Chalker Family Fun

So last week the half of my family that lives in California came for a little visit. Caitlyn had so much fun having all of her little cousins around. Caitlyn, being the first and currently only child, has never had to share much of anything in her life and did very well sharing her toys and her home for a week. She got thrown off her schedule a little and didn't get to sleep till very late some nights but I was shocked at how well she did. She has been known to cry a little (lot) when people are around, but she loved it! If you click on the pictures it makes them bigger and easier to see!!

Sadie and Caitlyn posing in their pretty dresses!

Caitlyn and Emma helping pack for the long drive home!

All the Chalker cousins - notice the not to happy girl in the second picture - that's my little angel!

Sadie 3 mon - Caitlyn 8 mon - Emma 12 mon

Caitlyn and Sadie - they are exactly 5 months apart - Caitlyn was trying to eat Sadie's hair!

Evan was playing peek-a-boo with Caitlyn and his blanket and Caitlyn thought this was the best thing in the whole world!

8 is Great...

So that time has come again for the monthly update of my favorite girl. She is growing up so fast. It seems that she has learned so much in the last month it is crazy. I forgot how small she used to be until my sister Mary came with her little Sadie that is exactly 5 months younger than Caitlyn and it is amazing how much she has grown. She isn't a little baby anymore and that makes me sad. Yet, at the same time I am excited for all the new things that she is discovering and learning how to do each day. Caitlyn is a unique girl, as I have mentioned many times, and lives in her own little world. She is very particular about the things that she likes and doesn't like so here is a few of them:

8 likes:

1. Her Daddy!!!! She loves him more than anyone or anything, which makes me happier than anything else in the world.

2. Crawling, standing, trying to stand. This is her new trick, she climbs on and up everything. It is funny to watch her and how much she wants to explore the world around her. She has even learned how to get down by falling onto her bum, she still takes hits to the head but not nearly as many!

3. Applesauce!! She loves applesauce and anything mixed with it. She is also a big fan of the mango!

4. My hair! She loves nothing more than to pull on the chew on my hair, which is fine most of the time until she gets a hold of one little one and pulls, not so fun!

5. Tags and strings. She has an amazing ability to find every string in the house and pull on it and it makes her so happy. With her stuffed animals she just chews on the tags, funny girl!

6. Shoes!!! She is definantly my baby! She loves shoes and playing with shoes and chewing on them, as you see she likes to chew a lot!!

7. Music. She loves music and has started rocking when it comes on the when she is standing she bounces and moves her foot. I think it is the cutest thing ever!

8. Knocking over towers of blocks. This makes her laugh everytime espically when there is a stuffed animal on top, she thinks that is hilarious!

8 Dislikes:

1. Sleeping! She hates to sleep and go to sleep. She cries during her bedtime routine because she knows what is coming!

2. Being confined in any sort of way. She hates when anyone holds her down to give her medicine or clean her ears or anything like that. She just wants to be free and move all the time!

3. The gate that keeps her from the stairs that she loves to climb.

4. Sitting down during the bath, which makes bath time very interesting and hard. She is always trying to climb out or stand up or get to something that has caught her attention.

5. Vegetables. She gets that one from her dad! I can give her pretty much any fruit and she loves it but not the vegetables, we are going to have to work on that one!

6. The car wash! This is a new on that recently switched from the like column. She used to love it and now just screams the whole time!

7. Crowds of people! This again comes from her dad. She is more content to just to play by herself and then will come to you on her own time and when she wants to play with you!

8. Getting her face cleaned or nose cleaned. She hates this and screams bloody murder the whole time. Most of the neighboorhood has probably heard her during this time!

Happy Mothers Day

In January 2007 we found out that Julie was pregnant. Nine crazy months later Caitlyn joined our lives. I wanted to say a special Happy Mothers Day to my sweet Julie! Julie is a great mom and loves her little Caitlyn more than anything. I couldn't ask for anything more. There is nothing sweeter to me than to see Julie and our little Caitlyn-roo playing together. They truly have a connection. I love you Julie and I hope you have a great first Mothers Day.

I also want to wish my mom a happy Mothers Day AND a happy birthday. I took Caitlyn to the cemetary two weeks ago on my birthday. I sat her down next to my mom's headstone. I thought Caitlyn would start crawling all over the grass and we would have to leave quickly. However, she sat there and didn't move for 15 minutes (she never sits still). She just stared at the headstone with a big smile on her face. I like to think that maybe her grandma Cathy was there that day, making her smile. I love you mom and miss you more than ever on these days. Thanks for helping send down our sweet Caitlyn!

Time for a Gate?????

So another new milestone has entered into our home yesterday and we are not sure whether to be super excited about it or not. See, Caitlyn is a unique soul and she just lives in her own little world and we are privileged to be part of it, when she chooses! About a month ago she started crawling and then about 2 weeks ago she really started to take off and start exploring the world around her. So she discovered the stairs and at first that was a great thing. She learned how to pull herself up and liked to just hang out there because she was standing, since crawling has all ready become old news to her she wants to walk now! So she would hang out on the floor leaning against the bottom stair.

There were a few attempts to climb them but were never successful and Caitlyn would just get distracted and move on. That was until yesterday... In the morning she made it up her first step and we were all very excited and clapping and that was all she could do until last night...I was getting dinner ready and Mike was mowing the lawn and I was being an inattentive parent when I went over and found that she had climbed two steps...

So I went and got Mike so that he could see and so that he could watch her so I could take pictures. She then proceeded to climb up all 17 steps. 17, that is crazy, and they are steep steps that I am scared I am going to fall down all the time. So needless to say Mike and I were very proud and very scared at the same time, she's not supposed to be doing this for another couple of months. So now we have to barricade and watch her more closely, no more inattentive days for me.

She then tried to go back down the stairs, which didn't go over very well. Oh and right before the stairs incident she was doing this by the fire place, I didn't know she could do the standing kneel and how she even got like that I am not sure. But she loves the fireplace because she can see her reflection in it. All the pillows around are so she doesn't hit her head on the wood, which she does quite regularlly.

Happy Birthday Mike...

Happy Birthday to my favorite guy in the whole world! I honor of his birthday I thought I would share with you some things that you may or may not now about Mike and why I love him so much! He is the best husband and father that anyone could ask for:

1. Mike is a very funny and sarcastic person, most of his humor comes in the form of sarcasm. People don't tend to know this because Mike doesn't talk much when he is in big crowds, but get him in smaller groups and you will see the man who makes me laugh everyday!

2. Mike has only said "I love you" to one person, me of course!

3. Mike is great at impressions and stuff like that. I think his best one is Kermit, which Caitlyn loves, and a dentist drill, but I hate when he does the drill one. He also does an excellent firework show and believes that it should follow church hymns like Praise to the Man and such, driving to church is always entertaining.

4. Mike writes really well. I always tell him he should write a novel, check out his blog under Mike Richards on the links if you like stories about sports. But I would probably never read his book because he likes writing horror stories and that stuff scares me to death.

5. Mike loves when things are organized and believes everything should have a place, even though he sometimes forgets to tell me where that place is.

6. Mike got a 4.0 at BYU for a couple of semesters, this impresses me greatly because I was no where near that ever.

7. Mike does crazy things is his sleep like talk and walk and stuff, but he is always super sweet to me and tells me all sorts of nice things and cuddles with me when he is sleep talking so I like it.

8. Mike hates ketchup and mustard and especially pickles.

9. Mike is very logical in all of his thinking and that is one of the main things that I love about him because I tend to think I am a logical person also.

10. Mike is the youngest of 5 boys and his mom always said that he was her "Ray of Sunshine."

I love you Mike and I hope that you have the best birthday ever and Caitlyn and I wouldn't make it without you!!

7 Months

Another month has come and gone, way to quickly!! Our little Rouske has been learning so many new things and has a ton of new tricks to add to her list! She is sitting up and now had become bored with that, like usual. She now just wants to stand and can pull herself up sometimes. She has learned how to go from her bum to her knees and then start crawling. Yep, she is crawling, sort of. She started a couple of weeks ago and takes about 3 or 4 steps and then falls, scoots along on her stomach and then hops up on her knees and starts crawling again. Sometimes she throws a roll in there for fun! She is a funny girl and has started laughing more and more. Yet, she laughs at the craziest things and most random moments, I don't understand her but I love her! She is a much better sleeper now a days and that is making my life a ton better! She has finally learned the joy of sleep that I have been telling her about all along! We are so excited that the weather is finally starting to get a little warm, it might hit 60 on Saturday and we are more than ready for warmth. This winter just won't seem to die. Caitlyn loves to be outside now and to go on walks around the park. Here are a couple of pictures from a semi warm day last week. The blogger image thing is having problems so there is only two today, sorry I always love seeing tons of pictures, maybe I'll post the rest tomorrow!

Red Sox Nation

There are few things in life that Mike loves more than sports, and by few I mean Caitlyn and I (in that order!!) If you don't have a sports fanatic running around your home, you might not know that it is now baseball season, one of Mike's favorite (next to basketball and football, it actually just depends on what time of year it is!) So we now enter into the new season, and thanks to his friend Eric, Mike actually got to go the the Red Sox home opener a couple days ago and watch them get their rings from the World Series last year. It was a quick trip but he loved it. I always tell Mike that Caitlyn and I are the good luck charms for the Sox, right after Mike and I started dating they won their first World Series in 86 years and then the won their second right after Caitlyn was born. Boston and New England are some of Mike's and now my favorite places. If we ever become millionaires than a nice cottage in Maine would be fun to have!! But for now he will just have to pass on his love of his beloved Red Sox to his daughter. He would probably also like me to note that he is a true fan because he has supported them for the last 15 years through all the bad times and now the good. He says I count because I supported them before they won the World Series in 2004.