Happy 2nd Birthday to my BABY boy!!!

I love to call Micah my "baby" boy. Because as of now, he is my baby boy. We want one more baby...and if it is a boy then obviously Micah won't be my baby boy. But if it is a girl...he will always be my baby boy. Right now, that is special to me. Every one of my kids has something special as to where they fall in birth order. Parker is my first born, Micah is my baby boy, and Ann Marie is my baby girl. :)
Micah turned 2 on January 30th. That actual day Derek took him and just him to get donuts. We stole this idea from my brother and sister in law. And I think my kids will always love this. On their actual birthday their daddy takes them to get donuts all by themselves. It was hard for Parker to deal with not being able to go. But come April, it is his turn. And we explained that, over and over and over again. ha.
Micah is hilarious. He talks in sentences. It isn't completely clear, but we know what he is saying. He is active. He is obeying pretty good(most days..ha). He is so whitty. He seems to be really good at sports(throwing, catching, hitting, kicking a ball). He loves to ride on fast toys. He is a lot less cautious than his brother. He can be loud but he isn't loud all of the time. He is so sweet!!!! He loves his baby sister and is so gentle with her! He always wants to get what his big brother gets. He loves Parker and to be around him and play with him. He doesn't care to watch a lot of tv. If he does like tv it is only the parts with music(for which he asks to re watch that part a million times!) or Toy Story. He knows where his eyes, ears, hair, nose, teeth, mouth, head, feet, hands, arms, fingers, elbows, belly, and toes are. He is a happy boy and he brings so much joy to our lives!!! We love you sweet Micah Moo!

Oh yeah, we had a Toy Story 3 and PJ party. All his cousins wore their pjs. We had Toy Story playing on both TVs. We had popcorn, skittles, and reeses pieces. And we also had a yummy cake!!

Micah(at the end of the table) and all his cousins at his Toy Story 3 party.

Ann Marie was about 2 or 3 weeks old at the party.

Big Brother, Parker(will be 4yo in April), and Micah.


He had very chapped cheeks at his party. :( He was still super cute!

This was on his actual birthday. He is saying "I'm one". He will NOT say he is two. so funny!

No worries, that is not coffee. His Dad poured chocolate milk in a coffee cup. My boys love drinking out of "adult" cups.

He got to open one gift from us on his actual birthday. It is a chatty elmo. He hardly plays with it. We thought he would love it. Oh well...you win some, you lose some. ha ha.

Blogger Party Pooper

Hello! So, I have been the worst blogger EVER!!! SO sorry!! Now I have so much to post I feel slightly overwhelmed. But, here it goes.
Ann Marie will be 7 weeks old tomorrow. She is so good!! Thank goodness, considering we moved and she had two sick siblings within the last 7 weeks. It has been crazy! Things have calmed down and we are very happy about that. I took AM to the Dr. when she was about 3 weeks old and she weighed 8lbs 3oz. She will go for her two month check up next week. I will let you know how much she weighs. She has only been waking up once at night since she was six days old. But the last two nights she has slept all night!! Yay!! From around 10ish to 6. I think she is actually losing some of her hair, which never happened with my boys. I still can put clip bows in her hair but today I bought her some headband bows and they are so cute! She has started smiling at us here and there. It is just precious. Her brothers still love her very much. Alright...here are lots and lots and lots of pictures!!!!

Happy Valentines Day!

Ann Marie and Daddy snoozing.

Parker took this picture. He wanted to. :) Ann Marie and Mommy.

Attempting to get a picture of all three. :)

Oh, I could kiss those squishy cheeks all day long!

I had NO idea my dad hadn't held Ann Marie in the hospital. They came over for dinner a few days after she was born and my Dad walks in with a hospital mask. He said he had a cough and didn't want to risk her getting it, BUT he wanted to hold her. It was so funny! My boys loved it!! It was so funny.

Of course after Papa held her, Parker had to hold her.

If you come over and Ann Marie is not in her crib this is what you will see. Micah absolutely LOVES his baby sister. He is so sweet to her. He rubs her head and says in a really high pitch voice "Hey Baby! Hey!!!". If she is asleep, he says "er's baby?" (where's baby?). He can say her name but he calls her baby. I love their relationship already. Oh, and if she is crying Micah is the first and last to let me know. He won't leave it alone until I do something about it...or he will.

About to leave for her first dr. appt. at 3 days old.

