Houston

What an emotional week for so many people in the Houston area with the flooding. It's been so weird because we taught Micah the flood song before all this happened and he is singing it all the time. You know the song with these lyrics: "The wise man built his house upon the rocks, and the rain came tumbling down. The rain came down and floods came up, and the house on the rock stood strong. The foolish man built his house upon the sand.... and so on." The moral of the story is to build your foundation or life on Jesus Christ and instead of earthly things. But the whole concept of the flooding right now is devastating for those who lost their houses. Really puts this song into perspective. As long as we have Jesus everything else will be gone. Our homes, vehicles, clothes, everything! Just like a real flood, and all the devastation is showing that these things will pass and our family and God is the most important. While it's easy to say it's much harder to live through it. Praying for all those affected and thankful for our home right now. Even though we own this home I don't want it to consume us and we always need to remember not to count on these things. They will fail us.
So many of you probably know the so one of the verses is, "The blessings come down as the prayers go up." And I love that. Seeing all the blessings through a tragedy is pretty amazing. I want to say sometimes these big events happen and you wonder why God would do something like this. Then you see people loving on strangers and helping those around them and you realize how God can show love through these types of tragic catastrophes.

Today was a big day for us. We went to visit Micah's new school and teacher. It was a little hard with both kids, but we made it through. Micah didn't take a nap yeserday so we put him to bed at 7:20 p.m. and he woke up at 7 a.m. which was what I wanted since we needed to be at orientation at 9 a.m. It was good practice to get there at that time. His teacher's name is Mrs. Parker and was very sweet. She has a very soft voice and it was a little hard to hear with tons of kids in the room. Hopefully we can get to know her more throughout the year. He starts next week already!! I'm so so so excited. I realized yesterday that I could actually book some appoinments on the days he is in school. It was so weird to think I would only have one baby for a whole day!

Noelle is pretty crazy now though. She wants to get down and crawl and do everything her brother is doing. I think she will stay in the stroller if we are moving around, but not when we are staying in one place. She still loves to eat, so much so that she is having constipation and hard poo. We are giving her prunes, and pear juice. It's a constant battle to get all that out of her belly. She is in good spirits though, so I don't think I'm too concerned yet.  Here are her 8 month photos:

Over the weekend we had Micah's friend Jackson and Logan birthday party. It was so cute. She did a trolls/batman theme since she has two boys. They both wanted different themes. I loved all her ideas. We got to make masks and troll hair. She is pretty great. I love being back here to see her and her boys. Micah and Jackson have been friends since they were in our belly's. And they LOVE each other. I'm so grateful for that.

We met some friends at Watters Creek on Tuesday and it was actually cooler out. The hurrican is making our weather a bit more barable. Micah had fun with all the boys. Charlie, Henry, Ben, and Owen and Noelle is the only girl. 

She just loves clapping. IT's her new thing. All the time!!

We are celebrating 8 years on the 5th! I can't believe it. I love having this extra day on the weekend to celebrate our wedding!! haha.

Love you all and hope you have a safe and fun labor day.

Snapchat

This sounds very crazy but I have been loving snapchat lately. Micah is able to video chat with his cousins and grandparents and loves it. He can do it all by himself now and whenever he wants to chat even for a minute I let him. It's something I am loving about him growing up in this technology age. Living so far away from everyone is going to be tough on him, but the fact that he knows he can see them anytime he wants is reassuring to him and makes it feel less distant. So I'm sorry for not posting as much, but it's so easy to snapchat everyone all day with little videos. You can see Noelle crawling, pulling up on everything. She is becoming her own person. She is super independent when it comes to playing in the play room. She still needs mommy to go to sleep or eat (nurse) She is eating more solids, but has trouble with her bowel movements. I may have to talk to her doctor about it. I want to give her more food, but she's not processing it well. She doesn't seem to be in pain, but definitely not pooping enough.

Here she is playing by herself. No need for me.

This weekend I will try and snap her 8 month shots. She is 8 months today and is a handful already.  Right when she wakes up and is done nursing she is ready to explore. No time for snuggles and laying around anymore. She is ready to go at 7 a.m. and hoping to get around the whole house before nap time. She is back to taking normal naps. I'm sure it's becaue she is exurting so much more energy.

