Dentist

Thursday morning was Drew's first dentist appointment. I was pretty anxious about it as I was expecting the worst. I got this first picture of him playing in the waiting room because I honestly thought it might be the only one I took. Drew woke up telling me he didn't want to go to the dentist saying, "the dentist hurt me." I told him no, the dentist doesn't hurt people, he just tickles your teeth to get them cleaned.

Come to find out, Drew did so well - he even surprised me! He willingly did everything the hygienist wanted him to do and he actually enjoyed the experience.

So, here we are in the chair, watching the cartoon they had on. He was mesmerized by it.













Checking his teeth out. Open wide!









Cleaning them now - he was so calm I couldn't believe it. He chose orange-flavored cleaner.



Looking at his new toothbrush he picked out and the star-shaped sunglasses he picked from a basket of treats after it was all over.






Showing me how he brushes his teeth. Of course, he brushes first and then we take our turn brushing his teeth.


Drew with his star-shaped sunglasses on...

Painting like Panda Bear

So, Colleen (David's mom) gave us a copy of Uncle Buddy's favorite book when he was Drew's age called Panda Bear's Paintbox. Uncle Buddy is what the kids called David's brother, Mike, who passed away 5 years ago. Since none of our kids will actually have memories of their uncle, it is up to us to share our memories of him with them.

In honor of Mike's birthday this week, I thought we'd get Drew a paintbox of his own and paint a picture just like Panda Bear, the character in Drew and Uncle Buddy's favorite book.




just getting started








the colors are so nice until he starts mixing them like Panda Bear and of course, everything turns black...











final product!

Houston pictures

Okay, here are some pictures from our trip home to Houston. We got to see grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, friends, eat lots of ice cream, go swimming often, even wedding dress and reception place shopping with Keely! We had a lot of fun and look forward to our next trip home.

Painting with our Playgroup

Right before we left for Houston, Drew and I went to our church playgroup where we had a lot of fun painting! Drew loved the paints and focused on his task at hand. We had fun meeting new people and Drew loved getting to play with friends. Thanks, Sarah, for having us all over!

Another funny FHE

So, this past Monday night, David and I are telling Drew about the temple. We showed him a few wedding pictures and a picture of the Houston temple and kept it to a brief lesson. We tell him how grateful we are to be an eternal family, etc. and then we asked, "Do you want to get married in the temple someday like mommy and daddy?" He responds, "No, I want to eat lunch."
Yeah, too funny. Anyway, thought we'd share his funny sayings because otherwise, we'll forget them. Drew also told David the other night when it was time to say his prayers that if David did not wait for me (Kinsey) to say them altogether that David would get a time out. He is very into all of us saying our family prayers together which I think is fantastic but hilarious that he thinks he will start dishing out the discipline if not done so...

First Day of Preschool!

Drew had his first day of preschool. Technically, it was his lemonade social where he met with his classmates for the first time and parents attended an informational meeting. His first day is Monday but he will go to class by himself on that day without us so this was picture day!
This is Drew's bucket. Each preschooler is told to get a small mop bucket so they can send things home in it. We tried Walmart and the dollar store as they suggested but couldn't find any. So, we finally found a red one at Target. David wrote his name on it and Drew and I decorated it with Thomas stickers, Mickey Mouse stickers and Scooby Doo stickers. It was a lot of fun.

This is a picture of Drew outside his school waiting for Dad to show up. Notice his brand new first-day-of-school outfit his Mimi (David's mom) bought him from Old Navy. Thanks, Colleen!!!









Daddy and Drew

















Mommy and Drew







Drew is showing David where his class is. Drew remembered from us going to meet the teacher on Monday.









Drew in his classroom showing David where the frog is with his name on it. Drew can recognize his name.










Drew played with the train at first and then went to find the Thomas book. He sat on the reading bench and began to read to himself.









A picture of Drew's classroom. There are 7 boys and 4 girls in his class. David is off to the left.














David giving Drew kisses goodbye after a fun day at school. David is headed back to work and we headed home.

Pictures of Baby #2!!!

So, I went to my new doctor today and she was great. They immediately took me in for an ultrasound. At 15 weeks, this is the first one I've had! I was so excited to see the baby - it was so neat. You know, sometimes people think these things get to be routine because you've already had a baby, etc., but not me - it is such a wonderful experience to be doing this again and I am very grateful for it. I was thrilled to see the baby up on that screen. What was nice is that I brought my camera just in case so I got it all on video. The dr. said the baby is right on target- 15 weeks along - and everything looks good. My next appointment is the big one - 19 weeks where we get to do another ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. Unfortunately, on this ultrasound the technician said she couldn't tell what the baby was but she did try and see. I will post the video but here are the pictures for now! :)

you can actually see it's hand in the picture below...

