Anything Goes

Gary's brother, Toby, is the lead singer for the band Anything Goes and they definitely know how to put on a good show! They played last year around this time at the Pumphouse and it was so much fun! They had another gig this past weekend at the same place-still very fun, but I must be honest-it was a tad more fun when I wasn't seven months pregnant and could have a nice blue moon or two to go along with the evening. There's also a lot more in the bar atmosphere that you don't notice as much when you're not just hanging out there all big and pregnant...

I may have stolen this picture from Gary's mom...they had good seats up front and I loved this picture of them in action.

 

It was a beautiful night and they sounded great as always; it's always fun to see them all up there. I personally don't know many of the other group members, but majority are dentist and it's just fun to see your dentist rocking out to some Guns and Roses and ACDC up on stage at a bar. parrrrrtay. Also-I wish I could sing. And have the courage to do that--seems like a blast to be up there rocking out!

We failed to get a group picture, but this is what I got of some of the gals that came out. We met a group of friends at Sabor for dinner beforehand--soo yummy and love this group! Always fun to meet up and hang out with them!

 

Earlier that Saturday we ran an errand to Kohls, where Caden got to gain a Pluto friend, and went to the park afterwards. I feel like I'm always putting up pictures from the park, but I just love them and these are times I would love to hold on to forever!

 

Melt my heart.

 

 

Caden was great in the store. Luckily it was a quick and successful trip-pant shopping is already hard, and even harder when you're feeling a tad out of shape with a basketball under your shirt. . .he kept looking around saying 'where's icky?' Mickey-duh, mickey and pluto should be together always! And him 'helping' daddy with the bills-too cute.

 

 

I also had my mom snap a couple and family picture before our night out. My hair covers Caden a bit too much here, but it's the only one he's looking straight at the camera and so cute. Love these boys. 

 

Busy, but good weekend. Now. I vote that someone pass a law for mandatory three day weekends. Please and thank you.

 

Family Affairs

Last Friday night we went to cheer on my beautiful cousin for homecoming this year; talk about high school flashback. Well...not really. I don't really remember going to the games much, I'm guessing I just worked Friday nights or the closer reality that I just wasn't cool. I didn't really partake in school activities like that...it was an odd time anyways (isn't it for almost everyone that age??), but hopefully I can encourage my kiddos to enjoy those fun times while they have them. It's hard to not have tunnel vision of wanting to be out of high school, grow up, be more independent, but I don't think I've met one person that wouldn't say to be silly, be young, and enjoy those years while you have them; they go by way too fast.

....back to the beautiful cousin. Megan is my second cousin and only nine years younger than me. I catch myself calling her my niece all the time and her dad has even called himself my uncle multiple times. I'm the youngest cousin on my moms side and second youngest on my dads, so a majority of my cousins are older and in some cases have kids closer to my age than they are. I have always loved kids and gravitated towards being the little 'babysitter' when they were around. This all being said leads up to the fact that this cute little red head and I were pretty good buddies when we were younger; she's super funny, adorable and always fun to be around. Life's changed, of course, as she's busy in high school, active in sports and friends and I went off and got married, had a baby and about to have another...see how the two aren't exactly parallel anymore? The good thing is we're close family. Sadly we all don't see each other as often as we'd like, but the one thing I adore about our family is we are all close no matter the distance and I love that.

My cute sis and niece. Love hanging out with these peeps.

 

 

My dad snuck off and visited a cupcake truck that was there-so good. I won't really turn down trying sweets, but I don't really always feel compelled to get them myself so it was a fun treat. Now, look at all those crumbs. It's sad really. That's some yummy cupcake pieces just laying at our feet. Erin and I had no issues with crumbs and my dad swears it's because we just vacuumed ours up. Vacuumed or not-we weren't wasteful, thank you very much.

 

 

So much cuteness. Megan is a beautiful, young woman and I can't wait to see where life takes her. She's super smart, athletic and fun--I'm not sure what her after high school plans may be, but I hope God truly blesses her with some fun opportunities in college and pray for all the best for her! Just ridiculous that she's already graduating...yikes, stripes!!

 

The next morning we went to Wesley's flag football game. It was fun to watch him out there and cheer him on, and Caden got some bonus cousin time before Bethany and Shep had to go to their soccer games. He absolutely loves cousin time and I love watching him with them.  

