Thanksgiving and CHristmas 2010!!

The Holidays have quickly come and gone! We had a great time here in Salisbury during Thanksgiving and had much to be thankful for.....health, family, Julianne, friends, church, jobs, cloths on our backs, hot showers, the gym, Chinese food,our car- Camry, playgroup, staying home with J, my new nephew coming in April, planes, rainy/snow days, Maui vacation, world wide web, pizza, jewelry, hot tea/coffee, just to name a few

The Andrews group

The kids table is expanding with new husbands and babies

The wonderful food

Grandma Stansbury's rolls that I made for the dinner!

Luke and his Dolphins hat

Jules looking through her books in her "new" bed. I took the side rail off and couldn't put it back on, so she has been converted into her big girl bed!!

Christmas 2010 was a whirlwind.......................................................

Randy had a much needed long vacation starting on Wed. 23rd, so we relaxed at home a few days and finished up shopping and wrapping presents. Then Christmas Eve is almost always spent at Uncle Joe&Aunt Marge's house, it s always fun to get together with family, especially with Merritt&Joey !!

On Christmas morning we woke up late and then headed over to the Scott's house to have our delicious breakfast, french toast, eggs, bacon, scrapple-ewww, and muffins!! It makes me hungry just writing about it!

We quickly opened our presents and then headed to the airport to catch our flight to KC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Jules asleep on the plane, its so great when they FINALLY go to sleep on the plane, especially when they are a lap child!!

Rosie(cousin Merritt's dog in KC) "washing" the dishes

Aunt Bonnie &Uncle Steve's tree

Once we arrived in KC we went to Aunt Bonnie's house to see my dad's family, who I haven't seen in quite some time!! Then opened more presents we we arrived at my parents house in Olathe, KS!!

THEN we left the following morning for NEBRASKA, all 8 of us packed into the suburban. It was a smooth trip for the most part, but the way home was another story!!!!!!!!

Opening presents at Aunt Susie and Uncle Dennis' House



Preparing the dinner



Sister Angela gettin her groove on, belly and alll!! She is having a BOY in April!!

Cousin Maddy in her new Chair, Jules loved to follow Maddy around and Maddy loved to take care of her

Our trip in a brief description, because somehow everything I just wrote got erased!ugh
1. Left Aunt Susie's house Monday morning, Jules got the stomach bug, threw up probably 6 times in a matter of 4hrs.
2. We(Randy and I) got stomach bug the next day, couldn't move
3. The Oak Park Mall is amazing, and I can't believe all the new stores, including American Doll Store
4. Crown Center is so much when you get to take your kids there
5. The Plaza lights are always the highlight of my trip
6. P. F Changs have the best lettuce wraps!
7. We got our appetite back when we went to Jack Stack BBQ, yummy cheesy corn and burnt ends!!!

We are looking forward to 2011 and hope to sell our lovely little bungalow, because we have outgrown our 869 sq ft house!!

The front side of the house



The side view

The kitchen area

The kitchen

Living area

Our bedroom

Jules cute bedroom

The beautiful bathroom

Happy New Year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Happy Fall!!

The last few months have been pretty busy! I started working at Uptown Cheapskate a resale store for the younger people. I work two days a week and really enjoy working there. It is great to get out of the house and take my mind of things; and it definitely isn't as challenging as my other job :) For Halloween we went to Olive Garden and we left Jules giraffe costume on while we ate, and of course she gagged and threw up on her costume, so we quickly changed her. Fortunately we took some pics before going out. Love that smile!

Julianne is 20months old and (stats for grandmas) ~33in tall and weighs ~24lbs. She is small but mighty and turning into a little toddler with quite a personality! 

She is talking more and more and starting to put words together and sometimes sentences. She likes to point and name things, toes, eyes, ears, nose, etc etc..She tells us she lubs (love) us, most nights before bedtime, which melts our hearts. We say our night time prayers and she lists all the family members and pets by name. Its funny how the night time routine gets longer, now that she can talk and make requests. Lately she has been asking for water, so we get her a sippy with a small amount of water in it, she takes a few sips and then drops it in her bed. Then sometimes I hold her for a bit before putting her in bed and she will say chair, because she wants me to sit down and hold her. Sometimes she will say mommy and then my name. The other day Judy watched her and she said bye Jamie!! it was so funny I had to laugh!

She is also becoming such a little mommy, she takes care of all her babies, feeding them their bottle, giving them their paci's, swaying them and singing to them and sometime making the shushing sounds to get them to sleep. I think she gets this from Jack the little boy I watch 2 days week. And now that Jack can hold his own bottle she tries to hold the bottle for him and takes it out and then puts it back in his mouth and he just watches her and waits to get his bottle back.

