The Callaway Family

A Little Q and A

2010-04-12T18:37:00.003-04:00

Maybe Jackson's yes and no answers aren't as cute to you as they are to us. But we think they are precious, even when he says no when he should say yes. So without further ado, Jackson sits down for a little Q and A.

Easter 2010

2010-04-07T20:27:00.007-04:00

Hey all! We had a Brown family Easter this year. It was great to have Lauren all the way from Texas, Carlos from school and of course Mom and dad. We had a fun weekend of playing outside and eating candy! Just kidding Curtis! Thankfully the weather was beautiful so we had some great play time! Here are some great pics:

Some new words

2010-03-16T20:18:00.002-04:00

Forgive me for singing but it was the only way to get Jackson to chime in with his version of "Old MacDonald." Check out some of his new words at 20 months.

Tricky little bugger

2010-02-10T08:55:00.004-05:00

Well this is what Curtis and I caught Jackson doing a few days ago in the front guest bedroom! He's into everything as you can tell!

California 2009 (23 photos), by kristina callaway

2010-02-10T08:51:00.002-05:00

Here are some more pictures from California! As you can see Jackson had a great time!
Click here to view photos

California 2009

2010-02-09T11:15:00.004-05:00

Right after Christmas we went to California to ski and see the fam. We thought we were insane but it ended up being a great trip and much less stressful than we thought it was going to be! We skied for 2 days with my parents and Carlos when we first got there. Heavenly was great! The conditions were so much fun, but powder skiing did take some getting used to. My parents were kind enough to each take Jackson for a day and let Curtis and I ski two days. Then we went to Vacaville and got to spend some time with our family. They are always a lot of fun even though you need ear plugs (well Curtis needed ear plugs!) haha good times. Jackson had fun on the 4 wheeler and running up and down the hallway. We were sad to leave but glad to get home at the same time. Here are some fun pics:

IMG_6070 (1 photo), by kristina callaway

2010-01-25T14:57:00.001-05:00

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

IMG_6042 (1 photo), by kristina callaway

2010-01-25T10:30:00.001-05:00

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

Silly Boy

2010-01-25T08:32:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to share a funny picture of this silly boy! He wanted to put on his house shoes (or as I would say slippers) this morning over his PJs. He's pretty cute!

Christmas in Florida

2010-01-13T13:14:00.004-05:00

Well this year we spent Christmas in Florida with gramps, big momma, grandnana and the Taylors. We drove through the night and it worked out well. We had a wonderful time! It was warm and we were outside everyday, which you know made Jackson a happy boy! They have great playgrounds in Frostproof so there was much playing to be had. Warren was the one with the camera and I'll get some of his pics soon.

To explain some of the pics: Warren is rocking out on Jacksons new guitar in the top corner and under that Martha is making Jackson laugh like always!

here is a slideshow that Warren put together with some of his great pics!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJlCt1of_RA

Jackson and Santa

2010-01-12T20:47:00.005-05:00

Well we were able to have the coolest Santa in the world stop by Grandmas house to let Jackson sit on his lap! Jackson was good with him and only got upset once and it wasn't a freak out! He even ended up sitting in his lap after mom's good example.

Coolest santa award!

First wary sighting

Not excited about sitting in Santas lap

See Jackson, it's not that bad!

Well maybe this is okay!

Some great Christmas PJ's!

This outfit was Curtis' when he was a kid. This could only come from the 70's but Jackson wore it like no other! haha it was awesome!

We're Still Here

2010-01-11T19:57:00.002-05:00

We're still alive and doing very well (for those of you who haven't given up on us and still check this page...honestly, since it has been over 3 months since our last post, I'm surprised that you've stuck with ut). We survived a crazy holiday schedule, which I'm sure we'll write about soon. I wanted to post a quick video to reassure you that things are going well and that Jackson is turning into a little boy right before our eyes. Check out one of his new tricks. I promise that he did not learn this from watching Jersey Shore.

Jackson Dancing

2009-10-01T14:26:00.003-04:00

He does this a lot now and I'm glad I finally got it on tape. This isn't his best dancing but it's the best I could film! Curtis claims he did 2 turns last night but wasn't sure if it was an accident or on pupose! haha anyways enjoy!

Jacksons new trick

2009-10-01T14:25:00.002-04:00

He did this last night while we were eating! He just starting doing it with me specifically showing him how or asking him to do it! He's our big man. The end is just him being silly and the talking and pointing that he does all the time. There are still no words but he's very observant!

Philadelphia Trip

2009-09-30T13:01:00.007-04:00

3 weeks ago we went to Phili to see Gramps and Big Mama. We had a great time and of course Jackson loved being there! We went to the Train Museum, Gramps warehouse and the Philadelphia zoo. Curtis, Warren and I got to go into downtown Phili to see Ken Burns speak and to preview his new documentary on National Parks. It really was interesting! It's currently airing on PBS in the evenings around 6 or 7 i think. It's worth watching! Anyways here are the pictures!

Cutest piece of cheese ever!
Petting the surprisingly nice and docile goats

Hanging out with dad at the train museum!

I'm NOT going to wear this hat people!

Driving Gramp's forklift at work. He's loving it!
Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan
laughing b/c everyone else is!

Also while we were in NYC Jackson stayed with my parents and had a blast! Here are some pics from a fun filled trip to Riverbanks Zoo. Seeing the Phili zoo gave me an appreciation for Riverbanks. Good 'ol Riverbanks is a great place!

Jackson's 14 months pics

2009-09-30T12:47:00.004-04:00

Wow my baby is 14 months old! He is a sweet guy and a good boy most of the time! He is definitely very headstrong and has a mind of his own. He continues to be on the move all the time, although now he is loving to read! He will bring a book to us and insist that we read it that second. He waits for us to sit and then backs up to sit in our laps. As we say at home it is stinkin' sweet! He also still loves to be outside and play with Allie. He is getting close to running now and it's been so fun to have him so mobile. It's crazy how we can love him so much more every day! Here are some pics:

Mud Run 2009

2009-09-30T09:24:00.002-04:00

Curtis, Doug, Denny and Alan rocked the Mud Run at Fort Jackson again this year! They did a great job - in under an hour! I think the girls have set a goal of running in 5 years or so when we're all done with babies! We'll see! Here are some pics of the good, clean fun:

while they are still clean...

Sweet Miss Jones wanted to take after her mom and dad and do whatever part of the race she could! Best looking girl out there!

Curtis jumping into the great swamp pit

taking a break to pose and being silly as usual!

I'm sure the legs are burning at this point!

more mud

the last jump before the litter carry

They finished and look great!

New York

2009-09-18T10:39:00.004-04:00

Hello all! I'm sorry for the lack of posts but this is the season for fun stuff happening so we'll keep them coming! The Callaways marked a milestone in our family 2 weeks ago: we left Jackson for the first time! Curtis and I had the chance to go to New York and we left Jackson with my parents. He did so well! I don't know if he even noticed we were gone. He had a great time with Nana and Lalo and Uncle Los! Curtis and I had a great time in the Big City! We got to see two of our friends from Danville and we walked and walked and walked! We also ate at some great places! Most of the pictures are of things/places we ate. The most fun thing for me was the walking food tour we took. It was put on by Foods of New York ( http://www.foodsofny.com/ ) and we walked around Greenwich Village and ate and got a history of the neighborhood. Our tour guide was great so that made the expierence even better. The food was very good and not things I would try normally (except for the cookie and connoli!) Here are a few of the pics!

Me enjoying a wonderful cookie from Milk and Cookies!

Beautiful view from the park

the Friends building

a very cool cheese shop!

The Flat Iron building

This isn't a steller picture of us (it was soooo bright!) but the view from the top of the Met Museum of Art was amazing!

Look mom I'm on TV!

A Must Watch Video

2009-08-07T18:52:00.003-04:00

No explanation necessary for this. Just happened today!

The Man's Party

2009-08-02T08:07:00.008-04:00

I apologize for this recent hiatus! I'm back to post pictures of Mister Man's first bday party! We had a such a great time and we're so glad to have had so many good friends and family there! A lot of people traveled to come see Jackson and even though he didn't show it, I know he was honored. We'll make sure he remembers that Great Uncle Bill, grandma and poppie drove up and back from Columbia in the same day just to see him! Leigh Ann drove up and back from Bham for the party. We were also glad to have had Rachel and Katie Jones and Susan come too! Jackson and Katie had so much fun playing together. It was one of the first times that I've seen him actually play with another child and not just in the same vicinity! They are destined to be great friends and maybe more????? haha yes bethroal is a good idea! if that were the case Jackson would be in serious trouble because he's got a lot of future wives. I guess we'll have to let him decided for himself!

So the party was great! The only bad part was that he didn't want anything to do with the cake or the frosting. I was hoping he'd make a huge mess but alas he didn't! Oh well here are the pics: BTW these first pics are at the Georgia Aquarium, which Jackson loved! We were joined by my family and aunt sue!

He's saying Hada or waving to someone walking by! He wore his Birthday Boy shirt all week!

The originals and Jackson!

The great one and mister

Katie and the man playing together!

Mister man and Katie enjoying Leigh Ann and Pauls gift! They love it!

The whole crew going for a walk

Just being cute with nana!

Curtis and the man enjoying auntie lolo's gift!

Rachel and katie enjoying the same!

Lalo pulling the man around the church before the party

Uncle los and mister

The cake was disapointing! He didn't want to eat it or have anything to do with it. This face is right after I gave him some frosting.

He loves all this attention!

This is as messy as it got! Too bad! Well at least he doesn't have my sweet tooth.

A few more party pics:
this is mister being a bully!

Happy Birthday, Jackson!

2009-07-15T06:52:00.004-04:00

The Man is one year old! We can't believe that you were born a year ago, Mister Man. At times, the past year has flown by. Other times, it feels like you've been a part of our family forever. You are growing up so fast and we cannot wait to see what this next year brings.

No big plans for today. We'll celebrate his birthday with a little party on Saturday. Pictures to come.

