Merry Christmas!

We hope all of you had a great, safe, and merry Christmas! Ours was spent here at home with my parents and grandparents, Memaw and Pepaw!

Friday night, Micah got to sit with us in church during Chistmas Eve service, where he loved listening to the music and seeing all the lights. However, there was one particular light that bothered him when the singing was done. It was the only light left on (that he could see anyway) when all the others went out and he kept saying "uh oh, light, off, broken, light, down, broken, light, off, uh oh." When the lighting was not to his liking, Papa decided to hang out with him in the lobby for the rest of the service. We have decided if he is not performing on the stage, then he will probably be the lighting director and it will be PERFECT!!!

Saturday was spent in our sweats while we enjoyed watching Micah open presents, eating yummy food, and of course napping. Micah loved all his new gardening tools and is looking forward to working in the lawn with his daddy.

This week, we will have another Christmas with my wonderful in-laws! We are really looking forward to seeing Mumzeh, Pappy Nail, Aunt Jessie, Yang, my Nanny Ann, Miss Molly, and Sam and Stella!

This will be my last week at home with Micah as I am going to be teaching Dance and Drill Team at Caney Creek High School. Micah will be starting day care on the 3rd, so please keep him and me in your prayers as we make this transition.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Micah's Christmas List for Santa!

Dear Santa, I have been a very good boy this year and would like:

trucks

choo choo's

tools

work bench for all my tools

movies (anything with trains, trucks, or puppies)

sand box

toys for my sand box

sand for my sandbox

baseball glove

hand held leapfrog games so I won't get bored in the car and scream at mommy. (They say ages 4 and up, but I know I can figure it out.)

A small bounce house

Plastic balls for my bounce house

Mommy says that I also want:

clothes

rain gear (boots, hat, jacket)

lunch box

back pack (small)

-A few Santa's have already gotten him lots of tools, including: a hard hat, power tools and tool boxes with all the works. They have cool work benches at Wal-Mart, Target, or Toys-r-us that I know he would love. Also, Craigslist or Ebay are always a good place to start for that kind of stuff.

-He has a train table with tracks that fit the Thomas the Train wooden trains that have the magnets that hook the parts together. They also have cool stuff like bridges that go with the track.

-He wears size 24m in clothes and a size 7 shoe.

,

The Story of Jonah

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:13-16 Hope this video encourages you to have a childlike faith, just as God instructs us to. Thanks Mimi (Dixie) http://vimeo.com/16404771

Thankful!

We had a great Thanksgiving with Nana, Papa, Pappy Nail, Memaw, and Pepaw. Wednesday night we helped make Thanksgiving dinner for those less fortunate. Well, I was chasing a little 21 month old around and thankfully Memaw and Pepaw were there to step in for me and help Shaun. Thanksgiving day was spent cooking, eating (with Micah under the table poking at our feet and laughing hysterically), cleaning up, and of course napping. Mumzeh was very much missed, but she and Aunt Jessie had a great time in Pearsall.

This morning's message at church really hit me pretty hard. The message began with the question, "Determine Whether or Not the Gospel is TRUE for YOU." My immediate response was YES, and then I started to think about those that might say NO and my heart breaks for those. If your answer is YES, then as believers you should:

1) Develop Your Trust in God.

All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he writes, " No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him - but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit." 1 Corinthians 2:9

The best way we can communicate with God is through prayer, and when we pray, you develop trust in God.

2) Allow God to Mold You.

"So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best for him." Jeremiah 18:3-4

There are two principles here. One being, give Him permission to mold you. Second, stay in the potter's hands to develop into what He wants you to be.

We naturally create this picture of how things are going to go in our lives, but sometimes the pieces come a part and the picture changes. When you develop that trust in God, no matter what has happened or what heartaches you have gone through, you realize God still loves you. He can change you in a very deep and personal way and use you in ways you never thought possible.

3) Imitate Jesus. (This is a very bold statement)

In John 5:17-20 Jesus says, "My Father is always at his work to this very day...Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nohting by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed."

What we plan is sometimes different than what God has planned for us. When you give your life to Him and let Him mold and shape it, amazing things can happen.

