Team Reed

New Years and Eight months old

2012-01-09T14:56:00.000-06:00

Austin's sister and brother-in-law came to visit for New Years while Austin's parents where here. It was so fun being together. They brought tons of fun gifts, including the adorable hats for the boys (pictured below), Just Dance Wii game, Toms shoes for me, and Sanuk shoes for Austin. They are great gift-givers! We had so much fun playing the Just Dance game together. At first, certain people were leery about playing, but after a while, everyone got into it. We were laughing hysterically. We have also started a bit of a tradition of playing Speed Scrabble when they come to visit. That is how we rung in the New Year.

Aunt Ash with Dax

Dax turned 8 months old on January 7th. The board says 1 tooth, because he got one over Christmas. But he actually got another tooth the very next day.
This boy gets more and more fun every day. Here are some things that he loves: drums, buttons, eating paper YUCK!), playing with cups, music, following his brother everywhere, crawling, pulling up, and cruising.

As I said above, Dax loves music and really any kind of instruments. One night, Caed asked Austin to bring out his guitar. As soon as Dax heard him playing, he was reaching for the guitar. For a long time, he just stood there touching the guitar with a huge smile on his face. It was the cutest thing ever.

Our family's traditional Christmas eats

2011-12-29T14:54:00.000-06:00

There are two meals that are very special to our family at Christmas time, and neither one of them are Christmas dinner. First, is our Christmas Eve dinner: Gumbo. This recipe has been in my family for a few generations. My grandma has made it every Christmas Eve dinner that I have been alive, and I am continuing the tradition.

Our yummy gumbo!

This is the handwritten and well used recipe that my mom wrote out for me when I first got married. It is a pretty simple recipe. It is a little labor intensive, but not complicated. The one thing that is a little odd but very important, is the part about cooking the okra and tomatoes. You have to cook them until the slime is gone. Sounds nasty, but if you try the recipe, you will see immediately what I'm talking about.

The second tradition is Christmas morning breakfast. We make crepes with berry sauce and cream cheese filling. My mom and dad started this tradition when I was young. It was always a fun meal because we all got in the kitchen and made an assembly line to make them. They are so yummy!

The first part of the recipe is making the crepe mixture. You have to make it the night before and chill it overnight. It is a good idea to double the batch because we always have extra sauce and cream cheese filling. There are a few tricks to making the crepes. You need a shallow, small skillet. It also needs to be hot before pouring the mixture in. You only need to pour about 1/8th of a cup in at a time. Once you pour it in, you quickly pick up the skillet and roll the mixture around, making a very thin, pancake-like disc. When it bubbles, turn it over with a wide spatula. Then place it on a place when done.

To assemble crepes, spread a generous amount of cream cheese mixture on the crepe. Then roll it up and spoon berry sauce over the top. They cool quickly, so we kind of end up being short order cooks on Christmas Eve so that everyone gets warm crepes. If you try to assemble them all ahead of time, they get too cold. Although, they are still yummy cold!

Christmas in Tyler

2011-12-27T14:22:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas morning at home with Austin's parents. They came in Christmas Eve and stayed through New Years.

At the Christmas Eve service at church

At the Christmas Eve service with Mimi and Papa

Austin reading to the boys about Jesus' birth and why we give gifts at Christmas.

All the gifts Mimi and Papa brought!

The boys opening gifts

Dax enjoying the tissue paper.
You can also see the really fun duffle bag that Dax got from Mimi.
Caed got one too.

The really large bathrobe we got for Caed to grow into.

Awesome abacus that Caed got from Mimi and Papa. He LOVES numbers and math!

Papa setting up the extra train tracks that he got for Caed.

These boys LOVE playing together, most of the time.

Caed also got a bike helmet, bell, and rain boots from Mimi and Papa. He had to try them out on his tricycle immediately! Austin and Caed took a long walk in the rain that day.

Look at that face! That smile makes my heart melt.

Our first annual gingerbread house.

Fun Dax-isms

2011-12-24T21:06:00.000-06:00

Since Thanksgiving, Dax has started crawling (mostly army crawling, but more and more real crawling too) and he has broken his first tooth! We are in for it now. He has also started pulling up on short objects. I can't believe he is so big already.

I thought I would also use this post to list the fun babblings of Dax. He cracks us up with the variety of noises and facial expressions that he makes. He also has the cutest voice when he is happy (and also the loudest shill of a voice in the middle of the night when he is not happy!)
Here is a list:
"a dada" - he used to just say this over and over about everything, but it is starting to be directed at Austin
"di di di di" - said very purposefully and sometimes violently when he is frustrated or wanting to be heard
"bap" or "bop" -usually said when he is exploring or really happy
"hiya" - usually said when he sees someone who makes him happy
"a boooo" - usually when he is crawling around. He blows a lot air out of his mouth when he makes this noise too. I think he got this from his big brother because Caed likes to blow on everyone's hair, especially Dax's.
dog pant - we think he got this from our nanny's dog. He does it a lot when he is kind of frustrated but not to the point of crying. We can usually make him smile in the middle of the pants too.
loud, high pitched, gurgle - when he is really mad and crying uncontrollably
raspberries - he blows a lot of raspberries!

Caed is really funny in these instances. If Dax is making funny noises, we say to Dax, "What are you talking about Dax?" and then Caed says, "He's can't talk, he is just a baby." Or if Dax is crying, we say, "It's ok Dax." and then Caed says, "He is just making noises. He's not crying."

We are all having fun hearing Dax learn how to talk and seeing him crawl around. Oh yeah, also, whenever Caed runs to the potty, Dax immediately starts crawling that way. He usually gets there just as Caed is finishing up. Dax just wants to be wherever his big brother is at all times. Caed thinks it is hilarious for now, so hopefully that won't wear off anytime soon.

Christmas in Biloxi

2011-12-23T13:48:00.000-06:00

It has been a long time since we have been to Biloxi, where my mom lives. So we decided to go this Christmas. We drove down on the 18th and came back to Tyler on the 21st so we could still have Christmas morning in Tyler. We were really nervous about driving 9 hours with two children, but they did amazingly well. We had the smart idea to separate the car seats so that I could sit between the two boys and entertain them or keep them quiet during naps. My sister came with us as well, so it was nice to have extra help on the trip.

Caed reading to his great-grandma. This was a sweet, special moment for all of us. She hasn't seen Caed in 2 years, so she couldn't believe how much he had grown. Caed really enjoyed his time with her too.

This was also her first time to see Dax. He let her hold him for a long time. He played and played with her beaded necklace and she kissed and kissed on him.

Caed got a fun Alabama Pillow Pet from one of my aunts. It was a hit!

We had a great time there with my mom, he husband, and all of my extended family. We exchanged gifts, went to dinner, and went to see a huge gingerbread village. I was very proud of the boys the whole trip. They did great in the car and at the house where all 4 of us stayed in the same room.

Christmas fun at school

2011-12-20T22:07:00.000-06:00

Our school has a lot of fun activities the last week before Christmas. Here is a little taste of what we did.

Polar Express Day
We all got to wear our pajamas and watch the movie. The best part for me was getting to hold Caed in my lap while we watched the movie. I don't get to see him that much at school very often

Little Drummer Boy Day
Austin came to our school and told about the little drummer boy and then taught the song to everyone. Austin played his guitar, I helped out on the djimbe, and Caed played his little drum. It was a whole family affair. Afterwards, we all watched the Veggie Tales Little Drummer Boy.

Our own little drummer boy

Christmas Party and Santa Day
Each class had a big party, crafts, and then got to go see Santa.

This is Caed with his best friend Hailey. They are having so much fun being in the same class together! They are adorable. She hardly ever leaves his side, much less lets go of his hand.

P.S. Caed moved up to the 3-6 class right after Thanksgiving. It has been so wonderful for all of us! He loves his new class and his teachers. The second day he was in that class, one of his teachers had him read to her and she immediately came to my classroom in awe of how well he reads. She said he reads better than any of the other students in his class (and there are Kindergardeners in there!) His favorite part is being in the same class as Hailey. They have been good friends for 3 years now, but never got to be in the same class until now. She gives him tons of lessons and she shows him all the ropes on the big playground.

He also comes home telling a lot of funny stories now that he is around older children who tell crazy stories. One day he came home and said, "Hey mommy, guess what! I'm going to California." I said, "Oh yeah? When are you going to do that?" He said, "Umm, maybe in March or April." I said, "Oh yeah? Who is going to take you?" He said, "Umm, maybe Mimi and Pawpaw." We finally figured out that he was saying this because Hailey was going to California for Christmas and she had been talking about it at school. His vocabulary has grown a lot too because he is around older children.

Now that he is in the older class, he has completely potty trained! Finally! I guess he just needed to be around other children who were fully potty trained for motivation. His tantrums have also toned down a lot since moving up to this class. We are so thankful.

Birthdays

2011-12-19T21:57:00.000-06:00

Both Austin and I have birthdays in December. Austin's was the 11th. We celebrated pretty low key because he was in the middle of finals and we had decided to go out to eat the next weekend for both of our birthdays. Little did I know that Austin had other plans for my birthday. I turned the big 30 this year! I have never really freaked out about certain ages, so this birthday didn't feel much different. But it was really nice for Austin to make a big deal about it. On my actual birthday, we were traveling to Biloxi, so Austin decided to make the Friday before my celebration day. First, he brought beautiful flowers to school. He sent Caed with them into my classroom. It was so sweet. Then he brought a cake to my classroom for lunch. He had it made with an Alabama script A, a camera, a painter's pallet, balloons, and the Antiguan flag. This was really special. Every little detail was really meaningful to me. After lunch, he told me that he had the rest of the day off and lots of plans. He had arranged for the boys to spend the night at a friend's house and had made reservations at Bernards, a Mediterranean restaurant here in Tyler. He also got me some Toms shoes which I have been wanting for a while. The whole day was really special. I am so thankful for a wonderful husband who spoils me!

7 Months old

2011-12-07T21:29:00.000-06:00

Brook Hill Football State Championship

2011-12-03T21:07:00.000-06:00

Austin's football team won the State Championship!!!!

We are so excited and I am so proud of my man! It has been a long, hard season, but it was all worth it.

I got a friend to keep the boys so that I could go to the game. I didn't have anyone to ride with so I rode the football team bus with Austin. It was an interesting experience, but I was glad to get to spend that time with Austin.

Aside from the fact that they won the championship, the game in itself was a really fun and good game! Even though Brook Hill almost shut out the other team, it wasn't easy and it always felt like the other team could come back at any point. Besides, this was the team that beat Brook Hill in the championship last year. The most memorable part for me was after the game though, when the both teams got together on the field and prayed together. Then the other head coach made a speech and then prayed, saying, "God, even though we are in the state of Texas, we know that football is not king, but you are King!" It was such a good reminder for all of us involved and a wonderful example of keeping things in perspective.

Our Thanksgiving

2011-11-30T15:32:00.001-06:00

We had a whole week of Thanksgiving festivities. It started with our school Thanksgiving Feast. The children could choose to be either a Pilgrim or Native American. Caed chose Pilgrim. Since I was in my own classroom for our feast, I was not able to go to Caed's feast, but Austin was able to go, and that was a treat for Caed. Below is a picture of his feast.

Then, Mimi and Pawpaw came to visit for the week. Yay!

Thanksgiving week was relaxing for the most part. We always feel extra spoiled and rested when Mimi and Pawpaw are here. They know how to take care of us! Dax decided that he didn't want to take naps that week though. I guess he was too excited about the festivities. So he was cranky most of the week, which took away some of the relaxation, but at least we were all home together. On Thanksgiving day, we cooked (really, Mimi did 90% if the cooking), watched the Macy's Parade and football, and of course, ate lots of yummy food.

Dax watching the parade. I love this shot. I just happened to take a picture right when the Rocketts were doing their cancan dance and Dax was staring at them. Haha.

Caed loved playing outside with daddy and pawpaw

We had a non-traditional Thanksgiving meal this year. We decided to nix the turkey and have Chateaubriand with baby portabello mushrooms instead. We also took a non-traditional twist on the side dishes. We had sweet potatoes and apples in a pecan burbon sauce and cold green bean and feta salad. We also had some traditional dishes since my sister (picky eater) was there. So we had mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry jelly, dressing, baked beans, and a little turkey and ham.

Mimi cooking

Our yummy sweet potatoes, apples, and pecan burbon sauce

Trisha and Dax

Daddy and Dax

Pawpaw and Mimi checking out the Chateaubriand

Our spread!

Feast time!

Dax had his own little feast after his nap

Halloween 2011

2011-11-07T21:02:00.001-06:00

We had a fun week around Halloween. First, our school had a Fall Fest, so we dressed up the boys and went and played games. My mom, her husband, and my sister all came into town and we all went together. I am very thankful that they were here because Austin and I both came down with a horrible cold that day. We were basically zombies at the Festival so we were glad to have other people there with us to have fun with the boys.

We had 3 hand me down Halloween costumes this year, and Caed chose Batman. It's funny because he has no clue who Batman is, but he loved his costume. He ran around all day saying, "I'm Batman!" in a low, scruffy voice.

This was the bounce house slide at the Fall Fest. He was a little hesitant at first, but soon fell in love with it.

The next day, when we were feeling much better, we all took the boys to the local pumpkin patch. It is different than the one we usually go to because that one was closed this year due to the drought. We really enjoyed this new one though.

They had a fun tractor to sit on with the boys.

Caed loved this corn box. It was basically a sandbox but with dried corn instead of sand. He probably would have been content sitting there all day.

