Happy Birthday

Most of you may know that I found a job, and it just so happened that they were very eager to have me start this past Thursday, also Micah's second birthday, to make preparations for the month end close. (I'm planning to dedicate an entire blog to the job next week. Stay tuned.) So, it was another early morning for the Deen household. This is how we started Micah's birthday.

Warning!: Tom and I are singing. You may want to turn down the volume!

[Yes, I know the walls are pink. When we first moved here, we didn't anticipate Micah staying in the crib for this long and I didn't want to put effort into fixing up the nursery until the next little one comes along. (no, I'm not pregnant)]

When we arrived home from work and daycare, we noticed a package at the door.

Thanks for the cool latch board, Aunt Gamma and Uncle Wes!

Instead of another cake for his birthday, I baked chocolate chip cookies for an after dinner treat. He loves chocolate just like his Mama!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Micah! We love you!

More In Mississippi

...After cake we went outside to open some presents.

Next, Dada hung the pinata.

Mikayla took a few gentle swings.

Shortly afterwards, Henry and Will finished it off and candy went everywhere.

[Kathy, Kacyn, Mikayla, Micah, and Me]

I was so excited when I found out that Kathy, my BFF, and her two girls, Mikayla and Kacyn, were going to be able to make it to the party. I can't believe that her oldest daughter is almost the age that Kathy and I met in pre-school.


When it was time for Kathy and her girls to leave, Micah took Mikayla's hand and gave her a precious kiss. Ok, it took a little coaxing, but he was more than willing. So sweet!


Later that evening, Nana and Granddaddy babysat Micah so Tom and I could go out for another date night. Since we'd seen everything in town the night before, we just went to Jake 'n Rips to eat and called it a night. We had a long day of driving ahead of us on Sunday.

After church Sunday morning, we took a few pictures and got on the road.

Thanks for a great weekend, Nana and Granddaddy!

In Mississippi

I have so much to share and things just keep happening. I figured if I didn't start getting this blog updated, I may never catch up.

So, here we go.

Last weekend, we drove to Mississippi to visit my family and our friends and to celebrate Micah's 2nd birthday. Our first stop was in Southaven at my brother's house. Micah got to show off his swimming abilities for his Aunt Dawne; I got to get my hair done by Laura and eat lunch with Terri, one of my friends from Fred's; and Tom got to have breakfast with his old advisor and a grad school friend from Memphis.

Next, we traveled south to my parents' house in Grenada for the remainder of the weekend.

My parents were very gracious and accepted our request to babysit Micah while we went out on a date Friday night. We had dinner at No Way Jose, the newest Mexican place in town and apparently the hot spot. We ran into my high school friends: Kathy H. Jones and David and Ashley Harrell at dinner. I love being able to go back to a small town and be able to run into people I haven't seen in months and just catch up. No Grenada date is complete without driving out to the lake, and that's where we headed after dinner. Our next stop was Spencers for dipped ice cream cones.

Finally, our last stop on our date was, of course, Wal-Mart. Surprisingly, I didn't see one person I recognized in there. I guess I've been away for too long. Anyway, we picked up the food and extra supplies we needed for Micah's birthday party and headed home.On Saturday, we had Micah's birthday party at Nana and Granddaddy's house. The theme for the party was Disney Cars.

[Mikayla, Micah, Will and Henry eating hamburgers and hot dogs]

I have more to share from the birthday party and the rest of the trip, but I'll save it for my next blog. I have to keep you coming back for more, right?!

By the way, today is Micah's actual 2nd birthday! Yay! We made it to two! My little boy is getting so big!

Birthday Party

My appologies for slacking lately. We returned Sunday evening from a trip to Mississippi. We had a great time and I have lots to share, but no time to put into blogging today. Above is a picture of Micah's wonderful birthday cake that Deb Miller of Grenada made for us. It was so cute and delicious. Every bite was consumed!

I will fill you in on our weekend in the next day or two. For now, I have to go get Micah from daycare.

Big things are happening!

2 Years Old...Almost!

This is my last official Me & Micah Monday for now. Next Monday, Micah starts daycare at the Kid's Corral full time.

To celebrate his upcoming 2nd birthday and our last outing, we went in for more pictures at JCPenney. Yes, I know, we get portraits made ALOT! But, just look at that sweet face! This mama needs all the memories she can get.

If you think watching a one year old smash into their first birthday cake is entertaining, try watching a 2-year-old go after that cake.

Click here if you want to watch a slide show of the pictures from today. If the link does not work, leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I'll send a direct link.

