Halloween!!!

While this was technically Cade's second Halloween, it was the first one that he actually was aware of. He made his official trick-or-treating debut as a chicken. I found it hilarious. He loved walking around holding his juice and his pumpkin trick-or-treat bag... but he didn't want to go to the doors and get candy. We would walk up with his cousins (Kamryn & Cullum (4 yrs), and Brennan and Breckan (2 yrs)), and when the person opened the door and started handing out candy, Cade would very matter-of-factly just say, "No. No," and walk away. He never got upset or cried or anything, he was just like... "This is wierd. Who are they? Why am I here?" But he had a blast watching everyone else and just walking around the Plano neighborhood.

Can't wait til next year!! Enjoy the pics.

The Texas State Fair

Well, Cade was finally old enough to actually enjoy the fair a bit this year. Last year, he couldn't care less. But this year -- woh. He was ALL over it. We didn't make any formal introductions to Big Tex, because frankly, Big Tex scares me. He'd certainly scare Cade. But Cade LOVED the barn animals. I mean LOVED. I wish I could post video, because he was literally shouting random words across the petting zoo to try to get the attention of the goats. He's psycho.

And now a word to my crappiness -- I have been the worst blog updater on the planet. I deserve every bad word and every vulgar thought about it. I am not in denial.

Anyway, here's to a better future in blogging for everyone. I hope you enjoy the fair pictures.

OH! And I know that everybody probably knows this by now, but I figured I'd also just throw out there that David and I are expecting kid #2. Woh. I am due May 12... so I'm just now about to end the first trimester. Why the heck would anybody have ANOTHER BABY???? And this time, we did it on purpose!!! :) Just kidding. .... Well, kind of. :)

I'll let everyone know when we find out if it's a boy or a girl -- probably close to Christmas.

Happenings Lately

We have been up to A LOT the last few weeks, so instead of just writing a huge post about what we've been doing...I just decided to post a bunch of pictures. That's cooler anyway.

This is a new rug we got for our living room. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it's a deep red/brown/tan long shag rug. We like it a lot. We're putting wood floors down in the living room in the next month or so... so we have been kinda looking for a rug -- and found it!

We painted and laid wood floors in our guest bedroom. FINALLY! Dad and David did all the work and it looks amazing. We painted it a nice pale blue b/c this room will eventually become Cade's bedroom whenever we decide to have another little monster.

Here is Cade "helping" us pull the tape off the wood floors the day after we laid the wood down. He at least thinks he's helping...

We finally painted David's grandma's dining room cabinet. The hardware and doors still aren't put on...but I needed a project break, so this is the state it's in now... We think it looks awesome!

We went to Hot Springs last weekend for a nice, relaxing getaway. It was fun to spend time with Carol and Terry. Cade loved going outside and exploring CONSTANTLY, while David and I got to take in a movie and do some morning mountain biking. We love Cade, but it's great to take some breaks! Cade obviously enjoyed some La-Z-Boy lounging one morning -- in Terry's chair!

Cade's friend Abbie left her bow over at our house one night. Well, I found it the next morning, so I decided to let Cade wear it a while. I thought it was funny. David didn't. :)

This is Cade's new game. Every morning, while I get ready in the bathroom, he is just not happy UNLESS he's in the bathtub throwing everything he can get his hands on into his little bathtub with water in it. I have no idea why this is fun, but he loves it. What we didn't get a picture of was when he climbed into his little bathtub with all the floating paraphernalia in it. It was hilarious... and he was soaked head to toe!

That's all we've got for now! We'll update after the 4th of July with new pictures! God Bless!

We're Crap

Well, we haven't updated our blog in like 3 lifetimes. So, we pretty much are crap. BUT, we have been really busy and I PROMISE to take some time tonight to update everyone with pictures and everything. LOTS has been going on. We have painted a big piece of furniture that we in herited from David's grandmother. We have installed new wood floors in our guest bedroom and repainted it b/c it will eventually be Cade's "big boy" room. We took a trip to Hot Springs to visit David's family...

So, stay tuned folks and you'll get pictures!!! I hope that this happy face shows up as a happy face and not a J. Kelsey's blog taught us all about that.

:)

Little "Cade"amoto

Cade debuted his new outfit that Kelsey and Derek sent him from Japan today at Mother's Day Out. Nicki called him "Cade"amoto all day. How cute! Anyway, he looks so funny walking around the house in his little Japanese getup. He pretty much walks everywhere now...he's a crazy little guy, for sure.

Our Mohawk Rocker

Cade's Easter Pic

I'm pretty much horrible, b/c it's taken me this long to get a picture of Cade from Easter up here. Anyway, this is a snapshot from Ima and Popsy's house. That's my mom and dad for those of you who can't translate. :)

Cade's been a sick little beast the last few weeks. On Easter (just 2 weeks ago), he had Roseola and this last weekend (up until today), he's had 104 fever with an ear infection and upper respiratory infection. But he's good to go now since he's pumped full of antibiotics. Poor guy -- maybe it's because Dallas is the #1 city in America with the WORST AIR QUALITY. Canada, here we come! :)

Playing Possum

Tonight when Reese, our chihuahua, went out for her last potty break of the day, she started going ballistic. She was barking so much, I had to go see what was going on before she woke up Cade. Well, she had found a little possum in our courtyard. It was about 10" long and was scared to death, huddled in a corner. I actually kinda felt sorry for it. Poor little guy. But don't worry -- in typical David fashion, we've promptly did a little research on your friendly neighborhood possum...and I've accummulated some of those facts, right here, for you.

#1 - Possums are North America's only marsupial.
#2 - Possums are "nature's little santitation engineer"...meaning they eat mice, rats, spiders, snails, slugs and other pesky little dudes.
#3 - Possums aren't aggressive against humans or pets...unless cornered. Woops.
#4 - Possums typically don't carry diseases like Parvo or Rabies.
#5 - Possums like to eat ripe fruit.
#6 - Possums, like racoons, are attracted by our mounds of trash bags.
#7 - Possums are often mistaken for rats. At first, I thought it was a rat. Scary.
#8 - Chihuahuas notice possums very quickly.
#9 - David is scared of possums; however, Brooks tries to get as close as possible to capture good photographs.
#10 - We can rest easy, now, knowing a possum is keeping our property safe.

Derek & Kelsey in JAPAN!!!

Derek and Kelsey have a blog where they update their adventures in Japan. You can visit their blog @ derekelsey.blogspot.com (also added under the "Blogs I Read" section of this site). Just letting you all know! Keep them in your prayers as they eat with chopsticks and ride bikes. :)

The Easter Bunny Virus

Well, Easter was going alright this year until Cade woke up from his lazy Sunday afternoon nap with 102 fever. From there, it just got worse. I stayed in his room that night and checked him off and on and he was just a little oven of heat. It got to 102.5 through the night, but he was such a trooper.

Cade is weird -- he doesn't even act sick when he's sick...which makes it hard to know when I need to take him to the doctor. For example, back in December when he had RSV (which is a REALLY bad virus in the lungs that decreases oxygen levels in the body), I took him in thinking he just had a cough that wouldn't go away and they rushed him to the ER. That wasn't the first time he shocked me. In late November, we took him in for his 9 month immunizations and he had a really bad ear infection that took 2 antibiotics to knock out and I would've never known. He didn't run fever, he didn't fuss (well, not more than normal!), he slept fine. He's either really tough or he just doesn't feel as bad as other kids to when he's real sick. I don't know.

Anyway, Monday when his fever rose up to 103.5, I thought I'd take him to the doctor. Of course, in Cade fashion -- he was laughing and playing the whole time in the car on the way eventhough he was sick as a dog. I was actually kinda scared b/c he was exhibiting early symptoms of meningitis, so we were on our way to the doctor before I even called to tell them I was coming in. He had a weird "mottled" look to his skin (which looks like the skin is transparent and you can see all the blood vessels and stuff. Actually sounds worse than it looked, but I don't know how else to describe it. And he had ice cold hands and feet eventhough he was running over 103. So I panicked.

The doctor basically said that he had a nasty little virus b/c his ears and throat and sinuses and chest looked and sounded good. And if he wasn't better by Tuesday morning, that he wanted him back for blood work.

Well, late Monday night he had 104.5...things were getting worse. At that high fever, even Cade acts kinda pitiful. I was just hoping he'd be better by morning so we didn't have to go through blood tests. Tuesday morning, he woke up with 103 -- not good. Should've called the doctor and gone for blood tests, but I decided to shoot him up (again) with Tylenol and give it a couple more hours. And lo and behold!!!!... he hasn't had fever sense. It broke via a pile of sweaty wet clothes and he's been chipper ever sense.

Glad the last 48 hours is over.

Poor Cade.

Bathtime

We decided to mix things up last night during Cade's bathtime. I put Reese (our long-haired chihuahua) in there with him...well, not actually in the water with him, but we put her in the big bathtub while Cade continued to sit in his little tub with the water in it. But Cade got so excited that Reese was in there, he stepped out of his little bathtub and started petting her and giggling hysterically. We had to capture the moment on film and share it with you. I blurred out his little ding dong, though, because I don't think I want that hanging out on the internet.

