Uncle Chris and Aunt Jessi

More excitement from last week... Uncle Chris and Aunt Jessi came to visit us! Chris is home on leave from the Army and they stopped through College Station during their trek across Texas. Cade had a great time playing with them, and it was so great to get to hang out.

They brought Cade a new "pow pow". We think Uncle Chris had more fun with it than Cade :)



Yes, Cade is holding part of an old mobile in the picture above. We promise we do give him toys to play with! But for the past few days, he has really enjoyed carrying that thing around.

Aunt Jessi did a little dancin' with Cade in the living room.



Here we are saying bye to Chris and Jessi at their truck. We were very sad to see them go, but so thankful that we got to spend some time with them. Can't wait till we can do it again!

Last Week's Snow

Yes, this is old news by now, but College Station had a little snowstorm last Tuesday! When it first started, the snowflakes were so big and beautiful... I have never seen anything like it! My co-workers and I played outside like little kids, and I let my students out of their classes early because no one was paying attention to me. Chance got out of school early too, so he and I picked Cade up together. We hoped for a fun family afternoon in the snow, but Cade had other plans. This was his reaction to the snow:



He said, "No, no, no!" This Texas boy was definitely not a fan of the 2nd snowfall he's seen. However, the next morning, when we had about 2 patches of snow left in our yard, he said, "Mama make a snowman?" Maybe we'll try again next year!

After Dinner Entertainment

Every night after dinner, Cade is just full of energy and runs like crazy around the house! Tonight he danced to the music from his little green car, and here he is in action:



Mama: What are you doing, Cade?
Cade: Dancing! And running! Daddy dancing too!
Since I am such a good wife, I didn't video Chance dancing, but I can tell you that it was spectacular!

See Spot Run

On Saturday morning, we went to the Vet School's fun run at Wolf Pen Creek. Dogs are required, and it was so much fun seeing all of them!

Here we are at check-in.



While we waited for the race to start, we went to the playground. There were actually more dogs than kids playing there!



Cade started the walk in the stroller, and we were moving at a pretty good pace. Let's face it... we weren't there to win, or even run, but we were moving right along.





Once Cade had enough of the stroller, he spent some time on our shoulders.



Then that got old, and he started running!



To the finish line!

Aggie Softball

Our fun family weekend kicked off on Friday night with a trip to the Aggie softball game. I was chosen by one of my students as the Guest Coach for the game, and Cade got to join me on the field at the beginning of the game. Thankfully, that was the end of my "duties" for the game, and no actual coaching or ball skills were involved :) The Aggies BTHO Oregon State, and continued the weekend with 3 more wins!



Yeah Aggies! Cade kept fans around us pretty entertained.



We picked up a Happy Meal on the way to the game for Cade and he thoroughly enjoyed his fries.



It was a fun time, and we will probably try a baseball game with Cade soon.

Happy Valentine's Day!

What a fun Valentine's weekend! Caldwell High School celebrated the day by hosting a powerlifting meet on Saturday (thanks, guys)! But, it was a relatively short meet, the kids all did well, and Chance was home by 3:30, so everything was good. Zoe and Xavier came to visit from Dallas, so Cade played with them at Nana and Papa's house while I came home to clean (what a romantic start to our weekend). The kids had lots of fun running in the halls, jumping on the trampoline, and bouncing on the bed. You would think they would be tired after all of that!

Then, Oma and Opa came to visit on Saturday afternoon. They played playdoh with Cade and we even got to go outside for a little bit while the sun was out. Then after Cade went to bed, Chance and I got to go out to dinner! It was such a treat and we had a great time.

Sunday morning we all went to church. Oma took this picture while we were all looking nice, and Cade even graced us with a smile for the camera! What a special day! :) I am one lucky girl to have the most wonderful husband in the world and the sweetest little boy to spend Valentine's Day with.



Chance got to spend some extra time with the kids, Nana, and Papa today since he was off for President's Day. He also cooked our meals for the week, did some shopping, and took both pets to the vet. What a vacation day!

Fun with Friends

We love getting together with our friends! Cade and Natalie have a playdate every Thursday, and we get together with Luke and Will once a month. It is cute to see how the kids get all excited to see each other at first, and then pretty much do their own thing.

Cade and Natalie love to give each other High 5!



A highlight of playdates is always snack time!





Sometimes our friends are so funny!



Luke loves playing with his brother Jake's toys!

Big Boy Bed

Yes, I am going a little crazy with the blog postings tonight :)

We made the big step to a big boy bed for Cade yesterday! If you've talked to Chance or I recently, you know that we've been having LOTS of trouble with Cade sleeping. We thought it was due to his sinus infection, but even after he started feeling better, he has been waking up really early in the mornings. Cade's normal wake up time is about 5:30 (very early, but apparently he is just an early bird because he wakes up happy). The past few weeks, though, Cade has been waking up between 3 and 4 am a few times a week, and never going back to sleep. This makes for a very tired and grouchy family! This weekend at Sheri and Bob's house, Cade took an interest in Xavier's toddler bed. We asked him if he wanted a bed like Xavier's, and he said yes. So, Chance took out the conversion kit and... we now have a toddler bed! Cade's room looks much bigger and he loves climbing in and out of the bed. And, we are happy to report that he went to bed very easily the past two nights and slept "all the way" until 5:20 this morning. This is progress!

Night night



Good morning!



Update: Cade woke up at 4:20 am Tuesday morning :( We just aren't sure what to do! At least he is in a good mood.

Yoga

Either Cade has watched me do yoga way too often, or the poses just come naturally to kids, because he and Xavier had an impromptu yoga session at the birthday party on Saturday! I was watching them dance around to the music, and all of a sudden they did a couple of yoga poses! It was too funny!

Downward Dog



Upward Dog



Ahhh.... Child's Pose

Zoe Turns 5

Our "little" niece Zoe turned 5 this weekend! We love this girl so much, and can't believe she has been part of our lives for 5 years already. We've watched her grow through lots of stages, from Baby Einstein, to pretty-pretty princess, High School Musical, and now onto Scooby Doo! She had a Scooby Doo mystery party at a kids' gymnastics place in Dallas and Cade and I got to go. I've never seen a gymnastics place like this before... it was amazing! There were so many fun things for the kids to do and the coaches were the most friendly and energetic people I've ever seen. Cade and Xavier had fun playing in the toddler area while the bigger kids jumped on trampolines, danced around, and hung on the rope swing.





Everybody enjoyed some cake





Chance surprised Zoe by driving to Dallas after his powerlifting meet on Saturday night, and we all got to spend the night together. We also got to meet Zoe's new kitten, Tuxedo. He is really a sweet and playful kitty, and this is the funniest picture of him!



We love you, Zoe!

Family Fun

We've had lots of fun visiting with family the past few weekends. A couple of weeks ago, Cade and I made a quick trip to New Braunfels to visit Oma and Opa. The highlight of the trip was a trip to the Children's Museum. That place is amazing, and Cade really had a good time exploring everything.

He rode the horsey



And wanted Oma and Opa to sit in the tent with him!



The next weekend, Nana and Papa had all 3 grandkids at their house while Chance and I had a garage sale. Xavier and Cade especially had fun playing together!



Then we met more family in Hempstead for "White Haired" Nana's birthday. It had been a really long time since the whole Willis family was together, and it was great to see everybody! After lunch we went to the park so the kids could play. Here's Nana with all of her grandkids and great-grandkids.