Lee Life

Lucy - 10 months update

2012-01-24T23:58:00.000-08:00

Another month with Lucy. Besides toys and clothes she also got her "two front teeth for Christmas". This is a good thing for Lucy, who appears to belive that if something is smaller than her face that she should try to eat/chew on it. Often times she can be observed with a toy in her mouth looking around or actively playing with other toys.

Lucy does really love to play with her brother and below can be seen playing with him in the super fort we built in the living room. She really likes to push things around, expecially a ride-on choo-choo train toy. She now understands when it will hit the wall or couch and gets upset that it is not still moving. One of us ends up following her around and keeping the train from getting stuck. She will do this for up to 15 minutes or so at a time.Her she is in the fort with Mommy and brother Micah. She really likes her books now and will sit and look at the "touch and feel" books with the fake animal fur. She also will kiss each animal in the book.
She is also aware of bows in her hair now, so it saddens Jill that it is not as easy to keep her bows in place like it was for this November picture. She is also learning to wave and ended up with saying "Momma" for her first word, just like her brother.Laughing-No explanation needed here.

9 Months

2012-01-11T16:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I know you're probably not watching the calendar waiting for an update from us, but we completely skipped 9 months. SAD! It's just that December is so busy. Anyways, I'll do a little update just for my benefit. Really, from 8 months to 9 months Lucy did not have any major accomplishments. She was crawling faster, walking behind her push toy a little stronger, and being her normal, crazy, active self. She did figure out that every time she put something in her mouth I would come finger sweep it. As I came towards her she would turn and crawl the other direction. So smart! Who does like someone elses finger in their mouth?

She always looked cute!

Some Christmas Pictures (December catch-up)

2012-01-09T23:35:00.000-08:00

Picture with Santa at the Ranchos Christmas Tree Farm. (This is Micah's third year getting his picture taken with the same Santa)

Decorating our "Lucy proof" Christmas tree. Putting it on a table saved alot of trouble with her getting ornaments or pulling it over.

More decorating. At other houses Lucy really enjoyed the floor height trees, lights and ornaments. She did pretty good and didn't pull any of them over.

Micah making some cookies with Tusci (Aunt Jenny) *Pronounced Two-shee. Jenny stayed with us for a week and helped us to do atleast one fun thing everyday. We still have cookies from the baking marathon completed at our house.

More cookies with mommy.

Christmas lights in Clovis.
Lucy chillin in her Christmas dress. Worn and washed several times as she didn't seem too concerned about keeping it clean.

Johnson family Christmas with the Christmas Story pageant. (Still really short, but we are using unpaid and unpaid actors so the expectations are not too high yet)

Lost sheep getting ready to eat the shepherds head band.

Micah opening his first present. He had been eyeing this Batman Bat Cave for several months now at the store.

Jill with her Christmas dinner on the 24th with the Johnson Family.

Micah leaving out cookies for Santa Christmas Eve.

Lucy holding some of Micah's Hotwheels track from Santa while Micah helps open her present.

Lucy and Micah getting ready to play with Lucy's present.

8 months update

2011-11-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

Eight months have now flown by with little Lucy. No new teeth since last month, the two bottom teeth continue to show more and more. She continues to stick everything (yes everything in her mouth). She expecially loves paper or magazines and will try to crawl away as fast as she can if she thinks you are going to take it away.

She has also managed to get a mild earache this past month that affected her for a few days and also has had a cold with a fairly good runny nose (does not like getting her nose wiped at all). In between all of this she continues to get more outgoing and has grunts and shrieks for lots of different things.

Lucy loves playing with her brother. We recently did some box sledding in the house to "practice" for the snow. Micah really, really wants it to snow here in the Fresno area and just can't understand why it won't for him. We also have started going down our little indoor slide with a beanbag at the bottom, this is lots of fun because Lucy knows she will get help in "getting" Micah once he slides down after her. She also likes waking him up in the morning. We did this several days in a row and then didn't one morning and Micah asked why Lucy wasn't there.

Baby toys are fun but brother's toys are better. In addition to being Lucy-zilla when we make dominos towers, Lucy also is the monster that tries to get the trains. She was good watching for about a week and then decided she needed to get more invovled with the whole process.

While crawling is fine and dandy (and she is pretty fast now), Lucy has started to practice her walking skills. The doctor's office thought she would be walking by her 9 month check-up but looks like it might take a few more weeks than that. She has also focused a good bit of her learning on her talking as mentioned above and really likes music. If she hears something she likes while sitting down Lucy will do a cute little tummy crunch/head bob move and when standing up will get the get going in her legs. She mainly "dances" to the music from her toys but also likes the songs from some of the shows that Micah likes to watch.

Halloween

2011-11-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

This year we ended up with a nice Halloween weekend in addition to the two separate trips to our local Ranchos Pumpkin Patch.

To start things off on Friday night Micah and Lucy had a party at their daycare. Jim & Laurie had tasty food for all, some games and prizes on the driveway and a bounce house on the lawn. Micah is always excited when there is a party at his daycare.

Above - Jim and Laurie made a nice picture spot with a bench. Lots of people got family pictures and they also took a fun picture of all the kids together at one time.

Below - They kids also got a chance to a pinata that night. Micah finally understands the concept of getting the candy after it breaks open.

That Saturday we continued our Halloween with a visit from uncle Lito, aunt Nancy and cousins Evan and Ryan. The weather was so nice that we carved the pumpkins outside. Each kid got paired up with an adult and made a jack-o-latern together.

Here is Lucy getting ready to give Jill some directions. Aunt Nancy in the background is the champion pumpkin cleaner-outer. She was done and carving the pumpkin with Ryan before some of us had started.

Here are the boys with the pumpkins lit up after finishing dinner together. Then on Sunday night Micah and Adam took a drive around to look at the jack-o-laterns at other Ranchos houses.

Robin and the Ladybug ready for Halloween. First stop was our second annual trick or treat to the neighbors house across the street. The are now 2 and 8 for the past decade on trict or treaters. Micah likes it becuase he loves his neighbors so much and they love that they have the rest of the bag left over for themselves. Micah's capes was not it the best of shape anymore (we found out Friday night that it is not good to wear a cape while jumping in a bounce house).

Micah wasn't feeling the best so we didn't take hime to the church festival in Fresno. We stayed in the Ranchos and went to the local church festival. They had two ponies there for rides along with several bounce houses and lots of carnival game booths for the kids to win candy. Micah was very excited about the pony. He kept this intent look of concentration on his face the whole ride around in a circle. I wonder if he will make this face the next time we get him on a horse.

We finished up the night with some door to door trick-or-treating and the street just north of Avenue 12. Micah really like this. We saw several families with trailers with lights and haybales to haul a bunch kids on. Maybe we will have to do this a some point in the future too!

The Pumpkin Patch

2011-11-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

7 Months Old

2011-10-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

AAHHH!! Here we are again way past the 10th and just getting to Lucy's monthly recap. Bear with me, life is a little crazy right now. Lucy continues to surprise us with how active and fun she is. She is very determined and once she has spotted something she must have it. She also hates to miss anything. She is constantly turning her head to catch what is going on.

This month Lucy started eating. Meaning she started right after she turned 6 months. She loves to eat. She opens her mouth big when I bring the spoon to her mouth. She is eating rice and oatmeal cereal, sweet potatoes, squash, prunes, carrots, peas, apples, and pears. Yum! This eating experience is so different from Micah's since he disliked all foods. She eats in 5 minutes while Micah would take 30 minutes with a song and a dance.

Right after turning 6 months Lucy started pulling herself up on anything that could hold her. She is everywhere and into everything. She never sits still.

One of Lucy's favorite things is her brother. She really likes him right out of the bathtub when he is wearing his dragon towel. She laughs and laughs. Micah loves this too. He can always get her to laugh and she never wants to miss out on what he is doing.

Finally, right before turning 7 months she started cutting her first tooth. She now has two coming in on the bottom. She likes to hide them with her tongue and bottom lip, but we got her with a huge smile.

Who wouldn't love this face.

Grandparents, Teeth and Bikes

2011-10-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

Micah and Lucy recently got a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Lee. Everyone was on their best behavior, with Lucy giving lots of smiles and Micah playing lots of board games with Grandma. Grandparents got to see Micah's third soccer game which was the best out of four games that he has played so far (limited crying and saying "I'm done"). We have five more games so we will hopefully see more improvement each week.

Lucy has not been sleeping well lately (for about a week now), and like all good parents we just keep rocking her and putting her back to sleep. Today Jill stuck a finger in Lucy's mouth and found a tooth starting to stick out of her lower gums. Net result: Upside-We know why Lucy doesn't sleep good. Downside-Lots more baby teeth to go.

Naturally everything that didn't go in her mouth before now does. Besides leaves (always rake up the "presents" first just in case Lucy was to find something from the dog before we do) and any toy that Micah isn't actively playing with. She was even commented on in the nursery at Church for all the stuff she tried to eat.

Jill was gone for the weekend with several friends to relax at Hume Lake and attend a women's retreat. Like any good dad I knew that this was my chance to do something that Jill didn't agree with. That's right, I talked Micah into taking off the training wheels and riding his bike with no help. The balancing was not a problem, confidence in his steering ability and not getting hurt took a few attempts to overcome.

