Merry Christmas!!!

We are enjoying our first Christmas together with Maggie. We started the celebration tonight (Christmas Eve) with my parents and siblings. Tomorrow we go to the Spaids and my Mom's family. Then the 26th we go to my Dad's, the 29th we have the Davidson Christmas (a branch of Tyler's family), then the 30th to my Dad's side of the family. Whew! I hope Maggie can make it through all of those Christmas parties. If you counted, there are 6 big events to go to. Pictures from tonight are below. I'll post more from the coming festivities as they occur and I have time to sit in front of the computer.

Tyler and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May you be filled with wonder and awe at the ultimate gift of all this Christmas Season - God sending his Son to Earth to reconcile ourselves to Himself. Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

Maggie in her "Baby's First Christmas" bib.


Maggie & Gramma Sue's cat, Winston. She sat still for some cute pictures in that baby chair.

A new toy for Maggie!

Bathtime at Gramma's House

Maggie thoroughly enjoyed her bathtime this afternoon, and I snapped this great picture of her!!! She had real bath toys she could play with, but chose Gramma Spaid's foot scrubber instead. What a cutie-pie!

Crawling Proof

Ok, so the white tights were super cute with her outfit for church on Sunday (her skirt was previously removed), not so good for a day of crawling. Would you LOOK at how dirty her tights are?!? That is just nuts!

What are cousins for?

Playing, playng and more playing. And sometimes hugs and kisses and even hitting (we aren't encouraging the hitting part).

Grandpa's Family

The Rohrbach clan was all together for Grandpa's funeral on Saturday. Uncle Jim and his family came up from Florida, Tyler, Maggie and I from Nashville, and everyone else lives here in the Seattle area. We took a family photo at dinner at Tash & Britt's house Friday night. There are 2 children and their spouses, 6 grandchildren and their spouses, 4 great grandsons and 3 great grandaughters pictured.

Maggie and her iPod

Daddy entertained Maggie for quite some time on the plane ride to Seattle with his iPod. Evidence below.

Goodbye Grandpa Jim - We Love you!

Tyler's Grandpa Jim passed away Sunday afternoon. Please pray for the Spaid family as they deal with this loss of a dear loved one. We are headed to Seattle Thursday, the funeral is on Saturday. I am so glad that Grandpa got to meet Maggie.

In other news...

For those of you who knew, Tyler's job with Charlie Peacock was coming to an end on December 31. Tyler's been working and interviewing since September to find a new job, and he finally got one on Wednesday. He will be working at CTS Audio as their Controller and HR Manager. We are really thankful that he got this job. After several opportunities fell through in October and November, we were getting worried that he would be without a job in January. Not to mention the financial implications it would have on our Christmas celebrations! But, God was watching over us and there won't be any break in pay, which is such a blessing!!! Sorry Seattle family and friends, the new job is here in Nashville.

A little pre-Christmas Cheer

Here are two short videos of Maggie "dancing" to Christmas music, and one of her crawling on all fours. And note, those are 12-month PJ's she is wearing, and they fit her perfectly. I still cannot believe that she is actually wearing 12-month PJ's, they still look entirely too long when I just hold them up. The music in the background is from the Pttery Barn Christmas CD from 2000, I think.

This is a new thing i'm trying - posting a video on the blog. Not sure if I'm allowed to do that or not, or if it even works. We'll see.



If it isn't working, you can click on the links below like normal.
Maggie Dancing
Maggie Crawling

10 Months

Here's Maggie's 10 month boppy picture. I could barely get her to sit still for her photo. She's crawling all over the place now and can go crom crawling to sitting up, so that's pretty cool! Of course, she thinks her name is "Maggie, No!" now.

Good Morning!

Maggie greeted Tyler Saturday morning sitting up in her crib! She's never done that before, so I ran in quick with the camera to capture this first. It was really something. Then, Tyler was playing peekaboo with her later that morning and she finally said "Dada" to him!!! Two firsts in one morning, it was really great.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie. Who could ask for more? We are so thankful for all our friends and family that make our life so rich. And we are especially thankful for our little girl who has been such an amazing blessing to us!

