I’m Back!

I know, I know!  It’s been way too long since I’ve posted anything.  Needless to say, it’s been a very busy past few months.  We finished up the busy school year, started building a shed (which still has a few steps until completion,) took a family road trip to California, participated in a Bible study, led a Bible study & a few other things which we will report at a later date.  So…we’ve been a little busy for blogging.  And, I must admit, I’ve let facebook take the place of the blog.  I will try to be a little better about keeping up with things.

So the latest thing going on in our house is potty training Micah.  Today is Day 3 & we are gradually improving.  Day 1 consisted of 8 wet undies, 5 successful pee-pees in the potty, 1 poopy in the pants & 1 load of laundry.  Not too bad, I guess.  At least we had some successes that we were able to reward with stickers, a few fruit loops & of course, the beloved Pee-pee Dance.  Day 2 was a little better:  5 wet undies, 6 successful pee-pees in the potty & 2 dry pull-ups (once when we had to leave the house for their preschool “meet the teacher” & another during Micah’s 3-hour nap.)  So at least the ratio of accidents to successes is improving.  So far this morning we’ve had way more successes than accidents & even a poopy in the potty!  And Micah even told me he needed to go several times!  We’ll see how the rest of the day goes.

He just looks so cute in his little Thomas undies!  I can’t believe my baby is wearing underwear!  Hard to believe how quickly time flies!

Micah is 2!!

Micah is now 2 years old.  He is such a sweet boy!  He’s a big cuddler & loves to give hugs & kisses.  He and Landry are really beginning to play well together.  They especially like playing with trains & cars and reading books together.  Micah’s vocabulary has exploded the past week or so.  He’s now attempting to say everything, and the words are actually starting to sound like they are supposed to.  He loves to show you all his body parts…eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, ears, cheeks, hair, head, elbow, tummy, heart, knees, feet, toes, hand & fingers.  He loves to run & is now climbing everything.  And he always wants to do everything himself…”Ahh do it!” he says.

Although he’s still a little guy (only 22 pounds) his appetite has really picked up lately.  His favorite foods are yogurt, chicken nuggets, peaches, bananas, cheese, milk, multigrain cheerios in milk, and waffles.  He still loves Nemo & is really into Thomas the Tank Engine these days.  Of course, he still calls Thomas his “choo-choo.”  He loves to be outside whenever possible & has actually walked to the park  ~ 1/2 mile away several times.

We are really looking forward to seeing Micah grow & become more of himself this next year.  

Micah at 22 Months

Micah has really started showing his sweet personality these past few weeks.  He’s starting to say many more words & is really quite funny.  He’s difficult to discipline because he’s so cute & makes the most adorable faces when we try to scold him.  (I will post a video soon demonstrating this.)

Micah loves bubbles & just can’t get enough of them.  He loves “Memo” as he calls everyone’s favorite fish, Nemo.  He loves to “talk” on his cell phone and has these very serious conversations that we have no clue what he’s actually saying.  Micah loves trains, which he calls “choo-choos.”  He still loves his blue blanket, which he now calls his “dodgy”…no idea where that came from.  He says “dank oo” (thank you) almost every time he receives something…or gives something.   Micah loves to give hugs & kisses…such a sweet boy!

And he loves to help me with the household chores, especially putting the dirty clothes in the washing machine & emptying the dishwasher. 

Landry’s Favorite Song

Landry has always loved to sing and now he’s really into Chris Tomlin songs.   His favorite is “The City Song” as he calls it…it’s really called “God of This City” from Chris Tomlin’s “Hello Love” album.  I was finally able to catch him singing it on video.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!  (Try to ignore the grossly out of tune piano & the sound of Chuck playing with Micah in the background.)

Landry’s 4th Birthday

Landry turned 4 years old on January 3rd, so we had a big birthday party for him.  He loves fire trucks so we decided to go with a fireman theme.  Of course we decorated with lots of streamers & balloons in addition to turning the house into “Fire Station #4.”  

