Carson Standing

Crawling was fun for a little while but now its more fun to stand up! Carson is pulling himself up on everything and is amazingly strong. He loves to play with Rachel's kitchen set since he can pull himself up to the counter now. The other day when he was playing with the cabinet doors in the kitchen set Rachel cautioned him, "Be careful Carson, its very hot!". I guess she has heard Mom say that a few times.

Grandad's Visit

Grandad stayed with us for a week during Christmas and had a great time getting to know his grandchildren more. He helped out by occasionally feeding Carson and got him to finish all his baby food. Rachel enjoyed playing with her Grandad and sitting on his lap to play with her drawing toy. Grandad even gave the kids rides around the house in their school bus wagon, they just loved it. We hope he will come back soon.

Christmas Day

It was so much fun to play Santa this year! Rachel left cookies for Santa before bed and in the morning she was very excited to find so many toys and presents, and a full stocking. Carson enjoyed playing with wrapping paper and ribbon, and also enjoyed his new toys. Rachel seemed to enjoy her candy canes and chocolates as much as her toys. She even shared her candy cane with Carson's new teddy bear. We were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny day with freshly-fallen snow sparkling outside. A wonderful Christmas.

Christmas Cookies

This year was the first annual Christmas cookie bake-off at the Andrews household. Everyone participated, including Grandad and Uncle Pete (our visitors). Rachel was in heaven with unlimited amounts of frosting and cookies to taste, and Carson seemed to enjoy looking on from his high chair. The cookies turned out delicious. We discovered that red food dye can stain your skin for several days :)

Catching Up

It has been far too long since I have posted to this blog so I've got a bit of catching up to do. In November we moved into our newly-remodeled house and then hosted Thanksgiving three days later. Yes, we have been busy. We managed to have a great time over Thanksgiving and it was so great to see everyone (and we even got a turkey on the table!). With all the chaos we only got a few pictures. The best is this one of Carson playing with his Grampy.



Snow, snow snow! The snow started shortly after Thanksgiving and has not let up since. Rachel loves to play in the snow and here she is in all her winter attire.



Carson started crawling just after Thanksgiving and he hasn't stopped moving since. He doesn't do the classic crawl on all fours, instead he does more of a military-style crawl. But he sure does get around and now we can't let him out of our sight for a second. He continues to get cuter every day!

Busy October

Where has the time gone? So much for updating the blog every week... maybe every month is more realistic. Below is a recap of the first few weeks of October. We've discovered that Carson loves 'biter biscuits' - rather inappropriately named since he does not bite them but they dissolve in his mouth as he sucks on them. One of his favorite treats, he gets them only when Mom feels like cleaning up the mess they create.



A happy homecoming for John after he returned from a business trip. I don't know who is happier, him or the kids.


Rachel will be a dalmation for Halloween this year. She loves her costume and wanted to wear it every day for the first few days after we got it. Now she sleeps with it in her crib.

Grammy's Visit

Rachel and Carson got to see their Grammy in September. They thoroughly enjoyed her visit and Grammy loved being able to reconnect with her grandchildren. Carson had lots of fun getting his first piano lesson. Rachel loved running around outside with Grammy and playing in the sandbox. And Mom got a chance to get some winter clothes for the kids - its starting to get cold here!