Thank you Ashley!

My cousin Shannon had his beautiful baby girl on Friday! Madison Lurose Graves was born on April 25, 2008 at 8:04pm. She weighed 5lbs. 10oz. and was 19 in. long. She is precious and has her daddy's red hair! Krislynn and Madison are both doing great and were able to go home today.
Here are the proud parents with their baby girl!
Madi Rose!
Caden was soooo excited to see the new baby.
We did not want to overwhelm the new parents with 6 kids (ages 3 and under) so we went to see Madi in shifts. We had the kids play in the waiting room at the hospital and they loved looking out the big windows.
We finally have a picture of all 6 grandkids together!
Congratulations Shannon and Krislynn!

I was tagged by Sherry, so I thought I would oblige. If you see yourself in the last list, feel free to join the fun!

4 Jobs I have had in my life:
1. Intern at Hirschfeld Steel
2. Mail Room at A&M
3. Intern at Lee Lewis Construction
4. Project Manager - Lee Lewis Construction

4 Movies I’ve Watched More Than Once:
1. The Grinch
2. The Goonies
3. Nothing to Lose
4. Urban Cowboy

4 Places I’ve Lived:
1. San Angelo, Texas
2. College Station, Texas
3. Lubbock, Texas
4. I have only lived in 3 different cities!

4 TV Shows I Watch/Watched:
1. All My Children
2. CSI: Miami
3. NCIS
4. So You Think You Can Dance

4 Places I have Been:
1. Las Vegas
2. Bahamas
3. Memphis
4. Ruidoso

4 People who email me regularly:
1. Brent
2. Tish
3. Diane
4. The rest are work related

4 of my favorite foods:
1. Pickles
2. Tomatoes
3. Soft Tacos with Guacamole
4. Chick-fil-A

4 Places I Would Like to Visit:
1. Ireland
2. New York City
3. Paris
4. California

4 Things I am Looking Forward to in the Coming Year:
1. Buying some land south of Lubbock
2. Starting new projects at work
3. Family portraits - after I lose some weight
4. Fun times with my family

4 Friends who I’m Tagging:
1. Ashley
2. Janna
3. Allison
4. Jinny

Today is teacher conference day at Caden's school and everything went so well. Here is what was discussed:

• Socialization - Caden's teacher said that she has come out of her shell alot. At first Caden was very quiet, but now she is seeing Caden's personality more (I always pray that my kids will not by shy like their mother). She also said that she thinks that Caden is comfortable at school. Caden works well in her centers (table games, block center, kitchen/role play center and reading center), shares with others and helps clean up.
• Language - Her teacher has no problems with understanding Caden when she speaks. Caden also has a good vocabulary and speaks in complete sentences.
• Colors - Caden's teacher put "Wow" next to this item. She was impressed with how well Caden new her colors including red, green, yellow, blue, orange, purple, brown, black, pink and white.
• Shapes - Caden knows her shapes well too. According to her teacher, she didn't even hesitate with the square and rectangle like some kids do.
• Calender - Caden knows all of the days of the week.
• Counting - Caden can count from 1 to 29. I am so glad she remembers 17 now!
• Cutting - Her teacher says that her cutting is smooth and she does well following a line.

Who wouldn't be proud!

Okay, so I know from reading other blogs that the Fave Five list should be done on a Friday but I am going to go ahead and post one today.



Five of my favorite things about Jace:

• Zerberts and Sugars - I know that this is really 2 things, but with both you are left soaking wet so I am listing it as one. Jace's favorite thing to do lately is to give zerberts and we think it is hilarious. He will be playing with you and then all of the sudden he starts to give you a zerbert over and over and over again. Earlier today he was pushing on Brent trying to get him out of his way and then out of nowhere decided to give Brent a zerbert on his leg. Jace also loves to give the wet open mouth kisses, and they are the good kisses not the real quick ones. It is so sweet.
• Learning to talk - Besides Dada and Momma, Jace cannot say many words that you can understand. However, that doesn't stop him from talking constantly. It is like he has his own language. He did say cheese a couple of weeks ago, but he will only repeat it when he wants to.
• Momma's Helper - Jace takes after his sister with this one. He will help put clothes in the dryer (and then take them right back out) and he loves to help unload the dishwasher (unlike his daddy who hates unloading the dishwasher). He also loves to help put his sippy cup in the refrigerator so that the milk doesn't get warm.
• Pretending - I love how he pretends that everything is a cell phone. The TV remote, a calculator, my debit card and many random toys are all cell phones to Jace. He will hold them up to his ear and talk. Then he will smile really big or laugh. Too cute.
• Warming up to others - Jace has a hard time warming up to people. He clings to me the most but if Brent and I are not around he will cling to Caden. However, over the past couple of weeks Jace has started to venture away from us more and more when we are at someone else's house. I love how excited everyone gets when he reaches for them to hold him when I am standing in the same room.

