Exceedingly More

Cael - 18 months

2010-06-02T10:23:00.001-07:00

After several episodes of rolling around on the floor and lots of bribing with m&ms. I present to you.....Cael at 18 months!

Cael

2010-05-07T06:47:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to try out my new flip camera that Matt got me for our anniversary. Enjoy!

Look everyone! A New Post - Cael's big boy haircut!!!!

2010-04-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

So Cael's hair has become uncontrollable lately! It was so long that it was tickeling his ears, so I decided he needed a summer haircut. This is Cael waiting to get his haircut! He was so happy!

We got Cael back to Paula's station and he wouldn't even go to her. I knew that this haircut was not going to be pleasant. Cael screamed and cried so loud when she turned on those clippers that we had to go outside so that we wouldn't disturb the other customers. I literally had to hold him against me as tight as I could so that she could buzz his head. It was sad and funny all at the same time.

After a very painful 15 minutes, Cael's haircut was finished! He looks so cute!

The Live Nativity Pagent

2009-12-13T14:43:00.001-08:00

Cael in his 1st pagent costume. He was a traveler.

Cael's 1st Birthday Party

2009-12-07T06:28:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Cael's birthday at our house on Saturday. We had 30ish of our family and friends there to celebrate with us. The theme was the carnival. We had hot dogs, waffle fries, nachos, popcorn, and cotton candy. It was tasty. Erin made Cael's cake. It was awesome!

After we ate, we sang Happy Birthday to Cael and he attempted to blow out his candle. After spitting on his candle, he ate half of the top tier of his cake ever so delicately!

He helped me open presents for about 1 minute before he started playing with all of his toys.
Our family got him a Cars ball pit for his birthday. It took him awhile to figure out what to do in it, but after he did, he played in it for 30 minutes. We had a fun time at the birthday party.
Happy birthday, baby Cael. We love you so much and are so glad that you are part of our family. You have been a blessing in our lives!

Happy 1st Birthday, Cael!

2009-12-07T06:25:00.001-08:00

Gavin's 8th Birthday Party

2009-09-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Gavin went back and forth about what kind of birthday party he wanted to have this year. One day, out of the blue, he asked me if there was such thing as a snake party. I told him that I didn't think there was such a thing but that I would check and see. I contacted our local herpetological society and to my surprise, they do have members who do these kinds of parties. So for Gavin's 8th birthday party, I had 20 kids in my basement, along with 4 live snakes.

Erin made this fabulous cake for the party!

Happy 8th Birthday, Gavin Wallace, you sure are a lot of fun!

Denver

2009-09-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

The Springhill worship band was invited by Global Encounter to play for the students during the Denver Project. Matt and I rented a car to make it an easier trip, only to end up with a Ford Focus. 2 adults, 1 child with a booster seat, 1 baby with a carseat, and loads of luggage made it a little bit harder than expected. We left Springhill at 8 pm and drove through the night. We made it to Denver around 7:30 in the morning. The band only had to play in the morning sessions which allowed our family time to hang out together in the afternoon.

One afternoon we went to the Denver Aquarium.

We had been walking around with Gavin, keeping Cael in the stroller for most of the time. I got Cael out so I could take a picture of the boys and Cael saw the tanks. He got really excited and start shaking. It was so sad that he had missed out on so much already. Daddy or Mommy carried him through the rest of the aquarium.

For some reason, this aquarium had tigers. The keepers had just laid fresh meat out on the rocks so we got a good view of the tiger.

We saw lots of fish

and Gavin got to feed a stingray. He was a little scared to try it!

We went to the zoo,

saw lots of mountains,

and spent lots of time just hanging out on our air matresses!

One particular afternoon, we decided that we wanted to go see a glacier that was about an hour outside of Denver. We used our trusty GPS to lead us to the glacier....well, the GPS led us up the side of a mountain on a rocky path. Once the path was gone and our 15 passenger van could go no futher, the boys got out and got us turned around and we headed back down the side of the mountain. I will never forget the smell of the brakes as we headed s-l-o-w-l-y back down the mountain. This was the said mountain....

After we visited the glacier, we went to eat at Casa Bonita.

After Casa Bonita, we went and showered at a hotel that we had rented out for the trip. Cael "showered" in the sink.

We had a great time with our family and friends in Denver. Next year we have been invited to do the trip again, but it will be in St. Louis, a much closer of a drive....thank goodness!

Gulf Shores, Alabama

2009-09-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

I know this post has been a long time coming. We took a trip to Gulf Shores with a couple of other families in June. We shared an awesome condo, spent some time on the beach, and did plenty of other fun things while we were there.

This was our condo. Our group had a whole floor to ourselves.

Gavin spent most of his time on the beach searching for seashells.

Cael spent most of his time on the beach sleeping.

But when he was awake, he sure didn't like the water!

One night the boys all went across the street and bought buckets, nets, and flashlights to go crabbing. I didn't get to go because I needed to feed Cael, however, I'm not sure I would have wanted to go either. The crabs crawl out of the sand at night to head down to the water. This is what Matt and Gavin brought back up to the condo. Yuck.

One day we took a trip to the National Air and Naval Musuem in Pensecola. Cael screamed and cried most of the way there, making it a very unpleasant trip for all involved. Here is a rare moment when is actually smiling instead of crying.

The Blue Angels are stationed at this base. Gavin got to sit in one of their jets.

This was the first boat-plane ever made. It was constructed somewhere around 1818....I think.

After the musuem, we met up with the Berry's for a dolphin cruise.

The groups were split up into 2 boats. After a few minutes in the ocean, the boats would line up together and started accelerating. The dolphins would come and ride the waves in between the 2 boats. It was pretty cool. This went on for about 30 minutes. It was a lot of fun.

So much fun that it completely tired Cael out.

We had so much fun with the Bryan's and the Berry's. We were sad to have to leave the beach and drive 14 very long hours back to Springfield.

We look forward to doing it again sometime!

Cael really needs......a haircut!

2009-09-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

Another First

2009-08-05T17:01:00.001-07:00

Cael had his first bloody injury today. He toppled over on top of the portable dvd player. Ouch!

I promise I am going to catch up on this summer's events....it may take awhile, maybe this weekend :)

MMA Cage Fights

2009-03-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was date night. One of our friends from church, Chad Wallin, was fighting for the first time in a MMA cage fight, so a whole bunch of us from church went to watch. I have never been to anything like this before and it was interesting to say the least. If I had to describe the people there, I would say it was like going to the fair - except worse because they were selling beer. Chad did an awesome job! He did some high kicks and broke the other guy's nose and dislocated his shoulder. But......his opponent managed to get him to the ground and put Chad in a choke hold. Needless to say, Chad passed out....or almost did. He was able to get up and move around, but he did have to take a trip to the ER later that night to get hydrated. Chad told our crowd that his opponent had fought twice before and the last time he knocked the guy out in the first round So we were really proud of Chad making it just shy of the bell to end the second round. We stayed and watched the other fights. I think we watched around 12 or 13 before we headed out. Chad says he will do it again someday. I know we'll be there watching. Way to go, Chad. We're so proud of you.
Date Night

This is my friend, Rachel, from school. She got tickets with us for her husband for Valentine's Day. That's love all right.

I was too nervous to get pictures of Chad's match, but here's the view from our seats.

And last but not least.....if you look very carefully through these guys' shoulders. You can see a guy passed out. He had too much to drink, and even though his buddies shook him violently to wake him up....he didn't and missed who he came to watch. Bummer.

House Update

2009-03-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

As of this weekend, the trim is up and ready to be painted. Matt is finishing up taping and will begin using Dean Anderson's high powered sprayer to paint the trim and the primer hopefully by this weekend. Yea! The cabinets turned out nice. I especially love my red kitchen wall! I will love it even more when it gets totally painted - you can't see it very well but it's a very deep red.
This is the very deep ravine behind our house. Gavin loves it, but we're going to need a fence for Cael!

