Live From Hollywood

So my 27th birthday was Friday, November 14 and Jason had arranged for us to go to dinner at Bordino's with some friends. He also ordered a fabulous cake from Rick's which was served after dinner. It was a great time to visit with friends. It was a very special birthday, because everyone that was there has helped with Andrew in some way- either by being there when he was born, coming to the hospital with bags of preemie clothes, bringing dinner, sitting with us in the hospital, or taking care of him when things got hectic at work. I just enjoyed it so much. But, just wait, it gets better......

Here are Jason and I getting ready to leave for dinner.
Christina, Cody, Kara, Me, Mel, Melanie, and Kate (the spouses didn't want to join in the picture taking!)

Here is me with my fabulous cake! You are never to old to bust out Happy Birthday in the middle of a restaurant!

This is Andrew at His House day (his school) at our church. I thought he looked like such a big boy in his new clothes! They did a special service talking about raising Christian children. It was really great!

Now for the crazy part...Emily (my sister who lives in LA) called me Thursday (the 13th) and said that she got tickets to see Dancing With The Stars on the following Tuesday. I LOVE that show! I seriously watch it every Monday and Tuesday and have for the past 5 seasons. I asked her if she had an extra ticket and she did. I told Jason and he was like I'll give you my airline miles for your birthday so you can go. So I booked my flight on Saturday and was on my way at 6:55 am on Tuesday. I got to LA at 10:30 and we got ready to go. It was so awesome! I'm not even going to lie I was as giddy as I could be! We ended up getting to sit right behing the judges (you could see us on TV- if you didn't we've got it on DVR) I could reach out and touch Carrie Ann. The best part was that they don't know who is going home until that actual moment. If they did, that would have ruined it for me. Everyone on the show seemed to be so nice and perky. They talked to the people in the audience and just made you feel glad to be there. After the show, we ate dinner at Il Sole on Sunset. We saw Samantha Harris (the host of DWTS) and Hailey Duff eathing there. After that, I was exhausted to we went to bed. The next day we got up and drove down to Santa Monica. We ate lunch on the pier and just hung out in the sun. I had to be at the airport by 2:00 to catch my flight home so my trip was really short, but so incredibly worth every second! The only thing that I would have liked to change was being able to bring cameras and cell phones into the studio. I have no pictures of me being there, but I do have it recorded on my TV- so unless Andrew breaks his 6th (yes, 6th) Cox cable box, then I can watch it over and over again!

Here are Emily and I on the Santa Monica Pier. It was beautiful 80 degree weather. I wish I could have stayed longer, but with a child, husband, and kindergarten class to take care of, it just wasn't possible!

Cancellations, a Hog Loss, and Some Chicken Fried

At our good friends Kit and Melanie's Wedding in September, we decided that we would go to South Carolina to see Elizabeth and Christian and the Hogs play USC. We booked our flights out of XNA together and were set to go.....that is, until 5:45 on Friday morning when United Airlines called to tell us that our flights from XNA to Chicago and Chicago to Columbia were cancelled. We called the airline and tried to work out something that would get us there later on that day, so they rerouted us to Denver then DC then to Columbia arriving at midnight, instead of 4 in the afternoon. We thought this was ridiculous, but managed to keep our spirits up and planned to enjoy our little cross country adventure. We still got to XNA two hours early to see if there was anything they could do for us. Fortunatly, they were able to move us to Delta and get us to Atlanta then to Columba and we'd be there by 6:00. So they moved Jason and I, but ended up not having enough seats for Melanie and Kit. One part of me was thinking that we should stay with then since we planned this together, but the other part was thinking about dinner reservations. Luckly two people didn't show up so they got the seats! They told us to rush through security because we had five minutes to board the plane. THEN, Jason and I got chosen for addition screening. This included all but a full body cavity search. They were paging us through the airport, so we ran and got on the plane only to be met by a plane full of people glaring at us. Once we explaned the situation to the ENTIRE airplane, we were good to go!

Here we are at Mo Mo's for dinner on Friday. We just had a relaxing dinner and walked around Columbia, then went back to the hotel so we'd be ready for tailgating bright and early.

