Little Moments

Last night before dinner, Andrew snuggled in close so we could read/watch a Pooh book on the iPad. I quickly realized that there was some rhythmic breathing going on... and yes... the little guy had fallen asleep. (Not too big of a surprise since he had no nap that day).  Oh, how I love these little moments!

P.S. Yep, that's me at 8 months preggo. I'll have to get a side shot taken soon to document.

Exciting Sledding in Webster Park

Who says you can't have some fun when you're 8 months pregnant?? There was a small-ish hill in the park, I had no intentions of sledding... but Morgan convinced me otherwise. Glad I did it! Love me some sledding.

Snow Day in Maine

 We enjoyed a great White Christmas here in Maine. We all were excited to get out and play in the snow the next day. Here are some photos from the last two days.... Enjoy!

A few more exciting photos to follow.... check back tomorrow!

Christmas #3 - Maine

Highlights:
- Christmas Eve fun with my mother-in-law's family. It's always so nice to catch up!
- Santa Claus cake from The Cake Boss! Yep, straight from Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, NJ. It was totally worth all the hype too! (Thanks to Aunt Kelly picking it up on her way north!)
- Aunt Kelly's cute Olive Penguins. Seriously, how fun are those?
- One excited little boy on Christmas Eve! He loved all the attention he got :-)
- Andrew coming downstairs Christmas morning to open up a few gifts before Church.
- Andrew totally getting into opening gifts, I'm loving it!
- Getting back into our PJ's after church, enjoying the falling snow, fire in the wood stove, and most importantly... Celebrating Christ's birth!!

Christmas #2 - Alpharetta

Highlights:
- Spending time with my family before we left for Maine.
- Morgan officially becoming an Academic with the new addition of his Leather Patch Blazer.
- Emily opening up gifts for Little Miss Nora (lots of PINK! I love it!)
- Andrew getting a wooden train set. I see lots of hours spent on that toy!

Christmas #1 - Athens

The Stinson fam was spoiled this year! We had three Christmas celebrations! One as our small family at home in Athens, next in Alpharetta my parents, and third in snowy Maine with Morgan's family! We must have been really good this year. 

Highlights this year... 

- Andrew totally getting into all the Christmas Movies. Frosty the Snowman and Charlie Brown Christmas were at the top of the list. 

- Making gingerbread men to leave for Santa (Andrew wanted them so bad!) 

- Biggest highlight - Andrew TOTALLY getting into opening presents!

2011 Christmas Card

Here's a copy of our Christmas card. We hope that it finds you well!

Quick Stinson Family Update:

Morgan Still in school! He’s staying very busy while he’s pursuing his PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy. He’s been teaching some classes at UGA and has really enjoyed that. (This makes me happy… since that’s what he wants to do after he’s done with school!) He’s also staying very busy with research and all that goes with that. Morgan had a major accomplishment this fall…. He became a member of the 13.1 club! He finished his first half marathon and is now training for a full marathon. I definitely think the running bug has bitten him.

Emily Currently 7 months pregnant with a little girl! We’re so excited for late February to come! I’m busy getting things ready to have a newborn in the home again. It’s amazing all the things you forget! I love being at home with Andrew and feel very blessed to be able to do so. I also participated in two craft shows this year with a friend, and had a fun time doing that. (www.elmwoodave.etsy.com). This year I’ve started to dabble in photography (thanks to the fancy camera I got last year). It’s a fun learning curve to be on. I’ve also been serving in the Primary Organization at church. I love working with kids and feeling their sweet spirits every Sunday.

Andrew He’s still our sweet boy. He turned three this past October and we honestly can’t believe that he’s going to be a Sunbeam at church next year (should be interesting to see how he deals with having me in Primary too!) Andrew has made leaps and bounds this year with his Speech. He’s been attending Speech Therapy – and it has helped SO much. We feel so blessed for the things he’s been able to learn. He’s still very much in love with Mickey and especially Minnie Mouse. Whenever you see him, you’ll see one of those two tucked under his arm. We are also so excited to have him become a big brother. I know that he’s going to be a great helper.

