Arriving at the resort

First time on a beach!












First time at the OCEAN!


















Enjoying the tide right away!
This was the first thing we did after we got our luggage to our room was take the boys down to the beach, it was so fun watching all those firsts! But I didn't anticipate them being so ready to get wet! They were soaked and ready for alot more action.

Well our 10 year anniversary wasn't much, just a short trip to OKC, only because HELLO it's 10 years, damn right we're gonna celebrate that, but since we don't have family nearby to watch kiddo's we decided to take them along! Where you ask.....MEXICO of course, but yeah I'm crazy enough to say hey I'm not gonna let a few kids bring me down enjoying my vacation! I booked our vacation in early July not knowing we were gonna stumble upon a great deal of a lake house but luckily I'm so thrifty that I found a VERY cheap vacation, especially since it was during the swine flu epidemic and hurricane season!! What can I say I'm Fearless...okay sometimes that can be confused with crazy or just plain stupid but we had many friends go to Mexico during the flu thing and say it was really over blown and we have been through 6 years of Tornado season in OK and really it's hit or miss LITERALLY but we did watch the weather reports and bought travel insurance just in case!! About a month or two before our departure Michael's mother offered to come watch Gabe, since she had just recently retired and been to the exact resort we were going to! I guess she knew having a baby wouldn't be as fun in Mexico so it was just the big boys this time. THANK YOU RAY AND RHONDA for watching Gabe we had a blast!!

It was SOOO much fun to watch the boys on their first plane trip too, they were giggling so hard when the engines roared to life that people all around us were looking at them thinking it was so cute to see someone else's first plane ride too. And it was only a 1 hour trip from Tulsa to Houston, then a quick plane change for a 2 hour ride to Playa Del Carmen. I think it took longer to get our van at the airport in Cancun and get to the hotel than it did to ride the plane. To make it so much better, we got several comments about how good our boys did even when Hunter sat by himself with a couple of hotty college girls (they did offer to trade seats but he wanted to be a big boy) and I was just across the isle with Sam so I could intercede if needed!

Hunter and Samuel's first plane ride
(well Hunter actually rode a plane at 9 months but that doesn't really count)

meeting the pilots, they were very nice

It was SOOO cute how excited they were

Lake House

Well after the summer was over we were on one of our many leisurely drives across Oklahoma and we wound up at Lake Ten Killer which is about an hour south of us. We drove through one of the many subdivisions around the lake and found a few places for sale, we've always been looking for a place weather it be a large property to build on, an already built place on a farm or just a place for relaxing but have never quite found "the place" until September! It was cheap, fully furnished and on 3 level (hardly heard of in that area) lots with a shed and a carport for the boat!! The people had been trying to sell it for almost a year and had come down off their price by ALOT but the original listing included their pontoon boat and 2 jet skis. Any who after inspecting the place we made an offer and they jumped on it! So walla, we have a lake house. It's not much but it serves it's purpose in giving us a place to get away! The really funny thing is that the trailer is the same year as our first "house" we bought when we got married and almost the same floor plan as well! Wow takes me back, but it sure makes us appreciate all that God has given us since the lean times of our early marriage!

Just a few pictures of the boys, Hunter and Samuel enjoying cracking peanuts on the rocks


The Lake House!! the screened in porch is AWESOME and has a queen size bed, a twin bed and a futon not to mention a few chairs and out door dining set to enjoy the out side air WITH OUT the BUGS!






You can see the carport off to the right! And it's fully fenced with chain link to keep the boys safe!

Gabe crawling

Here's Gabe learning to crawl and pull up too!!
Notice one of the first things he does...get into something!!

Pictures at the OK City botanical gardens and zoo

Here are some pictures of my post a while back of our 10 year anniversary trip to Oklahoma City! Gosh it makes me long for spring right now since it's so cold and foggy today!!

Gabriel being a big boy

Gabe is quickly learning that playing with the big boys is really fun! He enjoys riding in the jeep whenever he can and Hunter is such a good driver that it is easily my favorite thing for them to do as all of them are quite content on having fun. Samuel, not such a good driver he goes too fast and then stops fast too only to throw Gabe around in the jeep so he likes to ride the 4 wheeler by himself. This lets me get some weeding in the garden done while it was still growing but I have to confess Michael did most of the gardening, I hate being outside when it's so dang hot out that you start sweating as soon as you walk out the door! The humidity is mostly to blame and I don't think you ever get use to it either. The only time I like the heat is when I'm on the lake or at the pool!

August & September school news

Samuel and his 1st day at preschool

Samuel waved goodbye to Hunter then quickly celebrated his departure! I kid you not, this was not posed at all!!


