Hip! Hip! Hooray!

I won this new blog makeover not to long ago and now these are the beautiful results. I would highly recommend www.designerblogsbyerin.blogspot.com. Her button is on my blog now and her work is so cool...if I do say so myself. So, what do you think?

sorry.

So I tell lots of stories about Micah that are either funny or frustrating but rarely do we have a simply sweet moment. He is all boy and that is just that. But recently he has started to understand what saying sorry means. He has been forced to say it for a long time now...to get out of time out. But in the last three days he has injured me somehow accidentally and once I yelp he says "sorry" and then kisses whatever is hurt. Victories like this might be small but I am so excited that Micah is truly learning empathy. Thank you Jesus!

Also sorry that there aren't any pictures. I gotta get them on here.

buck wild boys

I had the bright idea of picking up Hayden from school today because Micah has been begging to play with him. I had a little work to do so we headed to the chicken house. Hayden is helpful to have but also enthuses Micah to a new level of energy. I let them play on the playground while I got food ready and when I went back (I know I am a bad mom but I could see them the whole time, and the chicken house is like home to Micah). When I got back Hayden had helped (aka. lengthened Micah's arms) by dragging him up the playplace. Micah was then at the top and had apparently done his business and didn't want to come down to have his pants changed. I suspected as much so I sent Hayden in to do a smell test. His response told me I was right on. So I threatened, begged, and bribed to no avail. Finally I instructed Hayden to get him down anyway that he could. This was selfish on my part, I was hungry and didn't feel like slithering up the play equipment. So after a few screams I heard Hayden say, hold on to my feet Micah and they both came down the slide. I watched as Micah came headfirst into the turn...and bonked his noggin good. Had there not been an injury there would have been a spankin but the goose egg seemed punishment enough. Then, don't forget the hour before I had gotten us hot food but we still couldn't eat it because we all had to traipse into the bathroom to change Sir Stinky Drawers of Smush. Hayden also needed to go of course with apparently a belt made of steel he came out pants down tighty whitey's up- poop on my hands he was left to stand for all to see and the lady in the bathroom was kind enough to utter the words..."You are doing a good job!" I think she said that because she thought I looked pretty close to the edge of loosing it. After that was lunch (cold but edible), more playing and a trip to find cow hats. The people in the chicken house all looked at me like I had the most terrible children while they stood behind the cow stantion and mooed at incoming customers. I personally found it to be another new marketing strategy! You gotta see the humor in it...I just wanted to record this for the boys future. It really was a fun day but I am betting those that witnessed it would beg to differ. The longer I have a boy the more I see the judgement of others and their behavior. Boys are an all together gift from God but they are also all together different than any other thing on earth. I hope and pray I never forget how my child has acted and been so that I never look at another mom with a condescending look or sly comment. I wanna be the lady in the restroom who encouraged not discouraged no matter how dire the circumstances look.

Author of Salvation

Everyone needs compassion
Love thats never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Anyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Saviour
The hope of nations

Saviour, He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever, Author of Salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave…

So take me as you find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I Surrender I Surrender…


Shine your light and
Let the whole world see
Were singing for the glory
Of the risen King

This was one of the songs we sang in worship today and it perfectly ministered to me in the way that only my Jesus can. It hit me to remind me that if He is indeed the very Author of Salvation then He is the Author of my life and all that is in it. He is in control and is using every situation for His glory. Nothing is happening by accident. That gives me great hope. I also love to read and love the picture it brings of God being the very author of our salvation. No need for a sermon here just wanted to share the song with you. Stuff happens and the details don't really matter in that the Author of Salvation and life itself is doing His thing and I find great joy in that.

coming into our own...

I do my best thinking while rocking Micah (and sometimes myself) to sleep at night. I pray alot and just hash over things while singing the same 3 songs over and over. Last night I got to thinking that as a mom I have become a whole lot less anxious lately. Micah's last bout of sickness was really worrisome but since he's been well things have just flowed. There are a number of reasons why this is the case: we have a playdate friend, Mick has been home alot, Micah has been somewhat compliant, I have spent time with Jesus most days and mainly I think God has just blessed us for His own pleasure. And I have enjoyed it. Most of you know, or could just read the blog and see that I am an anxious person and tend to dictate my mood, etc. by circumstance. Things are still tough circumstantially but God has still been good. One of those things that we wont get til we get to heaven.

