Hmmm

I was looking through the family pics that I have on my computer (my grandpa painstakingly scanned a bazillion of his favorites and I'm SO glad he did!) and I found this baby pic of my grandpa... Lizzie looks like him! At least I think so :)

Then I came across this one of my brothers with my grandma... if you smoosh my brothers together, it is TOTALLY Micah! I have tons of pics of both of them that remind me of him though :)

Doppleganger

AND

=

Just Sayin'

First 'Stros Game of the Year

Well, for us anyway. The Astros have been playing for awhile now and we just made it out as a fam for the first time on Saturday. My dad came with us and we had a great time! (even if he didn't share his gummi bears ;-)

Micah and Lizzie were both a bit worried about how the Stros have been playing.

But we all ended up having a great time! Micah would randomly point at things during the game and get very excited. The sheer size of the stadium impressed him when we first got up to our seats and he just kept saying "WHOA!"

Lizzie found the whole ordeal to be a bit tiring when all was said and done... but at the end of the night, she still looked adorable which is, by the way, at least half the battle :)

Baby Dedication

This past Sunday was Lizzie's baby dedication at church. It is so fun to be at a small church and personally know all the other couples and kiddos up there with you. The dedication was at the beginning of the service and then all of the families left to put the kiddos in the nursery before returning to church. We decided to try to grab a quick family picture.... haha, riiiiiiight... quick picture. Anyhoo. Attempt number one right out of the gate wasn't bad, but we were hoping to at least get Micah facing the camera~


Thus began a chorus of "Micah!" "Hey Buddy!" "Look up.. look at Pa!" "Miiiiiiiiccccccaaaaaahhhh" Our attempts to get Micah to look at the camera angered him greatly (as such things do when you are almost two years old) and he started to scream... pretty loud.... right outside the sanctuary. This required immediate parental action so as not to disturb church~

I swear I don't have man hands, (they are actually quite petite) but something about this picture makes them look huge. Anyhoo.... attempt number three was sort of a grab-it-before-he-yells-again kind of thing... and it's pretty much identical to #1 except Lizzie isn't looking at the camera~

I'm looking forward to getting a good family picture... in 10 years.... maybe ;-)

This Saturday, Sean had a birthday party and Micah discovered the see-saw....

....he LOVED it! And yes, he rode off center like that the whole time and never fell off... that's talent.

The Evolution of a Nickname

Those who know me well know that I have a myriad of nicknames... a cornucopia, if you will. I've often joked (only slightly kidding) that every person in my life calls me something different. As such, I am a fan of nicknames and have been using them on my kids :) When they are first born, nicknames come in droves... it calms down as they get older.

Micah= "Bubs", "Micah Bean" & "Bean Pole"

Elizabeth = "Lizzie", "Lizzie Lou", "Liz", "Lizzie Belle", "Sunflower" (she always turns towards the light :), "Sunshine" (I call Micah this sometimes too... happy babies :), "Roly Poly", and my favorite "Fuzz" or "Fuzzy" (the hair)

As Cher said in Clueless, I see their names as a jumping off point to start negotiations :) If you think I'm a nickname fanatic, here's where I get it...

Abigail = Abby, Gator, Abs, Abs of Steel, Abs of Flab, Flabby, Flabigail, Flabigator, Gator Bob, Gator Pie, Tator Tot, Gail (bleh), Abigoose... and the list goes on, and on, and on :P

Nate also has a lot of nicknames, but to my family he is typically "Young Nathan Junior" ;-)

Yes Sir, That's My Baby (Mama :)

For those of you not in the loop (which may be quite a few :) Two weeks ago, my mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer. God worked a miracle in the form of cancellations to allow for three different doctors to all be available for surgery on the same day only 8 days after my mom's diagnosis (seriously, it was SO fast and very crazy to watch!). She had her surgery last Thursday and they think they got rid of all the cancer! It has been such a roller coaster ride, but we feel very blessed. Anyhoo, that's the background info you need for this story to make sense :)

I was going to visit my mom in the hospital on Friday and I called my dad and asked for the room number~

Dad- "312"
Abby- "What? Ummm, that's the maternity floor...."
Dad- "Yup"

Ok... that's weird. Apparently they ran out of space on the 7th floor and decided to put her in a recovery room in the postpartum wing. I went up to see her and it was the weirdest thing! I mean, I recovered from Micah's birth in the room next door to where she was! She was only 5 doors down from the room I had with Lizzie. Anyways, a bit of a weird experience.

