Don't forget we have moved!

www.theanderlefamily.com

Be there.  Or be square.

We've Moved!

Please update your feeds/readers/bookmarks to our new blog:

www.theanderlefamily.com

Now I can upload any pictures I want and nobody can tell me otherwise.

Boo ya.

Under Construction

A new and improved blog will be coming your way shortly.

Until then, just imagine how cute my kids were today. :)

A Small Glitch

So apparently I've used all my storage space on Blogger and it won't let me upload anymore pictures unless I start a new blog or pay a monthly fee...

Which is unfortunate because I had some priceless Santa pictures to share!

Never fear, I will get to the bottom of this.  Stay tuned...

(I could also just start describing all our pictures to you.  Which I'm sure would be almost the same.  Just like the pioneers.)

Drew is (Almost) 18 Months

Oh Drewbie.

You are giving us a run for our money.

You are nearly 18 months and have become so fun and such a handful.  You have strong opinions and scream your head off when you don't get what you want.  But you also get the biggest smile everytime you see us, wake up in a great mood, giggle uncontrollably over the smallest things, and give lots of good snuggles.

How can we resist?

You are approx 25 lbs, wear 12-18 month clothes, and a size 5 shoe and diaper.

You still don't talk a whole lot but we've seen good improvement since you got your ear tubes.  You say "mama", "dada", "nah nah" (also means dada), "ball", "book", "crackuh" (cracker), "ish" (fish), "oosh" (shoes), "isk" (Jake), "tucker", "dog", "duck".

We can tell you understand most of what we say and follow instructions well and say "eh eh eh eh eh eh eh" (get the picture?) and point at anything else you can't say.

You can point to your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, arms, legs, knees, hands, fingers, toes, feet, tummy, and bottom.

Your favorite books are "Wheels on the Bus", "We're Going on a Bear Hunt", and "Dogs".

Your favorite show (you watch one with Jake during breakfast) is definitely Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or the Baby Einstein farm animals DVD.

Your favorite song is Old McDonald.  If you are screaming in the car, you almost always stop if I sing this.  The problem is that I can't sing it for 4 hours straight!

You sleep 12-13 hours at night and take one nap a day for 2-3 hours.  

You are pure joy.  

(For a peek of Jake at 18 months, click here)

Poor baby has had an upper respiratory infection, stomach bug, and now an ear infection (um hello, tubes?) in the past few weeks.  Luckily Jake has mostly stayed healthy but we hate seeing Drew feel so bad!  Here's hoping we got all the germs out of our system so December can be a happy month!

Our Week

I wanted to share a few more pictures before the holidays arrive and I get really behind!

Jake and Drew have played so well together lately.  There is still some fighting but they love to wrestle and "kackle" (tackle) each other.  

This is how Drew wanted to wake up Jake from his nap.  Luckily, it was well-received!

Sweet boys

Evidence of why I can't get anything done when Drew is awake.  I guess he wanted in on the action and decided to do some work the other day.

Every morning the boys run to the oven (they assume I am Martha Stewart everyday).  They can't stand it if the food isn't ready so they used special mind-staring tricks to cook the muffins on this particular day.

Jake is turning into quite the little artist.  He loves to draw on paper, his Aquadoodle, Magnadoodle, easel, etc.  He is good at copying something I draw and also likes to do circles (faces) with eyes, noses, mouths, arms, legs, etc.  I was really impressed with how well he was doing and he gets so proud of himself. 

Um y'all...this is his elephant.  Which looks like an elephant.  So proud of him!

I went up and helped with Jake's preschool Thanksgiving "feast" last week.  This was the first day Drew didn't feel well so luckily Daddy was able to run home and stay with him for a bit.  

Jake always sits next to his girlfriend, Regan.  They are so sweet together.  Two little Indians (can I say that?  Native Americans?)

The Teddy Bear class eating their meal.  Most of the kids just wanted their regular lunches and didn't appreciate the special food.  Ha.  We love his teachers and I definitely appreciate their patience with the class!

Let the blog show, this was also the same day as Jake's first (second?) visit to the "principals" office at school...agh!  As he so plainly put it, "I didn't want to listen to my teachers".

