As promised pics of Dealey in his Halloween costume! The middle two pics are D in some other Halloween gear his Mimi (Matt's mom) bought him the boo shirt and the spider socks and his little sweet heart Maggie got him the skull and cross bones hat! It made him the perfect gangsta!!! The last two pictures are me getting crafty at a fall festival we went to, it was too fun I can't wait to get crafty with D!

A SHORT HELLO...I wanted to take just a minute to say hello to all my faithful blog readers unfortunately because of the move I won't have a ton of time to blog this week however I will try hard to get pics of Dealey in his Halloween costume up by Wednesday! However before I forget I wanted to share a few eatery's you must check out if ever in NY. Last night we took my parents to La Mela in Little Italy and it has the most amazing Italian food and wine (I got have my share of a bottle last time we went :o) also you have to visit Tisserie it's this amazing bakery/coffee shop not so quaint or quite but once you take a bite of any dessert, pastry, sandwich or oven fired pizza you'll quickly escape into a whole other world where noise just seems to disappear! More on our final days in NY to come and of course more pictures of Dealey than anyone care to look at!

Last Sunday Matt and I got to experience one of the finest experiences the North East has to offer, apple picking. It is something we've been looking forward to since arriving in NY and are so happy we got to do it before leaving. I really hope we can find a place to do this as Dealey gets older because it was so cute to see all the little kids running through the orchards going, " wow, look at those apples, their huge!" So cute. The other great part of it was sharing the experience with Christine, Stephen & Eva and Tamara & Jay. We picked apples in the orchard eating many along the way as we made our way down to the family area where the general store was along with a host of other fun activities like pony rides, a pumpkin patch, face painting and live music. We had a picnic in the orchard and enjoyed the beautiful rolling country side with it's splashes of orange, yellow and red. Here's a few pics cataloging our day, it was one we won't soon forget.

We went to the dr. today for D's 4 month check up he got three shots (he was not too happy about those) but he weighed in at 13lbs 13oz which still keeps him in the 25th-30th percentile on weight his height was 25 1/4" which puts him in the 80th percentile so he's still long and lean. The hardest part was telling Dr. Darcie we were leaving she started crying, it was so sweet.

Oh and we have one new development D has started holding his own bottle!!! He usually flips it out of his hands about half way through but it's a fun development! And Dr. Darcie said we can start stage one fruit and gradually work the cereal out of his bottle and on to a spoon! I think we're going to wait until we get moved to actually start it but I'm excited, he's growing up and not a bit too fast for me!

I never really see how much D has grown until I do these monthly pics. I didn't think there would be much of a difference from 3-4 months but he's really filled out a lot and is looking more and more like a little boy & a big brother! What's new.....

1. D loves to talk and I mean loves, he'll go on and on for 30 minutes or more and his sounds have expanded however he hasn't picked up ma or da yet but my guess the next month will produce even more new sounds!

2. D's first tooth has started to break surface which is totally cool in so many ways and the discover of this has explained some recent discontentment.

3. He's getting better and better at reaching and grabbing objects you place in front of him and of course once grabbed any and every object goes towards the mouth.

4. Sleeping has gotten much better he's sleeping 11 hours at night now (yeah!) and taking two hour and half naps during the day. Of course it can vary from day to day but he's always taking at least one nap and I feel lucky when I get two but it is becoming a little more frequent!

5. He responds so great to Matt and I especially in the morning we go in and roll him over to his back and have a little play time and he just smiles and smiles, hasn't quite gotten the laugh figured out but we get a little sort of laugh every once in a while!

Lots of other stuff going on and I'm hoping he enjoys the road trip to Dallas as much as he did at one month old. I also hope he adjust well to the changes. I keep telling him he better get used to change daddy and mommy are nuts! hee! We're off to the doctor on Thursday so I'll post new stats then!

I think "oh my crap" doesn't even begin to explain the emotional roller coaster Matt and I have been on the past few weeks. I could be cruel and draw this holy crap news out and make you all wait through a long and boring post but I won't, frankly because I don't have time to write a long post. So part one of the news is Matt and I will be welcoming sapling number two to our family in May of 2008! I'm 9 weeks pregnant now and feeling every bit of it. My first appointment is November 5th in Dallas with the lovely Dr. Speight who took such good care of me during my pregnancy with Deals. That may sound strange, I mean why the heck would I go back to Dallas for mt Dr. appointment?

Well, that leads right into part two of our news. On the heels of finding out our family is expanding we have decided as much as we "heart" NY we NEED our family and friends to get through the coming days, months & years. We don't consider the book closed on NY by any means and hope that it could be in the cards for us to live here again someday and while there are still, and always will be, things we very much dislike about Texas the presence of family and friends make it all a bit more bareable.

It's been such an adventure this year who knew you could live in 4 places, move half way across the country, have a baby, get pregnant and move back half way across the country in ONE year. Well if anyone was up for the challenge it was the roaming Maples we've never been known to sit still for too long but rest assured we are looking forward to owning a home again and settling down near friends in the wonderful suburb of Plano/Richardson, Texas. Check back in Nov. for sono pics and updates on baby. Hopefully we'll know if D's having a brother or sister by Christmas! Oh and along with this news I thought I'd share a few pics of our NY apartment. One thing we won't miss about it.....the squeaky squeaky floors and lack of light switches and lights......