 

Caden took an early nap, right after the games. I had to talk to him the entire way home to keep him up so he wouldn't fall asleep in the car. With the new bed change we haven't had one successful transition from asleep in the car to asleep in the bed; so I did all I could to keep his little tired eyes open until we got home and could do nap time. He gave in pretty quick....as did we! Another thing with the new bed change has been a lack of 'sleeping in'. Sleeping in changes when you have kids, yes, but Caden had been doing pretty well and sleeping in to about 7:30 on the weekends in the crib. But now, weekend or not, he's up around 6:00....and not always bright eyed and bushy tailed either, lucky us...SO being pregnant, tired, and busy means taking advantage of nap times on the weekends while we can!

 

 

We got some playtime in before we had to go to a wedding and I taught Caden how to be a burrito in my yoga mat. He loved it! He kept saying 'I sleepy!' and would lay down all over the mat, so I'd scoot him towards the edge as he'd already start to giggle, then I'd roll him up as he was laughing away and then 1..2..3..unroll!! It was so fun, simple, and I loved being able to see him experience it. That for some reason seems like one of the token kid things you're supposed to enjoy and I loved being able to have fun with my little burrito Caden!

 

 

And last but not least, Sunday we got to skype with Uncle Jacob, Aunt Ning and Alex. Caden loves seeing them and it's so cute to hear him say hello and say their names. Thank God for modern technology. I can't imagine not being able to see Jacob and his family and keep in touch with him the way we are able to. Alex is growing up so fast and I love seeing his cute expressions and smiles. It's fun for the cousins to see each other and hopefully this will allow them to stay close and get to know each other still no matter the distance between us.

Caden and I have a nice little routine of morning prayers on our drive to daycare. Prayers over Caden, Daddy, Mommy, baby and I've tried more and more to make my prayers into thank you's as well. We are so lucky to have all the love and support we do from family and friends. To have our health, safety, to have a safe home to live in, jobs that support our family needs, the silly things that we constantly take for granted especially when it's early in the morning and the last thing I want to do is get up and get going just to part ways with my son. It's hard. Some days are easier than others, but most days it just stinks. But it's what we are doing right now and I have to remind myself to be grateful that God has allowed us to have the opportunities we have, to use them wisely and to not overlook them. Constantly wishing for something different, bigger, better will never bring happiness, but to take a step back and remain humble in where you are at and see the greatness that God has provided---that brings tears of joy.

Here and There

What we've been up to...

 

Last Friday night we had a girls night out and tried out Paint the Towne. Definitely would do it again, and hope to do a couples one with these gals and their men soon! It was fun and funny to be able to laugh at ourselves in our lack of experience painting. Lots of laughs and really good to catch up with these gals!

 

 

Caden and Gary hung out with Grumpo while I was out with the girls Friday-he had fun with the guys and got to have pizza which he loves! Last Saturday my sis-in-law treated me to a pedicure while the boys and kids played at their house. It's not often that we are able to step away just the two of us, so it's always nice to get that time in and catch up! We've been treating each other to pedicures as gifts for birthdays, etc. for the last year or so and I think we both like the new 'tradition' in doing that!

 

This week Caden had to be picked up from daycare early on Monday after waking up with a fever after naps. He kept a fever around 101 throughout the remainder of the evening and around four Tuesday morning he was 102, so I called into work and Gary set up a sub for the afternoon so that we both could be there for him and wouldn't have to miss a full day of work. After he tempted high Tuesday morning he was just miserable, and wouldn't go back to sleep in his bed, so I brought the little guy in with us and we all 'slept' more from there. He woke up once after I had rolled to my side, got confused and as I lifted my arm and started to turn saying 'it's okay...' he leaned right over me and fell asleep half on one side of me and half on the other. Between being tired/out of it and the humor of it I dozed back off with him like that for a little until re-arranging some more.

It was pretty cute though. Not our first go-to, we aren't co-sleepers, but not against it in these kind of situations either. He slept there until just after eight too, which hasn't been the case with his new bed-he's consistently gotten up earlier than normal so it was kind of nice.

 

That hair...priceless. Once he woke up he seemed to be feeling better and like the fever had broken. He loves sitting at our computer desk and typing on the computer, as it's off, and coloring in his notepad. We always ask him if he's 'working' when he sits there and he just simply replies 'Yesh. Workin'!'. The hair made me laugh, and then on top of that he insisted that he 'work' some right after getting up. 

 

We kept it pretty easy that day. His fever never got as high, but he still stayed around 99.8 until that evening, even with Advil, but still hung out and played pretty well. Skipped naps unfortunately, so that made for an earlier night, but whatever little bug he had didn't seem to last which was good! The following night he woke up multiple times crying out of discomfort, so he and I had a late start the next morning after I thought I may have to take him in not knowing what was bugging him. No fever, just kept waking up acting uncomfortable...but then seemed fine once he got up for the day so off we went!

