meen-a-sew-tah

we made it! we packed up and left some beautiful green mountains and friends of virginia and made the trek up to minnesota. it was not so great saying goodbye to friends-it never is, and seems to never become any easier the more moves we make, but we have great memories to keep us happy. and it's a good thing that we lived in a crazy place in virginia, where we learned that the true pronunciation of buena vista is: BYOON-A-VESTA, because people here have some pretty fantastic accents. we love it.

the drive was long-and even longer with a two year old, but thanks to wonderpets, thomas the train, and cars the movie we all lived. we stopped in indiana to see evan's parents and sister and family. maya loved seeing some cousins, except for one who is her age and would chase after her. he loved it, maya was a little freaked out. maya ate her first mulberries with grandma, and i found a great necklace at a flea market in indiana, so we were excited.

we made it up to minnesota around 7pm on saturday. we love our new house, which has no white walls, but green, chocolate brown and tan walls! glory be! we haven't lived anywhere where there was a color other than white on the walls. maya has a backyard to play in-another new novelty, and we have a little garage.

we're happy to be here, knowing we'll stay a while. we took maya to see the mississippi tonight and she loved it, seeing two boats, and cried when we left. good thing we have LOTS of water surrounding us.

The Lady is 2!

The lady loving her first snow cone of the season

 

The new Save the Beetles Wonderpets from her cousin Lizzie-a most coveted possession

 

The 3 of us

 

The lady on her trike eating her little cupcake in a cone

 

I can't believe that my little lady is 2! We celebrated by going to the pool yesterday and also having a little pool party today on her 'big day.' We went to our good friend Peggy's house and ate chicken salad with rolls, strawberries and had lemonade for drinks. For the Birthday Girl we had ice cream cones with cupcakes inside. They turned out to be quite the hit. Maya was all about her little trike and had to sit on it, then drive it and would hardly let it leave her sight! And she was in heaven to see another wonderpets! She was squealing as Evan tried to get the plastic off of it!
I keep thinking back to two years ago when I finally got to hold my little bundle of sweetness. I couldn't have imagined how my life would change-so much for the better-with her here. I am so grateful for this long legged, sassy, beautiful girl.
We've been singing 'Happy Birthday' to her all day long, and she will clap after we're done then say, "a-geen."

camera numero dos

we have just learned an expensive lesson in parenthood....don't let the little people play with cameras! maya loved looking at our pics on our old camera and she knew what buttons to push so that she would be able to flip through the pictures. unfortunately, she was looking at some pics at a friends house and the lens was out and she hit it on the hardwood floor. boo! so alas, we had no camera, but lo and behold we found a great little deal on this one, and it doesn't have a lens that comes out, so we are in business. the trick is to keep maya away from it!

why we're cool

nathan moore is a singer/songwriter that lives here in virginia. evan and i had the chance to see him in concert, and we were blown away with his sound and lyrics. he also just happens to be the boyfriend of one of my good friends here. we got to shake his hand and chat with him after the show. we felt very cool. he just won the telluride troubadour festival-a very cool honor. you can check out his music here.

summer goodness

 

 

 

i am trying out a tiny little green thumb this summer. i have always lived in a place where a garden just wasn't an option, and although it's not now, i did manage to get a little planter of herbs planted! and wa-lah! i had enough basil last week to make something so delicious. it's called pesto pizza, and i owe the recipe to my amazing sister-in-law valerie, who is one of the greatest cooks i know. it's a favorite at our house and i was so proud of myself for having the basil in my own little garden instead of having to buy it.

pesto:
3 + cups basil (you can use 1/2 spinach and 1/2 basil)
1/4 c olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 c parmesan cheese
1/4 c pine nuts (you can actually use walnuts too)

blend away, until you get the consistency you like

pizza:

1 lb sausage (or tofu-valerie makes it with this, and it's so good)
1/2 an onion cut in chunks
1/2 green pepper
1/2 orange pepper (has best flavor out of all peppers in my opinion)
1 c mozzarella cheese

Maya likes to sleep this way.....

 

....on the floor. i came home from running one morning to find her here. face down, completely content.

IT'S A LITTLE LADY!

We found out on Monday, that we are having another Little Lady! We are thrilled! She is due in right before Thanksgiving, so officially we're having a turkey. We did something really fun to find out the sex of this babe. We had our ultrasound, but told the sonographer we didn't want to know the sex. We then had our the sonographer call our friend and tell her the sex. That friend of ours made a cake for us that had pink inside, and later that night with all of our friends at a little park we had Maya cut into the cake to see what sex the baby was. It turned out to be a great way to celebrate baby numero dos. Unfortunately the ONLY pics we have are from a camera phone since some little person who will not be named broke our camera and we forgot the camcorder!

Happy Father's Day!

 

Why we love our Daddy:
*He is happy, and loves to make me laugh
*He lets me drive the car just for fun
*He takes me to fun toy stores just because
*He watches hours of Wonderpets and Cars with me
*He reads me stories
*He teaches me to pray and reads scriptures to me
*He thinks I look cutest in a pony tail
*He rocks me to sleep
*He says to Mom all the time "look how beautiful she is" about me
*He lets me visit him at school
*He loves me

We love you Evan! Happy Father's Day to the best and most wonderful Daddy we know.
Love,
Maya & Amber

Maya

Maya had some pictures taken a few weeks ago by a photography student at Southern Virginia University (for free!). I thought I would post a few of my favorites. Amber and Maya are out of town visiting Casey, Ali, and Gabby in New Jersey, so I am missing them and looking at lots of photos to try to fill the void. Enjoy.

This is how we plan on spending our summer

 

Maya with Gin the dog

 

The beautiful secluded FREE pool

 

Maya sitting poolside eating a "go-gur"

Here in Lexington I've met some fabulous people. One of which is Peggy. She lives out in the country in the most beautiful setting and happens to have a pool. She and I became friends and when I was pregnant with Maya she let me swim here all summer, and would bring me lemonade and scooby snacks to eat. Now, Maya and I have been twice this week and it's a haven. It's free and the company is amazing and the views spectacular. And Maya gets to play with two dogs, it doesn't get any better than that.