streaks on the china

We made it thirty-seven months...

2012-01-28T18:15:00.002-06:00

Ok...I think he is wearing the same shirt he had on for his 36 month picture. Caleb wasn't cooperating either. So the picture is a little wonky.

Oh well...such is life with a three year old.

Enjoy Caleb's 37 month picture...

We made it thirty-six months...

2011-12-28T18:32:00.001-06:00

Today my little boy turned three years old! In a few years I won't be able to call him my "little" boy...he is growing up too fast!

Enjoy Caleb's 36 month picture...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Oops we did it again...

2011-12-21T16:57:00.003-06:00

Well life is full of surprises. Some surprises are small. Surprises like finding and unexpected $5 in the laundry or maybe turning the corner at the store and seeing someone you haven’t seen in a long time. Other surprises may be a little bigger than that, like when your wife comes to you and says, “I think I may be pregnant”.

We are right in the midst of the larger surprise. Yesterday Allison and I went to the doctor to confirm that, if all goes well, in July of next year Caleb will have a baby brother or sister.

Currently the baby is only the size of a gummy bear, so you won’t be able to make out the beautiful features that are so common with my bloodline.

We are still very early, so pray that everything is well for both mommy and Caleb’s future brother/sister.

We made it thirty-five months...

2011-11-28T20:19:00.001-06:00

Caleb came in from "school" wound up like a top. What a perfect opportunity to get his milestone picture made!

This time we thought pj's were perfect for the occasion.

Enjoy Caleb's 35 month picture...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We made it thirty-four months...

2011-10-28T20:05:00.001-05:00

We had a pretty busy day and almost didn't get around to doing his monthly picture! Never fear...the picture is here.

Enjoy Caleb's 34 month picture...

We made it thirty-three months...

2011-09-28T23:08:00.001-05:00

This morning was a major whippin' due to some major fit throwing by my precious boy and the subsequent reaction from his father. However, this afternoon my son was a perfect angel for his picture. I guess this is the life during the terrible twos?

Enjoy Caleb's 33 month picture...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We made it thirty-two months...

2011-08-28T23:12:00.001-05:00

We have moved the growth chart to the door to make it more permanent in his room. Hopefully it will stay up and not fall down like it did on the other wall. We had to take it down and put it up again month after month. It was had work being this obsessive!

Enjoy Caleb's 32 month picture...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We've been working on the railroad

2011-08-19T22:19:00.001-05:00

Today, Caleb and I went to ride the little choo choo train in Fort Worth. Allison had the "opportunity" to go to work, so I took most of the day off and we headed for the tracks.

Caleb getting ready to "ride the rails"...

He really liked to hear the whistle!

He also kept pointing out where the tracks were...

It was slow going, but he eventually warmed up to the train...

This is the front....

This is the back...

After the ride was over, Caleb wasn't too happy to get off the train. He wanted to ride again, but Daddy was ready to get to some air conditioning.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday Times

2011-08-01T23:01:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we tried out a new church. It is close to "the little house in the hood" and has a private school where we are thinking about sending Caleb. We kept Caleb in "big church" with us and he did very well. There were only a few times that he started to get restless, but nothing major.

After church, we took a mini vacation. We loaded up the car and drove all the way up to Frisco to the most wonderful store in the world...Ikea. After the eight hour drive, we reached mecca.

There was a ton of stuff that I wanted to buy, but Allison has yet to support me in the way I want to be accustomed. So, we only got two items...both of them for Caleb. We got a step-stool and a bag of finger puppets.

This is what the step-stool looked like when we got home.

This is what the stool looked like after about six hours of hard labor!

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Blogger tool for the iPad

2011-07-30T09:02:00.001-05:00

Well in an attempt to be more faithful at posting to the blog, I have purchased an app! It is called "blogpress". I don't know if it is going to be any good or if it is going to keep me blogging more frequently. We will use this post as a test.

The picture above is Caleb and his twin Caleb 2.0. We spliced them together one afternoon when we were bored.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We made it thirty-one months...

2011-07-28T22:58:00.002-05:00

You know it is kind of funny how much my little baby is changing. He is really moving into the little boy stage.

We made it thirty months...

2011-06-28T06:28:00.001-05:00

Little Caleb is not so animated as he has been in the past in this months picture. Perhaps it is because we took the picture at 6 o’clock in the morning!!! Oh the commitment that he has to these pictures! It is almost like he has a 6th sense when it comes to remembering when the 28th is upon us. He woke up and virtually demanded that we take his picture.

Enjoy Caleb’s 30 month picture…

We made it twenty-nine months...

2011-05-28T16:20:00.001-05:00

I'm pretty sure that Caleb is throwing some sort of gang signs in this picture. Hopefully they don't mean anything bad. :)

Enjoy Caleb's 29 month picture...

We made it twenty-eight months...

2011-04-28T21:37:00.003-05:00

This is only the third "milestone" picture with the growth chart and the poor thing is just not holding up as I would like. We may either have to order a new one or fix it somehow so it doesn't curl.

Who is really looking at the growth chart anyway! Caleb is way too cute to see anything but he.

This month the picture is a little less staged and a little more impromptu. This is the best out of 70 pictures (not an exaggeration). Next time we will take the picture when he is a little less tired.

Enjoy Caleb's 28 month picture...

We made it twenty-seven months...

2011-03-28T19:24:00.002-05:00

It is not every day that I share Caleb's Milestone picture day! Caleb really wanted to take his picture with his dog. So, Chloe and Caleb are sharing his 27th month milestone picture.

I didn't really notice much growth so we are holding at the 35 inch mark for this month.

Enjoy Caleb's 27 month picture...

We made it twenty-six months...

2011-02-28T06:19:00.003-06:00

This month has just flown by. Didn't I JUST post his 25th month picture!? I guess this is going to be what it will be like the rest of his life...one month fades into another then another year goes by, then the kid graduates from high school, then the kid goes to college, then the kid goes to medical school, then the kid cures cancer, then the kid takes care of us in our old age. I guess I'll have to keep taking these pictures to remember the early years.

Just in case you can't read the growth chart behind Caleb, he is just shy of 35 inches tall. He has grown almost 2 inches since last month!!!!

Enjoy Caleb's 26 month picture...

We made it twenty-five months...

2011-01-28T05:49:00.004-06:00

Since Caleb is now a big boy, we have decided to do something different with his "Milestone" pictures. Instead of having Caleb sit down in the big chair with the blanket and bear, we thought we would have him stand up with his bear and blanket in their protective box (LOVE that box). This way we get the real picture of how he is changing and growing. We will also start having his growth chart behind him. We may be tweaking this throughout the year, but we’ll see how it turns out.

Enjoy Caleb’s 25 month picture…

Party Party

2011-01-08T22:13:00.003-06:00

We had a birthday party today to celebrate my son reaching the second anniversary of his birth. Even though it was only his second, and we probably over did it a little bit, everyone seemed to have a good time.

We decorated the dining room (Curious George…that’s his favorite) and gave Caleb the seat of honor.

He was a little shy about blowing out the candle, but with mommy’s help, all went well.

We had plenty of food and plenty of family. Our poor little house was almost at capacity. Grandpa Jeff, Grammi-chelle, Papaw Travis, Mamaw Marilyn, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Brianna, Uncle Justin, Aunt Bridget, Soon-to-be Uncle Ben, Cousin Laureli, Cousin Jacob, Cousin Elaina, Cousin Kayla and Mommy Allison and Daddy (me) were all there to enjoy the festivities.

Once Caleb had enjoyed a little sugar in the form of Birthday cake, he was ready to take on the world…

Caleb got too many presents, but I guess that is what being two is all about. He received quite a few of his favorite Schleich animals, a “Toy Story” dinosaur, a Batman coloring book and Batman crayons, a Tonka truck, a set of Play-dough, a farm animal puzzle, a Crayola “glow station”, and the most obnoxiously loud helicopter I have ever heard.

I think "the most difficult gift to open award" would have to go to the gift Caleb’s friends Elle & Stephen gave Caleb. Papaw Travis had to use a pocketknife and blowtorch to get the thing open. Those people at that store really know how to wrap a gift!

Thanks to everyone that made the party so much fun!

We made it TWO YEARS!!!!

2010-12-28T11:01:00.003-06:00

Today my baby boy is no longer a baby. Caleb has taken the big step from the singular to the plural. He is two years old!

It is amazing how much he has changed.

Enjoy Caleb's 2 year (24 month) picture...

We made it twenty-three months...

2010-11-28T16:25:00.002-06:00

We JUST got home from our trip to my folks in East Texas and Caleb was fresh from his nap. This is the kind of picture that can only be obtained after a 2 hour car nap. Isn't he just too cute!?

Enjoy Caleb's 23 month picture...

Reptiles

2010-10-31T22:48:00.002-05:00

Recently during one of our many walks around the neighborhood, my son was bitten by a small (we thought harmless) reptile. The bite didn’t overly swell and Caleb wasn’t scratching at it, so we thought it really was harmless. It wasn’t until this afternoon that we discovered there were unforeseen consequences to this run-in with the reptile.

As a result, Caleb was transformed into what can only be described as a ferocious, sugar eating, trick-or-treating dinosaur!!!!

Thankfully, the sugar high and the side effects to the reptile bite are temporary. Maybe he will be back to normal in the morning.

Caleb LOVED the candy. If you look closely at where Caleb is looking in the following picture, it is not at his mommy taking the picture but at the bowl of candy.

Below is a picture of the cutest family in the entire universe...

