Happy Birthday, Em!

Emily is one of my best friends in the whole world, and I am so grateful that she was born.  We were on STINT together in Guadalajara, and I miss her way too much.  She lives in Chicago now, and this photo happened when I saw her last summer when we were there briefly for a wedding. 

I LOVE YOU, EM! 

Lambda Chi High Alpha

Brandon has been very involved this last year in the Lambda Chi fraternity here on campus.  He was a Lambda Chi at K-State, and he has loved getting to know the guys at the NMSU chapter.  On Saturday night, we went to their White Rose Formal.  It was our third year going, but this year was really fun for me.  I loved seeing him interact with all of the guys.  

A part of the evening involves an awards ceremony.  The last formal award of the evening was for the High Alpha award, a recognition chosen by the chapter president.  As Nate, the president, was sharing about the recipient (an alum who had contributed significantly to the chapter this year, who was not even a part of the chapter), I started hearing guys all over the banquet room whispering to each other, "It's Brandon!"  "Brandon." 

When they said his name for the award, I wanted to cry.  It was so fun to see him recognized for something he loves so much.  I am very grateful for all the ways in which the Lord has blessed my husband's job this year.  He has loved it more than ever before.  Thanks, God.  :-)

I didn't edit this photo very well.  The red eye fix made these poor men look like aliens.  They don't really look like that.  I brought our old camera to the event.  Sorry. 

A Quick Video

This is a video that we took on our point and shoot camera in October. There is no sound, and the quality is pretty bad. I still haven't figured out how to put videos from our video camera on the computer, so it will be a while. Sorry, Mom and Dad. :-)


The theme for our Fall Festival was the Old West. Caleb dressed up as a horse. He was still crawling at that time, so it was quite a comical scene.  He looked just like a horse.  His tail even wagged.  Enjoy.

Our little boy...

is a great sleeper!  He started sleeping through the night when he was ten weeks old, and he has been a pro sleeper ever since (like his parents).  :-)  He currently is napping three to four hours a day, and I am starting to wonder if I should let him sleep that long.  Any thoughts?

These are some pictures I took of Caleb when we had to go wake him up from his nap so we could meet someone at the park.  Brandon and I love to go get him when he is sleeping or when  he is awake because he is almost always in a good mood...as seen below.  The bear was Brandon's when he was a little boy, and Caleb loves it.  

We took two trips to the park yesterday.  In the morning, we went to the park down our street so that Caleb could run and play.  In the afternoon, we went to a park on campus to meet up with a woman and her son that we had met last week at that same park.  They are from Cameroon, and we really enjoyed meeting them.  I think there was a miscommunication because they didn't make it.  But, we ended up meeting a Mexican woman and her grandson. So, we had lots of fun anyway.  Caleb and Rodrigo were quick to play in the dirt together.  Such boys!  

Caleb is shirtless because he was unfortunately in the path of bird poop and therefore had to have his shirt removed.   :-(  Rodrigo is wearing a very warm fleece jacket though it was in the 80s.  I love how different the Mexican culture is.  Not wrong, just different (as all my STINT training repeatedly informed us).   

Settlers

When we were engaged, I remember telling Brandon that I am not competitive.  I lied.  Or, at least I soon found out something new about myself...I do like winning.  

Brandon introduced me to Settlers of Catan.  He was already addicted, and I was soon to follow.  I thoroughly enjoyed beating him on the rare occasions that it happened.  After four years of marriage, we still love playing games.  Last night, Brandon beat me twice at Settlers, and I am about to go beat him at Cribbage.  :-)

Balloons in books...and some pics from the park today...

Caleb has really been enjoying Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton lately.  He particularly loves to point out the telephone, the sun, the moon, the hats and the balloons...all words  he has been learning lately.  It is super cute.  In fact, he is amazingly good at finding balloons not only in books but in Wal Mart as well.  He is on the hunt as soon as we walk in the door, and he goes crazy when he finds the lost balloons that are hiding up in the rafters.  I like balloons now too because they keep my child occupied while we're grocery shopping.  He calls them "oooooons." It's also not uncommon for us to come home with a free balloon that someone has given us because a certain little boy has freaked out upon seeing it.  :-)

We have a park near our house where we go regularly to let Caleb run.  My parents have expressed a desire to see more pictures of Baby Pelton (as my dad calls him).  So, here you guys go.  :-)

Caleb put a feather in his mouth, and he poured a handful of dirt and sand in his hair.  Gross.

Thanks, Mamie, again for the new shoes.  We love them.  :-)

Celebration Banquet

So, after the triathlon I wasn't sure I could get much prouder of Brandon. Tonight, I was reminded of how wrong I was...and how truly blessed I am that I get to be married to him.

