christmas 2008

We had a great Christmas!  I absolutly love Christmas and look forward to it and the holiday season all year.  Sometimes (like this year), I am sad on Christmas because it means the end of the Advent season and another 11 months of waiting for it to come around again.  Caleigh wore a super cute Christmas outfit and increased the joy of our Christmas morning.  On Christmas morning I made monkey bread and we spend the morning exchanging gifts.  She loved opening her presents - little people and shoes from us.  

After her morning nap we went down to my parents' house to exchange gifts and to eat an excellent Christmas dinner.  Cals loved opening her gifts - I don't think she cared what she was unwrapping - she would have been happy tearing paper off of anything.  She was so funny to watch. And she got an awesome wagon from Gigi and Poppop - thanks y'all!  She loves riding in it. From Uncle David Caleigh got a fun ball popper.  In this video I wonder who is having more fun - Caleigh playing with it or everyone else laughing at it...

Only 11 more months until December comes around again and we can't wait... and next time around we will have a 2 year old and a 6 month old; it's hard to believe.

christmas eve!

We had a busy and fun Christmas Eve!  In the morning I made a sausage/egg casserole so we had a family breakfast (Caleigh actually waited until almost 9 to eat!).  After showers and clean clothes, Adam took Cals to distribute one of our Christmas traditions.  I made little Christmas tree bags of Chex mix (thanks for the help mom!) and also snickerdoodle cookies and tied those up with some ribbon and a note. 

Adam and Cals went door to door handing out the treat bags and for those people who weren't home we hung them on their door nobs.  We look forward to doing this every year and letting our kids take them to the neighbors as they get older. Then we headed off to a Christmas brunch (more of a lunch this year) with Jess, Kim, and Marcy... we also love this tradition - it was great to catch up all together.  Looking forward to next year when I will have 2 kids, Kim will be married, and who knows what's on the plate for everyone else!  I love living life with y'all! After naptime at home for Cals (and last minute shopping for Adam) we got dressed up and headed to the Christmas Eve service at Uptown.  It truly does not feel like Christmas Eve to me without going to church.  It was a little busier and more distracting having Cals there as a busy 1 year old (compared to being 4 weeks old last year) but it was still great.  Here Dave is giving a Christmas story to the kiddos - (80 of them at least!) And after that we headed off to meet Grandpa and Gammy Dyer like we do every year for Christmas Eve dinner and presents.  This year we did it at their house which worked out great for Cals.  She enjoyed opening some awesome gifts... And was just gorgeous in her borrowed (thanks Kulps!) Christmas dress.  Here she is proudly displaying her UNC baby board book. We love all the traditions of Christmas Eve and it is almost sad for me when Christmas Eve and Christmas get here because they are my favorite time of year and when they get here it means they are almost over and I have to wait another whole year to experience it again.  Merry Christmas!

prego!

I hope that by now most of you have heard the news - from us or from our Christmas letter... We are expecting another baby!  We are due June 22nd which will put Cals and baby bean almost 19 months apart.  

Looks like a sweet little teddy bear!  We will find out on Jan. 22nd if it is a boy or a girl - and I think we are going to put up a poll shortly so you can voice your opinion!  We are so excited for y'all to share in our joy!

adam skiing...

The weekend before Christmas Adam left on Friday night to fly to Boston and meet up with my brother for a short ski trip.  My brother lives in Keene, NH and they drove back to Charlotte the following Tuesday (14 hours on a good day) for Christmas.  Fortunately or unfortunately Adam flew to Boston in the middle of a big snowstorm... I knew I better start praying for the weekend when he told me that the pilot announced that they were circling the Boston airport waiting for the runway to be plowed so the plane could land.  Here is a picture of them driving to the ski resort, yes that is the road...

