Christmas 2008 in Review

How sad it is that Christmas is already come and gone....we really should make it the 12 days of Christmas...we'd all enjoy it so much more. We took TONS of pictures this Christmas, so I'll show you the "winning" ones.

Cutest Niece in the world (Brielle)

Most priceless picture (our family with my grandparents who recently move back "home")

Most hilarious father-son holiday pictures.

(My dad on left, my grandpa on right)

Best picture of Marin on her first Christmas

Cutest Lil' Buckeye

Most Beautiful Great Grandmas

Silliest photo of the season (Kaden with his new John Deere helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads)

I can't believe....

Here's a list of things I can't believe this week:

1) time flies even when you're sleep deprived

2) my little "Mare Bear" is already 3 weeks old!

3) Christmas is in 1 week (or 7 days, however you choose to look at it)! Yea, and YIKES!

4) Thanksgiving was only 3 weeks ago

5) Marin had her first blow out today (yep, up the back and out the leg!)

6) Kaden played all afternoon with an empty box...he said it was his "water park"

7) I'm done Christmas shopping, but not Christmas "creating"

8) Kaden told Jason we were having Taco Bell tonight, when really we just had tacos

9) Kaden is still asking for roller skates and a guitar for Christmas!

10) I made Christmas cookies today and Kaden was actually sort-of helpful

This little Santa drives a John Deere

This hat is one of our Christmas "decorations." It usually sits atop Gingy's head, but lately Kaden's been getting some use out of it.

The picture on the right was taken while we were decorating for Christmas. We hadn't talked about stockings yet, so when we told him those were stockings, he thought he should wear them. It was too cute!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's....SUPER Wendy!

She makes cut-out cookies.

She frosts cookies.

She plays with playdough.

She paints with water colors.

She makes reindeer crafts.

She prepares dinner.

She cleans up dinner.

She plays in the playroom.

She goes to the Children's Museum.

She makes foam door hangers.

She's.....SUPER Wendy!

Kaden had a fabulous time early this week with Miss Wendy and Rachel. He loved all the fun activities she brought to do and having someone to play with. And me, well, I loved having my friend around 24/7 to talk to, enjoyed not having to make dinner, and SOOOO appreciated the love and attention she gave to Kaden! Thanks "Miss" Wendy (and Rachel, and Mr. Brian... for sacrificing your family) for the fun week!

Let the "Girlie-ness" Begin

I will be the first to admit that I'm not a girl who loves ruffles, lace, and lots of pink. I guess you could say my style is a little more "sporty/classic" than "girlie". I am however thrilled to enter the world of hair accessories. This week when Wendy came she passed on a ton of fun bows and clips for Marin. Here is her first hair bow, what a pretty little girl we have! (fancy outfit courtesy of Miss Wendy, Rachel, and Mr. Brian)

Marin's a week old---quick update

So, it's already been a week since we've brought our little bundle home. Somehow things still haven't quite settled into a routine. Kaden came back from having the time of his life with all his grandparents on Friday. He seems to be resettling in fine.

Marin is doing well too. She is a great baby. She hardly cries, sleeps well, and is eating every 3 hours.

Guess the one who's taking it the hardest is me. I just can't figure out how I'm going to love and care for both of my precious children at the same time. I know it will come with time, right now, everything, even the little things, are overwhelming. This too shall pass... but for now, here are a few more photos of the two little people who own my heart (and my mom, since she was here this weekend).

Welcome Marin Elise!

***Please excuse the lack of details right now, but I figured all you really wanted to see was pictures anyway! Enjoy!

Friday, November 28, 2008 at 2:47pm we proudly welcomed Marin to our family.

She weighed 9 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches long

Check out her beautiful head of black hair!

She is such a sweetie...we're in love already!

Kaden loved her and said "I ready take her home now."

Jason is excited to have a "favorite little girl" to go along with his "best little boy ever"!

Welcome dear Marin...we've been waiting for you!

