The Booker Post

No Posts!

2012-02-09T14:05:00.003-06:00

No posts can only mean one thing! No good news! lol

Well, not really, but the kids and I have been taking turns being sick since the last weekend in January. (Mostly me, but the kids started it!) I haven't been to church on Wednesday night for two weeks now. 1st week the kids, 2nd week me . . . Oy vey! Will it be this way every time I start school??

Okay, on to more positive news. Well, ummmmm . . .

Callie's birthday month. Need to make invites still. Valentine's Day. Celebrating tonight because this weekend is my girl's weekend (as long as I feel better) and I have a meet on Valentine's.

Gabriel's started a funny new game. Every time he hears the clink of a jar, he comes running because he thinks we're getting a paci out for him. And when he sees that we've gotten a paci out for him, he comes giggling and running as if we've just said the funniest thing or offered him the best dessert in the world. I'll have to capture it. It's hilarious.

Callie's doing very well at school. Her pencil grip is almost perfected! :) Makes me very happy because I've been fighting the "fist grip" since we started! She drew very well today too.

Oh and yes. Everyone's sharing recipes lately, so I thought I'd share a very easy dessert for two just in time for Valentine's Day.

Blackberry Cobbler for Two

1 Tablespoon butter

1/4 cup self-rising flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk

Dash of vanilla extract (optional)

14 blackberries (or any seasonal fruit that goes well in cobbler)

Preheat oven to 350

Divide butter and melt in 2 ramekins. Mix flour, sugar, milk, and vanilla. Divide batter evenly and pour into the ramekins over melted butter. Do not mix!

Drop berries over batter. Do not mix!

Bake until crust rises over berries and is browned, about 30 minutes.

Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

Voila! The perfect end to your Valentine's Day with your sweetie.

Hope you have a great weekend!

God bless you and yours.

The Season has Started!

2012-01-17T11:45:00.002-06:00

Scholastic Bowl season has started! I don't think I realized how much a commitment 2 days a week for a couple hours would throw the rest of the week into chaos! Sometimes it seems like I'm running around doing so much, but have so little to show for it. But I've managed to keep up fairly well, I think.

Of course it doesn't help that our kitchen is in complete disarray thanks to the "small" remodel. The other side of that coin is that the kids haven't had their normal full access to the house, and the gate has caused some headaches in and of itself. It doesn't seem to matter what they're doing before the gate goes up, perfectly happy playing with their toys or looking out the windows. They have two full rooms to play in behind the gate: a living room pretty much devoid of obstacles and a play room filled (and I do mean FILLED!) with toys of all shapes, sizes, songs, games, and dances. None of that seems to matter when they hear the gate click into place. All Gabe seems to want at that moment is to play in the kitchen and he stands at the gate and screams the most heart-aching screams and cries and tears flow down his face. Callie, on the other hand, does not cry, but she doesn't help either. She tends to stand at the gate and tell me about things that we forgot to do, in hopes that she might be able to cross over the barrier. Or sometimes she just plays at the gate, with the gate. Which wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that she's not helping to distract Gabe . . .

Gabriel typically is a very happy, very curious little boy. His latest trick is to mimic knock knock jokes.

Gabe: (Pumping his fist in the air as if he's knocking) Knock, knock.

Mommy: Who's there?

Gabe: (nonsense babble)

Mommy: (nonsense babble) who?

Gabe: (nonsense babble then bursts out with laughter)

It's pretty funny. I hope to upload a video of it soon.

Callie is working on school. I've decided to take a 2 weeks on, 1 week off approach. I think it will help as there are some days it just doesn't fit into the schedule, so it will help us fit in all the lessons. And also, it won't overwhelm her. Of course, I practice things we've been learning throughout the day every day, just not in the more formal "school" setting. She's taken to it rather quickly and seems to like most of what we do. We had a little problem last week, but I'm hoping we're over it. :) Fingers crossed.

Callie is looking forward to her birthday soon. We are apparently having a "monkeys jumping on the bed" party. I think I can handle the monkeys part, it's the jumping on the bed part that I'm having trouble figuring out. I was trying to figure out if I could get/rent a small gym sized trampoline for some games?? I don't know. She is pretty set on this theme so we'll figure something out.

Anyway, things are busy, but it's better than being bored. Callie and Gabe are looking forward to extra time with Mimi and Granny Great when Mommy goes to work. Hoping you are having a great start to your new year!

God bless you and yours this week!

Happy New Year's!

2012-01-03T14:44:00.003-06:00

Gabriel decided to try on Daddy's hat.

Callie helping take down the Christmas decorations outside.

Gabriel is a corn loving boy! He started hugging the bowl as soon as he tasted it!

I've decided it must be a genetic thing. Males must have this built in need to take their pants off once in their house.

Callie and her balloon. She insisted on taking it outside and then was very upset when it flew away . . . Lesson learned? Probably not.

So our Christmas was wonderful, New Year's was a rocking good time. Ok, not really, Philip painted and I worked on lesson plans for starting preschool. I'm sure most of you have seen on facebook that Callie & I have started working on different skills and knowledge that she will need when she goes into kindergarten. She's doing really well so far (we're on day 2!). We're focusing a lot on writing because she knows most of her letters and numbers by sight. So far, we've had a couple of "I can't do it" moments, but I try to remain calm and patient and we work through it.

We're excited about what 2012 holds for us! We looked back on 2011 and finally felt settled in our life. 2010 was a crazy year of remodeling and organizing and trips and Gabe! 2011 found us more settled and definitely more organized! (Great relief to me and my OCD!!)

Anyway, we're off to a great start in 2012! Hoping you and yours are feeling the same. God bless as we embark on this new year together!

Callie's Interview about Daddy

2011-12-27T12:17:00.004-06:00

Callie's Interview about Daddy – Age 3

1. What is something daddy always says to you? You do exercise

2. What makes daddy happy? I stay dry.

3. What makes daddy sad? The cat walks backwards

4. What does your daddy do to make you laugh? You make funny faces.

5. What was your daddy like as a child? You were a boy

6. How old is your daddy? Five

7. How tall is your daddy? Four Feet

8. What is his favorite thing to do? Wash the dishes

9. What does your daddy do when you're not around? You sleep

10. If your daddy becomes famous, what will it be for? Weatherman

11. What is your daddy really good at? Doing tricks

12. What is your daddy not very good at? Hammering

13. What does your daddy do for his job? Work with computers

14. What is your daddy's favorite food? Oatmeal

15. What makes you proud of your daddy? When you help me pick up toys

16. If your daddy was a cartoon character, who would he be? Fireman Sam

17. What do you and your daddy do together? Play tea party

18. How are you and your daddy the same? We jump up and down

19. How are you and your daddy different? Your hair is shorter than mine

20. How do you know your daddy loves you? We play games

21. Where is your daddy's favorite place to go? To work

Picture update

2011-12-20T15:18:00.004-06:00

Callie playing bags at Martin Bros. John Deere. She was really good at it!
Gabe's not so sure about this Santa Claus thing. But he'll take the sucker! :)
Playing with the big machinery. I've never seen Gabriel so happy at a store. He was walking around, shrieking with joy at all the different toys. It was really, really funny!

Callie FINALLY sat on Santa Claus's lap! It took almost 4 years, but she finally talked to him and told him what she wanted for Christmas. She had a lot of fun.

I don't know if you can tell , but this one's going in! She got it on the first one.

Gabe didn't enjoy the shaving cream in the bath tub as must as Callie did. He was a little nervous about having stuff floating in the bathtub with him.

The shaving cream snowmen turned into paint the whole wall. Callie had a lot of fun.

The beginning of the snowman.

Callie enjoying watching the guys putting up with Christmas lights. It was cold!

Callie and Santa!

Christmas Decorations on our table.

Front Stairs Decorated.

Another view of the table.

All Philip's work on the house with the lights.

Santa's elves were quite busy! 5 packages, over a hundred cards! Whew! Love Christmas so much! (And no, that's not sarcasm!!)

We've had a busy week again this week! And it will probably be busy until April . . . . because as soon as the holidays are over, the Scholastic Bowl season starts up!

Here's to a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to all! God bless you and yours during this time of family togetherness. :)

18 months check up and more!

2011-12-13T15:16:00.002-06:00

Gabriel's 18 month appointment was yesterday. He is doing so well! Our appointment was at 11:30, but we didn't see the doctor until after 12:00. We're trying to find a new doctor because the family doctor who we were seeing has changed offices, and it was not a good move. The past 4 times I went I waited over 4 1/2 hours, he came in and saw whatever the problem was, gave a quick recommendation and ran out because he was so behind, and the office staff might be sitting on tacks all day the way they act when you call to make an appointment or ask a question. You know how annoying it is to be transferred to numerous people to get one question answered because no one wants to do their job? Yeah, it's been a mess over there.

So, anyway, we are trying a different clinic in Peoria. The first doctor I went to there was awful. She was sarcastic and rude, arrogant and acted like every thing I said was a tall tale. And then man-handled Gabe into a crying fit -- he had not cried during a doctor exam since his 3 month exam. Not impressed, but I thought maybe I would give one of the other doctors a try before I gave up. The doctor I went to this time, SUPER impressive.

The stats: 32 inches tall (45th%), 25 pounds 13 ounces (50th%), and I forget the exact head circumference, but it was the 75th% . . . :)

The doctor was very patient with Gabriel, believed what I was saying, examined him nicely, handing him the instruments he was going to use and let him play with them first to get used to them . . . all in all (other than the lateness factor), I was impressed. He also offered up some advice about sibling relations when I mentioned Callie that I had not heard before, but I will probably tried because it sounded like a good idea! I'm taking Callie for the first time for her 4 year appointment in a couple months, and Gabriel back for his 2 year appointment in June. We'll see how those go as far as the wait before I make final judgement as to whether or not we've found our new doctor.

Callie enjoyed the office as well. They have a salt water aquarium with lots of different sea creatures. They also have projectors pointed at the floor that the kids can interact with. It's obviously a pretty nice facility and the office staff has been very pleasant to deal with as well. We'll see!

Callie has been very into shapes lately. This morning, she was playing with my square bottle opening gripper and folding into different shapes. "Look, mommy, it's a diamond! Now it's a square! Now it's a rectangle!" She is very into animals as well and can give you many different statistics, including what kind of tracks animals make. She's very excited about Christmas this year and we FINALLY got her to sit on Santa Claus's lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas! This year, she wants a clock for her wall. Santa found a very special one that matches her room extremely well! --Gabriel did not want to see Santa up close, although he did say "hi" and "bye" and take a sucker from him.--

We've been having some "independence" issues with Callie every once in a while, but for the most part, our home runs pretty smoothly. I've even been making a little bit more time for myself, trying to have a girl's night with a friend once a month. Other "me" news . . . I've been working really hard to get things organized around here, with a family binder, a menu binder, and a kid's activities & crafts binder, plus, of course, my daily schedule. Things have been flowing nicely lately, hopefully we can keep it up! Some things have been slightly interrupted lately because Philip and I have been busy little elves working on gifts for family and friends and Christmas cards! Finally got most of that done so we'll be back on track for our Christmas party on Sunday! Lots of fun!

Philip . . . hmmm . . . yes, he's here. He's working and exercising and working on home projects. I feel like I write the same thing about him every time I post!! hahaha I'll have to tell him to post an update all about him one day so he doesn't feel left out. :)

Well, I guess that's about all that's going on here. I'll try to post some pictures soon of Callie on Santa's lap, but I don't have time today. We'll see if I can fit it in later this week. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until next Tuesday!

Hope you are well! Have fun with your holiday plans! God bless you and yours.

Christmas Pictures & Activities

2011-12-06T15:06:00.005-06:00

Callie and Gabriel have been having lots of fun with our activity advent calender! This is Callie helping to make salt dough ornaments. Gabriel didn't really understand that not everything made in the kitchen is made to be eaten.

Mixing, mixing the dough.

Callie has really been into the Christmas spirit this year. This is her dressed as Mary.

Gabriel turns 18 months right in time for us to combine the trip to the photographer. Here are a couple of the outtakes. He loves his teddy.

And here he is running out of the shot. This was the best smiling shot all day, but a little motion blurred . . .

This was a pretty good smiling out of both of the kids for Christmas cards. But Callie kept looking out the door at all the commotion of the busy, busy front of the store.

Must we always have a crazy face photo? :)

Here's another outtake of our family photos, it was pretty good except Gabriel turned away. He was done with photos by this time so we just made the best of what we had! :)

Goals & Schedules

2011-11-29T13:57:00.005-06:00

My Thanksgiving table decorations.

The Schirer-Suters and the Suters came to visit, and ate a meal at our house. I was happy I could repay a small part of the hospitality they have shown us over the years!

Callie's first stick person. I wanted to keep it, but it was the paper covering the table . . . so I took a picture!

Gabriel eating a sugar cookie made by the Granny Great!

Well, I had been doing pretty good with my new schedule. I've followed it to the letter most days, except for the last 2 Tuesdays, I didn't update the blog.

The first Tuesday, I have no excuse. I sat down with a cold glass of water after my work out fully intending to update the blog after I rested for a minute only to be startled awake by the sound of Callie coming down the stairs at the end of her nap. Oops!

The second Tuesday, I had made up my mind that some things were not going to get done while preparing for and entertaining our family over Thanksgiving & once again, the blogging did not get done. So, I apologize to my faithful readers, of which there are approximately 2, for once again denying you the pleasure of a family update. :)

Well, as you can see from my explanation of bloglessness (hee hee), we've had an eventful couple weeks. From my last update, I now know that little man is getting in 4, yes FOUR, molars. Explaining why he has not been in the best of moods (and why he just woke up screaming as a started this post, reminding me that I had forgotten to give him his tylenol before naptime! -- Rats!)

Other than that, Gabriel is quite the ham. He was going around today saying "Ho, ho, ho!" because the little boy I'm babysitting calls Santa Clause "Ho, ho!" :) He is inquisitive and very observant. He calls all girls "Mama" and all boys "Dada". I don't know, but I think gender recognition of any kind at his age is pretty rare. But, of course, I am the mother, so I think he's pretty special anyway.

Callie is ecstatic about Christmas this year. She doesn't know what she wants for Christmas, she's just excited about the whole thing! She's clever too. We put up our Christmas decorations and of course, the big deal is the Christmas tree, especially when the lights come on after 4:30. So the other night when Philip told Callie it was time to clean up her toys, she said, "Wait! I have a great idea. You clean this side, and this side, and out here (read: all of it!) and I'll sit and watch the Christmas tree! That's a good idea?" Philip answered with a prompt, "No."

She also can help you understand what she's talking about if she doesn't know the name of something. The other day, she pointed out the window while we were driving and said, "Hey! I've been there with Mimi and Grandpa!" We didn't see what she was pointing at so I asked her what she was talking about. She explains, "You know, the fire station!" We thought for a moment . . . "You mean the Hibatchi Grill, when they cooked our food at the table?" "Yeah!" We got a good laugh out of that one too!

As I said before, I've made a schedule for my days. I thought for a long time that my "Get it Done!" Attitude would not mesh well with a schedule. I wouldn't like stopping something just because it was "time" to do something else. However, I've found that when I leave plenty of time for something, i.e. an hour for something that would normally take 15 minutes, it gives me a good building block for my day & has built in allotments for all those distractions that come along from the kids. And if things don't go exactly as planned, it's not the end of the world. But it has helped a lot, just in seeing how much time I have during the day and where I can fit new or extra things in. So, now you know! Tuesday is blog day! Hopefully it will be something that I can continue most all the time. :)

Growth Spurt?

2011-11-08T14:35:00.003-06:00

So this week, my normally happy boy has pitched a fit in Walmart, cried at the drop of the hat, fallen asleep at lunch instead of eating, and decided that if Mommy's in the kitchen fixing food he needs to be in his highchair ready to eat. Now, you'd think it wouldn't be much of a problem except for the fact that I normally starting dinner prep around 4, not planning on eating until 5!

So I don't know if it's a growth spurt, or teeth, or the time change, or possibly a combination of all three, maybe even none of the above, but Gabe has not been his usual cheerful self. That being said, he does still have his funny moments and his laughing, all his funny looks and words, and oh yeah, his amazing powers of sleep!

Callie amazes me in her observations everyday. Today, she was eating her treat and she had three left. She placed them in a right triangle and said, "Look, Mommy!' I looked and I said, "Yes, there are three left now, aren't there?" She replies, "Yes, but look at the shape. It's a letter L!"

One of her favorite things to do lately is look at ALL the toy catalogs that have been coming to the house lately. In fact, she thinks they are HER magazines. Today, I heard her "reading" the paragraph about the toy aquarium she had found. "In this aquarium, you can see lots of fish. Look! There's a dolphin hidden behind that rock!"

She's quite the little character! I cannot believe how close she is to 4 years old! It blows my mind that time can move so fast!

Well, that's a mini update for this week! I hope you all have a good rest of the week! God bless you and yours!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T13:50:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was, of course, Halloween. I had planned our family costume to be Callie and Gabe in the bathtub (wagon) with Gabe as the rubber ducky. But, as is a woman's prerogative, I changed my mind.

We instead went as a lucky ducky, funky monkey, funny bunny, and fat cat. I titled our Halloween theme "The Rhyme Time Bookers"! We did not get very many family photos yet as we have a costume party for our church group on Sunday, so I thought it would be a better time to try to get photos then.

The kids really loved trick or treating. Gabriel got especially into it. The first house, we showed him how to pick one treat out of the bowl and then put it in his bucket. The next house, he walked right up, took a treat and put it in. He lugged that bucket all over town, refusing to let us carry it. When we had to get back in the car, I put it down on the floor. He got so mad! He cried all the way to the next set of houses, until we got him out and handed his bucket back. Then he waddled up to the next house, eager for the next person to come to the door and let him choose his treats. It was really cute.

Callie really enjoyed trick or treating as well this year. She had to tell Granny and Paw Paw and Mimi and Grandpa when they asked about her hair, "Don't worry, it's my wig!" She was polite at most houses, saying thank you or Happy Halloween to everyone. Sometimes she would get on a little shy kick and not say anything. We'll have to work on the "Trick or Treat!" a little more for next year. She didn't say that very much, despite our prompting.

Some people even gave Philip and I candy because we took the time to dress up. I tell Philip all the time that there's only so long the kids will be willing to be funny with us before they start thinking we're the "embarrassing" parents. I plan on taking full advantage of it while it lasts!

Other news, I'm 27! Crazy, I know. 1 more year closer to real adulthood . . . 30! haha! I had a good birthday with a kid free weekend to get some things done around the house and a family lunch on Sunday. It was a nice, relaxing, and yet, left me feeling very accomplished, weekend.

I've established a household schedule which seems to be helping everyone get more accomplished and in general, things seem to be going very well! We're looking forward to some company from overseas this Thanksgiving (and some from the states too!) and a stay at home Christmas with a nice relaxing family oriented holiday . . . maybe. :) It depends how Philip's work projects are going, but hopefully, we'll have at least a little down time all together. It's going to be a busy couple of months, but I'm energized and excited!

Thanks for reading my update. Hope all is going well with you and your loved ones! God Bless!

How Time Flies

2011-10-25T14:51:00.002-05:00

It seems like just a while ago, I started this blog for friends and family to read about all the happenings of our brand new baby girl and to share pictures of how she's grown.

Today, I'm telling funny stories about all the things she says and does, along with her baby brother. It just doesn't seem like it has been 3 1/2 years!

Today, we were sitting at lunch, the kids were eating and I was watching. Callie says to me, "Mommy, are you happy?"

Now you may wonder where she got a question like this, so let me explain. When she gets in trouble I tell her, "Mommy loves you very much, but I'm not very happy with you right now." So as a way of gauging her behavior on any given day at any given time, she asks me this question.

So I reply, "Yes, Callie, I'm happy."

She says, "You're happy to me and Gabe?" (Yes, this is her quote, she says "to" instead of "with")

I respond, "Yes, you've behaved well so far today."

She smiles at me and says, "Mommy, I like it when you smile. You have a sweet smile!"

I like smiling even more now! And I anticipate on smiling for many years to come!

God bless you and yours today!

Since Last Month

2011-10-18T20:35:00.015-05:00

Here's a picture/update for the last month. The last part of September was focused on spending time with our friends, Eli & Chloe. (Oh yeah, and some mommy time for Elisha & me as well!) They moved to North Dakota the first part of October. We will miss them a lot because as you can see, there were always lots of smiles, laughs, and heart tugs when we were together!

Callie and Chloe saying good-bye to each other.

I've been trying my hand at some "artsy" photos because pinterest has stirred my creative juices. :)

So this is back to Callie and Chloe in the park at their last play date(tried so hard to get these to post in order).

The last week in September and first weekend in October the kids and I made a road trip down to Beaumont & Houston. We spent some time with cousin Jolina at Grandma Foshee's house. We were also able to see Uncle Alden, Aunt Evelyn, Aunt Debbie, Aunt Theresa and Uncle David. It was so good to see everyone, especially since we won't be able to make it down for the holidays this year. We enjoyed our one day visit even though it was short.

We went to the Rice Festival on our trip and rode several rides together. The kids had a great time and I was very full afterward! :)

Callie and Papaw on the merry-go-round.

Gabe loved the parade. He's a big waver anyway and then having everyone wave back at him was so much fun!

Callie's last photo shoot with her long hair.

Callie riding in big trucks. When in Texas, right?!?

A cool, jazzy funk band was playing while we ate lunch. The kids entertained the entire lunch crowd with their dancing. I would have video, but SOMEONE didn't charge the video camera like I asked him to before we left!! Oh well! :)

After the Rice Festival, we went to get Callie's hair cut as she requested. She was not very happy at first, and I'm not very proud of this, but I totally asked her what it was going to take to get this done. She said "Ice cream" and I said, "Done!" Go ahead and talk about my failings as a mother . . . I've had a lot less Callie hair headaches since then!

First pigtail off, ready to be donated to Locks of Love!

And once again, blog fail! Both the kids enjoying the parade!

Getting her hair cut all cute. I did not intend to be in all these pictures, but that was the other condition of getting the haircut . . . sitting on Mommy's lap!
The whole time her hair was getting cut, the stylist was telling Callie this story about a lizard that accidentally got trapped in her shop and how we should be really quiet and look down at the floor to see if we can catch him and get him out. I'm not really sure how long the story lasted, but it was the whole time! Callie got really into it, and whenever we would start talking about something else Callie would remind us to "Shhh! Be quiet! The lizard!"

All fixed up!

Add a bow, and you've got one cute little girl with a bob!

And they even went outside and found the lizard had escaped the shop all on his own! (wink, wink!)

Then we tried to take some pictures of the kids in their matching sailor outfits. Here's one of Gabe.

Callie did really well at holding Gabe in place, but she was so concentrated on that job, we didn't get a great picture of both the kids at once!

I like the expressions, but again, I wish we could have gotten a better smiling picture of both the kids! Oh well. That's what happens when you spend way too much money on outfits just to get pictures in!

Callie and Gabe visited Gramma's classroom on our trip.

Yay for learning with Gramma!

And of course, we had to get the picture in Gramma and Papaw's tree!

Our next trip (less than a week later) was up to Mayo Clinic to get Callie retested for VUR. We got some excellent news! Her reflux has decreased and is not reaching her kidney anymore. She needs to continue her antibiotics for another year and then be retested. But the doctor does not think she will need to be on antibiotics or be retested again after next year. So, not everything we had hoped for, but there is an end in sight at this point! Thank you so much for all the prayers! I know they made a huge difference!

After Callie's test, we made the trip a little farther up to the Mall of America. This is Callie, enjoying a fun meal at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company! It's a very fun restaurant.

Gabe decided the paper his meal came in looked a lot like a hat.

Philip and the kids outside on Forrest's bench with his shoes and chocolates close by.

Don't know why this ended up here, but it's Gabe sleeping at Gramma and Papaw' house.

At the Mall of America, there is an aquarium. Yes, it's that big! Here's Callie frightened by the realization that there's a shark RIGHT behind her!

Gabriel is fascinated by fountains right now. We took a break and he enjoyed watching the water while we rested a little bit.

"Were you looking at me? Oh, I'm so embarrassed!"

So now, we're home and I've finally had time to decorate for my favorite season! This is an idea I found on pinterest with my own little twist! :)

Callie with a jellyfish at the aquarium! She said that her new favorite underwater animals are the rays.

This is the Booker Pumpkin Family. Our annual traditional decoration!

More decorations!

I really love fall!

My cute little pumpkin, with my cute little pumpkins!

Another pinterest idea, a monogrammed pumpkin on our porch. Again, with my own little twist. Not as happy with this one, but not too shabby for my first free-hand monogrammed pumpkin, right?!?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed all the pictures (they took me two days to load and they still didn't come out like I wanted them!) and I apologize for all the out of order side steps in the post.

We're busy busy with harvest around here. Enjoying the fall weather up until this week when it suddenly turned off cold and rainy. But I'm sure we'll soon see some more normal temperatures as things level out.

We're also excited that our newest nephew, Carson, made an unexpected appearance on the 15th. He was about 5 weeks early, but all reports have been good so far and we're continuing to pray that he gets to go home to be with his family as soon as possible!

Other than that, I've barely had a chance to catch my breath as I jump from one thing to another, but things are going to slow down here a little bit before the holidays. I'm looking forward to the break!

Hope all is well with you and your families! God bless you and yours!

For all those wondering . . . .

2011-09-16T11:55:00.002-05:00

Many people have been asking about the possibility of me have psoriatic arthritis as was brought to my attention a while ago by my doctor. The fact is, nothing really has changed with that at this point. As much as I would like to tell you that it was nothing and the doctor was just being cautious, we have not yet been able to confirm or deny that possibility as of now.

However, the good news about not having any confirmation is that I haven't had any "attacks" - as he called it - since he brought it up to be able to confirm or deny his suspicions. I am still hopeful that what he thinks could be arthritis is exactly what I thought it was in the first place, infections. (Not that I enjoy dealing with infections, but I'd rather deal with them then arthritis!)

Thank you for the thoughtfulness and continued prayers. The Good Lord knows I need every one of them!

God bless!

August and the First Part of September

2011-09-10T18:15:00.006-05:00

Callie and Gabriel both got to enjoy their first ice cream cone! (We just don't have sweets that often, but Callie got free coupons for participating in the reading program this summer.) We all 4 shared the two cones, we scraped the top part off for Philip and I and the kids got the cone and all the ice cream down in there. As you can see Callie enjoyed it a lot!

Gabriel enjoyed his first time on the McDonald's playground. Daddy had to help him up and down most of the tubes. He was a little scared his first time down the slide, but as you can see, it soon turned into pure joy and grunting while pointing at it as if to say, "Again, Again!"

The dashing duo making their way down the slide.

Gabe had a lot of fun crawling through all the tubes, Daddy was sore for a few days . . .

Gabriel enjoying his first ice cream cone! :)

Gabriel suddenly fell asleep in his swing while I was pushing him. It was too cute and he actually got a pretty good nap in it!

Gabriel, Callie, and Daddy playing the latest game in our house -- Daddy horsey. Gabriel finds it necessary to put various foods in Daddy's mouth to keep him well fed.

Callie's hair is getting SO long! I think we're going to grow it out a little bit more and then donate it to Locks of Love if they'll accept it (I don't know all their rules).

We went to the State Fair in August. It was a long, but fun day. Mommy was in charge of the sunscreen, so naturally, she was the only one burned because she was worried about everyone else! The funniest part was that the back of my tank top was crochet, so I looked like I had giraffe spots part of the way down my spine. Anyway, we saw our church exhibit, and a horse show, a diving show, and much, much more! We had a very fun day.

Callie enjoying her time in the tunnels.

Gabe on his laptop. I think he may have seen this too much . . .

We enjoyed a day at the pool. Also, a freebie for us thanks to Callie's reading program completion.

Callie and a little girl at Giveaway Day singing at the organ. It was adorable.

August started with daddy being away for a weekend trip. Gabriel doesn't mind too much as long as Mommy's cooking!

Gabriel's latest trick is climbing up onto chairs and then up onto the table. This means that nothing in our house is safe. Especially, Daddy's cup. It seems to be Gabriel's favorite new hobby, ever since he learned to drink to out of a straw a couple of weeks ago.

Gabriel has lots of words now. "Hop", "Hot", "Hat", "Up", "Down", "Cracker", "Gabriel", "Mama", "Dada", "Hi", "Hello", "Kitty", "Doggie", "Quack, Quack", (there are probably more that I can't think of right now) and Granny claims that he also said "Callie" today. Not that I don't believe her, it's just that I didn't hear it so I can't say for sure that it's what he meant. He also signs, please, more, and milk. The best part is that you can really tell what he means. He is so clear in his speech, and says things at appropriate times. I don't remember Callie ever being this verbal at 15 months. Maybe she was, and I just don't remember. Maybe I want him to be my little baby forever, so I think he's growing up too fast.

Callie counts up to 15 pretty well. She gets a little lost after that, even though she knows most numbers up to 20. She identifies most shapes and colors correctly. She remembers most of her regularly read books and is able to summarize the story while looking at the pictures. She also is big into imagination. She comes up with the funniest things. It's so fun to listen to her play with her toys and the stories she comes up with. Right now, everyone is her friend. I was looking at pictures of Rihanna online (for hair cut purposes) and she claimed that Rihanna was her friend Sammy. It's like that with all pictures, especially of kids.

Well, I think that's a good update on us. Hope all is well with our family and friends near and far! We love you and miss you!

God bless you and yours!

Praying Earnestly

2011-07-27T19:11:00.003-05:00

This year, most of my prayers have been dedicated to my children's and especially Callie's, health. I hope that you'll join me in continuing this prayer as I just scheduled Callie's appointment at Mayo's in October.

Our hope is that Callie's body has corrected this problem on its own, meaning that she will no longer need to be on preventative antibiotics. It will also mean that there is no need for surgery.

The one test is not going to be pleasant, but I'm hoping it will go much smoother at Mayo's then it did at our local hospital. I am also praying for peace for Callie, that she has more understanding this time that it's a "necessary evil" (though I'd never call it that to her . . . ) and she will know that it's only a short time to endure.

Thank you in advance for joining me in this prayer! Our God is an amazing God, working in our lives daily!

God bless you and yours this week!

Happenings Lately

2011-07-21T09:09:00.002-05:00

It's been a busy couple weeks around the Booker household. It seems like I've been gone most of the past couple weekends. I'm looking forward to our anniversary on Friday (5 years!) being a little bit more relaxing. We're going out to dinner and then to see the last installment of Harry Potter! My parents gift to us is keeping the kids overnight so we can even sleep in the next morning! (Am I getting old or what?? This is my idea of a great anniversary!!)

Callie is going great guns. She's testing her limits and mothering Gabriel all the time. She's still making up songs. I really wish I could get it on video, but she stops when she sees the camera. She loves going to "MicaDonalds", but fortunately, just because she thinks it's a playground. She rarely asks to go there to eat. The past couple times we've gone out, she's actually asked to go to Chili's.

Gabriel is walking more confidently and adding to his vocabulary. If you say "Ready, set . . . " Gabriel says "Go!" I've been working with him to do more signing, but he's mainly just doing the "please" sign. He'll do more while he's watching the baby signs video, but he doesn't do them much outside of that.

Gabriel got really upset on Saturday - probably the most upset he's ever been - and woke up with little red pinpricks all over his face. I called the doctor, he said not to worry about it. Monday, I happened to have a doctor's appointment with my dermatologist so I took Gabriel with me. He said he would take Gabe to his pediatrician and get his blood tested. Tuesday, I called the doctor and got an appointment, and Dr. Fogo agreed and sent us to the hospital to get a blood draw and run a series of tests for platelet count, etc. So, we're waiting on the results of those tests and praying that nothing's wrong.

Other than that, everything's going very well. We're plugging along! Hope everything is going well with everyone!

We love and miss all our family that lives away from us. God bless you and yours this week!

GULP!

2011-06-28T09:46:00.002-05:00

I made this observation about a week ago, and I thought I'd share it.

Last week, I was rushing out the door to Callie's story time and Gabriel's doctor's appointment, I forgot to bring the kids water cups. Not such a big deal for Callie, as she can drink through a straw, but Gabe has not yet mastered that skill yet.

The doctor's appointment took longer than I expected and we ended up stopping in at the local restaurant to get lunch since it was much later than the kids normal eating time. But alas, I had no cup for Gabriel so I ended up having to use the straw as a syringe and drop the water into his mouth. As he eagerly opened his mouth and swallowed each gulp of clean, fresh water I realized that he had no idea what was in the straw the first time I offered it to him, but he opened his mouth for it anyway.

It could have been anything, water, milk, juice, soda, and he would have swallowed it. It could have also been polluted, full of germs, or any number of things wrong with it, but he would've eagerly opened his mouth and gulped it down.

How many times have I been guilty of this? My earliest memory of this was when my "best friend" made fun of my developing body in junior high. I eagerly gulped it down and did hundreds of sit ups and push ups every night and wore heavily padded push up bras because I believed what she was telling me.

I search and search "trusted sources" to find solutions to problems I'm having with the kids and eagerly swallow whatever they're telling me. That I'm a bad parent for disciplining my children, that the way I'm feeding them is inadequate, that I'm not taking enough time for myself . . . I listen to all this and willingly take it all in. I watch the news and fear my children's school years.

I take all this in and willing swallow the worry that it gives me. And the only thing it leads to is making me sick. The "sources" that I trusted so completely would have me swallow poison because they are of the world. Even evangelists now are not always grounded in the Word and are feeding poisons to their followers.

I wonder how many of us are like a child, that we swallow whatever we are given and we digest it, and it slowly poisons us into thinking that we know more than our God. Or it poisons us into worrying so much about every little thing that we forget that worrying cannot add a single hour to our life?

I've been dedicating too much of my time to listening to everyone and not seeking God's will in it. I plan on weighing advice that I am given, be it from a friend, an expert on TV, or a person in authority more carefully than I have been. I need to judge more on what's worth swallowing and what I should just spit out. But don't just listen to me, search it for yourself!

GULP!

Visitors and Summer Fun!

2011-06-28T09:03:00.003-05:00

We've finished with swim lessons. Unfortunately, I only made it to the first two. The third week, Gabriel was sick and I was not feeling very well and the final week, I was sick AGAIN! So it's been a few years since I've had anything but a bad cold, but this year I've had the stomach bug three times! I'm calling an unfair on this one . . . :P Oh well. Better now, not fully recovered, but much better.

The Bookers and Grandma Foshee visited us for about a week and we had a lot of fun! The kids really enjoyed all the extra attention. We had Gabriel's 1st birthday party with everyone here and it was a lot of fun. We grilled out, and had some of Gabe's favorites on the side, including macaroni and cheese, baked beans and cantaloupe. He also had his first taste of sweets. He was pretty excited about the cake, but not so much about the ice cream. Kind of funny.

Gabe also started walking on his first birthday. Yesterday, he stood up for the first time in the middle of the floor instead of pulling up on something so he's quickly moving along! Sometimes it seems like he's almost running, but he still holds his arms out for balance. He's pretty cute to watch!

He's also very clever. On Sunday, he woke up screaming. He was very upset. I ran in and was trying to comfort him and I told him, "Gabriel, Mommy's not far away. All you have to do is say Mama when you wake up and I'll come get you." That's all I said, I didn't mention it again. The next morning, I heard him through the monitor "Mama! Mama!" and he was all smiles when I went in to get him. He did the same thing again this morning. So clever! :) He's been very into saying "Mama" ever since then. Yesterday, he was also making laps around living room saying "Mama" and I would say, "What honey?" and he would say, "Hi!" and wave at me. I would say we did that at least 20 times.

He's also very into animal sounds. As you probably saw on my facebook page, his first animal sound was the duck which he surprised me with at the doctor's office for his 1 year check up. I pulled out the bag dispenser for his diaper which has a duck on top and he immediately said "Quack, quack!" He of course, wouldn't perform for the doctor, but he says it a lot for me. I've heard he also does a good pig, horse, and cow, but I have not heard that for myself.

Speaking of the doctor, Gabriel is now 22 lbs. 5.5 oz and 30'' tall. He's moved up from the 10th % at his last appointment to the 50th % on all accounts. The doctor commented that he didn't think he'd ever seen a baby so perfectly proportioned as all his measurements were almost directly on the 50th %! :)

Callie is doing much better with her behavior. Not that we don't have trying times every once in awhile, but I think we've ingrained "Listen and obey" in her head. The other day, she went to the park with Granny Great and she climbed up to the top of some playground equipment but couldn't figure out how to get down by herself. Granny told her to listen and follow directions and she would help Callie get down. When Callie got down to the bottom, she exclaimed, "Wow! Listening works!" So proud of her.

In Sunday School, Callie has been learning about baby Moses. She has the cutest way of saying Jochebed (Moses's mother). She says, "That's a funny name!" Callie also makes up songs all the time. One of her latest ones is very simple, but I love it. She sings, "Listen to God, listen to God" over and over, and then when she decides it's done she holds it out "LISTEN TO GOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!" with lots of vibrato. It's adorable!

I have a lot of fun watching and listening and observing. I am so blessed!

Right now we have more visitors in Roanoke. Aunt Pat and Uncle Jon (Dad's sister and brother-in-law) are staying with my parents currently. We're so excited to have them visit! Callie warmed up very quickly to Aunt Pat and Gabriel kept bringing things to Uncle Jon. :)

We still have room on the calendar for more guests! Please let us know if you'd like to visit, we'd love to have you!

I think that's about all the new things going on with our family! We're on the move all the time it seems like, even at home! It's a lovely and exhausting experience. :)

God bless you and yours this week!

Gabriel's 1 year old!

2011-06-09T10:18:00.003-05:00

1 year ago today at 10:18, Gabriel was 10 hours, 5 minutes old. It's hard to believe it's been a year, it's gone by so quickly. My little man is such a blessing in my life -- I want to hang on to every moment so tightly, it seems like the time just flies by. I was going to take some pictures of him on his birthday this morning, but of course, he fell asleep early! :)

Gabe's not walking yet. He's so close. I don't think it's an ability thing at this point, but a choice on his part. He's so funny. You can see it in his face that he's contemplating taking that step, but he just wants to get to where ever he's going so fast, he just ends up crawling. He has been taking 2 or 3 steps without hanging on to anything this week especially.

We had our first swim lessons on Saturday for both Gabriel and Callie. Of course, Callie loves the water so she had a blast. Gabriel was a little unsure at first. He was holding his body very rigid at first, holding his arms and legs out like he was ready for me to set him down so he could crawl. He soon relaxed and he really did well. When I put him on my shoulder to do the back float, he just sat back and floated all by himself while all the other babies fought to sit up. The funniest part was we sang a special swimming version of "If you're happy and you know it". We sang verses like "If you're happy and you know it kick your feet" and "If your happy and you know it pull your arms", but Gabriel started clapping as soon as we started the song. He kept looking at the teacher and me, like "Don't you guys know this song?? You're supposed to clap your hands!" Every verse, he would start to clap his hands, and then when we said something else, he looked very confused! It was too cute!

Gabriel is also into everything, he loves making people laugh, and he loves making silly noises. His specialty is "the growl". He just starts growling sometimes, and he loves it when people laugh at him when he does it. He's quite the ham! We were at Steak N Shake the other day for lunch, and Gabriel turned to see the people coming in the door right as I was trying to give him a bite of his lunch. They laughed at him and he laughed back. So I tried to feed him the bite again, and he turned, getting the same result. This went on about 5 times, and they said to me, "I think he's saying he doesn't want the beans." And I replied back, "I think he's saying, "Boy, this is a fun game!"

I know I say this all the time, but Callie is constantly amazing me with what she knows! She is so observant and smart. For instance, I have a pair of shoes that Granny gave me. They look a lot (of course) like the sandals she wears, but she doesn't have a pair exactly like them. I pulled them out, because it's sandal season, and Callie said, "Those are Granny's sandals." I said, "They look a lot like some of Granny's sandals, but these are actually Mommy's sandals." We went back and forth a couple times, and she's still convinced I'm wearing Granny's sandals!

Callie also enjoys making up songs. The other day, she was sitting on the counter top in the bathroom watching herself in the mirror (or mir-rah as she calls it) as she sang and I was getting ready to go out. She would sing a little song to herself, but then if she got to a word in the song that she knew in another song, she would switch into that song. For example, she sang in a random collection of notes, "I love my mommy and I love her hugs . . . (break into Barney's song) and a kiss from me to you! Won't you say you love me too?" The best one was when she was singing about a little toy kitty she got in her happy meal, "(Random Notes) I got this little toy kitty at McDonalds . . . (Old McDonald) Who had a farm, Ee Ei Ee Ei Oh! And on that farm he had a kitty . . . " I tried not to bust up laughing as I was applying my mascara!

We're still dealing with some contrary and ornery behavior from Callie, but we're having more good times than bad, so I think we're slowly fighting this behavior and nipping it in the bud. The good part about all of this is that she is typically well behaved when we are out, so people THINK that she's an angel! :) lol That's all that matters, right?

Philip's job is going well, he got an excellent annual evaluation the other day. He's sticking to the working out, and getting a lot accomplished around the house on his days off. He's taking vacation all next week since his parents and Grandma Foshee will be arriving on Monday and we're looking forward to some family time.

I've been focused on Gabriel's birthday party, which is on Tuesday. I'm excited to have the all the grandparents here for it! We're having a grill out, and a John Deere themed party. What else could we have for our little country boy? Pictures posted soon! :)

I hope everyone is having a great week! We're looking forward to our upcoming events!

We love and miss all our friends and family far away from us. God bless you and yours!

You Can't Have Me

2011-05-19T21:16:00.003-05:00

I spent last night in an exhausted daze. There is no way that this could be possible. Our lesson at church was about Jacob wrestling with God. There was a quote from a radio preacher of yesteryear where he said something to the effect that, "God crippled Jacob to get him to pay attention." Well, God, here I am and I'm paying attention.

This all started when I decided to schedule a appointment with my dermatologist because of a freckle that was starting to worry me. I mean, I'm the first to admit that I don't always put on sunscreen so I thought, better safe than sorry, right? I've also been having some trouble with my hands not healing, even now that I'm able to start using my medicine since Gabriel stopped nursing. And my toenails are not doing so well either (I know, gross, but it's what's going on). So, needless to say, I have several reasons to go see this doctor.

I go in thinking he's going to recommend that I get the freckle biopsied and a stronger medicine for my hands, possibly another round of anti-fungal for my toes, at worse a small surgery. Anyway, I'm thinking no big deal (really, I've handled worse, right?)

But, my doctor started asking me some questions, and we started putting some pieces together that I'd never really noticed. My hand problem and my toenail problem started at the same time. It turns out that I probably have psoriasis. And the "fungal" infection that I thought I'd had for years now is probably psoriatic nails.

And then the kicker . . .

He goes on to tell me that there's really nothing I can do about psoriatic nails other than get several cortisone injections in my nail beds continually -- sounds worse than dealing with the nails. So I asked him what I should do about the infections I keep getting in my toes.

He paused for a minute and told me that he thinks I'm developing psoriatic arthritis.

As I said before, last night I was walking through a dreamlike state. I stated it almost jokingly to my family, "He thinks I could have arthritis!" But of course, I came straight home and went to Mayo Clinic's website and started reading. The puzzle pieces started coming together. And then the words spoke to me from the computer screen, "No cure for psoriatic arthritis exists, so the focus is on controlling symptoms and preventing damage to your joints. Without treatment, psoriatic arthritis may be disabling. Both psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis are chronic diseases that get worse over time."

I spent most of today holding back tears. When Callie asked me to play cards, I started crying, wondering if there would be a day I couldn't hold the cards. I've had a feeling for a while that there was something else connecting all the weird symptoms I kept having, but most doctors made me feel like it was all in my head. I never dreamed it would be something chronic and degenerative with no cure. Even though there hasn't been anything other than a suspicion that it could be the problem, it's still a life-changing thought.

This afternoon my thoughts changed. I started thinking about being proactive, finding a doctor on the cutting edge and not waiting around to find out how to get diagnosed. What if this is God trying to get my attention? My attitude could be to give glory to God for every day I have or I can be fixated on myself and miserable. Which one should I choose, I wonder?

There is no definitive diagnosis at this point, but I do plan on pursing a doctor with a course of action to try and find out what is going on, if it's psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, or whatever it may be. In the meantime, I plan on continuing my everyday activities, and adding some things that I've been meaning to do. Taking full advantage of every good day I have.

In closing, I would like to request prayers for peace and patience for my family. Two things that I also don't do well when it comes to possible life-alterations, but maybe, God is calling me to do something that I haven't been. So God, I'm listening. Or maybe, it's Satan trying to pull me away. So to Satan, I say, You Can't Have Me!

A Couple Videos and A Story

2011-05-18T09:46:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, the Junk Food fairy visited my house before I awoke and left a box of doughnuts for the family. Callie, of course, couldn't wait to get her hands on one, and how could I resist Krispy Kreme Doughnuts?!? I went about setting the box aside and getting Gabriel's breakfast ready: formula, cheerios, and yogurt. After I had finished my treat, I asked Gabriel if he would like some oatmeal too.

He pointed over to where I had placed the doughnut box and made his little hissing noise. I said "Oh Gabriel, not too much longer and you can have a piece of doughnut, but not today."

He made the "more" sign and then the "please" sign (or rather, his little version of them) and then pointed back over to the box!

