The view from Seattle

Hello! Sorry I've not posted recently. Maggie and I are in Seattle visiting the grandparents, other family, and friends. It's been quite a busy trip already. Here are some pictures from our trip so far.

Here's Maggie and Grandma Pearl, Tyler's grandma who lives in Montana. This is the first time she's gotten to meet Maggie.

Here is Maggie and Olivia, our cousin. They are almost exactly 1 year apart.


And, Maggie's 7-month photo. I was good and didn't pack the boppy in my suitcase for this picture (though you couldn't tell from how stuffed our suitcases were), so Granny Sue's antique rocker will have to do.


Poppy and Mimie happened to get a castle (long story), and got it all ready for Maggie. It's in the field behind their house, and what you can't see is that there are about 30 llamas grazing in that field! So, when Maggie gets tired chasing llama babies she can chill out in her own little castle. We think it is quite appropriate for our little princess!!!

Fun at Church

This past Saturday our church put on a fun fried chicken potluck dinner and an "old time radio hour" which was kind of like the Grand Ole Opry.
Everyone brought so much food they had to put out additional tables! And Tyler has found some fried chicken that he LOVES - Mrs. Winner's. Mom I know you love fried chicken, so when you are here next, we'll have to get dinner there one night. Here are some pictures from the event. Maggie looked so cute in her little hat, but it didn't stay on all evening.

One of the ladies from our church did "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" on her violin/fiddle (she plays professionally), and it was AWESOME! She's also got this teeny tiny sqeaky mousey voice, so it was really funny to hear her sing the song, too. Byron, our senior pastor, whipped out his guitar and did a Johnny Cash song (I think it was a Cash song), and one group of guys did "I am a Man of Constant Sorrow" from the Soggy Bottom Boys and did a really great job at it, too.

Don Whitney spoke at the end of the evening. He is an author and a professor at Southern Thoelogical Seminary: www.BiblicalSpirituality.org. He also spoke at the Men's Breakfast Saturday morning, and preaching at church on Sunday morning. His book TEN QUESTIONS TO DIAGNOSE YOUR SPIRITUAL HEALTH is a really good, insightful book to read. I went through it with the college/career group at CBC when we first moved to Nashville.

Maggie & Daddy - love her hat! You will also note Tyler's new "do".
Maggie & Mama, a self-portrait
The stage out front, everyone dressed up in their country best.
Here's a picture of the beautiful sky, I couldn't get one with the stage and the sky in focus.
Our tuckered out little girl! She was so tired by the end of the night, she slept in our arms, which doesn't happen very often.

Maggie loves teething biscuits

So for those of you that don't know what a teething biscuit is, it is a dry, crunchy, hard rectangle of a biscuit for babies to chew on. I was warned that these are incredibly messy because baby saliva turns them into mush pretty quick. Well, I didn't get a picture of a huge mess, but I did take some shots of Maggie chomping away. Her favorite thing to do with teething biscuits is to break them in half so she can have one in each hand, and take turns chewing on each of them. Her second favorite thing to do with them is throw them on the floor and watch mama pick them back up. She gets one every lunch time while I get the rest of her meal ready to go.
As far as her solid food consumption, she gets oatmeal and then a vegetable or fruit for lunch and dinner each day, which is about a 1/4 cup of solids each time. So far we've had: rice cereal (very first solid - too plain); applesauce - not too sure about that; sweet potatoes - can't get enough!; butternut squash - likes it a lot; carrots - likes them almost as much as sweet potatoes; pears - tolerates about 3 spoonfuls at a meal; prunes - will eat one or two spoonfuls if mama begs enough. She also gets dabs of whatever mama is eating from time to time and she likes vanilla yogurt, pesto, spaghetti sauce, enchilada sauce, italian salad dressing, ketchup and mustard, etc.

A Video - just for the heck of it (and for grandparents)

Here's a video of Maggie playing (and Mama helping) and flailing her arms. The quality isn't very good - the batteries were low in my camera, but it is cute regardless. Note: once the yellow block comes into play, there is a duck quacking, that's not Maggie making that noise. There is a little bit of Maggie-noise towards the end. Click on the link below and it should take you right to the video.
http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=050E45892AD0AA9A