Blue Eyes

April's Birthday

On the weekend after Easter, my family all got together to celebrate April's 21st birthday. We met at my parents' house and had a nice afternoon/evening enjoying the beautiful weather and some good grillin'!

Here my grandma is introducing Caleb to her new little puppy! So cute!

This is the day Caleb learned to say "Cheese!"
(And he always says "Hi" to himself as he looks at his pictures on the screen.)

Sitting in a rocking chair my mom had as a little girl.

So cute!

Helping Grandpa put on Auntie's new hub caps.

And again with the birthday girl!

Baby and puppy!

The puppy really wanted to play with Caleb, but Caleb wasn't too sure.

Easter

I already wrote about Easter, but here are some pictures from the day:

Caleb opening his Easter basket gifts.

This was too funny - it's the baseball Easter basket uncle Josh gave him!

Here's the egg hunt in the basement.

"What's in here?"

"Yummy!"

Goofing off with Uncle Josh!

Here we all are at the dinner table.
(My mom is taking the picture)

SPRING!

Spring is finally in full swing!  How wonderful it is!  Things are mighty busy around our house with baseball going strong.  The first three weeks on the baseball schedule are filled every day except for Wednesdays!  It's definitely a different routine for us, but it's going ok so far.  Caleb and I have been enjoying our time together - usually outside!  

Yesterday we spent the afternoon raking the yard - Caleb with his little rake, and me with the big one!  It was great fun, but I have a blister on my hand.  I guess I'm a little too intense with the rake.  I feel like we've hit a new milestone with Caleb simply in the fact that I can spend an hour completing a job and Caleb just tags along happily.  How nice to be able to enjoy time with him and get something done at the same time!  He just loves being outside, and gets pretty mad at me when it's time to go in to make supper.  

Caleb and I eat supper alone, or else pack something up and take it with us to the game.  It's so nice that the weather has cooperated so far with the baseball games.  I remember last year it was so chilly that I didn't go to many games with a little baby.  I can't believe that was just a year ago.  Sometimes it feels like forever ago that Caleb was a little immobile baby!  

Joel usually gets home between 7 and 8, so he has just a few minutes usually to play with Caleb before I put him down.  Caleb just loves Joel.  Sometimes when Joel's gone, Caleb looks out the window and says "Daddy!"  It's just adorable hearing words come out of his little mouth!  So far it's Daddy, Hi, and most popular this week, "Uh-Oh!"  He will drop his toys on purpose just so he can say uh-oh!  So cute!  He's become more of a snuggle-bug lately, which we are definitely enjoying!  But it's only on his terms, and usually not for long - then it's right back to 50 miles per hour.  

Caleb is still not completely healthy - we took him in last Saturday and found out he has another double ear infection.  I'm not real convinced that his antibiotic is working either - six days in and he's still waking up every night from the pain.  We finally have an appointment next week with his regular doctor so that we can ask about tubes or seeing an ENT specialist since it's been a good two months now that something's been going on.  If you think of us, please pray for wisdom for our doctor and also for us as decisions are made.  Somehow all of this glorious weather keeps me from getting discouraged by all the sickness.  Caleb has been such a trooper through it all!

I just have to share a little bit about our Easter.  We spent it at Joel's parents because they needed a piano player for church (as theirs had just had a baby a week before Easter).  My parents got to join in for the afternoon too between many ministry commitments that weekend.  Caleb soaked up the attention (especially from Uncle Josh).  After our Easter dinner, Caleb got to look through his Easter baskets (mostly toys and clothes this year as we still don't give him much candy).  Highlights:  matchbox cars, great books, a summer outfit, and outdoor toys (including the rake used to help me in the yard yesterday).  The best part of the day though was the egg hunt!  Joel and I "hid" eggs in the basement with one M&M in each.  We brought Caleb down and pointed out the first egg.  He picked it up, shook it, and opened it.  At first he wasn't sure what to do with the little thing that fell out.  When we prompted him to eat it, he was very excited!  Then we pointed out another egg.  He quickly picked it up and shook it.  As he heard something inside, he realized it was most likely more chocolate!  Yeah!  So it didn't take long to catch on and find all the eggs, eating the M&Ms along the way.  Sometimes he'd look at Joel or I like, "Are you sure it's really ok to keep eating these delicious things?"  It was such a fun time, and luckily he doesn't mind being the center of attention as we all gather around to watch him!  

We have a growing boy, who is becoming increasingly independent.  It's incredible how much he's changed in only about 16 months!  What a fun journey!  One I can't wait to begin again with another one day!

Health Update

I haven't posted pictures of Caleb in a while, so I thought I'd also update on his health. After we got through the emergency room visit, we managed to stay out of hospitals and clinics for almost two weeks. Caleb never seemed completely healthy, still a runny nose, and then a cough developed. Last weekend his cough was getting pretty bad, so on Monday my mom was able to bring him in to the clinic while she was watching him. The doctor said his ears still look good (yay!), but he was wheezing pretty bad. So the recommendation was to use his nebulizer every four hours, and he was also prescribed prednisone. The prednisone was supposed to help him get rid of the mucus that was collecting in his lungs. So I took another sick day on Tuesday and hung out with Caleb. It was a very long week with him. Every evening he was completely inconsolable: clinging and crying any time he was put down. It was very stressful, and the most discouraging part was that he was great all day in daycare on Wednesday and Thursday, and still came home to cry all night.

