This is what 6 looks like

Being a mom of a 6 year old I can easily put a face and a personality to those 20 little boys and girls. It breaks my heart.

I read this in the Huffington Post.

Written by: Jennifer Rowe Walters (a mother and preschool teacher)
I am not really a major cryer. I mean, don't get me wrong, I cry -- when it's appropriate to do so. Funerals. The occasional wedding if it's particularly beautiful or meaningful. Schindler's List. Things that normal people cry at. I am definitely not an over-cryer. I don't cry at commercials or cheesy Hallmark movies or at the drop of a hat. And, when I do cry, there's usually a beginning and an end. I cry. I get it out. I stop. Normal crying.
However, since I first started to understand the magnitude of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday morning, I have cried a lot. I cried when I heard the terrible news. I cried when I went to pick my son up early from school. I cried when I told my husband what had happened. I cried when I talked to my girlfriends about it. I cried at church when we prayed for each victim by name. Off and on for going on three days now, I have cried. And this is despite going out of my way to not watch anything about it on TV or read too much about it online. I'm actively trying to avoid it, but I still find myself crying more than usual.
I mentioned this to a friend last night and she said that she couldn't seem to stop crying either. When I asked her why she thought that was, her answer was, for me, a revelation. She said, "I think it's because we know what six looks like. We see it every day... in all its glory." And she was right. Because, you see, this friend and I both have a six-year-old child. I, a six-year-old son. She, a six-year-old daughter. Both are in first grade. Both, I imagine, so heart-breakingly similar to those 20 kids who were so brutally and senselessly killed on Friday morning. And we do, indeed, know what six looks like. We do see it every day. In all its glory. We see the good, the bad and the ugly. The beautiful and the infuriating. It's in our face. We live it and breathe it.
We know what six looks like. We know what it smells like. How it can go from the fresh scent of shampoo and soap to the musky aroma of "dirty child" in what seems like minutes. How it resists getting in the bathtub... and then resists getting out half an hour later. How sweet its hair and skin and clean jammies smell when it sits on your lap and asks you to read it a bedtime story. We know the unmistakeable fragrance of the occasional accident in the middle of the night caused by too much milk and no last-thing-before-bed visit to the toilet.
We know what six looks like. We know what it sounds like. How it cries and whines. How it sings and laughs. How clever it is and how much more clever it grows every day. How it sounds out words on signs as we drive past in the car and how happy it is when it gets them right. How annoying it sounds when it teases its little sister and how kind it sounds when it soothes her when she falls down and hurts herself. We know how lovely the words "Mommy" and "Daddy" and "I Love You" sound in its six-year-old voice.
We know what six looks like. We know how it tastes. How picky it is. How it thinks chicken nuggets or macaroni and cheese are gourmet foods. How much it loves candy and cookies. How it tolerates broccoli and carrots. How it absolutely abhors Brussels sprouts. How it thinks French fries are a vegetable. How it thinks chocolate milk was created by God himself. How it thinks pizza is its own food group. We know that six is happy when it finds "I love you!" written on a napkin in its lunch box at school.
We know what six looks like. We know how it feels. How big it's getting. How fast it outgrows its clothes and how it's no longer a baby, but not quite yet a big kid. We know the weight of six in our arms. How we can barely carry it anymore, but try anyway because we can't quite bring ourselves to accept the truth. We know how easily six gets its feelings hurt if someone says just the wrong thing or if this friend or that one doesn't want to play with it or it gets in trouble at school. We know the velvety softness of six's skin. We know the still-silkiness of its hair.
Yes, we know what six looks like. We know six's gap-toothed smile and its gangly arms and legs. We see how it jumps and dances. How it twirls and runs. We know how funny six is. How absolutely charming it can be. We know six's terrible jokes. We know how obsessed it is with "Minecraft." We know its crooked "S" and its backwards "3." We see how it teeters on the cusp of the world of books and all the joys of reading, but how it's not quite ready to fall in yet. We see how six can't decide if it wants us to stand beside it or not. We watch it take two steps towards independence and one step back towards us every day. We know how sturdy and strong six is... and yet how frail and fragile.
We know what six looks like. How beautiful it is. How precious. How brightly it shines with promise. How much it looks towards the future... toward 7,8,9... How much it looks like forever.
We know what six looks like and can only in our worst nightmares imagine how devastating its loss in this senseless and evil way would be. We can only barely imagine the wreckage and the despair and the utter hopelessness that would be left if six were brutally and suddenly taken from us. We know we couldn't bear life without it.
Yes, we know what six looks like. And we know that, to us -- like it must be for those other mothers and fathers in Connecticut -- six is the whole world.

Honey Do

I love updating and doing projects around the house. It usually consists of me coming up with some sort of idea and putting Ben to work. He is really pretty handy and usually likes my ideas...I think, and is willing to have at it. So this weekend we worked on updating our fireplace. Adding a mantle and getting ideas for stone to put up the wall. Hopefully we can do that during Thanksgiving break. I have been making some small, little updates to our guest bathroom upstairs so we did a little work in there too. I told Ben that all I want for Christmas is for him to do projects around the house. Nothing would excite me more than a box of stone tile planks or nice Kohler faucet from Santa. 

Honey Do List:
Update Door Knobs
Feature wall down the stairs
Kitchen Backsplash
Kitchen Hardware
New Kitchen Faucet
Quartz Countertops
Fireplace Mantle
Stone on Fireplace Wall
Bathroom Backsplash
Brushed Nickel Bathroom Faucet
New Bathroom Floors
Paint Kitchen Cabinets
Complete Master Bath Remodel

I'm taking before and after pictures so I will be adding the photos when projects are complete. Stay tuned!! 

Happy Halloween

I just realized I haven't posted any pictures of the kids in their Halloween costume. So, here you go.

Tayah decided early on she was going to be Merida from Brave (Newest Disney princess in case anyone is wondering, who??). Then we were trying to decide what Collin should be? Tayah came up with the idea of a bear because anyone who has seen the movie will know bears are sorta a big part of the movie. Merida changes her mother and triplet brothers into bears with a magic spell. So a bear for Collin it was.

 My only issue was trying to get the bear costume on Collin. He really wanted nothing to do with putting the costume on so we had a "back up costume" of a duck hunter which consisted of camo, a duck call lanyard, and his Avery hat.

 The Sunday before Halloween we did trick or treating at the family houses so we wouldn't have to hurry and try and make it to see everyone on Wednesday night. We were about to get Collin dressed in his hunting gear but then decided last minute he wanted to wear the bear costume. So, in pajamas and all, we put the costume on with success and once we had it on the jammies stayed on for the day too. So we headed over to Grandma Val's and Papa Dave's to see Cousin Blake and then stopped at Auntie Christa's, then went over to Grandma Julie's and Papa Dan's with Cousin Grace to visit Grandma and Papa Stumpf, and Christa (again) who were at mom and dad's.

Then Wednesday we just went trick or treating down our street to a few houses and back to our house to pass out candy and so Ben could scare trick or treaters. See photo below.

Peanut...the cat

Here's to having 9 LIVES because Peanut was teetering on 8 yesterday. So, for the last 10/11 years that I have had Peanut he has been an indoor cat but he has ALWAYS desperately wanted to be outside. He is a hunter and an excellent mouser. So this summer we decided to let him venture out because I frankly was tired of him trying to sneak out. He sticks around for the most part but had a couple all nighters where we didn't know where he was.
Anyway, he was out Tuesday afternoon for a couple hours and came back with burs in his fur and looked a little "messy". That night he was sleeping on Collin's bed and was being "weird". He was a little aggressive and didn't want us to touch him. The next morning I woke up and noticed he wasn't begging for food, again "weird". He was sleeping on the couch and looked ill. His jaw was open and he was drooling. I called the vet to see if we could drop him off. Ben dropped him off and I got a call from the doctor later that morning to find he thinks he has a broken jaw. YIKES!! I asked if it was fixable and they said yes, but he may need to go to a specialized orthopedic surgeon. UGH, can you say $$$$$.
I called Ben and after our discussion we decided we would see how the xrays show up but we were not going to do any sort of drastic surgery. We love him but at almost 12 years old, even I couldn't rationalized it. I had the dreaded talk with Tayah that we were going to do our best to fix Peanut but if it can't be fixed he would need to go to Heaven because he wouldn't be able to eat and we didn't want him to be in pain. There were many tears by both of us and it was hard to make that sort of decision with a family pet. 
So, I get a call later that afternoon that his jaw was NOT broken after all and it was just dislocated. He was able to pop it back into place and said it was pretty stable. YAY!! Back to a happy Tayah!!
So, with making sure he gets soft food for the next couple weeks and keep him in to rest he should be back to normal soon. And we won't talk about the vet bill because we have Peanut back and a happy Tayah, so it was all worth it. Right Ben??

