The Cutest Lil' Santa Baby

Santa Baby and SantaLeaving Miss Dara's to go to see Santa for the FIRST time!

Miss Dara (our WONDERFUL babysitter) and Santa BabyCutest Santa Baby EVER!Isn't he big stuff?! He sure thinks so! :)We don't have too many frowning pictures of Griffin, so this is a keeper!

Momma thinks Griffin looks just like Daddy in this picture!

Momma and Santa G!

DaD and G (Griffin says, " dad" and puts a lot of emphasis on the last 'd')

Apparently he needed a pillow so he's laying on his frog pacifier (mouth hanging wide open is our typical boy!)

Folks, this is the last day Nate had with his 1995 Mercury Tracer...he bought it when he was 16 and it was laid to rest on Saturday because we purchased a minivan to accommodate our growing family. Bittersweet day for the guy! He's now a hot rod in the Saturn that I was driving and I'm now a minivan driver so watch out (so far I've just ran over a few curbs)!

His hair was killing us! :)

All bundled up ready to go to the Hagerty home for some fun while Mommy and Daddy went shopping!

34 weeks old

My 1st big "boo-boo"---got in a fight with the coffee table!

Shortly after it happened. Believe it or not, the bruise is STILL there 3 weeks later. His whole eyelid ended up bruising really dark.

Mommy kept calling me, "MiMi" from the Drew Carey Show

33 weeks and ORNERY! (notice all the slobber on the chair)

Well, these pictures say a lot! :) We are enjoying life with Griffin and he simply enjoys life! He's such a happy baby. I still remember my sister-in-law saying she wanted to order one just like him! That always make a parent feel good.

I don't want to kill the mood, but I have to say we saw his first real temper tantrum last week. As you may have seen in previous posts, Griffin LOVES to be pulled around the house in his diaper box that Nate tied a rope to. Last week Nate took him for a ride for several minutes and took Griffin out and sat him on the floor. Griffin's bottom lip came out, he clenched his fists, starting crying and throwing his arms up and down. We both just laughed! We put him back in the diaper box and he turned it off just like a switch! It happened again after we took him back out of it. So, we have learned, you better have a good plan of attack after his diaper box ride to avoid a lil' tantrum.

Griffin is now 36 weeks old TODAY! Still no teeth, but we enjoy his gummy grin! He says, "Da-Da" and "DaD." We're really working on some sign language, mainly the eat sign right now. We're also trying to teach him where his nose is and how to clap. He loves when you are showing him these things. He still LOVES bath time and thinks he has to stand in the tub. He's definitely not the most graceful baby, so it's quite a chore to supervise during bath time these days. I try throwing in rubber duckies, but those apparently are not as fun as standing in the tub. He is a crawlin' machine and gets to where he wants to go in a hurry! With that said, it usually means an end table or trying to pull over a floor length lamp. He's even ripped some of our carpet up where the carpet and tile meet. Yes, he's ALL boy!!! He's fearless, hence he's always bruised up. He thinks he can stand up and let go of things and try to maneuver from point A to point B. I must admit though, he's a tough little boy! There's been times when he's fallen and I want to cry for him, but he just gets up and goes back for me. Again, ALL BOY! :) We LOVE him!

Nate is still surviving...he lived to tell about getting rid of his very first car. He's still been getting up out of bed in the mornings and functioning! :) When we were driving to the dealership on Saturday to get the van (we were able to trade his car in), he was talking about his car like it was a longtime girlfriend. It was quite funny.

I am 12 weeks pregnant now. I'm feeling fairly well. The nausea medicine has worked wonders. My biggest thing now is lack of energy. Let me remind you, I have an 8 month old who is ALL BOY. :) We go back on Monday to the doctor for a follow up ultrasound to make sure the cyst that showed up on the last ultrasound has not grown and hopefully it has resolved on it's own. I only seem to notice discomfort in the mornings. Other than that, my tummy definitely shows there is a growing baby in there! It's much more "pooched" out there than it was with Griffin this early in the pregnancy.

So, that's life at the Anderson home. We're looking forward to our first Christmas as a family of 3 (or should I say 4). We feel very blessed!

Thanks for reading and hopefully these pictures (especially the Santa ones) brought smiles to your faces and laughs from the heart!

Much love,

Joy, Nate, Griffin, Bailey, and Peanut #2

Griffin=Future Big Brother

Yes...you read that title correctly!!! You can now pick your jaws up off the floor and continue reading. Though...I think Nate and I's jaws still need to be picked up!!! :) What a shocking surprise this has been! Here we tried for Griffin for 2 years with much medical intervention and then boom! Baby #2 is on it's way!!!

