Castleberry Tales

Recap

2012-02-02T10:26:00.005-05:00

So here's what you missed:

Laura Anne had a birthday!

Caleb's big Christmas gift this year was a train table with lots of Thomas the train tracks and engines to go with it.

Laura Anne's big Christmas gift was a bike!

On more than one occasion, I caught Stellan on the table nibbling off of our gingerbread house!

We visited with cousins and grandparents in Jacksonville

I couldn't resist a picture opportunity because the 3 boys were all wearing Cars shirts. :)

In January, we had a great family day at a playground, and then had a picnic at a park. It was beautiful.

I'm hoping to be able to stay caught up with the 'ole blog. We'll see if that works out. Does anyone even read it anymore? .....hello? (crickets chirping)

Happy Holidays!

2012-02-01T15:32:00.003-05:00

You won't normally hear me say "happy holidays" but I am trying to cover my bases. I missed Christmas and New Year's on the blog, and since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I'm including that, too. :)

These three adorable little people are keeping me busy this year. We're moving right along through LA's kindergarten year of homeschooling. Caleb is learning more, too and we are still doing occasional experiments and hands-on activities. They both love those so much so it 's definitely time well spent.

Laura Anne turned 6 in December (what?!) and has her first loose tooth!

Caleb will be 4 soon and is a super sweet heart. His favorite thing right now is Tim Tebow!!

Stellan is 18 months old and really showing us his personality lately. He's a very stubborn and strong-willed boy with a temper to boot, but he has a marshmallow side, too that makes him irresistable. :)

This year will be a busy one! In March, my sister is graduating from her internship and the next day, Chris and I are taking the 2 older kids to Disney World for their first time! Also in March, is the Gate River Run which I will be running in! After a few attempts at it, I'm hoping to finally finish my first 15k! The weekend after that, Chris and I are going to Orlando to see Dave Ramsey! Awesome!

Later this year are wedding festivities! As you may remember, my little sister is getting married in October! Not only am I her matron of honor (yay!), but I will be taking engagement photos for them, possibly bridal portraits for her, planning a bridal shower and helping out with decorations! I'm super excited and can't wait!

That's all for now. I only had a few minutes to let you all know I'm not dead. :)

Melty Crayons

2011-11-21T14:03:00.002-05:00

Our latest art project turned out pretty cool:

Science and Art

2011-11-08T18:11:00.003-05:00

In an effort to make learning a little more interesting, we've recently done a few science experiments. First, we made our own volcano. We got the idea from my special edition of Family Fun magazine called "Create and Learn".

The kids loved the volcano so we did it several times and made a variety of colors.

Then we made slime. You might remember the stuff called Gak. Well this is essentially what we made. Thanks to my newest obsession, a website called Pinterest, I found this recipe.

Caleb chose green, his favorite color, and we mixed up a batch of slime. Later, I made some purple slime for Laura Anne. It entertained them for a while!

I've also been encouraging their inner artists lately. Our favorite type of art currently is water paints. Caleb could seriously paint for a few hours straight. He paints page after page of colorful splotches (which I'm sure in his brain are detailed pictures).

I love having a kitchen filled with little people's artwork.

Since there are so many, I'm thinking of covering some with contact paper so the kids can use them as placemats.

I love making learning fun. And seriously, Pinterest is the best idea ever. I don't know how I lived before it. :)

Thoughts And Toes

2011-10-26T12:30:00.002-04:00

Stellan is 15 months old today. He has 4 new teeth coming in, 3 of which are molars.

Laura Anne has one more soccer game left. We will all be sad to see this soccer season go, but we will look forward to future ones, if that is what she wants to do!

The kids were watching a movie from the comfort of Caleb's Cars tent last week. This was my view:

We've been busy with homeschool experiments and crafts. More pictures to come!

Ummm

2011-10-08T11:17:00.004-04:00

I feel like I should introduce myself. Hi, my name is Brianna and I'm the author of this poor, neglected blog!

The past few months have been the busiest of my life. We have homeschooling, soccer, church, family time, Bible studies. All this and the house still needs to be cleaned, clothes need to be washed and children need to be fed and bathed. It doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging! I've been contemplating the idea of just letting it go, closing the blogging chapter of my life, but I'm not quite ready to do that! So the posts may come a little less often, but for now I'm still here.

That being said, let's move along with some updates. Laura Anne is playing Upward soccer right now. She really enjoys it! Part of her bedtime prayers every night include praying for her to "keep getting better at soccer". I'm thankful for Upward and for the ability to have her try out an extracurricular activity.

Homeschooling is going really well so far. We had kind of a rocky beginning but we're all getting the hang of it now. She's ahead of the game, but we're still going through her kindergarten books just to make sure we cover everything. Plus, I'm teaching some to Caleb too as we go along.

Speaking of Caleb, as of this week we have FINALLY made some progress in the potty training department!!! Wahooo!!!! I'll tell you what, I thought for sure we'd be potty training Stellan before long and HE would be the one to teach Caleb!! Ha! But things are finally clicking and we have even had a few outings where Caleb was wearing big boy undies instead of a diaper!

Stellan is 14 months old, walking all over the place, eating big boy food with the family and drinking whole milk from a sippy cup! No more nursing! We're still working on the sleep thing, but this week he has done pretty good sleeping through the night. (In our book, that means not waking up before 5am!) :) He's our early riser, waking up between 6 and 6:30 almost every morning!

The kids and I spent a week in Jacksonville a couple weeks ago. While we were there, I had the privilege of meeting and photographing my newest nephew, AJ!! What a precious little bundle! He was only a week old! He was a good little sleepy boy for our photo session (the second photo session, that is!)

Isn't he just a doll?!

Another important event to note is that my little sister, Sheri, got engaged!!! I am sooooo excited I can hardly stand it!!! Not only will I have the honor of taking some photographs for her and Charles at some point, I will be her matron of honor and get to plan a bridal shower!!!! YAY!!!!

As for me, I'm running again. I never really got back into it after Stellan was born but now I'm running 4-5 days a week and I feel great! I'm still photographing for family and friends and loving it. Chris and I have this idea that we may launch a photography/design business together sometime in the future! He's actually working on a logo design for a friend right this minute. :)

So, friends, if you are reading this, thank you for sticking around. I promise to try to do better at keeping you informed and updated and to provide pictures, of course.

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Party!

2011-08-18T08:07:00.006-04:00

I had the most fun planning Stellan's 1st birthday party! I chose the Very Hungry Caterpillar for the theme, and the possibilities seemed endless for food and decorations!

I enlisted the help from some of the youngins to make caterpillar kabobs!
I made these bookmarks for favors:

Ellen made this FABULOUS banner!

I think my favorite touch for the party was picking the menu from the food in the book. Then I put little labels in each dish with a quote from the book such as, "on Thursday he ate through 4 strawberries, but he was still hungry":

The yummy food!

Smash cake! Fact: this "1" candle was Caleb's. We never lit it for Caleb's party because he was sick and didn't want any cake. :( But hey, it worked for Stellan's party so we finally got to use it!

The birthday boy just woke up from a nap and is sporting his birthday caterpillar outfit that Grammy made him! So cute!!!

Favor jars:

Another glimpse of the food table. The food was my favorite part! ha!

The caterpillar cake:

Mmmm, he was all about some cake!

Present time! I was surrounded by children. :)

Lots of family and friends were able to join us for the party. Hanging out with Pops. :)

It was a GREAT party and we are so blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends!! We love you! And happy 1st birthday, Stellan!!!!

Blog Hop Time!

2011-08-11T10:45:00.005-04:00

I'm dying to share one of these before and after pictures! I just learned (as in, last night) how to soften and smoothe skin in Photoshop! I had a yummy little 3-month-old to photograph yesterday and he was my first little guinea pig!

Before:

After: Hooray for this new trick!!! :D

August?!

2011-08-03T13:48:00.002-04:00

Oh dear. Dear, dear, dear. How in the world is it August already?! I did not post anything in July!! I do apologize. July was a hectic and crazy month for us! Actually, I think it's safe to say that every month is hectic and crazy. But July was especially so. Here are a few pictures to hold you over until I can post Stellan's birthday pictures!

Stellan loves him some spaghetti!

The two older kids thought it was quite hilarious to share their popsicles with Stellan.

Obviously, it was a little on the tart side, but he kept asking for more. :)

Caleb was just his cute little self....most of the time.

One day, Laura Anne wanted to wear her "wedding dress" as she calls it. When she was done wearing it, she hid in it.

Yes, our little babe is ONE and pictures from his awesome Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party will follow! Thanks for coming back to see pictures even though I've been slacking!

Eleven

2011-06-30T10:34:00.003-04:00

This adorable little fella had his last month-birthday this week.

His 10th month (technically, I guess it was his 11th month) was a busy one! We took a road trip; he met some new family and friends; he cut his first tooth at the end of that trip and proceeded to cut three more throughout the month;

He learned some more signs. He now signs "cold", "hot", "more", and "milk". He still does Scrunchy Face and he says "uh-oh" alot. He has been pulling himself to a standing position for a while now, but just within the last 2 weeks or so, he has started letting go and hovering for a second or two!

He copies sounds that he hears, whether it's a sibling screaming, a bird or a plane.

He gives us the best sloppy kisses. :)

He's learning how to drink from a sippy cup, but it's a slow process.

He's just a sweetheart and he will be turning one very soon!!

I Have A Blog?

2011-06-27T10:07:00.005-04:00

Wowie! What a month!! I posted pictures from our trip on Facebook and neglected to post them on my poor little blog! Whoops. I will post a few here and then give you the links to FB so you can see all of the pictures.

The kids had such a great time at my Grandma and Grandaddy's lake house! We got to go out on the boat twice! They loved it!

While we were in North Carolina, we got to visit a few dear friends. We had dinner with the Parrott's at Red Robin one night and had an impromptu mini photo session outside before we parted ways. Love them!!!!

Brantley and I have been friends for almost 7 years, I guess. Time flies!At the Delgado's house, the kiddos enjoyed a water hose fight. This picture of Caleb was my favorite!!

We had fun walking through downtown Apex with Arelys and the girls, taking lots of pictures and enjoying the fellowship.

We wrapped up our trip in Tennessee for my cousin, Allison's wedding. Laura Anne was the flower girl!

Beautiful! This is why green is my favorite color. :) Oh yes, the girls are gorgeous, too! Ha!

At the reception, Caleb enjoyed dancing as long as he was being held. Love him!

Me and Grampy <3 <3 <3

I posted the photos in three different albums on FB. To see part 1 click HERE

To see part 2 click HERE

and to see part 3 click HERE

By The Numbers

2011-06-06T10:32:00.002-04:00

This is our family vacation by the numbers:

2187--the number of miles we drove

7--the number of days we were gone

500--the number of dollars we saved up for this trip

18--the number of dollars we had left over

3.33--the cheapest price for gas we found

773--the number of pictures that we took while on our trip

1--the number of teeth Stellan cut while we were on our trip (his 1st one!)

31--the number of family and friends we visited during our trip (give or take a few)

45 million--the number of times we heard "are we almost there?"

17 1/2--the ridiculous number of hours it took us to drive home (not including the hotel stay)

5--the number of cranky, exhausted family members

**Pics will come soon!!**

Introducing Scrunchy Face!!

2011-05-25T10:32:00.004-04:00

Stellan has a new trick.

When we say "scrunchy face",

He does this:

and breathes fast through his nose.

I love my Scrunchy Face!

Happy Easter!

2011-05-11T07:40:00.003-04:00

Yes, we celebrated Easter this year. Yes, I'm behind on my blogging. I'll catch up some day.

We decorated Easter eggs this year! I think it was the first time we've ever done that so it was really fun for all of us.

Grandma and Papa were with us for the weekend.

Trying to get a family picture after church. Oh, that Caleb. He makes me giggle. :)

Later that day, we had a super fast Easter egg hunt on the golf course!

It was super fast because it was about to storm. But the kids had lots of fun for that 5 minutes.

Laura Anne spotted a rainbow! See it? What a fun day to see a rainbow. :)

It started pouring rain after no more than 5 minutes. It was fun though. We had a great day!

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

Just Because...

2011-05-06T11:46:00.001-04:00

...they're too darn cute!

Oops....

2011-05-06T11:33:00.004-04:00

Wow. I just realized I never posted Caleb's birthday!! I put some on Facebook and forgot about my poor little blog. :(

Well anyway, we had two "little" parties for Caleb. I will never do 2 parties for one birthday again. The first one was at home with Chris' parents and some friends. Caleb loved his Skittles birthday cake!

The 2nd party was at my parent's house. What a crazy day!! But it turned out really great. There was yummy food and all the kids had a great time.

I made "present" cupcakes for this party.

Happy Birthday Caleb!!

Before and After

2011-04-21T15:21:00.002-04:00

I haven't participated in this blog hop in a while, but I have been busy taking pictures! I'm loving my unofficial job! :)

This photo was from a fun session I had with my sister and her boyfriend. It turned out to be a very rainy day, but we didn't let that stop us from taking pictures. Here, Charles braved the wet ground by kneeling right on it. What a guy! :)

Before:

After:
I lightened it, took the drop of rain off of my sister's face, converted it to black and white and burned the edges just a bit. I took the photo with my Nikon D90 and edited in Photoshop CS3.

Golf!

2011-04-08T10:01:00.006-04:00

I can't believe I forgot to post these photos!!! We have greatly enjoyed having a golf course as our backyard. Several evenings, just before the sun sets, when all the golfers have gone home, we take our mini caddy's and golf clubs out on the course to ~~practice our swing~~ play! I think we might have a child prodigy on our hands. Caleb has a GREAT swing and I'm not just saying that. He looks like a mini natural! :)

I think this is my favorite photo from this particular day:

Watching from the sidelines:

Stellan loves to hang upside down, much to his mommy's chagrin.

Grandma was visiting us for the week.

And this one, well, it just makes me laugh:

Toothless Wonder

2011-04-06T10:29:00.003-04:00

Oh my. I'm kind of overloaded with pictures right now. But I guess that's something I better get used to. Hehe. But with 2 birthdays, and a trip to Jax that included a photo session, I've been pretty busy and am up to my eyeballs with photos! But I love it!

Aw, our toothless 8-month-old wonder.

He's such a happy little thing.

So curious about his surroundings, he likes to touch anything he can get his hands on.

I just love that little sucked-in lip!

No signs of any teeth yet. And he's not a big fan of solid food, but he's doing better. I think he will be crawling soon. He gets stronger every day, practicing reaching for toys just out of his reach. It's cute to watch him reach and lean so far that he plops over on his belly.

I love this stage and I love our little toothless wonder!

Birthday Pictures...Round 1!

2011-03-25T15:51:00.006-04:00

Our little Caleb turns 3 this weekend! So, we all went to the beach earlier this week to take his birthday pictures. He loves going to the beach. We all do!

It was the hardest thing for him to leave the sand alone.

I tried to get real smiles out of him, but that was difficult, too:

Daddy made him laugh.

Here's a camera smile:

He just wanted to get on with playing in the sand.

Chris had the idea to have him stand on the chair.

This made for some cute photos.

And, of course, he had to jump off.

Daddy was being silly again, making Caleb laugh.

Then I just had to relax a little and let him play.

I love how these next 2 turned out.

Then I let him go walking while holding on to the balloons.

I love the photos I got...until he loosened his grip on his balloons and they flew away. I told him they flew up to God and that I would buy him some new ones.

He was pretty sad, but he felt better when I changed him into his bathing suit and let him play.

Can you feel the love in this picture?

And here's Laura Anne, having a moment. :)

I'm not done with birthday pictures though! I really want to take him to the railroad tracks. Hopefully we will get the chance to do that soon.

Cute Little Horsey....And Baby Too!

2011-03-25T08:11:00.002-04:00

Chris and I bought my horse-loving sister this little statue years ago. When we were visiting a few weeks ago, I thought it would be cute to sit Stellan next to it for some pictures. I was right. Pretty darn cute if you ask me!

Wedding!

2011-03-17T11:34:00.005-04:00

Sorry I've been MIA for the past couple weeks. We've been busy! My little brother got married this past weekend and we spent the few days before that in Jacksonville visiting with family.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the wedding week:

Grampy with 3 of his great-grandchildren:

All 4 of my handsome brothers:

Fun with the mustache sticks!

I'm disappointed because I wanted to make a slideshow with music but One True Media changed their free options and the slideshow would have had to be 30 seconds or less. Boo! So anyway, I had to settle for a non-musical slideshow with Photobucket. Enjoy!

**It seems the slideshow is acting up a little. If it's not showing up for you, click "view all images" and it should take you to it.**

7 Months and My First Handmade Prop

2011-02-28T09:19:00.004-05:00

Yes, my baby is 7 months old and yes, I made my first photography prop! I found a pattern on Etsy to make one of these fringe throws and I just had to have it! I LOVE it and can't wait to make another....possibly a girl-themed one?!

I'm in love with this one:

A drawer from his dresser worked perfectly as a little seat. :)

What a sweet little model I have!

Hand-Me-Down

2011-02-25T10:58:00.002-05:00

This cute Grammy outfit was Caleb's back in the day.

Now it's Stellan's.
Not for long, though, because I couldn't button every button in the back!

Here are a couple shots of Caleb wearing it. (I would say that my photography skills have definitely improved since then. Yikes!)

That Boy

2011-02-25T10:07:00.002-05:00

All I can say is thank goodness for washable markers!!

Dreaming Out Loud

2011-02-17T21:16:00.003-05:00

In case some of you don't know, I have a passion for photography. I realized it, or maybe I should say that I realized how strong of a passion it was, right after we moved from North Carolina, two February's ago. I didn't know what I wanted to do with that passion except simply learn how to take better pictures.

Over the past couple years I believe I have improved. I know I've learned alot, but I also know that I have a ton more to learn. This past December, I learned of a photography scholarship called Soar! After considering applying, talking with Chris, and praying about it, I decided to apply. The purpose of the scholarship is to provide everything necessary to start a successful photography business: the gear, business coaching, photography assignments, blogging, etc.

I did not win the scholarship, and when I learned that, at first I was very discouraged. Very discouraged. I had thought that this was my one chance if anything was ever going to happen with my love for photography. How was I going to get better if I didn't have the proper equipment?

Well, I am so very extremely thankful to God for providing a way for us to finally purchase a DSLR camera for me! I just received it in the mail last week and I'm so excited about learning how to use it! I never thought that one week after finding out that I didn't win the scholarship, Chris and I would realize that we would have the ability to buy a good camera for me. God is so good!

I still have access to many, many benefits of the Soar! program. I am following along the journey of the 3 winners this year and participating in the photography assignments from home. I hope to learn how to use manual settings on my camera to step out of "auto mode" and achieve "the perfect shot". I hope to grow as a business person, learning all the how-to's of starting a business and being successful. I hope that my passion overflows into my work, capturing moments in time that will be meaningful to families for years to come.

I don't know exactly the plan that God has for me in this. I know it's a risk, saying my dream out loud for all the universe to hear, but I do know that God gave me a passion and a desire, and so I'm going for it. Yes, I'm scared. And nervous. But I'm excited. I'm going to do this. I'm going to see where God takes me on this journey. Will you join me?

Critique This

2011-02-16T09:25:00.002-05:00

I'm excited about this new blog hop of Monica's from Pixel Perfect. I welcome any one who wants to critique my work and give me tips so I can improve my photography. If you came from Monica's blog, welcome!! Thank you for stopping by!

For this photo, I tried black and white with selective color for the first time. I watched a tutorial on how to do it and this is my first attempt. I'm pretty happy with the result. What do you think?

Belated Birthday Pics

2011-02-14T09:26:00.006-05:00

I finally took Laura Anne outside to take her 5-year pictures! I decided that we will not be going to a studio anymore because 1--it will save us money, and 2--I'm perfectly capable of taking at least halfway decent photos. :)

I love this next picture although it is a tad fuzzy. The camera focused on the grass behind Laura Anne. But it turned out okay after sharpening it in Photoshop.

For the following picture, I told her to look off to the side at another tree because I wanted to get a profile shot.Then she saw Chris walking up behind me, getting ready to surprise me, but she was trying not to turn her head.

After he surprised me, I snapped this one:

I think Chris must've been making her laugh:

Squinting from the brightness:

One of my favorites from the day:

Funny story: She was telling me how cold she was here, but I really wanted to get this shot:

I was trying to get a natural smile, so instead of saying "smile!" I told her "picture Daddy wearing a tutu!" I didn't get the look I was going for:

We did get some good ones, though. She is beautiful and growing up way too fast.

And now if you'll excuse me, I just received a package I've been waiting for for a loooong time. You'll see soon!!!!!! :D

Touch A Truck

2011-02-02T14:31:00.006-05:00

A couple weekends ago we went to a local event called Touch A Truck. Trucks, service vehicles and construction vehicles of all types were there for kids to climb in and, well, touch!

It turned out to be a very windy and cold day, but I'm glad we went.

Laura Anne loved "touching" the trucks.

Caleb, on the other hand, surprised Chris and me by being very timid and shy about the whole thing. He didn't want to do anything, especially without Daddy.

I think we all enjoyed ourselves though. Stellan slept in the stroller the whole time we were there so you won't be seeing him in this post!

Hehe, I got sneaky snapping a picture of Caleb.

Checking out the police PT Cruiser:

I thought this was amusing. This was on the police car:

Aw, a lovely shot of Caleb refusing to look at the camera.

This is for Grammy and Pops:

There were lots of scary clowns, too. Sorry, but I despise clowns. That's why Caleb surprised us again by wanting to have his face painted by one.

Laura Anne, too!

True story: Caleb wanted Lightning McQueen painted on his face. Miss Clown did not have Lightning McQueen in her book of face paintings. So she did the best she could. (Click on the picture to make it larger so you can see) Caleb was satisfied. The End.

This was Laura Anne's--a crown with a unicorn in the center. She's into unicorns right now.

Oh yes, and Laura Anne and I explored a school bus. She loved that.

Then we had lunch with Uncle Red!! It was a fun day.

Half Birthday

2011-02-02T09:32:00.005-05:00

I won't even say "I can't believe how fast my baby is growing" because everyone says that. We all know too well how quickly our babies grow. So anyway.

Stellan!! He just turned 6 months old! His newest trick is learning how to sit up without support. He's not quite there yet, but he's oh so close!

Here he is displaying the little cuddle blanket I finally finished for him! It only took me 6 months to complete!

At his 6 month checkup he weighed 19 lbs (75%) and he measured 28 inches (95%)

He currently loves his exersaucer, is outgrowing his 6-9 month clothes, and is slowly trying solid foods!

You know we can't do a little photo shoot without big brother and sister joining in.

Happy half birthday Little Mister!

Pixel Perfect Blog Hop

2011-01-20T11:49:00.002-05:00

Yay! 2011 is going to be a great year! And now, here is my first before/after for this year! It's actually a picture from 2009 of my little chalk-faced, dimpled darling. But it needed fixing. So here ya go!

Before:

After:

Sigh. I love her. And I didn't touch those blueberry eyes. Gorgeous.

2010 In Review

2011-01-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

Yes, I steal people's ideas. My creativity only goes so far. :) (Thanks Jackie!) So, following is a brief rundown of the events from each month last year. It's kinda cool to see what all we've ~~survived~~ experienced together and to see where we are now. I wish I would have done this for previous years because we sure have gone through a lot. Maybe I will at some other time.

January
*I started the year only 11 weeks pregnant.

*Chris had started his job in St. Petersburg already, but the kids and I were still living in central Florida.

*We got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time.

*Felt the baby move for the first time at 14 weeks.

*We moved to an apartment in the Tampa Bay area on January 30th.

February
*Laura Anne upgraded to a twin bed

* We toured the birth center and 2 weeks later, had my first appointment

*Chris felt the baby move.

*One year since we moved from North Carolina!

March
*20 weeks pregnant and we had our first ultrasound!

*The kids and I visited my family in Jacksonville but we all had the stomach bug while we were there. :(

*We saw the Blue Angels fly at the air show.

*Caleb turned 2!

April
*The kids visited with both sets of grandparents for a week and they got to go to the fair, while Mommy and Daddy had some quiet time and a few dates. :)

*We all went to our first professional baseball game! So much fun!

*We bought our new family vehicle: a Toyota Sienna!

May
*Chris and I celebrated our 7th anniversary.

*We visited Jerry and Ellen in North Carolina

*We discovered how beautiful the beaches are here; and the sunsets!!

*Due to a pest problem at our apartment, we had to find a new place to live. :/

June
*3D ultrasound!

*Baby had been in a breech position from (at least) 32 weeks to 34 weeks. But doing some tricky maneuvers, I coaxed him to flip and it worked! At 35 weeks, baby was head down. :)

July
*Second weekend in July, just a few days before my 38th week of pregnancy, we moved in to our new new apartment with the help of friends and family.

*And of course, Baby Stellan arrived on his due date, July 26th, at 10:13 PM. He was our biggest baby yet, weighing 9 lbs 3 oz.

*We had Chanda, a local professional photographer I met through the birth center, present for the birth. She did a fantastic job capturing it and we will cherish the photos forever. (I would post some here, but the copies I have don't have her watermark and I wouldn't want to get in trouble. But she does have some on her website! Go HERE to see!) :D

August
*We had a photo shoot at home with Chanda for newborn pictures. She has some of those on her website too. Click HERE to see if you can spot Stellan. (Hint: at the time I posted this, he was pictures 3, 10 and 15)

*When my Mom went home after visiting us, she took the 2 big kids with her so I could have a little more time to recover and get to know Stellan. :)

*I had a "surprise" baby shower in Jax.

*Caleb quit using his plug! (Thanks for the help, Mom!)

*On the 24th, the kids weighed in at 42 lbs, 29 lbs and 11 lbs 14 oz.

*Chris turned 31.

September
*I started running again.

*Another Rays baseball game

*My sis-in-law, Jennifer, came to visit with her 2 boys for a few days.

*Chris and I started attending Dave Ramsay's Financial Peace University at church.

*Caleb used the potty for the first time, but we are definitely not in full potty-training mode yet.

October
*Adding to our other little homeschool activities, I started teaching Laura Anne how to read.

*Visit to Jax for our annual pumpkin patch visit.

*Discovered Stellan is ticklish on his feet because he laughed when I put his socks on. :)

*Halloween festival at the Y with a friend, then trunk or treat at church.

November
*Stellan blows raspberries. (I document this because our other 2 didn't really do this and it's super adorable!)

*I got sick right before Thanksgiving and couldn't run the Thanksgiving day race with my Mom and brother. :(

*At Stellan's 4 month appointment he weighed 17.5 lbs and we discovered he had a sinus infection. He was prescribed an antibiotic which he reacted to with diarrhea which caused a severe diaper rash resulting in a prescription for that. Whew! That couple of weeks was no fun!

December
*Caleb started sleeping in his big boy fire engine bed!

*We hosted our first sleepover with 2 of Laura Anne's friends.

*Me, Chris and Stellan had an almost free day at Busch Gardens

*Laura Anne turned 5, had a sleepover party, but got sick during it.

*We spent Christmas Eve and part of Christmas day with Chris' family.

*We stayed in Jax for the following week (except Chris), but first Caleb got sick, then Stellan got sick. All while Chris was sick at home. I got it the day we went home. (New Years' Day)

And that was 2010 for us!! Here's hoping 2011 doesn't have quite as much sickness or moving...or babies! Ha!

Busch Gardens

2011-01-10T09:00:00.006-05:00

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Did you hear that? It was the sweet sound of relaxation. Thanks to my husband who performed a random act of kindness and for the gentleman who "paid" him with 2 Busch Gardens tickets, Chris and I (and Stellan, of course) had a day off recently.

We sent the 2 older kids to their friends' house for the day and the 3 of us headed to the amusement park. I wasn't sure how much we'd be able to do with a baby in tow, but we had to use the tickets by the end of December so we decided to just go and have fun together.
It was a gorgeous day! Not too hot or cold, and hardly a cloud in the sky.

We enjoyed strolling around and seeing alligators, apes, elephants and flamingoes, to name a few.

The "gardens" part of the park was quite enjoyable to look at as well.

Stellan was on his best behavior the whole day, making our time that much more pleasant.

Chris and I took turns riding 3 different roller coasters! The lines were incredibly short so the waiting was nothing. I'm so glad we got to ride something!

We "made" souvenirs for the big kids, spending $3 per kid and that, my friends, is the extent of the money we spent while in the park!

I got super close to a tiger.

We watched a fun Christmas ice skating show....

...and I laughed at this particular costume, consisting of a huge gift bow on the bum! Hahaha

My favorite flamingo, of which I took too many pictures, had brown, pink and white feathers. Gorgeous!

We fed some birds with long pointy beaks out of our hands. It tickled.

I am madly in love with this shot of my boys. Chris was tickling Stellan. Precious!

One of the funniest things all day was the elephants. They were dancing to the Christmas music blaring from the speakers. I promise you, as soon as I got this video clip, the music stopped...and so did the elephant! Then as another song came on, he started swaying again. It was hilarious!

Sigh. It was a great day. So thankful to escape for a little while and enjoy the great outdoors.

A Cubbies Christmas

2011-01-07T16:31:00.002-05:00

Laura Anne loves to sing. And she's not intimidated in the least singing in front of people. This was her second time performing with other kids and she did great.

Here's a tiny clip of a song they did. I had a few more clips, but Laura Anne was either picking at her nails instead of singing, or there were people walking right in front of my camera. So this is it. Enjoy!

Christmas Cookie Baking Day

2011-01-06T14:28:00.004-05:00

Laura Anne helped me make cookie dough while the boys were napping one day.

Doesn't she look so grown up? We love this outfit. Turquoise, silver, and stripey tights!
When Caleb woke up, I frosted the cookies and the kids sprinkled them.

Yum!!

I love his technique.

Heehee! Just letting the sprinkles roll out of his hand.

Oh Christmas Tree!

2011-01-06T13:39:00.004-05:00

After I posted the party pictures, I realized that I still hadn't posted anything from the rest of December. So. We'll start again with our Christmas tree decorating!

I found all 3 kids matching snow people ornaments at Target this year. Here are each of them displaying their own.

Laura Anne loves to help out with the angel each year. Just look at the excitement on her face!

Birthday Party

2011-01-06T11:11:00.005-05:00

I sure have a lot of blogging to catch up on! Let's start with Laura Anne's birthday party. The kids had fun playing on Caleb's fire engine bed for a little while. This, my dears, is the ever-so-delicious baked macaroni and cheese that I made especially for the birthday girl. I first knew she wasn't feeling great when she didn't want to eat any. :(

We did birthday cake a little differently this year. I made balls of cake and let the kids decorate them!

Cake pops!!

Stellan loves the attention from the girls.

Some of us made marshmallow kabobs.

Time for presents!

And so Caleb wouldn't feel left out on the goodies, I made Caleb-friendly rice krispy treats and let him put sprinkles on.

I shoved her candle into a cake ball.

After dessert, the kids all played with Moon Dough (a million times cooler than Moon Sand, FYI)

Then Laura Anne wanted to go to bed, poor thing. She really wasn't feeling well. I made pink pancakes for breakfast in the morning.

Shortly after breakfast, this is how Laura Anne was doing:

I felt so bad for her. But on the night of her birthday, I had the idea that she might like to go see a movie at the movie theaters with me. So we had a Mommy/daughter birthday date to see Tangled! Great movie, by the way. Her fever came back during it, and she fell asleep during the 5-minute drive home after the movie, but she told me she really liked it and wants to get it someday. :)

So that was Laura Anne's fifth birthday! Hoping next year (er, this year) she won't be sick on her big day!

FIVE!!

2010-12-22T13:18:00.003-05:00

Yes, our sweet girl turned five years old yesterday!!! She had 2 friends over Monday night for a sleepover, but the poor thing got sick during it. She is still sick with a fever, cough and sore throat. I am hoping she feels better by Friday when we are travelling to Jacksonville for Christmas! I will post some pictures from her party soon.

Happy Fifth Birthday, Lollie!!!

Love!

2010-12-16T07:11:00.002-05:00

There's not really much to say except I am blessed!

I Heart Shutterfly

2010-12-06T15:40:00.002-05:00

This year, more than ever, I love me some Shutterfly. I made my first photo book using Shutterfly, and if I were to win the lottery, I would make photo books, photo books and more photo books. I love them!

This year, I also made some Shutterfly birth announcements. Typically, I have made my own birth announcements and I did make some for my sweet Stellan, but I used Shutterfly also and I really, really love the colors and the layout of his announcement.
I am so excited (and not so overwhelmed now) that Shutterfly is offering 50 free Christmas cards to bloggers! I heard of this offer a few weeks ago and have since seen a few of my blogging friends take advantage of it. So here's to Shutterfly! Woo!!

In looking through the Christmas photo cards available this year, I don't know how I am going to choose which one I love most. They are all so gorgeous! I have already been planning our family photo shoot so hopefully we can get a good picture for our lovely card. :)

And did you know that Shutterfly makes address labels??? I didn't before today and I think I'm going to have to get some! They are so cute!!

If you are a blogger, you HAVE to take advantage of this fabulous offer! Blog away and get your free cards! And spread the Shutterfly love!

Four Months Young

2010-12-04T10:38:00.004-05:00

Our little big guy turned 4 months old the day after Thanksgiving! This past Tuesday he had his 4 month doctor visit. He's growing quite well, weighing in at 17 pounds 5 ounces and 26 inches long! He was near off the charts for both weight and length. That's my boy! He did not get his vaccines because the poor baby has a sinus infection. He's had what I thought was a cold for at least the last month. Only now did we discover it was more than that. But he's on his antibiotics now and hopefully he will start feeling better and sleeping better real soon. Here are the photos from our "birthday" photo shoot. :) (p.s. I found this stripey outfit for $3 and some change at Target. LOVE!)

