Lou, Lou, Bandie Lou

We finished up watching Bandie a few weeks ago, but she came over one evening for a few hours. Maisy was so excited to see her. I loved this picture. We will miss little Bandie. Although it was fun, I will admit, it has been nice to just have my own to take care of.

Curb Appeal

 We have been extra busy in the yard this month. The city had a huge storm in October that did all kinds of damage and they hauled off limbs from all over the city. They turned it into mulch and were giving it out free until it was gone. So... I went one day and got a truckload for our yard while Justin was at school. It was quite the sight. There was a guy with a loader that just dumped it in the back of the truck for us.

 Gracie recruited all kinds of neighbor kids to help us. "Hey, we're doing hard work. Wanna help?"

 We finally put some shutters on the house. It didn't take too long and I think it made a nice difference. I talked Justin into red shutters and they matched our brick really well. Did I ever mention that I love red?

 Justin borrowed an old rickety ladder from the neighbor. I'm glad he dared to stand on it, because I'm not sure that I would have:)

 The finished house with shutters.

Justin planted these trees and a few extra plants in the planter for mother's day. He also installed a drip-line so it will be a little more maintenance free.

Sweet Margaret Ann

I've been singing that to Maisy to the tune of "Sweet Caroline". Is it sometimes weird to think that Maisy is really Margaret? That's okay. I feel the same way about my name. I feel so much like Maggie that I sometimes forget I'm Margaret. I don't want Maisy to forget her real name though so I have to occasionally remind her:)

Maisy turned 18 months on the 11th of May. She is now a nursery girl and has been a champ in there. She went to the doctor and is 18 lbs. still. She is not on the curve for weight and is 15% for height. her head was at the 35th percentile. :) Her weight for height is good though, and she is growing and learning like she should be.

 I get this face a lot. Maisy is a  tease and is super giggly. She loves to be chased or tickled.

 This is her new favorite past-time. She does it any chance she gets and I've been better at moving her chair out of the kitchen.

 Maisy is communicating a lot better these days and says mom, dad, hi, bye, no, don't, Gracie, night-night, banana, shoe, bath, shower, and other situational words that I can't think of right now. She attempts lots of words that don't really sound much like anything. As I laid her down for a nap this morning I was staring at her and said, "I love you". I could tell by her mimicking the facials I was doing and her tone that she was trying to say it back. Sweet moments. I cannot wait for Maisy to see everyone when we get to Utah. She is really turning into a little girl.

A treasure

 While doing some yard-work and cutting down an unsightly tree that was ruined by our big snowstorm last fall, Justin found this treasure. Aren't bird's nests amazing?? I love that robin egg blue. The kids were enamored and checked on it several times a day for at least a few weeks. All of the neighbor kids were excited about it as well.

Cinco de Mayo

 Did you party on Cinco de Mayo? We did. Our cute friends hosted a fun party at the park. We all brought Mexican potluck dishes and made maracas. The kids also had a pinata and we had moustaches. We heard about the Moustache thing in advance, so  Justin spent the entire week growing a mexi-stache. Love him.

 Our friends, Carrie and Russ, hosted this party. Russ has a 5 de Mayo birthday:)

 Justin sporting his sweet "stache".

 Pinata Love.

 Lady friends in moustaches. I left mine on for a minute and went to find a kid in the park. Some little girl was pretty worried when she saw a woman with a moustache. It was pretty funny.

 5 of us. This was about the best we could get.

Behind

How does this happen? I swear that I just posted, yet it is the end of May and as I just downloaded my pictures, I realized that there were some fun things I did not even blog about. We are getting ready to head to Utah for 10 weeks. We leave on Saturday and I wanted to back up pictures and get caught up before I drop off the face of the earth. So... to all the troopers out there, get ready for another onslaught of posts. Or... skip the posts and come visit with us if we are coming to your neck of the woods (Salt Lake or St. George).

