Un, Unus, Uno, En, Eins = One

Our sweet little babe who came flying out into the arms of her daddy on that early first of November morn is now a whole year old. The year feels like it slipped right through my fingertips even though I tried to grip on tightly to the days. Yet it seems as if there wasn't ever a day that her joy didn't fill our hearts and home. It's funny how before a new baby enters your life you can't imagine ever loving someone as much as you already love your other children. It may seem as if you're heart is overly full. Can't possibly hold any more love.

Well it absolutely isn't true. At least that's what we experienced when this beautiful girl came out of her warm cocoon looking for love. As I locked eyes with this new girl whom I'd learn to care for and be her mama, I realized no matter the number, the love is just as deep. Immeasurable. So strong it almost overpowers you at times.


Every thing she does makes us smile. The bonus to this is seeing the joy in her siblings faces as they celebrate each milestone with her. That's enough to make a mama tear up. When she took her first few steps hearing the claps, laughter, praise and endless hugs that they poured out on their baby sister in such a proud manner made me realize this is what the hard work of raising a large family is all about. These tender moments we share together as a family are priceless and are worth everything to us.

teething on her brother's mini skateboard

The Magnolia Maggie tree that was planted not long after her birth. Her placenta has nourished it well.

still loves her newborn binkie

We had a little party for our girl on Halloween eve. It was simple, not over the top, no fancy decorations. Just a gathering with family and friends to celebrate just what a gift this girl is to us all.

Aunt Joyce playing "I'm gonna get you!"

Maggie and Macrae

The goats and pig serve as our party entertainment. Notice my son's the only one out there barefoot and shirtless. And the other one's up in the tree. Like true redneck boys! ;)

M's princess castle cake made with love by her aunt Katie and grandma

At the party I served my first attempt at goat cheese. It was a success!

{nice hair uncle A}

I think I've got another baby lover. If she's anything like me, this means I'll be blessed with many grandbabies! :)





Sweet Aurora has been a special friend to the family since she was Maggie's age





knew it wouldn't last long!

Maggie is our plumpest one year old yet. I think the addition of goats milk has helped with that. She babbles a LOT, will carry on full conversations with you at times, although it only makes sense to her. She loves... her daddy to pieces and shouts out "dada" as soon as he enters the house each day.

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She is a moderately good sleeper. We spoil her a tad bit and allow her to fall asleep in bed with us and then transfer her to her room in her crib. Some nights she'll sleep until morning and others she comes in bed with us at some point in the night. She loves to eat! Especially pears, peaches, grapes (cut up into quarters), bananas, yogurt, mac n cheese, just to name a few of her favorites. She still nurses infrequently but I think those days are dwindling. I'm not used to having a baby wean so early but I'm following her lead which makes it all the more easy to do so. She LOVES her goat's milk bottles though.

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She also loves, loves, loves living on a farm and I think she is crazy lucky to get to spend so muc time with chickens, cows and goats each day. Oh and a pig too! And let's not forget a dog and three cats :) She has two toy cows that she often carries around saying "moo..." and she has taken a love for her biggest brothers stuffed animal cow that he's had since he was a baby. I think it's almost officially hers now.

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Maggie has seemed like she was coordinated enough to start walking at an early age but she's been overly cautious about it for some reason. I know she took a couple falls when attempting to walk some time ago and I think that scared her to the point of not being confident enough to give walking a try. But half way into her twelfth month she took her first few true steps and by thirteen months she is walking pretty much anywhere she wants to. She's still super wobbly which is down right adorable and she does still crawl here and there but overall she's now a walker.

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We have done half and half cloth diapers and disposables since her birth but recently a friend gifted us with her cloth diapers and I purchased a dozen Sunbaby cloth diapers which are super soft and cute so we are now full time cloth diapering. Even at night and also while out of the house. It has been a smooth transition and even Josh just goes with the flow of it. Cloth diapering has come a long way and it's super easy and not messy like you may imagine. There's a certain technique to it which makes it all doable. And I have such a great feeling about this whole thing. Not having to overload the landfill like I have done in the past and not having my baby saturated in chemicals 24 hrs. a day just makes so much sense and gives me peace in doing this.

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But in saying all of this, this next photo happened to be taken before our cloth diaper transition. Before the last disposable ran out. Oh and our cloth diapers are so... much cuter than these disposables!

Now that she's the big uno she gets to join in the cupcake fun. This was after eating one of grandma's Frankenstein cupcakes. Bath time baby!

I don't know if a baby was ever more loved than this little chickadee. She couldn't possibly bring us any more delight than she already does. God certainly knew what he was doing when he decided to sneak another little blessing into our lives. Can't even possibly imagine life without our little girl.