We finally got a new family photo on the hay ride.

How cute are these boys?

My Mom was happy to get a picture with the boys.

We did all kinds of fun stuff with pumpkins this week. We carved and painted the pumpkins that we picked at the pumpkin patch. We also made pumpkin burgers, pumpkin muffins, and roasted pumpkin seeds. A friend of ours also made a super yummy chocolate pumpkin trifle!

For our Jack-O-Lantern, Caed said he wanted pentagon eyes, so he drew them and the rest of the face by himself. Then Austin carved it how Caed drew it. I think it looks super creepy and perfect! He was very proud of it, as you can see!

Dax tried to help too!

This is Halloween day, right before we went Trick-Or-Treating. This is the same pumpkin costume that Caed wore on his first Halloween. It was a little snug, but we made it work.

We love our Batman and little pumpkin!

Dax is 6 months old!

2011-11-07T14:56:00.000-06:00

Time is starting to fly by! I can't believe my baby is 6 months old already! His doctor's appointment went well. They said everything looks great. He has a little bit of excema on his back, but other than that, he is healthy. He is still on his reflux meds, but thats ok. Here are his stats:

Weight: 19 lbs 12 oz. (86th %tile)
Height: 26.5 inches (53rd %tile)

He is starting try to crawl. He is getting the army crawl down well.
He also sits up really well now. He is so close to sitting up unsupported.
He loves his brother more each day. He smiles every time he sees him.
Caed loves Dax more every day too. Although, he is starting to realize that Dax is going to be into his stuff more and more.
I absolutely LOVE Dax's little laugh. He is really ticklish, so I can always get him to laugh.

5 Months Old

2011-10-13T21:37:00.002-05:00

Dax is 5 months old now! Time is starting to fly by! Dax is getting more fun each day. He is rolling over like crazy and only sleeps on his tummy now. Sometimes he gets frustrated or stuck in a corner in the middle of the night. But all I have to do (most of the time) is pull him away from the corner and he lets out a big cry and then goes back to sleep. During the day he is taking great naps. He is also really getting into playing with his toys. He is always smiling, even seconds after I wake him up in the morning. He loves people. When Austin or I smile at him, he smiles immediately and then hides his face as if he is shy. It is too cute. He loves watching Caed too. Today, in the back seat of the car, I heard both boys laughing at each other for the first time. I LOVED it!

I can't get enough of this picture! Austin was watching football and Dax just laid his head on his daddy's chest and chilled. How sweet!

Yes, you read that right....19 lbs!!!!!!

There's that toothless grin I love!

This week at school was Community Helpers Week. We had a police car, an ambulance, and the ETMC helicopter visit. While wrangling my own students, I caught a few seconds to get pictures of Caed and enjoy the helicopter with him.

Waiting patiently for the helicopter to land in the front yard of our school

This picture says it all. He was so excited, but still amazingly patient. I am so proud of my little man. While waiting in line, a few friends cut in front of him, but he never said a word. He just stayed in line like he was supposed to.

Caed and mommy waiting for the helicopter

Sitting in the helicopter

We also had Parent Teacher Conferences this week. Caed's teachers had nothing but great things to say about him. He is almost completely potty trained, so he will hopefully be moving up to the 3-6 class soon. I am so excited that he will be getting more challenging lessons soon. I am also excited for him to be around older students who will be good role models for him. He has always been more comfortable around older children. His teachers said that even when his friends make bad choices in class, he just does his own thing and still follows the classroom rules. I am so proud of him!

All about Caed

2011-09-22T21:27:00.003-05:00

This post is all about Caed. He has been saying and doing some really cute things lately (when he isn't throwing a fit :-), so I feel like I need to document it.

Here are some cute quotes to start things off:

"Thank you Thomas (the train) for taking a bath with me."

"Hello Mr. Tomato, I'm going to eat you now."

"I'm going to lick you mommy! You're a lollipop!"

Me: "Caed, what are we doing when we get home?"

Caed: "That's a great question!"

“Never ever ever put your underwear in the toilet, that's what my teacher says."

Austin: "Caed, where do you live?" Caed: "In the moon!"

This is just a cute picture of Austin with his boys

Caed and I have been trying to get creative during Dax's naptime. Here, we set up a tub outside and then put colored water in different types of containers. He loved squirting, spraying, and dumping water in the tub.

Caed is such a great big brother! He loves Dax (so much, sometimes, that he overwhelms Dax!)

This is Caed's "peg leg." When he is a pirate, he goes around saying, "Eaaaarrrg!" So if he puts one leg in something, he is a pirate, but if he puts two legs in something, he is a monster (I don't know why). For example, he puts both legs in a bucket or a laundry basket and exclaims, "I'm a monster!" He also loves to get his comforter off his bed and turn it into a jacket or a dinosaur tail.

One day, I got Caed up from nap and Dax was laying on the floor. I guess Caed was still sleepy, so he just went over to Dax and used him as a pillow. Thankfully, Dax didn't mind.

Here is Caed with his two favorite friends, Haley and Jackson. They spend the night a few weekends ago and they all had a blast!

Caed used this basket as a backpack, a hat, and finally, a turtle shell. As you can tell, he had to dump the legos out of the basket to perform this task.

Caed has been fighting naps lately, so we have transitioned to "quiet time" instead. He is allowed to read books and have stuffed animals in his bed and can sleep if he wants to. Thankfully, most days, he eventually falls asleep. He also tends to fall asleep on top of his books. One day, he fell asleep with a book on top of his face.

The Scholastic Book Fair came to our school last week. And with it, came Clifford the Big Red Dog. Caed just loved him!

He followed Clifford down the hall while holding his tail. He loved the book fair! I got to have mommy and son breakfast at the fair. I let him pick out one book. He picked out a "Chuggington" book. That is his new favorite tv show. He gets to watch one show a day and he gets a choice of one of his three favorite: Chuggington, Handy Manny, or Curious George.

In Caed's classroom last week, they talked about Apples. One day, they read the book Johnny Appleseed and made these hats. Caed kept calling it Johnny Applehat.

Here are some more fun quotes:

"Mommy, all of those women have bows in their hair!" "Yes, Caed, they are called cheerleaders." - he said this at a Brook Hill football game. The "women" being high school girls.

“It’s cold in Memphis.” - he said this when it was 100 degrees outside and he got into an air conditioned car. This made him think that the whole city of Memphis was cold.

Caed at bedtime prayer: "I thank God for super Jesus!"

"I'm not confused mommy, I just forgot!" - he now says "You forgot" to Austin and I about 20 times a day, whether we forgot something or not.

By the way, Caed will eat anything! We are wondering if he has any tastebuds at all! One night, he grabbed a handful of blue cheese and stuffed it in his mouth. We waited in anticipation for his reaction. He made a face, and then said, "Yummy!"

4 Months Old and Dax's Baby Dedication

2011-09-18T21:30:00.003-05:00

On September 7th, Dax turned 4 months old. He had his 4 month check-up and everything looked great! He is 16 lbs 11 ounces, to be exact and he is 25 inches long. (Just for reference, Caed was 18 lbs and 26 1/2 inches long at this same age)

Dax is doing so well right now. He is taking good naps for the most part and sleeping all night. He is babbling a lot and has the cutest laugh! I can usually get him to laugh by kissing his cheeks while saying, "What are you doing?" He also laughs when I lift him in the air or turn him upside down. His Aunt Trisha gets him to laugh by brushing a burp cloth on his nose.

Our nanny situation is so much better than I could have ever asked for! Her name is Renee. We know her because her sons go to Brook Hill and she lives down the street from us. She absolutely loves taking care of Dax and he loves her too! She lives next door to her parents, so he gets a grandma and great-grandma taking care of him every day! What could be better than that? Renee's mom makes her bring Dax to her house every day at 10 for his bottle. She has even cancelled some appointments before because she doesn't want to miss giving him his bottle. I am so thankful for this gift! (By the way, I have no idea why this is all underlined and I can't change it for some reason)

Caed decided he wanted to be in this month's picture. Why would I say no?

Dax was dedicated at church this morning. For those of you who might not know what this means, basically, we as a family promised to raise Dax in a Christ-like way and our church promised to help us raise him in this way. Caed was dedicated when he was the same age. This does not mean that our children automatically become Christians because they are raised in a Christian family. However, we do hope that they will one day make a personal decision to follow Christ and have their own relationship with him.

8 Years!!!!

2011-08-29T15:14:00.003-05:00

Our anniversary was two weeks ago, but I haven't had much time to do anything since I started back to work. So since I have a spare minute, I feel like I should post about it. We have been married for 8 years! It is hard to believe. Our family may be getting bigger, we may be more tired, we may be busier than ever, but Austin and I love each other more than ever!

We don't often get too much time to celebrate our anniversary. Last year we didn't even get to go out because our babysitter fell through. But this year, Austin's dad was in town, so he took care of the boys so that Austin and I could go out on a date. Sadly, we couldn't remember the last time we had a date. We decided to try a restaurant we had never been to, Currents. It is a French restaurant. We aren't too familiar with French food since it is generally pretty expensive. But we were treating ourselves that night. It was a quaint little place. We tried all kinds of new fancy foods, like Duck Confi, date and goat cheese pastry, and Sole (the fish). We had a lot of fun just dressing up, going out, and talking without interruption. Then we headed to the bookstore because that has been our tradition since we were dating. We love perusing the books and talking about them. We got tired early though, and were home by 10 :-).

I am so thankful to be married to Austin. I have seen a quote lately that says, "Only marry a man if you would be proud to have a son just like him." Well I now have two sons just like him and I am more than proud!!! I love all of my boys!

3 Months and the Zoo

2011-08-08T12:37:00.004-05:00

That's right, the little one is 3 months old already, AND 16 lbs! Time is starting to fly by now. Dax is starting to be our chill boy now and he is sleeping well for the most part. On most nights, he sleeps 8-10 hours. Every once in a while he wakes up after 4-6 hours, but I can take it when he sleeps so well on the other nights. He is also starting to take better naps now that he is on a good schedule during the day. Caed loves him more and more each day, and of course, we do too! His little smile melts my heart each time I see it. He has been trying so hard to laugh lately too. I can't wait to hear that first laugh!

We finally made it to the zoo the other day!

Caed's favorite was, by far, the penguins. I think it was because he could see them up close. This picture is blurry because Caed kept running around following the penguins as they swam back and forth. It was so cute to hear Caed's contangious laugh as he chased them.

Dax was there too, but we forgot to get a picture of him because he was sleeping in the stroller for most of the time.

Summertime!

2011-07-22T14:13:00.006-05:00

So since summer is almost over (dangit!), I guess I should post our Summer To Do List.
Here it is:

As you can see, we have already checked off several things and crossed off some (we were all too exhausted for fireworks and we found out that Caed is too young for our church's VBS). I have a feeling that we won't be able to check them all off, but we had lofty goals, especially having a newborn around. The one thing that WILL get done is going to the zoo. Austin's mom found four tickets to the zoo in our grocery store parking lot. And get this, they were for two adults, one child over three, and one child under three. Crazy huh?

So here are some pictures from some things that we have already done.

One of my art camp student's paintings

Caed and daddy at swim class

Our neighborhood has a 4th of July parade every year and the Flint Fire Department brings their trucks for the children to climb on.

These two pictures have nothing to do with our Summer To Do List, but they were too cute not to include!

We made an impromptu trip to Norman, OK to visit Austin's sister and brother-in-law. Since it was Dax's first trip to OK, we dressed the boys out to support the local teams. We also went to a party for Austin's old youth pastor. He has been at that church for 20 years, which is crazy for a youth pastor!

We took Caed to Fire Mountain for his first round of miniature golf. He loved it and even made a new friend. A random 7 year old boy came up to us and started playing with us. Caed was very excited about it.

Our new grocery store has miniature shopping carts, so Caed has enjoyed that.

This picture is actually at the beginning of the summer at Caed's Field Day at school. Can you tell he loved the ice cream?

Caed Turns 3!!!!!

2011-07-09T15:40:00.003-05:00

Caed's 3rd birthday is this coming Monday, so we had his party today. He asked for a Cars party, so that's what we had! Call us crazy, but we decided to have it outside at Brookshire's Park in 100 degree heat. We were in the shade though, thankfully.

Caed and his best friend, Haley

I had lofty goals for his birthday cake, but I was just too exhausted to do anything extensive now that I have two boys to take care of. So I made cream cheese cookie cups instead and put matchbox cars on top. I think they turned out pretty cute. You can find the recipe on allrecipes.com. They were delicious!

Thanks to the grandmas for taking care of Dax!

His great-grandma even came to visit. She got to see Dax for the first time.

Dax also turned two months old this weekend! My how time flies!

3 year and 7 week stats

2011-06-29T19:42:00.003-05:00

Can you tell these boys are going to have fun together?

We took them to the doctor today for Caed's 3 year check up and Dax's 6 weeks shots. Here are their stats:

Caed: 36.3 lbs - 89th %ile
37.5 inches - 56th %ile

Dax: 12 lbs 14oz - 88th %ile
22 inches - 29th %ile

Caed is reading to Dax, how cute!

Dax is smiling now!

One Month Old

2011-06-12T21:34:00.003-05:00

On June 7th, Dax turned a month old. It's hard to believe it has been a month already. But on the other hand, he has already gone through so many changes, it feels like it has been longer than a month.

