Pumpkin Patch 2011

Maci's school had their annual field trip to the pumpkin patch.  Maci found her old beat up hat and jumped in the donkey for a ride!

She had a really good time and found the "perfect" pumpkin!  She has colored all over it and washed it a millions times since she brought it home!  Now it's found a home in her room (until I find the perfect time to throw that sucker out!) 

Go Dynamites!

Soccer is already almost over, but Maci has had a great time!  At the beginning of the season she was really aggressive, but after being hit a few times, she mellowed out quite a bit.  Now during the games she looks like a butterfly fluttering around the field, not really in any hurry to get to the ball!  She loves it though so I can't really get on to her... especially considering she's only 4!  It's amazing how quick all the kids learned so fast and have improved so much, including Maci!

I do need to thank a few people though... these pictures almost didn't happen for Maci, but thanks to her great Aunt Loni who picked her up and rushed her to practice, to my team mom partner Sara for fixing her hair and to Maci's teammate Cierra for letting Maci borrow her ball for pictures!  This was a crazy day!

Proud mommy :)

Just a quick bragging moment about my girl... I received this email from her teacher today:

Maci is such a sweetheart! Always eager to learn and attentive. She is nice to others and has lots of friends! She remembers everything from last year and her reading is really improving. She adds and subtracts very quickly!



Teresa

It makes me so happy that she loves school so much and is doing so well so I had to share it!

Soccer!

 Maci started soccer this week!  She looks so cute and grown up out on the field!  She is so excited and can't wait to go back!

She has her 1st game this Saturday, which should be hysterical because they only got one practice in before!  The original coach backed out at the last minute so we begged her uncle JP to step in and he accepted!  He should have his work cut out for him with eleven 4 year olds!  I'm so thankful that he volunteered to coach her team so that she could play, she's so lucky to have so many amazing people in her life!  I'll try to do better about posting pictures, especially now that she is involved in more things!

Part II

I was too lazy to rearrange photos on the last post since I'd already started writing, so I thought I'd take the lazy way out and just do one big post with pictures of a ton of things all at once!

This one just makes me laugh because she is always dressing up, but this little outfit takes that cake! 

 My cousins moved here from Nebraska and Maci and I have really enjoyed spending time with them.   Maci especially loves being goofy with her cousin Alissa!

Watching Kung Fo Panda in 3D and Maci loved it, but would not get the scared look off her face for a picure

So I thought I'd list some of the things keeping us busy over the summer (my excuse for not posting!)

Maci did another dance class this summer.  She loved it and for a few weeks she thought she wanted to keep doing it this fall... but she's since changed her mind!

Then she took swimming lessons which turned out to be her most favorite thing in the world!  We ended up extending her lessons for a few more sessions.  She's really bummed that they are over now.  These two cuties with her are her cousins Aubrie and Alissa.

She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to pose for pictures so I got some of her being goofy!  She looks so grown up in this one...

Maci and one of her favorite boys in the world - Brady!  We had the pleasure of keeping him for a few nights this summer and Maci loved every minute of it!  She cried when he had to go back with his mommy and daddy!  She just loves her little cousin so much!

Maci also kept busy with her Nana and Papa!  My dad has turned my daughter into a little dare devil.  She loves to go super fast on the 4 wheelers and also now loves riding them through the biggest mud puddles that they can find.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but they are both covered in mud!

I wouldn't let Maci in my car all muddy so her Nana sprayed her off with a hose!

She got to go on a little girls trip with just her Nana.  They rented a 2 seater bike and cruised all through town.  My mom said they had a blast.  She also got to swim in a lake and just hang with the best Nana in the world. 

I have so much more of our summer to post about, but I think my blog is going to crash with all this posting I'm doing tonight, so I better let it rest!  I will try hard to get more on here ASAP! 

Whoa - Easter was my last post?? WHAT?

Oops, so I just realized that my last post was around Easter... wow - how time flies. So I'm going to try to catch up on some random stuff, in no particular order!

First Maci started preschool again for her 3rd and final year. I don't know where the time has gone, it seems so crazy that she is 4 going on 5, when I still think of her as my baby! She was super excited to go back to school (and I have to admit that this mean mama was a little ready too... 2 months of having her at work every day was getting to be a little much for both of us)... so for as much as I was really looking forward to school starting - I sure was missing her on her first day.

My little "senior" :) She loves to pose. I asked her to put her arms to her side for a picture and she told me that she likes her pictures this way because she's cute that way! I guess she's right!

She also insisted on wearing her little princess crown headband! It's so funny how picky and insistent she is about certain clothes. I miss the days that I could just pick something cute out and she would wear it. I guess I should be thankful that she is strong willed?!

I was a little sad while taking this picture when I thought about it being her last 1st time at this school! She is really loving school again this year. I was worried since it's her 1st time of going all day, but she enjoys eating lunch with all her little friends and seems to really like staying all day. What a trooper I have! She even exchanged friendship bracelets with a boy!!! Whoa Nelly - she's 4... do we really already have to start all this boy crap? I guess so... I guess I shouldn't be surprised since she's been in love with Tristian since she was 1. SHE IS BOY CRAZY, but you gotta love her!

