Change is a Comin'

I don't even know where to begin to update. SO much has been going on in our life that we are just now getting time to slow down a little. I posted a bunch of pics below. We celebrated Caleb's second birthday in November. We had a BIG birthday bash with lots of friends and family. He absolutely loved it!! A couple of weeks later we moved. We are totally in love with our new home! It has a much bigger yard, more space and a garage. It seems like it has been snowing non-stop since we moved in our new house. Caleb has enjoyed the snow, but I am ready for a break from it for a while!

We had a wonderful Christmas in our new home. We enjoyed celebrating Christmas as a little family! We are looking forward to being a family of four next year!

Our ever-growing baby is getting closer to his arrival. We have about a month left. We have been trying to get the baby's room ready. Caleb has transitioned to a "big boy bed" and it breaks my heart that he isn't a baby anymore. :( He is SO full of life and energy though and the things that he is learning amazes me. I love watching him grow and learn new things!

Just added this video at the end of Caleb in the snow for a little laughter. He doesn't like getting too dirty by the way. :)

Elle and More

On Friday, October 29th we got a new addition to our family. Ricky's oldest sister Staci had her first baby. They named her Elizabeth Darci (Elle for short). She is SO cute and of course we are all making over her like crazy. Caleb LOVES the "baby" and thinks he is really good at holding her. He makes me a nervous wreck around her! :) He does love to go see Elle and gets very excited when we go over to their house.

Things have been very crazy around here lately. I feel like we go non-stop. We are preparing for Caleb's 2nd birthday. He will be 2 on November 14th. I cannot believe it! It seems like we just had him the other day. He is getting to be such a big boy. He is saying a lot more words now and definitely has his moments that I know he is hitting the two year old stage.

I posted a pic below of my "belly". I am 6 months along and it is flying by! I want to slow down time because I know our life will be double the craziness once number two comes along. However, we are excited to be having another addition to our family. March 1st will be here before we know it!

Baby Elle

Cheese!!

One of Caleb's many makeshift toys.

What is society coming to? Not even two and knows how to use the computer. :)

Lots of Change...

Sorry for the delay in blogging. Our life has been crazy busy the last couple of months. The first week of September we went to Florida for a week of sun, water, relaxing (yeah right!) and fun!! We went with my Mom and Dad and my Sister and her family. We all had a great time. Caleb of course LOVED the sand, water and non-stop playing!! He wasn't afraid of anything.

This past weekend we went for a long weekend trip to the mountains with some great friends from college. We hadn't seen them since 2004, so it was great to see them and reconnect again! John was Ricky's roomate in college and the bestman in our wedding. They live in Philadelphia now and have 3 sweet kids. You can see a pic below.

I have started some new work at Bible Center Christian 2 days a week doing dyslexia/ADD work with students. I am enjoying it, but I have had to put a lot of time into organizing and getting things started there. We are also moving at the end of this month. We are moving about 15 mintues away to Hurricane. We will finally have a garage again (YAY!!!), a nice flat yard and plenty of space for our family. I am just now starting to pack. I am looking forward to being moved, but the the moving process. :)

The Lord also brought us through a very tough time in the month of September. We had a very bad accident with Caleb at our home. He had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulace and had to stay the night to be observed. God is good and sovereign. He protected Caleb and healed him very quickly. Within a few days he was back to his normal self. We are thankful for God's hand upon our life and the grace he has given our family.

Ps. 118:17 - "I will live and not die to declare the works of the Lord"

God spared Caleb's life and it is our prayer that he will live to fulfill the calling that God has upon his little life.

Enjoy the pics and I will try and not take as long between updates next time.

An Outdoors kind of Day

So Ricky and I are convinced to work as a team to have kids that actually like to go outside and play. After being in the teaching field, you see so many kids that just want to watch t.v., play video games, play on their cell phones, etc. We miss the good old days where you played outside every day and loved it! Okay, those days wern't THAT long ago, but times sure have changed even since we were kids.

Last Saturday morning, we all got up and ate breakfast and headed for some fun at Kanawha State Forest. Two of Caleb's favorite things are water and rocks, so what better place to play than a creek? We found a great spot that had a creek to play in and a playground too. We all had a blast! Nothing like a little family bonding time OUTSIDE with no cell phones ringing or tvs in the background.

Sweet Summertime

We have been having a great time outside this summer. Caleb LOVES to be outside! We had a minor glitch in our summer this past week though. Caleb came down with the croup. This followed his ear infection he just got over. I can't believe all this sickness in the middle of summer. Well, 4 trips to the doctor and 3 trips to the pharmacy later, he is finally feeling like himself again! We are all happy about that.

Caleb loves to pick our flowers outside the house.

Caleb and Dad

He thinks he is BIG stuff going down the slide all by himself.

LOVES to play!

Even attemped the big slide by himself...made me a little nervous.

How cute is that face???

Pokey is seriously Caleb's favorite "toy". haha He learned to get Pokey to do her tricks this week.

Our Growing Boy

Every day that passes I am amazed at how much Caleb is learning and how much he is changing. We have been enjoying going to the pool, going for walks, playing outside, and visiting with family. I have been a little jealous of all these beach trips everyone is going on, but we are waiting until September this year, so I will have to be patient for a few more months.

I am conviced that I am a terrible blogger. Today's mistake: putting all my pics on here backwards. Oh well, you can at least still see them.


Me and my boy!

We got to watch Charli one evening while our friends Brian and Sharon went out.

This picture turned out blurry, ut I love it. Caleb kept hugging Charli!

Isn't she cute??

Caleb now likes to dip everything in ketchup. He is pretty good at it too!

Not surprising to find Caleb someplace like this...

Ready for church!

Farm Time

Almost every year Ricky's side of the family goes to their farm and has a picnic for Memorial Day. The kids love it because they can get as dirty as they want, play in the creek, ride four wheelers, etc. Last year Caleb was only 6 months old, but this year he had a blast!

Caleb excited to be there!

Enjoying a cupcake a little too much

The rain began....

Everyone tried to coax Caleb into playing in the mud, but he had other plans...

Caleb's cousin Jake enjoying the mud

Abby was dying for Caleb to get muddy with her.

Caleb did this instead. He wasn't interested in gettting muddy at all.

LOVED throwing rocks into the water

Getting all cleaned up!

We had a great time at the farm. Can't wait until next year!

On another note, we had Caleb's 18 month check-up today. He is doing beautifully! He is almost 23 pounds and 32 inches tall. He remembered the doctor's office this time, so it wasn't the most enjoyable experience, but we all survived! :)