HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAGGIE!

We can't believe our baby is now one! We're just a little proud and excited, as you can imagine.

To celebrate, Ben's folks hosted a party last weekend which several of our family members were able to attend, including both sets of grandparents, Ben's aunt and one of my sisters and her daughter.

Ben's mom made a terrific BBQ Chicken lunch and a delicious birthday cake, which I had the fun of decorating. We had a giraffe theme - one of Maggie's favorite toys is a giraffe that hangs over her changing table and plays music.



If you'd like to see a video of Maggie's cake experience, click here.



Maggie did well opening her presents. . . I guess it was all that practice she had at Christmas.



We all had fun just hanging out together, as you can see.



On Maggie's actual birthday we had her one year appointment - all is well. :-) She weighed in at 20 lbs and 3 oz. and is about 30 inches long (or 29 or 29.25, depending which measurement you want to go with). We've been given the assignment of getting her off the bottle in the next two weeks. Pray for us. Thankfully Maggie mastered the art of drinking from a sippy cup over the weekend and she loves to practice her newfound skill. She's also started pulling up frequently on furniture or anything available. No steps yet though (whew!). We're excited to see all the new things that she'll be learning.

Thanks to all of you who have been so supportive this year! Maggie is a joy to us and we LOVE being her parents and thank God for the privilege frequently.

The Heart of the Problem

We have a wonderful Associate Pastor at our church. His name is Kerry Skinner and he preaches most Sunday nights. When I go to the evening services I feel like I'm sitting at the feet of a great teacher of the Scriptures and I come away refreshed and recommitted to walking with Christ that week. I had a chance to talk with him recently and he told me of a book he had co-authored entitled "The Heart of the Problem". I thought it would be a good way to start out the new year. I'm three days into it (I started a week "late") and already this book is challenging me to rethink some of the humanistic philosophies that I had unknowingly picked up along the way and to refocus on the simple truth of the gospel. Who knows where this will lead but it's got me thinking quite a bit - meditating on the meaning of scriptures and examining my attitudes and beliefs. I recommend checking it out if you are looking for a good study.

Zwieback

Maggie had her first taste of Zwieback today. For those of you who don't know (I didn't until a couple of months ago) zwieback is a piece of bread that's been "baked twice" (in german) to form a very hard, crunchy, long lasting chew toy for toddlers. . . or sailors apparently. Anyway, I was surprised to see Maggie take to it so readily - she has just recently allowed me to put table food in her mouth and is still pretty hesitant to eat anything that remotely involves some kind of texture. So imagine my surprise when I handed her a piece of zwieback and she started munching away! I eventually grabbed my camera and got some video to capture the interesting facial expressions and the loud CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH. She had been chewing away for a couple of minutes by the time I got the camera rolling, so it doesn't seem as if she's that interested, but you can tell she's gnawed off a corner already. Here she is showing off the final product:

Spoon!

During Christmas we got to spend a little time with Maggie's two year old cousin. Watching her eat her breakfast all by herself inspired me. So when we got back home (on our own kitchen floor - I wasn't about to try this on someone else's) I tried giving her the spoon. And she did it! I probably should have tried this months ago but I was a little scared of the mess. Anyways, there's a video on google (see the link at right) if you want to see it for yourself.

Bear Tunes

I recieved a neat CD for Christmas - Bear Tunes for Kids. My mom and I had seen it in a local shop in their town and had a laugh over it (she knows our affinity for a certain little brown bear). So she got it for me - and I laughed when I opened it. I played it yesterday for the first time and it's really great! The songs are not only cute, but very informative and educational. And at the end of the CD the songwriter spends several minutes telling ALL kinds of facts about bears. I told my mom it was like visiting a zoo in my head. And if you know me, you know that zoos are one of my favorite things! I would recommend this CD to anyone who has kids that are interested in animals. I've linked to his website on the right side of the screen. He has several other CDs as well for other animals, etc.

Maggie Rocks!

Maggie enjoys a Christmas present from Grumpa and Grammy. . . a rocking chair that belonged to her great-grandmother and has been passed down through the family.

A War Eagle Christmas

Here Ben shows off his gift from Heather - a T-shirt quilt! The squares on the quilt are made from shirts that Ben had during his days in Auburn's Marching and Pep band, plus a few others he picked up along the way. There are 32 T-shirts in this quilt. The 16 shirts along the border of the quilt also have the back of the shirt on the back of the quilt.