Sunday Best

This week we had a special Stake Conference and Elder Bednar came and spoke.  It was really a good meeting.  One thing that he talked about that I really liked is that the Savior always turned outward and did acts of service for others even when he was struggling.  After Gethsemene Christ healed the guard's ear, after the 40 day/night fast he sent angels to John the Baptist, and when He was on the cross He asked John to watch over His mother. In every instance he said that the Savior could have turned inward and helped himself, but he was always thinking of others. He mentioned that sin is selfish and makes us turn inward and it takes prayer to be more Christlike and turn outward when we're struggling and see who we can help or lift.  That has been a thought I've really liked thinking about this week.  I hope some of you will like it as we approach Easter this Sunday.

I had a few pictures of Kaden in his church outfit and thought they were cute and some of you might enjoy seeing them.  We have Nana (Dana) to thank for the cute plaid shirt and Grandma (Richelle) for the cute pants and my friend Kristi gave us the sweater vest.  

 Look how happy Kaden is to be sitting with Curtis...

Remember how I mentioned Kaden always seems mad to be in pictures with me? Yup....

This is just a random picture I took the other day. I mentioned that Kaden tries to put everything in his mouth right? No exceptions...

Show me some love. Leave me a comment to let me know if you're on my blog.  If no one reads it, no need for weekly updates right?

Kaden Turns 7 Months

Hard to believe my baby is getting so old.  Kaden weighs about 17 lbs and is fun as ever! Though he still can't sit up and still has no teeth, he is getting very good at manipulating things in his hands.  He can successfully take his pacifier in and out of his mouth and is getting better at putting other things in his mouth.  (As you may have noticed in the picture...)

Sitting up is not his forte right now. Ha!

Kaden still loves "flying"whenever he gets on his tummy

 So Kaden has absolutely no hair at all except for the very top, middle of his head.  He gets noticed everywhere we go since his blonde fluff sticks straight up.  The other day we were at the doctor's office and a little boy says, "Mom, that baby has a mohawk.  That's not fair. You said I couldn't have one, so how come he gets one?" :)

 This is his favorite face right now so naturally we had to include it in a picture right?

Kaden loves to stare at the food we are eating at mealtimes and since he can't eat any of it we sometimes will give him something he can suck on just so he feels apart of the family.  He is getting really good at picking things up and getting them in his mouth. 

 Kaden is so playful.  He loves to play, no matter what we are doing. Though it makes it very tricky to give him a bottle, he really likes to grab his toes and pump his legs in and out.

This picture has nothing to do with Kaden, but for St. Patrick's Day each year we do a Green Dinner where all the food is green.  This year we invited the Torres' to join us. They are in our ward and are our good friends.  Their kids are super cute too.  We had limeade, chicken pesto crepes, shamrock biscuits, green grapes, kiwi, green salad and green rice krispie treats.

Conquering the WInter Blues

Do you ever get lazy when it's been winter for too long? Well I feel like every year about this time I feel like I don't care about exercising, eating healthy or doing anything productive.  All I usually want to do is sleep in, watch tv (We are addicted to Psyche right now, thank you Netflix)  and hang out in sweats.  It is on days (and weeks) like these that our house begins to look disheveled. And of course I have no motivation whatsoever to clean at all. That is why I'm so glad that Curtis and Kaden decided to practice what they've learned at Hogwarts and cast a spell on our kitchen to clean itself.... too bad it didn't work!

Do you notice that these pictures all have something in common? Anyone spot what it is? Oh, yes it's this new weird face Kaden keeps making.  It seems to be the face for all occasions-for eating, for shopping, for playing.  I have no idea what it is or what inspires it, but I find it amusing. 

Mommy and son "swimming time"

Curtis and I eat our girl scout cookies different ways. I like to eat just a few a day and make them last as long as possible.  He would rather eat them all at once.  So to be fair we divided up our Girl Scout cookies (thanks mom!) and put them in our separate bags to be enjoyed at our leisure.

I teach the Sunbeams in our ward. They are so funny! On Sunday they were talking in sharing time about reverence and specifically at that moment, reverent mouths.  Sweet little Leah got out of her seat, walked over to Noah and Eliza who were whispering and says (with hands on hips), "Aren't you two listening? You don't have reverent mouths at all. You need to stop talking."  She then sat down and showed them what a reverent child would look like and said, "Now you try it." :)  I love it when I'm not the one who always has to tell the kids to be quiet, ha ha.

Oh winter. Go away soon! We need some spring in our lives...

The Results Are In...

For those of you who don't know, Curtis has been working hard for a few months to get an awesome summer internship for his MBA.  He had two offers back in January and decided to turn them down since he didn't really want to work long term at either of those companies.  We prayed about it and felt like it was the right thing to do but the last few months have been super STRESSFUL while he has looked for a new one and not had a lot of luck.  He got an interview and then a final round interview with Wells Fargo working with an Options Strategy Group.  (For those of you who aren't married to a finance major, that means something to do with stock trading and investing.... At least I think I have that right ha ha.)  We've been waiting and waiting and waiting to hear back and (drum roll please).... he got it and we are headed to Charlotte, North Carolina for the summer! Yipee!!! We are so excited! If any of you happen to want to visit or will be in the area for summer please let us know.  Congrats to Curtis!

Have we mentioned that Kaden loves to play? Well he does. That is all he wants to do.  He whines when he's eating like he's not hungry and then as soon as we let him out of his highchair he immediately wants to play and is happy as a clam.  I just know in six years from now he is going to be that kid at school who never eats his lunch just because he knows that the faster or less he eats, the sooner he can go to recess and play. 

