Maegan looks like...

Vote for who you think she looks like along the right side of the blog page!



I've thought Maegan looked like Denise Richards before, and we've had comments that she looks like Drew Barrymore when she was younger. I think it is neat that this software thinks she looks like Grace Kelly!

Drew Barrymore picture:

The Video Works!

I finally figured out how to fix the video clip that never worked. You can now scroll down to the September 16th post entitled "Dancing and Singing" and view the video! This could mean more videos in the future...

Beggars' Night and Raking

Growing up in southeastern Iowa, I wasn't aware of a special Halloween tradition in the Des Moines area. The kids here don't just say "Trick or Treat" when they go door-to-door begging for candy...they tell jokes! Here's a link to a newspaper article that tells about the origins of the tradition. Maegan didn't tell a joke unless it was requested of her, and I was glad to know about the tradition before we went out so I was ready with a joke. I had to prompt her with the question, but she could tell the punch line. What is a ghost's favorite fruit? Boo-berries!

I thought Maegan was going to want to dress as a princess with her new outfit from her birthday, but she wanted to use the stoplight costume I made last year. She only wore it for about 2 minutes last year, so after replacing the batteries in the green light, we were good to go. Here she is ready to go get some candy. Maegan enjoyed Beggars' Night and said to me as she was leaving each house, "I need some more candy!" Since candy is a very special treat in our house, she has been having fun playing with it as she waits for me to tell her she can have one. She likes to lay the packages in rows, in circles, and she came up with a game using her candy and Ethan's toy. (Pictured below) If you're familiar with this type of toy, you can anticipate what happens when the button is pushed--the door pops open and the candy goes flying.

Today we visited a toy store and found a rake for Maegan. We're planning to rake the yard tomorrow, and I knew she would enjoy helping. Here she is practicing with it. She enjoyed sitting and laying in the leaf pile even more than raking.

Fall Activities

I need to catch you up on what went on in October! I made Maegan a flannel nightgown. She got to choose the fabric and she loves it, but I'm itching to do another one that fits better. I shortened the sleeves a bit too much and didn't shorten the rest of it quite enough. Oh well...

We visited Howell's Pumpkin Farm in Cumming, IA with some friends and Maegan had a blast. She had a really hard time deciding which pumpkin to pick. Here she is with the one that she finally chose.

The pumpkin farm had lots of fun activities like this huge tire swing. She and her new friend, Sami, posed for pictures on this one. They also had a HUGE slide that Sami's mom rode down with Maegan, Sami, and Sami's little brother. It was so fast that they slid right off the end into the mud! They had a corn crib with shovels that I think was Maegan's favorite. There was also a pedal-tractor race track (she can't pedal and steer quite well enough to do that yet), and a big stack of hay that she climbed up with a little encouragement. Then there were the goats, rabbits, and other animals to watch and feed. She was brave enough to pet a rabbit, but didn't care to feed the goats.

Here's a water pump that she loved to work.

Lately

Ethan is getting big enough now that Maegan enjoys interacting with him. He loves it when she gets down on his level and talks to him. The biggest laughs I've heard from Ethan resulted from Maegan's antics.

We've been staying busy here at home. Last Saturday, Maegan helped us wash outside windows. She liked to squirt ("firt") the cleaning solution onto the glass. Matthew cleaned out the gutters (for the third time in six months, I believe) and mowed. He also split some logs for our fireplace. We have a really nice Jotul woodburning insert in our fireplace that we have enjoyed on a couple of cool evenings lately.

Matthew also took on the task of removing the carburetor assembly from the motorcycle, cleaning it and putting it all back together. It wasn't wanting to start or stay running, and whatever he did seemed to work. I took a quick ride Saturday and put it out on Craig's List for sale. We'd love to keep it, but it doesn't make sense since we don't have time to ride very often anyway.

We signed up for the Drake University American Family Friendship Program. Our "adoped" international student, Tianyi, is from China. He's a freshman in the actuarial science program and we're having fun getting to know him and we're learning a lot about China. We're looking forward to tasting his cooking this weekend. He's from the area of China that makes spicy Szechuan food.

And here's a picture of Maegan at 3 years old. I realized I didn't post any good pictures of her face from her birthday, so I took this one today so you can see how cute she is. :)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Maegan!

