7 months | 27November – 26 Dec

The start of Maywen’s 7th month brought in her first Thanksgiving.
We had a quite time of it here at home. First bites of turkey were well received.
You could say she gobbled it up.

From MIM 7 months 27 nov 26 dec

Winter was well under way and just to prove it, it snowed.
This made for lots of indoor time and Maywen was able to roll from her back to her belly.
Now having master belly to back she had a great time rolling over and over, that is until I tried to record it.
Then every time she’d stop doing it.

As with most places, Portland has a street of homes that light up for the holidays.
Jim and I try to make it over every year to take a look so this year we thought Maywen might like it.
After all, she loves lights. Only problem too much snow walking it is the only way.
Not having a sleigh makes for some interesting experimentation.
In the end I just put on the mobi and carried her, which worked for her, such a happy baby.

From MIM 7 months 27 nov 26 dec

For more picutres click here:

MIM 7 months 27 nov 26 dec

25 Dec | Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas

From Christmas 2008

Our plans to drive up to Seattle changed due to so much snow.
With the Snowpocalypse upon us Christmas was spent at home.
Maywen was sweet she liked the lights on the tree but, needed help opening her presents.

For more pictures click here:

Christmas 2008

We hope this letter finds you healthy, happy, and eagerly awaiting 2009!

This year seems to have gone by particularly quickly! With that in mind, please feel free to just read the summery of our year...or if you have the time and inclination the details are below!

Summary: Our year has been consumed with all things baby, yay!! We were fortunate enough to have visited, and received visits, from many family and friends that we adore. Except for your typical colds and such, we have been generally healthy (knock on Christmas tree!). Jim started working from home in his new job in September and is enjoying the work and the commute very much! There has been a bit of slowdown in real estate, which has worked out nicely for Elena since she is able to spend more time with Maywen! We’re very much looking forward to a fantastic 2009 and wish the same to you! We will have lot’s of positive changes that we will share later (...no Moms, we’re not having another baby)!

The long winded tale: The beginning of the year was spent prepping and waiting for our girl. One of the highlights for us was the baby shower in April. What a full house we had! It was a special day surrounded by such wonderful people. Thank you so much for those who were able to make it, especially the large contingent that made the trip from Seattle. You ladies made the day memorable and I’ll always be thankful!

Maywen Isabella MacPhee joined our family on May 27 and has just rolled with all the craziness we put her through ever since. Her visitors started right away with special trips made by her Grandparents, Aunts, and many other family and friends...thank you all so much!

Since we did not know the best time to travel with an infant; we figured the sooner the better! So she started traveling at 2 months and between then and now she’s done a lot. We had her camping in eastern Oregon in July. Spent a few days meeting Jim’s family in Washington and hit the beach in Kona in August. In September, with Jim on a business trip; Elena took Maywen to meet more family in Atlanta and Alabama (Thanks to Sister Eva for hosting us, we look forward to making the trip out again soon :)! With five states down, who knows where she’ll pop up next...no really, we’re not sure what we’ll do next...scary.

She had flown really well, but perhaps the best was on the flight home from Atlanta to Portland. Once we landed and were waiting to get off the plane, a man turned to me and said “Your daughter deserves a Gold Star in travel, I had no idea she was on the plane.” Can’t really ask for more than that :). She keeps a busy schedule with walks, play dates, sporting events: baseball, soccer and basketball games (go Blazers!), the pumpkin patch and kiddie parties. Needles to say, we are living the charmed life with such a wonderful baby girl (...we may be mildly biased...but we’ll admit nothing)!

After 13 exceptional years Mimir passed on earlier this year, we miss her, but recognize how lucky we were to have had her for as long as we did. Frea and Frey are doing as well as can be expected with a very inquisitive infant who will scootch around and grab them at any opportunity (...run kitties, run!).

