Our First Christmas Program!

Maggie had a Christmas Program - actually the school called it a "Holiday Program" because they must not offend those who don't celebrate Christmas; however, in the Krenek Home we celebrate Christmas so as far as we are concerned it was a Christmas program. When the teachers first mentioned the program to us I was delighted that they would involve the babies and could not imagine what they would do other than sit and look precious while the older kids sang. And of course, that is exactly what went down. Maggie's part lasted a mere 60-seconds. But it was 60 seconds of pure pride and joy for Michael and I as we watched our precious MagB in her first "production." And, yes, I even teared up some. Right now it's hard to tell if Mags will live out my dream of performing on Broadway. But we (o.k., me) are certainly going to steer her in that direction.

Here is the production - in almost its entirety:

So, how cute was that? And do you love that they sang a song about Dreidels! Our little girl is going to be so multicultural!

Mags had on reindeer antlers when she first came out and by the time the program started they were long gone. Lucky for you all, we were able to get some shots of our little red-nosed reindeer! Just Precious! And even luckier for y'all - the school sent us home with them when we inquired where we could procure such antlers for our own enjoyment!

Right after this picture was snapped MagB proceeded to yank the Santa hat off of the boy next to her!

As a last note - in lieu of Christmas Cards, this year we will be mailing out birth announcements which have been sitting addressed, just waiting for stamps, for 3 months now. Better late than never and at this rate it would be June before I got a Christmas Card sent. We do love you all and wish you the very merriest of Christmases and much love and joy in the new year!

Our Bundle of Joy!

Last weekend marked the first of several family Christmases we have lined up between now and, well, Christmas! This particular weekend we celebrated with the Amyx clan (my mom' s side of the family). We had a great time with aunts, uncles, cousins and, of course, grandpa. Highlighting the event was the annual gift exchange. Now this is no ordinary gift exchange - then again, this is no ordinary family. With this gift exchange you never know what you'll end up with. My first gift was a camouflage Master Lock pad lock ( I suppose that is somewhat practical.) Then that was stolen from me and I ended up with a darling snowman mug with various hot chocolate mixes. And then that was stolen from me. In the end I ended up with a 4' long stuffed snake and hand warmers. Michael scored Whataburger gift certificates.

Here are a few pictures Mimi took at the festivities:


Our little bundle of joy!


Mom requires a picture of all families in front of the tree. Here is the Krenek's first family Christmas picture. Notice no smiles from our usual jubilant MagB. She is all smiles until she sees the red light of an impending camera flash and then it's this look. Until the flash is over and then it's all smiles again!

Here is Mags and me with my Grandpa. Apparently Gramps has the same camera flash aversion!

Laurie, Jay and the boys:

Karrie, Matt, Tatum and Taylor:

And then of course the entire gang!

Looking forward to this weekend when we celebrate with the Nances. Love and much joy to all this holiday season!

Our First Refrigerator Art!

For Thanksgiving Maggie's teachers had the kiddos do an art project to send home to the parents. This is our first (of many to be sure) hand turkeys to don the refrigerator! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to see just how they were able to pry her little hand open to get such a perfect turkey. I love that the teachers' even attempted this with the little guys!


Michael usually gets the fun job of picking Maggie up from school. (While I get the un-fun task of dropping her off!) Really, it's o.k. since he is usually able to pick her up around 4 p.m. thus shortening her stay at school. Anyhoo, they have their little routine which usually consists of a walk around the park while mommy is on her way home. Michael snapped this picture of MagB yesterday after he bundled her all up for their walk.

In other news: Maggie is cutting her first tooth! The top part of one of her bottom teeth has broken through the gums! Looks like the gummy grin's days are numbered.

Love to all!

Five Months Old!

It's so hard to believe our MagB is five months old today! Seems like just yesterday we were bringing her tiny and fragile self home wondering when in the world her parents were going to come pick her up because she couldn't possibly be ours. But lucky us! She is all ours and the past five months have been filled with more love, joy, happiness and laughter than we could have possibly ever imagined because of our precious angel face. She is so much a part of us now that it's as if she's always been here with us. I tear up just thinking about how lucky and blessed we are to have been chosen as Maggie's parents. And I pray daily that we can live up to all that she deserves! We love you, little sweet pea!

As you can see from the pictures below, she is growing like a weed! It's hard to keep her in clothes right now, she is growing so fast. Really, I will put an outfit on her one week and the next week it's too small! Her hair is also growing out of control as you can see by the rogue curl over her left ear!




This picture totally cracks me up. Her hair here is very "Elvis meets Flock of Sea Gulls!" Thank you. Thank you very much!

Like any good COC of repute, our church did a "Baby Blessing Sunday" recently. (They actually do several through out the year because there are so many babies born there!) It goes something like this: all the new babies and parents go up front while a slide show of baby pictures runs in the back ground and the congregation sings "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and then the Elders come up and surround the group and pray for the babies and their parents. It's actually a pretty cool thing. Here's a picture of the group up front. You can see Michael there in the back and you can barely see Maggie's pink little dress there next to him.

And here she is all dolled up for the event!

This was the week I battled Round 1 of a nasty sinus infection as you can see by my bright red nose! (Why yes Santa, I will guide your sleigh tonight!)

That' s all for now...Love to all!

Pray for Ethan

As I visit other blogs I often like to visit the blogs those folks like to frequent. One in particular has shown up on several friends' links and I have come to visit it almost daily. Today I feel compelled to share it with you. It's www.ethanpowell.com. Now I do not know this family from Adam, but I know they need our prayers and it's been heavy on my heart today. Please pray for this family and their precious boy.

Love to all.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all! As you can see, our MagB is Princess Leia for Halloween and despite the look on her face she had a fabulous time at the Halloween Carnival at mimi and papa's church on Sunday. Here are some more pics.

