Month 15 - December 25

The past month with Caleb has been SO fun! We had Thanksgiving and Christmas in this last month and a ton of excitement in between. Oh how we love this time of year and are so sad to have the two big holidays of the year over. There is nothing big to look forward to in the month of January.

Caleb's 9th and 10th teeth came through without us knowing. They were the big one year molars and we think he is working on the other two big molars now or at least we blame his sudden change of temperament or is that being 15 months and mobile? Caleb is tall enough to reach the door handles (and can even open the pantry door). Guess it is time to toddler proof the next level.

Sadly, this year we did not get a chance to hike miles through the snow to chop down our own tree but Lowe's specials were just right for us.

Caleb got his 1st real haircut (not from Mimi). We drove our 88 year old neighbor to the barber and decided to go ahead and get a free haircut while we were there. But, his hair grows so fast and could use another cut now.

A big accomplishment this month is that Caleb is now able to get on his tractor by himself.

Finally, we were able to take a little Field trip to West Dallas to visit Julie's old school, faculty, and precious students. One of Julie's dear friends, Catherine, from college has been working with Campus Crusade all over the world since we graduated. She now lives in Dallas with her husband and not only is teaching at West Dallas Community School but is teaching Julie's old students who are now in 4th grade!! So Fun!

Caleb still loves playing with awkward toys, including one of Mommy's Christmas presents, no not the syrup.

A sweet friend of Julie's from college, Jenny and her adorable daughter Bekah, were in town. Here are a few precious pictures of these two beautiful girls.

Caleb was able to be a part of Julie's 9th grade girls Christmas Party. They just adore Caleb and are all GREAT babysitters. Let me know if you ever need someone!

We made Gingerbread Houses with our Community for part of our Christmas Party. There was not a lot of making but definitely more eating.

Caleb is able to point to some of his body parts. The list includes: belly, button, hair, nose, tongue, mouth, head, foot, shoes, hat. Here is a picture after bath time where we get to see their tongues.

Caleb was able to really be part of a white elephant gift exchange that we had for Craig's work party. We baked a cake, bought a "cake saw", took some pictures of Caleb enjoying the cake, developed the pictures, wrapped up the half eaten cake, and there we go... a great White Elephant Present. (At least it was not a toilet this time!)

Julie's sister, brother-in-law, and their 3 kids came in town for a quick visit. Below is some loving from one cousin to another and Three Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.

Caleb loves holding objects (any object) to his ears, he calls phones Dada, and has pretend conversations with who knows who (not using any real words).

We go to the pediatrician next week and are excited to see how much this big boy weighs and how tall he is.

Christmas 2009

On Christmas Eve morning we headed down to Austin stopping in at Julie's sister's house for our traditional Christmas Eve lunch together. Later that afternoon we went to Julie's parent's church for a candle light service and ended a great day with an incredible meal that Craig's mom made.

We spent Christmas Day with Craig's family celebrating while enjoying another fabulous meal and having a Birthday Party for Jesus. We had a blast playing Wii, laughing together, and eating delicious food.
The Wenning and Cowden Family after a delicious meal (you can tell by our clean plates)

Uncle Kracker entertaining the kids

A little Wii Collage-so fun all ages can enjoy this game

On Saturday, we headed to Georgetown to celebrate Christmas with Julie's family. The weather was remarkable outside and enjoyed watching Uncle Kracker (Craig) create silly games with the kids!!

Uncle Kracker still entertaining the kids

An amazing playscape that Uncle Tony (and his elves) have worked so hard to make it just perfect

Precious Sarah, the Diva, strutting her new Christmas presents (sunglasses, tutu, and dolly)

A little Snuggie moment

Julie's Dad (Papa), we mean Santa, came to visit and poor Caleb did not know what to think of this man!

Our attempt of getting a Cousin picture on Santa's lap

That's better!

Caleb preferred climbing the stairs with the real Papa (and not Santa) during the chaos of opening presents

Sunday we went to church with Craig's sister and headed home. The week was way to fast but what a blessing it is to have both our families in the same city now. Craig's parents were incredible hosts in their little apartment and we are so grateful to have seen so many relatives in a short amount of time.

May the Lord provide lasting joy this year!! Merry Christmas and Happy 2010!!

Watermark's High School Ski Trip

My Sweet Grace, who I loved having great quality time with!

On Friday, December 18th Julie left Caleb and Craig at home to drive 18 hours to Crested Butte, Colorado with 100+ high school kids and leaders. They had 2 charter busses full of excited kids, tons of luggage, enough food to feed an army, and plenty of movies to keep them all occupied.

The SUPER girls in my room: Grace, Madeline, Taylor, and Grace

They left at 8:45 pm on Friday evening drove through the night and arrived sometime after 2ish. They had a few long stops for breakfast and lunch (it takes a while to feed 100+ mouths even if it is a fast food place).
The girls all skiing together


Saturday afternoon consisted of checking in, renting skis, and getting ready for 3 days of skiing. During the trip there were many laughs at the great skits (our good friend Stacey was an actor in), funny stories from skiing on the mountain, our "Brother Cabin", a traditional "Shirtless Run" that the guys do on the last day, tubing, jumping with bungee tramploline, and plenty of jokes on the bus rides.
Stacey and Bode playing Dougie and his brother, professional ice skaters

Braun Brown was our speaker for Club on Saturday night, Sunday night, and Monday night. He spoke about the Three Kings that did what was right in the eyes of the Lord but only Hezekiah was the only faithful king that turned to God when things got tough. Both Joash and Amaziah turned their backs on finding their security in God. This was an appropriate lesson just days before the celebration of the one true KING!!
Julie is truly blessed to have been able to go on this 5 day vacation and is so thankful of her incredible husband and mom who served her so willingly. Both Julie and Craig realized with their time apart that we are not complete when we are apart. Caleb is different (not bad, sad, etc) but just different when the whole family isn't together. What an experience and so grateful to have been a part of.
Freshman Girls!! We represented!! Plus two incredible leaders, Sterling and Leanne

One Cold Morning

Last week, Caleb and Julie were dressed and ready to go to the gym and as they were telling "Dada" bye and eating breakfast it began to snow. We bypassed going to the gym and bundled up to play in the white flakes. Caleb didn't really know what to think but he LOVES being outside rain or shine, hot or snowing!!

So Much to be thankful for...

This was Caleb's second Thanksgiving but his first to really enjoy its yummy goodness of all the fixins'. Well most of them but it is amazing how many of the foods we eat at Thanksgiving have dairy in them. Maybe next year, Buddy!!

Above Pictures from left to right and top to bottom: Craig's sister, Kristin, and her family Allen, Jack (7), Luke (5 1/2), and Lucy (2 1/2); Julie's Grandmother: Craig, Caleb, Sarah, and TJ on the 4 wheeler, Christalyn posing beautifully on her new playscape; Sarah looking cute as always; Caleb and Sarah are such great play buddies; the kids playing at Mimi and Papa's house; and Caleb loves the fun blinds

We spent 4 days in Austin at Julie's parent's house. We had a huge Thanksgiving at Julie's sister's house with 30 family and friends. Caleb was able to take a quick nap during the meal. It was also so fun to celebrate Julie's grandmother's 89th birthday, isn't she just stunning!! Julie's Dad, Grandmother, and Aunt Debbie Like we said we have so much to be thankful for, including Craig's parents now living in Austin. We were able to spend some time with them too! Other things we are thankful for...this time last year we had just found out our 2 month old would have his first kidney surgery. We were so scared, nervous, and uncertain about what it would be like. Thankfully a year later and we are on the up-hill slope of recovery. Caleb wanted to make a festive card for his family members, but he was not a huge fan of this arts and craft project. But they turned out so cute! Thanks Evie for the cute idea but ours did not turn out quite the same so we decided to stick a little turkey's hand on top of the leaves. Maybe next year Caleb will love the messiness of paint on his hands. We were able to spend a lot of time with family and friends and are sad it is over so soon. Time just goes by too fast. But, Christmas will be here soon and we will be back in Austin!

Month 14 - November 25

What a fun month we have had and Caleb is continuing to get such a little personality. (Or big personality, especially when he wants something). We started off Caleb's month with what we thought was an allergy to soy milk (since last month we discovered he is allergic to dairy). But after waiting almost a month to try giving soy milk again, we think it was the start of a glorious stomach bug that Craig and Julie both got a few days later. Fortunately, his was not quite the full-blown bug that ours was (no-pun intended!) So we are a week into giving soy milk and it seems to being going well. We are so grateful that Craig's parents (Mammy and MeDad) now live in Austin and we get to see them more often. They came to Dallas one weekend and brought a truck load of some of Craig's old things. Caleb loves Daddy's old toys, trucks, cars, bats, hats, and more. Thank you Mammy and MeDad for keeping these for so many years and watching Caleb so we could hang out with our 9th graders at The Draw.

We then had a few weekends of relaxation which was much needed! See below a few pictures of Caleb's month:
One of Caleb's favorite activities is coloring...Thanks Hudson and Carter for the fun markers and stamps. Caleb will crawl to the closet and reach up for this super fun activity. And here is the after -effect of the markers. Fortunately, they are washable!! Caleb also loves to walk, cruise, and scoot around on his toys... including riding the vacuum (don't worry it was unplugged). He is a magnet to the vacuum. We can't just get it out real quick and vacuum anymore because someone wants to play with it. While Daddy was raking up the 10 plus huge bags of leaves (and that is just the start). Caleb wanted to join in with some leaf-jumping. Caleb loves playing outside on the deck, pushing the chairs all around, playing with the water hose, and exploring nature. He did get his first bump/bruise this month. See the below picture taken shortly after the incident. It is hard to see but it is above his right eye! Other activities Caleb loves is climbing through the coffee table Playing with Daddy's old hat and toys Caleb loves being Mommy and Daddy's big helper as he loads and unloads the silverware over and over again. Caleb pushed this empty orange juice container around for days (until it was trash day) and he really enjoyed its awkward shape, the sounds it made on the floors and walls, and the way he felt so strong lifting it in the air. This is Caleb's "YEAH, I am proud of myself," "All Done," or "Amen" at the end of a prayer look. Caleb is such a good, hearty eater but here is a messy picture of Mommy's discovery of pasta sauce-everything goes down great when covered in pasta sauce! MMMMgood!


Other fun things that happened during this month is we visited on of Julie's 9th grade girl's, Erin, at her horse stables and Caleb sat on the horse (he was not a huge fan of Apex's vast size) and we are so sad we don't have a picture of it. But, Caleb loves horsies now and will make the cutes "plththtth" noise when he sees even a picture of a horse. Caleb also will blow kisses by clucking his tongue and will reach for anyone wearing a hat or head wrap. Both Craig and Julie are considered "Dada" to Caleb.

Finally, here is a video of Caleb's animal noise. He has made this noise for a few months and we were able to finally capture it on video. Caleb will make this precious noise when looking at a book with animals (thanks Bekah and Hamilton for the fun books), when he sees any kind of animal near or very far, or when he is playing with his stuffed animals. Enjoy!


Who knew Craig was such the photographer. Isn't this picture beautiful!