The money shot:

The paper, after we were done:

Around The House

2010-11-18T21:55:00.002-05:00

I'm currently the only one awake in the house, so I thought I'd blog a little. Just this past weekend we finally hung this creation up in Laura Anne's room. I started it ages ago, but got frustrated with it a few times so it sat all neglected for a while. :) After all, I really had no clue what I was doing when I started. I had seen something similar to this in a department store years ago and thought I would try to replicate it. So anyway, here's Laura Anne's ribbon hanging thingy!

Then, just yesterday, for whatever reason I got frustrated with the bare wall above Stellan's changing table. So I spontaneously decided to find some old (and a few new!) portraits to make a collage out of. They are all just sticking to the wall--no frames. But Stellan enjoys looking at it and so do I. :)

And that's all for now. Good night!

It's Thursday

2010-11-11T21:11:00.003-05:00

Whew. I worked hard on this one. I had an idea in my head and played around in Photoshop until I got the closest to what resembled my idea. I'm not sure if I'm crazy about it. What do you think? Is the edited version over done?

Before:
After: Photo was taken with my Canon Powershot S2IS and edited in Photoshop CS3.

Hair!!!

2010-11-09T15:06:00.003-05:00

When planning Laura Anne's hairdo for her Halloween costume (pics of that will follow sometime soon), I decided to Google "princess hairstyles". I found this blog:Oh. My. I'm in hair heaven. There are gazillions of hairstyles for us to try and thankfully, Laura Anne is almost as excited about it as I am. That's a big deal because in the past she hasn't always been thrilled to have her brushed, let alone fixed pretty. So far we've tried 3 hairstyles. She's enjoying it, and I'm enjoying it, and it's good to be a girl! :)

More Fun

2010-11-08T15:52:00.005-05:00

We had a real nice visit with my family. Can't wait to go back for a little while at Thanksgiving! See the bruise between Caleb's eyebrows? Yeah. He fell off the bed during his nap. Talk about a no-fun way to wake up!!

This was one of my favorite outfits of Caleb's that I saved:
Givin' lotsa lovin'!

Hey, I'm in front of the camera for a change! :)
Here's Pops playing with Stellan:

Caleb sure plays hard.

Laura Anne put her doll, Celia, next to Stellan while he was sleeping. :)

Before we left for church, I caught them reading a book together. So sweet!!

I took a picture of Stellan's feet while he was napping one day. I love it.

Punkins

2010-11-08T15:36:00.004-05:00

About a month ago (I know, I know) we were visiting family and took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. It wasn't quite as hot as last year, which was scorching, by the way. But it was still hot. Aunt Alana met us with her three kiddos and we were almost the only ones at the patch! Here are the photos.

Anna and Stellan sitting with Grammy. I love this shot. :)

Me and my sis

Grammy with 6 of her grandchildren! Beautiful!

I love the expression on Stellan's face in this one:

but not so much this one: (hehe)

More pictures of our fun visit will follow shortly....if I don't get distracted by something else, of course.

Before & After

2010-10-28T11:21:00.003-04:00

This blog hop is therapeutic for me. :)

This week, I edited a picture I took of the logo on a Schwinn trike. I thought it would make a cool photo to frame for Stellan's room....when he has a room, that is.

Before:

After:

Photo taken with my Canon Powershot S2IS and edited in Photoshop CS3. Click on the Before & After link to see more cool photos!

Reflections

2010-10-22T15:15:00.004-04:00

We went to the beach a couple weekends ago....well, actually we go to the beach very regularly, but anyway. I was snapping some pictures of Stellan in his car seat. I knew right away that I wanted to play with these in Photoshop. The reflection of his eyes was awesome! Here's the original photo, straight out of the camera:

To start, I cropped the photo to get closer to his eyes, then lightened it some.

Then I wanted an up close shot of his eye. Look! You can see me! And Chris is standing behind me. Isn't that wild? I love it. It makes me happy. :)
I'll share some more beach pictures soon. The sunset was to die for that night. Wait for it!

Jesus Lubs Me

2010-10-21T14:31:00.002-04:00

Yay! I couldn't find these videos of Caleb for a while and I thought they were lost. But today, I found them. :) I hope you enjoy!

Park Pics!

2010-10-19T09:33:00.004-04:00

I meant to post these a while ago. We went to this park in St. Petersburg back in September on National Museum Day! Before the park, we went to a children's museum just a couple of blocks away. Unfortunately, the museum closed early that day and we were only there for 45 minutes. But this park came to our rescue! The kids had lots of fun and it's a beautiful park!

Caleb!

2010-10-01T14:38:00.004-04:00

My older son. My middle child. He has a charming personality. His Sunday school teacher's have told me so; not that I need them to. :) He has an adorable smile....see?

He's all boy! Loves to color on things that shouldn't necessarily be colored on:

Among his list of favorite toys are things that go (cars, trucks, trains and planes), Little People, balls (usually accompanied by either a baseball bat or a golf club), and of course, his little brother.

He, like his big sister, smothers Stellan with hugs and kisses all day long. And when someone comes over he's quick to let them know that the baby is his "brother Stellan".

~~~~

As you may already know, I've been in no hurry to potty train Caleb, mainly because before, I was pregnant and exhausted. In the past couple weeks he has started to show a lot of interest in the potty, saying he wants to go. So I'll sit him up there and he will want to stay for, oh I don't know, 20 minutes? 25 sometimes. He finally had a successful trip to the potty over a week ago, for which he got 2 Gummy Bears. But that's it so far. I will continue to allow him to sit there whenever he wants. I sure don't want to discourage anything. We'll just see what happens for now.

~~~~

Something cute Caleb does only when Daddy's around: he calls Chris "Dada". When Chris is away at work or whatever it's Daddy, but when he's talking to Chris he says Dada. I think it's sweet.

~~~~

And one more very important fact about our Caleb-boy: he's now caught up on his immunizations! Since he was sick in the hospital around his first birthday last year, he never got his shots from 12 months on. Now, he's 2 1/2 and completely caught up. Yay!

Update Mode

2010-10-01T13:19:00.008-04:00

This just in! Of course, as soon as I published the last post, Stellan drank a whole bottle! Yay! I'm so excited! We're going to see how this goes for the next couple weeks and when we're sure he is comfortable with the bottle I'll start doing what it is that I will be doing. I promise, I will let you know details when I have them. For now, just know that it has to do with photography. :)

Also, I forgot to post Stellan's 2 month photo, so here it is!

Now on to our first born! Dear little (big) Laura Anne. She's a sweet, sweet big sister and is always planting kisses on her tiniest brother. She tries with Caleb too, but he's not always a happy recipient. :)

We've started homeschooling semi-officially for the year. She loves doing schoolwork and currently, she's learning character traits, sight words, calendar (months, days, weeks, etc..), weather, writing her letters *neatly*, and writing her numbers 1-30. She's doing very well with it all and I can't wait to teach her to learn to read! I'm actually waiting for a book to arrive any day now. It's called "The Reading Lesson" (thanks Aunt Jen!).

Laura Anne still is tall for her age. I can't remember how many inches, but this picture below was taken at Target last summer before she turned 4! This year, the question I get asked from lots of people is "what grade is she in?" Um, she hasn't started kindergarten yet!

I recently discovered a new skill she has, too. She can write her name backwards--letters and all! I was impressed! At first when I told her she wrote backwards she apologized. I told her not to be sorry! It's pretty cool that she can write her letters backwards! Although we will continue to teach her how to write them the correct way. :)

And finally, when I saw this picture of Stellan, I immediately remembered an old picture of Laura Anne and I went digging for it. I think they definitely resemble each other, don't you?

That's the update for Laura Anne. Next up is Caleb!

General Update and Blabbery

2010-09-27T14:28:00.008-04:00

I haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like to lately. Having 3 kids keeps me pretty busy! But we are making fun memories and enjoying our "party of five". This post will be a general update on our family, and if I start to ramble on, well just forgive me, okay?

Let me start off with this: I have a new camera. It's a Canon Powershot S2 IS. I haven't learned all its tricks so some of my pictures are coming out dark or blurry. But I'm trying to figure it out! I'm taking lots and lots of pictures so I can learn all about the camera.

~~~~~~~~
Now on to the fun stuff!

Sunday was a significant day as both of my boys celebrated their "birthdays". Caleb turned 2 1/2 and Stellan turned 2 months! Stellan weighs half of what Caleb weighs! Crazy! Caleb is hovering around 29 to 30 pounds and Stellan weighed 14 1/2 pounds at his appointment this morning.

Stellan's latest accomplishment is drinking one ounce from a bottle! My ultimate goal is for him to be able to drink a full feeding from a bottle so I will be able to leave him for a few hours at a time. I have an opportunity to do something I've wanted to do so badly (more on that later) and I will need to be able to leave Stellan with Daddy for a few hours. So anyway. We are making progress towards that and that makes me happy!

Stellan is a really good sleeper and has been from the beginning of his short little life. He has slept up to 6 hours straight during the night on several occasions. He did have a cold a few weeks ago that messed up his sleeping some. He would wake up several times a night coughing and gagging. But I'm glad to say that he's almost completely past that and has started sleeping well again.

He is the smiliest baby I have ever known. He has been smiling since he was born almost, and now he's started cooing. It's just precious.

He recently found his hands. Quite often now I see him like this, happily trying to suck on his knuckles:

Just his sweet little face:

My original plan was to give a full update on our family in one post. But I've been working on this post for 3 days now and I'm ready to publish it. So I will continue the updates in another post or two. Toodles!

Before & After

2010-09-23T21:35:00.004-04:00

I dug into my old folders for this week's photo. This is a picture of my (older) son in the backyard of the house we lived in last year. I'm getting into texturing photos and I really like how nice and subtle this one is.

Before:After:I used my Kodak EasyShare Z740 and edited in Photoshop CS3.

Yay!

Daddy Turns 31!

2010-09-10T21:11:00.004-04:00

So to celebrate, the boys all took a nap together! :)

We had a family picnic in the living room for dinner:
The two little boys that have stolen my heart:
Time for presents!

And then ice cream cake! Laura Anne was excited.

Helping Daddy blow out the candles:

Mmmm, yummy cake!

Don't you just love this photo? He's just so darn cute!

Three of the cutest firemen this world has ever known:

Hooray for birthdays!

Before & After

2010-09-09T08:57:00.003-04:00

A friend sent me this awesome photo of a waterfall in (West?) Virginia. I couldn't resist playing with it in Photoshop. I did several different edits, but this one was my favorite, I think.

Before:

After:

I edited using Photoshop CS3. I cropped it, boosted the colors and added burned edges.

Visit Pixel Perfect to see more before and afters!

It's Time....

2010-08-31T14:12:00.005-04:00

for a "compare the baby photos" post! I'm comparing Caleb and Stellan today. I've already heard, many times that Stellan looks just like Caleb. There are two main differences: 1--Caleb had 3 times as much hair as Stellan does, and 2--Stellan has chunkier cheeks than Caleb. But other than that, I think they look very much alike.

Caleb:

Stellan:

Caleb:
Stellan:
Caleb:

Stellan: (in the same outfit as Caleb above)

So what do you think?

I'm Back

2010-08-31T08:48:00.002-04:00

I figured it out. Now back to the regularly scheduled blog. :)

Sorry...

2010-08-28T21:00:00.002-04:00

My old blog template disappeared so I was going about changing it the other day when I noticed that all the pictures, blog archive and link list and so on were not showing up anymore! How annoying. I've changed the template for the blog several times before and this hasn't happened so I don't know what went wrong or how to fix it. That's why my blog looks utterly retarded right now. Anyone know what could've happened?

One Month Already

2010-08-26T22:51:00.004-04:00

In one way, I can't believe it's already been one month since our sweet Stellan was born. In another way, it seems like he's been here for much longer. I am just so smitten with this boy, I can hardly stand it. I'm so thankful for the children God has blessed us with.

Anywho, moving on. We had Stellan weighed this week. At 4 weeks old, he weighs 11 pounds 14 ounces! I haven't compared that to the other kids yet, but I am pretty sure they weren't this chunky at 4 weeks! :) I love every ounce of him!

Stellan is our most laid back baby, only crying when he's hungry or wants to be held. He has been such a smiley guy too, whether in his sleep or awake. Now that he's a month old, his wake smiles are coming more frequently. It's a precious sight to see.

Caleb decided he wanted to join the photo shoot. :)

Everyone says Stellan looks like Caleb, and I have to agree. I think they are twins separated by 2 years!

Caleb loves his "brother Stellan".

And I love my boys.

Before and After--Stellan Style!

2010-08-12T08:24:00.000-04:00

I haven't participated in the Before/After bloghop in a while because I was busy having a baby!! Yep, I now have a daughter and TWO precious boys to love on!

Here's our newest addition, Stellan:

Edited in Photoshop CS3, and because I'm a newbie to Photoshop, if anyone could explain why the photo looks grainy and how I could fix it, that would be great. :)

It's A Boy!!!

2010-07-28T20:23:00.003-04:00

Stellan Ray Castleberry joined our family on his due date, July 26th! Although I had woken up with contractions at 5:30 that morning, I didn't officially know I was in labor until my midwife confirmed it. I was 5 centimeters dilated at 5 PM. I guess that knowledge was all it took, because after that, there was no doubt I was in labor. Chris and I (along with his mom and Laura Anne and Caleb), went to the birth center at 7 PM. They hung out with us until 8, when Chris' mom took the kids home to get them in bed. I labored on a birth ball for a while and then got in the tub, which was awesome!

At 10:13 PM Stellan was born into the water in a caul, which means he was still in his sack of water. It was a great birth experience and I am so thankful how everything turned out.

He weighed 9 pounds 3 ounces and measured 21 1/2 inches long! I had no idea I could make babies that big. :) Both Laura Anne and Caleb weighed just under 8 lbs, so this 9 lb baby was a shock to me! But he's ever so cuddly and precious! We all have fallen in love with him.

Caleb calls him "my Stellan". I love it.

What a wonderful blessing we have received!

Today...

2010-07-21T16:55:00.002-04:00

...this is me and my 3rd baby. Please think happy baby thoughts for me so I will go into labor this week and I'll be able to hold my baby in my arms instead of my belly! Thanks. ;)

Going Home Attire

2010-07-16T15:29:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I lied. I decided to share a picture of the two outfits that are currently packed in my birth center bag. My very talented mother made both of these darling outfits, and it breaks my heart that I will only be able to use one of them!! But how sweet is little Stellan or Olivia going to look when he/she comes home for the first time?! So sweet, I can hardly stand it!

The End.

The Waiting Game

2010-07-15T16:07:00.002-04:00

No pictures for this post. Sorry. I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that we're all doing well. In case you didn't know, we just moved this past weekend (sigh...yes, again) due to circumstances that were beyond our control. But I'm happy it's done; happy I didn't go into labor; and super excited that we are merely days away from meeting our new baby!! I'm 11 days from my due date as I write this and, even though there is plenty of unpacking and preparing to do, I'm feeling anxious to meet our baby. I'm so excited just thinking about the moment when we learn who this little one is!!

Maybe, just maybe, the next post will be an announcement! Unless I get to feeling bloggy and decide to post some other stuff. Anyway, toodles for now!!

Before and After!

2010-07-08T09:01:00.003-04:00

I think the tag in the picture says enough. :)

Before:After:
I edited in Photoshop CS3.

It's Countdown Time!!

2010-06-30T16:47:00.007-04:00

Yup! With approximately one month left until our baby is due, it's time to make a countdown chain!! You might remember when Laura Anne and I made a chain to countdown to Caleb's arrival. Here's a link to that post.

This time, we had our friends and next door neighbors help color the chain links. I was thankful for the help, seeing as how I'm running low on the energy meter these days. :)

Here's all my little helpers:
Silly faces:

Yes, here I reveal the first names we've chosen for our mystery babe. (I don't remember if I had mentioned them before.) Olivia is our version of Olive, who was my sweet grandmother. She passed away back in 1998. How I wish she could see all her great-grandchildren!! And many of you are probably familiar with the name Stellan from MckMama. I just came to love the name and the fact that it's not a common name. I think it's handsome! Middle names are being kept secret! Hehe.

And here's the proud big sister and big brother-to-be!! (In case you're wondering, they have their faces painted)

We're anxious to meet you, little one!

Saddle Ridge Ranch

2010-06-30T09:56:00.002-04:00

Laura Anne attended Vacation Bible School at our church last week. The theme was Saddle Ridge Ranch and she really enjoyed herself everyday! Friday night was family night and all the kids performed their songs on stage. Laura Anne was so proud that she "learned how to sing on stage." :) And I have to admit, I did shed a few tears watching her sing her heart out up there. My little girl is growing up!

I tried uploading a video but my internet connection is acting flaky. I'll try again in a bit...

Girl In The Tub~~Pixel Perfect!

2010-06-17T10:10:00.003-04:00

This week, I dug into some pictures from a few months ago for the blog hop. I found this one of my sweet girl in the bath. She loves bath time and plays until the water is cold most times.

Before:

After:I love her blue eyes. She gets them from her daddy. I love his blue eyes, too. :)

Click on the Before/After logo above to see more before and afters!!

Baby Update

2010-06-10T15:58:00.005-04:00

We got a sneak peek of our unborn baby last week.

Who it is is still a mystery. The baby's right eye in the picture below is covered up by the umbilical cord which started floating right in front of his/her face. I just love that little wide open mouth! I can't wait to kiss that mouth!!
The baby did give us a hard time because a leg was straight up by its head the whole time. I love this picture, though, of the teensy foot. The toes are touching the baby's forehead. If you look closely, you can see in the lower right corner the baby's eye and nose. That other thing covering up its other eye is the umbilical cord again. I know it may be difficult to understand ultrasound photos, but here they are anyway. When we had this ultrasound done, I was 32 weeks and the baby was breech, meaning head-up. Although this isn't a concern yet, I'm trying to talk this child into getting into the correct head-down position by 36 weeks!

~~~~~~~

The picture below was taken at my 31-week appointment. In the office, they have these life-size rubbery models of babies at different stages in pregnancy. Laura Anne was holding the 30-week model. It's a great visual for her because she's always asking "how big is the baby now?"

She's so excited to meet the baby. Caleb mostly acts like he doesn't have a clue...either that or he doesn't care. :o)

~~~~~~

We have approximately 7 weeks until we get to meet our new baby. I can't wait to know if it's the girl kind or the boy kind!!

Splash!!

2010-06-07T13:41:00.005-04:00

To finish off our Memorial Day, we went to the splash park nearby.

Caleb did a lot of watching.
Laura Anne did a lot of playing.

She planned her moves carefully.

She wasn't afraid to try anything and everything.

Caleb watched.

He watched some more.

And some more.

While Laura Anne played.

But we all enjoyed ourselves, and that's what matters.

Before and After

2010-06-03T09:34:00.004-04:00

Yay! My new favorite thing to do on Thursdays! It's the Before and After blog hop, hosted by Monica over at Pixel Perfect!

Here's my before:

After:
Stay tuned, too, because I have several more pictures to share from this fun outing!
Now go check out Pixel Perfect to see the other nifty entries this week!

Beach!!

2010-06-02T11:23:00.000-04:00

I have a lot to catch you up on! We have been staying busy over here and I can't wait to share some fab photos with you! I'll start with beach pictures! We currently live about a half hour from the west coast. A couple weekends ago, we packed up some towels and headed out to the seashore to watch the sunset.

The sun doesn't set until about 8:30 pm so we had a good hour and a half or so of daylight. It was so much fun.
The kids loved it!

The sunset was beautiful!

The water was warm and felt so good.

Sigh. Hopefully, there will be many more evenings spent like this. It was bliss.

Pixel Perfect

2010-05-27T13:18:00.004-04:00

I recently came across a photography blog and I have fallen in love with it! Monica over at Pixel Perfect is so talented and I love reading her blog. Not to mention she has a totally cool blog hop on Thursday's that I am going to try to participate in!

So here it is! My first entry for the Before & After blog hop! Don't forget to check out Pixel Perfect to see other entries for this hop also. You'll be inspired, I know it!

Before:

After:

I took this photo using my Kodak Easyshare Z740 and I edited it in Photoshop CS3.

Ooey Gooey White Stuff

2010-05-24T16:33:00.003-04:00

We tried a hands-on (hehe) craft last week. I have no idea what the stuff is called but it's stinkin' cool.

Really. And although it looks messy, it was really simple to clean up.
You have to try this to appreciate its coolness. And my children seriously enjoyed it.

See?

All you need to try this at home is 1 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of water. Mix it together and let the kids dig in! It's sure to occupy at least 30 minutes of your day! ;)

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

2010-05-17T09:30:00.004-04:00

Back in April, Chris won 4 tickets to a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game!

We love baseball!
We had special seats, reserved just for us.
The kids enjoyed blue cotton candy.

Okay, I did too.

And after a very exciting 8th inning, our team won!!

We got free pizza because of their win! A win, win if you ask me! Ha!

Out With The Old...

2010-05-05T15:00:00.004-04:00

And in with the new(ish)!!
Praise God! Our last big purchase to prepare for the arrival of our 3rd little babe has been made! You know that saying, "God is in the details"? Well, He certainly is. He made it evident that this was the time and vehicle. So we are enjoying our new-to-us Toyota Sienna. The kids are loving it, especially Laura Anne who is ecstatic to have the back seat all to herself.

I, of course, am making excuses to go somewhere every day! Wink, wink.

His First

2010-05-05T14:36:00.003-04:00

First black eye, that is.At least I think it's his first.

Anyway, last week, Caleb was tossing a toy car in the air and it came down right on his face. And voila! A black eye. I say "smile, Caleb" and he gives me this look:

The little knucklehead. I'm sure it's the first of many black eyes.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-19T08:03:00.004-04:00

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!

2010-04-15T10:38:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-04-11T16:24:00.009-04:00

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

2010-04-07T17:28:00.005-04:00

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!!!

2010-04-07T10:08:00.005-04:00

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

2010-04-06T14:25:00.008-04:00

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:

~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~

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!!!