Ann Marie Mills is HERE!!! :)

BEWARE: LOTS of pictures!
Ann Marie Mills was born on January 11th, 2011 at 4:31pm. Weighing 6lbs. 15oz and 20 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful and TINY! She has a head full of dark hair. And as of now...we don't think she looks like either of her brothers at this age.
Short version birth story: We arrived at the hospital at 6:30am to be induced. I thought for sure this process would go way faster. But, of course...like everything else in this pregnancy, anything I expected did not happen. :) I was dilated to a 6 by 3ish that afternoon. I had an epidural and was comfortable. But quickly that changed. I started feeling a little pressure down low...then within a matter of minutes it was UNBEARABLE! I could feel EVERYTHING! I dilated from a 6 to a 10 in a matter of minutes. I was bawling, coming off the bed in pain. I knew that it was time to have her 1) bc I needed to push 2) bc my nurse told me NOT to push bc we had to wait on the Dr. Thats a biggie bc usually you push with your nurse for a while before she calls the Dr. Dr. Seeker came "sprinting"(what my Mom said) in there to catch Ann Marie. I pushed twice...could hardly see my Dr. through my tears. But thank God she was tiny bc she came out! No worries...I felt that too. :) I was so happy she was here! She was so cute and I knew the minute she came out that she was little. But I was shocked she was that small. Alright...thats the story. It went from being B-O-R-I-N-G to quite exciting in a matter of minutes. Derek, my Mom, and my sister were in the room the see her be born. My sister, who is always my video person...I think videoed the whole birth. There was no time for her to get to an "ok" angle. Oh well...at least it is my daughter, maybe one day she can watch it. If she wants of course, and WAY later down the road. Like in her adult life. ha ha. Either way, she is so precious! Here are lots and lots of pictures. Not going to write under them because it takes too long.

Real quick: We came home very fast from the hospital..stayed less than 24 hours. I LOVED that. I do not sleep well in the hospital. Anyways...at first Parker acted like Ann Marie wasn't there. I think because his cousins were at the house and he was acting "cool". ha. But Micah was a little apprehensive. Last night after everyone left Parker was SO sweet. He would touch her ears, her hair, her fingers...and say "I love Ann Marie's hair(fingers, ears, u get the picture)." It is precious. He keeps saying how much he likes Ann Marie. And Micah has shown lots of interest in holding her and kissing her. Last night was hard bc Ann Marie was having belly aches all night and both my boys were up randomly. I think it was all because of the change in our house. But AM is doing much better today and the boys seem so much better too. Hoping for normalcy soon.

Enjoy the pictures!

Oh, Just waiting and Packing

I have no pictures for you today. :( But, I have some news. No, Ann Marie has not arrived yet, but will be here soon. I guess since I am on that topic I will cover it first. I went to the Doctor on Monday. I did not expect to have progressed. I had my mind set on inducing labor on 1/11/11. But then my Dr. gave me great news! I was dilated 2 1/2cent and 50% thinned out. He said her head was super low and he wasn't sure if I would make it to my induction date. So, I started waiting...and waiting...and waiting. Ugh! And NOTHING! Well, I have had pressure and pain that I thought "this is it!" and it wasn't. In the mean time, Parker got the fever virus.
:( And the "news" I spoke of earlier is that we decided to move. This week I have waited on her and packed. You would think packing would put me into labor. Nope. Instead it has given me LOTS of back pain(especially at night) and pressure. Parker is all better now. We had almost 48 hours with no fevers in our house. Then, last night out of nowhere Micah started being super irritable. He ended up waking up last night with a fever. Ugh! I had a hard time getting him to sleep. So, as of now we are staying home from church this morning and praying that Micah feels better ASAP so that he can come see his baby sister in the hospital. After all of this I am kinda glad AM hasn't come early. I really want my kids healthy and happy before I leave them for 2(hopefully less) days.
Please pray for Micah(he isn't running a fever right now, but irritable), for labor and delivery, and for Ann Marie. We are so excited! I kinda got freaked out thinking that this very time next week I will be holding my baby girl! AHH! That is so great! It is so close!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Hello! So, I have been a horrible blogger the past few months. Not sure why? Today is New Year's Eve. Woo Hoo! 2011 marks an exciting year for our family. We will welcome our third baby, first little girl VERY soon. And Derek's sister is getting married in May...which is going to be so fun! We have had a blessed 2010...and God gets ALL the credit for that. We hope and pray we follow His guidance and complete direction in every area of our lives in 2011. I can't even think about this bc it truly makes me sad...but this is my last year having Parker at home and not in school! I can't even think about it. In 2012 he will start Kindergarten! Ok...I will visit that topic in 2012. NOT now.
Update on Little Miss AM. I have had random pains, contractions, pressure, etc. for the past 6 weeks. I have NEVER felt this way with any pregnancy. I am to the point now where it doesn't matter how I feel it means NOTHING. :) I will be 38 weeks on Tuesday. I went into labor at 38 weeks and 6 days with Micah. So, we shall see if she decides to do the same. But, if not I am scheduled for an induction on 1/11/2011(cool bday huh?) at 7am. I am really excited about this and I am counting down the days. Today we have 11 days until she will officially be here. YAY! Of course, I am praying she decides to come on her own. But, I have had a great experience with being induced and going into labor on my own. Either way will be great. At 36 weeks I was dilated 1 1/2 cent. & 50% thinned out. I was really happy about this. But when I went back at 37 weeks I hadn't progressed at all. Which, once again...has never happened before. With my boys(if I can remember correctly) I progressed every appt. This weekend would be great for to come because my Dr. is on call all weekend. However, if I based her coming off of my gut feeling...it is not going to be this weekend. It will be on the 11th. I am ready though. She is definitely weighing down on me. It hurts to turn side to side in bed, to stand up...to walk after laying down. What is weird is I know I will miss being pregnant at some point within the next 5 months. But I can't wait to see this sweet, beautiful baby girl! I will keep you posted!

