Good gosh, girl

Maggie's room is messier than usual. It needs a major overhaul of trash and going through old toys.

Tonight, Maggie came and asked me if I could get her tent from the top of her closet. I asked her why she didn't ask steven to get it since he is taller and could reach it.

She sheepishly replied, "well, daddy will go in my room and say, 'good gosh, girl, your room is a mess."

It was exactly what he would say!

Eight is great

My baby girl is turning 8 today. At first, she decided that she didn't want to be eight, but I've convinced her that "eight is great".

It's a phrase that I repeat to her every morning as her morning cheerleader. She's decided that eight is going to rock and she can't wait to be 8.

She's had a good year. She's learning how to play the piano. She's learning how to play golf. She's also riding her bike like a champ.

I'm so proud of my big girl. We had a wonderful girls' trip to Miss Lori's wedding. She is sweet to her little brother and loves to read to him at night. She alternates between being a mama's girl and a daddy's girl. She is such a sweet, fun girl and love her so much

Eight is gonna be great!

No, he's ours

Yesterday, I went to pick up Maggie from school. I was talking to Kirsten and Maggie and Katelyn were playing. Maggie's teacher called me over. I must confess that I thought, "oh crap. What did Maggie do?".

But, it was a good thing. Her teacher asked me if Patrick was adopted and I said that he was.

She laughed and said that they were talking about families in class today for language arts. They got to a section about adoption and Maggie raised her hand and told her teacher that Patrick was adopted.

Her teacher said that Patrick wasn't  and asked Maggie if she knew what adoption meant. Maggie said that she did and she was sure that Patrick was adopted. She thought maybe Maggie was confused.

Maggie went on to explain that we had adopted Patrick and she had gone to Stockton to watch us sign the adoption paperwork.

Maggie's teacher was shocked. She couldn't get over it and said, "But, he looks just like you." I laughed and said that I was glad that one of my kids looked like me.

She asked Maggie to bring in pictures of his adoption signing and I sent in the scrapbook that Christine made for me.Christine took pictures for us that day before she started her own photography business and the pictures are precious to me. It's one of my favorite things. Wanna see Christine's new website? Click here!

So, we shocked Maggie's teacher yesterday. I was talking to Maggie about it as we were walking to the car and another one of Maggie's friend's mom overheard us talking. She said, "WHAT?! Patrick's adopted?! NO. He couldn't be. He looks just like you!".

Yep. Here's the proof!

Kitty cat

Patrick likes to pretend to be a kitty cat. He gets on all fours and meows and will even give you a kitty cat kiss (aka lick you on the face).

Yesterday, Maggie was getting ready in her room. Patrick was meowing through the house and saw that Maggie's door was opened.

He crawled into Maggie's room and meowed at her.

In true, big sister fashion, Maggie said something sweet like, "Get outta my room, Pat Pat!".

He looked at her and hissed as loud as he could.

Shameless Mama Bragging

(Please note that I am bragging about my daughter here. I gotta write this stuff down or I'm afraid I'll forget and I am so proud of Maggie)

Today, I was in Maggie's class grading papers and cutting out laminated words. Maggie's teacher asked me if I heard about Maggie's big news.

She hadn't told me, yet, so her teacher made this announcement to the class while I was there.

Maggie's teacher said that she tested Maggie's reading fluency. Fluency is tested by how fast a child can read without making a mistake. She had to read 85 words in a minute to pass. Maggie read 165 words in a minute!

I am so proud of her. She was proud, too. She is so sensitive and has had kind of a hard time lately. I was glad to hear this news. Her teacher made me promise to get Maggie a surprise to celebrate her accomplishment.

I think I can handle that!

Creative Girl

Maggie decided to make a newsletter last night. This was totally unprompted by me. I promise. I had a newsletter when I was little that was called the "Kitty Comet". I sent it out to my friends and family and updated them on what was going on and had jokes in it.

My mom also had a newsletter. It was called the "Twinkly Times" and it was sent out to her friends, too.

