20 Wonderful Months!!!

Today is Caleb's 20 month birthday! I can't believe it. He is so big and surprises us every day. It is amazing what my little man will say and do. He has such a great sense of humor and loves to be the life of the party. Nothing ever gets past him. He is definitely using his imagination and can keep himself occupied with pretty much anything. Like I posted before, he loves to be outside and on the go all of the time. My baby is almost two. Wow! Time really does fly when you are having fun.

Weekend of Fun!!!

Labor Day Weekend was a very busy weekend! It first started on that Saturday when we went to see Thomas the Train. Caleb was mesmerized by all of the trains and fun things to do. We arrived 20 minutes before the train departed and it was impeccable timing. We didn't have to wait in line and they were boarding our passenger car as we walked up. It couldn't have worked out more perfectly. There were people there who were sweating and had obviously been waiting in the hot sun for a while. Some kids were screaming and it was sort of a madhouse. I looked at Shane and laughed saying, I bet you never thought you would be doing this on a Saturday morning. :) The train car was air conditioned and we actually weren't too crowded. We sat on the perfect side because when we started moving, we were on the side that was overlooking the river, the stadium, the bridges, and even the makeshift houses built by the bums. Needless to say, the train ride wasn't that long, but it was perfect for the attention span of toddlers. As the 20 minutes were coming to an end, all of the toddlers were getting restless. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures from the day because our camera battery was dead...go figure. But, it was a great experience and we hope to do it again next year. By the way, Caden was with us and he was very well-behaved as usual.

Sunday was Shane's birthday. We actually didn't make it to church because we overslept. Whoops. We never set the alarm clock because we haven't needed it since the boys were born. So, needless to say, we were shocked that both of them slept in until 8:45. Service is at 9:00 a.m. so there was no possible way that we could have made it in time. That was the first time that happened. So, Caleb and I decided to make Shane some peanut butter waffles and serve him breakfast in bed. Shane enjoyed the breakfast and Caleb did too. Poor Caden kept eyeing those waffles!!! Sorry buddy, but you will have to wait a little bit longer for those. After breakfast, Shane got to open his presents. We gave him tickets to the UT vs. FL game in September. He was so shocked and so excited! We can't wait to go to Knoxville and cheer on our vols!
Another thing that made Shane's birthday extra special was getting to see Josey in the trials up here in Nashville. For those of you who don't know, Josey is no longer living with us. Back in June, Shane had a chance to give Josey a better opportunity and a more purposeful life. That dog was made to hunt and run in trials. He is Phenomenal!!! There was a friend of a friend who breeds labs and trains them for the trials who wanted Josey because he had heard such great things about him. So, after weighing the pros and cons and a few tears, Shane decided Josey would be happier doing what he lived to do. So, now, Josey lives with a lot of other dogs and is trained and worked with every day. The great thing about it is that we can see him whenever he comes up here for the trials. So, Sunday afternoon we loaded up the car and went to see him. He was AMAZING in the trials and nailed it every single time. We got to spend a little time with him after he ran and we are so proud of him. And even though we miss him terribly, (Caleb still asks to go see Josey), we know it is for the best and he is very happy!

Later that night I took Shane to Maggiano's for his birthday dinner. It was actually very crowded that night. The waitress said that was the first night in 3 months that they had a wait list. How funny! Anyways, we didn't have to wait long and we enjoyed a nice romantic dinner with just the two of us. It was so nice to get away and be by ourselves. Happy Birthday Shane!!! You are an amazing husband and father. Thank you for all you do for us. We love you more than you will ever know.






Thanks for checking in on us. We hope everyone has had a great weekend!!!

Happy 7 Months!!!

I can't believe Caden is already 7 months old. The time has absolutely flown by. He is getting bigger every day and learning so many new things. He and Caleb are becoming the best of friends. Caleb can be so sweet to his brother. In the mornings when Caleb wakes up, all he wants to do is go wake up Caden and get in his bed. It is the sweetest thing when Caden sees Caleb. His face just lights up with the biggest smile. This past weekend, we also went to visit Shane's grandmother and grandfather. I am embarrassed to say this, but it was actually the first time that Shane's grandmother had seen Caden. We enjoyed our visit with them and enjoyed a delicious lunch thanks to MeeMaw. We are so glad to have had the chance to visit with them. We love them so much. Ever since then, Caleb asks to go see MeeMaw every day. We hope you are having a great week! Thanks for checking in on us.

Birthday Time

August is a crazy month for the Pharr family and birthdays. There are at least 4 members of the immediate family who have birthdays in August. So, we had a family cookout to celebrate them all at once. We had a yummy dinner thanks to Maymie. After dinner, the girls hung out with the kiddos and played outside, while the guys stayed inside and watched football. The cousins enjoyed playing with each other. It is so neat to watch them play together and become the best of friends. They are at such a fun age. I can't believe how fast they are all growing up! It was great to get everyone together and hang out. Here are some pics from the evening!

