Four Christmases, Three Loving Families, Two Exhausted Parents, and a Tooth on the Bottom for Cade

Whew! We are finally recovering from Christmas! Happy New Year, by the way :)
We had a wonderful time visiting family, and it was so special to share our first Christmas with Cade! Our festivities began with the Adkison/Willis Christmas in Bryan, then the Locklear Christmas in Dallas, our Christmas in College Station, and finally the Wommack/Guenther Christmas in New Braunfels. Cade received LOTS of fun presents, and is so lucky to have such generous family and friends. His first tooth also appeared last week. We hope everyone's 2009 has started off well!

Baby Steps

Cade is starting to take little shuffle steps while holding on to things. He is very motivated by his favorite rattle and phones. Here he is standing at his window.


Oh, I really want my rattle!!



Yippee!!! I got it!

Such a good weekend!

We had such a fun weekend! Friday night we went to a surprise 30th birthday party for one of Alyssa's co-workers. Saturday morning was a 1st birthday party for Leah's little boy Will. That evening we took Cade out to eat with us, which is always an adventure. He was in a great mood and we enjoyed our food at Dicky's BBQ. Before those pictures, I just had to share one more snow picture because we are still in awe of the Brazos County snowstorm. Apparently this is the most snow this area has seen since the 1970s. The picture below is of our house at about 4:00 pm on Wednesday. When Chance came home from work that night, the neighbor boys greeted him and Nathan with a pelting of snowballs! Our yard and roof were still covered in snow until Thursday afternoon. Today we went to the Living Nativity scene at our church and it was over 70 degrees outside. Texas!



Cade having fun in his high chair at Dicky's

SNOW??

We woke up this morning to some very strange white stuff on the ground! It is so exciting that Cade has already experienced snow in his little life... the next time he sees it in Texas, he will probably be a teenager!



The snow did NOT stop Holly from wanting to play frisbie!

St. Nick

Germans celebrate St. Nick Day on December 6. St. Nick fills your stockings with candy and toys if you are good, and rocks and coal if you are not. He must be pretty generous, because my brother and I always received candy and toys! St. Nick visited Cade for the first time this year and brought him a rattle and some Puffs. The Puffs were his favorite!

Playdate with Natalie

We had playdate with Natalie (and Kelsey) on Wednesday. Natalie is crawling and pulling up already, so I told her to teach Cade some tricks! Kelsey had a great idea to make ornaments with the kids' handprints. Cade's looks somewhat like a baseball glove. We had lots of fun!

Santa's Wonderland

We had a fun visit to Santa's Wonderland last week with Alyssa's parents and her cousin Amanda. Cade met Santa for the first time and was fascinated with him! We were really afraid that he would pull Santa's beard, but thankfully he did not. It looks like Cade is sharing a very long list with Santa!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year! We are so blessed with a happy, healthy boy, and wonderful family and friends. Cade tasted his first turkey at Thanksgiving this year and seemed to like it!



Cade also had fun playing with Zoe and Xavier at Nana and Papa's house.

Hornets Football

The Hornets ended their 2008 season with a great performance, but a loss, against West Orange Stark. We were very proud of them for making the playoffs! The game was very chilly, but Cade was quite a trooper, as always!



I bought Cade this silly hat for the game. He wasn't thrilled with it at the game, but enjoyed playing with it the next day.

7 months old

Sunday, November 23 was Cade's 7 month birthday! I wanted to take a picture with our scarecrow, but the scarecrow had other plans.

It's a Beautiful Morning

It is actually humid and dreary outside, but it is still a beautiful morning because.... Cade slept all night last night!!! If you've talked to Chance or me in the last few months, you know that Cade kind of struggles with sleeping (understatement). He has taken wonderful naps for the babysitters this week, and slept from 7:30 pm - 6:20 am last night. What a big boy! I've been totally neglecting the blog for a few weeks, so please forgive me :) Pictures from Chance's last football game, Thanksgiving, and Cade's Santa visit will be posted soon!

