New skills

Here's a little video of Ethan showing off his newest skill - rolling from back to front.

And another of his favorite skill - blowing bubbles:

Obsessed

So we now have cable TV (we did without for the last 4 years in SD). And we love the disney channel. Caleb is completely obsessed with Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego. He knows exactly when they come on (everyday after nap time) and in what order....first Dora, then "go San Diego, go go San Diego"!! (the actual show is called "go, Diego, go") But Caleb insists on calling it "go San Diego, go go San Diego" every time he talks about it. He'll randomly sing songs from the shows throughout the day. It is very cute and makes me want to keep him this age forever!!

Handyman

It's so great having a handyman around. When I was growing up I had one of those dads that could fix anything....I mean ANYTHING! I always admired that about him, and really hoped that when I had a household of my own - there would be a handyman living there. I always thought it would be my husband....but it's not. It's Caleb. Check out the pics below:

Helping me nail in some rafia in his bedroom:

Making new friends

Friends of ours just bought a boat and a wake board, so the boys and I joined them at the lake one day after church. Caleb really liked the boat ride and was trying to give our friend Kim instructions on how to get up on a wake board. I did not try it (wasn't wanting to get into a swimsuit just yet :) I'll try it next time). Here's a pic of me and Caleb on the boat.


Brad and Jolie climbing on rocks in the water

Caleb "sword fighting" with the cotton candy cone he'd saved from 4th of July

Caleb seemed to have the most fun filling the chair's cup holder with rocks - he was so proud of himself. It's nice when the little things make them happy and keep them occupied.

All in all we had a really great day. Hopefully Jon will be able to join us next time, and I will give wake boarding a try. I know Caleb will want to go again....he did NOT want to leave the lake and kept talking about it all the way home.

Celebrate Freedom

So I'm totally lame and didn't take any pictures at the church's Celebrate Freedom outreach. But I did snap one of Ethan in his 4th of July duds (mommy's little firecreacker):

Celebrate Freedom was awesome though (despite the 104 degree temp). There were tons of concessions stands (shaved ice, cotton candy, watermelon, ice cream, fresh squeezed lemonade.....) all for 25 cents. And a BBQ meal (hamburger, beans & chips) for $1.50. There were a zillion bounce houses, and all the different version of any type of game you could imagine playing in an inflatable. They had a really great fenced off toddler area with mini inflatables and 3 little inflatable pools for the kids to splash in (they even provided swim diapers & sunscreen). There were bands playing live music all day and then a fantastic fireworks show that night. Jon said it was the best one he's ever seen (I took the boys home before they started....Caleb is terrified of fireworks). Several people kept asking "what kind of church would do this for free?" which was great to hear because a lot of the volunteers were able to share about our church and our vision and passion for simply serving the community. It was a really great weekend and I am looking forward to next year!

Fun with friends

So we went to a new friends house last night (Larry and Teresa's). They are friends of Brad and Tammi, and Jon just hired Larry as the new IT guy at the church. They have a huge property about 15 minutes out into the country. They also have a huge family (5 kids and one on the way - and they're our age!!). It was pretty much complete mayhem the entire time we were there. They had a few other families over, so there were probably about 40 people (20+ kids). Caleb was so entertained by all the kids and totally got into "country life". He even went off roading with 2 girls....go Caleb!!

Yes - that is a red mustache on his face. At one point I saw him walking down the hall with two huge cups full of Kool-aid and the biggest grin on his face like he hit the jackpot....not sure where he found those :)

When it got dark they started breaking out the fireworks...and Caleb started breaking out the tears. Boy, he really does not like those at all. So needless to say, we will not be going to the fireworks show tonight...which is just fine with me since it won't start until 10 or 10:30 when it gets dark. We will be going to the big outreach that the church puts on today. I will do my best to take pics so you all can see what our church is up to. They are expecting 10,000 people to come through this year...wow!!

Hope you all have a great 4th of July and truly celebrate our freedom!!