The Andrews Family

update, FINALLY

2010-06-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

So I realize I haven't updated in oh, about a year! Here's a little update for us! Only a short and sweet one though, too tired to get too lengthy!

Me- I've been about the same for the last year! Just working part time and hanging out with my two favorite guys the rest of the time! I am embarking on something very new for me though, training for a half marathon! Those of you that know me know I am NOT a runner, but I'm sure trying to be! I've signed up to run the half marathon here in San Antonio in November. It's the Rock N Roll Marathon and from what I hear its a pretty good one, people come from all over to run in it. I've just started my training in May and could hardly run then. I'm up to three miles so I guess that's pretty good!

Mike is still running America's Hometenders and for the most part loves it! It gets stressful at times, but whose job doesn't! He has started coaching again, baseball of course! He's coaching with the South Texas Sliders, a team in the San Antonio area and he LOVES IT! To be honest, I haven't seen him this happy in a while! He has missed baseball terribly since he quit working around it and I'm so glad he has found something to feed his passion for the game! He's coaching 14-17 year olds mostly and personally I think those kids are super lucky! I'm a little biased though!

And as for Graydon, he is just the best! Mike and I are amazed everyday at his personality and humor! He is just talking about anything and everything these days and really keeps us on our toes sometimes! He is two and a half now, going on 18 it seems! He is just the perfect little boy, even when he's throwing a little fit (which happen every once in a while now that were in the "twos"!) and I couldn't have asked for more!

Here are some pics of Graydon and his favorite thing right now, baseball! He sure is his daddy's son! It amazes me daily that my two year old can hit a baseball that I pitch to him right back at me hard enough to hurt sometimes! The "T" is a thing of the past as he no longer wants to hit a ball off of it, he has to have you toss it to him! That he can catch it, and throw it back to me ten or more feet away! He is one coordinated kiddo and he sure didn't get it from me! For that, I am thankful! Maybe he'll get my artistic side! For now, it's all baseball though. We wake up and play baseball. We eat lunch, and play baseball. We get ready for bed, and before we go to sleep guess what we do... yep, we play more baseball!

The many faces of Graydon

2009-08-17T11:27:00.001-07:00

Long overdue update

2009-08-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

Thought I would FINALLY post an update on what we've been up to! We have had tons of fun this summer. We moved into a new house that has a pool and have had a blast swimming with Graydon! He's getting to be such a big boy! He loves to swim with his daddy and LOVES to squirt him in the face with the water hose!Another big thing that happened this summer is Graydon's haircut. It wasn't his first, but it was his first "big boy" cut! I was in shock for about 30 minutes! I love his new hair, but it took me a long while to get used to it, he just didn't look like my little baby anymore! Here's a before picture, and a few after pictures.

We had so much fun painting with Graydon the other day! He loved to splash the paint on the paper and rub it around with his fingers! He hated to have his hands dirty though. It was hilarious, we had to keep wiping them off.

"Big Harper"

2009-05-25T09:42:00.000-07:00

It seems like so long ago now that Graydon said his first "real" word. He had been saying da-da and Ma-ma, but not associating them with anything. Well, we were sure surprised when his first word was Harper. Harper is our dog and he would look at her and point and say her name. He then thought all dogs were called Harpers, and may still think that for now. It is the cutest thing, because it sounds more like Harpoo when he says it! Well, a long time ago, in college I think, Mike got me this stuffed animal and we called it big Harper, because it looks like her. I put it in Graydon's room when we moved into our current house and lately, he's very interested in "big Harper". He will see her and say "Harper!!!" and then run to her and hug her. It is so cute! Here are some pics of the real Harper and Graydon loving on Big Harper! We haven't gotten to spend much time lately with the real Harper since she can't live with us while we're hometending. But my parents are taking very good care of her for us! She's even developed quite the belly because they are spoiling her!

