Christmas Card 2011!

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Dear Family and Friends,
Once again, I'm surprised it's Christmas time again! It's funny to think that at the beginning of the year, we were amazed that our daughter was standing, and getting her to drink a bottle was an accomplishment that literally made my day! We now try to get her to stand still for just a second and alas, we have yet to get her off the bottle! Callie Sue is such a delight to us-her endless chatter and constant movement can be exhausting, but they bring such joy to our hearts, and we praise God for our healthy, happy little girl. We are enjoying seeing Christmas through her eyes. She is in love with Christmas lights-she yells "CWISMAS YITES!" every time she sees them! She is super excited about Dave's Lego train around our tree and says "Hi and bye-bye Choo Choo" as it goes around each time. Our little music-lover is enjoying the Christmas music, as well. Each year, we buy a new Christmas c.d. This year, it was Matthew West's album. There's a song on it where he sings about Jesus being the "Light of the World." A couple days ago, I had it in my head and sang the first line; all of a sudden Callie burst out saying "Yight of da Woold!" It was so cute, so all day we worked on "Light of the World is Jesus." She never quite said it, but when I put her to bed that night I said, "Jesus loves you, and He's always with you." Around her binki, she nodded her head and said, "Yight of da Woold." So, I guess she did make the connection!
While my days mostly consist of playing with Callie and doing a passable job of keeping the laundry and dishes at bay, I am still enjoying working at the real estate office a couple mornings a week. I feel blessed that I do have so much time with our daughter and get to take part in each accomplishment and milestone as it comes!
Dave just began his 6th year working at Grace Community Church. He once again had the opportunity to preach several times this year and has done a great job coordinating and choosing topics for adult Sunday School and Life Groups. He is also still working on his Master's of Divinity and continues to watch Callie when I'm at work. They are so much fun to watch together. Dave manages to get Callie's belly laugh out faster than anyone, and it is so sweet to hear "I wuv you, Daddy." Callie and I joined Dave at one of the youth camps he spoke at this summer. The youth pastor Dave interned under in college was the camp dean, so it was fun to re-connect with his family! Callie LOVED camp, especially the pool! We enrolled her in parent/tot swim lessons this fall to encourage her love of the water. She had a great time and is quite the fearless little jumper! She now jumps all over the house while saying "pool, jump!"
Callie adores both sets of grandparents, as well as uncles, aunts, and her cousins! She regularly points to their pictures throughout our house and tells us who they are and what she imagines they might be doing throughout the day! She spent two nights at my parent's house this last month while we went to a Family Life conference and did great! Even though Josh, Anna, and the kids live several hours away, we Skype often enough that the cousins are close friends despite the distance. (Although, Callie regularly tries to blame A.J. for anything she does wrong! It is a common occurrence to hear "A.J. did __________" whenever we tell her no!)

That sin nature starts early! And because of that, I am once again so thankful for the reason we celebrate this time of year. Jesus, God's Son, came as a baby to live the perfect life, to pay the price for our sins in a gruesome death, to be the "Yight of da Woold," offering us the choice of salvation! We pray each and every one of you accepts that Christmas gift and chooses to make Jesus Lord of your life. When we choose to believe in and live for Him, Jesus tells his followers that we are to be the lights of the world! Matthew 5:16 says, "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." With that being our goal, perhaps all the Christmas lights this month can remind us to be lights in this world, pointing others through the darkness to the Way of Life!

Lots of love from our family to yours!

Dave, Amy, & Callie

Thanksgiving in Pictures

Big hug for Daddy before our Thanksgiving praise service on Wed. night.

Making waffles with Daddy for breakfast!

Thanksgiving morning-ready with her "guys" to go to Gpa and Gma's house.

We decorated for Christmas after Thanksgiving dinner. Callie LOVED the train!

Callie and Grandpa watching the train.

Aunt Ashley and Callie reading together.

Gma, Gpa, and Callie!

Mommy, Daddy, and Callie-Happy Thanksgiving!

18 months-where's my baby?