Atlanta Braves

2009-07-02T10:23:00.003-04:00

Last week we went to 3 different Braves games! It was a lot of driving but it was fun! The first was the braves/cubs make up game. It was a good game for Braves fans but not for Curtis. They may have lost but it was still fun to be there. The second game was the Yankees game that we went to with Colin. That was Jackson's first baseball game and we forgot our camera! Oh well, we got a lot of pictures at the 3rd game. Jackson did great! He just kicked the person sitting in front of us several times and crawled around the ramps instead of sleeping. He really was good though! The third game we went to with Curtis' high school friends! It was great for him to see them again and good for me to finally meet them (for real since the wedding didn't count!) Two couples had daughters and they were so sweet! Jackson played the role of bully more times that I cared to admit, unfortunately. He's just all boy and they were sweet girls! Thanks to Stuart we had tickets to the 755 club, which most importantly was air conditioned! It reached 98 degrees that afternoon, which is not safe for babies! We had GREAT seats but spent innings 3-7 in the cool air. Jackson was good again even without his afternoon nap. He did sleep very well in the car on the way home and that night! Here are some pictures:

The fam (minus little Al)

Two baseball loving guys!

Sweet face among thousands!

Hanging out in the 755 club watching the people below sweat

the chop part one...

the chop part two!

the bully/drink and snack stealer

More traveling and less working!

2009-06-18T14:11:00.005-04:00

Well things have changed around here quite a bit! I'm not working anymore! June 5 was my last day as a probation officer. It was sad but I am very excited to be staying home with Jackson. Actually yesterday was the first full day that I have been home with him. Right after I quit I worked VBS at church (and had the songs stuck in my head for quite some time!) and then we went to Washington DC for a trip to see Nana and Lalo. Lauren joined us and we all had a blast. Jackson got to go downtown and not freeze this time. We even got to do some things that Lauren and I hadn't done before, which includes riding on the boat in the Potomac and getting ice cream treats from a vendor. Yes we've "arrived"! Here are the pics from the visit:

The man hits the big city!

"Now Jackson, if everyone picked one of these flowers, there wouldn't be any left!"

We are outside the original Smithsonian museum

We were in the Air and Space museum and dad says "Hey that's just like the plane I flew to America in!" So we had to take a picture with 2 generations later!

With lolo making him laugh

that treat i was talking about
Lolo entertaining him on the Metro - not an easy job!

Pulling the stop cord on the bus!
Jackson fell asleep as soon as we got on the boat. He's not being suffocated here, I promise!

Then he got up and started crawling!

Is this the way it goes?

A view from the Potomac that we've never seen before!

Swimming and trying to get it all on tape!

Just hanging out in the pool listening to TI!

Reading his favorite book that lolo and auggie bought him!

Laughers Man

2009-05-22T11:14:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure what this says about Jackson but gargling and spitting are the only things that have consistently made him laugh. Most of the ways we get him to laugh are fleeting and only work once. This, however, has lasted through the months and always works! Silly boy!

The New Train

2009-05-21T22:35:00.002-04:00

Jackson got a new train from big mama on this trip and he's begining to enjoy it!

Texas

2009-05-21T14:09:00.001-04:00

I didn't mean for this cake to be the first picture on here but it's okay I guess knowing how much I love cake! It was very good and Lauren came up with a great decoration! I'm still mad at myself for not bringing some home!

At Alex's graduation. CONGRATS ALEX!!! GREAT JOB!!!

At a park playing with the man.

At the pool with lolo and grill!
This was his first time in the pool! He was a little unsure at first but I think he liked it in the end. He liked the waterfall better than the pool itself.

Typical posers! Actually Alex, it looks like you're going to the bathroom! haha

At the stockyards with Lolo! He's not frowning, I promise!

The picture is a little blurry because Jackson would take the hat off quicker than I could take the pic! He liked being like his Auggie!
He was not excited about wearing cowboy boots! I think I'm okay with that, knowing how much they cost!

Typical Grill!

2 weeks ago we went to Texas for Alex's graduation from Southwestern and because it had been way to long since we'd seen Auntie Lolo and Auggie! We had a great time (for the most part) and they were very hospitible, especially through the tantrums that Jackson and mom had to work through! He was getting over an ear infection when we got there and the medicine made him a bit crazy! Because I'm on my computer at work I can't adjust the pics so I just commented under each one. Most are pretty self explanitory. I have to say that I just love their dog, Gisele. It's not her fault she has a silly name :) haha j/k Anyways a few days into the trip we started calling her Grill because as this last picture shows she was all up in our grill the whole time. She is so sweet though and we didn't mind a bit! She hardly barked at all, which is not my usual expierence with a mini schnauzer. She's only 6 months old but she was great with Jackson, crying and all, and she was so cuddly! Thanks again Lolo and Auggie, we had a great time and can't wait to see you again!!

Hair Cut

2009-05-13T20:43:00.003-04:00

Well because of a couple of girl comments ("Hey you have a beautiful little girl!") we decided to get his hair cut! He was very good and didn't cry one bit. He did get wiggly at the end but his name is Jackson Wiggles! Here it is in a progression of pictures:

Bath time the night before. Check out the height on that hair!

At the salon, right before the scissors came!

During the cut he chewed on a yummy comb!

Almost done!

Finished product! Gone is our baby - meet our little boy! I would also like to add that there were no tears from mom or dad! I had prepared myself :)

9 Months Old

2009-04-19T18:18:00.006-04:00

I can hardly believe this little baby is 9 months old! Look how much he's changed in 9 months:

He is such a sweet, happy baby now! Haha - not that he wasn't before but it's just more and more evident these days. By the way, we used this picture to enter him into the GMA/Babytalk Magazine cover baby contest. He's old enough for this one so we'll see!! Okay back to the Man - I think he's about 23.5 lbs and around 31 inches long. He hasn't gotten in for his 9 month appt yet so specific stats will have to wait until the end of may. His hair is really long, and getting lighter, but I don't want to cut it yet! He has 4 teeth and actually bit something today! He is into everything and lives up to his busy bee baby nickname. He's definatly got a temper but it doesn't come out that often. When it does he puts his little chunky hands on his hips and lets it rip! He is eating well and there's nothing he doesn't like - which I'm glad for! He is not crawling, only pushing himself backwards when he is on his stomach. He is however pulling up on things, including his crib. We had to lower the mattress this weekend. It's looking like he'll walk before crawling. He's almost too tall for his exersaucer, which is sad because he loves it! This weekend we put up the swing and jumperoo for good. He's too big for both. The weather here is getting nice so he's loving being outside again, just like when he was a new baby. Just like his daddy, he's proving to be a well dressed little baby due to some very generous grandparents! Although on a sad note, he has now grown out of our favorite Monkey Man outfit (pictured in the easter post). He's in 18 month clothes with the exception of a few pairs of pants. He's long waisted so all of his tops fit and his pants are a little long. Here are more pics of our monkey man:

Easter '09

2009-04-15T07:11:00.005-04:00

Again I need to apologize for going to long in between posts! What can I say - I'm a slacker. Actually firefox would let us upload pics because they were too big. So I had to go and shrink them all. Anyways, Easter was great! It was a beautiful day and Man was looking cute! Mom, dad and Carlos were here and Martha and Warren came that evening (more on Hotel Callaway guests later!). Church was so great as usual - He has risen indeed! We are so thankful to be able to serve a risen Lord! It's amazing how it seems every year I need to be reminded of how powerful that is and how I should be living my life to reflect that.

Below are pics of First Baptist's Easter Egg Hunt. This is Man's good friend Mary Elise. They were chillin' in the wet grass together playing with their eggs.

No hair cut comments please! I don't want to until the bald spot grows out a little more. Yes he STILL has the bald spot! (more on 9 month old Man later too!)

8 months old

2009-03-17T07:19:00.003-04:00

Visitors!

More crawling practice
I LOVE UNCLE CARLOS!
he's got teeth!!! (yes this pic was forced!)

Well our little (figure of speech) man was 8 months old Sunday! I can't believe how quickly time has passed. The 7th month was a rough one. He had 2 ear infections, a stomach bug and cut 3 teeth. We were at the doctors office more that I wanted to be and the pharmacy knows me really well. We are just now catching up on sleep (so many long nights) and starting to see a happy baby again. Things are looking up for the Callaway family! I finally got to the breaking point and called in the troops. My mom, dad and brother came to visit and help us out. My aunt and grandmother also came for a day and were a big help with Jackson and with comic relief. Carlos came to see us after a trip to the grand canyon and was sooo good with the man. I probably shouldn't have been surprised but you just never know with 19 year old boys. JWC just loved him and Carlos developed a signiture move that made Man stop crying every time! Thanks Los!!

Man is starting to crawl! He can get up on all 4's for a short time but mostly just pushes himself backwards. I guess you have to start somewhere! I should be getting in shape because I have a feeling this kid is going to run us ragged! We are looking forward to all the great times to come as he grows up. We are so blessed to have him and love him so much!

2009-03-04T07:33:00.003-05:00

In Uncle Carlos' sweater!
Crawling practice with Allie Wiggles as motivational coach
Our little professional!

I must apologize for not posting in a while. My office internet blocked this site for a while and it's hard to find time to do it at night. Anyways the man is now 7 months old and weighs in at 22 lbs 4 oz. How do I know such a precise weight? Well it's because we have been to the doctor several times over the past few months because he has had several ear infections. The most recent one came on while we were in Florida visiting Curtis' grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins. That was a great trip, by the way, except for dealing with man's post travel crankiness! We were delayed on the way home and I thought I might loose my mind but the Lord allowed the time to go by quickly and we survived. So back to ear infections, he's 4 days into his medicine and is doing much better. We're hoping and praying that once spring comes all this sick nonsense will go away! Man and I did have a great time in Florida! It was warm and wonderful weather. As always it was great to see everyone down there, especially Nana who just loved having Jackson around, mainly because she couldn't hear his middle of the night antics :) He was so sweet with Nana - every time she held him he was gentle, still and content, which if you know man is an amazing thing! Hopefully it won't be long before we seet htem all again. This video below is laughers man in the tub - Curtis started throwing a basketball (that I got at a Carolina basketball game in college) against the tub wall and he was loving it!

