Mac 'N Cheese Cheerio Tacos

Caleb decided to dress up his taco the other night with leftover mac n cheese and multi-grain cheerios. (Ok, I admit it...so I'm still not feeling great and both were my leftovers still sitting on the table from earlier that day.) He actually ate most of it and kept trying to convince us that we wanted some on our tacos too. He is a lot of fun and keeps us entertained.

As a follow up to the whole sleeping thing, Caleb has switched to a toddler bed and has done AWESOME! The first night before we were really prepared to do anything he was up about 4000 times. So the next night we tried a child lock thing on the inside of his door. He cried for about two minutes during which time I felt like the worst person alive. But then he got in his bed and went to sleep and has been going right to sleep every night since then for the whole night. What a sweet boy. He always amazes us with how good he really is. I feel like we avoided yet another messy time with him. He spoils us! I love that boy!

On a completely unrelated topic, we're sad the olympics are over. It's so much fun to watch! Caleb enjoyed them too. Every time the olympic theme music came on (as in every time it went to a commercial and came back), Caleb would shout, "Dance with me!" and rock out to the music. Not sure how that started, but it was really funny. Too bad I forgot to get it on video. The last time we went swimming, Caleb would put his hands over his head just like they do on tv and jump in the water. Good times. On the other hand, I'm also kind of glad they are over so I can sleep again.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, we are so totally enjoying having Chris around in the evenings again! Yahoo!

More Exciting News

We are expecting baby #2! We are soooooooo excited!! We are about 17 weeks along, so hopefully we'll find out in about 3 weeks whether we will be having a boy or a girl. I've been quite a bit sicker this time around, even with anti-nausea/vomiting medication. But hopefully that part should go away soon. Otherwise, things have been great and we are so excited for Caleb to be a big brother!

Changes

We've had a few changes at our house recently.

Today my brother Kip and his wife Bridget (who were staying with us for the summer) left to go back to law school. We are so sad to see them go! They were such a huge help around the house, made great treats and meals, and it was just fun to play games, watch movies, go out to eat, and just have fun with them! The summer just flew by! Caleb keeps asking if "Dip and Bibbets" are at work. He just doesn't quite understand...so sad! We love you guys and we'll miss you tons!

The next change is a good change. Chris takes his LAST final tomorrow night! I can't believe he's completed his second masters! It really did go by fast. Looking back. Caleb and I are so excited to have him around in the evenings again!!!!!!!!! Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our other change is a new trick that Caleb has. Today I had put Caleb down for a nap and decided to go read a book. I fell asleep and the next thing I knew someone was tapping me on the back. Scared me to death!!! So Caleb has decided to climb out of his crib again. A long time ago he tried and fell out and hurt himself and much to my delight, he hadn't tried again. I knew once he tried again it was over because he is an excellent climber. So today I rocked him for just a minute and he fell right asleep and took a nap. As soon as he was done sleeping he scared me to death again by popping into the room. So tonight he has climbed out about 10 times since 8pm. I'm hoping I'm not in for a long night. Any advice for convincing a 2 1/2 year old to stay in his bed?!?!

Fire Ants

To me, one of the definite drawbacks of living in Texas is all the nasty creepy crawly stuff. I've never lived anywhere with quite the variety, size, and quantity.

Caleb had his first experience with fire ants the other day. A few of us had gone to the park to play a game and Caleb was just running around having fun. He went over to this fence and was standing on a dirt pile that ended up being a big ol' fire ant hill. He just stood there with this grimace on his face that will be forever ingrained in my memory. We ran over and the fire ants were all over his feet and crawling up his pants. The poor kid is a trooper though. He didn't even cry, just made this sad little whimper as we yanked his flip flops and pants off and swatted away the rest.

Maybe I'm just a wimp, but I think those things seriously hurt! My first and only (hopefully!) encounter with them was last summer when I was buckling Caleb into the car and inadvertently stepped in a pile on the edge of our driveway that I didn't know was there. They swarmed my foot in just seconds and it really did feel like my foot was on fire for like 10 minutes.

The picture is kind of gross, but here are Caleb's poor feet. He had these nasty marks up and down his legs and on his feet:

Washington!

Caleb and I just got back from a couple weeks in Washington state. Unfortunately, Chris is wrapping up the summer semester and was unable to come. But he was able to get a ton of stuff done for school and work, so that is good. But we missed him tons!!

But Caleb and I had such a blast! We got to stay in a palace on the hill (a.k.a my brother's family's palace). We stayed with my brother Kerry and my sister-in-law Christy and their three cute kids (although they're not really kids anymore!). My sister, Kaylyn, also lives fairly close so we spent lots of time with her too. My dad was able to come up for a few days too. How could we not have tons of fun?!?!

My family has lots of July/August birthdays, and we were able to celebrate 4 while we were there. Here is Caleb helping my brother blow out his candles. (Hmmm...there sure are a lot of candles on that cheesecake... :)



We went swimming, to the park almost every day, miniature golfing, and of course played tons and tons of games. This time the favorites were Rage (a VERY fun card game and appropriately named) and Settlers of Catan, although we still fit in tons of others. Oh, and what's a visit with family without eating out?!?! A TON!

Growing up we were always playing games in our backyard. One of our favorites was croquet. So of course we had to break out the croquet and play a few "friendly" games. :)



The weather was a bit colder than I expected, but a nice break from the Texas heat! I was surprised by how early it got light in the mornings--it was fairly light by 4:30a.m. The first couple nights we were there Caleb woke up at 5am and must have thought it was daytime. We had a great view from our room with a balcony and at 5am Caleb was exclaiming, "Oh wow! Mom! Trees! Tall trees! Oh wow!" So after that we had to cover up our great view and keep it dark and had no more problems with early risers. :)

My niece Kathryn was in this awesome dance festival put on by like seven area stakes. It was awesome! And Kathryn did a great job! And of course, Caleb enjoyed every moment of it too. Here is sample of how much Caleb liked it:

He was so funny because he was trying to imitate each of the different dances. When they were dancing and clapping he was dancing and clapping, if they turned in a bunch of circles, he turned in a bunch of circles. When the crowd cheered, he would bow and say thank you--he was convinced everyone was clapping for him.

We were also able to attend my niece Karalee's baptism. We very much enjoyed it and it was very special.

Caleb was spoiled ROTTEN. Ok, we both were.

Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, but my brother promised to send me some of his. So when I get those, I'll post them too.