Micah is sleeping in my bed right now for nap time. I have been laying with him some days and just rubbing his back. He loves it and falls asleep and so do I. We love laying in bed together and playing dinosaurs with our hands and talking about our day. Last night as I was laying next to him in his bed I said, "You're my boy," and he replied, "You're my girl."  I like to lay next to him before he falls asleep because I think he likes the feeling of me being at the same level. He likes that I spend the extra few minutes to snuggle him and love on him. We were always playing with him more and at bed time trying to get him down quick. I've just realized I need to start earlier with his routine and just lay with him a bit longer. It's totally worth it. We love singing and talking about our day with our heads close together. It's such a sweet time in his life. He loves me and wants me close. I know one day it won't be like this anymore so I need to soak it in.

In the van the other day we were listening to the radio and Katie Perry came on. Micah said to me, "Mom is this you singing?" I was caught off guard, but wow what a great compliment!! ha I told it wasn't but it did sound like me.

Here they are making their own totality during the eclipse. We didn't travel far away to see it and they are just too young. 7 years from now we are going to do it right though!! It's going to pass through Dallas next time around too.

We went to twisted root on Sunday after church to get some burgers. Yum. Noelle loves to eat her puffs or anything. She would probably eat a whole burger if we let her.

This is going to sound kind of weird. I have been following this girl on Instagram for almost 3 years now. I found her before she had thousands of followers. She always has the cutest outfit/jewelry/handbags and all for a decent price. So I have loved following her. I started right before I left for Atlanta. When I came back to Dallas she was hosting a shoping party at this place called Hight Point Supply Co. where they sell goods that literally help other people. It's an amazing place that I bought some earrings from online for my birthday. So I always wanted to go to the shop and this was a great opportunity to go and meet this girl. Her name is Ryan Ray Roberts. She used to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. She was so sweet and I got to shop with her at the store. I just loved getting out on my own for a bit and doing something I love. I took some pics of the shop and wanted everything in there. They sell jewelrly to coffee mugs all handmade by people in other countries. Giving them jobs to support their families. IT's such a wonderful company that I hope to help more.

Saturday night we met another couple at Lakewood Brewery. It was actually a family friendly place and Craig and I could enjoy some beer. The couple had two older kids that really loved Micah and played with him so nice. We even decided they would be perfect babysitter. She is going into 8th grade so almost ready to watch them. Micah loves the older kids...well technically he loves everybody. haha

Hope you all are having a fabulous week! 

Sleeping in

I think Noelle is having a major growth spurt. She is waking up around 6:30 a.m. and then I nurse her and she goes back to sleep until 9:30a.m. It's like she is skipping her morning wake up time and going straight into her morning nap. Pretty strange. This is the first week we haven't had to leave at 9 a.m. for something. We have gymnastics class on Mondays and Thursday and 9:30 a.m. but it's so close it takes us 5 minutes to get there. So we can leave at 9:20a.m. and still makeit on time (which is awesome) She is now fully crawling and trying to stand up. She's not slowing down at all. She just goes all the time and tries to be like her big brother. She is still exclusivly nursing and I'm trying to pump as much as possible to get some extra milk for when I leave her in October for a wedding. 

 Her brother shut the door to the play room and she really wanted to go in there with him.

Micah is transitioning into no more naps. Some days he will and some days he sits in his room for a little over an hour just playing. Either way works for me, I just need a little bit of ME time. I am so excited for him to go to school, but getting there at 9 a.m. is going to be a challenge. I'm not really a morning person. I've been having a hard time getting up and ready. We usually are eating breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and I haven't been very good and making him sit at the table and eat. I usually just let him eat wherever he wants so I can have some coffee and chill. Dinner is when we try to all sit together. I am trying to keep that going unless it's the weekend or having pizza and watching a movie sort of deal. 

On Saturday we celebrated Ashley's little baby girl due in October. Her name is going to be Lily Rae. I'm so excited to have another little girl around and can't wait to see Ashley become a mom. She's such an amazing woman and will be an even more amazing mom. Noelle had fun playing with the other little girls there too.

 Me and Ashley and her friend Jordan.

 Micah liked to go through the doggy door. Of course.

 Ashely and her husband Cory. They are so cute and love them both so much.

 Micah liked playing with the babies.

 This other little girl was named Avery and she was the same age as Noelle except still staying in one place. People were amazed at Noelle's ability to crawl..stand up (while holding onto something) and just how mobile she was. I kept telling the other mom that's it's not that great. haha I would rather her not be interested in crawling yet...but she is so independent already.

