Happy 5th Birthday Micah Man!!

Today is Micah James' 5th birthday.  We started the day with streamers and donuts.  

He spent 3 hours with friends at preschool while I visited aunt Bailey, then we headed home for a yummy lunch.  

Walking into school.

With Mrs. Christina.

We came home and played with our friends, the Williams, while their parents moved for a few hours.  We made some cupcakes to take to our Missional Community later that night.  We eat dinner together twice a month and celebrate together.  

He had told us a few weeks ago he wanted a transformers (BumbleBee) party.  But we never really talked about if he wanted anything.  I asked him yesterday what he wanted and he was very specific.  A blue and yellow race car (think hot wheels), a dinosaur land for his new plastic dinos, and a monster truck.  All reasonable and do-able.  

So after work, because I have been the opposite of on top of things, Eric went by to find his gift.  He found a pack of cars, which was the only one that had a blue and yellow car.  Then, he found a super cool dino pack from animal planet.  Here was Micah closing his eyes while daddy brought it in.

The Dino Pack

He loved it.  Later I thought it funny that the dino pack came WITH a paleo and archeologist, as well as an airplane :).   

We headed to Missional Community, which we LOVED.  Everyone made Micah feel so special, and our little middle child/boy needed that :).  His old sunday school teachers are in our group and they brought him: a monster truck!  The one thing he told me but we didn't get/forgot!!  Such a blessing.  This is us singing to him before cupcakes.  

These were taken at the local pumpkin patch at the Methodist church last Monday before his preschool open house.  I made the girls Baylor dresses so he insisted on a green and gold shirt! :)  It makes his eyes so green!

 Mrs. Barbara and Micah

 Mrs. Christina and Micah

Micah Man, 

What a huge blessing you are to Daddy and Mommy!  You have taught us to trust the Lord, big patience, letting go of some control, and how to love a red-headed, sensitive, "future knight in shining armour" as your shirt says.  You will be a phenomenal husband and father someday, as you take such good care of me and your sisters.  You love your daddy so much, and I just love how you still call him dada.  You still say upspide down and it might be the cutest thing I've ever heard.  We pray big blessings over you this next year.  We know, if you get to become a big brother again this year, how exciting, and trying, and different it will be.  And we know you will need extra loving, which I can't wait to partake in.  You have always been my super cuddly bug and I love your from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.  God has great and mighty plans for His kingdom that involve you, and we couldn't be more thrilled to lead you on this journey to know Him fully.

Blessed to be your mom,

Mommy 

Forgot to link back to your birthday 5 years ago: so click here!

1 year

2nd year

June 2013

I have already posted a good part of our June!  You can read about Cara's injury and birthday here.  And Father's Day and Eric's birthday.  

So here are just a few random pictures from June in the Newsome House.  

Anna banana loves to be a big girl like Cara.  So here she is 'doing her hair.'

 Yaya & Papa went to visit family in MS and brought back Roll Tide outfits for all the kids.  My kids LOVE to match, so these got a lot of wear this summer.  

We were still very much into swim team at the beginning of the month.  Micah was an 'assisted swimmer' and he always asked this sweet girl named Faith to be his assistant.  She was so kind!

Swim team was a great experience for us.  Cara really enjoyed it and got better.  She was 6 still on May 1st, so she competed in the 6 and under group, which only does back stroke and free style.  She got invited to the Meet of Champs for both events and the free style relay.  She medaled in all 3!!  (Which means she got 1-8th place), with her highest medal being 2nd place.  We were so proud of our kiddos!

 Not sure if these videos came through.

Friday's after swim practice they got to go off the diving board.  Here is Cara!

 The first weekend of June, Bethel hosted a weekend family getaway at a friend's (few) lake houses.  We had such an amazing time on the water, visiting with friends and getting to know our church family better!

Here is Anna on the deck above the lake. 

 Beautiful sunrise.

 On the boat ready to ride.

 My two red heads. 

 The big kids testing out the tube.  Micah ended up being tossed off.  It was a bit traumatic, I don't think he rode again after that, but I got him on the wave runner.  

 We wore them out.  This was less than 10 minutes after we left! :)

May 2013

 Thought I'd try to catch us up on the summer, now that we're well into fall.  We got a new (to us) laptop over the summer off craigslist and love it!  But, we are still back and forth with pictures.  SOOOOO, we'll just start in May because that's what I have on this computer :)  And, they're not in order as far as I can tell!

On May 5th, Cara was baptized!  It was a beautiful day, just the second Sunday we had baptisms at Bethel.  It is a major spiritual milestone in our family, so we had everyone up and a special lunch.  

 Yaya and Papa with the kids and Eric.

 Cara out in the garden at church.  

Paul asked her to write out her testimony and read it before her baptism.  This is a symbol of our faith and how Jesus called us to go and make disciples.  The thought is if you can't share your faith publicly with your church family, how can you go?  I loved this and Cara did so well writing her own Jesus story and reading it to our family.

 Pastor Paul Cockrell officiated. 

 Happy girl!

 Family!

 Love!

That evening Cara had her WAM (worship arts ministry) performance at church.  She loves singing and had a good time.

 Anna and Eric, after that we headed to a good bye reception for Patrick and Shannon McCrory and girls.  I mentioned them in my last post.  Boo for goodbyes!

 On that same note, Maddee, a friend who had been coming and playing with the kids one morning a week while we did school for a couple months, was moving on.  The kids LOVE her and she is great with them.  She's back now and working full time, need to have her over STAT.

 A random picture from one of our end of year science experiments with friends.  We made constellations out of boxes/holes/flashlights and were trying to see them in a dark room! 

 Nana and Aunt Amanda wanted to go with us to take Anna for her first hair cut (WAY earlier than any girl newsome before!) and Micah needed his summer 'do :).

 This was earlier in the month, last swim lesson for Micah at the Y.  He loved them....

 though he is crying here.  He enjoyed Mr. Roni. He was crying because he didn't want lessons to be over :).

 I took the kids to Eric's last band concert of the year.  I'd give them a 8 out of 10 for concert etiquette.  We got up and walked during one band, but overall, I was happy and they had a good time!  

 I hosted a girls goodbye coffee for Shannon before she left.  I miss this girl, thankful for facebook and texting!  She left 1 month before they travelled to China to bring home her 3rd daughter.  A daughter they had waited for over 7 years!!  I can't wait to meet Miss L in person!

 In May we had a mother's day dinner at Bailey's house.  Cara had a good time, though you couldn't tell from this face :).

We also started swim team.  After a week of sitting on the sidelines, Micah wanted in. It was SO GOOD for our kiddos!  Both are very good in the water now. 

 Anna: #wannabe :)

 May was the end of soccer season, Cara really enjoyed her first sport, and loved Coach Matt.

 We had a garage sale at the end of the month, Cara made TONS of pictures and sold them, she's so cute.  Her friends helped her.

 My BFF from age 5 had a birthday on 5/26 and I actually got to go down and spend a dinner with her kid free.  First time in years.  Love you Trayce!

 I also got to go away for a night to help Tonya set up her online store.  I got to go to the barn, sleep in a king size bed alone, and enjoyed quiet travel there and back.  

 Random end of month picture.  Tonya gave me these stuffed animals she brought back from Uganda.  Kids still sleep with them.

And that was our month in pictures!