by the way...

I think I may have forgotten to mention some super exciting news....

I think one of my older posts hinted that...

Jason got a new job in September!

He interviewed for and landed a job as a 3D Modeler and Texture Artist!

Exactly what his degree is in and what he was desperately working towards!

He is actually working right here in the city, downtown at a place called Aechelon Technology, Inc.

He was one of three guys hired to work on contract, meaning he gets paid hourly and basically has an open-ended contract. He is hoping to get hired into a salaried position within a year, but it all just depends on how the market looks at that point in time for this company.

 

He is SO much happier working at this place! He enjoys bicycling to work every day rain or shine! And with it being our rainy season right now, he has had many a days where he has needed to bring a change of clothes to work! With him working in the city it has enabled him to leave the car at home for  Maya and I to use! We have loved getting the opportunity to get out and about a little more often now that Maya is a little bit older and we have the wheels. We have been making the weekly grocery trips and even got to do a little shopping before the Christmas season snuck up on us.

two little cousins reunite in iowa part one

so....about 3 years months ago we ventured back home to good ole Winterset, Iowa. It was just Maya and I to brave the airport and two flights from California to Iowa. We flew out REALLY super early in the morning, so she was pretty tired for the first leg of the trip.

And for the second leg we were blessed by these three little angels. You see we have heard that it is best to sit as far back on the plane as possible when you are traveling with kids. So, there we were in the very last row. And we were surrounded by this mom and her 3 little girls. They provided the BEST distraction EVER! Unfortunately we ended up having to de-plane do to technical issues and wait for another plane to become available. But despite that hiccup in the travel itinerary, these little girls were a dream come true! They just loved on Maya as if she was their little sis.

Isn't it so amazing how kids love kids. Maya was just enthralled by their company! They had her giggling like I had never seen before! Taylor even shared her Ariel barbie-doll with Maya and made sure Maya didn't put anything near her mouth! It was the CUTEST thing I have ever seen!

After a long day of traveling my dad rescued us from the airport and we officially started our vacation!

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Our first morning we HAD HAD HAD to go into Winterset to see my cute cute cute niece, Kenady! She was just waking up from a nap and held her arms out for ME to pick her up! My heart totally melted that she wanted to come to me even though it was only my second time ever seeing her in person! :)

do you see the similarity??? a lot of people have commented on how much they look alike...maybe these pictures don't show their similarity the best, but when I see pictures of Kenady as a baby I think to myself....wow she looked a lot like Maya does! :) I think you can definitely tell they are related! What little beauties!

it was so much fun to watch their interactions with each other. Kenady wanted to "mother" Maya a little bit. She was a little rough with her loving, but it was all in good spirit.

Maya has been doing this...(or she used to do it when she was 8 months old...and now she is 11 months already!) She would very gently put her hand to your face and just study it...so sweet!

My dad and his two precious Granddaughters!

Kenady was obsessed with this little birdie clippie I had for Maya. She doesn't like to wear anything in her hair and almost immediately pulls anything out of her hair that you put in, and she did the same for Maya! Maya would proudly sport her birdie clippie and Kenady would go and pull it out of her hair as soon as she noticed! Poor little Maya only had a few little hairs holding the clip in to start with!

I am desperately trying to convince J that Maya should get her ears pierced, and when I snapped this picture of Kenady with her little earrings I figured this may help my case! And he actually agreed that her piercings are pretty adorable!

Watching Ty being a daddy is so heart-warming! He is SO good with Kenady! It was so hard to watch him walk away with her....she was off to see her mommy. Kenady was to be the flower girl in her uncle Dan's wedding and needed to go get ready for the big day.

After a morning filled with Kenady time we were off to the Winterset town square for the Madison County Covered Bridge Festival! It was so surreal walking around my "old stomping grounds" with my daughter in tow. Good ol' Winterset, the John Wayne Birthplace, the place where the Covered Bridges of Madison County are. Some things never change, and the festival was a prime example of that!

part two to follow!

a lioness, a baby toe eater, a passport portrait poser and a sandy beach princess

most of these pics speak for themselves, but these is what a week in the life of an 8 month old looks like at our house....

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we eat baby doll toes for dinner around here...

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since she has become more mobile, she has been able to start exploring a little bit more. It totally cracked me up that she was digging through her toy basket finding new toys to play with. Oh the little joys in life!

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mr. hamish came to visit again and he did some pretty cool things with the sock  monkey!

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auntie josie was the first person to buy us something for little maya when she was just a 4 month old tiny little baby in my belly! this was the outfit she picked out for Maya...needless to say she still has some growing into it to do! :)

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the weather was so beautiful this week so we had to venture out to the beach to soak up some sun.

I decided I was going to just let loose and let her get as dirty as she pleased. That was a good plan until I didn't bring any wet wipes and the ocean was too cold to try to wash her off. So, we hit the public restrooms at the beach that were less than sanitary and decided we would just be o.k. with being a little bit sandy for the venture home. I am sure it was an awesome tactile experience for her to say the ver least!

at 7 1/2 months...

Maya became a CRAWLER! :)

And almost immediately started pulling herself up to stand!

a sneak peak

of a RECENT picture of little miss I took just this past week! :)

And I am proud to say that I took this on MANUAL mode on my DSLR! I have had my camera for almost a year now and I FINALLY taught myself how to transition into shooting in MANUAL mode! I was so very intimidated, but I am so pleased with the results! I didn't even do any tweaking on these photos! These pics are SOOTC! (straight out of the camera!)

This was round one of Maya in her Christmas dress....more to come!

P.S. she is a natural...I didn't even pose her, this was all her! :)

adventures of the 7th month

Grammy & Papa Silber came to visit and we had such a fabulous time we have become overwhelmed by the amout of pictures we have from their stay. So, I put together another little slideshow to showcase our time spent together!

We tried to keep a busy jam-packed schedule and that we did! I had my annual PICU RN review that I needed to attend so Grammy watched Maya for us and had some quality one-on-one time with her. We also had a playdate with some of the ladies I work with and their littles and had a great time at the park. I worked a few night shifts during the week as well so J and I could have a much needed DATE night! Grammy & Papa babysat little miss and we were off on our first real date out of the house since Maya has been born. We grabbed dinner downtown at a little diner and were off to watch Inception at the IMAX theatre! We had a fabulous time and the movie was just totally amazing. It was so good it was just mind boggling.

P.S. Many many thanks to Grammy for most of these awesome pictures!!!! :)