I love the cubs...

Ok, girls for all those who have been dying to see it, here it is...

About a month ago, Sarah and Ashley were making these cute little boards, but theirs said Happy Thanksgiving and such. I wanted to make one but wanted to change to a Cub Scout board instead. I had previously used a sticker chart to record the boys behaivor, attendance, ect., and when I saw their boards I figured it would be perfect and longer lasting than my chart.

The cubs love it! They are excited to add their beads each week and see if they earned a prize. I must admit it came out pretty darn cute too.

O+R+E+O= yummy

Tessa's first run in with our favorite store cookies. For a little girl without any teeth she sure can eat without any problem, and knows how to pack it away, yet keep her girlish figure.

North Pole part 2

I couldn't not share these pics too... The PENROSE POSSE
Where's Santa?

Our trip to the North Pole

It seems as if Caleb has been bitten by the Santa bug. Every where we go that he sees anything to do with Christmas (i.e. lights, trees, Santa), he gets so excited and says, "look ma it's Christmas!"
I had heard about this Polar Express train ride from our friends the Sneskos. Back in July we started to talk about actually going together. We bought our tickets in early August and couldn't wait to go and meet Santa Claus. Mostly, Caleb couldn't wait to ride a real train! We watched the movie the night before we left to get us even more pumped up for the trip and on November 10th, we loaded up the van and headed up to Williams. Of course, on the way there we made a pit stop at the Anthem outlet mall, and stopped in Flagstaff at the movie theatre to see Bee Movie.
(Did I mention I love coupons that get me stuff for free! John and my tickets were free thanks to General Mills!)

Then to dinner and off to the train...

We hadn't even seen the real train yet, and he was already excited about the one going around this tree.

Daddy with some excited kids.

Caleb looking at the North Pole.

Santa at the North Pole.

Caleb and Santa with his "first" gift of Christmas.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

I can't believe that my baby boy is 3 years old! I can't imagine my life without him. And although

he definitely gives us a run for our money we love him so much. He is really starting to develop

his own unique personality. He gets funnier every day and has really started to make us laugh with his sense of humor. He is such a great big brother to Tessa and a great helper to mom. The other day he even unloaded all the silverware out of the dishwasher and put it away for me.

Happy Birthday sweet Boy!

His pirate face!

Happy Halloween!

The pumpkin carving!
The Penrose Crew:

Two pirates, superman, a ladybug, super Max, a monkey, and a bunny (not shown)

Halloween was fun, Caleb didn't want to wear his whole costume and after our ordeal in the hospital this week I wasn't going to be too picky with him. The kids had a great time trick-or-treating up and down the street, and I loved handing out the candy, and eating some too.

The fever, the rash, and the hospital!

So after the party Caleb came down with a fever about 102 degrees. We gave him some motrin and the fever went away. Later Saturday night it came back and this time didn't really go away. Saturday night I noticed that he had a few red dots on his belly. I told John I was worried about, he told me I worry too much. Well it was a sleepless night for all as Caleb wanted to sleep in our bed and I worried all night that he was too warm. The next morning when he woke at 6 this is what those little bumps had turned into. I thought it could be chicken pox and called our favorite neighborhood p.a. He came over and took a look and said 90% sure it was not the pox. His fever wasn't coming down, and so by 11 am when it hit 104.5 (yikes!) I drove him to urgent care. The nurse took his pulse oxygen level and heart rate and got the doctor. He looked at her notes and told me to get him to the e.r. right away, he even thought about calling an ambulance, but the hospital was only 2 miles away so I just drove him over. After a 6 hour stay in the e.r. they took us by ambulance to another hospital that had a pediatric unit. The ambulance ride was the highlight of the experience for Caleb.
By the time we got to the 2nd hospital this is what his rash looked like... They determined that he had mycoplasma pneumonia in his left lung, a major ear infection in his left ear, and a musical heart murmur. The rash they determined is called erythema multiforme a reaction to the pneumonia!

And this is what he looked like when we came home from the hospital. He's back up to being 100% healthy again, and we are soooo glad that this trial in our life is over!

Caleb's Race Car Party

Saturday, Oct 27 we celebrated Caleb's 3rd birthday (his real birthday is Nov 3 but we had a baptism to go to in Tucson). He had been telling me for months that he was going to have a party and invite all his friends. I am still a little puzzled as to where he found out about parties. He told me he wanted to have a "car party", so I did some online googling and came up with these cardboard cars. The kids had a blast decorating them, and then driving them around.

And of course for the cake we had to do a race track. I was a little nervous about having it turn out ok. But I amazed even myself. And most importantly Caleb loved it.