6 Month Video

2009-02-03T19:29:00.005-05:00

I put together a slideshow of some of our favorite images from the first 6 months. I've been meaning to but up a video like this for a long time and have finally gotten around to it. I really hope you enjoy it. For some reason, it gets really dusty in the room whenever Dad watches this. I guess I need to clean up around here.

I also need to plug the band who's song is used: Sister Hazel - Green (Welcome to the World)

6 months old

2009-01-25T21:18:00.006-05:00

Wearing Josephs hat
Our little baby Jesus
Preppy man!
Smilers Man

Well I know I'm behind a bit but on Jan 15 the man turned 6 months old. It's hard to believe that 6 months has already gone by! He is now sitting up all by himself. We still have to watch because he likes to topple or throw himself backwards.

He is 21 lbs (90th %), 30 inches long (95%) and I don't remember his head size.

He is eating all sorts of good stuff! We have several good pics of him eating that I will post later. He loves apples, pears, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and squash. He's not so big of a fan of peas and carrots but I'm not giving up!

He's just so sweet - although he still has his freak outs - like at 5:15 this morning. They are getting fewer and farther between, which I'm thankful for! He still doesn't sleep that much during the day but in the past 2 weeks he's been taking a 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon! Such progress! He sleeps well at night (when he's not having teething issues). Speaking of teeth, we can still see the 2 top and 2 bottom teeth but nothing has popped through yet. He went through a tough spell last week but seems to be in a lull now. We're just waiting the rest of it out.

Of course we think he's the cutest baby in the world so we entered him in the Regis and Kelly Beautiful Baby contest and are hoping for the best (a college scholarship!). He is still not among the pictures on the website but you can see it above, its the black/red argyle shirt and red pants pic. Also we'd get a trip to NYC I think so that would be awesome too! I keep saying we need to put those cheeks to work! Let's pray for a win!

We got a new camera for Christmas so we've been taking a lot of pics and we'll be posting more than we used to.

Jackson was recently baby Jesus for a video that our church is putting together. He was so good! He was, however, jammed into the tiny manger. His head was scraping one end and his knees were bent to fit his legs in. For poor Mary's sake, I hope the real baby Jesus wasn't as big as Jackson! I can't wait to see how the pics turned out. The pic of him in the brown hat is him wearing "Joseph's" hat. He's so pale!

ps In case you can't tell this has been Kristina. :)

Talkers Man

2009-01-13T11:54:00.003-05:00

Two blog posts in two days is unprecedented, I know! I had to put this up because it's awesome. Here he is just talking away! Please forgive the unmade bed and lack of lighting, which led to some pretty sketchy camera work! Notice he's sitting up now by himself! He's a big man.

Christmas and New Years

2009-01-12T16:12:00.008-05:00

I might need more than one post to get all the super cute pics of the man in for everyone to see! Christmas was great! We went to Columbia for the week before Christmas. Lauren and Alex came in also and it was great to see them. The man got an ear infection so he was not as sweet as he normally is and Lauren and Alex got some high intensity parenting lesson from the next bedroom. You're welcome Armstrongs! We finally got to meet Katherine Jones! She is so cute! She has great parents who hold her with such fine technique - we could all learn from them. It was great to meet her! Good job Rach and Doug! We spend New Years here with the Callaways. Curtis and I got to go to a movie and we saw Marley and Me - which if you go to see bring your tissues. I'm not a cryer but I associated that movie (well the book) with Hunter and so it was tough for me to take. The second half of the movie was way to long! Anyways good times and we are already looking forward to Martin Luther King day vacation!

Christmas Pics:

cutting down our Christmas Tree
thats my Curtis - always being silly!

no explanation needed for this!

allie has been such a good dog lately! she's so good and sweet with the man
Jackson and bobo

He loves his auntie lolo and auggie!
Jackson and Jaclyn - jack attack!
the man with a crown from a popper - an English tradition that the Armstrongs and the Callaways (originals) like to do
what they looked like about half the time!

me and the cutest santa ever!

New Years Pics:

Gravy

2009-01-12T16:09:00.003-05:00

Okay I know I need to post Christmas pics and I will soon! I need help! Please tell me what are the two types (or colors) of gravy and what are they made of? This is random I know but I'm trying to get votes for my side versus my co-workers side.

Tuesday's with Dorie

2008-12-31T14:48:00.003-05:00

Okay I know i'm behind! I have made all of the December selections but just haven't gotten around to post them. When I had time, I didn't have the pictures. Anyways the Real Butterscotch pudding and the Tall Cheesecake were both very good! The pudding went with Curtis to work and I gave the cheesecake to my boss for his bday. The cheesecake went over very well! The pudding got lost in a sea of food but the couple of people said it was good. I was just on the site and realized she doesn't have me registered (even after multiple emails) so I might just not keep up every week!

Fun pics

2008-12-17T07:31:00.002-05:00

Not much needs to be said about the cuteness! I will say that he turned 5 months on Monday!

Tuesdays with Dorie

2008-12-16T20:39:00.003-05:00

The selection this week is Buttery Jam Cookies gracias a Heather of Randomosity and the Girl. I used Raspberry Jam in mine, which explains the color. They turned out really well! I took them to our 2nd annual bible study cookie swap and forgot to take pics of them! So I was only able to take a picture of the one I managed to bring home. Don't the rest of the cookies look yummy! Have I mentioned I need a new camera? Sorry that it's blurry!

No Babies Were Harmed in this Photo

2008-12-11T06:56:00.003-05:00

My, what sharp teeth you have, Allie!

Who knew that if you caught Allie in a yawn that it would create a funny picture? Unfortunately, I guess this only reinforces the stereotype that Dobermans are scary dogs. If you could only see how Allie loves on Jackson.

Tuesday's with Dorie: Sugar Cookies

2008-12-10T07:18:00.002-05:00

Well I must say that I've never been a big fan of plain 'ol sugar cookies. That was, however, before I discovered Grandma's all occasion sugar cookies. They were chosen by Ulrike of Küchenlatein. Had I had more time I would have done something more interesting with them but such is life these days! On a side note, I hope to get a new camera this Christmas or soon after so maybe the pictures will look better!
the wierd one has cinnamon sugar on it.

PS The Linzer Sables from last week got a great review at Curtis' office. Thanks guys! I didn't make that many this week and instead froze the dough for later use.

Thanksgiving Trips

2008-12-05T18:14:00.001-05:00

We had a busy but fun Thanksgiving! We started out in DC for my dads retirement ceremony. He retired from Active Duty National Guard and got a lot of medals and awards! He is such a hard working guy and a great dad. He's really come a long way in his life and I'm proud of him! Great job dad!

With Great uncle Bill
with Great Aunt Sue

Anyways Jackson went on his first plane ride to go to DC. We upgraded to business class (not business time!) and had a blast! He was really good and slept most of the way. ATL was very accommodating for families and security was much easier than I thought it would be. We were able to take an earlier flight and, Thank you Lord, everything just went super smooth. My friend Julie from my office took me to the airport so that was one less stressor for me and a huge cost savings! Thanks again Julie!
walking to dad's retirement in the cold!
(this is for the Callaways)

with cousins Sharon and Evie
with great grandma!

It was really cold in DC and we had to bundle the man in a snowsuit that is reminiscent of A Christmas Story (it's easy to see it in NYC pics). We went to the newly opened American History Museum and it was a zoo. It was hard to enjoy everything because of the crowds. We'll go back another day! We saw the major monuments and hit the metro back home. It was sooo cold!

The next destination was Philadelphia and West Chester. We got to spend the week with the Callaways and JWC was doted on by more loving grandparents! He's a lucky little boy! He loved Phili! WE went to Independance hall, the Liberty Bell and Reading Market - home of the chocolate dipped cookie! Yummm.

We also got to go to NYC. It was the first time I'd been there in a long time. We walked through the park, saw Times Square and saw ginormus meat sandwiches at Carnigie Deli. We rode the subway and saw ground zero. What a cool city! It would have been better without a baby but it was still fun. The man was good but he didn't have a good night after that so I think he was overloaded. Thanksgiving day we chilled and went to see the Christmas lights at Longwood Gardens. They were beautiful! The trip home was uneventful and it was nice to have an extra set of hands on the plane. Thanks to everyone who helped make our trip great!!
the train to NYC

how to travel in style through Central Park!

Carnegie Deli- where everything was big except for the eating space! We were jammed in there.
cute man!

Tuesday's with Dorie

2008-12-02T20:50:00.004-05:00

Okay I'm back! I've missed a couple of weeks on account of having the stomach bug and then going out of town for a week and a half. This week's selection was really good! I dreaded having to work with dough at the beginning but it turned out to be easy and fun! In honor of the season I've used appropriate cookie cutters for this weeks Linzer Sables (good choice Dennis!) and boy are they yummy. At least they taste good because as usual, they don't look too stellar. I tried to make buttons on the gingerbread man but they kept breaking so I took a picture of one! They are the sandwich variety but with no raspberry jam peeking through and I forgot the powdered sugar. Oh well! I'll get the rating from Curtis' office tomorrow!

Belly Laugh

2008-12-01T22:09:00.004-05:00

We had a great Thanksgiving and hope that all of our five readers did too. I'm sure that Kristina will make a great post to tell you all about our travels and adventures with our Man.

I couldn't wait to post the clip below, however. Jackson debuted his infectious laugh while in Pennsylvania. I hope that it makes you laugh too.

Man Art

2008-11-17T07:31:00.004-05:00

These are the latest art projects from the man! The first is ghosts and the second we are calling bootie pumpkin! They are so cute and we can't wait to see what he'll come up with when he's older!

4 months old

2008-11-13T13:01:00.000-05:00

Wow wasn't it just yesterday that I was writing his 3 month old post?! Time flies when you're having fun with such a cute baby! 4 month stats: 17 and a half pounds and I'm not sure how long he is but I'll get that soon!

