a real photo shoot!

Anderson had his first official pictures taken this weekend! Since our personal photographer, Aunt Manda, does not live here, we took him to JCPenney for the $7.99 picture package. Obviously the high price allows them to hire only the best, such as the 14 year old highly intelligent photographer. She even gave him a little gift in the form of her snot that she kept dripping everywhere. Because she was the only one working (on a Saturday!) she was distracted by the people before us who managed to take up the next 3 appointment times. While she was helping them, we decided to have our own little photo shoot. Here he is posing with Aunt Cole.

Another one of Aunt Cole. We seriously took more pictures than teenager did. It ended up being a lot of fun and we got some really good pictures!

Nicole took this one and I think it was my favorite one of all of them. Too bad it was on my camera and therefore doesn't work with the package we chose...

Snoozer. Adorable.

Once he woke up and teenager was still not back, we tried some awake shots. Unfortunately, he was hungry since it was about an hour after our appointment time. He kept trying to eat the props.

After the photo shoot, he cheered on the Vols as they beat Kentucky! He wore his lucky shirt.

Uncle Hughes shared his UT tickets and he & Brandon went to the game! Anderson can't wait until he can go cheer on the Vols!

the final week.....

Anderson & I have enjoyed our final week together before I go back to work! Here he is in his police outfit (shout out to Dad!) We have had a lot of fun-mostly eating, but I have no pictures because I was a camera slacker during the outings...

We went to Free Pancake Night at IHOP with the Futcher family! He was so good and slept the entire time. Perfect.

We went to Target and it wasn't quite perfect...he had a bit of a breakdown and I had to carry him around. There was this pregnant woman registering for baby stuff and somehow we kept running into her whenever he was at a high point of the fit. It was hilarious because her terrified look kept getting a little more intense with each run-in. I did feel like an offical mom because I changed him on the Target changing thing in the bathroom-his first public diaper change. He did not enjoy it. The registering woman was washing her hands during this part and was trying to avoid eye contact.

We had lunch with my friend, Angela & he was so good and even took a bottle from me!! If you have not been to Applebee's for lunch you need to go...Their soup/salad meal is only $6.99 & you can choose all kinds of fun stuff like oriental chicken salad & tomato basil soup AND it's all you can eat!! Thank you, Angela, for lunch & the adorable outfit!

We went to lunch with GG & JPa at Aubreys and he was so good...he seems to be good during the food outings!

I have to go back to work on Monday and I think I might just sneak him in with me...he would be a genius in History at the age of 1!

6 weeks!!

I love a 6 week old! When I think about the fact that 2 weeks ago I was sleeping next to the bassinet so that I could get that extra 5 seconds of sleep and now we have a smiling (never on camera, of course), sleeping at least 4 hours at a time at night baby, I can't believe it! Nicole keeps telling me that it gets even better, which is so exciting.

I just love this outfit. Also, his eyes are still blue! I know they can change up to 6 months, but no sign of that happening yet!

Noni dropped by for a visit this weekend. We always love a Noni visit! Thanks for the outfit and the love:)

In case anyone hasn't told me yet, I DO realize that Anderson looks just like Brandon. Since they are both so cute, of course there are going to be similarities! Also, he loves his dad-smiles more at him than anyone, which is, of course, ridiculous since I'm pretty sure Brandon isn't the one providing his food...Brandon is pretty much super dad, as yesterday he got him to take almost 4oz from the bottle and had him napping when I got home!

My friend Clare is 31 weeks pregnant with Anderson's best friend, Jack! He is the size of 4 oranges this week! We can't wait to meet you, Jack!

This video represents our feeble attempts at recording him smiling or rolling. It also shows his adorableness.

People, Pirates & Pastimes!

Anderson has been quite the socialite this week, mostly due to my attempts to get anyone within a 5 mile radius to give him a bottle...(bottle update: We are now on our third kind of bottle & it defintiely seems to be the one-I don't know who you are, Dr. Brown, but I love you! He still doesn't seem interested in taking it from me, but that is a goal for later...)


He spent a day with Kim, who is going to watch him during the day for me when I go back to work, and had a great time! He is lucky because the entire Bailey family loves him! Also, she is some kind of miracle worker because when I picked him up she had been able to get dressed with make-up, hair done, everything AND she had made cookies AND he took an entire bottle from her! I was so impresssed.
Our next visit was to the Futcher house where Ronda jumped right in to be the bottle expert...another entire bottle again! Because I secretly want to be a Futcher, I invited myself to dinner and she even held him while I ate!

Marisa (ignore the gator propaganda, Anderson!) hanging out with him...

Then it was off to a busy day of SWAT training with Daddy. Notice the matching camo hats-thanks, Noni!

Hanging out with J-Pa!

GG is also some kind of miracle baby worker as well since she gives him bottles, brings him cute outfits (such as the pirate one he has on!), comes to visit...and she got a big grin from him yesterday!

I know. Adorable.

While I am not a big fan of things on booties for teenagers, this is precious.

Another shot of the mohawk-since he is losing his hair, I am afraid it is going to be gone soon!

One of Anderson's favorite hobbies is to stare at the brown thing on his wall. "Brown thing" is a canvas that Aunt Cole made him-very cute. He will just stare-it even got a smile the other day. Hilarious.

