My Christmas gift

Jeff has so many amazing talents given him by God and I am so excited to see where God takes him with his new company Day 3 Productions, his art work, and his photography. So for Christmas he painted me this amazing painting. Here it is. It's a calla lily and has Isaiah 40:31 painted on the right. I absolutely love it! It's 2 feet by 4 feet and fits perfectly in our kitchen. We are going to get 2 canvas prints made to go on the opposite wall in our kitchen-one of Cale and one of me and Jeff. Can't wait to see how it all comes together! Thanks handsome for an amazing painting!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Thank you God for sending your son Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice-what an amazing gift. I am reminded at this time how truly blessed I am-amazing family, wonderful husband, and adorable son. Thanks be to God for all the blessings. Hope you all enjoy this time with family and friends! God bless us one and all and may we remember the true reason we celebrate this time of year-Jesus!

Such a ham is our little man

Hanging in his closet, playing with shoes


We fold, he pulls out his clothes



He is going through a "I don't like the flash stage"

Baby Abigail

Erin is a dear, sweet friend that I have known since I was a little girl. We used to play tag and ride three wheelers in the neighborhood we grew up in. Erin's and Mark's sweet baby girl, Abigail came into the world on December 19. We are so excited for them and know that she's got an amazing set of parents! Welcome Abigail!


Our wonderful women's group visiting Erin, Mark and Abigail in the hospital

Visit with Friends

My dear friend Kara, her husband Caleb, and daughter Hannah were in town and stopped by for some yummy chinese the other night. It was so great to catch up with them!

This was actually Cale eating his first birthday cake that we got him on his actual birthday. He made an absolute mess, but it was so fun!

Cale's 1st birthday party

This Saturday we had a bunch of friends and family over to celebrate Cale's 1st birthday. It was so much fun. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. And the love they pour out on Cale-it's awesome! Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us and to those that helped with the party. Here are some pictures.



The cake

We asked people to bring canned goods to donate to a local food pantry-our guests rock-look at all of those canned goods!

Josh performed an amazing show-thanks so much Josh!


Kissing on baby Cale


Watching the show




Opening a few gifts


The great grandfathers

1 year old

It's official, we have a one year old. Didn't get a chance to post yesterday, it was a crazy day filled with a birthday lunch at mommy's office, dinner with mommy and daddy, getting Christmas pics for the Christmas card and then letting Cale go at it with a little cake-that was hilarious and disgusting! Happy Birthday little man. Can't wait for the continued journey through life with us. Your smile melts my heart, your laugh is contagious, the way you get excited about things and bounce up and down or clap brings joy, your talking and yell talking cracks me up, your snuggles are priceless, and you in general are the most amazing gift your mommy and daddy could ever have! We love you dearly. Photos to come later tonight!

Cale's new toy

Great Grandma and Grandpa Cauble got Cale a new toy for his birthday next week. It is a ball popper and he was so excited about it. He started screaming YAY!!

Thanksgiving with Brandi's Family

Cale and Bella playing

Sweet Bella, my cousin Natalie's daughter

Yes, my mom and her cousin Donna Jean scuplt the mashed potatoes into something. This year it was a grandma and a tribute to grandmas. Jayde always helps out.


Cauble-Verble Thanksgiving

Koziatek Family Thanksgiving

Koziatek Family

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! How about you? I could get used to a four day weekend and am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow! We had dinner with Jeff's family Thursday and lunch with my family Saturday. I think we will be eating leftovers for days to come!

What am I thinking

I was so thinking next Tuesday was the 2nd of December. It's next Wednesday. 1 week from tomorrow our baby boy will be 1!

One more week

A week from today our little man will be 1 year old. 1 year! I have so many feelings about this right now. Feelings of excitement and wonderment to see our little man grow, what his interests will be, to hear his thoughts when he talks, to see where God leads him in this journey of life. But I also have some feelings of sadness. I was looking through pictures last night and saw pictures when Cale was born. Wow, was he really that tiny? Was that really almost a year ago already? Where does the time go? It goes too fast if you ask me! And although I am excited for little man to turn 1, it's also a little hard in that he's just growing way to fast.

Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I absolutely love it. The lights, time with family, giving gifts to loved ones, celebrating the birth of Jesus. Our women's ministry at church hosted a "Heart for the Holidays" day this past Saturday and it was wonderful. You could go to different sessions and I chose "Keeping Jesus the Reason for the Season", "Children's Crafts" and "Holiday Baking." Each session was awesome! The crafts and baking gave me some great, easy ideas. I had a delightful time. I got to think though after the Keeping Jesus the Reason for the Season session how easy it is for me to get lost in the worldy Christmas. Worrying about all the different houses to get to for Christmas, trying to figure out what to buy for everyone, getting wrapped up in the lights, decorations.

