I LOVE My Kid!

You know those days as a parent where you just love being with your kid.  You don't have to fuss, finagle, or bribe.  You're just able to enjoy them.  Today was one of those days.

I had an absolute blast with Maggie today.  She's been amazing to be around for the last few days, but today was tears in the eyes fabulous.  I am just so blessed that God gave her to David and I to raise.  What an amazing gift.

She is funny, bright, loving, and just plain fun to be around.   I LOVE her.  

Just had to share the moment.  

Here she is exhausted after our day of travel yesterday and Chocolate World today.  Those are the two pillows I got her at Chocolate World - they're the fun squishy kind.  One is a Hershey's Kiss and the other is Bubble Yum.  She's also got her "Beary" - doesn't sleep without it.  

How cute is that kid!

Chocolate World

Maggie and Mommy are in Pennsylvania for the Nestleroth (Mommy's Mommy's side) family reunion.  The family is not far from Hershey so Maggie and Mommy went to Chocolate world today.  

Mommy was so excited - an entire building devoted to chocolate.  Absolute heaven!!  Mommy and Daddy had been there about eight years ago, but much has changed since then.  There is a new 3D show that made Maggie just squeal (literally) with delight.

We had a little glitch in the movie so they gave us free passes to see it again.  So, we got to experience it twice!

Then, we went on a fun trolley ride where we learned lots of neat things about Mr. Hershey, his factory, and the town.  The "conductors" were hilarious.  One of them kept "getting off" and reappearing as various historical characters.  It was a fun ride. Mags wanted to do it again, but we didn't get a free do-over on that one so Mommy said no.  

Then we went back into the building where Maggie got to be a factory worker and package her own box of Hershey Kisses.  She actually will eat a Hershey's kiss (not a big sweets fan) so Mommy thought this was a good one.  She of course loved it - got a cool hat, a name badge, and box of kisses plus some cute pics.

After lunch, we FINALLY got to go on the actual "factory tour" part of the building.  They've now made this into a ride where you sit down and travel through an explanation of how it all works with machines there to show you the different parts.  It was pretty neat.  Maggie thought it was awesome so we rode it THREE times!  Luckily, that part is free.  :)

We of course traveled through the gift shop after every ride - amazing how everything ends at the gift shop.  We're not talking a small gift shop.  This place was HUGE with the food court area attached.  We did a little shopping, but Mommy cut Maggie off when she wanted to buy something for everyone in the extended family.  

One more funny from the day.  It's getting later in the afternoon, and Maggie says she's hungry. I'm looking around wondering what to offer her.  I say "What kind of hungry - meal hungry or snack hungry?  There are cookies, cupcakes, ice cream..."  She comes back with "I'm strawberry hungry mama.  Do they have any good food - I want strawberries."  Only my child.  She settled for a big container of milk - white milk not the chocolate kind that comes in the souvenir cup. I actually laughed at her for that one.

Callaway Gardens

Maggie, Hamilton, and Ella went with Grandma and Gramps to Callaway Gardens in central Georgia for five days of fabulous fun.  The kids all go to a day camp for a good part of the day and then swim, eat ice cream, and go to the circus at other times.  The picture above is when the Grandparents and Hamilton picked up Maggie.  Ella was the next stop.  They had an awesome time and can't wait until next year.  Mags wants to stay a week!

Maggie Wanted Jesus in Her Heart

Tonight at dinner, Maggie accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.  It was a very special moment for the entire family.

She's been asking lots of questions for the last few weeks and really asking lots of questions this week.  She and I talked about God almost all day today in one form or another.  We've talked a lot about what a sinner is, why Christ needed to die for us, and what an amazing gift God gave us in His Son. 

She really seemed to understand the analogy that Christ took the "consequences" of our sin. She knows that she has consequences when she does something wrong, so Christ taking her consequences away so she could be with God forever made sense to her.

Once she could answer all the questions about what the hard words mean, we pulled out the literature piece the church gave us when we went to Jump Start (a very cool thing to have by the way).  We walked through that, making sure she understood each step.  Then, she read the prayer at the end and asked Jesus to be her Savior.  

David and I were both kinda teary, but oh so very proud of her.  She is an amazing child of God. I can't wait to see what He has planned.

My How the Girl has Grown

Above are a picture from the first day of school (left) and the last day of school (right).  Our girl has grown so much in just these ten months.  Not only has she changed physically, but emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually as well.

Physically, she's several inches taller and has thinned out so much.  She's pretty much lost that little girl look and has begun to look like a young lady.  The last day of school found her with her first lose tooth, which she lost a few days later.  All these physical signs that my baby is not my baby any more.

Emotionally, Maggie has never been more sure of herself.  She carries herself with a presence that continues to amaze her parents.  She is very loving and helpful, always there to help someone younger or someone needing assistance.  She is awesome to watch with toddlers and babies.

Cognitively, Maggie has blossomed in a big way this year.  She started reading around Christmas, and now we can't keep her in books fast enough.  She's able to read just about anything you put in front of her, but still likes her storybooks with the pictures in them.  We can no longer spell in front of her as she figures it out in minutes.  She is also telling time and counting money, so not much gets by her.

Spiritually, she has grown into a very confident child of God. She knows God loves her and that Mommy and Daddy love her too. She has become an extremely strong leader, and we can't wait to see how God is going to use that.

We are so proud of our little girl.  We are so thankful that we are the ones God blessed to be her parents.