2011

Greetings! 

If you received our Christmas card and are now taking the time to visit our blog, thank you!  As promised, here is the funny video:

If for some reason the video doesn't display well, you can find it here:

http://vimeo.com/33435239

And here is more news, delivered (of course) in our typical cheesy Mason way:

Another year has so quickly passed by.

Time to reflect back on how our good Lord provides!

We continue to be blessed by a church we adore.

And only seem to love this City more and more.

Steve's work as an editor has been a perfect fit.

He's even been able to travel a bit.

There was one conference where Maelee & Becky came along.

To San Diego, no less- oh, how our hearts sang a song!

They spent time with Nana & Pop-Pop if he was away otherwise.

Which was not too bad a deal in anybody's eyes!

A highlight of the year was our summer trip to the beach.
Sun, sand, cool waters, and family- such a treat!

With an orchestra in Staten Island & recital last fall,

Becky kept up her flute playing whenever she felt the call.

Music is her passion, but she treasures her time with Maelee.

So the pair stay quite busy, learning new things daily.

Books, local parks, dancing, and how she loves to sing...

These are just a few of Maelee's favorite things!

The Lord has been gracious; to Him be all praise!

We pray 2012 brings you many meaningful days.

Merry Christmas from the Masons!

And here are more pictures!  One from each month of 2011:

January

Our little Steeler's cheerleader

 

February

Our little Valentine with daddy, her first love

 

 March

Our joyful little lady sporting her cool sweatshirt from Japan, 

courtesy of Uncle Dan

 

April

Celebrating our little ladybug's 1st Birthday

 

 May

Enjoying a wonderful Mother's Day as the proud mother of such a wonderful little gal

 June

Our little sweetie learning to walk

 

 July

Fun in the sun at the Outer Banks

 

 August

Mommy & Daddy's girl :)

 September

Enjoying our backyard, Central Park

 

 October

Apple Picking just outside of the City

November

And the personality grows each month!!!

December

Taking in the tree lighting at our neighborhood park

We love hearing from you and if you're ever in NYC, 

we'd LOVE to see you!

Happy New Year!

Movin' in November!

Maelee was certainly on the move in her 19th month as our little girl has become quite the busy body (hmm, I wonder where she could get that from...), and of course, we have the pictures to prove it.  Even though it is quite a task to get her to stay still for any period of time! Only her beloved books and the lap of a loved one seem to keep her in one place for longer than a few minutes, or her new found interest in YouTube, thanks to the Twinkle Twinkle and ABC song from Nana & Pop-Pop's ipad...

There were even a few "firsts" this month, in terms of movement, too!  She started to climb the stairs at the playground and go down the slide all on her own and I think was more than ready to do so without mommy's help.  Her little gym class that we've been going to may have had a hand in her new found physical feats as she's much more into climbing and tumbling now than before. Watch out!


Other fun developments from November include learning colors and counting!  The counting is hysterical.  At first, she regularly skipped four, now she'll alternate from going from 1 through the mid-teens, to getting all the way up to 20 with only about half being recognizable numbers.  It's pretty cute, though.  

And our absolute favorite is her singing.  She loves to belt out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the ABC song and is desperately working on the Taxi Taxi song from our music class (yes, she's a city girl!) and B-I-N-G-O.  One of these days, we'll get a video up of it.

The highlight from the month though was our almost 2 week long visit to VA to help out after Nana's surgery and our Thanksgiving in DE.  Maelee loves the attention from her Nana & Pop-Pop!  She particularly enjoyed sitting on the couch next to Nana pointing out different objects from her big crayon books and watching the music videos, of course; and she loved tumbling around on the big bed next to Pop-Pop and watching the airplanes with him from their roof.  Oh, and for some reason, running up and down the hallways of their condominium building is just the most fun thing E V E R!

During our visit, we also had the very special treat of seeing more dear family over Thanksgiving, spent in DE. While Maelee still gives Too-Dad the raised eyebrow, our visits with him & Mary Catherine (aka "Nart"), along with everyone else, are very treasured times for us.  And there was the added bonus of seeing cousin Caleb (Becky's cousin, Niel, and his wife, Kristin's son), who is only 4 1/2 months older.  They are quite the pair.  Still not exactly at the stage of playing together, but the shots we have of the two of them by each other are too cute.  Just scroll to the bottom for those!

But first, here's a sampling of Maelee on the move in November, starting in NY:

Our little dancer

Climbing into her bin of stuffed animals

Enjoying one of our favorite neighborhood playgrounds, Ruppert Park:

 

 

 

And time with daddy in the City's playground, Central Park:

In VA:

Fun with Nana at a girl's lunch :)

Fun with  Pop-Pop

Fun with both!!!


And for whatever reason, fun in the hallway...

