the dr office

those nurses... what are we going to do with them? 3 of them at once... coming at my poor little boy with needles! yup, today was round 3 of the shots! yucky! at least we don't have to do that again for another 2 months. we are sleeping now... and hopefully will continue to do so for a while!

On a happier note... we weighed in at 14.11 lbs and measured 24 inches long! So we are hanging in at around the 60th percentile mark. He's lighter than I thought he was going to be... but that's ok with me! As I am the one that carries him most of the time... my arms need more time to build up the strength to carry a +15lbs baby. :)

I forgot that I had taken these photos the other day. My sister has a butterfly chair that Caden now enjoys sitting in. It cradles him just enough that he can relax and yet sit up with the rest of
us... it's been really helpful when i want to eat dinner!

we love gorillas

yes, he's adorable!

an older shot

daddy took this shot when Caden was about 2 months old... but i just got it downloaded off his camera. thought it was worth sharing. :)

17 weeks... it's hard to believe

our little monkey is 17 weeks old this week! we have another dr appt on tues... should be fun! NOT! time for more shots... icky!
daddy officially put the last stones in the rock wall last weekend. after 3 years, it's done! it's been almost 2 years since my own Champion was helping daddy put stones into this wall...
a certain gorilla showed up yesterday... it's awesome! ironically, we were wearing our "hunky" gorilla shirt yesterday! THANK YOU Grandma and Grandpa Smalley! It's a most excellent gorilla! (he doesn't know what to do with it yet... as it's nearly as big as he is... :) makes for some interesting reactions! )

you can't help but love the face. but what really makes it is the line of drool...
munching on grandmommy's hand!
i am a little man! (and if you look at the larger image, again, you can see the drool starting to dribble out...)

hi daddy...

another one...

standing...

don't you just love his chubby legs... :)

we love you, daddy

how we spent our Fri afternoon and Sat morning...

I swear, this kid makes the greatest faces...

another morning in nc

this was a few days ago... notice how we have added squealing and screaming to our vocal abilities... that has certainly added a new bit of pizazz to our crying fits... let me tell you, oh joy!

a quick note...

As my little monkey is taking a nap (who knows how long that will last)... I thought I would drop in a quick line and see if I couldn't get some updated pictures up and maybe a video clip. It's hard to get clips that are small enough and still worth watching. So often he spots the red light or the camera itself and stops whatever it was that he was doing. But here goes... let's see if these work...

Green Lemonade

Green lemonade, made possible by Natalia Rose and her book The Raw Food Detox Diet.
Makes 1 serving

1 head romaine lettuce or celery
5 to 6 stalks kale (any type)
1 to 2 apples (as needed for sweetness - she recommends organic Fuji)
1 whole organic lemon (you don't have to peel it)
1 to 2 inches fresh ginger (optional)

Process the vegetables in a juicer. Pour into a large glass, and drink! Notice how the lemon really cuts out the "green" taste that most people try to avoid.

ok, so i have my own info that i will add to this... but in the mean time... here's the recipe. :)

when life gives you kale...

make green lemonade!
Our new juicer came yesterday, baby! Needless to say, I immediately made green lemonade for dinner last night... and for breakfast this morning! I am so excited for you to come home and try it. We get a lot more juice with this one... the pulp is almost dry when it comes out. Yes, I get excited about the little things. And since this one is a single gear masticating juicer, I can do all sorts of other things with it. Gonna try a banana/blueberry "ice cream" with it later this afternoon... will let you know how that goes. We can also make almond butter with it... though i think it's cheaper to just buy almond butter (and a heck of a lot less clean up). :)

And here's your little monkey the other nite... he had had his bath and we were in the home stretch for getting him down for the night. (yea, sure... you see how open those eyes are!) He does love hanging out with his Aunt Lizzie though. She makes him laugh. It's really cute to watch. It's going to be sad to see her move to Florida. He will miss her (and so will I!).

Alright... he's down for a nap... so I am going to grab something to eat and maybe catch a nap myself. I love you, my Champion!

rain rain go away...