David on the left and Adam on the right... They skiied Okemo, Killington, and Sugarbush and had a great time!  And Caleigh and I managed to make it through the weekend without them. Cals and I actually ended up spending the night in 4 different places in 4 nights - I did all of our Christmas shopping in 2 days (which Adam was grateful to miss).  And Sunday night we our lifegroup Christmas party with some Panthers watching afterwards.  More pictures on that to come...

what a helper

Caleigh often helps me unload the dishwasher in the mornings and this particular morning was like no other.  I must have forgotten to take into account how much she loves to climb.  I was putting away some utensils (and my back was turned for half a second), and then I turned around to see this...

Caleigh decided that since the bottom was empty she better climb up in the dishwasher to get the items off of the top shelf... Only I don't think she is putting them away in the correct place... She is so fast!  Other things she enjoys doing when I turn my back (besides climbing), is crawling into the bathroom and finding an open toilet bowl to play in.  Twice she has been caught splashing in an unsuspecting bowl... good think I don't have OCD but even I think that is pretty gross.  At least it was at our house...

silky-lover

We have adopted this nickname for Caleigh, along with goose (which we call her all the time)... because in fact she is a silky-lover.  It has become her other constant companion - besides her thumb.  Silky even goes to the dirtiest of places... (ie park swing)...

We better get a replacement silky just in case or we could be in some serious trouble.

picture time

Last weekend Adam, Caleigh, and I went to the park with the McNamees and Daniel took a bunch of pictures for us.  The purpose was for a Christmas card pic (which we had a ton to choose from), but he took some other fabulous shots as well.  Thanks Daniel!  I think these are the best pictures of us as a family that we have...

What's a picture of Caleigh without her constant companion - the thumb... Ouch!  But she does look very entertained.  I LOVE this picture of us... This one was our Christmas card pic - Adam wanted one in color because he said in the black and white you can't tell how big and blue and gorgeous Caleigh's eyes are... true...

cute kids in pjs

Celia and Cals...

We brought Caleigh to lifegroup in her pajamas to put her down to sleep there and it turns out that Bennett was wearing the same pjs.  (The ones Caleigh is wearing are the Kulps)  Bennett is still working on how to do rabbit ears so we will just say these are antlers. So cute!

walking and dancing

I think I would officially say that Caleigh is walking now.  She chooses to walk over crawling - but does still resort to crawling after the walking seems to be too slow.  She really is walking so much now - though I still wouldn't say it is a means of transportation yet.  One of the main things that is hindering her is that she doesn't think she can stand back up once she sits/falls down - she really can but doesn't realize it.  I figured out that it is really hard to get a video of her walking when you are the only one there to take it.  This was the best I could do for now but I will have to post some other attempts soon.

You can tell that we are moving into toddlerhood and mastering the big muscle motor skills.  Caleigh has recently taken to dancing which looks a little like bouncing up and down but you get the gist.  Notice in this video how she is so easily distracted from one task and how quick she is to try to find something else to do.

will smith!

On Thursday I had a doctors appointment and then visited another one of our friends whose 4 year old son was having surgery.  It just so happened that the same day, Will Smith came to Levine Children's Hospital (where I also work) to sign autographs and meet the patients there.  I tried to wait in line to get my picture taken with him but it was for patient's only - too bad.  I tried to snag some pictures though - 

We are pretty much best friends now... I love when celebrities use their fame for a good cause - way to go Will Smith.

getting tubes

On Wednesday we went to the hospital for Caleigh to get tubes put in her ears.   She hasn't really had many ear infections but she has had one in her right ear for at least the past 3 months.  She went through 5 antibiotics including a series of 3 Rocephin shots in a row but nothing cleared it up; after a meeting with a pediatric EENT specialist we decided that Caleigh would get tubes put in her ears.  We were glad to finally get it over with - to be done with the antibiotics, doctors visits, and her being in pain (although Caleigh in pain really isn't that bad - it is actually really hard to tell if she is ever sick because she is such a good baby).  We had so many people praying for us during the surgery and Adam and I felt a complete peace about letting her go.  We prayed Psalm 121:7-8 for Caleigh: "The Lord will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."  And we prayed Isaiah 41:10 for us: "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

Silky got to go with the silky-lover back to the OR.  Silky has really been around the block!  Caleigh didn't even freak out when we handed her to one of the OR nurses to carry her back there - she grabbed silky and laid her head on the lady's shoulder.  At some point we are really going to have to teach her not to go to strangers. :) They gave her some medicine to relax her a little before 8 am and by 8:25 she was in the recovery room.  The doctor said it went really well and that there was a lot of thick gunk in her ears that he drained out.  When she first woke up she was crying this weird psychotic cry and her head was rolling all around - it was a little bit freaky.  After some oxygen and some Mommy-time she perked right back up to her usual self by 9 am.   We were so thankful to all of our friends and family that took time to pray for us, send email updates, and for Pastor Dave who came and prayed with us at the hospital.  

stubborn goose

She got in there all by herself...

And then got stuck... and then eventually got out by herself... And then she decided to try to climb in there from another angle.  In case you are wondering just how stubborn Caleigh is and just how determined she is to do what she wants...

christmas tree from lowe's

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed to Lowe's to pick out a Christmas tree.  After much searching we came up with a pretty good one.

(And yes... we did get the Lowe's employee to take our picture...)

happy thanksgiving from our family to yours

Happy Thanksgiving 2008.  Hard to believe that last year on Thanksgiving I was pregnant with Caleigh.  We headed over the my parents' house in south Charlotte after I got off of work for the day and had a great dinner.  Caleigh semi-enjoyed her first Thanksgiving meal but was thrown off by the strange meal time of 4:45.  She is also turning into a bird when she eats - she now picks at her food unless it is cheese, carbs, or any type of berries so that didn't help.

cals real bday 11/26

On Wednesday (Caleigh's real birthday) we celebrated with a day of games (for us) and lots of attention and playtime for her.  She got in lots of good time with her Uncle David who was here all the way from Keene, NH.  Here she is getting pushed around on a funny little toy that I played with when I was little - Caleigh enjoys riding on this and picking it up by its red hair.

She got to play with her new Jack in the Box... We made some really early 'Christmas' cookies - she didn't really get the concept but enjoyed playing with the dough and hanging out with Poppop and Gigi. Deep in concentration... And we took some obligatory real birthday photos - can't believe she is actually smiling with the birthday hat on. I'm one!  To the right you will see her now favorite pop up toy from Uncle David.  She thinks it is her mission in life to make sure the tops are always down.

happy 1st birthday, caleigh grace!

Happy Birthday Caleigh Grace! 

We are so thankful for the blessing of you!  It is crazy to think that a year ago today I was in labor with you.  It seems like ages ago but at the same time it seems like only yesterday.

caleigh's 1st birthday party

We had so much fun at Caleigh's 1st birthday party.  When the guests arrived we had burgers, hotdogs, chips, potato salad, baked beans, and apples with dip.  After we ate we had cake!  Caleigh had her own ladybug cake - Bennett helped her blow out the candle on her cake.

Caleigh had no idea what to think about the cake - Adam tried to coax her into the red icing. And I took the head of the ladybug off to try to convince her to taste it. She wasn't a fan until she pried the Oreo off of the side of the cake and got a taste of that.  Ritz crackers are one of her favorite things and what better than basically a chocolate cracker.  All that chocolate and icing was making her thirsty.  We caught her 'red-handed' at the party - and I actually said that. After cake we showed a short clip of pictures from Caleigh's first year and then opened some presents.  All in all we really had a fabulous time.  I wish I would have gotten some better pictures but she is so hard to capture on film these days.  I need to do a 12 month update soon - probably after the holidays.  But I will say that on November 18th she took her first couple steps - on her way to the coffee table to try and grab the remote.  Since then she has taken a couple per day but overall she is very cautious so it may take her a while to really take off.  Her first birthday party really was so much fun and we are so thankful to have had a year with her so far!