Forgot to point this out!

On the last post, there was a pic of Caleb and I in our pjs. Caleb had red ones that had gingerbread men on them. Bryan got me pink ones with gingerbread men on them...totally NOT remembering that Caleb had almost the same kind! Isn't that funny?? We matched! (No, I did not get Bryan gingerbread pjs...would've been cute, though!)

Christmas fun!

We sure had a fun first Christmas with Caleb this year! On Christmas Eve, we went over to my mom's house and ate dinner and opened presents with Uncle Matt and Aunt Ashley. Caleb got REALLY sleepy though, so we left earlier than I would have liked. He got some fun presents, though, including this really cute bear and a stuffed octopus. He also got money to get a new carseat, because it won't be long until he's outgrown his current one (CRAZINESS!!!). My mom totally spoiled us by getting a poster we picked out at the Art Institute of Chicago framed. We put it over our couch and it looks so great. I'll post a picture of it later. Our church had a Christmas service the previous Sunday, so they did not have a Christmas Eve service. We went home and Caleb CRASHED!!
Here are some pics from Christmas Eve:





Then, on Christmas Day we got up early to open gifts! Santa brought Caleb a toybox that matches his nursery!! He also filled his stocking with goodies like teethers, small stuffed animals, etc. He "opened" his other little gifts from us as well. I was SOO excited because Bryan got us tickets to go see "Wicked" in January in Louisville!! He also lined up a babysitter and everything. I totally didn't expect it, so I was very surprised. We opened all our other gifts, hung out, and then left for Northern Ky to see my dad's side of the family. We had a good day--Caleb was the center of attention, for sure! We kept trying to get him down for a nap, but then someone new would want to see him, so he was pretty sleep deprived! :) It was good to see everyone. We ate yummy food, opened presents, and hung out together. We left around 7 due to Caleb's sleepiness/fussiness...he slept the whole way home! All in all, it was a great holiday that was especially meaningful to me this year with having Caleb. I felt more like I know how Mary must have felt toward Jesus...that pure, unconditional love that is unlike any other.
Here are some pictures from Christmas Day.

Some recent pictures

Update

Tonight was so fun! My mom watched Caleb while Bryan and I met my brother and sister-in-law for dinner at Logan's--I got the yummy steak salad--and then we went over to their new house and played games. Their house is really cute and I loved seeing their dogs Lucious (sp?) and Sophie. We found out Lucious got into one of their Christmas bags for Caleb, got out the toy they'd gotten him, and destroyed it! We played Simpsons Clue (fun!) and Scene It on XBox. I lost TERRIBLY at Scene-it and Bryan won Clue! I would have liked to have played Scene-It again but we had to hurry back to relieve my mom of her babysitting duties!

I finished up all my Christmas shopping this week, PHEW! We bought Caleb a toy box that matches his room decor-it's so cute! We also got him a plastic bib, a Christmas outfit, some little teethers, and a wonderful book called "God Gave Us You." Oh, and this awesome wooden block from Craft-E-Family that has his first initial engraved, along with his date of birth, time of birth, length, weight, our names, etc. It was very inexpensive and had free shipping! I was so impressed with it-I will be buying one of these for anyone I know that has a baby in the future, and I highly recommend them!

On Thursday night I went to a Christmas dessert party with some girl friends from church. It was a lot of fun and we had two little boys (aged 2 and 3) who decided to streak!! It was so, so funny. Boys!! (What am I in for??) I made a chocolate chip pie from my friend Liz's blog (see sidebar under Liz's recipes). I think she calls it a Tollhouse Pie. It was so so good!!

Looking forward to the Christmas program at church this weekend and hopefully taking Bryan and Caleb to see Stephanie's amazing Christmas trees!! Oh, and good news-my friend Suzanne from college just found out she is having a BOY in May!! Woo hoo!

Snow day!