The living room was one of our favorite rooms, light filled and roomy, and our stuff looked so great in there! Like I said there's lots of things we love about NY we look forward to many trips back to the city and S.I. there are so many amazing things for kids I can't wait to bring D and his sibling back here. One thing we'll miss most our new friends. We've meet some amazing people here and are going to miss them and the pizza at Cafe Milano's the most!

Coming post will include details of our move, packing, etc as well as a beautiful description of the perfect fall NY day that we experienced today picking apples with friends. It was awesome, I'm so glad we got the chance to experience that before we left NY.

Who will win Dealey's heart? Will it be the giggle filled Aliza who will soon be moving to BFE? Or will it be the laid back Maggie with her infectious grins? Only time will tell but D loved meeting the girls of his dreams. We've definitely noticed he's a lover of the older woman! Here are some of my favorite pics of our time with the Furman's & the McKays both of which would make amazing in-laws! Besides maybe the next baby will be a boy too then the girls don't have to fight over our gorgeous little boy they can each have a little Maples to love on!

I love this pic of D it looks like he's looking at me saying, "check her out mom!"

Gloria holding the D-man.

The two of them couldn't hide their attraction as they played footsies, well until Aliza tried to put D's foot in her mouth. And this next picture is the one you've all be waiting for..........

Aliza goes in for the kiss and yes D looks a bit scared!

This is post kiss, as you can tell Aliza is shocked by D's less than impressed reaction!

D meets Suz for the first time.

Our most favorite shot of Mags. So freaking adorable!

Mags was interested in D's feet too, something about those big flippers attract the ladies!

Me and Mags...she loved my necklace, we'll have to get her a little girl size one.

And this is one of my favorites. Mags is looking at Matt like I've seen the hair on the chin before, but you're not my daddy?!

It was so great to see two of our very closest friends and meet their sweet little ones as well! And even though they aren't pictured it was great to see Dave & Aron as well....We can't wait to see what the future holds!

Do you ever just want to scream, "SHUT UP!" over and over again. On the heels of our best night yet, Dealey slept 10 hours straight, we are having the worst day ever. I've never seen him so discontent and unhappy you'd think with such a great night sleep he'd be happy to dive into the day but instead it's been a battle all day. So into the atmosphere I yell:

"SHUT UP!" "SHUT UP!"

"SHUT UP!"

Okay I actually feel a little better only a few hours until Matt gets home and the hand off takes place. Then I'm going to fall into bed. And just as I was thinking it's so cool outside how nice to have the windows open, the dumb ass NYPD just drove by blaring their dumb ass sirens and yes D is now screaming once again.....

I went for a walk this morning, something I'm trying to do every day for many reasons, but mainly because the weather is pretty nice right now and I know it will start to get cold soon. As I looked around me I realized that fall is definitely in the air, the leaves are changing and falling and I don't know it just smells different, but in a good way. Fall was something I was so looking forward to when we moved up here and it is everything I wanted and wished it would be. To top a wonderful morning off I just found out Matt has a 3 day weekend!!!! Tomorrow we're going to take on Manhattan for a wonderful day! I'm so glad we got the chance to experience fall in New York it's a dream come true....I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!

: Texas Fun :

Well, I'm finally getting settled in from a wonderful, but busy and "interesting" trip to Dallas! I have tons of pictures to share, we got to see some wonderful friends and family and some of the most exciting news, my brother Ross and his wife Thea are expecting their first baby, due May 2! It's so fun that we are all having our kids close together it will make for crazy but fun holiday times! We have much more to share in the coming weeks so check back, also D's first kiss and video to come later! Thanks to everybody in Dallas for your hospitality, good talks and lots of fun! I have more pics from the last few days of our trip but I haven't even downloaded them off the camera yet...sigh...I'll do it soon!

D's first time to truly play with anything...and it was a freaking volleyball, of course Matt was totally stoked but I kept telling D kick the volleyball and he did so there's still hope for soccer...

D discovering his elephant we call him "Speckles"!

D loved Mrs. Glynda of course he has seemed to take a liking to most the girls! Our little player!

D with Pastor Bojangles! He threw up on him at lunch...hee hee...I couldn't help but laugh!

D's buddy Pierce! Pierce is 6 weeks younger than D but about the same size he's tall and lean too and with a name like pierce I still maintain he will kick my kids butt some day!

D discovers Speckles the elephant....again....it's too funny every time he sees him it's the first time!


Hanging at GGMA's! We surprised her and she was shocked, but loved spending time with her great grandson! It was the best time.

Like I said we saw lots more friends and family and unfortunately didn't get pics with everybody I need to get a picture of my brother and sister and law for sure maybe coupled with their first sono picture to come this week! Check back for updates and more on upcoming changes in our world!