Fall is here...but not in the air!

I guess I skipped blogging this Summer...oops!  It's Fall now and the signs are all here - school started, we have football games again, baseball season is over - but somehow the weather seems to have missed the memo.   It's still hot and we are still suffering from this awful drought!  Hopefully we will get a little cooler (I will never be ready for COLDer) and wetter weather soon.

We celebrated Andrew's first birthday in August!   Aunt Lisa gave him his first haircut just before the party.   It's so hard to believe the first year is already over!  He's such happy boy - he loves running, playing "Peep-eye/Peek-a-boo", eating, throwing his toys, playing in the water and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  We're still waiting for him to start sleeping through the night and talking.  We love to kiss, hug and cuddle him :)

Still a lovely Spring

I am impressed with and loving how long we are having a real Spring! So often we go from Winter to Summer with just a few mild days in between. No matter how warm the temperature gets though, I will always take Summer over Winter :) We enjoyed the mild weather a couple of weekends ago to pull out some of the original landscaping and put in some new plants. It was a lot of hard work, but the cool temperatures made it rather fun!

Before

After

Although some of the plants are now smaller and we have to wait longer for the fuller looking landscape, we really had to change out some plants that were not conducive to their placing and some that were scrawny and dying. We hope to add some color with bedding plants later to finish it off.

Another reason we are enjoying Spring is that baseball season has started! We've watched the first 3 Astros games, and even though they lost them all I am optimistic because at least this season they're scoring runs early in the season!! :) We are planning to go to College Station to see an Aggie baseball game once we get our new van.

Yes, we are purchasing a minivan - something neither one of us ever thought we would do!! We are getting a 2011 Honda Odyssey when the dealership gets our color in this month. Once we finally decided that it was the most practical choice for us we got very excited about it and are anxiously waiting for it to get here!

Andrew has now cut his two front bottom teeth and has the top two getting very close to coming in as well! He loves to stand in his crib and chew on the top rail. Because he only has his bottom teeth, the inside of the rail is all scratched up! I need to get a protective cover before the top teeth come in!! He is continuing to practice pulling up and balancing - he is getting pretty good and can actually stand for a couple of seconds without holding on to anything before he carefully lets himself down! He always amazes us and keeps us smiling :)

Spring Fever

As a person who does not do well in cold weather -at ALL - I am so grateful for this beautiful Spring we are having this year! We enjoyed a trip to the zoo last week on Danny's day off. Andrew loves being outside - it usually makes him so calm. In fact, he slept much of the time at the zoo :) I'm hoping to take him to the neighborhood playground soon. We'll see if he like to swing!

Houston Zoo

Andrew is now 7 months old and such a sweet boy! Danny and I weighed and measured him yesterday - not an easy task! He was 20 lbs. 3 oz. and 28 in. long. We are continuing to introduce new foods and he likes most everything. He doesn't care for peaches (at all) or bananas. I'm hoping he will like them better when he is able to eat fresh fruit. His favorite foods are carrots, sweet potatoes and peas so far.



He cut his first tooth last weekend! He did a lot of drooling and was a little fussy for a few days, but it wasn't too bad. I think his next tooth should come in very soon! I can't wait until the teeth show up in pictures :)

Growing pains!

With this beautiful spring-like weather I decided my blog should match that feeling, so I found a background that almost makes me hear birds chirping :) I am hoping to keep up with my blog a little better than I have been - we shall see how it goes!

Not long after learning to crawl, Andrew figured out how to sit up. Once he could sit up his toys became more interesting to him and he learned how to reach up a little when he wants picked up. The latter is probably my favorite new thing so far! :) It melts my heart every time...



He recently went through a growth spurt that had him fighting sleep day and night. He just didn't want to go to sleep - or stay asleep, as he would wake up 2-4 times a night!! He was eating constantly, so we decided to begin adding a little solid food into his diet. He took to it immediately. It didn't help with the sleeping problem right away, but I think a growth spurt was more to blame for the problem anyway. The growth spurt seems to finally be over because he is now behaving more like he used to when it comes to sleeping and how often he wants to eat. Thank goodness!!!

I have been enjoying getting to work on a little digital scrapbooking lately. Here is my latest creation:



I hope you enjoy this wonderful weather!! I think we will enjoy it with a trip to the zoo soon :)

Nearly half a year!

Well, we made it through the holidays and new year! It was nice, as it always is, to spend time with family. We are lucky that we live near enough to our families that we can spend the holidays with both sides and so far haven't had to alternate. It's especially nice now that we have Andrew - I want him to know and enjoy spending time with all of his extended family, as well as having them get to see him grow up :)

Facebook has been really helpful in allowing us to keep family and friends updated with photos and videos. It is so hard to believe that Andrew is nearly 6 months old - just a couple of weeks away!! In some respects I want him to stay my cute little baby forever, but it's also so much fun to watch how he grows and changes and learns new tricks!! I am always curious to see what new thing he will do each day, whether it's something brand new or just perfecting things he's been learning. He keeps us on our toes for sure - a "corral" will be very handy as soon as we get our hands on one - as he has finally figured out how to crawl!!!

Now to see the difference time can make - a picture from newborn and then 5 months!

So much to tell...

As you can tell, I haven't posted on here for a LONG time!!! There are so many things that I could tell, but there just isn't that much time available to me these days :) I'll just mention the most important...

Our lives were changed drastically on August 17!!! Andrew Daniel was born and we fell in love instantly! He keeps me on my toes as he is constantly learning and doing new things. I am learning how to get things done around the house between feeding, changing diapers, and rocking little one to sleep. One of the biggest challenges is the spit up - Andrew must take after me because Mom says I spit up until I was 10 months old. I'm really hoping he doesn't take that long to get over it!!! No matter how exhausting or difficult it can be at times, I wouldn't change my new job for anything! We are so very blessed with a precious and very easy-going baby!



As you can see from the first picture to this one, Andrew is growing and changing very rapidly :)



We also had another big change about 2 months after Andrew was born. We bought a new house in Humble and moved in October. It is so nice to have more room and a bigger kitchen, but the best part is that Danny cut his commute by more than half! I love having him home earlier so he has more time to spend with the family :) We have met a few of our new neighbors and so far everyone has been very friendly!

We enjoyed spending time with family for Thanksgiving and are really looking forward to Christmas! Even though the house is decorated and Christmas music plays most of the day, it is still hard to believe that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away!!!

New beginning

As of June 4, I ended one career so that I could begin a new one. I spent the last couple of weeks in May working very late at school in order to get everything cleaned out and packed up. Danny, my in-laws, and my mom came up to help me get everything out in time, so now our garage is pretty full of school stuff with no room left for the car. It has been really nice getting to relax when I need to these last couple of weeks. I have been able to get some things done around the house that I just had not had time to get to before now.

We found out that there was a little hold up on starting the new house, but after Danny had the company do some checking around they figured out their mistake and gave us a start date of June 21 (today). We are still hoping that the house will be ready in September. I'm not exactly looking forward to the actual moving part, but I am ready to get settled into the new place with a little more room.

I am now a little over 32 weeks and baby has been moving like crazy! Our midwife said he seems to be head down already, so I'm hoping he stays that way. We have been trying to get some of the necessities ready before he arrives, so the guest room upstairs is beginning to get a little crowded :) And we still have 3 more baby showers left! Luckily, we already have most of the big stuff.

We have a couple of months left, but I am ready to begin my new career as 'Mama'!