Valentine's Day Party

ahh...the apple goose, boy loves it.
Checking out the loot!

These are in reverse so he is waiting patiently to see what is in his bag!

Getting ready to say the blessing with Mrs. Mann. Love her!!

We segregated the tables...boys and girls. Which was funny because Micah's bff's in the class are two of the girls.

Micah had his first exchanging of the Valentine's at school this week. He didn't quite know what was going to happen but he knew it was super exciting! I was in charge of this party with another mom from the class and I had fun getting goody bags and things for the party...the whole thing is a bit funny because the kids are 2 and a half so they really could care less! I can't imagine how serious this party throwing gets as they get older. Too much pressure for me, we'll definitely have to homeschool:) Mrs. Mann as always does everything so well and she sent the kids pictures to put on their Valentine's and then each kiddos bag had a picture of them on it so they kids could distribute by matching pictures. Micah did pretty good with it, but the kids kept trying to move their bags and take them with them which posed a problem even for the mom's in locating the correct one!

birdisms...

Micah tries my patience quite often...but even more than that he delights me and cracks me up! Over the last few days I have thought to myself that I need to record a few, so here they are:

~On the way to preschool when I was little Mrs. Julie, my neighbors mom and carpooler would have us memorize scripture for Dairy Queen as incentives. I have been trying it with Micah lately but so far, not so good...I know, he's 2 and a half so maybe next year most likely. Anyways, I was shortening my favorite verse for him to learn, Romans 8:28. So I said "God works for the good" Micah can you repeat that? Micah says, "Did you know God also works for gummies?" No, I did not.

~We've tried to pull away a bit from our dear Taylor Swift in the car. I can only take so much of my "usedtobe" favorite artist. Francesca Batastelli is my favorite and we just got Mick a new cd that he loves. Today we are playing with SayJ's little microphone and piano thing and it starts to play a kids song...Micah asks which one, I tell him I think it is "If all of the raindrops were ..." He says "No, Mommy that is the Zac Brown Band playing. Seriously.

~ I wouldn't neccesarily recommend the ZBB for two year olds. There isn't a lot of eternal value in it, ok none really but it isn't short on cuss words. Anyways, Mick likes it and Micah does too. It is humorous to hear your child sing "sic'em on a chicken" but it wont be humorous to hear him repeat ugly language. So I had asked Mick to turn it off on the way to church but he just put it on something more wholesome "Chicken Fried"...as we exit our car, in the Baptist parking lot Micah screams "cold beer on a Friday night" I think we are back to T. Swifty.

~ Since we are discussing ugly words today Micah was stalling at nap time and slamming the door. All of the sudden he slams it and screams "Dang it!" I said, what did you say? and sure enough he'd said that. Where that came from I really don't know...the boy used it in context though...

~While getting ready for a FCA Coaches dinner tonight I told Micah he would be staying with Nana and that we would be going to have someone teach us more about Jesus. An hour later Micah looks at me and says, "I don't want to stay with Nana, I want to go hear from God" Yeah, me too, Bird, me too.

Happy Birthday Budda!

My Dad's birthday was Sunday and we had them over for dinner Monday night. Micah and I baked a cake and Hayden and Micah helped Budda blow out his candles. Sadie Jane was a little scared of the fire. Happy Birthday Budda! We love you!

God's Purpose for Friendship.

Rough picture from the Super Bowl with all the Girls! Can you see the pain in my eyes...this was postmigraine??

Uncle Justin with SayJ...she LOVES him so!!


I have been thinking on this post for a while. God gives us so much in the gift of friendship. I am so thankful for each of my friends...so much that most are each my BEST friend for a different reason. God seems to use each of them to teach me something different. As my time with friends has grown limited God shows me more and more through friends even in the little amount of time I have to devote to them. For example we went to one of my best friend April's house for the Super Bowl and it got me thinking how things had changed so much just in our five years or so of friendship. I wanted to share honestly about it because I know so many people are somewhere on this continuum. When we met April and Justin in Sunday School class their kiddos were 2 and 3. Mick and I were just married but a little bit older than they were (ok, Mick alot) but the kids balanced our ages out. I can remember having them over, with their kids and after they left Mick and I would discuss what we'd do differently with our kids. Christian, the oldest, was quite rambunctious and I even thought a little out of control at times. I would smile politely at April and then give Mick the look, like "they really need to do something with him". To be fair to them, they were disciplining him throughout this time I just didn't realize at the time that it is an ongoing process:) Oh boy, I thought I'd read enough books and taught a few years of school so I really new best:) Thankfully April loved me even though I am sure she sinced my judgemental criticism sinfulness. Little did I know that God would place a very similar even more rambunctious boy under my own care a few years later. I've since come clean with April about my thoughts and she has shrugged and laughed it off because she said she knows it is hard for anyone to understand until they are faced with something similar of their own. Thankfully our children have inevitably brought us closer rather than farther apart. Had I let my misunderstanding hinder our friendship or if April had simply grown impatient with my lack thereof we would not have the friendship we have...I can say the same for many of my other relationships as well. Since having Micah, April has graciously given me guidance and I have been able to watch both of her children come to know our Jesus and be baptized!! So apparently she was doing something right! My judgement has turned into awe and God has used our friendship to refine me in many ways. Now that I am the one with the ball of energy I can both appreciate what others are going through and repent for my judgemental nature. I know each of us thinks that we "know best" but let me be the first to say sometimes we are just wrong...
So as we sat at the Super Bowl a few nights ago I thanked God for friends that ebb and flow through our ever changing seasons and I grinned as April's two entertained my two. And when Micah banged a heavy object on their brand new hardwoods I am pretty sure I saw April give Justin that "they really need to do something with him look"...but hey, I understand.

