The boy and his car

Here is Drew in the new car! He loves it. On Sunday he rode it for 2 hours straight. Today he took it to his cousin, Ben's, house and they raced their cars. Ben has a Lowes #48 car. I did not get to see that because I was at work and did not send the camera with Jim, so I will have to catch film of that another time! Enjoy!!

Christmas

Well it has come and gone and I am just now getting to some pictures! These will kinda be a mix of all our family gatherings and Drew with his presents here at home. "Santa" brought him a Lightening McQueen Power Wheels car, he loves it!!

Christmas Reflections

Here is a look back at Drew the last 3 years. It is so hard to believe that he is going to be 5 on March 1. It just seems like yesterday that we had our first Christmas with him.

Christmas Eve

Well it is Christmas Eve and it is about 70 degrees outside! You just gotta love MS weather! But even with all the warm weather it will be Christmas tomorrow just the same. We celebrated with our friend's the Hanks on Monday night. The kids exchanged gifts and we enjoyed some pizza. Then the adults played cards for a while. My friend Steph surprised me with a birthday cake too! It was very sweet. We had a great time and it seems to have just wet Drew's appetite for the gift getting!

Last night my sweet husband took me out on a surprise birthday date. I had no idea where we were going. He took me to The Melting Pot and to the movie to see Four Christmases. The food was so good and the movie was hilarious! We had such a good time. Thanks to my sister who allowed Drew to spend the night with them and give us a free babysitter! We really had a great time.

Now I am quite anxious to get Christmas set up tonight after Drew goes to bed tonight. Getting to watch Drew as he sees the things he has gotten brings so much joy to us. Of course we always want to remember what the true meaning of Christmas is, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! He is the ultimate gift for all of us.

Bowling

We found Drew doing this one night last week! I have been meaning to post is since then and just have not gotten around to it. This is his precious moment's nativity set and small rubber ball he got from the treasure chest at school.

Practicing to be a big brother!

These pics were taken Friday at my sister's house. This is "baby" Matthew. He is now 6 months old and a very big boy! We had kept the kids for a couple of hours while Elizabeth had gone to the school for a holiday party with one of the older boys. Matthew had just gotten up from a nap and Drew ask to hold him. Of course he was hungry so then when Elizabeth brought the bottle for him we let Drew give it to him. It lasted for a couple of minutes. Drew had a hard time holding the bottle up straight for him to actually take it. It was so sweet though and I had to get some pictures!

A Funny Kid Moment

This was so funny last night that I wanted to share it with ya'll!

Towards the end of our supper after the countless times we had told Drew to quit playing with the food, quip singing at the table, quit just drinking the drink and EAT HIS SUPPER, I was getting up to clean my place and ask Jim about the tea he had made. We do not use sugar in my house, we sweeten with splenda or the Walmart alternative, Altern. Jim had made the tea and it was WAY too sweet for my taste. I told him this, not in a mean way or anything, just told him it was too sweet and gave him my cup so he could drink what was left of mine. As I worked my way to the kitchen to begin the clean up I heard Drew promptly ask his daddy why he had 2 cups. Jim told him that he had made the tea too sweet and that I had given my cup to him to drink. Drew's response to this was to hold his hand up next to his face and look at his daddy and say "It's Spankin Time". I did not exactly hear this exchange but Jim's immediate response to this caused me to rush back in the room and see what exactly had happened. He relayed the story to me and I began to double over in laughter. We proceeded to grill Drew about where he had heard this statement. Although we certainly do not "spare the rod" in our house this is not anything we have EVER said to him or anyone for that matter! He continually told us that no one taught him this but he came up with it all on his own. Amazing! I told Jim that this was what $190 a month for Preschool education was getting us! I am sure this is just the beginning of many not so great remarks he will come up with. It was hard to be harsh about it when Jim and I were laughing hysterically at the situation anyway!

OB Christmas Parade

Here is Emma, Becca, and Drew just as the parade was starting. We had been sitting there for over an hour waiting, but we had great seats! They had so much fun watching the parade. Drew's friend Aiden also joined them a few minutes after I got this picture and I did not think to get another. It was incredibly cold for the parade this year. I do not recall it ever being that cold before. As a result Drew now has a really runny nose. It is staying clear though and seems to be getting on out of him. We are doctoring it up with the usual stuff so maybe it will pass soon.

The OB band looked great at the parade, as usual! This year they even marched the 8th grade band and they did a fantastic job. Good job OB band students and band directors!!

