The Party Continues

This is what was waiting for Maggie when she walked into Grandma & Grandpa Brown's house Friday night...

Zoe and I went down earlier in the day to get everything set up for our "Fancy Nancy" party to celebrate Maggie's seven years. Mom told me a few days earlier that she was thinking of making a pink and white checker board cake and wondered if Maggie would like that. UMMM..yeah! I think she might enjoy that! And it went perfectly with our theme.

Fancy Maggie posing with her fancy cake. Thanks Grandma!

(Cooper, Sadie, Camille holding Kinley, Zoe & Maggie)

All the fancy girls with the cake and Cooper trying desperately to get away.

A whole lot more than seven candles!

Grandma helping Maggie cut her checker board cake.

Princess Grandpa was our ice cream server.

Thoroughly enjoying her delicious pink cake. How lucky is she to be able to eat her favorite color on her birthday!

Sadie was done with the paparazzi and didn't want any more pictures.

I'm pretty sure Zoe was the firs one to start dancing. Once "Crazy Frog" starts she just can't control herself!

Thank you Mandi for letting us borrow some of your adorable tutu's for our party.

(Starr, Mom, Sadie, Camille, Lindy, Cooper, Zoe, Maggie, Me, Mandi & Kinley)

All the fancy ladies at the party and one dapper gentleman that really didn't want to wear his top hat.

Lindy's major bling!

Mandi's accessories were malfunctioning.

All the kids were anxious to open the gifts.

They just couldn't get enough dancing. At one point the boa became a limbo stick, but I didn't get a picture of that.

I'm most certain that Kinley had the most fun of all!

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Saturday afternoon Maggie and Camille decided to try out the new 3-D sidewalk chalk and paint.

Here they are sporting the super cool 3-D glasses

We also got our family pictures, Maggie's seven year old pictures and Zoe's two year old pictures (just a tad early) done on Saturday so those will be posted as soon as I get them.

A Fun Day

Birthday morning pancakes...















Presents from Mom and Zoe...















Yippee! DS games...















Cupcakes for the class...















A few friends at lunch...















Mom, Dad & Zoe at lunch...















Ready to be wrapped...















Pretty packages...















Sharing your birthday perfume with Zoe...















Ready to share the cupcakes...















Posing with Wade...















Dinner and presents at McDonald's...















Yeah! A new Barbie...






























Last night you made sure I knew that I was supposed to wake you up by singing Happy Birthday to you. I was all prepared and ready, but you woke up early and came into my room. You crawled into bed and I told you to lay down and go back to sleep because it was still early. You didn't do it. You sat on the bed waiting for me to get up. I pretended to be asleep and then I jumped up and started singing Happy Birthday. You jumped and then started laughing. Zoe enjoyed it too.

We got out of bed and I made you pancakes for breakfast. Since they are your favorite and normally we just do cereal, I thought it would be a special treat for you. After you got ready for school Zoe and I gave you a couple of presents.

After dropping you off at school I picked up the cupcakes, wrapped the rest of your presents and then went to school to have lunch with you. We had such a good time with some of your friends from your class. Mrs. Lambert even ate lunch with your class today and got in the picture with you for your birthday. When I came to pick you up from school Wade and his Mom were outside and she invited us over to their house so she could give you a present. You had a good time playing with the kids for a while.

We had dinner at McDonald's and you opened more presents and then Wade and his Mom and brothers joined us for ice cream sundaes. I think you had a very happy birthday. We are all looking forward to your party at Grandmas tomorrow.

I am so happy to be your Mom.

Has it Really Been Seven Years...

...since this beautiful baby girl came into our lives?

