More Kaden Funnies

Yesterday Kaden and I took Dad to physcial therapy.  On the way back, Kaden's DVD player stoppped.  Dad and I were talking and Kaden didn't seem bothered by the silence, so I didn't worry about it.  But, after awhile we heard an exasperated voice from the back seat say, "Grandpa, push something!"

Today, Ryan was trying to get Kaden's attention.  He called his name several times with no response.  Finally, Kaden turned around, looked and Ryan, and said, "What?"  The timing and look on his face were priceless!

A Star Is Born

Tonight I went to see Ye-In in the high school's production of "The Pajama Game". She did a great job. Next stop: Broadway!


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A Funny YouTube Video

Ryan really likes to watch "Stupid Game Show Answers" on YouTube.  There are several of them!  Whenever I have a "bluh" kind of day, it's a great pick-me-up to laugh at other people's stupidity.

BTW:  I'm trying a new way of blogging.  I have downloaded Windows Live Writer.  So far, I'm really liking it.  It's much easier to insert videos and pictures.  The real test, however, will be when I hit "publish".  Hopefully the video will actually be on my blog!

A Kaden Funny

Kaden's latest obsession is "Bob The Builder". Even though that show is not on T.V. anymore (at least not on any channel we get), Uncle Tim bought him a DVD for Christmas. It has become Kaden's favorite and he has watched it many times. Bob is a contractor, so in every episdoe, he answers his cell phone and rushes off to save the day by building or fixing something for one of the town folk.

Just how many times he's watched it became very apparent today. We were in Wal-Mart shopping with Mom and the girls. Mom made the mistake of leaving her purse in the cart seat with Kaden. We were talking and not paying much attention to him. After awhile, we looked at him and realized he had pulled Grandma's cell phone out of her purse. He flipped it open, put it to his ear, and said, "Hello. Bob the Builder."

I about died laughing!

Wow, it's April!

Where did March go? I know, I say that at the end of each month, but really. This last month went way too fast.

In just 5 short weeks, Kaden will be 2. I can hardly believe it. I'm so far behind on his scrapbook, it's sad. I've done a few pages from each month here and there, but I have not been faithful at getting things done chronologically. So, there is still at least 1 page left to finish from his 1st birthday and then others scattered throughout 2007 that are yet undone.



But, at least I'm not too far behind on 2008. Of course, I haven't taken very many pictures yet either! Hopefully I will get some more pages done soon. We've been fighting illness and I've been helping out by taking Dad to Physical Therapy since his knee surgery. So, we seem to spend a lot of time in the van these days!

Discipleship Focus Promo

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When I was in college, I spent 2 summers in Branson, MO working at Silver Dollar City through a discipleship program offered by Young Life. It was an awesome experience! I would really like to see a lot of Barclay students benefit from this chance to make some money for college while continuing to grow in the Lord. I made this video from pictures of my two summers. There is a better promo video available at their website which is HERE and they also have a Facebook group called Discipleship Focus Alumni that lists a lot of information too!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a very blessed Easter. He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

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Kaden has an announcement!

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I Could Use Some Prayers

Hi everybody. It's been 2 weeks since I last updated, so thought I'd better post. I've been having a rough time lately. I'm not sure why, but I've been "down in the dumps". When I get this way, I let my house get out of control and then that just makes me even more depressed. I feel powerless to stop it from continuing to spiral downhill. So, I'd appreciate your prayers. I just don't feel like doing anything lately and that makes me feel like a lousy wife and mother.

Kaden is continuing to grow and change every day. He is enjoying the warmer weather we've had lately. His favorite thing to do these days is to go to the park. Kaden is quite the little dare devil and it scares me to death watching him on the jungle gym to get to the slide. I get worn out after our trips to the park. He'd stay there all day if I'd let him, but usually after an hour I have to drag him home kicking and screaming because I'm pooped!

Ryan is enjoying his new job and the Telephone Company. He is working part time for them and part time for Denny. I have a feeling that we won't see much of him the next few months as both jobs demand a lot from him and both would like to have him full time. The plan is for him to go full time with the Telephone Company in October. I am looking forward to that in hopes that we will be able to settle back into a normal routine and also that we will be able to begin the adoption process again.

