Drumming with Daddy

Maggie and Daddy like to get out the tupperware and bang away in the evenings. We tried pots and pans, but seriously, after 3 whacks, I thought I was going to go insane. But, they have a lot of fun pounding with wooden spoons, and Maggie's rhythm is pretty good. I couldn't get a picture of them with their spoons still, so blurry spoons will have to do.

Robin Update: Three Eggs!

I checked yesterday, and there are now three eggs in the nest. that means the previous picture I took was while they were being laid. So the eggs should be hatching around April 2nd to 4th. The mamma robin is good at sitting on her nest - only flies out when I get within 8 feet or so.

Easter 2008

Here are pictures of us with Maggie.


We just had a quiet day at home after church. My Mom called me in the afternoon to wish us a "Happy Easter", and to let me know that my Gramma DeHoog had a massive heart attack Saturday night. She survived, but is in the hospital. My Mom said that Gramma really thought she was going to die this time (she's had some serious health problems for many years now).

So, I've been thinking about death a little bit, and how Easter really is such a comfort in times like this. Gramma DeHoog is a believer, and even though the actual process of dying and death and thinking about everyone you are leaving behind may be scary, after death isn't. Believing in Jesus and loving Him makes the after life so awesome: the promise of heaven and being in the presence of God forever. So how does this relate to Easter being a comfort? Jesus died on the cross, and three days later rose again, of his own power. Jesus' death would not have been so remarkable except that He did rise, and in doing so He conquered sin. His death on the cross for our sins makes it possible for us to have a relationship with God, because God demands punishment for our sins. Since God is eternal, our punishment is eternal, except that Jesus somehow took/absorbed/satisfied all that eternal punishment in 3 days. And when you believe in Jesus, like Gramma DeHoog does, you can have a close, personal, intimate, sweet relationship with the Creator of the Universe. In heaven, there is no fear, no judgement, no hell when you are with Jesus. There is no other way, and no other god or belief system you can follow guarantees- without exception- salvation and eternity in heaven except for the God of the Bible. The real celebration and miracle of Easter: a RISEN Lord and Savior!

He is risen, He is risen indeed.

Play Group Easter Party

On Fridays several friends and our kids get together for a playgroup at church. The kids can run around with some toys, and have lots of fun, and we have fun talking with other adults! We put together a little easter egg hunt for our kiddos this past Friday. It was a lot of fun!

Dixie's mom, Phyllis, holding Lauren's little girl, Ruby.
Maggie getting some eggs.
The munchkins getting ready to go to another room where we hid more eggs.
Jack & Frankie in action. Those boys were quick! Jack's basket was overflowing with eggs when he was done!
Can you believe we got a group picture of 5 2-3 year olds, looking in the general direction of the camera? In order: Aaralyn, Frankie, Jack, Zayli, Maggie.

First Annual Spaid Family Easter Egg Hunt, 2008

This afternoon we hid eggs in the yard for Maggie! It was a lot of fun to watch her pick through her basket and then find the eggs we put out. We aren't in the pictures - we were in the middle of some home improvements and were not fit for photographic exposure. Our neighbor came over right as I was getting ready to put out the eggs and gave me two bags of the prefilled eggs. It was really nice, and her basket was spilling over when she was done.

I have to admit that while she was finding eggs I kept saying "put all your eggs in the basket" and it really bugged me since as the saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket" haunted me. I had to resist the urge to go in the house really quick and get her another basket. I know - I'm ridiculous. Oh well.

Her basket. Amron got Maggie a monogrammed basket for her first Easter, so we are going to keep using it. Target had a bunch of great stuff in their dollar section: Sesame Street books & generic play dough made their way into her basket.
Finding eggs.

The faithful "cheese" face.
Proud of her eggs.
I did empty out about 80% of her eggs that did have candy in them, so in her big bag of eggs she wants to play with there are just a couple with candy yet. I'm sure she will have a heyday every time she finds one with candy in it.

New art shirt

Gaga (Amron) sent Maggie the coolest smock/bib/thing for Maggie for Easter. We had to try it out with her dots pens the other day. You will note in the first picture that she stacked her lids to the dots pens. This HAD to be done BEFORE dotting could begin. I don't think she colors with her dots pens without stacking the lids anymore. OCD kid, I tell you what!
To go along with that, if she draws on her hands, which is inevitable, she insists that I clean it all up before she continues. I don't know how many times we've had the talk that goes something like this:
Me: Maggie, do NOT draw on your hands. Your dots are for the paper only.
-several minutes later - Maggie: Mommy, I need wash hands.
Me: Maggie, Mommy is not going to wash your hands until you are done with your dots. They can be messy right now.
Maggie: Mommy, I need wash hands. (said at least 2 times in a row, now slightly whiny)
Me: Maggie, did you draw on your hands?
Maggie: Yeah.
Me: Did Mommy tell you not to draw on your hands?
Maggie: (slowly and with reluctance) Yeah.
Me: Ok. You disobeyed Mommy by drawing on your hands. They can be messy until you are done. I am not going to clean them right now. You can go over to your easel and keep doing dots until you are done.
- repeat previous 5 lines at least 3 times -
Maggie: Mommy, all done.
Me: You are done with dots? (there are like 3 marks on the paper, and her hands have more ink on them)
Maggie: Yeah. All done dots.
Me: Ok. Let's pack up your dots, and then we can wash your hands.
Maggie: Ok. Mommy, I need wash hands.
... so we wash hands, and put the dots up. Hilarious. It goes the same way every time. She will do her dots for 5, maybe 10 minutes at a time. But she really likes them. Has to take them out of the box herself, open them herself, set them up in the bins herself, stack the lids herself. Mommy is only allowed to help put on her art shirt. She can even put the lids back on the right colors now, which was surprising. I didn't think she'd care or know how, but that's my very independent, OCD kid. I'm sure both my Mom and Amron are getting a kick out of this - Maggie is such a perfect blend of me and Tyler as kids...

Let there be eggs!

Ok - so I probably shouldn't get so close to the nest, but I just can't help myself - the robins are expecting!!! There are two beautiful eggs in the nest in our rafters. I'll check in on them every couple of days, and take a photo or two. I added a new section on the side of the blog so you can click on "robins" and it will bring up all the posts about our resident family of birds.

Trying to take an Easter Picture

Tuesday I tried to get a good Easter picture of Maggie to put in the cards we send to grandparents & great-grandparents. Don't worry grandparents - the actual picture is not posted, so you can be surprised when you get your card. Unfortunately, it was really windy, and a little cold, but she braved the weather anyway.

The cute little bunny and daffodil I tried to use as props.

Maggie running away from the good angle of the yard...
Her stinker face.
Shredding the daffodil...
Alas, I was resigned to use an OK photo of her standing in the yard. It shows off her dress well, but it's not her best picture. Oh well, 2-year olds are only so controllable, and I just don't have a knack for getting much more than her fake smile when I whip out the camera with a purpose in mind.

On a related note, we are starting our Easter traditions this year! Tyler and I decided that we are going to do the Easter basket and hide Easter eggs & candy on Saturday, and Sunday will be just church. We wanted to have both the fun and serious sides of Easter to share with our child (and future children), and I just can't get us all up at dark-thirty on Easter morning so we can do it all before we need to be at church at 9:00. So, this is our solution. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she sees all kinds of stuff in the yard!

A Mish-Mash of pictures from last week

Wow - I am continually amazed at how busy I have been lately. Went to bed every night well past 11 p.m., but I only just cleaned the house Friday... didn't get my Bible study done for Tuesday (I'll blame that on Kelly Webster and our good, but late-night conversation!) ... Anyway, I am so thankful that the Lord gives me enough engery to make it through the week and plenty of grace to deal with the more and more emotional Maggie. Seriously, it's like she's a teenage girl already. Below I've compiled our random pictures from this week. I hope you enjoy them!

For the 3rd year in a row, a robin has built her nest in the rafters of our patio cover. This time I got to watch her build her nest over 3 days. It was pretty neat!

Maggie has perfected the art of holding a cell-phone like Mommy. She can even go hands-free with her head cocked to one side pinching it between her ear and shoulder. She likes to say "I call Daddy" a lot. We call him at work several times a week now so she can talk to him.
She is her mother's daughter. Maggie loves dill pickles. She calls them "my pee-coes".
I didn't mean to dress her so precociously, but I love the fur trim on that jacket, even if it is ridiculous.
This late, but I took a picture of the lock of hair from Maggie's first cut.

Maggie eating breakfast this morning, in her robe and sunglasses! What a rock star.

