Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving...a few days late...from the West Coast Wagners!

We've been gallivanting around the Midwest the past week and had a wonderful time visiting Mr. Wagner's side of our family. It had been a few years since the last time the Wagner siblings and their families were all home at the same time.

There are now five grandchildren in the family. Little Owen holds his own with all these girls!
Mr. Wagner also has a lot of extended family in the area so we were able to enjoy several get-togethers with everyone. I always leave the Midwest feeling so blessed to be part of such a strong God-fearing family!

We're still recovering from our early morning hour return so I'll have to write more about our visit later. For now, we'll leave you these photos that Mr. Wagner's cousin took while we were there (Thanks a bunch Ken!).

Afternoon Tea with the Ladies

The Little Miss and Yours Truly enjoyed a nice "afternoon tea" with our dear friends Mel, Joani and baby Allison. We started off with Raspberry Sorbet and then were served delicious scones with clotted cream, lemon curd and homemade jam. The tasty tea time was topped off by a tower of treats including an assortment of finger sandwiches, vegetable tartlets, and sweets. I enjoyed a steaming pot of Cinnamon Spiced tea while the Little Miss had "Warm Chocolate" (she corrects me when I ask if she wants "hot" chocolate).

Dressed for the occasion

Lovely time with the ladies: Joani, baby Alli, and Mel

Notice the "dainty" bites...please don't tell Miss Manners

I love that the Little Miss enjoys tea time and am looking forward to sharing many more tea parties with our girl and good friends. We're still working on convincing Mr. Wagner that he should join us. I have not doubt that after seeing pictures of the tasty treats, even our Mr. could easily be tempted to join us at the tea house (though we may be sworn to secrecy if he does!).

You Go Girl!

One of my project managers from work was selected to appear on a mere little show called Oprah a couple of weeks ago. The show aired today and I have to say, I'm still smiling inside when I think of how courageous Melanie had to be. So proud of her! I told her to enjoy her 15 minutes of fame this week because it's back to reality come next Monday. Melanie got to fly to LA and then to Chicago for the taping all while I was locked in a stuffy classroom for a week studying for my PMP exam!!!! Not that I'm bitter or anything...

Melanie is the one in black next to...oh I forget...who is that lady in the yellow sweater?

Photo "courtesy" of Oprah.com

Celebrating Orange & Black Day

We are spoiled with the Booth family living just a block from us. Granted it's only temporarily while they build their new home, but for now, we're taking advantage of the close proximity! We all had fun this morning when we rode our bikes downtown with the kiddos in tow. Of course it wasn't all about getting exercise; our real goal was to find breakfast!
After refueling at Starbucks, with the Little Miss all bundled up in her Lady Bug costume (another cute Sophie hand-me-down!), we rode our bikes over to watch the OSU Homecoming parade. What better way to celebrate the day, Orange and Black in every way!

Go Beavers!

A Special Treat at the Pumpkin Patch

Thanks for being patient Dear Readers, the West Coast Wagners are back! It was tough but our family survived the week apart (a huge thank you goes out to Grandma Wagner for coming out to help. Little Miss loved playing with her BFF!).

Now that life is settling back to normal, we took advantage of a beautiful Fall day and made our annual family trip to a local pumpkin patch. We enjoyed steaming hot apple cider and homemade doughnuts while we waited for the hay ride to begin.

An old John Deere tractor took us out to the pumpkin patch where the Little Miss found the perfect little pumpkin.

The highlight of our trip wasn't that cute pumpkin though. The real excitement started when our girl got invited to drive the big green Deere! She wasn't too sure at first but settled in when she realized that her daddy would get to drive it with her. The other 15+ people on the hay ride weren't certain about a three year-old driving but they soon realized that the Wagner family has a lot of talent when it comes to driving farm equipment!

It's hard to say who was more excited after the tractor ride, our girl or her daddy. I'd say it was pretty much a toss-up because they were both beaming!

One thing I know for certain, these two sure do make this mommy proud!

Stay Tuned

Sorry to be so absent in blogsphere lately! Yours Truly has been putting in extra hours at work in addition to studying for a big test next week. I'm starting to feel like I'm back in grad school (but am praising the Lord that I'm really not!). Good news is that this is only a temporary state and life should return to "normal" after next week. We are looking forward to a week-long visit from Grandma (aka, Mr. Wagner's Mom) starting this weekend. I'll be away at a class most of the time she's here but I know the Little Miss is super excited for her BFF and favorite playmate to arrive!

Stay tuned for more after next week...In the meantime, please feel free to pray for this emotional-wreck-of-a-mama if you think of it! I'm so not looking forward to being away from my fam for so long. I have no doubt that Mr. Wagner will do just fine caring for our girl and it's an extra blessing to know Grandma will also be around to lend a hand. Still, the hotel better have a lot of extra Kleenex boxes available for my room!

A Little Roadtrip

While Mr. Wagner is enjoying TAWG and the fellowship, teaching and high-cholesterol producing food at a men's retreat here...

The Little Miss and I made the road trip down to visit Nana. A visit to this end of the state is never complete without a drive through the lovely, quaint town of Jacksonville (seriously one of the cutest towns ever). We also made sure to eat lunch at our favorite Ashland eatery in Papa's honor.

Hope Mr. Wagner is learning a lot at the retreat because I'm working hard parenting our girl alone. She is such a handful (OK, so those of you who know her recognize that I'm exaggerating just a weeeeee bit...Come on, I'm going for the sympathy vote here people!).