We spent Thanksgiving with our great friends Seth & Dixie Christian, and their daughter Zayli (rhymes with Bailey). Dixie and I put together an 18-lb. turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, cheesy grean bean casserole, salad and rolls. It was fabulous!!! The turkey turned out perfectly moist and tender, which is my first PERFECT turkey*. Maggie got to enjoy a big turkey dinner, and she loved every bite. Actually, she got two dinners - one at 3:00 when the turkey was done, and again at 6:30 for dinner. She ate lots and lots! I think the mashed potatoes and gravy were her favorite. Here are pictures from the day, and a video to boot.

* In 2002, we did our first Thanksgiving with Seth & Dixie. We did a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey. After 5 hours, the darn thing STILL wasn't done- and the instructions said it only needed 2 hours- and we had to nuke it to be able to eat it. NOT my finest culinary moment.

The boys play video games while dinner is prepared.

Everyone at the table for dinner.
Maggie with her drumstick bone.
Zayli comes over to check out Maggie and that bone.
The aftermath.
Video of Maggie and her drumstick: http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=95DDD5AC79258C18

Video: Maggie Crawling

Here's a quick clip of Maggie crawling this morning in her PJ's. She just uses her right leg- it's pretty funny!
http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=826D539E6EE48FB0

Finger Foods

Maggie's pinscher grasp has been pretty good for a while, but I always have something semi-pureed for her meals like sweet potato, squash, peas, applesauce, peaches, etc. So last night was the first night Maggie ate an all finger-food meal by herself: sliced up cheese, bits of chicken, goldfish crackers and cooked zucchini. That means Mama didn't have to sit and feed her! Now, that doesn't mean Maggie eats very quickly - it took her a long time to pick up those slippery zucchini wedges, but she did it. But wow, was she having a good time and so proud of herself - just look at that smile. Maybe I'll get to eat a hot meal soon?

Look at those teeth!!!

I FINALLY got a good picture of her teeth. FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!! She's got 8 teeth now. If you click on the picture, it will open up a new window with a bigger picture so you can see them better.

Who does Maggie look like- Daddy?

Here are some of Tyler's baby pictures so you can see if Maggie looks like her Daddy. I think she looks more like him than me now. What do you think?

Who does Maggie look like - Mama?

When Maggie was first born, I thought she looked like Tylers' Grandmother and my brother. Then I thought she looked a lot like me. Now I've switched and think she looks like Tyler. Here are some of my baby pictures. What do you think?

More Happy Halloween!!!

Here are some photos from tonight's Fall Festival at church. Maggie was such a good sport in her costume - didn't try to pull her hood off all night. Maggie and I were cats, Tyler was a bag of catnip. Get it?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I popped Maggie into her costume last night to take a picture with her pumpkin that I carved just for her. We are going to our church's Fall Fest tonight, so I'll take pictures of us all and post them tomorrow.

Did you know that today is also Reformation Day? On this day in 1517, Martin Luther posted a proposal at the doors of a church in Wittenberg, Germany to debate the doctrine and practice of indulgences. This proposal is popularly known as the 95 Theses, which he nailed to the Castle Church doors. This was not an act of defiance or provocation as is sometimes thought. Since the Castle Church faced Wittenberg's main thoroughfare, the church door functioned as a public bulletin board and was therefore the logical place for posting important notices. Nonetheless, the event created a controversy between Luther and those allied with the Pope over a variety of doctrines and practices. When Luther and his supporters were excommunicated in 1520, the Lutheran, Reformed and Anabaptist traditions were born. (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation_Day) Praise the Lord for the Reformation!

9 months

Here is Maggie's 9 month boppy picture. She's started pulling up on things, so we had to lower her crib her picture looks like she's in a little jail cell now. I couldn't get her to smile for the boppy picture on the floor. Oh well!

Yesterday she pulled up from sitting to kneeling at our friend Dixie's house, and this morning she puller up from sitting to standing on our coffee table. She's also crawling/creeping quite a bit now, and likes to head for whatever is off-limits when she gets moving. She has also learned "what sound does a doggy make?" and with some help will make little barking noises. It is so darn cute!

