Baby Projects and Baby Update

I am now 36 weeks and hoping to hang in there for a couple more before baby sister makes her arrival. My body is more than ready for her to come on out...but my project list is not. The list is getting smaller but I would like to finish the curtains for the room and of course make it through Christmas. I took on the challenge of making the baby bedding for her room, mostly because we weren't going to spend the crazy cash it takes to buy the super cute bedding that I kept finding that I liked. It was either buy one that I wasn't crazy about or spend about the same amount (or a little less) and make one I really liked. It was a big task because I just got a sewing machine (and sewed for the first time) a little over a year ago but I went for it and you can see the results below. Overall I'm really happy with it, of course there are a few things I would do differently if I did it again. But I think it looks cute and I'm sure she will sleep just fine in it. The room is not quite ready for a baby just yet, but we are working on it and hope to finish shortly (ideally before she arrives).

The bed. Bumper and crib skirt.

The crib skirt laying out on the floor.

Our Little Angel

Hard Headed Little Boys

Thank God that he gives little boys hard heads! And also that he gives family's little girls so they don't have total craziness. : - ) I love my little boy....but he is all boy. Loud, crazy, etc. But thankfully he also has a hard head. I mean literally here, not when he is choosing to disobey and do his own thing but when he actually hits his head on something. The reason behind this post is that the other night Caden and I were in the living room while Ricky was working in the garage. Caden was running with one of Lilly's toys (the dog) and Lilly was chasing him (a favorite game in our house) then I hear CRACK! I run to him as he is on the floor holding his head and screaming. I take a quick look at him and scoop him up and run to the garage to tell Ricky that I need him. Then I run back to the living room and reevaluate him again. Let me just say Caden hits and bumps things all the time but this was a serious CRACK. There was no doubt in my mind that his head was not split in half. Obviously Ricky is inside at this point and we realize that he "just" has a huge knot on his forehead. So after we held the Elmo Boo Boo ice pack on it for a while he recovered and so did I. I am usually very calm in these situations but I failed in this one. Luckily the loud crack I heard was the wall splitting open and not Caden's head. Take a look.

Here is the corner of the wall where he hit. Notice he not only knocked the paint off the wall he also knocked a hole in it.

The knot on his forehead. It was a good one. But I still can't believe it didn't break the skin.

Gotta Love Free!

Who doesn't love all that Shutterfly has to offer. Personalized anything these days is a big hit so obviously a site that lets you do lots of it is a big hit among me and my friends and family. I use shutterfly for lots of things including Christmas cards, Photo Books, Photo Calendars, Gift Tags, and your regular 4x6 prints. Plus you can share your photos or projects with family so they can order some cool prints or products too. Last year we used this photo for our Christmas card.

I love sending out photos on our Christmas cards. It just makes it so much more personal. I don't have one taken yet for this year, but I hope to get on that this week. I need a Christams tree up first. I have never been disappointed in Shutterfly's work. Everything has always turned out great and their site is very user friendly, so check out what they have to offer and cross off some of those holiday gifts from your list.

By the way...Shutterfly is giving bloggers 50 free Holiday Cards for blogging about their products. Prompting this post. : - ) Check it out and maybe you can get some too. Go here. I Love Free Stuff!!!

Happy Halloween!

Caden loved Halloween this year! He is really into dressing up right now so wearing his puppy dog costume was a huge hit. He also really enjoyed going door to door and saying "Trick or Treat" and getting candy. He was super pumped that his friend Maya came over and went with us. They were very cute together. This morning when he woke up the first thing he said was "No more Halloween???" Meaning, it isn't Halloween anymore is it? Then when he got up and going he came to me and said "Wheres my Tandy?" Which translates to Where's my candy? He was ready to start the day with his bucket full of candy.

Handy Helper. Cleaning out the pumpkins so we could carve them.

Posing by our carved pumpkins and Daddy's new Tennessee sign he made.

The cutest Puppy ever!

Can we do this already? I'm ready to go!

Wagon ride from house to house.

"Trick or Treat!"

Waiting for me to stop taking pictures and open his sucker.

They couldn't get enough. : - )

Pumpkin Patches

We've had the opportunity to visit a couple of pumpkin patches over the last few weeks. Caden has loved every bit of it. The first visit was to a pumpkin farm and it was great! It made the trip really cool for Caden because Ricky took the day off and went with us and Caden got to ride on a school bus to get there. You can't beat that if you are 2 yrs old! The second trip was to a pumpkin patch with our playgroup that meets weekly. The kids had a great time feeding the animals, going through the straw maze, taking a hayride, and playing in a TeePee that was set up.

