TGIF!!!!

I'm spoiled rotten! And I wonder why he cries when I put him in his crate at night. Just wait until Shawn gets home...maybe he can enforce the "no bed" rule better than I can. As long as it's not my bed, I don't really care.

Gosh, this room seems pretty big when I'm sitting in the middle of it!

Mom keeps making me play with these stupid toys. I'll hold them when I'm good and ready!

We all got some fresh air today! It was 55 degrees so I bundled up the kid and took the hyper dog for a walk.

I'm another week older.....this is week 11!

Sweet Dreams

Goodnight little one!

Sleep tight!

I love you!

Today was pretty uneventful. It was almost 70 degrees, so we ventured out to Walmart. We bought some stuff to help organize Caleb's room and some ingredients to make Shawn some cookies. They say it should yield 36 cookies. I may have made that many, but that many did NOT make it into Shawn's box:o)

Caleb was dressed as a baseball player today......until we had a blowout and had to change into something else.

Back home they got close to 13 inches of snow, so Adarrah got to go outside and play. I won't mention that had it not snowed she'd be home with a double ear infection. But, when you have that much snow you can't stay inside!

Bath Time

Now that we are on a pretty good schedule throughout the day, we can add more structured things to it. We added bath time before his last feeding and we are watching/listening to Shawn's books on video in hopes that maybe he can do these things with Caleb when he gets home. Here's a few pictures from our bath tonight.

Now that my bath is finished, I'm feeling so tired!

Christmas Boxes

This must mean our (4) Christmas boxes arrived today.....and just after I got my house completely cleaned. Yes, this is a whole pile of new clothes Caleb got for Christmas just waiting to be washed.

Don't you love these new sunglasses our friends Rob and Melanie Bird got us (not to mention they contributed to that "new clothes" pile too).

Power of Prayer

I don't usually go around telling people what I have been praying for. For the most part that is something between myself and God. But last night as I lay in bed I asked God to help me make better use of my day. I know, it's nothing extravagant or specific, but it's what I need. After playtime, naptime, breakfast and a shower (for me)....and repeat, I realized I have five new Nooma videos I haven't watched yet. For those of you who haven't heard of Rob Bell or his Nooma videos, I would highly suggest watching them. They are very short videos by a pastor in Michigan and everytime I watch one, God speaks to me in a new way. I absolutely love them and we try to share them anytime we can. Anyway, I just happened to watch one called Open this morning. It was about prayer and what that means. Why does God answer some prayers and others He doesn't? Does it really matter if we pray or not? Without going into a long description of it, it basically asks, what if there is more to prayer than just God listening and answering? Maybe if we understood how Jesus prayed, our concepts and expectations of prayer would change.

I just finished reading Kelli's blog for today and found her also writing about prayer. She is asking us to pray for soldiers today. Although we are in the military and we live this life everyday, we have not experienced some of the things other soldiers around us have. Yes, in the last 2 years Shawn has been gone 1. Yes, he missed Caleb being born. Yes, I miss him so much while he's gone. But these are small things compared to what some military men and women have been through and are still going through. Please take the time to read Kelli's blog and really think about and pray for our military men and women.

I CAN DO IT!!!

My newest trick is rolling over.....I've only done it a handful of times, but mommy gets excited everytime:o) Of the 5 videos I took, these are the best two.

All In A Days Work

And just like that I'm pushing my chest up into the air! It literally happened overnight. He did it once last night and then this morning he was doing it anytime I put him on his stomach.

All this tummy time is wearing me out!

How sweet is that?

10 Weeks Old

I'm another week older. Hard to believe that in just 2 weeks I'll be 3 months old.

Why is this thing always in my face?

Freezing temps and icy roadways have forced us to have yet another day in the house. We haven't been out in a week now and mommy is about to go crazy!

My First Snow

They said it was coming....but I didn't believe them.
The first picture of the house across the street was taken

at 1:00 and the second, just an hour later!

The birds were loving it!

It was too cold to stay outside for very long.....

