A Nice September Day

Maylee is quiet mobile now and exploring all the time!  On this day she enjoyed learning to walk on the slope of our side yard and practice going up and down our steps.  She also loves to swing!

 

 

 

Maylee's 1st Birthday

Maylee turned one on Friday, September 10th but we celebrated in Moscow on Saturday so that our relatives wouldn't have to drive all the way up to our house...plus, people could see my parent's new house.  We went down to Moscow Friday night and stayed up until midnight helping Mom unpack stuff.  Saturday morning I was totally shocked to find Shelly and Brother come out of the other guest room!!  What a wonderful and unexpected surprise!!

We chose a killer whale theme since that is the one thing we know that Maylee loves!  We also gave her a stuffed animal killer whale scented with coconut.

 

 

We put Maylee in a kiddie pool lined with a cheap table cloth (easy clean up).  She was amazed when everyone started singing Happy Birthday to her.  She put her toe in the cake first and it took her a while to realize she could eat it.  After she ate (mostly played with) her cake, I wrapped her up and took her straight to the tub.  She had a blast!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After her bath, she went right back to playing and entertaining her 30+ guests!  It was a great party and she was a trooper to have a great attitude the whole time!  (The nap right up until party time helped.)

 

 

Maylee also enjoyed the chocolate chip cookie that Kathy W. gave her...

 

 

2010 BBQ Days

We went down for BBQ Days to visit with family and so Kev could see some old high school friends who were in town.  We pulled into town 10 minutes before the parade started. Maylee enjoyed watching the floats...check out her facial expressions!  Maybe next year she will understand the excitement of gathering candy.

Maylee with Paternal Great-Grandparents

Wrestling with Uncle Wes and cousins...

Where's Aunt Patty???

 Maybe she will make it to her 26th class reunion...Parade starts at 11:00 every year! :-)

WALKING!!

Maylee started officially walking on August 24th!!  On Friday, August 17th I was working in my classroom to have it ready before we went over to the wedding.  She surprised me by using a bear crawling position to stand up without using anything for help in the middle of my room! Then she would take one step forward to reach a table for treats that I set out for her.  On the 24th we went to Moscow and stayed the night at Wes & Patty's house because Cinder was staying with them while we went to the wedding.  Maylee must have been excited to see her cousins because she was showing off how she could stand on her own and then would take two steps towards them!  At the hotel, she reached a high mark of 11 steps before falling.  On Labor Day weekend, she reached a new high of 28 steps and is getting faster!  Now, she is picking up speed, waddling all over the place, and loving it! The one negative she is finding about walking is Cinder's tail wagging height...it is right at her head level and sometimes takes her down.
We put a poll up on our blog when Maylee was just a couple months old for people to vote whether they think she will walk before she turned one.  The results were 63% thought she would walk before her birthday so most were correct!

Kevin & Shelly's Wedding

The wedding was beautiful!  Great weather and a good time!  Shelly is officially in the family so now we can share our secrets with her.  (wink)  We traveled over two days before the wedding.  Thursday was my birthday but also a day we celebrated lunch with Shelly and got our nails done.  She surprised me with a cake at a restaurant.

 The Rehearsal

They say they weren't stressed.

After rehearsal we had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Portland.  We had great views of the river and Maylee loved watching the boats and kissing the window.  She also had a good time flirting with Grandpa!

The Wedding

The wedding took place at the gorgeous Pomeroy Farms located north of Battle Ground, Washington. We took wedding pictures prior to the ceremony, which there were many neat settings on the farm for the pictures.  They were very relaxed during the photo session and had fun with a pitch fork found in the barn.

Shelly's "something borrowed" was the same handkerchief of my great-grandma's that I used for my wedding.

The Reception

The reception was set up not too far from the ceremony site.  After dinner we took more fun wedding photos on the farm.

 The "Spangler Cousins" - I should have had someone else take the picture so I could be in it.

She partied pretty hard and then crashed!

The Hotel & Pool

The closest hotel was in Battle Ground, but it was new and had a pool.  Maylee loved the pool!  Once when we were getting ready to go down to the pool, I asked her where her boat was (thinking she didn't know what I was talking about).  But, then she crawled to the other side of our hotel room, grabbed her boat, sat up, and then said "Aaaaaa" while shaking it! She amazes us everyday!!

 The morning of the wedding...the groom looks happy and relaxed!

Gift Opening the Next Day

They really liked the personalized mirror from family friend Mona.

After Grandma June passed away in January, the family found an afghan that she made for Kevin & Shelly.  Mom wrapped it up and they were both teary eyed after opening it.

Family friend, Kathy W., was a reader at the wedding and gave them a neat cross with the verse she read.

They also really liked the personalized stockings that I made them. Kevin's is a hunting Santa - Santa is packing heat!  Shelly's has Mrs. Clause wearing soccer cleats while riding a moose because she likes moose and plays for the semi-pro soccer team called Portland Rain.

Look out! (I think Shelly handling knives is making her husband nervous! Wedding cake, gifts, yikes!!!)

All in all, we had a great trip over to the Portland-Vancouver area and enjoyed all the wedding events!