Easter 2010

A Belly Picture, finally...

So, I found a little space on my hard drive to squeeze in just a few pictures from my completely full 1 GB memory card, lol. Neither of them are great, but here they are none the less. I took this picture during our Potty Training Weekend. I love the M&M smear on his lips and how he was sitting.... the pic is a bit dark, but it still captures his sweetness... he moved about 1 second after I took it so I'm glad I caught this sweet face, all covered in M&Ms and just as happy as can be watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....

Caden is just such a little boy now. He cracks us up all the time. I've started writing down funny things that he says and I want to start posting them (and just blogging in general again). Blogging was therapy for me at one time and I really miss it! Here are just a few cute sayings that come to mind:

Every night at dinner we pray... over the last year Caden went from eating through the prayer so waiting for us without eating, to shoving in a bite of food while he squinted his eyes and put his hands on his forehead, to eventually asking to pray. These prayers are often precious! The very first time he asked to pray was about a month ago (about 28 months old) and after examining his plate (I had made burritos), he said,

"Dear God, Thank you for Taco Bells.... Amen."

After that night Caden pretty much prays for our meals every time. One morning we got up and cooked a big breakfast together as a family and Caden prayed, thanking Jesus for every item of food on his plate (eggs, toast, jelly, grapes, etc).

Lately Caden's prayer sounds something like this...

"Dear Jesus, thank yous the food..... Thank you Caden's undies dry and go pee pee in the potty.... thank you blessings....... Amen."

Last night Caden was warned and then deliberately disobeyed while I was cooking dinner and so he was given a spanking. During his prayer he threw in something about obeying God and spankings.... I can't remember the exact wording but I remember John and I looking up at each other from across the table and holding back laughs.

Caden knows about things that I have no recollection of teaching him... for example, a month or so ago Caden looked at me and said, " Mom Mom (his new word for me), what happened my trucks? They need batteries." I have no clue how he knows about batteries and what they do...

One of our Monday Morning Outings lately is to go to the Barnes and Noble story time after my gym class. After the story they do a craft. Caden doesn't quite have the pronunciation of that word down yet and yells out often, "Mommy I go to story time and I do crack! I do crack Mommy!" Lovely....

This next story is a little on the "too much information" side of things.... I apologize before hand ........... As we neared time for potty training we started announcing every time we went to the restroom so Caden would come watch and learn.... At first he complimented me for going... "Mommy go pee pee in potty! I so proud of you!!" Then after a few weeks he decided to change up his compliment.... Sticking his head between my legs to look into the potty he said, "Mommy!!! It so beautiful!" What was really great was when he started making these loud announcements/compliments in public restrooms... lol.

Caden is very much into make believe play now. It's really fun to watch him have conversations with his little action figures and dolls and to really make his trucks do an activity (complete with sound effects). He loves to pretend to have meals at his table/kitchen he got for Christmas from Gdaddy and Nonnie, too. Last night he was making me eggs. Caden gave me a spatula to eat my eggs with and I asked him for a fork. He went searching for one and when he couldn't find one he said (and I quote)... "I have a GREAT idea! Here's a spoon!" What drama and where did he learn "i have a great idea?" lol.

In other news with Caden.... as this is turning out to be a "catch up" blog post... we potty trained him a few weeks ago! He did SO great! I'll try to blog more about it later but it was so much easier than I ever thought it would be! We even took a road trip to Nashville just for fun one week after we trained him! That is how well it went.... we had no worries about him holding his bladder at all and he stayed dry all day long.

As for me, this picture is about 1.5 weeks old now and I swear my belly is twice as big, at least it feels that way. I had no belly at all, just a teeny bit of pudge two weeks before this picture.... That one is far from edited (my 17 week picture) and this one (21 weeks) is only partially edited (hence the shadows on the white and splotchy areas)..... but I knew that the chances of me ever going back to FINISH editing this picture were slim to none.. I've pretty much forgotten how to use photoshop and it took me forever to re-learn how to do the few simple things I did do... so here it is... Baby Girl (possibly Kaycie Grace as that is the favorite name these days) at 21 Weeks:

21 Weeks Pregnant

I'm so far behind in my blog I experience anxiety every time I log in at the thought of trying to catch up. Our camera broke so we have very few pictures from the last few months AND my computer is so full of pictures I don't have any space on my hard drive to add new ones. Yes I have an external hard drive but I still feel this need to put everything on CD.... I might have to just bite the bullet and put all my pictures on the external hard drive and leave it at that... what do you guys do to back up your photos? I need to make it a 'resolution' to print 10 photos for each month.... that way if everything crashes I'll at least have some memories to cherish forever.

