our yummy feast

This year I hosted my own Thanksgiving for the very first time. It is the first time that I haven't been with my family for Thanksgiving, since my parents are in Cameroon. I knew I would be missing our time together this year, and I've always wanted to be able to cook a whole Thanksgiving dinner, so I decided to do my own! It was lots of fun. Casey's mom is still doing hers on Thanksgiving Day, and we're going to that as well, so I did mine on Wednesday. Tabitha and her parents came, as well as Cheryl. I spent a long time planning what dishes to fix, which in itself was a big part of the excitement. I ended up making turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, maple carrots, peas, broccoli cheese casserole, a wild rice dish, mashed potatoes and a stuffing made from turkey sausage, cranberries and three kinds of bread that I made in advance. Tabitha came and helped me last night and today, and we made three desserts: white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, sweet potato pie and pumpkin cake. It was a really great day, with wonderful friends to share it :)

caleb's baptism (10/16/08)

maggie with her uncle cody

our happy family


caleb with his aunt ashley

caleb climbed up a whole flight of stairs at ashley's house, by himself. aunt judy stayed close behind him to catch him, but he didn't need any help!


We had a very fun day. We were "supposed" to be in our new church building for the very first time this Sunday, but it got postponed one more week, so we had a very memorable last Sunday in the old building for our family. It was a sweet time. Beth, Cody, Jessica and Reagan got to come, and afterwards we went out to eat at a Thai restaurant. Then we all got in the car(s) and drove to Belton to a housewarming party for Ashley and Sam. We ended up staying there all afternoon and it was lots of fun. It was a very happy and memorable day for us and our sweet little Caleb!

my thoughts are a jumbled mess, but here they are anyway...

I'm not usually one to be very open about my faith unless I'm asked about it or I'm in a situation where other people are talking about theirs, but I sure would be leaving out the majority of my life if I didn't say something on here every now and then. In the past few days (really the past few years, but I'll start with recently) I have been so blown away by God's goodness and how He really does keep His promises.. not even just long-term, but He honestly takes care of us down to the tiniest detail, every step of the way. He continually, time and time again, takes really crappy (couldn't think of a better word there-- sorry) situations and turns them into something so beautiful I want to cry just thinking about it. He works in our lives, but what really gets me is how he works in our hearts-- specifically mine. My heart is just overflowing with thankfulness for all He is. My life is so full of hope. I never have reason for even the slightest bit of despair (not that I don't sometimes forget this), because I simply remember is that God is completely good. All I have to do is look back. His faithfulness stretches as far back as I can see, and because of who He is and what He's done, I am able to have complete confidence that it will never end!

(This old hymn by Martin Luther is stuck in my head. It's one of my all-time favorites)
From depths of woe I raise to Thee
The voice of lamentation;
Lord, turn a gracious ear to me
And hear my supplication;
If Thou iniquities dost mark,
Our secret sins and misdeeds dark,
O who shall stand before Thee?

To wash away the crimson stain,
Grace, grace alone availeth;
Our works, alas! are all in vain;
In much the best life faileth:
No man can glory in Thy sight,
All must alike confess Thy might,
And live alone by mercy.

Therefore my trust is in the Lord,
And not in mine own merit;
On Him my soul shall rest, His Word
Upholds my fainting spirit:
His promised mercy is my fort,
My comfort, and my sweet support;
I wait for it with patience.

What though I wait the livelong night,
And till the dawn appeareth,
My heart still trusteth in His might;
It doubteth not nor feareth:
Do thus, O ye of Israel’s seed,
Ye of the Spirit born indeed;
And wait till God appeareth.

