Birthday Boy!!!

Happy 6th birthday, not-my-baby-anymore Caleb!

This is my sweet boy on his way to D-Land with Daddy, Audrey, and Josh.

He's been celebrating his birthday all week in Kindergarten as the Star of the Week. I'll highlight him here, too.

I call Caleb my "miracle baby." He had RSV when he was 4 weeks old, and was VERY sick. I thought we might lose him. I'm SO grateful for the amazing boy he is, and also grateful for the reminder of how fragile life is and how blessed we are to have him (and each of my kiddos) with us.

No matter what time of day, Caleb is never too far from his baby sister. He loves her company so much that even inconsolable crying doesn't discourage him. I have to pry Abbey away from him, thanking him for being such a good big brother and that we'll try again later :)

I have to add that the dog was a reward for suffering through 2 hours at Goodwill while I shopped for my latest craft hobby. The stuffed bunny Joshy is flying in the background was his reward. That was a LONG afternoon :)

This is Caleb's first pet, Jack. Caleb won a goldfish at a Chinese Branch activity last Spring- actually, he won 3 of them. Between the three kids, we had over 20 goldfish. I didn't have long to wonder what we'd do with them all, though, as we killed most of them the first night, then all but one of Caleb's the next night. The main culprit was TAP WATER. Caleb named the survivor "Jack" and began keeping him in filtered water.

A month later, we went out of town and left Jack in the care of a neighbor friend, who conscientiously changed his cloudy water with water from her tap. When we arrived home, she was in a panic! She confessed that she killed our fish, but had had her husband run to Petco to buy a new one. I think he even took the expired one with him to find a good match:) Caleb could tell that his fish had changed in appearance but didn't care to find out why-- he was so glad to just have a living thing of his own to care for. For which I was grateful. I was all fish-funeral-ed out!

Caleb loves to draw! Here is one of his recent creations. It's Harry Potter riding on a broomstick.

Here he is playing "rock, paper, scissors" with his best buddy Grant. Grant was an answer to many desperate Mommy-prayers this Fall. He's a sweet little boy from a great family, and he and Caleb are inseparable. Grant also happens to be a model, which has provided great encouragement for Caleb letting me help him get ready for school (comb his hair, pick clothes that match, look like he has a mother...)

Caleb is a one-friend kind of guy. From the time

that Caleb could understand what a friend was, his one and only friend was Simeon. Other buddies were okay, but when he had a choice, his companion was always Simmy. And that worked out great, because his mom was my best friend, too :)

Their family fit ours perfectly and Justin and I would swap babysitting with them every week for date night. Kelly and I had each other's back for childcare, walking buddy, last minute dinner ingredients, and moral support for any current trial. Having a fourth baby so far from my Mom and sisters seemed a lot less daunting with Kelly there to lean on. Alas, they moved to Idaho quite suddenly and rocked our world! I am so grateful for the turn of events, for their sake, though. They've been blessed with lots of family nearby, a new home that has room for their beautiful family, and stable work for Kelly's wonderful hubby, Roger. In this great family, we also said goodbye to Audrey's bff, Rory and Joshy's buddy JT (also named Joshua, but nicknamed largely to avoid confusion when with our family). We love you, Titmi!