HANK!!

Kaleb and I headed to Texas to meet my new nephew and his new cousin, HANK! We were so excited to meet him and he did not disappoint! He is such a sweet, cuddly little guy and I loved getting to babysit him while I was there! I have several photos to download from our trip (which I have yet to do) but here are a couple I took on my iPhone. Isn't he the sweetest?

Kaleb's Quirks

Kaleb has been picking up new words everyday it seems.
I promised I would write them down so I figure blogging about them is basically "writing" them down, right?
It's crazy how he went from just grunting and pointing a few months ago to repeating a lot of what I say now almost verbatim. I have to choose my words very carefully ;-)
Here are some of the cute things he says and does....(I will type in phonics so you get the idea of his baby voice, I love it!!)

He points to the cereal box and says see-we-all.
In the bath he says bub-ews.
He points to his golf clubs and says gock-kuvs or just gock.
When he hears the refrigerator make noises he yells, ice!!
He loves avocados and calls them cados.
He will take out a spatula and a frying pan and yell cook, cook!!
He will take clothes to the laundry room if I ask him to and he will say dew-tee (dirty) and smell it and say shew!! (my favorite!)
If he sees ANYTHING that is not his toys on the floor, he will yell EWWW! until I pick it up. If it is dark-colored, it's always EWWW POOP!! (he got that from playing golf in our backyard with Daddy and finding dog poop in the grass, yum!)
If he sees a dog, he calls it a ruf!
Helicopters are cop-taws.
If our dog Oli barks, he puts a finger in his face and says Hush! (that one is my fault!)
Any guy he sees playing golf is Hi-ga (Tiger).
When he likes something a lot he yells Cooo!! for cool.
Alf and I will say Holla! and he yells back How-wa!
Everytime we leave the house he walks over to where the dogs are and says Dye-Dye! and waves bye to them.

He is just so much fun...I have to say I love this age! We definitely have our challenges here and there but he makes me smile everyday.
How can you NOT smile at this face??

Oh I almost forgot!

I have been meaning to post this on my blog for awhile for those of you that are not on Facebook!! I really still can't believe that I captured this on video considering he hasn't done this since and in fact, we just put away his putting green yesterday. :-( Don't get me wrong, Kaleb still loves golf but he would rather smash the ball across the room than waste his time on putting. I have a sneaky suspicion we will have to replace our glass sliding doors at some point.

Palm Springs

It's been weeks since I have blogged so I need to get my blog on....
We went to Palm Springs with our friends Chris and Janae at the beginning of the month and although it was a little different than our previous trip out there (considering we now have a 19 mo old son and they have 6 mo old twins!) we still had a good time. I'm so upset I wasn't able to capture a pic of the whole motley crew but these pics will have to do....

Kaleb and Brayden

Me and Kinsley

All the boys

Daddy and Kaleb

Mommy and Kaleb

Da Limongelli clan

Quote

I feel the need to blog about a quote I heard yesterday b/c well, it deeply touched my soul and it got me thinking about a lot and you just can't let things like that go by without recognizing them, right?

"God determines who walks into your life....It's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go."

It seems like such a simple statement, so matter-of-fact. To me, it's anything but simple...
There is so much pain, loss, but most of all, joy written in between those words. I have had many people walk away from me. And I, too, have made that choice at times. Those times are gone and I have to trust that I am exactly where I am meant to be.

The people you let stay are a blessing to your life, the ones you look forward to seeing and spending time with and if they were gone, you would miss them greatly.

But then there are those that you fight for and you will never stop fighting for no matter what. Those you ache for, you pray for. Those you get excited for when the garage door opens. Those you can't wait for them to wake up so you can kiss their face and tell them good morning. Those you kiss goodnight and wish them sweet dreams. Those you dance crazy with and laugh with. Those you get angry with and make up with.
Those you cry with and they hold you and tell you that they love you and suddenly you can breathe again...

To my husband of 7 years....thank you for being all of these things and refusing to let go when I almost let go of you. I promise to hold on tight from now on. I love you in a way that I never knew I was capable of loving. Pure, forgiving and deep. Thank you for teaching me that.

To my baby boy of 18 months (I can't believe it!)...thank you for being the light in my everyday. Your laugh makes the world good again. Your hugs and kisses are the very essence of grace, of innocence and of love. Thank you for trusting me and loving me with all of your being.

My favorite boys in the whole world. I will forever "refuse to let go..."

YoYo!

My Mom was here last month and she brought Kaleb a bunch of books...his fave! One of the books is a counting book and the last page is 10 yoyos. Last night when I read that page, he belts out plain as day- "YOOOYOOO!!"

It was just the sweetest, most innocent voice I've ever heard, so today I had to go and find my baby boy a yoyo.
It was not just ANY yoyo though, it was a Spiderman yoyo. I even sang the Spiderman theme song when I gave it to him.
YAY! He LOVED it!

Then, he broke it in 10 minutes. (sigh)
Well, that's part of being a boy I guess.


I bet you all are dying to see some recent pics of our boy so here ya go! =D
They are a little blurry but you get the idea.

Here is a recent pic of him in his Tiger Woods hat his Daddy bought him.




Here he is in Daddy's cowboy boots...a little throw back to his Texas roots! ha!

My readers have spoken....what shakes their tail feathers and mine

I remember one time I forgot my iPod at the gym and I felt like I neglected to bring one of my legs. It was the worst workout of my life...why is that??
Because music makes you MOVE!! It makes you go another 5 minutes on the treadmill, do another rep of arm curls or another set of sit-ups. Well, it does me at least. And apparently it helps most of you, too!
Here are some musicians and/or music that gets you going:

Danaly loves to kick it old school with some 80s pop: Janet, Madonna but still keeps it real with some JT and worship music.

Krista wanted to answer but ate a chocolate chip cookie instead, but if I had to guess I would say 80s pop as well...you little Madonna lover, you!!

Janae gots to have some fast movin' hippity hop. JT for sure!!

Alf-just give him some Olivia Newton John "Let's get Physical" over and over and apparently he can run marathons on just that!

Ashley says Black Eyed Peas (Kaleb says YEAH! to that one...gotta get that BOOM BOOM BOOM), Kanye, Pink, Sean Kingston and Lady Gaga-no disco sticks though-ha!

Sara says hard rock gets her moving like nothing else. Hey-hip hop ain't for everybody, people.

Here it is...my MUST-HAVE music list:

Give It To Me Timbaland featuring JT and Nelly F
This Is Me Dream
Say It Right Nelly Furtado
Only You 112
Got 2 Be Down Robin Thicke featuring Faith Evans
Back in the Day Missy Elliot featuring Jay Z
I Hate this part Pussycat Dolls
Lose my Soul tobymac featuring Kirk Franklin
Migrate Mariah
Side Effects Mariah
Stronger Kanye
The Way I Are Timbaland
This is why I'm Hot Mims
Hush LL Cool J
Anything by JT....seriously LOVE him!
Last night Diddy
Basic Instructions Burlap To Cashmere
Boondocks Little Big Town

Cool Down Tunes:
Chasing Pavements ADELE
Alright Darius Rucker
Divine Romance Phil Wickham
Hold you in my arms Ray LaMontagne
Make you feel my love ADELE
Refine Me Jennifer Knapp

There it is folks.
So load up your iPod, hit the gym and let the music MOVE YOU!!