Caleb's Final 2008 Quote

I thought I would get in one final funny quote from Caleb in 2008! I will hopefully upload some pictures from Christmas later this week! I am slowly emerging from my piles of laundry and toys!

The boys and I were sitting at breakfast this morning and we were talking about the size of our family and how there were four of us. Caleb said, "When I am a big daddy someday I want to have 3 people in my family...a daddy, mommy and a baby!" I asked him if the baby would be lonely without a brother or sister to play with and he quickly responded that he would play with the baby and that the baby did not need a brother or sister. I told him that we wanted to have two babies so that they would have someone to play with everyday and he said, "You know mom, two roosters can create quite a rumpus!" I laughed so hard...how does he know what a rumpus is and that Joshy and Caleb are certainly like two roosters! Too funny!

Merry Christmas to All!

We are leaving for the Miller Farm tomorrow (Monday), weather permitting! We have had such a cold, windy and snowy spell lately and it wasn't even officially Winter until this week...I think!? We have been suffering through -40 wind chill and 35 - 40 MPH winds lately! The forecast says a high of 26 degrees on Christmas Day and that sounds like a heat wave about now:) We are hoping for no wind that day so that we can take the boys out on the 4-wheeler and go snow tubing!

We hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas! Take care and I will post some new pics after Christmas!

Jon, Alisa, Caleb & Joshy

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Josh loves the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" It is a favorite pick for nap/bedtime. He also loves it because he can "read" it himself! Take a look at the video...

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Joshy has been left out of the last few posts, so here is a picture of him doing his favorite thing...driving a race car!

We had a little birthday party for Jesus at church that Caleb was really looking forward to. They read lots of Christmas stories...

Did several crafts...

Played lots of games...

His favorite was bow tag! The kids all had 3 bows on their backs and they had to try and pull them off all the other kids backs! It was great exercise :)

Potty Talk!

I know that this is not the most desirable subject...but when you have a house full of boys...it comes up! And, it has been coming up a lot lately mainly because Josh has decided that he does not want to eat fruit anymore. This is especially shocking because his diet consisted of 80% fruit prior to Thanksgiving! We don't know why, but the only thing he wants to eat in the fruit/vegi family are pears and green beans...go figure! Well, we as adults all know what happens when you do not eat enough rabbit food (as Jon calls it!) So, I got smart and creative. I thought I would give prune juice a try. Surprisingly, Josh likes it (don't tell him, but I think it tastes horrible!) So, every afternoon Josh gets a sippy cup full of the stuff! The other day, Jon and I were talking in code and spelling things out, which doesn't work around Caleb anymore now that he is Mr. Scrabble! He deciphered that we were talking about prune juice and piped up "Mommy forgot to give Joshy his poop juice today!"

Now onto Caleb's library time in the bathroom...

We have this book in the bathroom drawer...not sure who gave it to us or where it came from...it is called Uncle John's Ultimate Bathroom Reader. It is made up of short stories (just the right length of time apparently!) Well, Caleb says it is his bathroom Bible and takes it out everytime he needs to do a sit down and recites his favorite Bible story (usually Jonah and the Whale!) I came in the other day to check on him because he was taking so long and asked what he was reading and where he got the idea to read in the bathroom. He said, "This is my bathroom Bible and I am being just like daddy!) Need I say more!? I have never understood this strange ritual of reading and the bathroom...it must be a guy thing!

Is There a "J"...Can I Buy a Vowel?

When Denise came to visit for Caleb's birthday, she brought a fun game called Banana Grams. It is like Scrabble without a board. Anyway, Caleb has such a fascination with letters and spelling, that he has gotten more use out of it than Jon and I! The other day he was spelling out all kinds of words all on his own. Look how proud he is of "brand new." He must think it is all one word! He did pretty well on all the other words though!

Daddy and Caleb played with Banana Grams today while they were waiting for the Cowboy's football game tonight. They came up with a good way to use Caleb's candy cane! Notice the snowy sky in the background...we are in the middle of a blizzard today as well!

Happy Birthday Caleb...3 Times!!

Caleb turned 5 on December 3rd and we can hardly believe it! Time goes along so quickly and before you know it they are all grown up! Caleb is such a joy and we are continually amazed by his intellect, sense of humor and tender heart.

Birthday #1 was at the Frericks home on Thanksgiving day. We thought we would take advantage of the Miller family being together for a few birthday parties!

Denise came to visit us for a few days for Caleb's birthday celebration. We went to Falls Park to look at all the beautiful lights and climb on a few hundred rocks! Even in the cold, the boys had a blast!

See our teeth chattering!?

On Caleb's birthday, we started out the day decorating our first gingerbread house! Move over Martha Stewart...ok, at least we tried! Josh has picked off candy one by one since the decorating of the house last week and Caleb tries to police it as best as he can but little brother just will not listen!