I think we won Jill over on the idea once she saw that Micah liked it and that he had already learned that you slow down and put your feet out when stopping instead of crashing. I also compromised and we might do training wheels during the week for family walks and then none on the weekends for practice time.

He likes to make a loop along the inside of the driveway and also ride along the side of the road in front of several of the neighbors houses. Either way he still makes me follow behind him.

Here's a video clip to prove it. By this time I was tired of chasing him so it is just a quick clip of him starting and stopping.

Maybe next time Jill leaves us home without supervision we can work on a bike ramp, or something else like that.

Micah's fun times lately

2011-09-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

Micah has been enjoying his first year of soccer so far. He loves his new friends and it truly blessed to have such an awesome coach this year. Sometimes practices can be a little rough on him and he will get whiny and discourage when he doesn't play a practice drill/game as good as one of the older team mates. Each practice seems to get better for him.

To date we have played two games, which he has been excited about. He always asks who he is going to play and if he has any friends on the opposing team. Last week we played our neighbors team with his little boy and this next week we play a team with one of his friends from daycare and his dad. He mainly runs around trailing wherever the ball has just been and every once in a while gets lucky and is in the right spot to get a chance to kick the ball.

The Madera County Fair was the second weekend in September. This year one of the special features was Alaskan Pig Racing. Micah was really excited for it and ended up getting to be the section leader for the last race. He chose Sloppy Joe as his pig to cheer for. Sloppy Joe ended up getting third place, all the section leaders got a ribbon. Micah carried his around for several days and showed it to the neighbors across the street.

The pig racing involved four or so piglets at a time. They looked to be just a few months old. Each time they finished running around the track they got a cookie.

We also saw the 4-H and FFA animals along with a few other items. Jill bought some raffle tickets for a beautiful quilt, but we have not recieved a call yet so I think we didn't win. I also saw some of the giant pumkins that have been grown in Madera County (300 - 550 lbs) this year and I am thinking that I need to add this to my long list of gardening things to try some day.

Lucy has started to like playing with Micah and wants to be around him much of the time (unless she is off exploring). She really likes playing cars with him and with Mr. Potato Head when we are next to her too. Probably the cutest is how much she likes it when he has his orange "dragon" hoody towel on after a bath.

Micah (and daddy) got a new toy. A 56-year young 1955 Massey-Ferguson tractor with the 3 cylinder Perkins diesel. It is at the shop right now getting the engine tuned-up and a general review to getting a priority list for future work items (transmission, PTO and hydrualic system gasket are next on the list, maybe some day we will get to the headlights and a paint job). I am looking forward to all the fun rides we will have together on the tractor. Hopefully we will get things figured out to where this will help me get certain yardwork items done alot quicker and easier. There also is a tractor parade in Madera at Christmas time that I would really like to participate in someday.

Lastly, we went to our local small animal livestock auction house that has a sale every Saturday morning. Micah liked this light brown Alpine doe and there was not alot of other choices available that day so she was the one we bid on. She gets along well with the other two goats and has been named Bella "the Ballerina" by Micah. Next month will be our target breeding time so we will have to figure out what to breed for since both females are dairy goats, but there is also a good demand for meat goats in the area. This year it will probably come down to price and hopefully a neighbor and help us with a free option.

Lucy - 6 months update

2011-09-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

This had been a huge month for Lucy. She has learned so many new skills. Just a few days after turning 5 months old she started sitting up for longer than a few seconds. A few days later she was able to actually get herself into a sitting position. She loves being able to sit and play.

But sitting didn't last long for Lucy. At about 5 1/2 months she decided that she was going to crawl. She had been getting up and rocking on her knees for several weeks. Then face planting because she couldn't figure out that she had to move her hands. Then one day she just took off. Life hasn't slowed down for her since this. She quickly began crawling up and over the shelf on the coffee table and over our legs. Lucy also worked really hard on learning how to climb up the 3 places we have a step out of the living room. When we put her down in the living room she heads straight to the concrete step that leads to our entry way. Yes, I said concrete, very dangerous. Once up and over she just sits up there. I guess the challenge of climbing the step is the fun part.

Lucy also began spending time in the swing. She has always loved being outside, so the swing has been a perfect place to chill for her.

Our favorite thing that Lucy has learned this month is shrieking (not!). It's so fun (not!). She will be perfectly fine and then just start screaming.

Well, we think she might be a super baby. Or sometimes I think crazy baby!!!

5 Months Old

2011-08-20T09:47:00.001-07:00

Well, we are a little bit late on this post. I have been really busy with getting ready for school. It's now 10 days after Lucy turned 5 months and she has learned and done so many more things in those 10 day. I'm going to try and go back and only tell you things she was doing at 5 months just for my own record keeping.

Lucy has been doing much better with her spitting up. We found a formula that has really helped with this. Thanks to this, she has been able to spend more time on the floor and on her tummy. She rolls around very quickly and easily. She is laughing more and loves to give big smiles. She can sit up for a few seconds by herself before falling over. Lucy is a big wiggle worm so it's hard for her to stay up. She loves to look around and hates to miss anything that is going on. She likes to change activities a lot, so I'm always looking for something new for her to do.

Lucy loves the water. She loves her bath and the pool. When you hold her in the water she loves to move her legs like the breast stroke kick. She really looks like she's swimming. I love it!! Hopefully I'm going to have a little swim team girl.

Summer Fun

2011-07-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it is about halfway through the summer. I haven't been very good at keeping up with Micah's activities. So, here is a catch up on all we have been doing. I probably don't have them all in the right order, but you really don't care about that.

One day we went to a pick-your-own farm in Hanford. There were all kinds of berries there, but we stuck mostly to picking blueberries. This is because blueberries are very easy to pick and the ones a person picks are all good. We also wanted some blackberries but it is hard to tell which ones are ready on the vine. So, we just bought them from their little store. We made a delicious berry pie and blueberry muffins. Yummy!!
Micah wasn't the best at picking, but he was sure good at eating. At the farm they let you eat as much as you want while you are picking. Crazy!!!

On another day we went to Playland. You got to love the groupon that lets you ride all the rides for $5.

Micah and I visited the Rancho's Firestation. It was a very hot day, but this firefighter still got dress in all the gear to show the kids. They really want the kids to not be afraid of them in their gear in case they have a firefighter in their house. Micah was a bit scared of him.

Micah loves to catch frogs and toads. He carries around his bug catcher and hunts for them all the time. Hint to parents, let them out at night or else they usually aren't living in the morning.

He's even willing to give this one a big kiss.

Last week we went to the Cat Haven. This "zoo" has all sorts of big cats. You walk on a trail to see the cats. Micah seems to have a hard time with this place. We went last summer and had about the same experience. He decides when he gets there that he absolutely cannot walk. That is a problem because in 95 degree weather and "hiking" I absolutely will not carry him. So, I think we will hold off on going again any time soon.

He's pretending he's interested and hasn't been throwing a huge fit the whole time.

Our summer has been a blast so far. It's going way to quick. After being off work for 5 months I'm feeling it all coming to an end very soon.

4 Months Old

2011-07-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here we are at 4 months.
Lucy has found her toes. I love it when babies find this built in toy, that never goes away and can be found at any time. She tends to play mostly with this left foot.

Lucy can now roll from her tummy to her back and then back to her tummy. This is good because on her tummy always ends in spit-up. I'm not sure she will ever learn to crawl because I rarely let her stay on her tummy.

4th of July

2011-07-07T14:34:00.001-07:00

So, in preparation for the 4th of July my mom helped me make this cute onesie for Lucy. Well, actually she made it I just designed it. It turned out perfect.
Don't miss the little ruffles on her bum bum.

Here are both my cuties ready to party!

We spent the evening with friends at the Isaac's. Because it was so hot we spent lots of time in the pool. There was probably 20-25 people in the pool at one time. It was crowded, but it cooled us off. We had delicious hamburgers and for dessert cobbler and home-made ice cream. Yum. The kids loved it.

Micah loved watching the fireworks. The dad's probably had as much fun setting off the street fireworks than the kids had watching them.

All the kids had a blast doing the sparklers. It was a very fun night!

Hume Lake

2011-06-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

That's all you have to say to know that it was a great time. We went up to Hume two weekends ago and got to spend several days with some of my (Adam) college roomates and Bible study members along with everyone's ever growing families. It was super fun hang out and have meals together again, although I don't remeber the meals being quite as noisy or hectic as they were this time around.

That Monday morning we surprised the staff at the boatyard with five adults and seven kids (4 under age 4) and got all settled and went out for about an hour. Micah wanted to try and row the boat, maybe in a few years that will work out better. We also found out that Buzz Lightyear does not swim, so if anyone catches him while fishing sometime Micah would like him back.

Lucy and Micah also loved swimming in the heated pool, which we went to two afternoons in a row. With how cool it was this spring this was our first time in the pool. When we got home it was over 100 degrees and we went in everyday for a about a week.

We are also so thankful that we got to stay at Jay and Jen's house (Jill's brother). Micah missed his cousin Tanner who was in San Diego with her parents, but he enjoyed making friends with their neighbor Hudson. We also were not disappointed by the assortment of bugs to be found, Micah chased around butterflys, lady bugs, beetles and more. Of course what is a blog post without a picture of Lucy, who now can roll over to one side and is starting to grab her toes.