Here's Maggie's newsletter. It's called "Maggie Cookie Jar Chronicles". She printed out 40 copies and handed them out to her classmates and friends at school.(the format didn't come out right on my blog...just imagine cuteness).

MAGGIE’S COOKIE JAR CHRONICLES!!!!!!!

Written by: Maggie Cole                              January 19, 2012

Yesterday, I got a lot of new food. I could not stop eating. We got chocolate popsicles. We got Phineas and Ferb fruit snacks and a lot more. It was SOOO hard to stop eating!  School was okay that day.

Copper, my puppy, is kinda crazy and you might already know this, but he bites me a lot.  Copper likes to herd people’s feet, especially my brother, Patrick.

Angry Birds. It makes me kind of angry when I lose a level. I don’t like it when the pigs snort at me.

One time, a really long time ago, we were watching the show, Cupcake Wars. It was very frustrating when the team wanted to win did something bad. We made cupcakes one time for a baby shower. The cupcakes looked like cupcake suns.  Candy corns on the cupcakes were the rays of sunshine. The baby’s name was going to be Sunnie! 

Little Brothers

Isn't this picture the epitome of being a big sister? Maggie is standing next to Nikki and Jerry's wedding cake smiling and trying to keep her brother still. Patrick wants nothing to do with taking a picture. He just wants to DANCE.

Maggie is very patient and protective of her little brother. She does get aggravated with him at times. He takes her stuff and runs through the house. He grabs her blanket and taunts her with it before running away. He wants to play with whatever she has. He is always trying to get into her room to destroy something.

Sometimes, Maggie gets fed up and can't take it anymore.And I try to tell her that I completely understand. I had a brother who was 5 years younger than me. He was annoying. But, now, he is a great friend. I've been trying to explain this to her. She will eventually find him to be a good friend and not just an annoyance.

She looks at me like I'm crazy.

But, I see glimpses of their future relationship. They have been playing a game where they go on a train. Patrick is the conductor and has a whistle. Maggie makes up adventures for them to take. They hide behind the big chair in the living room and give us tickets for the next train ride.

This works for me cause I just have to sit on the couch while they drive the train.

I pray that they will have a good relationship and that they are laying down the ground work for a good relationship as adults. I just have to keep reminding Maggie that it's a good thing to have a little brother.

Christmas break

Maggie had a different break from school than the usual get out of school the week before Christmas and have the week after Christmas off this year. She got out of school on the Thursday before Christmas and doesn't go back until tomorrow.

I have really loved it. I had a week off of work before she got out of school so I could finish up lose ends and wrap presents and that was great. Then, during the week after Christmas, we were all at home. But, I didn't have to work and I just got to hang out with the kids without the looming feeling of "oh crap, I should be working right now". We all slept late and played and went to the Machado's house to jump on the trampoline.

This past week was Nikki and Jerry's wedding, which was one of the most fun receptions that I've been to. Patrick was a dancing machine and Maggie was beautiful. Then, Patrick started going back to Miss Sandee's house and I started back to work. Maggie has been joining me at Starbucks during these mornings. She plays on her phone and draws pictures.

She has today off from school and goes back tomorrow. It's been one of the best school breaks that we've had so far. Just enough time together. I got a break from work. Steven's been working from home some and we've just enjoyed being together and playing with Copper and watching tv.

I guess I'm ready to go back to the real world tomorrow of getting up on time and getting everyone dressed, but it's been nice to be in this bubble for the past few weeks.

Maggie's thoughts during Tron

We are watching Tron Legacy tonight. Maggie is inserting her words of wisdom during the movie.

Here's a few of her thoughts:

What if every night in heaven is movie night?

What if we get to eat spaghetti every night in heaven?

I asked Maggie what happened to the main character's mom. She said, "Mommy, it's a disney movie. All the mommies die in Disney movies".

Isn't that hilarious? First of all, she knew it was a disney movie. Secondly, what 7 year old puts that all together? Third of all, why do all the mommies die in disney movies? What's up with that?

We're only halfway through the movie. I'll let you know if any other words of wisdom are spouted out.

