Happy Father's Day Daddy!

Thanks for being the best Daddy ever! Thanks for reading to me, acting silly with me, sharing ice cream with me, being a great example for me and loving Mommy and me so much that I wonder sometimes if its got to hurt. Mommy and I love you lots and lots and thank you for taking such great care of us and for being our best friend.

Love,

Caleb

P.S. Mommy said sorry that she used our picture from Mother's Day. She realized later that the only pictures she got of us together today was when we were in the pool.

Happy Mother's Day!

I've had a great Mother's Day! My Mom came up last night and spent the night with us and brought a nice bouquet of fresh cut Irises from my grandma's which was the start of a perfect Mother's Day. They have made the house smell really good and have brought back great memories of my grandma. My grandma always had a vase full of Irises in the house this time of year and I love looking over and seeing them on the table.

When I woke up this morning I walked into the kitchen and was surprised by a beautiful arrangement of pink roses and lilies from David and Caleb. My kitchen is currently a little flower shop and smells wonderful.

David's parents came up after church and joined us for lunch. David was a huge sweetie and took care of planning our menu, all the meal prep and cooking our lunch. We enjoyed baked potatoes, steaks, green bean casserole and for dessert we had brownies and ice cream. Yummy! It was a good afternoon with family and was nice to get to spend Mother's Day with both of our moms. Thanks Caleb and David for making this such a special day!

Hippity Hoppity....Happy Easter

**warning....long post and lots of pictures**

Easter has been in full force at the Winberry's with all kinds of hip hopping activities. Caleb is not really into the whole idea of hunting eggs yet but he still seemed to enjoy all the events that took place anyway and definitely enjoyed getting to eat his fair share of candy.

On Thursday we enjoyed hanging out with our friends at Mommy and Me. Caleb loved getting to roam around the church building with a couple of the other kids since it was yucky outside. He seriously would be very content just roaming aimlessly around the church building all day. I'm not sure what it is about it but he can't get enough of it. He also liked getting to participate in the Easter egg hunt even if he didn't quite understand the whole concept of picking up the eggs and putting them in his basket. He however quickly caught on to the fact that there was candy inside the eggs and didn't waste any time making sure his cheeks were nicely filled. The other kids were super sweet and would bring over eggs and put in his basket as they wanted to make sure he didn't miss out.

On Friday I decided to bust out the egg shaped cookie cutter I bought this year and make a few sugar cookies. Maybe next year I'll get ambitious and attempt to make these adorable, and delicious, little cake eggs that Dallas made and brought to lunch on Sunday. How cute are these!

The weather was finally nice on Saturday so we spent the day hanging out as a family and got out for a few hours. After dinner that night we started our family tradition of dyeing Easter eggs. Caleb's favorite part was watching the color tablets fizz in the vinegar. I'm not really sure what he thought of the rest of the experience but David and I had a lot of fun getting to re-live some of our childhood days.

The Easter bunny brought Caleb a little wagon filled with various summer items (sunglasses, bubbles, shovel, pail, rake, etc). Caleb seemed to really like the wagon and all of it's contents. He decided that the rake and shovel made a nice make shift golf club and proceeded to hit the eggs that the Easter bunny brought him vs. picking them up and putting them in his baskets. He was so funny to watch. We later showed him that the Easter bunny put candy inside the eggs so he then went around shaking some of the eggs to see if they had anything in them. It was so fun watching him enjoy each item in the basket. He picked up the rake and shovel and played with them for a while, then discovered the sunglasses and had to try them on briefly, then it was on to the bubbles where we had to stop and have us blow them for a while so he could pop them. He next examined his new book in which he got very excited when he realized it had tractors in it and very excitedly exclaimed "tractor, tractor, tractor". The last thing he looked at was the chocolate bunny. It was actually the item he was the least interested in, oh how your priorities will change later in time. He apparently didn't want to waste any item inside his new wagon and even took time to play with the Easter grass.

We had a great Easter morning at church and had a wonderful time having lunch with friends. We ended the day with devo and pizza at church (we missed the giant candy hunt because we were all taking a nap but Caleb was still able to pick out a few items that were leftover when we arrived and still ended up with plenty of candy). Despite the yucky weather we had a wonder Easter and enjoyed the day spent with one another as a family and with our church friends/family.

Happy Valentine's Day

XOXO,

Caleb

Ho! Ho! Ho!