With her stroller

 And walking Gracie :)

And here's a slideshow of more pics from November in NYC and VA:

Onto a very special Thanksgiving Day!

SO thankful to be able to spend it with our Too-daddy!!!

Quite the feast!!!

(but sadly, yes, Maelee's favorite was string cheese... sigh)

Fun with Caleb!

Pretty much identical expressions :)

And I LOVE these piano shots...

Especially this last one- look at those profiles!  Can you tell they're related? :)

Slideshow of more Thanksgiving pics:

And finally, enjoying the tree at the National Harbor after hearing my Uncle Bill's choral group perform (to which Maelee had her own little dance party):

We're excited to celebrate the season of our Savior's birth for the second time with our little girl.  Early wishes for a very merry Christmas time to all!!!

A few from NYC and a lot from SD!

This post will be a bit of a hodge-podge with a random assortment of photos from October.  It was quite a month! We'll start with the first half, in NYC, and end with SD, the highlight of the second half of the month.

The first weekend of Oct, we got to participate in United Way's Live United Walk as one of our friends, Scott, works with United Way.  We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge on a beautiful day that ended in a fun festival in Brooklyn - where Maelee's infamous dancing video was shot!

The first half of the month was an especially busy one for me as I was preparing for my first recital since finishing at Stony Brook.  All brand new pieces, all very challenging, and all by composers whose country of origin could be highlighted in regards to its problem with human trafficking, and child sex trafficking in particular. A very important cause to my heart.  It was a lot of work but wonderful to be playing again and it was awesome that several hundred dollars ended up being raised to benefit GEMS , a local group in NY that works with victims of trafficking. If you're interested in hearing/seeing the performance, I do have recordings, and if you're interested in learning more about the issue of human trafficking, I'd LOVE to give you info on that!!! Awareness raised is a good thing.

To prepare for the recital, I was blessed by several good friends offering their time to hang out with Maelee so I could get in some much needed practicing and rehearsing.  One of them, my sweet friend Heather, gave a lot of her generous time, and she has a quite a generous twin sister, too!  Heather's sister, Sheena, came to NY a while back and brought the cutest top for Maelee. Here she is, proudly sporting the top and her age:

Ever the most supportive parents, my folks came up to hear the recital, and of course, spending time with their favorite granddaughter was an added plus to the trip :).  Had to get a few shots of her dancing for them, playing with her new stroller from them, and just enjoying them:

And enjoying time with daddy!!!

Now onto beautiful San Diego and the second half of the month!  As Steve had a conference in Mission Bay, we couldn't pass up the chance to go back to our first home, and a city that still holds a very dear place in our hearts.  I was nervous about bringing Maelee along, but she did great and had a blast.  First, a few pictures of the gorgeous hotel room and view:

And then, even better than the hotel, we had the amazing treat of visiting with some very special friends. Schedule and transportation issues prevented us from seeing all of our old pals from our old stomping grounds but we were so thrilled to see the Saldana and the DeMott families.  When we left San Diego, between the three of us couples, there was one child- now there are 6! And all twelve of us enjoyed a wonderful dinner our first night there, at our friends' beautiful home, overlooking the gorgeous water of La Jolla...  ahh.

With one of my dearest, most talented pals, Summer

Again, yes, that is the view from the DeMott's backyarding.  Ahhh-mazing.

The kiddos!

Taylor, Chloe, Maelee (who was pretty much done after being up for about 16 hrs straight!),  Jacob, Luke, and baby Andrew!

Out to dinner with the amazing Saldana fam our second night there.

Maelee and I also took a trip to the San Diego Zoo and Maelee LOVED getting up close and personal with the animals:

Some real


Some not so much...

But her favorites were definitely the goats, which she lavished with hugs... sigh.

We got to go to one of our favorite spots, La Jolla Cove, for dinner one night and enjoy the breathtaking views...

And then got to top off the evening hanging out w/ the awesome Ron & Megan:

And Maelee had fun with their super sweet boys the next morning...

Jumping on Luke's "ship"

Sharing some Cheerios w/ Jacob



And enjoying a wonderful lunch w/ baby Andrew

 While the mommies REALLY enjoyed some amazing food and view...

Incredible fish tacos- mmm!

Our last evening in San Diego was spent with the DeMotts at a casual Thai place where the kids were able to let loose and we had a blast visiting:

Followed by a late night "date" on our balcony w/ each other and some wine :)

We're so thankful for the memories and such a wonderful time!  San Diego friends- come out to see us in NYC soon!!!  October was a big month - super fun at times, super stressful at others, but busy pretty much throughout.  And I can't believe we're almost half-way into November already!  I always feel right around this time of year that January is basically next week...  This season will fly.  But we're excited for it- Happy November!!!