Happy Birthday Makenzie!

All dressed up for the party:

Opening Presents:
Snowman Cake: Yum!

Playing in the Snow!

This was my second attempt at taking Manny and Makenzie out to play. I was much smarter this time. First of all, Makenzie was fully awake (previously we had tried to take her out right after she woke up from her nap...she was not impressed); I had Manny and myself all ready to go before I attempted to dress Makenzie in her snow pants and Manny and I did "snow cheers" as we went outside to get Makenzie excited.

Guess what? It worked. She loved the snow!

In fact, when we were all done and I was pulling Makenzie in the sled towards the house she threw herself out of the sled into the snow and tried to slide down the hill without her sled.

Christmas Blankets

I decided to make Manny and Makenzie blankets for Christmas this year. I should have started in June, but they were finished in time.

Makenzie's side one:
Makenzie's side two:

Manny's side one:

Manny's side two:

Wrestling Practice

Manny was pretty excited to get to go to wrestling practice with Uncle. He loved every minute of it and when the other coach got there, Manny ran up to Adam and said, "I'm here to wrestle".

Playing in the rolled up mats:

Visit to Dexter

GG and Makenzie snuggling:


When Manny climbed into the chair, of course Makenzie had to sit there too.

Uncle and his "finger toes"...what a great talent huh?

The Simple Things

Of all the toys at GG's house, the kids choose to play in a tent under the Superman Table and a blanket:

A Diva in the Making...

Makenzie loves her sunglasses!

Do you love the pink sunglasses with the blue pajamas?!

Happy First Birthday Makenzie!

One Year Ago Today:

Joe and I getting ready to go to the hospital, one last photo with Manny:

Makenzie Elizabeth Ramos:

Fast forward to today and she is crawling around (very fast, I might add) and taking charge of the Children's Museum this morning:

Christmas Day Part Three...

....aka why you have a brother and cousins there on Christmas morning to put all the toys together.



Phil putting together Kenzie's Laugh and Learn Kitchen (ignore my facial expression, it had already been a long day after not getting home Christmas Eve until 2:30am)

Chris putting together Manny's Dinosaur Rampage:

Sarah attempting to put something together, not sure if that is the Dinosaur toy or the Thomas set:

And then Manny gave it a try:

Christmas Day Part Two

Uncle Gene, GG, and Sarah watching the kids play

Makenzie more interested in the bag of wrapping paper than any presents:

Aunt Carol, Mom, David and Phyllis:

Chris playing with Kenzie:

Christmas Day Part One

Kenzie checking out all the presents

Manny and his 5 pound bag of hotdogs (can anyone guess who these were a present from?)

Manny probably trying to sweet-talk Grampa into doing something:

David trying to help Manny put together some little Lego's:

Manny Christmas Morning

With his "little Lego's":

Trying to open Daddy's 50-feet-of-tape-wrapping job:

Manny's quilt that I made him:

Makenzie Christmas Morning

Playing with some toys:
I decided that I wanted to get Makenzie a doll for Christmas. I didn't want it to talk, cry, pee or poop. I wanted to just get her a doll. Do you know how hard it is to find "just a doll"? I actually took Makenzie to Toys R Us with me to help pick it out. Since I had such a hard time finding a doll that didn't come with accessories, I decided on a stuffed animal. So I walked Kenzie down the animal aisle and she picked out a stuffed tiger. She grabbed the tiger and hugged it and sat down in the cart with it. We were heading over the to other side of the store when Makenzie suddenly stood up, dropped the tiger over the side of the cart onto the floor and started pointed and making sounds. I looked and she was pointing to a Raggedy Anne doll. I gave it to her and she did not let go of it until I had to wrangle it out of her hands at the checkout.

Playing with the conductor to the train:

Christma Eve with the Ramos'

Some pictures from Christmas Eve in The County.

An attempt at a family photo:

The Great Uncle Louis putting Makenzie to sleep:

And then flying Manny around the room on his shoulder:

Manny and Gracie: