Learning to Live Life on Purpose

This August has passed so fast. We finally got a small summer Vacation and time at the  park.  The boys are gearing up for Preschool and Sammy is almost 1.  Where does the time go?  I love my sisters new blog Life On Purpose.  What a great idea and one of the things that we have learned as a family this summer as well.  Life is fragile and the things you take for granted are the most important things.  Times with your children at the park, or simply falling asleep in your arms.  The times with grandparents where you do nothing but pool, games and family time.  Nothing special just time with family, which is SPECIAL.  I am praying that for our family we take time to enjoy both the good times and hard times of our lives.  The smiles, tears, and yes sometimes tantrums, because that is the only way you can express your sadness/frustrations. But over arching all of that is God's Love. 

See our Special times with the boys this August.

Three boys love to swing.  Unfortunately this is the park the Caleb ended up with some serious bug bites. 

All 3 boys genuinely enjoyed swimming this time.  Makes us wish for a pool.  Maybe in our next house?

Lots of good time with Papa Steve. 

One of our Faves of the weekend.  We think he looks like James at that age.

Highlights since Last post

So it has been too long since our last post. I have been reading my sisters' blogs and always get inspired to write my own. So tonight after a perfectly wonderful normal night I want to start.

We have so much new in our lives. One of the biggest is Samuel Robert joined our family almost 1 year ago. He is 10 months old. He is totally precious and loves to watch his older brothers run all over. He can't wait to move as fast as they are (although he is getting pretty quick crawling). He looks so much like Caleb and yet is very simply Sam. We discovered this weekend that he LOVES balloons. He get so excited when he sees them and squeals (or in reality screams) until he can touch and play with them.

Caleb finished his first year of preschool and is ready to take on year two. He loves sports and talks all the time about the "games" that he has to go play. We tried to do Soccer this spring, but with other things in life, we couldn't make it to all of his practices/games. Hopefully this Fall will work out better. He is still our helper and wants to be completely independent most of the time, but still has his moments of wanting help. He loves to take care of things and loves to take care of Sammy. He and Aidan are stil great little playmates.

Aidan is growing up so fast. He is getting ready to start his first year of preschool. He is very excited. He likes whatever his big brother is into, but still is fascinated with coloring and reading books. He LOVES water and could be in the pool all the time. He is our clumsy little one and still thinks he is as big as Caleb. His speech is so sweet with a little bit of accent from all around the country depending on what he's saying (southern drawl, Boston, Chicago, etc.)

James and I are doing well. James is at home with the boys and I am still at Prescription Solutions working on my project. We are loving being the parents of 3 amazing little boys. We have been married for 6 years, but it doesn't seem that long and yet seems longer (in the best possible way). We have discovered this last year how precious family and friends are. So for all who have been there for us THANK YOU! We love you more than we can say.

Enjoy some pics and I hope to be better at writing. Thanks for the inspiration Karie and Lindsay!

The Boys Lovin on Sammy

                                                                   Sammy Sleepin'

Caleb being Iron Man

Our Big Boys

So Aidan is spending his first night in his toddler bed. I can't believe that he is old enough to be in it. He looks so sweet. James is going to take a picture of him tomorrow during nap and I will post a pic! Hopefully he will sleep well!

Caleb went back to the ice rink yesterday and kept up his passion for falling! It was a little more watery so he was a little wet, but he also marched around the rink just holding James' hands! I think he might be a natural skater, with his dad from Michigan and his Papa from Minnesota!

Christmas Pics

I never seem to have time to do a Christmas letter, so instead here are pictures of our Christmas so far. We will be celebrating with my dad on New Years and I am sure I will have more pics to share.

We spent our Christmas Eve going to Morse Church (where James is directing the student ministries). It was a wonderful service and the boys even enjoyed it. Then we had dinner with Grandma French and Judy. It was wonderful to spend time with family.

Christmas morning the boys actually got up at their normal time...I however had trouble sleeping and was up at 6:45. We started off by having James read the Christmas story in a childrens book.

This is Aidan's second Christmas, but the first one he can participate in. He is very meticulous in opening his gifts. He must have every little piece of paper off the gift before he shows any emotion of what he received. He gave me each little piece of this gift.

This is from Caleb, who was sick all week so I had to go get the gift for him. When asked what he wanted to give Aidan it was "a big twuck with cars."

Caleb for his "big" present got hockey skates. They happen to match my new hockey skates. He has been so passionate about playing hockey lately that we couldn't resist. He will get to take skate lessons early next year.

Luckily, Leawood just opened a new outdoor ice rink that happened to be the only rink open on Christmas Day. Caleb did very well. He can stand by himself and take a couple of march steps. He could probably do more, but he likes to fall on the ice. He likes to pretend that he is being "checked by the guys". Did I mention that he loves hockey?

The rest of our day we were with James' family. The boys had a blast chasing Joe and Michele's kids all around the house. They never get enough of playing with the older kids.

We hope that you and yours had a blessed Christmas.

He's Done!!!!!

Done with what you ask! James took his last test today!!!!!

He is so excited....tonight was a night of wine and sushi!

There is a huge weight off of his shoulders. Of course he still is waiting for his scores, but it is definitely time for some well-deserved rest!

Way to go honey!

Just when he thought it would never end

So today James had a bit of a challenging afternoon.....

It started like this....Caleb came out of their room from nap buck naked with dark circles around his eyes....he looked like a racoon...now while one would think it might be from lack of sleep (he didn't so much take a nap) instead it is from getting in mommy's mascara.....so like a good daddy he goes into their room to get clothes on, clean up the mascara only to find.....poop everywhere...on Caleb's bed, on the boys floor, in their bathroom floor, in the toy room floor. Daddy is wondering if instead of mascara around the eyes is it something else....so he puts Caleb back in his diaper when he notices another diaper on the floor....he looks at Aidan who is also without diaper, but couldn't figure out how to get his shirt off...so Aidan also gets a new diaper (James mental note remember to check the crib after cleaning up poop)....the boys are sent to play in the living room.....poop detail is done.....checking on the boys and see water all over floor from cat bowl......boys are soaked completely.....the boys are sent to the toy room to play while daddy cleans up the water....instead the boys decide to play in their room taking out every piece of clothing from Aidan's dresser.....both boys are now in serious trouble...daddy puts both boys back to bed in time out, while he cleans the clothes up.....ooops forgot the mental note....Aidan now needs another pair of shorts.....

We'll laugh about this right? Actually I am laughing about it now....it may take James a couple of days.

Doctors and more Doctors

So this is my week off and the first 2 days were filled with running from Doctor to Doctor trying to get all of the appointments done while I was off.

Aidan had is 1 year visit on Monday.

Current Stats:

Height: 29.25 inches

Weight: 21 pounds 3 oz

Head Circ: 19.25

Percentiles: 16, 16, 95.....

As his MD stated he is definitely a Caldwell baby. Both boys have head circumferences at 95% or greater, but again as their MD says at least they are cute heads! :) Aidan is healthy and growing well. He got a clean bill of health. Yes!

Caleb, James and I had our eye appointments today. This is Caleb's first time. He did fabulous. He had fun teasing the optometrist, by telling him that he didn't know what the picture of the cake was. Caleb also got a clean bill of health for his eyes!

Since the boys did such a good job at the MD's we took them to Deanna Rose. Aidan is finally old enough to love the going into the goat pen. Unfortunately he wanted to get down and crawl. Yuck!