Playing at home

My parents were here this weekend visiting and enjoying and extra day off for MLK! It was a great weekend of playing around the house. Emerson is not crawling but loves standing! She would probably be crawling if she would spend any time on her stomach but she hates it too much. She has a cool toy, the fisher price super star stage, or something like that and she loves to sit or stand at it. Micah also loves it and I'm constantly telling him not to push Em out of the way. I love the toy though because they actually play together at it. Here are a couple of pictures in of the kids playing today. My mom & sister picked up this cute rabbit hat for Emmie at a big sale last week and I think she looks so cute in it!



And last...one cute picture with G.G. --->

Sick of sick

I am so sick of my kids getting sick, don't get me wrong I love my kids but Micah is sick again. He woke up on Sunday with a stuffy nose, it started running that day and added a cough later that night. By Monday he had a full on cough and cold and then in the night last night I could hear him wheezing! Oh joy, what fun I have! The doctor prescribed an antibiotic and a steriod to help clear his lungs. I think the most annoying part is that Micah doesn't usually take naps and even now that he's sick still no sleeping even though he needs a nap. He does sleep 13 hours at night so I really shouldn't complain, but he could use the downtime during the day.
We're praying that the medicine will work quickly and that he'll start feeling better soon and that Emerson won't get whatever Micah has.
Emerson got her second tooth on Friday, now she has both bottom front teeth.
I'm done complaining, please give us your good thoughts and prayers this week as we need them!

Dress and baby legs

Emmie wore a cute dress today that I bought for Christmas but she never wore. Since it's cold here she got to wear her baby legs too! She actually had on the pink ones but got food on them so we had to settle for the Neapolitan ones that didn't match as well. My parents got here at lunch today and the kids are having a blast playing and entertaining everyone. Emmie warmed up to everyone quickly this time and I hoping she'll do as well next month with Zac's parents. She cut her 2nd tooth today and has been quite grumpy but hopefully that will subside as the tooth gets all the way through. Her ears are clear now so we're thankful for that.
Here's Emmie standing by my dad and both of them laying in the big mess of toys Micah made. Emmie helped but only a little!!

Still sick

I took poor little Emmie to the doctor last Wednesday and she had an ear infection. We got an antibiotic and ear drops for pain, although she has yet to tell me it hurts! She seemed to be getting better, but in the past few days she's seemed worse again. I decided to take her to the doctor again. I was telling Zac last night that I feel like the crazy mom who's always at the doctor, except that I am usually right. And again, I was right, the ear infection isn't gone so we're on to another round of antibiotics and hopefully she'll be feeling better again soon. Luckily, she's a great sick baby, the only time she acts like it hurts is when she lays down. We're praying this medicine will work and she'll be back to herself soon!

I am editing the post to add that on 1/2/08 Em weighed exactly 15 pounds and this morning at the doctor she was 15 pounds 8 ounces! Yeah, she's gaining weight again and while sick, what a great day!

New scrapbook pages

I have been catching up on scrapbooking in the past few weeks. The halloween pages I made closer to the actual day but hadn't shared them yet. I am very overwhelmed by the number of pictures from Christmas so I'm slowly making pages. In the past years I've only had a few pictures so this year is better but I feel very behind! I hope you enjoy the pages.

Drum roll please...it's Christmas!

I'm finally done organizing my Christmas pictures and am ready to post them. We had our Christmas on Christmas Eve with my parents & Casey because my dad worked on Christmas day. We had a lazy day around the house and started opening presents after naps in the early evening. Micah went crazy opening gifts, he loved tearing off the paper and didn't want to stop until all of his presents were open!

Aunt Casey helping Micah open presents, or maybe controlling the crazy kid!

G.G. helping Em open her first present.

Emmie got the hang of it and wanted to try one on her own!

Uncle Matty & Aunt Mimi bought Micah a "whack-a-mole", what else could you ask for? Advertising must work though, because he asked where the whack-a-mole tower was!
Em got a piggy bank and Micah loved it and wanted to show her how to play with it. He still "shows her how to play with it" every time I get it out. It's weird, he still likes her toys just as much if not more than the ones he got.
Micah got a set of remote control cars for Christmas and it took a little while to get the hang of things. These pictures cracked me up!

That was it for Christmas at G.G's house. The kids got two big presents together, a kitchen and a picnic table. Micah loves both and likes to have his snack at the picnic table in the garage. He also loves pretending to make us breakfast and dinner in his kitchen.

Here's Emmie sitting like a big girl at the picnic table while Micah eats his snack. I think she's so cute, she is really holding herself at the table with no help.

It's hard to beat a snack of goldfish with your little sister.

We had Christmas at Granna & Da's house on the 25th with them, Ben, Amanda & Matthew. We had a great brunch and then it was on to presents. The kids were so excited to open presents and did a great job delivering presents to everyone in the room. It was so exciting to watch Micah enjoy the holiday with family and seeing him so excited to open presents.

