A big weekend...

We had a big weekend as we celebrated Maggie's dedication and Brent's graduation. Below are some pictures...

Here is Maggie and her cousin Emma...just lounging around. Maggie having a visit with great Granny Murphree.

Brent holding his cake...we later made him put on his cap and gown. Maybe I can put some pictures of that up at another time.

Brent with his parents (Sandra and Rick). They couldn't be more proud...

Here, Rick is saying the closing prayer for Maggie's dedication. What a blessing she has been in our lives. God has blessed our family richly and we are thankful for each day. It has been a special privilege to have Rick involved in the dedication of both our children. It seems full circle since he married us in the first place : )

Maggie showing off her personality before her dedication. She looked beautiful in the christening gown that was worn by myself, my brother and sister, her cousin Emma, and her brother Jacob.

I know, it's about time...

It has been several weeks since my last post and we have taken so many cute pictures of the kiddos. It's hard to decide which ones to post! Brent is done with school now and I'm enjoying having him home with me. He begins his new leadership program next week so we'll miss him. Jacob has already gotten used to daddy getting him up in the morning and playing with him during the day. Below are some pictures from the last several weeks...
Here is Mggie getting her first "taste" of cereal. I put taste in quotation marks because she really just spit most of it out...she'll get the hang of it soon.Jacob is always looking for new ways to accessorize. Here he is sporting a watch and bracelet on his ankles and some fancy rings on his toes. Watch out Project Runway!Time for summer fun! Brent rigged Jacob's slide so that it lands in his pool and Jacob has had a blast playing in it so far.Well this picture just makes me sad because Jacob looks like such a big boy. He is ready to go to church with his back pack and all...even saying "cheese" for the camera. Here's little Maggie with her cereal beard. Seriously, most of it ends up on her face or bib. We're not getting a lot in that stomach yet...Here Jacob is enjoying some "ice crean" with Grandaddy the banker. Yes, Jacob can now tell us the profession of his family members. For example, "Jacob, who is the preacher?" He'll answer "Pop!", etc. Awwww, here's Maggie ready for church this past weekend. I must say that she is adorable in this picture!

Mother's Day, etc.

Well, I had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. Part of it was because I get the priviledge of calling myself "mom" to two wonderful children. Brent made the rest of the day wonderful by making pancakes, bringing me my coffee while I got ready for church, and giving me a very thoughtful card and gift. When I had my first Mother's day he got me a bracelet with Jacob's initials...yesterday he gave me a necklace with Maggie's initials. What a thoughtful man! (I hope to get a picture of my necklace up too!) Below are some pics from the day...
Me with my precious boy Jacob...looking all handsome for church. Here's Maggie showing off her smile. Her Daddy got her laughing good for this picture (note...this would be what Brent would look like if he ever smiled for a picture...ha!!!)
And all three of us...
So, below you'll see a cake I made on Friday. I bought some new tools and wanted to try them out so I made a cake and it turned out to be one of the prettiest ones I've done so far. The congratulations is for Brent graduating with his master's degree and also making it into a prestigous leadership academy for upcoming principals. Way to go honey! (oh, the blob at the bottom is supposed to be a star...I had extra icing and played around some...)

Just goofin' around

Well, here are the latest pictures of the kiddos. First is Maggie, getting ready to roll over onto her back for the first "official" time. I say official because she did it once before but neither Brent nor I caught her in the act. Jacob sporting his new Superman outfit (thanks Wesley) and munching on a granola bar.
Wesley stayed with us some yesterday and I got a shot of the boys tuning in to a video. Ahh...tv is the best babysitter ever...ha!
Jacob giving Maggie a kiss. He's very into kissing her these days...too cute.
Jacob smiling for the camera. He will pose a little better these day since he likes to look at his picture on the camera afterward.

Visit from Great Grandparents

Brent's grandparents were able to visit us on Monday. below you'll see pictures of Maggie with Bernice and Levi.

Here is a picture of Jacob playing in a picnic basket that was given to us recently. He has lots of fun playing with it and uses the plastic knife to cut up his pretend "oatmealt".Here's Maggie sporting a new outfit from Nana...she looks awful serious in this picture, but very cute indeed.

She's trying her best to get those feet to her mouth. It will happen very soon!
Viewer Beware! The next two pictures are of Brent's feet and they are nasty (due to the sprain)...ha! This one shows how swollen his foot is, including toes and everything. Poor guy.

This one shows how bad the bruising is...
And last, here I am reading to the young'uns.

It's all about the feet...

Well, we have had an exciting week. First, Maggie found her feet this week and I'm sure they'll be her new favorite toy. Yay Maggie!Secondly, Brent fractured his ankle on Friday during a faculty-student basketball game at school. I guess I need to remind him of his age... But seriously, we're thankful that he wasn't injured more. He has to wear a boot for a while and will need some therapy. We're just glad that no surgery was required.Here's Maggie showing off her beautiful smile for mommy... And here is Jacob showing off his beautiful eyes. He was in the middle of eating his "oatmealt" and watching his morning shows...

7 Random Things

Okay, so my friend Nicola "tagged" me with what is basically a chain letter for blogs...but just a little cooler since I am to post 7 weird or unusual things about me that folks may or may not already know. So, here goes...

1. Unlike the trombone (which was Nicola's instrument of choice...ha!), I played the drums from 7th grade all the way through high school. I didn't start out being the only girl drummer but by the time I reached high school the other girl (named Robbie, who also ate her fingernail polish right off her nails) had given up the pursuit of percussion. So, I marched right along with the boys and basically endured 6 years of harassment from them. Needless to say, I learned a lot in those years, most of which I cannot discuss in mixed company.