Oh my sweet Callie Sue, you are now 18 months and a full-blown toddler with almost no sign of the baby who was just here, so it seems. This month you decided you are quite independent. When Daddy and I try to do things for you we hear, "NO, Calyie!" You want to do everything by yourself if possible! You are saying so many words now I won't bother to list them all! You can repeat almost anything, including long words like "babysitter." You also put small sentences together like, "what's that?" & "I say no!" (which is emphasized by you wagging your finger at your cousin :-)). This month, I was changing your diaper and said "nasty." You then repeated "natty, natty." Your daddy was quick to say it couldn't be you making that smell-it must be some beast. You then chimed in with "natty beast!" And now each day we hear when you have a "natty beast." Someday soon, we hope you'll be potty training more consistently! You have gone several individual times on the toilet now and regularly cheer for mommy and daddy when we go to the bathroom! Daddy says he's never felt so encouraged :-). You have so much energy and love to run, jump and dance! You also enjoy snuggling, reading books, and giving kisses to loved ones, your "guys", the mirror, books, toys that catch your fancy (such as Legos), etc. Daddy is doing his best to drill into you that we don't kiss boys beyond him and your grandpas! You make us laugh, smile, wring our hands and want to pull out our hair on a daily basis, but most of all our hearts are filled with so much love for you and gratitude to God for blessing us as your parents!

Here's some facts and pictures:

• At the 18month check-up: 32.5" long (70%) and 22lb, 9.9oz (22%), 31.71% head circumference.
• We are at a transition for sleep schedule-you are down to one nap most days 11am-near 1pm. About once a week you take 2 to catch up on missed sleep. You are sleeping from 8:30pm-7am most nights. We would like you to get more sleep but know things are just changing and will get sorted out soon!
• You gave up baby food completely this last month and now your diet consists of spelt bread, almond butter, beef and chicken, apples, apple-cinnamon oatmeal, veggies, and beans and chips!
• Your favorite words are "NO WAY!"
• You love Legos and anything with wheels but also adore your stuffed animals and baby doll.
• Your favorite color is blue! You want to drink from the blue bottle, have the blue cup, car, book, etc. You also like to say purple and pink.
• You like to "read" books on your own and to Mommy and Daddy.
• You have been working very hard on talking nicely and saying please when you need help instead of screaming.
• You love swimming and really enjoyed this last month of swimming lessons-especially going down the slide on the last day!
• You would like to wear your swimsuit everyday and do "up/downs" (Mommy and Daddy's workout video) with us.

Callie in her "boat" with her guys!

Loves her Daddy!

Isn't this just the cutest outfit!? We bought the bunny slippers, but we seriously have the most wonderful hand-me-downs from friends!

Ready for a walk (she's showing off her teeth and her "new" winter jacket)

Jillian video in her "up/down" outfit with her weights.

Stylin' in Mama's shoes!

17 months!

17 months has been the month of the "Boom Truck"! Known to most people as a common garbage truck, these trash-disposing vehicles have become the highlight of Callie's week. We spend at least part of every day running to the window, looking for the Boom Truck whose "distinctive" diesel sound can easily be confused with the common diesel engine-thus resulting in heartrending disappointment 6 out of 7 days a week! Dave built her a garbage truck out of Legos to pacify her on non-garbage pick-up days :-). The "Boom Truck" was dubbed when Callie began describing to us, with sound effects and hand gestures how it picks the garbage can up in the air and then goes "boom" when it drops the garbage inside. She is pretty impressed with big trucks of any kind and "truck" is a regularly used word in her vocabulary. After several days of Callie being very excited about trucks, Dave asked her, "Callie, did you know Daddy has a truck?" She looked at him very confused and then said "no" while shaking her head. Dave was then convinced that he needed a bigger truck, as his daughter doesn't even recognize his little white truck as a truck! I quickly crushed his growing dream of a shiny, new Toyota Tacoma by reminding him that Callie wasn't likely to consider that a truck either, as she would really like her daddy to drive a garbage truck :-). So, if he has a drastic career change in the future, you will know the reason!

Our girl is not all tomboy, though. Yesterday, she rediscovered the baby doll my sister had given her for Christmas. It was time for her nap and I told her I was getting her bottle. She quickly ran around and gathered up her "guys"-her bunny and monkey stuffed animals that she sleeps with. Then she spotted baby and emphatically announced "AND Baby!" She has been insistent on sleeping with baby ever since. She is also quite good with her little kitchen, especially enjoying cooking apples in her microwave.

My parents bought the grand kids the "Baby Can Read" videos last year. Callie has watched one of them nearly every day since. Last week when the words "cat" and "teeth" came up on the screen, before the video said the word or showed the picture, Callie read the words out loud! It's fun to see her recognition. She also learned to count to 3 this month while we ran through the sprinklers. She will raise her arms up and bring them down with each number, enunciating as best as she can. It's pretty adorable. It's been very helpful for meal time, as I can say eat 3 more bites and then you can go play. (1/2 of our bites are airplanes now and 1/2 are "boom trucks" that go "boom" in her mouth!) Now we are trying to get her to understand that there are numbers after 3!

