Well it's about time...

...I introduced you to this little cutie:


Meet Caleb, born in June, the sweetest, best natured baby I've ever met (and I'm not just saying that because I'm his mother). I really can't get over what a calm, sweet soul he has. I know I really should have posted about him before now, but the trouble is I used to do my posting during Jonno's nap time, but now I just want to spend that time one-on-one with Caleb--holding him, smelling his head, making him laugh, etc. Or sometimes I have to spend that time doing practical things like laundry or cooking, so my blog has kind of taken the brunt of the neglect.


Here are my two little boys. Jonno has taken a while to adjust. He likes Caleb, but sometimes it's hard when he wants me to play with him but I'm feeding Caleb. He's only made a few attempts on Caleb's life, and none recently, so I think we're making progress.


Now about Caleb's name. We decided to name him Caleb because I came upon the story of Caleb while I was pregnant and couldn't stop thinking about how courageous and humble Caleb was and how I wanted to be like him and have my son grow to be like him. It's not exactly a story you hear or think of all the time, so let me refresh your memory. Or rather, let my have President Spencer W. Kimball refresh your memory because he tells the story so much better than I could because come on, he was a prophet. So here's the story of Caleb in his words:

"Shortly after Moses led Israel out of bondage from Egypt, he sent twelve men to search out the promised land and to bring back word about living conditions there. Caleb and Joshua were among the group. After spending forty days on their mission, the twelve men returned. They brought back figs and pomegranates and a cluster of grapes so large it took two men to carry it between them on a pole.
"The majority of the search party gave a very discouraging report on the promised land and its inhabitants. Although they found a land that was beautiful and desirable and flowing with milk and honey, they also found that the cities were walled and formidable and that the people, the “sons of Anak,” looked like giants. The Israelite scouts said that they felt like grasshoppers in comparison. Caleb, however, saw things a little differently, with what the Lord called “another spirit,” and his account of the journey and their challenges was quite different. He said, “Let us go up at once, and possess [their land]; for we are well able to overcome it” (Num. 13:30).
"Joshua and Caleb were men of great faith, and they joined in urging that the Israelites go immediately, to the promised land, saying:
'If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
'Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for … the Lord is with us: fear them not' (Num. 14:8–9).
"But the faint-hearted Israelites, remembering the security of their Egyptian slavery and lacking faith in God, rejected Caleb and Joshua and sought even to stone them to death.
Because of their lack of faith, the children of Israel were required to spend the next forty years wandering about and eating the dust of the desert, when they might have feasted on milk and honey.
"The Lord decreed that before Israel could enter the land of Canaan, all of the faithless generation who had been freed from bondage must pass away—all go into eternity—all except Joshua and Caleb. For their faith, they were promised that they and their children would live to inhabit the promised land.
"Forty-five years after the twelve men returned from their exploration of the land of promise, when the new generation of Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, was completing its conquest of Canaan, Caleb spoke to Joshua:
'Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me … to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.
'Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God.
'And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.
'As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me [at least in the spirit of the gospel and its call and needs]: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, … both to go out, and to come in' (Josh. 14:7–8, 10–11).
"From Caleb’s example we learn very important lessons. Just as Caleb had to struggle and remain true and faithful to gain his inheritance, so we must remember that, while the Lord has promised us a place in his kingdom, we must ever strive constantly and faithfully so as to be worthy to receive the reward.
"Caleb concluded his moving declaration with a request and a challenge with which my heart finds full sympathy. The Anakims, the giants, were still inhabiting the promised land, and they had to be overcome. Said Caleb, now at 85 years, “Give me this mountain” (Josh. 14:12).
"This is my feeling for the work at this moment. There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord, humbly, 'Give me this mountain,' give me these challenges."

If I could wish anything for my son it would be that he would face the mountains the Lord will ask him to climb in his lifetime the same way Caleb of old did: "Give me this mountain." Not because he thinks he is strong enough on his own, but because he has faith that with God all things are possible.