Andrew's 2nd Birthday

This post is so late, but I guess that is how my Decembers are going to be.  Having a December baby, Christmas, and traveling make December a crazy month for us.  Get ready for a bunch of posts to catch up. 
Andrew was lucky enough to have two birthday parties this year!!  The first party was on Friday and it was a joint party with our friend Max whose 2nd birthday is 10 days after Andrew's.  We invited all of our neighbor friends and had a Sesame Street party.  Both Max and Andrew are really into Sesame Street right now.  The boys had a lot fun with all of the Sesame Street decorations. 

Cupcakes with an Elmo and Cookie Monster candle.  Andrew had to carry his candle around for the rest of the day.

Laura's creative game, Oscar's trash toss.  The kids loved it.

The boys before the party eating some goldfish and watching Elmo's world.

Favors,  Laura had the best idea to do Elmo PJs for the little kids!

Pin the nose on Elmo

Getting ready for cupcakes

The other party was at our house the day before his birthday.  We decided to go with a football theme because of his obsession with football.  We had family and close friends over to help celebrate.  He had a great time.  He was so tired after everyone left, but so excited about everything that he couldn't even settle down for a nap.  He seems like such a big boy to me now!

Some of the food

I have to give credit to Sweetheart Cupcakes in Plainfield for doing such a great job with the birthday cupcakes.  I am pretty much obsessed with that place now.

Favors and gift table

Andrew's gift from Papa and Mema

The Grandparents

Ready for some cupcakes

On Andrew's real birthday we gave him a basketball hoop.  I think he had a blast on his birthday weekend.   It feels like yesterday that I was planning his first birthday. 

2 years old

1 year old

My brand new baby

Andrew is changing so much everyday.  We did go to his two year check up and everything is going great!  I was shocked when they said I didn't have to come back until he is three!  Three??  That seems like forever from now.  It was just a reminder for me to take time to enjoy everyday with him.  He is amazing and I love him so much. 

Happy Birthday Andrew!  We love you very much!

Our 1st REAL Christmas Tree

Every year that Mark and I have been together we have always had a fake tree.  I guess I was just used to a fake tree because it is what we had growing up.  I started to notice a few of my friends get real trees and they seemed to really like it.  They told me stories about going to the tree farm and picking out a tree.  Sounded like fun to me this year and I thought it could be a new family tradition for us.  As many of you may know, I am not the outdoorsy kind of person.  I am not a big fan of getting involved with the outdoors and nature.  I like to look at it from my climate controlled window.  One thing I have learned over the years is to step out of my comfort zone and experience new things.  So that is what I did. 

We were able to tag along with my friend Bev and her family to the Christmas tree farm.  Our friend Kersten and her family also came along.  I was so excited to find the perfect tree for our house.  Last year we put our fake tree in the entry way and that is where I wanted it to go this year.  Our entry way is two storys tall so I knew we didn't have to worry about how tall it was.  When we arrived we took a tractor ride over to the Christmas trees.  They handed us a saw and dolly.  Off we all went to find this perfect tree with six adults and six kids.  Sounds fun right??  Well, the kids were not into it at all.  I think they were just confused about the whole thing.  They followed along and they were all pretty good. 

There were a few different types of trees and I had no idea what to get.  I did find one type of tree I liked but they were all so short.  We ended up deciding on a tree with the long needles and I have no idea what kind it is. 

Here it is...

All ready to go home.  That seemed easy enough.
 

When we got home we put Andrew down for a nap and got to work.  Mark cut off some of the trunk and we brought it in.  I was worried about putting it in the tree stand because I have heard a lot of stories about trees falling down.  Our tree seemed to fit right in the stand.  Everything seemed to be going great until I saw a spider.  I am sure everyone knows that I HATE bugs!!!!  This wasn't just any spider, it was a jumping spider.  Then I started to worry...what have I done??  Our house is going to be infested with spiders.  To make matters worse, I found SEVEN spiders on the tree.  Mark vacuumed up most of them with a shop vac and that made things better.  It is now 12/15 and I have not seen a spider since the second day we brought it home.  Thank God!

We decorated the tree the day after we got it.  After we decorated it we decided it was too wide for the space we intended it to go.  So yes, we moved a decorated nine foot tree to another room.  Mark really loved that!  The good news is the tree didn't fall and no one was injured. 

