I'm Still Here

A friend reminded me I had a blog...oops.
I live out in "one bar land" where our iPhone can barely get signal for emails, let alone my fetish for Pinterest and Facebook. So my dear blog, you will continue to be neglected.
Caedmon will be 5 in a little over a month,
Caithness is 2 and a PISTOLA!
AND....
we now have precious
Aberdeen Daye Anderson
added to our family
April 10, 2011 at 4:15 a.m.
weighing in at 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 20.5" long
She's as precious as precious can be.
LOVING LIFE!

Ahhh eh-hem, I'm still on here. One post every 60+ days isn't too bad, is it?
Well I don't know if this counts as a post as I'm just putting a video fo my babies up...
ENJOY!

New Video

Nothing much new here. I'm still a bit postpartum at times and it's been rough. Probably it's more rough on Mark (and Caedmon) than me. Oh well, I know it just takes some time and "this too shall pass."
Meanwhile I love my family and thought I'd post a video of Caedmon meets Caithness!

It's a Girl!

She's here!!!
7 weeks after the fact I'll go ahead and post that (after 34 hours of labor)
Caithness Maela Anderson
came into the world
April 11, 2009 at 3:26 p.m.
weighing
8 lbs. 4 oz.
and was
20.5" long!

We were all shocked that it was a girl, and couldn't be more pleased and in love!
She has a head full of dark curly hair and her big brother, Caedmon, adores her!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow--she truly is a gift and is evidence that the Lord God is indeed gracious!

Concern

This baby that's due in 2 weeks...we have a few small problems...
#1 My platelet count has fallen lower than it ever has before. With Caedmon's pregnancy my levels reached 60k and that was on the day he was born. The Dr. (yes, the Dr. not the nurse) called me this week to get me on prescription steroids right away. I have a condition known as idopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (lovely, huh?). Basically it's pregnancy induced and my body for some weird reason attacks my platelets (hence the "idiopathic). The baby's fine (we checked him/her out a few weeks ago on ultrasound to make sure), so the real problem is me hemorraging during delivery. Other than that, I have no symptoms (not even the bruising that is so common with this disorder--my count hasn't fallen low enough for that yet), but it is serious enough that they want at or above 100k for labor and delivery. Because of the risk of bleeding on the spine I am unable to have an epidural for pain relief in labor (not a huge deal, it just made me suck it up and take labor like a man...er, umm, woman). In the same manner if a C-section is needed I'm unable to have a local anesthetic. I would have to be put under general anethsesia for the procedure and therefore not get to witness/touch/hold/feed/know the sex of my precious baby until a few hours after he/she is born (SOOOO sad!). So that's problem #1.

#2 Our precious baby 409 decided very early Saturday morning to do a roll ,complete with a twist, in my tummy. That means that he/she is now breech/transverse. The Dr confirmed this by ultrasound at our appointment Monday morning. We have 3 options, and Mark and I, under the guidance of our great Dr have decided to take the following steps as necessary.

- PRAY! This is always our first step and THE most important one. We serve the Almighty, Eternal Creator. There is nothing that is out of His hands. We simply need to have faith and trust that He is still in control. It is our will that He turn this baby right side (head) down again.
- If by our next appointment Monday morning the baby is still breech we will schedule an external cephalic version. I will be admitted to the hospital and Dr. Wright will manually turn the baby while I'm on an IV for fluids and tocolytic medication (to relax the uterus and prevent contractions).
-If the procedure is successful labor will immediately be induced.
-If the procedure is not successful, we will simply wait for me to go into labor, whenever that
occurs. I will then attempt a breech birth.
-If for any reason the breech birth presents any kind of problem to the baby we will do an emergency C-section.

Ok, so that's your medical journal for the day. Mark and I have really had a hard week dealing with all the decisions to make and all the "what ifs." So in addition to this being an update it's also a request that you please keep us in prayer.
While struggling with this we've come to the conclusion that no matter the means, we will have a baby in a few weeks and all the in-between stuff is in the Lord's hands. Please pray for the baby to turn, but most of all that Mark and I will continue to place our unswerving faith and trust in Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

37 Weeks Pregnant with little 409

We Did It

Look at me being online WAAAY past my bedtime...Mark took the Jr. High-ers to St. Louis overnight, so here I sit awaiting his call so I can go to bed.

