Decorating

happy times

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?

In the lane, snow is glistening.

A beautiful sight

we're happy tonight

walking in a winter wonderland.

So, we had a grand time picking out our tree the other day. Happy times! It's the 3rd year in a row we decided to go cut down our tree. I thought it would be a good memory and tradition to continue. Boy was I wrong! It all started when Caleb slipped in the mud. I wiped his hands off but there was still some mud on them. My son (who normally would roll happily in the mud) was distraught. Add to that, sweet baby girl wanted to walk but kept slipping in the mud. Tears all around and I blame the mud! :) But, I kept snapping the pictures because- they are, after all, memories, right?

Also, is it me or has the price of trees gone up significantly?!

You mean we PAID for this "memory"? :)
Here she is in all her glory...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

following

Like any little sister, Abigail is learning to love what her big brother loves. Now that she can walk, she follows him around all day and tries to play with him. This is often frusterating to him, especially as he tries to line up his "guys" and she comes through like a tornado to mess them all up. Many times during the day I will hear Caleb sternly say to her, "No Ma'am!" Can't imagine where he's heard that?! ;)

But just last night Abigail learned a little about having a servant's heart. Caleb wasn't feeling well and was lying on the couch. I gave her a cracker and told her to take it to Caleb. She quickly shoved it into her mouth and looked at me blankly. Well, the next time I gave her two crackers - one for her and one for Caleb. She walked over and handed one to him, beaming. After that I only gave her one cracker and she beelined for Caleb, smiling the whole way, and gave it to him.

It is amazing how many examples and reminders I am given about God each day, through my children. As I watch Abigail follow her big brother around and want to please him and spend time with him, I inevitably start thinking about my own walk with the Lord. Do I image Him daily to my children? Am I following Him so closely that I reflect His love to my children?

I love being able to teach my kids new things each day- whether it be how to have a servant's heart or why Christ died on the cross for our sins or why we shouldn't throw something at a sibling. Granted, this job takes a lot of patience, but it is a job I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. It is a job that constantly reminds me of God's patience and love and how I need to be following closely to Him.

How many times does he teach me the same things over and over?
We serve such an awesome God who has patience for children of all ages. :)
I'm so thankful for that!

the party's over

First, the big news.

This girl is walking! Last night, for the first time, Scott and I watched as she stood up from a sitting position. It's so cute to see kids start to walk and how they learn to stand. First the butt goes in the air and then they push up to a stand with their hands. :) This is obviously not something they learn by seeing. I haven't seen an adult stand up like that! Since then though, she has only crawled when Caleb knocks her down (oops) or when she wants to be picked up! We are so happy for this accomplishment at 13 months. She still does a "Frankenstein" type walk- with her arms outstretched, but hey, we'll take it. :)

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving with our families!
Lots of cousins, lots of activity and lots of late nights.
Here are the Booker cousins:
Abigail, Caleb, Megan (4), and Emma (18 mo).

Now the Hamilton clan:
Caleb, Abigail, Jack (11 mo), Gabi (3) and Andrew (3 mo).

Now, the real reason the party's over. :(

We took Aunt Christine and Jack to the airport this morning. We have had such a great time with them these past 2 1/2 weeks. They came to visit from Georgia since my brother, Mark, is in Iraq. Thanks for coming guys! We'll miss you! Caleb was so sad to see them go and got quiet for a couple minutes after they left the van. He kept asking me why we couldn't just drive them to their house. Ha! I don't think he would really be up for that trip. :)

Here's sweet baby Jack playing in the leaves at gramma's house the other day.
We love you!

So thank you for coming family!
We love you and can't wait to see you all again!!

I'm Back!

Well, to be honest, we'll see how long this lasts.
Did you all like the post by "Uncle" Carl? Thank you for a job well done, Carl.
By the way, family, if you have something to say, tell me and I'll let you hijack the blog. :)

I had to share these pictures with everyone. They are my motivation for blogging.
On Abi's 1st birthday a couple weeks ago, Scott met me at a local park and we took pictures of the kids. I think they turned out great! Hopefully soon I will post more exciting things or pictures, but for now enjoy the children. Can't believe they're so big. Sigh.

