Train Festival (January 2013)

He has enjoyed this every year but now that he is so interested in trains, it was even more special.  Danielle, Cameron and Eli; and Pastor Joe, Erika and Joshua joined us- the boys had a great time!

Here we are!

Joshua

and Caelan

Eagerly watching the coming trains!

Cameron, Danielle and Eli

 

Baby Eli

and Cameron 

Pastor Joe, Erika and Joshua 

This is the Cherry Pit pit.  It's a pit full of dried Cherry pits for kids to jump into and play

Cameron and Joshua loved it-  Caelan took one look at that and his overprotective sensory instincts said "Noooo thank you!"  and he went back to watching trains!

 Specifically... these two trains.  For a looong time!

He stood in front of this particular train set for a long time and would watch those two little trains go all the way around and come back right in front of him

Daddy's Coat

 

I looked over one Sunday to see this.....

 

 
 
 
 
 

A Gift for Me

 

This is my Christmas gift from my friend Danielle.  I cried. 

 

Her brother is an insanely talented artist and she commissioned him to do a drawing of Caelan for me.  She picked a photo of him from my Face Book page-  this was taken on Caelan's 2nd Birthday; he was sitting in Matt's lap when I took it.  It's one of my favorites of him-  I love his expression and that moppy hair!

 

So one day I was at Michael's with Danielle and her mom and her brother Matt.  She held up two frames and said, "Which one do you think would look best with a pencil drawing?"  So I picked this one of the two (not knowing it was going to be for me).  When we left there to walk into a different store-  Matt and their mom walked over to the truck to "put some things away" and catch up with us in a bit.  They were putting this in the frame.

 

A little later we were standing outside about to leave and Danielle pulled something out of a bag and said, "Hey Caelan... who is this?"  and held this up for him. He grinned and said his name... I glanced down and then did a double take.  I was almost confused actually!  I said, "Wait.. that's.... oh my gosh.  That's my baby!"  I just stood there with my mouth open and looked back and forth from Danielle to her brother and back as it all started connecting in my head and I started crying.  I was just beside myself!

 

I sat in the car for a long time just looking at it before coming home.  I still look at it and melt; I tear up as I write this! 

 

This is such a BEAUTIFUL gift.  The artwork itself it unbelievable.  The GIFT ...  leaves me speechless. 

Christmas!

It was very difficult to narrow down Christmas pictures-  I think I have only 51 here!  

 

 opening a card from my mom-  Snoopy of course!

 painting a Christmas project (some gifts)

 

 

We let him open one gift on Christmas Eve-  this is a Cars bath set from Danielle and crew

our Christmas tree angel

Christmas family pictures-  two good ones and a silly one!

I knew I had pictures of the tree somewhere!  This is after he had gone to bed and everything was put under the tree for the morning-  I was up half the night but it is soooo much fun being on this end of things!  I love being a mom!

Good Morning!

 

he was so wrapped up in the Thomas train stuff we had to practically make him check out his stocking

good thing he did too... more Thomas stuff! 

 

 

 

argh... blogger won't let me realign these pictures... anyway, they had a Christmas Store at the school and teachers take the kids in there to shop for their family.  I sent in a couple of dollars for Caelan to pick out something for Matt.  It's a neat idea because it is an opportunity for the kids to learn about giving and thinking about others during the holiday and not just being on the receiving end.  He was very excited the day he brought these home!

Also from Danielle and crew-  Caelan use to play with this Cars book at therapy and loves it- it's a book with little characters from the movie and a map of the town.  And it all fits inside the book.  He was obviously happy with this one too! 

a Thomas puzzle (blogger put the pics out of order for some reason)

a remote control Lightning McQueen

Grandpa reading one of the Thomas books he got for Christmas

 

 

eating a snowball.  He loves being outside and he sits there eating snowballs.

 

 

I have just realized that there are not pictures of him opening things from Sally and Mary Margaret and their whole families.  But that's because we did video instead so y'all could "watch" him open his gifts.  I will get to that REAL soon.  I will have to go through a handful of videos to find the right ones for you!