Yogurt is not a finger food...

... unless you're 6 months old!
Cade turned his lunch into quite an adventure last Friday. By the end of the meal, Cade, Mommy, Holly, and the floor were all covered in yogurt. Believe it or not, he does love yogurt and actually ate quite a bit!

It has been interesting to talk to my friends about kids' love of yogurt. Apparently the messiness continues well into toddler years! What fun :)

Hornets Make the Playoffs!

Chance's team beat Cameron, so they are on to the playoffs. This win also earned them cookies, so I had a busy weekend baking!
Xavier also joined us for the game, which was lots of fun. Here are Nana, Papa, Cade, and Xavier during the first quarter of the game.


Here's the same lively group during the 4th quarter



Cade woke up in time to congratulate Daddy on his big win!

Kleine Opa

Alyssa and Cade went to Wurstfest in New Braunfels this weekend with her parents (Oma and Opa). For those of you who have never been, Wurstfest is an annual 10-day salute to sausage. It is really an excuse for Germans to get together and eat sausage (and everything else you can put on a stick), drink beer, and dance. I hadn't been since high school, so it was great to go again! Oma made Cade some suspenders and a hat for his first lederhosen. He was so cute that a bunch of strangers even took his picture! The title of this blog means "little Opa".



Cade sitting on the bar after he put his hand in my beer!



Listening to German music with Opa



After Wurstfest, we trick-or-treated to Great Oma's house. Her neighbors really go all out with Halloween decorations! Cade was quite sleepy at this point.

The Hornets won again this weekend! Next Friday they will face off against Cameron for a playoff spot. Wish us luck!

Happy Halloween!

Since Cade is too little to protest, he wore his puppy costume not once, not twice, but three times this Halloween season!

We trick-or-treated to Nana and Papa's house and Cade got to see Holly while she was on "vacation". Poor Holly has been feeling a little neglected these days, so she spent a few days with Chance's parents to get some love.

Cade also dressed up in his costume when we visited Oma and Opa in New Braunfels this weekend. He loved the candle in the jack-o-lantern.

And... we went to a fall festival at Kelsey and Ra'Gene's church last weekend. Cade's friend Natalie is the cute little piggy. Aren't they adorable?

6 Months Old!

Thursday, October 23 was Cade's 6 month birthday! It is hard to believe that he has been part of our lives for half of a year! The day before his birthday, Cade and I had a little photo shoot in his room. He showed off his newest trick... standing!! He also likes playing on his alphabet tiles with his blocks. Cade was a very brave boy with his immunizations and weighed 17 lbs, 2 oz at his appointment.

Our weekend was fun and busy - we went to Chance's game on Friday night, Alyssa's family had lunch for Oma/Great Oma's birthday on Saturday, Nana and Papa babysat Cade during Alyssa's Southern Living party, and Cade and Alyssa went to a Halloween festival with Kelsey and Natalie on Sunday. Stay tuned for pictures of our boy in his puppy costume!

Cade LOVES to look at the ceiling fan!

Cade Loves...

Reading (shortly followed by ripping out all of the pages)



Trying to turn on the TV



His new Jumperoo (thanks again, Hull family!)



Trying to feed himself green beans



Cade is at such a fun age where he seems to always be trying new things! He is our happy boy and we are shamelessly proud of him :)

Our Little Pumpkin

Around this time last year, we sent out an email announcing our pregnancy by saying that we were having a little pumpkin. Well, one year later, here we are, taking him to the pumpkin patch! Time flies! Cade wasn't too sure about everything, especially after his very short nap that afternoon, but Alyssa sure had fun dressing him up and taking pictures!



Daddy, can I please eat this hay?

Young Love?

Cade and Natalie (Bumbo Buddies) had a fun trip to the park on Saturday. Notice Cade's arm around Natalie and her hand on his leg! Kelsey and I had quite a crack up at them. They enjoyed chewing on each other's toys and were remarkably well behaved when we went out to lunch. Kelsey and I love our meetings... new mom therapy!