It's about time!

If you are around my son for any amount of time you realize that he doesn't exactly have a very wide spread diet!  Eating has been one of our biggest battles with him.  Don't get me wrong, he eats.  We just can't get him to eat any veggies and he pretty much eats the same things all the time.  His diet could just consist of fruit and dairy and he would be happy, oh and snacks of course.  His diet mainly consists of these two food groups with veggie corn dogs, veggie burgers and chicken nuggets added in.  It used to be that if we tried to introduce something new he would just sit and scream and then go to bed hungry because he would not even touch it!  That got old QUICK!

Thankfully, over the past month or so he has improved ALOT.  We started out convincing him to just lick something:)  then gradually we told him to just put it in his mouth and he coulds spit it out if he didn't like it and that is usually what he did.  And then, lately, he has been cooperative when we tell him to just taste something and a few things he is actually like..imagine that?!

A few new things (and I know these are not neccessarily that big of a deal, but they are to us) he has tried lately include: grilled chicken, brocoli, pizza with mushrooms and tomoatoes, and spaghetti!

WAHOO...It's about time our 21/2 year old started eating what we eat!

Sweet Home Alabama

Andrew got a final offer for a Staff Psychologist position at Talladega Federal Prison last Friday and we found out that he will start on November 4th!  Obviously, that put us into overdrive and so I worked Monday and flew to Atlanta where my mother-in-law picked me up and we headed to Alabama for 2 days to find us a place to live!

To make a long story really short...God is GOOD!  We were really disappointed and I was starting to get really anxious after seeing 3 out of the 5 houses that I had researched for us to look at possibly renting online. 

Mrs. Susan and I went to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch and started talking to our waiter who told us some areas to possibly look.  There was a man sitting at a big table waiting on others to arrive and he walked up.  He apologized for eaves dropping and went on to tell us that he was a music minister at a church nearby and directed us to look in a neighborhood where alot of those young couples live.

After lunch, we headed out to try and find McIntosh Trails.  We never found that particular neighborhood but we drove through a nice neighborhood and happened upon this house that was for sale by owner.  We asked the neighbors that were outside if anyone lives in the house and they said no!  I called the number to randomly ask if they would want to rent it out.

It turns out that this couple is only a few years older than us and their youngest child is a week older than Harpin.  They just put in new hardwoods, carpet and painted to try and sell it but they would be willing to meet me!

Mrs. Susan and I met the husband on Thursday morning and he was so nice!  He said he would talk to his wife and get back to us.  An hour or so later as we walked through another horrible rental home, she called and said they would rent it out!

Most people could care less about all these details, so I write for my memory only and another reminder to me of God's faithfulness in providing for our family.  I would have liked a larger house with more room for guests, and I still look forward to a place to call our own again but boy is this a huge relief for us right now!

Harpin is 4 months!

Harpin was 4 months old on the 15th!  Boy is her personality blooming:)  

Here are some things you are up to...

• You are 14 lbs 2 oz (46th%) and 25 inches long (58th %)
• You are wearing size 2 diapers.
• You are in size 3-6 and 6 month clothing.
• You are making eye contact more and more and smiling and laughing at us.
• You love your hands and prefer your fingers to your paci.
• You sleep on your belly.
• You get excited and kick your chubby little legs.
• You sat in the bumbo for the first time this month and you like to sit and watch us cook dinner, or sit on the table and watch us all eat together.
• You love your brother and like to watch him play or eat up his kisses that he gives you freely and often.
• You have finally changed your schedule up and you take the evening "catnap" and then eat around 7-7:30 and have been doing better sleeping all night just in the past week.
• You do well riding in the baby bjorn or the ergo.
• You are MUCH better than your brother ever was riding in the car.
• You went to the church nursery for the first time.
• You love taking a bath and enjoy it even more when your big bro joins.

Quarry Quest

Last Saturday we went to Quarry Quest here in Neenah.  I'm still amazed at all the family friendly, budget friendly things that there is to do here! With that said, we found out this is the largest event every year in Neenah.  To make it even better, all the equipment and people are donated and volunteers and the proceeds are given to a local charity (I can't remember which one).  

