Round Up

Colds have come and gone in our house. We're all doing good right now-thankfully-and praying it stays that way too! Caden had a chest cold two weeks ago. I could see him stirring on the monitor at the end of his nap, but never heard him anymore, and when I went to check on him and found him asleep laying at the door/gate. Little man was out cold, and woke up maybe five minutes later a bit confused...

 

 

With the cold came odd eating for him. He always gets a bit thrown off being sick, so once he started feeling better and got an appetite back I found myself caving to a morning breakfast of eggs, hot dog and one of my pancakes with a little bonus of some chocolate chips on top!  Lucky him...and gross all at the same time.

 

I was able to catch up and face time with my brother for the first time in a while. A thirteen hour difference in time doesn't help, but I guess we've both just been busy enough we haven't gotten the chance to touch base recently. It was really good to have time to just sit and talk about anything, everything, or nothing important at all. Just catch up on life and 'hang out'. Now-my little nephew is the cutest thing ever, but he always gives me his serious look when we face time so finally when he busted out that smile and those adorable dimples I snapped a picture as soon as I can. I may look like a goof, but look at that little boys smile. Ah-I just love him. Melts my heart.

 

 

Caden gets super excited to see Uncle Jake on face time too. It's really cute. The two have never met, but he always loves being able to see him and that makes me so happy and so grateful that we are able to have that connection where we can all know each other even from afar. I can't imagine how many happy tears will be shed once we all get to meet up again...but until then, I am so thankful for smart people who make smart phones that can do things like face time.

 

Caden is still helpy-mc-helperson. He just loves to help. I'm assuming it'll get harder once we add baby and more than one kid is in the mix, but currently we've been doing really well at being able to slow down our pace or idea of how things should be done so that he can help. It's cute and he's learning so we hate to say no. 

This past weekend was just amazing. I can't and won't undersell it. Gary and I planned a date night, and a sleepover for Caden, for Friday night. One last date night pre-baby. We had yummy Olive Garden and pulled out our nerd cards buying the The Hobbit Lego game and had a little gaming night. We've played multiple lego video games, but not for a long time--always fun to do. In Gary's eyes I just run around breaking things collecting coins, but let me tell you-the reality is I dominate the lego worlds and he collects the coins. Yep. Sounds about right.

We had one of our nephews birthday parties the next morning so we met Caden and the family at my sisters for that. He was on cloud nine having all that time with them and then with cousins. When we left we sung by Target to get a few things that we needed, and I took advantage of the Cartwheel app I recently added and got a cool Mickey Mouse workbench for half off. Woohoo! We also got the hand me down playdoh set I had as a child from my mom, so between the new Mickey toy and playdoh we kept ourselves busy! I even showed off my playdoh skills by making multiple animals per Caden's request. See below the best playdoh elephant you've ever laid your eyes on...

We've been doing 'picnics' more at our house. He loves the idea of it and we usually keep pretty busy otherwise, so sometimes it's nice to just stop, eat in a different way (well, the part of sitting on the floor at this point in the pregnancy it's the most fun...), and watch a little Mickey. I foresee a lot of picnics in our future.

 

It was one of those 'no nap' days for us. Maybe it was the excitement of new toys, or just becuase, but Caden didn't take a nap. He wasn't being bad either-he was just as enjoyable and silly, so it wasn't necessarily a tortuross 'no nap' day. But, around 5:00 p.m. he started to crash. He got whiny, cuddly, and just started yawning all over the place and laying around here and there. He came up for some snuggles, layed on me, and was out within maybe five minutes. I think I could've laid there getting those cuddles forever. Toddler snuggles are far and few between sometimes and it was just the best.

He was out cold. We decided to put him to bed, despite it being only 5:30, and pray he just caught up on lost sleep and it didn't mean a long, hard day for Sunday. He ended up waking up about an hour later pretty confused, but once he settled we got some dinner in him, did our bedtime routine and back to sleep he went! Pretty dang cute!

Sunday my oldest nephew, Wesley, got baptised so we all attended the first service at church. It was sweet and emotional. I could also cry at almost any moment right now it seems, but I haven't-thank you very much, but add your little nephew who isn't so little anymore making a big, important decision-tear.jerker. He stated that he wanted God to be the boss of his life. Amen to that. There is something so special about having childlike faith--refreshing and much needed for adults to see and be reminded of sometimes.

