Ordinary Days, Extraordinary Moments

This is embarrassing....

2010-06-10T18:43:00.001-07:00

Sooooo....it's been a while since I have last posted, I get it, I'm sorry. Honestly the only reason I am even posting anything is in hopes that my grandfather will read this blog. 12 years ago my grandfather introduced me to the wonderful world of the FIFA World Cup. I will never forget because I spent every last minute of free time I had watching the World Cup with him. I loved it. I want him to know that the kick off to the 2010 World Cup happens tomorrow and I will be watching and I want him to know that I will be thinking of him and that I wish I could be there watching it with him. I love you, Poppa. Let's go Portugal and England!

Christmas and a Birthday......and I didn't post

2010-01-23T13:13:00.000-08:00

My deepest apologies for it being so long since I have blogged. What makes it even worse is that we have had baby's 1st Christmas and baby's 1st Birthday since the last time I have posted. I have quite a bit to catch you up on.

So in chronological order, Christmas is first. I had bad news though....Since it was his very first Christmas, we captured most/all of what happened on our video camera. I really only had a couple of pictures.

I thought this picture was adorable, Caden and Parker waiting to open presents on Christmas morning.

Caden also had an awesome/amazing first birthday. We could not have imagined anything better. At one point, I'm pretty sure that we had about 45 people over at my dad's house. I wish I had more time to write about everything. I will say that Caden's party was a Jungle themed party because that's basically all that I have to share that can sum up the party.

Birthday Boy!

My brother came to wish Caden Happy Birthday!

and my niece Chasey!

Daddy and Caden playing at the party

Very first birthday cake!

Eating cake for the very first time!

All done!

Starting to open birthday presents

"Yay, mommy! Opening presents is so much fun!!!"

Gag gift from my friend Greg, I'm pretty sure none of us could have predicted how much Caden would love this Crayon piggy bank.

Party favor bags for the guests

My very favorite picture of the whole day. This picture honestly made me cry.

*** I know that my blog background is still set to Christmas, I am working on changing that. Good changes coming soon

Imagine...

2009-12-17T08:25:00.001-08:00

Imagine a world where your mother doesn't live anywhere close to you. And I am not talking a few states away, I am talking a 10 hour time difference. Like all the way across the ocean, and then some. I am talking about Abu Dhabi. The thought kinda makes my stomach hurt. In case you don't know where Abu Dhabi is....let me fill you in

That little red bubble with the "A" in it....yeah, that's Abu Dhabi!

Honestly thought, if my mother and my step father were going to be going anywhere in the Middle East, I am glad it is this city. I have been looking at pictures, and well....this isn't so bad!

Honestly though, it is almost selfish of me to get so upset about it because it is my mother and my step father that are really sacrificing so much. They will no longer get to watch their grandson grow up in front of their eyes, we will now be limited to Skype.

This whole Abu Dhabi situation isn't a for sure thing yet, but my Step Father's job might be sending my family that way. They will find out in a matter of days and then just like that, they will have to start making travel arrangements. It is something that would happen very fast. When my mom told me that it would happen fast, the first thing I imagined was myself standing there, mouth gaping open in the same place from the time she told me they were leaving to them walking out the door. My mother and I are very close, and it does make me horribly sad to think she might not be a part of my every day life. Right now we live with them. If they are to go, then they would be relying on us to take care of their house for them. They would be gone a total of 5 years, so we would be living in their house for five years. Rent free, just taking care of the utilities.

What would you do if your parents told you they were moving across the world?

the melt in your mouth kind of good

2009-12-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

I am talking about Butter Cookies. But not just any kind of Butter Cookies....these butter cookies! This is the best picture I could find of them. Words just cannot describe their pure deliciousness. I make them once a year, I would make them more but its a special occasion kind of thing.

One of the best parts about these cookies is they are so fun to decorate and you can make it into a nice little family event. This is me and Jordan's brother's girlfriend Katie. We decorated the cookies this year for Thanksgiving.

Hmmmm....

I have decided to share this recipe with you because I just don't think it should stay locked up. Please do me a favor and make these cookies, you will thank me later, I promise!

*************

BUTTER COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

6 Cups of All Purpose Flour

3 Teaspoons of Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Cups of White Sugar

2 Cups of Butter (4 sticks)

2 Eggs

6 Tablespoons of Heavy Whipping Cream

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a large bowl
Add the butter, now this is the most time consuming part. I suggest letting your butter sit out for just a few minutes before adding it to let it soften up a little bit. I start by breaking the butter sticks up into smaller pieces and adding them to the mix. You will not be using any electric mixers or anything to mix this together. By grabbing handfuls of butter and flour mix, start rubbing the butter into the flour, finely. It will start to look more like bread crumbs if you are doing it correctly. Smoosh the butter into the flour.
After all 4 sticks of your butter are mashed into the flour mix, add your eggs, cream and vanilla extract.
Make sure your hands are washed and dive into that bowl with both hands, just start mashing everything together. As the dough becomes more thick, you will start kneading it together. You will know when it is all done.
I separate my dough into sections to make smaller balls and then wrap up each ball into aluminum foil. You can do the whole thing, but you wont be happy about it the next day when you are trying to use the dough and its a giant rock hard ball. Little rock hard balls of dough are much easier to work with.
Place all of your balls of dough that are in the aluminum foil into the fridge, this dough needs to sit over night.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
Start rolling out your cookie dough, you are going to leave it pretty thick, about 1/4 inches thick. This helps give the cookies their cakey feel/taste.
Grab any cookie cutters you have available and start making any shapes of your choice!
Place your cookies on a non-stick cookie sheet and back between 5 to 8 minutes. I prefer the shorter of the two times because I love super soft cookies.
Next you can put icing on your cookies or just enjoy them plain! Hope you enjoy

This picture I am posting for everyone but mainly my grandparents, just so you can see all of his teeth he has now. He is beginning to look like such a big boy!

Snow? In Texas? Two years in a row?

2009-12-12T19:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes and yes. Okay so I know I am a little late on this blog post but my goodness, the days are getting shorter. I promise, it's not just me. So last year it snowed and this year it snowed, tis a beautiful thing. This years snow was so awesome! I have a few pictures to share with you from our Houston Snow Day!

Doesn't it look like a blizzard! Because it totally was! Only kidding, I was being sorta unsafe (Caden was not in the car!) and took this photo while driving so I could get this effect. But really...

It was a peaceful, beautiful snow

And then it really did start coming down pretty hard and fast

The roof after a little bit of snowfall

The roof a little later, its got some real depth there!

Thank you snow, for sticking to the ground and giving little kids all over Houston the opportunity to make snow/mud men!

One of my favorite pictures of the day, the Texas flag mailbox with some snow on it

My beautiful friend Sarah enjoying the snow day with me!

So part of the reason why this snow post is so late is because I have been soo busy! Along with staying at home and raising an 11 month old boy, I have been having to do all sorts of Christmas shenanigans (not really, cause I love it!), birthday planning and back to school preparations. So its been go, go, go! And I am trying to keep up with this new little plan I have for myself. I would like to read and complete one book a week. I love reading oh so much. And I am trying to make this goal for myself so I will actually read and finish all the books I have picked out for myself. I buy books all the time, it is an addiction. If I am trying to just get out of the house, I will go to Barnes and Noble and just browse through the aisles until I see something that catches my eye and then buy it. I know the saying to not judge a book buy its cover, but I don't judge, I just buy! I honestly cannot say that I have read a bad book by working on this technique of mine but I have probably missed some really great ones by doing so. I also buy recommended reading so if someone has something they would like to recommend, I am all ears, or eyes.

I am going to leave this blog post with some pictures I took with my cell phone of my mischievous little boy to show how much fun he is having with Christmas so far.

Birthday Party Bliss

2009-12-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

Bliss might not be the right word to use right now because Caden's birthday falls right after the Holidays, which I should have thought of sooner. I have a lot of planning to do in a very short amount of time. The only thing I have done is this...

The invitation, but see how I only have the date figured out. I don't know the time, I think I know the place. I haven't done decorations or anything! That is all I have! I'm actually kind of in panic mode. I actually designed and put together this invitation while we were in England and Caden was sleeping. I figured I could save a few pennies by designing and printing the invitation myself. I don't think it looks half bad. If anyone has any ideas on where to get some good party supplies, please let me know. I am off to do some grocery shopping so I can cook some Chicken and Dumplings tonight.

Santa Baby

2009-11-30T19:19:00.000-08:00

Today was a very productive day! First we started off by eating some delicious breakfast at the famous Cracker Barrell. Like, seriously, delicious but it should come with a warning that even thinking about this restaurant can probably make you gain 5 lbs. So after we ate breakfast we headed to the mall to get some Christmas shopping done. We didn't really have anything particular in mind, we were just going to wing it.

First though, Santa was at the mall.

If your like most people, you will look at this picture and say "Aw, I can't believe he is smiling in the Santa picture! Aren't most babies scared at this age?"

I am very proud of how nice the Santa picture that I actually bought turned out. But it wasn't all smiles the whole time. My beautiful friend Sasha was along for this great adventure and I asked her if she would snap some behind the scenes photos. Here is your backstage look at how the Santa photo shoot really went down.

Getting ready to meet Santa!

"Hi Santa, nice to meet you! I've heard some really great things about you!"

Caden is just checkin Santa out at this point

Now he is making sure Mommy isn't too far away

Just checkin out his surroundings

"Hmmm" I think Santa is starting to look a little suspicious to Caden

"My what big, fluffy hands you have"

"Momma, I feel like I've stepped out of my comfort zone!!"

"Please come get me now!"

"No, seriously! I want down!"

"Mommmmmmmaaaaaaa!!!!"

"Oh! Thank goodness!"

"That was a close one"

"Thanks for the hat Santa!"

"Ya know? He wasn't that bad after all!"

Great Offer

2009-11-29T17:49:00.000-08:00

So, there is this magazine that I love, well...there are several magazines that I love and subscribe too but this post is only about one of those magazines. This be the one

Good ole Parents magazine, I was first introduced to this magazine in my OB's waiting room and then accidentally received a subscription just for buying clothes at Motherhood Maternity. Okay, it wasn't really an accident, I was duped. They told me to sign this "thingy" and receive free issues of Parents magazine. "Well shoooooot! Why not?!" Ahem, several months later, a charge appears on my bank statement for a subscription that I never asked for, they gave it to me!!!! So I called them and told them that I didn't feel it was fair and I shouldn't have been charged this measly $20.00 for a magazine I didn't want in the first place! I let them have it, the charge was taken off. All smiles! Until I missed the magazine, it had such good articles on all sorts of cool things. And reviews on things to buy for babies and children. Yada yada yada, I'm weak, I gave in, I subscribed for 2 years. Whatever, don't judge my weakness for magazine subscriptions that I didn't even know I had until it went from Parents to Real Simple to Lucky to Us Weekly, ohhh the list goes on. Anyway, this post is all about Parents Magazine. And I think I just proved that it really is awesome.

It has really cool things in it for Moms and Moms-to-be! Really cool things like this...

Really useful health information on things like thermometers, apparently ear thermometers are easy but aren't the best way to go if you want the most accurate temperature of your young one.

And tips on how to make the Holidays your own, more memorable and meaningful for you and your family. Start your very own traditions!

And things for Momma herself!!! Because sometimes we need something for ourselves, I personally forget about my own self sometimes, but for good reason.

Perfect for this time of year, gift guides! I need help, I don't have time to be creative!

Soooo, there you have it. All of the reasons why Parents Magazine should be coming to you once a month. Well I know that subscribing costs money and it might not seem worth it for a magazine that you might not even read. So I am here to give you a nice little Christmas present. Kind of...Parenting Magazine sent me a thing in the mail saying I could give a subscription to a friend for only $5.00! $5.00 for a one year subscription! Well the most exciting thing about it is, I am going to pay for it. I will pay that whopping $5.00 so you can enjoy this magazine yourself, and maybe get a new subscription once this one is up.

Problem is, it is only for one person so I need you to help me out on deciding who gets this offer. All you have to do is, become a follower of this blog if you aren't already. Then, just leave me a comment telling me how sweet and wonderful I am for offering this to someone! Just kidding, you just have to tell me what YOU want for Christmas, like...what's at the top of your wish list. And tada! The magazine could be yours. I will do a drawing from all of the comments, and choose who wins. Now, I don't have many followers and I don't even know if anyone except for my grandparents really reads my blog but it's a good way for me to find out!

So get to following and commenting and I will announce the winner by Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how many people have chosen to participate! Good luck!

