Caden Turns 6

April 10th is Caden's birthday. He had been dying for these little frogs from Learning Express. They live in a little plastic container that is its own living environment. It has a snail, bamboo, and living gravel. He was so excited to open it!Here is a cute pic of him opening all of his presents in the morning. His birthday fell on Good Friday this year so it was nice to have the day off!!

My 16 year old niece, Cassie, and my 18 year old nephew, Matthew, were in town for Spring Break from Duluth, MN. It was great to spend time with them and as you can see from the picture, we took them to Strikz to go bowling. The little boy with Caden is his friend, Blake. My other nephew, Brandon, and his sister Emily met us there with my brother. Fun times :)
After bowling, the whole family met at our house and we ate dinner, opened presents, and had cake and ice cream. It was a jam packed day. Happy Birthday Caden!!

Braggin' Rights...

I'm so proud of my children. I know that Easter is a time of reflection, and I'm feeling a little bit that way today. When we were in Panama City, Florida, almost all of the waiters commented on the manners of my children. They were so complimentary of Grace and Caden and some waiters even went on to tell other waiters/staff about our children and how well behaved they were. Those kind of moments make your heart swell up and reaffirm that you are doing a good job :) Grace and Caden even got a free cookie out of one of the places we ate breakfast because the lady checking us out at the bakery heard about how well behaved they were. I'm trying to treasure every moment we have :)

As all of you know, Caden is the one who keeps us on our toes. You just really never know what is going to come out of his mouth. Today at church, the priest was giving the homily during mass. Caden looks at me and says, "Who is he talking to?" Ummm...Caden...that would be all of us - ha!! What a good Catholic! I can't believe that Caden is turning 6 on Friday. I keep telling him that we get a day off of school because it's his birthday. I think that he is starting to believe me. I'm going to have to fix that one. We do have the day off, but not because of him. Caden is not one to have ANY attention drawn to him. He doesn't even want a birthday party this year. We're just going to plan a small family celebration and do something fun on Friday. Maybe the zoo if it is nice or Six Flags. He wants his friend, Blake, to come and spend the night. I am liking his simplicity this year :)

Grace, on the other hand, is full of drama these days. Not anywhere else but with me. She's intelligent, strong willed, opinionated, and willing to let you know what she thinks. I know that my good friends out there are probably laughing right now. She's a lot like me...which is why we bump heads so much :) She's also a very sweet little girl. She loves the smaller children and is going to make a great babysitter someday. Mwah...I love my kids :)

It's Not Spring in Texas....

Until the Bluebonnets are out :)

Germs...

It all started last Sunday. We were at a birthday party for one of Grace's friends, but they are also family friends. The mom of the birthday girl, asked Caden if he wanted to skate also. Of course!! He skated for about 40 minutes like a champ and then I told him to take off his skates because we were going to do cake. He told me that he didn't want cake and that he wanted to leave. I knew that there was problem. Luckily, Chris had met us there after his soccer game so Caden and I could leave. We got to the parking lot and Caden was as white as a ghost. Uh Oh...I start digging in my trunk for a bag and luckily I found one. A sprouts bag. I get Caden to the side of the parking lot -no grass anywhere- and he starts throwing up. There's a hole in the bottom of the bag. The throw up goes through the bag and straight to the concrete. It splashes all over Caden, his legs, his shoes, my shoes, and all over my hands. FUN!!!

I decided to stay home with Caden on Monday. He needed a day to recover and so did I. Tuesday evening it hit me as well. I got the bug. I lost 6 pounds in twelve hours which gives you an idea of how bad this bug was. Wednesday morning as I am laying in the floor on our bedroom (the only comfortable position) Chris tells me that Caden has diaherrea. I told him to just leave him home with me. We'd be sick together. I literally could not move off the floor because every single muscle in my body ached. A deep down horrible ache. My wonderful husband called my amazing mother in law and she came and got Caden. I slept almost the whole day and night. It was awful...now Memrie has the bug too. I'm so sorry!! Nasty germs!!!