I was sitting on the couch, minding my own business, when Nate had the great idea of eating my feet. I H.A.T.E being tickled, but thought I would make my daughter happy. So I handed over my foot, and they tickled it like crazy with their forks and knives. Nate, of course, was all smiles while I was being tortured. A little while later, Nate (with THAT grin on his face), told me to put my arms up, because they wanted to eat me some more. And that is where I drew the line. No way was I going to let them tickle me under my arms. I would go crazy. I said no. And he kept pushing, which made Mackay keep pushing. So I gave him the eyes, the “honey, I’m serious, and if you don’t let up I’m going to get mad” eyes. But his smile only got bigger, and he kept pushing it. I kept protesting, and that’s where Mackay stepped, in:

M: Mom, we need to talk.
She was so calm and serious, so adult-like in the way she was addressing me. I looked at her.
M: Mom, I think you need to go to your room until you can calm down. You are being mean to daddy.

Both Nate and I burst into laughter. We could hardly contain ourselves. But Mackay never smiled, nor did she budge. I “stormed” off to my room. A little while later, she came in. Again, as calm and mature as could be. She explained the situation to me:

M: You were being mean to daddy. You need to say sorry.

She then took me by the hand, and led me out of the room to where Nate was in the kitchen. She explained the situation to him, and told him that I was going to be apologizing for being mean to him.

I apologized to daddy.


2.5.10
Me: Who’s your best friend?
M: Jesus. And he loves me REALLY much. And gives me lots of presents.

No date recorded:
Mackay was playing in Zack's crib, and the toy that she was playing with fell to the ground. "Oh man!" she said. I couldn't easily help her since I was feeding Zack. Then she said, "I know! Rescue backpack!" She turned her back to me and said, "Say, 'Backpack!'" I yelled, "Backpack!" And then she said, "Ooh. That's not going to work." Maybe she's watched a little bit too much Diego.

This same thing has happened with Super Why. One evening we were eating dinner, and she wasn't eating her food. We told her she needed to eat and she said, "I can't. See, it says in my story, 'Mackay can't eat her food.'" I was laughing so hard that I couldn't stop. And Nate just sat there confused. In Super Why, the story has a problem that they can't fix because their "story" won't let them. So, Super Why, with the "Power to Read" zaps out the bad word for a better one. In this case, we would zap out the word "can't" for "can." And then the story, and the problem, is fixed.

Whew! In my defense, I have been experiencing technical difficulties with blogger. Whenever I would try to upload pictures, it would come up with this excuse:blogID: Required field must not be blank. What the heck? So I would get discouraged, and decide to try again later. Well, later is here. And if I log in through www2.blogger.com instead of www.blogger.com, it seems to work. But I can only upload pictures from one folder at a time. What a frustration! Anyway, without further adieu, here is January 2010:

Nate is ALWAYS wanting to spend more time in the outdoors. Which I am all for, though whenever he brings it up, it is never the best of times for me. On this day, I had a huge deadline with my photography, but went without mentioning it. And then we failed to realize that it had been raining for days before we went out on our hike. So the whole time we were trying not to fall in the mud and walking around the trail constantly. Ugh!

But here is the cute fam. Mackay wanted mittens to keep her hands warm, but we left hers at home, so she had to wear these rather large gloves. And we had just eaten oreos. So she has got some lovely lip liner on.

Here is after the hike. We had to practically run back because Mackay had to go to the bathroom. And sweet Zack fell asleep with all the jostling.

Mackay and Zack are getting more entertaining to watch when they are together. This one day I left the room for a second, came back, and saw that Mackay had shared her doll with Zack. Her face looks like she is so proud!

And Zack's face doesn't look quite as excited. Oh, and a side note: also pictured is "Stinky". Mackay's sleeping partner, and Nate's stuffed animal from when he was little. Mackay claims that Stinky is a girl. Which makes Nate less than happy. Though her pink teddy bear, "Teddy" is a boy. Funny.

Mackay fell asleep on the couch with her pj's and boots on.

Mackay pushing Zack around in her doll stroller. Surprisingly, Zack didn't like it very much. Mackay, on the other hand, loved it.

Zack in his new exer-saucer. I loved the concerned look on his face with Mackay underneath it.

And Mackay's only time of getting to sit in the exer-saucer.

And the loves of my life:

Mackay had her first day of preschool today since December. One of her classmates moved, so a new kid was there today. I prepped her the whole week before school that there was going to be a new friend at school, and his name was Jacob. So today, driving home from school, I asked her how her new friend was.