Mother's Day/G's first baseball game

2009-05-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late, but I wanted to post about my great Mother's Day! It actually started Saturday when Mike woke me up with cards and my favorite little person, Graydon. Mike informed me that I was going to get a two day Mother's Day celebration this year! We got up and went to breakfast at Le Peep and then he arranged for my parents to watch Graydon so we could go shopping all day! He gave me a gift card to the shops at La Cantera and then told me I had to spend it all by a certain time or he would give it away to a homeless person! Sounds easy right... well, I am actually the worlds WORST shopper! I have a hard time actually buying things, so needless to say, I did a good job, but still had a little money left when the time was up! With a little convincing I was able to get Mike to let me keep it for another day! I think the homeless thing was just a joke thank goodness! On Sunday we went to church as usual and then headed to Mike's parents house to celebrate with all the Mothers in our family. We had to cut it short though, because we were going to Graydon's first baseball game! The San Antonio Missions were playing the Corpus Christi Hooks. Mike used to work for the Hooks and the radio announcer was here in town and got us great seats! Mike was excited to get to visit with Matt in the Press box for a while. I know Mike is happy with his work/life now, but I also know how much he misses baseball. I think it was a much needed walk down memory lane for him to be up there again. Graydon had a great time and although it was super hot and he was cranky he was actually really good. After the game we headed to my parents house to spend some time with my mom for Mother's day! It was a long, exhausting, fun filled day and I wouldn't have wanted to spend my Mother's day any other way! Here are a few pictures from the day.

So thankful...

2009-04-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

So I've been trying to get on here a few times a week to check out friends blogs etc. The other day a friends blog led me to a great blogger's site, Kelly's Korner. It is so fun to read about her baby Harper and their story. I also love Kelly's blog because she always has prayer requests on her site. Yesterday while perusing her site I came upon the blog for Kayleigh Freeman! This poor little girl was born at only 1 lb and has been in the hospital for about 10 months I think it said! She has struggled immensly her entire short life so far, has had at least three surgeries, one being open heart surgery and just recently the family has gotten bad news. Something happened to her after her last surgery and she isn't responding well. I just wanted to let ya'll know about this so you could send some prayers their way! The site for Kayleigh is http://kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com Please read their story and say some prayers for Kayleigh and her family! It breaks my heart that anyone has to go through something like this, and makes me so thankful that Graydon is healthy! We don't realize sometimes that although our kiddos are healthy and strong not all babies are.

Easter Pics

2009-04-10T19:41:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of the Easter pictures we had taken of Graydon. A good friend of mine recommended her cousin to us and she has taken some of the best pictures of him! So far we've done Pumpkin pics, Santa pics and now Easter! Thanks for recommending them Bethany!!!!

Practice Makes Perfect...

2009-04-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from an Easter BBQ we went to last weekend. Graydon participated in his first Easter egg hunt! It was great practice for the real thing this weekend! He did really well picking up the eggs and putting them in his basket but didn't like them to stay in there and kept dumping them back out on the ground! He also decided that his buddy Hunter's basket was neat and tried to take it! (the lime green one) It was really cute!

Fore!!!!

2009-03-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

Graydon and I went to play golf with Daddy yesterday and had the best time!

Well, Mike played and Graydon and I drove the cart. Graydon loved walking around with Daddy's clubs and picking up all the golf balls! It was so cute. At one point Mike asked Graydon to sit down so he could hit the ball and he did. He just sat right there and watched! Graydon also loved to get the balls back out of the cup. Mike can't wait for his little buddy to get a little bigger so they can play together for real!

Shower time!

2009-03-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

I just had to post these pics of Graydon's first shower! He LOVED it! Maybe this is TMI for some of you, but those with kiddos can probably relate. Graydon has gotten into the habit of "taking the kids to the pool" during his baths! i.e. going #2! I don't know what it is, but he must just get relaxed or something!!! I guess when we potty train I will just put the potty in the tub!! :) Well, the other night we decided to just take him into the shower and see how he did! He had such a good time! There are only a few pics because Mike is in some and he would absolutely kill me if I put shower pics of him on our blog! Even if they are only from the chest up!

