Construction, Construction, Construction!!!!

We are so entirely grateful to my parents and grandparents for their trip here to visit us and help us get going on our basement!! We never could have completed what we did without them. Andy and I have a lot to learn when it comes to building/construction/electrical/etc/etc/etc. In about 6 1/2 days the three men (my 81 year old grandfather-- what a guy!--, my dad, and my adorable hubby) were able to complete all the framing, electrical, heating/duct work, door hanging, and storage room shelf building. It may not seem like too much until you take into consideration that our basement is 1300 square feet!!!! That's quite a week's job for just those three men. AND my grandma, who was my grandpa's right hand girl (literally-- he doesn't have a right thumb, which limits a lot of what he can do :o). She was so great to be such a huge help! On top of all this: we were able to get a plumber in here while they were working, so all the plumbing is complete as well. Woohoo!!!! All in all, we'll have down there: a bedroom, den, family room, toy/game room, full bathroom, and two decent sized storage rooms! We're so excited-- when it's all said and done-- our house will be double the size it is now! Yeah!

Andy and I are set to go! Now we've got to get working on all the insulation, so that we can get going on all the sheetrock, so that we can hopefully have at least one room and the bathroom done enough to be 'livable' for when we've got Andy's entire family here (all 20 people in our little house) for the Burningham family reunion. We're so, so grateful, though to my family who helped us get this major, huge head start! They're so awesome!! They just left this morning, and it's already a very quiet, lonely day at our house! Good thing we've got baby coming in about 6 months when my mom gets to come back! Yea! Drew sure had a great time with all the attention he recieved from the 6 adults here who all love him-- he'll be glad to have family back in town again!

Here are some pics from our adventures. I didn't get enough of them while they were working-- I got the whole process on video, but wasn't too good about pictures. Most of these were taken on the last day-- when we were all done :o)


Drew and Grandpa Clayson (my dad) cuddling while we all watch Americal Idol


Drew and Grandma Julie (my mom). Drew is oh so happy because Grandma gave him chocolate pudding - yum!


Drew and Mommy doing what we do best: watching and cheering on the guys!


The hard working men


The Gang!


This sign says it all (B&B are my grandparents: Bevan and Betty!)

Amoxicillin Allergy

Poor Drew! We've had family here for the last two weeks, but the weekend prior to their arrival we were all sick at our house (no fun!). Andy and I were hit pretty hard with fevers, sore throat, aches, etc. We thought we were lucky and it didn't get to Drew... until late Sunday night/Monday. He didn't sleep at all. He didn't have a fever, but was very irritable, and was obviously in pain. I took him into the Dr. on Monday to find out he had a double ear infection. Poor little guy! In all his 27 months of life, Drew has never had one before, so this was all new for us. We went to the pharmacy to get his first ever medication for the infection: Amoxicillin. He started on it, and within a day he was acting fine and happy (thank goodness, family was coming into town that day!) Then, all of a sudden the next Monday-- after being on the antibiotic for 1 week, he broke out in this terrible rash. It quickly spread over his whole body. We took him to the Dr. again, where he determined that Drew has an allergy to amoxicillin. SO, hopefully we won't have a go around with antibiotics again for a while, but the next time we do: it won't be amoxicillin. Here is a picture of our sweet little rashed up boy-- this is after 24 hours of benadryl-- the rash had already completely cleared up on his face, and had lightened all over the rest of his body.


Oh, and my child will not smile for the camera without closing his eyes anymore :o) What a goof!

My Boys

A couple of weeks ago, Andy got to spend a week in St. George, UT at the "Mini-Indy". He went with a group from Hamilton Sundstrand, an aerospace company he works closely with here in Rockford, IL. Anyway, turns out Andy got to be one of their top 2 drivers for the race! Woohoo! For the first time in almost 8 years, the HS team made it to the finals. They were all so excited! Go Andy! He had a blast and is already excited for next year's race. Here he is making the turn on the wet corner-- kinda hard to see him, but he's driving the dark go kart on the outside:



When he got home, he let Drew wear his 'racing hat'-- part of their team uniforms. Drew was so happy to 1. have daddy home and 2. wear a cool hat while dancing on the bed (one of his favorite past times). He's also learning how to do a 'thumb's up'- which will explain the last picture :o) What a cutie!

