3???

How can it be?  I mean, really?  How is it possible that you, my sweet, perfect, first born son are 3?  I'm baffled.  The past 3 years have been filled with so much love, fun, adventure, laughter and chaos that I must have missed that fact that time was flying by so quickly.  

Sadly (this will totally annoy you one day), I'm one of those moms who likes to "relive" your birth every year...you know..the "I remember...blah, blah, blah...water breaking...blah, blah, blah...excruciating pain...blah, blah, blah...epidural...blah, blah, blah...talking on the phone while pushing...blah, blah, blah...perfect baby...you get the idea. 

Some day soon you'll roll your eyes at me for this, but give me this one will ya?  I loved that day.  LOVED.  You forever changed me for the better and watching you grow up is the most spectacular, bitter-sweet thing in the world.

I must admit that I have been doing a miserable job of keeping up this blog for you lately.  I'd love to say it's because we have so much going on, but lets be real.  Life is a lot.  All the time.  That's just how it is.  That's not an excuse to stop documenting it for you.  I want you (and your brother) to have a record of what was.  How it was.  How I felt about things...and you.  I was doing really well with the picture thing for a while, but that too has all but stopped.  I promise to get better.  I have to.  Because this birthday of yours has kinda thrown me for a loop.  This time last year we were getting on a plane and moving to London.  A YEAR!  How can that be?

So Cade...on this...your third birthday - here are just a few of the things I love about you:

You start every morning with a smile and sheer excitement.

You have a truly sweet spirit.

You are quick to say I'm sorry.

You adore your brother.

Your hair.

You have no volume control (ok, this one is a love/hate for me but it's really cute).

You still snuggle me.

You are mine.

And really, that's the most amazing part to me.  That God gave YOU to ME.  To love and teach and nurture.  It's the best job I've ever had.  The pay is lousy.  But the payback is immeasurable.  I love you.  I adore you.  I cherish you.  I just wanted you to know...

Happy birthday sweet boy.

Rant

I admit it.  It's true.  I rant a lot.  Usually about nothing - or everything.  Guess it depends on your viewpoint.  But today I have a good one.  Actually it totally sucks.

  What is this you ask?  Did I spill something?  Maybe the kids did it.  Oh no.  That would have been heaven compared to this...The abridged version of this story goes like this:  I started noticing that my once beautiful hardwood floors didn't seem quite right and so I did some research (via Google) on the only chemical cleaner I had ever used on them - Orange Glo.  What I found amazed and horrified me.  Seems that this ever popular floor "cleaner" has wreaked widespread havoc on hardwood floors for countless users.  Seems that it leaves some sort of wax build up that makes your floors look worse and worse over time and can only be removed by a  combination of water, ammonia and scrubbing on your hands and knees.  And I don't mean light scrubbing.  I mean grunting, sweating, blistered fingers scrubbing.  So far I've spend approximately 8 hours on the floor practicing my Cinderella act and I've cleaned  about 30 square feet.  That's somewhere in the vicinity of 3% of what I need to do.  Awesome.

 

In other less frustrating news - my boys are all fabulous and wonderful and perfect.  Ok, maybe not perfect, but pretty good.  We went to the stock show last month and had a great time seeing the animals and paying...I mean playing at the midway.

 

And just a few because I think they are darling and I hadn't pulled my camera out in a while.

Smarty Pants

I know they all do this...but I'm just so proud.

Cade - I'm in awe of you.  All moms feel this way about their kiddos I'm sure, but you amaze me with how smart you are.  How happy you are.  How perceptive.   How charming.  How stinkin' cute.  You melt my heart and I thank God EVERY DAY that I am lucky enough to be your mama.  Keep being you.  Don't ever let anyone or anything steal your joy.  It's who you are and it's what I love most about you.

A Very Merry

Christmas seemed crazier this year.  Not bad crazy.  Good crazy.  I think.  Give me some time to meditate on it...maybe over a massage.  I'll get back to you.

Regardless of the crazy level, It's definitely more fun with all the mini people in the family.  There are too many photo ops to catch them all, but I'm trying.  Christmas Eve, the E clan came over for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of pizza followed by a smashing rendition of "The Night Before Christmas" by the head Papa himself.  Christmas morning was (of course) bacon sandwiches, presents and a little whining.  After naps we made our way over the the E house for lunch, flag football and more presents.  What a perfect day.  

Jingle in the Trunk

So we don't get to have too many "adult" parties these days.  Last night we celebrated YaYa and PaPa's birthdays at their house.  In an effort to entertain the troops, ZuZu and I raided the "minute to win it"  archive of games and came up with a winner.  Welcome to "Jingle in the Trunk".  If you haven't seen this one on TV,  it's a tissue box filled with 12 jingle bells, tied around your waist.  You have up to 1 minute to jump and shake those bells out.  I'm not sure who had more fun - us or the kids.  You don't quite get the full effect with still shots, but it was hilarious.  We also decorated gingerbread men and enjoyed homemade hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows.  If you've never had homemade marshmallows, your missing out.  They are totally worth it - nothing like the store bought ones. 

The picture taking ended abruptly when I dropped my camera and broke my only lens.  Not to worry - my favorite husband gave me the best early Christmas present when we got home...a new 50mm lens.  I'm totally in love with it and Christmas morning will now be saved!

Only one more week until Santa comes and there are some very excited boys in our house.  I sure hope it lives up to their expectations.  I have loved all of the fun things we've been doing this year leading up to the celebration of our Savior's birth.  Thanks Jesus for being born and giving us the best excuse to rock it out and celebrate! And Happy Birthday to my awesome P's.  We love you so much!

Playtime

So if you haven't noticed - I'm on a slide show kick.  It's actually kind of convenient because I can stream them, music and all, to play on my TV.  It also allows me to post all the pics instead of choosing which ones to email.  Whatever - I don't know why I'm justifying myself to you people ;)  You don't have to enjoy them, but we do so here's another one.  

We took the beautiful Miss Em with us to Jump Zone this morning because baby Z had tubes put in his ears.  We had a  great time - despite the unbelievably rude kids (and moms)...who raises these hooligans?  I can't tell you how fun it is to see them coming down the slides over and over with those huge smiles on their faces.  Never gets old.  C2 loved it too, although he's thoroughly annoyed that he can't get right up there with the big 'uns.  Big thanks to KK who helped me wrangle all three so I could get so many pictures.  A - Next time you're coming too ;)

Pancakes with Santa

So this past weekend we got to combine 4 of Cade's absolute favorite things...The Fire station, Helicopters, Santa and PANCAKES!!! OK, so he's not actually that hot on Santa, but He's growing on him.

The Grapevine Fire Department hosts an annual pancake breakfast with Santa wherein the Big Guy arrives by helicopter along with the Mrs, his top reindeer and his good friend Frosty. After breakfast, you can wait in line to meet them...Rudolph is first, then Mrs. Claus, Frosty, then Santa. We only made it to Rudolph...
Regardless, we had a great time and can't wait until next year.