Rachel

messy, messy baby

2009-11-28T11:58:00.000-08:00

Last night I was home alone with Caden and I decided to cook him a gourmet meal. I started off by cooking some Barilla Plus pasta, which if you haven't tried it, please do. It is a multigrain pasta in case you aren't in to the whole wheat pastas. This pasta is extremely healthy and has crazy things in it like lentils, oats and even flaxseed. It tastes JUST like regular pasta. Then a cooked up some ground, Jenny O turkey and got some low sodium tomato sauce. Put all of this together with a little bit of fresh, shredded parmesan cheese. We both loved the meal. I am loving how now, we can share food with each other. Caden doesn't really like to be fed anymore, he likes to feed himself, and who ever is sitting next to him while he is eating. Needless to say, it was a mess, a big mess. One that I didn't even really have the energy to run him up to his room, undress him and give him a bath. Instead, I stripped him down and put him in the sink. He loves the sink, and I I took some pictures so you can see this big boy bathing in the sink.

"what's this?"

"hmmmm, lemme see here..."

"are you sure about this?"

"ALRIGHT! I'm in! Let's do it!"

"I know, I'm pretty cute"

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, much love!

Caden's First Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T10:38:00.000-08:00

I would like to first start off by saying that I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving with Family and Friends. I would also like to start this post off by sharing a picture of Caden playing with his lion. This particular picture is for my Grandparents across the pond, I want you to know how much Caden loves his lion.

Thank you Nana and Poppa

Bellow are a few of the many reasons why I love Thanksgiving....

Giant pots filled with...

Delicious mashed potatoes!

Dinner rolls....oh how I love thee

Turkey for everyone!

Wonderful women like this that slave away in the kitchen for hours, making delicious food

I love how the family comes in town and we are all under one roof

or outside on the patio

My cousins spending quality time with my son

Watching these two pester each other

Even though this happens at least once a week, it's always fun watching Caden and his Mimi play together

Watching Caden eat his first Thanksgiving meal

Watching him, watch everyone else

Watching two brothers enjoy the day together playing video games...

Having "fine" plastic ware wrapped all fancy in paper towels with a paper ring around it...

Having everyone love the Christmas Cookies I brought/made for dessert

How we get to start decorating for Christmas!!!

As for what I am thankful for........

Caden Joseph Giles

Gift giving

2009-11-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

As Christmas approaches, I continuously think about what I am going to get everyone. Usually I am really good at this and most of the time I think I'm pretty creative. This year....not so much. I have been searching gift guides like crazy! But thank goodness I have been looking at all of these gift guides because then I would have never found these...

I am Oh so in love. These classics have had a makeover! But back to that original classic look. I have always been an avid book reader, I have cut back since Mr. Caden has come into my life but my love for books still lives on. My mom has the Kindle, which is basically like an iPod for books instead of music. She can literally download a book from anywhere if she wanted. I personally love holding a book in my hands, and the smell, and the fact that you can put them on a shelf when you are done reading them and BAM before long you have your own little library. The ONE good thing I do love about the Kindle is...most books, even hardcover, new releases are only $9.99! Whhhaaatt??? So just because I want pages I have to pay twice as much?? Alright, at least I get to keep it forever and ever. Eventually, when we get our own place I want a library with a reading chair and everything! Okay okay, not likely. I will take a nook in a room somewhere, I just need a decent size bookshelf.

Not only am I at a loss for what I to get for everyone else. I have no idea what I would like for Christmas. Honestly the only person I have any ideas for is my 10 1/2 month old son, only because that is easy for me, he loves anything that he can chew on and makes noise.

Oh so about those beautiful books, I found them in my Real Simple magazine but you can order them online here for only $20.00!

Much love and hopefully your holiday shopping is going better than mine!

Home Sweet Home

2009-11-14T13:25:00.000-08:00

A very good friend of mine, Kristina, just moved into a new apartment this weekend. I went over there yesterday to help her unload and unpack all of here things. She is pretty much starting from scratch and so it was nice to see what she was going to do with everything. And it made me miss having my own place oh so much. I'm about ready to get the house hunt started and in action!

Yesterday Caden stayed at his Mimi's house with Jordan and she took this adorable picture of my boys:

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and enjoying this beautiful weather!

Pumpkin Bread you say?

2009-11-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas was actually my very first time to have Pumpkin Bread, I know, it's weird. A guy that I worked with named Craig, his wife made it for him to take to the Christmas Feast at work. Me being 8 months pregnant, ate most of it, shhhhh. So last week me and Jenna cooked the Monkey Bread, which was delish to say the least. I guess we are starting a Wednesday baking tradition because this week we are going to try our hand at Pumpkin Bread.....

