Happy 3rd Birthday Micah Man!!

1 day

1 year

2 years

3 years

 Can't believe our little guy is already 3!  Micah has brought so much joy to our lives--we love you Micah!!!!

Our month in pictures

Happy Birthday Grandpa

Having fun playing in the snow with daddy. 

  

We made a weekend trip to visit our friends, Craig and Angela and thier kids Nolan (who is 3 months older than Micah) and Isla (who is 3 months older than Adelyn). We had an awesome time together catching up and it was so fun to see the kids playing.  The pics are of our morning at the kids museum (which by the way is awesome--Micah's favorite exhibit was the Hot Wheels).  Not pictured is Corey and Craig rooting on Butler at a bball game and Angela who treated her and I to massages and pedicures (which by the way was an awesome treat!!:).  We are already looking forward to when they will visit us this summer.

I love that toothy grin!

So stinkin' cute!!

Adelyn at 1 year

 Sidenote--please excuse the disgustingly dirty oven.  As soon as I saw this picture I cleaned the front of the oven.  Children and stainless steel do not go well together!!! :)

At her one  year check up Adelyn weighed 19 lb 9 oz (45%), was 29 in tall (41%) and her head was 17 in (38%) around.  So she is about average even though she does seem like a little peanut (think its just her petite features).  It took an ENTIRE year for Adelyn to start sleeping through the night (and by sleeping through the night I mean 12-13 hrs) but once she did once she started sleeping awesome.  We are SOOOO thankful to be back to getting full nights sleep!!!!!  She is taking a morning and an afternoon nap as well. 

She is in the stage of being into absolutely everything.  I was just telling a friend today how Adelyn will go to every room in the house and systematically destroy it.  If there is a drawer to be emptied or a shelf/cabinet to be cleared she will not leave anything unturned.  She really likes to pick things up and put them into a basket/container and then empty them and pick them up, etc.  This will keep her occupied for a few minutes.  She also really likes to play in that basket you see her in in the picture.  She of course likes to get into Micah's stuff (which does not make him happy) and if there is something she wants and does not get she will let you know.  Something happened when she turned one and she definitely got her own opinion and isn't afraid to let you know it! haha  We have already had our fair share of tantrums in which she will throw herself to the ground.  She is very dramatic!!

She still is our sweet little Adelyn though!!!!  She loves to snuggle and kiss her doll.  She squeals with delight when I pick her up from nursery or when daddy gets home or when she sees Micah after he has woken up. 

She is starting to say a few words--mama, dada, bye-bye.  She can sign more and all done which is sufficient for us.  And when all else fails she says uh-uh-uh-uh a million times and we eventually figure out what it is she wants! :)

It will be fun to see her grow and her personality develop as it does so much during this time!

Bowling

New Year's Day we were trying to figure out what we could do--we came up with bowling.  We had a lot of fun and Micah loved it.  We passed Adelyn back and forth and helped Micah roll his ball down the lane.  He didn't seem to notice or care that it only went about 1 mph.  :)Plus it gave me a good excuse for having such  low score!  He also played a few arcade type games (like skeeball) and had a blast.  Now he points out the bowling alley every time we drive back.  Guess we will have to do that again!

Dr. Dale L Smith aka "Grandad"

May 9, 1923-January 14, 2013

 

My grandad went home to be with the Lord early this morning.  We are so sad because we will deeply miss him however we rejoice knowing he is with Jesus! If anyone knew my grandad you would know he was a man who loved God and loved others and lived his life well.  He was the type of man who always made you feel like you were the only person in the room when he was talking to you--made you feel always so special.  In fact grandads very last words to me were--" I love you and you are so special."

