Caleb Isaiah Secrest

Last week Dustin took a trip to Montana by himself to pick up his drums. He had a full drum set which he sold a year ago or so. However he kept his snare drum and symbols. Shortly after he got home he pulled out the drum for the kids to see. Both the boys loved it! Caleb remembered drumming when he was younger. The next day Dustin was scheduled to play in worship at a friends church. He has not played in the 3 years that we have lived in WA. So I took the boys to watch him practice. They loved it!! Caleb remembered again that he used to see his daddy drum all the time. At first he sat and watched them (the worship team) play. After a few minutes he decided to get some energy out. So every time Dustin would drum loud Caleb would run around the room stopping as soon as Dustin stopped drumming. When I told him that we had to leave he was very sad. It was so fun to watch the boys be so captivated by their dad. I added in a pictures of Caleb when he was a year and half old. It was his first time drumming and was so precious!

Caleb has always had a number of faces that he has done but I realized the other day that he has slowed down a bit. Then he pulled this one out and I thought I would share it with you. It is not a new one really but it is so cute.

Over the last few weeks we have been making forts in the house with what ever we have. It has been really fun and I thought I would share a few pics of the different forts that we have made. Caleb likes to take his flashlight in the fort get it totally dark and just use the flashlight. He does get a little annoyed with his brother who likes to just go in and out of them but he still has a good time. There are more pictures on Ezra's site.

Tonight when I was tucking Caleb into bed we had the following conversation. I thought it was so cute I wanted to share it with you.
"Mom when I move out are you going to stay in this house, or what ever house." "When are you going to move out?" I ask "When I am bigger, like 21." He replies matter a factly "I will be so sad when you leave me!" I said sadly "Mom! I will send you something so that you know I love you." "Oh well if you are goin to do that then I guess it's ok." I said with relief "You know what I am going to send you?" "No." "I am going to get a chainsaw and cut out a cross and send it to you. That way you will know that I love you!"

A couple weeks ago we had spaghetti noodles for lunch. They boys were having so much fun while eating I had to capture some of the fun.

Caleb wanted to paint the other day, for the first time in a while. So we pulled out the paints. It was really fun to watch him at work. As he finished he sat back and declared, "My Masterpiece!". I had to share it with you all cause why not!

Caleb of course loves christmas. What's not to love when you are 5? He was of course counting down the days from about 20 days out. His daily saying was "Mom, can we please have christmas today!? I just can't wait!!" He had a great time. He loved his gifts and of course loved opening them. Christmas Eve they opened a joint gift which Caleb has enjoyed more than Ezra. It was a soccer set. Caleb has loved kicking it into the net. He has such determination. It is so precious.

A week or so before Christmas we went to the Botanical Gardens near where we live. During the Christmas season they make the garden in lights. It is really beautiful! We didn't know how fun it would be when we decided to go but it was great. Caleb really liked it cause they had a checklist of animals that you had to find while walking through the garden. They had everything including an octopus, spider, butterflies, a slug, a bunny, frogs, a swan, peacocks, and many more. Caleb's favorite was the spider. It was huge!

For "Candy Day" this year (what we call Halloween) Caleb had a hard time deciding what he wanted to be. At first he wanted to be Batman but then decided that he did not like super heros that much. So then we were left with only about 3 days to figure out a costume. So we had to come up with something that involved a cardboard box. I have figured out that I can make a lot of things out of a box. So he decided that he wanted to be Mater. So I go the vision of how to make it happen and thought he was so cute that I would share the pics. He has a little friend at school who invited him to a harvest party at his church so we all went. It was a huge party. They had two large rooms filled with large bouncy houses, so many games that I lost count, and tons of activities. Ezra had a great time too but you will have to check out his site to hear about it. It was really fun and Caleb loved that he got to enjoy it with is little friend. We then went to downtown Bothell to 'trick or treat' at the business there. After that we had to go show off the kids to our dear friends the Morrisons. It has become a tradition that we go around their neighborhood as we know it is safe. Caleb got more candy than any 5 year old needs but had an amazing time and made all the time and effort that went into the costume worth it.

As some of you know Caleb loves for me to read to him. He loves books like Charlottes Web. The long ones that take a few days to read. He will sit for an hour and listen to the story and often ask for more. I am often amazed that he will sit for that long to listen to a story that has very few pictures and yet he knows all the details of the story. We have started to work on his reading books. He has been interested since the summer in reading and has often asked us to help him with words. He is starting to get so much faster at recognizing the words and the sounds of the letters. His school will start teaching them to read in January and though I do not think he is ahead of the game I do think he will throughly love it! Unfortunately I do not have a picture, however i will find a cute one to throw in here soon.