Packing our BAGS~

We are packing our BAGS!!! Thursday morning we leave for Nebraska and I am beyond pumped. Drew spent the morning packing his carry on:-) We bought him a little Carolina Panthers backpack for him to keep his toys, snacks, etc in. I don't know if it's the wisest idea we've ever had, but he looks so CUTE rolling it around. Let's just pray we don't have to book it from Terminal A to Terminal Z in Chicago's O'Hare!

The Lord has orchestrated this trip for us from the start. Our tickets were the cheapest they have been in over 4 years. Our rental car is beyond affordable and we didn't have to rent the typical roller skate on wheels!! Haha. He has made everything very affordable for us. Praise HIM!!!!

Hope to have pictures of the trip once we return. I am hoping to get them up in good time:-) We shall see...

Our New Nephew

Andy's sister, Beth, had her baby today. This is David and Beth's second child. His name is Michael David and he is adorable. CHUBBY, CHUBBY, CHUBBY. He weighed in at 9lbs 2oz....a whole pound heavier than Drew was when he was born. We went to visit them this evening and meet the newest addition to the family.

We have been keeping Emma, their 15 month old daughter, while they are at the hospital. They dropped her off at 3:30 this morning:-) She is a sweetheart and we are enjoying our time with her while she waits for little brother to come home.

Drew is excited to finally have a boy cousin on the Liles side of the family. He will be a great teacher of all things farm, truck, dirt and car. I think he enjoyed seeing such a tiny baby. He kept saying to me "Mama, SHHHH, Micheal sleeping."

Michael doesn't know it yet, and maybe i'm partial, but he has a pretty COOL uncle named Andy. He is a great man...Godly, smart, and fun. He will have good times with Uncle Andy:-)

Smile!

On Tuesday this week, I took Drew to get his pictures taken at JCPennys. I have been HORRIBLE at getting his pictures taken professionally. And for us that's not such a big problem because we have been blessed with a nice camera. So, I feel like he's being "captured" on film quite often. BUT my mom gave me a talkin' to, saying her pictures of Drew were getting dated....and she was right. I needed to update the Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles.
Drew did great. He was hesitant at first...mainly because our camera woman was CRAZY! She was a HOT MESS...super loud, super perky and very high pitched, I believe she freaked the poor boy out. Too calm his nerves, I asked her if she had a car or truck he could play with. She did one better and found a train, complete with coal cars and a caboose. Drew was all about it and took awesome pics.
I had promised him we could look at the water fountains in the shopping complex we were in once he was done...but only if he behaved, I told him we could go since he was so good and then he told the camera woman where we were going. She told us to wait, opened a drawer and grabbed a handful of PENNIES for Drew to throw in the fountains. I thought that was really nice of her...which she was really nice...just SUPER ENERGETIC!!!
I could tell Drew was getting hungry, so after we was done throwing pennies, we walked across the street to MOES...mmmmmmmm....sooooo good! I loves MOES. It was a good morning. A nice outing for both of us.

A Church

We LOVE our church!!! How blessed we are to be a part of Colonial Baptist Church in Cary, NC. Check it out if you have time.

www.colonial.org
Drew just recently completed two weeks of Bible school at our church. Week one was David and Goliath and the second was Jonah and the Whale. OR in Drew speak "Doughnut d Whale".
This is Drew posing with his Bible school handy work after week one. He was so excited to go each day. It's amazing, the heart of a child. He is so willing to learn...anything. And as parents, it is our responsibility to make sure he is learning all things wonderful and good...to learn how much Jesus loves him. Which leads me to this...Drew can sing Jesus Loves Me. With prompts of course, but he knows it and sings it well. He especially loves the "He is STRONG" part. Colonial has a heart for teaching children in the "way they should go"
Poverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Things that go BUMP in the night.

As Andy and I are sitting out in the living room tonight, we keep hearing these random thuds. We are pretty sure it's Drew, rolling around in his big boy bed either kicking the wall with his feet or ramming he head into the wall. Either way, it was a lot more quiet in there when he was in his crib:-) But he's a growing boy and crib days are long gone!!

IT'S SO STINKIN" HOT!!!!

Wouldn't you LOVE to be here right now! I think it was around 40 degrees when these pics were taken...about 2 months ago in Yellowstone. Oh, how I long for jackets and jeans and cold noses and hot coffee to keep a person warm. Not long...fall is not too far away. Although I am thankful for the summer and being able to spend it with my awesome family, I am getting weary of 95 plus temps day after day. My flowers are dead, our lawn is dieing and the leaves on the trees are getting crunchy!!! Even Drew knows, we don't go outside until the "sun down"!!! However, I will carry on. I will go to the pool in order to get my son some sun. I will wear tanks and shorts and sandals as needed. I will stay hydrated and feed Drew a steady diet of Popsicle for the fall is not far and we will not lay down and die...like the flowers in my pot or the lawn:-)

So...

...when I said I was going to be on top of this blogging thing, I don't think I ment I would blog everyday.... because I haven't....and I don't think I will. But as long as you all know we are alive and well, that's all that matters:-) I have decided not to post many pics from the past few months as there are too many to keep track of, but I will hit the highlights...LIKE my little brother's graduation!!! And Andy's and I's 5 year anniversary trip to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole, Wy. Trip pics and Grad pics to come in bits and pieces over the next few days.

