Family Pics

I always have lots of ideas to post and no time to work on them. In fact I don't have time to do this now, but I feel bad when I am angry at my friends for not posting new stuff and I haven't either. So here I am. We recently had family pictures done, and they turned out pretty well. Maybe I will post more of them later later. Anyone interested?

Andrew

Happy New Year

New Year same old habits right? Sorry it has been so long with out a post. I really have no good excuse other than we are lazy. Worst of all we have only taken 3 pictures since christmas, but we intend to improve on that.

As for life right now Amanda used a comp day from Christmas to get last night off so she will have her longest break from work in a long time over the next few days (Should be about 6 free days or so).

School is going ok, like most things it has it ups and downs. Hopefully I will be able to get a little more breathing room on the next couple of tests.

And Lily? Well she is Lily. She is stubborn, curious, and cutting a third tooth so she has had a couple of interesting mood swings over the past few days.

An older photo, but Lily is still just as eager to help us when we do dishes, clean up, or try to make bottles for her.

Lily absolutly loves helping when the dishwasher is open. It is pretty much impossible to load the dishwasher when she is awake, because she has to see what is in it, (and touch everything). And since doing dishes when she is asleep is a risk to wake her... dishes don't get done as often as they should...
(PS. This is one of my favorite shots. The "who, me?" look is priceless!)

Lily is just being allowed to eat rice crispies.... and she loves them as you can tell.

Lily in a cute Christmas picture. We have a ton of really cute hats and bows for her... and she hates... every...single...one of them. Please appreciate the photo because it takes a huge effort to even get one half decent shot with something on her head. And even more luck to have her smiling while it is there.

-Andrew

I love comments!

I love when people post comments on our blog. It makes me happy :-) So just for fun a flow chart. (you might have to click on it to read it.)

Happy Holidays!
-Andrew

Merry Christmas from Kirksville!

Since we are going to have a hectic week this next week and since Amanda works the next 2 nights we decided to have our own little christmas on Sunday the 21st.

Lily got a CD and a Dolly. Predictably she is playing with the box right now and ignoring the doll itself. (Why people give toys to kids under 2 is beyond me).

I was able to surprise Amanda with a Jewelry box while she suprised me with...

... a grill! I can't wait to use it, but that is going to be a problem because not only is it 1 degree outside (right now, at 2pm!) We have gotten a ton of snow followed by a freezing rain the last couple of days.





Freezing rain has to be one of the most interesting events I have ever experienced. It covers the whole world in a crunchy coating (for lack of a better term). After one of our late night study sessions before a test one of the guys was skating/sliding up and down the street.

Walking on the snow is also an adventure. You have to punch your way through to the soft stuff before you can get your footing. All in all it has been interesting, but I am not in a hurry to get anymore of it soon.

We are really looking forward to coming home to AZ (because it's warm! j/k) to see everyone. We are thankful for all your support and friendship, and again we can't wait to see everyone. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
-Andrew

Let it snow...

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted something. Finals week was really rough. I actually did pretty well in all my classes, but there was 2 of them that I really thought I had a possibility to fail. I passed them all and I have had this last week off to relax. Which is good since my last test took 16 hours of cramming in the 22 hours before the test started. Here is a picture of me and Lily shortly after I finished it.


(This is actually a decent pic, in all the rest I look like the night of the living dead).

So this week off has been used getting to know my family again and getting the house ready for winter. I pretty much finished what I wanted to Friday afternoon which was great because this morning we woke up to this:



Amanda has thrown herself into christmas. Per her instructions we have made sugar cookies, purchased and decorated a tree, gotten other decorations for the house and set up the ones we already had, and been listening to Christmas songs including a CD of the chipmunks (my family should appreciate the signifigance of this purchase, it's not christmas without the chipmunks!) Here is Amanda working on the tree.



To get all this done she has had to be creative. Like when she does the laundry:



Only 3 more weeks till our trip to Arizona! We can't wait to see all of you.
-Andrew

Happy first half birthday!

Lily is 6 months old today! As though this blog is not already a tribute to the little angel in our lives, I wanted to write about the wonder of my daughter. Lily is 6 months old today, and she is crawling, really crawling, not that army crawl/scoot thing. She sometimes gets so anxious to get where she wants to go she will try to stand up on her feet, which results in a little triangle with her bottom up in the air, and she usually will fall foreward on her face when she does this because she can't balance on hands and feet yet. She is constantly crawling to something like a couch or drawer and pulling her self into a standing position! She loves to stand, and will probably be walking long before her first full birthday!

Lily tries to eat EVERY-THING in sight! She especially loves big white tags, and electrical cords. (We fight her tooth and nail on that score!) But anything she can get into her mouth is good. Like this basket handle. We just wanted to take some pictures of Lily sitting in the basket, but in 95% of them she is chewing on the handle! She is currently playing with a ribbon I gave her to distract her from chewing on the cable cord that runs from our PC to our TV. She seems to be enjoying herself, but I think the ribbon has met it's doom. ...Oh no. She's got the cable cord again!

Lily is the center of our lives. She is the most beautiful creation I have ever beheld. Her smile lights up a room, and her big, dark eyes speak volumes! She has so much inteligence in every look, every movement. I have watched her sit still for a few full minutes at a time, watching something new, and taking it all in! She isn't afraid of anything... except Andrew throwing her in the air and catching her. That scares her. But nothing else. Not even a giant spider! (This was part of our halloween decorations).

Lily has two teeth now, both on the bottom, and one on top that has tried to break through 3 times, but it can't seem to do it. Her bottom teeth are so sharp! It really hurts if she bites your finger, but she doesn't hurt me when I breastfeed, so, for now, I'm still safe. She has tasted breastmilk, Similac, rice cereal, a small bite of mashed potatoes, and canned banana baby food. She seems to have no real prefrence for any one thing, except tags and cords, and the occasional Kit Kat with the wrapper still on. (Her shirt says "I want candy" on it. It was a gift from her great-aunt Tracy Warnock).

Oh, how I love to be a mommy! I am so grateful for my little family, my husband and daughter, my greatest blessings! They are what life is all about. They make life wonderful! How blessed I am to have them in my life! Happy half birthday my little Lily! You are what I am most grateful for!

Happy Halloween

We've had a great couple weeks with Nonni (Mom Bitter) being here for the last 2 weeks taking care of Lily, dishes, laundry, cleaning, and cooking. I can't believe we are actually letting her leave on Tuesday, but as they say "All good things..."

I have been meaning to talk more about life here in Kirksville and med school in general, but since it is late those things will have to wait. Till then enjoy the latest pictures and updates:

Lily has begun to crawl across the floor when something has her interest. (Or something similar to crawling.) But what she really wants to do is stand. She lifted herself up against this computer tray the other day.




Here are some pre-Halloween pictures (More to follow later). While the second pcture is not a great one of Lily it is a great shot of the wonderful outfit Grammy (Mom Freeman) made for her. The first pic is in our neighbors front yard where she has lots of beautiful leaves. (note the sign says Boo! Not Bod :-)



A parting shot of Lily on our front lawn. One of my personal favorites.

We hope you all had a great Halloween. More pics to follow this later, and just maybe some of them will have Amanda and me in them.-Andrew