Merry Christmas!

Independence Day

We had a great, full-filled Fourth of July this year. We were invited to a BBQ where all three of us got to eat and play/chat with friends before camping out to watch the local fireworks show. It was great!

Cousin Keri's Wedding

In late June our beautiful cousin Keri got married in the bay area. Maggie was her flower girl and was pulled in a wagon with Liam, the little ring bearer, by our cousin Bailey. Maggie was precise with role as flower girl, only dropping one petal at at time and rotating evenly between the left and right side. Super cute. After the wedding they had a party and Maggie danced the night away. 

We all know Maggie is a lover and can't wait to give (and receive!) hugs and kisses. This night was no exception, as you'll see from a few of the photos in this post. She just can't help herself...

A fun weekend with family and I know everyone had a good time.

Congratulations, Keri and Matt! We love you!

Happy Birthday, Mags!

Today is Maggie's third birthday and yesterday we celebrated with her friends. More photos later this week, but for now...happy birthday sweet girl! We love you!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was pleasant and relaxing this year. We went out to eat, took a nap and spent a nice day together as a family. Maggie and Chad bought me a new camera lens that I've been dying for (but never thought I'd get!). I know I'm going to have a ball playing around with it. (FYI - I didn't use the lens here, but you'll see it in future noted posts.)

Father's Day

For the next month or so my posts are going to be out of order. Because I was so far behind in getting organized I'm going to have some posts that are somewhat timely and others that aren't.

We had a great father's day this year with Chad. It started out by me making eggs for breakfast. I know. I miracle. After breakfast we changed into our swimsuits and took off for Wild Water Adventures, one of our local water parks. We spent a few warm hours there playing in the water and eating lunch before coming home for a nap. Well, Chad got a nap. He played hard with Maggie in the water and sun so it was totally deserved. That evening we had dinner at one of our favorite steakhouses (way too hot to BBQ at home) and settled in for the night.

I hope Chad had as good of a Father's Day as Maggie and I did. She has a super great dad and we had lots of fun with him celebrating.

And a belated happy Father's Day to my dad, who I didn't get to see on Father's Day. Fortunately we got to spend the previous weekend with him and will be with him next weekend too! 

Easter 2012

We had a nice Easter weekend at my parents' house. It was a short overnight trip, but we got to spend time with my parents, GG and our cousin Bailey and we all enjoyed ourselves. My mom organized a little egg hunt for Maggie, GG gave her a fuzzy Easter bunny, Bailey taught Maggie how to play the slots, my dad played quite a bit with Maggie and read her Corduroy, her newest favorite book, and Chad showed how limber he is by riding Maggie's trike after she pooped out at the park.

egg hunt

On Monday our moms group had an egg hunt for the kids at a local park. There were somewhere near 25 kids and tons of filled eggs for each of them to find. While the kids were in the playground distracted and playing, the moms tossed  the eggs around the large grassy area. When the kids were lined up and ready, it took them less than five minutes to gather the entire lot of eggs. After the hunt the kids sat on the sidewalk to check out their loot, then ate from a potluck of snacks, and finally spent the rest of the time playing with and chasing their friends.

Happy 84th birthday, GG! We love you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Maggie, Chad and I hope you all have a wonderfully sweet Valentine's Day tomorrow. Here is Mags helping me stuff her valentines for her little buds.

crafty gals

Last week my friend Amy organized a little craft night at her house. She had the supplies for fabric Valentine love banners for our mantels so that's what we made.  It was fun hanging out with the girls and getting crafty for the evening. Hopefully we'll do it again soon.

2012

Maggie stayed overnight with my parents on New Year's Eve. Chad and I went to a movie that afternoon, had dinner reservations that evening and then were off to a party for the rest of the evening. These are the hats I brought home for Maggie to play with the next day. She thinks they're beautiful. Happy New Year!

Last post from 2011

For some reason at Christmas I neglected my camera. I had it with me, in my lap even, but still forgot to take as many photos as I wanted to. I did manage to take a few, so here is the best of Christmas 2011.

special visitors

Before Christmas we had the pleasure of spending time with my long-time (and far away living) friend Tami, her famous-in-New-England husband, and their super-duper son. Their son was, in fact, born just a couple weeks before Maggie and sadly this was the first time we've met him. When he got out of the car Maggie's first words were "oh, he's cute!" That girl. Anyway, they made the effort to come see us for the day and we had such a nice time catching up in person, having dinner and letting the kids play a bit.  

for Maggie's buds

Maggie and I made some Christmas peppermint play-dough to give to some of her friends this year. We had fun making it and hope they are enjoying it too.

Meet Manny

This year we jumped on the Elf on the Shelf bandwagon and started the tradition for Maggie. My mom bought Maggie her first elf and he magically appeared in our house at the beginning of the month. Manny, as Maggie named him, has been all over our home, but particularly loves to hang upside down in our house. She thinks he's hilarious and is always enthusiastic when she looks for him each morning. She also loves showing Manny off to her friends when they come over. Unfortunately he had to leave us on Christmas Day and Maggie was disappointed. The good news is that I'm sure he, or one of his friends, will come back next year. (Sorry for all the poor snapshots of him here. He's cuter in real life.)

Merry Christmas

We hope you are able to relax and enjoy this special day!

Pom Poms and Pine Cones

Earlier in the month Maggie and I hosted our moms group toddler art club again. I thought it would be fun to make pine cone Christmas trees with the kids and I think they enjoyed themselves. I was able to photograph a few of the finished products before everyone left. The kids were proud of their trees and were enthusiastic about taking them home.

Holiday Baking

Last week my mom came up for the night so we could do our annual holiday baking. This year we made lemon cookies, ginger snaps, oatmeal bars and rocky road.

Jingle Bells

Two weekends ago my dad sang Jingle Bells to Maggie. I'd say he sang it a total of 4 times. Here she is repeating what he sang the next day. She's a fast learner!

Santa

Over Thanksgiving weekend Maggie met Santa. He was in Shaver that Saturday ready to take pictures, talk to the kids, and give out stockings and candy canes. Maggie was excited to meet him. I was super curious about how she'd react to sitting on his lap because last year she didn't think it was the greatest. This year, however, I really talked him up for the week or so before they met and she lit up when she saw him sitting in his chair. Here's the funny thing: she was way stoked to sit on his lap, but would not look at his face. Even once. She smiled and giggled and talk to him, but was totally timid when it came to looking at him. At least she was brave enough to sit on his lap and talk to him. After the kids all met the big guy they took their gifted stockings to the shops in town and got treats from the store owners. It was basically like trick or treating for Christmas candy, pencils and hot chocolate. No one complained.