Our Forever Family!

Guess what happened in mid October?!?  Our adoption was finalized!  Most people finalize at a courthouse in front of a judge - but in our family, we finalize via text message! LOL!

Once we got the finalization paperwork in the mail we could start planning our very special day - being sealed together forever in our temple!  (If you don't know much about our temples or about our church you can learn more at mormon.org).  We were sealed in the temple on November 9th.

Best day ever!

Pic from my sister Amy

Pic from my sister Natalie

And we had fun celebrating after too - we all went to my parents' church where Brandon gave Maya a beautiful blessing and we had a luncheon to celebrate the day!

This is Maya's sealing dress she wore to the temple.
And the beautiful shawl made by my Grandma Maya was wrapped in for the blessing.

This is the blessing dress I wore when I was blessed,
Maya wore this blessing dress too!  So special!

Everything was pink, we had a fun 'Make Your Own Party Drink' table, Candy Cabobs,
My sister Amy made adorable cupcakes, and everyone wrote a special note to Maya.

We couldn't have asked for a better day!  Our hearts are so full to have our baby girl forever!  Oh, and I made this little slide-show that we showed at the luncheon too - just another way to celebrate our girl!

Happy Halloween

Oh what a fun Halloween we had!

First little Halloween Ourfit

It's so fun to celebrate Maya's FIRST everything!  We are so lucky to be able to see the world through a whole new set of eyes as parents!

First visit to the Pumpkin Patch

Hanging out with her cousins

Celebrating Grandpa's birthday!
First time dressing up and first time carving pumpkins!

What a wonderful holiday!

Disneyland!

Welcome to our happy place!

Photo courtesy of our PhotoPass

We had so much fun on our trip!  It was so fun that it was hard to come back home!  It was a great way to spend our 4th wedding anniversary and celebrate our family!  Get ready for a picture overload!

Disneyland:

Maya was a great little traveler, the weather was perfect and we had a blast!

In front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle and at the Entrance to Disneyland. 

Me, Maya (as Tinkerbell), and Dumbo.

Us with the Walt & Mickey statue, and ToonTown

Our all-time favorite pic!  Makes me cry!
We hoped to find Princess Tiana and there she was the first day - they loved each other!

Disneyland was all decorated for Halloween!

Pluto and Maya loved each other!  He came over to her and got her attention,
she was so excited -- and he was so cute, let Maya grab is nose and face!

Maya got all dressed up for the Princess Lunch -- it was a riot!  Maya could spot the
Princesses across the room and complained until they got to her - then she was happy!

Shopping Fun!  You can't go to Disneyland and not shop your heart out in the great stores for all of the fun Disney items!

Of course we had to get Maya her first set of Disney ears!

California Adventure:

Maya was a good little napper - I think we wore her out good each day!

Cars Land was AWESOME!  Looks straight out of the movie!
Photo courtesy of our PhotoPass

I love our little family!

There were a lot of rides Maya could get on!  Maya thought she owned the place!

Our little Sleeping Beauty had no idea that Donald Duck came to say 'hi' to her. 

All-in-all it was a perfect trip!  We can't wait to start planning our next visit to Disneyland!

Maya is 5 months old!

Can you believe this?!?  How can our tiny babe already be 5 months old?  Time is flying by!

Here's a little of what we've been up to ... and a little of what we've got planned! ;-)

1. Maya started eating cereal at 4 months (loves it) and baby food at 5 months (LOVES it)!  2. She has the BEST personality - super fun, loves to smile and is very easy going.  3. Doing well at tummy-time, has rolled over a bunch from her tummy to her back and prefers to sit straight up rather than leaning back.  4. Smiles all the time and sleeps 9-10 hours/night! -- she is one happy babe.  5. Maya's favorite part of the day is bath time!  6. Can't get enough of play time - not only is she cute, she's strong too!  

We really can't get enough of our sweet girl - our life has changed in the most amazing way with her!

I'm back to work part-time so Maya gets to spend a couple of days with two of her favorite people - Gram and Aunt Nan!

Maya got a special phone call to let her know some future plans for our little family (see the video below)!

We are so excited - we can't wait to show her the happiest place on earth!