As far as Micah and I coming into our own...we really just have. A big part of that is Micah being able to communicate verbally with us. It makes him a much happier boy. He understands punishment better and therefore knows he doesn't want timeout or a spankin' unless the task at hand seems worth that risk. Don't get me wrong we have our days (and due to writing this we will appropriately have one tomorrow) but I thought I wanted to share (or at least record) the blessing. I seem much more suited as a mom to a child this age...I am goofy and that tends to fair well with a toddler. As a baby I constantly worried about every little thing (perhaps due to the first child syndrome, hopefully it will be different with the 2nd) Silly but Micah gets me now! So anyways this is just ramblings of a mom who should be working but prefers to be thinking about her child. Don't worry I don't think he IS the smartest or the cutest in the world. Just the smartest and cutest to ME. And as far as I am concerned that is the way it should be.

Another reason things are going well is that Micah makes me laugh so much that it is hard to be in a bad mood. I wanted to share some of his recent "episodes" to have documented:

~He is really fixated on money. Yikes! Right now it is funny though. He thinks credit cards are money so that should let you know what kind of "money" we spend. So today he says "Momma, money, money, money!"

I told him I didn't have any money that I was poor. (disclaimer: I realize I am no where near poor and probably shouldn't have said that...live n'learn) So anyways, he immediately changes gears and says "Pops, Pops, money, money, money!" The boy has got it figured out!

~A not so bright moment was when I looked up to see Micah tearing a circular piece out of his slice of bread...strange I think...then he proceeds to put the carefully torn piece into his eye, repeating "eye, eye, eye". That is just weird.

~At the mall last week Micah accidentally knocked down a mannequin (I wouldn't usually make excuses but it was a very unstable mannequin that he barely touched) riding a scooter. I proceeded to try to fix it and things went downhill from there. It apparently scarred Micah for an unknown amount of time because since then we have had to answer his "man?" "knocked?" "hurt?" "K?" questions multiple times a day.

~ Bedtime has become a time of chatty cathy to no end. We spend a big chunk of that time right now going over the mannequin incident and affirming that the man is indeed ok. The boy speaks til he drifts off to sleep and usually utters one last "nite nite" while already into sleep.

~ Everything is repeated ad nauseum but for some reason I still find it cute. I know the whole rain man thing will grow old eventually.

~ At night when he is supposed to kiss his Daddy night night he takes my head and points it toward Mick so I kiss him instead of him kissing his Daddy.

~ Two days ago I became Mommy...for weeks, months even I have been Momma, I refer to myself as Momma, but nevertheless I am now Mommy, just ask Micahbird.

~The pictures above are from Micah discovering Elmo on the computer. It is pretty neat and a good 3 minute break for me. If I walk out and watch him from the hall he goes crazy dancing and singing. He can even finish with "Elmo's song" if you do the la las. Also note Lamby watching too. Lamby has to watch everything until I can find someway to put him back in his bed throughout the day. Although he performs, eats and teetees better for our buddy Lamby than he does for real live people!

Ok, ok, enough is enough, I apologize.

I am that Momma, excuse me, Mommy.

The Aquarium is Cool

My little fish charmer. Micah sitting in Jaxson's lap...this is what he did when we asked him to sit next to Jaxson.

Look what I see Momma!

Micah loved staring at the many fish.

The boys on the rocks.

WOW! Taron did a good job of catching the beluga whale.

Family pic with the beluga's

Me and my birdy

Jax and Micah

Dadgumit...they will not look at the same time.

Wait...yes they will...but they wont smile.

Micah does not love the costumed anybody.

Beady eyed Micah with the beady eyed fish.
Micah getting very sleepy!

Today we went to the Ga. Aquarium for the first time with the Wallace's. It was a really fun trip but for the gazillion people that had the same idea as us. We forked out the big bucks for annual passes instead of going out of town for mlk. We are really excited about going again and again. Micah loved the pish and didn't want to leave any exhibit we went to. Our time was cut short because Mick's parents called to inform us of a busted pipe that flooded our garage and yard. Thankfully God was watching over us and saw fit to spare us from damaging the inside of the house AND Mick's parents just happened to be dropping something off and saved us from much more potential damage. Thank you Jesus! We took a ton of pics today and probably half of them were not so good. But here are some that I like. If this were Mick's blog there would be ones of fish. But it isn't so if you want to see the fish, go to the aquarium:)

First Trip to the Library

Brrr...it is cold outside these days!
The cart...

