A Blog-Update!

There's not much exciting or new going on around here. But we are enjoying our time and taking lots of pictures; trying to document every minute!

Shyla, who is now crawling army-style around the house, has decided that it's a lot of fun to play under the coffee table. Yet another thing that used to be Pancake's domain...taken over.

Shyla is now becoming a much better eater of real food. She especially loves carrots at the moment. So far she is taking after her daddy and not liking anything green though!

Post-bath and getting ready for baby-massage with "oceans of lotions." We have worked to establish a night-time routine so she is bathing every night.

Thankfully she loves her bath!

Last weekend we celebrated "Christmas" with my aunt Sherry, cousin Megan, her boyfriend Anthony, Don, and Dolly. The picture above is Anthony and Megan.

Shyla showing off a really funny hat (that really belongs to a teddy bear that aunt Sherry gave Lilly) and new shoes from aunt Sherry!

This picture shows Zac about to smack Shyla in the head with a maraca.

Shyla looking cute in jeans!

Ahhhh, this picture simply makes my heart happy. I hope it does the same for you:)

In other news: Ragnar is 27 days away. This whole French Toast Mafia thing sounded like a great idea last year. Now I think I'd rather just eat french toast.

Jason...feeling more comfortable!

We got to have lunch last week with Jason and Rupa! Last time Jason held Shyla, she wasn't as animated and he wasn't as comfortable. Those of you loyal followers out there may remember the pic of him squeezing her and looking terrified. Now he looks like a natural!

Jenny Jump-Up

John and Sharon gave Shyla this "Jenny Jump-Up" and we just got around to installing it and letting her play in it.

She really seemed to like it!
She was more into spinning around than jumping up, but she had fun!

I think she also liked having Mommy and Daddy around her yelling "wheeeeee!"

"Wheeeeee!"

And quite possibly my most favorite picture ever!

Recent Pictures

Not much new around here, but we hope you enjoy these January pics!

Oh! Did I mention that Shyla is crawling? Well, she's still better at scooting on her butt but she's also starting crawling with one arm stuck under her body. The picture above was her practicing at the McDonald's playground.

Ahhh, bathtime!
We've been doing bath-time nightly these days, as part of the bedtime routine. Thankfully Shyla loves her bath. She's quite the Splashy McSplasherson from Splashvilles, Ohio (which I make sure to tell her nightly). Bath-time, of course, only occurs after the "I'm a Naked Dancing Baby" dance. Don't you all wish you were here around 6 pm?

One Sock Shyla, lookin' cute in her crib. This was her school outfit today. It was, strangely, not the outfit she was wearing when I picked her up!

Last weekend we celebrated Uncle Vinny's 90th birthday! Uncle Vinny is Pat's uncle (his wife, Mary, was Pat's dad's sister). It was a great time and great for Shyla to meet him and lots of other family members.

A Visit from the God-Parents!

We are a truly blessed, lucky, and fortunate family in many ways. And because we are blessed, so is Shyla. For one thing, Shyla has fantastic god-parents: Dan and Erin.

Let's talk about Dan. Dan (a.k.a Digital Dan Francisco Carrillo Gunning III) went to high school with me and Stevie and we have such great memories from that time. Memories include lunch with Dan day...traveling to football games...infamous red cups..."that kid" in our english class (who was he?)...skiing at Sunrise and conquering the vanilla cake...the aunt and uncle who aren't really my aunt and uncle...dipping bad fortunes in the terriaki sauce...pretty much everything that happened in Mr. Harper's class, and Mr. Wykoff's class...and the list goes on and on. And on.

For college, Didge went away to University of San Diego where he quickly met the most wonderful woman in the world: Erin.

Let's talk about Erin. Erin is amazing ...caring ...beautiful ...determined ...funny ...compassionate ... friendly ...understanding ...and just a good person.

As you blog followers (all 3 of you) know, Dan and Erin were married in San Diego in October. Stevie was Dan's best-man (just as Dan was his) and they had a truly awesome wedding. It was romantic, fun, and beautiful.

Erin and I have a lot in common and I feel that we grow closer with every email, every visit, and every blog-update (still waiting their unnamed blog to come...). We have lots to bond over!

We told Dan and Erin that we wanted them to be Shyla's god-parents because we think they are the bee's knees (a metaphor that isn't used nearly enough). To elaborate, we want them to be her god-parents because we know that they will be very involved in her life, they will lead by great example, and we already think of them as family as it is.

Anyway, the Gunnings (I still like the sound of that!) came over the weekend after Christmas for a visit. Shyla was sleeping when they got there but she woke up to play, to open the really generous present that they bought her (this Christmas was all about the wrapping paper though), and to throw up on Erin a little bit.
We look forward to many happy memories to come with Dan and Erin. I'm in the process of trying to arrange a visit to SD during my Spring Break but with my husband going to Vegas for March Madness, it could be hard to fit in. But if we make it, I do expect some Kendra/Erin time...

Didge and Erin - thank you for being amazing friends and for being such an important part of Shyla's life. She is SO luck to have you!

Didge - I hope I sufficiently used groups of three for you.

New Year's in Pinetop!

We spent the past weekend in Pinetop with our family and had a great time!

Dad and I got one-day of skiing in at Sunrise. It was crazy hot but a lot of fun. We stayed on the greens and blues but had a fabulous time.

I didn't take my camera to the slopes, but here are some shots from the rest of the weekend:

I had two goals for the weekend: to have fun and to take a decent family picture. Guess what! Both goals were attained!

Ummm...this is my husband dancing with the GP dummy. What? Is that not normal?

Awwwhhhhh. Zackary loves Pancake and showed her by giving her a little hug. Doesn't that warm your heart?

Lilly dressed up to play in the snow. It's surprising that she was even able to move after all the layers that grandma put on her. It was Christmas Story-esque for sure.

And Pancake loves playing in the snow! She especially likes it when she sinks into it.

It was a great weekend and a good way to end a two-week break. As both Chelsea and I have said before: that cabin holds numerous memories for us and we are thrilled to be able to share those memories and create more with our babies!

Thank you, mom and dad, for the cabin, the memories, and the food times to come!