Micah at Dollywood

This is Micah playing in the waterspouts today at Dollywood. For some reason I think the way he runs these days is totally adorable. Something about the way he pumps his little arms and fists up and down. Today when he was running he was rarely looking where he was going, he was just plowing through the kids. I missed the couple of tackles he made, but I'm sure you can see how that would happen! (more)

Micah's Boots and More

Micah has these boots that his Gramma gave him that he LOVES. They are yellow and blue rain boots that make his feet all sweaty and smelly and yet they are his favorite shoes right now. He has worn them on the last two or three Fridays to our Great Grandma day and today he wore them out to the movies and over to Kate's house. I dont know what it is about these boots that he likes so much, but he wears them ALL THE TIME--even around the house, which is weird because he normally doesn't like to wear shoes and the first thing he does when he gets home is take his shoes off. But not these boots. In fact, the other day he had to put the boots on before he would go potty. Whats with that?! Here's a picture from this morning and one from last week when he was playing frog in boots.



Well, when I was looking for the pictures of Micah in his boots I came across these pictures from a couple weeks ago when we went up to Gatlinburg to spend some time with good friends. Tiff and I have been friends since 6th grade and our kids have known each other since they were babies. I think that's pretty cool! All the kids had a great time playing together and I thought you would like to see some of the pictures I took. This is Mikayla and Josiah fixing the toy with their forks. Isabella is in the back supervising.

Micah enjoyed being a superstar!

This is Mr. Reggie, Mikayla, and Josiah fighting off all the bears and racoons that were attacking the cabin!

And then there was baby Brandon...the boys thought he was the best! They loved holding him and hearing all his baby sounds. Everytime he made a sound Josiah and Micah would just LAUGH! And just like every great toy, they both wanted to hold him at the same time. It was actually really cute how fun they thought he was! And here I was worried about Micah not letting me hold him because he was jealous...I should have been worried about him letting me have my turn!!

Celebrate!!

On Tuesday this week I went to my LAST doctor's appointment for my knee. There had been a scare that I might have to have more surgery to clean out scar tissue, but on Tuesday the doctor said everything looked FANTASTIC and there was no surgery in my future. YIPEE! I'M FREE!! No more doctors, no more therapy (I'm working out at the gym to condition it) no more copays--LIFE IS GOOD!!

Josiah's Dream

Josiah had a dream last night that he told us about when he woke up this morning. I thought it was fun to hear what he dreamed about so I thought I'd post it here for you all to read about, too. I know it isn't word for word like he told us, but I tried to remember as best I could what he said and how he said it. I asked a couple questions in the middle that I'll include in the retelling.

I had a dream last night about ALADDIN! Only they didn’t have the same faces. He went to the BEACH and they had lots of clothes to put on. Then they went to the fox’s house. But we didn’t go in and the fox kept slamming the door. He was banging the door and it LIGHTED UP. And there was Princess Jasmine, but she didn’t have the same face. (Were you Aladdin?) No, I was the monkey. But he didn’t have the same face. And Jafar made us go to the TIGER and it started to fall but the magic carpet flew us out before it fell. (He got you out BEFORE it fell?) Yeah, he held the tiger’s mouth open while he flew out and he took us out into space. (Did you see anything in space?) I only saw one thing in space. I only saw a rocket ship and I got in it. It was a good dream.

That's the first dream he's told us about in much detail. Sometimes he'll be able to tell us what he dreamed about but he wont remember the details. This one had lots of details and I thought they'd be fun to share with you!


This is a picture Josiah drew one day this week. It is of him and his Daddy. He meant draw himself holding his daddy's hand but somehow he ended up holding his ear instead. Oh well! I still think its adorable!

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!!!!

Da-da-da-DAAAAH!

Micah decided on Wednesday that he no longer wanted to wear diapers and he has been dry for 2 1/2 days! Yipee! It's really true what they say (at least in this case) that the child will do it when he is ready. We were getting dressed on Wednesday when Micah said he didn't want to wear a diaper and he didn't want to wear a pull-up. He wanted "unwear." So, not wanting to discourage potty training, we went for it. He wet through every pair of underwear in his size in an hour! Then we had to go back to pull-ups--they were the next best thing. But, since then, he's been dry! He's even been staying dry through nap time! We went back to underwear later in the day on Wednesday after I did some laundry, but so far he hasn't done anything but pee on the potty, so after the first messy underwear I told him he had to wear pull-ups until he always used the potty. We compromised with underwear over the pull-up for now. But he's done so great! I'm so proud of him! Once he decided to do it, it's been done! I've given him a few special treats for doing such a great job, but he doesn't do it for the treats (although he's also not going to turn down M&Ms). He does it just because he wants to. So here's a picture of his proud little self, underwear over the pull-up:





And here are a few more pictures from yesterday's trip to the grocery with great grandma. The boys were being our helpers and carrying our purses for us!

P.S. Happy Friday the 13th!!

Oh, For the Love of Be-Be!

