Happy Birthday Maggie!

Dear little Miss Maggie,

Today you turn 3! I can’t believe it, where has the time gone?  I remember lying in the hospital the day before you were born, I was so worried about how I would “learn” to be a mommy to you. If only I had known then that you would teach me everything I needed to know, I’d have been able to relax a little. In the last year you have turned from a curious toddler into a bubble little girl.  You never cease to amaze your daddy and I.  You are incredibly kind and caring.  You’re fiercely independent, amazingly smart and extremely polite.  You can keep up with the boys, though you prefer to be “all pinked up”.  You like playing in the dirt but you love to wear my lip gloss.  You know the importance of loving God and loving other people, and that’s an amazing feat for someone so small.

This year you started preschool.  You’ve learned so much and made lots of new friends.  I was very nervous to send you, because you’re the youngest student, but like you do with every new challenge, you mastered it quickly.  You love gymnastics, playing in your playhouse, books and games.  You have a new dance for every occasion and you’re great at making up new songs. 

You know the importance of family and good friends.  You love spending time with family that’s close by and you adore going through pictures of family farther away.  Now that you can talk on the phone, you love to call your grandparents and I’m so glad that you have all 4 of them wrapped around your little fingers. 

This year you became a big sister, and if I could create the perfect big sister for Gracie, it would be you. Your strong personality and infectious laugh, already make her smile.  I love that you call her “Tater” and “Bright Eyes” and I adore that when you enter the room she immediately tries to find you.  I would place a large wager on her first word being “Maggie” or “Sis”.  I hope you keep loving her the way you do now, having a sister is a special thing and I’m so glad you have each other.

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY MAGGIE! Thanks for loving me. I can't wait to see how you continue to grow in the next 5, 10, 25, 50 years. There's no doubt in my mind you can do anything you set your mind to.  I love you more then you will ever know.

Love, Mommy

Maggie, put your coat on...

We're in Alabama....Uncle Evan and Aunt Amy's wedding weekend is about to begin.  Maggie is very excited.  Currently she is supposed to be napping and she is tossing, turning and pretending to snore...she lets out a few snores and then opens her eyes to see if we noticed that she was "sleeping".  I hope we get a few naps out of her while we're here, but so far it's looking doubtful.

Since we're going to be gone for Maggie's birthday, last night we had a birthday dinner with her grandparents, Miss Lauren and Mr Collin and the Ries'.  It's not the extravaganza that her last 2 birthday parties have been, but she didn't seem to notice and loved every minute of it.  At the end of the party we had a 'proud parent' moment when she gave the Minnie Mouse balloon bouquet we'd brought to Carly and JJ to take home.  She told me that since we were going to be gone for the wedding she wouldn't get to "enjoy" them, so they should have them.  She is wise beyond her years, maybe a bit of an old soul. 

She was sad to have to leave her new presents at home this morning but we promised that there would be lots of time to play when we got home. It was hard for me to leave Gracie home, but I'm not sure Maggie's noticed yet :). Gracie is in great hands and it will be good for Maggie to have a little mom and dad time.   Hopefully the Nebraska weather cooperates and my dad can get the slide and deck finished on Maggie's playhouse while we're away, then she'll have a real surprise when we get home!

I forgot to mention yesterday that another pink frog appeared in the mail this week...it was a stuffed pink frog with blue legs, Maggie opened the envelope and said something to the effect of, look mom, god sent me Cupcake's (that's what she named the first pink frog) mom, that was nice of him.  Then a little later she said that she didn't know God used the mail....it's going to be hard to keep this kid convinced about Santa for long.

Because Maggie was born a little premature, every 6 months we have to fill out a questionnaire about her development.  It's the states way of ensuring we are getting any additional support we need for her.  She's very advanced for her age and we've always flown through the questions.  Yesterday, we got her three year forms...I went through and quickly answered the questions and ran Maggie through a few of the exercises it asked for, then I got to a question that asked if Maggie could put her own coat on....well, I'm not sure.  I'm usually in such a hurry to get out the door that I don't give her a chance (by the time I've waited for her to do her socks and shoes by herself, I don't have the patience for the coat too.)  Anyway, I answered "no" to the question...well I'm pretty sure that answer is driving her dad nuts.  I expect there to be "put your coat on" boot camp at our house soon :) 

Here are a few pictures of the birthday dinner....



Gracie's ready to celebrate!!



Gracie, what do you think about spending the weekend with Grandma & Grandpa??

 
Hopefully I'll have a chance to post some pictures from the next few days...doesn't look like it'll be happening during naptime :)

(I'm working on Arnie's computer again, so for some reason I can't get the pictures turned the right way, sorry!)

11 lbs and 40,000 miles

Last night we weighed Little Miss Gracie...maybe I should quit calling her "little"...she is officially in the 11 pound club.  11 lbs 4 oz according to our scale.  She's been eating like a champ and she slept until 5am this morning....maybe by the time we come home from Alabama my mom will have her sleeping through the night??  Unfortunitly she seems to have caught a bit of the cold her big sister has, lots of coughing and a very stuffy nose, poor thing.  I hate to leave her when she's sick, but I'm thankful she'll have my parents to take good care of her, and taking her sick would be harder on her.

