Monday, January 14, 2013

Dani's First Day of School

Dani was looking sharp in her new uniforms for her FIRST day of school at Northwestern Middle School in ZACHARY!!!!
 
January 8th, 2013
 



 
She said her first day was great, she rated it an 8/10. She said her teachers were all great and it was fun being the new girl and getting to see her friends from church but it was also hard adjusting to all of the changes such as new classes, no lockers and the strict discipline. She did know some people from church so that was good that she wasn't starting off without  knowing anyone.

 
We are super excited about the new changes that are to come!! As I am typing this Josh and Dani are working on her homework in the kitchen, math and science vocabulary!! He is such a great dad who has and will continue to invest so much time to make sure she is happy and successful. I know that she is going to love her "new" life here with us in Zachary not simply because of that, but it is a big reason!!
 
We love you so much Dani and we look forward to our days ahead knowing our family is together now!!

Starting 2013 off with some GREAT news....

We started our New Year off in 2013 with some big news!!!
 
DANI IS LIVING IN ZACHARY WITH US FULL TIME NOW!!!!!
 
We found out on January 6th that Dani would be coming to live with us in Zachary!!
 
To make a REALLY long story short, we basically found out in September of 2012 that her mom was wanting to move 11 1/2 hours away from where we live now because of her husband accepting a new job in San Angelo, TX. We began the series of court filings and hearings to prevent the move from happening for a number of reasons but mainly because our relationship with Dani would change so drastically and our desire was to see her more often than we did, not less. After almost 5 months of a lot of prayer, several court dates and meetings Josh and Dani's mom came to an agreement to let Dani move to Zachary, permanently.
 
We couldn't be more thrilled, as this is what we have wanted to happen for years now but we never thought it would become a reality this quickly!!! We were also not expecting to get her here so soon so we had ONE DAY to get her ready for school which started on the 8th.
 
This is our first family picture on the day we got the news that Dani would be living with us!!
 
 
Monday, Janaury 7th we had a full to-do list to get her ready for school in time....
 
We started off with school registration and tour.
 
Then it was off to get some uniforms, but first we had a lunch date together at PF Changs...YUM YUM!!

 
We found some uniforms that fit her great from American Eagle and Old Navy....

 
Then it was off to get lunch box, binder, school supplies and lunch food....

 
And after we shopped until we dropped, I was not in the condition to make dinner so we let her choose dinner at Chilis...she said "Man I am so glad I chose to live here..."
 
Haha we quickly made sure she knew every day wouldn't be this fun...but close to it!! Man we are glad she chose to live here too :)

 
Then it was tackling her bedroom, which we did over the course of last week since she didn't have any homework.
 
I only remembered to take pictures AFTER we cleaned out about 5 bags of JUNK!!! But we did a little rearranging and we have her new bedding on order and it should be here this week!!

 
We mostly had to tween-a-fy her room....it was a little under aged and we really wanted her to LOVE her room so we let her pick out some new bedding...as long as it went with the current wall color...Josh and I both avoid painting at all costs!!
 
Items still on the list to do:
Paint the headboard and desk white
New bedding
New curtains
New dresser that stands up instead of goes side to side
desk chair

 
We did some major organization of her closet...cleaning out a ton of toys and clothes that she had outgrown and donated them to Goodwill and to families that we knew would enjoy them! We also seperated her stuff into bins on the top of her closet and shelves on the bottom area.

 
We had a great first week adjusting to all of the changes and it now feels like our family is complete knowing that we are all together under one roof!!
 
What a HUGE answer to prayer this is for our family!!! We have been SO amazed by God during this journey!!! This picture is just a perfect depiction of God's faithfulness!!
We are truly blessed....


Potty Training Update

Yep that's what you think it is haha!!
 
This is Cade's FIRST poop....
 
He is going to love me one day for this one :)
 
Funny story, we have been slowly working on potty training. One weekend we were in Houston and Josh's parents were watching the boys while Josh and I were on a date night. We came back to find this treasure waiting on us!! We of course praised him and made a huge deal of him pooping in the potty....I am pretty sure I have never been so happy about poop before in my life!! And honestly I thought it was a joke a first...I mean it was kind of large for such a little guy...haha!! Ok now that I have officially grossed everyone out that is reading this, enough about that.....
 
 
So we recently tried out the big boy pants this past Saturday.....
 
That is until we all got sidetracked playing outside and I forgot about him not having a diaper and he used the potty on himself...woops!! We immediately switched to pull ups, but he did great all day and never had a wet diaper again!

 
He told us when he needed to potty and every time he would go!

 
Brooks even took notes...it will be his turn soon!! He already tries to go when Cade does and sometimes he succeeds....maybe he will be trained much earlier than his big brother!

 
It is still a work in progress. He has yet to use the potty anywhere but home and DD's house. When he wants to go #2 he still finds his little corner where no one can "see" him and refuses to go to the potty for that. He screams if we try to take him to the potty at daycare so until he is willing to do all of that we are still just going to have to casually train on the weekends. He is doing great though and he will get the hang of it one day, we are in no rush!!
 
