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!

CDA's

That stands for 'Caleb-Displays of Affection.' They are pretty consistent, but every so often they come in heavy waves. This time, it lasted the whole time I was painting this guy on Saturday.


I can't remember a single time when he has so willingly and so vociferously expressed his love and adoration for me, and I loved every bit of it. :)

Every few minutes, I'd hear him say "I love you, mom. I really love you. I like you painting Thomas."

If I get that kind of appreciation, I'm gonna paint his favorite characters more often. :)

4 Years Ago

This was me.

Waiting for that big ball of Caleb to come out.

Yah, this was my due date with him.
And no, he didn't come out that day (why would he? That would've been too easy).

Not many people get a 9-months-along picture!

Boy, I was puffy. I look like a pink marshmallow. :P

Memorial Day

We went up to Copperas Cove on Memorial Day to visit Kenn's Uncle Dee and Aunt Kathy. It was AWESOME. :) They are the kindest, funniest people in the world. Kathy made us brisket and potatoes (yum yum yum) and we got to see her AMAZING new kitchen that Dee made for her, and Caleb got to ride the tractor. Fabulous day. :)

I think Caleb is making the tractor sound along with the tractor

easily the best picture :)

Messy Eaters

Reaping the benefits

We've been getting some YUMMY produce from the garden since we got back from Utah. A few zucchinis (HUGE ones) and LOTS of tomatoes and nice, big carrots.

I think I used the zucchini Caleb is holding for 2 separate meals! :)

Really, I just wanted to be able to tell how big that thing actually was.

And all these tomatoes have been harvested in the past week or so (the white bowl was just today). And yah, those are poblano peppers. See, I bought 'green pepper plants' that I thought would grow 'green peppers'. And they did. Just the hot variety, not the sweet. I guess I need to learn to make and can salsa, huh?


The zucchini plant died, though. Some kind of borer disease ate away at the base stem of the plant, and the whole thing fell apart. I'm pretty sure our pumpkin plant is going to experience the same fate as well. Sad, I was excited to have pumpkins in the fall. :(

But regardless of any untimely deaths, having a garden this year has been really fun, and a HUGE learning experience. I'm excited for next year when I can apply all I've learned and have another go at it.

Utah Finale

The rest of our trip seriously went by so fast. On Wednesday, Kenn and I got go to the Jordan River Temple to do work for my Grandma and Grandpa Ettinger (it was amazing!), and that night we went to Uncle Tony's soccer game to surprise him. The kids had fun running around at the field.

Uncle Tony, the goalie

After the game we hung out with Kenn's brother Jed and his wife Laura at their house and played some games.

Thursday was spent down on BYU campus, where, sadly, I didn't take a single picture. It's always nice to go, though, and see how much things have changed. We went on a double date that night with our dear friend Kristen and her beau Ryan. We had some yummy Chicago-style pizza and went to see Iron Man 2.

And we were supposed to leave Saturday morning, but we decided to leave Sunday instead so we could get some more time with Grandma Nielsen, so we visited her and then packed our stuff, and we had a family game night with all of Kenn's siblings and his parents Saturday night. We all got stupid, and loud, and we ate junk, and played Scum (which is so funny with the right group of people), and it was seriously the best possible way to spend our last night in Utah. LOVED it. :)

Oh, and Grandpa got in some wrestle time with the kids before we left. I think HE loved THAT. ;)




We already can't wait to go back again. Thanks for the fun everyone! We miss you!