Cadence Gets Her Ears Pierced

I'm one of those moms that cries through my kids' immunizations & can't handle watching or taking part in anything that might hurt them in any way. When Cadence was a baby I took her TWICE to get her ears pierced & couldn't go through with it. I just couldn't do it. Then when she was 4 I tried again, but still couldn't do it. She kept begging & asking so I told her when she turned 8 she could get her ears pierced. I never thought that day would come, but it did. She's been waiting SO long & the day was finally here. So, since I'm just a big baby, I made it a fun day for all of her Aunties. Auntie Cari, Auntie Tylee, & Auntie Marc got to take her to the store to get her ears pierced & then they got to take her out to lunch! She was SO excited to get alone big girl time with her Auntie's & I was SUPER excited to not have to sit through her getting her ears pierced. It was a win-win situation.

Cadence first got to pick out what earrings she wanted. She chose some adorable diamond daisies (which I LOVED!!).

The piercing was a birthday present from Auntie Tylee so Cadence was very grateful to her for the new earrings.

Part of me wondered if she would actually go through with it (especially after the tooth debacle the night before), but she did it. She said it only hurt for a second & she didn't cry at all. I was very proud!

The pain was worth it. Her ears looked GREAT. Her little earrings are adorable. She looks SO GROWN UP!! I can't believe I have an 8 year old now!

After getting her ears done, the aunties took her out to McDonalds (her favorite restaurant for lunch.) She loved that "big girl" time with them.

Thank you guys for taking my baby to get her ears pierced. I probably wouldn't have been able to go through with it. Cadence looks adorable & I'm SO proud of her & what a wonderful young lady she is becoming. I love you Cadence.

Kids just don't come cuter than this. . .

I'm sorry, but this is just as cute as it gets. I love my little dude!

Front Tooth Ordeal

My goodness! It never ceases to amaze me how different each of my kids are. Cadence is the biggest worry-wart I've ever met. She is SO sweet & SO caring, but man, if she tries something new or something she knows nothing about, she FREAKS out. Cadence has lost 4 teeth now & her 5th (the top front) was ready to pop. It has been loose since before Christmas & it was literally dangling by who knows what. All we had to do was look at it wrong & it was going to come flying out. But would she let us touchit? Of course not. . . it might hurt! ha ha ha. Her baptism was the next day, the family was all in town, there was a lot going on, but we needed to get that tooth out before it caused any problems. Cadence hadn't been eating because it hurt & I was tired of fighting with her about it. So we told her it was time.

We had no idea what was about to happen. She was literally terrified. We can't figure out why (we've pulled out 4 other teeth), but she did NOT want that tooth out. Baba tried to get to it, Justin tried, I tried, Mimi tried, but she wouldn't let anyone near her. Trek (who uses pliers) finally got her somewhat pinned down on the couch. My mom had to hold her legs, Cari held her head still, & I had her hands. We even had everyone in the house telling her they'd double what the tooth fairy brought (that's $5 extra bucks since the tooth fairy brings $1 for every tooth). But nothing made her want to let us pull it.

Finally she gave in (but still we had to hold her down) & we all counted to three together. Trek barely touched it & it fell out. Cadence started laughing hysterically saying she didn't feel a thing & we all rolled our eyes at how much work that ended up being for all of us. She was SO excited to show off her toothless grin! Lorien got a little jealous & asked Trek to get her other loose tooth out so Trek grabbed his pliers & went to work on her. He was pulling & tugging & moving, but it wouldn't come out. I know it hurt Lorien but she didn't say a word & was very disappointed when it didn't come out. So there you go. . . my girls have polar opposite personalities when it comes to this sort of thing. I was just happy Cadence allowed us to go through with it so she had a toothless grin for her baptism the next day. You were brave baby girl! Good job!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

On Friday while my dad & Justin went to the golf tournament & Trek & my older girls went to school. . . we took the little ones to the aquarium here in Monterey. It was about time I went. We've been here close to 6 months & still hadn't been. We had SO MUCH FUN! There is all sorts of fun exhibits there. My kids really love penguins so we spend a lot of time with penguins, but Taya has a new love for seahorses so that was a fun exhibit to visit with her. Bladen basically just likes to point & say "FISH!" over & over & over again. Korbyn liked the Nemo tank. It was a fun morning.

My little nephew Korbyn is such a cute kid. He's super tall for his age & is destined to play football someday. I love his fiery red hair & spunky attitude. It was SO fun to be Auntie & play with him. He especially loved the Nemo tank. Nemo is one of his favorite movies.

Taya is in a really odd phase right now where whenever you pull out a camera she opens her eyes really big for the picture. SO FUNNY!!! She is such a pretty little girl, but her pictures right now make me laugh hysterically. I LOVE THEM!!! What a ham!

All three kiddos found a big shell to play in. I love that my kids get along with their little cousin so well. It was SO nice having him here with us for the weekend. I always loved playing with my cousins when I was little. Korbyn is so cute with my kids too.

The play areas in the aquarium are a blast for kids. They are scattered throughout the entire museum so it makes it nice for the kids to have little breaks between looking at fish. One area had fish costumes for the kids to wear. Bladen wanted to be a fish so he put one on & walked around with it on for a while. He's so funny.

Bladen is just a happy kid. He very rarely cries over anything (other than the want of MORE food). I just love the happy faces he makes when he's having fun. He loved a little rocking fish he found. Just a happy little guy.

Taya saw Bladen "dressing up" like a fish so she decided she wanted to be a sea horse. So I put the seahorse costume on her. She wanted it off in less than 30 seconds the little stinker. But I was able to snap a quick picture before it came off.