We picked the perfect day to take Caleb to see Santa (11-22-08). We didn't have to wait in line, no one was waiting behind us to rush us, it was perfect. Caleb wasn't scared at all to sit on Santa's lap. He wouldn't smile and was pretty stoic but he didn't cry or make any type of fuss to get down. Santa just took his time and sat there and talked to him. The first picture we took Caleb was actually looking at the camera but he wouldn't smile for anything so we decided to go with this one instead. I think by the time we saw Santa Caleb was tired of smiling. We had spent that morning getting his 1 year pictures made, family pictures taken and then went and took some candid shots at the Promenade.

Gobble, Gobble

We had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed getting to host the Foster family Thanksgiving at our house this year. We definitely missed my Grandma Foster and while the location this year had changed from my Grandma's house as she is no longer with us the sense of love and family was still there. It was a beautiful day outside and it was nice to get to spend some time outside and have the windows open for a little while. David fixed his first turkey this year and I think Martha Stewart would have been proud. It was a very nice looking and tasting bird. I hope you enjoyed time with your families and were able to spend a few moments reflecting on the things you have to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family, the memories of my Grandma Foster and for friendships both old and new.

Happy Halloween

Caleb had a very busy day yesterday celebrating the last of his first holidays (ie first Halloween). He has been recovering from a stomach bug and was a bit tired all day as he didn't have much of a nap but he was definietely a little trooper and enjoyed the day. We started off the day by going to see Grandma at her work. I'm not exactly sure why he got so tickled but he would all but cackle ever time she put a piece of candy in his little bucket. Grandma took him trick or treating at some of the different floors in her building. He liked putting things in his bucket and enjoyed the tiniest of sampling of a small Hershey bar that he got in his mouth and proceeded to put a death lock on in hopes of eating more. It took both of us to get it out of his mouth.

Next we had some errands to take care of and then got a quick cat nap in before going to see Daddy at his office. Caleb was a bit overwhelmed as there were a TON of kids trick or treating there. He was also a bit out of it since he had just woke up so we found one of the few areas were there wasn't anyone and let him roam around a little bit and wake up.

Then we were off to Nana and Papa's for some more trick or treating fun. Caleb got to ring the doorbell and had his first gummy bugs. It was so funny watching him eat them with his cheeks all pooched out.

Not done yet......next stop was the Springdale/Bentonville football game where Papa was the honorary captain. He loved being outside and enjoyed crawling on the field, listening to the band and watching all the people. We stayed for the first quarter and then decided it was probably time to get our little guy into bed.

We finally made it home where a very tired little boy didn't put up any kind of fight in going to bed.

Happy 1st Halloween Caleb!

Happy 4th of July!

Easter

I love this time of year! I love the surprise of seeing flowers pop up that I forgot I planted in the fall, seeing the trees bud, watching newborn calves play in the field and it staying light longer. I also enjoy the traditions of Easter like coloring eggs, singing 'Here comes Peter Cottontail' or at least the few words of it that I remember, hiding eggs for my nieces and nephew, Easter baskets and the traditional ham dinner.

We decided to skip coloring eggs this year with Caleb but the Easter Bunny did come to visit and brought him a basket filled with eggs, the book 'Peter Rabbit' and a chocolate Easter bunny (toy vs. candy) . We had a good time hanging out at my grandma's and enjoyed spending time with my brother and his family. My nieces and nephew were a lot of fun and loved hunting eggs even though it was a bit chilly outside. Caleb didn't really get into hunting eggs but he liked being outside for a few minutes and Caitlin and Sierra found a couple of eggs for him and put in his basket and told me they were for "baby Caleb".

Twas The Night Before Christmas....

The stockings are hung, the gifts are under the tree and cookies and milk have been left for Santa and a carrot left for Rudolph. I can't believe that this is Caleb's first Christmas! It's amazing to think how Christmas will be different from here on out. It will be neat to see what family traditions that we develop that Caleb will look back on when he is older. I remember some of the ones we had at Christmas time: leaving cookies and milk for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph, leaving the lights plugged in on the Christmas tree all night long on Christmas Eve (David and I both grew up doing this and started it as our own family tradition when we got married), opening your stocking first on Christmas morning before opening your presents, and opening one gift on Christmas Eve (we only did this one when we were younger). I let Santa know not to get real crazy with gifts this year for Caleb since he is so little but Santa did tell me that he would be bringing him some Dr. Seuss books and a couple of Sleepers.

We thought it would be neat to have Caleb's first Christmas morning at our house so my Mom and David's parents are spending the night so that we can wake up and have Christmas here before we are off on our various stops for the day. I think I have finished everything for the night and am off to bed so Santa can come. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!