Another Covenant child

Tony officially joined our church today, and Drew was baptized. It was quite a big day for our family, and we had lots of friends and family who shared this momentous occasion with us. Here are some of the photos. This is everyone who came to celebrate with us... WHAT A CROWD! The "little man" of the hour and his mama.
Nana and Ben.
Sonya with Brodie, who was ready to go :)
Drew snuggling with mamaw.
Chris (or "kiss" as Raegan calls him) was hanging out with his little buddy Raegan. Macie giving Drew some love.
I loved the mischievous look on this face! She and grandad have a little game that they were playing.
Raegan with Grandad.
Our little man isn't quite so little anymore. Here is a close up of his chubby legs. He is probably 13 to 14 lbs now! As you can see, he doesn't miss too many meals :) Our sweet boy snuggled up to his daddy.
Raegan and Drew snuggled with daddy. I'm not sure who wanted to take a nap the most :)She actually sat still for about 3 mintues. I think that is a record for being still and snuggling at the same time!
Here she is trying to take a picture of her self. The end result is almost frightening! And no she doesn't have on lipstick, she had cherry sucker all over her.
By the end of the afternoon, Raegan had played as hard as she could with all out little friends and cousins. We hadn't been out of the driveway long before she was sacked out!

The "game" of mothering

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a pitcher on a baseball team. It's the 9th inning, and your relief pitcher is out sick that day. It's up to you, and you are exhausted. Just when you think you are about to croak... they send in there best hitter against you. This is how I feel about mothering some days. Sleep deprivation, a toddler who is testing her limits CONSTANTLY, a baby who is suddenly demanding more time and attention, and a husband in the middle of tax season who is working 6 days a week have made me feel whipped. Thus the lack of posts these days. Hopefully with warmer weather just around the corner, we can get this toddler outside to burn off some of this pent-up energy and fill our lungs with much needed fresh air. If I could just figure out how to get Drew to sleep longer at night!

Drew is being baptized tomorrow, so hopefully pictures will be up soon.

Better late than never

I just realized that I never actually put up this post of Drew turning 3 months old!!!! I had it all typed out and pictures loaded but never actually posted it. So here it is, a couple of weeks late. Our little man is now 3 1/2 months old, but here is the infamous picture in the "reading chair" of him at 3 months. This was the best I could get with Raegan running around distracting him. These were my favorite though. What surprise!
Here is Raegan sweetly reading to her baby brother.
Raegan loves to help feed the dogs. They really like it too since she doesn't stop scooping until I take away the scooper. Sadly, she is wearing a pair of shorts that she found when I told her to go get her pants so we could go outside. She brought me this pair, which happens to be a pair of Drew's 6 month shorts... and yes, they fit her just fine. She is so tiny, and he is so big!
She was admiring and airplane, and I just loved how this picture turned out!A new favorite of ours, playing outside with bubbles.

And of course, she still loves our dogs. Here she is with Casey giving her some love.

A hunting we will go

We took the kids to our local park for the big Easter Egg Hunt, only to find that there wasn't a group for two year olds. They said it would be fine for Raegan and her little buddy Ryan to participate though. Needless to say, our two year olds were a little slower than the 3-4 year olds the hunt was geared for. Both the kids ended up finding two eggs a piece, but they seemed to have great fun just watching the other kids scramble about frantically looking for eggs. I got the biggest kick out of some of the parents... let's just say it doesn't make me look forward to playing competitive sports with some of these kids later on. Anyway, we did enjoy the fresh air of this spring-like weekend. The biggest surprise was that Raegan actually liked the Easter Bunny. We figured she would be terrified of her, but she loved her. Tony took this picture of us just before we set out for the big hunt.
Drew spent the whole event snuggled up sound asleep in his sling.
Raegan seems to be saying... "Hey, cool bucket Ryan. It even has your name on it. My mom is too cheap to special order one with my name on it!"
She did actually win a prize, one of those ready-made Easter baskets. She was more proud of her two little eggs in her basket."Okay mom, I got my two eggs and one piece of candy. Let's go home and take a nap!" Funny enough, she did go home and take a 4 hour nap! She had spent the night with Nana and Grandad and didn't get much sleep. Too much fun for one little girl.

