Long Weekend

So I have been working a lot of hours and even weekends for over a month now. I have been looking forward to this long weekend for a long time. We spent the week deciding what we were going to with a free day as a family. We finally decided that we would spend the day at the Los Angeles Zoo. It has been a while since any of us have been there. I know Leilani would get a kick out of the animals. But it was not meant to be. Leilani started feeling sick on Friday and is still congested and not doing very well tonight. It has been a relaxing weekend. We have spent the weekend snuggled up with our sick little princess watching the winter games. She has shown little glimpses of returning to be herself again but it has been sad to see her so down.

Leilani's little play pal Elliot had been sick last week too. Her parents surprised us with this cake saturday night. It was so cool. Thanks Pat and Rachel. You two are too funny.

Here are a few shots of Leilani for Chase and Savy. We love and miss you guys. She always points at your pictures on the fridge and says Chase....Savy.... It is so cute.

Happy 2010!!!!!

Happy New Year!! So here are a few shots from the past few weeks. I have a lot of catching up to do so lets get started.

Leilani's third favorite thing in the world is Elmo. (First and second are Poppa and Momma.) She loves Elmo's movies, Elmo's books, and Elmo dolls. She is in love with this little red monster and it makes for cute pictures.

We recently had some friends from Canada (Ryan, Joanne, their adorable daughters, and macho boys) swing by and visit while they were down here checking out disneyland and enjoying 70 degree weather. It was a blast to see you guys.

There daughter Mya was so sweet with Leilani. They have an awesome family.

We took some family photos recently. It was fun getting everyone together. Here are a few shots I took for fun.

What could possibly be cute enough to get everyones attention like this???

Yeah that is pretty cute!! Welcome to the family Makai!! Congrats Monty and Kristin.

Leilani loves to watch the other kids play.

These are two of my favorite people in the world.

It was a fun day. I will post the family pictures another time. Thank you Michelle for your patience with the kids.

My nephew Kyle had a really fun birthday party last saturday. There was tons of food and fun. there was a jumper for the kids and a Wii tournament for everyone. It was really a great day. Here are a few of my favorite shots of Leilani from the day.

Ok I am a bad dad. She falls and my first thought is take a pic cuz I think she looks cute!! I knew she was not hurt that bad.

A few seconds later she was in the jumper and super happy.

Here is a shot off all the Peterson girls in the jumper together. Cute girls.

For new years we went to a party out on San Bernardino with my in-laws. Here is Leilani dancing at about 11:45 at night with her grandma. She can groove even when she is being held.

We got to meet Lizeth's cousin Jocelyn's new baby Alexis. She is adorable. Leilani loved watching her.

Fun stuff!!

If there is any one thing in this world that is going to drive me to drinking it is a show called Yo Gabba Gabba. These very odd characters sing songs that remain stuck in your head for days and days. Hit tunes like "don't bite your friends" and "I like bugs." My daughter has fallen in love with these monsters and as my bid for the national father of the year award continues I will sit and endure it along with her. It helped me capture this precious moment as they sang a song about wiggling and holding still.

Christmas 09

What an awesome time of year. I have been enjoying two weeks off of work and getting to spend time with my ladies. It has been a wonderful vacation and Christmas was wonderful this year. We got to spend some good quality time with family. It really has been nice.

Christmas was a lot more fun this year for Leilani than it was last year. She loved seeing Christmas lights, trying to peek in the bags around the tree at grandmas house, and seeing the christmas cartoons that would come on tv. Her excitement made it fun for Lizeth and me.

Christmas eve we went to my my parents house and had the traditional pizza and rootbeer floats.

Leilani struck a few posses for us in her cute little outfit.

The kids all dressed and did the nativity story. They were cute and really good sports about it.

Leilani was that angry shepherd that you read about in the bible somewhere. She played the part well.

Leilani and Savy in their pj's before we headed home.

