Milestones # 3

This one shows Maia's determination. I saw her chasing the cats and so I thought it would be fun to get the camera and catch some footage of her chasing the cats and next thing I knew she was going up the stairs. This is her official first time of climbing stairs, and you get to be there for it! Hopefully you don't get too sick watching this video; it is a little shaky since I was a bit surprised at Maia's new endeavor.

This next one is a little less jiggly, as I had some help and didn't have to spot and video all at the same time. While its a better video, I am more impressed with the determination and speed she used to get up the stairs in the first one. She just kept going and going!

Milestones # 2

Crawling. Yes she is crawling and crawling everywhere. It is so fun watching her get to places, but it is a lot more work making sure she is not getting into anything she is not supposed to be getting into. It has definately changed around with her being more mobile, she is sure loving it! So here is a great video of her crawling in action.

Milestones #1

So I was thinking about doing a string of videos we have of Maia's latest milestones. Just about a week ago she started standing in her crib holding on to the edges and she is also pulling her self up holding on to the couch and coffee table. Its been fun watching her change and grow. She changes so fast!! This is of her standing in her crib so happy of her new accomplishment.

Maia meets her cousins in Colorado!

We had the wonderful opportunity to make a trip out to Colorado last week. Maia got to finally meet more of her cousins along with her Aunt Katie and Uncle Mitch. We had fun just being a part of their lives there in Colorado for a few days. There was a lot excitement among the the girls. Maia was happy to see her cousins and Anna, Josie and Ruthy were excited to see her. There was much excitement over the pack and play and all the girls in it!

Michael had fun too playing games and reading books. He's a great uncle to his nieces! Anna helped me play Rush Hour for the first time. It was fun watching her do a few and have her help me figure out how to maneuver the cars to get my car out. If you have not played it, its addicting!

Lots of fun in the baskets!

Not only did Anna, Josie and Ruthy have fun with Maia, but Aunt Katie got into as well. I love the action in the photo it was great to watch the "parade"!

Here is a shot of an amazing mama among her beautiful girls!!! One, two, three, go!!!

We had fun introducing Maia to the bike cart. When I say we I say everyone else, but Maia. She tolerated it for a little while, but towards the end she was spent!

The whole family on the couch. Horray!!!

Maia, are you in there??

We also went on a hike to the Red Rocks. It was beautiful out and we got to get out there and enjoy the freshness of the mountains.

Thanks Mitch, Katie, Anna, Josie and Ruthy for letting us come and spend some time with you! We had a great time and miss you all greatly!

Jet Blue's 10th Anniversary Shin-Dig

Back in April the three of us went on a day trip down to Long Beach, CA for a Jet Blue 10th Anniversary Fair. It was great for us to leave rainy Portland and hit up the warmth and sunshine of southern California. The Picnic was amazing as well full of fun activities and food that was absolutly FREE!!!!!!!!!!! You could walk right up to the lady with the ice cream cart and say " I would like an ice cream sandwich," and she would just give it to you. How fun is that? We thought it was a lot of fun. So besides stuffing our faces with all the food we could get for FREE we also played a few games, got our faces painted, and dominated at jousting. So here is a "snap shot" (if you will) of our day. We often talk about how fun it would be to fly somewhere for the day and we got our opportunity. Yee-Haw!!!

So Happy Birthday Jet Blue!! We are glad we got to celebrate with you!

Tulips, Tulips, TULIPS!

Daphne and I along with our kiddos went on a a little adventure to a tulip farm nearby. They have an annual tulip festival for about a month when the tulips are in season. It was so colorful. Just bright, bold rows of color. Its hard to explain even by pictures. I just thought it was the most amazing thing, as far as colors and flowers go!!! And so did Naomi! She was the cutest shouting to her mama everytime she saw a flower "LOOK AT THESE....and LOOK AT THIS ONE!!!! Such great excitement for one of natures beauty! So basically this is a blog about tulips and children among them. So instead of tiptoeing, running or stomping through the tulips, Maia crawled and ate whatever she could get her hands on. Good thing tulips are not a poisonous plant!

Ok for all you purple fans these are for you! I think these were my favorites as far as color was concerned. They were just so rich in their color it was breathtaking!

And our sweetie posing among them!!!

Now these were my favorite as far as size and shape were concerned. I wish I could remember what the names of these were, but they were just huge! I tried to get a photo of Maia's head next to them, but unfortunately she was to squirmy to do so. This is as good as I got at least she was looking up and not eating anything!!! It was fun letting her get good and dirty!

Among those huge tulips are three cute kiddos!

If you look closely at Ebens face you will see that it was all dirty around it. It just cracked me up at those little ones going to town on the dirt!

HEE HEE HEE!!!! They sure don't look too impressed!

And of course one of the two of us!!! We sure do have fun together!

And a beautiful mom with her kids!!!!

Stuck in a shoe and didn't know what to do!

This concludes the tulip festival! Spring is here and summer is on its way luring us in for more adventures! Don't forget to stop and smell the roses! or the tulips in our case!

Maia's Love for Farm Animals

We have a little farmer girl in the making. About a week ago we went to visit Ginya, Helen and Joanne out on the farm. We try to get out there as often as we can because we have great people to visit and a peaceful place to retreat to from the city.



This was as close to Maia riding a horse, however she did not mind that one bit as long as she got to pet the horse she was content. We found this trip that she loves the animals. She crawled all their sweet lab Dodge and then found the cows to be hilarious.

She even got to feed the calves some grass. Well sorta, I think she tried to feed herself some grass too.

The big old cows were the most exciting. She just loved watching them and trying to get as close to them as she could. Next thing you know it she'll be saying "Daddy can we get a cow?" Hmmm...I'll let him make that decision.

When the weather gets beautiful nothing tops it off by being out in the country. No cars whizzing by all day, not sirens, so loud music from the neighbor, just peacefulness. Maybe Maia is not the only country girl here. I find a piece of me still belongs out in the country!

Easter

Although Easter has come and gone I still thought I would post some pictures of our Easter here in Portland. We had a great holiday spending the morning at home while Michael worked. Part of that morning consisted of Maia and I getting all dressed in our Easter outfits and taking a few pictures at home. We also spent the morning baking a cake to take over for our dinner at the Huffmans.

We spent Easter over at our friends the Huffmans and our housemates Clint and Merodie joined us. It was nice to spend the holiday with good friends. We had to cancel our Easter egg hunt that David was going to hide the eggs for because it was a rainy Portland day. However, we enjoyed our dinner with one another.

We discovered that giant charging stuffed turtles makes Maia laugh pretty hard. Michael was holding her and Clint was charging the turtle. It was pretty funny to watch and listen to that 7 month old laughter.

Here are the three little friends. We had a great time taking pictures of them as well all dressed in their Easter outfits. Lots of hoot'n and holler'n to get these kids to crack a smile. We got a few goods ones out of it.

Our Happy Easter Celebration cake. After that hard work at getting the kiddos to smile it was time for some cake! It was great to spend Easter with friends in the area. We are so blessed!

I hope you had a Happy Easter and that your hearts were filled with joy through the celebration of our Redeeming Savior!!!