Saturday, December 20, 2008

Snow...Keep it Coming!

We received several inches of snow early this morning. After breakfast, we went outside to play in the white stuff. Maizie has played in the snow at daycare, but today was our first opportunity to play in it with her. We all had fun and captured some snapshots for the scrapbook.

This afternoon Pat & I also went snowmobiling. It was my first time in two years, as I couldn't get out last year when pregnant and then recovering from my c-section. Our streets hadn't been plowed yet so we got to ride down the middle of them -- reminded me of our sophomore year, Kristi Jo!

Maizlyn Reese catching snowflakes on her tongue.

This picture should get an award for most adorable father/daughter snapshot with the best authentic winter background. Seriously, what a great captured moment!


Here is a clip of Maizie playing in the snow...and daddy throwing the white stuff on her. Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Almost a Toddler

I apologize for not updating in awhile. We have had a busy fall. Patrick & I celebrated our 5th Anniversary, Maizie is moving on her own (but we're still waiting for those teeth), and we celebrated Thanksgiving in Arizona with my brother and his fiancee. We truly have so much to be thankful for and neither of us take our lives for granted. We are incredibly grateful for each other, our family & friends, our daughter, our good health and our job status. We're also looking forward to sharing Maizlyn's First Christmas and celebrating her first birthday in a few weeks. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and please, enjoy the Christmas & holiday season!
Maizie has been falling asleep "folded over" lately. It looks like an uncomfortable sleeping position but she seems to like it. ; )

I absolutely LOVE these two pictures of Pat & Maizie. It could not have been staged any better had we tried. I first captured the two of them being "serious" and then both of them smiling. I think I'm going to frame them together for my office space.
On the move...Maizlyn started crawling after we returned from our trip in October. I was very happy that I didn't miss it! Once she started crawling, she immediately found our movie "collection." She started pulling herself up onto the coffee table, couch, drawers, etc. at the end of last month. Only a matter of time before she's walking. Yikes!

Our smiley little munchkin.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Surprise Anniversary Trip

Patrick & I celebrated our 5th Anniversary 10.18.08. What an incredible 5 years! To celebrate, we decided to go on vacation. Pat took the reins and said the trip was a complete surprise for me (he also did this for our honeymoon -- what a catch!). I only knew that we were flying somewhere. Then Maizlyn was born and I knew it was going to be hard to be away from her and I really just wanted to know a few details. Pat initially told me we would be gone for 5 days. I told him that would be perfect. Enough time to get away, relax & enjoy each other and then return to our sweetheart. Pat realized how much he was going to miss Maizie and his mother told him he had better let me in on part of the truth (thanks Jean!). He admitted that our vacation was not going to be 5 days but 10. He had planned on contacting my boss to get my vacation approved, was going to have my sister pack for me and then whisk me away to destination unknown. Pre-Maizie, that would have been so much fun! Post-Maizie...Thank God he let me in on this "little" bit of information, for I needed to mentally prepare myself to be away from her...my first extended period of time away. The anticipation of being away was worse than actually being gone and we had a wonderful time!
I had figured out we were going to visit our friends Jeremiah & Karla in Washington D.C. and Pat informed me there was a second destination. Once in D.C., I figured out that our friends were coming with us to destination still unknown to me but Pat denied it. We had a 3:30 AM wake-up call to catch a cab for our flight to 2nd destination. When J & Karla didn't join us in the cab, I told Pat they were obviously taking a later flight. He again denied it. Skip to us eating breakfast at the gate and J & Karla came up behind us saying, "Who's ready for a surprise anniversary trip?!" I knew it! But I still didn't know where we were going (which by-the-way, makes it very difficult to pack). We had a connecting flight in Atlanta and after hearing which gate we had to be at next, I stood in front of the monitors and figured it out...we were going to Nassau, Bahamas!! There are so many other details I'm leaving out, but this story is getting too long. It was a great trip and we had so much fun. Thanks again for being part of the surprise, Jeremiah & Karla. We truly had a great time vacationing with you two again!!
While in D.C., we biked from Jeremiah & Karla's to Mount Vernon and back (about 23 miles total). It was a lot of fun -- beautiful scenery, exercise and a history lesson all in 1 day! Above, me and Jeremiah are roasting apples. We then dipped them in honey. It was really good!
Pictured in front of Mount Vernon (George Washington's house) is Jeremiah, Patrick & Mat, another college friend who works in D.C. We also toured Arlington National Cemetery, two of the Smithsonian Museums & the Washington Monument. We walked by the White House and ate at some really great restaurants too.

Me and Karla enjoying some wine in the Bahamas.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Halloween Fun

Our pumpkin at home.

We had some extra special trick-or-treaters on Halloween. My friend Kristi's kids Addison & Will stopped by to visit and grab a treat and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures.

Will is only 3 weeks older than Maizie -- can you say yearbook photo someday?!

Our pumpkin had a busy day and fell asleep in my arms after greeting all of our trick-or-treaters.

Happy Birthday, Great Grandpa Felling!


My grandpa Felling turned 87 September 18 and we celebrated with dinner at my parents' house. I just love these pictures of my grandpa with Maizie. She was quite content with him and I love how she studied him.