Thanksgiving

This year we went to VA to celebrate Thanksgiving with GJ and Randall Pop.  It was so nice to spend time with family!  C and L both did GREAT in the car (quite a feat considering the ride there took over 9 hours)…BUT, they were both a bit off while we were there.  Cade threw the biggest tantrum of his life during Thanksgiving dinner so we didn’t get to eat together.  At least we were with family!  We look forward to many more Thanksgivings together… hopefully without all the drama next time.  J 

3 Year B-Day Celebrations

Cade Rogers....you are one blessed 3 year old!  We had two birthday celebrations in your honor.  First, we had a special birthday dinner at our house with our favorite friends - the Burrous family!  We had pizza and cupcakes, decorated with balloons and streamers, and you opened a few gifts from Mommy, Daddy, Luke and Olivia.  It was the perfect birthday dinner!

GJ and Randall Pop hosted your birthday party in VA....and man, oh man were you spoiled rotten!  It was a dinosaur themed party (which you loved)...there were dinosaurs everywhere!  We ate pizza again (it never gets old), had a special birthday cake, played pin the head on the dinosaur, and opened waaaayyy too many presents.  GJ really showered you with lots of birthday love!! 

You are one loved little boy!

3 Years Old

My Precious Cade,

You are THREE YEARS OLD!!!  I would have to write a book to include everything I hope to remember about you at 3, but I'll do my best to sum it up here!

• I'll check back in with your weight and height.  I accidentally threw away the paper with this info. that I got from the doctor.  Oops!  I do remember that you're slightly above average in both...between 60th and 70th%tile.
• You wear size 3T clothing and size 8 shoes.  You are starting to get an opinion about what you wear and will sometimes protest wearing what I've picked out for you.  Your favorite items of clothing include jeans and hats.  You ask to wear jeans every day and you pick out a hat from Daddy's hat rack to wear nearly every morning. 
• You're still a pretty decent eater, although you're a bit pickier than you used to be.  Your favorite foods include:  pasta, cheese, boiled eggs, pancakes, fruit (you love all fruit), chips and crackers, fish, and pizza.  Your favorite things to drink are milk and juice.
• You sleep well for the most part - but you often wake up crying for a couple of minutes during the night.  You go to sleep around 8:00 and wake up around 6:30 or 7:00.  You take a 2-3 hour nap during the day. 
• You are a very social little guy!  You love to play with others and you greet your teachers with a bright smile and a cheery hello each day.  You're not shy at all and will often say hello to strangers. 
• You are equal parts cooperative and difficult.  At times you are the most agreeable, sweetest, helpful little guy ever and at other times you make everything very difficult.  You are definitely trying to figure out your power around here and are testing limits like never before!  You are a bit of a jekyl and hyde - you go from sweetest boy on the planet to throwing a total fit over the tiniest little thing.  You get frustrated when things don't come easy. 
• You love to be with others and do not like to play alone (at home, anyway).  At school, you like to make others laugh - sometimes pushing the envelope a little with potty talk (you think it's funny to say poopy and similar words) because you think it's funny.  :) 
• You are super smart and love to learn new things!  You love, love, love to read books and look things up on the computer.  Right now your favorite things to "look up" are animals and what they eat, planets and space ships launching, and dinosaurs.
• Your favorite toys are:  trains, trucks and cars, dinosaurs, ride-on toys, balls, Legos.  You often carry around a little toy or trinket of some sort...like you did as a really little guy.  :)  You still sleep with Snuggle Bear
• Your favorite TV show is PAW Patrol.  You also like Bubble Guppies and Peppa Pig.  You LOVE to watch TV!! 

We love you Cade!!!  We can't wait to see what your next year will bring!  We'll check back in with birthday party details.  :)

You're holding a piggy bank you got for your birthday.  You took it everywhere you went for the first few days you had it!

15 Months Old

Sweet, sweet, Lukey Bear....you are 15 months old!!!   You have always been ridiculously precious...but you're quickly becoming downright edible!  We love every little thing about you (seriously...you're even cute when you cry...though I could do without the scrying (screaming/crying combo) and we are so lucky to be your family!  Here's a little more about you at 15 months:

