Allie Goes Bowling

Allie with the birthday girl and her friends
(Mom made a ho-ho cake and it was DELICIOUS!)

What a goof ball

Will this one be a strike dad?

Cousin Abby was very helpful!

We celebrated my cousin Abby's 6th birthday on Saturday at the bowling alley (oops, I mean center ... I've been told by one of my sales guys that bowling aficionados prefer the term bowling center). This was Allie's first bowling experience and I think she had fun!

Happy Birthday Abby!!!

More Random Photos of Preston

Preston's been doing this a lot lately ... it's just so darn cute!

Cool new hat!

Watch Me Grow!

At four months ...

16 lbs 5 oz
24 1/2"

I'm 4 months old today!!

Being silly

So big!

Ugh, I'm just exhausted.

I'm a big boy ... but only if the bottle is almost empty. Otherwise it's just too heavy!

Some Random Pictures

Dad and the grandkids

Preston and Darrion
Amber, our daycare provider, snapped this photo of her son and Preston during the first week of daycare. All the kids at daycare just love Preston and are so great with him!

Preston and Abby

I'm 3 months old today!!

Recipe Hunting

With our tv shows on hiatus over the holidays, we've been watching The Sopranos lately (we have the whole series on DVD). Every time we watch it, I have this uncontrollable urge to eat Italian food and drink wine. So I've been searching for a recipe for Chicken Carbonara ... and I think I found a good one. The recipe is courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis; I love her show Everyday Italian but I don't think I've ever attempted any of her recipes. I'm thinking we'll also have to have Baked Ziti some night this week, it's Dustin's favorite. Here's hoping my Carbonara turns out tonight!

Cheers to 2009!

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

photo credit: Amy Jacobs

Preston's First Christmas

Christmas 2008

We spent Christmas Eve with my family this year and it was so much fun watching Allie open her presents (and some that weren't hers too)!

Grandma and Grandpa got Allie a tent!

Time to go camping Grandpa!

And Grandma found a vintage rocking horse for Allie!

Ok, this video isn't the greatest ... I had to use my camera. But don't worry, we're getting a digital video recorder soon!
Dustin and I gave in to Allie's biggest obsession right now, chapstick! We got her an eight pack that had all kinds of different flavors. She loved it! I think she's eaten most of them by now!

Preston's Baptism

He was good through the whole thing ... until I had to take his bottle away for this part!

Preston's aunts and uncles were his sponsors.
Nichole & Randy and Bryan & Jessica

Such a little man!

And of course, the cake that my mom made.

Preston was baptized on Sunday, December 21. We were originally going to have the baptism during the 10:45 service. However, a blizzard the weekend before canceled services and the Sunday school program was moved to the 21st. So we moved the baptism to the 8:30 service. As you all know, the weather was less than favorable on Saturday and it was so bitterly cold on Sunday. Dad said that there were about 47 people at church that morning and 16 of them were there for the baptism! We almost had a private baptism. We had planned to have lunch after the service (and were going to use the pork loin that I picked up in my shopping spree), but lunch was changed to brunch and it was moved to mom and dad's house to avoid the mass of children and parents. Mom and I took care of most of the food on Saturday. Thanks again mom!

Now the cool part. My mom found a suit for Preston to wear and we took the suit and my wedding dress to my mom's talented friend Kristen (who's like a second mom to me). She took some of the bead work and added it to his shirt and cuffs on his pants and made a little pocket square too. She then took the rest of my dress and made the most beautiful quilt I have ever seen! We also used the handkerchief that I gave to my great-grandmother (I found it in Switzerland and it has her initial on it). Nichole used the handkerchief at Allie's baptism too and I wrapped it around my bouquet at my wedding.

Thank you to everyone for making Preston's baptism so special for us!

Watch Me Grow!

At two months ...

12 lbs 9 oz
21 3/4"
(either he shrunk or the nurse was way off last month - we're thinking the nurse was off)

Good Christmas Fun!

Hilarious ... I love Jeff Dunham!

I'm 2 months old today!

Santa's Little Helper

Make a Smilebox photobook

Happy Holidays!