2009-03-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

Well, personally I think I'm doing very well for myself. Blogging once every two months - not bad.....for me ;). There has been a lot going on in the last two months. Cael got RSV at 8 weeks and had to be on breathing treatments for a week or so. It was just a few days before I had to go back to work. We had to go to the doctor twice during that time and get x-rays each time we went. When the x-ray tech asked me if there was any way I could be pregnant I laughed at her. With the breathing treatments, Cael quickly got over his sickness and has been the happiest little boy. He smiles at everyone now. He's not stingy with them at all. He loves to laugh out loud. I think he laughs the most at his papa, though. Last week, Cael started getting a cold. So I took him to the doctor on Monday and he has RSV again. So as of now, we are back on breathing treatments. Good news though, the doctor said his ears were immaculant and that the cold season is almost over! He also had to go for his 2 month shots yesterday (I know, I'm about a month behind). I expected him to scream uncontrollably for awhile, but he was such a good boy and only cried for a few seconds. Cael has also been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now. It's glorious! One of the sweetest things is to watch Gavin interacting with Cael. Gavin can get lots of smiles out of him. Lately, Cael comes with Matt and I to put Gavin to bed. After Gavin has done all of his bedtime routines and we have done his devotional, Gavin gets out his old storybook bible and reads a story to Cael. Last night we layed Cael down next to Gavin and he looked at the book and smiled the whole time. It was so sweet. It blesses my heart to see Gavin reading the bible to Cael. He's such a good big brother to him. Well, I'll leave you with some pictures. I need to post again soon, because Matt wants to show off his progress on the house. We should be in it in the next few months - yea!

My boys as Spiderman and a Penguin

Big Smile!

Big Hair!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-13T18:21:00.000-08:00

We started off our Christmas season by decorating a gingerbread house. I was in charge of the icing. Gavin was in charge of the candies and Matt, well, he was in charge of his iPhone.

The finished product - 1 hour later

The next day Gavin decided he wanted to read to Cael. Gavin has become an excellent reader and just sat down and read Cael books that he had never read before. He read each word perfectly, pretty impressive and possibly the sweetest time I've spent with the boys together so far. Cael stayed awake for awhile but eventually was put to sleep by the time Gavin had read the 5th book.

On Christmas day Gavin's major gift from us were two hermit crabs. He named them Scooby Doo and Crystal. I think they are the creepiest pets ever, but he loves them and chases Jesse around the house holding them. Jesse is not too fond of the hermit crabs yet.

Cael got all dressed up for Christmas morning - this outfit only lasted for a few pictures. I couldn't make him wear it all day long. It looked a little girly.

Cael spent most of his Christmas asleep on Aunt Wendy and every other relative that wanted to snuggle with him.

Some of Cael's Firsts

2008-12-21T17:38:00.000-08:00

Cael's 1st Trip To Church

First Time In The Swing - He didn't really care for it!

First Day To Really Be Alert For Longer Than A Few Minutes

Cael has been such an easy baby so far. He basically eats and sleeps as most babies do. He typically only wakes up once throughout the night unless he's got a dirty diaper. He doesn't really care for his baths as of yet, but we'll keep working to develop his love of water (like his big bro - Gavin). Today was the first day he really stayed awake. He has started grasping onto our fingers and I think he's starting to recognize us. He's already had his first bottle (Matt and I attended our friends' bachelorette and bachelor's parties on Friday night so Nana got to babysit). He was a pro! We are excited for Cael to celebrate his first Christmas with all of our family in a few days. He will get to meet his Uncle Curt, Aunt Amanda, Cousin Jackson, Uncle Doug, Aunt Wendy, and cousins Lucas, Bailey, Micah, and Ruth Ann for the first time. We are so excited! Pictures to follow :)

Have A Very Merry Christmas!