Yummmm! I know

I have also heard really wonderful thing about The Ugly Truth so I suggested we rent that for the day and TRY to find time to watch it. Movie review coming soon...

We absolutely love our days with Jenna! This was a picture from last Wednesday that I adore because of both of their faces..

Now....if you need me I will be indulging in Pumpkin Bread and...

Halloween was only a little over a week ago...

2009-11-09T11:29:00.000-08:00

so it's not so bad that pictures haven't been posted yet, right?

Here is my little Monkey:

be prepard to see ~~one~~ two of my favorite father son pictures to date

How absolutely delightful are those pictures? Yep, that's what I thought too. Recently Jordan has come up with this not so brilliant idea to go on a diet. Now, his idea of a diet is way to hardcore for my likings. I just try to eat the right things and not too much of the bad things, or good things. I might have a slight portion control problem. So I was cleaning out my junk drawers (yes I have more than one) and I found this book, I am most definitely taking it grocery shopping with me next time I go.

I am also on a cooking binge and wanting to try new things, I think Jordan probably decided he would go on a diet right after coming home to this:

I honestly don't know if I should be loving or disliking The Pioneer Woman for introducing me. She actually inspired me to take pictures of food, haha. Probably wont be making those anytime soon, or anything else that requires this

and then offering this for dessert

That monkey bread is unforgettable...

I'm trying here...

2009-11-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

I swear I don't know how you blogger moms do it. I just keep on finding myself lagging behind with this blogging business.

I just need to come to terms with the fact that i probably wont be doing daily updates and we will be lucky if we even get weekly updates out of me. I do what I can.

There really aren't even words to describe how excited I am that this is going to be Caden's very first Christmas a.k.a The Best Christmas to Date! I know things will get more exciting as the years go by because I will get to see childhood through my own son's eyes all over again. I have already put up a personal Christmas tree in my room that I am going to give to Caden when he is old enough to not destroy it. Then every year I am going to give him an ornament to put on his very own Christmas tree and he will keep all of those ornaments over the years. I think it is a very special thing to do. I will get back soon to post some more recent pictures, until then...

world class traveler

2009-10-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, Jordan, Caden, myself and my mother all headed to England this past Friday. It was an extremely long flight for all of us but I do have to admit Caden didn't do so bad. He slept most of the time, unfortunately his car seat on the plane didn't come into much use and his daddy had to hold him the whole time. This is a picture of Caden and Jordan right after getting on the plane:

After we landed in England we had a driver waiting at Heathrow to take us to my grandparents house. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive until we got there, poor Caden. Once we arrived at my grandparents house we were just very happy to see them and they finally got to meet Caden! The weather is absolutely wonderful here. At night it gets pretty cold though. We decided to take Caden for a stroll down the street last night so he could experience the cold weather.

Even dressed in his fleece, footed pajamas and Burberry jacket, it was still too cold for him!

Sleeping the first night didn't work out too well for any of us because our schedule was so messed up from flying. Caden didn't get to bed until around 12 or 1 and then slept 8 hours and woke up ready for the day.

We started the Sunday adventure by going to a country pub called the Wheel and Compass. It was a very old, beautiful pub.

You can tell by the height of the door just how old this pub is, Jordan is just about 5' 11" and he would most likely bump his head

Beautiful beams all throughout the pub

Caden loving on his Great-Grandfather

Jordan and Caden fighting over the teether

Beautiful view from the back area of the pub

That would be my brilliant Uncle Gary and Jordan racing on the stationary toys

Before we left the pub, Caden had to try out the swing and as you can see, he loved it!

After we had lunch we headed over to Foxton Locks, if you don't know what locks are....google it. It's quite fascinating and I don't have time to explain it but I do have pictures!

I guess this is kind of like the English version of campers or mobile homes because people live in these

Some what of a work out climbing up the hill to the top of the locks

Heading back down the hill and heading home to get some rest for some kind of new adventure tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed our adventures as much as we did, the plan for tomorrow is for Jordan to go fishing with my grandfather and his neighbor while us women go shopping in town. I will try to post tomorrow as well as everyday I am here.

all in the family

2009-08-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

Since I bought my new fancy camera, I kind of forgot about my old camera, including all of the images on it. I found stuff that was back from July 4th!

