Dancing

The title says enough....enjoy : )

Thanksgiving '10

Happy Thanksgiving! I love this time of year! A time of reflection. A time to remember the ways God cares for us and blesses our lives. A time of family.

Thomas and Kristen invited us all up to their house for Thanksgiving this year. It was nice to spend the days before this holiday relaxing (and doing some shopping) and not preparing our house for guests. We left around 9:30 on Thursday morning to get up to their house around 10:30. We were the first ones there and had a chance to catch up and relax before everyone else arrived.

Kristen did a great job putting together appetizers and the main courses of lunch. The rest of us brought sides to go along with the meal and my sister, Katy, brought LOTS of dessert! As usual, there was way too much food and it was hard to not overeat!

All of us at the table, minus Thomas, Jonathan and the boys

I think my favorite part of the day was watching Eli and Caleb interact more. Caleb is beginning to follow Eli around and copy him in a lot of ways. I think it's just a tiny view into what the future will hold with those two! I think Eli loves when "Cabab" gives him so much attention. Of course, I enjoyed that both boys are still young enough to take naps so we had about an hour or so of relaxing time too!

Playing with Eli's computer in his cozy chair!

Tickle Time! 

Following Eli around! 

It was a wonderful day with family! Since then we have been slowly working on taking out the Christmas decorations and Jonathan braved Toys R Us on Black Friday! (Late in the afternoon with just two things on his list) Caleb seems to have a cold today so we're taking it easy and letting him rest. The weather has gotten cooler the past two days and we're enjoying staying cozy inside. I think it's a perfect way to continue our Thanksgiving through the weekend!

Hope everyone else enjoyed their Thanksgiving whether with family or friends, wherever you are! God is so good and we are very thankful for all of our blessings!

A New Park

Caleb was invited to a friend's birthday party at a new park in League City today. The park is fantastic! It was designed for kids with handicaps as well as younger children. We had a great time letting Caleb run around and play! Unfortunately, I underestimated how hot 74 degrees really is, so we were all a bit warm, but there was a nice breeze and he seemed to have a fun time. This is definitely a park we plan to go back to (maybe during the week when there are fewer kids there)!

Happy Boy!

Checking out everything

On the slide with Daddy

Silly little smirk 

I think we have a mountain climber

Sliding with his friend

Anyone there?

Crawling in the tunnel

I think he had a great time! He certainly played hard....he's still napping and he went to bed 2 hours ago! That's a definite sign of having a good time around here, needing a longer nap! 

Just Like Mommy

I try really hard not to be on the phone around Caleb too much, I like to give him my attention while we're together. That being said....I guess I haven't done so well with that goal as he is now copying Mommy!

I took some pictures of him yesterday "talking" on his phone and pacing, just like I do! Such a silly little boy : )

Totally unrelated... here are some other playtime pictures. 

Grandma Mal gave him this toy rocket ship a long time ago and we've just recently pulled it out to play on. He LOVES it and for some reason decided it would be more fun to stick a toy in his mouth while he played on it this time. 

The other day I found him like this on the floor. It was cute to see him with snack, cup and giraffe! 

And last, I found the cats like this a few mornings ago. I love that their feet are intertwined. Maybe they were keeping their feet warmer...not really sure, but they are cute too. 

Randomness from the week

Well, I've got a few random moments to share...so here we go! 

First, if you know Caleb at all, you know that he NEVER sits still. I hope as he gets older he'll be capable of sitting still for more than 5 seconds, but right now he isn't! So it surprised me one morning when I found him like this!

He sat in front of the tv like that for almost 5 minutes! It was so peaceful! So, now his bumbo chair is staying out even though he's too big for it. Maybe this is the way Mommy will have some calm moments! 

Second, Lana came over on Friday so that Sarah could run to a doctor appointment. Caleb was napping when she got there and she had fallen asleep on the way over, so we made a pallet in living room for her to lay down. I figured she'd wake up shortly after being laid down (I know Caleb would have), but she stayed asleep for over an hour! It was the easiest babysitting job I've ever had. Both kids were asleep for all but 15 minutes! 

As you can see, the cats were interested, but behaved very well! 

Third, quite some time ago we were given a musical bear from a friend. Caleb has always loved it, but we were the ones that had to turn it on and off. He's finally figured out how to do it himself. It's cute to see him go up to his bear and suddenly make the music go. He's even started "dancing" a little to the music. I'm working on getting a video of that, when I do I'll post it - he's so cute! 

Lastly, we finally get to use the fireplace again! We've had some cooler mornings lately and I'd much rather turn on the fireplace than the heater. Last year at this time, Caleb wasn't moving around so the fireplace wasn't a safety issue, this year is much different. We have always said he couldn't get on the fireplace, but the glass gets so hot we were afraid in the one minute we weren't watching he would touch it. So we got a pretty screen to go in front of the glass to keep him safe. I'm so excited to have the option to turn it on again and I love the screen Jonathan found! I think Orion is pretty happy about it too : )

That's all the updates from our little world! Caleb and I have been very busy with PeeWee school and our normal errands/chores. I've had some time lately to work on my sewing room, it's coming together but not quite ready to show off.

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful fall season leading up to the holidays. This is my absolute favorite time of year!

Early Thanksgiving

On Saturday evening, Jonathan's sisters and their families joined us at his Dad's house for an early Thanksgiving get together.

Sarah and I decided to get together early so that Lana and Caleb could play together before dinner. They had fun following each other and mimicking what the other was doing. Ron and Dao have a wiener dog, Sassy, and she kept giving Caleb kisses. He wasn't so sure about them, but never got fussy. Dao even brought out a few containers with lids that kept the kids occupied for a while. It's funny, toys weren't really needed, tupperware seems to do the job!

Playing with some tennis balls

Lana wearing Aunt Laura's headband

How many kids can sit in one booster chair?

Caleb really wanted the answer to be 2!

Still fighting over the booster.... but nicely.  ; )

Laura and Drew had to drive down from the north side of Houston after she got off work, so we played until they got there and then sat down to our American Thanksgiving dinner. Dao always makes fantastic Vietnamese dishes for us, but she decided to go classic this year. The meal was fantastic! We even had apple pie and pumpkin pie for dessert.

All of us around the table

Caleb and Mommy

We enjoyed visiting with family, catching up with each other and letting the kiddos play together. It was after 9 when we finally decided we had better get Caleb home so he could go to sleep.

Thanks Ron and Dao for having us all over, it was a wonderful time!

Lazy Day

Well, as it usually goes... when one of us gets sick, we all do.

All three of us came down with the tummy bug on Thursday night this week. It's been going around our school, so it was bound to happen at some point. We spent most of Friday and Saturday trying to recover from our sickness. Here's a picture I took of all 4 of my boys resting on the floor.

There was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode playing on the computer and a fire in the fireplace, perfect way to make everyone feel better!

Kitty Cuddles

Caleb loves to cuddle with the cats, unfortunately Tiger doesn't usually give him the chance.

Orion seems to enjoy it though...

This actually lasted close to 2 minutes before Orion wiggled his way free.

I enjoy seeing Caleb express his love for the cats... it sure is cute : )