She said, "I don't like him."

What? How can a 3 year old not like someone? I kept asking questions, "Why?" I said.

"Because he was just so frustrated." After a little more conversation she said, "He was frustrated, and I was frustrated. And he doesn't like me, either."

I was completely consumed by this. What the heck happened? And where did she learn to express herself so well? So I called her teacher when I got home to see if she noticed anything. She said that on three separate occasions Mackay came up to her and let her know that she didn't want to sit by Jacob. Since this is his first preschool experience, he wasn't very good at circle time and couldn't hold still very well. Apparently Mackay was very distracted by this, and completely apawled by his behavior. I'll keep you updated on the situation.

And for the sake of pictures, we took these yesterday. And before we went outside Mackay said, "Let's go outside, but don't bring your camera." Sorry, girl.

I told you I was committed to posting all of our pictures. Here is a glimpse at our Halloween celebrations. (And these are kind of backwards...)

On Halloween day I had planned out all of our meals around the Halloween theme. (Thanks for the great idea, Wendi!) So for breakfast we had ghost pancakes (with chocolate chip eyes), ghost blood (milk), and jack-o-lanterns with guts in them (carved orange with mixed fruit). Cute idea, but Mackay thought it was so disgusting that there were guts in an orange that she couldn't eat it.

For snack we had PB&J cut out into shapes with cookie cutters. And...that's where it ends because I was too tired to do the rest. Better luck next year!
Nate carved our pumpkin this year (like every year). This year our pumpkin was..can you guess? Mike! From Monster's, Inc.
We went to a pumpkin patch to play games and get a pumpkin. But we didn't get pumpkins because they were so outlandishly expensive. We had a great time otherwise, though!

They had tons of cartoons around. Mackay got her picture next to the Backyardigans and Dora.
Nate's work Halloween party. Where to start? Let's just say that SWA is obsessed with the holiday. Here are a few pictures to help get an idea:

Nate with his department. Oh, and a recent side note. Nate was on the party planning committee and was put in charge of the costumes. It was, by far, the most time consuming, stressful time that Nate has ever had with something related to work. Oh, and it really wasn't even work related. There were lots of late nights and lots of driving around cities to get supplies. Well, Nate was then given some sort of an award for the work he did, which was then entered into a drawing. And here is the e-mail that I got from him last week, "I won the “Star of the Quarter” primarily for my work on Waldo—it’s amazing what is valued here. The good news is that I get a parking spot for the next quarter and two Gold Passes which are pretty much tickets for Employees. So start thinking where you’d like to go with our confirmed seating…New York, Washington…" Yeah for Nate! (And me!) Congrats!


The departments all do different things. The provisions department had a carnival. Like, ring toss with miniature wine bottles. Or bean bag toss with coffee bags. Etc, etc. It was funny. Mackay got a tattoo as well. It helped to complete our pirate theme.
This is Nate with the "Prom Queen". Disgusting.
Nate with the "lunch ladies."

A few months ago Mackay got her first professional haircut. The hairdresser took her by the hand and led her back to the chair. I was dealing with Zack, so I wasn't able to go with them at first. But Mackay was awesome! She just sat there as calm and stone-faced as could be. And for the next couple of days whenever she got compliments on her hair she would be beaming. Her favorite part was being pumped up in the chair. She did that with her animals many times after that to cut their hair.

One afternoon I wrapped Zack up to put him to sleep (so long ago!) and Mackay wanted to be wrapped up, too.
What a sweet sister.
Mackay loves to watch tv in the laundry basket. And she always wants to help me out with Zack by holding him, carrying him around, putting him to bed, feeding him a bottle, etc. In this picture, when I ran to get my camera Zack started to cry. She patiently held him, though she had to cover her face with her hands to keep from getting hit. It was pretty funny.
Zack only had a couple of blankets of his own, so when they were in the wash, he had to use one of Mackay's. You can see how embarrassed he is. He couldn't even sleep without his face being covered for anonymity.
Just before Thanksgiving we made a trip to Utah to visit family, go to my cousin's wedding in Idaho, and get my hair done (Wahoo!). Here is sweet little Zack sleeping like...a baby.
Sleeping again with Kyle and Stockton.
Zack and Stockton bonding.
We had the opportunity to see my grandpa while in Idaho. I think this picture is just the cutest!
Great-grandpa with Mackay and Zack.