And by the way (I should note since I'm including pictures), we have officially entered the stage of making crazy faces when you see the camera (especially if you use the word "cheese"). It is hard to find a picture where he actually looks normal. : - ) Most of the ones I capture have a wrinkled nose and one eye closed. Silly Kid!

Happy as can be...riding on a School Bus!

Posing with a pumpkin we picked.

Making the way through the corn maze.

Crazy face Caden (attemping to smile for the camera) with his gourds and little pumpkins from our trip.

Second Pumpkin Patch Visit

Posing with some pumpkins

Riding a straw horse

On the hayride with Mommy

Laughing at the rabbits with buddy Owen

Wedding Reception Fun

Caden finally lasted long enough at a wedding reception to get to hear the music. As expected, He loved it! He kept dancing way past bedtime.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Update

We've just been doing the normal things around here. Nothing too eventful. Enjoying some cooler weather. I do have one bit of news to share... We did find out that we are having a GIRL!!!! We are all very excited. Everything looked good with the baby, she seems to be growing and developing just as planned. Here are a couple of recent pictures of Caden.

Just hanging out with Lilly (or on her to be more exact).

Go Vols! Caden is a fan just like daddy.

First Cardinals Game Fun

Clap Drew! You can't sit this one out when Caden's around. Everyone must participate!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

First Cardinals Game

Caden had a Blast at his first Cardinals Baseball Game last weekend. We were able to meet some of our friends from Memphis and catch a Sat. night game. Caden absolutely loved the atmosphere. We stayed in our seats nearly the entire game and he sang, clapped, and danced the whole night. The wave was also quite cool. Here are some pictures.

A family picture before the game

Daddy and Son

Being Silly...Having Fun with Drew

Cheering the Night away

Catching Up

Here are some pictures I came across that never got posted. Enjoy!

Caden enjoys playing with his new t-ball set he got for his birthday!

Some pictures from Caden's actual birthday

A Birthday breakfast...with hat of course.

More presents! A Mickey and Minnie Safari Road set.
Can I blow yet? Cake after Lunch.

Blowing out the candle (again and again). He kept saying blow again. So we lit it several times.

Yum! Cake is Good!

A visit to Chuck E Cheese.

A few days later Caden wasn't feeling the best...He was resting on the cool tile floor and Lilly decided to join him. Pretty Cute, huh?

Our Birthday Boy!

Happy 2nd Birthday to Caden! He has been soaking it up all week. We did a family party last weekend in Cape so he has enjoyed playing with all of his new presents this week and then today (his actual birthday) we celebrated again. He thinks singing Happy Birthday is great, especially if you are singing to him and then he gets to blow out candle. We probably lit the candle 10 times at lunch so he could blow again. And of course you have to sing each time too. Here are a couple of pictures from the morning of his party.

Stylin with his Elmo attire

Blowing out the candles

Baseball Boy

Here are a couple of pictures of Caden playing baseball in the backyard. He has really enjoyed watching baseball this summer and loves playing himself. He determined a few weeks ago that he "Needed" a helmet to play baseball. We gave in and went looking. A T-ball size actually fits remarkably well and maybe he will wear it someday to play on a team. Who knows. For now the backyard will work. : - )

On Our Way to Two

While Caden is almost two years old now...we are also moving on to two children in our life. We are expecting another baby in January!!! We are very excited and everything seems to be going well. Caden will be a great big brother. And currently he is still a big fan of babies so hopefully that sticks around for a while. : - )


I can't believe that Caden will be two in less than one month! It is crazy how much kids change from year to year. I'm sure he obviously changed dramatically during his first year of life but I almost think this second year has been even more amazing. He has learned so much from when he turned one until now. I never would have imagined that my one year old then would be the full fledged toddler he is today. Running, playing, climbing, talking, singing, etc. It is crazy. Whether it is singing with the radio or saying the words with us as we read a book or counting as we count. He thinks that is pretty cool right now. I tried to attach a video below of Caden counting with his computer from several weeks ago, but I've been trying for like two weeks and blogger evidently hates the idea of me uploading this video so I gave up and posted this post without the video. Sorry.

Fireworks

Caden enjoyed the fireworks. We did some small things at home like smoke bombs, sparklers, snakes, and snap pops. Snap Pops were the coolest for him but he also really liked the smoke bombs. We went to a church function on the evening of the fourth. They had some fun things set up for the kids to do and then there was a fireworks display. Caden really did like the fireworks. He liked saying the colors that they were. At first he thought it was safest to cover his eyes and just peek but eventually he was good looking straight at them. : - )

Smoke Bomb fun. Observing at first.

Now he's running through it.
Watching the Snake appear.

Snap Pops

Sparklers. He wasn't scared at all, which made me a little nervous.

Caden's in the last seat of the I love America Express.

This is serious business.

Jumping in the bounce house.

Peeking through his fingers at the fireworks.