Micah at 9 Months

Can you believe Micah is already 9 months?! I can hardly believe in a few short months he’ll already be 1 year old! We just took Micah to his 9 month appointment, where he weighed in at 23lbs., 2 oz. and is 28 ¾ inches long (he might be a little longer, since he was not cooperating with the nurse! J) It’s so fun to see Micah learn new things! He’s at such a fun age! Oh, and thankfully, he finally got 2 teeth a couple weeks ago!!

Here are some things Micah loves:

- Crawling ALL over the place, especially to the bathroom to play with the scale

- Standing up and walk, by hanging onto our hands

- Eating (big surprise!) He especially loves his puffs, peaches and smoothies!

- Playing with his brown bear

- Throwing the ball to Daddy

- Going for a stroller ride outside

- Playing peek-a-boo

Here's an action shot of Micah crawling:

Looks like he found the mirror!

Cuddle time with Daddy before bed:

Amazing Deals!!

I love when Harris Teeter has their triple coupon event! Sometimes they have a Super Double Coupon event, where they double coupons up to $1.99!! Last time I didn’t really find many good deals at that one, but instead prefer the triple coupon. Last night, I found out that they were having their Super Double Coupon event, starting today! I looked through a few coupons, and quickly decided that it probably wasn’t worth my time (because last time we went sure wasn’t!) However, this morning, as I was looking through my coupons some more, I decided that we needed to go! We got all of these items for about $3.50!!! What great buys! Many of these items were free! We were so excited to get our good deals, and glad that we didn’t pass up this coupon event!

Date Night

I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, and for the time we were able to spend together Thursday night on a surprise date!! As Tim was leaving for work, he asked me to go get his wallet for him. There was a note for me with an invitation for dinner! I was so excited, and a little confused at first. He explained that a few weeks ago he had requested the evening off, and secretly planned a date night for us…even finding a babysitter for Micah!! Is he wonderful or what?! After bringing Micah to a family from our church, (they are so wonderful for watching Micah a few times for us!!) we headed to Cheesecake Factory, and then ended the night with watching a movie at home after picking up Micah. We were thankful for a short wait at dinner, a cute little booth for two, and half-priced cheesecake. (It was National Cheesecake Day!!) It was so great to be able to have a date mid-week, and be able to just sit and talk over an amazing meal. It was a little bit of a long week for me with a cranky baby who is teething very badly, so I definitely needed that refreshing time with my husband. Here's a picture of our evening. Thanks for such a fun surprise date night, Tim!!



And of course, I have to include a picture of our little cutie. Can you believe he's almost 9 months?!!

Blueberry picking!

For the past few years, I have really looked forward to going blueberry picking! This year we were a little bit unsure of how it would go since we had Micah with us. Micah did an absolutely fantastic job! He was such a good boy, and so content to sit and watch us from his stroller…as long as he had his pacifier, of course! He even had his first taste of blueberry while we were out there. He’s definitely not so much a fan of them. Not like his daddy! Tim could hardly wait to get back home to freshly baked blueberry waffles. The part that I love most about picking the blueberries is planning what to bake, and then baking things like blueberry coffeecake, blueberry pancakes, blueberry crisp, and blueberry bread. And Tim loves it. :) Here are a few pictures of Micah’s first blueberry picking experience.

Frugal Tip for the Day

Here’s a frugal tip I thought I’d share. One of my favorite frugal meals that we like to make is a fryer chicken. We usually get about a 4 lb. chicken, which runs about 89 cents/lb. at Walmart. (Sometimes there will be other stores, such as Food Lion, that has a sale on them for 69 cents/lb. ) They are so easy to make, and make a pretty good Sunday dinner, when paired with potatoes and a vegetable! After washing/pat drying the chicken, I will brush some olive oil all over the chicken, and then brush a Roaster Chicken Poultry Rub (from Food Network) on top. Then you just follow the cooking instructions for the chicken and then you have a delicious meal! Oh, and I forgot to mention, to make it even easier for clean up, I line the roasting pan with aluminum foil! TONS easier to clean!! After we finish our meal, I will take all the meat off…it’s easier to do when it’s still hot. Our leftovers will last us just about the rest of the week! Some of our favorite recipes we use the leftovers in include stir fry, chicken pot pie, chicken and dumplings, chicken wraps, quesadillas and salads, chicken tortilla soup, barbecued chicken pizza (AN ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!!)…so many possibilities! So there it is! My frugal tip for the day. I just hope Tim doesn’t get tired of eating chicken anytime soon!

Michigan Adventure

Last week we returned from our yearly trip to Michigan—a time we thoroughly enjoyed with family and friends. Rather than drive the 20 hours up Mesick, MI, this year we were able to fly in to Traverse City. Yeah, we liked that a whole lot better. Micah traveled well on the plane, minus the times when the captain or flight attendants would come blaring across the pa system. He wasn’t so much a fan of that.

Micah enjoyed meeting his cousin Ethan and uncle Jeremy and seeing grandma and grandpa Ahtila again. Some of Kristen’s extended family were able to visit the Ahtila’s and got to meet Micah for the first time, too.

We enjoyed spending a few relaxing days with the family. We especially loved our trip to Lake Michigan and to Moomers to experience America’s best small town ice cream. (We both had a couple of scoops of Cookie Monster ice cream—smooth chocolate ice cream with chocolate chip cookie dough and Oreo cookie pieces. SOOOO good!)

On June 23^rd we headed down to Grand Traverse Bay to celebrate our second anniversary (see previous blog post).

Then we drove up to the UP. Tim’s sisters Rachel and Sarah got to meet Micah, and we got to meet our nephew Reagan.

We made a slide show of our Israel trip that we got to show in the Sunday evening service. Though we only had a few days, we had a great time hanging out with family and friends, playing games (like Apples and Apples and Rook), and seeing everyone again. Kristen even got a chance to bake some Cardamom sweet bread over at Rachel’s place one afternoon (while Tim played X-box :) ). We had such a great time.

Second Anniversary

Today we are celebrating our anniversary! Since we are in Michigan visiting family, we're thankful that Grandma and Grandpa Ahtila are willing to watch Micah while we go out to celebrate. Our plans are to go out for dinner and a movie, and then go down to the Traverse City Bay, to walk on the beach and maybe even wade in Lake Michigan. (happens to be one of my favorite places!) I am so thankful for such a wonderful, loving husband. (And on a side note, Tim's such an amazing dad, too! It's been so fun watching him interact with Micah!!) Happy Anniversary to us!