So as I was discouraged and frustrated and things between Joel and I were getting tense as we were both so stressed, I spent some much-needed time in prayer. And God has worked in me so much in just a few short days. As I prayed for Caleb, God showed me all the things I have to be thankful for. Wednesday evening some friends of ours had to rush their three-year-old to the hospital, and then to Children's Hospital because he had a seizure. He has a stint in an artery going to his brain (complications from being a premie), and it malfuctioned. They had to remove it and put in a new one on the other side of his head, which involves drilling into his skull. When I heard about this, I just thought, Oh Lord! Thank you for all the little things we've been dealing with, and for sparing us from more serious complications! Thank you for showing me how blessed I am!

The Lord also encouraged me by answering a very specific prayer I prayed during my prep time on Friday. I prayed that we would enjoy our time as a family on Friday night. And we had such a fun time! When I came home from school, mom told me that Caleb hadn't had the best day, and had refused to nap much at all. He was fussy for the first little bit, but then we spent an hour in his room playing with puzzles and reading - and he didn't cry once for a whole hour! That was the first time he did that all week for me! Then Joel got home from baseball practice and we spent a relaxing and fun evening together. We all watched the flock of birds in our backyard taking baths in the puddles for a long time. We chased each other around and giggled lots. Caleb was content to play independently, and he even ate a big supper. It was unbelievingly refreshing and fulfilling to enjoy each other's company. Thank you Lord for granting that request from one of your children!

Construction hat from Auntie Marilyn

All set for church!

Snuggly flannel pajamas!

We got outside during a few of those warm days, and Caleb just loved running around the driveway - we're missing it now, since it's been so cold!

cutie patootie!

This was our fun Friday night watching the flock of birds in our backyard. Our kitty even joined us for this family time!

Simply Pure!

The Simply Pure event this weekend was a success! It was a whirlwind, but a blast! I didn't get time to take many pictures, but here are a few:

We started by decorating and preparing the food. You can't tell by this picture very well, but the polka dots on the wall were printed with cute patterns. We strung white lights and tulle around the room and had pink and white lilies on the tables.


We served mini pizzas (made in cupcake pans), crackers & cheese, mixed fruit, mini brownies, and mini cheesecakes (also made in cupcake pans) with a bunch of different toppings, along with punch. It was a fun menu and the ladies in the kitchen did a wonderful job!

Then we headed up to the sanctuary to begin the service. We had an awesome time of worship, led by four wonderful ladies. They rocked with some Barlow Girl! Then we gave out a bunch of prizes, followed by more music. Then Molly came up and spoke for over an hour. She did such a wonderful job - we were laughing lots, and yet she addressed some very serious issues. What a blessed woman of God she is. God is doing amazing things through her, and yet I have a feeling He has even bigger plans in her future - I can't wait to see!

Here are about half of the girls who came. It was mostly junior highers. I had eleven girls spend the night at my house afterward. We had a BLAST! I love junior high girls! We spent about three hours playing American Idol on the Wii - dance party!

Here are most of the ladies who made the night possible. What a blessing to have a hard working group of women dedicated to reach out to girls! Thank you ladies!

And here is Molly! I just can't say enough good things about her! If you're interested, you can check her out here, here, and here and be sure to check out her youtube videos. She's a woman with very high standards with a whole lot of passion!

Thank you to all of you who prayed for this event. It was so much fun and I know that many girls will remember it for a very long time. Pray that God will continue to move in their hearts and nudge them to follow His standards for the best life.

ER

Well, this season is still battling with Caleb's immune system.  Yesterday Caleb was feverish all day, even though he was on tylenol and motrin all day.  He hung in there through daycare and still enjoyed playing with his friends, but after we picked him up he just seemed to crash.  He cried and moaned and wanted to just be held (which is VERY uncharacteristic of him).  

So right after supper we headed to urgent care.  After finding out that his temp was 104.3 even with tylenol still in his system, they transferred us to emergency room so that they could begin running tests.  His heart rate was also quite high, but oxygen levels were good.  Many people poked and prodded, all the while Caleb continued to cry and cling to me.  He received more ibuprofin and had to have blood taken from his arm.  That was pretty awful.  

Twenty minutes after receiving ibuprofin his temp had only gone down to 104.0.  We went to radiology and he had three chest/abdomen x-rays.  After all that was over it was about 8:30pm.

We hung out in ER waiting for results and Caleb started perking up a bit.  He ate some cheerios and drank some juice and even smiled a few times when Daddy tickled him!  His temp was down to 99.8.  He was finally more comfortable and content, and needless to say, so were Joel and I.  All the tests and x-rays came back normal, so they concluded that this is just another virus that hit his little body hard, especially since his immune system is still working to fight off everything else he's had in the past three weeks.  The good news:  his ears looked fine!  Praise the Lord!  Tomorrow will be his last day on an antibiotic for his ear infection, so we're praying hard that his body will regain its strength and be healthy once again.  If you are willing, please lift Caleb up in your prayers in the next week.