Well, this post is a little late in coming, as it was supposed to be for Andrew's birthday...better late than never, though, right?
Anyway. I cannot believe that Andrew is 3! It seems like we've had him in our lives for so much longer than that, and yet at the same time, I can't believe how fast time has gone by. We love our Drewbert, he's a fun little guy. I've really enjoyed watching him learn and grow, especially this past year as he has learned to speak really well, read the alphabet and numbers, and express his emotions and desires. It's pretty incredible how much children learn in their first few years of life. Because of how much he has developed, I tend to treat him as though he's older than he is (which is probably a good and bad thing). But then I go check on him before I go to bed, and I see him curled up in his bed and he seems SO young and innocent. My angel baby, as I used to call him. Andrew is fun, smart, energetic, stubborn, loud, crazy, and most of all, sweet. Yes, he has his moments where I think he's a monster :), but he is also very caring. When one of us gets hurt or upset, he is so sweet when he tries to comfort us. I love him. So much! Happy 3rd Birthday Drewbie!!!
And now, pictures of Andrew from each birthday. 
Brand new Andrew...not even a couple of hours old!
Andrew's first birthday cake...he loves it!
Andrew gets birthday pancakes on his second birthday.
Andrew gets a bike for his third birthday.
Let me give a quick shout-out to all of Kara's peeps! Since Kara has neglected y'all I thought I'd step in to fill the void. (That's right, I said y'all...we've been in Texas for over two years so that's how we talk now) FYI: "y'all" = singular, "all y'all" = plural. Anyway...today's Andrew's birthday, and I've been thinking back over the past 3 years. Reflecting on it all, having kids has really made me appreciate the fun and funny moments in life and has really taught me to look on the positive side of things. (If you ever wondered about the cosmos being balanced I can tell you that they are, because Kara tries to shoot down all my sunshine with her pessimistic appraisal of our situations). So, in celebration of the funny moments in life I thought I'd share with everyone one of my hobbies. I like to collect funny pictures. In particular I really like to collect funny baby pics. Don't know why, maybe I just like to laugh at people who can't do anything about it. Whatever the case may be, here's a sample! ~John
How about you become an even worse sleeper than you were before? You could wake up at midnight, 2:30am, 4:30am, and then 6:30am! And THEN you could take only a 30 minute nap! I think that sounds GREAT, how about it?!?! Oh, wait...
Sigh.
I really do love you lots, sweet baby Grant, but still...I'm quite tired.
I can't believe I'm turning into a once a month blogger! Things have just been too busy...and when it comes to deciding between sleeping or blogging, sleeping always wins. I'm about to head off to bed soon (I desperately need whatever sleep I can get, Grant is quite sick) but I thought I'd say "Hello blogosphere!" I will be back soon with lots of Christmas pictures. I bet you all are so excited you won't even be able to sleep! Here's one cute little picture until then:
Drewbie loved the Christmas tree and had lots of fun decorating it. Shorts in December...that's Texas for you, even though the day before had been freezing.
And I know you all missed me so dearly. I don't know if it's laziness or busyness (or both) but blogging has been rather low on my list of priorities. Anyway, we're still alive and well...or somewhat well, I guess...we can't all manage to be healthy at the same time, but such is life in the winter.
So, we went to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful time!! We decided to drive, and drive straight through, but it actually ended up being ok. Mostly because John is really good at staying awake...I however, am not so great...though that may have had something to do with seeing Twilight at midnight the night before we left. Worth it though. My favorite part of the drive was when Andrew coughed so hard he threw up all over himself. I was driving and John started freaking out "He's puking, he's puking! PULL OVER!" Before the car had even come to a complete stop John had opened the door and jumped out. SUCH a wimp about vomit. Seriously. Boys.
Anyway, we got to spend an entire week with John's family and it was lovely. Andrew was in heaven, having someone (or several someones in this case) to play with and entertain him constantly. He adores his grandparents and aunts and uncles, and it was so fun to see him with them. It was also great to have everyone get to see Grant, since they hadn't seen him since his blessing in July.
It was a relaxing week, we played a lot of Wii and ate a lot of pie. It was declared "Pie Week '08", meaning there was a new pie every day, with six pies on Thanksgiving day. Fortunately for me (and my waistline), while I make pies, I don't eat them (except for chocolate chip pie and chocolate meringue pie). I got to try some new pie recipes, so I had a lot of fun.
The night before we left we took Andrew to see the lights at Temple Square, because he'd been telling us all week that he wanted to go see the temple (so cute!). It was crowded and cold, but also beautiful, and Andrew had a great time. Before we were even out of the state of Utah we were missing everyone. We love Texas, but sometimes it's too far away. If only it were located between California and Utah...who needs Nevada, anyway?