Yup, it's raining again today (or at least this afternoon and evening)... but thanks to the love of my life... there is sunshine in the house! :) Thank you my darling, you know how to make me smile!

it's raining!

So he was being a little stinker this morning and didn't want to sleep. oh well... i guess i should expect such things. i need to start going to bed earlier at night, right after i put him down... but that never seems to happen. one day i will learn. funny though... i put him down around 3:30am in at one end of his crib. when he woke me up about 6am, he was at the other end of his crib. the little bugger had managed to push himself (on his back) down the length of his crib! gotta keep an eye on this one... he's figuring out how to move! Danger! Danger!

My flowers came this morning, my darling! They are absolutely beautiful. (or at least they will be when they bloom!) I will get a picture of them once they open up a little more. You really know how to brighten up my day! Especially with it raining here. Speaking of... how are those sand storms going? Please tell me they have slowed down a bit...

Will try to get more up here later. But have to get a few things down before this little monkey wakes up from his nap. (which will probably be as soon as he hears the shower start...) Ciao!

last one, i think

let's roll over...

yesterday morning continued

and as i didn't get them all up here yesterday, here are a few more... Mom, disregard the end of this video... sorry he decided to be ornery... he's excited... and SO AM I!!!! (and so is my mom!!)

here's another one for you

my little monkey

alright, so here's the first one...

another Sat

So today is the start of the Tour and I am missing it. Stupid cable isn't working. Oh well. I didn't get much sleep last night... thank you Caden! He was up every hour, at least once... between 12:45am and 8:30am when we finally gave up and got up. As he is taking a much needed nap right now, I thought I would post some videos that I took this morning. He gets camera shy, but he did talk a little bit. And he certainly made some fun faces. :) So here ya go...

Oh... and just for the fun of it... Daddy's back working on the wall today. And I am looking exhausted... :) I love you my Champion!

new toys

How exciting! I finally ordered the juicer and dehydrator that I have been planning on getting us for the last year. :) I found a good price online for both, so I went ahead and bit the bullet (so to speak). Funny though... I noticed that another juicer had an instant rebate coupon code for $10... all you had to do was type in the code when checking out. While the juicer I wanted was already on sale, they had a comment on the page that if you called the 800 number, you could get the special price. Well, I didn't want to go find my phone and call (yes, lazy)... but I thought, what the heck... let's type in the coupon code from the other juicer and see if it works. Nope... it didn't apply to that juicer. Ok, then let's see if I type in the same code, and change it to $15. Nope... Ok, let's try it for $20... Nope. Alright, I'm about to give up on this... but wait... let's try $25 off, just in case. SURE ENOUGH! Ha! It worked! Not only did I catch the juicer on sale, got it with no shipping charges, I hacked the code and got another $25 off! hehehehe... yes, I was tickled! (I think I still am!) So excited... Baby, you know this means lots of Green Lemonade when you get home! And baby food for Caden when he starts eating solids. :)

Speaking of the little munchin'... sorry I missed your call today... I was taking a much needed nap with the boy. I love you and hope to hear your voice tomorrow. We are down to the last 5 1/2 months of this deployment! I can't wait to have my family whole again!

just another Wednesday

Just another morning here in NC... The little monkey woke up around 9:30am and wanted to play. So once he had a full tummy, was done spitting up on me, i had gotten the bed sheets into the wash (as there was an explosive diaper that made this necessary)... then it was time to play! :) That activity gym was a great buy!


After much time on the floor... it was time to suck on his hands and fingers. I swear, there will be a tooth making a showing here soon. Between the drooling and fussing and sucking on fingers and whatever else he can chew on... nobody will be surprised when that pearly white shows up. (if you look at the picture just right, due to the camera angle and coloring... it looks like caden's hand and little forearm are coming out of my arm... )

Daddy has been working on the wall constantly for the last 3 weekends. This has been an interesting turn of events, as nobody expected it to be completed before they move. But sure enough... it's almost done. This is the first time he's really worked on it since Michael and I got married. In fact, the last time he worked on it... Michael was helping him. Man, how time has flown. Hard to believe that we are coming up on our 2nd anniversary next month. God is good!