I stuck to my original verdict, though it was hard after he was so cute! I substituted his favorite treat, a Clementine instead and he didn't seem to mind so much. :)

Spring, Easter, and Room Remodel

2011-05-11T09:12:00.000-05:00

Callie on the hunt for Easter eggs! Found one!

There's even one hidden in Paw Paw's pocket!

Gabriel even got in on the act, putting his eggs in his Easter basket.

I hate the order these post in! I thought this was one of the funniest outtakes from our homemade Easter photos. Callie's trying desperately to sit still like we asked her, but still wants to see what that rascally rabbit Gabriel is doing! :)

After the Easter egg hunt, hanging out with Paw Paw!

Callie's room, almost finished! Just waiting on some more furniture that's taking forever!

Other end of Callie's room. The dresser we made over. This was my Granny's and Paw-Paw's dresser, then my parents and now it's Callie's!

Callie's room sign. She picked out the decorations and I made it for her.

Again, the order of these is all off. But this is Gabriel cheesin' for the camera! Such a sweetie!

Happy Spring everyone! :)

Well, Easter was a little late this year at the Booker House. The kids and I had to make a quick trip down to Kentucky over Easter weekend because my Grandmother Hill passed away. Although I felt as if I had mourned her a long time ago due to the fact that we had already lost her to a 15+ year battle with dementia, I still felt a sense of loss attending the funeral, mainly all the time that was stolen from her due to this heartbreaking disease. I was sad that my children never even got to meet the grandmother that I knew, but the fact that she was now freed from the prison that her body had become and with our Lord and Savior was all the assurance I needed to help me celebrate her life and now her victory.

We had Easter the following Friday. We had a great dinner, with the main course being a pork tenderloin. I thought it turned out very well. The kids enjoyed their Easter egg hunt. Without even telling him, Gabriel seemed to know what he was supposed to do and started putting his eggs in the basket. They were sweet.

I'm sure some of you have been reading my updates on facebook about our struggles with Callie. She's still a sweet little girl and I'm sure many of you who are in contact with her on a regular basis wonder what in the world she could possibly be doing. In public, she typically is really good. It's behind closed doors that she typically starts testing us. I think the most frustrating part is that my typical confidants have no advice to give on the problems we're having because they say that they did not have the problems to the extent that we are having with Callie. If you could just continue praying for our family, for us to have patience and Callie to overcome these issues, we would really appreciate the support. I can feel the power in our prayers working already, as we've had some better days the last three days.

Callie is doing some great things too! We've started preschool and she's really doing well. So far, we've learned about the letters Aa and Bb. I'm really trying to push the lowercase letters as she's already doing so well with the uppercase letters. We're also at the point were mommy's kisses heal everything. This morning she came out to the kitchen crying her little halfhearted cry. She tells me, "I hurt myself, I need kisses." I asked her where she had gotten hurt. She pointed to her foot and it took me a couple of tries to kiss the right part. Then, I asked her if she hurt anything else. She said, "Yes, my panties." Ahhh, the reaches of a mother's love! ha ha :)

Gabriel now has 4 teeth. He's not started walking yet, but I think it's mainly because he's so good at crawling. Every time he looks like he might try to take a step on his own, he stops and gets down and crawls. It's like he's saying, "Why mess with what works?" He eats everything and his nickname is "Mr. Grabby". Rest assured, if there is any way for him to get ahold of something, he will find it. He climbs like crazy and most days, he has me running around the house after him. It's taken me over an hour just to write this because of constant interruptions of "Mommy, Gabe touching something!"

I'm done with my scholastic bowl season and have been approved by the school board as the coach again next year. I think we all did very good, and I had a great group of kids. We had our ups and downs but overall, it was a good year. I'm looking forward to working with some new kids next year and hopefully some of my experienced students will come back as well. On the home front, it always seems like there is more I would like to do in a day than I can ever get done. I suppose that's the way most people feel. It's always nice to sit back and relax after Philip gets home, so I find that most of my evenings are not very productive . . . Oh well!

In some sad news, we have two friends that will soon be moving away from us. Bret Sholty, Philip's co-conqueror of many home improvement projects around here, got a job in the Chicago area. I'm sure Philip will miss him a lot, especially when he's trying to get motivated to wake up for his morning run. :) And the Stahler Family told us a couple weeks ago that Ryan got a job in North Dakota and will soon be moving out there. It was especially heartbreaking when Chloe and Callie were playing upstairs in Callie's "new" room and Callie said, "Chloe, this will be your bed when you come over!" :( We will miss them all terribly!

Philip is working hard at work and in the gym. He's very motivated because his job will give him a refund on his gym membership if he goes to the gym a certain number of times. :) Money, the ultimate weight loss motivator! He's also joined a softball team and will be playing on Mondays or Tuesdays for awhile. Because he needed something else to do . . .

Well, that's about all that's going on here. We hope all our friends and family near and far are doing well. We still have some openings for anyone who would like to come visit. Just let us know!

God bless you and yours this week! We love you all!

Spring BREAK!

2011-04-05T08:02:00.002-05:00

So I didn't really think that spring break was going to affect me until my kids were in school, but since I took this coaching job, it was really nice to have a week of no practice and no meets. Yesterday was my first day back, and boy was it a mess! We were hosting a local team at our school and it seemed as if everything that could go wrong did. We realized after setting up our entire lock out system (the buzzers) that one of them was not working and the other school had brought theirs but it was not compatible with ours so we had to take the whole thing down and set theirs up.

Then, in the chaos of trying to figure out what to do with the lock out system, I forgot to get some of the other things ready for the match. So, for the first time in my match history, we started late! I guess everyone has a match problem at least once . . .

In home news, Gabriel is a BIG eater, and a slow eater. It takes at least 1.5 hours for me to get a meal ready, him to eat it and me to clean it up afterwards. Times 3, that's 4 and a half hours every day! The things we do for our kids! You can tell he's done because he starts picking things up and dropping them off the side of his highchair, watching them fall to the floor . . .

Callie is trying my patience, which is probably her job at this point in her little life. We're having some difficulties right now, and it's beyond anything I ever thought I would have to deal with as a mother. But we're trying and hopefully this will just be a little bump in the road, and we'll look back on this and consider it a learning experience. We have plenty of fun in the meantime to counteract the trying times, and we definitely know that it's all worth it in the end.

I haven't been taking very good care of myself lately, I've been too caught up in what my family, my house, and my job needs to think about me. Whenever I get busy, this happens . . . I have another couple of weeks left in the Scholastic Bowl season, then I'm hoping to work in a little time for me. On the plus side, even the fact that I've been neglecting myself and not exercising has not put a damper on my weight loss, I've managed to loose all my pregnancy weight and beyond! I'm now at my goal weight (even though I'd like to tighten up a bit) and I feel pretty good about it! I hope to start walking again now that the weather is shaping up.

Philip's got lots of meetings at work and has been spending a little bit more "single parenting" while I'm gone at matches or practices. I try to have a crockpot meal ready for him so he's not overwhelmed (teehee).

Other than that, our family could definitely use your prayers while we deal with these trials with Callie and we're still debating about the right road to take from my previous post. The power of prayer has given me a peace that surpasses understanding, despite my unwillingness to commit to a decision!

We look forward to some visitors this summer and maybe a 5 year anniversary trip should Philip's boss let him take a mini vacation? If you'd like to come visit, please let us know! We'd love to have some company!

We love and miss our family and friends who live far from us! God bless you and yours this week!

Booker Lately

2011-03-10T09:24:00.003-06:00

Gabriel's experimenting with finger foods as hair care products. This is meat sauce hair therapy.

He thinks this new venture in fine eating is just exquisite! lol How can you resist that face??

Gabriel crawling around the house, all over the house, into every nook and cranny!

Beautiful Callie! She's such the little model.

Callie's room after a couple hours of work.

Callie's room before.

Things have been crazy around here. Callie is the smartest little girl! Yesterday, we were out to eat at Chili's and she asked the waitress, "Can I have some more milk, please?" (The please came with a little prompting!) The greatest thing was she waited for our waitress specifically, even though other servers were walking around us. She's one smart cookie!

She still tests me some times. While we were out yesterday, I had told her she needed to stay where I could see her. So she kept stepping farther and farther away from me, asking "Can you see me now?" -- I had a flashback to the Verizon commercials . . .

We're in the process of remodeling Callie's room, so she's camping out in the guest room at the moment. She seems to have adjusted well to the temporary move and tells everyone who comes over that Mommy and Daddy made a big mess of her room - ha!

Gabriel is crawling all over the place, pulling up, starting cruising a little bit -mainly back and forth in a corner- and cut his first tooth on Thursday, March 3rd with a second one close behind from the looks of it! I started giving him more finger foods, I think I've really held him back with this compared to Callie. Subconsciously keeping him a baby longer?!? I don't know, but he's rebelling now! He doesn't want that baby food, give him what we're eating or nothing at all! He's definitely found his voice and will let you know all about it. His cutest thing is waving at people. It's absolutely adorable because he'll just start doing it randomly. Especially if someone's standing by our door, getting ready to leave. As soon as they get to the door, he starts waving like "Alright, leave already people! I've got things to get into!"

Yesterday, he started waving at a man I was talking to about my cell phone. I love it when men just melt because my baby is so cute! lol

In more personal news, I feel like I am at a crossroads in my life. I feel like door after door has been closed, and I'm questioning the meaning of these paths being blocked. I know what I want it to mean, but is it for the right reasons? Is it just to be different? Will it be something I can truly handle? If there was ever a time for a big neon sign, now's it! I've been debating with God about these things and I guess all I can do is pray and ask that the better path be made clear. I know there's not really a right or wrong with this, and I know God will never give me more than I can handle, so maybe He's just asking me to trust Him more and throw out my daily planner. I know I overplan, maybe He's just asking for a little more reliance and a little more of my life. I guess I'll find out!

Philip is a great source of comfort through all this. I've been relying on his quiet strength and unswerving support for a number of weeks of stressful trials.

Now that I've fully accepted it, I've come around to actually enjoying our year of no travel, knowing that our little family gets time together to form our own little traditions when Philip has holiday time. It's kind of exciting, another thing I get to "plan"! :)

Well, I guess that's all the latest in our little corner of the world. I hope you all are having a great week! We love and miss all our family and friends that live far away! God bless you and yours the rest of this week.

Callie's Knock Knock Joke

2011-03-02T11:54:00.003-06:00

Callie: Knock, Knock.

Mommy: Who's there?

Callie: Phone.

Mommy: Phone who?

Callie: Phone's ringing. Ring, Ring. Hello? Hi Mimi. Bye Mimi. That was Mimi. (laughs hysterically)

Callie the Character

2011-02-23T22:40:00.002-06:00

Granny was watching Callie the other day and they were reading a book about counting your blessings. Granny paused in the story.

Granny: Callie, do you count your blessings and thank God for them?
Callie: Yes.
Granny: What do you thank God for?
Callie: Mommy and Daddy, Mimi and Grandpa, Granny and Paw Paw, Gramma and (long pause)
Granny: Are you trying to remember Gramma's husband, your other grandpa's name?
Callie: (sighs, shrugs her shoulders, gives Granny a look, and holds her hands out) Well, his name is Tommy . . .

What a case!

Callie soon remembers that his name is PaPaw . . . at least to her! :)

Callie's Trip to the Aquarium and Other Happenings

2011-02-16T10:11:00.003-06:00

This weekend was Callie's special trip to the aquarium to see the sharks as her chosen reward for filling up her potty chart. We decided to go when we did because once she turns 3, her ticket is $20. At 2, she's free . . . that's a big jump!

Callie thoroughly enjoyed her trip to the aquarium. She ran/walked from exhibit to exhibit looking at the fish and other sea creatures with wonder. She especially enjoyed the Marine Show with the Beluga Whales, sea lion, and dolphins.

We wanted to go to a pizza place that we'd been to one time with our friends that was not too far from the aquarium for lunch. Unfortunately, they had moved (we discovered after we had parked to what we thought would be a close parking garage) and we spent at least 30 minutes walking around downtown Chicago, carrying both the kids because Callie was asleep, and it was a bitterly cold, windy day. We finally did find the place, but the pizza wasn't as good as I remembered, maybe because I was a little jaded about having to walk around so long to find it . . . It also ended up costing us $30 to park because we were gone over 2 hours by the time we found the restaurant and ate our fill. What a rip off!

For dinner, neither Philip or I was very hungry so we thought we'd continue our underwater adventure for Callie by going to the Rainforest Cafe because it has several large saltwater fish exhibits in the dining area. Callie really enjoyed the restaurant the last time we went there when she was 9 months old. This time apparently was not as great of an experience. We were sat right next to one of the smaller saltwater tanks and I thought "Perfect!" But Callie would not turn around. We thought that possibly she needed to use the potty, so Philip took her back to the bathroom. They got back, and she still would not turn around at the table. Her food came and she still wouldn't face forward. With much coaxing, we finally found out she was scared of the large gorilla "statues" that were directly behind our table. So Philip says, "Oh Callie, they're not real. There just statues. They're not going anywhere." Not a minute later we start hearing these primal growls and the "statues" begin to move around, beating their chests and foraging for food. Let's just say, it didn't help our cause. We found a manager and asked to switch tables. So our trip to the Rainforest Cafe, though we had the best of intentions, did not turn out to be as much fun as we had hoped. I spent most of my time holding and comforting Callie. I don't think we're planning on going back there until Callie actually asks to go.

The next day, we were going to take Callie to the Build A Bear workshop and let her make her own bear, but she was not cooperating in the store and lost the privilege . . .

There were probably more disappointments than successes while we were on our trip as most of our things did not go according to plan, but I think it was still a good trip. The best part was that even though we were out and about most of two days, Callie did not have one accident while we were out! So proud of her progress!

Gabriel did well on the trip too. He really liked looking at the fish as well, and cooperated with us very well for the most part. :) He's a precious little boy!

Gabriel has been traditional crawling for a week and a half now and he is into absolutely everything. I was even fortunate enough to actually capture his first little stutter step crawls on video! So cool. He's opening drawers and cupboards, pulling things over, and trying desperately to get to electrical outlets before I catch him. As I type this, he's trying to turn off the computer . . . Yep, he's a case!

My first Scholastic Bowl Match is today, I'm hoping I've adequately trained my team! Saying a little prayer that my kids behave as well. :)

I think that's about all the news that we've had around here lately. Hope everyone is having a very good week. We love and miss all of our family and friends that are far from us.

God bless you and yours as you finish up your week!

Why Stop Now?

2011-01-25T19:10:00.002-06:00

I've been updating the blog every five days, so why stop now? There's actually been a number of happenings in the Booker household that everyone needs to know! :)

Ok, so let's start with Thursday, January 13th. Gabriel starts inch worming his way around the house. Fast forward to exactly one week later (Thursday, January 20th)- Gabriel pulls himself up to a standing position while in the laundry basket. What does this Thursday have in store?? Who knows, but I'm sure hoping it's not cruising the furniture because there's only so much I can do to keep him from growing up too fast!

Gabriel's latest tricks are clapping when asked to clap (most of the time - he's not a performing monkey), waving hello/goodbye to people, and bestowing wet slobbery kisses on me (just me so far) when I ask for one.

Callie has been using the potty consistently since Friday, January 21st. Yes, we finally had a breakthrough. I have not changed a Callie diaper in nearly five days (though I have cleaned up a few accidents) but she's doing so well! She's even gone to the bathroom, turned on the light, got undressed from the bottom down, sat on the toilet, done her thing and flushed -- all without me even being in the room! We've reserved our hotel for a weekend trip up to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago which was her chosen reward for filling out her potty chart. We're planning to go the aquarium and the Rainforest Cafe, and anything else her little heart desires (within reason, of course). It will be her special weekend!

In parent news, I got a job! I'd been keeping an eye on positions that would be coming up at the school for a little bit later, when the kids would be in school. This came a little earlier than I expected, but still allows me to be home with the kids all day most days, and even lets me bring them with me if need be. I will be the new Scholastic Bowl Coach at the Junior High School. It's a total commitment of about 4 months each year. We'll see how it goes!

Philip is excited that I have a little something on the side that I can do, but still be available to the kids 99% of the time. It's a pretty awesome situation!

As most of you know, Philip is really busy at work this year. We're happy that he is playing a big role in this transition and is definitely a valued part of the team, but we're a little disappointed at the situation it puts us in as far as being able to take our vacations. We reached the decision that we're not going plan any extended vacations this year, due to the fact that things with his schedule can change and they could need him to stay at the last minute. Sad, because 3/4 of our family lives far away from us and we look forward to visiting them most years, but at least right now, the kids are young enough they probably won't remember all the details of not being able to visit people this year.

We hope everyone has had a good start to their week! I have my first meeting with my team tomorrow. If everyone could say a quick prayer that the kids are receptive and I am not too nervous and find the right words, I would really appreciate it!

God bless you and yours this week!

I Fail to See the Fascination . . .

2011-01-20T13:29:00.003-06:00

. . . in pulling your socks off, but it's Gabe's newest game. Also in Gabriel's recent accomplishments, inch worming his way around the house (yes, he's mobile!), pulling himself around places while sitting up (he can go pretty far), and clapping. If you can't tell by now, he is a genius! (Non-partial opinion of course!)

He is enjoying his food still, getting more into finger foods, and pretty much still eating or sleeping all day long - more eating than sleeping. We've been fighting some congestion since early December, and it's made for much shorter naps, occasionally leading to a rather grumpy Gabriel by afternoon/evening.

My latest trick to get things done around the house is putting Gabriel in a laundry basket with a few toys and sliding him from room to room as I make beds, put clothes away, and tidy up. He likes the ride. :)

Callie (is also a genius!) can identify most uppercase letters in the alphabet, even out of order. She still loves her animals, of course, and is excited about her birthday in a little over a month. When I first asked her what she wanted her birthday party theme, she replied, "Hats." As the ideas ran through my head, I thought maybe she didn't understand the question. I said, "You want everyone to wear different hats to your birthday party and have hat decorations and a cake that looks like a hat?" She looked at me like, "What?" And so I gave her other party themes, like horses, or Princesses, or Elmo . . . "ELMO!" So, I'm thinking we're doing Elmo, because that's been her answer ever since then. Let the planning begin! :)

In other news, well Callie and Gabriel's parents are still here! We haven't had any great accomplishments or anything, but we've been having fun watching our children learn and grow! It's hard to believe I'm planning Callie's 3rd birthday party! And Gabe's 1st is right around the corner! Crazy!

Hope you are having a great week! God bless you and yours as you wrap up this week! :)

Shopping Trip

2011-01-15T10:25:00.004-06:00

We went shopping yesterday in the 'burbs. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get everything checked off my list that I was looking for, but fortunately, I still have some time to look for the items that I need to get.

Most of the items that I need are actually for a photo session in March. We're getting 4 generation photos taken with my granny, my mom, me, and Callie. Then, we're also getting 3 year pictures taken of Callie (how is that possible?!?!?) and 9 month pictures of Gabriel (I can't believe it's time!). Our family has a tradition for 3 year pictures, a cream sweater with a creamy background. But I don't know, so far, I haven't had any luck finding a plain sweater, even online. I was also trying to find a nice outfit for me (no luck) and a nice outfit for Gabriel (nadda . . . )

It seems like every time I go to find an outfit for Gabriel, whatever size he's in just doesn't exist. When he was in 3-6 month for example, I wanted to get him some plain white undershirts. Were they anywhere to be found?? Nope. I looked in 5 different stores before giving up and none of them had plain white onsie undershirts in his size. Does that seem crazy to anyone else??

So yesterday, I was looking for a cute outfit to have him in for his 9 month pictures. There were tons of outfits in 3-6 months and 12 months + but the sections for 9 months outfits were less than an inch . . . What? Did everyone have children in June this year?? Seriously, it's getting ridiculous.

Anyway, yesterday wasn't a complete bust. I got some of the things that I was looking for. Like a good price on a coat for Gabriel for next year and a new dress for me. (I haven't bought myself a dress that wasn't maternity since right after Philip and I got married!)

The rest of this week was up and down. We had some problems with water in the basement and Philip got sick for one day. But overall it was a pretty normal week. Hope everyone else had a great week! God bless you and yours this weekend! :)

Sunday Morning

2011-01-10T08:23:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, Callie came into my room while I was finishing up getting ready for church by putting on my jewelry.

Callie: Mommy, you're very pretty.
Me: Callie, that's very sweet. Thank you!
Callie: You're welcome. Daddy's pretty too!
Me: Oh Callie, you need to go tell him that . . .

:)

Pictures from the Holidays

2011-01-04T08:40:00.004-06:00

Gabriel's now standing up on his own . . . Ok, not really, but he can hang on like nobody's business and loves to stand up "by himself"!

Gabriel's waking up face :)

Callie painting with ice. She really likes her arts and crafts!

Uncle Kevin and Callie playing in the snow. We have had a crazy amount of snow for this early in the winter. I was telling everyone that I can remember sledding once in my childhood. The next year, we received sleds as a Christmas surprise and never got to use them!

Gabriel's Sunday outfit. He's playing with a couple of his new toys from Christmas the day before.

Gramma and Callie and Camden baking cookies for the celebrations!

Callie, Camden, and Gabriel playing together

Camden and Gabriel in their matching Christmas pjs :)

(I really wish they would post my pictures in the order I upload them, but oh well . . . )
Enjoy! :) Hope your holidays were magical!

Ahh the holidays!

2011-01-03T15:04:00.002-06:00

So the holidays are officially over, and it's back to the same old, same old in the Booker house. Well, almost . . . minus the abundance of sweets (not good for my resolution!) and the still stuffed full refrigerator, it's back to the same old, same old in the Booker house. :)

We had a wonderful holiday celebration with all our loved ones. The children were showered with gifts from relatives near and far. We had a good meal on Christmas at our house. I didn't do much at all! I got the ham ready (which I think I did better this time!) and the salad. The rest of it was made by my wonderful crew (aka Mom and Granny) working behind the scenes. We had fun with our present game, and the kids loved opening present after present. It was a great day.

Since then, we've been entertaining our guests, eating too much, and enjoying some days at home without Philip having to run off to work right after breakfast. It all ended much too soon - except for the eating too much part - and the house is now still and quiet (it's nap time). I really, really enjoy event planning . . . if I could figure out how to break into the business, I think I could have my perfect working from home career. I hope all of my guests had just as much fun as I did! The kids had a blast together, we've got some amazingly cute videos and pictures of all the fun! (My next post will be a video/picture post, but not right now, I don't know when nap time will end . . . Definition of irony, Callie woke up while I was writing that!)

We had so much fun over the holidays, I hope you all had a wonderful time as well! My next post will show you some of our time together. God bless you and yours this week.

4 More Days!

2010-12-20T09:41:00.005-06:00

The kids playing in their newest toy (and possibly mommy's new best friend), a wagon from Granny Great and Paw Paw! Gabriel was so funny riding around in this. Callie kept grabbing his shoulders and trying to get him to lay back on her, but he refused and white knuckled the sides as they traveled round and round our still empty dining room. (We're ready and waiting for our brand new table . . . more info later in the post!)

