A Whole Hand!

It's hard to believe that Caleb is 5 years old today!

Caleb,

You bring so much joy & laughter to our lives. Almost daily, I'm amazed at the things you say or do. You have a memory like no other. It's almost scary how you remember people and places. As everyone who knows you knows, you love to watch tv and/or movies. I'm afraid that I've taught you that the library is a place to get movies, not books. You also love to play on the computer.

You do like to play outside but you're such a hot natured kid, you can't stand to be outside if it's real hot. You have mastered riding Dougie's scooter & you like to ride your bike too! You love to climb & jump. You worked & worked until you learned how to skip & you know how to write your name. Just the other day, you asked me to show you how to tie your shoe, so I know it won't be long before you have that mastered too!

Even though you were old enough to start Pre-K, Daddy & I wanted you enjoy being home for a little while longer. So now when people ask you if you go to school, you tell them, "I'm home schooled." You came up with that on your own!

Caleb we love you so much & can't wait to see what you accomplish during your 5th year!

But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. Numbers 14:24

Survival 101

Have you ever had one of those days when you think, "you can't make this stuff up!" I had one of those days last week. It was a typical school morning. Steven leaves around 6:30, so I get the kids ready for school. Usually, I let the little boys stay in their pj's but on this day, my plan was to go to Wally World after dropping Emma & Dougie off, so I had to get them dressed. Caleb was kind of grumpy about putting his shoes on, so I told him to bring them and we'd put them on when we got to the store. I couldn't find Asher's shoes, so I assumed they were in the van because that's where he takes them off.
So we left for school, we weren't running late and it was overall a pretty good morning. We drop off E &D and as we're pulling out of the school parking lot, I mention to Caleb that we're heading to W*l-M*rt, to which he says, "but I don't have my shoes on?" I tell him it's ok, we'll put them on when we get there to which he informs me, "I didn't bring them." Oh great. At this point I debated about going home(remember WM is 30 mins. from my house), but I really needed to go, so I told Caleb, "well at least you have socks on, you can just ride in the back of the buggy."
In the short ride between the school and the store, Caleb was begging me to stop at any & every place we passed that offered any kind of food. I think his exact words were, "puhleeeeze, Mommy, I'm starving to death!" Now realize that he had eaten a bowl of cereal before we left the house, so I knew that he wasn't actually starving.
When we finally got to the store, I went to put Asher's shoes on and you guessed it, they were not in the van. Once again, I debated on just going home but I was kind of stressed about what I needed to get in preparation for Thanksgiving (more on that later) so I opted to take my 2 boys and their socked feet to the store.
And of course, we saw several people we know, including a man from our church, who lives 30 mins. north of this store but was making a delivery. He just laughed and told me how his wife couldn't get their kids to wear their coats that morning.
So our shopping experience went smoothly and about half way home Caleb out of the blue says to me, "Don't worry about it, Mommy." When I ask him what he's talking about, he says, "I'm not hungry anymore." Oh, ok, why not? "Well, I ate some ketchup." WHAT? "Yeah, I found this little packet and I sucked the ketchup out of it."
And you know how I responded?

"You didn't spill any of it, did you?"

Love Y'all!

Such talent....

Yesterday was a rainy, kind of cold day. So after taking Emma and Dougie to school, Caleb, Asher and I came home and just chilled. As you will see in the video, the boys pretty much stayed in their pj's and played all day. At one point, Caleb started playing with a 'carmonida' otherwise known as a harmonica. When Asher started showing us how well he could play it too, I just had to get it on video. He has quite a knack for playing the carmonida, I mean harmonica!

Untitled from Cheryl A on Vimeo.

A 4th Birthday!

Well as the saying goes, better late than never!

On September 19th, our sweet, funny, adorable Caleb turned 4.

The statistics:

Height- ?

Weight- 36 lbs. You now weigh yourself everyday on Mommy & Daddy's new scale. The first time you did, you were so excited to tell me that it said you were 3 lbs. When I asked you to show me, I realized that it was flashing E, which was a relief because I was pretty sure I was going to have to return the scale if it said you only weighed 3 lbs.