Cael's Birthday

2008-12-06T19:35:00.000-08:00

I know several of you have been waiting for the details of Cael’s birth, so here it goes. I awoke on Tuesday night to take my nightly 3:00 am bath. For the last several weeks, I’ve been waking up at night because my back has been hurting so I soak in the bath and then head back to bed. Just like every night prior, I took a bath, but the back pains would not go away. I walked around the basement for 10 minutes, hoping that the back pains were just Braxton Hicks contractions and that they would go away. No such luck, I headed back to bed, turned the heat pad on high and tossed and turned for the next few hours. I got up at 5:30, knowing that my mom was getting ready to leave for work, and went and took a bath in her Jacuzzi tub. I thought maybe the jets would take away the pains in my back, they didn’t. I went back to bed and turned on a back massager and laid there until it was time to get up for work. I headed into work, calling my mom almost in tears from the pain, and decided when I got to work I would call Dr. Litherland to see if I could come in and get checked out. When I got to school, I called the doctor’s office and the nurse blew me off – until I told her that the back pains had made me sick that morning. She said she would talk to the doctor and give me a call back. She called back within a few minutes and said that Dr. Litherland wanted me to head on to the hospital. I met Matt at St. John’s around 9:30 and got checked into triage where they do several assessments to see if you’re in labor. When they checked me, I was having contractions, dilated at a 3 to 4, and 100% effaced. Needless, to say I was not getting to go home from the hospital. We had to wait in triage for a few hours because there were so many women who were in labor already and all the rooms were full. I finally got in to a room around 1 and got going on the IV. It took the nurses 5 attempts to get an IV in my arm. After the IV was in, I was quickly given an epidural and they broke my water. All this was done by 4 pm. I waited around, watched TLC, and ate popsicles until my heart’s content. Around 7:30, my nurse kicked everyone out and we did some practice pushes. After 2 sets of pushes, I had to stop and wait for the doctor. I also had to put an oxygen mask on because Cael’s heart rate was going down a little. At 8:00, Dr. Litherland arrived and I started pushing. By 8:06, Cael was born. He weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 21 ½ inches long. He had long, thick black hair and was very cute. Unfortunately, Cael came out with his hand up by his face and I had to have several stitches. But I am healing quite nicely and we’re all doing great.

My School Shower

2008-11-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

I was incredibly blessed to get to have a shower at school. Cael got a lot of clothes and lots of other cute things too! I can't wait until he's here and we get to use it all!

Cael Steven Wallace - A few weeks out

2008-11-14T12:59:00.000-08:00

At this ultrasound he weighed 5 lbs, 8 oz. They are predicting him to be an 8 lb baby!

Stocking Up For Cael's Room

2008-10-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

Cael won't have a room until we get into our new house, but here are some things that will go in it!

And here are a couple of pictures of our shower invitations:

I'm alive

2008-10-20T17:56:00.000-07:00

Well it's been over two months since my last post. Those of you who know me well expected this - partly because I told you to expect me to be a terrible blogger. I'm officially in month 8 of my pregnancy, only 8 weeks to go. In the last two months, we've moved in with my parents and bought a partly done house.

This was my belly at approximately 30 weeks :). At the beginning of my pregnancy I bought The Belly Book so that I could take a picture of my belly each week, but with the move - I'm missing several pictures. I'm sorry to say that I've given up on The Belly Book.

We carved pumpkins this month. Gavin chose to carve a face that looked like an Iron Man mask, after carving most of Gavin's pumpkin myself, I chose a much easier design.

And finally.....

OUR NEW HOUSE!!!!

Back To School

2008-08-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

I officially have to go back to work tomorrow. It seems like summer has just flown by. I've been up at school for the last few days preparing for our first day back. Here's the fruit of my labor.

Registering for Cael

2008-08-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

I got back from Camp Ethyl on Friday and on Saturday Matt and I went and registered at Toys 'R' Us and Target. After registering, we went and looked at baby furniture at a store in Nixa. Matt and I found a crib and bedding that we loved. I found pictures of them both below...

Bedding
http://www.bellacor.com/fullsize.cfm?Sku=980101504&ItemID=314162

Furniture
http://www.babysdream.com/Products/Ocean/Default.htm

Our Very Busy Week

2008-08-12T13:41:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was a very busy weekend for the Wallace family. We started off Friday taking pictures of the Wallace grandchildren with Mema and Pappy for the annual Christmas card. You're probably wondering why we are taking a Christmas picture at the beginning of August, but it's the only time we will have everyone together again until Christmas. This year's theme was cowboys and cowgirls. Everyone wore white shirts, jeans, cowboy hats, and cowboy boots. The pictures turned out really cute. Here are a few that I captured on my own....

