Saturday was a big day for our household! It started bright and early with Caleb's first haircut EVER! It was pretty exciting. His hair was getting long and as you can tell by the picture - ya, that's right, he had a mullet! Mullet Pride! We know the lady who cut Caleb's hair so it was fun to have her do it. Caleb did so well. He just sat in my lap and followed the sucker around. If she needed him to look down, I pulled the sucker down and his mouth followed. It was really funny. He wasn't afraid of the clippers and held very still for the scissors. She even put "product" in his hair to make it look like Johnny's.

We were totally amazed at how different Caleb looked with a hair cut - what do you think? He looks older to us and more like a big, little boy. He's pretty cute though and we're learning that he knows it! He's becoming quite the little flirt with the ladies and is learning to pose for the camera.

After the hair cut we got ready for Caleb's big birthday party. We invited friends and family and had a really good turn out. Thanks to all of you who showed up - there were about 30 people here who celebrated with us - and thanks to all of you who called or sent Caleb love through a card. As you may or may not know, Joye shares her birthday now with Caleb. So this year we celebrated Joye's birthday on her actual day and Caleb's the next day.

The party was a lot of fun. There were a lot of kids here roughly around the same age so they had a lot of fun together. We all hung out and played in the back yard and snacked on some food. We set Caleb up in his chair outside and had cake out there. As you can see from the pictures, he liked to wear the cake more than he liked to eat it. Actually, we're not sure if he ever took a bite - he wasn't quite sure what to think about it, but he had fun wearing it and he also helped some of the other kids wear it!

Caleb went straight to the tub for a quick rinse and we had fun trying to keep Caleb from eating the crumbs that fell of of him in the tub.

After cake and ice cream we all went over to the pool to cool off - and it was needed because it has been really hot here the past few days. It was fun playing around in the pool with everyone.

It's just hard to believe our little man is a year old now. He walked the farthest we've seen him walk today and is getting more confident with ever step he takes. He actually squatted down to pick up a toy and then stood back up without holding on to anything. Woohoo! Hey, you have to celebrate each milestone, right? That's what we do anyway.

We're pretty sure his most recent achievement is learning and saying the word "duck." It sounds more like "Duh," but he knows what a duck is from his toys in the bathtub. He seems to pick things up pretty fast as well. He got a cool little race car toy for his birthday (Thanks Wolfs!) that he loves. I spent some time playing with it with him (okay, so I was playing with it by myself and then I let Caleb play too:)) trying to teach him how it worked. He just kind of sat back and observed. A little while later Joye and I left the room and then came back to find him curiously trying to figure it out putting the cars on the track and pushing the button he needed to push - it was pretty cool to see his little mind at work.

Well, this has become quite the novel so we'll quit for now. Thanks to all of you for your love and support of our family. We really appreciate and love each of you.

Enjoy these pictures and have a great week!

Peace,
JJC

Business in the front. A Party in the back.




The sucker trick works pretty well - for the record!


What is happening daddy?!


You can do whatever you want, just give me that sucker!





Woah lady, what are you about to do?!




Waiting so patiently.


Nice "product."




One of many "interesting" faces Johnny will be sure to receive over the years.






Party time.




I don't know what to think about this.


Okay, I'll have fun wearing it.


Andi shouldn't have looked away.
Right after this picture he grabbed her hair and left a present in it.




Caleb and Cousin Spencer Kipp having a moment.


We wish all the cousins could have been there, but here are some of them.




They all played a game where they would get as close to Caleb as they could and then try to escape his hand trying to touch their face or clothes. Simple things amuse simple minds. Hey, we were all entertained!


This is his "Okay, I've had enough" face.

He's Walking!

I was in Mexico last week for a mission trip with our senior high students. I was excited to go, but not excited to miss out on Caleb's first steps. Every time I called home to talk with Joye I asked her if Caleb was walking yet. She kept saying no and selfishly I was glad because I wanted to be there when he took his first steps.

Moments after I got home and we had picked Caleb up from the daycare, we began getting re-acquainted and played on the floor. I stood him up, pointed him toward Joye, and let go. He walked to her taking 6 or 7 steps! It was so incredible. Joye said that was the first time he had done that. It was so special and such a cool homecoming!

Our neighborhood pool opened and we were finally able to go swimming. Caleb loves the water and we weren't surprised that he had no problem in the pool. He loves taking baths and isn't afraid of water. Here are a few pictures of our fun at the pool.

We are celebrating his one year birthday this Saturday. It will be lots of fun with family and friends. We wish our family far away could be here with us too!

Thanks for checking in on us and we hope to see all of you soon.

Love you all,
JJC

That's one way to use a blanket!

That's what 5 days of work in Mexico will do to an arm!

Walking in the pool.

Caleb loves fountains.

Ahhh...all warm and snuggly.

It's a Caleb sized chair! He loves it!

On the way to 1 Year!

This week Caleb is 11 months old. Hard to believe, but it's true. :) He is so close to walking. In fact, he took two steps on his own yesterday. He is learning so much all the time. It is as if during the day his little mind is downloading all this information, then at night when he sleeps it is all installed and when he wakes up, he's an updated version. For example, a couple of days ago Joye and I were trying to get him to understand who mama is. He can identify "ball" and "Abu" (Aladdin monkey), but he says "mama" to everything. So we spent some time working on that with him and you could tell he was thinking about it, but then he wanted "ball."

Well, yesterday morning after I fed him, he was sitting on my lap and started to say "mama." This time though, he was looking around as if he was trying to identify mama looking for her. He looked at me and said "mama" as if he was asking me a question - "mama?" It was so cool to see the 'click' happen in his mind.

We're keeping busy around here and this time of year is when things really begin to roll for us. This week is graduation week and there has been a graduation every night. We have 9 high schools represented in our youth ministry, and that's in a 20 mile radius. So, we've been busy celebrating with our seniors in the youth ministry - it has been good, but it is also hard to see them go. Many of them will be staying close by to go to college, so that helps a little.

Next week summer officially begins for us and that means life gets a little more full. I like to think of it as "controlled chaos."

Hard to believe that a year ago right now, I was getting ready to leave for a mission trip with Joye being 8 months pregnant. Man, our lives were totally different then. Honestly, I wouldn't go back.

We love you all and hope to hear from you soon!
Peace and Love,
JJC

Enjoy the plethora of pictures...

He cruises up the stairs. It's the getting down part we're worried about!

One of his new favorite things to do is to take the magnet off, and put it back on, off, on, off, on...simple things amuse simple minds.

Caleb helped put the flag up on Memorial Day.

All smiles at the door.

Below are pictures of a recent bath time. He LOVES the water. And that is a good thing since our neighborhood pool just opened for the summer!

Shaker and a Mover!

Hello! We hope you are all doing well! Things have been going very well lately and Caleb is continuing to grow like crazy. It seems like we are in awe every day by something new he is doing or learning.

Yesterday evening, we made the mistake of giving Caleb a few bites of chocolate cake and a few sips of some punch at a reception we were at. Actually, it was a mistake but it was incredibly funny to watch what happened. Joye tried to put Caleb down at his normal time but he would have nothing of it.

It was the funniest thing ever watching a 10 month old on a sugar high. No, I don't recommend it and we'll try not to do that again, but it was hilarious! He was all over the place and being as silly as can be. We got some pretty good laughs out of it, that's for sure.

Well, here are a few pictures for you to enjoy. The first one is what Caleb's hair looks like after we give him bath. His hair is getting long and yes, it is pretty much a mullet - but a mullet with style! We're waiting until he's a year old to cut the hair. In the mean time, it's a lot of fun to mess with!

The other pictures are of Caleb sleeping. He hasn't figured out which part of the crib he likes yet, so he just uses all of it, and in various ways. It is not uncommon for us to go in there and find Caleb with multiple limbs sticking through the crib and he is sound asleep. Whatever works I guess!

Love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Peace,
JJC

Hey all! We hope that this finds each of you well. We are all doing well here and finally enjoying some nice weather - we hope it stays around for a while! It's hard to believe it, but Caleb is 10 months old already! He's changing every day and it is so fun to watch him learn and grow. Every day there seems to be something new.

The other day we were crawling around on the floor together playing with a red soccer ball he got for Christmas and it was as if he actually understood that he was playing with a ball. In fact, at one point after we had been playing with another toy I asked "Where's the ball?" Caleb looked at me, then looked around, looked at me again with this sort of "Ya, where is the ball?" look on his face. He sat down on the floor and crawled around until he found the ball. He took the ball in his hands after I clapped for his successful mission and he lifted it in the air and said, "Ba." It was amazing.
So, that's officially his first word that we think he actually understands. He says "mama" and "dada," but he doesn't know who's who or what's what with those words yet.

He's crawling everywhere of course and becoming more and more sturdy. It is so fun to watch his personality starting to come out a little. It is easy to tell when his mind is working and he's really trying to figure something out.
He's become more and more emotional in the last couple of weeks now that he is starting to better understand what he wants - such as when he's hungry, or tired, or when he wants us to pick him up or give him some thing. Ahh the joys of parenting, eh? I know, I know, some of you are saying - just wait till he becomes a teenager. Believe me, we will!

He still puts everything in his mouth. Now that he's crawling and getting into everything, it is amazing to see what he finds on the floor - things not visible to the human eye!

We keep thinking that the next time he smiles we're going to see a little tooth, but we're still waiting for that day. Yup, 10 months old and not one tooth yet!

The latest "milestone" in our lives is Caleb standing! Like I said, he's becoming more and more sturdy and he can balance himself standing when he's up to it. He probably stood for close to 10 seconds today! He kind of hunkers down, gets a really focused look on his face, and really tries! It's pretty cute. We tried to capture it on camera, but couldn't quite get the timing down. When he realizes that he's actually standing by himself his eyes get really big and he smiles and then once he moves his head around it's all over - he plops to the ground, but wants to grab our hands to try again.

Last weekend was a good weekend for us. On Friday night Joye and I got a babysitter for the first time. We've had family watch Caleb a bunch (and we love them for that!), but this was the first time we've actually had a babysitter come to our house and watch Caleb.
We got to go to a play (Aladdin) put on by one of the local high schools and had a great time. On Saturday morning Johnny got to go golfing with some buddies and that afternoon and evening Joye went shopping and had dinner with some girlfriends. Caleb got to spend some time with Grandma and Papa Deakins and then spent some time with his good friend Miles.

All in all our life is a real adventure still. Caleb keeps us busy all the time, and we are growing as a family every day.
Sorry for not updating this blog very often as of late, but this should catch you up at least a little. We love you all!

Peace,
JJC