Daddy's Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!

It was Daddy's birthday Sept 11 - so we decided to get away for a few days and head up to the mountains outside Gatlinburg, TN. Miles was dressed and ready to celebrate. With Daddy's favorite Starbucks and a Chick Fila chicken biscuit in hand (ok, it was Mommy's hands) -Miles greeted Daddy for his birthday morning. Unfortunately it was a rainy day- but we considered everyday Daddy's birthday while on vacation.

Turns out, Miles is quite the little hiker as you can see. In fact, his very 1st trip he got to see a black bear. I must say I was a bit nervous about the hike -Josh kept saying... I hope we see a bear. And I kept saying... I hope we don't! But all in all it was a really neat experience. Miles actually got to see a real live Winny the Pooh before the cartoon! The bear found honey! He was coverd in bees! It was a little scary - but great never the less! I plan to put the video up on the blog- but I don't know if we are blog savvy enough yet to do that! We'll see!

In other news... Miles also made his 1st trip to the beach! It wasn't the best timing on Mommy's part- We had just come the dr- Miles got his 2month shots :( But- our great friend Jen was in town and we had to make it to the beach before she left. Miles was rescued by Daddy about 15 minutes after we got there! Hopefully the next beach experience will be better!

This was Miles before his mean shots.... He was so happy- laughing and smiling. Which of course made it that much more difficult - I can't even express how sad I was to let him get shots. I know it it is a necessary evil- but I wish I could have taken them for him!!

This was right after ... :( :( :(

I couldn't even stand next to him while he got the shots. Josh was the brave one. I stood in the corner, heating a bottle- trying to distract myself so I wouldn't have a melt down! I mean really, I felt like if I stood next to him while this mean nurse stabbed him in both legs- I thought he would look at me and think- how could you let her do that to me?! So I was the clean up crew and tried to soothe him after the storm. I am thankful that Daddy could do the hard work!

I know it's been a while since we have posted... sorry to those faithful readers. We'll try to get better!

4 Generations of Surratts...and a little more!

Miles' Great Grandpa was in town this week and they got to spend some quality time together. I thought this was a cool picture - 4 generations of Surratts in one picture. It's kind of crazy when I start to think of some of the history that is there. 3 out of 4 of the Surratts that are pictured are pastors. I don't know what Miles will do when he grows up, but I am thankful for the groundwork that my dad and grandpa have laid for him. Because they have chosen to give up their lives for God, Miles will have every opportunity to grow up with the knowledge of Jesus' love for him.

In other developments:

• Miles sat in the bumbo seat for the first time. This is definitely dad's favorite wake time activity!
  



• Mom started a new mom's small group on Tuesday mornings. Miles is meeting lots of new friends...and mom is getting to spend some time with some adults!





• I love our bedtime routine. We feed him, change him into his pj's, sing him 4 songs (Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and You are My Sunshine), pray with him, and put him down to sleep while he's still awake. We are so proud of him for learning how to get himself to sleep! Now if only he would sleep a little longer!



• Lisa and I have been reading some great parenting books that have helped us develop a gameplan with Miles. I'll post on that later.


• Miles is really embracing the Cubs as his favorite baseball team. Imagine that!

S-MILES!

Okay, nobody actually prepared me for what happened today. Lisa and I were hanging out in our bed this morning, playing with Miles, when he looked up at me and did the most amazing thing I have ever seen - he smiled at me. Apparently this type of activity started a couple of days ago with Lisa, but I hadn't witnessed it yet...until today.

Miles officially has his parents wrapped around his finger after that one. I think he will pretty much get anything that he asks for from here on out. All he has to do is flash those pink gums at his daddy and I won't be able to say no! In fact, I think I am going to go buy him a car tomorrow!

In other news, Miles weighed in at 10 pounds, 14 ounces yesterday. The boy has been gaining weight to the tune of an ounce a day for the last few weeks! He definitely takes after his father in the eating category. Failure to thrive is not an issue with this little chunker!

Here are a couple of pictures for your (my) enjoyment!

