Cade stories. . .
Cade loves to drink water out of a real cup. It works ok if you give him about a quarter inch of water. Yesterday he was drinking and spilled some on the carpet. He ran over to his high chair and grabbed the rag we use to clean his hands and face and started wiping up the carpet.

I was going to give Cade a bath the other day and told him it was time for a bath. I went in the bathroom expecting him to follow and started the water. Instead, he went in the living room and got a diaper and brought it into the bathroom. Silly mom forgot the diaper, but Cade remembered!

We have a grocery store here that I like to go to called Aldi. Instead of giving you bags for your food, they let you pick up empty boxes and pack your food in those. It is a good way to recycle and cut down on plastic. We had a box from our last shopping trip that had a bottom and 3 sides to it. Cade starting sitting in it. We put a cushion in the bottom and it has become his box-chair. He likes to climb into it and chill out reading a book. It is pretty cute.


The last 2 weeks were not supposed to be busy.  It was the kind of thing when I looked at the calendar and had a doctor's appointment scheduled for me and a practice for our primary program in the whole 2 weeks.  Somehow, they got busy and totally flew by! 

Last week. . .
Monday night Cade had a terrible night.  The kind where we only sleep a few hours and it is all broken up.  He kept waking up crying and was having a hard time settling down.  He had a cold, but seemed to be getting better. 
Tuesday morning Kirk and I agreed that he needed to go to the doctor.  This was also the day of my dr appointment.  Luckily Kirk had the day off so he stayed home with Cade while I went to my appointment and then we took Cade in.  Turned out he had a pretty bad ear infection.  We went home and Kirk left to get some lunch and a perscription.  He called and told me he locked his keys in the car.  Of course, he had taken the car with the carseat.  So I buckled Cade into a regular seatbelt and drove off to save Kirk. 
Wednesday was pretty low key, but I felt terrible.  I had also been fighting a cold and it got a lot worse that day.  Cade started to get better though.  Thursday was also pretty easy.  I went to enrichment that night.  Kirk and I watched the movie "Man on a Ledge".  We both really liked it. 
Friday morning Kirk woke up sick.  Cade and I went to our mother's group Christmas party that I was in charge of.  We ended up with about 20 kids and 13 mom's there.  It was a lot of fun.  We had a special visit from Santa, but Cade wanted nothing to do with him.  He also wasn't too fond of the sugar cookies, but loved licking the frosting off the spoon!

Friday afternoon Kirk got off early and called to tell me he was coming home.  10 minutes later he called to tell me he had been rear-ended at an intersection and so it would take a bit longer.  Kirk was fine, but the car ended up with a big dent in the hatch back door.  Friday evening we went to El Nopal for dinner.  It was our Dive of the Month for December.  Usually we have some friends meet us at the restraurant, but nobody showed up this time.  They totally missed out.  The food was delicious and I would definitely go back there. 
Saturday and Sunday were pretty normal too.  We had our primary program.  Kirk sat up with our class and I got to watch with Cade.
This week. . .
Monday we went grocery shopping and ran a few other errands that I had been neglecting.
Tuesday I ended up at a car repair place in the morning--I get to go pick up the car this afternoon.  I have had a rental all week. 
Wednesday I went visiting teaching all morning and then Cade seemed to be getting sick again.  We leave early next week for Utah, and I don't want to take a sick baby.  We went back to the doctor on Thursday morning.  The ear infection was better, but not all the way.  The Dr gave us a different antibiotic and said Cade should be doing much better my Monday.  Hope so. 
Now it's Friday.  We went shopping a bit this morning and then to music makers with some other mom's in our ward. 

It doesn't sound too bad when I type it out.  I guess it was just a lot more than I was planning on.  When you throw in making dinner and getting ready for Christmas and keeping Cade happy and keeping our house mostly clean and taking care of myself, though, it gets a lot busier. 

We have our ward Christmas party tomorrow morning and one with Kirk's work in the evening.  We are all counting down the days until we get to go to Utah next week.  I am so excited to see family!  Actually, I think I am really excited to show off Cade to his grandparents and aunts and uncles.  We also get to meet up with some friends from California and Texas that we haven't seen forever and I am really looking forward to that too. 

