It's good to be home and well...

So, here is a picture that represents last week for us. When we took Forrest for his 2 week check-up, we discovered that what we had first seen the night before and thought was a blocked tear duct had actually become a pretty bad eye infection in Forrest's left eye. The doctor did a blood count and Forrest's white blood cell count was high and he had a little fever. She sent us straight to UMC Children's Hospital so our sweet little one could get IV antibiotics. It was a sad day - especially for me! The last thing that you want to do with your 2 week old baby is to be taking him to the hospital. God was good and after one day of antibiotics we saw a huge improvement in Forrest's eye. We stayed for a 2nd night and more medicine then came home on Thursday.

While this was going on with Forrest, Andrew came down with strep throat - for the 2nd time in 2 weeks! (He had been diagnosed with strep the day before Forrest was born.) He got a shot and the strep was taken care of with that but he had a yucky viral infection that kept him sick and feverish thru the weekend. With him running fever, the pediatrician wouldn't let him be around Forrest. So, Andrew didn't come home until Sunday. We hated having him away that long. Boy, did we miss him! Thank goodness for my sweet parents. They were so wonderful to take care of him when we couldn't. I really don't know what we would do without them!

Praise the Lord we are all well now! And so thankful!! I knew that I loved my boys, but all that happened made me realize it even more. They are such blessings and it is MISERABLE to see them not feeling well and to be apart from them. Here are some pictures from the last few days of being home and feeling good.

Forrest napping in his Moses Basket

Andrew, relaxing in his chair, getting a kiss from Daisy

Having some good "awake time" in his crib on his 3 week b-day

A mouthful of juice... playing on May-May's back porch

Getting ready for a walk around the block.
(This is one of the few pictures of the boys together. Andrew doesn't sit still very long for posed pictures these days!)

he's here...

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What are you doing? :)

Who me?

....Oh, .... just having a little snack with the puppies. Is that ok?

They like Cheerios!


(Notice the pile of Cheerios beside Andrew's leg. One for Andrew... one for Magnolia... one for Daisy... No wonder the puppies love Andrew so much! :) )

Easter Pictures

Andrew loved dying Easter eggs this year! I wasn't sure how he'd like it... he hasn't been too interested in crafty things yet (I've been hoping this was just because of his age). He loved it though! I let him use his hands to pick the eggs up and drop them in the cups of dye - you may have noticed his lovely dyed hands. He was so interested to see how they looked when we pulled them out, and he couldn't wait to get another egg to dye. What a fun day!

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. After going to church, we headed over to my parents and enjoyed visiting, a delicious lunch, hunting eggs, and relaxing. I've posted a few pictures from the day.

This is the best picture I have of Andrew in his Easter outfit. He was playing ball (a golf ball in each hand) and not too interested in slowing down to pose!

Check out Andrew's new ride! Thanks Easter Bunny!

A family picture

Wilson and Andrew playing... I think my boys are super cute. :)

Andrew and May-May hunting eggs... Andrew loved this Easter tradition, too!

18 months old... plus a few days

Andrew was 18 months old last week. He's such a blessing, and we have so much fun with him. Here are a few of my favorite recent pictures....

Andrew loves playing outside and he loves playing ball. "Ball" is definitely his favorite word these days. He has also learned to play ball with Daisy which they both love!

A little grin while climbing on the playground at the park.

No, this was not posed... Wilson and I were in the kitchen and glanced into the den to find Andrew just like this! He's sitting on our coffee table (trunk) where he climbed himself learning a few new words. :)

Wedding Pictures, Take 2

Here is a better look at the wedding pictures!

Andrew

I just wanted to post a few pictures of Andrew. We have been having so much fun with him! Tonight, when Wilson got home, he and Andrew played "chase" around the house for I think about 30 minutes!! Wilson finally had to just stop, much to Andrew's disappointment, because he thought Andrew was getting too out of breath! They are so fun to watch!