Yesterday was a day of numbers around here, besides Gracie's steller weight gain, my car hit 40k miles.  This is significant because last April when I inheriteted it from Arnie it had 12k miles....so in the last 14 months I've driven more then 28,000 miles....if I averaged 60 mph, thats 466 hours of driving, or 19 and a half days....whoa! that's alot.  If I could teach Maggie to drive while I worked, I would be much more efficient.  Maybe next time we should consider a car that gets a little better gas milage....probably not  (where would I put the kids, the dog, the stroller and all the other junk we always seem to have in there???)

The other number that came up yesterday was 60....as in 60 mph in a 50 mph zone.  I know, I know, you all assume it was me and my lead foot....WRONG! yesterday when I picked Maggie up at school, she said, "Mommy did you have to talk to a policeman on your way to pick me up?" I said, no, why? and Maggie said, "daddy and I had to talk to a policeman on our way to school this morning.  He wasn't nice, he gave daddy a ticket."

Oh ya, last night Maggie's prayer when like this....
"God is great, thank you for a nice day, watch over my trike, and help mommy's tummy to not be so lumpy anymore. Amen."  Sometimes kids can be a bit too honest, I guess I won't be wearing a swimsuit anytime soon :)

Seriously, how is it that I'm supposed to keep the house clean?
(not to mention the tupperware)

Look Mom, I found clouds...

Today during naptime I could hear Maggie counting...12...13...14...15...
So I went to check on her and here is what I found....

She said, "Look mom I found some clouds.  I needed something softer to rest on." One of the throw pillows on our bed was unzipped and the counting was the handfuls of stuffing she'd been throwing in the air.  She wasn't very thrilled that after I made her clean up the "clouds", she still had to take a nap! 

Tonight Maggie begged to ride her trike to Sam & Toppers, so we tried it.  Here is how we left....

We were off to a good start.  Here's how we finished the walk...

After our walk Gracie watched a little driveway basketball before coming in for a bottle.

bedtime prayer...

Last night Maggie's prayer went something like this...
"Dear God, Thank you for a nice day.  Please watch over my tricycle and help me get really good at riding it so I can go all the way to Sam & Topper's house. Amen" 

The flag out in front of our house has been in rough shape for awhile, but the ice ball storm was really the last straw.  Yesterday Arnie and Maggie went and got a new one.  Maggie was so excited to help put it up.  She decided daddy would put the flag up and she would say the pledge to it.  She is a very patriotic little thing, she knows where most of the big flags are on our path to Omaha and she is always quick to point them out.

One more picture, just for fun...who can help but smile at this??

Surprise Birthday Day....

Since we are going to be in Mobile on Maggie's actual Birthday, we decided that we would make today a surprise birthday day and give Maggie most of her presents early. We came back from Omaha first thing this morning, and then Maggie and Arnie went to Menards to pick up a couple of things.  While they were gone, I set out the birthday presents.  Maggie noticed the BIG blanket covered present in the driveway from all the way out on the road.  She and Arnie were headed past our house to check in on Sam and Topper, and Arnie was quickly instructed to scrap the horses and get down the driveway.

Maggie was so excited to see the sign in the driveway and she couldn't wait to uncover her surprise....

Tonight when she called Grandma & Grandpa to tell them about
her new trike, she said "it's all pinked up!"

Gracie didn't seem to mind being Maggie's first passenger :)

It was really windy so it's hard to hear what she says, but here is a video of her uncovering it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzvmEvTSHPc

We played in the driveway for awhile, then went inside to open a few more presents and then went to Big Red Volcano (Keno), Maggie's favorite restaurant, for lunch. 

While we were in Omaha for the weekend, something appeared on the porch of the playhouse...

When Maggie saw it, she said (all in one breath) , "Mom, God gave me a pink frog for my Birthday!  She's not real, but she is PINK! Do you think God came down here or do you think he just sent it?"  She didn't even think to ask me where the frog came from, it didn't cross her mind that anyone other then God could have done it.  If only we could all have faith like that!

Tonight was Miss Lauren's graduation party, so after a day of playing we headed to their house.  Maggie is like an honorary Orwig, so she spent most of the evening greeting guests at the door with Lauren or telling other kids where things were or what they should be doing.  It was a great end to a fun day. 

The next few days will be busy, all the regular stuff plus a little birthday fun, getting ready for the trip to Mobile and preparing to leave Gracie for a few days.  Hope we can squeeze it all in!!

Maggie & Alex....

Maggie and her cousin Alex are great friends....it's so fun to watch them play.

Yesterday we were at Nate's graduation party, and it was COLD! but watching these 2 you would never have known it.  They played and played and played.  We used to have to entertain them but now they would pretty much rather we leave them alone....yesterday the threw paper airplanes, chucked rocks into the little stream, danced, played "pirate ship", helped serve dinner and ate their weight in M&M's....what a fun day!!

Alex's turn to steer the pirate ship.



Maggie helped Aunt Bobbie serve the sloppy joes...it
didn't take long before she started trying to charge people.
First she asked for 50 cents, then she told grandpa they
were $2....and she got it!

 I only have 5 cousins in the whole world so growing up they were a part of my daily life, more like my siblings then my cousins, I'm so glad that now our kids can be close friends.  It's fun to watch them grow up together.  Maggie and Alex are quite a pair and before long Ellie, Gracie and baby Westerfield will be chasing them around.  I can't wait!