Short update

I am going to be updating slowly as I sort through pictures and get organized from the holidays. The kids & I spent almost 2 weeks at home in Dallas visiting family and playing. We headed up there early to see Amy and Ava. We met my parents and Amy at my grandparents' house in Corsicana. This was wonderful as my grandparents got to see all 3 great-grand babies at once and get a picture with them. It was so great to get this picture as I know my kids will treasure it once they get older. We ate lunch together and then headed to my parents' house with my Dad in the car. As we were driving to meet my parents I was preparing Micah for everything and told him that we would see G.G. & Grandpa and that Grandpa would ride back in our car. He said "Oh no, there's no room for him." A few seconds later I heard him saying "We can move my shoes back there, my jacket up there..." I quickly realized he was figuring out where we needed to move things so that my daddy would have a place to sit in the car! That kid just cracks me up, he loves his Grandpa so much he had to make sure we had room for him.





I loved meeting Ava and seeing Amy. Ava is the perfect blend of my brother and Amy...alright she's mostly Matt with Korean eyes. She is absolutely adorable, I'd the cutest baby ever but I think Emerson would have an objection! Ava just loves being held and cuddled and was just starting to intentionally smile. We got the chance to take the 3 kids to have their picture taken together and much to my surprise they got cute pictures of all the kids and my 2 by themselves.

Here is a cute one of the kids in their Christmas jammies.

I love this one of my kids! I didn't think Emmie could do it but I love it, I only wish Emmie didn't have those pacifier marks.

I am hoping to get one of these each year to see how quickly they're growing...I'm glad Emmie learned to sit up so we could capture this!

I needed proof he would kiss and does love her! I'll be going through more pictures as we were very busy with play dates and friends and I'll be updating soon!

Look similar?

My dad has been telling me for a few months that he had a picture of him watching tv on his head like Micah...well here it is. They look so similar it's unbelievable! They are almost the exact same age in the picture.

He's allergic to what?

Well, we found out the hard way today that Micah is allergic to cashews! Zac was eating nuts and shared one (1) with Micah. Micah started rubbing his nose and asked for a drink of water but didn't seem to have anything wrong with him. We needed to run an errand for the last part of a Christmas present and were about 15 minutes from home when he started coughing and throwing up in my new car! Of course he started crying after getting sick and we turned around and headed back home. By the time we got home and I could check him out, he was breaking into hives on his face and his mouth was starting to swell. We made the decision that I would take him to ER to make sure he was okay. We put his backup car seat in Zac's car and off Micah & I go. He got sick a few more times in Zac's car and he face was covered in hives and his eyes were swollen by the time we got there. They immediately checked his blood oxygen level, which was 95% so we waited a few minutes until they called us back. By this time the Benadryl I had given before we left home was working and the swelling was going down. We saw the doctor and they gave him Epinephrine to help the reaction. They listened to his breathing and were pleased with how he sounded. We were sent home with an official diagnosis of Hives from an allergic reaction to cashews. We're supposed to give Benadryl for the next 3 days and if the rash doesn't get better or gets worse again they gave us a prescription for a steroid.
He seems to be his old self again, we're thankful that he is better and it didn't turn out any worse. All this craziness happened from ONE cashew, thank you God that Zac only gave him one. We're headed to Dallas tomorrow to start our visiting with friends and family and our early Christmas celebrating...we're all so excited!!

Christmas tree and a blog

Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by zac.morton

Here is our Christmas tree this year! The ornaments are not evenly placed as Micah moves them and the most important ones were placed out of his reach. He feels the need to "work on the tree", and I have no idea what this actually means except he touches the tree and makes everything shake.
On another note, we bought a new car this weekend for me and it has an mp3 input and I love it! It makes listening to my mp3 player so much easier and clearer. I will never buy another car without one!
We're headed to Dallas on Monday to spend time with friends and family, we get to see Amy & meet Ava and I'm so excited!!

Baby legs

More baby legs
Originally uploaded by zac.morton

I have been wanting something called Baby Legs for Emmie and I finally ordered a pair with Christmas presents and I LOVE THEM!! The first pair she got is the Neapolitan and they're adorable. Here she is modeling them this morning...Ignore the red spot under her chin, I've been trying to get it to go away but it's stubborn, it's a dry patch in her neck rolls! It's kind of funny because she's tiny but she still has neck rolls! As you can see, she's doing great at sitting up, she loves sitting and playing with a few toys and watching crazy man Micah run around.

