pennsylvania maynard

cate just said to me, "don't you think pennsylvania is a pretty name?"

"sure, cate. so pretty. do you know that's a state, like california?"

"that's the name of a state?" cate asks, with complete astonishment.

"yes it is."

"if we have another baby girl {editor note: no, this is NOT an anouncement}, can we name her pennsylvania?"

all I have to say is no other maynards better steal that name from us - it's ours! ;)

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween has started out nicely...we had bagels with pumpkin cream cheese and we're going to carve a jack-o-lantern in a few minutes. Cate also recorded some lovely Halloween songs to brighten your spooky day!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9s8sy2XpoY

I'll take better pictures of the girls in their costumes later today when we're all dressed up...but here they are at Cate's preschool this week! As you can see, Cate was very happy that day...but Anna was having a rough day. Maybe because her mom smashed three of her fingers in the car door? That couldn't be it, could it?

And here are the girls in their Halloween shirts on the preschool pumpkin patch field trip!

prepare to be thrilled...

nate's brother jake's girlfriend mary is awesome. we love her. we always knew she was cool. but now she's proven to be far too cool for our family. check it out!



mary is in front, second row, on the right, olive dress and dark hair. you are frighteningly awesome, mary.

if this doesn't make you smile...

...I don't know what will. :)

(sorry it's out of focus. moments like these are better captured fuzzy than not at all!)

The Pumpkin Patch!

We made our annual trek to a faraway farm to pick pumpkins! Here in Menlo Park we like to drive down to the coast to Arata's Pumpkin Farm. They have tons to do, and everything is set up with hay bales and hand painted signs, so it's really cute instead of ugly and cheesy.

Anna's favorite part was probably walking through the corn field. She would just laugh so hard plowing her way through. She walked around carrying that tiny pumpkin a lot of the time...oh my goodness, how can she be so cute? Oh, one more thing I don't want to forget...whenever we'd say something about the "pumpkin patch," she would say "PATCH! PATCH!"

Cate has always been a champ at getting her face completely dirty. It's very endearing.

This was the PERFECT spot for some pictures. Too bad Cate takes after her dad and can't handle the sun...and Anna simply refused to look at the camera.

I do love this one.
We joined a bunch of friends from playgroup at the farm. We drove down with Michelle and Thomas Garff (Cate and Thomas are really good buds, it's SOOO cute). I just love this picture of them! Sad that big brother Jackson was at school and missed out on the fun.

The girls got to do pony rides. They were both unbelievably relaxed, it was great. Cate said this was her favorite part of the day.

Anna on her noble steed.
(I don't even mind that that guy is in the picture...he was so kind and good with the pony and the kids. He was telling me about how long each of the ponies had been doing rides, etc...it was cute.)

In addition to pony rides, we decided to try out the hay bale maze. I've never done one and for some reason was very intrigued by it. Well, it totally lived up to my expectations! The maze at this farm is HUGE and very well done, completely with hidden doors! Michelle and I were split up for a while (Michelle had Cate & Thomas, I was with Anna)...neither one of us could figure it out and we were in there for a WHILE. We gave up and decided to go in through the exit to see where we were messing up...believe it or not, it was still really hard even backwards! Kind of surprising. Anyway, Michelle and I had fun, Cate & Thomas loved it, and Anna had a blast...she was seriously SO CUTE the whole time.
(if you want to see the above picture better, just click on it...they're so cute.)

move over bob dylan...

anna's been eating crispix a lot for breakfast lately. this morning I decided to mix it up, so I pulled out the cheerios and said, "do you want cheerios today?" anna responded, "Yes!" then she started singing...an original song!

"I, love, yeh-yeh-yo" (in case you want to sing along, "I" "love" and "yo" are held out a little longer.) she sang her little song over and over. seriously, the next mozart? or at least the next bob dylan? I think so.

for the record...I'm not entirely sure if she was saying she loves cheerios or cereal...she says them both exactly the same. but that's alright, can anyone understand what bob dylan is saying?

the other morning she was laying in bed between nate and I...I was trying to find something and talking about how I couldn't find it. anna said, "what happened?" it was so funny.

oh - one more thing - yesterday when I was getting her dressed, I took off her diaper and she was standing up, then she started moving her hips in circles, very shakira-like. it was so funny...then she grabbed her bum and said, "da poop." okay, this may just be funny to her parents, but honestly, it was so so funny.

tooth update...#8 popped through this week...one in the back, which is totally out of order. not only are her teeth slow, they're confused.

Family Prayer

Cate's opening to her prayer tonight: "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. You're welcome that we went to church today..."

Welcome Maddox Hans Wallin!

I can't believe I haven't posted the latest Wallin news...my brother Christian and his wife Cora had their first baby a few short weeks ago! Maddox Hans Wallin is as cute as can be and the whole family is on cloud nine. We love you little Maddox...wish we were in NJ so we could hold you!!!

Wacky Pictures of Anna

Our own little Draco Malfoy.

Anna put this outfit together all by herself. She has a good eye, don't you think?

Step Aside, Michael Jordan