Memorial Day weekend

Happy Memorial Day! First, thanks to all of those men and women who serve in the military and for all you do for our country. This weekend has been great and full of friends and family. On Saturday we met up with a sweet friend of Brandi's from college-Andrea and her kiddos. It was so good to see them! We met up at Tower Grove park and played at the playground and in the fountain. I miss seeing her and her husband Dennis. They are awesome friends! It was good to catch up. Then Grandma and Grandpa Koziatek came over and hung out in our new baby pool. It was pretty cool. Then on Sunday Cale and I headed to Carlyle to hang with my family. Jeff had to stay behind to do Shakespeare Festival-we sure did miss him! Here are some pics from the weekend.


Where did the water go-this is what he would do when the water would disappear in the fountain.




Cale had so much fun at Tower Grove Park.


Check out this baby pool-complete with slide and water that shoots out everywhere-it was a big hit with little man!






Andrea and sweet Madelyn-man can this little girl smile! It melted my heart!


Catching up and watching the kids.


Grandma, I want to put my foot in the lake.


Doing boy stuff like digging rocks.


Aunt Stefani!!!!


Aunt Stef always makes Cale laugh!

God's providence

Our pastor preached a great sermon on Sunday about God's providence. I just really connected with it! He said that while emotions and feelings that we may not like a present time that we are going through are normal, we must always remember that no matter what we are going through God is in control. I lose sight of that a lot, in fact, lately I will admit my relationship with God has not been the strongest lately, but He has been showing me a lot lately about His love and grace. I know that with any relationship, there are ups and downs, and man am I thankful that God never gives up on me!

What a little ham this guy is

Cale is so cute (well most of the time-he has his moments). Here are some pics of him playing around. We made a rice pit for him and he loves playing in it. He has one here and one at grumpa and grandma's!


Playing in our rice pit





He loves to take books and put them on top of the toilet and look at them-don't worry, we clean the toilet every week!

Pictures from our Florida trip

Brandi skeet shooting-what a blast!

Jeff was a rock star-hitting the first target he shot-I think he's hooked now!


Jeff driving the Komatsu and tearing down a tree


He's so proud


The boys-Joey, Darrin, Jeff, and Roi

Amazing girl friends-Anna, Patti, little Izzy, me, Cat, and Michelle

Castillo de San Marcos



Fire!




At the top of the St. Augustine lighthouse


I am terrified of heights to be honest with you, this is my "I just conquered this lighthouse look!"


On the beach in St. Augustine on our last night after an amazing scallop and mahi-mahi dinner at Saltwater Cowboys




Beautiful sunset

Outside

Does anyone else out there have a kid that could live outside? Cale totally could. He loves it! We have started a new thing where we go for a family walk. We used to put Cale in the stroller and walk with him and the puppies, but now me, Jeff, Cale and the puppies all take family walks together! It's pretty cool. Cale stops a lot to look at things, so we take shorter walks, but it's still fun. He says "outside" after breakfast and if you even say the word you better be headed out that second, because if it's even 30 seconds after you say it and you still aren't ready to go out-watch out for a temper tantrum! He also loves airplanes and says "airplane fly." He points to and watches airplanes as they fly by in the sky. Yesterday we had a huge thunderstorm and afterwards there was this beautiful rainbow that just totally made my night. I am just in awe of God's creations! Cale has a book that has a rainbow at the end that he loves, so when I picked him up and pointed to the rainbow outside he thought that was pretty cool!

