Andrew 9 months

Andrew just keeps amazing us every day.  He started army crawling at the beginning of the month which turned into a slow crawl which has now turned into a "I can get into everything" crawl!  For those of your who don't know what an army crawl is, it is when a baby crawls on his stomach and just uses his arms to move around. He is definitely keeping us on our feet now.

He is eating all table food now.  It definitely is a different mind set when you are thinking about what to make for dinner for 3 people now instead of 2.  I have to say to myself "is this something Andrew can eat too, cause if not I am going to have to fix something else for him."  He has tried chicken noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans, peas, meatloaf, bananas, turkey, bread, chicken nuggets, french fries, hamburger, tater tots, stuffing and too many others I can't keep track of.  He had his first kids meal at Chick-fil-A this past month too!

First kids meal at Chick-fil-A!!!

At the beginning of the month he met Matt's Grandma Virginia and Aunt Deb for the first time.  They came to Kansas City to visit all the grandchildren and see everyone.  We hadn't seen them since our wedding so it was very nice to see them!  A couple of weeks ago Andrew started saying "Dada".  Even though he spends all day with me, he says dada first.  I have heard from a lot of moms that dada is a lot easier to say than mama.  I guess you save the best for last ;)

Enjoy some pictures:

He just woke up.

Hey mom can I take a picture!

Loves to watch the cars drive by.

Hey mom look!

First toy he pulled up on.

I am not doing anything mom!

"Baby jail" as Matt likes to call it.

Hi mom!

Why did you put this up mom???

Eating spaghetti for the first time.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Look at all those cars!

So excited about this Thursday as it will be Andrew's first Thanksgiving and we will be hosting at our house this year! I have the turkey and ham in the fridge.  Going to try and brine the turkey.  Hopefully it will come out tasty!  Also going to make mashed potatoes, cranberries and pumpkin smoothies!!!  I am sure I won't be able to sleep Wednesday night as I will be making lists in my head of things to do/make!  Matt's parents will be in Tuesday night and staying with us for the week.  My sister in law Stephanie, brother in law Mitch, and father in law plan on going Black Friday shopping!!! So excited!!!  Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Meeting New Faces

On Friday October 25th, Matt's Grandma Virginia and Aunt Deb came for a visit to Kansas City.  Aunt Deb lives in Hays and Grandma Virginia lives in Smith Center, Kansas. They got to hang out with all the grand kids and meet Andrew for the first time!  They came over to the house Friday afternoon and hung out for a while.  They told me they had a great time meeting Andrew and to spend some time with him.  Hope to see them again at Christmas time!

Andrew and Aunt Deb

Andrew and Great Grandma Virginia

The next day Andrew, my sister in law Carolyn and I participated in the Step Up For Down Syndrome Walk at Arrowhead Stadium.  My friend from high school Kelsea's son Issac has Down Syndrome.  This is my second year participating in it with them.  Their group is called Issac's Idols!  Once Andrew gets older, it will be a lot of fun for him.  There are bounce house, play areas and a lot of things to do for kids.  Then at about noon, we go on a mile hike around Arrowhead Stadium!

This is the group that participated in the walk this year.

This is my friend Kelsea and her son Issac.

This is Kelsea's husband, Craig, and Issac.

Andrew was ready for the walk!

My sister in law Carolyn joined us for the walk.

Later that night I went to the Progressive Woman's Dinner with our church ladies.  It was so much fun! I invited my friend Jean and we had some great talks.  This year's theme was "He Make Us New Every Morning" and we got to wear our Pj's!  What this dinner is is that we all meet at the church.  We all split up into groups to ride together in cars/vans/SUV's so we all aren't driving. Then we go to the first home and have appetizers.  Since we were in our pj's, it was a breakfast theme for all the meals.  The three homes we went to were of ladies from the church.  It was a casual laid back atmosphere.

After that we headed to the second home were we had a sit down meal.  Oh and did I mention there were around 70 ladies at this dinner!  Yes, all of us went to each home at the same time and yes we were all very cozy with one another!  The dinner/breakfast was amazing!  Lots of casseroles, sausage and gravy, biscuits, eggs dishes, bacon, juices, coffees, teas! My favorite dish was a casserole sausage and gravy biscuit deliciousness!  Then after we ate, we heard a wonderful and strong woman by the name of Jessica's testimony.  There was not a dry eye in the house!

After dinner/breakfast we headed to the third house and had dessert.  There were pastries and sugar galore!  Everything was delicious and it was so nice talking to the ladies of our church!

Last weekend was pretty relaxed.  Andrew and I met up with my mom and Grandma at Oak Park Mall for lunch then ran our usual errands.  Sunday was pretty relaxed also.  Matt watched football all day and I cleaned up the house and did some laundry.

So happy it is November for two main reason's: 1. KU basketball has started and 2. We will be hosting our very first Thanksgiving!  This year we will be celebrating it will Matt's side of the family.  Matt's parents and his sister Michele and her family will be coming up from southwest Kansas.  After Thanksgiving we plan to go Black Friday Shopping!  This year is a little bit more special because we will be shopping for Andrew for Christmas! So excited about that!!!  We have started to put a list together.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk, Go KU!

Will be cooking some recipes out of this lovely cookbook for Thanksgiving!

I better not blink because before you know it Thanksgiving will be here, then Christmas, then Andrew's first birthday!