3 Months Old

2011-06-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well, check another month off for Lucy. She is now 3 months old. This month she decided that she would be a bit more happier. She is in a good mood more often, smiles at us, and even laughs. Lucy now enjoys the swing, her playmat, and her bouncy chair.
Lucy has been working on her tummy time. She also likes to hold toys in her hands.

Her favorite is her burp cloth, which really isn't a toy, but she loves it. Her big accomplishment this month was learning to roll over. The big problem is that she spits up once she is on her tummy. Then her face is covered with spitup.

Newborn Pictures

2011-06-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

We had these pictures taken when Lucy was 5 weeks old. She's almost 3 months now so these are a little old. I thought I'd share them anyways.

Compare and Contrast

2011-05-25T10:02:00.001-07:00

Everyone loves to give their opinions on if Lucy looks or doesn't look like Micah. Here's a few pictures for you to see for yourself. The first two are of them smiling. The difficult part was finding one of Lucy while she was smiling. She just doesn't smile as much as Micah did, but she is working on it. Lately she has been a bit more happy.

Lucy

Micah

These two are just of their "normal" faces.

In my opinion, they have similar eyes and mouth. They also look more alike when they are smiling. Their nose is different and their coloring. You can make your own opinions.

Micah's Birthday Party

2011-05-13T09:43:00.001-07:00

Micah had a great birthday. As I said in a previous post he was so excited about his birthday and party. On his birthday his daycare invited him to come back to celebrate his birthday. We have been so blessed to have Micah at Lori's Daycare. He hasn't been going at all since we are home with baby Lucy and they still invited him to come for his birthday. They have also included us in holiday parties and field trips since we've been gone. He really will be excited to go back in the fall.
Here he is with all the kids his age. There are also 3 babies/toddlers not in the picture.

That day he also watched me make his cake. It was an all day process since it was many layers and I fit it in while taking care of Lucy. Micah wanted cake all day. I kept telling him we were having cake that night with daddy. Well, it finally was too much for him. He was standing right in front of the round 3 layer part and he leaned over and took a big bite out of it. Sorry if you were at the party and you got that piece. I guess by now your still okay. Anyways, what was I to do. I just filled it in with icing. Micah does love licking the spoon.

Micah finally got his cupcake. He is obviously so excited. He loved being sung to.

Party time!!! Micah's party was a Buzz Lightyear rocketship party. If you can't tell what the cake is, let me explain. The black part is space. This part is not actually cake. It's just icing spread over a foil covered piece of cardboard. Then the blue part is a planet. The rocket is on top. Buzz didn't actually fit on the planet, so he's floating in space.

At the party we had Meteor Rocks. Yummy!!! And rocket fuel. Can you say sugar high!!!

Our first activiy was to make Mr. Potato balloons. Unfortunatly they all got popped by the end of the party. Silly kids!!!

The kids then searched for moon rocks. Apparently Buzz had been over the night before and spread the rocks all over the yard.
Then Adam set off some water rockets. The kids really loved this.
Finally, the cake. Micah was most excited about eating his rocketship cake.

Who knew that a backyard swing could be so much fun? The boys laughed so hard.

Now it is all over. He has been talking about his birthday for about 3 months. I hope that we can take a break before we start talking about turning 4. Micah had a great birthday. Adam and I are having so much fun with our "big" boy and hope that he doesn't grow up too fast.

2 Months Old

2011-05-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

We have made it through another month. Lucy is not really doing much more then she was last month. She still eats, sleeps, and poops. She is making a little bit a progress on her "play" time. She still does not like her play gym or swing, but she has begun to like her bouncy seat. She now sits in it and smiles at the toys that dangle in front of her. HUGE!!! I'm just trying to be excited about the small things. She looks adorable, of course.
And yes, she does sometimes go without bows or flowers in her hair. But she really doesn't like to.

This might have been just a little over the top.

3 Years Old

2011-05-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Micah is now 3 years old. He has been so excited to get older. "I want to grow up," he says. This makes me a bit sad because I love this stage. He wants to get older so that he can play mommy and daddy's games, grow whiskers, and drive a car. All these things are going to happen, he thinks, when he turns 5. Micah loves to play outside. He is a pro at riding a bike, scooter, and his tractor. He also loves to read books and to make up stories. He has a great imagination, making up stories about trains, dragons, or Buzz Lightyear. He helps his daddy take care of our goats and chickens. He is only a little scared of the "big bad boy rooster" that we have. He is really into Disney's Cars and Toy Story.

Just before turning 3 he became a big brother. He loves his new role. He plays peek-a-boo, sings songs, and comforts her. He has loved climbing under Lucy's play gym and "playing" with her.

We are so blessed to have such a sweet boy!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here are my precious two kids on Easter. Don't mind Lucy's face. She really wasn't that unhappy.
Micah took part in one of our church's Easter traditions. On Palm Sunday the 2-5 Sunday School class enters the sanctuary waving palm branches and then they sing a couple of songs for us. He did a bit better at singing than at Christmas time, but holding a palm branch is a huge distraction for a 3 year old.

Micah had fun dying Easter eggs with Adam. We were super busy all day getting ready for the family to come over on Sunday so we squeezed it in right before bed.

After we were done with the eggs we told him to give everyone a kiss (grandma and grandpa were here too). He thought we meant the eggs, so he kissed each one of them goodnight.

On Sunday we had the family here at our house. The cousins had a great time with their egg hunt. And yes, Lucy is not happy here. She was minutes from going down for a nap, but had to stay up for just a bit to take a picture.

One Month Old

2011-04-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well, we have survived the first month. What does one say about a 1 month old. She eats, sleeps and poops. She is on a good schedule of eating every 3 hours and is working on longer hours at night. She started reacting to us and smiling about week 3, which is so fun. Micah is a great big brother. He calls her his sweetie sweet. He is always concerned about her when she cries and wants to comfort her. He loves to sing to her, put her pacifier in her mouth, and help hold her bottle. Adjusting to life with Lucy and taking care of her has definitely been easier this time around. Adjusting to life with two children has been a bit harder. Micah loves to have his parents as his playmates and has had to learn to play alone a bit more than he is used to. But on the whole we are doing okay. We are truely blessed.

Bath Time

2011-04-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

Lucy had her first bath. I know I shouldn't compare everything to Micah, but I will anyways. Micah hated his first bath. He cried the entire time. So this is what I expected out of Lucy. Instead Lucy loved the bath. She was happy and enjoyed the whole thing.

We of course, had a little helper. Micah loved watching and washing Lucy. He really is great with her. He loves helping with lots of Lucy's daily things.

The best part was snuggling afterwards.

Lucy and Micah

2011-03-16T22:56:00.001-07:00

More pictures of baby Lucy (because that is what everyone wants). In this picture she is wearing her blue bow and "I'm a little sister" outfit for the car ride home from the hospital.
Micah was so excited to get to hold Lucy for the first time. He has his matching blue "I'm a big brother" shirt on. He now runs and grabs a burp cloth when he wants to hold Lucy.

Lucy taking one of her many daily naps/sleep times. Sometimes she goes right to sleep when needed to stay on schedule, other times she fights it and fusses for awhile, making us go through the whole list of "tricks" to get her to sleep.
Another precious picture sleeping.

Micah so far has loved having a baby sister. Why? Becuase it means that there has been either a grandparent (or two) or his daddy to play with just him everyday. So far he has gone to the park to ride his bike and play, gone to Chuck E. Cheese and gone to a small nearby lake (20 minutes from home). He loved throwing rocks and climbing around.

He also got lucky and we were walking past a couple that was fishing. Both the husband and wife had fish on the line and let Micah reel in two trout in a row. He thought it was so much fun. They asked if he wanted to touch the fish which was pretty funny when he realized how slippery they are.

Lucy Lee meets the world!

2011-03-11T12:42:00.000-08:00

Lucy Kerrigan Lee meets the world at 5:05pm on March 10, 2011. She weighed in at 7lbs. 12oz. and measured 19.5inches. Vitals and everything were great and she did some good crying for the nurses to show that she is a healthy baby.

Jill did a fantastic job and was a happy camper when they got her some drugs (epidural). The nurses were great and took good care of the family. We even had one nurse who's grandpa used to be the pastor at our church a decade or two ago (Ray Wiebe).

Lucy quickly wins over everyone with her big cheeks and dark hair. Yes, that's right she has dark hair. We were positively sure that we would have another little Blondie, but Jill had started to have some doubts the last few weeks (mother's intuition). It's taking some getting used to but all of Lucy's bows should stand out better against the dark brown hair!

Lucy took a little trip over to the nursery for an upset stomach and came back with this precious knit cap. The hospital has several women who knit them lots of these cute caps to give out to all the babies.

Here are those big cheeks and dark eyes. This is her "Who wouldn't find me irresistible to love, I am so cute" look.

Yep, Jill has started the bows already. We brought two bows with us, this is the one that fits so we will have to wait a little while before we start to wear pink.

Baby goat is here, still waiting for our baby girl

2011-03-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday afternoon I went out to feed the goat before Jill & I left for the hospital for delivery of baby Lucy. To my suprise our mama goat had one baby sometime that morning. The baby is super cute with its brown ears (not sure if its a boy or girl). I lam a little bummed out that there were not twins or triplets which is common for this type of dairy goat. Sometime this summer the baby will go back to the previous owner of the mama goat. Until then we will enjoy watching it grow and play and do all the funny things that baby goats like to do.

We asked Micah what the baby should be named.... "BoBo" was his response. The mama goat is very protective right now so we just stood back and watched for a little bit.

Stay tuned for more baby updates. We are currently at the hospital and hopefully will have the baby by the end of Thursday!

Our Little Scottish Boy

2011-02-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

Micah is yet again in another cultural outfit. We, meaning Adam, loves to dress him in clothes from around the world. This time Micah really does have some Scottish heritage from Adam's side of the family. My sister picked this up for him on her recent trip to Scotland. A few months ago Adam put the kilt on him to go to church and Micah refused to wear it. Even at 2 1/2 he knew that boys were not suppose to wear "skirts." Adam has been showing Micah pictures of men wearing kilts on the internet to see if he could convince him to wear it. So this Sunday again we tried it and Micah put it right on. He loved it and got lots of compliments at church. Mostly about his white, white legs.

She's finally arrived!

2011-01-24T22:53:00.001-08:00

That's right, we now have "Momma goat" at our house. She has settled in easily and suprisingly doesn't really make any noise. Feel free to suggest any new names for her. Jill is not that into just leaving her name as "Momma goat."

Momma goat has a pretty sweet pen set up. As you can she is looking around from on top of her electrical spool that we got for free from the neighbor just for this purpose. Should be fun later on this spring and early summer to see the baby goats play on this too. Yes, Momma goat should be having her kids about mid-March to April. Hopefully this turns out to be a pretty smooth and easy process as we will already have our newborn baby at home too.

Micah has asked several times to go back to the snow again. He had lots of fun with Uncle Jay and cousin Tanner at Christmas time. We also took him to the infamous Chucky Cheeses a few weeks ago and now he has repeatedly asked to go so more. Wasn't Jill's favorite thing to do, so maybe we will make is a daddy activity. He already has several mommy activities that include getting to go to Pump-it-Up for the indoor bounce-houses. I thought I was already doing good, Micah likes the "daddy store" in Madera (Lowes) where they have shopping carts that are shaped like Nascar cars with double seats and steering wheels for kids.

Micah also had a wonderful time with his other cousins at Christmas time. Here is my favorite picture of some of them "not crowding" and "giving each other space" to open presents. It was funny to watch them creep closer and closer to each other over several presents and then be told to back up and then they would do it all over again. Hopefully we can take his bike with us for our next visit, I think he would have a blast riding around with everyone. As long as cousin Evan waits another year or so before trying to teach him to ride over jumps we should be okay.

Christmas Videos

2011-01-07T15:15:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas was filled with many great times. Micah was excited about everything. Here are a few videos that highlight our holiday.

This is Micah riding his bike for the first time. Adam really wanted to get Micah a bike. I wasn't convinced that a 2 1/2 year was ready because Micah really hadn't mastered the peddling on a tricycle yet. Surprisingly, Micah figured it out and could make the bike go on his own.

We went up to Hume for Christmas this year. Along with the normal Christmas activities we spent some time sledding and ice skating. Micah loved ice skating and refused to get off the ice. We didn't have the best lighting for the video but you can get an idea of how Micah got around. He draped his body over this little stand and shuffled his feet along.

Micah has been singing a lot lately. This Christmas his favorite song was Frosty the Snowman, aka Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. He starts off the first line of Frosty and then switches right to Rudolph.

Christmas Program

2010-12-22T15:49:00.003-08:00

At our church they have a children's program every year. Each sunday school class sings or does some sort of presentation. Micah is in the 2-5 class so here he is in his first performance. We really had high, high hopes for him at 2 years old. Micah does love to sing so we thought maybe he would do a little singing. But, no. Here is what he did do during the performance. One song had jingle bells so he enjoyed ringing his bell. At one point it flew from his hand and he had to go find it.
Micah clapped his hands a couple times. Also at some point the little boy behind him decided to pull on Micah's collar over and over. This I'm sure was a huge distraction for him.

Towards the end of the 5 minute program he saw some other kids crawling around on the stairs and thought he needed to join them. He did this for a bit. Finally sitting up and sitting nice till the end of the program.

We are so proud of our little performer. He was a star!!!

Pilgrim and Indian

2010-11-30T16:42:00.000-08:00

If you have been following our blog you know that my mom has dressed Tanner and Micah up for Christmas for the last two years. The first year they were Mary and Joseph. Then last year they were angels, which was not a hit with Micah. This year my sister, who is home from Romania, will not be home for Christmas. So my mom decided that we should have the tradition at Thanksgiving time. So I give you this years dressed up Micah and Tanner, a Pilgrim and an Indian. They both thought it was very fun. Tanner has been doing lots of dressing up being a girl and all. Micah loved dressing up for Halloween. They were both very prepared for the day.
Tanner played the pilgrim perfectly being very solumn through the scripture reading. After we finished reading the scripture Micah gave us a wonderful Indain rain dance.

We conitnue to be so blessed in our family. Adam and I are thankful for an amazing son and the coming baby girl. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Chicken Coop Part II

2010-11-11T00:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the coop before the painting. Micah has his steps for feeding out "treats" during the summertime. Chickens got grapes everyday and sometime tomato's from the cherry tomato plants that magically sprouted up next to one of the new trees we planted last spring.

And here is the almost completed after picture. Trim around the top still needs the free dark brown paint for constrast and the backside of the coop gets the free pinkish-tan paint!
Up to about 8-10 eggs a day now from twelve full-size hens and now just waiting for the bantam to start laying her tiny eggs. Looks like winter treats will be some of the leafy weeds that are sprouting up.

Painting the Chicken Coop

2010-11-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

Adam had a great idea. Let's let Micah help paint the chicken coop. A 2 year old with real paint. Here is Micah before he started. Clean and excited.
Micah had his own bucket. He would dip the paint in and it would drip all the way to the coop. While in with the chickens he was very concerned about the chickens. He doesn't always like being in the chickens anymore so he kept telling them, "be nice chickens."

What a lucky boy Micah is!!

Micah had lots of fun. This is him when he was just about finish. He only had one little accident after I took this picture. He leaned all the way on the chicken coop getting more paint on his backside. He thought painting his hands was also part of the process. His clothes, of course, we are throwing away and the paint in his hair will wash out eventually.

Halloween

2010-11-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

We had a very fun Halloween. Micah was Bob the Builder. He loved wearing his work hat and tool belt.

The first event Micah wore his costume to was his daycare party. I must say it was a little over the top. Mainly the food. They sat down to snacks and had a cookie, a cupcake, a brownie, and jello jigglers. I was beginning to wonder when they were going to stop bringing out the treats. But Micah did have fun and enjoyed every bite. Probably because he rarely gets sweets at home. The kids then played some easy games where they won little prizes. Micah loved the spider rings.

Then they had a pinata. Micah did a great job swinging and hitting it. He loved picking up the candy. Oh course, the pinata never holds enough candy so Lori passed out to everyone an extra bag of candy. Just what we needed. We absolutely love Micah's daycare and are thrilled that he loves going everyday. Lori and Jim make every day special so on holidays I'll be sure to come to the over the top fun parties that they have.

Then, for Halloween we first went to the carnival that was out here in the Ranchos. Micah loved going through the blow-up obstacle course. After that we headed into Fresno to go to our church carnival. Following that we headed into the neighborhood around our church to do a bit of trick- or-treating. We went with our good friends, the Isaacs. Micah thought it was the most exciting thing. He said trick-or-treat over and over until the person put the candy in his bucket. Then he would say more trick-or-treat, more trick-or-treat.

The week of Halloween we carved 4 pumpkins on 4 different night because Micah thought it was so much fun. The first pumpkin didn't make it till the end for the final picture. Micah wanted Mike from Monsters Inc. He also wanted a robot pumpkin, which we made from Micah's green pumpkin. The last pumpkin we made was a sad pumpkin because we looked all around the Ranchos for a sad one and never found one. So Micah wanted a sad pumpkin. Are you noticing a pattern. We made whatever Micah wanted. He had a blast.

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumkins

2010-10-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

At Micah's daycare they started the month early by learning and talking about pumpkins. So he has been excited about pumpkins for awhile now. Earlier in the month we had our first cooking experince together by baking pumpkin sugar cookies. Micah loved it.

His favorite part was licking the batter. Yummy!!!!

The cookie cutter was also very fun. I tried to point where is should go, but where it landed was where we cut a cookie. A few weeks later I was rolling out a pie crust and he said excitedly that we were making pumpkin cookies again. I think that he really enjoyed it.

The finished product. Micah didn't really help with the decorating. When he finally got to eat one of the cookies he ate a few bites and said "all done." I thought he didn't really like them but another day he did eat a whole one.

Micah's daycare took a field trip to Cobb Ranch. Lori bought all the kids matching shirts. Micah had been talking about going to the pumpkin patch all week. Then that morning we told him that today is the pumpkin patch and he says, "no pumpkin patch."