On Friday I introduced Micah to the local library. We were on the lookout for some books suggested to us about garbagemen but I discovered it is hard to look for books while also maintaining "library code behavior" with my bird. So we read a book on motorcycles and tractors then got out of there. I use the term read loosely since Micah really just wanted to run around and bang on computers or hijack book carts. Oh well, maybe one day I will have a little reader like myself...

My life = one beautiful mess.

I worked alot this week so Micah spent time at his desk in my office while I worked on the computer. He found some beads and I thought, what the hey, I'll let the kid live a little. This mess is what I got. But that is my life, ya know, messy...but beautiful to me.

sghetti and the hubby...

So I am sure everyone has pictures of their child eating spaghetti and they all look the same. But these are of my child and I thought they were so cute.

On another note my dear sweet husband is the one who took the pictures. I wanted pictures but we were in the middle of dinner and I didn't want to have to go back up stairs to get the camera...and I was starving. But Mick went and got it and took the pictures. I know, thanks for the play by play...but I say all this b/c Mick and I are doing the "lovedare" book and I am fulfilling todays dare on the blog. Today we are supposed to let our spouse know someway special that we cherish them. I thought why not do it some place public in a place where I might usually be a little harder on him than encouraging. So all this to say I have a great husband who supports me so well. He does the little things like going to get the camera and giving Micah a bath. AND I could not deal with all the stink that has been going on without him by my side telling me he's got my back. So hopefully Mick reads this before baseball or else I have failed the dare technically.

(fyi: the love dare is from the movie fireproof, which we haven't seen so i am not endorsing it specifically, if you were curious).

Sorry for minding my business for you to read but I had to find another outlet:) Thanks in advance for understanding. Stay tuned for husband bashing tomorrow. Just teasing! I love you Mick!

no stinkin' way!

I never win anything. Seriously the only time I ever won anything was when I was pregnant. Micah apparently is the lucky one not me. But today I look on my blog and I won a free blog makeover. Oh how I need it so...thanks to Beth who put it on her blog. Sorry that you didn't win, but not sorry that I did! And check out designer blogs by erin that I mentioned before. Stay tuned for a new look...yeah I am so excited!

bad hair day worsens...

Micah was having a bad hair day when he woke up this morning. But jumping on the trampoline definitely took it to a new level. Just thought I'd share some fun and sunshine. Poor kid got a trampoline and it has been so rainy that all he gets to do is look at it from the window. But the sun was shining so we headed out to jump. Then Micah showed more interest in uprooting Mick's moodlighting under the trampoline for night jumping than he did for actually jumping on the thing. I had to beg him to get on, but after a while I had to DRAG him off. Fun, fun...

peanut butter and the blues...

I let Micah try the pb in the pb&j finally. Because Mick was a little allergy boy growing up I have tried to protect Micahbird. But his menu keeps seeming limited and mundane so I thought we'd go ahead and jazz it up yesterday with some peanut butter. Micah actually loves butter, although he rarely gets it. But anytime he sees it he goes crazy begging for it. So when i mentioned he could eat some peanut butter all he heard was BUTTER! He was so excited and I was a little worried the lack of transfats in comparison would dissapoint him...but oh no he loves both butters and I am excited to add sandwiches to his lunchtime meals.

As far as the blues go I will keep that issue vague. Those of you who know me know that I am real to a fault and I find it hard to hide things or to "be vague". But in effort to keep some privacy I will just ask that you pray for my sister, me and my family. There are still hard things going on and I am continuing to be reminded that satan wants to use any situation to tear families apart but God is the ultimate healer and I know He's got bigger plans. Keep praying and I can't wait to share with you when He does His thing in different areas of my life! I keep promising Him to give Him all the glory, if He would just do what I want already! ( I know He doesn't work like that...but I thought I would be honest...)

fun new design...

you can enter here to win a new blog design. Hope I win, or maybe you!
www.designerblogsbyerin.blogspot.com
More posts coming...

the garbage man!

