David

A lot of you know that I have a brother named David with special needs. A few years ago he was also diagnosed with dystonia. Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder that causes his muscles to twist and spasm. My parents have been looking into a treatment called Deep Brain Stimulation, and it looks like it's going to finally happen. DBS sounds scary because it's brain surgery, but it could be life changing not only for David but for my parents and youngest brother, John, as well. My mom started a blog this week to keep everyone updated on the process, and I've put a link to it on the side of my blog. Please read it if you have time and pray for David and the rest of my family too.

Thanks for reading and praying!

Walking!!!

It's officially happened! Caleb is walking. Up to this point he would walk a few steps every once in a while, but he would always resort to crawling as his quicker mode of transportation. Then on Thursday he decided it was time to take off.

All of our cameras have dead batteries so we don't have any videos yet, but I'll post one as soon as possible!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm always in search of "the best" recipes for the basics, and this one has come pretty close to the top in the Chocolate Chip Cookie category:

1/2 cup shortening (I like to use the butter flavored kind)

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 cup (or more) flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Cream shortening, sugars and vanilla...and when I say cream, I mean cream! Add egg and beat. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt (either with a "sifter" or a fork...whatever works). Hand mix the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop in whatever size cookie drops you like onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

This was my friend Kristina from Knoxville's recipe. Thanks Kristina!

I'd say Caleb is a fan:)

Like Father, Like Son

Good Morning, Sunshine

Vacation

Caleb and I have been on "vacation" for the past week and a half since my nanny family has been out of town. Michael likes to wake up every morning and ask us what we're going to do "since we're on VACATION?!" Meanwhile, he's been working his booty off taking a class and working every day. We've been missing him and feeling sorry that he has to work so hard while we're lazing around. He handles everything so easily and cheerfully though.

Even though Caleb's not been feeling great this week (shots and teething...not a good combo), we did get to go on a small berry picking adventure with our friends Kat, Laine and Mead. Kat got some cute pictures, so hopefully I can steal some soon and post pictures of our berry-juice covered children. Caleb was in HEAVEN...I think berries are his number one favorite food.

He's been picking up a ton of new words lately and doing the cutest things...so much so that last night I realized that I'd better start writing all of it down or I'm going to kick myself later.

Here's just a small funny story:

About a week ago I made cinnamon rolls with about 3x the legal amount of sugar. Needless to say, I was not really wanting him to have one. He was very upset about not getting a sugary treat and started screaming his head off. So we went downstairs to see Michael, and immediately he went into Michael's arms and started hugging and kissing on him...as if to say, "Mom, this is what you're missing since you won't give me what I wanted." Then to top it all off he turned to me, sweetly waved and said, "bye-bye."

What a stinker.

See what I'm talking about though?? So cute you can't even get upset!

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for my family over the past couple weeks. My grandma's death was the most difficult thing I've ever experienced...especially seeing the pain and grief of my mom and grandaddy. I still can hardly go five minutes without thinking about her, seeing images of her face, replaying memories over and over. I am so thankful that she knew Jesus. The pain of missing her is so great, but there is definitely joy mixed in the sorrow, knowing that I will get to see her again. 

Caleb did much better on the car trip to McCormick than we thought he would. The picture of him in his car seat down below was actually after about 11 hours in the car!  For those of you who saw him in SC, he's much happier now that he's home. I'm sorry y'all didn't get to see the sweet, happy, normal Caleb! I think he must have sensed the grief in the house. I've heard that babies have a sense about things like that.

It's been a hot week here in St. Louis, so Caleb's spent a lot of time in this outfit:

Here's a snapshot of our car ride to South Carolina:
He LOVES to brush his teeth:
This is his new favorite game, ride the horse named Daddy: