Andrew Slide Show

As with most of our posts, this is all Andrew. Christi made a slide show for a family DVD so I thought I'd go ahead and share her hard work with everyone. Enjoy!

Friday Fun

We went to Rivergate last night for some dinner and shopping. I just love being out and about when a) the seasons are changing and it's cool weather and b) when it's that bustle of activity time. There's just something festive in the air...almost like something fresh. I am one of those weird people who love to go to the mall at Christmas time. I just love the excitement that you feel. Anyway, we decided to go to Chik-fil-A for dinner because they have a pretty good play area for kids and Andrew was in desperate need of some playtime. He actually went up in the play equipment...he really likes things like that now. I even had to go get him down when it was time to go. And I immediately doused us with antibacterial hand sanitizer because those things are really nasty! From there we went to Target where we got Andrew a potty. For some reason blogger won't let me put the picture of it on here....very frustrating!
We aren't exactly ready to start this whole potty training process. But Andrew is terrified of actually sitting on the big potty...he LOVES to play in the water however! So we thought he might like one his own size. It's pretty plain compared to some they have now. There were several that sang tunes when you sit down or do your business. They had one that you could actually flush! But I think simple is the way to go with Andrew. He thinks it's just a chair right now, but introduction is the first step! Anyway, after Target Jay dropped me off at Babies 'R Us. Now don't get excited, there is no new baby on the way. I do however LOVE that store! I had one mission in going in there and it was to find Andrew some new bedding. I had seen some I really liked and was having trouble finding it, but Babies 'R Us came through. What do you think?
I like it because it's simple and it matches his baby stuff. I think Andrew likes it too because he slept until 7:30 this morning! So that was our Friday evening. Today is starting off slow, like Saturdays should. I made breakfast (bacon, eggs and biscuits), and now Jay is playing XBox and Andrew is right there with him! He has become particularly clingy to his daddy lately. I'm sure Jay's trip last week has something to do with it, but I also think the older he gets, the more he's going to want to hang out with his daddy. I'll adjust. Just one more thing I wanted to add. Jay had made a DVD of Andrew right after he turned one and I watched it with Andrew the other day. Now he is obsessed! He wants to watch it ALL the time! He only like the part where he's scooting around...which is adorable. Jay and I were talking about how we really don't remember him being that small. Where does the time go? I have this feeling I'm going to turn around tomorrow and he'll be a teenager and I won't be able to remember this time. I do hope I make the most of the time I have with him. I'm not going to want to let him go...should I go ahead and get that MOM tattoo put on him?

"Drew, I am your father..."

Well, I had one of those proud papa nights last night. I thought I would experiment and see at even 2 years old how much my son is really MY son. And let me tell you, he is.



This is us watching Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. It's the most cartoonish of all the movies and colorful, etc. (except for Darth Maul, but he's really cool). Anyway, he watched the whole thing with me! His favorite part was definintely the pod races. So, just confirming that Andrew is indeed my son.

Feeling Better

If some of you don't know, Andrew still has this junk (mainly cough) and has been kind enough to pass it along to his mommy. However, I think the worst is over. We both felt better today. Jay had some stuff to do at church tonight, so we went and had dinner with him. We went to Steak & Shake. After that we decided to be brave and take Andrew to Toys 'R Us. We were really scared that he would throw a fit to have everything, but he did really well. We went looking for this:

Andrew loves to hide in/under things, so we thought this would be great entertainment for him. As it turns out, he likes the pillows better:

He stayed in the bus all of two minutes and then wanted on the bed to play in the pillows. I was a mean mommy and didn't let him on the bed since we had just purchased this new toy for him. (This picture is from yesterday). Anyway, I guess we're learning the hard way that no matter how many toys you buy kids, they'd rather play with the box it came in. Well we better go and get ready for bed. I'll leave you with this family pic:

Cuddly Andrew

Some may wonder why I'm home at 9:30 on a Sunday morning. The answer is simple: my Andrew is sick. He's been snotty for about a week now and it turned into a cough Friday. Then yesterday he started running fever. No fever so far today, but his cough is awful! The one upside to him being sick is that he likes to cuddle when he's not feeling well. It's quite sad and sweet at the same time. I love holding him and I wish so bad that I could just take his pain away. I'm sure God must feel the same way about us. There are painful times we must go through, but I know that God loves to hold us in those times. And while I know it hurts Him to see us in pain, He doesn't take it away because He knows the strength and wisdom we'll gain by enduring it. His lap is always there for us to curl up on.
Having a child is giving me such wonderful insights into God's love for us. I will never know the fullness of it of course, but I have a new perspective on it.

The Son of a Preacher Man

Just thought you'd like to see exactly how much Andrew is indeed my (Jay's) son. Is there a stage in his future? Maybe so...

