Population Change

Have you been waiting for this post? I know many of you have been waiting to see that little number in our small town change to 4, and indeed, it has :o) At the beginning of February, we found out that I was pregnant once again. Like my pregnancy with Caden, we were surprised, yet very excited. The Lord has perfect timing, and He has proven Himself faithful to us in any kind of change. We are looking forward to expanding our family and facing even more adventures. Caden doesn't really have a clue what's going on other than being trained to point to my belly when we ask him, "Where's the baby?" He sometimes will say 'baby' when he points. He also enjoyed watching me throw-up one day when Britton wasn't home. He stood by my side and the toilet and acted like he was 'spitting' in the toilet too. So supportive. I have had a good amount (and by 'good' I mean too much and no fun) of sickness. With Caden I had some hardcore sickness for several weeks then it was gone at 12 weeks. With this baby, I have been sick off and on with lots of tiredness and random throwing up every now and then. This too shall pass. I am 16 weeks today. I'm amazed at how much I have felt the baby moving already. It's a strong little thing, much like his or her brother. We are planning to find out the gender of the baby at the beginning of June. We are thrilled beyond words for our next great adventure!

Our happy family of 3 looking forward to being 4.

My sweet boy, who I truly believe is ready to be a big brother. Though he is a tough, all-boy little boy, he has a such a sweet side to him. I think having a sibling is going to be a great thing for him.

As a side note, Caden is one popular little dude around here. Everywhere we go, people call out his name (in the local language) and say hello. He has his own little group of friends at the playground that love seeing him. Last night, we were walking on the sidewalk coming home from the store (we've been giving him a little more freedom with walking, although he still must hold our hand), and he insisted on waving at just about every person we passed and say, "bye-bye." Needless to say, it took a while to get home. Like his daddy, Caden is most certainly an extrovert, unlike his introverted mommy who would prefer writing all her thoughts on a blog :o).

My sweet little boy with me out enjoying our beautiful weather. Can't wait to go crazy trying to wrangle 2 little ones for a photo.

My last picture for the post is, of course, a sweet satisfaction of a craving met. I have had many (and I do mean many) cravings during this pregnancy...you inevitably want what you can't have. I day dream of sonic hamburgers with a cherry limeade along with Olive Garden bread sticks and most certainly sour patch kids to name a few. The Lord is good to allow us to have discovered a western-style restaurant with hamburgers, which is unheard of in this city. I also found a recipe for garlic bread sticks that I could make from scratch that (to me and Britton) taste just like Olive Garden bread sticks. And last, my mom sent the most ginormous bag of sour patch kids I have ever seen! I told her I must pace myself in eating them, although I have no doubt they'll be gone in due time. A friend also found some orange juice locally that (again to me) tastes like Simply Orange, Orange Juice...something I craved with Caden and also crave this pregnancy. So, even in something as small as food, the Lord is faithful to provide beyond our needs. So grateful.

Carnesville Population: 4

Chatting with Caden

Today at lunch, Caden brought a new meaning to Chatty Cathy. He babbled the whole time making me, Britton, our house helper, and tutor laugh hysterically. After several minutes of babbling, I decided to get the camera out and allow you to join in on the fun. Sometimes, it's as if he's really trying to get something across and others it seems he wants to practice some of his language (the local language). For the most part, this whole conversation is all his own little language that only he and the Lord understand. Oh, to be in his mind. The word he keeps repeating is 'thank you.' The second video, I think, is the funniest if you watch that long. I hope you enjoy his communication like we do.

 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Getting Old

We like to joke with our house helper about Britton being old now. We celebrated his birthday (yikes!) almost a month ago! He turned the big 27 on March 22. Our house helper, needless to say, giggles when we call him an 'old man' in the language. We had a great few days celebrating. Here's some snapshots.

This was right before Britton's bday. The weather started to turn warm and sunny, so we had to get out for a walk. Though he protests, I think it's cute when Caden holds his daddy's hand. He's getting better.