So back to the pregnancy... I'm feeling pretty good these days although I will be honest and say I'm not enjoying this pregnancy like I did Caden's. With Caden I loved every second of being pregnant, this time not so much. Maybe it's because it took me 2 years to get my "body" back after having Caden and then I got pregnant... I'm going to go with that excuse. :D I'm still on the small side compared to where I was with Caden at this point. I've only just recently moved into maternity pants but can still wear my old jeans with a belly band too. I've only gained 4 pounds (4.5 on bad days, hehe) but you would think I'd put on more judging from the size of my belly bump! It just took off about 3 weeks ago and I look obviously pregnant now. My belly button hasn't popped out all the way just yet but it's on it's way there!

We found out at 19 weeks that we are having a little girl! I am SO thrilled and John said that he didn't realize until we found out it WAS a girl that he was really hoping for one! We're having a terrible time with names... my initial favorite was Gabrielle (call her Gabby/Gabbie) BUT I keep thinking that name, as much as I love it, just doesn't sound like me or something.... Plus we can't think of a middle name to go with it. I love the old traditional names, but none of them have that "wow" or "cute" factor that Gabbie has. Examples are Kate, Caroline, Elizabeth, Hannah, etc. Recently, John and I were looking at the name book before bed and saw the name Kaycie and we both really liked it. So that looks like a contender these days, too! It we chose that name it'll be Kaycie Grace. We still have plenty of time to decide I suppose, but I can't help but feel the pressure!

A few days ago as I was falling asleep I felt the baby moving around a lot! It was the first time I really felt her moving around more than just a little thump or kick here and there. I put my hand on my tummy and felt her from the outside for the first time... John joined in and got to feel her moving around, too! He never got to experience that with Caden as I'd only felt the first flutters when he left for Korea.

At my recent ultra sound appointment they diagnosed me with a low lying placenta/marginal placenta previa. I had this with Caden, too. Just means at this point I had to stop jumping/jogging during my aerobics class, which I had already cut back on the high impact stuff significantly. Now I do my jumping jacks one leg out at a time... I feel so stupid especially because I HAVE the energy to do them the right way, but babies safety comes first so...

I've been looking at crib bedding and having the hardest time... I couldn't take my eyes off the little girl stuff when I was pregnant with Caden and now I can't find a single thing I like and I can't stop looking at how cute the little boy stuff is! Go figure! I have decided that I'm going to order the same exact crib set we got for Caden (it converts to a full bed and will be 'lifetime' furniture for him and eventually her). I still love it and it is very simple and traditional and doesn't have anything that will make it go out of style. My only delima is do I order it in white or stained, dark (warm dark) wood? Will she still like her white furniture when she is 14 years old?!? Any advice/opinions out there?

All in all things are going great! Maybe at my next update we will have nailed down a name, ordered a crib, purchased crib bedding, and started clearing out the room that will be her nursery!!

Labor Day

Over labor day weekend we met up with our friends Mark and Kate in Florence and took Caden on his first boat ride! He loved it! He sat there for the longest time just taking it all in, with a really serious look on his face. After a while he started moving around the boat a good bit and Mr. Mark even let him "drive." We stopped to swim for a bit and Caden loved jumping off in the water to Daddy, and then climbing up the ladder and doing it all over again, and again, and again. He loved pointing to things out on the water like birds or "big boats." He had such a great time. Thank you Mark and Kate for a special weekend!

Dr. Fish

I'm sure you've heard before that trends start overseas and eventually work their way to America... well this is one that I don't see myself doing again when it makes it here...

Dr. Fish is apparently popular in European and Asian countries. It's basically a giant pool/tub/etc with hundreds of little carp that eat the dead skin off of your feet. For a full exfoliation you will need to let them nibble (can I just say ICK) for about 15-20 minutes. I couldn't last even 15 seconds!!

It was the strangest sensation... it tickled a lot, and kind of stung just a little. John said something interesting when he tried it.. he said if the sensation was mechanical he wouldn't mind it at all... he actually might even enjoy it just a little... but knowing it was living, slimy, squirmy, little fishies (his quote exactly- haha) made it harder to tolerate...

Can you tell from my expression that I'm only tolerating this for the camera...

Ick! They were so aggressive!

John's turn. He let them feast on his flesh for several minutes...

This picture really captures the experience of it best...

And the video... enjoy!

So... would you do Dr. Fish???

Saying Goodbye...

I felt like my last few days in Korea were a blur... There was so much to do (with the movers coming just 3 days before we flew out) and so little time to say goodbye to so many dear friends.

