Talkin' to daddy

Grammie Mellie and Gramps sent Caleb an extra Valentines Day package! (About his hair...a day earlier he had smeared Vaseline all over himself. It took a few days/baths to get it completely out. In the meantime, he was rocking the punk hairdo).


While daddy is in New Mexico we've posted a pic (video wouldn't upload, darn it!) of Caleb reading the paper. Buster found some pics of familiar friends (Wall-e and Cars) in the paper and will probably develop a lifelong love of the newspaper, like his dad has. He kept saying "Wowee" and "Cahs, vroom, vroom". We miss you already, honey.

Around Feb 18th

We've been sick with colds, it is gray outside and it's the middle of February. Unless you're basking in Baja or Bermuda sunshine, there's probably not a lot of excitement around your places either. And yes, I'm equating sunshine with excitement these days. Sunshine means bright, it means warmth, it means alive, it means adventure. Enough about life in Alaska. I decided to look through our photo logs and find out what was going on around Feb 18th the past few years. I stuck with dates that were just a few days off from today's date, to keep it interesting. It was pretty cool to recount the memories of that particular day in that particular year. But more interesting was that in the past 4 years, Cannon has worn the same shirt on almost the same day! Bazaar!

Around Feb 18th, 2005 Cannon was visiting his sis, Tiffo, on his way to Alaska for the '05 fire season. He got a call while at Tiffo's from his brother Dave, back in AZ, who had a caved in roof from flooding. He asked for Cannon's help and as always, Cannon was quick to help. While back in AZ, he looked me up, asked me out and we went on our first and last date. That date began our long distance courtship. Six months, almost to the day of our re-acquaintance, we were married in the Mesa Temple. Cannon is so happy and at peace in this picture ('cause he'd met the girl of his dreams)...and look how young Josh and Bailee are! They've grown so much!
Around Feb 18th, 2006 me and my beautiful sisters and mother were pick-a-nicking at Tempe Town Lake on a characteristically bright, warm day. We used to get together for lunch once a week and we had marvelous times together. What great memories!! They are my best friends.

Around Feb 18th, 2007 I was huge with child. I was about 5 weeks away from having Caleb and we visited Holly and Matt in the urgent care unit of the hospital as little Mia had contracted RSV. It was somewhat nerve wracking for us, seeing a 6 month old baby hooked up to tubes, but Matt and Holly took it in stride, setting a good example for me and Cannon.

Around Feb 18th, 2008 We had just moved from Arizona to Oregon...Yamhill, OR. We loved this quiet little town (pop. 1000), the beautiful Oregon countryside, the kind folks who befriended us, and the darling house we had found. On the counter I've got my nail polish tub out, ready to paint nails, there are tulips from Cannon, a gift for Valentines, and Caleb is hanging with his dad, quite content to rattle the measuring spoons.

Last night, February 17th, 2009, we found one of Cannon's favorite things at the grocery store--day old pastries. He and Caleb had hardly walked in the door before they were sitting at the table, devouring the lovely blueberry pastry treats. There are flowers from Valentines next to Cannon's arm.
Just looking back and thinking of these memories has brought some sunshine into my day. Winter or summer, bright or dark days...the real sunshine of my life is family and friends, especially Cannon and Caleb. Love you guys!

Happy Valentines Day! Kisses from Caleb!

Straightening the Blinds

Caleb is a great helper around the house. We got a toddler bed for him and he helped daddy lift it down the hall and into his room, then gave it the ole jumparoo test. 

He likes to help me cook by stirring an then licking the spoon...and it could be bread dough, it doesn't matter what's on the spoon, he wants to taste it.  He always cooperates when I wash his hands and face after each meal and then pats his own face dry with the kitchen towel.  And he even helps me straighten out the blinds when they are askew.             

p.s. A few blogs back I mentioned the missing pepper shaker.  It turns out that I lost it by "putting it away"on the top shelf of the fridge.  I hardly notice top shelf items because they are too tall for me.  It's been at least a week since it's been missing, er, right in front of me.  I wonder how many times I've looked at it in a day and not even seen it.  

Check it out!

Check out my very happy honey--his face says it all.  He loves working on cars and houses...and he's good at it.  He had just finished getting all the popcorn off our bedroom ceiling. I'm going to finish the bedroom this morning hopefully! 

Check out that very tacky, loud orange paint that is underneath the top coat!

Check out our snorting Buster (it's dark because we were watching North By Northwest as he was walking around snorting).

Check out my super sassy shoes! (I wore all black with silver and red jewelry that I made.)

Check out this fantastic Thai restaurant: http://www.gingeralaska.com/  

It was fresh, rich and flavorful and the presentation was beautiful!

Check out the opera play bill.

All of this made for a full weekend.  We celebrated Valentines early.  It was the first time we have attended an opera.  The set, the costumes and especially the performers were outstanding. How can three hours of operatic Italian NOT  be romantic?  It was wonderful!  We both really enjoyed it.

Check us out!  We got home at midnight, I ran the babysitter home, and we've been singing opera all weekend.  I wanted to snap a picture of us to remember the night. I should have taken one when we were all decked out!..oh well. 

This is what we're in the middle of...

I started painting our bedroom that fabulous blue and will finish it tonight. It took 3 coats because I didn't prime it. Cannon finished scraping the popcorn ceiling a few minutes ago...no small feat, if any of you have dealt with 30+ year old popcorn ceilings you know what I'm talking about. We are having a blast working on these house projects. We've also started the kitchen and living room. It is amazing what progress we can make when Caleb is napping or sleeping--everything halts when he is awake.

Typical morning

Kiss my hubby good morning/goodbye.
Cannon kisses Caleb and then he's out the door. Sometimes we're up early enough for breakfast, sometimes we're not.
Caleb runs to the window, scurries up the chair, pulls open the blind and presses his nose against the window, waiting eagerly for daddy to back down the driveway.
After waving bye-bye to daddy, we're back to the task of eating breakfast. Sometimes Buster eats a lot, sometimes he just wants to play...when he's feeling like being a real dare devil, he closes his eyes! Ha ,ha!

* * *

A nonchalant Caleb stood in the doorway between the kitchen and living room, jingling something in his hands. I looked up from the kitchen table where I was clipping coupons and immediately ceased snipping..."Stop!", I yelled...Caleb looked at me curiously, then back at the keys, then he shook them and pushed the remote to make the car horn beep. I yelled "Don't move! Are those my keys?", as I rushed towards him, arms outstretched. He had been rummaging through his toy basket in the living room and I'll never know for sure, but based on the objects lying on the floor, I'd guess that the keys were stuffed in the cockpit of the plane...now if only I could find the pepper.

Redneck baby enjoys pasta w/ devil's food cake and playing "keep away" with camera

When he's not contained in his highchair (which still doesn't contain any messes), he is thieving. We can't find my car keys--anywhere! We have torn the house apart, checked all his secret hiding/stash spots, we have said a little prayer, we have asked him a bunch of times nicely and then quite frantically, we have given him daddy's keys and followed him around to watch if he stashed them anywhere...and come up empty handed. He has done this before with daddy's keys and after asking him, he went and found them and brought them to me. But with my keys, it is a whole different story. Oh, and he absconded with the pepper grinder, so my egg on toast is pretty bland right now. I'm sure the pepper and car keys are co-habitating in the most random place. Maybe I'll check inside the waffle iron one more time...