Easter Bunny & Egg Decorating!

Last weekend we took Andrew to see Red Robin (aka The Easter Bunny!)  He still calls him Red Robin.  I think he got confused the night we took him to Red Robin and they had a toy there that he wanted the Easter Bunny to bring him!  Ha!

Waiting patiently to visit "Red Robin."

They had little bunny feet for him to stand on and wait.  He stepped right on them.  Too funny!  We noticed he is growing up so much these days because he has learned to wait in line pretty well.  This used to be very challenging for him!

I think he was fascinated with the bow!  Ha!

He told the Easter Bunny a couple of things that he'd like for Easter.  I think he thought it was kind of strange that the EB didn't talk back to him!  I think he wanted the reassurance.  Ha!

So when he didn't talk, the EB teased him a little bit instead.  I think the EB got a kick out of Andrew!  He is quite the little ham!

The best part of visiting the EB is getting to ride the train for a dollar!  Andrew just loves this.  We always get him 2 tickets so he can ride again.  Because he always asks!

I'll never forget a couple of years ago when he screamed the entire train ride.  Now he can't get enough of it.  He is growing up so fast!

He sat right in front so he could ring the bell (the whole entire time!)

His second ride he chose the green car!

After the train we gave him some coins to throw in the fountain.  This is probably his most favorite thing to do at the mall (or anywhere there is a fountain!)

This weekend we also got some visitors- Uncle Jay came over to help daddy put up a chair rail in baby sister's room, so the kids came over to play with Andrew and we had a blast!

We grilled out for the first time this season and it was so good!  Andrew just loves being with his cousins.  He hadn't seen Evie and Jayden since they came to visit him in the hospital.

While Uncle Jay and daddy worked hard, we dyed Easter eggs with the kids!

Andrew was so excited to do this, and he really got the hang of it!

He even learned how to use the scooper thing so he didn't make a mess!  Ha!  (He is my kid after all!)

Auntie Rachel still had the great idea of changing into old clothes for the project!  I had to go to the basement and dig out some of Andrew's clothes that don't fit him anymore!  Ha!

He was looking at the designs we colored on the eggs before we dyed them.  He wanted me to make a dinosaur!  Believe me, it isn't easy drawing anything on an egg with white crayon...but a dinosaur is next to impossible! 

Say CHEESE!

Our collection of eggs.  Aren't they pretty!

I had to take a picture of the guys, so here's a little sneak peek of baby's room!  There you go!  Ha.  Craig worked so hard painting and these two worked all night on the chair rail and it just looks perfect.  I am so excited and am so grateful to my brother in law for his help!  Thanks Jason!

The evening was getting longer since the guys were still working and the kids were so wild!  So I had them pick out a movie, I dimmed the lights and made popcorn and we never heard another peep out of them!

Do you like Andrew's forest green sweatpants that are about 3 sizes too small!?  Ha!  Perfect for egg decorating!

I think it was close to 10:30 when the guys finally came down and enjoyed some scotcheroos.  Everyone was tuckered out, as you can tell!  Andrew even fell asleep on daddy like this.  It was such a fun evening, and the baby's room is done!  (Well, the painting/chair rail part anyway).  Last night Craig put the crib together and we got the dresser painted and new knobs put on it.  It is super cute!  We just redid an old dresser my mom had in her basement and I just love it.  I can't wait to take pictures of the final product but we are still waiting on bedding and some more final touches!

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him." ~ John 3:16-17

It's All Better Now!

I can't believe my time off has come to an end.  The time really did fly by being home with Andrew.  I am kind of sad that this week has been awful weather so we have not been able to go outside and play at all.  I always enjoy taking Andrew to the park or watching him ride his bike up and down the street.  He just loves being outside but we've been cooped up this week!

I took him to a couple of stores with me the other day and this picture cracks me up.  On the way home in our new van, he had on his headphones to hear the DVD player, his hat and he wanted sunglasses because the sun was in his face!  Ha!  All this, along with his hearing aids of course!  I just had to laugh.

The other day we had a heart support group meeting.  I had missed the last couple, due to us being on lockdown!  But I have loosened up a little the last couple weeks, knowing that Andrew would have to be thrown back into germ world soon anyway!

Our meetings are at a super fun place that has a play area for kids, and costumes to dress up in!  He found this Sulley costume and was so thrilled!

He wanted to wear it for a long time!

Then he found a "dinosaur" one and wanted that on!  Just lately he has gotten into this dressing up thing.  I think I need to pull out all his old Halloween costumes and leave them in a bin for him to play with.  He'd have a blast!

The other day he also had a dentist appointment.  This was his second time, and he did great.  They took x-rays for the first time and he really did a good job.  He is certainly used to having x-rays (of his chest!) so this was not really new to him.  He always acts so sweet and innocent at most of his doctors appointments!  Ha!  It cracks me up.  Everyone always says how good and sweet he is.  I tell them that he's got them all fooled!  Ha!

We got the okay to send him to preschool and he can now play outside and go to the gym.  So he has been loving a couple of hours in the mornings getting to see his little friends.  These are his best friends at preschool, Payton and Nicholas.  They are all he talks about!  I love how he and Nicholas are holding hands!  I think they all missed each other when Andrew was gone.  Andrew was so excited about these 3 Little Pig houses, he wanted me to take their picture by it!  So funny.  I thought it was a great idea!

