A shower, our Anniversary, a wedding, Father's Day

I have been putting off this post because I wanted to add pictures, but that just hasn't happened so I decided just to go ahead and write! Hopefully my brillant verbage will draw just as good of a mental picture for you...ha!

Oh, where to start. I guess I will proceed in chronological order since we've had some big events at the Byce household as of late...

It all started a few weeks ago with my soon-to-be-sis-in-law's bridal shower. We always hold the Sosebee family shower at Brick St. Cafe in Greenville and it has never disappointed us. Oh me, oh my the food and atmosphere is SOOOOO....good there. As a matter of fact, with Corey and Kristen being the last to get married in the Sosebee fam, we started discussing that maybe we need to start getting together to celebrate anniversaries!! The shower was wonderful and the happy couple got lots and lots of very nice things - esp for their kitchen, which is out there somewhere, they just aren't sure where yet....meaning, they still are not sure where they are going to live. Yes folks, they are getting married in 5 weeks and still have no place of residence thanks to the current economy. BOTH are having a hard time finding jobs and they aren't even picky. They seriously will live anywhere....I mean, come on, they met overseas! Please keep this on your prayer list. I know it has to be so frustrating, but also know that these 2 will just be happy to be married, jobs or not! :)

Next was Chad and I's 4th anniversary. I can't believe it's already been that long. It was a fun day. I greeted Chad to sticky notes all over the house and in his car wishing him a happy day and telling him what a great hubs he is and he treated me to a day of shopping at the outlets in Commerce, GA! I do believe I got the better end of the deal! That night mom and dad came over to keep Caleb and we went on a date to The Galley. We had a great view of Lake Hartwell (which is FINALLY full) and many of the boats that are docked at the marina close by. We skipped dessert at dinner and headed to OUR favorite dessert place, Brusters, for some yummy ice cream. It really was a fun evening and gave us some much needed one-on-one time. Before baby, Chad and I always (the 2 whole years that was!) took an anniversary trip. Now that Caleb is around we opted for dinner out on Wednesday and a weekend trip to the giant metropolis of Aiken, SC! Acutally Chad was in a wedding so we had to leave Friday afternoon, spend the night and come home Saturday night after the wedding. It wasn't quite Florida or a Carribean cruise, but it was nice to get away for a night and get to sleep late! We didn't actually pick up Caleb from mom and dad until Sunday afternoon and on Sunday we slept until 10am!!! I can honestly say this is the first time we've done this since Caleb was born. I hate we missed church, but it was SOOOOOO...wonderful.

The Sunday we picked Caleb up was Father's Day so we spent the rest of the day celebrating the dads in our lives. We started with a cookout at Grannie and Papa's and ended with dinner with Chad's parents. Hopefully through all the celebrating with families Chad felt special too!! Caleb gave him a card and a coupon for the gift he is going to give him. He hasn't been able to get back to Greenville to pick it up yet, but this is it. We can't wait to jam the summer away!

And he's off!!!

My baby boy has offically reached that milestone that distinguishes a toddler from a baby...He's walking!! Caleb has definitely taken his own little time deciding to do this. His progression went something like this: 6 months - rolling tummy to back from one end of the room to another; 8-9 months - army crawling everywhere and pulling up on things; 11 months - crawling up on all fours and starting to cruise furniture, pushing his walking toy around like crazy; 13 months - continuing to cruise furniture and becoming more of a risk taker by attmepting to let go of things and stand on his own; 15 months - finally walking! For about the past 3-4 weeks he would stand and take about 3-4 steps and then fall into your arms, but yesterday we were at mom's house and it just all seemed to click. He and I were the only ones there because we were waiting on mom and dad to get home. He pulled up on one of the end tables and then just decided to walk from the den straight into the kitchen. It was probably about 13-14 steps. It was completely unprompted. He just decided he could do it. Now there is no stopping him! It's so cute to watch. He holds his arms out to the side (for balance) and is so proud once he reaches his destination!! Could it possibly have anything to do with the round of applause he gets everytime he does it?!?! I have to say when he first did it it made me tear up a little. I haven't been emotional about him getting bigger like some people do because I have just loved every stage, but for some reason the walking tugged a little at my heartstrings! He really is getting to be a big boy and I know this is just the start of him being a more independent little man.