28 weeks prego--I have to document this somehow

Cade has really been growing up!  Here's what he has been up to lately: 

• Sign language:  Cade knows and uses several signs.  He does more to mean "I want" or "more."  He also has signs for hot, cold, water, help, see, airplane, music, all done, where, bye bye, night night and eat.  He also blows kisses and give high five. 
• Cade just started saying a few words.  He says dada.  This morning I got him out of bed and changed his diaper and he ran into our room saying dadadada looking for Kirk.  What a great alarm clock!  He also says bubble (bubu) and mama.  He makes a vroom noise for car and a different one that means airplane.  He is also getting "moo" for cow.  I told him to say "Alan" today and he said something that sounded right and repeated it over and over.  Hopefully he remembers that when we see Alan (my brother) in a few weeks.
• Cade loves to do action songs.  He is starting to do the actions with us.  He loves "Wheels on the Bus," especially the wipers.  He loves to clap his hands and stomp his feet for "if you're happy and you know it."  He does the wiseman and the foolish man and monkeys jumping on the bed too.
• Cade loves boxes and things with handles.  We have a cardboard box that has a handle on it like a briefcase and he carries it around.  He loves to find empty boxes and push them all over and sit on them.  Luckily he doesn't put too many things inside to hide away.  We were at Sportsman's Warehouse a couple weeks ago and Kirk was buying a hunting license.  I was trying to keep Cade entertained and gave him a small tackle box with a handle.  He was so excited and proud of himself and carried it up and down the aisle.  He cried when I took it away when we went home.  We have an old tackle box about the same size at home.  I think he might get it for Christmas. . .he'll love it.  :)
• We set up our small Christmas tree and Cade "asks" to turn it on all of the time. 
• When you have a 15 month old, there are certain words you can't say unless you mean it.  Stroller, vaccuum, go, outside, applesauce, grapefruit, and music are some of these words.
• Cade loves to vaccuum.  He has now gotten to the point where he wants to hold the handle and help us vaccuum.  It is cute, but really slows down the process.  We have a battery-powered carpet sweeper I pulled out a little while ago and he thinks it is awesome!  He now uses that when we vaccuum and actually helps.  Luckily it is rechargeable. 

• We have a CD of nursery and action songs that Cade loves.  We listen to it almost every day. As soon as I turn it on, Cade starts bouncing up and down and shaking his head--his form of dancing.  He knows his favorite songs (Wheels on the Bus and If You're Happy and you Know it) from just a few notes.  We keep the CD in the DVD player and listen to it through the TV.  Cade will point to the TV and wave his arm around (meaning music) and then gets really excited when I turn it on. 
• Cade knows where his head, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, hands and feet are.  On a good day he gets tummy and hair. 

Where's your tongue?

• Cade has been cutting back to 1 nap about half of the time now.  He started sleeping less and less in the morning and then 2 days in a row I put him in bed like normal and he just played for 30-40 min.  He's been sick the last couple of days and has been taking 2 naps, but most of last week it was just one.  It is a tricky transistion for me and him. 
• Since he has been dropping the morning nap, I lost my shower time so I've been getting it done before Kirk leaves in the morning.  Usually when I come out, Kirk and Cade are cuddled up in our lazy boy, watching movies on the computer.  The movies are either home videos of Cade or fishing videos.  Cade LOVES watching movies of himself.

• Kirk took Cade in the shower with him last week and Cade thought it was so much fun.
• Free toys Cade loves:  boxes, bottles, kitchen utensils, empty sour cream containers--great for building towers, blankets, sticks. . .I'm sure there's more.

Free toys--hot pad.  Sorry it's blurry.

• Cade likes to help me set the table.  I give him plates, hot pads, spoons etc.  We have carpet under our table so nothing breaks when it is dropped.  Sometimes I run out of stuff to give him but he asks for more, so I give him spice bottles.  He doesn't seem to care. 

Setting the table.  He actually pulled these dirty dishes out of the dishwasher as I was putting them it, but I took the pic anyway.

My sister Lindsey came to visit in September with her boys.  Whenever we get together we like to do some sort of project.  We have made baby calendars, stocking hangars and other stuff.  This time, she wanted to make a Christmas advent calendar and I thought it would be fun.  We decided to make a nativity calendar where you put up a different character in the nativity each day of December until Christmas.  We ordered a cricut cartridge "a quilted christmas" to cut out all of the characters and got to work.  We were able to cut out and glue together each of the characters while Lindsey was here and it was quite a bit of work, especially when you can only do it when all the kids are asleep--naptime and after they went to bed. 
I made some pockets out of red and sized them so I could fit 6 different characters on each of 4 rows.  I cut numbers out using my cricut and added them to the pockets for each of the days of December.  I had the pockets and a 12x12 background sheet laminated. 
Lindsey and I had a hard time coming up with how to actually put this together and she suggested sewing.  It worked really well.  I just did it on my machine and sewed the strips on and then separated each of the pockets with sewing. 