• You weigh 24lbs, 8oz (49th %tile); you are 31.75 inches tall (69%tile), and your head circumference is 18.75 (63%tile).  
• You wear size 5 diapers, size 18 months clothing, and size 6 shoes.
• You are a good eater, but you can be a little fussy at meal times.  Your favorite foods include cheese, yogurt, squeezy pouches, biscuits, pancakes/waffles, oranges, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and meat/fish (turkey, steak, all fish).  You get a little hangry (like your mama) when we let you get too hungry and the past few days you've been walking to your high chair and saying "eat, eat" over and over again until we put you in and feed you.
• You love, love, love your milk!  You still get a bottle before bedtime and if/WHEN you wake up in the middle of the night.
• You still wake up at least once each night...probably because we're still giving you a bottle when you do...geez...plan to tackle this one over Christmas break..
• You are a smiley, happy little guy!  Everyone at your school comments on how happy you are.  You like to be silly and try to make us laugh.  
• You love to dance and have some of the cutest dance moves I've ever seen!!  You dance whenever you hear music.  
• You also love to read books.  Your teachers report that you will sit and look at books for very long periods of time.  You bring me books to read to you a lot at home.
• You are eerily smart and my jaw drops daily by the things I think I hear you saying.  Like today, your foot slipped in between the cushions of the couch and you looked at me and said, "I stuck" and the other day Daddy was holding you and Cade and Cade said, "Let me get down"...the next thing I knew you said, "Let me get down"...of course, you did not pronounce the words correctly and we would have never known what you had said if Cade hadn't said it first...but still.  You love to talk and you say around 30 words.  
• You have SO MUCH ENERGY!!!  You are always running, chasing, squealing, banging, throwing... And you are one tough little booger.  Cade pushes you down at least 10 times a day...you are are always climbing, falling and rarely do you even cry, and if you do it's only for a few seconds.  
• You love:  Cade (you mimic his every move), Snuggle Duckie (your newly adopted lovey), bottles, snacks, talking, exploring, being around all of us.
• You do NOT love:  getting your teeth brushed (it is ABSURD how hard you fight us on this one), getting in your car seat, having your diaper changed, getting out of the bath tub.  

You are truly a little ball of sunshine and we love you more than you will ever know!!!

Thanksgiving Feast

Last Thursday Cade's class hosted a Thanksgiving feast.  They put on a pre-feast program during which they did a little play and sang songs.  Watching Cade in his first "performance" was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen!!!  His teacher said that he did a great job memorizing the words, songs, and movements and that he really got into practicing - quickly becoming, according to her, the "leader of the pilgrims".  Haha!  Way to go Cade!  I am looking forward to many more of these!

Pumpkin' Carvin'

Last weekend we headed to the pumpkin patch!  The boys loved exploring and looking at all of the pumpkins.  Cade got to ride a pony for the first time.  He was pretty serious while he was on it, but afterwards he asked to do it again so I'm assuming he had fun.  Afterwards we headed home to carve our pumpkins.  We had fun cutting them open and scooping all of the "guts" out.  Lukey was trying to eat the seeds, but other than that it went off without a hitch!  Love these boys!!!

Dress Up Like a Farmer Day

Happy Halloween!

Today is Halloween!  It's a Friday so Cade and Luke spent the day at school.  Cade had a Halloween party yesterday and Lukey had pajama day today.  After school, we took Luke to get his flu shot and then headed home to throw on our costumes and head over to the Burrous home for pizza and trick-or-treating!  All of the kids were so sweet in their costumes!  This was the first year that Cade has had an opinion about what he wanted to be.  He said early on that he wanted to be a dinosaur...and a cute little dinosaur he was!  Sorry Lukey...we promise we won't make you wear hand-me-down costumes once you can tell us what you want to be.  Cade and Olivia had a blast going from house to house.  Cade was pretty good about saying trick-or-treat, but there were definitely a few times that I heard him say, "I want candy."  Haha!  Lukey was so funny!  He totally knew what was going on with the trick or treating thing and was not happy unless he was down, walking, and able to trick or treat all by himself, just like C and O.  We extended our path this year and hit quite a few houses.  Happy Halloween!

Fun with Sheets

Pumpkin Festival

Today we went to Stone Mountain for the pumpkin festival.  We saw lots of pumpkins, rode the train, had a picnic, and ate ice cream.  The boys were great and we had lots of fun!  The weather was hot and not too fall-like, but we enjoyed the sunshine nonetheless.  We love fall!

Perfectly Sweet

The other day I watched a sappy Facebook video from a mother whose children were grown.  She gave a very touching speech about how desperately she missed the days when her kids were young...the days that seem so exhausting, overwhelming, never-ending when you're in the trenches living it every day.  She talked a lot about how the days she missed the most were the days that seem the hardest to me - those that have no agenda.  No where to be, no outing planned.  The days spent around the house doing ordinary things.  So far this weekend we've been lazy homebodies and I can't stop thinking about this lady's message.  I truly can't imagine a Saturday when our two boys don't crawl into bed with us upon waking and beg to watch TV, or making pancakes without Cade sitting on the counter begging for a taste.  Without hearing Lukey's little bare feet pitter patter around in pursuit of Cade...or grocery shopping without Luke biting into tomatoes through the bag and Cade singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad" from the car on the front of the cart to anyone who will listen.  Days without snacks, sticky hands, bedtime stories, toys EVERYWHERE.  UGH!!...  I can't even bear the thought.  As much as I try to soak up every minute, time seems to be slipping through my fingers at an alarming rate.  I just pray that EVERY stage in their lives is as perfectly sweet as this one.