Lastly, this will be the last year for our Christmas letter (please hold the applause to a minimum). For those
interested; we invite you to take a look at our website www.macpheeim.com which will keep you up to date on all things Maywen, including photos and the latest developments for the family (including Frea and Frey updates...they wish you a Meowy Christmas..hahaha, not at all lame!).

Cheers and wishing you the very best and a gold star 2009!
The MacPhees
Elena, Jim, Maywen

6 months | 27 October – 26 November

6 months | 27 October – 26 November:
As we head into the holidays we are getting ready for Halloween (yes I do count Halloween as a kick off to the season). We visited the Pumpkin patch

From Pumpkin Patch 2008

TheGirl ended up with two Halloween costumes.
A skunk outfit

From Halloween 2008

and a politician

From Halloween 2008

almost one and the same.
At our annual Halloween party and The Girl was the center of attention.
We are adding foods into Maywen’s diet.
So far she’s had apples, bananas, pear, cereal, and rice crackers.

From MIM - 6 months 28 Oct - 27 Nov

More 6 month photos can be found here:

From MIM - 6 months 28 Oct - 27 Nov

5 months | 27 September – 26 October

5 months | 27 September – 26 October:
Things start to settle down a bit and we are at home or at lay-dates with other kids . Really the other kids are a bit older and they play but, Maywen and her friend Clover are the little ones and they just lay around.

From Playgroup

Though she lights up when she sees any other child, so she does a LOT of staring too.
She’s not happy with any of her ‘tummy time’ mats so Jim bought her an Exersaucer. One of those stand-in activity centers. I think it really busy but, The Girl seems to like it.

From MIM - 6 months 28 Oct - 27 Nov

The best part about it is she enjoys standing up and now she can do that and I can, well take a bathroom break.
Though her favorite is standing up she works hard on her tummy time, she works that core better than anyone I know.
So it did not come as a surprise that she figured out rolling from her tummy to her back on September 30th.

From MIM - 5 months 27 Sep - 26 Oct

Another first in the sports world happend on October 8th, MIM was at her first Blazer game, though they could not put out the win fun was still had by all.

From 1st Blazer's Game

More 5 month photos found here:

MIM - 5 months 27 Sep - 26 Oct

4 months | 27 August – 26 September

4 months | 27 August – 26 September:
MIM’s out grown co-sleeper (that was in her crib)

From MIM - 4 months 27 Aug - 26 Sep

and is now big enough that the crib is not going to swallow her.

From MIM - 4 months 27 Aug - 26 Sep

She kinda sits up on her own and only needs a hand near to help with the blance every now and again. So we got her a high chair and she likes it because she can sit on her own. That and she’s like a cat in the fact that she like to be up high, closer to the action I guess. Our friend Heather came to meet MIM for the first time and to hang out (thanks Heather).
Then on the 25th she got her fist brooz, like I said she’s kinda sitting up on her own.
At the beging of September the girl and I found ourselves spending a week with her Auntie Sister and Uncle Steve in Atlanta.

From ATL 2008

We had so much fun visiting with my Aunts Laura, Cousin Crystal, Cousin KC (in Atlanta) then a quick trip to visit Anut Betty & Uncle Rod plus Cousins Mari & Mark (in Madison, AL) I do belive we will be doing this trip alot.

From ATL 2008

More 4 month photos here:

MIM - 4 months 27 Aug - 26 Sep

3 months | 27 July – 26 August:

3 months | 27 July – 26 August:
Shocking I know but, month 3 brought more visitors: Grandma Miles visited for a day, as did the Ader family.

Auntie Eva ( aka Auntie Sister) came and helped out for a week. While she was here we took The Girl to the pool

From WaterBabies

and went to the annual Adult Soapbox Derby.
The days were hot but, MIM did alright we found she likes a fan in her face.
This month we also had a nice visit with great grandma kinder and a follow up Dr’s appointment where she received her first shots, she did not like that.
We took MIM on her first camping trip at the end of July to Wickiup reservoir, she was such a trooper.

