Christmas Pictures

So I really wanted to blog about some Christmas happenings before we left for Utah, but I just ran out of time...so that will have to wait til after we get back. In the meantime, enjoy some of the cutest Christmas pictures ever.....http://www.shaheenphotography.com/christmas-dresses/. What am I going to do when I don't have Megan so close by I haven't quite yet figured out. Thanks for some more amazing pictures Megan, we love, love, love them!!

It's A.......

BOY!! Can you believe that?? We have been pretty sure for a few weeks now (I had an ultrasound at 14 weeks and the pictures looked pretty dang convincing that it was a boy!) But yesterday was the official ultrasound and it definitely confirmed that we are having a boy this time. We are super excited and a little unsure at the same time. We've been doing the girl thing for so long I have no idea how to do it any different! I'm sure I will figure it out quick though:) But the most overwhelming this is having to start all over as far as clothes, burp cloths, blankets, etc. There is NOT ONE thing I have that I could use for this baby! Good thing I love to shop!! Going to be doing LOTS of that in the next few months. And David can't say a thing about it because there is no way he's going to let his boy wear anything pink! Anyway, we are so excited to add this new dimension to our family. And while I'm certain that life as I know it will be over once I have THREE kids, we can't wait to meet the little guy this spring! And I'm sorry this font is so big, I have tried to change it several times and it just won't sorry!

Strong Museum and Thanksgiving

So it seems like I'm averaging about a week behind on every post, but at least I'm holding to my commitment to be a more regular blogger right? This year for the Thanksgiving break David had the whole week off of school. We decided to take advantage of that and took a little roadtrip to Rochester with the Shaheen's to go to the Strong Museum and the temple. We stayed overnight and I made sure to find a hotel that had an indoor swimming pool because I knew the kids would love it....so we are all excited and gung-ho when we get to the hotel, only to discover that the pool isn't heated. What?! Please tell me I'm not the only one that thinks this is crazy. What is the point of having an indoor pool if it isn't heated?? Oh well, at least they had a hot tub to play in:) The Strong museum is so great, the kids could play there all day....which is what we did...I was pretty tired when we were done but everyone had a good time so that's all that matters right?
Elsie LOVED "shopping" at the Wegmans store there. Seriously, she could have just stayed there all day. It was exhausting chasing her around in there! She was so quick to throw TONS of stuff in her cart so I was constantly trying to put it back on the shelves but she was always way faster!

We got home from Rochester on Wednesday and started getting ready for hosting our annual Thanksgiving dinner. We have done this every year that we have been here and it has been one of my most favorite memories. The first year it was just us and the Shaheen's but we still made enough food to feed about 20+ people I think! We were just so excited to be trying out our favorite family recipes on our own that we had to make it all and in bulk too so we could have plenty of leftovers! Since then, we have had more people come celebrate with us and have still had TONS of yummy food and lots of leftovers, my favorite! Courtesy of Steph (again, I always have to steal pictures from her:) here is a few of us at this years Thanksgiving dinner...a few families had already left before any of us thought of taking a picture....guess we were too focused on the good food:)
Then later that night we headed down to the Evan's house for the annual "pie night" It is fun to split up the day that way and make it last just a little bit longer. Here are all the ladies with their pies....and Brad with his yummy pie as well. I love that Brad is the cook in the family!
Thanks friends for another wonderful Thanksgiving. We will miss you all so much next year!

Happy Birthday Maia Sue!

