On Sunday, February 15th, Caleb Joseph was baptized at St. John the Baptist Church in Starlight. He was so good during the baptism - I had never seen a baby smile while getting cold water poured on his head before!
Matthew & I feel very blessed to be Caleb's Godparents, and are very thankful that Matthew was able to get this job in Indiana so we can be near to him and watch him grow. We love you, Caleb Joseph!
Heavenly Father, thank you for this token of Your love
A precious little angel sent from heaven up above
As we commit him to you, may You stay forever near
And send a guardian angel, Lord, to guide and watch him here.
Help him always feel Your presence, love and gentle hand;
Then Dear Father, through Your love…have grace to understand.
And through this cherished honor, Lord, help us be his guide
That we may help to raise him to become Your joy and pride.
In every way please give him wisdom as we watch him grow;
Let us be within Your will, speak gently so we'll know.
Wow, I can't believe it's been 8 months since I've written a blog post. That's almost enough time to grow a baby :)
So much has happened since we last spoke, but this is by far our biggest news:
We're due with baby number 3 on March 10, and we couldn't be more excited. "Scramber" (as James has nicknamed the little one) is doing wonderfully.
What else have we been up to?
In July 2014, we moved into a rental house in Floyds Knobs, Indiana. Matthew started his new job at Radiology Associates and we soon found out we were pregnant. The house we were renting was too far from the main road to get high speed internet (hence the lack of blog posts), didn't have a dishwasher, and was kind of stinky, but it had a beautiful back yard and it was cheap! We also had neighbors who had horses, llamas, chickens, goats, cats, and dogs which the boys loved seeing every day (especially when the horses got out of their pasture and decided to graze in our backyard!)
We also attended a Boone Family Reunion in July at my Aunt Patty's lake house in Henryville. It was so wonderful seeing our family that is spread out over the country (and my sis from England) all in one place.
In August, we took a trip to Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Just like last year, we made an overnight stop on the way there and back at my Aunt Donna's house in Waynesville, North Carolina. She's the main reason we vacation in South Carolina :). My cousin Tyler (also known as Taco) joined us at the beach for a few days. We had gorgeous weather and really enjoyed our time there. James even made a friend on the beach with whom he'd swap toys with every day. He loved swimming, especially with Tyler. Charlie was a bit spooked by the waves at first, but he warmed up to the water by the end of the trip.
I coached James in soccer this fall through the YMCA. We would have a weekly Saturday 20 minute practice followed by a 20 minute game. He would often do alright during practice, but once the game started, he pretty much refused to play. If he did come on the field, he would often sit on my feet. When he got a medal at the end of the season, he said "this is for watching the game."
We celebrated Matthew's 33rd birthday on September 22nd.
And on September 28, our beautiful, perfect nephew Caleb was born. He looks a lot like his dad, makes adorable noises when he eats, and does a really good side-eye. James and Charlie are crazy about him (for awhile, James called him "my baby"), as are we!
Jill & I pregnant at the same time
October brought some Nett family pictures for Patsy's birthday (taken by her brother-in-law Paul Schellenberger).
Our annual pumpkin pictures (this time with Caleb!)
And Halloween. James was really into Halloween this year, and decided that he and Charlie would dress up as Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat. He has become infatuated with all things Halloween related: skeletons, spiders, ghosts, bats, pumpkins, you name it. He's already planning his Halloween costume for this year (skeleton) and is thinking of adding spiders to his Bob the Builder Birthday cake.
He really enjoyed trick or treating this year, too - although he liked to sort and arrange the candy rather than eat it, which was just fine by me! I think we ended up throwing it out in early January after he left it lying on the floor one too many times. Charlie was a trooper with his huge hat, and he definitely was not going to let his candy go to waste. He ate as much of it as we'd let him (and tried to steal some of James's on occasion).
November brought us two more birthdays: Aunt Steph's and Aunt Jill's.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family at my brother Matthew & Stephanie's beautiful new home. We took it easy this year and did a chili lunch, and then headed over to Matthew's cousin's house in Louisville to celebrate with his family.
We had a pretty good snowfall in November and were able to take the boys' pictures for our Christmas card this year.
(front)
(back)
James loved it. Charlie did, too, for a little while, but soon wanted to go back inside. He was pretty content to watch James play from the window.
On 12/13/14, Matthew's brother Jason got married. They had a beautiful ceremony and reception in Indianapolis. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take too many pictures because I was busy chasing around these handsome rascals.
We had some wonderful family celebrations, but sadly Charlie came down with an ear infection on Christmas Eve, so we didn't get to attend the Boone family party. The boys were both spoiled, as usual :)
James's annual "bow on the head" Christmas photo
In January, James started preschool at St. Mary of the Knobs. He wasn't potty trained in time to start in the fall (he went his first full day without diapers the day school started!), but luckily they let him start in January. He absolutely loves it. He goes three afternoons a week for three hours at a time. It's sometimes a little hard to get him to tell us what he did there (he always says he didn't learn anything!), but he comes home singing new songs, talking about his friend Jack (whose name is really Jake), and has mentioned more than once that he loves playing the Xylophone during music class. He adores his teachers (and has asked if they can come over to our house). They send home a weekly newsletter letting us know what he did in class that week. I think he'll be sad when summer break rolls around!
We also finally closed on a new house in January (only took us 60+ days for the closing!) and we moved in during the last week of the month. We counted once, and Matthew has moved 12 times, and I've moved 14. This time, we did it while he was recovering from a nasty stomach virus, while I was 7.5 months pregnant, and while both caring for two young kiddos. I don't recommend it! Thankfully, Matthew's dad Jim was a huge help, both with moving and cleaning - we couldn't have done it without him! And his mom (who was recovering from the same virus) helped watch the boys and even cleaned out our nasty fridge at the rental house. We're planning on finishing an attic space above the garage right away, and have plans for some other updates down the road.
Now that we have internet again, I'm going to attempt to keep up with this. Even if no one else reads it, I like looking back through the pictures :) Just don't expect too many posts, especially after Scrambler makes his or her appearance!
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