Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your festivities, goodies, pastries, and families. I thought I would share a video of a classic Christmas song... with a new twist. Enjoy...

(Just as a bit of explanation, these are supposedly Monks who have taken a vow of silence, but still feel the urge to sing praises...)

Why Would You Do That?

That's the response I got when I held the door open for someone at the Post Office and let her go ahead of us. She literally stopped and looked at me, like I was something she'd never seen before, and asked, "Why would you do that?"

I was so taken aback by her perplexed gaze that I spit out, "why not?" Do people really not do nice things for each other? She characterized me as "very kind."

Really? Or are other people just not aware of the people around them? I don't think of myself as "very kind." I try to be nice, to do what I would appreciate...but that's nothing abnormal.

Or is it?

Do people stay in their little bubbles and not notice the people around them. We were the only people in the post office of like 15 people talking casually. She was very nice and seemed to really like us. That quick. We made a friend just by opening the door for her.

So, what do you think? Do people just not expect others to be kind to them? To show them a bit of decent courtesy?

I'd also like to say how it makes me a sad to hear "Happy Holidays" as a wishful goodbye versus a "Merry Christmas." Christmas is here! Shouldn't we be serving each other as we think of our Savior Jesus Christ? For every one that we serve, we are serving Him. For every one that we love, we are Loving Him. For every one that we share the Christmas spirit with, we are sharing Him with them. That's what I think. I reference my sister's blog post. We need to put Jesus at the forefront of our Holiday Celebrations. Our CHRISTMAS celebrations. Celebrate HIM.

and open a door for someone. :-D

Sunday Lessons

Church has evolved into a whole different experience since Caleb was born. Those three uplifting hours have transformed into one solid block of chaos intermingled with spiritual enlightenment. In honor of this new chapter in our lives, I would like to publish a top ten list of things that I have learned at church these past few months. They are as follows:



1o. Five diapers are only sufficient on an abnormally good Sunday.

9. One 3-4 month old baby requires 30-40 pounds of gear for 3-4 hours of church. It takes 30-40 minutes to move a baby with its required gear from one room to another. This is the major reason that Sunday School and Relief society are often held in the same room.

8. When you pick up your infant son, you instantly gain a crowd of adoring onlookers and friends. These people will smile and coo at you. They will tickle the air around you. DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS BEHAVIOR. They are actually only paying attention to your baby. No one has noticed your presence yet. Smiling and cooing back at them will only make you look foolish.

7. While holding a baby, I can open doors with my love handles. I can close them again with my chin/neck.

6. A baby is a "golden ticket" to skip or attend any meeting you desire. This privilege must be used responsibly in order to avoid suspicion.

5. If you walk past the Elder's Quorum meeting with a screaming baby, no one will notice. If you walk past the Relief Society meeting with a screaming baby, over half of the concerned women will have made it to the door before you have even passed.

4. There are few things as satisfying as the sound a dirty diaper makes when tossed into the trash can from across the rest room.

3. If your baby is clothed when you take him out to change him, and naked when you bring him back, it is no secret what has happened.

2. Baby bodily noises will occur during lulls in the meeting. This will most often occur right after you raise your hand to answer a question. These snores, toots, and groans will be ignored by all except the young men and the missionaries.

1. Families are forever. That's all that matters.

Miscellaneous Fun!

These are some random pictures that I've had sitting here that need to get up!


This is a picture of the booties I made Caleb. They're a little bit big, but they're cute! And so is he!. :)

Justin made us dinner one Sunday a few weeks ago. He made gnocci and flan: gnocci is an Argentinian pasta made from potatoes. It's really good! We mixed it with pesto and alfredo. The flan turned out DELICIOUS! It's made from eggs...so it must be good for you, right? lol He is such a good cook, and is so willing to give me a break! I love it.

These were some pics from this past Sunday on our way to church. We had a light snow Saturday night (nothing compared to yesterday) and the trees looked all fluffy and pretty! I'm excited for winter, but I think a bit naive about what kind of winter it will be. Hopefully we'll have a White Christmas!