When you were born the Doctor said "she's a little peanut". You weighed 6 lbs. 5 oz. You were born at 6:02 pm. Dad helped the nurse a lot during my labor. The monitors were not picking up my contractions so Dad put his hand on my belly and he was able to tell the nurse when a contraction was starting. My epidural worked so well that I could not lift my legs or tell when I was pushing. It went pretty smoothly until you were out and then the Doctor could tell that you had ripped me all the way down the birth canal. It took a lot of stitching, but he got me back together and soon I was able to hold my beautiful baby. They took you from the room very quickly after you were born to get you cleaned up and I made Dad follow you and take lots of pictures for me. I wanted to hold you so badly, but I just laid in the bed and cried for a little bit while you were gone. From the moment they put you in my arms until the moment you started Kindergarten you and I were pretty much inseparable. You were my little buddy and big helper for 5 years. I miss having you at home by my side all day long. I miss being able to see your smile and hear your laugh through out the day. I look forward to the time that I get to pick you up from school and hear about your day. I love you very much and I feel very lucky to be your Mom. I hope you have a very happy birthday!

Highlights from your first year

One year old

Two years old

(Five more years of highlights to come...)

Rough Winter

This has been the worst winter for us health wise. Since being here in Wyoming we have all been ill more than ever before. Maggie has been sick with a cold since Sunday morning. It's been pretty bad. She can't breath very well and she's coughing a lot. She hasn't eaten much all weekend and then started throwing up this morning. We have an appointment to see a Doctor this afternoon. I hope she doesn't have the flu and can get back to school tomorrow. She's missed almost three weeks of school this year. One week due to the hurricane, one week due to our move and then three sick days since being here. Not cool!

Happy Valentine's Day

Maggie drew this picture a few days ago. She was really missing Camille and wanting to go visit.

She brought it to me when she was done with it and asked if I could read it.

"Yes, it says 'I miss you'"

"Yeah, and I drew a castle. I'm the princess and Camille is the knight. She's going to slay the big ugly fire breathing dragon."

Camille, you are totally awesome! I never knew you could ride a horse, much less slay a dragon!

Dang It!

I spoke too soon. Just before one o'clock this morning Maggie came into our room to inform Glenn that she had thrown up. For the next four hours Glenn and I (mostly Glenn) were up and down helping her. She had made such a terrible mess of her bed that we decided it would be best to pull out the hide-a-bed in the living room for her.

I hope you feel better soon little monkey!

OUR TAXES ARE DONE! YEE-HAW!!

A Re-cap of Our Evening

We had a great time at the Super Bowl party. Maggie was incredibly antsy to get to Wade's house. It was too funny. Every couple of minutes she would ask if we were going to Wade's. Once we got there she pretty much disappeared. Here's just a little background on our host couple. Lane and Lindsey have 3 of the cutest little boys and she is pregnant with their fourth...boy. Wade is the oldest. He is 10 months younger than Maggie and probably at least an inch taller than her. They get a long so well. They are in the same Sunday School class, but Wade is in kindergarten at school. Their youngest, Steven, is about three. He really didn't care too much for Zoe. At one point I had convinced Zoe to go to the room to play with Maggie and the kids. When we got to the door Steven started fussing at her and telling her to leave. He started shutting the door and Zoe hauled off and him. I picked her up and she was totally heartbroken and started to cry. I don't see any love affairs in their immediate future.

Glenn parked on the couch with an occasional break to check out the food table while Zoe and I spent our evening talking with, or rather listening to, the ladies. Since our meetings start at 11:00 now Zoe usually misses out on her afternoon nap. She ended up falling asleep a little while after we got there and took a pretty nice nap. It was actually a very nice evening considering how much I dread meeting and talking to new people. Luckily all the other women new each other very well so they talked a lot and didn't put too much focus on me. I was really expecting there to be a barrage of questions with them trying to get to know me, but there were only a few. Big sigh of relief! However, there is now a plan for the girls to go out to a movie on Wednesday and Lindsey and I will be driving together. Alone with a stranger in their car. Panic! Glenn and the guys will be getting together that night as well to help entertain each other and all the kids. I'm sure Maggie will be over the moon excited.

So I didn't actually see any of the game. I didn't even know who was playing and what's more I really didn't care. I guess it was a good game and the right team won for the sports nuts at our party.

