Kaden's Best Buddy

Kaden likes to play with lots of kids, but he has had a best friend that he adores more than any child on the planet since he was just a baby.  That would be Evie, my friend Miranda's little girl. We were friends in Rochester, NY and just happened to get lucky enough to move to Utah at the same time. We do weekly playdates with "Randa" and Evie and Baby Rose and Kaden just adores Evie. He follows her around like a little lovesick puppy. He told me the other day when we passed the Salt Lake Temple that he wants to marry "Evie grul" (Evie girl) there because she is his best friend and he loves her so much! It honestly melted my heart. 

I worry that when the MacLeans move to Spokane in June that Kaden's little world is going to collapse and he's not going to know what to do. They are the sweetest little friends. It makes me so happy to see them together. They are honestly kindred spirits- both feisty, but still sweet. They share with each other, but not without the occasional outburst of yelling from either of them. They giggle at the same things, get mad about the same things and both have more energy than most their age.  They love to sing and dance and run and play.  It's been a huge blessing for Kaden to have such a wonderful friend. It's been an equally great blessing for me that Miranda and I have been such good friends and that our kids just happen to adore each other.

Kaden & Evie as babies May 2013

Easter Egg Hunting April 2014

Both Kaden and Evie like things in straight lines or "trains" as Kaden calls them all :)

The MacLeans moved from Rochester in May 2014 and we didn't move until June, so Kaden didn't see his "best buddy" for a month. It was so sad because he asked me daily to "pway with Evie" (play) and didn't understand what it meant that they'd moved. He was overjoyed to get to see her again in June when we were back in Utah! It was the sweetest reunion. They both squealed and hugged each other.

Taking a break from swimming at the Bountiful Rec Center Summer 2014

 Park time Fall 2014- They just love holding each other's hands. If you know Kaden, there's not much on the planet he hates more than holding hands, so that tells you how much he loves Evie.  She asks and he will comply.

Halloween @ Tracy Aviary 2014

Liberty Park April 23, 2015- There is nothing better in life than a friend that you absolutely adore

Kaden's Easter Pics

It's been a crazy few weeks, and I finally got around to getting Kaden's Easter pictures in his new outfit. He kills me. I can't believe how grown up he looks! He tells me all the time how he is a "big bow-ie" (boy) and how he is "growing up tall like a grown up." He's talking really well lately and just makes me smile. Love this little man!

I may or may not use bribes when I want good pictures. May I add, there's almost nothing this little guy won't do for a sucker? He asks me daily to go to the bank because he knows they'll give him a sucker. When I tell him that we don't need to go today, he'll ask, "you don't have any money?" Nope. Curtis and I told him we've given all of our money to the bank, so now we don't have any left.  Not actually a lie most of the time. :) But the value of a sucker is worth a lot to capture his cute little smile.  (Even the goofy one below. Ha ha.)

Twin Pregnancy Update

I've been pretty bad at documenting a whole lot about my pregnancy with the twins, but I have a few pics I can share. At my last appt at 29 weeks, they said they are both growing nicely and are 55th and 54th percentile (compared to a singleton), so not bad for twins. Baby A (closest to the birth canal, my calm one) weighed in at 3 lbs. 0 oz, and Baby B (my wild, crazy wiggly kicker) weighed in at 2 lbs. 15 oz. I'm thrilled that Baby A is head down so I'm actually cleared for VBAC right now instead of another C-section. Hopefully Baby B will flip around as it gets closer, but as long as the one closest to the birth canal is head down I can still deliver normally and they'll just do a breech extraction of Baby B (aka, reach in and yank him out. Sounds awkward, but still better than surgery...)

I'm measuring 5 weeks ahead (normal for twins) so if it seems like I look bigger, it's because I am.  I hardly bought any maternity stuff with Kaden. I just wore my regular shirts up until about 30ish weeks, then bought a few that I cycled between.  This time around I'm already starting to outgrow some of my maternity clothes, as in, they are not covering my full belly. I'm getting a little bit worried. :)

Here are some comparison pics:
14.5 weeks with twins                     There is no comparison picture bc I didn't look pregnant then...ha!


18 weeks with twins                        17 weeks with Kaden-No belly at all... bleh.
 

25 weeks with twins                         24 weeks with Kaden
 
28 weeks with twins                        28 weeks with Kaden

  

Star Valley, WY

Over the weekend of April 10-12 we went to Star Valley, WY to visit Curtis' sister Nicki and her family, and attend Emma's baby blessing.   It's a long enough drive that we figured rather than go up and back just for the blessing (since it's about 3.5 hours each way and Kaden hates being in the car) that we'd go up for the whole weekend. 

Curtis took Friday off work and we left early in the morning. Little did we know that Google maps doesn't take into account seasonal closures of roads.  We drove all the way up Weber Canyon, past Huntsville and the main road we needed to take to get there was closed for the season due to snow, with no detour. We had to turn around and drive an hour and a half back to get to I-15. Oh well, we thought, a detour won't kill us, we'll just go through Logan instead. So we get on I-15, drive through Logan, stop for lunch and then head up through Preston, ID to get there. We'd accidentally left our Tom Tom (big GPS) in our Corolla (and we were borrowing my parent's car since ours is in Tyler's shop for some repairs), so we were just using the GPS on our phones. Nothing blows through batteries faster than phone GPS, so in an effort to save both of our phone batteries and not get stranded somewhere with no phones, we looked up how far until our next turn, set the odometer and turned the GPS off for a little bit. Apparently that was a bad idea. We didn't realize we had to turn right a few miles later to stay on the same road and ended up taking an entirely different road that put us on another hour and a half long detour.  Long story short, it was a VERY long day of driving and we were all a bit grumpy. We left at 9:30 am and should've arrived about lunchtime, but instead we arrived at 4:30 pm. Argh. 

