Caiden turns 7!

 

Caiden's birthday was a family affair this year since he had a party in October for Halloween. We waited until Jayson came home to give him his present-which he loved instantly!! Who wouldn't love a new bike for their birthday?!

 

 

 The only down side of a birthday in December is that it is freezing out and when you get cool new outside toys, you kind of have to wait to use them until it warms up. :(  Caiden tested it out anyways-at least there was no snow.

After a short test drive on the bike we let Caiden pick where he wanted to eat and he chose Texas Roadhouse. He loves the rolls there and I think he would make a meal out of just those if we let him.  I think he had at least three of them. 

The staff sang him happy birthday and had him sit on the saddle - not sure if he loved all that attention or not but he did like sitting on the saddle.

 

Monkey see, monkey do. Of course Paxton had to sit on the saddle too after Caiden did. Cute little devil! We sure do love our Caiden. He is the best big brother and such a good little helper when he wants to be.

Announcing baby # 3

We are pleased to announce our third child is due on May 1, 2013!!

I am 17 weeks pregnant and we are not finding out the sex!

 

To announce it to our parents I made these shirts and had the boys wear them. It took our mom's a few minutes before they realized what the shirts meant - my mom and dad actually needed a little more of a hint than the shirt, but that is ok. It is always fun to let them in on the secret.  Jayson's step dad Neil got it right off - good job grandpa!!

 

First big winter storm!

I love the first big storm of the season! The kids are excited and it is usually not freezing yet and you aren't tired of winter like you are in March! The kids woke up to a winter wonderland and wanted to get all their gear out and go play in it.

 

I love that Paxton has an older brother so that I can send them outside and watch them from the window inside my warm house!! Caiden is a great big brother most of the time and Paxton loves it when they can play together.

 

 

 Paxton has such a big head that this hat barely fits his huge noggin!  His head is so big that it is the same size as Caiden's! Hope there is a really smart, big brain up there!

 

 

 A rare moment of sweetness! Usually Paxton pushes Caiden away when he tries to snuggle him.

 

October/Halloween fun!!

My mother is a great artist and she would sometimes paint our front window on holidays.  When I was really little, she would load us up and we would go with her while she painted the windows for local businesses for the holidays.  Not sure how she managed to take small children with her while she did this, but she is obviously a better mother than me.

 I thought it would be fun for Caiden to have some memory of Grandma painting so I asked if she would come decorate our window for Halloween.  She agreed and bought some paint and patterns for Caiden to pick from. He chose this design and helped tell her what colors to paint.  It was a great idea!  The window looked very festive!

 We carved pumpkins this year, and by we I mean me.  I thought the boys would like getting down and dirty pulling out the inside "guts" but I apparently have wimpy girly boys who don't like to get dirty so I ended up doing most of this myself.  Oh well.  Caiden put the crying face on the small pumpkin being eaten.

This year, Caiden asked if he could have a Halloween party and I told him we could do that in place of a birthday party and he agreed.  We invited over all his little friends and I had to try and entertain them for an hour and a half!  We had a coloring contest, decorated cookies, played pin the face on the Jack-O-Lantern, made tootsie pop ghosts, and had a pinata at the end for the kids to break open!

 

 

 Paxton got to invite his little friend form the babysitters- They had fun hanging out together in the bedroom without bothering the big kids too much.

 The girls in this picture look like they are giants, but they have tall parents and they are both a year older than all the boys!

 

The cheap pinata that I bought only took two turns before it was busted open. I don't think the kids who didn't get a turn minded that much though because they all got lots of candy!

Caiden all dressed up

Caiden thinks he is one good looking guy in his church clothes! I think he did his own hair this day too and doesn't he just look handsome!

 

First day of school!

Caiden was not very happy about having to go to school all day, but at least the first week was short day every day so that helped.  He just hates to be tied down all day.  He is excited about his new teacher and I am excited to be down to just one kid for most of the day. It will be really fun to have some time with just Paxton and I. 

 

 

A few days before school started there was some rainy weather and this beautiful double rainbow appeared. I wish there weren't houses in the way, but oh well.

 

Sunday afternoon in Washington

On Sunday afternoon we took a drive to see the view from Mount Rainier. The Ramsays had never been there before so I think we took a wrong turn or something. We stopped at a small park with some railroad tracks and some cabins that I'm not sure what they were, but it gave the kids a chance to stretch their legs and go to the bathroom. We got some cute shots of our family though so that was good.

 

 

If it hadn't been a cloudy day you could have seen the mountain better- you can just see the top of it here through the clouds. It still has snow on the very top! Crazy!

Last day in Washington

On Sunday, our last day, we took a drive and met up with Jayson's step sister Debbie and her husband Mike and their children, Victoria,

 

 

 We met up at another beautiful park with a lake so the kids got to pull out their swimsuits yet again.

Debbie made us some delicious cookies and gave us some to take for our ride home the next day. Yum!

 I love that kids can turn into friends so quickly. Looks like they are hunting for something in the water- who knows what.  I love the lily pads though.

The Washington Coast

We decided the best way to spend our Saturday was to go to the coast!! The kids love the beach and the Ramsays hadn't been there yet so it was a win for everyone. The wind was blowing so it was cool, but again, that never bothers the kids. Jayson and I didn't bring swimsuits so you will see in the pictures below how that worked out.

 

 

 Paxton was a bit cold at first, but then he started having fun and forgot all about it!

 

 

 Robyn taught the kids how to make a castle. This is her, Tucker, Caiden

 and Cassidy.

 

 

 A beautiful shot of the family by the ocean.

 

 

 Jayson without a swimsuit-too funny!

 

 

 After getting out of the ice cold water and having chattering teeth, we buried the kids in the warm sand so they could get warm again.

 

Poor Caiden got sand in his eyes right before I took this photo, that was a task to get the sand out and not have him screaming. The kids (and adults) were having so much fun that we stayed all afternoon and into the evening. We were planning on going back to the Ramsay's to eat dinner, but we just had to stop at the Wendy's on the way back-the kids had no complaints about that either. One of the best days ever!

Kent Washington

As we soon discovered, Washington in August is beautiful! As we drove around, we saw numerous beautiful parks- a lot of them with little  ponds.

Our friend Robyn took us to this park right after we arrived. The kids were so excited to see each other and needed to stretch their legs after drviving so much so this park was perfect!

 

 The water was a little cold and it was a bit windy too, but that never stops our kids from getting in the water!

 Awesome lily pads in the pond, also another common sight in Washington.

Caiden with his life jacket on-took a lot of convincing, but I think he found he could go in the deeper water and try to "swim" with it on.