Well we have been struck with his first, and hopefully his last, ear infection! Let's hope he's more like Curtis and I in this area and less like his aunts, who had a lot of ear infections. He was super sweet for the most part during this sickness and the only way I really knew he was sick is that he wasn't eating as much, which isn't at all like him! When my mom was keeping him he "cried in pain" once or twice for a while and Martha and Warren said he was pulling at his ear a bit. He's now on antibiotics and is on the mend. Please pray that he's over this before we go, by plane, to DC and Phili for Thanksgiving. I can't imagine having his head hurting changing altitudes. That would be tough to deal with! I'm just thankful that we got through the first sickness rather calmly and it wasn't something frantic that we had to rush to the hospital for! Drama free is how we like it in the Callaway household!

On a more fun note, he still hasn't rolled over. How is that fun you ask? He's moved right past that to other things including sitting up. He can pull himself up in a situp when he is propped up on a pillow. He doesn't stay up without toppling over for more than a couple of seconds but it's progress none the less! I know all of you out there that have more than one are shaking your heads and saying "Typical first timers!". Hey, we are easily amused! I think he will walk before he ever rolls over. Here are some pics of the cuteness!

Yesterday we got our first peice of Man art! It was a turkey with his hands and feet and soooo cute! Thanks to Donna for doing that for us. I used to do that kind of thing all the time when I taught preschool but now I know how much it actually means!

Jackson was also dedicated 2 weeks ago! It was so special to have our parents here to celebrate Jackson's dedication to the church. He was so good and everyone loved the hair as usual! He wore Curtis' dedication outfit so it was special!
Here's more cuteness and sorry Warren I don't mean you! It was great having both sets of grandparents stay for a week and keep the man. I know he loved it too!

Happy Birthday, Kristina

2008-11-12T10:20:00.002-05:00

No, this isn't becoming a cooking blog, we promise! We just like to give our five readers a little variety, you know?

This is a quick post to send happy birthday wishes to my wonderful wife. She's simply the best at everything: being a wife, a mom, a friend. She's got mad numchuck skills and bow hunting skills. Her laugh is amazing and she laughs at just about everything. She tries to make jokes, and sometimes they're even funny. She's a great cook and doesn't give herself enough credit. She is really good at her job and is doing a good thing to impact the lives of troubled youth in our area. And she puts up with me. Add it all up and you have an amazing woman!

Here is a recent picture of Kris with Jackson. It is much cuter than the Kugelopf!

Tuesday's With Dorie: Kugelopf

2008-11-11T07:52:00.003-05:00

Finally I was able to not butcher the look of this week's selection! This is Kugelhoph. No, I can't pronounce it either! I would call it a sweet bread. It's not as tall as the picture in the cookbook but it was good! I sent it to Curtis' office and they seemed to think it was very good. I asked Curtis to get a general rating from everyone but he didn't have it at the time of this post :) Thanks Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl blog for chosing something that I wouldn't have even bothered with otherwise. It was time consuming for sure but the steps themselves weren't complicated. I love trying new recipes and this was no exception! I'm just glad I had a free weekend to do it and didn't have to be rushed.

Tuesday's with Dorie

2008-11-04T22:04:00.002-05:00

Well I have butchered it again! This is Rugulah. While it sounds wierd it's actually very good! It's got rasberry jam, chocolate, and currants in a cream cheese dough. I can blame the ugly state of these on the man. He was either too cute to resist or was fussing last night, so I kept getting distracted and I rushed the presentation. My mom gave them an excellant rating. I am enjoying this group because I never would have made this on my own but I'm glad I did because it was really good.

Victorian Baby, Gel and Talkers

2008-10-30T22:30:00.005-04:00

This is the latest talking man! He's doing this a lot now. It seems like he changes every week now and it's really fun to watch!

I know everyone is asking "How could a mother put her man child in something so girly?" Well it's a family heirloom. It was supposed to be his dedication outfit but he's too big for it! It was the baptism dress that my grandfather (dad's dad), my dad and my brother wore. The gown was beautifully done and still in great condition. He looked like a porcelain doll or one of those babies in the scary movies, mainly because he is so pale. We'll have to save it for a future child and do the dedication earlier if he/she is another bohemith! Curtis was not at all upset that it wouldn't work! So he instead is wearing the outfit Curtis wore when he was dedicated, which is another fabulous option! We will start a new tradition.

In this next one Warren put gel in the man's hair! It could not contain the poof!

He is in control!

2008-10-30T13:41:00.003-04:00

I encourage you all to hop on over to Trey Kelly's Blog for a quick post about the election next week. He says it much better than I can...I think he should start a chuch! I will post a scripture verse and leave the commentary to him. Please go read what he has to say and prayerfully consider Romans 13:1:

“Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.”

God is always in contol!

Tuesdays with Dorie

2008-10-29T12:45:00.003-04:00

Yummmm chocolate cupcakes! I haven't used my cake decorating tips in a while so I had some fun with the frosting! Once again I need to figure out how to take pictures of the food because these look dumb! At least it tastes good! So far this cookbook has been good so I'm recommending it! It's by Dorie Greenspan. These I was able to give to the teachers at First Baptist Preschool so I wasn't tempted by these either - just by the batter last night while baking! Oh that was good batter :)

Tuesday's With Dorie

2008-10-21T07:43:00.003-04:00

I have joined this baking group called Tuesday's With Dorie. We bake things from a cookbook by Dorie Greenspan. Here is my first venture. These are Pumpkin muffins. Before you say anything, I know I need to work on presentation and photographing! I made these pumpkin muffins in a pumpkin shaped muffin pan, so I figured that was a start. I did try to arrainge them to look like a pumpkin patch. Oh well, at least they tasted good. So expect weekly entries. I will say that this isn't as good as the recipe I have for pumpkin bread but they were good. Curtis' co-workers seemed to enjoy them! I think I might get them to start rating things for me.

3 Months old

2008-10-16T22:07:00.006-04:00

Wow, it's hard to believe the man is 3 months old! It's been so great getting to know him and seeing all the changes as fast as they come. He has been a great baby so far and we anticipate nothing but the best from him! He changes every day it seems. Now he's focusing on things and reaching for and kicking the objects on his play mat. He likes watching the football games and things outside. I realized today though that we don't lay him down flat on his back very much. He's usually in the swing or bumbo seat or with one of us. He can't learn to roll over if he's never on his back! It's been fun seeing him change and it's happening so quickly! What not happening so quickly anymore is my weight loss! I'm right in that awkward stage where maternity clothes are too big but most of my old clothes are a little too small. No one ever tells you that pregnancy will require 3 separate wardrobes before it's over! Oh well - I'll survive!

On a more serious note, there was a bomb that went off yesterday at a law office across the street from the courthouse. I was at one of the high schools when it happened so I didn't hear it. We have a friend who works in that building who, thank God, is okay but it was a super scary situation for everyone. It was a crazy man whom the lawyers had a case against. Somehow that seemed like a good way to remedy the situation and instead he ended up dead. There was one law partner that was burned badly, but no one else was seriously hurt. I feel bad saying it but I'm not sad that he's dead b/c now there is no opportunity for him to be released b/c of some technicality in his case.

Anyways back to cuteness here are more pictures of my big 3 month old, 16 lb 25.5 inch baby!

Yes he really is that white! The flash bounces off that pearly skin! What did anyone expect coming from Curtis and I?!

Those cheeks are awesome!

Watching the Carolina game with Nana!

Mr. Pumpkin. This was supposed to be his Halloween outfit but it was a little short for him last week when we went to Curtis' office Chili Cook off. I love the leaf collar!

This was his first day in shoes! He has the cutest little Nike's and his track suit was perfect for the cool day out. I know I'm biased but this kid is stinkin' cute!

He's so urban in his hoodie! hahaha

Big man in his Bumbo seat - which he is a pro at now!

Beware the cuteness

2008-10-13T14:58:00.005-04:00

Well the first week of work is over and it went pretty well. Thanks to everyone who was praying for me and sent me sweet notes! I greatly appreciate them all! I got back into the swing of things quicker than I thought I would. I was worried about my new lesser brain capacity but it seems to be coming back now with the activity. Jackson is doing great at the babysitters. I think he enjoys the other kids and is a social little baby. He's still sleeping really well at night, for which I'm so thankful!

My parents came into town this weekend and thanks to the extra help with the man, Dad and I were able to get yard work done and Curtis was able to work on things he's been needing to do. It was nice to get in the dirt and work outside because it's always instant gratification. When ever she is around Jackson, mom always has her camera out. She managed to get some super cute pics so here they are:

We call this the banker. His hair is flat and parted and we're just not used to seeing it laying down; we got such a kick out of it!

Chillin' with Allie

Dad and son with the same hairdo! Curtis, you look great!

My parents just moved to DC and this is their great view! I can't wait to visit. I also am excited about taking the man there when he is old enough to know whats going on!

Bath Time

2008-10-06T02:15:00.003-04:00

The man loves bath time! It's a highlight of the day when he gets one. He is starting to move around in that little tub and splash a bit, although I think it's mostly on accident. As with everything else, he's getting to big for that tub. We gave up the big sponge cushion thing a couple of weeks ago. Here is a happy mohawk baby - hey we have to take advantage of all that hair!
Tummy time is working out a little better these days - shown here by him actually holding his head up a bit and looking around

Curtis called this outfit "preppy farmer". I just call it cute! Make sure and look at the great shoes (which stayed on for a total of 10 minutes!)
I got this from Old Navy and think it's so funny! Who could be scared of a doberman in a polo?

Friends

2008-10-02T01:37:00.003-04:00

As no surprise to anyone, Curtis' son is already a ladies man about town! Since he is such a social baby and loves to go out, it only makes sense that he already has friends! Curtis and I are blessed to have several friends here in Dalton that had babies around the same time as we did. It just so happens that most of the man's friends are ladies! He is a lucky little boy :) Here are some pics of play times with friends:

I just realized that the man is going to have two friends named Kate Jones! One is here in Dalton and one is in Columbia. Some of our friends here do have boys but they are older so Jackson can play with them in a few years. Oh and please forgive Milllie for the UGA outfit, she can't help it - it's her mom's fault!

A man sized baby!