Pictures are courtesy of Papa Greg. If that preaching thing doesn't work out, I think he could make a career in photography!

OUCH!!

Miles got his first shot this week! I must say, as his father, that I was pretty impressed with him. He had fallen asleep right before the nurse came in to give him the shot, so when she hit him with it, he was totally unsuspecting.

Upon realizing that he had been attacked by this lady while his parents stood by and did nothing to help him, he let out two really loud screams...and then he went right back to sleep! Whew...we got by the first one with out too much damage. I hear it gets harder as they get older.

On a happier note, we did a little photo shoot with Miles this week and it turns out he really likes the attention. Here's a couple of the pictures. Will post more later!

Miles Turns 1! (1 month, that is)

It's hard to believe that Miles is already one month old today. In some ways, it has flown by, and on the other hand we feel like he has always been a part of our lives. He has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams!

So we celebrated by doing one of Miles' favorite things...taking a bath! As you can see, he is a big fan!

Then I remembered how much stinkin' money we spent on his crib...and he hasn't slept in it once! So what better present than to introduce him to his crib. He actually did really well! You may notice that he is actually sleeping on his changing pad in the crib. I guess he's on that changing pad so frequently that he is pretty comfortable with it.

Here was our view of the action from our bedroom on our sweet video monitor that we got courtesy of our small group! Just one of the many perks of being in a small group!

Bring on the next month...we are absolutely loving this!

These are a few of my favorite friends...

(Sorry for the long wait between posts! Dad had a busy week last week in prep for the weekend...but we're back.)

For being such a little guy, Miles has made quite a few friends. We can't wait until he can actually play with them! So here are some introductions:

This is Wrigley, Miles' oldest brother. He has more or less ignored him since day 1...but he did that with Otis too. So the jury is still out on how that friendship is going to work out.

Speaking of Otis...here he is! Today Otis grew concerned about some of Miles' whimpering so he licked his face! Believe it or not it worked! He's a great older brother.

This is Miles' first actual baby friend Brody Banks! He and Miles love to play soccer together...they will pretty soon anyways. Right now they just like to sit in their car seats and hang out. The Banks are great friends and we are so excited to be raising our kids together.

Say hi to Gavin Plis, another one of Miles' good friends! He even offered to hold Miles' head up for him during a quick cat nap. Heather, Cory, Haley and Gavin are long-time friends of the Surratt family!

Miles' first girlfriend could possibly be Seven Overcash. There's no doubt that Seven is one of the smartest, most athletic little 2 week old girls you will ever meet! Michael and Kristen sure did make a cute little princess!

As you can see, Seacoasters have been busy popping out babies here lately! We still have the Robinsons, Fazals, and Phelps in the on deck circle. There's no doubt that these little crumbcrunchers are going to be keeping KidsCoast busy!

Miles Goes to the Movies

Obviously things are really different for Lisa and I now that we have Miles. We understand and embrace the adjustments that we have to make now that he's here. But at the same time, we still want to live our lives and continue to do the things that we enjoy. So in the two weeks that we have had Miles we have had the grandparents babysit four times...most of them so that we could go and work out, run errands, and visit our friends, Michael and Kristen, who recently had a baby. They are so gracious to do this for us...it's quite the sacrifice...can't you tell!

Tonight we decided to take Miles with us on our date night. It was quite the adventure! After a nice dinner at Outback thanks to a gift certificate from some other great friends, we decided to go catch a movie that we've been wanting to see, License to Wed. Miles did great, but we did have a couple of minor issues. 20 minutes into the movie Miles got a bit queasy and spit up all over himself! Fortunately, Lisa always packs a couple of extra outfits for him so she got him changed and back in there. He must have been pretty bored because he slept through the rest of the movie.

Then a pretty bad thunderstorm came through towards the end of the movie...which caused a power outage. By the time we left our theater they were experiencing some pretty bad flooding in there. We had to wade through ankle deep water to get out. Quite the adventure!

We capped the evening off with some Starbucks with our great friends and small group leaders, Matt and Brooke. Our first date night with Miles in tow was great! We're looking forward to many more!