The Growing Caldwell Family

Here she is sporting her goth look!  Actually, it's black icing on a Halloween cookie.  Her serious look and the black tinted lips give me a scary glimpse at her teenage years! Tonight we are going trunk-or-treating! 

She is such a little pumpkin!

Five years ago Aaron and I got married. In many ways our life is very different and so much more wonderful than we imagined it could be when we first said our vows. I think this is probably evidenced by what we consider a great weekend. 1. Friday night we had dinner at Chipotle and discovered SG likes quesadilla 2. Music Together is a highlight of our weekend 3. Lucy had her stitches removed and is cleared for full activity 4. We bought a new car for Aaron Yep, we are now proud owners of a Jetta TDI Sportswagon! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

She got so tickled anticipating me tickling her.  I love to watch her expressive little eyebrows!

Dear Sarah Graves, I can't tell you how much fun you are.  You are bursting with energy and really enjoying being your own person.  You are so loving and give affection so freely.  You come up and just hug us or pat us to let us know how you feel.  It is so cute to see you love us with the same fierceness that I love you.  Music class has really encouraged you to find your voice for singing.  You sing often.  You sing the la-la-la-la-la portion of Elmo's song and the simple sounds of another song that we learned at Music Together.  You move with rhythm, clap along with beats, and love to dance!  I never dreamed that you would get so much out of music class.  It really is the highlight of our week.  You really enjoy going to school.  Whenever I mention going to school, you always talk about babies and shoes.  You refer to all kids as babies and you seem to have a fondness for a little boy named Chase.  He is the only child in your class that you mention by name.  You proudly wa

Grancy has been learning to sew and this is her first project for Sarah Graves.  As you can see, Sarah Graves likes this sweet dress!

 Without any prompting she started posing for pictures.  I tried and tried to get her to pose at the pumpkin patch and she wouldn't, then she sees a pumpkin at our house and starts modeling for us! 

I never take as many people pictures as I mean to at parties.  I did get a few and Jeanne' grabbed the camera and snapped a few too, but I now realize that we mostly captured a couple of select party goers.  This is our neighbor, Mason.  He and SG are fine together, but it's his older brother, Davis, that SG just adores.  She runs up to him and gives him hugs.  He likes her pretty well too.  I think I have mentioned SG's friend, Mia, before.  SG just adores this child and is so excited to see her!  She refers to her as baby and gets so sad when baby has to leave.  When you're only one, big open-mouthed kisses are okay in front of everyone! Mia and her mom, Natalie. 

Our Halloween party was inspired by all things found on Pinterest!   If you aren't on Pinterest, you should definitely check it out.  I am very addicted to it.  Here are some of the cute things that we did for the party and by we I mean Jeanne', Aaron, Mom, and me.  Jeanne' did some baking, Aaron was a huge help with cooking and party preparations, and Mom came Saturday to help me do all the last minute details and loaned us some party items.  I seem to be good at coming up with these ideas and organizing, but I couldn't pull it off without a lot of help.  I found these printables for a Halloween banner and matching bottle labels.  They were so easy for Aaron and me to put together and I thought they turned out cute.  I did these ghost cookies using Nutter Butters.  The candy coating made them taste quite yummy! These are my iced sugar cookies.  I spend forever icing them, but I was pleased with how they turned out.  Jeanne' made cupcakes with owl faces and som

We hosted a Halloween party at our house yesterday and this year we all dressed up!  Aaron and Lucy dressed as a pair going as Steve and Blue from the show Blue's Clues.  Lucy's closet came complete with floppy ears and a tail!  Aaron wanted to be authentic so he researched where Steve on the show got his shirt and purchased the real one. Sarah Graves and I had matching costumes.  I saw this idea for a cute ghost costume for her and decided it would be perfect.  My main criteria for perfection was that it was comfortable for her to wear and did not require wearing anything on her head.  That means happiness for her and peace for me!  Lovie appliqued the shirts with the ghost face and Aunt Nay taught me how to make a tutu.  Daddy and his girls!

We have had some cool weather this week and it gave us an opportunity to break out some fall outfits that Lovie made.  Lovie has learned to applique and we are excited for these cute girl things.  I don't know how to sew and would like to learn, but in the meantime, I appreciate all the sweet people that make these darling things for her!

She loves to be outside and a Sunday afternoon made a great time to get out and enjoy the nice weather. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the O You! conference.  I was already familiar with some of the speakers like Dr. Oz and Suze Orman, but was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed others like Martha Beck and Susan Casey.  Martha Beck is a psychologist and spoke a lot about finding your passion.  She used some great examples and her ideas about it lined up perfectly with how Oprah described knowing what her passion was.  We had been told that Oprah would be at the event, but I didn't expect for her to speak for an hour!  She spoke openly about her new network and some of the challenges of getting it going.  She told stories about how she knew she had a purpose in life and never dreamed it would be speaking to people on TV.  She spoke from the heart and spoke about God and how that has been her guide.  She also took questions from people in the audience and addressed concerns about fear of failure, how to inspire others, and how to know your purpose versus a desire for fame.  We had su

The O you! Show is in Atlanta this year and lucky for me Mom wanted to celebrate her birthday coming here! We got here early and are seated on the third row! All of Oprah's friends are going to be here! We are ready to get started! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ms. Margaret Ann sent us these darling Halloween outfits.  I just LOVE the orange and black one!  SG loves all things yellow, so you know which one is her pick!  I am so thankful for all the cute things sewn for her.  We are getting excited for Halloween!  Through the help of my Mom and Jeanne', SG's Halloween costume is ready.  However, we may have a little confusion about the holiday.  Several weeks ago I told her about Santa Claus and how he says, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"  I figured I would start working it in and by Christmas she would probably have the idea.  Well much to my surprise, she took to Santa Claus immediately and started saying, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"  The only problem is that she also thinks pumpkins say, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"  We walk into any store with a Halloween display and she excitedly points and shouts, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"  The worst part is that pumpkins don't really make a sound, so it's hard to correct her.  I have taught her that g

 Last Saturday we headed to the pumpkin patch.  Uncle Shuck's to be exact.  We had to work our visit in around music class and LSU football, so we were there in the middle of the day, which made for some harsh light for photos.  She had a fabulous time running around all the pumpkins and just being free in such a big space!  She gets very focused and determined when she is running around, so she looks more serious in a lot of these pictures.  She also didn't like being asked to sit still for me to take her picture!  I guess after a year a half of being photographed repeatedly, you get a little tired of it.  Aunt Nay joined us for music class and our trip to the pumpkin patch.  It was helpful to have an extra child wrangler!  Sarah Graves loved having someone to ride next to her.  Last year she got car sick on our way to a pumpkin patch, so we chose one not quite so far out this time.   She looks so grown up in this picture!  It just breaks my heart that she isn't a