Friday, June 25, 2010

Sweet Summertime

I can't believe it is the last day of June already! This summer has flown by! We've been busy swimming, playing at the park, visiting friends & neighbors, and getting our house ready to put on the market (coming Friday)! We even took a trip to Buffalo a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. Here are some pictures from that:


Papa Don & Maya


Gabi & Gio had lots of fun playing together!



Auntie Amanda & Maya

Amanda & Greer threw a Birthday Party for Maya and Marco. Lots of family came and we had a great time. Amanda made Maya a little lady bug birthday cake. Marco's cake was a cow -- so cute!
Birthday party attendees


Shortly after my last post, our house was hit by a hail storm. We didn't have much damage to the house -- we only had to replace a few pieces of siding. However, our maple tree and gardens in the backyard were totalled. Gabi was so proud of her garden we had grown from seed, so it was a bummer. Some plants are making a comeback, so we'll see how it looks in a few weeks!
Hope everyone else's summer is going well! Happy 4th of July!!
Love, Joe, Tara, Gabi, & Maya

Friday, June 11, 2010

If You're Happy & You Know It...

We have a lot to be happy about around here! I'm finally done with school and have REALLY enjoyed being home with my girls! The weather has been great and we have enjoyed being outside and on the move!

Having a tea party on the deck


This is my tummy!

Maya had her 1 year old check-up this week and is doing great! She weighed in at 21 lbs 8 oz (59%ile), was 30 inches long (80%ile), and had a 19 inch head (99%ile). So, she is stretching just a bit. She loves to cruise around furniture and is sooooo silly! She adores her sister.

Joe ran the Bolder Boulder over Memorial Day weekend and did well. His team did get 1st again in their division, so his absence last year has been forgiven! I took the girls up to Boulder to meet him and partake in the Memorial Day festivities. Gabi loved the parachuters, Air Force flyover, and the free popsicles!

HEADED "HOME"

Our biggest news is that we will be moving to Buffalo, Wyoming in December. Joe received a unanimous and enthusiastic approval from the KL&A Board of Directors to open a branch office in Buffalo. He has worked very hard for almost 3 years preparing for this opportunity. It will continue to be a lot of work for him, but we are excited about raising our family in Wyoming. I am definitely not looking forward to selling our house, the moving process, and leaving all of our close friends in Colorado.

We hope you are all enjoying the beginning of summer!

Love to you all! Joe, Tara, Gabi, & Maya

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Maya's 1st Birthday!

We celebrated the 1st birthday of our little Curly-Q this evening. She has been such a joy to have around! Here are some pictures of our cupcake and her cupcake. :-)
Gabi helped blow out the candle!


Yes, she has her mother's sweet tooth -- she loved it!

Maya received some fun and special presents -- thank you all for sending them!
Maya has been on the move these past couple weeks -- finally starting to get interested in walking. She is very hesitant and nervous (scared of falling), so she won't walk until she is good and ready. Gabi was the same way, but once she started walking she hardly ever fell down and was running within a few days! We will see!

Maya now has 4 teeth (2 up and 2 down). She says many words including, "up," "yeah," "that?!," "dada," "mama," "cat," and "thank you." She loves to dance, clap, and pull every book off her bookshelf. Her personality is definitely starting to shine -- still a laid back little girl, but already starting to test us! She can be a little stinker!

We don't go in to see Dr. Julia until June 9th, so we don't have her official 1 year old stats yet. However, as you can probably tell by the pictures she is still a roly poly and healthy as can be.

Here is a picture of Gabi on her new tricycle. She loves to ride around the block and visit all the neighbors. She is a dare devil, hence the new helmet. ;-)


Summer has arrived -- the weather has been amazing, the garden and flowers are planted, and the windows are open! Yay! Now I just have to get through these last 3 days of school!!!! We're sticking around here this weekend and Joe is running the Bolder Boulder on Monday. His team is expecting him to help recapture the 1st place trophy this year. They came in second last year - Joe didn't run due to Maya's pending arrival. :-)

Thanks for checking in on us!

Love, Joe, Tara, Gabi & Maya

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Hello!

We went to the Rockies game today -- it was a beautiful Spring day in Colorado! We had a great time and the Rockies won! I think Gabi enjoyed the food more than anything -- a foot long hotdog, peanuts, and Dippin' Dots ice cream.Gabi kept saying, "Go Rockies!" Then she would say, "Go Jacksons!" (Our cat is named Rocky and dog is Jackson.) We've been trying to teach her "Take me out to the ballgame" and she is catching on pretty quick.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend and has a fun week ahead!

Love
Joe, Tara, Gabi, & Maya

PS -- I've heard from lots of you so this is just a reminder to get me your e-mail if you would like access. By next post, we'll be private!!!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day!


We hope all of the mothers in our lives had a beautiful day! My family took me to the zoo and out for lunch! We had a wonderful time and I was thankful every minute for my two little girls who call me "mama."

Love, Joe, Tara, Gabi & Maya

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Family Update

Hello Everyone! There isn't a whole lot new in our world, but I thought I'd post some updates, pictures, and videos of the family for fun!

