2 Years Old!!! September 25

Oh What A Year!!! We can't believe we are celebrating yet another birthday for our little boy.  It is amazing to see all that Caleb has done/accomplished/become during the past 12 months.  Where do we even begin...Caleb is such a sweet-spirited, fun-loving, high-energy, little boy. 

Here is a view of the past month, his last month as a 1 year old:

This is a picture right after his first hair cut at a "Kids Place" and I am not sure it was worth it (even though we had a coupon).  He cried the entire time and we are just as happy with Mimi's haircuts, if not more!



Caleb loves to pray and will even remind us to pray by sitting like this-precious!  We hope he never loses this desire to have a real relationship with our Lord and Savior.

We had NOTHING planned for Labor Day weekend and it was really nice heading into a busy fall semester.  We had such a productive day on that Saturday that we decided to head down to Austin and surprise Mimi for her birthday.  We were there less than 24 hours but it was so worth it, especially for this priceless picture!

Swimming in Mimi and Papa's pool

The next weekend, Julie and Caleb headed back down to Austin for one of her best friend's going away party.  Megan moved last week to Ireland for a new adventure!  Praying for you sweet friend and can't wait to hear all about it! 

At Megan's party, Caleb was very consumed with the ice bucket of drinks...

Yes, you guessed it-Caleb is drinking the ice water straight from the bucket! 

Meg is a HUGE UT fan and had this awesome Bevo in the backyard! 

Once we got home from Austin, Mimi and Julie hit party planning mode (with the party only days away).  Mimi gave this wonderful "Ball Pit" to Caleb and oh, it is SO much fun! 

Now that the weather is beginning to get a little cooler, we have a stock pile of the end pieces of the bread.  So, we have taken a few walks down to the park/pond to feed the "DuDuDu."  I am not brave enough to let Caleb out of the stroller with these crazy things but he has quite the arm and likes to throw the pieces of bread to the ducks.  (Notice the full sized basketball that he never let go of once).

 

I keep thinking I am going to put the "Ball Pit" away for now, but he still really enjoys playing with it.  

Caleb went through Mimi and Papa withdrawal last week, as we had spent so much time with them Labor Day Weekend, the week before his party, and the weekend of his party.  He is a little upset that they are leaving and just doesn't understand why.  Caleb will daily talk about his "Papa and MawMaw."  Too Cute! 

 We can't wait to see what the next year holds, especially in the verbal department.  Caleb is truly the best blessing in our life and what an amazing year we have had.  When we made the decision to begin a family it was momentous. But we never realized the extent of this decision to have our hearts go walking around outside our body.  Oh, how we pray for Caleb daily! 

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Date Nights and Blue Man

Craig has done a great job creating some date nights with Julie.  A few weeks ago we went to one of Julie's favorite dance group (which by the way was our 3rd performance the past couple of years-Craig loves Julie A LOT! :).  Momix is a company of dancer-illusionists using surrealistic images from props, light, and shadow.  The great thing about it was that it was held at the new AT&T Performing Arts Center-what a beautiful venue.

While Julie's parent's were in town for Caleb's party, we took a double date back to the AT&T Performing Arts Center to see something far better than Momix, and maybe even better than STOMP and Circque De Soleil (maybe).  We went to see the Blue Man Group!!! This is their first tour ever and it was one of the most entertaining events we have ever seen.  It really was very cool.  If you ever have a chance to see them perform-we would if we were you!  

This is a picture of the last "act" and what a dance party we were having.

Isn't this so cool?  Julie's Mom actually touched his face and it is real paint!  (I did some research-I know I am a dork-it is grease paint they paint their heads with.  It never dries so that it maintains the wet gooey look throughout the show.  It takes them an hour to get in costume before the show)

Caleb's 2nd Birthday Party

Since our son loves any kind of ball, it was his first word to speak so many months ago, and consumes his days (and probably his dreams at night), we decided it was only appropriate to have a Ball Party!

Balls Galore!!!Caleb was so excited to see the backyard like this with all his friends there too. We wish we had some video of the pure excitement he showed (and still does as he talks about the ball party in the backyard). We had Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, Golf, a Ball "Pit", Bowling, and just about every other kind of ball imaginable. Thank you everyone for letting us borrow your things!

The food was all things ball shaped (Fruity Pebble Balls, Gum Balls, Meatballs, Fruit Balls, Whoppers, Cheese Puffs, Sausage Balls, Gobstoppers, Donut Holes, Reese's Cereal, and a little "Half-time Snack of orange slices)

Cake Balls on a lollipop stick and Caleb got his very own Ball Cake to devour

The Kids Table 

Sweet Playgroup friends (Sad that I don't have more pictures of everyone there) 

The Ottos (Amy is Julie's childhood best friend) 

Punkins, Wyatt and Stacey

Noah perfecting his golf swing 

Mason, Cade, Grace, and Wyatt playing on the playscape 

Caleb was pretty excited about his party until every started singing to him, he froze and was mesmerized.  Sweet Mason was trying to help Caleb during the song and blowing his candles out-what an encouraging friend! 

Jake, Mia, Noah, and Harper

After all the other kids finished their plate of goodies, cake and ice cream, Caleb continued to sit and eat and eat and eat his cake.   

The consensus was still that Caleb looks most like his mommy but he does have a lot of similarities with his daddy too!  People often say he is a great mix of both of us!

Thank you all for helping to make Caleb's 2nd Birthday a BALL!



Caleb is having a baby...

BROTHER!!! BROTHER!!!  BROTHER!!!  BROTHER!!!  BROTHER!!!  BROTHER!!! 

Here is baby BOY'S profile

Here is Baby BOY'S foot

The Happy Big Brother

We are so grateful, blessed, shocked, and amazed at this wonderful miracle.  Everything looked great on the sonogram but due to Caleb's kidney history, as a precaution, we will have a Level 2 Sonogram at the end of this month to check out the little guy more.  Please join us as we continue to pray for the development of this little life and for God's name to glorified regardless the outcome.

Community Lake Getaway

This past weekend we were blessed to be able to go to a beautiful part of the country...Lake LBJ.  Julie is a little biased because this was the very lake she grew up on, learning to ski with her snoopy skis tied together, fishing with her Snoopy bobber, camping, and enjoying the pure beauty of lakes. 

Thanks to the Purdys (Caryn's family) for opening up their lake house we had a wonderful time with our Community and the kiddos (6 kids under 5 years old).  We missed the Shepelwichs but baby Graham will soon be making his appearance into the world and didn't want to chance it being down in Kingsland.

We got in just in time for a pre-bedtime boat ride (Caleb's first time ever-he was a little uncertain but warmed up to it pretty quickly).  This could have been a huge mistake because he LOVED it so much that night, he woke up just about every couple of hours wanting to go back on the boat.  It was really cute at first but got pretty old around 2 am.  

      He is even comfortable sitting on Mr. Stacey's lap and driving the boat

Love these two boys-they are two peas in a pod

After a yummy Smith breakfast taco, we hit the boat again with the whole group.  

The Grundy Family and Braysen's first time on a boat too

Adorable Grace

And Grace's brother Sam and their Mommy, Cori

Had a relaxing afternoon of naps, lake swimming, dock diving, and more food.  Caleb is warming up to idea of little ones around.  He loved playing with Sam and will soon be a great big brother!

On the roof the dock

After Caleb watched Craig and Mr. Stacey flip off the roof...(these two are pretty synchronized)

...Caleb was all ready to jump in!  Next year he might be old enough to jump from the roof but this year he only jumped from the dock!

Caleb loved playing on Wyatt and Stacey's bunk beds

Dinner was at the famous, Cooper's Pit BBQ in Llano-WOW!! What a delicious place!

These two boys are enjoying their dinner but are curious if the animals are going to jump off the wall and play with them.

The Grundy Family

The Smith Family (pregnant with twin boys)

Our Family Picture (Julie at 17 weeks-we need to do a better job taking profile pictures)

The whole gang with full tummies

We opted to skip out on the dusk boat ride and prayed for a good night sleep.  Not so much but at least Caleb has a passion for boats and the lake like his mommy.  Sunday morning we took one last boat ride for a little tubing action.  Caleb is now SO comfortable on the boat and lounging back catching some rays!

Craig got on the tube and held on for dear life.  Either Stacey was going to have to give up or Craig was going to get hurt staying on.  On the second round, Stacey gave up!

Caleb is really enjoying watching his Daddy on the tube!! (needless to say)

Stacey on the tube

Wyatt and Cracker on the tube

What a fun weekend and a great group of people to share it with!!