Catchin' Up

Well I told you I would get to this eventually. Lets just start with Thanksgiving:

This was Drew on Thanksgiving morning. He was playing his video game while we cooked breakfast and waited on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to start. Yes, it is a pumpkin hat. He actually decided to sleep in it that night, that made for a really interesting hair day! We had a wonderful day here at home on Thanksgiving. We cooked our own meal and just had a quiet day of doing absolutely nothing! It was wonderful!

Next up is Thanksgiving at my mom's. Here are the kids posing for pics after helping Nana to decorate her tree.

They had great fun helping her to put the ornaments on the tree. We had a wonderful meal there at mom's that night. Poppy fried a turkey and we brought lots of sides. David even brought his new girlfriend over to meet us finally! We managed to not scare her off! We had a good time getting to know her. I should have gotten a picture of the two of them, I will do better at Christmas.

Well that is it for this post. I will be working on another one here in a few minutes. We have had other fun things going on and I want to share with all of you!

Loving My New Christmas Background!!

I am so loving that I found a holiday background that is PINK!!!
I have lots of things to post from the holiday weekend but just have not had the time. We have been monthly grocery shopping, getting back in the swing of work and school and I had to make programs for the Middle School Band Christmas concerts. That was a real chore that took me the entire evening on Monday! So keep checking back, I will get my act together soon!

The Decorating Done!

We have completely decorated for Christmas! We have our lights outside, and they look great and the tree is up and all the nick nacks are on the tables! It actually went up easier than it seems it ever has. It probably helped that Jim had the tree put together when I got home. Things look great and very festive.

I did have to run out to Wal-Mart to get some ornament hangers. We had thrown all of ours away last year b/c they were really showing their wear. I also wanted to get some of the sparkly, glittery, stick things to stick all in the tree to had a little more glam! As I was going to the store I was stopped at an intersection by a funeral procession. Whenever I encounter this situation I try to say a prayer for the family that is dealing with the loss of a loved one and I did that today, but it turned into a much deeper thought and prayer. As I watched that line of cars go by I thought of all the families that are now preparing for the holidays after having lost a loved one. From experience I can say that the first holiday season after losing someone is especially difficult. The people I have lost are still greatly missed each holiday season and every day for that matter, but that first year is hard. I know so many people that have lost someone this year. Even my own brother-in-law lost his grandmother just on Monday and they will be spending the Thanksgiving holidays having a funeral. I say all this to ask all of you to please remember those who have lost loved ones this year. We should lift them up in an extra special way during this next month of all the holiday gatherings. I know that this today has reminded me that I need to be in prayer for all of them. And if you are one of these people who has lost someone and you are reading this, then please know that I am thinking of you and your family right now.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends! Remember to be thankful for how we are all so richly blessed by our GREAT GOD!!

Thanksgiving at School

Well this is Drew dressed as an Indian. He actually brought this home from school on Friday. Today at school they had their "Thanksgiving Feast", which consisted of mac n cheese and chicken nuggets. I guess to a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds that is indeed a feast! He has a pilgrim hat and vest that he wore today for the feast but I did not get a pic of that one. He had a good day today and tomorrow will be just a fun day. He even gets to take a toy to play with tomorrow.

We had a great visit this weekend in Batesville with Jim's family. It was nice to be there over night and not have to rush back home. We had a very relaxing Sunday yesterday, just hanging out together at his mother's home. We also got to spend some extra time with Jim's sister and her husband and daughter. It had been quite a while since we had seen them so we really enjoyed the time with them. We will be spending another night down there at Christmas and hopefully Jim's brother and his family will be able to stay too. It is nice to all be together and it has been several years since we all spent the night down there at once. It is crowded, but worth it to be together!!

Lastly for this post I give you the picture below. This is Drew's "I am Thankful for" sheet from school. His thing to be thankful for is the baby!! It made me want to cry. He drew this picture, it is him and the baby and the baby's toys. He is so very excited to be a big brother. I just hope that excitement will be just as great when the new baby is actually on the outside!

12 Weeks Today!

Well today I am 12 weeks pregnant. I am excited to get to this point. I am starting to feel pretty normal now. My energy level has definitely gotten better. Just since Friday I have had much more energy. I have been getting up earlier this week than I have in the last 2 months! This has been wonderful because I have had a much more meaningful quiet time with the Lord the past 4 mornings due to more time. I am starting to feel the "fluttering" feeling of the baby moving. I know it is kinda early for that but I did some research online and it says that often women will feel things much more quickly the second time due to knowing more of what they are looking for in that feeling. I can only feel it at night when I am laying down on my side and being totally still. I believe this baby is very active. Just from the 2 ultrasounds I have had and the feelings I am having, this baby likes to move! That is wonderful though. This first trimester has gone by quickly and yet it seems like May is so far away. I know it will pass more quickly than I realize and that when May arrives I will be shocked that the time has come already.

