We took these pictures the day before Maya’s birthday (which was October 4th…) . I kept meaning to do a post that honored her, and well…October FLEW BY!
Well, things haven’t really slowed down, but I wanted to make sure I posted these before too much time had passed…
I just went back and reread last year’s birthday post, and so much of it is still spot on. Which proves that you will always be unapologetically YOU! At least I hope you will…
You are both equal parts incredibly sweet and cuddly yet fiery with a “HISS” and claws ready to pounce! Which…anyone who knows you, knows exactly what this last part looks like! 😉
You still love to sing, and have started making up your own songs. They are AMAZING!! Usually you don’t like me recording them, but I’ve managed to get a few! One of which you taped yourself in one of the last posts! Never mind me yelling at you in the beginning haha. I had no idea what you were doing…
You’ve also started making up your own jokes and riddles. I keep asking at the end…”Did you make that up??!!” Yup!
You still don’t like organized sports and prefer to just have FUN! I keep signing you up though, much to your frustration…When you try, you’re very good!
You do love to swim though, and really turned a corner over the summer!
You are still hands down one of my favorite people to be around! Our morning snuggles are the best part of my day, as are our bed time cuddles/reading. We’ve plowed through a number of series. Some of your favs are the “My Happy Life” series and Ivy and Bean. You read the first page and I finish the chapter. Then if you want another chapter we alternate pages. It’s been what’s made the biggest difference in your reading. Anything to stay up later! Kind of patting myself on the back for figuring that out 😉
We end every night blowing kisses to each other…you in bed, me at your door. Then, we fight over who loves each other more.
Ps- I do!
It was SO windy when we got to the beach, and I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get any shots! I actually LOVE how the wind made our hair crazy! Definitely good for a laugh!
I jumped in for a few 🙂
This is my fall uniform. Cozy knit, skinnies, and booties.
Looooove.
One of my favs!
On me…
Almost blew her over!
Because it was so windy, I couldn’t hear when the shutter would go off. SO…there’s a lot of me checking the remote.
And no shame in my game. People were walking by left and right this foggy morning…
But in between….don’t mind me!
But…my neighbors that walk by all the time…yeah, that’s still awkward.
Looooove!
And…I took another 
and then….so subdued…
But that LIGHT!???
I can’t even… 
Yeah, this is what I envisioned most of the images looking like haha.
Can you see what I wanted to do here?
I want to eat her up!!
One of my favs of us!!
The raw hem…done two different ways. Hers came that way, I DIY’d mine!
Her faces…hahaha.
These were one of the first flares that I chopped. They are my FAV!! And…the ones that started the chopping addiction ha!
Baby Birks!! DYING!
These next images are some of my absolute favs of us!
And….Maya totally schooling me on the art of posing!
Always a neighbor or FIVE that walks by…and usually when I’m taking pics ALONE!
And I CAN’T let these images of US go by…. 
And…ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
And the actual lifts themselves…. 😉
Second thing…we took these images a YEAR AND A HALF AGO!!!
BUT…I couldn’t NOT post these!!
LOVE!
One of my fav pics of Maya, and…you might have spotted this image in 
But these next two are favs too!!
Um…BOTH of our faces!
No caption needed.
I can’t even…
RARELY do I look at the camera (Tripod!), but I’m sure Maya was running around behind it!
Picking flowers for me… 🙂
LOVE HER!
Twirling and dancing is where she’s happiest…
BUT…you’d have to know my history with them to TRULY understand my fear!
And….these adorable piggy back shots?
AND…Maya frequently dances with my focus stand…Which miiiiight be why some of our shots
Oh, wait….no. I never give Maya my phone when I want to get a shot of just me!!
Looooove this next one!
Another day was “Fancy Fingernails”
Maya on a rock…is her comfort zone…
OMG. This is hands down my new favorite picture of Maya!
And yet…this is also so her.
Then…we got some together again as the sun was fully down.
We flipped it around and shot the other way…
But, it’s a lot harder to focus when things are heavily backlit…
I DID NOT GIVE UP THOUGH! hahaha.
And…here’s the picture I actually took with my phone as I finished Maya’s hair.
My parents were watching Maya, so we took these when I went to drop her off. YES, I brought my camera and tripod haha. And when we showed up, my mom was unintentionally totally matching us!
I mean… 🙂
Love this sequence of Maya. It’s SO HER!!
Then strutting her stuff!
And….doing a booty dance haha.
The dinner we went to was at a friends house that lives a few blocks from us, but they went totally all out because it was an auction fundraiser.
Their backyard is AMAZING!
And one of the dads that helped put the dinner together did this amazing seafood broil!
Are you kidding me??!!
And, yup! I logged my tripod with me here too haha. Again…it’s only a few blocks away 😉
As the sun went down and the drinks set in… 🙂
The stage Maya was (ok, IS) in right now…
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