Thanksgiving = Boredom at Work

Ok, so right before Thanksgiving things get slow around the office since everyone we want to talk to is on vacation. I don't really remember how this came about but we obviously got very bored. Some explanation: In High School, I knew some guys who were self-proclaimed "breakdancers". I am obviously waaaaay too white to have rhythm enough to do anything, but there was one thing that I thought was cool and I was bound and determined to learn it. So I did. And that was the extent of my "breakdancing" experience.

Cades' First Haircut!

Ok, you have to love a good before and after picture. After nagging and nagging for months, Brandi finally let me give him his first haircut. As you can see, after nine months, he was ready. And I thought it was difficult cutting my own hair!

He's a Baller!

When Cade was born his uncle Brock bought him this Jordan outfit that he has finally grown into. He's going to make his daddy proud!

The leaves have fallen!

So this was our first fall together in a house where we had a yard to take care of. You can't see it but we have a 1/4 acre lot with about 5 trees that dump leaves in the backyard. I think Cade would have enjoyed playing in the leaves more if he could walk and if he weren't sick at the time.

There's just something funny about others getting hurt

Brandi was playing with Cade and rolled over onto her back to look at him upside down and hit her throat lightly on the coffee table. She was in the middle of saying something when it happened so it made a funny noise and as you can see, Cade thought it was hilarious. So of course we had to keep making the noise because we love the laugh!

Cades First Lime - We could watch this all day

So Grandpa Litchfield decided to feed Cade his first lime, which he is not allowed to have yet...but it was well worth it! Please notice him shaking it off after he goes back for seconds.

Halloween

This year we had quite a few Halloween activities/parties that we went to. I was a pirate, 50's girl, and a Power Puff girl (Bubbles, to be more specific). Darren didn't dress up for one, went 50's with me to another, and was a basketball player. Cade was a frog every time. And I must say that he was the most adorable frog I've ever seen!

(You can see the teeth he recently acquired. He just got number 5 that night)

Oh I'm so in love with this little guy!

Our actual Halloween night attire

Our friends David and Crystal came up from Renton to hang out on Halloween. We made pizzas and junk food and played Clue while we passed out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that came our way.

We can't wait for next year when we can actually take Cade out to go trick-or-treating... and then eat his candy for him :)

Pickleball

So about a month ago Darren was able to play pickleball with the Sweetwoods. He absolutely loves it! And I love to watch him! Turns out Cade does too! Although, I think he enjoyed sucking on dirty pickleballs more...






Thanks Sweetwoods! We had a blast!

Life is CRAZY!

I don't have much time to write, but I quickly wanted to just let you all know what's going on in our lives.

We sold the condo! It was official last night at 5:00 pm. We are moving to Sammamish (hence the reason I have no time to post). We have to be out of our (I guess it's not "ours" anymore!) condo by Friday night so the next couple days are going to be busy.

On a side note: Cade turned 6 months old a couple weeks ago! Yes, I am a bad mother because I didn't post anything about it yet... however, here are his stats:

Weight: 17lbs 12 oz
Height: 27.5 inches

He is absolutely huge! And getting cuter and cuter every day. He sits on his own, rolls around, still squeals and talks all the time. I will post more specifics when things calm down. But for now, here's a cute picture of our little man.

Out with the old, in with the new

Still Darren here. So we are officially a "family", as so indicated by the fact that we now own an SUV. Ok, maybe our marriage and the recent birth of our first child already made it official, but this just adds to it. Though we really could have made it work with 2 small cars, hauling around all of Cade's stuff is much easier with the extra room. The only problem is that we had to get rid of our beloved Altima to get it. At least it's not a Minivan...yet? That might be the saddest day of my life if it ever happens. Brandi and are fighting it but realizing there might not be a better option. Are we doomed to be the stereotypical Mormon family? To be continued...

R.I.P.

New Videos!

Ok, this is Darren writing for the first time in a long time. Here are 4 videos that we had to throw up here because we thought you might enjoy them. If you don't, just keep it to your self and get over it.



Gibberish: He's starting to do more than his token squeal.



Token Squeal: Speaking of, today he did this for easily 30 minutes non-stop. Normally we would love this (well, we were laughing most of the time) but we have neighbors above, below, right, and left of us and what you see in this video isn't even half as loud as he was most of the time. I can't wait to be in a house in a month!



Working out with Dad: This is Cade's first work out and I think he did pretty well. He has quite the gut to work off so I pushed him like any good coach...or dad would do.



