The crew

This is the Sanders crew plus one of my cousins. As you can see the boys were tired of taking pictures and were ready to get back to grandma's. I don't know how many times we managed to wrangle Sterling out of the gym and put his sweater and tie back on! My cousin Jack is stationed at an air force base just about 40 minutes away. We were able to have him join us for the occassion. It was nice to have my side of the family represented! Thanks Jack... It was nice to have John's parents with us as they were on there mission when we blessed sweet baby Kathryn. We missed having my family with us as most of them were in Missouri with mom.

Andrew McKay's blessing

On November 30th we had the opportunity to bless Andrew at church. As you can see, the girls are more than excited to hold him and get their picture taken with the big ole boy.... or "baby Big" as John's mom calls him.

John's brother Cary and his family live in New Orleans so they came to join us for the Thanksgiving week. Little Lucy Adeline who is two weeks older than Andrew was also blessed on the same Sunday.

Sterling's picture was obviously taken after church. In fact, we had to convince Sterling to put
his white shirt BACK on to get a picture taken with Andrew. Sterling is basically stripping at the door if he has made it that far with his clothes on when we are coming home from church.

Everyone loves to hold a baby!

These are a few random pics taken recently. EVERYONE always is asking to hold Andrew! As you can see, he doesn't seem to mind the attention. The girls LOVE to rock Andrew after school. They often use this time to be able to get their reading done while rocking Andrew. I love it because it helps me in the busy time of my day after school and they get their reading done.

Sterling loves to help with Andrew. Andrew occassionally gets a bottle and everyone loves to help him drink it. We are amazed at what he can consume.

I was talking to someone the other day and mentioned how Andrew reminds me of Clifford the Big Red dog. You may ask me why? Because if you remember the story, Clifford starts off as a small little puppy but because of all of the love that he receives he grow and grows! I think this is true of Andrew...although he didn't start off as a small little pup...

Birthday Fun

Many of you may recognize the famous red wig... it has been around for quite some time. Katie (my younger sister) was Rainbow Bright one year for Halloween. This is the wig that she wore! Most of us have used it from time to time and ALL of the grandkids have had fun with it. This picture was taken at my mom's house about a year and a half ago when Mary Caroline graduated.

One of Sterling's best buddies throughout the years has been Curious George....

The other pics are from his birthday. All Sterling wanted for his birthday was a set of Hulk gloves and a "blue light saber with a spring" .... so what did he get? Not one but TWO sets of Hulk hands - one pair from his daddy and the other pair from his Papa! Secretly, I know that John and Don wanted them so they could get in on the fun. And of course, the girls wanted to get in on it as well.

Boy toys are pretty cool... The girls have now asked for their own light sabers after Sterling got his new "blue one with a spring!"

Happy 5th Birthday Sterling John!

Happy 5th Birthday Sterling John! How quickly the years have flown. I share with you some of our favorite pictures (there are many) of Sterling since we have moved to Florida. If you notice in two of the pictures, he is wearing the same swim shirt. This swim shirt was worn almost daily for about 2 years.

For about 6 months we had John's parents dog Cocoa while they were on their mission. Sterling LOVES Cocoa and he is so glad that she is just down the street.

The picture of Sterling in the stroller is with his good buddy Drew. Drew and Sterling are cousins and are only 9 weeks apart. They are two peas in a pod. Whenever we get together, they pick up right where they were before! This picture was taken at Universal Studios. Drew's family came to Florida 9/06...just about 5 months after we moved to Florida. We crashed Stephanie's family vacation for a few days. We were grateful that her extended family did not mind that we joined them for a few days of fun.

The most recent picture was taken about a week ago. The girls spent a day hiking with John's parents. When they got back to their house, they were cleaning out the pool and found a little snake. Of course, Papa saw it as a great teaching opportunity and my kids saw it as great opportunity to have a pet! With the snake being nonpoisonous, we agreed to let it come home with the kids as long as it stayed in the back yard. The picture of Sterling was taken last Sunday morning. He woke up immediately, put some clothes on and headed out to play with his snake until it was time to get ready for church...

A sneak peek!

Andrew will be blessed at church on Sunday, November 30th. After getting his blessing outfit, we just had to try it on him...we obviously think he looks pretty cute and are not amazed that he very easily fits into a 6-12 month outfit!

He is off the chart!

I took Andrew for his 2 month check up and he is off the chart....at least his height is. He is 25 1/2 inches long and weighed in at 13 pounds and 14 ounces which moved him into the 95 percentile. He is growing much too quickly. He is sleeping until 4:45/5:00 on most mornings. I finally feel like I can think straight. He is smiling a ton and really cooing back and forth. He loves sticking out his tongue.

We obviously can't help ourselves...the kids brought out the glasses Sterling wears when he is being "Petre". Andrew looks too cute! I thought about including the picture of Sterling with his "Petre" glasses on after the fact. So the pictures are not in the right order. As I am sure you could guess, the girls might have something to do with Sterling as "Petre".

Football Anyone?

I was going through the next tub of clothes for Andrew and came across this Mizzou tiger jersey. I knew I had to pull it out and thankfully I did. Obviously, it would not fit Andrew for the next Mizzou football season. Can you say linebacker anyone?

Birthday Month

November is a birthday month for two of my favorite people ( I have LOTS of favorite people!). I wanted to wish Mary Caroline a happy 20th birthday....she is the coolest baby sister anyone could every have! The one thing that makes her totally UNCOOL is the fact that she is in Las Vegas and NOT down the street. AND I would like to wish Edward the best birthday ever! It is amazing that we continue to stay 11 years of age one year after another and that the month of November suddenly has 33 days this year!