My Superstar Christmas

As promised, here are some more pics from our Christmas travels. Caleb and I went down to Highland on the Thursday before Christmas (sorry, my blogging is out of order) to celebrate my annual Superstar Christmas Dinner. Thanks to Kem and Kathy for letting us invade their home for the evening. These are all of my best friends from high school and we've been doing this since the Christmas after we graduated. Actually, I think we might have actually had the first annual during our Senior year (my memory is fuzzy). So I think that makes it our 11th annual Superstar Christmas Party. Oh my gosh, we are so old! This years theme was a Mexican fiesta - Ole!

Jenny, looking ever so festive for the occasion!

Angie, taking care of my refried beans while I fed the munchkin!

Wasn't the table beautiful? Thanks Jen, for the very authentic Mexican tablecloth!

Mmmm, my first taquito! Should I eat it like corn on the cob?

Front: Angie, me and Julie

Back: Janeice, Emily and Jen

Caleb loved chasing Jenny's dogs around, but only Coltrane would let him get close. Dexter would just get up and go in the other room whenever Caleb came a-crawlin' too close.


Thanks ladies! I had a great time seeing you and can't wait for next year!

Beginning our Christmas Traveling

More posts to come, but this is the first part of our Christmas travelings so far. Just wanted to send a few pictures to keep you updated on what's happening. More pictures to come!

Normal got a terrible ice storm last Thursday. Everything was covered, but it was beautiful!

Christmas in Highland! Caleb liked ripping the paper off of his presents. He also loved helping Ryan play with his toys. (my camera makes me so mad I could spit!)

All of the Christmas cards we have received from friends and family. It's a tradition to hang them up on our door as we get them. It makes me very happy to see it fill it up as the days pass.

We celebrated my grandpa's 90th birthday on Sunday! All of the family made their way home for the celebration. We ate too much food, took a lot of pictures and had a great time!

Just wanted to give you the essence of the classy place we took Caleb to see Santa. :)

Add this to the classic Santa photos! Can you say terrified?

Would you like a dolly for that box?

So I went to the store yesterday to pick up my regular 15th of the month groceries for the next two weeks. However, in addition to my regular fare, I also needed to pick up items to make the famous Osterwisch peanut butter balls. Since December is crazy this year, I'm not able to get together with my mom and my sister to have our annual cookie-making extravaganza. We decided that we would each make one or two of our regular cookies for Christmas, and then exchange what we made when I see them this weekend. I offered to do the P.B. Balls, because 1. I love them, they are my absolute favorite and 2. no one else likes to make them because they're a bit of a pain. So I lucked out in only having to make one cookie this year, but also had to do all of the rolling and dipping myself. I've come to the conclusion that P.B. Balls are better made in the traditional assembly line fashion.

Anyway, back to the store. I had to get Rice Krispies for the P.B. Balls (that's what gives them flair). I'm perusing the cereal aisle, and spot Snap, Crackle and Pop immediately. Wait, surely there is a smaller box. Don't those people at General Mills know that I only need 3 cups of their beloved cereal. And while Rice Krispies are good, I'm probably not going to eat them when I've got a delicious box of Cinnamon Life in my cabinet. Seriously, not even the generic had a box smaller than this. What are people doing with all of these Rice Krispies? I guess I'm going to have to buy some marshmallow and take care of it!

