HAPPY HALLOWEEN...VOTE VOTE VOTE!!

Hey All...I have entered Drew into a Costume Contest with Cute Kids. You can vote once a day until November 15th!! So VOTE your hearts out!

Thank you so for the votes you have already placed! The winner of this contest gets $500, which would be great for the college fund!

The picture to the left is the one I entered! Click the link below and let your voting fingers go to town!!

http://www.thecutekid.com/ckgallery/votemypic/email/1318

BURNIN UP THE FLOOR!

Our little guy is officially 11months & 4 days...CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! I know I can't. I am just wandering what happened to the time. Don't get me wrong I am lovin every minute with our little man. I am so blessed to stay home and enjoy each moment with him as discovers the world. When his little face lights up with joy as he figures out how to do something, it just makes the day so much brighter. Enjoy this video and some stats below:

11 MONTH UPDATES:
*Food: Added Broccoli, Cauliflower, Peanut Butter, Cheese Rice Cakes (which he loves), cherries, and some junk we had to admit...thanks Grandma Linda, and pretty much anything we are eating he has to have.

*Stats: The last time we weighed him here at home he was around 25lbs...still in size 3 diapers. We are slowly starting to look at front facing car seats, yikes! We need to try a length measurement soon...definitely not as easy to do!

*Words: Car is by far his favorite word. During our visit to Iowa a race was on TV and you could hear Drew say.... "Car, car, car, car, car, car" it was very cute. He also says Mama, Dada, and Teddy, very well. Other words he is trying hard to say are: Thank You (this was a pleasant surprise), Kitty Cat, Bella, and I Love You.

*Misc/Actions:
-Drew didn't start crawling until just after he turned 9 months, however he quickly from that to pulling himself up. So, not only is he a speed crawler he suddenly started walking very well with his walker last Wednesday. Note: I have to share he did this very rarely prior to this and when he did it was only a couple steps, so we were very surprised when he just got up and did it like a pro.
-Pointing is a very recent thing, for a long time he has used his whole hand to point, but just in the last few days he has actually started pointing with one finger.
-He is learning "NO" is not a fun word...we are slowly introducing "Time Out," which he also does not like.
-Snuggling: our boy loves to snuggle as you have seen. He will snuggle just about anything when you say the word snuggle, sweet, or awe. I just love this about him!
-He is perfecting the art of shaking his head "NO," which could be a bad thing, but so far it is still cute. He does this often when going to get him out of the crib and he's just not ready to come out. He likes to take his time. It is very funny!
-TEETH: He has two teeth and two more on the way. One of the top two has already broke through and the other is close behind.

I'VE FALLEN & I CAN'T GET UP!!

Drew loves to pull things in and out of the cabinets, however he had a little difficulty when the basket wouldn't move out of his way, and well.....fell in. I just giggled because the basket was not happy to have him as an occupant, nor was he happy to be one. I could see the basket start to bulge and it didn't take long for Drew to get stuck and need help getting out. Oh, I just love my FREE entertainment...poor kid!

Sweet Snuggle Boy!

Howdy! I had to share Drew's new thing...SNUGGLING! It just melts your heart. It is nothing we were trying to teach him, but it is a reminder that they are always watching. He gets so much attention for it, so as you guessed he is constantly doing it. Hey, you won't find me complaining. Here are a couple cute pics and a video! I am not usually one to put to many unclothed pictures up, but this was the day he was throwing up so much, I just couldn't keep up with the laundry...

Drew's "Teddy"...I think this just might be his "lovey" we'll see!

SNUGGLE VIDEO

Another Day of Snuggles, Man I love this kid!!

CARS CARS CARS!!

In our house it is all about the cars. I read something recently that said kids are naturally drawn to toys that match their perspective sex. So, it is no surprise to us that Drew LOVEs cars. He has never really been drawn to stuffed things, except his Teddy which he loves to snuggle...more on that coming soon, but always cars, trains, and puzzle type things (sounds like daddy to me). There are so many things in life that I find absolutely interesting and this was just one more thing that make me say God you are amazing!!

