Christmas Recap

We were blessed beyond measure this Christmas season!  I absolutely LOVE family time, whether it's just Dave, Caleb and me or spending time with our parents and siblings or even extended family get togethers with aunts, uncles and cousins.  No matter how long it's been since you last saw each other it doesn't matter, time slows down and you truly enjoy the moment with them.

Our recap begins with surprise hot seat tickets from Dave for the very last Hollidazzle Parade in Minneapolis.  Seeing this parade through Caleb's eyes was truly heartwarming.  My heart had THE BIGGEST smile during that 30 minute parade of extraordinary lights.  Every time a new float appeared through the darkness, Caleb would point with elation and say Oooooooooo!  Pure joy!

After the parade we headed up to Grantsburg for Christmas with my family.  Caleb was spoiled with love from grandma Patty, grandpa Harley and uncle Bud.  Here are a few family pictures.

We also spotted these three boys watching cars go by...one of Caleb's favorite things to do.

I dug this gem up from my parents basement.  Oh the joys of 1985!

My dad recently bought a really nice fish house so we enjoyed ice fishing in class and WARMTH!  Even Dave said he could get used to this kind of ice fishing.  Caleb also enjoyed jigging.  Uncle Bud kept an eye on him to make sure he didn't drop the pole down the hole.

We wrapped up our day with crab legs and shrimp.  It was delicious!!  Thanks Mom and Dad for all your fine cooking and for a great Christmas weekend!

Christmas Eve we headed over to Dave's parents for some more family time, dinner and presents.  It was a beautiful Christmas Eve as inches upon inches of snow fell from the beautiful sky.  We had a bit of a Disney themed Christmas due to our recent trip.  It was perfect!

Christmas morning began with Dave singing It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...a Christmas tradition in Dave's family.  We proceeded with opening presents.

 

We devoured a blueberry cream cheese breakfast bake and later ate a carrot birthday cake for Jesus which I forgot to bring to Dave's parents the night before.

 

Lastly, we finished our Christmas Day with a little bit of sledding!  We had a little too much fun though because we broke Caleb's sled.  I was the first to break it by putting a crack in it and Dave finished by completely breaking it in half.  I guess the sled wasn't made for adults?

It was a very merry, joyous and blessed Christmas!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!  May God bless you and your families!!

Big glass H2O

Caleb still thoroughly enjoys drinking from our big glass of water and he's got eyes of an eagle that can spot a glass of water from anywhere.

Sled

Caleb has been enjoying rides in his sled this Christmas season.  We are going to test it out on the lake tomorrow while ice fishing.

Personal Hygiene

Caleb scores a 10 in personal hygiene.

Pillow

Everyone loves a big fluffy pillow...especially this guy!

Little Helper part 2

Just a quick follow up to the broom post.  Caleb you also LOVE the vacuum cleaner and helping out with laundry.  Again, just a reminder for when you are a teenager. :)

Christmas Season

Let's see what Caleb has been up to this Christmas season...

oh Christmas tree

Since we were gone visiting family over the Thanksgiving holiday we decided to decorate for Christmas the weekend before.  I know some people think that's a little too early but we don't care because we LOVE Christmas!  Caleb enjoyed handing the ornaments to Dave to put on the Christmas tree.  It was so cute watching him examine all of the ornaments.  We sang along to Christmas music with the aroma of a pine-tree lit candle nearby, and snacked on a pretzel/rolo/pecan treat all while decorating our gorgeous tree.  It was definitely a heart warming day and I love experiencing Christmas through a little toddler's eyes!

 

 

I love in the below picture how Dave and I have the same exact ornament from 1982 only his is blue and mine is pink representing our very first Christmas!

Can you guess which nativity set belongs to Caleb?  It's so cute because we've made such a big deal of baby Jesus, so we ask him, "Where is baby Jesus?"  He then picks baby Jesus up and gets a huge smile on his face.

HOT!

