Andrew's First Birthday

I've said it before, I'll say it again....I really don't think that one-year-olds need a lot of hooplah for thier birthdays. So for Andrew's first birthday, we were super low-key, but had a fun day. Of course it's so hard to believe that he has already been with our family for a whole year. He is such a laid back, easy to love, joy of a child! A few days ago he finally made it to his knees to try out a real crawl as opposed to his army crawl that had become his primary mode of transportation. I think that I can feel his first tooth cutting through the bottom gum (I know...our latest teether so far), but still no visual on the chompers. He gets an absolute kick out of watching Jeffrey and Caitlyn being goofy. He has recently started this extreme head bobbing. He looks like he's just nodding very dramatically - it cracks us up! And he seems to think it's funny too since he does it over and over. We feel so lucky to have our sweet Andrew in our family!

When I solicited ideas for Andrew's cake, Jeffrey kept saying over and over that he should have flowers on his cake. Caitlyn's ideas weren't really intelegible, I just wanted a white cake with sprinkles, but Jeffrey went on and on about the flowers. So, we went with flowers. Very manly.

Our happy one-year-old hanging out in his walker.

Not sure he knows what to think about the candle on his cake.

Opening the new church clothes from Grandma Leckie.

Andrew starting in on the cake.

Getting used to the idea...

Enjoying making his own litle mess.

So...I decided I would try to make a yellow cake from scratch. "How hard can it be?" I think to myself. Well, let me just say that I'll never take Betty Crocker for granted again. I don't know what her secrets are, but I'll never try to imitate her again! However, those light, fluffy, delicious cakes that Betty Crocker produces don't stick together like a dense brick, allowing the birthday boy to handle it more easily.

Guess blue icing wasn't the best idea...

We love our little Andrew!

Cheap Orlando Fun

We try to make the drive to Orlando every month to attend the temple, but since it's a 4 hour drive, and schedules are usually pretty full, our trips end up being really quick. We found out that the last minute that the temple was about to close for the rest of the month, so we figured we needed to head down last weekend. Dan's schedule wasn't too bad, so we decided to Priceline a hotel and go for a full 2 days - kind of a luxury. We drove down on Thursday morning and I took the kids to a nearby park while Dan attended the temple, then we switched and he took them back to the park while I went. We then had the rest of the evening to hang out at the hotel, go get dinner, and swim at the hotel pool.

Jeffrey and Caitlyn do surprisingly well sleeping in the same bed (once they fall asleep). Dan and I don't do so well with arms or other appendages falling in our faces. They don't seem to mind!

Andrew does better when he can't see what's going on around him. Cover the pack and play and he's out in no time!

Friday morning we took our time getting ready, ate breakfast and did Disney the really cheap way...Downtown Disney. Of course, since we've never been to the 'real' Disney World, the kids thought Downtown Disney was great! They thought the dinosaur in the water was the coolest thing ever!

At the Lego store they were working on a life-sized building of Buzz Lightyear, so the kids got to build a small piece for the "Master Builder" to add to the project. They were excited to get certificates saying that they had participated.

The kids getting their certificates and standing in front of where the Buzz will be built (the project was just getting going, so not much to see yet...)

With Jeffrey as the photographer, you never know what you'll get. He didn't do too bad of a job!

They thought the "Pooh Bear Bush" dumping water out of the honeypots was great. Grumpy Caitlyn didn't want to be in the picture.

So we decided to try for a family photo - which we rarely attempt, and this is what we get! We've known for awhile that we needed a new camera - I think this picture will speed up the camera-buying-process.

So it was a great way to experience a little bit of Disney - totally free and the kids can handle a couple of hours. After carrying Caitlyn half of the way and hearing Jeffrey talk about having to walk so far, we were really glad we hadn't spent $200+ taking them to the real Disney World. Jeffrey keeps talking about going back to Downtown Disney. Ignorance is bliss, and if they don't know that there are better things out there, we'll keep going the cheap way for a few more years!

