Happy Baby and Merry Christmas!!

I wanted to get this logged for the future delights of my chilluns.

This is our beyouchus Baby Birth Announcement.

If you didn't get one I'm so sorry. I sooooo didn't order enough.

And here is my awkward/turrible attempt at a christmas card. Used publisher. oh well.
Going to try and send these out electronically through the world wide web.
Merry Christmas!

Blood Moon Rising.

Absolutely amazing. We had something occur last night - a blood moon on a winter soltice- that hasn't occured in over 400 years, and won't occur again for at least another 100. Missed it? Check out this time-lapsed video:

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Happy 3 Mos, You Little Pickle.

Dearest Pickle Pants,

Happy 3 month birthday. You are my happy little slice of sunshine. You have grown and changed SO much this past month!

* You have TOTALLY found your fingers. And methinks they taste like chicken to you, cuz you LOVES to be stickin' em all up in yo mouth. :)

* You have gotten silly silly when you nurse. Let's just say you get distracted and try to cartwheel out of my arms.

*You don't fit sideways in your crib anymore!! You are too tall so we have to make you sleep diagonally. :)

* You like to have sing-offs with Mommy. We don't know yet if God gave you a voice, but he cetainly has given you the pipes!

* You laughed for the first time over Thanksgiving! It was a full out, serious laugh. LOVED it. Normally you have the shreik down, but this was a hearty girly laugh.

* With just the teeniest amount of help, you are FINALLY starting to try and roll over. We think you are going to be jogging before you like to be on your tummy.

We had an amazing Austin-Thanksgiving with Ryan's parents in early November. Cue seriously awesome Nixon photo shoot. Thanks to MW, our amazing photog, and you know you know you want to see the Christmas pics.

A Momma and her two loves.

Big Daddy and His Great Grand.

My Mommy and Me.

The whole fam!

Get. this. flower. off. my. head.

jeff and riley. 2 of the most photogenic men I know. :)

Daddy and his girl.

And then Thanksgiving Mac-Style at Firewater Ranch with ALLLLL the Macfarlan Family. My heart just got filled up to overflowing catching up with all my cousins and their cute spouses. Those pics to come next. :)

FALSE ALARM!!!!

Wahoo!!! The beeeyotch is NOT pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO puppies were had over the break.

Kenna is getting BACK to NORMAL!

Ok, I know you are asking, "Calpal, how in the free world can you be mistaken that your dog was pregnant?"

Promise kiddos, she had ALL the signs. But, apparently dogs can go into a 'false pregnancy,' and all the physical symptoms of pregnancy can STILL be happening!!!
Weird! If you want to know more, you can read about it here. <- BTW almost ALL of those were happening. Well, praise the Lord and Glory-Be for no un-wanted pregginess. To those of you who were actually interested in one of the puppies, I have two things to say:

1) Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
2) Shame on you for liking ugly pups. :)

With a heart that's thankful, and a dog that is NOT a single parent.....
I'm out.

Dear Kenna, You Are a Hussy.

So, I think my dog is pregnant.

Yes, you heard me, pregnant.

Yes, my one-and-a-half-year-old dog is pregnant.

This precious beautiful little puppy, once just a little chocolate bug sitting on my lap, may have lost her innocence.


AND IT'S ALL MY FAULT.
The story you ask? Sit down, young padawans, and I'll tell you a fetching fable.

Once there was a dog whose owners were the greatest owners in the WORLD! They took her on walks every day, ran with her, took her to the park, their ranch, Colorado, and gave her so much love she thought she would burst.

Then one day, everything started changing.

There was a new puppy in town. She wasn't brown and furry like Kenna the dog, she was bald all over except on her head. She didn't do ANYTHING. She couldn't even walk, and mom had to carry her everywhere. She cried at night, during the WHOLE day, and all times in between. She took up so much of her parents' time crying, sometimes Kenna's mom would forget to feed her or let her out to go to the bathroom. :( So one day, when the yard men left the side gate open, and mom let Kenna out (without her normal watchful supervision) to go to the bathroom during her special time, she knew to run for all she was worth!