Well we did it, we got a Mac.
It's an iMac, to be precise, and it's lovely, I'm feeling quite a bit more confident on it as Mark's had his Mac from his office at church over here and I've played on it. To make it worth it (or possibly to just double what we spent) we bought Adobe Photoshop CS4. Holy cows, I played on it today and I SOOO need to brush up my graphic design skills. I'm not even scratching the surface of what I could be doing! We decided if we were going to upgrade Photoshop we might as well go to the top. Considering the Photoshop I have installed on the old computer (5.5- that was a high school graduation gift for me in 2000) I'd say we're doing alright on making the software last. Plus, I HAVE to have it on the computer. 85% of all my time on the computer is spent on Photoshop.

My most recent Photoshopping adventure.

In other momma-ish news I'm struggling with a 2 year old now that I'm 37 weeks pregnant. I'm not well known for my patience, but the hormonal levels of pregnancy put it in the negatives. Poor Caedmon...but he is doing his fair share of 2-year old things. Last night when Mark went to check on him in bed, Caedmon was COMPLETELY nude from the waist down!!! Thank goodness he hadn't gone potty in the bed, so we simply re-diapered and PJ'd him. But how can you resist a boy who sings "The B-I-B-L-E" at the top of his lungs? Or "John Deere Green" for that matter? You can't! Just gotta love that sweet boy and hope he's not too scarred from his pregnant grouchy momma!

My baby boy--I love him!

I Suppose I Shall

What a day.
Caedmon and I had a lovely time gardening this morning. Actually I cleared weeds out of my flower beds and Caedmon scooped dirt all over the front porch. However, since his daddy put him down at 1:00 Mr. Caedmon has not seen fit to take a nap. He did think it appropriate to dig around in his dirty #2 diaper and force me to do an extra load of laundry today.
I'm just a bit tired of it, going in every 20 minutes and telling him to hush and lie down.
I want him to take a NAP, it's my ONLY free time during the day!
But it's been 2.5 hours...
Let him up?
I suppose I shall.

I love this boy, he's precious...

Not so convinced...

So I'm not 100% sold on the iMac yet. Mark just got one for his office at church (but has brought it home several times for me to "play" on- who doesn't love PhotoBooth and Garage Band?!). We're seriously considering using part of our tax return to get an iMac, but I'm SOOOO having a time converting over. I understand it's simpler, more powerful, and beats the living daylights out of a PC, but I just don't know how to use it. It's frustrating to me (somewhat of a PC geek) that it takes 3 times as long for me to do a simple function on the Mac that I would normally speed through. Sooo, we're still considering whether $1,300 is a good investment for playing on a cool photo-taking-computer.
I am SUPER impressed by the sheer speed of the machine, I can only imagine what playing in Photoshop would be like... It was kinda embarassing when Mark was buying it at the store and the guy asked him what version of Photoshop we ran if it was CS3 or 4 and Mark said, "Uhhh, 5.5..." HA- I got it as a high school graduation present (a step up from what I learned on: Photoshop 5)! So there's another multiple $$$ investment to put on the Mac...hmmm we really need to talk this over.
I do have some time, though. We just got our W2 and I, after having done our taxes by myself the past 4 years, am having trouble doing them because of all the extra things I need to fill in, IRA's, HSA's, etc. I may break down and give H&R Block some of our money to get our money...
Yup, there's my ramblings for the month- enjoy!

Seriously

I've written in this blog like 14 (or 2) times and tried to put up a sweet video of Caedmon, or a few pictures and it wouldn't work! I'm thinking the issue is with the computer as I can't load any pictures onto Facebook right now either *sigh. So my writings are going to have to paint a picture until we can get something else going here.
Mark has left for Nebraska and I'm feeling lonely (he's been gone for 2 hours now). Of course Caedmon is here with me (Mark toyed with the idea of taking him, but I convinced him that taking a 2 year old to Nebraska in January to snipe prairie dogs and coyotes is just not smart) and my dear mother in law has come to stay (it really makes the nighttime less scary!), so I'm not alone. I'm just sad that my best friend is gone for a few days. Once when we were dating Mark and I fell asleep on the couch at my parents house in Colorado--my parents were MAD!!! (We only slept for an hour or so, as Mark got in really late and we had just stayed up talking) My dad said something wise to me later saying, "Once you sleep next to Mark it'll be really hard not to want to." And he was right. It's so wonderful to have your best friend always with you! Oh well, I'll not mope about it. How's that for a lovely word picture? (we'd better get this computer problem fixed, fast!)