Food Haze

Alright, put on your thinking caps and help me! I don't know why food, of all things, is the one thing that is really throwing me off when it comes to raising Caleb (at least at this point, I know I have so very much to learn!). For whatever reason, I am so hung up on what I'm supposed to be feeding him. Not when I'm supposed to be feeding him. If you know me, you know that I'm a planner, so scheduling fits into my personality. But I just cannot wrap my head around this - especially since Caleb turned 1. It's like the whole new world of absolutely everything has opened up and now I have so many choices, I don't know where to begin. I know that I want him to be eating healthy, that he should be getting a variety of things (remember the Food Pyramid from 3rd grade? - which has also definitely changed since I was in 3rd grade), that he should be eating what we're eating, etc, etc, etc. We've got the bread part of the pyramid covered - he'll eat anything that is in the family of bread (crackers, mac n cheese, bread itself)! I don't know, it's like, I want him to be eating what we're eating, but sometimes it doesn't seem appropriate. How do you give a 1 year old chili, or spicy chicken enchiladas? I feel like mealtime is the most stressful to me because I don't want to keep giving him crackers and little cut-up peaches.
So okay, moms, for those of you who have been through the 1 year old phase, what are good snacks and meals that I can add to my repetoire? When he was still eating rice cereal and baby food, it was so easy! Now he's all grown up and I've got to really think this out!

What Happens When...

Your parents buy you a new coat...

But you try to get out of your carseat yourself while still wearing it....

(stupid camera!)

And it's so warm that you sweat, and your hair always looks like this...

'Here I Am' versus 'There You Are!'

In a meeting I was in the other day, the speaker was talking about how we, as individuals, approach social situations differently. She posed the question, "Are you a 'Here I Am' or a 'There You Are' type of person?" I knew instinctively that I was not the one that I should be, even before she gave us the definitions. A 'Here I Am' type of person walks into a room and says "here I am" and prefers that everyone else come up to them and approach them in a social situation. A 'There You Are' type of person says, "Oh, there you are" and finds that other person, begins the conversation regardless of whether you're old friends or strangers. As I sat there listening, I began to wonder if there is a 'Don't Mind Me' type of person. The person who sits quietly observing and doesn't care one way or another, just as long as there is no attention being paid. I think I'm a 'Don't Mind Me' type of person. Of course, I couldn't ask the question - that would be hypocritical of my 'Don't Mind Me' personality, thus bringing the attention by asking the question. :)
As the meeting went on, she challenged us to be more like the 'There You Are' person in all social situations - church, the library, at the park, etc. To really be a welcoming face and voice in all places that we go and that even if we feel a little awkward, the other person will appreciate that we made the first move.
It's definitely a challenge - especially for me. But I'm willing to give it a go (baby steps). So which one are you?
P.S. Jennie Groezinger, there is no need to answer. I'm pretty sure you've never met a stranger in your life! :)

Happy Birthday, Caleb! (Part 2)

Caleb one year ago today
Happy Birthday!

Caleb's Birthday Bash:
We celebrated Caleb's 1st birthday on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It's just sort of how it worked out - December is always a busy month! We were blessed to have almost all of our family in attendance, which made for a pretty full house, but it was great! Caleb got some great toys, books and clothes and of course, a little bit of cake!




We had a Curious George party - so we needed monkey cupcakes, of course!

Cousin Ryan is a party animal!!

Our Weekend - Part 1

We started our very long weekend with, what else, Thanksgiving! We headed down to Highland on Wednesday afternoon and then drove another hour south to Nashville to visit my grandma. We definitely ate like kings - more than once. However, since my grandma wasn't going to be able to make it up for Caleb's 1st birthday, she helped us celebrate a little early. Here are some pics:









Mmm, this roll is delicious!











My very clever grandma made Caleb a clock cake (because clock was his first word). Isn't she great!









She also got him one of his new favorite toys - he can't get enough!











A time to ponder and be thankful. :)