Gabriel is sitting up all by himself as of Thursday, December 16th. Just a few days too late for the professional Christmas pictures, but we're happy to get some of him in front of the Christmas tree enjoying himself!

He is so proud of himself, he doesn't want to lay down anymore. I took him to the doctor on Friday (he had to get four shots!) and he refused to lay down on the doctor's table! By the way, Gabriel was a whopping 15 lbs. 10 oz at his 6 months appointment! haha! He's just coming up off the 10th percentile (maybe the 12th percentile now) but he's growing and thriving so we're not worried about him. :)

Callie and Gabriel play so well together. Callie is great at showing Gabriel how to play with different things. This is now one of Gabriel's favorite toys to sit at and pound on. Callie's even getting better about sharing, after a little convincing, and acknowledging that Gabriel can, in fact, hold his own toys to play with. :)

Gabriel loves his new freedom of sitting up in his high chair (which he's been doing for about 2 weeks now). He can hang on to his toys and watch mommy work in the kitchen. He can even practice getting his puffs in his hand. If only he could figure out how to coordinate getting the puff into his hand, then opening his hand so he could get it in his mouth! But the fun of learning keeps him distracted long enough for mommy to eat her meal most of the time! :)

Gabriel's started eating puffs. Mainly because the boy loves his food so much, he gets so mad if you're eating and he's not, it's been getting harder and harder for me to try to eat regular meals. He makes the funniest faces while his gumming his puffs. Here's an example of the faces, but it's not the same as seeing it in motion (and hearing it too!!) He makes me laugh out loud every time!

Here's both the kids enjoying the Christmas tree just before bedtime. We decided to go simple this year with just white lights and a big tin star on top. The simple elegance in our country house is just what the room needed. I'm afraid that I really won't want to take the Christmas decorations down because I'm so happy with the way the room looks with all the decorations!

Like I've said before, Gabriel loves his food. Here he's imagining what Callie's animal crackers taste like by sucking on his fingers as he watches her eat. He's hilarious!

Gabriel was not too fond of his Santa Claus hat, and kept trying to pull it off. Unfortunately, he only managed to cover his whole face after struggling against mommy getting a good picture of him in his hat!

Okay, so I did manage to get a couple cute pictures as he was rearranging his hat! :)

Just four more days until all our loved ones are here to help us celebrate our first Christmas at the farmhouse! We are so excited to be able to show everyone the place we will be living for a very long time (God willing). Callie is at the age where she is very excited for Christmas. On our drive to church she ooohs and ahhs and screeches with every light display as we go through town. We constantly hear, "Ooohhh! Look at that one!"

In preparation for our BIG family Christmas this year, Philip and I saved our pennies and commissioned the building of a brand new old dining room table. What do I mean by that? We were fortunate enough to find wooden beams that were pulled out of a church that was built in the 1850's to make our table. We got a sample piece from the builder the other day, and let me tell you, I think it's going to look amazing! It was supposed to be done this Friday, but unfortunately, the bug that has been making rounds and some snags in the project delayed the table's debut for a couple of days. We hope to get the table in place Tuesday evening, and yes, I will be posting pictures! I think it will be an amazing piece that we will keep for the rest of our lives, and hopefully pass on to our children.

I think that's all the latest news! Most of our efforts this month have been focused on getting ready to have a wonderful Christmas celebration with our families!

God bless you and yours this week and have a very Merry Christmas! :)

Pictures Post

2010-12-06T09:04:00.002-06:00

Our first snow this season

Thanksgiving in Austin

Kids table in Austin

Gabriel in Beaumont

The kids at home :)

Funny Callie Stories from our Trip!

2010-11-27T19:48:00.003-06:00

At Panera, where they call names with orders while Papaw is saying the prayer

Voice on loudspeaker: Callie!
Callie looks up
All of us: Amen
Callie: They sayin' my name!
-- A little while later, while Callie was eating --
Voice on loudspeaker: Callie!
Callie: They sayin' my name again!
-- After we're done eating --
Voice on loudspeaker: Jessie!
Callie: That's my cat! They callin' my cat!

Callie talking to herself in the car last night

Callie: I get to the hotel, I take off my shoes and my socks and my shirt and I go swimming! (over and over again)

At lunch today, Callie's putting on her coat to leave

Voice from behind Callie: Hi, I'm Gabrielle.
They begin talking, the next thing we hear
Gabrielle: I have a unicorn pillow pet at home.
Some more talking, and then Callie gives her a big hug! So sweet.

Holidays Down South

2010-11-23T15:51:00.002-06:00

We are so happy to be spending our holiday with our southern family! It has been really exciting traveling around southeast Texas and meeting our new nephew, Oliver, for the first time!

Our travels down here went very well -- a welcome surprise considering the headache of traveling up to Mayo Clinic just a few weeks ago. Gabriel rode well, and Callie's always been a champion traveler. Part of it could be the fact that I tried something new while traveling this time. When Gabriel would get fussy on our trip to Minnesota, we'd pull over, I'd nurse him and then we'd walk around for a while. We'd then get back in the car and try to drive again. This time, we walked around holding Gabriel as much as we could first, then I'd feed him right before we got back on the road. It seemed to work out much better, or Gabriel's outgrown his hatred of the carseat! Either way, I'm ecstatic it went as well as it did! All 19 or so hours of it!

We leave tomorrow for Austin to visit extended family on Papaw's side. We should be there through Thanksgiving and then leave Friday morning to be back to Illinois (hopefully) Saturday afternoon.

We've enjoyed our time at Gramma and Papaw's house. We even got to go for a date night out to Harry Potter 7 last night! (We went to a late night showing after the kids went to bed). We really enjoyed the movie, but I can't remember the last time I purposely chose to stay up past midnight! Now I'm really sounding old!! :)

Gabriel was really excited to play with a baby that's smaller than he is. He got a little rough, he's got quite the grip! He explored all over Oliver's face and even gave him a couple of his famous, slobbery kisses. Poor Oliver! I bet it was tramatic!

Callie is loving all the attention from Gramma and Papaw and has started saying "Oh sure!" to most questions she gets asked. Really cute!

Anyway, that's about all the new things here. Hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving filled with loved ones and precious memories! We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year. God bless you and yours this holiday!

Things I Have Learned

2010-11-12T08:34:00.003-06:00

(Most of you have probably already seen this on facebook, but I wanted to expand on the thought in my journal so my kids would have access to it one day.)

When we talked of the possibility of now being the time to have another child, I worried about having enough time. When we found out we were pregnant, I worried about sibling rivalry and how Callie would deal with no longer being the sole center of my attention. When we found out it was a boy, I worried about raising a son. But most if all I worried about all the love I had for Callie from the moment I saw her -- How would I possibly have the capacity to love Gabriel as much as I did Callie? I felt like my love account was fully maxed and I honestly worried about how I could possibly give Gabriel all the love he needed.

But what I have discovered is that I love Gabriel just as much as I love Callie. That God has given me a bonus to my love account. And that I didn't know exactly how I was going to do it, I love Gabriel with all my heart, just like I love Callie. I have learned that love is never divided, only multiplied.

Speaking of love being multiplied, I'm going to be an aunt times 2 today! Kaylin and Stephen are at the hospital, hoping to meet their baby boy Oliver sometime soon! Praying for them today!

God bless you and yours this week!

October and Halloween

2010-10-31T20:21:00.003-05:00

Well, for those of you who haven't heard, we took Callie to the specialist and we're waiting on the surgery for at least two years. We're really happy about that, but at the same time, we're having trouble finding an antibiotic that she won't have a reaction to and she's able to take. Right now, we're working with a medicine that we have to mix into her food but it apparently changes the taste of her food enough that it's a real battle trying to get her to take it.

In a year, they'll retest her for the condition, which she has an 80% chance of growing out of. If she still has it in a year, we'll wait another year and retest again. I'm not sure exactly when they decide that she's not going to grow out of the condition, but he said that he'd a least wait two years. So we'll see. Hopefully, she'll be clear at the next test so we don't have to continue the "Battle of the Antibiotics" chapter in our lives.

The surprise of the trip was that the specialist wanted to go ahead and test Gabriel for the condition as well. He said that there was about a 50% chance that he had it, and if it did, it would probably be worse in him. So Gabriel had a VCUG (which includes getting a catheter -- heartbreaking!), but I felt like they did a MUCH better job at Mayo then they did at our local hospital. I decided then and there that no matter how much extra it ended up costing us, Callie was going to get her retest at Mayo's Hospital.

We did get to have a little bit of fun on our trip by extending it a little bit and driving up to the Mall of America after the appointments. We spent a little over a day there and saw maybe a third of it! It was pretty fun. Got some cute clothes for the kids! :)

The rest of the month? Let's see. Gabriel's really close to sitting up on his own. He's liking his bouncing chair that hangs in the doorway and his excersaucer a lot. He's a very smiley boy who sleeps great and travels like we're torturing him. Lots of fun! Especially with the holidays coming up and a 16 hour drive ahead of us. At least we'll be able to visit for a good amount of time and maybe he'll forget about the "torture" of the carseat when he gets loved and cuddled and lots of cousins to entertain him!

Callie is quite the entertainer. We sing together and dance and play with Gabriel. She's a really awesome mommy's helper as well. She has had some little temper tantrums lately. Mostly at home, not usually in public, but it's still irritating. I guess it's just the age that she's trying to see how far that fat little toe can go over the line. We had a waitress today at lunch that said how good she was, and I thought, yeah, if only you could have seen her this morning! At least, 99% of the time she's good when we're out so we can trick people into thinking we have a perfect angel! :)

I have a fall decorations grinch wandering around the farm. So far, something (a critter) has chewed up one of my gourds, eaten a piece of my indian corn, and taken a huge chunk out of my "Philip" pumpkin. (I have a pumpkin Booker family out on my porch. It was really cute.) It's times like this I'd really like a dog to keep the varmints away. But then, I think about taking care of said dog all the time, and I'm back to enjoying my poop free back yard . . .

Other than that, we're just continuing our daily grind. Trying to keep up with the laundry and chores while still spending enough time with the kids that we don't feel like we're missing out. It's often difficult to strike a balance and you can tell from the pretty much constant state of our house which one usually wins out! :) Oh well, I won't be looking back at my life on my death bed wishing my house would have been cleaner! lol

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Have a wonderful start to your week. God bless you and yours!

Yay for a baby who enjoys sleep!

2010-10-08T07:53:00.002-05:00

I am so excited to have a baby that enjoys sleep. With Callie, we fight bed time and we fight a "normal" time to wake up(6 am most days). As I write this, at 8:00 am, Gabriel has been asleep since his 1:30am feeding, He fell asleep at 7:30 last night, just waking up briefly at 9:30 to have a little top off feeding. I feel amazing! :)

Gabriel's been eating rice cereal for the past few days (he's a little early, but he was SO ready - last night, he grabbed my popcorn and would have eaten it if he could have figured out how to get it to his mouth!). He tries to sit up in his bouncer all the time and he does a crunch, holding his head and upper back up and his legs. It's pretty cute. Both Philip and I agree last night that he's really growing into his little personality. He's almost always a happy baby and just gets a little cranky when he's ready to take a nap and goes to sleep really easily (unlike his sister). He laughs out loud, smiles a lot, and has pretty much figured out how to work his hands to grab his toys. His favorite new trick is blowing bubble all the way down his chin to form a little soul patch like daddy's. :)

Callie's still parroting a lot of what I say, especially when she's playing with her toys. She makes all of her toys talk to each other, the animals, dolls, puzzle pieces, magnets, gourds . . . everything has conversations. Some of it, I can't really understand yet, but when I understand it, it's usually a direct quote from me. Fortunately, I have tried to "toddler proof" the language I use. Her favorite phrases lately are "Chocolate (or whatever's on tv or the counter)! I like chocolate!" - I hear that at least 50 times a day - and "Ooooohhhh thank you Mommy! Thank you much!" She's learning so much. She recognizes letters in the alphabet and can answer abstract questions or tell you about her last trip to the zoo.

Speaking of trips to the zoo, I've been trying to make a conscience effort to do at least one fun outing/special event every week. Since we live in an area where we have to travel to do all our errands, I usually spend one day every couple of weeks dragging the kids from store to store. So, I decided I should do something to reward them for putting up with that. Last week, I took Callie to the Peoria Zoo. We also got an extra special outing with Daddy, traveling to a local orchard on Saturday and playing on a playground, riding a pony, and petting goats. We were going to get some apple products as we were leaving, but the line was at least an hour and a half long and we had two played out kids . . . so we had to go back later. This week, Callie chose a family movie night complete with popcorn and Toy Story 2. We had a lot of fun!

Things that have been going on with me lately . . . not too much. Just getting ready for Gabriel to eat veggies by stocking up on foods for him. I currently have very colorful ice cubes filling up my freezer. ha! Decorating for my absolute favorite season, trying to keep up with pictures, and getting ready to be in the last half of my 20s. That's weird! I still have dreams about forgetting that I had a class in college and I haven't gone at all and it's the end of the semester . . . lol! I often wonder if people see me in a store and think I'm older or younger than I really am. I guess I'll never know!

Philip is busy at work and he's going to help with some of the farm work this weekend. He's got a stress fracture in his foot so he can't run right now. I think he feels a little left out sometimes because Gabriel's definitely going through a "mommy" stage, but he keeps himself busy with Callie playing tea party and tag. :)

We love and miss all our family and friends near and far! God bless you and yours!

Update on Callie

2010-09-23T21:27:00.002-05:00

So, we've had unreliable internet for a few days now. I've made another call to our internet provider, one of these days we'll get what we're paying for . . .

Anyway, Callie's follow up with our family doctor was canceled once he saw that she did have VUR. He referred us to a specialist in Peoria with whom we quickly made an appointment. Unfortunately, the reviews of this doctor by a friend at church were less than stellar to say the least. We decided that, even if people think it's an overreaction, we should take Callie up to Mayo Clinic. My family knows some doctors up there and had them refer us to a pediatric urologist. We've made an appointment for October 21st.

Until then, Callie is on a preventative dose of antibiotic to make sure that she doesn't get another UTI before she can be seen by Dr. Kramer. The problem with that is, we're having a little bit of trouble finding a medicine that she's not allergic to. We had to go back to the doctor yesterday with swollen eyes and Callie's trying another medicine.

Thanks for all the prayers and cards and encouragement! We really appreciate all the support.
God bless you and yours this week!

Test Results and Playing the Waiting Game

2010-09-15T20:54:00.002-05:00

Today was our day at the hospital. Callie was uneasy about the general idea of going to the doctor in the first place, so convincing her to sit still for these tests was nearly impossible, not to mention when the tests got uncomfortable . . . Oh boy, it was quite a day.

The radiologist told me that Callie does have vesicoureteral reflux on her left side. This, however, does not necessarily mean that she will have to undergo surgery to correct the problem, but it does mean that we are one step closer to possibly needing it. We won't know for sure what the outcome will be until Tuesday when we see our family doctor. Depending on what he decides, we could be going to a urologist next. It seems like a long process and more time to let worrying set in, but I'm just trying to keep thanking God for the chance to correct this before a more serious problem occurred.

My past posts have been all about Callie, but Gabriel's here too! He's a calm, happy baby who sleeps amazingly well. The only time I have trouble with him? When I have to go out. Not the easiest thing to deal with but hopefully, it's just a stage that he'll grow out of . . . sooner rather than later would be great! We had studio pictures taken yesterday for Gabe's 3 months and I also got some good ones of Gabe and Callie together.

Gabriel is just fascinated by Callie and vice versa. She gets smiles out of him faster than anyone else. She's a big helper when I'm getting dinner ready, keeping Gabriel entertained.

I can't believe that we're already to 3 months! The time has completely flown by. I'm so excited to see Gabriel growing more and becoming more aware and active! These next few months are some of my favorite stages! Trying new foods, learning how to be independent by sitting, standing . . . it's just going so fast! It doesn't seem like that long ago that I found out Gabriel was on his way. Or Callie either for that matter!

I sound old! ha!

Well, we just ask that you keep Callie in your prayers. Whatever our doctor decides on Tuesday, I just keep praying that God helps guide the decisions made to keep Callie happy and healthy.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. God bless you and yours this week!

Callie's Tests Scheduled

2010-09-09T11:00:00.002-05:00

Callie's tests are scheduled for next Wednesday, September 15 starting at 8:30 am. Fortunately, they are supposed to give her something to help her relax during the procedures. She hasn't a fever since Tuesday and seems to be feeling 100% better. Thanks for all the prayers so far and please keep praying for these tests!

God bless you and yours this week!

Scary Things and True Blessings

2010-09-07T08:27:00.004-05:00

Callie on Monday, the day after our hospital visit, with a special treat from Granny Great

It all started Saturday afternoon. Callie didn't want to go down for quiet time and was really fussy about it. When quiet time was over (and she'd been crying for most of it), she felt really hot to me. I took her temperature and it was 100 degrees, but I reassured myself that it was mainly because she'd been so worked up. I said that I'd take it again later and I was sure it was going to be lower. So we went outside to walk and instead of playing, Callie just sat on the porch, which is just not like her at all. So we took her in, gave her a bath, and got ready for bed. I took her temperature again and it was a little higher than her normal at 98 degrees. But no big deal, right?

It was 1:15 am when Callie came out of her room crying and felt like she was on fire. We took her temperature again and it was 102.9 degrees. We started tylenol and Philip slept on her floor next to her for the rest of the night. I didn't sleep very well, but we were trying to keep Gabe and Callie separated as much as possible so I had to stay in our room.

Sunday we were supposed to head to Springfield to a birthday party for one of our dear family friends, but Callie's fever continued to go up and down ranging from 100 to 103 so we had to pass on the festivities. Callie was lethargic and didn't want to eat or drink very much at all and occasionally would start shaking uncontrollably. At 2:40, I got my highest reading yet at 104.1. I decided it was time to consult with someone with more medical experience than me so I called a Prompt Care. The nurse there told me that since I was taking her temperature in her armpit, they add a degree so her actual temperature was probably more like 105 and at 105 they recommend going straight to the hospital.

So by 3:30 (we had to get some things around and settled), we were off to the emergency room even though Callie's temperature had come back down in the meantime with some motrin. We arrived at the hospital, they took us into a pre-screening room, and a nurse was with us shortly. She did the first work up and soon a doctor came in to see Callie. She said that, unfortunately, she saw no obvious infection in her ears or throat so we were going to have to get a room in the ER. Over the next few hours, Callie had an IV put in and bodily fluids taken for testing. She was a brave little girl and though she was not happy about the things the nurses had to do, she did not fight it too much, just cried a lot and said "Ow, ow ow ow!" Mommy and Daddy tried to put on a brave face for Callie (and managed to for the most part through lots of silent prayers), but for the most part I just wanted to cry and scream and tell them to stop hurting her . . .

Mimi and Grandpa came to the hospital to help with Callie and Gabriel while we had to deal with waiting for the doctors and nurses and tests. Callie's fever once again spiked in the hospital and she started shaking more violently than she had at home. She then vomited and we called the nurse in. Even though she was shaking because she was cold, we had to take her clothes off down to her diaper and place cool, wet clothes under her armpits and over her head. Callie also had to take a dose of tylenol in a non-traditional way since they weren't sure at that point if she'd be able to keep it down, which she was not very happy about at all.

Her temperature came down a little and she stopped shaking. The doctor finally came back and said that the tests had revealed that she had a UTI. He gave us his recommendations, told us to call our family doctor on Tuesday, and said that as soon as they were comfortable with the level her temperature was at, we would be able to go home. It took another hour or so before her temperature was lowered to about 100 degrees and we were discharged at 11:00 pm.

We then had to go to a 24-hour Walgreens to get her medications and some more motrin. Needless to say, when we finally walked in the door around midnight, we were all exhausted.

On Monday, Callie's temperature continued to go up and down, but it was well within control with the cycle of tylenol and motrin. She was much more like herself throughout the day, playing and laughing, and talking -- my baby girl was back!

Today, we called our family doctor for a follow-up and he asked us to come in. I went in thinking the he was just going to make sure everything was going ok, temperature check, visual inspection, etc . . . but unfortunately, we got some more bad news. Recent recommendations in the medical world say that any child under 3 who has a bladder infection needs to be worked up for a more serious condition where the sphincter in the bladder doesn't work properly. This means that the child is more prone to kidney infections if they get a bladder infection which can lead to very serious problems, including possible kidney failure (very unlikely, but still a possibility). So, we're going to have to go back to the hospital for some more uncomfortable tests to see if Callie has this condition. If it turns out that she does, it's possible that she's going to need "minor" surgery to correct the problem.

I'm trying really hard to see this as a true blessing that we live in a time when they know about and can fix these things before we do have a serious problem on our hands. It's hard to know that I'm going to have to take Callie and make her endure more of these tests when she doesn't understand completely that we're trying to help her. Just taking her back to our doctor today was a battle because she was scared to go back to the room. I just need to keep praying that God holds my little girl and comforts her through these next tests and if she needs the surgery that He comforts all of us.

Please be praying for Callie and the doctors and these tests that we have to do. I will try to keep everyone updated on the progress and the decisions that are made. Thank you!

We hope everyone has a wonderful week! God bless you and yours as I know He has blessed our family!

Latest News at the Bookers

2010-08-31T08:02:00.002-05:00

Let's start with our trip to Texas. It went well! The kids behaved well on the flights and we only had a little trouble in one airport on the way home. Overall, however, I would recommend not flying with Delta if it can be avoided. They were not overly helpful in general (even rude at times) and the fees were absolutely outrageous (which I realize are hard to avoid anymore)! We had a good time visiting with all our family and friends down south. :)

Since then, the kids and I have been settling into a pretty solid routine. Gabriel takes 2 naps pretty regularly every day and I have instituted "quiet time" for Callie between 2:00 and 3:00. She usually falls asleep, but sometimes she gets upset. I keep trying to tell her that it's not a punishment, it's just supposed to be a relaxing time for her in her room. Yesterday, quiet time was amazing! So hopefully, we're catching onto the idea.

Soon, we'll be working on potty training again. I think with Callie, it's an all or nothing type thing. She was that way with sleeping through the night, weaning, letting go of the pacifier, and I guess she's going to be that way with potty training as well. So, we've blocked out from now until Thanksgiving. No trips until Callie is completely potty trained. Fingers crossed it will go well (without too many accidents)!

Callie has an amazing learning capacity and she just blows me away with what she knows. While we were down in Texas, I told her that when we got home it was going to be time for bed. She looked out the window and said "Sunshine out, not bedtime!" Who can argue with that reasoning?!? I call her my little parrot because most of the time when I talk to her directly, she repeats it back at me. Watching the back to school commercials on tv makes me cry because I feel like I'm running out of time with my little girl . . . I know, I'm ridiculous!