I came to realize that I don't like saying goodbye. It's awkward and feels so final. My friends are people who I chatted with often, and saying goodbye without the added "see ya later" felt so strange. Knowing that the chances are on this side of eternity I probably won't see the majority of them again made it very hard to leave Korea. But, I did... it's done and I'm a half a world away thinking of and missing those sweet friends of mine. Here are some pictures...

Our Bible Study Small Group

Out to dinner at Puffin's! Thanks for a great night guys!

My friend, Amanda, and I out shopping in Songtan one last time!


My last book club meeting...

My friend's threw me a little surprise party before I left. It was a total surprise and it made my year!! It made me feel very loved and special and I can't tell you how much I appreciated it! And Amanda E, I wish you could have been there! Did you ever figure out what Parker had??

My MOPS group...

My sweet friend Marta at my last MOPS meeting.

I miss you all!!

We made it!

It's been over a week since we arrived back in Hunstville, Alabama! We flew out of Korea on Thursday Jan 22, at 6pm, and arrived in Huntsville on Thursday Jan 22, at 8pm! Only two hours of travel! Haha! Wouldn't that have been nice! Total travel time was actually 25 hours, but that doesn't include the hours of "awake time" we had since Caden decided to wake up at 4:45 am the day we left (which would have put us just over 30 hours of travel time, before arriving in Huntsville).

God saw some flaws in our planning and we truly think he knew Caden needed to wake us up early that day. It actually worked out quite well. Caden slept the entire 2 hour bus ride to the airport and we actually had to wake him up when we arrived!

At the airport we faced our next big challenge: getting all of our 7 suitcases, 6 carry on's, a stroller, a pack and play, and a car seat from the bus to the gate all while toting a toddler. God, again, provided for us! There was a bellman (or whatever you call them) waiting at the exact spot the bus unloaded us and he took care of it ALL!

The rest of the trip I will share in little "snippets" with the pictures below:

We arrived at the airport about 2.5 hours before our flight opened. We planned it this way hoping we would be the first in line to get our tickets when the flight opened and maybe get a bulkhead seat. So, for lunch we picnicked with some McDonald's on the benches by the Delta counter.

Our luggage... We had a lot of luggage (as you can see). Many of you are probably thinking we paid a pretty penny to get all these bags on the plane, but actually Delta allows 10 bag up to 100 lbs each (that's 1,000 pounds total!) for military members traveling on orders. Nice!

We decided to check our stroller under the plane and use a handy little strap to convert our rolling carry-on suitcase into a stroller by attaching the car seat! The best $12 we ever spent!

Once through security we found our gate and next to it was a play area for kids. This was just one of about 30 of these play areas situated throughout the airport. Korea is just so kid/baby friendly! The play areas were all very clean. Caden played here until John's tummy told him it was time for a snack...

We had some ice cream for a snack... and it was here that we think we lost Caden's little teddy bear that I bought for him when I was pregnant. It is so hard on a mommy to lose something with sentimental value... We realized the bear was missing as we were boarding the plane and I got permission to go run through the airport frantically searching for it, but returned empty handed...

At gate 113 (our gate) Caden spotted the little walk way things that are like flat escalators... he has an obsession with escalators lately so he spent the remaining 30 minutes or so before we boarded the plane riding on these. John rigged up the suitcase that he wanted to carry (but was too heavy for him) with some string so Caden thought he was hot stuff pulling his little suitcase around!

On the plane we were fortunate enough to get the bulkhead seats, and ones by the window at that! Caden stayed awake about the first two hours of the flight, and then he was spent! He was so tired that it took nothing more than his blanket and paci and he was out in minutes! He slept for about an hour, then woke up briefly trying to roll over, but found he was strapped in his car seat... so we decided to put a pallet on the floor under his seat and let him sleep there... and he did for 4 more hours! In the picture below you can see the little bulkhead area where he slept.

Here is is watching a video on Daddy's tray table (his wouldn't come up over the seat- one disadvantage of bulkheads).

After a 13.5 hour flight we arrived in Atlanta, quickly transitioned to a new plane to take us to Huntsville and an hour later (Caden slept the entire time) we arrived home!! After exiting the gate in Huntsville, Caden wandered over to the nearest bench in the deserted airport and climbed up... he was ready for sleep!

Here we are greeting my family (it took two trucks to get all our stuff home)...

We're very glad to be back!!

Bowling, 17.5 mo

We took Caden bowling this weekend.

China Part 1 - The Shopping -

I have so much to say and share about our trip to China, but let's face it.... the thing you are all probably MOST curious about is how we made out with all the great shopping! So, that is where I'll start.