Time with Daddy

Drew did great on our trip home to Houston (will give more updates on that later) but I couldn't resist posting first about coming home to see David. Drew started asking to "go home to our new house" about a week after we were in Houston. And for the next three days until we left, he asked me this. So, needless to say, he was ready to come home to his toys (mentioning his trains and roundhouse specifically) and of course to see his Dad.
He was thrilled to see David. By far, the best expression on his face and Drew continued to be attached to him the rest of Sunday after we got home.

We did hang some pictures up finally and here is Drew on the day we came back into town helping his Dad. Notice he gets his own hammer from his toolbox out when David is using his hammer.









And finally, a classic picture of Father and son. Drew was in heaven seeing David after so long as he truly missed him so much.

Houston

Drew and I are off to Houston today for our first visit since we moved. We will be staying in Lake Jackson most of the time with my mom and then seeing my dad, sister and brother as well. I may post on my blog while we are there but there won't be a lot of activity in the next week or so. Houston, here we come! :)

Baby #2

So, we had my 12-week doctor's appointment last week. We waited an hour and a half to be seen - here's a picture of Drew "reading" while he waited for me to get my blood work done. The baby's heartbeat sounded good and the dr. said everything looks great!
I liked the dr. but I actually switched to another dr. the next day. Some things she said made me uneasy, and I felt like maybe our personalities didn't quite fit. For example, when we heard the heartbeat, Drew smiled. It was so precious to me because he recognized it as the baby (we had been talking about it and preparing him) and the dr. sarcastically said, "oh, he doesn't know what's going on." The other thing was she told me there was no videotaping at the hospital and I wouldn't be able to find an Atlanta-area hospital that would allow it. I had looked online researching this hospital and chose it because it did allow pics and video but she said, "times have changed." So, I called the hospital when I got home and they said they do allow videotaping but it's at the discretion of the dr. So, I obviously felt she misled me and was not completely honest with me. Another thing was that she didn't do an ultrasound. I keep saying that we were excited to see the baby today and she said her policy is if there's nothing wrong and everything looks healthy, she waited until there was a reason to do one. I didn't feel like she would really budge on it and I didn't like the way she wasn't listening to me.
So, all in all I chose to call another dr. and it was one I was originally going to go with but couldn't get into as fast. I talked to her nurse, asked all kinds of questions, (she does allow videotaping at the same exact hospital) and felt much better. I look forward to my next appointment!


Here's Drew playing in the curtain in the dr.'s office of course...




and here's David thinking he only had to take off about an hour for work and it ended up being a half a day!

Moving Day

Moving Day finally arrived! Here is the big truck with all of our stuff. David and Drew are just watching the movers start to unload. Drew kept asking for his "roundhouse" which is part of his train set and something he got for his birthday from my mom and sister. He literally had a day to play with it and then it got packed up. It was something we didn't find of course until one of the last boxes!

Drew standing in front of our new mailbox (one of my favorite features of this house - a mailbox that you can just walk to the end of the driveway and put your mail in like what I grew up with) and Drew in front of the big truck!

Drew is working hard here - he is eating a cookie with milk sitting in his wagon that the movers unpacked just watching them do all hard work!

He found his police car...

and his blue dog.

Drew with the beginnings of his toys that we unloaded and he hasn't seen in over a month- we have to find something to put these all in and he needs some big boy bedroom furniture! Drew did play nonstop with toy after toy for the first few days - it was great!

So, we are all moved in. I can't describe the feeling of being in the house but it is MUCH better than the temporary housing they put us in. It's just fantastic. We actually have four bedrooms - one for the baby's stuff, one for Drew, one for us and one for guests. We have our own office area and everything fits in the kitchen for the first time ever! I am just so happy with the whole situation. The apartment was just not fun - from the loud neighbors upstairs to the cigarette butts all on the stairs outside our door to the fact that we had to walk up and down stairs all the time and not to mention take Beva on a leash 3x a day to go to the bathroom... and to get the mail was literally a drive or a very long walk. I honestly hated it and was getting pretty down about it all.Now, I feel much better and it's totally worth paying a little extra for this house that I can call my home!

New song

Okay, so I already admitted that I didn't really watch American Idol this year. I mean some but not like I used to. But I do like David Archuleta; I mean really who doesn't? Here's his first new song that just came out called, "Crush," and it's really good! So, check it out! :)

What went wrong?

Okay, for those of you who use pyzam.com for your blog background, I am having a problem one of you might be able to help me with. When I change my background, I lose ALL my blogs on my blog list! I spent over half an hour retyping them in the other night. HELP! How do I change the background but not lose anything on the right side of the page??? :)