Friday was also Gavin's birthday, so that night Matt and I took Gavin to Chuck E. Cheese. Grandma Cozy, Grandpa Steve, Curt, Amanda, and Jackson joined us for fine dining and games!

After Chuck E. Cheese we headed back to Grandma Cozy and Grandpa Steve's house for cookie cake and ice cream.

This is Jackson doing one of his many "Watch This" faces!

Friday night ended with us at home watching Gavin open up his presents from us. He got a Wii and some Wii accessories, as well as a toypedo for the pool. He was pretty excited to have his very own Wii!

And so it begins...

On Saturday morning we celebrated Donna and Gary's 40th wedding anniversary with all of our family at Springfield Brewing Company. I never thought I'd have an immediate family so big that we took up the whole room!

Finally on Saturday afternoon, we had Gavin's family birthday party at Linny and Roy's house. They have a very nice pool and they were gracious enough to host all of us at their house. Thanks again, guys!

Saturday night we went to Grandma and Grandpa Dixon's house to celebrate Linny, Matt, and Gavin's birthday since they all have birthdays in August. We played Wii and dominoes. It was a wonderful weekend but very exhausting. Happy 7th Birthday, Gavin and Happy 40th Anniversary, Donna and Gary!

Weeks 19, 20, and 21

2008-08-12T13:36:00.001-07:00

Week 19

Week 20

Week 21

Weeks 17 & 18

2008-07-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Week 17

Week 18

I'm definitely starting to fill out. I went through my closet the other day and tried on all my regular clothes again. Most of them had to go into storage for the remainder of the pregnancy, I'm looking forward to getting into clothes that actually make me feel cute again. I've got a fresh shipment of Gap and Old Navy maternity capris that should be landing on my doorstep any day. I can't wait!!!

It's a.......BOY!!!!

2008-07-14T19:18:00.001-07:00

16 Weeks

2008-07-08T11:13:00.001-07:00

I went to the doctor today and she told me that everything looked good. I am officially 17 weeks along today! We recorded the baby's heartbeat on the video below.

Stay tuned to this blog! We find out whether the baby is a boy or a girl on Monday!

15 Weeks

2008-07-01T12:19:00.001-07:00

Seussical, The Musical

2008-07-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

My mom got us tickets to see Seusical, The Musical last weekend. We went to eat at Cheddars, went shopping for maternity clothes, and watched the show. Grandma Cozy caved and bought Gavin the Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham, which he can read all by himself. She also bought him a Dr. Seuss hat. Gavin had never been to a play before so I was interested to see how he would react. He loved all the cool effects that they added like bubbles falling from the ceiling, a confetti gun that shot confetti out into the audience, the Cat in the Hat shooting us with a water gun, and he even threw candy too! When we got to the intermission, Gavin got up and was ready to leave. He thought it was over. We took a little break and had a photo shoot with some sets they had in the foyer and then returned to our seats to watch the end. It was excellent.

Gavin posing for pictures:

Thank you Grandma Cozy for treating us to such a fun day!

Exceedingly More

2008-06-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:20 – 21

These are my life verses. God has done so many incredible things in my life and it’s about time to talk about how good He is! I’ve decided to start blogging for 2 reasons:

1. It seems like everyone in my family blogs and I’ve been holding out for so long that it’s probably tome to jump on the blogging band wagon.
2. We have family in a far away land (Houston, Texas) and I want a way to keep in touch with them because we miss them so much!

I recently celebrated my 2nd anniversary with my husband, Matt. I love him so much. He’s an amazing husband and dad.

On the same day, I also celebrated my 2nd year of being a stepmom to Gavin. Gavin is 6 years old and loves reptiles. He always keeps me on my toes.

God has given me an amazing 2 years with my boys and it has been even more incredible than I could ever have imagined. But God has made it even more exciting in the last few months. We are proud to announce that in December we will be welcoming a new Wallace into our family. Baby Wallace is expected to join us on December 16, 2008!!!
So keep checking back to this blog to see how God always manages to exceed our expectations!