Drew's 1st birthday party

We had Drew's 1st birthday party on August 1...I know, I'm a bit behind! But I am going to try to catch up soon because Trent is about to start KINDERGARTEN and I'm sure I'll have a lot to blog about! More on that later...

Here are some pics from Drew's 1st birthday party. We kept it very small. My mom and sister came down for it. Also in attendance were our friends Robert, Katie, Kennedy, and Riley Plunkett, and also our friends Mark Koeppen, Martha Duenas, and Dylan Koeppen.

The decorations and presents



Walking toward me



Sweet Riley



Boone is ready to party



Trent and Dylan watching something on Mark's ipod--they are obviously too cool for all this baby stuff! :)



Drew's smash cake



Gimme gimme gimme!

Ooo, fun!

Sweet baby boy!

We finally had to cut off a piece because he really didn't know what to do with that big ol' cake!

He loved squishing it in his hands!

Boone was dying to get some of that cake!

This is about the time he started rubbing it into his belly. We tried to tell him that the cake was not going to get in his tummy through his belly button!

I don't know what he was doing here, but I just thought this was hilarious!



There's his belly

Nice highlights

This one cracks me up too. Boone is waiting so patiently for something to drop on the floor...you can almost read his mind!

The cake for everyone else--it matched the invitations!



Ooo--presents!



Big brother testing the new toys

Hammering away!

This is what Aaron and I got him

Pictures from our trip to Pentwater

I am trying to do this quickly because we are heading out of town AGAIN today to go to Port Aransas, TX for the weekend. But I wanted to FINALLY share our pictures from our wonderful trip to Pentwater, MI to visit Aaron's side of the family. We flew into Detroit and spent the 1st weekend at his Aunt Michele's house to celebrate cousin Evan's graduation from high school. Had a big party and lots of fun! Somehow, I didn't end up with very many pictures from Aunt Michele's house. Don't know how, but there are a few!

On Monday, we headed up to Pentwater for the rest of the week and had some more fun, as you can see from the pictures. We went down to the beach (although it was a little chilly). We went to a farm where we got to pet and feed all kinds of animals. Trent really loved that. Trent got to fish a little bit off the channel, we went on Sally and Dennis's boat, and Aaron and I got to go sailing. (Although I didn't do ANY of the work! I just sat there!) Anyway, I need to go pack the boys up for this weekend, so enjoy the pictures, and I will try to post pictures from Drew's birthday party (which was a couple of weeks ago--I'm so behind!) when we get back. And of course, I will post the pictures from this weekend! Can't wait to take my boys to one of my favorite places! :)

Birthday #1

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, DREW-BUG!! I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Went to get Drew's 1 year pictures done today at Portrait Innovations. Didn't spend as much money as I did last time, but still more than I planned. Why do my kids have to be so cute?! :) I just can't resist that face. Here's some of my favorites that I pulled off the CD.

Pictures from our trip to Michigan are coming soon...I promise! We've been soooo busy! Haven't had time!

4th of July fun and lots of "firsts"

This could end up being a long post! We had a WONDERFUL weekend! We didn't really have anything solid planned to do for the 4th until my aunt Dottie popped up on Facebook chat around Tuesday and said, "Why don't ya'll come up to our house for the 4th?" That set everything in motion. She and my uncle Gary live in Ravenna, TX, which is maybe 5 miles from the Oklahoma border, if that much. They have an awesome place out there--it's so peaceful, and they have lots of land with 3 little ponds to fish in and a "saloon" where they have a pool table and other fun stuff to do. For a few years now, they have done a big fireworks show at their place. We've never been able to go and have always been disappointed at that. So when Dottie asked us to come, we didn't hesitate! We had the best time this weekend. I wasn't ready for it to end. Drew had a lot of firsts...first haircut, first real steps, and first 4th of July, of course!

Playing in the water with Grams--you can see how long his hair is. Over his ears!

First haircut--he did great!

He sticks his tongue out all the time now

Let go of my head!

All done!


Blow dry

Trent riding his bike where Mommy used to ride her bike for hours--up and down the driveway

Out at Dottie and Gary's

Elena (my cousin Vicki's daughter) and Trent playing in the pool

There's a shark in the pool!

Asa (Vicki's son) riding his bike

Grams and Drew

I could seriously just eat her up. She is SO cute! Elena with their pug puppy, Gizmo.

Aaron and Mom playing horseshoes

Me and my baby

Traci and John

My family

Drew has taken one step before he grabs onto me, but on Saturday, he took 5 whole steps at once! It was so exciting!


I love his face in this one!


Gotcha, Mom!

Traci and the boys

Trent and my cousin Rhett--Trent is Rhett's shadow! Follows him everywhere!

My beautiful cousin, Vicki

Drew and John

I don't know what's going on here! I just think this picture is funny!

Drew was drinking a bottle right before the fireworks started, and he put his bottle down when they started and was mesmerized! If you know my son, you know he doesn't put down a bottle till he has sucked it dry. So he must have been amazed!

I took 4 different videos of the fireworks show that Gary put on. They have 3 ponds on their land that are all in a row, and he lines up the fireworks along the back of the ponds and runs around lighting each one. These videos are pretty much back to back, I just didn't want them to take all day to upload to my blog, so I broke it up a little. Each video is about 2 minutes long. Drew was pretty much silent during the first video because he just couldn't believe his eyes, but you'll hear him mostly in the 2nd and 3rd ones just yelling at the top of his lungs because he was so excited at what he was seeing. Priceless! Gary did a great job on the fireworks, and I'm so glad we got to go! We always have the best time out at their place.