Here are some things Dax is doing
-He is becoming more alert and observant each day.
-He is starting to smile in response to our smiles and voices
-He is becoming a little more comfortable with being put down and not held all the time (although he obviously prefers to be held all the time!)
-He hates his carseat and doesn't love the stroller, swing, or his bed unless he is already asleep
-He is plumping up quickly! As you can see, he is already 11 lbs!
-He has been able to soothe himself to sleep a few times. Baby steps!
-He eats every 3-4 hours and is easily adjusted to our schedule when we need him to be
-When he is mad, he lets us know as loud as he possibly can! He is way louder than Caed ever was.
-He holds his head up really well (as you can see in the pic above, he is already able to sit in a bumbo)
-He is also a very loud sleeper. Austin and I have been awake several hours a night while Dax sleeps because of his loud noises.
-His reflux is doing better since we got medicine for him. He still spits up, but he is not in as much pain. However, we think he has some colic too. Every night around 3 or 4, he wakes up with horrible gas and cannot sleep on his own. So every night, either Austin or I have to hold him for the last half of the night. Gripe Water is our life saver though!
-He likes to stare at his big brother, and Caed loves holding and touching Dax. He is blessed to have a wonderful, loving big brother (as you can see by the pictures below)! We are all so thankful for how well Caed is adjusting to life with a little brother. He is very helpful around the house and very independent.

Family and Firsts

2011-06-06T21:48:00.005-05:00

Aunt Trisha and Dax

Caed's first time holding Dax

Aunt Ash, Uncle Heath, Caed, and Dax

Papa and the boys

Three generations of Reed boys

First picture of mommy and her two boys

Papa and Dax

First bath

Aunt Ashtin and Dax

Mimi and Dax

Grandma, Peepaw, Caed, and Dax

Dax found his thumb for the first time

more photos of Dax

2011-05-18T14:50:00.005-05:00

By the way, I forgot to explain how we picked the name Daxon. We actually didn't come to a final decision until I was in labor, but it was always my favorite. Austin just had to make up his mind. The name means, "life-giving water." I just love that because that is exactly what we live for, the life-giving water of Christ! Also, in some book, the name means "truth that will overcome the world." Again, exactly what we live for! And finally, the name originated in Norman, France, and Austin is from Norman, Oklahoma. Just a little fun tidbit.

State Champs!

2011-05-17T14:13:00.004-05:00

One week after Dax was born, Austin's baseball team traveled to Belton, TX for the State Championship. I was so bummed that I couldn't go. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go. So, crazy enough, I decided to pack up a one week old, Caed, and my mom and her husband and drive 4 hours to the game. I was feeling fine from my c-section and Dax was doing well, so I figured we could swing it. Either it would be 24 hours of craziness and crying, or 24 hours of fun! Luckily, it was the latter! Caed didn't take a nap on the way there, so as soon as he got there, he found our good friends, the Robertsons, and fell asleep for the first hour of the game.
You can't see the score, but the final was 14-1!!! We finally won the State Championship!

The whole team shaved mohawks for the game.

This is our first family of 4 picture.

Dax's first baseball game and they win the State Championship! Our good luck charm.

Introducing Daxon Gil Reed!!!

2011-05-16T13:48:00.006-05:00

Daxon Gil Reed was born on May 7th, 2011. He weighed 7 lb, 13 oz and was 20 inches long. After 24 hours of labor, they had to do a c-section to "get that baby out!" At that point, I was ready so I didn't mind so much. I really didn't want another c-section, but I didn't have much control over it. That was the theme of this birth for me. A few weeks before I was talking to my doctor about trying to do a VBAC, and she said, "We are going to do everything we can to help you have a VBAC but in the end, whatever happens, just know that you can't control everything, only God can." I thought about that throughout labor, the c-section, and the night following the birth. An hour after birth, I was able to feed him and he did great. Then they took him to the nursery and said they would be right back. A few hours went by and they finally came in and said that Dax as breathing too fast and he had to stay in the nursery all night and I wouldn't be able to feed him all night. They gave him IV fluids and some antibiotics. I immediately thought, "This is a little scary, I hope he is ok, and I hope it doesn't mess him up for nursing." Then I thought, "I have no control over this, there is nothing I can do, so I might as well go to sleep." The next day, he was getting better and they really weren't worried about his breathing. I was able to feed him more and he did great! We spent Mother's Day in the hospital and then were discharged the next afternoon. We left the hospital at 4:30, went home, dropped off stuff, and then Austin headed straight to his playoff baseball game that started at 5:30.

This is the first time I saw Dax. Of course I am crying!

Easter weekend

2011-04-25T20:37:00.004-05:00

We had such a great Easter weekend. For the first time in a very long time, Austin did not have practice or a game on a holiday weekend, so all three of us were home for three straight days! What a blessing, especially with this baby coming any day now.

We not only had good quality time together this weekend, but we got a ton of stuff done around the house. I have gotten my second wind with this pregnancy, so I am cleaning like crazy and checking off my to-do list.

Before the weekend started, we had our big Easter party and egg hunt at school.Caed had so much fun. He didn't care as much about the quantity of eggs as what was inside the eggs. Every egg he got, he would open it up and study the candy. I think he got about 3 or 4 eggs and then said, "All done mommy! I go play." I have to say that I am ok with that attitude.

On Easter Sunday, we all dressed up and went to church. How cute is Caed in his Easter outfit?

After nap time, we had a little family backyard egg hunt. Caed was a little more motivated to put eggs in the basket this time. Especially since he got to count all the eggs. He gets excited about anything that has to do with numbers and counting. After the egg hunt, we all dyed eggs. He was obsessed with the blue dye.
That night, Austin knocked it out of the park with dinner. He fixed a blackberry barbecue pork loin. This is the best pork loin I have had in a long time. We also had deviled eggs, five cup salad, bread, and roasted broccoli. And for dessert..........chocolate, raspberry cheesecake!!!!

Obsession with letters and numbers

2011-04-08T19:25:00.004-05:00

Caed has always been obsessed with letters and numbers. Even when he was a baby, he loved to watch the microwave. Now, he turns everything into a letter or number. You can see that by the pictures below.

He does all of these by himself and out of his own desire! We don't push any of it on him, he just genuinely loves it! Because of this, he has already started writing. One day, he asked for a pen and paper, which he does often, so I didn't think anything of it. I wasn't really even paying attention and then he said, "Mommy, it's Caed!." I looked down and recognized all the letters in his name. Then he wrote his last name too. I know you probably can't see it very well, but I just had to show it off. He is now writing it all on one line and he practices all the time.
More fun stuff Caed is doing:

- says, "I have a sandwich (or whatever food we are eating), mommy, do you have a sandwich, daddy do you have a sandwich?" Then he asks about every item we are eating.
- says, "Watch this!" And then he usually jumps from something. Thankfully, it is usually just from a short stool or onto the bed.
- thanks God for his baby brother at prayer time and asks me if he can see the baby in my belly.
- says "Thank you and please" without being prompted (most of the time).
- greets all of his friends by name at school at the door. We just got his classroom picture and he was so excited to name everyone for us.
- does at least one puzzle a day and loves Thomas the Train and Handy Manny.

Daffodil Farm

2011-04-01T19:24:00.002-05:00

A few weekends ago, some friends wanted me to take their family photos out at a daffodil farm near here. So I dragged Austin and Caed along with me so that we could get some pics of the three of us as well. Austin and Caed went on a little hike while I took pics of our friends and then afterward we got a few of our own family. Here is what came out of it.

Pregnancy thoughts

2011-02-26T21:52:00.003-06:00

Apparently my belly button is sticking out more this week because I have had two students comment about it. The first said, "Mrs. Beth, why do you have two babies in your belly now?" I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well now there is that tiny one sticking out too." He thought my belly button was a second baby! Ha. Then I had a mom come in and say that her son has been excited all week because my belly button is finally sticking out. So funny.

I am glad I can blame clumsiness on pregnancy because the craziest thing happened yesterday! I was in the nap room at school and I was snacking on pretzels and dipping chocolate. The styrofoam bowl of chocolate was on a shelf above a napping child. I would just go over every once in a while and dip a pretzel. One of the times, I accidentally knocked the bowl off the shelf and it splattered all over the sleeping child's face. He did not wake up, but instead, rolled over so that the chocolate was under his head and on his arm. I scrambled to get a rag and moved his head back over to clean him up. By now it was all over his hair and blanket too. I was mortified but laughing hysterically! I finally cleaned him all up and he never woke up! Crazy!

We are having a hard time finding a good name for this baby boy! We really want a "D" name, but that is way harder than we thought it would be. We have about 3 options that on certain days, we like, but not consistently.

I am starting to think a lot more about upcoming labor and delivery. I know it's two months away, but it's ONLY two months away! I really long to have a natural delivery without any meds. I had hoped in the beginning to do it at a birthing center with a midwife, but I am going to be at the hospital with my doctor. I LOVE my doctor and she is supportive of a VBAC, but the thought of delivering at a hospital again makes me want to gag. If you feel so inclined, please pray with me that I will be able to have a natural delivery this time!

By the way, we realized that Austin's state championship baseball game is on the same day as my due date. YIKES! If this baby doesn't come before the due date, I will be home alone with Caed for 2-3 days hoping that I don't go into labor. Austin will only be 3 hours away, so that's not bad, but I really don't want to go to the hospital and start the process by myself. Thankfully, one of my friends from work went through natural childbirth in Guatemala and she is a rockstar! She has agreed to come to the hospital with me if I need her to until Austin gets home. We also have some amazing friends and neighbors who have volunteered to be on call to come take care of Caed anytime we need them.

Belly Pics

2011-02-16T20:47:00.004-06:00

I just realized that I have not put any belly pics on this blog yet. So here are the three I have taken so far...

This one was taken at 15 weeks. I "blossomed" so much faster this pregnancy, which I have been told is completely normal.

This one was taken at 19 weeks.

This one was taken at 26 weeks. Hello belly!!!! Apparently I blew up this week because I got more than one comment, from people who see me every day, that I got bigger overnight! I am in full on waddle mode now. I am extremely uncomfortable by noon every day since I am on my feet at work all day. Thankfully I work in the nap room after lunch and I can rest my feet and back.

Montessori

2011-02-06T14:01:00.003-06:00

One of the things I love most about teaching in a Montessori school and Caed being able to go there is the concept of waiting your turn. Most schools or daycares that teach 2-6 year olds teach the children to share, and that's fine because it goes along with what most parents teach their children. However, in Montessori, when one student gets work off the shelf, all the other students know that they cannot use that work until it is put back on the shelf. They also know that if a student wants to work with something all day, they can. This encourages concentration and focus. It also cuts down on fighting over work (or toys) and teaches patience. I can see it work wonders with Caed at home. He tells us that he wants to do something by himself by saying, "This is my work." And vice versa, when we are doing something that Caed needs to stay away from, we say, "This is mommy or daddy's work." and he understands. For instance, one day, Austin was burning sticks in the backyard while Caed and I played. Caed moved closer to Austin because he was interested in what daddy was doing. Because it was dangerous, we said, "Caed, that is daddy's work, so stay away from it please." And he understood completely, without any tantrum. I am hoping that this will help out when the baby comes along. I am hoping that if the baby is playing with a toy and Caed wants it, that we will be able to say, "That is the baby's work, please find other work." and he will understand. We will also tell the baby that something is Caed's work, even though the baby will not understand, just so that Caed feels like he has his space to focus on something. I don't know if all of this makes sense, but let me just say, it a blessing in our school and in our family!

PAIN!

2011-01-28T20:41:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I went to work feeling fine. I started giving lessons to my students, no problems. I had to leave the room every five minutes to pee, but I am 25 weeks pregnant, so no big deal. Then, in the middle of a long lesson, I started having really bad cramps. Again, I'm pregnant, no big deal. Then they got worse and worse. My co-teacher could see the pain on my face, so she told me to go lay down in the office. I didn't want to leave her alone with 24 students, so I kept going. About 10 mins later, I decided to text my doctor. She said to come to the office immediately because I probably had a bladder infection. It was a 15 minute drive and 2 minutes into my drive, I thought for sure I was in preterm labor. Visions of a 15 week bed rest was flashing through my head. I called Austin to tell him what was up and I could barely talk because I was in so much pain. Surely a bladder infection doesn't hurt this bad. I finally got to the doctor and they checked for a bladder infection, but found nothing. Then from the look on my face, they decided to check for contractions. This seemed to take an hour because I was in so much pain. Of course, the machine was being stupid and they couldn't get the monitors on quite right. I felt like I was being tortured. Finally, they said that there were no contractions. So, what the heck was going on?!?!? My amazing doctor just happened to notice, while I was writhing in pain, that I grabbed my back. She asked, "Does your back hurt?" Yes, my back hurts more than anything and it feels worse than contractions. She said, "Oh my gosh, you have a KIDNEY STONE!" This was the last thing on my mind. So she gave me pain meds and some meds for nausea because the pain made me want to throw up. She gave me the option of going to the hospital or trying to pass it at home. I chose home! I went home and rolled around on the couch for 3 hours trying to get some relief from the pain. Then, just as I was about to check myself into the hospital, the pain was gone. I was scared that it was going come back, but it never did. I must have had the quickest kidney stone in the history of man! Believe me, I am very thankful.

I am also thankful for my friends at work who took care of me.
-The administrative assistant at work went and got my prescription for me.
-My co-teacher brought us dinner.
-One of Caed's teachers took him home with her until Austin could pick him up.
-And let me just say that I am so thankful that I teach my doctor's son's so that I could text her while I was in pain and get to her office asap!

SNOW!

