North Carolina!

Ok I'm failing at blogging.  We have been getting settled into North Carolina, and we are loving it so far.  It's nice to be somewhere with grass and trees and so many places to visit near by.  We have already been to Charlotte to go to Ikea and we have been to Greensboro and gone to the sciquarium.  We are planning a trip to Wilmington soon too.  Micah is also signed up for music class and dance class which begins August 26th week and swim classes which start August 10th.  We still need to sign up for tumble class.
Music and dance class are going to be held at a church, we tried the church this Sunday and I think we might keep going there.  It is by far the prettiest church!

My sweet boys at church..

Micah and I have been having fun getting settled into the house.  We've had picnic lunches..

We have given Mia kisses, even if she didn't want them

Yup he climbed up onto the couch were she was sleeping and forced her into his lap and then held her head up to kiss her.  Thankful we have amazing dogs.
And we've been finding cool new clubhouses...

Halfway through vacation

Well Micah and I are about halfway through our trip to Florida.  We've been having a really good time.  He's been growing up so fast! He loves to hang out on Amma and Grandpa's front porch.  He can see the park from there and loves to point out all the dogs.

 We have also been going on lots of dates together.

 We've found some really funny shopping carts.

And Micah loves to play the guitar now. 

This weekend is going to be fun.  A lot of family is coming to town this weekend for Memorial Day.  We are going to have a BBQ and some relaxing time with family.  Also, today I got a haircut.  I was tired of long hair and always throwing it up in a pony tail because the hair annoyed me...sooo here's the new summer haircut!

Vacation..

Blogging while on vacation is really hard.  My normal schedule is completely messed up, and I didn't bring my own computer so I have to share with my mom.  On top of all that, it is currently finals week at my school.  So ready for summer! 
While I'm on vacation in Florida, I decided to try out Weight Watchers.  I am on week 3 right now.  It really isn't that hard.  I get pretty set on my breakfast and lunch foods, because I just don't like putting a lot of thought behind them.  I now just go between 2 breakfast choices and 3 lunch choices.  I try to save my point more for dinner.  I have found that I snack a lot less because I don't want to deal with adding in points just because I wanted to snack.  I also have only been drinking water because any other drinks seems like a complete waste of my few points.  We will see what happens..
Sorry there are no awesome pics of Micah this time..I have a lot to post, he has been growing up so fast.  However I really need to get back to finals!

First Week of Venice

So this has been an exciting week in Venice.  We have had a lot of adjusting time to all the new people.  Robin was here with us from Monday until Friday, and then I took her over to Boca Raton to where her Grandmother lives.  While Robin was here though, we had a lot of fun showing her all of Venice. 

Amma has some fun toys, including a piano.  When cousins come over, we actually have an entire band.  Micah rocks the piano while Patrick plays the guitar and Grace sings.  It is quite an event.

Robin and I went to the Jettys during one of Micah's many many naps.  It was so beautiful, so much better to look at then anything in El Paso! We also took Micah to the Pier one evening, and while we were there, a fisherman caught a massive fish.  It was pretty awesome.

Micah loved just staring at the water.  I think he's definitely water boy.  We also took him swimming in the pool, but I don't have any pictures of that.  He did amazing in the water.  He even went under the water!

Another thing we have experienced it GRASS! Micah was not so sure about it.  He really struggled walking on it and he didn't like his legs touching the grass.

He did like the leaves though! He kept picking them up and crinkling them up. 

We have had so much cousin time.  It has been really awesome.  Micah loves playing with Patrick and Patrick has been doing really good with him.  They share toys and even share snacks.  It's really cute.  But cousin time is exhausting!

 

Goodbye El Paso!

This week has been crazy, so I have fallen behind in blogging.  On Sunday, we went to the scenic route in El Paso and said goodbye.

It is so weird that we aren't going back there, possibly ever again.  I won't miss El Paso, but I will miss people there.  It's also weird to not be able to see Mexico all the time.

As I was trying to take pictures of El Paso and Mexico, I got photobombed.

 

We have also now started our long long time without Daddy.  It hasn't even been a week yet and it's already hard.

