Birthdays!

Okay, just one birthday.  The other is a half birthday.  We'll start with me.  Saturday was my birthday and Kelly got me one of the best presents ever.  He got me a skookie!  Of course we had to try it out right away.

It's two small skillets that you bake a giant cookie in.  After just 12 minutes, you pull them out of the oven and top with ice cream and chocolate syrup!  Yum!

And Friday was Cason's half birthday.  We got his pictures taken because it has been a long time since we have had that done.  Here are a few of our favorites.  I'm not crazy about all the props but I guess it's pretty hard to get an 18 month old to stand still for one second so you do what you gotta do.  

And last but not least the disgusting blue chair.  It looks like they got it at a garage sale but he was obsessed with it and kept climbing in it so they took a couple pictures with it.  Of course he smiled cute so we had to buy one.  

I've been wanting to get Cason's animal sounds on video for awhile and this was the best I could do.  Sorry he keeps going in circles, he wanted to watch the camcorder, not be taped.  A few of his sounds are pretty good but the rest need work:)  I tried to make my version of the sound after him so you could tell what it's "supposed" to sound like.  My favorite is the dolphin.  He has a book with a dolphin in it so I made the sound one day and he tried to copy me.  It sounds more like he's trying to poop, which is why it's so funny.  I just realized that I forgot a few of his animals, like snake and lion.  Oh well.  

Riding my bike

Okay I realize it's not a bike because it has 4 wheels.  What would that make it?  A quadrike?  Is that even a word?  I just call it bike, it makes it easier for me.  I haven't taken any pictures in awhile because my house is a cave.  I refuse to use flash because I think it looks crappy in pictures.  Without enough light, my pictures suck and are grainy.  Is it operator error?  I'm sure it is.  But until I learn to use my camera, I won't be taking many indoor pictures.  That's why when we brought Cason's bike outside today, I made sure to grab my camera.  And yes, Cason is wearing short sleeves because it was in the 80's today!  I just put that in there to make my sister jealous:)  

Trying to scale our retaining wall.  Good luck.

I found a rock!

Ringing my bell.

Look Mom, there is a "p" in "stop"!

I'm so cute.

We're getting Cason's 18 month pictures taken tomorrow morning, wish us luck!  I wonder if he will cooperate.  Should be interesting!  

Naughty

It's crazy what kids this age can remember.  Whenever the weather is nice, we go for walks around the block.  After walking around the same neighborhood for three years, it is pretty boring to me.  But I get exercise, the dogs get exercise, and we all get some fresh air.  Plus, Cason loves being outside.  We live in Texas and it seems that Texans don't want you to forget that it's the Lonestar State.  So we see stars EVERYWHERE.  They are on signs, license plates, billboards, etc.  If that's not enough, a lot of people have metal stars that they hang on the exterior of their homes.  I'm really not bashing anyone, we have two stars in our living room as well.  I'm just trying to explain that stars are everywhere down here.  

The thing is when we go for walks, Cason knows exactly where all the houses are that have stars on them.  He gets excited about it before the house is even in view.  He tells me when a house is coming up with a star on it and makes sure that he points it out.  And as I have mentioned before, this kid has a fascination with fans.  There are several houses that have ceiling fans on their back porches and he points them out before the fan itself is even in sight.  There are also two houses on our route that have those decorative glass balls that people put on a pedestal in their garden.  He knows right where those are too.  I don't know how he keeps track of all of these favorite things because in our neighborhood, all the houses look pretty much the same.  They are all brick and the elevations are very similar.  

Speaking of stars, we usually do most of our grocery shopping at Kroger.  At our nearest Kroger there is a gigantic metal star hanging next to the restrooms, so of course Cason is fascinated with it.  This morning I told Cason that we were going to Kroger to get some groceries.  As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, he started freaking out and signing "star".  There are no stars on the outside of the store (that I saw), he just knows about the one inside that he loves.  The star is visible as we go up and down several of the aisles so of course he freaks out about it.  Then after we pay for our groceries, we have to go look at the star and say goodbye to it.  Every time.  You should see the smile on his face just from going to look at the giant star.  Silly little boy.  

Anyway, my point for this post was to tell a funny story that happened when we got home from the grocery store.  Cason was eating lunch in his highchair in the middle of the kitchen.  I gave him a banana, then a yogurt, then some peas (random, I know).  He loves to talk about peas and will occasionally eat them.  I dumped the peas on his tray and then hid behind the pantry door so he wouldn't see me sneak a few handfuls of trail mix (we haven't given him peanuts yet).  I was hiding for maybe a minute.  When I shut the door and looked back at Cason, he was in the process of throwing all his peas on the floor.  I said "that's naughty!" and took his tray off the high chair.  The whole time I was cleaning him up with the washcloth, he just kept saying "no, naughty, no, naughty".  I didn't say anything, just cleaned him up and got him down.  About 5 minutes later, he was looking at his favorite book "My Big Book of Everything" which is just what it sounds like.  A huge book with tons of pictures of everything.  He turned to the vegetable page and pointed at the peas and just kept saying "naughty, naughty, naughty".  It took me a minute to figure out why he was calling the peas naughty but then I just cracked up.  I thought it was funny anyway.  

I don't know what to say...

Almost 2 years ago, I found out that one of my childhood friend's 4 year old niece was diagnosed with Leukemia.  Her mom started a carepage for her and I immediately started following it.  Today, Mikayla is doing well and is counting down the months left of her treatment.  Throughout their treatment, their family has met and bonded with a lot of other families that are going down the same path.  Mikayla's mom is often mentioning other kids with cancer and that has led to me following more and more carepages.  

