Halloween 2011 (and 17 months!)

It's hard to believe it's already been a year since last Halloween and thinking about how much has changed in the last year. Micah was a mere 5 months and the cutest little pumpkin and peapod ever :) And here we are again, dressing the sweetie in the most adorable lion costume. Thank you, Katie, for letting us borrow the costume!

Christian was helping to get Micah in the mood at breakfast for the trick or treating that would happen later on in the day:) Micah has really begun to mimick us, and enjoys when we also try to copy him and it's been fun to watch this change.

Micah practicing his ferocious roar before heading in to the nursing home. Thankfully he was more like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz, therefore not scaring any of the nice people handing out candy!

Micah getting ready to trick or treat at the nursing home, roaring like a lion, hanging with his buddies Jack, Cole, Jed, Max and Dash, and completely enamored by the life-size cow!

After the nursing home visit, we headed to our home to get Christian and then over to the Koss' house for our (becoming) tradition of dinner and candy. Although a little chaotic with 6 kids (only one of which was mine - from 3 families!) it was also a great time of seeing the kiddos dressed up and enjoying each other's company! Thanks Kate and Steve for hosting again!

What a sweet lion we have :)

The actual trick-or-treating festivities. I just love the pics of Micah walking with Christian as well as the sweetness of his face in his expressions. You would never have known based on his expression when looking up (although if Christian had captured mine, it would have been a different story:)) that there were literally hundreds of disgusting geese flying over our heads!! Happy Halloween:)

Catigny

Yesterday Christian, Micah and I met an old Wheaton College friend and her family at Catigny Park for the morning to hang out. What a beautiful place!! I can't believe that for the number of years I have been associated with Wheaton, IL, I have never actually step foot on the Catigny grounds. I have heard about it - heard about its beauty, its history, its educational benefits - yet have never visited myself. We had a great time with Lindy and her family and were grateful to be able to spend the beautiful morning outdoors as we brace ourselves for a brutal winter.

Baby Kicks!!

Last week, just over 14 weeks, I was sitting in church on Saturday night and felt some little bubbles in my tummy. At first I didn't think too much of it, then all of a sudden it clicked that I was possibly feeling baby kicks! It seemed so early to be feeling baby kicks (as I didn't feel Micah until around 21-22 weeks) but I had heard that the second time around it was normal to feel movement sooner. Still, 14 weeks seemed pretty early...

Through the past week I have felt little movements here and there, and then tonight as I have been sitting on the couch I have really felt baby kicks! How cool to be at this point, whether subtle or not, that I am feeling slight movements from the little human growing inside of me. I am still feeling slightly sick, but the last 2 days have been better...fingers crossed, maybe I'm starting to turn a corner.

Independent Playtime = trouble

I have been working on giving Micah more independent playtime, seeing that he'll need to be able to do that when the baby comes in April! So today was one of those days that I wasn't right by him, meanwhile my Dad called, therefore allowing Micah continued independent time. About 5 minutes later he comes up our downstairs, into the kitchen, saying "Kit-TY, Kit-TY" and I notice he smells like Frodo's food. At closer look, I realize it's because he has Frodo's food in his mouth!!! Yep, he had just finished lunch, and apparently was still hungry so he went in search for more food...finding success in Frodo's lunch. Yuck! Guess that's what you get when you give him some of that free time, playtime:)

Micah Faces

As some of you know, I got a new "toy" last week (as in the iPhone 4S) and it is amazing! (Sorry to all of you whom I previously judged:)) but seeing that it is my first smartphone, I am enjoying some of the luxuries that it brings.

Today after dinner Micah and I did a little photo shoot on the phone, and he was loving looking at himself and figuring out different faces on the screen. Sorry for the blurriness of the pictures, but I think you get a good idea of what Micah's faces look like and the silly little boy that he is:)

Pure happiness.

Excitement (in a somewhat scary way).

Spit/drooling/bubble boy.

Ahhhhhh!

Wide open mouth.

"Cheese!"

I sure do love this little boy!!!

Before and After

Micah finally received a much needed haircut, and I wanted to capture the before and after pictures, again, seeing that it's been awhile since I've posted!