Cheeeeeeeese!!! I forgot to get a picture of it, but all the kids picked out a pumpkin. I tried to convince Micah to get an orange pumpkin. But no, he picked out a puke green, muffin shaped pumpkin. I wasn't too thrilled.

This last Saturday we took a trip to another pumpkin patch. Micah was not in the mood to say cheese and smile. He loved sliding on the big pumpkin. We each picked a pumpkin and this time Micah got a nice orange one. Yeah!

Micah had a blast "helping" carve the pumkin. He did not want to touch the gook on the inside. He loved picking out the shapes of the eyes and the nose and watching his mama carve it.

Here he is very cheesy with his pumpkin. He loved it when we lit it and wanted to stay outside to watch it for awhile. Halloween is shaping up to be very fun with a two year old.

Big Brother having fun

2010-09-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

August ended with a chance to go enjoy the 50th annual Greek Festival at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Fresno. We tried some different food this year and ate some of the A' la carte items that were served inside. Micah also loved the bounce house in the kids section of the festival. We finished up the eveing listening to the band play greek music and watch some of the dancers. Before the dancers started the area was free for the little kids to "dance". Micah busted out his Turkish vest from his Aunt Jenny and proceeded to run wild around the open area. Many people pointed and thought it was cute that he wore his vest. Labor day weekend was a busy. Friday Sept. 3rd is now called "Nephew Day" at the Lee's house. On Adam's side our nephew Josh got married in the Sacramento area (just Adam went and had a wonderful time and enjoyed the beautiful ceremony and reception). Same day on Jill's side our nephew Jett was born. We couldn't wait to go see him and got going as soon as we could on Saturday morning to get the first visit in and hold him for awhile.

Then on Monday for Labor we went to Castle Air Museum in Atwater. They had over 50 real planes used by the Armed forces over the past 80 years or so to see outside and also an indoor museum area. Some of the displays like the helicopter were still set up from their big "open cockpit" day on Sunday when you can go inside many of the large planes. We will definitely go back for that event in the future.

Micah's favorite were the "rocketships". We must have spent a good 20 minutes or so watching him climb up and down from the three missiles next to the wing of the massive B-52 bomber. Several staff rode by in golf carts and didn't seem to mind even though the "no climbing" sign that had been posted for Sunday was on the ground nearby.

Lastly, here is the first view of Micah's baby brother or sister. Micah's sibling is due to be born the 1st week of March! Jill has been a trooper so far and has been pretty positive even though she had a good month plus of morning sickness that liked to sitck around for the rest of the day until bedtime. Micah is still confused about where the baby is at and thinks Jill is hiding it in her shirt. He has been great at helping to pray for the baby at dinner time. I also think he will enjoy some of the changes later on this year when he gets a "big boy" bed and moves into the other bedroom which is probably twice as big than the one that the baby will end up with.

To answer a few questions: (1) Yes, we will be finding out if the baby will be a boy or girl in the next few months. (2) Yes, we would like to have a little girl so we can have one of each. (3) Yes, we will still be so happy and excited if we get another little boy.

Eggs

2010-08-18T17:33:00.000-07:00

It's happened. The chickens have started laying eggs. This is a little earlier then we expected but there is a little story behind that. About a month ago we had six chickens eaten in the middle of the night. It was a very sad experience for some of us. Of course, this did not include any of the three full size roosters. So that put us down to about six laying hens. For some of you, you might think this would be plenty for us. But it's not! So Adam went and bought six adolescent hens. So no one needs to fret we will still have about twelve layers. Anyway, last Saturday we had our first four eggs. They are still small (eggs will get bigger in the next month as the hens finish growing) so I also made some of the store bought eggs so that we could have a little taste test. And let me tell you, they are better. Really, our fresh eggs did taste really good. So for those of you that are planning on buying eggs from us get ready.
Micah loves going to collect the eggs with daddy. He carries them back in his hands and so far he has only dropped one. When they come inside we always count them. For some reason he likes the number six but we haven't collect six eggs yet. Six is always somewhere in there when we are counting though.

San Diego Part 2

2010-07-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

Well being in San Diego we had to head to the beach a couple of times. I like a nice warm beach where you actually want to go a bit into the water. Well this was not the case. The days that we went were cold and gloomy. Oh well, we had fun anyways. You may know that my brother Jay runs a camp for Hume in San Diego for a month during the summer. So Jay, Jen and Tanner joined us for a few of our adventures. They joined us for some fun in the not so much sun. Here is Micah and Tanner getting ready to build a huge sandcastle.

Actually the adults did most of the building. But Tanner and Micah were really good at destroying the castle.

Their favorite thing to do was to water the sandcastle. This caused Adam to make many trips into the cold water to get more buckets of water.

Micah did actually venture into the ocean a couple of times.

San Diego

2010-07-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

This year we decided to go to San Diego for our vacation. It has so many fun things for kids. Our first stop was the Wild Animal Park. This park is great if you haven't been. So many animals to see, lots of shade, and not overcrowded at all. Here's my two wild animals at the beginning of the day.

Here's Micah and I taking a break. It is lots of walking. If you know anything about Micah right now he is not so into walking when you have to get from one place to the next. I mean, why would you when your parents love carrying you everywhere. Actually, he did a great job and did a lot of walking that day.

Micah's favorite were the ducks. He did get to feed them but even if he hadn't he would have still loved them the most. He just likes ducks.

My favorite was the gorillas. At the Wild Animal park you get a great view of them.

This might be a shocker. Adam's favorite was the bighorn sheep. I mean really, we live in the country, we can see goats or sheep every day. I think he just actually liked this picture and how it turned out. (Adam's favorite was actually the elephants)

We had a blast. Stayed tuned for more of our adventures in San Diego.

1st week of Summer vacation

2010-06-15T23:31:00.001-07:00

We just finished up the first week of summer for Jill. She got to spend some time in Bakersfield with Micah visiting with Grammie and Grandpa. Then this past weekend we got to go to one of Jill's favorite places in the world ... Hume Lake/ Hume Lake Christian Camp. Three of Adam's five roomates from college were all able to visit together on Saturday and Sunday. The families of Dave and Jon live farther away and rented cabins for a whole week of vacation (lucky them!), while Adam and Chad live so close by with the easy drive from Fresno. It was great to spend time with college roomates now that we all have kids.

Here are some of us braving the sunken log in the lake to see some of the huge tadpoles that they have at Hume from what I am guessing are some really big bullfrogs. This was on our Sunday morning walk along part of the lake.

Boating on Saturday before lunch. Who doesn't have fun in a row boat (aka "slow boat'").

Playing in the mud at the lake. Most of the kids are lined up in the background and are busy playing. Everyone also loved the ducks that liked to roam around on the grass. The little kids would all go after the ducks to pet them while the rest of us watched.

Jill got to make her Smore's on Sunday before heading home. This was a must do item and when camp staff was too busy to start the firepit for us, a quick walk over to the general store for some lighter sticks and scrounging up some kindling solved the problem. Micah loved his first smore's and made Jill proud with how well he kept clean of melted marshmellow (the rest of the weekend we were not as lucky with lots of sand and dirt to deal with).

The Monday was a quick day trip up to Modesto to hang out at Nana and Pappa's house along with a bunch of his cousin's. Jill said that he was nonstop playing in the water and loved the whole time he got to play with everyone else.

Cooped Up? Its time to get outside

2010-06-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

Micah's chickens (Adam's really) spent the week following Memorial Day in their new home "The Chicken Palace" before this past weekend being let out to roam in their run. Two reasons for this. One, I did not have to finish fixing up the existing fence as quickly and two, just like dogs and cats when you move houses, chickens also transition better when kept "inside" for a few days to get used to where they need to sleep/eat before being let out.

Quick over: Our coop is ?? years old. It first was a school bus stop shelter and was moved by tractor back and forth 1/4 mile each winter. It then got "fixed" up by the last owner and turned into the chicken palace. Next had atleast a half decade to fall into disrepair before getting a new roof, door and chicken wire wall. *see fencing needed to the right.

Ammenities: Two roosting bars set apart to avoid pooping on each other. Water and food feeders. Next up this summer will be fixing or making new nesting boxes for eggs starting this fall. It is also good to have a closable pop door to close at night and keep out things that like to eat chickens. Since Jill's two silkies are so small and do not like to fly/jump a ramp-door was needed. Here is one of the Buff Orpingtons demonstrating. Yes they do wait in the morning for it to be opened and then try to squeeeze through all at once.

The little black fuzzball to the lower right in the photo below is one of Jill's silkies. The other chicken were this size at about 3 weeks old and now all are over two months old. Micah loves to bring them out a snack after dinner (so far avocado and rice are winners while cooked carrots and baked beans were not recieved with much enthusiasm).

Only one chicken is "slow" enough to easily be caught for Micah to pet (the golden one below). The other chickens are pretty quick to move out of arms reach and we do not run near them so that they won't become afraid of us or get stepped on.

Preview of next month's chicken update: "Am I a rooster?" and "Names"

Work + Play = Laughter

2010-06-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

Do you like to work all the time or play all the time? Tired of tiring to figure it out. The solution is easy, just think like a two year old!