Following in His Grandpa's Brush Strokes

As some of you may know, my dad is a professional painter. When I say professional, I mean PROFESSIONAL. He works for himself, and always has clients waiting. He is The Best around, and that's not me being bias, just ask ANYONE he's worked for. Well, before we moved in, he painted most of the interior of our new home. Kaden watched, and has been told many times not to touch the walls because Grandpa Mike worked hard painting them. Kaden even told Jason a few weeks back "Don't bump the wall daddy, Grandpa Mike painted it!" Well, this weekend Jason bought a small roller to paint the bookshelves he's working on. And just who do you suspect was the first to use it? Kaden! He got his stool and told us he was going to paint the walls. He'd ask us which wall we wanted painted, and he's set to work. It was so cute! He even pretended to have a bucket of paint, which he moved around with him, and, after painting a few seconds, he'd get off his stool and pretend to dip his roller into the paint to get more. We were both smiling at his creativity and imagination. Give him a few years (ok, so maybe 13 or so) and Grandpa Mike may have a business partner!

Baby Update

Well, let's just say this is taking longer than I had planned! (and yes, I have read The Purpose Driven Life, and realize it's not all about me, but sometimes I have a hard time remembering that).



The baby is NOT here yet, much to my dismay. According to the dr. he or she is in position and ready, just not having many contractions lately. So, unless he or she decides to come before, I am scheduled to be induces on Monday (December 1st) morning at 6:30am.

You can add that (and my patience and attitude) to your prayer list!

The New House

This post is for all of my "old" friends. When we moved many of you prayed for that we would quickly get settled and find a new home. I'd like to show you the beautiful home God has blessed us with. It is soooo much more than we could have ever asked or imagined. No, it's not all "finished" (meaning perfectly decorated or organized) yet, but it's getting closer. This is my way of giving you a "tour", although, you're MORE than welcome to come visit us ANYTIME! I'd also like you to join me in saying "THANK YOU" to Our Great Provider for answering yet another of our prayers.

Perhaps my favorite room in the house (because it stays clean, and I love the table and buffet which were my great grandma's), our dining room.

The kitchen (looks out the back window and also out into the family room)

Kaden's room

The baby's room (just got painted this past weekend! Yea!)

My favorite wall in the baby's room. My aunt Ellen gave me these cards a LONG time

ago, and I framed them, but this is the first time I had a place to display them.

Ok, so there are more rooms in our house, but none that I could get good pictures of. We have a play room upstairs, which also doubles as a scrapbook room (that picture just looked like a toy disaster). Also upstairs is our room (which has THE BEST view. It has two window which face the pond which is behind our house), and a guest room (see, I told you to come visit!). Finally, downstairs we have our family room and a "front room" which is our office. Jason is currently building floor to ceiling bookshelves on one wall of our office, so I'll post pictures of that room once he's finished. It's going to look REALLY nice!

Ephesians 3:20-21 (New International Version)

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Nesting????

How else could you describe my morning yesterday? We dropped our our Operation Christmas Child boxes, our paper for recycling, a load to Goodwill, and a box to the food pantry! Whew! My house feels less cluttered already....now if I could only get Kaden to put his toys away! :o)

Overheard

I'm thinking of making this a weekly post, where I list all the funny things Kaden says in a week. There certainly would be enough material, I'll just have to remember it. So, here's the first installment for your reading enjoyment.

1) While coloring on Grandpa Mike's birthday card:
Kaden: "Happy Birthday Grandpa Mike. I love you. Amen."

2) Telling daddy what we did yesterday:
Mommy: "Tell daddy where you went today."
Kaden: "I went to the 'zeeum' and see the tractors and the dinosaur and eat lunch..."
(translation-he went to the museum)

3) To my belly (several times this week):
Kaden: "Come out baby, come out."

4) Daddy was pretending to call Santa and tell him what a good boy Kaden's been:
Mommy: "Why don't you tell Santa what's on your Christmas list?"
Kaden: "Hi Santa, I want a 'tar' and roller skates." (translation-guitar)

5) Telling mommy what he and daddy did one evening:
Kaden: "I play army with daddy. Army not nice, they run away." (on the Nintendo)
Daddy: "What did the other game say?"
Kaden: "Here we go!" (Dr. Mario on the Nintendo)

Family Visitors

This weekend we had fun family visitors. My mom, sister, and 10 month old niece came for the weekend. We didn't do much, but it was fun to hang out together. Kaden loves getting attention from his gramie and auntie. He also likes to "help" with Brielle. He held her, gave her toys, and at one point was intstructing her that "we have rules here" in our house and said something about "following directions." According to him the rules are "no screaming" (this one is actually acurate, although I'm sure I've never called it a rule). The other rule he claimed we have is "no acting silly." Where that one came from, I can only imagine. He is CONSTANTLY silly, so if this was a rule, he would be living on the time-out steps. It amazes me how quickly he can repeat what I've told him to other children, but still has SUCH A HARD TIME applying it to himself. From what I hear, and what I can remember, I was bossy to my dear sister while growing up. Will Kaden be the same way with his sibling? Stay tuned to find out (T-4 weeks and counting).

