Merry Christmas!

Here's a recent shot from a visit to Erik's parents' home - Courtney, Caleb, Erik, Dave (Erik's older brother), and the dogs. Merry Christmas from the Stroms!

Grandparents

Now you get to see the proud grandparets!

The two little cousins are wearing matching outfits from Gramma and Pappa, Kira is proudly sporting her Red Sox pajamas and holding on to "Lumpy". As you can see Jenna and Caleb are really enjoying getting to know eachother! They do say that babies love putting things in their mouths, so why would that exclude heads?! We had so much fun with erin and jim...we miss you guys.

Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas with the Condaps on Wednesday. Mom cooked a great meal and we opened some presents together. Since we were all together we had to get a family photo, so here we are...not so easy to get all those little ones to look at the camera at the same time!

The Uncles.

Here are the proud uncles!

Colby and Kyle love their little neices and nephew. Jenna is 4.5 months old, Caleb is 3 months old, and Kira is almost 3 years old. Colby really enjoys getting Kira to wear his crazy thrift store clothes. Kira was all about the silly faces.

Tummy Time

Caleb is getting really good at lifting up his head. We spend time each day on our tummy to strengthen those neck muscles. I just realized that he likes to lay on the couch better than the floor. We can't wait for him to figure out how to roll over. He is obviously loving his tummy time and as usual he is drooling away (we actually caught this drool mid drip!)

The Condaps come to Chicago

We have had a busy weekend spending lots of time with Calebs cousins! Erin, Jim, Kira and Jenna came in on Friday to celebrate Christmas a little early. All the kids and grandkids will be together on Wednesday for the big Christmas picture and gift giving. (Kyle is still up at camp and Brooke is in Disney World with the Rills)
Caleb and Jenna are both big droolers, so they wear bibs a lot. They aren't playing together just yet...but someday soon! It is so
fun to have them here.
On Saturday we had some of the Mechers over. Here is Caleb with my cousin Samantha (she was one of the flower girls in our wedding).

Erik and I actually got to get out of the house last night! We went to our friends Ashely and Scotts wedding. Nana and Papa (Erik's parents) came over and spent the evening with Caleb. It was so fun to get dressed up and spend some time together, but we definitely missed him!

Thanksgiving

Caleb celebrates his first Thanksgiving!

12 pounds 6 ounces, 23 1/4 inches

Caleb had his 2 month appointment this morning, which means he had to get 4 shots! He screamed so loud, the highest pitch scream we have heard yet! Erik picked him up when it was all over and he calmed down pretty quickly, then he fell asleep for 3 hours.

It is hard to believe that he is already 2 months old. He is so smiley, his neck is very strong and he is so talkative. This morning as he was laying on his play gym thing, he was reaching for and hitting the little birdie. He's definitely working on those fine motor skills.

The Stroms go to Nashville

Caleb went on his second flight this weekend. We went down to Nashville for the National Youth Workers Convention. Once again he did so well on the plane and was such a trooper as we dragged him around to all the sessions. The first night we were there (friday) he slept for 9 hours, the second night 7 hours and when we got back home 5 hours! We were hoping that he had learned how to sleep through the night...no such luck!

Caleb got to go in the pool with Erik on Saturday. He didn't really have any sorta reaction to the pool, not too excited about it, but not upset either. Don't you just love those little trunks!

The picture of him on the bed is when he sorta rolled over! The bed was a little squishy so it sorta gave him a headstart. But one minute he was on his belly and on his back the next. He is growing up so quickly!

A day at the garden

We celebrated my 27th birthday at The Botanic Gardens. It was the perfect day to spend outside! We only wish we had thouight to bring a picnic lunch!

Caleb meets Elsa Voss

We went over to Ali and Jon Voss' today. It's crazy how much these babies grow in just weeks! It's hard to even remember Caleb being newborn-size anymore.

Ali and Courtney took the two little ones for a nice walk through Andersonville to help them get better acquainted. (Did you notice that Caleb has his arm around her?!)

The littlest pumpkin

Look at that belly!

Remember all those pictures of my pregnant belly?! I took Caleb to work on Wednesday and thought it would be fun to take another picture there. Here is how i look now, with a 5 week old baby in place of the belly.

Caleb and his cousins

We arrived in Connecticut yesterday. Here's a picture of the three cousins; Caleb, Kira, and Jenna. We are having so much fun relaxing and spending time as a family.

Strom Family Picnic

It was a beautiful day here in Chicago! We went out to church so Erik could get some work done and had a little picnic lunch in the grass behind the church.

Caleb goes on his first retreat.

Over the weekend we went with our high school students to Covenant Harbor for little get-away. Caleb did great - he loved the fresh air, taking walks on the trails, and all the attention from the group.

Caleb loves to furrow his brow and look all concerned about something.

The little Covenant Pointer

We are so proud that our one week old son is already spending time day dreaming about Covenant Point. We are so excited to bring him up there for his first Christmas Camp.

Caleb's first bath

Caleb Matthew Arrives!

After being in the hospital for 24 hours, our little boy finally decided to meet the world! Caleb was born on September 18th at 8:54 am, weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. and measuring 20.25 in.