Give THANKS...and then some

It's a little late for a Thanksgiving post (lol), but I took these pictures and wanted to get them up. I've just been so busy and it takes a bit of time and coordination to get them uploaded, edited, and then uploaded again and blogged. Anyway, enough excuses. Here are the pics!

All the FOOD! So much of it. We had leftover dough from the rolls and so we made bread bowls. Great idea, Justin!

The whole family during Thanksgiving! We spent all day cooking...and Dad worked really hard on the computer. Really hard. haha

Here's our little family. Caleb is a Turkey! lol. This is the first time I styled my new hair cut, and it didn't quite stay flipped out like it was supposed to. I've gotten better at using wax and the straightner. Aren't we a cute family?!

Here is a better view of Caleb in his Turkey suit. lol, I htink it's really cute. He loves to put his body at weird angles...not the best example, but you can kind of picture him craning his neck behind his body to see what you're doing. It's cute!

That was our Thanksgiving Day! So much fun, lots of food, lots of love. :-D

Hat, ears, and phone. Perfect.

He looks so innocent in this picture, huh? Well, he is! haha, Just had to put this up because I like it so much! He is one week shy of being 4 months and he is wearing a 6 month old outfit! We think he looks like an elf with a hat on because his ears stick out and are pointy. haha, he's a cutie. He loves his phone, so I'm glad we got it perfectly preserved in this picture...right in his mouth, where it usually is. Families are wonderful!

Happier note...

On a happier note, Thanksgiving was great!! We spent all day cooking (we being Justin, Mom Anderson, and I)...and it was delicious! The only thing left out was carrot-raisin salad because none of them said they would eat it. I don't want to eat it all by myself! We had pumpkin pie, lemon-meringue pie, and pinto bean pie. Yup, you read that right! PINTO BEAN pie!! haha, it's a fantastic recipe that has literal mashed up pinto beans. BUT, it tastes deceivingly like Pecan pie. Ask Justin. he's the best pie critic. I was so happy it was well received!

I have pictures, but I haven't yet uploaded them to the computer. Caleb was our little Turkey and he was a gem while we cooked all day. Oh, and I got my hair cut! It's REALLY short, but I LOVE it! it's super easy...and even though it doesn't look great if I don't style it, it works.

I ordered Justin's Christmas present! Why does shipping cost more than the actual product? That doesn't make any sense to me! I had to order half as much as I wanted in order to keep within my budget because the shipping was so high! Ridiculous! But, I am excited to get it...hopefully he'll be excited too! :-)

We also ordered a cloth diaper for baby. It's from a lady I found on Craigslist who makes them. Yeah, not perfect, but she uses them and they're 1/2 as much as the big fancy company ones (we'd like those, but ya know, money). If the one we get works, we can get the 10 or so we need and spend HALF as much as we otherwise would. and that's saving lots of money in the end! So, we're hopeful about that.

AND English lessons went really, really well on Wednesday! My friend gave me these amazing lesson manuals from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have a literary manual? yup! "Ye Shall Have my Words" Definitely inspired. Definitely inspiring. I'm so excited to help my friend hopefully improve her reading and writing.

Website is still underway. Once it is published, we will let you all know. We were approved for our third and final (yet crucial...they have a lot of games we wanted to sell!) drop shipper. We're working on getting them on the site, and then we'll publish! LOTS of work, but we're hopeful and excited about it, too!

Overall, life is very good. Constant things happening, especially since we are more involved in the ward now. It's all worth it.

I need a Translator.

