Back To The Park

The temperature was decent yesterday so we hit the neighborhood park.

She's started this little head turning thing when I take pictures.

Mall Play Time

I've finally let go of my motherly germ phobia and I am now allowing Maggie to play on those dirty mall play areas (my first time was HERE.)

This time I went to my very local (and BORING) mall and let her play. She had a really fantastic time.

I also bought her new shoes--some pink Converse One Stars. She's being cranky this morning so these are all I could get of her wearing them. Cute, huh?

Weekend Review: BBQ Fun

Friday night we watched the movie Gattaca and ordered some Chinese takeout from our favorite place, Angkor. Patrick and I talk a lot about public/government use of our DNA, genetic engineering, etc. (for some reason it comes up a lot in our conversations--especially on long drives). I'd seen the movie years ago and remembered it related to this topic.

Maggie likes to tease lately. She's not allowed to touch that picture and glass bowl. She does though...a lot. She walks over, touches them, looks at me and shakes her head "no".

Saturday morning: The novelty of having a quirky husband with a love of sci-fi is wearing thin. There are just too many weekends with intolerable movie choices. This weekend was "Caved In: Prehistoric Terror". Something about giant beetles... and a cave.

Saturday afternoon we had our neighbors over for a casual BBQ (all planned and put together by my husband). We had a great time. The only thing I did was make Garlic Tomatoes (my sister posted on these HERE).

Maggie was a lot of fun on Sunday (translation: VERY busy running all over at church). We took some pictures when we got home. She was a total ham!

Patrick spent the night with Maggie, giving her bath and putting her to bed, while I headed to Micaela's for dinner. I did bring my camera but was too busy chatting to remember to snap a few shots. Good times though.

Oh, and she has finally started to use a sippy cup but still demands a bottle for night time.

Maggie vs The Pillow

We have a very old pillow that is unraveling. Maggie and Patrick created a little game out of the dingy old thing. Here's some video of them showing off to our neighbor girl, Leah. Also, there's a small clip at the end of Maggie reading that I thought was sweet.

Play Time

We went to a mommy & me event at our local park--an effort to get back to regular life I suppose. Here's a pic from that.

Also, later that day she found my feet especially amusing.

Another cute pic.

And finally, a video.

At The Mall

We spent some time at the mall today. I usually avoid these indoor play areas because I feel like they're germy but she's so deserving of some fun and it's too hot for a park. I only took a short clip of film but just imagine her running around wildly for exactly 30 minutes.

Maggie as a Little Devil

We're trying to find some semblance of structure and order after so many weeks on the go. It's pretty tough to get back into a grove.

Here are some super cute pics of Maggie in Utah. She got into my sisters dress up box and found the devil hat. She kept it on all morning! She's wearing her BYU shirt special for her uncle Bri-Bri who happens to be a huge BYU sports fan.

Maggie loves laundry--dirty laundry. She gets into the sorted mounds of dirty clothes I have waiting to go into the washer and always puts whatever she finds on her head. This is almost ALWAYS my underwear but since that's just too disturbing to show I'll include one of her with some of her pj's and one with my hat instead. At least this time she found a place to look out. Normally her eyes are covered and she runs head first into our kitchen island.

She also somehow reached the wrist strap on my camera and pulled it down from the counter on her face--left a big mark. She's being difficult so this is the best I could get of the little injury (below her right eye). It's not too obvious here but when looking directly at her it's pretty dark and swollen.

Brian

We are home from our unexpected trip to Utah. It's awesome to be back home...yet we already miss the family. Uncle Bri-Bri didn't get nearly enough Maggie time.

My sister posted on his week as well (along with a picture of Bri, Maggie & me). Check it out HERE.

Brian is doing well after a very intense week in the cardiac intensive care unit. At one point we almost lost him but he had other plans.

My crazy and terribly dysfunctional family can really pull it together in a crisis!

Maggie was AMAZING! You would never guess this was her third week of traveling. She was stuck in a hospital where she provided moments of sweetness, joy, and levity in a pretty scary situation. She rocked it when she needed to. I am so terribly impressed with my child.