Miniature Boyfriend

Gracie: Guess what. Fernando is my new boyfriend. Justin: No he is not Gracie: Yeah, he is. I named him that. Justin: Gracie, you're too young to have a boyfriend. Gracie: don't worry, dad, he's just my miniature boyfriend. This conversation was this morning. Fernando is our 5 year old neighbor. She also has an admirer at school named Mauricio. Mauricio is trying to woo me as well. He sent Gracie home with 35 cents in pennies the other day and told her to use it to buy something for her mom.:) I guess Gracie has a way with all of these Hispanic little boys. They are cuties. I guess we need to watch out for her and all these boyfriends.

The final final

We aren't graduating just yet (12 months and 2 weeks), but a certain student around here is about to take his final final and just attended his final lecture today!!! Go Justin! Can you tell we are just a little excited to be entering senior year and starting clinical rotations?

Busy

 We have a very busy 17 month old baby. Maisy is a climber and a dumpster diver. She is seriously into everything around here. She empties drawers galore, can spin the toilet paper off its roll in no time flat and has a sweet and sneaky smile to gain forgiveness for all of her naughty endeavors.

 I always forget how BUSY little toddlers are. And by the way that everyone around me notices, I think that I'm not crazy when I say she is the busiest little girl I have ever met. Yes, if you remember Gracie, I think that Maisy is even busier. Here are some of the things Maisy has been doing.

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 Finding markers and drawing on herself. Undressing (sometimes) and taking off her diaper. Climbing onto the counter.

 Drawing. On paper.

 Tasting all kinds of yumminess. I can't sneak treats around her anymore without sharing or she lets me know.

 Climbing onto her high chair seat unassisted. This is also her way to climb onto the counter. She has started scooting chairs across the kitchen to get to her desired location. She also climbs onto the table.

 Opening and hanging from the silverware drawer. Or... scooting a chair over and climbing up to empty the silverware drawer (my sharp knives found a new home).

Scooting chairs from the living room back in to get to her "stuff".

Maisy also learned to climb out of her crib last weekend. She did it 6 times in about 12 hours. Are you tired yet? She is so much fun.

Church necklaces

 On Saturday night I bribed the kids by telling them that I had a special surprise for anyone who went to bed. At 6:30am, the kids who reminded me of the surprise were taken to the the kitchen, given a piece of yarn and a bowl of fruit loops to make into a necklace. I climbed back into my cozy bed. After the necklaces were complete we put them in bags to take to church. BEST. IDEA.EVER. I sat back and wondered why I don't do this more often? I found this to be an especially good snack for Maisy at church. She likes to shake things and I have a hard time trusting her with a cup of cereal or a bag she might dump out. Everyone was happy. In 2 Sundays (On Mother's Day) Miss Maisy will be a nursery girl at church. Thank heavens!!! She is super busy:)

Soccer!!!

  Justin played intramural soccer this spring with a bunch of vet school students. Justin was nice and took the kids along to several games. I only made it for the last one, as Maisy is at a pretty tricky age. Most of the games didn't start until about 7:30pm.

 The kids loved running around and I loved watching Justin play. A few highlights of the game were watching Justin's mad skills, Gracie asking if she could keep a mini tequila bottle that someone had littered on the ground and Gracie and Gunner holding hands and racing together to the end of the field and back about a hundred times. It was sweet.

Dreizig

 Justin turned 30 on tax day. He didn't want us to make a big fuss, but we had a fun time celebrating. His birthday fell on Sunday. We made steak and baked potatoes for dinner with cookie salad and artichokes on the side. It was a feast. We skipped the cake until the next day and celebrated after Gracie's gymnastics class (the reason why it looks like she is wearing no pants). We love you Justin!!!

A special birthday

 The kids were getting really excited about Justin's birthday and were counting down the days. The night before his birthday they asked if it was his birthday yet. He told them it wasn't but reminded them that it was their great-granddad's birthday. Justin's sister, Kellie, gave Justin a book a few years ago with pictures and some of his life story. Justin was really close with his Granddad and so it was fun for us to see them take an interest.

 Any special time with Justin seems to turn to the kids wanting to exercise. Gracie can probably do more push-ups than I can and with better form. Gunner is pretty good at doing push-ups too. Maisy has even started to try and will do her version on command. If you can't tell, the kids have also been on a kick of wearing Justin's shirts to bed.