My Half-Marathon

So my sister, Crystal, has run several half marathons and I've always thought it was neat, but didn't really want to try to do one. Well, back in August, she convinced me to run the next half marathon in Greenville, SC, with her. At the end of August I started a training schedule and started looking forward to/dreading the race day: Halloween. Training went well, and I really liked having a schedule tell me exactly what to run. Any time there was a long distance that I wasn't sure I could handle, Crystal would tell me, "Have faith in the schedule. If it says you can do it, you can do it." She was right!

So a few days before Halloween we made our 5th trip of the year up to SC for the race - spending Halloween with family was a big plus! Of course, I forgot to take my own camera on the trip, and haven't acquired the pictures taken on other cameras yet...shocker. So I don't have any pictures of the kids dressed up in their costumes or trick-or-treating yet, but I'll get them one of these days.

The race day was really perfect running conditions most of the time. The temperature was in the low 60's and it was a little misty. It did rain a little harder during part of the race, which was a bummer, but it was still WAY better than being hot!!

Crystal and I the morning of the race.

Andrew got up to see us off too - a little too chipper for 6-something in the morning.

The race finished up in the Greenville Drive baseball stadium. Kind of fun to run into a stadium full of people. The is me coming in, waving to our awaiting fans: Dan and the kids, my mom and dad, and Dan's mom and dad (drove down from Durham to spend Halloween with us). It was so nice to have fun people around to celebrate the fact the Crystal and I didn't die during the race!There are professional photographers positioned throughout the race - taking lovely pictures!

Crystal coming across the finish line.

Crystal and I right after finishing.

Back at home with our medals. Totally rain-soaked, but glad to be done!

So it was a great experience! I had decided that if I finished in 2 and a half hours I would be happy. I managed to finish in 2 hours and 19 minutes, keeping a 10:40 pace - so I was pleased. I don't know whether or not a full marathon is in my future, but I am certain that it's not in my immediate future. However, I DO think that Crystal and I are going to run another half in Tybee Island in February. Almost time to start training again!

Swimming

So, ever since the middle of September I've been telling myself that it was too cold to go swimming...it's September afterall. So, the highs kept getting progressively higher and we were soon in the 90's regularly. I keep telling myself that it's too cold to go swimming...by now it's nearly mid-October afterall. So finally on Friday the kids took early naps and we had a long afternoon ahead of us. I thought, "I guess we'll go brave the cold pool." Well, sadly, it wasn't too cold to go swimming. It was really pleasant and the kids had fun - pathetic, but true.

The kids having a fun time at the pool.

Caitlyn Dancing

I guess you never realize how familiar your kids are with any given show until you hear them singing along. My kids have discovered and grown to love Blue's Clues. Here's Caitlyn dancing and singing along...

Going Places

You might say, "Well, it's about time!" Yes, I'm well aware that often children are doing 'real' crawling by the time they are 6 months old, but we have developmentally slow children. There's no nice way to say it. Alas, all of my children have passed the sitting up, crawling and walking milestones late, and catch up just fine. So we aren't terribly worried about slow large-motor-skills-developer number 3. We're happy to say, however, that, although it's not pretty, Andrew is finally managing to maneuver about the room (and he's only 9 months old!)...

Off to S.C.

We figured that we hadn't really been on enough trips in the past few months, so why not drive up to SC...again. My mom was going to celebrate her 60th birthday on Aug. 10, so the siblings decided it would be fun to try to have as many family members there as possible. So Latisha drove up with her family on the 6th and I drove up with mine on the 8th. Nathan and Crystal were already in Greenville, so obviously they were present, but with Sara on a mission in Italy and Adam delpoyed in Dubai, 4 out of 6 sibilings were all we could gather. Unfortunatly, Dan had school things that had to be taken care of on campus, so it was another long and lonely drive for the kids and I. But we made it and had fun!

Mom's Birthday

Mom with her yummy Publix cake and a few of her grandkids.

On the morning we got up to drive to SC, Jeffrey's head felt a little warm. He got progressively worse with each passing hour and by the time we got to Greenville, had a pretty high fever and was super lathargic. We eventually took him to Urgent Care and he had a double ear infection - great timing! He and Brandon didn't really take part in the festivities...

I would include more pictures of mom actually opening presents and stuff, but she's crying in pretty much every picture, so I'll leave those pictures off :)

The Park

Nate and Geri had discovered a new park in Greenville, so we decided we would all head there one morning. The kids had a blast...

Jeffrey at the park.

Andrew hanging out with Aunt Latisha.

Grandpa Leckie helping Caitlyn get a drink - with lots of spills on the sidewalk.

Everyone gathered around the table for a snack.

Hanging Out

Uncle Nathan bought some bunnies right before our arrival - to go along with their chickens. It's like visiting a petting zoo!

Caitlyn wasn't so sure about the bunnies at first.

Jeffrey wasn't thrilled, but decided to give petting a try anyway.

Caitlyn finally decided to try touching the bunny.

Andrew was amused watching everyone.

Caitlyn loves to swing!

Latisha always shows up with a camera...she got a great picture of Crystal and I nice and sweaty after going out for a run.

Cousin Dustin getting ready to go off of Grandpa's crazy swing.

Panama City...Again

My sister, Crystal, came down last week from SC to visit. While she was here, we drove over to Latisha's in Panama City. We had a blast swimming in their pool and taking a trip to the beach. My primary purpose in going was to help Tish decide how to hang their pictures/decorations in their new house. Crystal's primary purpose was to get some sun. We got both things done and had a really fun trip! Jeffrey ready to jump in the pool. He has turned into quite the little swimmer since the beginning of the summer. He's totally independent now and I love it!

Jeffrey swimming and the rest of the gang at the pool.

Catilyn jumping into the pool.

Crystal holding Andrew after the pool. He loves his thumb!

Caitlyn was all tuckered out. Crystal was kind to sit and hold her while she took a little nap. Jeffrey and Kaylee painting. I rarely do this kind of thing with Jeffrey, which is sad becasue he loves it! It was so nice to have an older child to supervise the fun so I could observe from a distance.

Jeffrey and Caitlyn playing at the beach. We drove down to Saint Andrew's State Park, which the little kids loved because there is a little area jettied off from the big waves. They can go out pretty far without getting very deep at all, and never get knocked over by big waves. Note the dark sky...it caused a few problems on our trip...

The kids running in the shore.
After we had been at the beach for a little while, the rains came. And they came with a vengence. We took cover in a bathhouse and decided to eat our lunch while we were waiting. We were SUPER cold from having gotten wet in our dash to the shelter, and from the winds that really picked up. It was an adventure.

Well, we made it back out to the beach eventually, but Crystal made grim discovery on Latisha's head...her first gray hair. You can't see the actual hair that Tish is holding in her hand, but you can clearly read her feelings on the finding in her face. It was rather humerous...well, not for her.

Jeffrey was getting much braver than I've ever seen him at the beach. He and Caitlyn would go out and jump in the waves by themselves. He would lay down on the shore and let the waves pick him up and move him just a little. They had a blast.

Crystal went out with them for a few minutes and while she was standing beside Caitlyn, a pretty big wave came and knocked Caitlyn down. She got pulled out a little away from the beach and Crystal dove after her so Caitlyn wouldn't get swept away. Crystal was a little shaken from the incident and made Caitlyn hold her hand after that, and of course Caitlyn's response was...."That was a big one!!"

Video of Jeffrey & Caitlyn out with Crystal.

Of course you have to spend sometime digging in the sand!

And Andrew has to get his naps in...I enjoy the quiet time when he decides to take a nap while I'm holding him.

We left from the beach, bathed the kids back at Tish's and headed home. It was as quick but fun 2 days.