11/26/06

Happy Thanksgiving! And what Thanksgiving would be complete without lots of food and family in town for some turkey.

With a side of labor!

As you can guess we are officially a family of 4 now. Ethan Michael was born on 11/24/06 at 9:05 am weighing in at 7 lbs 15.6 ozs and 20.5" long. Rachel started having contractions at 9:00 pm on Thanksgiving and at 11:00 pm we headed to the hospital. She was admited at midnight, continued labor for another 9 hours and pushed for about 15 minutes. Everything went very well and Rachel was ready to go home 12 hours later... Of course the Dr's weren't so we got to leave the following morning. Everyone is doing great and we're enjoying the new challenge of balancing Micah's attention needs with Ethans. Here's some pics for ya'll.

Here's Rachel at the hospital feeling much better that she's had her epidural.

And here's some shots and a video of Ethan minutes old...

And hours old...

And we had lots of family there for support and to keep an eye on Micah!

And Ethan ready for the trip home. :)

11/18/06

November? November!? What happened to October? Okay, so we got a few updates... As of yet Rachel still hasn't had Ethan, so we are just waiting for him to decide to join the rest of the world. Micah on the other hand has just amazed us with how much he's learning! He's now speaking in broken sentences, can count to ten without any help and can even spell his own name.

Rachel has been busy, getting everything in order and ready for the baby, but unfortunately the basement won't be done in time to have guests staying in the new guest room; oh well, maybe 1st quarter...

Eric's new job challenges him mentally for a change so, of course he loves it! He's also really starting to get his business off the ground and has enough jobs lined up to keep him busy through the end of the year.

Since October was Halloween, we'll finish with pictures of Micah dressed to pillage!

9/30/06

Gosh! September is over, we can't believe how time is flying... Rachel has been busy this month getting Micah moved into his "Big Boy" room and getting the nursury ready for Ethan. Here is Micah's room after the paint and furniture are moved in. By the way, Micah has really become a cheese for the camera as you can tell.

Rachel's biggest project however was to design toy and book storage for Micah since the ones she wanted retailed for $600.00. Here's a CAD rendering of what she designed and we were able to build them for $60.00 in materials and another $60.00 for all the different paints.

Eric was then tasked with fabricating it...

Then Rachel painted them and organized...

Eric's also been very busy with starting a new business, starting a new job at work, trying to find time to finish the basement and spending time with the family. Still under development is www.ultimatenanos.com which he will be building and marketing custom acrylic aquariums specializing in nano's which are considered to be any aquarium under 30 gallons. Even though the site is still being built he has still been building aquariums and filtrations systems for one of the local fish stores as well as for a couple people across the country. Eric's still with Wells Fargo but is now a marketing database administrator which was both a nice increase but also a great area for further growth. He really looks forward to learning his new duties and working with his new co-workers.

Earlier this month we all got together at Eric's parents new house to have lobsters which Eric's cousins brought with them from Maine during a visit. Micah was surprisingly unintimidated by them. :)

And here's some shots of the new house Eric's parents just built. They just finished having it landscaped by the same people who did our backyard. Lucky for them, the community limits the amount of their 2.5 acres that can be landscaped. It's a pretty nice place to visit considering just the basement is the size of our house. LOL!

8/17/06

Well the backyard is finally done, and all the pictures have been moved from here to the Our Home link...

8/7/06

Wow another month gone! Where do we begin? I guess the first thing we did was get rid of our SUV and since it was about to go over 100k miles, it was a good move to get a decent price for it. We ended up getting a BMW 325xi which has AWD so it should be just fine in the snow. Eric's Dad took care of the transaction through the dealership he manages since the car was in Dallas. Here's a picture of it before being picked up in TX.

Eric's been busy working on numerous projects, usually aquarium related... He built a custom aquarium for a buddy of his to fit nicely behind his kitchen sink including base, power management, canopy, lighting, and filtration.

Just the tank.

Finally setup.

He also built a filter for a member of the local reef club which he is also the public relations coordinator for.

Here it is up on end.

His current project is still in the works but he will helping to overhaul one of the local fish stores filtration systems. He'll be building 4 or 5 custom sumps which all the filtration will be done in, drilling all the current aquariums and then running the plumbing to allow 4 tanks at a time to share each filter.

Rachel has completed her teeth reconstruction and is doing great! Her TMJ is all but gone and her migraines have disappeared leaving an occasional manageable headache. She is now 6 months pregnant and doing and looking outstanding! We have decided on a name, provided the ultrasound is correct, his name will be Ethan Michael.

Our backyard is coming along nicely although it's still in the early phases. Due to the amount of rain we've been getting this summer the landscaper was a little behind schedule but started only 2 days later than planned. Micah can't wait for it to be done so he can resume playing.

7/11/06

We had our ultrasound appointment today and the results are in. :) We're expecting another BOY!!! We're very excited and once we have a name solidified we'll be posting it.