We visited my sister's family last weekend. Callie adores her cousins! It's so fun to watch them play together and see Sophie and A.J. teach Callie how to do new things. We are looking forward to a family vacation in Eagle Crest at the end of this month.

I haven't weighed Callie lately, but we will have her 18 month checkup next month. I'm interested to see where she is on the growth charts now. While she's looking a lot older and seems to have grown taller, she's definitely still petite. She is solidly in size 4 shoes and 18 month clothes (the bigger of the 18 month sizes now.) She's gotten better about eating more solids. She loves barbecued steak and has successfully eaten some homemade meals in a puree form. I would love to get her completely off the baby food soon, as it's a huge expense, but it's still the easiest thing to get down her when she's having a blood sugar meltdown and refusing to eat. She's still taking 2 naps most days 10:15-noonish and 3:30-4ish-5:15ish. Sometimes the second one is just a rest time. She goes to bed at 8:30 and wakes up around 7, but we get her up at 7:30 so she has time to wake up without being cranky (and we do, too!).

She is still quite the little daredevil-loves to climb, jump, stomp, dance and run everywhere! Her favorite thing is to bounce-pronounced "bous" on Mommy and Daddy's bed (when we are each on one side blocking any fall routes) because our dresser mirror is positioned at the perfect height for her to see herself while she does! She loves going to the park and is especially enthralled with swings right now! We had quite the scare on the church playground this past week when she was headed up to go on the slide. She's already done it 5 or 6 times so Mommy and Daddy were on the ground near one of the openings. She slipped as she was going up the stairs and fell out of an opening we weren't blocking! It was completely terrifying as she landed on her head and was screaming for several minutes. We credit God with a miracle as she only had surface scratches on her face and a swollen lip! We have all relived it several times and are so thankful for our Lord's protection! Sometimes, she seems like such a big girl, we forget she's still just 1. I think it was a good reminder for all of us.

Busy Baker

We found this kitchen on Craig's List a few months back but just moved it into our toy room. Callie loves it and spends quite a bit of time microwaving meals--hmm, please don't take this as an insight into my cooking techniques! She's also quite good at washing the dishes...putting them away is another matter altogether, as they lay strewn across the entire downstairs!

P.J. & Callie-Blackmail pics for the future?

Well, we finally got some hot weather, so we enjoyed some pool time with our friend Parker! You'll notice Callie doesn't get too close when P.J.'s in the pool-he's a wild swimmer :-)!

Her Easel!

My Aunt Neva bought Callie an easel! We just set it up today,

as she has recently begun to LOVE coloring!

So happy!

Cheese-ball grin!

Thank You, Aunt Neva & Uncle Phil! We will get LOTS of use out of this present!

"Daddy, Church!"

Telling Mommy that we're going to see Daddy!

I said, "are you going to see Daddy?" This was her in the middle of saying "OH YES!"

And here's her adorable hair :-)

Callie adores her Daddy-this is nothing new, but lately she's been way more verbal about it! Yesterday after waking up from her nap, she kept saying "Daddy" "Daddy" "Daddy!" Finally, I told her if she finished her lunch we could go see Daddy at church. She was SO excited-she quickly ate the last 3 bites in between yells of "Daddy, Church!" We then got her dressed in a cute outfit and she sat still while I "fixed her hair pretty for Daddy." Both Daddy and Callie were excited to see each other when we got to the church. We played on the play structure for a little while and then went home. As soon as we got home Callie started to rip out her barrettes from her hair. I asked her if she was done with them and she pointed to them and explained to me that those were for "Daddy, church" so clearly she didn't need them anymore!

Callie's first time in a REAL pool!

Picture (AND word) overload!

Callie's "seat" on the plane :-)

First flying experience

Dave speaking at Mt. Gilead Camp

Callie and Sadie

First time in a pool!

"helping" Daddy arrange his notes

A little snack at camp

Too Cool!

Cousins

15 months old!

*late edition to this post-don't know how I missed this the first time, but 2 of Callie's favorite and most said words are "eyes" while usually poking someones! and "ICE!!!" always said very excitedly, especially when we're using the crushed ice button on the refrigerator! And one of her favorite real foods is corn.