Though great our sins and sore our woes,
His grace much more aboundeth;
His helping love no limit knows,
Our utmost need it soundeth.
Our Shepherd good and true is He,
Who will at last His Israel free.
From all their sin and sorrow.

happy babies and pretty fall leaves

Maggie snuck into Caleb's swing when I wasn't looking. I was in the next room and heard both of them giggling, so I came to see what the excitement was all about. Caleb playing in the toybox. Caleb looking cute in his baptism outfit. He's getting baptized this Sunday. This was Caleb's first try at "walking". He stood up holding onto the laundry basket and pushed it down the hallway, using it as a walker. sweet Maggie.

the little lion feeding the trick-or-treaters

Maggie has chosen her favorite holiday. I dressed her in her lion suit and painted her face (she was so excited to be getting to wear makeup "like Mama's makeup"). Caleb wore Maggie's bunny costume from last year and I carried him and held Maggie's hand as we walked down our street trick-or-treating. Maggie seemed so amazed that people were giving her candy. After going to a house or two, she was going straight up to the door and banging on it, yelling, "Knock-knock! Trick-or-treat!" before I could even get there. Everyone wanted to give Caleb candy. I was so surprised how many people said, "I'll give him a sucker- that's something he's big enough to eat". One lady even game him a huge reeses candy bar. She said it was perfect for him "because it's soft". !! We only went to a few houses, and then we came home and waited for our own trick-or-treaters. Casey went to put Maggie in her high chair for dinner, and she was very disappointed to leave the big candy bowl. She was still holding a sucker and asked him to open it. He told her no, she needed to eat dinner first. She said, "Please, Daddy. Open it?" and he said no, so she started to walk away and put it back in the bowl, but then stopped and came back to him. She held the sucker up and said in her sweetest voice, "Trick-or-treat, Daddy?" After dinner we had trick-or-treaters coming ever few minutes for about two hours. Maggie got so excited every time someone knocked on the door, and carried the bowl to the trick-or-treaters to let them choose their candy. It turned out that Maggie's cousin, Cori Lee (10 days younger than Maggie), was also a lion! They stopped in and we took some pictures.

running really helps

Casey and I have been getting to run together a lot lately and it is wonderful! We are making an effort to run three times a week: Sunday, and then whichever other two mornings he can get someone to work for him during the week. Last Sunday we ran 4.5 miles, Tuesday we ran 5, and today we ran 6.5! We are feeling awesome, and I know a huge reason why is the weather is amazing. It makes such a difference to have cool weather. We run at Beechwood (his uncle's farm) and we literally have not even come close to running through all the different trails/fields there. It goes on for miles and miles. We call it "exploring" while we're running, since we've never even been to some of these fields. It's so nice to be able to mix things up and run somewhere absolutely beautiful, and with no cars around. We were watching the leaves slowly fall this week, just one or two at a time. They are just starting to change colors quickly now, with red and orange and yellow, but still lots of green. The farm is gorgeous.

caleb grows up

My little Caleb is growing so fast, I feel like he is going to pass Maggie in size any day now. In reality, I think he's only about 14 1/2 or 15 lbs, but that's a big change from a month ago when he was a little 12 pounder :)
He is all over the place. His favorite spot right now is the bathtub, where he crawls up and down, chasing toys and Maggie, and looking for anything he can pull up on. Here are some pictures from this week and last.

less waste and more fun

Lately I have been trying to be more careful to not be wasteful. With money, for one, but also with things. I realized in the last few months how much money I was wasting on buying odds and ends that either weren't really necessary or that I could buy used rather than new and save not only some money but also prevent used things from getting thrown away and new ones from being made unnecessarily. I started realizing a few months ago that although I'm always a very careful shopper and use all kinds of great strategy, there are lots of things that I have bought that I simply don't need, no matter what kind of bargain I may have conjured up between sales, coupons and gift cards. The problem was mainly my attitude towards shopping. I think I have been almost addicted to it and use it as one of my greatest sources of entertainment. I really enjoy shopping... for ANYTHING, whether it's clothes, groceries, or something Casey wants me to pick up from the hardware store. So in the last few months I have almost completely cut out shopping other than our basic necessities. It has been such a fun time! There is something very freeing about not having everything you "want". It really makes life more exciting. Casey and I have really enjoyed reminding each other to be careful and less wasteful. And we still do get to do fun things... we just don't agree to whatever it is we feel like doing, just for the heck of it. Last Saturday I went to some yard sales and had a blast. I got loads of clothes and shoes for Maggie and Caleb.. some of the cutest clothes they have.. and I spent exactly one ten dollar bill. It was awesome! My favorite part so far was showing Casey our personal credit card bill for last month. It was the smallest it's been since the year we got married, before babies and all :)

