Prints from this blog.

For those of you hardcore fans (ie: aunties, grandparents etc) who want to make prints from my latest images, you can click on the images in this blog and it will open up a larger image in it's own window which you can then print from! Remember all images are copyrighted though and may not be used without my permission!

Hot Toddies

Whew it's been hot here. The last couple of days were blazing even here at the beach. Our house warms up quick in the afternoon too with those huge plate glass suncatchers we have in the back. So the other night we decided it was a great opportunity to play outside on our new "sidewalk." Last night we enjoyed dinner on the patio too.

Du Bist Mein Kind

File Archive

So I've had to start saving all the photos into a "family" folder instead of dividing them into folder by person. I used to separate things out into JnK (Jim and Kris) and Merrik folders but now everything goes into the Maliea and Merrik folder inside the family folder. I still need to figure out a way to label all the photos better. I do resave all the images full res that I've edited in post with a tag of who's in the image then I also save them as lo res versions in a separate folder. There's got to be an easier way!

Maliea's Tea Party

My mom threw a wonderful tea party to welcome Maliea into our family. It was fun but nobody drank any hot tea because it was so hot! We had finger sandwiches that my mom made and cookies-it was quite retro.

Beach Days!

Even though it was still cold and windy we all packed up and went down to State Beach for the afternoon. It was great to get out and just hang out outside. I miss being outside all the time like we were when we lived on the boat. We made tunnels and ramps for the trucks and Jim and Merrik flew a kite and got it to stay up by itself. What a great way to wrap up Jim's last days of paternity leave.

Big Brother Love

Gramma Pancakes

We went to Coronado for the weekend and Merrik and Gramma made pancakes on Sunday morning. Merrik loves the process of making, baking, cooking etc but doesn't always eat the end product. He'll want to make smoothies, muffins, cookies, waffles, french toast etc at home but as soon as the product is complete he is
distracted and moves on to anything else that is a fun learning experience.

The Midway

On Saturday we visited the Midway Museum in downtown San Diego. It was cold and windy out so we decided to venture out to spend the day mostly inside. We took the ferry across from Coronado to downtown then walked to the ship. It was a lot more interesting and had more to see than any of us realized.

Here are the guys in the brig-
Maliea slept in her carrier the whole time-
Gramma, Dad and Merrik try out the ejection seats-
Merrik loved the buttons and switches in the cockpits-he tried them all--
This is a shot at the controls-

Oh Baby

Disneyland

On Tuesday we went to Disneyland for the day. It was Merrik's second visit and he loved it so much more this time. He and Dad went on Dumbo, Autopia, Go Coaster, Casey Jr. Train and Disneyland Express and we all got to go on Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Astro Blasters, Tarzan's Treehouse, and Finding Nemo. It was a long day but well worth it. Maliea only spit up all over everything once! Merrik only melted down once until he had some food-and he actually ate really well! We ended up leaving around 11:00pm and by that time Maliea had had it-she cried all the way home and Merrik cried not wanting to go home! I was so busy with Merrik I didn't get to take many pictures. I didn't even get one picture of Maliea on her first trip to Disneyland at 3 weeks old.

Temptation

Merrik can't keep his hands off Maliea.

What's in a Name?

Many of you have inquired about Maliea's name: pronunciation, spelling, meaning. So I thought I would publish a post explaining the elaborate process through which her name evolved:

We started out with the name Maile (MY lay) along with many others and evolved it from there. We liked Maile but didn't want her to be called Miley which could easily happen with a unique name like Maile.
So we looked at Maile (a Hawaiian word for the vanilla scented plant from which leaves are used for leis for royalty) and came up with Mailea (my LAY uh).
Mailea is unique and isn't on any US baby name lists although it exists in other countries.
The breakdown would be:
Mai - (MY)- Japanese or Scandinavian for treasure, flower, singular, brightness (different sources); Greek derivative meaning Pearl; Chinese for ocean or elegance
Lea - (LAY-ah)-Hawaiian goddess of canoe makers; Hebrew for Delicate

Then we started to have issues with her being teased with a name like "My Lay ya" and we didn't particularly like the MY sound. We really wanted to stick with an M name to go with Merrik and Mollie came up but Mom wasn't overly thrilled with Mollie either because she wanted a "pretty" name for her daughter not just a cute name.

So, in the hospital, the night before we were to go home we looked at more names in the same family of Maile and Mailea:

Malia-The girl's name Malia \m(a)-lia\ is pronounced ma-LEE-ah. It is of Hawaiian origin, and its meaning is "perhaps, probably". Variant of Mary. Also a Spanish variant of Maria.
Malea-a Filipino name also spelled Malaya meaning "free"
Malie-(ma-lee-eh) Gender: Girl Name; Origin: Hawaiian; Meaning "tranquil; calm." An official form of Molly in Hawaiian when the Hawaiians were forced to adopt "Christian" names.
So we ended up with Malie plus an "A" pronouncing it ma-LEE-ah but spelling it in a unique and prettier way than Malia and came up with MALIEA!

Nana's Home from Africa!

Sweet Angel