Cade's 1st birthday party (a month late)

(Yes, this should have been posted in July! I didn't have a blog then, remember?)

June 13, 2009 was technically the day Caden turned one. Chad, being sick with the Swine Flu, watched the "celebration" over video-chat, while Caden and I took residence at my parents. The party consisted of me going to get a flu test myself and later, Caden eating a doughnut while his Uncle Chris and I ate nachos for dinner, watching him make a powdery mess.

Less than ideal and not at all fun.

Luckily, my sister-in-law Deanna, who is way more on the ball than I, invited Cade to join his cousin Grace in celebrating a joint birthday three weeks later. We partied at Mutual Dale. (Oh, how I miss you, American Fork Canyon!)










Both sets of Cade's grandparents were there. Neither Chad nor I ever knew all four of our grandparents. Caden is one lucky boy.

Victoria Gardens

"What do you want to do today?" Chad asked me last Saturday morning. Knowing the temperature would be at least 90 degrees, I suggested Victoria Gardens. I explained to Chad that there are fountains, water, kids, running, playing--try as he might, he could only picture the fountain at University Mall--the one you throw a penny into and make a wish.

When I grabbed Cade's swim suit, he seriously doubted, "Won't people look at us funny if our kid is in the fountain?"





I love that Cade is up to his armpit in doritos.

Mr. T

T as in Trouble.

Whenever I hear quiet for a long time...I'm sure to be greeted by a face like this:



I'm pretty sure this chocolate he found is from 2003, which is the last time I used the scripture bag that he found it in.


Caden loves my toothbrush. Never mind that he has 11 of his own (including ones he stole from an uncle and a cousin). He is now tall enough that if he holds on to the bathroom counter and goes on his very tiptoes...he can reach it.

Life On Arrow Road

What does Life On Arrow Road look like you might wonder? Come on in, let me give you a tour.

When you first walk in the door, you enter our living room.



I love the openness of this room. And the fireplace that we hide behind the couch (who needs a fire place in So. Cal?)

Here is the view when I am sitting on the stairs, looking down.


Off of our front room, we have a mud/coat area with two closests and this bathroom. I post this picture so you will see that the toilet lid fits on the toilet tank. It didn't when we first moved in. Chad and his dad invested a good amount of elbow grease to make it the way it is now. Be grateful for the little things in life, I learned, like a toilet tank lid.



A huge improvement to our lives has come in the form of the garage. Chad said I shouldn't post this picture, since the garage is messy. I had to show our brand new washer and dryer. We got such a great deal on them, considering they retail for 2500 (if you want to know how much, call me. Or, call my sister cause she got the same set!)thanks to Jon at RC Willey. Go see him, and tell him you're my friend.



Going upstairs, you'll see Cade's bathroom (not shown) and his bedroom.



If you come to stay with us, you'll probably sleep in the craft/guest/library/storage/toy room. After uploading the pictures, I realized I should have cleared off my craft desk. I was in the middle of a project this day. Oh well. You wanted to see life in it's true form here, right?



This is the master bathroom (with Cade playing in the toilet.) Notice the double sink. It creates problems because Chad wants to assign "his" and "her" (i.e. yours and mine) sides, but I prefer to use whichever is closest, clear, clean or convenient. We've bought the paint for this bathroom to be a sage green. I can't wait.



Here is our bedroom. I took a picture of our walk in closet, but decided to bypass it since my running clothes were on the floor, and Chad's pajamas on the shelf. Use your imagination for the closet. It's nice.





Standing at the foot of my bed, off of our bedroom is an extra room. (You can see our bathroom down the hall, as well as the door to the hallway and the door to our closet on the left. It's like our own little suite up there.)



Chad's loft is where he spends most of his time studying. It has a huge whiteboard for him to diagram animals, and posters of dog breeds on the wall.


We're almost done with the tour. Here is our kitchen. I didn't take a picture of our "dining area" off our our kithen. I love everything about my kitchen: the countertops, the wood floor, the sink, the dishwasher (it's greatly improved my quality of life), the tree outside, the large window, and the glass cabinets that will one day show off my fine china. Right now, they show off matching Target dishes and a selection of my favorite cookbooks. I couldn't be happier.





And by the way, does anyone know where to take Blogger lessons? I want to enroll Chad. I asked him to upload some pictures of our house, so I could edit and caption them (wasn't that enjoyable), and by the time I caught him, he'd posted several different posts with 1 picture each. The titles started out as "garage" and "nice kitchen" but evolved into "Chad is the best" and "Chad loves Michelle". I have to agree about both statements.

Movies

I am posting a bunch of videos, mainly for Cade's grandmas and grandpas who are missing him! Disclaimer: I rarely watch videos on other people's blogs. Sorry! If you don't want to be a blogger friend anymore, I understand. I am only posting them for family. So don't feel obligated to watch them all. Unless you're related. In that case, I expect you to feel completely obligated, and I will be asking about it next time I see you.
I can't figure out what order these videos are in, so I can't provide any commentary on each one. They are just snippets taken here and there over the last few weeks. One of my favorites is of the day I was making my couch pillows, he found a piece of stuffing and sat at our coffee table and blew it for an hour! Enjoy!