Happy Easter!

Finally! Easter pictures! We were in Jacksonville for Easter weekend, and had a lovely time. :)

She's wearing my shoes:
Our 2nd annual Easter Egg Hunt! This was Caleb's first year to participate, seeing as how last year on Easter, he was sick in the hospital.

He knew what to do:

Anna, the most adorable one-year-old girly:

Happy cousins!

Pajama Day!

I'm still trying to play catch up here. Life is keeping me pretty busy right now, but I'm trying! A few weeks ago our Chick-fil-A here had a Pajama Day. Kids could wear their jammies, make a craft, have their face painted, listen to a story, and spin the wheel for a prize! It was so much fun and you can see how happy the kids are with their crafts.

Thanks Chick-fil-A! You never disappoint us. :)

My Baby Is Two!

Caleb celebrated his second birthday at the end of March. He started his birthday by sleeping in!

The kids and I did some decorating on the sliding glass doors with some window markers:

The goodies:

I made a Caleb-friendly airplane cake:

He was so excited!

I love how his little tongue is sticking out:

I hate that this picture came out blurry. (New camera...I long for you!) This was after Caleb took a tiny taste of his cake and decided he liked it:

"Mmmm. So this is what I've been missing out on!"

He wanted more:

So I said "what the heck" and let him at it. Such a different kid than he was on his birthday last year! We are so thankful!

He got a surprise present...a big boy bed! But unfortunately, it didn't work out for a few reasons. So we'll be setting up his crib again very soon. We'll try again in a few months!

Some things to note about our big 2-year-old:

~He's a boy of many expressions and cracks us up with them all.

~Just this last week, while the kids were away, he started parting from his pacifier! (I like to leave that job up to the grandparents) :) Right now, he only uses it at nighttime. Woohoo!

~He's talking very well. Chris and I even noticed an improvement since last weekend. For example, one of the first things he said to me after Chris and I arrived to pick the kids up yesterday was this: "I change my poopy diaper!" I was so proud. :)

~He loves all things that go. His favorite I think, are airplanes, followed by motorcycles, trains and fire engines.

~Although he loves his big sister and mimics everything she does, they don't always get along. He does not enjoy sharing his things with her, but then again, since when does sharing come easily with a 2-year-old?

~He loves to eat.

We love you Caleb!! We are so proud of you!

Blue Angels

We had the opportunity to go the Air Force base here to see an air show a few weekends back. The Blue Angels were flying, Chris had never been to an air show before and it was a free event, so we packed up the kids and took off for the day!


Below is a picture of two of the six Blue Angels. They perform tricks and it's super cool to watch. Here, these two are flying side by side, one is upside down! (The sky got all washed out and I don't know how to fix it.)

Here's all six:

Caleb LOVED every minute of the air show. Even when it was super loud. It was fun watching him experience the excitement.Laura Anne wanted to go inside a plane. She loved all the planes, too.

Here's my two men, exploring a huge plane. (Sorry, I don't know the names of any of them!)

We caught a glimpse of one of the Blue Angels pilots signing autographs:

I love Laura Anne's face here. The sun was so bright. :)

Overall, it was a great family day. The only thing we forgot? Sunscreen. Ouch!

Post #300!!!

Hooray! This is my 3ooth post!

Alrighty, so there's a park really close to where we live. We drove by it recently when it was dark out. So the kids and I walked one day to try to find it, but we couldn't. It was kind of frustrating because I know I had seen it before! Well, we attempted to find it a different day by driving. :) There it was, all hidden by trees. We had walked right past it before. We've gone twice since and the kids love it! We are usually the only ones there which, in my opinion, is great.


Swinging is Caleb's favorite thing to do. His next favorite is the slide. He will continuously slide, then run around to do it again. Laura Anne loves everything. There's even a baseball park there and both of them will just run the bases.

Sigh. My kids smiles make me turn into a puddle.

A Pregnancy Update...Plus Some

The first major event during my 40-day fast: I passed the halfway point in my pregnancy!! Can you believe that? I'm four weeks past that, and I still can't believe it. I absolutely LOVE the birth center I'm going to and the two midwives there are both wonderful ladies. I am so looking forward to giving birth here.

So, during my 20th week, we finally got to have an ultrasound!! We saw our baby for the first time and it was sooo worth waiting for. My mom was able to come for the occasion. It was nice having her there! :) During the ultrasound, the baby was gently moving around. It kept turning its head towards us and moving both arms up by its head. It was awesome. And the answer to the big question: the sex of the baby is still unknown. :D

This is the bottom of the baby's feet:

Hi Baby! Take a look at a straight-on view of the baby's face:
My favorite picture...profile of baby with its left hand up by its face. I just love the elbow and the fist. And the curly thing above the arm is the umbilical cord:

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So, following the ultrasound, Chris went to work while Mom and I and the kids headed to Jacksonville. It started off as a lovely visit. Pops took the kids for a walk one day and I secretly snapped a few pictures of them.

One night, this is how I found Laura Anne and Caleb on the airbed. I was supposed to fit between them somehow. :) Precious!

And that, my friends, was the end of our "lovely" visit. It turned very unlovely the next morning, first with Laura Anne and my sister having some kind of stomach bug. The day following that, it was my turn to catch it! I spent the entire day either in bed or in the bathroom. I'm so thankful we were in Jax though, because my kids were taken care of all day. It wouldn't have been that easy had we been home. Anyway, then our trip was over and my youngest brother drove us home. Needless to say, that visit wasn't the most enjoyable one we've had. The stomach bug continued to go through the family after we left too, with my brother and my stepdad catching it. My mom and Caleb were the lucky ones.

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So we're currently making up for some of that trip right now. The kids are, at this very moment, spending time at Grammy and Pops' house, behaving like angels (so I hear) and having a ball! I am at home, semi-enjoying the quietness, catching up on Dr. Quinn re-runs and blogging. :) Tonight, Chris and I might just drive the 7 1/2 minutes to the beach for a relaxing stroll by the shore.

I'm Back!!!

I survived!! And actually, while going 40 days without getting on the internet had its downsides, it really wasn't all that bad. I thought I would have so much free time, and I discovered the complete opposite. Yes, I took lots of pictures. Yes, I spent much more time with the kids and catching up on housework and such. But I did not do any scrapbooking or photo editing during the whole 40 days! But we all had a great time. And wouldn't you know, I kept a list of the events that happened so I wouldn't leave anything out here, and I lost it!!! So we'll see how this goes. Let's begin the catching up!!

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One of my favorite things is our family playtime before the kids go to bed. Lately the kids have been into playing "tiger" where all four of us are tigers crawling around on the floor and pretend fighting. This game almost always turns into a tickle fight between daddy and the children. It's fun to watch. :)

I'm in love with this picture of Chris and Laura Anne. I just don't know what else to say about it!

Blowing raspberries on Caleb's tummy gets him cackling! He definitely has a contagious laugh.

Playing with the camera trying to catch a family photo. Not bad! It's the wallpaper on our home computer. :)

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One morning, just after breakfast we noticed a squirrel on our back porch. The kids sat at the sliding door for a while, just watching the squirrel.

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So on this particular day, I was in the kitchen fixing lunch when Laura Anne said, "Mommy! Come look at us!" I found the two of them sitting in the window together being all sweet-like. So I picked up the camera. When I said "smile!" this is the look I got from Caleb:What a little ham!!

That's the first batch. I'll get the next chapter in Castleberry Tales up shortly! :)