Texas State Aquarium

In January, My parents gave us a family pass to the Texas State Aquarium, as a birthday present to our family.  (Thank you, Mom & Dad!!!).  So last month we headed out to make good use of it! We were so fortunate to have a couple of friends meet us there!

I love to watch my children explore some of God's creation up close and personal! Cade's favorite was otters... of which I have no pictures of.  William and Brennan both loved the dolphins. 

Kelly & Ella thank you so much for joining us!! We had a great time!!

Pre Christmas FUN!

We had so much fun during the month of December. Friends, Family, and Fun projects were at the top of our list. Here are the fun sugar cookies we made one Saturday morning... Cade made Christmas frogs and tadpoles... while the rest of us stuck to more traditional things like Candy Canes, snowmen(William), Christmas Trees(Michael), and gifts(Audra). Cade loves to play Santa in his sleigh.

We had to go visit the "Big Guy". Here are the boys checking out the polar Express train display while waiting to see Santa.

Cade 2, Brennan 16months, and William 4

We also made some gingerbread houses with our dearest friends.

Cade

William

Marymae

Benjamin

More Pics to come... ( I'm still working on holiday scheduling, so it takes a while to get things done)

Friends, Food, and Fun!

Monday, We headed to Brewsters Street for a night of food and fun. The boys had a blast and Michael and I really enjoyed getting to know a new friend. Thanks for joining us Jeff, it was a lot of fun. Cade on the swing.. sorry it's so out of focus.

Brennan climbin on the slides

William is so sweet to watch out for his baby. Here they are going down the slide.

Friends, Food, and Fun!

Rick and Sandra AKA Uncle Rick and Aunt Nanny, had us over for a great cookout a while ago. Aunt Heather and Uncle Brent (Brandon) were in town and we were all able to relax and let the kids play. We love spending time with this family.. they are such a blessing to us!!


Here are the grandparents lounging. Aunt Nanny is feeding watermelon to Brennan and Zoe.

Cade loves the puppies, here he is giving Hallie a drink (L). All the kids playing in the sand/water table.(R).

Sweet Zoe. Isn't she adorable!!

Cade is being a more strong silent type, but Zoe is going in for the kiss. :)

Summer Favorites

So Stacy Neal posted on her blog about fun things to do in the summer. I loved her list and decided I would try to make one too.

Here are our favorite things to do this summer!!

We are fortunate to have a minor league baseball team here. The Corpus Christi Hooks. We don't go nearly enough, but it is so fun when we do get a chance to go.
The brothers geared up for a game last year.

We really like waterguns. I fill up a bucket in the back yard so they can dunk their guns and fill them up and I don't have to refill every 5 seconds. (it's a great activity while I'm trying to clean floors. :)


One more thing that is a fav of my boys is bug hunting. They each have a plastic jar and are able to catch any bugs they want... we usually get a ton of rollie-pollies, and june bugs.


Bike riding! We do this all year, but it is a fun summer thing to do!! Especially if there are puddles involved.






There is nothing better than digging with a kitchen spoon. I have some old spoons that I got at the flea market and they are hidden treasures to pull out when it is dirt playing time.


Does anyone remember this photo?




Thats right we also love the mud. I mean really who doesn't?



Our #1 favorite thing to do in the summer is................. POOL TIME!!!

We love the pool, enough we bought a membership and go at any chance we get.

Hope you all have a wonderful Summer filled with Fun and Sun!!!

Christmas Quiz.

Sorry I have been so bad about posting lately. I feel like I don't have a single second to do anything extra, but I know the time will come. So I got tagged and thought I would share. I have a ton of pics to come, but for today you will just have to wait. Oh and by the way any of you that read the last blog will fing this funny.... 3 weeks after William stopped sucking his thumb, Brennan has now started. Anyways, here we go..

The Christmas Quiz!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping

2. Real tree or Artificial? artificial and prelit!!! What a great invention.


3. When do you put up the tree? Friday after Thanksgiving, Michael is usually at work and the kids and I get everything decorated and put the ornaments on that night as a family.

4. When do you take the tree down? Before New Years.

5. Do you like eggnog? LOVE IT. We have already gone through 2 gallons this season

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A Teddy Bear, that I asked for all year long.