This past Sunday, Maia turned 4 years old!! I can't believe how big she has gotten. She is such sweet girl and I can't imagine life without her. She is now really fun to take shopping(she will give me compliments telling me how pretty something is and tell me I should buy it:) and so we have a lot of fun on our "mommy-daughter" dates. She also loves "daddy-daughter" dates, which usually consist of going to get ice cream or some other treat. She is a tender-hearted little thing and is so sweet and thoughtful. She is also very forgiving. The minute someone says they are sorry, she says "It's okay," and goes right on doing what she was just doing. She is a great big sister and helper to me. I know she will love this new little baby so much and will want to be an even BIGGER helper when it comes! She is also so funny! She keeps us laughing with the things she says/does. The other day she told me, "Elsie is hilarious," with lots of emphasis on the word "hilarious."
Maia Sue Marchant...November 21, 2006, 8lbs. 20 inches...
Maia's FIRST birthday....
Showing us she's TWO...
The princess (and her amazing cake!) at age THREE....
This year, after MUCH consideration, she finally decided that she wanted a fairy cake. Mind you, she wanted her cake to be like the one she had last year, which, well, wasn't going to happen! (My sweet landlord is amazing at making cakes and made that one for her! See picture above..) But I tried my best to not disappoint her too much and this is how it turned out...she loves all of the Tinkerbell fairies so that was kind of the theme I went with. You can't really see it in the pictures, but I added this shimmer stuff on it to make it a little glimmer-y and a little like Pixie dust. Maia LOVED that part! Let me just say, cake-making is a complicated, time-consuming business! Seriously, mine was so simple, but it took me hours to complete!! She better not ever expect something more advanced:)
The big FOUR year old, and her fairy cake...
In the morning, we took Maia and her best friend Rylee to Build-a-Bear and let them pick out a bear and outfit...they of course got everything matching and just HAD to have the Rapunzel
dress:)
Here's the crew, waiting for the stuffing...
Preparing the hearts to go inside the bears (0r dogs, which they picked)...
Giving the bath...
Leaving the mall, giddy and excited...
Two VERY satisfied customers!
Then later that night, we just had the neighborhood friends over for cake and ice cream. So no big party or anything this year, just a low-key fun day. She loved every minute of it!
Here she is being shy while we sing Happy Birthday to her...
Blowing out the candles...
Opening presents...I would say to her, "Maia look at me," and she would pop up with this cheesy grin. I love this girl!
And the family just before bed...still crazy to think that we're adding one more to this picture in the spring!!
Happy Birthday Maia girl! We love you so much!

Alumni Dinner

So this past weekend David and I had the privilege of attending the UB Alumni Dinner at a hotel downtown. The memo said "Semi-Formal" so I told David that I had NOTHING to wear. He said, "Oh it's no big deal, just wear a dress and it's fine." So I did. And I've never felt so under-dressed in my life! In my opinion, most people were dressed in FORMAL attire, but what do I know?? The funny thing is, I have always dreamed of getting dressed up fancy and going somewhere where I needed to carry a clutch....so this was my moment to shine and I failed. Oh well, next time right? And to all you 3rd year students...start preparing now for this event and get yourself a little black dress and a fancy clutch:) It was still a really fun night out with David and other classmates. Here are a couple pictures from the night. We took these right before we were leaving so some people had already left, but here's a few of us that were still around. We left just as they were opening up the "Open Bar"...a good time to escape as there were already several people getting a little loopy...I got an awkward hug from David's classmate on the way out....he was saying all sorts of crazy stuff and we just knew it was time to go!

Halloween and A Birthday Celebration

So mark my words...I'm going to be a better blogger. Really I am. I know you don't believe it, but I'm determined this time. ANyway, there is WAY TOO much to catch up on (hence why I just keep neglecting blogging...it just seems too hard to catch up all the time!) so I'm going to spare you a marathon post, and just post the most recent events...so we'll start with Halloween...we got all dressed up (me as Rapunzel, David as my prince, Maia as a witch and Elsie as her black cat) and went to our ward Halloween Party. There was lots of good soups and salads there and plenty of games and treats and we were worn out by the time it was done!
We were all getting a little disheveled by this point, but this is the only family shot we got, so it'll have to do...
We came home and put the kids to bed, had a sitter come over, then David and I headed out for the Evan's annual Halloween party, which is always a fabulous time. Her are the Host's....the tooth fairy, the little boy who lost his tooth, and the tooth himself:)
It is so fun to see the creative things people come up with for their costumes! I won't post all the couples pictures just to save myself some time (seeing how I stole all the pictures from Steph anyway, you can go to her blog to see all the pictures:) The highlight of the night was an awesome performance by Doug and Rachel...our Spartan cheerleaders. They had the cheers down perfectly, and the personality to go with it. Thanks for making the night guys!

