Disney World

Last October (yes, I realize that it is April and October was a good 6 months ago), we had the opportunity to go to Disney World with my family. It was the first opportunity we have had to take a vacation, and it was so much fun! Even though it was a while ago, I can't help but write a post about it so that I can remember all the fun that we had in the future.

When we first arrived in Orlando, we drove to our hotel. We stayed at the Polynesian Resort, which is basically like staying in Hawaii. It was absolutely beautiful and it is such an amazing place to stay because you are right on the monorail line (which means you walk right outside your hotel, hop on the monorail, and ride right to the park).

We were able to relax that evening and prepare for our fun week.

We spent our very first day at the Magic Kingdom. We were able to meet up with my cousin (who I haven't seen in about 10 years) and his wife and baby. It was a fun day of riding on rides, chatting, eating, and hanging out. We even went to a show that is Monster's Inc. themed, and they sang a song about my cousin and Maia - so fun!

Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride - our first one

In front of the Magic Kingdom

While we were at Disney World, we were able to visit Epcot,

In front of the Living Seas

The famous "Big Ball"

Disney's Hollywood Studios,

Animal Kingdom,

one of the water parks, and the Magic Kingdom.

Maia on the wall in front of the train station.

Meeting the guy who drives the train - very cool

The view from the train station

At night

We got to eat amazing food (one of Maia's favorite things), 

Turkey leg

Popcorn (or as Maia says, "pawpoh")

Frozen chocolate banana - yum! 

ride on a lot of fun rides,

Rockin' Roller Coaster - love the faces in this picture

Dumbo

Big Thunder Mountain

The Carousel "Horsies" (Maia's favorite)

meet characters,

High-five for Mickey

The gang

"Princess" 

"Princess"

and just spend some amazing family time all together.

Not sure what is happening in this picture, but I love it.

It was such an amazing trip. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing family and I am super lucky to have a little girl who completely goes with the flow of everything. She enjoyed rides, food, and people even though her schedule was completely messed up in a different time zone with nap time in the stroller. It is a trip that I will remember forever!

Little Diva

:)

SUMMER 2013

Maia is growing and changing so fast and I realize that I never document it.  So, here is my attempt.  My little girl is 1 year old (14 months to be exact) and she knows it.  Really.  If you ask her how old she is she will hold up 1 finger and say "whaaan."

To celebrate her birthday (2 months ago...ya...I'm slow) we had a little get together with some close friends at the park near our house (it was a butterfly theme).

Party Favors

I made Maia a cake.

And she had a blast.

A few weeks later we went to Texas to visit Juan's family and Maia was lucky enough to get a second birthday party at the beach.  She had a Minnie Mouse cake there ("Mow" is one of her favorite characters) and every time anyone would sing happy birthday to her she would get the biggest smile on her face.

This little girl started walking a little before her 1st birthday and now I can't keep up with her anymore. She loves being outside and kicking around balls ("baaaah").  I don't know much about how much 14 month olds usually talk, but this girl wont stop.  It might be completely normal, but I am continuously surprised at how many new words she is picking up.  She not only knows how to say these words, but she knows what they mean and how to use them to either get something from us or to show us something that she sees.  Some of the words that she uses on a DAILY basis are:

- Mickey or Minnie Mouse "Mow"
- Ball "Baah"
-Water "Waaagee"
-Up "Bah"
-Down "Doww"
-More Please "Moooe geees"
-All Done "Aw dah"
-Airplane "Aiadee" - she also knows what one sounds like in the sky and will find it and show us every   time one is flying over
-car "caaahhh" - this one is said a lot when walking through the walmart parking lot (haha)
-banana "nana"
-milk "miiil" - she also calls this leche "liichi"
-thank you "chichoo" - she will say this when we give her something
-nose "nooo"
-ear "eaaaw"
-key "keee"
-glasses "glaasee"
-dog "daw"
-luci (our dog) - "lulu"
-papa
-mama
-grandpa "gapaw"
-baby
-cheese - said every time she realizes we are taking a picture of her

And I'm sure there are a few that I am missing.  When she isn't using a word that she knows she is just babbling away.  I honestly can't believe how fast she learns and grows.  I am so grateful to have her in my life and to watch her learn and grow each day.

As for the adults in the family, we have been staying busy.  I taught summer school and Juan and I spent the summer trying to decide if we were going to take a job offer that Juan got and move to Texas or stay here.  We decided to stay in California (for now at least) and I got a new job working at a charter school in 5th grade.  I'm now working longer hours and bringing more work home with me, but it is a great job and I am learning a lot.  Between jobs and spending time with Maia (and trying to keep the house semi clean), we don't have much time for anything else.

So that was it...our summer in a nutshell.  Nothing too exciting, but it was a good one.  Hopefully the fall will bring some fun with it too.

6 Months Gone

I honestly can't believe that my little baby isn't so little anymore.  She is sleeping sooo much better than she once did, she sits all on her own, her first tooth is coming in, and boy does she like to talk.  SERIOUSLY, she talks and talks and talks...and I love every minute of it.  Also, Juan and I have come to realize that we have a total poser.  We get the camera out, she hears us click it and she turns and poses.  Here is one example of what I am talking about:

I didn't realize just how fast babies change until I had Maia.  I feel like she changes almost daily.  I put together all of the pictures we took from each month of her life to see just how much she has changed in the past 6 months.  I'm so glad that I took the time to get these pictures (even though sometimes life was so crazy I didn't think I would get it done) because now I get to look back at them and remember just how little she was...and pretty soon I'll be looking back at pictures of her now and remember the same thing.

Silver Bells

The other day I was running around like CRAZY.  I had 5 minutes to run inside, change, grab a few things, and get back in the car.  Forgetting that I had turned on the Christmas station on the radio, I flew back into the car, turned it on, and "Silver Bells" was playing.  It made me laugh that I was running like crazy and that this slow and peaceful song came on; I couldn't even feel rushed now that I was listening to this calm music.  It made me realize how I really need to slow down sometimes and just enjoy my life.

And, speaking of life, we have had a lot of fun recently.  The holidays can be crazy, but I love this time of year anyway.  For thanksgiving, Juan's brother came to town and got to meet Maia for the first time. We had a blast going to the beach...

....and to San Francisco

...and just hanging around together

 After that my roommate Sarah came to visit us.  I felt bad because it POURED the entire time she was here and there wasn't a whole lot that we could go and do.  BUT... we did go to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium ...

Maia loved looking at the fish.

My absolute favorite was the Jellies display that they had...

...and then before we took her to the airport we stopped in San Francisco and did Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf (and a few other places)...

Such a little trooper.

Since then we have been working and waiting for Christmas to get here so that we can go to Texas and spend time with Juan's family.  In the meantime we went and cut down our own Christmas tree with my parents...

And of course it wouldn't be Christmas without getting a picture with Santa.  The girl who was taking the pictures was SHOCKED that Maia not only didn't cry, but that she was looking at the camera....she warned me before I handed Maia off to Santa that she would probably cry (like I haven't seen a MILLION crying baby Santa pictures before)....I'm guessing we will get that crying picture next year...haha.