What a year!!!

My baby is one! My baby is one! My baby is one! I think if I keep saying it over and over again it might actually sink in. What a year!!! Hard to believe that one year ago today that tiny creature came into our lives and graced us with his presence. Caleb Robert Sain turns one year old today at 4:51pm. Happy Birthday Bubba!

To commemorate the special day I thought I would take a look back at the past twelve months and see how far we have come!

June 2008
26th- Caleb Robert was born.
Hannah became the proudest little sister you have ever seen!

July 2008
10th- Momma and Daddy's 4th anniversary
18th- Christopher Richards was born
30th- Great Papa passed away

August 2008
1st- Caleb's first night away from Momma and Daddy
7th- Hannah's 2nd birthday and party
Caleb still spitting up EVERYWHERE-ALL DAY LONG!

September 2008
23rd- Caleb's first Ranger game
28th- Caleb's baptism

October 2008
13th- Caleb met Uncle Allan
27th- Caleb's 1st day of preschool
Jen began work as preschool director for a month and a half
31st- Halloween as Boots the Monkey and Dora the Explorer

November 2008
Caleb's spit-up got better as he began baby foods
12th- The Richards family moved to Tucson :(
27th- 1st Thanksgiving


December 2008
5th- SantaLand and trip to the farm
8th- Jen's brain surgery
Both kids spent a lot of time away from Momma and Daddy due to surgery
Caleb met Aunt Becky
25th- 1st Christmas

January 2009
Happy New Year!
7th- First word: "Dada"
19th- 1st tooth
31st- Daddy's birthday and visit to the stock show

February 2009
Growing like crazy! Crawling, more teeth, sitting up and assisted steps.
24th- Plane ride to Tucson, AZ. Awesome visit with the Richards family!

March 2009
16th- Caleb says "Momma"
Waves, trips the park, pulling up and dinner with friends!

April 2009
4th- Easter Egg hunt
19th- stood on his own
30th- 1st Haircut and Momma's birthday

May 2009
3rd- climbs the stairs (unknown to his parents)
17th- says "bye"
31st- Uncle Robert, Uncle Brian and Uncle Ryan all graduate from High School

June 2009
9th- 1 year pictures
18th-23rd- Disney World vacation with family
26th- Caleb turns one! WOW!
Birthday party on the 27th then surgery for Jen again on June 29th.

What a year!! My baby is a little boy now! He looks more and more like his Dad everyday. We are so blessed with wonderful children. Happy birthday to my little boy! I cannot wait to see the man you will grow up to be. Caleb, I love you more than you will ever know!

Hannah-talk

Hannah just brought her two favorite Cabbage Patch Dolls into the livingroom and pulled them and herself up onto the couch to sit next to me. With her two babies in her arms she looked at each of them intently and said, "Hola, what is your name? Soy Hannah, I'm glad to see you today."

Ha, my girl loves watching and reciting Dora.

The Perfect Date

I love my hubby. He drives me crazy sometimes but then he does something so perfect it could bring me to tears. I have been a little stressed lately: preparing for DisneyWorld vacation with the WHOLE family, planning for Caleb's 1st birthday party (which is 3 days after we return from Disney) and my upcoming surgery. My headaches are back and they will be doing my brain surgery again on June 29th. I will be thrilled to be without headaches FINALLY but as you would assume my stress level is at an all-time high.

So, back to Chris and his perfect actions! Knowing how stressed I am right now he took me away for part of the weekend, just the two of us. Here is how it went down:

Friday afternoon Chris calls me about two 'o clock "just to check in" and see how I was doing... ok... then before we got off the phone he told me I needed to pack an overnight bag for myself and pack the kids bags because they were going to stay at his moms. Shock me, shock me!!! I was not expecting that.

• He gets home from work we all get in the car and we are off to ????.... We drop the kids off at Susan's and then start heading westward... I still don't know where we are going. At this point I am excited but I was trying very hard to not get aggitated by the fact that I still had no clue where we were going or what we were doing. You know me, I like to know the plan, preferably make the plan, but atleast know the plan.
• Chris then tells me we have reservations to make but he wants to check-in first. We check in at the Blackstone Hotel in downtown Fort Worth. I am still excited and in shock from the happenings of the past few hours but by now I am starving and ready for dinner. We drop the bags and then Chris leads to our mystery dinner at ... PF Changs... YUM! We haven't eaten there in forever and I LOVE IT! Great.Wall.of.Chocolate... is there anything better? Of course, in true Chris-fashion he tells me that the reason he picked PF is because we had gift cards at home that he could use. Ha, I love my frugal and quite honest man!
• We enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing dinner. No kids, no plastic placemats, no bibs, no sippy cups... for the first 20 minutes we were there I kept remarking on how weird I felt without the daiper bag next to me in the booth. Dinner was fantastic! We ordered the Great Wall to-go and headed back to the hotel.
• You know I can't stay still for long so after we got back to the room we decided to go out for a walk and to go have a drink. Again, bazaar going somewhere with nothing but my man! We ran into an old high school friend while we were out and then back to the hotel to relax.
• Fast forward... you don't need those details...
• Morning.. breakfast at Corner Bakery in our hotel. YUM! Did I mention that there were no points documented for this weekend?!?
• We had a leisurely morning and then made our way to the Kimball Art Museum. Currently they have "Love & Art in Renaissance Italy" on display. It was wonderful! Beautiful pieces and insight into love, marraige and childbirth rituals of the day. I highly recommend it.

It was amazing how perfect our extended "date" was. I didn't even know I needed this break but boy how it renewed my spirit. I love my wonderful husband! He never ceases to amaze me. Chris you are my best friend and I wouldn't trade you for the world! Thank you for a perfect date!

