We made a whole bunch of Christmas cookies this past weekend so we've been spending our evenings getting in shape for the long, cold Minnesota winter.  By getting in shape, I mean eating A LOT of cookies after dinner.  You can never pack on too much "insulation" when it's below 0 outside!

Erik's doing a mighty fine impersonation of Kade's signature smile for the camera!

Kade was in charge of the sprinkles...

We were in charge of the balls.  Many inappropriate jokes were made but the end results of our Oreo balls and peanut butter balls was no laughing matter.  Those things are delicious!!

Last Tuesday Kade decided he didn't want to go to Erik's basketball game.  That was a first!  However, he regretted his decision about 20 minutes after Erik left.  This week, when we asked him if he wanted to go, it was a resounding YES!

I am pleased to announce that Kade has worn something other than his work jeans for 3 days in a row!!  I've been telling him I'd wash them for the past 3 days but I haven't gotten around to doing it.  Enough is enough.  He finally took matters into his own hands.  Yes, this is him actually doing laundry almost completely solo.  And yes, those are his work jeans he's pulling out of the washer.  I guess he's learned at his ripe old age of 3 years and 4 months that if you want something done, you've got to do it yourself!

Finally, Kade and I are taking advantage of the heat wave we're having right now.  19 degrees!!  It's downright balmy out there!

Christmas is Here!

Last week was a big week for us as far as the official start of Christmas celebrating goes!  I have so many pictures, I could probably do 3 posts out of just last week alone.

We started the week off by decorating.  (Erik and I had Monday off because, yet again, we had another birthmom change her mind on us!  Seriously.  We had planned on meeting her on Monday, however, over the weekend she contacted a different agency and met a different family that she ended up connecting with and decided she didn't need to meet us.  It's getting a bit ridiculous how many times we've been let down in this process.)  Anyway, back to happier topics...while Kade was at daycare, I decorated the house!  Erik and I both picked Kade up, which is an extremely rare occurrence, and that was enough to thrill him but he was over the moon when he got home and saw the house all decorated.  He was convinced that Santa did it while we were all gone for the day.  We never told him about this birthmom--no need to let him down too--so as far as he knew we were at work.  Thus, it just HAD to be Santa!

Then, Lady A and her mom came for a visit and brought their Christmas gifts.  Now that Kade doesn't require daily naps they can come for a whole day, rather than just the afternoon.  So, Kade opened a few of his gifts, then we all went to the mall so he could put his annual gift under the "Thanksgiving Tree", as he calls it. 

Afterward, "S" treated us to lunch at Kade's favorite restaurant, Noodles, and we headed back to our house for more gifts, food and play.  Kade is in a stage now that whatever activity he's doing he has to dress the part.  So, if he's playing football he has to wear his football uniform.

K & S got him a whole Vikings uniform!

If he's doing work, of course he has to wear work jeans!

His birth-great-grandparents got him this super cool digger!

And if he's playing basketball, he puts on shorts and basketball shoes.  He literally changed his clothes about 15 times while they were here!

Here he is in his shorts, opening his last gift, before heading downstairs for a game of hoops.  

How cool is this trike that Lady A got him?!  I'm so jealous I didn't have a sweet ride like this when I was little!

Finally, we capped off the week with a trip down to LaCrosse to play with Owen, Ellie and Rylee and to see the Christmas lights at Riverside Park.  The weather wasn't supposed to be good so we weren't sure if we were going to attempt the hour drive.  When Erik mentioned this, Kade cried, "We HAVE to go!  I want to play with Owen, he's my best friend!".  And I cried, "We HAVE to go!  I HAVE to play with Megan, she's my best friend!".  Poor Erik didn't stand a chance :-)

The weather never ended up being as bad as it was supposed to be, the kids had a blast playing, the dad's got to watch football all afternoon and I got to spend the day with Megan.  Everybody won!  

Megan and I did a little shopping and found some amazing Christmas apparel.  And, because she is my best friend, she won't mind that I posted this beautiful picture of her in the beautiful apparel:

I might have a similar picture of us, however that post will have to wait until after our Christmas cards go out :-)

When the sun went down, it was off to see the lights and Santa!  Although Kade still wouldn't sit with him, he did make progress this year.  He didn't cry and he even told Santa what he wanted!

Gotta love the look of pure fear on Kade's face!  But no tears!!

Although the week started out a little disappointing, it ended on a great note.  Lady A's visit served to remind us that even though we've had more than our fair share of let downs on our path to parenthood, Kade is the biggest, brightest star to enter our lives.  We are extremely blessed to be his parents!

Happy Thanksgiving: Part 2

We spent Thanksgiving day at my cousin's house.  They have a pretty awesome park right out their back door.  Every time we go there Kade insists on going to the park.  Luckily Lauren is always willing to let Kade drag her around.  He loves his "Wauren"!

Notice the silly headbands?  Kade won them in my Crazy Aunt Rozie's lame prize drawing she insists on having for every holiday :-)  Lucky for her, Kade and Lauren still humor her!

