Dedicated

Over the past month and a half, Maelee has enjoyed visits from and to some of her most dedicated fans: Nana-Lin & Pop-Pop, and her great Too-dad & "Great Nart/Nana Nart" (aka Mary Catherine). She loves them all, and boy, do they just adore her!

Becky's parents (NL & PP) came down over Labor Day weekend, well, just cause they couldn't stand going too long without seeing their little granddaugther! And thankfully, the 5 hr car ride is doable for a weekend visit. We loved every moment and Maelee always enjoys eating out with the family!

Of course, here's a slideshow of more pics from that weekend:



The last weekend of September, everyone came up to witness Maelee's dedication at our beloved Apostles Church. It was a great weekend (with even a surprise graduation party thrown in there for me!!!). Everyone got in some good quality Maelee-time...

We are so thankful that God led us to Apostles and we were delighted to bring our sweet girl in front of our church family to commit and dedicate ourselves to raising her in a God-honoring way. Here's the verse that our pastor, JR, spoke over her that Steve had chosen:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom 8:38-39

It is our deepest desire and prayer that God would draw her to Himself and she would know Him and love Him, and her dedication was such a special commissioning for us to do our part in guiding her to Christ.

Very proud, happy family afterwards!

Here's a slideshow of more pictures from the visit and her dedication:

And here's a video of the dedication:

http://vimeo.com/15748721

Password: Maelee7

And, oh yes- the dress!!! She was a doll. Could her 5 month photo shoot be shot in anything else???

And a slideshow of the "photo shoot," of course...

Finally, Maelee and Becky enjoyed a long weekend with NL & PP while Steve was on the church men's retreat during the 2nd weekend in October, and we enjoyed a quick afternoon visit from TD & NN. While her Nana-Lin was recovering from a nasty hit in the face by a 6th grader-gone-wild-chair-thrower (yes, she was hit in the face by a chair- but she is a trouper!), she was still all smiles for her girls, stitches and all!

We also loved our quick visit with Becky's dear friend Cindy and her sweet little girl and our precious god-daugter, Alli, and Cindy's mom, Deb. It was a fast and furious but FUN weekend!

Maelee sure loves her grandparents and great-grandparents and couldn't resist being all smiles for her Too-daddy...

And a final slideshow of pictures from her last trip to VA:

We feel so blessed by how dedicated they all are to our "little love!"

The Mason household has been crazy these past few weeks, particularly as we will be moving (again!!!), and have had many, many activities filling up our nights and weekends. More to come soon, including M-O-R-E pictures of the happenings during Maelee's 6th month, but for now...

Bye-Bye!

The Zoo, Ms. Moo, & All that's New!

Can you believe it? I'm getting the "five month post" out on the actual day that Maelee turned five months old! Well, almost, but at least I began it on the actual day... Still not at the every-other-week mark, but I'm working on it. This is a start, at least!

While not quite as jam-packed as the previous month, there was still lots of fun to be had and new discoveries to be made during month 5.

Some of the fun that was had:

A day trip to see the Statue of Liberty with friends Lauren and Chamie, along with Chamie's sweet boys:

Not the best lighting, but you get the picture!

Maelee's first trip to the Central Park Zoo:

(slideshow of more pics from the zoo below)

A Visit from Nana-Lin & Pop-Pop! (Stay tuned for pics from that visit in the next post)


Hanging out with friends- both the human kind and the doll kind!

Blushing as sweet James grabs her knee- ha!

Blushing as sweet Teegan grabs her side!

(slideshow of more pics with Teegan below!)

And of course, with good friends "Molly the Dolly" (above)
and "Girlie Girl" (below)

A day trip to CT on Labor Day:

Enjoying some fresh air, beautiful views, and good friends

Entertaining herself in her bumbo, jump-up, and mat!

Another classic "crazy hair" day
(above AND below!)

Some discoveries that were made:

Rolling over! Just days after hitting the "four month mark," Maelee surprised herself by flipping off her tummy (she's never liked "tummy time...") onto her back!

Cute video of it taken back on 9/1:

http://vimeo.com/15242434
password: Maelee6

Thankfully, she's building some arm strength by tugging on Ms. Moo the Cow!:



She's added some "Mmm's" and "B's" to her sweet vocabulary. And the faces she makes to get these sounds out are hysterical!!!


She's learning to balance while sitting and can go a few seconds before falling forward or backward- again, too funny :)


And she's starting to hug back, which whether she intends or realizes it or not, seriously is the sweetest thing ever.


She finally got some pointers from Parker the cat on how to nap properly:


And realized she actually enjoys hamming it up for the camera!








But she also discovered that mommy will still snap shots even when she doesn't feel like hamming it up...

Everyone else enjoyed celebrating sweet Lauren's birthday at the Shake Shack,
but Maelee just wanted a nap.

It's been another great month with our sweet Maelee girl. Sometimes the only way I can describe how I love her is just to say "Mommy loves you beyond beyond!" Whatever that means... but whatever is beyond the beyond I guess pretty much sums up how I feel!:)

What? No "five month photo shoot???" Relax! Would a crazy picture-happy mommy and crazy picture-taking daddy forget a month? Don't worry. We are just saving it for a particular dress :) And that post will be arriving soon!

In the meantime, enjoy one last slideshow of our little sweetie:

All About Steve (well, sort of...)

This post is not at all about the (horribly reviewed) movie of the same title, and is actually only somewhat about my husband. I mean, come on, will there really be a post that doesn't include our little sweetie as a main focus any time soon??? Regardless, I wanted to make sure to include his recent good news at some point!

So what is this good news you may ask?

Well, he got a new job!!!

After 9 years in school, and another 4 years in a position where he was basically a "glorified grad student" (Steve's words), my husband has recently accepted a job offer. And not just any job offer, but a job that's in this city that we so dearly love, and a job that he's really excited about!!! Starting October 1st, Steve will be an Assistant Editor at the prestigious journal, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, and I am oh so proud of him.

What? No more cancer research? Actually, in this position he feels he has even more influence over science (again, Steve's words) and quite frankly, the politics and frustrations of being in active research were just no longer making the "academia" route very appealing to him. And with his interest in writing, a position with a science journal seemed like a good fit! Thankfully, the journal agreed. Steve will now be on the other side of research- instead of trying to get his work published, he'll be one of the people who decides which other researchers get to be published! He won't be an editor in the grammatical sense, but will be choosing what content will or won't make the cut and he's really looking forward to this new opportunity. Big changes are ahead and we are excited to see what God has in store for our family here in NYC.

Soo, YAY for Steve!!!

Celebrating at a nearby wine bar

And to further honor this great man I call my husband, here are some recent pics of our sweet little Maelee either taken by her daddy or with her daddy! Gotta tie it all in together somehow, right?

Checking out her adorable, little feet with those cute rattle-socks

At lunch with the whole fam during a quick visit from Nana & Pop-Pop

Hanging out with friends at their rented CT home on Labor Day

Staying shaded on her first trip to the Central Park Zoo

Posing for daddy after the long, exciting day

To see even more of Steve's great pics, click here!

And of course, dozens more pictures of our little sweetie will soon follow in another post about the happenings of her fifth month. Stay tuned!