Happy Birthday John!

today is john's 32nd birthday. happy birthday, babe! we had a good day and it was extra special to have our son caleb celebrate it with us. :)

we finally got him!

Every time we get caleb to laugh, we run to get the video camera & as soon as we get it turned on...he stops. Well, tonight we were tickling him and he started laughing, so Auntie Shannon pulled a fast one on him and we tricked him for a few seconds and got some good laughing moments on video...enjoy!

I quit my job

i quit my job today... am i crazy?? i... quit... my... job..!! i've always wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom but i didn't know if it could really happen. part of me thinks i am crazy for giving up that sense of security -- and that paycheck (not that i made a ton of money, but you know what i mean)! i worked for a really good company. my boss was so supportive during all of my infertility treatments by allowing me to adjust my schedule in order to make all of my doctor's appointments. i appreciate it so much.

the other part of me thinks that i would be crazy for leaving caleb to go to work. he changes every day and i don't want to miss a thing. i know moms do it every day and that it is hard on them too, but literally, i was crying every time i even THOUGHT about leaving caleb to go back to work. john has been incredibly supportive of my decision to stay at home. we are going to be so broke... but that's a small sacrifice to make to be able to be with my baby every day.

so... that's it. we are a one-income family now. i feel bad for putting all of the financial responsibility on john's shoulders but he is 100% okay with my decision to stay home. we're going to have to pinch pennies where we can and adjust our spending habits to make this work. i know we're doing the right thing for our family and that God will take care of us.

although i am so happy that i will be staying at home with caleb, i am very sad to leave the great group of friends that i have made at work. i have plans to visit them for lunches/dinners so we can continue seeing eachother and maintaining our friendships.

to stacy, kelly, ileana, miss debbie, robin, lorri, del, JQ, and everyone else.... I WILL MISS YOU! LET'S KEEP IN TOUCH!

...oh my gosh... i quit my job... it still doesn't seem real.

3 month pictures!! YAY!

i am sooo excited! daniel came to our house a couple of weeks ago and did caleb's 3 month photo shoot. i knew the pictures were going to be great since he is such an awesome photographer, but i am so so so pleased with they way they turned out! check out the slideshow here. YAY! :)

Sleepy jumper

caleb was jumping in his jumper last night as we were eating dinner. he was as happy as could be just jumping and "talking" and having a good 'ol time. all of a sudden he got tired, i guess, because i looked over and this is what i saw. he was fast asleep! so cute. i had to take a picture. :)

Happy Father's Day!

john wore his "dad shirt" for his first father's day. you see, my dad wore a 1970's white polyester shirt with blue flowers on it for YEARS. literally, over my entire lifetime. we have pictures of him in it when my brother and i were kids during each stage of our lives. my mom and i hated it and hid it from him a couple of times. john has decided that the red shirt he is wearing in the picture above is the shirt that is going to show up in pictures from caleb's childhood. he wore it on the day caleb was born, the day caleb was dedicated, and now on father's day. i especially like this shirt because he wore it on our first date 8 years ago. so it's pretty special to our family. we just have to make sure it only comes out on special days because we want it to last for as long as my dad's "dad shirt" did. i wonder where that shirt is now??

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, BABE! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

ALSO, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL OF THE DADS IN OUR FAMILY. WE LOVE YOU ALL!!

More jumper fun!

john and i were planning on buying a jumper for caleb (especially after he liked the one at my parents' house so much) but they're expensive so we've been putting it off for a while. we have vaulted ceilings and really have nowhere to put the hang-from-the-doorway kind so our only option was to get the other kind. so... we were planning on buying one this weekend and we got soooo lucky! yesterday after stroller strides one of the moms asked if anyone could use a jumper. her daughter has outgrown hers so they no longer need it. what perfect timing, huh? i was thrilled! i offered to pay her for it but she was so sweet to let me have it for free. normally these things cost around $80 so it saved us a big chunk of money. i love hand-me-downs! caleb loves it too. he jumps and squeals and laughs when he's in it. so cool.

