Macy's May Faces

I cannot believe May is over already! Were has this year gone?! I've decided to post the loose pictures that haven't already been blogged. Most were taken with my phone camera so please excuse the low quality. It's so easy and convenient to capture Macy's life with a camera phone since it's always with me. Better low quality than nothing at all right? I know you all enjoy seeing Macy's face as much as I do :) 

We went to Georgetown cupcake with some friends. Macy did have a good time even though it doesn't look like it. We went to the park afterwards and Macy had a blast.

For a few days Macy chose to drag around this piece of rope. She called it her puppy and would say, "Hold on tight puppy" as she pulled it.

We took and mommy daughter trip to the Natural History Museum downtown to see the butterfly exhibit. She loved the giant elephant in the rotunda area.

Her second favorite thing was watching the clear elevators go up and down at the cafe.

I think she had more fun outside jumping off the ledge than she did seeing the butterflies. She can really jump off now!

Macy and Lily reading books in the rocking chair. Macy is very good and reciting the actual story in her own words.

Even though this picture is blurry I love it so much. Macy looks so grown up in her ruffle shirt and plaid shorts. She loves the pockets.

Macy has figured out how to open my lip gloss and loves to put it on. One time I caught her eating it so now when she gets it she tells me, "No eat." She's a fast learner. I love how she puts it all over her face as well as her lips.

We did a Mother's day project that Jill came up with for my mom. Each child held a sign and the signs said "We love you mom! Happy Mother's Day!" It turned out really cute since all of her kids are in different states. I thought Macy's face was so sweet in this picture.

Still likes to paint!

 We also did a photo project for Dorothy for Mother's day. We all held a sign saying why we love her. Of course this was Macy's sign. She thought she was being so funny to hold it upside down.

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

We had so much fun traveling down to Williamsburg we decided to travel again this past weekend! This time we went northeast with our friends Steve, Katrina, and Grant. They are off the beaten path travelers so we drove to a small town in Maryland named Chestertown and then over to Dover, DE.

We started bright and early Saturday morning at 6 a.m. since the traffic going over the Bay Bridge can be horrendous. We had no problem at all with traffic and arrived at our destination at 8:30 a.m., just in time for breakfast. I think Macy was still waking up the on our drive because she was great the entire time.


Chestertown is a very small town that has a Tea Party Reenactment (not the Boston Tea Party, apparently they did the same thing in Chestertown) and a little parade. Macy had never seen a parade before and loved it. She especially loved the marching bands and got very excited when ever there were horses. It was great to get there not too early before the parade and get a great seat right in front in the shade. Small towns do have nice perks :)

The city looks like old town Williamsburg or Nauvoo but is a functioning town unlike those other two. We were curious how such an old town was well maintained because we've driven through many old towns that are broken down and look terrible. Memorial Day weekend is probably the most crowded it ever gets and even then it wasn't crowded. Except the three restaurants got filled quickly :) We would like to go back in "off-season" to see what it's like.

A lot of people in the parade were dressed up in period dress.

Macy captivated by the parade.

trying to climb a tree

"Hey, how do I get up there?!"

Enjoying lemonade. One of the few times she sat in the stroller.

She insisted I take a picture of her dirty foot.

Not even 2 minutes later...

After that exhausting (and hot) part of the day the kids got a good nap in the car while we drove to Dover. Once Macy was reassured that we were in deed following Grant's car she quickly fell asleep. Every time we got in the car that weekend she made sure we were following Grant and if we were still driving when she wake up saying, "Follow Grant!"

 We toured the old State House in Delaware. It being the first ever State House where the state's government would meet, since Delaware was the first state and all.

Surprise, surprise Macy didn't want to look at the camera.

Gotcha anyways!

Another candid face.

Macy and Grant listening intently- for about 2 minutes.

Macy loved to pretend writing with the quills.

We enjoyed swimming at the hotel and a great dinner at Franco's Pizza. Apparently Dover has a stigma of being a bad place to find good food but we got lucky with Franco's. Macy loved the stromboli and ate a huge piece.

