All over the place update

Update over the last few weeks in iphone pics and quick recaps...

I love this picture of Drew peeling an orange. It's nice to give him something like this to do while I get dinner started. The other night, I let him wash strawberries. They were probably the cleanest strawberries we've ever had. He washed those things for a good 20 minutes. 

The weather this past month has been pretty nice, so we got to play a little golf outside. He picked up right where he left off... setting up the tee, aiming for his target and hitting the ball just as well as he was in the fall.

We stopped by Barnes & Noble one Sunday afternoon and I turned the corner to see this sweetness...

We made a quick stop at the park that afternoon as well. Such a monkey.

I remember going to this park last summer and being a nervous wreck with Drew climbing on this thing and wouldn't let him do it. So big and such a pro now...

My dad kept Drew on MLK day because school was closed. I went over there on my lunch to hang out and this is how he was trying to convince me he was taking a nap...

Every month, each child in Drew's classroom gets a chance to be Student of the Day. They bring a special show and tell, snacks for their friends, they get to be line leader and serve lunch, etc. Well, this past month their classroom group study was on music, so Drew got to bring to his actual guitar to school. Talk about a BIG day for this kid. All the other times he has had a turn, we haven't heard much about it, but he has asked every single day since then if it is his turn yet. His teacher sent me this picture below and the text. I thought it was hilarious that he was telling them about Willie Nelson! I told him to try to play it softly and when I picked him up, the afternoon teacher laughed when I asked if he did. I guess he put on quite the show!

This is how he had to walk to the car when I picked him up...

We had to run in to Taste of Thai after that to pick up dinner for some friends and he wouldn't have walked in there any other way. Such a stud here! Totally owning this rockstar thing.

Conquering another 48 piece puzzle! 

We ran into our sweet classroom friend, Bankston, at the yogurt place. These two are pretty hilarious together. A quick stop for yogurt turned into a full on Friday night play date!

This is the new norm every night when we get home. He will not go inside until he has taken his four wheely-er all over the yard.

One Saturday morning we met some friends at the airplane museum in Fayetteville. Miles and Kemper are Drew's best classroom buddies and they had such a fun time.

This past weekend we went to Jasper to visit family and attend Senior night for our niece, Sidney. When we got into town, we stopped at the courthouse to see Nedra. Drew thought he was big stuff in there...

That night at the games, he got to go out on the court and shoot a basket. He tried so hard to get it all the way up there!

Cute picture of Drew and Halle waiting for Sidney to come out for Senior night.

He got a flower too!

When Cassie's team started playing, he got so into it. Look at this kid cheering them on!

We stayed at the cabin Saturday and just enjoyed the relaxing, quiet day. Drew got to go on a hike with Andy and Cassie, but I don't have those pictures uploaded to the computer yet. It was about a one mile hike and he did the entire thing without skipping a beat. Look how cute and big he looks here..

Of course our quiet day turned into a full on guitar jam session that night. I didn't pack his guitar, so he used a mop instead...

One funny story from the weekend - Drew needed to go to the bathroom, and Dessa told him to go pee off the porch (half way kidding). So he walked over to the sliding back door, opened it and relieved himself right ON the porch. He didn't know he was supposed to go all the way to the edge. But he finally figured it out the next morning...

After the holidays and birthday celebrations, things have slowed way down for us. We are soaking up every minute of these last weekends with just Drew... of course, we absolutely can't wait until Ross Henry gets here. But, having the down time to fully enjoy Drew while we await RH's sweet arrival has been nice. So, this update feels a little less exciting than the last three and definitely more random!

Drew is 3!!

By far the best age and by far the best birthday we have celebrated so far! Drew loved every minute of his day. When he woke up, we let him open his presents from us and enjoy a birthday waffle with candles. Christmas morning was so much fun this year, but his birthday morning almost put it to shame. He loved his gifts and the big deal we made about him on his day.

 

He got a dune buggy that he calls a "four-wheely-er"...

A remote control dog that he named Magget...

Legos and a new pair of Lebron's that he calls his "bron shoes"...

 

 We had his birthday party later that morning at Brick by Brick.. a lego place in Fayetteville. They did an awesome job making sure Drew had the perfect party. Wow! Can't say we won't be considering it next year as well.

Checking out his birthday message...

Mimi, Traci, Marlowe and Laney working one of the lego tables...

