Cade is 4!

My little boy is growing up! Cade turns 4 today. He has been looking forward to his birthday for months! All of his friends have been having birthdays and turning 4 and he just couldn't wait. He talked non-stop about it. The big day finally came! We had a small birthday party at the splash park this past weekend. Jared, Connor, Paige, James, and Jacob (and accompanying parents) came. We had a great time.
We played... and blew out candles...
and ate...
and opened presents (the best part!).

Cade's faves at age 4

Color: "Blue, like Thomas"

Food: Fruit snacks, bananas, and spaghetti

Drink: apple juice and chocolate milk

Book: "Airplanes"

Song: I Am A Child of God

Toys: Legos and trains

New This Year

* Cade started primary this year and loves his teacher Sister Harding. He says, "Sister Harding is cute." He has given a talk in primary and did a great job!

* Cade started a new year at Miss Maren's Monkeys preschool. He loves learning.

* Cade can write his name, Myla's name and Dad's name. He draws people and shapes and is always asking me how to spell words so he can write them down. He has even started sounding out words with Daddy and can recognize small two and three letter words.

* Cade is a great big brother to Myla. He loves playing with her and misses her when he is gone. When he spent the night at his cousin's house this summer he was really worried about Myla being sad. He loves to help feed Gavin and doesn't like to see him cry. He'll stroke Gavin's face and talk to him in a cute baby voice to try to get him to stop crying.

* Cade LOVES his grandparents, all of them. He talks about them all the time and always wants to call and talk to them.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

See Gavin
See Gavin work hard at trying to roll over.
See Gavin want to give up.
See Gavin succeed!

31 Days Has October

October is one of our most favorite months, coming in second to December. Even though the temperature may still hit in the triple digits, the mornings and nights are much cooler and the smell of fall is in the air. Halloween decorations emerge. Moods are cheerier and baked-goods are yummier. We get to be inspired by watching General Conference. I celebrate my birthday. We carve pumpkins, eat candy, and dress-up. What is there not to love about October?! In celebration of this month, the kids and I will be doing a fun activity everyday. The planned activities are listed below. I thought that if I planned them all now then I wouldn't have any excuses. The kids love creating and I love helping them create. Most of the projects require supplies I already have here at the house, so I don't need to buy additional items. I linked several of the craft projects and recipes to the sites where I found them. I'll be blogging our fun everyday. Feel free to join us!

Oct 1 - Halloween window decorations

Oct 2 - Fall Felt Board

Oct 3 - Make Caramel Apples

Oct 4 - General Conference Coloring Book

Oct 5 - Apostle Cards

Oct 6 - Halloween masks

Oct 7 - Read Halloween books together

Oct 8 - Ghostly Marshmallows

Oct 9 - Orange Tie Dye Shirts

Oct 10 - Halloween cut-out sandwiches

Oct 11 - Silly Slithering Snakes

Oct 12 - The Great Pumpkin Cake for Webb family dinner

Oct 13 - Jello Halloween molds

Oct 14 - Spooky Laboratory

Oct 15 - Pumpkin Magnets

Oct 16 - Pumpkin Butter and Pumpkin Seeds

Oct 17 - Rice Krispy Treat Pumpkins

Oct 18 - Make a Halloween puzzle

Oct 19 - Ghost suckers and Dinner in a Pumpkin

Oct 20 - Spooky Laboratory

Oct 21 - Dancing Scarecrows

Oct 22 - Leaf Print Placemats

Oct 23 - Spider Pops

Oct 24 - Yummy Mummy Treat cups

Oct 25 - Halloween Block Party

Oct 26 - Halloween Activity Booklet

Oct 27 - Pumpkin Carving

Oct 28 - Visit Mother Nature's Farm

Oct 29 - Halloween cookie decorating

Oct 30 - Paint-a-pumpkin

Oct 31 - Halloween Theme Lunch and Trick-or-Treating!

Colorstrology

Colorstrology: kind of like Astrology with a fun twist. What does my color say about me? The color for the month of October is Cerulean: peaceful, poised, and balanced. "Calm and soothing, Cerulean signifies love, beauty and balance. Cerulean embodies the essence of peace and serenity while inspiring us to be strong and take decisive action."

Hmmm, I wonder if there is a separate "colorscope" for people with kids.

Tonight we were able to spend a couple of hours just hanging out as a family. It was really nice! Cade coerced Daddy into building this awesome train track, and then proceeded to tell Kevin how to operate it. He gets pretty bossy when it comes to trains.

(Please ignore the clutter. I just can't seem to keep up!)

We currently have four different sets of train tracks: the Lego City train tracks (pictured above) where you can drive the train by remote control; the Lego Thomas train tracks, the Thomas plastic track, and the Thomas wood tracks. Yeah, we are set on tracks. But Cade doesn't quite see that. Today we were at Target and we passed a different Thomas style tracks that we don't have (and WILL NOT get) and Cade informed me that he wanted those for his birthday. He's a little obsessed. :)
Gavin enjoyed watching Daddy and Cade play trains. He is such a happy boy. He breaks out into an adorable grin every time we look at him. Just look at those eyes!
Cade gave up directing Daddy, so Daddy had his own fun.
Myla sat on the couch and watched. Every now and then she got down to play too, but was mostly content to observe.
I had to throw in this picture of the Gavman sleeping. He is growing so fast. He is acting like he wants to roll over. He is sleeping through the night. He is laughing. He's just such a joy!