45 minutes, a screaming baby in the car, and a terrified mother later, she was found. Was it a compassionate, loving neighbor that picked up the beloved pup? Nay, it was a full-blown animal rights activist. With her firey red hair blowing in the September Texas wind, she told Callie and her mother the following:

-"She's SOOOO thin"

- How can you have a un-spayed dog running around in the neighborhood when there are SO many dogs in the world and over 4 MILLION are put down every year!

-I was emailing around trying to find out whose dog it is!!

- I imposed upon my gracious neighbor to keep your dog in their back yard.

- She has been back their hanging out with their American PIT BULL, Tito.

Errrrrkkkkkk!

Her AMERICAN PITBULL? Now, I was gone by this time, to go satiate the screaming baby. Mom quickly scooped up Kenna and left.

She went back by later, and gently asked if Mr. Frito the American Pitbull was neutered.

Mrs. Animal Right's Activist choked on every last word she had admonished us with.

"Oh.... you know..... that is a GREAT question... perhaps I should find that out."

Well folks, I've been by 2 more times and STILL haven't heard.

And my dog grows by the day. Sigh, alas, anon.

If anyone is in the market for some pit-bull-lab puppies.................

Call me. We'll see - she's due over Thanksgiving week. What a Christmas present for you and your family to enjoy!!!!! Go google pit lab puppies. A-Dor-Able. (I'm lying.)

and yes, they will BE FREE.

This is how Kenna sleeps. How can you resist this adorableness?

PLEASE BUY OUR PITBULL LAB PUPPIES.

Happy 2 Months Baby Davey!

Happy Two Month Birthday Sweet Davey Cate!!!!

Oh my goodness child, there has been so much going on this last month! What a joy you have been! You are expressive, vibrant, you smile so very easily. You have a hundred different faces that have been burned into my mind forever. Like your, "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?" face, you curious face, your 'on your way to angry' face, and you "I'm there" angry face. You have a curious face, a happy face, a hungry face, and you are consistently delighted at your initials hanging from the tree branch in your room. They hold a wonder in your eyes that your momma can't even touch. :)

Other Milestones for Your Two Months of Livin':

* You are the bomb at holding your head up.

* You have kind of started learning how to put yourself to sleep! Perhaps your mommy stalk-watches you on the 'night-vision' monitor and watch as you slowly...close...your eyes..... :)

* You are so much more alert in your awake time. You LOVE your Ocean Baby Einstein (Thank you community group gals!)

* You poo less during the day. Sometimes you don't even poo at all! This was surprising to me. Then I read it was normal (you'll thank me when you go back and read this blog at age 13.) Whew.

* Surprisingly, your mommy likes to stick bows on your head. Who. stinkin. knew.

* You moved to your big girl crib this week. I was nervous you wouldn't transition well, then on your 4th night, YOU SLEPT FOR 7 HOURS STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your mom freaked out and was WILDLY blessed.

* You got some shots today. Let's just say, you didn't like 'em. Let's also say, you screamed for about 3 hours today. Mad mad. Kinda took me back to the refluxy days. Thankfully our friends LP and AR were here to love on your crazy mother while she worried about you. :)

And Oh, The Places You'll Go.

We have been so many places and seen so many things this month! You spent most of your time at the State Fair asleep, but at least we went! Woo Hoo! Get yer Fletchers' corney dog on.

That's me. And You. Asleep. :)

Mommy and Sloan at the Amazing Dog show.

Davey being Presh.

Even though you were sleeping, Mommy won you a fish! Go balloon darts!

Unkay, so maybe we went out to the ranch last week. And MAYBE I took along the little boots your T-Party bought you when she was in Montana in August. And MAYBE I put you in your newborn Davey Catherine onesie and we had a little photo shoot. Of course, in true diva fashion, the props got more ridiculous as the photo shoot went on. First pics boots only...

Then we progressed to a cowboy hat added....

Howdy Ya'll. The hat now needs to be ON.

Le Artistic shot. :)

And the grand poo-pa, added boots and lasso for final amazing cow girl look.

And I'm ridiculous but it was so much fun.