Zoo trip, Brookfield style

Christian and I took advantage of another beautiful weekend in Chicago-land and headed out with Micah to the zoo last Saturday. Micah had a blast - he loves being outdoors, and despite the puffy coat he's wearing, it's truly not that cold! We are loving every moment we have as a family and try to take full advantage:)

Taking a picture with the kangaroo - Micah is standing and is just barely tall enough:).

Just wanting to prove it is, indeed, a kangaroo!

Watching some wild dogs running around like crazy with "Elmo"

My two favorite boys at the giraffe exhibit.

A little blurry, but proof that I was also there at the zoo too:)

Just another day in the life of Micah

I gave Micah a haircut today, and despite trying to use a cape for the first time, he refused to keep anything around his neck...so, hair went all over the clothes and off went the clothes for the rest of the afternoon. I was going to put a new set on, but seeing he was having spaghetti for dinner and then close to bedtime, I just decided to let the diaper be it:)

Nothing too special about this video except Christian and I realized it had been awhile since we last took a video, and since I am WAY behind in my blogging the last couple of months, I figured it would be nice to get an updated Micah on here. Enjoy!

Cast is off and arm is healed.

Just wanted to let all of you know who have been praying and wondering the status of Micah's arm - the cast is officially off as of Monday! The arm healed beautifully, and although one of the breaks still includes some angulation, it did not become worse and will straighten out over time. The doctor was very pleased and says he should be in full playing mode now.

Thank you for all your prayers and concern! We are certainly glad to have this crisis behind us:)

Nashville Trip

It's been almost 2 weeks since we were in Nashville, Tennessee visiting my friend Esther and her family after 2 years of not seeing each other. But better late than never to get this post up:) I had to wait until we announced our pregnancy because there were some pictures from the zoo that Micah had his shirt on and I didn't want to give it away.

We had a great time, and she was able to meet Micah as well as I was able to meet her newest addition, Thomas. I also was thrilled to see Stewart and see how much he's changed after 2 years. What sweet boys she has! Stewart loved showing Micah the ropes and they loved chasing each other around the house. He was super kind with Micah and it was so fun to watch the two interact.

It was also great to catch up with Esther in person and enjoy a long weekend away. Micah had a bit of a challenge sleeping, especially the first night there, which made for a tired mom and dad, but I guess that is to be expected when traveling. Problem is that is carried over to the next day and Daniel and Esther were able to see our sweet boy in his not-so-sweet state of melting down when he doesn't get his way. Good thing they are good friends:)

Monday we decided to head out to the Nashville Zoo, sans Daniel since he had to work:( , and had a great day! The weather was absolutely beautiful and the kids had fun looking at all of the animals. Christian and I were really impressed with this zoo, albeit a little smaller than Brookfield, it seemed much more kept up and thought out throughout the exhibits. We were even able to find the perfect place to take some fall pictures (hence the pregnancy announcement picture) at the barn area of the zoo.

We flew back Monday evening, and of course were a bit worried about Micah on the flight, as he was definitely tired and it was past bedtime. Thankfully we were able to acquire a seat for Micah and he was the perfect little traveler. We seriously could not have asked for one more thing to go right on the plane, helping to put his temper tantrums into perspective:)

Thanks Claassen fam for letting us come and crash your place for a few days!

Coming to you, April 2012.

For those of you who haven't heard:) God is good, and we are excited! This explains the reason I have been a less than active blogger the past couple of months, as the sickness and tiredness of first trimester pregnancy has been in full swing. But now that I am coming to the close of that trimester I am praying (and believing!) the symptoms will begin to subside leaving a bit more of my "normal" self.

Knowing the journey we took to get Micah, we were both excited and yet apprehensive to begin down that road again. We truly believed we had figured out why I couldn't hold a pregnancy, but I was also scared that we would try what had worked with Micah and yet not be able to get the same result. Well, the Lord knows much better than I, and it seemed to be in His will that we would become parents again to another child this upcoming April. It has certainly brought back memories of my journey to get Micah, and while there are both good and bad moments, it has allowed me to cry out to God once more and trust in His faithfulness. We are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us as we now go through it with a toddler by our side. How surreal to me to think that we were praying so hard for the baby that became Micah, and to see him in flesh and blood and know that God truly answers prayers! And here we are again, praying for that baby inside of me with the unknown of what the future holds - but we know that whatever it is, God is in control. Thank you, Jesus for blessing us once more!