Thanksgiving Weekend

We have sure made the most of our 5 days off! We have been so busy, but we were able to see a lot of family.

Wednesday
I was off work on Wednesday, but Joey was not. Andrew and I spent the morning together at home and then took lunch to Joey at work. Andrew had never been to Mercedes before, so it was nice to be able to show him to some of Joey's friends. After Joey got home, we went to Moundville to Uncle George (Joey's mom's brother) and Aunt Laura's house to have Thanksgiving dinner.

Aunt Laura and Aunt Debbie with Andrew:
Uncle George and Aunt Debbie with Andrew:

Paw Paw and his buddy:

Andrew loves to work on sitting up with his Aunt Holly.

It was very yummy-especially Laura's green bean casserole!

Hmmm...I wonder what Joey is the most thankful for this year??

Cade and Cole came in cute matching outfits.

Joey and I didn't get to hold Andrew much that night. He thought that Aunt Laura was very funny.

Aunt Debbie and Aunt Laura would take turns stealing him from each other. He's a lucky little boy to have some many people who love him!

Thursday

On Thursday, we woke up very early and went to Wetumpka. I love being home on Thanksgiving day! Susan, Marshall, and John Marshall spent Thanksgiving at the beach with Marshall's side of the family, so they are not in any of these pictures:(

I have a lot to be thankful for in my life, but these two are pretty high on the list:)Andrew with Aunt Amy (my dad's sister) and New Bob:

Family picture on Thanksgiving Day:

My brother, Steve and my dad:

Time to eat...If you have never experienced a Karen Reneau Thanksgiving, you are missing out!

Ever since my mom found out how much Joey loves banana pudding, she makes it from scratch for him all of the time. Does it matter that I HATE banana pudding?? NOOOO, because Joey is her baby!

Guncle Steve and Aunt Olivia--I don't think I have mentioned yet that Andrew will be an honorary ring bearer (with his cousin, John Marshall) in their wedding on May 21st! In the Reneau house, everyone relaxes after the big meal...

and many fall asleep!

Friday

Joey and I got up early on Friday morning, left Andrew in Wetumpka (can you believe it?) and went to Tuscaloosa for the Iron Bowl. I think it took us about 30 minutes and several "one more" kisses to tell him good-bye. This was the first time that I have ever spent the night away from him. While I knew that he was in good hands, it was still really hard.

On the quad before the game:

Because of Andrew, I had not gone to any games this season. It's a shame because I really liked the view our seats. Roll Tide!

Joey and I went to dinner after the game and went to bed at 7:04!!! We slept for 10 hours, and it was WONDERFUL!

Saturday

We both woke up at about 5-Joey went to work, and I went to Wetumpka. Andrew, my mom and I spent the entire day Christmas shopping. I wanted to buy ONE outfit for Andrew at Storkland in Montgomery. Notice the my stroller is packed down with clothes for my little man, and I (of course) lost the fight and did not get to buy any of them.

He was absolutely exhausted after shopping all day.

Saturday was also my nephew's 2nd birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN MARSHALL!

Sunday

Andrew and I drove back home to Tuscaloosa. We are now waiting on Joey to get off of work so that we can spend the evening together. It's been a great, long weekend!

Harder to Blog

Since going back to work, it has been much harder to find time to upload pictures and blog. We have had a busy week, so we have a lot of cute pictures to share. Andrew got sick for the first time last Wednesday. He had a terrible cold and an ear infection. Joey took Friday off to stay home with him. He is now on antibiotics and seems to be doing much better. Unfortunately, his sickness has made him a terrible sleeper at night. Before he got sick, we were so close to him sleeping through the night. Now, he is up every 3 hours again. Hopefully, he will go back to his normal routine once he is well.

With me spending more time in the nursery at night, Ralph is also spending more time on his rug in the nursery. Anytime I go in to rock or feed Andrew, Ralph comes to help me. He always lays on the rug right in front of the crib. I always want to get a picture of him, but it is always during the middle of the night. Joey finally got this shot of my sweet little boy on his rug.
Speaking of Ralph, he helped put up all of the Christmas decorations in the house. Joey won't put up the outside ones yet-he says that it's embarassing to have them up so early:)

I had my camera on the wrong setting for the next picture, but I had to post Andrew's first time in front of the tree. We will get a better one later.