When we got home it was time to get to bed. Our recent routine with Maggie is Glenn lays on the floor in her room until she goes to sleep and then he leaves. I rock Zoe to sleep in the living room and then take her to bed. When I got into bed Glenn told me that Maggie was telling him how much she likes Wade. "Wade is cute", "He dances with me", "I like his short hair". I really didn't think we would be hearing this kind of thing out of her until she was at least ten. I'm not ready to be hearing about boys! Can we just stop time for a while? I'm not ready!!

A Yucky Kind of Week

This last week has been less than fun. It started last Saturday with the mess at Mom and Dad's and just didn't improve. Sometime during the night on Monday Glenn got sick. I first thought we may be taking a trip to the ER with another Pancreatitis attack and then wondered if it was hives. There's not much that can be done for either except an ER visit or a dose of Benadryl. When the Benadryl didn't work he started taking Pepto and after a few doses was feeling a bit better. He was well enough in the morning to go into work. He was a little late, but still decided to go. He had an appointment with the bishop that evening where he was asked to be the Blazer leader. He's not sure yet how to feel about it, but I'm sure he'll enjoy it once he gets into it and gets to know the boys.

Tuesday was actually pretty uneventful, but Wednesday was BAD! I got up not feeling so well. I just thought it was my typical stomach yuck that I have been dealing with for several months, but as the day went on it became apparent there was more going on. Maggie had a half day of school so Glenn was able to pick her up on his way home to have lunch. By the time he left to go back to work my pain was worse but I was still just thinking it was going to pass soon. By 3:30 I was curled up in a ball on the couch in tears unable to move. Maggie called Glenn and told him he needed to come home. He got here as quickly as he could and started pouring Pepto down me and then gave me a blessing. Glenn took the girls to McDonald's to play and eat dinner while I stayed home still unable to move. After several doses of Pepto and too many trips to the bathroom I was finally feeling a bit better by bedtime.

I was feeling much better Thursday morning, but Glenn stayed home long enough to take Maggie to school. I never got back to feeling totally normal and then late in the evening I started feeling crampy again. I was just praying that the girls wouldn't get this nasty stuff. I hate having sick kids and not being able to make the yuck go away. Friday morning revealed the cause of my second round of cramping. A totally unrelated yuck that the female readers will relate to. Blech!

Saturday morning, in the wee hours before the sun had a chance to make its appearance, we were woken up by Zoe throwing up. FANTASTIC! She threw up three times within three short hours and then seemed completely fine the rest of the day. We also had to do laundry today which meant hauling heavy baskets down 3 flights of stairs to the van and spending far too much time in a laundromat with two energetic girls without any entertainment. Really fun times. When we got done with laundry we hauled up 3 flights of stairs and were home long enough to change and then headed to Salt Lake to meet Bob, Lisha and Shalis. Bob was on his way back to Idaho from being in Houston and Lisha and Shalis were picking him up at the airport. We had dinner with them at Olive Garden and then packed ourselves back into the truck and made the trip back home.

For the first time all week we actually got a decent nights sleep. No one threw up and Maggie & Zoe actually slept all night long. Totally amazing. We have gotten Maggie not only sleeping in her own bed, but in her own bedroom as well. She is doing really well and has almost earned a sleepover with Camille. We still have to see if that is OK with Starr, but hopefully at some point we will be able to have both Landon and Camille some stay with us for a weekend.

We have been invited to a Super Bowl party this evening and are looking forward to getting to know some of the couples in our ward. The host family has a little boy that is in Maggie's Sunday School class. Glenn took Maggie to basketball with him at the church one night and Wade was there also. They must have had a great time together. Maggie has talked about him almost everyday since. She was really looking forward to going with Glenn this week to basketball, but he decided not to go. She was pretty crushed, but I think a visit to his house will cure her pretty quickly. During sacrament meeting I gave Maggie her note book to entertain her for a few minutes and she drew this...

Notice the cute little heart over the i in her name. Should I be concerned? I haven't had the chance to really ask her about it yet. We are about to leave for our party so I will have to get all the details later. Too funny! Oh, and when we got home from church Maggie handed me a little piece of paper and said "this is Wade's phone number. Well it's his Dad's number". Oh my!