Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mommy! 

I don't get to tell you very often how very blessed and grateful I am to be your daughter! You have taught me so much more than you know. Every day I think of how amazing you are to do all that you do; being a mother, wife, daughter, friend and serving in your church callings and still keeping sane. Everything I have learned of being a mother, I have learned from your example. Even when you didn't think I was paying attention, I was learning by watching and listening to you; and now I get to learn by putting those things into action.

Your testimony has strengthened my own and taught me to stand up for what I know to be right and true. I am glad that you taught me the importance of family by taking us to all the family events and giving me the chance to build relationships with my grandparents and extended family. You taught me to include others, when I didn't want to include my siblings. You taught me to share, to be patient and love my siblings for everything they are.

Your dedication to all of us kids and our wants and needs has always stuck with me. Even when we were crazy or hard to put up with you would always teach us and help us experience everything we could. You have always been such a strong support for me and I hope I can encourage my kids the way you have always done for me.

I am grateful that I've be able to see your loyalty and strength as a wife as you have shown your love to Dad; supporting him through school, work and countless church callings. I have never heard you complain about any of it and it makes me want to be better when I remember that. I hope that I can be half of the woman and mother that you are!

I love you Mom! Happy Birthday!

Fayetteville, Beach, Water Park, and Fishin

Justin finished his first year of PA school! So now he gets to relax for about 3 weeks before the next semester starts. We went down and stayed with his brother's family in Fayetteville. We loved seeing everyone. We watched the Olympics, and hung out with family and then on Wednesday we went to Carolina Beach and Jungle Rapids in Wilmington. 

This one is at home, but I still love that cheesy grin. He loves his couch and his phone!

Jaxon & Kaden getting ready for a bike ride!

Happy Grandma!

We had lots of fun at the beach. Kaden had an interesting time trying to figure out all the sounds and textures at the beach. He cried for a little while because he didn't like the rushing waves and the cold water and the wet sand, but once we sat him on the chair, he was happy again! Wednesday night we stayed at a hotel and got up in the morning to go to Jungle Rapids. We had a great time playing at the park. (Sorry you couldn't come with us Sharon! We missed you!) I didn't get pictures because I was so scared my camera was going to get wet lol Kaden didn't get a nap either day, so he had kind of a rough time for a little while. :) But despite all that, we loved the water slides and the sun. Thanks again to Jason and Lena for taking us with them!

I love his crazy hair!

Walking to the beach from the hotel!

Kaden had to pick up every sea shell he saw and hold onto it the whole time! At one point I think he had like 20 of them.

Trying to get away from the water.

Mommy & Kaden feet!

"Whoa! Its gonna get me!"

He was much happier once we put him in the chair. Off the sand, out of the water, and all clean!

As I was standing in front of the chair making sure he didn't fall, Kaden started playing peekaboo! It was hilarious!

Kaden is not so much a fan of sand on his hands so every time he got sand on him, he would whine till I got it off- which was pretty much every other time he sat down.

This was the amazing view from our hotel room balcony. The picture doesn't begin to do it justice! At one point we couldn't tell where the horizon was, the ocean blended into the sky. We just wanted to sit out there all night. And because we were up on the 11th floor, the birds were flying so close we could have touched them- so cool!

Jason rented a paddleboard and he and Justin went out past the surf and paddled up and down the beach.

On Friday we went to David & Tresea's and stayed the night. After Kaden went to bed, we went fishing off the dock on the lake and I caught my first catfish!

Bumps, Bruises and Boo-Boos

Now that Kaden can walk, he is a little over confident with his gross motor skills.

It seems like every time I turn around, he is scratched, bit, bruised or bumped in some way. Its a good thing that 1. he is such a happy/tough boy, and 2. kids are made out of rubber. A lot of the time, he doesn't even cry he just scrunches up his face and goes "OOoh!" and then after the appropriate amount of adult acknowledgement, he continues playing. Here are a couple of his recent battle wounds:

 I was pushing Kaden on his little truck, and he was holding his snack cup. When I turned the truck around, he decided he wanted down and didn't want to wait for help. He landed face first on his snack cup and got this beautiful bruise that went from one side of his nose to the opposite eyebrow. Look at that happy kid; he's even saying cheese to the camera, or "sheesh." Within a couple of days it faded to look like a little scratch and we didn't have to do too much explaining at church :)

The reason he is laughing in this picture is because he was throwing a ball to Hiccup. The dog got a little excited and lunged to get the ball, knocking Kaden down and scratching his arm (yeah I know its a tiny scratch, but you get the idea). Kaden thought it was hilarious and kept doing it.

The other one is the most recent and isn't really a battle wound. I mentioned earlier that he has Roseola, and one of the symptoms is a rash. So he has a rash on his whole body that just looks sad.