One of my friends helped me laminate the characters (Thanks Amy!).  Some were kind of hard because they had so many layers, but it ended up fine.  We chose to use magnets to hold the pieces up. We also talked about velcro, but then you have to put them in the same places each time. I picked up a couple of ugly frames at Big Lots and we spray pained them black. My mother-in-law was able to cut some metal sheets to fit in the frames. We painted these a tan color, like the desert. Lindsey and I found some adhesive magnet strips at Walmart and they were so easy to stick onto our characters. Now I just have to wait a few more days to put it on my wall and start building!

All the pieces stuck in their pockets

The whole thing put together We used thumb tacks on the frame for the stars, trees and angel.

Shepherds up close

Wisemen

Stable and manger

Sorry, no pictures.  We haven't replaced our camera yet.  I have been able to take still shots with our video camera, but can't upload them onto this computer. . . hopefully soon.

We had spaghetti squash at dinner the other night.  Cade had a bowl with some on his tray and was eating quite well.  Then he started giggling.  Kirk and I both looked at him and he had the bowl upside down on his head with some squash stuck in his hair.  Bath night!
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Cade follows us around wherever we go.  You should also know that he LOVES water.  Well, he followed Kirk into the bathroom one night.  Kirk was standing there using the toilet and Cade decided to try to grab the "water" coming down.  He got kicked out of the bathroom and Kirk shut the door. 
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Cade loves to hold kitchen things:  measuring cups, serving spoons, spices, you name it.  I gave him a hot pad yesterday and kind of forgot about it.  Next thing I know he is wandering toward me in the living room with the hot pad on his head.
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Cade was having a snack yesterday while I made dinner.  I had pulled his high chair into the kitchen so I could talk to him.  One time I looked at him and couldn't see his bowl.  It wasn't on the floor or the tray.  He had reached over and pulled open the drawer nearby and stuck his bowl in there.  Good thing I found it or we would have some stinky food in a day or two when I opened the drawer. 
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I still get sick 2-3 times a week in the morning.  Cade follows me into the bathroom and has started fake coughing/gagging and leaning his head toward the toilet.  If he sees the toilet lid open, he will lean over and pretend to spit, then close the lid and flush the toilet. 

Last weekend we went to the Spring River in Arkansas.  It is about 3 hours away and since fishing is the best early morning, we decided to leave Friday night and get a motel, thinking Cade would sleep most of the way there.  We were wrong.  Cade stayed awake the whole drive and got really excited when we got there about 8:45.  Normally he goes to bed at 7:00.  He was running around and jumping on the bed.  We let him play for a bit and then tried to put him to bed and he just started screaming.  He would calm down for me or Kirk so we finally just put him him in bed to cry it out.  20 minutes later, he wasn't any calmer, so I put him back in the car and started driving.  He was dead out within 5 minutes (about 10:00!)  Next time, we sleep at home and leave early in the morning. 

We had a fun day fishing.  Kirk put Cade on his back for a couple hours in the morning and we both fished.  Then Cade and I dropped Kirk off with the kayak to let him float the river for a few hours.  We went to the park and then Cade got a much-needed nap in the car.  Kirk had a great float and caught a bunch of fish including trout, small-mouth and large-mouth bass.  We met up with him and ate some food then I took the kayak out for a bit and caught some fish.  It was really relaxing to be out and not have to think about Cade at all. Kirk told me not to hurry back, and I didn't.  It was starting to get dark so I went back and we packed up and headed home.  Unfortuately we also noticed our camera was sitting in an inch of water.  We had it in ziploc bags, but apparently they leaked.  The SD card was ok, but we are now looking around for a new camera.  Cade slept the whole way this time, even though a way-too-long stop at subway and getting gas.  It was a fun trip. Hopefully we'll make it back up there once or twice more. 

Me fishing right after I dropped a fish.  Promise, I did catch it!

Kirk's Small mouth bass.  He was super excited.  Too bad nobody was around to take a picture with him and the fish.

We haven't had too much going on lately.  Kirk is playing softball on Tuesday evenings.  He plays on a city league team with a guy in the ward and loves it.  There was a stake tournament and Cade and I went to watch that one Saturday morning.  Cade had a blast digging in the mud and playing with sticks.  Good thing we have a washer! 

