Recap of July Part 1: Jocelyn and Baby #2 go to the Shore (Ocean City, NJ) with the McKeown/Szathmary's!

Hi!


Well July was a happenin' month :) So where to begin...

Well, fireworks were not Jocelyn's favorite. But that's ok. We had a fun play date with her friend Julianna and discovered more areas of Maryland.

Mid-July we headed to the shore. We had an amazing time. The ocean so soothing and the kiddos had a blast. Benny and J have a cute chemistry together, and thank you so much Aunt Marian for letting us crash your pad. Here are some fun highlights of the trip:

Prepping for the trip!

One of the favorite things the kiddos did with the family was ride the carousel :) Here are some shots. 

 The beach was mermaid Jocelyn's favorite!

Benny had a great first time and we miss the little guy a lot!

I wish I had more photos with everyone, but I wasn't the best at taking them on this trip. We had an amazing time making memories and love the tradition of heading to the shore. Jocelyn misses everyone a lot, and thank you for all the fun beach lunches, night time stories, songs, and sand castles McSzathmary family :)

Baby #2 Update: Apple!

Hola from the Mckeown's!

So baby #2 has officially reached the size of an apple. We are starting the 15th week! Here is a link I get that shows me what it looks like (more or less) here.


Since we found out in April that Baby #2 is joining the family at the 4th week (04/16/2014), it has grown in size and length in this fashion:

poppy seed, sesame seed, lentil, blueberry, kidney bean,
grape, kumquat, fig, lime, pea pod, lemon and now an apple!

Which is your fav veggie/fruit equivalent? Mine so far is the kumquat.

Few facts of Baby #2 as an apple:
1.It's 4 inches long.
2. It's legs are growing longer than her arms now, and she can move all of her joints and limbs. 
3. It can sense light.

We just got back from the Ocean City NJ shore, and pics to come. Jocelyn was the happiest girl on the planet at the beach. She officially wants to be a mermaid, and insists that the baby is a girl is should be named Ariel. Ha! We tasted all the different types of ice cream on the shore (which for my West Coast friends/family, there are a lot of types of ice cream and icy treats out here, but regular ole creamy ice cream like the Amish make is still my fav), ate huge pieces of pizza, got attacked by seagulls while eating fries and had the most incredible donuts. Thanks Col, Molly, Gramps, Grams, and Alex for making the wild trek for those.

More photos to come soon! Here is the better ultrasound picture from the 12th week, a.k.a the lime, appointment. The first is a great shot of its profile and the second you can see it's hand!!! It's like it's waving :) hi hi!

Spring Recap and Baby #2 Debut!

Hi family and friends,

We are back! Apologies for being off-line for sometime. Since March, a lot has happened :) Here is a recap:

April

Jocelyn turned 3! She celebrated with a cake themed to the movie Frozen (her ultimate favorite), and thank you again to everyone for the wonderful gifts and birthday wishes. It was really nice to see everyone. Happy birthday to Benny too who turned 1! Here's a pretty good shot of them looking at that the camera. It's a bit tricky to get the right moment, but they look adorable here.

Here is the handsome bday boy! He ate his first doughnut like a champ!

Molly's awesome cake that J loved. Purple of course :) Big 3 :)

May

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms! We had a relaxing day. J and Ryan took me out for a very nice breakfast. We went there twice this month I think. Here are two shots. We like to eat :)

June

Welcome to the family baby #2! This month we got to meet our baby twice on the ultrasound. It is doing really well and is due anytime between December 23-25. Here is a clip of it's heart beat :) 

And here is the first scan.It's the little peanut shape inside the black blob. For some reason, it won't rotate, but in a few months we'll get a new scan so more to come :)

Happy Father's Day to all the dads. Hope you guys have an awesome week. When in doubt, have some muffins. Jocelyn highly recommends them :)

Love,

Jocelyn +Baby #2 + Alisha + Ryan

Frozen! January to February was fun :) And full of too much snow

Hello family and friends,


Here is a whirlwind update on our lives! We borrowed from Colleen's 52 week project idea :) We have tried to capture most of the weeks... more coming soon :) By the way, Jocelyn has now begun to sing full songs, loves the movie Frozen, and likes to greet us in the morning. In fact, Butters and her like to dive into the blankets. It's becoming a fun McKeown tradition to burrow under the covers!

January 

Week 1: “This week, I would like you to photograph your child in their bedroom. 

Week 2: “Photograph an element of your child that will remind you of them at this age. This is going to be different for everyone – when photographing a baby it might be their little baby feet or hands, with an older girl it might be their hair in pigtails, for a boy it might be their messy bed head hair.  Whatever you think you will miss when they get that bit older - remember there are no right or wrong photos!"

Week 3: “This week, let’s photograph your child’s current favorite book. You could photograph them reading it, or photograph the book on the shelf, or even them dressing up as one of the characters from it - there are a lot of possibilities with this theme depending on how far you want to take it...." 

This was hard to get, since we have been an unnaturally crazy life. Jocelyn loves her storybooks (namely princess ones), but has really begun to love all books. 

Week 4:
“Take a photograph of your child when they are on their own, and they are not aware that you are in observing them. 

This castle has been a favorite since her first xmas.

February

Week 5: “Take a photograph of your child with your partner/husband, or other relative (for example a sibling or grandparent) Try to capture the connection between the two of them, or doing their usual daily activities.  You can take a photograph that shows the whole scene, or you can zoom in close and just focus on a detail, for example just them holding hands…..”

So didn't have the fancy camera on hand, so these aren't the highest of quality but they are candid!

Week 6: “This week, we are simply going to photograph a normal daily activity such as getting dressed, brushing teeth or having dinner.   You can try to get a bit more creative with this shot perhaps by choosing an unusual viewpoint,  or using great light.” 

"Hey ma I need some apple sauce!"

Week 7: "This week, lie down on the ground and photograph your childs feet, and whatever happens to be around them at that time. Nothing else.  You want this to be a real moment, so don't try to set this up: just photograph what was really there! If you like, choose a day and time now, and take the shot when it comes around - that way you know you won't be tempted to manufacture it!"

This one is sorta at her feet... well not really but it was a cool moment. Jocelyn at the Baltimore aquarium.

Week 8: "This week, let's photograph our child doing a messy activity, preferably one that they have never done before! You can choose what you to focus on - a wide shot showing the whole scene  a detail shot of what they are working on, or a picture of their face as they concentrate on what they are doing...."

(This was taken in Valentines Day. We had cheese and chocolate fondue as a family tradition!)

Week 9: "This week, let's ask our child what they would like for us to photograph! This could be them involved in an activity, or wearing something, or they might ask you to photograph their favourite toy or even a person! If your child is not old enough to talk, you can simply photograph whatever you think their answer might be"  

J's newest tutu!

And then some random fun ones!


J doing yoga :)

And some fashion moments:

And J doing art. Her absolute favorite!