Merry Christmas!

May you be filled with JOY!

"I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." ~Luke 2:10-11

Many blessings,

Justin, Jennifer, Caleb, and Levi

photo courtesy Uncle Josh

Christmas Pajamas

Mimi (Justin's mom) sent the boys some Christmas pajamas, and they look so cute in them. I like dressing them alike since I won't be able to do that much longer before Caleb starts telling me he doesn't want to wear what Levi's wearing. For now he thinks matching is cool. (Especially if he can match his Poppa!)

I wanted to take a cute picture of the boys standing together in their pajamas, but Caleb wasn't about to cooperate with that. He ran off before I could even focus. So, this will have to do...

Here are the boys watching "Go, Diego, Go" on my bed

Caleb looks like he's ready to move to Thailand with this "wai," but he's just clapping along with Diego.

I'm trying to get a good headshot of Levi because my grandmother got him some books for Christmas that need his picture in them. I'm in charge of that.

Here's Levi saying, "cheese!"



Smiling for the camera with a little pumpkin bread on his chin...

Caleb is literally in the middle of saying, "STOP taking my picture." It was a lot easier when he was little and wanted his picture taken.

Stop Me If I'm Repeating Myself

Last Thursday Caleb took a 2 hour nap at Mother's Day Out. I should have known then that he was sick. Of the 3 times he's taken a nap at Mother's Day Out since September 2007, 3 of those times he's been sick.

So, we bundled up and loaded up yesterday morning for the doctor's office. You cannot know how happy I was to hear him say Caleb had an ear infection. Not because I'm just that mean, but because every other time I've taken one of the boys to the doctor recently they've said, "It's a virus, there's nothing we can do. Thank you for your $20 copay and driving 45 minutes with two kids in traffic to see us. Have a nice day. See you in a couple of weeks and we'll repeat the process." Or something like that. The doctor actually said this time, "Mom hit a home run." Finally.

So he has the ear infection and is generally puny-feeling from all the snot and fever and such. It probably has nothing to do with the fact that the temperature outside has gone from 75 to 35 to 55 to 38 to 78 to 40 in a matter of hours this past week. We're all a little under the weather, so to speak.

This morning Caleb and I had a conversation that went like this:

Me: What do you want for breakfast, Caleb?
Caleb: I don't want breakfast. I want a snack.
Me: Ok (I choose not to argue semantics). You can have a cereal bar, oatmeal, waffles, or yogurt.
Caleb: I want candy.
I wish I could tell you how many times he's asked for candy for breakfast. He never gets it.
Me: You can have a cereal bar, oatmeal, waffles, or yogurt.
Caleb: I want marshmallows.
Me: stop me if I'm repeating myself. You can have a cereal bar, oatmeal, waffles, or yogurt.
Caleb: But I want marshmallows.

And he proceeded to follow me around the house saying "marshmallows" in his most pitiful, whiny toddler voice. I didn't budge, so he finally decided he wanted waffles. We go through something similar to this every morning. I guess he thinks he can wear me down. He has no idea how stubborn his mother is!

I'm so sad he's sick today because it's his Christmas program at school today. I'm hoping he'll feel up to going in a couple of hours. One of the saddest things about moving to Singapore is that he won't be going to this sweet little church for Preschool. He'll be entering Kindergarten about the time we get back. boohoohoo.

(In the middle of this post I had to run in my bedroom because Caleb was calling out to me from my bed where he has been watching Noggin and NickJr for the last 24 hours. I heard these delightful words, "Mommy, I peed on your bed." Really? "Why did you do that? Why didn't you go to the potty?" "I didn't want to.")

I'll leave you with some "photography a la Caleb"...

His new favorite thing...NickJr computer games. He's plays them all by himself. (And apparently takes pictures of his accomplishments. This was one of many.)

The gorgeous ceiling fan in our computer room...

Self-portrait

Smile, mommy!

Self-portrait #2

Me and My Firstborn Child

Tagged by Camille...This is a fun twist on the usual getting to know you/question game..Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about you and your first baby.

About Caleb and me:

1. Were you married at the time? Yes, for 2 years and 5 months

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? I was totally elated! The timing was PERFECT because I wanted to stop teaching that next year.

3. How old were you? 26

4. How did you find out? Pregnancy test

5. Who did you tell first? Justin. I called him on the phone at 5:30am. He was living in Louisiana for work, and I had to tell him immediately when I found out. He said something to the effect of, "Are you sure?" (with NO enthusiasm in his voice) because I had thought I was pregnant the month before. And he was shaving at the time.

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes

7. Due date? September 25, 2005...my parent's anniversary

8. Did you deliver late or on time? I was induced on September 19, one week early

9. Did you have morning sickness? yes, pretty bad, but not like when I was pregnant with Levi (he takes the cake on that one!)

10. What did you crave? corn tortillas (they were the only thing that didn't make me want to puke!)

11. Who/what irritated you the most? being away from Justin and my doctor not letting me travel after 28 weeks when my husband was living in another city!

12. What was your first child's sex? Boy

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 12...I lost a lot at the beginning

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? No

15. Where did you give birth? Memorial Hermann Memorial City

16. How many hours were you in labor? 7 before the emergency c-section

17. Who drove you to the hospital? My husband, Justin

18. Who watched? Justin and several dr.s and nurses

19. Was it natural or c-section? c-section

20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? YES! (Hello, they cut me open. Yes I took pain medicine. I don't know how Camille only took it for 8 hours because I took it as long as the pills were in the bottle. I could hardly stand up straight when I left the hospital!)

21. How much did your child weigh? 7 lbs, 10 oz

22. Did your child have any complications? No.

23. What did you name him/her? Caleb Andrew

24. How old is your first born today? 3 years, 2 months, 26 days

There ya go!

It's Christmastime...Here's How I Know

1) We are finally putting up our tree. Ornaments are disappearing left and right, and I find parts of them on the ground and go in search of the culprit (Levi).

2) I am spending an obscene amount of time saying, "That does not go in your mouth." (Maybe that doesn't mean it's Christmastime, but Levi was just in here with two wooden ornaments, one of which he put in his mouth, so I think it counts.)

3) IT SNOWED TODAY!!! In SE Texas! Amazing. It didn't stick, of course, because it was about 75 degrees sometime yesterday, but it was pretty neat nonetheless. We definitely don't see that often.

4) Our tree is now, after 20 hours or so, only decorated on the top 2/3 of the tree. Christmas with toddlers, it is a joy.

5) I finally made our Christmas cards and ordered them at CVS. They were ready last night, but it's been too cold for me to want to dress the kids warmly, bundle them up, drive in the sleeting rain to CVS, get the kids out in the stinkin' cold, try to keep them from touching EVERY.THING.IN.THE.STORE, hurry back to the car in the stinkin' cold sleeting rain, and drive home to address them. If you're expecting a Christmas card from us, it'll be a while.

6) My put-together, organized, pregnant-with-a-toddler-in-tow sister had her Christmas cards out last week. Show off.

7) The Christian radio station here is playing Christmas music 24/7. I love that! Not that I ever hear it because I only listen to the radio in the car and we don't get out much (see #5). When we do get out, I have a 3yo and a 1yo in the car. I don't hear much of the radio.

8) We're doing a Jesse Tree this year, so each night we read a little devotional and open that day's ornament. A group of us got together and made one day's ornament (25 of them) and then each got to take home one for each day. We are loving doing this with Caleb. It's such a great way to reinforce the Bible stories and prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth!

Guess What?

Our family has GREAT news to share!!!! I'm so excited to finally be able to tell everyone!!

In other news, I'm 30 today. Weird.

My parents are so young I vividly remember my dad turning 30 (I was 9!). It feels a little strange today, but that may be due to the serious lack of sleep I've had over the past few days since Levi seems to think sleep is not a necessary thing. We were up so many times last night and nothing was helping. He'd lie down for a minute and sit up and scream. Then he'd repeat the process for hours on end. We *think* he's finally cutting a tooth (or all of them at once). It's miserable for him and for us. I hope they just pop on through and let us get on with our sleep lives.

I really need a laptop

I really would blog more if I had a laptop. That way I could be wherever the kids were and write about their happenings. But I don't have one and the computer room is a dangerous place for the kids to be (way too much clutter in here!). And they won't stay put anyway.

Caleb is getting pretty good at working a computer mouse, though. He likes to play the online toddler games like Little Einsteins. He's growing up so fast; today it really hit me that he's a big boy. Sad.

He was sick for a week or so with a high fever and pretty much no other symptoms. Don't really know what it was, but he was responding to Motrin so the doctor didn't need to see him. It finally went away Saturday night. Weird.

Well, I need to get to sleep if I have any hope of getting to the gym in the morning. That all depends on whether the boys sleep well tonight. One of them has been awake multiple times a night for weeks. Sometimes both of them several times a night. We're pretty tired around here.

No Teeth

Have I mentioned that Levi is 13 months old and has NOT ONE TOOTH in his little head? Seriously, I can't believe he's still toothless. The doctor said that he asked his son's pediatric dentist about it and she said she wouldn't be concerned that a child had no teeth until they're two years old, and only then because the parents would be concerned.

I'm just waiting for the day we wake up and he has a mouthful over night. :-)

First Big Boy Haircut

I've trimmed Levi's hair before (as much as he'd let me do), but today he got his first REAL big boy haircut. Where did my baby go? Now he's all grown-up and handsome for his one-year pictures that Uncle Josh will take this weekend. I can't wait to see how they turn out...Caleb's were great!

Halloween and a Football Game

Here are a few pics from Halloween and Caleb's first Aggie football game...

Levi dressed up as Robin (we couldn't get him to stand still for a picture...imagine that!):

Caleb and his cousin, Ava, holding hands while trick-or-treating:

Caleb and Daddy at the football game (Caleb asked about every 5 minutes, "It is over?"):


Levi on the way home...I had given him a little piece of chocolate chip cookie. He really enjoyed it!

PICTURES!!!

I got up at 5am to go to the gym and was back, dressed and ready for the day at 6:30. I've also done two lessons in my Bible study (I'm behind), had breakfast and coffee. It's only 8:30am; this is truly a record of some sort. It's amazing what I can get done if I get up early, i.e. before the kids. Let's hope this continues! I've realized that I AM the fat friend, so I'm on a quest to lose this awful "depression drug-induced" fat!

Anyway...on to the pictures!

Caleb's 3rd Birthday. He got to choose one present to open that morning. It was a backpack and matching lunchbox. Not very exciting for a 3-year-old, so he wanted another present. :-)

His family birthday party at GattiTown. Here he is with two of his presents...a bicycle helmet and Little Einsteins laptop...

Levi's First Birthday! I don't have a picture of him eating the cake (maybe my mom does), but here he is with pizza. :-)

Levi at Caleb's party...
Caleb had his party at an inflatable fun house. We combined his party with a friend of his whose birthday was the same week...same friends to invite, only one party to attend!

Here's Levi with his BFF, Caroline. She is two weeks older than him and both sets of parents would be fine if they grew up and married each other. :-) They're adorable!

Levi hiding BEHIND the entertainment center. He's going to be a handful!

I'll post soon the pictures from our cruise. If I can find any that don't involve me in a swimsuit that is!

Where Has the Time Gone?

The last few weeks have been a little crazy around here. After my last post, Justin and I went on a cruise. It was WONDERFUL!!! We're firm believers that our marriage is the most important relationship in the house and it needs constant attention. We're also blessed that my parents could keep the boys for a week. (My mom needed a vacation after that!) We sailed to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. It was great, and I even got a little tan. And lots of sleep. (Not a lot since because the boys are back! Why couldn't we have kids that sleep??)

Levi is fully walking now. And he's fast! He still isn't talking much...well, he isn't saying much that we actually understand, but verbal he is. And loud. Very loud.