 Kaden also has a newfound interest in our food at the table.  The other day he stuck out his chubby hand before I could stop him, snatched my oatmeal and shoved a bite in his mouth.  He constantly wants to sit on our laps at mealtime and grab at anything he can reach.  He got a hold of my empty soup bowl the other night and we thought it was pretty funny. He sucked on it for probably five minutes and seemed really happy about it. 

We have this running joke that I can never get a good picture with Kaden.  He always looks away or gets grumpy when Curtis is snapping shots, not me.

 So I just decided to make the same face as Kaden since we can't seem to look happy together...

An Uncanny Mix

If no one else appreciates this post my mom and sister will get a laugh out of it.  The other day I had to go to the bathroom, so I set Kaden in his crib with his toy monkey for just a minute until I was done.  When I came back two minutes later this is what I found.  This is what happens when you take a very curious and playful Kaden+ a jar of prunes+some reflux=Dalmation baby! Not fun to clean up but we got a good laugh out of this.  He looks so innocent like he had no idea that smearing spit up prunes all over everything in his crib was bad. Ha ha. You can't see his monkey in the picture but he got him good.  I think until Kaden's reflux goes away I will stick to lighter colored fruits and veggies.

Kaden is 6 Months

I can't believe Kaden is already 6 months old.  Time has gone so quickly it's insane.  He is FINALLY growing!!! After months of having the odds stacked against him- 4 weeks premature, failure to thrive and reflux we are thrilled to see some chub on this boy.  He has always been between the 3rd and 10th percentile for everything since he's been born and at his 6 month appt he finally made it to the 25th percentile for everything- height, weight, and head.  He is 15 lbs. 12 oz and 26 inches.  Yay!

This picture says it all. Kaden is one curious boy!  He follows things with his eyes, tries to put everything in his mouth and is getting good at grabbing things and manipulating them with his hands.  Most of the time he can take his pacifier out and put it back in successfully.  This often prevents him from going down for naps because he is so persistent at trying to take it in and out and in and out.

 This picture says exactly what Kaden thinks of tummy time- not happening. Hates it. Still...

 This picture will probably be a source of embarrassment later in poor Kaden's life but we think this face is so funny.  This is the "I'm pooping, hold on a minute" face.

This kid is loving his Christmas presents- an exersaucer and a toy car that lights up and makes noises and sings songs. So fun!

 Kaden likes to try and help feed himself with the spoon. Very messy.

This is one of the things Kaden does all day long.  He'll roll over, be on his tummy for a few seconds, then get bored and switch to the swimmer position- arms up, legs kicking, going as fast as he can.  Then he'll get tired and switch back to his arms resting, then back to swimmer.  When he's finally had enough, he'll cry, we'll roll him back over and then he'll roll back again two seconds later.  Yes, folks, this is all day long. Maybe he's preparing for a future career?  Michael Phelps watch out!

We love this little man so much and it has been so fun to watch him grow and enter new stages.  More/cuter pictures to come when this poor baby is feeling better.  He's had a fever all day so I haven't wanted to do anything but let the poor kid rest.

Odds and Ends

Oh blogging. Starting to look like my journal- sporadic and infrequent entries. Tsk, tsk...

We Moved! On Feb. 1  we moved because our other neighbors were chain smokers and we didn't appreciate that lovely smell joining us in Kaden's room.  My life was in shambles for a week or so but we are finally unpacked. We love our bigger townhouse that does not smell like smoke.  It has more closets and bigger rooms. Woot.  The kitchen, though still fairly small compared to most, is double the size of our last cubicle so we are thrilled! Best part about moving besides the bigger place was getting to see my Mom for a few days.  She came and helped with Kaden while we packed up, moved and cleaned.  I'm so grateful for her help and it was fun to see her and for her and Kaden to get to play.  He loves his Grandma Richelle :)

We were so grateful for great neighbors and friends from our ward that let us borrow their truck and help us move the furniture from one townhouse to the other.

 Sickness-bleh. The plague has come and is hopefully on its way out of our house.   Most of my time has been spent holding a very sick boy who couldn't seem to stay asleep on his own.  For three days now Curtis and I have taken turns holding him during his naps just so he could get some sleep because he'd be coughing so hard he'd wake himself up and start to cry every time.  So sad. I will not miss this cold.  Good riddance influenza!  It has been nice to snuggle my baby though so I will miss that.  Even when Kaden feels rotten he is the sweetest boy and always tries to smile.  I took this picture right after he coughed so hard he puked all over me.  Apparently that can make a boy smile.  Why shouldn't it?

Can I just mention how great our neighbors are here? When you don't have family around it is such a blessing to have good friends from your ward. My friend Angie noticed we weren't at church on Sunday and found out that we were all sick and brought us dinner Sunday night.  I was so grateful for her thoughtfulness.

Let's talk Valentines.  We traded babysitting last week with some of our friends here, Miranda and Kyle Maclean.  They went out on Valentines Day and we watched their cute little Evelyn and we went out the next night and they watched Kaden.  We went to a cute little, local Italian place called Veneto and had their homemade pizza and gnocchi.  I'm such a sucker for homemade gnocchi, it's the best.  Yum! It was downtown and we really liked it.  Then we got to go to a movie "Here Comes the Boom" (don't judge-it was actually really funny.)  So nice to have a night out with just us and not worrying about Kaden. (I forgot to take a picture though so picture it in your minds...)  Until next time!