Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! A little late!!

Chris, the good man that he is, did most of the cooking Thursday morning. We did the brining of the turkey thing this year and used a roaster oven. Both different than we had done before. Turned out really good! However, I ended up being nauseous and had a hard time keeping food down Wednesday night and Thursday. (Ok, actually quite a bit this week. You'd think at 30+ weeks along this would be a thing of the past!!) So I think I ate about two bites of the big meal. Caleb was acting strange all morning--just kind of laying around not wanting to do anything. He even grabbed the phone book and used it as a pillow. He took an early and long nap and didn't eat any of the big meal. Poor Chris, as it turned out, got to eat his a bit cold. So all in all, not exactly as planned, but what can you do?!?! It makes for good memories.

By that night, Caleb was feeling a little bit better. We decided to break out all our Christmas stuff and set up our tree and put up our lights. To be honest, we had hard time this year waiting until Thanksgiving! We were all excited to decorate!!

Caleb helping Chris put up the tree:



Here is Caleb helping with the decorating of the tree...we later redistributed everything, but he had a good old time hanging everything.



Caleb giddy to be putting the lights up outside:



What a big helper. The boy loves to climb:




Friday, Chris ended up having to work most of the day, even though it was supposed to be a day off. But that night we went downtown to the river parade. They have a big parade where all the boats are made into floats with Christmas lights and decorations and everyone in costumes and music etc. They also turn on all the lights along the Riverwalk which are really pretty! The night was made even better by getting to ride the BUS!! We decided we would ride the bus for the added adventure of it all. Caleb was just giddy to ride the bus and to see the boats and all the lights on the Riverwalk. We had a good time!

Chris and Caleb at the bus stop:



Krista and Caleb at the parade:



Not the best, picture...it was too dark to get good pictures! But this is one of the floats, and you can sort of see the lights hanging on the Riverwalk too.




Saturday we decided to hit Sea World. The weather was perfect!!!! All summer long Caleb begged to ride the Shamu rollercoaster, but he was just not quite tall enough. Well, since he's grown about 8 feet in the last couple months, he was finally tall enough! Ok, well he was more than tall enough, so technically he probably could have ridden it a little while ago. But he finally got to ride it! And Texas Splashdown, the log flume type ride that I didn't know he could have ridden a long time ago!! I was really surprised they let little kids ride that! The hill at the end is pretty big! Quite a few kids were crying by the end. Caleb was crying...because he didn't want to get off! He wanted more more!! He keeps talking about wanting to go back! I hope he is a roller coaster junkie like us!!!

Chris and Caleb waving on the log flume ride:



Waiting in line for the Shamu rollercoaster:



A bad picture of Chris and Caleb (but the only one my bad reflexes could get) on the rollercoaster:



Hangin with Shamu:



As always at holidays, we missed our families and friends that are far away, but did manage to have some fun being together here.

p.s. Do you think that if you drink a bunch of eggnog and then throw it up that you still get as many calories and fat from it?!? :)

Pictionary

Backstory: (Note: As you read this post, remember we love each other more than can be undone by any furry creature of the forest.)

Krista and I are somewhat competitive when it comes to just about everything. We used to see who could push the other person into parked cars, light poles, and other objects, all in the name of sport. We kept tally, usually measured by who last succeeded in carrying out the dastardly deed. (We were certain that we were the subject of other people's Sunday School lessons..."I saw some guy push a girl into a parked car...I don't think it's ever appropriate to treat women like that!")

Games are always competitive and can become heated. It's usually a good sort of competition until we are fighting to help each other win at the same time. A classic example of this is Pictionary (which we no longer play together). During one game, Krista drew a couple of circles and a couple of lines and became excitable when I could not tell what the figure was. "Shapes!" I yelled. "Swirly pogo bounce staff thingies," a likely guess. She stopped "drawing" and kept tapping the paper with her pencil as though the drawing were obvious and I just didn't see it. "Donuts around toothpicks?" The pencil pounding increased.

When time ran out, she exclaimed (as though it were a photograph) "It's a SQUIRREL!" Competition gave way to sheer frustration. Two circles + two lines = one squirrel? Oye!

While the squirrel story has been re-told many times over the years, our days of playing Pictionary died with the squirrel. That was the last time we played Pictionary*.

Story: Caleb and Krista were making use of Caleb's Aquadoodle and Krista tried to get Caleb to practice his letters. She drew a "C" for "Caleb" and asked him what it was and continued on with other letters. She suggested he try drawing his own letters too. A couple of scribbles into it, he says, "What this is, mom?" "A?" came the reply. "No..." "B?" "No," he said, "it's my bed."

I said, "sounds like he plays Pictionary like his mom," to which Krista replied (very sarcastically, yet slightly lovingly), "shut uuuup."

Krista then drew (I'm laughing while typing this) a picture she thought Caleb would like, but he wanted a bus. "Draw a bus, mom." "It is a bus," she solemnly stated.

I broke out in laughter and tears. "I rest my case."

*We have played Pictionary a single time since then, against my better judgement. It was with Kip and Bridget. Remind me, who won that game?

Hodge Podge

This is kind of a random hodge podge update. But things I want to remember later....

BABY UPDATE:
I went for a follow up ultrasound and the baby's kidneys are still just as bad. Dang it! I was hoping I'd go and they'd tell me it has all cleared up! Oh well. We'll follow up in a few weeks again. I can't believe it's already time to start going every two weeks to doctor appointments!

It was so fun to do another ultrasound though. She pointed out so many more things this time. And according to the technician, it looks like we are definitely going to have another totally bald baby like Caleb.

Unfortunately, I still get sick a couple times a week. I think I have traumatized Caleb. He walks by the toilets and turns his head and makes a puking noise. Kind of sad that he thinks that's what they're for. He is so cute though. He used to get really upset when I was throwing up, but Chris has taught him to rub my back and say, "We're here for you mom." So now every time I'm sick I have my 2 year old compassionate paramedic there helping me out. "We're here for you mom! What do you need mom?"


POTTY TRAINING!
Caleb is doing awesome with the potty training thing! Whoohooo! He's been going potty for almost a year now anytime we ask him. We finally got our lazy selves motivated to ask him to go consistently. Now he will even go without being asked. I feel like we totally lucked out on yet another stage I have been dreading. It's going to be hard if our next kid isn't quite so easy going with all these fun stages. We might actually have to do some parenting or something. :) Here is his little motivator:

Every time we would go to Walmart, Caleb would beg to see the fish. But not just any of the fish. He would quickly pass all the others by until he found the Betta Fish. So Chris came up with the brilliant plan to use the fish as a motivator for potty training. Works great!!


CHOCOLATE MILK:
Just in case you are wondering.... For those times when Caleb wants chocolate milk but his bike is in the garage...he will just improvise. Still no need to take two trips. This time he used a kitchen chair to push it all the way down the entry way and into the living room complete with milk, chocolate powder, spoon, and cup. I would love to be inside his head sometimes and sneak a peak at his thought process. :)



AUSTIN FUN:
This weekend we were able to go up to Austin. Chris's grandma was visiting (from California) and staying with his uncle and family that live up there. So we headed up there and had so much fun!




Great weather and great hospitality! Always so much fun when we head up there! Thanks for everything, guys!

Air Show

Last weekend we headed out to the air show at Lackland Airforce Base. Chris's dad used to take him to air shows when he was younger and he absolutely loved them! He has lots of good memories from the shows. Caleb and I had not been to one before, so we thought we better check one out!

One of the best parts was getting to take a bus from the parking lot to the show! :) Caleb was just giddy.



Caleb got to sit in some of the airplanes and check them out by himself:







And check some out with his dad:











Chris was most excited to see the Blue Angels perform. He has very fond memories of seeing them when he was younger. They were very fun to watch and did some amazing stuff!!







On our way out, this guy was just walking by and stopped Caleb and said hello. He was so nice!! He let Caleb wear his hat and made his day!!





Caleb was most disappointed that he didn't actually get to fly in any airplanes. He did however love how loud the airplanes were and keeps talking about it still. We had a great time and will definitely have to check out another air show sometime!

Halloween Fun

Here is our cute little dog:

The last couple years we chose costumes for Caleb that we thought were just adorable. This year, we decided that we were going to let Caleb choose his costume. So we went to the store and showed him Lightning McQueen and Thomas the Train and some others I was sure he would jump all over. Instead, he finds this dog costume and would not be swayed. Never mind that all the others were nice and light and cool costumes for the hot Texas climate. Nope, we needed the big hot stuffy cute dog costume. But he loved it so much and looked so cute, it all worked out. And the weather was even a bit cooler and made it ok.

We made lots of Halloween cookies, but didn't take pictures. Caleb loves to help roll out the dough, use the cookie cutters, and help decorate the cookies.

We did get pictures of the pumpkins we carved though. Here is Caleb wielding his weapon of choice:


Caleb was way excited to get to choose the ghost this time. He also has our patterns planned out for "next time" a.k.a. next year, I guess. Here are the finished products:







At church we had a Halloween party that included a trunk-or-treat, a carnival for the kids, a dessert contest, and a costume contests. Lots of fun! Here is Chris as one of the judges with his always present helper, Caleb.



Here is Caleb ready to trick-or-treat:



At the first door it took him a couple minutes to get up the nerve to knock. But after that, he was sprinting from door to door and had the drill down. He was so cute. He would go to the door by himself, knock, say "trick-or-treat" then "thank you!" and he was off and running. I felt a little sad that he didn't need our help at all. But I guess that's a good thing.


I love holidays with our cute kid!!!!!!!