So how is everyone? I'm not sure who all reads this blog, but I would love to hear from you. I get very, very bored at home alone with Kaden all day. I practically live to hear my computer say "You've Got Mail." Kaden can say that very well by the way!!!

Update on Kaden

I realized it's been awhile since I've let you all know what our sweet boy is up to these days. He has changed so much in the past few months. It is truly amazing!

Kaden seems to learn something new each and every day. He has been learning his colors, shapes, and even numbers. The other day he pointed at one of our clocks and starting counting while pointing to the corresponding number. I was blown away!

If you go to DropShots you can watch a series of video clips of him showing off his new skills!

Play Dough

I want to share a picture of Kaden from Valentine's Day. He was introduced to Play Dough for the very first time. It was love at first sight! He had a great time. It's so cute to hear him say it because it he calls it "Bee Doe". Anyway, if you hop on over to Drop Shots, you can see some video clips of his playing with his "Bee Doe" too!

Romantic Weekend Getaway

I have a very wonderful, sweet husband! He whisked me away this weekend on a surprise getaway. It was our first time away from Kaden. Can you believe we've gone 18 months without spending a single night apart from him? It wasn't easy, but it was definitely needed!

Ryan surprised me with a hotel room with a hottub at the Grand Prairie Hotel in Hutchinson. The hotel features an indoor water park called Splash Down which is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we ended up moving hotel rooms at 10:00. The room we had reserved was in a block of rooms reserved for a Ducks Unlimited convention. They were a little more than noisy. Even though the new room didn't have a hot tub, I am glad we moved. We wouldn't have gotten any sleep!

It was fun to enjoy the water park, a nice dinner without feeding a toddler, and a peaceful shopping trip to the mall. On Saturday, we went to the Kansas Underground Salt Museum. It was so neat! First they took us on a tram ride though the salt mine where we learned about the salt mining process and even got to "mine" for some salt ourselves. There are over 67 miles worth of tunnels down there. It's huge! After the tram ride, we were able to wander through the museum and gift shop. In addition to mining for salt, the underground mine is used for archival storage. All but 1 major movie studio keep their movie reels and other movie relics in storage in the Kansas Underground Salt Mine. It is a constant 68 degrees down there and there is very low moisture. They had a few of the movie cases and movie costumes/props on display.

Here are some pictures. I'm still contemplating on how best to scrap these. The subject is a bit unusual!

Is it really February?

Where did January go? If this is any indication of how 2008 is going to go, then 2009 will be here before we know it. I actually hope that is the case. Why? Because it doesn't look like we really will be able to start the adoption process any time soon as hoped. There's a lot of factors, but like everything, finances are the major one. We're trying to trust God's plan and timing, but it's definitely hard to wait.

And the walls came a tumbling down.....

No, I'm not singing the "Battle of Jericho" song. Unfortunatley, I'm describing our house right now. Last week, one of our foundation walls crumbled. So, our kitchen is now being held up by several boards. Ryan assures me it's perfectly safe, but it scares me!

Oh the joys of home ownership. There's several more hundred dollars down the drain. Thank goodness Ryan is a handy man and has handy man friends. I shudder to think how much all this would cost if we had to hire someone to rebuild the wall. It's going to be bad enough as is.

Other than that, life is pretty much the same. I can't believe that January is almost over though. Where did it go? Kaden is going to be 2 before I know it. It seems like we just had his first birthday and now it's almost time for another one. Man time flies!

Well, it's late and I'd better get to bed. Just thought I'd pop in for a minute and ask for your prayers for Ryan as the poor guy is working hard all day and then coming home and working hard on the foundation wall well into the night.

It's so cold!

Brrrrr........When is it going to get warmer? It's too cold to do anything outside these days. Kaden is going stir crazy and is taking me with him! Anyone have suggestions on how to entertain a 20-month old all day? Our daily routine consists of reading every book he owns 5 times, coloring, playing with toys, repeat. After the second "repeat" he is totally bored and I break down and let him watch a video. Then we start the whole process over again. It's getting really old. Is he old enough for play dough or something else new and exciting?

Remembering Mushu

Today was a very sad day. Today I found the body of my beloved cat, Mushu laying by the garage. It would appear that she was hit by a car and our other cat Naboo drug her body to where she lays now. I am so, so sad.

