Andrew

I'm ashamed to say that this is the only recent picture I have of Andrew, besides the Fall festival pictures. I'm not sure why this is, but I'll work on it.

Andrew is doing just amazing in kindergarten! Last month he got smiley faces every day so Jay bought him a movie as a reward for that. He really rarely gets into trouble and seems to be learning a lot. He also seems to be picking up some bad behaviors/attitudes at school. This morning as I was getting him ready for school, he got mad because I wouldn't let him play with some toy and he said "What's your problem?" I think my mouth fell open! He's never talked like that before. I mean, he's been sassy but never like that. Anyway, for the most part he's a normal five year old. He is still quite sweet most of the time. He seems to be enjoying soccer, which is thankfully almost over. Poor Jay has a hard time keeping six five-year-olds attention for any length of time. He has started bribing them during practice and this seems to be helping a little.

Andrew is also doing great in AWANA. He learns his verse every week-it just amazes me how easily kids can memorize scripture! He also is learning to play the chimes during music class on Sunday nights. I'm hoping they'll have some sort of presentation so I can see it for myself and maybe get some pictures to put on here.

Anna Grace

I don't know how it happened, but Anna Grace is already 7 going on 8 months old! Time just seems to be flying by. Here are some recent pictures of her:

She is so much fun! She has her two bottom teeth and it seems that her top two may be coming in soon. She can now hold her bottle by herself, play peek-a-boo, sit very well on her own (she's been doing this for a couple of months now) and she's started to babble like crazy. She said dada the other day...I don't think it counts as her first word though since she's just babbling. Jay of course is counting it. :) Her favorite things to do are sit in the floor and play with toys, or an empty water bottle (I don't know why this intrigues her), play with her bubba (she just adores Andrew), eat, look at daddy and tear magazines apart. Andrew also loved doing this last one when he was a baby. Don't worry, I watch her closely to make sure none of it ends up in her mouth. This is quite a job because she puts just about everything in her mouth!

She is quite the mama's girl. She doesn't really like for anyone else to hold her, but once I leave the room she's fine with whoever has her. They told me Sunday in the nursery that another little baby boy tried to kiss her and she puckered up and started crying. Jay is teaching her well! :)

Fall Festival

I've been getting quite a few hints that I need to blog again, so this is for you Grandma! :) It has been quite awhile. Life has been busy...I'll start with the fall festival. Andrew wanted to be a jedi and in searching for his costume, I found a baby Princess Leia costume that I knew I had to get for Anna. Here they are all dressed up:




I think I might stick with a theme every year...it was fun having them coordinate.

First soccer game!

Well, welcome to the experiment that we like to call "Andrew in U6 division soccer being coached by Jay." His team is called the Cubs. There really isn't any other relevant information. There are 6 boys on his team and 3 play at a time.

Pre-game pep talk. Yeah right. And I need to lose some weight.

Trying to explain how the opening kick-off works. After two more weeks I'm not allowed on the field any more. Uh oh.

Andrew in action...

Andrew pretending to blow the whistle at his teammate.

Andrew probably wondering what happened? By the way, it's raining the whole time the game is going on. Great way to start.

Andrew telling a story that I'm sure was hilarious.

Andrew and "Coach Jay"

More pics of Anna and family time

Here are a few random pics of the family, in various order, and without Christi! I really have to get behind the camera every now and then.


Perfect picture of story time: Andrew looking at mommy, Anna looking at Andrew and me looking at the story.
Note 1: Andrew is taking a breathing treatment due to struggling with a cold-like illness for about 2 weeks. And we're not to the "sick" season yet :(
Note 2: Anna LOVES Andrew. I can't emphasize it enough.


Look at these cuties. More from them later.


Also, I should mention she's really starting to sit well. Such a cutie!


Words don't do it justice.



Gotta love bed time activities


Look at the attitude! Gotta love it.

First day of Kindergarten

Andrew officially started Kindergarten this year. Crazy! I know we're late, but thought I'd throw a few pictures of his first day at you.


He sure is proud of his backpack.


Sitting at his table! (with my phone)


Andrew and his friend Sara from his preschool class

Yay for our new video camera!

