Halloween Pictures

Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy from our Halloween festivities - and a few others as well. Love to you all!

Caleb - Handy Manny; Johnny - Handy Manny's Day Laborer; Joye - Coupon Queen

Joye and her friend Albre as the "Coupon Queens."

Jeremy Mueller won the costume contest (we didn't know we were having one, but he won anyway:)).

Jill came in a close second as a "Cereal Killer."

Caleb, Alexander, and Miles

Checkin' out the loot.

What's in your vent?

I was watching TV last night when the air kicked on. Something didn't sound right so I traced the sound and discovered it coming from one of the vents in our living room. Well, I was surprised to find a vent full of treasure. Apparently Caleb's favorite spot to hide stuff is in this vent and none of the others - they were all completely treasure free.

Here are my findings: a cup, a truck, Rusty, Squeeze, basketball, football, 3 little books, lego blocks, 3 sucker sticks, goldfish, trix, animal crackers, pretzel sticks, sucker wrapper, marker cap, AND $.50!

If you have young children, I beg you, check your vents with caution!

Coupons, Caleb, and Corn.

So we're about as good at updating our blog as the Lions are at winning a football game - it only happens once in a while. Sorry about that.

Well the weather has finally turned to fall in our neck of the desert. I like this time of year. I like the colors, I like the cool, I like the change, and I like that I won't have to mow my lawn for a while.

A month, huh? Well, let's see...what has happened in the last month? I'll start with the Hampton economy. In the last month my student loans have kicked in and OUCH! It almost seems worth getting more degrees to defer the loans even longer! :) (Just kidding Dave Ramsey). One of the things that has helped us a lot in the last few months has been Joye's new addiction...er, I mean hobby with couponing. Actually, she is a stellar couponer and could teach classes on this stuff by now. Her and a good friend Albre have turned this into an art and can go to the grocery store, gather a couple hundered dollars worth of groceries, and walk out having only spent $20 or $30 bucks. And they didn't even have to steal anything! It's amazing. Here is an example of one of Joye's "mini" trips to the store:

How much do you think all of that cost? Gallon of milk, shampoo, conditioner, peanut butter (2 jars), pudding, two t-shirts - roughly $25. She spent less than $4 on all of that!!!

Speaking of saving money, also in the last month Caleb started going to new daycare. It was a tough decision for us to make, but felt that it was the right one and so far we are very pleased. He really seems to love it and each morning he literally runs in and goes right to his classroom and hasn't cried once when I've taken him. We weren't sure how well he'd adjust, but he is doing well there.

The last time I posted was to let you know that we had gotten a toddler bed for Caleb - a "cool car bed" as he says it. We've heard that switching to a toddler bed can be a nightmare, but it was no such thing for us. The only problem we're having with it is that Caleb has been waking up pretty early lately. The difference with the crib was that if he woke up too early, he would typically just hang out in his crib and then fall back to sleep. Now, he wakes up and then can get out of bed and start doing stuff. It's typically not too bad, but there is an occasional 6am-er.

Checking in on Caleb before we go to bed has been really fun lately though because it is always a surprise to see what position he has gotten himself into. We've taken some pictures to document this.

Caleb is doing really well in general. He's learning so much so fast - it's scary. He's constantly putting words together in legitimate sentences and then we ask, "Where did he learn that?" A question we'll be asking for years I'm sure. :) Also, we've been trying to catch it on video, but as soon as he sees the camera, he turns into a thespian and goes crazy - he says the full alphabet and can count to 14...for real! He's loving to sing songs too. His favorite songs right now are the ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (he gets those two crossed sometimes - did you know they're the same tune? I only just figured that out a couple weeks ago - I know...smart!), Jesus Loves Me, and This is How we Walk to Church (or something like that - it's a song they sing in Sunday school with him). So, he's doing great, tons of fun, tons of energy, an emotional bubble, and growing like a weed!

Okay, this is the last thing I'll write about for now. We found an ad on craigslist for "u-pick" corn on the cob. Turns out the field is less than a mile from our house so we tried it out. We went and picked 4 dozen for a few bucks and then boiled it, cut it off the cob, and froze it. We eat a lot of canned corn and thought this was a fun thing to do. Caleb had a fun time with us out there too! Here are some pics of us shucking and then some pics of the end result.

Welp, I think that about does it for now. Thanks for checking in on us. We hope you are all doing fantastic. Have a great rest of October. Here's the deal - I'll try to be better about updating this blog and I promise to update it at least as many times as the Lions win for the rest of the season. How's that?

Love you all,

JJC

Here are a few more random pics for you to enjoy.

We might have gotten lucky (knocked on wood).

Tonight is Caleb's first night sleeping in a toddler bed. We'll see how this goes. :) There was no convincing to be done, that is for sure. He wanted to go straight in the bed and has slept soundly so far. He is a mover and a shaker though, so we'll see how long this lasts before we hear, "Thump!" Here are a couple of pictures of him in his bed - one while awake, and then the other about a half hour after the first one was taken. The last one is just a fun one of him building a tower - one of his new favorite things to do.

Have a great weekend!

Love you all,

JJC

Of course, he had a little help on the high part. :)

A Marathon Post

Many apologies for our "blog absence" over the last month. Now that the summer is winding down, maybe we'll do a bit better about keeping our electronic umbilical cord connected to you all...maybe. :)

Whew! What a summer it has been! It has been a crazy few months that is for sure. Nothing too unusual for us, but it was especially difficult this year for some reason - probably a combination of things. However, looking back it was still a good summer filled with memories and experiences that we're glad we have.

I went coast to coast this summer on mission trips with students from our youth ministry. We did trips to Orlando and LA this year. Each experience was amazing and I saw many lives impacted both lives of people living in those cities and ours. It was tough to be away from home this summer. With Caleb getting more and more active, exploring and learning in more and more ways, I felt like I was missing more this summer being gone from him. When he was a little, immobile baby, I figured all I was missing was a couple of kicks and a few laughs because of gas bubbles. I came back from the trips this year and he had gotten his driver's license and had a girlfriend...just kidding - but do you know what I mean? It was just different this year. Plus, I know the sacrifices Joye has to make when I'm gone on these trips - especially when the little man gets sick while I'm away. Nothing I can do to help. On the upside though, while I was away on these trips, Joye got to experience the amazing family we have. She was blown away (so was I) by how during some of life's most difficult times her family really rallied together to overcome some major challenges (that's a story for another place and time). Nonetheless, we are blessed. We are lucky to have the support system near us that we have and see God's grace and love work through people.

A week and a half after I returned from LA, Joye got to go to Alaska for 10 days to fish and hang out with her family. That's right, I said she GOT to go, not she HAD to go. :) Well, maybe Joye doesn't think she GOT to go, but I do because I missed being up their this summer. It was a good "get-a-way" for Joye. She was able to get some much needed R & R, reconnect with some family, get a little manual labor in, pick fish, play games, laugh, and just BE for a while. It was a nice change of pace for her. I was jealous the whole time she was gone, but I was so glad she got to go.

While she was out...Caleb and I had 10 days of man time back at home. This was also a nice change of pace for me. After a crazy month of traveling, it was nice to be home and know I wasn't going anywhere for a while, and the best part, the best part was that I got to hang out with Caleb for 10 days. What did we do? Well, we did man stuff. I mean, as much man stuff as you can with a two year old, right?

The best thing we did was we went fishing together. I took Caleb fishing for the first time to a little pond in town that they keep stocked with bass and bluegill. I went fully expecting not to catch anything except Caleb as he would try running into the water - he is fearless! I also had to catch him as he tried attacking a gaggle of geese twice his size - again, fearless! It was so fun though.

The best part was when he tried to cast the line from his pole for the first time. Here is the succession of pictures that may explain what happened without words:

Yup, you got it. He pulled back, flung forward, and let go...of the whole pole. Into the water it went. It was quite funny actually. We had a great time fishing and for the next week or so went back several times at his request. He was diggin' the worms.

Then, we went home and made a little fire in the back yard and roasted hot dogs. We were going to camp out that night in the back yard, but this was the week where it was over 100 degrees for consecutive days and even at 9pm it was in the 90s - not pleasant.

I also took Caleb to Roaring Springs for the first time and he LOVED it. His favorite thing to do was to go down the big racing slide with the blue mat. He had perma-grin the whole time and that's all he wanted to do. "One more, one more." Tons of fun.

Caleb and I did a couple of "While You Were Out" projects for Joye while she was in Alaska. We built a little cubby, shelf-type thing in our utility room so as to keep our stuff a little more organized by one of our entries - it was a fun little project.

We also organized our closet - finally! No, this is not a picture of Savers, this is our closet. See that little section on the nearest right side? Ya...that's my part of the closet. :) Caleb was a big helper on this project too, as you can see.

To top the summer off, Joye and I went with our youth group up to Riggins for a camping and rafting trip on the Salmon River. We had so much fun. Caleb got to stay with the Wolfs and hang out with his cousins Allison and Andi. He had a really good time and hasn't stopped saying their names since.

We would be lying if we said we were bummed the summer was coming to an end, but mostly because we are so excited for things coming down the line this fall. I think it is a pretty good place to be when you can have a fun summer, but continue to be excited for the fall. Please pray for our family, for our youth ministry, and for our church as we begin to implement some changes - changes we are thrilled about!

You know what else we are thrilled about? We are thrilled about our cherry tomatoes! Yesssss, we actually grew something and we harvested our first batch yesterday. Joye taste tested them (because I can't stand the nasty things) and gave them two thumbs up - Caleb also approves.

Here are some more random pictures for you to enjoy. On this particular morning, Caleb felt the need to put all of his favorite things on the table with his breakfast to keep him company. Handy Manny blanket - check. Handy Manny tools - check. Jack in the box - check. Tractor & ball - check. Geoffry & baby Geoffry - check. Elmo book - check. Airplane - check. At least he's not picky. :)

We're obviously teaching him how to have good manners at the table, especially when a camera shows up.

We look forward to seeing you all and wish we could see you more often. Have a great rest of August!

We love you.

JJC