Lovely Lily

The first Sunday that Michael and I visited South City Church, I met my friend Jamie. We had an instant bond as soon as we discovered that we were expecting our first babies within a month of each other. I have been so thankful for Jamie's friendship, and I love the times we get to hang out with our sweet babies. Caleb and Lily are really starting to interact with each other more, and it's fun to see their little personalities come out when they're together. Caleb is SUCH boy...into everything and all up in Lily's face. Lily is so sweet and pleasant...the perfect little girl. Here they are together:

Happy Baby

Thankful

for a happy, healthy baby whose face lights up when he sees me

for a loving, faithful husband who is kinder to me than I deserve

for a wonderful community of friends and neighbors

for family whom we miss so much today

for a Savior who loves me

for beautiful fall days

for being able to run 

for delicious food that brings people together for fellowship

for sappy movies that make you feel all warm and fuzzy

for a whole 4 days to spend with my boys

for simple joys and pleasures that give you a taste of heaven

for sorrows and pain that make you long for heaven

for a church where the gospel is not only preached every week, but lived out in its community every day

for reminders that the world is bigger than what I see every day

for laughter, especially Caleb's

for forgiveness and restoration

for the hope of Jesus

for a special day to remember how much there is to be thankful for

Ahhh, the life...

Watching Praise Baby sort of puts him in a trace. Every once in a while though, I'll hear him squeal, and when I look over he's got a huge grin on his face as he watches a baby come up on the t.v. screen. Too cute...

He actually started out sitting up here, but slowly slid down and wedged himself in between the pillows.

The Army Crawl

Playing with Jack

This is our sweet friend, Jack, who lives across the street. It's so fun to watch him and Caleb play together because Jack is about 6 months older and has a lot to teach Caleb. Caleb knows it's cool to have older friends.

First Halloween

After a rough, napless afternoon I wasn't sure that the costume was going to happen, but with a few cheerios to bribe him along, we got Caleb into his tiger costume and looking cute. Here's our little tiger before "trick or treating" (a.k.a. taking him door to door in our neighborhood to show our friends how cute he looks).

After having dinner with our friends the Pennylegions (who, sadly, we didn't get any pictures with), we all met up with our friends Janet and Corey and their boys Ty and Drew to walk around. Here Janet and I are with our boys...Caleb already looking sleepy at this point.
Here's Caleb with his friend Hudson. How cute are they?!
And here is Caleb post "trick or treating." I think that we wore the little tiger out with all our socializing. Goodnight Baby!

Fall updates

Oh wow...I can't look at this picture without smiling! 

Can you?

Playing with Daddy...and probably trying to eat the camera. He is sitting by himself now and loving every minute of it. I don't know if he'll ever learn to crawl because now he hates being in every position for very long except sitting!

Trying carrots...and not enjoying it.

All snuggled up for a walk. What a good sport...I drag him around with me everywhere!

What handsome men I have!

"No more pictures, Mama!"

Here he is eating solids...much less messy that the pureed stuff as you can see.

Wow...we are long overdue on an update!

Caleb now has two teeth...ouch! He's also eating a lot of solid foods. He has a thing against pureed foods, so we just skipped the baby food stage and he's a happy camper!

Not crawling yet, but I see it in his eyes...he really wants to. 

This weekend I ran my first 10k with some friends here and had so much fun. I'm definitely up for doing another one (Nashville, Hannah?). I'm not so sure about the 1/2 marathon though, Kristen:)

We are so enjoying this fall weather and are looking forward to Michael having a couple days off this weekend for fall break. Any extra time we get to spend with him in all this seminary craziness is very exciting:)

The Beach

This weekend Caleb and I took our second flight of his short life to Orlando for some beach time with my best friends from college. It was a short, full, and wonderful weekend. From left to right in the picture below are Emily (holding Caleb), Tessa (holding her daughter Nellie), Katie, Leslie, and Rachel. We packed a lot of quality time into a short trip: throwing a baby shower for Rachel who is expecting a baby boy in January, cooking together, playing in the ocean and the pool, watching movies, laughing about memories from college, taking pictures, playing with the babies. It felt like I had never been apart from these girls, and it made me realize how much I miss them! I could talk for hours about all the memories we have together from first semester of freshman year on. I love them and miss them all so much!

Here's Caleb doing his new favorite thing...screaming in the most high pitched voice you can imagine. It's pretty crazy. Here it just looks like he is SUPER excited to be at the beach:)
I didn't want my baby to get sunburned, so I pretty much had him lathered in sunscreen and covered from head to toe the whole time we were out in the water (yes, he is wearing my skirt in this picture...at least it's green). I know you can't tell from these pictures, but he was passed around a lot. It was such a nice rest for me to have so many people excited to hold him and play with him. He loved it too...as Michael says, he just gets to hang out with beautiful women all the time!
Here we are right after he fell asleep on me in the pool...such a sweet memory. He's definitely still half asleep in this picture.
He actually really loved the water (both the beach and the pool) and the sand. Here he is just taking in the ocean. What a cute beach baby!

