One Special Gift

This post is well overdue.

At the beginning of football season, McKenna was given a very special gift.

One of my former students and good friends, Hannah Pawelski & her family are huge Notre Dame fans, just like us. One day Hannah brought McKenna a Notre Dame sweatshirt that had been Hannah's when she was a little girl. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness. She said that they had found it and had thought of McKenna right away. How sweet is that?!

Hannah wrote the sweetest note to go along with it:

Dear Mrs. Witkowski,
This little Notre Dame sweatshirt was mine when I was a baby! I thought it would be perfect for McKenna! Hope it brings the Irish some luck!
Love,
Hannah

Hannah & McKenna this past summer

Kenna in her "Hannah" sweatshirt...for the ND game, of course!

Gooo IRISH!

McKenna & Mommy, Week 24

2010 Naperville Holiday Card

GranMom invited McKenna and I to head downtown Naperville on Black Friday to be a part of the 2010 Naperville Holiday Card. Naperville's Mayor Pradel invited all 147,000 residents to come down and pose for a picture to be sent to neighboring towns and even to President Obama. We decided to go to see what it was all about.

We headed to the spot specified for the picture and found that we would be standing within the outlined letters to the word PEACE. We immediately found our spot in the letter C (we decided the best spot would be at the tip of the bottom swoop - like where your pen last touches the paper when you are writing it). There we stood for the next half hour or so watching the letters fill up with Napervillians...there ended up being about 500 people.

As 2:00pm rolled near, we ditched Kenna's stroller and looked up, waiting ever so patiently to say Cheese!

Little did we know that a reporter from the Daily Herald, a local paper, would be right behind us snapping a pic of our sweet snow girl. Along with a couple of pictures, the reporter asked us a couple of questions about the event.

Soon after 2:00pm, Mayor Pradel, called to our attention that it was go time. We looked up and smiled...and just a couple of minutes after that we were on our way home....laughing and feeling the holiday spirit.

We had a great time. Thanks GranMom!

We arrived alittle early just in case there were tons of people,

so we got to sit in the car and play for awhile.


Walking up to the Tower and Carillon

snow girl chilling...snow mom texting...

a nice view of the Naperville Millenium Carillon and residents getting ready

They took the picture from up there...

Mayor Pradel thanking all of the residents for coming.

sorry for the terrible picture...

Rachel Witkowski is entertained by her daughter McKenna, 7 months, as they wait for a community photo shoot Friday near the Moser Tower and Millennium Carillon in Naperville. Read more: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20101126/news/711279922/photos/EP2/#ixzz16orsnWj8

once again sorry for the picture! but here is what the picture looked like!

Kinda Cool, huh???

Playdates

At 7 months old, McKenna already has lots and lots of friends. She is sure one lucky girl!

In the past few weeks we've had a lot of playdates. She is so aware and interactive now, so it is so much fun to watch her play. She loves other to watch other kids and always tries to touch them.

She's such a big girl!

A couple of weeks ago, we caught up with my college friends Renee Myers, Jamie Howard, & Courtney Stafford and McKenna's friend, Jackson Myers. We had a great time catching up, playing on the floor, and munching on pizza. McKenna was mesmorized by Jack, she wanted so badly to get up and walk around with him. Soon Kenna Girl, soon!

Courtney & McKenna

Jack, Nay, Court, Kenna

Jack is such a big boy!

jammie jams time!

rolling on the floor together!

you can't see Kenna's head because even as she rolled she kept her eyes on Jack!

We try and make sure to see McKenna's newest friend, Brayden, atleast once a week. Funny how hard it is to just hang out now! We are very lucky that the Samples live close, so we usually hook up for Football Sundays, if not any other day. We sure do love that Brayden Boy! Kenna is always trying to touch him...we think she's just trying to get him to come play with her.

Brayden with his Daddy

Kenna getting some love from our good friend, Amanda Nava

milk tongue!

sweet boy!

2 of the 4 B's

BEST FRIENDS!

I WANT HIM!!!

Brayden & Mommy

Aunt Krissy came over to play and to see Brayden too!

As Brayden's Dad says...his hands are PERFECT for gripping a baseball!

nice long fingers!

We head over to the Samples' house for playdates too!

Kenna & Todd

little monkey

McKenna saying hi to Brad's Grandma Rowe and Brayden

too big for the mamaroo!

Another playdate we had recently was a bit different than the others. We met my good friends, Katie & Jen, at Starbucks afterschool one day. We took full advantage of the Starbucks buy one holiday drink get one free promo. While we were there we even got to meet NBC5 Chicago morning anchor Rob Elgas!

Venti, Venti, Venti, puffs!

teething much? chewing on Katie's cup!

Jen & McKenna

A big thanks to all of our special friends. We sure do love our playdates...any way they come!

Peek-A-Boo

I see you!

Captured By Cindi

We had the pleasure of welcoming photographer, Cindi Fatzinger, into our home last Saturday (and Sunday!) to capture our sweet girl at 6 months old. A parent from school referred me to Cindi, who actually lives right down the road from us! Here is a sneak peek of her pictures. I should be receiving the rest later this week. I think you'll agree that they're pretty amazing.