Carried Me (OK, I'm Avoiding Laundry)

1. Put your iPod music on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!




IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY?" YOU SAY?
Deck the Halls

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Within Me

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Life, Love, and Why

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY
Siberian Sleigh Ride

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Power in the Blood

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Mistaken

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Love Them Like Jesus

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
What is This Thing Called Love

WHAT IS 2+2?
When You Say Nothing At All

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Longing Heart

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Why Walk When You Can Fly

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
You Do All Things Well

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Let Us Pray

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE
Bubbly

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU
Remedy

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Can You Feel It

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Mighty To Save

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Laurie De' Tullins

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Father Your Glorious

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
On God's Green Earth

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Whisper to Me

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Remember

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
He's the King

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Let the Church Rise

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Stained Glass Masquerade

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Before the Throne of Grace

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
For Freedom

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Fearless Heart

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Power of Your Love

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
You Are Good

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Carried Me

2008 (abridged, written by Mark and published in our church newsletter)

Christmas of 2008 has come and gone; 2008 has come and is almost gone! This year has been one of many blessings, and much heartbreak. In the last year I can see how many blessings God has given us as His family. From where I sit I can see so many people who have a renewed vigor for serving Christ. I love to see people in this [church] family that love to be here and love to bring people here, who love to sit and listen to God's Word and share with others what they've learned. People who have felt an urgency to tell someone about this Jesus that we love and serve.
Yes, the economy may not be what we would hope it to be, there may be some tougher times ahead, but this God we serve is bigger that all of that. He is bigger than the fear we feel when the boss says, "you aren't needed anymore." He's bigger that the news that the "cancer is back." He's bigger than the words, "I don't see a heartbeat on the ultrasound."
We serve a big God and we need to remember that. Look throughout the Bible and you will find many times when people are at their lowest and God showed his "bigness." When Joseph was in prison for something he didn't do, it was God who brought him out. When Daniel was in the lion's den, God's angel shut the [lion's] mouths. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in a fiery furnace, someone like that "Son of God" was there with them. And He will be with us, so long as we love and serve Him.
As we start this New Year I was to tell everyone that when our focus is on Him and on serving Him, He will do great things. Bigger than anything we could imagine.
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!" (Ephesians 3.20-21)
Happy New Year

I'm Calling it a Survey--that's what it is

1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Fill out the questions below
3. Tag 5-7 people at the end of your post.
4. Pass on the tag. Have FUN!!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Choco​late?
Egg Nog in Hot Chocolate

2. Does Santa​ wrap prese​nts
No

3. Color​ed light​s on tree/​house​ or white​?
White lights

4. Do you hang mistl​etoe?
Yes, then burn it (so our trees don't catch the disease!)

5. When do you put your decor​ation​s up?
Saturday after Thanksgiving

6. What is your favor​ite holid​ay dish (​exclu​ding desse​rt)​?
Warm rolls with real butter

7. Favor​ite holid​ay memor​y as a child:
After Christmas Eve service grandma and grandpa as well as all aunts, uncles, and cousins would come to our house for chili and soup (HA- Joel's beer cheese soup, unforgettable!), Christmas cookies, and sparkling cider. Then we'd all open our one Christmas Eve present (PJ's!)

8. When and how did you learn​ the truth​ about​ Santa​?
I probably suspected in late elementary, but he still visits me!

9. Do you open a gift on Chris​tmas Eve?
Yes, PJ's and slippers (although my mom will deny every year that she got us pj's again.)!

10. How do you decor​ate your Chris​tmas Tree?
Lights, garland, special ornaments, and then the generic colored balls

11. Snow!​ Love it or Dread​ it?
Love, love, love it, I'm a Colorado girl! Every time it would snow my sisters and I would sing "Let it Snow!"

12. Can you ice skate​?
Heck yes, I pretend to speed skate when I get out on the rink--yup swingin' my arm and everything.

13. Do you remem​ber your favor​ite gift?
There are so many, but I do mostly remember when I got my Adidas jacket in Jr. High--I cried.

