vacation

James and I hit year #10 this summer... so we decided to venture off to Cancun. I think the last time we went anywhere alone together for any length of time was our 1st anniversary... maybe? Caleb had a great time in NLR with Memaw and Pepaw, and we talked to him pretty much every day via Skype.

View from back sliding glass door...

View from one of the many restaurants... I wonder how much it would cost to move to this resort?

Sigh...

That sigh is me realizing how much catching-up I need to do. Part of the reason I don't post very often (besides lack of time) is that I can't stand to look at this messed up blog. Every since my old background expired, I haven't been able to make it look halfway decent. Maybe Christmas break...

Sweet friends Bonnie and Becky who came out to support Hannah's H.O.P.E.

Poppa Ed and Caleb enjoying some time outside at Aunt Carla's this summer...

This was supposed to be a "cheese" that looked more like a "someone please get me out of here"!

I have a great idea.... I should cover up Smokey with sand!

Oh my...

Has it really been that long since I posted? I am pretty much a blog failure here lately... and this post is for my friend LW who is tired of seeing my bucket garden :)

Caleb is growing so fast... he will be 3 in less than 2 weeks. Here are some new things from him (among the many new things):
-He says "How bout go outside?" or "How bout we build blocks?"... quite the little negotiator, just like his Sissy was.
-He will sometimes add "or something"... like, lets play puzzles or something
-He has a knack for picking up on songs off the radio...like "California Girls"
-He runs out from the bathroom after his bath to show whoever is around that he has a naked booty.
-He is quite the little politician at church- he says hi and bye to everyone and gives out hugs left and right to people he doesn't even know.
-He says "You're my baaaaaaby"... wonder who tells him that? :)
-He loves to chase our dog Molly around and scare her... poor Molly
-He still loves to read... I will find him in his room with books spread out all around him. He can "read" several books that he's memorized.
-He loves going to "school" (Mother's Day Out)... he only goes on Mondays, but he literally says every day that he wants to go to school.
-He also loves Puggles (his little Wed. night class at church)... if it's not school he wants to go to, it's church. He will tell us what all God made... flowers, birds, trees... and me!

Such a sweet boy.... I will try and catch up eventually with actual pictures.

Bucket Garden

I'm sure this is not that impressive to many of you who have wonderful gardens... that are actually in the ground :) However, this is HUGE for me... I do not have a green thumb at all. In fact, I'm an expert plant killer. A good friend came and basically kindly did all this for me b/c I wouldn't have known where to start. It's given me something to do... I enjoy going out and watering... checking for progress. Again, pretty big for me. Nana commented that my Mammaw and Pappaw must be smiling down from Heaven- they grew lots of stuff at their house back in the day. If I don't kill these, I might graduate to an actual garden in the ground next year!

If you look closely, you will see a tomato in the top middle of this pic... and a little cherry tomato in the bottom-slightly right of center.

Still dancin...

Caleb visited with Memaw and Pepaw for a few days last week while Mommy got some work done- including painting the hall (bleh). Pepaw took this little video of Caleb's moves... now he's added the famous "ending move". That's Aunt Susan (SuSu) that gets to have a "dance party" (as he calls it).

Branson

We went to Branson a few weeks ago... Caleb had a great time at the pool and at this little kiddie ride place (as you can see below). I was surprised by how much he liked the pool- it had a shallow end, so he could walk up and down the ramp doing his weird eye stuff with the rail (I will try and get video of this sometime). He also liked to jump off the side... if you held his hands. He would not just jump off and trust me to catch him... nothing like Sissy. She would jump hoping that I wouldn't be able to get to her.

Just tell me that these faces are not full of pure joy...

Relay for Life

Catching up... as usual. We went to the luminary lighting ceremony at the Relay for Life in June... this benefits the American Cancer Society. It was another one of those terrible, but good things. I never know if I'm going to be glad I went to things such as this... but in the long run, I usually am. I told Caleb that there were lights for Sissy... and he repeated that lots of times. Thanks again to all of you who donated in Hannah Grace's memory...

Sweet boy in his stroller...

So sad that there has to be a track-full of these....