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!

8 months old

I know I say this at the beginning of every month post but I can't believe my baby is 8 months old! He just keeps amazing me everyday.  He has always been a very happy baby.  The only thing that upsets him is when he is hungry.  And he will let you know!  He is still eating baby food but he has been eating more and more table food. He has tried mac 'n cheese, french fries, applesauce, chicken noodles, hot dog, spaghetti o's, eggs, spaghetti with meatballs, green beans and cheerios!
I think he is starting to notice the difference between the baby and table food.  Here shortly it will just be table food!  He loves picking up food and feeding himself.  He can do certain things well like the puffs and solid foods.  "Squishy" things like noddles or spaghetti are a little harder to pick up.  He will get frustrated after a while if he can't pick the food up.  Andrew still has no teeth but is getting the whole chewing certain foods first then swallowing them.

8 months old!

Happy baby!

Getting so big!

Sitting up by myself mommy!

Right after Andrew turned 7 months old, he could sit up by himself with a little bit of help.  Now that he has been doing it for a couple of weeks, his muscles are getting stronger so he can sit up by himself!  He can also stand by himself and pull his body up.  Most of the time he falls down but he is learning to try, try again.  Also switched over to 9 month clothes.  He can fit into 6 month clothes around the waist but most of them I can't get over the head or they aren't long enough!  I have a feeling he will zoom past 9 month clothes and go into 12 months clothes shortly!  Can't believe in less than 4 months, out little guy will be 1 year old!  Guess I better start planning his birthday party, lol!

Enjoy the pictures!

Eating some spaghetti o's for the first time!

Always taking off his socks

Watching tv with daddy

First time in a shopping cart at Home Depot!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Touchdown!

No more car seat in the stroller.  Just chillin' with mommy!

We had a lot of special events going on this past month: family pictures, our friends Jeff and Jean's daughter, Kendall's, first birthday party, Louisburg Cider Mill, Andrew's cousin Preston's birthday party, House BBQ and our Church's family fun night.

Family and Friends Time!

Love family time, get togethers and just spending time with the ones you love and care about the most.  On 9/13 we had a family and friends BBQ at the house.  It was to show everyone in person our new kitchen and not just through pictures.  Got a lot of very nice compliments and everyone loved the open concept kitchen/family room.

Before!

After!

We had a lot of food.  Jon was so kind enough to smoke some pork butts and pork loin.  My mom brought her delicious potato salad, rice and a chocolate cake.  Others brought: salads, beans, celery dip, brownies, cookies, cheesecake bites, a snickers/granny smith apple dessert (thanks Roxy), apple crisp, veggies, dips, crackers, and cheese! Hope I didn't forget anything but I probably did since there was so much food!  Thank you to everyone that brought food and came over to enjoy everyone's company.  Some people enjoyed the deck, others watched the Chiefs game, and the kids played outside. All around it was a great day!

Grandpa Kreutzer got Andrew a new wagon! Thanks Grandpa!

Grandpa, you got this for me! Thanks!

My mom and grandma enjoyed watching Andrew ride in the wagon.

Now that the kitchen is complete we will be having a lot more get togethers. Our next big event will be Thanksgiving!  We will have Matt's side of the family over and then some of us will be going shopping for Black Friday! Can't wait for that!!!

On 9/15 I got to catch up with two of my best friends April and April.  Since we don't see each other that often anymore, we try and get together at least once a month.  We went to dinner at Jose Peppers and got some dessert at The Orange Leaf.  It's always a good time with these two ladies!

Love these girls!

Normally on Saturday's Andrew and I meet up with Matt for lunch.  It is usually at our normal spot, Culver's in Olathe.  It is by Matt's route and we love their food!

After we had lunch with Matt, I took Andrew over to April's house so I could go get a massage! Which was amazing! I had a gift card to a salon in Overland Park from April from Christmas that I thought I should use before this Christmas came around lol!

That night we had our annual Church Family Fun Night out at the Boan's house.  We were babysitting Myranda and Preston that night too, so they came along with us.  I made a pot of chili which was delicious!  I think my recipe is getting better and better each time I make it.  There were games for the kids and adults, a bonfire, enough chili and soup to feed an army, desserts, hot chocolate and a hay ride! I think Andrew really liked the hay ride, well at least the hay lol.  He kept trying to eat it!

Bon Fire

So nice and peaceful out in the country!

Andrew was enjoying the hay.

You can never have enough family and friend time!