Aches and Pains

Break out the Tylenol! Or perhaps something a little stronger! The Myers family has had its share of aches and pains this week. On Tuesday morning, Caleb and I were playing in the living room. Since he's become pretty proficient at walking around with his car, I wasn't too worried as he pulled up next to the coffee table to look at his Big Trucks book. Well, he must have mis-stepped, because he tripped and fell head first into the side of the coffee table. There was screaming and crying, and to my utter dismay, an immediate bruise and bump. After all was said and done, he was fine, but he now has a quite the little blue bruise on his head.
Then that afternoon I started to develop a headache. Anyone who has known me over the past 10 years has known that I get headaches pretty often. However, in those ten years, no one seems to be able to tell me what is really causing it or what they really are. I've used sinus medication, migraine medication, no medication and on and on. Needless to say, whatever I was using didn't help and the headache (I'll call it a migraine because it really was that bad) lasted into the night and right through the next morning. It didn't go away until Wednesday evening.
Wednesday night we were changing Caleb's diaper. Being that he is so mobile now, laying down for a 5 minute diaper change is not his idea of fun. So as we tried to hold down our little C.T. Wigglebottoms to get a fresh diaper on, he wiggled and screamed until we had almost gotten it on. In the meantime, he was holding one of his new train toys (distraction is the key!) and got so upset about the diaper change that he smacked himself in the head with it. Ouch! Add that to the bump counter!
That brings us to Friday evening. After a blissful Thursday of no headaches, I was feeling pretty good. But Friday evening I started to feel that familiar pang of achiness on the right side of my head. Long story short, I still have the headache, and frankly after 4 days of this, I was in tears at the end of my rope. My doctor's office was closed, so I had to head to the Doc in a Box. Apparently, according to that doctor, I have a form of TMJ. Because my jaws do not line up, possible teeth grinding and stress, I am having migraine symptoms that are really caused by the TMJ. At this point, I throw my hands up in the air because I don't know what to think. No one has ever told me this, but I was so desperate to have relief, I agreed with him and promptly headed to the pharmacy. Want to guess how much 9 pills for TMJ cost? $176.60!!! Man, those pills better work miracles, that's all I have to say! So it's now 7pm, I have taken one pill and my headache seems to be subsiding - hallelujah! For my head's sake, I hope Doc in the Box is right - for my checkbook's sake, I kind of hope he's wrong, but I digress!

Teachable Moments

Recently I've been reading the book, "A Mother's Touch" by Elise Arndt. This wasn't a book I had intended to read necessarily, but by happenstance, I was scheduled to work at Elise's speaker table at the Minnesota Hearts at Home conference. During one of the slow periods of the day, I had the chance to talk to Elise for a good 30 minutes. What an incredible lady! She is in her 60's, raised the majority of her children in Papa New Guinea, is a pastor's wife in Michigan and has written a few books, with aspirations to write more. In fact, she rolled off at least three more topics she wants to write about in the future. How fortunate I was to have the time to sit and chat with her. After the conference was over, she signed and gave me a copy of her book.
In the book, she talks about having intentional conversations with your children about God - even before they are old enough to understand. By doing so, you will be comfortable saying those things and your children will grow up hearing the Word spoken in your home. Now I am definitely one to read a book and say to myself, "well, that's a good idea", but never take the initiative to really go any further. However, yesterday I had my chance. Caleb and I were running errands in the afternoon and our last stop was the bank. I needed to drop something off in our safety deposit box, which meant unloading the munchkin and going inside. We took care of everything and then headed back out to the car. On our way, I noticed a very thick, well-used pocketbook laying on the sidewalk. Clearly someone had accidentally dropped this. It contained their money, checkbook, credit cards, everything. I picked it up and brought it back into the bank. They assured me they knew who it belonged to and that they would give her a call right away.
As I got back in the car, I thought about how this would be a very "teachable moment" for my kids and how I could bring Jesus into the conversation. So there I sat, talking to my 11 month old about the Good Samaritan and how it's important to help others and do the right thing. Gosh, if anyone had seen me, they probably thought I was crazy (in fact, they probably thought I was talking to myself). Oh well. And even though I know that Caleb didn't understand a word I was saying, I'm considering it good practice for the future.
So my moral of the story is this: look for the teachable moments in your life and share them with your children - they'll grow up knowing your love for them and the love of God.

First Snow

When Gabe came home for lunch today, he took Caleb out to enjoy our first real snow of the year. It's hard to see it in the pictures, but it was coming down. Nothing was sticking to the ground (that's the best kind), but it was beautiful. Caleb liked it too!

