Long Awaited Arrival

After many long months of waiting, D-Day was finally here.

Waiting to go in to Surgery

3/7/12 @ 12:47pm out popped:

Allison Jo Maiorca
7lbs 10oz - 20 1/4"

That's right, it's my Lot in life to be surrounded by beautiful women.  I've got two baby girls to look after now.  It's been busy but I am loving every bit of having two girls.

More to come,
Kasey

Snow Day

We all managed to get the day off today due to the snowy conditions.  1st time ever in my lifetime as a nurse.  We took full advantage of the snowy weather outside. 

Step 1: Formulate a plan with your best friend to go outside to play in the snow and make it down to see the cows and ewie (construction work).  

 

Step 2: Have Daddy rig up a sled to pull you in.  A good old fashioned tote pulled with Ajax's leash.  She loved it!!  Ainsley kept saying go faster..go faster Daddy. 

Step 3: Have fun in the snow because a snow day with your parents only comes once a year in Seattle.

Christmas 2011

We enjoyed Christmas this year spending time with our family.  We celebrated Christmas with my Dad and Paula and sister Christie and family at Thanksgiving time.  My Mom and Randy were here for a few days on Christmas Eve and morning of Christmas.  We went to church on Sunday to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and enjoyed a great message on the the greatest gift one could recieve.  We then spent the rest of Christmas day and the day after with Kasey's parents Sammy and Bonnie.  We had great food, fun, presents and lots of relaxation.  It was really fun for Ainsley to be aware of everything going on.  She loved the advent calender countdown as we loved sharing this experience with you. 

Auntie Christie, Madi, and Carter

Ainsley's new baby from Gma Paula and Papa (practice for the new arrival in March)

My new table from Hommie (Grandma) and Papa (Grandpa)

Tea Set

Turtle @ the Bellevue Botanical Garden d'Lights

Cutting out Christmas cookies

Kasey's New Shirt and Ainsley loves the ribbons

New shoes from Nana and Grandpa

Mom and Kasey putting the table and chairs together

New Words

It has been some time since I last blogged so I apologize for the lack of updates. Ainsley has been a busy bee along with with the two of us.

Ainsley is definately working on her vocabulary these days. Her favorites include:
Horsie
Choo-Choo (Train)
Wowo (Blanket)
WaWise (French Fries)
Baby (includes herself and any other child around)
Plate, Spoon, Bowl
Happy Birthday
Birthdays (includes cupcakes, candy canes, and lights)
Cap (Clap)
Noman (Snowman)
Run
Ride (going for a walk)
Hand (time to pray)
Help (no interpretation needed)
Honnie (Connie-her daycare provider)

She loves to sing Happy Birthday with people but then at the end you have to cap or you get in trouble.

Running up and down the hallway. Again, you must run with her or it's not as much fun. She loves to push her baby in the stroller while running.

Playing with her dishes where you must join her at the table, no matter what size you are, to enjoy water and birthdays.

She loves to say "Who's this?" and point to everyone around her. You must identify yourself and when you point to her she says baby me.

She is always very concened about her friends at daycare and that they are taken care. I love that about her. 

Since turning 2, she really has become quite opinionated.  She knows exactly what she wants so we hear a lot of "No mama and No daddy".  "I do it".  What can we expect for an independent child. 

That's about all on Miss Ainsley.   

Halloween

Ainsley dressed up as a 50's girl for Halloween this year.  We went to our church halloween festival which inclueded trunk or treating, playing war, a cake walk, bean bag toss and fishing for treats.  I think Ainsley's favorite events of the night were eating birthdays, carrying around Scooby Doo, and exchanging her treats with others.  I have included some fun pictures for your viewing.  Enjoy!

