Happy New Year!

Happy 2009! My saying for the year is, "2008 was Great... 2009 will be Divine!" I had an eventful 2008 and I have to say, it was the best year ever for me! It of course all started when I was born on May 27th, 2008. This is the day that changed Mommy's and Daddy's world forever.

Some of the other highlights from 2008 include...

My first 4th of July

My first "real" smile

My first airplane ride to Florida for Papa's wedding!

Halloween

Georgia for Thanksgiving

Christmas


New Year's Eve

No, the hat did not taste good!

I have some pretty BIG goals for this year. They include learning to talk and walk (hey they rhyme! Take that skill off my list!) Here is how I am doing so far...

Driving my new car! This fun toy will help me walk. I am starting to move the car a little, but mostly I like to rev my engine and honk the horn A LOT!!!!

Finally, we attempted to go on a nice, little sledding outing on the golf course and this is how it went!

1. Mommy and Daddy bundle me up. Strangely,I think I look like Ralphie on Christmas Story. Oops! Sorry about the sideways picture!


2. Daddy pulls me in the sled. The snow is crunchy and really loud!

3. I decide I don't like sledding afterall!

4. Thank you Mommy! She carries me on the golf course for a few minutes and then we head in!

My First "Crazy" Christmas

Merry Christmas Family and Friends!

Well, the stockings were hung, the tree was trimmed, and the house was all decorated and ready for Christmas. Mommy even found time to make Christmas cookies and treats. This holiday stuff sure is a lot of work and it was very busy! It all started a few weeks ago, with Grammy's side of the family in the Dells. We didn't stay at the amazing hotel we stayed at a few months ago, but we stayed at one where we could swim in their fun pool. We stayed in the Dells for just one night. Grammy's family is SO big, that we have to stay at a hotel just to get everyone together!

Me and Daddy were getting ready for the gift exchange. I am sitting here so patiently!

My time finally came and cousin Stella gave me this super funny ball popper. I just loved watching the balls zoom around the tube and pop out of the top. I laughed and laughed at this thing!

I must have worn myself right out. I fell asleep on Mommy's lap and didn't even get to meet this Santa guy that everyone raves about. At least my first picture isn't of me screaming and crying! He looks pretty friendly in this picture. He came all the way from the North Pole to the WI Dells for our Christmas party! What a guy!!!

We drove home on some bad roads on Sunday and Mommy was really happy that she only had two days of school. Unfortunately, at her Monday night soccer game, she badly sprained her ankle and called Daddy to take her to the ER. I got to go see neighbors Dan and Nancy until Grammy came and picked me up. Mommy had to take the day off on Tuesday to recover and she even needed crutches for the first few days. She now just hobbles around the house and makes funny faces. On Christmas Eve, we went to church and Grammy met us there too. We came back to our house and had a big dinner (well, I probably just ate the same ol' stuff). I was really excited because Daddy kept talking about Santa coming to our house that night. I must have been sleeping again, because I never saw him come. The next morning we had lots of wonderful presents. I really love this holiday!

Here's Grammy giving me lots of kisses and hugs!

Mommy and I wearing our Santa hats

Here are the two gifts I made for Mommy and Daddy at daycare. They said it was their favorite gift ever. WOW!

Here I am on Christmas morning in my jammies. Some of my many gifts included new roll a rounds (for the dragon toy), books, a chime ball, my first tackle box, clothes, trucks/cars, bath toys, PJ's and more! Mommy and Daddy are trying to find a place for all of my new toys (and no, they are not putting on an addition to our house)

I loved eating the paper and bows!

After our own little Christmas party,we went to Grandma Carla's and Jamie's house for Christmas with them and Samantha and Maggie, Auntie Stef, Uncle Bruce, Uncle Jim and Karri, and cousins Lexi and Sam.

Me and Grandma Carla

Cousins Lexi (she has no front teeth, just in time for X-mas) and Sam! Aren't we cute!?!?!

Our little family

After Mommy's side celebrated Christmas, it was back home and then to Grandma's house. Uncle Matt came home to celebrate with us. Uncle Ben, Aunt Erin, and cousins Kyra and Bennett did not come home from Georgia for Christmas this year (missed you guys!)

Uncle Matt and I hanging out by the tree. Sweet skiing shirt Matt!

More fun presents... wooden toys, little boots, clothes, and Christmas money for my saving's account, yeah!

Getting so sleepy from all the gift openings, food, and people!

I have to say that Christmas around here is C-R-A-Z-Y! We have so many people in our families and we travelled all over WI and MN to see everyone. It was lots of fun but it sure is nice to be home with all of my new toys! Happy Holidays and talk to you soon! Caden

Joy to the World!

Happy Holidays! I thought this picture would get your attention! Cousin Kristin came a month ago to take my six month pictures and this was one of the poses Mommy thought would be funny. Hopefully I will get my hands on these pictures before I am a teenager and am ridiculed the rest of my life. This is the only age where fat rolls are cute!

I am just loving this time of year. Mommy showed me a picture of what I looked like one year ago. Here I am, a little gingerbread cookie! This was our Christmas card we sent out. For some reason, it only scanned in black and white. Originally, it is in color.