We hope that everything is going well with you! We also want to make sure you remember that we keep a family blog @ www.morganandemily.blogspot.com. We will be keeping that updated, especially as we add a sweet little lady to our family.  We hope that you have a VERY Merry Christmas as we reflect on the Birth of Christ. May we keep Him in the forefront of our minds during this season.

Merry Christmas! Love, Andrew

View from last night.

Every night before I head to bed I check on Andrew. I cannot fall asleep until I've done this. Andrew has always been in his bed, so I simply cover him up and make sure any books are out of his way. Last night I got quite the surprise when I walked into his room... Little man had rocked himself to sleep!!

He had the essentials... small pillow, blanket, and his trio (Bananas, Mickey, and Minnie)

What a sweetie.

Visit with Santa.

My mom and I took Andrew up to go see Santa again this year. We go to a place that's never busy (no lines!) I was really hoping that this year would go as well as the years past... but that wasn't the case. Poor Santa had a very scared little boy on his hands. He was a SUPER nice and gentle Santa, but Andrew was totally freaked out, hence why I'm in the pictures.

Funny Boy Andrew

Andrew is silly. He loves it when I pull out my camera, especially when I'm using the flash. He gives me the cheesiest grins when I have the flash going. Here are a few I snapped the other night. (boy, am I crazy about him!)

Thanksgiving.

 We had a nice Thanksgiving with my family this year. Here are a few pictures that my sweet sister took. (thank goodness, I didn't pull my camera out one bit!)

 

This was the first successful year of having the kids at a 'kids table.' No worries, they were all within arm reach of the adults!

Grandpa carving the turkey! A yearly tradition. And yes, both dogs got a few little tasters.

 The feast! Well, one plate of it. My older sister, Rachel took care of the pumpkin pie (her yearly tradition). Laura, my younger sister, took care of the Sweet Potatoes, which were dang good and will now be her yearly tradition. My mom and I took care of the rest. It was a busy, but manageable morning. Three pies, two casseroles, two veggies, ham, and turkey. Yum Yum!

Crunchy Leaves

Some how our Apartment building seems to be the collector of all the fallen leaves. Andrew LOVES it! We came home from church and Andrew started his daily run back and forth through the leaves. I grabbed the camera and took a few shots. (Also, don't you just love his plaid pants?!)

Halloween

This year we celebrated Halloween at home. We had a nice time keeping our traditions alive. I made my annual batch of Ghostly Shepard's Pie. Then we got ready to go Trick or Treating. Andrew LOVED his Mickey Mouse costume. He really got into trick or treating too. It was fun seeing him knock on doors and saying 'trick or treat,' 'thank you,' and 'BYE.' He would then wave is hands inside the gloves. It was so cute. Anyways, here are a few pictures from the evening.

Pumpkin Carving

This year was the first year we involved Andrew in our pumpkin carving. It was only natural to carve a Mickey pumpkin since Andrew is going to be dressed as Mickey this year. We had a lot of fun, and are proud of our group effort to complete the pumpkin!

Tug Tug.

Andrew's learning how to manipulate situations by tugging at our heart strings. Like this evening... bedtime must have come early for Andrew. He had a hard time going to sleep. After Morgan and I listen to... "mama! daddy! where are you? I love you!" or "what did I do?" we took turns going  up there. Of course, the moment we walk in, he's fine. We go and lay in bed with him for a little bit. He charms us by talking (which we love to hear) and being all sweet and cuddily (which we ADORE). Then as either of us try to get out of bed - he literally pulls us back into bed with him. Then says "your stuck!"

Oh man, Andrew, the master manipulator. (although, I'll take it.... I just love that boy too much!)

Surprise Belly Picture

So, I don't have any 'posed' belly shots from this pregnancy. Not that I don't want them - but Morgan usually doesn't get home until late in the evening, and honestly - I don't look all that glamorous in my PJ's. When we went to the pumpkin patch last week, Morgan was the photographer for most of the activity. Much to my surprise when I downloaded them was a picture of me and my growing belly. So, here you go. 21 weeks along. Gotta love being 5 foot 2 and short waisted, there's only one way to grow.... out.