Hunter waiting for the bus on his 1st day of Kindergarten!

Ok, so I blogged about first day of school but I didn't add pictures because of my computer issues. So I posted a couple of pictures of the boys on first day's of school just below. Well turns out Hunter got on the wrong bus!!! At least the driver asked me if he was going to "such and such" elementary school and I said yes she asked if he was in kindergarten and I said yes so off he went. He came home on the special ed bus and they told me the mistake and that it was just much safer for him on the little bus since there are seat belts and fewer kids most of whom are in his grade instead of 5th through kindergarten on a huge bus which he would have been on for almost an hour! I can't imagine the bullying of or possibility of it and other dangerous things a kindergartner could do or happen to!! YIKES, so I am sad that he's not integrating into "normal" school as easily as I had hoped but also glad that he gets more "focused" attention on his learning. He's in a class room with 10 kids and 3 teachers/aides where as his "regular" kindergarten class that he joins for certain activities has 30 kids a teacher and an aide!! He's doing well in school and we just received his report card last week and the only things he hasn't mastered are the pledge of allegiance, and the OK flag ?allegiance? His speaking in complete sentences are still behind but he has come SOOO far since he was 3 and not being able to make 3 or 4 word requests/sentences! He has his 3 year evaluation at school next week to see how well he has progressed and I look forward to seeing the results! Oh and he has a girl friend too, they give each other notes at school all the time and she is so cute! Her name is Emma and she is in Hunter's special ed class as well as his regular class so they get to go to and from both classes together and I think that has helped form the bond between them. In my opinion she is the prettiest girl in kindergarten, hehehe.

As for Samuel he was so excited to see Hunter off to school he wanted to go too, but on his first day at preschool he was so nervous about it he had a hard time leaving home. But once there he forgot all about Mom and began playing with the other kids right away, I could barely get him to look at me for pictures! Mrs. Judy (one of the teachers) just loves him and tells him what a handsome boy he is and he's always loving on her and now I'm hearing from the other Mom's that their girls all talk about handsome Samuel at home! He's also got a girl friend Celia who he sees at church every Sunday too, and I think I know why he likes her so much, she's very active and isn't a girly girl, she loves to chase him and I think she's not afraid to play rough (a girl after my own heart)!

Well Gabriel he has had so many miles stones that I will just blog about them as I get pictures up but he is my Mama's boy and cries only "for show" whenever we drop him off at the nursery at the "Y" or church because they all tell us it stops after quickly after we leave! He's such a sweet boy and is very active but sleeps well and is into lots of things every day.

Down but not out!

Samuel's first day at Parent's Day Out

Hunter's first day of Kindergarten!

Okay so I've been needless to say HORRBLE about my blogging!! Life has gotten in the way as well as a really slow laptop that had to be restored to factory settings then I couldn't find my cd for my camera to load the photo loading stuff. So after much pain and aggony of not being able add photos to my blog or face book I just stopped doing any of it!

ALAS I have gotten everything taken care of (although I never have found that CD or even an online download!) so I'm back and I will catch all 3 ; ) of you up on the Andrews family adventures since late August early September!! So sit back and watch the blogging begin....again!

