Nope, that's not chocolate they're begging for

Saturday night we had dinner at Seth & Dixie's. Our kids love all kinds of food and here's proof: begging for the leftover broccoli with cheese sauce.


They had already eaten a big dinner of burgers from the grill, a good amount of broccoli already, pineapple and some chips when Dixie asked if they wanted to finish what was left. Crazy kids!

The New Windows

Here are our new windows.
Note the beautiful dogwoods in bloom in the front yard.
My peonies are getting ready to flower, I am SO excited!

The windows look even better in real life. I HATED putting the blinds and curtains back up, but no one wants to see what I look like when I wake up even though I wear PJ's!

I've been Tagged!

I love blogging. It's so much fun, and I've been tagged! Becky Harrelson tagged me, so I'll play along.

The Rules
1) Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog
2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4) Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Fact 1: I am still afraid of the dark when I'm outside, or at someone's house that is not my own
Fact 2: During marching band season (I know - total geek) of Sophomore year I had DARK GREEN hair. Mom was not pleased with that one!
Fact 3: One several summer at my Dad's house I had a pet cow (that's right, a cow)
Fact 4: I've been to 32 of 50 of the United States
Fact 5: I automatically like someone more when I find out they're left-handed like me (just a nice little bond to share)
Fact 6: I'm just about 100% Dutch, but can't speak a word of it (unless baachy counts, right, Dad?)
Fact 7: Because I'm left-handed I couldn't operate a can-opener easily until I was in college. Serious.
7 People tagged: - This one is hard because a lot of my friends have been doing this already, so here are some people that haven't been tagged by others - it doesn't add up to 7, but it will have to do.
Matt & Kathy Lott
Tara Arreguin
Heather Tucker
Janet Yates
Laura Speece

New Video - Belly Laughs

Here is Maggie and her Daddy. THe belly laughs are hilarious, mostly because she's faking it at the end.

Playgroup and new windows

I hosted playgroup at our house today. We also got new windows installed today (thank you Lowe's!) and I had to be at the house. But, with all the weddings I've got this spring and summer I haven't been able to make it to playgroup and won't for about 2 more months. So - I invited all the ladies and kids over to our backyard! The weather was perfect - if not getting on the hot side - and we had a great time. We all played outside for about 2 hours, then headed inside for some grilled cheese and fruit (separate items, I've not gotten lazy and included the fruit IN the grilled cheese).

Thank you, Poppy! These tubes are so awesome!
Mommies are under the covered patio.
Cute Maggie.
Kiddos on the hammock. They had a lot of fun!
Old windows stacked up.
Old storm windows (that used to sit on top of the old windows and made it impossible to open the windows for the breeze) all stacked up.
A new window, looking lovely and easy to open and easy to clean.
And, a VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to Dixie who took Maggie home with her after playgroup and lunch so Maggie could have a good nap without noises from air guns and screwdrivers and vacuums and hammers. THANKS THANKS THANKS!

I'll post pictures of the finished product later.

Needing Eyes in the Back of My Head

Yesterday at lunch time I was at the counter making our sandwiches when I hear some rustling, grunting and a "hey, Mommy". I turn around, and there is Maggie in her high chair. I didn't put her there, mind you, she climbed in herself. Shocked, and a little curious, I took her out and asked her to get back in it. Sure enough - she climbs right up. Well, I had to call Tyler to let him know what "HIS" daughter had done.

Climbing into her highchair is one of those acomplishments that I feel both proud of and irritated at the same time. I am impressed at her physical ability & dexterity to do that because we NEVER let her climb on her highchair, so either she sneaks out of her crib at night to practice (highly unlikely) or she just mustered it up and went for it. But I'm annoyed because now I have to watch her that much more carefully because I don't want the chair to tip over, and I wonder what else is she going to start climbing on. I will say that it does make it a little easier to get her ready for meals, she just climbs right into her chair for me now.

I had her climb in her chair several more times for the camera so I could get enough sequential shots.

FYI

We are embarking on 8 weeks of incredible busy-ness starting tomorrow. Our church's women's retreat is Friday and Saturday, I've got weddings on 4/20, 5/3, 5/4 (that's right - 2 in one weekend), 5/10, 5/17, 6/7 & 6/14. In between those dates I am working at Mother's Day Out like always, watching Zayli once a week, a couple of weekends I am working for another floral designer and one weekend we are going on a company retreat with Tyler's work. I am so grateful that I get to do these weddings - busyness aside - because I get to provide for the household doing something that I just LOVE to do! I'll have pictures of the weddings on my flowers blog: www.melissamariefloraldesign.blogspot.com

On top of all that - I've still got a house to keep up and a daughter to attend to. So, if the posts are not as frequent as you like, it's just because I haven't had time to sit at the computer (I know - hard to believe). I'll try to keep the camera on Magpie.