Macy usually sleeps in her own room, even on trips, but not at the hotel in Dover. We were a little worried how she would do being able to see us outside of the porta-crib. However, she was so wiped out that she was requesting I put her in the crib just after me singing one song. Usually I have to sing 5 or 6! She didn't wake up at all and I don't even think she noticed we were in the same room because she was so tired. The best part was in the morning we heard her take a sip from her milk cup. She tossed it down and said, "Yucky!" It was also cute to hear her talk herself to sleep.

Sunday morning we headed off to church in Dover. It was a branch but seemed to have a lot of people in Sacrament. A member of the branch presidency introduced himself and asked how he can get us to stay there. We told him to give us a job offer we can't refuse.

Next we went to the Air Force Museum on the Dover Air Force Base. It was fun because we could actually go inside some of the planes. Macy was afraid of going inside the military planes. Probably because they were rather dark and didn't have much inside other than the very basic seats along the walls of the plane.

Macy was more interested in the bird poop on the plane.

We went inside Air Force Two.

 The best part was the lunch and dancing show after the museum. We sat at tables outside of the museum and there was old time big band music playing for our enjoyment. After eating Macy and Ja had a great time dancing around to the music. Grant was pretending he was a dump truck.

Look at the air Macy got! That's like 2 inches off the ground!

Maybe two minutes after leaving the museum.

After the museum, we drove over to Lewes beach in Delaware. Macy was still afraid of going in the water (there weren't even waves) but she loved pouring water onto the sand and mixing it all together. She also loved "washing" her hands in a bucket. She would get them sandy then say, "Macy wash hands" and rub them together in the bucket. She did this for 20 minutes. We didn't get to the beach until maybe 4 p.m. but it was the perfect time to go. It was a very hot day so we missed the peak sun time and people were leaving for the day so we were able to get a parking spot. 

Enjoying a snack

 We played for a few hours then ate our picnic dinner. After eating, Grant and Macy had a blast chasing each other in the sand and playing with all sort of debris in the sand.

 This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. Since Macy and Grant were following each other we aren't sure whose idea it was to climb through the life guard stand that was on its side. We look over and notice that neither of them had moved in over a minute (which is rare) so as Ja walks closer he can hear Macy saying, "Macy stuck!" and Grant saying, "I'm stuck!" (He's better at pronouns.) Of course we had to snap a picture before helping them out. I love thinking about them and their brains thinking that climbing in here was a good idea. I wonder who got stuck first. I also love that it looks like Macy has a really long torso.

We left the beach around 8:30 p.m. I didn't want to leave because we had such a fun weekend and Macy REALLY didn't want to leave. She kept saying, "Macy no home. Macy hotel." I told her that we have to go home because it's getting dark. She replied, "No dark. Macy sun eyes." She hates the sun in her eyes so she really didn't want to go if she actually wanted the sun to be in her eyes. Some how we were able to talk her into getting in her car seat but she assured us with "Macy no sleep. Macy hotel. Macy no sleep." I said wouldn't it be funny if this were the one time she didn't sleep in the car, when we won't be getting home until 11:30 p.m. However, she was out in only a few minutes and slept the whole 3 hour drive. She did wake up when we got to our apartment but fell asleep quickly and easily in her crib. 

We packed so much in only 2 days! We had a blast and loved following Grant around :)

Monday we finished off a great weekend with a family BBQ at Trevor's and swimming afterwards. Macy didn't want to go home after that either. Before the BBQ Macy took a 4 1/2 hour nap! Proof that she had a tiring weekend. 

Macy the Painter

We recently acquired an awesome art easel for Macy. A friend's neighbor was going to consign it for only $25 but gave it to me for $15. I ended up paying her $20 because that's all I had in my wallet. When I got home I looked it up online and saw that they cost around $170!! I think I got a really good deal!

Macy has always loved coloring and crafts so I thought an easel would be a great addition in our home. Awhile ago we were looking into one at Ikea and this one is 100 times better and more sturdy. It's actually quite heavy because it's real wood. The chalkboard on the other side is fun too but Macy prefers the painting and dry erase board.