7. Hardest person to buy for? My Dad

8. Easiest person to buy for? Jeanifer (my sister in law)


9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, but it is fisherprice:)

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? What are Christmas Cards?

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't know if I can say. :)


12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love the old animated cartoons. Rudolph and Frosty.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? in October.


14.Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas dinner (all of it)


16. Lights on a tree? White, I love all white! On the house on the tree, everywhere

17. Favorite Christmas song? The Christmas Song, by Nat King Cole (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire) Its putting a smile on my face right now:)


18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? We just like to be with family. Santa usually comes to our house early, and then we travel on Christmas.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Yes, but I have to sing them.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star. Made of Cardboard and covered with aluminum foil, it is a strange Caldwell tradition that I love and completely embrase.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We always do it before christmas day, but we act like it is christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? No.


23. Favorite ornament theme or color? We have a very country christmas theme.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I think I would have to say sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pecans, and brown sugar. It's like getting to eat dessert early:)


25. What do you want for Christmas this year? To be with Family! and to watch the boys grow relationships and play with their cousins



Well their you have it. Hope you have a very Merry Christmas!!

Butterfly Garden & the BIG Spider

A friend from Church has an enormous amount of butterflies at her house and invited us to come see them on Monday. Here are a few pics from the morning. Thank you so much Alice!

Isn't it beautiful!

William and Ashton hanging out
Taking a ride on the tractor
And the most interesting part of the day.... watching this enormous garden spider wrap this grasshopper in web. It happened so fast I couldn't believe it. So facinating.

Playgroup

Playgroup was at our house last Wednesday. We had a great turn out, even though Hurricane Dolly was here. We just sat around watching the weather channel, listening to the rain and visiting as best as possible over the kids:)

Here are a few of the kids having snack. I was so proud of myself... I made IceCream Cone Cupcakes. You have probably all made these but this was my first time. You make the cake batter and pour it like you would make cupcakes normally, but you top it with an upsidedown icecream cone before you bake them. The cake bakes up into the cone and then you ice the cupcake that is sticking out. They were so cute, and really looked like icecream:) The kids seemed to enjoy them.

Our friends..

Last month we had a progressive dinner with out Young Families group. So here are the pics, The boys were there too, however I couldn't get that picture to upload for some reason... I'm sure it is user error.

This is Amanda, she is being induced with her first boy on Thursday!!! We can't wait to meet Caleb. Excuse my poofy hair.. I look like I was going for a 70's do.

Isn't he so handsome!

Anatomy 101

Disclaimer: NO ANIMALS WERE HURT IN THE SHOOTING OF THESE PHOTOS!!

Yesterday was our third young couples/young families get together at a local park. We have had quite a bit of rain this year and due to that and the nice shade we found it seemed to be a perfect home for frogs. William and his friend MaryMae found quite a few and decided to play with them. Here they are with them laid out like they are about to give us a science lesson.

Notice all the frogs on the ground around them. I think there were close to 15 frogs collected in all.

Abby-Gail.

This is Abigail. She is the daughter of our preacher... 5 years old, and the love of Williams life (he goes for the older women). J/K. Ok, maybe not the love of his life, but good friend. William loves to play with her, and cries every time she leaves our house, but the best is listening to him talk to her. Every sentence starts with her name, and every syllable is pronounced. So instead of Abigail it is Abby-Gail. "Abby-Gail do you want to swim?" , or "Abby-Gail are you hungry?", or "Abby-Gail look at my truck." It is really just to sweet. And she is so sweet to understand that he is wanting her attention and always give him the attention that he is wanting. They are good friends.

Here they are on Friday playing in the backyard. Cade had fun too, but mostly stuck to the mud or should I say the mud stuck to him.

New Friends!

Arlington Heights has a new Youth and Family Minister. Welcome to Greg, Melissa, Keegan, and Babies. We have had the Privilege of having Keegan over to play for a couple of days. So here he is, making his debut, on the Caldwell blog. Isn't he cute!

Bunco with the Sis

Last Saturday we had our first Young Couples get together at Arlington Heights Church of Christ. BUNCO NIGHT! We has a wonderful time, good company, good food, and good games. Too bad I didn't win. Arnold and Amanda did a fantastic job planning and setting up. Michael didn't get to attend due to THE BUG!!! Yikes. So I took his wonderful sister instead. Thanks for being my date Jeanifer.