Playtime with Andrew

Well, I believe I have officially become a "cool" mom. Tuesday Andrew was on our bed burying himself underneath the pillows so I thought, "I bet he would love a tent". So I made him one out of a bed sheet! So far I have not done well with the boy playing. I don't get dirty and my son LOVES the dirt and I'm not too good at wrestling or making car noises. So making a tent is pretty good for me. I know it's not great, but Andrew loved it.

He also loved this indoor playground we went to today. Several people have told me about this local church who had this amazing indoor playground and let me tell you, it was amazing. It's like five levels...the picture just doesn't do it justice. Andrew never climbs up into playground equipment like this, so I didn't think he would go up, but he surprised us. He went almost all the way up!

He got sleepy, so we only stayed for about an hour then headed home to eat lunch. Well, Jay and I ate lunch. Andrew fell asleep on the way home and didn't wake up when we took him out of the van, so we just laid him down. Yesterday was the first day of Mother's Day Out for the fall and he didn't eat lunch then either. He ate pretty well at dinner both last night and tonight so maybe we're onto something. Anyway, that was our week in a nutshell.

A little fun, A little misery...

I guess almost every day has some of both. Anyway, we'll do the fun first...
We spent the morning at the pool. Fun times. Here's some of that...



While we were there, Christi I guess felt like a professional photographer. Here's a piece of her work...

After nap time, Drew woke up to a present from Nana. It may not seem like much, but let me tell you, that's Drew. He loved it! Unfortunately it also squeeks alot.



Well, that about wrapped up the fun part of the day. The misery portion of our night/morning started at about 11:30 when Drew woke up snotty, even though we had given him medicine right before bed. He slept off and on until about 2 (mostly off) and then was up until about 5:30. We tried some more medicines and he slept for about an hour and half and then we've pretty much been up since. All you kid people know the nights I'm talking about.
So, there you go. If Drew really is sick, we may leave today. We'll see.
Ok, have fun out there!

A time to remember...

Well, today was quite a swing emotionally. Didn't do too much this morning. Lot's of reading for us and Andrew went on the porch to work on the flowers with Nana. He gets distracted easily...



Then Chrsiti and I got to go out to eat with a good friend of ours, Brandi. She's a real estate agent in Dallas if anyone is interested! She was a senior in our first year at Eastland and was a gift from God. Anyway, we went to Bennigan's and then brought her by to see Andrew.

Lastly, Christi and I went to see World Trade Center. You know, I could probalby go on and on here but it just amazes me how our society moves on so quickly with life. It was only 5 years ago but we forget so easily. So there was the great reminder. And then some of the movie showed parts of the whole ordeal that you never even really get to settle your thoughts on. But at no time was it over the top. We definitely recommend that you see it.


So, that was our Tuesday, ending with remembering a Tuesday that really wasn't too long ago...

Every other day of the week is fine, yeah....

Christi didn't know my title reference, but I'm sure someone will. Anyway...
Today was Monday. We didn't do too much. Tried to get Andrew out of the house. But, weirdly enough, it's been raining. Like for two days it's rained which has dropped the temp. In fact, we didn't see any more 100+ forcasted for the rest of the week. Good stuff.
Here's some pics of us hanging out with Drew...



Also, when we went to Wal-Mart, we splurged $1 and got a cart that we thought Andrew would enjoy more for shopping. He did.




Lastly, we got to have something for dinner that is unavailable back in Tennessee...Chicken Express! You can check out their website here. Trust us, it's amazing.
Well, that wraps up today. We just watched Hoodwinked and now are heading off to bed soon. Take care everyone!
(BTW Lindsey, we'll be back on Saturday :))

Oh yeah, and I didn't go see the movie. Maybe tomorrow...

The Lord's day...

Well, today Christi and I decided to do something we hadn't done in years, and I mean years (probably like 9): visit a church where no one knew who we were! It was pretty cool. We got to see how visitors are treated. This church did pretty well. And it was only like a 5 minute drive! You can check it out here.
That was pretty much it for today. Andrew did however give us all grief by drawing on my mom's chair (microfiber) with a pen TWICE. Luckily, we had some stuff to take it up. Christi went shopping and I'm contemplating going to see a late night movie tonight (I don't think Christi is up for 2nd Pirates movie).
Hope everyone is doing well!

2 for 1

Well, it was a looooooooooooong day today. We left at 7 for Jay's grandparents and then after lunch went to Christi's grandmother's to see some more family. All in all, I think there were 17 total people involved. We had a good time. Here's some pics to commemorate the occasion.





Well, to briefly run down the roster, we have daddy, Drew and Papa. Then add granny to the mix in the next picture. Then we have Christi's older sister Sandi and nephew Justin with Drew coloring. The last picture is a classic from Christi's grandmother's bedroom. There "are" (for Mindi) no words for this genius idea...

