I'm it!

I got tagged by my older sis, Sara. So here you go!

One book that changed your life:
More Than a Carpenter By Josh McDowell (Although I only read 1.5 paragraphs)
One book that you've read more than once:
God's Smuggler By Brother Andrew ( Yes, this is one of the 2 Andrews my little one was named after.)
One book that you’d want on a desert island:
The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that's the book for me! (Seriously, is there a greater encouragement?)
One book that made you laugh:
I don't know the name of it, but a book that the Encarnacions have on how NOT to take care of your baby. (Gabe and Allie- do you remember the name of that book?)
Onebook that made you cry:
The Giving Tree By Shel Silverstein
One book that you wish had been written:
I have about 100 ideas. I really want Gabe to write a book and he always says he has nothing to write about so I give him ideas, but so far none of them have stuck. But, if you ever see a book with Gabe's name on the cover, you can be fairly sure that the topic was my idea. :)
One book you couldn’t put down: (I don't have this problem. I can literally put a book down mid sentence and be okay with it! So this is a book I was always looking forward to picking back up.)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader By C S Lewis
One book you are currently reading:
Earth Abides By George Stewart
One book you've been meaning to read:
Knowing God (I've actually been reading it for about 3 years now. It takes me so long to even just read a couple of sentences. Very thought provoking.)
5 Things In My Purse:My top 5 (meaning the things that are literally on top right now):
cell phone, wallet, keys, and chapstick... That's all that's in there. I keep everything else in the diaper bag.
5 Things in my closet: (Andrew's closet... mine is just clothes. No storage room.)
guitar, suits (whoo-hoo! i don't have to wear these anymore!), a Christmas gift for Andrew from his great grandparents (I can't say what it is in case he reads this.) :) , gift wrap, and diapers
5 Things in my vehicle:
(Just the trunk): Basketball, football, frisbee, stroller, and on-hand Bible (you never know!)
5 Things in my freezer:
ICE CREAM (duh!), baby food, tri tip (mmmmm... tri tip), pizza dough, and chicken

I'll tag Carolyn and Allie and Amy... You're it!

Poor Baby

Andrew has been sick for about 3 weeks now with 3 toally different things. He's been handling it very well, though. For the past 24 hours, he's been running a 101F fever, but he's still been happy. (Very tired, but happy.) Here's a shot of the two of us after his cool bath tonite. (Like my new hairstyle?) :)
Well, Andrew is now scooting. He's not crawling. Just scooting. He saw his twin, Noah, crawling at nursery on Sunday and he seemed to think it was pretty cool. He came home and almost right away began to scoot around!

New Things

Although I titled this entry, "New Things", this picture is over a month old. My friend Carolyn took it and I think it's a cute shot of the little guy. Here are some new things that Andrew is doing:

* He stood up today for 6 seconds by himself!

* He's getting so close to crawling. He can rock on his hands and knees now, which seems really close. All he has to do is pick up a leg and I think the rocking would move him forward. So close!

* His 5th tooth is coming in.

* Andrew ate his first piece of something. (as opposed to puree) Before this, he literally gagged and sometimes puked when we tried. Looks like he has a heart for bananas... Poor Gabe (who HATES bananas) was a good sport and actually fed it to him last nite.

I think we've entered another season when Andrew seems to be doing something new every day. This happened at 6 months too. It's fun to watch him discover new things he can do.

8 Months Old!

Andrew is 8 months old today! He is getting so close to crawling and he made some big strides today. (Sorry for the pun.)
Isn't he a cutie?

Although he is still not crawling, Andrew made this whole mess by himself. I didn't touch any of this! Pretty good for just reaching and rolling! :)

Fresno Trip

It's been over a week since we went up to Fresno for my younger sister's baby shower. Here are Joleen (8 months pregnant) and some of my bro-in-law, Curtis. They'll be having a little baby boy in just a matter of weeks!!! And might I just add how weird it is to see your little sister pregnant! :) It's awesome! It was a lot of fun having two of Andrew's cousins there to play with. Annalise is just over 13 months. She just figured out how to walk, but is an expert already. Her and Andrew had a blast together. They were so adorable to watch. They even hugged!Nathan is almost 3 now and he's so much fun to play with. He is a great talker too. One of the cutest things to hear him say was, "Dad, will you go play ball with me?". I don't think there are too many dads who can say no to that!
Andrew was quite excited to get to go swimming in a cool pool with his cousins and Aunts.
Sleeping cousins.
Yup. They're related.
I wish I had a better shot of my dad and Andrew. None of them turned out very good. You'll just have to believe me that their eye color is just about identical. Also, see dimples and face shape? Look familiar??? :)
Here's a pic from the shower with Grammy too.

Park Day

We took Andrew to the park today to feed the ducks and have a picnic with the flys. This was the first time that Andrew actually enjoyed the ducks and geese around him. It was a beautiful day!

