Graduation

Caden "graduated" from Kindergarten today.  It was very cute.  Caden got to do everything first because they did it in alphabetical order.  Lucky kid!  I always wished that would have been me, but I was always near the end.  Steve had to work, but his grandma & Grandpa, Uncle David, Aunt Debby, and cousin Presten were so nice and drove half an hour to see Caden for 20 min.  It was a cute little program.  I couldn't help but think, is he really that old?  He's looking less and less like a little kid and more and more like one of the big kids running around the neighborhood.  There goes my baby!

Holy Big Baby!

Andrew had his 4 month check up.  I always hate these appointments.  I worry about the shots and I just feel so bad he has to get them.  His appointment went well, though.  He is such a happy boy.  When the nurse was measuring his head (he's in the 90th percentile), he was just smiling and laughing at her.  It was really cute.  She kept commenting about how big he was.  Then she measured him.  He was 28 inches long and 22 lbs!  To put that in perspective, that's the size of an average year old, and he's only 4 months!  I really wasn't surprised though.  He wears size 12 months clothing.  It's probably a good thing though.  If he was lighter, Caden would probably try and carry him, and most likely drop him!  It's nice he's such a happy boy.  I don't think I could carry him around all the time like I did with Dallin.

 I've been taking pictures of Andrew with this monkey every month to show his growth.  This is one day old and 4 months old.

Dallin's Prayer

Just recently we've started encouraging Dallin to say prayers on his own, with only a little help from mom and dad, not saying it verbatim.  He comes up with the most random things.  "Please bless Jesus to fly on an airplane... Thank you Jesus can speak Spanish really good."  What?  Where did that come from?  It's really cute to hear him be so sincere about these things.  Steve and I try not to laugh and just praise him for really thinking about his prayer!

Dallin's Picnic

Sunday, Caden was sick with a cough and fever, so I stayed home from church with the boys.  I took a shower late in the morning, and when I got out, Andrew was awake, Dallin was running up and down the hall, and Caden was asleep on the couch!  The poor boy.  It was lunchtime and Dallin and I were hungry.  I didn't want to wake up Caden, so I grabbed whatever prepackaged food we had and Dallin and I had an impromptu picnic in his room.  Dallin thought it was great, and I was glad Caden got some extra rest.  By the way, Caden is still coughing, but the fever is gone.

Happy Birthday Caden!

Yesterday Caden turned six.  I don't know where the time went.  It doesn't feel like that long ago we were at the hospital filling out paper work to get it all started, but at the same time, we couldn't imagine our life without him.  He's a joy to be around and a great big brother.  I think he was the first one to make Andrew really laugh.  

We had a good time at his family birthday party.  He specifically requested a round layer cake with thick frosting.  He insisted on putting the sprinkles on himself and did a pretty good job, too.  He loved opening his presents, and really liked the presents, too.  He was even excited about the mechanical pencils Andrew gave him.  Caden is such a sweet boy and we are so grateful to have him in our family.  We love you, big boy!

Mother's Day Tea

Caden's Kindergarten class had a Mother's Day tea party this morning.  Caden has been so excited about it.  This whole week he kept asking, "Is it Thursday yet?"  He told me several times I needed to get up early on Thursday for the tea party.  He even told Dallin that he (Dallin) was going to miss mom because mom was going to school with him (Caden) and Dallin had to stay home.  He was really excited about a surprise he made for me and every time he talked about it, he'd smile behind his hands, thrilled that he had a secret.

Thursday finally came.  Caden was a little disappointed I wasn't spending the whole day with him, but I told him he had to get everything ready for me and I would see him later.  My wonderful sister-in-law, Debby, came over to watch Andrew and Dallin so I could spend some one-on-one time with Caden.  

Caden was so excited when I showed up.  We all sat on the floor and the teacher read "Love you forever".  I think all the moms were crying as we held our "babies" in our laps.  Then the kids sang us "You are my sunshine," which happened to be the song I always sing to my boys.  It was very sweet.  They did hand motions with the song, but Caden was the only one who just stood there and sang.  That was okay though because he usually just does the hand motions and refuses to sing!

Then we got our surprises.  The kids made "all about mom" books.  The teacher read the first page and the moms were supposed to guess when they thought it was them.  It was things like, "My mom is very blank.  My moms eyes are blank." etc.  When the teacher read, "My mom is very cranky," I thought for sure it was me!  But it wasn't!  So I started to listen for eye color because I was sure Caden knew that (he's said it a hundred times).  So when Caden described me as "very nice, brown eyes, and blackish brown hair," I just looked around the room to see who it was.  

The book was very cute.  Some of my favorite things he said were "She spends most of her time feeding Andrew." (It really feels like it!) And, "Mom helps our family by putting us in different rooms."  They also put together a book they'd made throughout the year called Magical Handiwork.  They had different paintings made from their hand prints.  Both books very sweet and are definitely going in his treasure box.

Masks

The young women in our church did a fundraiser for girls camp.  They had two different nights where they did babysitting at the church.  Steve and I never go out, but it was for a good cause so we brought the boys.  The first night, they just sat and watched movies the whole time (that's the way they are when the TV is on).  When I picked them up, Caden started to cry saying he didn't get to do any of the crafts!  Well, whose fault is that?  So, this last weekend, I reminded him of that and suggested he did other things first.  They did!  They made these wonderful masks.

Dallin kept saying his mask was a zombie mask.  How does he know about zombies?  From all the scary movies Steve watches in front of the boys, I'm sure.  And we wonder why almost every night at least one of the boys wake up scared and try to climb in bed with us.  Two nights ago, they both got up together saying they had bad dreams.  I'm just tired of it, so last night I decided to bribe them.  I told them, whoever stayed in bed the whole night and didn't wake up mommy or daddy would get a surprise in the morning.  It worked!  They both got to pick out a dinosaur sticker and they were excited about it.  I think were going to try it again tonight.