*Christmas Day 2009*

Dear Drew - I woke up on Christmas day to find that our power was off! Luckily, it came back on around 10:00, which was right before you woke up! (You had a late night at Mama's the night before -- ha!) When you walked into the living room, you got your first glance at the new train table from me and Daddy!




It has probably been the toy that you've played with the most. And you've only gotten mad and knocked everything off of it one time!

Then onto your other presents from us...




...and then your Santa presents!




After breakfast and a little relaxing, we headed to Nan and Pop's for another round of gift opening and a fabulous dinner with all of Daddy's family.


{side note--Plex has been sleeping with you and Peppermint Puppy every night!}


Christmas also marks your 1/2 birthday...you're officially 2 1/2, which is also 30 months -- wow!

Love you Drew ~ Mommy

*Christmas Eve 2009*

Dear Drew ~ Oh how I love Christmas! And our Christmas' with you just keep getting better! Granted, you still didn't get overly excited about opening gifts, but it was still fun watching -- especially when you came across something you really liked! I'm sure next year will bring even more excitement to our Christmas festivities!!

Aunt Whitney came up on Wednesday and stayed the night. We baked lots of Christmas goodies and on Christmas Eve we made a gingerbread house.



After a while, you decided that you liked eating the house a lot better than decorating it!


After your nap, we set up the tripod and took some family pics. I swear, I am going to start taking all of our pics on the tripod because you always look right at the camera when it's beeping!


Then we headed to Mama Mary Kay's -- here we all are!


Then it was time to open gifts!

{good thing that punch wasn't spiked!}






Next up, Christmas day!

Merry Christmas!!

...from our little family to yours!

Christmas Activities

Dear Drew ~ I think we finally got you well again! And because I want you healthy for the holidays, you will not be going back to daycare until January...

On Tuesday, we had our first family Christmas celebration of the season! We had dinner and opened presents with Poppy, Nanny, and Grandpa Fred. I can tell that you are definitely going to enjoy opening the presents a lot more this year!


I also attempted to get a picture of you with all of them. Not too bad, except for everyone kept wanting to look at you :o)


Today, we went to church in my hometown with all of my family. You looked so cute and LOVED your hat! You had it on from the time we left until the end of church!


I really wanted to get some family pics in front of the tree before we left, but since we were running late, I only had a chance to get a few. For some reason, you smiled and looked right at the camera on the tripod! If I had been back there, you wouldn't have looked my way for anything!


Later, I got out the new underwear I bought you. While I am off over Christmas, I thought we might give potty training a try. You've worn training pants before, but I think you were amazed with the characters on these!!


You might have noticed that there wasn't a star on the top of our tree in the pics above. The placing of the star has been a little tradition of yours and Daddy's, so we put it on tonight...



oxox,
Mommy

December...So Far...

Holy cow! Has it really been 19 days since I lasted posted?!?! We have had a busy month so far so lets get caught up!

On December 3rd, Drew and I attended our first "Little Lambs" playgroup, which is through our church. It was a birthday party for Jesus! I had to take off work, but it was worth it! One thing the kids got to do was decorate a cupcake and then blow out a candle. (PS I was the only mom there with a camera - ha!)



Even though it's not Christmas yet, we went ahead and let Drew have one of his gifts. It was a new chair (and yes, I picked a fabric that matched our living room). I'm pretty sure he likes it!!





On December 5th, we got our Christmas stuff out. We got most of it out that morning.



Then while Drew napped (for three hours!!!) I got the whole tree decorated. I snapped this pic of Drew running down the hall after his nap when he first saw the tree!!


Later that night, I got a few pics of Drew in his Christmas PJ's in front of the tree. I was so pleased with them that I used one for our cards this year and got them ordered that night!



On Wednesday, Nan and Aunt B took Drew to "Breakfast with Santa," where he got a new book. (Of course I sent my camera with them!)


They said he had a great time, but wouldn't sit on Santa's lap. So it's sounding like our picture with Santa might look like this again...

Thursday night was our town's annual lights parade. It was in the 20's so we watched from the truck, but Drew still enjoyed it!


Then the fun began...That night, Drew started coughing a lot and the next morning, you could tell that he just didn't feel good. Mom and Bobby came up and I headed to work. Mom called to tell me that Drew was throwing up everywhere! To make a long story short...she ended up taking Drew to the ER late Friday afternoon. Jon and I got there shortly after all the fun (i.e. finger prick and chest x-ray) and they said it looked like he had the early stages of pneumonia, so they gave him two antibiotics and a steroid. After still not being able to keep anything down, me and Mom took Drew to his pediatrician on Saturday morning where they gave him an antibiotic shot. That seemed to help, but he didn't stop throwing up until yesterday afternoon. After a long nap on Sunday, I believe he was feeling better. See -- here he was last night...


