Micah's Big Boy Room

When we moved into this house, I was VERY pregnant. My mom painted the nursery for me and she and Nate put in looooooong hours painting the kitchen cabinets. Weeeeelllll, I've had some residual guilt from not being able to pitch in and I wanted to make sure it didn't happen again. Thus, I started on Micah's new room WAY early. I wanted to get it painted before I got pregnant..... all this explanation translates to "Please don't make fun of me for doing this so early!!"

Anyways, I told Micah that we were going to go upstairs to photograph his new room and this was his response~


And here it is! All I have done is the paint job for this (hopefully) super fun baseball room. The quilt is being made, the rug is being shipped and I am constantly brainstorming for wall art and other things I can add (cheaply :)~

I need to go buy the curtains and add some stitching to them... I can't wait to post a finished room picture! Expect that sometime next spring ;-)

Just Chillin

Buyer BEWARE

It's official... I can't have anything nice. Not that I don't take care of things, or that I lose them, it's just that nice things hate me. Well, technological nice things hate me :P Let us go back in time and explore my recent history with technology, shall we?

~ Buy a new computer for college.... it completely implodes (the hard drive) within the first 6 months of me owning it. It never behaves normally and I have trouble with it constantly throughout college. Technology 1, Abby 0

~ For the first time EVER, I spent money on a phone (didn't take the freebie one) and got myself a Razor. 1 day after it's warranty ended, it simply refused to turn on. I took it to AT&T, they looked at it and said there was no way to fix it and since my contract wasn't up, I would need to spend an exorbitant amount of money to get a new (would have been free) crappy phone. Technology 2, Abby 0

~ We bought a Mac and I was all excited to make the conversion from PC's. The hard drive crashed within the first 2-3 months. We lost everything (luckily we back up). Within a month of getting the computer back it crashes again. We lost everything. This cycle continues and eventually we sell our lemon and I get a new Dell. Technology 3, Abby 0

~ I've had Dell's before, always loved them... this one is weird. Just a little off. It isn't quite as fast as it should be and it seems to have a lot of kinks. Technology 3.5, Abby .5 (I haven't given up yet)

And now it's my iPhone. My stupid, overpriced, bane of my existence iPhone. A few weeks back, a weird message popped up on my screen saying that this accessory is not compatible with the iPhone and would you like to switch to airplane mode? Huh?? There's no accessory plugged in.. there has NEVER been an accessory plugged in. Also, the sounds on my phone died at the same time. Now the message pops up every time I use my phone. I read online that other people had had this problem and the only solution was a new phone. They said if I took the phone into the Apple store, there would be no problem exchanging it....

WRONG! I went to to Apple store and a very nice guy behind the Genius Bar took my phone and started examining it. He saw NOTHING wrong with it. They guy next to him looked and saw that a tiny itty bitty portion of the moisture sensor inside the phone had been activated... so small that my guy had to ask him where and look for a long time before he found the little pink line. "Ah" says he "Your phone got wet and that's why it is malfunctioning." Translation, It's your fault and no longer under warranty.

Here's the deal... my phone has NEVER been exposed to water. Not dropped in a toilet, not near a sweaty glass of water, nowhere near my drooling toddler. That's how I know. I keep that thing high up away from everything to keep it away from Micah. Turns out... the sensor can be triggered by humidity. Er, WHAT??? I live in Houston, Texas... humidity is my LIFE. So now, not only is Apple "not responsible" for this repair, since that sensor has barely been activated, it voids the warranty and anything else that goes wrong is no longer covered. Apparently many people are having this issue of their sensors being triggered by humidity... it's ridiculous.

I walked out of the Apple store crying (pregnancy + frustration = hormonal tears) and fundamentally disgusted with Apple. This is their design problem and now I have to be reminded of how much money I wasted every time I use my shiny piece of ____ that started malfunctioning at the tender age of two weeks old. Great... so glad I have two whole years to regret the purchase. Nate is working furiously to get this situation resolved with Apple, and I'm hopeful, but we'll see.

11 Weeks!

Ok, so today's myth has to do with cravings. If you are craving salty foods and protein then you are having a boy. If you are craving sweet foods like fruit, juice, and dessert then you are having a girl. Hmmm, well.... I've been craving nachos, so that says boy, but I have also been inhaling juice, which leans towards girl. As a tie-breaker I'm going to have to turn to my bagel selections. I used to go for the everything bagel religiously (VERY salty), but since the pregnancy I have been getting a plain bagel with hazelnut cream cheese and now I get a cinnamon raisin bagel. Soooo.... Abby is having a girl. Nate is having a girl. So our count is even! (shocker ;-)

Blueberry's head accounts for almost half of his/her entire length. Both the fingers and the toes have separated by week 11. Blue’s skin is still very transparent, but his/her bones are beginning to harden. Even though I cannot feel Blue moving around, he/she is very active. Blueberry is the size of a very cute fig... the fruit, not the newton ;-)