After we ate a few sandwiches, chips & fruit, we started the “Junior Firefighter Training.”  We even had a real Fireman there…Landry’s Uncle Dan.  First the kiddos had to lie down & pretend to be sleeping.  When the emergency siren went off, they had to jump up, put on their fireman coats & hats and feed the firehouse dog (Vader the “dalmation”) before leaving the Fire Station.  Then they all went outside to the “fire.”  They busted down the “wall” with the “axe” & then climbed the ladder to rescue the “baby” from the building.  Then they ran over to the other buildings on “fire” and all sprayed their “hoses” (silly string) to put out the “fire.”  Once the training was successfully completed, each child received a “Junior Firefighter” badge.  

We then came inside to eat Landry’s fire truck cake.  We all had a great day & will remember this birthday for a long time!!

Christmas Morning

We had the best Christmas this year!  Landry especially got into celebrating Jesus’ birthday…and of course enjoyed all the presents & spending time with family.  Micah still doesn’t quite get it, but had fun anyway.  I’m already looking forward to next year when they are a year older and can understand even more about the meaning of Christmas.

Micah at 21 Months

Wow!  I can’t believe Micah’s 21 months old today!  How the time is flying!!  

Micah has changed quite a bit this past month.  He now has a mouth full of teeth.  He’s eating like a horse (most days, anyway.)  He chatters all the time and we’re beginning to understand at least a little of his chatter, although still not as much as we’d like.  He runs everywhere & much prefers to walk than to be carried.  He loves to do anything & everything that big brother Landry is doing.  

 

He’s now beginning to sit longer to read a few books.  His favorites are “The Story of Jesus” and “Good Morning Engines” (a Thomas the Tank Engine book that makes all kinds of fun sounds.)  He really enjoys going to “school” 2 days a week and no longer cries when I drop him off.  He loves to wave & say “hi” to people we see at the store.  And for some reason he is especially fond of older men.  He absolutely adores my grandfather & won’t go to anyone else as long as Granddad is around.  And of course, Granddad doesn’t mind one bit!!  

He’s such a sweet boy and loves to give hugs & kisses, which I just can’t get enough of!

The Christmas Tree

I just realized that I forgot to post a picture of the finished Christmas tree, so here it is:

Decorating the Christmas Tree

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we were all off work and decided to decorate the tree.  We usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving, but this year we just couldn’t wait.

 

We enjoyed our time “trimming the tree” and listening to our favorite Christmas music, Amy Grant’s Christmas album.  Landry really got into the decorating this year and even the pups we were dog-sitting got into the action.  

Fireman and Dalmation

Landry really likes fire trucks and enjoys pretending to be a fireman fighting ferocious fires, so I thought it would be so cute to dress him up as a fireman for Halloween.  And it is only natural that his little brother should be a Dalmation, right?  The only problem is that Halloween in Texas is so dang unpredictable that there’s no way to know if you should dress your kids in a tank top & shorts or a fleece sweat suit on October 31st.  We’ve had Octobers that were 40 degrees and windy (considered very cold here in this part of Texas), as well as Octobers that were 95 degrees and sunny.  Well, unfortunately I picked the 40 degree costumes for my boys this year, and well…sure enough, it was 90 degrees the week of Halloween.

So needless to say, my adorable boys wore their adorable costumes for about 10 minutes.  And Micah did not enjoy one bit of the 10 minutes he wore his costume.  It’s just a good thing that I was able to find some great bargains and only spent a grand total of $8 on both costumes.  (I seem have this knack for finding great deals on things or being able to use things we already have to save lots of money.)

However, the good thing is they actually had 3 opportunities to wear them, so even though they didn’t wear them for very long, I still feel like we got our money’s worth out of it.  They dressed up to go to the Fall Festival at our church the Saturday before Halloween & then again to school on Thursday.  On Friday Landry found a Spiderman costume in our costume box that just happened to fit him perfectly, so I let him wear that for Friday night since it was not quite as hot as the fireman costume would be.  And once it cooled down to 70 degrees on Friday evening Micah wore his Dalmation costume for about 5 minutes.