Wednesday, July 30, 2008

hmmm??


**Disclaimer...I promise no children were hurt during this activity. Despite how you read his face he was in fact DELIGHTED to have mustard bottles stuck to his cheeks.

"M"elmo

When I was young I LOVED Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. There's just something warm and fuzzy about those two programs. I actually cried the day Mr. Rogers died. He did so much for kids during his lifetime. Very cool guy! Anyway Micah and I have gotten in the habit of snuggling on the couch every morning and watching Sesame Street after he wakes up. I don't know what it was about yesterday, but he suddenly got real excited when Elmo's World came on during the show and just started saying Melmo Melmo and pointing to the screen. So cute!

After it was over and I had turned the TV off we went to the back of the house to do whatever it is you do in the mornings and while I was making the bed I heard the TV come back on (I'm still not sure how he did that) and then heard him run to find me. When he saw me he tilted his head and asked Melmo? So cute again!! So off we went to Target to find an Elmo's World dvd. We will be purchasing the rest through ebay or Amazon, but he was just so cute asking for Melmo that I wanted to get one that day.

After our successful Elmo's World search we came home and I popped it in the dvd player...immediate excitement. I captured a few pictures of him staring at his beloved Melmo and wanted to share them with you all.
Isn't he just too cute!

**He just finished watching the video again today and has now starting picking out Dorothy ("fish") and Mr. Noodle ("noole")! Such a smarty!

Monday, July 28, 2008

When it rains...

It pours! On Friday my brain was full...I mean packed to the brim with tiredness and responsibility. I know you may not think that would make your brain full but it does. The constant concentration of being in charge. Last week was a loooonnnnngggg one. My living room was trashed for many days in a row because of the construction Zach was doing, I had to attend a funeral for the mother of a precious friend of ours from church, and make dinner for another friend from church who delivered her baby boy 5 weeks early! Zach had three nights of music stuff and the one night he was home we were finishing up the built-in entertainment center (which is awesome, but I'll post pics later) By Friday I think I just snapped or something (not in a mean wenchy way, but in a I don't think I can handle being in charge of everything for one more second way)

Micah and I had just gotten home from attempting to pick up my hair straightener from Leslie's (which is where I got dressed for the funeral) with no avail because she had stepped out for a few minutes. On the way home it started pouring and that's when I started praying...finally. I still don't understand what possesses us to wait until we're at our wits end. When will we learn we can handle NOTHING! Oh well, maybe one day. When I drove into the garage I felt an urge to just sit and enjoy so Micah and I sat at the edge of the garage and just stared out at the water pouring from the sky and rushing down the streets. Instantly a song came to my mind. Mr. Dan, our beloved music minister and great family friend, sang this a lot at church when I was growing up and the words just washed over me this particular afternoon.

It's beginning to rain rain rain hear the voice of the father Saying whosoever will come and drink from the water I will pour my spirit on my sons and my daughters If you're thirsty and dry look up to the sky It's beginning to rain

I/We need to remember that when it feels like it's raining on us and we can't get out it's because God wants us to focus on the fact that He is reigning. Usually when I feel overwhelmed with the constancy of life it's because I've forgotten to look up to the sky and see His Spirit that pours down on me. Wow! Anybody else like this...ever? Surely I am not the only one.

So I wish I could say that I immediately learned my lesson and felt better, but I didn't. It's only tonight, as I am again sitting listening to the rain that I understood completely what God was trying to tell me Friday afternoon. Now I can look through the pictures I took of Micah playing in that rain and see the glory of the reign. Thanks for listening!





Saturday, July 26, 2008

Andrew Peterson

Zach here...this is my first blog post, so here we go! This might be long...just wanted to throw that out there.

As some of you might know, I'm a huge music fan in general. I really love artists who can tell stories with their songs, and who not only are great writers, but talented musicians and singers too! Last night, I got to fulfill one of my goals in life...I met Andrew Peterson!!!!



I promise, I'm going to try to write this without sounding like a stalker.

Rockdale Community Church, (where we have a monthly worship night that I co-lead), has been hosting Christian musicians during the summer for the past few years. When I found out that Andrew Peterson and Ben Shive were coming this year, I flipped. Of course, I try to play it off like it's every day that my favorite musical duo comes to my backyard, but as I was standing there talking to Andy (that's what I call him now by the way), it took all of me not to start doing the sprinkler dance...that would have been a little weird.

One of the highlights of the night was getting there early to "help set up", and meeting both Andy and Ben. I know that they were probably tired from the drive, stressed after the sound check and setup, and wanting to eat and prepare for the show, but after the sound check, Andrew stood and talked to us for a while, just about music, recording, and lots of other geeky stuff:)

I went home to pick up Sarah, and we headed to the church to get seats with all of our other friends who were there...Justin, Steph, Adam, Mandie, Michael, Krista, to name a few, and my good friend Mark, who was visiting for the night!