Here is a random picture of our two dogs. I found them snuggled up together on one bed. They love each other.

It smells like spring...

It smells like spring when I walk outside, but I'm afraid to get my hopes up. After all, spring isn't officially here yet, but we are enjoying the warm weather while it lasts. We are thankful for a few days of sunshine and fresh air, if for no other reason than to get out and rid ourselves of the germs that are trying hard to stick around. I think we are finally over the worst of our illnesses. YEAH! Let me show you some sweet baby smiles from our little man Drew. I've had a hard time catching them on camera, but today he cooperated. Check out that red hair!

He was chuckling in this one. That is the sweetest sound!
This was taken this morning to prove that Drew had survived the night. Let me explain a little. We were all exhausted last night, so the kids were in bed by 8:30 and we were in bed by 9:30. Now, Drew has been sleeping pretty well, usually about 5 hours at a time. Last night however, I woke up in a panic at exactly 4:08 a.m. and I was thinking... I don't hear Drew. I ran to his room, barreled through the door thinking I would find him not breathing. Instead, I found him sleeping peacefully and still swaddled up in his blanket just like he likes it. He didn't stiruntil 4:40 (even after his crazy mother felt of his head, and checked just to make sure he was breathing) . I couldn't believe it... he slept for 8 STRAIGHT HOURS!!!! We all finally got the good night's rest our bodies so desperately needed. Then he didn't get up for good until 8:00 this morning. I had forgotten what that much sleep felt like!

Here are a few of our pictures from our play date today with our little buddy Ryan Kidd. Drew did seem to enjoy what little bit of fresh air he got today. Here he is all snuggled up outside. (mind you it was 65 degrees)
I loved this action shot of Raegan. She was trying to say cheese with the sun in her eyes, and while swinging. This is the face we ended up catching.
This is how Drew spent most of his time outside. I loved how the wind was blowing Raegan's hair around today. I guess I just love the fact that she actually has some hair now.

Here is Ryan's mommy, Lisa (or Shi-sha as Raegan likes to call her) pushing the kids on the swings.
Raegan wanted to climb the rock wall so bad, but she just couldn't figure it out yet. She was happy to let Lisa help her up. They decided to come inside and take a break. Drew wanted to be big today too. Ryan really does like Drew, but it was getting close to his nap time for him to snuggle up to him :)
Yesterday, Raegan was sweet enough to lay down with Drew and show him how to really enjoy his little toy. I didn't have the heart to tell her his little arms just won't reach the toys yet. It's the same thing when she tries to give him something to hold in his hand. She just doesn't understand why he won't take it.

Raegan was talking to him and he was just grinning from ear to ear. I think he is warming up to her a little.
Just a random picture of my cutie pie.

New job

For those who don't already know, I will not be returning to the work force next week as planned. I originally decided when I found out I was pregnant, that I was going to be a stay at home mom after Drew arrived. My boss, with much urging and persuasion, had talked me into coming back a couple of days a week. I was supposed to start next Tues., but had been dreading it! (think lots of tears :) After much thought, prayer and weighing the pros and cons, Tony and I decided that it would still be best for me to stay home with our kiddos. So I don't actually have a new job, I'm just staying in my old one (the money isn't great, but i do get paid with lots of hugs and sloppy kisses... it's worth it!) Here are me and my silly kids goofing off. Raegan always wants to hold Drew, so i let her give him a lift on her shoulders. She thought it was great fun, but he was unfazed.

Notice his "Whatever" expression. He gives us that one alot. So laid back!
This is the same shirt that Raegan wore last year as a tribute to daddy. The sad thing is, they are about the same size when wearing it (and Raegan was 6 1/2 months old :)
Raegan in the same shirt.I just thought this was sweet of Drew. He has been a little under the weather, and has been sleeping a lot. He will just curl up anywhere and snooze. I had just laid him down to brush my teeth and he dozed off.
I always love pics of hands and feet.

Apparently all you need to be successful on the potty is a good book and a fancy scarf! Who knew.
Here she is patiently (kinda) awaiting her breakfast. "Anytime now mom!"
I loved the expression on Drew's face. He was staring at his big sister... he really does seem to love her.
Again, he is mesmerized by his big sis.