Decorating

Now that December is here we decided to decorate the house for Christmas. This time though we didn't use all of our decorations like we have before. It was getting to be too much and the house started looking junky and cluttered during the holidays. No one wants that look in her home for an entire month, right? This year we chose to put out our favorites and keep it simple. Maggie enjoyed helping Chad put the ornaments on our little tree. She doesn't quite have an eye for aesthetics and symmetry yet, but she was able to quickly figure out how to put the ornaments on the tree, so we are happy with that.

Christmas Light Parade

Saturday night was the annual Christmas light parade in town. I was a bit apprehensive about taking Maggie because I wasn't sure how she'd react to the activity. I knew she'd love it, but I wasn't sure if she'd want to run around and end up out of control. You never know. Anyway, turns out I was completely wrong to worry. We brought chairs and a big blanket and once the parade began she sat on my lap for the duration. She waved to the kids with a huge grin on her face and loved it all: the lights, the dogs, the horses, the kids, the bands...all of it.

 Self Portrait

 Who is more excited to be here?

Maggie and Chad after the parade

Christmas Tree Lane

When you live in the suburbs you get to experience events for the holidays that don't seem to make it to the more urban areas. And while I so miss living in a hip-happening place there are some local festivities that are pretty hard to beat. For example, while nearly everyone gets festive to some extent with lights and decor outside their home, a few neighborhoods in town really go wild at Christmas. We are lucky enough to live just over a mile from one of them and Chad, Maggie and I took the opportunity to check it out last night. Taking photos of lights at night proved to be a difficult task for us but here is the best of what we shot. As you can see there is no-doubt-the-world's-greatest-bow-of-all-time on one of the houses. Man, I would love to have one of those on our place. Also, you'll see the holiday wish-list that Chad and I have signed in years past. This time Maggie signed it and apparently she wants a pony. Other wishes on her page? Video games, a hot rich boyfriend, a genie, 100 more wishes, toys... Finally, one of the homes had this little dancing mechanical animal band which inspired some kids to have an impromptu dance party. Maggie said, "What? A dance party without me? No way." And she was off to get her groove on. That girl can and will dance to anything. Even to a dorky dancing mechanical animal Christmas band.  

Party Harty

Last night Chad and I went to the annual Best of Fresno party. It was lots of fun and the food was delicious! My parents watched Maggie for the day/night and we were able to enjoy the evening to ourselves. Mike Scott, one of the anchors at Chad's station took this photo of us and put it on his blog.

Um...here's another one

Like before, this sign is from a school in an award-winning district. The pathetic part about this one is that it's not a sign that changes periodically and it probably was not assembled by a 4th grader. The letters are not stickers. They are printed or burned or whatever-the-process-is-to-make-such-a-sign-ed so this mistake is there for the long haul. My walk today was the first time I've noticed it. I wonder how long it's been there and I wonder how long it'll remain...? Is it possible that the person who made the sign was under the influence of a substance while making it?

Sledding

Chad decided it was time to take Mags sledding as part of our wintery fall weekend. There is a hill right next to the cabin that's perfect for a short sledding introduction. Maggie had a ball every time they went down the run. Seriously, we could not wipe that smile off her face.

Clashing is in this seaon

On Saturday we drove to the cabin, knowing a storm was on the way. Had we known exactly how strong the storm was going to be we might have stayed home. But we didn't and it was beautiful and fun. And so snowy and cold. In fact it was unusually snowy for the weekend before Thanksgiving. Chad and my dad got to shovel snow and put chains on our car at the peak point of the storm. As soon as we saw a break in the clouds we all high-tailed it out of there.

As you can see, Maggie got to try out her new pink snowsuit. And red jacket.

Maggie Mac will make you jump, jump

Last Friday Maggie and I went with her play group to Tumble America. It was our first time there and she enjoyed it, plus it was a great way to burn off a bit of energy. There was some serious exploring, running around and jumping going on in there.

Crapeola

Recently we had the displeasure of experiencing roseola with Maggie. Poor little thing didn't know what was going on and honestly, neither did we. A friend of ours suggested we not rule out roseola when, on the fourth day of a 100+ fever and no other real symptoms of anything, we had to cancel some fun plans with her family because of Maggie's condition. Turns out she was right. After Maggie's fever broke she got the rash. It appeared pretty heavily on her butt, upper legs, arms and face. I was assured that the rash wasn't itchy and that it wouldn't hurt (thank goodness!) and fortunately that seemed to be the case for Mags too. She ran around the house looking horrible but feeling just fine. Thank goodness that's over.

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Little Mags was a honey bee this year for Halloween. We didn't want her costume to be too girlie, but we did want it to be sweet and cute, so this outfit seemed to fit the bill. Plus, we know that bees are super important to the world and Maggie is super important to us. A perfect fit. We began the evening at a friend's house, then did a little trick or treating before coming home and giving out the goods to the neighborhood kids. There were lots of candy-grabbers this year and, as most of you who know me know, I loved it!