I am woefully behind on blogging, so here is a quick recap of the last couple months! Callie has changed, seemingly overnight, from looking like our baby to looking like a full-blown toddler! She is also talking up a storm and can repeat, or come very close, to several words. On her own accord, she says: Mama, Dadda (and sometimes Daddy, which is Very cute), Poppy (my dad), puppies (which I believe refer to all dogs, but especially those of my in-laws and may refer to my in-laws themselves, as well-since they always bring the puppies), yes, yeah, mowr (more), peas (please), tree, bruge (bridge), rock, ba-ba (bottle), bu-ba (bellybutton-not incredibly different from ba-ba, but definitely distinct in her mind!), muma (her favorite monkey stuffed animal), ball (she doesn't quite emphasize the ll's very well), pool, and ba-ball (basketball-her favorite so far, though Mommy has not pushed this at all :-)). She has been very impressed with the results when she says "mowr peas" and will now say that for anything she wants, such as going outside! She does the sign language sign for more while saying it, thanks to one lesson from our friend, Amber! She loves the idea of counting and can do a pretty good job repeating what sounds like the numbers through five (or at least getting the inflections right).

She's our little dancer and would love to have music on constantly if we let her! Her almost 4-year-old cousin, Sophie told my sister that she was going to ask Callie for dance lessons 'cause she's got such great moves! She loves any music with a good beat (especially an electric beat). Christian Rock is preferable to anything else (I think this is due to her constant exposure in the womb to youth group music), and don't tell her dad, but she fussed when I had it on Country music one day!

She is still mostly on baby food, but she is also a junk food addict. Oh, that is another word she can say on her own-"pie"! She also enjoys cookies, anything with cinnamon, and just this month discovered ice cream (though she preferred the waffle cone to the actual ice cream). She will also eat bread, apples, cereal, sometimes hamburger, chicken, or beef, cucumbers, carrots, apples (one of her favorites!) and waffles or pancakes. Mostly, it just depends on her mood, and if she doesn't want it, it often gets thrown across the room along with a tantrum. (we are working/praying through this!) I will be extremely glad when she will just eat on her own and when she understands "two more bites and then you can be done!" (At this point, I'm sure all she hears is "wah, wah, wah, DONE!" because she always says, "Yes, peas!") I know that soon we will be at the "NO" stage, but right now, we are enjoying Callie's "yes" response to most everything. Yesterday in the car, she was hitting herself in the head. After repeated attempts at, "NO Callie, No hitting" I said, "Callie, do you want me to stop the car and give you a spanking?" She smiled sweetly and said "yes, peas!" (I realize I often talk to her like she's 5, but she understands a lot of it!) She also knows how to work a situation, so I'm never sure how much she doesn't understand and how much she's just playing me! Her Sunday school teacher this week greeted me with "Your daughter is a little player! After she finished her snack she asked for more and I said no. She then stuck out her bottom lip and sweetly/pathetically said 'more peas.' Who could resist that!?"

She continues to follow in her Auntie Anna's footsteps and runs nearly everywhere, not caring to walk much at all! Not surprisingly, this has resulted in several bruises on her forehead, much to my chagrin, as her little legs cannot keep up with her momentum! She loves playing with big kids and gets rather frustrated when her little body limits her. She's stayed at 22 lbs. even for about a month, but we're pretty sure she's grown taller.

This past month we had several adventures-the first of which I'm kicking myself over because I didn't take any pictures!

1. My mom stayed with me and Callie for a week while Dave spoke at a high school camp in Michigan. We had a wonderful time with her spoiling us, and the week went by so quickly! Callie loved having her here and was soon calling her Mama, also with a slightly different inflection :-). She would look to Grammy or me, depending on the situation, as a "first-base ump" if the other had already told her "no"!

2. My cousins, Micah and Heather, and their 2-year-old son, Ezra visited us for a day! Callie loved playing on the slide and in the tent and tunnel with Ezra, and we had such a good day catching up with them!

3. Callie experienced her first plane ride when we flew to Santa Rosa for Dave to speak at a junior high camp last week! She did fantastic, not complaining about her ears at all, and very much enjoying looking out the window, climbing all over me and Dave and flirting it up with other passengers. We were thankful the flight was not any longer, as she did get bored the last few minutes. (On the return flight, we were thankful it was not longer because there was no changing table in the very small commuter plane bathroom, and it became VERY necessary!)

4. Callie LOVED camp and enjoyed being outside for most of the day AND swimming in a pool for the first time!

5. Callie and I visited my good college friend, Jessica and her daughter Sadie (who is 6 months older than Callie) in San Ramon. The girls had a tea party, fed ducks at the outdoor mall, ran through the water fountain at the park and discovered each others' belly buttons! They were pretty adorable.

Okay, that's about it! Hopefully, that explains the pictures :-).

Pool Party!