One cool customer

I'm never gonna make it

Seriously.....I've been spoiled. I've gotten so used to having full reign over Katy during the weekdays and I don't think I am ready to give that up! Yesterday, Katy ISD didn't have classes due to the flooding in the attendance zones (we're fine, by the way :) and the kids found themselves with an unexpected day off. They crowded into the stores and roamed the area in packs of 5-10 kids. Seriously, you can't even believe how many kids were out, walking around and making my errands take longer....I don't think I'm going to survive the summer :P

Roomie Reunion

This weekend was the third annual roommate reunion for me and my college roomies. Dre was out of town... we missed you! And Caroline couldn't make it, but the other 6 of us had a great time! We went to San Antonio, stayed on the riverwalk, went to Sea World, took in some Fiesta festivities, had a mariachi band serenade us with an awesome version of "Devil went down to Georgia", and experienced the tastiness of the Magnolia Pancake Haus. It was so great to see everyone again, and we almost never stopped laughing! All of my pictures ended up being from Sea World, so here is a sampling!

The Shamu Show~

This guy was begging for food in the Sea Lion tank~
The Sea Lion/ Otter/ Walrus show~

The girls :) ~

Me and Kim~

I had fun girls! I can't wait to see ya'll again!

Power to the People

I went into Micah's room to get him up this morning and stopped dead in my tracks and started laughing. Micah was lying on his back and he had his pacifier in his hand and was holding it straight up. In fact, when I walked in, all I could see above the bumper was his hand holding up his paci in a show of strength... "power to the babies!! We will not be denied!!" His was a silent protest.. well, except for my laughing :P

Modern Mysteries

Why is the smallest package of diapers you can buy called a "jumbo"? In addition, why is the "jumbo" not even enough diapers to get through 1 week? :P

Take Me Out to the Stros Game....

We took Micah to his first ever Astros game this Sunday and it was perfect! The weather showed no signs of the massive storms that ripped through town the day before... it was 81 degrees, sunny and breezy. It was the type of weather that screams baseball, and we were happy to oblige :) Here are Nate and Micah outside Minute Maid Park... they're ready for some baseball!

A park employee offered to take our picture... of course our first attempt at a family picture in a long time was thwarted by Micah not paying attention :P

Micah loved the view from our seats!

Nate and Micah chilling in the shade and waiting for our seats to get into the shade too (luckily they did about 10 minutes later!)

I continued a family tradition by buying Micah an overpriced foam finger in honor of his first Stros game..... he loved it!

We had a great time and as soon as Micah got used to the cheering, he loved it!

Tooth Pick

Yup, that's Micah :) We went to the doctor's office today for his 9 month check up and found out that he is tracking perfectly for someone whose goal it is to imitate a toothpick :P He is 16 lbs, 6 oz (3rd-10th percentile), 27.5 inches long (25th-50th percentile) and his head is 17.5 inches around (25th-50th percentile). So I guess technically he is more of a lollipop than a toothpick... perhaps a Dum Dum :) Anyways, the doctor said he's small but he's growing at a consistent rate, so he's good! He has hit all of his milestones and yesterday he even pulled up to a standing position using the couch. I wish I could be excited about him pulling up, but in reality I'm just looking around at everything that is suddenly reachable for him... yikes :P

9 Months Old!!

Micah Bean is 9 months old today!! He has officially been out longer than he was in at this point which, I'm not gonna lie, kinda freaks me out. He just gotten so big! He is so much fun now even despite the teething and sickness that has dominated this month. He doesn't complain for long before he's back to being his excitable self. At nine months, Micah~

~loves to talk on the phone with Grandmommy and Daddy and smiles his biggest smile when they start talking to him

~ is constantly doing ankle rolls. It is REALLY funny, but his feet are in constant motion.