Callie plays with her toys and makes them "talk". It's so cute to watch her interacting with her toys. I've tried to get a video on it but as soon as she sees the camera, she clams up!

Gabriel can hold his head up by himself very well. He can pull himself off someone whose holding him up into a sitting position and hold it for a few seconds. He also can officially roll over from his front to his back. We've never actually seen him do a complete roll but we've gone to get him in bed and he's over on his back when we've put him on his tummy. He coos and gurgles so sweetly.

Right now, we're struggling with hay fever in the house. Gabriel and I have it the worst, Philip has a slight case, and Callie doesn't seem to be affected at all. Gabriel wasn't nursing very well because of it so I took him in to the doctor to make sure he wasn't losing weight. (For those of you who didn't know, he fell from the 50% at birth to the 10% at his 2 month check up so the doctor asked me to keep a close eye on how many times he's nursing and to bring him back for a weight check in a month. He was not terribly concerned about him since he's way ahead, physically doing things that often come later.) Anyway, the weight check proved useful in that Gabriel has gained 8 oz in two weeks! Really, really good!

Around the house, we're planning on making over the rec room, at least paint wise. We're not sure if we're going to be able to do the floor right away (which definitely needs a makeover!), but I think we're going to make it look completely different with the paint. Then I think we're planning to work on Callie's room. Fun stuff! :)

I'm continuing to work out on a regular basis. Finding something that I enjoy enough to stick to is difficult, but I think I've found a good, balanced routine that I can work into my schedule everyday. No major results yet, but I realize that it will probably go quickly once Gabriel's not relying on me alone for sustenance! Trying to keep a positive attitude! :) I'm also trying to keep time for myself, doing things that I like to do at least a little bit every week. I'd really like to catch up on scrapbooking, sewing, and just some crafts in general. Maybe someday!

I'm also doing research into preschool for Callie, making some food for Gabriel from our gardens for later, trying new recipes that I've torn out from magazines (big project -- I've been tearing out recipes for years and rarely cooking them, so I decided it was time to do something about it!), and just general cleaning and organizing every day to try and get our house in order (I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever happen!).

Philip is working on some important projects at ICC and he is enjoying his time at work. Of course, he also loves walking through the door to "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" with a big hug! This past weekend we (finally!) worked out in the yard. We both agreed after we went to bed sore and exhausted that we needed to keep up with the yard better. But it was very satisfying seeing the huge change those hours of working made!

I guess that's a good summary for the happenings of this last month! Sorry about the lack of posts, I really am trying but I've just never been good at this journaling thing . . .

I hope everyone has a really good week! God bless you and yours!

First Trip

2010-07-20T20:46:00.002-05:00

Well, I've gone and done it. I've planned a plane trip to Texas, and I'm doing it all without Philip! Yikes!

Actually, I don't think it's going to be that bad, except for all the crazy airport stuff . . . Hopefully, both kids will be so happy to be in new places and exploring along the way that they won't even notice all the security loopholes we'll be jumping through.

News from the home front: Callie loves the Little Einsteins series. I usually let her pick out something new to play with or watch or listen to on road trips and this time she chose a Little Einsteins dvd. Obsessed! Every time we get in the car, or talk about the car, or anything to do with the car, she says "Einsteins?!?"

Oh, you might ask "What road trip?" Well, we went to the Hill Family Reunion in Tennessee this past weekend. We had a good time with all of our cousins and aunts and uncles. Unfortunately, we don't get down there very often -- all of the kids had grown so much and looked completely different than the last time we saw everyone. We had fun sharing Gabriel with everyone and sharing stories.

Gabriel is doing well. We keep fighting diaper rash, but other than that, he's doing really well. Every once in a while we seem to have a fussy hour, or sometimes day . . . but he's a generally calm, quiet baby. However, he does seem to have a problem with me working out. I can't seem to keep him happy through the entire thing. Oh well, I have to take care of me too! :)

Well, I guess that's all the latest news. God bless you and yours this week!

Busy, Busy!

2010-07-14T10:41:00.002-05:00

Since my last post of pictures, we have finished our swim lessons and Sidewalk Celebration (our version of VBS), Gabriel has started rolling up to his side from his front or his back, Callie has really blossomed as a big sister, and I have started working out in an effort to be able to keep up with the kids!

Let's start with what's new with Callie. She's started being more interested in the potty, which I have taken full advantage of. However, it's a day to day type thing, meaning one day she's ready for it and the next day she's not. We've achieved success twice so far! The first time she did it, I praised her so much that she sat on the potty for the next hour and a half. Ha! She's also very interested in music and singing. She sings her ABC's, Old McDonald, Jesus Loves Me, and many, many more. The other day we went to visit Daddy at work and she stood up on a raised eating area in the cafeteria and serenaded us as we ate. She loves helping out with Gabe -- While I'm working out, she often entertains him and puts his pacifier back in. She also goes up to him and touches his belly and says, "Tickle, tickle!" She keeps me on my toes as well, getting into everything, even the things that I've told her over and over again not to mess with! You know when it gets quiet at the Booker house that you need to go investigate.

Gabriel is becoming more and more aware every day. He's smiling a lot, but none captured yet in a picture. He also holds himself up really well and as I said earlier can roll up to his side from his front or his back. It's only a matter of time before he's working his way around the house, I just know it's going to fly by! He sleeps really well (and is pretty predictable, knock on wood, unlike Callie!). He wakes up once during the night and then a little earlier than I normally like to get up, but it's really not a hard schedule to keep, especially since he likes to sleep longer than me most mornings. According to my home scale, he's somewhere close to 10 pounds now and he's filling out quite nicely. :) The biggest problem we've had is that we can't seem to keep his diaper rash under control. I'm trying a new recommendation from the doctor currently and hopefully (fingers crossed) this is not only helping more now, which it looks like it is, but will keep him more comfortable in the long term.

I've begun my post pregnancy work outs, hoping to get back in shape sooner rather than later. Of course, I have to be careful about it so Gabriel gets everything he needs from me as well so I'm not taking it too fast. I'm also trying to find the best schedule for the day. If I want to get something done during a day, it seems like if I don't get it done by lunch it's not getting done! So of course, laundry now takes several half days instead of one full day, but for the most part, we're all adjusting to the changes that need to be made for everyone's needs to be met. The hardest part of the schedule for me is that breakfast is later than normal and lunch is earlier than normal so if I want both, I usually eat them about an hour or so apart. Not very hungry for lunch, but very hungry for breakfast! :) Oh well, I'm sure sooner or later things will change enough that I'll have a little more flexibility.

Philip is working away at ICC. He took a break when Gabriel was born and he and his dad built onto our playground in the backyard. Callie absolutely loves it and I'm sure Gabriel will too, eventually. She always looks out the window at it and talks about her new slide and swing fondly. Philip has also started working out to lose his pregnancy weight . . . ha ha! Just kidding, he just needed to find a new work out routine to do while the gym at ICC undergoes renovations this summer.

Today, I am packing for the Hill Family reunion which is this Friday. This will be Gabriel's first long car trip, so we'll see how it goes! Wish us luck!

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week and weekend! God bless you and yours!

Pictures of Gabriel and Callie

2010-06-30T14:51:00.003-05:00

Gabriel's First Sunday at Church

Callie helping Gabriel get buckled in

Callie at her swim lessons

Smiles all around!

Callie holding Gabe at home with Daddy's help

Catching Up with the Latest Happenings

2010-06-24T10:41:00.003-05:00

Ok, so as I'm sure most of you know, my doctor decided it would be best to induce labor on Tuesday, June 8 in the afternoon. Which was funny, because when I got to the hospital, the nurse told me I had dilated to a 4 since being in my doctor's office that morning, putting me into the definition of "active labor". Of course, who knows how long I would have been in that on my own! We were anticipating Gabriel's arrival sometime that evening. Not so! Gabriel apparently did not want to share a birthday with his Uncle Kevin, and opted instead to wait for awhile so he could have his own special day . . .

The afternoon ticked by with gradually increasing contraction strength. It was about 7:00 when I decided to get an epidural. After my epidural took effect and I no longer had to focus on contractions increasing in frequency and strength, I realized that it had been quite a while since I ate. It's amazing what your mind can do with a simple shift of focus!

I was tired at that point, but it was a comfort to know that my doctor was standing by in the wings since it was after his office closed. I was pretty worried about his drive across town if things were to happen similar to last time. Which apparently was a valid concern. At 11:55 pm on Tuesday, I was dilated to an 8 and feeling "stuck", like this could go on for at least a couple more hours. At midnight, I suddenly started feeling the pushing urge and called for a nurse. I had dilated to 10 and given the go ahead to start pushing. At 12:13, Gabriel was born. Unfortunately, though a quick delivery may be nice for me, it can make it to where the baby does not have enough transition time to prepare to breath on the outside. Also, the pushing process helps babies clear the fluid out of their lungs. In combination with the fact that Gabriel had his cord wrapped around his neck twice and his body once, there was a little bit of a scary moment for us as we watched them work over Gabriel's increasingly blue body. They rushed him out to the nursery once they got him breathing sufficiently with Philip close behind. I however, had to stay in bed, waiting for my epidural to wear off and perform several "tasks" to make sure I was ok. Fortunately, my nurses knew I was concerned about the situation and helped me to quickly pass inspection so I could go down to the nursery and see the baby boy I'd been waiting 9 months for.

When I was finally able to get to the nursery, they updated me on Gabe's condition. They had pulled 8 CCs of fluid from his lungs and had to put him under what is called an oxygen hood. Basically, it surrounds the baby with a greater concentration of oxygen than our normal air so they can keep more oxygen saturation in their bodies. We waited for awhile in the nursery, and then they told me that they were going to have to give him an IV and advised me to leave because it's a hard thing to watch. I obliged, knowing it was probably better that I wasn't in there, but wanting to stay with him anyway. Philip and I went back to the room and tried to get a little bit of rest since we were both pretty exhausted.

When we awoke in the morning, we kept hoping that they would tell us that Gabriel was doing enough better that they could take him off the oxygen and we could hold him. I was also concerned at this point as to whether or not I was going to be able to nurse him and hoping that it wouldn't mess anything up permanently since I hadn't been able to start right away like is recommended. Fortunately, later that day, we were finally able to hold our little man and eventually I was allowed to nurse. They gradually weaned him off the IV the more I was able to nurse and, like Callie, he was a natural! One of the nurses said that he needed to go from room to room and teach the other babies how to nurse! haha!

Of course, everyone wants to know the stats. Gabriel Allen Booker was born at 12:13 am on June 9, 2010 at 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 19 inches long according the hospital. However, when he was 5 days old, I had to take him to his doctor in Roanoke, who measured him at 21 inches. Philip said that the initial stats were taken quickly as they were trying to get him under his oxygen hood and could have easily been messed up, especially trying to get him sufficiently stretched to take an accurate measurement.

The next surprise was that instead of a 24-hour discharge policy, like I had prepared for, the hospital had a new 48-hour discharge policy. Despite my feelings for staying in the hospital, it actually worked out for the best that while they were still performing tests on Gabe, they weren't trying to discharge me from the hospital. While the hour round trip would have been fun while I was on driving restriction and trying to nurse a baby every 2 hours, I was glad to have a staff cook and clean for me and remind me to take my medications for a little bit longer than I first expected.

Callie came to see Gabriel and me in the hospital one time -- it was a little overwhelming for her to see me in there so we decided it might be an easier transition for her if the next time she saw us, we would be comfortably at home. I missed my little girl terribly, but it was good to have some alone time with Gabe to start off with.

Since then, we've had a couple long nights and a couple stressful days trying to keep up with both Callie and Gabriel. But for the most part, balancing the both of them has been doable and Gabe is a great sleeper. On a typical night, he wakes up once during the night and once in the early morning, usually right before Callie wakes up and then he sleeps for another hour or two after Callie is up. We've been very grateful for the sleep we've gotten, as many people have told me, probably well deserved after what we went through with Callie's sleep habits (or lack there of). We have a little bit of fussy time in the morning, and a little bit more after 8:00 pm, but the rest of the day, we have a pretty easy-going little man who is happy to watch his big sister run around and a big sister who is happy to help with her new, living, breathing, squirming "baby doll".

I hope that you've had a great week so far and that you have a great weekend! God bless you and yours! Have a fun-filled weekend!

What a week!

2010-06-05T12:19:00.002-05:00

So this week has proven to be a rather tumultuous one!

It started last Friday when all of the sudden my feet began to swell and wouldn't go down. They stayed swollen through Monday (which was, of course, a holiday = doctor's office not open) to a pretty large size making my feet not only unsightly and purplish but very hard to walk on. I call Tuesday up to the doctor to tell them I'm not getting any relief from the swelling despite staying out of the heat, taking it easy and putting my feet up periodically, and drinking plenty of fluids, so they ask me to come in. They check me over, ask me some questions, and apparently I gave the wrong answer so the doctor sent me to the hospital for some labs and asked me to come back in on Thursday. Went back on Thursday, the swelling was down to a "reasonable" level, but they told me to call if I had any more problems, especially a more severe headache. So would you like to guess what woke me up at 3:00 am on Friday? That's right, a terrible, feel it down in your teeth, your eyes are going crossed because of the pain, headache. Which continued all morning until I finally called the doctor at 10:30. Their answer? "You don't have to drop everything immediately, but get the the hospital as soon as possible."

So, after finding a ride (they didn't want me to drive) and a babysitter for Callie, and calling Philip to meet me at the hospital, I was on my way thinking, maybe this was going to be it?? Not so, my readers. They kept me there, hooked up to monitors for almost exactly 5 hours, running tests upon tests. Everything checked out and we got to watch Gabriel's heartbeat the whole time stay nice and steady. My blood pressure was "excellent" and no regular contractions to be seen. My headache came and went the whole time I was there, despite the extra strength tylenol that they gave me about halfway through. Of course, it was nearly 3:00 before the doctor came and said, "Hey, have they gotten you anything to eat?" which the answer was a resounding no, I'm starving! (in stereo, as Philip was too.)

Needless to say, the biggest disappointment of my life thus far has to be the feeling of spending all day in the labor and delivery unit of the hospital and leaving with no baby in my arms. I told Philip that despite the fact that my headache is once again on and off today, I have no intention of mentioning it to my doctor again unless I feel like there's a problem with Gabe's movements as well. Not that I'm not grateful that he's being careful, but I'm starting to feel like a complainer . . .

Callie had her first Parent/Tot swim class today. Oh boy, did she enjoy it! I was so happy she was so happy, neither one of us could wipe the smile from our faces. She had a big, open grin on her face the entire class! Too bad the one thing we left at home today was our cameras! We hope to be able to get some pictures at her next go 'round. Hopefully, she enjoys it just as much as she did today!

She was very brave. Jumping into the water off the side wall, kicking and moving her arms like a pro, and she even went underwater twice! The class is full so there are 9 other kids and parents in there with us. I was surprised at how many dads were there! And I even had maternity company as there was one other woman there who was pregnant as well. I had to laugh at myself as I was trying on my swimsuit yesterday that I haven't gone out in public in a swimsuit in 2 years and the first time I decide to put one on, I'm 10 days away from giving birth! Oh well. Callie looked cute enough for the both of us! :) (And hopefully next week, I'll be able to show you what I mean!)

Callie also took all our last minute trips and even Mommy going to the hospital for the day very well, which makes me a feel a lot better about the whole leaving her while I'm having Gabe thing. She was such a trooper all week!

We're happily anticipating the arrival of Gabe, especially in light of all the drama lately. Working to finish the nursery (soon!) today and hopefully getting more things put away and organized while we wait for him to show up!

I hope everyone has had a great week! I know despite everything that happened my week was a great one because we're all healthy despite what the doctor was worried about!

God bless you and yours!

From May 1st Until Now!

2010-05-21T08:54:00.003-05:00

(I've tried to load pictures, but it won't let me right now, so I'll hopefully add some later)

We've had an eventful May, though not always in the best way. We started the month by finding out that Philip's car, the Ford Focus, may get good gas mileage but the fact that you make less trips to the gas pump is negated by the fact that we've had to replace all the tires twice in the past 3 years! Note to everyone looking for a car: The Ford Focus apparently has a design flaw that causes the tires to wear faster, we were told that you can expect to get about half the miles out of tires and that's with impeccable maintenance! We've driven about 70,000 miles on the Focus and it has had 3 full sets of tires.

The next thing was that our dishwasher, which we had just paid to have "repaired" started leaking again. So we had to decide whether or not to call the repair place again, or save that money and just get a new one. We decided to get a new one. Of course, we were in the process of trying to find a new fridge at the time because we needed to return the one that we had borrowed from my parents to hold us over, so yeah!

Then, Wednesday night, right before we arrived at the church building we heard a deafening shot. I opened my door to see that our back passenger side tire had completely blown out!

Oh, it has been one of those months! But again and again, I'm reminded how blessed we are to be able to handle all these things. Actually, most of the time, I just laugh it off and shake my head. The humor comes in, I think, when the day before our tire on the van blew out I nearly said out loud while going over our bills, "We should be set for awhile, we've replaced all the big stuff and everything else is under warranty. Glad that's over!" Ironic? The very definition of it! ha! :)

We also had our front door replaced this month. It looks so nice! We ordered it a while ago and it finally came in and they had a nice day to be able to install it. I told Philip that he should be really glad that he didn't try to do that little project by himself. It looked like a very involved process! It's also a lot less drafty than the old door, which may or may not be the original door to the house (it's been a hot button debate issue -- not really, but no one's really sure!). During strong wind - which is a typical weather condition in Illinois - you could feel the gust coming at you from all angles. And since our front door enters our kitchen, and I spend at least half my day in the kitchen, you can imagine that it got pretty cold sometimes!

We've also had a lot of fun in May. We've been working to complete the nursery, which is almost done! (Pictures to come soon -- fingers crossed!) We finally were able to celebrate Easter and Mother's Day at the same time. Our boys cooked pork chops for the grill. All us girls had to do was come up with baked potatoes, salad, and dessert! Callie really enjoyed her Easter egg hunt. She even started hiding the eggs from herself after she found them all to keep the game going!

A lady that Philip works with is moving into a new house, and while going through their stuff to move, found some girl clothes that she gave us for Callie. (So sweet for her to think of us!) Included in those clothes were "Momo" (Elmo) pajamas that Callie has just gone crazy over. The only problem? They're about 2 sizes to small for her at this point! She looks absolutely hilarious in her pajamas, but she gets so excited, I can't take them away! The first night she found them, I could hear her from her room while I was all the way downstairs from saying "Momo! Momo! Momo!" over and over again.

Callie is learning more and more everyday! I know I say this in nearly every blog post, but it's so true! She counts to 10 out loud and with a little bit of help, she can even count objects now (up to 10)! Every once in awhile, she even does it by herself, but she usually adds one when she says it out loud. For example, she'll count while pointing to each block "1 - 2 - 3- 4 -5" and then she looks at me and says "6 blocks!" It's so sweet to watch her figure things out though.

Potty training is stalled for now (please excuse the pun). Every once in awhile she will ask to sit on the potty, but still no connection between sitting on the potty and the action that sitting on the potty requires. We'll get it someday! She's a smart girl (if I do say so myself) so I'm sure once she gets it, it will be a very quick process.

Her favorite thing to say lately is while she's eating. If she really likes something she'll say "Mmmm-Mmmm Liscious!" (Delicious) It cracks me up! Especially because she says it with such passion and flair. Yet another thing I really need to try to catch on video!

She's quite the performer. She sings and dances and is very theatrical! She does this fake fall where she dances back and forth across the room saying "Whoa! Whooooaaa! Whoa!" and then "falls".

Callie is going to be starting her first swimming lessons in June (hopefully, I have to go over there and get her signed up). I'll be taking her up until I have Gabe, and then it will be a Daddy and Callie bonding time on Saturday mornings.

My pregnancy is going well. It's definitely been a different experience than my first one! I've been piling on the symptoms lately, including more and more lower back pain, feet and face swelling, different muscle pains and cramps, and the strangest one, random nose bleeds! I'm recognizing more and more contractions lately, so we'll see if I make it all the way to June 15 or not. The same thing happened with Callie though, so I'm not too worried. In fact, I haven't even packed my hospital bag yet. I figure if I don't pack it, he can't come before I'm ready! (Or he can and I'll be calling my mom from the hospital trying to guide her around my house and pick up the things I need . . . regardless, I should probably get it done!)

Philip's work is going well. Unfortunately, there have been some layoffs lately because the state has failed to fulfill their financial obligations to most schools, library systems, and anything else you can think of. (Anyone else find it more than a little disgusting that I have to live on a budget while the state takes and spends my money and more -- then they want me to pay them more because they are not fiscally responsible?? I'm more than a little disgusted!) But, in light of the layoffs, Philip was upgraded from a cubicle to an office. We just keep praying and we know no matter what happens, God is with us through it all!

Philip also had his birthday last Sunday. He's the big 2-6 now! So old! ;)

I hope you recognize the many ways that God has blessed you this week! I sure have! God bless you and yours this weekend. We love and miss all of our family that lives far away. Keep us updated about you; we love to hear about your lives!

Attempt Number 1 at Potty Training

2010-04-26T15:01:00.002-05:00

So I started this morning thinking that I was going to work at potty training. I got Callie out of her overnight diaper and talked up the training pants that I had bought her. As I tried getting the pants on she fought and fought and screamed and cried. (As I was thinking, why am I doing this today?) So I tried to convince her to pick a pair of her new panties, again to no avail. So then, I took her to the bathroom and her new little potty and tried to get her to sit on there. She would not bend her knees to sit down. I asked her if she would like to sit on the big potty instead, again fought me every step of the way.

I finally managed to get her into the training pants and explained to her that these were big girl pants that would help her know when she was wet. If she felt like she needed to go, we could sit on her potty in the living room and if she used the potty, she would get a special treat.

So I left her to her shows, about 15 minutes later she came to me and said "Mommy, pee pee." I went and sat with her while she sat on her potty. We sat there as long as she could stand (about 10 minutes) and -- No luck. I told her she did a good job telling me, and that if she felt the need to go, to let me know and we'd try again. She then came out about 10 minutes later and said "Mommy, pee pee". And I saw the stars were gone which means that she was already wet. And I asked her if she already went in her training pants to which she replied, "Yes, treat!"

Ok, so we're kind of missing the point right? So I tried again with a new pair of training pants, explaining to her that these pretty stars ("Look, see how pretty the stars are!") would go away if she made her pants wet. I also again explained that we would have a special treat every time she went in the potty today. ("Ooooh, treat!" was her reply)

I think we're getting it, maybe? Well, she doesn't come in, doesn't say anything for awhile, so I go ask her if she'd like to sit on her potty only to to see that her training pants are once again full and wet. Time to switch methods? Probably. So I called back-up, asking mom if she thought I was frustrating her with the way the morning started and she was rebelling against the potty because I went ahead and tried to do it today.

