Free wings for a year and escaping a madman!

There is a new restaurant that just opened up on the way to Boise called Buffalo Wild Wings. They opened up on thursday and they had a sign out that said, "Free Wings for a year to the First 100 customers." Ryan is a HUGE fan of wings so he was like, "we should go, but we will have to go early" Me myself, I dont really like them, plus I wasn't about to take maya out in the Freezing cold for hours since I knew we would have to wait in line. He said he was going to do it but I didn't believe him. However thursday came and he got up and was there by 8 in the morning (it opened at 11) and would you believe it...he was #72! Which I thought was rather funny because about 20 people had camped out all night to get it with there tents, and Ryan said the last person to be one of the 1st hundred was there at almost 9:00 o'clock. So Ryan gets free wings every week for a year.
On to my next story. We had taken Ryans mom out to Mai Tai for her birthday last night and it was so amazing! We got ready to leave, got in the car and ryan pulled out and merged into the right lane. He accidentally cut the guy off ( but it wasn't even that bad) but this guy wouldn't slow down even though we were all right at a red light. He kept reving his engine and blowing the horn forever at us...FINALLY the light changed and I thought, "Good, we have gotten rid of him" so we kept driving and Ryan realized we were on the wrong road so he turned into a parking lot to get on the crossroad. Then we realized that he was still following us! He was yelling and honking his horn at us and I started to get really scared, he was a bit behind us so Ryan wasn't too worried cause he said we could just pull onto the road from the other side of the parking lot. So we drove over there only to find that there was no way out...then I looked behind us and the guy had parked in the middle of the Parking lot and was running straight for us! (there was no one parked in this area and there were also no lights)
I was so freaked out and started yelling " Ryan, get out of here! He is coming after us!" so we went to the left around a building and as we started to drive towards the road he ran out in front (that was one fast guy!) charging straight at our car! I really think if we had kept driving he would have jumped on our car and started bashing our windows in or we would have accidentally hit him, so Ryan stopped and rolled down his window just a bit and this guy screamed at us for a few minutes, calling us every name in the book and lucky for us-he left after that. I was so scared, I mean...these days, you never know who has a gun on them and who doesn't. He was only about 17 or 1 8 and kinda punkish. Ryan said he didn't feel too threatened by him and thought it best that he just let him vent for a second- also there was no real way out of the parking lot without him catching up because all the exits had lights. Im just glad we are all safe and now...24 hours later I can laugh at it. I only have two words to say for that kid: Anger Management!

I want the WHOLE bed!

Maya reading her bedtime story with daddy-all she wants to do is eat it!

The notorious "bunny suit" Maya hates this thing, but it certainly keeps her warm enough. If she cries in it, she gets really sweaty on her head, its kind of funny.

Me and Ryan at my brothers basketball game.
Wendy holding Maya at the game sitting next to Chris...(although you cant see his face-sorry!)
One of the first times Maya got up on her hands and knees, she isn't crawling yet, but she is doing so good and we are so proud!

......A wondrous thing has happened and while I might be jumping the gun a little, I think it is safe to say that we have figured out how to get some sleep. When we moved we were back and forth and my family and then his family and Maya wasn't able to sleep good at all. She got too cold and so I would end up just bringing her in bed with me. From this came the BAD habit of having to sleep with us for most of the night.

I actually enjoyed it for the first part until Maya decided that sharing was just too difficult for her. We were cramping her space so she came up with the perfect solution-kick mommy out! I would bring her in and she would kick and scream and finally I would get so frustrated that I would sit up and say, "what do you want child?" as she would roll right into my spot and fall soundly asleep. I thought to myself, "if you have to have the warm part of the bed so be it, as long as I get some sleep." (words of a desperate parent) But whenever I would try laying down next to her she would push me away and scream! It got so bad that about 5 nights ago, she was so infuriated with my "trying to actually sleep in my own bed" that she cried and cried and wouldn't go back to sleep, wouldn't eat, but once again as I sat up she slept soundly. I spent the WHOLE NIGHT sleeping at the foot of the bed!!! Ryan noticed I was down there when he realized he kept kicking something (I was too tired to notice) after that night I decided something had to change.