The rest of the weekend was much more fun than Friday. Kaden always has a blast playing with his cousins, so no complaints from him. We went to a little fish pond at Brad's dad's house and the kids got to feed the fish.  Kaden was too impatient to hold the pole for long, but he liked the idea of it. He thought the fish was pretty gross though and kept saying how it was "too slimy" and wouldn't touch it at all for a picture. Ha ha. I guess we may never be a family that is very into fishing, since neither Curtis nor I fish either.

 Kaden absolutely loves to "drive" anything he can possibly get his hands on, Allen's ATV being no exception. It made Kaden's day that he got to go on a ride and Allen let him steer.

Lolly (Brad & Nicki's friends' daughter), Jackson, Kaden & Allen (Brad's dad)

On Sunday I couldn't actually hear a word of Emma's blessing since Kaden was so put out that all the boys on our row got to go to the front of the chapel to "help" and he didn't. (Aka, all the people sitting by us just happened to be males and Melchisedek Priesthood holders that stood in the circle to help bless Emma.)  Kaden kept shouting, "but I am a boy Mom. I need to go up there too! I am a boy!" So I'm sure it was a lovely blessing, but I have no idea what Brad may have said in it... oh well.  Let's just hope that Kaden doesn't do that at the twins' blessing or I might be more annoyed. :)

Some photos of the fam- Dana & Marv

 The Carter family

Kaden really hates church clothes, so this was a painful picture to even attempt to get... I consider it successful that at least Kaden is looking at the camera so you can see his face, even if he's not that happy.

Some random little Kadenisms

 We bought Kaden a kite and he's had fun trying to fly it. It hasn't been as windy as we'd hoped for kite flying, but he's still enjoyed it nonetheless.

Kaden loves to help more than anything. He helps me make dinner every night and really likes to add ingredients when we're cooking and in the kitchen. He knows how to make a green "moothie" (smoothie) all by himself, as far as ingredients go since he requests one daily. (Fine with me since he eats very few vegetables of his own free will, this is my way to get him to eat something green without fighting, bribing or tantrums.)  He loves to add each ingredient, then turn the blender on and push the buttons to make it go. Here he is helping Curtis make German pancakes on a Saturday.

He sure loves his "deppy dool" (step stool).  He drags that thing all over the house to make sure he can reach whatever he wants. Sometimes it is honestly the bain of my existence since it always seems to be in the way and I'm constantly running into it/tripping over it, but I have to appreciate that he's a very independent little guy and really likes to know how to do things and wants to help. You can't be mad at that.

Kaden is the pickiest eater on the planet. All meals are a battle. It's quite exhausting and mealtimes were quickly becoming my least favorite part of the day because we'll be at the table for an hour a meal or more sometimes, just to get him to eat a few bites. We've figured out recently that he's very competitive (shocking, where could he get that from?) and that he'll eat almost anything if we're having a race.  We'll have "rice bite races, carrot bite races," etc.. and if he "wins," which he usually does then he'll say, "I didn't give you a chance at all." :)

Kaden is honestly a funny little guy. He loves to try and make people laugh more than anything. He's been going through a bit of a "mean" stage where he'll say some pretty rude stuff to people to get a laugh.  We've been really trying to work on praising him when he says stuff that's funny, without being mean to others.  Some of my recent favorite things he's said:

• We were talking about eating and how grown ups can take bigger bites than kids since their mouths are bigger. Kaden then said, "when I am a grown up I will get a big mouth.  When I turn 3 I will be a grown up."
• Curtis was just about to jump in the shower one morning, when Kaden walked in and needed something.  Curtis came out in his garments to help him.  Kaden pointed at Curtis' crotch and said, "Daddy, what is THAT?"  Curtis said, "my underwear." "No Daddy, what is THAT? (pointing to his man parts)  Did you poop?"   We couldn't stop laughing. In Kaden's little boy mind, the only reason you should have a bulge in your underwear is because you pooped and didn't get your diaper changed yet. :)

Easter Sunday

For Easter Sunday Kaden was really excited about what the Easter bunny brought this year for all of us.   Kaden has really liked robots lately and has been really into talking like a robot, acting like a robot, and also has been fighting us a decent amount on naps and bedtime, so it seemed fitting that he got a book called "Power Down, Little Robot."  (This is him being a robot with Q-Tips in his ears.)

Kaden also loves the idea of playing games, but we really only have Candyland and Cootie, so there's not many he can play, so he got Barrel of Monkeys and Old Maid. He's already pretty good at both of them.  He's a smart kid and picks up quickly.

The Easter Bunny brought me new sandals and nail polish, since I'm too big to want any other clothes right now. 

Curtis has been on a real health kick and got some new exercise clothes.

Kaden loved the robot book and games and of course, the candy...

We enjoyed watching General Conference together as a family and had a nice brunch in the morning. I always love General Conference and hearing the prophet and apostles speak. I always seem to get some great, personal revelation from it, which is so enlightening to me.