Day #3- Home sweet home

Caleb slept through the whole night, Yay!! It was so wonderful getting in the car and knowing it was the last day and we’d be there tonight. Today went much smoother. Caleb napped again very well in the car, and was still entertained by the movies :) He also got to ride in the truck with Daddy and Grandpa, and loved it! My mom, Caleb and I went on ahead of the truck once we got to the mountains because the truck had to slow down so much and it wasn’t necessary for Caleb to have to stay in the car any longer than needed. The last part of the trip seemed to fly by, probably because I was beginning to recognize the area and was so giddy and excited to finally be here! We made great time and arrived in Deer Park around 5 pm! A way shorter day than yesterday that is for sure. It still feels like a dream and that I’m going to wake up and we still have 2 weeks till we move. That or like we’re just visiting. Someday it’ll sink in :) Thank you for the prayers, we have made it safely!!

Thank you to everyone for the warm welcomes! It’s so good to be back.

Day #2- I think I can, I think I can

Had a pretty rough evening, Caleb didn’t sleep well and decided it was time to get up around 4am…ugh. Somehow we still didn’t get on the road till 9:30, though we planned to leave at 8. Caleb slept much better in the car today {probably due to the lack of sleep the night before}, and we found something he really enjoyed…the DVD player. We watched A LOT of movies. I’m usually one to not let him watch much t.v., but it’s a matter of survival these days. We also somehow miscalculated the mileage, and missed a whole 5 hours {an additional 5 hrs} of driving. Instead of a 9 hour day’s worth of driving to get to Billings, Montana…it was going to be a 14 hour drive!! Yikes! So we ended up skipping Mt. Rushmore {which we’d already seen on our way down, but wanted Jake and Caleb to be able to}, and making very quick stops. By about 8pm Caleb was exhausted and ready to go to bed, so we got him all in his pjs and tucked him in his ‘car seat’ :) hoping he’d go to sleep and then we could sneak him in to the hotel and he’d stay asleep…HAHAHA!!! He definitely fell asleep, and he definitely woke up when we arrived at the hotel, and he was definitely not interested in going back to sleep. It was the funniest hour that I’ve seen from this child. He was soooo wired and determined not to let sleep consume him. He ran and ran and screamed and screamed, just being a silly kid. We’re finally all going to bed around 12 am, Missouri time {remember how I said earlier he had woke up at 4am this morning…yeah, you could say there are a few cranky pants in our room and I’m one of them}. Hopefully he sleeps better tonight, not sure if I can function without another night of no sleeping.

Day #1- Don’t say you’re bored

That’s what I told the guys {who were driving alone in their own cars} at our first stop. What an adventure!!! Glad to be done for the day, laying here with nothing to worry about. We had a very late start to our drive (about 3 ½ hours), took a lot longer than we thought to clean up the house and get everything out and into the cars. Left Columbia at about 11:30 and Caleb hadn’t had his nap yet so he crashed by the time we drove out of the driveway, it was a great start to the trip. At that point I thought, yeah I can do this for three days…then he woke up. No, just joking around…he was fairly pleasant once he woke up, well rested and happy. The challenging part was once he got tired of Mommy’s magic tricks throwing everything I gave him and screaming if I even looked at him {mom’s you know what I’m talking about}. He became more and more tired, but wouldn’t sleep. It was up and down from then on {when Jacob would call he’d ask if we had cranky Caleb or crazy (silly) Caleb}. We finally made it to our goal for the day Sioux Falls, SD. And actually made pretty good time, checking into the hotel at 8pm. Caleb finally got to go to sleep and now it’s time for all of us to rest up…to do it all tomorrow! Thankfully no house clean-up, just hit the road in the morning. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers.

Load 'er Up!