Later in the day, we took the kids to the mall to enjoy some indoor play time at the kids play area. Caleb always enjoys a ride on this spaceship. He wants to be an astronaut and loves to study anything about space.

This picture deserves a preface...we have not allowed Caleb to chew any gum the last 3 months or so because he kept forgetting to spit out his gumball after he was done. This was especially traumatic because Caleb's absolute favorite treat is a gumball! Simple I know, but it is! We had visions of his stomach being all gummed up 7 years later...isn't that what our parents used to tell us!?

So, we told him that he could not have another gumball until he was 5 and if he could remember to spit it out from now on, we did not have a problem with him having gumballs again (mean, I know). So...we had to visit the gumball machines on our way out of the mall. He chose watermelon...and did not swallow it! Way to go Caleb!

We came home after the mall and opened gifts, played games and ate cupcakes and ice cream.

This Sunday we had Caleb's first friends party...he was soooo excited! He loves Diego, so we had a Diego party! We rented a room at our community center so that there would be lots of room for the kids to run around.

They played all kinds of games:

Red Light, Green Light

Diego, Diego, Jaguar (instead of Duck, Duck, Goose)!

Pin the Pic on Click (instead of Pin the Tail on the Donkey)
And a bunch of others that I can't remember at the moment! Denise drew the picture of Click below...we know where Caleb gets his artistic ability :)

And then we got the kids all sugared up on cake and ice cream before their parents came to pick them up!!!

So Much To Be Thankful For...

We have so many great pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend! Here are a few...

We left Sioux Falls Wed. afternoon and headed for the Miller farm for a long weekend. We had beautiful weather all weekend, so that provided lots of opportunities for outdoor play for the kids and adults! There were a total of 6 adults and 6 kids in one house, so that was a good thing :)

We bundled the kids up and they found some pretty creative ways to keep busy...isn't that their job?! Anyway, they decided that they would make piles of all kinds of yard debris. Caleb and Aleah collected pine needles, pine cones and sticks.

And, as if there were not enough of these things on the ground, they decided that finding more up in the trees was even more fun! JeAnna was the guinea pig for this project...but it looks like she doesn't mind! The next day they collected sticks, corn stalks and who knows what else. Grandpa will be busy cleaning up all their piles. I think it was food for some sort of animal...not sure?!
Meanwhile, inside the house, Dan and Jon played a 3 hour (or so) game of Risk. This has always been a favorite! I think the last time Jon played was with my brother John about 5 years ago! I think Jon won both times! ;)

We had a lot of fun just goofing off and eating good food! Thanks to Aunt Anne and Grandma Margaret for the scrumptious dinners and desserts!

Caleb camped out in our room and Jaelyn and Josh thought they would try out his bed!

We celebrated the first (of 3) birthday parties for Caleb. We also celebrated Jaelyn & Uncle Dan's B-day as well. Grandma baked Caleb & Jaelyn their own little cake! More of Caleb's 2 other birthday celebrations to come!!

Aunt Anne baked some turkey cut out cookies and brought them over to Grandma's house for the kids to decorate. Grandma Margaret supervised while Julie and I got in some uninterrupted scrapbook time...thanks Margaret :)

The guys (and kids) got to go out several times for some pheasant hunting.

They saw a lot of birds and shot a total of 5. They were not able to find one of Jon's birds...needed a bird dog I guess! They actually entertained the idea of going back to the house to get Joe & Margaret's little dog, Ally (a Rat Terrier) to see if she could sniff it out but decided against it! She probably would have found it though!

Caleb and the older kids went along for a bit the first day but I think we dressed them to warm. Caleb came back to the house and said that he never wanted to go again...it is too hot pheasant hunting! I think it was a lot of exercise tromping through all those tree groves and Caleb does not like to get sweaty!!!

Josh lucked out the next day, he got to ride on daddy's shoulders!

We had a great weekend and did a lot of fun things. Most of all, it was great because we spent it with family! We are so thankful for the blessing you are and wish we could see you all more often!

First Snow Play Day

We had our first snowfall right before Thanksgiving and the boys went outside with dad to play while he shoveled out the driveway. In South Dakota we build sandcastles year round too...we just use snow instead of sand! Caleb is just starting his creation here...

Snowball fight...look out!

We decided to decorate the house for Christmas before Thanksgiving this year so that it would be done after we got back from the farm. Caleb was at a friends house on a play date while we decorated, but we saved our "kids tree" in the dining room for after he got home. They always enjoy unwrapping all the decorations that we have collected over the past 5 years. Josh had so much fun taking Caleb from room to room and showing him all the decorations. Caleb found our Santa hat and found Joshy this sun visor somewhere in the house! He said it was red, so it was for Christmas! Josh does not seem to mind:)