My little preschooler!

Caden tree he made

So...Caden gets to go to preschool for the next two weeks out at my mother-in-laws school. He came home with this little art project that he made. It's a tree that he colored. I am so proud of him and he is pretty proud of his project. A girl read him a book and they got some apples for a snack. He came home and told me he had so much fun at Grandma's school. When I called him this morning to check on him all he wanted was to talk to his daddy. He is growing up so fast on me.


Caden & Lukas

Caden & Lukas building Leggos

Thursday he went to preschool again and this time I got to take him. I wasn't sure how he would do with me there but he went off with the other kids and would wave to me once in a while but loved being there. Thursday they talked about baseball...he got to throw a ball at a target on the chalkboard and then they colored a glove and ball. They also got to frost baseball cookies...they gave him 5 cookies - he was in heaven. He is really enjoying himself and thinks he is "mega big" cause he goes to school now.

Caden on the treadmill in Grandma's classroom

Busy, Busy Busy

Seems like we have been very busy these past few months. March and April Rod and I have been busy working on our yard and trying to get it looking nice. I got my garden all cleaned up and Rod has been busy working on the yard. We aerated and thatched it this year hoping that will help it out. We got two new trees as well.


Our Tree in the front yard

The tree we planted in the front yard it a Prairie Fire Tree that gets bright pink blossoms on it and the tree in the back yard we planted is called a Blaze Maple - they are both really pretty and a great addition to our yard. My flower beds look amazing this year - after 5 years the bushes and flowers are really coming along.

Lainey turned 9 months old last week and is getting so big. Yesterday she had her appt and weighed in at 18 lbs 6 oz and 27.5 inches long. She did have a double ear infection which I had suspected so she is now on antibiotics for that. She is trying to crawl, she gets up on all 4's and rocks back and forth and ends up scooting backwards - she will get the hang of it in the next couple of weeks.


Lainey

She rolls everywhere she wants to go and can get into anything that she has her mind set to. She is a non stop talker - just like her brother. She likes to clap her hands together when you say yeah, it's pretty cute!

Lainey in the swing outside

Caden has been a busy 3 1/2 year old and keeps me on my toes. He has learned how to get the swing going by himself this year which is nice. He likes to dig in my garden with his shovel and play baseball with his daddy. He is getting pretty good to. He doesn't like to use his tee - he wants us to throw the ball to him while he hits it and for the most part makes pretty good contact with the ball - I think he is going to be our little athlete. Caden got a new big bike a few months back so he has been busy putting miles on that as well.


Rod and Caden shooting guns

Rod is doing well - working at Western Aircraft still and is getting ready for summer to go camping. The end of May Rod gets to go to Chicago for a week for United Airlines Training and he is super excited about it...mainly because Chicago has good pizza! He will have a good time.
I am still working two days a week for Langston & Associates and enjoying spending the other three days with my kids. Tuesday's and Wednesday's I watch a 7 month old girl and her and Lainey are becoming good friends. Lainey gives her big smiles when she gets here in the morning, it will be fun when they can chase each other around. I am running my first 10k on May 15th so I have been busy running and getting ready for that. Hopefully I can make it all the way through!


My mom and Caden playing trouble


My mom feeding Lainey

Last weekend we went to Cottonwood where my Uncle Bruce had his annual 22-shoot. This was the first year that we were able to make it and it was fun...a little windy and cold...but fun. Caden got to shoot Rod's gun for the first time and he loved it. I thought that he might get scared when he took the first shot at the target but no...he loved it and couldn't wait to run out the clip and go get more "bullepps" as he calls them!


Me shooting at the targets

I even got a turn it and hit 3 of the golf balls - I was impressed with myself. We had a great time in Cottonwood visiting my family. Hope everyone is having a great spring and hope to see you all soon!

Sledding!!!

Yesterday we went to Idaho City to go sledding with some friends of ours. There isn't a ton of snow up there because it hasn't snowed much this year but it was perfect for the kids to go sledding. Caden had a blast. He did really good walking up the hills and when he would get tired Rod would carry him. For the most part Caden would ride down with Rod in the tube because the hills were pretty fast. Caden did go a couple times by himself - he is pretty fearless! I took him a couple times but for the most part sat with Lainey in the back of the Tahoe and observed everyone. We all had a great time and I hope we can go back up and do it again before the snow season ends this year. I am having trouble with pictures - I will try to post them later. Sorry!

Playing Catch-up!

Well...where should I start??? It has been a while - I feel like I have been so busy and hardly get a chance to sit at the computer much these days.