Here are Kit, Christian, and Jason enjoying the evening. It was so nice to visit with friends. Did I mention this was our first time away from Andrew? Well it was!

Tailgating starts bright and early in SC. We had a lot of fried chicken! I think Melanie ate about 6 pieces...no lie. It was some of the best we've had!
Jason and I enjoyed our trip.

Anna, Elizabeth, Melanie, Lindsey, and Me having a great time tailgating!

Our seats were two rows from the top of the stadium. It was a LONG walk up a lot of stairs. My legs were shaking on the way down. It wasn't a horrible game, they played better then they did at the beginning. We really thought they were going to pull off a win. It was still worth the trip, even if they didn't win. You get a great view of Columbia from the top of the stadium.

Go Hogs!

Andrew had a lot of fun too! He spent the weekend in Conway with his Mimi and Grandad. He also visited with Mere and Don, his great aunt LeAnne, and his great-great aunts. He ate some new foods, eggs, beans, and cornbread. He went and visited the store and enjoyed playing with the four wheelers. He also decided to help Mimi clean out her cabinets!

Happy Halloween and Tulsa Zoo Trip

I was really excited about Halloween for Andrew this year. Last year we weren't able to do much, because he was so little and still couldn't really be around a lot of people. I knew that he wouldn't really know what was going on, but he loves getting out and seeing people so I knew that he would have fun. My mom picked him up from school early and brought him to the Halloween party at my school. The kids were really excited to see him and very hiped up on sugar! We left there and changed him into his duck costume so he could go to his Daddy's office and trick-or-treat. He had a lot of fun playing in the large bins of candy. After that, we went home and geared up for the Fall Festival at our church. It was really neat, we saw a lot of friends and ate some excellent chili. Andrew crashed in the car on the way home, but perked up once we got him out of his duck costume and played for another hour. Thank goodness mom was there, because I was exhausted!

This is Andrew on his first Halloween. He had to have his little boy surgery that day, because he finally weighed 7 lbs.

This is before we got to Jason's office. The duck was exhausted before the fun began!

He perked up once he realized that he could dig in the candy bins. He's getting two new bottom teeth and is drooling like crazy. All the candy was a little wet after he was done in there!

Andrew found a package of nerds and realized that he could shake them. He thought that was really funny...until we got in the car and the package spilt. Cleaning nerds out of a carseat is not the most fun thing to do!

Andrew the duck with Miss Kylie. Kylie is his babysitter on Wednesdays and she also takes care of him at school. He loves her and so do we!

Andrew had more fun playing with the decorations then anything else.

Andrew did play one game where you toss the ping-pong ball into a bowl in the water. Just FYI ping-pong balls fit perfectly into his mouth.

On Saturday, we decided that we would go to the Tulsa Zoo. We hadn't ever taken Andrew to the zoo before and since he loves our animals so much, we figured he would enjoy it. Our friends, Drew, Mel, and Penny Smith, went with us for the day. We all fit in the Armada so that made for a fun ride. Our first stop was Ted's, which has the best Mexican food I've ever eaten- and I've eaten a lot of Mexican food! Then we headed to the zoo. The animals seemed a bit tired, I guess that they had a big Halloween the night before. The kids enjoyed it, although Andrew enjoyed watching Penny the best! It was a fun afternoon.

Andrew and Penny watching the animals. Andrew just loves Penny. He has stayed with her and Mel some when I've had to work, so he knows them really well. When Penny got to our house, Andrew actually took about two steps by himself to get to her. He then tackled her, but that was overlooked, because of his steps!

Andrew and I in the children's zoo. He liked the little goats and sheep. His favorite song is Old McDonald and he knows how to baa like a sheep.

Andrew liked petting Penny the best! We're just working on him being gentle and not pulling her hair!

We watched the Kangaroo's for a while. He thought they were pretty funny how they would hop.

What is that? His eyes would get really big when he would see a big animal. It was funny! We had a great time at the zoo. We can't wait to go back!