"Really? Are you sure? Because in order to ask for one, in order to actually talk to a REAL person, you have to listen to 2 menus in English. But yeah, we can give you one if you ever make it there. That is, if they're not busy. We're busy. You're busy. But we won't let your friend help you over the phone. Even if you say it's okay. It doesn't matter that you can't read. We need your address. Your phone number. Your birthday. Your friend can't help you. No, we can't talk to her unless you verify all this information. We know you don't speak English but the translators are all busy. No, we can't give you a list of other doctors until you verify this information. Your chest hurts? You have a history of chest pain and you were taking prescription pain medicine? Okay, call you doctor, No, don't go to the hospital: call your doctor. I'm sorry your doctor has a waiting list of 2-4 months. Why don't you get a new one? Yes, please tell me your birthday, address, and phone number. What language do you speak? No one here speaks that. Is there a similar dialect? They're all busy. Your friend cannot answer for you. No, we cannot speak to her unless you can verify this information. Sorry, we can't help you."

Wait what? Member service line, with a member number, the member RIGHT there, and you can't help me? Frustrating? No? I cried afterwards. I hung up on her. On the phone for one hour and I couldn't even get a list of OTHER approved doctors for my friend from Liberia. Don't even get me started on the politics of English learning and teaching and assisting Non-native English speakers. You might not agree with everything that I would say, but can you agree that the system that sent me in circles DOES NOT WORK?!

Past the point of No Return

Yesterday, during dinner time, Caleb found something extremely interesting underneath his swing. He tried to see it. He's strapped in, so he didn't fall out...nope. Instead, he leaned so far over to see what was there, only to realize there was nothing there, but then he was past the point of no return. He couldn't sit back up! He was so upset by it that he sat there, doubled over on the side of his swing and just screamed. Luckily, Grandpa was there to rescue him! Silly baby...he's so frustrated to not be able to see his entire world RIGHT NOW!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a shout-out to friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving! I hope the holiday was great for everyone. We really do have a lot to be thankful for...


(If anyone needs me, I'll be fat-dogging on the couch in front of Home Alone...)

Related? You decide.

We came across these when we were going through pictures on my computer.



Justin has doubted if Caleb looks like him at all...I think this squashed all doubt! What do you think?

Caleb at 3 Months!

This first picture is of Caleb at 2 months. I just thought I'd include it for a comparison of his 3 month old picture.

And here is the baby at 3 months!! I included all of these because I like the progression of his legs. He reminds me of a frog! He hasn't found his legs yet; at least, not officially. But I've helped him hold them once or twice. He loves to kick his legs, especially when we're changing his diaper! It's funny how much of a reflex it's become to grab his leg and move it while putting on a new diaper!

I love his face in these pictures too! We didn't get out the baby scale to weigh him, but I weighed myself and then held him to get a loose idea. He is now about 17.5 lbs...give or take a few obviously. We love our little baby...I can't believe how quickly he is growing up! Oh! and the past few days he has started to try and roll over! He doesn't have a preference of tummy-to-back or back-to-tummy...he tries them both! But he hasn't successfully achieved either one. He's so adorable!

Snowball Fight!

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Putting "JAMBER" back with the JABBER

Justin pointed out that our blog might as well be called "Caleb Coos" for all the "Jamber" updates we put up on it! The past few days have been particularly busy...but here's a bit of an update on us.

I got called to be the Secretary in the Primary Presidency a few weeks ago, and man! Sundays are so busy now! Justin does his part by taking Caleb and trying to get that baby to take a bottle of milk...he's getting to be more stubborn and picky now. Still adorable. ;) It's just really busy with all the kids. I'm supposed to assign talks/scriptures/prayers each sunday for the following Sunday. Well, I was told last week to give those assignments to the parents...which makes sense and is all great and all, except that I don't know the KIDS, let alone the parents, let alone which kids belong to which parents! So, we're gonna try to figure something out. Mom Anderson suggested I still hand out the assignments to the kids, because they get excited by it, and then call the parents later that night to make sure THEY know about the assignments. It's fun. It's a bit challenging. But it's great to feel like I'm actually serving!

