Happy Thanksgiving!

I haven't taken too many new pictures since Caleb's first birthday so I don't have any extras to put in this post!

Lately we have just been busy getting ready for the holiday season! Andy is away hunting now and we just celebrated Thanksgiving with his family. We also got to celebrate cousin Charlie's first birthday too! I finally finished Caleb's baby book and now it's on to the ever dauting task of making our Christmas cards...

I absolutely love Christmas cards! I love making them, I love getting them, I love hanging them up during the Christmas season! Every year I manage to spend tons of time trying to take a great picture and looking for the perfect card to send to all our loved ones. This year I'm going to try out Tiny Prints. I have seen other people use this company and their cards are always so cute!

http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm

i LOVE Tiny Prints Christmas card designs and the variety of options. I haven't made my card yet, but it seems that the site is to use and all the Tiny Prints cards I have seen are great quality!

So keep an eye out for our Christmas card in your mailbox...I know the card will be cute, hopefully we can get a photo worthy enough! :) It's hard to do with a squirmy 1 year old!

Happy Halloween!

Caleb dressed up as a pirate for Halloween...here are a few photos showing off his outfit!

(we learned that Caleb is not fond of sitting in leaves)

Caleb has also been practicing his walking...here is a video demonstration...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIo6QBqfqZw

Caleb is a ONE year old!

I can not believe how fast the last year has gone. Everyone warned me about how fast it would go but I don't think anyone could prepare me for it! Needless to say this post will be all about Caleb's birthday celebrations!

On his birthday weekend we had a celebration with my family...pirate themed...

And Caleb loved his cake! He tried to get every last morsel of frosting.

No birthday celebration is complete without presents!

The weekend before we celebrated with Andy's family in Wisconsin.

Grandma Gail made Caleb an Elmo cake!

He loved this cake too!

Quick swig of milk to wash all that sugar down.Opening presents with cousin Evan and Andy

Caleb had a wonderful 1st birthday and thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes!

Once again I have neglected my blogging responsibilities for far too long!

I'll pick up where I last left off in the middle of July. Andy, Caleb, and I took a trip to nearby Oxbow Park to see how camping would go. It went really well! We were able to do some hiking and Caleb had a great time watching the fire and slept really well in the tent...probably better than me actually.

Here is Andy and Caleb on the hike.

Caleb, Rocco, and I hanging out at our camp site.
Caleb sleeping in the tent!


We also were able to take a short day trip and hike at Frontenac State park with my dad and sister too. There were really nice views of the river valley!
We have been able to get together with Andy's family a couple of times. We had our Hoffman Extravaganza part II in Minnesota (I have no pictures) and headed to Andy's hometown for a family reunion.

Here is Caleb, Andy, Caleb's Grandma and Caleb's Great Grandma!
Caleb and his cousin Charlie had a great time playing together!

Caleb has been working hard on crawling (here is the best photo of him I could snap!) He really moves around now from place to place.
And he loves "walking" around!

Now that he can move around so much I think he likes to move just to show us that he can. No matter how I put him to sleep in his crib he always ends up in some peculiar spot!
Caleb has always been a good eater...but now that he has learned to feed himself and is eating more solid food he really is enjoying himself. Here he is consuming cottage cheese!
Around the house we have been working on some landscaping which proved to be much harder than we both thought it would be. My dad got me a HDTV antena for my birthday, so we'll be working on installing that. We also have to finish up picking the last of our produce from our veggie garden.

June & Most of July

Once again I slipped into a non-blogging rut, but here I am ready to jump back at it. We have been so busy so far this summer (the main reason I haven't made more frequent updates). We have been enjoying the warm summer weather by being outdoors as much as possible. When we get a chance we go swimming at my parents house...

...or enjoy the baby pool at our house.Here is Grandpa and Caleb with their matching hats!

Early in June we headed to Andy's home town to do some camping. Unfortunately it was too rainy to camp but we did get some hiking in!
Later in June we traveled to Canada for a family reunion. Caleb got to meet many family members he had not met yet including his great-grandpa Ben! Here is the 4 generation photo!
Most of the cousins! (plus Caleb)
In the month of July we made it to 3 baseball games! #1 was Milwaukee Brewers vs. Minnesota Twins game (in MN)This was Calebs first ever MLB game.
During this month we have also been working on installing a french drain to help with drainage issues in our back yard. Dad drove his tractor over to help us with the trench digging.


Baseball game #2 was a Brewers game in Milwaukee (vs. the Reds) with Andy's family. Here are some of the boys tailgating before the game.
Here are the 4 Hoffman cousins-such a cute bunch of boys!
And the last baseball game was a Rochester Honkers game with my family!That is most of the major stuff we have been up to in the last month and a half! We hope you are enjoying your summer!

Memorial Day Weekend

Since we had an action packed Memorial Day Weekend, I decided to dedicate a whole post to it!

Friday evening we had dinner with some friends. Saturday morning we planted our veggie garden (hopefully it survives!) Later in the day Caleb's cousin Charlie came for a visit!

Here are the two boys hanging out in the swing together... ...and just playing


Then on Sunday we had a Partridge Drive softball game and cookout! Caleb got to swing again this time with his buddy Garrett...

...and share a wagon ride!
Caleb wishing he could eat Austin's dinner rather than play with an empty cup

I have no picture evidence of Mondays festivites, but we took a nice long 9 mile bike ride around town...and then hit up yet another barbeque!

We had such a fun weekend! We hope you did too!

Life in May so far...

Well I don't have a whole lot to write about but I wanted to post a few pictures from the last few weeks so here they are...

Caleb's new interest is standing...it is a guaranteed smile when he can stand!

Playing out on the deck
Working on using a sippy cup and eating puffs
Here are Caleb's top two teeth!
At the park
Out for a bike ride...we love the Chariot!