Riggs operated the track hoe, we made concrete, dug for gold, watched the dump trucks and much more! 

A little boys heaven!

(I put these onto blogger from my phone and they will NOT center:( )

This Happened.

This happened about two weeks ago! I wish I wasn't always 2-3 weeks behind on blogging stuff. In the perfect life I would blog right when things happen.  It isn't that I don't have the time, it's just that I would rather do other things when the kids nap or go to bed.

Anyway, this did happen...Andrew completed his internship!  They had luncheon and presented everyone with certificates of completion and their supervisors all said something about each one of them.  Official graduation is in November and we will decide later if we will be home for Andrew to walk or not. In the meantime, WE ARE DONE!  

DONE WITH SCHOOL!

Now I present to you, DR. ANDREW ANDERSON and some pretty sweet babies, and a wife that has earned a certificate too;)

2 and a HALF!

Riggs turned TWO and a HALF last week!  Now that I'm doing monthly posts for Harpin I want to make sure that I do a special marker post for him as well.  We definetely have a big BOY on our hands these days, and not a baby anymore.  Here is what he has been up to lately...

• He is using the big boy potty, but still wears pull up ("poowups") for naps and bedtime.
• Picky, picky eater!...loves fruit, cheese, yogurt, chicken nuggets, veggie burgers, veggie corndogs, will eat some veggies if they are mixed in applesauce or fruit, and of course any kind of "snacky"!
• He's an early riser and goes to bed at 8pm and is up by NO later than 6:30am every day.
• When he wakes up he knows not to get out of bed and calls out, "Mama (or Mommy or Mommy-o or Daddy-o!) I ready, come get me"
• His favorite thing to do is ride his bike (tricycle)
• He has a new love for his blanket and lovie and drags it all over the house.  Thankfully, he knows that we don't take them anywhere with us and we try to enforce that they are only for sleeping.
• He loves his sissy Harpin.
• He can whine with the best of them and I am constantly trying to remind him that he has to ask for what he wants and not just whine!  So, he says "Please...have..._____?" with inunciates each word.
• He has started to say "I want sumpin (something)" or "I show you sumpin"
• He has always called Andrew Daddy-o (have no idea where that came from), but he now calls me mommy-o and says sissy-o and Riley-o! Silly boy.
• Wears size 2T pants and 3T shirts, size 7 shoes.
• We don't have cable and so we watch netflix and his favorite shows are Lion (a random movie called Animals United), Elmo, Copter (Helicopter), any movie or show with animals or puppies.
•  One of my favorite things to hear him say is, "I love you eber, eber, EBER!" (ever, ever, ever) as he gets louder and louder:)

Children are such a treasure and I'm so thankful that God chose to give me these two!

I love how much he loves her!

Just a little night out with our boy

I love this picture because I love this face that he makes with his square lip poking out!  He says, "bird poopie on it!" (don't mind his toupee looking hair:)

Goodness, I love him!

To Georgia House

A little over 2 weeks ago we went to "Georgia House" as Riggs calls GA!  We went home specifically for Andrew to defend his dissertation, the last step for him to FINISH his DOCTORATE degree!  I can't believe that after 7 years of marriage he is finally DONE!

PRAISE THE LORD!

We are so thankful that it worked out for all four of us to go home and for Harpin to meet her Papa and Granstan, Aunts, Uncles and cousins for the first time.  So, instead of writing a whole lot I'm going to post most of our time in pictures.

Warning: picture overload



We had great little travelers!

Our sweet friends from Atlanta, Matt and Lydia and Jon and Courtney, picked us up from the airport and drove us to Appling and we spent the day and evening with them (these are the only two RANDOM pictures that I have from our time with them:( )

We spent time with Gigi and Papa and Unka and Rach....

and hung out at Sue Sue and Gran Stan's!

We swam with Dylan and Whit:)

And, we had a play date with some sweet friends!

Most importantly,

this is Andrew's last time setting foot here(Argosy University!)

We had a great whirlwind trip getting to visit family and friends.  We are SO thankful we were able to go!