Well, yesterday was a snow day, but it was business as usual around here! I kinda missed the whole, "Are we gonna have school??" thing (complete with sleeping in), but it was still fun to look outside and see snow. I was glad I didn't have to get out in it, that's for sure...I'm a nervous driver as it is, and bad weather sends my driving anxiety into overdrive! So I stayed in, made Amish friendship bread which was SOOOOO good, wrapped some presents, played with Caleb, etc. while Bryan studied for his finals that are tomorrow. We also got a surprise visit from my dad (Grandpa!) who was in town briefly. That was fun! Bryan went to his men's group at church last night and I spent forever trying to get Caleb to sleep! He finally fell asleep at 10:00...phew!! I don't know why that was the case, but it wore me out!
I forgot to mention, on Monday night I went to dinner with 2 teacher friends, and then went to one of their houses to see her 17 Christmas trees!! They're all a different theme-it's pretty amazing. And her house is not that big-probably a little bigger than ours!! I'm going to bring Bryan and Caleb to see them on Sunday I think. It was fun to reconnect with them and get the scoop on everything going on around school these days. I miss seeing them all the time, but wouldn't trade my current situation for the world. :)

Such a big boy

Here are some pictures of my little boy eating some rice cereal this week! He's such a big boy these days! I just do the rice cereal every once in a while-we're waiting until 6 months to really get serious about it. He just looks so happy here!

Cable

The cable guy came yesterday. I watched old episodes of Full House yesterday afternoon (I'm talking, Michelle was a BABY), then Bringing Home Baby and Take Home Chef on TLC. (All while Caleb was napping, of course!) Sweet bliss!!! Thank you, dad, what a great gift! :)

5 months!!!

Today is Caleb's 5 month birthday! Wow!! One year ago on the 10th was our very first ultrasound-he looked like a little upside down monkey/peanut. It is SOO hard to believe that was one year ago. We were only beginning to grasp the idea that WE WERE HAVING A BABY! Now we have this awesome little baby boy who is reaching, grabbing, giggling, drooling (like a madman!), trying to sit up on his own, loving "standing", enjoying his baths now, and generally making me happy to be alive each and every day. I mean it, the world could be falling down around me, but when I go in to get Caleb out of his crib every morning and he smiles in recognition at me, it makes it all worth it. What an amazing love to experience, and how extra-cool that it's happening at Christmas time. I never understood the love Mary must have felt for Jesus until this year. In my Bible study we talked about if she knew what his fate would eventually be, and how she would be able to stand that knowledge. I cannot even begin to imagine.
Today I rounded up a bunch of things to give away to this Christmas store our church is participating in--games, books, etc. that we no longer use, and it was so fun knowing someone else will get enjoyment from these things. We hope to make it a yearly tradition, because the Lord knows how abundantly blessed we are!! :) This is something that was modeled really well for me, and it feels so good to be able to do it. We're hoping to actually volunteer at the store as well. It's a really cool idea. I also wrapped a few of Bryan's gifts today, as well as a gift for our life group Christmas party. It gets me so excited! UPS dropped off a couple more presents today, too...I have to say, this online shopping thing is GREAT, esp. with a little one who I'm not always ready to cart around the mall.
Today I saw my brother and his wife Ashley, who just moved to Lexington from Richmond. They hadn't seen Caleb in quite a while, so they stopped by and hung out for a little while and played with him. They ALSO brought me seasons 1 and 2 of Jon and Kate Plus 8 and a season of Everybody Loves Raymond to borrow; woo hoo! We're getting cable as a Christmas gift this year and I must say how excited I am to get TLC again! AND ABC Family. Bryan is especially pumped for the History Channel and the Discovery Channel. Maybe we'll save money on renting movies!