So today was our loading the truck {& trailer} day...and it went fairly well. I'll say this from the beginning, this is just a breif update/summary type post and I'm exhausted so I'll apologize ahead of time for any odd wording, misspellings, and all the other things that come with an over worked brain :)

Had some trouble when picking up the moving truck this morning {of course, isn't that to be expected}, but I think the guys have got it all worked out. Had a lot of good helpers show up to load the truck {and Jacob's dad who flew down from WA...and has been a HUGE help!}. It went extremely fast and we actually had less stuff than we thought! Caleb did very well!! It was tough cuz he wanted to be down and with 'the guys' and mean ole mommy had to stop him, but he still did great and was in a pretty good mood {maybe his teeth will leave him alone for the next few days, and not cause him pain}. Hopefully this is a preview to the next few days, and he'll do just fine!!...maybe. It was definitely a loooong day and there's still clean up work to do in the morning, and load up the cars that we're driving. And call me crazy but...I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow. To be able to sit, even if its in a car for hours on end with a 1 yr old, and know that its done and we're on our way. Maybe its just that it'll be a different kind of stress :)

I'm kind of glad that's its been crazy...keeps me from having too big of a break down about actually leaving. Looking forward to whats to come, but going to miss some of what we're leaving behind...

I'll try to keep updated posts of the trip, depends on the computer's battery and internet availability.

Washington, here we come!!!!!

Moving

A little late on posting this, but we've finally set a date for moving! We'll be getting our moving truck on October 3rd and then will be leaving Missouri on the 4th. We set the date a couple weeks ago, and have been making and finalizing all the plans to make it happen. I'm still a bit in shock that its finally going to happen, I've known its been coming and wishing it'd be here but to actually have the move date set...its just weird. I'm very anxious...excited beyond belief, but extremely nervous at the same time. I've got all these ideas of what it'll be like and I'm hoping that I'm not...putting my standards too high, you know? And that I'll then feel let down. I just need to have faith and know that we'll be taken care of. So anyhow, we have been packing, planning, and trying to soak up as much as we can of being here before we go. I have a hard time letting go of things and big changes...so we'll see how I do with this move :) We'll also see how Caleb will do...being in a car for 3 days, staying in hotels, having a complete lifestyle change...for a little while that is. Hopefully I'll be able to do updates of the move, just depends how crazy things get.

On a different note, I've recently been struck with this awareness of how much we cram our lives with pointless...time wasters, information, events, etc. {on a completely different note I know}. And its just really stuck with me. All the technology that we just can't live without and must be connected to, how many things {tv, internet, phones, social events, sports, fashion, etc.} distract from our relationships with our family and ultimately God. Where does the focus need to be and what do we spend more time focusing on? What are we willing to give up? This isn't to be a downer, just something that I've been really thinking about and trying to work on :)

Some Caleb tidbits {because he always lightens things up, and this post kinda needs it}:

~Everything is still all about dogs: he finds a dog in all his books, says the word 'dog' 100 times a day, when he gets up in the morning he wants to see his dog, he even pretends to be a dog sometimes...didn't know they did that this early :)

~He makes the cutest owl sound

~His molars are coming in :(

~Loves to give high-fives and will shake your hand {and kiss it before he lets go...totally his own thing, didn't teach him to}

~Has picked some favorite blankets and stuffed animals {up till recently he hasn't cared much for them}

~Loves to play with his cars and makes car noises

TGIS

Instead of TGIF, I'm thinking TGIS(aturday). This week's been a rough one, and I'm kinda glad it's about over. And Caleb's got proof that's its been a rocky ride...

He got this boo-boo yesterday morning {picture doesn't quite capture it}, and its still a mystery how it happened. We know there was a table, blanket, an excited little boy and possibly a toy car involved. I was making the bed when he went running down the hall carrying a blanket and then I heard a crash and then, the crying. I found him sitting by a table in our living room, possible scenarios: Tripped over the blanket fell into the table, had blanket over his head and ran into the table, tripped over the toy car in the hallway and fell into the table. Who knows exactly how it played out but he was definitely beat up with a rug burned cheek, a welt down the side of his face and ear, a scratched up chin and a bloody fat lip. How he managed to do all this with one little spill is beyond me. He was over it after a few minutes of course, even if I wasn't.