Micah loves to watch the garbage man on Wed. from upstairs. He us simply amazed at their truck, the fact they get to ride on the side and that they get to smash things.

He just loves to stand and wait for it and then watch them do their thing...but he gets very upset when they leave.and this is just a random one of us!

Micah has been feeling better the last couple of days. Unfortunately as always after he has been sick, discipline is much harder. His new thing is no, no, no. It is his favorite word and while he sometimes understands what it means other times he does not. Today after doing some work with me we were on our way to the chicken house and we had this conversation:

me: Micah, do you want to go to "chickchick"?

micah: no

me: Do you wanna eat chick chick?(his favorite food)

micah: no

me: Do you wanna go see Daddy? (usually a surefire smile and yes)

micah: no

me: Micah, do you want Ice Cream? (in a singsong voice)

micah: no

me: (I am really thinking now and just a bit frustrated...so I sarcastically say...) Micah, do you want a million dollars?

micah: a million dollars? (big smile) YES!

Apparently we have introduced greed at a young age. I have never even said those words to him before and he thinks he wants it...hmmmm.

Oh the praying I need to be doing...

potty talk

Those of you who know me well, know that potty talk isn't off limits for this girl. I have stomach issues and I am not afraid to voice it. I think I had to tell Mick on our second date, because I had to "go, go" before the date was over. Luckily with a boy that talk just comes naturally and Micah is no exception. Anytime someone(aka Mick) ((those that know me know that I don't poot,its too much of a gamble, sorry to those I have already grossed out...) poots or burps he immediately repeats "poot poot" then giggles. It has reinforced this action by us laughing, but you just can't help it. So last night Mick and I are sitting in bed doing our devotion and Micah had been kicking around in his bed for an hour not going to sleep. All of the sudden he gets real quiet, lets a big toot fly and then we hear him say "poot, poot" and laugh. Then not another sound, apparently the gas was keeping him awake and all was relieved after his loud toot.

back to reality.

So Mick headed back to school today and left me sick with a sick baby. What a smack in the face way to enter back into the real world. Seriously, I am SO thankful that we stayed semi-well over the holiday's that being sick right now is ok I guess. I prayed specifically that God would keep Micah and I well for Christmas because last year was so bad. (Like I said I prayed specifically and left Mick out because he never gets sick...opps...except when I don't pray for him) But other than Mick being sick we had a great break with lots of family time, showering somewhat independently and getting to eat meals with both hands every now and again. But we are back to the land of mommy and me and Micah and I did it up right. I have been fighting a sore throat and Micah has been running a low grade fever. Then today in honor of Mick going back to school he really started to burn up. We ended up at the dr office where they say he has a viral throat infection. It is viral now and no need for antibiotics, but in a week if he isn't better it will be bacterial. I think that is how they work it these days. I truly don't know how you can just tell the difference by looking. I guess that is what they went to school for, huh? I am not knocking the dr it just seems like you never get a definite answer as to what is wrong with your child these days. It is just hard for a Momma not to be able to do anything. But then on the otherhand it isn't strep throat so it will just work itself out, so if it really is then I am oh so glad. Time will tell though...

The picture of Micah is from a few days ago. He refused to take the swimmies off to slide or get in the car for that matter. It has nothing to do with today but I find it hard to post without a picture.

Happy Birthday Bay!

Bay with the microphone refusing to sing. A shocker to those who know her well.
April and I, it would appear that I woke up about 5 minutes before we got there, hello bags under the eyes! Oh well, April looks cute!
The boys, Mick was exceptionally excited to be there...I did fix Micah's hair at the hair do table so he didn't feel left out!


Some of the girls and the American Doll Bay got for her birthday.

Bay struttin it. She was surprisingly reserved.

Today is our niece Bay's 6th birthday. This was the first year that she had a real friend birthday and notsomuch the family kind. It was time for it but it is so hard to see her grow up so quickly. She had a "Rock Star" Party at a local girls store and we stopped by to see part of the festivities, it definitely wasn't a place for men or boys. They did the girls makeup and hair and then had them dance, sing and walk the runway. The runway was definitely my favorite; watching the little girls strut their stuff, then strike a pose just made me crack up. It also made me want to have the same birthday party for myself and my friends! I would have loved that when I was little, but I would definitely love it now!