March Update

2009-03-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've decided I'm going to at least try to blog once a month and give an update! This month has been pretty routine for us. Mike and I are both doing well and we're trying to get in shape! We started the P90X program about 3 weeks ago and so far so good! It is by far the hardest workout I've ever done. I can't speak for Mike since he's played sports his entire life and has always been good about working out. But for me, working out has never really been a priority. I guess when I was younger and in high school it just wasn't that big of a deal for me. I didn't really play sports so I just didn't really work out, and I guess I didn't need to. Ugh, how quickly that changes as you get older and have a baby! I did pretty well about losing the baby weight after Graydon, but still had those last 10-15 lbs! Well, after about a year of saying, "I still have about 10 lbs to lose" I decided I really needed to put some effort into it. I can definitely reccommend P90X to anyone, it is such a good workout! Anyhoo, enough about that! On to the good stuff, GRAYDON!

Our little munchkin is doing just wonderful! He is growing like crazy and has gone from saying one word at a time to saying many things all at once! It's literally like he's having conversations! Of course there are no real sentences and its all just babble with a few real words here and there, but it is so darn cute! He is definitely keeping us on our toes! We have friends with boys about the same age as Graydon and I just laugh when I see them sit still on their parents laps, or in front of the tv for a while captivated by what on, because that is just not our little boy! He is moving, moving, moving, all the time!!! If he is still for about 5 seconds he starts looking around like, "whoops, what am I doing, I need to run around!" I guess that's working out for my weight loss as well! jk Hopefully I'll update more soon with some stats from his next dr. appt. I think we go next week for his 15 month appt.

Here are a few pictures to show how much he's grown!

about 3 days old leaving the hospital

2 weeks old

2 months old

6 months old

about 9 months old

a year old

13 months

13 months

14 months

Yesterday for St. Patrick's Day

need blogging help

2009-02-26T14:33:00.000-08:00

Watch out, two posts in one day!? It's a record for me. I've been meaning to ask everyone how to make my blog cute! I just don't know where to go. I've found a site or two off of peoples pages, but once I get a background code or whatever, where do I post it on my blog?? I'm totally computer retarded so please someone help me out!

worst blogger ever award....

2009-02-26T14:19:00.000-08:00

Goes to me!!! I am so jealous of those of you with lives interesting enough to post daily, or almost daily! I just don't seem to find the time to post and then when I do, my thoughts just don't seem interesting!

I figured I would get on and post since Graydon is down for a nap, finally! Poor thing has been crying for about 20 mintues! We've gotten to the point where he is exhausted and sometimes just needs to cry! It breaks my heart, but thank goodness he's finally asleep.

Here's an update on us: We've moved again! Yep, again. The joys of hometending! I guess we did a great job at the last house, because it sold quickly. That is what we're supposed to do, but moving is the pits! We're in a new house and I have to say, I love it! I liked the land we had at the other house, but prefer this actual house over the last one.

Mike is doing well at the job, and I'm still working at Willies! Not my ideal job, I'm starting to feel too old to be working there!!! I have to keep praying to not get frustrated and fed up but it's hard sometimes. Its not really anyones fault, most of the people I work with are 18-21ish so they are just in a different stage in their lives. I just have to remind myself that the money is good and I'm only there three days a week so I can stay home with Graydon more. He is getting to be so adventurous and never wants to stop moving! I can't believe my little baby is such a little boy already! They grow up so fast and I just wish I could freeze him at this stage for a little while!

Mike and I are going to try to get in better shape and after hearing friends talk about it we decided to order p90x. I'd never really heard about it, but a friend from church started it with her husband and then another friend said she was doing it with her hubby. The same day she told me that I saw the infomercial for the 1st time and took it as a sign! It's supposed to be a pretty tough workout so we'll see! It came in the mail tonight, so I guess I'll be starting it tonight or in the morning! Wish me luck!

Well, that is all for now, hopefully I'll post again soon... at least before 09 is over!!!

Not a little baby anymore....

2009-01-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I am finally posting on here about our little boys first birthday!!! Graydon turned 1 on Dec. 27, but because we were in Albuquerque we didn't get to have his birthday party until January 10th. He was very cute and loved all of his gifts. He was so excited that all of his friends made it to his big party!!! Here are some pictures!

This is Graydon playing in his new soccer toy before the guests arrived!We got him dressed and did his hair just in time! We've taught Graydon how to say "please" in sign language. Here he's showing off his skills!

This is the "cake" I made for Graydon, out of cupcakes. It says "Happy First B-day Graydon"
We had to strip him down so he could eat his cupcake!He loved it! I think he was wondering why we've been holding out on him all this time!!!!

Here are all the boys playing! Mason, Graydon and HunterDaddy decided he needed to play too!

Albuquerque

2009-01-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in my last post that Mike's mom had to miss Christmas this year! Unfortunately her brother in law Leonard lost a long time battle with his liver, among other things. Leonard had been sick for quite some time and December 22 he went to be with our Lord! Mike's mom quickly got on a plane to be there with her sister Linda and the rest of the family. On Dec 26 Graydon and I, along with Mike's dad, sister and her boyfriend got on a plane to fly there as well. Mike drove that same day, 10 hours straight! Although we would have liked to have been there under different circumstances we had a really great visit. Most of Mike's Mom's family hadn't met Graydon yet, so it was wonderful to spend some time with them. Leonard's funeral was beautiful and I'm glad we were able to attend. Graydon also got to meet his cousin Jaymz who is about to be two. They got along really well, with the occasional push and hair pull here and there! Graydon did really well playing with him and was really well behaved on the drive back. Yes, we drove with a one year old for 12 hours! Well, 5 to Lubbock one day and about 6 to San Antonio the next. But still, I wouldn't reccommend it! He was really good until about the final 3 hours. Who can blame him though! I wouldn't want to be strapped into a seat for 11 hours either! Here are a few pics from our trip. Here we are on the shuttle van after getting off the plane! It was 75 degrees when we left Texas and about 30 when we got to New Mexico!Graydon and Jaymz had almost the same pjs! We had to take a pic, although Graydon wasn't really in the mood!Graydon eating his first biscochito (its a hispanic thing, like a sugar cookie, not sure if I spelled it right). Graydon and Jaymz playing. Below is a picture of sweet little Jaymz! He's named after Jaymz Hetfield of Metallica! Mike's cousin Eric is obsessed with them! In a good way though. We had such a great time watching the boys play and being able to hang out with Eric and his wife Amy. They were nice enough to let us stay with them the 3 nights we were there! It was fun, but makes me think twice about having another baby for a while! Two little boys were a handful!

After we left Albuquerque we drove to Lubbock and stayed in a hotel. This was Graydon's first hotel experience. He had such a good time running around, playing with things. Including the ice bucket, which is on his head in another picture. He even had fun jumping on the beds, with Daddy's help of course. All in all, we had a good time visiting family and taking our first family road trip. I was so glad that everyone got to see Graydon, I just wish it would have been for a different reason. Leonard was a great man and will be missed greatly! We love you Leonard!

Graydon's First Christmas

2008-12-31T09:35:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Graydon's first Christmas! He didn't really understand, but was able to tear some of the paper from his gifts. He was a real trooper, because this Christmas was really busy for us. We started off with Mike and I being really sick... with stomach viruses so we weren't really in the Christmas spirit. Mike actually ended up in urgent care needing two IV bags because he was dehydrated! Mine wasn't that bad, but we were both pretty under the weather! We had Christmas with Mike's family at Meme's house on the 21st just as we were both starting to feel bad and then had Christmas Eve at home alone, just the three of us. We had a few places to go, but decided to pass since we both weren't feeling well. Luckily, by Christmas morning we were both doing better. We opened our presents as a family and then had Mike's sister Kris, her boyfriend Jason and their dad over for breakfast. His mom had to miss Christmas this year, because she was in New Mexico. (more details in the next blog).

Here are the Christmas pj's Kristin bought for Graydon! Aren't they cute?

Kristin carrying the best Christmas gift! After all the wonderful toys he got Graydon still prefers to play with the broom!

After we had Christmas at our house we headed to my parents house to celebrate with them!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas this year!

3 years! Woo Hoo!