On kind of that same note (serving) I've been helping out with the English classes our ward has every Wednesday night. There's a GREAT girl in our ward (she's really amazing!) and she has a Masters in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages...my minor) and we have a lot of non-native speakers in the ward. They come Africa, or Brazil, or Ecuador. It's pretty amazing. So, I've been helping with that. "helping" meaning I sit with Xaidie ("Zadie") with 2 other students while we talk about English. It's been fun, but I don't feel like I do that much. I have subbed for her once...and that was good!

BUT, the toughest part came last Wednesday. Justin and I picked up a sister he home teaches. She is from Africa. She speaks English, but is VERY difficult to understand. Keep in mind, I grew up with accents, I have worked with ESL students for YEARS...I am pretty good with understanding people with accents. But I have the hardest time understanding her! We take her to English class (she wanted to come), sit her down...and within 1 minute realize she does not know how to read. Xaidie looks at me, "Okay. Amber, you're going to teach *Jill how to read." Uh...okay. How do I do that again? I've studied it, read about it, even visualized it, but NONE of my experience has been TEACHING. It's always been improving, enhancing, or critiquing. But I had not idea, or at least no experience to build off of. THat was a long 45 minutes. I'm sad to say, I was getting very frustrated. I don't think she knows how to read in her first language, which makes learning to read in her second, a HUGE mountain!! I hope I didn't scare her away. I really DO want to help her, and Xaidie gave me the Church Literary materials (AMAZING!! Check 'em out!) which helped me feel a lot more in control and prepared for the next lesson. Which is tonight. I'm really hoping Jill comes back, and that I can structure our lesson to be something effective, and enjoyable. WHEW. It's really good experience for me, I just don't want it to be at the cost of Jill's desire to LEARN how to read in English. I'll keep you posted on that.

We did take our family pictures yesterday! YAY! We had one of those "free session" coupons from SEars. and we have 2 more. We're going to take JUST Caleb in a month or two. :-) because then you get a free 10x13 with it too! :-) Who says you can't have fun even when you have very little?

Speaking of very little, I've been thinking about something a lot the past few weeks. We've been praying and praying that Justin would be able to find a job...no luck yet...when I realized that we have been blessed in a different way. Instead of having more income to pay for obligations and to buy our little baby some things he needs [wants], we have been blessed to see our dollar stretch. We found a changing pad on Craigslist for $5. We found a GREAT running stroller for $5.00!! it was a bit of a drive, and it needs some major TLC, is last year's model, but it WORKS and it was $5.00!! I couldn't believe that still. We have a $15.00 gift card to Target. We found an infant-to-toddler rocker we wanna get. You can look at it more here. But here is a picture of it, too.

I really like it because it can go up to 40 lbs, instead of the normal 25. And, when he gets bigger, it becomes a rocking chair for a toddler. 8/10 people LOVE it! So, we're hoping that after Thanksgiving Target will have a sale that will allow us to spend very little of our own money (after the 15 dollar gift card) and buy this for our baby for Christmas. :D We're pretty excited about it!

So, we might not be able to buy a lot, we certainly can't indulge on many things, but we still enjoy ourselves. We use coupons...oh! and when I cleaned out our filing, I found a subway card from last year for $15.00! and THEN, when we went to use it on our weekly date, we passed the subway we meant to find, stopped when we finally saw one, and it just so happened that THIS subway was the ONLY subway giving you two footlongs for 8.99!! We still have money left on the card! And we bought Saturday dinner and Sunday lunch!

It's amazing to see how our prayers are being answered even without the actual solution we were praying for. Our prayers are heard, and our Heavenly Father really does care about what we want and how we are feeling. I know that. I've learned a lot in being here in MA. it's not easy, but I'm very grateful for it. I'm excited bout Thanksgiving coming up. We're trying really hard to be grateful, and to SHOW that gratitude.