~ likes to roll, flip and generally show off with all of the things he can do with his tongue. It's actually pretty annoying to me since I can't do anything fun with mine :P

~is crawling for real! He started army crawling over a month ago, but as of 3 days ago, he started crawling hands and knees with his midsection off the ground... way to go bubs!

~ is pulling up onto his knees constantly. He hasn't gotten the knee to feet thing down quite yet though.

~ will crawl to the window to say goodbye to Grandmommy or hello to Daddy as they drive up the driveway.

~ is chewing like a champ! He may not have teeth, but I have started giving him every manner of soft food in big chunks and he's a star!

Happy 9 months Bubs!! We love you and we're looking forward to many more months and years in the future!

No Means No.... or does it?

In the past couple of weeks, Micah has formed a fascination with a couple of key items in our home.... Our bedroom, the tv stand (or more specifically, the glass doors :P), and the fireplace (in all it's ashy goodness). These new pursuits have motivated me to teach Micah the meaning of "no". Apparently he is right at the age when they can understand this. At first, when a friend told me that, I thought that there was no way he'd be able to grasp the concept yet. Well... I think he (sorta) has!!

Two days ago, he crawled towards our door and just as he began to push it open, I said "Micah" he looked at me "NO" and I shook my head no. He went from a crawling stance to a sitting position and stared at me. Then he went for the door again. I repeated myself and he stopped again. This worked.... 10 times in a row! On the 11th time, it still worked, but he burst into tears of frustration as he sat obediently... not that I blame him. We try to keep our door closed so it isn't an issue, but unfortunately, we can't remove the fireplace (or the tv stand) so he needs to learn. Luckily, he appears to be a pretty good student so far!

p.s.- I'm going to Disneyland! More details to follow :)

Evolution of a Quest

Micah has become VERY intrigued by the camera. Especially when I have the external flash attached. It can actually make it really hard to get pictures now that he can crawl and can pursue the camera. Here he is coming to get it!

I'm gonna get you!!

Here he has made it onto my stomach and is beginning to pin me down...

Finally, he's got me on my back, he's on top of me and I'm crying uncle :P

These other two pics were taken the same day, and although they aren't part of the Canon Expedition, I still love them :)

All I Want for Easter is My Two Front Teeth

... or my canines, or the bottom two teeth... whatever! Micah is in the throes of teething and I have to say, it kinda stinks. You can see his teeth below the surface, the gums are bulging and it's been a week, and still... nada. Every time he wakes up I inspect his mouth for new little chompers but he has yet to break any through. He has at least 6 TEETH waiting to pop up, so he could go from zero to chewing in 1 hour flat if they all appear at the same time :P

Anyhoo, Micah had a good first Easter. He absolutely adores Easter grass and I can tell by the way he attacks and rips at it that he'll have no problem unwrapping his presents for his birthday in three months :P I put some pics down below for your perusal and enjoyment...the full albums are posted on our picture site... enjoy!

Happy boy! These pics were carefully timed around Micah's teeth-induced grumpiness :P

I get the distinct feeling that he will not appreciate the ear pictures when he is a teenager.

I love this one :) Note the attention to the grass and the total neglect of the eggs...

Micah's "real" basket

and of course after this picture, there are 5-10 of him ripping up grass. It's ok though, I anticipated this and bought paper grass..... it breaks down easier when he eats it :P

Conclusion~

I pick beautiful days, but apparently a TON of other people have the same idea. i.e.- the Zoo was packed yesterday... AGAIN... and I am letting someone else take over the zoo day picker outer position :P

We Love It, We Love It, We Looooooove It!!

Nate and I started our church shopping this past Sunday with a trip to Redeemer Community Church in Katy. To preface this post, I pretty much figured we'd visit some churches just to say that we had looked around and that we'd end up attending Kingsland. Well, needless to say, I didn't go into Redeemer with many expectations or any intention of returning a second time. Ummmm, yeah... we'll be going back :) We both knew within about 10 minutes of being in there that something was different and that we REALLY liked it there. The church is very similar to the church I grew up in, in size, attitude, community, and seriousness of their walks. Ever since I switched to a large church in college, I never thought I'd end up at a small one again.... I think I might have been wrong :P Nate and I liked it so much that we are now debating whether we even want to visit any more churches.... it seems weird now to try out other churches when it is so clear that God wants us at Redeemer. Anyways, we are both so excited to have found a church that we love so quickly. Please pray for us to have wisdom in what to do from this point on.. thanks!