Tagged

Been a while for postings around here. Crazy life, crazy brain, something's gotta give!
Here are my 8 things, enjoy!

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Getting rid of all these headaches
2. Family trip to DisneyWorld in 16 days
3. Getting back into a new bible study this summer
4. Joe T's with the Shannon Family
5. Diana, Zach & Christopher's visit in August
6. Caleb's 1st Birthday party ... I can't believe he will be one!
7. Hannah's first swimming lesson ... what a big girl!
8. Caleb taking his real first steps and then the fun that will follow as I chase him chasing his sister!

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Went to BodyWorks class at the gym
2. Picked up Caleb from Mema's where he had spent the night on Sunday
3. Mailed a care package to Arizona
4. Bought my bible study book for this summer
5. Called the Neurosurgeon to schedule my surgery
6. Went to the store before dinner
7. Enjoyed Tostada Night with the fam
8. Enjoyed an evening with no TV (after The Wheel was over, of course)

8 Shows I Watch:
1. The Today Show
2. Dora
3. The Golden Girls
4. Jon & Kate plus 8 (for now)
5. The Biggest Loser
6. 18 Kids and Counting
7. Wheel of Fortune
8. The Office!

8 People I Tag:
1. Ashley
2. Becky
3. Nicole
4. Angie
5. Kristen
6... No one else even knows I have a blog!

Thankful Thursday

We are surrounded by so many blessings. Even those things that I perceive to be burdens or inconveniences at the time in hindsight are part of God's plan for my life. God uses my good and my bad choices for His glory. Praise be to a forgiving and gracious God. So to start out, I am thankful for....

1. ... a loving God that is in control even when I do not understand His ways or even see him working. I have had a hard time over the past few years really "feeling" God with me or working in my life. It has been straining on my relationship with Him. Having just finished "Esther" by Beth Moore my eyes have been opened to looking for Him even when I don't see Him at work. This quote from her study had a profound effect on me and my outlook on things:
"I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining.
I believe in love, even when I do not feel it.
I believe in God, even when He is silent."

Thank you Lord for being there even when I do not "feel" you.

2. ... my amazing husband who has supported and stood by me even when I was not doing the same for him. God is working on strengthening our relationship right now and I am so thankful for the wonderful man God placed in my life. I love you Chris!

3. ... Hannah Banana and her caring and loving nature. She expresses genuine concern and feelings for people that only a child has the ability to. She is such a little mother. Yesterday she and Caleb were standing at the coffee table eating some crackers for snack. She gave him one more cracker and then put the rest away saying to Caleb: "No more until dinner sweety." What a caregiver!

4. ... my precious boy. For our family, it has definitely been true that daughters love their daddies and sons love their mommies. I love the special bond that Caleb and I have. Though he only says "Mama" when he is angry or in need of something and "Daddy" whenever he is happy, I know that our bond is unbreakable and at the end of the day he needs his Momma and Momma needs her Caleb.

5. ... friendship and a bond that can only come from above. I love my Diana and the relationship that we have. In God's amazing time and providence Diana and my relationship has only gotten better with her moving to Arizona. Believe me, I would love to have her back in Texas but God has allowed the geographical distance between us to be a catalyst to strengthen our relationship. Diana, thank you for doing the Esther study with me. That time together has been priceless!

6. ... family and love that abounds regardless of our actions. The dynamics of both Chris and my family have changed over the past few years and will continue to change, as time has a way of doing that. Our families are so supportive and loving and I am very thankful for them.

Now for the meat and potatoes of Thankful Thursday.
I am thankful for...
1. Naps and the few minutes of "free time"(does that even exist?) it gives mom.
2. DVR, when through tears we ask for just one episode of Dora.
3. Preschool that gives Hannah a break and opportunity for more social interaction.
4. The playroom that helps contain the chaos of toys in this house.
5. Cribs that hold a screaming baby when mom needs a timeout.
6. The Office and Thursday nights - enough said.
7. My little purple kitchen vacuum, we would live in a pile of crumbs without you!
8. My Swiffer WetJet, my precious, I can't leave you out.
9. Highchairs with seat belts that prevent forward flips.
10. The Internet, that provides me with some, although distant, social interaction.

Who dressed Hannah?

This is a quiz for those who love my daughter and know she has more potential than the ensemble she is wearing below.

Who dressed Hannah...?...?

A. Momma

B. Daddy

C. Hannah

D. Hannah (with the approval of Daddy)

E. Hannah (with the approval of Momma)

or for fun... F. Caleb, of course

Sweet Nothings and a Body Slam

Wow, kids grow up way too fast. I have recently been converting all of our home videos to DVD storage. I will soon be editing videos and such, but I can't quite get the motivation to embark on that task. Needless to say, I have been viewing the lives of my kids in fast forward and rewind for a few days and it made me realize how they are maturing and changing before my eyes.

I think the biggest change I have seen over the past few weeks is how the kids are now interacting together. Caleb is moving from the independent phase of play to a more intereactive phase. He loves to follow Hannah around the house and get in her business. If I ever lose him (which does not happen too often, but WOW is he a fast crawler) he is almost always heading to the playroom to be with Hannah. I know it is still early in their lives but I am so happy that my kids have playmates in their home. I love watching them interact and play with each other.

My favorite Hannah and Caleb moment from today...
Hannah has been cuddling Caleb's hands and face and saying "Hey there amigo." I love that she calls him her friend. Today Caleb was pulling up on the coffee table and Hannah managed to grab him in a full nelson and bodyslam him to the ground while saying, "Hey there amigo!"