14. What is the most impor​tant thing​ about​ the Holid​ays for you?
Celebrating the birth of our Savior with family

15. What is your favor​ite Holid​ay Desse​rt?
Christmas cookies/goodies: toffee, peanut butter balls, puppy chow, and Scottish shortbread

16. What is your favor​ite holid​ay tradi​tion?
All of it from decorating on Saturday after Thanksgiving to opening our advent calendars each day in December, to the Christmas Eve with our family, Early morning Christmas day, family Christmas dinner, and our family's (Mark, Caedmon and I) newest little tradition of having Little Smokies and Orange Cinnamon Rolls with Egg Nog for Christmas breakfast.

17. What tops your tree?
A star (coordinating colors, of course)

18. Which​ do you prefe​r givin​g or recei​ving?
Giving, definitely--I much prefer to see people's faces when I get the "perfect present" and the anticipation of giving the gift! But it wasn't until I was old enough to make money to buy "perfect presents" that this became true!

19. What is your favor​ite Chris​tmas Song?
White Christmas, or The Christmas Song

20. Candy​ Canes​!​ Yuck or Yum?
MMMM- yummy

21. What do you want for Chris​tmas?
I'm not really sure (and it's driving my husband and mother nuts!)

22. Do you atten​d an annua​l Chris​tmas Party​?
no

23. Do you dress​ up on Chris​tmas or wear PJs?
Dress up, then go to the aforementioned PJ's

24. Do you own a santa​ hat?
Of COURSE

25. Who do you norma​lly spend​ Chris​tmas with?
My family, Mark and Caedmon and either my in-laws or parents


Here's the kicker- I don't know how to tag people on this! Plus I'm pretty sure everyone else has already gotten it (except you McON, if not then just copy and paste, ok?!).

There is Nothing Going On

YES!!!

Nothing is going on here right now and it's GRRRReat! I have to host Women's Council at my house Thursday evening (I say "have" but it's my choice to have it here). Then Thanksgiving with the Anderson super clan (I've decided we're super-sized, even though we're still in the intermediate family--you'd understand if you'd ever seen us all together). Then there's the Christmas parade--which we HAVE to enter again this year. Last year we won Grand Prize for our float, by a stroke of genius the theme was "Unwrapping the Magic of Christmas." Uh how easy is that?! It fit perfectly with our Children's Christmas musical, Angel's Aware.

And then after that my friend, Leslie, and I are catering a Christmas dinner for 60-100 people. Then we have the Christmas program for the kids. That will entail 2 dress rehearsals and lots of painting/set work. Luckily I have my "work horse" friend, Misti, who is ready and willing to help with anything I need help with! And sometime between Thanksgiving and the parade we need to get the house decorated for Christmas--inside, and out.
Ok, so I've now realized I'm in down-time for all of 36 hours. *sigh* Oh well, down time is down time I'll take it anyway I can!

Hap-ee Halween

We had a fun (if not a bit stressful for me) Halloween. Our Fall Festival was great, we had tons of help and everything went well. I managed to sew Caedmon's costume a week early so I wouldn't stress about it the night before so that was good planning. Also, I can't take all the credit, Mark (who is a jack of all trades, seriously!) designed, patterned, cut out, and SEWED Caedmon's fake slip-over boots. They were the best!
It was so wonderful to have family here for the weekend. LouLou and Pappa (Mark's mom and dad) came down Friday to hang out with Caedmon while mommy and daddy were living at church! We managed to come home, get Caedmon dressed, and get him to a few houses to trick-or-treat before rushing back for final preparations for the evening. We got to then experience the joys of having grandparents to have fun with Caedmon during the night. It was great, he got to have fun and is really enjoying spending one on one time with "Pappa and Llll00-oo" (roll an "L" sound around your tongue a few times--yeah, that's what it sounds like).
Here are some pictures from yesterday:

Last week: doing a final fitting on the costume...

AHHHH! He's SO cute!


He sang the Backyardigans Pirate song: "Arr, arr, ar, ar, ar. arr, arr, ar, ar, ar, ar...(etc.)"

Oh my, he's ADORABLE!!!


Trick-or-Treating...



Off to the the Fall Festival at church (aka our backyard)


A favorite...we always played this game at my birthday party when I was little. Here Caedmon's playing with his Pappa.


Totally worn out...LouLou put Caedmon to sleep this afternoon (after we all, ALL went to church and cleaned!)

For the 3rd Time

Yes, I'll keep trying. I've tried twice already to post a video and it never works, so I may have lost some of my computer savvy in the last, oh say...week! But I'd realized that when someone ventures to my lovely blog the first thing they see is a video still shot of my darling boy grabbing himself. This won't do!
So here we go:

Mark caught this nasty thing (with his fishing line) while we were fishing early this summer...sick-O! (And that's Caedmon admiring it while sitting in Aunt Jilly's kayak.)

