The Christmas Season

I was just telling someone the other day that it seems like all year we never have anything going on on the weekends until the holidays, specifically Christmas, rolls around. This year is no different. We have had some type of Christmas related activity every weekend in the month of December. This post is dedicated to those fun filled, sugar driven weekends!!
My mom decided earlier in the year to take myself, Caleb, my sister Michelle, and her daughter Dixie to A Very Veggie Christmas Live. We had a great time and Caleb got to really cement in his mind just exactly who Bob and Larry are. The genius that he is, :), he differentiates beautifully between the all obsessive Bob the Builder that he loves so dearly and Bob the Tomato. We're so proud...













Caleb was so excited to get the show started! The only issue he had was there was a back story written in where Pa was working on some secret project. This project kept going awry and there were lots of bangs, booms, and flashing lights. Everytime this happened during the show, Caleb had a meltdown. Maybe we should skip the 4th of July this year too... :)













I just wanted to include a few shots of the actors as well as the veggies. It was so very cute and Caleb and his cousin Dixie had a great time!













Thanks for the show MawMaw!
The very next weekend was my parent's annual Christmas get together for my dad's kids and their kids. This includes 2 of my brothers, one of which is married with 2 girls, Tristen and Madisen, the other brought his girlfriend Lisa and her twin nieces, and my sister and her daughter Dixie and son Matt. Needless to say it was a full house!













We had a great time and Caleb got this dump truck from his MawMaw and PawPaw. As you can tell, he didn't quite understand at the time what it was meant to do.













I tried to get a happy picture of Caleb under my parent's tree, as we didn't put one up this year. This was the best he could do. After a hard, long day he still looks pretty happy. He's our precious little gift!













The next weekend, my parent's church was putting on their nativity scene production. Mama and Daddy took to calling it the "drive-by" nativity scene as their church is not in the best neighborhood anymore. A great ministry opportunity, but it can make for some interesting outdoor evening activities. My mom was the angel and my dad was a shepherd. Caleb got the biggest kick out of his Mawmaw and her wings and halo!
Since we are going to Jes's parents house this Christmas, we opted out of all the decorations and didn't buy Caleb many gifts (as if he really needed anymore toys!). The one thing we did purchase for him was a broom and dust pan. Caleb's good friend KJ had a broom and dust pan at his house and Caleb spotted it durng their last play session. After that, he was constantly trying to get the broom from me when I swept the floors. Now he has his own!














He hasn't quite gotten the hang of it, but he tries really hard. Maybe we'll work on getting that coordination down so he can sweep instead of me sometime!

As I mentioned before, we are spending Christmas at Jes's parent's house with his two younger sisters and their 4 kids (2 apiece). We are so excited about going and leave tomorrow (Friday) morning. Please keep us in your prayers as travel with a toddler can be a harrowing experience. We are most concerned about the 4 hour plane trip and then another 1 hour plane ride after that. Even though Caleb is our little angel, he can try our patience. Just keep us in your prayers going and coming and we'll update you on all the fun we had in Oregon at Nana and Papa's house after the first of the year! We love you all and hope you have a great Christmas!

Doctors, Turkeys, French Fries, and a Jolly Bearded Man

Ok, so I know that it's been almost a month since I posted and now I have so much to say because so much has happened! I guess I'll start with the new doctor that we have. Our old pulmonologist, Dr. Mondujano, doesn't take our insurance anymore, so we had to switch. After much shopping around we decided to go see Dr. Peter Schochet (sounds like shock-it). He is a great doctor and is very friendly and Caleb loved him. While we were there, Dr. Schochet did full evaluation (he used to be just a pediatrician before he specialized) and he realized that his frenulum (the membrane that ties his tongue to the floor of his mouth) is really tight. He thinks that that could be what is causing him to aspirate fluids, as he is a little old to still have that problem. To make a long story short, we see a surgeon next week to talk about having it clipped. I have to say I was quite frustrated with the situation as I asked his ENT to do it when he 3 days old and he said they didn't do it anymore. By the time we left the doctor's office, I was ready to wring someone's neck!
















Caleb and his dad love to play Xbox together. Sometimes Jes even plugs in the controller for Caleb and they crash motorcycles together!
During my hiatus from our blog we had Thanksgiving. We all had a great time at my parents house with the whole family coming out. In all it was my mom and dad, my brother, his girlfriend, my sister, her 2 kids, my aunt Jan, cousin Keri, cousin Tara, all my grandparents, the car and the dog. Needless to say, my parent's house became quite the busy place!
















Caleb had a great time playing with an old mailbox with his cousin Dixie (my sister's daughter). They kept playing mailman. Maybe it is a look into the future as my grandfather is a retired mail carrier.















Caleb and Dixie sitting on the bench. I love this picture of the two of them. They look so happy!
















The Xbox obssession continues at my parent's house too. They have a wireless controller, so we don't have to contend with the long cord following him throughout the house!
















Caleb found these glasses at my mom and dad's house. I had to have a picture because he never would wear glasses in the past for even a moment! He was walking around with these on looking so cute!















Caleb loves sitting in this chair watching Dora. He's dancing to the Dora music in the picture. This chair is special, as it was mine when I was little. It's amazing that it actually held up because I can remember sitting in it for hours at a time when I was small!
















Ok, ok so I said I would never be one of those parents, but yes my son is eating a french fry. Caleb had bronchitis since we last posted and he would not eat anything else. This was the first thing that he had reached for and tried to eat for a few days at least, so I let him. Believe me, I wasn't happy, but at least he was eating! I think he liked it because he wouldn't eat anything else after this one! :)
















Lastly, we had Caleb's annual picture with Santa. Last year Caleb and I stood in line for 2 hours at the mall to have a picture of his scared face on the lap of a man who didn't really even resemble Santa. This picture was taken at Home Depot (a plus) and for FREE!!! Jes got to sit in the picture and we even had a jolly Mrs. Claus. We just happened to be in Home Depot the day they were doing these. We were actually heading to the mall after this to stand in line and pay an enormous amount for a terrible picture, but were pleasantly surprised! We were so happy and Caleb was too, he got candy when it was over! Happy baby + happy parents = good time by all!