I was able to spend lots of time with my grandad these past few weeks.  The last picture shown is just 2 days before Christmas when he was at our house to celebrate!  Doesn't he look great!?!?!??!?!  This past Saturday night he took a turn for the worse and I went to visit.  Much of my family had been and was there as well..  Grandad was unable to speak though he could hear us and could moan or do something such as that to indicate he heard.  It was a really hard time but one that will be deeply imprinted in my mind forever.  I got to see the love my Grammy had for him over their 65 years of marriage as she thanked God for the blessing of children and grandchildren who love and are walking with the Lord as she laid her head on his hospital bed.  I got to hear my aunt tell my grandad to give Neal (her late husband, my grandad's son who passed away at the age of 54 merely 4 months ago!) a kiss from her.  And I got to be there as my grandad reached his arms to my sister and I for one last  hug.  It was precious time!  My grandad was ready to go home--he knew where he was going!!!!!

So when I got the news this am Corey reminded me that Grandad is not dead--and that reminded me of the quote from DL Moody. 

"Someday you will read in the papers that Moody is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now."

As I tucked Micah in to bed tonight I asked him who he wanted to pray for and he said Grandad.  I didn't get through the prayer with dry eyes but we thanked Jesus that Grandad was there with Him!
We sure will miss grandad but I am so thankful for his life and so blessed to have such a wonderful legacy!!!!  And I am so thankful that at this moment my grandad is more alive then he has ever been!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!!!!

We had a great Christmas/Christmas season and hope you did too!!!!  We started the Sat after Thanksgiving by putting up our Christmas tree (oh and of course listening to Christmas music which is pretty much on constantly thanks to my Pandora Christmas stations!).  We have started giving the kids an ornament each year so you can see Micah is really excited about his motorcycle! (he also got a train and a hot dog ornament from his grandparents/aunt).  Our tree leaves a bit to be desired but that is ok as neither Corey not I are overly picky about it.  I was just happy to have one up this year!!!  We are still in the phase of trying to figure out our own family traditions as the kids are young.  The biggest thing we wanted to emphasize is that Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birthday and when God came to earth.   We did that through reading the Christmas story lots and learning new Christmas songs (Micah knows Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Angels we have heard on high), watching Christmas movies of Jesus' birth, and you have already seen in my previous post how much fun Micah had "playing nativity".  We also did our version of a Jesse Tree for advent by reading and talking about scripture each day and hanging a corresponding ornament on the tree.   (FYI The Jesse Tree represents the family tree, or genealogy of Jesus Christ. It tells the story of God's salvation plan, beginning with creation and continuing through the Old Testament, to the coming of the Messiah. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit."). 

We know of course kids are excited about getting gifts at Christmas so we really tried hard to help Micah be excited about GIVING gifts and be excited about Jesus being born. 

 

(This is the Jesse Tree Ornament that represented the first day of Advent and Genesis 1-God creating the world)

Another fun tradition (much to Corey's dismay) is making Gingerbread Houses.

Corey always has quite an interesting design

Nancy's Birthday is right before Christmas so they were all over for dessert to celebrate!

 

Jori came down the Friday before Christmas and stayed thru Christmas Eve.  We had so much fun with her.  She is AWESOME with the kids and they love her and I loved having her around!

Christmas celebration with my dad's side at our place the Sunday before Christmas!

GiGi and Grandad

We will be celebrating Adelyn's birthday when we do Micah's in Feb (she won't know the difference this year) however we still wanted to do something special for her.  I think she was perfectly happy with her chocolate cupcake, birthday balloon, and her present (Scout).

Christmas Eve day we went to Corey's parents and celebrated with his mom's side of the family.

 

Christmas Eve we had a candlelight service at chruch.  Look at how handsome my boy looks (notice the tie--he was not a fan but I told him I bet Corey would wear one if he did and that worked) and how beautiful my girl looks (Corey maybe thought the dress was a bit much but I thought she looked adorable plus its not like she will always let me dress her like that!)

Christmas Morning we read the Bible account of Jesus birth, sang a christmas carol and sang happy birthday to Jesus (along with yet another cupcake) and opened gifts.  Micah had picked out gifts for daddy (a MSU gnome) and Adelyn ( a puzzle) so he had fun giving those and of course had fun opening more gifts as well. 

Late afternoon on Christmas Day we celebrated up at Gull Lake with my mom and everyone.

So thankful for such a wonderful Christmas Celebration!!!!!!!!!!