The three most wonderful and handsome boys I know! Christmas Eve 2010

Right before bed time on Christmas Eve 2010. Next year there will be a touch of pink in this picture. I already have matching pjs for all of them. :)

What I did Thanksgiving Morning

I painted my toenails, waxed my eyebrows, took a shower, and ironed LOTS of clothes. I washed all of Ann Marie's clothes a couple of weeks ago but waited until Thanksgiving morning to iron all her smocked dresses. I also ironed some other things. I just love all her smocked stuff. I am sure I don't have nearly what most of you have who live in the South. But, considering I live somewhere where I never see smocked clothing on children, I think she has a good amount. And I plan to get more some day. It makes me SO excited to see her in these dresses. I can't wait!
I have been feeling the need to get more ready for her. Her nursery is done, clothes washed and put away. I even have her stuff to take to the hospital laying in her baby bed. All I have left to get her is pacis, diapers, wipes, and ruffle socks :). I have more ribbon to make some bows for her but haven't gotten around to it. The one other thing I have left to do is wash the fabric off of her swing, bouncy seat, carseat, boppy. I was going to wait on that but with the way I am feeling I think we might go ahead and get it out of the attic and wash it. Then put it in her room until she is ready to come out. Makes me excited just thinking about it!!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was so relaxing this year. We were home all morning. I got my cooking done the night before so I had time to do a lot of things I had been wanting to do done. My husband is in charge of frying the turkey so him and the boys played on the back porch while monitoring the turkey. We then headed to my brother's house and had a REALLY yummy Thanksgiving lunch, played a few games, then came home for naps. That night I took Parker to see the movie Tangled w/my sister, brother in law, and their boys. He laughed and laughed. Cute movie. I hope all of you had wonderful a Thanksgiving!!

Parker and Micah in front of our tree. Love this picture.

Outside frying the turkey. The temperature was 72 degrees that morning. In about an hour the wind blew and it dropped to 50 degrees! It was crazy and FREEZING! Been cold since then. Brrr.

Parker just being sweet

Micah in my room. Sorry, he has food on his face. Seriously thought I would never let my child walk around(even my house) w/food on his face. Ummm...the more kids I have and the more pregnant I am the less motivated I am to wipe his face constantly. But I really can't stand it being on there.

This is how he sleeps...

This doesn't happen now. But for several weeks I would check on Micah after I layed him down for his nap and I would find him on the floor halfway under his bed totally asleep. I always had to move him to his bed. It always put a smile on my face seeing him like this. I don't know why. It is just so cute.

Halloween Neighborhood Party 2010

For reasons I would rather not go into at this moment we do not celebrate Halloween. But, this year my sister and brother in law(who live 5 houses from us) decided to be Missional. They decided to have a block party up our street and hand out hot dogs, chips, drinks, & candy to anyone who came by. And we helped. This was e-mailed out to our whole neighborhood. We had a blast and met new people. The kids still dressed up but played the whole night together. I would love to do something like this every year. It is like reversing the whole purpose of Halloween and I love it! :)

Micah, the chicken.

Parker and his 2 best buds...his cousin Gray, and our neighbor Grace. Now, don't get me wrong, I think Parker and Gray are so cute...but how cute and smiley is Grace?? Ahhh I could eat her up!