Night 1

Collin's mattress got delivered yesterday, along with his crib getting sold, so it was time to get the bed set up. Ben was on his way home from Canada so Papa Dan came over to help take the crib apart and help get the bed put together and mattresses moved into Collin's big boy room. For now Collin's room is right next to our room and I think when he gets a little older we will eventually move his room downstairs by Tayah's room. Then the downstairs can be more of the "kid space" for when they are older. But for now he stays close to mom and dad.

We got the bed all set up and Collin thought it was fun to have a new bed in his room. Tayah and Collin laid in it reading books and may have jumped on the bed a few times. But not really phased with his crib being gone. We decided to leave the box spring off of the bed for now cause it was just too high, Collin couldn't even get into bed. We do have a bumper on the edge of his bed so he won't fall out. It is just like a blow up tube that fits under the fitted sheet and it works quite nice.

Later that day Ben got home after being gone for 9 days. Kids (and I) were happy to have him home.

When it was time for bed Ben put Collin to bed and Ben said he looked for his crib and said "uh-oh".
But he went to bed fine. Ben sat with him for a bit and rubbed his back until it was safe for him to leave.

And believe it or not he slept ALL NIGHT LONG!! He slept until 8:00 am. That is pretty good cause he really hasn't been sleeping that well in his crib the last couple of weeks. He would often end up in our bed so I was hoping the fact that he was in a bed may help. We will see how night 2 goes. And can I say Ben was way more sad to have the crib leave than I was. The crib was pulling out of the driveway and Ben said "That is kinda sad."

Want to thank Aunt Shelley for the bed!! It looks great in the room.

All put together.

I found these really cute Dog sheets that I couldn't pass up.

I snuck a picture of him in the morning when I got up.

Morning!!

Collin's Room

Rearranged furniture.

Bed will go here...soon.

Framed some of Ben's magazine ads and photos.

 Collin is getting ready to move into a bed VERY soon. Mattress is on order and the bed frame from auntie Shelley is waiting in the garage. Bye-bye baby stuff.
 I rearranged his room this weekend and painted the grey stripe around his room. I'm slightly sad about my  baby growing up. I hope he does well sleeping in a bed. More pictures to come once we officially make the move. 

Happy Birthday Miss Tayah!!

A special little girl turned 6 today!! She is just growing up so fast, especially the last few weeks. She started school, has an empty tooth gap in her mouth, and learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. Slow down little one.
We tried the no training wheels thing a few times this summer but she was hesitant and just said, "Mom, I'm not ready." So we put the bike away for a while and then this week she was ready and pretty much just got on the bike by herself and started riding with very little help. Unfortunately with this cold weather hitting as of today, I'm not sure how much more times this year she will get to ride. Hopefully she remembers how by next spring again. Her bike is just a little bike so I promised her a big girl bike when she learned. So maybe next spring she can pick out a new, bigger, bike, and I am thinking I would like to get one too so we both can ride.

Happy Birthday Tayah!!

Makeover

Yes...this is the Cade Blog. I did a little makeover on the blog. Changed the background and updated the photos of the fam. What do you think?

Busy Weekend

Well we had a productive and busy weekend.

I had my PRK surgery on Friday (like Lasik but 10 time more painful...there I said it, it's true and that is the difference in case anyone is wondering). It went well. Ben watched the whole thing and said it looked awful but frankly the procedure itself was the easy part. I was forewarned that the recovery is nothing like regular lasik and it was pretty much going to suck. So I was somewhat prepared for an awful weekend .