And here are some other pics from today....

Whoa, someone needs some hair gel! And no, he did not stick his finger in the light socket. :)

Watching the construction and concrete trucks go by is a favorite passtime.

Caleb is walking like crazy if you put him behind something that moves. He loves it! He always has a huge grin on his face. He'll walk until he runs into something and then turns around to look at you like, "hey, are you gonna help me here?"

P.S.

I forgot to mention that we also saw the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile...could we have had a better trip or what!

My First Time Away

Sorry I've been MIA for the past week or so - here's an update on what's been happening around here. On Thursday morning I left to head to Rochester, MN for Hearts at Home's final 2008 conference. That meant that I was leaving my boys for exactly 3.5 days. Knowing that I have the fabulous husband that I do, I really did fine with leaving. You can ask my friend Brenda, there were no tears (at least not on my part).
So off we went at about 10am in a van full of 5 ladies - we were determined to make the 7 hour drive riveting. And did we ever. Boy, it sure seems like it's taking us forever to hit LaCrosse. Has anyone seen signs for LaCrosse? Maybe we should stop, I could use a bathroom break anyway. So we run inside and a couple of us notice that there is a big sign on the gas station wall for the Minneapolis area. Trying to keep our cool, Brenda asks a nice lady, "how far are we from Rochester?" "Oh," she says,"probably about 2 hours". I think Patty almost had a heart attack. We thought we were 20 minutes away. Apparently, if you miss the 90/94 split, you'll head to the Mall of America instead of Rochester, MN. Oops! So we put our smiles on, informed Janae, our driver and made the best of another 2 hours in the van. However, I would like to point out, that if we hadn't missed the split, we would have missed the following: The Laura Ingalls Wilder highway, the birthplace of waterskiing, the dead possum that Janae hit without even flinching and of course, the beautiful rolling hills (at least that's what we're telling ourselves - it was 8pm and completely dark). Ah, good times! See, I know you are all jealous that you missed that!
Anyway, it was a fabulous weekend! I attended our National conference in the spring as a mom, but I worked this one, so I was able to see the behind-the-scenes of what it takes to put one of these things on. It was awesome and I can tell you that God was certainly at work not only in the conference itself, but in these ladies' lives. What an awesome thing to be working for an organization that touches people's lives and makes you feel like you're really making a difference. I was exhausted and sore by the time I got home (well, really by Saturday evening), but it was worth it. And I'm happy to report that it only took us 7.5 hours to get home. Hallelujah!
As for my boys, they had a good time together. When I went in to get Caleb from his nap, he just looked at me and kind of whimpered like, "mom! where have you been?" Ah, it's nice to be home!

Thanks...I think?

Last night someone said to me "how are you doing, you look tired." Now what in the world is the appropriate response to that comment? Are you supposed to say "thank you?" I was just thinking to myself "wow, thanks for pointing out that I naturally look fatigued". Of course, I didn't say that. And really, I didn't have an excuse for looking tired - we got one whole extra hour of sleep courtesy of Daylight Savings Time AND I got a nap in the afternoon! I also could have said "thanks for noticing my genetic disposition to under eye bagginess", but that wouldn't be appropriate either. Now I'm sure that I have probably made this comment to someone in my lifetime, and I know for a fact that this isn't the first time someone has said it to me. There is a part of me that wants to sting them back and say "yeah, and your hair looks a little frizzy today too" - but that wouldn't be very polite, now would it? :) Being the ever-polite girl that I am I simply said "oh, well I suppose that's the permanent state of motherhood, huh?" I'm open to ideas, as I'm sure this won't be my last encounter with the you-look-tired comment.

Trick or Treat

We had a very nice time visiting with friends on Friday. Caleb was quite the trooper making all of those stops. He was the cutest turtle you ever did see! It was especially cute when he would crawl across the room, because he really did look like a turtle. Enjoy some pics from the weekend.