Happy 4th of July!

Biiigggg Kisses!

This is my niece and it's hard for me to come to terms that she is a teenager

I am posting this picture just to give you an idea at how HUGE my baby is!

Doodle sitting in Steve's massage chair

Watching the fireworks on TV

Oh yeah! I won $500 on a scratch off ticket!!! On the second BINGO box down you will see there is an "X," that "X" won me 500 big ones!

Jordan's BIG fish he caught at the Country Club

Caden and Grandpa swimming in the pool!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week, I am almost positive I will because this Thursday is my Birthday. The big 23! It is also Jordan's sobriety birthday, this Thursday, August 13, he will be 4 years sober!!! Good job Jordie! I am soooooo proud of you!

BIG BOY!

2009-07-30T05:18:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday we took Caden to the doctor for his 6 month check up even though he is now closer to 7 months. He got three shots (not fun)! However, the most important part of this post is his measurements....he is HUGE! He is in the 95 percentile with his height 28 1/2" tall and in the 75 percentile with his weight. The doctor told us that the 75 sounds like a high number but since he is soooo tall, he is still a thin baby. He really doesn't have too much baby fat on him. It is looking like Caden is going to get the tall genes from his daddy's family. Not Jordan obviously but his grandfather and uncles are all over 6' 3"! Not to mention his feet look like a toddler's feet, definitely not a 7 month old boys!

Other then all that measurement talk...Caden is a perfectly healthy "huge" little boy! With two teeth!

short, sweet and right to the point!

2009-07-27T14:45:00.001-07:00

CADEN IS GETTING HIS FIRST TOOTH!

He really wants to show you because he is very proud of his first baby tooth coming in, and if you look close enough

you can see that his second one is not that far behind

SEEEEEEEE!!!!

These little things keep happening here and there and it makes me so happy because my little baby boy is slowly but surely turning into a little boy but it also makes me kind of sad because my little baby boy is slowly but surely turning into a little boy. If you're a mom, you know what I mean!

I still have no means of transportation, my car is not even being worked on right now! I dislike this insurance company I am having to work with. It has been 3 weeks, I have given them a police report and even did a power point presentation showing them exactly what happened! Still........nothing. In good time I suppose.

Sorry this post is so short but I have much needed cleaning to do and very little time!

nap time = blog post

2009-07-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

Caden just now went down for his big nap today, usually he has one in the morning but that just wasn't the case today. Hopefully he will get some much needed rest. I think we might be making a big move to crawling here pretty soon, he has almost perfected the needed position

Caden can also sit up all by himself without support for quite some time now, he is doing wonderful

This week has been a pretty stressful week for me because we are stuck at home all day, not being able to go anywhere. Hopefully I will have a car by next week though. This weekend is going to be pretty laid back, the only plans we have are going to a movie. Dad and Mary Lee wanted to be the first pick of babysitters this weekend, they don't get to see Caden enough. My original plans were to head down to Galveston on Saturday to celebrate my best friend's birthday but without a car it is near impossible. I am going to go to dinner with her and her family on Sunday though so at least I will get to celebrate a birthday event with her.

We have an appointment set for next week to get Caden and Jordan their passports, we are one step closer to making it to England in October. It should be interesting riding on a plane with a 9 month old for 9 hours, and by interesting I mean horrible. It will be worth every minute though because Caden will get to meet his English Great Grandparents!

Jordan's First Father's Day!

2009-07-14T14:46:00.001-07:00

So I know that Father's Day was last month but I would like to share with everyone what I did to celebrate this big day for Jordan. Take a look at Jordan's new coffee table book!

Minor Accident

2009-07-14T04:36:00.001-07:00

Some of you may already know that I was involved in a minor accident last Friday on my way to Caden's 6 month check up. I was leaving my neighborhood, going through the gate when someone came right in front of me doing a u-turn from the entrance side of my neighborhood. Everyone is fine and no one was injured. The other driver is at fault and we are in the process of working with his insurance company. My car is not safe to drive because the tire is rubbing on the frame of my car. I cannot wait to get a loaner. Here is a picture of the damage:

Happy 1/2 Birthday Doodle!

