Fire Station!

Our "Stay At Home Moms" group took the kids on a little field trip to the fire station. Drew thought he needed to wear his fireman coat and he looked adorable. The fire department was very cooperative and let the kids turn on the truck lights, sit in the truck, ring the bell and look around the fire station! We were so proud of our kids on this trip because we had five kids, three years old and younger and not a single problem. The kids had a blast!

Drew loves laundry!!!!!

Laundry is now been added to Drews list of accomplishments!!!! One day the buzzer went off on the dryer and he just went in and opened it, took the clothes out of the dyer, put them in a basket, switched the washing to the dryer and then pushed the dry clothes back to the bedroom. The whole time he insists that he do it "by myself"! We watched in amazement and with grins on our face. So the other day I got a video of him switching laundry. It is kinda long, but I knew some of you would want to see!

Gift from Roxanne!

Sam has a cousin (Roxanne) that is traveling right now. The other day we got a package from Vietnam and Roxanne had sent Drew this little suit for Drew. We think it is the cutest little thing! Thanks Roxanne!

Christmas 2009

Christmas this year at the Blackard house was WONDERFUL!!!! We had family that stayed with us for several days, snow and three young boys with tons of energy. The boys woke up and wanted to start in on the presents, however my sister and two nieces got stuck in the snow on the the way to our house so we had to hold the boys off until they got there.

Here they are coming around the corner and seeing all the presents.

Mandy is trying to hold them off!

Waiting patiently!

Brandon opening gifts!

Drew opening presents!

Sam Drew and Mindy

Serena, Brandon, Drew, Ashley and Kyle

One night that they were here Lucy jumped in bed with Brandon after he went to sleep!

Sam and Drew working on putting together his new train set!

Christmas morning in our backyard. Beautiful!

Next year we have to put my mom in the front!

Playing in the snow!

We took the boys out to play in the snow a few days after Christmas. The funny thing is that they really didn't want to play with the snow. They wanted wagon rides, play with dump trucks, lawn mowers and golf clubs. I think these boys are ready for summer! They had a great time and went inside for hot chocolate to warm them up!

Drew and Kyle taking a cold wagon ride.

Adam throwing snow balls at Brandon.

Kyle playing golf.

Drew got to work mowing the lawn!

Here I am trying to show the boys how to make snow angels! I needed some help getting up!

Songs from the Heart!

San Diego!!!!

We are either brave or crazy but we decided to take a two year old that is full of energy and has trouble sitting still for more than 30 seconds on a three hour plane ride to San Diego. By the time we got there we were already questioning our sanity. I have to admit that he did better than I expected on the plane ride and we just need to remember that he is two years old. Here in Independence we have a little train ride and when you get on they have you yell "all aboard" so the first thing Drew did when he got in his seat was yell as loud as he could "all aboard"! Very cute! While in San Diego we went to Sea World and San Diego Zoo, both were great for Drew.

Drew didn't have trouble adjusting to the time change, he just didn't do it! :) He would wake up at 4:30 and be ready for bed at 5:30 in the evening! After a couple days of trying to get him to go back to sleep at 4:30 in the morning we decided to just get up and start our day! At home we never let him sleep with us so he would wake up and see us in the room with him and he would be wide awake. The first day we tried to pretend we were still sleeping and he came up to us and said, "Mommy kiss" and then kissed me, then "daddy kiss" and kissed Sam. He followed that with "faaaamily hug" and we just couldn't refuse him affection at that point! The trip was great and we came home tired but full of memories that were worth any frustrating plane ride.

I think his favorite thing was the swimming! Sam wore him out in the pool and Drew wore Sam out as well. We have to be very cautious with Drew around water because he has no fear of the water. Here are a few videos of him in the water!

He could have been a carry on item!


Big boy on the plane! He loved having his own drink and tray!

This kid can make friends any where. These two little girls were sitting in front of him and by the end of the trip they were playing and trying to share food!

This is the first morning that we were there. Drew was up early so we decided to take a walk on the beach!

This is on a bus tour.

Happy boy... he is trying to pet a bunny in this cage!

The next few pictures are a series of pictures of Drew rolling down the beach. He had a great time playing in the sand!

View from our room.

Sea World!

Penguins

Sherry's friend Barbara flew out to meet us for the trip. We really enjoyed having her with us and Drew is still asking about her! Thanks Barbara for joining us!

Two things that were most important for Sam.......

#1- He was driving Drew around because Drew fell asleep in his car seat and Sam found a KU bar! I guess it just goes to show there are jayhawk fans everywhere!

#2- The car he saw in the parking lot and had to have his picture taken with.