Earlier in the day, our little family carved a pumpkin and Caleb really wanted to help. We took too many pictures to post individually, but I’ve made a little slide show for your enjoyment.

We made it twenty-two months...

2010-10-28T18:50:00.003-05:00

This milestone picture was one of the hardest pictures to get. Caleb was NOT in the mood to get his picture made, so he and I took turns taking pictures. I would take a picture of him, then he would take a picture of me, I would take a picture of him, then he would take a picture of me...I think you get the idea. We took 44 pictures like this.

I've posted, what I think, is the best picture for your enjoyment.

Enjoy Caleb's 22 month picture...

We made it twenty-one months...

2010-09-28T18:58:00.001-05:00

My baby boy is finally getting the hang of this monthly picture thing. After the torture of last months picture, I was sort of dreading this months milestone. When he saw the bear and blanket on the chair, he ran and jumped up in the chair like he knew what he was doing!

Enjoy Caleb's 21 month picture...

First Trip to the Emergency Room

2010-09-26T15:50:00.005-05:00

Well...it is official...we are horrible parents. Today we took Caleb for his first trip to the Emergency Room (ER).

We were leaving the restaurant after having a lovely Sunday lunch and the unthinkable happened. An out of control car came speeding through the parking lot and was headed straight for us. It appeared to have flames shooting from underneath the hood. It all happened SO fast. It was as if the driver was hopped up on speed or something. All we could hear was the sound of the engine revving and the driver screaming at us to get out of the way. I, of course, reacted by yanking Caleb away from the oncoming car and as I did so, accidently dislocated his elbow. The car ran directly into the restaurant and exploded.

Ok…So that is NOT what happened.

What did happen is much less exciting when you read it, but it felt the same to us. We were leaving the restaurant after having a lovely Sunday lunch. However, the walk to our vehicle consisted of Allison on the right, me on the left and Caleb in the middle. As we walked, we would count, “one...two…three” and then swing Caleb between us. We were evidently not doing this enough and Caleb decided to drop and make us lift him. We think it was in this maneuver (or possibly when I lifted him up to put him on my shoulders) that dislocated his elbow (also called Nursemaid’s elbow). He immediately grabbed his wrist and “self splinted” his left arm and screamed in pain. It was the saddest thing I have ever heard.

We drove him to the ER and after only an hour waiting the doctor simply twisted his arm and said, “be careful, don’t do that again” and sent us on our way. It could have been SO much worse and SO much more traumatic, but Caleb was definitely a trouper.

Below are a few pictures of our afternoon in the ER.

Before the doctor fixed it...

After the doctor fixed it, the only side-effect was Caleb now paralyzed on his right side.

Just kidding...that is just Caleb's "cheese face".

Here is a better "after" picture...

"Animal" Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-06T19:24:00.003-05:00

Our Holiday weekend has been relatively uneventful...uneventful except for discovering “Caleb’s” new passion. “Caleb” is now completely fixated with a line of toy animals made by Schleich.

He loves them so much that he has spent the majority of this weekend playing with his Schleich menagerie.

“Caleb” ONLY has 17 so far, but he has plans of scraping together whatever pennies he can find to complete his collection. It is almost as if “Caleb” is obsessed.

“Caleb” has gone so far as to make a notebook to keep track of his animals. He has made one page so that he and his daddy can play a matching game and on back, he has fun facts about the animals.

After “Caleb” made his book, he thought that wouldn’t be sufficient to keep track of his animals. Therefore, “Caleb” created a database to keep track of when and where he bought his animals.

In an attempt to curb his obsession, Caleb’s mother forbade him from getting anymore (for the time being). When she was at work on Sunday, “Caleb” was very concerned that his little baby elephant would not be happy until he found his mommy.

Doesn’t the baby elephant look so sad?

“Caleb” forced his daddy to take the trip to the store so that the baby elephant could be reunited with his mother (Don't tell Allison).

Doesn’t the baby elephant and Caleb look much happier in these pictures?

Since the baby elephant was so happy, Caleb was then able to enjoy playing with his animals.

The only problem arose when Neighbor Cindy and Neighbor Skeeter came over to admire his animals. Caleb did not want to share with Neighbor Cindy AT ALL! Every time Neighbor Cindy would pick up an animal he would take it from her and give the animal to Neighbor Skeeter. Neighbor Cindy must not have known how to play with the animals…

Caleb showed the neighbors the correct way to play with the animals.
He taught them how to growl…

He taught them how to attack…

He even taught them that if the baby elephant were left unguarded the lion could come and eat him.
Poor baby elephant…

Playing with the animals is hard work. That must be why it is called Labor day!?

Keep in mind that Caleb’s birthday and Christmas is coming up. There are a ton of animals that need to find a good home. We all want to keep “Caleb” happy don’t we?

We made it twenty months...

2010-08-28T17:51:00.002-05:00

Caleb was not at all in a mood to take his milestone picture, but I will not be stopped. However, the quality of the picture goes down when Caleb's lack of cooperation goes up.

Oh well...what can one do?

Enjoy Caleb's 20 month picture...

Caleb's "New" Desk

2010-08-24T19:17:00.002-05:00

I can remember learning to read and write on a desk very similar to the one that Papaw Travis gave Caleb this weekend. The desk needed some attention, but nothing that Stephen "The Great" Handy Man can't handle!

Below are the before and after pictures...

TWINS!

2010-08-15T20:27:00.004-05:00

My favorite father-in-law came over to the house this afternoon and gifted us with TWINS! Jeff had fashioned with his very own hands two perfect flower boxes for our front porch.

What was even better was that he installed them!...

Caleb and I helped from a distance...

We had to make a trip to our local big box home store (rhymes with Dome Hepot) to find something to put in them. We bought “Cora Cascade Lilac trailing Vinca”...(ours doesn’t quite look like this now, but hopefully soon)...

This is what our new planter boxes look like fully installed and planted...

We made it nineteen months...

2010-07-28T19:22:00.004-05:00

Caleb is now 19 months old. He is on the slippery slope to 2 years old. Do you think 19 months is too young to mow the yard?

Enjoy Caleb's 19 month picture...

Remembering Caleb...

2010-07-18T08:27:00.002-05:00

It has been a long time since I posted a “real” post on the blog. I thought I would upload this short post to try and remember what my son was like. Caleb has been at my parents for the past week and will not be back for another two days and I am beginning to forget.

If my memory serves, I think Caleb looks a lot like me. I think Caleb and I have a lot of the same facial features, as you can tell from the picture below…

His good looks he gets from me; his moodiness he gets from his mother. One minute he looks like this…

The next minute he looks like this…

I also remember Caleb as being a good helper. Even as young as 18 months, Caleb helps mommy and daddy with the yard work. If only he could push the lawn mower, then he could do it all.

Caleb sometimes can be a big baby. He wouldn't even get up on the roof and help Allison sweep off the leaves.

I sure wish he would hurry back and come home. Our house is too quiet.

We made it eighteen months...

2010-06-28T19:10:00.003-05:00

It has been a month since I have posted anything on my poor neglected blog. While I was away, Caleb has aged another month as well. Today my boy is 1-1/2 years old...that is 18 months!

Enjoy Caleb's 18 month picture...

We made it seventeen months...

2010-05-28T08:52:00.003-05:00

Well...we are in East Texas visiting the family, but the monthly milestone picture will not be stopped! I'm afraid that Caleb may eventually get too fast for us and we won't be able to get a good picture. We barely got the one below before he jumped off the couch!

Enjoy Caleb's 17 month picture...

Sprinkler and Sports

2010-05-04T21:50:00.004-05:00

Oh so early on last Saturday morning, my lovely bride woke me up and told me to get my hinny out of bed and take my son and get out of the house!!!! At first, I thought she was through with the two of us and was trying to throw us out, but no…she just had to take her final exam and wanted us out of the house temporarily while she did so.

Caleb and I had a nice father and son outing to Chick-fil-a and then to Target where we found some great deals on items that we could not live without.

One of my favorites was the water sprinkler. Caleb LOVED it in the store. He held it in the cart and played with the spindly arms. He was completely mesmerized with the thing for almost the entire time we were in Target.

However…once we got home and hooked it up to the hose, he was less than impressed.

He eventually got a little braver and would get a little closer as long as Mommy was right there with him. I’m not sure if you can tell from these pictures, but he is dragging Mommy towards the sprinkler.

Most of you know that I am not at all even remotely interested in the sports world. The next few pictures may come as a shock to you, and I really don’t know what possessed me to purchase our next few items, but I just couldn’t help myself. I really think I bought them because I saw the plastic bin to put them in, but for whatever reason, I bought my son a full-size basketball and a “nerf” football. I had previously bought him a “dodgeball” and a big bouncy ball. My friend Rollin had gifted Caleb with the blow up baseball bat, ball and tee. With all this stuff, you would think that we were some sort of outdoorsy sportsy fit people. Well these next few pictures will dissuade you from those thoughts.

The new basketball is almost too big for my little boy.

Just like his Daddy, Caleb liked the bin more than he liked the stuff to go in it. He kept pushing it up and down the walkway.

The real fun began when we brought out Rollin’s baseball gift. At first, Caleb didn’t understand that you were supposed to hit the ball with the bat (I didn’t really know that either until Allison told us what to do…it isn’t my fault…the things didn’t come with instructions).

Go get some peanuts and cracker-jacks, because it is going to take a while to go through all the great sports photographs that we took.

Don’t we have such great form!?

Caleb had a ball…literally…

Caleb was a little tired after all that “sports work”. He had to take a little break with Mommy…

“No time to rest, mom…I’ve got to get back to the game”

Allison had to get into the fun as well

I’m afraid that Caleb had too much fun…this may have started something…

We made it sixteen months...

2010-04-28T18:15:00.002-05:00

I can't believe that it has been a month since I updated the blog! I also can't believe that Caleb hasn't been harping me to post more pictures of him in the meantime.

Enjoy Caleb's 16 month picture...

We made it fifteen months...

2010-03-28T13:21:00.001-05:00

Today my little boy is 1.25 years old.

Enjoy Caleb’s 15 month picture…

Newest addition to and removal from our family

2010-03-21T20:20:00.004-05:00

This past week has been full of changes in our household. Caleb spent a week with his Grandparents in East Texas, so to fill the void in our lives, Allison and I went last Saturday to pick out the newest addition to our family.

We bought a new tree for our front yard!

This is a picture of our front yard, before our tree arrived…

Below are a few pictures of our new tree in its new home. I think it is going to be very happy in the hood…

Since the hood and our yard is evidently not big enough for two trees, my wife (the lumberjack) decided it was time that the sad excuse of a tree on the side of our front yard had struggled on enough. She and our neighbor cut that poor defenseless tree down! I came in from work and there was the sad little tree piled up at the curb, with nothing but a pathetic little stump remaining. Thankfully, the neighbors took pictures to document this travesty.

This is a picture of the tree before its untimely demise…

See my lovely bride at work...

Skeeter (our neighbor) came over to observe "last rites" for the tree...

Nothing left but a stack of limbs...

The poor stump...

Allison and Jackie...the proud lumberjacks...

Prince of the Playground...

2010-03-13T18:19:00.002-06:00

Caleb loves the playground at the school down the street from us...ok...he doesn't love the swings, or the seesaw, or the monkey bars, but he loves the slide...

Below are "a few" of the best pictures I could find of his latest playground adventures.

We made it fourteen months...

2010-02-28T21:18:00.002-06:00

It is getting harder and harder to take these "milestone" pictures. We place the bear and the blanket on the chair then we set Caleb down and immediately he attacks the bear, he pulls the blanket, he stands straight up in the chair or worst of all he give us some inappropriate hand gesture and shouts something like "STOP TAKING MY PICTURE!" It is so strange how willful these kids can be these days.

Enjoy Caleb's 14 month picture...

Lawsuit and Artwork

2010-02-26T16:25:00.005-06:00

My son, my pride and joy, the boy who will grow to be a man, who will carry on the family name, went to daycare today and was physically assaulted. I have since retained a lawyer for the upcoming lawsuit and we are going to sue that daycare for the pain and anguish that they have inflicted on my one and only child. If the lawsuit doesn’t work, I have also retained the services of a rather shady fellow that likes to play with matches. One way or another that place is going to pay for the trauma that my son endured at the hands of some unknown assailant.

I’m going to search high and low for the little baby that did this to my boy. I made a impression of the teeth marks on my sons forearm and at this point I have stopped 6 random toddlers to see if they match. I will find them one day and when I do, I just hope Caleb has more than the one tooth that he currently has. I'll have Caleb march right up to that goon and have him go all Dracula on him or her.

Poor baby Caleb…

See mommy’s reaction…

Thankfully, the daycare sent Caleb home with his first piece of artwork for his parents to enjoy. Of course, His mommy and I scanned it right away to post for your enjoyment.

I think the boy has potential…

Cabin Fever 2010...

2010-02-14T21:13:00.003-06:00

According to Wikipedia cabin fever is…

"…an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in, in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period (as in a simple country vacation cottage during a long rain or snow). Symptoms include restlessness, irritability, forgetfulness, laughter, and excessive sleeping, distrust of anyone they are with, and an urge to go outside even in the (less miserable) rain, snow or dark."

Our symptoms started presenting themselves late Thursday night after my parents and sister arrived. My dad, mom & sister made the trek from East Texas on Thursday afternoon right in the middle of the snowstorm. They came in to see Caleb and his mom and dad…oh and to take my sister to get an MRI.

Below is a pictorial representation of the symptoms of cabin fever. If you see similar symptoms in your household, get help immediately.

Symptom 1: “restlessness” (Caleb in the dishwasher)

Symptom 2: “irritability” ("Take that mommy's nose!")

Symptom 3: “forgetfulness” ("Wait...these are not my shoes!")

Symptom 4: “laughter” (Caleb and Daddy laughing and laughing and laughing)

Symptom 5: “excessive sleeping” (Papaw Travis and Caleb doing what they do best)

Symptom 6: “distrust of anyone they are with” (even his mommy)

Symptom 7: “urge to go outside even in the rain, snow or dark” ("Papaw...please take me outside")

Thankfully, we were eventually able to go outside and narrowly escape from the cabin fever caused by the winter storm of 2010.

Enjoy a few pictures of Caleb in the snow…

The “Little House In the Hood” all covered with snow…

The rest of the “hood” all covered with snow…

Thank you for my hug...

2010-02-06T22:57:00.002-06:00

We now have a new game that Caleb loves to play. I sit on one side of the room and Allison sits on the other side and Caleb runs back and forth giving us "hugs". Hopefully we can catch it on video...for now I have couple of pictures.

Enjoy...
Doesn't Caleb look happy in his daddy's lap?!

Doesn't Caleb look "different" in his mommy's lap?!

My lovely...

2010-01-28T20:42:00.003-06:00

My lovely darling wife, the love of my life, is forcing me to write this post about our three-year anniversary. I told my lovely darling wife, the love of my life, that she didn’t have to force me…I would shout it from the rooftops! In fact, I tell strangers on the street how lucky I am and how I can’t wait to get home to my lovely daring wife, the love of my life.

Sometimes when I think about my life and what it would have been like if I had never met the woman who was to be my lovely darling wife, the love of my life, I get very sad and almost scared. I try not to dwell on such things. I try to think of the Shangri-La that is my current existence with my lovely darling wife, the love of my life.

I know there are times when we all get sick from seeing those lovey dovey couples and the incessant reminders of how much they love each other. Well let me tell you this, those couples have nothing on my lovely darling wife, the love of my life and me. I can also tell you that I cannot help but shower my lovely darling wife, the love of my life, will all manner of terms of endearment. I cannot help but exclaim how wonderful she is and how much I cannot help but love my lovely darling wife, the love of my life.

If there is anything that I have learned in these last three years, it is that my love for my lovely darling wife, the love of my life, has no bounds. It is limitless. When I wake and see my lovely darling wife, the love of my life, my heart is filled with joy. When I lay my head down in the evenings and see my lovely darling wife, the love of my life, my heart burst with happiness.

If only Allison, my lovely darling wife, the love of my life could know. If only there were some way that I could let her know how much I love her and how much she means to me. If only I had a blog in which I could convince her that she is my lovely darling wife, the love of my life. Oh well…if only.

Below is a picture of me and my lovely darling wife, the love of my life on our third anniversary…January 20, 2010.

We made it thirteen months...

2010-01-28T20:24:00.003-06:00

For the past 13 months, Caleb has been reveling in the joy of having Allison and me as parents. Today we celebrate that joy with his 13th month picture. Caleb recently had a run in with a curb in front of our house and as you can tell from his face, the curb won the battle.

Enjoy Caleb’s 13 month picture…

Baker's Dozen...2010

2010-01-13T19:48:00.004-06:00

It seems like it has been forever since I updated the blog…

We are only 13 days into 2010, but it feels like 300. It is amazing what a new year will bring.

The first thing the new year brought was new curtains for Caleb’s room. The “little house in the hood” has SO many windows and Caleb’s room alone has four pretty good-sized windows. We thought it would be best to get some “blackout” curtains to replace the shears that he did have. We headed off to four (yes, I said four) different Targets to find enough curtain panels for our little prince (ok…we got new curtains for our room too). I just hope Caleb is smart and can get a good scholarship to pay for his college education, because we are spending his tuition money now!

The pictures that follow don’t really showcase the curtains…I was actually taking a picture of the magnificent tower I made with Caleb’s Legos, but the curtains are in the background.

For those of you who don’t know by now, we took our precious baby to get a CT scan on January 4th to see why his little handsome head was not becoming a big handsome head. Caleb’s doctor was concerned that the sutures (the cracks in his head) had fused together too soon. If that had been the case, they would have had to create new cracks in order to have room for his brain to grow. Thankfully, the results of the CT scan were normal. The most traumatic thing about the day was having to have Caleb sedated for the procedure.

Below are a few pictures of Caleb in his hospital gown…

Sorry this one is a little blurry, but I thought it was funny that his diaper was sticking out the back of the gown.

One terrifically terrible thing that 2010 brought to us was V.O.M.I.T. (Very Obvious Monumental Intestinal Terror). Allison had to take a 4-day course (Advances in Nursing Physical Assessment of the Adult) in order to register for her next semester of graduate school. The daycare only took Caleb for two days, so I graciously and sacrificially took two days off work to watch my baby boy. Well, that was one mistake I will not likely do again! Bright and early Thursday morning Caleb and I awoke with plans of a fun father and son day. We were having a great time until VOMIT hit. When I say it hit, I mean it really hit. It not only hit the fan, it hit the floor, it hit the ceiling, it went down my back, it went up my front, it went around my head and I am absolutely sure that it went up my nose. As soon as I got poor sick Caleb cleaned up, another wave would pound down on us. The poor boy was SO sick. Caleb endured two days of the VOMIT and not only was he sick, he was sick and tired of us pushing Pedialyte like it was the new “crack”. I think that is why he decided to infect the rest of the family.

Allison got sick on Saturday morning and she emptied the contents of her stomach a few times over the very long day. I, being the incredible husband and father that I am, nursed both my wife and son back from the brink, only to succumb to a similar illness on Sunday. I am only going to say that I did not throw up at all and yet still had the V.O.M.I.T. (Very Obvious Monumental Intestinal Terror).

Below is a family picture my wife took on Sunday afternoon...you can see me in the background lying on what I thought was my deathbed.

Thankfully, my family survived. In celebration of our triumph over the dreaded pox that infested our home, my wife did the only thing she knew would help. She taught Caleb to do… the fishy-face.

I celebrated the only way I knew, by disinfecting the source. Enjoy a few (ok…seven) pictures of the disinfecting process…

I hope the first 13 days of 2010 has been as exciting for you fellow bloggers as the bountiful bastion of bliss brought forth during the baker's dozen days in our 2010.

It's my party and I won't eat cake if I don't want too...

2009-12-29T22:17:00.002-06:00

Sunday afternoon we had a small family get together to celebrate Caleb’s birth. It was very similar to another one-year birthday party that I attended. I’m not sure if didn’t I enjoyed this one more than the other.

Enjoy pictures of the first one-year birthday party I ever attended…

Oh wait…that was MY birthday party…

Here are a few pictures of Caleb’s birthday party.

The handsome birthday boy…

The handsome birthday boy, his very handsome father and his beautiful mother…

A picture of one set of grandparents spoiling the birthday boy before the rest of the family arrived…

The birthday cupcakes…

Caleb “blowing out” his birthday cupcake…

Caleb drinking some of his birthday punch…

Caleb and his birthday loot…(he received way too many presents…none of them were PS3 games though)…

…I still think my birthday was better.

We made it ONE YEAR!!!!

2009-12-28T11:54:00.002-06:00

Today Caleb turned 1 year old. He was not feeling well today so his picture is a little sad. I told him he needed to cooperate, but you know how they get when they turn 1. There is just no talking to the boy anymore. :)

Enjoy Caleb's 1 year (12 month) picture...

More details and pictures of the birthday party to come.

We wish you a Merry Playstation…

2009-12-25T20:22:00.005-06:00

This has been a holiday to remember. We had a white Christmas in Texas and Stephen got a Playstation 3! Both occurrences will be talked about for years to come.

Below is a picture of “the little house in the hood” on Christmas Eve all covered in snow.

I’ve also included a couple of pictures looking up and down our street all covered with snow.

It was bitterly cold, but not cold enough to keep us from getting our picture made in the Texas blizzard. Caleb didn’t really know what to make of the snow. Below is a picture of my brother David, my son Caleb, my beautiful wife Allison and myself.

Allison, Caleb and I ventured out in the arctic winds to go to Grandpa Jeff’s and Grammi-chelle’s house for Christmas Eve dinner. Grandpa made Caleb a rocking horse for Christmas and eventually I bet Caleb will think it is wonderful!

Below is a picture of Grammi-chelle, Grandpa Jeff and Caleb

The Christmas gift exchange was, of course, all about the Playstation…oh I mean Caleb…

Really, I think Caleb was jealous of his father’s gift. Maybe I will let him play my PLAYSTATION 3 when he gets a little older.

I think other people opened gifts as well, but I can’t seem to remember any of those. I just know that their gifts were not PLAYSTATION 3s!

Allison…

Papaw Travis…

Grandma Marilyn

Uncle David…

Aunt Sarah…

In celebration of the PLAYSTATION 3, we all posed for family pictures to remember the day.

The boys (and the dogs)…

The family (and the dogs)…

Party like it's your birthday...

2009-12-16T21:55:00.003-06:00

I turned 33 today. Thirty-three years ago, I was welcomed into the world with much fanfare. To this very day, countless people are still celebrating this day. It is amazing how much joy and pure bliss one person (that would be me) can bring to such a planet. I know that many of you feel that your life would not be complete without my presence, my wit, my humility, my courageous spirit and my handsome face. I am writing this to calm your fears. I am STILL here. STILL here after 33 years!

My lovely wife and son showered me with tributes to honor the day of my birth.

Allison made me such a handsome cake and ruined it by putting 33 candles on top of it. When we removed the candles, it looked like the surface of the moon…It was scarred with all those birthday candle craters.

This year my son bought me the 5th season of my favorite TV show. He gave me LOST on BLU-RAY. I will say it again…It was on BLU-RAY. That means I HAVE to get a BLU-RAY Player…eventually…doesn’t it….isn’t that what it means?

My wife also gave me a couple of gifts. She gave me my very own gravy boat and ladle. I had kindly mentioned to her at Thanksgiving that we did not have a gravy boat. How is one supposed to serve gravy if they don’t have a gravy boat? It was just a question. It wasn’t like I used the word “uncivilized” or “vulgar”. I really don’t know how I survived for 33 years without a gravy boat. My life is now complete…except I don’t have a Blu-Ray player yet, but who knows…maybe sometime soon.

Enjoy a picture of my Blu-Ray LOST Season 5…Thank you Caleb…

Enjoy a picture of my gravy boat…Dharma Initiative issued (LOST fans will know what this means)…

Enjoy a picture of my Dharma Initiative issued ladle…

This picture is a bonus…Father and Son (this is the son that got me the LOST Season 5 on Blu-Ray)…

Family Fun

2009-12-13T22:27:00.007-06:00

Today we had an impromptu family reunion at Grandpa Jeff and Grammi-chelle’s house. We didn’t get to stay very long, but it’s always good to see the crew. Speaking of the “crew”…below is a picture of Caleb with his Grandpa, mom and cousins.

From top to bottom, left to right:
Allison (mom), Laureli (cousin), Elaina (cousin), Caleb (perfect son), Jeff (Grandpa), Balloon (no relation) and Jacob (cousin)...

Walking like a man...or a baby...

2009-12-06T18:00:00.003-06:00

Caleb is really on the move now... Enjoy the video...

Giving Thanks...2009

2009-12-01T00:23:00.002-06:00

This was quite an unexpected Thanksgiving for my little household this year. We were initially supposed to go to my parent’s home in East Texas. A small army of relatives on my dad’s side was going to come down and get a genuine taste of Texas hospitality via my mom. Things didn’t exactly turn out that way.

A week before Thanksgiving my sister found out she was going under the surgeon’s knife on Monday morning. Given the customary one night stay in ICU and a second night “on the floor”, we had to cancel the mini-family reunion.

Instead, my dad, my mom, my sister, my brother and my brother’s two dogs came to North Texas for a little cutting of the turkey and cutting of my sister. The little house in the hood was full that week.

My family came into town Sunday afternoon and in the midst of eating a little lunch, my mom decided to go lie down and rest a bit from the trip. What she and the rest of the family didn’t realize was that sickness was hovering in our midst. For the next three to four days my mom was plagued with fever, aching, upset stomach and stuff I don’t even want to start to describe. It was not a fun time. I’m sure she also found it annoying that everyone would spray her down with Lysol if she even started towards any of us.

I barely noticed that my mom was sick and that my sister was having surgery because my brother brought his PLAYSTATION 3 with him. It was as if the heavens opened up and blessed my little home with a small bit of perfection. I do not think I can put into words the joy that is the PS3. Allison went on and on about how wonderful the controller fit into my hand and how dashing I looked playing it. I really think Allison wants me to have one of my own. I can tell just by the way she rolls her eyes when I turned the thing on.

Below are a few pictures of the men playing with the PS3:

Me, Caleb (trying to get on the couch to help us) and David playing the PS3…

Caleb was a very big help to David…

I just have to point out that since David had all the help from Caleb, my character died a premature death (see right side of the TV).

Enough for now about the Playstation 3 (I did say "for now").

My sister’s surgery went off without a hitch and my mother eventually recovered enough to leave the bedroom. My mom and my lovely bride whipped up a very lovely Thanksgiving meal and I have a feeling we will still be eating the leftovers next Thanksgiving.

The bounty that filled our Thanksgiving table…

The desserts…

I think this was the second or third time we have ever used our wedding china…isn’t it pretty…

The Thanksgiving Cooks, Allison and my mom (Marilyn)

My dad (Travis)…

My brother (David)…

My sister (Sarah, three days after surgery)…

My son (Caleb)…It was his first Thanksgiving…

I thought I would post a few more pictures after Thanksgiving…
Caleb and his walker friend…

David and Caleb on the living room floor…

Caleb helping with the outside Christmas decorations…

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving as well.

We made it eleven months...

2009-11-28T10:48:00.003-06:00

Caleb is 11 months old today! He is getting into everything and is moving all over the place. He is quick too...these milestone pictures are becoming more and more difficult to take. We put him down and it is a race to get a picture before he gets off the chair.

Enjoy Caleb's 11 month picture...

Tales from the poop-side...

2009-11-14T20:47:00.001-06:00

Let me first start this tale of terror with a small note about the development of my son. My parents and sister were in town this weekend and they taught Caleb to point his finger. It was so funny. My mom started pointing at Caleb and he just pointed right back. My sister would point…and Caleb would point back…my dad would point…and Caleb would point back. It was so much fun. Now when Caleb points to me, I sometime playfully bite his finger (this is important later in the story).

Now we can progress to the scary part…

Allison had to work today and after my parents went home, that left Caleb and me to fend for ourselves. We do this a lot. I am used to it...One can say I actually enjoy it a little bit. HOWEVER, today around 5:00 Caleb was being very fussy. I warmed up a bottle of the good stuff and he drank it down like a champ. In addition to the bottle, I fed him some baby food. We got a little messy with that endeavor, so logically I thought I would give my son a bath.