2009-07-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

You read it right...Caden Joseph (AKA Doodle) is 6 months old as of July 8th! So I decided to celebrate his half birthday by going out and getting a really, really nice starter SLR camera (this does in fact have to deal with Caden completely....he is my prime subject of photography). I have been thinking about getting an SLR camera for years! Now I have all the more reason to go for it. Here is the new addition to the family:

The new Nikon D5000

I feel like somewhat of a traitor, I used to be all about Canon. I have had a canon point-and-shoot for a while now and it is my favorite little purse accessory. I also have an HD video camera for recording all of Caden's special moments in lift and I am quite fond of that as well. I started to do research and kept on coming up with the same answers to the biggest difference between Canon and Nikon, it was always "It's mainly just personal preference." Well as you can see, I guess my personal preference shifted after talking to a couple of people and seeing actual photos. Here is a little preview of what the Nikon can do (It can definitely do much, much more when in the hands of the right/experienced person).

And of course I have to include pictures of the half year old boy!!!

Family Swim Day

2009-06-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

This is not a first time for Caden and I to go swimming but this is the first time for Daddy to join us in the pool. This past weekend we went over to Jordan's Parent's house for Sunday dinner and we had the best time swimming and playing in the pool! Here is a picture of our family swim day!!!

Sorry this post is so short and it has been so long but I believe Caden is about to wake up from a nap.

Eventful week...

2009-05-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

When Jordan and I lived together, before Mr. Caden, we always use to complain about how we never went and did things. We really didn't have the money and we both worked full time so we were tired and wanted to relax on the weekends. It is weird how things turn out because now we have a baby and I have no job which equals no income, however, we are finding ourselves doing more fun and adventurous things than ever before. A lot of this is due in part to Caden's wonderful grandparents. Jordan's mom and dad and my mom and Steve help out a tremendous amount to allows us to go do things, we are extremely grateful.

Last weekend Mary (Jordan's mom), Caden and myself took a trip to the small town of Bedias, TX so Caden could meet his Great Grandpa Charlie and Caden's second cousin. Jordan's cousin Brady had a baby with his girlfriend just a month after Caden was born so that should make trips to Bedias more fun and exciting for Caden as he gets older, he will have a good friend there. We will just call Brendyn (sp), Caden's cousin. Now remember, he is 1 month younger than Caden but you can't tell because he is a BIG boy.

It was fun to see them interact together, it will only get more interesting as time goes on.

We had a very good time this weekend starting on Friday. Somehow I managed to convince Jordan to go play tennis with me in front of his neighborhood. Jordan's brother Justin and his girlfriend Katie decided to join us. We played for about two hours. My whole intention of playing tennis was to workout while having fun, and that is exactly what it was, granted I was running all over the place because Katie had never played tennis before either so our balls never went where we wanted them to go. On Saturday night we actually went and played BINGO. They opened up a bingo hall right around the corner from Jordan's house and I thought how much fun that would be. That it was, we both loved it. Unfortunately bingo is addicting and we went back Sunday night as well, Justin joined us this time. We have yet to win a penny.

Sunday Jordan's whole family went back up to Bedias for a family fishing trip. Jordan's grandfather owns a ton of land in Bedias with ponds and cattle, it is beautiful.

Thought I would finish up the photo session with a couple of shots of me and Doodle Bug!

Rewind!!!!

2009-05-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

The whole reason I originally started this blog was for my wonderful grandparents in England since they cannot be here to personally experience the precious moments. I am going to take this time to catch them and everyone else up on the first days.

In an earlier post I put up what I was thinking the nursery theme would be. I changed my mind and this is in fact my actual nursery.

The very first picture of my sweet baby boy! He was born at 6:18 p.m. at 6 lbs 7 oz. on January 8, 2009

Here is Caden, our first night with him at the hospital, we didn't get much sleep to say the least!

Here is my tiny baby!

Enough spare time to blog...

2009-05-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

so, now that I have enough spare time to blog, that is what I shall do. I lost my job recently due to mass layoffs at my company...that is what I get for working in oil and gas. I can't complain though because now I get to spend alll of my time with my precious little one. Right before I went back to work Caden was almost 3 months old. It was kind of an awkward age (which I loved every minute of) but because he was rarely sleeping but constantly needing to be entertained it was difficult because he could hardly hold up his own head. I would recline the chair, put my legs up and rest him on my legs so he could be right in front of my face, we would just talk for hours (or I would). Caden is now at suuccch a fun age, I love it. He is talking and laughing and jumping! Just a week and a half ago the doctor told us to start feeding him rice cereal with a spoon. He said to keep him on rice cereal for a week and then move to a vegetable like squash...that we did.

as you can see....squash didn't go over so well. We will eventually get the hang of it, next week we will move on to applesauce...hoping that will go down a little better.