I know he's going to get tons more bumps, bruises, and boo-boos, (because lets face it, that's what kids do!) so I am definitely grateful that Heavenly Father did such a great job designing out bodies!

May and June Update

I realize that it has been a very long time since my last post and lots of things have happened! Starting with the fact that Kaden can now tell me what he wants, mostly by pointing, but this is a huge accomplishment. He says some words: His favorite word in the whole world is Ball "baa", which he says more than anything, Banana is "Nanana," hat is "dat," phone is "po," of course he says "Mama" and "Dada," Dog sounds more like "do-," cracker is "dta-dta," he asks what's that "'sdtat?" he says yes which makes him sound latin because he says it like "jes", he says hiccup "iccu" when he says book, he drops the k so its sounds more like "boo." That's all I can think of right now as far as actual words go. 

Kaden has also become an avid dancer, especially when specific songs come on the radio or we sing popcorn popping. He loves to climb onto my lap and read books. His favorite book is one that I made a few years ago in a Child Literature class at BYUI. It has pictures of Justin and lots of things he likes to do and then at the end it has a mirror and says "my Daddy loves me!" he likes to point to the pictures and say "Dada, Dada." Its so cute! He does the same thing with the big family picture we have hanging over the mantle and he like to wave at it.
Other things Kaden can do now: open the oven door, climb on every chair/couch in sight, grab anything that is less than 4 inches from the edge of the counter, open the dishwasher door,

The past few weeks have been so sunny and its starting to heat up. Kaden's new favorite thing is to go outside and just run. He and Hiccup play this funny game where they try to take pine cones from each other. They both get really excited and Kaden starts laughing so hard he falls down.

So since I haven't put any pictures up since April either, here is my photo dump:

Dressing up like "Dada"

 Kaden after another haircut

At a birthday party eating yummy watermelon!

 You can't see it very well, but his face is COVERED in juice. lol it was the cutest!

 After sticking his face in the water

Look at that belly!

Entertaining himself with the contraption Mommy came up with.

On the way home from Fayetteville, we saw Mater in real life! See him?!?

Kaden got Roseola this week, and since his fever was so high, I just let him run around naked. One happy boy!

 

Strawberry Farm

Saturday we went with some friends to a little farm right outside of Greenville called Briley's Strawberry Farm. We walked around and saw the farm animals, and then ended our trip with picking (and eating) some really yummy strawberries. If it wasn't so hot, we probably would have stayed longer, but the combination of the heat and lack of naps, forced us to come home. We had such a great time though, that we are planning on going back in the fall when they have their pumpkin patch/hay rides. Oh and the best part about it was that everything, except the strawberries themselves, were free. It feels like everything these days costs money, but we're glad that some things are still free, especially when we can enjoy them as a family!

Easter

I LOVE how our Easter pictures turned out! 

What a happy kid!

 

Someone found their Easter Basket!

Happy Birthday Kaden!

Many of you know how hard it was for us trying to get to the point of finally having a baby. It was definitely a process; spiritually, emotionally, and physically for us. We had 2 miscarriages in the couple years that we were trying to bring a baby into this world. (We figured out that Kaden was born around the anniversary of our second miscarriage.) I was scared every day during my pregnancy that something bad was going to happen. I prayed probably harder than I had ever prayed up to that point. I prayed that our baby would be safe, that I would do the right things in order to be a good 'incubator.' And I can say, without a doubt that Heavenly Father truly does answer prayers. I know he was listening to us because he gave us Kaden.

Even though it was hard to go through everything that we did, we could not be more thrilled to have the wonderful, happy boy that we do now. Heavenly Father has blessed us an enormous amount to be able to raise one of his precious children and we only hope that we can raise him to be a happy boy who loves the gospel and our Heavenly Father.

So about 2 weeks ago (I am evidently horrible at posting things lately) Kaden turned 1! We are so excited that our sweet boy is growing up! Its hard to believe that its been a year already that we were in the hospital having him. I remember thinking how weird and exciting it was to finally have a baby of our own. And how it didn't really sink in till a couple days afterwards that we were really parents. I kept making mental notes and pictures to myself; like I do when I know I will want to remember something forever, and every day I was happy to get up at 1, 2, 3, 5 etc in the morning (even though it was not easy) because he would grow up so fast.
And sure enough, he is a crazy, happy, goofy boy, who is now 1!

 We had such a great time at his party! Thanks so so so so much to everyone who came or participated or called or skyped. You all made it such a happy day and we love you all so much! Kaden is definitely a very very loved little boy!

His Birthday Cake! The party was "UP" themed.

Birthday boy with Mommy

Boo!

Playing with his new toys

Kaden and his buddy Micah

Some of the people who came, waiting for their burgers- cooked by the grill master, Justin!

My boys!