He also has no teeth. 13 months and not a single tooth. The doctor says that they don't worry about them having no teeth until they're two. I think that's weird, but it means Levi is normal, so whatever.

We got official word that the move to Singapore will happen next July. LOTS to do before then! We had a garage sale this weekend to start the purge process. It felt good.

Well, off to bed until one of the boys wakes up for unknown reasons. I'll try to get some pictures of our vacation and some recent ones of the boys up here soon.

Carpet

Just wondering if anyone knows how to get diaper cream out of carpet. It's Desitin original, the really thick, greasy stuff. I love age 3.

While I was on the phone, Caleb was in the other room emptying a tube of diaper cream all over himself and the carpet. It might be funny in a few days. Right now it just makes me angry because on Monday he smeared a container of Laughing Cow cheese (the soft kind) into the carpet.

Our carpet is already nasty from the dogs and juice spills and who knows what else, and we're going to have to replace it anyway before we put it on the market, but SERIOUSLY I'm tired of cleaning stuff out of it!!!

So, how do I get the stuff out?

The Boy Stuff

When I use an asterisk in place of a letter, it's because I don't want people who'll use Google to search for yucky stuff to end up here! FYI. It's not because I consider it a bad or dirty word. It's just that people can be sent to my blog if they search for that particular word and I've typed it out. I don't want those people reading about my kiddos or seeing their pictures!

Since I didn't have a brother growing up, all this boy stuff is quite a new experience for me!

Here's Caleb's and my conversation on the way home from Mother's Day Out (this is all we talked about!):

Caleb: Mommy, do babies have p***ses?
Me: Baby boys do.
Caleb: Do babies have p***ses?
Me: Yes, Caleb, baby boys have p***ses. Only boys do, not girls.
Caleb: Does Levi have a p***s?
Me: Yes, Caleb, Levi does.
Caleb: Do you have a p***s?
Me: No, only boys have a p***s Caleb.
Caleb: Only boys.
Me: Yes.

I'm not sure why he asked this as soon as he got in the car, but he had probably gone potty before I picked him up and it was on his mind. Who knows.

I cannot tell you how many times I've said the word p***s lately. Seriously, it's enough to make me want to go get a pedicure or do some other really girly thing. I'm glad we're using the anatomically correct terms and all, but good grief I'm tired of talking about it! I guess this is just the beginning of the body humor and other lovely things boys talk about.

I can't wait.

Birthday Fun and Other Stuff

Last week Caleb turned 3 and Levi turned 1. I tried to do a birthday post on Caleb's birthday Friday afternoon, but our power went out again right in the middle of it. It was out for an hour and a half, and we were already in College Station celebrating (since nothing in Houston was open!), so the blogging moment was gone. Our power went out for 2 hours yesterday afternoon, but we weren't home.

I'm not in the mood for a sappy, emotional post about my boys getting older. I love them dearly, and it's such a joy to watch them grow and develop. Caleb asked me the other day where God lived. That's a tough one to answer in theology a 3-year-old would understand, but I tried to explain that He's in heaven and right here all at the same time. Since Caleb's been having a hard time getting himself to sleep lately, we've talked a lot about how God protects us and keeps us safe. The doctor said at his check-up that his intellectual maturity is ahead of his emotional maturity, and that's why he's been getting scared at night. He said they usually see kids realize that things are scary around age 4. He's put himself to sleep at least once this week and has slept in his own bed all night long for 2 nights now. We're hoping it's a pattern!

Levi is walking, but not exclusively. He's such a fast crawler that I think he just wants to forego the falling and crawl everywhere. He's walking a lot more now and getting better balance. We got him on video saying "mama" on his birthday, but he usually refuses to say it. If I say, "Levi, can you say mama?" he gets a big grin on his face and says, "dada." Stinker!

It's official that we're moving to Singapore. According to the schedule we're slated to move next June. We think it'll probably be July, though. That's what we're planning for, anyway. So, now we have a lot of work to do in order to sell this house. A HUGE garage sale is in order for the middle of October. I can't wait! And then there's replacing the carpet, painting, repairing screens the dogs ruined, sodding the yard the dogs tore up, etc. We have a lot of work to do! We're praying that the house sells quickly, even if that means we'll need to move into an apartment or some other temporary housing for a while. I just don't want the stress of an unsold house when we move around the world.

