I'm ONE!!!

Well it's offical Caleb's one! He's such a big boy now...well not really any bigger then the day before, but you know what I mean. We had an awesome puppy birthday party which Caleb seemed to enjoy...most of. I started out his birthday by singing Happy Birthday to him in his crib...but then Kaden explained to me that it wasn't really his birthday yet because the decorations weren't up. I believe his exact words were, "Caleb's heart isn't one yet because there aren't any decorations up." Too cute. So we decided to get the decorations up! Uncle Jeremy came over and helped us hang the streamers since he's so tall he can reach the ceiling without a chair! The rest of the day was pretty status quo. I decorated his birthday cake ( I had made it the day before) which was so messy. The icing kept tearing up the cake so his puppy came out looking very speckled but since the cake was a dog, it wasn't to horribly messed up. (It looks nothing like Amanda's beautiful cakes!) The party started about 5:30 and our friend brought their bouncy castle over. The kids, even Caleb, had such a good time bouncing...but they were all a sweaty mess. Caleb was very excited about the bouncy castle, usually he just has to watch from the outside! After bouncing was pizza, and then presents. Presents are always so overwelming on your first birthday. One, you don't know how to open this box in front of you so mom or other random kids start ripping the paper off, and inside is this really cool toy! Two, no one lets you play with the toy because there are more presents to open. Three, by the third present everyone is crowded around you so you feel smotherd, you're still trying to play with the last present and everyone else is trying to show you the new present...very confusing. Caleb did fairly well, but by the end we just handed him to Papa with one of his new books and he was much happier...while everyone else opend the gifts! :) We've put some toys aside for now and will bring them out over the next couple of days...spread out the fun! After presents was cake for the first time! He was a bit confused over why he was getting in his chair again after eating supper but once we all started singing he was pretty happy. He was slightly afraid of the candle. So we gave him his own little cake to eat...at first he was very polite and just took little finger buts to eat...but before long he was digging into the cake like there was no tomorrow. It was great. He loved his cake...but not as much as his icecream (my kind of boy!) He loved his icecream so much he was trying to suck it off his spoon like a bottle! That was my favorite part of the night. All in all, a great night. Caleb did so well with everything. He was a tired little one year old when he finally fell asleep last night. And must still be tired since he's taking a three hour nap! And just to note, Kaden was an awesome birthday brother! I was so proud of him, just the way he loved on Caleb and wasn't to pushy and shared all his toys with the kids...he was awesome!

We sure missed everyone who couldn't be here to celebrate. We love and miss you all so much. I hope the pictures and stories help!

Story Time

Just thought I'd share a couple pictures of the boys having their after dinner reading time. (You can tell it's after dinner cause Caleb has no clothes on and we have to strip him to feed him or I'd being doing loads of laundry every day!) And no, after dinner reading time isn't part of our schedule, it just happened to be when they decided to look at books together. Oh, and in more exciting news...Caleb's birthday is tomorrow! In some ways I can't belive it's only been a year that we have had him...it's hard to remember life before two! We'll have the birthday pictures up for you soon. I'm so excited to see him try cake. It'll be fun to see how different his reaction is compared to Kaden's. But more on that in the next blog!

Fun with Oma and Lance

We don't have very many pictures of fun time because Oma and the boys didn't stay still very often! We did manage to take a few at McDonalds and the one time they sat down on the couch! The boys were so so excited to have Oma and Papa Lance come visit, it was non-stop playing (except for naptime) every minute they were here. Thanks so much for coming guys! We love you!

First Hair Cut!

Well, I finally agreed to let Caleb get his first hair cut... a very sad day for Mommy, but a happy day for Caleb who finally doesn't have to walk around with hair in his eyes! :) ( I just love the before and after look!) We did it while Matt's mom and Lance were out here visiting so they could be a part of a first. All in all, a good idea except that we got Kaden's hair cut at the same time, and that did not go well...to say the least, but that is a story for another blog! My little baby is all grown up, just in time for his birthday!

Car Ride

Well this weekend we took a six hour car ride to Lubbock to visit our dear friends and their babies. It was so much fun ...but a lot of work with little ones. Just thought I'd share this picture of the boys sacked out in the back seat! They did awesome for it being such a long car ride...it's making me consider longer drives vs. airplan trips...we'll see. Hope you all had a great weekend too. Matt's mom and Lance fly in tomorrow so it may be a day or two until I get back on here. See you later! Jesus loves you.

Update

Thanks for all the prayers yesterday. The trip itself went really well. Jeremy was awesome. I don't know how it would've all got done without him. So thanks J if you ever read this. The boys did great, we had our moments, but all in all they were real troopers...and it helped that they both had gift cards to Toys R Us...that made the day fun for them! The doctor well...lets just say it went as expected. He was in and out and didn't have a lot of new information for me. Basically, stay on the medication for another four months, cut back if I want to, and we'll reevaluate in October. That has to be my last visit cause my referral will run out with that visit. So for that I'm releaved. I'll do this one more time and hopefully by then the Lord will just bring healing. Things are improving though so that is a praise.
The shopping was a lot of fun though. And of course we got Starbucks and I went into Target but only to use the bathroom...but hey I got to go in! :) Thanks again for all the prayers. Jesus loves you.

Mom's annual picture

Just wanted to update everyone on the weekend happennigs. This was a nice slow weekend which I'm so thankful for since the next several weeks/months promise to be busy. Saturday Matt took me out to a new Italian resteraunt in town and then out to see a movie. Just fun to be together...and childless for a bit. Sunday was church, a quiet afternoon, and then the church had a picnic at the pool in town (hence the pool pictures). What we don't have a picture of is Kaden who we know affectionately call the "noodle pirate". He would wait for kids to drop their noodles and then would kind of sneak them away. By the end of then night he literally had like eight noodles wrapped around his little body! In his defense, he would share if he was asked but he did look really funny holding all those noodles! Caleb on the other hand completely immersed himself in the water for the .1 second that I looked away...maybe we need to tie some noodles to his body!

The other pictures are pictures that we try to take every year in the tree in front of mom and dad's house. It's kind of become tradition...also tradition is to have unhappy, screaming,pouty participants. My kids were happy to oblige this year. Kaden kept screaming the sun was in his eyes until we finally got him to understand he was in the shade...but he was still unhappy because he could see the sun shining in the street...whatever... we got the pictures! I put them all up cause I love how everyones expressions change in each picture.

Also on the exciting news front. I regesterd for the marathon today...which is non-refundable so I guess there is no backing out now! I'm so excited. I also got the hotel room booked so that is one less thing to have to worry over. Not that I should worry in the first place cause I know that God has it all in His mighty hands. So I'm very pumped over this.

In the not so exciting news front, I have to go to San Antonio for another doctors appointmet tomorrow. I would appreciate your prayers. It's me, Jeremy, and the boys. I'm so thankful Jeremy is going...wasn't sure how I was going to do it by myself. On the plus side there will be shopping and Starbucks to compensate for the doctors visit! :) Thanks for your prayers and I'll let you know how it goes.

I just hope you all know how much Jesus loves you. Have an awesome day.

Fun with toys

Just a few pictures that Matt took when he was playing with Caleb the other day. Too cute! I guess this is what happens when Daddy gets bored watching the boys! :)

Well we're back and now should be staying put for a while! :) We had an awesome time camping. It's always a lot of work to get ready for camping but so worth it once you get there! Let's see highlights of the weekend...Only getting rained on, on the way up there, nice bathrooms ( a major plus for me) with showers!, seeing a real scorpion for the first time...looking twice, and then quickly running away, hiking, swimming, time with family...even if Chris and Jeremy did ditch us a night early :) , sleeping in a tent with Matt and Kaden (Caleb got to sleep in the big tent with Papa and Grandma), stars at night, camp fires, smores, playing games by lantren light, walks with the boys, animals-turtles, snake, rabbits, turkeys, deer, birds, and lots of bugs-, Dad's camp cooking, not wearing any makeup for three days, hearing Kaden say, " I love camping!", watching Caleb have the time of his life playing in the dirt and trying to eat as many rocks as he possibly could, asking Kaden what his favorite part was and his answer being, "the horsey ride"....a 25 cent ride outside the grocery store where we bought ice! :), Caleb trying to catch the flies on his booster seat tray while he was eating, and just being away from home and able to relax, and of course so much more! Enjoy the pictures and if anyone can tell me how to just label the pictures that would be awesome...not that you all aren't looking at the blog just for my witty comments! Jesus loves you!