Sunday, January 30, 2011

An Andrew Hog

That is what Joey is! My boys are inseparable on the weekends. Here are some pictures from today.

Ready for church:

Hanging a picture:
Watchinig some football:

Slept Through the Night

Andrew SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT for the FIRST TIME on Thursday, January 27th! It was amazing! We did not get up once--not even for a second to put a paci back in his mouth.

I blogged several weeks ago that we were trying to break him of his swaddle. Well, that was a complete failure. He simply won't sleep without it, and any frequent readers know my thoughts on "crying it out." So, we continue to swaddle. On the night of the 27th, I of course woke up naturally and had two thoughts:

1. Holy cow, I can't believe that he hasn't gotten up.
2. Oh my gosh, is he okay?

I looked at my monitor and noticed that he had gotten his arms free from his swaddle and was sleeping in his classic Andrew position--arms above head. With his arms free, he can now also grab his own pacifier in the crib. So, now we still swaddle him, but we leave his arms unswaddled. Unfortunately, he has not slept through the night again, but he is sleeping better. Here is a blurry (taken from the monitor) picture of his new sleeping look.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Reason #534,864,524,942,457,574 why I love being a mom

Sweet moments like this one with my little man... We began nightly devotionals with Andrew when he turned five months. My mom kept telling me that he was ready to start, and I kept saying that he was too young. I was wrong. He really does pay attention. I look forward to this time with our family so much each night now. He knows how to turn the page (sometimes) and LOVES to close the book!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Stuffed Pasta Shells

Ingredients:
One pound of hamburger meat plus the following:
Jumbo Shells--doesn't matter what brand
1 (8 oz) package of Italian 5 cheese
1 (8 oz) tub of chive and onion cream cheese.
2 (24 oz) jars of any brand of pasta sauce--There was a 44 oz jar on sale, so that is why I have that large one, but normally I get the two smaller jars.


Boil your pasta shells first. I normally boil about 25 shells. Put a teaspoon of olive oil in the water to keep the shells from sticking together. Also, do not put the heat up too high when you cook your shells, or they will stick to the bottom of the pan. Brown your hamburger meat.
Drain the meat and put it in a large bowl. Your pasta shells will probably still be cooking.
Add the entire tub of cream cheese to the bowl. Add the majority of the shredded cheese to the bowl as well. Leave just enough shredded cheese to top your shells with.
Mix together the cheeses and meat. Sometimes the cream cheese clumps together, so make sure to mix this really well.
Your shells will probably be finished by now. Drain them. Run cold water over them or else you will burn your hand when you begin stuffing.
Pour a thin layer of the pasta sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 dish.
Lay your shells on a paper towel to dry them and make them easier to grab when you are stuffing.
Begin stuffing your shells with the meat and cheese mixture. Be generous with the stuffing. You have more than you think!
Lay your shell on top of the the pasta sauce.
You will end up with about 20 stuffed shells. I think I actually got 22 this time.
Cover the stuffed shells with the remaining pasta sauce and cheese.
Cover the dish with foil. You can either bake it now, or put it in the refrigerator and save for another night. Sometimes, I will make this on a weekend to have for a weeknight meal. It is so nice to come home, pull it out, and put it right in the oven on a weeknight.
Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.
The delicious finished product:

Trying to Sit Up

Andrew wants to sit up so badly, but he is just not quite ready. We work on it with him each day, and he is getting better at balancing himself with his hands. This probably doesn't look very impressive to most people, but he really is doing great. A few weeks ago, he would have just fallen flat on his face.
He took a break from practicing to help his dad work on the computer.
Today is Cade's birthday. Cade is Joey's brother's son. We went to Chuck-E-Cheese earlier this week to celebrate our sweet nephew's 6th birthday.
I can't believe he is 6. When Joey and I started dating, he was just a baby.
Cole, Andrew and Cade at Chuck-E-Cheese:
Happy Birthday, Cade! We love you!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

All Aboard!



Sent via DROID on Verizon Wireless

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

"Snow" Days

Despite the fact that we did not have any snow the past two days, I have been off of work. We did have a lot of ice in Tuscaloosa, so the roads were not safe to travel. We did not leave our house for over 48 hours. Here are some pictures from the past two days.

We got Andrew's jumperoo out. He is a little uncertain of what he is supposed to do, but he enjoys the lights and music. We will keep practicing with it because I know that he is going to love it like his cousin John Marshall did.
We also did some cleaning and organizing. Sadly, this is what the shoe section of my closet looked like. Yes, there are some random dvd's thrown in there, an old grocery list on the bottom shelf, and a random brown tank top on one of the shelves as well. Ridiculous!
I got sick of it and pulled all of my shoes out onto the floor.

Ahhh...organized:)



I found my favorite flip flops that I thought were lost in the hospital when I delivered Andrew. I also found some missing jewelry that I thought had been lost with all of our missing luggage from our honeymoon. Maybe I should organize more often!

I did some cleaning/organizing in Andrew's closet, too. The clothing dividers below are not new, but I just wanted to show them because they are wonderful and so helpful. I got them at www.onestepahead.com
I needed something in Andrew's closet to lay out his clothes for the week. Since he started school, I try to plan out his outfits for the week so I don't have to think about it in the morning. I was putting the outfits on the bottom shelf of the changing table, but I never had enough room for all five days and it looked really messy. So, I bought this (also from www.onestepahead.com)

Another thing that got cleaned in our house...our little man!


We finally left the house for the first time on Tuesday night to have dinner with the Glasgow side of our family. Andrew looked spiffy in his suspenders outfit!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Floor Time

Our family still spends a good bit of time on the floor together each night. Here are some pictures of new things that Andrew likes to do during this time.

He has been rolling for several days now. He rolls from his back to his tummy a lot. He has only rolled from his tummy to his back once. He is all or nothing with the rolls and never stops to lay on his side. He figured out that he could stop mid-roll and lay on his side tonight, and he seemed to really enjoy it.
Andrew is also old enough now to actually play with his toys. He grabs them, shakes them, eats them, etc. He really likes his giraffe. It rattles and has different colored feet that he loves to grab.

Andrew keeps his hands in his mouth constantly. He normally uses the first two fingers on his left hand. This is the classic Andrew pose:
However, he will occasionally mix it up and go with the right hand. This is pretty rare, though.

My boys love to spend time on the floor together playing with Andrew's new dog, Scout. Scout is a really cool dog because you can personalize him by downloading your child's information from the computer. Joey programmed him to sing songs with Andrew's name in them and cats. How can you go wrong with that selection?

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy New Year!

We hope that everyone has a wonderful 2011! It will be hard to top the many blessings of 2010, such as this guy! Andrew and I have had several days off of work and daycare to spend together. We made the most of our time and stayed busy. We took lunch to Dad one day.
We organized all of his clothes. Good bye 3-6 month clothes. Hello 6-9 month clothes. Sheesh!

We worked on sleeping WITHOUT a swaddle. Don't let this picture fool you. We have a long way to go. Without his swaddle, he rolls over and gets mad because he cannot roll back. Our pediatrician said to stop using the swaddle after he is able to roll. Andrew said that she is mistaken.

Finally, we celebrated an Alabama win! Here is Big Al cheering on the Tide!



Here is a rare glimpse at Andrew's deepest, darkest secret:) He loves this pink/purple paci, but we only use it at home.