Going Private

Lately several of the blogs I like to read have posted about going private. I didn't really know why or understand until I followed my friend Brittney's link to her friend's blog and saw a strange comment from a really strange man's blog. So now I can't wait to get my blog to private so that I can control who sees pictures of my kids! I love keeping connected with old friends and new ones through blogs, but I have to protect my children. I would love to stay connected to everyone, so if you'd like to continue checking in our family, please post a comment with your e-mail address or e-mail me so I can add you on to the "safe list." Thanks to everyone who has kept up with our family this past year and I'd love to add all the non-freaks that would like to continue!

 

Ethan, Will, and Tyler at the zoo

 

Feeding the birds

 

 

Will and Allie Grace watching "Elmo Grows Up" from the suite

 

Carter, Allie Grace, and Will after the show

 

This is a face my children share-it's called "busted" I'm not exactly sure what they were doing, but I happened to catch this moment on camera, and though I'm sure it's a picture only a mother can appreciate, I thought it was still funny

 

Maggie has learned this from the master-once you're "busted" on something, Mom's a sucker for cuteness and will immediately forget whatever it was you were doing before. This picture follows the other one by a few seconds. Probably why I can't remember what it is they were doing just before the above picture...

 

Playing chase on the plasma cars

It's been a fun week-another trip to the zoo which seems to be a weekly thing now, lots of fun at school, and a special treat getting to go see Elmo in a suite at Nokia Theater with his friends Allie Grace and Carter. Thanks for inviting us Allie Grace! Maggie got to go too, but she was more interested in the food and climbing up and down the stairs than the actual show.

Maggie's still trying to cut her molars, poor baby. It's not stopping her from anything but sleeping-she eats and eats and eats, probably even more than Will does. They continue to find more things to do together and I'm still loving to watch their relationship grow.

One more quick note-for those American Idol fans out there, I went to high school and was in the play "Oklahoma" with Jason Yeager, the guy with a son and a random gold streak through his hair. We weren't really friends, and he's coming off as kind of a strange bird on TV, but still...

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

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Maggie in her tutu. She was NOT digging this home photo session at all. See pic below...



I was trying to get a picture for her birthday invitation, but as you can see, this crown was not a hit. I had another one I thought she'd like better, but...



She was ripping this one off as soon as I put it on!

 

Will decided he wanted to join in for some reason and I was so excited. But I think we may do pictures too frequently because he said "Mom, go get me a white shirt so we can take some pictures." So well trained!

 

Making Valentine cookies. I guess asking him to smile for a picture before he ate it was just too much!

 

After all the thought we put into our Valentine's gifts, all the kids wanted was the balloons and the candy. They were barely even interested in opening anything at all. I kept trying to get Will into the whole "present" thing and he said we should put up our Christmas tree again.

We had a great Valentine's Day! Will had a party at school and came home with two bags of valentines and candy, so of course he was happy! Eric and I grilled steaks for a dinner at home that night, but we were able to go on a double date Friday night with our friends Kim and Lee. Our church had a thing for our bigger kids and thanks to my GG for keeping Maggie! Holidays are so much more fun when you can experience them through your children, but it's nice to be able to celebrate with adults too!

Now the Valentine stuff is all packed away and we're onto decorating for Easter and getting ready for Maggie's first birthday party. It's hard to believe almost a year has already gone by, and it's also hard to believe when Will was this age I was about to be pregnant again!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's!

Eric's Birthday Week

We had a great time celebrating Eric's birthday last week! Since his birthday was during the week, we did a simple take out dinner and Will made him some cupcakes with LOTS of additional sprinkles. Then on Friday, one of Eric's best friends from Michigan came in town with his girlfriend Angela. We had such a great time with them and are so thankful they were able to spend a weekend here. We had PERFECT 75 degree weather all weekend long so we played outside most of the time. Our friends Aaron and Collette, also from Michigan, brought their two kids over Saturday afternoon and we had a birthday party that night complete with red velvet cake and smores of course. The kids had a great time playing together and I know Eric enjoyed spending the weekend with Eric. We can't wait for them to come back to go to Six Flags with us!


