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.