Sibling Photo Shoot

We have had some gorgeous weather here the past few days, so we took advantage of some natural light and got a few pics of the kiddos:

 Love this fun girl!

 We see this face a lot...soon it will be accompanied by rolling of the eyes, but for now I love it.

 We love this sweet boy!

 And they love each other!

 Also just had to throw these 2 in here - Sophie dressed herself and refused to turn her shirt around so it wouldn't be backwards...so she wore it like this all day. You can't see the full ensemble, the the shirt is complimented by some lovely plum-colored sweatpants.

Her pout is not to be messed with.

Zoo Day

A couple of weekends ago it was in the mid-to-upper 60's on a Saturday, so the four of us headed to the zoo for a couple of hours. It was so beautiful and we got to see some animals up close that we don't normally see.

A baby giraffe was born in the fall but she hasn't been outside much. It was great to see her moving around. I think Sophie was a little disappointed that a "baby" giraffe is still way bigger than she is.

The last several times we've been to the zoo we haven't been able to see any elephants. They're in a large exhibit and are very hard to find. But this day they were much closer and we had fun watching this one slinging mud on himself.

Sophie and Daddy riding a hippo

I love this picture of his arm around her. So sweet.

We love going to see the new flamingo exhibit. They are just fascinating animals and you can get so close to them. Last year when we were there Sophie got to ask the zookeeper lots of questions about them, so now she's our resident flamingo expert.

The Mook's view of the zoo was a bit limited, but he still had a great time and whenever we remembered to look at him between the animals he would give us a big grin. Poor kid...it takes a lot to get some attention these days.

Christmas Card Extras & Prayer Request

I thought I'd post a few of the good pictures we got during our Christmas card shoot. The two of Sophie are two of my favorite pictures, and the two of Micah are some of our ONLY pictures of him. Just kidding, but really - it's totally true that you don't take as many pics of your 2nd child. I now feel bad for giving my mom grief since I am the 2nd child. I can totally relate to what she was experiencing. I can only imagine w/ 4+ kids...

Anyway, I also wanted to ask for prayer for us as I'll be having a heart catheter ablation procedure done on Wednesday. It's a very non-invasive procedure where they go through the leg up through the veins into the heart to try to electrically burn the spot that is causing my heart to beat incorrectly. So hopefully (and prayerfully) this will fix things and we'll be good to go for the future. I've just had a pretty significant arrhythmia that is gradually weakening my heart muscle so the doctors think it's best to give this a whirl. Thank you for your prayers - that God will guide the doctor, but most importantly that He will use us in the lives of those on staff at the hospital to proclaim His name for His glory.

January 2011 - Happy New Year!

And here we are in 2011. Micah is 5 months old and doing great. He's a super happy baby and just an all-around joy to be with. His tummy issues are fine and he's growing well. We haven't started any cereal or food yet - I've been putting it off. And he seems fine without it, but I'm sure we'll give it a try soon.



Sophie is also a joy as she's leaving babyhood and toddlerhood behind, and now is more of a crazy friend that I get to hang out with everyday. She has an amazing imagination - every five minutes she's pretending to be someone different, and Micah, Erik & I also get to play vital roles in her world of make-believe. Sometimes I have trouble remembering which of her friend's moms (or dads!) I'm supposed to be at the moment. And for a solid week I was Sully from Monsters Inc. It's so fun to have Erik home in the evenings and to see the two of them interacting. She definitely loves her daddy.

Virginia Christmas

We finished our grand Christmas tour with a few days at my parents' house in VA. We had a great time with Bubby and Laura and Papa and Gran. Aaron and Laura hadn't yet met Micah, so that was fun...I'm sure he'll never forget it. Again, not a lot of pics of this week, and a few of the ones I have I stole from Laura's facebook page.

Sophie drowning in a sea of my old stuffed animals - which my parents are slowly sending to our house. First it was one at a time, but now that Micah's here they seem to think they can get away with sending them in twos. Not a fan of this. I mean, don't get me wrong - they have great sentimental value as most of them were given to me by my father. But I love for that sentimental value to stay in my old house, where we can enjoy it when we visit.

Sophie modeling her (and my) new presents

Sophie & Papa

Handing out presents

Aaron and Laura have been threatening to give Sophie a sandbox for awhile now, but we were THRILLED to find, not a sandbox (which I hate), but a great basketball goal for the kiddos. Sophie was really sad when she found out it had to go outside and couldn't stay in our living room permanently.

Sweet Bubby love...when he and Laura were leaving Sophie attached herself to his leg and wouldn't let him leave. She has great aunts and uncles - we're so blessed!

Tennessee Christmas

On Christmas Eve we had our first ever family Christmas - just the four of us at home. It was...interesting. Sophie had just 2 presents from us and 2 from other people to open. But she opened the first one from us (Toy Story figurines, pictured below) and then refused to open any other gifts. REFUSED. To the point of tears. What kind of child refuses to open presents? So after much frustration we convinced her to open the rest, and of course she was so glad she did. But we figure we can always tell her this is why she'll only get 1 present in the future.

Oblivious Micah...chillin' on the floor

I didn't get any pics at Erik's granny's house, where we went for Christmas day. It's difficult getting pictures these days - both of us normally have our hands full with a child. So unfortunately this year was not well recorded. But we take what we can get. After Granny's we traveled to Strawberry Plains, TN for the Sandberg family Christmas. It was a fun 2 days with lots of family, and the kids got plenty of love and attention.

I have a feeling this picture will make appearances for years to come

Great Papa gettin' down

Gigi was really excited about one of her presents - priceless reaction

More present excitement

And...not so excited. Lighten up, guys...it's Christmas!

Prattville Christmas

Well since I'm over a month behind on this one, I'll keep it short and sweet. We normally go down to Erik's parents' the 2nd weekend of December for a Christmas/Erik's birthday weekend celebration. This year everyone was there except for Jen and Pete. At the time, Jen was in Haiti treating cholera (and trying to get out of the country due to rioting) and Pete was playing a wedding in Charleston. We had a great time, but definitely missed Aunt Jenny and Uncle PeeWee.

Our best Christmas present

Sophie trying out her new Buzz Lightyear car - Thanks Pops!

Sophie admiring the table - and waiting for people to join her already

Gigi and "the Mooks"

Sophie experienced Twister for the first time - you can't tell here, but she loved it