To New Friends and Fun in the Sun

Owen and Caden at the pool

"Let me tell you about the cute little girl over there"

Happy Days

A few pictures from the last couple of days.

The new teeth Caden has. Two on top and one peaking through on the bottom.

Look closely. I had to laugh (and take a picture). Caden was eating some Puffs in his highchair. He would eat the ones I gave him and then yell when he was done and I would go over and give him a couple more. (We haven't mastered "more") I left the room for a second and I hear him yelling. I assume that he has eaten his Puffs and is in need of some more. When I return this is what I found. I first noticed the one stuck on his nose and then he raised his head and I saw the one stuck under his chin. Those tricky Puffs! Sometimes it is still hard to get it into the mouth. He thought he needed more.

A Happy Father and Son on Father's Day! Yay for Daddys!

A Catch Up from Columbia

Caden has seen a lot of changes since we made the move up here to Columbia. Right as we were moving he started to crawl. So by the time we got here he definitely had the hang of it and he hasn't slowed down since. The house was by no means baby proofed with all of the boxes sitting around, not to mention the tools and paint supplies. It was a fun couple of weeks keeping Caden out of everything. And of course since he could crawl his exersaucer and jumper are no longer as cool to him and do not occupy him for near as long as they used to. Things have become more baby friendly (I wouldn't call it baby proofed yet) in the past few days so that makes things a little easier. Caden is now occasionally pulling up on things as well so that is new and we now have to work on baby proofing things that are higher up since he will be getting to them soon. Fun Fun! He has also gotten his first tooth and then another shortly after, so he now has two top front teeth. I still have to get a toothy smile picture. So hopefully that will come soon. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. Caden seems to enjoy swimming whether it be in the baby pool in the backyard with Lilly or at the neighborhood pool with Ricky or I. Hopefully that will make for a summer full of fun swimming.

Caden standing in his crib in his new room.

Caden crawling on our bed.

Lilly enjoying Caden's splashes, maybe more than he does.

Caden enjoying the baby pool in the backyard.

Caden enjoying playing at the neighborhood pool.

He's a pro. A back float at 10 months, what more can you ask for.

Handy Hubby

We are still alive, although the last two and a half weeks have been crazy. Never again will we decide to purchase a house and immediately paint nearly the entire thing, at least not unless we pay someone else to paint. There is enough to do when you move into a new house much less attempt to paint the entire interior. We were crazy first time home buyers! But we are wiser now so we know in the future. Anyway I wanted to post and brag on my handy husband. When we started looking at houses he had the idea to built a Murphy bed (for those of you who don't know what that is, it is a bed that can be folded into a cabinet when not being used). We thought this would be ideal. We would have a guest room for when we have guests, but we would also have the room to use for our needs when guests weren't around. We could have a nice desk and room for the treadmill as well. You see Ricky didn't want to built any ole Murphy bed he wanted a desk included. He put in many hours slaving away in the shed back in Memphis to get the bed built and stained just perfect. A special shout out to some of the guys who were nice enough to come over and assist (especially Brock--Thank You). It was a little nerve racking waiting to see if the final contraption would work as planned since it hadn't been all put together before we got up here to Columbia. But of course, Ricky new what he was doing and it works Perfect! It is a beautiful piece of furniture as well as a desk and a guest bed. What a handy guy! Another post is coming soon of new happenings since we've moved. Enjoy the pictures of the Murphy bed below.

A work in Progress

It is a Piece of Furniture!

It is a Desk!

It is a Bed, Oh My!

Reflection

Caden made the cut. He gets to go with us!

We're almost all packed. I can't believe it. What is even crazier is that Ricky will be a Doctor tomorrow. Not that I'm surprised that he will be an M.D, a good one at that. It is just a little crazy that it has been four years already and he is now going to be a "true" doctor, not just a med school student. WE MADE IT! Hooray! We are even still married and had a beautiful baby boy! We went on a few trips, did a few fun Memphis things, made some good friends and now it is time to move on to the next step, residency. We had a pretty good four years. While we are glad to leave Memphis (it isn't that bad of a place to live, we just envisioned something a little different), it is sad as well. This is the only place we have lived as a "married couple." We will miss the convenience of living in a bigger city and having so many stores, restaurants, activities available within a few minutes. And of course we will miss all of the good friends we made. But I look forward to living in a city where I don't have to think twice about Caden playing outside in yard by himself and that people can get their groceries without being mugged and beaten. Memphis is Crazy at times. We will come back to visit and we hope everyone stays in touch.