We go next week for your 4 yr. check up and I'm praying that you don't have to get any shots. You can tend to be a little over dramatic lately. For example, the other day you cried for 30 minutes when I told you that we were out of frozen waffles. When I told you either eat some cereal or go back to bed, you gladly ate your favorite, Reese's "Pups". It always makes me smile to hear you say that.

You are a child of the 21st century. You love to play games on Mommy's phone, or on Emma's phone or on Dougie's ip*d. You've even made this statement before, "I need a cell phone."

Not long ago, I introduced the concept of the speed dial #'s on my phone. I had no idea what I was doing, because you now make calls & have conversations with family members without me even knowing that you have my phone! The other day, you called Grandma and Paps' house and talked with Paps. When he told you that Grandma wasn't there, you told him, "I'll just call her on her cell phone." Paps asked if you knew her number to which you answered, "yes, she's #4."

You have really started to enjoy playing ball. Football, baseball, basketball, it doesn't really matter. This summer, we spent many a mornings(before it got too hot!) out on the back patio playing baseball. Thanks to your big brother, Dougie, you've learned the concept of slow motion. So now, every time you make a catch or a hit, you'll say watch what I did in slow motion!

I know that there are so many more things I could share, almost everyday you do something "blog worthy." But I sometimes think, do I really want to stop what we're doing so I can put it on the blog or do I just want to enjoy the moment and savor it? Lately, I'm choosing the latter. These days are going so quickly and I don't want to miss anything!

Caleb, Daddy and I love you so much and we pray that you follow in the steps of your namesake and wholly follow the Lord.

Happy Birthday!

St. Augustine Light House

Sometime earlier this summer, Caleb began talking about light houses. I don't know where he learned about them but all he talked about was how fun it would be to go to the top of one.

Then when our beach plans had to be changed, one of the positives of St. Augustine was the light house. I was so looking forward to taking him to visit it.

We decided to go first thing in the morning to beat the heat. Emma, Dougie and Asher didn't join us. It was just Steven, Caleb, my sister Laura, b-i-l Phil, Chaz, Cole and myself.

Caleb was beyond excited as we saw this

We all walked in the gift shop, so excited about walking the 216 steps to the top of the light house. As Steven walked up to buy our tickets, the lady at the register informed us that there was a height restriction. Anyone who goes up the light house must be at least 44 inches tall.

As Caleb walked over to the measuring stick, my heart was sinking because I knew that he was no where near 44 inches tall. It took Steven explaining it to him before he understood. Notice that he even wore his stripped shirt because it looked like the light house! Poor baby! :(

Laura, Phil, Chaz and Cole went up and we went into the museum. This is them at the top. I don't have a very good zoom on my camera.After they came down, then Steven and I went up.
Once Steven and I came down, Caleb was pretty much over it. He and Chaz were playing and having a good time. They did give us a free pass to come back when he's taller but I think we'll make a trip to Tybee instead.

Life According to Caleb....

Sometimes, while uploading pictures, I'll come across some that weren't taken by me. Since the perspective of the picture looks like it was taken by someone who is about 36 inches tall, one can assume that Caleb got the camera and took some pictures. Or maybe out of desperation, it was given to him so that he can entertain himself, but whatever. It always makes me laugh to see what he captures, so I thought I'd share a few with you.

Most of the time, Asher is the subject of his photos. From Asher's look, he's a little scared.

Me feeding Asher. Obviously, he didn't want Asher in the picture. This may or may not have been one of those times when he had permission to use the camera.
Close up of Asher eating and I'm pretty sure he's thinking, "Dude, personal space...."

Trying to stretch his skillz as a photographer......still art, except the photographer couldn't be still because..............

Daddy's coming to take the camera away. Pretty sure this is one of those times he didn't have permission!

Saving the best for last. This is my all time favorite picture that Caleb has taken~

"Bo-Feet" that's Calebese for barefeet!