After church we headed over to the fire station where one of Gary's buddies works. His wife is doing a 30 before 30 for his 30th birthday, and on days he's at the station she has arrange either people to visit or some sort of gift/card/something. So, we signed up for last Sunday and Caden just loved it. He loved seeing all the fire trucks, getting to climb in and all around them and 'driving it'. He just loved it! We visited there for a bit, grabbed lunch after and then went home and had a fun afternoon/evening-this time naps included!

It was one for the books, for sure. We got to see family and friends, but had a good amount of time just us as well. It's kind of how the majority of our weekends look from here until baby. We have a few things happening, especially with the holidays coming up, but overall we're going to get some good time in just as a family of three before we welcome our newest addition! Something I can't wait for--but also trying to cherish this time, it's definitely not something I want to wish away!

Trick or Treat

This was our first successful Halloween-finally!

 

 

The first year Caden was just two months old and my sister made an adorable candy corn costume to put him in. Unfortunately, he grew enough right at the end that we kind of had to shove him in there and the hat was a bit long and pointy, pushing offensive in some ways, and we were too sleep deprived (that's my excuse...) to realize the simple alterations that could have been made to fix it. Either way, we will always cute/funny pictures of that, but I can't even get myself to post them. This is in no way a no-thank you to my sister either. I was very thankful she made his candy corn costume, just didn't play out in the long run like Pinterest told me it would.

Year two my mom got Caden a cute little donkey/something costume. It would have been perfect for the cold weather and cute, but nope. He was NOT having it, as seen below. Then, last minute we (I don't think Gary would take any 'credit' for this, but I'll still say we...) decided we could make him the coach and wear Gary's old jersey shirts from his North High days. I mean, it could have worked...if we put more time into it. But the reality is we only did it to go over to his parents house and we sharpied 'COACH' on a shirt for Caden and gave the kid a whistle. Awesome...

 

So the first two years were just not ones for the books. We didn't take him trick or treating on either because of age, but this year we thought he'd enjoy it and really enjoy going with his cousins. It was still a bit tricky working that day and then rushing to get him changed and going. We took him to Kid to Kid this year and showed him the outfits they had, which he liked two, but wouldn't try them on. We knew this was 99.9% likely to be our situation, that he wouldn't wear an actual costume. So, we thought of a few options that wouldn't require putting him into anything, which is pretty hard for a toddler age. Everything toddler age from the store is a legit costume from head to toe. I couldn't swallow the fact of spending $30+ on a 30 minute ordeal that we would have to force him to be in anyways. SO...punk rocker it was. Easy enough, right?

Not at the start. He still didn't want to change into the simple regular clothes we had him wear. We snuck some dollar tree tattoo sleeves over a long sleeve shirt and put a cute little rocker boy shirt he already had over that. Had him in his jeans and converse shoes and added a little bandanna (thank you, again, Dollar Tree) to his back pocket and spiked his hair. I wanted to put some fun hair chalk in his hair too, but we just couldn't get that far. Before we knew it-we had a little punk on our hands.

Caden tackled all the big long steps up to the houses and kept up with the big kids pretty well. His excitement after the first house, and seeing that he was getting candy was priceless. He turned to me and exclaimed 'Mommy!!!!! I got candy!!!' in the cutest, most enthusiastic little voice ever and was so eager to run on to the next house and so cute saying 'trick or treat' as best as he could. His cousins, the Harry Potter gang, were sweet and helpful with him as well, per usual. Waiting for him, helping him up the steps and making sure he got up to the front to get some candy.

It was cold, and about one cul-de-sac in he started to slow down and we called it good. These were big cul-de-sacs, and he got half a bucket full of candy too so he was pretty set for this year. He was cold, tired, and we got in a good run. Definitely worth the rushing right after work and the hassle of getting him to look like a little punk. I'm excited for next year, too. Little babe will be less than a year, so certainly I should have some decent wiggle room and hopefully have a more compliant child regarding costumes, and Caden will be old enough to understand the costume idea and have a pick which should be fun...or interesting...we'll just have to wait and see!

 

Daddy's little rocker. Love this little munchkin and can't believe how big he's gotten.

He was the cutest little punk I have ever seen too...just saying.

there is nothing better than a friend...unless it is a friend with chocolate.

 

A group of our friends recently threw us a baby shower for baby #2. It was decorated in fall cuteness from head to toe, with yummy chili and deserts to go with! Very, very sweet of them to go the extra mile and put all that cuteness together and we really appreciated it!

 

I mean, look at all that cuteness! Yummy desert, super good chili, and adorable diaper cakes! They made one especially for Gary, which was so cute and a bonus for him!

 

We really love this group. Gary and I met through mutual friends-so it's really fun to be able to have friends from his years growing up and mine all intertwined. Definitely lucky to have a such a fun, easy-going group of gals and guys to do life with!

