Maggie's 1st Birthday

On Saturday we celebrated Maggie's 1st birthday. It's hard to believe she's 1...strange because it seems like it was both just yesterday and forever ago that she was born. I spent some time reminiscing throughout the day....what I was doing at the corresponding time of day and such, recalling the feelings I was experiencing, etc, etc. If you'd like to see pictures of Maggie's birth day and read her story you can go here: http://mamabeng.blogspot.com/2007/11/maggie-elisabeth.html.

We had a small party for her with some friends. Gabe and I were thankful that we didn't have to celebrate Maggie's birthday alone...it's so nice to have made some wonderful friends here in IL. We love it that Maggie is known...that other people are witnessing her grow...that they also get to see her scoot around on her bum. ;) As you can see in the pictures, Maggie loved her cupcake. She was taking big grown-up bites until it started falling apart--then she realized she could make a mess with it!

Advent Conspiracy

Every year I have a hard time with the commercialization of Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I like to get my kids a few gifts and I enjoy putting up a Christmas tree in my home, but it just seems like it's out of control. The disgusting display of Black Friday is just one example. So I was stoked when I found out that my church is getting involved in what's called Advent Conspiracy...I've excerpted a snippit from their website.

"The story of Christ's birth is a subversive story of an upside-down kingdom. It's a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love that is still changing the world to this day. So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists. And when it's all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling that we somehow missed its purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?

What if Christmas became a world-changing event again by turning our focus back to the birth of Christ? What could happen to your family if this focus was celebrated in loud, bold and totally unexpected ways? What if you could actually trade your season of stress for a season of celebration and unbelievable memories with your friends and family? What if all of this could save a life at the same time? It can. Welcome to Advent Conspiracy

People are dying from the lack of clean water. In fact, it's the leading cause of death in under resourced countries. 1.8 million people die every year from water born illnesses. That includes 3,900 children a day. The solution to this problem is directly beneath our feet. Drilling a fresh water well is a relatively inexpensive, yet permanent solution to this epidemic. $10 will give a child clean water for life. That's not an estimate. It's a fact. And here's another fact: Solving this water problem once and for all will cost about $10 billion. Not bad considering Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas last year. Our hope is that, by celebrating Christ in a new way at Christmas, the church can serve as the leading movement behind ending the water crisis once and for all."

Isn't this AWESOME? The idea isn't that you don't buy gifts at all-- it's that you buy less. And you make a point of giving gifts of relationship (i.e. a gift that would encourage spending time together). Also, instead of buying pointless gifts that aren't needed, give the gift of life. It's incredible that only $10 can get a child clean water for life! How can we NOT do this?? I'm absolutely stoked to be involved in something like this...wish I would've known about it earlier. If you like what you read, go to their website to find out more.
http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

CareBear

At the beginning of October we went back to AZ for my best friend Carrie's wedding, or CareBear as many of her family and friends affectionately call her. It was my first time back since we had moved...I thought it would feel strange or that I would be sentimental but I, must say, I wasn't in the least. I truly felt like I was visiting and that I had been gone much longer. Some of that may be attributed to all the hustle and bustle of our visit. Not only was I very busy with all the activities involved with being in a wedding, but my parents were back from South Africa and my sister (and her husband and 3 kids) were there from CA. It was really wonderful to see everyone. Mia had a great time trying to keep up with all her older cousins.

My lack of sentiment upon returning to a place I lived for 6 years makes me think....fact of the matter is, I can uproot and move without much emotion. Don't get me wrong, I miss people that I leave but honestly I don't get too torn up about it. Sometimes I think something is wrong that me that I am this way...Is it because I've moved around so much in my life? Or maybe something about my personality? Or both? Every move I've made has been exciting...I felt like it was a necessary, new step in my life. Even when I think back to being a kid. When I was 11, my family moved from Missouri to Los Angeles. That's quite a big move and a big change for a child of 11, but I remember being so excited about it! And I felt the same way about moving to Arizona then just recently, of course, to Illinois. I told Gabe the other day that at this point I'd be open to moving anywhere. I mean...why not? You only live once, right? I love it that I've gotten to live so many different places. I feel like it's enriched me as a person.

Anyways, I wasn't really intending to go off on that rant but I guess I'll go with it...back to Carrie's wedding though. Boy oh boy was it a beautiful wedding! I seriously think they got everything perfect about that wedding. The colors, the setting, the flowers, the food-- the BRIDE! Carrie looked absolutely breath-taking. Several of us were commenting that she was the most beautiful bride we'd ever seen. No doubt about it-- she was radiant. I have nothing but the best wishes for Carrie and her wonderful husband Jeremy. You guys are beautiful baby! ;)

Hallo-holy-crap-I-ate-too-much-candy

I do it every year. I eat too much stinking candy. This year I purposely put off buying our Halloween candy until the day before Halloween. And you'd think maybe I'd buy something I don't like to prevent me from pigging out. Nope! I bought the bag with the Almond Joys, Snickers and Reeses!

So this year we dressed Mia up as a Sunflower. I wanted to get her a ladybug costume because she is borderline obsessed with them, but I just wasn't finding anything good. So, a Sunflower with ladybugs on it's stem had to do. Oh, and it being 50% off at TRU helped too. :) Maggie was a little lion, and a very cute one at that! We took them trick-or-treating to a few houses. Mia was very shy (as expected), yet has been asking to go trick-or-treating every day since Halloween--go figure!

Pumpkin time

A couple weekends ago we ventured out to the pumpkin patch. Actually, it was more like a fall-themed amusement park. They had a miniature zoo, playground equipment in vehicle shapes, restaurants, a harvest store, pony rides...I could go on here. And it even had the huge parking lot and crowds to match! It was a cool place, but it was WAY too crowded. If I ever return there I've made a note-to-self to only go on a weekday.

Anyways, we joined the ranks of parents who endeavor to get that perfect picture of their child sitting next to pumpkins. It's pretty funny really...we all sound the same..."Mia...Maggie...look over here...smile!...sit next to your sister...stop doing that!...say cheese!" You get the idea. One thing I've figured out is that no matter how hard I try, my kids just aren't going to cooperate (at the same time) for a photo. And trying to get a family photo-- forget about it!!! I'm posting the family shot we took because it's pretty funny. I don't know if you can see but Mia was crying in the background and Maggie was twisting to get out of my arms. ;) The friends we went with got a great family picture. Their daughter is beautiful, photogenic and cooperative! Oh well, what are you going to do!? There are worse problems than this to be sure.