Excuses

So, anyone care to hazard a guess as to why I haven't blogged in FOREVER???



THIS is why---->
That's right--"Lost" came to the Netflix instant queue, and I started watching it, and I've been having a heckuva time stopping. When I finished Season 1, I gave myself a list of things I had to do before I could start Season 2. After I finished Season 2 Sunday night, I told myself I had to really get more stuff done before starting Season 3. So I've already gotten quite far on the marching band blanket re-do, and I pulled up dead things from the garden this morning, and I'm also going to do a LOT of scrapbooking and other random sewing projects before I get sucked back in. And I have a couple books to read. And other movies to watch.

Oh yah, and a family to spend time with.

That show is crazy.

Following in Daddy's Footsteps

Our little man got his first real taste of soccer this week, going to a Soccer Bible Camp put on by a Lutheran church. He has loved it, and has come home every day saying "that was so much fun!" and "I scored the goal, Mom!"

He's also come home filthy every day, and scraped a couple times. ;)

And, he's taken a nap EVERY DAY this week. LOVE that.

Here he is, lookin' oh so cool in his soccer duds.

Oh, and yah, this is his shorter hair. :P

But Claudia is right, he's still cute.

Thanks, Natalie, for the awesome pic!

If I were the swearing type, I'd be swearing now...

Today is a horrible day.

Seriously.

Kenn has been saying for weeks that we need to cut Caleb's hair--not cut the curls off, but trim it, cause it's been getting pretty shaggy lately. I kept saying I didn't want to, because I don't know how to cut curly hair, and he said just try it, you'll be fine, you'll figure it out. And so taking that ill-placed confidence of his to heart, I tried cutting Caleb's hair today.

It was disastrous.

Me crying for 20 minutes and a trip to a haircut place later, his hair at least no longer looks like a bad imitation of Shirley Temple.

But he no longer has a head full of curly hair.

And I can't look at him without wanting to cry.

I just want it back how it was. :*(

Food Storage Gone Crazy!!!

We got bit recently with the sudden and intense desire to give ourselves better space for food storage.

We have this coat closet under the stairs that has gone through a few transformations since we moved in. It used to hold the vacuum and the big ol' stroller and some coats.

And then it held the vacuum and some bags of canned vegetables and some other random food items, and 72-hour kits.

And then Kenn decided to cut out the wall in the back, so we could use the space right under the 1st flight of stairs, so he did, and now that's where we keep all the Christmas stuff and the 72-hour kits.

But it STILL wasn't good enough! Because even though we had bags of wheat and flour and canned goods and water bottles in there, I couldn't get to anything, and my pantry was overflowing. SO, we bought shelves!

It's awesome! There's 3 shelves on each, and enough space under the bottom one to fit a case of water bottles, and each shelf-unit holds 160 pounds!!! So I got to move a BUNCH of stuff out of the pantry, which looks a million times better now. And now, the closet holds the vacuum and extra chairs and NEATLY ORGANIZED FOOD!!!

And, as if that wasn't enough, Kenn also got me baskets for potatoes and onions!!! Now, hopefully, they'll get more air while they wait to be used, and they won't go funky on me.

So now that there's all this nice storage space, what do I do?? I make jam, of course! Sprouts had mangoes and blueberries for cheap, so I stocked up and did a double batch of mango freezer jam, as well as a double batch of blueberry jam that I canned.

(that orange one in the front is orange marmalade that I did back in January)

I also made salsa a few weeks ago from tomatoes and jalepeño peppers from our garden, and it made alot so I canned a couple jars. Look at me go!

Recent Funny Stuff sans Photos, and then some photos stuck in randomly

--Caleb was reading "Curious George and the Halloween Party" to Beckett, and it is adorable to hear the story told in his own words. He's actually pretty good. :) "'Hey, that's not a ghost! That's a monkey!' said Betsy. And they were hungry, they wanted to eat some apples in the apple pool (bobbing for apples). And they got presents, and they were animals. The End."