Aniversary and Kindergarten

Well, as I have said before it looks like all I'm having time to update this thing is monthly so here goes on the happenings in "T" town... A few weeks ago Michael and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Our babysitter got a real job at the local Olive Garden and since she's new she works the weekend night shift, kinda puts the kibosh on our date nights for now, but the whole family got in on the celebration and we all went to Oklahoma City to the botanical gardens and the zoo, the boys really enjoyed it and we were all really tired by the time we were done and headed back to Tulsa.We stopped in Tulsa before heading home and ate at Copeland's (a Cajun restaurant) and enjoyed a nice dinner, since the boys were so tired we didn't have to scarf down the meal to keep them from tearing the place apart and Samuel actually slept across a couple of chairs while the rest of us ate. WOW, 10 years! Where has the time gone it doesn't seem like that long ago we were having our wedding and now we have been through buying a place, Michael getting hired by Williams, I quit my job at the airport, we built a house, moved to Tulsa, bought another house, Michael went to school, we had a kid, and then another, Michael finished school and got a promotion, we had a third kid and now our oldest just headed off to his first day of Kindergarten this morning!! It's bitter sweet, and I didn't cry...okay so yesterday I did but not today. I think I was more anxious about Hunter starting full day school because I could not sleep, after much laundry (washing, drying and folding) I finally got to bed at midnight and then couldn't fall asleep till well after 1am, then I woke at 6am when Michael headed to the "Y" for a work out.
Yesterday we got to go to the school and bring supplies by while we met with his teachers and bought his lunch tickets too! My goodness Hunter was so excited this morning as were Michael and I. He insisted on wearing his backpack while eating breakfast and as we waited for the bus to our amazement it was a regular bus picking him up instead of his usual special ed bus. Hunter was so excited he didn't want to stop for pictures (I know, I know...but he'll never ever have another first day of Kindergarten and on a regular bus of all things!) There were 3 other little boys on the bus already and Hunter went straight to the back to sit with them all and it looked like they were all comparing their cool new back packs and how cool they were to sit in the back like big boys!! It should be exciting to hear how his day went and see him get off the bus too, I'll post when I hear more!! I'm also anxious to hear how lunch went, how they get 30 kindergartners (and that's just one class) to the lunch room, fed and cleaned up in 25 minutes should be interesting to see!! One of these days I'll get someone to watch the little guys while I have lunch at school with Hunter, is that too corny? Oh and Hunter has been doing fairly well without his medication this summer so we are trying out school with out his medication also. We have given a heads up to his teachers so that if he's not having success in class we will have to start him back up on his meds but at least we are giving it a shot. He didn't gain much weight even being off his meds this summer and I hate for him to have no appetite while he's at school and needs his brain food so much (when he doesn't feel like eating we tell him even if he's not hungry he still needs to eat so his brain can think, brain food) usually that helps to get him to eat something but if we're not there to monitor what he's eating he probably won't eat at all.
On the other hand it has been very quiet around here with out Hunter stirring things up and making everyone (including me) cry!! And in a couple more weeks it will be even more quiet around here since Samuel will start a parents day out program 2 days a week, Tues and Thurs from 9:30am - 2:30pm, how much cleaning, painting, and sewing can one person get done with just a baby around?! We shall see, I may be too busy shopping and napping to get all that other stuff done!! I will also post when Sam has his first day of preschool too!!
Sorry to say my computer and camera are still not cooperating so when you get some time check out my Face Book photo albums since occasionally I get on my regular computer to post many of my pictures all at once rather than just a few here and there!
Gabriel is growing so fast, he just turned 8 months old and is growing so quickly he's already in 12 month clothes. I just had some pictures taken so when I get those back I'll try to post those as well. As soon as Gabe conquered the crawling basics he was quickly pulling up and now he crawls only to get to the next piece of furniture so he can cruise along as far as it will take him. I'm thinking he may walk earlier than 1 year YIKES!!! He has also found my Tupperware and dishrags so I'm constantly picking up things in the kitchen and ever so often getting a stuck hand out of a drawer too. It has been a difficult task for the boys to keep things off the floor, and since Gabe is so mobile and puts everything he gets his little hands on in his mouth we are finding lots of stuff being chewed up!! Oh well, this shall also pass.
Hope you all are doing well, and keep in touch too!

Birthday and Crawling

Well Saturday was my Birthday and Michael asked me to get a sitter from noon till 10pm, so our sweet neighbor girl Jessica who always watches the boys when we go out said that would work for her. We had no idea what we were going to fill our time with except searching for a great deal on steam cleaners. After the search ended I asked if Michael would take me to the quilt shop to look around and maybe sign up for a class, being so sweet Michael did and luckily the lady going to teach the class was there teaching another class. She talked our ear off and Michael was playing the very interested supportive husband even asking questions and helping to find fabric for my class (which is next Friday, One block wonder...a stack and whack type technique) It's been on several different quilt shops class list (including Durango) and it just looks so cool!! So I'm signed up and ready for Friday!! Michael's office in the summer works longer hours due to the daylight and almost everyone then takes every other Friday off so he said it worked out that he could be home to watch the boys!! Hurray, this will be my first quilting class since being pregnant with Hunter, wow 6 years!! Michael then let me pick where we would eat and I had a hard time choosing between the Cheesecake Factory and Ti Amo (Italian Restaurant) and since I hadn't been to Ti Amo's but had heard it was great I chose it and was NOT disappointed. After that we went to Dave and Buster's (a restaurant/bar/game place) we played a bunch of games one of our favorites being Big Game Safari Hunter, it was a blast. I couldn't believe how many people were there with little kids, seriously it's not real family oriented with the bar being center stage. Go to Chuck-e-Cheese or Incredible Pizza if you've got kids. Any who as we were headed home we came to a stop light and noticed the red sign lit up at Krispy Kreams screaming HOT NOW, and if you've never had a hot right from the fryers Krispy Kream doughnut you don't know what you've been missing!!! I told Michael, hey I didn't have any cake for my birthday so we dashed across the street and ate a doughnut and picked up some doughnut holes for the boys for after church the next day!
As for Crawling, Gabriel has figured out how to go to and from his belly to a crawling position easily and he rocks back and forth so happily that he smiles so much and thinks he is so big! He is actually hopping his little knees forward too and Michael showed him how to move his arms so that he can travel forward yikes!! He is going easily from a sitting position to crawling also and is starting to figure out the reverse of that as well! It won't be long before he is into EVERYTHING!! I keep reminding the boys that everything they leave on the floor will be put into his mouth so it's important not to leave food and small toys and such on the floor, hopefully they will be a little better about this but who knows. Today Gabriel actually got his feet underneath his bottom and pushed up from crawling to having his butt in the air legs extended, SCARY!! He's getting so big so fast it's exciting but also sad that this is it. But there are so many fun stages to look forward to with all the boys. Hunter will be starting all day Kindergarten in just 4 or 5 weeks and Samuel will be starting preschool. A lot of parents around here start their kids in organized sports such as soccer, basketball, t-ball even flag football (heck they start some of that for 3 year olds, seriously?) but I don't think Hunter's ready for any of that stuff yet, I'm thinking Golf, Swimming, Piano, stuff that is not group related but who knows, mainly I'm just not ready to drag all three kids to every practice and games just yet. Does that make me a bad parent?

