We've been elf-ed

Click here to view video

Ok so we've had way too much fun with this. We discovered it several years ago and have elfed many people. Probably one of the funniest was a few years ago when we elfed my dad and emailed it to several of his friends. Last night before bed Corey told me to wait b/c he needed to show me something. Of course, he elfed all of us. Micah is for sure the cutest little dancing elf out there! You've go to try it, it's just too funny! :)

Have you ever had one of those days?

Ok, I'm sure you have. My day started out on a good note. Micah has been sleeping great which has been awesome for all of us. He's been going to bed at the usual time of 7:30 and sleeping till about 6:30ish. So, this morning I actually woke up before Micah and was even able to get a shower before Corey left for work. It pretty much went down hill from there. Ok...so it wasn't that bad, just one of those days that makes you say tomorrow I'm staying home.

As I said before Micah is crawling and pulling himself up....he's absolutely into everything!!! I had scheduled his 9 months pictures for today at 11 am and of course a few hours before that he fell and gashed his forehead on the register (which we try to discourage him from playing with but he loves them). Oh well, I figured that would be a pretty accurate picture of what he looks like at 9 months.

We arrive at the studio on time which is pretty impressive in and of itself. There was only one girl there to take pics and run the counter. Anyways, there was an angry customer there and she told me it was going to be a while. So an hour later we were finally on our way to get some pictures. She wanted Micah to sit on the red dot so she could get some shots. Well, surely she has taken enough pictures of babies to know that they don't just sit. The second I put him down he was off to explore. Haha. She even tried putting him in a box which he was by no means happy about. I finally told her as long as she can get one decent picture than we'll be happy. We did end up getting a couple cute pics and an hour and a half later we were on our way.

Next we went to the car and as I was putting Micah in his car seat I looked behind me as I was going to put my stroller in the trunk and it was not there. Huh? I was really confused I walked behind the car thinking I had put it there but no luck. My first thought was that someone stole it. I know, I know...but what else could have happened to it. The lady in the van next to me rolled down her window and pointed across the parking lot probably 100-200 feet away at my stroller that was blowing in the wind. Seriously? Yep. There was another van that was chasing my stroller and a lady finally caught up to it. I got Micah out of his carseat and went to meet her as she was bringing my stroller back to me. Come to find out she was freaking out b/c she thought there was a baby in it. I have now learned my lesson and will use the breaks.

So, it was now 1 pm and even though we'd had a rough last couple hours Micah doesn't nap until 2. I thought I could make a quick TJ Maxx run. Well Micah was just not having it. He was screaming and throwing a major fit b/c he wanted out of his stroller. So, I put the picture frames I wanted to buy on top of his stroller and attempted to get him out. In the mean time one of the frames fell on the floor and shattered. So, after finding a worker to tell them and offering to pay for it, I decided that we'd both had enough and I'd go back another time alone! :)

To top it all off, Micah fell asleep in the parking lot and of course got just enough sleep on the less than 10 minute drive home to not want to go back down.

Like I said, just one of those outings that makes you say I think I'll stay home tomorrow!:)

9 Months

This was literally the only pic I could get of the little guy! He is 9 months now and on the move!! He is crawling/army crawling and pulling himself up. He doesn't sit still and is into everything. He has scratches and bruises all over his body and our house looks like a tornado blew through it most days. He is so sweet though and we love him to death! He goes to the MD on Thursday so I'll give you his stats then.

Vacation

Well about 6+ months ago my mom had been asking if we wanted to go on vacation with her. They have a time share and they have used it to go to Atlantis (on Paradise Island in the Bahamas) several times. She booked the vacation a while back and it ended up that neither Jeff (my step-dad) or Jori (my sister) were able to go. So it was just going to be my mom and Lily (sister) and she thought it would be fun to have Micah and I join them. Life was crazy 6 months ago and we didn't even know where we'd be living at this time so I just kinda kept it as a thought. So with that being said we continued to talk about the vacation and tentatively plan on it. About 3 weeks prior to the trip when we were talking something dawned on me and I realized that I didn't have a passport for Micah. In order to expedite a passport it takes 2-3 weeks and we only had 2 1/2 weeks till the trip...no to mention the extra money it was going to cost not even knowing if we'd get it in time. I went back and forth and eventually decided to go ahead and attempt to get the passport. If it arrived we'd go and if not we'd stay home. Well, I am happy to say that one week later we had the passport in hand and a week after that we were on our way to the Atlantis.

We had a great trip and I am very thankful we were able to go. The resort is beautiful and there are just so many little details that make it a great place. It's hard to really describe but obviously the theme is centered on Atlantis . So basically the whole outside resort has tons of aquariums and marine life. It is neat b/c you can walk around outside and there are tons of lagunes with sharks/sting-rays/fish, etc and you can see them either from the top or you can see them through the glass on a lower level or in different caves. Like I said, kinda hard to explain. There is also a water park on site. My favorite ride was one where you go through the shark tank on a tube. I think Lily and I rode almost every ride. Micah's favorite things on the trip were the casino, the waterfalls/waterfountains, and the elevator buttons. It was hilarious but he would just squeal and wave his arms with excitement.