Here they are swinging today. I took them to the park later in the afternoon. It's been a weird day. NJ just not napping very well since she is sleeping in so long. 

After gymnastics class Micah and his friend Samuel were doing a little performance on the stage.

I think NJ likes this little walker. She can only go in circles but atleast she thinks she is getting somewhere.

I can't wait for it to get a little cooler out. I am still a little to hot and bothered to be outside unless we are at the pool. I get irritated really fast when I'm dripping sweat everywhere. I try so hard to be calm and not let it get to me. I do pretty wel in the heat but I'm ready for some 80 degree weather again. I do miss that about Georgia. The weather was a bit cooler. 

I got inspired by a friend who recently went on an all inclusive trip to Jamaica. Craig and I are looking into going in the spring. We are hoping to get a package deal from Costco and thinking somewhere in Mexico. I'm already super excited. WE really need a getaway. It's been too long. Also, I've never been out of the U.S. so I need a little more adventure once this baby is big enough to be without me for a bit. 

Love you all

1203

We won't ever pass by our driveway again. Even though it doesn't happen anymore. It's nice to have something up on our fence to show which one is our home and to make it look cute. We also hung up an H just like this one on our front door. My next DIY project is to paint the mailbox. I don't think anyone really cares about that but me. It's just not very pretty at all. Little things at a time.

We should be getting shutters soon on our big windows and Craig has installed our blinds himself. We still have a room full of pictures and stuff to hang. It's just so hard to know where to put everything. I've been selling a ton of stuff too on an app called LetGO. It's hard to let some stuff go, but then again it feels good.

We had some friends over for dinner Sunday night (the ones who found our house and is my realtor). We wanted to make it easy on ourselves, because who are we kidding...we have four kids between us. It's too much to try and cook a meal on a Sunday night. So Craig and I called around to find a place to buy Home Run Inn pizza and then made dessert. Atleast we had our favorite pizza and a little taste of home. They seemed to really enjoy the pizza and the dessert....well.. here's a picture of it. It was amazing.

Saturday we had a full day of fun. Craig had a hair cut appointment, so the kids and I tagged along and we even got Micah a cut too. Then had breakfast at a little cute place just down the street from the haircut place. Then we went home took naps and got up to try out a city pool we've been wanting to try. It was really awesome. Nice splash area and baby pool. Everything we needed. We were all exhausted after that. Micah went to bed early and it was a great day. The weekends go by so so fast. But really so do the weekdays. I can't believe it's Wednesday.

Here we are at the pool. Noelle had a bit of a drippy nose. She is all better now, but took awhile to get over that little cold.

This is just one day when I was getting Noelle ready and Micah sat in the chair and said, "Momma I'm ready to take a picture with Noelle." So that's just what we did. 

I've been trying to get Micah to do more crafts at home. I really need to branch out and try new ideas. He was doing some glueing the other day and after like 5 minutes he said, "Mom I need to stop craft because it's hurting my tummy." So anyway, obviously the crafting was not working out for his stomach. I bought him an easel for dry erase markers at Aldi and he seems to like that. 

Noelle....OH MY ... Help. She is army crawling all over the place and starting to try and crawl on her knees. She tries a few times up on her knees, but them realizes she can go faster army crawling. So I'm in for a real treat. This girl is getting faster and this mom is getting more nervous. I can't leave her anymore. Thankfully I have two bouncy seats/exersaucers that she doesn't really like since it's keeping her from moving around. But it's safe!! 

She likes to sit in the stroller still and look at everyone and everything. She doesn't want to get down on the ground yet when we are out. I'll take it! Right when Micah goes to school I'm going to have a walker...I just know it!

We went to this place last week to pick up new clothes for Noelle since she's in 12 month now. Micah got to ride the train all by himself. He is so old now. Totally potty trained and I'm loving it. Wiping his but still, but I can deal with that part. He is such a big boy.

We've been trying to explain the gospel more to him and I just love his reactions to it. He loves Jesus already and his favorite song is "Jesus Love ME" I'm so thankful for his heart and the way he believes without a doubt. I tell him about death and how if mommy or daddy ever die we wll see each other again. It's not something I like to talk about, but I see so much of it these days that I can't help but to prepare him. I don't want him to think this world is all we have. It's so important that if he were to lose one of us that he knows God is taking care of us somewhere else. Everytime I talk about it, I want to cry. IT's so sad what some families are walking through, but God is so good. 

Hope you all are having a blessed day!