Then, the other weekend we went to a "Fall Fun Festival" with some buddies in Richardson. This is KM's little dream baby. She's a bute, Clark. And of course we had to dress Davey up in her first of her many 'outfits for all occasions,' and she looked A.Dor.Able. See Daddy below looking attractive holding my baby.

Family pic. Love my baby.

This week we went to the Dallas Arboretum. Good gracious. Pumpkins and flowers and children O my! There are so many tizite things going on there - I just wish Davey was old enough to understand any of it! (Not really. I love EACH stage. I could just hear the nay-sayers creeping in "Oh now Callie, EVERY life stage is beyyoooootiful.") Anyhoo, I had this sad conviction about the face that I had taken maybe a total of 5 pictures with my daughter in her 8 weeks of life. So dag nabit, we had ourselves a proper photo shoot. Some she was cooperative, some not. :) OBVI.

Below: not.

Below: TOTALLY.

On her "Davey" blanket.

"Sigh, a diva's work is NEVER done."

I just pooted. And I'm happy about it. Deal.

The age-old, pumpkin propped pics. :)

"Mommy, I'm slipping....."

Huge thanks to HT for being so amazing at pic-taking.

Darling little girl,

It's been an amazing two months. You grow more beautiful with every day. What a blessing you are to us, and I pray you continue to grow "strong in the Lord and in His mighty power" (Eph 6:10). May you fall recklessly and hopelessly in love with our Savior one day, and may his face shine down upon you - may you rely on Him one day as fully and fearlessly as you do on your mom and dad.

Lord, thanks for loaning us this one. This is going to be good.

Almost 7 weeks...the Sunshine Has Come.

Sweet Friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers over the last weeks. Like I said before, I have literally felt beautifully upheld by them. I haven't posted because we have been having so much flippin' fun! Ryan and I were on a walk yesterday, and we were talking about the character quality of God we are seeing most right now, and my immediate answer was His compassion and His kindness. It is so good. It leads me to repent of my wretched pridefulness, my ruthless arrogance, and my constant determination to try and do things on my own.

Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Psalm 143:8 (ESV)

God is good. Not just because He answers our cries for help, but because of Who He Is, and What He has Already Done. Oh how many times throughout his word He asks us to remember that! Ryan is speaking on Tuesday Oct 26th at the Porch at Watermark again, and it's mostly on that truth. I won't ruin it, but there will be an amazing surprise in there that you won't want to miss. For those out of range, I'll post the video after it comes out. :) If you missed His last talk, you can catch it here. I can be pretty unbiased (ask Ryan how much he likes my 'constructive feedback' at times :), but my Mr. Man was anointed by the Holy Spirit when he was talking this night. Blessed my little socks off.

Davey Update:

She's off Zantac, and only on Prevacid now. The last week I have affectionately called, "The Week of Davey Awesomeness." In one week, homegirl has...

- Become incredibly expressive! Smiling, laughing, much much cooing (Praise God!)

- CONTENT! She likes to lay on the couch after I feed her in the morning just kick kick kicking, wiggling, and all around making me LOVE her.

- Put herself on a schedule - ish! Whoever came up with the first 'schedule', I guarantee was a stinkin' BABY. She likes to be kind of in a little routine. She eats in the morning, play plays for an hour or 1 1/2 hrs, then promptly starts whiny crying cuz she's tired and wants to take a nap. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. :) WAHOO!! Amazing. Actually, at times when you pull her OFF her schedule, (cue pick up parents from Africa at airport during 'naptime'), and CRAZY crying ensues. However, TOTALLY handleable and not at all like before.

Once in a fit of insanity and wanting to prove to our pediatrician that we weren't crazy, I recorded her 'refluxy cry', and considered posting it, but then decided that was amazing cruel... both to her AND the ones that would hear it.

So again, amazing and thankful for your prayers, and blessed to have a baby whose head smells like sunshine and whose smile makes me feel like I can take on the world. :)

The progressive Smile :)

Little Bit...

More....

Many Much Smile!!

And some Daddy Time.

"Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise you..." Ps 63