In the mean time I am very ready to get in the "Holiday Spirit"! I am already listening to my Christmas music at work! We will be decorating the house next week while we are off for Thanksgiving. I am ready to have the tree up and all the little decor items all over the house. I really want to have Jim put lights outside this year. We did this 2 years ago and I do not believe we got them up last year. But I am going to work on that!! The main reason I want the lights out front is b/c the window in the front of the house is not a good location for the Christmas tree, so it is not able to be seen through the window from outside. I love seeing peoples tree from the windows and until we moved to this house I always did that with ours. But, you don't buy a house based on where your Christmas tree is going to be! So I convinced Jim a couple of years ago that we should decorate the tree outside the window in place of my actual Christmas tree being there! I had even bought more lights last year so that we could decorate the bushes and all. So that is what I am hoping for. I need to get a big star to put over the window so it will look like it is on the tree!!

I will post pictures next week after we get all the decorating done! We will be going to Batesville this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jim's family. I should have some good pics of all of that too. Bye for now!

The Beginnings of a Baby Room

Yesterday we spent the entire day cleaning out the once "Spare Room" and transforming it into the "Baby Room". I know some of you are thinking that I am a bit early for this, but for those of you who know me well you realize that Saturdays at home with not place to go are very few and far between, so we seized the opportunity! I am very pleased with the results. It took the bulk of the day to get the items that were in this room transferred to new homes. But once we got past that we were able to get the items from the attic, thoroughly clean everything because it was all NASTY, and get it all set up. In the midst of it all Drew wanted to "Help one another". This is what he says to us when he wants to help. Apparently they talked about his for a week at school and learned a song titled Help One Another, so he will sing that and tell us that we have to help one another. He did help us for the most part. I was glad he was so interested and not upset by all of this stuff coming down and being part of the house. He is still very excited over the baby. I did have my first sign that he does not quite get this whole baby thing last week. He told me in the car on the way home from work/school one day that I was going to be there baby's grandma. I immediately corrected him, I mean come on I am not that old yet!! I probably kinda laughed at him and explained that I would be the baby's momma and that daddy would be the baby's daddy. This was followed by a stunned silence. I realized this was the first time he had understood that the baby would be sharing us with him. I talked about it a little bit and ask him if he understood and he said yes, but nothing else. So I just let it go for now. I know that it will be a big adjustment for him to learn to share us with another person. He will be over 5 years old when the baby arrives and he has been the baby up till now. He still is my baby and will always be, even when he is 30 and has baby's of his own, and now I am going to cry thinking about him growing up. I better close at that before I am a mess! Keep praying for us through this journey, it is exciting and challenging all at the same time, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

Dr visit #2 down, only about 10 more to go!!

Well as you can see I had another ultrasound done yesterday. All was good and the baby is 5x bigger now than 4 weeks ago. VERY active! Baby would hardly be still long enough for the tech to get the heart beat! The heartbeat was good and strong at 178bpm and is measuring at 4.5 centimeters now. So now the size of a very large peanut! When baby was still I could actually see the profile of the face, nose and all! Amazing how all that is there so early on. All was good and on track though. I definitely now have a "baby bump" although most of my cloths do cover it up. I told the dr it just seemed like things were happening too quickly and her response was that because I have had one baby before everything will just stretch faster, so oh well! I had not gained any weight which I was very proud of. So I return for visit #3 on Dec 9. It will be the January visit that we will have the next ultrasound and will hopefully find out whether baby is boy or girl!

God's Beautiful Landscape

 

 

I don't know about the rest of ya'll, but I love the colors of fall!! I love when the weather turns colder and I can begin to wear my warm, snuggly clothes. I love coming home from work and putting on a pair of flannel pants and a soft long sleeve shirt and my fuzzy warm slippers! I just love fall and winter for that matter.

I feel very priviledged that I get to take a rather pituresque drive in to work each day. I take all secondary roads in my route to work and because of this I have been able to enjoy all the rich fall colors that are blossoming all around us. There have been several mornings and afternoons that started off kinda rough and then getting to enjoy creation has brightened up my mood. The pictures I gave you here just really do not do justice to all the gorgeous trees that I am seeing each day. Many of the areas of road I am on have just a canopy of tree limbs over them and all are decked out in these beautiful colors. I took these pictures last week and already in just a few days I can see the changes coming. Many of these leaves have now fallen and winter is fast approaching. I look out at all the glory that is our creation and it is so awesome and so undeniable that there is a God out there! Only He could come up with this kind of majesty!