my big boy and his little helper

Caleb had a check-up today to see whether he's been gaining enough weight, and he did great! He is 6 months old now, and weighed in at 13 lbs, 13 oz. The dr. was very excited, telling me he has jumped all the way up to 2nd percentile :) He was an impressive little boy, trying to crawl all over the table and pull up on whatever he could. He is my little wild one. He crawls across the room so fast now. He loves to go under the dining room table to see what he can find to put in his mouth! I have new motivation to keep the floor clean :) Maggie continues to amaze us all with her sweet attitude and talking in complete sentences. She talks to me all day long, asking me lots and lots of questions. I'm always amazed at how good her memory is. One of her favorite activities right now is feeding Caleb his baby food. She stands on a chair and carefully feeds him every bite with a spoon. She is such a big helper, and who would have thought, at 20 months!?

on the farm

this afternoon we went over to beechwood with lots of cousins and a few aunts to take some pictures for a book casey's cousin donna is making. i took a few pictures alongside donna, so they aren't as good as hers, but you can get the idea. :)


Here's the link to the rest of the pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010936&l=4b90a&id=84000857

maggie and her baby

Today Maggie took a special interest in one of her dolls. She is such a good mommy. She helped her baby participate in all kinds of activities, including swinging in Caleb's swing, jumping in his bouncer, eating baby bottles, and she tried to give her a bath. Several times throughout the day she came to me after putting her baby in one of Caleb's favorite spots, telling me that the baby was "too little". Once when she couldn't find her baby's bottle I gave her an empty one of Caleb's, but after trying it out, she told us her baby was too little to use it. Maggie's little attitude is so precious. She has such a sweet spirit about her that she certainly didn't get from her mama or daddy :)

he may be little but he sure loves to play

This week Caleb has started all kinds of new activity. He has been getting up on all fours for awhile now, but in the past few days he has started some crawling. He can also make the transition from lying down to sitting up almost completely now. It seems crazy to me (he's 5 months old) because little Maggie didn't even show any interest in such things at this point in her life. She was 7 months old before she crawled. Caleb is so interested in playing and moving arond. He had an appointment with the pediatrician this week and learned that he is off the charts underweight. He weighs 12lbs 2 ounces. At first, she seemed slightly concerned, especially since he's never had formula and it's very hard to tell how much milk he's actually getting (for some reason I always get the feeling at this doctor like they think I'm crazy for breastfeeding. I guess maybe they have very few patients who do?). But then, after they put him up on the table and he scooted around and tried to sit up, the dr. said not to worry, he was doing great developmentally. So she said to give start him on some rice. He couldn't be happier about that. He goes crazy for it, trying to grab the bowl and spoon between every bite!

my first post

i'm certainly not much of a blogger, but i have enjoyed reading other people's blogs so much that i decided to have one for our family. if it were just casey and i in our family, there would be no point, but since we do have these two sweet babies and all of my family lives far away, i guess i have an excuse to have a page to update on. i know i will be slack about updating very often. my problem is that i have lots of time to look around on the internet (while feeding caleb), but very little time for actual typing, because that's a challenge when holding a baby.
so it may not be exciting, but as it turns out, our lives don't look so exciting either. after all, my favorite time of the week is my weekly trip with my babies to publix for groceries. every night we have pretty much the same routine, which i'm sure sounds boring, but we love it! i can't imagine a more fun life, and yet, i bet my life couldn't look more boring! so if i end up being the only person who ever reads our blog, i won't be disappointed or offended :)

.... so here it is... our little family blog. enjoy!