Smiley baby...

This made my day! Kenna is starting to smile a lot more now. When she woke up from her mid-morning nap, she gave mommy a few good smiles and luckily I was able to catch this one on camera. So precious!

Last day with Tutu, Papa, & La'a...

We finally had to say good-bye to Tutu, Papa, & La'a after a whole months stay that went by WAY too fast. We had SO much fun with them and appreciate everything they did for us while they were here. It was nice to have them for the time being and it made me realize that you can never have enough time with the people you truly care about and love. A month did not nearly make up for the time we have been apart from them. Nonetheless, we are very thankful that they were able to take that much time out to visit us :)

Last pictures before heading off to the airport...

Kenna's face says it all...
Mother & daughter...see the resemblance? ;)

Happy 2nd Birthday Kaila!

We were SO happy that we were able to celebrate Kaila's 2nd birthday with her Tutu, Papa, and La'a. She had quite a busy day with gymnastics, then lunch at McDonalds as her birthday treat, and finally back home where we were surprised to see that Tutu & Papa had decorated the house and baked her a cake. She seemed to really enjoy her day and was fully aware that it was her birthday. On behalf of Kaila, a BIG thank you to everyone who sent her birthday wishes, blessings, and gifts!

First birthday picture for the day...
Her birthday meal at McDonalds, fries with ranch dressing...
SO happy to play in the play area...
Trying to play video games with La'a...
SURPRISE! This is what we came home to...
La'a creating static...
Playing her birthday gift from Tutu, Papa, & La'a...an ukulele.
Tutu & Papa made her a busy cake for a busy toddler...

The cake had many of her favorite characters. The Care Bears are actually from Mommy's 1st birthday party...
Showing off her multitasking skills...playing her xylophone from Mama & Papa, while watching TV.
Getting ready to blow out her candles...

Happy Birthday Kaila video

Visiting relatives...

On Monday, we ventured to Streamwood, Illinois to visit my stepdad's sister, Aunty Missy's sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Naomi and Joe. We had a great lunch with them and it was nice to see people who had a connection to Hawai'i. Naomi is originally from Middlebury, Indiana and Joe grew up on the southside of Chicago. They are such funny people and we hope to see them again.

Naomi enjoyed holding Kenna. Kenna, on the other hand, wondered who was holding her.

Sesame Street...

Yesterday, we took Kaila to see Sesame Street Live's "When Elmo Grows Up" as her birthday gift. She truly enjoyed herself and could not stop asking "where Elmo?" everytime he left the stage. Can you imagine how many times we heard that during intermission? First we told her that Elmo was coming back, so she just needed to hold on. But that wasn't good enough, so we finally told her that Elmo needed a break and went to get a drink of water. That she was okay with and stopped asking. It was a cute production, but definitely for kids :)

The beginning of the show...
The cast...

Enthralled...
Finally got their attention...
Kaila's favorite, "Elmo's World"...

Kenna...

Here are some recent pictures of Kenna. She is definitely a lot more alert nowadays and she seems to be filling out fast. She is quite the smiley baby as we have caught a few here and there. Overall she is very mellow and laid back, unlike Kaila who was very high maintenance and liked to be up and about.

Fixated on something that's on the carpet...

Cracking a little bit of a smile...
Staring at the light...

Videos

Two videos from the past few weeks. One of Kaila getting her haircut and the other is Kaila reading Cinderella.

Kaila's first haircut...

After much debate, we finally decided to take Kaila in to get her first "he-cut," as she calls it. We went to "Cookie Cutters" in Geneva, which is a hair cuttery specifically for kids. To our surprise she didn't make a fuss at all, which she usually does when you try to do her hair, hence the reason why we wanted to get it cut.

Before picture...
Her haircutting vehicle of choice...
Assessing how much to cut...
All done...
The end result...

She looks like such a big girl now *tear*...

Playing on the slide...need one of those for our house (just kidding)...she loved it!

Lost photos at Harpo Studios...

We drove by Harpo Studios a while ago when Shannon was here, but somehow the photos got lost in the shuffle of all the other photos. Anyway, I recently found them, so here they are. The quality isn't all that great due to the fact that it was dusk. Probably why we kept passing them by.

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry...

Yesterday we visited the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and to our surprise it was a random free day that they have every now and then, which was great for our checkbook ;) The museum was a LOT of fun, and let me tell you, there are SO many things to do there for every age. We spent almost 5 hours there and did not even get to see everything.

La'a & Kaila on the cow exhibit...
Kaila's favorite exhibit was the Thomas Edison exhibit. She kept on pushing the button and looking at it for a good 20 minutes. Probably because she was busy doing her business, if you know what I mean.
Yeah we like to take these pictures. We can't stop now, we've been doing it since we first met :)
The engineer and fireman...
Another neat exhibit that Kaila liked was The Multiplier. Basically it tracked your movements. It was really neat. Neat picture too!

Happy Birthday Cisco!

January 3rd was Cisco's 29th birthday. Good thing for me, his wife, he is quite easy to please. He wanted his favorite dinner, enchilada bake, and since we already had brownie mix, I made him a brownie cake. We also went on a little date to the movies to watch The Blindside. It was a great movie, highly recommended. Overall, I hope I made his birthday as special as he is to me. I know, awwww...

Happy 1-Month Birthday Kenna!!

Today Kenna makes one-month old. We can hardly believe that one-month ago today, Kenna was born. So far, she has a very laid-back personality. We've seen her smile and laugh a few times in her sleep. Such precious moments! She probably weighs over 8lbs. Kaila has taken very well to Kenna. She likes to carry her often and at times says, "I miss you Sissy." More precious moments! Here are some pictures on her one-month birthday.

Trying to focus in on her hands

Sisterly love

This is the best picture of both of the girls we could get, being that Kaila is very much a toddler (small attention span)