Mom says that maybe she's just not getting the connection, which I've felt before. She asks why I don't go ahead and keep her in diapers and give her something she really likes to drink for lunch. Then I can put a video in after lunch and have her sit on the potty while she's watching a show. If she manages to go in the potty, I make a huge deal out of it and give her the special treat, maybe then she'll get what I'm wanting her to do.

So, I decide to try it. We're having lunch and I give her a stronger mixture of apple juice then I normally give her (probably almost 1/2 and 1/2 instead of 1/4 to 3/4) . She's finishing up lunch, and I'm trying to get things cleaned up when I looked over she was asleep on the table. It's now almost 3:30 and she's just starting to wake up from falling asleep at 12:30.

Needless to say, today has not exactly gone the way I thought it was going to. I'm not frustrated with her at all, but I am worried about frustrating her to the point that she doesn't even want to try to use the potty. It's such a fine line to walk between pushing too hard and not pushing hard enough! I guess we'll just have to try again tomorrow . . .

Hope your week is starting off on the right foot! God bless you and yours this week!

Back Home and Back to the Routine

2010-04-19T14:56:00.002-05:00

So, as you can see from our travel posts, we had a great time on vacation. So totally worth it! I loved breaking routine for the first time since our honeymoon and getting to plan a trip all to ourselves. Callie had a great time too, she told everyone who asked her at church on Wednesday all about the cows (in Amish country, for which she was carrying a brochure). The last few days of our trip was spent hopping from one country, antique, and Amish shop to another. We really enjoyed our lazy days, browsing through unique knick knacks and treasures.

Last week, I had my first "every 2 weeks" appointment on Thursday which was delayed and then canceled by two unexpected births back to back. The office staff kept apologizing to me for the inconvenience. I guess I just hope that no one holds it against me if their appointment is delayed or canceled because of when Gabe decides to come, so I shouldn't be put out with anyone who "decides" to have a baby when I have an appointment. It's kind of the nature of the job, right? I'm actually surprised that it doesn't happen to me more often with the many, many times I have had to go to the doctor with Callie and now with Gabe.

My appointment was rescheduled for today. Gabe's heartbeat was strong at 156 beats per minutes. He was pretty active while we were there which is always comforting. He's a lot less active baby than Callie, which is nice and scary at the same time. (Scary because I find myself thinking, now when's the last time he kicked? Is he alright? Should I be worried?) But usually when the scary thoughts start running through my head he reads my mind and gives me a little nudge or roll like, "I'm ok mommy, don't worry about me!" He's also very considerate. Every time I lay down in bed, even though he's very active between dinner and bedtime, he stops kicking when I'm trying to go to sleep.

Since we've been back, we've been going through and sorting lots and lots of little boy clothes (thanks to the Schirer-Suters!) and trying to get back in the routine of being home. I've got to say that I got pretty spoiled not having to cook for 10 days! It's hard to get back in the menu/grocery shopping mode. We have a lot of work to do yet on the house, and we're probably going to have a garage sale to help clear out some things before June!

In addition to that, I got my seeds today to start my garden this year today. I also got some herbs to pot. The last time I tried to grow herbs, the birds ate them all so I had thought that maybe I shouldn't waste more money doing that. But I think if I put them in pots up on my porch, maybe the cats will discourage the birds from getting to them?!? One can hope!

In Callie news, she has become much, much more vocal and expressive during and since our trip. She's very funny most of the time. On Saturday, when she woke up from her nap, she came out of her room and went and stood at the gate to the stairs and yelled down to us, "Daddy, I need some water!" Much better to wake up to than crying! We also have a neighbor's dog that's been coming to our house lately. We've called our neighbors several times to let them know when their dog is down at our house, even though she doesn't bother anything just to let them know where she is. Our neighbor told us to make it unpleasant for her to come down her by telling her sternly to go home and yelling at her if need be. So, I've been trying that (to no avail, I may add). Callie would hear me telling the dog "Go Home!" and she would come out and say "GO HOME!" And then later, if I hadn't said anything for awhile, she would come out and ask, "Doggie here?" I would tell her that yes, the dog was still here. She would wag her finger at the door and say, "Go Home Doggie! Go Home!"

Anyway, that's the latest going on around the Booker household. The next couple months has been set aside to really working hard to get everything ready for Gabriel's arrival. We have a lot to do in less and less time every day! Hope everyone had a great start to their week.

God bless you and yours this week!

Road Trip to Boston: Days 4, 5, 6, & 7

2010-04-08T19:30:00.004-05:00

Callie and Daddy in Boston.

Callie wants to play with the boys on their scooters.

Callie and Cedric play on an anchor in Salem.

A large ship in the Salem Port.

Callie balances as we walk in Salem.

Well, we've been in Boston for the past three days and it's been a blast. We had our very own tour guides who personally showed us around the area, provided a place for us to sleep and eat, and even do our laundry! (Thanks Schirer-Suter family!)

Day 4

We arrived in Boston in the early afternoon after taking it easy in the morning since we had a lot of early starts at the beginning of the week. We even took the longer way around to Beverly so we could avoid the toll roads, which was fun because we got to see a lot of old houses and the "countryside". We ate and arrived at the Schirer-Suter house. Uncle Myron came home from work to greet us and Cordelia and Cedric were at home as well. Then, Uncle Myron took us to see where he works at Gordan College. It is a very pretty campus and they are doing some big building projects which has really benefited the campus. We spent the evening eating the wonderful meal that Cordelia made.

Day 5

The Schirer-Suter Family took us on a guided tour of the coast up to Newbury Port. We stopped at a couple of antique stores along the way and ate at a wonderful little restaurant called "Woodman's". Unfortunately, it started to rain while we were in Newbury Port so we were unable to walk around like we wanted to, but we still got a pretty good feel for the city and were able to stop in a couple of shops along the way. We spent the evening catching up and once again eating the wonderful meal Cordelia made for us.

Day 6

Myron had to work, so Cordelia and Cedric took us on a guided tour of Salem, MA, which was actually a booming port city before the famous Salem Witch Trials, which I didn't know. Callie and Cedric played along the pier and enjoyed being close to the water and boats. We walked around town which had a lot of neat old buildings and houses. We spent the afternoon doing some much needed laundry and then went to church that evening.

Day 7

Today! We headed out to Boston, MA which is about an hour's drive from Beverly. We parked and walked around the city, again seeing all sorts of interesting architecture and apartments that were really old! (Something I love to do!) We ate lunch in a large food court that had all the choices you could possibly imagine and more for varieties of food. Callie has been into this thing lately that she will eat whatever I'm eating, but she'll leave Philip's food alone. Today, we ordered the exact same thing, a hot roast beef sandwich and fries to share. Callie would have nothing to do with Philip's sandwich, but ate at least half of mine. And the fries? Well, they were on Philip's plate, so he would hand me some, and then Callie would take them off my plate! Maybe she doesn't realize that I might need a few extra calories right now?!?!

Anyway, funny story time from today. Callie turned around to "Cebric" (her name for Cedric) and started saying "Hi Cebric! Hi Cebric! Hi Cebric!" over and over and over again. Cordelia says to Cedric, "Cedric, Callie is saying hi to you." And Cedric sighs, "I know, she does it all the time!"
Her other favorite phrase with Cedric is "Mon, Cebric, Mon!" (Her version of Come on) and she motions for him to follow.

Tonight, we started packing the car because we're leaving tomorrow and once again feasted with the Schirer-Suter family. We've had a wonderful visit to the Boston area and now it's time to head back toward Illinois! We'll be seeing some of you soon and wish the rest of you a happy weekend!

God bless you and yours!

Road Trip to Boston: Days 1, 2, & 3

2010-04-04T16:28:00.005-05:00

Niagara Falls

Callie and Daddy at Niagara Falls

Callie singing in the car on the way to Niagara Falls

Callie and Mommy at the Toronto Zoo

Callie the Firefighter at the Children's Museum

Callie goes grocery shopping

Callie puts on a puppet show

Callie learns about pulleys

Callie learns about magnets

So, we're on the road, taking a little time off tonight by relaxing in the hotel. Time to update everyone on all the happenings.

Day 1

Our first day took us to Flint, Michigan. We left our house at about 3:00 am, hoping Callie would quickly fall back asleep for most of the car ride. Unfortunately, she took about an hour and a half before sleeping again. However, she didn't seem to mind it too much. Though I took a lot of time planning when we were leaving and going each day, I failed to consider that we were crossing into another time zone, so we arrived in Flint an hour after I intended.

We visited a Children's Museum in Flint. It was smaller than I anticipated from their website, but Callie still managed to fill her two hours there with plenty of play. Everything was hands on, so of course Callie was in heaven without Mommy and Daddy chasing her around saying "No, no, only for your eyes!"

After a couple hours at the Children's Museum, we decided we'd better find something for lunch. We stopped at a neighborhood Arby's and once again hoped that Callie would fall asleep as we drove to our next destination, OUTLET SHOPS! We found this HUGE outlet shopping center and got Callie some much needed spring (transitional) clothing. I realized while packing for this trip that I did not have a lot of light long sleeve tops or even layering jackets for Callie to wear. So, our goal was met and we even were able to replace yet another pair of outgrown shoes with some good sales. And I even got a good deal on some Bath and Body Works Antibacterial soaps and lotions that happened to be on a pretty good sale as well. Our last little drive was to Auburn Hills, MI where we stayed the night. We had a very nice hotel suite and Philip and I were even able to stay up past Callie's bedtime because there was a separate living room area for Callie to sleep in. Very good day 1!

Day 2

We headed out at about 5:00 am from Auburn Hills and crossed the border into Canada by 6:00. Crossing the border held the typical questions.

(Border Guard) "Where are you from?"
(Philip) "Illinois."
(BG) "What are you planning on doing in Canada?"
(P) "Going up to Toronto to visit the zoo."
(BG) "Are you spending the night in Canada?"
(P) "No, just the day."
(BG) "You drove all the way from Chicago to spend a day in Canada?"
(P) "We're on a road trip to Boston."
(BG) "Okay, have fun."

Apparently, even an educated Border Guard from Canada thinks that Chicago is the only place in Illinois. Hate to tell you, but there's an entire state other than Chicago . . . in fact, I think most people in Illinois wouldn't mind if Chicago broke off into Lake Michigan, became an island, and declared themselves the 51st state.

We had a blast at the zoo. We arrived soon after they opened on a VERY busy Saturday. (We think it was probably one of the first nice days that they had since winter.) It was huge! I told Philip I would have liked to have a pedometer so we knew how far we had walked. We visited Indio-Malaysia, Eurasia, the Americas, Africa, and Australia, complete with a Great Barrier Reef exhibit. Callie wore herself out before we got to Eurasia, so Philip and I took a quick trip around it and headed back to the car for our next destination: Niagara Falls! Callie slept much better all the way to Niagara. We tried to go to the Canadian side of the falls first , but unfortunately, their "free parking" was only open seasonally and the other parking was $14 . . . so we headed toward New York and the American side of the falls. We once again had an interesting border guard, asking where Philip worked, what we did, etc. Then it got interesting . . .

(Border Guard) "Heather?"
(Heather) "Yes?"
(BG) "Is that you?"
(H) "Yes."
(BG) "Could you take your sunglasses off? Those things are bigger than me!"
(H) snickering "Sure."
(BG) "Alright, that is you. Thanks."

We visited Niagara Falls, which was pretty mind-blowingly huge and amazing. I was a little nervous holding Callie up by the railing, which I let Philip do, but kept telling him what to do anyway. "You got her? Real tight right? Don't cut off the circulation to her legs, but hold her good . . . " (it went on from there).

We finished up the day with a drive to Buffalo, NY for our overnight stay, which was pretty uneventful.

Day 3

Easter Sunday! Happy Easter! We started our day with a 6:00 am goal for leaving to get to Albany, NY by the beginning of church services. We made our goal, and got on the craziest tollway that I've ever seen in my life. It's called the New York State Thruway, which is pretty descriptive in and of itself. Basically if you want to get from one side of New York to the other, your only route is this road. You get a ticket when you get on, and you pay for how far you travel on it at your exit. We had to go 290 miles, so you can guess that it was a good size chunk of change by the time we got off. But, as you can tell by the name, there's not really a way around it. It would be like making I-55 or I-10 a tollway. No good way around it in a lot of places.

We made it to church services on time and had a pleasant experience at church. Callie even stayed with us the entire service and despite having to tell her over and over again to use her "whisper voice" she did well overall and we even got compliments from the preacher's wife on how well-behaved she was. After church, we headed to the Crossgate Mall hoping to find a place to eat and a place to walk off some energy. Unfortunately, our plans were not to be as the mall was closed because of the holiday. Fortunately, we did find something to eat that was open, but none of the stores were. We walked around for awhile anyway to get out some energy before heading to Chicopee, Massachusetts.

Callie was once again a good rider for us to Chicopee, taking her afternoon nap on the trip. We've spent the rest of the day taking it a little bit easier, resting in the hotel for the last part of the afternoon and found a close place for dinner.

We plan on taking a more relaxed morning tomorrow and arriving in Beverly, Massachusetts (our final destination for the next 4 days) in the early afternoon. We only have about 1 1/2 hours to get there, so we're looking forward to "sleeping in". :)

We'll try to continue to update on the progress of our trip. We're having a lot of fun so far! We hope you had a great holiday weekend!

God bless you and yours!

Almost Vacation Time!

2010-03-29T16:13:00.003-05:00

Diaper Wreath for Eli Stahler

Bat and Ball Cookies for the shower

The cake with the daddy in mind!

Callie "reading" in her bed

Callie checking out her new bed

So excited!

Playing in her new bed.

We're getting ready for our first vacation since our honeymoon. Leaving early in the morning on Friday! :) I'm trying to get things organized around here before we leave.

Last week was busy, I hosted a shower for my friend at my house, so the last few days have been busy trying to get things in place. It's not settled yet, we still don't have all our boxes unpacked and things aren't all in their final places. Like I've said before, now that we're past the shower, our next room to get ready is the nursery. :) Only a couple months to go!

The shower went really well. I think everyone enjoyed it. There was lots and lots of CUBS gear in honor of the proud daddy having his little boy! We were excited to be able to have a celebration for our friends.

One day last week, Callie and I were shopping at TJMaxx and I told her we had to stop over in the baby section. She said "Okay, baby." and so we walked over that direction. All of the sudden she said, "Baby!" like she saw a baby. I looked all around, even in the pictures on the wall, and I said "Callie, I don't see a baby. Where do you see a baby?" And she says to me "Mama, this baby!" and pats my stomach. I think we might be catching on! :)

Then, on the way over to Granny Great's house, Callie was talking and talking in the back. All of the sudden, she gets really quiet. I asked her, "Callie what are you doing? You stopped talking." To which she replies, "(sigh) Just thinking."

I think she's turning quite the little personality. Of course, she's already had a lot of character showing through, it's just more official now when you add the vocabulary. A fair warning to all: If you don't want it repeated, don't say it in front of Callie! She copies me all the time. Fortunately, I've been trying to "toddlerize" my vocabulary so she's not saying things that are inappropriate for her to say. For instance, I try not to say "Shut up", even jokingly, so I don't have a two-year-old telling an adult somewhere "Shut up!" (That would be a red-faced moment!) It's amazing when you think about everything you say during a day that, even though not bad in and of itself, you would not want coming out of the mouth of your two-year-old.

Since we're taking our laptop on vacation with us, I hope to be posting pictures and travel diaries from the road. We hope everyone has a good week! I know it's going to be busy around here getting ready!

God bless you and yours this week!

The Latest from the Farm

2010-03-19T15:36:00.002-05:00

Well, the weather has been beautiful the past couple of days and I'm absolutely exhausted from trying to take part in it! Callie and I went and played outside yesterday after we got back from a nearly all day trip to Peoria. We found the kittens that had been born a few weeks ago and Callie was very gentle petting the one that I managed to catch. (They're not very used to us.) She kept going over and looking at them and saying "Kitt-ens." :)

Speaking of things she's saying, what isn't she saying? It's amazing to me how much she says and communicates! I have to be very careful what I say around her anymore, because it could very possibly be repeated! Every time she comes back from bible class, she shouts over everyone else visiting "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" It's so sweet, even though I'd really like her to use her indoor voice, I can't help but smile that she wants to show me her papers so badly she can't hardly wait to get into the auditorium. Callie's getting ready to move up to a toddler bed. I think she'll make the transition well because she doesn't like napping in her crib because she can't get out when she wakes up, so she's already sleeping on a "bed" in the living room during naps. I just hope we don't have any early morning visits to our room once she figures out she can get up on her own. On the other hand, I think mornings will be more pleasant since she won't have to cry to get our attention.

The house is coming together slowly. I hope to have the living room and kitchen looking more like the final set-up by the end of this weekend because I'm hosting a shower here next weekend! Hopefully, it goes over well for the sake of all involved! :) Even our internet is behaving well, which I was beginning to think would never happen! We haven't had any problems since Tuesday when the service tech came over and said he'd replaced our ports and line. (And if you fully understand that, good for you because I sure don't!)

I'm excited to get started on our projects for the house once things settle down. Completing the nursery is the first thing on our list. After that, we're debating between the media room or our bedroom or Callie's bedroom. I'm also excited to get working on my sewing projects that I need to get done. My sewing area is almost set up; I hope that after this weekend it will be cleared off and ready to go!

Yesterday, I had my glucose testing for my pregnancy. Hopefully, everything checks out and I won't have to do a three hour test. (Never heard of it before a woman in the waiting room yesterday said I was lucky it was only an hour and then the woman in the office said that I could have to have a three hour test if I fail this one.) Not feeling diabetic, so I think I'm ok! :) Gabriel was not happy with me eating two pieces of toast in the morning instead of my normal breakfast yesterday and he let me know it all day long. I was SO hungry! Philip was laughing at me because I was still eating after he went upstairs to put Callie to bed -- a full 2 hours after dinner! Gabe was much more pleasant this morning, jumping for joy that I had my frosted mini wheats and fruit. Something about starting out my day deficient of calories makes me feel like I'm an eating monster the rest of the day! Of course, part of that could just be where I'm at in my pregnancy! ha!

Well, I think that's about all that's going on in the Booker house lately! We're all doing great and things are busy, busy!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. God bless you and yours!

Internet Service? Not Hardly!

2010-03-12T21:24:00.002-06:00

Callie stacks her new cups! Ta da!

Callie's "table" talks with her new dolls at her new table.

Callie with her two new baby dolls.

Mommy asking Callie if she wants to blow out her candle.

As you can see, Callie had a couple big birthday celebrations!

We've been having trouble with our internet service again. The poor service tech has been out several times and has not been able to find the source of our problem. I'm a little frustrated with our provider however . . . they haven't exactly been pleasant about our bill. Of course, if they were providing the service we had agreed upon, I wouldn't have a problem paying them!

The Booker 3 are living alone in the farm house now! (Another reason the blogs have been few and far between.) It's an ongoing process and things are slowly (really slowly) coming together. Let's just put it this way, we're hoping to have things settled by the time Gabe gets here. Mom and Dad are down the road at their new house and have already have their first guests.

The Bookers from Beaumont visited this past week while Linda was on Spring Break from school. We had a fun time together and they enjoyed playing with Callie. Callie enjoyed having a lot of attention over the past few days, making the most of her time in the spotlight by dancing and singing and jabbering most of the time! Hopefully, she'll make an easy transition back into her normal routine and not expect Mommy's undivided attention all the time -- because Mommy has a whole lot to do!

We're planning a family vacation at the beginning of next month to Boston, MA to visit Uncle Myron, Aunt Cordelia, and Cedric. On the way, we're planning on stopping in Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. We've got a lot of fun things on the schedule we're hoping to do! It will be our first vacation since Philip and I went on our honeymoon. :)

Catching up

2010-02-19T07:37:00.002-06:00

Well, as you can tell by my lack of blogging, I've had spotty internet service for most of the month of February. For some unknown reason, internet and the farmhouse just don't seem to want to get along! At least this time, we got someone out here a lot faster and got the problem resolved (fingers crossed).

Most of you know from my quick facebook update that we're having a boy! Gabriel Allen is expected June 15th, almost a month after his daddy's 26th birthday and a little over a month before our 4th wedding anniversary.

My pregnancy with Gabe has been a lot different than my first pregnancy with Callie. Right now, at 7:45 am, I could eat an entire fridge full of food, and in the afternoons, I'm just starving, but by dinner tonight, I probably won't be hungry at all. Gabe also tends to kick my organs behind him instead of toward the outside, which is a really funny feeling. (I think I'm going to say I prefer Callie's style on this one.) I think my belly is bigger this time, which is typical in your second pregnancy, but I actually haven't gained the "recommended" weight up to this point. I believe this hungry thing in the mornings and afternoons will help me catch up a little too quickly if I'm not careful! Other than those things, and being a little bit more tired because I can't take a nap whenever I feel like I need one, things are going along normally.

Callie is going to be 2-years-old in one week! Oh My Goodness! We're having a party with our church family next Saturday and then our family party will wait until Gramma and PaPaw are here from Texas on March 8th. The lady that has made all our special occasion cakes has semi-retired, only doing weddings, so I'm unhappily trying to find another bakery to match quality and price, which I'm pretty sure isn't going to happen. I've got two cakes ordered from two different bakeries, so we'll be doing a taste test.

Unfortunately, that taste test will be without Philip because he got told after we planned the party that the business trip that he was originally supposed to go on, then told he couldn't go, had an available spot and that he needed to go. So Philip will be leaving for San Antonio, Texas on the day of the party and he will be there through March 3rd. We'll have a special celebration with Daddy on her birthday to make up for him missing the church party.

In moving news, we're supposed to have a house to ourselves by this Sunday! My parents are planning on living in their new house starting Saturday. We probably won't have everything of theirs totally moved for a little bit, but if we can get them set up for the most part, they'll be 1/8 mile down the road Saturday night, enjoying their new house! And we'll be enjoying some Booker family time! :) YAY! (We'll see how it goes today, hopefully nothing to change their plans. . . )

Well, I guess that's all the news I have for now. I've been really busy trying to get things organized for a quick move in to place move for us while my parents are moving things out. Our bed is supposed to be delivered next week, so we are really happy that everything finally seems to be coming together and after almost exactly a year and a half, we'll actually have a place to call our home!

God bless you and yours this weekend! Keep our moves in your prayers that everything goes off without a hitch!

February Check-Up

2010-02-01T18:58:00.002-06:00

Well, the baby's doing great! Heartbeat was 148 beats per minute today and my measurements were perfect! I have been having some trouble with heartburn keeping me up at night, so the doctor gave me some new orders. No bending from the waist and sleep on an incline to see if we can avoid a prescription.

