TWO TEETH!!

Hey all! I don't know about you, but I can't believe it is the middle of July! We got to spend our fourth of July weekend at our church's family camp this year. This was the first time we were able to attend this with our church since we've been here and there is no doubt we'll try our best to make this a yearly trip. It was so much fun. I loved it mostly because I got to spend a weekend with my family at an event that I didn't plan or have responsibility at. We enjoyed ourselves hanging out with friends, eating really good food, playing Frisbee golf, making a family camp - family flag (as you can kind of see in the picture), playing games, and just relaxing. Caleb had fun (we think) playing with the other kids there and receiving much attention from people who think "he's just sooooo cute!"

The day we got back from family camp we discovered that Caleb finally had some teeth. They have been coming in for a while now with two little bumps, but they finally cut through and he now has two little teeth on the bottom row. They came in together.

He's walking most places now - what I'm learning is that when he crawls, it's usually to a wall or a couch to pull himself up so he can walk to where ever he is going. It is fun to watch him become more and more confident with his walking skills.

He has expanded his vocabulary by one word. He can now say "light" only it sounds like "ite." He loves to play with the light switch and say "Ooo" when the light goes on and off.

On Monday we had his one year check up and everything looks good. Here are his specs: he weighs 23.5 pounds (61%); his head is 19 inches round (90%); he is 31 inches tall (85%). So, since our last check up at 9 months this is what we know: he's gained a little weight, he's still tall, but slowed down a bit on the chart, and his head is still huge. :) We are so blessed to have a healthy boy.

Well, thanks for stopping by to catch up on us. We're excited for the next few weeks to see many of our family we don't get to see very often!

Peace,
JJC

We had some balloons left over from his birthday party and he LOVED them.

A tired little boy at family camp.

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!