On Monday, it was time to actually leave.  We loaded up with Robin and went to the airport, we were quite the train of luggage.  I had one massive suitcase, a small suitcase, another small bag, a backpack and a diaper bag.  Robin had one large suitcase.  We also had a carseat and a stroller and Micah.  It was exciting going through the airports!

This was right after we said goodbye to Daddy.  Micah wasn't to sure about it. 
This was Micah waving goodbye to El Paso.

The first flight was the harder one, Micah threw up a little bit when we took off and landed and he was tired and cranky but he didn't want to nap.  Then we had a layover in Houston, so we had him play for a little bit.

Then it was time for the second flight.  That one was a little bit calmer and he did finally fall asleep for that one. 
Then we finally arrived in Florida!! I'll tell more about this week later on!

Preparing to say goodbye to El Paso

It is officially my last weekend in El Paso.  It is absolutely crazy.  As much as I get annoyed with living here, it has been quite an experience.  I also do feel very comfortable driving all over this town and know all the roads everywhere, which is quite an accomplishment for me.  Brandon and I explored this town so much and it amazes me when I know so many places and different ways to get there.  When we get to Fayetteville, I need to remember to explore randomly again.  The past few days I have been running errands on the west side of town, so I decided to take some pictures of the places I went a lot.

This is the mall on the Westside, Sunland Park Mall.  We have amazing shopping here, Sunland Park on the West side and the Outlet Mall of El Paso, on the east side we have Bassett Place mall which took me the longest time to realize it was actually a real mall, it has lots of stores on the outside so I thought it was just those stores, such as Marshalls, Kohls and Target.  We also have Cielo Vista mall on the east side and they are currently building yet another mall.  I know that we aren't going to get shopping like that other places.

This is a view of our mountains.  We have the Franklin Mountains and they run through right in the middle of the town.  They aren't like mountains you think of back east.  They are their own thing, and they are beautiful in their own way.  I do like looking out my back window and seeing the mountains.  Also in this picture you can see the lack of grass and our really weird trees.  Word of warning, these trees fight back.  I still have a scar on my arm from our first night here in El Paso.  We were on post at the hotel and Mia got loose so I went running after her.  I ran past a tree and I expected the tree leaves to move, but nope they fight back, cut you and scar you for life.

Another part of El Paso that is different.  We don't ever have clouds for some reason.  Very very rarely will you see a cloud in the sky.  It's weird, but I do see the beauty in the blue sky.
That's my random good El Paso thoughts of the day..
I probably won't make it to the East side again or Far East to take more pictures, I don't really have any needs over there.  Tomorrow is yard sale which I don't know if we are going to do and then cookout in the afternoon.

Micah is all ready to go driving..he's ready to leave.  Robin was telling him that it isn't a good idea to drink and drive.
I had to add that picture..a post isn't complete without a Micah picture.

Walking!

So all of a sudden, this week my little man decided to start walking! He had been taking small steps when we really cheered him on, but this week he has become a confident walker.  He just lets go of walls and furniture and goes walking across the room.  It's so amazing to watch him.  He has all of a sudden gone from being a baby to being a toddler.  He has grown up so fast.  At Christmas time, he was barely crawling, doing his Micah version of crawling instead and figured out pulling himself up while we were at my parents.  Now mid April, he loves walking everywhere.  He still drops down to crawl when he wants to get somewhere fast, but other than that he really prefers to be on his feet.  It's just so crazy to think that a year ago this was my little man...

This was in the hospital in Venice last April when I flew down to get my gallbladder taken out.  He was such a little baby then..and this is today.

He walks a lot better and farther than this video, but it is really hard to capture it on my phone.  He doesn't believe in performing.  And well you try walking in those pajamas :)  He has a long body but short legs, not normally a problem but it can make walking difficult.
I'm excited to be leaving on Monday, but I am sad to be leaving Brandon for two months.  Micah has changed so much and so quickly the past few months, it makes me wonder what is going to change between now and late June and what Brandon might miss.  Thank goodness for FaceTime though, so at least he will be able to talk to Micah on a regular basis.
The countdown is down to 5 days now.