The Birthday Celebration

I made this "cake" for Caleb's birthday.  As you can see it is just cupcakes in the shape of a number 1.  You can barely tell that I put his name on the bottom row of cupcakes.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out and it couldn't have been easier.  When Haley turned 1 I felt the need to make the cake and frosting from scratch.  Let me tell you, it was not as good as a boxed cake mix and frosting out of a tub.  I won't ever make that mistake again.
Caleb enjoyed his cupcake.  He is not much of a mess in this picture, but he did end of breaking the cupcake into lots of little pieces and swiping them off his tray.  He loved the frosting the best.
Here is the whole family.  We couldn't get Caleb to smile for any picture!  He got lots of fun presents.  Clothes, toys, books.  He got a little basketball hoop which the girls loved.  It is set up in our empty dining room.  Maya kept doing slam dunks and yelling "touchdown"!  

Evolution of a Baby

Today is Caleb's first birthday.  Look at how big that boy is.  I caught him practicing his new trick, climbing the stairs.  I try to let him when I have a second to follow him up.  He has been slow with his gross motor skills, so I need to let him practice.  But he has made giant strides in the last few weeks.  He has started crawling on his knees (he was still just army crawling before), pulling up to furniture, and now climbing stairs.  He likes to try to walk between Mike and I, and has taken a few steps on his own.  We are so proud of him.

I keep thinking to myself "last year at this time I was..."  I was admitted to the hospital the night before he was born.  I was strep B positive, and they wanted to make sure I got antibiotics before he was born.  My labor with Maya was only 4 hours, so they were concerned I wouldn't have enough time for antibiotics.  So, we got to the hospital at about 8 pm and they gave me an iv of fluids and antibiotics.  Mike went right to sleep but I was up all night peeing.  They really gave me a lot of fluids!  Literally every 20 to 30 minutes I had to go.  At about 3 or 4ish I started having contractions.  Now, they were supposed to induce me in the morning, so this was pretty funny.  After a few, I woke Mike up and we called a nurse.  If I remember right they checked me and I was a 6, so they thought things might go fast.  My doctor couldn't come in because she was at home with her kids while her husband was at the hospital giving me my epidural!  It was a good one too.  I took a drink while I was lying flat and coughed and that broke my water!  So, then they really thought it was going to go fast and they brought in all the birthing stuff.  But then it kinda slowed down.  My doctor came in around 9ish and then I finally had Caleb at 9:57.  He was 8lb 11oz and 21 1/2 inches long.  Giant baby!

Look at how he has grown!  Sure love this guy.  He brings a lot of joy into our home.  I can't believe he is one year old now!  We are actually going to celebrate tomorrow since I have a young women's activity tonight and Mike can't get home early enough to party it up before I have to leave.  The girls are a little concerned about this, but I don't think Caleb will mind.

Chuck E. Cheese

Every month, Maya's preschool class takes a field trip.  In September, the field trip was to Chuck E. Cheese.  I wasn't really excited about going.  Usually it is a packed mad house.  And usually you see some poor child getting smacked around or yelled at by a parent.  At least that is my usual experience.  But Maya really wanted to go.  So, we went and it was actually great.  It was mostly empty except for her class.  We did some fun rides and Maya and Caleb had a blast.

I don't know how I got lucky enough to get Caleb's face in this picture.  Hilarious.

New Casts

This cute little girl got new casts this week.  These are the last casts (hopefully) and after she gets them off in 2 weeks, we will be back to normal!  I am praying she doesn't go right back to tippy toe walking.  
Life hasn't been too tough in casts.  Baths are a little more difficult.  But, the one great thing is no shoes!  She has little strap on sandal type shoes she wears with her casts.  We are usually a no shoes in the house family, but she slides all over on the hard wood floors without them on.  So, she always has her shoes on (except in the pictures!) and we don't have to look for and then put on shoes every time we leave the house.  It is great. 

A Sleepover!

Over a month ago the kids got to have a sleepover since the parents of their friends were going out of town.  The kids thought it was awesome fun.  We took a trip to the butterfly house.  Someone did stop us and ask if all the kids were ours!  Here are the cute kids.  They could all pass as siblings.

We saw lots of beautiful butterflies like these.

There was also a room with lots of different bugs in cages.  There was an employee with a tarantula out, allowing kids to hold it.  Out of all the kids, Haley wanted to do it, which was a total shocker.  She is our child with the most anxiety.  She is scared of lots of things.  So, I was very proud of her for trying this out.  I wasn't about to get near it!

Labor Day Beach Trip

We spent the last day of summer at the beach!  The girls had lots of fun playing in the sand and the water wasn't too cold.

We had a picnic, which makes any outing a success in the girl's eyes.
And Caleb ate a lot of sand.  I kept finding more in his diaper for days after.

Colorado Springs Part 2 - Garden of the Gods

The girls.

While we were in Colorado Springs we also went to Garden of the Gods, which was absolutely beautiful.  It is a city park with lots of gorgeous rock formations.

The girls did a lot of climbing.

This is supposed to look like 2 camels kissing.  Do you see it?

The boys.