Macy was excited about it and when I bought her paint all she wanted to do was paint! At first she only used 2 colors at a time because I didn't have the no spill cups and two was all I could hold at once. She didn't seem to mind and loved picking out the colors. I would get one and she would get one. We've been going through a lot of paper to say the least.

She's been painting the most lately and produces quite a few paintings. I am so proud of her and her scribble painting since they are her first and she loves doing it. I couldn't get myself to throw them away so I wanted to come up with a way to preserve them without having 50 3-foot long paintings all over the house. I decided to take pictures of them and blog them instead! Here are some of my favorite early Macy time-period pieces:

Here are the latest paintings now that I bought the no-spill cups she can use more than one paint at a time.

The really funny thing is whenever I ask her what she's painting she always says "horsey." I have no idea where she gets that because we don't really talk about horses, nor have we ever. She doesn't have books with horses either. Oh, well it's just her creative imagination.

Here's a short video of her painting. 

Besides the actual painting, she also loves to take the lids of the paint cups and then put the brushes in. Then she takes the brushes out and puts them into the cup of water to wash them out. She tells me we have to wait for the paint to dry and proceeds to tell me all about the paint cups and lids. It's so cute and I love listening to what her little brain is thinking. Most of the time I can pick out a few words here and there of what she is saying. She also tells me what color I'm allowed to paint with, most of the time it's yellow. I ask for another but she says no.

Our Song Box

Two different events happened that led me to make our "song box." First, I was with Macy in a different ward's nursery. It was singing time and the leader pulled out pictures of the temple for the kids to hold while everyone sang "I love to see the temple." Macy loved this and held it proudly over her head. Then the leader gave each kid an Easter egg with beans inside to shake while they sang "Popcorn Popping." I knew Macy loved this because she loved shaking the eggs in her rec center music classes too. Second, I was thinking of ideas to keep us occupied inside for this really hot summer and after the baby comes when I'm not ready to go outside yet. Since Macy loved the nursery singing-time so much I decided to come up with a few props to use while singing.

Here are the songs we  have so far in our box. I'm planning to add more later and when supplies become available. I got the clip art from google and laminated all the paper pieces. Luckily I had a bunch of popsicle sticks waiting to be used.

• Wheels on the bus- I used velcro to attach the little driver, horn, baby, mommy, daddy, and people into the bus windows. Macy takes them off before singing and we sing them in the order she decides to put them on. Once I finally buy some brads I'm going to attach wipers to the windows and wheels that actually spin.
• 5 little monkeys- Macy can actually sing most of the words to this song. I put velcro on the monkeys and we take them off as they bonk their head.
• Yankee Doodle- We have 3 feathers and Macy hands them out to me and herself (and Ja too, even if he isn't around she'll set one aside for him). She dances around in circles while I sing and her contribution is macaroni (which she pronounces as RAC-a-roni!").
• Twinkle twinkle little star- Macy spins in circles while we sing.
• Jesus wants me for a sunbeam- (of course the loves to yell sunbeam)
• Old MacDonald- I have 8 or so animals. Macy caught on very quickly and loves to sing "e-i-e-i-OOOOOOOO!" She shakes her head a little during the "O" part.
• I like to eat apples and bananas- She uses the "shakey eggs" for this song. I originally wanted to get fake apples and bananas but the first time we used the eggs I asked Ja what song he wanted to sing and he choose this song. From then on Macy only lets me sing apples and bananas with the eggs. She calls it the "Juice song."

• A, B, C's- Macy can only recognize M for Macy but she likes to point to the other letters as I sing them. She can find an M anywhere and reads all sorts of signs while we are driving because all the sudden she'll yell, "M! Macy!" I look around and sure enough there's an M on a sign somewhere.
• I like to look for rainbows
• I love to see the temple- I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually getting tired of this song. I sing it about 10-15 times a day. It's the only song Macy wants sung to her when she's going to bed. Over, and over, and over.
• I belong to the church of Jesus Christ- It's a name tag she got from nursery
• 5 little ducks went out to play- Her contribution is quack, quack, quack.
• I know an old lady who swallowed a fly- I used velcro to attach all the little animals she eats. Macy's favorite is the spider because it wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her. She loves to wiggle for that part.

