Quilts

Jace & his quilt

Cade & his quilt

Pictures from Christmas

Cade's new cowboy boots

The best Christmas present!

Checking out the new toys w/ Grandma Shireen

Laura and I

All bright eyed on Christmas morning

Christmas 2008

This year Tyler, Cade and I were able to spend time with both of our families. Christmas Eve was spent with my mom, dad and grandpa. We had a nice relaxing evening at my parents house with a yummy ham dinner. Christmas morning my sister came over with her 2 boys Jaxon (2) and Jace 2.5 months) (her husband had to work... sad I know) for breakfast and "prizes"; as my nephew Jaxon calls them.
Unfortinatly my brother Brett was not able to make it down from Seattle. The weather was too crazy for him to make the trip.
We missed you Brett!!
Cade and Jace got to celebrate there 1st Christmas together. Grammy made them both amazing quilts. Cade's is a camping theme and Jace's is trains and airplanes. Thank you grammy June for the great cozy quilts!!
Something new we did with some family from my dads side was a Progressive Dinner. We did each course of our meal at different house. We didn't go with your typical Christmas meal, instead we went Itallian.

Christmas Menu:
Appetizers: Calazone Rolls @ Colby & Laura's (AMAZING!)
Salads: Green Garden Salad @ Amy & Jay's
Main dish: Red Sauce Spaghettie, Chicken Fettuccine & bread @ Aunt Sandie & Uncle Darren's
Dessert: Mint Brownie Cake & Cookies @ Allie & Tad's (so sad we weren't able to make it to dessert)
This is such a fun was to celebrate with friends and family. My favorite is to see everyones houses all decorated for Christmas.

After the Progressive Dinner Tyler, Cade and I ventured off to the Mackesons to celebrate Christmas with them. We had a great time hanging out with Tyers parents, brother and both sets of grandparents. With all these people it is inevitable that Cade was not lacking attention.

I hope all of you had as blessed a Holiday as we did.

Grandpa & Cade

On Christmas Eve My dad got Cade giggling so hard!! Nobody has been able to get him laughing like Grandpa did. Luckily Tyler was able to capture part of it on video.

Winter Wonderland

Winter in Central Oregon is so amazing. While the Willamette Valley is freaking out because of there snow, trapped inside scared to drive, we here in Central Oregon take it as just another day. I love how the snow doesn't stop us from living our normal lives. Tyler and I took Cade out for a walk in the snow for the first time the other day he loved it and was totally just mesmerized by the fluffy white stuff.
It is always hard to leave our Bend winter wonderland and head to the valley for Christmas, I hope this year the snow in the valley will stick around long enough to give us a white Christmas.

All Smiles

Tyler and I have been blessed with such a happy boy.

Cade is always smiling and it is by far the cutest smile I have ever seen! When he was about 5-6 weeks I was starting to worry that we were going to have a grumpy baby on our hands but it just turns out that he hadn't quite developed his smile yet. Now he is unstopable. It is hillarious when he wants to be upset and cry but happy at the same time, he is fussing but with a smile on his face. Quite funny to watch.

December

It is so amazing to me that December is already 1/2 way over.

Time sure does fly when your having fun and being a mom! So far this month Cade has experienced a lot of 1st's.

First time going to chop down a Christmas tree
First Snow
First time sleeping entirely through the night 8pm-7am!!
First signs of teething

Those are just a few of his firsts. Tyler and I are so excited to spend our first Christmas with our little man.

So frusterating

Be warned... this post is going to be a little bit disgusting, but that is my life as a mom.
So Cade only poops about once every 9 to 10 days, which to me seems so crazy but according to his doctor is nothing to worry about. He isn't fussy with a stomach ache or constipated so he is just taking in all the nutrients from my milk (or so the dr. says).
Well the really frustrating part is, when he goes HE GOES and it is everywhere. Today was his day to go, we just got home from having lunch with Keri and Jonah and I could tell he was working on something. When I took him out of his car seat it I knew immediately it was not going to be pretty. It was so bad, it had come up out of the back of his diaper, all over the back of his onezie, out the leg of his diaper on his pants and onto his car seat. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! To clean him up I had to throw him in the bathtub.

This can't be considered normal can it?

Thanksgiving

So I'm finally getting around to blogging about our Thanksgiving. We spent the weekend at Tylers parents in West Linn. Cade enjoyed his first Thanksgiving and even sported a great Indian headdress that I made for the occasion :)

I was in charge of making pies for dessert, I had only made one other pie in my life so I was a little nervous about how they would turn out, but I have to admit they were tasty and beautiful.

On Saturday Tyler and I went to the Civil War game in Corvallis... it was so sad that the Beavers lost but we still had a good time with my cousin Gena and her husband Bryce.

My weakness

So those of you who have been following my blog since last year may remember this post; New Years Resolution.... well my resolution to stop drinking coffee only last a whopping 3 months, which is pretty good for me I think. But with being a stay at home mom, being at home most of the day and not to mention the time of year, my coffee addiction has become worse than ever!! There is nothing better than on a cold day drinking a warm cup of coffee with French Vanilla creamer or even better a pumpkin pie latte from DB or Bellatazza.

So to give you an idea of how bad my coffee addiction has become let me just tell you this... on Tuesday I made a 5 cup pot of coffee in the morning and by about 3:00 I had drank the entire thing by myself! For the rest of the day/evening I could not sit still. I was pacing back and forth, going from upstairs to downstairs and fitiling with everything. It was bad. Since that day I have limited myself to 1 maybe 2 cups a day and I have doubled my H2O intake to help me feel better about all the coffee I drink.

I guess I could be addicted to worse right....

Scrap booking

Scrap booking is one of my favorite hobbies. I haven't been good at keeping up on it since Cade was born. So the past couple weeks I have been diligently working on getting caught up. Here are some of the layouts I have completed...

Cade & I

So as the mom I feel like I am always the one behind the camera. I was looking through all of our pictures of Cade so far and realized there are none with me and Cade together! That is something my mom talks about all the time, how she is never in any pictures because she is the one taking the pictures. So last night as I was getting Cade ready for bed I called Tyler in to get a few shots of my boy and I. Even though he was stubborn and wouldn't give us any of his adorable smiles, he is still the cutest baby boy I have ever seen!

Look what I found!

Oh yes Cade has found his hands and fingers. I haven't decided if it a blessing or a curse quite yet. Blessing- he is weening himself off his pacifier, curse- the pacifier we could control but the thumb sucking we can't, and he hasn't mastered the art of thumb sucking fully yet. He tries to shove both fists in his mouth, after slurping and slobbering for a couple minutes he gets frustrated and erupts into an immediate cry. It really is sad to watch because I want to help him place his thumb but it just doesn't work like that. I just hope he doesn't end up sucking his thumb as long as I did.....

Chit Chat w/ Cade

Cade has found his voice and it is the cutest thing I have ever listened to. Check it out.
P.S don't mind the annoying "mother" in the background. Why is it that your own voice sounds so retarded on camera?

Bumbo Baby

Cade's neck is getting so strong I thought it was time to try out the Bumbo seat. He did surprisingly well. He especially liked facing the mirror and checking himself out. I know I'm a horrible mom for having him up on the counter, but give me a break, it's not like I'm going to walk away and leave him unattended.

Fall

It always amazes me how perfectly God has set up the seasons in Oregon. Just when I start to get tired of one season it is time to start the next. Fall is by far my favorite of them all. The leaves changing colors, falling off the trees, and eventually ending up on the ground to be munched by our feet, the cooler days, the sun setting earlier, hot coffee, yummy food like apple crisp and pumpkin flavored anything, and last but not least the pumpkin patch!!

I always get so excited to go even though I'm really to old to do any of the activities. For me it's the atmosphere and the all around mood of the pumpkin patch that makes me so happy. Since moving to Bend about 3.5 years ago, Tyler and I have been going to The Central Oregon Pumpkin CO. This place has it all... horse drawn wagon rides, a zoo train, petting zoo, face paining, pumpkin cannon, harvest market, corn maze, hay fort and much more. This year was an all around different experience because we got to bring Cade along. He was obviously too little to enjoy or partake in the experience but it was so fun for Tyler and I to take him along. I already can't wait for next year when Cade is old enough to really enjoy and get into it all.

Smiles

I could not wait for the day to come when Cade started smiling! When you get a big gummy grin it makes all those tiring days and nights so worth it!

Capturing a smile on camera is so hard so here a two pictures of the tale end of a Cade smile.