Here's to hoping that Drew keeps improving and is well for Christmas!

Drew = 2 Years + 5 Months

Dear Drew ~ Today is the 25th of November, which means you are another month older!


Unfortunately, your luck ran out this past week and you got sick. It started on Thursday morning when you woke up with a slight temperature. Thursday is when you stay the night with Grandma and I immediately knew something was up when the phone rang at 10:00 that night. Yup, it was Grandma saying that you had a high fever, had been throwing up, and were "lifeless" so she was taking you to the ER. After a few minutes, though, she said that you were up and seemed to be feeling better so I convinced her that a trip to the ER probably wasn't necessary since I knew if we took you there, they would run a gazillion tests on you.

The next day, I took you to your pediatrician's office -- ears looked good, throat looked good, chest sounded good (although you were wheezing a bit, so we are doing breathing treatments), so he swabbed your nose to test you for the flu and...it came back positive for Type A flu, which is more than likely the H1N1 virus. So, you got a prescription for Tamiflu and we headed home. You continued to run a fever though the night and were pretty fussy all weekend, but if it was in fact the "swine flu," isn't wasn't that bad and at least now you are "naturally" immune to it!

The past couple of days, you started having a bad cough and since you've had a history of bronchiolitis, I decided to take you back to the doctor today. (I was off work with you anyway because Grandma, Grandpa, and Whitney now have the flu too and they were suppose to keep you.) Well, your lungs were still OK, but we found out that your tonsils were infected, which explains why you still haven't been eating good and have been extra gaggy. So, you are done with the Tamiflu, but now you are on an antibiotic for the next 10 days! And let me tell you, you HATE taking medicine!! We have tried everything! Daddy had the best luck when he gave you a sucker before giving you your medicine and then letting you eat on it while he squirted the medicine in - ha! But that already isn't working so the next 18 doses should be fun...

Since you've been sick, you been doing a lot of this...


...sitting in this chair (that you're probably too big for!) and watching TV. I've never been big on letting you watch TV, but we've been doing just about anything to keep you happy right now!

They weighed you today and you weigh 28 pounds! You typically wear 18-24 month pants and 2T shirts.

You are still sleeping in your crib. However, we did catch you trying to climb out of it one morning, so we took the bumper pads out so you wouldn't have them to boost you up. I guess I'm just wanting to hold off as long as I can before I convert your crib to a toddler bed because I can just imagine what you might do with the freedom to get up and down whenever you want!

With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I figured that this is a great time to tell you how thankful I am to have you in my life! And I am thankful for all the joy you bring not only to me and your daddy, but to everyone you are around! You are definitely one loved little boy!!!!

Drew + Kesli + Kase = Fun!

Dear Drew ~ We've had a pretty boring week, but we did have a fun night on Saturday. Jeff, Braci, Kesli, and Kase came up and we went out to eat pizza. You just love Kelsi, but aren't too sure about little Kase yet. You loved playing with your kitchen with Kesli, but the funniest was when she did a cartwheel and you "tried" to do one too!

Here's a pic of the three of you -- after eating cherry popsicles!

Summer In November?

Dear Drew ~ It is November, but you would never know it by going outside. The past two days it has been in the 70's!

On Saturday morning, your daddy and I decided to take you to the park to get some "fall pics." You wore your new western shirt and vest and looked so cute! It was already pretty warm by the time we got there, but I did manage to get a few cute pics. I learned a few lessons too... #1) It is hard to find a place in the park that is not in direct sunlight. #2) Direct sunlight does not make for good pictures. #3) Whenever I'm holding a camera, it doesn't matter how many times I say your name or what kind of funny noises I make, you refuse to look at me. #4) I will have to be more careful next time so that I don't trip in a hole while running backwards trying to get that perfect shot. Luckily my ankle and wrist did not suffer any serious injuries...

My faves from the day!


And a different crop:






(All pics are straight out of the camera...maybe I can get some editing software for Christmas!! Any suggestions anyone????)

Halloween 2009

We had a great Halloween night! We trick-or-treated in our neighborhood with Gabe, Laurie, Colten, and Dalton for about an hour and then spent the next hour handing out treats at our house. I think Drew might have actually liked the latter better! And let me tell you, he was not stingy when it came to giving out candy!