The speaker we had today shared his story about when he lost his 17 year old daughter in a car crash. This was not part of his plan for his daughter, but it was for God. From his loss, he learned how to truly trust in the Lord. He wanted to create a memento for his daughter and her friend that was in the car with her. All he wanted was a tree and a bench, but through his journey of picking the right place and the right thing to remember her by, God placed people in his life; in the end, the bench and tree became a bronze statue that is now in The Market Street area in The Woodlands. It is now an inspirational piece that represents the importance of family and the relationship between a parent and child.

I am so thankful for my family and the family that God has placed into my life through Shaun. I pray that each of you answered YES to the question, Determine Whether or Not the Gospel is TRUE for YOU. If any of you answered no, or were hesitant to answering yes, I pray that God will help you to come to a confident conclusion that the Gospel is true for you. I pray that each of you will take the knowledge that God has given you and that you will use that to reach out to your neighbors and friends that do not know who He is, for you never know when our time here on earth is done and eternity with our Father in Heaven is upon us.

Family Photos 2010

Here are a few of my favs. Micah was not as easy this year as he was last year on smiling at the camera. He was a little too distracted by his goldfish, ducks, and the playground. :)

Baby Micah!

So I was playing on facebook a few days ago and decided to look through one of my friends photos, when I saw a picture of this adorable baby boy that kinda looked like Micah. When I looked down, the caption read, "Micah." I immediately got a little teary eyed because I do not even remember this picture being taken, and I barely remember him being that small. This picture was taken at our church during one of our small group meetings, so Micah had to be less than 8 weeks old because we did not have him in the nursery yet since he hadn't had his shots. I started to remember those looks he used to make with his face. It was before he was sitting up on his own and every time he would start to tilt forward he would raise his eyebrows, as you can see in this picture, and his forehead would wrinkle. I remember telling Shaun, "He must think his eyebrows help to raise him up and keep him from falling forward."

Well, I'm sure I've got a few of you crying, at least the grandparents anyway. :) Our little boy is growing up!!!

Happy Halloween from The Rubbles

Barney, Bamm Bamm, and I (Betty) met up with the Flinstones this afternoon for some dinner, games, and of course CANDY!!! There were several others at our little gathering, including a few star wars and toy story characters, Minnie and Micky Mouse, Daphne and Fred from Scooby Doo, and of course a lot of beautiful princesses. There were several contests going on at the Flinstones' house, including a costume contest and bake off. We tied with the Star Wars family for "Best Family Costume," and I got first runner up for my Sopapilla Cheesecake (which is pretty good for those of you who know I am not much of a baker). Bamm Bamm had a great time and was pretty wound up from all the suckers, cupcakes, and candy corn. Getting him to bed so far has not been very easy, which is why I am getting to write this blog, while Dada gets to deal with that. :)

Muddy Buddy 2010

Shaun and I competed in the Muddy Buddy again this past weekend with my good friend, Laura, and with Shaun's annual partner, Phillip. Shaun and Phillip were the Crawl Dads again placing 6th in their age group, while Laura and I, aka The Slim Jims, placed 8th in ours. For those of you who are wondering,"why the Slim Jim," during our sophomore year at Kilgore we decided to dress up as the Slim Jims for our Halloween practice where we wore the full outfit with the meat on our heads and all. Ever since then we have referred to ourselves as Slim and Jim.

Many of you may recall the Muddy Buddy is basically 6.3 miles of leap frogging with your partner between biking and running. When you switch off between the bike and the run, each partner has to do an obstacle (climbing a rock wall, blow up slide, jumping through tires, and crawling under nets). Once each partner gets to the mud pit, they must crawl through it together going under the ropes, as you can see from the pictures, forcing you to get a little mud in your face.

For some reason we think this is fun and I am sure this is an event we will continue to do for years, and hopefully Micah will too.

Back to 7 Acre Ranch

Micah and I went back to 7 Acre Ranch today to see the pumpkin patch they had setup out there. Micah got to visit some of his old animal friends, play house, ride a boat (aka Micah's Ark), sit on almost every single pumpkin, build a pumpkin man, and ride a tractor.

