"First's"

Kaleb's FIRST day of school this year!
Walking into his classroom for the FIRST time!

Kaleb's FIRST picture with Mommy at his new school!

Bella's FIRST time in a highchair!

Grandma Wood's FIRST 90th Birthday! (OK, that one was a stretch, but I had to keep going with the theme.) But seriously, 90 years old! We had a wonderful dinner at Red Lobster, a polka dot cake, a matching balloon, and some presents. When she saw the cake she said, "Well nobody's ever made me a cake before!" Awww...glad that made her happy...even if it did come from Albertson's! If you know Kaleb at all, it's not a birthday without a cake so we had to stop. Now Kaleb keeps talking about his birthday and telling us he wants a cake with blue "coconuts" (polka dots) like Grandma!

The BIG move!

Just to start this post off, I thought I'd share a cute picture of these two! I'm not sure how many of these I'll get in their lifetime!
So for the longest time, we have been trying to decide what we want to do with ourselves. (in a nutshell!) After graduating college, Kevin got a job in Houston, Brandy followed, we bought a house, had Kaleb, then got to thinking more long term. Where do we want to raise our family? We loved our house, neighborhood, and family close by, but something was missing. We needed to live somewhere we could raise a family. The elementary around the corner was wonderful, but the middle and high schools...not so much! Still not completely sure what we were doing, but knowing we had to do something... we put our house up for sale. The same day... 3 hours on the market...we got an offer for asking price. Done! We were completely shocked! Not wanting to make a spontaneous purchase and risk buyers remorse, we decided to rent for one year to give ourselves more time to figure things out. The year flew by... There were lots of factors to consider when deciding where we wanted to settle down. Jobs, schools, housing, etc. Long story short...we've always wanted to live on the water and love Lake Granbury when we visit. We decided to make the move in hopes of getting our waterfront property someday. So on August 20th, the kids and I loaded up my car and took off on a new adventure in our lives. Here's Miss. Bella helping me pack!

Mommy and Kaleb working hard... in our matching Dallas Cowboy's shirts!

Daddy came home to help us load up and see us off. So long Houston. :( Although it was a decision we thought long and hard over, we knew it would be hard.

In order to ease the transition and give us some time to get acquainted with the area better, the Bernat's offered to let us stay with them for a little while. So we took them up on the offer. Ready or not, here we come. For the first time in her life...at 4 months old, Bella has a crib of her own!

That same day she took a nap in her own bed for the first time!

Kaleb even gets his own room at Mimi and Papa's house. We moved him in, set him up, then he takes everything back out! Here he is playing with his cousin James who is excited to have him close by.

So here we are... we made the move! Kevin's working, but I have not had any luck finding a teaching job yet. Now we need to get a house of our own. Hopefully things will start falling into place soon. Whatever happens happens! Until then, we pray!

"Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

Swim Lessons

For two weeks in July, Kaleb took swim lessons at the Houston Swim Club. His teacher, Mr. Rudy, was fabulous! Patient, kind, patient, calm, and did I say patient...
The lessons focused on water safety, kicking, row-row arms, retrieving rings from the bottom and most importantly back-floating. Kaleb would get a little too excited and distracted at times, but overall did well. He excitedly threw a toy in the water, but it was too far to reach. Mr. Rudy picked it up and threw it across the pool! Ha! Lost that toy! That got his attention! Here he is practicing his kicking.

Here is a video of him practicing the survival back-float. The skill is taught as a life-saving measure to be used if the child were to ever fall into the water. He was taught to come to the surface, turn on his back, place his hands above his head, relax, chin up, and float until he reaches the side of the pool where he grabs the side and then turns over. This was the last day of class and he was floating with minimal assistance, but Mr. Rudy there to guide him to the wall.

Circus Time!

On Sunday, July 15th, we took the kids to see the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Baily Circus' Zing Zang Zoom show! Kaleb has never sat still that long in his life! He had a good time!

Bella is 3 months old!