Learning to Talk

Ainsley is at the stage, where every few days, she is able to speak a new word.  Most of the time  I think she has been practising how to say the word for some time and we finally understand what she has been trying to say.  For example, for some time she has been saying some word that sounds like Honey to me but a few weeks ago I finally figured out she is saying Connie (our daycare lady).  Wow, was she excited and now Connie is a main word in our home.  Practice, practice, practice.  Now, she can say many of the kids names @ daycare and more importantly we know what she is saying.

A few weeks ago, Ainsley and I were playing on the floor and I said 1-2-3!  She decided that would be fun to practice so needless to say we practice this everyday.  She practices when she is running around the table or down the hallway, jumping off the stool, or chasing the dog.  The video is a good example.  It makes me laugh how she says 1 with the hand motions.

Another of her favorite words right now is BIRTHDAY which I think is quite a big word.  We were making zucchini muffins the other morning and she kept pointing to the pictures of the muffins and saying birthday.  I continued to try and convince her they were muffins but she was having none of it, they were birthdays.  Kasey's mom later pointed out to me they look like cupcakes.  Ah, don't I feel silly.  Since then, all muffins or cakes in our house are Birthdays!  It really is more fun to eat them with that name.

Ainsley's vocabulary now includes mine, more, night night, Leah (who is Connie's dog), Ajax will always be doggy,  open (which sounds like up on), cut, outside, horsey, commands to Ajax, with hand motions of course, like down, stay and no.  Yes, not used often enough, excuse me, please and working on thanks.  She is really putting words together into sentences that are almost understandable and I am excited to hear about what she is telling me. 

The Best Flight Ever

I know its been a while since I've written on here but that's because Jenn is always hogging the laptop. Well she's been very sleepy at night due to growing a new baby and all, so I'm taking advantage and sharing about a really cool experience I had last week.



Between Layers on the way back to Auburn



  

Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by airplanes. It was only natural that I would eventually become a pilot.  I wanted to join the navy and fly F-14's. Somewhere along the way, I veered off course (regrettable pun).  I was on track to become an airline pilot, I had obtained my Flight Instructor Certificate and only needed to teach for a while, gain my hours and boom, fly the big planes.  But along the way, I discovered  I enjoyed teaching people how to fly and have found a passion on the business side as a bookkeeper for the flight college I work for.  



Me & Jon above the clouds on an Instrument flight







My view



But back to the navy, what happened to my fighter pilot plans?  I obviously didn't go that route but I did get one step closer to flying a navy fighter....just a couple generations older than the F-14.

 

 

The mission was to introduce a new cadet (me) to the systems and operation of the North American T-28 Trojan. I was to assist my flight instructor (my boss Michael) in pre-flight check of the airplane, review bailout procedures in case of emergency (you didn't see that mom), start-up procedures, and finally the best part...the flight!!

Cadet Maiorca after his first flight

After takeoff we turned out to the east where Michael handed me the controls.  It was amazing.  I've never flown such a balanced aircraft.  The plane seemed to move without effort.  I could move the stick just a hair to the left and I was in a 30 degree bank, then a hair right and I was level again.  Before I knew it, I was ordered to circle a possible target.  (ok, I'm slipping into the part to much but ohh well)  By now my confidence is high and i bank it 50 degrees and look for my target....I couldn't find it.  but that;s ok, this is all for fun this time.  We 're at 2500 feet and I receive the order to climb to 7500 feet.  The throttle is increased, I ease in the rudder, I pull back and set pitch attitude for climb, 140kts.  (by the way, fastest I'd ever been was 140 during my multi engine training, now I'm climbing this fast, I love this plane!) We reach 7500 feet and I realize why I was ordered that high, it was nice and cool up here...ok, so maybe it was to avoid the Cascades, whatever, this plane is so cool, the mountains would have parted to let it through!  My instructor took the controls and showed me a taste of what this thing could really do. Some fast dives, hard turns, and ride through Stevens Pass and I had the controls again.  We ended up heading home over Lake Tapps, I flew over my parents house (only to find out later they weren't home, errgh) and brought her into the pattern back home.  Michael took controls again to land (this was a good move on his part) and we landed safely.  Hands down it was an awesome ride and I hope to have another go some day. 