Caleb now knows what the definition of HOT means.  I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup and Caleb was playing with a drawer right next to me that he usually takes stuff out of.  All of a sudden I heard a scream and loud noise.  I looked down and my very hot hair straightener was on the ground and Caleb was screaming, looking up at me, with his hands clenched.  I ran him to the sink and immediately put his hands under cold water.  Inside I felt crushed but I kept calm so that Caleb didn't panic more.  He cried for 45 minutes straight.  I held him and sang to him to help him calm down.  He stopped crying and seemed to be fine but we brought him into the clinic because he had large white blisters on his fingers.  Everything was fine until the doctor walked in which then Caleb proceeded to cry.  I think he now knows that the clinic rooms and doctors equal shots.  The very first thing the doctor said was "This happens all the time".  And for about 2 seconds that made me feel better, but clearly not enough, because I broke down crying.  I felt like I failed as a mom at that moment.  She then proceeded to say "you will remember this forever but Caleb won't remember it at all".  She was so sweet and nice!  As she proceeded to examine his fingers she said they would heal up beautifully!  Well I'm here to report that they did heal up PERFECT!  He wore band-aids on his fingers for about a 3 week stretch but they didn't seem to bother him at all which was great.  The doctor is right, he won't remember it all, although he definitely understands what HOT means.  I'm just thankful that I didn't burn his fingerprints off. :)

Saturday Morning Hoops

We started our Saturday morning off right with some family hoops in the living room!  We were cheering each other on, although Dave got a little competitive against Caleb.  He was crossin' Caleb over and dunkin' on him.  No mercy what-so-ever.  Ok kidding, but that reminds me of a video from when Dave was eight and Dan was two.  They were playing hockey in their basement and Dave literally did not take it easy on Dan.  I recall one time Dave scoring on Dan (which doesn't take much when you're playing against a 2 year old) and he ran up to the camera and said "Did you get that on tape dad?".  LOL!  I love my husband!!

Oh and Caleb will throw anything into his hoop.  Balls, toys, socks, shoes (as you can see below), baby Jesus from his nativity set, blankets, etc.  Cheers to many more Saturday morning hoops...

Bath Toys

What is it with boys and toilets!?  I guess his bath toys needed an extra bath?  Either that or he thinks the toilet is another basketball hoop.

 

Little Helper

Caleb is such a little helper.  He loves the broom so I'm posting this to remind him how much he loves to sweep for when he gets older.

Thankful

In the spirit of Thanksgiving below is a little video I created.  I'm feeling blessed and so incredibly thankful for this handsome little guy.  Praise the Lord for blessing us with him!

http://youtu.be/jNKWXdsG58w

100%

 

Psalm 118:24

Every morning when I go into Caleb's room to get him ready for the day I say "Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it".  One morning I mixed it up and threw my hands in the air while saying the ever familiar scripture.  The following morning he picked up on this and raised his hands in the air while I recited Psalm 118:24!  Priceless.  Love these mommy moments!

Snuggles

Caleb was visiting Grandma Lala the other day and they must have wore each other out because this is what we came back to.  This absolutely makes my heart smile.  I love these two so much. XOXO!

 

Blankets

Someone is getting attached to these two blankets and it's kind of cute...especially when he's getting tired, he grabs them and does a face plant into them.

 

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone from our little frog!

60 years old?!?

Yesterday was my mom's 60th birthday!!!  There's no way she's 60 already and she surely doesn't look 60!  My mom is the most amazing mom and we were able to celebrate a great day with her.  My dad, mom, brother, Dave, me and Paula went to go see the musical Wicked at the Orpheum theatre.  It was INCREDIBLE and highly recommend anyone and everyone to go see it.  I absolutely love musicals so I had no doubt that I would enjoy it.  After the musical we enjoyed a juicy mouthwatering steak dinner at Outback Steakhouse where we laughed and enjoyed each other's company while celebrating a fabulous lady's birthday!  Love you mom, we had a great time and I hope you did too.  Happy Birthday and may God bless you with many many many more happy birthdays!

Disney World

About a year ago Dave's parents told us they were surprising our niece Kaylin with a trip to Disney World for her golden birthday.  The rest of us decided we wanted to join in on the fun as well so a couple weeks later we surprised Dave's parents with the news that Dave, me, Dan and Emily were also going!  Everyone was excited about taking a big family vacation together.  The anticipation was exciting but keeping the surprise from Kaylin for a whole year was quite challenging.  Mike Lea Ann, Dan and Emily surprised Kaylin the night before they left for Disney.  They got the surprise on camera which was quite comical.  I think she was camera shy because she didn't have much of a reaction except for "Are we seriously going?".  Emily said once the cameras were off she was way more excited.  The cool part was Kaylin didn't know that Dave, me, Dan and Emily were showing up to Disney a few days later.  She thought it was just her and her grandparents going.  The day came for us to knock on their hotel room door and surprise her that we were there!!!  Again it was a bit anticlimactic.  I was thinking she was going to start screaming with excitement but instead I think we scared her lol!  She obviously was glad we were there but it didn't play out as we imagined.