And now a few of Micah playing in the backyard. He didn't want me taking his picture but I won!! He's growing so quickly, I can hardly believe he's already 2 1/2 years old, I just keep wondering where the time has gone.

More photos

Here are a few more photos from the past week. As I mentioned, Emmie's favorite thing is watching Micah play with his race track...here she is.

Check out how far over she's leaning so she can see!

Here we are at the park...Emmie loved watching Micah swinging so I decided to put her in the swing too!

Micah loves the bridge at the park and I love this picture! He's getting so big, he plays at the park by himself so well.

Hey give me that scarf

Hey give me that scarf
Originally uploaded by zac.morton

Emmie is doing great and learning to situp. We got out this snowman as part of our Christmas decorations and she loved looking at it and playing with the scarf and nose. She is 6 months old today and is such a sweet, good baby. We have her checkup tomorrow so I'll know how big she's gotten tomorrow. Micah is finally acting like he knows she's alive, I think it's because she can finally sit up and interact with him for short periods of time. Her favorite thing right now is watching Micah race his cars.

She's still practicing sitting up!

Holding hands

holding hands 2
Originally uploaded by zac.morton

Micah was watching tv the other day and I sat Emmie down by him while I got our shoes ready to walk to the park. Emmie decided she wanted to hold his hand. Honestly, she grabbed his hand! She loves him so much and is entertained by just watching him or touching him!

Visting with Aunt Casey

Visting with Aunt Casey
Originally uploaded by zac.morton

My sister is here over Thanksgiving and the kids love playing with her. Emmie is working on sitting up, she actually does really well. She can sit unsupported for a short amount of time but she's getting better everyday.

Playing with editing pictures

November 157-bw frame
Originally uploaded by zac.morton

I am still sorting through the pictures from our photo shoot last week. I think these two pictures are the last two for now. We'll be taking more pictures soon as we are both enjoying learning to take pictures with our new toy...I mean camera!

New thing...

Micah has a "new thing", he loves standing on his bed while we use Emmie's legs to kick him down. Both kids die laughing and we usually laugh too. Both kids can spend a long time playing this new game. Micah of course is talking the whole time narrating everything which sounds something like "Emmie is kicking me down, do it again".

And of course just for fun, a picture of our little jumper Emmie with Casey.

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday, we cooked a traditional meal and everything was wonderful. My sister is here for the holiday and we're having a great time visiting and playing. I'm sure the time off will pass too quickly, but at least we'll have had lots of fun!

Crazy kid

Crazy kid
Originally uploaded by zac.morton

Here is a quick picture of Micah wearing shorts on his head and posing for Granpda. And another picture from our backyard photo shoot. There are more and I'll post them as I sort through them.

Emmie in the grass

Here is Emmie's first experience laying in the grass. We might be biased but we sure think she's cute!

Emmie with my new camera

We bought a new camera this weekend as an early Christmas present. Here is a quick picture/photo shoot. This also her first bow, I can't wait for the cute hair accessories to come.

Below is a picture of Micah...I'm still learning my new camera and photoshop...you can look forward to new pictures soon!

Jumping

November 053
Originally uploaded by zac.morton

We borrowed a jumperoo from some friends for Emmie to use. Here she is on the inaugural session, she loves it!! The video is Micah showing Emerson how to jump and for some reason she thought it was really funny! It was also cute because he shook her hand at the end and said nice to meet you...random.

As a side note, I am now using a site called flickr to host the pictures for the blog because I can upload the full image and there's no limit to how many pictures I can save. If you click on the pictures it will take you to our flickr album and you can see all of the pictures we've uploaded, it will also allow you to download the full version, you can save it or print it.

Smiley little girl!

Smiley little girl!
Originally uploaded by zac.morton

Here is Emmie last week giving me another huge smile! She is such a happy little girl but the funny thing is that she usually doesn't laugh, I just get a big open mouth smile.
Emmie got to spend her weekend with her Granna & Da. They were leaving on a cruise and stopped by here on the way to visit for a day. Emmie is just starting to realize the difference between Mom & Dad and strangers, when they first got here she was tired and was unsure of anyone but mom & dad. After a day or so, she decided they were okay and actually fun! Micah of course loved having his Granna & Da around to entertain him and was sad to see them go. We're all excited for Christmas so we can spend a lot of time with family!