Andrew loves balls, and he loved learning to play basketball at Sara Beth's house. We've recently gotten a "Bathketball" for the bathtub which he loves too. This mama thinks basketball might be a good sport to promote... not quite as rough as football. :)

These 2 pictures are from when we went to Meridian last week for cousin Elizabeth's b-day party. We were a little early and had fun playing in the park. Andrew was full of energy... if you could see the pictures most would be blurry from him constantly moving! I love how he's sticking his tongue out in the picture with Wilson... that's something he's doing a lot of these days. Not that he's sticking it out at anybody, he's just sticking it out!

Here I am trying to hold him still for a quick picture. Wilson snapped it just in time!

This picture was taken at May-May and Buddy's house in a rocking chair that me and my sisters sat in when we were little. He likes to sit in it to watch Baby Praise, and yes, he's quite the thumb sucker.

Mm-mm-mm, Andrew discovered Icees on the way to Meridian last week, and he is definitely a fan! I bought it for myself when we stopped on the way (thanks for the reminder of how good they are, Kristi!), but as soon as Andrew saw it he wanted to try. So I let him have a sip from the straw and before I knew it he had both hands on it! It made me laugh how he knew just how to drink it, even down to pulling the straw out and sipping the icee from the end of it! It sure kept him entertained for the last part of our trip.

On another note, baby brother, otherwise known as "Bubba" in our house, will be here before we know it... just about 5-6 weeks left, at most!

Babies, Engagements,Birthdays

We've had lots of exciting things happen in our friends' and family members' lives lately! It's been so busy that I haven't done a good job of sharing about these things on our blog. So, here's all the news...

My sister Elizabeth and Bryan got married - see the post below.

My sweet friend Cathy Howarth and her husband Will welcomed their big baby girl on February 21st (8 lbs 15 oz!)... I haven't met little Avery Carter in person but in pictures, she is precious. Here are Mary Austin, me, Cathy, and Kristi at a shower for her in Cleveland.


Wilson's brother, Eric, and his wife, Cara, had their baby girl, Kaylon Grace, on February 26th. We met her last week and I even got to give her a bottle! :) What a sweet baby! She has lots of dark hair and beautiful coloring.

So, my next fun news is that my dear friend and college roommate, Kathryn McCaskill, is engaged! YEA!!! We are so excited and just feel like she and Charlie are perfect for each other. They'll be married in November, and I can hardly wait for this exciting occasion. (Kathryn, I hope you don't mind the picture I'm posting!)


Andrew's cousin, Elizabeth, turned 2 on February 28th, and we went to her fun party at the Carousel in Meridian. She's a sweetie, and we had lots of fun seeing her and everyone else at the party. Here is a picture of Elizabeth and her momma, Tory. Tory and Michael are having their 3rd little girl in May... the Shirley family is growing!! Three Shirley babies being born this spring... so far Andrew and his "little brother" are the only boys in this new generation!


Another picture from the party... "Ganny", Me, Andrew, and Uncle Greg. Andrew had quite the b-day dinner... cheetos, cupcake, and ice cream! There was other great food at the party (thanks, Tory), but Andrew was only interested in the items listed above - if you click on the picture and look up close, you can see his orange hands and face from the cheetos. :) Lovely.

Andrew's friend Sara Beth turned 2 on February 28th also! Happy Birthday, Sara Beth! I found a couple of pictures of Sara Beth and Andrew together that I just couldn't resist posting. :) In the first picture, Andrew is about 3 weeks old and I think Sara Beth is about 7 months. The second picture was taken almost a year ago at the zoo. I can hardly believe that these 2 are both about to be a big brother/sister!

Elizabeth and Bryan's wedding!

I finally have some pictures of the wedding to share!! Elizabeth and Bryan were married last Saturday in a beautiful wedding at my parents' home. It was a wonderful day! The ceremony was very sweet, and the happy couple was surrounded by close friends and family. It was amazing to me how being at home provided such a warm, relaxed atmosphere to the day... everyone had a great time!

I may need to edit this post later... I'm not sure how these pictures are going to turn out. I took them off of my mom's snapfish album because in the midst of all that was going on my camera never made it out of the bag! I hate that, but I'm so glad Rebecca had her camera out... she snapped literally hundreds of pictures! And had a great time doing it!