One of my absolute favorite families is Coleman's family.  Coleman and Caden are 5 year old twins.  Coleman has been battling medulloblastoma since he was only 2 and a half.  I have been following his carepage since last January and have prayed for him and his family almost every day.  Tonight I learned that heaven has another angel, Coleman passed away last night.  I can't even describe to you how awesome his family is and how my heart aches for them.  I just had to share two beautiful things that his mom wrote on her post tonight.  The first is something that she saw on her prayer calendar today:

"We are dependent on God to enable us to raise our child properly, and He will see to it that our child's life is blessed.  One thing I have learned is that I should not try to force my own will on my child in prayer.  I have found it is better to pray more along the lines of "Lord show me how to pray for this child.  Help me to raise him Your way, and may Your will be done in his life."

And the other is The Parable of the Twins:

Once upon a time, twin boys were conceived in the same womb.  Weeks passed and the twins developed.  As their awareness grew, they laughed for joy, "isn't it great that we were conceived?  Isn't it great to be alive?"

Together the twins explored their world.  When they found their mother's cord that gave them life, they sang for joy, "how great is our Mother's love, that she shares her own life with us!"  As weeks stretched into months, the twins noticed how much each was changing. "What does it mean?" asked the one.  "It means that our stay in this world is drawing to an end," said the other.  "But I don't want to go," said the other.  "But maybe there is life after birth."  "But how can there be?" responded the other one.  "We will shed our life cord, and how is life possible without it?  Besides, we have seen evidence that others were here before us and none of them have returned to tell us that there is life after birth.  Now, this is the end."

And so, the one fell into deep despair, saying "If conception ends in birth, what is the purpose of life in the womb?  It's meaningless!  Maybe there is no mother after all?"  "But there has to be," protested the other.  "How else did we get here?  How do we remain alive?"

"Have you ever seen our mother?" said the one.  "Maybe she only lives in our minds.  Maybe we made her up because the idea made us feel good."

And so the last days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and fear.  Finally, the moment of birth arrived.  When the twins had passed from their world, they opened their eyes and cried for joy.  For what they saw exceeded their fondest dreams.

I just thought those 2 things were beautiful and wanted to pass them along.  Please keep Peggy, Scott, and Caden in your prayers.  Hug your kids a little tighter, kiss them more often, and don't let the little things they do drive you crazy.  

A B C D E F G...

Well I guess I continued my tradition of NOT taking a single picture of big events.  This is the second year in a row that I forgot to even get the camera out on Christmas day.  I didn't even think about it until the next day.  We thought about re-creating Christmas and taking some pictures and no one would ever know but then we took the tree down in a hurry and we were out of wrapping paper.  So there went that idea.  I did take lots of video and thought about putting that on here.  But it was about 30 minutes worth of Cason opening presents from family members back in Iowa and Alabama and playing with some of the gifts.  That would be pretty boring to watch unless you were the one who gave him the gift.  So instead, I edited the videos and sent to each person who gave him the gift.  I am thinking that for the blog, I will just take pictures of him playing with some of his gifts and put those on here.  I'll have to work on that this week so be patient with me...

About a month ago, I noticed that Cason was really interested in letters.  If I was wearing a sweatshirt with letters on it, he would freak out and point to them all over and over again and have me say what each letter was.  So we went to the store and got some ABC books and have been reading those.  Two weeks ago, we went to JC Penney and when I got him out of his car seat, he freaked out and kept saying "p, p, p, p".  I looked where he was looking and he was talking about the p in the JC Penney sign.  Then he started pointing out the letters he knew wherever he saw them.  He has shown me "d" on  a Do Not Enter sign, a "b" on a store name at the mall, an "m" on the back door mat, etc.  Right now he knows A, B, C, D, F, M, P, S, and T.  I think that is all.  He will both point them out and pick them out of a lineup.   So that is what this video is of.

I forgot some pictures

I wanted to post some recent pictures yesterday but blogger kept freezing up on me so I forgot. This first one is from the day after Thanksgiving. We took Chris, Nicholas, and Natalie down to the stockyards. As we were walking back to the car, we saw these pony rides so we let the kids ride. This is Cason's first pony ride. I was surprised he didn't freak out. He smiled at Kelly every time we went by.



A month or so ago, we went to the park in the neighborhood next to us (since our neighborhood still hasn't built the playground they promised us 2 and a half years ago). We took some old hamburger buns to feed the ducks. Cason likes to observe animals but doesn't usually like to get near them (like at petting farms, he loves dogs and cats!). So we were pretty surprised when he enjoyed feeding the ducks.





And I just thought this last one was cute. He was sitting on some teeter totter like thing. But he looks more like he is riding a bull at the rodeo.

It's been awhile

Sorry, it has been a long time since I posted anything. We have been very busy around here! Here are a few recent videos of things that made me laugh. They are not that funny because as soon as I get out the camera, he stops hamming it up.

Kelly's brother, nephew, and niece came to visit us for Thanksgiving. Natalie had a container of Ice Breaker Sours that she was eating and she left the empty container here. We let Cason have it because he loves trash. He kept pretending to put one in his mouth and even chew. It was hilarious but as soon as we got the camera out, he pretty much stopped doing it.



Cason loves putting our shoes on but gets so frustrated when he tries to walk and the shoes fall off. So the other day, Kelly tied the laces up around his ankles so they would stay on.



Cason knows a lot of body parts: hair, head, ears, mouth, tongue, teeth, fingers, hand, belly button, knees, feet, and toes. Yet for whatever reason, he has refused to point to his eyes or nose. He will point to OUR eyes and noses but never his own. Then today when I asked him where his eyes were, he just kept blinking them for about a minute straight and then pointed to them. We were rolling with laughter. But when I finally grabbed the video camera he stopped blinking so much.



Take care! I will try to post more this month now that I'm done with all my projects.