Breaking News...

Not so much, as most of our friends and family found out yesterday.  However, if you don't know...we are having a boy!!!!  We are super excited.

On another note, my sweet friend GiGi posted this stick figure drawing of our family on her blog today.  It is so cute!  Take a look at her blog for other cute things she has done & rack your brain for cute things she can do for you.

Vacation

Today is the last full day of our vacation.  Sad to say, I don't think I took a single picture during the entire week.  We had lots of fun though.  We started the week with my dear friend Marianne coming to visit.  Marianne was my college roomie and we always had a ton of fun together.  It had been over 2 years since we last saw each other, but it still felt like no time had passed at all.  Marianne is also a history teacher, so we had a fun time exploring Yorktown (my favorite) and Jamestown (her favorite).  I was sad to see her leave on Thursday, but as soon as we dropped her off at the airport we headed off to Lynchburg to see Phil's family.

We stayed with Matt and Sarah at their new house, which is totally cute!  I am excited to see what Sarah will do with it.  We took a visit to Grandma & Grandpa Great's house and took them out for ice cream for Grandma Great's birthday.  In the midst of all this we realized Phil left his suitcase sitting on our bed at home and it never made it to the car.  Fortunately, Lynchburg has a Target that supplied all our needs.  The next day we began our day eating breakfast with our dear friends Tom & Connie Nylander.  Tom & Connie were my family while I was at LU.  It was great to get to see them, hopefully we will get to see them more this summer.

Part our visit was so Phil could visit the library to get some research for his paper.  Once there he found out that his LU account was still active and he could check out books free of charge.  Now we just have to figure out how to return them :)  We also went to visit Sarah at work at Starbucks several times, as most people know Phil loves his coffee, especially Starbucks.

Saturday was our last day in Lynchburg, we headed back over to Grandma Great's for a WONDERFUL breakfast and a fun time of fellowship.  After that we headed out to run some errands, a quick lunch, and then headed home.

It was great to be home, we found Phil's suitcase right where we left it and our house a welcome refuge. Caelyn was excited to sleep in her own bed that night, as were Phil and I.  The next morning we headed out to another church in our area.  After Caelyn's nap we headed out to Sandy Bottom and let her explore the playground.  She was extremely bold and did the smallest steps and slide all by herself.  Near the end she decided she wanted to go down the tall twisty slide, the first time she wanted Daddy up top and Mommy at the bottom.  After that she wanted "My Turn" and would tell Phil, "No Daddy, My turn" when she wanted to go up the steps by herself and push herself down.  This made Mommy very nervous, but Daddy was not too far off from Caelyn.  We then headed off to a delicious dinner at IHOP, where kids eat free after 4 pm, which was wonderful news.

Today we went and visited my parents in Moyock.  We had a wonderful day laughing with my brother David, and his wife Natalia.  Caelyn had a ton of fun playing outside with Mimi.  David recently purchased a Wii and we had fun bowling, rowing, and playing tennis and frisbee golf.  I realized my hand eye coordination is not built for such things.  Now we are at home, taking a few minutes to relax from all of our travels.  We had so much fun and look forward to the next vacation...whenever that may be.

Spring Time!

We have had some WONDERFUL weather the last few days and we have taken full advantage of it.  Caelyn loves playing outside with her sidewalk chalk, bubbles, balls, or just plain running.  Here are some pictures of our outside adventures.

Coming Soon...

We are excited to announce that in September we will be adding a new member to our family.

Valentine's Day

We don't do a lot to celebrate Valentine's Day.  Our anniversary is 3 weeks before, so we don't do a lot to also celebrate Valentines.  However, I do have three good memories of Valentine's Day.

The first one is my (first) Senior year at LU my parents came up to surprise me for Valentine's Day.  My boss tricked me into staying in the office until the arrived, which I didn't mind missing my class too much.  My dad walked in the office with a big cute stuffed bear.  I had already made plans to go to dinner with a bunch of other single girls, so my parents tagged along.  My dad stopped and bought roses for each of the girls, my mom & I included.  At the end of the night without telling us, he picked up the bill for I think 11 in total.  To me it was a sign of generosity and love that is supposed to be shown on Valentine's Day.

My second memory is the first Valentine's Day Phil and I were dating, we were both traveling that weekend.   I was in PA and Phil was in NC.  However, he managed before the weekend began to slip a card to a friend of mine.  So, Valentine's Day morning she presented me with the card.

My third was formed this morning.  After church when Caelyn saw her daddy, she got the biggest smile and ran to him.  She embraced his legs with both arms, it was the sweetest thing.  She even ignored the bag of M&Ms being given to her to run to her daddy.  I hope this memory is as lasting to me as the first two.

VACATION!!!!

We travelled up to Granville, NY to spend time with Phil's parents and grandparents at the Aubrey home.  We had quite a fun time.  We determined that Caelyn is made to live in the country where she can roam freely outdoors and explore all there is to explore.  

We had a great time relaxing and spending time with family.  We did quite a bit with Phil's Uncle Nathan and Aunt Amy and their family.  We had a bonfire, went hiking, and had a nice dinner with them.  To wind down the week we went to Lake St. Catherine in Vermont with Phil's parents.  Here are a few pictures.

Mommy's Helper

Caelyn loves to help me clean up the kitchen.  She has her own broom to sweep and her own "dust cloth".  She goes behind me to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Trying to break out

Caelyn decided to see if her toy keys would unlock the front door.  Needless to say she was unsuccessful, but that didn't keep her from trying several times through out the day.

More June Adventures

Caelyn has gone on many adventures this month...here are a few.

Learning to climb on top of things

Going to Williamsburg with Uncle Matt & Aunt Sarah

Getting tuckered out after a long day of sight seeing

Crying over not having enough toys :)

Helping Mommy rearrange the house

Happy Birthday Caelyn!!!

Caelyn has turned the big 1!!!  We had a small party for her with my parents and a couple of friends.  Caelyn REALLY enjoyed her cake.

May Update

May was quite a fun month.  I had my first Mother's Day, we went to Cleveland to visit Grandma and Grandpa Gifford, and Caelyn started walking on her own.

April Update

Well,  apparently I have been delinquent in my blogging duties.  We have been busy and a lot has happened since March.

Let's see, first we had EasterPraise, our church's Easter Production.  Phil did an amazing job putting it all together.

Then of course there was Easter.  Caelyn got her first Easter basket, which she was excited about; however, she was disappointed there was no chocolate.

Then we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Great Gifford in Lynchburg and stopped by our dear friends the Underwoods on the way home.

Self Feeding

Today was a fun day lunch day.  Caelyn loves to feed herself and is constantly grabbing the spoon as I am trying to put in her mouth and feeding herself.  Today I decided to let her feed herself completely.  I got a bowl with suction cup and let her go at it.  She did pretty well with the spoon, but decided it was easier to eat with her hands.  She also got the bowl off the tray and tried to eat that way.  Here is some of our adventure.

Starting out strong using the spoon.  

 

Taking a spoon break to squish it in her hands.

Trying the spoon again.

Spoon in one hand, food in the either.

Pulling the bowl off the tray.

Mmm...Sweet Potato!

All done Mommy!