Our family's newest addition

Hi everyone! As some of you may know, Josh has been wanting a dog pretty much since we got married. But that wasn't really possible till we bought a house. So when we got moved in he started talking about it again but I was like, "I really don't want a dog messing up our nice new house." But he kept talking about it and of course he didn't just want a dog, he wanted a BIG dog. Preferably a husky or a boxer. So I REALLY didn't want a big dog in the house. But the other night after looking on craigslist for about 2 weeks, I happened upon this ad with this picture:

... and I was hooked. I showed Josh when he got home and said half-jokingly, "THIS is the only kind of dog I would get!" and he said, "Call them!" I guess he just figured any dog was better than no dog. So I emailed the people and the next day we went "Just to look," but of course we couldn't leave without her. Gabe named her Molly and she is his new best friend. It is so cute to watch them together. He carries her around with her hanging there with her top legs over his arm and the rest of her body hanging. She is hopefully going to be a very kid tolerant dog. So, we've been dealing with a crying puppy at night, a teething Caleb, and a "Where's Molly? I need Molly!" three-year-old. We must be crazy. Josh has been a lot more patient with all of it than I have I think. So, wish us luck! Hopefully we won't lose our minds!

My Birthday Present - in Gabe's eyes

So, yesterday was my birthday (I am now 25 - it's a milestone!) and I got this really pretty gold, linked bracelet. I really like it especially because it doesn't have the usual clasp that's so hard to get on. It has like, the round opening and then a bar on the other end. So I had it on and Gabe came over to me and was playing with it on my wrist. I was like, "Isn't it pretty?" (I need a daughter.) But he kind of just kept looking at it, then figured out how to take it off, and ran out of the room. So after a couple minutes I went to see what he was up to and this is what I found:

You have to look past Gabe's weird, cheesy smile and past the fact that he's in his undies and look at his cars. Here's a closer look:


Yes, that is my bracelet being used as a tow cable. What a little boy I have, huh?

(Note: Pause my music on the side first.) I saw this on a blog and it made me laugh so hard I had to put it on mine too. You have to watch it till the end, that's the funniest part. For all you moms...

Our cute little Caleb officially weighs 33 pounds and is 33 inches tall! (Easy to remember.) And on Father's Day I can say he officially was walking not just two steps and falling down. Like, chair to couch then to the tv, etc. He is probably going to slim down but the doctor has me giving him 1% milk not whole! (Josh said, "Aww, his first diet." He has four teeth and more on the way and he wears 2T clothes. :)

The Garden Walk

I am posting some pics of the things we have growing around our house. I am learning a lot about gardening, which I previously knew not a single thing about. Josh was wishing Devin and his landscaping crew was here the other day when he was trying to add stepping stones to our yard. It wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't have to take out a bunch of rock and tarp. But it's done now so hopefully the grass we planted will grow. Caleb had his checkup and he is huge! And he is officially walking! I will do a separate post just on him. :)

Our fun week

Wow, three posts so far in the past couple weeks! I'm turning into a blogging fool!!! After this I probably won't post for a while because the excitement may hit a little plateau. But we had Caleb's birthday last week and this week we had two things planned for a while so I have to post some pics. The first fun thing was that we went to Wisconsin Dells. It's arguably the best waterpark city in America. Noah's Ark is there (which claims to be America's largest waterpark. Is this true? I don't really know. But it is very big.) But we stayed overnight at the Wilderness Resort which has three or four indoor waterparks and three outdoor waterparks. But having a three year old dominating your trip pretty much means going down the same slide in the kiddie are 98 times. I give you, exibit A:


So in addition to the kiddie slide, we did go down a couple bigger slides too. But most the time was spent just splashing around for two days with the boys. Here's a couple more pictures.



We also ate at Cracker Barrel, Josh's favorite restaurant. It has this big porch with all these rockers and it's set up like an old country store.

Which reminds me, on a side note, the most exciting part of the week for me (the rest was fun too but this was exciting for me) is that we finally bought a porch swing! When we bought this house the porch had been enclosed poorly and I dreamed about how nice it would be to have a big open porch with a porch swing. So it's finally ready! Here's the boys chilling on the swing.

So then after we got home from the Dells, we woke up the next morning and went to spend the day with Thomas the Tank engine - every 3 year old boy's dream. (Well, it was Gabe's at least.) He was in Green Bay and they have this engine that looks like Thomas and all these outdoor activies kids can do. They also had all these old trains with passenger cars that we looked around in. It was pretty interesting. I wish I was born in the 40's so I could be a teen in the 50's when life was more wholesome and people rode trains. (I don't know how I'd survive without a microwave but everything else would be cool.)




So that was our busy week! We had a lot of fun. Hope you're all having fun and enjoying summer too!

What a difference a year makes!

Sorry Josh, this had to be posted. If a picture makes me laugh out loud, it must be shared. (Note: this was not posed. He really had his own bed, water mug, and looked like he had just been through an exhausting labor. I was out of my bed, walking around and taking pictures. And they say men are tougher than women...)

I know this cake decorating job is sad. Jamie Hilton please teach me!!!

Happy Birthday, Caleb!!!

Wow, our big boy turns one year old today. Around 1:00 today as we were getting home from Culver's (best low-price-level resturant ever!!!) I was saying to Josh, "Hey, one year ago today we had lunch at Culver's too! I remember because I was starting to have contractions and I made us rush through the drive-through so I could scarf down a burger before getting to the hospital, (afraid they wouldn't let me eat!)" so it was kind of funny. We're going to make Culver's a tradition for Caleb's birthday. Hopefully they'll build one in Idaho by the time we move back though!

Anyways, as much as I know y'all love my little Culver's tribute... how about some stuff about the birthday boy!!? It is 10 pm now so this time last year I was probably either asleep or just barely getting a good long look at Caleb for the first time after he was cleaned up and dressed. (He was born at 8:02 pm). At that time we were still living with my mom and we weren't sure about what Josh's job was going to be and we were so relieved Caleb was here and healthy. I feel like after that day things just kept getting better and better. Now as we enjoy life with our two energetic, funny, entertaining little boys in our house that we've put so much work into, it's so awesome to see the blessings in our lives.

Caleb is truly such a sweetheart. Everyone falls in love with him within seconds of meeting him because he smiles nonstop. He even keeps peeking around me to smile and laugh as we walk away from clerks at grocery stores. He is just starting to dance which is really funny. I think it's especially funny cause he's such a chunk. I am guessing he weighs 32 pounds. I will post next week after his checkup. He wears size 2T shirts and 24m or 2T pants. He loves playing catch (or sometimes "roll") with Gabe and being outside all the time. He goes to our sliding glass door by the deck and stands up and bangs on it, wanting to go out. He also loves opening and closing my kitchen cupboards all the time. He's not walking on his own yet but has been walking along furniture for a while and we're sure it won't be long before he's running away from us! (Maybe then he'll burn some fat off those legs! I think I measured once and his upper leg at the fattest part was like, 2 inches bigger than my bicep at the widest part! No lie!!!) So, that's our little sweetie. We had a birthday BBQ on our deck with some neighbors and relatives. It was a nice night so he was shirtless the majority of the night!

Hope everyone who reads this is doing well and enjoying the start of Summer! Yay! (And finally! For you Idahoans it probably felt like it'd never get here!)