7/4/06

Well, it's the 4th of July and we will be having our ultrasound on the 11th to find out the sex of our baby, so another update will be coming soon. We are really excited to start planning for a little boy or girl. :)

We're planning a small vacation to Montana at the end of the month to see Eric's sister Crystal, her husband Bill and their son Caden who's 5 weeks older than Micah. We can't wait to get them together again!

Rachel's TMJ treatment is going well. She has fewer migraines and they are now controlable with OTC meds. Her jaw is now set having worn a splint (a retainer which keep her teeth from coming together) for the last 6 months. The next step is to change the anatomy of her teeth a little so that her jaw will no longer pop out of socket when she chews. They have already begun by removing some enamel off the back 12 teeth so they will not grind and later this week they will be adding to the front 12 teeth so she can chew perfectly.

At the end of the month our backyard will become a disaster area while we're getting it landscaped (FINALLY!). After months and months of exhausting attempts to do it ourselves we've decided to hire a landscaper so stay tuned for before and after pics! Unfortunately due to the landscaping costs we have put the basement on hold but hopefully we will be back at it soon.

I guess that's it for now, we'll update you again later this week. In the mean time, here's some videos of Micah, Rachel, and Gramp at The Denver Aquarium from today. :)

These videos requires Flash 8 or newer. Click here to get it. http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer

5/1/06

Wow, another 3 months disappeared, and time for an update… I guess the biggest news is that we are now expecting our second child which is due in November. We will post more information as we know it, such as the sex of the baby, and names once we agree on one. Micah is also doing great, and learning incredibly fast, it seems he's learning something new every day and is getting more and more coordinated with his walking/running skills. The basement is coming a long and by the end of this week, we will have the framing, and electrical done; the plumbing is well underway and will be done shortly as well. Next is to pull the permits so we can have an inspector come out and once everything is signed off on we will begin insulating and dry wall. It will be just in time too as we will need to move either the office, guest room, or both down stairs when the new one arrives in November.

2/1/06

Well, we survived Christmas and Micah's birthday and we are just trying to settle down now. We finally have our aquarium the way we want it, now we just have to let it grow! We have started framing the basement and hope to have it framed, the electrical run, the plumbing done, and be ready for drywall by Spring so we can start planning the next phase in our home and lives! Rachel is very excited to plan the new guest room and bathroom and plans to make it a nice retreat with a spa inspired feeling. We are also busy at work finally painting the interior living areas of our home. As you can imagine we have our work cut out for us, and can't wait to be done already.

Christmas 05

2005 has been a very special year for the Drew family. We welcomed our first child into the world on January 3 at 4:37 am after a very long labor, but it was SO worth it. Micah Joseph weighed 7 lb 3.9 oz and was 20 inches long. We are so estactic to have him with us and watch him grow and his personality develop. We love to receive his wet kisses and watch him wave "bye bye" to Daddy each day as he goes to work. Micah has a huge apetitie and loves to eat big people food, his eight teeth, including two mollers, help him with that. Needless to say, he is going through quite the growth spurt. It's a good thing he is working on walking since he is definitely getting way too heavy to carry around.

Eric is in his seventh year with Wells Fargo and is working in their IT department supporting their computer systems. It is a demanding job of his time and abilities but we know we are so blessed to be with a stable company and enjoy the security that comes with that. Eric finds a lot of relaxation and excitment in his love of anything associated with salt water aquariums. This year he has set up three tanks and sold two. He now has his dream tank, at least for the moment, that he had custom built and it has all the bells and whistles. He built the cabinet and hood himself and they are gorgeous. In the process of building and setting up his tank Eric has found that he would love to try and build similar but smaller versions of it to sell. Eric has been trying to conjure up a business venture in which he can do what he loves so we will see what the year brings.

Rachel loves being a mom and feels so blessed to be able to be home with Micah each day, although being home is not the cushy bon bon eating and soap opera watching experience that some might imagine. It is a lot of work keeping after two boys and making sure the home is a happy and safe place to be but it is the most rewarding job that Rachel has ever had. Rachel is also working with the youth in our family's church and enjoys planning and participating in activities with them to help them grow into successful and happy adults.

On a sadder note, we had to find a new home for our boxer Zoe. She was such a loving dog but we were challenged to help her behave and be self disciplined. She was too much of a hand full with a brand new baby especially when she almost trampled him so we found her a more suitalbe home where she is happy and free to run wild.

We are so blessed this season to have family close and will be enjoying the holidays with Eric's parents and his sister Crystal and her family. We are excited to watch Micah and his cousin Caden interact since they are only five weeks apart in age. This Christmas will be a special time. We are missing Rachel's family since her parents are stationed in Germany and her brothers are all over the U.S. But they are definitely in our hearts and prayers and we look forward to seeing all of them in this coming year.

We send our love to you and yours this Christmas and wish you all the happiness and success in the new year. You will each be in our hearts as we celebrate the birth of our Savior and the light that he brings to each of us. If you would like to see pictures of our little family and our activities please visit our website at www.thedrewfamily.org and please keep in touch with the email messaging available on our site. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!