Nemo Party

Cayden has been asking for months that I make a Nemo cake for his birthday, so here it is - the Nemo party.  Fun was had by all.  12 kids, toys everywhere, cake & ice cream, presents, and a little screaming towards the end.  Perfect party!

Cayden was such a sweet birthday boy and gave hugs after opening his presents!  Check out Conner in the background stealing dad's cake and ice cream, to make his third helping of cake and ice cream for the night!

Gag Reflex

When we started feeding Allison solid food, we noticed that she cannot take a bite without sticking her fingers (and sometimes fist) in her mouth.  At first I thought, this is totally normal, every baby puts their hands in their mouth. Then I realized (when I tried to hold her hand down) that she cannot swallow, and starts to cry and spit the food out if she does not stick her fingers in her mouth.  It became funny to watch her eat, and as seen in this video, Tiffany thought Allison was quite funny. It is like clockwork, spoon, fingers, spoon, fingers, spoon, etc.  I asked Conner's speech therapist (who deals with a lot of eating disorders) and she said that she has seen this before, and that Allison is actually using her fingers to initiate her gag reflex to help her swallow.  She said not to fear, and that Allison would eventually learn to swallow without having to gag herself. 

Happy Birthday Cayden!

Cayden turned 3 on November 30th, and spent his birthday driving home from Tiff's house after Thanksgiving...not so much fun, but he did get to pick which fast food establishment we stopped at for lunch and dinner, and before we left we had breakfast with Tiff, Don, and DJ at IHop. Cayden ordered chicken nuggets, with syrup, for breakfast.  Yum!  I cannot believe he is THREE!! Conner was probably just as excited (if not more) than Cayden, and kept wishing him a happy birthday all day long.  Here are some pictures of opening presents that the "box man" (aka UPS) brought.

Happy, Happy, Happy!

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy 8 months Alli Grace, and Happy New House!

The turkey is cooking, the pies are done, the big boys (Keir & Don) are painting and hanging new doors downstairs, and the little boys (Conner, Cayden & Gage) are building gingerbread houses.  So much fun!  We are so happy to be able to spend Thanksgiving at Tiff and Don's before they move!

I cannot believe Allison is EIGHT months old today.  She is crawling all over the place, waving hello, smiles at anyone and everything, and loves her cousin DJ's jumper!
And, we are also sooo happy to return home to our finished house this weekend.  I know, the pictures do not look finished, but by the time we get home we will have new hardwood floors, new bathrooms, new kitchen . . .okay the kitchen is not completely new, but refinishing the cabinets makes it look new to me!  I love it!  Thanks Keir, Jeremy, Carlos, Jorge, and Romero!!!!!

The drawer fronts, and doors are being finished in their shop.

New floor in office.

Music Lover

Allison and I traveled to California this weekend for Grandpa's 70th birthday party.  She was great on the plane both directions, and everyone told me that I am lucky to have such a good, happy baby!

The highlight of the weekend for Allison (besides seeing so many relatives) was the entertainment at Grandpa's birthday party.  There were two very talented men who performed at the party, and Allison sang right along with their music. One played the guitar, and the other played the Didgeridoo.  If you have ever seen/heard the didgeridoo, you will understand, but Allison loved the vibration, and had to keep her hands on it during the entire performance. Luckily he thought it was great that she loved it and encouraged Allison to enjoy the music her way, and thus she became part of the entertainment.  Here are a few pictures.....

Movies, Fix'n Floors, Popcorn and Sleeping on the Couch

On Thursday morning Conner and Cayden woke up to find Mom and Allison gone...no where to be found. They were very sad that they didn't get a chance to say good-bye and give hugs and kisses before they left to California for Gandpa Foulk's 70th birthday party. As sad as they were, we were able to quickly transition to BOY'S WEEKEND mode.

Thursday night after school and work we headed to Glenwood Springs for haircuts, Chili's, and Target. The haircuts were not the highlight of that trip, but I managed to bribe them to enjoy it by offering ice cream after dinner.

Friday I picked them both up from Ms Diana's house and we headed straight for the movies...Madagascar 2. In the opening scene the song "I like to move it move it" came on and Conner jumped out of seat and started dancing. Halfway through the movie, Cayden who was sitting on my lap and shoveling popcorn in his mouth, took a quick break and said "Dad, Mom said we could see two movies at the movie theater. So we have to stay and watch another one tonight." When the movie ended Conner got out of his seat and yelled--as loud as Conner can yell, which isn't very loud, "Dad I LOVED that movie!!" Cayden then said, "Dad that movie was crack-a-lack'n!!" (which is a quote from the Zebra in the movie). We got home fairly early so we headed up stairs and popped in Kung Poo Panda--woops that how Conner and Cayden say it--its really Kung Fu Panda. We got our pj's on, grabed our blankets and pillows, and spent the night on the couch.

Saturday was a pretty low key day. We "fixed" the floor. Went to the lumber yard. Had Subway for lunch. Took naps--just the boys, Dad worked. And worked on the floor some more. After dinner Conner and Cayden almost ran up stairs and got their pj's on. I came up stairs and they were sitting on the couches and asked if they could fall asleep watching movies again. So we got cozy for long night of movies. I headed downstairs to make the popcorn. Conner feel asleep eating his popcorn. The only way I was able to get Cayden to sleep was turn off the TV at 11:00!! Way past his bed time!

Today is Sunday and we decided to take the day off of church and get the house ready for Mom and Allison's return home. I'm folding small mountains of laundry. Conner and Cayden are cleaning up the playroom...sorta...in between running to their room to fly Mom's airplane (their bed) back to Colorado. We're going to finish up some loose end around the house and then back to the fix'n the floor. Of course we'll have Hawaii noodles for lunch. And Mom and Allie should be home for dinner.

I don't know about Conner and Cayden, but I've loved BOY'S WEEKEND!! I'm pretty certain that Cayden would tell you this weekend was "Crack-a-lack'n!!"

Future Gymnast

We've been saying for a while that Cayden would be good at gymnastics, and we need to get him in a class. He is constantly tumbling, jumping, and diving around the house, and we thought it would be a good idea if he actually knew the proper way to do things, hopefully preventing further injuries.  I am posting the first two pictures from one year ago as an example of this. Cayden gave himself the biggest fat lip I have ever seen from tumbling on his bed last November.

We finally signed him up, and today was the first day of gymnastics.  He loved it, and actually told me to leave and pick him up later.  Here are a couple pictures of the class.  Today they worked on balance, and tuck and roll.

I realize the last few posts have been Caydencentric, and I am not sure how this happened.  I promise we love our three children equally!  :)