She's Got What I Want

I am really close to my Great Aunt Dot on my dad's side. She can pretty much outrun, outthink, and outdo me at the ripe age of 85 or more. Aunt Dot stopped by two days ago and wanted to see Micah jump. Micah loves Dot and he kept saying "Dot, Jump, Dot, Jump!" The next thing I knew I turned around and there was Aunt Dot jumping on the trampoline! She is not a woman to argue with so I just encouraged her to be careful. Micah thought it was the greatest thing ever for his Dot to be on the trampoline with him. Thought some of you would want to see proof of this. I think we can safely say she will be our oldest jumper. When Mick questioned her about getting up there she did comment that she still cleans out her own gutters...what's a little trampoline jumping? I hope to have half of what she's got when I am her age!

Happy New Year to You!

Micah and the new love of his life, Sunny!
All the kiddos' in the garage. I couldn't get them all to stand still.

Micah on a date, at his new table.

Christian, Micah and Sunny.

Me, April, Alison and Taron

I love these girls so much!

Well I will have to say for the most part I am not sad to see this year go. There have been good and bad things in it but God has used it all for His glory. I look forward to seeing the things that haven't worked themselves out fully for His glory(that I can see) to do so in 2009 that is for sure. Micah has come into his own this year and I can't believe he is closer now to 2 than 1. He isn't a baby anymore and we aren't new parents...which gives us less room for error, right? As I sat last night rocking Micah to sleep (far too late) I thought about how blessed we really are and all that we have gained this year in blessings. Even though there are some circumstances that kind of stink our lives are still stinkin' good if I really sit down and think.

We had 3 sets of families over last night for New Year's and it was really a picture of what God has given us. Most important to me in life is relationship. Relationship with Jesus first and through Him I have been given really special relationships with others. My husband and baby boy and then dear friendships with women. I know on more than one occasion I have lamented on the lack of real relationship with women and how hard it is to make friends once you "grow up" . But after the doors were locked and things cleaned up I realized that the 3 families that came over last night were all relatively speaking "new" friendships that all meet a need within my heart as well as feel like kindred spirits in different areas of my life. What a great God to give us all that we need and more...just like He promises.

The blog world too has enabled me to be in contact with so many more of my "heart friends" that know and see my heart and love me anyways! So thanks to you as well and I can't wait to see what God has in this New Year for all of us!

Sad Sidenote:

I hate to even type this but I figure it is a milestone to record. A much dreaded milestone, but one nonetheless. Micah became the kid that I had hoped he would never be. "The biter"! Yep he had been so much better about not biting me when he was being disciplined. But when he was somewhat unsupervised (aka: Mick was in charge) he got upset with his buddy Jaxson and bit his hand. Now I know how painful this is so I welled up with tears and definitely let Micah have it, then to timeout he went and then to timeout again with Mick. He wasn't real sure what had hit him, but boy he knew it wasn't good. He cried more than Jax and that was our main mission. I felt terrible and still do. I seriously almost cry just thinking about the fact that he did that. You know those 3 friends I was so thankful for you can probably make it 2 after this little incident. Just teasing the Wallace's handled it well and I hope to act as gracefully as they do when something happens to Micah. At least I am learning more and more not to judge, lest you (and your wild banchee) be judged also.

First Dentist Visit

Soo big!
Checking out his new tooth brush, not as cool as the one Jenny got him that lights up!

We started our dentist's visits early with Micah because he has a messed up grill and we were a little concerned about it. Plus his dentist is an old high school friends of Mick's and has the greatest staff I have ever seen. So we took Micah yesterday and he did pretty well. Basically it consisted of sitting in the chair with me and letting the lady brush his teeth. The only traumatic part was letting the dentist look at everything. Turns out his grill IS messed up, in fact two of his teeth are fused together. It is some weird genetic hiccup and shouldn't cause too much of a problem since they are his baby teeth. He said it most likely wont happen with his big boy teeth. I sure hope not since he said things like root canal, etc. Micah loved all of the attention and combined Doctor Turner to say "DocTurner" really well. We need to video him talking because it is insane how much he talks. I guess he gets it honest, right?