Any of you who have traveled with babies/kids know that it is not an easy task. Thankfully on the way down my mom and Lily were a huge help. We do fly stand-by though (b/c my step-dad is a pilot) so it took us 4 flights to get there and on the way back Micah and I had to do 3 flights by ourself b/c my mom and Lily couldn't get on the flight at the same time. That was something...traveling with Micah, my suitcase, his diaper bag, stroller, carseat, and carseat base. Most people are super helpful though so somehow we managed. Micah for the most part traveled pretty well...though on the plane he did have fun trying to pull the lady's hair in front of him, grabbing guy's laptop next to me, shredding the airline magazine...you get the picture! Let's just say the trip back home was exhausting.

We had a great trip though! It was nice to be able to go to such a nice resort and enjoy some warm weather!!! It was also great to be able to spend some time with my mom and Lily. Lily was awesome with Micah and he had lots of fun playing with her. I was even able to get some relaxing in the sun in and actually read an entire book!!!! Micah started crawling (well, only a few little crawls followed by army crawls) when we were down there too. As much fun as we had we were also excited to get back to see Corey! We both missed him tons!!!

Here are some pics of our trip!

We even had Jamba Juice! Everything down in the Bahamas is so expensive though. I think that the small drink was about $6.

Lil and Micah in front of the Chihuly

The grounds of the resort were beautiful

Micah liked "swimming" in the pool

Here are some of the fountains that he just LOVED!

Ahhhh....the ocean! It is so beautiful!!! The water was aqua and crystal clear. We didn't actually spend a whole lot of time at the beach. We would usually go for a morning walk on the beach but most of our time in the afternoon we spent at the pools (which was easier at this age with Micah).

This was a rope bridge that went over a laguna with hammer head sharks.

Hammer Head Shark

The Royal Towers. That bridge looking thing that connects the two towers is actually a suite! I told Corey maybe we could go back and stay there for an anniversary! :)

These were the time shares that we stayed in....they were on the marina.

Micah playing peek-a-boo with Aunt Lily

Micah's first time crawling

This is one of the slides that goes through the shark tank. So all the water you see is where the sharks are. Kinda crazy one of the workers told us that last year a shark actually jumped (which I guess sharks don't normally do) into the slide. So...now they have that green fence where previously they didn't. Thankfully the slides hadn't opened so no one was hurt.

This is a top view so you can see the tube you go through in the background and the sharks swimming. You could also go to a lower level where it was all glass and you could view people going down the slides.

There goes Lil!

Haha...feet up saying "this is the life"

One of the kiddos play area. Lily took Micah down some of the baby slides.

We brought daddy back a rum cake so he wouldn't feel too left out.

Micah and Grandma

Outside of Ben and Jerrys.

We had such a fun time...it was a great vacation! Thanks Mom and Lily!

We're sick

I'm writing this post not just to tell you that we've been sick (well, Micah and I that is) with lingering colds but moreso b/c it relates to this video. Several days ago we were all in the car and it was so funny b/c I coughed and Micah imitated me by coughing. Well...Corey said he mocked me, but I prefer to think of it as imitating! :) Anyways, again this morning when we were eating breakfast I coughed and then Micah coughed. He proceeded to this do about 5 more times. A little while later I tried to get him on camera doing his cough. I managed to get him doing it a little but he was somewhat preoccupied with his toy. It is pretty funny though!

Friends

Another great thing about moving back to MI is that we are not only closer to family but also closer to some of our friends(of course we did have to leave some good friends in Phoenix as well)!! Some of our really good friends, Craig and Angela, live in Indy and I can't believe that it has been over 3 years since we have seen them. We actually stopped in Indy on our move to Phoenix and stayed with them and that unfortunately is the last time we've seen them. Corey met Craig and Angela at Butler, Craig majored in finance (as did Corey) and Angela in pharmacy and they were both involved in Campus Crusade. Corey and Craig actually lived together the year after they graduated. Craig and Angela were married less than 2 months before we were (we were at their wedding and they were at ours) and had their first baby (a little boy, Nolan) about 3 months before Micah was born. SO, anyways....all that to say they are great friends and I'm glad to be closer so we can see them and our little guys can get to know each other.

Craig, Angela, and Nolan came up this past Friday night. On Saturday we ventured down to Silver Beach Pizza for lunch and then over to the carousel. Sunday we went to church (this was Corey's first time preaching at The Chapel so it was cool they got to be here for that) and then had lunch and they headed back to Indy. We hope to be able to make a trip down to Indy sometime not too far off too!

Here are some pics from our fun weekend...

Micah (8 months) and Nolan (11 months) meeting each other for the first time.

Sitting in the bumper car together

Micah loves mirrors so of course he loves the funny mirrors they have at Silver Beach

And this is what happens when Corey has the camera while riding on the carousel...we get a picture of the velociraptur

Oh yeah, and about 10 pics that looked like this!

Nolan turns one in about 2 weeks so here are a few pics of Micah giving him his bday gift and also the boys playing

Saturday night the boys took a bath together and they had so much fun. It was so cute!!!

Playing one last time before Nolan had to go home.

Nolan is already crawling and Micah is not far off. He is definitely ready to get where he wants to go...even if I'm not.

Micah had a BLAST playing with Nolan. He is such a people person and just LOVES being around others especially other kids. He was loud and full of energy all weekend, he was definitely in his element. It was a great weekend and we can't wait to get together soon.