Vikings and Packers and Bears, Oh My!

I have about a million other things I should be doing right now, including eating breakfast, but these pictures are too cute not to get on the blog ASAP!

This blog is for my Wisconsin friends, my Chicago natives and residents (thank you, Amy and Michael, for the slippers!) and of course for those living in God's Country...Minnesota!!!

We went over to the neighbor's to watch the Viking/Packer game.  No worries, Michael's mom is a Vikings fan so there's still hope for him!



Very proud dads!  Looks like Michael was more interested in watching the game rather than posing for MORE pictures.



Who is this big boy??  And since when does he support any team but a Minnesota team??



My favorite picture!  I told Kade to smile and as if on command he gave me the biggest grin he's got!  I love this little man!

Baby Shower Part II

Last weekend Kade had another baby shower!  I was really on the fence about having a baby shower at all because before Kade I HATED showers!  I very rarely attended them and when I did I was usually the first one out the door.  So, I felt a bit hypocritical having a shower, let alone 2!  My friends convinced me and assured me that it was okay and that my hate for baby showers was justified.  I'm glad they convinced me to have one because Kade got to meet a lot of great ladies at both showers and he was definitely showered with gifts!  Also, it was great to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in quite awhile and I got lots of great baby tips as well!

Here's some pictures of the 2nd shower (Thank you, Melissa, for taking so many pictures.  Although, I noticed the beautiful one of you by the flowers was mysteriously deleted!!)


A "big boy" outfit for Kade



Some of the ladies watching me open gifts.  Notice Kade in the middle passed out.



The rest of the group.  The little girl in the orange was SO entertaining!!



Kade managed to sleep through this shower too!



Apparently hanging out with 20+ ladies is tough on a guy, even if he did sleep through most of it!  P.S. this outfit is from his birth grandparents, K&S!  Super cute and it finally fits him!!



Always gotta get a close up of those chubby cheekers!!



2 month appointment

Kade had his 2 month appointment on Monday, which means he had shots for the first time.  My mom told me not to wear mascara because I'd be crying when he got them.  I'm happy to report that Kade was a trooper and so was I, no tears!  Well, for me anyway, but Kade was easily calmed after the 3 needles and he slept peacefully for about 8 hours afterwards!  Erik and I were very proud of the big guy and after his seeing his measurements I can honestly say he is a BIG guy.  13 pounds, which puts him in the 86th percentile and 24 inches long, 80th percentile.



Erik's favorite outfit for Kade.  Whenever he dresses him for the day this is what Kade comes out wearing.



Erik reading Kade a John Deere tractor book.  Notice Kade's hand on dad's shoulder, how cute!  By the way, I've told Erik to move that t-shirt to the bottom of his shirt pile.  I swear he's wearing it in every picture!!



Molly likes to sit in on story time too! 

Busy, HOT Weekend

Kade had a pretty eventful weekend!  Saturday morning he had his first baby shower, that he managed to sleep through.  It was a small gathering of Erik's side of the family: 3 great aunts, 1 great grandma, 1 cousin, 1 aunt and 2 grandmas.  Kade received lots of great gifts and lots of love from all the ladies!  We joked that he knew he was going to be the only boy at the party so he faked sleeping the whole time so he wouldn't have to listen to all the chit-chatting.

After the shower, Erik and I loaded Kade up and took him to get his first pumpkin.  Normally I'm very particular when it comes to picking out pumpkins and Christmas trees.  I find a good one then search the whole area to make sure there isn't a better one, I'm never satisfied with just taking the first good one I see.  That was so not the case this weekend!  It was 91 degrees!!  Kind of takes the fun out of the whole fall-pretty trees-hot apple cider experience when it's that warm out!  We didn't even walk 5 feet into the pumpkins before we plopped Kade down for some pictures and then on the way out we just grabbed 2 pumpkins sitting on the side.  Next year, Kade, I promise we'll make it more of an experience for you.



Look at all of those pumpkins just waiting to be chosen!  It killed me to not check out every single one!



Erik, on the other hand, would rather just take the first one he sees no matter what it looks like.





Something tells me Kade is fine with our quick trip to the pumpkin patch.



8 weeks old

Kade is 8 weeks old today!!  I can't believe it's been that long already!  People aren't kidding when they tell us to enjoy our time because it goes by quickly! 

When I think back to the day Kade was born it feels like a lifetime ago and just yesterday all at the same time.  Lady A had told us at our meeting that the plan was she was going to be induced on 8/10 or 8/11 but things don't always go according to plan so we treated the Tuesday, August 10th like any other day.  Got up early, went to work, went to the gym, went home.  We didn't take the day off to fix up the nursery, or sleep in, or shop for baby things.  In fact, Kade's room was full of boxes and things we hadn't unpacked yet from the move and we didn't have 1 baby item in the entire house!  As many infertile couples know, seeing anything baby related is like a punch in the stomach.  So we refused to prepare in any way for a baby because if it didn't work out we didn't want any reminders in the house.  Our plan was to online shop and overnight ship everything.  Luckily, my best friend Megan (who is Super Mom in my eyes) took my mom shopping and they pretty much bought Babies R Us the day after Kade was born.  By the time we got home from the hospital our house was transfixed into a new baby home.

Anyway, back to Kade's birthday.  After the gym we were walking back to our car (around 5pm) when Becky called.  Lady A had her appointment and it turned out Kade was ready to come on the 10th anyway!  She was being admitted to the hospital and her mom, S, was going to keep Becky posted and then Becky was going to keep us posted.  We went home and got busy emptying Kade's room of the boxes and I even put Erik to work hanging things on our walls! 

The plan was Lady A was going to deliver Kade and then we were going to get the phone call to come to hospital.  Instead they decided they'd rather have us at the hospital when he's born so he didn't have to spend any time alone in the nursery.  So, around 9pm Becky called and told us the new plan.  Stupid us, we didn't have anything ready for a hospital stay so we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off throwing random things in a bag!  Luckily, we remembered the essentials:  underwear, tooth brushes and the camera.

Kade was born at the medical facility where Erik and I both work so you'd think we would have just breezed into a parking spot and sauntered up to our room.  No, not the case.  We park in the employee parking lot which is about 7 blocks away from our buildings.  We had no idea where visitors park and since we were going to be there a few days we had to be sure to park in a spot that wouldn't get ticketed or towed.  We pulled into a ramp, realized we couldn't park there (after we'd gotten out and walked away) so we had to go back and find a different spot.  Then we weren't sure if we should use our employee privileges and just use our ID's to get in everywhere or if we should follow visitor protocol.  We decided to be visitors, not employees.

Once we were in our room the nurses gave us a whole bunch of reading material to look over.  Seriously, it felt like we were studying for a surprise quiz.  We were even quizzing each other!


Erik is always prepared!

At 11pm we got the call that Kade was born and then came the longest 45 minutes of our lives.  I was convinced Lady A changed her mind but when we heard the knock on the door and a nurse came in pushing the most beautiful baby I'd ever seen...it was instant...love at first sight.  I still get chills when I think about it.  I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried that I wasn't going to think he was cute.  I've seen newborns and I always thought they were kinda weird looking.  I'm happy to say that I thought he was gorgeous, cutest baby I've ever seen.  Hands down.

I used to pray to God asking him for a pregnancy.  Now I pray to God thanking him for not answering that prayer because then we wouldn't have Kade.  Everything is as it should be.


The first time Erik held Kade, an hour after he was born

It's amazing what a difference 8 weeks makes in the lives of babies!