Time for an Update!

Life has been extremely busy in the last couple months. Many things have been happening! Here are a few of the most memorable.

My grandma turned 88 this year -- My mom decided that she needed a surprise party -- we all hoped her heart could take it. She was surprised and had a wonderful time. It was nice to get together with my cousins that I rarely see.

Just because we didn't already have enough to do, Andrew joined Cub Scouts. He is really enjoying it since he gets to spend time with daddy! He is a Tiger Cub and has already begun earning badges for his uniform (Mommy hasn't had time to put them on yet, but we'll get there soon...) This picture was taken right after he came off the ice at the Griffen's game -- his troup presented the flag during the national anthem.

Halloween was fun -- Andrew wanted to be a SWAT officer. He saw the costume at Costco and he was totally sold! It came with a badge, handcuffs, billy club, binoculars, sun glasses, watch, flashlight, and walkie talkie. He was more excited about the costume than he was about Trick-or-Treating. After our fifth house, he said, "I've got enough candy now, can we go home?"

Then we ran into Colton and his brother Tyler. Suddenly Andrew wanted to continue. So, we went a couple blocks with them. Until Tyler was too tired to continue.

Thanksgiving with the Mann family was at our house this year. Dinner was wonderful! We all enjoyed spending time together chatting and playing cards. Bill and his dad even wore matching shirts ;-)

Christmas Eve for the Berridge family was celebrated at our house this year. We decided to have a picture taken of my siblings. We needed several tries and we still aren't happy with it, but it'll do ;-)

At daycare, Andrew's favorite activity is playing pool. Santa brought him his very own pool table. He was super excited - there was paper flying everywhere when he figured out what it was. He was disappointed that we had to leave to go to grandma's.

Christmas day at grandma's -- Andrew got a set of golf clubs. He was super excited -- Uncle Derek started teaching him to putt. He's not very good yet, but he was starting to get the hang of it -- maybe Uncle Derek will take him out on the driving range this summer.

Andrew with all his presents from Mommy, Daddy, and Santa. He was even happy with the underwear and socks -- exclaiming "I needed these!!" Spoiled yet practical...

We hope everyone had a blessed holiday.

Family Photo Fun

Friday was a little chilly, but beautiful. The trees are just beginning to change. Autumn has arrived. It's my favorite season... to bad it goes by so quickly.

Cindy and Chris came for the weekend, so I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to get some outdoor pictures of the family. I enlisted my friend Christine to help take pictures for us.

My grumpy husband just loves having his picture taken -- he didn't hesitate to remind us often of this fact -- he complained before, during, and after each and every picture -- even the ones that didn't include him!!

The family tree!

My little monkey's!

I had to kick him, but I got a smile out of him!

Cindy -- we actually got her with her eyes open -- sort of...

Chris -- king of the mountain.

Andrew -- sick of posing -- he really wanted to go play.

We had a lot of fun staging this one...

Daddy/Daughter

Father/Son

Big Bill/Little Bill -- aka Andrew

Mommy/Son

Bye Bye Yellow -- Hello New Bathroom

Yippee!!! It's finally done. The shower door was installed on Monday September 22nd. We were finally able to shower in it on Thursday the 25th. Happy Birthday to me!



Here's what it looked like before the shower door was installed...

Isn't it pretty ;-)

First Grade

September 2, 2008

Andrew was very excited for his first day of first grade. Mommy wasn't so excited...


Andrew is in Mrs. Conner's class. He has several of his friends from last year in the class too. He was also excited to go back to GASP (Georgetown After-School Program). He rides the same bus he did last year and so he felt very comfortable.

Since Mommy had her first day of school as well, Andrew had to pose for the required pictures in front of school after school instead of in the morning. So, before going home after daycare, we stopped at school to snap a few pictures. He insisted on having his backpack in the pictures.



We had to shop the entire month of August for a backpack, because he wouldn't accept one that didn't have wheels. They were hard to find.