The beginning of November

November has started with an exciting start!! I'm an aunt again! My brother and his wife, Amy welcomed a sweet little girl early in the morning on Nov. 1st. Her name is Ava Holt Garrison and she is an adorable mix of the two of them. I can't wait to meet her and am sad at how big she'll be before I'll hold her. Here are a few pictures of her.

Now on to my own cute little kids! Just when I think Micah can't get any weirder he does something like this...hiding in Zac's closet wearing ONLY a towel! Who knows why he did it but he thought he was so funny!

Another strange day...Micah had a small "baton" he was playing with. It was made of very soft wood that broke very easily, so he ended up with 4 pieces of his baton. That wasn't too strange...the strange part was when he put the pieces into the holes in his crocs.

Here is the silly boy:

And of course, what update would be complete without a least one picture of Emerson. Here she is with her doting Daddy wearing her first pair of leggings. In case you don't know, leggings are back in style and Emmie is at the cutting edge of fashion.

Last but not least...introducing our newest family member, Gil. Gil is a blueish-purple beta fish. We bought him at the store last night and got him a bowl, plant and rocks to decorate the bowl. Micah likes feeding the fish and watching him swim. Don't worry, the food and the fish are not within Micah's reach. Zac helped Micah name the fish, Micah's suggestions were baby fish and Mommy. Here is the proud owner of the new fish:

Trick or Treat!

We had a wonderful Halloween night this year! We picked up dinner and went to a friends' house to eat and take the kids trick or treating in their neighborhood. Micah was a tiger this year although most people seemed to think he was Tiger and Emmie was a duck. Both kids did a great job, Micah absolutely loved ringing the doorbell and was great about saying "trick or treat" and always said thank you. After a few houses he caught on to the whole deal and started saying Thank you, let's go to the next house! It was so fun to watch him enjoy the evening and we were so happy he walked through the neighborhood on his best behavior and was really a joy to be with. Emmie also did great, she just sat in the stroller and watched all the other kids running around. When we finally got back home he quickly drank two cups of milk and then played with Stephen until bedtime. Emmie did great too and fell asleep before we left, wow it's so nice to have such a calm baby this time. Zac & I were commenting on the way home that it is great that Emmie is so laid back, it allows us to go places and do things in the evenings that we couldn't do when Micah was a baby.
Here are a few pictures of the kids. Micah was a tiger, Emmie a duck and Stephen a monkey:

Picture overload

Here is what I call picture overload...the family at a wedding on Lake Conroe it was very windy but we managed to get a decent picture.
My dad "entertaining" Emmie during the reception.
Emmie's first pair of jeans! I'll have to get a shot of her backside since there's a flower on her pocket.
My sister took pictures of the kids while she was visiting...here are a few of my favorites.

Who can resist this smiley face and cute little feet.

Emmie started solid foods to help her gain weight and she is loving the food. She reminds me of a baby bird, she loves the food and can even drink from a sippy cup although she'll only drink water, no formula. Micah is always begging to feed Emmie but at least he's great at entertaining her while I get everything ready and clean up afterwards.

Micah loves to climb up and talk to her. He usually copies what I have said before, things like "was that a good meal?" "it's okay pretty girl" "did you have a good nap" All different things that I say in the course of the day he just doesn't always use them in context.
Micah finally got dirty while fingering painting. He loved it! Here are the kids pretending to take a nap...Micah always insists I cover them both with his blanket.

Micah got big boy jammies this winter! He said that he was wearing pajama pants just like Mommy! It made me laugh because they actually look like Zac's but I wear jammie pants much more often than Zac.
We went to the pumpkin patch this past weekend and they had so many things for Micah to do. He loved riding the giant tricycle and the corn train was his absolute favorite! In case you're wondering, we did take Emmie she just didn't do any of the activities yet!

Last picture...Emmie wearing her first fall outfit, notice the pink shoes!

That's all the pictures and captions for now. I'll try to update again soon. And for the moving update, we're still waiting on the super slow real estate market to start moving and hopefully we'll get an offer soon so we can complete our move.