4th of July in Colorado

Okay, well it looks like my blog is turning into a monthly thing instead of every couple of weeks, but I guess that's how it goes when you have kids and lots to keep one busy!
Well, I'm not going to talk about my last trip, I survived and am moving on so I will tell you what we have been up to these last few weeks, minus pictures...my laptop has been having a lot of loading problems so Michael talked me into completely wiping out everything and reloading the start up cd's so now my camera is having trouble loading all the pictures since I have over 1700 on my camera flash drive, yes I can delete a bunch of them or so I thought. I checked my portable hard drive and found that the pictures I thought I saved on it are not there, but I did load them on my regular computer!! WHAT A PAIN!!!!
Any who, Gabriel turns 7 months on Sunday and he is trying to crawl, he is real wobbly getting up on all 4's and it's only happened a few times but I did catch one time with the camera after a bath!! He has also gone from a sitting position to all 4's just today. Even though I have witnessed this amazing thing 2 other times it is still so exciting to see. I just don't look forward to when he is actually crawling real good since the boys leave all kids of stuff on the floor that the baby will most definitely put into his mouth!!!
We just got back from an AWESOME vacation/visit home!! Our friend Seth who lives just north of Fort Collins got married the weekend before the 4th of July and we were lucky enough to be heading to Colorado for the 4th so we took a detour and enjoyed a fabulous wedding and reception and got to be with Michael's brother, mother, aunt, uncle and several cousins while there since many member's of his family were friends with Seth. After that fun time we headed to Durango and spent a couple of days with my folks as well as visited a few friends one of which is my good friend Kelly Rey who just had triplets (all natural, no fertility treatments involved) which is a total amazement. I got to be there to help with a feeding and diaper change, what a production she has got quite a system down and those babies sure are doing good too!! I miss living just down the road from them along with her sister in law who also just had a baby. After that we headed up to the mountains above Delores, CO for the annual Paulek (Michael's mother's maiden name and obviously her family) camp out. The first night it was just Michael, me and the boys, we went up early wanting to enjoy just being on "vacation" at least one night alone, but I noticed later the next morning Michael was saying well if they left (meaning his Mom & Dad, or Brother and Family) by 8am they will be here around 1pm or so, I'm guessing he wasn't enjoying the seclusion as much as I was. So yep as he predicted the next day Michael's Mom, Dad, Brother and Sister and their families set up camp with us and we enjoyed a wonderful day all together, which was a first since gosh, I don't remember!!! The 3rd day the rest of the family showed up, that's a huge party with tons of 4 wheelers too so all of us enjoyed many rides during the camp out (Michael's Dad let us take his 4 wheeler up with us early) Samuel couldn't get enough rides and climbed on whenever one started up, he's not shy or scared of "strangers" when it comes to riding fast, Hunter was exactly the same way last year! Hunter was surprisingly very interested in playing with all the kids and being a part of what they were doing, which is not usually him. He likes to be around the kids but not really participate, he tries but doesn't usually get what playing they are doing but they were pretending to play Star Wars so that was right up his ally!! On the other hand Samuel, stayed away from the kids most of the time he would pick up sticks and whack at all the flowers and weeds saying I kill bad guys, he would also grab a nearby adult by the hand and show them rocks, sticks, flowers and such to collect while they walked. It's so fun to see how those two are growing and changing, and it seems so much more apparent when your away from modern conveniences!!
Around noon on the 4th day which just happened to be the 4th of July we headed down the mountain (much to our dismay) and back to Oklahoma, but we only got as far as Santa Rosa since a good nights sleep was hard to come by in a tent, freezing your but off ,cramped by 5 people!!! Okay why do I like camping again? Not to mention the smell of clothes being worn for 4 days mixed with dirt and camp fire smoke. Boy was I looking forward to a nice warm shower, I had to wash my hair twice with twice the amount of shampoo I usually use. I won't mention having to shave!! WOW
Well despite the fact that we got rained on every afternoon and almost floated away one night, we had a blast and you can bet we will be back year after year to Ground Hog!!!
As soon as I fix my computer stuff I will post some pictures.
Hope everyone had a great Independence Day...Thank You to all the troops, and veterans for all that you have done for this country!! God Bless the USA!!!