2008-12-16T20:04:00.000-08:00

Well, Mike and I have made it to our third year of marriage!!! Today is our anniversary and we had the best time celebrating it this past weekend! We took a trip to Dallas and got to hang out (just the two of us) and even went to a Cowboys game! It was so nice to have some time to ourselves! Although we missed Graydon terribly, we knew he was in wonderful hands! My parents kept him one night, and Mike's the next. They were so excited that they finally got to keep him overnight! It was hard to leave him, but we did have a great time! We did some shopping at the Galleria on Saturday, and then went to the game Sunday night. Here are a few pics from our weekend. This is me getting ready in the hotel room!! We bought sweatshirts and beanies because it was supposed to be cold... the entire game it was 78 degrees!!! It finally did get cold during the fourth quarter so thank goodness we had them! As you can see by the picture below we weren't exactly close to the stadium! We had quite a walk when we were leaving so we would have been miserable without our warm clothes!

These are my not so healthy but oh so scrumptious nachos, that cost $8.00!!!! I knew the food/drinks would be pricey, but give me a break... they were so expensive they were deemed worthy of a photo... as was the beer below! This is by far the most expensive bud light on the planet... it cost me $7.50, and no it was not draft... it was a bottle of bud light that they poured in a cup. Needless to say, it was my one and only!

Here we are during the game! A nice little boy behind us to the picture for us! Below is Mike celebrating after the boys won!!!! Our weekend was truly one of the best we've had in a long time! Being a mom is by far one of the most rewarding things I have ever done, and it has changed my life completely for the better. It was nice to have some alone time with the hubby though, I've missed that!

SNOW DAY

2008-12-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

Graydon got to see his first snow today! When we woke up there was a white blanket of "snow" all over our yard and deck. I say "snow" because it was only about a cm deep, but hey, it still counts!!!

And yes, we just woke up, so please don't judge me! Haha!

Graydon meets SANTA!

2008-11-20T16:54:00.000-08:00

As promised, here are some pics of Graydon meeting Santa for the very first time! He did such a good job and wasn't scared at all!

He and Santa really enjoyed getting to know each other!

Graydon even let Santa read him a Christmas book! It was all smiles and giggles until another baby at the photo session starting crying... then it was all over!!!!

Thankfully he was able to regain his composure and say bye to Santa so he could get back to the North Pole to make sure everything is ready to go for Christmas!

What's new with us...

2008-11-18T19:23:00.000-08:00

Well, i just realized that I had two comments on my blog so I was excited! (Thanks Ashley) However, one was from October and the other a few days ago... I'm a little slow!

Mike and I are gearing up to move again, this Friday! It's going to be a great opportunity for us, we're going to hometend a house. America's Hometenders is Mike's company and we are going to be living in our new house rent free, praise the Lord! We'll be able to save some money and hopefully be able to buy a house in the future! It's hard to explain what hometending is, so check out this link for more info http://www.woai.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=623014@video.woai.com&navCatId=5&articleID=623014

WOAI just did a story on Mike and his dad, so hopefully it will bring in some more business for us! For those of you that don't know, Mike and I moved back to San Antonio from South Carolina almost a year ago for various reasons, one being so Mike could take over the company. So far, he is doing great and is really enjoying it! The other reasons were of course because I was pregnant and we wanted our families to be around. It has been such a blessing!

Graydon is doing wonderful and will be 11 months old on the 27th! I can't believe how fast time flies! That sounds so cliche, but it is so very true! He'll be taking his Santa pictures tomorrow so I'll be sure to post some pics soon! He's also walking!!! It is amazing how quickly they learn things. Just last week he was taking 2-3 steps at a time and now this week he's walking across the room! Still a little wobbly, so it's super cute! Here's a recent pic of our little man walking towards the camera!

Still trying to figure this out...

2008-11-16T19:41:00.000-08:00

So I knew I was technologically challenged, but this is ridiculous! I guess I'm going to have to call my fellow blogger friends and ask how the heck you do anything on here! Their pages are so cute and ours is blah! I guess I'll play around with this and try to add a picture! Well, I guess it worked! Here's a picture of Graydon pushing around his best friend Harper! Incidentally, that was his first official word, Harper!!! He says dada but says that for everything! But when you say "where's Harper?" he looks around for her. He says her name but it sounds more like Harpoo.

Decided to make a blog....

2008-10-13T14:28:00.003-07:00

After reading friends blogs I decided to make us one... however, I have no idea how to do anything on here. I guess we'll see how it goes...