Kirk--right before he hit a home run!

Lovin' the mud!

Cade and I go to the park and music makers during the week.  Last week we hit up the zoo on the last warm day.  He had two favorite parts:  climbing up and down the benches by the seals and watching a chicken that wasn't in a cage dig in the dirt.  Good thing we went to the zoo :). 

I have been feeling much better and am so grateful for that.  I have to eat every 2 hrs or so, but usually only feel sick in the morning now.  I haven't even been napping as much.  

Cade woke up a couple of times last night, whimpering.  I thought he was probably cold and so I coverered him again and went back to bed.  The second time he woke up, I thought to myself that it did feel pretty cold so maybe I should turn up the heat to keep him warm.  I looked at our thermastat and someone (probably under 3 feet tall) had changed it to be set at 54 instead of 68.  We were down to 65.  No wonder he was a little chilly.  I turned it back to normal and we all slept much better the rest of the night. 

What has Cade been up to this month? 

• He loves sticks.  We go outside pretty much everyday to play.  He walks around and usually ends up playing with the wood chips around the trees.  He loves to find the big sticks and carry them around.  We got to play with sticks at music makers last week and he thought it was awesome!

• He understands everything we say but can't say anything himself.  He has several signs he uses though--some I taught him, some he made up, but he uses them consistently.  His current signs are:  drink, eat, cold, hot, where, all done, and I did it.
• He knows where his head, mouth, teeth, ears, hair, feet and tummy are. 
• Cade loves cars.  He makes noises when he drives the cars around.  He loves his big car that he can ride on and likes to crash into things with it.

• He also loves baths.  He likes to try to turn the water on (but I don't).  He loves to be squirted and enjoys dumping water on himself.  He took a shower with Kirk the other day and totally loved it.
• He loves to climb on chairs.  He finally got big enough to get up in our lazy boy recliner, our desk chair and the dining chairs.  He really enjoys sitting in at the table in a real chair and having a snack.
• Cade loves his Daddy.  He loves to climb all over him, when Daddy wrestles with him, puts him on the ceiling or throws him on the bed.  He gets really excited when Daddy comes home or calls.  Today, Kirk was laying on the floor and Cade was sitting in a chair.  I told Cade to go get Daddy and he immediately climbed down and ran over and jumped on Kirk.
• The other day Cade had one of my hoodies on covering his face.  I didn't realize what he was doing and then I heard a crash!  He had ran into the closet door.  I came over and he was sitting there, looking a little dazed, but happy.
• Cade loves stairs too.  He is proficient at crawling up and down and now tries to walk.  I hope he gets really good by the time his sister gets here!  He can walk up and down the stairs at the playground because there are 2 railings to grab onto.  He is just getting to be able to walk up the stairs to our apartment sometimes.
• He loves to play at the park too.  He just wanders around and looks at the other kids then goes up the stairs and down the slides.  He definitely loves the slides!

• Cade likes to help me unload the dishwasher.  If I pull out the forks and sharp things, he can play with the rest of the silverware while I unload the rest of the dishes.  He has fun carrying the basket around and dumping stuff everywhere.  I can usually get all of the dishes done and he is totally entertained.  He also loves to play with big utensils and measuring cups.
• He always smiles at people but is shy once in a while.  I think he may be one of the smiliest people I know.  He got really nervous yesterday when our home teachers came over and just sat on Kirk's lap with his head on his shoulder for about 10 minutes.  He slowly warmed up and was ok by the time they left.
• Cade loves airplanes.  He can point the out in the sky, often before I see them.  He has an airplane noise he makes and yesterday picked up some lettuce and started making it fly while making his airplane noise.

• He also loves looking at books.  We read books everyday, especially "a Cuddle for Little Duck".  On a good day, he can point out things in the pictures like flowers, water, the bee, airplanes, cars and teddy bears.

 

We sure love our little guy!  He is getting more grown up and is so fun to be with.  He is still sleeping and eating great and has slowed down growing (yay).  He sure keeps me busy, but I am really trying to enjoy the time I have with just him and me. 

A boy would be great because Cade would have a brother close in age.
A girl would be great because we don't have one.
A boy would be great because he would have lots of boy cousins/
A girl would be great because it will be the first granddaughter on both sides. 
A boy would be great becuase we have a bunch of clothes.
A girl would be great because their clothes are cute and there are more choices.

Of course we would love either one, but today we found out today which color we'll be seeing in March. . . .

We're having a girl!