759 of me

i got this site http://www.howmanyofme.com/ from one of the blogs that i follow and thought it was pretty interesting. i always knew that my name was pretty common since it seems like every time i meet someone new they always say they know someone with the same name as me. well, according to this site, there are 759 other ladies in the U.S. with my name. pretty crazy, huh? what's even crazier is that there are 4,945 men out there with my husband's name! now, that's a lot of john bennetts. no offense to all of the others out there, but i got the best one. :)

Growth spurt?

i think caleb may be going through a growth spurt right now. he is acting hungry allll the time and his sleep schedule is way off. he normally sleeps from 9pm to 5am, eats for a few minutes, then goes back to sleep for another hour or two. he has been waking up once or twice at night for the last few nights and he hasn't done that for over a month. his naps are off too. i don't have him on a strict schedule but he normally has a pattern throughout the day. he'll take little cat naps instead of his usual 1 to 2 hour naps. today he was so exhausted but wouldn't go to sleep. i was rocking him and singing to him (which normally he loves) and he just looked up at me with these watery eyes and sad little pout and cried. i felt bad for him. i knew he was tired. the only way i could get him to sleep was to put him in his swing. he's going to wake up any minute now and i know he's going to be starving. i'm trying to drink lots of water so my milk supply can keep up with him! i'm hoping this is just a growth spurt because he is just not acting like himself. my poor little baby. :(

Gas prices are insane!

the price for gasoline is $4.59 per gallon today -- and that's the cheap stuff! i heard that the price should be above $5 by the end of summer. if that's the case, the only way caleb and i will be getting around is on foot! i wonder what the price will be when caleb's old enough to drive. maybe by then there will be nothing but electric cars on the road. gas is way too expensive!

Jumper fun

after leia's birthday party we went over to papa & nema's house for a BBQ. they had the jumper set up so caleb went in it for the first time. he loved it! i thought he might not like it since he's only 3 months old but he did GREAT. he was totally into it and even jumped a little! he probably would've stayed there all day if we let him. :)
here he is with the birthday girl! everyone had fun jumping yesterday. :)

Party time!

cousin leia is turning 2! she had her birthday party at the little gym yesterday and everyone had a great time. pizza tastes good when it's eaten sideways, right leia?
here's cousin justice swingin' on the bars like a pro!
here are cousin kaia and auntie shannon taking a quick break to smile for the camera!
caleb is too young for pizza so he had to chew on his arm. next year you'll be old enough for pizza, baby!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEI LEI! WE LOVE YOU!

An update for Stacy... :)

caleb is fast asleep in his swing as i'm typing this... he looks so peaceful, doesn't he? i should probably be taking a nap too but i decided to blog instead!

my super-talented friend, Stacy, (who is also a very faithful blog-reader!) just sent me the final pages for caleb's scrapbook. she is so creative and so good at that stuff! me, i have no talent in that department what-so-ever. so her help is greatly appreciated! all i need to do is pick out some pictures and write a few comments and presto! caleb will have a professional looking scrapbook. THANKS SO MUCH STACY! I really love the scrapbook! give yourself and the rest of the team a BIG hug from me. I miss you girls a lot! :)

my friend Brixie came to my Stroller Strides class with me today (she's an instructor for Stroller Strides in another city). i love it when we get the chance to hang out. she and Brixie Lee came over to my house after class and had lunch. since we live in different cities it's not always easy to get together but we're going to make an effort to hang out more often. i'm looking forward to it! THANKS FOR COMING OVER TODAY, BRIX! see ya again soon!

I love my husband

john took a couple weeks off of work to spend some time with me and caleb. it was so great to have him home with us. caleb got to spend a lot of time with him and he loved it. he loves his daddy. he gets the biggest grin on his face when he sees him or hears his voice. he likes to use john's finger as a pacifier sometimes, as you can see in the picture above. john's back at work now and we really miss having him with us. it was great while it lasted!

john is the most loving, supportive, caring man i've ever met. i'm so lucky to be his wife. I LOVE YOU, BABE!

3 months old!

my baby turned 3 months old today! it seems like time has flown by so fast yet at the same time it seems like a lifetime ago that i was pregnant with him. i can't believe how much he has grown. doesn't he look like a 6 month old in the top picture? so cute. :)

today we went to visit caleb's great grandma with papa and nema. we had a great time hanging out together at her house and then we went out to a nice lunch. my grandma is 82 years old and still walks 5 miles a day! that's a lot more than i can do. she's amazing!

every sunday night we have dinner at john's parents' house and tonight they served a yummy meal, as usual. afterwards, grammy came to our house to hang out with caleb and help with his night time bath and bottle. thanks, grammy!

oh, i almost forgot to mention that caleb's clogged tear duct seems to have cleared up. he woke up yesterday with goop in his eye but then did fine for the rest of the day and today he had no problems at all. his photo shoot went really well too. i can't wait to see the pictures!

HAPPY 3 MONTH BIRTHDAY, CALEB!

MOMMY & DADDY LOVE YOU SO MUCH.