Dragon Boat Race

Last weekend Shaun and I participated in the YMCA Dragon Boat Race with out Married Life Group at StoneBridge Church. The Dragon Boat Race is a team building event with not only dragon boat races, but also dodge ball, human foosball, minute to win it, water slide events, and much more. We placed third overall and had a great time, and a great workout.

Washington, DC

Shaun and I had a great time this past weekend in DC.

Nana came to our house Thursday night to spend a 4 day weekend with Micah so Shaun and I could enjoy a much needed vacation. We originally planned this trip for Shaun's cousin Kevin's wedding, and decided to make it a 4 day vacation for ourselves.

We left on Friday morning, around 6:30 just before Micah woke up, and made it to the airport just in time to board our flight at 8:30. We made it to Georgetown, where we stayed at the beautiful Hyatt Hotel, around 12:30 and met up with Grandpa Rusty and Mumzeh for lunch. Later that evening we attended Kevin and, his new wife, Allyson's rehearsal dinner. Saturday morning was spent at the Washington Monument, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Wall. Around lunch we headed back to the hotel to get ready for Kevin and Allyson's wedding at Georgetown University in one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. The rest of the evening was spent eating, dancing, and celebrating the marriage of an amazing couple. On Sunday, we got to see The White House, The Capitol, The American History Museum, and The Natural History Museum (This was the best, they had diamonds for me to see and dinosaurs for Shaun).

By Monday, it was time to get" back to life, back to reality" (which I sang in the car ride home). We got home around 3:30 to find Micah napping on Nana's lap. Later, Micah showed us all the new toys Nana bought him and his awesome new kicks. Overall, it was a great trip, wedding and more importantly A GREAT BREAK!!!

"She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy..."

Nana and Papa came up this weekend with a little surprise for Micah. IT'S A JOHN DEERE TRACTOR!!! Micah was a little skeptical at first, but was soon driving around, loading up the sticks from the yard, and jammin to the radio. Yes, it has an FM Radio. This should get the ladies lookin his way...

Still Tall and Skinny!

Micah and I went in for his 18 month well child checkup today. All went well, except he pretty much screamed every time the nurse touched him, and bit me once or twice when they were trying to give him his shots. "Totally normal at this age," the nurse said. I am hoping she was not just telling me that since I was almost in tears.

Micah is 34 inches tall, 90%. 23 pounds 14 ounces, 25%, and his head is in the 80% measuring 49 cm.

Rollie Pollie Ollie

Last week I showed Micah how to do a front roll. Then, I got him to tuck his head down, then I lifted him at the waist and rolled him over. It took me only one time to show him how to do this, and now, he is a pro.

My neighbor has her 12 month old in gymnastics, who still needs assistance on her front roll, and she said most of the kids in class that are Micah's age still cannot do a roll on their own. Her daughter is Layla, and it is hysterical how we will just enter a room and Layla will have her head on the ground with her booty in the air waiting for someone to flip her over. Who knows how long she can stay in that position before someone comes along to help her out.

It's a little scary how coordinated he is. It could either go towards dancing or sports. I have to add, Micah has added the front roll into his dance routine, but we are still hoping he will lean towards sports.

A few more new words from M...

Micah is now saying:

hot - which he says for every type of food that is placed in front of him, or car that he sees. He likes to reach his hand out, then yank it back in and whispers, "hot."

car - working on truck, but everything is still car right now

light

He is also saying dog much better now. He is finally get the "g" in there.

Micah goes poop!

So Micah has started telling us when he is going poop, which is great, we just wish he would tell us before he was going instead of during so we can get him to the toilet. However, yesterday, he almost got it right.

We were in the living room and all of a sudden he runs into the bathroom yelling "poop, poop." So I followed him into the bathroom and he had raised the toilet seat and was standing there, grunting. When he finally finished, he flushed the toilet, clapped, and ran out.

Now if I could just get him to wash his hands.

Farm livin is the life for me...

Today we met up with our good friends Noah and Mrs. Rachel at 7 acres ranch for some farmin good time. We got to ride a tractor, play some putt putt, pet a few animals, play in the sand, and even visit a small town. Micah squealed the entire time. I think he was saying, "This is the best day ever!"