I knew after putting all the effort into making all these things Macy could either love it or not care about it at all. I'm so happy to say she loves it and gets excited whenever I suggest we sing using the props. She sings and runs around in circles the whole time. It's so adorable and I'm very glad I took the time and effort into making it for her.

I would like to add some quilt batting in the shape of a snowman for the song "Once there was a snowman." We can make it grow tall and smash it to the ground for small, small, small. I was also thinking about adding chop sticks or something similar for the song "This old man."

Our First Family of 3 Vacation

Why have we waited so long to go on a vacation with just the three of us?! We had such a great time and it's so much easier to go places with only 3 people (as opposed to the DeVore clan of 100)!

We drove down to Williamsburg, VA Thursday night after Ja got home from work. It's about 3 hours away and Macy did great on the drive. We stayed at the Marriott at Ford's Colony (we love free hotel points!). Macy loved the hotel and kept saying, "Macy no home. Macy hotel!"

She loved playing with the phone. I don't think she's ever seen one
with a cord before!

Friday we got to Busch gardens right as it opened at 10 and stayed until about 6 p.m. It was so empty! Macy never had to wait in line for a ride. Ja didn't either. He was able to walk right onto the big roller coasters he wanted to ride. We watched great shows and ate great food. Macy's favorite show was the Pet Shenanigan's show with dogs, cats, a rat, and other animals doing tricks. It was actually very funny and entertaining. The rest of the day she asked for more puppy. She sat still through all the shows because they all involved a lot of music and dancing.

There is something magical about watching your child riding rides for the first time. The look of fear on her face turning to amusement is very exciting to watch. We were both so proud of her for riding the big girl rides all by herself. All that weekend she would say, "Macy big girl! Macy big girl rides!" She even remembered which were her favorite and requested to go on them again. I'm still so proud of her and smile thinking about her on the rides. If she got a little scared she would look around and see her other peers smiling and laughing so she would too. It was so cute. Macy and I went on the tea cup ride and it actually was quite fast even without me spinning the cup. She definitely got scared so I held her close to me and started saying, "Wheee! YAaay!! Whee!" She noticed I was having fun so she started saying it along with me and then had more fun on the ride. She would scream like that on other rides too. Well, not really screaming as it was pretty quiet but that was her way of saying she was having fun.

The first ride of the day: the tram from the parking lot to the front gate. She LOVED it!

We got a lot of video of her on the rides so I'll have to make a video to share.

The tickets we bought got us into Busch Gardens and Water Country U.S.A. Saturday was the first open day of the season for Water Country and it was totally empty! Ja did all his favorite water rides multiple times. Macy and I mostly did the lazy river which she loved. As soon as we got out she would want to go again. The best part of the day was getting Macy to go on more of an adult ride. We wouldn't think she'd be ok with it because she had to sit by herself in a little section of the raft. I was in front and Ja was in back. She did it though and the ride was actually pretty fast. She got a little scared but didn't cry. We were so proud! She eventually grew less scared of the water and walked into the pool up to her chest with Ja. We would tell her she was so brave and such a big girl!

Water country doesn't have as many kid rides, and it was just a tad cold, so we decided to head back over to Busch Gardens. Since we had done everything we wanted the day before this was just a fun and relaxing day. We did all of Macy's favorite rides again and the puppy show again. She was having the time of her life and Ja and I had such a great time watching her grow up before our eyes.

We let her play in the water area of Sesame Street right before we left. She got soaked I didn't bring an extra shirt which is why she has no shirt on :) She was out cold before we even left the parking lot. It was a busy and fun day!

This was the best time of the year to go to Busch Gardens. The weather was perfect and it was empty! It's our favorite amusement park now. It's so beautiful and great for little kids. Disneyland is fun too but it's always crowded and so expensive! This park is great because it's geared for teens with their big roller coasters but has great kid rides too. Most of the people there were teens so they kept out of our way :)

Even though Macy probably won't remember this trip and the fun time she had it was a great bonding experience for us all. It gave Ja and I great memories to share and we will always look fondly on the weekend and what a great little girl Macy is (I mean, big girl).