Welcoming....

Caleb Taylor Wolfe
8lbs 2oz, 20"

The boy's name Caleb is pronounced KAY-leb. It is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Caleb is faith, devotion, whole hearted. Biblical: Caleb, a companion of Moses and Joshua, was noted for his astute powers of observation and fearlessness in the face of overwhelming odds; his devotion to God is symbolized by the "dog" in some traditions.

Baby and Mother are doing GREAT!!!

10 Happy Days of my Life

Today I wanted to reflect on the 10 of the MANY happiest times in my life.  This was fun, you should try it! AND JUST A NOTE: these are not in any PARTICULAR order... just the order that I thought up. There may be more that fit in at higher rankings that others... for instance, the birth of Isaac is a happier day in my life than winning a science fair... I just wanted to get an overall idea of some of the happy days of my life as I thought of them (and my memory is not so reliable lately so maybe I will do this again in a few months when I catch up on some sleep).

1) My wedding day... of course on my top 10 would be the day I remember my face hurting soo bad from smiling soo much.  I did have one stressful, almost in-tears moment, but who doesn't on their wedding day.  I had the perfect wedding ceremony and a beautiful reception.  My Open House is included in my memories of this day, even if it was a week later because I got to wear my dress again and be surrounded with similar feelings of love and happiness from family and friends.

2) My first session at the temple... a very special, sacred day and also very happy.  I remember feeling "this is what heaven will feel like" because I was surrounded by family that loved and supported me so much and the most amazing, wonderful, peaceful feeling.

3) A special date Tommy took me on before he left on his mission.  He took me to a beautiful waterfall and read me the sweetest, and ONLY, poem he had written for me.  He gave me a beautiful promise ring.  I remember feeling so special and loved and happy. :D

4) The day I got engaged to Tommy... I was not expecting it since his sister had just gotten married a couple days before and we were about to leave to go back to school.  He had planned a little picnic in a beautiful courtyard on the local college campus and had his friends set it up.  He had some sparkling cider but no way to open it. :) He had a box of my favorite Godiva chocolates and inside that box was a little Tiffany's box with my ring in it.  I remember getting back to his parents house just as his dad was getting home and I was soo excited I tackled him on the front lawn.  I didn't even realized he had bags of groceries in his hands... more sparkling cider and desserts! :)

5) The day I won a prize for my 8th grade science fair project.  I was so proud of myself.  I won $50!  My project was on your eye's blind spot.  Silly... I know, but I was really happy.

6) Christmas mornings growing up.  I had the best Christmas mornings.  I don't remember one specific one but they were all amazing and and wonderful and full of surprise and excitement so I had to include them.  I picture coming into the room with the lit up tree in the dark of the early morning and seeing the big pile of white presents.  Santa always wrapped in white tissue paper and it looked soo magical.

7) The day I brought Lily home from the hospital.  I remember feeling so overwhelmed and happy at the same time.  It was also the day my sister got married so I was thinking about her all day and what a happy day it was for her and I.  I couldn't believe this sweet little baby belonged to me and was all my responsibility. 

8) College Graduation Day!  I had actually done it... I remember thinking so many times my freshman year that it would be okay if I didn't finish, it may just not be for me.  I got extra motivation and strength from Tommy my sophmore year that helped me push through the tough classes and enjoy my major classes.  I remember walking across the stage thinking, "wow, I'm never going to forget this." And there in the audience was my little baby Lily with my family, cheering for me.

9) My family went on a vacation to Hawaii after my Freshman year at college.  It was so much fun to enjoy such a beautiful place with them. We enjoyed a day at the Polynesian Culture Center and ate lots of delicious pineapple! :-D  I got sunburned really bad on the back of my legs when we went snorkeling.  I can't wait until I can go back with Tommy someday!

10) Today... yep, I don't have a specific day that I remember my kids doing something out of the ordinary, wonderful for me but each day they do little things that make me remember how happy life is to be a mother.  I remember giving Lily her first bath with my mother.  I remember moving into my first house with my baby Isaac just one week old.  I remember watching Lily learn to ride her first bike with training wheels.  I can't wait to meet my newest son or daughter.  And I know there will be lots of memories in the future with these fun kiddos of mine.

It's FALL time!

To celebrate the first day of fall, I made a fun fall wreath today. It was so easy and pretty inexpensive. What do you think?

I got the idea from Martha. :D  Here is another version without the corn husks.

Lily Talk

After the 20 billionth time we told her to take a bite of her dinner and stop talking, "If I were a boy, I would talk less."

Sitting on Mommy's lap after getting her crown and waiting for the Tylenol to kick in, "Isaac and Daddy are lucky. They don't have to have cavities like me or have a baby like Mommy." I hear ya kid!

After getting a boy classmate's party invitation with a transformer picture on the front, "Do I have to dress up like a transformer?"

