Kaden, my 2 year old

Kaden is growing so strong and healthily. He is putting together sentences and using his words so well. One of his favorite books right now is "Go, Dogs, Go". He loves to read most any book, but prefers this one. He has such sweet prayers. Never fails that he will remember Neil, Braxton, Brazos and Brayson then we search for things and get real materialistic. He always remembers Tammi (a lady from church we have been praying for) and Clint.

Kaden sleeps through the night and loves to come and cuddle with me when he hears his daddy up and going between 6 and 6:30 am.

His 2 year stats are:

Height - 36.8 inches (95%)

Weight - 31.5 pounds (83%)

Head Cir - 49.8 (77%)

BMI - 16.3 (42%)

This was our first visit to have a BMI figured. Pretty interesting!

We love our big boy and he is very much so still a mommy's boy. He loves to play horsey with his daddy but cries to mommy.

Kaden, you are our little light. You make us laugh all the time. You will do anything to see your daddy smile. Your prayers are as sweet as the day is long. You have a different prayer for breakfast as for bedtime and lunch. I love you dearly. You love to sit and flip through books. At the moment you are fascinated with Curious George. You would sit and look at pictures of our family all day and consistently name them. Your love of books is amazing and you push me back to sit in a chair when I am sitting on the edge of the couch so you know we will sit and read the book you desire. When you drop/fall/run into something, you tell the object "NO, NO". You love to sing during church. When it is time for a prayer, you usually thank God for Neil, and the boys (loudly) before I can get you quiet. You ask, daily if we can go to "Neil. House. Come on. Go."! Every morning you wake up and ask, "Where daddy go?". Then you answer..."work". When I tell you someone is coming over or we are going to town, you get all excited and pump your arms up in the air and say "WooHoo!"....I love that one! You get super excited about Bible Class and love to sing The B.I.B.L.E and Roll The Gospel Chariot Along. When someone says light, you usually look for a flashlight or stick up your finger for "This Little Light of Mine". You hear well and listen most of the time. You LOVE to climb on your stool and "cook" in the kitchen with mommy. If I would let the water run all day, you would stand at the sink and "clean". Thank you for being such a wonderful little boy. You are loved and you will be a great big brother.

I believe...

Karl and I took Kaden to go see Santa. He was so patient and slow moving. The line was not too long, but it took about 30 minutes to move through it. Once we got up to see him, I was thankful for the time we spent. Kaden gave him "five" and leaned in for a no arm hug, but he had nothing to do with sitting in Santa's lap.

Kaden looks off and says "CHEESE" as if that is the prefect picture...our days of posing for the camera are coming to an end. I really need to get his two years pics done.

Kaden enjoyed his daddy being home today. Thanks for making our day fun!

15 inches of snow and 4 foot snow drifts

This is what we woke up to this morning. Andy and Karl are both working from home this morning. Andy tried to find a route to work and after an hour he came back home...

FYI: I cleared the drive lastnight. Took me about an hour and a half (with the snow blower)...This all came overnight!!!!

Poor Old Blue...he wasn't ready for this...


Andy left this morning early to go to the office and searched for a route for a little over an hour and ended up coming back home. We only live 7 miles from JD...

Thanksgiving catch up...

We were able to go home early for Thanksgiving. Karl was nice enough to let me stay in Texas with my family and Kaden and I loved our time.

Neil, Ashley, Andrea and Amy and I after Granny's funeral. We made red look good for Granny!
Amy, Neil, Mom, me and Sue

Kaden enjoying the Thanksgiving feast at New Home. We were able to stay the better part of a week and Kaden loved his times with his cousins. Some days they played really well together and some days not, but I had a blast being with my middle sister!

Karl and the boys on the farm. Kaden wanted to live on the four wheeler. He would just sit and wait for someone to come along and take him for a ride. He pretended and had many adventures on this thing...most of the time while the key was turned off. One morning I asked him if he had been good. His reply, "Cows, sheep, hay, outside. Come on. Go!".

Mama Z or "Z" as Kaden calls her made close to 16 dozen rolls while we were there to help. Kaden loved rolling the dough in the flour and adding flour to the mixer. Z was sooooo patient. We enjoyed our time at home as well.

Thanksgiving Day at the Spencers! Mom, Bob and Amy...there is no telling what Bob has done...you have to watch this one.

We were in Texas for TWO Aggie Games and we were surrounded by Ag's for both games. What a time to be at home. Thanks! Kaden, Brayson and Ava wore this little green wagon out in one evening.

Back at New Home, I had a blast entertaining kids. Brazos was showing his skills of blowing bubbles and Kaden and Brayson took turns popping them!

Thanksgiving morning we ventured into town for the 34th Annual Turkey Trot. Pam, Ashely, Jennifer, Hunter, Mom, Amy, Lyneil and I all did our walking before we did our stuffing! It was great and a great tradition to start for us!

Next stop...Anna, Texas! Our last stop before we headed home was to see Karl's family. We had another wonderful mean with Uncle, Rerry, CinCin and Johnny. Kaden took a hitch to Rerry and Biscuit.

