Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:3-5

This is such a fun stage in Andrew's life, and Tim and I are cherishing each day we have with Andrew. Since our family is just a few weeks (maybe days?) away from becoming a family of four, we definitely want to tuck these memories away of how precious Andrew is now before things get a little more hectic and exciting with 2 little boys in our home.


Andrew is 14 months old now and is proving to be quite the cautious boy. He's been trying to walk for the last 2 months, but is still hesitant to take off on his own. He loves to push his red Pewi bike around the house or hold Mommy or Daddy's finger to give him a sense of security. The last couple of days, though, he's really made some bold progress and even dared to walk across the living room all by himself. There were 2 new events in his life that may have influenced his little mind after he had time to process - we went to small group gathering with lots of older walking toddlers that he wanted to keep up with and he got promoted to Toddler 2 class at church where everyone else is walking. I was so happy that he's no longer in the Crawlers class at church... I think this was holding him back a little and not challenging him.


Andrew is extra giggly these days and finds humor in so many things. Miles is still his main source of humor throughout the day, and he spends countless time throughout each day going over to Miles to roll around on his belly, press his head to Miles' head, and just love all over him. He thinks everything Miles does is funny... except when Miles gets excited about his ball and knocks Andrew over, which happens every day.


New words are learned every day, and Tim and I are laughing this week, because a very popular new word is "Bobby" in our house. We have no idea who Bobby is, but he's mentioned several times by Andrew each day and always accompanied with a laugh. He must be a funny guy :)


Charlie is still growing and getting perfect reports each week from the doctor. So far he's measuring up at almost 7 lbs at 37 weeks along, has long fingernails and flowing hair from what we can see of the sono pictures, and is measuring in the 70th percentile for growth and size. We're so excited to meet him! We are still amazed that God has chosen us to be the parents of 2 little boys. We are praying every day for a safe and easy delivery, and that Charlie is a good eater and sleeper when he arrives.


We have a new nanny at our house who started working at the end of May. Amanda is wonderful so far, and Andrew is starting to get used to having her around and feeling comfortable with her. We still miss Tita very much, and I think the transition has been very difficult for Andrew. Tita has come to visit us each week though, and we hope she will always be a part of our lives.


Andrew has gotten to visit the pool several times already since it opened after Memorial Day. He loves the water, and Daddy plans to take him to swim lessons next weekend! Andrew loves watching the other kids and also getting to see Delilah at the pool. Delilah is so patient with Andrew and very nurturing of him when he falls or gets frustrated. We're thankful for her sweet, patient and loving spirit :) Baby Tabitha, who will be here this fall, is already so lucky to have such an awesome big sister.

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately!

Getting to play with our friend Piper

Henry came over to play!

Hanging with Dad at the pool

And of course spending time at the pool with our bestie, Delilah

Being silly in the stroller with food all over our face

First attempt at PlayDoh... it's so hard not to just eat it!

Playing at the park with Amanda

Outdoor pool fun

What's over there?!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

Dear Charlie,

This post is just for you my little angel. I still can't believe that you're going to come into the world in just a few short weeks. You've already taken your place in our hearts and in our family since the moment we learned about you. I can't even tell how delighted, surprised and humbled we were when we found out that God had created you and was blessing our family with you. Back in October of last year, I was busy trying to close out a third quarter review at work, but my mind was elsewhere... I knew something was different, but I just couldn't let myself believe that it was possible there might be a baby growing. Since I like to know things immediately, I tried to calmly stop at the pharmacy on my way home from work that Friday. I promptly took a pregnancy test pretty quickly after walking in the door. When it turned positive (almost immediately), my heart just stopped.

GOD IS SO GOOD... ALL THE TIME!!

What a miracle you are! When I told your dad, his eyes filled with tears. He was so overwhelmed with God's blessing on our family. We were and are so honored to be your mommy and daddy and we can't wait to meet you. We talk about you almost every day and wonder what you will look like.. will you have hair like your brother did? Will you look more like mommy or daddy? Will you and your brother be best friends (we hope so!)? Will you be a calm and passive little guy or will you be high energy and eager to learn everything at once? We can't wait to find out!

Here are some pictures of you as you grow in Mommy's tummy. The first one you are about 16 weeks along and this is when we found out that you are a boy! We kind of thought you were :) The next one is about 22 weeks and the next about 26 weeks. And then finally, there's a picture of mommy's belly with you in it at 30 weeks.

Charlie, we love you so much our hearts could explode and we can't wait to meet you and see your sweet face!

Love,
Mom

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said! Matthew 28:6

Happy Easter Andrew! This is actually your second Easter... do you remember how little you were on your first Easter?

And now look what a big boy you are!

We were all a little surprised at how eager you were to take on the Easter bunny this year! You made us laugh at how quickly you wanted to grab his ears and fur and PULL as hard as you could. As you can see, Mr. Easter Bunny wasn't too happy about all that grabbing. Here you are looking at the eggs you found with Delilah and Tucker. You got frustrated at one point and started crying, so Delilah gave you her eggs to help you feel better. In every picture we got with the Easter bunny, you were trying to pull his fur!

You looked so cute and were a trooper for the Easter egg hunt, even though you were hot and hungry. We ate outside with everyone and you were extra sweet. I hope you enjoyed your fist real Easter egg hunt!

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

Your first haircut! This update is a little belated, but on your birthday weekend, you got your first haircut by Aunt Kobie. We are all surprised at how quickly your hair is growing and those curls couldn't be more precious. Since it was starting to get in your face and you were getting a little rat tail in the back (not cool), we decided to give you a little trim before your party. You were happy to sit there and eat your cheerios while she snipped away!

He fills my life with good things! Psalm 103:5

I've been such a bad mommy not to update in so long!! So much has been going on, I'm not sure where to start.

But most importantly first.... ANDREW, YOU'RE ONE!!

You had such a fun party. We did the party the day before your birthday on a Saturday afternoon at 4pm. You had so many friends who came, I think about 14 other kids! Delilah let us borrow her balls and we made a ball pit for all our friends and you to play in. 

To go back and update on what's been going on in our lives, in February your Grandy and PawPaw were in Fort Worth visiting while PawPaw worked in Dallas for a month. You loved spending time with them! You are so sweet with them, and you still love your Grandy's laugh that always makes you laugh along with her. She was so kind to come over and make dinner for all of us many evenings and we got to spend lots of quality time with them.

We've unfortunately had lots of sickness this winter, with 2 stomach bugs and many many colds. You've been a trooper through it all, but we're all ready for the sick bug to leave our house. 

You've been eating really well lately, but you still like to throw a lot of your food all over the floor :) We're working on that. You had a major texture issue a few months ago, so we're happy that you can eat bigger foods now and don't want to gag immediately. Your favorite thing are pastas, even with vegetables. You love lasagna and anything with marinara sauce. Your other favorite thing is chicken nuggets. We're still struggling with most vegetables. 

We also just got rid of all bottles and you're drinking whole milk from your sippy cup. At first this was a really sad transition for you, but you're doing much better now. 

The weekend after your birthday party, I took a trip to San Francisco to visit Courtney, Robby & Virginia. I missed you so much! You and your dad went and bought a new bike trailer that you love! You are refusing to wear your helmet though, so we need to get used to that before we take the trailer out on the trail.

You are so close to walking, and we think anyway now you'll take off on us all by yourself. For now, you love to push all your riding toys around the house and the driveway.

Here are more fun pictures from your birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY!! We love you more than you'll ever know.