Go Pack Go!!!

In December, we once again, made our annual trip to Green Bay to cheer on our Packers! Caleb kept this an active adventure. We have discovered there is never a dull moment when travelling with a two year old! We visited some of our favorite places and Green Bay and ate plenty of Wisconsin classics (cheese curds, beer, cheese, and brats)! It was also a great pleasure to once again cheer our Packers on to victory! Little did we know, what a big season we would be experiencing!

Hanging out at Lambeau Field with a classic

Dinner at Curly's Pub inside Lambeau

We were able to keep Caleb occupied through the meal with the present his Great Aunt Carrie and Great Uncle Jim gave him - his own laptop

We got to attend the Lambeau Christmas Party and tree lighting. Caleb got to decorate a sugar cookie and as you can see, had quite a fun time eating it/feeding it to other people.

Getting ready for the big game is always a family affair

My crazy brother!

Me and my sis

My brother got smart and put on his coat for part of the game (notice the paint didn't survive). It was around the single digits temperature wise.

Let's Play!

It has been so fun to watch Caleb's play skills, creativity, and imagination grow! The first time he really caught my attention, was when he took some of his "links" from his baby toys, hooked them together and wanted them hooked to his tractor to make a plow! He's starting to do more imaginative play with his Little People now and his farm. He never ceases to surprise me. He's definitely all boy and would much rather play tractors and wrestle than sit at the table and color, but he has started to show an interest in crayons. The other day, I broke into "teacher" mode and decided we were going to get out the shaving cream and I was going to let him play in shaving cream on our bay window. I was so excited and knew we were going to have hours of fun. I had his shirt off, and we were all ready to get dirty, but the joke was on me! The second Caleb saw me squirt the shaving cream, he took off running for the hills and wouldn't come near me! The closest he came to playing with it was letting me touch one of his fingertips with a little bit. Oh well!

Grandpa Mike made Caleb his own Pigeon Carrier complete with a bird stuffed animal to carry in it. Calebs loves taking care of his "birdie" just like "Mike".

You can see his "plows" hooked up to his tractors. The packing materials behind him were also used for farming implements. Like our toilet paper fields?!?!

Caleb gets to be a Ring Bearer!!!!

As many of you may know, we had some big excitement in our family in November. My sister Michaela and her LONG time boyfriend Perry got engaged! This was no ordinary engagement either....Perry entered an online contest through Blue Nile Diamonds in which he had to write an essay about why Michaela was the perfect girl for him, and he won! The grand prize was an all expense paid trip to New York City, a custom designed engagement ring, a song written personally for them about their love story by the Green River Band, and the opportunity to propose at the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange live on National Television! Perry and the Blue Nile crew managed to create an elaborate story about Perry winning this trip through one of is MBA classes. Needless to say, Michaela bought it hook. line, and sinker and was blown away when Perry proposed. We were all in on the secret, which made it even more fun! If you are interested in seeing it, just copy/paste the link below into your browser and you can see the proposal (it takes a few minutes for the video to load). We are so excited and couldn't be happier to FINALLY have Perry become an official part of our family.


This was the picture featured in the Wall Street Journal the next day

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1672982851

Busy November

As many of you know, Darrin has Carpal Tunnel in both hands and on Monday, November 22nd, he had surgery on both hands. As you can see from the picture, it was not his happiest time. The surgery went well though, and he has already noticed a big difference in his hands. He spent 7 days the way you see him here and is currently in the middle of 4-6 weeks of not lifting more than 5 pounds. It has been a hard adjustment for him, but it is worth it to have his hands feeling better. The day after his surgery, we celebrated our 8th Anniversary! Luckily, we got the chance to celebrate before his surgery. That was also the week of Thanksgiving, but fortunately, by then Darrin was able to feed himself!

Caleb's 2 year pictures

We took Caleb to have his 2 year pictures taken the weekend before Thanksgiving. I thought this would be far enough before the Holidays that we wouldn't have to fight crowds at the the picture place, but I was so wrong. We had an appointment, but still had to wait for 45 minutes and by then Caleb was in no mood for pictures. However, we did get two really nice shots of him, several good family shots, and amazingly enough, one of just Darrin and I. You'll notice there is also a shot of Caleb throwing one of his tractors at the photographer! =)

Big Boy Bed

Well, Caleb finally figured out that he was able to climb out of his crib, so we made the decision to put him in a "big boy bed". As some of you know, I had been dreading this moment, because I was sure that we would be up all night and Caleb would never stay in his bed. Sure enough, I couldn't have been more wrong! Starting the first night, Caleb stayed in his bed AND slept through the night! Even when he's still awake, he will play in his bed, but will not get out of the bed, even though he can. He LOVES his bed and gets so excited when it's time to go "night, night". I think it also has something to do with the bedding! He loves the fact that his pillowcase has a big combine on it.

Halloween 2010

We decided that Caleb was ready to try Trick-or-Treating this year for Halloween. He was a fireman and had so much fun getting "nanny" as he called it. Once he figured out that when he went to people's houses, they gave him candy, he was on a mission. Once we finished with one house he would say "more", "nanny". Of course, we also had to stop after every couple of houses to check out what we had gotten and get a little sugar fix! We figured we would just be out for a short time, but Caleb kept right on going. We walked about a mile!

This is Caleb smiling for the camera!