Maggie singing "You Are My Sunshine"

Here we go. I edited one of the longer clips to just this song so I could upload it to clipshack. I just love this one - she doesn't know all the words yet.

Singing with Maggie

Maggie LOVES to sing. She asks to sing all the time, so here she is singing "Jesus Loves Me" with me after dinner. I have some other videos of her singing "You Are My Sunshine" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children", but the files are too big right now. I'll edit them and post later.

DIY Kitchen Make-Over

When we first bought our house, we added a bank of lower cabinets on a bare wall across from the sink, and changed the countertops. We also had a formica backsplash that matched the old countertops removed, exposing some very lovely 1960's paneling. Well, that was 3 years ago, and I always said I was going to tile the backsplash. I finally buckled down and had my mom help me this weekend. I know it was my birthday weekend, but I really wanted to do it with her here, so I guess that counts as kind of a birthday present.

Anyway, here is the before the tile: the paneling took all of the niceness out of the cabinets. The kitchen always looked dumpy and out of date. The 45 year old stove doesn't help, but that will be a big expense since it is not a standard size, so we aren't going to do it yet. Putting up the tiles. Mom provided moral support when the tiles behind the stove kept sliding down the wall. I was about to call it quits and just plaster the wall and paint it, but we persevered, and figured out that we needed to put up a guide board and hold it all in place with tape, and then all was well. Let me tell you, I spent about as much time on the section behind the stove as I did the rest of the tile. Cheesy photo, in the middle of the project, what a mess!!!Mom totally rocked the tile saw. She got all the cutting done Saturday afternoon and evening. Waiting for the adhesive to dry so I could grout. You'll notice the entire stove area is covered in tape to hold it in place. The finished product: a polished-looking kitchen. It looks so awesome! It even makes my old-school oak cabinets look nice.
I had a really great time doing this with my mom, and I'll think of her every time I look at my tile! Thanks, Mom!

A Busy Visit

My Mom came down this last week to visit and celebrate my 30th birthday. We were REALLY BUSY! We did lots of shopping, took Maggie for her first haircut, and tiled the backsplash. Gramma Sue also got to spend a lot of time with Maggie.

Here they are, reading books
Playing in Maggie's art supplies
Watching her go on the carousel with me at Opry Mills (She absolutely wouldn't go on with Gramma)
Enjoying some shopping - needed some awesome sunglasses
Doing mroe shopping (you can't see the bags behind the stroller)
We had a great time with Gramma Sue!

Whoa! Mel's 30!!!

I turned 30 this weekend. I woke up with a kink in my back on my birthday - a sure sign of old age!

Friday night Tyler took me to Margot Cafe - a FABULOUS little gourmet restaurant in Nashville. It was awesome. My mom was here, so we even got to go by ourselves for real adult time, no Maggie. We topped off the evening with lattes at Bongo Java, a local coffee shop next to Tyler's alma mater, Belmont University. I didn't take pictures that night, sorry!

Saturday, my birthday, was quite exciting! First thing in the morning we went to our friends the Lotts for Taylor's first birthday party. That was a lot of fun! She is so darn cute.

In the afternoon, we continued working on tiling the backsplash in the kitchen (see the above post for more info) and had the biggest fright of my life at Home Depot. I was in the middle of renting a tile saw when Tyler said "where's Maggie?" He had sent her to me from the cart, and somewhere in the 20 feet between me and him, she turned herself around and ran to the opposite corner of the store looking for me. By the time a Home Depot employee had gotten her I was in tears and running frantically yelling her name. It took a good hour for the adrenaline rush to wear off. I couldn't have been more scared.

When we got home we continued to cut and lay tile for the rest of the afternoon. Tyler kept pushing me about dinner, and I was so consumed with the tile I didn't realize what he was doing ... We ate a very fancy birthday dinner of Sonic burgers, tots and onion rings (I had my nice meal the night before, and Sonic was easy) and as soon as we were done he wanted to have cake. What? He said something like "cake is fun, but better if we can eat it with other people" right before Seath, Dixie & Zayli and Gene and Heather knocked on the door. Yay! He surprised me! That doesn't happen very often.



And, I got the birthday gift I had asked for: new dishes. The ones we got when we got married are just about 9 years old now, and really getting worn out. New dishes:
Overall it was a great birthday, even if we lost Maggie at Home Depot for 5 minutes.