Blowing out the candles on the cake-Will was so disappointed we weren't putting a candle on for each year

Aidan and Will stopped briefly for a pic-they were playing "bumper plasmas" I think!

Maggie on her plasma car

Eric, Aaron, and Eric hanging out Saturday night

The dogs have learned that Maggie will feed them anything except for her blueberries and strawberries.

Will "making" Eric's birthday cupcakes!


Maggie and Maddie at church on Sunday. Maddie is my friend Anyssa's little girl and Maggie was just loving her in bible class!

Maggie and Angela on the trampoline

Will is getting so much better with his tricycle. I think that growth spurt really helped!

Maggie at the zoo today-she was loving those fish!




Maggie seems to come up with one new trick a day to give me a panic attack-this particular morning I was doing breakfast dishes and since Maggie usually climbs into the dishwasher the second it opens, I wondered where she was. When I looked up, I realized she had taken Will's cooshie out of his chair at the table and used it as a step to get into this chair. But that's not where it ended...she gave me this devilish little smile and then climbed onto the table! There are NO pics of that because I had to throw down the camera and gather up the climber!


Of course the update is not complete without a pic of Will and Maggie!

Ready for Spring

Is this how I get back into my chair? I'm still hungry!

We got a few comments on how Maggie and Will look like they have such a great relationship, and they do, but they also have their battles...Maggie has finally learned to tackle Will like he tackles her!

We got home from church and Eric was with the kids so I could get ready to go somewhere. This is how I found them-Eric and Will had changed into comfy clothes, while Maggie was jumping on the trampoline in her dress and tights!

Maggie and Will in the tunnel up in the playground. I didn't realize it was such a dark picture-sorry!

Eric got a Wii for his birthday and this is the "Guitar Hero band"

Will went to the Kids' Home Depot Workshop with Eric last weekend and built a Super Bowl football stool! It came with a big sticker to put on it, but we decided to let him paint it himself instead. Love that apron!

I had this grand plan to start taking pics of the kids before church because Maggie only gets to wear her cute dresses once or twice and it's rare that at any other time (except bedtime) they are both clean and their hair brushed and Maggie with a bow still in her hair and shoes on. Well, you can see how well that went. But at least they're in the same frame.

Maggie is quite a little ham when the camera rolls out!

I hit a giant shoe sale with Maggie this morning because she grew a size and a half in less than a month! I was worried about her wanting to try shoes on because she usually takes them off and eats them or hides them from me, but she was quite the little diva. The lady kept putting shoe after shoe on and she would run to the shelf and find another pink one she thought she needed. Look how happy she is to be surrounded by all her new shoes!

Like Mommy, like daughter. For three years, Will has barely even noticed my DC cans, but Maggie is always reaching and grabbing. She thought she needed to drink one like Mommy always does!


Sorry I didn't get an update in last week. For whatever reason, I didn't take many pics last week and let's face it, who wants to read a blog without pictures? We've been keeping busy getting all the contractors in place for our new addition (Eric's office, no-I'm not pregnant) and updating the kids' bathroom and finally getting our covered porch that we've been wanting since we bought this house! The kids are so happy that the cold weather from last week past and the new 80 degree weather has been here for a few days! We've been living outside as much as possible.

Everyone's doing great here-Eric's birthday is this week and one of his friends from Michigan is coming in to help us celebrate with his girlfriend for the weekend, so we're looking forward to that. Maggie has almost completely switched to people food now and loves her new sippy cups. Anything Will is doing, she needs to be doing the same thing! She is signing "more" now, but it's turning into more of a clap because when she started out doing it I would clap for her and I think she thought I was correcting her sign! Oops. That's pretty much all our "news" for now.

Good luck to Kristy and Amanda who will be having their babies this week!