christmas

another Christmas come and gone. we had a wonderful one, although i will say that it's getting to be more work each year. you don't realize when you are a kid that Santa actually gets a whole lot of help from your mom parents, and all of this Christmas magic doesn't just happen. but it is also more special each year as Caleb is getting older and understanding more. i can only imagine what next year will be like! thankfully we have a while until then to recuperate!

in anticipation of Christmas, we did some crafting.....

we had a lot of fun. it's amazing how last year, Caleb wanted nothing to do with being still long enough to do anything like this with me, and this year he was loving it. and so was i.

we decked our halls.....

you'll notice our stockings were not hung by the chimney with care, because a certain three-year-old wanted to yank them down. so they found a new home this year. luckily, Santa was still able to find them and filled them up for us.

we went to a really wonderful Christmas party, where Santa made a special appearance.....

and then we celebrated Christmas three days in a row.....

there were a lot of presents, a lot of eating, and a whole lot of fun. (there were also a lot of tears, and whining, and tantrums, and so on, but who wants to hear about that?!!)

and now we are ready to welcome the new year, and see what God has in store for our family!

her party

just a few words today.

we had baby girl's first birthday party over the weekend. we tried to keep it small and simple, and invited some family to come and celebrate with us.

we sure do love this girl.....

one

my baby girl is one year old today!

how is that possible?

my sweet girl-

you are such a blessing to us. you have such a sweet, happy spirit, and we are so incredibly grateful for you.

here are some things you are up to these days:

- you aren't quite walking on your own yet, but you are a super speed-crawler.

- you want absolutely nothing to do with baby food, and haven't for awhile now. you think you are a big girl and will eat almost anything that we eat.

- you give sweet kisses all the time.

- you love your big brother. you think he's incredibly silly and laugh at him all the time. you love to be in the crib with him so you can both jump and chase each other back and forth.

- you adore your daddy. as soon as he walks in the room, you will scream at him until he acknowledges you. and once he does, you hold up your hand at him. it's your "talk to the hand" pose that makes us laugh every time.

- you are so easy going and just go with the flow. you love to go shopping with me (grocery shopping and target runs....we don't have time to do much other than that these days!)

- you love for us to sing silly songs, especially when they have motions and gestures to go with them.

- you LOVE bath time. you start kicking and try to climb into the bathtub as soon as the water starts running.

- you try to take out your hair bows so you can eat them.

- you have the sweetest smile and dimples that can light up the room.

happy birthday sweet girl!

we love you so much!

our halloween

this year, we spent our halloween in the hundred acre woods!

i had to include this picture, even though it's not any good. i should really learn how to use our camera at night.....

Caleb is showing his daddy the moon. any time Caleb walks by an open window at night, or as soon as he walks outside, he looks for the moon and points it out to us. and i just love it, because how many times are we just going, going, going, and too wrapped up with stuff to just stop, and look at the moon. how grateful i am for my sweet boy to remind us to slow down, and enjoy God's creation and appreciate His beauty.

this was the first year that we actually went trick-or-treating. we weren't sure if little man would actually get into it or not, so we were happy to see that he got the whole concept, and he had a great time. listening to him say "trick-or-treat" was the cutest thing ever, and then he would yell out "bye-bye" as he left each house. it was a very fun night.

and what i hope will become a yearly tradition.....my two guys watching "it's the great pumpkin".

and with that, it's November.....which means it's Thanksgiving.....which means it's basically Christmas.....which means it's my most favoritist time of year!

the pumpkin patch

we made it back to the pumpkin patch this year. we missed going last year since we were so busy moving back home post-flood, not to mention i was very much with-child at the time. so, it's been two years since we took little man, and it was a very different experience this time. he had a blast, which means that the rest of us did as well.

it is no easy task to get two littles to look at the camera at the same time, especially when there are people watching you and waiting for their turn. but just when we were about to give up, they both gave in to our pleas and looked our way and we got our shot.

have i mentioned how grateful i am for an easy-going baby who is content to just go-with-the-flow? because i am. baby girl just sat and watched her big brother play and smiled at anyone who looked her way.....