Thank You For The Chocolate

I must say that I was filled with joy to hear these words come out of the mouth of my almost 2 1/2 year old daughter. I have been stationed in Monterey, CA away from her and my beautiful wife from thanksgiving until 19 Dec. A lot, and I mean a lot has changed. She has grown to the point where she can simply listen to what i say, and repeat it to the point where she understands what I am saying. I was able to travel home the 19th but i didn't officially get into the arms of my loved ones until about 1a.m. on the 20th. Then began my wonderful vacation with my family. It has been the most rewarding time for me of all of 2009. I am so proud of my little McKenzie and all that she has accomplished with and without me, with the help, care and understanding from my amazing wife Natalie. Anyway, one night Mckenzie, Natalie, Stephanie and I were all in the kitchen sitting down at night. Steph had an orange chocolate thing. Kenz kept saying chocolate! chocolate! please! please! I looked at her and i asked her to say, say thank you for the chocolate stephy. and she did, later that night she decided to say thank you for everything. Thank you for the milk, thank you for the juice, thank you for the gum, thank you for the garbage. It was such an overwhelming feeling to be noticed by my daughter in a respectful manner enough for her to want to learn from me.
On that note: Christmas was Hawaii this year, AND telling everyone what we are having for our second child. Well one of the most exciting experiences was going to the doctors with nat on tue the 22nd of December for her 20 week ultra sound. Natalie was ok with my finding out by myself and telling her as well as the rest of her family on xmas, which actually turned out xmas eve... she became impatient. hee. hee... Anywho, I came up with this brilliant idea to go to salt lake and buy an outfit for the correct gender and have it wrapped so natalie could open it in front of everyone. So that is what we did. The majority of the people in our family swore it was a boy as well as Natalie herself. But, she wanted a girl more than anything. I had this greater feeling as soon as i got back to Utah that it was a girl. Addison Kate Howell, that is and will be her name.
The flight to Hawaii: It was hectic! not the flight, but the last minute arrangements. We weren't able to all sit together so me and Mckenzie sat alone on the right side of the plane 21a and 21b. Kennie sat in her car seat next to the window, and i sat in the aisle. We had a wonderful flight together. Now I am in Kuaui with my family. Today we went to Costco and the grocery store. We also took our princess to the pool. She loves the water!