We got Mushu in December of 2001. She was always a fiesty little cat. She amazed us right away with her loving personality and dog-like tendancies. She was always carrying things off in her mouth and hiding them. She also loved to play fetch. I've never known another cat to retrieve an object and bring it back to you. I was really looking forward to spring so I could teach Kaden how to throw her favorite stuffed fish to her. He would have had a great time playing with her and she would have loved it too. Now, Kaden will probably not even rememer her.

I am just so disappointed that whoever hit her didn't have the courage to stop, knock on the door, and let us know what had happened. If we had gotten her to the vet in time, maybe she would still be alive. It's like losing a child. Mushu got me through a lot of rough times when we were trying to start a family. I cried into her fur more than once when a pregnancy test came up negative. I will always remember her and I miss her so much already.

I'll eventually get around to making a scrapbook page of her, but I just can't do it quite yet. In the meantime, here are some photos of her. Rest in peace Mushu. You are loved.

Hello

Nothing big to report here. Life is pretty much back to normal after the holidays. Kaden and I are back on our daily routine now that Ryan is back to work. Mostly I am a very bored SAHM! I can only take so much ball rolling, block stacking, and Elmo watching before I am longing for the prescence of another adult. Don't get me wrong, I adore Kaden, but he wears me out and some days I feel like my brain is rotting!

Anyway, at least I will have something to look forward to this semester. I am going to be teaching the Fundamentals of English class at the college. This will get me out of the house once a week and around people closer to my age than Kaden. I am looking forward to it.

Plus, the payment from this course will help towards our adoption of Cindy. I am excited to fill out our application and get the ball rolling. I'm hoping to make an appointment with our doctor to discuss the waiting child needs checklist to see what special needs she thinks we could handle and/or treatments are available in Pratt. Then once we have our tax refund, we will proceed. We are trusting God to help us come up with the rest of the funds as our tax refund and my class payment will only be a drop in the bucket.

Well, it is really late and I am stalling going to bed for some reason. So, it's time to shut down the laptop and call it a night. I'll be back to post more scrapbook pages and/or other items of interest in the near future!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody! I hope 2008 has started off good for you. It's been pretty uneventful for us so far. Ryan and I are still sick and Kaden is running circles around us. At the moment he is at my parents' house running down Tina & Ye-In. They have more energy to drain than we do!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas! Kaden had a great time opening presents, but unfortunately got in the bad habit of saying "more." We're going to have to work on manners and gratitude once he can comprehend them! Here's a few pictures of the fun:

His eyes lit up when he realized the presents under the tree were for him!

Kaden posing with his gifts from Mommy & Daddy. Later we'll get a picture of him with ALL of his gifts from everybody. It will be a ridiculously large pile!

And, here is a picture from Sunday of Kaden in his Christmas suit:

Something for Moms Christmas Party

We had a really fun Christmas party for our Mom's group on Wednesday night. Lois is so good to us. She had a chocolate fountain and tons of fun presents! Wow! We stayed and chatted and laughed until 11:30. That's pretty late for us Mommies!

Here's a layout I made using pictures from Logan's camera. The kit I used is called "Visions of Sugar Plums" and is a collab kit by Danielle Corbitt's Star Studded Designs and Doodles 'N Dimples. It's available at Digital Candy.

Yesterday we went to Wichita to pick up Kaden's Certificate of Citizenship. Well, it didn't exactly go as planned. It turns out that his COC is in Kansas City. They're going to mail it to Wichita for us, but it still means we have to make another trip during the week. But, we got to have lunch with Jeanette at my favorite restaurant, Cheddars, and eat their wonderful Cookie Monster cookies, so it was worth the trip! We had a great time visiting and Kaden loves the giant aquarium in the restaurant.

Boy was it crazy in Wichita though. It was about impossible to do any shopping. So, we decided to wait and shop today in Pratt. Bad idea. A snow storm hit this morning and the wind is blowing so hard you can barely see. I'm hoping we can still make it to Pratt later this afternoon since we have no groceries and have a lot of things to make for Christmas and we're making breakfast for our Sunday School class tomorrow morning. That is, if we have Sunday School!

Well, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. I'd better get off the computer and start cleaning the house and/or wrapping gifts. Neither one sounds fun at the moment.