Pictures in the car

Here is a picture of Maggie in the car on the way home from Oxford, Mississippi. We went the the Lotts (see blog link below, right). Had a good time Grove-ing. Maggie spent all day in her carrier on Mama's front and liked it. I'll post her 9-month photo tomorrow.

Grandparents come visit!

Grampa and Gramma Spaid came to visit for a long weekend. Maggie sure got spoiled with them here! She also had lots of new stuff happen while they were here: TWO new teeth, is nearly crawling, and can stand up against the coffee table. Wow! So much progress in just 5 days!!! They even got Maggie's 1st birthday gift early - a real high chair (it matches our dining set and everything). And, Amron helped me paint my kitchen, so it is a sunny butter yellow now. It's hard to get a picture of her actually up on her knees, but she does that pretty well now, just can't figure out how to move her left leg, just the right. Standing up against the coffee table or couch is a new favorite activity. She can't pull herself all the way up yet, but she's getting there. And here's the high chair. We had to put a seat cushion in it to hold her up just right otherwise it is a little too big yet and she slouches too far down.

Trying to get a picture of her upper teeth

So Maggie still has a jack-o-lantern smile. Here are some photos where I tried to get a picture of those top teeth. As you can see, it was really difficult.


You can kinda see them through the blur - incisors on both sides, and one of her middle teeth.

And, after pictures of her teeth were over, she posed for this one. What a stinker!

Hello, me!

This week I was working at Mother's Day Out at church (a Christian daycare program) in the nursery with Maggie. There is a mirror on one of the walls that all the babies love. Why, do you ask, do they love the mirror? Well, let me tell you - they like to be able to kiss themselves! Maggie spent a good ten minutes by the mirror squealing with delight every time she saw herself in it, and I was lucky enough to capture a kiss on my camera phone. This was shortly before she was trampled by a walking 15-month old.

Sweet, sleepy baby

I caught Maggie and Daddy cuddling after church.

What kind of face is THAT?!?!

Ok - I have to say that Maggie makes the most interesting faces. Can you guess what these ones are for?


Yep, you guessed it. That is the poopy face. The camera did not capture how very red her face really was, especially 'round the eyes. Silly baby!

Maggie - 8 Months and Growing!

Here's Maggie's 8 month boppy picture. This week she has started waving bye-bye!!! It is adorable, and she practices it quite a lot, but can't always do it on command yet. She is also working on another tooth. I hope it is on the top, to even out her bite, because right now she looks like a vampire/jack-o-lantern cross. Don't get upset, she's still cute, I'm just trying to describe what her teeth look like. Do you LOVE LOVE LOVE that tie-dye onesie?

She's still not crawling either, but she scoots backwards a bit, loves to get up on her knees and rock back and forth and can rotate 360-degrees on her belly to get her toys. She also can roll to wherever she wants to go, but prefers to sit up with her toys.

In the talking department, she can say "Mama" very clearly, and knows it's me. In fact, if she wakes up in the morning before it is TIME to be up, she yells "MAMA, MAMA!" It would be even more cute if it wasn't 5:30 when she does it. She says "dada" but I don't think she associates that with Tyler all the time, and says "babababa" and blows two different raspberries - one with tongue out and one with tongue in. Both procure LOTS of slobber!!! Maggie also started a grunty noise, and that is funny, because she's already got a medium-low voice, and these are pretty low. I'll get them on video soon, and post a link for you all to watch. Anyway, here's her picture.

Something New

So I've got several "something new"s to share.
1) Every time Maggie picks up something soft, like stuffed animal, or a blanket, she sucks her thumb and cuddles with it. Every time, seriously. I tested this out the other day, and took pictures for proof.


2) We had our first illness. She had a minor ear infection (not bad enough for medication) and a fever. She's also got a fever that stays about 102. Maggie is still a sad, sad baby. Can't decide if she wants to play, or cry, or have Mama hold her, or cry, or ... you get the picture. It's just pitiful.
3) Did you see the new link over there on your right, labeled Melissa's Flowers? I made a website/blog just for my flowers since I'm starting to get referral business and people want to see what I've done. I've got two more weddings to post, then it'll be up to date (now if I could only remember where I put those pictures).