Christmas eve service

For the first time since we've been here, we had a Christmas eve service. As a child, we usually went to a Christmas eve service and I remember singing songs by candlelight and the choir walking down the aisle while singing. I loved the Christmas eve service this year, too. It felt familiar and nice to slow down in the middle of Christmas chaos and celebrate the birth of our savior.

To up the cuteness factor even more, the kids sang "Go tell it on the mountain" at the beginning of the service. Maggie's in the back row wearing the pink Santa hat.

Owen started off the singing by reciting scripture. He got a little nervous and it was really cute. You can hear him say that he was scared in video. The kids were so cute and as I watched them sing, I had to fight off the tears.  There were 2 of Maggie's classmates in the group singing. They don't go to our church, but come each Wednesday night to our church. Jesse does a great job with this group of kids each week. Maggie and her classmates  begged to sit together after the service and they were so cute sitting together all on our little row. They were hugging and wishing each other Merry Christmas and begging for playdates at the end of the service.

Most of the people at the service were people who don't normally attend our church. Out of the 80 people there, I probably knew 30 of them. They were mostly family members there to see the kids singing or just looking for a Christmas eve service.

I loved every part of it and singing next to Maggie as she nervously held her candle was a great way to end the service. I hope each of you had a merry Christmas eve, too.

Saturday morning

I got a new phone yesterday. Maggie knows how to use it better than I do. She made this video while I was unloading the dishwasher and Steven was cooking breakfast. Enjoy.

boxes

Today, Patrick climbed into this box and got all snuggled inside. He had his sister's pillow pet, a big blanket, baba and his sister's stuffed leopard. He stayed there until Martha Speaks was over. He was allowed to play with all of his sister's stuff cause she was at school and didn't know that he had all of it.

When I looked at this picture, it reminded me of this picture....
This is a box that Maggie made for the "new baby" a couple of days before he came to our house. As you can see, Sparky claimed it before Patrick came to our house and we never actually put Patrick in this box. Maggie was trying to make him a crib and just knew that this would be perfect for the new baby.

I guess she knew what he would like. It just took us a few years to get used to the idea of putting our kid in a box!

Dora part 2

This morning, Katelyn came over early before school started, since her mom was subbing. It's pajama day at school and the level of excitement was just too much. Katelyn asked if they could make a new video about Dora.

If you recall, they made a video about Dora and that she is a weirdo.

In case you are wondering, Katelyn is wearing a travel pillow on her head to look like Dora's hair!

So, for your viewing pleasure......Dora part 2

Picture winner

Good morning.

The resounding winner was smile #1 with teeth showing.

However, we went with Miss Beth Townsend's advice this morning. Do whatever feels natural when the photographer says "cheese".

We practiced some more this morning and she was totally at ease about it all.

She hopped up this morning so I could fix her nails that got messed up after we painted them last night. She put on her clothes and shoes and we fixed her hair. I love picture day. Everyday should be picture day!

We went out to the car to go to school and lots of kids were walking to school already. Maggie said, "everyone looks so nice today". We both smiled as we commented on the new clothes and combed hair. Everyone was kinda putting forth their best efforts today. It was sweet.

So, as soon as the pictures come back, I will be sure to post them. I love rituals like this.

What was your favorite school picture? Yours or your kids?

What do you think?

Maggie has been practicing her smile for picture day tomorrow. I keep finding her in front of the mirror practicing the way she is going to smile for the camera. She kept asking for our opinions. We couldn't decide.


So....we are coming to you, dear internet friends.




Which smile would you pick?




This is smile #1:









This is smile #2:

Which smile would you pick?




She wants your opinions before tomorrow's picture day. I need all votes by tonight at 9:00 pm PST. She thought it would be a great idea to get your opinions.

***NOTE: Maggie is a very fickle person. She could change her mind dramatically tomorrow morning!******

Facebook, what would I do without ya?

My mom has this update on her facebook status from 2009. (Patrick came to our house on Labor Day weekend 2009)

Maggie looked at her new little (foster) brother today and said: "I didn't even know he was missing from our family!"

