I love...

...our Young Married Couples Bible Study Group.

I worked today until 3:30 p.m. I was able to get someone to work my last 4 hours. It was so weird to come out of work when it was still light outside. I haven't had it be light out after work since late summer or early fall. I got off early from work today so I could go to our Young Married Couples Bible Study. Tonight we had the biggest group we have ever had. We had 25 adults and 7 kids. I love this group. We meet once a month on a Sunday night. During our first year of marriage, my husband and I felt like we wanted a group of other young couples that we could relate to. We wanted to start a bible study for young married couples because our church didn't have anything like that. We go to a really new church, and at that time it was only a couple years old. Brian and I went to our pastor to see what he had to say about this. He thought that was a great idea, and wanted to introduce us to an older couple, Bill and Barb, in our church that he thought would be a great couple to lead the group. He actually called Bill and Barb a young, old couple because he said they are so hip and young at heart. Anyways, that was over 3 years ago. And now our Young Married Couples Bible Study has grown to about 12 to 14 couples. We meet one Sunday night every month, and we meet at Bill and Barb's beautiful spacious house. I look forward to this night every month. Right now we are going through a DVD series called "Love, Marriage, and Stinkin' Thinkin'." It has been a great series.

The woman in the right picture, on the far left is Barb, her and her husband, Bill lead our group

Zander decided to play under the table while we were there. He was having so much fun that his daddy decided to join him. Then I crawled under there to get some pictures. Don't worry no one was sitting at the table. While all 3 of us were under there 2 other kids joined us there. All 5 of us had fun laughing, playing, taking pictures, and even reading a book under the table.

What a fun night!

Boys weekend

I work every other weekend and am gone all day on Saturday and Sunday since I work 12 hour shifts. My husband calls the weekends I work as "boys weekend." He has fun playing with Zander all to himself every other Saturday, and then taking him to church on Sunday. He loves spending time with Zander. Well, he doesn't take many pictures of "boys weekend." I'm working on that part of "boys weekend."  Since I have no pictures of "boys weekend," I thought I would post a picture of me and Zander.

Zander

Celebrating

Zander and I spent the morning with my husband before he went to work at noon. Well, Zander napped some this morning as well. Then Zander and I went to my mom's house to celebrate her birthday. I had planned to take her out to lunch, but she decided she would rather have me get the food to go and bring it to her house. That was such a good idea, because I usually end up holding Zander most of the time at restaurants. He is an active boy and just wants to get down and crawl. There is a Mediterranean Restaurant by my house, and I picked up some food from there. It was so yummmy. This is my second favorite restaurant. We had such a nice time. While Zander took his afternoon nap, my mom and I played cards. Then when Zander woke up from his nap we played with him and watched him exploring his toys. He loves to play, and he is learning new things everyday about his toys and how they work. My dad came home later and brought Birthday Cake Pie home from Bakers Square. If you have a Bakers Square by you, you have to try this pie. It has a layer of french silk, a layer of yellow cake, and then cool whip/whip cream topping. It is delicious. It will only be around until the end of the month, and they have it in honor of their 40th Birthday. Go get some. Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you.

One more time

Just a few more view points of Zander's toy.  (The toy I bought for $1.)

A different view

Here is another picture of the toy Zander was playing with yesterday. 

I'm trying to take pictures from many different view points. 

Love, not Sorry

I just love my little boy.  In some ways I want to apologize for gushing so much about Zander on this blog.  But then there is a part of me that says, I shouldn't apologize, because I started this blog so I could write about my son and remember  his growing up.  I have been told that they grow up so fast.  So I want to remember it all.