About 15 min. after the procedure and the light hit my eyes ( I was wearing dark protective glasses too) my eyes began to burn. I described it to Ben as if someone had put acid in my eyes. Yeah, that prescription the doctor gave me for tylenol with codeine that I said I wouldn't need. "Yeah Ben, go ahead and fill that, would ya." "Thanks." So I went home popped some pills and slept for a couple hours as instructed. Sleeping and having my eyes shut was the only time my eyes were most comfortable. I pretty much slept all day Friday and Saturday. Saturday I went in for a follow up appointment and was told things were healing well.
Sunday I woke up and was feeling pretty good. A little light sensitive and vision was a little foggy but it was comfortable. By Sunday evening things were looking more clear and even squeezed in a family photo session at a park.
Today I feel like I am seeing 20/20. I go in again tonight to have the protective bandages removed. They are like little lenses on my eyes to protect them. After today I am good to go. No more contacts or glasses. Yes, it was worth it!!

Also this weekend Tayah lost her first tooth. Friday night we were eating pizza and she said "mom my tooth hurts." She opened her mouth and had the loosest tooth. It was just hanging there. She was so excited. It took all of maybe 5 minutes and the tooth was out.

She went from this....

to this in a matter of minutes. Loose tooth number 2 is on its way too.

Photo Book

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First day, Second day..onto Third day

First day went great. She got on the bus with 2 daycare friends. All the parents were there to watch as they all got sent off for their first day of school. No tears by the kids...maybe by some parents later on. I was so ready for Tayah to go to school but surprisingly got a little sad when I went to look at the photos we took of the day after she left. She is enjoying it so far and so that is all I care about at the moment.

Here are the photos from the day.

Kindergarten Open House

We had Tayah's Kindergarten Open House last night. We found her classroom, met her teacher, and dropped off her school supplies. Seems that she already knows a couple kids in her class too so it should be a fun year!!

Zoo Camp

A Quick Update...

So it is the last week of SUMMER VACAY. Tayah starts kindergarten next Tuesday. I can't decide if I am happy about this or sad. Maybe a little of both. Check back on that thought next week.

This week Tayah is spending her afternoons at the Minnesota Zoo Camp. She is helping out on the farm at the zoo. Thanks to Grandma Val for driving her there and back each day. Tayah's passion is anything to do with animals so I can't wait to hear how day 1 went.


So hunting season is approaching, which means single mama. I have decided to get my firearm and hunting safety license. I am working on my hunter course online and test and then I need to show up for a Field day and show them I know how to shoot. Which is scary, cause I really don't. Luckily I have a good teacher who is going to help me (aka. Ben). But my kids are both going to hunt and so I think it would be something nice we all can do. Hopefully I will be turkey hunting next spring.


1st day of school pics to come......

Happy Birthday Collin!!

I have the sweetest little boy who is 2 today. I can hardly believe it... I know everyone says that, but it's true. Happy Birthday Collin!! Love you up to the sky!!

We had a Sesame Street party on Sunday.

Kids went home with Elmo's goldfish, Dorothy.

We BOUNCED!!

Re-hydrating.

Working on "I'm 2!!"

"Happy Birthday to you"

Working on blowing out the candles.

More bouncing.

Still bouncing.

Cupcakes.

Day he was born. So sweet.

Hilton Head Island, SC

We are a couple weeks back from our trip to South Carolina. We had a great family vacation with the kids. Spent much of our time at the beach, swimming in the ocean, and the pool. We took a day and spent some time in Savannah, Georgia. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Dancing while waiting for dinner.

Out for seafood on our first night.

Beach day.

Playing in the Atlantic.

Paula Deen's

Savannah, Georgia

Wildlife center in Savannah

Pier at our resort in Hilton Head.

Face paiting

Savannah

Blue crab fishing in Hilton Head at the pier.

Ben and Collin and their first crab they caught.

Tayah was a little afraid it was going to pinch her.

LOVE

Oysters

Music in the park.

Time to go home.

Going home.