Today's SNAPS.

Compliments of Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, a "Snap" is something positive that has happened to you or that you have shared with someone. Today we had a pretty sick boy but a few things happened that we would consider "snaps".

1. Kaden only has a fever, it could be worse. We are truly blessed and very lucky for an overall healthy boy that we get to share our lives with and learn from each and every day. I couldn't imagine my life without him.
2. We ordered Kaden's CUSTOM designed First Birthday Bash invitations from www.kjanedesigns.com and I can't wait to send them out!! Birthday planning is FULL speed ahead! (I know, we still have 2 months (to the day) before the party but it is his FIRST birthday!!)
3. NEW WINDOWS for 8806-In with the new and out with the old. The first step is complete and tomorrow they arrive bright and early to finish the job. I can't believe how CLEAN the new windows are or maybe how DIRTY our old ones were.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Kaden was never the baby that would allow you to hold and cuddle with him but that never stopped my from hoping that one day he would allow his mommy to sit and rock with him. Today, I got to hold my son all day long and I found myself wishing that I could see his fun, bubbly personality and that he would put up a good fight when I tried holding him. But he just didn't have the strength and only wanted to sleep the day away, so I just wrapped my arms around him and just held him. He woke up this morning with a temperature of 102.6 and just felt like he was on fire. I called the pediatrician and they have seen a lot of kids who just have fevers, we kept a close eye on him but no other symptoms have developed. He was pretty sluggish all day but towards bedtime, after a nice temperate bath, he enjoyed some play time and sat quietly while Daddy read him his favorite book. As soon as we put the little guy down, he was out. We are hoping that we awake to his heartwarming laugh and that his fever has broken! If wanting to rock and cuddle with the K-Man means he has to be sick, I will gladly give up those dreams for a healthy boy!! Here is a picture of the little guy from today...

Always Wondered and Now We Know...

We have one of the most fun loving golden retrievers that I know and the poor guy has been cooped up inside because of the HOT, HOT heat. He loves to be outside running and playing. His favorite game is Frisbee and boy can Daddy make him jump! Every summer we contemplate getting him shaved but we were worried he would look dorky and we weren't sure if his hair would come back in as light as it was before so we just got his undercoat removed and called it good. But this year, well we had other things to consider. With Kaden being mobile, I end up vacuuming 3-4 times a day due to the amount of hair he has been shedding and the clumps he removes when he scratches. Plus he just looked so hot and miserable. It was time to try something new in hopes that Brodi would be able to enjoy summer a little more. We made a few calls around to local pet grooming salons and PetCo at 75th was the lucky winner. Brodi is a whopping 83lbs and just full of energy but he loves going to the groomers, he has always been so calm and we were hoping that even though he wouldn't be with his normal groomer, he would still get a good report card. We picked him up about 5 hours later and he got an A+ for behavior! He certainly looks a lot thinner and kind of funny but I think we might just have to do this each year. Here is before and then scroll down for the after.

A Night at the K

After Kaden's first trip to The K, we weren't sure if we would be going back as a family again any time soon but I was on a business trip to Chicago and I wasn't about to spend my first night back away from my little guy! So we all loaded up for a family night at The K. The Cardinals are in town for the weekend I70 rivalry and Greinke was on the mound. We found our seats and as luck would have it, Slugger was just a section over and Kaden was so excited and watched his every move-we were off to a good start. Although the wind was stagnant, the temperature felt like it was rising, Kaden remained a trooper. With the crowd being split pretty evenly between Cardinal fans and Royals fans, Kaden spent the entire game clapping since he didn't know what team was doing what. In the end, Greinke triumphed and so did the Royals. (Hopefully there will be a lot of BROOMS at The K on Sunday!)We didn't stay for the Friday Night Fireworks since we thought it would be a little too loud but as you can tell, K-Man didn't miss a second of the game. Hopefully the next outing to the ballpark will have the same smiling ending.

Two things: One, K-Man's legs look so chunky and they really aren't and two, one of the only times he wasn't happy, mommy gave him to daddy-Makes me feel good though!!

A couple nice Cardinal fans (that is an oxymoron if I ever heard one) let us sneak up here for this pic!

Still awake and smiling!!

A QUICK post with a few of my FAVS!

We got the rest of Kaden's 9 month pictures...

Another Lake Weekend...

How does one tell if it was a successful lake weekend? Your son is asleep before you even hit the road!!

This weekend we got to enjoy the family lake house again and we brought Jake and Jennifer along for the fun. We had beautiful weather again, it started to get a little scary just as we were heading out for a late lunch but other than that sun, sun and more sun! The best part about this weekend, the nights-they were nice and cool so we all got to enjoy sitting on the deck, playing cards and watching the water. Instead of sandwiches for lunch, we headed out to Coconuts (by car-much faster). The food was good (after waiting for 30 minutes to be seated), the band was even better and the crowed, well lets just say it was one of the best places to people watch EVER!!

A couple new things on Kaden-He is MOVING! Kaden has had his own version of just about everything he does, so why would crawling be any different! He will crawl with one knee on the ground and one foot, I guess he feels it is easier to sit down when he needs to. He is pulling up on everything and now walking around the coffee table and couch and will go from one to the other. And he just figured out how to go up the stairs which wouldn't be a bad thing if he knew how to go DOWN the stairs! He LOVES donuts, especially powdered donuts-YUMMY. Here are a few pictures from the weekend, we hope to get back down there for another weekend very soon. Oh and a BIG thanks to Jamie, he came and stayed with the dogs-they were super excited to see him!

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to the newest daddy in the family. Kaden is lucky to have you as his daddy. I already see so much of you in Kaden and I can't wait to watch you guys bond over the years to come.

Happy Father's Day to my dad. This picture is for you! Kaden wanted to show off his "Papa Tom" belly (The shirt might be a tad too tight.)

Happy Father's Day to my Grandpa Hartley. Kaden is looking forward to more ice cream! We will be down in a few weeks so you better stock up.

Happy Father's Day to my Grandpa Earl. We can't wait to come home and see you again!

Sneak Peek!

Here is a sneak peek of Kaden's 9 month photo shoot we had done at the end of May. Hopefully, we will have a few more pictures to share with everyone very soon.

Our Little Skipper

Although K-Man is will always be our little monkey, this weekend he became our little skipper. We got to spend a fun and relaxing weekend at the lake house in the Ozarks and Kaden loved every minute of it. We were a little worried that this wouldn't be as relaxing as some of our past trips and it wasn't but it was a lot more enjoyable. We got to enjoy the wonderful weather, mostly sunny with a few showers, with Grammie Janet and Charlie, Adam and Becky and little cousin Colton too. Daddy and I bought a big blow up raft which worked out better than imagined and it even had a little "baby pool" in the middle that allowed the boys to play without being in life jackets or their own rafts. Before heading home today, we lowered the boat down into the water and took a nice boat ride around our neighboring coves. Kaden didn't really dig the life jacket too much but it is a RULE that life jackets must be on at all times while in the boat until he turns 21. But after we got going on the water he settled down, settled down so much he fell asleep. Colton followed his lead and was snoozing in no time too. The water was quiet so we just drove and looked at the new houses that have been built or remodeled and we noticed lots of lake homes for sale. We would really love to own a house of our own on the lake, so we added it to our 10 year plan-better start saving now!! But until that day comes we will enjoy watching Kaden waste the summers away at the family lake house-it is perfect.

 

So tired he can't even hold his own bottle. Grammie to the rescue.

GOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!

Thanks to Uncle Justin and Aunt Tugce, Kaden was ready for the World Cup games to begin except he might have been cheering for the wrong country! This cute little soccer shirt came all the way from Turkey.

Our Family Just Got BIGGER!

On Friday, June 4th at 9:53 p.m. Gisele Meral Garrett was welcomed into this world by her parents, Justin and Tugce Garrett. This precious little girl weighed in at 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 inches long. Mommy and Gisele are doing great and if all continues well, they will hopefully be coming home tomorrow. Unfortunately, we won't be there to welcome them home and it just breaks our heart. However, we have our plane tickets booked and it will only be a few months longer before we get to see them all. I can't wait to hold this new little bundle of joy and introduce Kaden to his new Skype girlfriend. (Is it wrong that I am pimping out my son already?) Plus when we come to Milwaukee, we are bringing everything we own and Brett, my oldest nephew, so there might not be enough room for us all to stay at their house because right now, Gisele has some pretty special guests staying with her. Tugce's parents arrived from Turkey on Saturday just in time to meet their granddaughter.

Justin and Tugce have been great friends to Justin and I and just like a lot of our other friends, they are really part of our family. And we are so very excited for this new chapter of their lives and so blessed that we will get to be a part of Gisele's life and watch her grow up into a remarkable young lady. Congratulations to the new family, hold her tight while you still can, they get big quickly! Love you and miss you all so very much!!

9 Months Already

Kaden turned 9 months old on Monday and I was hoping to be able to post some of the pictures we had taken of him but they haven't been uploaded to the photographers blog yet, so I decided to settle for one of the pictures I took. Again, disregard the drool!

Kaden is standing up really well, mostly with help but during his photo shoot he let go of my hands and stood for a few minutes all by his BiGself. He is clapping by himself now, always would clap my hands together but never his own, weirdo! He is pretty good at carrying on conversations too. I will make a noise and he will make it back to me, he of course can't make all of the noises but the ones he can, he will even say back in the same sequence. He already knows what an owls says..Whooo, Whoooo-what a SMART boy. And then tonight, I couldn't believe my eyes when I went in to check up on whether or not he was asleep-he was sitting up in his crib!! At first I thought it was a fluke, I laid him back down, checked on him again after 5 minutes and sure enough, he was sitting up again! Daddy got home and he thought I was playing a mean trick on him until he hid out in there and saw it 3 times for himself! We couldn't be prouder-won't be long and he will be pulling himself up no matter where he is-baby proofing needs to be kicked into HIGH gear. Get the Flip, right?!? We pulled Kaden out of bed but he was too interested in watching the camera and it was 9:45 which was WAY past Kaden's bedtime. Hopefully we will get it on tape tomorrow night!

9 month pictures to be posted soon!! Can't wait to share them!