January

Traditionally, January is my least favorite month. There are usually some post-holiday blues along with a lot of cold. I usually find myself in survival mode until March or April. Originally I was going to title this post 'Surviving January', but this year, January hasn't been too bad -- mainly because we've had one of the warmest winters in history. We started the month AT THE PARK!

Being outside is good for the soul! We also had some inside fun, meeting up with friends at Monkey Bizness.

Caleb loved the crawling area!

We also met up with friends at Pump it Up. While we were there, Caleb clapped for the first time! So mad I didn't have my camera with video with me.

Wes loved the slides.

And he tried out the climbing wall.

Dillon did more than try it out, he did it over and over and over again

...and he kept getting about this high.

Then, right before it closed, and we were forced to leave, he tried one more time and made it to the top of the 20 foot wall!!! I was so proud of my boy for putting his mind to something and doing it. I wish I could have captured the smile on his face when he made it.

Dillon lost his fifth tooth this month. The best part was that he pulled it out on his own. I wasn't even around. I had run upstairs to get Caleb and when I came back, he was sitting at the kitchen table with a bloody tooth in his hand. My boy really is getting tough.

We also saw some snow this month. Caleb was fascinated watching white stuff fall from the sky.

Wesley loved getting out in the snow.

You should see him shovel!

Dillon made his own igloo and just laid inside for quite a while.

Just the right amount of snow for me. A year ago today was the beginning of the blizzard when we got over 2 feet of snow. And yet today we had temps in the upper 50s! Crazy.

So here's to a pretty decent January. Hopefully February doesn't stab us in the back!

Nine Months Old!

Our Caleb is growing way too fast. And he just keeps getting cuter. The first week of this month was spent among family and I just have to take a moment to talk about these two...

I love the relationship my dad has with Caleb. I think it's because he came to help right after Caleb was born. So he was the first to meet our little man. My dad even claims he saw Caleb's first smile :) They can't get enough of each other and I can't get enough of them together. I love it! Dad, thanks for being such an awesome grandpa.

We've discovered curl in this boy's hair this month.

Right when he gets out of the tub there's a cute little wave like his big brother Wesley.

Caleb, on the other hand, has discovered EVERYTHING! This boy is all over the place!

His favorite spot is the bathroom. He loves to unwind the roll of toilet paper...

use the top of the toilet as a drum, and he's even figured out how to flush!

He loves Mom's green broom and is always crawling over to its corner to take a look and see how many little yuckies he can find attached to it.

Caleb is doing new things everyday. He pulls up to standing against everything. He's a major cruiser and we've even see him let go and stand for a few seconds! And yesterday I found him on the 4th stair up!!! Ahh!

He's discovered the tiny little rocks in the fireplace, making my life much harder! I spend my whole day trying to keep him from major disaster.

His new sounds are "na na" "la la" and "ta ta"

He's got two new teeth! The top left one popped through last week and just today the top right made its debut. Poor Caleb's been pretty uncomfortable though.

It's been a rough month in the sleeping department. Between traveling and teething, neither he nor I have slept much. Two nights ago he went all through the night though, so maybe we're headed in the right direction! I hope so!!!

He's gotten better at waving and we saw him clap for the first time!

He's still the most smiley baby I know and I love every bit of him. I love wrapping him up for bed and nuzzling my nose right into his soft cheek a few times. He giggles but manages to keep his binkie in. I love it! He's just so fun!

Love our little boy! I just wish I could freeze him so he doesn't get any bigger!

In the Words of a First Grader

Time to record Dillon's cute papers he brings home from school and clear them off the door where I like to display them. (Words in italics were the prompt he was given)

• Petzza is scrumptious! I like the olivs. I help my mom make it. I like the petzza so much I eat more and more. I like the chese. I like the big pesies. My family likes petzza.
• Do you like to gobble? I like to gobble cokes (cookies). I like the choklet chip ones. My mom likes them to. We eat them for snaks and dzert. My holl family likes them. I like them emunem ones to.
• Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful. First, I am thankful for my family. They luve me. We play. Second I am thankdful for my home. We clene ower home. It givs us selter. Third I am thankful for horses. I ride them. I like the brown ones. Thanksgiving is fun. I like the terky. I can't wate for that day. I play on that day.
• My Thanksgiving was amazing! I was a wolf. I attaked a 11 year old boy. His name is Sam. I eat and eat. I love the swet ptato.
• Dillon's bruthers Wesley and Calube play whith him. Calube is redy to crol. Isn't that amasenge! I like that. He is happy alot. I hold him alot.
• I would like to live in the country. Then I could ride ponese and horses. I could go to cherch. I could lern. I could go to the park.
• A tree is beautiful! I climb trees! Trees are shelter for animals and people. That is good! Raccoons and squirrels and even ants can live in trees. Birds can live in trees. That is amazing!
• Let me tell you about my bedroom I have a desk in it. I shar a bunkbed. I werk at my desk. I play with my bruthers. (His "desk" is the seat of a chair.)
• The boy went to the beach. He saw lots of fish. Waw! He saw a pod of dolphins. They wer bodl nosd dolphins.
• The snowman is amazed! He is amazed becus there's a rainbow. His name is Jasin. He is happy. He is hansum. He is six years old. He lives in a prity place. My Christmas Tree is butyful! There is a big big stor at the top. There are lots of ordments. I put anamals on the tree for fun. I pretend the tree is the oshene.
• Christmas is a happy time of year. It is fun to give gifts. I am going to give the best gift of all to my mom. It will be a pink and plum ring. I am going to get it with my dad at Target. She will like it because it is colorful and her favorite color is plum. My mom will be so happy.
• My best Christmas present was a dolphin. It was blue. It was adorabl. I named it Brittny. It was a gir. It is 12 munths old. It's berthday is on December 25th.
• It's 2012! This year I would like to lern Gymnatix. Then I could pull mysellf up. Then I could pop a bone in 1 sekint. I would like to lern kroty.
• The doorbell rang! It was a candycane! It brot gelo. It was lemin gelo. It was six inches wide and two feet tall. We ate and ate and ate. Our bellese wer so full that they were going to berst.

He is obviously obsessed with animals and food. And some of these sentences are a little alarming. Is his ideal Thanksgiving really one where he eats an 11 year old boy?! Lots of the sentences are sweet though too and it's fun to see him learn this crazy language of ours. One other thing I better record: The other day Dillon said, "Dad, it's so cool you make paper!" We were confused until we realized how many tablets of paper with Aaron's letterhead from work we have lying around. If Dad's name is printed on a paper, he must have made that paper! Pretty funny how children see things. We love our Dillon!

Family Moments

Amidst Christmas and all the wedding festivities, there were lots of fun moments with family. I tried to capture a few of them. Dillon was thrilled when Brittany offered to paint his face...

...like a dolphin! This boy is obsessed with dolphins and sharks these days. What a great aunt! We had fun getting to know little Blake. He's just fifteen hours younger than Caleb, and yet they are so different. He is such a cutie. Dillon has had a little practice with babies.

And we had lots of fun showing off our little Caleb. He's just so fun right now!

Here he is with cousin Tyce. Chase and Aunt Richelle in the background.

My Grandma Hobbs stuck around for the two days between the wedding and reception. It was great to have some extra time with her. I want my boys to have memories with their great grandparents.

Lots of tickling with Grandpa

A big squeeze from Grandma before she left. I love her! (like the baby slobber on my sleeve?!)

Cousin Avery is so cute. She hugged everyone in the room when they were leaving.

As we drove out of Idaho I got a call from the newlyweds. They were just 15 miles behind us, so we pulled over to see them one last time before heading back to Illinois. It was a fun pit stop.

We opted not to drive through the night on the way back and stopped in North Platte, Nebraska for the night. But that just made for two really long days in the car, so I can't decide which method is better. Hmmm.

It was a great holiday and so good to see all our family. Wish we could do it more often.

New Years Eve

The day started something like this...

It's so fun to have all the Chandler grand-boys together. During the day our big boys went with the cousins to Hop To It and had a blast. That evening we ate pizza and played a variety of games including Duck, Duck, Goose.

We also tried out the gift we bought Grandma and Grandpa -- The Boogie Monster Book -- Everyone had fun dancing...

...and twirling...

...and just being together!

After we got the kids down, the adults played Curses. We laughed so hard. It was a great way to bring in the New Year.

A couple more reception shots

I'm not sure what was happening here, but I'm sure it had something to do with Heather, the family comedian, making some comment. I love my grandma's face when she laughs.

Heather is so awesome. She is so positive and really helped me a lot this trip. Whenever I got frustrated trying to keep both families pleased, she'd come tell me what a great job I was doing and it made a world of difference. Thank you Heather. I love you!

You might have to be in the family to appreciate these pics.

Tossing the bouquet

Lauren was determined to catch those flowers --- and she did! My brother and his friend Jake have the coolest friendship. It was so fun to see the two of them together. I still picture them in Nintendo sweatpants! This pic is them trying to be serious.

The bride and her daddy

Another really cute one of my baby

The chocolate covered spoons were supposed to be used to stir your hot chocolate, but Wesley had other ideas.

Me and the bride

Richelle and the Brittany -- I actually think these two look the most alike, minus the hair color.