Drew is babbling all the time and even though he doesn't say the words you can tell he understands most of the time, with the exception of "No" go figure. You can say something and he looks right at it, squeals and tries to say it, and usually points his hand in that direction. My favorites are when he tries to repeat: Good Night, I love you, Kitty Cat, Doggy, Bella...and more.

If you listen carefully on this video he almost has "car" perfect. The other words he has down pretty good are Mama, Dada, Nana (Banana)...only he says nanananananananananana, Bye Bye. I just can't believe our little man is almost 11 months...that is just not right.

POOR LITTLE MAN!!

For those of you who don't know Drew had a really tough day yesterday and we just couldn't figure out what was going on. To not be to gross, he just couldn't keep anything down. He didn't just throw up a little, it was a lot...yuck, yuck, yuck. At first we thought it was left over from the cold he had about two weeks ago, since he has still been coughing at night, but nothing else pointed in that direction.

So, this morning when I got him out of the crib, his hair was matted and he had that lovely smell...from no other than throwing up, but he was as chipper as could be. I smiled back trying to no get sick myself from the smell... Anyhow, as I was changing him I noticed a rash on his left arm and a little on his face. So, once I cleaned up the mess and my little guy, I did a little online research and all the signs point to an allergic reaction to food. Yesterday we let him try French Toast and I am 99% sure it was the culprit as it has egg white...

Needless to say after his morning yuck, he has been fine since. Still has a cough occasionally, but no more sickness. YEAH!! So, thanks for your prayers and advice...I think we called 5-6 people to ask their opinions! Thank God for family and friends!!

Note: This picture is not from today, but I thought the face was appropriate for the situation!!

Where Have I Been & MORE!

I know you are all probably saying, "where has Christie been, it is not like her to not post in 5 days"...he he he! I am here and working hard on my store, just when I think it is ready to launch we have some technical issues.. It is more work than you think getting all the links just right especially when there is a minor edit, it seems like it takes forever. Anyhow, we are going to be releasing items on the store little by little this weekend instead of waiting for it all to be ready.

I am soooooooooooooo excited to get this store released, I just LOVE making cards and other items for people, so this store will allow me to share my creativity on a whole new level with all of you. over the next several months I will have various items available for purchase, including such items as: Cards, Framed Art/Home Decor, Gifts, Invitations, Photo cards, etc.... I hope you will love it!

The store address will be doodledazestore.blogspot.com. It is not quite ready for you to visit, so just hold on tight. In the meatime, more FREE photo info below...

ANOTHER PHOTO SAVINGS ALERT: I discovered one more site where you can receive FREE prints. When you create an account with dotphoto.com you will receive 50 FREE prints.

More updates to come this weekend, I just wanted to check in!!

UP TO NO GOOD!

This past week Drew has been quickly learning how to open things and pull the contents out all over the place. Although it may sound like a lot of clean up, which it is, I am taking these opportunities...and oh their are LOTS of opportunities, to start teaching Drew how to put things back. Hey he thinks its fun, little does he know the brainwashing has begun! Here are a few of his favorite lessons....

*Dishes are fun, especially when the dishwasher is used because pulling the bottom basket out and in makes fun noises.
*Pulling his clothes out from the dresser is just as fun as putting them back along with any spare toys. Oh, and folding is for the birds!
*Putting diapers back in their basket after he has pulled them out one by one...especially when we count each one.
*Returning the videos to the cabinet is a blast because then he gets to shut the door.
*Opening & Closing doors is very gentleman like...okay the later part will be true eventually.
*Pulling out all of the plastic ware type dishes from the cabinet and making a Rubbermaid band is to die for...And sooooooo much more. Enjoy the pictures below where I caught him in the act!!

Dishwasher Duty, I can hear him quickly crawling towards the kitchen when the dishwasher door is opened. What a big helper...or is he????