The handsome hubby and I--love this man so much; and this pretty gal. I've known Katie since middle school. There is something about a friendship that goes back that far-throughout all those awkward, hard, and fun years that is just priceless!

As life would have it-we all get busy and fall in and out of touch throughout the year. Fortunately for us, it's so easy to pick up right where we left off with everyone and we all always have a great time together. It's good to have people you can be down to earth and honest with.

I know it will only get more difficult to keep in touch as we add baby #2 to our family, but I truly hope our friendship with everyone continues to grow. Most everyone is married, some with kids, some without, all at different spots in our lives and busy--the time we've been able to get together has definitely dwindled with having Caden, which is more than worth it, but we love that we are able to have the opportunities we do have to meet up and hang out with some or all of our friends throughout the year.

These are the three creative, sweet hostesses! They all have such big hearts, are so honest and funny--our times together are so refreshing and sometimes just what I need to refocus in life. It's always good to be able to just laugh at ourselves and have good honest sounding boards. Love them all-so thankful for each of them and their friendships!

 

That's the beauty of true friendship--life gets busy, things change, priorities change, but no matter how chaotic it may get you still have that friendship that lasts through it all. It may not all be perfect, but it's more than worth it to make the time for such special people and it's something I will work hard to balance as our family continues to grow and our balancing act continues to get a little more detailed.

 

Thanks again to all our awesome friends for all the love and support you share with Gary and I-we are so thankful for each and every one of you!

Catching Up

Last week Gary was fighting a cold, and unfortunately still is, now just with Caden by his side. I've managed to steer clear, *knock on wood*. We had scheduled an appointment for Caden to get the flu mist last Thursday so Gary took the day off for that. Flu mist was a breeze, and the boys got to go run around at the zoo after. I was supposed to have a lunch date with my sister and her kiddos, but we had to change plans, and lucky me Gary and Caden were still out and about so they swung by and we grabed some Five Guys. Caden loved it-fries and burger, just up his alley-and I loved being able to see my two favorite people during the day! 

Caden will climb in our bed and insist we 'go sleepies'. It doesn't last long, but we'll lay down, cover up, pretend snooze and pretend wake up over, and over, and over.

 

Every other Friday my mom and Caden get to have a day together. He loves it. He gets so excited to be able to have those days, and I love that they get to do that. Usually he'll get some bonus cousin time then as well, which always makes his day! These two cuties we're having a snack and reading a Mickey book when I got there. Seems like more and more I'm just stepping back and seeing Caden in a different way. He's definitely stepping out of the baby shoes and filling those toddler/little boy shoes faster than I can keep up!

 

 

Royals, Royals, Royals!! We were hoping the Cardinals were going to make it to the World Series this year, but unfortunately that didn't happen--but the Kansas City Royals did--first time since 1985! Pretty big deal. And Gary finally gets to watch baseball on tv, which is huge since we don't have cable, so also a big deal in our house. Cadens been having fun watching ball with daddy and it's pretty cute to see the two share that. Cadens attention doesn't last long for it, but still adorable while it lasts. I'm sure there will be many, many years of these two doing this in the future.

 

Oh, Bubba. Bubba is the best. I am also a daddy's girl, so that may be biast, but in all reality-it's totally not. This man is so caring, selfless, thoughtful and funny-you just can't help but love the guy. Caden loves hanging out with his Bubba. He even got him to get into his little tent with him! True love right there. I've been in that tent multiple times, and there's not much space, especially the last few weeks after entering the later part of pregnancy. Me, Caden, and Max all in the tent, while 'Monster' MJ tries to break in. Good times...good close quarters times.

 

My oldest nephew, Wesley, was selling popcorn for boyscouts last weekend. Caden + popcorn = happiest kid ever. So, during our errands we swung by to support his pack. So cute, and so crazy to see Wesley that big and grown up. All his little scout friends were funny, all eager to have someone buy something. While Caden was trying to figure out how to open the bag, one of the kids told us we couldn't open it until we paid-ha-business man! It was a good point. What if we tried it, didn't want it, and hadn't paid--he had a point. Luckily I got my money over and it was all fair game from there.

 

 

 

We ran to the library so I could become a member, I haven't been in forever and knew it would be something I'd want to start taking Caden to more. It sounds silly, but it was a bit overwhelming not having a real understanding of the place with an overly eager toddler running around. Luckily, got added on with them quick and we got to go explore the kids area for a while. He loved it-we'll definitely have to make some trips back there more and more.

Now...two weeks later...Happy Monday to all!