Christmas was great for all of us. We spent Christmas in Boise with Rod's family and then for New Year's we made the trip up to Lewiston to celebrate Christmas with my family. We stayed at my sister Karel and her fiance Chris's new house. They have done some home improvements to the house and it is really coming along nice. Hunter, Cole and Caden had a great time playing together.




In early January we celebrated my nephew Lukas's 3rd birthday - he is growing up so big and handsome. Caden and him really enjoy playing together - mainly going on bear hunts and playing outside together.

The first weekend in February I got to fly up to Spokane and spend 3 nights with my twin-sister Stephanie. Our 30th birthday is February 12th so we made this plan months ago to spend the weekend together. I flew into Spokane at around 8:30 Friday night and the whole Wilkins Family was there to pick me up - Cole was mad that Caden wasn't with me and Finn just screamed at me if I look at him or accidentally bumped his carseat. I don't get to see Finn a lot so he was still warming up to me. Cole got over being mad at me when I told him he could come and see me this summer. But...he didn't forget...Saturday morning when he woke up I went into his room to cuddle with him and he looked at me in all seriousness and said "Aunt Maria, mom's don't leave. I said "Cole, what are you talking about" he said, "mom's don't leave their kids at home". I was so cute and made me sad I hadn't brought Caden to play with him. This was my first weekend away by myself since before Caden was born so I was ready to have so fun. I have a wonderful husband who took care of the kids for me while I was gone. Saturday Stephanie and I were out the door at 9:00 to be at the mall by 10 when it opened. We shopped for 7 hours, only stopped for 5 min to have an Arby's sandwich. We found some great deals. We went and had dinner at Azteca (Mexican Restaurant) where I got hit on by the waiter (I still have it:) Then we went back to Stephanie's and picked up Riley and went out to a bar called Curly's with some of their friends. We had a great time. Sunday Stephanie and I were a little slower moving from the night of festivities but we managed to get in a little more shopping, got pedicures and went and watched Dear John (great movie). We got back to her house around 5:30 and Riley made us some yummy steaks for dinner. We were both in bed by 9 we were so tired. Monday morning I flew out at 8:10 and was so excited to see my kids again, I think they were excited to see me as well. I had such a great trip and can't wait to do it again.




The following Friday (12th) was my 30th birthday, yes the BIG 30!!! My mom and dad came down for the weekend which was awesome. We went out to dinner at Kyoto (Japanese restaurant) and it was fun. They cut up the food and grill it in front of you, Caden was amazed at how fast they were. I even caught a shrimp in my mouth. Mom and I did some shopping on Saturday and I got fitted for my bridesmaid dress for Karel's wedding. My aunt and uncle came over for dinner along with my cousin Randi (or Caden's best friend:)) and we drank and visited. Sunday we went to church, did some driving around and had ice cream. Mom and dad left early Sunday morning. Thanks for making my birthday a special one.




Caden is growing and getting bigger everyday. He is learning all sorts of new things and keeps telling me when he gets a little bigger he is going to go to school. He is getting pretty excited. He is starting to draw me more pictures, you should see my fridge. He loves playing x-box with Rod (especially the deer shooting game) and loves to play "pretend" hunting with his guns. He got a new bike a month ago and it's red rocket he says and goes mega fast. He is a great big brother to Lainey and helps me take good care of her.





Lainey is 7 months old now and getting so big. She is still wearing 3-6 month clothes which just amazes me, by this time Caden was wearing 12 month clothes - she is just so much more petite that he was. She is sitting up like a big girl now and rolling all over the floor. She is eating 3 meals a day now (baby food) and gets excited when she sees her bottle. She likes to scream dadadadadadada!!!! It's really funny. She makes some monster growling sounds that Caden has taught her. She was 15 lbs 14 oz at her 6 month appt and is doing well. She had an ear infection a couple weeks ago that has since healed and we think that she may have an allergy to strawberries. We had given her some strawberry puffs one night and the next morning she broke out in hives all over her body - scared me to death! She has since recovered from that as well so I don't think that she will be getting strawberries anytime soon!





Rod has been working like crazy still and has started a workout program at the gym 3 days a week - I am really proud of him for doing this. He was been riding the bike for 16 miles - impressive.

I have been working 2 days a week still for Langston & Associates and two other days I am babysitting for one of my co-workers 5 month old. She is really cute and Lainey and her love to stare at each other. Caden tells me that Lainey is my baby and that Lauren is his baby - but I might have to help him once in a while. I have been working out 4-5 days a week as well and really enjoying my gym time - I am up to running 3 miles now and it feels good. I am going to run a 5K this spring with a friend of mine so I am looking forward to that.




