Sonome's 3rd Birthday!

 It's not too often the kids are able to see each other outside of school! Sonome has invited everyone to the park to celebrate her 3rd birthday. She had actually just left to go to a new school a few weeks before this so Caiden was so excited to see one of his best friends again!

 

Caiden and Darby, he always talks about how someday he's going to be 4 just like her!

 Thomas and Jacob!

 Micah got to be part of the festivities too! Just a few days later was his first day at school with his big brother and new friends!

Longboat Key, FL

May 2012

Because I made the mistake of scheduling our wedding date on May 9th, each year we celebrate my birthday, our anniversary and Mother's Day all in the same week. We decided that instead of celebrating each day separately we try and plan a vacation around the same time to hit three birds with one stone! Lucky for Jered and for me!

This year we decided to go to Longboat Key, FL. The flights are direct from Greenville and super cheap so why not?! About a week before leaving, we started talking to Caiden about taking a plane ride to the beach and he was so excited. He told his friends at school that he was going to wave at them from the airplane in the sky, haha. The last time we went to the beach Caiden was just 10 month old so he wasn't sure what to expect.

This was Caiden's 4th flight so we've almost got it down to a science. Some snacks, a sticker book and his epi-pen and we're all set! Jered even recorded a movie on his i-phone - like literally recorded it from a DVD player to save the $3 it would take to download it online. So we had that for back up in case Caiden got restless.

We arrived to Florida in the late afternoon so plenty of time to head straight to the beach, toy farm animals, floaties and all. Just as we thought he would, C loved it. He spent a lot of the time chasing birds up and down the beach and playing in the sand. He wasn't the biggest fan of the waves quite yet, but we knew he would warm up to them eventually.  

We have realized lately that these are the last few months that we have with just Caiden before his little brother joins our family so we really wanted the week to be all about Caiden and letting him just enjoy, learn and explore - and that he did. We made sand castles, took a long walk down the beach as he chased the birds along the way, found a big hole that possible was made by a sea turtle laying her eggs, chased the waves and swam in the pool as much as we could. Swimming was probably Caiden's favorite thing to do the whole weekend. When he first got in he just laughed and laughed, splashing and spinning around and soaking up all the fun! This made for one tired little guy by bedtime! They had a couch that pulled out into a bed so that's where he slept, and it was perfect. A few pillows around the edge to keep him from falling off and he was all set. We weren't sure how it would go since we all shared the same room but he would just sing and talk out loud to himself for 10 or so minutes until finally falling asleep. Every so often he would look over at us and give us a sweet little smile.

I loved sleeping in the same room because we would hear him start to wake up in the morning, he would talk to himself about "Bert the Bird" and other things that were on his mind until he was ready to come over and snuggle with us. He even slept in until about 8:30 every morning - which was GREAT!

We ate breakfast and lunch at the hotel and most night we went out on the town to try out the seafood! The first night we went to Dry Dock - right by the water and it was DELISH! The ladies at the table next to us kept looking over at Caiden and saying what  good boy he was. Even a guy at another table told us we have a genius on our hands - he said Caiden communicated better than most kids he knew and was very well behaved - that's our little man and we are so thankful we can take him to a nice restaurant without him disturbing others around us.

On our anniversary we went to the Mote Aquarium where we saw a manatee eating lettuce, tangs eating broccoli and a dolphin doing flips in the air - along with much more! Caiden couldn't get enough of it and still talks about it. I love going to places like that with my boys because Jered is so good at explaining to Caiden what things are and even exploring the touch tank and letting Caiden feel some of the star fish and other sea life. Since I'm a little over 7 months pregnant, I had to take a few breaks so it was fun watching them run around and explore.

We had a great weekend and can't wait to go back! Next time we'll be driving the minivan since our family will grow by two feet :)

Rental House

Renting, bleh ~ September 2011

Lately we've been having problems with our rental home. This morning we got a call from our leasing agency saying there's a water leak coming from our sprinkler system. No big deal, we never use the sprinklers anyway so just shut off the valve and we're good to go, right? Well it turns our that the house is on a slab and the plumbing is UNDER the concrete. Sooo, now they have to tear out our kitchen to get to everything. Not good! Needless to say we're ready to move on and find a place of our own. We've been looking at homes for some time now - I'd say we've seen abpout 20 in person. It's been exhausting but we know in time we'll find something that will fit our family perfectly.

No more crib

Transitioning from the crib to bed ~ December 2011

We've held it off as long as we could. We kept waiting for Caiden to try and climb out of the crib on his own before making the transition to a big boy bed but he never even once tried it. He loves following rules and making us proud, so the thought of actually climbing out of his bed never came to mind, or so it seems.

We knew that we wanted to wean him off of his Nuni before making the bed switch and the transition from the Nuni actually went very well. It was bed time on New Years Eve - Eve and I told Caiden to find his Nuni. He said, "No mommy, nuni went bye bye in daddy's big truck." We hadn't even discussed it with him that we would soon be taking it away so he came up with that all on his own. I let him sleep with his nuni one last night...I wasn't quite ready for him to be done with it FOREVER!

