Dancing Drea

Drea performed for the first time at the dancing sudio's Christmas mall show. Below is the video of her dance. She did really great, especially since she is the youngest kid in her class. And Momma was just relieved that she did fall off the stage.

7 months

Here is the latest picture of Drea, the baby and I. :)
Seems like not much difference to me. Maybe because I didn't gain any weight this month! Yeah! I know, I know, I need to care about something else. Well, since we don't know the sex of the baby I have to have something to focus on.

Random thoughts...

• My christmas tree isn't decorated yet. Finally up but not decorated.

• I'm going to make lasagna tomorrow night. Yummy! And freeze one for Christmas day.

• I tasted this incredible Italian creme cake at Sam's the other day. I think I'm going to get that for Christmas day.

• The "baby in the belly" (as Drea calls it) will be the 4th grandchild on both sides of the family. - If it's a girl, she would be the 4th girl on Andy's side and the 2nd girl on my side. - If it's a boy, he would be the ONLY boy on Andy's side and the 3rd boy on my side.

• I have almost completed Christmas shopping.

• Mountaineers are playing in the Meineke Car Care bowl in Charlotte on December 27th. Let's go Mountaineers!

• I can't wait to be off the whole week after Christmas. But I'm not excited to see how many times my work calls me.

Baby's room

We started painting the baby's room. Drea was thrilled to get in on the fun. I was really glad she got to be a part of it. We did some cool things to the walls before we painted. I will post pictures when the room is finished.

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was really nice this year. I love getting to spend time with family. Below are some pictures and videos from Thanksgiving.


Drea was freaked out about Santa. This is the only way I could get her to sit on Santa's lap.


Her cheese faces just keep getting better and better.

I think she looks a little like my pictures when I was a kid.

Drea and Tyler doing the Hokey Pokey with Papaw and Aunt Kareen.

Drea singing Country Roads at one of our Thanksgiving dinners. (Warning: it's pretty long.)

Tough little munchkin

Warning: This post is from a completely baised proud parent. (and sister)

Drea and Daddy were playing with a larger bouncy ball that you buy in a vending machine last night. (And I would like to know what vending machine you get this size ball out of because it is huge.) Anyway, one of Daddy's bounces came up and hit Drea in the upper lip and nose. ...And she laughed! Laughed for a couple minutes and then got in position to throw it again. It was hilarious! Andy and I thought her nose or lip might start bleeding because everything was looking kind of red but she kept playing even though it looked like she wanted to cry a little.

I know it's silly that I'm proud of her but I really want her to be tough like her Aunt Kareen who was one of the best tomboy, sports-playing, girly girls I know. Kareen could always get dirty with the best of them while diving to make that catch at second and turn around to wear her prettiest skirt, heels, makeup the next day. That's all I hope is for Drea to be well-rounded. (And just like her Aunt Kareen.) I have always prayed that she would be more like her Aunt Kareen than like me because Kareen is an incredible human being. She has a heart of gold, always stood up for what she believed and never backed down or let anyone tear her down. She is honest and loyal and the most trustworthy person you will ever meet. She is sincerely nice to everyone but won't let someone walk all over her either. And she just truely cares about people, she wants to see the best in everyone. I have always wished I could be more like her. Can you tell I think my little sister is awesome!

Just a side note, Drea's upper lip had a little cut under it and was a little swollen and red this morning. She was proud of it when she looked in the mirror and I reminded her of getting hit the night before.

I also have to note that I have seen her cry over a "boo-boo" on her finger that you can't even see and beg for a band aid but I think she just to get a Dora band aid.

I have some fun pictures and videos from Thanskgiving...hoping to post them tomorrow or Friday.

6 months

I'm 6 months today! Andy and I took my first belly pics this pregnancy because I didn't have a belly until now. Drea needed her belly in the picture, too.

We're still not finding out what the baby is. Everyone thinks we're going to change our mind. But now I definitely won't just because everyone thinks I will.

I think it's really funny when people ask me if we're finding out and when I say we're not they are like "Good. That's really good. That's the way it should be." And then I say "Well, we found out the first time." And then they look like they don't know how to act because they kind of said we did it wrong the first time. It's kind of fun. It makes me giggle a little bit.

Catch up

Mountaineer football season is half over (well more than that) and I haven't posted any pictures from all of the fun.

Drea loves the games. We thought she would only get to go to one this year because we didn't know how well she would be able to sit through the games as a two year old (and it's pretty tight in our section). But she did so good the first game that we wanted to take her to the next. And she would look forward to every game and couldn't wait for Saturdays. We had so many home games the first month we were able to go every weekend.

