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