I LOVE This Place

The Missouri Botanical Gardens.

So beautiful, so much to see, never enough time. Sometime I would love to go there for a whole day with my better camera and just walk around, sit on a bench and relax for awhile and then take some pictures. Maybe someday! Soon?
But for now, here are some pics from a trip we took there as a "family date" about a month or so ago. It was great. Added bonus, it's free before noon on Wed and Sat for St. Louis residents. :)
Did I mention I love this place??? I think my son does too, until after a few hours he realizes it's just plants. Just plants? I love plants! Well, don't worry Andrew, we'll be hitting the zoo a few times this summer and seeing a few animals, for sure!

He really did love the place. Andrew was so excited about the flowers at the entrance to the building that he got really upset when we told him we had to actually go in. Just wait until you get in, Andrew :)

He even gave the flower at the entrance a hug. So sweet.

There was a section of over a thousand different kinds of irises. I've never really paid much attention to them before, but these were beautiful. And with crazy names like "Grandma's Pajamas", it was fun to walk through them :) Andrew thought the little orange thing inside the one below was a caterpillar. He loves caterpillars!

Andrew loves the water... any kind.

The best part was watching Andrew explore, of course. He's so adventurous and funny. Definite entertainment!

We met a little friend while we were walking.

We were watching it for awhile and a lady came up to us and very close to the snake, leaned over the bust that he was on and said, "Oh, are you looking at the baby squirrels?" When she saw that what we were looking at was a snake a few inches from her, she screamed rather loudly, squeezed my arm rather tightly and ran away rather quickly yelling, "Sorry, I'm so sorry! I hate snakes!" I thought it was pretty fun except for the fact that my arm was a little sore for a while!

Trees... clouds... ahh, so beautiful!!! It was such a perfect day.

A few family pics, but none of us ALL together. I need to just grab a stranger to take our picture together at some point, or if anyone wants to join us some time, let me know!

Oh, there was one animal. Andrew took advantage of the situation.

Rock Throwing

This activity does not require much... just some rocks and some water to throw it in. And I'm telling you, this kid LOVES it and would do it for... well, I don't know how long because I've always had to take him home after an hour or so. So maybe for days. Who knows.

Are you ready for this?

I've heard from too many people that it's about time to post some more Andrew pics and updates... and you're right! So, where have I been? Well, probably the main reason I have not posted in awhile is the fact that Andrew is in a big bed for the last month. Keeping him there has been EXHAUSTING to say the least. We are sticking to our guns, though, and I'm sure it will pay off! One negative side effect is that he has been sleeping a lot less than he used to. Translation... less alone time. It's alright, I'm adjusting, accepting, and dealing. But, it has pushed a lot of things to the back burner. Like blogging... and cleaning. But, as promised this will hopefully catch you up a bit on the highlights of the past few months and keep you entertained for awhile :)

Andrew Changes

Andrew is continuing to grow up and he loves to say that, too! He is talking like an kid and saying things that are beyond hilarious and I should really write them down! Here are a few that I do remember:
-"Mommy's pretty" (okay, not funny, but adorable)
-"Daddy, can you teach me to drive?" (funny, but a little scary)
-"I want to wear my naked shirt" (when asked to decide between two non-naked shirts)
-"Daddy's naked!" (when Josh walked in the room with just his shirt off)
- After his nap he said, "It scared you" (you means me).. when asked what scared him, he replied, "The Parmesan Cheese scared you." with a very serious tone.

Andrew is part monkey, just like his daddy. He loves to climb and is SO good at it. Ladders, monkey bars, ropes... not a problem. I love his adventurous side and can't wait to see it develop. He also is LOVING the pool this year. Maybe we can teach him to swim! He also loves helping Daddy work on the car. (Daddy loves that he loves it!)

Andrew loves books and when I tell him stories. I could probably tell him stories for hours and he wouldn't get bored.
His favorite stories are:
-Daddy and the the Man with the Yellow Hat take Andrew and Curious George to get smoothies after a fun day at the park.
-Mordecai helps Esther decide which puppy to take home to keep.
(I gotta tell you, storytelling is great creative outlet!)
His current favorite books are:
-Where's the Poop?
-Curious George Story Collection
-Hop on Pop
-The Very Hungry Caterpillar
-I'll Love You Forever

Something that Andrew gets from his Mom... hmm... is uh... I don't know... I can't decide. We'll that's just it. He is very indecisive. If you've ever gone to a restaurant with me, then you understand where he gets it. Mom and Dad, I now understand what you had to deal with as I grew up. Ask my parents about our trips to the Convenience Store in Bloomington sometime! But anyways, dealing with this really has been a challenge and maybe I can learn a little bit about how to make decisions as I try to teach him! (I am at least a little better than I used to be... I hope)

Family Changes

Josh is done with all of his boards and classes! He's just finishing up in the clinic and hopes to be done a little early and preceptor with a doc up in St. Charles that he likes a lot and has been screening for for the past couple years. And so, in August, he will graduate. Our four year adventure in St. Louis will be coming to an end(sort of... I'll explain later). I am soooo proud of him.