We have great friends who brought Britton a peanut-buttery dessert along with an awesome birthday hat. He wore it proud, and it totally says 1st birthday on it.

Mine & Caden's gifts to Britton. You can't really tell, but I traced Caden's hand print on the paper, and Caden colored a little on it. He's starting to enjoy coloring now...for about 2 minutes. I gave Britton some playing cards (the deck I brought with us only had 50 cards...silly me) along with an angry birds game, candy, and gift card to our favorite and legitimate movie store.

Caden gave him none other than foam fighting swords! They used to sword fight (and sometimes still do) with the broom and dustpan. Now, they have authentic foam swords. It's really cute.

Here's a very short video of Britton and Caden sword fighting. Caden gets whiny at the end. Britton is saying he thinks Caden wants him to lay down and play dead...which they do often. Now Caden will put the sword under his arm and sit on the ground like he's been killed. It's cute...I guess I can say that's cute as long as no blood is shed :o)

 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

This is me playing on Picasa. This is Britton's bday swords along with his Happy Birthday sign in the background.

Caden dressed for the happy occasion representing the year, 1985, his daddy was born, and of course, it's a football shirt too.

A strawberry cake with strawberry icing and strawberries on top...and he picks on me for liking chocolate!

You'd think Caden would be a pro with cake since he had 3 birthday parties, but when we gave him a cupcake, he looked at it like, "Aren't you supposed to give this to me on a fork?" After a minute of staring, he just leaned down and went at it. We found it hilarious.

"Um, I think I got a little on my mouth."

Happy Birthday Britton! We love you immensely. You are the greatest husband and the best father. We are blessed to have you!

Last Stop

After Thailand, we headed to India for a class for Britton. We didn't do a whole ton since Britton was in class all day, but we had a great time, once again, eating some great food we don't have available to us. We also got to go to a market (I went twice) and got some authentic items including a beautiful ring Britton got me. Not a ton of pictures, but this is what's left from our trip.

Caden made a new friend there. He absolutely loved loving on this little girl. He would give her hugs and kisses all day long. Just precious. He does have a soft side!

In a three-seater taxi riding around town. These were fun...and airy :o)

from our view. You can see another 3-seater to our right. These things are pretty small. So, our driver decided to stop once to get himself a drink then another time to go pee on the side of the road. Lovely.

Caden soaking it all in.

Eating at the Hard Rock Cafe...so very good!

once again, back at the airport. This was actually back in the Thailand airport before we headed back home.

it's amazing the things you can find to entertain a one year old in the airport

Sorry there aren't more pictures! You would never know where we even went! I was amazed at the amount of pictures I took that were in the airport. We spent a lot of time there! We had a great time, but are glad to be back home. When we got back, our gloomy and gray weather turned into sunny and warm weather! Such a blessing! Here's a few short videos of our time in both places.

 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Caden's first trip to the zoo...

Technically, Caden's first trip to the zoo was in NC when he was in the womb. This was his first time getting to see everything :o) While away, we went to a great zoo that was not crowded and had plenty to see and do. It was very interactive, and we got the full experience. Here's snapshots of our half-day at the zoo before heading back for a nap for Caden.

First stop was the hippos. This ended up being Caden's favorite stop. I was amazed how close we got to them and how absolutely disgusting their mouths were. The one on the right is the baby hippo waiting to be fed as you can see. It's like our little family...me on the left (never looking better!), Britton in the middle, and Caden on the right with his mouth wide open for us to give him more food.

I mean really...that's just nasty. When they eat it looks like they're stabbing themselves with their teeth. I brought back a hippo tooth for Britton when I went to Africa (no, I didn't pull it out!), so it was cool to see one up so close.

Caden lovin' the hippos.

Britton fed the hippos. I wasn't about to touch whatever junk he was feeding the guy. The daddy hippo was greedy for some food, but Britton made sure the mama and baby had their share.