Greetings from Texas

For those of you who don't know, we are currently visiting family in Texas. We will try and keep you updated as the week goes along. We got here last night at about 6:30...it was a VERY long trip! And we came from wonderful tempertures in Tennessee to raging heat!!! It was 104 today...apparently it's been like 42 straight days of over 100 degree temps....crazy stuff! Anyway, Andrew immediately claimed Nana's chair for his own...


Tomorrow we will be going to visit my (Christi) family in Tyler along with Jay's grandparents. I'm sure we will have lots of pictures to share from this visit. Hope all of you are doing well. Hopefully we will hear that the girls left Gatlinburg in one piece. Keep checking for updates and have a great weekend!

Nothing New

My friend Michelle told me last night that I hadn't blogged in awhile, so I'm mainly doing this one so she'll have something new to read. On a quick side note, if you read the comments on the last video, Michelle wrote that her daughter Cate thought Andrew was really talking to her when she watched it. How cute is that?!! This is a picture of Andrew and Cate that I thought you would enjoy:

Doesn't it look like she's about to slap him? Well, she didn't. She's too sweet for that!
Anyway, not much new around here. Andrew has become all boy on me. We've gotten some rain here lately, so when we've gone outside there is mud under the rocks that he plays with. Well, yesterday he was just digging in the mud and then scooting around in it! And then today we took Jay to work and he was on the playground at church for a little while and he walks up and he's filthy!! There was dirt everywhere and we were only out there for like 10 minutes. Jay and I were talking about how much fun we used to have outside when we were kids and we hope Andrew does the same. Remember the day of running around the woods but really you were deep in some African jungle and the smallest bug was a huge dinosaur chasing you. I hope Andrew has a great imagination like that! Being a kid was so fun, so I'll try to become less OCD about the dirt.

For Nana

This video will probably be annoying to most of you, so I apologize. But Andrew's Nana is going to love it! We love you Nana!

Hot Summer Day

We went outside yesterday morning before the heat got unbearable. My idea was to take another ride on the tricycle, however Andrew had a different idea. This is what he did instead:

Playing in the rocks is his absolute favorite thing to do. He does love sidewalk chalk as well. This is his creation from yesterday:

It got really hot really fast, so we went inside. Hopefully he'll start wanting to ride his tricycle. There are just too many rocks around right now to distract him. This is just a cute picture from the end of the day:

Wonderful Anniversary

If you want to know details about our anniversary, check out my myspace blog here. The blogs are on the right.

These pictures are a little of the detail of our day. I think the great Forrest Gump said it best with, "Oww, something bit me!"

Time to Roll!

Well, we broke down and got Andrew a tricycle. I know, I know, big step. He still gets on a very weird way. We're trying to teach him to put his leg over first. Oh well. In a step of technological genius, we're trying to embed video here so you can check it out. You'll probably have to click on it before you can use the controls. Anyway, here goes. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, so who knows how many words this video is worth...

Summer Days

These are a couple of pictures of the first time we took Andrew swimming this summer. He walked around the pool for about 15 minutes before he finally decided he trusted his daddy enough to hold him in the pool. Once he was in, he LOVED it! Hopefully we'll get to go again soon. But it won't be this next week because Jay is off to camp, and I'm not brave enough to take him by myself. I don't have a picture of it, but tonight was our annual creek baptism at church and it's just what it sounds like. When we got to the creek Andrew headed straight for the water, which terrified me! What would I do if he wanted to get in that nasty water?! Well, I didn't have to worry about it. All he wanted to do was sit right at the edge and throw rocks in the water. I was very relieved, because the smell was not pleasant...Jay, however, did have to get in the unpleasant smelling water.

Sleepless nights

As you you may or may not know Jay is in San Francisco right now with some of our youth & youth leaders, and our Ed. minister. They're doing great, having lots of ministry opportunities and fun as well. They'll get back late Saturday night. Summers are hard. Luckily I got to go to staff camp this year...below is a picture of Jay and Andrew on the last day. I just love my boys! Anyway, there are usually at least 2, sometimes more, weeks where I'm here alone. Well, Andrew is here too, but you know what I mean. I haven't spent any time with anyone over the age of 2 since Sunday. Praise the Lord it's a church night and I get to go to choir! Seriously, I'm very excited!
I never sleep well when Jay isn't here. I'm not scared or anything like that, I just toss and turn and wind up falling asleep right before Andrew wakes up (6 a.m. if you were curious!). Anyway, I wish I was the type of wife who could enjoy time to herself, but I'm just not. God did not wire me to be alone. I have done a couple of productive things while Jay has been gone though. I moved our computer into our bedroom. It was in the dining room but because of my new table, there wasn't room for it anymore. I cleaned the house, and made chicken spaghetti last night. It's not Jay's favorite dish, so I made it since he wasn't here. I also froze half of if for the week he's gone to camp (beginning of July). I also made a banana bread...needed to get rid of some bananas. So now when I weigh 300 lbs. at the end of the summer, you all will know why. :)