Now I don't know about you. but when I see this costume I see Princess Leia right off the bat. However, not one, but two people at the carnival thought Maggie was a ram. Huh?! Do rams wear dresses? I think not.

Here is a pic of Mags sporting her new jeans.

It's hard to believe Maggie is 4 months old now. She really is getting so big. She has rolled over a few times and really enjoys her tummy time. She weighted 15 lbs. 3 oz. at the doc on Friday and is 26 inches long. She remains in the 97th percentile for height and the 90th percentile for weight. What a big, sweet girl!

Love to all!

A Pumpkin for the Punkin!

We spent last weekend in Brownwood with Michael's dad and sister. Saturday Meredith and I took advantage of the fabulous fall-like weather and took Maggie to a local pumpkin patch for pictures. She tolerated the excursion - which meant she went along with the silliness but protested with absolutely no smiles. (You can make me lay here for the pictures but you can't make me smile. a-ha!)

Really mom, on top of the pumpkins?

After we finished with the pictures a young man who worked at the pumpkin patch - obviously enchanted with the cuteness that is Miss MagB - came up with a small pumpkin and asked if the Punkin needed a Pumpkin. Well of course she does. Here's the punkin with her pumpkin (still protesting the strange orange orb with no smiles).

The next few pics are just some random ones taken over the last few weeks. Now, normally I am not a fan of the baby accessory I like to call the brain squisher. Us thick-haired types say leave those to the baldies who need gender identification. However, Maggie received a cute outfit from a neighbor that came with a matching BS (brain squisher) so I thought, what the heck, let's try it. And, I must say - pretty darn cute!

This next picture captures one of my very favorite faces (second only to her huge gummy grin!)that Maggie often likes to sport. I call it the squishy face. Usually she reserves this face for waking up time. It's a sweet, groggy, I'm awake but not sure I want to stay that way face.

Here's Mags with her forever-wet chin. I expect a colony of mushrooms or other moisture-loving fungi to sprout up any time. What is it with the drool? (Though it does make for some good slobbery kisses!)

Here is more sweet squishy face. It's hard, tiring work being Magb.

Love and squishy faces to all!

Our Weekend at Mimi & Papa's House

The Aggies had a late game Saturday so while Michael headed to College Station, Maggie and I headed to Mimi and Papa's for her first sleepover there. We had a really good time playing with aunts and cousins, cheering on OU and the Aggies and being spoiled rotten by Mimi & Papa! Here are a couple of pictures Mimi took before church on Sunday. And speaking of church on Sunday, MagB was a hit at the Lakeside COC. Of course, we think she's a hit wherever she goes.

Mommy and Maggie

Maggie with Mimi and Papa

Today is Columbus Day and Maggie and I have the day off! Hope you all have a great week! We love you all.

There's a Light at the End of this Tunnel...

Well tomorrow is the day I have been dreading for 12 weeks now. The day I have to go back to work. Today - surprisingly enough - I have been o.k. Yesterday as I was driving to a doctor's appointment and the tears came, I prayed again that God would give me the strength and the courage to face this day and as I listened to the radio I prayed specifically that He would provide me some comfort in the form of a song. And this song "Tunnel" (by Third Day, I think) came on and the chorus was "There's a light at the end of this tunnel, there's a light at the end of this tunnel for you, for you." Is God amazing or what? This song provided so much comfort to me. Yes, tomorrow is going to be hard - it's going to suck actually - but at the end of the day I know that Michael and I and Maggie will get through it. There is a light at the end of this tunnel.

So today - a day I thought I would spend in tears - has been o.k. And it's totally a God thing. Every time my mind has gone to the task we face tomorrow that chorus starts running through my head reminding me that while it's going to be a tough few days - it won't last forever. Thank you God! And thank you all for your prayers - they have really helped!

Today I took Maggie to get some professional pictures done. Here are a few of the proofs. She did really well until the third outfit change and then she was having no more of this bright light flashing in her face!




I love this one of her on her tummy!

My friend, Tanya, made this darling feather wreath for one of my showers so I took it to the studio thinking that surely it could be used as a prop somehow! Here is the resulting picture. What you will not see is the resulting rash that Maggie developed after being encircled by all these pink feathers.

This was the only one in her third outfit that we could get with a smile. She does look darling all the same!

Love to all. Keep those prayers coming! We'll need them tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Logan!

Maggie attended her first birthday party on Saturday celebrating her cousin Logan's first birthday. She had a great time and was completely worn out by the time we got home. She slept the rest of the afternoon and in the process must have gotten her days and nights mixed up as we have not had a good night of sleep since the party. Mommy is tired.

This is my last full week with Maggie before I have to go back to work. I am trying not to think about it too much because when I think about it I start bawling like a baby and - as I have mentioned before - I get really short of breath and, well, it's just not good. I have been praying for some time that God will give me the strength and courage and whatever else it's going to take to leave my little MagB at daycare. Please keep me in your prayers as the dreaded day is quickly approaching.

Now back to a lighter note - here are some recent pics of Maggie:

Here's Mags all gussied up for the party. One must-have accessory this season is the bib as MagB has become quite the slobber monster. Really. I expect a tooth to pop up at any time.




Here is cousin Logan with his birthday cake. At first he was not too sure about the tasty confection before him...

...But then he decided that cake is good. (And cookies too, as you can see at Laurie's blog at http://www.lauriesthreesons.blogspot.com/)

Oh, and you can't just sport any old bib - it has to make a statement. Mags would like the world to know that she loves her daddy!

And from the looks of things here, the feeling is quite mutual! These were taken after church on Sunday.

Maggie made some new friends at the birthday party. Here she is with Paige and Paige's mommy Tanya - one of my dearest friends. Paige turns two next month.

Love to all!