Maybe I will be less busy in July?

Gramma and Papa Spaid are here

Thursday afternoon we made a cake for Amron's birthday before they arrived that evening. This is the first time I gave Maggie the beater from the batter. This was a tradition in my house (but doesn't everyone do this?) to get a beater from the mixer coated in batter. She loved it!
At the Loveless Cafe. We went for dinner there Friday night. The baker there recently had a "throwdown" with Bobby Flay on Food TV over her biscuits. They were yummy!
Maggie had 2 biscuits, and then didn't eat much of her burger, but I got this good shot.

Baby robins in the nest

Here's a picture from Saturday. They are getting bigger! The mamma robin works from sun up to sun down feeding the babies. She still doesn't like us all that much, but we can be pretty close and she's not quite so jumpy.

I love toddler crafts!

Maggie did this at Mother's Day Out this week. I just love it, and she was so proud of her flower. I still am not sure what to do with all this stuff she is diong.Some gets sent to grandparents, the rest I have piled up. I hate to throw it away, but I don't want it cluttering the house and I don't want to compile 20 years of stuff in the attic, either. I guess I'll just keep the favorites ...

I love you, too.

I am such a butthead! See previous post, and now read this: tonight Maggie gave me my first unprompted "I love you." Wow - melt my heart! It was so sweet. God is so overly gracious to me with my daughter. Amazing. It was wonderful.

Inconvenience - a mom's job

This is really just a vent, no pictures of Maggie...

So today was one of the few times Maggie has not behaved enough that I could leave her somewhere and get something done. Tuesday morning I go to the women's Bible Study at our church. Been going for over a year now, Maggie is used to it, or should be by now. Maggie fussed a little when I dropped her off in the toddler room, but that's pretty normal.

An hour later, one of the ladies in the room came to get me during the lecture portion of the study (we do a lecture over the week's topic, then break up into small groups for discussion) because Maggie was still crying. Not just sad wimpering, big, red-faced crying. It wasn't like she was hysterical, but that is just not Maggie. She LOVES Cindy & Tamara. She's in their room on Tuesdays for Bible Study and Wednesdays when we go to Mother's Day Out.

I got Maggie calmed down (or so I thought) and went back for the remaining minutes of the lecture, but as I was refilling my coffee before small groups, one of the moms said she had just been downstairs where the kids were and Maggie was a mess again. I went back down there, she was a mess, and I made the decision I would not go to small groups and we would just go home today. Of course all the way home in the car and at lunch Magie kept reciting "Mommy comes back" over and over. Funny, because you think that would've been a comfort to her since I always tell her "Mommy always comes back".

I want to be able to be involved in various ministries and activities in the church and with friends. Tyler and I purposed when Maggie was born that we would not become shut-ins or fringe members of our church because we had a child, but that we would fit this child into our lives and activities. Not that I don't love and adore and cherish every minute with Maggie, because I do (even when horrible, no good, very bad day). But she does not and will not rule our world. So I am working on being gracious with her when she just can't deal without Mommy.

This is still so weird for me because as a young baby she didn't have separation anxiety. But now that she's 2, she freaks out when I leave her with anyone besides Daddy or Dixie. I think I've only had to leave a store once or twice because she was pitching such a fit... So, today was just a good reminder that inconvenience is just part of my life and season right now. A good reminder, too, since the coming weeks are going to be really busy with weddings. And what about when we have baby #2? {no, we are not pregnant, just looking to the future} Help me, Lord, to be gracioius to Maggie, and accepting of inconvenience in my life. I know I need to be more patient and kind.

Baby robins have arrived!

Here's a picture of our new babies. They are quite brand new, eyes haven't opened yet. I just took two quick pictures so I wouldn't disturb them too much. They laid there with their mouths open, but not chirping yet. More pictures in a couple of days.

Puddles

We've had a LOT of rain this past week. The other day I finally let Maggie splash in a puddle after it stopped raining. She had a blast! It was the first time that she got her boots wet that didn't get her upset. Previously, she would get upset that her boots were dirty. Getting her back inside the house when I needed to get some stuff done was a chore... Bu she really enjoys that puddle, so I think splashing in it will become a regular activity when it rains.