I thought I would wait to put her in her toddler bed but I'm going to go ahead and transition her soon. She sleeps in a toddler bed at my in laws house, so she understands she must stay in bed, with an occasional reminder "GET BACK IN BED" . But I'm hoping it will be better for when we go visit my parents she can sleep on the floor or on an air mattress. (fingers crossed) But its just another reminder of how big our baby girl is getting :(

We are excited about the upcoming holidays and Christmas now that she plays with toys and gets excited about presents. We took her to toys r us to get an idea of what she might like and she loved loved the baby dolls and all the accessories!! This year we are spending Thanksgiving here at Shad Point (my in laws house) and Christmas in KC!! We are excited to come home and see my family and friends and congratulate my sister and bro n law for their Newest arrival in April !! We are so happy for them and can't wait to find out what they are having. They know what they are having because she's a nurse in the L&D unit and peaked already!! We have much to be thankful for and feel truly blessed! I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Our 5th Anniversary!

For our 5th Anniversary Randy surprised me (2hr notice) with an overnight get away in Ocean City. The messenger (mother n law Judy)was to come to the house and give me my orders and Judy was going to watch Jules as well. It was a great surprise to get to go away for a relaxing night alone with Randy!!We didn't stay right on the beach, due to Hurricane Earl , but more inland. It was a nice get away, to relax and not have to worry about all the responsibilities. We went to an Italian Restaurant Angelo's, which wasn't that impressive, we tried to go to OC Wasabi-Japanese, but the wait was too long. Randy gets off work late so we were starving, but next time we will try that restaurant. After dinner we played miniature golf. I was in the lead at first and Randy ended up winning by 1 stroke, I usually beat him in miniature golf , so I thought I would be nice this time! ;) But it was a very nice evening outside, you wouldn't have thought there might be a Hurricane coming through the next day. After mini golf we stopped by Dumser's Ice Cream and shared a brownie Sundae that was O so good!!! It was so nice to be together and enjoy each other company.
The following morning we were expecting a heavy downpour and strong winds outside, but it was sprinkling and a little windy. We watched the Hurricane news coverage and it reminded me of when we were on our honeymoon in Palm Springs, CA, watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina!!

In  the morning we ate the continental breakfast , it was a hot breakfast too, with eggs and bacon and everything else you would want for breakfast. We took our time (without any interuptions and actually doing my makeup and hair) getting ready and left the room right at 11, check out time. We went to a few stores at the outlet, Osh Kosh and Marshall's, to get some stuff for Julianne and then ate lunch at Panera. It was a relaxing trip and it was so good to get away for a night and not have to do anything for change!!!

Dumser's yummy brownie sundae

The news crews were prepared for nothing

                                                    The King size Bed was so comfortable

Happy Fourth of July!!

My sister n law Mindy, nephews Luke and Will, and Julianne and I went Blueberry picking at Garden of Eden in Salisbury on Friday! We had so much fun and enjoyed the beautiful scenery! We took the ferry on our way there and that was quite an adventure, because we weren't sure which side of the river it was on, but we finally figured out that we had to cross the river so thank goodness we had the ferry to get us across! The kids loved the fact that they were riding on a boat in the car!

Julianne having a good time running free between the blueberry bushes

Concentrating on getting the biggest berry and as much has possible in a short time, because it was closing soon

She loved eating the berries and picking them from the bush

She was eating the berries off the bush and I had to swipe a few of the yucky green berries from her mouth

Luke, Will and Julianne having a good time picking berries

The results = homemade blueberry muffins , they were delicious!!

Randy and Julianne on Uncle Joe's dock

EEEKKK, be careful

Julianne

We are so thankful for our freedom and we hope you have a restful, relaxing and safe fourth of July weekend!!

15 months

Julianne is 15 months old and turning into a little toddler!! Wow Her personality is really starting to show, she talks or babbles, but also says words- words like hi (she says hi to anything that moves no matter how far away) bye bye, bite, cracker cookie cake (they all sound the same), bana, juce, more, babee, mamma, dadda, allll done, birdie, kitty kitty, and much more, she trys to repeat what we say and is becoming a word sponge, its fun watching her language develop, she still uses the sign for more when she really likes something
She plays with her toys, she also loves playing with her baby dolls and giving them kisses and loves books
She climbs on top of the ottoman and then stands up on the ottoman with no fear, she would even climb the ladder to the slide by herself if I wasn't there. A church close by has a nice new playground, that we frequent and she loves climbing in the playhouse and looking out the windows.
She still has 6 teeth, has had all 6 six since April, so we are wondering when the next few will pop through, 7th tooth just popped through :)
She gives us open mouth kisses and hugs our necks and we just love it, hugs = kisses
She weighs 20lbs, but I think she weighs a little more than what the nurses said, they aren't always accurate, especially with a squirming baby. Her height is 31 1/2 in and her head circumference is 47cm
She still takes about 2 naps a day morning and afternoon a longer afternoon nap.

She drinks out of a straw and is trying to figure out the utensils, what a mess that is, but usually doesn't last very long and I have to put the food on the spoon and hand her the spoon , so she can feed herself

Summer!!!!!!!!

I love a sleeping baby!

Cousin Michelle