Happy Halloween

Stephen and I had a blast with our little rock star this Halloween, Malia on the other hand was not so sure about the costume. As you can see in the pictures she was not too fond of the sunglasses and I had hoped to put a pink bandana in her hair but she would have no part of it, so we opted for the bow instead. For Halloween we spread out a blanket on our driveway for Malia to crawl on and had a great time greeting all of the kids in their costumes. The funniest part of the evening was keeping Malia out of the candy bowl...I don't know if it was the colors or the sound the wrappers made but she was very intent on pulling every piece of candy out of the bowl...or just maybe she is a chocolate lover like her daddy.

uncle tanner and our little rocker babe

She loved the mic, great for teething

You will have to talk to my agent if you want more pictures

Happy Halloween Part 2

Happy Halloween from our family to yours
Grandma & Grandpa with the little firecracker

Guitar Pumpkin

I want candy

pumpkin carving

Last night was the first year that we had Malia at Chris & Lesley's annual pumpkin carving party, which made the party so much fun. As you can see from the pics Malia was "daddy's helper," she loved the goo inside of the pumpkin. She also enjoyed watching everything that was happening, especially all of the kids running around, she also spent quite a bit of time "talking" with anyone that would listen. Stephen's hard work payed off with an awesome guitar pumpkin for our little rocker, unfortunately in these pictures the tea lights burned out and you can't see our finished product. I will be sure to post pictures of our rock star baby and the pumpkin later tonight.

Pumpkin Patch

Our Mother's group met at the pumpkin patch this past Monday. I don't know which Malia enjoyed more...the pumpkins or playing with the hay. Happy Fall!

Our Happy Girl
Kicking back with the pumpkins

Future Farmer...

How can I get to that furry thing?

More Pumpkin Patch Pics

These pictures were taken by a friend I met at MOPS, Meredith. She has a very handy setting on her camera that keeps snapping pictures, just the thing needed for wiggly children. ;) Her daughter Devin and our Malia were born within weeks of each other.

Malia, Charlie and Devin looking too cute
Charlie giving Malia a kiss, she isn't too sure about this,
which will make her Daddy oh so happy


Malia and Devin exploring the pumpkins

Birthday Recap

This past weekend we celebrated Stephen's 29th Birthday. Some of the higlights were: sleeping in, spending Friday with his girls, Texas Roadhouse for dinner, ASU game with Steven & Sandi Saturday night, family celebration Sunday, homemade lasagna, brownies and Blue Bell Ice Cream, opening gifts, watching one of his gifts "Ironman" with Tanner and Chad. Happy Birthday Handsome!

Relaxing with Malia, this was not staged, Malia loves my phone!
First Birthday as a Daddy!

No more pictures

Happy Birthday Handsome

Copy Cat

Today I had one of those moments with Malia that I want to remember, it was just a small tender moment that I know happens to other parents around the world a million times a day but this was so special to me and I don't want it to slip away from my memory so here I am putting it in writing. On our way to my MOPS book study this morning I stopped to say hi and chat about what our days held in store with my neighbor Nicole and her 2 year old daughter Ava. When we were done I said by-bye to Ava a few times and attempted to get Malia to wave but she was much more content to suck on her thumb. As we were leaving the neighborhood I hear by-bye, by-bye, by-bye from the backseat. Silly me, early childhood background and I thought she was just sucking her thumb, I should have known that the wheels are always turning. It is so rewarding to see her make connections and learn new things! Being a Mom is much harder than I imagined, but moments like that make it completely worthwhile and bring so much joy to my day.

look out.....here she comes

Our happy little girl is no longer happy to crawl around, she wants to walk. This likely comes as no surprise to anyone who has been around her for any period of time. Since the day she was born she has wanted to go. I am not saying this as a proud Mama, although I can be obnoxious with the best of them, plain and simple she has always been strong. The minute they laid her on my chest, she picked her cone head up and looked around (that was after being pushed on and contracted all day and being pushed in the birth canal for 3 loooong hours). I was so exhausted it was all I could do to hold my eyes open and there was my sweet little baby holding her neck up and looking around the room. She was never a floppy baby, she held her neck and head steady from the time she was a newborn. We joke that it is a result of being so tightly crammed in utero for 41 weeks, she was trying to push her way out. About the time she was 2 weeks old I would cuddle her on my lap facing me and stare at her beautiful chubby face and she would stand up. No lie, she would push with all of her strength and stand on my lap happy as a clam, I would try to sit her back down because 2 week old babies aren't supposed to stand up and she would fuss and push herself right back up. Several of my friends raved about the swaddle wraps, so I gave it a shot, anything that might result in more than 2 hours of sleep at a time was worth a try. Not for Malia, she wiggled and screamed until she got free of the wrap, I thought maybe it was a mistake. So I tried the swaddle wrap again, scream..grunt...scream...tada... look Ma I've got hands. Fast forward 5 months no longer content to lay and watch what was going on she wanted to be a part of the action and so she decided that it was time to crawl. Fast forward to today we were having a great time playing in the family room she was walking around hanging on to the couch, I took one of her hands and she let go of the couch with the other. I let go of her hand and she took 3 quick baby steps towards me and fell on me laughing. I couldn't believe it...they may have been small and quick but I know my girl it won't be long before she is off and running. Those of you who know me know that I am not overly emotional but I started crying. I have been blessed with a healthy, inquisitive, determined, sweet little girl and it is such a blessing to see her grow. Neither Stephen nor I are adventurous and that is part of the beauty of watching Malia blossom, she is alike us in many ways but she also surprises us with her own unique characteristics and quirks. I am so thankful that Jesus has blessed me with the opportunity to watch this little person grow, I am doing my best to soak it in...because I am quickly realizing there is no rewind button in this story.