Winter Break, oh how I love thee

This week is my fabulous winter break (which the school board just voted to eliminate next year, yuck) and now that I have had a few days to relax I decided it was time to return to the world of blogging.  I have no excuse for my long absence just no desire to blog. 

Caleb is on the move these days and is all boy.  He is into and on top of everything.  Just today he discovered he could climb on top of our chairs at the kitchen table.  A bit dangerous and completely scary to me because he is fast and a chair can flip over in a second.  Oh and now he can climb on top of the table if he desires.  It is so fun to watch him play lately. He typically has a plan with his toys until he decides it is more fun to mess them up at which point his arms start flailing until it is a complete disaster.

So here are a bunch of pictures that I have taken since Christmas, with some captions.

 I made Caleb's onesie. So excited.  It was one of Chris' Christmas presents.  I used the freezer paper stencil from a fabulous blog MADE .

This picture was taken in Chris' grandfather's backyard, which happens to be a golf course.  You can see the buzzards in the back ground next to the water.  It was a semi nice day and we wanted to get out and play.  It was the coldest week in Florida for the entire month (maybe year at that point).  This picture was taken just after Christmas.  The whole family was able to get together and celebrate the holiday together.  The snow in Georgia sent a cold front down to FL.

My boys playing together

 4 generations of Mardis men.

Us and Papa

 

It was a wonderful time in Florida with all of the family, and sadly the only time Caleb will ever meet his Papa as he passed away less then a month later.  We were so thankful for that last opportunity to spend time to with him.

 

One of Caleb's favorite things to do

I think this was our first trip to the playground.  We have since been to this playground a bunch, but this time had the least amount of people there.  Oh how nice it was when no one else thought it was warm enough to go to the park.  Just today we were there, which is what I think inspired Caleb to attempt to climb all of the house hold furniture.  He loves slides, but mainly he loves climbing.  He thinks he is much bigger than he is.

For example this large dart, he would not let go of.  Our friends live around the corner from this park and they have two boys (around kindergarten age) so they brought a few of their new toys to the park.  Caleb thought this toy was just for him and did not want to share it nor let go of it.

Here we are walking (not really playing) in the snow during the January snow, that shut down school for a week.  Caleb wasn't really sure what to think of the stuff.  This is our drive way, the footprints you can see are either mine or Max's.  Which by the way he loved the snow and was very upset when we made him come inside.

I love this action shot of him.  Chris was picking up sheets of ice and throwing them for Max to catch.  Notice how not white my dog looks.  All other times of the year my dog looks white, but here not so much.  I found this phenomenon to be so funny.

The boys watching Max frolic

Clearly it is much warmer now.  This one is more recent but not a clue when it was.  Chris is replacing the lock on the door and Caleb was excited to go outside, while Max wants the basketball.  So much going on in one photo.  I loved watching Caleb watch Chris work, so I got a bunch of these pictures.

I thought this was a good picture for size perspective.  Caleb is still at tail height.  One day he will be taller than Max's ever swinging tail.

 

  Caught in the act.  This was his first (but not last) adventure into the dryer.  Just so you know, that basket is full of clean clothes that I just took out of the dryer.  The pile of dirty clothes is not in the picture.

 

 He still loves to suck his thumb.

Can you guess who got him this adorable shirt?

Here we are lunging at the camera

Finally a half grin.  I swear the boy smiles all the time, but the second the camera is on he gets this stone cold face.  It is becoming a bit annoying.  I promise you he is a happy boy.

Handing me my sock.  Notice the spoon in his hand, it is one of he new favorite things to play with (oh and yes i was folding laundry in the back ground).  You will also notice the ever present scratch of some sort on his face.  This time he tripped at nursery during church. 

This is Max trying to stay out of the way.  Which was working until Caleb noticed him and wanted to play.

Cuteness.  It makes me laugh when he decides to crawl, usually it involves either a ball, a car or being chased after he tripped. I'm assuming the logic is it would take longer to get up and run then it would to continue moving.  

Look at those big teeth.  He now has six teeth.  And those top ones have been the most trouble in terms of teething pain and irritability.  We were in Texas when those teeth decided to come in.  My poor family got to meet Caleb for the first time when he was cranky.  Oh and funny story I ran out of wipes before we go to the airport, and if you know anything about teething you know it is typically accompanied by diarrhea.  Which is delightful when you have no wet wipes.  I had to be a bit creative in how I cleaned his bum.

Action shot.

And to reward you for reading this far, here is picture of my typical view these days.  Yep that is my ever growing belly and Caleb hidden beneath it.  We are expecting Baby Mardis number 2 in early July.  I'll have a post later this week with the sex of our new baby.