Just an ordinary weekend...

We didn't do anything special this weekend... which is why it was so special. It has been a long time since we haven't had somewhere to run to on a weekend and we know with the holidays coming up life is going to get even more hectic! On Saturday, we had fun introducing Andrew to the fall leaves and letting him explore our backyard and the swingset and little car we got with the house. Then we went to a park near our house so Andrew could swing in the baby swings. I made pumpkin bread (a new recipe that I didn't really like so if you have a good recipe send it my way!) and we went to the library and Andrew checked out his first books. He got Spot's Toy Box (which reminds me... if you have little ones check out Spot's Web Page ) and Five Little Monkeys Jump on the Bed, and cried when it was time to give his books to the librarian to check them out. Here are some pictures from our weekend!

Holding on to a moment...

Our Christmas tree is filled with ornaments which mean something to us -- ornaments Chad or I made while we were growing up or since we have been married, ornaments people have given us over the years, ornaments we have purchased on vacation and which tell the story of our life together. This year we get to add some more special ornaments... and I found one this past week at a conference my work hosted. I was captivated not so much by the artwork as by the poem, which you can read in part on the card above. (Not that the artwork isn't wonderful, I am just more of an artist of words than a visual artist!). It captured beautifully the miracle of the baby we are blessed to spend Christmas with this year. The artist's work is beautiful... it isn't all on her website (and unfortunately you can't read her poetry on the website), but at least you can get a taste.

Halloween 2006

Andrew had such a big day! In the afternoon, he and Kim and Brennan went to the Collierville Town Square to go Trick-or-Treating. When Chad and I got home, we all went to a church nearby that was having a Fall Festival for preschoolers. They had games set up for the kids to play and, of course, gave out candy! Andrew was too little to play most of the games, but he loved picking up ducks from the duck pond and playing in the ball pit! He was dressed as a little penguin and everyone thought he was adorable. Andrew also got presents during the day -- he got a hat full of baby treats from Martha and a tin of butter cookies from his Antzy. He thought the cookies were yummy (and the box was a hit too!). We had so much fun this Halloween! Here is a sampling of our night!

Our Fall Weekend

We had another big weekend. Yesterday we went to a Trunk-or-Treat at Melody's work. Andrew loved getting to see the other kids and babies, looking around at the Halloween decorations, and playing with the balloons (he likes to tug on the strings of helium balloons... and crawl around taking them with him too!). Then tonight we went to a family night at Grace Crossing, a church we've been visiting. We had a chili supper and an amazing devotional outside. Andrew loved the singing and looking around and playing with a basset hound puppy one of the members brought. We all had a wonderful weekend (and wish we could have taken more pictures!)

Pumpkin Patch Pics

Just some pictures from this weekend...

A night at the fair

We went to the fair tonight. Andrew was really tired at first but then he woke up and couldn't figure out where to look first. He watched a tiny bit of a circus and saw some animals at the petting zoo and got scared by Daffy Duck (Daffy gave him a kiss and startled him and he started to cry :( ). He loved looking at the baby pictures in the baby pic contest (and he would have won if we had been organized enough to enter! Not that we are at all partial...) and looking at all of the plants in the Horticulture building. He also really liked the giant Pooh Bears that people had won. We told him he had a huge Pooh Bear at home to love on. :) And of course... the best part of the fair... the FOOD! Andrew got bites of a Pronto Pup (well at least of the bread part), grilled corn, his daddy's funnel cake, and (his favorite) mommy's frozen banana-on-a-stick. He cried everytime I took the banana out of his mouth and when Chad pushed Andrew a little ahead of me in his stroller he looked back and fussed at me until I caught up and gave him another bite! We didn't stay too long, but we had fun! We are already looking forward to next year! Oh, pic to come!

