Tonight...

Drew & will got a little wild tonight with Will's new shopping cart. Hey boys, that cart is not for you to sit in!!!!

Can you tell that I really did not want to cut an inch off the back of Will's hair?? He had this long wavy piece, but it was just time to cut it...

Remember the beanie babies?? I got out my cherished set of beanie bears out and gave them to Drew.

Newest Member of the family!!!

We adopted a cat just before Christmas from the local animal shelter. He fits in perfectly with our family. Drew picked his name out and of course it is...SUPERCAT!!! Well, whatever works right?? We have nicknamed him Super!

Christmas Day

We had a nice Christmas day in Maine. We started off the morning at our house with gifts and breakfast. Then headed to Drew and Will's Great Grandmother Blacks house. We had a wonderful dinner in the afternoon @ Grampa Bill's & Debi's with Grampa Bill, Debi, Great Aunt Judy, cousin Kelly, Great Uncle Russell, Great Grammie Johnson and also Grampa Minery & Phyllis drove up from NH to spend Christmas night with us! Drew and Will had lots of fun, got many things and of course Drew got his MP3 player and Nintendo DS - he was more than excited!!! Will seemed to have a happy day and had fun opening some gifts. We had a great Christmas and made sure to remind Drew why we celebrate Christmas and how fortunate he is. In the weeks and days before Christmas Drew made a shoebox full of things to send off for Operation Christmas Child, he had a difficult time comprehending that that was all the child would get for Christmas. We also organized a small food drive with his Tiger Scouts and visited the local food pantry.

We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas with your family and friends. Have a Happy New Year!!! xoxoxoxo

Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a wonderful Christmas!
Love Gary, Shasta, Will & Drew

Christmas Eve...

Drew & Will are snuggled in bed after a night of excitement. Santa has come and now I am off to bed!!! Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve Dinner

We had our usual Christmas Eve tradition of dressing up & eating dinner @ Drew & Will's Great Grandmother Black's just down the road from our house. Then we attended Christmas Eve service @ church.

Coloring Contest Winner!

Drew won 1st place in a coloring contest! We are very proud of Drew! He was very pleased to win a $25 gift certificate and $5 gift certificate to McDonalds. As most of you know Drew has really taken an interest in drawing and art. He draws almost daily and loves crafts. Drew recently started taking a weekly drawing class with a local artist...who knows where this talent will take him??

Drew & Will: The past couple of months have been busy! Time just flies by! Will is almost 15 months and Drew is such a big 1st grader! Drew's loves right now are: Nintendo Wii, reading, drawing LOTS and he is soooo good at it!, he loves Will, karate, basketball, getting ready for Christmas, Star Wars... Will loves Drew, talking (he says what's this, mama, da, dog, hi, vroom - all of these words are not crystal clear, but we have figured it out!), he loves to point, loves climbing and getting into anything and everything that he should not, loves the wiggles, outside play, balls, animals and is generally very happy but has a little bit of a temper when he does not get his way - Gary says he is like me - huh???

Off to bed, hope you are all having fun getting ready for Christmas!

Drew gets his badge

Drew was so excited to get his first Tiger Scout badge!!!

Happy 23rd Birthday Sam!

Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving in NH with Drew & Will's Grammie Green & Elmer. Will is patting Grammie Green's horse Charlie. The family on the left is Gary's immediate family and the family on the right is Gary's aunts family. We had a great time! **If you click on a picture in the blog, you will be able to view a larger version of it...**

Will with his little cousin Wes

Drew outside on Phyllis & Grampa Minery's extra BIG TALL swing!

Happy Halloween!

Drew & Will had a great halloween. Drew dressed as a Star Wars character, Jango Fett and Will went as the lion that Drew wore for his 2nd Halloween in 2003! We had a few other families join us for trick or treating and everyone seemed to have lots of fun!

Drew has now lost his 3rd tooth, the top right one - so he is very proud of that. He is also doing lots of things at school and loves to draw! He is also quite the little Math whiz. Drew is involved with Karate, Cub Scouts, Sunday School and Sports. He just finished soccer and starts basketball in a few weeks. He is also on his way to earning a yellow belt in karate, he has several stripes on his white belt so far!!!

Will is quite the little character - he is very fun, active and very strong willed. He says lots of baby jargon and a handful of words that we can understand - such as dada, ma, dog, ball, hi. He waves, claps his hands, points at things, sleeps through the night and eats a variety of foods - basically whatever we eat but very small portions, he does not seem to have a big appetite. He also recently started at a daycare 1 day per week so I can help Gary more with the business. Will seems to have a good time while he is there and gets to be around lots of other kids his age!

Outside play @ Moosehead...

Moosehead...

Drew lost his 2nd tooth while we were away! He was very worried that the tooth fairy would not find him, but she did! I guess she does not keep $1 dollar bills for Moosehead guests because Drew woke up to $5!!! Crazy!!!

Moosehead lake in the background, it was 49 degrees there, winter will be here soon :(

Moosehead Lake

Columbus Day weekend we rented a house in Rockwood (Moosehead Lake), ME. It was just the 4 of us, very peaceful and relaxing!