--We went to a team party for Kenn's work last week, at a park on the lake in Austin. We took some watermelon with us, cut into triangle slices, and Beckett just could not get enough. Since we were outside and he was all messy anyways, we just let him walk around and eat it, although I held it mostly. Every time he took a bite, he would get this big grin on his face and give a little "mmmmm!" sound, and the watermelon juice would run ALL down his chin, onto his shirt (which is now stained, but it's totally worth it), and every time I got up to throw the rind away, he would follow me and sign 'more' while saying "Mo mo? Mo?" I think he must've had about 7 slices. And no, I didn't get a picture, but I promise it was adorable. :)

--Caleb keeps saying to me, 'Right you are, ma'am!' and to Kenn, 'Right you are, sir!' No idea where he picked that one up.

Caleb ran towards me one day when quiet time was over and said "Come see what I made!"
So I went to look, and this is what he'd done. He was QUITE proud of himself. :)

--Caleb and Beckett got some suckers at HEB last week with the balloons, and I must've been in an amazingly good mood because I let them eat them. So how did they eat them? They laid down next to each other on the kitchen floor, of course! All the rest of that day I kept finding sticky spots on the floor

--Caleb said to me the other morning, "Mom, I need Jesus to help me read this book!" I said, "ok, buddy, then say a prayer." So he did! He said, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for this day. Please let Jesus come help me read this book. Say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." It was awesome, and really hard to not laugh out loud. That kid is adorable.

Caleb and Garrett were hanging out in Caleb's room a few weeks ago during quiet time, and they found this Superman costume that I bought at a garage sale a few years ago. Apparently, it now fits them both, because they wore it back and forth that day, and Caleb put it on every day for a week solid. At least Halloween is figured out for ONE kid.

The boys were still hungry one night after dinner, and I was, too, so I got myself a carrot, and they decided that looked good. Who knew they'd ask for a healthy option?

Beckett has been doing this a lot lately, pulling his ears out. It looks really funny when the light from the window is coming in behind him, and his ears look like they're glowing.
Hard to get on camera, though.

He also likes to show you where his nose is.

Old School Style

Last summer when we went to Michigan, I spent some time in my parents' basement going through all the books they still had from when I was a kid, taking out anything I loved and wanted to bring home for Caleb and Beckett. There were a LOT of Berenstain Bears books, which Caleb has recently fallen in love with, and a few other really old-looking books, very 80's style. :)

So today during quiet time, Caleb had come out of his room to use the lavatory and on his way back to his room he decided to get a book from the shelf. He grabbed this.



Seriously old school, right?? You guys remember these books? You could SEE the pictures while you HEAR the record and READ the book. :) I love that he's getting into famous literature so early, but the best part was as he stood in his doorway, he opened the book and something fell out of the very back. He held it up to me with this confused look on his face, like 'what is this?'

It was the record! Can you believe it?? Over 20 years old, maybe more, and the record is still in the back of the book. I started laughing when I saw it, and Caleb looked at me and said, 'Can I come downstairs and watch it?"

I was like, 'Buddy, this isn't a DVD. It's called a record. You listen to it." And I was going to say, "y'know, like we listen to a CD in a CD player," but then I remembered that he's never seen a CD in a CD player. He's only ever seen iTunes and my iPod and the iHome.

So I described a record player, and told him you put the record on and put the needle on it and then you hear it, you listen. And he said, "Yah, let's do that!"

I about died. I was like, "Sorry, kid, mommy and daddy do not have a record player."

Anybody got one laying around we could borrow?

About a BOY

Oh wow, how the memories come flooding back on a day like this.

My Caleb is (almost) officially 4 years old today.

It's incredibly difficult to believe that it's already been 4 whole years, the amount of time that I spent in both high school and college, since Caleb came into the world. As cliche as it sounds, I feel like I just had him yesterday.

He was due June 19th, and yet he didn't come, and didn't come, and finally my doctor said that if I was dilated between a 5 and a 6 when she saw me on Wednesday, June 28th, 2006, she would send me to the hospital and break my water for me, because 9 days overdue is just too long.

So here I am, that morning, knowing we're having a baby that day whether he's ready or not.

Dr. Litzinger broke my water around 1pm, and then I labored, in every sense of the word. My body was new to this whole 'birth thing,' and I was only getting so far. By the time they checked me around 7pm, I was only dilated to a 7, and Dr. Litzinger said we needed to try Pitocin or I'd end up with a C-section.