We are so proud.

Sick Days

I was just telling someone how lucky we were to have avoided sickness this fall.  So naturally, that was the cue for everything germy and ugly to infect our house!

Both boys have been congested all week with a cough that won't go away.  Then I caught it.  Then Drew got some sort of stomach bug.  Then Jake did (maybe, maybe not...we've had one "incident" and he's been fine since). Then Daddy did.  

SO.

I am fastly and furiously trying to catch up on everything tonight just in case the inevitable happens to me.

Perhaps I shouldn't have typed that out because now I have secured my fate.

Needless to say, we've set some sort of TV record in the past few days.

But I've had lots of snuggles.

Sigh.

Here's hoping for a healthy week because it's Thanksgiving, y'all!

And p.s. If anyone was wondering, you KNOW I was at the premiere of Breaking Dawn part 2.  Hello. Awesome.  And Team Jacob! :)

Playing Hooky at the Zoo

Seth had an extra vacation day so we went to the zoo on Friday.  It was a beautiful (if not too hot) day and there was hardly anyone there.  Plenty of room for the kids to run around and burn energy!

Everytime we go to the zoo, my kids are obsessed with the birds.  Probably the most boring animals.  They were also fascinated with the normal birds and squirrels THAT WE SEE EVERYDAY.  So basically it was a glorified backyard trip for them! :)

The obligatory monkey picture.  Monkeys were also a big hit.  Jake yelled at some of them "HEY MONKEYS, YOU'RE ON MY PJS!  DO YOU WEAR PJS??"  Then he looked at us and laughed, saying, "Those silly monkeys don't wear pjs!".  I swear, he cracks us up all the time.

It is at this point I decided I was an animal activist. This was as close as I could zoom in, but check out the orangutan.  He looks miserable!  He was giving us sad eyes and drawing circles with his fingers on that piece of wood.  I nearly jumped over the railing to set him free until Seth said he would probably eat my face.

I bet he wouldn't if it meant freedom though.

We got to feed the giraffes again and this time Drew got a turn too!

I love the giraffes, such a cool experience

Jake the prairie dog

This is how the kids were most of the day.  Drew refused to ride in the stroller and only wanted Daddy to hold him.  I'm pretty sure Seth's arm was about to break off by the end of it!  Jake was excited to see that there was a Daddy, Mommy, Big Boy, AND baby elephant.  Just like us.

Worn out after about 2 hours.  We need to work on our zoo stamina!

P.S. If you see any wild animals roaming downtown Houston, don't look at me.

What a Savior

My poor (or lucky, really!) kids hear me singing all the time. I can't help it. For whatever reason, it's usually hymns and lately I have had this one on my mind:

 

I found this recording while searching on YouTube and I happened to like it.  Although I've understood Jesus' sacrifice for a long time, I think it really took having my own children to even get an inkling of how painful it would be to see your child suffer.  Yet God did it for even the least of us.  Hallelujah!  What a Savior!

“Man of Sorrows!” what a name 

For the Son of God, who came 

Ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah! What a Savior! 

Bearing shame and scoffing rude, 

In my place condemned He stood; 

Sealed my pardon with His blood. 

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Guilty, vile, and helpless we; 

Spotless Lamb of God was He;

“Full atonement!” can it be? 

Hallelujah! What a Savior! 

Lifted up was He to die; 

“It is finished!” was His cry;

Now in Heav’n exalted high. 

Hallelujah! What a Savior! 

When He comes, our glorious King, 

All His ransomed home to bring, 

Then anew His song we’ll sing:

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

Ok, time to catch up!

The weekend before Halloween we carved our pumpkin.  Jake's class had already done one at school so he was excited and instructed Daddy on his every move.

I know.  Isn't our garage lovely?

For a kid who doesn't like to get dirty, he touched a lot of pumpkin gook.

On Tuesday, Jake got sick and had to stay home from school on Wednesday just in case.  I was so sad that he had to miss their "parade" and dressing up with his school friends.  He seemed to feel fine all day so when he heard "candy" he perked up and got his costume on for some trick or treating.

Notice my Halloween pretzels.  I am that mom.  I don't care.