Other news from the appointment, due to a family history of cleft palate, the doctor has ordered a more in-depth ultrasound at my hospital this Thursday that our insurance will cover 100%. Since this is a "targeted ultrasound" and not a "screening ultrasound" I'm not sure if they will take the time if the baby is not in an (ahem) ideal position to wait around and see if the baby will move to show us all his/her glory. So I've kept my appointment at the "Belly Boutique" just in case until we finish our appointment on Thursday. So hopefully, either Thursday or Friday we will know if GabeKenzie is actually Gabriel or McKenzie.

Callie spent the day with Mimi and BamPaw while I got several errands run with Granny. Callie and Mimi apparently had a very eventful day full of science lessons, practicing dexterity, and Callie correcting Mimi from time to time. ("Do you want more water?" "No, I have juice." "No, I think you have water." "No, more juice." -Mimi opens the cup - "Oh, you did have juice, didn't you?" "Yes!")

This was my first time to leave Callie for more than 3 hours since she was born. I don't know if you caught this, but she's going to be 2 next month and I've not been away from her for much more than 3 hours! Before I was a parent, I would say that a parent who did that was going to make their child too dependent on them. Look at me now!

That's all I know for now. Hope everyone had a good start to their week and has something to look forward to! God bless you and yours!

To Pacify or Not to Pacify?

2010-01-29T07:45:00.002-06:00

This is day 2 of going "cold turkey" without the paci. Day 1 -- not so great. Clingy, refusing to nap, grumpy . . . and that was just me! :) No, not really. I did call Philip as he was coming home last night to tell him I was punching out once he got in because of the day we had.

Fortunately, we had a pretty good night's sleep last night. Callie had a little trouble falling asleep and was crying for awhile between 8:30-9:00, but she eventually calmed down on her own. She slept until almost 6:00 this morning, so we did pretty good considering it was our first night without that faithful pacifier.

In other news, we're fast approaching February 5th, which is the date of my ultrasound! I'm very excited. I'm like a kid going to Disney World! (Or me going to Disney World . . . ) We're planning a family date night after the ultrasound, maybe even taking Callie to her first movie, though we haven't completely decided on that as of yet.

This week has been pretty good. We went out shopping and got out of the house all day on Wednesday. That was nice since we had hardly been out of the house because the weather had been so bad, but I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got home from church that night. I guess at 20 weeks pregnant, I just can't go like I did before!

I hope everyone had a great week and has an exciting weekend! God bless you and yours!

23 Months Old!

2010-01-26T09:06:00.002-06:00

Callie is 23 months old today! I have a little over a month to plan her 2nd birthday party, which seems absolutely crazy. I can't possibly have a daughter who's almost 2! Our party plans for this year are a "Noah's Ark" theme. Callie loves animals so much, so we're planning the party around all her favorite animal friends, in twos! (Kinda perfect, right?)

Things are going on as normal around here. Callie plays all morning until lunch, then takes a nap after lunch, then plays the rest of the day until dinner. It gets busy after dinner with bath, warm milk before bed, story time and song time, then to bed by 8:00. That's our typical schedule except for 1-2 days a week we go to Peoria or Bloomington to get groceries or sometimes just to get out of the house!

Callie loves to play pretend with her dishes and cups. She's always mixing up something for us to try. She also loves to play with her building blocks, usually adding them to the dishes she's making. She also takes a bear and wraps her in a blanket and carries her around the house at least once a day. She's still surprising me with everything that she knows. Yesterday, she was enjoying playing with her hat and mittens. I probably put them on her at least 20 times. She would get her hat on, then hold out her hands for the mittens. She would then proceed to walk to the door (mind you, she was in her feety pajamas) and say "Outside! Snow!" At least she almost knows how to prepare to go out when it's snowing!

My parents are hoping to be in their house by the second week in February. Of course, it originally the end of December, then it was the second week of January, now we're to the second week of February . . . so don't count on me holding my breath. Sometimes it seems when you're counting on something, someone gets delayed, something doesn't get shipped, a mistake is made, or something takes longer than was planned, which is a list of everything that's gone on since December 1st. No one's fault, just the way the cookie crumbles! :-) Oh well, whatcha gonna do?

Now that I'm safely back at my starting weight it means I can start doing my pregnancy work outs. I've felt very lazy not being able to do anything extra, of course now the question is, where do I fit that into my schedule? Did I really fit it in before? Actually it was a lot easier when I could take Callie on a walk to the park. The weather now is not really appropriate for that kind of work out though . . . I'm sure I'll find something and some time!

That's about all that's going on around here lately. The anticipation of finally getting a permanent residence after nearly 1 1/2 years, Callie growing and making us laugh on a daily basis, and us plugging along in our average, everyday lives.

I hope you all have a great week! God bless you and yours!

More Pictures to Catch up with Callie

2010-01-22T08:23:00.005-06:00

Callie on her tricycle from G.G.Ma

Callie on her lion from Mimi and Bampa

Callie checking out her refrigerator from Mommy and Daddy and Granny Great and Paw Paw

Callie in her new car from Mimi and Bampa

Callie opening her presents

Callie with her wings from BFF Chloe

Callie helps cook Christmas dinner

Christmas card outtakes

This was her immediate reaction to sitting on Santa's lap -- Oh well! Maybe next year!

As you can see, Callie had a big Christmas this year! Fortunately, some of the toys are going with Mimi and Bampa to their house once it's finally finished. (Someday!)

In other news, Philip finally felt GabeKenzie kick last night! I've been feeling little flutters for awhile and stronger kicks for the past two weeks. I'm excited for my next doctor's appointment to hear the little heartbeat again. This kid's got a heart muscle; GabeKenzie's heartbeat has been between 150-170 beats per minute every time we've heard it.

Uncle Eric is home for a couple days to get his arm x-rayed to make sure everything's continuing to heal properly.

That's about all we have going on here at the Hill/Booker household this weekend that I know about. I'll probably have more to write about after the weekend!

Have a great weekend everyone! God bless you and yours!

The Triumphant Return from an Internet-Less Existence!

2010-01-21T09:42:00.004-06:00

Callie all dressed up for the cold

Callie deciding on her pumpkin for fall

Callie loves her pasta!

Callie and Daddy ride the rides at the Pumpkin Festival in Morton, IL!

Cute little pumpkin for Halloween! (Noticing a trend?!?)

-- Some pictures from the past few months so you can see how Callie has grown! Christmas and more winter pictures to come in the next post! --

Well, we're back in the farmhouse with my parents. We moved back in with them December 23rd. Yep, it was a busy Christmas which is why my Christmas cards were late, my presents weren't all finished and wrapped in time, and I'm still searching for and eventually finding things I meant to do last year.

You're probably thinking, Why is this her first post, nearly a month after she moved into the house with internet? I'll answer that question. Our internet service at the farm had been provided by DTN Speed Net for many years now. The problem is, they have not been maintaining their connection properly over the years and it is now to the point where it is almost slower than dial-up connections. For example, it took me almost 30 minutes to log into facebook, which timed out, of course. I wasn't about to do anything I didn't absolutely have to do online since it was such a headache. So now, we've switched over to Verizon. The problem is now that our connection is complicated. My parents are supposed to be taking their number and internet connection with them to the new house (when? they don't really know), and Philip and I are only planning on having an internet connection and not a home phone. So, Verizon has messed up our connection at least 2 times so far trying to figure out what we're actually asking them to do. Anyway, that's the short answer to why this is my first blog post since we moved to the apartment.

So, what's gone on in the Booker family for the past few months? Well, I'm sure most if not all of you know that I'm pregnant with Baby Booker #2, affectionately known as GabeKenzie until February 5th when we hope to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. My 1st trimester was very different from my first pregnancy, I had a lot of trouble eating. Fortunately that has passed now, and I am almost back to my starting weight! :) There are times that I've almost forgotten that I'm pregnant, but lately I've been feeling those first little kicks that remind me.

Callie has grown like a weed. Actually, she was 27'' tall and 27 lbs. at her 18 months appointment and today she is 33'' tall and 30 lbs. Callie will be 2 in a little more than a month, which is blowing my mind! I'm so excited to see her learn and grow. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband who supports me staying at home with my babies not only monetarily but emotionally and mentally as well!

Callie loves to sing and dance, she actually has matched my pitch while I've been singing in church on more than one occasion. I might have a performer on my hands! (Not that I know where that comes from, of course, says the girl that used to stand on her grandparent's hearth and sing into her great-grandmother's cane!) Callie also loves "Momo's Woold" (Elmo's World) and "Wood Woold" (Word World). At the end of Word World every day, they have all these kids shout "School!" as they spell it on the screen. Callie loves to say "Sool" with them, but I always thought she was just repeating what they were saying. I found out the other day though, that was wrong. We were upstairs and she was getting dressed in her hat and mittens like she was going somewhere. She said "Bye! See ya!" and I asked her where she was going. She launched into this long story and then at the end she said "and Sool!"

It's been a pretty cold and dreary winter so far. We've considered going on a vacation to make sure we're not Vitamin D deficient by the end of winter, but it seems like most of the country is in the same boat. Callie and I have been at the house since Monday, so I'm sure once the weather clears up we're going to be trying desperately to cure our cabin fever.

In other news, we're working on the nursery that we'll need by June 15th and I just ordered the wallpaper that we need for one wall yesterday. I'm looking forward to the part of the project that I can actually help with! This time we're going with a variety of yellows as the main color, and then pops of green (and maybe pink or blue once we know) to accent the room. Hopefully I get to post pictures of the finished room soon! :)

Philip's job is going well for the most part. The school is booming, he's got a good amount of work on his hands to keep him busy, but not too busy, and he's enjoying his co-workers.

Well, I think that about covers the comeback post. We've had an eventful time these past few months, but I'm not going to try to actually catch everyone up on all of it. This has been a summary of the Booker's life up until now, and I hope to keep you updated more often (as I've often said before!).

I hope everything is going well with everyone out there. We love and miss all of our family and friends that live apart from us! God bless you and yours!

Until Further Notice

2009-08-13T11:47:00.001-05:00

As you have probably noticed, I have not been posting regular blog updates. I have found that the few and far between times I have access to the internet is mainly taken up with bills, budgets, e-mail and facebook. Until I have steady access to the internet, I will not be making regular blog updates.

Things that I've discovered

2009-06-11T15:07:00.003-05:00

I've discovered that not having the internet "in house" leads to few and far between blog postings.

I've discovered that (according to Calle) Illinois dirt is "Mmmmm - Mmmm!"

I've discovered that Callie loves to play in water, even when the water is in the toilet.

I've discovered that babies who have been successfully weaned still like to be under Mommy's shirt, especially in public places, such as church.

I've discovered that Philip really, really tries to do things the way I want them done, even if he doesn't always succeed. ;)

I've discovered that Callie will smell like garlic for two days if she eats it.

I've discovered that people with imposing personalities will impose on you no matter what the situation. I don't understand how they do it!!

I've discovered that I don't always understand logically how something works itself out, but I know that God deserves the credit!

I've discovered that the maintence man doesn't really care that your fridge has been recalled because it's a fire hazard. He's got nothing to lose!

I've discovered that some people are just going to drive you crazy and all you can do is accept it and discuss it with your husband (who doesn't really want to hear about it, but will because you're going to say it anyway!).

I've discovered that life is not like a box of chocolates because I've never found a chocolate that I find hard to swallow.

I've discovered that finally getting your house sold is probably one of the most relieving feelings in the world.

I've discovered that the key to happiness is contentment.

I've discovered that Callie knows more than she's letting on.

(Which leads me to my next discovery) I've discovered that I'm going to have to be a lot more careful about what I say when Callie's around, because pretty soon, that's going to be all around church whether I want it to be or not!

And Finally, I've discovered that God conquers all my fears, quiets all my worries, and takes care of His children even when we don't exactly know what we're doing.

New Ride for the Booker Girls

2009-06-02T15:37:00.004-05:00

Callie in her Sunday Dress from Gramma B.
Callie taking a stroll in her daddy's shoes!
Callie's outfit is completed by a summery sun hat
Callie and her BFF Chloe watching the Imagination Movers at the Booker Apartment
Our latest purchase: 2001 Chrysler Town and Country Limited Edition

Well, we finally did it. We've been talking about it for awhile, researching it even longer, and we finally followed through and got a minivan. We bought a 2001 Chrysler Town and Country Limited Edition with 50,000 miles on it! It's really pretty and very convienent. I really enjoy being able to push a button to open the door while I'm carrying Callie.

Callie likes her new ride as well. We have a lot of fun together! Hopefully, we'll be able to take many family car trips for years to come. :)

Callie is continuing to surprise me with how much she knows and communicates. The other day, we were in Old Navy and she went up and barked at the dog mannequin and petted his head. It was so cute!

Callie and I have been taking a lot of walks together, whenever we have errands to run in town and just for fun sometimes! Philip joins us occassionally, because he's had to take a break from his marathon training because the doctor suspects he has a stress fracture in his foot. Hopefully, he'll be mended soon and back to training for his big day.

Other than that, we keep busy during the day. We play a lot and visit Granny Great and Grammy some days. Philip is still enjoying his job, he just took a trip to Chicago May and is due to take a trip to Washington in July. We always seems to keep busy with one thing or another!

Hope everyone is having a great week! God bless!

I finally have the laptop back!

2009-05-18T10:26:00.002-05:00

Philip was in Chicago last week and he took the laptop with him. I've been so Internet deprived, I've been on the computer all morning. Sometimes I feel like checking facebook every 5 minutes is the modern day equivalent to watching paint dry. It's boring, but somehow it keeps calling me back.

Last week, Callie and I spent a lot of time together. With Philip being gone, I felt like I got a lot more done because I didn't think "Oh, I'll wait 'til Philip gets back to do that," instead I would do chores when I first thought of them. Hopefully, I can continue that attitude and keep up with everything better than I have been.

Callie's also doing a lot better about playing on her own for longer periods of time, so that also gives me more opportunities to get chores done and I've been doing some more baking, which she appreciates. :) Last week, I also started walking with Callie because the weather FINALLY cleared up for a couple days. She loves being outside so much. She also had fun watching me plant my vegetable garden out at the farm, which is another thing I'm looking forward to working with this summer. I'm sure Callie is going to have a lot of fun out playing in the dirt!

I guess the biggest news of last week was that I had LASIK surgery and I now have better than perfect vision without the use of glasses or contacts. It was an amazing experience! I haven't had trouble with side effects for the most part. The worst thing is probably that my eyes are a little dry in the morning and on occasion throughout the day. But nothing severe or painful at all. I am SO happy with the results!

On the day of my surgery, my parents had agreed to keep Callie for the rest of the day and then overnight. I was looking forward to my first night off in 15 months and had stockpiled some movies, all ready for a little break. But, it didn't really work out how I planned. No, Callie was fine. I was the one crying the whole day. I ended up having her brought back to the apartment and she spent the night with me. She actually was a very good girl and didn't bother my goggles much at all. I told Philip that I don't think it would have been such a big deal had he been home, but the fact that I was all alone for the first time in almost 3 years, I guess it just sent me over the edge. Oh well, she'll grow up quickly enough as it is, I might as well cherish all the time she spends with me now! :)

As far as what's new with Callie, she's been signing more things and picking up new signs faster. She's also saying more "words", but probably not that anyone who hasn't been around her all the time would recognize as words. She says "what's this?" but it's more like "sus sis?" It's really funny though because you can tell when she's asking a question because her little voice goes up at the end like you're supposed to! She also says mama, dada, baby, and go go. She climbs up and down the stairs all by her self and can get onto and off of the furniture. She loves hiding things around the house in drawers and cabinents where they're not supposed to be, so I've started dedicating certain drawers and cupboards to her and I hide things in there for her to find later. She really enjoys our little games. :)

I think that's about all the bragging everyone can take so I'll stop! I hope everyone has a good week. Keep in touch and God Bless you and yours!

Well it's been a long time . . .

2009-05-04T19:06:00.002-05:00

I know, I know. I'm simply awful. I promised updates every two or three days and it's been months since I actually wrote a new update. I'm not going to try and catch everyone up on what's been going on, so I'll just talk about recent events. If you need (or want) any back stories, you can call me and I'll fill you in on all our latest happenings.

Philip and Callie and I have moved into an apartment in town while my parents build their house. With all the rainy weather that we have been having up here, they have no way of knowing when they're going to be able to start and we know it's going to be at least 6 months until they're finished. We were able to find an open ended lease so we could move back to the farm after mom and dad are finished with the new house, whenever that may be.

Callie is enjoying not being told "no" all day long and I'm enjoying not having to watch her like a hawk. We've made the adjustment well and we're all happy about our decision.

With Callie now being fourteen months old, we have begun to make some big strides in communication. I'm beginning to understand phrases that she uses on a regular basis and she's also got some sign language that she uses, mostly "more" when we're eating, and she has many animal sounds that she is able to make. The best part is that she understands what I'm saying to her and seeing her recognize that is just phenomenal. Watching her make connections everyday is so much fun! :)

I'm looking forward to working on my scrapbooks which had been lost in boxes that were stored away and also some more sewing projects in the near future.

That's a quick update about our family. I hope everyone is doing well and not at too much of a loss for reading material while I was on my hiatus. :) God bless you and yours!

The Bookers in 2008

2009-04-06T15:40:00.001-05:00

View Project at Shutterfly

Callie's first Birthday Party

2009-03-18T15:43:00.004-05:00

Eating Birthday Cake!

I think she likes icing!

Move that a little closer mom.

Reaching for more!

Showing Off!

Meanwhile, Back on the Farm

2009-03-02T09:17:00.002-06:00

We've moved back out to the farmhouse with Mom and Dad for now. Granny and Paw-Paw are expected in today from they're winter retreat to South Padre Island, TX. As you can see from the previous post, we had a lot of fun in Texas with them. I'll be posting pictures from the trip on facebook either today or tomorrow.

We've got a busy week ahead of us, getting ready for the Bookers and Eric to be here for Spring Break. We're excited to have our first visitors! Monday is going to be Callie's first birthday party, so I have some prep work to do. :)

Mom and Dad have had to make an unexpected trip up to Mayo Clinic this week for some tests for Mom. They're not sure if they're going to be back in time for Callie's birthday party. We went out to eat with them on Callie's birthday just in case they don't make it back. Please say a prayer for Mom's test results to come back with good news! (And maybe that they can make it back in time for Callie's birthday celebration!)

Mom and Dad have also made the final decisions on the house that they're building, so that project is set to start after the ground has warmed up. (Soon, please!) :) We might just have our own house to live in by the end of summer!

Callie had her one year shots on Friday and is finally recovering today. We had a rough last night, but her fever finally broke and she's acting more like herself now this morning. At her appointment, she was 24 pounds and 28.75 inches which puts her in the 75 percentile for weight and 50 percentile for height.

That's what's been going on at the Hill/Booker/Schirer House. Hopefully now that we're back at the farm we'll have more of a chance to update our blog since we have consistent internet access.

Hope everyone has a good start to their week!

South Padre Island Vacation

2009-02-23T09:02:00.005-06:00

Callie wading in the Gulf of Mexico

Callie going to the Zoo

Callie Watching the Gorillas

Callie worn out after a long day at the Zoo

Callie first experience with Sand

Callie Walks!

2009-02-08T18:51:00.002-06:00

We're Walking!

2009-01-24T13:06:00.002-06:00

Thursday of this week, Callie decided to start walking. She let go of her daddy and walked over to me on the other side of the room. We've been expecting this for a while now, but it didn't make it any easier! I was crying anyway . . . watching her become a little girl is so hard! She was 4 days shy of being 11 months old when she took her first solo steps. :) We'll be putting up a short video on Monday of her showing off her new found skills.

Other than that, this week has been pretty normal. Philip had a day off on Monday, so we continued to work on our first project at the farmhouse, texturizing and painting the hallway. We're over here again today and Philip thinks he's going to finish the texturizing part today. We'll have to wait until next Saturday to start the painting again because it takes a week to set.

We're in the process of planning Callie's first birthday party. I think some people may think I'm going a bit overboard for a one-year birthday, but I'm incredibly excited (even though part of me is a little sad) and I want this to be a great day for all of us to remember. We're going to have a nice meal together with some of Callie's favorite things and then we'll have cake, ice cream and punch. The theme is going to be red, pink, and white hearts. (Since it's close to Valentine's day and everything will be on sale! I know, I'm cheap!) I'm hoping to make my own invitations since Philip let me buy a Cricut Expression, but I'm not sure it's going to be in before I need to send them out.

Anyway, that's a good summary of all that's going on and what's on my mind lately. Hope everyone has an energizing weekend!

Moved and Nearly Settled

2009-01-18T17:13:00.002-06:00

Well, we've moved over to Granny and Paw-Paw's house to housesit for them until they get back from SPI, TX in March. We've been having a pretty good time, other than the threateningly cold weather outside. We've enjoyed having family time, and ready access to a treadmill to burn off those holiday sweets! :)

We've kinda been going back and forth, getting clothes and other necessities as the need arises since we're only a few miles away. There are sometimes that I think of something I'd really like to have there, and I've forgotten it by our next trip out. Overall, we've been enjoying our days and evenings of solitude. There are sometimes I wish I had someone there to help with Callie, but we've been making it work.

I was able to go to my first practice for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony last Tuesday. It was hard for me to get out on my own at night and leave Callie with Daddy for awhile, but once I got there, I really enjoyed myself. I'm looking forward to our performance.

Well, I guess that's all the exciting news I have. We don't have internet connection at the house where we are, so my posts may have a little more time between them. Hopefully, I won't lose any readers due to the lack of posting!

Hope everyone has a great week!

The Results of the Mysterious Appointment

2009-01-09T09:18:00.002-06:00

So, my "appointment" on Tuesday night was an audition for the local singing group. I got the call last night telling me the results.

For purely balance reasons, they don't need any sopranos right now, so I'm not going to be a full time member. However, because they are doing a Beethoven piece this spring and need a bigger ensemble, I'm going to be singing with them in April for this production.

I figure this is probably the best of both worlds because I get to be involved, but it's not a full time commitment as my primary role right now needs to be "mom". I'm excited to meet some new people in the area with similar interests and maybe making some new friends!

So, Tuesday evenings I'll be singing my little heart out for an hour. Philip's being very supportive and I'm so happy to have a partner who encourages me to be involved in things I love to do! Yay!

That's about all the interesting stuff going on lately! Hope your day goes well today!

2009-01-07T12:51:00.000-06:00

Philip's sick today. He got sick last night, so neither of us got a very good night's sleep. Philip was looking forward to a short week at work, but I don't think he intended to have today off as well.

Oh well. That puts me doing both mine and his chores, so I really don't have time to be writing this! We've been pretty busy since we've been back trying to take care of everything at 2 houses, plus our stuff, plus (of course) Callie! It's been pretty much non-stop!

Pray that Philip gets healthy and the rest of us remain healthy! (Especially Callie, I can take it, but I don't know if any of us can handle it if she gets sick too!)