So, here are some glimpses of the day...



This picture was actually taken on Friday night. Bryan's parents took both families out to a wonderful dinner. Here is our family plus the boys (except for Andrew).

A sister picture before the wedding. Elizabeth looked gorgeous!! A beautiful bride!!



Mom and Elizabeth after the ceremony. Isn't this a cute picture of them both?! I also forgot to mention how wonderful the food was ... we all enjoyed eating and visiting after the wedding ceremony.
The sweet, happy couple.... Mr. and Mrs. Bryan Wardlaw.


Elizabeth and Bryan before leaving after the end of their 'perfect' day!
Congratulations! We are so excited and so happy to welcome Bryan to our family!

Andrew and his red balloon

Andrew had a special treat today. His May-May and Buddy picked him up from Mother's Morning Out and took him to Chick-fil-A for lunch. What fun! A red balloon was given to him at Chick-fil-A, and it has been with him all day long!! He came in from lunch and walked around the house holding his balloon while he talked and played. When it was naptime, I tried to convince Andrew that his red balloon would be OK tied to his chair or floating in his room.... We tried several places but none worked. Andrew was only happy holding the balloon. So, he napped with his red balloon for 2 hours! See the picture below...



When we awoke, the red balloon accompanied us to May-May and Buddy's where we ate a family Valentines dinner, and it was played with throughout the night. Even though there was a cute frog balloon waiting for Andrew, he was for some reason attached to this plain red balloon. Now, we are back home, and yes, the red balloon is, too! It's always amazing to me how the simple things are the most fun to these little ones.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Our Boy

I thought I'd post a few pictures and tell you what Andrew has been up to lately. He's 16 1/2 months and acting more and more like a little boy. Now... he's definitley still my baby, but it's amazing to see how quickly he's learning and growing.

One of Andrew's newest accomplishments is learning to climb. He started this a couple of weeks ago. This skill is lots of fun for Andrew, but now quite so much fun for me, as I never know what he will try to climb next - and as you can imagine, this makes me very nervous! I heard a noise in the kitchen a couple of days ago and looked in to find what you see in the picture above. Andrew had pushed his chair to the cabinet, climbed onto it, and was pushing the button to open the microwave door. The noise I heard was him repeatedly opening the door, then closing it, opening and closing... I guess he knew how to do it from watching Wilson and me. He was pretty proud of himself for this! And aside from being scared to think of what he could have gotten into, I was thinking about what a smart boy he is.


Andrew loves his chair that Ganny and Papaw gave him for Christmas! It is so cute how he knows it's "his chair" and we love seeing him sit in it while he eats his snack or while he watches "Baby Praise."

Another picture of Andrew climbing...He has no trouble climbing into the rocking chair in the new room that we are working on for him. The nursery is going to stay the same for the new baby, and Andrew is moving into a semi- big boy room. I say "semi" because we've decided to keep him in a crib for now rather than try the transition to the toddler bed. I don't think Andrew is quite ready for that change just yet - and I'm not either! But his new room will definitely have more of a little boy look that he can stay in for several years... red furniture, primary colors, cars and trucks... It's coming along well and I'll post some pictures of it soon.


Another of Andrew's new skills this month - eating with a spoon! He's really very good at it, too. He loves applesauce, yogurt, pudding, and oatmeal; and he loves feeding himself with his spoon!

Let it Snow video!

Andrew's First Snow

Andrew loved his first snow! We awoke Saturday morning to a beautiful sight - snow falling!! We watched thru the window as we ate b'fast and then layered up in our warm clothes to enjoy it for awhile. We wanted Andrew to experience what a little snow was like and he loved every minute of it. After tromping around in the backyard, sliding in the snow, putting hands in the snow (thus, needing to change mittens), chasing the ball around, and a very short wagon ride, we finally convinced Andrew to come in so we could warm our noses! It was a great time. But like most Mississippi snows, it was gone by mid-morning. We were glad we had our few minutes of fun while it lasted.