Happy Halloween!

Here are a few pictures from Maia's Halloween photo shoot. She makes such a cute little ladybug don't you think? She loves her costume...it is really soft, so she likes to touch it. She also likes to look at herself in the mirror while she is wearing it.



Above: Maia was having kind of a hard time staying steady when she was walking around in the grass....I think it was a combination of her costume, the uneven grass, and getting used to her new shoes. She kept falling down, it was so funny! She kind of got frustrated at the end though because she couldn't stay up. She is so much fun, we love her to pieces.
All dressed up and ready to party! Oh, and David made his teeth at school the other day....aren't they totally Billy Bob gross?


Above: Garrett and Jaime...cute, cute huh? I wanted to add more pictures of people's costumes, but our camera is not too great and so almost every single one turned out blurry because of the low-lighting conditions. I'm so sad though because there were some really good ones!
Above: I love this picture--it's so candid--I had to post it!
Here is David taking his turn at hitting the pinata.






Checking out her options...
Unwrapping a good one and taking a big bite!

Happy Halloween everyone! We hope you had a fun one and aren't too overloaded on sugar...Maia might be--she discovered how to unwrap candy by herself. I was watching her play with our bowl of candy and she very carefully unwrapped a Reese's and before I could grab it from her, she took a huge bite out of it! Hopefully she isn't allergic to peanut butter right? Anyway, we had a really fun Halloween. Last night was our ward Halloween dinner and carnival and then tonight was a Costume Party at our friends, the Phillip's, house. I love seeing everyone dressed up--people are so creative with their costumes, it amazes me!

A Little Video and Our Palmyra Trip

Above are pictures from the Sacred Grove. It is such a beautiful, peaceful place and the spirit is strong there. Of course, pictures and words just don't do it justice!!

The group posing for a picture on the road upto the Hill Cumorah. It was hard work (and quite comical, really) getting us all in the picture...we had to use the self-timers on all of our cameras and so it took a few tries before everyone was able to make it in the picture.

Above are pictures from the Hill Cumorah. Another very beautiful place, especially at this time of year when the colors are brilliant.

I love this picture of Maia sitting at Jesus' feet. She totally posed perfectly for this one!
Family picture at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center.Above the group picture at the Visitor's Center. L to R: David, Maia, Crescent, Allison, Elder Anderson, Elder Melessa, Megan, Bron.

This past weekend, David, Maia and I had the opportunity to go to Palmyra to see the church sites with Allison, a friend who is investigating the church, the missionaries, and the Shaheen's. It was our first time there and we really enjoyed feeling the spirit and seeing the Hill Cumorah, Book of Mormon printing press, and the Sacred Grove. As usual, I got a little carried away with the pictures....but we HAD to take a lot because it was so beautiful and you know how hard it is for me to narrow it down to which ones to put on our blog!! I am also posting a little video of Maia signing "bear." I know the quality is really poor, as it was taken with our regular camera. But you'll get the picture of how cute it is to watch her!!

I know this video isn't the greatest, but it'll have to do for now!! I was showing her the honey bear, so she got excited and had to walk over to grab it. So she really only signs bear a couple of times in the very beginning...it's still cute to see her hold on to the bear and just love it though! And it also gives you a glimpse of how well she is walking now.

Ready For Halloween

Maia is ready for Halloween...at least the Trick-Or-Treating part, or at least the part where she gets to carry a plastic pumpkin bucket around! I got her this silly bucket at Target for $0.99 and she loves it!! She carries it all over the place and loves to put things in it....crazy things sometimes. Let's see, I've found dental floss, cups, lids, puzzle pieces, magnents, make-up, food, books, stuffed animals, etc. etc. in it already and we've only had it for a couple of days. She is so funny.

Also, tonight I was going to post a few short video clips of Maia walking and doing some of her sign language, but since I can only take the clips with our regular camera (and since our camera isn't that great) I ended up with really bad lighting and the picture was turned the wrong way and couldn't be flipped, (unless I'm just totally dumb when it comes to technical stuff, which could easily be the case!) So I'll have to try again tomorrow. Anyway, for now, just enjoy the pictures.

Yet another template and cute, cute Maia!!

Here's Maia, still loving her Barbie Jeep from the curb, and dressed as pink as you can get!

Above is Maia signing "bear." It is so cute in real life, she crosses her arms and scratches her fingers, and you can't help but have a huge smile on your face when you watch it!
More fun times in the jogging stroller.

