Andrew's First Birthday!!!

Well we officially have a 1 year old!

Andrew's birthday happened to fall on a Saturday and I wanted to do something special.  His birthday party was on Sunday so I had a fun filled day planned.  We started out the day watching our Fox 4 news channel.  This was a special day because on the weekends they do a special 1st birthday segment.  I mailed in Andrews picture and he was featured! He didn't win the Dairy Queen cake but he was still on TV which was awesome! To be honest, I teared up a little when I saw him on TV because he got excited.

Here he is on TV!

Here is a link to watch it just in case you missed it on TV (you have to scroll down to part 2):

http://fox4kc.com/2014/02/22/first-birthdays-for-february-22-23/

Andrew took a morning nap and then we headed to Fritz's for lunch on Shawnee Mission Parkway.  My sister Renee, my brother and sister in law and their kids met us there.  It was a very fun experience and Andrew loved watching the trains go round and round.

Birthday boy!

Lunch at Fritz's!

A train goes around to each table to deliver the food! Very neat place.  The original one is in Crown Center.

After lunch we met Matt, April and Maddox at Wonderscope.  It is a hands on everything place. Here is a link to their webpage to check it out:

http://www.wonderscope.org/

I think the grown ups were having more fun than the kids lol.

Andrew watching all the golf balls hit the targets.

Sorting the vegetables at the farm.  Learning where our food comes from.

Playing with the Lego's with daddy.

Daddy built Andrew a car.

The next day we had Andrew's birthday party!!! Since we were in the process of selling our house, we talked to my parents and had his birthday party at their house.  We got there and set up all the decorations.

The them was Winter Onederland! So I decorated with candy, gumballs, suckers and all his photo books.

Center pieces were white gumballs and red cherry suckers.

My aunt provided the balloons which Andrew loved! Thanks Aunt Audrey and Uncle Bob!

This was the collage of month pictures leading up to his birthday.

We have had that Happy Birthday banner forever!

Another balloon and the banner I made.

Goody bags filled with candy for the kids.

Birthday cake!!  It was from Sam's and very delicious!

We ordered pizza for lunch and then watched a video I put together of pictures I have taken over the years.  After that we unwrapped gifts and had cake! It was a great weekend spent with close family and friends.  We are so thankful and feel so blessed with all the people in Andrew's life!!! Thank you to everyone that was able to celebrate his birthday with us!!

Unwrapping gifts!

Snowglobe from Grandma and Grandpa Kreutzer.

Enjoying my cake!

I WANT MORE!!!

Love my family!!!

Andrew's new chair from Jon and Leslie! Thanks guys!

Update on house:  My house in Overland Park is set to close this Friday, our house in Gardner is set to close on March 31, we found a house in Columbia and they ACCEPTED our offer!!!!!  We close on that house on March 31st also!!! That is going to be a busy day!!! The movers come March 26-28 to pack up the house and store our things till April 1st!  We feel very blessed, thankful and a little less stressed.  I will feel a lot better when we are ALL sleeping under our new roof in Columbia! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!

Valentine's Day

Since Matt had to work and was in Columbia on Valentine's day, I spent the day with Andrew.  Matt did deliver some beautiful flowers the Monday before Valentine's Day so I would have them the whole week! How sweet of him! It also was the first week Matt would be away from us for work in Columbia.  Matt came home the Saturday after Valentine's Day and we just relaxed at the house.  It was a nice relaxing weekend with the two most important men in my life :)

Here are pictures of the flowers! So beautiful!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, were does the time go??? If anyone really knows the answer to that question, please let me know! Lets track back to January shall we.  Matt, Andrew and I go to Columbia for his interview at Pepsi.  We look around at the neighborhoods but don't think much of it.  Two weeks later, Matt comes home around lunch time (which is unusually because he normally doesn't come home during the day unless he forgot something) and tells us that he got the job!

Three weeks later, Matt starts his job in Columbia.  He said he's enjoying it, just wants Andrew and I in Columbia also.  Speaking of jobs, after Matt got the job I went into my job at Half Price Banners to let them know.  To my surprise, my boss asked if I would like to keep my job and work from home in Columbia.  To be honest, I thought he would ask me this and I told myself that I wouldn't do it.  I just felt like I needed to get out of the house and in an actual job with people in the room with me.  After talking about everything with Matt, the pros and cons and thinking about how much this has been a blessing to us, I told them I would love to keep working for them.  It has been a huge, huge blessing for me to work from home and have Andrew be there.  Once we move and get settled into our new home (where ever that may be) Andrew will be going to either a at home daycare or a daycare.  Since the banner season is picking up and Andrew wants to play more, I feel horrible that I can't play with him and work at the same time.  He will totally enjoy playing with other kids.