David attempting to climb up my hair...this wig was heavy! I had a headache by the end of the night...seriously how did Rapunzel do it?This costume was so creative. Seriously how do people think of these things? Natalie was the sheep, and her husband was Ammon (carrying around the sack of arms he cut off to save the flocks). I think they won most creative for that one!
And a couple more pictures...Creed and Tiffany...loving Creed's old man "pooch"
And Peter and Wendy...Tinkerbell was asleep:)

Then on Monday I celebrated my 28th birthday, along with my little birthday partner, Rachel. It's so fun sharing a birthday with her because we can just both be giddy and excited instead of feeling uncomfortable that the spotlight is only on you. Anyway, we started the day off with a fancy brunch at Megan's house, then got together later and finished the night with a movie and finally dessert at Steph's house. What a fun day it was! Thanks friends for once again making me feel loved and special!
Here is the elegant brunch table. Anything put together by Megan is going to be perfect and beautiful! And the food was amazing! Thanks to everyone who helped out with it!
The birthday girls...
And our delicious cake...this cake was to die for!! Cheesecake, and chocolate cake, and frosting, and I don't know what else, but it was soooo good and I ate too much! I guess I'm on track for another 5lb weight gain at my next OB appt...oh well, some things are just worth it:)
And then the night ended for good when I got home and David had my birthday present all laid out for me...he had really convinced me that he hadn't really done much for my birthday...he kept saying he was just keeping it really simple, etc. At first I didn't believe him, but when he hadn't even shown signs of giving me a present when I left for the movie, I was really thinking that he DID just keep it simple and I wasn't going to get much. Which is totally fine, but I at least require a HEARTFELT card! Anyway, I came home from my girls night and found this beautiful set of China dishes all laid out for me! YAAAAY!! It was one that I had really wanted when we went to this estate sale together back in September. It was kind of expensive and we decided we shouldn't spend the money on it, but then David was able to get a hold of the lady a while ago to see if she still had it and he bought it for me! Thanks love, I love it! So a perfect end to a perfect day:)

We Are...

....HAVING A BABY!! Yes, it's true...we are going from a family of 4 to 5 in the spring(May 12th)...yes I'm having anxiety...yes I know I hear 3 kids is killer....yes feel free to leave me comments telling me otherwise....yes I've gained way too much weight already...yes I'm so cranky and hormonal and I feel bad that David has to put up with me....but most of all....YES, we are excited!!

Sailing

Okay, so I think I'm finally caught up after this post (see below...TONS of new posts..and make sure you scroll all the way til you see the posting on David's DC trip..unless you get to bored looking at all these postings before then:) Anyway, for David's birthday I got this great deal on going sailing. David has always wanted to go sailing so I surprised him with a 2 hour sunset sail. We had a great time and the weather couldn't have been better.

David even got to take the helm for a while...
David and our "Captain" Chuck...he was a really fun guide...gave us lots of history on the Buffalo waterfront. He was also full of funny trivia, which was good for some laughs!

First Day of School!!

I can't believe how big my girl is getting! Maia started school last week and it was a sad/exciting day. I debated whether or not to put her in Pre-K (It is every day for 2.5 hours) but then decided that she would love it and it would give me a little break too. So she started last Wednesday....it is just sad in a way to see her growing up so fast. It really just happens too quickly! But it is exciting and she loves going every day. I'm still trying to get used to arranging my day so that I can take her and/or pick her up everyday, but it's been really nice to have some total free time (she is at school during Elise's nap time, which is heavenly)
Maia and her best friend Rylee...it is nice to have someone to carpool with!

Airport Play

There is this really great spot next to the runway at the airport that we like to go play at. We haven't been for a while, so when the invitation came up to go last week, we were excited!
This first picture is courtesy of Maia: I told ya she was getting better!


The backhoe was pretty cool to watch too...

Murphy's Orchards

Over Labor Day we were trying to decide what to do since David had a day off school....I got searching different orchards and came across this one that had pears to pick! We were so excited and the best thing was how cheap they were...35 cents a pound!! We picked a bushel and a half (which is A LOT) and then came home and canned them the same day. Lots of work, but well worth it. I didn't want to do it that day, but David talked me into it since he was there to help and I'm glad we just did it and got it done. And they are an awfully nice addition to our food storage:)

My little helper....

Look at how big this tree is!!
Elsie couldn't get enough of them...she kept picking them up from the ground and eating them.
I just can't get enough of these two cuties...sure love them!
I love the fall season here and one of my favorite things about it is all the orchards that are all around. I've been thinking so much about how this is our year of Buffalo "lasts" and I'm going to be so sad when next fall comes around and I'm unable to go to an orchard to pick fresh fruit. Yes, Buffalo winters can be a little long and dreary, but besides that, it is such an amazing place to live and I'm going to miss it so much!