It's beginning to look a lot like..you guessed it!

Christmas! One of my favorite holidays is almost here! We have started to get ready by getting some black friday shopping done, getting out the trusty Christmas lights, window clings, light-up snowmen, etc., baking lots of cookies, and putting up our brand new pre-lit 7.5 ' tree! That's right, we finally got a tree that matches our house! We have 11 ' ceilings, so our smaller tree always looked a little sad, but our new one looks really nice. We let Alex help decorate this year, while Amaya milled about playing. Alex loved decorating the tree! We put on some Christmas music and he hummed all of the songs while putting every ornament in the same spot..LOL We also let him help put the star on the top, which made him so proud! We are so excited to celebrate Christmas, so it always refreshing to start getting in the Christmas spirit!

Amaya's1st Birthday...Part II

Since my family lives so far from us, we usually celebrate the kids' birthdays twice--once here in Baltimore and once out in Western MD. So, on November 13th, we traveled home and hosted another party for little Amaya at my parents' house. She had a blast spending time with family, eating cake, and opening all of her presents. She got tons of cute girly clothes, and her favorite toy,a baby stroller. She pushes it around with her baby in it, and of course in true Amaya fashions, she tries to climb it and ride in it herself! All in all, we had a wonderful day and we want to thank my family for attending and making her day once again a special celebration. We just can't believe she's 1 already! Getting ready to leave with Daddy All dressed up and ready to party! Eating a popsicle at the party Playing cars with Uncle Brandon Making a silly face with Daddy Me opening a present, Amaya trying to scale it of course

Happy 1st Birthday Amaya!

It's hard to believe, but our little princess turned one year old on Sunday, November 7th! This was way too emotional of an event for Abe and I as we still have memories of pre-term labor at 31 weeks and a tiny 5lbs, 3 oz. Amaya when she was first born, 3.5 weeks early. Also, our course, she's our baby, our youngest. We cannot tell you how complete Amaya has made our family, and how much we love our little girl. She is as sweet as can be, full of energy and curiosity, and of course absolutely stunningly beautiful with her big brown eyes and cute little tiny nose. We celebrated this very special day with a party at our house on Sunday,complete with a custom designed cake to match her dress. Our cake was made for us at Yia Yia's Bakery in Rosedale, and had a swiss butter cream icing, vanilla cake and strawberry filling inside. It was pricier than our usual Mars sheet cake, but a first birthday is a momentous occasion, and for those type of events, we believe in sparing no expense, especially when it comes to our kids! It was a very delicious cake as well, which is the most imprtant thing! Amaya got lots of wonderful presents even though she had a little cold on the big day, she still enjoyed some yummy cake, followed by a long and much needed nap in Mommy's arms. We had a wonderful day celebrating with family, and we're gearing up for party #2 this weekend at my family's house in Western MD! Thanks to all who made Amaya's 1st birthday so special! Her awesome cake from Yia Yia's!

Amaya is ready to party with her purse and her party hat..now she just needs to get out of her jammies! Alex and Matthew ready to get the party started!

Lola with her little ladies! Abe and I with our little birthday girl!

Looks like she's enjoying that cake!

Sweet little girl playing at her party!

Walk Baby Walk...

Amaya took her very first step on Wednesday, October 20th. We saw her make that first wobbly step toward independance right in our living room, and we knew the first real episodes of walking would be soon to follow. Sure enough, on Monday, November 1st, one week before her first birthday, she walked for the very first time. She look so cute toddling around seeing as to how she's so petite. She is very strong though and when she wants something, she gets it, no matter what she has to do. She's certainly a climber too. We can't believe little Amaya who weighed 5lbs. 3 oz.one year ago this week, is now walking acorss our living room, but alas she is...and here's a video of our cute little one the night she started walking!

Happy Happy HaLlOwEeN!

Halloween has come and gone, and this Halloween was extra special because it was our little girl's very first one! Since she arrived 1 week after this fun holiday last year, this was her last first holiday...if that makes any sense! Leading up to the big event, we constantly asked Alex, "What would you like to be???" He usually answered with three things--Lightning McQueen from his favrite movie Cars, a Hamburger, or Buzz Lightyear. So one day while looking around at the disney store, he saw the Lightning McQueen pit crew/race car driver outfit, and it was love at first site. So Alex was a pit crew chief, complete with a little drill Abe gave him to carry around,which he of course found necessary to try out on our tires. Little Miss Amaya went as a cute little lady bug. She had a cuddly,soft costume and cute striped tights to wear underneath. We partciapted in 2 trick or treating events this year. The Avenue at White Marsh hosted Trick or Treating on Saturday, which we attended. And on Sunday evening, we suited up and went door to door in the Graceland Park neighborhood of Dundalk where Abe's Mom and Sister lives. All in all we had an awesome time and had so much fun celebrating Halloween with 2 little ones. I have to say it was much nicer walking around with Amaya on the outside this year :) What do we have here? A ninja, tinkerbell, a clone trooper, a pitcrew chief, an army guy and a ladybug that is! Thank goodness our pit crew chief was there to help get us back in the race! Our tiny little lady bug! Alex, Julia,and Dylan hitting up their first house together! Miss Julia trick or treating with Lola