Lovely Ladies:)

In order to do justice to my lovely friends, I thought I should probably post a picture of them where everyone doesn't have a mouth full of food (see below)!

Dear Friends

My friend and neighbor Emily has a son named Hudson who is only about 3 weeks younger than Caleb, and Friday they came over for Caleb and Hudson's first play date! The boys mostly just tried to eat each other's toys (and ears), but Emily and I enjoyed talking about life, helping our boys interact, and taking pictures of hopefully the first of many play dates. 

About a year ago a few other seminary wives and I started a Bible study together, and this group of women has slowly become some of my closest friends. This weekend we had a mini sort of retreat at my friend Annie's house, and these are a couple of pictures from our time together and the delicious chicken tostadas we made. These sweet friends have been such an amazing blessing in my life...I cannot begin to describe all that they have done for me and our family. I love you girls so much! 

...And here's Caleb after our long exhausting weekend. We had a blast, but we are so tired and so happy to be home with Michael. 

More pictures

Here's our little elf...post-bath time. He is crazy about bath time, especially now that he gets his baths in the big tub and can splash even more water all over the place!

I finally moved the highchair upstairs from the basement...trying to take eating cereal a little more seriously. He looks super cute in the high chair, but I don't know if it's made a difference in how often we try the cereal.

Lately...

This week the kids that I nanny for are back in school, so Caleb and I have had even more time to hang out together. It has been WONDERFUL. 

However, the big news of the week is that last night Michael and our friend Penny moved our bedroom furniture down to the basement, so Caleb is now officially in his own room. I could hardly sleep at all, but I think he slept great:)  

He is super close to being able to sit up by himself

I cannot even tell you how blessed we are...he is the happiest baby I've ever met

And without fail, his happiest place is the stroller...he LOVES taking walks

What a sweet smile

I was telling my friend Annie this afternoon that I hope everyone gets a baby as sweet and happy as this boy right here

Weekend in Memphis

Since Michael had a short break from school, we decided to head to Memphis last weekend to see our families who had be dying to see Caleb...unfortunately, we didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few:

He loves his Pop

His first piano lesson...he loved it. I think he will be a natural.

Here he is with my Papa, one of his great-grandfathers.

And here he is with Michael's Mamaw, one of his great-grandmothers.

We love you and miss you all!

Stretch

This is Stretch...Caleb's "favorite" toy giraffe

His favorite part is sucking on the ears

Bathtime

Caleb loves his baths...the only problem is that he's growing out of his baby tub, and most of the water ends up on the floor or the counter:) 

The Braithwaits

This weekend one of my best friends in the world, Stephanie, came in town with her husband Ryan and their 2 kids, Hannah and Bennett. It was SO much fun to spend time with them! The only problem was that it made me wish even more that they lived closer. Michael and I got a taste of what it will be like to have 3 kids some day...crazy fun:) All 4 of us parents needed a margarita by the end of the evening!

Stephanie talked me into putting Caleb into his jumparoo for the first time, and of course he loved it! I love how he is extremely focused on the green plastic frog. I think he wanted to eat it! He is growing so fast and learning so much every day...I wish you all could see how cute his smile is. He's curious about the camera and gets a serious look on his face every time I pull it out!

Just Some Talking

New Tricks

Seriously, can you get any cuter? Michael took this picture yesterday on his day with Caleb. They get to spend every Wednesday together while I work at the pediatrician's office. Michael makes him laugh all day. He loves his daddy!

Caleb has upgraded from his bassinet to his awesome new crib. I really think he loves it! We're smart new parents and put the crib together while he was taking a nap. We're also really excited new parents because we got him up from his nap to see if he liked his new bed:) He rolled and squealed and kicked to his heart's content. Here he is enjoying all the space:

And finally, on to the big news-- Last week I was sitting on the floor with Caleb who was lying on his back, I looked away for a second, and when I looked back, he was on his tummy! So I was there for the first time he rolled over, I just didn't actually see it. We've had plenty of chances to see it since then though...he's already an old pro! He rolls over and then grunts and squeals until we put him back on his back...he hasn't figured out how to do it himself yet, but I'm sure that will come any day now. 

Fourth of July

Today was a strange 4th of July. It was a good day, a really good day actually. It just didn't feel like the 4th of July. It was probably the first 4th of July in my whole life absent of fireworks and cheesy patriotic music. At first I was excited to take Caleb to see his first fireworks display, but the more I thought about it, the less appealing it sounded to keep him up, pile him in the car, and drag him to who knows where to hear loud noises that he probably wouldn't enjoy anyway. Instead we went over to my friend Annie's house and cooked out and had some of her signature margaritas while Caleb snoozed in their bedroom. In fact, it was the latest we've stayed out probably since Caleb was born! Even without the fireworks and star-spangled banner, it was a wonderful 4th of July. Maybe next year Caleb will be able to appreciate it all more anyway! Here's a picture of how he enjoyed his Independence Day this year. This is his favorite sleeping position...I can always tell that he's really sleepy when he goes into this position as soon as I lay him down.

Just For Fun

Here's me and Caleb just being silly...well, I guess me being silly and him being serious:) He doesn't know it yet, but he's very photogenic!