playing catch up, with ketchup

Sorry I've been a bad poster for the Maya updates. The past few months have flown in some ways (new house, never a moment to myself, extremely hot, etc), and dragged in others (still pregnant, extremely hot, did I mention being pregnant? The second time you want it over two months into it...)

Here are a few highlights that I haven't shown from Maya's summer. Hopefully, I'll do better keeping up with this now that our upstairs isn't 100+ degrees.

First we have Maya in the morning sunlight on one of our first mornings in the new house. She's was my little ragamuffin all summer long. Mommy cut her hair a couple of weeks ago.

Next is Maya enjoying "farklers." Since it was a rainy Fourth of July, and Maya is scared of loud noises (loves music, cries if it's too loud) we just lit "farklers" on the porch. Good enough for her.


At the end of July we went to Vail for the family reunion, we spent the whole time chasing our kids so these are the only photos I got!!
I wanted a better picture of the three little girls playing, but Ella never stops moving. I think when she stops you are so suddenly blinded by her cuteness, so it's better if she keeps moving.

Last, are some pictures from when Chris and Kim and Nika came to Ames for a week and Maya got to spend time with her oldest cousin..whom she called Maisie until we left.






A month later she stills talks about that last day when she "boogie, boogie'd" with Nika. Oh, and now she's obsessed with Scoobie Doo because of Nika as well.

One Crazy Weekend

I have lots of older photos to upload but I figured I should dish out the weekend extravaganza photos first.

Sesame Street Live! Cousins!! Grandma Jo! Grandpa's "fing" (Maya for swing)!! What more could a girl ask for?? (cookies)







(Maya is ten seconds from a meltdown in this picture).

Max's 4th Birthday!!

Over the weekend we went to Ames for Max's 4th Birthday party which was at his Grandma and Grandpa Pregitzer's.
We watched Max open presents (yeah!!).


We watched Max blow out his candles (woohoo!!).

We watched Max zone out on frosting (so funny!).
And. we watched Jered blow a bigillion bubbles while Max took his bat to most of them (fabulous).
Grandpa Greg helped Maya pop a couple. Her first bubbles!!


It was a great day to celebrate a wonderful guy whom Maya absolutely adores.

We also spent time at Grandma Jo's and had fun playing with her kitchen set with Max, and going up and down Grandpa Greg's two little stairs at his house.

Maya played so much she slept the whole way home!

Maya recognizes the names "Pete" and "Max" and will try to say them when she sees them.

This morning she's trying "Ah Oh". It's like this "Ah, ah, ah."

Ames Visit

Going after Trek under the table.

Playing peek a boo with the table cloth at the tea room.

A fake deer head?

Sleeping on Grandpa Greg

This last weekend we went to Ames to visit Grandparents. There wasn't enough time! On Saturday we had a "Girl's Day Out", we went and got hair cuts and such, picked up Maya and went to Ivy's Tea Room for lunch and some shopping, and then went to the mall for some "shopping and strolling." Maya did the strolling, we did the shopping. Maya was pooped out but still decided to skip her usual long afternoon nap because there was just too much to see.

On Sunday we went over to Grandpa Greg's and Peggy's for lunch. Maya enjoyed eating mashed potatoes and yummy corn bread. She then enjoyed Uncle Jason waving his arms and being silly with her. After all that, she slept...on Grandpa.

Then on Sunday night Adriana and her girls came over for the Oscar's (our second year to do this together with them), Banana made an armadillo cake and we ate it up! Maya played on the floor and marvelled at the big girls sitting next to her.

Things she's learned in the last week! Crawling off her tummy, not an army crawl (At Grandma Jo's), walking along the couch (at Grandpa Greg's), and pulling herself up to the couch (at home with mommy and daddy). She is also really into mimmicking (brushing her hair and teeth like mommy and daddy, laughing like mommy) and loves loves loves to laugh.

And spaghetti!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went to Grandma Jo's in Ames and we also went over to Grandpa Greg's. Maya was so happy to final get to meet her Uncle Aaron, Auntie Leah and especially her cousin Maisie.





Maya so loves kids. She just watches them constantly and follows them with her eyes, much like a mall security guard, but slimmer... So she got to play with Max, Maisie,and Nika and loved every minute of it. She was a good baby all weekend and let everyone hold her without any fussing. (Daddy says she's just glad to be out of the house finally!)











(Here is Maya with Grandma and the taggie blanket that Grandma made for her, she loves to sing to her taggies.) On Monday we went in for Maya's six month check up and found out that she's in the 85th percentile for her noggin and her height (27 inches!), and in the 55 percentile for her weight (16 lbs. 9 ounces). And last night she only woke up once for milk! Six whole months! How time does fly.












Just for fun, here's a picture of Max showing Maya how to do The Force, you can see that she's getting because she's lifting her hands up like Max. Soon she will be a Jedi Master like her cousin Max.

Visiting Ames

Last weekend we travelled to Ames to have visits Grandma Jo, Nika, Grandpa Greg and Kathryn. We went to "The Berry Patch" with Nika on Saturday and it was a lovely day for picking apples, petting dogs, picking pumpkins, and meeting a horse. Maya slept through most of it (including a hay ride) but Nika seemed to enjoy it.

Here are some pictures from Maya's visits.



Maya with Grandma Jo.













Here is Maya with her cousin Nika.
















Here is Maya with her Aunt Kathryn.





Here is Maya with Grandpa Greg.