2. I'm slowly turning into my parents, which isn't all that bad once you consider what wonderful people they are. What I really mean is that my tastes in entertainment and topics of conversation are taking a turn to what my parents enjoy. For example, while most of my girlfriends are watching Desperate Housewives on Sunday evenings, I'm cruising to NPT (Nashville Public Television) to see what Masterpiece Theatre is playing. Ha! I used to think my parents watched the most boring shows on there and now I can't get enough...I've even borrowed their dvd sets of Foyle's War (a British detective show set during WWII)...most interesting.

3. While I don't watch Desperate Housewives on Sunday evenings, I will most likely watch it on Mondays after I go to abc.com to catch up on any shows I've missed...so maybe I'm not as much like my parents as I thought...(I also watch Samantha Who?, Lost, Eli Stone and any other shows that pique my interest)

4. I'll also list my pet peeve since Nic listed hers (hey, it's 9:00 p.m. and I'm tired and I can't think of my own topics so I'm "borrowing" from others...) My biggest pet peeve is when people use the Exit door as an entrance instead of walking 5 feet more to the Entrance door. This happens most at your local Wal-Mart and Kroger stores, which just happen to be the only stores I go in these days. I don't think I should have to yield with my buggy of groceries for some moron who thinks he/she has the right of way as they enter the building through the door I'm trying to exit, which is clearly marked EXIT on the outside! Enough of that...I'm getting fired up.

5. I really love music...that is singing and playing the piano. I've been singing in some form of choir since I was 12 years old and even sang in the UAB honor choir my freshman year of college. During that year we backed up Crystal Gayle (the one with the long hair) in concert...neat, huh? Yeah, I know, it's not that neat after all... I also got to sing in the chapel on Duke's campus with my concert choir from Trevecca.

6. My husband and I owned a snake during the early years of our marriage. He was a red tailed boa constrictor and his name was "Bo." Yep, very inventive on the name.

7. My daughter's middle name (Linley) is after my great grandmother...Mary Linley Perry. Linley was her maiden name.

Okay, since I don't know how to link someone in my blog I will just say that the next person I'm tagging is Amy J.

Amy you should post the rules at the top of your message and then list who you're tagging after you've told us 7 interesting things about yourself. No, I don't remember what the rules are.

Like father like son...

After some careful editing, I'm finally able to post this most funny picture of Jacob on the potty. He was just having some leisurely reading time and not making any real potty progress, if you know what I mean...enjoy!

Many firsts for Maggie

This past week has had many new things for Maggie. For example, the first time she sat in her Bumbo...she does really well, especially for a baby her age.It was also the first time she wore her pretty pink sweater. It is still fairly big on her but I wanted to make sure she got some time in it before Spring finally decides to show up around here...She also had her first adventure in the exersaucer. While she did very well, she still doesn't have enough torso strength to keep herself upright. We'll have to wait another month or so on this one...This picture shows Maggie flapping around her new tongue (since she just had it clipped last week)...ha! She was cooing to Brent last night and I snapped a few pictures. You can see that it is free to roam about in her mouth now : ) And here is just one of her smiling at Daddy...too cute.

I've found that Maggie likes to have her blanket up around her face while she sleeps. She roused at 5:30 this morning but I didn't go get her so when I went to check on her at 7:00 she had pulled both of her blankets up to her face and was sleeping with them surrounding her head. (Talk about a smothering trap...) I was able to pull them away from her face without waking her up. I'll have to keep my eye on this girl so she doesn't smother during her sleep!

A week in our lives...

Sorry for the delay in posting folks...I don't have any great excuses. So, the first picture is of Brent "smiling" since I was fussing at him for not smiling in the pictures I was taking...scary. Here's little Maggie after her bath (please ignore my oily face...yuck).
Jacob got the privilege (sp?) of sleeping in his Crocs the other night (on accident). When I went to get him out of his crib he said "mommy shoes on" and I thought he wanted to put a pair on. Then I realized that he had a pair on already...it's a wonder he was even able to get to sleep. Am I the only one jealous of those eye lashes???
Jacob was a good boy at Kroger so he got about a million stickers and he quickly applied them to his sexy legs...

Worms and more...

I am constantly surprised by Jacob's behavior. He is quite fond of "girly" things at times and then is very "boyish" at other times. I've captured some of these moments in the pictures below.
We begin with his flare for women's shoes as noted in a pair of Maggie's glitter shoes...worn in the buff Then we move on to picking up worms in the yard and letting them crawl on his arms. Oh yes, and sometimes they "broke", meaning he tore them in half.
He also enjoys jumping in puddles and getting dirty. Maybe he'll be very boyish but with a good sense of style : )
And here is our little Maggie-lu as Brent has started calling her. I bought some new clips for her hair and while they are cute, they fall right out if you touch them since her hair is still so fine.

And here she is on her way to church this past Sunday morning.

Oh the differences...

Since Maggie was born we've commented over and over (as well as others) on how similar she is to Jacob. I got curious about comparing the two last night as I was going through some older pictures of Jacob. At 12 weeks they seem to be very different. You can see in the first picture how much bigger Jacob was than Maggie. People are always telling me that she is small, but I guess it is just hard to realize how much smaller she is than other 12 week old babies. Another difference is that Jacob was beginning to lose his hair by 12 weeks and Maggie's is hanging in there...yay! However, I do think they look the most alike when they are asleep. Anyway, enjoy the throwback to Jacob's baby days.