The many faces of Andrew...

Andrew, now 16 months, is tons of fun... learning new things daily! He's really begun imitating sounds and making new words - juice, Laura (he doesn't know he's saying my name!), Daisy, dog, all gone...there are several others. His favorite word for the past couple of weeks has been "uh-oh".

Wilson and Andrew play a fun game of making faces at each other. Andrew imitates the face that Wilson makes, and I must say he does a pretty good job of it!

This morning they had a good time with this funny faces game and we took a few pictures...

Equinox for sale.

We are selling our Chevrolet Equinox. It is a 2006. Only has 23,500 miles. If you know of anyone interested please let us know. It is a great car - we are the only owners. We had to get a bigger ride to prepare for baby #2.

Car has: Air Conditioning, ABS Brakes, Power Steering, Gray Cloth Seats, Air Bag(s), AM/FM CD System, Power Windows, Power Locks, Power Mirrors, Cruise Control, Rear Defroster, Rear Wiper, Roof Rack.

Email us for more questions: wilsonashirley@gmail.com

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Merry Christmas from our family!
Our prayer is that we'll all remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas - Jesus' birthday.

Santa Came Early...

Andrew got his big Christmas present today, and boy, was he excited!! We thought a swing set would be the perfect gift for Andrew. He loves to swing and slide, and most of all, he loves being outside. We're looking forward to many fun times playing on it in the years to come. Come on over, friends and family, to play anytime!

p.s. Santa had a helper with this gift.... great job on building it Wilson! :)

Yummy!

I love to bake...especially at Christmas!! I am sure that this is because of all the time I spent in the kitchen with mom growing up. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is baking and decorating Christmas cookies. Mom had such a great collection of cookie cutters and always had fun little sprinkles and such to decorate with. Well, I've started the tradition at our house. Wilson has been sweet to join me the last few years, but this year it was fun to make cookies with Andrew, too! We took a few pictures to remember our day.

Look at him! He really seems so intent on his decorating, doesn't he?!! He loved holding the "paintbrush" (actually bought in the baking section) and moving it in the icing.

So, once he finished decorating the Christmas tree. I asked him if he'd like to decorate a star next. I placed the star on his tray while I added a little yellow food coloring to the icing and when I look back, this is what I found! No more decorating for Andrew... I think he thought that cookie was pretty good all by itself!

Yummy! A boy after his mom's own heart - a sweet lover!

Baby Praise

I have been wanting to share about one of Andrew's (and my) favorite things! The "Praise Baby Collection" cds and dvds are precious!! At our house, we call them Baby Praise, and whenever we ask Andrew if he wants to watch Baby Praise he gets so excited and immediately goes to the TV.

Now, let me say, I am not a big fan of putting movies in for Andrew. In fact I really try not to show them much... but Baby Praise is different. The dvds are so soothing and calming to him, and I truly believe that they are good for his mind and spirit. The praise songs are beautifully sung - Wilson and I even enjoy listening to them. I find myself singing them throughout the day!

The dvds shows children (of various ages, cultures, nationalities, abilities) playing with one another or discovering something new on their own, it shows animals of all kinds, and even presents some educational material such as ABC's and 123's - and all of this set to uplifting, praise music. You can also buy cd's of the music.

The Bible study that I've been attending on Philippians focused on verse 4:8 recently. "...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is lovely, ... - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." How great to feel that the Praise Baby Collection is providing wholesome, nurturing material for Andrew to listen to and watch.

Andrew first began watching the Baby Praise movies in his carseat on his first long road trip when he was about 5-6 months old. He has enjoyed them ever since, and I think between me and my mom, we own them all! Our latest one to love is the Christmas one. It is so sweet. One of my favorite things about it is how is tells the Christmas story in simple, understandable terms... Andrew stops to listen to the story each time he hears it.

Please check out the website: www.praisebaby.com
The cd's and dvd's would be great gifts for your little ones or for friends' babies. We've bought ours at Lifeway. I just wanted to share what a blessing these have been to us - I hope you'll enjoy them too.

New York, New York

New York! What a fun week we had together celebrating Mom's birthday!! It was rainy the first 2 days of our trip - so we had to be a little flexible with our plans, but we still had a great time.

We went to the American Museum of Natural History - a great museum with TONS to see. I really think you could spend 2 whole days there (or maybe more)! We visited some of the animal, Native American, and dinosaur exhibits - all of which were fantastic! We rode the double decker tour buses all around the city. Andrew and I stayed below where it was warm and dry, but everyone else braved the cold, wet, rainy weather and sat up top to take in the good views of New York. The bus was a great way to get an overall view of the city and learn some neat facts (like where some "stars" live) that we wouldn't normally have heard. We walked thru Little Italy, Chinatown, and Soho. We walked thru Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty. We saw the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular - it was wonderful! We went to the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) then came down to the bottom and ate lunch while we watched ice skaters on the rink right outside. We also saw a Cirque du Soleil show, Wintuk, which is at Madison Square Gardens right now. If you have ever seen one of these shows, you know how fun they are to see - talented, talented people!! And we ate at some amazing restaurants - needless to say, I still feel full from all I ate!