No warning: This is one of those things that every parent wishes they could have a warning for before it happens. But it was more funny than anything.

New developments

The past couple months have been crazy. It's hard to believe how much Cade has changed in just a short period of time. Here are some of his current developments:

*Teething*
For the past couple months, Cade has just been acting a little more fussy than usual. Not only that, but he's been drooling like crazy, putting EVERYTHING in his mouth and gnawing really hard on whatever that may be. We thought he must be teething, but it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that his first tooth popped out! For the most part, he's been great! A little more fussy (as I mentioned), but no fever, no runny nose, no nothin! I was so excited I pulled out the camera and took a video as soon as I found out. Don't mind my annoying voice... Cade likes it.

Obviously you can't really see the tooth in the video (or any picture I tried to take)... I can barely even feel it. But it was fun anyway!

*Rolling Over*
Yep, while Darren's family came in town, Cade rolled over for the first time! He's gone both ways, but mostly just likes to go from his back to his stomach (at which point his arm gets stuck and he gets mad). I can't think of the last time I put him on his back for more than a minute and not had him roll over to his front. He just loves it.

*Eating Solids*
Right after Darren's family left, we started to feed Cade rice cereal. Here are some pictures of the first time he tried it:

Darren got to be the first to feed him since I'm always the one that feeds Cade

Getting part of it in his mouth

The rest drips down his chin

Then he sticks his hands in his mouth and we try to stop him (Sorry about the quality of this picture)

After a few bites, Darren had to get back to work. For his first time, we thought it would be easier if he could finish leaning back. It worked much better.

It's been a couple weeks since then and he's getting a lot better at eating. He's tried bananas and squash so far and seemed to love them both. Oh yeah, I let him try some watermelon yesterday too and he LOVED sucking out all the juice! Yummy!

There are also a couple things we're working on. First is sitting up. He's getting better and better every day. He can now sit by himself for 5 or 10 seconds at a time! I can't wait for him to be able to SIT and play with toys. I think he'll like playing with them a lot more once he can do that! The other thing we're working on is having him hold is own bottle. He gets a bottle about once every other day and he's getting pretty close to holding it all on his own!

He's almost got it!


Here are some random pictures from the past little while:

It really is amazing watching this little boy grow. I'm loving every minute of it. I just can't get enough of him!

Harry Potter

Darren thinks I should be ashamed, but let's be honest here... I LOVE Harry Potter!!! My sister Bailey and I went to the midnight showing of The Half-Blood Prince! It was amazing! While we waited in line, Bailey tried to finish the book (again) and I watched the 5th movie on my Zune. We brought drinks and had lots of candy to eat to try to help keep me awake... our plan failed. I'm pretty sure I was dozing off for the last half hour of the movie. Luckily I already knew what happens. I can't wait to see it again and stay awake for the whole thing!

Should I be embarrassed?? Never!

Oh, I almost forgot! We saw the most AMAZING costume while we were waiting in line. Someone walked by us (very slowly) dressed up like Hagrid! He had duck-taped multiple bricks to his shoes (pants covering them) and we were sitting on the ground so it made him seem even taller. It was hilarious! I just loved it! Practically made my night!

Thanks Bay! I had a BLAST!

New Friend

My friend Heather is up for the summer. She has a little baby boy that is about a month younger than Cade. It's so crazy that we're both moms now. We have so much fun playing together with our little men! And I think they enjoy it too! So far, we've gone on walks, gone swimming, hung out at a hotel, and gone to Walmart! Isn't being a mom the greatest?!

Aren't our boys cute??

After a few minutes of us taking the same picture over and over (to get a good one, of course), Cade decided he was bored and started eating Brooks :)

Don't leave me Heather! Tell Brooks to forget about school... who needs it anyway? ;)

New Toys

Cade is playing with toys ALL the time now! I remember when I used to force toys into his hands. Now he grabs everything within reach. One night we had left him in his room for a couple minutes. This is what we came back to find:

This was not a one time occurrence either. He loves to play with his car seat while we're at church too!

It's so fun to watch him and all the funny things he does now. He's rolling around (but most often just gets frustrated once he's on his stomach and can't get back over), making all sorts of new noises and laughing all the time. I could just play with this boy all day long!... Oh wait... I do!

