Maggie and friends

We were so sad to leave KY, we had so much fun with Nick, Neila, and Carson. Maggie LOVED baby Carson and did a great job helping with him, especially in the car when she was the official "carson watcher." We got back to mom and dad's sunday afternoon and mom had Maggie's soup all ready for her. Dad and Joe wasted no time getting to the golf course and have been there everyday since. Monday Joe and I went out shopping for the day and stocked up on some things we needed. Tuesday morning I asked Maggie who she would like to see that day, she thought for a minute and said, "Nicholas." So I called Karri up to see if she and Nicholas wanted to get together. We went to their house and the kids played really well, then we went to lunch at McDonalds where they had a blast.

They loved playing on the playground although neither of them were too fond of going very high up in it. Karri and I made one trip through with them and told them from there on they were on their own! They had so much fun and play so well together, when we were leaving they gave each other a huge hug and then Maggie said, "how bout a kiss." Nicholas said no, and began running from her. Maggie was determined to get her kiss and chased him down and kissed him. She smiled and said, "i got it". On the way home she told me Nicholas was her best buddy, then she said,,,,oh and O-bo (owen) too.
The kids are really begining to play with each other more, but Maggie basicially refuses to share ANYTHING with Owen. He is beginning to fight back and has figured out that it hurts her when he pulls her hair so that is his defense. Last night we all went to a park in Nitro to let the kids play and they had alot of fun.

We then hit up the Dariy Queen before coming home to take one of our last walks here before we leave. I am going to get Owen's hair cut today in a bit and Maggie and mom just went to the store to get more potatos since she told mom she just "had to have more soup." I don't know who is going to be sadder when we leave, mom or maggie. She's mom's shadow going with her wherever mom goes. I know mom will say she will be hands down. :)

Lovin' Louisville

We have had so much fun at Nick and Neila's house the past few days, as always. We wish we could just stay here forever and all move in together! Of course, between the guys golfing and Neila and I shopping and getting our kids pictures taken we would be totally broke! So the guys have golfed at least once daily, and Neila and I have had so much fun being mommys and going to the mall and of course the picture people again! The guys gave us a little break on Thursday and we headed to Indy to the outlet malls for a few hours which was fun. Today started out a little slow as we all slept in somewhat.....even baby Carson! The guys headed out around noon to golf and Neila and I headed out to a kids art studio to let Maggie have some messy fun. Well, the art studio was adorable and we walked right in, but it was so weird because there was noboby there. We went and ate lunch at a little cafe down the street and came back, went in and yelled for someone but still nobody was there. So since we had promised Maggie she would get to paint we headed to the dollar store and stocked up on finger paints, poster board and stickers. When we got back to the house, Neila set up a art studio in her front yard for Maggie.










I told Neila she should have been a preschool teacher becasue she's so good at doing stuff like this with Maggie, and unlike me she doesn't mind the mess. Well, as you can see Maggie had a ball and ended up ditching her diaper midway.














She is her mother's daughter in some ways since she continually had to wash the paint off her hands everytime she painted something. After about an hour they had used all the paint, stuck all the stickers, and blown the whole bottle of bubbles...not to mention watered each other until they both were soaked. So we headed inside for naps so that everyone would be well rested for chuck e. cheese that evening since Joe had promised Maggie. The guys took Maggie and Owen to chuck e cheese for pizza while Neila and I had some mexican before meeting up with them there.


Maggie had a blast there like she always does.




She was so cute, running around putting tokens in everything faster than she played them.





And then she carried her purse around filling it up with her tickets.





This was Owen's first time there when he could actually ride some stuff and he had a great time too.






We are leaving tommorow after the guys play one more round of golf and heading to mom and dads. Maggie is excited to get back to her MiMI's house and is expecting to get her potato soup that she's been asking me for the whole week. (so have it ready mom!)

The Compton Lodge!!

We spent last night in Harrodsburg, KY with our friends Wendy and Johnny and their kids Annie and Tristan. Most of you probably remember them from the blog when they came to visit us in Germany. They have a GORGEOUS log home out in the country and it is beautiful there as you can see. We had so much fun and had a great dinner with them. I think poor Wendy had slaved all day we had so much great food! We also had the best steaks I had ever had which I believe were cooked on a "big green egg" grill. Whatever it's called, I want one when we get back to the US. They have cats outside which Maggie loved and chased all over the place.
She also got a ride in Annie's barbie convertible and absolutley loved it.




You would have thought she was in a roller coaster she was so excited. Annie let her have a turn to drive it but Maggie didn't understand that she had to steer too so that didn't last long.










Owen had fun in their little car and also got a little basketball practice.
















Able to hang on the rim at age 1.......here comes the next Jordan!



Anyhow, we had so much fun with them and hope to see them again on our way home from Louisville.
The kids and I got to Nick and Neila's about 3 or so today. We dropped Joe off at a golf course in Frankfort to meet Nick on our way here. They played golf and got home around 7 or so this evening.






The kids just had fun playing with all the toys Neila had out for them.

















They also enjoyed seeing baby Carson, who is getting so so big and was proud to show us his muscles!