A couple of weeks ago we put the house on the market.  With my amazing redesign on the kitchen and our gigantic deck, we were pretty sure our house would sell within a 'normal' amount of time.  Well we (meaning I) didn't think we would get an offer in 14 days and close just a week and a half later! We close on the house on March 31.  Now we just need to find a house in Columbia!  No potentials yet but I know we will find the house we want and need.  We are going to have a lot of people visit us so we need room and we need to look in a good school district for Andrew.

Everything is slowly coming together and we are very happy with the decisions we have made.  Of course we will miss everyone in the area but there is a possibility we will be back.

Andrew 11 Months

The FINAL COUNT DOWN (cue music)!!! We are less than a month away from having a one year old running around the house!  Andrew had his first Christmas and it couldn't have gone any better!  He received so many awesome gifts that they have taken over the living room up and downstairs.  Some of the older toys he doesn't really understand yet but down the road he will love them.  Last month I though Andrew was getting one tooth in but my sister in law Carolyn pointed out to me that it was two teeth!  No more so far but I think he will be getting another one in the next week or so because his saliva production has spiked up.

Still drinking three bottles a day and eating all solid foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It will be interesting to watch him transition into milk after he turns one.  Matt and I were huge milk drinkers when we were little so I have a feeling he will be too.

Andrew took his first steps at the beginning of the month, then about a week and a half ago took about four steps.  Last weekend my parents came over to hang out with us and took more steps.  They thought is was the cutest thing when he was walking around the kitchen and living room with his walker.

Last week we found out that Matt received a promotion from Pepsi and we will be moving to Columbia!!! So proud of my husband and all the hard work he has done for our family! We are very excited for this new adventure in our lives.  Matt starts on February 10th and we will move once we sell the house here in Gardner.  So if you know anyone that wants to move to the south Olathe/Gardner area let us know!  We are going to Columbia tonight to look at house tomorrow.  Should be an exciting time!!!

Enjoy some pictures of the past month!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Playing with all my new toys!

This is Matt I believe at 3 months.

Great season 49ers!

Being adventurous!

Watching a video grandpa put on Facebook.

Christmas

Christmas was SO MUCH FUN!!!! Mostly because it was Andrew's first Christmas.  Since Matt had to work Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas, we had Christmas at my parents house this year.  We started out the morning at our house just the three of us, our little family.  Andrew did such a great job at opening presents! He got some clothes, books, baby computer reader, blocks and a growth chart from us.

Our Christmas tree

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

New pj's

We headed over to my parents for dinner and presents.  Everyone was there: my parents, my sister and her fiance Mark, Grandma Hamm, Aunt Audrey, Uncle Bob, Aunt Deann, Grandma Carol, Grandpa Galen, Grandma Georgeann, Grandpa Dale and of course us.  I think everyone was just as excited as us to watch Andrew open gifts and be there for his first Christmas.  We ate dinner which was amazing and then opened up gifts.  Andrew received so many gifts: books, stuffed animal that plays music and talks, 49ers outfit, bathtub set, Little People construction set, car garage with tow truck and some money.

Christmas tree at my parents house.

Andrew was ready for some food.

Some of Andrew's gifts.

My husband beat me to the punch and got me my boots! Love him and them!!!

My sister and her fiance Mark.

Grandpa gave Andrew a cupcake...

and he liked it...

he REALLY liked it lol!!!

Andrew and Uncle Bob

Thursday after Christmas we headed to Minneola.  It was going to be Andrew's first trip there and first long trip.  We traveled to Minneola with Mitch, Carolyn and the kids.  Stopped in Wichita for dinner at Spangles and then made it to Minneola before 10 pm.  We had Christmas with Matt's side of the family the next day.  Again Andrew made it out like a bandit with toys! He received an Elephant that blows balls out of his trunk, a scooter/rocker, block table with blocks, a push around car and some more money.

Hailey pushing Andrew around.

All the Harris cousins.

Preston pushing Andrew around.

Visiting Nanny.

We ate lunch after presents and then the grown-ups went to the casino.  Matt and I didn't do so hot but it was nice to have some fun.  We came back and some of the kids and parents went ice skating.  Matt and I stayed home with Andrew and Sandy and watched a couple of movies.  I highly recommend watching Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University, very cute and funny movies.

One Saturday Mitch, Carolyn, Mike, Stephanie and the kids headed home.  Aunt Judy and Darris came to visit everyone.  We also went to go see Matt's grandma, Nanny, that was in the hospital in Minneola.  She is doing pretty well for being 100 and soon to be 101 in the next week.  We stayed an extra day so Michele, Jim and the girls could get more Andrew time.  Saturday night Matt and I went out on a date.  We went to Dodge to go shopping, back to the casino where we both ended up winning money and coming out on the plus side for the two days and then we went to dinner. It's always nice going on dates and just having some us time.

We headed home on Sunday and barely fit everything in the SUV.  It took us a little bit longer to get home because we made a couple more stops.  Overall Andrew did okay for his first trip.  The last two hours of both the trips to Minneola and home were the roughest parts.  He was just ready to get out of his car seat.  We enjoyed every single second with both of our families and cherish it all!

Heading home!