As an aside, one should know that Caleb’s bathtime in our household is my job. I would say that I give him a bath at least 5 out of 7 days a week. This is not a new thing to me. HOWEVER, what transpired this evening was definitely a first.

When I removed Caleb’s diaper in preparation of his bath, I noticed that he had pooped. “No big deal,” I thought. I will just rinse him off in the bath, then dump the water, and start fresh. It is at this moment when this story takes a turn.

I did rinse the offensive substance from the backside of my son. I did remove him from the bath, naked as the day he was born, and stood him by the edge of the tub and proceeded to dump the “baby tub” to drain the unpleasant water down the drain. As soon as I dumped the water, I saw the small, dainty, ever-so-delicate wash cloth pour from the baby tub and down the drain of the big bath tub!....GASP!

The only thing going through my mind was the plumber and his kids that we would be putting through college as he tried to fish this stupid washcloth out from the bowels of the 68 year old drains in this money pit of a house.

Because my reflexes are cat-like and I have “mad skills”, I was able to grab hold of a tiny sliver of the washcloth with my pointer finger and middle finger, thus preventing a plumbing catastrophe.

Let me describe the scene…I am bent over the edge of the bathtub with two fingers of my left hand shoved down the drain of the tub holding gingerly to a washcloth that is seconds from clogging the only tub we have in our home. My right hand is holding on to the arm of my naked son as he is standing next to me trying to get into whatever mischief is at his fingertips.

I begin to wonder how long my wife will be at work. Can I hold this position for the next 3 hours? Will the water that is trying to push the washcloth further down the drain ever stop flowing? As I am desperately trying to inch the washcloth out of the drain, I let go of my son and leave him to walk along the wall of the bathroom untethered. I am racking my brain trying to solve the problem. The water is still standing 3 or 4 inches in the tub and trying to push the washcloth further down the drain. I can do nothing but keep gathering the fabric with the two fingers hoping that I can stop the cloth from slipping further. After about 2 minutes (an eternity) of struggling with the drain, I hear my son giggling like a schoolgirl. He is pointing his finger right at me. It is almost as if he is laughing at me. Then I realize he just wants to play. I lean over to playfully bite his finger, but before I do, I thankfully look over and there smeared on the wall of the bathroom is poop! OH MY GOSH…there is poop on the floor, there is poop on his leg, there is a pile of poop on the end of his foot like the little cotton puff on elves shoes! Oh and let me not forget to tell you, but there is poop on the finger that he is pointing directly in my face! I almost vomited right then and there!

I cannot tell you what allowed me to do this, but I quickly grabbed Caleb, put him poop and all in the baby bathtub (still in the big bathtub), and then put my right hand back down the drain and grabbed the end of the washcloth. I lost all ground I had previously accomplished, but at least the poop and my son are now contained in the baby bathtub. Caleb is having a marvelous time. He is thinking this is a game or something. He stands directly up in the bathtub, with no help from me and proceeds to involuntarily pee all over my hand that is down the drain. I almost vomited right then and there, again!

I do not know how I did it. In fact, I do not think I did it at all. I think it was divine intervention removed that washcloth from that drain. It had to be divine intervention that allowed me to hold on to my boy (poop and all) and yank that stupid washcloth from its watery grave.

I threw that washcloth across the room. I immediately turned on the handheld shower and firehosed Caleb to remove any trace of manure left on him, the tub, and me. We then started all over with the bath. I don’t think I have ever scrubbed the boy more than I did in that bath. After he was dried off and put in pajamas, I put him in his bouncy seat and went back to survey the damages.

I chose not to describe the scene in detail, but needless to say I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floors and walls to remove all traces of what my son left behind.

How could one little boy and one little washcloth cause so much trouble?

The boy…

The bathroom (don’t worry it’s clean)…

The bathtub and drain…

The offending washcloth…

Caleb and his new friend

2009-11-08T21:43:00.003-06:00

Caleb has found a new friend. His mother and I are perfectly fine with our boy branching out and meeting new people. It is good for a boy of his age to cut the apron strings a little bit, to go out into the world and “network”. To be spontaneous and outgoing is a good quality. I’m sure that his mother and I would encourage that under normal circumstances. However, we are a little concerned that his new friend happens to be bright green and plastic. It is strange how Caleb’s face lights up and an excited shrill comes from his mouth when the boy sees his friend. I sometimes wonder if Caleb likes his friend more than he likes his parents.

I’m trying not to be jealous.

Enjoy pictures of Caleb and his friend…

Enjoy a video of Caleb and his friend...

Caleb's first Halloween

2009-10-31T22:23:00.004-05:00

This was Caleb's first Halloween out of the womb and he had a great time. Caleb started his Halloween by congratulating the neighbor’s dog for winning Ms. Congeniality at a local animal costume contest.

Caleb congratulated her with a big wet kiss…

Doesn’t Chira look great in her costume?…

Caleb also wanted us to document the day with a family picture. Caleb wanted to make sure that everyone noticed how good looking his parents were.

Caleb was a little monkey for Halloween. Enjoy a few pictures from the night…

Grandpa swinging Caleb like a monkey...

Caleb giving out the last of the Halloween candy...

Caleb playing on the front porch in his costume...

The monkey had to be caged…bedtime is calling to this little monkey…

We made it ten months...

2009-10-28T11:22:00.003-05:00

Today, Caleb reached the 10 month mark in his life journey. He also happened to have a doctor's appointment today where he was told he has the croup. He sounds horrible, is feverish, but was well enough to pose for his picture.

Enjoy Caleb's 10 month picture...

Be careful, "Don't Fall" 2009

2009-10-23T18:37:00.002-05:00

One year ago today, I posted a picture of my "big-o-prego" wife sitting on the porch basking in the beauty that is "fall" in Texas. This year things are even better than they were last year. I have the most perfect baby boy in the whole wide world sired by the best father in the universe (that would be me). I have the most precious wife that loves me for being the perfect husband (that would be me).

A comparison of this year's picture and last year's...

Mommy and Caleb...

Caleb...

The handsome family...

One small step for a man...

2009-10-20T20:27:00.001-05:00

one giant leap for babykind....

Caleb took his first steps tonight and we caught it on video.

Enjoy.

I'm too sexy for this color...too sexy for this color...

2009-10-17T16:50:00.003-05:00

This morning the sun peaked though the clouds and beckoned us outside to paint some more on the “little house in the hood”. It was a beautiful day, but I don’t know if it was because of the weather or the fact that our little house in the hood is starting to look like a hottie!

Of course, we documented the process for your enjoyment…

The before…notice the darker peach where there were once shutters…

The after (really just the first coat, but progress is progress)…

Another before…

Another after…

This is a picture of my lovely wife WAY UP HIGH on the ladder. I am deathly afraid of heights, but I am man enough to let my wife fall if she wants to…

This is another picture of Allison painting WAY UP HIGH…

This is a picture of the wall half-way through the first coat…the peach is retreating…

“The Little House in the Hood” seen from another perspective…

If anyone has an overwhelming desire to paint, we still have four more sections to do…five, if you count the second coat on what we did today.

200th Blog Post - Kilgore

2009-10-10T17:31:00.004-05:00

In honor of the 200th blog post on "streaks on the china...", I thought I would share a little bit of the weekend with the family.

Allison, Caleb and I went over to the great city of Kilgore to visit the elderly (my parents). We are having a great time despite the rainy weather. The rain stopped long enough for us to take a quick trip in town to the "pumpkin patch" for some fall pictures.

Hopefully the Baptists won't mind that we went to the Methodist pumpkin patch...

Caleb insisted that we take all these pictures...

Caleb even made the whole family pose with him...

Caleb wanted his Grandma Mimi and Papaw Travis to pose for the camera as well...

Caleb was so bossey today...how can we not do what he says when he uses his "mean face"?!...

My brilliant son...

2009-10-04T16:29:00.002-05:00

My son is completely brilliant. I don’t know how else to put it. I know that it may sound a little conceited and you may think that I am somewhat biased, but I don’t think you will after you look at the next few pictures…

This great realization of my son’s brilliance came to me one evening when Caleb demanded to play with his alphabet blocks. I could tell that he was trying to tell us something very important. It was almost as if what he was trying to tell us was a matter of life or death. Since his ability to vocalize complete thoughts has yet to be developed, I suppose he chose his alphabet blocks as his medium for communication. He would not be satisfied until we knew what he wanted to tell us.

Caleb sat on our living room floor searching for the correct blocks...

He would look up occasionally to confirm that Allison and I were still watching. The air was heavy with anticipation as Caleb slowly began to organize the individual blocks into words. Allison and I were shocked…A nine month old is not supposed to be able to do this.

I am a little ashamed that I doubted my son’s abilities. After all, I’m surprised that Caleb could keep such a message to himself for as long as he did. See my son's first literary effort...

We made it nine months...

2009-09-28T07:45:00.002-05:00

Time sure does fly when you are chasing after a NINE month old!!! Caleb is 9 months old today.

Enjoy Caleb's 9 month picture...

Put on your Sunday clothes...

2009-09-27T17:37:00.002-05:00

Well we have FINALLY started the long and painful process of painting the little house in the hood. Since it was such a nice day, we thought we would “bite the bullet" and dress up the old girl a little bit. It is only the first coat, be we LOVE it. My shoulder aches from the work and my head hurts form the fumes, but at least the porch is looking good. If anyone is bored and wants to finish the work, let me know. :)

Enjoy a few pictures of the progress so far…

This car was made for walkin...