I've Been Tagged

So I was tagged my by bestest friend Jenna, I have never done one of these so here it goes....

1. I sucked my thumb until I was about 10 yrs old. I always wanted my hair permed so as a bribe my mom told me if I stopped sucking my thumb I could get a perm. You do not want to see how ridiculous I looked!!

2. I only dated Tyler 7 months before he proposed to me. We were only engaged for 5 months. That means we celebrated our 1 yr of being "together" on our honeymoon!! 3.5 years and a baby boy were still going strong!

3. I can never finish a cup of coffee. It doesn't matter how big or small the cup, I always leave a few gulps in the cup

4. I have 7 piercings in my ears but only wear earrings in 4 of them.

5. I had the easiest pregnancy. No morning sickness, no heartburn, no intense cravings, I only woke up in the middle of the night to pee the last 2 months.

6. My due date didn't change once my entire pregnancy and I went into labor on my due date! CRAZY!!! The nurses said only 10% of women go into labor on there due date.

7. When I was in grade school I had a nervous habit where I would pull my eyelashes out. At one point I didn't have any eyelashes whatsoever!

Now it's your turn, I tag Colie, Keri, Kristina, Macey, Sam, Jacquie, Amber

Bath time = Relaxing time...Finally!

So I finally purchased a copy of Secrets of the Baby Whisperer and I have learned so much from this 1 little book. Thanks Amber and Sam for recommending it to me! One of the things that stands out that I have learned is how to give Cade a good bath experience. From how to place him in the tub to the order what body parts to wash when and most importantly and I think the biggest thing for Cade is, always place a warm wet washcloth on his tummy. Baths are now part of our bedtime routine and Cade can sit back and relax instead of screaming his head off. And boy oh boy does he smell so good when it's all said and done, I could just snuggle up to him for hours!!

Sleeping In His Own Room

Cade is now sleeping in his own room. We put him in his crib at 3.5 weeks, it seemed a little early but what a huge difference this has made for Tyler, Cade and I. We are all sleeping much better at night and it feels like we finally have our own little routine down.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be... or that everyone said it was going to be. I didn't feel nervous or anxious at all. I think as a mom (which I haven't been for long but do have 1 month under my belt) you just start to know what your little one is ready for and the Lord gives you a peace about it.

Here are a couple pictures of him all tucked in sound asleep

2 Weeks

We had Cade's 2 week doctors appointment on Thursday Sept 26th.
He now weights 7lbs 11 oz and is 20 3/4 inches long.

Daddy time

The best part of my day, besides being home with my adorable little boy, is when Tyler gets home from work. The minute Tyler walks in the door he is so excited to see Cade and spend his quality daddy time. It is so amazing watching Tyler with Cade, I fall more in love with him each day as I watch him love all over our son.

1st Bath

Today our friend Jane came over to take photos of Cade. To get ready for his big photo opp we had to get him all clean, so we had our 1st bath and Cade totally hated it. The poor guy screamed his head off the entire time.
But now he smells so tasty!

Cade Jordan

Well after 9 months Cade has finally made his entrance into the world.
My labor was hard but I was able to do it with out any medications which was one of my goals. I started having contractions in the afternoon on the 9th, I left work at lunch because my they were getting closer together. It wasn't until about 2am that I really felt like my labor was starting, I woke Tyler up so we could time my contractions, sure enough they were every 5 min lasting 35-50 seconds and getting stronger! We checked into the hospital at 4:30 and I was dilated to 6.5 and was 90% effaced. I felt all the contractions in my back so I spent the majority of my labor on the birthing ball or leaning over the bed. After about 5 hours my contractions let up and my labor stalled, that is when the doctor decided to break my water. This really got things going! By 12:15 I was dilated to a 10 and ready to push! Push.... oh my gosh, this was the longest, hardest, most tiring thing I have ever done. It ended up that Cade was facing the wrong direction I think they called it OP, so I wasn't making much progress on getting him out. After 2 hrs of pushing the doctor decided to use the vacuum to assist him out. 30 min later our son entered the world!

Cade was born at 2:39pm weighing 7lbs 3oz and 19.5 inches long. Tyler and I can't believe what an amazing miracle we have been blessed with!

God has given us a son to raise and take care of.

Amy & Jaxon

Is this not the cuttest ever!?

My sister Amy and my nephew Jaxon