Sweet Treat

We met up with our friends, The Cho's, for a Gelato treat.
Kenzie, it was your first time having gelato, sweetie, and you really liked the fruit flavors of Mango and Strawberry... can you tell? You also really enjoyed catching up with your pal, Xander.

For a Wonderful Father and Husband...

Happy, Happy Birthday to You!

We love and appreciate you so very much!

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday Mom!

Wishes for your continued health and happiness!

Captured Christmas Moments

We relished in Kenzie's happiness as she enjoyed spending quality time with her cousins this Christmas. Every morning while we were at Grandma and Grandpa's, the first thing she would say before getting out of bed was "Diego.. Sebastian!?" They had a great time together!
Thanks to family and friends for their Christmas wishes. We hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Much happiness and good health for 2008!

The video below is not an uncommon site at our house, but on this day it was extra special. (Jeremy reads a spanish book to Kenzie)

Sit still and say cheese, please!?

Hoping to get one good picture of Kenzie for our greeting cards this holiday season was a real challenge... At first she wouldn't smile, then she got squirmy. We thought, maybe if the doggies joined her for the pictures she would sit still long enough for some good shots... Well, Duke and Coco got quite nervous as she wanted to hug them tight so that plan went out the window. Things went downhill pretty fast so we settled on what we had and called it a wrap. It's pretty tough for our little girl to stay still for long. :) Next year we'll leave it up to the pros to take the holiday pictures.

Say Ahhhh!

Kenzie had her first dental visit. She did a litttle whimpering at first but then was a good sport, our little monkey...

While laying back in the dental chair with her daddy, the dentist gave her a quick cleaning and check-up. The outcome:

• She has two new molars with another one coming through
• her teeth are pretty close together so she may need to have some pulled in the future
• start her on flossing especially if she continues eating mangos (her favorite as above)
• continue the good brushing habits

After all was said and done, she scored a nice new toothbrush and two stickers, which brought a big smile to her face!

Thinking of you...

All our love and best wishes are sent to you, Great Grandma. We pray for your quick recovery.

Being Thankful

Thanksgiving was very nice. We had wonderful weather and it was great to have Grandma White and Auntie "Kis-ti" with us! Kenzie especially enjoyed playing, reading, dancing, and being showered with their love. Although we missed family members who spent the holiday far from us (Iowa, Minnesota, South Carolina & California), they were never far from our thoughts. We are very thankful for the love of family this holiday season!

Mine!!

Kenzie is going through the stage where everything she sees or holds is hers, and only hers. The challenge we are having is trying to teach her to share without her having a fit once we take an item away or ask her to share. We've come to realize that distraction or showing her how sad she makes someone feel when she doesn't share seems to work. At times we try to bargain with her and if she doesn't like what we try to give her she says, "not mine!" We really want to laugh when she gets so stubborn and vocal but we hold it in and have a good chuckle about it later (like when she goes to bed). Kenzie you are stubborn like your Daddy and feisty like your Mommy! :) We love you so very much little pinger!

Little Hostess

We hosted a celebration in honor of our good friends, Corey and Marsha. They are expecting their first baby December 20, 2007. Kenzie made her appearance almost two hours into the event. She enjoyed playing with the decorations, seeing her auntie and uncle who were also present, meeting a new little friend, running from room to room and nibbling on the cookies.

We are eager to meet the new little McDaniel come December!

"Tick-o-Trik"

Halloween was fun for Kenzie this year. She was better able to understand that if she said the magic words of "trick-or-treat" people would give you all kinds of goodies! At first she was a bit shy so we encouraged her to take the candy and say thank you. By the fifth house she warmed up and would quickly ramble "tick-o-trik", grab two fistfuls of candy and halfway turn saying "tan u" and one of us would intercede and tell her to just take one or two. At some homes she would decide that their goodies were better than what she already had so she would attempt to swap her candy out. It was pretty entertaining!
When we got home, we dumped out her basket and couldn't believe how much candy she had collected. Of course she didn't have any of it and she wasn't even interested in a lollipop so we decided that with the couple of hours we had left of trick-or-treaters roaming our neighbrhood we would try to unload some of it... we didn't even make a dent. To this day, the candy is safely put away in the pantry. Although, some nights I hear the ocassional rustling of the candy bag being opened and think "one of us sure keeps forgetting to take that candy bag to work so it can be placed in the kitchen common area and out of here". We hope you all had a good Halloween!

Pre-Hallowen Fun

We went to a local festival for early trick-or-treating, a costume parade and Kenzie's favorite: a carousel ride!

Happy Birthday Grandma

Wishing you much love and happiness!

So much to say...

A couple of weeks ago, Kenzie started to form a few short sentences. It is really pretty exciting! Sometimes when we hear her say something, we do a double-take and say to eachother, "did she just say what I think she said"? Below are just a few snipets of what she is saying:

• more apple
• I love you
• more, please
• hi baby, how are you?
• let's go outside
• mine shoes
• let's go-go-go
• it's mine
• 1, 2, 3
• A, B, C
• oh, no!
• Gandpa, Gandma shoes
• more peas
• Happy Birthday
• Hi Coco
• no, Coco, no
• I'm good girl
• clap and clap

A special visit

Lorena's parents paid a visit to DC. Kenzie had a wonderful time getting to know her Grandparents again. She calls them, "Gandpa" and "Gandma".

We all spent good quality family time together. Thanks for coming to visit Grandpa and Grandma, we'll see you again at Christmas!

Shenandoah Wine & Hot Air Balloon Festival

We enjoyed a very nice outing at the festival. The weather was nice, although it was a tad bit windy so the balloons didn't go up. Kenzie enjoyed the carousel, the hay maze, feeding the horses, and watching the big "bubbles" being filled with hot air! We enjoyed all the above as we watched her smiling face, but we also had fun looking at some classic cars and drinking some good Virginia wine.

Kenzie was giddy as the horses ate grass from the palm of her hand. When we didn't get her the grass fast enough the horses started to nudge at her arm and she'd giggle even more.

The maze was crowded so Kenzie kept close to her Daddy.

Enjoying a hug!

Computer Time

Thanks to her Daddy, Kenzie is getting some quality time on the laptop. She enjoys trying to push all the buttons (of course) but the main attraction on the screen is watching videos of herself... She is in awe of the early footage when she is only a few months old. She gets a kick out of the videos that show her being silly or when she is playing with her cousins. She giggles when she hears herself laughing. She'll sign and say "more, more" to watch a video over and over!

Latest Kenzie Craze

The last couple of weeks have been all about jumping, tossing and trying to learn colors! For his part, Daddy spends the time recovering the balls from under the entertainment center, in-between doors and behind the couches... :)

Celebrating

We spent the day at Cox Farm today. We enjoyed a hay ride, going down big slides, riding ponies, drinking fresh apple cider and pumpkin picking. It was a fun-filled day!
We officailly celebrated Fall today, but we also celebrated the coming of another year for Uncle Javier. Happy Birthday, Uncle, we love you!

My Favorite Activites Include:

• Reading with Daddy
• Music
• Climbing anything and everything
• Coloring & Painting
• ABC-time at school
• Singing songs wih Mommy
• Pushing my wooden go cart through-out the house
• Riding my car
• Rolling and tossing balls
• Dancing and moving to Gymboree
• Playing chase with Coco and Duke
• Exploring during outside time
• Slides
• Playtime with my cousins
• Bubbles