Nonnie and Poppy Visit

Gabe's parents came to visit this past week. We had a fun time hanging out and Gabe and I even got to go on a couple of dates!Andrew thought his Nonnie was pretty cool, as shown here. :)
Here's Andrew making his funny face. He does this just to make us laugh... and it works. It is absolutely hilarious in real life... at least Gabe and I think so. He opens his mouth even wider and tilts his head down just to get a laugh out of us. He's even done it to some of his stuffed animals.

Leila worked hard with Andrew, trying to get him to crawl. He's getting somewhere, but I think he still has a ways to go. He laughs wherever we do this to him. He thinks it very funny.

Joshua's Birthday Party

Joshua celebrated his first birthday this weekend at Corona del Mar. It's crazy to think he's already a year old!Joshua shared a bow with his little buddy, Andrew.
This was Andrew's first time in the sand since he's learned to sit up really well. He had so much fun playing. He didn't even try to eat any sand!
Between sunscreen, sweat, and lunch, he was a sticky, sandy mess, but it didn't bother him at all. He was totally content.

Before and After

Carolyn and I about 10 months ago.Carolyn and I now!
Carolyn, Gary, and Lauren (8 months old) all came to visit yesterday. We had a fun time watching the babies play together. As shown by these pictures, they wanted whatever toy the other one of them had. It was so cute to watch them take the toys from each other. It really was cute because they weren't upset about having toys taken at all. They would just take it right back.
This was the most coveted item... a counting pooh bear book. Exciting, huh?

Lauren is so pretty. (She's a model!... Really. Check the Christmas Parable (or Lighthouse) magazine!) :)
I had to put this pic in becuz it looks like Andrew is looking at Gabe saying, "Dad, stop taking pictures of Lauren and I. You're interrupting our date!"

Basket on the Belly

Andrew pulled his entire toy basket (full of toys) on top of him the other day, pouring toys all over himself. He thought it was quite funny.I think he was just trying to show off in his muscle shirt, if you ask me.
If you look close enough, you can tell that he had peas for lunch too!... an added bonus for those of you who were wondering what Andrew is eating these days.

Twin Night

Last night, our friends Danny and Amy came over with their son, Noah. He was born 8 days before Andrew so we try to convince people that they're twins... Nobody's fallen for it yet though... I wonder why.The boys had a fun time playing together and talking to each other in a language none of the rest of us understood. They're cuties!

Swimming!

Sunday afternoon, we went swimming with the Encarncion family. I thought the boys looked so cute!Andrew wasn't sure at first what to think about the water, but once he saw Joshua enjoying himself, he started to have fun.
I thought I would include these shots from yesterday. He had a little fauxhawk going on.

He was practicing his "crawling" here. He doesn't actually go anywhere, but he moves his arms and legs like crazy. :) It's awfully funny to watch.

Tournament of Boredom

Today when Andrew fell asleep for his afternoon nap, Gabe and I decided to play something fun. We came up with the "Tournament of Boredom", named because it was boredom that brought it to us. We played this entire game and set it up within a 1.5 hour nap... not bad! I put our scorecard below so you could play it too if you'd like. Let me know if any of you out there end up playing. Obviously, change the prize, game choices, and point values as you see fit. If you don't have this much time all at once, play one game each night for a week or two. Enjoy!... And by the way, I won. :)


Tournament of Boredom

Grand Prize: Loser plans fun date

Round 1: Bored Games – 30 points
Backgammon – 10 points
Chinese Checkers – 10 points
Jenga – 10 points

Round 2: X-Box – 30 points
Fuzion Frenzy
Sumo (Best of 3) – 7.5 points
Twisted System (Best of 3) – 7.5 points
Burnout
Road Rage – 7.5 points
Crash – 7.5 points

Round 3: Card Games – 30 points
Crazy Eights – 7.5 points
Knock – 7.5 points
Speed – 7.5 points
Uno – 7.5 points

Tie breaker: Paper, Rock, Scissors

Jump! Jump!

Andrew was playing on his jumpster yesterday and I had to get some shots of him. Jumping is one of his favorite hobbies right now.

Nonnie and Poppy's House

We spent last week up in Nevada City visiting my in-laws. They just bought a stinkin' awesome house. We had a blast and I wanted to share some pics... lots of pics...Nonnie feeding Andrew some cereal.Is this a happy grandpa or what?Andrew got to meet several of his cousins. This is Simone here.
Here are Nora and Andrew.Alice and the little guy.Ynez and I.Happy baby with dad.Tammy and Andrew. (Definitely the most popular couple there!)Andrew with his grandpa hangin' out on the front porch.Smiles! :)I thought grandmas were supposed to pinch babies' cheeks, not the other way around!

Three generattions of Barber men... that means trouble... and maybe a few laughs (from me, not Michael)