We found out about a month ago. I was really sick with bronchitis and ended up in the ER one night due to a horrible coughing spell that caused me to have difficulty breathing. I was prescribed a heavy duty cough syrup and for some reason I just figured I'd take a test to make sure I was NOT pregnant. Honestly, I had no clue at all...never in my wildest dreams did I think I would see the word, "pregnant," but sure enough...I did! Nate ran to the pharmacy...walked in the door and I told him to come upstairs. I said, "Uhh...this thing says I'm pregnant?!" His response was, "That's awesome!" I was freaking out asking who, what, where, when, how, etc.

I got in touch with our OB here in town, as well as the fertility clinic we worked with before Griffin. I am on meds to help carry the pregnancy and have had blood work done twice to confirm it.

Once it was confirmed by the blood work, Nate and I were thinking back and had to laugh. We could think of 2 days that I felt really sick to my stomach and had to eat crackers and ginger ale(I'm now on 2 different meds 2x a day to help with the sickness which is keeping me alive at this point! Praise God for Zofran and Phenergan!). Still...at that time, I had no clue or even had the thought of possibly being pregnant. Wowsers!!!

So, today we had our first ultrasound. The charts said I was 10 weeks along putting the due date at June 21st, but lil' peanut only measured 8 weeks and 5 days moving the due date to June 30th. We did see a good strong heartbeat which was at 186bpm.

I did have a large cyst on an ovary, so will have an additional ultrasound to follow that. Should it grow larger, surgery will be scheduled. However, it should resolve on it's own. I had the same issue with Griffin, too and it all turned out just fine, so I'm confident it will this time, as well!

So, that's our big news! Still hard to fathom, but we are excited! Not going to lie...we are overwhelmed, too! We feel extremely blessed that God has chosen us to be parents again to another precious being.

February 15th will be our big day to find out the gender if our peanut cooperates. We are totally okay with a boy or a girl. We're not choosy as it's a blessing either way! All that matters is that it's a healthy baby! Life is good and we're blessed and grateful!

Not much else to add to that! :)

Love,
Joy, Nate, Griffin, and Baby #2

PS...Griffin + Baby #2 = 14 to 15 months apart = craziness!

Our handsome man, as always!

My awesome new toy! (and really...who can resist this sweet smile?!) Happy boy getting ready to go see Miss Dara, the babysitter What a ham!

Daddy had this great idea to put me in this empty diaper box and tie a rope on it and pull me all around the house---not only did I love it, but so did Daddy! We have a blast together!

Hanging low, low rider

They were even pretending they were on a rollercoaster...going up and down hills. Too much!

Hey Mom! Just passing through!

Bailey sacked out on my lap with her mouth hanging open

The clothesline I made for my friend, Heather and the twins at her baby shower

The other half of the line(the rest of my gift was some of Griffin and I's favorite children's books on each table as the table decorations)

Our share group (Cathy, Misty, Heather, me, and Janel) minus Debby, Joyce, and Laurie)

Griffin's 1st Halloween

Hello again! Griffin is now 31 weeks old and he's crawling like a crazy man! He's fast and nothing is going to stop him! He also LOVES to pull himself up onto things and stand. He has started giggling by himself. He's laughed for a long time now, but this is something different. I'm not sure what he's thinking, but he just cracks himself up. It's too cute! He's into anything and everything and there is no more leaving the room with him unrestrained! He loves his doggie beyond measure! He's a good little eater when he's not too busy exploring. Napping...that's another story! :) Needless to say, we're having the time of our life with this lil' guy and love him to the moon and back and more!!!

The message below is from him as he's sitting on my lap and wanted to get a hold of the keyboard...

m m, n mjnhhjb ofyu ,8 747 xfbkgyfcv df rdtghhuykljkukhyb seghv --=89hj jkkkknjjjjjjjjjh

What a lil' man!
Daddy went pheasant hunting with friends, but thankfully he let others take home what he hunted!
I walked out of the room for 5 seconds to throw out a dirty diaper and this is what I came back to! What a boy!

This is my doggie, Bailey who isn't too thrilled with me still (Look closely and you'll see Bailey is sticking her tongue out)

Yes! I'm big stuff!

Lucy and Griffin have a crawl off

Carson playing with Griffin (my co-worker/friend's son)

Nikki and G (We used to call Nikki Griffin's 2nd mommy because when he was first born, she came to our house EVERY day to visit, sometimes a couple different times in one day) :)

Betsy, my boss's wife and the happy owl

Another picture, Mommy?

Paul, my boss giving Griffin his first little pumpkin for his first Halloween!

Griffin watching all the trick-or-treaters and Paul and Betsy's house

Griffin and John snugglin!

At the Walsh Home

It's the witch, Storm Trooper, and owl!

My precious, happy, adorable owl!

Griffin also had a Pooh costume from Aunt Danielle and Uncle Matt (and boys), but our camera batteries were dead when we went to take pictures! So those will come another time! And hats off to my sister, Kara who let us borrow the handmade owl costume!

Lots of love and wet kisses,

Joy, Nate, and Griffin (Bailey,too!)