My big 3 year old.

I crack up at this picture because he looks so posed-

like he should be the fake insert picture in a frame that you throw away :)

My sweet baby girl. Wow, can't believe she's 1!

Oh and by the way, the apple was a lifesaver.

The photo shoot would not have gone so smoothly without the apple.

I'm thankful that it fit in with their fall birthdays as well.

So, what are they up to? Caleb is still an active boy! He loves trucks and his verbal skills never cease to amaze us. The other day he described a toy as a "pricey digger." I am sure I never said that (seriously Scott)! And the best was probably this past week when he invented a new song. His Bible study class is practicing Christmas songs so the song originally goes, "Mary rode to Bethlehem on a little donkey." Well, he came out of the bathroom the other day with his pants down and I said, "Pull up your pants." "Oh mama, I don't have any underwear," he said. Then, "Oh I know... Mary rode to Bethlehem, without her underwear." Oh my, I don't know where he comes up with that stuff, but I am constantly laughing, and don't worry I did tell him that was not the way it should be sung in Bible study. :)

And Abigail. She is a sweet, demanding, cuddly, quick tempered little girl. We love her and enjoy watching the changes in her. She is walking- but only for candy. I know that sounds silly, but I'm serious. She will walk all over the room if you hold out an M & M. But the minute you put it away she sits down. Crazy! She is saying, Hi, bye, Mama, Dada, Moo, Uh oh. Every time someone walks into the room she will turn and look sweetly and say, "Hiii." It makes me smile every time.

Well, that's it for us. Naptime is about to be over. We are looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with A LOT of family!
Happy Thanksgiving!

The Babies Birthdays

Hey it's uncle Carl here (Caleb and Abi's aunt Caralyn but also called uncle carl...ask Rachel sometime.) Here are some pictures from their combined 1st and 3rd birthday party.

Getting ready to eat her little cupcake!

feeling a little shy at first...

...but then decides to dig in.

and Caleb got a new power drill.

Uncle Mark

Today is Uncle Mark's birthday and Abigail and I wanted to tell him HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Uncle Mark is in the army and just started a year long deployment to Iraq 2 weeks ago.

We miss you and can't wait until you come home again!

Notice how nicely I'm sitting and Abigail looks like she's about to escape. Girls!

This is the sign I made for Uncle Mark. Well, Mom put the words on it, but I colored some too.

I was so excited that it was your birthday and couldn't wait to celebrate with you, that is, until Mom told me that, "No we can't visit Uncle Mark." I don't understand why not because we took a trip to Ocean City this summer and that was fine, so why can't we go visit Uncle Mark?

Oh well.

Maybe if we leave Abigail behind we can, you know, because she cries in the car.

I also sang Happy birthday to you and I wanted to show you the video. I told Mom I could sing by myself, I know all the words, but she had to ruin it by singing over me.

Anyways, sorry about that!

Love, Caleb

summer fun with cousins

We have had several times to get together with cousins this summer and I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures.

Here's Caleb and Gabi in her jeep.
We went up to visit them in late June and they played so well together.
They both took turns driving each other up and down the street.
(Don't panic- it was a little dead end street with no traffic).

I love this picture! Gabi and Caleb had climbed into Abigail's crib and were pretending to be asleep. When I peeked at them with the camera this is what I saw. Thankfully, neither one of them noticed the camera until I had already taken the picture.

That would have been a disaster! :)

And onto another group of cousins... Caleb and Megan.
They also played well together.
We had a chance to spend time with them when they visited from NY in July.
I'm not sure what's happening in this picture, but they look like they're having fun.

Megan (4), Caleb (almost 3), Emma Kate (1), and Abigail (10 mo).
We tried to get some cute pictures for Granny, and even though they aren't all looking at the camera in any picture, they still look cute. I love their expressions. In this picture Emma's hand is on Abigail's head- this is seconds before she pushes her head down. :)

Our newest cousin, Andrew, was born August 6th. We can't wait to meet him! Next weekend big sister Gabi and his parents are coming down for a visit!!! :)

And, just because the last swimming video was a hit, ok and also because I'm a proud mama, here's another video of Caleb swimming. Check out this accomplishment!

