A New Addition to our Family

We have a new member of our family! Meet Blackjack. He's a 4-year-old Miniature Pinscher/Beagle mix that we adopted from a local animal shelter. Caleb loves him! And so do we!

Today's Dose of Entertainment

First, a funny story. We were webcamming with Jonathan's parents the other evening, and Caleb was eating strawberries. Esther made a funny noise, and Jonathan's mom said "Did you just raspberry?" And Caleb responded very emphatically, "No, STRAWBERRIES!"

Now here are some cute and funny pictures and videos.

Caleb loves playing with his shotgun, and he pulled his orange hat out the other day to play with. Well, Daddy and Caleb were hanging out with Esther and when I came around the corner, I saw this:

Here are some more cute pictures of Esther:

Her first time enjoying the "jumper-saucer"

Aww

This is my new favorite picture of her

Here are some of Caleb and Esther together:

Bathtime!

Sibling love

I don't really have an explanation for the following video. I can only say I'm pretty sure we would never have done this to Caleb:

A few nights ago, Esther rolled over! Jonathan saw it first, and then she did it again for me, and then she did it again for the camera!




Yesterday was the first warm day we've had in a long time, so while Esther was napping, Caleb and I played outside for about 2 hours. We blew bubbles, played with sidewalk chalk, read books, and just had fun. I "taught" Caleb to play hopscotch. Here is his version:

Snow!!

I just sat down to post this, and I'm looking out the window to see our neighbor kids (high schoolers) having their dog pull them on a sled down the street. It was quite funny. But anyway, I came to post some pictures of Caleb playing in the snow just a little while ago. We didn't stay out very long because it was really cold out there...25 degrees, but windy and feels like 12. Brrr!

Not quite sure he wants to venture out...

Really not liking this...

Finally enjoying himself

We made a snowman!

Caleb insisted that the snowman needed hands and a hat.

Esther's Room and Other Things

I guess I forgot to mention that Esther's room is now complete. The walls are an ocean blue and the room is full of Noah's Ark animals. I think it looks really cute. Maybe I'll get around to taking some pictures of it one of these days.

Caleb is enjoying himself in his new "big boy bed" in his new room. He's also doing really well with the potty! Yay for that! He is even to the point now where most of the time he's telling us when he needs to go instead of us just taking him every couple of hours. It's so amazing to me how quickly he learned! He's also recently started wanting to watch Sesame Street every day. He knows what 9:30 looks like on the clock and knows that's when it comes on. Now I catch him singing the alphabet and counting all the time. He skips some letters, but the ones he says are all in the correct order. It's really cute. I'll have to try to video it. Of course, he never performs when I get the camera out.

I realized the other day that I only have 3 weeks left until I go back to work, which is very sad. I am excited to get back to work, but I'm sad that I will miss out on so much with Caleb and Esther.

Well, here are some cute new pictures:





And just as proof that Caleb did learn to say his new age:

Caleb videos

Caleb is starting to learn how to sing songs. This is one of him singing "Jesus Loves Me." Sorry for the poor quality.



Earlier today, Caleb went off to play in his room. He was really quiet for a long time, then suddenly we heard him squealing with delight. We went in and this is what we found:

Some non-professional and some professional photos

Here is a cute picture of Esther wearing a shirt that my grandparents gave me when I was little:

Here's a cute one of Caleb giving Esther a ride on his bike:

And here's one of Esther zonked out on Daddy:

I took the kids to Sears and here are a few samples from that:

Caleb's Second Birthday

We took the kids to Atlanta and had a party at Jonathan's grandparents' house for Caleb (also for people to meet Esther). It was a lot of fun, and he loved it!

My mom made a cake for Caleb
and he enjoyed licking the batter

He really liked his "Cars" cakeBalloons!
Caleb liked the gigantic 2 balloon

yummy...cake
Playing with Darth Tater and the
Spudtrooper with his second cousin Ethan

Birthday Boy!

Esther had a little too much party

Here's Caleb blowing out his candles at the party: