Blogging to win!

I know I am a little behind again as far as my blog goes. And I will update you on Mother's Day and all. But first, I need to post a blog about a blog that I love. Not just because I love it, but because I'd like to also win a giveaway today!

fashionfitnessfoodie.wordpress.com

There is a great giveaway today, that I would love to have! :) If you love any of the 3 things listed - Fashion, Fitness, or Food - I highly suggest checking out this blog.

 I promise I'll get some new blogs of Maya and our family up this weekend - as long as the world really isn't ending on Saturday!

Happy Easter!

This year the Easter bunny gave Maya a really cool bug catching kit. Probably her favorite thing out of everything. She spent a couple hours looking and catching all kinds of bugs.

 She was really excited about the tweezers!



Look at all those bugs!

At MeeMee & Gee Dad's house the Easter bunny left a lot of stuff! A new swimsuit, flip flops & some Ariel toys.

This year Maya had 50 eggs to find. Uncle Ty & I had a hard job in finding good hiding spots for them, not only find the spots but trying to remember where we put them too. But, she found all 50!

1 Trip to the Zoo

$5.00 in the golden egg! She was really excited!

Hope everyone had a great Easter! We sure did! :)

Hippity hoppity...

For Easter this past weekend we had lots to do. Starting with Saturday we dyed & decorated Easter eggs and went on an Easter egg hunt with MeeMee & Gee Dad's neighbors.

Maya did such a good job decorating her eggs. She was so gentle with them so they didn't break and she had an idea for every one.

Maya isn't the only one who had fun with the eggs, Uncle Ty & I helped and we had a blast doing them with her. Starting out we had 18 eggs to decorate, then we quickly learned that wasn't enough & had to do make another 12.

Ta-Da! All finished!! She did such a good job! :)

I was so busy helping Maya find eggs - I kind of forgot to take some pictures, so here is the only one I got. She had fun and found a whopping 10 eggs. This was just practice for the actual egg hunt on Easter.

4th Annual Family Photos

So it's spring time again, and that means its time to take our annual family photo. Now, this is easier said than done..

We have discovered that Maya has developed a little attitude when it comes to taking pictures and you can never be too sure which one you will get when you try to take her picture. Its either "cheese!" with a nice smile and an entire set of modeling poses, or it could be several silly faces and only silly faces ( you don't get a choice), or its a complete bust and she isn't going to even pose for your picture, not even if you try bribing her.  

We got 2 of the above mentioned attitudes when trying to take these pictures, mostly it was silly faces, but we were able to get a few good pictures of her with her beautiful smile.

I only put a couple of these pictures up, since the pictures were split between two cameras and I don't have them all. I can only hope that we can keep up with this tradition for many more years to come - even at the point where I have an irritated teenage with her arms crossed telling me that these pictures are not cool.

I'm in New York!

Who doesn't love a birthday present like this?

Oma and Opa know how much we love the theater, and so for our birthdays they treated us to a 1 day trip to NYC and 3rd row seats at The Lion King on Broadway! Truly a treat! We sat on the aisle and we were so close that the large elephant that came down the aisle on my side bumped into my shoulder. Talk about feeling like a part of the show! Everything about this production was amazing. So if you are debating checking it out - I highly recommend seeing it - and so does Maya.

This was Maya's 1st ever trip to the big city. She was so excited to go and see everything! I made sure to snap a picture on my phone as soon as she had her first sight of the city.

 

Once we got off the bus, we walked over to times square. Where she got to see all the lights and signs. Of course also located in times square is Toys R Us - and inside is a giant Ferris wheel. Do you think Maya would see that and turn a ride on it down? Not this girl!

 Trying to patiently wait her turn

 Oma & Opa rode with us too!

 We got to ride in the Mr. Potato Head car.

Once again I must stress how amazing this show is! We were so thankful that Oma & Opa treated us to this. And if I had the opportunity, I'd be right there to see it again!

We had such a long day, but it was all so worth it! :)

Happy 4th Birthday Maya!!!

Okay, I know.. my blogging has been really lame for a couple months AGAIN! Sorry, however I do have good stuff to update everyone on! :)

Our little princess turned 4 on March 26th. I know I can't hardly believe it myself, but it is true. And because of our recent wedding, I learned something new about myself. I am totally and completely in love with event planning and crafting my own decorations. There is no limit to the creativity - and being a bride on a budget helped me to also learn that the expensive things I see and want, are most of the time something that I can find a way to make myself. Sometimes it turns out better than I imagined and every time I feel really proud of my creations and accomplishments!

So that being said, I was really excited to plan Maya's birthday party this year. She decided on having a fish themed party, so away I went into planning mode.. and I loved every minute of it.





My beautiful birthday girl!

And of course we had to have bubbles!!

Maya was so funny on her birthday. I kept saying Happy birthday Maya, and she kept telling me "It's not my birthday yet!" And then would argue with me that she wasn't 4 yet. I guess she thought that she didn't get to have a birthday until the party and she blew out the candles. Such a silly girl.





 My hand made MAYA decoration - made from tissue paper & a fishing net.

My favorite new hobby to add to my portfolio, cake making. I had no idea the amazing things that can be created with dessert! Luckily I have a wonderful friend who allowed me to borrow her cake decorating tools. I am very proud of how the cake turned out, it took a lot of work, but for my first ever cake of this nature - it ROCKED!! :)



After baking, coloring fondant, stacking the layers - this was the base of my creation





Several hours later - and here it is!

     



Complete with (of course) FISH candles!





The birthday girl ready for the party to start!





Maya and her Poppi

Happy Birthday to our princess!!

She is definitely our pride and joy. She has been growing so fast and the time is flying by, but it is so amazing to hear what she has to say next and the things that she is learning so quickly.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to celebrate with us!



Happy Birthday Great Grandma in the Mountains!

At the end of January the entire McMullen side of the family all planned a trip up to Deep Creek for Grandma's birthday. Maya has taken it upon herself to name her Great Grandma in the mountains, and every time she speaks of her - that is the full title she uses. Close to Grandma's birthday is also our cousin Jessie's birthday, so we made sure we celebrated both while we were there. We all had such a good time, even though we had to come up with creative sleeping arrangements since we had a total of 18 people in a 3 bedroom house. But it was really nice to be surrounded by family.

And we also had LOTS of snow to play in.

We went sledding & wrestled in the snow.

We had SO much fun!

Somehow we managed to slow down for a minute to get a family photo.

Not only did we play out in the snow, we had fun inside too.

Maya & Jessie goofing around

Playing Memory with her cousins.

Happy 72nd birthday to Grandma & 20th birthday to Jessie!

Here is the whole group. Great Grandma in the mountains has a nice large family that was more than happy to make the trip to celebrate with her.

Daddy & Maya

Mommy & Maya