My girl

These are some pictures I took of Abigail the end of July.

She turned 9 months old and started crawling all over the place.

On top of the world

A face we see quite frequently.

Are we in trouble or what?

look what i can do!

Yes, I know, it's been a while. This summer is flying by and I promise to go back and recap the vacations, fun times with cousins, and all the other memories.

But...

I must first be a proud mama for a minute and boast about my son.

I couldn't wait to get these pictures up for all to see.

Yesterday, at gramma and grampa's pool, Caleb decided that he could swim by himself. Scott and I were shocked at how our little fish jumped into the water and swam. It was really more of a doggy paddle, but who cares? :) He kept pushing our hands away as we would try to help him out. Oh my, a first big step toward independance...

Just Caleb and his swim belt!

He would jump into the pool and swim to the ladder (unassisted), climb out and jump in again!

Check out the joy on his face

The best was when he heard me tell my dad that he was incredible. Caleb replied with,

"Yes, I am incredible." :)

NO FEAR!

And here's a little video of my little man swimming! Great job Caleb!

Did you notice Abigail floating in her tube? I'll post some pics of her soon too! :)

A New tradition?

For my birthday this year I asked Scott if we could go to the beach for a day or 2- just the four of us. Of course, the beach being- Ocean City, Maryland! Where we have gone for years and love it. So, this past week we got a great price on a hotel room and were able to stay for 2 nights.

This is a picture of our room- notice Abigail down at the bottom, crying. She was so funny and cried when we put her down in the room the first couple times. I don't know if she thought we'd leave her or something.

The day we got there it was windy and a little chilly but she loved sitting in the sand.

Scott and Caleb had a great time digging and even went out when it was raining.

We went to the boardwalk one night and Caleb got to ride a couple of the rides. I think he rode 2 before we told him we only had a couple tickets left for 1 more ride. He thought a minute and then said, "Well, I think I'd just like to go play in the sand now." :) Scott says, at least he knows his limits.

Abigail had a good time in the stroller watching Caleb on the rides.

A family picture? Well, it's funny that neither of the kids are really looking- but oh well.

Our final day at the beach was warm and sunny!

Caleb got to jump in the waves. I think both Scott and I are thankful that he loves the water!

The indoor pool was nice too. Scott and I took turns taking Caleb to it when Abigail needed a break or a nap. Abigail and Caleb did great in the car which was a huge relief! It was such a fun time and we can't wait to go back in August with our families.

A lot to Celebrate!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband!

June 21

6 years ago we said, "I do" and were married.

7 years ago I said, "Are you kidding me? Yes, I'll marry you" and we got engaged.

10 years ago you said to my dad, "Rachel and I are just friends" and then kissed me that night! That was the start of our dating relationship.
Can you believe 10 years has gone by?

It's been wonderful for me and I can't wait to see what God has planned for us in the next 10 years. Thanks for being such a Godly man, terrific husband and incredible role model for our children.

On that note...

Happy Father's Day!

Thank you for all you do to provide for our family. We are so thankful for all the sacrifices you make and the ways you meet our needs. You make each one of us feel so special and we can't wait for you to come home from work each day. It is a joy to raise our children together and watch them grow.

On that note...

Happy 8 month birthday, Abigail!

You really have turned into our little joy (as your name so redundantly points out). :) You are sleeping great now, about 12 hours a night and 2 long naps during the day! You always have a smile and a laugh for your big brother and love getting Daddy's attention by "yelling" at him. Though you have been able to sit up on your own for a while now, you have shown no effort to crawl. A fact that makes us all laugh as we wonder when you'll do that. :) You love to eat and will gobble up ANYTHING we give you. We are so thankful for you!

I think that concludes the list of celebrations.
Happy Father's Day to all the fathers!