Also, as many of you know, we will be heading South for the winter. Josh will be training with a Maximized Living Doctor down near Orlando, Florida for four to six months. We'll need to be there by November 1st. So, really it's not that far away! I'll actually be training as well, since I'll be the office manager and need to learn pretty much everything about how to run the practice. We are so excited to be doing this together and cannot wait. I've heard that opening our practice will be 5 times harder than we could imagine, but as hard as it will be, we're ready.
After training, our plan is to come back to the St. Louis area, but we are still up in the air. Going near both of our families is still an option, even if it's small... and I've been hearing some amazing things about the Northern West Coast. We'll let you know when we know :)

Pictures
Yes, I cannot end this without my signature mountain of photos... especially since it's been so long. I know you all love me for it :)

outdoors:





















his new bed


Looking proud of his accomplishment:



Mother's Day:





Daddy's Little Helper:



Just plain cute and/or funny :)

And because there are so few of us together... here's one of me and Josh at his class party on the river.

Riley Sue

My sister Rachel had a baby last February and I think it's about time to share that! Her name is Riley Sue and she is the cutest little baby girl in the whole world. She is 3 months now! A lot of you reading have probably all seen her and seen pictures, but this is for those of you who haven't and for our own memories. I look forward to seeing her and Andrew grow up together!



Andrew pretty much ignored her when she was born. The above picture
By the way, Andrew when from no interest to minimal on our second visit. The first acknowledgement was when he said "Baby Riley has a diaper just like me!" after about an hour or so of being there. That's progress :)

Here's a cute pic from one of our last visits. I love how she maintains eye contact and likes to communicate.

Thanks Rachel, for letting me steal a few pics from your blog. These are more recent than mine. Isn't she adorable?





I can't wait to watch you group up, sweet little Riley girl.

Easter Weekend

This year we spent Easter with Josh's family. We had such a great time seeing everyone again.

We hoped to teach Andrew a little of why we celebrate Easter. I think he's starting to get it :) He knows that Jesus died on the cross for our sins(like when we don't obey our mommy or daddy) and he knows that Jesus is alive. How much more complicated can it get?! And it is so amazing to hear your little child say those things. It is so precious!
I realized just how much I love to do fun stuff for Andrew on the holidays, as well as any other day. But, I just had so much fun putting together and Easter egg hunt and basket for him. We did it right before we left for the trip. He had 6 eggs around the house, each with a clue where the next one was. The last clue led to the car where we had his Easter basket waiting. He had a lot of fun finding the eggs and really enjoyed his basket while we drove. (I did learn that you don't have to really hide the eggs for 2 year olds unless you just want to show them where they are!) By the way, I was trying to avoid a lot of candy, so I put a mini playdough and toy fish in each egg and then filled his basket with toys and books and movies, and dried fruit bars instead of candy. He loves those things from Trader Joe's. Here's a picture of the basket and then some from the hunt...













On Saturday after we arrived in KY, we went to go see Shane(our brother in law... Kandace's husband) do his practice runs on the race track. It was really cool and Andrew loved it. After that, we had fun just hanging out and then having a cookout around the fire at night.



Andrew and Kale's reactions:

On Sunday, we went to Granny and Pop's church. It's crazy how different churches can be and all still have a passionate love for the Lord through and great preaching on the death and resurrection of Jesus. I say that because we go to a great church that is strikingly different than the small country church we were at on Sunday (even smaller and more country that the one I used to go to, and a lot of you reading still go to!!!). It's just really cool because even though as Christians we're all different around this world, we love the Lord and will spend eternity worshiping him together in our diversity.
Anyways, the afternoon was fun with more family and food and Easter Egg hunts. There was so much family there it was great. We even got to see Daniel, Josh's cousin, who we hadn't seen in awhile and Brian's kids and family were there,too.
Here is Andrew's conquest of eggs in the hunt... he even found the golden egg that had five dollars in it (which he later spent on a cute little play dough set with mini beach toys in it... he payed for it himself, too, which was so adorable)




A few more pics from the weekend:




This next one is of all the girls with candy teeth in our mouths.

And Kale(Andrew's cousin) was very interested in Andrew, but Andrew's face in this picture pretty much sums up his feelings for Kale, as well as any other babies!





It was a great weekend and hopefully we'll be back there sooner than later.

I Will Remember You, Winter

In nice contrast to the lovely Spring season we're expecting to roll in today, I thought I'd post some cute pics from the snow this Winter. I think this was least snowy winter of my life. We had a couple good days, though, so I won't complain! (Hmm... maybe Summer will take the hint and only give us a couple days of high heat and humidity...)

Now he's already for some sledding... he went down once, but hit a snow bank so he decided it would be more fun to just watch Mom and Dad. So, as much as we wanted him to enjoy sledding, he still had fun in the snow and we had a lot of fun, too.






By the way, a great tip to keep gloves on is to duck tape them to their shirt. It worked like a charm. In fact, he couldn't get them off when he tried!

For some reason, Andrew has fallen in love with hats and winter gear in general, but with this bright neon yellow hat in particular. It was Josh's from when he worked at UPS and loaded planes. You may still see Andrew in this hat, he may be wearing it well into the summer as much as he loves that thing! He loves trying the stuff on and putting it on his stuffed animals. Anyways, here are the pictures...

Goodnight Daddy

Hey Josh,

Since we are not there for you to tuck Andrew into bed, I thought I'd send you a little video through the blog to make you smile. Goodnight :)

Love you!

Sarah