They played 2 games and one of them was Freeze Dance...

 The other was Lego Limbo - Drew was supposed to be the leader, but he didn't understand that he was going to catch up with the kids in the back of the line. Let's just say he got very frustrated over it! Luckily everyone thought it was hilarious, but he was huffing and puffing, telling his friends he was the line leader and it wasn't their birthday. Thankfully cupcakes followed shortly to make up for it!

Drew wanted to serve all of his friends their cupcake, so he went around the table and passed out cupcakes before we sang Happy Birthday... sweet gesture!

 Family pics! We truly have the best family all around. Drew is beyond blessed with the best, that's for sure!

After the party, we went next door for lunch and I loved this picture of Drew having fun with the girls and Aunt Dess...

 It was cold that afternoon, but he got to ride his four wheely-er for about an hour and he loved it..

We took him to Shogun for his birthday dinner and he was extremely fascinated! Fun treat for all of us, really!

And after dinner, Uncle Tim and Aunt Dessa took him to Toys R Us to pick out a birthday treat. He chose a new guitar, of course! 

 Talk about an unforgettable and amazing birthday day! We all had so much fun. We ended the weekend with dinner at my parents house on Sunday and this is by far my favorite picture of Drew and his Poppy to date, so I had to add it!

Later that week, we met up with our friend and almost birthday twin, Ryder for their own little celebration. We went to Chuckee Cheese and they had a blast!

An update on what Drew's up to at the ripe age of three....

 - Still loves music... mostly the guitark and singing, but enjoys the drums also. He asked me tonight if he could have a "pinino"... I finally figured out he meant piano!

 - Counting to 20 and his teacher texted me the other day that he is counting in quantities now. So if he sees a picture with 3 dogs, he will count them and tell you there are 3 dogs in the picture.

 - Spelling Drew, Ross and Sam. Spelling 3 words at 3 years old! He is also asking me how to spell different words as he sees or hears them. And if he has a book, he will follow the sentence by spelling it out with letter recognition. 

 - Working on mastering 48 piece puzzles by himself! We coach him through chunks of it, but he will ultimately put the pieces together on his own.

 - Really interested in birthday's. He knows the month and day of his, mine, Andy's and Baby Jesus' birthday. He will often ask when someone else's birthday is if they come up in conversation or we are talking to them.

 - Knows the three gifts the wise men brought Baby Jesus on his birthday. He says "gold, frankins, myrrh"... He can't say frankincense all the way.

 - Completely dresses himself from head to toe for school every day. 

 -  Extremely curious. He used to ask why to everything and still does to a lot of things, but he has started asking what things mean now as well. Always wants the whole picture.

 - Has started talking about things matching or being the same and noticing when they aren't. It took me a few days to convince him that mismatched socks at bedtime were OK. One day he walked through the house with his stomach pushed out as far as it would go and said "Mommy, we got the same thing!". Ha!

 - Still loves all things sports. Since it has been so cold lately, golf is at a stand still so he's been loving soccer and football inside with Dad. 

 - Learned how to play hide and seek, but he calls it seek and hide. Him and Andy play almost every night. When Andy counts and says "ready or not..." Drew will yell "i'm right here!", which makes us laugh and probably why he keeps doing it. He has gotten better though and if I hide with him he does much better.

 - Not the best eater for dinner, but he loves breakfast and according to his teachers he eats really well at school.

 - Has a huge heart! He is always so inclusive... If one of us is playing with him, he always asks if the other one wants to play too... If I tell him he's "mommy's boy", he tells me he's "daddy's boy too", etc. He is always concerned with what is going on with us too. Literally 6 weeks ago a little boy in our Sunday School class told Andy to shut up and spit in his face and Drew has maybe missed 3 days of talking about it. He will always bring it up and then say it hurt his heart or Baby Jesus and Mary don't like that. It's sad that he's apparently scarred from it, but it's a little sweet that he is so bothered by someone doing something to his daddy! 

 - Is super excited about becoming a big brother!! He kisses my belly a lot and tells Ross Henry he loves him. I asked who he wanted the most at his birthday party and he said Ross Henry and he told another parent at school the other day that he was going to tickle his baby brother. 

I think that's a good enough update for now! Love this kid. Love our life with him and absolutely can't wait to see what this next year brings! He is hands down the coolest, studliest, sweetest, most hilarious little being ever!