It's about that time...

2008-10-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

I know it has been too long since I have last signed on to update. But they finally got around to blocking the Blogger website at work. As of Wednesday, October 15, I am 25 weeks pregnant. It sounds like a long time until you realize that means that there are still 15 weeks left. So far things have been going pretty smoothly except for some back aches here and there, but the chairs at work don't help with those at all. I have discovered ThermaCare for lower back pain. I have been using one everyday while I'm at work. The things are amazing...they last for hours.

I am on a mission right now to get the nursery just right! I decided to go with some different bedding instead of the Jungle Tales theme. The one I have chosen is more bold and bright and modern. It isn't very "baby" but I love it. Mom had an interior designer come in and give us some ideas of what we can paint the walls. I am thinking that we do a very soft, light brown on all but one of the walls in the nursery and then leave the additional wall to be the accent wall with a real pretty blue color painted on it, almost a teal color. It will go perfect with the nursery bedding.

I got a call from Marci yesterday asking about what we are naming our little boy. I still have no idea. I am seeing all of my other friends that are pregnant picking out names and getting ready for everything. I still have no idea what I want to name the little man. I think the hardest part is coming up with something that me and Jordan both agree on. We both want him to have a name that will be less common, we don't want him having the same name as 2 other boys in his class when he goes to school. I was thinking today and I came up with the name Caden...I love it, Jordan....not so much. Middle names are hard to think of too for that matter. I know I still have plenty of time to figure it out including a little while even after he is born. But I would like to have a name for him instead of me always referring to him as "baby." He is more than that....he is our son. I want to be able to address him by his name. Maybe I will have a baby name suggestion box at the shower. We don't like any of our family names so that makes it a little more difficult for us.

Right now I am on the road to restoring my credit...not that it is bad, but I want it to be as good as it can be. I have already paid off one of my credit cards since I have been pregnant and now I am working on the second one. I set a goal for myself when I found out I was pregnant and that was that I was going to be completely debt free by the time the baby is born. I need to start thinking about our future and being able to buy a home in the near future.

I scheduled one of those 3D/4D ultrasound for November 7. I will be 28 weeks then and they said that was perfect. I am excited to see what the little guy is going to look like!

I am going to try and keep up with this blog more!

A new beginning...

2008-08-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

As of today I am in my second trimester......and of course...it doesn't feel different at all. I am now 14 weeks pregnant and the baby is about 4 inches in length. I will find out in about 6 weeks whether we are having a baby boy or a baby girl. A part of me is wanting a baby boy but I will be happy either way.

I am going to be 22 is about 8 days. For my birthday I just want my family and a couple of friends to go out to eat at my favorite restaurant (Thai Cafe). This will be my last birthday without baby!

Baby Boy Nursery

2008-08-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

If we are having a baby boy....

First Trimester

2008-07-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

I am coming up on the last week of my first trimester. The first trimester is what they say is the worst one so I guess it wasn't that bad. I had morning sickness but only in the mornings...so it was literally just morning sickness. I hear that makes me lucky, so I'll take it! I have started getting pains in my abdomen and I called the doctor and they said that it is just Round Ligament pain, but it hurts like hell. So far so good.

Now lets see what the second trimester has to offer.

I took Parker to the beach with me and he loved it. He would run into the waves and everything!

Weekend Get Away

2008-07-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

Jenna, Sarah, and myself are taking a little trip to Galveston this weekend to hang out and just relax on the beach. Sarah's dad owns a beach house that they are in the process of renovating right now.

I am thinking about taking along Parker with me, he has never seen the ocean before, haha. I will try not to spend too much time in the sun and I will wear plenty of sunscreen.

2008-07-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

This past Friday I went to my doctors appointment to check up on the baby. I went by myself this time without my mom. I wasn't aware at the time but they checked the baby's heartbeat and it was my very first time to hear it. It was probably one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard. I am a little upset that I heard it by myself. It would have been amazing to be able to share that sound with someone. They said that they will monitor the heartbeat everytime I go in, which means there are many more times to hear that sound!

First Ultrasound Picture

2008-07-24T08:33:00.000-07:00