Caleb is THREE!

Caleb turned three this past Thursday, August 26th.

Wow. I can't believe it!

My baby is three...that seems so....OLD!

This year is going to be a big one for us. Caleb is starting preschool this upcoming week, we are signing him up for soccer, he moves up a class at church, and he no longer qualifies for the free/discounted tickets at many things, as he is no more a part of the "ages 2 and under" crowd!

I have definitely been feeling a bit mushy about this whole thing recently, and have a feeling I am going to be, ahem, a bit emotional on Monday morning when we drop him off at his first day of preschool. But that will be for another BLOG post...=)

For now, sit back and enjoy a few photos from our firstborn's birthday. We celebrated in the mountains of North Carolina with Nana and Papa, Uncle Kyle and Aunt Heidi. Caleb woke up to a special "3" balloon and streamers, along with his favorite breakfast - French Toast. We spent a good part of the day at Asheville's Fun Depot, where we played mini-putt and some arcade games, and had lunch. After dinner we celebrated with brownies and ice cream (Caleb is not a big fan of cake), and presents.

We had a great day celebrating our very special boy. And, we were blessed to be able to share it with Nana, Papa, and Uncle Kyle, as we are not often with them during these milestones.

Birthday breakfast...


3 Year Old Smile!


Mini-Golfing...


He had some fun, I think. =)


The golfers (Meredith didn't golf, but this is proof that we didn't leave her back at the cabin)...


Skee-Ball!

Taking a ride...

"Happy Birthday to you..."

Yes, he spit a little bit on the brownies...


Playing the new game he got from Nana and Papa...


We love you, Little Buddy! You have blessed our lives in more ways that we could ever have imagined.

Caleb's 3rd Year - in Photos

We are leaving for vacation tomorrow, and will not be home until after Caleb's 3rd birthday. So, I wanted to post his photo slide show now!

Enjoy these photos of our special little boy, who often reminds us that he is becoming less and less little as each moment passes.

The first photo in this montage was taken on his 2nd birthday. The last photo was taken just this week. Enjoy a few snapshots of the past year.

The song included is one of his favorites that he learned at VBS this summer! **You might want to pause the music player in the right sidebar of our blog, so you can hear the song in this montage.**

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Letters of the Week - STUVWXYZ

We made it through the whole alphabet!

This was U's last week with us, we are leaving for vacation this weekend and Caleb starts preschool the week we return, so I wanted to get the rest of the letters done. And, the kids don't mind the heavy "work load"...they are always asking to do a "project"!

S...T...U...V...W...X...Y...Z!

S is for Snake!

T is for Tree!

U is for Umbrella!

V is for Vase!

W is for Watermelon!


X if for Xylophone!


Y is for Yellow!


Z is for Zebra!
(PS - Notice the little "tail"...that was totally Caleb's idea. I was so proud of him to think to put a tail on his zebra!)


The kiddos with their sticker charts. They got a star sticker for each letter of the alphabet that they completed. 26 stars later...they are obviously pretty proud!


Click here to see our other letter projects...

OPQR
HIJKLMN
DEFG
ABC

Miss Independent

When Meredith was about 8 months old, she began to refuse most foods that came to her on a fork or spoon. In other words, our little Miss Independent wanted nothing to do with her Mommy and Daddy feeding her, and everything to do with feeding herself. Which was not such a bad thing. She had pretty good pincer grasp skills, and could "chew" almost anything, despite the fact that she had no teeth. So, she began to eat everything we were eating (for the most part), cut into little pieces that she could pick up and feed to herself.

Well, here we are, and Meredith is a little over a year. And, our Miss Independent still won't take anything we try to feed her on a spoon or a fork. So, we have decided that it is time for her to learn to use some utensils all by herself.

Here are a few photos from last night's attempt to eat mashed potatoes with a fork...





Eventually, she got tired of trying to use the fork and resorted back to just using her hands. Understandable....I do the same thing at Chinese restaurants....I give the chopsticks a try, but eventually give up and use my fork!


Meredith, we love you dearly, despite your stubbornness (which, for the record, you got from both Mom and Dad).

Meredith's 1st Birthday Party!

It's Fun to Be One!

Although our sweet girl has had a rough few days, with multiple teeth coming in, Meredith managed to have some fun today. She loved splashing around at the splash pad, enjoyed eating her cupcake, and managed to play with a bit of tissue paper before becoming disinterested in the present-opening process.

If you know me at all, you know that I love me a good "theme". Months ago, when I first started thinking about Meredith's big birthday bash, I knew that I wanted to do something fun and colorful...two characteristics that for sure describe our little girl. And, what is more fun and colorful than polka-dots?! =)


We had a picnic at a local park, and had access to a splash pad. It was a beautiful day, perfect for some outdoor fun. Although, all the bees in Chicagoland apparently agreed and thought that they were invited to our party as well, which was a total nuisance, but thankfully nobody (that I know of!) got stung.

It was very special to us to have so many friends and family come to celebrate our daughter. God has truly been faithful to us in the friendships that he has blessed us with. To have such a great system of support and encouragement to us as parents, and a group of people to love on our kids is no less than a true blessing from the Lord. We are very thankful.



It is very surreal to realize that my Baby Girl is ONE. It honestly does not seem that it was that long ago when we discovered I was pregnant, found out she was a girl, held her for the first time in that hospital room. What an amazing gift Meredith Grace is to us. We couldn't ask for a sweeter, more beautiful daughter.

Meredith, 12 days old (photos taken by Elise)



If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.
- Vincent VanGough

Results Are In...

My original goal was to wait a little while before sharing the big news regarding our baby's gender with everyone.

But, who was I kidding...I am not sure what possessed me to even imagine that I could keep it a secret. I am just so excited, I can't hold it in! Having the chance to find out our little one's gender this morning was such a blessing!

Caleb went with us to the ultrasound appointment today (thank you to our good friend Shauna, who stayed with the other 3, in addition to her 2!), and he was extremely intrigued by the entire process. He had a lot to say throughout, and had lots of questions. He was a little confused about why he couldn't actually see the baby (don't worry, Buddy, even Momma has a hard time understanding those ultrasound images!). He also seemed to think that the doctor should just open up my tummy so that we could all see the baby that way...hmm, that would have been interesting.

We got a good report from the ultrasound tech....from what she could see, everything with our little one looks healthy and is developing appropriately. Thank you, Lord!

Well, on to what I know you all really want to know (although I bet some of you skipped the previous text to get right to the video, right?!)...here's a very brief, but very special, announcement of our news! (Oh, and please ignore the food on C's face...he was eating lunch.)



That's right! God is blessing our home with another little boy! We are so excited for Caleb and Meredith to have a little brother, and we can't wait to meet him!

The little guy was not in a great position for a photo shoot, so we were unable to get any really great ultrasound images on film. But, if you are a mother, and have ever had an ultrasound picture taken of your in-utero baby, you can totally understand me when I say that no matter how awkward an ultrasound photo can look, you cherish it as if it is the most well-taken photo out there!

That being said, here's a couple of pictures taken of our precious boy this morning, at just a couple of days shy of 20 weeks!





Baby Boy, you are very loved already!