Emmie's favorite part of the packages was the ribbon! I think she entertained herself for 15 minutes with only this ribbon! We bought her these cool stacking cups and she loves them, they can stack to make a tower or stick together and make a bunch of little balls. It's a cool toy and she can grab them easily and like everything else Micah loves them too!

Micah had a keyboard on his Christmas list and he was blessed that Granna found one and he loves it! He is great at turning the volume down so luckily for us we're not constantly telling him to turn it down. It will even grow with him as it can plug into the tv later and teach him to play piano. Hopefully he'll still use it then and can learn early.

Micah is going through a Diego phase and got a "Rescue pack" which includes binoculars and a canteen which he was excited to use! He loves going on an adventure which means he goes all around the house and yard looking around. I'm not sure exactly what he's doing but it entertains him and he has fun!

Zac's grandmother (Gran) made Emmie a cute little sweater and hat. I don't have a picture with the sweater on yet but I love this one with the hat. She has an ear infection so we've been using the hat quite a bit. I love it and think it helps her look more like a girl since she has no hair to help clue other people to her sex. Thanks Gran!
Micah got an awesome retro tricycle which he loves to walk around. He doesn't really use the pedals unless he's going straight ahead as his legs are too short to reach the pedals when he turns.
Emmie was a little sick and was warm so here she is playing with Da in only a diaper.
Micah & Matthew playing with one of Emmie's new toys.
Granna, Micah & Em playing cars at the bookshelf. Micah loves to drive his cars on bookshelves but only Granna will humor him and sit with him.

I think this is the end of our Christmas celebrations but not the end of pictures. I have many more I'll be posting. I know you're thinking to yourself...more pictures? But yes, it's possible. I hope you enjoy all the pictures and my poor attempt at humor in the captions.

Fun at the park and other places!

We took Micah and Emmie to the park at the church by my parents' house one afternoon to let Micah get out some energy. What resulted were really cute pictures of each kid and their chaperon.

What visit to the park is complete without a ride on a dinosaur? Zac & Emmie having fun!Casey & Micah posing in front of the beautiful fall leaves.

Emmie took a bath in her Granna's kitchen sink! This was a first for her, we use a baby tub at home and she's wasn't sitting well enough for me to be comfortable bathing her in the big tub. She had a blast in it, splashing water everywhere! She did eventually get clean but not until her fingers and toes were really wrinkled.

Grandpa bought Micah a few toys on his own and was happy to give them early. He got a tool box that has a hammer, screwdriver and wrench and a little Hummer he loves to drive. They layed on the bed and played with the new toys for a long time.

One more funny picture, this is the way Micah climbs on beds and stands up on them. He puts his feet on the rails, it looks painful to me but it's funny.
It seems like I come home with a ton of strange pictures...here's yet another. My dad was holding Emmie and for some unknown reason decided to sit in the tub with her. Micah of course climbed right in too and they pretended to take a bath. Strange kids but cute pictures and funny stories.

Stay tuned, the next update and pictures will be opening Christmas presents! This will include part 1 & 2 both grandparents' houses! Yeah!

Playdates

I was so lucky while we were home to get to visit with my college roommates, Rosey & Kristin and their kids. They both brought their 2 kids to my parents' house to play and have lunch. Between the 3 of us we had 6 kids and Kris has one on the way. The kids that were old enough to play were all 5 boys and I was amazed at how well they played together. I don't think we had to breakup any fights while they played. The boys spent most of their time in my parents backyard driving the John Deere gator and playing the leaves. The gator was a big hit with the older boys and it was great for Micah because he hadn't really driven it but after Elijah & Logan did he decided he was big enough to drive it too! It was such a fun time to sit and catch up with good friends and let the kids play. I am so thankful for friends that I don't get to see enough but I've been friends with long enough that we just catch right back up! As I get older I realize with kids and a husband just how hard it is to find good friends and it's nice to get to visit with them.

Elijah driving, Ian riding shotgun and brave Logan in the back holding on for his life! The kids playing in the leaves, but cute little Isaac got lost in Logan's excitement to throw the leaves.

We had a very exciting afternoon also. My Aunt Jeanie, Uncle Billy, cousin Melissa and her little Avery came to play too! Avery is 2 weeks older than Micah and is just the cutest little thing I've ever seen. She cracked me up by putting her hand up to her mouth and saying "Oh my goodness"! It was so funny and sounded just like Melissa. Avery wasn't too sure about the Gator but loved playing in the leaves and the kids quickly got the adults involved! It was so great to see Melissa & Avery as we hadn't seen them since last summer when the kids were only a little over 1 year old and couldn't really talk yet and definitely didn't play together! My sister was the wonderful photographer and did a great job capturing the fun everyone had!

Micah getting ready to cover Avery with leaves!

Uncle Billy sharing in the fun.

My favorite picture of Micah!

As you can see, they got really good a throwing the leaves. They actually got leaves in G.G.'s shirt! Aunt Jeanie holding baby Ava doing what she does best...sleeping!