Maiden Voyage

David has decided to officially lay off the threats to pack us all up and move to Canada. For today, my friends, we went out on Joe Pool Lake in my parents' new (well, it's actually old, but new to them) BOAT. Yes, a freaking awesome speedboat! So, David has decided it won't be too bad to stay here in Big D for a little while longer. PLUS he found out that the best mountain biking trails in Texas are in Cedar Hill State Park - literally 10 minutes from our house. So, that's also helping the "Stay in Texas" cause. Just to clarify - he was kinda joking when he's say we should just move to Vancouver... kinda. But summers here in the hot, flat, desert lands are looking a bit more optimistic since we'll be spending a lot of time on a lake. Yee Haw!

Dad, David and I took the boat out for its lake debut just today and it was an absolute BLAST!!! I sat in the boat and soaked up the rays while David and Dad took turns playing "Macho" at the wheel. Dad typically wins that game...and since it's his boat, we'll always let him win.

Kelsey and Derek leave for Japan on Thursday. I'm just convincing myself that it isn't really happening. And that's a nice place to live right now -- Delusion. But we're all set up to communicate across the globe as best as possible. We all have iSights, which are video web cams so we can talk while seeing eachother. I'll get to watch Kelsey balloon to 200 pounds eating nothing but carbs...and she'll get to watch me shrink down back to wedding-size since I've pretty much decided to become anorexic - starting tomorrow. KIDDING... well, sort of! :) But I have to get back down to AT LEAST pre-pregnancy weight so that David and I can start trying for baby #2 this summer...late this summer. Who knows, we'll see. No promises.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great next week and I know we're all excited about Elizabeth's wedding!!! You go girl!

Baby Steps

Until today, Cade had shown no interest whatsoever in walking. He crawls faster than just about any baby I've ever seen -- it's like a sprint-crawl or something -- so why would he see any need to try walking as a mode of transportation when crawling seems to work so well?? Well, this afternoon while Cade was at Ima and Popsy's house (that's my mom and dad), he was standing up while holding onto Ima's pants while Kelsey and Derek were doing something on the computer. Derek decided to hold his hands out to Cade and beckon him. Cade let go of Ima's pants and WALKED (granted, just 2 steps, but WALKED!) to Derek! Totally unaided, all by himself! How cool is that? I am kinda surprised because he hasn't really shown interest in letting go before...I thought it would be a while, but today he has started the journey to walkinghood. So -- David and I didn't even get to see it! But I am so glad that it was Derek that Cade first walked to and that Kelsey was there, too, because I have a sneaking suspicion that they are going to miss Cade more than anybody when they leave for Japan. He's going to miss them too! Derek is his favorite shoulder ride and Kelsey is his favorite ... well ... pretty much just his favorite person overall. He squeals with delight when he sees Kelsey come into a room.

Tracey and Amber came over today for lunch with their precious babies -- Todd and Abbie, respectively. It is so nice to have Christian girlfriends that you can share your life and struggles and joys and tips with. They are such a blessing in my life. Today was just a great day!

...and the Floods Came Up

We had a relaxing lunch after church and then we ran an errand to Sams...all the while our house was slowly submerging beneath the treacherous, muddy waters. Luckily, Kelsey and D were here to help recreate our landscape to direct the waters elsewhere. Wow -- fun times in the land of home-owning. Don't worry -- Kelsey did find a few dry moments to take some snapshots of the wet event.

Major Yard Projects

Spring Break week was nutso on the yard project homefront. These pictures don't even do the work justice. Basically, we (meaning David, Dad and Derek) demolished a huge deck that was out back originally built around an above ground pool (which we never saw), so it had a huge hole in the middle of it and couldn't even be used really. We also dug out a huge plant bed in the front, relined and mulched so it's clean and ready for planting!! I got out all by myself with my handy dandy little loppers and cut down close to 100 small trees and other random saplings around our front yard area... basically I rocked. LOTS left to do to get a yard ready for Cade to play in this summer! Derek may look skinny, but his huge, manly muscles really pack a punch when he holds a mallet. :)

Aloha! Cade's Hawaiian Birthday Bash

We had so much fun at Cade's 1st birthday party! Everyone wore their Hawaiian shirts and we grilled some mighty fine kabobs on David's man-grill out in the yard. Cade had a great time eating his first birthday cake -- I think his piece was the biggest of the bunch. It was fun having Cade's little friends at the party -- Aiden and Abbie were there, and of course cousins Brennan and Breckan came to share in the festivities.

Cade @ The Zoo

So, I'm just starting this bloggy thing and I have no idea what I'm doing. But David and I wanted to have a place where friends and family could check out what's been going on in our lives and (of course) view the latest pics of Cade (my personal obsession and newly-turned 1-yr-old son)! I hope I do this right... Oh and Kelsey and Derek are moving to Japan for a freaking year...they leave on April 5th...and I'm pretty much depressed about it. We hope that Cade starts walking before they leave so that they can see him -- he gets closer everyday. He's started to randomly let go of the coffee table and stand there for like 10 seconds on his own without realizing what he's doing. Kinda cool. Hope you like the pics of the Fort Worth Zoo trip.