This is one of my favorite pics from our whole trip. This is where we stayed...Teton Village...at the base of the Tetons!!!! So breathtaking!

...and, we're back!

So, we've been gone for a while...only because I have failed as a blogger, gotten lazy and abandoned our page. BUT, I am BACK, recommitted and ready to blog like none other! There has been a lot going on in our family since....embarrassing....Christmas! One major moment was Drew's 2nd birthday! Yes, our big boy is two. We had a super Toy Story birthday with family and food and fun. Can't believe Drew is 2 and he is learning so much everyday. Talking like crazy, totally into trucks, tractors and trains. Loves playing "RUN" with Gracie. Just got promoted to Sunday School from the nursery at church. He is in the Beetles class:-) Trying to master potty training and just graduated to the big boy bed(tear). Anyway, hope there are still some people out there who haven't given up on us! Spread the word that we are back and pray for my blogging skills!!!

Picnic anyone?

Drew got a new picnic table from Grandpa and Grandma Dankert for Christmas. He LOVES it. He eats breakfast at it and enjoys his snacks there almost everyday.

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be the name of the Lord. As we remember the birth of Christ and grieve the loss of Katie and I's 12 week old baby to miscarriage, we are once again reminded of how He is always in control. "Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise, when the darkness closes in, still I will say: Blessed be the name

Boys will be boys...

They will be MESSY! But, he is trying to master the art of eating with utensils. He is doing a really good job and seems to prefer the fork to fingers these days.

They will play in the mud and gather sticks and splash in dirty rain water!!!!

And they will be cute and wonderful with a muddy face and a snotty nose:-) LOVE MY BOY!!!!

Sleep Tight

The other morning I had to wake Drew up because we had somewhere to be(of course he always sleeps in on the mornings we have to get up and get going!!). At some point during the night he had collected all his animals and snuggled with them:-) It was the cutest thing.

Super Sale

So, Walmart had 2 Liter Pepsi products on sale. 59 cents a bottle to be exact. Andy and Drew decided to go rack up a few....just a few:-)

We're Preggers!

We are expecting Little Liles #2 on July 11, 2010. Drew is so excited to be a BIG BROTHER...actually, he really has no clue what is happening other than Mommy is super tired and crabby and feels like throwing up ALL the time. We are really looking forward to becoming the 4 of us. Our first doctor's visit was last Wednesday and so far so good. The little peanut has a strong heart beat...praise the Lord for that. We will be keeping you posted as things progress aka get bigger, less crabby and less nauseous:-)

Yard Work

While we were home, Drew decided to help Grandpa with some yard work. He, of course, had to ride on the "tractor" and then he helped rake some leaves. Such a good little worker:-)

A Trick-or-Treat Suprise

Happy Halloween:-) We decided to go trick-or-treating outside of our neighborhood this year and check out the candy action in Nebraska! We came, unannounced and disguised to my parent's door asking for candy. Dad knew we were coming, but Mom and Jed had nooooo idea and boy, were they surprised! It was so much fun to see Mom's face when we whipped off our masks. She just kept laughing and covering her shocked face with her hands. It was AWESOME!

Dad did a great job keeping quiet! He was super happy to have us home....as you can see in the above picture:-)

Drew's loot. We went to Grammy and Papa's and Grandma Dankert's in our masks and surprised them as well. Drew got some good candy from them and from a few other houses. He was on a SUGAR HIGH by the time we were done.

A Little Trip

On Wednesday we took a little trip to Wilmington. Andy does web/communication work for Will Breazeale, an Officer in the Army Reserves who is running for US Congress. Yesterday, he officially announced that he was running and Andy had to be there to take pictures, video and collaborate on some website additions. Drew and I tagged along. We made a little trip out of it...going down to the beach, going out to eat, etc. Beside Drew having a bad cold, it was a good time. He was very well behaved at the press conference...he even clapped along with the crowd:-)

Friday Night Special

So, Friday nights have become Andy's night to cook...by choice:-) He has taken an interest in "cheffing" as he calls it and I have given him the keys to the kitchen every Friday night for the past month. The above picture was this weeks dish and it was sooooo good! Drew decided to take a seat and watch his parents working in the kitchen. Yes, he does have a table knife in his hand which I was diving for as I snapped this picture. I dont' let him play with knives....I PROMISE!!!!!

Caniac Carnival

Every year before the hockey season starts, the Carolina Hurricanes put on a free carnival for their fans. We decided to partake in the free-ness:-) It was such a fun day. Drew had a blast playing on the inflatables and we had fun watching him take it all in. After we spent most of the day outside playing and winning prizes, we went into the RBC Center to watch the Canes practice. It was a good day!!!!!!

A Special Visit

My Mom and Brenda came for a visit this weekend. It was so nice to have them here. We did LOTS of shopping and snacking and talking...the things you do with the girls:-) On Saturday, we attended a ladies conference at out church called "Becoming a Woman of Joy". It was a great time. I miss them already...