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!

Easter Fun

Happy Easter everyone! This year Easter happened to fall on Casey's birthday (or Casey's birthday fell on Easter!). So after church we went down to his mom and dad's for turkey and dressing. It snowed this Easter! We got about 2 inches of snow over a couple of days. I thought all of that was behind us. It was almost 90 degrees on Monday, then it snowed on Friday! Crazy weather. It's supposed to get warm again by Tuesday. Go figure. Maybe that'll be our last freeze (hopefully). It's too hard having a baby in cold weather. I had to post some pics of Kaleb in his Easter outfit. He was stylin'!

Kaleb in his snowsuit. He didn't get to wear it much this year so we wanted to get it out one last time! These were taken Saturday afternoon.

Kaleb and Daddy on his 26th Birthday

Kaleb loves his new Bumbo chair!

Some tired boys

I Love It!

Lost is getting so good! I am loving all these new episodes. Casey gets mad though at what he calls "filler" episodes. Like the one about Claire trying to catch a bird, and the recent one about the two that were buried alive. He thinks if we don't learn a lot of new interesting info, then it's a filler. I would have to partially agree. I think for those types of episodes it's good to really watch the flashbacks carefully to get any new info from them, if what we are seeing on the island isn't very interesting or revealing. I am very interested to find out what's going on with Locke! He is acting crazy to leave his friends and go with the others to a different spot. I bet it has something to do with his dad being there (btw what is up with that?!). I think they found out what happened to him and went and got his dad to entice Locke to switch sides. This is easier to believe now that we know they have (or had) a way to get off the island. It's just been a really great season. I can't wait for the next episode. Very exciting stuff!

March Happenings

Hello everyone, thought I would update since it's been about a month since my last one. We went to the coast for Spring Break and had a really great time. We went with Casey's family and some friends from church. I went deep sea fishing one day. It was suppoed to be a 12 hour trip, but one of our engines broke down on the way out so we really only got to fish for 2 hours, then it took almost 4 hours to get back! It was not the most exciting trip, but we caught a lot of fish in 2 hours. We also went to the beach one day, and to the greyhound races. Casey went on a guided trip and caught a trophy red drum, which he wants to get mounted I'm sorry to say :) . We had a wonderful trip - It was so nice to get out of town for a few days.

Everything else is going well. Casey is still enjoying his job and is getting quite a bit of tree work also, which is helping. He really enjoys that as well. My job is going well, we are staying busy which is always a good thing. I am enjoying being only 10 minutes from home, and being able to get home by 2:30-3 everyday. It's so nice.

Kaleb is getting so big! He will be 4 months old April 1st, and has doubled his weight. Once we started him on formula he started gaining like crazy! He's now actually a little chubby. He is vocalizing so much more. He recently began shrieking and it's so cute. He's on the verge of giggling, but hasn't got there quite yet. He almost rolled over a couple days ago. He sort of fell over on his side, and then rolled the rest of the way. It won't be long I'm sure. He's had a persistent ear infection recently that we are trying to get him over. I think it's about gone now, but he had a pretty nasty one, it was fighting the antibiotic. We had to eventually get shots and that was traumatic, to say the least! I actually think we were more upset about it then Kaleb was!

Here are some pics of our trip, as well as of Kaleb during his 3rd month.

Casey and our friend Tanyan with their trophy fish

Casey's was 42 inches long! Definitely a keeper.

Kaleb wasn't sure what to think about those big fish!

Kaleb likes taking cat naps anywhere, anytime!

We're hangin at the beach house, watching t.v. (it rained quite a bit while we were there)

Kaleb at 3 months

Kaleb looks so big in these pictures (above and below)! I think it's because he looks like he's sitting up pretty independently, but he's a long way from that yet.

Uncle Kelly and his girlfriend Kelcey having fun playing!

This is a picture Marlene took to send in for a sweepstakes showing mom's performing their favorite "mom jobs". I hope I win, I could use some free formula!

Chillin in my car seat, I love my fish key toy

Kaleb with his great-granny!