Cabin-day 2

We had a great couple days up at the cabin playing games, relaxing, taking lots of walks, and laughing a lot. A great way to spend some time as the end of summer is drawing near.


The view is gorgeous up here!

Beauty is all around!

The boys

The Larsen family. We love it when they come to hang out, they are like family to us.

Aww.. aren't my parents a cute couple.

Maya bein silly with her Uncle Carsen

Enjoying a great walk

Silly kids

Me with my parents

Grampy & Maya

Mama & Maya... the best duo ever :)

She was pretending like she was playing scrabble and was shoving her face with chocolate, thinkin I didn't see. ha ha. Sneaky lil thing.

Game time! She get it from her mama ;)

Cabin- day 1

Every summer we spend time up at our cabin up the canyon in the Utah mountains. It is soo beautiful, relaxing, and peaceful. One of my favorite places to be!! Maya loved every minute of it.

I love this place!

Maya and Carsen enjoying the swings.

My pretty girl :)

Maya loves being with her Grampy

Me and Taylor, one of the greatest people I know!

These crazy kids jumped in the water hole. The water was freezing!

I love being up here!

Father & Son, Rod and Alex

1-2-3...JUMP

Dad got the first ringer of the night playing horshoes! He won the first game and I WON THE SECOND GAME! My first time ever playing horseshoes too. It was all in the hand/throw technique. Thanks dad for teaching me! ;)

Carsen got the 2nd ringer of the night! Wahoo!

Best buds.... tryna act tough!

Campfire, smores, and good times!

My 2 year old BIG girl and her pretty panties.....

Pretty panties is just the trick to potty training Maya!!! She is quite infatuated with her pretty panties and we cannot go anywhere without her showing her panties off to whoever she can as she exclaims "I'm a big girl...look...look, my pretty panties!!" What started out as me snapping a few picture of her showing off her pretty panties to me has turned her into an obsessed flasher. Not necessarily what I had it mind for potty training, but hey, it gets her on the potty, so I can't really complain ;)

She also loves to show she is 2 years old by trying her hardest to point her 2 fingers. It is pretty funny to watch her do this.....such concentration, strained eyes, noise affects, twisted fingers, and then her "I did it" yell after she thinks she has accomplished it.

She is turning into such a BIG GIRL! I am loving every minute of it, and often pause and wonder where in the world has the time gone! Maya brings my life so much joy, so much purpose, I am soo blessed to be her mother!


Flashing queen doing her thing


My big girl is soo pretty


2 years old and counting.......

Love the look....trying so hard to do it! :)

Pretty panties are the BEST!!!

Gotta love her!

Summa Summa Summa Time...FUN!

We've had a great summer so far!

Maya loves to go swimming, feed the ducks, take walks, play at the park...basically anything outside she just LOVES! We are on day 5 of NO DIAPERS!! Thats right... we are officially potty training! She wears panties all day and is in pull ups at night time. She is doing great!! Maya is such a determined and independent lil girl and it has really helped with potty training her as she is in control, so she tells me when she needs to go and is on top of it! We are off to the store to buy more pretty panties as that seems to really help the excitement of it all :)

Hope the summer is going well for everyone! Here are some pictures of our summer so far.


Father's Day with Grampy. Maya sure loves him!


Cheesin it up with her dad on Father's Day


Jenny and her kids have been in town for about a month and we have really enjoyed them! The Lehi Pool is just awesome! My favorite (and I think Maya's favorite) by far!

Avery girl loves her goggles and is a great swimmer and just loves the water.

Maya was only comfortable in the water by herself at knee deep, anything more than that and she was clinging to me, oh my lil scaredy cat! It had been awhile since she had been in the water and this was her first time, but we have been swimming more since the Lehi Pool and she gets more brave and enjoys the water more each time. I'm so glad!

After a great day at the pool we had to get a picture of all the kids....but where's Hudson??!!

He was boycotting pictures.... this is the best I could do....

....but then I did manage to snap this picture, bribery works wonders! ;)

The girls, so cute!

***Update on the daycare situation- Maya is doing MUCH better already. We've had lots of talks and provide great incentive to behave at daycare and naturally she is behaving better. Hooray!!

Is it true?

No pictures, no funny stories, actually, this is a plea for HELP!!! You all know that Maya is "Heather reincarnated" as many of you like to put it. She is FULL of energy, sass, sweetness, strong will, determination, and......she likes things HER WAY! Did I mention stubborn??!!

On Monday of this week as I was picking up Maya at daycare, I asked Amber (my daycare lady) how Maya was today....the usual question every day that I pick her up. Some of the most common responses are 1) She didn't eat well today 2) She didn't sleep well today 3) She was so loving today 4) She is having trouble sharing with the other kids 5) She was my little helper today 6) She was great today (I LOVE this one) 7) She has been kinda whiny today 8) She was just okay today.....

BUT, I heard a new response on Monday..... "SHE IS MY MOST DIFFICULT CHILD!"

Eesh!!!

Continuing to talk to Amber about Maya being the most difficult child in her daycare she told me that Maya has gotten really physical, and it's not getting better, but worse. She pushes the other kids when they have a toy she wants, are sitting where she wants to sit, or just for no real reason at all. She throws things a lot, toys, cups, food, whatever is in her hand at the moment when she gets the urge to throw.....AND, she said that she is kinda the bully of the group! Maya is the only girl in the daycare as well. Granted, it is only a group of 5-7 kids on the days Maya is there, but all but 1 of the boys are older than her...and she is bullying all of them? Oh wow.

I was SHOCKED....I sat there thinking, is it true? Is my Maya really a bully, oh my gosh! I felt horrible. I am her mother, it is my responsibility to teach her how to act and treat others. What am I doing wrong? What can I do to help her? What is going on with her to make her act this way?

Monday night when we got home I sat down with Maya and talked to her about this, reminding her that pushing hurts people and its a big NO NO, and throwing is not okay, and explained to her why. I asked her about Colton (the 1 year old she pushed off his chair and he got a goose egg on his head that day), and she said "I love Colton mommy", and she even prayed for him that night, as she does many nights along with Amber and the other boys at daycare.

As I have talked to some people about this, I have been told, she is just acting like a normal 2 and a half year old, she'll grow out of it....

But is she really?

I am beginning to think that this may be the case of the "only child syndrome." I dont see this kind of behavior out of Maya when we are together, but then I got to thinking, at our house every single toy is hers, what she wants, she can pretty much get. If she wants to color, or play with her dolls, or with her blocks...she can switch from toy to toy and not have anyone she has to share with. Although I haven't seen her "bully behavior," I have seen her tendency to throw things, and to no avail she does still do this often.

This is where I turn to you for HELP!!

All my friends, family, blogging followers, HELP ME!!! If you've had an only child, or a bully of a child, or have any advice at all... I NEED IT!!!!

Maya really is such a sweet girl, so happy, and soooo sweet, but I fear that if I don't figure out how to help her filter through these other emotions and behaviors, that they will become an even greater problem, and I dont want that for my princess!!

**I have been reluctant to even post about this because what mother wants to advertise that their daughter is being a bully at daycare (sigh...) but I trust that someone out there has something valuable to say that can help me, so I'm counting on YOU! :)

My Smart Girl

Maya and I went to a graduation luau with some friends and she loved Afton's glasses! It was so cute when she put them on it's like she knew it made her studious and smart and she was making this "I'm smart face! " Too cute :)

He's Back!!!!

Isaac has been back a couple weeks now from Finland. We are sooooo happy to have him home! Maya was a little shy and reserved for the first 5 minutes at the airport but then warmed right up to him and they have picked up right where they left off. We are LOVING our time together and the warm weather has made it nice to go and enjoy the zoo and parks. Here are some fun pics of us since he has been back! Welcome home Isaac, it is great to have you back!!!


You think they look alike??!!

The happy couple

She loves to play peek-a-boo

We had a great time at Liberty Park downtown in Salt Lake feeding the ducks. The bridge was the perfect place for Maya to throw the bread to the ducks because they couldn't get too close to her. When we first got to the park we were at the edge of the lake throwing the bread to the ducks and a swarm of them starting to get out of the lake and surround us on the shore and this was a little too close for comfort for Maya. She freaked out!!! She was climbing up my leg to get away from them and was screaming hysterically. Isaac and I couldn't stop laughing at our scaredy-cat daughter. She has asked to feed the ducks just about every day so she must have not bee too traumatized.

A day at the zoo. She loved the train!

Maya is quite the daddy's girl

Us on the train (thanks Spence for stickin ur head in the pic!! ha ha)

The twins....

Spence & Navea brought their kids and spent the day with us at the zoo. The kids were in heaven!

She finally rides the merry-go-round without freaking out! YEAH!!! Last summer we took her to the city fair and it was her first merry-go-round ride and she was terrified and cried the whole time. A couple times since then we have tried to get her to ride at various places and she wouldn't but this year we have been to the zoo twice and she is happy and smiling the whole time!!! Yeah for Maya!