Thank you to my T-28 instructor and friend Michael for sharing this experience with me, I will never forget it.

Signing off,
Cadet Maiorca

Good to Be Back

For those avid readers of the blog, I apologize for my much belated update on our family.  My excuse for the lack of writing can only be blamed on our unborn child!  If you have not heard, we are expecting another baby in March and I am just rounding the corner into my second trimester.  The last few months have been rather exhausting (I think I blocked the 1st time around out of my head), between work, playing with Ainsley, trying to be a good wife and other pre-planned actitivites with family and friends.  I am grateful to Kasey for taking good care of me and Ainsley.  BUT IT IS GOOD TO BE BACK!!!  I am happy to report life is getting back to normal this week.

We have had a busy couple of months mostly small trips around Seattle, visits from family and a weekend trip to Idaho.  Contrary to most you talk with here in Seattle, the summer temps have been just right for me but overall it has been colder than past times.  We are in the process of canning for the winter.  Our garden is looking great with fresh green beans (canning most of them-21 Quarts so far), peppers, tomotoes, carrots, cauliflower, snow peas, and strawberries.  I love this time of year!!

Mom and Uncle Ben came for a weekend.  We had a good time yet both Ben and I were not 100%.  It was beautiful weather so went on a bike ride @ Alki Beach, Uncle Ben taught Ainsley how to walk on the balance beam ( a piece of wood on concrete blocks), played in the pool and just spent time together. 

Grandma and Ainsley in the hammock

Focus, focus...I made it Uncle Ben



Love this shot!

We went to Idaho for the weekend at the end of July and got a chance from some R&R and catch up with everyone.  Christie, Brady, Madie and Carter were there as well so got a good chance to spend some time with them.  They came back over the mountian with us and spent the rest of the week staying at our house.  I love seeing the kids spend time together and the cousins seem to like playing with Ainsley

The cousins

Auntie Christie was so happy to spend some time with Ainsley

Learning to jump on the trampoline

Gotta love the outfit-a real country girl.



Driving the tractor like a pro already.  She loved getting up there all by herself.

I neglected to take anymore pictures of the rest of our times this summer.  I can't seem to remember to take the camera.  We did go to a few Mariners games when Christie and the kids were here.  We drove up to Sequim for a few days to meet up with Mom and Randy and his familly.  We had a great time with lots of walking, great food, and playing.  We then met up with our sister-in-law Diana and her daughter Angela in Seattle and spent the day there at the aquarium.  This was the first time they had been up this way so was great to have them.  Again, I took not pictures to capture the moments. 
We have spent a lot of time with Kaseys parents here and there over the summer as they live about 1 hr south of here.  It has been great to have them close by and see them more than twice a year.  They just bought a house on Lake Tapps up here so will be helping get them all settled in.  It will be great for them and also give us a place to go swim in the summertime. 

I suppose that is a wrap up of the last few months.  Hope this finds you healthy and happy.


First Flight with Daddy

Proud Daddy ready to take Ainsley on her 1st flight!

Pre-flight check of the airplane-engine check, wings check, cute baby check, one daddy to fly the plane check! 

Already knows her way around the plane

Trying to get us to let her sit in the front seat

In flight nap!





Amazing she kept the headset on for most of the flight



We flew to Bremerton and stopped to have dinner at the runway airport.





Ainsley running down the ramp



Took a few minutes to get some great shots of Ainsley sitting on the wing of N5347M.





Happy 32nd Birthday Kasey!

We celebrated another birthday for Kasey this last month.  He is finally my same age again for at least another few months!  We had a quiet day around the house but homemade carrot cake for dessert.  YUMMY!!! 

We went to a Mariners game the next day with his parents and had a great time.  Wonderful weather and they won! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEETHEART