Cold and Snowy Maine

Drew with his Snowboard.

Mommy & Drew heading up the hill after sledding.

It has been really cold and snowy here! Currently it is 32 degrees F, which is warm for us:( Lots of snow storms, although here on the coast we don't have as much snow as up North - a friend of ours told us they have over 3 feet of snow in their yard!!!

We have made it out to go sledding a few times. Drew tried out his new snowboard, but seems to like sledding a little better for now:)

During school vacation week Drew had his first trip to Chuckee Cheese and loved it of course. We also spent some time with Drew and Will's 2nd cousins. They seemed to have a great time! It was so neat to see the 2nd cousins together since BJ and I used to spend so much time when we were little with my cousins Krissy and Andy. And now our kids are playing together.

Drew still keeps in touch with 2 of his friends from day care/preschool. He had one of them over during his school break. The 3 boys were together from the age of 1 until the summer before Kindergarten and had a great bond.

Will is getting so big and seems to change daily. He loves to smile and laugh, loves sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas and oat meal. He is now sitting up without support (for a few seconds anyway) and talks a lot! He is still not a great sleeper or napper. But, looking back Drew had a lot of the same sleeping patterns that Will has and now for the most part Drew is a great sleeper. So I guess I just need to give him some time! Will has his 6 month check up next week so I'll update you all again later. Take care, Shasta

2nd Cousins: Jackson (8 mo), Dawson (12 mo), Cayden (3 yr), Drew (5 1/2 yr) & Will (5 mo)

Great Grammie Johnson with 5 of her 6 Great Grand-Children!

Yes, all of her 6 Great Grand-Children are boys!!!

First Tooth!

We found Will's first tooth coming thru tonight on the bottom @ 5 months and 1 week! He has been chewing and sucking everything and loving frozen washcloths lately so we were not surprised to find it :)

Drew had his first Basketball clinic @ his school over the weekend. He was very hesitant at first, but once he joined in - he loved it and even made a hoop!
Will refuses to drink from a bottle so we started him on a sippy cup w/ some water.
Will's new exersaucer that he got for Valentine's Day.

Hello!

Will just before he tries rice cereal for the first time!

Will with Daddy's hat on.

Will eating sweet potatoes.

Will & Mommy taking a walk.

2/10/08: Gary and Drew made this incredible snowman and dog!

Hi everyone!
Will is now 5 months old! He is growing and changing everyday and having lots of fun! He has now tried Rice and Oatmeal cereal, a little sweet potato and some carrots. He seems to like the oatmeal and veggies, but is not to happy with the rice. He is sleeping a little better @ night, using a lot of baby jargon, rolling over both ways, sucking his little toes and just loving life. He is such a good little baby boy:)
Drew is really enjoying having a baby brother and loves to make Will laugh! Drew still loves Superheros...watching them on TV, dressing up like them, reading about them and playing with the figures! He has also been having fun in the snow and playing with all his little friends. Drew is writing a lot and reading a lot now and had great progress on his report card:)
In other news, we had a superbowl party which was lots of fun until the end, I am sure you all know the outcome and Gary is still walking around sad :(
Hope you are all well and enjoying your winter weather wherever you are! Talk with you soon!

Updates...

Will with his favorite "silky" blanket.

Will swinging with his Wooitz toy.

Will and Drew tonight with Will's big Elmo that he got for Christmas from Grammie Green & Elmer.

Drew made a fort with blankets and chairs & invited Will in.

Mommy & Drew.

Christmas morning.

Cousin Reanna, Drew and Will in NH @ Phyllis & Grampa Minery's house.

Bethany reading to Will.

Since both boys celebrate their birthdays on the 9th of a month. On January 9th Will turned 4 months and Drew turned 5 1/2 years old!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year! We had lots of fun with Will and Drew on Christmas! We stayed in Maine, we stayed home Christmas morning, then we spent some time @ Drew and Will's Great Grammie Black's house and then spent the afternoon @ their Grampa Bill's and Debi's house. The weekend after Christmas we ventured to NH to spend time with Gary's family.

Will has been doing a lot better riding in the car, the trip to NH was a pretty good ride:) Unfortunately though, Will's good sleeping habits changed when he was about 2 1/2 months old. He started waking up every 1-3 hours and did not seem to like going in his crib. We have had very little sleep around here and I am exhausted from getting up to nurse him throughout the night. So we consulted with Will's pediatrician @ his 4 month check up and he assured us it was ok to start the Ferber method. Will just seems so little, but frustrated from our lack of sleep and knowing that Will needs to establish some good sleeping habits - we gave in. The Ferber method is letting your baby "cry it out" in his crib, however you go in every 5-15 minutes and soothe him. So we started a bedtime routine of bath (some nights anyway when we can squeeze it in!), baby massage, reading, nursing and rocking Will. The first night Will cried quite a bit. Drew and I cried a little too. It is heart breaking to let him cry. Drew actually snuck out of his bed and I peaked in and saw him rubbing Will's head and saying "it's ok baby". Will ended up sleeping for 5 hours straight! The 2nd night Will cried less than the first night! So although it was emotionally draining, we are all starting to get some sleep again and even little Will seems a bit more refreshed in the morning :)

Speaking of 4 months, Will now weighs 15.9 lbs (50th%) and is 26 inches long (90th%), his head measures in the 50th% also. He is now rolling over from tummy to back and trying so hard to roll from back to tummy, he laughs a lot (!), loves to sit up with support and watch everything, and is doing all sorts of other amazing things. We also got the ok to start Will on some rice cereal...we'll let you know how that goes!

I would probably say that one of Will's most favorite things right now is Drew. He is just fascinated with him and Drew has really taken on a wonderful big brother role. They adore each other. Drew makes Will laugh all the time, it is sooo sweet!

Drew has been doing great also, he has really lost his baby look and is growing up into such a big cute boy. He is starting to read and write a lot more now. He still enjoys Kindergarten, reading, drawing, working with daddy and dressing up like a super hero! He has mentioned an interest in Snowboarding and Karate...we'll see Drew:)

Drew is always saying some funny things...yesterday we had company and Gary started tickling Drew. Drew said "you better stop or your going to get me to act wild". *Drew dressed up like Superman the other day and started jumping around on the chairs in front of Will, Will was laughing hysterically! It was so funny!!! *Drew's Nanny Peek is always trying to get him to talk to her on the phone (she lives in NM), today he said I can't talk right now I am a really busy kid!

In the past month Will has met some family members that include his Great Grammie Pearl (Gary's grandmother) in NH, his cousin Reanna in NH, and his 2nd cousin Jackson from Portland, ME. We are also excited that we have a new baby boy cousin on the way!!!

We miss everyone that is away and wish we could see you more :( Love you lots, Shasta, Gary, Drew and Will

Oh yeah - GO PATRIOTS!!!! Yahoo!

Merry Christmas!

From Our Family to Yours...

Hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday!

The picture of Drew is of him at his Holiday concert at school. And of course, I had to get Drew and Will matching PJ's for Christmas!

Weekend in LA

We found incredible prices on tickets to LA, so on a spur of the moment decision we booked them and headed out to CA for the first time. Gary, Drew, Will, Gary Sr, Ethan and I all went out to see Nicole (Gary's sister) graduate from the LAPD. It was a great adventure! The kids were fantastic! We saw the graduation (CONGRATULATIONS NICOLE!), road around LA at 80 mph and even made it to Hollywood Blvd! Drew just stared at all the police officers - he loved it and then Drew was amazed to see Batman, Spiderman and Darthvader walking the streets of Hollywood - you should have seen his face:) I think he was in a bit of shock at first! Actually we all were, coming from small town Maine to the big city! Drew even got to sit in the cockpit of the airplane in Chicago. If you look closely at the top pic, you will see Drew sitting in the middle of the winterwonderland holding his treasured Batman and Superman that he bought on Hollywood Blvd. The trip was lots of fun and will leave us with some great memories! To view more pics from our trip click on the following link :) http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZNG7Zm1as2Lqo&emid=sharview&linkid=link2

In other news little Will is 3 months old today and still going strong! He is meeting all his developmental milestones and is just an amazing baby! He loves his milk, sleeping, sucking his fists, grabbing for toys, reading and his family. He also loves giving his big brother smiles! :)

Drew

We had our first parent teacher conference meeting regarding Drew in November. It is still hard to believe he is in Kindergarten! The meeting went very well and Drew's teacher had great things to say! WAY TO GO DREW!!!! Drew is well on his way to reading, he knows lots of site words and is starting to sound out words by himself. He has started reading every night to Will after we read them a book. We have read to Drew every night since he was a baby and it really shows because Drew loves books. Although right now I will be honest - he might love Transformers and Super heroes a bit more, it must be the Kindergartner in him!

He takes French class 2 times a week at school and is saying some French words that we don't even know! He has also made some new friends, but still says his best buddy is Cam, they have been best buds since they were about 2 years old! Drew also has started adding numbers together! He is such a little smarty and a great little boy, I hope it all continues for him and us and that he will be a fantastic role model for his little brother! Speaking of, Drew changed Will's diaper for the first time today - he insisted on wearing gloves but it all went well!