2011-01-16T13:22:00.003-06:00

Last Sunday, we got our first snow. We got about 3 inches. Caed loved playing in the front yard. Austin taught him how to make a snowball and "throw" it. Last year Caed had fun in the snow, but this time, he really loved it!

Simplicity

2011-01-07T21:14:00.003-06:00

I have been re-reading Freedom of Simplicity by Richard Foster. It is one of my favorite books and I am blown away by something new every time I read it. It has been extra poignant coming off all the Christmas chaos. There was one paragraph that I read this week that has stuck with me. I feel like I just have to share it:

"...teach your children by word and deed about the varied aspects of simplicity, including the use of money. In regard to expenditures, draw clear, hard lines beyond which you will not go. Our culture is training them to desire everything in sight when they enter a store. You do them no favor when you give in to their incessant demands. You must protect them, tenderly, firmly. Spoiled children need discipline, not pampering. It is a terrible disservice to fail to set the limits. Get them what they need, not what they want; and in time they will come to want what they need." (pg. 144)

2010 in Facebook Statuses

2010-12-31T22:35:00.002-06:00

Homemade Christmas

2010-12-29T19:58:00.003-06:00

This Christmas, I went crazy on the sewing machine. I made a lot of our new Christmas decorations and several gifts for family and friends. I am pretty proud of my progress on the sewing machine and I'm excited that our Christmas decorations are finally starting to reflect our style. I have looked for years for a good wreath and stockings that I loved and never found them. So I finally decided to make them myself, and I only spent about $3-$5 on each one.

This is the wreath I made. My friend Melissa showed me hers, so I was inspired. I just cut out different sized circles from fun material and burlap and pinned them to a straw wreath.

I got different color burlap and made our stockings. Next year, I will find a 4th color for baby boy #2's stocking. Also, if you look on the mantle above the green stocking, you will see some paper ornaments that I made. We made those in our classroom and my students loved them.

Even Caed got a homemade gift this year: playdough! I know, it's not hard to make, but he loved it, and I figured it had a place in my homemade post.

I made aprons for my mother-in-law and my mom. These were super easy to make!

This project took the longest, but I was most pleased with the outcome of it. After I made Austin a t-shirt quilt last year, my sister asked for one. She gave me all the shirts and I just put it together. The second time around was much easier than the first. I learned a lot from Austin's quilt so I had more success with this one.

I also made some flower broaches for my co-teachers at school but I forgot to get a picture of them. They were a hit. I think I am going to continue this tradition next year because I had so much fun with it. It took more time, but it was all well worth it.

It's another BOY!

2010-12-28T11:57:00.002-06:00

This shirt is how we told the grandparents. They had no clue! They didn't even know that we had had a sonogram yet. Papa Reed (Austin's dad) had thought it was going to be a boy but Grandma Kirk (Beth's mom) swore it was going to be a girl. I am so sad that I forgot to take video of the reveal!

Our little family Christmas in Photos

2010-12-26T12:56:00.004-06:00

Santa came to school. Caed was not scared at all, even though he looks like it in this pic.

We all dressed up for our Christmas Eve service. It was just the three of us for Christmas and we loved it! It was so relaxing. Our extended family is arriving the day after Christmas.

For some reason, the Santa hat made Caed want to run around the house.

We made crepes for Christmas breakfast

We wrapped up some big boy underwear for Caed to see if it would inspire him.

Somehow Caed was really good and unwrapping gifts, even though he hadn't done it since his birthday

He got a lot of books and loved them!

We all had fun looking at the Christmas tree

2010-12-11T09:37:00.003-06:00

Today is Austin's 30th birthday! I want to celebrate it by telling you 30 wonderful things about him that you may or may not know! One of them is this picture above. How sweet is it that he is painting Caed's new nativity set with him? Here is the list...

1. he loves Jesus
2. he is a great husband
3. he is a great father
4. he listens to my crazy long stories every day
5. he is practical
6. he loves different languages
7. he explains hard concepts in a simple way
8. he loves sports
9. he works hard
10. he can cook
11. he loves coaching
12. he loves teaching
13. he not only takes care of his family, but everyone around him
14. he is attentive to me and Caed when he gets home from work
15. he does household chores
16. he calms me down when I am worried or upset
17. he gets Caed ready every morning for school
18. he irons both of our clothes every night for work the next morning
19. he is open with his feelings
20. he has great eyes and a great smile
21. he has a heart for both the needy and the rich
22. he is not afraid to take advice from others
23. he has a big worldview
24. he enjoys traveling
25. he can fix almost anything around the house
26. he enjoys doing artsy things with me
27. he is not afraid to try new foods
28. he is athletic
29. he likes to learn new things
30. he loves his parents

Thankful

2010-11-20T21:31:00.001-06:00

This is a picture of a boy in Uganda who is thanking God for his juice and bread. Does this not bring tears to your eyes? Does this not make you think twice about all the things that you think you need? I got this picture from the Parental Care Ministries Blog. This is the blog of our pediatritian's ministry that I have blogged about a few times. A few of our friends are on a trip with this ministry and are spending Thanksgiving in Uganda. I cry every time I read this blog for many reasons. I cry because my heart aches for Africa. I cry because the people are so beautiful. I cry because the Lord's work is so incredibly evident there.......

I cry because the people there are beyond thankful for what God has provided for them, even though they only get to eat meat at Christmas and Easter. Even though they have to make checker boards out of cardboard boxes and bottle caps. Even though they have lost their parents to AIDS. They still see God's work in their lives and praise him daily for it. They have next to nothing and they are joyful because they are not encumbered by material possessions. They have an eternal perspective because this world is not enough!

As I write this, I am sitting here in my house looking around at the constant mess that plagues my existence because I have so much stuff that I can't keep it all in the right place. And it all makes me unthankful and discontent. I want to be thankful and content. I often desire to just move into a blank slate of a house and live very minimally.

However, even the apostle Paul said that he had learned to be content with little and with much. Can I really learn this? Well you have to start somewhere right? So.......

I am thankful for where God has put me now and for what he has provided for me.
But I am also thankful that he reminds me that I am called to provide and pray for others, like the little boy in the picture above!

Family of Four!!!!

2010-11-13T21:31:00.005-06:00

We are proud to announce that we will turn into a family of four around May 12th, 2010!

We found out on September 18th that I was pregnant and we were very excited! We weren't sure how far along I was though, and we had to wait two weeks for my doctor's appointment.

On October 6th, we went to the doctor. They did our first sonogram and decided that I was about 9 weeks along.

I am currently 14 weeks along.
I have felt pretty good so far.
No morning sickness, just sleepy all the time
I have craved a lot of meat and salty snacks
I haven't had as much will power this pregnancy so I have already gained about 10 lbs!
Therefore my baby bump has popped out quickly!
It is already getting harder to carry Caed around
The crazy pregnancy dreams have started already
The heightened sense of smell that comes with pregnancy doesn't go so well with teaching 3-6 year olds.
Also, being so sleepy all the time doesn't go well with working the nap room at school. Watching children sleep for 2 hours just makes me want to lie down too! However, it is nice to have that 2 hour break during the day to just read and relax.

Halloween Festivities

2010-11-06T21:38:00.005-05:00

I am playing catch up on my blogs because life is just so stinkin' crazy right now! So here is a taste of the month of October and our fun family pumpkin related activities.

We took our annual trip to Pappy's Pumpkin Patch.

Caed loved the hay maze

He also loved the train. He would have ridden that thing all day if we would have let him.

Feeding the catfish

Pumpkins!

My mom and Seth came with us. This is the first year they got to go so it was special for them.

Our school had a Fall Festival on Halloween afternoon. Caed was the Cookie Monster so Austin and I decided to be cookies and milk. We had fun with it! Caed loved his costume so much he never wanted to take it off.

Caed found his best friend, Hailey and they stuck together for most of the time.
How cute are they?
I did the face painting booth so I got to paint a pumpkin on my cute little pumpkin!

Such a great day!

2010-10-01T21:15:00.002-05:00

Today just got better and better!

It started out with a text from Caed's teacher saying, "Can we take Caed home with us after school today?" Why yes, of course you can! Thanks! Caed's teacher's daughter is his best friend so he loves going to her house and hanging out.

Then I got to school and got some great news (that I cannot share because of confidentiality), but I can say that it lifted a burden off the shoulders of all the teachers at my school.

At the end of the school day, Caed went home with his friend and I went shopping!

First, I went to Old Navy b/c I heard they were having a huge sale, and they were! I got almost all of my Christmas shopping done in one stop for under $8 a person.

Then I went grocery shopping and got milk for $1.89 and Kraft block cheese for $1!!!

Then I got Chick-fil-a and ate outside in the beautiful weather. I finally got to try the spicy chicken sandwich. It was good, but I still love my chicken strips more.

Then I went to Kohls because I had a $10 gift card. I got two more Christmas gifts!

Then I went to pick up Caed and he was so happy and so good. We came home and I put him to bed and he was very sweet and cute.

Then I got a text from Austin that said that our insurance changed and we get to change back to our old pediatrician who we love and miss terribly!

Then Austin came home earlier than he thought!!!!!!!!! Such a great day! Thank you Lord!

It's the little things...

2010-09-17T21:38:00.002-05:00

The last few weeks have been kinda hard for us, at school, at home, just in general. We are all still getting used the Austin's football schedule (basically seeing him only on Sundays and Monday through Wednesday nights.) Every noise Caed hears when we are at home makes him think that daddy's home. At school, I have some pretty challenging students and Caed is constantly hitting and pushing his friends and occasionally his teachers!

However, we have had a few special moments at home lately, and I want to focus on those right now!

One day, we built a fort and played under and around it for a while. Caed even stayed under it while I cooked dinner.

Caed has also enjoyed "helping us cook" lately. He really likes sampling the goods. Here, we are making lasagna on a Sunday night. (Oh, that reminds me, my new favorite cookbook is Deceptively Delicious. Every recipe hides one or more veggies in meals, and they taste great! So far we have tried about 7 recipes and have liked them all!)

Austin and I also have fun at the end of the day recapping the funny things Caed says. He is talking so much, and most of the time, what he says is adorable! For instance, the other day, we were at a friend's house and Caed found two large golf umbrellas. He dragged them in a big circle around the kitchen and then looked up with a smile and said, "Ta Da!" As in, look what I did! So cute.

I have also been trying to take care of myself when I have alone time by doing art and creative things. Here are two pictures of a jewelry hanger that I made. I got this old window from my father-in-law who does house demos. I busted out the glass and stuffed each pane with burlap that I already had from when Austin used to work at a coffee shop. I put backing on it, made t-pins out of paperclips, and ta da! Look what I did for free!

Sweet Encouragement

2010-09-12T15:55:00.003-05:00

Every Friday, Caed's teachers send home a sheet that tells what lessons he got and what work he used at school. It also tells how long he napped each day and how often he pooped :-) At the bottom there is a section for "other thoughts" from the teachers.

This week it said, "Caed waited a long time for the tools - he just stood back and watched the child with them and waited to see if the other child was done even when he put it on the shelf - is really learning patience!"

I love hearing stuff like this! After days of hearing that Caed had pushed or hit his friends (his new bad habit), this little note was so refreshing. I am convinced that Caed is meant for Montessori school. He has learned so much, and I am not just talking about numbers, letters, and colors. The first things they learn in Montessori are sitting quietly and patiently, putting their work back on the shelf before getting anything else off, and rolling out his own floor mat so that he can keep all his work in his own space. These things flow into the rest of his life and we love it! His teachers are always telling us that he has the concentration level of a 3 year old because he will do one work for the entire hour work time (which is what he did with the above mentioned tools) or he will listen so well at circle time and just soak everything in. He is definitely our little observer.

Summer Recap

2010-08-26T20:47:00.006-05:00

Remember that summer to-do list I made? Well we checked off (almost) all of them. So here are some pics of the outcome.Caed playing on the shore in Galveston. It was his first time at the beach and he loved it!

Caed reading books at the Tyler Art Museum where they had a Babar the Elephant exhibit.

Caed and Lois playing at the Discovery Science Center. Pamela and Lois came to visit the week that Austin had two-a-days.

Caed and Daddy matching for church

Swim lessons! Caed did ok. He was cranky a few days and never wanted to get his face wet. But he can splash and kick with the best of them! He also loved jumping off the side into daddy's arms.

Teaching art lessons to 2-6 year olds. This was one of my student's face sculptures.

Astros game (we planned on going to a Rangers game, but that never happened. So we stopped at an Astros game on the way back from Galveston. Minute Maid Park has a roof so it is always 75 degrees and shaded! Perfect)

Checking out the "ephants" and "iraffs" at the zoo

hanging out at the lake

Adoption

2010-08-20T20:09:00.007-05:00

Austin and I have talked about adoption for years. We started talking and praying about it even more over the past several months. We feel that this is not the right timing right now for our family, but we are devoted to eventually adopting in the future and it is still on our hearts. I was reading The Journey blog last night and came across the following post. For anyone who wonders why we have a heart for adoption, this explains it perfectly! If you have never read this girl's blog before, I would strongly encourage you to check out her story. You will be blown away by her faith and obedience to Christ!

teenagers and a lesson from Jacob.

I come to you humbly asking for prayer. Especially for my three oldest daughters, and for wisdom for me! All mommas know it: teenagers are hard. Three teenage girls are harder. Three teenage girls from different tribes and cultures and pasts trying to live together in one bedroom are harder still.

In an effort to be real, I want to tell you. Adoption is wonderful and beautiful and the greatest blessing I have ever experienced. Adoption is also HARD and painful. Adoption of older children is a beautiful picture of redemption. It is the GOSPEL in my living room. And some times, it just stinks.