So much to catch up on

Sorry for the lag in blog posts lately. Jeff and I have been in Florida! We left last Saturday and got back Friday. Cale stayed with Brandi's parents-thanks again mom and dad-you guys rock our world! There are lots of pics to post, but I am pooped tonight. So I will just say that this vacation was amazing. We first spent some time in Gainesville where Brandi used to live catching up with dear friends. It warmed Brandi's heart to see all her girls in Florida again! We got to go skeet shooting for the first time on Cat and Darrin's farm and Jeff got to tear down a tree while driving a Kamatsu-he was in heaven. We headed to St. Augustine Monday with a bunch of friends and hung out on the beach all day, then Jeff and I headed to the World Golf Resort to hang out the rest of the week. We went to Castillo de San Marcos fort, Lightner Museum, the St. Augustine Lighthouse, Salt Water Cowboys for some delicious food and spent lots of time on the beach. It was so refreshing and relaxing and just great to spend time together as a couple. Life gets stressful sometimes and you get so busy that sometimes as husband and wife Jeff and I forget what a good time we have together and just to slow down and treasure the love we share.

Cale had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's hanging with them, Aunt Mal, Aunt Stef, and of course Kaia. He was spoiled rotten. He learned how to say outside and airplane fly. I swear he grew in just one week. It was so wonderful to see his sweet smiling face when we drove back Friday. We spent lots of family time this past weekend just hanging out and enjoying our little man.

Pics to come later :)

Cale loves right now....

Jeff is up giving Cale a bath and so I snuck downstairs to the computer to blog real quick while I had things in my head and remembered them. I want to remember the stages he is in and so from time to time (if I remember), I am going to just write down what he's up to and loves. So here we go.
What Cale loves right now:
-airplanes and helicopters-if he sees one in the sky he stops and points and watches until they are out of site
-wrestling with his dad
-cheerios and bagels
-shaking his head no
-bath time
-playing outside-this kid could live outside
-going on family walks in the evening
-saying uh-oh
-shaking his head no
-sometimes he's in a snuggling mood and huddles up to you for a hug-it melts my heart
-to say hi to people he passes
-the dogs and hugging on them
-to sit in the dogs bed
-string cheese
-to dance
-m&ms
-playing with his toys
-running from room to room in the house
-opening drawers
-climbing a stair and then sitting down on it
-anything breakfast food-especially oatmeal and waffles
-running into our room and waking daddy when mommy has to go to work (Jeff and I do switch off days getting him in the morning which is nice)
-his momma-I have to admit, he is a little momma's boy
-being around other kids

Shaking his head no

I forgot to mention that Cale has a new thing he loves to do-when you ask him a question-he shakes his head no.
Here's how the conversation went tonight after picking him up at my mom's after dinner:
"Cale do you want to go home?" Cale shakes head no
"Cale do you want to go night-night" Cale shakes head no
"Cale do you want to brush your teeth" Cale shakes head no
He totally says no to the things he doesn't want to do-it's hard not to laugh and stay serious! I will say that mom won tonight-we did come home, we did brush are teeth, and he is sweetly sleeping in his bed right now-score one for mom!

Another zoo trip

We are loving the zoo! I don't remember the last time I have been to the zoo this much! Jeff's friend had tickets for free zoo train, carousel, and children's zoo. So me, Jeff, Cale, my mom and Aunt Mal went to the zoo on Saturday. It was a beautiful day-rained for 5 minutes, but other than that we loved it! We stayed for 4 1/2 hours-we were all worn out at the end. Cale was a trooper and had a great time seeing the animals, petting them, and walking around. Here are some pictures:


Riding the carousel-it ended like this, with Cale crying, he didn't like it

He thought it was ok at first

Aunt Mal was so excited to ride the train

Riding the train with Mal and Grandma

Running with Aunt Mal

New Words

Cale loves clocks and lately he has been pointing to clocks and saying "tick-tock"
He also says "uh-oh" and "cheese"-this boy loves string cheese and cottage cheese!

Great Grandparents

Last weekend we traveled to Carbondale to see Brandi's grandparents, Cale's great grandparents. We started at the Caubles and ended the day at the Benzes. It was good to see them and I know they enjoyed the visit and seeing Cale. Here are some pictures from the day.


Grandma and Grandpa Benz


Reading a book with Great Grandma Benz


Cale's new fascination is clocks


Playing with Great Grandpa Cauble


Looking at the clock with Great Grandma Cauble