A cloe up of "brown thing". Seriously, how talented is my sister? This took her like 2 minutes & about $1.50 to make.

Holidays!

Two more first holdidays!! Valentine's Day & Presidents' Day were great fun....

We kicked off Valentine's Eve by going to the Farragut basketball game where Anderson had his first picture with the cheerleaders! I didn't want to take him out of his seat because he was asleep so you can't really see him, but there will be many more pictures to come!

He was so good the entire time and hung out cheering on the Admirals!

We kicked off Valentine's Day in a cheerful mood...He is wearing his festive outfit from Aunt Manda! He was so good once we got to church-his first attendance at mass! Everyone loved him, of course.

Still loving it...but so stinkin cute.

So, the outift says "Bananas over Mommy" but the picture with Brandon was much cuter than the one with me!

I put it on here anyway....

Chloe was waiting patiently to have her picture taken, too. Pitiful.

This is just a cute picture of his face.....

His first Presidents' Day was also a success as he celebrated in his Teddy Roosevelt outift from Noni. He is just like his mom and loves Teddy! There are many reasons that Anderson admires Teddy-Republican, killed a cougar with a knife, rough rider, author, Nobel Peace Prize winner, progressive, conservationist.....he was also a boxer at Harvard, which is why Anderson is showing a little fist! Next year he will be sporting Andrew Jackson attire-his second favorite president, of course!

We have also had lots of visitors!

Saasha came bearing diapers and lots of gifts (one being the cute camo shoes he has on earlier)!

Jessica brought dinner which was yummy-and she has already given him lots of presents!

Claire also brought dinner and delicious cupcakes from The Cupcakery!

the week.

Nothing too exciting...

Chloe & Gabs continue to be pouty when they are not the ones being bounced around the house & fed every 2 hours. Here they are watching as Brandon & I are in the kitchen with Anderson.

My cousin, Vivian, made Anderson this adorable blanket! You can't tell from the terrible picture that I took but there are different textures-it is so, so cute!! We have tummy time on it a lot.

Gabbi also enjoys tummy time on it.

This week Walgreens has all kinds of register rewards & if you use coupons with the rewards & do about 5 different transactions you can get all of this stuff for $4! Before I had Anderson I would talk about my deals & people would say, "Wait until you have kids, you won't have time for that." Obviously they don't realize that he just added an entirely new category to my coupon hobby...there are lots of diaper deals to be found!

Also, whenever you have to pick up a prescription, print off a transfer coupon for a $25 gift card! Walgreens, CVS, Kroger...they all match competitor coupons. I just transfer mine around so that I always get a gift card. Today, I used register rewards & coupons at Walgreens with my prescription transfer gift card & got 4 things of huggies diapers, Dove body wash & a box of milk duds (brandon's valentine's present) for under $6.

Go to www.riteaid.com and print off the coupon under transfer prescriptions.

Noni, Bop, Lillards, Aunt Ems & the Baby Whisperer

Last weekend was a very eventful time in our lives. Brandon had to go out of town for a rappelling thing for work, Noni & Bop came to see how much Anderson has grown in the past few weeks (and to cook, clean, dog-sit, baby-sit, etc. ), Lillards came to try out Anderson's things, Aunt Ems came with gifts & Aunt Cole came to change my life.

As we remember, there was LOTS of sleep with LOTS of holding....I literally thought I tried everything to get him to sleep not in my arms. Here he is wrapped in my pj shirt on the memory foam pillow...

Next, I wrapped him in a blanket, put him in the carseat and propped it up so he was laying down... All of this lasted long enough for me to take a picture.

Seriously, it has been a bit of a rough time over the past few nights (I say "nights" looosely as there wasn't really a difference between day & night...) and knowing that Mom & Nicole were going to be trapped in my house with me was nice. It's helpful to have a voice of reason at 2am and since Brandon & I have not slept in the last month we definitely do not fall into that category.

The intervention began with Noni rocking him & singing her standard lullaby, Battle Hymn of the Republic. (I refrained from giving her the historical background of the song, as it actually is to the tune of an antebellum song called "John Brown's body", which is about the Harpers Ferry Raid in 1859...glad to see the history teacher in me hasn't been completely replaced by being a mom...) This calmed him enough for the baby whisperer to step in and work her magic....this consisted of a swaddle, a sound machine on high & a boppy....Also, moving him from the bassinet into his crib & reminding me not to run in there with every noise that he made was pretty helpful! He slept the longest stretch yet....when I went to bed at 10:30 & didn't wake up until 1:30 I literally was so giddy I had trouble going back to sleep. Then he slept again!!! There are no words. Thank you, baby whisperer.

The whisperer herself. She even gives baths.

Aunt Ems brought LOTS of goodies to Anderson, even though she had a cold and couldn't see him. My favorite is the little bathing suit. He is looking forward to meeting you & having lots of hang out time!

Lillards tested Anderson's high chair for him and found it to meet her high expectations.



She also tested out his towel. Anderson is lucky to have such a thoughtful cousin.

Anderson & Bop-notice the onesie "Bald is Beautiful"

I keep hearing that it gets easier and this picture gives me hope. When my child is 10 months old, maybe I will be able to get dressed.
I think this is still his favorite way to sleep...

and a little video....