As a parent, it stinks to not know when your daughter took her first steps or what her first word was or what she looked like in Kindergarten. It stinks not to know where she slept and whose shoulder she cried on and what the scar on her eyebrow is from. It stinks to know that for ten years of her precious life you were NOT the shoulder she cried on or the Mommy she hugged.

As a child, it stinks to remember your biological parents’ death, not matter how much you love your new Mom. It stinks to have your mom be a different color than you because, inevitably, people are going to ask why. It stinks that your Mom wasn’t there for all the times you had no dinner and all the times you were sick and all the times you needed help with your homework. It stinks when you have to make up your birthday. It skinks when you can’t understand the concept of being a family forever because your first family wasn’t forever.

And every single day, it is worth it. Because ADOPTION IS GOD’S HEART. He sets the lonely in families. Adoption is the reason that I can come before God’s throne and beg Him for mercy, because He predestined me to be adopted as His child through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

My family, adopting these children, it is not optional. It is not my good deed for the day, it is not what I am doing to “help these poor kids out.” I adopt because God commands me to care for the orphans and the widows in their distress. I adopt because to whom much has been given, much will be demanded. I adopt because whoever finds his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for HIS sake will find it.

Some days, my friends, it is not easy. Today, it is not easy. The HURT in my daughters’ hearts is big and real and as their mother, I want to fix it and know that I CAN’T. So I lay it at the feet of my Father and rejoice to know that if we are children, then we are heirs - of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings - in order that we may also share in His glory. And I call out to the Holy Spirit knowing that He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for us.

A sweet friend pointed me yesterday to Genesis Chapter 33. Esau and Jacob are meeting for the first time in a long time. As Jacob approaches Esau, with his many children following close behind, Esau asks, “ And who are these with you?”

Jacob’s reply: “These are the children that the Lord saw fit to bless me with.”

We get all the questions. “Why do you do it?” “Why so many?” “How in the world…” “Why these specific girls?” “Why the number 14?” “Do you think its ok to adopt as a single Mother? Don’t they need a father too?” “Do you think they will have issues since you are not the same race?” We also get the compliments. “I don’t know how you do it!” “Good job!” “You must be so responsible!” “Your girls must be so well behaved.” We get crazy stares and huge smiles and every look in between.

Adoption is beautiful. Adoption is hard. Adoption is the Gospel of Christ and the promise of God’s love and redemption lived out in our lives. So I ask for your prayers. Prayers for understanding and peace and trust and the power of God that is more than all I can ask or imagine. And to the questions and the comments and the compliments, this is my reply: “These are the children that the Lord saw fit to bless me with.”

Rag Quilt Letters

2010-08-13T14:10:00.004-05:00

At the beginning of the summer, I saw this tutorial on the Happy Together Blog about making rag quilt letters. They were so cute, I decided to make some for Caed. I gradually cut out the letters and material and then sewed them. All together it only took a few hours to make, but I didn't do them all at the same time. This was one of the items on our Summer To-Do List that I finished first. I love them so much that I am going to make a set for my classroom.
As you can see, Caed LOVES them! He has been obsessed with learning his letters all summer, so they work great! He already knows all his capital letters, but I made these letters in lower-case, so he is enjoying learning them with these letters.
He also likes to "dog-pile" the letters like he does with his stuffed animals. He jumps on them and says, "Dogile!" and then wiggles around on them.

Perfect love drives out fear...

2010-08-02T13:51:00.004-05:00

When we were in Guatemala, I had to give a short talk about fear at the Women's conference. This was a HUGE topic for me and has been for several years in my life. Our conference was based on the book Bondage Breaker, which gave me a lot of meat for my talk. God used this book and this conference to change my entire outlook on fear and his power over it. I have tons of fears: needles, death of loved ones, being home alone, knives, guns, etc. Before the trip to Guatemala, I was paralyzed by my fears. I was even afraid of being afraid. God has shown me that he has power over my fears and he is greater than them. The two verses that have been a huge source of empowerment for me in this area are 2 Timothy 1:7 and Phil. 4:4-9. Every time I start to feel paralyzed by fear, I think of these verses. I have finally realized that my fears are not from God, but from Satan. God does not give me fear, instead he gives me power, love, and self-control (2 Tim. 1:-7). Also, when I think about things that are holy and good, the fear goes away and I have peace because Satan can't control my thoughts when my thoughts are on Christ (Phil. 4:4-9). I do feel like I am in the process of being released from a bondage that has had hold of me for many years, and I praise God for it!

Some of the women at the conference

The teenage girls at the conference

One of my beautiful translators, Lorena

Fun Stuff

2010-07-27T09:59:00.003-05:00

Caed likes to play golf with a baseball bat and a basketball. I think he has his sports mixed up.

Caed doesn't like it when I am wearing pajamas and my tank top rides up on my belly. He follows me around saying, "Uh Oh" and then pulls down my shirt.

Yay! Caed can blow his own nose finally!

I just told Caed to go get a tissue and he proceeded to pull every single tissue out, then put them all back in and put the box away.

Photos from Caed's Bday

2010-07-17T11:36:00.004-05:00

Caed had a great birthday party. We did a World Cup theme because he was loving watching soccer with us all summer. The day of his birthday was the championship game, so it worked out well. We got soccer jerseys for all three of us from Guatemala and wore them for the party. We also put Caed's name and the number 2 (since he was turning 2) on the back of his jersey. I made two cookie cakes with homemade marshmellow fondant on top to make them look like soccer balls. My friend Mandy gave me the recipe for the fondant and it worked great!

Mostly family came to the party, but he had a few little friends there too. Hailey is his best friend from school, so she and her family came. Hailey's mom is Caed's teacher at school. When Hailey walked in the door, Caed left his food at the table (he doesn't leave food for many people) and ran over to her to give her a hug. When she put his gift bag with all the other gifts, he watched her, then went over to his other gifts and picked one out. Then he walked over to her and handed her his gift. It was as if he was wanting to give her something since she brought him something. It was the cutest thing ever. Everyone in the room just stopped and watched in awe. Austin and I both had tears in our eyes. The picture below is of Caed and Hailey eating the cookie cake.

Caed got some special gifts this year. Austin and I redecorated his room in baseball stuff. We made his name out of baseball cards and hung them on the wall above his bed. We also got some old lockers and repainted them in crimson (Roll Tide/Boomer Sooner!) and put them in his room for extra storage. Caed also got some fun gifts from family and friends, like a soccer ball and goal, basketball goal, Bama tricycle, Mr. Potato Head, learning computer, books, puzzles, clothes, and fun Ikea wooden toys.

Caed's 2nd Bday!

2010-07-15T19:45:00.008-05:00

Ok, so Blogger won't let me upload pictures from Caed's birthday so until I can figure that out, I will write some highlights from the last 6 months of Caed's life. He has grown so much it's insane! Some of these highlights are copy and pasted facebook statuses and some are my own memories.

Caed learned to sing "E-O-E-O" (Old Macdonald...E-I-E-I-O) and "do do do do" (Baby Shark...do do do do do) today. So cute! - Jan. 5, 10

Almost got Caed to say Bama, he kept saying ba ba ba or mmmmmma, close enough - Jan. 7, 10

In the words of Caed, TOUCHY!!!

what do Mark Mcguire, Barry Bonds, and my baby boy have in common? Guess! (He is on steroids because of a wheezing cough) - Jan. 16, 10

even if you check all your pockets before you put the clothes in the laundry, you may not know what your son has thrown in the basket beforehand! - Jan. 31, 10

I think Caed is OCD. He replaces all outlet covers, turns off all surge protectors, and refuses to let laundry hang out of the basket. so funny. - Feb. 7, 10

I am so thankful for a son who will entertain himself while I get some semi-alone time. I even took a 2 minute nap on the couch - March 31, 10

Heart attack moment of the day: I walk into the living room and I hear the microwave buttons being pushed. I look over to see Caed standing on a barstool pushing buttons. He has pushed the barstool from the table to the microwave and has somehow climbed on top. Our microwave is about 4 feet in the air! scary! - Apr. 13, 10

Some good friends gave Caed a huge "garage" of Hot Wheels and he is now completely obsessed. That is all he plays with every day. - Apr. 20, 10

Caed had two firsts today: He was put in time-out for the first time at school and I accidentally locked him in the car for the first time. Thankfully the car was running with the AC on and Austin was able to come rescue us! - Apr. 26, 10

Somehow Caed just got a carton of eggs off the kitchen table while I was cooking. He took them to the living room and started playing with them. When I realized what he had done, I asked him to put them back in the fridge. Just as he was putting them on the shelf, they all fell out onto the floor. Lovely! I still don't know how he got them off the table. May 18, 10

Austin didn't know I was behind him when he started flailing his arms around, and he smacked me in the mouth with his wrist (watch attached). Now I have a busted lip. fun end to the weekend. - May 31, 10

Apparently Caed has had the Alphabet Song in his head lately. It is so cute to hear him sing "A, B, C, D, dadada" and then get stuck on "Y and Z." - June 4, 10

Apparently when I do yoga, Caed thinks I am a jungle gym b/c he tries to crawl all over me and sit on me! It's cute though. - June 7, 10

Caed's animal names translation: "bitit" = elephant, "gonkey" = monkey, "ion roooar" = lion, "beet" = sheep, "cheekan" = chicken - June 10, 10

Caed was outside with Austin and he saw me through the window, so he ran inside just to give me a hug and then ran back outside. Way to melt a mommy's heart! - June 15, 10

When it was baseball season, every sport on tv was "Bae Boll" to Caed, now that the World Cup is on, every sport is "socca" to Caed. - June 20

Home from Guatemala! Playing with Caed and chillin! Caed wouldn't let go of Austin and I for a while. It was so sweet! - July 1, 10

And the bedtime tantrums have started. I already miss the days when bedtime was the most fun time we all had together. I hope it comes back soon! - July 2, 10

Caed got some face time on the news tonight b/c of our neighborhood parade - July 3, 10

We love hearing Caed sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," or as he sings it, "inkle, inkle...star...wonder...are...up...high...diamond...sky...inkle, inkle...star...wonder...are." done with all the hand motions - July 8, 10

"Goal, Goal, Goal," yelled by Caed as he kicked every ball in sight! - July 9, 10

We had a great birthday weekend for Caed and he was on his best behavior for everyone who came to visit. Happy birthday to the cutest little boy who loves bananas, Curious George, tractors, shoes, and watching any kind of sports. By the way, he can now count to ten, say his ABCs, knows the colors yellow, red, and black, and put his own shoes on. What a smart 2 year old we have! - July 11, 10

Guatemala Post #2

2010-07-07T22:45:00.003-05:00

Ok, I don't want to fool with uploading pictures right now, so I am going to talk about my new friend whom I will call E.

E is a 31 year old girl from the Ukraine. Several years ago she moved to the States for college and ended up becoming a nanny. Through this experience, she started realizing that she had a heart for Latin American culture. She got connected with our team leaders and visited Guatemala. She then moved to Guatemala b/c she loved it! At first she was a nanny for a well-to-do family there and enjoyed it, but felt like something was missing and she was being too spoiled. So she decided to move to Zone 5, which is the most dangerous neighborhood in all of Guatemala. This is where all the gangs live. If you even want to visit this zone, you have to get permission from the gangs or you will be shot on the spot. Inna got permission through some connections to a family that lives there. Now she is living with that family in that zone and ministering to the gangs. A few weeks ago, she even led one of the gang members to Christ. She is the best example of incarnation ministry that I have ever met! She lives in this tiny shack with a family where her bed is right next to the mom and dad's bed. She drinks the water that makes her sick, just like it makes everyone else sick. She eats their food and rids herself of everything that hinders! I told her that she is just like Mother Teresa. And the thing is, she is so humble and meek. I have been reading through the Beatitudes and I just keep thinking of her. She is not afraid of living in Zone 5 because God has called her there and he is protecting her. She was more of an encouragement to us than we were to her. I will forever be pushed toward greater obedience and abandonment to Christ when I think of her!

Guatemala Post #1

2010-07-03T15:34:00.004-05:00

Well we are back from Guatemala! But every time I even think about blogging about it, I get overwhelmed. So I decided that I am going to have to do it in multiple installments b/c I don't have a 3 hour block to devote to it. This first installment will be copy and pasted from our team leader's prayer support email that he sent out to people who were praying for us while we were there. It will give you a good idea of what we did there.

By the way, if you are itching to see pictures, go to my facebook page. I will put them up on here soon though.

1st Email:

The mission team this year consists of 14 people. The specific dates for the trip are June 22–30. The team will be working with our friends at Iglesia San Pablo in Puerto de San Jose with whom we have had a 14-year partnership. The elders at the church have asked us to help with a women’s teaching and ministry conference at the church and a construction project at the Genesis Christian School next to the church. Of course, there will also be other mission activities that provide additional opportunities for ministry and fellowship with our friends at San Pablo.

If you have been following international news over the past three weeks, you know that Guatemala was recently hit by both a major volcanic eruption and Tropical Storm Agatha leading to flooding, landslides, sinkholes, bridge failures, and more. As a backdrop to all these convulsions, though, God has opened many doors for His people to share the gospel, encourage other believers, and help those who are hurting. Thank you so much for being a part of these efforts.

2nd Email:

The Guatemala Mission Team arrived safely in Puerto de San Jose about 11:30 PM Tuesday night. The flight actually arrived early, and there were no problems with the ground transportation.

