Nothing too exciting...

So I haven't taken any wonderful pictures lately (maybe because the weather has really cooled down a lot and we haven't been playing outside as much) and our life just really hasn't been that exciting seeing how finals are in full swing! But I guess I have to take that last statement back...Maia ALWAYS seems to keep our life exciting. She is starting to talk so much more now and gets more and more of a personality/attitude every day (not always a good thing!) Right now she loves the following...Elmo, reading books (especially Spot books), playing outside, talking on the phone, "licking" gum (for some reason she loves the flavor of gum, so I let her "lick it like a dog" but once she starts biting it, she has to give it back to me), playing with her dad, "running," eating cereal (I think she has this for every meal lately!), cuddling in her blankie, sitting on her potty chair (just for fun, not to really do anything, although I tell her she can have lots of chocolate and sweets if she really goes!), school buses, playing with friends, and our favorite, giving lots of hugs and kisses. She is so sweet and we don't know what we would do without her in our lives. The other day David came home from school kind of down and out after a brutal final exam and the minute he walked in the door, Maia ran over to him and gave him a big hug, patted him on the back, and gave him a kiss, like she was just letting him know that she loved him and that everything was going to be okay. It was the cutest thing!
Anyway, these pictures are just a little random, but the other day I was in my little craft room and it got really quiet for a while (BAD sign when you have kids) so I went to check and see what Maia was up to. This is what I found...she had emptied all of her bath toys out of her basket and was wearing it on her head like a hat. She is a silly kid, I'll tell you what.

Lots of random things!

Since the weather has been so nice lately, Maia and I have literally been spending almost all of our time outside, so I've kind of been a slacker blogger lately....I hate it when I do that because then I have all of these random things that I just throw together in one post. Oh well, what do you do? So here is what we have been up to lately...
First is just a cute picture of Maia, who is caught in a VERY rare moment with her headband still on--usually the second I put one on her, she is pulling it off. This time it lasted about 20-30 minutes! Wow!
This next picture is taken at this really fun spot by the airport. There is a big grassy area that is fenced in right by the runway near the airport here...the kids absolutely LOVE to go and watch the planes take off and land and it is a perfect spot for them because there is plenty of room to run around and play. The people that own the property love to have the kids come and play there...in fact the last time we went one of the the guys came out and asked what they could do to make the place better for us and the kids. How nice is that?

These next few pictures are taken at the Buffalo Zoo . Maia and I went with a few friends last week. It was pretty crowded because the elementary kids had spring break that week, but we still had a good time. Maia, of course, loved the animals. She makes me nervous though because she is a runner and will just take off so I had to be on my toes since there were so many people. I saw a little girl with this cute "harness" backpack and leash thing and I decided that Maia definitely needs one of those!! I love the warm weather for so many reasons!! One of which is our weekly (or bi-weekly!) backyard get-together's with our neighbors. They are always unplanned events for the most part, but they are so much fun. We will eat outside, talk, play, just pretty much do whatever and they are some of the most memorable times I've had here! So these pictures below are of the cute kids playing around in the jeep after we had a outside porch dinner at the Shaheen's.
Hayden is being the gentleman and pushing the ladies around....

Cute kids
One of my favorite pictures...Maia loves Hayden so much. We swap babysitting with our friends the Phillip's so she sees him quite frequently. She gets so excited when we tell her that she gets to play with Hayden. I think that maybe it's because they have the same tempo of play (like running around, acting crazy, tackling each other and wrestling). They are really cute together. He might even be her boyfriend...I'll have to ask her.
Yesterday was my friend Megan's birthday, so I had a little girls luncheon here in the afternoon. See how blessed I am to be surrounded by so many wonderful friends here? It really is so much fun...I know I will cherish this time for the rest of my life!
This is just a random Maia picture...no this isn't her hat...we have enough problems with her getting mistaken for a boy, I wouldn't worsen the situation by having her wear this!! Hayden left it at our house, so before we took it to him, I put it on her and had a little photo shoot.
Maia has discovered nail polish and how much she loves it! It is so much fun having a girl and getting to do all these girly things with them, I seriously love it! I was getting ready to paint my toes yesterday and Maia came in and picked out a bottle and started putting it on her toes (the lid was still on). So I asked her if she wanted her toes painted and she said "yeah" (that's what she says instead of "yes"), and amazingly, she held still for the whole process. Then she got up and started to prance around and wouldn't stop looking at her toes--it was so cute.
Like mother, like daughter....
Beautiful flowers blooming in our backyard!

And last, but most definitely not least, our latest curbside finds--and these are good ones!! Megan and I were out driving around last night and we found so many good things, we were really excited. First off, we have the police motorcycle...Maia is riding it perfectly!

A big grill....I've been wanting one for so long and thought I'd find one at a garage sale this summer, but even better, we found one on the curb, which means it was 100% free.
Another Barbie Jeep....we're going to trade in the other one because the tires are so cracked and broken on it.
And a little push bike, or whatever you call them! Maia likes this one because she can actually make herself go.

I guess that sums it all up! Sorry for the extremely long post, it's just what I do best I guess! As you can see, life is really good here. David has finals coming up, but he only has 2 1/2 weeks of school left until he is officially a 2nd year student!! It is so exciting...it seems like we just moved here. Anyway, hope you are all doing well and enjoying the warm weather like I am!!

5 Years!!

David and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday, April 18th...how fast time flies!! 5 years sounds like such a long time, but really it feels like we were just married! I am so blessed to be married to such an amazing man--I love you David!! We have had lots of adventures and good times together and I know that many, many more are just up ahead. We had the opportunity to go to the temple today, which was so wonderful since it's been a little while since we've been able to go. The whole time I was there, I was so overwhelmed with how many good things I have in my life and how much the Lord has blessed me. I am so thankful for my loving husband, our little family (as well as our extended family), my many friends, for David being in dental school (and almost finished with his first year!!), and so much more I can't even begin to list it! Anyway, below are a couple of pictures from our wedding day...yes, I did have dark hair at one point in my life--crazy I know!