Do you have a gallon of milk?

Then consider yourself lucky! We told Caleb yesterday at dinner that if he ate his peas, we'd go for ice cream after church. What were we thinking? We drove around trying to find any place open that had ice cream...fast food, grocery stores, any place! The grocery stores around here have limited hours, which would have been nice to know before we were trying to find stuff. We finally ended up at Target, and all the refrigerated foods were gone! They had a limit on how much milk you could buy (one per family), and there were only a handful of half gallons of skim milk left on the shelves. They did have some ice cream, too, so we got some of that as well. That's all Caleb really cared about!

It was CRAZY, let me tell you, trying to grab a half gallon of milk at Target at 8:30 on a Wednesday night. Kroger is opening at 9am and we need some groceries, so I'm going to get the kids out and try to find some. A couple of days ago they were limiting the number of people who could be in Wal-Mart and the grocery stores at one time, so people were waiting in line outside. We'll see if they're still doing that today.

Thankfully I picked up eggs at my parent's house on Tuesday before I came back because I have some birthday cakes to bake tomorrow!

Wish me luck trying to get some groceries!

Hurricane Ike

Well, I think most of you that still read this blog follow me on Facebook, so you know we're safe and finally have power restored. We went to my parent's house Saturday night and stayed through Tuesday, when we came back home. We thank God that we have a house left and we sustained very minimal damage. (I'm not sure my mom has forgiven me for staying through the storm and not evacuating to her house.)
I got a new camera, since Caleb destroyed my old one, and finally am able to upload pictures rather quickly. So, here's what we did this weekend...

Caleb and Poppa on the 4-wheeler

my smiling Levi
Caleb not wanting to smile for the camera
one of our trees that was damaged
Ava looking pensive

He's Such a Mess

The other day Caleb dropped my camera on our wood floor and broke it. It's happened before and Uncle Scott fixed it, but this time I'm pretty sure it's for good. I guess that's what I'll be asking Santa for this year. It lasted over two years with Caleb constantly finding it and taking pictures of his finger, so I guess it had a pretty long life.

Caleb just came in here and announced, "I want to have my birthday. Right now."

OOOOOOOK. I tried to explain to him that his birthday is exactly 2 weeks from today, but that doesn't mean much to an almost-three-year-old. This is an almost daily ritual. Any time someone else has a birthday or we see a cake, he wants to have his birthday right then.

His favorite thing lately is to get on any raised surface in our house and pretend he's Buzz Lightyear. He climbs up, holds up his arms and announces, "To infinity and beyond..." Then he jumps off, laughs real big and does it again.

What am I going to do with him? :-)

On My iPod

My current favorite playlist includes (it's pretty random, but all good!):

Big Enough--Ayiesha Woods
Washed by the Water--Needtobreathe
Mighty to Save--Hillsong
If You're Gonna Play in Texas--Alabama
Call My Name--Third Day
Burn for You--tobyMac
Mountain Music--Alabama
God With Us--MercyMe
He Reigns--Newsboys
Undo Me--Jennifer Knapp
Let It Rise--Big Daddy Weave
O Praise Him--David Crowder Band
Shackles (Praise You)--Mary Mary
So Long Self--MercyMe
Something Beautiful--Newsboys
Sweetly Broken--Jeremy Riddle
I Dare You to Move--Switchfoot
With Arms Wide Open--Creed
Tennessee River--Alabama

Fun in a Box

Literally...

We're so tired around here. It's 8:21am, and Levi has been down for a nap since 7:45. Both boys were up for the day at 6am, and Levi was up eating twice during the night. I'm hoping it's a growth spurt!

We ALL had the stomach virus last week and over the holiday weekend. Not fun. I think we're finally over it, thank goodness. Now, if we could just get some sleep maybe we won't have a relapse!