I'm a terrible blogger.

Well the jury is in...I am a terrible blogger. In my defense we just got a new computer that will make the process much easier and more importantly faster so I am going to try my best to do better.

A lot has gone on in the past few months. Caden turned one, I got pregnant, my brother (technically my sister-in-law) had my beautiful niece Kendall, so I will post some picts to try to catch up the past 4 months.

We are in the process of packing for our trip to Texas. We will be arriving on Dec 18, and Brian will leave on Dec 29th, but Caden and I are staying until Jan 13. My grandfather is having open heart surgery, so I am going to stick around to help out in his care. Of course the grandmothers are just so upset about this... especially Grammy B- Brian's mom since she will be babysitting a lot while we are in the hospital with my grandad.

Pregnancy front- I am 27 weeks this week and doing great. My due date is March 17, and we are going to be surprised this time, which is killing me. I want a girl so bad it isn't funny and Brian wants another boy because raising a girl scares him to death. I think it is a boy for some reason, which might explain why I have gone completely overboard buying girl stuff for Kendall- Eric's little girl who was born on Dec 3, at a hefty 8lbs, 8oz- and that was 2 weeks early! I don't know if it is just me but a pregnancy during the holidays is just a license to eat...NOT GOOD. Oh well, I am sure I will run it off with two kids 18 months apart!

Now I guess I will get to the good stuff... pictures!

2008 Christmas Family Photo- It was freezing outside so this was as good as it was going to get for Caden. He wasn't too happy about the process. You'll see this photo on the Christmas card.

Again Caden was not impressed with the process... he wanted to run up and down

the mall instead.

We have been taking Gymboree classes which has instilled a love of climbing on or in everything... hence the next two picts!

Our little adrenaline junkie doesn't settle for the small slide... he has to do the big one and by himself! Aren't hospital bills a tax write-off? I sure hope so because we are in for it with no fear boy.

My two beautiful boys doing what they do best- lay lazy in bed while mommy works her but off!

We went up into N Carolina for our favorite drive in October and Caden had a blast playing in the leaves, and tasting the leaves, and waving the leaves!

June Picts

Caden LOVES to swim. Our neighbor has a pool that they put up for the summer, and as you can tell he is a happy water baby.

Caden finally has his first tooth...somewhat. But he is very particular about who he shows it to and I guess you are not it! The only time I have actually seen it is when he laughs really hard and I never have a camera handy.

We put together the Tonka Truck that Grammy B gave him, and he loves it. He will sit on it while we scoot him around, and he is even standing up behind it. Not taking any steps yet though.
We went hiking on Fathers Day. We bought this mega backpack carrier so that Brian could lug him around a little more comfortably, and he did great in it. We hiked a little over 4 miles and Caden was a trooper until the last 15 minutes when Brian had to carry him cradled in front because it was WAY past nap time.

Isn't he just a cool little dude!
Daddy gets every one's attention when he gets home from work....even the dog wants a piece of him!

April & May Picts

Okay, so I am not the world's best blogger...I kindda got behind. But I am going to try to be better, so here are some of April and May picts.

This is his favorite toy at the office...he drives for30-45 minutes at a time!

This is the pool that Gran and Pops sent...and we tried it out in the house for a while until the weather was hot enough to put water in it.

We have a wrestling matches every night featuring the Champ Caden, Chops the lamb and Jeff the Giraffe. I guess Caden always wins!

The next few picts prove that Caden is my son.. they are all of eating. That is something that Caden loves to do, and is proud of it.

This was taken the first day we had the pool...he was not too sure about the balls. It took a while for him to decide it was a cool place to play.
Mommy is trying to show Caden that there is nothing to be scared of... too bad that image is scary in itself!

Look Out Texas Here We Come!!!

It is official, Caden and I are coming to Texas for an extended visit on March 19. We will be flying into DFW on that Thursday and driving on to Lubbock later that day or on Friday morning. We will be in Lubbock until Friday April 4th, when we will journey back to DFW for a weekend visit with family and friends there and then fly out on Monday the 7th. We want to see everyone while we are here, so give me a ring (864-567-8525) so that we can plan something! Call early because our social calendar fills fast! (Haha)

I can't wait to have some babysitters to help me out. I have been having some back issues the past few months and so I began seeing a chiropractor a couple weeks ago, and due to some of the major adjusting we are having to do, my back went out this past Tuesday. I was bending over to set Caden in his swing and it just went. Caden landed halfway in the swing and I landed halfway in a chair next to the swing. Thank goodness it was early and Brian was still home and was able to run in and get Caden situated because I could not move. Brian ended up having to run into work, grab his computer, and come back home for the day because I could not lift Caden at all. Things are getting better, and I am wearing a back brace now, but Brian has been making a lot of trips upstairs the past few days! I know that I will have plenty of time to fully recover while I am in Texas because I have a suspicion that the only time that I will get to hold my son is during the middle of the night if he gets fussy!

I'll leave you with a cute shot of some tummy time. Caden hates being flat on his belly and now that he is a pro at rolling over he won't stay on it at all, but if we prop him up on his boppy he loves looking around and playing with toys laid out in front of him. It is amazing how quickly we can see him develop... time is going too fast!

Gettin' Dirty and Gettin' Clean

It is amazing how quickly Feb. flew and now we are close to the middle of March. There is lots going on, the most exciting is that we are eating solid foods! We have now tried Rice Cereal, Apples, Bananas, Pears, Carrots and Avocado. He LOVES the fruit but we have to mix the carrots with other stuff to get it to go down, but I am confident that it will grow on him. We eat twice a day, so usually mommy takes the morning feed and daddy gets the evening feed...and the jury is back...Caden loves his daddy more!

When Brian walks into the house after work Caden breaks into the biggest smile and starts squealing... breaks moms heart of course because he is supposed to love me more! Just kidding... I love the fact that Caden values his time with his daddy, short as it is. Brian usually gets home around 5:30-6pm, and we feed him, eat our dinner, change/bath him and have him in bed by 7:30 most evenings. So their time together during the week is short, but they make the most of it.

Caden especially loves playing "Eskimo kisses" with daddy... I think it is the rough 5 o'clock shadow... I guess if I want to get the same level of belly laugh from the kid I need to run my hairy legs across his cheeks! I'll be the most loved yet! Haha... aren't you all praying that I don't scar the kid for life at this point!

Well let's get to the good stuff. Below are some picts of Caden "Gettin' Dirty and Gettin' Clean". I hope that you all enjoy them as much as we do. Check back soon, I am going to try to get some video clips uploaded of him and Brian playing together...I just have to figure everything out first (or more realistically nag at Brian until he does it for me!)

GETTIN' DIRTY

We are really liking eating... in fact most of the time we can't shove it in fast enough. He loves making a mess of everything... the chair, the bib, his clothes and usually my face!

Daddy is becoming a pro at the feeding thing... Let's see how long it will take to be a pro at the cleaning thing...my guess never!
Caden has discovered Kodiak... and loves him. He will grab at his fur and whiskers for the longest time... and the crazy cat sits there and moves his head around so that Caden hits all of his sweet spots!
Gettin' Clean

I am training early... after dinner we hand Caden the rag and he wipes his own face! (Really he chews on the wet cool rag, but I like to think I that I am super mom and am starting cleanliness young!)
We have discovered the rubber ducky.. now he is a bath time necessity!

"I like bubbles... I especially like to eat them, against mommy's wishes!"

Mommy's Little Valentine!

Well yes I am crazy, but I got this wild hair to produce a Valentine's card to send to family and friends from Caden, and so we had the "photo shoot" on Saturday. Below are a few of the resulting picts. (Watch the mail... the card should be there soon!)

This is my favorite...it illustrates his opinion of the whole process perfectly!

In case it is too hard to read his shirt says HEART BREAKER... which is exactly what he is!

Jan Picts and updates

Yes I know that it is halfway thru Feb and I am just now getting up Jan's pictures, but time flies I guess. Caden had his 4 month shots/ check-up on Jan 25 and he was doing great. He was 25 3/4 inches long, and 15lbs and 9lbs 10 ozs, so we are a growing boy. We are wearing 6-9 month clothes, and some of them are even on the short side. It is very depressing everytime I wash clothes becuase I pack up several pieces that he has outgrown. My baby is growing so fast!

Everyday he is learning a new sound or gesture, and it is so fun to watch his little mind work while he figures things out. He is especially fasinated with our faces right now. He loves feeling them, and sticking his fingers in our mouths (I guess him sucking on them constantly is just not enough!) His giggles and squeels are a delight for Brian and I to hear, and I wake up every morning to him chatting away to himself via the monitor. I sometimes just lay there an listen and smile for 10 minutes before getting up and seeing to him becuase it is just so amazing. (Mom's are easily amused I guess!)

We sure do miss seeing everyone, but we do get to talk to the grand-parents once a week via web-cam and Caden sure does love sitting and staring at the computer screen while the grandmas and grampa talk to him.

Well I'll end this novel and get to the good stuff. Below are some of the picts we took this month. Enjoy them!

Caden sure loves playtime with daddy! (And daddy loves the excuse to be silly!)

If there was any doubt that Caden was Brian's son, this dispells it.

Here Caden is intently staring...
...And here is what he is staring at...the TV!
Like I said like father like son.. they even drool the same!We had some snow this month... I think that this is the first white stuff we have seen in 2 years!
Kodiak has finally found someone to share his favorite activity with!
Looks like Santa Visited our house late this year!... Baths are a favorite time in our house. He can be screaming mad and all it takes is getting naked and some warm water to make things better!

Caden's 1st Rollover 1/22/08

This is a video clip of Caden's first rollover and we were lucky enough to catch it on video. The whole process took a little over 1 minute, but it was quite exciting for us (as you can hear on the video).

Enjoy

Family Pictures

Okay, so I'm not great at keeping up with the blog- so sue me! We took family pictures the first week of December, and here are a few of our favs. Enjoy!