Here are some trip pictures, most of which were taken by "Sydawg", who Andrew had a blast with. Thanks Sarah!
Morgan tagged me this time, and I love tags...so here goes!
*8 TV Shows I Like to Watch:1. Pushing Daisies (but it's getting canceled....noooooooooo!)
2. Ugly Betty
3. Heroes
4. Fringe
5. Lost
6. Chuck
7. The Office
8. Samantha Who
I'm really behind on all of these shows though because I haven't been able to record them (need more DVD-RW discs!), which means I can only watch them on the internet (which is a pain).
*Favorite Restaurants (limiting to 8 will be tough...)
1. El Ranchito Taco Shop
2. In-N-Out
3. Bombay House
4. Babe's
5. Tepanyaki
6. Mandarin
7. Chipotle
8. Either Texas Roadhouse or Red Hot and Blue
*Favorite Places to Shop (hehe, everywhere...except WalMart)
1. Target
2. Costco
3. Michael's
4. amazon.com
5. Banana Republic, if I could still afford it, Old Navy instead
6. Best Buy
7. Pretty much any store with cute clothes and shoes
8. Any store that carries nice cooking/baking stuff...but again, I can't shop at these places right now
*Things that happened yesterday
1. Did preschool at Robyn's
2. Played with the kiddos at the park (Grant rode on the swing for the first time! It was cute.)
3. Watched The Office
4. Ate at Chipotle, even though I shouldn't have
5. Worked on Christmas lists
6. Filled out insurance info for next year...exciting, I know.
7. Laundry
8. Cleaned the oven (we had a nice little oven fire the other night...whoops! It was so John's fault though. :)
*Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Thanksgiving in Utah
2. Christmas in California
3. Andrew's birthday
4. Buying a house
5. The holiday season in general
6. Watching my children continue to learn and grow.
7. Going to see Twilight with the girls.
8. Appearing on Deal or No Deal and winning $1,000,000. Hey, a girl can dream.
*Things on my wishlist:
1. A house. But are we going to be here long enough for it to be worth it? Who knows.
2. A minivan. Yes, I want a minivan. Desperately. So?
3. Losing 25 pounds
4. Culinary school
5. To travel the world. But especially to at least make it to every continent.
6. To have a baby girl....no, I am not pregnant or even considering getting pregnant, or even ready to THINK about being pregnant again, but I do really want to have a girl. My boys ROCK but I want a daughter too.
7. Cubs win the World Series (though if they couldn't manage to do it this year, I'm thinking it's not gonna happen).
8. World peace....can't come up with anything else, sadly. But this would be a good one, don't ya think? Oooh, I know...opening my own bakery.
*8 people I am tagging:
1. Maren....maybe this way she'll actually update her blog!
2. Robyn
3. Laurel
4. Liz
5. Emily
6. Katie
7. Marni
8. OK, I'm out of people...go me.
Robyn tagged me a few weeks ago, but I was having a hard time coming up with 7 random things (sad, huh?) so I kept putting it off. So here goes!
1. I have to eat my M&Ms in threes. If I'm about to finish a bag and I only have two left, I usually don't eat them. Yes, I'm a freak.
2. I've had at least four root canals that I can think of. I'm going to have dentures by the time I'm 40.
3. I love to sleep. Love, love, love it. Sadly, I don't get enough any more...oh, what I would give for even 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep (though I certainly don't have it as bad as some :). I miss you sleep!
4. Back when I was at BYU I promised I would never live in Texas. And now, here we are...living in Texas. And--gasp--enjoying it!
5. Whenever I drink a bottle of Dr. Pepper (yes, tsk tsk, I know) I never drink the last little bit. It drives John nuts, but I think it tastes bad.
6. I am going to go to culinary school (for the baking/pastry program). I don't know WHEN I'll do it, but I will. And then I will open my bakery.
7. I'm training for a half-marathon that's in February, but I'm discovering that my (relatively) young body thinks it's 40. My shins hurt, my knees hurt....it's awful. When I'm on an elliptical machine I do great, but when I'm running outside and have lots of impact on my shins/knees...yikes. Here's hoping I can get this all figured out before the half-marathon!
Ok, tag... anyone who wants to be is it. Lame, I know. My brain is shutting down though, so that's the best I can do.
Brand new Andrew...not even a couple of hours old!
Andrew's first birthday cake...he loves it!
Andrew gets birthday pancakes on his second birthday.
Andrew gets a bike for his third birthday. 
