Happy 1st Birthday

Yesterday we celebrated Cade turning 1 year. It is amazing that a year has gone by since he entered our family. In that year he has brought SO MUCH joy and happiness to our lives (as well as many sleepless nights and lessons learned!) We love him so much. Happy Birthday Cade!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

In Cole's masters program, each semester of new students are placed into a cohort. This same group of students will go through the program together-so basically they will see lots of each other for the next 2 1/2 years. The cohort threw an ugly Christmas sweater party where, obviously, everyone comes wearing a ugly sweater. We thought it would be adorable to dress Cade up as Santa-and it was. Then, Cole and I decided to go all out. Instead of just ugly sweaters we went with ugly outfits. Complete with ugly green sweaters (with clip art pinned to it) and matching ugly sweat pants. Cade was Santa and we were Santa's Helpers. As embarrassing as it was it was a big hit and we had a lot of fun.

Here are all the girls

Here are all the members of the cohort

Santa doesn't get any cuter than this!

Oh. My. Goodness. Hilarious.

This was posted on my friend Jenny's blog. I hope you don't mind Jenny but I wanted to share. I showed Cole when he got home from school and we both laughed for quite a while. Click here.

Thanksgiving

At first, Thanksgiving was going to be just Cole and I and Cade. No other family. No real dinner. So we were really excited when plans worked out to go meet Shanna and Matthew in Colorado for Thanksgiving. We were in Pagosa Springs, CO and it was gorgeous! It snowed on Thanksgiving and Cole was loving being back in the Mountains. We really didn't do a whole lot other than hang out and spend time with Shanna and Matthew. The boys played a lot of video games and Shan and I did a lot of card making. And both parties were perfectly content.

Cade was throughly confused at who his real mama was. Whenever I was not around he would want to go to Shan. He would hang on her leg, go to her when he was sad, snuggle with her-everything he does to me and will not do to Cole. Whether he thought it was his mom or whether it was the next best thing-we are not sure. But it was funny to watch! Cade was not the only one confused. More often than not, Shan and I would randomly dress alike. And since we all had to share a small space and were always in close proximity, the husbands had to double check before making any type of move!

We had tons of fun and Shan and I made a great semi-homemade dinner. It was really nice to be around family for Thanksgiving and it was so fun to see Cade play with his Aunt and Uncle!
Here are some snippets from the trip.

Cade playing with Aunt Shan (or close enough to mama)

Cade and his real mama

Shan and I making Christmas cards.

Cade wanting to help. Hungry Boys and Cade's first Thanksgiving

We had quite the drive. Whenever we would stop Cade would get so excited. He knew he could get out of the carseat for a bit. Who wouldn't?!

Cade at the wheel.

On the way home, we were passing through the mountains in Colorado and Cole spotted this ram trotting down the mountain. Way cool.