I don't even remember her saying that, so I'm writing it down so I never forget it. Thanks, facebook.

Homework Center

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this idea on Family Fun. I immediately pinned it to my pinterest board (cause I'm obsessed) and thought that I would do it "someday".

http://familyfun.go.com/magazine/familyfun-magazine-archive/familyfun-september-2009/homework-central-787551/2/

Doesn't this make homework look fun?

The more I thought about it, I decided that I needed to go ahead and make it. And by that I meant, my mom needed to help me tackle this project.

I bought a trifold board from Wal*Mart for about 8 dollars.


I found some sticky dry erase posters there too. I think they were about 4 dollars. They weren't necessary for this project, but it added some color and who doesn't love a dry erase marker? Especially if you are 7?

We used sticky double tape to put down cardstock pages. Then on some of those pages, we hotglued clothes pins. Then she could clip important papers onto the board.

My mom printed out a number line. I wrote down the alphabet to help with pesky alphabetizing homework sheets.

We hot glued some post it notes onto the board.

We also hot glued another dry erase board. Just for fun.

The last thing on the front side was clothes pins with a pencil holder. We put crayons, pencils, a pencil sharpener, tape, glue sticks and a pair of scissors. This was to eliminate the mad search for pencils when she started her homework.

On the back, we glued down a folder. This holds a world map that is laminated and her homework folder from school. She keeps it with her during the week and returns it on Friday.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

She loved it. She plays school with it a lot.

I can't say that it has revolutionized the way that homework is tackled at our house. But, it was a fun project. It keeps all of her stuff together, too.

I would say overall this project was around $15-$20. I used a lot of stuff that we already had at home to complete this.

Morning breath

(this is an older picture of them, but it's still cute)

My kids love to snuggle in the morning. Patrick, Maggie and Steven were all snuggled up in bed and they were pretending to be asleep, which is one of Patrick's favorite "jokes". He snores and giggles.

This game involved snoring, giggling, squealing and starting all over again.

Patrick had a serious case of morning, milk breath.

Steven said, "Patrick has stinky morning breath." They all giggled.

Maggie repeated it, "Patrick has stinky morning breath." Silence.

Patrick piped up, "no, Maggie".

He was offended that Maggie thought he had stinky breath and blamed it on Maggie's breath instead.

I think they all needed a breath mint.

Follow that bird

The other night, Maggie and I were trying to find something to watch on Netflix. I saw "Follow that bird" and decided to share this part of my childhood with her. Luckily, she was willing to endulge me.

We were watching it and I loved the trip down memory lane. Then, this song came on the movie.



What's shocking about this song is that I started singing along word for word. I haven't seen this movie since 1985 and it wasn't one that I watched over and over again. But, somewhere in my brain, the words to this song were stuck in my head.

It is just amazing to me. I wonder what else is lodged in my brain.

Anyone else have something like this happen to them? Something from your childhood that you didn't even realize was there?

Pat Pat

As soon as Patrick came to our house, we started calling him "pat pat". I think I started the nickname, but Maggie really loved it.

It has really become his name, kind of like how Maggie was "Maggie Moo" when she was a baby. It always catches me off guard when I hear someone call him that who is outside our family.

Like last year when we were walking to pick up Maggie and Miss Corrine said, "hey, Pat Pat" to Patrick.

Or the kids who met him at kids camp at National Conference. We would pass them while we were walking around and they would say, "hey, Pat Pat". It just sounds funny to me to hear other people say it.

So, Pat Pat has been his nickname for a while. One afternoon, while Maggie was in Kindergarten, we drove to Sonic for Happy Hour. While we were waiting for our Route 66 Unsweet Iced Teas, a yucky smell filled the car.

Maggie:EWWWW....What is that?

Me: I think Poo Poo Patted.

Maggie started laughing and couldn't stop. I had mixed up my words.

She still laughs and says it sometimes when he has a dirty diaper.

Poo Poo Patted.