Trip to Memphis

The 3 of us took a short trip to Memphis last week to visit our family, to celebrate Andrew's 2nd birthday a little early (he will be "2" on April 6th), and to go to Nick and Carrie's wedding shower. Gary also managed to get his eyes checked and pick out new glasses, and my grandparents generously gave us a deep freezer to bring back to Auburn. It was a jam packed 3 days, but we are always so glad to spend some time with the family!

Andrew's birthday party at Chick-fila.

Cupcakes for the party. Elmo is still one of Andrew's favorite characters.

Andrew and his cousins (Haley, Alex, Eric, and Blake). They had so much fun together in the playground.

Mamaw, Aunt Paige, and Uncle Chris

Papaw and Gary

Mimi, Pop, Granddad, and Nana

Playing outside at Mimi and Pop's

ALL BOY!

Andrew and I stayed outside after preschool to enjoy the weather, and Andrew had a blast playing in the dirt. I had to throw him right into the bath tub after all this because he was covered in mud.

Cruise 2010

Gary and I went on a Carnival cruise with our friends from college (Chadd & Andrea and Cary & Amanda), and we had so much fun! We left from Tampa, FL, had 2 days at sea, and stopped in Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

Here's the whole gang.


Embarkation....

1st Day at Sea

Formal Night


Cozumel, Mexico



Pictures before Dinner

Last night on the boat

Snow Days!

We had a lot of fun playing in the snow the last 2 days. On Friday, the snow was really coming down, so we didn't play outside for too long. We were all 3 pretty wet by the time we got inside. Saturday was perfect. It was about 40 degrees, and the yard was still covered with powdery white snow. Andrew probably could have stayed outside all day. We enjoyed spending a lot of time just the 3 of us!

Friday

Andrew loves being outside!

Here's our house after it had been snowing for about 3-4 hours.


Ready to play....

Saturday

Woods beside our house...

Building the snowman...

Our little snowman!

Not sure about the snow...


After it started to warm up, the 3 of us went on a walk with Chip. Chip was eating the snow, so he had it all over his face.

Andrew didn't want to wear his hat anymore...

Just a few new pictures...

I realized that I haven't really taken many pictures of Andrew since Christmas, so I am trying to better about that. It's hard for me to believe that we are getting so close to 2 years old. He's growing up way too fast!

This is Andrew's play corner in our living room. He loves to go over there and read books, play with blocks, or his little farm. His most favorite books right now are his Sesame Street book set from Mamaw and Papaw.

Andrew is always hugging on his little animal friends (Mr. Moose, Duck Duck, Mousey, and Giraffe). He will sit in his bed for at least 20 minutes in the morning and talk to his animals before he's ready to get up.


Andrew decided today that he wanted to drink out of a big boy cup by himself. He grabbed my water while I was in the other room and thought he was so big! We'll still be using a sippy cup because he loves trying to spill his drink all over the place when he's done.

Little Memphis Fan

New Favorite Cookbook

For the months of November and December, I didn't really cook much for us because we were SO busy, and I was in a rut with all of my recipes. We had a lot of soup and grilled cheese nights or just quick dinners. At Christmas, I got The Biggest Loser Cookbook, and it has been awesome! So far, we've made 5 recipes from it that have been healthy and delicious.

Here are a few that we've tried so far, and we are planning to have the Grilled Chicken Parmesan for Dinner and the Spinach, Egg, and Cheese Wrap for Breakfast sometime this week...

1. Texas Caviar (Black bean and corn salsa)
2. Buffalo Chicken Meatloaf
3. Spaghetti and Meatballs
4. Meatball Subs (used meatballs from previous recipe that I had frozen)
5. Roasted Tilapia with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes

Our Crazy Dog Chipper

It's been a while since I posted anything about Chipper, so I thought everyone might like to see our furry family member.

Chip is a ball of energy and has been so much fun. He's still in a bit of a destructive stage, so I thought it would be fun to remember all the things that he's torn up over the past year in our backyard.....

Grill Cover
Frame of Our Back Door
Water Hose
Water Hose Sprayer
Extension Cord (used for Christmas lights)
Countless Toys
Newspaper
His Blanket
His Doghouse
Cups
Drainage Catcher from Gutters
Umbrella for the Patio Furniture

We've learned that anything that we leave in the backyard is fair game for him to chew :) We are hoping this stage will end soon, but we love him and have so much fun playing with him, going on walks as a family, and taking him to the park.

Christmas in Memphis, TN

Christmas with the Reynolds

Christmas with the Snuffins