Gone Fishin'!

We're at my parents' house this weekend...my brother and sister-in-law were able to come up from Indianapolis, so we came down for the weekend. Caleb has been talking about going fishing since he and Abby spent the weekend at my parents house and Dad came home with a bunch of fish. My dad and uncle own a bunch of land (they now both live on) and have a pond that is stocked with fish...perfect for taking a first-timer out. We went in the evening after we had gotten to Illinois. Of course, I took pictures! Caleb wouldn't hold the pole, but he watch pretty well. You could see the fish if you looked over the edge of the dock.

This is as we're getting ready to go out to the dock.



My dad showing Caleb how to cast the bobber.



Caleb watching the bobber move...



Caleb helping the fish "get back home."





Grandpa and Abby.

Does it count??

I'm taking a vote...does "Uh, Oh" count as a word? If so...Abby's talking. If not...we're REALLY close. She almost said "Maya..." it came out as "Aya." She also says "doh" for dog...and makes a barking sound when she sees or hears a dog.

And...the birthday video :)

Caleb's Bday party...

We had a small party for Caleb yesterday. (Today is his actual birthday). Caleb had a blast! I was really glad his (my) cousin came up too. The boys get along really well but don't see each other very often. Josh is a year older than Caleb. Here are the pics from the day!

Caleb is blowing out the candles on his cake. He kept blowing them out as soon as we lit them. We had to light them three times to make it through the song!



Then Caleb picked out what piece of the cake he wanted.



Abby's chillin' with her puffs.



Abby with the grandmas.



Present time!



Uncle John, Aunt Brooke, and the girls, of course picked out his favorite present. It was Mack from "Cars."

Three years ago today...

Three years ago today, Brent and I were just getting settled into our hospital room. Caleb was two weeks overdue, and we were getting induced. Hehe...I guess you could say Caleb was stubborn even before he was born! Everything moved pretty slowly that day. Thirteen hours after my labor started, Caleb was born. He weighed in at 9lbs 12oz, and was 20 1/2 inches long. He was born at 1:51am on August 24th. Most of the nurses called him a "tank."

The making of the cake...

So tomorrow (Saturday) is Caleb's birthday party...I decorated the cake today, and thought I'd post the pics...I took a lot of pics, of course :) I think I'm addicted to my camera. Oh well. :) Last year I made a train cake. I did post a picture of it, if you go back to August of last year. I went a little overboard last year, and scaled it back a bit this year. I got the ideas off the Internet. For anyone that wants to make cakes...use the Wilson Cake decorating food coloring. And...bake the cake ahead of time and freeze it. It's much easier to cut/frost when it's frozen (not so crumby).

Whew!! What a day!

I know this is a recurrent theme of mine...but man, where do kids get all their energy? Today I went with two friends of mine from our small group. We were all husband-less this weekend...and K had the awesome idea to go to the botanical gardens. They're having a "blooming butterflies" exhibit. You go into their indoor gardens, and there are hundreds of butterflies...they land on you and everything! BUT...we decided to go after first service at church. And, we had a picnic lunch after the butterflies. Then...you get a "passport" to go through the outside gardens. If the kids collect all their stamps, they get a coupon for free frozen custard at the restaurant up the street. So...of course we had to do the stamps to get the frozen custard. We didn't leave the restaurant until after 2:30. The kids are usually both napping by 1pm. Both of them did really well. Abby slept the whopping 20 minutes it took us to get home, and then decided she didn't need to nap anymore. That was the ENTIRE nap she had ALL day. Brent got home early from Guard. And...I'm sad to admit...I said "welcome home!! I get a break...see you in a bit!" Okay, so it wasn't that immediate...and I did feel guilty once I left the house, but I had fun, and I needed that! Abby hasn't been sleeping well again...Caleb's been missing Brent...you get the idea! Anyway...here are the pictures from the day...

This is my favorite picture from the day.



The butterflies land on you quite a bit...This is me holding one of the butterflies. I wasn't very quick on the draw to get pictures of Caleb with the butterflies. He got so excited, they kept flying away!



The three best buds at the indoor gardens.



This was at the outdoor gardens on the path to the oriental gardens.



This was at the park at lunchtime. You should have seen me try to get all three 2/3 year-olds to look at the camera at the same time!



Caleb sniffing the flowers in the perennial garden.



There were so many beautiful flowers...and it was a great day!



Abby even enjoyed herself.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

Abby started crawling today! :) I finally got a video clip while babysitting my neighbor's daughter. My apologies for the "Bop-It" sounds in the background...but that's the only way I could get her to move.

Abby's chattering quite a bit now!



Caleb loves to sing and dance with his "Fridge DJ."