The first day of the women’s conference began Wednesday afternoon with a large crowd of women from around the area. The teen age girls from Genesis Christian School also attended the conference. An even bigger crowd is expected tomorrow. According to the Women’s Ministry Leader, many of the women who are coming to the conference were walking with the Lord in the past, but have drifted away from Him for different reasons. Several of the women came up for prayer at the end of the conference, and there are indications that many more will do the same before the end of the conference. Please pray for God to touch the hearts of the women and young girls who need to surrender their lives to Him.

The first day of work on the third story classrooms that are being constructed at Genesis Christian School began Wednesday morning. Weather conditions were pretty warm, but everyone held up well and there were no serious injuries. Good progress was made on the perimeter walls in spite of challenges related to the language barrier and initial confusion that is typical of most mission construction projects. Please continue to pray for suitable weather conditions and for the physical safety of those on the job site.

Everyone is healthy apart from the weariness of working long hours in a hot climate. Gratefully, all the air conditioners in the hotel are working. Team members are taking turns leading team devotionals and seem to genuinely enjoy each other’s company during mission activities at the church and times of rest back at the hotel.

Thank you again for your prayers on behalf of the team. We are seeing many evidences of these prayers in the smoothness of travel activities and the effectiveness of ministry efforts during these first few days of the trip. Hopefully, we'll get another update out in the next day or two.

3rd Email:

As many of you already know, the Guatemala Mission Team successfully completed their work in Puerto de San Jose, made their way to Antigua through heavy rain, and then on to Guatemala City for a rather turbulent flight home around the eastern side of Hurricane Alex.

On behalf of the team, I want to thank all of you for your faithful prayers. It’s important that each of you understand how much the team appreciates your efforts on our behalf. I mention this now, instead of later, because what follows may be more information than some of you want to wade through.

Here are some of the highlights from the last three days of the trip:

The Sunday morning worship service at San Pablo Church was a very special time with team members both participating in the service and being honored by the church members. Several of the ladies were able to speak with and encourage a young woman who had accepted the Lord before the service. After the service, the San Pablo elders were presented with money donated by the Sparrows Group at Grace to purchase Spanish Bibles for new converts at San Pablo Church and the eight daughter churches.

Sunday afternoon, five of the team members went with Rony Montepeque to deliver dry clothes and medicine to one of the small churches that has been hit hard by continued flooding. It took a couple hours to get there due to high water crossings and generally bad road conditions. The church and surrounding community all turned out to see the crazy gringos who braved the floodwaters in a van. The effects of continued flooding on the area were very evident and living conditions difficult to fathom. After distributing the relief supplies, we talked, laughed and prayed with the people before returning back to Puerto de San Jose by another route due to rising flood waters.

When we got back San Jose, we went straight to Rony’s house to join the rest of the team for a time of food and fellowship with the Montepeques, as well as Pastor Paco and his family. Before we left, the team gathered around these two leaders and their families and prayed for them.

Monday morning, several team members had opportunities to encourage and pray with members the hotel staff who are very concerned about the future of their jobs. Rony and friends transported us to Antigua after breakfast. The one hour trip took more than two hours due to impassable bridges, landslides, and heavy rain.

Monday afternoon in Antigua was very wet, but the team made the best of it to enjoy the sights and do a little shopping. We had a great team dinner at Casa Santo Domingo, a popular restaurant in an ancient monastery.

Tuesday morning, the weather had improved enough to allow some more serious sightseeing before taking a shuttle to the hotel in Guatemala City where the team had dinner together before retiring early.

Wednesday morning, we had an easy transit to the airport, and after a brief weather delay, flew home to Texas around the backside of Hurricane Alex. Two team members, Austin and Beth, took a later flight thru Miami and also arrived safely although it was very late.

It seems the same stomach bug that hit two team members early on was gradually passed from member to member over the course of the trip. Thankfully, the worst symptoms lasted about a day, and only four people needed a “stay-in-bed” day. Other team members had mild symptoms or none at all, and the team as a whole did a great job of covering for those who didn’t feel well.

Several team members have asked me to mention some the unexpected opportunities that God gave us to encourage and minister to special people that He brought into our path. One, of course, was the adventure at the village church that I mentioned above. But two others were equally meaningful.

*One was the opportunity that the team had to minister to our good friend E who traveled over from Guatemala City, where she serves in an inner city ministry, to be a part of the women’s conference. E was part of our team last year and wanted to help minister to the women of San Pablo Church again this year. It turned out that Inna was the one in need of ministry as she clearly was suffering from the effects of exhaustion and drinking contaminated water. The ladies spent several days encouraging her and praying for her, and when she left she was visiably refreshed both spiritually and physically. We also used some surplus team funds to purchase a water treatment device for her and her ministry partners in Guatemala City.

Another unexpected opportunity for ministry came when some missionary friends who serve at SETECA Seminary in Guatemala City called and asked us to follow up with a 14-year old boy and his mother in San Jose. Ten days before, the boy had literally saved their lives in a dangerous rip tide at the beach. One of their children had actually disappeared beneath the water for the third time and this boy dove repeatedly to find him and pull him to shore. He then went back out to save the father and his daughter.

We were able to contact the boy’s mother, who is a widow and lives in a shanty on beach, and arranged for her to attend the last day of the women’s conference at San Pablo. She is already a Christian and was thrilled to part of the women’s fellowship. Some of the ladies also visited her and the boy at their home on Saturday, and brought food and clothing and a soccer ball, all of which were enthusiastically received with many prayers and tears.

This trip, more than most, had aspects that surprised, challenged, and amazed us. Through it all, God worked by His Spirit and your faithful prayers to accomplish His purposes. What an honor it was for us to be a part of it.

(*I will talk more about E later. She was amazing!-Beth)

First Taste of Summer

2010-06-06T15:16:00.004-05:00

Friday was Caed's and my last day of school! We are so excited to start our summer! This is a picture of Caed's new breakfast ritual. Since we aren't rushing out the door to go to school anymore, he brings a book to the table with him. He loves the monkey (Curious George)! How cute is this pic?

Caed gets excited when we make smoothies. He slurps those things down! It makes momma happy because he gets all his fruits and veggies in by 8 am! (I put tons of fruit and spinach leaves in our smoothies. I promise you can't taste the spinach!)

To start off the summer, we made a list of fun summer activities to do. Some of our activities are self-explanitory and some are vague for space sake. If you wonder what some of them mean, just ask. I will be happy to tell you. As you can see, we have already checked off a few! I got this idea from my friend Mandy Sisco. I stole a few of her ideas too.

By the way, the "sew letters" activity is already in progress. I will post pics when they are done.

I have been meaning to post this for a few months, but I keep forgetting. I made a book out of our blog from the first year and a half of Caed's life (including pregnancy). I love it and I am definitely going to make more. I am not a scrapbooker, so this is a great way to keep memories for my family.

Video

2010-05-30T19:56:00.003-05:00

Caed likes to chase his daddy around the house!

By the way, about the previous post, I wanted to put captions under each photo, but every time I tried, it wouldn't let me.

A Month In Pictures (backwards)

2010-05-26T21:47:00.004-05:00

minima

Parental Care Ministries

2010-04-22T21:44:00.003-05:00

Caed's former pediatrician, whom we LOVE and miss, is back in Uganda. He goes at least twice a year and visits the orphanage/ministry that he supports. Everyone needs to check out his blog! I cry every time I read it. The photos are amazing and he portrays the wonder and beauty of Uganda in words perfectly! His heart for these children and the pastors overflows with love! It is wonderful and hard at the same time to read his blog. I hurt for Africa and long to be there! Anyway, please go to his blog and see the beautiful orphans that you can support! Go to www.parentalcareministries.org

Earth Day

2010-04-21T15:46:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is Earth Day so we have been talking it all week in class and I am loving it! Most of you know that I am a pretty much a wannabe hippie. I have been for as long as I can remember. It is just getting worse and worse with age! Austin has a love/hate relationship with this aspect of me. I think that most of it comes from growing up in a third world country. I can't stand to throw things away and I try to find a way to reuse everything. However, this makes me a pack rat and clutters our house very quickly! I have always justified holding onto things to use later or use as hand-me-downs.

A few months ago, I was convicted that holding onto these things was no better than the man in the parable who stores up food in his barns. Instead of saving things for future use, God wants me to give them away. So, lately, I have been "Spring Cleaning" room by room, getting rid of stuff that we rarely use. This hurts me, but I know I need to do it. Unfortunately, I have realized that in the process, I am also buying more stuff to replace these things. Uggh! God is working on me for sure.

There are many things about being a wannabe hippie that are good though. Here are some things I have done or will be doing with my class this week.
-Making a "bird nest basket" by collecting small leftover scraps of material for birds
-Having a "creative box day" by getting tons of boxes and letting my students use their imagination to reuse them
-Starting a recycling program at our school
-Showing them quilts made out of old clothes
-Planting vegetables and flowers in our gardens

I wish I could do more with them, but we just don't have enough time in the day. Sometimes it is harder for me to teach the things that I am really passionate about b/c I get so excited I can't explain it well. Hopefully they will get some of it though.

Rewind

2010-04-08T20:02:00.004-05:00

About a month ago, we traveled to Memphis for Spring Break. We were so excited to get out of town and to see the grandparents for a while. It was a really relaxing and fun week. It went by slowly, amazingly, too. Although we got a lot rest, we also did some really fun stuff. Like this...

Going to the Memphis Zoo (one of my favorites),

seeing the ducks at the Peabody,

going to the Children's Museum,

and seeing old friends (I went to high school in Memphis).

We were obviously sad when the week was over. Thanks Papa and Mamaw Reed for a wonderful week!

Easter

2010-04-05T21:02:00.003-05:00

Our Easter weekend started with the school Easter Egg hunt on Thursday. I didn't think that Caed would really do much egg hunting, but as soon as I pointed out the first egg, Caed smiled and excitedly said, "Egg!" and put it in his basket. I had so much fun finding eggs with him. All of his friends sat down and opened their eggs and ate all their candy. When Caed saw that, he gave me an egg and said, "Popey" (which means, "open"). Thankfully, I found an egg with a toy in it, b/c most of his eggs had hard candy in it which he would have choked on. I also found one with a Hershey's kiss that he could eat.

All three of us had Good Friday off, so we enjoyed lots of extra family time together. We spent the morning at Home Depot stocking up on veggie and herb seeds, soil, pots, and other planting supplies. Last Easter, we planted basil, oregano, peppers, and squash, so we decided to continue the tradition. Only our basil and peppers worked, so we tried some new stuff this year. We are now trying rosemary, peas, lettuce, and tomatoes in addition to more basil, oregano, and peppers. Also, one of our friends gave us some blueberry plants. We are excited to see how they all turn out.

We also worked on finishing our dining room table this weekend. Almost a year ago, we purchased an old door for the table top and we are finally getting the whole table put together. It has been a long but good learning process. Austin and I have had fun being creative. I got some great bar stools at Ikea last weekend, so hopefully, some time this week, we will get those put together and start eating at the table soon!

We did a lot of fun Easter activities for Caed this weekend as well. Saturday night we showed Caed how to dye eggs. He was a little impatient while the eggs were boiling, so we let him dye paper, which he ended up having more fun with than the eggs. Oh well. He liked the eggs too. He also liked cracking them and sticking his finger in them. On Sunday, we went to church. Austin and I observed Lent, so it was a very meaningful Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday for us. We both learned a lot over this Lent season for sure! Neither of us grew up observing Lent or going to a church that practiced the full church calendar, but over the past few years, we have both enjoyed getting more involved in such practices. It is good to have something that keeps us focused and points us specifically toward the death and resurrection of Christ.

Caed looked adorable in his Easter outfit. I just kept looking at him all day because he was so cute. After church and Caed's nap, we hid more eggs in our backyard and let him find them. Austin didn't get to go to his school egg hunt, so this way, he could see Caed find the eggs too. After that, we fixed our Easter dinner. We had wanted to invite friends over, but we never found anyone in town without family. We decided that since it would just be the three of us that we would forgo the ham and just do a fun and new recipe. We found a recipe for lamb kabobs in peanut sauce, but we couldn't find lamb, so we did steak and it was perfect! I, personally, think that it was the best meal we have ever fixed. The weather was so nice (and the kitchen was so messy) that we decided to eat outside at our picnic table. It was the perfect Easter dinner!

Snow/Love

2010-02-15T15:48:00.002-06:00

Caed got to experience his first real snow this weekend. It was so fun! He loved walking in, playing with, and holding the snow. He did not, however, love getting his butt wet from it.

It was absolutely gorgeous! Since Caed woke up at 4AM that day, we were out playing in it before anyone else. It was so quiet and perfectly untouched!

Austin made a snowball for Caed to hold. He giggled every time he touched it! Austin also made a snowman and Caed really liked patting the snow down. So adorable!

Although we all got snowed in on Friday, it was not all fun and games. Caed had a fever on Thursday and did not sleep well that night or Friday night. We were all exausted. He also cried every time he ate. We thought it was just a tooth coming in, even though he never acts like that for teeth. Finally, on Sunday, when bumps showed up around his mouth, we started to figure things out. Someone told us to look inside his mouth, and yep, there were bumps in there too! We finally figured out that he had herpes (cold sores) all in and around his mouth. He has been in so much pain and we had no idea! Poor boy! It may take 7-10 days to heal and it is really contagious so he can't go to school until they clear up.