Late Night Maid Service

Last night I was upstairs putting Gavin to sleep when I heard some commotion going on downstairs. I had put Cade and Myla to bed a couple of hours earlier, so I was a little concerned. I walk in to their room and they aren't in their beds snug like bugs...they are in the bathroom. I expect to look in the bathroom and see water everywhere, toilet paper strung out and toothpaste smeared all over the mirror. What do I see? Myla has the toilet brush in her hand and is cleaning the toilet and Cade is picking up all the tub toys and is throwing them back in to the bathtub. I ask them what they are doing and Cade says, "Cleaning the bathroom Mommy!" They sure know how to make a Mama happy!

Because I Said So!

We have officially entered "Why? World." Everytime I give a direction or tell Cade something, his automatic reply is, "Why?" At first I thought it was cute...he's my oldest and the first to go into the "why?" stage. I would answer the why, excited that he was questioning, even if it sometimes seemed defiant. I had vowed, earlier in my mothering life, to embrace questioning and to encourage curiosity. I think this was before I had three kids under the age of four. Now I embrace the Disney channel and Diet Dr. Pepper...lots and lots of Diet Dr. Pepper. :)

This is how it'd go for the first three days or so:

Me: Cade, please pick up your Legos.

Cade: Why?

Me: Because when they are all over the floor we can trip over them and get big owies. We don't like big owies, do we?

Cade: No!

Then yesterday:

Me: Cade, please pick up your Legos.

Cade: Why?

Me: (taking a deep breath, trying to control voice) Because we don't want to get owies.

Cade: Why?

Today:

Me: Cade, please pick up your Legos.

Cade: Why?

Me: Because I said so!!

It's inevitable...we do turn into our mothers.

This morning our cousin Bradley came over to play. It was so much fun! He and Myla really get along well. I was cleaning up in the kitchen when I noticed that it was quiet. I looked up and this is what I saw...

Myla and Bradley both sitting on the table and Myla had her arm around Bradley. So cute! I hurried and grabbed my camera. Luckily they stayed there so I could snap a pic.
Then Cade had to get in on the action.

So sweet...

I could just eat him up!!

Fun in Flagstaff

This past weekend we took a short trip out of town up to Flagstaff. It was exactly what we needed!

Myla decided to get ready for the trip in style. She and Cade fought and fought over these little hats...we only have about 10 of them, but of course they both wanted that blue one. She looks pretty cute though, doncha think? I can see her as my little snowboarding girl in a couple of years...she's got the looks and the fearlessness.
Cade fought it and fought it, but sleep won. He fell asleep right in the middle of his sucker snack.
After a brief stop in Anthem, where we did a little shopping and eating, we checked into our hotel in Flagstaff around 8:00. I realized that I forgot Gavin's portable crib. Since Myla was sleeping with me I didn't want Gavin in the bed (she's quite the gymnast in her sleep) and I didn't want to put him on the floor, in case one of us got up at night and forgot he was there. So we did the next best thing, we pulled out a dresser drawer and dressed it up all nice and comfy.
The Gavman didn't mind. He woke up smiley!
Saturday was Kevin's 29th birthday!! Yay! This was part of the reason we went up to Flag, to celebrate Daddy. After a round of hugs and kisses Kevin opened his gift, a new iPAQ PDA to help him organize all his nursing school, Elders Quorum, family, etc. obligations.
We then went to Mike and Rhonda's The Place...my favorite restaurant for breakfast and old stomping grounds from my NAU days.
After breakfast we went swimming. No, we did not wait 30 minutes. :) This pool was great...it was heated and the kids loved it.
Then we went for a bit of sight seeing, led by me. We drove around NAU where I showed them the dorms where I used to live and where I took most of my classes. This is my old apartment (I took this picture for you Taryn!). I loved living in Flagstaff. I get super nostalgic whenever we go there.
Where do we go from here?
To play! We went to a park to let the kids play on equipment that wouldn't scorch their hands. We spent quite a bit of time here. The weather was beautiful and everyone was so happy.
Cute boy.
Sliding time
My sweet boy! See how he puts up with my constant kissies.
Having fun
Look! For lunch we went to Altitudes. It's right next to the train tracks. It was such beautiful weather we ate out on the porch.
Cade and Myla loved that because then they could watch the train every time one came by. It was pretty cool.

After lunch we took a drive up to Snow Bowl to enjoy the beauty. We briefly thought about taking the Sky Ride up the mountain, but then images of children falling off the ski lift quickly dispelled that idea.

On our way home that night we stopped off in Sedona to have dinner with the Haws family. They decided to get away for the weekend as well.
Kevin enjoying the strawberry sundae the Haws's got him for his birthday. Thanks Haws's for the dinner!

Angel

They say visiting teachers are on the errand of angels...well, look at what my angel brought me. They were heavenly.