That night we went out to dinner for Lea Ann's birthday!  Dinner was delicious and oh boy do they bring you a TON of food!!!  We had a great time singing happy birthday as a beautiful birthday cake appeared from the staff at the restaurant.

The next day was everyone's day to do their own thing so Dave and I went to Epcot and had a marvelous time.  We visited all of the countries and enjoyed nachos from Mexico, a pork lettuce wrap from South Korea, Ravioli from Italy, Tiramisu from Italy as well as some ice cream.  Listened to a band play in the UK.  We checked out a few rides including Soarin', Mission Space which was AWESOME and a few others that were, well lets be honest, kind of boring.  The sun was hot so we took advantage of all those boat rides that are indoors in the a/c along with the indoor aquarium.  Ahhh the a/c was nice.  I clearly can't handle heat well, I must get that from my dad.  We walked a TON all day long so when we arrived back at our resort we all went down to the pool and soaked our feet in the hot tub.  The sun was down of course otherwise I'd be nowhere near a hot tub.

The next day, Mike and Lea Ann picked all 5 of us up and we headed off to Cocoa Beach!  When we arrived, we made a quick stop at Ron Jon Surf Shop, ate lunch in the picnic area and then walked over to the beach.  The sun was hot and the ocean water was so warm.  I thought for sure I was going to walk up and get that chilling cold feeling when you stick your foot in the ocean.  But no, it was like an electric blanket was wrapped around me.  I LOVED it!  It even started to rain which gave me goosebumps so I just went in the water and warmed up while the 5 minute rain shower passed.  Our time was up at the beach so we headed back to the Disney campus for a spectacular pontoon ride while watching the fireworks over Magic Kingdom.  As I watched those fireworks I thought "Dreams Do Come True".  A few years ago it was a dream of mine and Dave's to have his whole family go to Disney together and there we were living our dream at that very moment.

Sunday was filled with fantastic food, fun rides, a Beauty and the Beast musical and everything else that Hollywood Studios had to offer.  The whole family enjoyed lunch at Mama Melrose and later experienced Fantasmic which was an exhilarating show.  One of my favorite parts was when the big boat came out with all the Disney characters on it which you can see in one of the pictures below.  Mickey put on quite a show!

Later that night we headed back to our hotel to pack it up for our flight home in the morning.  We ordered in some pizza, relaxed, laughed and browsed through photos from the trip.  Turns out we had quite a few pictures with hats!

The trip was a tremendous experience and next time we go to Disney World we will have to bring Caleb.  He stayed with Grandpa Harley and Grandma Patty in Wisconsin.  Grandma Lala did buy him a matching t-shirt so once we all arrived home in Minnesota we captured a cute picture of us all.

Curlers

Caleb has one curl on the top of his head.  It's both funny and cute all in one.  One day when Grandma Patty was watching him it was exceptionally curly so I jokingly asked if she put one of her curlers in his hair.  The next day Caleb found grandma's curlers, so to be funny, I put two in his hair.  I am in BIG trouble with Dave right now for this and even more trouble with Caleb 17 years from now.  Momma just playing a little dress up.  Sorry in advance buddy!

It's time to brush the teeth...

This one is a little overdue but I want to get it in nonetheless because Caleb enjoys brushing his teeth.  We haven't started toothpaste quite yet but we are getting in the habit of brushing his teeth every morning and every night.  Dave does this cute thing where he kind of sings to Caleb saying "It's time to brush the teeth and brush the teeth and brush the teeth."  I guess it sounds more like rapping than singing?  Either way it's super cute and it makes Caleb smile.  He also likes to share and brush our teeth too which means he essentially just touches the toothbrush to our mouth.  So Adorable.

One Year Mark

Okay so this post is a little overdue.  We've had a lot going on but that's no excuse.  Caleb is officially the big one!  Really??  How did that happen so fast?!?  I feel like I blinked twice and he turned one.  It has been an awesome year and he literally is the best little boy in the world!  He's always so happy and smiley and he constantly keeps us laughing.  Seeing each new thing he did over the past year has brought so much joy to my heart.  I honestly never knew my heart could hold so much love for him.  He truly is a blessing.  Okay okay, he has thrown a few fits but it's very rare.  Right now we are teaching him not to hit...naughty naughty Caleb...hitting is unacceptable in this house.  I think he's getting better because I stick to my disciplining.  I know sometimes he's just testing me to see how I react. :)  Sorry buddy but that doesn't fly by me.  Hehe.  Other than that though he is the most incredible boy in the world and he couldn't be more perfect in my eyes.  I somewhat jokingly said to Dave "When we have more kids, I don't think I could possibly love them as much as I love Caleb.  I'm pretty sure I will love him the most".  Okay everyone put down your stones, I was only kidding...kind of.  Don't judge moms, you know you've thought the same thing.  Alright seriously though, he's the one that is teaching me to be a mom.  The one I get to experience all the new mom adventures with.  To our future children "Don't worry, I will love you just as much". :)