Bella Grace is 3 months old today! She has done so much in her three months of life! We've traveled across Texas from Orange to Granbury to Frio Country. She has been to Lake Granbury twice, the Frio River, both the Fort Worth and Houston Zoos, the Art Car Parade, a crawfish boil, and watched Fireworks for the Fourth of July, just to name a few! She has adjusted and adapted to our busy lifestyle pretty easily. Bella is already growing up so quickly! She loves to smile her gummy little smile... almost makes me cry every time still, it's so cute! She squeals when she gets really excited, we're just waiting on that laugh to come anyday. She has been a pretty easy baby so far compared to Kaleb. She wakes up happy in the morning, eats, plays, and naps....repeat throughout the day... then bedtime between 8 and 9. She's been sleeping until around 1, then until about 5, then wakes up when Kaleb wakes her up (between 7 and 8)! She has come soooo close to rolling over. I expect that to happen any day! We love our little girl to pieces! Here are a few pictures of her from today...

FRIO RIVER 2010!!!

On Saturday, June 12th we loaded up and headed out for our annual trip to the Frio River. Kaleb was just a little bit excited! Sunglasses upside down and all! He kept trying to look behind us to make sure the camper was there. (The camper and truck that a wonderful uncle let us borrow!)

Once we arrived and got set up, it was down to the river! Kaleb hopped right in without thinking twice! He doesn't seem to be scared of much of anything... (anything logical anyways!)

Family picture in the camper...

Bella's Dream Vacation! Here she is taking her first bottle. Well, not taking exactly! She screamed and fought until she couldn't fight anymore and took it while sleeping. She did that 2 or 3 days in a row and then pretty much refused to even take it in her sleep after that. She'd rather miss a meal than take it from that bottle!

Here's my silly boy...

Family picture at the dam... That is Garner right behind us.

My beautiful baby girl!

Toes in the water!

Posing pretty for Daddy!

The view from our spot on the river...

I love that smile!

Daddy, Kaleb, and Timmy rented a paddleboat and took a little ride.

This was Kaleb napping one afternoon. He woke up, decided he was still tired, and fell asleep on the couch. I'm not sure how he ended up in this position, but he was sound asleep!

S'MORES! (Look at that face...he's obviously not too fond! I actually think it's because he didn't like getting his hands sticky!)

I love that boy!

Just chillin' on the river eatin' some beef jerky like one of the big guys...

Coolin' off...

Here's a view of our campsite...

Bella "in her usual position" as Poppy would say! She loves the sling and slept many of her naps right there.

Here's Kaleb thinking about getting on the rope swing! (no, of course he didn't do it! i'm sure he will next year!)

Kaleb's got his shooter ready...who's it gonna be?

Takin' a swim with Mama...

Bella hanging out in the wagon...

Here we are on the way home. Kaleb being silly once again!

and Bella sleeping all the way!

It was a fabulous trip as usual! The weather was wonderful the entire week. We had a few showers, but they were actually pleasant. Bella hung in there, but was ready to be home by the end of the week. Kaleb had a blast and would still be there if we didn't make him come home with us. Kevin and Kaleb took one tube float down the river, but Kaleb wasn't much of a fan. He preferred to stay right where we were and swim around in the river. We can't wait to go back next summer!

Water Fun!

On Memorial Day weekend, Kaleb caught his first fish! He was too cute reeling the "big fish" in!
Kevin did a little wakeboarding...

And we all did a little swimming! Kaleb was jumping off the dock before the day was over!

The lake was a little too much for Bella, but we took her to the neighorhood swimming pool for her first swim when we got home. She loved it!

And here's Miss. Bella at 2 months old! At her checkup she weighed 14 lbs 11 oz and was 23.5" long. Big Girl! She takes after her brother.

Other things about the kids...

Bella is really smiling now...especially when she sees Mom and Dad's faces!

Has slept through the night (9pm-6am) once! (after 2 month shots :( )

Normally has at least one 5-6 hour stretch of sleep at night, feeds, then sleeps for another 2-3 hours.

She's not on much of a schedule yet (other than bed time), but on a predictable routine... eat, play, sleep, repeat until bed time!

WON'T take a bottle! (We're working on this one right now!)

Kaleb has decided he doesn't need a nap anymore and will sit in his bed and talk for 3 hours instead...that's what he's doing right now!

He still loves to read books...it's amazing how well he listens and remembers! He can "read" most of his books to us.

Loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pancakes! That's all he'd eat if we'd let him!

Is potty trained! And it was amazingly easy!
At his 30 month checkup, Kaleb weighed 35.8 lbs and is exactly 3' tall...

Kaleb remembers EVERYTHING you say to him, near him, or across the house from him when you think there's absolutely no way he can hear you.

He's going through a testing phase right now with Mom and Dad! Does exactly what we tell him not to just to see what we will do about it! Then follows up with a quick... "I not need time out!"