Thankful Thursday

1.  Give Them Grace - can't remember if I've mentioned this book before or not.  My sister-in-law suggested it, and I love it.  I read it awhile back, but we've recently started implementing one of the ideas in our family. 
2.  play date
3.  only having to get up once in the night - Mara is finally sleeping in our her room every night after we decided it was time to start some new sleeping habits.  Using rewards, a night light timer, and lots of tough love, it's been successful.  Some nights she wakes up a couple of times crying for me.  Micah is teething, so he's also been waking a couple times a night.  I feel like I'm on a newborn sleep schedule again.  Hopefully this phase is short. 
4.  only buying one size of diapers!
5.  The Biggest Loser workout videos - Micah didn't appreciate me leaving him at Childwatch at the YMCA, so I'm back to working out in our living room. 
6.  dinner with friends
7.  Lance is halfway through the Farrell's FXB program and making great progress. 
8.  my big valentine and my two little valentines
9.  Mara's independence - dressing herself, putting her dirty laundry in the hamper, helping set the table.  It's amazing how much more I can get done with the extra help!  I can't wait until she can unload the dishwasher and vacuum.  I know, by then she'll hate doing chores. 
10.  the look on Micah's face when he realizes he's standing without holding onto anything
11. the pallet on my wall - For Christmas on Lance's side of the family, we drew names and exchanged homemade gifts. It was quite fun! My sister-in-law made me a pallet with my favorite bible verse.  I had a couple of pallet project ideas pinned on Pinterest, so she knocked one of those out for me.  Lance really thought the pallet should have come with the hanging hardware.  He did finally rig something together, and now we just hope that heavy piece of wood doesn't fall off the wall!

12.  girls night and successful surprise baby shower

Headband Craze

You can't eat breakfast without a......

head band!

Even this guy likes to sport one.  He put it on all by himself.  Not sure his dad will be thrilled with this. 

Family Band

The musical instruments Micah got for his birthday have been a bit hit, with EVERYONE!  The kids play with them several times during the day, and it's been the first toy Lance grabs in the evenings.  I REALLY wanted to upload the video of Lance singing a Native American tune while beating on the drum, but I didn't figure he'd appreciate that.  Micah has learned that the drum sticks make a much louder noise on the laminate than the carpet.  Thanks for the fun gift Great Grandpa and Grandma!

Thankful Thursday

1.  Next 2 New clothing consignment shop in Adel - great way to get rid of clothes and make a few bucks
2.  a lazy Sunday
3.  the opportunity to teach Sunday School
4.  our family who helped us celebrate Micah's birthday
5.  Micah and I dodged the stomach flu - so far!
6.  our furnace humidifier - We got it put in last winter, and it's so convenient and low maintenance that I forgot we even have it!
7.  Miss Paula - She does such a great job at the library.  She always goes out of her way to make my kids feel welcome and special. 
8.  my kids' giggles
9.  our video camera - We watched some old video of Mara and Micah.  I love that they'll be able to watch this with their own kids.
10.  my mother-in-law's birthday - It's the day after Micah's, so we got to celebrate it at Micah's party. 
11.  My kids get a small taste of the farm life experience that I used to live.

 

 

 

Mara was a bit scared of Great Grandma's chickens, but Grandma Janet helped her make her way back to the nests to look for eggs.

12.  Exodus 17:10-13
¹⁰ So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. ¹¹ As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. ¹² When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. ¹³ So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.

These verses created such a vivid picture for me of these two doing whatever it took to keep Moses' hands in the air.  What a great example and reminder of how we're supposed to support one another. 

Paper or Plastic

We've been saving empty food boxes and containers for a few weeks.  They're good for a couple of things.

matching up lids to containers

I love her face!  She was making the "shhhh" pouring noise as she was playing.

Shot of vanilla anyone?

We've also been saving grocery ads, so we could make shopping list cards.

Because you need a shopping list when you head to the grocery store of course.

Micah even got the hang of it.

No push out or drive up for this girl.  She can do it all by herself!

Micah's 1st Birthday Festivities

We made birthday cinnamon rolls for Micah's birthday.  Mara couldn't wait for him to wake up, so we celebrated without him.

She wasn't very happy when I said we had to wait to watch Micah open presents until Daddy got home from work, so I let them open one.  

 We headed out to run some errands and pick up a last minute birthday present.  We stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch, and Mara didn't eat anything.  That was my first clue something wasn't right.  We got a free chocolate brownie, and she watched me eat the entire thing myself.  My second clue.  She then started complaining that her stomach hurt, so we headed straight for home.  Lance also came home early from work not feeling well.  They both had a stomach bug, but thankfully Mara never threw up.  Pretty sure she wouldn't have understood that she needed to get to the toilet first.  What a bummer of a birthday.  Good thing he didn't even know it was his birthday.  We still celebrated as best as we could that night.

 

Love birthday mail!

Mara was pretty excited that Great Grandpa and Grandma Seil included something for her in Micah's card!  It was labeled with a post it with her name.  She thought the post it was a name tag.  You can see that she slapped it right on her shirt. 

We had a birthday dinner at the Pizza Ranch after everyone was feeling better.  That's where we took Mara on her first birthday, so now it's officially a tradition.

His reaction to his first bite of ice cream!  After a couple bites, he didn't want anymore.  Whose kid is this?

 

helping Dad decorate for his birthday party

begging for a bite

helping put together the party favors

 

 

And the guests finally arrived.....

 

 

 

He wasn't quite sure how to go about digging in at first.

 

The damage.

Grandpa has GUILTY written all over his face if you couldn't tell.  Because.....

This is what I caught these two doing after I said Micah had eaten enough cake and had cleaned him up.  BUSTED!

 

I guess if you aren't the first child, you don't get to open any of your presents on your first birthday.  Maybe by his second birthday he will have more of an opinion about letting others help out. 

 

Uncle Jacob was a bit jealous of Micah's new wheels!

"Really?  You open all my presents and then PLAY with them? 

Do you remember whose birthday it is?  Geesh!"

 

It's a good thing Micah didn't understand that it was his birthday because I think he would have been a little disappointed that his big sis and daddy had the stomach flu.

Everyone was feeling good in the morning, so the kids and I headed out to run some errands and pick up a last minute birthday gift for Micah.  We stopped at Chik-Fil-A for lunch, and Mara didn't eat anything.  That was my first clue something wasn't right.  We got a free chocolate brownie, and she watched me eat the entire thing myself.  That was my second clue.  I sure would gain a few pounds if she were sick more often!  She started complaining that her tummy hurt, so we headed straight for home.  Lance came home early from work not feeling well.  The fun day we had planned turned into a lazy day at home. 

O-N-E!

Happy 1st birthday, Mr. Micah William!  

 Mommy is having a hard time with you officially being a toddler today.  I think it's because your first year of life seemed to go by so much faster than Mara's did.  I do purposefully soak you in every day, but dang, I'm not quite ready for you to be running around and talking just yet.  Good thing I don't have control over that.  We have a fun day planned for your birthday.  Probably more fun for us than you, but I don't think you'll mind.  I love you!

About the birthday boy

Nicknames:  Brother
Likes:  balls, anything with wheels, blocks, puzzles, books, and brushing his teeth

 Dislikes:  frozen green beans and his Momma leaving him (isn't too fond of Child Watch at the YMCA)

Favorite foods:  He prefers the main dish over fruits and veggies.  Bananas are his favorite fruit.  Lance has to sneak one out in the mornings, or he'll scream until he gets one.  He loves pasta, cottage cheese, and yogurt.  He is done nursing and does really well with milk in a sippy cup.

Words - He blows me away with the amount of words he uses and repeats.  Mara only said Mama and Dada by her first birthday.  It's amazing how different kids can be!
Here are some of the words I can think of:
cracker (cah-cuh), hot (haaaa - He holds his mouth wide open for several seconds after he says this!), banana (nana), snack (sack), Mara (Muh), Papa (My dad brainwashes all of his grandkids because he always gets them to say "Papa" before "Grandma!"), bath (bah), moo, baa-baa, woof, no no, Mama, Dada (Dah), Sister (Sis), night night (nigh nigh), hi, bye bye, yuck (guck), brrrr, shoes (shzzz), ball, boom, poop, and toot

These last two prove that he's not an only child and not the oldest.  I definitely didn't teach him those two words!  When we say "One, two...", he says, "Teeee!"  When we ask how old he is, he holds up one finger and says, "Two!"

Micah, I can't wait to see what toddlerhood has in store for you and us!  You melt my heart every single day.  Happy 1st birthday!