Now you see it.... now you don't

.. then you see it again, and then you don't....again. Ah, pregnancy... what a fun and incredibly weird time :P On the day of Micah's b-day party, my baby bump EXPLODED. I went from looking somewhat pregnant, to Whoa baby, are you 5 months pregnant?! It was crazy. It lasted at that size for a day and a half and then disappeared.... hmmm, ok. Since then, I have a belly again, but nothing like what I did this weekend. I'd show pictures, but my stint as a 5 month pregnant chick was brief enough that I didn't get a chance for it to be captured on film :P

It was bee-yooteefull

Micah's first birthday party was this last Saturday. We had a lot of family in town and just had a good time celebrating Micah's first year of life. Thanks everyone, it was great to see you!!

Micah's Birthday

On Micah's birthday, we gave him his presents first thing in the morning and then headed down to Moody Gardens for the day.


and the best present? The bow from the bball hoop :)

Micah very quickly learned the objective of the basketball hoop and he has been dunking ever since!

He immediately knew what to do on his new rocking cow... and he loved it :)

Yay, fish! Too bad aquariums (with low light and glass everywhere) are the worst places ever to try to take pictures :P

Riding high

Micah and Mommy

Micah and Grandmommy

Micah LOVED the birds... especially when they made threatening squawking noises at him :)

10 Weeks :)

It's time for another installment of What is Blueberry's Gender! I had a personal favorite picked out for this that states that if your pillow faces north then you will have a boy, if it faces south you will have a girl. There are a couple of fundamental problems with this however~

~ My pillow used to face south, and I had a boy.
~ If this were true, and a couple does not rearrange their furniture, then they will never be able to have a child of the opposite sex.
~ My pillow currently faces west... not sure what that means :P

Soooo, we'll go with something else. Apparently, if your feet become cold more easily now that you are pregnant, then you are having a boy. If not, you are having a girl. According to this theory, Abby is having a boy and Nate is having a girl. So that makes the tally for me, 2 old wives tales for boy and 1 for girl.... what will we be having next week?!

Blueberry's vital organs, kidneys, liver, brain, and lungs are functioning, but will continue to mature throughout the remainder of the pregnancy. Fingernails, toenails, and hair will begin to become visible this week. Blue is actively swallowing amniotic fluid and kicking his/her legs. And of course, as of this week, Blueberry is the size of a cute little lime. Lime and blueberry? Hmmm, not sure about that combo :)

Happy 1st Birthday Micah!!

It was one year ago at this exact time that Micah was born.... super tan and sporting the coolest pair of baby chops ever :) He has been such an amazing blessing to us since the moment that we found out that we were pregnant and he is so much fun to be around now!

As a one-year old, Micah is a walking fool. He loves to go to the splash pad and crawl around in the water and explore each and every one of the jets. He adores anything electronic and has a special place in his heart for computer cords :P He is a really good natured kid (unless he gets his hands on something electronic and then you take it away) and is always smiling and babbling. He does this amazing babble now that sounds like he has swallowed a baby Tasmanian devil.... it involves the same amount of spit too :)

He is good about sharing his toys and expects other kids to do the same. He loves his play group friends and hates when Nate or I have to leave him. When you ask him what a cow says, he might just grace you with an adorable moo. He loves his baseball tee and crawling all over you if you lay on the floor. He is up for trying anything as long and mommy and daddy are there and/or food is involved. Apple juice solves 99% of his problems....the other 1% have no solution. We love you bubs and we are looking forward to spending another year getting to know you even better! You bring us immeasurable joy and we praise God for every day we have had you in our lives!

Exorcist Wanted

Seriously..... my blog is possessed. I know, I know... sometimes I tend to blow things out of proportion, but I have to say that I am right on with this one. Sure, most of the things that it is doing "under the influence" are fairly innocent, but they annoy the HECK outta me! There are two main things that are driving me crazy.

The first is that the spell check now picks 2-3 words at random to declare misspelled every single post. When I click on them, the spelling suggestion is how I already have it spelled. The way this makes me feel is reminiscent of elementary school when the teacher made you switch papers and grade a fellow classmate's quiz. Of course, I would get the not-bright kid in the class who would mark something wrong when it was really right and then I would have to get the teacher to correct it. A little part of me would die seeing that little red "x" next to a correct answer :P

The second is that, when you pull up my blog, it will sometimes pull up an older version of the blog. So people look at it, see a post from a couple of days ago, and assume there isn't anything new. My mom and I both have had this problem, so I assume it is user-wide.

Anyhoo, if anyone has any tips for beating the rebelliousness out of a blog, let me know.