The cool part about the concert was that Andy told stories about certain songs, which made the actual lyrics make much more sense! He started out with a couple familiar songs, a song off of his new album, and then I heard it...the 7 sweet notes of "Canaan Bound", one of my favorite songs. It was such a great evening, sitting with Sarah singing along to familiar songs like (in no certain order) canaan bound, pillar of fire, lay me down, far country, let there be light, shiloh, family man, clear to venus, and high noon.


The concert was very moving, to say the least. We laughed at his stories about his life in Florida and fun times with his family. I had tears in my eyes (hey, so did all the other girls) when he told us the story about the Queen of Iowa, and sang his song about her. Finally, the closing of the concert was deeply rooted in the Gospel and the powerful love of Jesus. He played a song called Hosanna, off of his new album, which set the stage for probably my favorite song of his, High Noon. I'll have to post the words some day, but you can check them out here. Those two songs, combined with an acapella version of All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name, led us into worship to close the night. What a perfect way to end a great evening, singing all together with renewed spirits!


So yeah, it was a huge blessing, a great time with Sarah and friends, and an amazing chance to meet one of my favorite singers.

Next on my list is John Smoltz...one day...one day.

I'll try to post more often...maybe not as long...but maybe :)

Friday, July 25, 2008

brownies and boxers

Yes I am very aware brownies and boxers is an odd post title and scary combination depending on what you are talking about. However when they concern Micah it can be nothing but adorable.

Yesterday morning Stephanie called to see if we wanted to have dinner at their apartment with her, Justin and her parents, who were up from Louisiana helping with their new house. Cindy (Steph's mom) had apparently been craving dessert and I volunteered/was volunteered to make it, which I totally didn't mind because I too love me some dessert. I decided to make brownies for the chocolate lovers (me, Cindy and Justin) and cherry Jello for the others (Steph and Zach). I pulled a chair up to the island for Micah to stand on so he can watch/help (p.s. Auntie Stephanie Micah might want a mini-me apron for Christmas...just sayin!) I kept telling him what I was putting in the bowl and he was repeating the words (he now knows what eggs are when he sees them). After I had the batter in the pan I turned to check the oven and the dear boy was putting his finger smack dab in the middle of the baking dish. Of course I didn't get it on camera so I told him he could do it again which he definitely had no trouble with. He never got a finished brownie though, sad for him because they were yum-o!!




Now for the boxers! This morning Micah was helping me sort laundry and by sort I mean taking the dirty clothes out of their respective piles and dragging them around the house. At one point he was walking in and out of his room carrying a pair of Zach's boxers. After a couple trips he brought them to me and said "awwwwwnnnnnnnn" which mean 'on' in the world of his adorable southern drawl. I put them on him and then twisted the back and tucked it into the back of his diaper. So funny and cute! He wore them for about 5 minutes and kept looking at his back trying to figure out how they were staying up. I guess once he was confident they weren't going to fall he ran up and down the hallway in them. He is so cute...but he is such a goober!




Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Knuckles or NuNu

Micah has many aunts and uncles...I mean MANY! With just Zach and my siblings there are 11 (13 if you count Jered who is marrying Zach's sister and Krista who will be entering the family sooner than later if Andrew has anything to do with it). Each (especially on Zach's side) claims to be the favorite. I do not want to burst any bubbles, but I can tell you my younger brother Tim and Zach's youngest brother Joel are close to having top rank at the present moment.

A few weeks ago while I was at the Deeper Still conference Zach was in Gainesville, GA with his family. I'm not sure how much rest he gets while he's there because his aunts and uncles play with him, pass him around, teach him things CONSTANTLY. It's pretty amusing.

During this particular weekend Joel taught him how to do 'knuckles' which is when one person makes a fist and bangs it against another person's fist. I thought it was still referred to as 'pound it' but apparently that just proves my lack of coolness. Since this lesson Micah has been doing it all the time. After the normal high five people give Micah to make him actually pay attention to them instead of his mama (another post). He always balls up his cute little fist and says "nunu" so that they will give him 'knuckles' It is so darn cute and apparently makes him much cooler than his parents, but that wasn't going to take much. Sorry Zach...you're still cooler than me though!


It's so funny to me how kids pick things up so easily, but then again it also worries me!

Saturday, July 19, 2008

family love

Micah had a great time playing at my parent's house with his cousins Keelie (KiKi) and Haley (Laley). While Keelie can't do much more than stare at their goofy selves, He and Haley ran around playing with everything imaginable from measuring cups to baby dolls to cars. Micah LOVES cars and my mom has a huge basket full of them. By the time we left they were scattered around the house, including the crib he slept in.

It was great to see my niece and son playing. It does make me feel old though because I can remember my brothers and sister and I playing together and I just think I can't believe there's another generation starting already!