GABI:

Gabi amazes us everday with the things that she comes up with. She is a very silly and fun little girl. Yesterday, she named everything that growled -- lions, tigers, chetahs, polar bears, and daddy's tummy. ;-) She has been riding her little bike around the neighboorhood on the few days it has been nice here. We also made a garden plot for her in our alley with onions going already. All the rest of the plants we are starting from seeds inside. She checks on them each day to see how much they have grown. It will be fun to share gardening with her this summer. She is becoming quite bossy (typical big sister, right Tom?) I told Joe that he better get used to it since he is going to be under woman management (x 3) for the rest of his life! ;-)


MAYA:

Maya has really become interactive, snuggly, and silly these past few weeks. She loves to chatter like she is really talking, then giggle at herself, then chatter away some more. She can wave hi and bye (opens and closes her hand), give hugs and kisses, and slither across the floor like a lizard! She can pull herself up to standing and sit up from the crawling position, walk/run while holding on to someone, but she usually is just content to lay on the floor and crawl. If she finds something while crawling that she wants to study, she'll just roll onto her side or back and study it there. I don't expect her to walk anytime soon; it's funny how each kid has their own unique way! Plus, she can "crawl" fast!! She still has only her two bottom teeth and I think 2 more are on their way up top. Her hair gets curlier and curlier all the time, especially after her bath! What a silly girl she is!


JOE & TARA:

Joe has been quite busy with work this week. Business has finally picked up for his company so he went from 32 hours/week to 60+ within two weeks. Things should quiet back down to a typical work week pretty soon, so that is good. We're hoping this is a sign that the economy is on the upside!?

I've been busy finishing up the school year (4 weeks left!) I'll have the summer off and then will only go back part-time in the fall. I also found out that enough students signed up for AP Environmental Science to fill 2 sections next year. So, that is the only thing I will be teaching! I'm so pumped to just have honors seniors and not crazy freshmen next year! AP Environmental Science is so fun to teach, so I am really looking forward to it. I spent a night out on the town with some good friends Friday night. We went to Canvas and Cocktails to celebrate Kristine's birthday. Everyone painted a picture following an instructor. It was really casual, interactive, and fun to see how everyone's creations were so different. I'm not too impressed with how my painting turned out (unfortunately I didn't get my Grandpa Joe's artistic skills and probably drank too much wine!), but Gabi thought it was a masterpiece and insisted that it hang in her room, so that is all that matters I guess! ;-)



GOING PRIVATE:
Over the last few months, I've been having people sign up to be "Followers" of this blog and also people leaving comments that I do not know. So far they are harmless, but it kinda freaks me out. I tried eliminating the Comments option and then going to Moderated Comments and that seemed to make it even worse. So, I'm going to make this blog private in a month or so. We will be going through a lot of changes in the coming year (like maybe a new address!!) and a lot of trips this summer, so we only want to keep our friends and family informed about the details! To access our blog once I make it private, you will need to sign in with an e-mail and password. I will enter the e-mails of my authorized users and you will create your own password. So, e-mail me if you would like access or just leave your name in the comments section. tmlamay @ yahoo . com.
Have a wonderful week! Thanks for checking in on us!
Love, Joe, Tara, Gabi, & Maya

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Spring Has Sprung!

Happy Easter! We hope your day was filled with joy, laughter, family, and friends.

Our girls had a wonderful day -- we were fortunate enough to have my parents and Grandma Dorothy come to visit this weekend. We attended Mass this morning and then gorged ourselves at Table Mountain Inn's Easter Brunch Buffet. Here are some pictures of the girls from today:

We dyed Easter eggs on Saturday. Gabi enjoyed every minute! She loves eating hard-boiled eggs, which is good because neither Joe nor I are big fans. She is wearing a strawberry shortcake apron that my Grandma Dorothy made me when I was a little girl!

Here is a four-generation picture from this morning! Look at all that brown hair -- gotta love it!! ;-)

We all went to the Denver Zoo on Saturday. Gabi was able to get up close and personal with a giraffe. The giraffes at the zoo are her 2nd favorite; elephants are by far her favorite! Camels come in a close third. :) We love being zoo members and would highly recommend it!

My dad's birthday is next Friday, but we celebrated this weekend with a long-standing tradition -- bunny cake! His mother (my Grandma Genie) started making this cake for him when he was growing up since his birthday was always near Easter. Since then, my mom and I have taken over the tradition. Of course, Gabi was all over the chocolate cake!

I just had to throw this picture in...everyone gives Maya a hard time for being so rolly poly (even though she is average for weight/height!) She usually cleans up her plate AND her bib every meal. Gotta love those bib pockets, right Maya?!
Grammy Mary & Maya:
Gabi and Papa Gary had quite a good time this weekend -- he taught her all kinds of new words and tricks! They had so much fun and were soooo silly! Now I know where I get my silliness! Her favorite new phrase is, "that's not proper!" I guess you have to hear it to see why it is so funny! They giggled almost the entire weekend!

I was off of work last week and enjoyed EVERY minute I got to spend with my girls. The weather was so nice that we were outside most of the week -- playing, swinging, walking, visiting neighbors, eating lunch outside, having friends come to visit, chasing the dog/cat, having fun at the parks, having Easter egg hunts, blowing bubbles, etc. Here are a few pictures from the week. I am so ready for summer (8 more weeks and then an entire summer to spend with my girls -- yippee!) It always goes by so fast after spring break.


We're looking forward to a visit from Amanda & Greer this week. Love to you all!

Joe, Tara, Gabriela, & Maya