Happy Friday!

Love y'all dearly,

Because I have to have a title.....

I'm sure you must have thought that I was so proud of my banana oatmeal bread that I would just keep that post up forever but I promise that's not the case! Last week was so busy, I just never had the chance to sit down and blog. Not to mention the fact that I didn't really have much to blog about! But now it seems like I've got lots to blog about, it's feast or famine when it comes to the blog!

This morning, Caleb was chasing Jack (our dog) in the driveway with a ball air pump. Jack was loving the attention from Caleb and only stopped running when Steven came out. Jack ran to Steven and was standing in front of him when Caleb came up behind Jack. (I'm sure you know where I'm going with this but...) While Jack was looking at Steven, Caleb started to put the needle of the air pump in a place that Jack would not have liked. After scaring the bejeebies out of Caleb when I screamed his name, he turned to me and said, "but Momma, I just wanted him to get big, big, big in the sky." OMW! I don't think Jack wants to be the new float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

On another note, this past weekend was my 20th high school reunion. Yes, you read that correctly. I cannot believe that I've been out of high school for 20 years! We went to the homecoming game Friday night, which we dominated! Lots of people from my class were there and we spent the whole second half of the game socializing instead of watching the game. Then on Saturday we had a family picnic. Not a lot of people came to the picnic but it was still a great time. We chose not go to the Saturday evening event mainly because of the cost and we're just trying to be really frugal right now. But it was still a great weekend and thanks to facebook, I get to see everyone's pictures and it's a good thing, cause I only took ONE picture the whole weekend. oops!

So how was your weekend, anything exciting? Seen any unusual floats in the sky? lol!

Love y'all!

3 years old!

1st Birthday2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday

Caleb turned 3 years old today!

We celebrated his birthday last Saturday with a party. Grandma, Paps, Chaz and Mia came from Atlanta and Grandmomma and Grandaddy, Uncle Ben and Aunt Bonnie came too!

Although it's hard to believe that your 3 today, it's hard for me to remember life without you!

Caleb, you are the funniest kid. You are constantly making us laugh with the things you do and say. But you can also be very stubborn. You know what you want to do and you don't want anyone to tell you any different! You love to sing, dance and play the drums!

You love your mommy but you are definitely Daddy's boy!

Our prayer is that you will "wholly follow the Lord." Just as your namesake did.

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

I'll show you....

Just a while ago, Steven left to pick up Emma at school. Caleb was very upset that he couldn't go and even more upset that I was making him take a nap. I laid down with Caleb for a minute trying to get him to stop crying but he wouldn't. So I left him lying on his bed and he was still saying (betweens his cries), "I want to go with Daddy."
Within a few minutes, he stopped crying and I knew that he had fallen asleep. I just went back there to peek in on him and this is what I found:


(excuse the shoes/toys under the bed, 3 boys+1 room= a mess!)



Oh that boy!

Love y'all!

I only have a moment but I have to share with you something Caleb said last night. Caleb has developed a fear of the dark and he won't into any room if the light is off. The other night I asked Caleb to take his shoes to his room and he said "but it's dark back there." When Steven heard him, he told him, "it's ok because Jesus is with you, even if it's dark. He went on to tell him, "Jesus is always with you so you don't have to be afraid."

So last night, we got home from the gym and I told Caleb to go to his room so we could get his pjs on and this is what he said,

"But Jesus said it's dark back there!"

Have a great day!

I'm still here!

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post.
I don't have anything to share today.....wait...nope...still nothing!
I must have thought a hundred times over the past few days, "I've got to blog about that" but for the life of me, I can't remember any of them!

Oh well!

We had a great time at the Southern Baptist Convention......oh I just remembered one!