9 month update

We had Andrew's 9 month checkup today (a little early). He is doing great -- he weighs almost 19 pounds and is 28" long. He had fun at the doctor's playing with other kids who came in (he and a 15 month old had a whole conversation but us mommies don't know what they said!) and playing in the waiting room. It is just amazing how much he has developed since his last visit 3 months ago! He is crawling really well now and pulling up on everything. He loves to "walk" as long as he is holding someone's hands. He's starting to get into everything. It is so much fun to see him develop his own interests and see what he is interested in (other babies, people in general, ink pens, straws, kitties, and water top the list! Oh, and of course mommy and daddy and all the other grown-ups he sees on a regular basis). He is eating mostly table food except we haven't been cooking much lately between my crazy work schedule and moving so he has still been getting some baby food too. He can say "bye" and wave bye-bye (when he wants to) and say "mama" and communicate that he wants you to pick him up. He is doing great and we are all having so much fun together! :)

Heartlight 2006

Today we went to Heartlight, a fundraiser for Melody's work. It was held at Canale Farms which is about an hour from our house. We took old-time photos (which I'll have to post later), had an ice-cream social, had lots of games, watched the ponies (Andrew trried to crawl to them the second I put him down!) , listened to great music, and hung out with a lot of friends and co-workers (who are also friends! :) ). We all had fun even though it was a tiring day. Here are some pics of our day!

St. Louis Trip

We went to St. Louis this past weekend. We left early Saturday morning and Andrew slept most of the way to St. Louis so he was wide awake and ready to go by the time we got there! We met some friends of mine at the zoo and then for supper at The Spaghetti Factory . Andrew had so much fun being around other babies and little kids. He had fun looking at some animals too. We saw the elephants (including the new baby elephant!), the snakes, and the monkeys. We were going to go see the lions and tigers but Andrew fell asleep and we decided to go on to the hotel and give him a chance to sleep. Our hotel was amazing! We stayed at the Drury Plaza hotel in downtown St. Louis and everyone was so friendly. The hotel was beautiful too. We will definitely be back. On Sunday morning, we got up and went to the Arch. We went up to the top of the Arch and looked around a little bit, browsed around the Arch a little more, and started the trip back home. We stopped for lunch at Lambert's , which is a home-cookin' restaurant in Sikeston, MO with tons of food (and throwed rolls). Andrew had fun playing outside after being cooped up in his carseat and the stroller much of the weekend. He loved being at the restaurant too because there are so many people who come by the table. Andrew wanted to talk to all of them. :) We finally got home Sunday evening in time to put Andrew to bed and get ready for the work week. It was a tiring but fun weekend! More pictures to come!

On the move...

           
Life has been busy around here lately... Chad just got back from helping his Grandma move last weekend, his Aunt Nancy is moving sometime soon too... and we are moving this coming weekend! Lucky our move is just local. We bought our first house so we are excited about that. :) Andrew has been keeping us busy too. It seems like he has grown up so much since my last post from a few weeks ago. As of today, he has FIVE teeth -- three on the bottom and two on the top. That might change by tomorrow at the rate he is getting teeth in! He stopped using his pacifier (thanks, Kim!), "talks" all of the time now, wants to eat whatever we are eating for supper (even though he doesn't always get to!), is starting to eat some finger foods, and is trying to figure out how to crawl! He gets up on all fours and rocks, can't figure out what to do from there, then flops down and scoots on his stomach to get to wherever he wants to go. It is really cute! We think if it were up to him he would just skip the whole crawling stage and take off running because he'll take off running as long as we are holding his hands. I got to spend most of last weekend with him again since Chad was out of town and he was such a sweetheart (well, minus the whole "I don't wanna take a nap!" saga). He is so happy and loves life so much and gets so excited about everything. It is just amazing to watch him grow up... even though it seems like it is happening SO fast!

My Saturday with Mommy

Chad was out of town Friday night and all day Saturday at a Promise Keepers convention, so Andrew and I had most of the weekend to ourselves. We didn't do too much... we visited with Aunt Nancy and Debbie when I went to pick him up after work on Friday and we spent the rest of the weekend playing and cleaning the house. It was nice to spend a weekend at home for a change... we are usually running around doing shopping or running errands even if we are in town. And it was extra-nice to get to spend so much one-on-one time with Andrew! And he was extra-sweet this weekend too and really happy (as you can tell from the pics!). And, yes, that is a tooth peeking out... it's been coming in for a couple of weeks but it is finally through enough you can really see it! Oh... and Andrew was really happy to see his Daddy when he woke up this morning too! :)

CHEESE!!! If you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see my tooth!

