The Growing Caldwell Family

After a day of Black Friday shopping we came back together for spaghetti and meatballs and cake to celebrate Pops' birthday! SG very sweetly made Pops a chocolate cake with peanut butter cream icing! It was quite yummy! After dinner the kids gave a karaoke performance before we turned on football!  

  We got together ahead of Thanksgiving to help Pops celebrate his 70th birthday! The kids love to assist with opening the gifts. I was so excited with this gift idea! A cutting board with Maw Maw Bourgeois' crawfish jambalaya recipe inscribed on it.  Glad we could all be together to celebrate an awesome Dad and Pops!

Lovie and Pops have officially moved and we are looking forward to more visits with them.  Saturday night they were still moving everything from their old house, but made a stop here to bring us some things and took time to visit.  SG thoroughly enjoyed doing a puzzle with Pops!  So glad to have the chance to see them more easily on the weekends and during the week, too!

Yesterday we made the trip to Baton Rouge so that our sweet boy could be baptized with his extended family around him.  I was nervous about making the drive with two little ones, but my parents helped out and it worked okay. Mom and Dad drove me and the kids so that I could sit in the third row seat and be their personal driving assistant.  Charlie seemed to do better being able to see a face and Sarah Graves liked having me there to read to her, set up her iPod, and get the iPad for her.   We made several stops for snacks, potty break, and nursing.  Sarah Graves loves going into the gas station and picking something out with Pops! Aaron left after work and made the trip quickly by himself.  He didn't seem disappointed not to ride with an infant and toddler. Probably the best entertainment for her was watching the season of Caillou that I downloaded and put on the iPad.  She loves that show and it seems to relax her.   We were really late ...

We had a fun filled Saturday!  Sarah Graves and I got our day started by baking some zucchini bread.  We made it with zucchinis that we grew and what a tasty treat!   Then, we headed over to Lovie and Pops to go swimming.  SG tried out her new floaties and loved the independence.  She watched some older girls jumping off the side of the pool in the deep end and got the idea to try it herself.  Next thing you know, she is on the side of the pool counting to herself like the girls were and then she would get up the courage to jump!  She didn't love going under, but she didn't mind it too much.   She had a great time playing in the pool with Lovie and Pops.  She would get out to get a bite of her snack and tell Pops to save her seat.  It was quite cute! After swimming she had a special treat, a big bowl of ice cream!  This kid is crazy about ice cream and asks for it from the moment she wakes up until she goes to ...

 We spent our last fully day at the beach much like the others.  That afternoon while SG slept, Mom and I went and did some shopping at the outlets.  We mostly looked at things for the kids.  I was intending to buy mostly for Chubby, but there is so much cute girl stuff that I found some things for SG, too! When we came back, we took SG out for some pretty girl pictures on the beach.  I am so in love with this kid and you can tell by the fact that I could only narrow it down to these pictures! While we took pictures, Pops and Daddy were making a yummy dinner to eat outside!  She loves to eat outside! After dinner, she sat in Lovie's lap and cuddled with her a while.  That is a rarity for SG to sit for long, so you have to soak it up when it happens!

On our third day Grandaddy and Me Me had to leave to go home.  We had a lazy morning with breakfast and lots of sticker fun!  Me Me was covered with stickers from SG!  After we said goodbye, we hit the beach again.   We have heard that some children like to take naps on the beach, so we got our princess all set up for a snooze, but she was too excited. Even Baby Kate made it out to the beach! She was so delighted with herself that she found a tiny sand crab.  She proudly showed it off to everyone. She found some bubbles and had so much fun trying to make bubbles. We went out swimming and she had a great time playing in the waves!  Pops and Lovie showed her how to get on the boogie board and bounce on the waves. Of course, the pool was a hit too.  She had a good time jumping off the side and didn't mind her face getting wet.  

After a full day at the beach, a nap, and everyone cleaning up, we were ready to go to dinner.  We made a quick trek to the beach for some photos.   This is Sarah Graves with her "camera".  She uses it at Lovie and Pops' house to take pictures and they brought it to the beach for her.   We headed to Louisiana Lagniappe for dinner and SG and Grandaddy passed the wait for our table by feeding the fish and the ducks.  So glad that she had a chance to make these sweet memories with them.