2008-10-01T16:37:00.006-04:00

Well, it's official! He's man sized. We went to the doctor today and he is 15 lbs and 12 oz! That puts him in the 90-95% for his age. He is 25 1/2 inches which means we can start charting on the growth chart that Leigh Ann gave us. The doctor even said his problem with going to the bathroom was pretty normal and we didn't have anything to worry about. He also got his shots today and didn't approve! It took him a second to realize that he didn't like them and then he started crying and then screaming. He finally quieted down when we got in the car. The nurse was really fast and did a good job. He's been a little cranky this evening but over all he's been a trooper!

Curtis is downstairs with him watching the Cubs game. It's not very often that they go to the post season so it's super exciting for Curtis and he is enjoying watching it with Jackson. Here they are:
You can see how much Jackson in enjoying it! Although the nap won't last long, it's nice to see him getting some sleep!

I have a problem with children's clothing sizes. They are like women's clothing sizes in that they are wildly inconsistant. This outfit that the Fowlers gave us is labeled 6-9 months but it's already tight on Jackson who is 2.5 months. Something doesn't add up!

He's not upset because of the outfit, I promise!

What do I do all day?

2008-09-26T09:09:00.005-04:00

Recently I've been rethinking some old thoughts. I used to think that if a mom stays home with their children that they have plenty of time to get things done like cooking and cleaning, etc. Well boy was I wrong. It may get better once the man gets older but right now, I'm lucky to get dressed and get a shower! Half of the time I'm not sure where the day goes but before I know it, it's gone and Curtis is home and the house is still a wreck. Does anyone else struggle with this?? So what I do all day may be a mystery but it has something to do with this:

and this:

Don't get me wrong - I love it! I will have to go back to work for a little while so be praying for us as it will be hard. Well the man is stirring from his only nap of the day to come so I will say adios!

Oh one more thing - why are all these mainstream artists coming out with country albums? I don't get it!

Sweet Baby

2008-09-17T11:20:00.004-04:00

Every time, well as long as he's not hungry, I get this guy on the changing table he just lights up and is happy. I brought the camera this time and captured it for the world to see. He's so sweet that it makes up for all the drama baby when he's hungry!

Here's one of him just being a smiley baby - which is a recent occurrence.

Crazy Hair

2008-09-12T06:44:00.006-04:00

First of all I apoligize for the lack of posts lately! Life with a baby is busier than I thought it would be. Excuses aside, Jackson is growing like a man! He is at least 14 lbs I think (based on my weight alone and then with him on the scale with me). He is almost a whole pound bigger than I was at his age, which says a lot if you've ever seen baby pics of me! He is way bigger than Curtis was at this age, but that's not really a fair comparison.

In the past couple of weeks he has developed what Curtis and I like to call "the poof". It is something to behold and is so funny! It can't be controlled and we are loving it. Here is what we mean:

In the past week he has started smiling too. It is so sweet and something I've been looking forward to. It's not a trick we can get him to do yet but is super cute when he does!

(this outfit was Curtis' when he was young!)

In the past week two important people to us have celebrated birthdays

Happy Birthday Rach - it's your last to really celebrate for a while!

And Los - Happy Birthday! We still love you and are proud of you even though you skipped class. Don't take after me, take after Dad and Lauren!

The Man Baby Goes to Church

2008-08-31T11:50:00.002-04:00

Today the Man Baby introduced himself to First Baptist! With his gear labeled and him looking super cute, we left him in the newly renovated nursery. The man baby will settle for nothing less than the best! Everyone was oooing and awwing, which of course he loved. We only stayed for Sunday School but it was fun none the less. Next week we'll stay for big church too. Here are some pics:

More visitors

2008-08-28T13:49:00.005-04:00

This past weekend Lolo and Auggie (better known as Lauren and Alex) came to meet Jackson. He loved them both and wasn't shy about spitting up, peeing and pooping on them! They might as well get the full experience while they are here, right?! Look out It Who Must Be Conceived, you'll have great parents! Here are some pics from the weekend:

Cuddling with Auggie

Cool cat with the sunglasses Lolo bought for him! How cute is that shirt!

Learning how to use the remote and Blackberry with the boys

Lolo and Auggie (boy, I hope these names stick because they are awesome!)

Just chilling with a drink, watching the Cubs game. Thanks Godfather Colin for the great Cubs outfit!

The Five Timers Club

2008-08-26T21:45:00.004-04:00

Some of you may remember the sketch on SNL when Tom Hanks hosted for his 5th time, thus earning him membership into the exclusive Five Timers Club, along with Paul Simon, Chevy Chase and Steve Martin.

Jackson earned his way into the Five Timers Club by messing on five different outfits yesterday. It has to be a record. If you include the clothes from Kris and me that received some Jackson spit, then we certainly had enough for a small load I think.

He's a little fussy right now so hopefully he'll calm down so we can rest. He has been really good lately, last night not included. Fingers crossed!

Here is Jackson chilling this weekend in his awesome monogrammed bathrobe!

My First Post

2008-08-21T17:04:00.005-04:00

Hey all! No this isn't Jackson posting yet, he's not quite ready for that but we're thinking he'll be able to by next month. He is our man baby after all! Since I'm at the computer every 3-4 hours for 20 minutes at a time, I thought I would try my hand at posting. I apologize to the faithful 5 readers because it won't be as funny or clever at Curtis' posts but just as informative. Also please ignore any grammatical errors :)

Jackson is doing very well! He's sleeping very well at night. In fact, last night he slept from 10:45 until 4:30! Yeah sleep! I think he knows how his mom and dad are when they don't get enough sleep and would prefer more pleasant parents. He eats a lot and sure does let us know when he's hungry. For those of you that know my parents dog Caesar, he's like Caesar when he gets hungry! hahaha

We are still the Hotel Callaway with Martha leaving today and my family (minus Carlos, who started at USC today!) coming in tonight. Having grandparents here makes it a bit difficult to try and start a strict schedule so it's more of an idea right now and we can get it down better when it's just him and I. We do love having people here though! (no seriously we do!)

Well my 20 minutes is up so I'll leave you with some super cute pictures of, if I may say, the cutest baby in the world!

Kristina :)

Rachel, JWC and I

Thanks Wilhelms for the outfit!

This is his hungry face!

Too cute! (that's what his bib says!)

4 generations!

We're still here

2008-08-18T21:20:00.006-04:00

I believe in my last post, which I wrote weeks ago it feels like, I said something along the lines

of "we're figuring things out." Yeah, that's not true. We've had some rough nights and have discovered that our boy Jackson has quite a set of lungs when he gets upset. We're working on getting him on a regular schedule. Hopefully that will return our sanity and give Jackson a routine to get used to.

But he is super sweet and we are loving getting to know him more each day. A

quick shout out to Baby Moss and Delivering Dunaway; I haven't noticed any complaining on your blogs. Any tips for us since Jackson, Ellie and Blakely are all about the same age?

Nana, my 91 year old grandmother, made the trip to Dalton this past week to visit her great grandson. It was so great to spend time with her. She was so thrilled to see him and had a smile on her face the whole time. Jackson loves Nana Clements!

Leigh Ann came over on Thursday too so it was good to see Aunt Leigh Ann and her pups, Chili and Baby.

If you parents out there have any words of wisdom or stories about acclimating your babies to a schedule, please post a comment!

Visitors to the Hotel Callaway

2008-08-03T20:50:00.007-04:00

Lots of things happened this week, most of which involved poopy diapers, late night feeding sessions and high pitched crying, so I don't need to go into any details on that front. I think we are starting to get a hang of this baby thing. We're definitely not pros yet, far from it, but I think we have a good idea of what Jackson expects throughout the day. However, we continue to struggle from 10 pm - 12 am. He's always hungry, dirty, upset, etc. during this time. Hopefully he'll progress this week because both mommy and daddy are pretty tired. On the positive side, we've been enjoying Hulu.com at 3 am...I highly recommend Arrested Development, The Office, or 30 Rock reruns.

We did have an exciting Saturday evening as we joined the Moores, the Williams, the Harrisons and Mr. Rork for dinner at Matthew's club. It was Jackson's first outing and he was wonderful. Didn't cry at all until we got into the car to leave. He's pictured on the left in his evening wear.

We have some great visitors this week, including my Aunt Patricia from Pittsburgh and my cousins, Katie and Michelle. We had not seen them since we were married in 2003 so it was wonderful to host them in our home, if only for a few hours. I can't believe how much Michelle and Katie have grown...hard to believe they are starting high school this year!

Bill and Sue, Kristina's aunt and uncle, also popped in for a quick visit on Thursday. They were picking up a friend at the Atlanta airport and had a few hours to swing up to Dalton. It's always great to see them and catch up. Don't they look good with a baby? Soon enough, Bill and Sue. Don't rush Jaclyn and Jon!

Lastly, Jackson has been enjoying walks through the neighborhood. Here's the crew out and about.

A few photos...

2008-07-24T21:37:00.005-04:00

Momma and baby

He is NOT doing Y-M-C-A!

A "drive by lickums" from Allie.

A Day in the Life

2008-07-21T19:38:00.013-04:00

I know that at least two of the five people that read this blog do not have children or are currently pregnant. I thought I would share with you a typical night with a one week old baby.

9 pm - Head to bed. Jackson has eaten by this point and is typically asleep. Because we are running the hottest hotel in Dalton, we have the benefit of leaving Jackson with the grandparents so that we can get some sleep before he needs to eat.

10:30 pm - Wake up. Get Jackson from downstairs. Check/change his diaper. Go back downstairs and get the BM (breast milk) from the fridge. Warm up BM. Feed Jackson while Kristina pumps. If he is still hungry, give him some formula.

11:15 pm - Hope Jackson is ready to go back to sleep. Most likely he'll have the hiccups so we can only lay in bed and listen too him. Even Kris, a heavy sleeper, cannot tune it out.

1 am - See above step. If we're lucky, the BM will have resulted in the other BM. Sometimes this step will include a complete outfit change, as Jackson has been known to "explore the space" beyond the confines of his diaper.

2 am - This time of the night usually brings about a crying fit where Jackson rants and raves about all sorts of topics: why is he wearing something called a gown? when will he get to meet other week old singles? why does Dalton have a curfew? why is it called Ovaltine when the jar is round and the glass is round? They should call it Roundtine. etc. During this time little sleep is had by the parents.