Andrew has an agenda that he has to write in every day. Mommy or daddy have to sign it each night as part of his homework. So far that has been all the homework he has received. Mommy has been making him read her a book each night, hopefully he'll be getting homework from his teacher soon.


The first week of school went really well other than being beastly hot on Tuesday and Wednesday. Everyone was dripping with sweat and grimy by the end of the day. Hopefully it won't get that hot again this school year! Andrew was very excited to report that his behavior clip was never moved off of sunny -- they have three levels -- sunny, cloudy, and stormy. Everyone starts out on sunny and if they have problems, they move through the levels. A couple kids made it to cloudy, but no storms have happened in his classroom yet.


Mommy's class is a bit chatty, but pretty good so far. She's had 26 smiling faces show up so far. There are a couple more on the list, but no word on them yet. There aren't anymore desks in the classroom, so hopefully no more will come :) Mommy's student teacher, Miss Smith has been very helpful.

Pray for a year full of academic growth and positive behavior!!

He did it!!

Andrew finally got sick of waiting for Daddy to help him learn to ride his bike and decided to teach himself. Mommy tried to help, but she couldn't run for very long or very fast -- he fell one too many times with mommy. He started at the top of the driveway and rode into the grass. It took him a few tries, but he was finally able to figure out how to push backwards to stop. He ran into the mailbox once, but for the most part he would fall into the grass. While he was practicing, I made him wear his helmet, but he decided that he looked too goofy with the helmet on for the pictures. I told him that as long as he promised to wear the helmet when he was riding, that I would take the pictures without the helmet on -- saftey first!!

He has to concentrate pretty hard to keep everything moving at once. He tended to turn the handle bars whichever direction was the same as the foot he was pushing downward with.

He wanted me to take a little video so that we could show daddy -- Bill is in Florida delivering furniture this week. He will be home tomorrow -- we're both ready for daddy to come home!

After the video, we decided to go for our maiden voyage around the block. The first half was a little rough -- he still tended to turn the handle bars when pedaling. He fell once, but there was no blood, thank goodness, I don't think I would have gotten him back on the bike if there was. Going up the hill was challenging, he was all over the road. The second half of the block was a breeze -- you'd have thought he'd been riding for years. He did great and was so proud of himself.

He wanted to call Grandma Doughty right away -- look Grandpa -- he did it before he turned 8 -- he's got better balance than his mother did ;-) Of course, I took away the training wheels a year and a half ago, before he had a chance to develop the mean lean...

Granite...

This truly is a lengthy process. Everything needs to dry for a certain amount of time. No snapping your fingers and being done... You know how I am about being patient -- the waiting is killing me!!!!


Last week the guys put up the cement board that goes behind the tile. They also drywalled the ceiling and the wall. I guess there are several coats of mud that have to go on drywall...



Anyway -- the granite was installed today.



The shower seat, threshold, soap dish, and shampoo dish are made of the granite.



It's really hard to tell from these pictures, but the granite is a

purplish brown. With the beige tiles it should really pop out.

This is a close-up of the soap dish.

I can't wait -- did I say that already ;-)

The tooth fairy strikes again!

On Wednesday August 6th, Andrew lost his second tooth. He looks a little funny, but he's quite happy. He kept complaining that his wiggly tooth got in the way when he was eating. The empty space doesn't seem to bother him.

He was surprised to wake up to another dollar fifty (this time it was one dollar, three dimes, and four nickels). He had fallen asleep on the couch and didn't remember getting into bed. He came into my room in the morning waving his plastic bag of money shouting "Mommy the tooth fairy brought me money and I didn't even leave her my tooth." I had to explain that mommy left the tooth in his bed for the tooth fairy to find since he was too sleepy to remember to put his tooth under his pillow.

We didn't take another shopping trip as of yet, but one is coming since he has to get a birthday present for his friend's birthday party this coming Saturday. I'll be staying far away from the video game aisle ;-)