Just long enough for mom to get some pictures of me!

Wrigley, on the other hand, was like a little kid.

He kept wanting to go outside to run around in it.

I'm beginning to understand what it is to have your days revolve around eating, naping, waking, playing, diapering. Repeat this 4 or 5 times a day and you'd be amazed at how quickly your day has gone. Then finally you have a little time to yourself at night and all you want to do is go to bed. I'd be lying if I said I was hating it though!

I mean, just look at this face and those blue eyes!

Caleb and Elaine

Today I'm 9 weeks old.


This is what I look like when I'm laying in poop that's up to my shoulders.
Yes, I took the cute little brown onesie off only to see that he had poop clear up to his shoulders. There was no way to get him out of that easily. So, I ran some warm water, got it off of him and gave him a bath.
I decided to take my dad's advice and I just threw that onesie away!














Playing with my toys. I could see him in the mirror, but it wasn't hanging to where he could see "the monkey" as we were always told growing up :o)





















This toy is great because it folds up so you can lay the toys at an angle and have tummy time and when he gets bigger it makes into something he can crawl thru. That may be next week! Ha! Ha!



















First of all, let me just thank all of you back home who spoiled my child and now seriously screams as soon as he's put down to sleep! Secondly, let me say that I'm a genius because it only took me 2 days to figure out how to remedy that! He thinks that he needs to be held to fall asleep, so let's wrap him up to think he's being held.......ahh, haa! Yes, if I swaddle him in a blanket, he falls right to sleep. Thank God it didn't take me long to figure that one out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been thinking about New Year's Resolutions. I know, I know, it's already the 16th. Better late than never! Anyway, the one thing that keeps sticking out to me is something I read on our friends The Campbell's blog. It's called the Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer. Kelli's had it on her page ever since she started it and ever since I read it, it has struck a cord with me.

"A Christian, who realizes he has

been made in the image of the

Creator and is therefore meant to be

creative on a finite level, should

certainly have more understanding

of his responsibility to treat God's

creation with sensitivity, and should

develop his talents to do something

to beautify his little spot on the

world's surface."

What that means for me and my little spot, I'm not sure yet. I do know I want to be a wonderful wife and mother. Now that I'm home and not working, I feel that I should make my home, my husband, my son, our family my little spot. Where that leads me or what I end up doing with that, we'll just have to see.

{Maybe it means figuring out this blog thing for real! Why is it when I preview it everything's all in line and then when I post it, it's all jacked up? }

For those of you who are already missing Caleb, here are a few pictures. I am feeling much better. I told myself I was going to rest one more day before doing anything......how long do you think that lasted? I am washing all the bed clothes to get rid of germs, going through mail (how quickly it accumulates while you're gone), putting dishes in the dishwasher and that'll be it...at least for this morning :o) Thanks to Kimzey who brought me some soup. Now I don't have to worry about dinner.

I decided that "Baby Boot Camp" is going to start today. (Janelle, I always think of you putting Coop thru baby boot camp:o) Caleb was so spoiled while at home and now he thinks he can only go to sleep if he's laying on someone or if he's rocked, walked or sang to. While this is a fun way to put him to sleep, I don't want him to rely on these things. I sat down for 2 seconds with him this morning and he immediately fell asleep. So I put him in his bed and what did he do? Woke up and started crying. I had to just let him cry. (They weren't really cries anyway. Just the tired whining.) I decided to make the transition easier for him, so he's listening to a cd:o) Hopefully we can get him on a schedule quickly.

One more thing....I read that at some point moms have a terrible mom moment. Well, I did that this morning. I was trying to get some cute pictures to put on the blog so I put him in the corner of the couch. As most of you at home know, this kid moves constantly and is already trying to sit up. I was taking pictures and he kept trying to sit up and I'd push him back farther in the corner. Before I knew it, he threw his body forward and if I wouldn't have threw my camera down to catch him, he would have been in the floor. I held him for a long time after that! We'll be trying a new camera position next time.