Musical prowess

Haley has no fear of getting wet


Micah was trying to just get his belly wet

Keelie was watching from the comfort
of her excersaucer


Everybody LOVES Uncle Tim and
he definitely loves them

Friday, July 18, 2008

blueberries and bathtime

My sister in law Christina's family has lots and lots of land outside of Enterprise. She so kindly took Jen, Micah and Me with her and Haley to her grandmother's to pick blueberries. The bushes were really full of plump berries so much so they had started to split. I do not eat blueberries but Zach does and so does the rest of my family plus it's just fun to do stuff like that occasionally. Haley and Micah were too cute. Haley kept eating the blueberries off the bush and Micah would pick them and squish them between his fingers. I was having a great time until I realized that there were bees EVERYWHERE and they seemed to go near no one but me. Most of you know how I feel about buzzy things flying around me. NIGHTMARE! My sister Jen got cute pictures of the kids though while I was fending off the stingers!




Later that night when it was Micah's bath time Haley decided she need to take a bath with her
Mi Mi (long i sound) so we plunked her in there with him. She is very good at getting herself wet, but she didn't want to stop there. She decided Micah's hair was a little too dry and wanted to help him out. Don't worry though because he got her back by peeing on her at the end of the bath. Oh boys!


home again!

What pitiful blogging! I am ashamed (hear voice of Jacques from Nemo)!

I have been visiting my family in Enterprise the last week and had high hopes of taking tons of pictures while I was there and blogging every night about what we did. However my hubby HAD to have the camera because he was taking pictures of some new friends of ours so that left me cameraless. Thus another reason I need a small hand held digital to take everywhere just in case!

Mrs. Vickey, a wonderful friend of my mother's and also known as my shopping mama, let us borrow her camera so I could take shots of my sister and her little girl and the rest of our outings in Enterprise. So I did get the tons of pictures I was hoping for but I had no way of downloading them on to my mother's computer. I stole the memory card to bring home and since it does not fit my camera I am forced to go find one of those little digital thingies at a store and get a picture cd so that I can come home, download the pictures, edit them, and send them to my ol' tried and true snapfish account for the masses to see. The trouble we go through to store memories!

So this is all to say though I am sorry for leaving my tens of viewers with nothing to read from the mays be prepared for a few posts on my visit to Enterprise, AL. I had a great time and it went by waaaaaayyyyyy to fast but I am definitely excited to be back with Zach and all my bestest friends that I hope missed me so much because I sure missed them!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

hand full

We have gotten Micah back to his normal blue bear'ness' meaning he sleeps with him and occasionally will carry him around the house. However, he now has his hands full of other things...random things.

Every morning he picks a few objects and carries them everywhere. If for some reason he needs a hand to do something he puts those objects in his other hand to free him up. As of right now, ALL IN ONE HAND MIND YOU, he is carrying a piece of sidewalk chalk, a miniature boat oar, half of a medicine syringe, and a plate stand. For all I know he is a budding MacGyver ready to disarm a bomb with all of his "tools".


For this particular pictures apparently we were fascinated with the screwdriver and hand broom!

Sunday, July 6, 2008

scrappy excitement

This is a super short post and I'm sure the majority of you who read this won't care but I am so super excited about it that I just had to tell people.

I was introduced to a blog by my bestest friend stephanie called 3 peas in a pod. It is by a girl/lady/woman whatever named emily who makes some of the coolest scrapbook pages i have ever seen. Anyway she was having a give-a-way of some of her scrappy stuff because the lucky dog is now a guest designer for CMK and gets tons of her own freebies. Anyways i was chosen, randomly by her oldest son, but still chosen and now will get some extra cute/fun/cool/hip scrappy stuff to play with. I am determined to take my time and use it all wisely so that when I do the whole post update thing for this one I can show you all super cute stuff that has been created.

yay!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

the 4th

What an absolutely glorious Independence Day! I can't remember the last time I had this much fun celebrating the 4th. The Cardozas and Mays(us) went to the 4th of July Parade in Oxford, GA. It is a teensy weensy little town east of Conyers. The parade was fun...lots of firetrucks, lots of kids, and lots of politicians. Oh well I guess that's what you get in an election year. Micah and Isabella did such a great job. We are extremely impressed at their abundance of attentiveness and lack of fussiness. We got such cute pictures of them as 'proud flag waving Americans'!!Showing off his flag waving skills.
Leslie, Isabella, Micah and I
waiting for the parade to begin.
Micah was laughing hysterically at Isabella
touching the blades on her little fan.
OMG! Are they not the most handsome pair EVER!!
Ol' Uncle Sam
Micah loves firetrucks.
Family pic
She was so excited about that little flag!


That afternoon (after nap time!) we went to a barbecue at Dave and Heather Butsch's house. They had barbecued a whole pig, lots of beef, and lots of chicken. There was tons of other food, drinks, and people. The worship band from our church played tons of songs from Jimmy Buffett to the Dixie Chicks. Micah had a great time running around, dancing to the music, and playing in the water.
Being chased by Auntie Stephanie.
Can I catch it?
Freezing but having fun
That is one puffy diaper
Zach rockin' out
Dave, Chad, and Zach feeling young