1st Dental Visit

Done! Whew!

It wasn't awful, but I hope that our next visit in 6 months goes a little easier!

Kun-kins

 Andrew has had so much fun with all the pumpkins that are out and about. We have a few toy pumpkins (thanks mom!) at the house, he's even sleeping with one! We thought it would be fun to go to a local church and pick out a pumpkin together. Andrew just kept on saying "kun-kin!" It was pretty cute. Here's some pictures from our adventures.

Baby #2....

The Stinson Family is about to have a whole lot more pink in our lives...

.... We're having a GIRL! We are so excited. Everything looked great on the ultrasound.

Morgan wasn't able to be at the ultrasound, so we had the tech write down the gender for us. We met up for lunch at a favorite place of ours, and had Andrew tell us the letters that were written down. We both thought that we heard Andrew say "O" so - we thought it was a boy - we looked at the paper and were shocked to see GIRL written down!! I'm now almost 21 weeks along. It's nice to be on the "downhill" side. February/March can't get here soon enough!

Andrew's Birthday Celebration(s)

Andrew had a great birthday this year! We started the day with homemade blueberry muffins and then we were off to Speech Therapy. Andrew had a great day there, so that's a plus. After speech we went to this cute little bakery in town and treated ourselves with donuts and a cupcake for later.

 Since Morgan was going to be at school all day long - we headed out to my parent's house for the day. Andrew had a fun lunch at McDonald's, and played in the 'play place' for the first time. Let me tell you - don't send a super cautious kid in one of those things.... Andrew had a great time playing in it, but when it was time to go - he would not come down the slide. So... preggo Emmy got to climb all the way up to him.... those are NOT made for adults! When I got to Andrew - he stated "I stuck." I pulled him out of his little nook and we slid down the slide. He wanted to go up again, but I resisted, I didn't want a repeat performance!

We had dinner with my family and Andrew got to blow some candles out and open up a gift.

 

That night, my sis-in-law called and Andrew had ALL his Stinson cousins sing Happy Birthday to him over the phone from Utah. He had a big smile on his face. It was great.


Saturday we had a family birthday party at our house. Andrew had a lot of fun. It was nice having some family over and enjoying each others company. Since Andrew LOVES numbers, I thought it would be fun to make him a number themed cake. I was pretty happy with my creation.

 Andrew got a lot of new fun toys and games. We've played with most of them already.

Favorite toy: A truck that'll tow 4 cars. Andrew took it with him for his nap today :-)

Then it was time to blow the candles out and cut the cake. Perfect ending to the party!

Happy Birthday Andrew! We still can't believe that you are three. You are the light of our lives!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

 Happy Birthday to our dear sweet Andrew! Morgan and I are so happy to be your parents.You are such a sweet and gentle little boy. You love to give hugs and kisses and will often do it "just because." You are such a blessing in our lives.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You're THREE!

You're very first birthday, talk about love at first sight!

Your first birthday! What fun you had.

Your second birthday! Mickey Mouse all the way!

Here you are, Mr. Three Year Old!!

Touch a Truck

Today in Athens, they had their annual Touch a Truck activity. I had no idea Athens had one, so when I heard about it I got excited to take Andrew. Andrew LOVED it! He climbed in nearly every truck and if there was a horn - he honked it.

Started off with a bang! Andrew LOVES the garbage truck. Every time it comes by our place we rush outside and watch the truck do it's job.

Honking the UPS horn

Probably my favorite pic of the day. Andrew LOVED the fire truck!!

On a City Bus. Andrew is enthralled with buses.

View from outside the bus.

Honking the Mail Truck's horn.

 

 

 

 

Andrew's first AND last time in the back of a police cruiser.

 

 

 

It was fun to take Andrew to see the trucks. We first took him to one when he was about 18 months old and not talking. It was fun to hear him talk about the different trucks. The only thing that we were sad we didn't see was a School Bus. Man, that boy loves those big yellow buses!