It is difficult at such a young age to decide if it is better to go swimming or to take the wheelbarrow for a spin down the street. Micah has got it covered. After a quick break in front of the neighbors house he is up and ready to head down the street.

"Bumps" are a big favorite. Pushing toys, riding in cars, on bikes or by scooter Micah wants to go over the bumps. Even wagon rides require detours to the edge of the road or over the potholes and patches.

I am sure that the neighbors are amused by some or our evening walks and outings. Sometimes we don't get that far and end up throwing rocks into weeds or following a clown beetle (stink bug) as it crawls across the road. One of the best ways to motivate Micah is to tell him he will get to go outside and look for bugs.

Gotta get those bumps!

Micah playing with bubbles that he got for his birthday. After a rocky start with soap in the eyes from a bubble he got the hang of things and loved to chase and the bubbles.

Nanna and Poppa stopped by on their way home to the Modest area. Nanna taught Micah how to try and eat the bubbles!

Cluck, Cluck, Moo, Moo ... Micah has just turned 2!

2010-05-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

Micah had his party about two weeks ago. Jill went with a farm them and came up with fun games for the kids to play. Game #1 is the barnyard animal search where the kids had to find the little plastic animals hidden in the hay. Here is Micah and some of the other kids looking for their animals.
Adam's favorite was giving tractor rides up and down the street with the neighbors tractor, trailer and hay (hey we provided the gas atleast). This was lots of fun and a little interesting too with the trailer attached to the scraper blade that could move up and down (low-rider country style).
Micah loved the rides and went almost every single time plus the evening before and the evening after with the neighbors. We didn't think about it but they hay can be scratchy on little legs. Micah got his share of scratches but didn't care becuase of having so much fun.
Game #2 was herding the "cows". The kids had a blast chasing around the balloons. It was a bit on the windy side that day so some of the adults had fun chasing balloons too and getting them out of trees and under cars.

Micah's petting zoo was open for awhile with most of the bigger chickens out in a makeshift pen on the lawn. Here is Micah's cousin holding one of the baby chicks. Everyone had fun and all the chickens survived all of the kids.
Tractor cake. Jill made a fantastic tractor cake and also had chicken scratch (chex mix), Micah's garden (veggie tray) and pigs-in-a-blanket among other things to eat.
Here is a close up of the cake.
Micah has really enjoyed being two. Besides saying "no" all the time, he likes to say "mine", "up" (wants to be carried even if only 20 feet to the car for example) and of course on his b-day why get your own hand dirty when you can eat out of someone else's hand.

Who is the bigger kid!

2010-04-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

Two (okay three) of the things I have been looking forward to the most since moving to the countryside of beautiful Madera County have happened this April (Jill is still looking forward to the whole swimming season this summer). That is right, its tractor time. This is one time in life where it is not only "ok" but acceptable and approved to drive a Ford (Sorry dad, no Chevy tractors). In between the weather trying to decide if it is stilll winter or going to be spring we have been borrowing the tractor from across the street, a Ford 600 from the about early 1960's. It can be on the loud side so Micah gets to wear my radio/soundproof headphones that are also great for any other yard tool or shop equipment when ear plugs are needed.
We have to have our weed control completed by May 1st when the fire department comes around so we have been learning how to use the disc with the tractor. So far we have learned how to get it stuff when the ground is both dry and wet. More importantly we have learned how to get it unstuck! Current status is stuck again. Luckily you just unhook a pin similar to a trailer and drive away so atleast the tractor itself is not stuck.
The first fun event actually happened first in March with the chipping of the wood piles that I have created in the process of trimming back and cleaning up the yard from several years of the last owner not doing proper maintenance. In addition to our fire safety being required by the fire department (maybe common sense doesn't work anymore) we also are not allowed to burn yard clippings. That only leaves several other options, most of which involve time, money or both. Due to the size of our pile (this one is the bigger of the two) we went with the chipper. We didn't know how big our pile would grow as we cleaned-up the front yard and put it closer to the neighbors house than I liked.

So, like any reasonable person I got my dad to help for the weekend and rented a "beast" of a chipper. Yes, it was loud, messy and pure manliness. You just stick a branch in and presto it is chips. This thing worked so well that we were also able to take out three trees in the front yard that I thought would have to wait until next year. This made Jill very happy since two of the trees are only green for about 3-4 months and looked dead for the rest of the year.

Lastly and most importantly, it's CHICKEN TIME!!! We are in the process of fixing the old coop that was here before us and have another month or so to do that. As a little kid my dad had chickens and I remember how much fun it was feeding them and collecting eggs. I also remember being scared of the rooster so at this time we are not planning to have one and just buy new chicks from the hatchery each spring as needed. Jill did not know what she was agreeing to and has had to put up with me researching chicken breeds and other stuff about chickens. We (I) settled on four breeds for eggs (get a few of each and it is easier to name them) and also wanted some bantams (small) chickens.

Well they mostly arrived today. Even at just a day or two old you can see that they are different breeds. Jill's pick, Silkie bantams did not arrive today and hopefully will be here next Thursday. They also only gave us 2 of 3 chicks that lay colored eggs (most likely will be green shells) and slipped a yellow colored chick in as a replacement. We also found this baby chick below wandering around our house a few weeks earlier and decided to keep it too!

For anyone who tried to count them there are a total of 14 right now, not counting the 2 they did not have when I showed up that the feed store. They said last week that they were still waiting for the Silkies at that time. It should be a fun six weeks or so watching them grow and getting them used to us before they move from the garage out the coop. We will have to see what Jill thinks in a few weeks when they get big enough to eat treats and hold for awhile.

Scooter Riding

2010-04-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

Micah loves to ride his scooter. He got it about a month ago and has gotten better at it each week. He thinks it is the funniest thing in the world that a person would run along side of him with the camera. Other than trying to take a video of him he doesn't laugh when riding he is serious and gets down to business.

Micah's First Haircut

2010-04-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Micah finally needed a haircut. He is almost two and I've trimmed his hair once, but he just doesn't have a lot of hair. Well, we decided to go the over-the-top route for his first one. He sat in a fancy car and watched a video while he got his haircut.

He sat perfectly and did a fantastic job.

All done and ready to hit the road.

Easter Time

2010-04-05T10:34:00.001-07:00

We started off our Easter celebration by attending our church's Easter Extravaganza. We watched a drama, sang, and made a craft. Okay, I basically made the craft for Micah but he enjoyed carrying it around afterwards.
We also had an Easter egg hunt. I'm not sure we were quite ready for it at almost 2 years old. The picture shows what he did most of the time. Looked around at everyone to see what they were doing. I finally got him to pick up about 6 eggs, but that was a lot of work on my part. Maybe we should have practiced before we got there.

His favorite part was the bounce house. He really loved this and didn't mind at all being knocked over or bumped around a little.

For Easter we headed down to my parent's house. We dyed eggs which was an adventure. We really just tried to break as few as possible. Micah really loved it and was so excited to see the colored eggs when they came out.

"Ta Da," Adam and Micah say about their wire egg holders.

But best of all was dipping the wire egg holder in the food color and then sucking on it. I guess a little vinegar and food color can't hurt anyone.

Conveniently Micah and Tanner wore matching outfits. So nice of them to match to make great pictures.

Micah did a little better at his second Easter egg hunt. He picked up a couple eggs and then rode his bike. Then he picked up a couple more. I don't understand, wouldn't you want to pick up bright colored eggs and put them in your basket to keep.

I'm not really sure when eggs started having money in them because they never did 30 years ago when I was hunting eggs. These eggs had money so of course he needed a piggy bank to put the coins in. He actually enjoyed this more than picking the eggs up. He also got a tooth brush from Grammy and Grandpa which was a big hit. We had to start brushing our teeth right away. Well it was a great Easter with a little boy who is starting to get involved in all the holiday traditions.

Weeds, weeds, and more weeds

2010-03-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well, you should know by now that we live on 2.5 acres. It's spring time and let me tell you, we have weeds. For all you "city folk" who are complaining about weeds let me show you just a few of our weeds. Oh, and there just happens to be an adorable little boy in the picture. Micah stomps through anything to get where he needs to go.

Why can't grownups have this much fun too!

2010-03-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

Micah got a chance a few weeks ago to make the most of what may be the last puddles at home before springtime takes off and it stops raining. It has been neat to watch how the ground at our home and surrounding area have slowly filled up with water all winter and got to the point where puddles will stay for awhile. Now the frogs are coming out and making lots of noise every night. Can't wait to find out what happens next in the countryside.

No fear when you got stylin green frog boots like Micah does!

Finally some warm weather to wear the oufit that Aunt Jenny got for Micah from Turkey. We didn't have any Turkish shoes so boots had to do. Everyone loved his outfit at church. Jill is not the biggest fan of outfits (loves the "little man" look), but I think that it is great. When else in your life can you dress up any day of the week and get the response "how cute" and not "why are you wearing that".

Definitely a highlight of Micah's on Sundays is running around on the lawn at church with other kids after the service.

Micah's new ride.

