Finally!

Hi everyone. It has been 8 long months since I last posted any pictures. That's way too long, but I really have a good excuse...no high speed internet! That part really sucks. So, I have to make time specifically to post and until this weekend, it seemed like it was never the right time. So needless to say there are a LOT of pictures here. I tried to just pick and choose some highlights from the past few months (Halloween, Kaleb's 1st birthday, Christmas, Spring and Summer).

Life is good here with us, no huge changes. For those of you who don't know I switched locations of my job. I'm now working in Lubbock at a rehab facility - The Plaza. I'm still working in speech therapy with adults and geriatrics. We're really slow right now so work isn't so much fun, but hopefully we'll get going again soon. Casey is still working with Primerica. He has cut down on tree trimming to focus on the financial, which is nice for him (tree trimming in the summer here is not fun -especially this summer -HOT-!). Kaleb has been staying with his Nano and Grandma Marlene a lot this summer to allow Casey some time to work. We'll probably put him in a Parent's Day Out 2x/wk this fall, which we're looking forward to, but nervous about also. Kaleb is really good, finally cutting a lot of teeth. He's all over the place, jumping, running, climbing. Saying quite a few words and signing also.

I'll stop writing so you can get to the pictures. Let me know what's new with you! Love you all!

Here's the pictures in chronological order:

1st Halloween - Li'l Pumpkin!

November - in Pa's cotton field

Walking in the cotton

Kaleb's 1st birthday - with Granny

Whoa, that's a big present!

The start of the cake....

And the finish! He loved it!

Our Christmas card picture

January - visit to Colorado

Kaleb's 1st meeting with cousin Weston

The proud Grandma's

1st meeting with his other cousin George,

they didn't know what to think of each other!

Grandma Carol (Rick's mom) with Casey, Rick and Kaleb

Easter at Pa's house!

Daddy helping find Easter eggs

Kaleb loved the pond more than the eggs!

May - Kaleb's 1st trip to the beach (Rockport)

Daddy helping in the water

Kaleb wasn't too sure about getting in

He loved the sand

This summer, Kaleb playing in his pool at home

Kaleb jetskiing with Daddy!

On the way to the fireworks! - 4th of July

Playing with Daddy,

waiting for the fireworks to start

Tickling the fish at Buffalo's fireworks show (July 5th)

That's all I have for now!
Thanks for taking time to check in with us. Hope to hear from you soon.

11 months

Hi all - So sorry it has been sooo long since an update. I've been trying to find time, and then when you finally do, something else becomes more important. I'll try and do better. I know I keep saying that but I think one of these days I might actually do better (maybe if I keep telling myself that!).

Kaleb is 11 months old now! (almost, minus 3 days). The time has flown by so fast. He has changed so much. He's taken some steps, about 3 that we've seen at one time, but still would rather crawl right now. He's pretty fast, at times hard to keep up with! He knows when he's somewhere he's not supposed to be and will crawl away as fast as he can with a silly smile on his face. He loves standing and pulling things off of shelves and tables. That's made our lives much easier. :) He has recently learned the "throw things over the side and see how many times mom will pick it up for me" game. My limit is at 3.

He is getting more vocal everyday, which is great (I have to say that as an slp!). No but it really is fun to hear all the different sounds he comes up with. He's getting better at mimicing our sounds and he's great at sound effects, but no real words yet. He will say "dada" and "moma" but he says both to Casey and me and grandma and the people at church, etc. More of a babble than anything else right now. As always he's very active, he won't sit still unless he's napping. He's up to a whopping 16.5 pounds! Which I think is average for a 6 month old?, But he is always moving! He works off the calories faster than we can put it down him. The dr's not worried. He's moving up and that's what's important. He loves solid food and would really like to eat people food. He's not a fan of his bottle much anymore so we are trying to transition to a cup, but it's been a slow process. No teeth yet. It seems like every baby we know younger or older than Kaleb has teeth but him. There's a four month old with four teeth even! He'really chewing, but nothing so far.

