Jennifer does it again

My favorite photographer captured some amazing moments this past Saturday. We took "Micah's one-year shots" as well as "Matthew's school picture" and some family shots. The boys were feeding the ducks (and Micah) goldfish, and Jennifer just really let us bask in this blissful time on a lovely sunny morning, watching the kids play, watching the ducks, watching a heron that flew in... just living and loving life. ... Thank you to Jennifer, for capturing still moments of my children loving life. Here is a very small sample. I can't wait to get the motherload from her.

Grammy's trip

Last weekend we had Grammy fly in for a weekend visit. It was fast. It's always too fast, but it is always so good while it lasts. I had a lot of commitments for the weekend actually, so I felt robbed of what precious time she was here. However, she got to be my babysitter and spend that time with the boys. Thank you Mom for coming and being so available to come down for the weekend. They eat up their Grammy time. Here's just a little of what was captured...(I finally got them uploaded)

Happy Late Birthday Baby

How has it already been well over a week and half since my baby's birthday? How is he already one? Man alive, this year has flown by me. Micah I love you so much, my little one. You are a complete joy. I love you so much. You wave "buh bye" and you say "DaDa." You also say "Be Ah Be Ah" but we don't know what that means. You sort of say "Bahhh" which means Ball. You also sign (your version) of "more" and "done" which sometimes you say "Dun Dun" when I sign it. So I know you're understanding me! It's so fun to watch you grow and learn. You love playing with balls the most. You also really like walking in your walker. Your brothers love you so much. They both want to kiss and hug you. Your lovely blonde hair has stayed put and your gorgeous blue eyes are so blue and pretty. I love that you're different. You are special. You have such gorgeous fair features. I can see some of Jamie's dad in you and my grandpa. It's so fun. You are so fun. You are such a good baby too. You are clingy and like to be held a lot but you are good. You are content and so lovable. My sweet Micah Bear. Oh and also, you have seven teeth right now--four on the top and three on the bottom. Such a sweet smile.

My big one year old. We had such a nice party. Your Papa and Grandpa were here. And "Grandpa Ross" and "Grandma Pat" were here also "cousin" Katherine came with Mr. Mike and Ms. Laura. It was such a nice party. Just family and just lots of love in the room. You are so loved.

Happy Birthday Boy!

bear cake

yummy pizza!

stripped down for cake!

I don't like this on my hands! Moooooooooom! What is this?!

Oh, what? What did you say? There's CAKE under this icing?

Um, where'd that cake go?

Ha, I found some cake on the way to the tub! mmmmm.

All clean

is it summer or spring?

Yesterday was the first day of spring, but I tell you what it is hot enough here to be summer time already! We've been enjoying some outside fun lately. Micah has been enjoying the stroller a lot and he also likes when we take his walker outside. I have put shoes on him a couple times now so he can walk around outside with the big boys. Matthew really likes riding circles around Micah but that's okay. We love playing in and out of the playhouse/"icecream stand" and of course our favorite is still chalking!

paint

(Okay, first, isn't he the cutest stinkin thing?!)

Ta Da! Look, I made it 7 days before his birthday, it's official, Micah lives here! His name made it on the door. We took a vote as to where Micah's name should be: on the bottom of the boy's door, in the middle between the big boy's names or on his own door (which is the office/nursery/guestbedroom door) and the vote was on their shared door. So some day I guess he's movin in there with them. We'll see how long he stays put in his own crib for now though.

In other painting news, Matthew had been asking and asking for a sunshine in their ocean scene. "Mark's side has a boat," he'd tell me. Which is funny, because I painted the boat for him when he slept in the toddler bed, but his new "big boy" side was without anything above water. So, I finally obliged and painted a sunshine. The sun without the rays has been there about two weeks now. We'd been discussing what to do about the rays... I had been wanting to paint the fruit of the spirit up for some time and in the end, at Jamie's suggestion to put them as the rays, Matthew got his sun and I got the fruit of the spirit up on the wall. They aren't in the order biblically from left to right, also Jamie's suggestion, I tried to put the longest one in the middle and the shorter ones on the edges to look like you'd think the sun looking... the boys LOVE their new sunshine!

Given the painting party I was having by myself, I also took the liberty to paint over some of the more tackier ocean life that had been previously painted. There was a sad octopus and a really sad shark that got painted over. Mark announced "Hey! The shark dis-ta-peer-did" Yup, it did, but I replaced both with a way cooler octopus and more fish. Mark's side also got more fish added. Now Jamie says all this room is missing are seagulls. I'm going to say "too bad" to that one though, I doubt I'll be painting seagulls in there. I told him I'd consider clouds but he didn't seem interested in that part. Anyhow, here's Matthew's side of the room. I didn't think to take a picture of the boat side.

who's doing what

Matthew made these beautiful cardinals in the snow at school. Being from St. Louis, you can imagine my joy in seeing them on the fridge! I am partial of course, but I think he did such a neat job. It is really a fun picture.



Mark is starting to spell. He spelled Dog, Cat, Mark all by himself! Then he kept going until we ran out of vowels basically! He stays busy with puzzles by himself, magnets by himself, flash cards... he's such a good little self-player.


Micah worked so hard emptying the tuperwares. I looked over and he was just head down on the floor, having worked so hard to empty that cabinet! Silly little bear!