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

Maya's 1st Haircut

Okay, so I kept saying for a couple months, after the wedding, Maya is getting her hair cut. It was getting so long that she could just about sit on it, and because she didn't want me to take care of it the way it really should be, it was time to really trim it and make it easier to deal with. So those baby curls at the very bottom are now gone, but I made sure to keep a little sample.

Now, I knew Maya was exactly what you would call excited to get her hair cut, in fact as soon as we pulled into the parking lot she started to panic a little. But she has met Kristen (my hair stylist) many times before, so I was hoping that would make her feel a little better about the process. So into the salon we went, if she was going to get her hair cut she was going to get the whole treatment along with it. She got her hair cut, washed, dried and styled.

The first snips of hair.

Daddy came with us. He was trying to make Maya laugh.

That was a lot of hair & knots that we no longer have to worry about!

By now, she was starting to like the whole salon treatment.

All finished! It wasn't so bad after all and Maya was a trooper, plus I think she likes the shorter hair & Mommy isn't going crazy trying to take care of it. It's much easier on both of us! :)

2010 has come and gone..

Unfortunately, I'm just getting around to updating the blog. As you all know we had a very busy fall and it just continues to carry over into the first few months of this year. Also it didn't help that I lost my camera while honeymooning and wasn't able to take any pictures until Donny bought me (somewhat) of a replacement. It's not nearly as nice as the one I had just bought myself in October, but at least I have something to take pictures with.

So here we are on Christmas, it was hard to get a family picture this year since Maya has a mind of her own and decided she did not want to cooperate.

However it was yet another good Christmas and we got to enjoy seeing our family & celebrating. Maya was really excited about her very own acoustic guitar & microphone with amp. She gave free concerts pretty much all night. I posted a video so you can see what I mean.

Hope that you all had and happy & healthy Christmas and holiday season.

Falling forward..

I was looking over the last 3 years worth of pictures at our baby girl. And I came across all of her Halloween pictures. I am always amazed at how much she has grown and changed. I feel like I can't even remember her being so small, and the time keeps flying by. So happy we have lots of pictures and videos to look back at. Just thought I'd share some of the pictures of our last few Halloweens.

October 31, 2007

Maya's first official Halloween pumpkin. Just the right size for her. I wasn't sure she knew what to do with it.

Dressed as a teddy bear for her first Halloween. Though we didn't actually take her trick-or-treating, we still had to dress her up. And she was so cute, but hated having the costume on.

October 31, 2008

Dressed up as a butterfly. By the look on her face you could tell that she wasn't happy about wearing this. We went to Grandma's house that year and just stopped by a couple of neighbors houses. Maya was able to walk up to the doors say "trick-or-treat" and "Thank you."



October 31, 2009

Finally, Maya was excited about dressing up for Halloween! We took her to the Halloween store and let her pick out her own costume. She chose to be a Spider Princess. Which was great because I remember her not being able to decide if she wanted to be a spider or a princess.


I was excited because I got to dress up too! We went trick-or-treating for a couple hours and had so much candy we didn't know what to do with it!


I really can't wait until this Halloween, although Maya hasn't officially decided what she wants to be, although she has been leaning towards a butterfly.

In Maya's words:
" I want to be a sparkly purple butterfly. And butterflies don't walk, I have to fly. How are we going to do that Mommy?"

Now it seems that I have another problem to solve here. Never a dull moment. :)

Saying Goodbye..

On July 23rd, we said goodbye to Great Gram.

So I wanted to put a few pictures up of our trip.

Maya took this photo of Uncle Kristopher in the cemetery where we buried Great Gram.

Maya and Poppi at the funeral home.

Maya and Beatrix at the cemetery.

Maya wrote a song about Great Gram before we left for the funeral home for her visitation.

Oh, Great Gram I love you too

But you have gone and passed

Close your eyes and go to sleep

Cause you have died and we're here to weep

We're going to the funeral home to see your body

Dig you down in grass

I quickly wrote it down, so that I could keep it forever. We will really miss our Great Gram.