Whew! We did alot!!! And Andrew did it all with us. I'll take a minute to brag on him. He was the sweetest baby the whole trip. He acted wonderfully on the plane, adjusted great to a new schedule (or lack of one), sat in his stroller as we trekked the city without ever crying or wanting to get out, napped in the stroller, ate with us in the restaurants, sat quietly thru the shows (he actually loved the Rockettes and clapped and waved thru the first few songs!)... I mean for a toddler boy who loves to walk and is so curious about life around him we couldn't have asked for more!! We were so proud! And he made lots of friends for us along the way! So to all of you who may be nervous about traveling with a babe, here's to say that it is not bad at all! In fact, I can't imagine the trip without him!!

Between me, Liz, and Mom, we took lots of pictures, and some of theirs are better than the ones posted below. I just picked out a few to show some of what we did. Maybe I'll borrow some of theirs to post later!

Taking a break from the rainy weather in a cute little cafe in Little Italy. I wish I could remember the name of it... In the background of the picture, you can see framed photos on the wall. They are of famous people with the owner of the restaurant. We had found a popular spot obviously!! It was a cute little cafe and we enjoyed their coffee and canolis. Andrew made friends with the owner who showed us a couple of movie posters that he was in....none that we recognized! It was a fun little find.

Eating in Carmines! Yum, yum - our lunch was amazing and we followed it with this fabulous ice cream dessert. Can we go back, please??

In Times Square!!

Andrew and Wilson riding on the ferris wheel inside the Toys-R-Us in Times Square. Andrew loved it (even though we had ride in a Barbie car!)! All of the seats were cars from cartoons or toys, I was hoping we'd get to ride in the Little People Fire Truck, but when it was our turn to get on, the Barbie Car was open. Oh well, at least Andrew didn't realize it! It was such a fun thing to do and the store itself is really neat.

We were riding the subway and Andrew made friends (of course) with some ladies sitting beside us. They let Andrew wear their Statue of Liberty "crown". He was not to thrilled, but I had to take a picture anyway. Can you see how bundled up he is underneath the crown? And the clear thing on top of the stroller was the rain guard that came with the stroller. It has sat in the basket below the stroller seat for almost a year, without a thought being put into how handy it could be. Boy, were we glad to have it! It was a life-saver!! With the rain guard over the stroller, we were able to just keep right on going regardless of the cold, rainy weather!

A memorable trip indeed!!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom! Today was Mom's birthday; however, we've been celebrating her birthday for about a week now - and have had lots of fun doing it!! Last week the whole family went to New York - that was Mom's request for her birthday - and it was so much fun. I'll post about it later and share some pictures. But for now, here are pictures from Mom's birthday dinner on Saturday night. We love you, Mom!

Andrew seems to be getting the hang of birthdays (this is the 4th one our family has celebrated since his) and he loves the excitement of turning off the lights, singing, and watching someone blow out the candles. He was very curious about the candles this time. As we were trying to take this picture he kept leaning over to the cake and pulling out candles. Then, he started licking the icing off! It was so funny to watch him figure this out all by himself!

The girls plus Andrew. Andrew is enjoying a lick of strawberry icing off a candle in this picture!

What a great picture of the boys!! All smiles!!

The Shirley Boys have an announcement...

We are so excited to say that we will be expecting another boy in April! I'm still surprised that we actually found out what the baby is. We loved our surprise with Andrew, but for some reason I just had an "itch" to find out this time. I couldn't seem to get it out of my system even though Wilson really wanted to hold out for another surprise. In the end, we made a last minute decision in the sonogram room! I was afraid I'd regret not letting it be a surprise, but I'm excited to know what to expect come April and I think knowing it's a boy will make preparations easier (especially with having a 1 1/2 year old!). Won't Andrew and his little brother have fun? :)

(We didn't really get this sign... we were in Party City getting birthday balloons for my mom and just used it for a picture. )

a fun treat!

Wilson and I had a little one-night getaway to New Orleans last weekend. Even though it was a quick trip we had lots of fun. We had a great dinner Saturday night, ate beignets & strolled thru the French Quarter on Sunday morning, and then went to the Saints game (thanks to our sweet friends, the Hogans, for the tickets!)! That was my first time to an NFL game - very fun and exciting - especially since the Saints won! We hated to leave Andrew behind with a bad cold, but May-May and Buddy were so very sweet to watch him. It was so nice to have a night away!

Medders' Babies

The Medders, the family I have posted about recently, had their babies today. Kelli began experiencing contractions last night, and after attempting to slow/stop them, the doctors decided it was best to proceed with a C-section. Three little girls were born - 2 babies were born stable, but Baby D, who they knew had been struggling, was born at less than a pound and only lived a few minutes after birth. Babies B & C are in the NICU. Please pray for this sweet family.

If you'd like to read from their blog, there is a link to the side.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear...

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?

I see a baby cow, Lemly Bumgarner (and our daddies).

I see a blue cross.

I see a fireman, John Keil Beavers, with a sucker (that I'd love to have!).

I see my momma!

We had a great time tonight at the Highlands' Reformation Party. Since Reformation Day, a big day in the history of Protestant churches, is celebrated the last Sunday in October, our church has a fun party with activities for the little ones and of course everyone wears their costumes! Even though Andrew dressed up as a cow last year, he was little bitty and slept the whole time. This year he had lots of fun walking around, seeing his buddies in costume, and digging in the sand box. I think he could feel the excitement because he actually left his little hat on! (We've tried his costume on several times and he has always pulled it off!) We're looking forward to dressing up again later this week.

Andrew & Ally

Wilson, Andrew, and I enjoyed a visit with our Nashville friends today! Kathryn and Ellie came in town for a wedding...along with Kathryn's boyfriend, Charlie, and Ellie's husband, Tommy, and their little girl, Ally. We were so glad to finally meet Charlie. :) And it was great seeing everyone else, too... since it is always way too long between our visits. Andrew loved Ally!! She helped keep him entertained while we ate at Primos and then was so sweet to play with him at Kristi & Alan's. This picture was taken right after Ally had been "holding" him on the couch, but she thought he was a little heavy :) (i agree, ally), so we just sat Andrew next to her for the picture. Ally is so cute. After our visit, Wilson decided having a little girl wouldn't be bad at all. :) Thanks Ally!!

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch last weekend and had lots of fun! Andrew loved the hayride and looking at all the animals.... donkeys, ze-donks (zebra/donkey mix... my first time to see one of those), goats, cows, etc... The first picture is of Andrew looking at the donkeys over the edge of the wagon! When we stopped in the pumpkin patch, Andrew had fun walking thru the pumpkins and touching them. He found his pumpkin, as you can see from the last picture!

Happy Fall!!

Happy Birthday, Wilson!

We celebrated Wilson's 29th birthday on Monday! What a fun time we had! We are so thankful for you Wilson - and we love you bunches!!

Andrew is helping Wilson show off his 2 new hats!

Andrew and I visited Wilson at work in the afternoon and took he and his co-workers a cookie cake to snack on!

Andrew LOVED it when I turned off the lights, lit the candles on the cake, and began singing to Wilson. He had the biggest smile on his face and was so excited. You can see from the picture that he was very curious about the candles on the cake!

Our Buddy...

We are proud of Rebecca and love her so very much. To those of you who know our family, you know that Rebecca and my dad have always been "buddies". That is what they have always called each other. Dad has always been "Buddy" to Rebecca, not Dad, and that's how he got his grandparent name. How fitting that that the "Buddy Walk" is held every year in support of the Central Mississippi Down Syndrome Organization. Rebecca has said the opening prayer for the last 3 years - she truly has a gift for praying. We loved being there a couple of weekends ago to hear her pray and to hear The Mustard Seed Handbell Choir play. It was a great time!

Sisters!

Our family had lots of fun! Wilson went to see the Bulldogs play with Dad and Elizabeth after the Walk was over.

"Is that an airplane?"
Andrew loves looking for airplanes. He hears them going over and immediately looks up to find them in the sky. He even said "airplane" last week when he saw one! Now, he can add that to his repetoire.... mama, dada, truck, airplane, banana!

A sweet family who needs prayer...

Jason and Kelli Medders went to MSU with us - Jason and I were Orientation Leaders together, and I want to share with you what is going on in their lives and ask you to remember them in your prayers.

Jason and Kelli notified friends a couple of months ago that they were pregnant with identical quadruplets (naturally-occurring)! What a testimony to our Creator! Since the beginning, they have been trusting in a faithful God for his provisions and have truly been witnesses to those around them in Fargo, North Dakota, where they live.

