New Additon...

Callie's new cousin, Andrei Omar Robles was born December 31st, 2008 at 9:24am.  21 inches and 7.6 pounds.

Christmas in Arizona

We spent Christmas in Arizona with Grammie Barb, Uncle Josh and Aunt Sara.  Callie did great on the airplane (which mom worried about) and enjoyed going to the hot tub.

My little dentist

One of Callie's favorite things to play with is the toothbrush. She still doesn't have any teeth, but her mom is so proud of her her attempt at good oral hygiene at such a young age!

Stanley Christmas 2008

We were off to Wilton for Stanley Christmas. We had a great weekend with lots of food, fun times and too many toys!!! I think Christmas became fun all over again having a little one to enjoy it with. Callie got lots of practice crawling and pull herself up to cruise along furniture in an effort to keep up with her cousins, Avery and Lila. She was exhausted after the weekend, but I can tell that she loves to spend time with the big kids.

Fire it Up!!!

We went to Fire it Up for our annual day after thanksgiving pottery making extravaganza. I kept Callie entertained by making footprints.

Thanksgiving 2008

Grammie Barb and Uncle Josh flew in for Thanksgiving. Grammie Barb and GrandAunt Jane did all the cooking while the rest of us watched football, movies and stuffed ourselves!

The Pound

Dad teaching Callie the "pound."

Traveling to Minnesota for the big rivalry...

We headed to Minnesota to cheer on the Hawkeyes at "Kinick North." The game was a blow out, but we enjoyed taunting Ben!

Happy Halloween

The Meyer's visit for the Wisconsin football weekend

Ted, Jackie and Ben came to visit for the weekend and brought their new puppy Gomez (king charles spaniel). Benelli was in love and they spent the entire weekend chasing around the house. The theme for the Iowa versus Wisconsin game was "bring back the stache." See photo for Justin's mustache - yuck! We went to "chop chop" for dinner (as Ben calls it) and that was where the saki bomb photo was taken. It was a great weekend and we can't wait for them to visit again!

Visit to Albion

We went to Albion, IA to visit Great Grandpa Max and Great Grandma Shirley. We spent the day cheering on the Hawkeyes, eating lunch and driving to visit Uncle Gary and Aunt Peg. Callie got to play with all of great grandma's toys and ate lunch in the highchair used for over 4 generations!

Matt Lepic's Wedding

Corey, Audra, Lila and Avery came to visit us for Matt Lepic's wedding. We had a great time at the wedding and Callie had a great time with her cousins! Remington was kind enough to share her bed with Avery.

Jumperoo

Callie loves her jumperoo!

My First Hawkeye Football Game

It was Homecoming and Callie went to her first Hawkeye football game. She slept through most of the game and was scared during the big plays when the fans in the stadium cheered loudly. The Hawks played poorly and lost to Northwestern.

Big Smiles

Lots of big smiles!!!

Wilson's Apple Orchard

It was a beautiful Sunday and so we took Dingleberry Road out to Wilson's Apple Orchard. We drove our car down the "runway", over the river and past the many rows of apples to find the ones we wanted. Justin and Aunt Jane got to work picking the Honey Crisp and Burgundy apples. It has been a "good year" for apples and there were so many apples on the ground that it was slippery with apple sauce. We finished the day with fresh from the oven apple turnovers - yum.

My First Hawkeye Tailgating Season

Callie is a HUGE Hawkeye fan. She is up early for tailgating and then goes home with Aunt Jane to nap while Mom and Dad go to cheer on the Hawks.

Birth Day!

Introducing Caroline (Callie) Taylor Stanley born 4/22/08 (Earth Day) at 8:44am. We checked into University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics at 5pm on 4/21/08 for induction (eight days past my due date). They gave me a prostaglandin at 5:30pm and I was having contractions by 6pm. I received an epidural (from my next door neighbor) at 1:30am and waited for my doctor (Dr. Jennifer Niebyl) to arrive and started pushing at 8am. It was an amazing experience and the staff was wonderful. We had lots of visitors in the hospital and even more when we got home.

Baby Bump

We decided to have some pictures taken of the "bump" at 6 months.