I am thrilled, Kirk says he's scared but I am sure he will love her so much!

Kirk and I bought plane tickets in February with grand plans.  We were going to fly to Utah, leave Cade with Kirk's mom and spend a week backpacking in the Wind River Mountains.  We bought a book and a map and looked online to find the best trip.  We talked to everyone we knew trying to convince them to come with us.  The beginnning of July, these plans changed.  Now I am getting fat and pretty soon (March 9ish) we are going to have 2 munchkins in our house. 

So there went the backpacking trip.  Kirk still wanted to do it, but couldn't get anyone else to commit to spending a week in the wilderness with him.  So, we made plans to spend the time in Utah.  I was pretty sick with Thing 2 growing in my belly (Cade has been Thing 1 since we brought him home).  I actually ended up changing my plane tickets and going out a week earlier than Kirk so I could have some help with Cade etc. which was wonderful! 

We had a fun trip.  I spent most of my time hanging out with the family, eating, playing with Cade, eating and relaxing, then eating again.  Kirk was able to fish or hunt almost every day he was there.  We also got to see Scott and Kara (Kirk's bro and SIL) that we haven't seen for like a year and a half.  Here are a few shots of the highlights of our trip:
Cade started walking the day before we left.  He really took off quickly.  My parents have this grocery cart and Cade would run all over the house pushing it. 
 He and Melissa really liked the sandbox.  Melissa was intent on digging a hold and burying Cade in it. He actually had a lot of fun climbing in and out of the hole. 
 One of my favorite things we did there was go on a picnic up AF canyon. It is so beautiful and peaceful up there!  Cade loved the water and tried to jump in.  I ended up taking his shoes and pants off so he could wade a little. 

 My mom and I went out to Olive Garden's all you can eat soup/salad/breadstick lunch and it was soooo good.  Then we took Cade to Thanksgiving Point Petting farm.  He wasn't scared of the animals at all and wanted to touch everything.  This horse was very friendly--and big!
 One of the funniest moments was letting Cade run through the sprinklers.  He giggled and played the whole time.  My dad had set the timer for 10 min and when the water disappeared, Cade was very concerned and almost hurt.  We asked Grandpa to turn it back on for a few minutes and by the end of that one, Cade was shivering so we decided to be done. 
 It took a few days, but the bird and Cade learned to get along. 
 Since I was pretty much chained to a kitchen, having to eat every 2 hours to stay feeling ok, Kirk found some new fishing partners. 

It was his mom's first time ever fly fishing and she caught this nice cutthroat trout.
 Scott went out with Kirk one day too. 
 Tom gave it his best effort, but came up a little short.  :)


 Even Kara got in on the action!


I also got to visit my Grandpa Smith a few times, see an old friend from UCLA  and eat at Cafe Rio.  We had a great trip.  I totally didn't want to leave.  Luckily, Lisa and Connor followed us home, driving a car out for us since we don't have our civic anymore.  They stayed to visit for a week and play here before taking off again. 

Now all our visitors are gone and we're on our own again.  Luckily, I am starting to feel a bit better--some days are better than others.  Cade is awesome, he is at such a fun age right now.  It truly keeps getting better and better.  Kirk is enjoying his residency and starting to look for jobs, so if you know of someone who needs a pediatric dentist, let us know!

My sister Lindsey's husband had a business trip this last week. She didn't want to stay home by herself, so she packed up and came for a visit. Lindsey has 2 kids--Daniel who is almost 3 and Josh who is 11 months. Cade had a blast playing with his cousins. Kirk and I had fun having everyone here. I really enjoyed the help with cooking and doing dishes.

We took the boys up to Memphis one day to ride the trolley. We also went up to the Peabody hotel roof for a picnic with a great view!

Bathtime with all 3.  Never ending excitement!

Petting zoo at the Midsouth Fair.  This is all we saw at the fair, but it was fun

The Flamms and the Camel

Snack time for the babies

Playing at the park.  I love this one of Josh.

Just learning how to walk

Our living room at the end of the day with 3 crazy kids.

Cade pushing Josh across the kitchen

We went out to Huey's for dinner.  The waitress brought out our water and gave each of the boys their own cup.  It totally made Cade's day.  I think he drank over half of the cup.

Josh liked the menu better

Daniel just danced to the music on his chair

Our family with an angry son who wanted to walk around.

 We were so glad to have them come visit.  Don't know when we'll see them again since both of us are moving in less than 10 months (Lindsey sooner than me).