So, I guess the jury is still out on if we are going to get a real tree next year.  We haven't really had a problem since the spiders.  The one thing I was looking forward to was the great smell everyone talked about, but ours doesn't smell.  I guess we got the wrong kind.  I will post a picture of the decorated tree soon.  Can't believe I haven't taken a picture of it yet. 

Andrew has pretty much left the tree alone.  When he looks at it he says, "Christmas tree big."  I tried to put the breakable ornaments up high.  There is a soccer ball ornament that he likes to play with, but I try to remind him not to touch the tree. 

Hope everyone has a great Christmas!!  We just finished Andrew's birthday celebrations so hopefully I will have more time to post on here.

Tracey 





Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken in October and I am finally taking the time to post a few.  I thought this year would be easier because Andrew is a little older and can kind of understand when you tell him to smile.  I was wrong!  It didn't help that the temperature was in the 40s and the pictures were all outdoors.  Andrew's nose was running and after the fifth picture he was done.  Shelly was still able to capture some good candid shots and I love them.  Our life isn't a perfectly posed shot.  It is totally unpredictable, just like these shots. 

Kisses for Mommy

Nice necklace Mommy (Just trying to avoid the lady with the camera)

Andrew is finally ready and we aren't even looking.

Love this one with Daddy!

A stick!

My fav of me and Andrew

Love this one too

That is more like it

This was kind of Andrew's overall mood for taking pictures that day

There's a smile

Last picture of the session, runny nose and all

These were just a few of the pictures.  Shelly really did do a good job.  I am saving the really good ones for Andrew's birthday invitations and our Christmas cards.  Be watching for them in the mail!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house.  My mom and nephew, Justin, came over to celebrate with us.  Andrew enjoyed playing with Justin.  Justin is almost six, but they still play really well together.  I spent the whole day in the kitchen cooking.  I don't really love cooking, but everything turned out pretty good.

I did decide to venture out on Black Friday.  I met up with Bev and we went to Joanns and Target.  I know, I know we sound so cool buying fabric on Black Friday.  We wanted to get some more fabric for our new sewing hobby.  I also picked up a few Christmas gifts while we were there.  I really didn't expect a ton of people at Joanns on Black Friday, but I was so wrong.  It was crazy in there.  We were probably there over two hours.  It was worth it when my receipt said Total Savings $170.95.  We also went to Target so I could buy a Christmas tree stand (that was not on sale) for our first real tree (post to come).  Here are some pics from Thanksgiving. 

YUM

Half eaten Mint Chocolate Silk Pie

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

Thanksgiving is such a great reminder to be thankful.  I feel so blessed at this point in my life because there is so much to be thankful for.  I am so thankful for my family.  Mark is such a great dad to Andrew and he helps me out so much.  I don't know what I would do without him as my best friend/husband!  Love you Mark!  I am thankful that we are blessed with a healthy son.  I love him so much and he has changed my life in some amazing ways.  Another huge thing I am thankful for is that I am finally starting to feel at home in Indiana.  I have made some great friends over the last year and that has made me feel at home.  I am always thankful for all of my family and best friends from Ohio!!  I miss you guys so much!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!

Tracey

Papa's Birthday

This past weekend we went back to Missouri to visit Mark's family for Papa's 60th birthday.  The drive over went pretty well.  It is about a seven hour drive.  Andrew would prefer a six hour drive or shorter.  The last hour he is over it.  He is done with snacks, toys, songs, or anything else I can give him to keep him occupied.  The true challenge of the trip was sleeping.  He was not loving the pack and play, so he slept with us the first two nights.  He woke up pretty early each day and would wake up in the middle of the night.  I cannot wait until he is happy sleeping in a bed versus a crib. 

He really enjoyed visiting with all of the Creason Family.  This was a fun trip because he is at the age where he remembers names and calls everyone by name.  He loved telling Papa Happy Birthday.  Andrew also had a lot of fun playing with Mark's old toys.  His parents saved a bunch of toys from when Mark was a kid.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

 

The fam in our early Christmas presents from Matt. Thanks Matt!

60th birthday present

We also got to celebrate Sandra's 1st wedding anniversary