 

 

 

Little helper making some homemade pizza...and snacking along the way! On the morning he was sick with a fever I took him out to enjoy a nice walk while the weather was still cool. Then later, partying in his bed. He has been really good at listening and obeying when it comes to the new room/big bed transition, but this time he stayed in bed, yet wouldn't nap. Halfway there, right?!

 

 

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day today, and according to a pirate dictionary google found this is the part where I say 'fair winds!'....Happy Friday!

Photo Friday

Some cuteness here and there. Funny, we don't seem to grab the camera during fits to showcase those...whoops!

 

 Caden's little buddy Caysen turned two right after Caden. They are less than a week apart and it's so fun to watch these two crazy boys together. They definitely feed off each other which can be good and bad. Double trouble! Caden loved Caysen's party. He got to get some pool time in, ate some yummy food, and had a blast!

Gary couldn't go to Caysen's party because he had two other things that night, but he ended up getting home shortly after I put Caden to bed. Since Caden was still up he went in to say goodnight, and then a little while after made himself some popcorn. Seconds after the popcorn was done we heard 'Mommy!' 'Daddy!', we gave it a bit but then I went in there and he was standing at the edge of his crib and with the biggest smile said 'Popcorn?!' So-sure, it's a Saturday night, you can sleep in tomorrow, fine-you get some late night popcorn....unfortunately he didn't get the sleep in tomorrow part of the deal. Can't win 'em all!

 

 Caden loves the park-I mean, what kid doesn't. It's a fun age of independence where he can do most everything by himself and is nonstop once we're there.

 Be still my heart. We all went on a walk and towards the end Caden wanted to hold my hand during the walk. It was so sweet and one of those moments I will always cherish. And just recently I got some good cuddles in while he watched one of his shows-good ol' baby bump and 'baby' all in one. Definitely nice to slow down and just soak it in sometimes. It's very exciting thinking of how close we are getting to having our second babe, yet tat the same time these moments of cuddles with Caden, while being able to feel baby kicking around, is just priceless.

A gal at work had a bunch of cars and toys that she found that were her used by her boys years ago and shared them with my coworker and I. This was just half the loot-Caden even got a light saber out of the deal, which he loves. It was fun to be able to dump them all out and see his reaction, and don't worry, I kept a few aside for stocking stuffers!

Big helper in action. We hadn't been doing our grocery runs with Caden for a while mostly out of convenience and just the times we went. And by we, I have to admit that for a while Gary would run to the store while he was already out on the weeknight after the gym, so obviously that fell around bedtime for Caden. But recently, we've gone on a few trips with him and they've all been good! He loves being a helper and loves putting (aka throwing) things into the cart for us.

 My boys. People always go back and forth saying who Caden looks like. More recently he's looked a lot like me in my childhood pictures, and then I got this. The same little expression from my boys. Like father, like son. We've been removing the highchair tray and scooting Caden up to the table to eat with us a lot now and we love it. There is something very special about being able to eat dinner together as a family. He always looks so big and grown up sitting there like that too!

FOUR

Four Years

This handsome fella of mine has been my hubby for four years now. Seems like a little number when you say it out loud for as long as it feels that we've been together and all we've experienced.

I couldn't ask for a better man. Gary has shown so much love and patience in our relationship-I am so glad I get to spend many more years to come with him. One of the things I enjoy most about our relationship is how we don't always take ourselves too seriously. Life gets too serious and strict on it's own, it's nice to have someone to joke around with and enjoy the little things.

I'm proud of Gary, and of our relationship. I"m proud of how we've grown together for the better, closer to God and to the church, how we've worked through the frustrations of finances, continue to learn how to be a great team when it comes to parenting, and how supportive and selfless we've become-and have to continue to remind ourselves to be-so that we can work well together.

Don't get me wrong, we don't wake up each day singing 'Everything Is Awesome!', but other than my major-morning-person-niece, I don't know who does. Taking the time and effort to be open in our communication and constantly work towards a good marriage is well worth it.

I hope we can be an example of a good marriage for our kids. We've had great examples for us in our lives, and not picture perfect ones either, which is the reality of life. And more often than not the reality of life is that if you want something, you have to work for it. And I know we both want to be gray and wrinkly still playing old school video games together, so best continue the work. Be it hard or easy some days, it will be worth it. Anything good in life is worth the effort, especially when it comes to relationships.

I love this man so much. I can't imagine not having him in my life. He's my best friend and the best father to Caden, and I know he'll be just as great to this second baby and any future nuggets that may come our way.

Happy Anniversary, Gary. Cheers to many more to come!