He loves riding the scooter during the daytime so we got him one with three wheels for stability at home. He currently goes about half as fast as he can walk and is not good at steering but loves to try to get around on it anyways. The tank top and vest is definitely a look that Micah can pull off. Doesn't hurt that he loves wearing the construction hat he decorated at Jackson's birthday party with stickers.

The goodtimes roll - more fun in the snow

2010-02-22T23:13:00.000-08:00

Micah ate his first cookie about a week or two ago. He was interested in the warm fresh chocolate chip cookie for about a bite or two and left the rest on his tray. Yet he will cry if he only gets one mandarin type orange or banana to eat. I guess it is a good thing that he likes fruit more. Continuing with the funny creativity from the last blog Micah has decided that it is more enjoyable to slide down the box that the slide came in than to slide down the actual slide. Feet first, head first, toy cars, blocks, anything goes. He also just decided that it is best to put a pile of crumpled newspaper at the bottom first and then to slide and roll around in that too.

Now for the good stuff. Micah went up to the snow at Hume Lake again for the second time. This time he was determined and knew what to do. He tried to pull the tube again with much determination but will not be big enough to do so for a few more years.

Micah's favorite was to ride the saucer on his own. Before it had stopped at the bottom of the hill he would already be saying please and want to go down the hill again. We are starting to understand that when other parents say the kids are wiped out after a day in the snow that they really mean themselves.

Every once and awhile we would be lucky enough that Micah would let one of use ride with him down the hill. Micah and Jill definitely score style points for both wearing knit beanies/caps.

Micah did some rides with Adam too. Just becuase there is snow outside doesn't mean that it is really cold. With the temperature probably in the 60's the big winter jacket and carrying Micah up the hill was too much for Adam.

Since Hume Lake is where Micah's cousin Tanner lives we got to spend much of the day with her too. Toddler's are not the best at sharing so we only got a few chances to slide down the hill with both of them at the same time. Taking two toddlers at once also meant getting both of them to sit in the tube and get pulled up the hill together. Two are about the limit at one point we had a third toddler along for the fun and need both an adult pusher and puller to get the tube up the hill.

Mr. Funny Man

2010-02-04T22:08:00.000-08:00

Micah has been loving to have fun lately in some pretty interesting ways. WE have found out that he continues to love crumpled up newspaper and we have a hide-n-go-seek type of game with him that is hilarious. He also likes to run around and have newspaper "snow" fall on him.

He also is still very attached to his blanket and loves to carry it around while playing. Last week he decided to put it over his head and try to climb up to his slide and then slide down the slide. He did pretty good and got a good laugh from us so he went back around and did the same thing several more times.

Daddy and Son Snow Fun!

2010-01-10T20:28:00.000-08:00

Adam and Micah made a trip up to Hume to check out a tractor and had some fun in the snow. The first thing they did was ride Uncle Jay's big snowplow. Well I guess it's not really Jay's he just get to use it.

Then cousin Tanner joined them for some rides down the tube runs.

Micah wanted to walk up the hill on his own but it is really hard work for a little guy.

He also thought he was big enough to pull the tube everywhere but he needs to get a little stronger. So Adam had fun hauling Micah and the tube up the hill. Micah had a blast riding down!!! I was sad I couldn't join them but I had commitments in Fresno.

Goodbye 2009 Hello 2010

2010-01-02T22:58:00.000-08:00

For New Year's day we went to the Hmong New Year's celebration at the Fresno Fairgrounds. I was able to get Jill to go again (3rd time?) and it was a first for Micah. I think that I am on 5 years in a row now. Micah loved all the booths, sounds and traditional clothes that many people were wearing. Last year I went by myself and spent time with my friend Ger and his family, at the end of the time there I saw a little shorts and shirt outfit and Ger ended up buying it for him. This year we got Micah the same type of outfit in a bigger size and also a matching hat to go with it. When it gets warm again Micah will be sure to wear his outfit to church and maybe some other places it Jill will allow it. Micah also enjoyed his first taste of Hmong sausage and bbq'd chicken along with a jello drink with a coconut milk flavor
Also this past week we said good bye to our Christmas tree for the year. I will miss seeing it lit up in the window as I would drive past each night coming home from work and looked forward to spending the evening with Jill and Micah.

I am sure that Jill will have more to add about the New Years too!

The Christmas Story

2009-12-27T21:47:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have followed this blog for the last year I'm sure you have been dying to know what Tanner(cousin) and Micah will be in the Christmas story this year. For those of you new to this blog let me just recap for you. Last year Tanner and Micah, as pictured below, were Mary and Joseph. They sat so nicely in the backdrop and wore their costumes. All this was done while we read the Christmas story. Let me also remind everyone that this could only be dreamed up from Rita Johnson. So without further adieu,
I give you angels. Now, you will not find any pictures of the cousins together. They never stood still and they definitly did not stand anywhere near the backdrop. Yes, Micah is wearing tights. He really didn't seem to mind these. As you noticed he is happy in this picture. He just got everything on.

And then he realized that he had these crazy things on his back. He started turning and grabbing and wanting them off. But we didn't take them off because there was more to the costume.

And that was this halo thing. He absolutely did not like this. Now he's had the costume on maybe 4 minutes. He wants it off NOW! This is right about when we start reading the Christmas story. So then we start taking the costume off and calming him down.

Tanner, on the other hand, was a perfect angel.

Beach Trip

2009-12-20T19:50:00.000-08:00

I have been bugging Adam since Summer to go to the beach. Well, it's December and we finally went. We went to Cambria with Jill's family. Micah had a blast! He loved throwing rocks in the water, watching the birds, and digging in the sand. He was also facinated by the elephant seals. The weekend was cold and raining most of the time but during the breaks we headed to the beach to have fun.

Christmas Tree Time

2009-12-08T22:53:00.001-08:00

Getting the Christmas Tree is always fun to do. Having a toddler along is even better. This year we tried going to a fairly new cut your own tree place in Auberry. They planted their trees about 8 years ago and have a few more years before the fir trees might be big enough. Micah did enjoy walking around. In addition to the trees they had a little gift shop shed along with free hot chocolate and coffee. The dog and cat were wandering around too since it is family run, with the house on the hillside above the trees.

Fortunately for us they also had a small supply of pre-cut fir trees to choose from after not finding one while walking around. They had a beautiful looking one out so we got that one. We picked up Auntie Jenny on the way home in Fresno for a week of fun with Micah.

On Sunday we tried to get pictures of Micah with the tree before and after church, with and without toys, the cat, the dog and other people. Definitely not a cooperative photo day. We did get a few good ones and funny ones. Below, Micah is actually taking off the ornament and not putting it on and the last picture is one we tried with the cat that had everyone laughing.

Light Parade

2009-12-06T21:12:00.000-08:00

This year we decided to try out the Clovis Light Parade. It was a hit! It was also pretty cold. But Micah really enjoyed it. He sat in my lap for over a hour watching everything go by. It really helped that almost the entire parade was trucks and horses. 2 of Micah's favorite things. Throw in a couple bands to "dance" to and it was perfect. This started off our week of fun that we are having while my sister Jenny is home from Romania and staying with us.

18 months

2009-11-10T22:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a bit past 18 months but I still want to update you on what Micah is up to. Micah is full of energy and always on the go. He loves being outside so we spend as much time as we can out there. Luckily we have a lot of property that always has work to be done on it. One of his favorite things is getting rides in the wheelbarrow as he's helping dad with the leaves. He loves cars, trucks, and anything that goes. His latest love is airplanes. He has been pretending to be one by holding up his arms and zooming around the house. He tries to make the noise his dad taught him, which I can't seem to master. I think it is a guy thing. He also likes to use his spoon as an airplane. Not with food on it, but just playing around. Which brings me to another subject. We are revisiting our difficult behavior when eating(around 9 months was super difficult). Maybe this will be a short phase. He really loves birds and will laugh so hard when he sees them. I can't really say he knows a lot of words but he does have ones that he uses all the time. "Cuck" is truck, elmo, bird, plane, please. He's really good at this last one, unfortunately he thinks that he should get everything he wants when he say please. Well, I'm sure you've heard enough. Life with a 18 month old is busy and we rarely sit down, but it's lot's of fun.

More random things

2009-11-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

Micah loves to point and look at all kinds of birds. Birds on TV, in books, flying in the sky, sitting on the telephone wires. Birds, birds, birds! Halloween morning we got a big suprise with one of the chickens from next door at our house. Micah points at it through the window. So we asked him if he would "like to go outside?" Of course he does and runs for the door. He got to walk around with the chicken for about five minutes or so.
After being a little scared of the rooster, he decides to try and poke it with a stick or something. The chicken was not the biggest fan and backed off. Playtime ended when our dog Sammie came outside and wanted to chase the rooster. It ran through the fence. However, a few days later the rooster was back but in the back yard and Sammie chased it some more and got some feathers. The chicken flew home and hasn't been back.

Micah loves riding in wheelbarrows and was able to share the fun with his cousin Tanner. Uncle Jay did a great job pushing them around the yard so we could get a picture. If the wheelbarrow is full of leaves Micah will sit with his hands in his lap until they are dumped out and then get back in and hold onto the sides only when it is empty.

Grammie and Grandpa Johnson came up to visit for bit last Sunday. Tanner and Micah are coloring with Grammie while waiting for lunch.