On the night after Pastor Johnny was re-elected, we were invited to a get together to celebrate. When we walked in the room, there were some big name people there. (I realize that they're just people too but still!) I'm talking past Presidents of the SBC (and probably future ones too!) all the Presidents of the Southern Baptist Seminaries were there as well as every well known Southern Baptist preacher that you could name! It was very informal and every one was standing around the room listening as different ones shared what Pastor Johnny has meant to them. Steven, Caleb, Asher and I took a spot against the wall which happened to be where some of the seminary Presidents were standing. At one point, Asher got a little fussy, so I stepped out of the room. I stood by the door with some others so I could still hear. A few minutes later, Caleb saw me at the door and begin squirming from Steven to get to me. Steven told him to walk quietly to me, which he did but as he walked by these great men of God, he waved and gave each one of them a 'what's up dude' kind of look! Needless to say, he had their full attention.

Well, it's time I get off this computer and get started on the laundry....oh the fun never ends!
Ten days until we go to the beach! woo hoo!!!!

Love y'all

Psalm 34:18

I finally got the video loaded!!!

Let me explain this video a little bit. We have this kids cd that we love to listen to in the car. Each song is a scripture put to music. They're not at all cheesy, they're actually done very well. Caleb's favorite is Psalm 34:18 because in the song the kids scream "CRUSHED!" and he and Dougie love to see who can scream it the loudest. The coolest part about this is that my 2 year is memorizing scripture!!

"The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18

Update

I went for my 30 week check up today. Everything continues to look great, according to my Dr. We did discuss scheduling an inducement. Since we are an hour away from the hospital, we're a little leery about letting it happen naturally. Steven doesn't want to be delivering a baby on the side of the road and neither do I! We did this with Caleb and he was born within 4 hours of starting the pitocin. So as of today, we will be having our baby on April 16th. woo-hoo!!
Since Steven was unable to go to the dr. with me today, Caleb had to go with me to the triage room, where they take your blood pressure and weight before you see the dr. He was very curious about everything they were doing to me, pricking my finger, taking my blood pressure and was just taking it all in. The last thing the nurse asked me to do was to step on the scale, as I was walking to it, Caleb loudly asks, "Are you gonna cry, momma?" The nurses and every woman who heard his question cracked up. One lady answered him and said, "Yes sweetheart, all women cry when they stand on that thing!" Too cute!

Another first!!!

For Christmas, one of Caleb's 'gifts' was a potty. I know, but he's only 2, he doesn't get it yet!
Since then, he's sat on the potty maybe 5 times. Although, I'd love for him to be potty-trained before the baby comes, I realize that he's still pretty young, so I'm not getting my hopes up (or my stress level!)
This morning, Caleb asked to sit on his potty. So we took off his diaper (which was dry) and he sat down. Unlike the times before, I left the bathroom because I figured he'd sit there for 30 seconds and be done with it. A few minutes after leaving the bathroom, I heard him yell, "Mommy, what's that? Mommy, come look!" And I couldn't believe it, my little 2 year old had made 'pee-pees in the potty'!
We immediately called Daddy and then called Grandma to celebrate! Maybe it won't be so bad after all.
Happy Wednesday Y'all!

Caleb's New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year y'all! We've been gone a lot since Christmas and I haven't posted any pics yet. I hope to get them up soon. We got home yesterday from my grandparents farm. When it came time to go to bed, Dougie asked Caleb if he wanted to sleep in the bottom bunk of his bed. Caleb of course said, "sure!"Over the past week or so, Caleb has slept on a sofa bed, an air mattress and in a double bed with his cousin, so we knew he could sleep in a regular bed. We've been talking about when to move him from his baby bed to a regular bed but last night was not what I had planned!

But of course, Caleb loved it and slept wonderfully. Tonight as we were heading down the hall, he said, "mommy, I gonna sleep in the big boy bed!" There you go, done deal, from baby bed to big boy bed.

My sweet friend Natalie gave me this special award! To summarize, it is given to someone who's blogs purpose is to make friendships and build relationships.

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! This blog is exceedingly charming. This kind blogger aims to find and be friends. This blogger is not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to writers like this one and those nominated below!"

The rules...Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I'm giving this award to:

Amy
Angie
Fran
Kaylan
Laura
Mindy
Shelley
Susan

Thanks again Natalie!