This session talked about having a plan for our hearts during the holiday season so that we might remember the birth of Christ. The speaker explained that we live in the already and the not yet at the same time. The already is when Jesus was born in a manger, dying later on a cross for our sins. The not yet is we are waiting for His coming again, for God's ultimate glory. Sometimes she said we get wrapped up in our own glory, we make an idol out of the Christmas of the world-presents, Santa, having the perfect Christmas with family and friends. We need to remember that Christmas is about God loving us back, God sending His son as the sacrifice and buying us back from when Adam and Eve fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. We should accept that we don't have it all together, that we are not perfect-the turkey may be dry, the house may not be the cleanest, but will we allow things like this to run our Christmas. Don't let expectations, travel, schedules, pressure, getting everything done, fear of disappointment or anything else get in the way of the true meaning of this holiday season. It's a beautiful time of year and I can't wait to celebrate it with my family and share in the joy of God's son! I know it's early, but Happy Holidays.

Tigger

Cale trying out his Tigger costume

Rombach Farm with the Salvatierras

4 years ago we started a tradition and I hope it's one that carries on in years to come. Beth is a great friend from college. We were student advisers in a residence hall together one year and have been great friends ever since. 4 years ago we started a tradition of going to Rombach farm to pumpkin pick. We had a blast today visiting with them and enjoying the non rainy weather for a change! Thanks Beth and Dave for a great day!



Me, Jeff, Cale, Beth and Dave



Dad and his main man.


This little guy loves to hang upside down!

Crawling in the dirt.


Cale's silly smile


Playing in the pumpkins


This is cool mom.

Trying to find the perfect pumpkin

Jeff got this great shot of pumpkins


Good friends.


Beth holding Cale-man I love his eyes in this shot!

Crawling

Sorry the video is so blurry, but here is little man crawling. He is so fast now and pulling up on everything!

Anyone want a dog???

No, I am not serious-the dogs are not for sale, but man last night I sure wished we didn't have dogs sometimes. Don't get me wrong. I love our dogs, but they are a lot of work. Addison, our chihuahua, rat terrier mix has decided to go on a little behaving strike. She has been peeing on our new rug in the living room lately. At least we have expected it to be her. We have just never been able to catch her in the act. That is until yesterday. And let me just preface this by saying that Thursday night I rented a rug doctor and cleaned the rug and couch and love seat really well. Then yesterday evening, I was playing with Cale on the rug and Addie came over and squatted right next to me and began to pee! I of course yelled at her, which freaked Cale out and caused him to start crying. I think Addie got the point that I was not happy with her and she went and hid in her kennel. So we took her to the vet today and he thinks it's mostly behavioral, but she had a urinalysis and she does also have possibly the beginning stages of a urinary tract infection. So $120 later after test and medicine charges we are home with our misbehaving dog. As of right now, Bailey and Addison are no longer allowed in the living room while we are gone and are not allowed on the furniture anymore. We did buy them new beds they could lay on in the house. Any suggestions for jealous dogs? I really think that Addison is just jealous of the time we spend with Cale. We give both of our dogs plenty of attention. I am just hoping it's a phase and will be over soon!

Check out Jeff's new company website

Jeff has been working long, hard hours to get his website up and running for Day 3 Productions. Well folks, it's officially here. Way to go Jeff! We are so proud of you and excited to see where God takes you on this journey. The website is www.daythreeproductions.com.

The craziness that is the Stork Lady Sale

2 times a year they have what's called the Stork Lady Sale here in Crestwood. It's a huge kids consignment sale with toys, clothes, strollers, books, dvds, you name it they have it. They let pregnant women get in the night before the sale opens to the public to shop and also if you are a 1st time mom with your kid under 1. So I have been fortunate enough to be able to go early 2 times. It's a blast. So my mom and I headed out to wait in line Thursday night to get in early. We were there for 2 hours and man did we get some awesome stuff. I got Cale clothes for the winter, a winter coat (for $5-it's brand new), Halloween costume (he will be Tigger), shoes, books, dvds, and toys for now and for Christmas. Mom got some clothes for her house, a little tractor for Cale to ride, toys, books, and dvds. Everything was a great price and man did we have some fun shopping. We were exhausted afterwards. It was packed! If you are a first time mom or pregnant I highly recommend this sale! Here are some pictures of moms trunk after we got done shopping.



We couldn't wait to get the toys out


The back of my mom's suburban

Balloon Race

Energizer always has the Bunny balloon at the Forest Park Balloon Race so we went down with my parents to watch the balloons. Grandma and Grumpa had a great time with Cale and he really enjoyed watching the balloons. He was fascinated when they started to blow up the bunny and used the fire to help. Here are some pictures. We got to watch many of the balloons take off. Then it started to rain so the bunny and some others were grounded and didn't get to take off. Even so we had a great time!



This little Energizer bunny just keeps going and going and going







Cale and Grumpa hanging out


Some balloons taking off before the rain came


Grandma and Cale




We had to get a picture with the Energizer bunny!

Labor Day Weekend

We got a chance to go to Carlyle to my parents cabin out there for labor day weekend. We wanted to get one more weekend in riding the jet skis before summer officially ended! It was windy out on the lake and Jeff and I had a blast riding. Boy were we sore in the legs the day after riding though! Those things are a work out. Here's some pictures from the weekend.