My Weekend PLUS project

I have been wanting to recover my infant car seat for a couple months now.  This weekend was the perfect time to do it, thanks to lots of football on Saturday and a great husband.  It is, however, very difficult to do a project like this when you are pregnant, I found out, because it takes a lot of thinking power (or more notes than I took) to put it back together the right way.  I had to seam rip it various times and start over.  I even got it all done and realized I did the bottom section upside down so the hole for the buckle was in the completely wrong place.  Instead of seam ripping the whole thing again I just put in a new hole and called it done.  :)  I still have the canopy and infant head support to finish but at least the basic piece is complete and ready for new baby! :D

Isaac is ready to play with the baby! :)  I think the bright colors and guitars are very fun.  On to my next project...

Teeth

I hate teeth... therefore it may not be that surprising that I hate dentists (sorry Kyle and Devin). How am I supposed to trust one dentist's opinion when they have no way of showing me evidence? They could say I have 3 cavities and I have to pay $600 to get them filled and I just have to trust that they are right. I also hate my teeth genes, thanks mom and dad. I feel no matter how well I take care of my teeth, I still have problems. I have a great 5 year old that loves to brush her teeth. She doesn't drink soda and I try as hard as a mom can to limit sweets during the day. Well, she has 4 cavities and had to get her first crown today... at age 5. Isn't that sad? It just makes my heart ache, and thanks to pregnancy hormones on overload, I'm sad I am not a better mother to her to have prevented this. Guess it is past time to look into dental insurance.

Playing Around

Lily's "classic face" is now a tongue sticking out to the side.  Goofy girl!

And a belly shot of me at 37 weeks. :-)

Here is a video of Lily's "production" she did for us after making tickets, giving us each a ticket, making a nice wobbly "stage" out of couch cushions and a stool, collecting our tickets, and escorting us to our seats (the couch without cushions on it).  She made up this song as she went along.  Pretty creative and quite the funny little performer.



Isaac had to have a turn on the "stage" so he sang his ABCs and The Wheels on the Bus (don't mind the naked boy, he had just come in from playing outside where he always gets soaking wet and covered in sand).

School Work

So, the school work has started to come home.  Lily's school work is always very colorful and sometimes includes little notes to me or her teacher.  Here is a worksheet that came home yesterday...

You may have to click on it to see it larger, but under the word "Date" she has written, "I doo not no wut a date is Love Lily".  She's so funny.  Most kids would just ignore something they don't understand but Lily wants to know everything.

My Big Girl

I can tell Lily is growing up.  She just understands so much more now than she did even a few months ago.  It is really fun to see her learning each day and coming home with almost a new perspective.  Sometimes its a sad "reality" like school is a lot of "grown up work" or recess is too short and she didn't get to finish the creative game she had made up.  Some days she understands a little more about life, like it's not all about making Lily happy.  She has to focus on making her teachers happy at school and dance and church and her parents at home.  Today she showed me how much she is learning about growing up.

Isaac did something bad this week and I feel really bad for not catching it sooner.  Not my proudest moment here but it relates to a cute story so I have to tell you.  Earlier this week, Isaac drank water from Lily's water bottle and back washed something in it.  WHO KNOWS.  Lily grabbed her water bottle for dance yesterday and I didn't even think to rinse it out or refill it or anything since it was almost full.  Today Lily told me her water bottle tasted really bad but she drank it anyways because she was really thirsty at dance.  I opened it up and it smelled soo bad and had lots of floaties in it.  YUCK.  Bad mom.  So we had a little talk about not ever drinking water when it tastes bad, even if you are thirsty.  I hope she doesn't get sick from this!

So we get in the car to go somewhere and Lily starts telling Isaac not to spit things in her water, rather rudely.  I stopped her before she got too carried away and explained that Isaac is just too young to understand that rule right now and it will be my job in the future to always check that you have a clean water bottle for dance.  I told her she can't yell at Isaac because he doesn't understand.  He didn't just do it so he won't understand why you are talking rudely to him.  She then asked me, "What about when he is like 6, can I yell at Isaac then?  When he does something wrong, can I tell him then?"  I didn't think about it too long but said, "yes, sure, you can tell him if he did something wrong when he is six because he will understand then."  (hoping she would drop the subject).  Then she said, "How old will I be when Isaac is 6?  Because if it is over 8 then I shouldn't yell at Isaac."  I said, "Yes, you would be 9.  Why if you are over 8?"  She said, "Because I would be baptized and have to make right choices."  I smiled at my sweet little girl and thought, "yes, please remember this."  Then she went on to say, "What about when Isaac is 4?  Can I yell at him then?  How old will I be?"  I just smiled and chuckled a little to myself.  Then I decided she probably shouldn't be yelling at her brother any time and told her to let Mom do the teaching and she can just teach Isaac by being a good example.