Swag-tastic :)

Ok, Jana posted about a site called "Swag Bucks" this weekend, and although skeptical about the whole thing, I decided to give it a shot. Basically it is a search engine by Google that gives you points (swagbucks) randomly the more you use it. You will have done ten searches using it and get nothing and as soon as you search for "James Marsden Wiki" (I was watching X-Men and couldn't remember how many kids he had :P) it just might pop up with a Swag buck. You can redeem Swag Bucks for all sorts of amazing prizes, from gift cards, to books, to electronics... even an iPhone! Of course an iPhone is ALOT of Swag bucks, but a $20 Target card is only 220 swag bucks.... and I already have 7 after one day!! Plus, like all good schemes, swag bucks looks a bit pyramidish. For everyone that signs up under my link~

http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-register&rb=443280

I get duplicate swag bucks for each one they earn up to 100 points! I signed up under Jana, so she has 7 new points from the Bank of Abby since yesterday... how fun is that?! They don't ask for ANY sensitive info when you sign up and there is no charge whatsoever. You just use it as your search engine (mine is my home page now) and you get free stuff. (In my case, Target cards to buy groceries and give our budget a little breathing room :) So anyhoo, if you are a searcher and feel like this would be a cool way to earn something while satisfying your curiosity, use my link to sign up! It will help me earn points faster and keep Micah in diapers ;-)

Les Mis and Le Flirt

My mom, grandma and myself went to see Les Mis at the Hobby Center this week.... it was great! I haven't seen it live in more than a decade (yup, I'm THAT old :P) and I'm really glad we went! We rode there with other residents at my grandma's community (Eagle's Trace... this is not your great grandmas nursing home... each resident owns their own apartment and maintains full autonomy. They provide a TON of great activities... anything from woodwork to painting, to water aerobics, to Wii bowling leagues. It's a really nice place) on their bus, which was fantastic since it dropped us off and picked us up right in front of the building :)

Anyhoo, the bus was nearly full and the three of us sat on the back row so that we could sit together. As we waited to leave, a strapping..... well, old man entered the bus and headed back towards us. He politely asked and was granted the seat next to my grandma. He immediately engaged her in conversation and as they chatted, my mom and I started chanting "grandma's got a boyfriend!!" (so that only we could hear... of course ;) As we continued down the road, they kept up their conversation and mom and I were having a grand old time :) At one point, my grandma turned to talk to us, and you could see him desperately wanting her to turn around and continue their conversation. It was great! Unfortunately, we found out later that Mr. Mayer was married and his wife just wasn't feeling well that evening.. apparently he's just a flirt :P

Teething or Torture?

Micah has been MISERABLE the past couple of days... especially yesterday. He is constantly upset, he won't play, he won't crawl, he won't eat very much, he won't stop crying, and it is just the saddest thing I have ever seen :( It looks like teething, it sounds like teething, but wait... there aren't any teeth! I cannot see or feel anything below the surface, so I cannot know if it's teething or if he's really sick. He is still asleep (after going to bed, finally, around midnight) which is good, and I am desperately hoping to see a little Chiclet poking through his gums when he gets up so his suffering (for now) will be over. If no teeth have made the journey above the surface, then we'll be going to the doctor to make sure everything is ok. PLEASE pray for Micah that he will begin feeling better, and for me that I will be patient with my sweet boy. I feel so bad for him, but after multiple days of this when it is impossible to cheer him up and running errands or leaving the house at all is out of the question, it has become frustrating as well :P