1 Year Older and (way) Wiser, Too!

Somebody turned 1! Maya's first year flew by, and I just know the rest of her years will go just as fast. That's okay, as long as she stays this cute and fun.

Daddy blew up a bunch of balloons for her to play with before her party started.

She loves balloons!

My parents and Holly arrived at our home around 6:30 for the party. We had Creamy Italian Chili and cornbread for dinner.

After dinner we did presents!

Maya loves clothes: taking them out of the laundry basket, putting them back in the laundry basket, unfolding them, hanging them over things, and especially loves holding a shirt on a hanger. For some reason that is just pretty cool for her. So this gift was perfect.

She also loves books! She has a couple that are her favorites to read before bed (Brown Bear, Brown Bear and I Spy: Little Wheels). This new book is now the first book she wants to read before bed.

Holly got her Yogurt Melts. She wanted to eat some right away!

Grandma Cindy got her a new baby doll that coos and laughs. Maya thinks it's pretty awesome.

Ryan and I got her this bead maze. She was laughing really hard one night playing with it with her daddy. He is always so good at cracking her up.

She also got a cute card from her Great Grandma Carolyn.

This Turtle dude is from Nana and Papa. He does lots of fun stuff! 

After presents there was, of course, a nice big cake. I asked a friend for her favorite cupcake recipe (she made lots of different kinds at one point) and this was one she gave me. Clearly I made it into a cake instead. It was a white cake with raspberry buttercream. Super yummy, and the cake was so moist. (I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog, but thanks for the recipe, Camille!) Not sure why, but Maya was a little nervous about the cake. Maybe because it was so huge.

But when it came time to cut it and give her a piece she was all about it!!

At first she was pretty gentle with it and just picked off the raspberries and ate them.

And then....

things got serious.

And she knew there was some fun to be had!

She laughed and talked and squished away...

And she made this face over and over again. We were all cracking up, and she totally reveled in the attention.

After cake she had a little shower to clean up and then went to bed.

It was such a fun birthday party! Maya had a blast and I was so glad that she was in such a good mood that day.

I can't wait to see what the next year holds!! Happy birthday, Baby Girl!

Christmas is a-comin'!

It's December!

Tonight we are getting our first Christmas-time snow. It's supposed to do a real good job of it, too.

This past weekend we put up our Christmas decor!  Maya is pretty excited about the tree. She REALLY likes the ornament wreath I made a couple of years ago with Holly, and has pulled off some of the ornaments! It also lost a few in the box (darn cheap ornaments) so it's looking quite bare and is going to have to be worked on a bit before it looks good enough to put out again.

I am so excited for Christmas this year. Maya gets so excited about things now that I am sure we will get a good reaction out of her on Christmas morning. I know a lot of people don't want to do much for their baby when they don't even know what's going on, but I can't help it! I want to see that smile!

Today she watched Frosty the Snowman with me. She sat on my lap and just...watched. I have waited so long to share my childhood with a child of my own! And even though she's young still it is already so much fun.

And now that it is December, we will have a 1 year old in just 6 short days. I can't believe it! I remember after she was born wondering how she would be and what she would look like when she turned 1. Now I know, and I am quite happy.

She also got excited about the springy Santa. :)

Halloween

This year for Halloween things were a bit different for us since we have a child. That is to say, it was more fun!

Maya loved our pumpkins! When we carved them we let her feel the icky gooey insides. She kind of liked it! 

Our ward had its annual Chili Dinner and Trunk or Treat the weekend before Halloween. I entered the chili cook off and won! Always makes me a little happy. 

We dressed up Maya as a ladybug. Everybody thought she was so cute! One lady convinced me to take her trunk or treating with an extra pumpkin bucket she had. Maya held on to it without help the whole time and watched people put candy in it. It's so fun to be a parent. :)

Maya was asleep when we first got to the party, and after she woke up Ryan tried to tickle her to cheer her up. 

Haha! I don't like being tickled either, especially when I'm hungry!!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

Singing and Dancing at the Zoo

We didn't actually sing and dance at the zoo.

But we did go to the zoo!! Ryan found a coupon for tickets, the weather was really awesome for November 9th, and Maya is ridiculously happy lately. It sounded like a perfect family outing.

We arrived after lunch and Maya was immediately thrilled. She loves animals so we knew this was going to be pretty great for all of us.

Maya also turned 11 months old! She is such a smart, talented, funny, happy, loving little girl. I thank my lucky stars for her (and her temperament) every single day. I really hope it's indicative of what is to come as she gets older.

The polar bear exhibit was our favorite. We got to watch the zookeeper feed her. What was cool to me was that the polar bear was on the other side of her containment. Lots of people were there watching her. But when the zookeeper came up and said, "Lunch!" the bear walked on over. I liked that even though there was lots of other noise, the bear knew the voice of the man who feeds her.

We call Maya our little Tree Frog because of the way she grasps us when we are holding her. This little guy reminded us of her.

Nemo and his anononeme!

 

These little monkeys were Maya's favorite. She yelled and squealed at them! It was our last stop, and we enjoyed the finale.

Ryan and I are loving getting to do things like this as parents. It is such a different experience! We are looking forward to many more events such as this in the future.