So this blog is a message from me to all of you who actually read what I write to say, stop and take a look around you. Enjoy the beauty God has given us and thank Him for it!

The Truth about the Election

First let me say that I am so glad that today is election day because I a sick and tired of watching all the campaign ads! I want to look at some of these politicians and tell them the old saying, if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all! But this is the nature of our election process and the politics that surround it.

I left bright and early this morning to observe my right to vote. Drew and I arrived at my polling location at 6:45am. The line was at least 200-300 deep when I got in it. I ended up being there until after 8am this morning. I thought that was pretty good. Drew was so good the entire time. I was extremely proud of him. I tried to let him know exactly what I was doing and why. As much as you can explain this sort of thing to a 4 year old. As we were leaving the polling location he saw a young lady holding a sign for one of the candidates. He ask me what she was doing. I told him she was trying to get people to vote for her candidate. He then got a little curious and wanted to know if I voted for the people on the signs. I told him that yes, I had voted for many different people. I then told him that it is very important that people vote because our votes decide who will be our leaders. His response to this was "Jesus?". I was so proud to hear that come out of his mouth at the first thought of who our "LEADER" is. I said, "Yes, Jesus is really our only leader isn't He." Drew then says, "Yes, Jesus and God." Well I think that about covers it people, God is ultimately our leader, not Obama or McCain. The One and Only True God is in control of all of this and all those who will be elected to positions today. And you know what...HE already knows who it is going to be! So I will not be all stressing out as I watch the returns come in tonight, I will rest easy knowing the Jesus Christ will still be on His throne tomorrow, no matter who is our next president!

Ultrasound Pic

Well here is the new baby! Just a little bean right now but still a total miracle from the Lord! I might get to have another one in November if they cannot pick up the heartbeat with the monitor so I am kinda hoping for that so I can see the little one in a month and how developed he/she is.

Baby News

 

 

Well it is official! We are 7 weeks pregnant tomorrow. The baby is due on June 3, 2009 but will likely be born by c-section on Tuesday, May 26, 2009. We saw the doctor this morning and got to see the baby on the ultrasound although he/she is very small and we heard the heart beating. It was a good strong heartbeat in the 140's. Everything looks good and we are all excited! We took Drew to the park to have lunch and tell him the news. In the pictures he is opening his book up that we got him and then Jim is reading it to him. He was excited for a few minutes and then he was ready to go and feed the ducks. After all he is just 4! But I think that as he can tell the baby is coming and we start get things set up around here he will get more excited. It was a good day but we were all tired so we are now home resting and I am blogging this for all of you! Thanks for the prayers. I will keep you updated and I will post the ultrasound pics tomorrow. I could not get them to scan here at home but I will scan them tomorrow at work and get them on here.

Church Picnic at the Park

 

 

We had church at the OB park on Sunday night. This has become a tradition for our church every year in October. It is a really fun time and the weather was absolutley perfect this year. I had not really been feeling good this past weekend but I ended up feeling good for the picnic and the wonderful weather made it even better. Drew and his favorite girls, Becca and Kailynn, played bubbles as you can see in the picture. The guys enjoyed a game of football. Jim decided to play with them, that was probably a sight but I ended up at the play ground while that was going on so I missed it! Surprisingly he did not get hurt and never really complained of being sore. Maybe since it is busy band time and he is spending many hours working the band kids he was in better shape for it than I gave him credit for. As we left that night Drew had a major meltdown about not getting to feed the geese. This is my least favorite thing to do at the park b/c the geese are mean! So we made a deal with him that if his ladybug stayed on green this week until Thursday then we would take him. Well he has successfully made it through Wednesday so it looks like we will be going tomorrow. I will be sure to take pics of him feeding them. I will plan to post again on Thursday night or on Friday with geese feeding pics. Tata for now!

Pregnancy Brain Meltdown!!

I am officially having a brain meltdown with this pregnancy! I thought it was bad after having one child but apparently I am getting worse with the expectation of the second. For those who know me I am a planner and an ultra organized person. I like to think I have it all under control even though I am aware that God really has it covered and does not need my help! Last week I forgot picture day at school for Drew. So my child looked like a mess for his very first school pictures. He was in his July 4th t-shirt, which he is actually wearing in the profile pic on our blog. Not what I had planned for him to wear for this picture but I forgot about it so it didn't matter what I had planned. This incident really played on my expectant mom emotions and I cried all morning about it. I did however make the wise decision not to run out and buy clothes to take up there for him with money we did not have to burn. So I was glad that at least in that I was thinking clearly. Today I forgot his back back and lunch bag, so he had to eat donated snacks and water from the water fountain for snack time today.

