SwEEt MaYa

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Fun With The Bay Meadows Gang!

Jaden, Gabe, Kaeli, Abbi, and our neighbor Jackson, all had fun playing in this HUGE box they got when our other neighbor bought a new washer and dryer. They were so excited to play in it! Did they pretend it was a house? Noooooo....Gabe came inside crying, "Jaden won't let me in his work truck!" That's my boys for ya'!

Here's Abbi sitting in her box o' boys... Lucky lady!
Our nieces, Kaeli and Abbi, were hanging out at our house on Monday because their mommy, and my best friend, Lori, was in the hospital having their baby brother, Jacob. Yeah for Lori and Shea!! He is soo cute and I can't wait to take some pictures of him. I think this picture is probably the first time Abbi got to play with the "big kids". She was pretty excited!

Jaden wrapped up the evening with a fireworks show from the college a couple of blocks from our house. He thought it was so cool that he just had to run upstairs to get Daddy.

Made In The Shades!

Maya got her first pair of shades this week and Auntie Heather (awesome friend and fellow photog who lives next door) just had to take pictures! She did so well at keeping them on - it lasted for a couple of hours at least. She never even grabbed for them except for when they fell in front of her mouth and blocked her thumb-sucking. Maya's tiny little nose was barely big enough to hold up the sunglasses. It was soooo cute!
I love this picture! I have no idea what's with the banana on Maya's shirt, but something about just made me laugh :)

MoM, LoOk WhAt I fOuNd!

Jaden loves looking for the snails in the moist dirt outside our front door. On this particular day, he ran into the house yelling about what he had found. I told him it was cool and that he should take it back outside because the snail was still inside. That must have been the wrong thing to say because it prompted my sweet little boy to start banging the poor creature on the counter and screaming "Come out! Come out!" Well, he might love animals, but he's deffinitely not "in love" with animals. But they can still be friends, right?

P.S. - As I'm writing this, Jaden has just come inside to show Mom and Dad the dead cockroach he just found. Wonderful....

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY, CAPTAIN GABE!

Gabe turned 3 on March 26th! Yeah!!! We are out of the terrible twos!....Wait, there's a terrible threes? I should have known...

Gabe was so excited for his birthday party this year! Every day for a week before the party he would say, "Mom, is this day my birfday?" So on the day of the party it wasn't too tough to get the boys up and out the door. They were both BIG helpers to get everything at the park set up and ready for all the kids.

I'm bummed that I forgot to save a copy of the invitation for his scrapbook!:( They were printed on brown paper with a pirate map in the background (like a watermark) and then the edges were burned to make it look old. Gabe and Jaden held them and took them everywhere for two days. I was pretty proud...This was the wording for the invitation:

Ahoy There Matey!

Arr!...Ye be invited

fer some swashbuckling fun to

Captain Gabriel’s

Pirate Birthday Party!

Chart yer course fer the
Pineview Estates Park in Washington Fields. Be on deck Thursday, March 27^th at 10:30, or ye’ll walk the plank!

Wave yer flag if ye be attendin’!



We started out with a pirate treasure hunt. There was a big kids team and a little kids team, each with their own map and a "mommy helper" to take them through the park to find the goody bags. This was a HUGE success! And the animal crackers in the goody bags did a pretty good job of buffering the eight pounds of buttercream icing the kids were about to consume!











So, about the cake... I was pretty proud of myself for this being my first time decorating a cake all by myself, and at the same time I was praying that Momma Larie (Jade's mom and the best cake decorator EVER) wouldn't see it. It looked pretty sloppy compared to her masterpieces, but not bad for a beginner, eh? And the icing was homemade, too!

Maya's Ready For Spring!

I haven't done any formal pictures of Maya yet, so the other day I borrowed my neighbor's backdrop and planned on taking some spring pictures. I wanted to get some of her in her Easter dress, but by the time I got around to doing it, Maya just wasn't in the mood. But I got a couple of cute ones and thought I would share her cuteness with the rest of the world.















I am in love with her blue eyes! The are much bluer than mine ever were, and I hope they stay that way. And this little patriotic dress is absolutely my favorite. I am hoping it will still fit her on the Fourth of July. Let's see, that's three months away...that may be pushing it!