So with all that being said, I'm going to gush about my son.  Here is the background.  I wasn't feeling good near the end of my shift at work.  I had a humongous headache.  At first I thought it was from one of the kids that screamed in my ear because I had to put an IV in or because I had to draw blood.  But then I thought about it and realized today was a mild day for me and the screamers.  Don't get me wrong, I had them today, but I have had much worse.  Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about kids in the ER.  I love kids and it makes me so sad to see them sad.  I don't get upset when I get a crying baby or a screaming child.  And they have never given me a headache at work.  If anything, the beeping from our monitors give me a headache.  So, I ruled that out.  And thought hard about what could be causing my headache.  And I figured it out.  I had no caffeine today.  I had a caffeine withdrawal headache.  I am addicted to Pepsi, and drink way too much.  Well, I am trying to cut back.  I drank so much water today, and no pop, and boy did I pay for it with that headache.  All of this being said, I was tired when I went to pick Zander up.  We came home, and I wanted him to play a little before going to bed, and I was hoping he would take more of his bottle too.  I had so much fun watching him play because he was having so much fun playing with his toys.  He was loving his mailbox, and he was loving this toy too. 

Then he was having fun digging around in the bin that holds his letter blocks.  It was so cute.  But what what really made my day, was the 5 or so minutes we spent together right before he went to bed.  I laid him on his changing table to change his diaper.  I started saying "SO BiG" in a cute high pitched voice.  Well Zander thought that was the funniest thing ever.  So of course I kept doing it, and he kept laughing and laughing.  One of his cute belly laughs.  I have noticed that my son laughs at the silliest of things.  He belly laughs when his Grandma Wiersema blows her nose, when mommy teaches him how to knock down block towers and he does it over and over again.  He belly laughs at the noise mommy makes of a toy cow mooing, when mommy makes other silly noises, and when mommy says "SO BiG."  So my son's belly laugh made my day.  It is amazing that he still had a belly laugh when it was 2 hours past his bedtime and when he is teething.  Boy, I am blessed with such a sweet and happy baby boy.  God has truly blessed me and my husband immensely.  Thank you God.  I am sooo grateful.  I wanted to get it on video, but the video camera was downstairs.  I didn't want to ruin the moment, and he probably would not have done the belly laugh still by the time I got the camera. 

Okay so on a side note, I have noticed that I have written the word "SO" a lot in this post.  So What!!!!  But I am deciding to just leave it that way.  It must be my new favorite word.  HA!    

   

10 months old

Zander is 10 months old today.  I can't believe it.  The last 10 months have gone by so fast, and he is getting so big.

Zander, this is what you have been up to in the last month:

-You said your second word today, and it was hi!  You said it to your Grandpa Wiersema.

-You love to crawl all over the place.

-You love to pull up on things and walk along the furniture.

-You get into everything your not supposed to.

-You love wires of any kind.

-You go everywhere and your wearying your momma out.

-You have 6 teeth now. 

-You still wear size 3 diapers.

-You wear some 9 month clothes, but mostly wear 12 month clothes.  Your mommy puts you in 18 month clothes because you have some cute 18 month clothes.  The pants for 18 months are too long surprisingly.

-You still have mom and dad hold your bottle for you.  But you hold it occasionally and so we know you can. 

-You celebrated your first Christmas, and you were not interested in opening your presents.

-You love all of your Christmas presents, especially the mailbox that Grandma and Grandpa Meeter got you.

-You tried finger food for the first time this past month.  But you still don't eat much of it.  You still eat your baby food really well.

-You give high fives now.

-You put both hands above your head for "touchdown."

-You wave hi and bye.

-You love to be read to.

-You sleep between 12-14 hours a night, straight through (except occasionally you wake up and your mommy thinks it is because you are teething).

-You go to bed around 7 p.m. every night.

-You are teething again.  The drooling has started and you put your fingers in the back of your mouth. 

-You usually take 2 naps a day.

-You are very social and love to watch others.  You especially like the girls.  Your a ladies man boy.

-You sometimes dance to music.  Okay, you mostly just move your arms and hands.

-You love all the music and lights at Pipes and Pizza (Beggars Pizza).

-You love your cousin Jaylyn so much and squeal in delight when you see her.

Your mommy and daddy love you very much.  But your mommy is kind of sad to see you growing up so fast.  Just like the country " You're we're gonna  miss this, you're we're gonna want this back, you're we're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast."  We love you Zander and we are enjoying every minute we have with you.