We stopped by the Hearts office so the ladies could "oh" and "ah". He looks a little bored.

And we're off!

Cole and Cade Luginbuhl came over to say hello - aren't they cute!

Caleb and Ella Michalak - don't you think they're asking each other why their parents put them in such puffy outfits?

We also stopped at Josh and April's to see Grace, but I didn't get a good picture (or rather, the picture that I have is upside down courtsey of our beaten down camera). So rest assured, she was as cute as ever - just no pic to share. Sorry Gracie!

And in honor of Caleb being a turtle, we thought it would be appropriate to have a memory verse for the week about patience:

"Let us run, with patience, the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Hebrews 12: 1b-2a

Down we go....

I know many of you already know this, but I'm terribly clumsy. It really is a wonder that I made it through my childhood and part of my adult life without anything breaking, fracturing or spraining. However, I have seen my fair share of bruises . . . and today is no exception. Well, actually, it happened a few days ago, but it took me this long to meander to my basement to tell you about it. On Tuesday night, I took Caleb upstairs to his room to get ready for bed. On my way back down to get his bottle, my foot slipped on the top stair and down we went. Only a few stairs mind you, and on carpet (thank goodness!), but oh the pain! Poor little Caleb didn't know what was going on. He was just holding on to mommy like "okay, now what?". He didn't start crying until I yelled for Gabe to come get him - I think my yelling scared him more than taking a bumpy ride down our stairs. Needless to say, I have a very large bruise in a very unmentionable place, along with many other bruises on my arms from trying to stop myself from going further. And I am so sore!
This is all well and good, except that this was not the first time. A few years ago on Thanksgiving, I did the exact same thing holding Sophie. I was at my Grandma's and was headed downstairs to go get Amy and Andy, when my foot slipped and I went down. That was far worse though. Wooden stairs and I went down about a half of a flight. I seriously thought I broke something - there were tears. That bruise caused me to sleep on the right side of my body for a week!
Moral of the story: my husband doesn't allow me to walk around in socks anymore - it's shoes or non-slip slippers for me (ironic that they're called slippers, huh?)

Shout Out to J&B

Just giving a shout out to Janeice and Brad! Thanks for coming to visit us this weekend. We loved having you here. Thank you for our belated birthday dinner, for pretending my pudding cookies weren't too salty, for having a fabulous Farkel Party and for being such good friends. We reflected on the weekend a lot after you had left and agreed that it is our turn to come down (Brad, don't worry, we won't have a Farkel Party at your house). Haha!

First Word?

I've been debating with myself if I was going to post this or not. Some of you might think I'm crazy. I think Caleb said his first word last weekend! The only thing that made me decide to post this is that my mom heard it too. So Gabe and I aren't just self-assuring each other that it happened. In fact, my mom heard it first. And then later this week I got an email from BabyCenter.com that gives me weekly updates on what my baby should be doing this week. And the topic this week was "first words". So I'm not crazy, right? Are you dying to know what he said?...................

Or "ock" if you could hear Caleb say it. But he points to it and says "ock", or sometimes "lock". And really, clock is not a normal baby babbling word. At least that's what I'm telling myself. If I can catch it on video, I'll post it. He's not one for on-demand performances, but I'll try!

Lots of Pumpkins

Sorry I've been MIA for the past week. We had a very exciting, fun-filled weekend, and it's taken me this long to recover. But as always, I usually have pictures to make up for it. Here are some highlights:

We went to the Pumpkin Patch to pick up our pumpkin family

A bucket of corn is always fun to play in!

Haircut anyone? We decided it was time for a trim. This is the "before". Yikes!

Two things happening here - absolute terror and another example of why we need a new camera for Christmas. I have no idea why it's flipping our pictures and leaving a dark line at the top. Argh!

The Silders came to visit for Columbus Day. Here we are at church. Caleb (10 mos), Katharine (9 mos) and Grace (almost 9 mos).

They could be twins!