Okay. that's all about me. On Justin's note...he got accepted to the Post Baccalaureate Pre-Dental program at the college he's been taking some classes at! The thing is, we're not sure if that's what we wanna do...because we don't qualify for any federal aid because it is not a matriculated program. We think he's going to just go for a second Bachelor's in Biology. We're still waiting for word on that, though. :-)

Justin is working a lot getting our online store going too. it's barely underway, but we've got some drop-shippers contracted with us, and we're working on getting the site up. It didn't cost us anything because Mom and Dad Anderson had already paid for the site years ago. We just have to build it up.

Anyway, that's a bit of an update on us! Hope you see the JAMBER back on here. :) We love our baby boy. We love each other too. :) we'll be better about updates about us along with him.

Life is good. We are blessed.

Collection of Caleb

Here are a few videos we've taken of Caleb that I haven't taken the time to put up here on the blog. It's just a bit of how goofy he is, how cute he is, and just how big he is getting! Some of them are a little dark...they weren't that dark on the camera, but when I loaded them onto my computer, you could hardly tell there was a person there! The first one, just listen to what Justin is saying. The next dark one (Caleb in the swing), I was just trying to capture him "talking." :) They are in chronological order...but I don't know if you can see the difference at all! Hope you enjoy!!

Decisions, Decisions!

Okay, so I wanna get my hair cut. If you recall, I tried to do it myself. That worked well enough, but I'd like it cut shorter and I'm not about to do that myself. It won't be just yet because I have to let my own attempt at cutting my hair grow out.

So, here are two choices I've narrowed it down to:

I like the layered aspect of the longer one...it's very cute! But I also like this one. It's shorter than I've gone since I was like 12, which is kind of why I wanna just go for it!

So, got any feedback?? Like I said, it'll be a bit before it happens, but I've still gotta make the decision!

Caleb's Romper

I think "romper" is a British word. Yes? maybe. It's the word used in my pattern book, which is a British pattern book. That was a really confusing part: the stitches are different! For you crocheters out there, an example is that a dc in England is a sc here. Yeah, that makes a difference on the pattern!

Anyway, here is Caleb's romper. I started this a while ago and it's taken me a LOT longer to finish than I thought it would. It's really cute, though, and I love it! I wanted to hurry and finish it because I was afraid it would be too small for Caleb. I didn't want to do all that work and then have him outgrow it!

So, the thing is, it opens from the back. Justin refuses to let him wear it to church (he agreed to ONE TIME) because since I am in Primary now, he has to take care of Caleb...and that means changing all of his diapers in the men's bathroom. And they only have a counter. No changing table.

Here it is: it's supposed to be a bear on the bum. That was my favorite part! Kind of pointless, I realize now, since Caleb is only ever showing his bum during tummy time. Oh well.

And here is the process of putting Caleb in it. LOL

And...He's swimming in it!! hahaha, it was hilarious!! I thought it would be too small, but man! We've gotta let him grow into it!

You can see here in this next picture just how big it is on him. Hopefully it'll fit him in a few weeks...maybe a month or two? I don't know! He grows so fast...
So, that's his romper. I've got a few more projects I'm wanting to make for him...a little sweater, for instance. I'm doing the 6-9 month old pattern for the sweater, and it makes me wonder how big that will be for him! I don't know. it's fun. So, yeah, heads up fam: my niece and nephews might be getting some crocheted things for Christmas!! That is, if I can find the time to make them. :-)

Dance Off the Inches!

I just wanted to give an update about my exercise routine, and say THANK YOU to my friends who commented on that post. It really made me feel so much more motivated just knowing that other people I KNOW have wrestled with this situation and CONQUERED! (Congrats again, Elisa! :-D)


Just so you all know, I've been working out every other day for the past 2 weeks via a workout DVD from the library: Dance of the Inches!
haha, I got two kinds: jam and country line dance. I didn't ever do the country line dance, but I love the other one! It doesn't take very long and it just makes me feel like I've accomplished something already for the day. I don't think it's making any physical difference, at least not in appearance, but my hips feel so much better and I'm getting some calf muscle back! On top of that, the emotional difference is amazing! I feel so much better, so much happier...I just feel like I have control again. It's great!