In my defense this is a SUPER busy time of year for us with all of the band stuff and football games. So I will say it is a combination of the pregnancy and schedule overload right now! I am ready for November to get here and have a more calm schedule. Even as I typed that I thought of all the chaos that will no doubt be upon us come November and the undeniable fact that Christmas will be fast approaching and I have got to get on the ball with that! It is a never ending cycle I guess.

We will see the doctor next Tuesday. I am getting quite excited and anxious. I am ready to know what the due date is and I am getting so anxious to tell Drew. He is going to be so excited. I ordered him a book titled I Am Going to be a Big Brother and we will give that to him as a "happy" and then tell him the good news. I am taking that day off work and he and Jim will be off for Fall Break. Pray for us as we share the new with him!

Farm Day Videos

A Day at the Farm

Saturday we went to a place in Southaven called Kidz Kountry. This was for a friends birthday party. It is basically a small farm set up for kids to be able to interact with the animals and feed them, ride a pony, etc. It was so much fun! Drew loved all of it. He was not scared of any of them. It was really a lot of fun and it was a beautiful fall day so it was perfect for being outside for the party. Enjoy the pics and video!

A Positive Result!!!

 

Well as you can see from the picture we are pregnant!!!! I am so very excited. We have been trying for over 18 months now and God's timing has finally come! We will not see the doctor until Oct 14 but this is the third test I have taken and gotten back a positive result so we feel pretty confident sharing the news. We will likely have a due date of mid to late May. We have not shared the news with Drew yet. We will wait until after the dr visit so we can tell him exactly when the baby will be here. He has been praying for a baby for some time now. Please pray for us as we travel through this journey in our life. Our desire is for a happy and healthy baby and an uncomplicated pregnany. We want to make that our prayer and the one you will pray for us.

Spiderman Costume

Well yesterday we were at Walmart and they had finally put out their costumes. I saw this one and knew that Drew had ask to be Spider man this year. It was very affordable, only $13, so I went ahead and bought it. I am sure if I waited until closer to Halloween that they would not have a good selection. Of course he had to try it on when we got home. He is very cute in it. He surprised Jim when he got home from work by jumping out and yelling boo at him. I am glad to know that I have that item behind us and do not have to be in a rush to get something closer to time. We will have our fall festival at church on the Wednesday before Halloween and then we are going to have an Awana hayride on that Friday, so he will get 2 good wears out of it.

I picked up a little puppy from school!

When I got to the school yesterday to pick up Drew, this is what I saw walking to my car! Doesn't he look cute? The letter for this week has been P, so they had pet day today. The parent's could bring pets up there for the kids to see. We do not have any pets right now so I did not go, but Drew said there were puppies and even some bunnies and he got to hold them. He was excited. I could not believe he let them put the paint on his nose. He has never let his face be painted. We try every year at the fall festival and other special things where they are doing that at church and he wants no part of it. However he did insist that I take it off as soon as we got to our first stop on our afternoon of errands. It was hard to get off too, it was real paint!

First Soccer Game

Well here we are at our first soccer game. He did really good although it took him a little while to understand that you have to fight to kick the ball. In practice they all take turns and he was expecting his turn to kick there in the game! It was so very hot when we played. I ended up with a pretty bad sunburn on my arm that was due to the high wind we were having thanks to Ike. We will not be able to make this weeks game as it is on Friday night and we will be in OB cheering on the Quistors!

First Soccer Practice

Drew just before practic

 

Team Learning the Basics

 

Matthew, smiling at his Auntie K! I got to keep him while practice was going on.

 

Well Drew has started playing soccer this fall. It is at my sister's church and she and her husband are the coaches. So he is playing soccer with his best bud and favorite cousin, Ben! It was so much fun to see him play and I think he will be pretty good at it. He seems to be doing pretty good at kicking the ball and getting it in the direction he needs to go. I played soccer as a kid so this is special to me for him to be playing it. I will have more pics and videos to come when we start playing games. Enjoy these though!!

Labor Day

 

 

Well we are doing nothing today! We spent all day Saturday cleaning house and doing yardwork so that today we can just relax! Posting this blog is the most taxing thing I plan to do today. This was Drew in the bed this morning after 8am, and yes we all slept that late. I hope everyone else is enjoying a relaxing day today. I am heading in the kitchen to prepare us some pancake and eggs to start our day off!