New Pics of Anna

April Graves took these pics of Anna the other day in our backyard. We weren't planning on doing it and Anna was fussy so I didn't expect anything to come of it, but she surprised us!

We're being published!!!

Ok, big announcement...

Ok, not that big. But our crazy directory photo from a few years ago is going to be in the Awkward Family Photos book!!!! They didn't post it on the web site (which is hilarious, by the way: http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com )because they wanted to save a few for the book.

So, look for us probably some time next year! More info when it comes out.

Christi's birthday present

It's still several days away (Aug. 12) but I got Christi a new toy for her birthday. It's amazingly convenient with kids. It's a small, portable video camera. No tapes. Straight up digital.


So, here's some of the first video taken with it.

Vacation 09 part 2- The Whole Family

Sorry this took so long!

We got back to our kids as soon as possible on Wednesday. That night, we took Andrew to his very first Rangers game!


This is in the car in the parking lot. Andrew loves this pose. It kind of hurts.


This is us boys in with the new 'Boys stadium in the background. It's so massive.
And it only costs $1.5 billion.


The ballpark from our seats.


Mommy and Drew

On Thursday, we started off by going to the Dallas World Aquarium in downtown Dallas. Andrew loves that kind of thing.


Andrew in the front ready with a toy shark. He likes to play along.


Daddy and son and shark in Andrew's favorite part...a shark tunnel! We could have stayed there all day.


I can't emphasize enough how dialed in he was.


Anna patiently waiting.

After the aquarium, we headed over to Grapevine Mills to the Choo Choo Station which is a Thomas the Tank Engine themed store.


It had a train to ride!


Mommy was shopping. Andrew was playing. So, some daddy/daughter hanging out!

Vacation 09 part 1- Mommy and Daddy only

Christi and I are celebrating 10 wonderful years of marriage this year. So, the first part of our family vacation was a couple of days in Dallas with the kids at my mom's. It's been wonderful to not have a schedule, worry about public environments not suitable for children, and the like.

We started our time with some Pei Wei in Arlington and a brief trip to the Park's Mall. Afterwards, we headed over to the hotel.


This is our hotel room. We stayed up by 635 and 35E at a Holiday Inn Select. It was pretty nice.


For our anniversary dinner we went to Ruth's Chris. It's truly amazing. I've never paid that much for a meal, but it was probably actually worth it! And they gave us free dessert for our anniversary, so that was really nice.

For our second day, we had our sights set on downtown with some time spent at the West End and then JFK museum. Unfortunately, the West End in Dallas is now closed! No more Market Place. So, we decided not to wait around for half price JFK tickets and just did the tour in the morning. But on our way...


We found this weird office complex. It wasn't labeled at all, we just knew that some place inside sold drinks. And then, once that place opened, it ended up being hilarious!


This was probably our favorite item in there. They also had a set of angry mob action figures, lunch lady action figure and crazy cat lady action figure, complete with some cats.

We hit the Sixth Floor Museum (we're both still conspiracy theorists), lunch at the Galleria mall at a place called Pot Belly's, and then back to the hotel for swimming and reading (Christi) and napping (Jay).


This is us entertaining ourselves in rush hour traffic on the way to dinner.


Since we were eating in Frisco, Christi decided to take the "opportunity" to visit the IKEA store. Let me just say this: it's big.

Afterwards, dinner at Fuddruckers and dessert from Cheesecake Factory to take back to hotel.

So, lots of fun and probably gained 10 pounds a piece. Happy Anniversary!!!!

Heads up, sharks squeak

Here is Anna actually enjoying tummy time! She's usually not a fan. So this was a blessing.


Adelade got Andrew this shark on her vacation. Chad made good on his promise to get us the worst toy in Florida. This thing squeaks. Loud. Real loud.

July 4th festivities

On July 3rd, we had the Edgingtons and the Bruces (families from our church) over for a cook-out and sparklers. On the 4th, I was out of town but Christi took the kids with the Edgingtons to the local fireworks display.


Tommy and Heather show us how it's done.


Everyone enjoying a little sanctioned pyromania.


Andrew and Chad with sparklers.

Here's a video of Andrew and Adelade with sparklers trying to burn our yard.



Adelade set a pretty good fire later.



Andrew and Adelade at sparks in the park.


Anna getting her firework on!