     We have been letting Maya cry herself to sleep for naps the past few weeks and while that was quite the ordeal, the pay off has been wonderful. We never wanted to let her cry during the night because we live in an apt with a neighbor above us and you can hear everything. I had talked to my friend Nikki a few days earlier who had the same situation and said that she just let her baby cry anyways, and that it was working great. Thanks Nik for the help!

     We let her cry through the night 4 nights ago for the first time and she slept for 5 hours, then 6 more. Last night she slept a whopping 10 hours straight!!!!!! I feel like a new woman, this is so much better than Maya waking up every hour or two. I love it! And the best part of it is.....I have my side of the bed back. :) 

6 months old

Maya had her half birthday yesterday, I cant believe how fast it is all going, she is starting to sit up well and overall is a much happier, more content baby. We had her Pictures taken in her christmas dress that she got from her Uncle Guy. We love the dress, but what we love most is the fur headband.

She wasn't very cooperative for the pictures, she always had her hand in her mouth or was trying to roll off the set. The shoes were a size too big so between all these and the headband slipping off, it was a little frazzling. Luckily her aunt Kaisa was there and with the help of a teddy bear she was able to get about two smiles out of her. Hey....we take what we can get. We've decided she hates cameras and video cameras. She will be smiling and giggling but as soon as you pull one of those out she gives you a cold hard stare. :)

Christmas Fun!

Maya opening her first present.

Ryan with a few of his christmas presents.

Maya with her first stocking filled with baby food and a rattle.

Me and ryan on christmas eve!

The nativity scene!

Christmas has always been one of the most special times of the year for me. My family has always had so many traditions so it makes it memorable to try to pass some of those things on to our new starting family. Luckily we were able to spend christmas with both families since we are so close. We spent Christmas eve at my family were we did the annual nativity scene. Last year I got to be mary since I was pregnant ( which is a rare occasion since my little sister wendy is what we call a Mary hog-she has to be her EVERY year!) But this year was special because for the first time in forever we got to have a real baby play Jesus-Maya! I wasn't sure how that would go over since one of the lines describing Jesus from the primary book is "No crying he makes..."

Things went well and maya was asleep for half of it, (which is probably why it went so well) but we had a great time. Probably more than Christmas morning for me, christmas eve is the most special for me.

Christmas morning started at 6:45-my siblings couldn't talk my father down any more...Maya had woken up at 6:00 so she was already getting a bit tired since that is way earlier than normal for her. I suppose you could call me a sentimentalist as I had envisioned My daughters first christmas and how she would have so much fun playing with wrapping paper and boxes while I candidly take a thousand pictures. Lets see, I think she opened ( and by opened I mean lightly touched the wrapping paper) one present and then she was crying and ready to go back to sleep. So much for my "perfect envisionment" I am learning more and more to never plan on things going a certain way when you have kids...it just doesn't seem to happen.

Luckily after her nap she was in better spirits. Ryan absolutely spoiled me for christmas so did my family and his. It was very exciting. I got some really good presents for Ryan that he loved, and he is a kind of hard to shop for because he always tells me-I dont want anything. Just get something for yourself....yeah right!

Around noon we made it His family's house where we did presents and spent some good quality time together. It was wonderful to be with them and they cooked us an amazing Christmas dinner! It has been nice because I am learning a lot of cooking tips from his Grandmother. She is an amazing cook. His Aunt Mary flew in the next day and we stayed at Ryans house for almost a week. It was wonderful to spend so much time with family-especially Mary since we rarely get to see her. One of our favorite presents is a Faux fur blanket that looks like bear fur from Ryans mom. It is so soft and cuddly and that combined with our love sac makes watching movies very enjoyable. Thanks to all the family for the wonderful gifts and time spent together. We love you very much!
Now it is past New years and the only two resolutions that I really want accomplished is to scrapbook for maya, Ryans mission pictures, Wendys for her graduation present, and finish Thailand and China. The second is to learn to make wheat bread (which Im doing today) and learn to incorporate things like barley, flax, and more wheat into our diets. I got several vegetarian cookbooks that I am VERY excited about. Wish me luck with entering the new year more healthy.