A Large Weekend

We had a lot going on the past weekend. It started on Thursday with Mea Mea moving out. My sister had been living with us for almost a year and we were all excited about her getting her own place. Now I have a place to escape to! Grandma and Granddaddy Wise drove a U-Haul over the mountain on Thursday with all of Mea Mea's belongings. They are excited to have a garage back and Mea Mea was excited to see all of her stuff.

On Friday we celebrated Caleb's birthday, followed by Seth and Granddaddy's birthdays on Saturday. Then Sunday of course was Easter.

Here's a link to the Picasa Photo Album where you can see more photos of all the festivities: http://picasaweb.google.com/kathrynmgood/April?authkey=Gv1sRgCOa4wNSQn76qUQ&feat=directlink

Give Me Back That Ear!

So I got all the photos back of our live bunny session. (Grandparents - they are available in the March Picasa album.) I thought I would share some photos of Clara's anger at us for taking away her bunny.

Going for the ear...

Pulling the ear. It almost looks like she is asking Caleb if it is okay and he is warning her, but I don't really think either of those things were happening.

Why did you take my bunny????

A little dramatic, don't you think?

Christmas in Kingsport

We traveled to Kingsport the day after Christmas for a holiday visit with the Goods.

Wonderful Christmas Chaos

The two crazy cousins - shown here decorated as dogs - enjoyed playing and fighting with each other. It is a joy to see them play, but we all felt like we needed a recording going with statements such as "No," Share," "1, 2, 3" ... well you get the idea. It was cold outside so that limited the activity options. We found solace with the television.

The cousins

Clara & Grandpa

Christmas with GranWises

We were very excited to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in our own home, and we were even more excited to have the GranWises and Mea Mea with us.

Christmas Morning

Caleb had asked Santa for a Thomas Train. We swear he's had several but we couldn't locate one in the house that works with his train table, so we supported his Christmas wish. When Caleb found it Christmas morning, he immediately took it upstairs and added it to his collection.

I love this picture because Clara is playing in Caleb's tent and Caleb is playing with Clara's ball popper. I guess this is just the start of not being happy with your own things.

Caleb received a cool guitar from Mea Mea.

The best present of the year is on top!

Christmas Eve

We went to Christmas Eve service at our church. Here's our best attempt at a family photo.

Caleb with Jesus' birthday cake. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Caleb and Daddy reading the Christmas story.

Cookies for Santa!

Looking A Lot Like Christmas

Caleb has been a joy this Christmas season. He sees lights on houses and says, "Look Mama - Christmas!" or "Happy Birthday Jesus!" Let me tell you, it's hard to not be in the Christmas spirit with him around.

Seth's mom has been buying Seth a Hallmark car ornament each year since he was a little boy. Caleb didn't agree that these were ornaments though. We did hang them on a little tree in Caleb's room - a pretty cool tree for a little boy!

Clara might not know what is going on, but we can still dress her up in cute holiday outfits!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We had our annual trip to see Santa a couple of weekends ago. This year's Santa was the real one! Just look at him!

Caleb had talked about seeing Santa all morning. He was determined to tell him that he wanted a Thomas train. He remained excited until the moment we walked up to Santa. Then Caleb had no desire to sit on Santa's lap. So we put Clara up on his lap instead.

Clara immediately went for the beard.

We convinced Caleb to stand beside Santa in order to "help" Clara tell Santa what she wants for Christmas. Caleb wasn't too sure about that though.

Santa started talking to Caleb about Thomas the train and Caleb thought that was a little cool.

Caleb finally gave Santa a five, but that was as close as he got. Notice that Clara still has Santa by the beard.

Thanksgiving 2009

We had our Thanksgiving in our own home for the first time this year. Grandma and Granddaddy Wise made the trip from Hickory to spend it with us. We very much enjoyed not having to travel but missed the rest of our family. We bought a fried turkey from a fundraiser at church but did the rest of the sides ourselves. It was a great weekend - so much to be thankful for!

Mea Mea and Clara on Thanksgiving

Family Picture Take 1 - look how Caleb feels about it!

Take 2 was a little better!

Caleb wanted to hold hands during grace but he wasn't about to let go of his roll!

Trick-or-Treating

Our neighborhood was rocking on Halloween night! There were several fire pits going, and adults were pulling coolers of beer and wine in addition to toting their children around. We went over to our neighbor's house for hot dogs and s'mores before taking Caleb to a few houses to trick-or-treat.

Caleb was too excited to eat very much - he wanted to play basketball instead.

Ray and Anita were nice enough to bring out the exersaucer for Clara. She didn't stay out long - it got too cold!

Here's Caleb at his first candy stop. He wanted to go inside again this year, but we were able to stop him.

He made it to a couple of houses and then came home. He liked ringing our door bell and also got super excited when other trick-or-treaters rang it. His highlight was definitely handing out candy. Seth and I thought it was funny how freely he would give candy away; if only sharing was that easy all the time! Caleb ended the night by staying up a little late to watch the Vols with Daddy!

Dressing Up - Numerous Times

We had lots of events that required dressing up this year, and Caleb had a blast each time.

First stop was the Fall Festival at church. Caleb went as a ghost.

The Thursday and Friday before Halloween were pajama days at his school. Here he is with Mea Mea who dressed as Dorothy for her school events.

We just dressed Clara up once - on Halloween night. She went as an adorable ladybug.

On the actual Halloween, Caleb dressed up as a kangaroo. He was being extremely uncooperative about getting his picture taken.

Halloween Activities

We had loads of fun preparing for Halloween this year. Late last week, Caleb made cookies with me. It was just the slice and bake kind, but he had fun putting them on the pan and watching them bake. On Saturday morning, I attempted ghost pancakes. Some of them looked more like blobs, but they were yummy. Then Seth and Caleb got all the seeds out of our pumpkin and I made toasted pumpkin seeds. Seth carved a nervous pumpkin and then attached spiders all over it. (I had seen the idea in a magazine - no we aren't that creative.) The pumpkin was super cute, but it looked like a sad pumpkin all lit up in the dark. Our neighbors probably all think we are depressed now...

Happy 4th!

We had a great 4th of July. We started out with a visit to the pool on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday evening we headed to the Hannolds house for a cookout and to watch fireworks. Here we are in our red, white and blue attire.

Clara slept in her car seat most of the time.

Caleb had a blast running around the golf course and jumping in the bounce house with all the other kids. He really enjoyed his cup of ice cream with M&Ms and sprinkles. When it was time for the fireworks Caleb was scared at first but then wanted to see more. He was completely worn out at the end of the night ... he slept until 9:50 a.m. on Saturday morning!

Easter Fun

Caleb digging into his basket of goodies left by the Easter Bunny.
Our growing family on Easter.
Getting ready to enjoy Easter dinner.
Caleb had great fun with Grandma, Grandaddy and Mea-Mea. Thanks for visiting!