2009-09-19T23:09:00.003-05:00

Caleb is SO close to getting up and walking across the room...Thankfully not yet. We are having a hard enough time keeping up with him crawling.

Enjoy a video of Caleb’s less than successful attempt at walking.

To everything there is a season...

2009-09-14T22:56:00.002-05:00

Caleb is so talented...I think we are going to sign him up for gymnastics tomorrow.

Enjoy the video...

Rainy days and Mondays...

2009-09-13T21:32:00.000-05:00

Since it rained the entire weekend, and the work that I would normally LOVE to do…like…mow the yard…scrape paint…power wash the garage…weed the flowerbeds…etc…were all off limits, I decided it was time to finish the great picture sort.

For almost 2 days straight, I worked and toiled to finish sorting and preserving approximately 8000 photographs, old report cards of my parents, every valentine’s card my dad ever received, hundreds of negatives, and also a few keep sakes from my childhood.

I ALMOST finished…there is a big zip lock bag full of a bunch of “unknown” people, but that will have to wait until I talk to the brain trust (my parents).

Below are a few pictures documenting the process. I will never print these two pictures, because then I would have to find a place for them.

Not so happy Halloween...

2009-09-09T18:07:00.004-05:00

Today I stopped by Target to pick up a Halloween costume for Caleb. I had a feeling that it was too small for him, but I thought I would get it anyway just to test it out.

Below are the pictures of the trial run. We will have to take this one back because it is a little small and as you can see Caleb doesn't like it.

One little monkey...

2009-09-06T07:42:00.004-05:00

In a perfect world, Caleb’s bedtime routine would consist of the following three easy steps:
1. Daddy giving Caleb a bath
2. Mommy giving Caleb some light refreshments
3. Caleb drifting off to sleep.

On the evening of September 5th, Caleb deviated from this routine and added an additional acrobatic step between bath time and mommy time. We have documented this step in the video below for your enjoyment.

We made it eight months...

2009-08-28T12:16:00.003-05:00

Today my boy turned 8 months old. I can't believe the bear is not growing as fast as Caleb. I think the bear must be stunted.

All we need is sand...

2009-08-22T17:33:00.003-05:00

Caleb's friends, Justin & Ben, are too big to play with their old sand-box turtle. They graciously passed on their turtle and a ton of sand-box toys to Caleb. When Caleb saw the turtle he immediately wanted to start playing. I think he may be a little young for sand, but that is really all we need to make a big time mess.

Enjoy the pictures...

He is growing up...

2009-08-19T23:01:00.003-05:00

Allison lowered Caleb's crib mattress today. We either had to do that or put a roof on the thing to keep Caleb inside. Last night I went in to baby him (he was crying) and what did I see...I'll tell you...there was my boy sitting up in his bed like a big boy just fussing and a crying. If he wanted, he could have just tarzaned out of the crib by the mobile.

Below are a few pictures of him in the crib. Be warned...he only has a diaper on.

One step closer...

2009-08-15T16:46:00.004-05:00

We are one-step closer to having the porch finished. Allison, Caleb and I knew that we needed to finish priming the new front porch railings, so we put our plan in action. Allison and I took the first shift and let Caleb rest in his "pack-n-play".

Allison needed to spend some time at the library and I was tired of painting so I put Caleb to work.

Caleb did a good job except he kept trying to eat the primer. I blame his mother for teaching him to act like that!

There must be some type of sedatives in the primer, because Caleb fell fast asleep in my arms during one of his breaks.

I decided not to wake him up when it was time for him to get back to it…he looked too tired. I am the best dad / foreman ever!

I am such a good boss I let him have a snack when he woke up...

There are still a few boards that need to be replaced due to some warping but progress is still being made as evident in the pictures below.

Small Pebble...

2009-08-10T19:30:00.005-05:00

This weekend we took Caleb out of the great and mighty state of Texas to another state to the northeast (our location will remain unnamed to protect the innocent…we will call the city we visited “Small Pebble” for purposes of this blog entry). It was Caleb’s first time to leave his birth state and venture out into the great unknown.

During his trip abroad, Caleb wanted to document the nature of the indigenous people there and categorize their behavior for possible future study. Caleb asked me to write this blog entry as a warning to travelers unaware of what lies beyond the borders of the great and mighty state of Texas.

Our journey began at the border where the native people erected strange hieroglyphics. The hieroglyphics were perhaps used in some ancient pagan ceremony. We of course took our pictures by the ancient relict...

Not knowing what lie ahead, Caleb sat in his seat and pondered what was to come…

He, of course, never thought the first creature he would see upon arriving at “Small Pebble” would be SO interesting. We will call her “Aunt Bridget” for purposes of this record.

“Aunt Bridget” was very beguiling and convinced our expedition to stay with her while we were in the area. She was of limited intelligence and Caleb was able to win her allegiance and affection right away.

Many creatures visited “Aunt Bridget” during our stay. Caleb was fascinated with all of them. In fact, he could not keep his eyes off “Belle” and “Lydia”.

Below are pictures of “Belle” and Caleb...

Below is a picture of “Lydia” and Caleb (notice the intense stare as Caleb studies her every move)...

The brother of “Lydia” was also a frequent visitor of “Aunt Bridget”. We will call him “Ben”.

Caleb studied the “Ben” creature very closely…

Caleb discovered that some of the native “Small Pebble” inhabitants had cannibalistic tendencies. Thankfully, we were able to save Caleb’s hand.

Although it has not been documented fully, we ascertain that the relationship between “Aunt Bridget” and “Ben” could be more than that of mere friendship. Perhaps in future studies we will refer to the “Ben” creature as “Uncle Ben”?

While we were at the home of “Aunt Bridget”, we played board games, we ate, we swam in a concrete pond (Texans call it a pool), went to church, and visited “Aunt Bridget’s” mother who also happened to be the mother of Allison. Caleb calls Allison’s mom “Mom-mom”.

Below is a picture of one of the games we played (Settlers of Catan)…

Overall, the trip was a success. We were able to study the people of “Small Pebble” and were successfully able to exit the area with our mind’s intact. Too bad we couldn’t say the same thing about those we left behind…

Porchimus Prime

2009-08-04T22:06:00.003-05:00

Our front porch is beginning to transform into something wonderful. The next stage in this transformation is to prime the porch. We started yesterday and through much toil and turmoil we only finished priming about 90% of the little porch. This is going to take so much longer than I want it to.
Edd (the carpenter) is almost finished. He has to finish wrapping the bottom of the post with molding, replace some of the warped spindles and tighten up the bolts on the newel post.
Below are some more pictures to update you on the progress.

The partially primed little porch...

The new hand rails on the larger porch...

Almost finished front porch...

Hopefully phase 2 will be replacing the ceiling with beadboard and hanging two outdoor ceiling fans here...

The view from the front door...

Torture...

2009-08-01T14:41:00.004-05:00

Today Caleb had his first "brush" with torture. We "cut" on over to North Richland Hills and "swept" in for his first haircut.

He was great for the first two minutes. He began to scream so loud that it "permed" the walls. Below are a few pictures that "highlight" the experience...

See how his long flowing locks of love looked before...

I think he knew his future was "set" when we got in the car...

I think he was a little scared even in the waiting area...

The place we went was all about the kids. It was a regular funville of "cuts" and "curls"...

Caleb sat in a firetruck and I think he was making eyes at his "stylist"...

Caleb's first "brush" with scissors...

The melt down begins...

All done...and he survived...

Caleb even got a certificate...

Mommy and Caleb had to have their picture taken by the fountain...

He looks like such a little man...

Finally we are home...

Below is the video...warning...it is a solid 15 minutes of screaming...

The little house in the hood...

2009-07-29T20:22:00.003-05:00

I can't believe it has taken this long for me to blog about our face lift of the little house in the hood! Allison, Caleb and I are having some work done on our little home. It is very very exciting to us.

Caleb got so tired of looking at the flowery mid-50’s wrought iron porch columns on our 1941 home. He was complaining so much, that we had to do something. He was afraid that when he started walking that he would plummet off of the porch and get hurt. Because we are ever conscious and responsive to the tastes and desires of our 7 month old, we decided it was beyond time to fix up the house.

Caleb demanded that the following items get fixed…
1. Replace the wrought iron on the front porch with wood post and rails
2. Fix the leak around the fireplace
3. Replace the rotten siding on the garage
4. Replace the door to the shed at the back of the garage
5. Paint the house and garage

We (Edd – the carpenter) are half-way finished with #1. Edd (the carpenter) will hopefully finish the remaining tasks associated with fix-it item #1 this week and go on to #2 this weekend.

In an effort to document this exciting time, I have included “before” and “middle” pictures of the little house in the hood face lift. The “after” pictures will come later.

The "before" picture of our house...

A closer view of the "before" porch...

Removing the wrought iron...

After the wrought iron is removed...

A picture of the porch with the railing...

A closer view of the railings from the porch...

After Edd (the carpenter) puts up the railings on the steps, we are going to have to start painting. More pictures are to follow...stay tuned.

We made it seven months...

2009-07-28T12:24:00.002-05:00

Caleb is 7 months old today. Some people say he needs a haircut...I don't know what they are talking about.

Enjoy Caleb’s 7 month picture…

Family Visit

2009-07-25T22:58:00.006-05:00

My sister had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday so my Mom, Dad and sister made the trek into town. While they were here, they agreed to do a little free baby sitting for us. Allison worked on Thursday and she had class on Friday so it worked out wonderfully.

Below are a few pictures of the family with Caleb...

How do they know which direction I'm going?