The next night at bedtime we laid him down and said our prayers. He was looking around for his nuni and asked to help find it. We told him that it did went bye bye and daddy's truck and he simply said, "ok!". We shut off the lights, closed the door and went down stairs. In the baby monitor we could tell that he was getting restless and he starting crying a little. After a few minutes Jered went upstairs and had sweet little talk with him about being a big boy and after that, Caiden went right to sleep. The next night was the same, a little crying, a talk from daddy and then he slept through the night without a peep. Since then it hasn't even been an issue. He hasn't even asked for it! At Kim's she said he did great and even told Sonome that she shouldn't take her paci anymore either.

I'm a little nervous what the next few nights are going to look like with him being able to hop right out of bed, but I really have faith in Caiden that he won't make it too hard on himself. Our thought is to really not make a huge deal out of it but explain that he has been such a good boy and that it's time to start getting ready to be a big brother. I can't believe how hard it is to watch him grow up so so quickly and become this sweet, independent happy little boy. I see him waddle around in his diaper and cowboy boots and try my hardest to capture these moments, knowing that one day all we'll have is memories.

Daddy, I saved the cow!

Last weekend Anne, Mara and I took Caiden up towards the mountains to a small farm where they take in injured and unwanted animals. When we got there, several of the volunteers were gathered around a small calf who had been separated from his mother at a very young age. The calf had just arrived at the farm the previous day and was very distressed and unable to eat. They had explained to us that he was very depressed from not having his mother and they were trying to lift his spirits. Supposedly he didn't want to even stand up and his muscles began to atrophy. They said that the night before a group of small children from the neighborhood had gathered around him and sang him 'Away in a Manger' to try and comfort him so he could stand and eat.

We watched as a large tractor was hoisting him off the ground to allow his legs room to stand, but still, he was too sad to give any effort. As we were standing there I was explaining to Caiden what they were doing and that the little calf was sick and they were trying to save him. I could see the look in Caiden's eyes and he was so concerned for this little animal. He reached down and picked up some hay and said, "mommy, I go feed the cow!" I told him how nice that was of him to want to help save the cow. We knew that it would take a lot of time for the calf to get better so we went to go visit some of the other animals. There was a very nice man there, Steven, who gave us a tour of the farm and took us to the stables to show us his beautiful horse. He even let Caiden sit on the horse for a little bit too!

We took Caiden around back where they had a few other animals including a little sheep whose legs were deformed from a birth defect. Although he wasn't walking normally, they said he wasn't in pain which we were happy to hear. They also had a HUGE tire swing that some of the kids were playing on, and we couldn't resist! After swinging with C for a while we went to visit some of the other horses they had, which I think was close to about 35!

This was the same place where Anne had come to volunteer back in September and was given the opportunity to ride one of their horses. After a few minutes of riding, something had spooked her horse and in an instant she was bucked off and the horse had backed over her and stepped on her right leg!!! I wasn't there but from everything she told us and the pictures that we saw her leg did NOT look good! They called an ambulance and ended up taking her to the doctor to get everything looked at. We had spent the day on the lake, so I was so sad we couldn't be there for her in the hospital! It took months, but she's finally healed up and ready to ride again!

We had such a great time on the farm and can't wait to go back. They even had a section of the Saluda River that flowed through their property so we let Caiden throw some rocks in!

When we got back home Caiden was excited to share with daddy all the adventures he had...or as he calls them, 'ventures'. He said, "Daddy, I saved the cow!" I love that he felt that he played a part in helping the precious little calf :)

Baby #2

In just 6 months we will meet the newest addition to our family, baby #2! It has been the most incredible experience to watch our little Caiden grow and learn and become such a sweet, silly little boy. On a daily basis, Jered and I look at each other in disbelief at just how blessed we are that God choose us to be his parents. What a special gift we have been given, yet there's still more to come.

We had been thinking for about a year now that we would love for our children to be close in age and that perhaps one day soon we could give Caiden a little buddy. Many of our friends and family know, but we had suffered the loss of a pregnancy back in October, which was heartbreaking. Through our pain, we had heard of others who had been through the same thing and somehow it was comforting to know that we weren't suffering alone.



Although it was a difficult time we knew that God had a plan, and it didn't take long before he blessed us with yet another tiny miracle. We were optimistic yet cautious and we waited until about 10 weeks to share the exciting news with our family. We had gone back to KC for our holiday visit in early December and knew that we wanted to tell everyone in person. On that Friday night my parents, brothers and sisters were playing a game of catch phrase and when my turn had come up, I used 'I'm pregnant' as my phrase! It took everyone a few seconds to realize that I was in fact pregnant and it wasn't just the next phrase on the game. They were all thrilled and couldn't believe the news! Such a fun moment :) Actually, Mel has that on video somewhere!

We have had the joy of sharing this experience with Caiden and watching him begin to slowly grasp the idea of what being a big brother means. We'll tell him that mommy has a baby in her belly and he'll lift up his shirt and say, "See mommy, Caiden has a baby too!" Oh the innocence! The other day we asked him if he wanted a brother or a sister and without hesitating he said that he wanted a sister and that her name would be Heidi Juliet. Considering the fact that my niece's name is Heidi Juliet, I have a feeling that won't be a name that we add to our list.

We are so happy and excited and can't wait to see what this chapter brings! Until then, we'll be anxiously awaiting the arrival of my niece, Leilani Elizabeth, due in just 13 days!!!!!