She slept well that night. I love it when she sleeps like this. She's got a biggo ghetto monkey booty going on there.

She enjoyed her kitchen set. She picked up the phone right away and begain saying lollo. I'm guessing it is Leilanesse for hello. She actually made me some plastic spaghetti and hot-dogs tonight. Yum!!

She did a good job unwrapping her gifts.

After we had our own little christmas that morning we went to Lizeth's parents place to spend christmas day. They had made tamales so we pigged out on those all day. Leilani was the center of attention there and everyone was super sweet to her. Here she is getting spoiled by grandma.

My mom gave this scarf to Lizeth. She brought it back as a gift from her recent trip to Israel. I thought Leilani looked adorable it in. Thank you mom.

Leilani's dirty little secret....

So we know she is cute..... but did you know that she wakes up in the mornings with an afro??? From the front you can see that it is out of control but it is not until you look at it from behind....

....that you can really tell how wild it is. We love you baby.

Thank you everyone that helped make this such and awesome christmas for our family. We feel blessed to have the wonderful family that we do.

Our little cook!!!!

So Leilani loves to help out in the Kitchen. Every Saturday morning I like to make a big breakfast and she is always right there with me pouring, mixing, measuring, ....... you know all that fun stuff. She turns a 15 minute job into a 2 hour project but it is a ton of fun. She loves it. It testsn my patience some times but it really makes for precious memories.

A couple nights ago Lizeth and I were spending time with my inlaws and we got home about 9:30. Leilani was wide awake when we got home and wanted it to be kitchen time. She pointed to the kitchen and then started to point at things. I put a little of it all in her bowl and let her stir it for a while. Then I sat her at the table and let her eat her self created meal. It was a lot of fun.

Here is Leilani mixing her creation.

Gold fish, raisins, and half a cookie. YUM!!

She did eat about half of it. The rest ended up somewhere. I'm not really sure exactly where.

She will fold her arms and close her eyes for pray before meals as long as there is nothing on the table in front of her.

She had a cupcake for dessert tonight. I thought it would a lot messier. As soon as she got any frosting on her hand she would hold it up to me and not rest until I had cleaned it off of her. She will be my little OCD Princess.

Second Try With Santa

So last year was Leilani's first time meeting Santa and it did not go very well. It involved a lot of crying. This year we had higher expectations. She got to meet him at a church activity on friday and it did not go well. It was sad to see her cry but honestly my only regret was not having the batteries in my camera charged. My cell phone bailed me out but it was not as good of a picture as it could have been. We love you Leilani.

Time for some new pics!!!!

It has been a little while since I have really posted some pictures of this little girl so I figured tonight I better do it. I have misplaced the charger for my camera but I saw tonight there was just enough juice in it to snap a few shots and put them on my computer. I had the last week off work and really got to spend a lot of time with Leilani and really loved it. Every morning we would get up and make breakfast together. This morning I had to work and Lizeth said that Leilani kept asking for me. She was really bummed not to find me in the kitchen. When I got home she ran and gave me the biggest hug. I feel so lucky to be blessed with such a special little girl.  OK here are a few shots from the last few weeks. 

Bath time is fun. She likes to dip her head underwater and come up with bubbles on her face. 

She loves to help in the kitchen. My goal is to turn all cooking over to her by the time she is 2.

Her hair is so curly. I love it. 

She loves bouncing on this little ball. It is crack up to watch. She will fall off and laugh. 

She now says "please" and can pretty much get whatever she wants.

This is her way of making sure the TV stays tuned to Yo Gabba Gabba!!

Cheese!!

Mammy bought this Laker gear for Leilani when she turned 6 months old. It was a little big at the time but perfect now. She loves to put it on and run around. She likes the noise the pant legs make when they brush up against each other. I had to post these before and after shots. Thanks Mammy!! 

6 Months

Now

6 Months and nearly bald!!

Now and Cute and Curly!!

Go Lakers!!!!