Tupperware Fun... These dishes make pretty music!
Dresser Pull...He is now getting clothes out of the second drawer and starting to pull out the top drawer...when did that happen?! This is his morning and afternoon upper body workout.

The War Zone... Before our fun clean-up game begins for the 500th time!

So as you can see we have a genius!! Never a dull moment and I wouldn't have it any other way!!

XTRA, XTRA..FREE PRINTS TO BE HAD!!!

I have been gearing up to get some scrapbooking done in some cases just starting. What do you need to start scrapbooking you ask.... well, prints of course. I recently entered Andrew is a GAP Casting call using those adorable fall pictures... In doing this I received a special from snapfish.com. I received 20 FREE 4x6 prints and one free 8x10. So, I thought to myself I am sure there are more deals likes this out there, so the research began. Here is what I found:

Snapfish.com: Above offer for new accounts & until Tuesday Oct 14, you can get 50 prints for $.50 using the code FALLPENNY08 at checkout. I did this under my account and David's, so that is 100 prints in addition to the other 20...

Shutterfly.com when you create an account with this company, you get 50 4x6 prints for FREE.

Kodakgallery.com when creating an account with this company you get 20 FREE prints. So you guessed it I created an account for me and David.

I have tons of FREE 4x6 prints coming in, some have already arrived. I am really anxious to get scrapbooking and work on other projects, so this was a huge help financially. I ended up getting.....drum roll please....230 4x6 prints & 1 8x10 for around $10 which was for shipping and the $1 for the snapfish special. Scrapbooking here I come!

To view Andrew's Gap Casting call entry visit (one picture entered is above):
http://gap.eprize.net/castingcall/index.tbapp, then click on gallery and enter my email address stamp_happy@yahoo to view the 4 photos I entered.

His Halloween costume pictures were entered in a parents magazine contest, so click here http://www.parents.com/app/sharemy/searchResults.jsp?_requestid=291414, which will take you right to the contest. To the top left (where it says search photo) enter Drew "Rawr" and you will see his gallery. You can rate each photo by clicking on the album cover then each picture.. The winner of this contest gets a nice Canon camera, which is a higher quality then the one I have...so RATE away!!

Okay that's enough for now...do you have enough clicking to do yet? Just one more site I think you will like. My friend Stephanie has a blog where she posts all the latest deals, so click here to visit her site. I know you will benefit from it!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Just Plain Silly!

What can I say other than Drew is just plain silly and he knows it. He is chatting up a storm these days and has recently discovered a new trick, the video will show all! I am just amazed at how fast he picks things up, to be honest I am not even sure where he learned this! Enjoy the little flick...

OUR EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES!!

Living in an apartment is proving to have its challenges especially with a little guy who LOVES pulling himself up on everything. So, we are aways trying to think of creative ways to distract him. So, we decided to offer laundry basket rides at our theme park and although he was a little unsure about it at first, you will see by the video he LOVED it. The jury is still out on whether David and I love it because just a couple runs down our very small hallway and we are out of breath. What does that say about us???? By the way it's a rhetorical question!

We never have a dull moment in our house, just tonight I thought to myself, boy Drew is truly related to his Auntie Erin...why might you ask? Well, because he shook our make shift end table and spilled my drink everywhere... sorry Erin, we love you! Okay so maybe he gets that from me, since I spilled my full drink all over myself during my last visit to IL.

Enough of my ongoing babble... enjoy the pics and video!!

Phase TWO of Weekend Photo Shoot!

HAPPY OCTOBER!!

Here is the second installment of pictures from this past weekend. I am in love with these photos, it was so hard to choose what to post. So, I decided to post just a couple from facebook and the rest are NEW!! You will notice they are mostly Black & White versions because they're my favorite, but don't get me wrong the color photos are great to, especially with the beautiful orange color of the pumpkins! Don't you just LOVE fall colors?!

Drew was such a good model, but I have to say I am not really one of those photographers who pose people for pictures, I just follow what happens and the results are always worth the time it takes. I learned patience in this sense from my friend Heather, who is a great photographer.

Enjoy!!