Our little superheroes.  Drew is at an awkward size so his costume was a little small.  Spiderman had some major highwaters!

Jake and some of the little neighbor kids.  They all did a few houses together and then split up.  It's crazy that we've known most of these kids since they were born!

Jake and his friend Madeline

Drew wanted Daddy to carry him most of the night.  He finally came out of his shell when he got a sucker and then helped Jake get some more candy.

Checking out their loot.

The boys had a lot of fun and dressing up was half as dramatic as last year - thank goodness!  And speaking of thank goodness, they had no memory of their candy the next day so we have been happily eating our leftover Halloween pretzels instead. :)

Family Fun and One More Party

Jake probably sits still better than any 3 year old I know.  We do a lot of coloring, game playing, cooking, and now cookie decorating while Drew sleeps.  He rarely makes a mess, waits (kinda) patiently, and can sit at the table for hours.  These activities are going to start getting a little messier with Drew!

He had a lot of fun decorating Halloween cookies last week.  And didn't even ask to eat one - what??

We had a nice visit with Papa & Nanny when they came through town last week.  Papa had just been at the doctor but Drew felt like he needed one more listen on the ol' ticker.

And he even got some cuddle time with Nanny too!

We went to La Grange last Friday night for a family birthday celebration.  There are 6 October birthdays (all within a week of each other) in Seth's family and everyone was able to meet for dinner and cake.  And what's one more birthday party for Jake, right?

Drew (not technically a birthday boy), Seth (10th), Me (14th), Jake (8th), Chase (14th), Uncle John (9th), and Jarad (10th).  We celebrated with a Batman cake of course.

JUST GIVE ME SOME OF THAT CAKE

It was a full house but we loved getting to see everyone...it had been awhile!

Now I'm finally all caught up.  You know I will have some cute Halloween pictures for everyone this week!  Jake has his "storybook" parade on Wednesday morning at school and then trick-or-treating that night.  To say he's excited is an understatement!

3 Year Check Up

Jake had his 3 year check up on Friday and did great!  We always seem to go to the doctor for Drew (thank you ear infections) so it had been awhile since he was checked out.

Thanks to the doctor kit he got for his birthday, he knew all about how to get "pumped up".

Being such a big boy for the nurse.  We love her because she was actually my nurse at the OB when I was pregnant with Jake.  Then when we went to the pediatrician for his 2 week check up, she was our nurse there.  She claimed the job change was a coincidence but I'm thinking I am just that good of a patient.

(All my doctor friends - stop snorting)

Jake was 30 lbs and 36.5 inches, which put him in the 30th percentile overall.

I was so proud of how he did and we will just wait in anticipation for those 4 year old shots, which I hear are a real treat!

(And just because he looked cute)

A Little Sunday Morning Humor

Sunday Morning - IgniterMedia.com from ignitermedia on GodTube.

Granted, this isn't as funny as the minivan videos but gave us a good laugh.  Things never go as planned on Sunday morning.

Or any morning actually...

Life from the iPhone

Last week Drew busted his face up when he fell outside.  He had a nice little knot and a torn up nose to show for it!  

(This is his "cheese" face)

But he made a quick recovery!  Sweet boy is still cute, scabby nose and all. 

Jake's school had a Fall Festival recently and the boys loved all the animals!  Drew is obsessed with petting zoos and just ran after the goats saying, "Dogs!  Tucker!  Dogs!"

Jake, the Aggie cowboy riding his horse.  He took this pretty seriously.

I just had to take this picture because remember Jake, the light sleeper?  Not so much anymore.  We had a quick overnight to La Grange last weekend and he fell asleep on the air mattress in our room, with the light on.  So sweet.  Last night Seth even had to take the ladder in his room and change the smoke alarm battery and he never woke up.  This is big for us!

We loved the cold front that came in on Friday!  My boys were excited about wearing coats so I went with it.  (Again, his cheese face)

And...the first and last time Jake wore this bear coat seeing as it showed his midriff :)

What?  You don't take pictures of yourself after your haircut?  That's silly.

And this is what we have to battle every time Drewbie gets in the car. 

It's lovely.