2010-04-06T13:20:00.007-04:00

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!!

~~~~~~~~

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. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~

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! :)

Taking A Break

2010-02-27T15:02:00.001-05:00

I can't remember if I mentioned on the blog about the 40-day devotion I participated in with our church back in October and November. Well, it was a great experience and I'm happy to say that they are doing it again. This time it's called 40 Days of Passion; Finding Your Identity in the Reflection of the Cross. Even though we have relocated and are no longer attending that church (boohoo), I was extremely interested in participating in this devotion series again.

This time, however, it's a little different. We are being instructed to give up one thing for the 40 days. After much thought, and honestly a little hesitation, I made the decision to give up the internet. For those of you that know me well, you know this is a BIG sacrifice. The internet is my connection to the outside world. During the times that I didn't have internet access, I felt disconnected and well, frankly I didn't know what to do with myself. Terrible, huh? But that's precisely the reason I knew I had to give it up for 40 days. I need to spend more time focusing on God, prayer, reading my Bible and nurturing my children; not spending every available minute doing one thing or another on the computer. So, there will be a lull in the blog posts for a little while. The devotion started February 21st and goes through March 28th.

Don't fret though! I will be here, continuing to snap pictures of the kids, play and learn with Photoshop and hopefully get a bunch of scrapbooking done. And of course, I will be spending a lot of time in prayer---every time I think of the internet and my lack thereof, I will pray. I will pray for myself and my family, as well as the people I communicate with using the internet. That's you! I will return at the end of March (hopefully) rejuvenated and satisfied with my progress in my relationship with Christ.

Here's to no internet!!

p.s. Check out the website HERE to get the details on this journey. And prayers for me would be appreciated as well. :) Thanks!

p.p.s. If you haven't figured it out already, the few posts before this that posted after February 21st, and including this post, were scheduled to be posted ahead of time...when I still had connection to the outside world. :)

Friends

2010-02-25T14:52:00.000-05:00

Since Chris showed me how to upload my pictures on my netbook, I've been looking through the photos that I haven't had the chance to blog yet. Here is Laura Anne and Caleb with Shannen, a good friend of theirs, the day that we moved from Deltona. Shannen and her mommy came by the house to say bye to us one last time. Boy are we going to miss them!! We already do miss them. They were such a blessing to us while we were there.

*Sniff*

A Happy Day

2010-02-22T10:11:00.000-05:00

My sweet niece, Anna, turned one on the 13th. I'm so glad we were able to make it to her party! I was honored (and very excited!) to be asked to be the "official" photographer for the event. See?
See my thickening middle? No, I didn't think so. My tummy is popping ever so slowly. But it's popping! :)

Okay, got distracted. So most of the great pictures were on my brother's camera (and I'll lead you to the place where you can see some of those in a moment). But below is my favorite shot Chris got with our camera:

What a little dollface!!! Love her!

Okay, so to see more of my handy work...ahem, I mean more pictures from the party click RIGHT HERE.

Happy 1st birthday Anna! We love you!!!

I Forgot

2010-02-20T13:51:00.004-05:00

Shame on me! I never posted about my trip to Disney World with my lovely sister back in December. Originally, the trip was supposed to be a graduation celebration...my sis is graduating from UNF with a degree in Nutrition in April!! I'm ever so proud of her. But anyway, we've been planning this trip for a few years.

When I found out I was pregnant back in November, one of my first thoughts was, "oh no! What about Disney?!?!" I was totally freaking out. So for obvious reasons, we had to come up with another plan. We ended up deciding to take our trip during her Christmas break. It worked out really well. And actually, we received a few unexpected blessings. One of which was that we were given free tickets to Disney Quest when we showed up. Yup, just like that! Some guy had extra tickets that he wasn't going to use and we were there at just the right moment to be the ones he offered them to. :) Saved us $80!!

So anyway, our trip was absolutely wonderful! I had no morning sickness! Yay! And I even went on Thunder Mountain (twice!) at the Magic Kingdom. So without getting any more long-winded I will now direct you to a link where you can view all the best photos from our trip. :) Just click RIGHT HERE to see them!

Focusing On The Good

2010-02-11T16:03:00.002-05:00

We had lunch with Daddy today at Chick-fil-A. This photo was taken with my cell phone and was the best shot of both of them I could get. I love it. :)

Things are a little hairy here this week. Life is trying to overwhelm me (who knew having a baby could be so complicated?!), but I'm trying hard to focus on the fact that God has everything under control. It's a constant lesson to be learned! I feel like I've been learning it for a solid year now. After all, we're coming up one year since we moved from North Carolina.

But like I said, rather than sulk and have a pity party, I'm focusing on the good this week! Like the fact that Baby Nugget is moving pretty regularly now. I feel him/her at least a few times a day. And just yesterday, I came across a name for a girl that I LOVE!! We have a first name already settled on, but the middle name constantly changes. Maybe, just maybe we found THE ONE! I don't know if I want to share it just yet..... :) As for the boy name, we are still mostly undecided. There's still time, but I'm ever so slightly getting to the freak out point. I don't want to have a baby and not know what its name is going to be!!! Who wants to name their baby under pressure?! Not me!

Okay, well anyway, that's the news for now. We're heading to Jacksonville this weekend for my adorable niece's first birthday!!! Can't believe she's one already!!

No Pictures; Lots of News

2010-02-04T12:52:00.003-05:00

Hey there from the west coast of Florida! I'm so pleased to share that we are together again! This past weekend, with the help of several family members, we packed up our stuff (again) and moved into a cozy 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment. It's the first time I've ever lived in an apartment so this oughta be interesting. I've gotta get used to hearing people's footsteps above us. But our apartment is really nice and spacious. Most importantly, I have a dishwasher, I can use my dryer again AND there's carpet in the living room and every bedroom. Sigh. I'm happy.

We do not have our home computer hooked up yet. For now, I'm using my netbook and someone else's wireless signal. :) Hey, it works! But until we get the computer up and running and get our own internet service, I won't be able to post pictures. Unless I can figure out how to get them off my phone. Hm.

I'm also a happy camper because of the local shops and eateries we have very close. :) There's Super Target (whoopee!) about 5 minutes from our home, along with Michael's, Chick-fil-A, Babies R Us (yay!!), Starbucks (!), sigh. The list goes on. I'm really happy right now.

The best news of all I have to report: I have recently started feeling Baby Nugget's movements!!! It's the most incredible feeling ever!! I really can't wait until we can get an ultrasound and have a sneak peek of baby #3! We are NOT (and I'm serious this time) finding out the gender of this baby. To me, there's no reason to. We have a boy and a girl. Who cares what comes next?! I'm so excited I can barely stand it!

Now that we are in our new place where we will bring our baby home, we are getting a better feel for what we need to prepare for little nuggey's arrival. Since Caleb is still in his crib and I don't believe he's ready to move out of it yet, we have talked about getting a bassinet for Baby. Thankfully, a bassinet will fit comfortably in our bedroom, so the baby will be spending a lot of time with mommy and daddy. :) It's also time we buy a new infant car seat. We used the same one for Laura Anne and Caleb and it started to show a lot of wear. We will also need a stroller. Probably a double of some kind because Caleb, I think will ride longer than Laura Anne did. Anyway, it's exciting to think about all these things and I'm thrilled to have a Babies R Us so incredibly close to us!!!

I think I've blabbed enough for now. You get the idea of the goings on, so I'll leave it at that and say toodle-oo!

A Favorite

2010-01-21T11:13:00.003-05:00

A few things to note:

1. At the start of the video, Caleb is saying "cheese" because he thought I was taking a picture.

2. Laura Anne's gum

3. When I say I love you to Caleb he says, "too".

4. I can't even spell the adorable way he says Spongebob Squarepants. :)

We're Having A Baby!!

2010-01-15T14:08:00.004-05:00

My pregnancy was confirmed by a doctor this morning! Not that we had any doubt about it, but it's always nice to hear, "congratulations! You're pregnant!" Right now, I'm 12 1/2 weeks and the little baby nugget's heartbeat was between 160 and 170 beats per minute! It's such a refreshing and wonderful sound, the heartbeat. I am a little, no a lot, disappointed because I won't get an ultrasound this time, until about 20 weeks. So we'll have to wait a little longer before we can see our baby. But it's encouraging to know that he/she is alive and well in there.

Until the next pregnancy update....

It's About That Time...

2010-01-12T14:11:00.002-05:00

to start packing again! This time, Laura Anne wants to help:

Christmas!

2010-01-10T09:02:00.003-05:00

Finally, here are pictures from Christmas day!

Caleb wasn't too thrilled about seeing gifts under the tree. He's still too young to get it, I think. Oh, and please excuse the clutter. Chris had just gotten home the night before. :o)
Caleb warmed up to his train set pretty quickly! That's all he wanted to play with for a while. Actually, I think he would've been happy as a clam if he didn't get anything else all day. :o)

The kids with all their loot:

After Christmas at our house, we travelled to Gainesville for Chris' family gathering (at which we didn't get but a couple pictures, and they didn't turn out well), then we drove to Jacksonville for Brianna's family gathering.

Our last Christmas as a family of four! :o)

So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Adieu 2009

2010-01-04T09:26:00.002-05:00

Dear 2009,

You were, by far, the strangest year I ever experienced. You brought my family and I many, many changes and challenges. I'm proud to say that we came out stronger because of all those challenges. But I am thankful that you are gone now...no offense.

Thank you, though, for the experiences. We wouldn't be the same people without them. So farewell 2009. You will forever be a year remembered.

Love, Brianna

***************

Dear 2010,

Greetings! I'm super excited about the changes you have for us this year! Just please, could you not be as difficult as 2009? We had some challenging life lessons in 2009 so I think we're good for a little while. Thank you in advance, dear 2010. I love you already.

Love, Brianna

Gingermen House

2010-01-04T09:16:00.003-05:00

Laura Anne calls it a gingermen house. I think it's adorable.

She helped decorate our little house.
Her way of helping most of the time was "cleaning" up the spilled frosting. :)

I think ~~this~~ last year's gingerbread house turned out super cute!

Christmas Time Is Here!!!

2009-12-23T10:11:00.002-05:00

We got our Christmas tree put up right after Thanksgiving this year. Since Chris is away most of each week, I wanted to start Christmas stuff quickly so we could squeeze in lots of fun each weekend.

Laura Anne loves to help put the angel on top of the tree.

Caleb's 2nd Christmas ornament:

Laura Anne's ornament (we got these after the hooks were put away, so Barbie is taking a rest in the tree for now) :

Chris and I haven't gotten our ornaments yet this year. We're hoping to hit the after Christmas sales. :)

Birthday Girl!

2009-12-22T14:45:00.004-05:00

Our sweet girl turned 4 yesterday! She was so excited that her birthday was finally here! We celebrated with family on Saturday. Laura Anne's place of choice? Chick-fil-A, of course! I made these cute little white chocolate-dipped pretzels that turned out adorable! But, they were involved in an unfortunate accident. Yes, sadly, they got all melted together because the bag they were in was sitting on top of the stove when the oven got turned on. There was no hope for these pretzels, so they will just live on in our memory through this cute little picture.
I fear that my camera is dying. Lately, it does one of two things: either it turns itself off at random times, or it decides to not focus on whatever I'm trying to focus on. I'm super sad about this, because I don't have the loads of cash it takes to purchase the camera of my dreams. So, if and when our current camera kicks the bucket, I guess we'll have to find a temporary replacement until we can afford the big guns!

Anywho, getting off subject a little bit. The following picture proves my camera's weirdness. Only about 1/3 of the picture is in focus. But it's cute anyway, so here it is.

Me with my lovely mother and sister:

The butterfly cake! (with the few pretzel survivors)

Caleb enjoyed the balloons.

The following pictures were taken yesterday, her actual birthday. When I told her it was her birthday, she said, "the real one?" Hehe. I guess birthday parties can be confusing for young kids. :)

Before these pictures were taken, I gave her a mini makeover with the princess make-up kit Chris' parents bought her. It even had artificial fingernails. :) They didn't stick very well, but she had fun while they lasted.

Displaying the beautiful skirt that Aunt Jen made!

Happy 4th birthday big girl!! We love you!