Last Friday night, Dustin and I went to my holiday party and then last night we went out for supper with his co-workers. Mom and Dad took the grandkids to see Santa while we were at my party ... I'm anxiously awaiting pictures!

Then on Saturday Mom and I went to the Gallery of Gifts, albeit a little late (they were packing up when we got there). We got there late because we had to drop off my wedding dress at Kristen's. She's going to incorporate parts of my dress into Preston's suit for his baptism. I think she's going to make a blanket out of my dress too. Then it was of to Shade Vineyard for their annual Christmas gathering that they have. Preston got to see Santa there as well. We got something quite special there, but I'm saving that for later.

Next up is the kids holiday party for work, which is this Saturday. Pretty sure I'm going to go and get some more pictures of Preston with Santa. Might as well go as much as I can before he's terrified of the guy!

I go back to work next week. I haven't decided how I feel about that. While I'm anxious to be among adults again, it's hard to imagine not being with Preston all day, every day. But we have a great daycare provider, so I'm not worried about that.

My Shopping Spree!

My name was drawn as the winner of the ONE CARD's 7th annual shopping spree at Jager's Grocery in Volga (this was all through my bank - every time I used my card in September and October, my name was entered for the drawing). The time of my shopping spree was determined by the temperature at noon on Labor Day - 82 degrees. I had 82 seconds to run through the store and grab as much as I could.

Of course, there were a few "rules" to follow: I was limited to 3 meat items, only food items and I could only get one of each item. I had to push my own cart and I had to get at least one item from each aisle.

A couple weeks ago, mom met us at Jager's after church and we scoped out the store. We walked down the aisles, making a list of items that I should get and we checked out the meat situation. They had big packages of hamburger, so I knew I wanted one of those, and I wanted a roast too. We had decided to do pork loin for Preston's upcoming baptism, so I had to make sure I grabbed one of those!

Here's what I got:

Half & Half, Creamer, Ice Cream, Milk, Butter, Parmesan Cheese,
American Cheese, Olives, Brown Sugar, Ketchup, Baby Rice, Doritos,
Bread, Macaroni, Nesquick, Crackers, Peanuts, Coke, Vanilla, Chocolate Chips,
Cheerios, Miracle Whip, Sugar (10 lbs), Flour (a big bag),
Starbucks Ground Coffee, Walnuts, Crisco Oil (a big bottle), Formula, Chuck Roast, Ground Beef, Pork Loin, and Potatoes

I set a new record with my haul too ... $193.78! Last year's winner only got around $149 worth of groceries. It was so much fun. The Volga Tribune was there too to cover the whole thing. We have video of it and once I figure out how to get it to my computer, I'll post it so you can all see how crazy I looked!

Thanksgiving

Preston's first Thanksgiving

Allie loves homemade ice cream!

Make sure you get it all!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Watch Me Grow!

At one month ...

Weight: 10 lbs 14 oz (75th percentile)
Weight at birth: 7 lbs 4 oz
Height: 22 1/2 in (90th percentile)
Height at birth: 19 1/2 in

Oh Deer!

Dustin and Bryan with their deer
(Bryan had a doe tag and Dustin finally got his buck - 6 x 5)

They hung the deer from our apple tree in the back to skin them and get the meat off. At least it wasn't in my garage!

One Month Old

Preston is one month old today. I can't believe how quickly the last month has gone by, nor can I believe how big he is getting! We have his first well-baby checkup on Tuesday and I'm anxious to see just how much he's grown!

Random Family Shots

Allie and Preston ... these two are so cute!

Preston with his Uncle Bryan and Aunt Jess (they came to visit after Bryan's graduation from the Police Academy)

Preston with his Great-Grandma Trego

Bathtime

Preston had his first bath about a week ago. He was not all that impressed with it, mostly because he was quite hungry. The second bath went much better! I've already been warned that he will hate me someday for this (I posted the pics on my facebook account too) but he'll get over it!

More Halloween Pics!

Wednesday Adams stopped over to visit the little pumpkin

Allie the Witch (she wouldn't wear the hat though)

KISS!!
(Mom, Dad, Doug and Kris dressed up for their annual Halloween party on Saturday night. Per tradition, Dustin and I met up with them at Ray's for a beer - Preston hung out at home with Grandma and Grandpa Beringer.)