We had our Cru Celebration Banquet this evening. It is our annual fundraiser for all of the expenses we as an organization have throughout the year, and it was an incredibly affirming night for us. Brandon spoke first about the changes we made to Cru, and his passion really came out tonight. It is so exciting and fun for me to see him love being on campus this much. I wish that everyone could have been there to hear him speak. As I mentioned before, I was so proud of him.

I wish I could accurately put into words all that God did tonight. I can't. There really aren't words to express how truly good He is. I can share one pretty crazy thing He did though. After taking care of every detail for the event, we felt that everything looked professional. The caterers, however, brought plastic plates and cups and flatware. They had made a mistake, and there was nothing we could do about it at that point. People had paid 20 dollars a plate. After praying about it, we left it in God's hands.

At the end of the evening, the woman who owns the catering business came in and made an apology to everyone and told us basically that she would not be charging Cru for the meal in order to compensate for the mistake. Normally the majority of the ticket price goes to the costs of the night, and what people give on top of that becomes what we use throughout the year. So, for her to basically wipe out the majority of the cost of the evening, we saw so much more come in than we had expected. How crazy that God would provide so much for us through plastic plates and silverware. How good is He!

Mommy's Little Helper...and a Sneak Peek

Caleb loves to help me...and he is actually getting a lot better at it. I can't vacuum while he is asleep, and my very eager little helper has made it quite challenging to get anything accomplished.  I must say, however, vacuuming has never been quite so entertaining. (Note the tongue sticking out...his work face.)

Caleb's tux arrived today, and we of course had to try it on and take pictures.  He is going to be the ring bearer in Pierce and Holly's wedding.  Watch out, flower girl.  :-)

Happy Birthday to Brandon...

almost a week later.  :-)  Brandon turned 32 on Thursday, though we didn't get to do much to celebrate.  We only saw each other for an hour after I got home from Saint Louis and Brandon took off for his Thursday night Cru meetings.  So, we decided to celebrate on Friday.

After our family breakfast in bed (Caleb and Brandon had Cheerios and I ate Trix), our team came over and had cake with us.  That night, we went to El Paso with some friends to our favorite restaurant...Taco Tote.  It was a great time.

I just wanted to put these pictures up of Caleb and Daddy playing together.  They definitely enjoy one another.

All of these are blurry, but I think they capture Caleb's wrestling/freefalling quite perfectly.  :-)

Saint Louis

I am missing Indiana some tonight.  :-)  I am in Saint Louis for a women's conference, and I am loving being in the Midwest!  This week, I have experienced things I haven't in a long time...such as rain, a cloudy day, Panera, and my favorite tree in the whole world: the dogwood.

We have had a great time.  Mostly, it has been a wonderful time with the women on our NMSU team:  Liz, Holly and Denise.  The Lord has so greatly blessed us with a great staff team, and we have had a lot of fun spending time together this week.  I do miss my baby and husband though and look forward to seeing them tomorrow...especially since it's Brandon's birthday.

Run*Bike*Swim

I am married to a stud!  Yesterday, Brandon ran a 5k, biked 22k (?), and swam 500m.  After weeks of training, he participated in his first ever triathlon.  I was SO unbelievably proud of him.  Caleb and I had a lot of fun cheering him on!  Well, Caleb's "good job" at least had two syllables.  :-)

WE LOVE YOU, Brandon/Daddy!!!

Baby Ina

My friend Chrissy came over with her incredibly beautiful baby girl yesterday, and we took some pictures.  Ina is so photogenic!  I had always wanted to take better pictures of Caleb when he was a baby, but my point and shoot never allowed me to get close ups.  So, I learned a lot on this first attempt at shooting a newborn.

Gloworm

When I was younger, my little brother had a Gloworm.  It was a plush worm that glowed when you hugged it.  Jeffrey was quite attached to it.

Today, Caleb received a Gloworm in the mail from my mom. I didn't even know they make them still!  He loves it.  He went to bed with it...and I took these pictures so my mom could see how much he loves it.  Thanks, Mom and Dad!  We love you guys!

Those poor birds!

Our poor, deprived little boy!  In Mexico, he was (relatively) free to explore and run and ride in cars without seatbelts much less carseats.  Here, his freedoms are somewhat limited.  On our way home from the border, he had to ride in a carseat for the first time in a week.  He screamed and cried for a half hour straight (It didn't help that he was completely exhausted and it was way past his bedtime).

In Guadalajara, our hotel was open with plenty of space to run in and new things to explore.  He was running constantly.  He loved the city most of

all for its abundance of pigeons!  Those poor, unsuspecting birds were a constant

source of entertainment for Caleb.

Oh, and he learned a new word...BIRDS!