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey helped us celebrate Maegan's birthday today. The show was great and we enjoyed the company of Grandma Denise & Grandpa Monte, Uncle Aaron, Aunt Jackie, and cousin Jaidyn at the circus. After the show, Uncle Isaac and Aunt Nicky joined us at our house for a clown cake and ice cream. Maegan's favorite parts of the circus were the elephants, the clowns, the acrobats, and the motorcycles. The motorcycle performance was amazing. You can read about the Torres Family on the Ringling.com site (see the Blue Circus of Dreams 136th edition). They ride 7 motorcycles around inside a 16 ft steel sphere...all at once! I had to cover my eyes and peek though my fingers.

Here's a picture of the cake Maegan and I made together. The mouth and eyebrows are made from pull-apart Twizzlers. The curly hair is made of colored Twizzlers spiraled up. We used gummy Lifesavers with Mike & Ikes for the eyes and nose and a couple of Mike & Ikes for color on the cheeks. Orange slice-shaped gum drops make the bow tie. Maegan kept wanting to eat all the candy while we were working on it, of course!


And here's Maegan blowing out her candles. She's wearing her new dress-up fairy princess outfit with her party hat (thanks, Grandma & Grandpa!).


Maegan requested party hats and balloons, so we made some party hats with construction paper and ribbons. Maegan colored the hats with markers. Here's a shot of Ethan in his hat with Uncle Aaron.

Dancing and Singing

Maegan loves to dance and she loves to sing. Here is a video clip from July of her doing both at the same time. She's only a little more coordinated than her mother. :) Note that she is standing on her tiptoes most of the time, which she does a lot, even when she is not dancing. In case you need translation, I can't help you with the words to the song because I think she made them up. However, I do know that after she stands up from falling down, she recovers by saying "CHEESE!" She's not used to us taking video of her, but she knows all about taking still pictures and saying cheese. Next she always says, "Let me see it!" since she's used to the digital camera and always wants to see the results. I need to take more video of her so she learns not to come running over to see the picture during the recording!


Last winter/spring Maegan could almost always be seen with her sparkly dancing shoes. She hasn't been wearing them much lately, maybe because they are almost the right size now and she can't slip them on as easily as when they were two sizes too big. Here is a picture I found of her from mid-March that shows her wearing her favorite shoes. Her cousin, Jaidyn, is reading to her on one of our moving/cleaning days at the new house. Maegan is holding her favorite Bunny in this picture, too.

Maegan doesn't just like to dance by herself. She enjoys it more when we join in. Her favorite dance is holding hands and going in circles, which makes us more dizzy than it does her. If she asks you to dance, you can't get away with just standing there--she will point and you and say "Dance!"

Maegan's "Friends"

Maegan has a LOT of stuffed animals. The largest, Big Brown Bear, sleeps with her every night. Since she has a full-sized bed, this isn't a problem and, in fact, he ends up functioning as a pillow quite often. Maegan will latch on to one friend or another for a week or two and then another one will become her companion for awhile. Of course, Bunny (formerly known as Bu-bu) is her most special "friend" and she never sleeps without him. In this picture, she has decided to play with all of her friends at once. She often will arrange them in a line along the floor from largest to smallest. Most of them have been named for whatever animal they are, like Big Brown Bear, Bunny, Leopard, etc. She has several rabbits, and she recently started calling one of them Kitty.

Digging

Maegan had fun on Labor Day digging in the dirt with Daddy. She was covered in grime, but showed her feminine side when she came in the house and immediately announced that she needed a bath!

Alphabet

One of Maegan's favorite songs now is the alphabet song. She can sing snatches of it but can't quite get the whole thing consecutively yet. We've been practicing letters together and found a fun website that she loves. She has been recognizing letters when we're out and about. The other day at the grocery store, she saw the 'm' in 'Pharmacy' and then saw the "big M" in 'Health Market'.

Maegan loves to read books with us. I take her to the library almost every week and we pick up 5 or 6 new books each time. She will even pick up a book with no pictures, especially a Bible, and pretends to read it. When we were taking Ethan to the hospital the first couple of weeks after he was born to have his blood tested for jaundice, she would sit in the waiting area and read the Bible out loud. The nurses at the desk up front thought it was cute. :)

Back in Business

Rather than try to catch up on 7 months of posting, I decided it would be best to start fresh and add in some of the old picture and stories when I can. So...here are a couple of pictures from last week when Maegan ran through the sprinkler in our back yard. This was this first time we had set it up for her and she loved it.