If there was ever any doubt about how important "the be-be" is, there should not be any longer. Last week John and I experienced one of the longest nights we've had since the boys were infants, and it was all about the be-be. Or rather the lack of be-be. Be-be had been forgotten at great grandma's house. And yes, she only lives less than a mile away, but he went to sleep alright at bedtime so I figured he would survive the night without his beloved. Oh was I wrong. The "fun" began at midnight. Micah woke up calling for me and when I got there he said, "Where my be-be?" I tried to avoid the question and offer other special things, like Pookah and Blanket. But those were no good. "NO. Don't want blanket! Need be-be!" So I had to tell him that be-be was at grandma's and oh, did he cry then. "NEED be-be!" I crawled in bed with him and he tossed and turned and tried to settle in and eventually he was still for awhile and I thought, no, HOPED he was asleep, so I snuck out. But no sooner had I gotten to bed than he started calling for "Daddy!" and went through the whole, "Need be-be" "Be-be's not here" "WAAAHH!" all over again. Micah finally decided he needed water. John got the water and came back to bed only to hear Micah also coming down the hall because he had already drank the entire cup of water and wanted more. Ha! We settled for putting him in bed with us since he was clearly seeking some kind of comfort. Well, all that managed to do was keep all of us (at least me and Micah, I really think John could sleep through an earthquake) awake for the next hour. Micah was rolling and flopping and squirming and kicking and muttering "be-be. Need blue be-be." One of us finally escorted Micah back to his own bed. It was now around 3 AM. Not more than a minute later Micah came back to our room asking for be-be. Poor guy. See the thing is he holds be-be the whole time he's sleeping and be-be gets all wrapped around him and whatever, but he's always right there. And whenever Micah wakes up I think he settles himself back to sleep by holding be-be. Oh, and he KNOWS be-be. I tried to substitute in a similar blanket somewhere in the midst of the neverending pining for be-be only to be told, "That NOT be-be. Need BE-BE." It was pitch black in there AND he has a tent over his bed right now---how could he even see?!!? He couldn't and that's the point. Just one touch and he knew that what I was trying to pass off as the one, was most definitely NOT be-be. Anywho...we've learned our lesson. Never underestimate the importance of the lovey or you'll suffer the consequences!

(Micah just came up and asked what I was doing and I told him I was writing a blog about him. He wanted to see his picture so I'm putting this on here for him. I took this just a couple of minutes ago and, yes, that is the infamous be-be wrapped around him.)

From the Mouths of Babes

Here's a really cool story for you. It's a two parter. The first part happened last Sunday at church. Josiah's class was playing that they were in a boat and his teacher asked him to stand up and tell everyone the story of the brick falling on his head. So, of course, our little performer stands up and does his thing. He tells everyone about the bird feeder and spinning around and mommy yelling and ya-de, ya-da. And then he ends his story by telling everyone that its getting much better because God is making it better. That's part one and I heard it from his teacher who was so impressed that he would stand up and tell everyone that and also thought it was sweet that he wanted to tell everyone that God was healing it.

Part Two. This is from an email I got today from a friend who's daughter is in Josiah's class:

"i had to write to tell you about what molly said this morning.... she has a bug bite on her arm and i saw it and rubbed on it, and she said that it hurt, but, "that's okay because God will make it better!" and then she went on to say that, "my friend at church said he had a scratch on his head but that God was making it feel better! so it's okay, mommy, because God can always make things feel better!" i thought that was so cute that she had really paid attention to josiah's story....oh, to have faith like that!"

My Little Punkin

Happy 4th of July!!


You know, I really do have two incredibly sweet boys. Here's a story from this morning that I wanted to write down before I forget.

Actually, the story started last night. We were getting the boys ready for bed and there were some shenanigans happening (mostly revolving around 'booger balls' for those of you who have seen "Everyone's Hero). Anywho, Micah accidently smacked the back of his head into my lip. It hurt enough to put me out of the shenanigan mood (its all fun and games until someone gets hurt, right?) and John got me some ice so I wouldnt be too puffy today. About 10 minutes later the boys were in bed and Micah asked for snuggles, "Mommy, I want your sleep me" Who could resist that? We get in his bed and he wraps his little arms around my neck which feels a bit like a head lock because his arms are still so short and my nose is smushed to his chest as he says, "need hole you." After a few minutes I leave them to go to sleep. Well, I think Micah must have really been concerned about me because this morning when he woke up he yelled, "MOM!!!....MOM!!" I went down and picked him up and he wrapped his arms AND legs around me and with his face in my neck he said, "Your otay, Mommy?" I said, "Yeah, Im okay" but I didnt really know why he was asking that. Obviously realizing I wasnt understanding him he asked, "Your lip otay?" I just smiled and said, "Yeah, my lip is fine. Do you want to see it?" yeah, he said. So I pointed out the spot and he said, "oh. Want my kiss it?" Oh how precious. I wish I could take those moments of unexpected love from my kids and lock it in a box to hold forever. And I guess in a way that's what I'm doing here because now I know I will never forget it. And hopefully I'll be able to remember how awesome I felt this morning with my baby's arms and legs locked around asking me if I want a kiss.

"Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
--Franklin Jones