Until next time....

Sunday, January 6, 2013

2 years and 9 months

Happy 2 Year and 9 Month Bday to Cade!! 
 
 
What a joy he is in our lives and WOW how time flies!!
 
Some fun facts about Cade:
 
He LOVES to sing!! He gets that talent from his daddy. His favorite song is "You Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story, he also loves the ABC song, "Tinkle Tinkle" (twinkle twinkle), I've Got The Joy in My Heart, and Jesus Love Me. Sometimes while he is playing or just riding in the car he will just start singing....so cute!! Once I get out the video camera though he usually stops!
 
He loves to carry around pennies...almost every morning he asks "Mom can I have my penny"...I have learned to have a stash around. He knows now that he doesn't get one until we get in the car and is pretty good about keeping them in his pocket so Brooks doesn't get them, the whole choking hazard factor scares me a little with that one!
 
His daddy taught him who is pictured on a quarter and penny, so next time you see him you should ask. He knows it's George Washington and Abe Lincoln!! Impressive!
 
A weird, cute little habit he has is he LOVES to eat salt, pepper and sugar anytime we go to a restaurant. Hey, it keeps him busy while we wait!!
 
We are working on potty training, he does great at home, but as soon as we leave the house he refuses to use the potty any where else.  Like I said, it is a work in progress....see an update here.
 
He is super smart!! He gets that from his daddy too...he can talk very well, he knows shapes, colors, numbers, abc's, he can work puzzles on the Ipad like a whiz, we argue about if he knows some sight words such as Go, Dog, Cade (yes I know that isn't a sight word) and others. He is a good problem solver when he gets stumped with something and is usually patient enough to figure it out...opposite of his brother!!
 
He has quite the imagination. Now when we ride in the car he makes up things that he sees in the sky, like Lightening McQueen on the sun or Spiderman flying to church!!
 
He loves to play outside and his favorite outside toy is his "Jimmy" which is really his Jeep that he got for Christmas. We aren't sure where he got jimmy from but that's what he calls it. He will just take off in it with Brooks in the passenger seat and drive around the culdesac for hours if we would let them!!

 
He is still really into superheros. His favorite is Spiderman still but he has branched out to Ironman, Batman and Superman. Brooks is following quickly in his footsteps. Looks like we are skipping Barney and going straight to superheros....in some ways I am ok with that!!

He still loves to watch movies. His favorites right now are still Mickey, Toy Story 1 or 3, Lion King, or Beauty and the Beast...hehe one day his friends will probably make fun of them for that one! The boys will ask every night after bath time if they can watch a movie in mommy and daddy's bed, so it is a fun little treat on special nights...although daddy says I am making it a bad habit! I mean snuggle time is so precious to me, how can I resist??!!  
 
He loves to run around the house. Some nights he just runs like 20 laps around the house and says "watch me, I am running!!" Crazy little guy!!

Picky Picky Eater!!!! It drives mommy crazy...but his favorite foods are pizza, cheese sandwich, fruit, yogurt, and ice cream!! Can we say JUNK FOOD JUNKIE!! We have started making him try what I make for dinner and put on his plate and I trick him by putting the squeeze veggies on his plate, which he usually eats b/c he can't see they are green. They still tell me he is a great eater at daycare, so that makes me feel a little better on the weekends when all he wants is cheese...UGH!! However, occasionally he will suprise me by eating some meat if you feed, but that doesn't happen often!

Every night at dinner time he prays for the family. He starts his prayer with "Dear God thank you for this day...." and then he starts talking very quietly so you can't understand him and he says a lot of words and then you can hear him say "thank you for my teachers, thank you for my friends, in Jesus' name Amen". I asked his teachers at daycare what he is saying and it is the morning prayer they say before snack time. SUPER CUTE!!!
 
He has a very sweet heart. His teachers say he is so sweet to the other children in the class and is very good about sharing and taking care of others. He does the same thing here at home (usually) if he gets a snack he makes sure that Brooks has one too. He is a great big brother!! Although, Brooks is starting to teach him some of his bad tricks so lately I have seen a more mischievous side of him coming out...uh oh!! He will always give me hugs and kisses when I ask and sometimes when I don't! He melts my heart when I tuck him in at night and he says "mom you lay down with me" well of course, how could I resist snuggle time??!! That's not going to last forever!

 
 
We cannot imagine how we ever lived without this sweet little man in our lives!! He has his daddy's good looks and brains and he is a momma's boy with his mommy's sweetness (I can almost hear my mom laughing at that one). We are so thankful that God blessed us with his little life and we look forward to the many years ahead as we get to watch him continue to grow and learn. WE LOVE YOU CADE!!!!  

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!



HAPPY 2013 FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS...

 
May this new year bring your family a year full of blessings!!