Again, thanks for the encouraging words...and for just being who you are! :) I'm going to keep working, keep dancing...and mostly, keep trying to be patient. :-)

Happy Halloween!!

Here is Caleb in his "I love my Mummy" outfit again. I love it! He can sport a pretty grumpy/bored face for pictures. I hope our family ones in a few weeks get a few smiles from him!

At least here he seems to be kind of grinning..smirking?

This is what we decided was his Halloween costume: A Boston Red Sox Uniform. It looks like a real one (so Justin assures me) and it was really nice! So, he became a Red Sox Player. This is also a classic "BORING" stare. :-)

I like this face a lot, though! He'd kind of happy, kind of not upset...basically, just being himself! What a cute baby!! I'm allowed to be emphatic about that! :-D

And here is me with my little baby.

These next pictures are actually from Sunday. I made a pumpkin dish that a friend game me the recipe for last year...but I never got around to doing it. Well, a different friend gave it to me again this year (Thanks, Dan!)...and it was SOO good! It's super easy, so if you want it, feel free to ask. Basically, you cook up some hamburger and rice and then bake it for an hour inside the pumpkin...and then you can eat the pumpkin, too! Some of you experienced and skilled cooks might have already tried this. I loved it! I think we're gonna make it an Autum tradition!
Justin decided to carve it. See, we bought 2 small pumpkins at the same we bought this cooking pumpkin...but we STILL haven't carved them. lol. I know Justin still wants to...we'll just overlap with Thanksgiving a bit. He was getting a bit of practice in with this dinner pumpkin.
Happy Halloween!!!

Deep Cleaning: Garage

One of the many home-improvements needed for the house was a new garage floor. Most of it had cracked, and when we lifted it up ("we" is used very loosely here), we found that it was mostly hollow underneath. Somebody cut corners somewhere! Luckily, there was no foundation damage, so we didn't worry about the rest of the house. But, the cracked floor had to be ripped up...

That meant

1. First, Justin scored it with a diamond saw;
2. second, we broke it up with the jack-hammer (that was FUNNY!) and Mom even joined in on that task;
3. Third, we tore up the old floor and had to get the ground ready for the new concrete. Ask Justin about the difference between concrete and cement.
   

So, here is step number one and two.

This is up mixing up the concrete/cement (?)... It was pretty fun!

And then the final step of pouring the stuff onto the prepared floor.


It ended up looking really nice!
Just took lots of time and a curious cat to waltz across it before it was dry.

House Cleaning

This was a little while ago...
But just a quick picture of Justin and Dad power spraying the house.


This is only one side...they did the WHOLE house!!
It's a bit of work to get the house ready to sell--both inside and outside

Caleb laughing!

Here is a wonderfully accurate video of our little baby's laugh! He really likes tongues, like in the song about the little green frog. So the noises you here are me sticking my tongue out like a snake and then sucking as if I had a straw.


Oh the things we do to make our babies smile and laugh! :D He gave himself the hiccups shortly after this and still attempted to keep laughing, but it was very interrupted.

Oh, and that's his "I love my mummy" shirt. Cute, huh?

No words.

Back to Square One

When Caleb was born I did not lose as much weight (or inches in my belly) as I would have liked. I tried to start eating better (cut out the sweets!) but I've been a little stressed/depressed--to be expected--and sweets are my weakness in those situations. So, I've been waiting for my body to feel like it's healed so that I can start exercising again. I think that happened a few weeks ago...

First, Justin and I fixed up his parents' old 70's road bikes. We planted $80 bucks into them because we thought they'd be a great thing to have! Well, they are so old, they work just fine, but mine is a bit too big, so I don't actually ride in the drops at all (Just on the flats..which is not ideal). They also shift via these two little knobs that sit on the front post (Justin might know what they are actually called, but I don't.) Like these...

You just move them forward or backward to shift...but there's no "clicking" for the gears. You just have to fiddle with it to get it on the right gear. It's really inconvenient and annoying! It's not very efficient either. So, bike riding has kind of died...