We were so proud of her. She would be so excited to tailgate and then get to the stadium and watch the band get the festivities started. Then the whole game she would monitor Pat White's progress and cheer him on! It was so great to watch her become the Mountaineer fan like us. And no, we don't brain wash her. And she would even take a nap during one whole quarter!

As soon as we got in the car after the first game she insisted on listening to our Mountaineer marching band CD. This is her favorite thing to listen to in the car. And after only a few times listening to her favorite songs and mommy and daddy singing them with her, she knows most of the songs and the words. She can sing the Mountaineer fight song, the WVU Aluma Mater, Country Roads (even the verses), and some of the Star Spangled Banner. I'm not trying to say she's brilliant but I know adults who don't know the words to some of these songs. Well, and she's brilliant! She just memorizes very easily. Hopefully this will help her one day in school! Anyway, enjoy the pics below.

Just blah...

I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost a month. And another month has flown by. I am 19 weeks along in this pregnancy! Hard to believe I will be half way next week.

Did anyone else experience any blues during pregnancy? I thought they say that's all after the baby. I feel like I can't get out of this rut. I pray about it and try to work on it but not much seems to help. It's really sad that the best mood I've been in is the other day when I finally had enough energy to clean, do laundry, and sort through some of my cabinets in the kitchen. I hadn't needed to start wearing my maternity clothes until this week. So I got them out a couple weeks ago just to wash and sort and I hung everything up in my closet and it made me so depressed I wanted to cry. I know this sounds super selfish because I'm completely happy that I'm pregnant and super excited about it, just some things are getting to me. I think it's because I gained so much weight during the last pregnancy that I wore my maternity clothes for at least 6 months after Drea was born if not longer. So I feel like I just got out of some of these clothes. Finally lost all of my extra weight around Sept last year and now I'm looking at all of these clothes again that signify to me what is happening to my body again. I don't remember feeling like this the first time, like my body just isn't my own. I'm going to guess this sounds pathetic especially to my cousin April who might not even stopped wearing her maternity clothes by the time she was pregnant again because her boys are going to be only 15 months apart (or something close to that.)

Anyway, this isn't the only thing depressing me. There are other things but they are all just as silly. I think it's depressing me that these things are depressing me, if that makes sense. They just don't matter so why am I letting it get to me? I just want to feel like I'm not going to cry every minute of the day. I know...just hormones, right. Doesn't anyone get tired of hearing that? I know my hormones are out of whack. But that doesn't help anything.

On a more positive note, I'm feeling the baby move every day now. So that is helping.

Sorry, this post is so negative and complaining.

End of the summer fun

We always pack so much into our summers. So near the end of the summer we play the "see how much more we can get in real quick before the summer ends" game. These are some of the fun things we did.


Camping with some friends. This picture is apparently story time. When Drea begs Daddy to tell her a story so Daddy makes up the best story he can think of and the very often involve princess drea.


Couple pictures of our zoo trip. We love taking her to the Pittsburgh Zoo every year. We went with our friends Jordan and Sarah and their son Isak. We're thinking about starting to take her more than once a year because she loves it so much! It's all she talks about. All the time when we are talking to her she will just say "remember when we went to the zoo. what were those one things inside called. (Always talking about the meerkats)." And then she'll say "I love those. But I don't like the bats. That fruit in there was yucky." And then she request that we each tell her our favorite animals from our last visit to the zoo. And she gets the biggest smile on her face and ask when we can go again. She adores it! The other day she was cracking up and said "I saw that baby elephant pee on the floor." Which we did see. Anyway, she loved it. Below are a couple other pictures.

Great summer! Did lots of other cool things like a cookout for Andy's birthday, first Mountaineer game, Pirates game with the family, and all kinds of other things. This was just a little highlight.

Just a little update

Everyone keeps asking how I'm doing so I thought I would post it:

I'm 14 weeks along and things this pregnancy have been going great ~ just as good as with Drea!
No morning sickness!
No major food aversions!

Only differences so far are WAY less energy but I guess that's what happens when you are chasing a 2 1/2 year old! I can't eat as much. I get full really fast which has made it nice for the weight gain. With Drea I pretty much ate day and night ~ which is why I gained 60 lbs! By this point last time I had gained about 10 or 12 lbs. I have LOST 3 lbs. so far! Yeah!

Anyway, I will give you further updates as we go. Our next doctors appointment is Sept. 19th.