A couple of weeks ago, Jason and Kelli went in for an ultrasound and heard difficult news. Two of the babies were not doing well. Without going into great detail (I'll include the link to their blog if you'd like to read more), one of the babies (Baby A) was taking in too much fluid causing her heart to work too hard while another baby (Baby D) was not taking in enough causing slower growth and development. After much research, Jason and Kelli flew to Providence, RI, where the babies (and she) underwent surgery. Although the doctors felt like the surgery was successful, Baby A still did not make it - her heart just had too much work to do for her little body and she didn't recover. As of now Baby D is improving, but the doctors would still like to see more growth and development. They are having another ultrasound this Friday, the 19th, so the big prayer is that they will see more improvement in Baby D. Give praise that Babies B and C are doing well. As you can see this sweet family has already been through so much and still has a way to go (Kelli is around 21/22 weeks now, i think). This week Kelli moved into a hotel close to her hospital and is there alone during the week. I can only imagine how hard it must be for her to be away from Jason and their 2 year-old son, Wyatt.

They have a great website, http://meddersfamily.googlepages.com/home, which includes prayer requests and a blog that Kelli updates almost daily. Please say a prayer for this family.

Andrew's First Haircut

I finally decided that I had postponed Andrew's first haircut long enough. It was pretty long in the back and a little shaggy in the front and around his ears (as seen in the top picture). Wilson wanted a haircut, too, so the boys got a cut together last Saturday morning. I thought that Brandi, the girl who cut it, did a good job, and I was pleased with the turnout - not too "big-boy"! The "before" and "after" pictures are above.

Congratulations Elizabeth & Bryan!

Congratulations to the newly engaged couple! We are so excited and love you very much!

Elizabeth, Bryan, Laura, & Wilson at the beach for the Fourth.
(Don't you love the guys' matching swimsuits & t-shirts?! May-May had all the boys coordinating 4th of July gear.)

Have you heard Andrew's BIG news?

We have exciting news to share! First of all, Andrew is walking! He had been teasing us for quite awhile...taking a few steps here and there. But, it wasn't until the week after his birthday before he really began to take lots of steps together. Right now, he still mixes walking and crawling but we sure are proud of our BIG boy!!!

Speaking of big ... Andrew's other news is that he is going to be a BIG BROTHER!!! Yes, that's right...we're having another baby! Our newest blessing is due to arrive mid-April. :) Wilson and I feel overwhelmed with the Lord's blessings on our family. Babies are such miracles, and what a gift from the Lord to be expecting another child! Please keep our growing family in your prayers.

Sick days...

It's been a little while since I've posted any pictures of Andrew. We've had a few sick days around our house....actually, several sick days! But I'm hoping we're on the way back to good health. Andrew went for his 12 month check-up last week only to find out his ears were red and starting to look infected....we weren't completely surprised since he had been fighting a very persistent stuffy nose. He's in the 75th% for height & between the 75th and 90th% for weight. i know... not very accurate... but this is what the nurse told us :). Well, we thought we were feeling pretty good by last weekend. Wilson and I even made a trip to see the Bulldogs play while Andrew stayed with May-May and Buddy - fun times for all! But, on Monday, a yucky bug hit us! We all felt bad, with Andrew being the worst. Fever, upset tummy, sore throat...poor guy!

Andrew had to make another trip to May-May and Buddy's house, this time so that Wilson and I could get well...thanks May-May and Buddy! Wilson and I were talking about how we forget how thankful we should be for good health until we get sick. We feel blessed and are very thankful that overall we are a healthy family.
Andrew found this spot on the fireplace last night and thought it was a pretty cool spot to see what all was going on in the room!




Andrew has found a new favorite pastime in exploring the backyard...thankfully he has his John Deere to help him plow his way around!










Andrew loves this spot under the table. He seems to feel like it "his" spot. He can watch what the puppies are doing and what Wilson and I are doing without being in the way of the traffic!

Andrew's Big Day!

We had lots of fun on Tuesday, Andrew's birthday. Wilson and I went back to Andrew's room together when he woke up and sang to him. He wasn't so sure why we were serenading him...he was more concerned with knowing where his morning bottle was! He had a cake donut for breakfast - yum!! Then, he opened some presents from Mama and Dada and played for awhile.

After his nap, May-May and Izzy came over and we all went to Chick-fil-a. Andrew loves their chicken nuggets, and he was so proud to have his

first kid's meal. He had a great time at lunch... I can't believe my baby is drinking from a juice box! After we had eaten, someone brought around samples of milkshakes, and I let him have a bite of mine... ooh, he thought that was yummy!

After lunch, Wilson, Andrew, and I took a short trip to the zoo (we stayed about as long as we could handle the heat!). Andrew and Wilson got in the baby pool to cool off when we got home while I cooked dinner. We ate chicken and wild rice casserole...it's always been a family favorite but now it's really high on the list because Andrew loves it, too. It's so funny to watch him gobble it up and smack
the whole time! And along with the casserole....asparagus...another one of Andrew's faves! Hilarious, isn't it?! Well, we had such a blast with our boy on his birthday. We couldn't be more proud and feel more blessed to have him in our lives. We love you, Andrew!!!