The night before that he also took a tumble. He loves trying to get our dog's tail, and for the most part she plays along. She'll sit right in front of him waiting for him to get it and as soon as he tries she'll jump away. Well this particular night he was in his game and was a bit quicker than she expected. When he did get a hold of it and she would try to jump away, Caleb would end up flopping on the ground...he found this hilarious! Until they did this little act on the tile floor and Caleb ended up doing a little twisty flip and hitting his head. That left a nice little knot/bruise {didn't show up in the previous picture, hair was covering it}

The previous day {no falling this time} Caleb's breakfast didn't quite agree with him so he decided to give it back to me...my nice way of saying he threw up on me, twice. Its the first that he's gotten sick and it was kinda scary {first time mom, first time seeing babe not well}, but we made it through it. And in a gross kind of way, it was really sweet. When he didn't know what was going on and was a little scared he came to me, wanted me to make it better. Makes me love being a Mom, even if it means getting thrown up on {now in a few years when he knows what to do he better run to the bathroom, not my lap :) }. The day didn't end much better. During bath time, he learned to lean over and stick his mouth in the water. He had fun with that till he inhaled and sucked in a bunch of water. Caleb's not really much of a crier, but in this instance he was sobbing...really scared him. Took quite a while to get him to calm down.

Each of these cases on their own wouldn't have been a week changing event, but piled on together just made for a rough going week. Along with some bummer let downs with the whole moving situation, I'm looking forward to this next week and hoping it brings some more smiles and less tears.

{A few of the more happier moments of the week}

loves being outside, and watching his daddy

had fun playing with the boxes before we packed them up

Give me a sign

Figured I needed to do a Caleb update, he's learning and doing new things everyday. I've heard people say that about their child before, but WOW I didn't realize how true it was. I keep thinking he's too young to know how to do some of the things he does...but truth is he's just growing up and I'm having a hard time realizing it :)

*A few months ago at our Dr. checkup, she asked if he was saying sounds or any words...well he'd say mama or dada occasionally and we thought he was trying to say dog but he really didn't say sounds. He did though growl, scream, do motor sounds, all sorts of noises...just not word sounds. I was a tiny {very tiny} bit worried. No worries now! A few weeks ago he just started making actual word sounds and began saying some words quite regularly. Now he'll copy words we say {whether he's actually saying the word or imitating...}. Its so exciting!! But before he started all this, I had something else to be excited about. We worked on signing with Caleb from about 10 months+ and at around 12 months he started really signing and learning them so fast. So I was just excited about the signs and trying to not be too worried about him not saying words. I'm planning on doing a little counter on here to update the # of signs he knows {words are hard because like I said I can't tell if he's just copying or actually saying the word}. As of now he knows to sign food, milk, more, drink, all done, dad, tree, ball, dog, book, cheerios/o's, and...that's all I can think of for now :)

*He loves his dog. Loves to pet her, throw her ball, watch her run, listen to her whine, and tackle her from time to time.

*Loves the outdoors! If you're looking out a window, he's right by your side wanting to look too. One of the few times he throws a fit is when its time to come inside, it just breaks his heart

*Sings E-I-E-I-O whenever he hears "Old McDonald" or sees his Old McDonald book

*Nods his head yes and says "yep" to everything {unless you're telling him 'no', then he shakes is head and says 'noooo'} and he does all this with the funniest expression, usually eyebrows raised

*His hair is getting fairly long and I'm considering a cut...maybe

*He points at everything, walks around w/that little pointer finger stickin out

*Blows kisses

*Wants to read books all. day. long. and usually the same ones over and over {and over}

*Is learning his facial features {all though he still mixes them up}

*Loves shutting doors :)

Here are some pictures of the crazy boy:

trip to the park

after the park :)

{now I have to explain these last ones...no I wouldn't usually let him eat ice cream,

BUT he just got his 1 year shots and blood drawn, which was awful.

Plus it made for some cute pictures}