So I got Pitocin. :P

I HATE that stuff. I was almost 100% natural delivering Caleb, but once I got that fake crap in my system I needed something to help, so I got some pain meds through the IV.
For about an hour.

They finally said I was so close to being fully dilated, but I needed to rock my pelvis back and forth to get him into a better birthing position.
I hadn't wanted to move, or have ANYONE (except Kenn) touch me for hours already, and yet somehow, I rocked. Back and forth. Back and forth.

I was finally ready to push around 9pm. It took almost 1 1/2 hours, and then...

...at 10:24pm, in Austin, Texas...there he was.
All 9lbs and 21 1/2 inches of him.
My Caleb. :)

They laid him on my chest right after he came out, and I just cried and kept saying "he's so beautiful!"
And I had his face memorized the first time I saw it.
I remember thinking that night in the hospital, when they took him to the nursery so I could sleep for a few hours, that I would know if they brought me back the wrong baby, because I knew his face perfectly.

That's the face I knew. :*)

I was huge, swollen, puffy, and gross,

but I was a mama.

And we were now a family.

Oh, but he grew so fast! He was 15 lbs at 2 months old, and such a chunk!

This is him at 3 months.

Six months old, first Christmas.

Nine months old, with those BIG blue eyes. :D

Officially 1 year old! With mama.

18 months

Two years old, and getting so big and so funny.

Two and a half

THREE

Three and a half

And here he is, right in front of my eyes, not a baby anymore.

He is, in every sense, a little man. :)

He's still so beautiful. :*)

At 4 years old, my Caleb--

-dresses himself entirely (including picking out clothes that actually coordinate)
-is completely potty trained (for over a year now)
-can say prayers on his own
-can hold his own in a conversation or argument
-is incredibly affectionate and sweet
-knows his ABC's and how to count to somewhere between 15 and 20
-loves Thomas, trains, trucks with lights, painting, and helping mom and dad
-has recently gone through a mind-boggling growth spurt, including nights of crying after he's gone to bed because his 'stomach is empty'
-loves to be tickled and wrestled and tossed around
-takes amazing care of his little brother
-understands that he is allergic to milk, eggs, and beef, although he does NOT understand that foods can contain those items without him knowing it
-has the cutest, curliest hair I've ever seen on a little boy. :)

He is the sweetest, funniest, most loving child.
He looks like his father, and he acts like me.
He NEEDS love and attention, but he's so good at giving it right back.
I am so grateful that Heavenly Father trusted me enough to give me this sweet boy to raise.

I hope I'm doing it right. :)

I love you, little man. Happy 4th Birthday.

love,
your mama

Caleb's 4th Birthday Party

Photo Post-- Make up your own narration. :)

The Heavens...

I gave Caleb 2 Lemon Snap cookies for his FHE refreshment, and he took them and sat down at the table. He took a bite from the one in his right hand, and held it up and said, "Moon set!" Then he held out the whole cookie in his left hand and said, "Sun set!"

I'm tellin' ya, I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Father's Day 2010

Well, I like to think that Kenn had a pretty sweet Father's Day this year. He was definitely surprised, which is always fantastic. :) He's horrible when it comes to presents, always guessing and usually ends figuring out the right thing. It drives me CRAZY. But this year, ha, this year boy I got him. He first opened up a box with 3 shirts from JCPenney, and then he opened up a set of grill tools! He was nicely pleased with them, and said "hey, we'll have a grill someday, right?"

I looked at him and said, "It's out on the patio."

He just stared at me, and said 'nuh-uh,' got up, and went outside to see a brand-new grill in the box, and a propane tank with it. He was so happy! I don't know that I've ever seen him get that excited about a present, usually because he's guessed what it is already by the time he gets it.

I was wise to decline having the guys at the store put it together for me, because I know my husband, and I knew he'd want to joy of doing it himself.

Here he is, with joy. :)

The finished piece

The yummy-ness that came from his present, mmmmmm. :)

My beautiful Tootsers, the father of my children, and an amazing father at that.

I Love You Kenn!
Thank you for working so hard for all of us!