This is a recent picture of David and I on a date night to Niagara Falls...we look so different!! And I didn't think that we had really changed that much in 5 years, but when you compare the pictures, it's kind of crazy. David always tells me how old he is getting and how old he looks in pictures nowadays.
And below is a picture of our cute little family..I know I've posted these pictures before, but I wanted to do a little "then" and "now" type thing. So this is our now, and I can't imagine life any other way. Maia is the joy of our life. David told me today that he loves having a girl and wouldn't mind if all we had was girls (I think it's because Maia give hugs and kisses freely and they just melt your heart!). He said he wants a million more just like her....we'll start with just one more.....maybe.....no I'm totally kidding! Most days Maia makes me want to have more kids, but then there are those occasional days (and you who are parents know exactly what I'm talking about!) where I swear off ever having more kids again. On a more serious note, I love being a mom so much...what an amazing thing to watch a child grow and I'm thankful that I get to stay at home with her--I know that is such a blessing!

The Game

Maia and David have this really funny game they like to play.... It starts out with Maia on one side of the room and David on the other. David then gets down on all fours and starts barking like he is a dog and starts chasing her. She has a look of terror for a few seconds and calls out "Mama" and then just starts booking it towards me, all the while, laughing hysterically while she is getting chased by this rabid "dog." Once she makes it to me safely, David goes to the other side of the room and the game starts all over again. It is so funny to watch her....Below are a couple of pictures of her trying to get away.




This last picture (below) is just a random one...this is the face we get when we tell Maia to smile. Yes, she sure is a cheeser!

More warm weather and Playgroup fun

We have been having so much fun playing outside lately!! I can't even tell you how much I enjoy
the sunshine and warmth. Days just fly by because we spend so much time outside playing.
Here are some pictures from our latest excursion to the park....

Maia is "running" in this picture...she loves to do this...she moves one arm back and forth and makes these noises like she is breathing hard. She does the action every time she either sees the treadmill, or sees someone running...she is so funny.


I think this picture of Maia (below) is absolutely adorable, but then again, I'm her mother, so of course I'm going to think that. But she was just posed perfectly. We were walking back to our car from the playground and she wanted her shoes off because she had a lot of rocks and dirt in them so I took them off and then she just sat down and crossed her legs and just kinda looked deep in thought for a while...so cute!
Maia and her daddy relaxing in our neighbors hammock/swing thing...see how much we love our warm days?


These next pictures are from our playgroup this past Wednesday at the Fire Station. It was a lot of fun...Maia totally loved seeing the big trucks and playing around inside of them.
She 's getting ready to drive off in the big truck...
Checking out the big wheels
Just posing...

Just Happy

Okay, so I'm having some difficulties with blogger and being able to rearrange my pictures (for some reason it won't work this time and it is totally bugging me, but whatever!) Anyway, because of that, the pictures are in the wrong order and it is kinda driving me crazy, but I guess it'll have to do, right? Anyway, on to my post...Life just doesn't get much better than it has been the past few days....the greatness started out last Thursday when the temperature finally broke into the mid-fifties and the wind stopped blowing (MIRALCE!). My friend Paige called up everyone in the neighborhood and said "it's warm, we're going for a walk!" So a group of 5 or 6 of us loaded up the kids and went for a 2 hour walk with them...it was a lot of fun. I love living in this neighborhood (although there are a lot of hoodlum kids that kind of roam around....or as we like to say, there is a lot of "riff-raff" that happens around here!) but aside from that, there are so many wonderful LDS student families that live so close, so there is always someone to hang out with while the husband's are away at school and such. Anyway, later that day, David and I took Maia to the park to play, which was also really fun. Some of David's classes had gotten cancelled that day, so he was home by about 1 or 2, so we had lots of time to make the most of the sunshine and warmth.
Friday night David and I watched the movie, The Kiterunner...we liked it, but it was really sad too. But it made me so thankful for the opportunity I have to live in the United States and have the freedoms that we do have. I think we take them for granted way too often--I guess it's kind of hard not too when you've just grown up that way and don't really know anything else. This movie opened my eyes though and just made me really grateful for what I have.
Saturday was another sunny and warm day and of course, it was General Conference, which is always great! We brought the laptop outside and just let Maia run around and play in our back yard while we soaked up the sun and listened to conference. You always have a thankful heart when you are listening to conference and so while we were sitting there, I was thinking about how the long, cold Buffalo winters sure make Spring just that much sweeter! We really take advantage of each day that is warm and try to be outside as much as possible! That night our good friends the Shaheen's took us out to The Melting Pot for a date night--VERY, VERY generous of them and VERY fun time too! If you've never experienced a fondue bar/restaurant, you just have to try it, it is really a lot of fun!
I guess that brings us to today, Sunday, where we were still busy!! Once again, we spent time outside listening to conference, then we had our friends the Cardon's, Porter's and Shaheen's over for dinner and then we had a birthday bash for Bron over at the Shaheen's later on in the evening! Whew! We sure have been busy....now tomorrow is Monday and I'm afraid that real life has to start again.....why do Monday's have to be so hard?? Anyway, sorry for the marathon post, I guess I just had a lot to say today! I just feel so thankful right now for what I have in my life...I have a wonderful husband and daughter, great friends and family, I belong to an amazing church and I got to be outside in the sun for 3 out of the last 4 days!! What's not to be thankful for?

Fun times with the Shaheen's at the Melting Pot....


Cute Maia pictures...

Outside fun at the park...

More cute Maia!