Busy, Busy, Busy

We had a busy but fun weekend.  Maya watched her first marathon on Saturday.  The Fargo marathon runs a street over from us and it is always fun to cheer on the thousands of runners.  We decided to invite some friends over to watch and have breakfast.  Maya took a good nap after everyone left as she was very tired. 

Here we are getting our signs finished...

 
Friends Kristy and Gina (and Maya and myself)

Betty and Maya

Today we officially become members of our church.  We had found a church in our community that is not only close to our house but also welcomes our diverse family with open arms.  It is amazing how you know the first time you walk in.  We absolutely love the people at this church and are so happy to be members.  During service all the new members had to come to the front of the church for a small ceremony.  Maya took this opportunity to charm the entire congregation.  She waved, blew kisses, said hi to the pastors, made faces to the pastors, and clapped at the end when the congregation clapped.  Needless to say many people came up to us after church to comment.  The church then had a luncheon for us where we got to meet other member's of the church.  Julie and Linda - I hope you are pleased that we finally joined a church.

I don't have any photos from church today but let me close with a couple of cute Maya photos that were recently taken one morning.  Maya probably won't be please with me for sharing these once she is a teenager.  Ha!

Maya has grown!

Not the best video as it was done with the camera but you can see how much Maya has grown in just a few short months.  I stumbled upon this while uploading some new photos to the computer.  She is so little in this video.  Enjoy.

One Tired Little Girl

Yesterday Maya took a 25 minute nap versus her normal 2-3 hour nap.  You can imagine how tired she was when she got home from daycare.  Here are some pictures to prove it.  Maya fell asleep between the couch and the coffee table using my fleece for a blanket.  We did wake her up in order to change her clothes and to give her some milk.  Other than that, she slept until I woke her around 7:00 am this morning.  You gotta love her butt sticking straight up in the air.  Too cute.

 

 

 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!  We had a wonderful day thus far.  Our day started out by attending church.  Maya refused to stay in the nursery so Dave missed most of service as Maya will not sit quiet for that long.  We then had brunch at our favorite breakfast place, Cajun Cafe.  This afternoon we enjoyed the beautiful weather and met some of our neighbors.  Maya had fun playing inside too and found the cupboard with some tupperware.  I think it is time to get her a kitchen set. 

 

Local Celebrities

In case anyone is interested, we will be on our local news on Mother's Day at 10:00 pm.  Our adoption/family story will be aired on NBC/CBS or channel 4 and 11.  We have no idea what will be aired as they were at our house for over an hour filming.  Let's just hope we don't have any food stuck between our teeth or on our face.  Smile.

 

Edited to add a link to the story: http://www.valleynewslive-ondemand.com/video/html/video5.shtml 

Growing Maya and Ethiopian Picnic

We just received information on this year's picnic in Minneapolis, MN.  Our travel group has exchanged several emails and it looks like many of us are planning to attend.  It will be so great to see everyone again and to see all the little ones.  We are really looking forward to our first picnic.

 

Work took me to Chicago this past week and I just got home yesterday.  I usually do not travel so it was a long 5 days without seeing Dave and my Maya.  It was so great to see them right after departing the plane.  It was good to see that Maya didn't grow too much (smile). 

 

Maya is now into books, playing ball, and learning parts of the body like "nose", "eyes", "belly", etc.  We are also working on getting her to say "I Love You".  She has the "I" and "Love" down.  Maya has also learned some new sign language at daycare.  She now knows the sign for "flowers".  Maya continues to love music and loves the song "If you are happy and you know it".  She knows the signs for the song and signs while we sing.  Hopefully we can catch it on video so we can share it on our blog. 

 

Today is going to be beautiful so hopefully we can enjoy the outdoors.  Happy Saturday everyone!

Oh the Fun We Had This Weekend

We had fun this weekend despite the fact that we got 9 inches of snow on Friday night and were coup up in the house.  We did try to watch Cousin Melissa play volleyball but that didn't work out.  We also tried to attend church today and Maya wasn't too fond of sitting quietly in church nor fond of the nursery.  Maya also broke out with another rash so we visited the children's walk-in clinic today too.  Oh the fun we had!  Here are some photos from the weekend.

Maya attempted to climb a bookcase

We tried to color but Maya was more interested in eating the crayons

Maya passed out in daddy's arms on Saturday

All dressed for church - she even tolerated a barrette in her hair!

Maya's new thing is to wash her hands in the sick - she loves it!