Christmas Week!

We started our week off with Christmas with the Emerson's. They got to our house Saturday morning and other than getting groceries we didn't leave. We kept ourselves busy with making gingerbread houses..

 Making cookies for Santa...

 And opening presents Sunday morning. Drew woke up to a new set of drums from Tim, Dessa, Grey and the girls. This drum set is the real deal! I don't think any of us realized how "for real" they were until Tim and Andy put them together. So far, we love it! He plays them in moderation and he actually has a pretty good beat that makes it less obnoxious!

 We also made a big dinner for Sunday night and my parents joined us too!

 After dinner, the neighborhood carolers stopped by. It was my first time to experience carolers at my door and they did great!

On Monday morning, this crew came with us to our big ultrasound for the gender reveal of baby #2! We are having another BOY!! Ross Henry - Ross is my Dad's middle name and Henry is my Papa's name. Andy and I found out together at my 16 week appointment and didn't tell anyone until we had the big ultrasound with our family. Sweet moment with just the two of us and another sweet moment with some of our closest family members in there with us! I should have turned the flash on to get a better picture, so I'll label for future reference! 

Andy, Halle, Drew, Cassie, Sidney, Mom, Dessa, Tim

 First family of 4 picture!

 I still have Drew's 12 week ultrasound picture. Drew is on the left and Ross Henry is on the right. From these two pictures, it doesn't look like they have the same profile, but I love looking at the side by side comparison.

 I knew the house would be crazy Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, so we did a little pre-cleaning. Drew literally mopped the entire living room and then helped vacuum after that. He is too good!

 We had a Christmas Eve surprise visit from Nedra. She brought Drew all sorts of goodies and he loved every minute of it!

After Nedra left, we decided to let Drew open his presents and stocking from us and save the Santa gifts for Christmas morning. He was so cute this year! After each present that he opened, he wanted to open the box and play with it right then. It was nice that he was taking his time and really appreciative and excited about each gift, but we were also a little antsy for him to open all of the gifts. That night his two favorite gifts were probably the remote control car and the camera. 

 When he unwrapped this present and saw a snowman on the box he said "oh! this is a frosty the snowman!"...

 We set out (leftover) cookies for Santa...

 Busted eating Santa's cookies!

 Christmas morning he woke up to a guitar, an ipad mini and a Santa sack full of miscellaneous fun stuff! I thought the guitar I ordered was similar to the one he had at Halloween (that he broke trying to fix), but this pitiful thing turned out to be such a dud! I felt so bad! He enjoyed it for a little bit and then kept saying "this doesn't work" and somehow the strings have already come off of it... good grief!

Later that morning, we went to my parents house for Christmas. Last family of 3 picture on Christmas!

 

 Drew was spoiled rotten and hit the jackpot with his new balancing bike from my parents! That was hands down his favorite gift that day. We haven't got to test it outside too much yet, but he gets the concept when he practices inside and is pretty good so far!

 Mom made Drew and Marlowe their own little place setting for lunch - so cute!

 After Christmas with my parents, we headed to Berryville for Christmas with Andy's grandma. Drew was spoiled there too! Building towers with Grandpa Bob and trucks with Uncle Mark...

 Having a snack and taking it easy for a little bit....

 After we finished Christmas in Berryville, we headed to Chimes for Christmas on the mountain with the rest of my family. My Uncle Larry brought his tractor over and took Drew for his first ride. He was on cloud nine! When he took him in the field to the cows, he said Drew sang Old McDonald Had a Farm... Ha!

 We were home all day Saturday taking down Christmas and cleaning out the play room. Drew was exhausted and spent the majority of Saturday night on the couch. Look how big he looks here!

 We ended the week with a play date with Drew's cousin Tate. These two are 2 months apart and have the same level of energy! Non-stop, all boy, all the time...

 I think it is safe to say for both Andy and me that this was our favorite Christmas so far. It was so fun watching Drew truly experience all of it and understand it for the first time. He talked about Santa, but I could never tell if he truly thought it was actually Santa that brought him the Christmas morning gifts. He knew that it was Jesus' birthday and sang the birthday song to him early that morning, he knew we were giving gifts and receiving gifts and seemed to really appreciate every single thing he got. And he also knew and loved that we were spending such good quality time with our families. Sweet memories were made this year and I know all three of us will never forget them!