I can't believe he's almost a year old, and Christmas is right around the corner. I've got to start thinking about a birthday party, which is fun but a little stressful too. Not sure what we want to do yet for that.

Casey and I are well. Allergies are terrible here this year, so I'm just trying to get through this warm weather (78 at the end of October?). We are ready for fall already! I think we may skip fall weather and go from summer to winter. That's alright with me, I'm tired of sneezing all the time.

Here are some pictures of Kaleb from August through the present.

Kaleb check's this pig out everytime he visit's Casey's mom and dad

First Tech game!

He was really good at the game, didn't fuss very much at all

Having a biscuit

Always moving!

Very cute of him, not so much of me!

There's that sly smile - I'm up to something!

Almost stepping

He's obsessed with stairs unfortunately!

He won't sit still so this is how feedings usually look!

His Halloween picture - sorry for the quality. I had to scan it in! He was not happy to be in that pumpkin outfit.

Thanks for checking up on us. I hope to see or visit with you soon!

Wow...

When I went to my blog to finally post an update, I couldn't believe it has been 4 months since I last posted! I was blown away. It doesn't seem like that long ago, and yet so much has been going on since that time.

Summer is already almost over, which is sad, however it really hasn't flown by for me. I think to working people summer doesn't "fly by" like it did when we were kids. It's just another time of year. This year has been nice since it's been a pretty mild summer. No really hot sweaty days. We've had a pretty boring one really up to now. No big trips, working as usual. Although we had 2 family reunions, one in Ruidoso and one in Glen Rose. Those were really fun. It's nice getting to see people you haven't seen in awhile. Most of those people I only see once a year, so I enjoy getting together and getting updates.

Here are a few pics from the reunion in Glen Rose

With cousin Cathy

Meeting new friends

Making funny faces

Sittin' with Pa and GG

Kaleb is crawling! He just started about 2 weeks ago and now he is going everywhere. He cracks me up how fast he took to it. He's always been very active, and man he hates to be held now when he could be on the floor exploring! He will be 8 months old on Wednesday and that is very hard to grasp. He is beginning to pull up onto his knees and his feet (with help). It hits home that he will be walking very soon and that is crazy to think about. I miss the days where he would stay put!

Here are a couple pictures from 6 months when we finally went to a studio and had his picture taken. I scanned them in so they are a little fuzzy.

It looks like he's sitting up on his own, but what you don't see is his mom sitting just inches outside the picture with hands up waiting to catch him from falling backwards! He still hasn't mastered sitting up completely. He just doesn't have a lot of mass to help him balance.

Here are a couple of pics in his favorite toy, his bouncer! These were taken in May, at 5 months

We had a good 4th of July. We didn't go to the parade or anything. We went and visited some relatives Kaleb hadn't seen since Christmas, and then went to see the fireworks that night. We thought Kaleb might be scared of the fireworks booms, but he slept right through it!

This is my great aunt Mary with Kaleb on the 4th

Kaleb's flashing his favorite finger!

Having fun with Nano

He's becoming quite a drooler if you can't tell

It's getting dark, the fireworks are going to start soon!

A few days ago we had a church fellowship at the catfish farm. I think we (as a church) caught over 150 lbs of catfish. We had a fish fry this Sunday. Here are a few pics of us fishing.

Casey hooked it, I reeled it in!

Kaleb thought Grandpa's hat was a lot better than his own, he kept trying to steal it!

This past weekend was my mom's big 5 0. She wasn't super excited, but we did have to celebrate. We figured that at her next 50th birthday, I'd be 76 and Kaleb would be 50!

The birthday girl

Aunt Edie

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures from July I thought I'd add. The one in his bouncer is a month older than the previous pics in his bouncer. I think there's an obvious difference in just a month!

He's beginning to love bathtime!

Kaleb loves his Sadie girl. He can chew too!

Everyone - thanks for being patient with me and my forgetfulness. I promise to update more often. Sorry this post was so long, but I was trying to add pictures and thoughts to cover 4 months! (May kinda got left out, I don't remember anything interesting then anyway!). I hope everyone is well. Have a great rest of the summer!