Weekend update

Is it already Sunday night?? How does that happen so quickly?? :) This Friday night we went to Bethlehem Revisited at a church in Versailles; it was pretty neat. They had the church all set up like Bethlehem, complete with a marketplace, animals, lepers, etc. and of course a sweet manger scene with a real Baby Jesus who was so tiny and sweet it made me tear up! We also sang some carols and listened to a short message. My mom watched Caleb and I'm glad because we had to wait in a pretty long line, and he wouldn't have "gotten it" anyway. We ate at Ramsey's afterwards and I got my FAVORITE thing there; chicken and dumplings, YUMMY!!! My stomach is growling right now just thinking about it.
On Saturday we didn't much of anything. I made homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese from www.allrecipes.com. They were pretty delicious. We rented "A Muppet Christmas Carol" and "The Santa Clause". Can you believe I'd NEVER seen "The Santa Clause"??? It was cute, and I love the Muppets in anything, so that was a sure winner. Caleb fell asleep right when we would leave for church, so we decided to wait and go in the morning.
So we went to the 11:30 service today at church...the message was about love; God's love that was shown to us at Christmas, and the amazing ways in which Jesus fulfills so much of the Old Testament prophecies. He also talked about giving to others this Christmas. Next week they are doing SIX weddings as a part of the message series, one at each of the services, plus an extra one in a separate building at the 10:00 service. It should be great! Think of all the wedding gifts they're going to get...thousands!!!! Whew!
After church we came home, Bryan studied for a test and did some paperwork, I played with Caleb, we went to life group, ate yummy tacos, and came home. Got Caleb to sleep, read some more of "New Moon" (not so sure about this werewolf thing at the moment), and need to go to bed now!

Looking so cute

I was getting Caleb ready to go this morning, and snapped a couple pics because he looked SO cute. This little "snowsuit" (since it WAS snowing this morning briefly!!) was actually my little brother's! It's a little big on Caleb, but that's ok because that is a rare thing! Enjoy!

Good words for today!

Here's what I'm reading today: "Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life...you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious-the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not to curse." Philippians 4, The Message
What great words...it makes me think about that old hymn that says "Oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer". This goes right along with the sermon from this past weekend. I am really working on filling my mind with those GOOD things...right now those things are: my precious baby boy, the real meaning of Christmas, the unconditional love I have for Caleb, my incredible husband, my great friends and family, yummy food, how blessed we truly are, God's love for me, His searching my heart and teaching me new things, even when they hurt (that's called growth!), His forgiveness, His Word, uplifting music, books, etc. I am determined to rid my heart and mind of JUNK and fill it with these good things, so that out of my mouth and heart will flow GOODNESS, kindness, sweetness, and love, not bitterness, anger, jealousy, lies, etc. God is really working on this heart of mine right now, pruning it and reshaping it to (hopefully) look more like His. It's not always pleasant, but it will be worth it, because more than anything I want to look like HIM in all I say and do. Especially now that I have little eyes that are watching me. :)

90 Minutes in Heaven

Have you heard of this book, 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper? A lady I know let me borrow it yesterday and I'm already almost finished with it!! It is a true story about a Baptist minister who was in a terrible car wreck in 1989 and actually died and was dead for 90 minutes. He went to heaven, and talks about what it was like. It is really amazing!!

Bolt

GREAT movie!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Bryan and I saw it yesterday and it was too cute. Definitely a must-buy when it comes out. I highly recommend it, you will fall in love with this "awesome" dog!

Good words

Words I am meditating on this morning..."Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your REAL life, is with Christ in God...and that means killing off everything connected with that way of death...it wasn't long ago theat you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure its all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk..now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with His label on it...So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it...let every detail of your lives-words, actions, whatever-be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way." Colossians 3, The Message
I want a heart like this-thankful, loving, kind, forgiving...my life is hidden with Christ in God and I am a NEW creation. So I MUST act like I am. I must put off the worldly way of dealing with things: bitterness, rage, malice, jealousy, etc. and try to be like Christ. Lord, teach me to have YOUR heart today, forgive me when I have fallen back into the old life, and give me a fresh perspective. Help me to make You proud in all I say and do. I love You.