Cooking with Emerson

I decided today that Emmie is big enough now to help me cook a few things. I needed to mix up a batch of Amish friendship bread, both make the starters and cook the loaves for MOPS tomorrow and Emmie helped. She loved helping me measure the dry ingredients and dumping them into a huge bowl. She actually did great at stirring everything and didn't spill anything. Here she is stirring the batter for me. Sorry it's a tad blurry but she wasn't wanting to take pictures!

Yeah for Micah

This is a short update mostly about Micah. Micah has been waking up in the morning with a dry diaper since a little before Christmas. I knew he was ready to start wearing just underwear at night but I needed to buy a waterproof mattress pad first. I was pretty lazy about it, but was down to one diaper last week and decided it was finally time. Micah went to bed in underwear for the first time on Thursday night. He woke up at 5am to potty the first night but has slept right through each night since with no accidents. That's right folks, 4 nights, no accidents! I guess he was ready.
Emmie is also asking to go pee-pee on the potty now and she's hit or miss on whether she goes. I'm not in any hurry as she's only 19 months but I am excited that she wants to sit and try.
We've been busy around here painting our downstairs. We were blessed that my parents came to visit during this time and my dad was great and painted the ceilings in the downstairs. It is a major undertaking which by my estimates is at least 1300 sq. ft. Without Dad, we would still be painting! Zac & I finished the project this past weekend, we painted the walls. It looks much better with white ceilings and a better color on the walls.
I need to find my camera and download pictures, hopefully I'll get that done soon and post them!

Anyone still out there? stick with me this is long.

I was wondering if anyone still checks this hoping that I'll have time to post. I always have intentions of posting but something else comes up. Zac's watching the big 24 show tonight so I've got a spare couple of hours to update everything.
We've been very busy since the last post. We spent two weeks in Dallas for Christmas, visiting family and just hanging out. The kids had so much fun playing at my parents' house, they spend a lot of time outside riding their gator and playing in my Dad's shop.
Here are the kids with our gingerbread train we decorated. It's very hard to get it setup and decorated before the kids eat all the candy!

Amanda & I took the kids to my dad's fire station. His new fire station has a tiller-truck, one of those where there is a driver in the back too! Here are the boys peeking through the window in the back where the driver sits.

Cute little Em peeking out the window.

The boys pretending to ride in the truck.

Dad even let the kids shoot water from the fire hose. They had a blast and Em loved it too!

Micah driving the engine, I think he was backing up, at least he was looking behind himself.

Here is a quick glimpse into what the kids actually do at my parents' house. My dad spent so much time entertaining with the kids. He bought a new wagon he can pull behind his mower, I think he loves it as much as the kids. They love riding around the yard in the mower, not actually mowing just riding.

Emmie getting her turn, I'm also praying the mower doesn't give off bad fumes as the kids would most definitely be high with all the time they spend out there!

Micah getting his turn behind!

Emmie riding the plasma car in the workshop. It's such a cool ride-on toy, both kids can do it and do it really well. I only wish we had enough room to have one here at our house, they would love it. Sorry the pics are a little blurry, they're moving quickly!

We spent Christmas morning at my parents' house with my entire family. It was so much fun this year, to watch the magic of Christmas through the eyes of our kids. We went to the Christmas Eve service at FBC Lewisville and the kids actually did pretty well. Micah & Emmie went down front for the kids' part where snow fell. At the end they always have the last few songs sung by candlelight and Emmie helped me hold mine. She did a great job holding it steady, and both kids were great during the service except Micah asking Grandpa over & over why it wasn't over yet! The kids had a really hard time falling asleep on Christmas Eve, I don't think they fell asleep until after 10pm.

The kids woke up around 8:30 and we started opening presents after breakfast. The kids quickly got to work sorting and handing out the packages.

My sweet little niece sitting by her pile of presents!

Micah sitting by his loot. He was very excited that he didn't get coal in his stocking! I guess he was listening to all the stories I told him.

Emmie got a pink inchworm and she was very impatient as Dad was trying to assemble it.

Zac's parents are living in an apartment right now while working on building a new house so Christmas was interesting on that side. They rented a wonderful house for us to celebrate at. Unfortunately the weather was cold and windy but we made do. Amanda was schedule to be induced on Friday night to have baby Finn so the family would be back and forth at the hospital. Zac's Aunt Kaki drove in from Big Spring to celebrate with us and the kids loved her. It was wonderful to see her as she'd never met Emerson and hadn't seen Micah since Thanksgiving of 2005 when he was 6 months old! We had a crazy Saturday morning (the first day of celebrating), we woke up late and realized Zac's car had a dead battery, by the time we got moving we were really late. We finally got there and the kids got right to work...playing! We got news a little after 12:30pm that baby Finn was here! We were thrilled that everything went well and he was finally here! I took Matthew to the hospital in the afternoon to meet his brother. Finn was adorable and tiny. The kids loved opening presents and chaos ensued as they were so excited to open everything. Micah got a digital camera for kids and he LOVES it, it's easy to use and he does use it! Emmie got a doll stroller and new baby doll. She also loves her stroller, she walks around pushing her baby all day. They really enjoyed Christmas this year and it was really fun to watch them.

The boys doing what boys do...playing with cars in the dirt.

The boys took a walk around the ranch with Granna & Da. Somewhere Micah found a walking stick, I guess at just over 3 ft he really needs to balance himself!

The kids loved pulling each around in a little toy wagon. They're so silly but mostly had a blast!

The boys opening presents. They were very interested in what the other was getting.

One last cute picture of the kids with the adorable blankets Granna made each of them.


Back at my parents, we had more fun with family. Here are my kids with Ava in the tub.

Emmie driving the gator, if we put a pillow behind her, she can actually push the pedal!

Micah washing the gator. My dad encouraged this but Micah was really into it.

And last but not least, an update with pictures of Micah at swim class. He takes classes every Tuesday morning and is doing great. I think he'll move to the preschool level 3 class very soon. He can't actually swim yet but is learning everything that leads up to it. He uses a kick board and goes down the slide. They also teach them survival if he were to fall in the water. They teach him to flip to his back and yell help and also slowly kick to the side of the pool. Here he is in action.

And if you've stuck with me this long, thanks. I hope you've enjoyed the crazy mass update and I pray you'll forgive what I'm sure are thousands of typos and errors in my post as now it's so late I don't want to re-read everything and double check it.