A snow-filled birthday weekend

Who would have ever thought that it would snow twice in one week in Atlanta? It started snowing on Saturday morning around 10am and didn't stop until about 4pm. The pictures below were taken about 2pm. It's been so cold since the snow fell, that there is still some on the ground today.

Andy celebrated his birthday today and we have had a relaxing weekend at home (mainly due to the weather) but we did manage to brave the cold weather tonight to go out to eat. Maggie had a lot of fun helping bake and ice Andy's birthday cake and was so excited when he got to blow out the candles.

Oh, and there is also a picture of Maggie getting ready for her dinner with Daddy...we had to wash her face before we could leave the house!

The Snow

Here are some pictures of what we came home to today.

MAGIE

That's what Maggie learned last week while visiting the grandparents (all of them) in Mississippi. At one point, she did include the other G but then she started saying "M A G G (also sounds like Gigi) and Papa I E!"

She says it with such enthusiasm, we just bust out laughing afterwards.

On the baby front, we are 14 weeks along and our latest check up went well. We were able to hear the heartbeat and we scheduled the ultrasound to find out the gender for February 13th.

On another note, right now in Atlanta- SNOW! Yes, there are flurries falling right now and have been for about a half hour and we are under a Winter Weather Advisory. I'm sure the headline on all the news stations tonight will be something like Storm Watch 2008, Snow Storm 2008 or something just as dramatic. I'm sure Andy and I will be at work tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from Maggie's vacation.

Birthday Boy

(Andy posting here, not Katie)

No, not me, even though it is coming up! Jack Pete is the birthday boy today. He's six years old! Quite an accomplishment considering Maggie's mobility for the last couple of years and her joy in tormenting him. Right now he's celebrating with a nap and will top the evening off with a hot dog, which we try to give him every birthday and most major holidays.

Maggie has abandoned us. I knew this day would come but I hardly thought it would be before the age of three! She's spending time with grandparents in Mississippi for an undecided amount of time. She's in Jackson now and will probably go to New Albany before it's over. So, it's very quiet around here, except for Jack Pete yelping about that hot dog!

Oh, and with Maggie away, Katie and I went out to dinner last night at a restaurant that didn't tie balloons around your ears!

Have a good week.

Andy

Christmas pictures

Here are pictures of Maggie from Christmas:

Update on all of us

Yes, I know it's been a while (last year- ha) since I updated. Yes, I know there are no pictures with this post. As soon as Gran emails me her pictures from Christmas, I will post them.

Update on Maggie: Maggie had her surgery on Dec 21st and it went well. She was a trooper. She never whined during the fours hours that she was awake before her surgery about food or something to drink. She even made a friend in the surgery check-in room and played for an hour or so before it was her turn. Her ear tubes went in with no problems. The cyst on her face was removed and her scar is healing nicely. She has her follow-up appointment with her ENT doctor on the 22nd to double check everything. We have noticed a drastic increase in how much she is talking and her words are becoming much clearer.

Update on Andy and I: As you may have noticed at the top of the blog...we are expecting a second child. We are very excited and Maggie seems to not care right now. I am 12 weeks along and our due date in July 17th (yes, the middle of the summer in the south). This is also part of the reason for my lack of posting. When I haven't been at work, I've pretty much been asleep. It seems to be getting a little better but I still have nights where I go to bed as soon as Maggie goes to bed.

Update on Jack Pete: Jack Pete will celebrate his 6th birthday on Sunday. He has asked for hot dogs and ice cream.

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

Katie

Christmas, Part One

Here are some videos taken over the weekend of Maggie's Christmas with Papa, Gigi and Uncle Trey. The first video is her reaction over being able to open her first present and the second video is of her reaction to seeing Mrs. Claus at the Christmas parade at Stone Mountain Park (listen for Maggie to yell "HEY!").







Unrelated to Christmas, please remember Maggie (as well as her parents) on Friday morning. Maggie is scheduled to have ear tube surgery and a cyst on her cheek removed this Friday. She has no idea what is going on but Andy and I are quite nervous about the whole anesthesia aspect of surgery. I will try to post how everything goes afterwards.

Maggie's Christmas Program

About a month ago, we got a letter from Maggie’s school listing important dates for the rest of the year. It included school pictures; class Christmas parties and the big Christmas Program/Luncheon.

Andy and I were very excited to attend the Christmas program as when Maggie was in school previously, she was too little to participate in the Christmas program. Well, the program was yesterday and it was so cute. Maggie’s teacher, Ms. Rebecca, had decorated white turtlenecks for her class, so all the kids matched. We knew that all the two-year olds would be singing a song (I found that out when I dropped Maggie off late one day after a doctor’s appt and they were in the auditorium practicing). Anyway, between all the teachers of the two-year olds (37 of them), they somehow managed to teach them four songs and one even included hand motions.

Maggie even stayed on the stage after she spotted Gigi, Andy and me. After all the singing concluded we were all invited to eat lunch. We have a video of the program and Andy is working on getting it uploaded to the computer.

Gigi came in town Wednesday for Maggie’s program and they are having a fun time playing together. Uncle Trey flew in from school this morning and Papa will be at Maggie’s tomorrow night for us all to celebrate Christmas a little early.

Here are some pictures that Gigi snapped at the program yesterday.

Katie

New Pictures

As promised, here are some previously unseen pictures of Maggie and some (not all) of her company from Thanksgiving. Also, a few pictures from one morning before school.

No, we are not abandoning the website...

I just need a few extra hours each week to get it done.

And go ahead, put my picture on a dart board and start practicing. I haven't downloaded pictures off the camera either.

We have been pretty busy of late, therefore, which causes updating the website to fall really behind.

We did manage to get our house decorated for Christmas last week. Maggie was really excited about seeing a Christmas tree in her house and was happy to tell us where all the ornaments should go. Andy also built a fire, which Maggie was amazed by, and each time it got low, she would run and tell him. She’s also still telling him three days later!

We are going to have more busy weeks ahead of us until the holidays are over. Probably the biggest thing we have going on is that Maggie is having surgery on the 21st. After suffering through ear infection after ear infection, Maggie is getting tubes. While she is getting tubes, we are having the cyst on her left cheek removed as well before it gets any larger (even though it’s still pretty small). So, Andy and I are anxious about that but it will be a quick outpatient procedure and shouldn’t be too big of a deal.

So, I promise to do better about getting pictures up in the future and I’ll try to get some of the house decorations up soon too.

Katie

Gobble Gobble

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Andy was looking at one of the toy catalogs that we received in the mail a few weekends ago. Maggie saw that he was reading, climbed up in his lap and started pointing at things she liked. It was pretty cute.

We are gearing up for family and friends visiting over the next few days...more pictures will follow next week.

Katie

Rah, Rah

Rah, Rah!!!

That’s what we taught Maggie to say to go along with her Halloween costume this year. She was the cutest little cheerleader and she had a blast trick-or-treating.

Her new favorite past-time is having Andy set up a “fort” for her using the dining room chairs and a blanket. She will stand at one end and say “Knock, knock.” Andy and/or I will tell her to come in and she will run to the other end, announce her leaving and run back around. It’s hilarious. I’ll do my best to get a video of it soon.

Here are some pictures from Halloween.

PS- HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY ANNA!!!!

Fall in Atlanta

This is mostly pictures and TWO videos (yes, I know it's been a while since we've done a video so here are two to make up for that fact).

The pictures are of Andy and Maggie's trip to the Fernbank Museum last weekend while I was out of town for work. Also, pictures of Maggie helping me plant pansies and our walk down to the river behind our house yesterday afternoon.

Enjoy.