Caleb's First Birthday Party!

We had a great time and were SO thankful that Caleb was fully well by Saturday. I worked hard to make sure that his cake had no dairy in it, but apparently the eggs in the cake got him b/c he started breaking out once he got into the cake :( I didn't really think about them bothering him b/c he seems to do fine if I eat eggs in baked goods, just not on their own. But he'd never had any himself, so now we know. Once he got over that trauma (it was trauma b/c he started rubbing his eyes with his frosting covered hand which only made things worse) he decided to hit his head on the piano leg and get a nice bump on the head. Once people started leaving he was much happier and played very contentedly with his bag of gifts, the balloons, and of course the singing birthday card from great-grandma & grandpa Minnick :)

I kinda went overboard on the food, but it was just too fun! And he LOVED the decorations, so they're still up :) Glad he appreciated my work anyway :)

The Caterpillars!!!

The Cake

I condensed the food items to categories rather than doing all the foods in the book :)

He was so proud of himself for putting that hat on all by himself. Too cute!

We decided to sit outside for the gifts since it was SO nice and there were a few of us here (Mom & Dad, Amy, Sam, J & A, Andrew & Meagan, Daniel and us ). Thanks so much for coming, y'all! It was fun and we were glad Caleb was able to celebrate his first birthday with family!

The Book

We bought him The Very Hungry Caterpillar book and had everyone sign it as his "guest book." Now he'll always remember who came to his first birthday party! :) Ok, so like I said, I may have gone a little crazy over this party but it was so much fun! And the nice thing is he won't remember it next year so its not like he'll expect bigger and better :-)

He had his 1 year check-up today! His growth has slowed way down, which is fine with me. :) He actually weighs less than he did at his 9mo appt. but I'm sure some of that is due to the fact that he didn't eat any solids last week because of his fever. He's down to 37th % for weight (20.5lbs), and 55th % for length (30in.) 

Here are a few more pictures from last week that I didn't get to post earlier. Enjoy!

Love you all!

Resurrection Sunday

We had a WONDERFUL Lord's day morning today! So grateful that we serve a risen Savior and for the life-changing ramifications of His death, burial and resurrection! Truly, if Christ had not been raised from the dead we would, of all men, be most miserable. But Christ IS raised from the dead! 

How can we ever stop singing His praises??

Our happy family--with one tired boy! :)

Our little man is little too young to understand the importance of the day, but we pray that one day he too will experience the new life available to him through Christ's atoning work.

Upcoming Birthday

Hungry for some fun? Our Caterpillar's turning one!

Inviting all family to inch on over to celebrate with our very hungry caterpillar! 

Really, its not going to be a big deal, but Caleb will be having a birthday and we'd like to have a little party with anyone who can come join us!

Picnic time!

Saturday was such a gorgeous day and we had no "requirements" for the day, so we decided to have a little picnic at a park nearby. Caleb enjoyed his first picnic (yes, I'm sure he did :) and especially enjoyed investigating the grass for the first time. He's not really had a chance (due to age or weather) to get into it before now. Thankfully it was all so intriguing to him that he didn't even attempt to eat everything that stuck to his hands! He kept trying to wipe off the bits of tree, dirt, grass, etc. that would get stuck on him. So cute! He did end up with several light scratches on his face from swinging sticks around, but that's what this age is for, right?

I never succeed at family pictures. I think I'm going to hire a photographer to follow us around in life :)

After our lunch we went up and let him swing for a while. He really enjoyed that as well, but it was windy already, and sunny, so he could hardly open his eyes on the swings. The place was packed out!! Can't wait for many more such adventures this summer!!! :)

Clapping for himself! He claps about everything right now :)

I have no idea if this video will play. Or what you can see on it. For some reason I couldn't view it on our computer, so . . . . :)

We enjoyed a nice lunch at Andrew & Meagan's yesterday (Daniel was there too). I took some pics on their iPad of them reading a book to Caleb. Maybe they'll post them soon. :)

A few more pics from the activity

Pictures from this afternoon. He's just too cute! :)

How did we get to February?

I canNOT believe its been so long since I last posted!! We've obviously been keeping busy around here! :)

The semester is going very well for David and he is enjoying his classes. We are still on the hunt for a van, but Lord willing we'll be able to share the Lord's provision with you before too long! We know He has the perfect vehicle for us and are seeking Him earnestly.

This past weekend we had a parenting conference at church with guest speakers Ken & Judy Endean. It was so obvious that the Lord answered our prayers and really gave them a wonderful ministry with everyone who attended. There was such a hungry, receptive spirit about the audience. Obviously they didn't have anything "new" to say, but they presented the truths of God's word in such a practical, attractive manner. I know we left with a renewed zeal for Christlikeness in our parenting. I highly recommend your listening to the sessions!

Caleb is 10 months old, can you believe it?? He is enjoying crawling all over the place--backwards only :) We *still* can't seem to get in forward motion. Oh well. At least he enjoys trying now. He is also slowly cruising the furniture and has even stood by himself for 2-3 seconds at a time. Aunt Amber loves trying to help him explore his independence ;-) He is still a very happy little man and enjoys trying new foods all the time. He loved our Israeli Lentils and Rice dinner last night, and also enjoyed sharing my banana, strawberry, spinach, avocado smoothie this morning. He loves playing the piano and reading books. The mention of either causes him to start shaking with excitement. It's pretty cute! :)

Our attempt at 9mo pictures-- late at night after church

Our happy 10 month old!
When you crawl backwards you find yourself running into walls and doors quite often :)

First trip the the park!

A month ago when we had a really nice day we took him to the park for the first time. He enjoyed the swing for a while, but would much prefer to just watch all the other kids on the play ground. I'm sure another month or two and he'll want to explore everything himself.

Guess that's about it for now! Hopefully we'll have pics of a new van to post in a week or two!