Happy Birthday Caden

7 years ago today our first child was born. Indulged me while I take a walk down memory lane.

Newborn

One year old


2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

7 years old

What a wonderful 7 years it has been. My sweet, new born baby boy has grown into a independent, smart, sensitive young man. He can drive me crazy with his perfectionist quirks, but can melt my heart with his inviting open arms for some cuddles with mom. He is so concerned with what others think and feel, which can be to his detriment at times. He has recently taken a love for sports (especially football) with has created a special bond with him and Brice. I love to see them curl up together to watch a game or pile up all of my couch cushions for a game of catch. He has such a soft spot for his baby sister, and a not so soft spot for his little sis. They can be the best of friends and the worst of enemies. He loves music and thinks he is "so cool" with his new MP3 player (best $20 I ever spent). He is a protector to his 2 sisters but will always be my baby boy. I love you Caden.

Fall Pictures

Ironically I am posting Fall pictures as the snow is coming down outside. These were taken about a month ago. We have a lot of trees in our community and the kids had a blast playing in all of the leaves.

Fun Fall Pictures

Fun Fall Pictures

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The Louvre

Because I am having such a hard time keeping this blog updated, I'll just give the quick story of our trip to the Louvre. I am not an artsy, fartsy type of person, so going to a big museum was not my first priority while in Paris. But.....It was my absolute favorite. Now for the quick version.

-Arrive at Louvre @ 5:30 pm (been awake since 4:45 am)
-I'm tired, Caden is even worse but not complaining
-I anticipate much complaining and requests to be carried around the Louvre.
-I request free "pushchair" for Caden b/c I don't want to be holding him.
-"pushchair" is a wheelchair and everyone thinks Caden is disabled.
-get lots of special treatment b/c of said "pushchair"
-I make Caden sit in it the entire time b/c I don't want to give up said treatment
-I start to feel a bit guilty when we are escorted around and in front the mass of people looking at the Mona Lisa
-We are standing only inches in front of Mona Lisa and I really feel really bad
-We walk around for over 2 hours and still only see 1/2 of one of the 3 floors.
-Our dogs are barking and we head back to the hotel

Misty and Caden outside of the Louvre


The famous Mona Lisa (picture taken before our personal escort)

Fancy art and the "Crown Jewels"

Paintings and paintings and more paintings

Caden and Misty in front of the Venus de Milo

Awesome time!!!! We went on to see many more wonderful sights while in Paris. We saw Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees and much more. We loves sipping our hot coco and eating our crossiants at the French Bistro. I'm sure I'll make it back there with Brice to see the many other sights we missed.

Paris

When my sister visited me last month we were able to take a quick trip to Paris. Last minute changes allowed Caden to tag along. We didn't know until the night before we left who was coming on the trip. When it was decided I asked Caden..."Hey buddy, do you want to go to Paris tomorrow?" OK, so can you imagine as a 6 year old getting that opportunity? We feel very blessed to be able to live here in Germany and have so many chances to enrich our family's life with such experiences.
So at 4:45am Caden, my sister and I headed to the train station to catch the ICE train to Paris. What a way to travel!! We had our own little "room" with closing glass doors. We could get up and walk around the train whenever we wanted. There was even a little bar/bistro for snacks and drinks. It was great. The train took about 4 hours with a few stops along the way.

This picture is deceiving. Caden never slept on the train. This is him "resting" his eyes for about 2 minutes.

When we got to Paris we checked into our hotel and headed out to see the sights. First stop....the Eiffel Tower.

You can either take the elevator up the tower or you can take the stairs. The lines for the elevator were really long, so the overachiever in Shauna and I decided to take the stairs. It actually wasn't that bad. We made it to the first level and took a break to look around and eat.

Looking down from the tower is an amazing map of Europe.

We had lunch inside the Eiffel Tower. Shauna ordered french fries. Yeah, so the French do NOT know how to make good fries.

We had a wonderful time looking at all of the beautiful views. After about an hour we headed to the next stop......the Louvre.

Halloween 2008 (Part 2)

So after the kids celebrated Halloween with Scouts and their schools the party kept going here in our neighborhood. We went to a fun party, costume contest at the field house.

Caden, Kayla, Misty and Avery


Caden fishing for Halloween goodies

Kayla getting a unicorn painted on her face

Caden adding to his tattoo collection.

After the field house party we headed home for a quick dinner and then out for trick or treating. After an hour of neighbourhood candy collecting we then heading to our church for it's Halloween Party. Yes, another party. There were lots of games, pinatas, yummy food and trunk or treating. At the end of the night the kids had so much candy it wouldn't all fit in our big ole candy drawer. Here we are several weeks later and we still have tons of candy left. Of course all of the "good stuff" is gone, but Halloween is still going strong.

Halloween 2008 (Part One)

This year Halloween started early in our house. Kayla's class went to the pumpkin patch at the beginning of October. You can imagine what a pumpkin that was picked and carved in early October would look like by the time Halloween came around....green and moldy.

The week of Halloween stared with pumpkin painting on Monday, Caden's school party on Wednesday and Kayla's school celebration on Friday. Pumpkin painting was fun and allowed us to have some jack o lanterns on Halloween since Kayla's poor green guy had been tossed.

Here is Kayla at her school party. She wanted to be Ariel for Halloween. She already had the mermaid costume, so we bought her a long red wig.

So the poor red wig didn't look so good by the time Halloween rolled around. It had been tried on one too many times. So I spent a few hours brushing it out only to have her not want to wear it. So Kayla was Ariel with short brown hair.

On Friday Caden had the day off of school so he came to help me pass out candy to Kayla's class. Here he is in his cowboy costume....again. I told him he didn't have to wear something out of his closet, that I would buy him a new costume, but he really wanted to be a cowboy, go figure.
Avery was a pink kitty cat. A costume given to us by a neighbor. So, minus the red wig that was never worn, we had a $0 in costume expenses. More $ for candy.

Caden's school had a big party with lots of games. Here he is participating in "licorice on a string".

Caden playing "suck the fly in a straw and feed it to the spider" game.

I never dress up for Halloween but in order to help with the party, I was "encouraged" to wear a costume. I was a prisoner......a prisoner of love.

More Italy

So when Brice and I planned our trip to Italy, we wanted to do nothing but relax. We didn't want to sight see or be pressured to do anything....mission accomplished. In fact, when we were checking in at the Frankfurt airport I looked around in disbelief. I couldn't believe that I only had my purse and a magazine with me. No kids, strollers, car seats or diaper bags......it was just the two of us. I think I would have been happy just hanging out at the airport for 4 days!

Of course Sicily was wonderful. Beautiful weather, beautiful language, beautiful people, delicious food and charming ambiance.

This is the town center where we would sit for hours listening to Italian music and watching all the people.

Brice and I on our bench people watching and soaking up the sun.

There were some very beautiful buildings that we went in. This is inside of a church.

Brice and I eating gelato. We ate a lot of it......More than once a day....every day. It was sooooo good!

Charming little pizzeria we had lunch in.

Thank you again to my mom and sister for watching the kids. Although I missed the kids (just a little) it was so hard to come home. I could have stayed another few days, but work and life demands brought us home away from our little slice of serenity. I defiantly have the travel bug and can see a few more getaways in the remainder of our stay in Europe.

Italy

Here are just a few pictures from our trip to Italy.

Side street with pretty flowers.

I thought these pots were quite charming.


Our view

A very relaxed Brice and Misty

Our room