Today is my Newphew Cole's 5th birthday so I want to give a shout out to him...Have a great day Cole - I love you!!!


I hope that everyone has enjoyed their winter and are looking forward to spring (I know that I am).

It's time for sledding!!!

So...Santa Claus was supposed to bring Caden a sled this year for Christmas - but mommy and daddy got to antzy and couldn't wait till Christmas. We got a great snowfall for a couple days and were just dying to take Caden sledding. So...we told him that we borrowed this sled from our neighbors down the street and were going to take him. Caden said "oh, that was nice of them to share" LOL. We are still going to put it out under the tree and just tell him that Santa brought him one to because he saw how much fun he had. I hope that everyone is enjoying this winter season - we sure are. I have my Christmas party tomorrow at 4 and we have Rod's party on Friday night. We are going to take Caden and Lainey to the Botanical Garden light show on Saturday evening - Santa and his reindeer are supposed to be there. Caden is really into Santa this year - I can't wait to see him unwrap his gifts. Have a great Holiday and remember -Santa is always watching!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well we had a great Thanksgiving this year. Rod's parents came over and had dinner and desert with us and the kids loved having them be with us. Caden and I made pilgrim hats for him and Lainey (actually I made them and he was excited to use my sissors to cut random pieces of paper). We had a yummy dinner and pumpkin pie for desert. Let's just say I ate way to much.

Rod had to work the next day so I missed out on the after Thanksgiving Day shopping. I did take the kids out at 8:30 to Walmart and got Brodie's Christmas present finished up so I was happy about that. Rod got home at 2:00 and I took Lainey with me and we hit Old Navy and Shopko. Santa is bringing Lainey and Caden a two seater sled this year so I am pretty excited about that...although Lainey probably won't ride until next year:! Friday night we went over to our friends Tim and Jen's and had leftovers and watched the BSU game.

Saturday we did some shopping and then went out to Parma for my father-in-law's birthday party. We had a ham with all the fixings and then played board games. Rod and my brother in law Brad really tied one on. I think they drank all the whiskey in Parma that night! At 2:30 a.m. I heard ROd get the hickups and Brad and Rod thought that it was the funniest things so they continued to laugh hysterical until about 2:30 a.m. They were both in fairly poor shape on Sunday.

Yesterday we got our Christmas decorations in the house put up and some outside lights put up as well. I got to go watch New Moon with my friend Jen last night. Our Thanksgiving Day Weekend was great and I hope that all of yours was just as great!

Some Fun Times!

Hmmm....where to start. Seems like we have had some really fun times lately and I just havne't had time to post pictures and blog about them. A few weeks ago my friend Jen and I took the kids over to Eagle to the Fun Fittables bounce house and the kids had a great time. They had two bounce houses and then there was gymnastic equipment set up everywhere. Caden really showed me how athletic he was, he was hanging from bars, climbing up the rock wall and doing flips on the built in trampoline - he had a great time.



Lainey is 4 months old now and just so much fun - although she thinks she doesn't have to sleep at night anymore. She is becoming such a big girl, she loves sitting in her high chair when we eat dinner so that she can see what is going and she thinks that she is the center of attention. When no one is paying attention to her she will start fussing until you come and talk to her...then she just gives you one big smile. Caden is doing well - he loves to play dishes and cooks things for you. He is a big helper and loves helping me take care of Lainey.





I went up to Cottonwood last weekend to surprise my friend Michelle at her 30th birthday party. She had no idea that I was coming. I showed up at Barley Hoppers around 9:30 or so and they had just got there. I jumped out in front of her and yelled Happy Birthday...it was funny because she had quite a bit to drink so it took her a few seconds to figure out who I was. But...when she did she malled me. We spent the rest of the evening dancing and drinking, it was so much fun. I spent the next 3 days in Cottonwood helping my mom out. We made some Christmas cookies and Caden got to help frost them. Basically, he would stick the knife in the frosting, put some on the cookie and then lick the rest off, then stick it back in the frosting. So...those of you getting cookies from me this year may just get one of Caden's special cookies!!!



We are heading to Hermiston tonight to spend an early Thanksgiving with Rod's Dad and Sandy. Brad, Amy, Lukas and Ella will be joining us so it should be lots of fun. Rod, Brad and Ralph are going steelhead fishing tomorrow while us girls hang out with the kiddos. I can't wait until Caden is old enough to go fishing with Rod -he would really enjoy it. It is just to cold for him to go out on the boat for 4 hours.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.