Five of my favorite things about Caden:

• Her sayings - My favorite is "well, whats for that?" This is what she says when she wants to know why something happened. She also says "Well, that was pretty crazy" all of the time. I love it when she says that because she always has a silly look on her face when she says it.
• Loves her brother - She is the sweetest big sister ever. She is always trying to give Jace hugs and sugars all day long (even when he is being ugly and doesn't want them). She wants to include him in everything and makes sure he gets to go everywhere she goes. She doesn't even mind sharing with him (most of the time!).
• Knock-Knock jokes - Caden has an Elmo movie that does knock-knock jokes and Caden has been making up her own for quite awhile now. I love them even though they really aren't funny. Most of them end with 'on my head.'
• Momma's Helper - I know I already used this one for Jace, but it is so true for Caden too. She wants to help with everything including the laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc. She loves to help me stamp the submittals from my work. When we go to the grocery store she will say, "If you tell me to pick up something for you, then I will." She says this because I have told her so many times not to pick up anything unless I give her permission. Otherwise, we have things falling off the shelf!
• Sweet Nature - Caden will sit with you and cuddle and love on you. She gives great hugs and tells me that she loves me even without me saying it first.

Brent and I are so blessed!

That was the name of Caden's spring program this morning. She goes to preschool at a church and they always have a Christmas program and a spring program. Both are always so much fun for me! Caden did much better this time than she did at the Christmas one. She was not as distracted by Brent with the video camera. Here she is posing for me when I dropped her off this morning. Too bad she wasn't looking at the camera!

Grandma decided to get a hotel room for last night so that the girls (Airiana, Shayne and Caden) could go swimming and have a slumber party! Before the party at the hotel Shayne had three soccer games. I only made it to the last game but I think that they saved the best for last. Shayne usually plays defense, but for the second half of the game she played offense. Her team went from winning 1-0 to winning 5-0 and Shayne made one of the goals. We were so excited for her and proud of her. She made some excellent passes that resulted in goals for her team. Here is a picture of her on the sidelines.
This next picture is Caden getting into the pool at the hotel. She loved swimming. This was the first time she was in a pool where she could not touch the bottom. She was so brave and eventually got to where she did not want any help. We are definitely going to get her swimming lessons this summer.

Bode's surgery to have his adenoids removed and tubes in his ears went well. The actual surgery did not take long. The doctor had to remove puss from Bode's lungs, ears and nose. Poor thing was sick but they went ahead with the surgery. Bode had a hard time when he was waking up but the rest of the day he did so great. All he needed was a nap and he was good to go. Amazing!

Here are a couple of pictures taken in the waiting room:



Dad was so tired from traveling the night before and then getting up early so he took a little nap. It is crazy how he can sleep anywhere.

This is Grammy and Jace playing together.

Sisters! This is me with my awesome sisters.

Jace playing peek-a-boo! I was really proud of him for being such a good boy for so long.

This is Bode and me after the surgery. You did so great Bode Bear. I love you.

P.S. The surgery and Ashley's birthday were both on Friday the 11th, not the 10th. I started the post a day before I posted it!

Today is my little sister Ashley's birthday! I recently caught her acting silly on camera and of course had to use that picture for this post. It is totally her though. She loves to act silly and all of the kids love it. Ashley will sing (songs she made up most of the time) and dance for the kids. It's great! I hope you have an awesome day, Ash!

This is also the day Bode (my older sister Amber's little boy) had his surgery. He got tubes in his ears and had his adenoids removed. Poor thing. But he will be feeling much better in the long run. I will post an update on how his surgery went later.

We did not leave the house much this weekend, but we still had a good one hanging out together. Next weekend will be crazy because I plan to go to San Angelo on Thursday night for my little sister Ashley's birthday and return on Saturday since Brent's family will be coming to visit. Brent's mom plans on taking the girls to a hotel for the night and letting them swim in the indoor pool! So, of course I had to go shopping last weekend for a new swimsuit for Caden. Here is the picture of Caden in her new swimsuit that we sent to Grandma to let her know we are ready for her visit.

I am one of those moms who checks on her kids to make sure they are still breathing before going to bed. Last night it took Caden FOREVER to go to sleep. First she needed to go potty again, then see needed a drink of water and many other excuses followed. Finally, over an hour later she stopped talking and singing to herself and went to sleep. When I went to check on her I found her sleeping like this.

I just had to take a picture. She is so silly.

This next picture is from this morning. It is so hard to get a picture of Caden and Jace together lately. Caden will be really sweet and stand next to him and smile pretty. Then there is Jace. I cannot get him to stand (or sit) still. I have a couple of pictures with her holding his hand and smiling while Jace is screaming. We tried to get a good picture of them on Thursday in their Easter outfits for my mom and sister to take to Houston this weekend. They are standing 2 feet apart in the best one that we got. Oh well. So I guess you are probably wondering what changed this morning. Well, Caden was sitting on top of the laundry basket that was flipped upside down and Jace wanted up there really bad. So I got the camera out, put him up there and got lucky!

I am excited about starting this blog. I love reading other blogs even if I do not know the person writing the blog. There are some pretty interesting people out there! For some reason I am finding it hard to know where to start with my blog. Do I just jump in and start posting what is going on in our lives or do I give a little background? After thinking way too much about this question, I have decided to just dive right in - after my first post!