Merry Christmas!

Here are a few pics of our Christmas. We had a good
time and Chloe's new saying is "I LOVE presents!"
and she sure does!!! Caleb had a lot of fun with the
wrapping paper:) We spent time with my family
and now we head to North Dakota to celebrate
with Kyle's family. I'm sure glad we got some new
DVD's for the van!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Caleb!

CONGRATS TASHA & JARED!!

I just have to let all of my blog readers know that
my little sister Tasha just got engaged!!!! This
is a pic of the newspaper article that he made for
her (which is pretty cool). I'm so
happy for her and Jared and so excited I can hardly
stand it!! Too bad Tasha is sick with tonsillitis...get well
soon Sis...you gotta get busy!!!!

Our perfect Christmas Tree

We headed out this past Saturday to find our perfect Christmas tree at our local Christmas tree farm. Chloe is now a veteran as this was her third time there!!! We had a fun time picking out our tree but when we got it home I realized it's somewhat odd shaped!!! Chloe loves it though and helped me decorate it...more pics of that to come later!!

Chloe watching Kyle cut the tree down.

Kyle and Chloe hauling the tree to the Durango!!

My Favorite Thanksgiving Pics

We had a great Thanksgiving! Here are pictures from our multiple celebrations:) The kids did well but now they both are sick with colds (and Kyle too)
yuk!!!

Kyle was worn out after the first celebration!!

Celebrating at Mom and Dad's

Chloe, Brooke, and Brooke's new puppy on

Thanksgiving.

Caleb and Chloe loved cousin Noah's

swing!!

Caleb was pretty fond of Uncle Evan! (This

is surprising since he isn't fond of too many

people besides Mommy!!)

Chloe and cousin Noah snacking in the kitchen



The kids with Grandma and Grandpa Punt before

we left them with the kids for the evening...Grandpa Rog

looks frightened by this challenge...hilarious pic!!! Hope you

all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Caleb crawled right out of his pants!

I thought this was hilarious...Caleb army crawled
right out of his pants!


He thought it was funny too!!



We've had quite a bit of fog lately...I thought this was
a cool pic of the lake as the fog was starting to
lift.

Chloe's theology

Today Chloe was carrying around her little flashlight and asked me what the writing on the side said. I responded, "Jesus is the light and the way." Then I said "Do you know who Jesus is?"
She said completely matter of factly, "God" and walked away....Approximately 2 seconds later she proceeded to hit Caleb on the head to prove that she is indeed only 2 1/2!!!!

Caleb has started moving!

Caleb has started moving! He is army
crawling like Chloe did. It has been really
interesting to see him and Chloe interact now
because it's definitely a new dynamic! He's
always getting into everything she is playing
with and she doesn't always respond too nicely!!
Here they were having fun with each other
under the table:)


Caleb turned 11 months!! What a big boy!

Chloe playing hide and seek!

Pumpkin Carving Party

Last weekend we had a very fun pumpkin carving

party with the Gaulkes and the Parkers. Here are

a few pics of our fun night!

Chloe, Jen and Jarrett sitting on the step...

Justin and Brent are very focused on their pumpkins!

Thanks Grandma Judy for the pumpkin shirts!!

Here is a pic of our creations...the picture didn't

turn out all that well cuz you're supposed to

be able to see the kids too! The Gaulke's Thomas

The Train pumpkin took home the prize for the

best pumpkin!

One Funny Video!

This is a video of Chloe showing the banner

that she made for Kyle's Birthday...the more you

watch it the funnier it gets! Oh, and even Chloe

loves watching it!

Happy Birthday Kyle!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Where's the Pizza?

For all of the parents out there....

Last night Kyle and I decided to use our Happy Joes Gift certificate that we've had for awhille. Since we've been needing to buy a car seat for Caleb we decided to go to Des Moines to Happy Joe's. We had supper there and things went relatively well for having two children reaching for everything in sight (forks, plates, hot sauce, napkins, you get the picture...). We didn't even have a temper tantrum when we had to leave (there was a huge play area) since we had a DVD going in the van. We're walking out to the van and I'm thinking to myself "That went really well! I actually feel like I have things under control. We're going to be able to go out to eat more often!" We had lots of leftovers, a balloon making Chloe incredibly happy, and did I mention lots of leftovers?

As we're driving down Meredith Dr I look in the back of the van and wonder where the pizza is...that's when Kyle and I look at each other and realize that we left it on top of the van.....hmmm....can I just say that whenever I feel like I have "it" (life, kids, parenting, anything really!) under control I am humbled yet again!!!! I guess I'm thankful that we didn't forget one of the kids!!!

Messy Faces & Dancing

Chloe loves to "help" me bake. Here she is
"helping" me bake cake yesterday. Gotta love
a chocolate covered face!


Chloe has been trying on all of our hats and gloves. And
this is her latest smile...good thing we're not
taking pics anytime soon!

Caleb turned 10 months a few days ago. I find this hard to believe!! He loves to eat cheerios so I thought I'd include this picture of him having a hard time getting it into his mouth!! And then of course a cute pic on his 10 month birthday.

Caleb loves to dance. It's so funny that I had to get a little video footage. Of course he stopped the really funny stuff when I started taping but the Mommy in me still thinks it's pretty cute:) I'm not sure if the music or the attention that he receives is more inspiring to him!!! Last week even the nursery workers at church were commenting on his dancing!!

Caleb turned 10 months a few days ago. I find this hard to believe!! He loves to eat cheerios so I thought I'd include this picture of him having a hard time getting it into his mouth!! And then of course a cute pic on his 10 month birthday. And then a pic of Chloe as she "helps" me bake cake

Twins Game & TC Marathon

This past weekend was a ton of fun (except maybe for
Caleb) but I didn't take many pictures. We went up to MN
for the weekend. We celebrated Jared's
birthday Saturday night at Kyle's sister
Kelly's house in Roseville, MN. She made a cake...it
was delightful!!!


This was not the common look on Caleb's face on
Saturday...we took him to his first baseball game
at the Metrodome to see the Twins play. We thought
it was a good idea but we were WRONG!!! He
was absolutely terrified with all of the noise &
screamed for 5 innings until my mom and I just
gave up and left!!! It's almost comical how many
things were tried to stop this kid from screaming...
he was given a little souvenier by a worker who
must have thought "Get that kid outta here!"; he
was brought into the men's bathroom by my dad
who thought that looking in a mirror might calm him
down (but since there was also yelling
for the Twins occurring in there Caleb was equally
scared...); Cheerios, milk, we tried everything...If he
turns out to like baseball we will be completely surprised!!!!


Chloe got to play with cousin Noah and swing at
his house so she loved every minute!!

Congrats to Tasha for running her 2nd marathon
faster than her first...we had fun cheering!!! (Well,
except for Caleb who got scared and screamed and
poor Grandma Judy who sat with him in the van while
he slept). What would we do without Grandmas?!??

Garage Sale Fun!

This past weekend we had our first ever garage sale! We had a great turnout and had a lot of fun in the process. I couldn't believe that someone bought Kyle's childhood camera (which still had film in it!) for 25 cents!! It still amazes me what sells and what doesn't!! Here is a pic of Chloe and Malik "helping" prepare for the big sale!

A big THANKS to my Mom, Grandma, Sis, Dad, and Hubby for all the help:) I'm still laughing about my Grandma "buying" my mom's antiwrinkle cream for 50 cents and bringing it back the next day claiming that it didn't work...priceless!!!


Caleb trying out the weight machine...



"I'm not ready for weights yet Grandpa!!!"

We're ready for customers!!!

Caleb loves some camera action!!!