Always keep out of children's reach

Okay. So, whenever it comes to dangerous things like poison and medication, I ALWAYS follow these guidelines...Always keep out of children's reach. However, I never really thought about it with Caden and his food. It all started one glorious morning when Caleb had to use the potty. He is definitely not potty trained, but he will tell me sometimes when he needs to go potty. And, if he uses the potty, he will get a treat. So when he's gotta go, he's gotta go. With that said, the other morning, I was finishing up Caden's breakfast when Caleb informed me that he needed to go potty. I figured I could leave Caden's food in the cup holder of the tray of the high chair while I helped Caleb. I would only be gone for a minute...or so I thought. Besides, he had never been able to reach it before, so I thought it would be safe. Well, I obviously thought wrong. After helping Caleb use the big potty to go pee pee, and having him pee all over my leg and foot because it squirted out of the toilet, I came back to the kitchen to find this...

Sweet Caden had grabbed the container and decided to play with his food. So, after cleaning up a mess of pee, I got to clean up prune boy. When I came back and saw this, all I could do was laugh and get the camera for a picture. Oh well, what can you do? All I can say is that I definitely learned my lesson. To all of you out there with kids that think they have put something completely out of their reach...think again. If it is something that looks like a lot of fun, where there is a will, there is a way.

Nature Lover

I know I have said this before, but Caleb absolutely LOVES to be outside. It doesn't matter how hot or cold...he just wants to be outdoors. This summer we have had a lot of fun outside at the pool, playing with the sprinkler, watering the garden, wading in the river...pretty much anything involving water. And, on days when we couldn't go outside and needed to find something to do indoors, what else but put both of the boys in the kitchen sink and have water play! Needless to say, it is kind of hard to watch a 19 month old and 6 month old around the water. But somehow we have managed. One day when it wasn't too hot out, we went to River Park near Crockett Park to go for a walk and look for rocks. Caleb loves to collect all different types of rocks whenever he sees them, so this was our adventure for the day. Luckily, Caden fell asleep during the walk, so Caleb and I could have some fun in the river. Caleb would say, "Yook Mama, Yook,a rock!" (That means "look mama look, a rock," ...We obviously still need to work on our L's.) It was nice to have the one on one time with Caleb since it seems like those moments are so few and far between these days. What's funny to me is that I never pictured myself raising two boys. I always thought I would have a girly girl and dress her up in frilly dresses and such. However, I am having so much fun going on these adventures and getting down and dirty with my little man. It is so amazing to see him get excited about the little things that we as adults seem to overlook. It is so refreshing to see things from his point of view.
Here are some pics of the fun times we have had.

Kids say the funniest things!!!

Okay, so today has been one of those crazy days. It all started this morning when I was making Shane's lunch for work. Well, I couldn't find a bag to put it in so I got an old gift bag from one of the baby gifts we received. Shane was not too thrilled to take such a girly, sissy bag, considering he is such a manly man. So, after much persistence, he reluctantly agreed. After all, the only people who would see it were his parents and Angela and Kara. So, Shane left for work and about 5 minutes after leaving, I realized he forgot his lunch. I'm not sure if he did it on purpose, but he swears he just simply forgot. Anyways. He had to turn around and come back to the house to get it. About 10 minutes later, I get another phone call and it is Shane asking me to come and pick him up because his truck had broken down. For those of you who know my husband, you know that he will not get rid of something until it absolutely has no life left. Big Blue has almost 200,000 miles on her and Shane is determined to keep her as long as he can. So, after getting the boys dressed and loaded up in the car, we made our way to the local car shop to pick him up. We finally got there and Shane came out with just a cup of coffee. "Where's your lunch?" I asked him. "Oh yeah, let me go get it."-Shane. So, he had to go into the shop and get his keys from some of the manliest men I had ever seen. Just picture your average mechanic...girly bags and mechanics don't mix. So, after Shane got his lunch out of the car, he had to go back in front of the manly men to give back his keys. Needless to say, they saw the bag and had to make a few comments. Poor Shane, he was embarrassed and couldn't believe he was carrying around the bag. I guess I was wrong about the people at the office being the only ones to see the bag. So, after a few chuckles, we headed to the office to drop Shane off. As we were driving, we started talking about what could be wrong with the car and how much he thought it would be to fix it. Then, Caleb out of the blue says, "Daddy! Buy a new car daddy!" I couldn't believe it. We hadn't even mentioned buying a new car and Caleb just decided to throw that out there. How funny! I guess we don't give him as much credit as he deserves...this little man knows what is going on and just takes the no-nonsense approach. I love it! If it doesn't work, just go buy a new one...I think he gets that from his mom. So, we shall see if it is the end of Big Blue. If so, I will be sad to see her go, but oh so excited to see who joins our family next!
We hope you are having a great week!

