Happies

Dustin & I are very serious people - we rarely smile and show emotion.  HA!  We are lucky enough to witness the beginning of Drea's personality - and she definitely takes after us.  At home, she's constantly talking, laughing, making noise, smiling or doing something to get our attention.  However, you'd never know this based on pictures of her.  It is so rare to get a "happy" picture of her, that I had to share these!

Lately, Drea has started playing to us - trying to make us laugh and get our attention.  We're not sure where this came from, but this is how she does it! 

She leans. 

If she's sitting, her head will touch the floor - if she's standing, she'll fold herself in half!  And of course, it is the cutest thing we've ever seen, so we laugh and smile!

This weekend, we visited Dustin, Maria, Soren & Maeta - the kids shared their toys with Drea and didn't mind her slobbering all over their stuff - well, Soren didn't mind - Maeta was not a huge fan of Drea drooling on her Princess stickers!  Drea loved all of the new toys and listening to the kids talk!  I don't have any pictures of this visit - but imagine a serious-looking baby with something in her mouth and that about sums it up :)

On Sunday, Jenna & her fiance, Nate came over to visit and have brunch.  Now, talk about kindred spirits - Drea absolutely loved Jenna!  She squawked to get her attention when Jenna wasn't looking directly at her, then she'd scream and howl when Jenna would look at her!  She wanted to play with - talk to - sit by - listen to ANYTHING, as long as it was with Jenna!  Talk about cute!!  Because of this, we were finally able to get her smile and playfulness on camera! I feel like introducing this the way National Geographic photographers introduce a rare species sighting. 

This is an actual smile!  Closed-lip is a style all her own ... love it!

And here, she's sharing her smile for me too :)  Love this face!

Guess What ...

... I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTIE!!!  Surprised??  So was I!  My big, little brother is going to be a Daddy!!  Jeffrey told us that his long-time girlfriend, Bridgette is about 11 weeks along :)  The two of them went through a rough patch this past spring/summer, so we DID NOT see this coming!  But, lo and behold, everything happens for a reason and now Drea will have a cousin to push around love!  After we got over the initial shock, the sheer excitement set in ... there were plans being made and lots of smiles and giggling while we talked about how much fun it will be to watch Drea & Baby interact and play!! 

Bridgette is a natural since she works in a Nursery - and anyone who knows Jeffrey has no doubts that he will be a FANTASTIC DAD!!  Him and Dustin were already talking about all of the fun things they can do together with their kids and I'm going to have to warn Bridgette about the many future trips to the Zoo & Petting Zoos in the area!  There's just no stopping those two.

We are waiting with baited breath to see if they'll be moving back to Minnesota (secret spill:  Bridgette told me last night on the phone that they plan on looking at apartments when they come to visit in a couple of weeks!) - Lord knows that we couldn't possibly have a 4-hour trip in between us and this beautiful baby!!!

Jeffy - I'm so proud of you - I know you know that, but this is really where you'll shine - as a Father.    After our many hours of conversation about this, I truly know you are full of pride and love for your baby.  Thank you for including all of us and we can't wait to welcome you & Bridgette HOME!!  I feel like I should post a sentimental picture of all of us, but I don't have one ... just use your imagination.

So instead, here is a picture of Drea's first guitar lesson from this weekend ...

She was a fast learner and watched very intently as Grandpa played songs for her.  We all had mini tears in our eyes (or maybe it just looked that way to me since I had bigger tears in my eyes) while we watched her.  This was the most he's ever played for her and she had such a big reaction!  I don't have to tell you twice how much music means to us, so this was awesome to witness! 

Jeffrey & I could not BELIEVE that Grandpa let her actually touch the guitar!  We both figure we were about 20 before he stopped holding his breath when we walked by the instrument ... and here he is letting Drea actually strum the strings?!  Boy, you'd have to be blind not to see the blatant favoritism here ... but she's way cuter than we are, so that's probably why she's allowed.

Peace out for now - I've got niece/nephew things to plan!!