Preschool Santa...

Santa came to Preschool on their last day and as you can see Kaila needed extra comfort when he was around. Miss Dana said when she saw him enter the room she held on to the table they were seated at for dear life, and did not want to sit near him; hence the reason why she is sitting in Miss Ana's lap. When Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, mum was the word.

This was the best picture we could get of Kaila with Santa.

Christmas Day.....With a Not-So-Good Ending

Christmas Morning! Santa came and brought gifts!

Disney Princess Games from Aunty Shannon and Kelly

Opening her gift

Stamping Set from La'a, Tutu, & Papa

Doctor Set from Grandpa & Grandma

Food Basket from Grandma & Grandpa

Train set. As Kaila said, "Like what Matthew has!"

My first train set! Thanks Nana Jana and Nano Paul!

More "Who Dat!" gear as we head into the playoffs. Thanks Tita Mila!

Disney Princess pop-up tent and tunnel! Thanks Nana Jana and Nano Paul!

In the afternoon, we baked and decorated sugar cookies. Kaila did more eating of sugar than decorating.

Also in the afternoon, we had nice Skype conversations with my parents and sister, and Kaui's family back in Hawai'i. After those conversations, it made us REALLY miss being with family during the Holidays. Gosh, we're just SO far away from our family and friends. Thank goodness for Skype, at least.

But our good Christmas day turned into an awful Christmas night. On Dec. 23rd, Kenna threw up when we got home from the Larson's Christmas Light Show. Considering that she started laughing and playing after she threw-up, we thought, "maybe she had indigestion, since we didn't burp her before putting her in the car." Then, she had diarrhea the next morning, making us worried that maybe she had some sort of bug. After putting the girls to bed Christmas night, my stomach started feeling funny and I got really tired. So I headed to be at around 9:30pm, hoping I could just sleep it off. I woke up at 12:30am and headed to the bathroom to......um....well.....you know what. Kaui, too, said her stomach wasn't feeling well at all that night. So Kaui and I spent the entire day of Dec. 26th down and out with the stomach flu. Fortunately, the girls had all these new toys to keep them occupied while we thought we were going to die on the couch (well, at least I thought I was going to die. Kaui was a trooper). Kaila then got sick the night of the 26th and was down and out all day the 27th and yesterday. But the one nice thing about the stomach flu is that once it passes, you're back to your normal self with minimal lingering effects. Yet another situation where being far from family blows chunks.......literally.

Thanks to all our family and friends for the gifts. We are so blessed to have you all in our lives, and thankful for thinking of us.

Christmas Eve Festivities

This was our first Christmas away/without family, so we knew we had to start some of our own traditions. Was it a relaxing Christmas Eve? Not really. The down-side of it just being us is that we still had to do the work ourselves, such as getting the food ready, baking the cookies, yet still trying to keep the house in order and watch/entertain the girls. In addition, we got dumped on with snow, so we had to work to keep our driveway clear.

Our tree on Christmas Eve, before the gifts were placed. "The Calm Before the Storm."

Kaila and I went outside to build a snowman. Here's our weak attempt at it. I was surprised how long Kaila stuck with it; I thought for sure after a few minutes she'd want to go inside. We'll try for a better one next year.

In the late afternoon we went to Church. When we got home, we did our well-established Reyes tradition of opening up our Christmas pajamas. Penguins!

After they bathed, they were matching-matching.

After getting into our Christmas pajamas, we took the girls outside to spread reindeer food on our driveway, leading up to our door so Santa and his reindeer knew where to go.

Finally, we left Santa some cookies and milk and wrote him a letter. Here's Kenna setting up the milk and cookies.

Their note for Santa. Note Kaila's signature (hint: it's a scribble).

Our tree, now filled with the goodies.

The Larson Christmas Light Show in Elburn

Last night we made the "quick" drive to Elburn to see first-hand the "Larson Christmas Light Show." I say "quick" because the house isn't too far from our house, but the traffic was ridiculous at the house. There's a huge house in Elburn that puts on this spectacular Christmas light show that's choreographed to music on one of the local radio stations. It is super popular in the area; we waited a little over an hour in traffic to drive a half-mile to make it from the road to the front of the house for a good view of the show. It truly was amazing what this family/company did to their house. It inspired us to do this one day to our future home......(yeah right).

Alvin and the Chipmunks:


Mannheim Steamroller:


A song from the soundtrack of "Polar Express":


Too bad Kaila fell asleep, so she missed it. Fortunately, Kenna was awake and was able to see the light show......with no reaction. With this being our first Christmas by ourselves in Illinois, we realized that this event sparked a new Reyes Christmas Tradition, except now we know what radio station it's on (so we can follow while sitting in traffic), to go right as the show starts (5pm), and right as the holiday season kicks off after Thanksgiving. It was unbelievable how many cars were there to see the show and how long we waited in traffic, but it was worth it!

Christmas Art Day...

I hosted this years Christmas Art Day for our playgroup. The theme was centered around "The Gingerbread Man" story. So, we did a gingerbread man/woman craft, read the story, then decorated some gingy-man cookies. It was a lot of fun!

Making the gingerbread dough...
Kaila using the little mixer that Grandma got Kenna for her birthday...
Rolling out the dough...
The craft we made: a gingerbread man & woman ornament...
Time to decorate some cookies...

We actually caught the kids, at one point, eating the frosting straight out of the tube! They had waaaayyy to much sugar that day.
Kaila's gingy-man cookie...

Kenna heading off to school to watch "Your Baby Can Read"...

Kenna loves to play with Kaila's backpack. She often drags it around as if she is the one going to school. Here she heads over to the little couch with the backpack to watch her "Your Baby Can Read" show. Both girls have grown fond of this show ever since going to New Hampshire, where they would watch it with Matthew. Kenna has learned a lot from it and whenever it goes off she instantly let's us know by saying "all done" and whining until we play it again.

Dragging Kaila's backpack...

Watching "Your Baby Can Read"

Christmas/Birthday Photo Shoot...

We had photos with Lindsay Wogen done again for our Christmas card and for the girls' birthdays. I wanted to get some pictures done out in the snow, but by the time we wrapped up our indoor session, the girls were getting cranky because they were tired & hungry. So we'll just have to save that idea for next year.

Our little family (can you spy Sadie)...
Kaila's 3 year photos...
Enjoying a good book & a candy cane...
Being solemn...

Kenna's 1 year photos...

Enjoying a candy cane...
"This ice cream looks SO yum!"
Sister photos...
I think they're staring at us trying to get them to smile...
Kenna wanting a piece of that cake...

Happy 1st Birthday Kenna!!!

Kenna is 1 year old!! I still can't believe that around this time last year we were holding a newborn baby! Time has just flown by with her. She is such a joy to be around. It's so neat to see her personality blossom more and more everyday. She's a very sweet, carefree, easy child. Half the time while we're at home she just wanders around looking for something to do while swinging her arms to & fro as she walks. She now weighs 19 lbs, 2 0z. (20%) and is 30 in. tall (80%)...long & lean is what we're told by the doctor (just like her Ate).

Happy 1st Birthday Kenna!
Happy Birthday Kenna Video...

Birthday cupcake...
Mommm...
Finally digging in...
SO happy to finally be forward facing...
Kaila was happy that she can finally use a seat belt in her new booster seat...
Three happy girls...
Kaila's birthday gift to Kenna: a big hug turned into a good wrestle!
Sadie wanted to be sent to Tutu, Papa, & La'a...
Lastly, Kenna is turning out to be a real dare devil. Here's a picture of her as she stands on a toy, but she's very good at police-ing herself. When she stands on something, she always tells herself to "sit down."