I always love hearing stories about kids doing or saying the darndest (is that a word?) things.  Since Kade is getting older and learning more words, he's starting to get a few stories of his own.

Erik's parents have managed to keep every single one of Erik's and Michael's (Erik's younger brother) toy tractors they had as children.  Erik liked the big ones, that you could push around in a sand box, while Michael enjoyed the miniature versions.  So, when Kade comes to visit he's got a big and little version of every single type of farm implement you can imagine.  Needless to say, Kade LOVES playing at Grandpa and Grandma's house. 

One evening we were getting ready to go home after a day long visit and I told Kade it was time to give kisses because we were going "bye-bye".  He's usually pretty good about helping clean up first then getting his coat on to leave.  On this particular evening he was just kinda cranky.  He didn't want to give kisses, he kept reaching out to me saying, "Ma! Ma!".  I'm not going to lie, I was a little happy that he wanted to make sure his mommy didn't leave without him.  Or so I thought.  When he finally made it into my arms, he gave me a big kiss, waved at me and said, "Bye bye, Ma!" then promptly got down and went back to playing with the tractors!  I guess I should just be happy that he even cared enough to give me a kiss goodbye!!    

Here's some pictures of him playing out in the snow today.  I was working on teaching him how to make snow angels but all he wanted to do was tackle me!

A very slow motion sequence of Kade falling into the snow!!

ATTACK OF THE KADE MAN!!

"John Jeer"

After helping dad put together a desk and getting all the cords plugged in to the right spot...

What a good little helper I am.

Dad promised to watch a "John Jeer" video with me for the 2,343 time.  I have a set of 4 "John Jeer" videos, but am looking for some more.  Anybody know where Mom and Dad can get some?  I think Dad is even getting sick of them and he LOVES tractors as much as I do!

Love watching "John Jeer" with milk after a nap.

Video Star

One of Kade's favorite things to do is watch videos of himself.  So, almost everyday, Erik or I sit at the computer with Kade on our lap and watch all of the videos that are posted on this blog.  Since I put them on You Tube first, we usually watch them from that site.  He's seen them so many times he repeats what he says on the video and he laughs at the parts that we laugh at.  I never thought I'd say this but I'm actually pretty sick of hearing "Livin' On a Prayer"!  What I love, more than anything, is watching Kade while he watches himself.  Maybe we should get a video of that?

After going through all of the Kade videos, Erik started searching for videos of "fun" stuff.  Fun is in quotes because you'll see in the next picture what these 2 were watching.

Apparently videos of tractors is in high demand because there are tons of them!!

Kade playing with his cousins/buddies, Carter and Paige.

The kids loved the frost covered trees in the morning!  They were pretty spectacular!

Pipsqueaks

I find this so hard to believe but Kade's daycare lady tells us that he's quiet and reserved when he's there.  He usually just sits back and watches the big kids play and she barely hears a peep out of him.  At home he's always screaming at the top of his lungs (in a happy way) and running in circles until he's so dizzy he falls down.  The only time he's quiet is when he's sleeping or chewing food.  The other day we discovered an indoor gym for kids ages Kindergarten and under, called "Pipsqueaks".  I finally got to see "daycare Kade" in action.  It took him a good 10 minutes of observing before he finally opened up and played.  What a fantastic place to burn off winter energy!  We've already been there twice in 5 days!!

We're working on getting down to 1 nap a day, a tough transition!  He fell asleep in the car on the way to the gym.  So, we sat in the parking lot for about 15 minutes while I drank my coffee and listened to music as Kade snored in the backseat.

The Observer.  He stood like this for at least 10 minutes, just watching.  A rare sighting for me, since the day he was born I've never seen this kid sit still for more than 2 minutes!

Welcome to my house!  Just opening the windows for some fresh air.

Shrimp boat captain.

Big boy climbing the stairs to go down a slide!

Still takes awhile to actually get down on his butt.  Guess you gotta figure things out the hard way first!

Finally!  All that work to go down a 2 ft. slide!  He loved it though, and proceeded to go down about 20 more times.

Water break.  All that boating, climbing and sliding makes a kid tired!

Here you go, Mom.  Done with my water, time to play again!

The Little Stinker!

The weather these past 2 days has been so great that Kade and I got to spend some time outdoors.  We still had to bundle up but there was no wind and with the sun shining it actually got a little warm!  Today, as I was getting Kade ready for the great outdoors, I couldn't find one of his mittens.  It was there yesterday, it was there this morning and I swear it was there right before I was getting him bundled.  For the life of me I have no idea where it went.  Kade and I were both walking around the house for a good 15 minutes, looking under beds, in drawers, everywhere and it was nowhere to be found!  Kade would give me a quizzical look, get down on his belly to look under something and then get up, shrug his shoulders and turns his hands up in the air as if to say "I have no idea either!"
So, we ended up going outside with mismatched mittens.  Not a big deal, but frustrating none the less.

Well, imagine my surprise when after we come inside and I barely have his coat off, he's running around the house with a high pitched laugh waving the missing mitten in the air!!  That little stinker had it the whole time, and knew about it, but was purposely hiding it from me!  I'm going to have to brush up on my pranking skills because I've been outwitted by a 16 month old!

Some pictures from our play time at the mall today.

He was quite surprised when the bus started moving.  Didn't take him long to realize it was not scary, it was awesome!

So good at driving already, the little stud only needs one hand.

Apparently he only needs one hand to fly a plane too!  Not sure I would get on if he's in the cockpit though!!

Christmas and New Year's Eve

It was a big holiday season for us this year because my brother, Jeremy, got married on New Year's Eve in Kansas City!  So we spent Christmas at home then packed up and headed south for a few days. 

We decided it would be in every one's best interest to leave Kade with Erik's parents.  A 7 hour drive in unpredictable winter weather is no place for a 16 month old.  Although, weather turned out to be a non-issue as it was 65 degrees in KC on the wedding day!  Crazy!!  We also had an ear infection scare the day before we left but it turned out that he had 4 teeth coming in at the same time.  He was in so much pain he couldn't eat or sleep so traveling was definitely out of the question.  Once all of those teeth came through, Kade was in heaven at the farm because he got to ride the tractor and feed the horses twice a day for 4 days.  I wonder if he even knew we were gone?!?

Turns out Santa makes stops at grandparent's houses too!  Check out this cool ball ramp!

The static makes Kade's hair look fantastic!

He liked to help hand out presents.  Although, he would get about 2 feet from the person he was delivering to and then he'd stop and start unwrapping them himself.  What a good helper!

Standing on the boxes and jumping was more exciting than actually opening them.  But at least he enjoyed his gifts!

Kade's getting help from his big cousin, Zach.

We remembered to get a family picture!

Modeling his new Smurf slippers from grandpa and grandma.

Playing farm on his new table.

The bride-to-be, Evelyn, getting her nails done before the big day!

The happy couple at rehearsal.

Me and Jerm at the rehearsal.

Cutting the cake is serious business!!

Mom (Randi), Evelyn and me

Ranger Dave is one lucky guy!!

Happy family!  Even Kade's first cousin, Baby Vivienne, made the picture!  She's coming at the end of March and we are SO excited!!