The past two weeks have been busy. I am enjoying daycare and all of my buddies there. We are all kind of sick right now with colds, but at least we are all dealing with it together. I am sleeping in my swing at night so that I can breathe and Mommy keeps putting this thing up my nose to get the boogies out. I hate it! Anyways, we put up our Christmas tree in the living room and I love looking at all of those colorful lights. Mommy thinks the tree is too little, but Daddy thinks it's the best tree ever. Here I am sitting by the prickly thing! By the way, we do have lots of presents wrapped under our tree. Don't worry, my parents do plan on spoiling me this Christmas!

This weekend, we went to my Great Grandpa Jim's house in the cities, for our big family Christmas gathering. There were lots of cousins to play with and there was even a special guest, "Christmas Moose." His nose even blinked and I thought he was pretty amazing! The gifts I received from the gathering included a special gingerbread crystal ornament from great grandpa, some money to spend, a really cool outfit with a VW bug with a surfboard on it's roof, a season's pass to the MN Zoo, and Brava Strega Nona Pop-up book!

Here I am with Great-Grandpa Jim. He whistles a lot (Mommy explained because he is in the late stages of Alzheimer's)

Our family with Great-Grandpa. He is whistling some songs to me still! I like to hear whistling, so I smiled and listened to him.

Here's that crazy Christmas Moose I mentioned. All the kids liked him a lot!

Cousins Lexi and Sam played with me at the party. Poor Sam threw up and had to go home early.

Cousins Maddy, Lexi, Jack, and Rieder were giving me lots of attention. I soaked it all up!

After Great-Grandpa's Christmas party, we went to Papa's house to have our Christmas with him. He is leaving for Florida for six months (Mommy and I are sad), so we had to celebrate early. Papa really spoiled me, as usual. He bought me a really cool farm fun rug, some Tonka trucks, little trucks, a musical table, some books, and a huge lollipop (Mommy said, "NO" to me eating it at six months old...bummer!)

Me and Papa giving hugs to each other before heading out. We are both in our jammies at this point, reading for bed and our ride home.

My new rug and a few of my cool new toys!

Here are two other pictures that Kristin took of us when she was here. I like our family picture a lot and going inside of the big box in the bottom pictures was a lot of fun. I am wearing my "Grumpy Old Man" hat, one of my favorites!

In closing, some of my latest news includes sitting up ALL by myself, lots of talking/babbling, a little ridge of a white tooth popping up, and the BEST BREAKING NEWS.... I said, "Ma Ma" while Mommy was helping me write this post. She jumped out of the chair and asked me to say it again and again. Of course, I can't repeat it again or she might get bored with me. She said it was the most beautiful thing she has ever heard. Little does she know that it probably just slipped out, but I will let her smile and brag to Daddy about this one! My next picture will hopefully be of me sitting on Santa's lap. We were supposed to go see Santa this weekend, but it was WAY too busy and we are all recovering from colds and the flu. Have a great week!

Hi Y'all!

Hey there! I was hoping to post the Thanksgiving blog earlier, but you know how busy things are now. Mommy is working at school again and that means I go to Sara's everyday to play with the other kids. I am finally getting into my routine there. I think Sara was getting worried that I would never nap while she watched me but she has it all figured out now. She lets me sleep in the comfy bouncy chair and that is so much better than a crib! Mommy cries when she drops me off and a lot at night. She says she misses me all day long. Then again, who wouldn't miss this adorable face! I think it will just take her a little time to adjust. For me, I like the new toys, new kids, and of course, Sara. I flirt and smile with her and she takes good care of me. Backing up... we went to Georgia for Thanksgiving. I was a perfect angel on the plane and I even sat in my own seat! Georgia was a little cooler this year, so we didn't spend as much time outside as we hoped. We mostly visited, played, and ate and ate and ate! Auntie Erin is a great cook and we had many delicious meals. Mostly, I loved playing with cousins Kyra and Bennett. They had a super, bouncy seat that I jumped like a little kangaroo in. We loved it so much that auntie Erin gave it to me! Bennett is one year older than me and he liked playing games such as "give the baby a cracker" and then snatch it away. He sometimes gave me dirty looks because he thought I was stealing his food. Everyone kept laughing at us, although I don't really know why. Kyra liked making noises, playing peekaboo, and doing other silly things to make me smile. Here are some pictures of us.

It was hard to get all of us to smile at the same time!

Kyra was playing peek a boo with me here!

On Thanksgiving day, we watched the parade on TV, went for a ride on the golf cart, ate lots of food, and Mommy went to the outlet mall at midnight to shop (she said she would never do this again because it was c-r-a-z-y!!!!! The most exciting part of Thanksgiving was eating real mashed potatoes and my other favorite foods such as carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, and mashed bananas. I mostly wore the food that day.

My outfits says, "Thankful for Mommy and Daddy!"

Since we stayed in Georgia for five days, we also decided to celebrate Christmas with Ben, Erin, Kyra and Bennett. They won't be home in December so we had our first Christmas party with them. I opened a great train that balls go around in and I also got a football bank and bulldog jammies. Here we are opening gifts.

Cousin Bennett and I wore the same sweater. Don't we look like a pair of studs!

Of course, we also took family pictures too. Here is the crew all together (Mommy, Daddy, me, cousin Kyra, Auntie Erin, Uncle Ben, Grandma Lois, cousin Bennett, Uncle Matt and his girlfriend Kari).

Sorry about the crazy color of the picture!

Mommy and Auntie Erin

Our little family, minus Liberty

We had a great trip in Georgia but it was nice to be home too. Daddy put on Christmas lights outside of our house. Here I am playing with a string of lights! I am so excited to have my first Christmas soon! Happy December everyone!