And then...

Dumb Vista, we need a Mac

Ok I'm going to try to put in a cute video of Caedmon (and if it works, WATCH OUT, I'll be putting tons up). Lovely Vista doesn't come loaded with the kodec to allow sound from any uploaded videos from our camera. I love it...we're so getting a Mac-SOON!

PeePee Par-tee

Yeah, I know kinda graphic title.
It's been a graphic week. First, we're not potty training Caedmon right now, he's not close to wanting to do it, we don't want to do it until he does, I'm not interested in changing his clothes all day. With that said: Caedmon has THE cutest pairs of undies (boys do NOT wear panties, I've been informed) from Scotland. They're so little and cute that the other night I couldn't resist and I put him in a pair. He LOVED them! He could scratch and run and jump and not have a diaper on...he loved it. He'd just gone potty, so there was no danger, and we got them off him after about 45 minutes. Fine- no harm done.

However, the next day Caedmon was wanting to experience his freedom once again. So against my better judgment I let him. Long story short, he pee peed all over the bathroom floor. Ahhh, I had to set him on his toilet seat to keep him out of the way so I could clean (and if you know me disinfect/sanitize/anti-bacteria-the-heck-outta-the-floor). Then I decided to just throw him into the tub. I did get my choreography finished for our kids performing arts class that night, during that time.

THEN...Saturday morning at 5:30 am someone is saying, "Momma?" to me while I'm dead asleep. I somehow roll over and get him wedged between Mark and I. Great, except after a blessed 5 minutes of sleepy snuggling, he sits up and says, "PeePee." I told him I wasn't going to get up and change his diaper that early, he'd just have to wait. Then him saying that made me realize I REALLY needed to make a trip to the little girls room (refer to post below). When I got in there I grabbed my nightgown only to discover it was soaking wet! I did what any sane person would do and start feeling around to see if I'D somehow wet the bed, then it all came together...
Yes, he peed our bed. Yes, he got it all over my (favorite) nightgown. Yes, Mark had it all over his back. YES, we still love that little guy!!! We changed (ok, Mark did it) him, put him to (his) bed, put new sheets on our bed, and we all slept another hour and a half.
Fun, fun.

Oh, and we* carved a pumpkin. That was fun. It's Pablo from the Backyardigans FIY.

*If by "we" I mean mommy drew a face on then got bored and made caramel apples; Caedmon got grossed out by the stringy-slimy stuff in the pumpkin and decided to taste test caramel apples; daddy gets out a power tool to get the job done right and he does it himself.

PREGNANT!

I'm pretty sure any of y'all who know I have a blog already know, but just to cover my bases: Mark and I are expecting another baby on April 9, 2009! We are so excited and looking forward to the joys of having another sweet baby in the house. As of right now I'm almost 15 full weeks along. I think I may have felt the baby move last night, but I'm not sure.
We've had several appointments and an ultrasound already. We really enjoy our doctor because he's such a great Christian man. He knew the fears we had at our first appointment with this baby (nicknamed 409 by the way) and so before we left our appointment he prayed with us. Just like he prayed with us when he sent me over to the hospital to be induced with Caedmon and when we found out in the ultrasound room our precious baby, Iain, was no longer living. The Lord truly placed Dr. Wright in our lives for a reason!

I still daily have to give my fears about the health of this baby to God and realize there is no better place to put my faith and trust then in the hands of He who measures the universe in the span of His hand. Mark and I can honestly say we don't care if we're having a boy or girl (and if you didn't already know, we're not the finding out sort of
people!) so we'll be so happy in April to see our precious little baby boy or girl! Caedmon will be a great big brother!

This is me pregnant! (it's not now, this is when I went to the hospital with Caedmon!)