Practicing

I learned something new on here thanks to this blog. And I am so excited about it. I love photos and am so excited I can make them huge. So, I have to give up my cool background. I may change this later so I can add a cool background, but then I would have to go and make my photos smaller, so I may not. Now I need to work on my header and my side bar. This is not the best picture of Zander and I think because it is so big it makes his head look longer than it really is. But I am just practicing, and I haven't taken any pictures at all for 2 days. I am slacking. I need to get busy.

Sleep

It does a body good

When it is on a nice fluffy pillow

Or

On Daddy

Or

in Odd Places,

Like on a jumparoo

Or

In weird positions.

Sleep, it does a body good.

I am tired tonight so I thought I would post about Zander sleeping, since I am not getting enough of it myself.

Farewell

Today we had a laid back and relaxing day.  I had a doctor's appointment with my pulmonologist in the morning.  Then after the appointment, I made a quick trip to Target.  Shopping without a baby is always nice.  I love Zander so much, but sometimes it is just easier and quicker to shop without him.  When I got home my husband went to work and Zander and I hung out, and I cleaned a little. 

Tonight we had our small group.  Mike, from our group, and his family are moving to Tennessee on Saturday.  So instead of our normal small group, we had dinner together and then had prayer.  We will miss you Mike.

Mike (on the left) and John

Our group minus my husband (he was working) and Sam

Visit from Auntie Abby

Zander and I were going to go to MOPs today, but Zander was a little fussy this morning.  So instead he napped.  He had only slept about 45 minutes when he started crying.  I went upstairs and picked him up and put him on the changing table to change his diaper.  That was when I noticed that he had a huge blow out.  It was a mess, so in the bathtub he went. 

He took another nap around 10 a.m.  Then Zander's Auntie Abby came to visit.  Zander had so much fun!  He loved playing with his aunt, and he kept smiling at Abby and climbing on her.

Later Zander went down for another nap.  Wow 3 naps in one day.  He must still not be feeling well.  I have one more day off to enjoy my boy.

I love free stuff!

I got a free photo canvas, thanks to Jessica's blog.  Her blog told me all about it.  I think you may even be able to get it still, just go HERE.  This is what mine looks like.  I think it turned out really nice.  I love it.  And it was free.  All you have to do is pay for shipping and handling.  The 8x10 photo canvases are free, the rest you get to save money on.

I figured it out!

I figured it out.  I now know how to get the old post that I started to post to the day I started it and not to the day I finished the post.  I hope that makes sense.  I am so excited about this.  All I have to do before I post the post is to go to settings.  I change the editor to old editor.  Then it posts to the day I want it to.  So, when I have time I will be posting some old posts from even before Thanksgiving.  So, when I finish a post from November 2009, it will post to November 2009.  I just wished I figured this out earlier.  Because I have 2 posts that did not post on the correct date and one of them was the post for Christmas Day.  Oh well.  All my other posts will be correct.  Yeah!!!

Some little boy...

has a new toy

thanks to daddy's boss

 

who didn't want to give it a toss!

Looks like fun,

now we just need the sun!

Oh, he's my SUNshine!

Poor Baby

My little boy had a fever today, his first fever ever. We went and visited his Grandma and Auntie Aubo today. Zander took a nap over at his Grandma's house, and when he woke up he felt warm. He ate a some baby food and then started to become a little fussy. He is hardly ever fussy. We decided he might be teething again, so my mom held him while I got the oragel out. When she was holding she felt like he was really warm and may have a fever. I took his temperature and it was 102.0. My poor baby. I gave him Children's Motrin right away. I checked his temperature a few hours later and the fever was gone. He went to bed a little early tonight, around 6:30 p.m., and is sleeping now. I hope he sleeps through the night and feels better in the morning. I think the fever may have only be from him teething. He is not vomiting, no diarrhea, and he is not pulling on his ears. My poor baby. Since Zander was sick I couldn't go to a Jewelry Party my friend was having. I'm little bummed about that, but my son comes first. He is so important. And he saved me some money. I took no pictures today. Shocking I know. So I decided to not post any old ones either. It is a little hard to post without pictures.