We're now left with figuring out the next steps--even the doctors seem unsure.

Pigeon

I can finally post on our trip to Michigan. This was a trip to celebrate Patrick's grandmother's 100th birthday...and what a celebration it was!
We stayed in a town called Frankenmuth which was about 50 miles away because Pigeon just couldn't provide the kind of accommodations we needed. Frankenmuth was fantastic! It was gorgeous and full of fun. We visited all the fun shops--including Bronners CHRISTmas Wonderland. We watched the river boats and we ate a lot. Some of us went on the carriage rides.

The first trip to Pigeon was to spend the day on the family farm where the grandmother gave birth to and raised 9 children! Maggie had a blast. They had a little "train" for the kids that she spent a great deal of time in.

The second day we went to Pigeon we had the the big open house bash then took a tour of the town courtesy of Patrick's mom. She called a conference line on my phone and we had a convoy of cars behind us, each with their own cell phone dialed in to listen.

After that we headed to Lake Huron for bit. Maggie loved it and felt very comfortable with beaches and water after her trip to Florida.

A lot of photos were taken by family members so I don't have them yet to post. I'll get a pic of Maggie with her great grandmother posted as soon as possible.

Home for Now....Off to Utah Tomorrow

Just got back from Michigan. So much to say! I really, truly, loved it. But I have been called to Utah and posting will have to wait.


Pray for Brian!

Off to Pigeon!

No, we're not done traveling yet. We're leaving for Pigeon Michigan for Patrick's grandmother's 100th birthday celebration. This should be interesting. Here's the only pic I could find on the internet of Pigeon.

Sorry for the lack of posts today. I'm so terribly overwhelmed with all this travel and lack of schedule and sleep. Here are a few pictures that I thought were cute.

Does Maggie look a little greasy in the below picture? Yes. She is eating buttered noodles and just simply cannot keep her hands out of her hair. That wet look is actual butter. Well, she smelled delectable.

Happy To Be Home

Maggie is just thrilled to be home. As much fun as she had on vacation, I think she really appreciates the familiarity and comforts of home. Her crib in her room, her regular food in her regular high chair, and most importantly her myriad of toys (we only packed a tiny selection of her toys which she quickly tired of). She also has way more space to run without someone following her to make sure she doesn't sneak up the stairs, break something, or stick her finger in an electrical outlet. I don't think I quite understood just how baby-proofed our house had become.

Beach Video

Maggie mostly looks like a tiny speck running around but it's still sweet to see her first beach fun.

Vacation Review: New Smyrna Beach

Oh, we had such a great time! There were some moments when I wished we'd bagged the whole thing (sleeping schedule disturbed, long plane rides with small baby, etc) but in the end I'm glad we went.

Maggie was a sweetheart on the plane ride down especially since a 3.5 hour ride turned into 5.5 hours after sitting on the runway in Denver for almost 2 hours! We have a great traveler so far.

It took a while for Maggie to warm up to the huge number of people.

This was her first experience with the ocean. She loved every minute of it and had no fear even after getting hit the face with ocean water several times!

Here she is playing in the sand with cousin Sydney.

We had about a day and a half of really stormy weather which was very cool. Tons of rain, lightening, and the loudest thunder I think I've ever heard.

Maggie with cousins Kayla and Ally.

Watching videos with cousins Eamon and Ciara.

Grandma & Grandpa with all the cousins.

Patrick did a couple of days of golf. I got a day at the spa. I've never done more than one treatment at a time when going to a day spa. This was an all day event with mineral pools, facial, massage, pedicure, neck wraps, and a spa lunch. THAT was livin'!!

The best beach time for us was low tide when Maggie could run around and chase the birds.

After an exhausting week we jumped on a plane back to Denver (again, Maggie was a doll the entire time) and arrived home very late Saturday night. We put Maggie to bed and proceeded to pack up Patrick for a business trip to Chicago leaving early the next morning. Now he's gone, the house is a mess, Maggie is off her sleep schedule (again!), and I can barely get this post done! Good grief.