Thanksgiving and a Wedding

Since I have been so absent from the blog as of late I'll be playing some catch up here.  :)  Get ready for lots of pictures!  Of course, that's mostly what you want to see anyways - cute pictures of Daniel!  :)

We recently returned from a 18 day trip to visit Josue's family in Miami, FL.  Here are a few pictures to capture our trip.

Daniel's second plane ride, definitly an exciting ride for him, and tiring for Daddy and Mommy!

Playing with the cousins!  Daniel LOVED their cars!!

This trip was definitely about relaxing!

Also about going to the pool!  Which we had all to ourselves because everyone down there thinks that it's cold when it's 78 degrees!

Lots of playing with Legos going on thanks to Tio JJ!

At the rehersal dinner for Tio JJ and Tia Gaby's wedding :)

The whole family at the wedding, it was lovely!!

With the beautiful bride and handsome groom!

Daniel and Kristy Belle dancing at the reception!  He just can't help but dance when there is music playing!

Super fun trip to the beach!  FL beaches are so great for children, shallow, warm water and super gentle waves.  Daniel had a wonderful time and played in the water and sand all day long!

Did I mention that he played in the sand?  This boy didn't care about getting sand on himself clearly.  He had it everywhere and happily so!

The Thanksgiving spread!  Yummy!

Josue and I on a short trip that we took to celebrate 5 years of marriage!

Josue underwater while snorkeling on our trip.  What an amazing experience!

Daniel giving Super Abuela some hugs and love before we had to leave.

We had a wonderful trip!

Daniel has an annoucement...

To those of you who have not heard yet.... (drumroll please...)

We're expecting again! 

Here's how Daniel announced the news to our family:

Baby Sierra #2 is due on June 8th, 2010.  And mommy is doing very well, though quite tired these days especially with running after a toddler!

Daniel's first sentance!

Well, the other day we heard Daniel's first sentance!  And it was so sweet I just have to share! 

Daniel was sitting in his high chair eating his lunch and we were listening to a CD of lullubies that he enjoys.  The song that was playing was instrumental, but was the song "Jesus loves me".  Out of the blue Daniel said, "Jesus loves you!" 

How sweet!  It just about burst my heart!  He must have recognized the tune and since he says "Jesus" and "Love you" that is what he put together!  How sweet to hear such truth from the lips of my baby boy!

Milburns again...

Josue and I were able to take Daniel to Milburn Orchards again recently and I thought I'd share a few pictures that we got with Daddy.  Daniel is currently obsessed with buses and so the wooden bus and the little bus for taking pictures were big hits.

Going down the big slide all by himself!

Driving the bus, of course!

So super excited about this little bus!  Just his size!

He's a boy!

All little boys are obsessed with cars and trucks and buses in their toddler years it seems.  Daniel is just the same and I love it!  I love all the boyishness about him.  Though I can't say I look forward to the future obsession he no doubt will have with bugs and frogs and snakes and other rodents! 

Anyway, the other day we were getting ready to go somewhere and Josue opened the passenger side door to put some things in the car.  Daniel, quick like he is, scrambled into the car, over the center console and into the drivers seat where he proceeded to grab all levers with in reach, push all possible buttons and wiggle that steering wheel with great delight! 

It should be noted that Grammie Hokuf taught him that he could do all this - haha!  Here are some pictures from that adorable moment.

Cranking that steering wheel!

Checking out the dials and other interesting things on the dash.

Deliciousness from my kitchen...

I've been drooling over this Apple Crisp recipe for a while.  Finally I remembered and made the recipe tonight.  This recipe is simple, but also more complex than the recipe I have previously used.  I was particularly excited about the fact that it used apple cider in the coating for the apples and that it called for ginger and nutmeg in addition to cinnamon.  I always love a good apple crisp in the fall.  It's the perfect way to welcome the cooler weather and at the same time enjoy the deliciousness of the apples that God has given us!

If you will excuse me now, I'm going to go dig in!

Recipe - complements of King Arthur Flour at their blog, Bakers Banter. 

Daniel's new bed!

Josue has a co-worker with two boys who are slightly older than Daniel and so we have been blessed with some hand-me-downs at different times.  The most recent blessing, however, was a toddler bed.  While we had not planned on using a toddler bed (we were just going to switch Daniel to a twin or full size bed), we thought that perhaps it would give us a little more time to keep the guest room a guest room.  We haven't switched Daniel over to the toddler bed yet and will probably wait a few months still.  But here are some pictures of him having fun with it. 

He seems to think it is great that he can get on and off it all by himself.  And, of course, he likes to stand on it and bounce on it!  We tried to get across to him that it was for sleeping, and he humored us a little bit with laying down on it.  Enjoy!

Interprative Bible Story-telling

Tonight's interpretive Bible story went something like this:

Daniel:  "Boom, boom!"  (Indicating thunder and the storm in the story of Jonah and the whale.)

Josue:  "Yes, boom, boom.  You see, God told Jonah 'Come!'  And Jonah said 'No, no!'  And so God had to spank Jonah!"

Me:  Hysterical laughter.

Josue:  "Well, I think that's a pretty accurate biblical interpretation!"

Daniel Visits Milburn Orchards

Just down the road from where we live is Milburn Orchards.  It is really a great place to go for kids.  Besides apple picking, berry picking and other U-pick fruits and veggies, they have animals, a great playground, a huge sandbox and other fun things for kids to do.  The day that Daddy was sick, Daniel and I took advantage of having access to the car and went over for a fun filled afternoon.  After much playing, examining pumpkins, talking to the animals and exploring the "bale trail" (think corn maize but with huge hay bales), Daniel and I ended our afternoon by picking out some acorn squash (which Daniel LOVES) and buying some oh so yummy apple cider doughnuts in the farmers market.  Here are some pictures from our outing.

Daniel enjoying the kid-friendly aspects of Milburns.  Our little wormy!

Exploring the rows and rows of pumpkins!

Playing in a wooden airplane, he loves planes!

Barely humoring Mommy with a picture.

Inside the pumpkin house, literally a structure with the walls and roof filled with pumpkins!

Selecting a pumpkin!  He really tried to pick up the one next to this small one, but no luck, too big!  :)

It was a beautiful day and a lovely time with my boy!  We'll hopefully do it again soon!

Daniel Helping Daddy...

About a week ago Josue wasn't feeling well and so he worked from home to try and give himself some time to recover.  Daniel and I love having Daddy home, but it really does throw our routine for a loop sometimes.  Daniel in particular always wants to be near Daddy and see what Daddy is doing and "help" Daddy!  Actually, all he really wants is to get his hands on Daddy's computer!  So here's a picture of Daniel's idea of "helping" Daddy while he works from home.

Definitely fun having your kid's bootie right in your face!