Loving my bouncer!

Take me out to the ball game...

We took Andrew to his first baseball game tonight to see the Memphis Redbirds. He had the time of his life! He was SO excited. We bought tickets to sit on the bluff but ended up sitting behind home plate (okay, we have a connection and happened to run into him!). Andrew couldn't stop looking around to see what was next. Before we even got into the stadium, he loved looking at the inflatable balloon guy who floats above the entrance to the park. Jason took us up to see where the guy stands and Andrew thought that was great (on the way he ran into the cheerleaders who thought he was a cutie!) Then he had to look at everything in the stadium. He got a hat and a ball to chew on and water from Mommy's sports bottle and a few bites of ice cream. And he got to be on the big screen during the seventh inning stretch and the camera guy put him on twice so his Mommy could take a picture of the screen. And then his Daddy caught him a shirt... except he said Mommy or Daddy can have it because he won't fit into it for another 15 years or so. Plus he entertained quite a few people and ended up with a fan club as usual (babies tend to do that!) We left the park before the fireworks started but watched them from the parking garage and left when they started getting really loud. Andrew, of course, fell fast asleep as soon as the car started moving. Chad and I swung through Starbucks for a coffee fix and then went home and Andrew got to hear a bedtime story all about his big night. We had so much fun and I am sure we will be back at another game soon. We'll have to take some more pictures that time... I accidentally deleted the one of all of us! :( So if anyone wants to go to a Redbirds game with us this summer and see Andrew in action, just let us know!

                             

Just some pics...

I just love this picture and had to share! It's on my computer at work right now and I smile every time I see it.


I'm not even sure when this is from... sometime in the past month... just a cute Daddy/baby picture!

Andrew and his buddy Brennan

Since Andrew's Gran-Gran and Antzy are visiting family in VA, Andrew has been staying with my friend Kim and her son Brennan during part of the day this week. We spent last weekend helping Kim and her family move to a new house so she is an amazing friend to be babysitting Andrew while trying to get everything set up in a new house! Andrew thinks Brennan is the greatest and he had so much fun playing with him last weekend. Kim sent me some pics of the two of them together this week and I thought I'd share!

What a week!

Andrew telling his Granny we are running late... and loving sweet potatoes!
Playing on the swings at the park...

We have had a great week here... it has been busy though! I took Monday off work for my birthday and Chad's boss sent them home at lunch for an extra-long holiday... so all of us met my friend Kim and her little boy Brennan for lunch. Then Tuesday we went over to Aunt Nancy's for a 4th of July cookout. Aunt Nancy and Debbie were nice enough to baby-sit Andrew that night and Chad and I went to see Les Mis (which was amazing!). When we got back to pick up Andrew around 11:00 pm he had woken up. He was so excited to see us and got so worked up it took a long time to get him to sleep once we got home. The work week flew by and Friday we packed up the Jeep to go visit my mom in Hendersonville. We got there about 11:00 pm (we aren't so great at getting out of the house on time...) and poor Andrew woke up again. He was so excited to see his Granny (and cousin Ashley) that he felt like he had to socialize with them before going back to bed. :) Saturday we got up and went to the park (Hendersonville has an amazing park too... I can't wait until Andrew is bigger and can really play there!) and went shopping and to get Andrew's picture taken. Sunday we went to church and over to my Aunt Jean's for lunch and back home again! Andrew slept almost all of the way home from Nashville and then slept until after 7:00 this morning... I guess our week finally caught up with him! I'll post pics soon!

We have video!

Andrew had fun playing in his pool yesterday. He had just got up from a nap so he wasn't very talkative though... and the other video is just him playing!