Family Reunion

At the end of June, all of Darren's siblings (along with their spouse and children) came into town. We all stayed at Darren's parents house and we had a BLAST! It was so much fun to have everyone together. We watched movies, did puzzles, ate out a lot, went to garage sales every Friday and Saturday (got some really good deals too!), went to the beach, got hair cuts from Marci, went in the hot tub, drank lots of pop and made/ate LOTS of desserts!The list goes on! We had so much fun! Here is a slideshow of a couple pictures we took while everyone was here:

After most of the family left, Kandi and her girls were still here. We still hung around and ended up going to Darren's great grandpa's house. Cade has a picture with him, but we weren't able to get a five generation until this trip.

Five Generations! Can you believe it??

Birthdays

Yeah I know this was in JUNE, but I'm catching up... remember?? Well, Darren and I both had birthdays. My BIG present this year was...

WICKED TICKETS!!!

I couldn't be more excited! We are going on the 17th of September. I've been wanting to see this Broadway show ever since my friend Whitney saw it our Senior year and got me hooked on the amazing soundtrack. I used to sing to it with my sister and mom while we worked in the yard :) Music makes everything go faster, right?

Anyways, that night, Darren took Cade and I to the Renton Farmers Market. We had lots of fun walking around and just hanging out. Thanks Darren for the BEAUTIFUL flowers! They were gorgeous!

Darren's favorite thing to eat at any fair/carnival type thing: Corn on the Cob. He just can't resist it!

Cade and I danced to the music

We also had fun by the water

Oh yeah, I spent the day at my parents house while Darren was at work. They had a little party for me too :)

Darren's birthday happened to be when most of his family was here (the rest got there the day after). I didn't get any pictures (sorry Darren!) and I'm not sure what his favorite present was... maybe he'll tell you later...? Doubt it.

More to come

Ok, ran out of time for the night, but will finish my buildup of blogging soon... promise! And don't worry, these ones will be a little more recent :)

Brock's Farewell

I can't believe I'm just now posting about this, but my little brother Brock is on a mission for our church. He was called to the West Indies mission. He left June 3rd and will be back in two years! We're so proud of him for making the decision to do this. It will change not only his life, but the lives of those he comes in contact with. He and the people he serves will continually be in our prayers.

Before he left, my older sister and her two little girls came up to say goodbye to him. It was soo much fun having them here! I love those girls and I can't believe how much they've grown up since the last time I saw them. It was so fun to be able to spend so much time with family. Like the last time my sister came up, we stayed at my parents house the whole time... it was a blast!

Here is one of their last pictures together before Brock left. It's going to be crazy for Brock to see him and how much he's changed when he gets back!
Brock was trying to make the same face as Cade... successful??

Brock got Cade a Jordan outfit when he was born. Then Darren got some shoes that matched it. He's a basketball player in the making!

Oh yeah! Cade actually PLAYED with his toys for the first time while we were there! I didn't have to force him to hold them or anything! It was very thrilling :)

Again, pictures are in the slide show below. View if you desire.

Cade's Baby Blessing

Finding a day to give Cade his blessing was crazy because the grandparents happened to alternate weekends out of town. Then my Grandpa passed away and the funeral was held the only weekend that would have worked. It just kept getting pushed off. FINALLY, we found a day that worked! For those who don't know, a baby blessing is something we do in our church that officially gives a baby a name for the records of the church, and a blessing from God for the rest of his life. It's not mandatory, but customary. Unfortunately, we are terrible people and only got ONE picture of Cade in his blessing outfit... and I'm not even in it... whoops.

We had family and a few friends over after for some food to celebrate Cade's special day. The pictures are in the slide show below. We'll make sure to get more of the next baby...

Grandpa Beeson

At the end of April, my Grandpa Beeson (Dad's Dad) died. Totally unexpected. However, it was perfect for his; he died suddenly of a heart attack right off the dock at Lake Powell (probably his favorite place in the world). Obviously it was a sad occasion, but it was perfect timing for everyone to be able to meet Cade. Darren wasn't able to make it, but I drove down with my family and my little man. He did amazing on the long trip and I was so glad we were able to go. It was wonderful seeing everyone. Not only was he able to meet tons of my extended family, but he got to meet his only boy cousins for the first time! They were so cute with him. Wish you could've been there Darren!

Ok, is this the funniest thing you've ever seen or what?? My grandma had breast cancer about a year ago and had to go through chemotherapy. She lost her hair in the process but had a beautiful wig to wear when she went out. Well, as you can see, her hair is back now and she's cancer free! So we thought we'd put the wig to good use, since Cade had just lost most of his hair by this time :) I think he looks like a baby Einstein. We couldn't stop laughing!

The rest of the pictures from the trip are on the slide show.