"How to Hang a Hammock"

Last weekend Tom decided that we should hang the hammock between a couple of trees in our backyard rather than have the hammock stand set up on our patio taking up so much space. Before he drilled into the trees, he asked me to come outside to give my opinion on where the hooks should go. From experience of having hammocks while I grew up, I told him to place them rather high. No one wants to drag their butt on the ground. He thought I was being ridiculous when I pointed to a spot above my head. So, without taking my opinion into consideration he googled "how to hang a hammock". [If you don't know my husband, he googles ALOT. He even googled "fire ant bites" a few weeks back to see if he needed to go to the hospital after being bitten close to 50 times. I could tell from looking at his deep red-almost purple face that he was going into anaphalactic shock and made him go the the ER.] Anyway, he hesitated before admitting that what he read was exactly what I told him. In fact, what he read said if you think you have it high enough, go a little higher. Maybe one day he'll realize I do know a thing or two without checking the google machine.

In the end, we have a nicely hung, relaxing hammock under the shade trees, and my butt doesn't drag the ground.

Nothing is Out of Reach

It was a typical Wednesday right before lunch. Micah was playing well by himself while I prepared his food. I set his tray on the high chair tray and he protested against my announcement that it was lunch time. So, I told him he could play while I prepared my lunch and then we could eat together. While I was in the kitchen, I heard a gulping noise and I knew I hadn't given Micah his drink yet, so I went around the bar to check things out. This is what I found:

He used the laundry basket as a ladder in order to reach the bar where my glass of water was sitting. Luckily, he didn't spill any.

And, then I realized he was digging into his lunch too.

Surprisingly, he did really well with the cup of water all by himself. I think we'll start using regular cups with no sippie at meal times. I had no idea he was capable of handling a cup on his own.

Backyard Fun!

Instead of going to the neighborhood pool today, we tolerated the heat for about 30 minutes in the backyard.

We even worked in a swimming lesson.


Isn't that pout adorable? Fake, but adorable. He'll do it on command now, and even tries to get his way with it.

Back to the Sprinkler Pad

Today was one of Tom's Fridays off of work, so we spent some quality family time together. We had lunch at...

It's similar to Chuck E Cheese but with better food. Unfortunately, I thought I left my camera at home, but it turned out I just left it in the car. Either way, no pictures. Bummer!

After Gatti.Town, we stopped by the sprinkler pad to cool off before we came home and ALL took a nap while it rained. Thank goodness for the rain. The heat was becoming unbearable. I know what you are thinking. It must be really hot if I can't take it anymore.

I think my child should have been born with gills. He can't get enough of the water.

I Scream, You Scream. We All Scream for Ice Cream

The triple digit temperatures have continued through the week, and we've struggled to find enough entertainment indoors. So, yesterday we drove down to Sonic for Micah's first ice cream cone.

He loved every lick!

[This one is my favorite shot even though it is out of focus]

Water Hose

The last few evening we have spent some family time in the backyard after dinner. Micah has been rinsing off his dinner and cooling off in the baby pool or, like tonight, the water hose.

[Tom made me take this shot a couple times so he could flex his abs...LOL! Such a dork!]

I love my boys!

FYI: Micah still got a bath inside before he went to bed. I may be from Mississippi, but we aren't that redneck.

Slightly Green Thumb

I was ready to tell Tom to mow over this attempt at transplanting a crepe myrtle. Back when my parents came to visit in June we moved two sprouts from the crepe myrtle in the front yard around to the backyard. Neither had a good root system and we didn't have much hope, but I still tried to put a little life into them. One shoot shriveled up and died several weeks back, but this one retained its leaves. I thought it didn't have much hope after the stem turned brown, but I didn't mow over it yet. And, I'm glad I didn't.

This morning as I was surveying the yard for snakes, I noticed the remaining shoot has new sprouts. Success! Maybe I will have a green thumb afterall.

Heat Wave

Well, today has been the hottest day so far in 2010 for Dallas, TX. We topped out at 105 degrees. Call me crazy, but I layed out for an hour and enjoyed it. First, I filled the baby pool up with cool water. Then, I dangled my feet in it while I sat in the glider reading my Southern Living magazine. It was so hot outside the glue holding the spine of the magazine together started to melt. As I turned the pages, they would fall right out.

Since we're now in the dog days of summer, the sunflowers are blooming EVERYWHERE. I made Tom take the back roads home from church today so I could pick some.

In Micah news: We started out our morning with a trip to the pool. Micah found another little boy's diving rings to be the highlight of the hour. I know you're thinking that he probably liked throwing them for the other little boy. Nope. He was the one diving for them. With a little help from me. He needed a little push from me to get to the bottom of the 4'6" water, but he never came up empty handed. He also figured out how to use his feet to push off of the bottom in order to come up. Of course, I had to hold him up so he could take a breath though. Also, his jumping off the side has transformed into belly flopping off of the side. On the up side, the belly flop puts him in a horizontal postion so he can take a stroke or two towards me.

In Tom news: The boat motor is running. One of the guys who came down for the weekend knows a thing or two about boat mechanics and he fixed it for him. Tom's excited!