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We all love and adore you Maggie Eliza!!!

Big Bundle of Love

Every month I tell myself that this sweet girl of mine couldn't get much cuter, but she sure continues to prove me wrong. Now at 8 months old not only is she the cutest thing ever but her little personality is unfolding and she is becoming loads of fun too. She is really starting to babble quite a bit and after conquering mama she moved on and started saying dada on Father's Day. I'm sure it was sheer coincidence but I like to think that it was a planned gift for her daddy for all he's done for her. After all, he made her entrance into the world just as calm and serene and he possibly could have and didn't even drop her slippery little body as he guided her out.

She likes to dance a LOT which is so stinkin' cute, she shakes her head as in saying "no" quite a bit too but doesn't truly know what it means yet. She just knows she's being cute and gets lots of laughs and attention when doing so. She also recently learned how to make music with her mouth by running her closed fist back and forth across her lips while humming. Oh the look of pride she shows off when she realizes others are amazed by her talents.

She has learned to pull herself up on her crib bar and is working on getting the crawling thing down. Every day she seems to crawl further and further. She has definitely mastered getting up into a sitting position though which is helpful for those times she topples over and she can get herself right back up again.

She still loves her binky and has been our only baby to be as attached to it as she is. One day I may regret her being so hooked to it but for now I really love the fact that I am not a human pacifier as I have once been before. In fact I'm finding that now that she's eating solids and loves it and has also become quite the busy lady these days, I'm having a harder time getting her to sit still long enough to nurse much. I'm sure she's getting more than she needs though because her thighs tell me so. ;0

She is beginning to prefer finger foods that she can pick up and feed herself instead of mashed up foods. It makes it somewhat more challenging for me to try and figure out what she can handle and what she can't but it is also helpful to put her in her seat and let her feed herself. But her favorite food so far is... you'll never guess. mac and cheese. If you know my other three than this will be no surprise to you. The kids had a sleepover at our friends the Mackie's on Saturday night and they took them to Sonney's for dinner. I asked Gracie what she had for supper and she told me mac and cheese, corn bread and french fries. Oh my, we've got a lot of work to do! :)

After being so patient with Maggie and bedtime for 8 months now, she is finally learning how to sleep. For most of her life so far she has only really slept in her swing but I've been trying off and on to ween her from it. But the problem is on the nights she'd sleep in bed she'd hardly sleep at all so out of my desperation for sleep I'd put her back in her sleep machine. Our routine for now is I nurse her to sleep (yes I know, BIG mistake but we're taking baby steps here) and I lay her down in her crib. Typically she'll go right to sleep but on a few occasions we've had to put her in her crib and let her cry herself to sleep. Thankfully it usually doesn't get to that point though because that's hard on this mama's heart. She has been waking up once at night to eat and if I'm good I'll put her back in her crib (which is still in our room) where she'll usually sleep until morning but if I fall back to sleep then she'll stay in our bed maybe waking up again to nurse at some point in the night. Saturday night since we only had Maggie we went out with Katie and Austin and our friends Terry and Rachel so Maggie wound up staying up late being a party animal. It was so much fun and reminded us of years ago past when we just had Colton and would bring him out in his infant carrier to meet up with friends. She was so tired by the time we got home that she slept straight through and I even had to wake her up Sunday morning to get ready for church.

We have come a LONG way baby so this new sleep pattern is awesome to us! Through times of not getting much sleep I have never let it get me down because I know all too well how soon this stage will pass and honest to goodness I will miss the demands of my wee little one. But oh how I welcome sleep back into my life. It's a glorious thing for sure.

On that note look at this glorious little girl who makes our hearts sing each and every day. Can you believe she's 8 months old already? We are filled with crazy amounts of love for this little honey bun of ours.





Don't you worry 'bout a thing, as soon as photo #4 was clicked I ditched the camera to dig the flower from her mouth. But it was so darn cute seeing her execute her plan of action and watching her close her eyes as she tasted success!


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I LOVE when she has these little bows in her hair. I don't know why I don't do it more often than I do. In case you are curious how I get them to stick, I found a little secret online and I tried it and it works like a gem. A little dab of Karo syrup does the job perfectly and with a little water it melts right off.



Sleepy girl has had enough photos I guess. It's nap time baby.

She figured out how to do the cutest thing by putting her thumb into her binky hole to keep it handy for easy access.

Smart girl I say!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my farmhouse sink! I have always dreamed of having one of these and if it meant going through all the restoration process that we have gone through and are still going through than so be it. I am glad for it because there is no better way to bathe my babe.