june in review

Ahh, summer. I love it so. And with a very active one-year-old to keep up with, I love it even more! That's right...one-year-old. Last Monday (June 22) we celebrated Jonas' first birthday. We can hardly believe it! What an amazing year it's been. He is learning things now so quickly and becoming such a fun little boy. He's so happy, and finally starting to gain weight more steadily. God is so good!

We took a family vacation to North Carolina during the first part of June...with ALL of my dad's family. It was such a great time! There were around 40 of us staying in a big house right on the beach...the perfect place to be with such a large group. We all came back refreshed and tan...perfect.

Other than vacation the month of June has been packed with weddings, new babies, cooking, firepits, trips to the pool, birthdays, date nights, concerts, and even a little time to myself. We've posted some photos from the past few months on our Picasa account. Click the picture below for the direct link. Enjoy!

Spring/Summer '09

we're still here!

Didn't I mention that I was taking a blogging break? No? Oh :)

Well, I wasn't planning on it, really. I've been babysitting my good friend's 4-month old little girl during the day (from March until June), so life has been BUSY, to say the least! I'm getting a crash course on taking care of two babies! Amaya's adorable, and Jonas has so much fun with her. It's been really neat to watch them interact, especially as Jonas' personality is really starting to show. Seriously, he's such a happy little guy. With the warmer weather, we've had him outside almost constantly, which he loves. And when he's inside, he's standing at the front door, wanting to go out! He's such a boy...I love it.

Just wanted to write a quick note to let you know we're still here! Life is busy for me right now, but I'm definitely planning to update more, especially once summer hits. We're heading for a big family vacation in June to the Outerbanks...counting down the days!

Oh, and here are a couple of recent pictures:

First trip to the park

The big haircut (for both)!

Such a big boy

cooking adventures

I was going to write a recap of our big cooking day, but Tami's already done an excellent job, so I'm just sending you to hers! Head here to take a peek into our crazy day! I'm already loving the results of our day in the kitchen...how wonderful to have yummy homemade food right at my fingertips for a month. Now I just have to keep my husband (okay, and myself) out of the chocolate chip muffins...

germ-free house...finally!

We have survived our first round of illness! Whew. Jonas had a lovely mix of an ear infection, bad cold & cough, and a stomach bug...combined with teething. He really was a trooper for all that he was dealing with! Drew and I ended up getting it too, but Jonas had it the worst, by far. Luckily, it never turned into RSV, so we're thankful for that! He's back to his happy self now...laughing and crawling all over the place! He loves to pull himself up to standing even more than he likes to crawl. And, he officially said his first word. Does it get any better than this? :)



We are doing well. We have a very busy March ahead, including vacation! More details on that later. I'm also starting to do once-a-month-cooking, which I'm super excited about. My friend, Tricia, has started a website devoted to this endeavor...she has been doing it for years. Her website is http://onceamonthmom.com/...check it out! My good friend, Tami, and I partnered up to do it, so we have our first big cooking day tomorrow! I'm excited. We've already saved an incredible amount of money...but I can get into more detail after tomorrow, or maybe the day after since we'll be exhausted :)

That's all for now...have a great day!

Crawling!

Just a couple days shy of 8 months, and Jonas has figured out crawling. It's a lot of fun, though we're going to start scrambling to finish baby-proofing the house. It happened at Melissa's parents house in Indiana. She went to visit them while I (Drew) was out of town for a conference. It figures he'd learn to crawl when I leave the area for a few days. Here's one of his first attempts!

a few things to share...

Just a few pictures/events to share with you!

This is one of my new favorite pictures. My two handsome boys. This was right before Jonas' first hands-on experience with snow. He liked it for about 5 seconds until he realized how cold it was. I could just eat up the expression on his face.

Every Tuesday I get together with the other moms in our house church. Here's the most recent picture of 4 of the 5 babies (we missed you, Erinne and Shep!). Whenever we set Jonas down next to a little girl he puts his hand on her shoulder. What a gentleman.

Jonas has officially learned how to both sit and pull himself up. Seemingly overnight. I actually caught this moment when he first pulled himself up to standing from playing on the floor. As you can see, he was petrified. But ohsocute. He's now learning that he can sit up and play in his crib instead of sleeping, which he LOVES :)

Drew and I were so thrilled to celebrate this past weekend with our friends, Justin & Abi! We absolutely loved seeing two good friends commit their lives to each other and to the Lord. Plus, they were the first couple we've ever actually seen stand their and enjoy the whole piece of cake...way to go, guys.


Oh, and Jonas met two new LARGE friends this weekend:

http://reflectionsofadogmom.blogspot.com

He's been around dogs a few times so far and seems to be quite the animal lover :)

january in review

Who knew that the dead of winter could be so much more enjoyable with a little one rolling around? January has been good...and busy! We celebrated my birthday, Drew had a weekend excursion celebrating our friend Justin's bachelorhood (getting married in February to another good friend, Abi), hangouts and games with friends, visits from family, early morning workouts and restaurant outings with my mommy friends (ironic, I know), fun date nights and play dates, and lots of projects around the house.

Jonas is becoming very mobile, very quickly. He's not crawling yet, but he can scoot and roll his way to wherever his heart desires. He's sitting up like a champ, which makes him really happy...playing is much easier while sitting up. We're constantly amazed at how big he's getting. He's learning how to drink from a cup and just starting to wave. It's too cute. I've been making his baby food, which I love for the nutrition and the savings! So far he's eating carrots, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, and apples - all of which he loves, which is amazing considering the massive number of McD's egg and cheese biscuits I consumed during pregnancy :)

We're doing well. I still LOVE being at home with Jonas. Work is busy for Drew right now, but we've already planned a little getaway for early March, and we're excited to celebrate with friends who are getting married in February. Here are a few snapshots from the past couple of weeks!

"Ta-Da!"
(Jonas' first trip to Steak 'n' Shake...he actually liked wearing the hat)

Piano lessons

Such a big boy. Mmm apple juice.

Okay, I had to include this. These are our friends, Ben, Tricia, and Isaac. We attended a band party (for Apex) where we had to come dressed like another member of the band or their family. They came dressed as us. Ben was sporting an Apex t-shirt, hooded sweatshirt, hat, and long hair...hilarious. Tricia came as "pregnant Melissa". Take notice of the McD's wrapper sticking of her pocket, the sick look on her face, and the barf bag. Clever, very clever.