Update: Zander woke up at 1:50 a.m. and he felt warm again. We took his temperature and this time it was 102.5. But still he had no vomiting or diarrhea. We gave him some more Children's Motrin, gave him a bottle, took off his fleece pajamas, left him in his onesie, and put him to bed. He woke up around 5:45 a.m. while I was getting ready for work. We took his temperature again and it was down to 99.5. Zander's mom and dad both got to go to work today and Zander was taken care of and spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa Meeter. I am so thankful for my in-laws.

Bug a Boo

BUG

A

BOO

Cruising

Daddy put together Zander's car walker today.  It is so cute!  It is a red walker that looks like a little car.  I haven't seen Zander in it yet, but I hope he likes it.  Plus I didn't know this, but you can push in the seat and he can just stand behind it and play with the steering wheel and other stuff.  Fun!

It Made Me So Happy!

My older sister, Abby, said the sweetest thing to me yesterday. She said I have the sweetest baby boy ever. She told me she has never seen a better, or sweeter baby than Zander. She said he almost never cries. And it is sooooo true.  That made me feel so good and it just melted my heart.  I may be biased, but I think I do have the sweetest and cutest baby boy in the world.  I just love him so much.

What a cutie!

Lots of Play Time

Today Zander had a playdate with this little boy, Joseph, and his little brother Jonathan.

Jonathan slept most of the time, but that is because he is only 2 months old. Zander enjoyed playing with Joseph and his toys. And I enjoyed visiting with my friend Twilight.

After our playdate we headed home, where my nieces, Alyssa and Julia, were hanging out with my husband. Zander played with them before his nap. I just love these girls.

Later on we decided to give Zander his first ride in a sled to my parents house 1/2 a block away.

This picture was taken right before she threw that snowball at me. I didn't expect that.

On our walk we had a snowball fight, well really, the girls were throwing snowballs at me. I had my hands full so I couldn't throw any back. When we got to my parent's house we brought Zander in to spend time with his grandparents while the girls and I went back out for a fun snowball fight. The snow is beginning to melt, so it is perfect snowball snow.

And of course we went to Pipes and Pizza (Beggar's Pizza) for dinner because my nieces and nephew love it, and have to go there every time they are in. Tyler, my nephew, is not feeling well, so that why he wasn't playing with the girls and I. Poor guy. We had such a fun day. Too bad it is back to work tomorrow.

Here is a short video of the organ and lights at Pipes and Pizza.

We will miss you Danielle

My cousin Danielle is moving back to North Carolina soon.  So today is the last day we will be seeing her for a while.  We will miss her.  We had a fun visit.  We played a new game my mom got called Hollywood Dominoes, then we swapped crazy stories.  I'm sad Danielle is moving away.  It was nice to have her a few hours away instead of 16 hours away, but she has to get ready.  You see, my cousin Den, her husband, is serving in the Marines and is deployed to Iraq.  But he is coming back to North Carolina at the beginning of February.  I am so happy he will be back on U.S. soil.  And Danielle is thrilled.  Thanks for serving our country Den; we love you. 

Zander was having fun practicing his walking with Danielle

In this picture Zander was looking in the mirror and just loved it. 

Then we had bible study tonight.  There was only 3 of us tonight, Jen, Jessica, and me.  We decided to hang out and talk and just encourage each other.  We had such a good time.  I just love these girls.

Oh, and the onesie Zander has on is the name of the college I went to.  I just love Trinity International University.  Go Trojans! 

Toy Thief

Zander had a playdate today with some of the kids in our small group at MOPs.  There were 11 kids there and 4 moms.  We had a fun time.  But I did catch Zander stealing a few toys from some of the other kids.  He even took a toy away from a 6 month old little girl.  I hope he stops stealing toys from others really soon.  I don't want it to become a habit.  I know he is only 9 months old, and he doesn't really get it yet.  I'm sure he will not be know as the toy thief, at least I hope not.

They had this really cute toy there.  It is a lot of fun to watch it being pulled.  I would love to get one for Zander, I'm just not sure where they got it from.  I love all things alligator since my name is Allie, and alligator is one of the nicknames my husband calls me.