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.