4 am - Another round of changing, feeding, burping, rocking and hopefully sleeping. Kristina usually shines during this time and is showing better stamina than I am. I need to beef up here.

6 or 7 am - Time to feed again. We have been passing Jackson off here to the grandparents so that we can get a few hours of sleep. I've been sleeping until about 9 am, giving me 4 or 5 hours of sleep total, which is ok. Nap time in the afternoon has been a must though.

So that is what the evenings look like at the Callaway house. Tonight will be a big test as I start back to work tomorrow. I'll let you know if I pass out at my desk following lunch tomorrow. Stranger things have happened!

A couple of new photos of our sweet guy:

Jackson Warren Callaway

2008-07-17T16:42:00.005-04:00

The past three days are a blur. Now's not the best time for a long entry so here's a quick update.

After inducing labor on Tuesday without much progress, the doctors opted for a Cesarean section procedure.
At 5:12 pm, Jackson was born! He's a hoss, weighing in at 10 pounds 10 ounces and 21 inches long!
Kris was really weak and tired after the surgery, needing two extra units of blood to recover.
We had a great stay at the hospital and got home about an hour ago.
We are all very tired but are head over heels for our sweet little guy. His face is so sweet, his feet and hands seem big and even his whimpers and cries are cute! We both cannot wait to learn more about this amazing little blessing from the Lord!

Here are a couple of images to hold everyone over until I can post more.

The Final Countdown, For Real!

2008-07-14T22:15:00.004-04:00

By the time most of you read this, we'll already be in the hospital. No, Kris is not in labor at this moment. If she was, do you think I would take the time to write a blog entry? Wait, don't answer that question.

We're going in tomorrow at 6 am to induce labor. It will probably be a long process but we're excited knowing that we'll surely meet our sweet son tomorrow. I won't be able to update all of you with texts and emails tomorrow but know that I'll post images as soon as I can.

Please know that Kristina and I appreciate your prayers always but especially tomorrow. Please pray for her safety and for the safe and healthy arrival of little Jackson.

Here's a photo of the happy parents taken last week. You can see Kris in all her pregnant glory!

No News Yet

2008-07-08T21:54:00.006-04:00

The lack of recent posts means that I haven't had a lot to say. No, the baby has not arrived yet. Yes, Kris is extremely ready. No, those are not her normal ankles. Yes, I've been pretty emotional the past two weeks thinking about becoming a father. No, Al Roker is definitely not funny as the host of Celebrity Family Feud.

And until the baby arrives sometime within the next week, I imagine that I probably won't have much else to say. But definitely stay tuned to the blog for the latest news.

So in the mean time, it is time to play a little Truth or Dare. And since this is somewhat of a family blog, I'm picking Truth this time.

Fess up. In the past 5 years, have you:

Taken a Charlie's Angels-type picture?
Done the Wave at a sporting event?
Sung YMCA without thinking about the actual meaning of the song?
Posed yourself or your kids in the "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil" pose?

If you have done any of the previous four items, please explain your actions immediately!

The Final Countdown

2008-06-26T22:08:00.002-04:00

No, we're not quite that close but I couldn't resist using the Europe song as the title for an entry, mainly because of how funny it is in Arrested Development, one of my all time favorite shows.

We are in the final three week stretch where baby Jackson could decide to make his grand appearance at any time. While we eagerly await his arrival, I thought I would send out a request to our four loyal readers (yes, we did have five but I think one deleted the site from their bookmarks). Kris and I would love to hear nuggets of wisdom from you parents out there. What advice do you have for us as we get ready to go to the hospital or enter the world of parenthood in a broad sense? Or, if you aren't parents yet, feel free to post anything you want here, like lottery numbers, you credit card numbers or anything in that vain. We want to hear from all four of you!

Baby Things

2008-06-21T16:32:00.003-04:00

My office threw us a baby shower on Thursday. They are a great bunch and we were overwhelmed by their generosity. I'll post some pictures soon.

We're working in the nursery right now, going through all of the gifts we have received and taking inventory. Everything is just so dang cute. We were supposed to get our new carpet for the nursery today but due to a little snafu, it will have to wait.

And just so you know, important items like bibs are getting a thorough testing before hand. It is all Allie Approved!

My Kind of Town and Other Updates

2008-06-13T17:06:00.008-04:00

So I'm back in Dalton after five days in Chicago. If you've never been to Chicago in the spring or summer, then put it on your bucket list. The city is awesome, currently at #1 on my Favorite US Cities list, narrowly beating out Washington, DC; South Boston, VA; Greenwood, SC; and Compton. Chicago has all of the things that New York does, but it is easier to get around, in my opinion, and more picturesque. The museums, the sports, the food...there is so much to see and do there. I was there for work, our biggest show of the year, NeoCon. It was very successful and we won an award, keeping the seven year streak alive. I had some good food, good wine and had some very enjoyable runs along Lake Michigan. Chicago is a very active city.

My two favorite moments:

I finally met Jeff Shaara. He gave a lecture on Saturday, discussing his previous work and his writing philosophy. It really inspired me to confront my fear about eventually taking a stab at a book myself. I'm still looking for subject matter so if you have a great idea that I can steal without giving royalties, please email or post your ideas...maybe we could work on something together (cough...Rachel....cough). Anyway, meeting Jeff was great and very meaningful to me. Thanks for being so accessible, Jeff. And if you have not picked up The Steel Wave yet, what are you waiting for? I'm about half way through and think that it is awesome.
Rainn Wilson was at NeoCon. He was appearing on behalf of a furniture manufacturer. Crazy, huh? So my coworker Rebecca and I stalked him and were able to snag autographs and meet him. He is very nice and accommodating. It was the highlight of NeoCon for me. I wanted to hear him sing Wild Side but I thought that would be too much to ask for.

While I was in Chicago, our awesome friends in Dalton hosted a baby shower for Kristina and Baby Jackson. Much of our families came into town for it and by all accounts it was a wonderful party. Thank you everyone for your generous gifts and we greatly value your friendship. Special thanks to Tracy, Janet, Lynsey, Alys, Mary Lynn and Ginny for hosting the group. Here are some of the pictures.

Quick Update from the Windy City

2008-06-09T22:25:00.003-04:00

Expect a post by the end of the week. I've got several things to update people about, namely the baby shower last week and the going's on in Chicago this week. The Callaway Family blog will have its first celebrity guest so stay tuned! Some of you already know about it because I fired off some picture messages on my phone but the footage here will be even better. I'll post it when I get back home.

I hope all is well and thanks for your comments about the name. We're very excited about it. Thanks to Baggett for suggesting "Seven" as the name. I wanted "Seven" and Kris wanted "Soda" so we compromised with Jackson. Peterman was our second choice, followed by Puddy.

He Who Has Been Named!

2008-06-01T18:55:00.003-04:00

The waiting is over! Check your office pools as we're finally announcing the name. If you had Jackson Warren Callaway, you're in the money.

We cannot wait to meet you, Jackson!

Dance Dance Revulsion

2008-05-28T19:37:00.005-04:00

Kristina's sister, Lauren, was married last weekend to Alex Armstrong. We are generally happy about this union.

The only downside is that weddings make some people do strange things. For instance, some weddings make people hire Whitesnake cover bands or the limo driver from The Wedding Singer. Mostly, weddings just cause white people to dance. We've all become numb to our typical dance moves, like the head bob (my personal favorite), the lawn mower, the sprinkler, the grocery cart and any other sort of domestic chore that can be somehow applied to music. But without a doubt, the contrived line dance is the worst of all white people dances. You know the ones I'm talking about: The Macarena. The Electric Slide. Any country line dance.

My least favorite is the Cha Cha Slide "song" (term used loosely). Though, I will give it up for the guy who wrote it. He is a genius. His formula is a gold mine: create a hip hop beat, give some simple instructions, and white people at weddings will go crazy.

I'm currently working on my own wedding song called "The Elite WASP Slide." The main steps will include: Look at Rolex, Reach for wallet, Snap fingers at hired help, Turn up nose, and Take cell phone out of pocket to call your broker. This will definitely catch on. Watch for it at reception near you.

Despite my obvious disdain for these dances, my family did something pretty cool at Lauren's reception: they danced to Thriller. Here it is for your enjoyment. I apologize for the eerie Bombs Over Baghdad-like camera footage.

Truth or Dare

2008-05-20T06:58:00.003-04:00

Truth: I really felt the baby for the first time yesterday! Kris obviously feels his antics all the time but I always seem to miss them. Last night we were in our birthing class and he was really active. I looked over at Kris as she grimaced from an arm/leg to the stomach. I could actually see her belly moving! So I reached over and could feel him moving his little limbs all around. It was pretty neat for me. He's going to be a little stinker, no doubt!

Dare: I dare any frisbees to come near Allie. She will hunt you down. She will find you. You have no hope around this doberman!

UPDATE: A Meaningful Surprise

2008-05-15T18:35:00.008-04:00

I an amazing surprise in the mail today, something that was completely unexpected and that says so much about the sender.

My favorite contemporary author is Jeff Shaara. He writes fiction novels that are based on major historical events. He has written about the the American Revolution, the Mexican War, the Civil War and World War I. His most recent book, The Steel Wave, came out this week and is his second book in a trilogy about World War II. And even though I have not read any of it yet, I encourage you to check it out. If you like history, you will not be disappointed by any of his novels.

His work has been a big part of my life. I studied history in college because I was so fascinated by the world that he created. I continued studying history in graduate school because of the passion that I discovered inside myself for research and writing. And I know it is not very romantic, but my first date with Kristina was to a Jeff Shaara book signing in Charleston (we went to Fort Sumter too). Unfortunately, by the time we made it to the store, Jeff had already left to go visit the Hunley (Putting a torpedo on a stick? Seriously? Come on guys!). So, as you can see, he has been a part of my life since college.

A couple of years ago I contacted Jeff via email and mentioned that if he was interested, I would like to send him electronic scans of my grandfather's letters home from Europe in '44-'45. He said that he would love to take a look at them so I sent them on. My grandfather, Pa, was just like every other GI: humble and scared but brave and bound by his duty. I thought that Jeff might be able to use them as a source for his WWII novels. As it turns out, he did.

Jeff sent me an autographed copy of The Steel Wave, personally thanking me for the use of Pa's letters. I am even acknowledged in the research sources section of the novel. For a fan of Jeff's and a history nerd, this means so much to me. It will probably be hard to tell what he was able to use from the Callaway letters but even if he was only able to gain a small ounce of my grandfather's character, then that is enough for my dad and me. It is cool for me to be mentioned in his book but all I did was mail in a cd. William H. Callaway really deserves the recognition. I am honored that his story can be a part of a book that millions of people will read. It is very cool for my family.

Thank you, Jeff. I hope to see you on June 7 in Chicago at the book signing. I can't wait to dive into The Steel Wave!

UPDATE: When I first got the book, I rushed through the intro and saw my same at the end of the Sources section. Yesterday as I gave the beginning a thorough read, Shaara had listed the key Americans, Germans and British whose works had impacted the book. Lt. William H. Callaway is listed with the likes of Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton. That's pretty awesome. Thank you, Jeff.

Move over, Iron Man...Chicken Dog is here!

2008-05-11T20:14:00.003-04:00

Many of you have heard about the random chicken that is running around our neighborhood lately. The appearance of this mysterious farm animal has created a new superhero...Chicken Dog.

Chicken Dog is like most other superheros: video evidence is rarely captured. But in this case, an amateur photographer managed to snag a few frames.

Chicken Dog: Protecting middle class neighborhoods from farm animals since 2008.

When "don't like" isn't strong enough.

2008-05-04T22:03:00.006-04:00

My parents raised me to never use the word "hate" and I generally abide by their instructions. Except in the case of "I hate the Cardinals" or "I hate Clemson," I rarely use the word. But I did think of three instances this weekend where I either hate a tangible thing or I hate an action that people do, so I thought I would share them with you.

Of course, things like terrorists, dudes on To Catch a Predator, cigarettes and carnies are a given so I don't need to include them here.

1. I hate it when people stand directly in front of the baggage return at the airport, blocking the view from everyone else. Would it not make more sense to stand back 5 feet so that everyone could see their bags? Undoubtedly, you're just going to have to move out of my way when I have to pull my bag off the little luggage car wash. Just move out of the way because I'm ready to go home!

2. I hate it when people don't return shopping carts to their proper place in parking lots. This weekend I saw someone leave their cart on one of those little parking lot medians even though there was a cart return about 20 feet away. Would it kill this idiot to do the minimum wage worker a favor and return the cart like a member of society? Drives me nuts!

3. I hate bamboo. It is in my back yard. I spend several hours at least once a month in warm weather digging that crap up out of the ground. It never stops growing. It never dies. It is of the devil. I hate it so much that it makes me wish that I never bought this house...almost. What possessed the previous owners to plant it, I'll never know. They must have had their Bad Idea Jeans on at the time. If anyone has some super bamboo killing tips, please share!

What do others do that drives you nuts?

Roll Call!

2008-04-28T20:20:00.000-04:00

I know, it has been a while. I'm sure that all four of you have missed these witty posts. But in the words of AJ from the Backstreet Boys, "Oh my God, we're back again!" That's all I need to say.

I now have a tool called the Sitemeter up on the page. Perhaps you noticed it. Anyway, it tracks page hits, time on the site and other cool stats. It also tracks location and domain names. While it is impossible to identify people from this information, it is interesting to see the variety of people visiting our tiny little blog. Thanks for your time!

So today I am sending out a simple "roll call" to all of our readers. If you have a second, post your name in the comments section of this thread. Don't be afraid to say hello, even if you are usually a lurker. Give us a shout!

Best new website: Hulu.com

2008-04-15T20:42:00.000-04:00

This is a quick post to share about my new favorite website, Hulu.com. I'm not sure how this site is legal but there are a boat load of great tv shows with full episodes available to watch for free.

The best feature is the archive of Saturday Night Live clips. I grew up on this show and I credit Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman for many of my delinquencies. So here are a few of my favorite SNL commercial clips on Hulu so far. Many more to share with you in the future. Enjoy!

Old Glory: Insurance Against Robot Attacks

HiberNol

Cluckin' Chicken

Bad Idea Jeans

Colon Blow

Velvet Jones

Happy 30th Birthday, Doug!

2008-04-15T20:21:00.000-04:00

This is my buddy, Doug. Wednesday is his 30th birthday. As a way to wish him happy birthday, I thought I'd tell you a little about him and immortalize it on the internet.

I could send Doug a card but he would view that as a lame gift. Let's give Hallmark 5 bucks for a card as we think to ourselves, "Yeah, that sounds like something that I'd say. I'll just add my name here at the bottom." Doug is above all that. In fact, I could send him a $100 Best Buy gift card and he'd probably return it to me. He's not interested in material things like that.

If Doug had his choice, he'll start his birthday evening at a fancy restaurant, probably one of those with a sommelier and valet parking. After dinner, he would definitely take his wife Rachel out dancing. The tango, the shag, the robot, the lambada. It doesn't matter. Doug has all of those moves in his bag. After that, they'd probably go out for a night cap, probably at some karaoke bar. Doug loves to sing, particularly anything by Enrique Iglesias. On the way home, they would definitely hit that awesome grilled cheese place over in Sandhills and call it a night.

So happy birthday, Doug. I hope that your dream birthday comes true on Wednesday. I'll give you a call after my BINGO match is over at the Knights of Columbus.

MTV "Cribs"

2008-04-13T09:16:00.000-04:00

Actually, we're more of the VH1 Classic generation these days.

Anyway, the nursery for He Who Must Be Named is taking shape. With only a few hiccups, we put together the crib yesterday. Along with the fun bedding, the crib really looks great in the room. The next step is to pick out some fun Shaw carpet to be bound into a rug.

Today we are going to work on the closet. We spent a small fortune yesterday at Home Depot buying new shelves. Add that to the eventual expense to redo our roof and you've got the least exciting purchases ever!

Lastly, this is a special note to our parents: you don't need to worry about the safety of the new crib. We had it tested out yesterday and it was approved by the granddog.

The Nursery

2008-04-08T21:12:00.000-04:00

We painted the office and sitting room over the weekend, as it will be the nursery once He Who Must Be Named arrives. The photo isn't the best but you can see our two colored approach. I think the green drapes are a nice touch too. That chair is not staying. We'll probably put the crib together this weekend so stay tuned for more pictures.

Do any of our 5 readers have a Skype account? We used the service yesterday for the first time to do a video conference with my parents. It was easy, free and pretty cool. So if anyone has a webcam (our wicked cool iMac has one built in), post your Skype name here. Mine is drewstheme.

It's so easy, well...you know.

2008-04-03T21:43:00.000-04:00

As you all know, we love to give back. Gotta help the kids. So we went to the Dalton Day Care fund raiser, "An Evening with the Stars." Sounds kind of like your Junior Prom theme, right? Anyway, it was a great time for a great cause. A bunch of us from work went together, including Amy, Susan, Melida, Suzanne and Cindy as the Spice Girls! I'll post a picture of them soon. Brian and I went as the GEICO Cavemen. Here's what I looked like:

I'm still peeling spirit gum off my face. I'll post some pictures of the group tomorrow.

Shameless Self Promotion: Gift Registries

2008-03-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

Monday morning, 8:16 am. First cup of coffee, still checking email. Maybe IMDB.com for celebrity gossip (we all have our guilty pleasures).

Coworker #1: Have a good weekend, Curtis?

Me: Yeah, it was nice. I went to Atlanta and Chattanooga to register for baby stuff. It was pretty much exactly what I wanted to do to recharge after a long week.

Coworker #1: Really? Gosh, I thought you hated that kind of stuff...

Me: Nah! I know I put out this macho vibe but it's all an act. When it comes to shopping, it's pretty much my favorite thing to do. Some people like to play video games, crap like that. I love shopping. Though, I had no idea that looking at things for the baby could be so much fun. Wait till I show you the kick a** bedding we picked out at Pottery Barn for He Who Must Must Be Named. He's going to love it!

Coworker #2: Are you serious, man? That sounds worse than filling out TPS Reports.

Me: Let me tell you, it is a thrill registering for all these gifts. The whole store is your playground and you can register for whatever you want. Sure, it's sometimes hard to decide if you want the sports themed crib sheets verses the Winnie the Pooh sheets but you've just got to stay focused. I packed several Powerades so that I would not get dehydrated. The Cliffbars really helped too. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
__

I dragged Kristina and my mom, who was in town visiting, on trips to Target, Pottery Barn Kids and Babies R Us this weekend. They didn't really want to go but I made them. "We've got to get this stuff done," I said. We powered through it, but not without lots of whining and complaining. So we now have gift registries established should anyone feel like sending a gift. Now, it feels weird writing that, almost like I'm fishing for gifts. That is certainly not the case, believe me. I guess it is just one of those expected acts of our society these days. Kris wanted to register for DVDs and PlayStation 3 games but I told her that would be a little tacky. Good grief.

We're picking out paint colors for the nursery this week. I can hardly wait!

Pottery Barn Kids Id - 2119547

Our Target registry

Our Babies R Us registry Id - 41037244

An Answered Prayer

2008-03-30T21:34:00.000-04:00

A quick post to share an answered prayer:

For quite a while now, I (along with others, no doubt) have been praying for a dear friend of mine. This person is extremely bright, thoughtful and fun but has been in a funk for a quite some time due to their situation at work. My prayer for this person has been that God would provide them an opportunity to be in a place that valued them for their expertise and talents. Throughout their search and various interviews, I continued to pray that God would lead them to where he could be use them, a prayer that I pray for myself all the time.

God has answered this prayer! My friend was offered and accepted an awesome job with an amazing organization. It is a great move for their career with opportunities for future promotions. Throughout the process, God has had this in mind, even though we were all blind to it for a long time. And He knows what is best. So even though the new job and a move will bring trials and tough choices, God has prepared this new path and it is so exciting!