How cute is that.






Neila and I have had so much fun just talking and catching up. We plan to shop a little tommorow and leave the dad's in charge for awhile! We had burgers tonight and Neila and I took the kids for a walk. The guys obviously were worn out from their tough day of golfing. :)







They were both in bed by 10, hopefully they will be all rested up for their day of mommy duty tommorow.

Hello Daddy

We picked Joe up at the airport in Cincinnati Friday afternoon and we were all SO happy to see him.



Maggie couldn't stop hugging her daddy and telling him how much she had missed him. She picked out her new shirt to wear that day which said, "daddy's girl." Owen gave Joe a very funny look at first, like..."I know I know who you are..but it's been while." Within a few seconds he was all smiles. We stopped at Wendys and got a bite to eat and rested up from our drive. Then we headed on our way to Ohio. We got to Joe's parents around 6 or so and had steaks for dinner. The guys swam some and Maggie and Owen got in for a bit. Saturday we hung out at the house and then Matt and I went to the outlets in Jeffersonville for awhile and shopped.




That night we went to the park to let Maggie feed the ducks, but that only lasted a minute or two as she was more interested in playing on the playground.





Owen also had a blast on the swings.





We also visited Joe's grandparents in Piqua which was nice. The kids were both pretty wound up so that was good that they were in such good moods. Maggie sang for everyone and showed off quite a bit.


We also got our 4 generation picture.









After leaving Ohio we are headed to Kentucky to see friends so we are very excited for that. While in Ohio we saw this advertised and were really upset that we were going to miss it! :) Maybe Debbie and Larry can go in honor of us! :)

Here comes Joe!

The kids and I are getting ready to head out to Cincinnati to pick Joe up from the airport this afternoon. I checked this morning and his plane was delayed about an hour so we are able to leave a little later than we had planned. Mom, Dad, the kids and I ate at Fazloi's last night and Maggie loved it. She called it the spaghetti house. We took our daily walk yesterday evening, Maggie is going to miss doing that. She has become little Mrs. Poplar Point. :) She knows all the neighbors and where all the animals live (dogs, butterflies). We have our usual stops everynight...saying hi to Tab and peanut, getting John (jon jon as maggie calls him) to honk at us, looking at the butterfly bushes, and usually throwing rocks in the river. We are going to Ohio today and then making our way to Lexington and Louisville before coming back to mom and dad's next weekend. I will try to keep the blog updated this week if I can. Well, we are off to get Joe!!

SPLISH SPLASH

Monday looked like it was going to be a nice day so we headed to Milton to go to a little water park there with TJ and Lori. It's just a small area with sprinklers that shoot water up, but it was just perfect for the kids.


Maggie had a blast playing in it with TJ,









and Owen had a pretty good time too. He wasn't real happy when he crawled in the middle of it and got sprayed from every dirction
....but he liked watching the kids play and the water shoot up







Maggie and TJ didn't want to leave, but we finally talked them into it and got some lunch at Wendys. After they had eaten, TJ went to get him a frosty and Maggie went with him. She came back and told Lori and I that she wanted to go give the lady money and get a frosty. So she took her money up to the counter and ordered herself a frosty all by herself. She was so proud of herself when she came back.




We went back to TJ's house and played for awhile, Maggie and Owen LOVED his Thomas the Train table, maybe Santa will bring that to Owen next Christmas when he is a bit bigger.





We hadn't gotten to hang out with JR, Lori, and TJ very much and we had so much fun beign with them. Maggie and TJ have alot of fun together. They leave for the beach this weekend....we wish we could go with them! If we had more time here we may have, I know Joe would love to get to go to Myrtle and golf. Hopefully next year we will get to have a beach trip. We pick Joe up this friday, I can't wait until he's here safe and sound. I am alot more worried about his flight than he is. :) (surprise surprise) I know he'll be fine, but everyone keep him in your prayers this friday as he comes in.

Blasts from the past

The kids and I slept in this morning, well....if you call 8:30 sleeping in. I woke up to Maggie yelling, "mimi, I'm awake", and I was laying in the bed right beside her. Not sure if she didn't see me, or was just trying to let me sleep a bit more. :) Anyhow, dad went to cut grass at Mama and Papa's house and mom and I were pretty lazy all morning. (That is after mom made a huge breakfast with pancakes, eggs, &bacon) Well, about noon we decided to get going and headed to the cemetary to walk a few miles. The kids had fun out there and it really wore them out. Maggie rode in her stroller some, especially up the hills where she would tell us she was "too busy." I am guessing this means too tired. When we got home we ate some lunch and got the kids down for naps. Dad was home so we decided to take this opportunity to clean out the attic since the kids would be out of the way. We got everything down and went through it all and I must say it was quite a trip down memory lane. As much as it was for me, I am sure it was even more so for mom. We separated everything into goodwill, trash, and keep piles.

We got rid of TONS and found even more great toys for maggie. She hasn't seen them all yet, like all our my little ponys and strawberry shortcakes. But it seems mom had a small bit of money up in her attic. I got to looking on ebay at some of the stuff we found and couldn't believe that one of my old "transformers" (yes, i was into boy toys) was going for 52 dollars.....and it had 2 days left and 13 bidders. The pricetag was still on the box and it had been $15. Along with that there was a strawberry shortcake lunchbox that was going for 30 with several days left, and lots of fisher price toys that were well about 30.








We found mine and Amanda's kitchen and all the dishes and food and Maggie was thriled. She came out and saw it and said, "oh my goodness!" So we spent the rest of the evening cleaning toys and playing with them.
















Owen got himself a new rocking chair that he likes to rock in that had been ours when we were little.

Tommorow will be full of more surprises when we get out some more of the things we found for Maggie...we found our old doctor kit which she'll love because everytime we are in this store that has one she drives mom and I nuts about getting it.
Tongiht we took a walk and Maggie pushed my old stroller down the street and we saw Karri and Nicholas out visiting her parents. Nicholas and Maggie played for along time trying to catch lightening bugs. The also went walking down the street pushing the baby carriage together and we wished so badly we had a camera....it was too cute. They are at such a cute age and it's so fun to watch them playing. Well, tommorow is probably going to be Maggie's last day at sunday school before we go back. She took a few toys last week home with her so we have to be sure to return them tommorow.

Havin' fun with friends!

We have been having lots of fun the past week. Last week Maggie and I made it to the pool everyday but Friday, and that is only because it rained. My friend Kari and her little boy Nicholas met us there a few days which made it nice since Maggie LOVES having Nicholas around to play with.
This weekend weekend we hung around the house and Maggie and Grandad enjoyed watching a few movies together!

She also got to go to yet another birthday party at a neighbor of mom and dad's. The little girl had a My Little Pony party and Maggie now loves the my little ponys. There were lots of little girls around her age there so she had a blast running around with them and jumping in the jupiter jump. The little girl who had the party is Maggie's friend, but all the other kids were new to her and the entire time she kept telling me all about her "new friend", which could mean any of the 10 other little girls. Saturday evening she played in her newest edition of "big toys for mom and dad to find a place for once we leave."


She and Owen both had a blast in the playhouse, and mom even got invited in to help cook.

Sunday we went to church which Maggie was happy about. She and Owen both go in their sunday school classes just great now. That morning I was fixing Maggie's hair and I gave her my wallet to get some money out for her offering. When I was done I checked her purse and she had 60 dollars and some change to take! I guess she was feeling quite generous that day. After church we headed to Diehls to eat after having a small family photo shoot out front.



Owen also attempted a few steps with the help of JR.
Maggie and Owen always love the spaghetti (gaspetty as maggie calls it) there but I guess Maggie had a little too many bowls of popcorn and cookies in sunday school because she didn't eat much. Owen made up for it though as you can see and ate not only all of his but a portion of everyone else's meal as well.


We have been taking walks every evening and the other night while walking a dog was running a bit ahead of us. Maggie began slowly running behind it and after a bit looked back at mom and I and smiled saying, "look guys, I'm walking the dog." A bit later the dog suddenly turned around and came back our way, Maggie stopped in her tracks and bolted back towards us....guess the dog was now walking her. Mom and I thought it was pretty funny.
Last night Maggie hosted her first slumber party. Allie, Liv, and Wil came to spend the night with us. We got a few movies and made cookies and they all had a really fun time.




They showed Maggie a few new cheers and dance moves and she had a blast. Owen also liked having all the extra attention and could not hardly keep his eyes off of Wil, I guess he was learning all the fun boy things he gets to do when he finally gets up on his feet. We had planned to go swimming today but the weather didn't cooperate. Maggie and I went to Chuck E. Cheese with Karri and Nicholas and had lots of fun. The kids had a really fun time, although they mainly stayed on 2 rides over and over.





Maggie downed 3 pieces of pizza which is funny because she hasn't touched pizza in forever. She always tells me it is too yuck. But with Nicholas eating it she also did today, and the last time she ate it was at his birthday party a few weeks ago. Guess she knows he likes pizza and wants to impress him! After playing at Chuck E. Cheese we went to Toys R Us and looked around. I found a few videos for 3 dollars that I got to take back to Germany and then it was home for a late naptime. Maggie and I are really going to miss Karri and Nicholas when we leave, we have had so much fun hanging out with them. We are hoping they decide to come visit us in Germany sometime!
We are hoping to get to the pool tommorow with TJ and Lori if it doesn't rain. The rest of the week is dreary looking so tommorow is our best bet. We have some good news and some bad news. The good news is our internet/US phone are back up and working. Alot of you may have not even known it is down, but for those who have been trying to call Joe in Germany and unable to reach him, it is now working! We only have about a week and a half before he gets here now and we are really happy about that. Maggie is talking more and more about Joe so she will be thrilled to see him.
The bad news is we are not going to be making our trip to Peoria. Turns out they decided they didn't need Joe to go to the training since the people came there to do it, so I am bummed about not getting to go see everyone. Hopefully they will need him to go there another time before too long though and the kids and I can tag along.