Free Chapel She-Treat 2010

In October we had our first ever She-Treat at Free Chapel. AKA Women's Retreat. It was wonderful! We went to San Antonio and stayed at The Hyatt on the river walk. Our good friend, who works with the Hyatt, spoiled us like crazy with a HUGE suite that had a living area plus 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It also had a beautiful view. We arrive on Friday evening and left on Saturday. My Mom came in on Saturday and spoke to all of us. I know she is my Mom but she is a GREAT speaker! Seriously...if you ever need a spiritual woman speaker for anything my Mom would blow you away. We were laughing and crying as she spoke. We left challenged and inspired. I would say the first She-Treat was a SUCCESS! :) I only have 3 pictures(one that is blurry) from this. So here are two.

Here is most of the group at The Hyatt. (We were missing 3 girls)

My good friend, Kat, is probably going to hurt me for putting this picture up. But, this is my oh SO pregnant friend, Kat. Can't you tell?? She swears she is going to gain 75lbs. during this(her first) pregnancy. Ha ha! She is tiny! I will say that she has gained 15lbs. in her first half of the pregnancy. She is proud of herself for that. I wish I could be so tiny that when I am pregnant I was PROUD to gain weight. Darn you skinny people! Love you Kat!

32 weeks & 1 day preggo and not feeling so well...

The sweet baby girl is causing me to not feel so well lately. :( It all started last Thursday when I was really low on energy for about three days straight. Finally, on Monday I decided to go to the Dr. Mainly because that morning I could not walk 10 ft. w/out having braxton hicks contractions. I know that braxton hicks contractions are fine...I have had them with both of my other pregnancies. However, having them back to back to back made me feel like something was up. Well, nothing is up...except the fact that Ann Marie is practically weighing down on my cervix(and bladder..."Squishing" it is what the Nurse Practioner said) and I have to kick my feet up and relax. She said AM is a happy baby in there...which is great. However, ever since Monday I have had braxton hicks contractions constantly, been crampy, and feel like I just can't do much. It is frustrating. If I even get up and start to clean the kitchen(I am not talking about hands and knees scrubbing of the floors...just washing/putting away dishes) my belly becomes hard as a rock and I start having random pains. I know the difference between real contractions and other pains...I am not having real contractions. However...I do agree with the Nurse Practioner that if I keep doing too much I could put myself into labor. I was almost in tears this morning because A)I am trying to eat healthy and all I wanted was something bad for me B)My floors need to be mopped C)AM smocked dresses need to be ironed D)Just because. I had to leave my house. Ugh! I have never felt this way during a pregnancy. I have always had great pregnancies so this is all new to me.
Don't get me wrong. I know this could be WAY worse. I am SO thankful I am not on bed rest or in labor. But lets all pray this goes away. Because if not, I am not sure how much longer AM will stay in. Thanks!

Parker-isms

Hey! So Parker has been saying the funniest things lately. I am amazed how much he is learning and soaking in daily. He is such a good boy and has such a sweet spirit about him. He is well mannered and is good about following directions(most of the time). Anyways...here are some of his funny sayings lately.

P: "When I'm adult I am going to be a chef and cook recipes!!"

P: "When I'm adult I am going to be a rockstar!" Me: "I thought you were going to be a chef?" P: "I can be a chef and a rockstar!!!"

P: "Mom! I want to go to the denisk(denist)!"

P(in church this morning telling my good friend who is the teacher for preschool): "I don't have any animals." Teacher: "I have 2 dogs. Does anyone have any dogs/cats?" P: "I don't have any animals, can someone PLEASE buy me an animal?!"

We were painting Parker's bed, so he slept on his mattress which was on the floor for several days. This is his reaction when he saw just the mattresses on the floor.
P: Ran outside to where we(my Mom actually ha ha) were painting. "MOM! You have GOT to come see this!" Me: "What?" P: "MOM! Come in my room! My bed is SO TINY!! It is SO TINY!!!"

This boy is cracking us up daily along with his little brother. Both of them are at really fun ages. In Power of Praying Parent one chapter talks about praying that God would reveal to Derek and I, as the parents, what gifts and talents He has given our children. And then pray that we would do whatever we need to do to encourage those and help our children develop those even more. I really believe this is a time where you can see snip its of what your children's gifts and talents are. I pray we can help our kids in these areas to the best of our ability. We KNOW our kids are smart and gifted and talented. And that God is giving them so much favor! I am so thankful for God in our lives and theirs!

One more little story. Derek has started reading the prayer out of Power of a Praying Parent at night to the boys before bed. I don't put the boys to do bed so last night was the first time I have seen this happen. Derek sat down on the edge of P's bed and said "ok boys, it is time to pray." He had the book in his hand. Then one by one both boys got off the bed and got their own book. They sat by their Dad on the bed and pretended to be reading their book too. It was SO cute! Hopefully I can catch this on video and snap a picture of it. It is priceless! And the best part is that it is about God and praying...not just some random story.