Even with all the lack of sleep and our unhappy son, Austin and I found time to celebrate Vday. Our good friends, Pam, Kyle, and Lois were supposed to come into town and go on a double date, but that didn't happen b/c of the snow and sickness. We kept our reservations though, and went to one of our favorite restaurants in Tyler. We also found a beautiful new duvet and bedskirt for our bed as a Vday gift to each other. Overall, it was a tough at times, but good long weekend.

18 Months and more

2010-01-26T19:42:00.004-06:00

ROLL TIDE!!!!! I know the National Championship game was a few weeks ago, but I haven't blogged since then, so I had to give my team a shout out!

Caed had his 18 Month checkup today. His wonderful daddy skipped baseball practice to take him because I wasn't feeling well after school. We had to get a new pediatrician because our insurance changed, but Austin said the new one seems good. Here are Caed's new stats:
weight - 31.4 lbs (95th %tile)
height - 31 1/2 inches (22nd %tile)
head - 19 3/4 inches (96th %tile)

Needless to say he is still a chunker, not getting any taller, and has a huge head like his momma!

Caed is doing so well at school! His first week was a little shaky b/c he didn't like having so much structure, but he adjusted quickly. After the first week, we could already tell a difference in him. Now, he cleans up his toys every time we ask and sometimes when we don't ask. At school, he has to put away his "work" before he can get anything else out, so he brings that structure home too. He carries his own lunchbox down the hall to his classroom and holds the rope on his own. He does really well seeing me at school too. He just smiles, gives me a kiss and keeps walking. Also, he sits at a table and eats without getting up. He can also feed himself with a spoon and fork now. We barely have to help him at all. It makes dinner so much nicer now!

Here is a picture of Caed doing "work" in the classroom. See the mat under his work? In Montessori, the students have to have a table mat or floor mat under their work to confine their space. They also have to roll up their mats and put them in a special place. Caed now knows how to "roll" his mat and put it away. He basically scrunches the mat up, but it works.

This is a picture of Caed waiting to get his diaper changed. They just wait in line and then his teacher puts him on the potty and then changes his diaper. He is not at all potty trained yet, but they just want to get him used to sitting on the potty.

Here is Caed doing floor work. They said that he does really well with the puzzles, especially shape puzzles.

I have been really affected by the earthquakes in Haiti. I tried to stay away from watching footage on tv, but when I did, I just broke down crying. I think Caed knew I was sad b/c he got up in my lap and gave me a hug. We are trying to help in any way that we can. I am excited that my school has a six month plan to gradually help more and more and in different ways. I have had a song in my head for the last few days and I think it speaks perfectly to any tragedy that comes our way. The song is "The Valley Song" by Jars of Clay.
The chorus says:

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy.
Alleluia!

This reminds me that even when we go through hard times, in the end, we will have great joy because we know that we can do nothing without Christ. We also know the depth of his mercy and love in times like this. Praise the Lord!

Holidays

2009-12-31T13:59:00.005-06:00

I figured since today is New Year's Eve that I should catch up on the last month and a half! Here is our Holiday Season in pictures...

We spent Thanksgiving with Austin's parents, my sister, and another coach from Brook Hill. It was nice and relaxing. This is our family photo from that day.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Austin's football team played in the semi-finals. Austin's parents, Caed, and I drove a few hours to go see them play. We even got to sit in the press box since I am a coach's wife. They killed the other team, and proceeded to the State Championship Game!This is Caed watching the game (and the cheerleaders) while licking the fence.

The next week, Austin's team went to the State Championship Game. On the way, they stopped at Baylor's field and held practice there. I rode with another coach's wife to the game and left Caed with a babysitter. It was a 3 hour drive both ways, so I was happy to not have to drive that alone. Brook Hill played so well! By half-time, I was already losing my voice from cheering so hard! In the end, we lost by a touchdown, but it was a great game! The team was sad, but soon realized how well they played and started looking forward to next season. Austin and the other coach got to ride home with us. We were all delirious by the time we got home at 3 am. What a great season! Austin had so much fun coaching this year!This is a picture of Caed's last day at daycare. Next week, he will be starting at the school that I teach at. He loved his daycare and we did too for the most part. His teachers almost cried when he left b/c they loved him so much. However, we are happy to know that he will be down the hall from me from now on. In the last three months, Caed was bit by other children at daycare a total of nine times! Needless to say, we are tired of him getting bitten. In the Thanksgiving photo above, you can see the black eye he got from one of the instances where a kid pushed him down on the ground and bit him on the back 4 times!

This is also a picture from Caed's last day of daycare. He loves the slides. He is such a big boy, and we really realize it when we see him climb up the slide and go down all by himself. If you are wondering what is up with his pants, it was pajama day.

Once we were all on Christmas break, we got to play outside as a family for the first time in a long time. Here is Caed climbing on our picnic table in our backyard. He climbs on everything these days! We were all just happy to spend time together before the Christmas craziness began.

Side note: This Christmas was all about Immanuel for me. Everywhere I turned, I was hearing the name Immanuel in songs, sermons, Scripture, and devotionals. I was constantly reminded that Jesus is Immanuel, "God with us." When I was having a bad day at school, I was suddenly thinking in my head, "God is with me, even in this rough day." When Caed was screaming b/c he was getting 4 molars in at the same time, I was thinking, "God is still here with me." It seems so simple, but I need that reminder often, especially when the craziness of Christmas tries to take over!Somehow in my spare (haha) time, I was able to make my first quilt! I made Austin a t-shirt quilt from all his old t-shirts from high school and college. I had a lot of fun and already have another order in from my sister for next Christmas.

Austin, Caed, and I exchanged gifts, just the three of us, before we headed to Biloxi for the big family Christmas. It was nice and calm and Caed loved his gifts from us. We gave him a little tool set and an easel. His new favorite thing to do is write with chalk.

Caed's first car! This was Caed's gift from my mom and my grandma. This was far from his only gift from them though! He racked up on gifts this year.

This picture was taken at my grandma's house on Christmas Eve. Austin was cracking him and and I just love this picture! He did so well on this trip. He barely fussed on the long car ride and he stayed up late on Christmas Eve for opening presents without fussing. He was a trooper!

Our family Christmas photo

I just had to throw this picture in b/c he is so cute!

This is Christmas with Austin's parents. Once we got back to Tyler, they came in and stayed with us for a week. Austin's dad handmade these blocks for Caed and he loves them! They also brought ton of other toys for Caed.

This has been a pretty great year for us. Here are some highlights:
Caed started crawling, then walking, and now trying to run.
We all celebrated Caed's first birthday with lots of family and friends.
Beth started a new job as a 3-6 year old teacher at Oak Hill Montessori School.
Therefore, Caed started daycare for the first time.
Austin started his third year of teaching and coaching at Brook Hill School.
His football team went undefeated in district and made it to State.
Austin and Beth celebrated their 6th year of marriage in August.
Altogether, it has been a wonderful year!
Happy New Year everyone!

Randomness

2009-11-20T15:51:00.002-06:00

I haven't updated in a while, but that doesn't mean that I have nothing to say, I just have no time to say it. However, as of today, I am on Thanksgiving Break! It is my first multiple day break since I started teaching. I am happy to say that, although I am thankful for the break, I haven't been just dying to get to this point. I have a lot of really hard days at school, but I never dread going to work. I feel like I am becoming a better teacher every day and I am rarely completely exhausted at the end of the day.

Last weekend was the 11th anniversary of my dad's death. I never know how I am going to react to it, but this year was not bad at all. I spend most of the day helping install a playground at my school. It was good hard work, and I felt great afterwards. It was theraputic for me to use big tools and work outside because that is a lot of what I remember my dad doing, so I felt like I was doing the work in honor of him.

Our small group at church is reading the book Total Church, by Chester and Timms. It is very convicting and inspiring. We are only 3 chapters in and I am already about to explode with ideas. The main ideas I have been impacted by so far are that evangelism happens best through community and not just relationships. Also, get this: "80% of Christians live in the top 20% of the wealthiest areas in the country." I will just leave it at that. Another great quote is from a woman in poverty, "I know people do a lot to help me. But what I want is someone to be my friend." We are all willing to give money, but are we willing to make friends with someone in need? Our small group is really being impacted by this book in so many different ways. We are so excited to see how God changes us all individually and as a community.

Last night, a friend from small group and I went to the Christmas Barn Sale here in Tyler. It was basically an excuse to hang out and get out of the house. We ended up also going to Starbucks and the mall. We had so much fun and it was just great to have girl time and adult conversation. Thanks for a great time Mandy!

I told you this would all be randomness. If you have gotten to this point in the post, thanks for reading my ramblings!

Halloween

2009-11-03T14:31:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful Halloween weekend! We were excited because Austin didn't have his normal football meeting Saturday morning plus I got to do a photo shoot of some friends that morning. Then I came home and the three of us went to lunch at the newly opened Einsteins Bagels! Yummy! That afternoon, my school had a Fall Fest and we dress up Caed as a lion. That night, we took Caed for his first time trick or treating. He wasn't really sure what to think about it, but it was still fun. He was so adorable sitting in his costume in his little red wagon. To top the weekend off, he slept in late on Sunday morning, even with daylight savings. (Unfortunately, he started the week of on monday morning waking up at 4:45!)He was obsessed with this little pumpkin.

We also had so much fun carving our first pumpkin with Caed. Last year, he was too young to help out. This year, he was right in the middle of all the action. He really enjoyed helping with the little pumpkin saw (it wasn't sharp). I thought he would really like pulling out the seeds, but all he wanted to do was throw his toys in the pumpkin and then pull them back out. Whatever floats your boat Caed!

He wore this shirt to school the day before Halloween.

How cute is that? Those cheeks are even cuter in this costume!

Grandparents, U2, and Fall Fun

2009-10-24T10:25:00.004-05:00

I just realize that I haven't really updated our blog in about a month. So I have a lot to catch up on. Let's see, Caed started out the month with his first ear infection. He did great though. The only reason we knew that he had one was because he had a fever for several days. Other than that, he just slept a lot, but he wasn't very cranky. We were very thankful for that. Now I will just go through the month through pictures...

Caed's first trip to the donut shop. We got the least sugary donut we could find. He ate a whole donut, a whole pig in the blanket, all his milk, and some pinapple. Little chunker!

We also took Caed to his first parade. My mom and her husband came into town and they wanted to go to Tyler's Rose Parade. It wasn't great, but it was something different to do.

Caed didn't know what to do about the clowns. I don't blame him.

This picture describes my mom and her husband perfectly!
Mom: all smiles, Seth: chillin with a cup in his hand.

While my mom was here, we got them to babysit while Austin and I drove to Dallas for the U2 concert. We were supposed to meet our friends Pam and Kyle for dinner before, but we got stuck in traffic. Then at the concert, we tried to find them there, but the new Cowboy's Stadium was so big, we couldn't figure out how to get to their seats.

We were sitting 5 rows from the top, but we still LOVED the show!

The U2 spaceship. Seriously, this was the best show ever! I can't even begin to explain how amazing it was. Here are some highlights: At one point, Bono pulled a boy up on stage with him and let him run around the stage with him for the whole song. Then at the end, Bono handed him his sunglasses! Seriously, what would you do if Bono gave you his sunglasses? Then, in the middle of the show, they bust out in Amazing Grace. All 70,000 people in the stadium sang along and it was incredible. Who else could have gotten that many people (most of them probably non-Christians) singing Amazing Grace? As my friend Pam said, the whole show was a spiritual experience.

Last weekend, Austin's parents came into town and we all went to Pappy's Pumpkin Patch.

It was a lot different this year, now that he is walking. He was all over the place. He threw a few fits because he didn't want to leave certain parts of the patch, but overall we had a blast. He was too cute marching around playing with the pumpkins and the hay.

Magnificent

2009-10-16T13:32:00.002-05:00

We went to the U2 concert in Dallas the other night. I will write more about that later, but right now I want to share with you the song that has been stuck in my head since the concert. The words are so amazing and I am so excited that Bono is becoming more and more outspoken about his faith. God has truly blessed him with a ministry. Here are the words to "Magnificent"

Magnificent
Magnificent  

I was born
I was born to be with you
 In this space and time
 After that and ever after I haven't had a clue
 Only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue

  Only love, only love can leave such a mark 
But only love, only love can heal such a scar 

I was born
I was born to sing for you
 I didn't have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise ...

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
 But only love, only love can heal such a scar 

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
 The Magnificent
 Magnificent 

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
 But only love, only love unites our hearts  

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent 
Magnificent
 Magnificent 

Creative Way To Eat

2009-10-01T20:07:00.003-05:00

Randomly, one day, Caed decided that he wanted to try to eat his snack without using his hands. He hasn't done it again since. It sure was funny though.

I'm Back

2009-09-17T20:33:00.002-05:00

I haven't been able to muster up the energy to blog lately. However, I am home alone tonight with Caed in bed, so I figured I should write an update. Above is a photo of Caed walking in the park. He will walk anywhere and everywhere these days. That is basically all he wants to do anymore. He gets pretty mad if we keep him from going somewhere.

This picture is of Caed's first day of daycare. He loves it so much! I think he gets bored when he is at home with me now. After our three day weekend last week, the next morning as we walked to Austin's truck, he got all excited because he knew that meant he was going to daycare. Austin could barely get in the door of the school before Caed was flinging himself down to go play. It makes us feel good that he enjoys it. We love his teachers too!

Caed has already grown up and learned so much since he started school. He is obviously walking, but he is talking more, clapping more, dancing more, and eating more independently. He loves to hold a whole banana by himself and eat it. He has also mastered using a sippy cup independently since starting daycare. I guess he has to learn how to do stuff himself when there are lots of other children around.