Due to past misconceptions I will clarify that I never for once thought April wasn't a great momma and I am grossly misrepresenting that her childrens' behavior was a make or break deal factor in our friendship. I find it hard to find a child that I can't see some piece of who God is in them but I am just striving to remind us all, especially me, that everyone parents differently and what works for you might not work for me....and then again it might be just the thing. Either way it is between us and our Jesus the way we ultimately "bring them up". We can offer and seek advice but ultimately our Creator is the one who truly knows best and who guides us to those friends to help us through each new season. Here's to friendship!

Just Jump!!

Seriously funny stuff. Blogging has taken a backseat to a stressful week and my lovely first migraine and Sadie Jane's first ear infection. Thankfully while I had a stressful week and little to no husband to speak of he came home twenty minutes after my migraine started! Our weekend was spent mostly in our pj's as we just hung out as a family and tried to recuperate. Micah insisted we get out his jumpy thing for Sadie Jane to play in and proceeded to then get in it himself. It was hilarious watching this big ole boy jump in his baby thing. Needless to say it didn't quite work the same afterward for SayJ...which is why she is riding so low! I couldn't resist a picture of her "hammy's" which is our endearing term for her thighs...hamhocks shortened to hammy's!

Cereal...not Cheerios.

Way more cereal on the outside than the inside.

ahhh...here he comes with another bite!!

Sadie Jane's one visible eye says it all...it's like she is annoyed yet understands it is her brother's way...

Back atcha Momma!

Trying again...taken by Micahbird.

Micah insisted on trying it and insisted it tasted good. But did not want another bite:)

Sadie Jane went for her four month check up yesterday and is doing really well. She is 16 pounds and 24 inches tall. She is still in the 95th percentile for her weight but only the 50th for her heigth:) Today we started cereal in hopes to help with the reflux and to possibly curb her ravenous appetite. Girl loves to eat every three hours and sometimes I would like a little break as her constant snack bar. True to form she didn't really know what to do and even with Micah helping shovel some in, she still just smiled and did her best. I hope she continues that way, it is a good characteristic. One I don't think she got from her Momma...
I know you are all tired of my pityparty posts so I will just leave it for the record books today that it had been a doozy. satan is alive and well and I want him to just get out of my house. In the Bible study I am doing it talks about often times us blaming hard situations on God putting us through something to teach us something...but it could possibly be Him allowing satan to try us and not actually God at all. So while God is teaching me things through circumstance I have to acknowledge (and rebuke) satan trying to gain a foothold by tempting me to focus on what isn't going well. Instead of what is...
like this beautiful cereal eating girl!

Making Daddy Proud...PREseason Breakdown.

Today has been another one of those hard, difficult, what in the world days. I am so dissappointed in myself and my lack of patience and my emotional status. Today is the start of tryouts for baseball and the beginning of single parenting two children. I'm not knocking Mick. We are thankful that he provides for us while getting to do something he loves. And we are increasingly enjoying his coaching because of Micah's involvement. BUT that doesn't change the fact that 14-18 year old boys get to see our Daddy more than we do for this season. Boo hiss. I usually have a breakdown about mid way through the season. Instead I apparently am starting preseason now that we have two babies. I have been working for almost a month now just a measley ten hours a week, but it is growing to be an increasingly difficult thing to do. Well, not neccesarily the work itself, but the juggling act of constantly feeling guilty about neglecting child, job or husband. I rarely get to talk to Sadie Jane and Micah prefers the television over me alot of the time. Yuck! Today he wanted me to play with him and I had just finished feeding SayJ and then I needed to send emails and poor boy just lost it. So did I. He said his usual "why you so upset?" which I usually answer with "because you are not obeying your parents" ...but I wasn't upset with him and how do you explain to a two year old things like balance and guilt? So I tried to explain it and he just kept asking me. When we got in the car to go to work he asked me again and I finally just said "Momma doesn't want to work." Which apparently made perfect sense finally because instead of repeating the question, he says "ohhhhh, ok." Not another word about it since. Anyways, I am not sure the purpose of this post unless to relieve myself of some guilt. They are actually both asleep now and I have finished my work...wouldn't you know...but I am not about to go wake anyone up to play now! Oh yeah, the pictures are from today when I let Micah go outside and jump. He wouldn't wear a jacket so I let him pick a tabogan and he picked mine. Then I had on sunglasses so he needed those too. So you see now why I wish I could just play with my babies all day and not worry about other things. I am sure most of you wish this too. I know some of you get to so be thankful! And I'll be thankful that I don't have to completely leave mine. I know I am blessed beyond belief I am just having a pity party day. I'll be fine tomorrow. I hope.