Ahhh Motherhood!

2009-01-06T15:14:00.000-06:00

So, I have this feeling that this is just going to be one of those weeks . . . .

It all started yesterday when we were running a little later to the airport than I'm comfortable with due to some traffic on our way to Denver. As we were driving, I noticed a particular smell (you know what I'm talking about) coming from our little angel in the carseat next to me. Well, we were late enough that once we got to the airport, we got directly in line for our boarding passes, figuring we would deal with her once we got past security. The security line was fairly long and then we had to take an elevator and a train to get to our boarding gate. No bathrooms along the way. We find our gate as they're beginning to start pre-boarding (i.e. us!) and look over and see a family bathroom across the hall. So, Philip and I both run in there to change Callie.

Yeah, it was everywhere. It was to the point where we debated throwing away her entire outfit. We managed to get her cleaned up, with a new diaper and outfit and still make the last of the pre-boarding. And we prayed like crazy that she wouldn't have another episode while we were on the plane since A) There isn't really a good place to change a diaper (especially that level of diaper) on a plane and B) We were out of spare outfits . . .

Thankfully nothing else happened and we made it safely back to Chicago and eventually back home yesterday evening.

I wake up today with a fresh start, not having a ton of laundry to do today thanks to the Baxters generous offer of washer and dryer services and I even managed to put most of our luggage away last night!

Breakfast went slower than usual and Callie wasn't as into eating as she normally is. She pushed most of her Cheerios off onto the floor. Unusual, but I didn't really think much about it. I cleaned up breakfast hoping to get a little time to myself, but Callie would have none of it, insisting I stay with her while she watched Sesame Street.

So, the morning passes and it's time for lunch. I prepare a normal favorite for Callie: ham, green beans, and oyster crackers. Again, she's not eating as well as she normally does. As I'm making my lunch and pondering why my good eater has suddenly turned picky, I hear the distinct sound of water trickling onto the floor. I turn to the sink, but both the faucets are off. So, I turn toward Callie, who is holding her cup completely upside down. All the water from her sippy cup is rolling down her legs and onto the floor.

I set the cup back upright and get some paper towels to mop up the floor, figuring I can clean her up after the meal. We finish eating (or at least I did, she barely ate anything -- for her at least) and I get her sleeper off and take her upstairs to change. I decided that if I would shower first, I could turn the heater on and she would be plenty warm in her diaper and then I could put a fresh outfit on her right before I get ready to leave -- Less time to get messy. :) So, I put some toys in the bathroom, place everything not baby friendly out of her reach and jumped in the shower.

She's playing right along and I'm enjoying a semi-peaceful shower when suddenly I realize it's quiet . . . too quiet! I look out of the shower and there she is with a tube of after color conditioner, squeezing the contents into her mouth! Great! Me being the paranoid mother that I am, I immediately jumped out of the shower and called the doctor to make sure I shouldn't induce vomiting or life flight her to the nearest children's hospital. He said everything should be fine as long as she didn't get a whole lot, but that she might be a little fussy or gassy the rest of the day.

Might be??? I've been listening to her scream nearly the rest of the day. Well, not right now, she's finally asleep. Heaving from all the crying, but asleep none the less. I'm supposed to go to Peoria and meet Philip for dinner in 45 minutes. Then, I have an appointment at 7:00 which I am woefully underprepared for. Hopefully it goes well anyway!

That's all for now. Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's celebration and is ready for an exciting year ahead! :)

Our Christmases!

2008-12-30T17:50:00.001-06:00

So, now we've had our third and final Christmas and I'm ready to post again! Callie had her first first Christmas at Thanksgiving with the Schirer-Suters and Great Great Uncle Don. We had a great time with our family and Callie had lots of fun tearing up tissue paper. Callie and Cedric got along really well; Cedric just couldn't get enough of her!

Our second first Christmas as the Booker 3 was in Illinois. We had dinner with our preacher and his wife on Saturday night and right as they were going to leave, our power went out for the second time in two days. We had to spend the night without electricity. We bundled Callie up and cuddled for warmth. By the time we woke up in the morning, it was 50 degrees in the house.

Fortunately, Granny Great and Paw-Paw had gotten their power back on around 4am, so we took all the presents into their house and showered and warmed up over there. We opened all our presents and had a great time with it. We were prepared to spend the night in there, but our power was restored around 1 pm, so we were able to go back out to the farm.

Unfortunately, with all the power outages, we were not able to update our blog for quite awhile.

We left for Chicago O'Hare in a panic trying to outrun the latest ice storm to hit Illinois (global warming, anyone?) where we spent the night at a hotel in anticipation of our flight the next day. We were worried about our flight leaving since over 500 flights had been cancelled the day before. Fortunately, our flight was leaving on time and they were even able to get standby tickets for an earlier flight. We were hoping to get that so we would arrive in Colorado Springs before 10:30pm.

So we went to the gate for the earlier flight and we went up to the counter to ask what our chances were of getting on the earlier flight, and the guy looked at us and said "You're confirmed on the flight, you're definitely getting on," and looked at us like we were crazy. He said he was working on seat assignments and he would call us when he had them ready. So, we got our first seat assignments and sat in excited anticipation that we were going to arrive in Colorado 3 hours earlier than expected. All of the sudden, we heard them call our names again, and they had upgraded us to first class! And we were well taken care of! First, drinks, then hot nuts, then dinner, then cookies, and more drinks throughout . . . I was really excited! Of course, Callie thought she had to eat every time we did, so we all shared.

We arrived in Colorado safely, and on time. Our bags were out right away and we were able to leave the airport and visit with the Booker side of the family. Our third Christmas was wonderful and we enjoyed the company and the gifts. :)

Since then, we've been skiing (well, Philip went snowboarding) and shopping, and trooping all over Colorado.

We go back to Illinois on the 5th to an empty house. Then, we'll be housesitting for my grandparents until the end of February. We're excited to have a house to ourselves for awhile at least! I'll add pictures to the post later once I sort through them all!

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and has an amazing New Year's celebration! God Bless!

2008-12-12T10:14:00.000-06:00

Crazy Week!

2008-11-26T22:21:00.000-06:00

It has been one crazy week. We got back from Chicago and launched into holiday mode. My Uncle Myron and his family arrived from MA the same day we got back .

Saturday, we had our first meal together, the traditional before-the-holiday jambalaya. Unfortunately, Callie wasn't able to try it this year since it has shrimp in it. Maybe next year she'll be ready for shellfish.

On Sunday, my parents went to see a house that's going up for auction in December. It wasn't exactly what they're looking for, so we're all still living here at the farm, wondering when things are going to come together.

Tuesday morning Callie and I went to the doctor to get our flu shots. Callie handled it well. We checked her weight while we were there. She is now 19lbs 2.5oz! Tuesday was also Cedric's 4th birthday party at Granny and Paw-Paw's house. Callie was able to enjoy this meal with us. She is definitely all about her food. Callie also decided to show off for everybody, pulling up and cruising around the furniture. Then, all of the sudden, she let go of the furniture and just stood there all by herself! I thought, 'Good grief! I have to babyproof AGAIN!'

One of our family traditions is to play card games after the meal. There's a lot of competition within the group, a lot of tough talking going on . . . :) We enjoy our time together. Well, Callie is not content just to sit and watch the grown ups, she has to be in on the action! So Granny Great and Paw Paw gathered up their extra cards, which are now Callie's cards. She sits and plays with them while the grown-ups play their games. She shuffles, flips, and bends them all around. It's pretty funny to watch!

Today, Callie is officially 9 months old! (Can you believe it?? I can't!) We went and got our family portraits taken with the whole gang. Callie got a little upset towards the end, but I think we were able to get some good shots before the tears started.

Tomorrow, we are going to have Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas for those of us who won't be together in December. I have been busy wrapping presents and trying to keep up with what seems like endless laundry . . . hopefully, one of these days I'll be caught up! Ha!

Wrapping up in Chi-town

2008-11-20T21:12:00.000-06:00

Our week here is coming to an end. We've had a lot of fun while we've been here. On Tuesday, we stayed in the hotel for most of the day until Philip got back to try and get back to a normal nap schedule. Tuesday night we ate at Red Robin for dinner. It's a gourmet burger place that has all the fries you can eat. Unfortunately, I didn't even make it through the first batch. They were really good and we had some of the best spinach and artichoke dip we've ever eaten.

Wednesday, Callie and I checked out IKEA after our morning nap. I decided I could probably furnish our whole house from there which really surprised me because I had always thought their stuff was way too modern for my style. Granted, Pottery Barn or Home Decorators would probably suit me better, but not at IKEA prices! Wednesday night we ate at Rainforest Cafe which was really fun. Callie had a lot of fun looking in the fish tanks and got quite a show since two men in scuba gear were in there cleaning the tank the whole time we were there. Every once in a while, the room would darken and there would be thunder and rain sounds. The only thing Callie didn't really like in there was the giant frog walking around. She clung to me and started crying.

Today, Callie and I went to lunch with my good friend Jim who lives in the Schaumburg area. We had a good lunch together and caught up. Tonight, we at PF Changs for dinner and had dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. We also went to the Mac store to drool over the computers there and get my dad's laptop worked on. We finished up our Christmas shopping tonight -- I'm finally feeling relief! I'm not usually this late with my shopping, but between a new baby and the move, I just haven't been on the ball this year!

We've had a lot of fun trying all new resturaunts and walking around the huge mall and all the stores around.

I'm really excited that the Twilight movie is coming out tomorrow. I'm probably not going to see it anytime soon, but I'm excited that I'll have the chance too. I know I know, I followed the crowd. It took me a total of about 4 days to read the entire series once I got into it, so I'm excited to see what they've done with it on the big screen.

That's about all that's going on with the Booker 3. We're excited/saddened that tomorrow is our last day in Chicago. It'll be nice to be back home, but it was sure great being up here with a housekeeper! Now I know what it feels like when people come back to their house after I've cleaned! :)

I hope all your families are doing well. God Bless!

Our First Day in Chicago

2008-11-17T18:44:00.001-06:00

Today, we went shopping all day with Granny Great and Grammy. It was great fun!

I just wanted everyone to know that we have the smartest baby in the world! I was waiting in Borders for the Grands to arrive and Callie was looking out the window. Out one window there were bushes losing their leaves and out the other window were evergreen bushes. I was telling Callie about the seasons and how some plants lose their leaves and others stay green all winter. I told her how pretty the snow looked on the evergreens and how the other bushes would get their leaves back in the spring.

Then I asked her, if she was a bunny, which bush would she hide under during the winter.

And she pointed out the window at the evergreens!

She's a child genius!

It's Snowing!

2008-11-16T19:42:00.000-06:00

So it's our first night in Chicago and it's snowing! Callie didn't seemed phased at all by the snow. She's enjoying the hotel room, however, because there's a full length mirror down at her level. She's been playing with the baby in the mirror most of the time we've been here.

We ate at a place called Cajun Connection up near Starved Rock today. (Really good!) It put us up about halfway to Chicago. We arrived at our hotel at 4:00. It's so near all the shopping centers -- we're going to have so much fun! There's a free shuttle anywhere within 5 miles of the hotel so we're going to be off and running tomorrow! :)

The only problem thus far has been that they messed up our reservation. They put us down for October instead of November so they already charged us a no show. We managed to get a room anyway; it just took a little more time to check in. They've promised refund our charges from October, so hopefully we'll get everything cleared up with the manager tomorrow.

I would put up our pictures so far, but seem to have forgotten the cord to the camera . . . Typical, but at least it's nothing that important.

We're really hoping that our sleep training has worked and we won't have to revert to our old methods on this trip and ruin everything we've been working on so far.

Other than that, everything's going well. We've just got a very curious baby and a pretty hectic household (hotel room)!

This is for Kaylin, my loyal follower :)

2008-11-14T09:36:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I did miss every three days this week. Maybe if I explain the week I had, everyone will understand.

It has been absolutely crazy! Philip and I are getting ready to go to Chicago this next week. The week after that our family is coming in and we're having Thanksgiving/Christmas/Birthday Party. So I've been Christmas shopping twice this week and birthday present hunting. This is probably the latest I have ever been Christmas shopping -- I'm usually done by August. Of course, this August was spent getting ready to move to IL . . . maybe I should give myself a break, but it's definitely been a stress since I'm not used to it.

On top of that stress, Callie's been a little bit of a fussy teether lately (or at least that's the only thing I can think of that would make her this fussy). Not only does she want to be with me every minute, sometimes she can't decide what she wants. So we play the up, down, play, no play, sit, stand, rock, swing, etc, etc, etc game every few minutes until we finally settle down for a while.

She wants to stand all the time and has been cruising around the living room. Do I have an early walker on my hands? Probably. I guess time will tell, but I have a strong feeling I'm running out of it (and about to be running after it!)!

She's been a good shopper for me this week - but that's nothing new. She loves to be out seeing people and things that she's never seen before. Yesterday, we were out all day because I had a haircut and some errands to run. We ate lunch at Culver's (kind of like a really awesome Dairy Queen) and there was a boy with Down's Syndrome helping to clean the dining area. I had gotten a glass of water and green beans for Callie, and I was cutting up the green beans on the tray to feed her. Well, I got up about the middle of the meal to refill our drinks (Granny came with me to help with Callie during my haircut) and I looked back and this boy was trying to take the tray from Granny. She was saying "No, I need that to cut the green beans on." and he kept telling her "It's alright ma'am, I've got it." So, I get back there just as the person who was there with this boy came over to the table. He told him that she still needed the tray. Finally, he put it down but then he grabbed Callie's glass of water and took it. Instead of worrying about it, I just went up to the counter and asked for another glass of water . . . I told Granny I'd rather do that then see them not employing someone with a disability. At least he was on top of things and trying to do his job! I've seen a lot of people who aren't as eager as he was to do things right.

Anyway, Callie has been eating more and more as you can tell from the story. This week, instead of feeding her pureed veggies and fruits and then supplementing with parts of our meal, we've started feeding her only what we're eating for dinner, cut up into small pieces for her to feed herself. She absolutely loves it. She's so independent already, I wonder what battles of the wills I'm going to have later.

I'm looking forward to having a break this next week, taking a mini vacation while we're in Chicago. We're not too far from a bunch of shops and a mall, so I hope to be out a lot because Callie always enjoys our shopping and errands trips together.

I think that is all the major events of this week. I must apologize to my loyal reader Kaylin for not keeping my promise to update every three days. I also would like to say that the promise would be a lot easier to keep if I wasn't sharing a computer with 3 other adults, 2 of which claim ownership of the computer . . . :) Not an excuse, I know. Scout's honor, I'll try to do better!

New Trend?

2008-11-07T18:27:00.000-06:00

So our local news here in Illinois said it was a new trend for mom's to be blogging in their spare time. As I'm sitting there thinking, "What spare time?" -- I eventually decided it would be in everyone's best interest if I was consistent in my updates. So, hopefully this is a new trend for this mom, I'm going to try and update our blog at least every 3 days if not more.

Since my last post, Callie has started eating some of our meal with us since she has teeth to do it. She really enjoyed her pasta yesterday as you can see from our latest pictures. She's also begun pulling herself up to a standing position. She climbs up on everything and anyone she can. The only problem is she gets up and stands for a long time but then when she gets tired, she's not quite sure how to get down. Needless to say, we've been getting a lot of little bumps these past few days. The crying is mostly caused by hurt pride however, because none of the falls have been to tramatic.

As of this morning, she has started the traditional crawling on hands and knees. She is pretty jerky about the process, still unsure of how exactly to make everything work together. Yesterday, she crawled over to a bench and pulled all it's contents down on herself. So, the baby proofing got moved up to today. We tried to make the best of it, but we've already found some flaws in our new design. And it's all going to have to change at the next stage. I say we put everything not baby friendly in storage and wait for a few years to pull it all out. Just one big room filled with soft things and baby toys.

All in all, I think Callie's doing well for a 8 month old, she's surprising us with her abilities everyday.

Our family is going on a trip up to Chicago a week from Sunday. Philip's job is sending him up there for some job training and Callie and I are going to tag along. We'll be up there for almost a week. I decided I probably should go because his hotel is a block from the mall and he wouldn't utilize this as he should. So if you owe me any money, or were thinking about sending me some, please send it before next Sunday . . . ;) ha!

It's only been a month since my last post . . .

2008-11-04T20:34:00.003-06:00

Good grief!! How does time keep getting away from me? I know I should update more often, but I keep thinking once I get this done, then I'll be ready to blog. But then I think of something else and something else.

Alright, I will try to update at least once a week from now on. There's just too much going on with Callie if I don't that it's easy to forget to add things!

Ok, since last time, Callie has been crawling faster, but still not the traditional hands and knees crawling. She gets up there and rocks back and forth, but then it's like she says 'Forget it, my old way is working for me!' and collapses back down to her belly and crawls that way. She's been pulling up onto her knees and sometimes even to standing, so I'm not really worried that she hasn't mastered traditional crawling. She sits up on her own and can get into sitting position. All this new movement has made us realize we really need to get baby proofing!

In big, big news, Callie has a tooth! It's still at the gum line, but it's there and working it's way up. It's the bottom left front tooth if that's understandable to you . . . Granny Great found it today. I thought she was kidding but I felt it too and it's definitely there! It's a sharp little tooth!

Callie's also been expanding the foods she eats and working toward eating more table food. Our number one rule at the dinner table is, if we have food, Callie must have food too or we don't have a chance at a peaceful meal!

In family news, I had a birthday. I'm now officially 24. We didn't make a big deal which is great by me. Just a family dinner out at a nice place and spending time with my loved ones.

I'm also looking into getting lasik next year. It looks like probably around the end of May or beginning of June. It changes some of our plans, but I think that it will be really great if I can get this done. My dad had it done several years ago and he's been very happy with the results. I'm excited about the possibility of not needing glasses or contacts everywhere I go. It makes a lot of things more doable. Packing light on trips for instance!

Philip's really enjoying his job and he's also getting into a certain amount of farm work. All in all, we're having a great fall. Hope everyone else is doing well!

God Bless!

** Just to let you all know, the picture of me was from my mom trying to take pictures of Callie and I napping together. The flash woke me up and that was the look I gave her. Note to self: Heather is not good at being woken up from a sleeping state. She is not responsible for any looks or words that may come out of her mouth should she be awaken. :)

Finally an Update! Amazing!

2008-09-25T09:30:00.000-05:00

I've been waiting to post an update so I could add some funny videos that we've shot over the past weeks, but I haven't been able to set up my computer with the software on it . . . so I guess you'll just have to settle for a long post and some pictures.

The move went well. My dad, Philip, and Eric loaded the moving truck by themselves because no one showed up to help. We got everything done around midnight and went to sleep on sleeping bags in our then cleared out master bedroom. The next day, Mom, Dad, Callie, and I took off for IL leaving Philip and Meeko to travel up early Saturday morning. We all made good time and it was a safe trip. Callie got a little upset in the last hour, but that's understandable.

Philip had a week before he started work which was really nice. It helped us get settled in (as much as we can) and set things up the way we needed them. We spent a lot of time together and even went up to Chicago.

For those of you who don't know our situation, the house in AR has not yet sold, so we're living with my parents for now. My parents are looking into building a new house and allowing us to live on the farm in Roanoke. We're just not sure how long everything is going to take, but for now, we're all living together. :) It's interesting, but we're all getting along pretty well. It's especially nice to have some help with Callie almost every day. I find myself getting a lot more accomplished.

In Callie news, the first week up here she developed an infection on her arm. We think it was a bug bite originally and then it got progressively worse. I should mention that Callie was not the least bit bothered by the hot, red bump on her arm. Since we didn't have a doctor yet, we had to take her to a prompt care clinic.I was not impressed with the doctor at all, so when we got the prescription I called Dr. Moore's office in Searcy and made sure everything was correct. Call me paranoid, but when the doctor doesn't even spend five minutes with a six month old who has a huge infected bump on her arm, it worries me . . . He asked me to come in to a follow-up, but he wasn't going to be there. So, instead, I went to a family doctor here in Roanoke that my grandparents recommended. I took a picture of the sore and took Callie in to Dr. Fogo.

He really impressed me. He spent at least 30 minutes telling me about the different kinds of infections and what to do and gave me a prescription to keep just in case she developed another infection like this one. So, we found Callie a doctor! Unfortunately, since this all happened before Philip was working, so we were still uninsured. But it all worked out and we're thankful it was nothing serious.

Callie has been army crawling all over the place. She is so fast that I really have to keep an eye on her or she's gone and into something before you can say what. I can't wait until she starts crawling on her hands and knees, that'll be fun! (Hear the sarcasm in my typing??) She's also been saying hi and waving when prompted and earlier this week she said da-da several times in a row with prompting. She hasn't done it since then. I think she might telling us that she doesn't perform on command . . .

Callie's also been trying a lot of new foods. So far she likes everything, except avacado. (Insert hilarious video here when I get everything set up.) She's even eating some finger foods, or at least trying to. She grasps it in her hand, but hasn't quite figured out how to get it in her mouth. She's been doing better lately, so I'm sure it won't be long before she's eating everything.

In other news, Philip and I have a new nephew, Camden Thomas Baxter! He came in to the world early on the 23rd. There were a few little bumps upon entry, but everyone's doing great now. We're so excited to get to meet him at Christmastime in CO!

I think that pretty much catches us up. Philip's loving his job, I'm loving being with everyone up here, and Callie's growing like mad! She's up to 16 lbs, 9 oz and 27 inches at her appointment last week.

I hope everyone is doing well! We miss you!

2008-08-20T10:47:00.000-05:00

So we're back from our trip to Beaumont, where we've finally purchased a video camera! Yay! So instead of writing all about our trip, I'm going to show you after I edit the video together!

In other news, we're loading the truck on August 28th and it's just possible that I will go crazy between now and then! So, fair warning to everyone who happens to read this . . .

There's so much going on and I think everything has culminated on the 23rd! It's going to be a hectic, but fun day in my prediction. We're having a garage sale on the 22nd and 23rd. My Dad, Paw-Paw and Eric are all coming to move Eric in to his dorm and take the fishing trip that we gave them. We're packing up so Dad can take a truckload back to IL when he leaves. Then, we're having a goodbye party on the evening of the 23rd. It's our last Sunday at Highway on the 24th and I believe there are 2 showers on that day. Then, it's manic packing until the 28th when we get the truck. My parents and Miss Callie and I will all drive up on the 29th, and Philip will follow with Meeko on the 30th.

On the 31st, we have a birthday (life) celebration of a very special lady in my life, Grandma Ruth. After that, we plan to look for and move into an apartment by Tuesday, September 2nd, so we can return the moving truck without having to unload everything at my parents' house and then move everything again into an apartment. (Hopefully!)

So that's the plan for the next two weeks of our life. Full, emotional, hectic . . . but I think it's going to be good!