Sherry made some pumpkin cake pops for Kaden and saved them. He ate every one...minus the one I got a hold of! We loved our time in Texas and we are still playing catch up for being gone the month of November!

Baby McDonald #2 and Kaden feeds the fish

We are 20 weeks along. We know the gender...but some others don't know just yet!! We are grateful for a healthy baby and a healthy almost 2 year old!

From our candy filled heart to yours!

Kaden says, Candy is GREAT!!!!
We don't give him many snacks or candy so for him to actually get a sucker...he was super excited!
Our batty kid! We love him.
Daddy and Kaden at Trunk or Treat Wednesday evening before Bible Class.

Happy Halloween!

We are enjoying our time outside...we know that it is coming to an end. One day this week, we raked leaves and made a small, but mighty pile of leaves and the Clapp kids and Kaden really enjoyed it!
Saturday we took Kaden to the zoo for Night Eyes. We enjoyed our time. They had candy all over the place and a fun house at the end of the trail for all of the kids. Kaden loved the toddler bounce houses.
This is the first time Kaden would actually let the animals eat out of his hands. Usually, he just throws the food at them. They always seem to find the food, but this time both the goats and the llamas were eating out of his hands...I love it!

Our batty Kaden!

Here we are at the end. We were able to go during the day since it was cold and rainy both evenings prior!

This evening we were able to beat the cold rain and get our Beggar's Night/Trick or Treating in early. Up here we do everything the night before (on the 30th). Kaden was super cute. After the first house (which he went INSIDE), he had this thing down. Hold my bag, smile and get the goods! We proceeded to RUN to the next house. We passed a group of three fathers out with their kids and one of them gave Kaden a dollar bill. He told him he was cute enough to get money rather than candy. Too sweet! Kaden had a blast and finally by the end of the night wanted to show off his bat wings...only after he had a sucker!

Happy Trick or Treating...Treat others kind!

Race for the Cure 10/24/09

This morning we headed out of the door at a crisp 36 degrees to head downtown with close to 25,000 other people in pink and white. It is always amazing to see. We dressed for the occasion and by the time we had conquered the 3.2 miles we were warm and ready to shed some clothes. At the end of the walk it had warmed up to a nice 39 degree day. We are truly enjoying Iowa right now...our family is healthy (which makes it easier to be far away) and out of every window you can capture more radiant colors than one mind can imagine. I never knew fall could be this beautiful.

We walked for all of the women out there!
Especially for our Grandma Cindy!
We love you!


On another note: we are truly blessed. Last Saturday we were concerned about Kaden. He started having (what we knew) seizer like actions. Monday we took him to the pediatrician and with no real answers we left with the option to perform an eeg. In talking it over with mom, she suggested we see an eye doctor! So, Tuesday morning we call and get in the same day. I love our pediatrician specialists/surgeon. We couldn't be more blessed. It turns out, Kaden had a piece of plastic on his cornea. It was minute. But it was irritating the mess out of his poor little eye. Tuesday she removed it (with much screaming and three tries) and Wednesday we are back to normal eye control! Thank you God! We now know of one of the best pedi eye dr.'s in the world. She was amazing.

Busy days of Kaden

We have had a busy beginning of fall. We have been able to visit family in Texas and even had some visitors from Texas! We love all of our family time.

McGrew Family Reunion




Frankston time
Paris time

Pumpkin time
Corn maize time
Corn vat time
Monster show time...

Celebrating 60 years!

Granny and Papa celebrated 60 years of marriage this September. How exciting and a great excuse to come home and join in the fun.

Phillip brought a horse and carriage up for us to all take a ride. Everyone got to ride around the park...thanks Phillip for making our evening even more special.

Phillip put Kaden on the horse and he LOVED it. He wanted to ride the "neigh" all night after that point.

First riders...Papa and Granny and crew. Dale, Leland, Susan, Caren, T'Auna and Maronda came all the way from west Texas (as well as Neil and family) to help us celebrate. Thanks for making the trip.

Ashley and her sweet niece Ava

Some of the cousins (missing Neil, Kara and Kenda)

Maronda, Amy, T'Auna, Ashley and me

Dad, Mom and Kara

It was sooo good to see them.

The 'younger' bunch on the wagon. We loaded it down. That poor 'neigh' was ready to go home after this loaded bunch.

Ashley and Amy

Most of the kids at the Fish Fry

Braxton telling Da something about his girlfriends at school

60 YEARS....WOW....60 YEARS....thank you Granny and Papa for all of your life lessons and for teaching us to hold strong through whatever we encounter. We love you and respect you and your family commitment.

Nice Micah...Phillip and Ashley

Caren, Maronda and Susan

brothers: Papa and Dale

Neil and Susan

My favorite dad in the world. I love and respect this man soooo much. Plus he married a GREAT woman!

Jennifer, Ava and sibling

Oh!!! By the way...Kaden is going to be a big brother as well...late March!