November

With the cold chill in the air and Thanksgiving over… that can only mean one thing… Christmas is almost here! I love Christmas! I love the Christmas season. I love the feel in the air. I love watching the faces of happy and excited people. I love the lights! I love the decorations

With that said I have so much to update before we reach Christmas. As you noticed my last post was from Halloween. There is an explanation. My computer COMPLETELY crashed. I lost everything! From the first pictures of Cayson's life to mine and Ryan's wedding day. Gone. Thankfully Ryan did have a few pictures on his computer. I also have the pictures from this blog so I do have a few of the memories from the past year but for the most part I lost everything. Now that I am up and running I figured it's time I do updates from the past month.

For starters our little guy turned one! I can't believe it. I sit and wonder where the time has gone, as I am sure every other mother does. He is now about 29 inches and weighs just under 20 ibs. What an amazing year it has been! I absolutely love being a mother to this little guy. I admit at times it is challenging and at times he is a challenge and often times I feel very inadequate but words can't describe how incredible it is to have a little one.

In the past year Cayson has developed quite the personality. I like to think of him as Ryan's mini me. (For those of you that know the teenage Ryan then you will understand why that makes me EXTREMELY nervous!) Cayson already has a fun sense of humor. He loves to laugh and smile. He has already started doing little things that make him and other's laugh.

Cayson is continuing to work on his signing. I was so proud of him on his birthday when he would sign "Thank You" after he opened every present. He has been signing please, thank you, and all done for a very long time now and I believe that that is the reason you will hear him from time to time actually saying those three phrases. He is currently learning to sign some of the foods he eats.

Cayson already has OCD tendencies just like his father. His tray needs to be completely clean when he is eating. When he drinks from his sippy there better not be anything else on it. When we put food in his mouth he has to take it back out and then put it in himself. Or if he uses his left hand then he will take it back out and put it in with his right hand.

Cayson is EXTREMELY picky. He only likes about 6 foods on this planet. Those foods include string cheese, oatmeal, cantaloupe, grapes, honey dew melon, pureed baby food squash or carrots, yogurt, apple sauce, and chicken nuggets. He used to love Turkey Dogs but I think he OD'd on them. If you try and trick him or give him something else he will stick out his arm and if you force it in his mouth he spits it right out. So don't even try.

Cayson just started real crawling. Yep, that's right… he loved the army crawl and truth be told still does. He has mastered it so well that for him it is just a lot faster. I kinda think our hardwood floors have always just been too hard on his little knees for crawling.

Cayson loves books. He has started picking up books and flipping through them as he jibber jabbers.

Cayson is now quite mobile. Though walking isn't something he has mastered or even tried for that matter but he will hold on to tables, chairs, and anything else sturdy to help him get around.

I couldn't possibly be more happy with that fact that I am his mother. I love this little boy more than words ever could express. He has brought me more happiness, frustration, stress, and joy than I had ever imagined. Thank you Cayson for coming to our family!

     

Cayson LOVES Discovery Gateway. So when our planned zoo trip became too cold we decided we would go to Discovery for his birthday instead. Our friends, The Whites, joined us. We had a great time!

     

Cayson and his buddy Miles.

Cheesy grin at the excitement of playing with the balls!

Last Sunday we had a birthday party for this little guy. Cayson loves dogs. When he sees one he will say ruff ruff. He has slept with this little stuffed dog from the time he was just little. Whenever he looks at it he gets a really big grin. So I decided I would do Cayson a dog themed birthday party. It turned out really fun. I put paw prints all over the walls, decorated cupcakes to look like dogs, and had hot dogs (pigs in a blanket), reese's puffs to look like dog food, puppy chow, and pretzels for the raw hide. Despite the storm most of our family was able to make it. Cayson tried a cupcake and sweets for that matter for the first time. He liked the frosting but didn't care much about the cupcake. Afterward we opened presents. The kid was SPOILED! He loved all the presents he got and I'm sure appreciates that he has more than just a rattle to play with now. All in all it was a great day! Thanks everyone for sharing his special day with us!

My mom helped me make these adorable cupcakes… I give her all the credit. Didn't she do a great job?!?

Our "Dog Food"

     

Some of the guests and a picture of the paw prints all over…

Some of our guests…

they weathered the storm to celebrate with us. We have the best family! We love you!

Cayson loved opening presents.

He also loved what was inside. He didn't care to open more he just wanted to play with what he got.

My mom did this. She is so cute, don't you think!?!

Our FABULOUS Aunt Nelly got Cayson this awesome book!

Cupcake time! He wasn't sure what to think!

I had to show him

He started to get the idea

Then decided this is fun!

Until he had cupcake all over the place.

His favorite part was the frosting… smart kid!

I think he had a sugar high… this was his first taste of sugar.

Cayson was so spoiled! Look at all he got! Thanks everyone!

Sporting his awesome new suit!

     

Grandma and Nancy got him this awesome vacuum. The smile he gets when he plays with it is priceless.

Too bad we weren't able to get a picture of it

(OK, if I haven't lost your interest I should apologize. Sorry for the millions of pictures. I guess I am just afraid I will lose them)

     

Besides celebrating our little guys birthday we also Celebrated Ryan's and my favorite day. Ryan's favorite day happens to be Thanksgiving. He loves him some meat and potatoes and he loves him some football. Put both of those together and you get nothing short of his perfect heaven.

This year we had a lot to be grateful for. A healthy happy family and little boy that love each other, a warm house to come home to each day, jobs that allow us to provide for ourselves, cars that take us to where we need to go, friends and family that fill our lives with joy, I could never forget FOOD!, and so much more. Most of all our Savior and the gospel. Without these things everything else would mean nothing. We are so blessed beyond measure!

Unfortunately this Thanksgiving wasn't the best we have had. Cayson just wouldn't sleep. Because of it he was miserable and fussy. This left us with no choice but to bail. Poor Ryan didn't even get full. I felt so bad. Hopefully next year our little guy will be old enough to behave.

Black Friday is my favorite day of the year. To me there is nothing better in this world then getting something cool for a really really good deal. So to have a day based around this concept makes my heart swell with joy! This year apparently the stores thought it would be brilliant to start even earlier than normal. So I found myself throwing elbows and punches at 3:00 AM at Kohls to get the perfect toys for Cayson thinking all along how crazy I am. (Though not quite as crazy as my mom whom decided that she was going to Walmart at 11:30 PM on Thanksgiving and never even went to bed.) (PS… I was super disappointed in Walmart and their lack of stock,… I am now officially a Target fan. I got everything on my list there even though I got there an hour after opening) Anyway… I had a very fun successful day and should have took a picture of all my loot I came home with. Ryan took one look and stated he was sure that he was going to have to go and get 8 or 9 more jobs to cover it. I love having such a supportive husband!