Happy Easter!

So, this post is a little late.... Things sure get crazy around our house! BUT, Happy Easter to you all! I hope your day was filled with peace, love, happiness, and love for our Savior! We had a wonderful day together as a family, and then we were able to spend dinner with some of our good friends here. We took a couple of family pictures before church. I know my last post was about how Drew would not smile for the camera, now on Sunday we couldn't get him to stop smiling! Although, he wouldn't smile normally-- just this silly face he does because he likes to be funny! What a character, and oh how we love him!!!!! Also, the good, big news here is that we are expecting our second little one! We are so excited to share the good news! I am currently 12 weeks along, due on October 8. We had our first ultrasound last week, which is always an amazing thing to see! I attached a picture of our new little one (very little!)

This is serious stuff.....

Yes, that's right. We went last week to get Drew's 2 year pictures taken, and didn't get ONE smile out of him!! What is it with my two year old?!? At 18 months, we could not get him to stop smiling for the camera-- we took soooo many pictures of him, only because he gave us the cutest, most adorable smiles we'd ever seen! I always go to JC Penney to get his pictures taken, only because I get these coupons for $8 to get 32 pictures. I find this to be a great deal, and so we do it. The only drawback being this: you have to pick one pose for the entire 32 pictures. At 18 months, however, I could not help myself. There were just too many great smiles, too many adorable poses. I gave in and spent $20 for three different poses. NOW, fast forward to last week-- Drew's 2 year pictures. It's the one and only time I've got a coupon for $7 for 32 pictures (woohoo!) AND the 'smiles by wire' (where they'll send me all the pictures to my email address online) is free-- normally an extra $6 that we just don't spend. Why oh why, then, could I not get one smile out of my son?!?! :o) We probably looked pretty comical in that studio. There we were: the photographer, me, my good friend Karrie, her son Dayn (4- Drew's best friend!) and her daughter Ava (2)---- all making faces, singing songs, laughing, playing peek a boo, talking about Elmo, Peep, Dash, and every other character I can think of that he loves BUT....... nothing. Not one. I'm not complaining, really, because when it comes down to it-- I only paid $7 dollars and got some okay pictures of my son. It's just funny how 6 months has changed him!! And for those of you who know my husband at all..... it's even harder to believe that we have such a serious son!!! (Andy is NOT the serious type!! We laugh a lot at our house!) Drew's not really a serious kid all the time, though, either. Just when we get out in public in situations or around people that are new to him. How funny, really. Well, here are some of the pictures of our attempts to get him to smile :o) ** since I got the smiles by wire for free, hey, I'm gonna use the pictures!!! **


This is the pose we got 32 pictures of


How sweet!


This is the closest we got to an actual smile.....


I'm not going to look at you guys.....


Are we done yet?


You're kidding, right?!

PEEP and the Big Wide World

Have any of you heard of this children's show? I hadn't until Drew recieved a few of the dvd's from Grandma for his 2nd Birthday. Designed to help children learn basic science and math principles, it is one of those 'educational' shows that kids (& moms) love!! Peep and his friends Chirp and Quack explore the big wide world and find all sorts of adventures. This show has quickly become Drew's absolute favorite thing to watch. Not only does he love to dance and sing along with the opening theme song, but he loves the shows themselves.



They are clever, interesting, short (which is great because it keeps his attention for 10 minutes while I shower or add a blog post :), and funny! I find myself laughing along pretty frequently. We love Peep in our house! Drew learns about the seasons, counting, where birds and eggs come from, smells, all sorts of animals, how things sink and float, water currents, etc, etc. You can check out www.peepandthebigwideworld.com for fun games, activities, videos, and more info about peep.

Cool Dude!

From some convention for work, Andy got this pair of sunglasses, that we immediately gave to Drew. (for obvious reasons-- we didn't want to wear them!) The funny thing is, Drew has completely taken to them! It cracks us up! He loves, loves, loves to wear these sunglasses, and does most every day. He'll play in them, watch tv in them, run around in them. Then, when he gets tired of looking through darkened lenses, he simply pushes them up to rest on the top of his head :o) What a goof!! (and oh how we love him!)