Who will Caden ride the Carousel with? We will miss you Yauns!

Dad Duty. The Dads had to ride the carousel with the boys.

Another cute picture, just for the heck of it. I was washing Caden's bumper from his crib and he was have fun peaking through the slats at us.

Can't Walk in My Own House

Where does all of this stuff come from? I pack and pack and pack. There are boxes literally everywhere and there is still more to pack everywhere I look! How is this possible. We haven't even been married for 4 years how did we possibly accumulate so much. Of course I am a bit of a pack rat, but I think I've purged a lot for this move. Yet we can't even fit all of our boxes in our house and still have room to walk. Caden has minimal space left, but he doesn't seem to mind. He is getting very mobile. He doesn't quite have a fluent crawl down yet (although he can get on all fours and rock). I've seen him actually crawl (like two movements forward) only once, but I know it is coming. Of course he still wiggles, rolls, and turns to get to anything and everything that he wants. So even though he isn't technically crawling, he doesn't stay in any one place too long. He even moves in his exersaucer now. I'll included a video later that shows how he rocks in it and scoots it across the floor to get whatever he is after at the moment. I am actually hoping he doesn't get the full hang of crawling until after we move so that at least he will have a little more space and won't be into absolutely everything.

Caden sporting his legendary mohawk. You wouldn't believe how many people ask us if we style (or cut) his hair that way. In case you didn't know, NO we don't purposely give our child a mohawk. He is naturally blessed with that (no matter how I try to comb it). Well I might have helped for this picture.

Caden in the laundry basket (full of clean clothes). He is such a big helper!

Rocking Puppy

I can't believe how big he is getting! My mom got Caden a Rocking Puppy for Christmas but he wasn't much of a rider until recently. Now he thinks he is pretty cool and has the rocking down pat. He has to do the head bob to get started and then he gets his flow and rocks more smoothly. Ricky is sure that he will be a rodeo star. I'm thinking something a little less dangerous would be a better option. He is our entertainment these days.

Caden on the Rocking Puppy at Christmas.

Caden on the Rocking Puppy now.

Summer Fun

Last weekend we went to Heber Springs with family to spend the weekend in a lovely lake house. We had a good time, but it would have been even nicer if it would have stopped raining (even for a little bit) while we were there. We were able to go out on the deck and enjoy some bubbles which Caden loved. Caden's grandma brought them along thinking that Chapman (his older cousin) would enjoy and he did, but Caden thought they were pretty cool too. He liked trying to get them.

Caden also went to the Zoo for the first time on Tuesday. The weather was nice and we decided to take advantage of Free Zoo Tuesday before we leave Memphis. Caden enjoyed the animals that moved around quick enough to catch his attention. He liked the sea lion swimming by, the penguins being fed, and he thought the water falls throughout the zoo were cool. The giraffes and elephants were rather boring (again as I said before they didn't move much and therefore he didn't really get what to look at).

Caden and Ricky watching the Sea Lion swim.

Caden and I posing in front of the leopard.

Warm Weather / Easter

We definitely didn't pick Columbia for the weather. We love the weather in Memphis and will miss the warm of the south as we move north. But at least maybe it won't be so hot in Columbia come August. We've been enjoying some time outside recently. Here is a picture of Caden after we ate dinner outside. He had his sunglasses on but decided he didn't need them anymore so he pushed them up on his head and went on with playing. We had to take a picture, it was super cute!

We had a good time going home for Easter. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

A quick picture before church

Caden with two of his cousins

Marley (who is 2wks older), Danicka (who is 2 months younger), and Caden.

Caden and Aunt Amanda playing at the park

A New Home Sweet Home

We bought a house!

YAY! After two trips to Columbia and hours of looking at over 30 houses we made an offer and had it accepted. Below are a couple of pictures that I stole off the listing. The house is 3 bedroom 2 bath with a screened in back porch. It also has a bonus room that we plan to use for a playroom. We are very excited.