2009-07-21T22:44:00.003-05:00

Wrong Way Baby...

Enjoy the Video...

Just another fish in the sea...

2009-07-20T19:07:00.002-05:00

Caleb was happily playing the piano today and I just had to be funny and ruin it all. I didn't know that Caleb was afraid of sharks...Who knew!

Enjoy the video...

Chillin at the pool...

2009-07-19T20:52:00.004-05:00

Caleb and I went to Target on Friday afternoon and he made me buy him a $5.00 swimming pool. I vowed that I would never buy one of these pools (kills the grass you know), but what can I say…I’m a pushover.

Enjoy the pictures of Caleb chillin at the pool.

Papaw Travis

2009-07-13T20:17:00.003-05:00

My brother and my dad (Papaw Travis) go fishing almost every Friday. This past weekend my brother sent me the following picture and it was just too good not to post.

I personally think that the old lady hat is a little much, but you be the judge.

In fact, since we are talking about old lady hats, I think maybe we should compare how much my father favors another famous hat wearer...

My brother also sent me the following picture from the same day. I'm not sure if non-family can really appreciate the picture, since the ability to prop up ones legs has been passed from father to son for generations.

My dad...

My dad's dad...

My dad and his dad...

There will never be another one like my dad!

Weekend Blur

2009-07-12T22:39:00.003-05:00

The past few days seem like a complete blur to me. It feels like the moment that I leave the office on Friday afternoon and the moment that I sit down to blog about the weekend are separated by mere seconds. This weekend those “seconds” were filled with the following activities…

On Friday evening, Allison, Caleb and I went over to our friends James and Wendy’s for a little BBQ. Our other friends Matt and Debbie were there as well. We had a great time. We ate some of the best hamburgers and sat around and caught up on life.

Below is a picture of Trey (James and Wendy’s son), Caleb (Stephen and Allison’s son) and Garrison (one of Matt and Debbie’s sons)…

On Saturday we made our way down south to meet up with Allison’s sister (Brianna) and her family. We got to see their new place and ate some lunch and caught up with them as well. My niece Laureli and I were able to catch up on some coloring, play a little bit of “my little pony” and put together a puzzle of a mommy giraffe and a baby giraffe. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that I rock at all three of those activities.

Below are a few pictures of my nieces and nephew on that day…
Laureli…

Jacob…

Caleb (not a niece or nephew) and Elaina…

On Saturday evening, I left the wife and son home and I headed north to have dinner with my friend Brent. Sorry, I don’t have any pictures of the dinner. We ate at El Chico. It was good.

On Sunday morning, Allison, Caleb and I went to church. During one of the quiet moments of the service, Caleb decided it was time to relieve his bowels of its contents. It was NOT quiet either. Oh the joy.

The picture below has nothing to do with that, but I just thought it was great.

On Sunday afternoon, we just took it easy around the house. We watched a little TV. Allison fed Caleb some cereal. I gave Caleb his bath. It was really a lovely typical afternoon.

Below is a picture of Caleb after his bath and not at all sleepy...

That was pretty much the weekend. Hope you all had a nice one as well.

Fireworks fiasco!

2009-07-05T19:21:00.005-05:00

The goal was to see fireworks. It is a simple goal and I thought a very attainable one. Allison’s sister (Bridget), Bridget’s boyfriend (Ben), Ben’s brother (Gerald), Bridget’s friend (Cassandra), my wife (Allison), my son (Caleb) and myself only wanted a nice evening in which we could look up at the heavens and see the miracle that is fireworks and celebrate the independence of our wonderful country from the oppressive and diabolical British.

We had a 3 step plan.

Step 1 in our grand plan was to go EARLY to the venue. We wanted to find the best spot, have a lovely picnic, play a few games, and then sit back for the fireworks. Step 1 went adequately. We left our home at 4:30 in the afternoon. The temperature was a sweltering 134 degrees. When we arrived at the venue, we paid the $10 ($5 per car) and parked about a million miles from our final destination and trekked across a levee, a field and a road and found a lovely tree that offered shade to our weary souls.

After we hauled half of our earthly belongings across north Texas, we set up our chairs, our blankets, our fan (for the baby), our ice-chests, and our picnic basket. Then two cattle/horse trailers pulled up and parked what seemed like 3 feet from our noses. I could just see our perfect precious picnic being ruined by the putrid permeations from the poo factories that were in cattle trailers. Thankfully once the little horses and the big old bull were unloaded from the trailers they were taken around the corner and we were not subject to the devastating effects of their bowel movements.

Below are a few pictures of our neighbors at the “fireworks fiasco”…

Step 2 in our grand plan for fireworks was to survive the heat and have a little fun. Below are a few pictures of step 2 in action.

The happy family...Caleb, Daddy and Mommy…

Happy Caleb…

Not so Happy Clown…

Caleb staying cool (#1)…

Caleb staying cool (#2)…

The happy brothers (Gerald and Ben)…

An even happier Caleb...resting from the heat...

The happy crew playing “Cranium” (left to right: Gerald, Bridget, Ben, Stephen and Cassandra)…

Below are a few pictures of Bridget and Gerald sliding down the levee on cardboard. I like to call this white-trash surfing…(this is in no way a slam on Bridget and Gerald).

Step 3 in our grand plan was to sit back and watch the fireworks. We did sit back, but where were the fireworks? I’ll tell you where they were…they were waiting on the minor league baseball team to finish losing their game that was over FOUR HOURS long. We finally gave up waiting on the precious fireworks and packed everything up and headed to the car around 11:00 PM. That is after we waited six very long hours peering up in the sky, begging for a glimpse of fireworks. We even waited at the car for a little bit hoping that the baseball game would finish and we would get to see the show. We finally pulled out of the parking lot around 11:20 and listened to Caleb SCREAM all the way home. It was NOT a fun ride back to the house.

Even though we did not get to see any major fireworks, I still had a nice time. Although, I don’t think I will ever do that again. I should have realized that anything that is dependent on “sports” never works out in my favor.

Pirate

2009-07-01T23:03:00.002-05:00

My sister, the pirate, had surgery today. They basically popped out her left eye-ball, cut a few slits in it and squeezed all the excess spinal fluid out to relieve the pressure. They then shoved the dangling eye-ball back in her head and gave her a little shake to wake her up. Surprisingly the doctors did not give her a parrot or a patch…go figure.

We made it six months...

2009-06-28T18:27:00.005-05:00

Happy ½ Birthday!

Caleb is 1/2 year old today. It is really amazing how much he has changed over the last few months.

He is outgrowing the blanket "backdrop" and this is the first one he is actually sitting up on his own and not being propped up with pillows. We are also going to have to figure out something else to do with the bear. As soon as we put it down next to him, he attacks it.

Enjoy Caleb’s 6 month picture…

Caleb's Professional Pictures

2009-06-26T17:34:00.004-05:00

To celebrate Caleb's six month birthday (Sunday) we took him to get his picture made. He was great. He didn't cry and scream like I thought he was going to and he even smiled in a few of the pictures.

Below are two slideshows of the photoshoot. There are a ton of pictures. We also ordered WAY too many, so some of you may get a picture or two of Caleb in the mail.

My first father's day...

2009-06-21T23:50:00.005-05:00

Today was my first father's day as a father. Caleb gave me a new shirt. He was feeling a little guilty because he has put countless spit up stains on a number of my shirts. He then proceeded to spit up on the new shirt...oh well...maybe he will get me two shirts next year. Allison gave me a gadget that will let me play my ipod in my car.

Here a few pictures to remember the weekend...
My card...

My son "eating"...

My son "sitting up"...

Noisy Caleb

2009-06-18T22:15:00.004-05:00

It is amazing how "vocal" Caleb has become...
Enjoy "Noisy Caleb"...

Swimming Baby...

2009-06-15T21:22:00.006-05:00

This weekend was a very busy weekend. It was also a weekend of first for my little boy…

The weekend began when Allison dared my lovely baby boy to sit up on his own. Of course my brave boy accepted this challenge and simply looked at his mother as if saying “bring it on!”.

As if to prove that he was the strongest little man ever, Caleb perched himself up and defied gravity and stayed seated for an eternity of approximately 10 seconds.

On Saturday morning we took a little trip to the airport to pick up Allison’s sister Bridget (the cute one) and Bridget’s boyfriend, Ben. Caleb asked them if they would take a picture with him and they of course accepted the invitation.

Later that day we headed over to Grandpa Jeff and Grammi-chelle’s for Grandpa Jeff’s birthday / swim party. This was a perfect opportunity for a few Kodak moments.

Allison, Caleb, Elaina and Brianna…

Bridget posed for a picture with all her nieces and nephews…
Left to Right: Jacob, Caleb, Bridget, Elaina and Laureli

While at Grandpa Jeff’s, Caleb took his first swim. He did very well. He kicked and played and had a great time.

Don’t worry there isn’t anything wrong with you screen. The next few pictures show me without a shirt on…I really am that white with my shirt off!
Caleb’s dad, Caleb’s mom and Caleb…

Caleb’s mom and Caleb…

Caleb “swimming” on his back…

Caleb’s Grandpa Jeff and Caleb “swimming”…

Resting after the long swim…

Caleb and his cousin Elaina…

Scarred for life...

2009-06-11T20:18:00.003-05:00

I’m sure that it was NOT my fault. It couldn’t have been my fault.

