New

Shortly before New Year's, Maya finally got to go out in the snow. The temperature was perfect for her to dive right in and work on perfecting her snow angel. "Do you love it momma? Do you love my angels?" Thank you Ruby from "Max and Ruby" for teaching Maya all about snow angels.


Here you also see a picture of Maya tentatively hugging Max while he's playing video games. New Year's Eve was low key at our house. I tried to take Maya swimming but Bender Pool had misadvertised that they were going to be open!! They made my baby cry!! So, we went and bought her this fabulous pink tutu swimsuit.


This is my baby that doesn't sleep. Just like his uncle Chris. He likes to eat his hands, coo and sorta laugh, smile at Maya, and be adorable.

Swimming two days later...

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.

Max Turned Five???

I still can't believe it. I was looking for these photos under his Fourth Birthday album, that's how hard it is to believe. He is the sweetest little guy ever. And like everyone else at his birthday party, he didn't stop moving

As usual, Shauna outdid herself and puts Martha Stewart to shame, making everything herself and perfectly.
Kyle had the camera and caught this really sweet moment between Max and Grandpa Ray.
Max bounces instead of sliding.


Jered (on two hours of sleep) and Riley who snoozed through a chunk of the party.
Riley's snoozing spot was on Grandma Diane.
Another pretty baby!! It's Sully!!!
Grandpa Greg helps with Max's shoe after a short bounce in the bouncy castle.

Maya was so excited by the play area set up she hardly played she just ran from one thing to the next like she thought it was too good to be true. Because of this, there aren't a lot of photos of her or Max playing because they never stopped moving..unlike the babies who just looked sweet and drooled and smiled. (Riley actually didn't cry when I talked to him, this is a big step for him..because Aunt Clare makes him cry). Two seconds on a toy..and then off again. !


Yeah!! Happy Five Year Old!!!

So Sorry, So Busy

I have been very busy lately going to see houses and trying to sleep (inzombia) so I haven't had a chance to upload photos..sorry!

Here are a few from the last month, and by a few I mean a lot: Maya likes to hide in these cupboards..so we took everything out of them.
Maya wasn't too impressed with sledding. Never have I seen a kid go down a hill fast and have a blank expression on their face. Not happy, not scared. Just bored. She would rather dig in the snow with a shovel. Oh well....

This is Aunt B's...cake?
A night with the boy cousins! Max and Maya share a hug (with Maya's favorite doll "Nakie Boy". (Maya is fond of saying "I wanna be nakie all the time," She seldom wears pants at home.)
Maya's "Bebe Sully."

Riley conked out and so sweet.
This was Maya's first day back at the park. What a long winter it was for this outdoorsy little girl. She is a big fan of the swings, or "fings" as she calls them.
These are from another day at the park. We took her to two parks in one day!! It was the second park after Grandpa Greg and Grandma Peggy brought her big girl bed, which she took a nap in right after they left. It's her favorite spot to read in...and I think it's hilarious to hear this wailing sound come running down the hall in the middle of the night when she wakes up. Which is of course a lot because it seems Maya is also an inzombiac.

I got out of the shower one day to this. Maya had every single nightnight diapie opened like dead birds in the hall. She then put them all away.


That's it. She's growing and changing and of course has this crazy amazing vocabulary and way of carrying on conversations that makes her seem older than her 22 months.

She's even started saying, "Ummm.." before starting a sentence. I think she's close to potty training, "Momma have to go poop potty" usually means she wants to sit on the potty to "toot". But she's trying! She also tells me when I have to go poop potty. "Momma go poop potty now?" She also has gotten into imaginative play. She gets really into making her bubble toys talk in the bath and it's cute to listen to them "bye bye mommy whale..." "okay let's go."