So, I decided I was just going to have to go for walks and runs on my own. See, Justin has to stay at home to help with the house, or if I'm on a run, he gets to watch Caleb. He knows it's important to me to get back into shape...so he fully supported my exercise every morning.

Well, so then the excuse to get over was "I don't have time." Time? What do I do all day? I stay home. With Caleb, of course. How can I not have time? I finally committed to going running this past Monday morning after I did my teaching. I went. Yes! First accomplishment! haha
I only ran ONE mile. that's it. Yes, it was 1/2 uphill, and 1/2 downhill, but it was only ONE mile. I've been achy since then. It's mostly my calves, but not the calf muscle I'm used to being sore. and it doesn't hurt to use, only to touch. But what hurts the most is my right hip! Man, it's like my hips haven't gone back together again or something! Basically, this is what I felt like:

Whereas, this is what I WANT to feel like. I like to look good, but mostly I like to feel good. So, since I've now joined the club of "Moms," I am hoping there are some other Moms who can share some insight or give suggestions on how I can work out. Here are my obstacles:

1. Sore body: knees, hips, shoulders


2. Scheduling time: I feel bad requiring someone to watch Caleb when there is so much else to do here at the house...


3. Motivation: I want to feel good, I want to be able to wear at least a few more of my clothes (mostly because we don't have money to buy more!), but like I said, sweets are really easy to come by here and when I'm stressed, depressed, bored, or uncomfortable chocolate becomes my best friend.

I'd LOVE to hear what y'all gotta say!! :-D

Creative...

...Is what I was going for, right?
So I got bored with my hair...and I've been really thinking about some bangs...and we own real hair-cutting scissors...so I decided to save some money that we don't have.



But I forgot about the fact that I really have no idea how to cut hair! This is the finished project...it's not horrible, but it's not quite what I was going for. Maybe next time will be better!

Have you ever had a personal "let's-save-money" hair-cutting attempt gone wrong? Please share! :-D

2 Months Old!

Already!?!
It seems like we just got him...and that we've always had him at the same time. Caleb was 2 months last Saturday. He's gotten so big and he just keeps growing!
And YES- that is the same stuffed animal this time! :D



We love him!! He brings so much joy to our lives!

I don't know why this is underlined??

A Day Get-away

So last Tuesday we took a day trip up into Vermont so that I could see the leaves turning up there. It's supposed to be the best state in the East to see the colors of Autumn. I was not disappointed!! Even though it was a few days before peak (when the colors are the most brilliant), the country side all around us was breathtaking! The pictures on't quite capture it, but you get an idea.



We also stopped at the Joseph Smith Birthplace. There is such an incredible spirit there! It was so peaceful and comforting. It's incredible how a piece of land with a monument, a visitor's center, and some music can communicate the spirit so well. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. The land even bears testimony! Having our little family there made me so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and so many other truths declared in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, restored by Joseph the Prophet.

Then we visited some factories (Cabot cheese and a cider place), but honestly the best place was the Joseph Smith memorial. Caleb did quite well, really. And thank goodness for GPS! We had planned to see some covered bridges, but by the time we got to that part of our trip, it was quite dark. and Vermont roads are very confusing!! It was an almost-fruitless attempt (we saw 2), but the detour took us far away from the road we needed to get home. And after our experience of how unreliable the Vermont roads are, especially compared to the maps we had, we were so grateful for Lola who got us home safely.

It was nice to have a day with my two wonderful boys, and so lovely to see so much nature! I loved it, but boy were we tired when we got home!! :-) I love my family!

Mooo...

Like I mentioned, on our Vermont trip we visited the Cabot cheese factory. And out front that they had this (what do you call it?) cow. Justin couldn't resist...and nor could I, for that matter. This is really sometimes how I feel. And yes, that is my milk I am holding. :-)

I'm a cute cow, though, right? haha

Just me and my baby! He looks so much like his Daddy! Love!