From Camping - Wickiup Reservoir

The hot days, were we keepd her fan on her. The cold nights, were she was pulled her into the family sleeping bag. She liked that because she was able to sunggle down under the covers.

The end of August, beging of September found us on our first family vacation to Kona Hawaii for a week.

From Kona HI Aug 2008

MIM was a superstar on the plan with her first flight (and I should say she's been great on all subsequent flights). As already mentioned The Girl does not like the heat. Thanks to Auntie Sister who replaced her $1 fan with a super fantastic fan, she was able to work with it. The Girls first dip in the ocean was a little starteling but, once that wore off, she giggled as the waves came in and splashed her feet, ankles, legs, waist… we didn’t go in much past her waist as I was sitting down and the water was splashing up my nose.



More 3 month photos found here:

MIM - 3 months 27 July - 26 Aug

2 months | 27 June – 26 July:

2 months | 27 June – 26 July:
More time at home, more family and friends came to visit.
My mom (abuela) came for a few days to help out.
Then we had a few ‘firsts’.
For the 4th of July we went to her first baseball game,

From MIM with Family

The Portland Beavers, the win aganst the Tacoma Rainers was followed by a nice fireworks display.
A few days later we went to her first soccer game,

From MIM with Family

The Portland Timbers, though they did not win we did have a good time.
We also made our first trip up to Seattle to a family meet and greet. MIM was able to meet a few cousins and visit with Grandma Miles somemore.
A few discoveries were made this month. First MIM does not like the heat the second she does not like riding in the car third she does not like to take naps.


More 2 month photos can be found here:

MIM - 2 months 27 June - 26 July

1 month | 27 May to 26 June:

1 month 27 May to 26 June:

From MIM Day 1 - May 27, 2008

The first month we kept to the house.
We had a few friends over to meet MIM for the first time, including a visit from Grandma Miles and Aunt’s Leslie and Brenda
My dad and Shirley came out for a time and helped out.
They were here for father’s day, which was nice because it was the first time in too many years to count that I was with my Dad on father’s day.
We had lunch in Stevens WA. Jim was hoping Walking Man brewery was open but, no luck. We then walked around Multnomah Falls for a bit. In all I think it was a good first Father’s day for Jim.

From MIM with Family

MIM’s first tears came on the 21st and right then I knew, the girls arsenal gained more strength then a WMD. The tears teamed up with the pouty lip….we are done for.


More 1 month photos can be found here:

MIM - 1 month 27 May - 26 June

Oh I'm a bad bloger

Oh I’ve been bad about the blog.
I’ll get all up to date in a month to month fashion, including our busy summer.
I’ll highlight things that we did and I’ll keep them short.
MIM is getting so big. As I’m sure everyone knows, I goes by so fast.
She brings us such joy, I have to pinch myself often. She is real and she is here to stay.
Let’s see…….

A few comments on MIM

We love her. I love her. I'm so glad she is here.
I have to remind myself that she's only been with us for 2 1/2 mos, it feels like she's always been around.
I find I wish we would have had her sooner then we did, but then I remember I was not ready before and I'm just glad, happy, satisfied that she's here now. She is amazing.

In the begining

Dear Family, Friends and whoever else stumbles upon this blog,

I'll start off by letting you know I'm not a good writer. Jim (aka Zim, Mr. MacPhee, MacPhee, Jimmy, Boobie, Daddy, hey, etc.) is better at it. He writes our Christmas letters and if he ever looks at something I wrote, he'll offer to punch it up. Upon it's return my name is my only contribution. Now don't get me wrong I'm thankful he does it, it keeps me from embarrassing myself and he's good at it, as I'm sure some of you know. But because of it, I'll try to keep my posts brief. I'll give you a peek as to what's going on with us. Feel free to ask questions or post comments, but I will say please go by The Golden Rule, if you don't have anything nice to say don't say it at all.
I do hope you'll enjoy the read, after all reading is sexy :)
My family, I love you all and wish you lived closer.
Elena
(aka flower, button, E)