In the baby play area, they had this little water bed like thingy for babies to jump around on. I couldn't get Bladen off of it! He played for almost a full 30 minutes jumping, rolling, sitting, etc. He had SO MUCH FUN!! Maybe this kid needs a water bed. ha ha ha.

Taya & Korbyn had fun playing in the water area. There were little rubber fish that they could fill up with water & squirt each other. Taya LOVES playing in water so this was a perfect activity for her. Korbyn & Taya liked to splash each other as well. I love water. . . it doesn't stain & it's fun enough to play in. Perfect for little kids.

After we wore ourselves out at the free play areas, it was time to go. We were exhausted. The kids were ready for more, but we had two preggos, one momma with Fibro Mialgia, & a grandma with RA. We were a sad bunch of women let me tell you. But we had fun.

We ended up eating lunch there by the aquarium at a little deli shop & then walked down to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some goodies. By the time we got home we were all ready for naps. But it was a SUPER fun day with the little ones.

Birthday Dinner & Dessert

My family flew in on Thursday night for Cadence's baptism weekend & the PGA Pebble Beach tournament here in Monterey. (We planned her baptism around the tournament so they'd only have to make one trip!) That night we celebrated both Trek & Justin's birthday by going out to eat at a yummy seafood restaurant on Cannery Row here in Monterey.

Everyone loved how beautiful the ocean was. The weather was perfect in every way & we had a blast.

Dinner was great. I'm not a huge seafood lover, but their food was pretty good. Then after dinner I sent Trek & Justin (since they were the birthday boys) to my favorite Bakery downtown for some cake. I warned them that there would be lots to choose from, but 3 pieces would do us just fine because the slices were so enormous! But you know grown men. . . they came home with 6 pieces!!!

And the sad part was that we ate every last bit of it. They brought home 3 pieces of cake & 3 pieces of pie. (Kit Kat Cake, Reese's Peanut Butter Cake, Cookies & Cream Cake, Key Lime Pie, Peanut Butter Pie, & Snickers Pie)

Yup, they were huge! They were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good too! My favorite is the Reese's cake, but that peanut butter pie was to die for too. I must have a thing for peanut butter. I love Rosine's though. They have by far the best desserts in town!

Homemade Pin Cushion

Speaking of the homemade pin cushion project. . . I forgot to put up pictures of it. This was the project for February (to take all of February to accomplish), but I had so much fun when I got my new sewing machine that I whipped that puppy out in one day.

It turned out adorable. The actual pin cushion is on top with a middle piece to put your hand-sewing needles. Then a fun separated bag is sewn to the pin cushion to hold your scissors, seam ripper, ruler, etc. And off of that is a detachable bag to throw all your strings or scrap fabric as you sew so they don't get all over the place. SUPER FUN & very practical as well.

Homemade Burp Cloths

So at my sewing class I finished my pin cushion so fast that I had to come up with another project to work on during class time. So I found a cute pattern online for burp cloths that I thought I'd try since Craiger is coming soon & you always need burp cloths. They were super simple to make & I finished them in less than 2 hours. You just cut out the pieces in flannel & lightweight cotton batting & then sew them together with a decorative stitch. Then you clip around the edges with scissors & wash them a couple times to make a frayed edge. Super cute & super easy! I love them.

Taya's Playdate

Thank heavens for best friends. Taya has finally found a best friend that she wants to be around 24/7. Ady is in her joy school & lives fairly close to us, so when her friend asked if she could come over for a play date, I couldn't say NO! They had SO MUCH FUN together. They watched their favorite Barbie movie together & ate some yummy popcorn. It was perfect. Now I'm SUPER excited because Ady's mom has offered to take Taya when I go into labor so I know she'll be well taken care of & will have a blast the entire time. Taya keeps asking if Craiger can come out so she can sleepover at Ady's house. I love it.

Cupcakes for Cadence's Class

After the crazy weekend with Cadence's birthday party, I got the chance to bring in cupcakes to her class during lunch the following Monday. I just did simple cupcakes this time around since it's hard to be on my feet much anymore with the pregnancy, but they still turned out adorable & the kids were SO excited to eat homemade cupcakes with their lunch.

Of course I didn't take a single picture of the actual cupcakes (duh!), but I did snap a really cute one of Cadence cuddling up with Bladen. I sure love having kids. They bring so much joy into life!

Cadence's New Bike

After all the girls left, Trek & I decided it would be good to give her her present from us on Saturday rather than Sunday so she could actually play with it. So we blindfolded her & sat her on the couch while Daddy went to get her present.

When she took off the blindfold, she saw her brand new 20" bike (with NO training wheels). We've been trying to get those training wheels off FOREVER & she really needed a new bike so we got her a bike that didn't even have training wheels as an option. Now she's FORCED to learn how to ride! She LOVES her new Mongoose bike. She looks great on it!

We spent the rest of the afternoon teaching her how to ride a bike with no training wheels. It's so funny how something that seems so easy to us really is VERY difficult to someone just learning. But she did great. Daddy had to help her get started, but she can go straight really well without falling off. However, we need to work on the "dismount" because she literally jumps off the bike & lets the bike fall, ha ha ha. I guess we all start somewhere & learn in our own ways. I'm glad she likes her new gift.

Once Cadence started riding without training wheels it inspired Lorien to try (which we were secretly hoping would happen). Lorien took to it SUPER fast!! She not only can start on her own, but she can go straight & turn all the way around by herself. We are still working on the "stopping" part, but she's doing fantastic as well. I'm so proud of both of my girls.