We didn't do any shopping on Black Friday, unless you count shopping for our Christmas tree.

Kade brought his chainsaw to help cut down the tree.

Good thing we had him along to measure all the trees!

Vivienne thought Grandpa needed a good tackle since he was already on the ground anyway!

They're actually sitting down!  At the same time!  Quietly!

Jeremy, Evelyn and Vivienne went home to Kansas City on Saturday.  We were sad to see them go.  Kade absolutely loves when people stay overnight!  He did a pretty good job sharing his toys and he did an amazing job giving Vivi lots of hugs and kisses!

We capped off the weekend with a trip to open gym.

P.S.  Have you noticed in nearly every picture, since the weather turned cold, Kade is wearing the same jeans?  He's worn his "work jeans" every day for 3 weeks straight!  I'm only allowed to wash them at night, when he's sleeping.  He wakes up, runs to the dryer and puts them on immediately.  Yesterday I actually hid them from him because they hadn't been cleaned in a week and I didn't have time to wash them.  When I picked him up from daycare Michelle told me he had lots of tears in the morning because he couldn't find his work jeans.  No worries, they are washed and he is wearing them again today!  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jeremy, Evelyn and Vivienne came up for Thanksgiving this year and are staying with us for the extended weekend.  Kade and I spent our days off getting ready for them.  Unfortunately Kade-O caught a little stomach bug and it sidelined him for about a day and a half.  He's back to his crazy self now and him and Vivienne are tearing up the place, having a great time together.

There's a new house going up next door and Kade loves to watch the construction.  This picture was taken when he was sick.  He wanted to watch so badly but he was having a hard time standing for very long.  Poor guy :-(

The next day he felt much better and was back to being "a worker man".

They made their annual Thanksgiving headwear at daycare.  This year they were pilgrims!

This picture is kinda blurry but so cute because Vivi wanted to be just like her big cousin.

Just a cute video of the Kade Man saying his bedtime prayers for this week's post.  Amazingly, and surprisingly, I didn't take any pictures of him this past week!  I know I'll more than make up for that next week with Thanksgiving coming.

Enjoy...

Open gym started last Sunday and we made the mistake of telling Kade about it the Wedesday before.  He immediately ran to his room and laid out shorts, his Timberwolves Kevin Love jersey, socks, his basketball shoes and a basketball.  He even laid out a special pair of underwear, only to be worn at open gym!  Then, for the next 4 days he asked, on average, 100 times a day how many "rest times" he had left til he could go to open gym.

Once we were there he stayed on the side and watched Erik and the rest of the guys play a few games.  It was so cute, there was another little guy there and together they ran up and down the court just like the players.  I think Kade ran the full length of the court more times than Erik!  He's getting pretty decent at dribbling and can even do it on the run a little bit!  He also insists on using a full size basketball, just like the "real" players.  So he shoots the big ball at the hoop and, surprisingly, he's pretty close to getting it in!  I think he might've even hit the bottom of the net once or twice!

Last year I had to go along to make sure he didn't run onto the court.  This year I got to sit back and watch him play, rebound his shots and take a few shots myself.  I didn't play in any of the games (that would just be embarrassing for everyone) so now Kade thinks girls don't play basketball.  Looks like I might have to dust off the 'ol Reebok Pumps and show those boys how it's done!  Or maybe I'll just take him to a girl's basketball game this year instead.

I didn't take any pictures of him at basketball but I did get a couple of him rocking out while watching the Country Music Awards.  Here he is being a rock star on his stage:

And, finally, is this kid only 3!?!?!  He looks so big in this picture!

Last year for Halloween we went trick-or-treating to exactly 1 house, this year we multiplied that by 5!  Yep, we went to 5 houses :-)  I think the boys were more excited to ride in the back of Michael's minivan, out of their car seats, than they were about the free candy.  Normally I'm all about walking house-to-house, however it was windy and cold and I'm pretty sure with two 3 year olds and a 1 year old we wouldn't have beat last year's record!

Here's my little cowboy in the morning before going to his daycare party.

By the end of the day the cowboy hat was off and a winter coat was on.  Gotta love trick-or-treating in Minnesota!

I love this picture of Taylor, even though all you can see is his big dog head :-)

Our first stop.  Of course Kade was super shy!  I pretty much had to push him up to the door and hold his bag out for him.  By our last stop he had the hang of it!

I swear they did have fun!  I don't think I got one picture of the 3 of them actually smiling!

Last Saturday was our annual leaf raking day at my parent's house.  Growing up I hated that day.  Kade, on the other hand, is in pure bliss the entire day.  I've said this many times before but I just can't say enough how much this kid LOVES to work!!  I surprised him with new "work gloves" because he wore a hole in his old ones.  He's only 3 years old and he already has "old", worn out work gloves!

He had a sleepover the night before.  Poor Grandma and Grandpa had to start raking sooner than they had planned because Kade wanted to get going ASAP!

Safety first!!!