And now for your viewing enjoyment~

Funny Story

While Steven, Caleb and I were sitting in the exam room waiting on my doctor to come in, Steven noticed that he had a wet spot on his pants, right near his pocket. The only thing we could figure was that he got wet when we he was washing his hands in the restroom.
Later, I went to have some bloodwork done and Steven and Caleb returned to the waiting room. While in there, Caleb was patting Steven on his legs and he felt the wet spot. Caleb said, "ohh Daddy, you wet. You need a diaper change?"

Steven was thoroughly embarassed but believes that no one in the crowded waiting room heard........right!

Emma and Stickers

My little girl is growing up!
Emma has cheered for the last 3 years for her school's 3rd-5th football team. If she wants to cheer next year, she'll be cheering for the MIDDLE SCHOOL team! I can't believe I just typed that! Middle school, how is that possible??? I took some video of her cheering at her last game this past Tues. Their team went undefeated and had 2 ties! WOO HOO!

This morning, Steven was studying in his office and I was on the computer in the family room. Caleb was in the office, when I heard Steven say, "I knew you were being too quiet."

A moment later, they came out of the office and this is what I saw:

"Mommy, I got stickers!"

Have a great day!

When he's 3, he'll join the CIA....

Yesterday, we had a major tragedy in our home.......the remote went missing! It was the weirdest thing. I was lying on the couch praying napping while Caleb was watching Handy Manny. The last time I saw the remote it was on the end table next to the couch.
Whenever Steven comes home for lunch, our routine is to eat at the breakfast bar and watch Fox News. He always gets the remote, because, well I don't know why he gets it because we don't change the channel but he likes to have it near by. Anywoo, when he came home yesterday, he couldn't find it. We looked in the obvious places but couldn't find it. We manually changed the channel and proceeded with lunch. After Steven left, I looked EVERYWHERE for the remote. Knowing Caleb's history of putting things in the trash, I even dug through the almost full trash bag to no avail.
When Emma and Dougie came home from school, they looked for it. We even spent about 20 minutes after supper last night trying to find the stupid remote. It was gone.

Today, Steven came home for lunch. I walked into the kitchen and there on the breakfast bar was the remote! "Where did you find it?" I asked. He looked at me and said, "I thought you found it." "I didn't find it, how did it get here?" I asked. He said, "I just walked over to the end table next to the couch and saw it sitting there!"
Caleb was sitting on the couch watching Barney.

Caleb is 2!!!

Well, Caleb's birthday was actually last Friday and we celebrated the Saturday before, so I'm a little late. But hey, better late than never!

Caleb you bring so much joy and laughter to our lives. I can't believe you've only be around for 2 years! Here are some of the things you say and do that make life so fun!
~Whenever you see Fox News on the tv, you yell, "John McCain!"
~You now refer to John McCain like he's a friend. You tell him bye when you walk out of the room. The other night, after supper, you said, "I enjoyed it John McCain!"
~Because of the influence of Fox in your life, you're fair and balanced, you will also say, "'Brock' Obama!"
~And because mommy hearts her, you now say, "Sarah Palin!"
~You love to figure things out and now you are constantly saying, "how did work, daddy?"
~You love saying your prayers at night and you will grab hands and say, "say pray."
~You can sing your ABC's up to J!
~You love music and your absolute favorite song is "san-chew-wary" or otherwise known as "Sanctuary" by Travis Cottrell!
~You love to play tiger. You growl and crawl on the floor and get people's toes!
~You love to read books.
~When we ride in the car, you love to say, "I'anna go dat way mommy." And I don't know how you do it but every single time it's the exact opposite way of the way we need to go!

I could go on and on! Everything you do is so cute, funny, brilliant and priceless! Mommy, Daddy, Emma and 'Broder' love you so much!

***While I was waiting on my pictures to load, Caleb just came up to me and said, "Mommy I spilled." He had removed his diaper a few minutes ago and "spilled" on the floor. Don't think we're ready for potty training yet!