The only thing that has been keeping him from wanting to go to school is doing his "squares" and "triangles" for writing time.  One of his first mornings back, he wasn't really back into routine and the teachers said he wouldn't do his work so they had him do it during center time.  Apparently that didn't work either, so when they all went to the playground for recess they made him stay in and sit by the window so he could see everyone playing!  Poor thing!  Ha.  I was a little sad for him but I know it was a good thing.  It just made me have a different feeling about the kids I keep in for recess to do work!  Ha!  Now that I know my own kid is doing it!  Anyway, he learned that he has to do his work in order to play (such a young age!) but they said he's been doing really well lately and has now moved onto A's and N's!

They have a great writing curriculum called "Handwriting Without Tears."  They start out by learning to draw shapes and make a "Mat Man" which is a drawing of a person, not a stick person.  Then they do a variety of shapes that correspond with letters in their names like triangles (so they make a connection to the letter A, etc).  It is really good.  So once he got the squares and triangles down, he got to move to the letters in his name!  This is his very first sheet of A's, and he was so proud.  I notice he didn't finish the last row...maybe he got tired!  Ha!  

Lately he has just been going crazy over the commercials for the movie Rio.  And when we noticed at McDonalds they have all the toys, he's been going nuts!  We've eaten at McDonalds a few too many times lately, so I finally decided to just go in and get the toys without a happy meal and surprise him with them as his "stay in bed" prize!  Ha!  It's been working great and he is so excited to get all the toys.  Anyway, as a reward for doing so great at preschool lately, daddy and I took him to Rio in 3D on opening weekend.  We all just loved it!  It was his second time with the 3D movie (our first time, his first time was with Ga Ga when he saw Tangled) and I didn't think it would go well.  At Disney he would not keep the glasses on, but this time he did awesome.  I think he realized he could see better with them! Craig and I actually liked the 3D too!  It was much better than I thought it was going to be.  We all loved the movie!

And of course, we can't be home together all day without some more funnies... the other day I ran upstairs for a second thinking he'd be fine (I mean seriously?  The kid is almost 4 1/2 years old, I should be able to trust him alone to play with his toys, right?)  When I came back down, he had helped himself to a banana by pulling up a kitchen chair, getting the scissors out of the drawer (thank god I moved the sharp ones up high!) and cutting open the banana all by himself.  He was so proud.

I just had to laugh and grab the camera, as usual!  And then when I had him pose for a picture he decided to stick the scissors in his face!  Nice.

 Andrew had to show off his scar to you all!  It is just looking amazing these days- it is all healed and Andrew keeps saying "It's all better now!"  It is so cute.  I think he realizes that he went through a pretty traumatic experience, but that it is over now.  What a huge relief!

Even though our fun time at home together is coming to an end, I am so proud and relieved to say that Andrew is officially "all better now" and ready to return to school and day care.  He has been through so much, but has continued to come out on top.  He is so amazingly strong, and one amazing kid.  And it also helps to think that only another month before we'll be back home together again for the summer,  and baby sister will be arriving during that time too!  It is so nice to think that we don't have surgery looming over our heads going into the summer like we thought we would.  Summer is one of our favorite times together, since daddy gets to be home more too.  Soon it will be time to clean up the boat and head to the lake!  We definitely have some exciting times ahead, and we can't wait!

Sawgrass Park

So it has been a long time since we've had professional pictures taken of Andrew.  I sort of promised Craig when we sprang for my new camera that I would take the pictures from now on, since we often spent what a nice camera costs on professional photos!  Ha!  I have some awesome new editing software I just haven't had a chance to delve into yet... and frankly,  I have been sort of nervous about doing the whole photo shoot thing, not knowing how Andrew would behave, and not wanting to get him all dressed up and go somewhere only to have it be a flop.

Typically this is the face I get, or he runs from me!  Ha!  So we went to the park.  I didn't really dress him up, I just "coordinated" him for our first try!  And we found a cool new park with much nicer scenery and something different than that in our own neighborhood.

Sometimes I feel like all the pictures I have of him are taken from our house, our park, or the same things over and over.  I wanted to do something different.

And I'm so glad we did.  Andrew was too!  Ha!

After all, he still got to play at the park!

He calls it the "Treehouse" park, and it is really cool!  It is sort of hidden back away from everything, and there is a little pond with a fountain, and a walking bridge too.

And you could even crawl up in the Treehouse!

I loved experimenting with different angles.  This is one of my favorite pictures, but it could be because I have always loved this kid's feet!  I love his little crooked toes, they are adorable!

Just chillin...

He tried to run away from me after this one, yeah behind him back into the bushes right by the creek.  That would have been real nice... pregnant me chasing him through the sticks and weeds!  Ha!  Luckily I diverted him with coins to throw in the water!

Works every time!  Except you can tell here that he's getting impatient with me!  Ha!  He had almost had enough of the photo shoot by now... but he really did great!

I loved this background with the stones.  Kinda felt like we were in Colorado there for a second... wishful thinking!  Ha!

He did really good posing the way I told him to.  I could tell he's getting older and actually listened to me... most of the time!

Every once in a while I'd get a shot like this!  Ha!  I mean, I can't just show you ALL good ones...you have to see some of the candids too, because out of about 100 pictures, most of the time you only get a select few good ones, and most of the rest look like this!  Ha!

Or this!  Ha!  This is just too funny... it is a classic Andrew face.  He's totally being himself here!

I saved my two favorites for last.  I love this one of him upside down.  

And this smile?  Made it ALL worth it!  This face is just my Andrew.  It shows his personality, and just speaks volumes to me.  This is the real thing.  My sweet, sweet boy.  Complete with the chipped tooth from when he face planted off his bike last summer.  I could just eat him up with a spoon!

So not only did we have a special afternoon together at the park, I made a photo shoot out of it too!  And I think they turned out pretty good for my first real try!  Maybe next time I will dress him up and find another place that looks like a vacation spot!  Ha!  

As long as there's a place to play!