Baby Update

Well, many of you (if not all of you), know that baby #2 will be arriving here soon. Technically we have just over 4 weeks to go, but we're hoping he or she decides to arrive sooner than that. On Monday, Jason's parents came to spend the day with Kaden so Jason and I could go to a dr. appointment and have yet another ultra sound of this baby. The results were good. The baby was moving all over and is head down! (yea!!) He or she is also quite big. The baby's head and belly are in the 90%ile and the current weight is around 7 1/2 pounds. This doesn't sound huge, except when you consider that he or she will likely wait another few weeks to come, adding close to a half pound a week. So, you can start praying that the little cutie will decide to make an appearance sometime in the next couple weeks. I start my weekly dr. appointments next week, so then I'll at least be getting updates as to how things are progressing.

Meanwhile, I guess we should work on putting the finishing (hanging pictures, cleaning out the closet, ect...) touches on the baby's room!

If you check the very bottom of my blog page, you can see a pregnancy ticker I put on. It's really cool to see how the baby is growing, and how many days I have left! NOTE: Our baby is slightly larger than the baby in the picture! :o)

A Visit from Aaron

What a fun weekend we had! Our good friends from Michigan (we met them when they lived in Columbus) came to visit for the weekend with their 2 year old son Aaron. Kaden and Aaron had never met, but did well playing together for the most part and were very excited to see each other every morning when they woke up.

They were quite entertaining in the bath tub together. Aaron loved all of Kaden's bath toys, and Kaden thought he was the rule enforcer, continually telling Aaron not to drink the bath water (which Kaden himself has been told more than a million times).

After bath and each morning the boys would crowd into Kaden's chair and read stories. I think both of them would have sat for many, many stories if they hadn't decided they wanted to play in the play room, or needed breakfast.

On Saturday we made our first trip to the local Children's Museum. What a hit! It's a great place. Very clean, very new, and VERY child centered. They enjoyed playing on their own and not having to share toys for a couple hours!

This weekend reminded me once again, that friends are truly a gift from God!

Halloween 2008

Last night was the night Kaden has been talking about for weeks. The night he finally got to wear his "stostume". He did wear it on Thursday for an event at the library, but last night he was ready to say "trick or treat" and get candy in his bucket.

After an early dinner, we headed upstairs to get dressed. Kaden thought it was soooooo funny that he got to wear jammies underneath his costume. It was warm yesterday so he got to wear "short jammies" last night, which was another bonus for him.

If asked, he would eagerly tell you he was a "monkey with a banana in my pocket and a tail."

We headed out with our neighbors around 6pm last night. It was fun to get to walk around, and the kids (all about the same age) seemed to pick up on the routine quickly. I was so proud of Kaden for 1) saying trick or treat 2) only taking one piece of candy and 3) saying thank you. He did good with #1 and #3, but he was almost flawless with #2, and very proud of himself for listening to mommy.

At one house I heard him ask "Do you have any Snickers?". This was strange, since I knew he'd never had a Snickers before. When I asked him what he was asking for, he said stickers. It was so cute, and I loved the innocence! He did get play-doh at a couple houses, which he was thrilled with. Otherwise, he chose a piece, often a lollipop, and quickly put it in his bucket, without much regard.

By the time we returned to our house, it was 7:15pm and he was fading fast. He did however, find the energy to sit on the front porch with daddy and pass out candy for awhile longer. (Which he thought was especially fun since it was getting dark outside.)

We got a huge kick out of how much he loved to pass out candy. He would yell to anyone walking down the side walk "Hey, come here, I got some candy for you!" It was so cute! He did eat a kit-kat, and would have ate more, but it was bed time. He fell into bed just after 8pm and didn't make a peep!

We had a really fun night enjoying Halloween through the eyes of our little monkey!