Okay, so really long story with why I had to change the template of our blog...don't really want to get into it, but I know it's not nearly as fancy as before, but it will have to do!! And I apologize to everyone who has been trying to read our blog the past few days, but couldn't because of the colors of the font....that is part of the long story that I'm not going to talk about!! But since I know that everyone is just dying to see more pictures of Maia (since it's been like 2 days since I last posted some!!) I am putting some more cute ones of her...well all of her pictures are pretty cute if you ask me, but maybe I'm just a LITTLE bias!! She sure is walking a lot now. It doesn't seem to take them long once they get going. She is also signing more and more. Her latest favorite is "bear." It is sooooo cute. I captured a pictures of her signing it, but it really doesn't do it justice. We really need a video camera....hint. hint. David...my birthday is coming up!! Just kidding. Okay, enjoy the pictures.

The big date and taking steps!!

Here are the pictures I promised. Above are one of the bridges over the Erie Canal in Lockport, and a beautiful view. Maia is WALKING!!! And eating string cheese, one of her new favorite foods. She has to eat it herself though, she doesn't like me breaking off small pieces for her.

Last weekend David and I got to go out on our first date in, well, 3 months or so! It was a lot of fun. We went to a township north of here called Lockport(this is where the Erie canal was constructed in the 1800's) It's a cute and quaint little town and had some beautiful fall colors. We walked around the canal area for a while, drove to a little roadside pumpkin stand and ate at a little diner there. And you know what? Maia didn't even miss us!! The Phillip's watched her for us and she had a blast with them. They have a little 3 year old boy, Hayden, who Maia loves to play with.

In other news, Maia is walking!!! It is so fun to watch her wobble along. The most steps she has taken so far is about 10, but she is well on her way. I took a few pictures of her when she was just standing up to walk. Too bad we don't have a video camera, or else I would post live footage!! She is growing up fast and will already be one next month--hard for me to believe. She is getting quite the personality and becoming VERY independent....sometimes not such a good thing!!

Fall Time

The weather has definitely cooled down these past few days...I think fall is settling in, which means that winter is right around the corner. Sad, sad. But it has to come sometime I guess, unless you're like my friend Hailey, who lives by the beach in California! (I'm jealous!) Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of Maia getting ready for our (colder) morning jog.

The Great Pumpkin Farm

The best place for a photo shoot....as you will soon see...we took TONS of pictures (and I've only posted a few of them!)

Check out these huge pumpkins! And they weren't even the prize winners for the biggest pumpkin. The winner weighed 860 pounds!
Above: Maia saw another little kid and she just started laughing and squawking, like she usually does!
We just love this little girl so much!! Below: Family picture in the pumpkins....do you like David's new hair cut? He tried to cut it himself and, well, you know the rest!


Maia loved picking up these small pumpkins and setting them on the ground, silly kid.
Posing in the pumpkin wagon.

Above: Doesn't she fit right in with the rest of them? She's our little pumpkin, that's for sure.
Relaxing with Megan...
Above: Trying to pet the bunny rabbits
Eating apples and hanging with dad in the hay-bale maze (okay so it wasn't really a maze..it would have been extremely difficult to get lost in it... but it was fun)
Garrett and Jaime on the Ferris Wheel...
Maia pointing to Garrett, Jaime, Bron and Megan on the Ferris Wheel. She would get so excited every time she saw them come around.


Above: Maia's first experience on a Ferris Wheel...We live next door to a bunch of college guys and a lot of them work at carnivals (yep they are "carnies")....they are really cool guys though. Anyway, one of them happened to be manning the Ferris Wheel so he let us on for free. Maia did pretty good--she did get a little nervous when we would go down. She would grip David's arm and kind of fuss a little, but she didn't cry, which is good. It actually went pretty fast too, not just like a leisurely little ride, so we were proud of her!(It kind of scared me to be honest--shows how long it's been since I've been to an amusement park!)
Hanging out with the Phillips and checking out the animals.

Yesterday was another beautiful day so in between Conference sessions we got together with some friends at a place called The Great Pumpkin Farm, where obviously, they have TONS of pumpkins and a bunch of other stuff to do as well....carnival rides, a petting zoo, fresh apples and cider to buy, a corn maze, tractor and pony rides, etc. It was a lot of fun and there were ample opportunities for great pictures as well. And since I always have a hard time deciding which ones are the best to post, I post LOTS of them, maybe too many....well you can never really have too many pictures of Maia right?