SBA reunion

A few weeks ago we had a girl's night at our house with most of the girls from the good old SBA days. Kim, Kristen, Angie and Rebecca were able to come over for a girl's night out and long overdue reunion. We missed Ms. Laurie and Jessi...they weren't able to make it. Everyone who was there has at least one child now and it was kind of crazy with all of the little ones. Kristen brought Rylee and Jackson, Rebecca brought Kinsley, and Angie brought baby Jackson. He is actually 3 weeks younger than Caden. They had so much fun playing together. Sweet baby Davis didn't make it this time, but Kim promised to bring him next time. We can't wait to meet him! We had so much fun catching up and reminiscing on old times. We have promised to start doing this on a regular basis and not let so much time go by. Rylee was the little mom of the night and helped keep the younger kids in line. Thanks Rylee and thanks ladies for a great time!
Here are some pics from the night:

Here is Rylee reading a book to the boys. Caleb is extremely interested!

Here is Angie and baby Jackson. How sweet!

Here is Rebecca and sweet Kinsley!

Family Fun at the Fair

This week we headed to the Williamson County Fair. This was a first for Caleb and a first for me. We were invited last year, but it was way too hot and Caleb was still too little. So, we loaded up the car and headed down to the Ag center. We met the Laytons and Maymie and Pappy (Shane's parents). We went around 7 so the heat wasn't that bad. I must say it wasn't what I expected at all. It was lots of fun and they had neat activities for the kids. There were a few rides that Caleb could go on. I of course was very nervous. Not only because of the fact that they were fair rides and all of the germs, but also because Caleb had never been on a ride in his life. Luckily, he had his sweet cousin Paisley with him to make sure he was safe. She is such a little mother...it is too cute. So, after riding the rides, we headed indoors to the area for the kids. They got to pretend to milk cows, pick apples, grow vegetables, etc. Caleb enjoyed that, but I must say the highlight of his evening was when he got to sit on the real tractor. He could have stayed up there all night! We then went to see the live animals. Caleb had a chance to ride a horse, but once he got up there, he wanted right off. After visiting the animals and enduring the wonderful smell of them, we decided it was time to grab a bite to eat. At the beginning of the night, Brian had asked me to ride one of the adult rides with him, and of course I said no. For those of you who know me, you know that I am not a fan. However, I guess a part of me wanted to be a little daring, so when he asked again when we were heading to dinner, I surprisingly said yes. So, we rode this tilt-a-whirl ride that was ABSOLUTELY horrendous. After the first 30 seconds I felt sick and I never felt right for the rest of the night. Anyways. Brian seemed to enjoy it and I'm glad that he had someone to ride the ride with him. I'm not sure though which he enjoyed more, the thrill of the ride, or making fun of me for feeling so sick. Either way, we had a great time and are looking forward to going again next year!
Caden of course was with us, and he enjoyed just hanging out and watching all of the people and animals. He is so good and content to just be with everyone else. He is such a sweet baby!

Here are some pics from the fair.






We hope everyone is having a great week!

6 Months Old

Yes, that's right. Caden is officially 6 months old. I can't believe he is already at the halfway point. People warned me that the time would fly this second time around and they were definitely right. My little baby is getting so big. We went to the doctor for his 6 month checkup and I couldn't believe how big he was. He weighed 17 1/2 pounds. He is a chunk. I looked back at Caleb's stats for his 6 month checkup and Caden is just 2 ounces less than Caleb. I can't believe it. If you would have asked me 5 months ago if I ever thought he would be this big and gaining weight like his brother, I never would have guessed it. I'm so glad we are past those troublesome weight checks...whew!!! Anyways, he has definitely grown and the Dr. is very pleased with how much he has developed and grown. Shane was a little disappointed though because he was only in the 10th percentile for length. The doctor called him a square and said that he will most likely hit a growth spurt when he gets older. We'll keep our fingers crossed for that one. Other than that, he is doing great. We are so blessed to have two healthy and happy little boys!!!

As for Caleb, he has been sick this week. He woke up Monday morning with a fever and it progressively got worse. So, we headed to the dr. and it was strep throat...how on earth he caught that, I don't know. So, after 3 sleepless nights and some strong antibiotics, he is definitely on the mend and back to his rambunctious little self.

Here is a picture of Caleb driving his car and talking on the cell phone...let's not tell our State Farm Agent about this one! ;)

Here is Caden making a silly face scrunching his nose. Shane made this face at him one time and now whenever we want him to smile, he makes this face and thinks it is so funny!

We hope everyone is having a great week!!!