Okay so we had Caleb's birthday party the weekend before his birthday because we were in Louisville, KY for a business conference during his actual birthday.  It worked out well too because Dave's dad had to work the weekend of Caleb's birthday.  The birthday party was a success!!  Caleb was able to play with all of his friends and the balloons, I must say, were a huge hit.  It's not a party unless you have balloons I guess.  We were also very humbled by the generosity of our friends and family.  We did not expect gifts and their presence was more than enough, but Caleb was blessed with so many fun toys, books and clothing!  Thank you everyone for making it an amazing day!

I decided I wanted to do a smash cake but not until the next day because lets just be honest I was exhausted and I also wanted to be near a bathtub for easy clean up.  You know me, I like things clean.  Well the whole process was quite funny.  He just stared at the cake and instead wanted to play with the balloons.  I think he was confused because it was a big cake and any food he's ever gotten has been tiny little pieces.  So I finally took his hand and put it into the cake.  He then looked at his hand awkwardly and turned to get up.  I sat him back down, took my finger, scooped up some frosting and put it in his mouth.  Something I least expected happened next.  He shut his eyes and shook his head back and forth with a look of disgust on his face.  I tried not to let my ego take a hit since I baked the cake and made the frosting.  I said okay lets try this again, this time with some cake.  Same thing except he started crying this time.  Oh boy this isn't going quite as we planned but it sure did make Dave and I laugh.  I'm just going to believe that he doesn't like sugar...that's much better than thinking he doesn't like my baking.  The bonus of Caleb not liking the cake or frosting made for an easy clean up.  No bathtub needed.

Dave and I were in Kentucky on Caleb's birthday which was a little hard for me, I think I only cried once. :)  BUT he was able to spend his birthday with Grandpa Harley and Grandma Patty.  I have no doubt that he had a great day with them.  My mom also tried giving him a cupcake on his birthday and she said he didn't like it.  YAY it's the sugar that he doesn't like!!!  I know that for a fact because my mom is an amazing baker.  I KNEW my baking wasn't that bad!  Whooohooo!  My dad must have force fed him the cupcake though because later she called and said he had a sugar rush and was running in circles!  LOL.  I have yet to experience that with Caleb but it brought a big smile to my face when she called to tell me that.

Caleb, you are a funny, smart, goofy, talented amazing boy and we are so grateful that God chose you for us!  You are perfect in every single way and we love you so much.  We're excited for each and every day with you and we're excited to see the boy and man that you become in this world.  We know you will make a huge difference in so many people's lives.  Happy Birthday handsome!!

what a difference a year makes

NFL

Happy football season everyone!

Minnesota State Fair

Caleb experienced his very first Minnesota State Fair!  Dave and I have made it a tradition to go every year however we didn't make it out last year because I was 8 months pregnant.  Walking all over the place in humid weather with cankles...wait lets just be honest it was more than just cankles.  My feet, ankles and lower legs were pretty much filled with 10 gallons of water.  For those of you that don't know what cankles are, it's when your calf runs into your ankles as if you have no ankles.  I already had this going on pre-pregnancy but during pregnancy it brought it to a whole new level.  I recall my midwife saying "Oh your ankles are swollen".  I said "no, that's normal".  She then asks "Are you German"?  "Yes as a matter of fact I am".  She's like "ahh ok that makes sense".  So I've been blessed with some great German cankles.  Anyway, let's get back on subject.

So the state fair was a blast!  We visited with the animals, toured some booths, walked a ton and ate some good/not-so-healthy food!  We ate cheese curds, a scotch egg and some fried green tomatoes.  It was nearly not enough food but the little guy could only handle so much of the state fair.  He is not one to sleep in his stroller although hopefully that will change.  When we left, the second I put him in his car seat he was out like a light.  We did however visit the Republican booth and they gave Caleb a red balloon.  You can see the balloon in the pictures below and it honestly bought us a couple extra hours at the fair because man-o-man he LOVED that balloon!  While we were at that booth we also got our pic with Ronnie.

Overall it was a great time and we're excited to see Caleb's response next year at the fair when he's more interactive.