The only thing I did was put my beloved son in his chair this evening. I only did it so that my son’s mother and I could have a nice relaxing evening meal. Was it truly my fault that the buckle on the chair happened to pinch the ever-living-poo out of my boy!? Caleb SCREAMED and cried and Allison said, “did you pinch him?” I looked down and there was the chubby little fat baby leg all mangled in the plastic buckle. I quickly unclasped the buckle, but it was too late. I’m sure my son is damage both physically and emotionally for the rest of his life. His future career as a mid-upper thigh model is ruined.

Below is a picture of Grandma with Caleb in the horrible chair. See how happy he was, those days are now gone forever…

Below is a picture of the evil and completely defective clasp. Picture a chubby baby leg pinched in the clasp. Can you feel Caleb’s pain!?

Below is a picture of the boo-boo on Caleb’s leg…

Below is a closer view of Caleb’s boo-boo…

Busy Week...

2009-06-06T15:25:00.003-05:00

It has been a busy couple of days for my family. Wednesday my mom, dad and sister came into town for what was supposed to be a simple doctor’s appointment for my sister. Instead it turned into a pre-op appointment! The doctor recommended that they go ahead and remove her non-functioning shunt and by the way…let’s do it tomorrow. SO…my sister had her fourth brain surgery on Thursday.

As you can see from the next picture, her hair was only now beginning to grow back from the last surgery...(left to right: Grandma Mimi, Caleb and Aunt Sarah)

This is a picture of Sarah taken in the ICU after she got out of surgery (sorry for the bad quality…it’s taken with my phone)…

This is a picture of Sarah’s scar…I took her picture while she was taking a nap…don’t tell…

While Sarah was being pampered at the hospital, my dad was babysitting Caleb. Allison had her first class of the semester on Friday and I had my second teeth cleaning so my Dad “volunteered” to watch Caleb while I was at the dentist.

Below is a picture of my dad trying to feed Caleb a bottle…

My dad took Caleb out on the front porch and some of my neighbor’s grandkids came over to see baby Caleb.

The first picture of Caleb and the boys…(left to right: Hudson, Caleb, Brock, Brittain, and Ryne David)

After I took the first picture, I commented that Caleb had his head down, so they tried to help him by lifting his head for him. It was too funny…

I thought the following was the best picture of the boys…

The next few pictures were too cute not to post…

So far Caleb actually likes his new highchair...

And Caleb LOVES his bouncy chair...

This is a picture of Caleb in his mommy’s lap…FINALLY he dozed off…

Last, but not least, a picture of the luckiest woman in the world…

Jump!

2009-06-02T21:54:00.004-05:00

Caleb has been jumping or at least pretending to jump whenever anyone holds him. We try to encourage our son in all developmental activities, so we went and bought a jumping chair. Even though Caleb was a little tired when we finally got home, he was a natural. While we were at the store, we also purchased a high chair. It looks perfect in our little dining room...don't cha think?
Enjoy the pictures and video...
The jumping chair... The new high chair (with the tray)... The new high chair (without the tray)... The new high chair in the dining room... A video of Caleb in the jumping chair...

50 Years of Hulen Street Baptist Church

2009-05-31T21:07:00.006-05:00

Our church celebrated its 50th year today. We had a picnic on the grounds this afternoon and a fun time was had by all! At first it was a little hot. However, no sooner than I had started complaining, the heavens opened up and a cool refreshing breeze began to blow. I think we were sent the breeze because we are Baptist and you know that God loves the Baptist!

Enjoy the pictures…
Caleb in his “Sunday-goin-to-meetin” overalls…

The picnic…

There were a number of activities to occupy our time at the picnic…Food…Bounce houses…Segways…and CALEB…

We love our food…

We love to bounce…
We love to ride segways (or stand next to them)…

We all love Caleb…

Caleb and Allison at the beginning of the picnic…

Caleb and Allison near the end of the picnic…

We made it five months...

2009-05-28T08:32:00.000-05:00

Enjoy Caleb's 5 month picture...

Baby Dedication

2009-05-27T21:54:00.003-05:00

The pictures from Caleb's baby dedication (May 10th) came in the mail this week. As you can tell from the pictures Caleb was mesmerized by the entire experience. :)

Mommy, Baby Caleb and Daddy...

The Crew...Left to Right: Brianna, Jacob, Justin, Elaina, Marilyn, Sarah, Travis, Laureli, Allison, Caleb, Stephen and David

Caleb receiving a bible and certificate from our friend Connie...

Best Neighborhood Ever!

2009-05-26T20:33:00.003-05:00

Even though we live in the "hood", I think we live in the best neighborhood ever! You couldn't ask for better neighbors than those who live on our little cul-de-sac. Allison and Caleb were out sitting on our front porch today and a couple of the neighbors stopped over to chat. Allison snapped a few pictures and so I thought I would post them. I have also posted a few pictures of some of the other neighbors and a few pictures of the neighborhood as seen from our front porch.

Enjoy.

Shirley and Caleb...

Jackie and Caleb...

Eddie...

Cindy and Skeeter (far left) and some of their grandkids the day Caleb came home from the hospital...

The neighborhood as seen from our front porch...

Weekend away…

2009-05-25T21:55:00.002-05:00

We took advantage of the long weekend and took a trip to visit my family in Kilgore. We loaded up the vehicle and fought our way East to take the precious grandson to visit Papaw Travis and Grandma Mimi. It was a nice weekend, but way too short. Of course the weekend was ALL ABOUT CALEB!

We drove up to my parent’s home on Friday afternoon and the house seemed deceptively quiet since my brother and father had not yet returned from their weekly fishing trip. The stillness and respite didn’t last long. The moment we crossed the threshold Grandma Mimi and Aunt Bulging-Optic-Nerve (aka Sarah) pushed Allison and I aside and scooped up precious baby Caleb.

See Caleb’s reaction to all the attention…

When Papaw Travis and Uncle David came in the door, it was like someone rang the bell and the fight began. The person left standing would have the privilege and joy to feed precious baby Caleb his cereal. Uncle David won the fight that night!

See Uncle David feeding his nephew, with Allison supervising in the background…

Eventually Aunt Sarah got an opportunity to feed Caleb as well…

The next day Papaw Travis and Uncle David took Caleb outside to meet Grandpa’s other grandchildren…his Catalpa Trees and his vegetable garden. I just know that my dad and brother are going to turn my son into an outdoorsman and I will be forced to carry my son all over the wilderness pretending to be a “real man”. I don’t think I have it in me! I’m not going to think about that now…back to the pictures.

Papaw Travis and Caleb…

Uncle David…

Papaw Travis and Uncle David conspiring with my son amongst the Catalpa Trees…

Papaw Travis’ garden…

Some of Papaw Travis’ Catalpa Trees…

After Caleb came back inside Aunt Sarah found Caleb’s puppy shoes and forced them on his feet for a Kodak Moment with his Grandma. You can really tell how much Caleb is growing by comparing the next two pictures. As you can see, Caleb is wearing his puppy shoes in both pictures.

Grandma Mimi and Caleb (March 1, 2009)

Grandma Mimi and Caleb (May 25, 2009)

While we were in East Texas, we also stopped by to see Allison’s friend Audra.

Audra and Caleb…

Audra recently had a new addition to her household…a brand new baby boy named Max.

Caleb just loved playing with Max.

Later that evening, Audra came over to visit and helped Allison give Caleb a bath and then proceeded to “fix” his hair…

This entry is way too long and taking me way too long to write…so I am just going to dump some pictures at the end...

The boys…

Caleb being sweet…

Caleb being not so sweet…

The horrible ride back home…

Saturday with Daddy...

2009-05-17T21:34:00.006-05:00

Allison went to work on Saturday and if you are a faithful reader of thrilling blog, you will know that when mommy goes to work, daddy is put to work! That’s right – I watched Caleb on Saturday all by myself.

The hours in which Allison abandoned us flew by. It was like time accelerated. The 48,600 seconds where I was alone with my son didn’t at all seem like an eternity. It was amazing that in 810 minutes a small human baby can completely and utterly destroy a grown man’s sense of worth and make a somewhat intelligent and devastatingly handsome man curl into the fetal position and wail for his wife to come to save him.

It might surprise you that in 13.5 hours a baby can do the following:
- demand to be fed 36 gallons of milk…6 times the average daily milk production of a machine milked dairy cow.
- produce an astounding amount of waste… Caleb’s diapers from Saturday should be completely decomposed in the year 2509.
- produce a sustained scream that measures 148 decibels…if he would have screamed only 2 decibels louder it would have been loud enough to rupture the human eardrum (look it up).

Considering all of the above, Caleb and I had a wonderful time. The morning went very well. We played and laughed. I fed him, he digested. I rocked him, he slept.

The afternoon was not so pleasant. I fed him, he spit up. I rocked him, he mocked me. I comforted him, he scorned me.

The last time Allison worked, it was horrible in the morning...This time it was horrible in the afternoon. The next time it will be perfect all day long.

Enjoy a few pictures from the weekend (not all of them were from Saturday). A few of them were taken with my phone, so the quality isn’t that great.

Father and son...after Caleb's bath...

Caleb - before cereal...

Caleb - during cereal (sticking out his tongue)...

Caleb - full of cereal...

Caleb on the front porch swing - hitting the bottle...

Walk about - Mall Style...

2009-05-17T21:17:00.002-05:00

Thursday, Caleb and his mother went to the Mall for a little R&R with some their friends. When I looked at the picture, I was amazed at how much larger Caleb is than his little friends are. Granted, they are at least a month younger than Caleb but still...come on...what is his mother feeding him!?

Caleb and his friends in their "rides" at the mall...

Caleb's friend Kylie...

Caleb's friend Bella...

Caleb...of course he wasn't asleep like his friends...