We visited several markets in China. We were told to go to the Pearl, Silk, and Lido markets. Somehow we only made it to Lido because our driver, or whoever we got to translate a note to our taxi driver, kept taking us to the wrong markets. Of course it took us a while (each time) to figure out we weren't where we were supposed to be, but we still can't complain because the shopping was still great! We toured the Lido Market (don't recommend it), Silk Street Pearl Market (which is neither the silk OR pearl market... but I can see how confusing it could be), and Yashow Market.

Yashow Clothing Market

This market was one of our favorites. It is mainly a clothing market with things like polo, Spyder, North Face, Columbia, etc... We also got some sunglasses and pashminas here, too.

The vendors at all of the markets carry all KINDS of stuff. Clothes, purses, scarves/pashminas, souvenir items, electronics, jewelry, etc. It's really quite overwhelming because in one market alone (Yashow, for example) there were 5 floors of shopping to sort through in only a short amount of time! The markets are all typically several floors high and they are set up in a similar way to craft fairs back in the states. It's best described as a ton of little cubicles where the vendors can display their goods as they choose. Some stalls/booths are more lavish than others (prime retail) and others are very simple and messy.

The vendors are mostly all very young (late teens, early twenties) Chinese women. The Chinese people are generally not as friendly or courteous as the Korean people. As you walk around the vendors are all shouting out at you "Lady, Lady, come here pretty Lady! I give you good deal. You need pashminas?" It's quite loud and the vendors CAN be very aggressive, although they are not always. Sometimes you might walk by and they'll grab your arm and try to pull you in to their booth. They usually quote you a price that is outrageously high at first... after much (much!) haggling you can usually walk away only paying about 4-10% of their original offer. Yes, you read that correctly! I really think the haggling is a game to them.

John found a good bargaining technique and he was quite the expert by the end of the trip. I will say that my husband has never really enjoyed shopping before, but I think he had more fun than I did on this trip! It really was a game to him. He start joking around and laughing at, and eventually with, the vendors. Almost like flirting with them, just cutting up and joking around about how crazy their prices are, etc... and before long he'd have them talked down to a decent amount, but still more than what we knew we could get it for... so we'd walk away. One step, two steps, three steps (come back sir), four steps, five steps, (okay, $20), keep walking, six steps, seven steps, (okay $15), keeping walking, and walking, ($14), and walking ($13), and then finally you hear the words you want to hear "Okay, okay, okay... come back, you win!"

So, what exactly did we buy in China? Too much! Ha, ha! But we had such a good time!

Here is a run down of our purchases:

Mens Spyder Ski Suit

Spyder Goggles

Spyder Gloves (2)

Sunglasses: Armani, Chanel, Ray Ban, Oakley

Cashmere and Silk Pashminas/Scarves (19)

Children's Spyder Ski Jackets (3)

Tiffany Necklace and Bracelet set

Chopsticks and a Beijing Magnet (our touristy type souvenirs)

North Face Hiking Backpack (small size)

Louis Vuitton Large Bag and matching wallet

Jimmy Choo Bag

Gucci Bag

Chanel Bag

1 set of Callaway Golf clubs complete with head covers, carry bag/travel bag, umbrella, and hat

Things we could have bought but didn't:

Uggs and many other name brand shoes (pumas, etc)

North Face/Columbia Ski Apparel and Jackets

Silk Blankets

Pearls (I heard a story about a girl who bought a set for $200, it appraised in America for $2000)

Jade jewelry and carvings

Ipods and other electronics

Polo shirts/pants/etc

Silk ties

and the list goes on and on

John trying on his Spyder ski pants with his favorite vendor of the whole trip, JoJo.

John sort of made friends with some of the vendors, JoJo being one of them. She told us that Americans are typically her best customers because they will pay a lot more for items than people from other countries. At the same time Americans are also her 'worst' customers because the ones that have done their homework prior to shopping know that you can get things for dirt cheap and know how to bargain. JoJo wrote out directions for us to visit another market where her sister works, selling sunglasses...

So, in a city filled with 17 million people, we set off to yet another market in search of sunglasses. On the fourth floor there were about 50+ vendors selling sunglasses. Imagine our surprise when we just so happen to chose the exact vendor where JoJo's sister works! Here is a picture of JoJo's sister (KoKo- notice a pattern?) in the purple elephant shirt, and the other vendor we 'worked' with whose name I do not remember.

Here I am with my friend, Kim, that I met on the tour shopping through a catalog of purses.

I will end this post with some "close up" shots of our loot!

Stay tuned for more from our China Trip!