Lord, I thank you for your plan, your timing and for the gift of friends. I am very proud of my friend!

Easter and other items

2008-03-24T18:06:00.001-04:00

First off, I hope that everyone had a great Easter. The weather was beautiful in Columbia and Greenville, where we were this past weekend. We had a great time with the Browns and it was great to worship the risen Lord at Shandon with the Joneses. Here is what we looked like two days ago. Notice the baby bump on My Baby's Momma:

Other items:

No names yet. But, in the mean time, Baby Callaway will be referred to as "He Who Must Be Named." It is much more fun than calling him Baby Callaway, I think. If you have any name suggestions, real or fake, please post them in the Comments section. We'd love to hear your real or fake names for our child. Just remember that we reserve the right to use or shoot down all names and will eventually go with whatever we want to call him, even if it is Kramer Moonbeam Callaway.
Some amazing news was delivered over on Keepin' Up with the Joneses, the blog of our dear friends Rachel and Doug. They are newly pregnant and we are very excited to have a couple to experience this time with. We were lucky enough to learn in person this weekend. I'm pulling for a girl so that He Who Must Be Named can hit on her pretty hard.
We held our annual live and in person fantasy baseball draft over the weekend in Greenville. A bunch of my buddies are in the league so it was great to see Bogle and Baggett this weekend. Oh wait, Baggett wasn't there because he couldn't drive the 45 minute drive from Greenwood to draft in person and had to phone it in. Way to go man. I managed to drive from Dalton but you couldn't make it from Greenwood. I hate it that you weren't there, man.
Lastly, Kris was watching Emeril tonight and I don't understand why everyone cheers when he puts garlic in the dish. If anyone can rationally explain this, I would love to know. I just think that his audience is deranged.

The Constant Gardener

2008-03-13T22:14:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to give you a quick update from our silly dog, Allie. Kristina caught Allie lounging in the middle of our water deprived garden today. It's the first time we've seen her lying down in there. Notice that she's not far from her precious frisbee either. She's something else.

Catching up

2008-03-11T20:12:00.001-04:00

Thanks to everyone who has emailed us over the past two weeks. We are both behind on our correspondence so expect to hear from us soon. Almost as soon as we got back in town from Spain, we left to go to Greenville for Matthew Fowler and Hillary Powell's wedding. It was so great to see everyone. In fact, all of my best friends (sans Trey) were actually in the service. It was pretty cool to spend so much time with everyone, even if I am still behind on my sleep.

I still have some random thoughts to share from our trip, plus some other things that I've been thinking about lately. The problem is that I usually think about what I want to write about while I'm at work. And for obvious reasons, I have a self imposed "no blogging at work" policy, unless I'm eating lunch. So by the time I get home, I've usually forgotten about fodder for posts. So just think, these posts would be much more insightful and absolutely hilarious if I wrote between 8 am and 5 pm. Alas, all my creative juices will be spent on Shaw Contract Group, which is still pretty cool, I think.

So to make up for the lack of posts, here is a short clip of our time in the town of Girona, just to give you a little taste of Spain. The defense wall around the city that the Romans built is still intact and we were able to walk on it. Very cool. Unfortunately, one of us still has a childish sense of humor. Can you guess who it is?

A Quick Trip Recap

2008-03-04T21:09:00.000-05:00

I have many thoughts on traveling abroad and observations made while in Spain but I think I'll save them for another post. In all honesty, I'm still a tad jet-lagged and am looking forward to going to sleep soon. But, I want to give all of our 5 readers a quick recap of what we did on our trip to Barcelona.

A short 8 hour flight from Atlanta plopped us down in Barcelona, Spain. Pretty neat stuff. For 600 bucks you get a seat that doubles as a flotation device, half a soda and some peanuts. Whatever. From the airport we navigated our way via bus, subway, train and taxi out of the city to a small town to the northwest called Cardona, home of one of Spain's many paradors. These are historic castles and such that are owned by the government and run as lodging for tourists. Since we had always wanted to stay in a castle, we decided that Cardona was our best shot.

You can see the castle on the hill in background. The defensive position on the heights was impressive as the castle held a commanding presence over the entire valley. This picture was taken from the small town. We spent the night in neat and comfortable accommodations. The real treat were the views and the ambiance of the place.

From Cardona, we trekked back toward Barcelona via train and stopped at a place called Montserrat, a monastery also built on a mountain. Actually, Montserrat was above the clouds while we were there. The place is very old and we were amazed that it was constructed so high up. Yes, it was pretty touristy and we only saw 2 real live monks and 1 nun, but it was definitely worth the trip.

We then took the train back to Barcelona, were we stayed for the next 4 nights. The city is pretty amazing. It is a big city of 1.7 million people and boasts all the amenities you would expect, but it also has a rich history that really interested us. We found ourselves seeking out old Barcelona, tracking down Roman ruins and spending time in the Barri Gotic, or Gothic District. This is actually where we rented an apartment. The accommodations were fine and the location was perfect.
This is a picture of a remaining portion of the Roman defense wall that surrounded the original city. Pretty cool, huh? Our favorite museum was called the Museau de la Ciutat; its highlight were Roman ruins discovered and excavated in the 1930s. We saw the remains of the original city Forum, laundry, wine making facilities and a temple. Awesome stuff.

The enduring symbol of the city is La Sagrada Familia, a cathedral that began construction in the 1880s. Well as you can see from the picture, it is still under construction! Hard to believe. Antoni Gaudi is credited with the vision for the church and oversaw its construction for the first 30 or so years of the project until he was run over by a city tram. The work continues and is expected to end in 2026. I can't even begin to describe how unique this place is so you'll just have to take my word for it. The imagery is very different. Take a look at a few more pictures.

Getting sleepy....

The last highlight I'll share before I turn in is this: on our last full day, we decided to take a spur of the moment trip out of the city to Girona, about a 90 minute train ride northeast of the city. It turned out to be one of our favorite parts of the trip. We actually were able to walk a huge section of the Roman Wall in Girona. I wanted to pour hot oil from the top onto tourists but I was all out of hot oil. Bummer. We also saw a beautiful cathedral with the second widest gothic nave in the world behind St. Peter's. Yeah, it sounds like a stretch to me but you gotta have something to hang your hat on, right? Just ask Greenwood, SC and its Widest Mainstreet. But I digress. Girona was beautiful and also had an awesome restaurant called Blanc that served us some great seafood.

That is all for now. We will definitely try to write more soon. Feel free to post questions, if you have any. I also think that Kris is going to post our photos on Snapfish so we'll try to post the link to those as well for our 6 loyal readers out there.

Big news!!!

2008-02-25T19:23:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the first entry of our blog and what a way to start it off. We went to the doctor today and "met" our future son for the first time. We're having a boy!

(that's his face!)

Kris and I are both very excited to finally learn more about the thing that is growing inside her. So far though, Kris is doing most of the growing! She gained 10 pounds in the past month so I've been supportive by singing choice lines from songs like "You're a big, fine woman won't you back that thing up" and "Baby got back." Fortunately for me she still seems to laugh at my childish humor.

Back to the baby! (Stay on task, Curtis) Everything checks out great and we could see all of the necessary stuff, like the heart, brain, lungs, kidneys and boy parts. He's a whopping 10 ounces right now. Kris is on target for a July 15 delivery date, which is cool because we had our first date on July 14 and got engaged on July 10, which is my sister's birthday. So July sounds like a great month to me.

(look at his little feet!)

About the blog, we plan on using this as a tool to keep all of our friends updated on our progress. This will particularly be helpful once it is born so that everyone can see how the family is doing. I encourage you to bookmark this page and check back often. Google Reader is a great tool to track blogs if you've never used it. Check it out on Google.com/reader. You should be able to post comments and let us know how you are doing. I've been eager to start one of these things for a long time so hopefully we can keep it updated frequently with new posts and pictures, maybe videos too.

(boy parts! I guess I should have checked "Adult Content" when I created this blog!)

I hope you all are well and I look forward to hearing from you. Don't worry, my aim is to keep this friendly to all people, even if you don't have kids. So for all you singles and couple out there, we'll try not to over load you with baby. This will be a G rated blog unless I get upset about any of the following: the Cubs, the Gamecocks or my fantasy team. If that happens, then all bets are off. History is not on my side, folks, but I pledge to keep it family friendly!

The Callaway Family

A Little Q and A

Easter 2010

Some new words

Tricky little bugger

California 2009 (23 photos), by kristina callaway

California 2009

IMG_6070 (1 photo), by kristina callaway

IMG_6042 (1 photo), by kristina callaway

Silly Boy

Christmas in Florida

Jackson and Santa

More videos!

We're Still Here

Jackson Dancing

Jacksons new trick

Philadelphia Trip

Jackson's 14 months pics

Mud Run 2009

New York

A Must Watch Video

The Man's Party

Happy Birthday, Jackson!

Atlanta Braves

More traveling and less working!

Laughers Man

The New Train

Texas

Hair Cut

9 Months Old

Easter '09

8 months old

6 Month Video

6 months old

Talkers Man

Christmas and New Years

Gravy

Tuesday's with Dorie

Fun pics

Tuesdays with Dorie

No Babies Were Harmed in this Photo

Tuesday's with Dorie: Sugar Cookies

Thanksgiving Trips

Tuesday's with Dorie

Belly Laugh

Man Art

4 months old

Happy Birthday, Kristina

Tuesday's With Dorie: Kugelopf

Tuesday's with Dorie

Victorian Baby, Gel and Talkers

He is in control!

Tuesdays with Dorie

Tuesday's With Dorie

3 Months old

Beware the cuteness

Bath Time

Friends

A man sized baby!

What do I do all day?

Sweet Baby

Crazy Hair

The Man Baby Goes to Church

More visitors

The Five Timers Club

My First Post

We're still here

Visitors to the Hotel Callaway

A few photos...

A Day in the Life

Jackson Warren Callaway

The Final Countdown, For Real!

No News Yet

The Final Countdown

Baby Things

My Kind of Town and Other Updates

Quick Update from the Windy City

He Who Has Been Named!

Dance Dance Revulsion

Truth or Dare