Spring is here!

I went out in my backyard tonight and this is what I saw on my trees!

Our "winter" fun

In all fairness this "winter" has been really cold here! I will wake up sometimes and the house will be 62 degrees. The night we got home from Oregon it was 55!! We have even burned fires pretty consistently in our fireplace this year (which we've NEVER done before). The kids had Monday off because of President's Day so we packed picnic lunches and went with our good friends to the Timucuan Fort. We did a little hiking, watched the boats, saw dolphins swimming and let the kids run wild. They had a ball and Kaden did great. That's probably the farthest he has walked since getting his cast off. It was a chilly, but beautiful day.

Kaden turns 4

The last four years has absolutely flown! I can't believe Kaden is 4. When Kai turned 4 I thought he was so grown up. Kaden is such a little fire cracker. He is very quick to laugh, very independent, very clever and wants to do everything his big brother does. He has a little temper but he also keeps us laughing. Everyone loves Kaden. Happy Birthday to our little buddy!

Wonderful, Wicked Weekend

Matt and I went away for the first time in 7 years this weekend (I've never left my kids with anyone, except for the night I left Kai to have Kaden. Kai has had sleepovers but never Kaden. Matt surprised me with tickets to Wicked for Christmas. I saw it last spring in Jacksonville with a friend and LOVED it. I was excited for Matt to be able to see it too. We went to Tampa, saw the show, had a nice dinner at Ruth's Chris and stayed over night! It was much needed, long over due break! Nice to be able to talk without being interrupted, nice not to have to buckle anyone in but myself when I got in the car, nice to eat a meal without worrying about the kids making a mess, not sitting still or being too loud, nice to wake up without having any demands placed upon me immediately. It was wonderful! We need to get away more often. I think I was most proud of myself for breaking down and leaving the kids. They were in good hands, their Grandpa and Grandma McKendrick came and stayed at our house with them. Grandpa made them pancakes for breakfast, a memory I am sure they will have forever. I still remember my Grandpa O'Dell making us girls pancakes when we went to visit him.

Happy Day!

I took Kaden and got him all registered for preschool for the 2010-2011 school year. I don't know who is more excited him or me?! In Florida all children who are 4 have the option of going to preschool for essentially 1/2 day (Kaden will go 8:30-11:45). I feel like they need it in preparation for kindergarten which is full day here. He will be going to the same preschool Kai did (a baptist academy). It's such a FUN time for the kids, I look forward to the friends Kaden will make, the experiences he will have, the crafts he will come home with. I will drop Kaden off, run and drop Kai off, and I will have precisely 2 1/2 hours to myself. It will be almost 8 years since I had any time to myself. I can actually go to the grocery store or the post office BY MYSELF. Hopefully I come up with some more fun things to do than that but for now that prospect is exciting. :)

Can you tell what part of school Kaden is most excited about?

"BATTER UP"

Kaden has waited patiently for his turn to play baseball. He will be 4 next Saturday so he was old enough to start spring baseball. We missed his first practice because we were away for the weekend but his Grandpa and Grandma McKendrick took him. We are so excited to watch him and cheer him on this season. Since his cast came off about 2 weeks ago he still isn't able to run, but he does his best to hobble along. We have no doubt he'll be running soon. He asked me at one of Kai's games if I would say, "go Kaden, go Kaden" when it was his turn to run bases.