This is another first: first haircut. He still doesn't have much hair, but it was getting "scraggly" as my mother would say. This picture looks like he is hating getting his hair cut, but he really did great. We just cut it during snack time so he was distracted.

This picture is from one of the first days after he started daycare. He fell asleep that afternoon in my arms and then slept on the couch for an hour. He has NEVER done that before. How cute is that? He is a great sleeper now that he is worn out all the time!

Ok, now for the update on my job. I am a month into it and I am exausted! I have my ups and downs, but I am still hopeful for the day when all my students are "normalized" to the school. We only have a few students left that are still hard to keep focused. Some days, like today, are great. All the students were busy working for most of the day and I got several chances to interract with them. I also get do do art projects with them about once a week. Other days, like two days ago, I want to cry! But I try to just get through those and move on.

Austin is still enjoying teaching and coaching. However, his coaching schedule gets more and more crazy as each week passes. Thankfully, we have figured out that Austin has an off class right after I pick Caed up from daycare, so the three of us get to hang out for a little while almost every day of the week. That has been a huge help for all of us!

Ok, now for some fun/crazy/random tidbits from the last month:
-Caed got bit on the arm by a girl in his class. It broke the skin and bled, but he has healed well.
-Austin left a pen in our laundry and got ink all over our load of whites! I have almost gotten it all out.
-Caed now says several "words" like yeah, no, uh oh, mom, dad, this, that (while pointing at something), wow, what
-My friend Pam and I flew to Kansas City last weekend to surprise our good friend Haley. It was a short but wonderful girl's weekend! Austin's parents came in that weekend to take care of Caed since Austin had games all weekend.
-Caed's new favorite thing to do is stand up backwards in his rocking chair and rock as hard as he can.
-Last night, Austin and I went to the huge Children's Consignment Sale that Tyler has twice a year. We bought way too much, but we got some great stuff! We got all of Caed's Christmas gifts, clothes, shoes, sippy cups, and an adorable Halloween outfit! Even though we were shopping for Caed late at night, we kinda felt like we were on a date, and it was fun!

Walking

2009-08-23T16:48:00.004-05:00

Here is the video of Caed walking.

Big Week

2009-08-20T21:46:00.004-05:00

This week has been pretty crazy. We have been so busy with lots of new stuff!

It all began with Austin's and my 6th year wedding anniversary! We got a babysitter and went out to eat, and it was so nice! Since life has been so hectic, it was good to just chill together.

Austin and I both started school this week. This, of course, was my first week of teaching. This was the start of Austin's third year of teaching. We can't believe he has been teaching for that long already. Caed also started daycare for the first time this week. He has done so well! He didn't cry at all the first day, and neither did I! He is napping well there, and would probably sleep longer if they let him. We are generally pleased with the daycare. Our only problem is that we have figured out that they give the kids at least one sugary treat a day. We have asked them to not give Caed any, but we might be sending our own snacks with him anyway. I am liking my job so far. We have a few difficult students, but my co-teacher and I have faith that once they are "normalized" (as we say in the Montessori system) we will all be ok! I love my co-teacher, by the way.

This week, Caed also started fully walking. He has been taking a few steps here and there for weeks, but the day he started daycare, he just decided to walk everywhere. We think he was inspired by the other children b/c he is the only non-walker in his class. One day I went to pick him up and he was crawling around while all the other children ran around. He started looking at them, smiled, stood up and started walking around. I could see his thought process, "Hey, that looks fun, maybe I can do it too!" It is so cute to watch him walk around.

I tried to upload a video of Caed doing laundry, but it is taking too long. I will try to do it again later. His new favorite thing is to pull clothes out of a laundry basket and then put them all back in. He also loves to help us transfer clothes from the dryer to the basket. One day we were in his room and he saw some of his clothes on the floor. So he went over there and picked up all the clothes, put them in the laundry basket, and then proceeded to pick everything else up off the floor and put it in the basket!

All in all, we are doing pretty well. It is kinda hard to get used to this new schedule. I have found myself a few times reminiscing over the days that Caed and I had together at home. They were wonderful and I miss them now. But I still feel like I need to be working and that it is the perfect time for Caed to go to daycare. I just have to wait 6 months until he is at my school with me. It has also been hard b/c Austin is gone all day every day for football. We have figured out though that Austin has an off period at school right when I pick Caed up from daycare, so we try to go see daddy every day for at least 30 mins. Caed is going through a "daddy stage" where he wants Austin all the time, so it's good for them to have that time together. Austin also gets to drop off Caed every morning, which is great!

Admit Defeat

2009-08-12T20:17:00.002-05:00

Well, we gave the puppy away today. Things slowly built up over the last two weeks, until we finally realized yesterday that we needed to give her away. We just didn't have the time or energy to give her what she needed. We also weren't being able to give Caed the attention he needed b/c we were constantly keeping an eye out for Nala. Also, I start a new job next week and I didn't want to start it sleep deprived and emotionally exausted! It was just too much. We were really sad to have to give her away but I think we made the right decision. It was a weight off my shoulders to come home tonight and not have to juggle Caed and Nala. It was so sad though b/c Caed was asking for her tonight!

Nala the puppy

2009-08-08T20:20:00.003-05:00

A week ago today, we got a new puppy. Her name is Nala and she is a yellow lab/Aussie mix. The first 24 hours that we had her, she was chill and sweet and gentle. Since then, she has gradually become more energetic and rambunctious. We still love her, but she can be frustrating at times. We made the mistake of getting her 3 days before Austin started 2-a-days for football. Austin was home a total of about 8 hours this week, aside from the 3 nights he slept at home. I felt like a single mom with two babies to take care of! It was insane! Nala is not potty trained yet, so we are working on that. She also hates her crate at this point, so we are working on that as well. However, I just keep trying to see the big picture and look forward into the future and see how great it will be for Caed to have a big sweet dog to take care of. Caed really loves her and constantly gives her kisses which is so sweet. He loves to play with her even when she jumps up on him. Here is a cute video of them playing. Sorry it is so dark.

Firsts

2009-07-27T13:05:00.003-05:00

Caed had two firsts this week. First, he took his first multiple steps! He took three steps in a row, and since then, he has done that 2 other times. He hasn't taken off across the room yet, but I am sure that will happen soon enough!

Then, we took him on his first trip to the zoo. He wasn't sure what to think at first. Austin and I were probably more excited than he was. The Tyler zoo is much better than we thought it would be. It took us a full 2 hours to get through the whole thing, which is a lot considering the size of Tyler. Caed ending up paying more attention to the animals when we got to the penguins and turtles.

These are my favorite! I love elephants, but Caed could have cared less about them. I think they were too big for him.

Caed and daddy looking at the elephants

Checking out the giraffes. Caed got to go up really close to it, but he still wasn't very excited about it.

Finally! Caed was interested in something...the slow moving tortoise below us!

This was Austin's favorite! He loves the white tigers. They came right up to the fence b/c they were hungry. Someone told us that we were there at the right time b/c it was feeding time for all the cats.

On another note, Caed is obsessed with light switches and lit up numbers. He makes us pick him up so that he can play with light switches or see the numbers on the microwave, alarm clock, and thermastat. He also crawls over to the dishwasher when it is on to see the lit up numbers. Austin's digital watch is our new friend when we go grocery shopping. Do all toddlers love numbers this much? Or is Caed going to be our little mathematician?

Random Videos

2009-07-21T09:57:00.005-05:00

The first video is of Caed laughing while I spit out a peach pit. Apparently he thought it was hilarious! The second video is of Caed during his swim lessons. His new favorite thing is to wave. This day, his grandpa was next to the pool, so Caed felt like he needed to wave non-stop at his grandpa.

Caed's First Birthday

2009-07-13T20:08:00.004-05:00

Caed's first birthday was Saturday! We can't believe it has been a year already. Both sets of grandparents plus my sister and Austin's sister and brother-in-law came into town for the party. They were all a huge help. I cannot even imagine how I would have gotten everything done without them. I didn't even get stressed about the party b/c they were all such a big help! Also, the night before the party, we adults had a pre-party while Caed was sleeping. Ash and Heath brought their Wii and we played for hours. Even Austin's parents and my mom and Seth played. I haven't laughed that much in a long time!

The theme of the party was Dr. Suess's "Oh the Places You'll Go." I have loved this book since the first time I read it to Caed. I think it is really deep for a children's book but also perfect for a first birthday! Caed is going to do so many things and go so many places in his life. We are so excited to see where God sends him throughout his life!

I made this shirt to go along with our theme

Chipmunk cheeks full of cupcake

Caed's new red wagon from Grandma and Grandpa Reed

Here is a list of all the fun gifts that Caed got for his birthday. He really got some great stuff!

Rocking horse, rocking chair, play table and chairs from Grandma Cheryl and Seth
Red Wagon from Grandma and Grandpa Reed
Mickey Mouse train from Aunt Trisha
Tons of clothes from Aunt Ash and Uncle Heath
Play Telephone from Ash's mom, Linda
Money from Great Aunt Mary Anne and Great Aunt Camille
Dr. Suess books from Stephanie
Clothes from the Meltons and Robertsons
CD player and books from us

4th of July

2009-07-08T17:25:00.003-05:00

This is a little late, but I am just trying to play catch up before all the family comes in for Caed's first birthday this weekend. Anyway, here are some pics from Caed's first 4th of July! Our neighborhood has an annual parade and the local fire department comes and makes a lap. Caed liked it, but it was during his normal naptime so the fire trucks scared him a few times.

Dallas, Whitney, Austin, home again

2009-07-06T17:18:00.003-05:00

Well we have been home for almost a week now, but I just haven't had the time or motivation to post an update. Last weekend we went to Dallas for our good friend, Richard Kerry's wedding rehearsal dinner and bachelor party. Austin hung out with Richard Thurs and Fri night while all the guys had a two day bachelor party. They basically played a lot of golf and poker. They all stayed up until about 2 am every night, which is rare for Austin these days. While Austin was with the guys, Caed and I stayed with my sister, which was nice and relaxing. From there, we drove to Whitney, TX for the actual wedding. It was out on a ranch resort and it was beautiful! It was the most relaxing wedding I have ever been to. The whole wedding party was swimming in the pool just hours before the wedding, even the bride! The wedding itself was beautiful, even though it was 103 degrees and an outside wedding! We stayed at the ranch that night, so we were able to put Caed to bed and then take his monitor to the reception. The next day we drove to Austin, TX to see our good friends, Pamela, Kyle, and Lois Hookstra. Lois is a few months younger than Caed, so they had a lot of fun together, even when Caed tried to crawl on top of Lois. It was interesting trying to manuver around both of their sleep schedules, but we did ok. Then, on Tuesday, we drove back to Tyler. All in all, it was a good trip. We only had a few times where Caed was out of wack b/c of all the travel, so that was good.

This is Caed with Isabel at the rehearsal dinner. She was making faces at Caed to entertain him

Caed got to go swimming in a real pool for the first time. He loved it!

Mr. and Mrs. Richard and Erin Kerry!

Austin and I at the reception

Caed and Lois playing together!

Rangers Game and Trip To OK

2009-06-23T09:39:00.004-05:00

Caed has officially moved out of his baby bath into the big tub!

Austin's early Father's Day gift: taking Caed to his first Ranger's game!

Happy Father's Day Austin!!! We love you so much! You are a great daddy!

We just got back from Oklahoma. We went up there to see Austin's sister and brother-in-law. We also got to see some of Austin's high school friends and both of his grandmothers. We had a wonderful time there!

Watching the dogs out the window at Aunt Ash and Uncle Heath's house

Caed's new friend, Millie Ray

Caed's first time to meet Great Grandma Mac

Being entertained by Aunt Ash, Uncle Heath, and the iPhone

Caed and Great Grandma Ensminger

Great Grandma Ensminger, Great Aunt Maddie, and Caed

Videos

2009-06-14T21:19:00.004-05:00

Tidbits

2009-06-06T09:16:00.002-05:00

Caed is growing and changing every day. We love it! Here are some fun things he does...

-He is constantly letting go and trying to stand on his own. He can stand for a few seconds.

-He loves when people yawn. He laughs every time. We can never finish our yawns b/c he makes us laugh in the middle of them!

-He hates to see any door close, especially the fridge door! I guess he feels like he is missing out on an opportunity. One time, his grandpa was closing our glass door, and even though Caed could still see grandpa behind the door, he started screaming and crawling towards the door.

-He loves food! That has always been pretty obvious by his multiple rolls, but he really loves it now! We cannot eat even a tiny bite without him fussing for some. Even if he had just eaten 10 minutes before, he wants whatever we are eating. We have to be very strategic about when and where we eat.

-We have been weaning him off the bottle and he is doing pretty well with his sippy cup.

-His favorite new food is spaghetti.

-His favorite toy is any type of ball

-He likes to "help" mommy do laundry by pulling the newly folded clothes off of the couch and throwing it back in the basket.

-He is all boy! He loves any type of transportation. He is always in awe of tractors on the road. He loves going to all types of sporting events. The second he sees players running around, throwing, or hitting, he starts laughing and bouncing up and down.

-His new favorite thing to do is push down a tower of boxes that I have built for him.

-He loves the tupperwear cabinet in our kitchen.

-We got him a new walking toy. He pushes it forward for a few seconds and then goes around to the front to play with the toys attached. Then he tries to climb on top of the front. Which reminds me, he is going to be a climber!

By the way, Austin is done with school for the summer, so we are all loving having him at home! We are planning trips to Norman, OK, Crawford, TX, Austin, TX, and possibly Memphis, TN this summer.