Hello There

Sometimes Micah just likes to give the camera some love :)

9 Weeks :)

Today marks the 9th week of my pregnancy with Blue and as such we will spend this post continuing to explore the depths of gender determination folklore.... ah, good times :) Blueberry has been very unpredictable so far and can make me go from feelin' fine to feelin' pitiful in about .6 seconds flat. I have to say though, overall I feel tons better than I did two weeks ago, so I'm not complaining.

Anyhoo, our myth for the day is that you can determine the sex of your baby by adding your age at time of conception with the number of the month in which conception took place. If the result is even, you are having a boy... if it's odd, you are having a girl.

Abby~ 26 + 5 (May) = 31 = girl
Nate~ 30 + 5 = 35 = girl

Sweet! Well, at least we are having the same gender this week! Stay tuned though, I have no doubt that subsequent weeks may alter this result... again and again and again :P

At this stage, all of blueberry's joints such as the knees, elbows, shoulders, ankles, and wrists are working and allow blue to move about freely. Blue can also make a fist, and may begin sucking his or her thumb. I love that! Blue is approx. 1.5 inches from head to rump now which according to my tracker makes blue "grape" sized.

I'm Making it Official!

Micah is a walker!! He has been taking steps for a couple of weeks now and I have been wondering when exactly I could officially declare him a walker. Well, he made it pretty obvious today that he desires to make it official :) He went from an average of 5 steps in a row before tonight to topping out at 30 ish steps in a row tonight! He made it from the front door to the living room! (for those of you who know our house) He also walked over to us, turned around and walked back without falling down.... soooooo, he's a walker. Way to go buddy!!

p.s.- it's really hard to get a picture that shows that they are walking.... so this is the best I got :)

A Very Unscientific Process

In the never ending pursuit of trying to figure out Blueberry's sex before the all-knowing ultrasound, I have been employing many time honored and fully reliable techniques. The first of which we explored on Monday in the form of the wisdom of women of time gone by (aka, old wives tales). These are 100% accurate and the fact that they give conflicting answers is... well, we'll just overlook that ;-)

My second sure-fire way of determining the sex is, of course, asking Micah. Every day since we found out about blue, I offer Micah two identical toys. I tell him which one is a sister and which one is a brother. I hold them equal distance from him and tell him to pick which one he thinks he is going to get. I am keeping a tally and we'll see by the ultrasound what Micah's guess is for his sibling! Obviously this method is fool proof and will gain us invaluable insight into the sex of this child.... well, it'll be about a 50/50 guess at least :)

Bunco!

Last night was the first meeting of my new Bunco group and I have to say... I'm pumped! I had so much fun and I'm really looking forward to seeing what different girls pull off on their nights. Kelli had a picnic themed night and it was great! Mine being January 4th might be a "my Christmas decorations are still up" theme :P Maybe that will motivate me to get everything back into place quickly....we'll see!

8 Weeks

Hey kiddos.... no belly pic yet.... you might be thinking, "Of course there is no belly pic yet, there probably isn't a belly yet!" and I'd say WRONG!! It's sad how pregnant I look already... especially by the end of the day :) But I even show when I get up in the morning.. craziness. Anyhoo....

What's going on with Blueberry?
Everything that is present in an adult human is now present in the small embryo. The ears are continuing to form externally and internally. The bones are beginning to form, and the muscles can contract. Fingers and toes are webbed but are growing longer.
The facial features continue to mature. The tip of the nose is present and the eyelids are now more developed. The embryonic tail is also disappearing, and your baby's body is beginning to straighten out. The embryo is at the end of the embryonic period and begins the fetal period.

Sweet.... Blueberry is a fetus now... score! Blueberry is also the size of a raspberry ;-)

New material below... check it out :)
And now it's time for a new weekly segment I like to call,"The Laws of Probability" ..... Sounds exciting, right? In this segment, I will look at a different old wives tale concerning the sex of the baby and determine (based on these VERY scientific tests) what it is that I am having. Now, any good scientist knows that you have to have a control subject in order to truly understand your results. Enter my lovely assistant, Nate :)

This week's tale- The rate of your hair growth will tell you what you are having. If it is faster than normal, then you are having a boy, if it is the same then you are having a girl. According to my in depth study and the excellent guidance provided in this myth....

Abby is having a boy
Nate is having a girl

and that concludes our first installment of "The Laws of Probability"... join us next week as we further explore the gender of our baby :)

How Blue Makes Green

Otherwise known as Blueberry is making me depressingly sick.....and unfortunately it is all day long :P Anyways, if you think about it, pray for me... taking care of Micah is pushing me to my physical limits right now (even though he's being really good :)

Pregnancy = Inspiration

Blueberry has inspired me to add some things to the nursery decor. Our church had a ladies craft night and I needed to come up with a project to work on, so I decided on wall art for the nursery. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and I think they'll look great in the nursery!