3 weeks of insanity!

Sitting up

grand parents, Mom, aunt Rebecca, cousin Sara, sister and our kids

Chillaxin at the pool

Grandma with the baby

Grandpa with the great grandsons

Well for the past (almost) 3 weeks I have had the boys almost completely on my own. Michael went out of town for work in Durango/Aztec/Farmington the evening of May 19th (on the corporate jet, which I hear is really the only way to fly) his trip coincidentally took place during the annual API golf tournament in Farmington. Michael was scheduled on a 4 person team but I guess work got overwhelming and he was unable to participate. I guess work really got the best of him and he wasn't even able to go fishing with my Dad, which he was pretty disappointed about (my Dad that is, but was able to call up another fishing buddy to fill in).

Meanwhile, Hunter's last day of school was the 22nd, well actually it was the 26th but I couldn't see him having a 4 day weekend only to go back to school for 1 day, too confusing for the poor kid. He was so excited about NO MORE SCHOOL, he didn't quite comprehend and the first 5 days he kept asking every morning do I have school today? Luckily over Memorial weekend a friend of mine invited me and the boys along with a few other families over for a bar-b-q and we had a great time.

I had so much planned for my time with the boys that included mastering potty training with Samuel, re caulking the master bathroom, painting the boys bathroom and or Hunter's (old)bedroom since the boys are sharing a room now and maybe even some landscaping in the front yard. Alas my common sense said halt once I finished the bathroom and was headed down a dark and dreary road with the potty training!!

Michael's return trip was scheduled for the 31st and my grandparents were making a long and weary trip from Georgia to Brady, TX (one last time) to visit some friends on the 29th. When my mother herd of their plans she planned a trip to my sister's (in Abilene, TX only a 3 or 4 hr trip from Brady) so that they could travel together to see my grandparents. Since I didn't have anything else going on and Michael was going to be gone another 4 days so I decided I would take the boys to visit as well since my sister and her family hadn't met Gabriel and my grandparents hadn't met Samuel or Gabriel. So on Thursday the 28th I packed up and me the boys headed to Texas. It was a good drive even though I put the potty training on hold, I couldn't imagine trying to clean all those underwear and shorts while traveling or my 2 year old actually saying he needs to potty while in his car seat watching movies, plus my sister has new carpet in her house and I just couldn't do that to her!! But we did the next best thing, popped in a DVD all about going potty on the toilet!! So the entire 6 hour drive to Abilene we watched that DVD over and over until Sam finally fell asleep (maybe only 4 hrs of awake time). I'll give more details about the trip in another post.

Can you believe it, Gabriel will be 6 months old TOMORROW!! and Michael turns 32 also, holy cow where does the time go, we met and started dating when he was only 20 and our 10 year anniversary is next month too!! YIKES has it really been that long?!

Gabriel is sitting up on his own now but can't get himself into that position just yet. He's also rolling over independantly to and from either side and is scooting himself backwards when on his belly too. It is so scary how fast they grow up. Since he is our last I'm trying hard to savor every moment, but some moments are more trying than others and are more easily rushed through. Like the every 3 or 4 hour feedings in the middle of the night!! I have completely weaned him to a bottle during our trip and am feeling more than a bit guilty about it but at the same time it gives me much more freedom to get out of the house every now and then too. Which I find myself needing more and more these days, is this just from the 18 days of constantly being with them or just being a stay at home mom and the more kids you have the more "me" time one seems to need in order to feel like an adult with their own interests and needs to be met?