Of course, this is not real but was enjoyable for the little man.

gotta include some zebra behind

the kid loves to point. He's pointing at the giraffes, ostriches, and zebras here (mostly the giraffes). I didn't get my camera out in time to snap a shot of the giraffe about 5 feet away from him.

Caden got to ride his first horse. I was shocked that the dude just took off the moment we sat Caden down. I'm glad Britton grabbed hold of him since there was no strap. Caden grabbed hold of the handles like he knew exactly what he was doing.

parked back in his little pin. Caden lookin' like a pro

touching the hairs on the baby elephant. Yes, we used hand sanitizer afterward.

family photo + Mr. Elephant

the dude taking our picture made us get closer and closer to the elephant. It looks like we could have gotten even closer, but the elephant's ear kept flapping over my head. I was afraid it was gonna smack me in the face. Click on the picture to see Caden's not-too-sure about the elephant's tusks face better.

Britton feeding the elephant. He would pull his hand back quickly in fear that it might get taken.

Next stop was the pandas. This guy had his own huge playground complete with a slide. Unfortunately, the other 2 pandas were asleep.

After the pandas, we saw the tigers, camels, kangaroos, and an animal show then Caden was ready for a nap so we headed out. We quickly grabbed a zoo magnet and a stuffed animal hippo since that was Caden's favorite. He immediately became fond of her as you can see below. Unfortunately, we left Miss Hippo in the taxi the next day after his immunizations on accident. Now, we have a reason to go back :o) I'm just glad I didn't take Sir Barks-a-lot to the doctor to soothe him after shots. We would never see him again! And Barks is a must-have...he's like 'Baby,' if ya know what I mean!

Here's a few short videos. The first 2 are of Caden on the horse (sorry the first one is a little bumpy cause I'm walking). The second one is of Britton timidly feeding an elephant.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

A great day at the zoo. Can't wait to go back...and we plan to :o)

Oh yeah, we went on a trip

Well, poo. I meant to post about our trip right after the last post, but alas, life happens. Our trip is beginning to feel like a very long time ago. At the end of February (yikes, it's April!), we went to Thailand for a week. We had a great time and especially enjoyed seeing the sun everyday and eating some western food. So as not to put it off further, here are pictures of the first half of our travels minus going to the zoo (that's next).

Caden liked having his own seat on the airplane for about 3 minutes then was ready to move around. Here he wanted to touch the ceiling. We had 8 total flights in 2 weeks and half of them we held him in our lap. Fortunately, the longest flight was about 3 1/2 hours.

In one of the many airports. Caden and his buddy loved walking all over the place.

On another flight...as you can see, the social butterfly can't stay seated and would rather make the people behind us laugh and vice versa.

might seem like a simple picture, but to have dunkin' donuts and starbucks sitting in the sun is a wonderful sight and even better in my belly

looking too cute before going to his "class" so Britton and I could go to some meetings. Note: his shirt says: "I'm gonna be on a cereal box some day." (compliments of my mom)

I'm glad he got to go outside and enjoy the sun. We saw him outside one day and enjoyed watching him run around the yard and watching someone else chase him.

this picture is a little blurry, but I love Caden's sweet face looking up at his daddy as they walk together 

eating a huge and delicious hamburger. I just wanted a hamburger while we were gone, and I think I had 4 or 5. Yum.

such a funny face. I'm not quite sure what he was looking at, but he just got up from his nap, hence the bed-head, and we were heading to the pool

it was a gorgeous day to be at this great pool, but unfortunately, the pool was pretty cold and Caden wasn't too interested in 'swimming.'

After the pool, we went to this great play area that Caden did love.

He loved sliding down this slide too all by himself.

In a taxi going to dinner...the back is open, which was a bit scary at first but ya get use to it.

Of course, we had to eat at Outback Steakhouse before leaving. We shared a huge bloomin' onion with our friends. I love that it was bigger than Caden's head.

Sorry most of our pictures are in an airport, but we spent a lot of time there! Britton kept Caden occupied with our friend's suitcase.

To the zoo!...