On Monday, Andrew turned 3 months. I love looking at his monthly pictures and seeing how much he has grown. He is working so hard on rolling over and sitting up. He also learned how to splash tonight during his bath. He laughed and laughed as he was splashing. He is able to use his hands to actually do things--push a bottle away, grab my hand and push it away as I try to put saline drops in his nose, etc. He is also strong enough now to rock himself in his bouncer.

This picture was taken on a day that he was not feeling well. All he wanted to do was snuggle with his daddy.

I love dressing Andrew each morning for school. We went with a preppy look in a polo shirt yesterday.

Today was "Western Day" at school, so Andrew wore his overalls. After school we had to go to Sam's. Then, we came home for about 30 minutes before leaving for church. He used this time wisely by taking a quick nap in his dad's chair!

End of Maternity Leave

My maternity leave is officially over. If today was not a holiday, I would be a work. So, what did Andrew and I do on our last day together? We sat in a dark, quiet room with a humidifer. My buddy woke up this morning with a cough and some congestion. The pediatrician's office told us the best thing to do was to let him sleep with a humidifier. I thought...why make him wait until bed time for some relief? So, we are in the nursery, lights out, door closed (Ralph's not happy) and he sounds so much better already. A few minutes ago I realized that I could at least go get the computer while I sat in here...in the dark...while he is asleep. It's not a very exciting day here, but I'm glad that I am with him.

Isn't the frog humidifier cute? One of the teachers at my school gave it to us. To my pregnant friends who don't have a humidifer...get one!
I am at a point in my life where I am surrounded by moms, and most of us keep our opinions to ourselves so as not to offend others. One thing that I do not hide is my belief that co-sleeping is very dangerous. We do not allow Andrew to spend the night in our bed. He is in his crib every night with his SIDS monitor. We do let Andrew get in the bed with us, but our rule is that one parent must always be awake. If we are both sleepy, then he cannot be in the bed. I must admit that pictures of him in our bed are sooo cute;)

Andrew started daycare this week, and he did wonderfully. I spent the week working in my classroom and hanging out at the daycare to help us (mainly me) make the transition. Because we are now away from him during the day, we like to spend every second that we can with him at night. We still get on the playmat as a family each night.

Andrew has learned that he can kick the toys above him. We joke that he is going to have abs of steel if he keeps this up! He wants to roll over so badly. He can get his legs and lower body over, but his arms are not cooperating. I don't think it will be long until he can do it!

I got some really exciting news today that made me VERY happy. Unfortunately, it's a secret-ha ha! Check back tomorrow to find out! My little man is waking up:)

Our Weekend

This weekend was another busy weekend for our family. On Friday night, we went to a Sunday School party. We love our class so much. Everyone is in the same stage of life and very encouraging to us as new parents. Sadly, the girls lost all of the games that night. Andrew slept in this position for the entire time. Everyone was screaming and jumping around during the games. I kept thinking that he was surely wake up. Nope, he didn't move!

On Saturday, we met my family at Cypress Inn for lunch. We got together to celebrate Olivia and my birthdays...a little late:) My mom won't let us celebrate birthdays unless we are all together, even if it is a month later. Here are some pictures from our lunch:

John Marshall loved the famous Cypress Inn muffins. Look closely in each picture. He is either holding or eating a muffin in almost all of them.

About to open my one year subscription to People magazine...YES!

After lunch, we spent the afternoon at home. We have started putting Andrew in his Bumbo for a few minutes a day. Despite the following picture, he really does seem to like it. I love this picture, though. He looks like he is thinking, "What in the world are we doing?"

We watched the (horrible) Alabama game together.

After the game, we went out to dinner with several of our friends. Here are Amy and Janna with Andrew.Chris and Amy practicing:)

Andrew loves his Randi!

This morning, we went to church. I wrote last week about how wonderful the nursery workers are, and I was once again very pleased this morning. Here he is with Mrs. Sue. The picture is not that great because I took it with my phone. Double click on it to make it larger.

I hope that everyone has a great week. Please pray for our family as Andrew starts daycare and I go back to work. It's a bittersweet week for me, but I thank God that I trust his daycare workers and I LOVE (and miss) my job! Also, please pray for my parents as they travel to Israel this week with a group from their church.