Big News....My first Blog and More

Stacey and I will have a new addition to our family in March 2009. She is 12 weeks pregnant! We are very excited!

We decided that we were going to have Drea tell everyone that she was going to be a big sister. We sat her down and told her she was going to be a big sister. When we were finished we asked her if she understood what that meant. She informed us that it means, "You love me very much." Which is true, of course, but the reaction made us giggle. Stacey and I then asked her to tell my mom who was in town for the week. She said "no". We again encouraged her to tell my mom, again responding with a no. Finally, like any good parent we said will you do it for a popsicle. With that she ran out of the room.

Stacey and I have already had our first appointment and we were able to see the little peanut. The baby or as Uncle Ben nicknamed her/him "Mountie" has a very good heartbeat. For now we are not going to find out what we are having, however, that may change. We will keep you updated periodically thoughout our (Stacey's) pregancy.

Garden goodness

Yeah! My first garden has been producing many vegetables! I was concerned because I planted rather late but below is a picture of some stuff we picked last week. (Romaine lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, green peppers, hot peppers and green beans.) And I finally had some red tomatoes the other day.

I wanted to try my hand at a garden because my grandma always had a garden in the back yard and I thought it must be good ground. And I thought it would be something fun for Drea to learn. She has been very excited about picking the veggies. (Even though I don't think she actually eats any of it.)

Washers

Cutest thing ever...
I walked outside the other day to see what Andy and Drea were playing and saw Daddy teaching Drea how to play washers. I loved it and had to grab the camera. Seems like he is getting pretty excited about the upcoming football season - this is the game we play all morning while tailgating (and at other various events.) Drea loved that he let her in on the fun!

*Now the real fun will come when Daddy and the big kids are trying to play before the Mountaineer games and Drea thinks she can get in on the action.

Game with Daddy

Kareen and I have been trying to take Dad to a Pirates game every year for Fathers Day. It always ends up being in July rather than June but I think Dad loves it either way. Getting to spend the day with just his girls and talk to us in the car on the way there and home is really great! Above are a couple pictures from our adventure this year. We get excited every year about what we are going to eat. And then we only had sandwiches from Primanti Brothers and nachos - can you believe it! The Pirates have been doing great this year but, of course, they lost when we went. But we don't care - it's just so much fun!

I hope we get to continue doing this with him. It's just as special to us to get our Dad all to ourselves as I'm sure it is to him.

Learning to let her be her

Drea's into dressing herself lately and it is really stretching me but it's good for me. I tend to like things to be done the "right" way or maybe I should say the normal way. Well, I'm slowly learning that even though Drea's way seems wrong it may seem perfectly right to her.

So, funniest thing in the world, you have to see her put her shirts on over her feet. She does it like she's putting a skirt on and then pulls it the rest of the way up and puts her arms in it. This works okay with her summer tank tops but watching her put a long sleeve pajama shirt on this way is hilarious.

And it makes me crazy, I have told her a hundred times that this is the wrong way but tonight while she struggled to get her pajama top on I realized that it doesn't really matter.

She got it on. And all by herself. So why do I care? I decided I don't anymore. Just because it's not my "right" way doesn't mean it's the wrong way. When we were younger my brother always used to get in trouble from our stepdad for eating his pizza upside down. Who cares? He always ate it over a plate and he always held the cheese and pepperoni on - so who cares. Do we worry too much about doing things the right way?

So I'm learning. Learning to let her be her. Until she starts ripping the clothing while putting them on I will let her way be the right way. And you know what the more I ignore it the sooner she'll probably do it my way. : )

Read any good books lately?

I have fallen in love with author, Donald Miller.

I don't have much time to read apart from my devotions and Bible. Donald Miller's books have given me a thirst for reading and that has been so exciting to me. He says things in such a unique manner that it makes me think and that is what I have been missing in my extra-cirricular reading.

Blue Like Jazz was my first Donald Miller book and it was awesome! The complete title is Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts about Christian Spirituality. And that is exactly what it is. A real look at spirituality through his eyes. He takes you through personal experiences in his life and you feel like you are on the journey with him. I couldn't put the book down. Andy read it right after me and he rarely reads unless it's required for a class. And then we passed it on to a couple friends, too.

When we were getting ready for the beach I decided to order a second of his books. I thought it would be a great beach read. Searching for God Knows What has been completely a uplifting adventure. He takes a look at how we have always "figured out" the Bible and how we always try to read it as a self-help book with steps and formulas to apply to our life. He goes on to show that it is so much more than a formula to get to heaven. It is much more relational than it has ever been made to be. I have been strengthened in my Christianity by this read and renewed in the ideas that his rambling brain presents.