We Had A Party

Only a week later, y'all should be impressed! We had Caedmon's party on his birthday (it's kinda a big deal to us to do the party on the day) which was last Saturday, October 4th. It was a good day, I wasn't too stressed (hey I didn't say I wasn't at all, I wouldn't be a Middleton if I said that!) and Caedmon really seemed to enjoy re-meeting the whole family and playing with his cousins. My parents and sister got here on Thursday evening and were a great help to me. My mom is great about doing meals/parties for large groups of people. Inevitably I forget the small stuff like drinks, napkins, etc. So it was good to have her. The party started at 3 and we had lots of smoked brisket, sausage, and pork loin- yum! It was a regular BBQ and fun. We had [Caedmon's] Grandma, Papa, LouLou, Pappa, Aunt Jilly, Aunt Catlin, Uncle Matthew, Aunt Chandra, Noah, Isaiah, Nehemiah, Uncle Luke, Aunt Mandy, Asher, Levi, Addie, Uncle Josh, Aunt Kristi, cousin Willy, and friend Paul. It was a good time. I think even Quigley, the dog, had a fun with everyone. I'll be honest and tell you my cake wasn't quite what I'd expected, and so it was not as spectacular as I hoped. But it was the yummiest one I've made yet--I somehow messed up the recipe on the frosting and it turned out DE-LISH! Ok, I'll stop describing things and go ahead and let the pictures tell the story!

It's always great to come in and see the chandelier decorated and presents on the table first thing in the morning of your birthday!

Parts of various outfits Caedmon received...he's skiing by the way (yes, with his drumsticks).

Caedmon with his daddy and Papa putting together his new tricycle.

Caedmon's Papa doing a magic show--Uncle Matthew (left) and Mark are doing a mind-reading illusion!

HA- all the "big boys" had moved to the front row of the magic show (L to R: Uncle Matthew, Uncle Joshua, and Mark).

Cousin Asher helping out with a smooth linking rings routine.
Caedmon by his birthday cake & cupcakes. If you want to know why the cupcakes are purple, let's just say my red wasn't red enough and when I'd royally screwed them up and swirled them with the blue frosting...yeah, I know, so much for thinking ahead.
He's 2, therefore he didn't care for "Happy Birthday" being sung to him.

Blowing out his candles!

Caedmon with Aunt Catlin, and cousin Nehemiah.
Papa and cousin Noah watching Mark help Caedmon open gifts--Mark's obviously enjoying it!

Aww, kissin' cousins! Caedmon gives Asher a thank-you-for-my-present-kiss while cousin Levi (foreground), cousin Isaiah, and cousin Noah (pictures from the background) look on.Oh and to start out our weekend we had the lovely and somewhat traumatic experience of watching our former house be ripped from the ground and moved down the street from us! It was sad. It was also disturbing that the very next morning (on Caedmon's birthday) we noticed "looters" going through the basement where the house had been. I sent Mark over to tell them just what was on the stuff they were grabbing and they said, "How 'bout we'll just wash our hands before we eat?" AHHH- of all the nerve! Some people...

Here it is this is the sun porch (left end) leading onto the living room, the dining room is the middle window with the kitchen on the right end. Upstairs is Caedmon's nursery, then the guest bathroom, and our bedroom/bathroom on the right end.

How I miss that house!

Weekend Fun, Weekday Woe

Ok so I'm back! I brought with me one heck of a cold, but I think I just was working too much for my body to catch up on being healthy this weekend! I played many roles including (but not limited to) cake decorator, floral arranger, photographer, and assistant to the bride! HA- but I love my Shelbs (my cousin, the bride) so it was a joy. There are definately some lessons learned in the cake, and so next time I'll be more even on my arches, points, etc. But I was pleased if people didn't look too close! Here you go:

The flower arranging was my favorite part!

Stage 1 of set up on site
Almost done...
Finished!
With our lovely Explorer in the background (sorry!)
Shelby and Josh cutting the cake (if you look close you'll see the hundreds of gnats that flew into the frosting and got stuck! AHHH- but I didn't care, we just told people to pick them out--the price you pay for an outside wedding!)Aftermath- the second layer chocolate was gone! This layer was butter pecan- yum!

A couple of my favorite pictures I took and made sepia...
We call this one Shelby's "Estee Lauder" picture
And to finish it off, our sweet boy, Caedmon (left) with his second cousin, Tanner on Great Grandpa's tractor!
I may be posting again soon as a big event is happening today around our area. It's called their moving our house! Not the one we're living in, but the one ruined by the Great Flood of '07. I'm SO sad, I don't want to see it done, I LOVE that house. Not that I'm not grateful for the house we have now, but to those who have been to both there's just no comparison! To make things worse we can see all what's being done because the house's are separated by just an alley! Here are the pictures of our first home here on Cedar, and our current home on Summit:

Our beautiful first home:
Our current home (but it looks a lot better now, because my flower beds are in bloom!)