Halloween

2009-11-02T19:54:00.000-08:00

We started off the Halloween season by visiting the pumpkin patch. Micah wasn't too excited about about the pumpkins though. We tried having him hold a small pumpkin but he kept throwing it on the ground. After breaking a couple stems we decided we should probably stop.

Micah did love the hay bale maze. He liked being chased through it.

On Halloween Micah went as a dragon. I was actually surprized that he wore it all night. You know how halloween can be. Hot?? Cold?? Who knows. It was a bit warm early in the evening but he was fine in his warm costume. We went to our church carnival. Micah's favorite part was running around with his buddy Jeremy on the bounce thing. Not the one picture behind him in this picture. This one he didn't want anything to do with.

After the carnival we went trick-or-treating with some friends. We only went to a few houses and most of them Micah thought he should be going inside. I had to take the candy out of his basket right when he got it so that he wouldn't lose it. It really was a lot of work. Maybe next year will be more fun when he actually eats candy.

October Update

2009-10-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

Well we sort of lost our camera this month. It showed up hiding behind a picture frame. This month has been pretty good. Micah got to help fix up his room and get a little lesson in replacing wall plugs. It did not take him that long to figure out that Adam's screwdriver was real and that his was not. After that he only wanted to play with the one that Adam was using at the time.

Here is what his finished room looks like. Pretty similar to the paint color at the last house. We really like yellow paint. His drapes that Jill made with Grandma Lee also fit the window too!

We also had a chance to go to Waterford (near Modesto) for the day earlier in the month when it was still warm and had a fantastic time playing outside with Micah's cousin's all day. We also got to watch his cousin Evan's soccer game that morning and go to a little festival at the local park and see the duck at the petting zoo. Micah is now totally focused on birds and looks around for them outside and also checks to see if the chicken next door is out in the side yard to stare and point at.

Lastly, we have a evening routine of trying to play outside for a little while then Micah will watch a Elmo video (big fan right now) while Jill makes dinner and then after dinner we will play outside until it gets dark and or is bedtime. We this month we have had to change things up a little bit and "do exactly the same thing" but with warm clothes and a jacket on.
Jill really liked this beanie hat thing and got it for Micah a little while ago. He also enjoys wearing a blue beanie that his Grammie Johnson got him. Still working on getting his thumbs into the right spot on his mittens.

Out in the back yard we use a big work light on a stand with an extension cord to get pushed around on the tricycle, play with some of the other toys or ride on the swing.

In the front yard anything goes. Sometimes we use this push cart for rides and put the light on the front to see where to go. Micah is also liking to look up at the stars and the moon. In the daytime you will find him looking for planes (sometimes it is just a motorcycle in the distance). He also loves to wear his boots with the camo on them.

Snow boots

2009-09-30T00:02:00.001-07:00

Micah has found his snow boots for use this winter and decided that he needs to wear them around the house. This past weekend he wore them several times and got Jill and I laughing pretty good when he was walking around with a "look at me" grin on his face. He has learned to asked for his shoes to be put on by doing a combination of grunting, pointing, lifting up a foot, and bobbing his head repeatively, this too is quite cute. He also likes to find my baseball hat, put it on and them come find us and laugh that he is wearing my hat.

Micah also loves to be outside. Just a few days ago he figured out that he can sit inside of one of his toys that we have on the patio and throw the blocks out of it. This kept him busy for about 30 minutes. We also went to a local arena on Saturday night and watch team sorting ( two riders on horses have to get cattle from one pen to another in consecutive by the numbers they are wearing). We enjoyed getting to watch the various skill levels of the local teams that were there and learning about new horseriding activities that people can do. Micah really like the ranch dog that was roaming around and tried share his crackers with the dog. If we have a few more warm Saturday evenings in October we will definitely consider going back again for another evening of free country-style entertainment.

New Toy for Micah?

2009-09-16T23:06:00.001-07:00

This past weekend we had lots of fun. Friday night we drove to Waterford (near Modesto) for a birthday party for Rylie, one of Micah's cousins. She turned four and had a wonderful hawaiian themed party. Then on Saturday both of Adam's sisters and their families visited the new house for the first time and made a visit to the Fresno Met Museum to see the "Bob the Builder" exhibit. Micah had fun with several of the activities and really liked to watch the wall tracks that rolled golf balls. Before going to the museum we had time to swim with the kids and go see the neighbor's horses "Sunny and Mia", both horses are over 25 years old and very sweet and gentle with kids. Finishing up the weekend we went to the Madera County Fair Sunday afternoon following nap time. They had a monkey show with several trained baboons and a dog that Micah really liked. By far his favorite activity was climbing up and down and all around the ten or so different tractors on display by local companies. Micah and Adam think that this would make a perfect toy at home, sadly the Lee family tractor will most likely be a "Tonka" and not a nice New Holland, John Deere or Kubota like at the fair. Next time we will definitely make sure to go earlier during the week when the 4-H animals are still there, that definitely would have been the favorite event.

Baby Micah or Big Boy Micah??

2009-09-08T21:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had a BBQ with Adam's side of the family. Rylie, who is turning 4, loves babies. I mean really loves babies. She kept asking me to let her hold baby Micah in her lap. I kept telling her that I didn't think Micah would sit in her lap anymore. After much persistence I finally told her we would give it a try. I thought a book might make him sit there longer. Here they are for one second looking like she's holding her baby.

And here they are one second later as Micah tries to get away. She kept a hold of him though. Luckily Micah didn't mind. He ended up laughing hysterically as she kept pulling him back.

I guess he's not her baby anymore.

Bakersfield Weekend

2009-08-31T23:06:00.000-07:00

We went down to Bakersfield this weekend and visited with Grandpa and Grammie Johnson. Saturday was the big day with a trip to CALM (California Living Museum) Zoo. At this zoo they only have plants and animals that have habitat areas within the state. For Micah it was a toss up between the roadrunner bird inside the tortoise exhibit and the goats at the farm animal area. He also really liked the porcupine since it was pretty active in climbing around in its cage. At the zoo we also took a short ride (5 minutes) on a miniature train that sat about twenty people. Lunch was at Luigi's and it was very tasty with lots going on in their busy dining room. The rest of the weekend was spent playing and relaxing around the house. Micah did very good on the car rides considering that we usually drive during nap time or after bedtime. It helped that Micah now likes Elmo and we brought along his DVD that he just loves right now. We also got a free ping-pong table from the neighbors (Monday night) so watch out for some fancy moves from Jill in the future.

Romanian Shirt

2009-08-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well, you knew it would eventually come. Our little multicultural boy is sporting his Romanian shirt that he got from his Auntie who lives there. He loves being outside at his new house. When we say, "let's go outside," he says "ow-eee." This is his word for outside. He'll say it over and over until we get outside. We try not to say the word until we are ready, with shoes on, to head out. Once outside he is on the run. He's got things to do.

Pool fence and of course more of Micah!

2009-08-11T23:13:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of the pool fence is done. We have the mesh safety fence and gates around the flat concrete area of the pool. Next up will be getting wrought iron fencing to go around the back of the waterfall. After that some new colorful plants surrounding the back of the waterfall and we will be ready to relax in style and safety.

Micah is learning to use a spoon now. We still do not trust him with that many different foods so he might have to wait for mash potatos again. Our dog gets plenty of food just from him using his hands (the throwing over the edge at times does not help).

Cheap toys! Who knew that what babies like best are free things. So far the topping the play item list is: cool whip containers (great for stacking and knocking over), orange plastic cones for soccer, pine cones, plastic pipe, sticks and the occasional bug. He still loves his books and other toys but can be easily satisfied with all these other things too.

All time best item is water. Micah loves the dog dish, buckets on the lawn, sponges and buckets for washing cars, throwing rocks in grandma & grandpa Lee's pool, fountains (like the one below) and any type of puddle he can splash in. Unfortunately one time that puddle happen to be from our dog so we had a nice washup and change of clothes after that.

New House

2009-08-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

Jill has been enjoying her pool and I have been trying to enjoy my projects and the yard. The house had basically been empty for about three years with the orig. owners staying some weekends to keep up the yard. Hopefully we have found out everything that needs fixing and can just enjoy it for awhile. We get our fence on Monday the 10th.

Backyard and back of the house.

Micah has started talking and says "hi", "ball", "cat" and "mumah". He is loving it here and is getting to know some of the neighbors with horses so he can pet them. At the rental house he loved going out and feeding the landlord's goats some weeds by the handful that we would pick from outside of the pen.

Jill starts teaching at school soon so we will also be working through a schedule change for both Jill & Micah. Micah is also been trying new foods and seems to like things based upon how messy they are. He had fun the first time he ate pasta with red sauce.

Moving

2009-08-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm sad to say that we have lost our old blog. I quess I thought this was the internet and the blog would stay there forever. In our move to our new house we spent 2 months in a rental and had trouble getting internet there. So with no activity on the blog they dropped us. Just like that. So we have moved to a new blog. I actually started it way back when Micah was born because I didn't like the other blog site but couldn't convince Adam to switch over. So here we are with Micah's big move to his new house and to a new blog sight.

Talking With Dad

2008-08-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Adam and Micah are having an intelligent conversation.