Easter 2011

This year we decided to have one last Easter celebration at my parents house before they move! Maci was so excited to get started, but we had to wait on the rain...

While it was raining some of the kids decided to play upstairs in the pool room, but we just couldn't find Maci...

Surprise!
They finally got to hunt eggs.

Maci checking out her loot! She loves it when her Nana hides the eggs - they were ALL filled with money! When she opened an egg with a $5 in it she just said "ooohhhh cash"!

Loni brought a pinata and all the kids couldn't wait to take a crack at it. You can see how prepared we were for this... shower cap for a bandanna - check... broom stick for a bat - check!

Maci got tired of the shower cap over her nose, so the big kids agreed to let her take it off!

Take a look at the dinosaurs head... the sucker is huge right? Well after one of the big kids knocked it's head off, they all made sure that the little kids got plenty of candy... Maci came trooping into the house with that head FULL of candy... she's not spoiled even a little bit!

We had such a nice day, besides the weather. I'm a little sad that this will be our last celebration at my childhood home, but I know their new place will be just as amazing, if not more so. Thanks Mom and Dad for having Easter at your house one more time, for all the food and the "cash" eggs! We hope everyone had as good of a day with their family & friends as we did!

Another proud mommy moment...

I CANNOT believe I have not posted about this yet but a few weeks ago Maci started READING! I am still so amazed at how well she does in school and just how darn smart she is. She's an old pro now at reading her first book - Mac and Tab! She's moving onto her second book now! I'm so proud to be her mommy!

Hello Easter Bunny

Maci FINALLY got to see her old friend last week! She loves that bunny and has been looking so forward to seeing him/her again. I can tell that she is getting older by the questions that she asks though... Mom - how can that bunny stand up like that? Mom - is there a person inside that bunny? On and on... Thankfully Loni & JP were with us and their brain was much quicker than mine! JP told her that the Easter Bunny was magical and just like that the Q&A session ended! (For now at least)!
Her hair was curled so cute, but when we got to the mall the Easter bunny got sick so she/he had to leave for an hour and a half. By the time it finally came back Maci was back to being Messy Maci!

Easter also brought up other questions... one of her "friends" told her Santa wasn't real and that Jesus was SUPER HUGE! I hate that kids are already telling her about Santa. I want her to stay little longer. She also told me "Mama did you know that Jesus died on a cross for us??? And then he came back 3 days later, so all of his people were so happy that they washed his feet!" She cracks me up!

2011 Family Vacation

This year, my mom, dad, BB, Maci & I traveled back to the Virgin Islands for 2 weeks! It was amazing and we all had such a good time! On the way there and on the way back we stayed the night in Miami.

This is in Miami in the Everglades. My mom and Maci were the only brave souls to want to hold the alligator. We went to an alligator park where literally those critters would come right on the road that we were walking down... I was a little scared!

This is an amazing beach we went to in the British Virgin Islands. I can't believe how freaking pretty some places are there!
This was a common occurrence during our trip... the two 4 year old's fighting (ALL THE TIME)... I don't know who was worse, the real four year old or the ADULT uncle! Thankfully they were just playing in this picture...

This was on an island in the British Virgin Islands, called something in Spanish that means fat virgin (something gortha ...) anyway these were called the bathes. It was so pretty there.

Me & Maci in a little outdoor bar called The Love Shack! While we were in the town of St. Thomas, we felt the safest in this bar! The town is so gross and the people are so rude... We tried to stay out of town as much as possible.

This was at Coral World. I HATE birds, but Maci really wanted to feed them so I agreed to take her. She loved it at first until...

The stupid bird attacked her head! I tried to get a picture, but Maci was screaming and freaking out, all the birds took off flying and we were all laughing so hard that this was the only picture I got!

Waiting for the sting rays to swim back around to feed them

Maci decided that she loves to pose, so these are her new moves!

I finally had to tell her that was enough for the day! Every time I broke out my camera she wanted me to do a whole photo shoot in her honor! Thanks Mom & Dad for an amazing trip. Maci & I are so lucky to have the family that we have and it's so nice to be able to spend 2 weeks with people that we love so much.

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to open one gift before bed. This year Maci got a Baby and Me doll with matching pajama's and robes. She loves matching her clothes with her dolls so it was perfect!

Sleeping with her new baby

Wearing her birthday outfit from the Pruetz family. She didn't want to take these clothes off for days!

Christmas morning, playing in her new tent from Nana & Papa


Christmas evening we had another small little birthday party!

Oooppss, these are a bit out of order, but here she is opening MORE presents. My house is now packed again...!

Maci & Uncle BB, oh yeah and Chloe!

We had such a great Christmas with part of our family. It's so much fun with Maci and it makes me even more thankful on the holidays! It was so funny because Maci was pretty astonished that she actually made it onto Santa's nice list... I'm telling you - 3 was ROUGH!