Anyway, just a suggestion for anyone who wants a great book to read. He is an incredible writer that I enjoy very much! I can't wait to get my hands on the next one. I think he has two more out there that I haven't read yet.

Drea and Barrett

Drea and Barrett had a play day swimming in our little blow up pool in the backyard the day after our trip to New Jersey. They had so much fun! Drea created a mud bath for us after she got in and out of the pool so many times! Anyway, here are a couple pictures of them. Barrett just turned 10 months old and is growing like crazy. He is a crawling fool and they said he eats more than Drea does.

P.S. I'm getting the chance to blog today because Drea spent the night with Uncle Chad, Aunt Jody and Barrett last night. Good luck to them - I'm sure we will hear lots of good stories!

July 4th Fun

The fourth is always fun for our family because we go to our friends, Paul and Christe's annual picnic every year in New Jersey. And this year Dave was able to join us! Drea had a blast swimming everyday. She actually got me int he pool at 9:30 am on July 4th even though it was chilly, the sun wasn't out and everyone in the house was sleeping (because we arrived the night before at 1am.) I had to do it for her though - she was so pumped and I couldn't hold her off any longer. And she didn't care what the weather was like. Oh, to be 2 years old and not care whether the sun is out or it's raining! She swam pretty much the entire weekend. And it was rarely sunny that weekend. But she loved it! Loved every minute of it! It didn't matter whether her lips were blue - she was going to swim until we forced her to stop.

She made a few friends and became enamored with her new friend, Lily, who she refers to as "Yily." And even pretended to be Yily the next day because Yily left her life jacket so Drea wore it and told everyone her name was Yily. He, he, he, he!

Andy and Paul played washers all day. And Drea enjoyed some serious watermelon! Look at her - could she have more floaties on?!

"Hava go beach!"

For about a month before our family vacation, this is what we heard everyday from our two year old. "Hava go beach!" ...in her very best outside voice! She was so excited to go to the beach. I'm sure she didn't really remember what it was like last year but she looks at the pictures all the time and wants to go back.

We arrived to the beach on Saturday checked into our house and almost went straight for boardwalk pizza. Every year we eat as much as we can while we're at the beach and then dream about the rest of the year until we go back. By Sunday evening, Andy and I were already saying this was the best family vacation we have had. And it was! We were a very short walk from the beach (we've never stayed that close before) so we would go twice a day to give the kids a nap and lunch in the middle! That was awesome! No stressing out driving to the boardwalk and trying to find parking that wasn't $20.

Anyway, the week ended with a visit from Andy's mom, sister and our nieces. Playing with the only girl cousins she has doesn't happen as often as she would like so we loved getting to spend time at the beach with them.

Official count:
Visits to the beach: 7
Day at the waterpark: 1
Pizza on the boardwalk: 3 nights (could have been more)
Pictures we took: 263
Pictures I'm in: 10 maybe :) (I'm always the photographer.)
Seashells we brought home: 6
Drea's smiling face: more than we could count! And worth every penny we spent!


Below are some pictures of our nice little vacation.




This was Drea's favorite spot because the waves didn't
bother her there. (Our friends Jordan and Sarah and
their baby, Isak, are walking in front of Andy and Drea.)




Drea and Isak - friends forever, hopefully. Maybe
once she stops hitting him in the head. But I think he
loves her anyway.


Going down the slide at the water park.


Posing in front of the tree at the park! Her silly face is
because she is saying cheese.




Fun in the sun with my cousins, Brynn and Lydia!


A blue licorice party at Noni's!

my first blog

I have always been afraid to blog because I am a "ranter". I tend to go on and on about pet peeves, what annoying thing happened at the grocery store, what newest drama had enveloped my life...and the list could go on and on and on. Blogging to me seemed like a great place where I could get all of these things out to people who would, for some crazy reason, be very interested in my opinion about everything in life. So that's why I have never blogged - I always feared that no one would actually read my blog because they would get so tired of my ranting that they would tune out.

Then my cousins made me realize that I could just blog about my family and I decided who cares if anyone reads it. Even if no one reads it, it's like my personal little journal. And I apologize ahead of time if any ranting and raving get thrown in here.

And maybe every once in a while you might see a blog from Andy.

Love you all...I've enjoyed keeping up with your family. I hope you enjoy the same.