An early Christmas celebration with Lon & Nancy

We celebrated Christmas early with Lon & Nancy last Saturday as they were making their way down south for a mexican cruise. We had a wonderful time with them and Sonora enjoyed looking at all the bags and boxes that they had brought for her. Of course she would get more fascinated by a simple bow or crinkly tissue than the presents, but she loves the toys and looks super cute in all of the outfits she got!

A little "horsey" time with Aunt Nancy before they leave! Sonora loved it!

Bye Nancy & Lon - see you next time! Thanks for all of your love and presents!

Picking out our Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we picked out our Christmas Tree and Sonora loved looking at all the trees. We knew we had to get a small one so that we could put it up on a table so that she wouldn't be able to pull off ornaments or yank the tree down! We love our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and Sonora does too!

Christmas Tree Farm

After Thanksgiving we usually try to visit the Hillcrest Christmas Tree Farm with the Kessler's for our annual train ride on a steam train. This year Sonora was much more excited and interested as she was only a month old last year at this time! She really enjoyed the toy trains that looped around the grounds and could have stood there for a lot longer than we could handle the cold. The temperature had dropped considerably from earlier in the week and it was quite cold out there but it definitely had the feeling of Christmas in the air!


Here is Sonora standing by the fence watching the toy trains.

Our family of 3, soon to be 4!

The Kessler boys

Sonora with a typical leaf in her mouth as we wait for the steam train to pick us up.

I think Sonora hears the train coming!

Sonora on the train, trying to stay warm cuddling in Daddy's arms.

Uh, it's really cold with the wind blowing in our faces!

The boys in the "cattle" car on the train. I think they stayed warmer in there than we did.

Sonora checking out the boys in the cattle car. I think she thought they were noisy!

We had a great time but we glad to get back into our car and turn on the heater! Time to have some hot cocoa!

Happy Halloween 2009

For Halloween this year we dressed up Sonora as a "Halloween Kitty" (general Halloween clothes with a mask and tail!). She wouldn't wear the Kitty mask so we drew a black nose and whiskers on her face. We decided to go to a church harvest festival this year instead of trick-or-treating around the neighborhood since we don't need candy anyway. The festival was geared towards older kids but we did go on a hay ride and pet some animals at the petting zoo.

For fun, I decided to dress up similar to Sonora just so she didn't feel awkward. Ha!

Sonora had just woken up when we took her to the festival and for some reason she did not seem to enjoy the festivities at all! She stayed solemn and quiet the entire time and didn't crack one smile. Maybe all the costomes scared her! So she appears to the be the sad kitty.

But isn't she a beautiful sad kitty?

Daddy & Sonora at the church festival.

We had to wait in line for the hay ride. Sonora is just chewing on some hay (just like a country girl!).

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Happy Halloween!

Mom's (Grandma Nancy) Birthday

One week after Sonora's birthday is my mom's birthday, October 30th. We had them over for dinner and celebrated with Mom on her birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Sonora's 1st Birthday

Sonora turned 1 on October 23rd and we celebrated on Friday night of her actual birthday at the house with my parents and Team Kess who traveled up from San Diego. She had her birthday cupcake and opened some presents that night but our big party was held on Saturday at the park with friends and family. It was a beautiful day and thankfully everyone was feeling well after a week filled with a viral rash, fever, and coughing and sneezing. It was time to celebrate!

She loved the crinkle paper - way more than the presents!

Her birthday outfit had to be a tutu and boy did she look cute in it!

Digging into her own special cake. I think she liked it!

She did a pretty good job eating half of the top!

One tired little girl...she is all partied out!

Happy Birthday sweet Sonora! We love you so much!

Cobb Ranch Pumpkin Patch

We took Sonora to her very first Pumpkin Patch today at Cobb Ranch in Fresno. We found out very fast that she loves hay! We put her down in the pumpkin corral to look at the pumpkins and she posed for a few pictures, but as soon as she found out that she was standing on something that she could pick up and play with, she was in heaven!

Yahoo! Now this is fun!

A few forced poses with the parents...not an easy feat with a little girl suddenly obsessed with hay.

When we finally got her away from the hay, we made our way over to the animals and the pumpkin patch.

"Farmer Sonora"

In the middle of the feeding frenzy for some goats...

Steve picked the perfect pumpkin for us in the field.

And Sonora approved!

It was a perfect first trip to the pumpkin patch. Next year, two kids will be picking out pumpkins! Happy Fall!!