I did enjoy walking down the hall with her though... it's fun to watch strangers try to figure out whether or not my mom just had a baby :)

Balloon Boy

Micah had a GOOD time at Macy's birthday party. Ah, to be so easily amused :)

The Evolution of a Blog

I wrote an entry and it sounded a bit (ok, a LOT) whiny and I couldn't bring myself to post it... you're welcome ;-) I thought I'd post this instead...

Things I did yesterday~

- Stopped Micah from eating a rock
- "Beat" MarioKart Wii during nap time
- Stopped Micah from eating mulch
- Watched the Stros kick booty
- Stopped Micah from eating a stick
- Watched Biggest Loser while eating a Snickers
- Let Micah eat dirt.... have to give the kid something :)

3 Stinkin Months Old!

Lizzie looked a little worried when I told her how old she was... well, that or hungry :)


Anyways, our sweet baby girl is 3 months old today! I have noticed that recently she has been undergoing that magical 3 month transformation and she is now even more delightful than she was before this :) Liz is a "solid" girl and definitely bigger than Micah was at this point and apparently bigger than myself or my siblings... so sayeth my mom. She is a very vocal little girl and will coo at you for as long as you are willing to talk back. She smiles easily and with reckless abandon, throwing her whole face and body into it. The nursery workers love her since she is very good natured and smiley. She rarely cries and when she does, it is for a purpose and short lived. She loves to roll over and has taken to sleeping on her side. She is strong and good at locking her legs, controlling her head, reaching out and grasping objects and she can challenge even the toughest competitor in a staring competition :) She really is a joy to be around and even though having two kids is no picnic, I wouldn't trade my baby girl for ANYTHING.

Baby Blues

Why am I doing this?

I ran again yesterday. Gotta say, I pretty much HATE running (sorry Dad :P). Of course, the 90 degree temps and my still woefully out of shape body may have contributed to my hatred. Anyhoo, I shaved 4 minutes off my 1.2 mile lap time from my first attempt (thank you 30 day shred :) and only had about 10 thoughts about giving up and not running the half marathon in January. I ran about 2/3 of the lap with an initial half mile stretch that I ran before walking at all. Sounds pitiful, BUT it was only attempt number two and it was way better than my last try :)

A brother is a friend given by Nature.
~Legouve

Truly She Has a Dizzying Intellect....

So, this weekend my mom and I were talking about Lizzie and how she seems to be a bit ahead of the game. She looks older than she is since she is so tall and is well filled out.. but anyone can have a big baby. Not everyone can have a brilliant one though ;-) It's something about the way she interacts with people, the control she has over her limbs and head, the way that she looks at and studies things... she seems older than she is.

Well anyhoo, you guys might remember her rolling over for the first time a week and a half ago. I assumed that the roll over was the standard fluke one-time roll over that usually is more than a month before they could be considered a "roller". Wellllll, yesterday she rolled from her back to her tummy... hmmm, that's new. She got frustrated (she didn't want to be on her tummy, gosh darn it!) so I flipped her back over. Within 1 minute she had rolled back onto her tummy and was propped up on her elbows looking around. And a few minutes later, she rolled back onto her back. WOW! She is only 11 weeks old people... that's young to roll. I was on the phone talking to my mom about it and she rolled AGAIN. So, I guess it wasn't a fluke.... Houston, we have a roller ;-)

Love Her

"Beautiful girls, all over the world. I could be chasing but my time would be wasted, they ain't got nothing on you, baby. Nothing on you, baby." :)