Yup

Here are a few pictures from camping at Willow Flats. Jeremy brings his hammock every year, and all of the kids love it!
Aaron, surprisingly, did really well. He slept through the night, both nights we were up there. And he was pretty good during the day.
Brad, Kaden, and Aaron on the hammock.
What a little helper! He thought the broom was the coolest thing while we were there. I don't think he managed to get the ground very clean though...
Three cousins: Ryan, Kaden, and Piper; they are all the same age. Kaden ate so many pretzels he wouldn't eat lunch.

Now, to refer to the title of this post. I noticed about a month ago that Kaden always says either, "Yup" or "Nope" whenever he's asked a yes or no question. He really emphasizes the "p" sound on each, and I pointed this out to Brad. Since then we've been wondering where on earth he picked this up. Honestly, who says "yup?" The other day I was at the grocery store and the cashier asked if I found everything alright. I responded with a resonating, "Yup." I was shocked. Kaden got this from me, and here I've been joking around about him saying. Since I realized this at the grocery store I've noticed that I always say "yup" or "nope." Who would've thought? Isn't it interesting what your children can teach you...

Happy 24th of July

Isn't this great! It's from a few days ago, but I just love how he's stroking his second chin! He loves that bumbo seat; yes I know it's purple. The joy of hand me downs.
Kaden absolutely loves stickers. I guess because these were animal stickers he figured they'd fit right in with the movie that he was watching, "Madagascar." What a funny kid; luckily they were pretty old stickers so taking them off wasn't too bad.
Aaron's diaper exploded yesterday, so I cleaned him off and put a new diaper on him. Then I went into the bathroom to clean his outfit. I left him on the blanket, on his back. When I walked back into the room this is how I found him. I'm guessing he did it on his own because Kaden denies having any part of it and Aaron's been rolling up onto his side a lot lately. I don't know if I'm ready for this yet...
Brad was having fun with the boys, and found some sunglasses in Kaden's room. Aaron loves when people talk to him; he gets so excited.
What a good little helper I have. Whenever Aaron starts crying, Kaden goes and finds his pacifier. Sometimes he'll give it to him, sometimes he hands it to me, and other times he just likes to play with it. This was one of the times he was feeling generous. All right, now I need to preface this next picture. My brother invited us to come watch some fireworks with his family last night, out in our backyard. Kaden loved watching fireworks on the fourth, so we figured we'd go out. They just had a few leftover from the fourth. Keldon lit a couple sparklers, and handed one to Kaden. I was helping him hold it since he was sitting on my lap. These sparklers are the "safer for children" ones that only burn down like an inch before they go out. Kaden's went out and he was trying to figure out why, so he grabbed onto the end. I took him over to the pool we have set up in our backyard and soaked it in there. By then it was already blistered. Brad went inside and got a bowl of ice water so we could sit down and finish watching the fireworks. When that was over we went inside and filled up the kitchen sink with cold water and let him play with some toys in it. Then he watched a movie in our bedroom last night, and just slept in our bed. There are three blisters on his index finger, and one on his middle finger.

It could've been worse. But he was pretty miserable. He wanted a Shrek bandaid because Keldon and Shelley offered one. We didn't want to cover up the blisters, so I put it on his thumb to make him feel better. What a day!

Miracles do Happen

There is so much to write about, and so little time. Mostly I just wanted to say "YAY!!!" Brad is finally going to be able to start his X-ray Technician program this fall. It was quite lucky how it all came about. I checked Brad's e-mail at 10:45pm on Monday, and there was a message there from a person at SLCC. I opened it up and read the first couple of lines. I got so stinkin' excited that I ran into our bedroom, yelled Brad's name a few times; he didn't wake up. So I went to the bed and shook him until he finally got up. He was totally incoherent, but eventually stumbled out of bed muttering something like, "Chels... what?" I just told him this was something he wanted to see, and told him to go look at the computer. We sat there together while he read the first part, and he got super excited too. Then we came to the part that said, "Please respond by July 21st at 8:00am or your spot will be given to the next person on the list." We were too late. I just cried and cried. We had been waiting so long, and just because Brad doesn't check his e-mail everyday, he had missed his chance. We were both just sick, but Brad e-mailed the person back to see if it was at all possible for him to still start. We checked his e-mail constantly the next morning, but heard nothing. In the e-mail he had received it said something about an orientation meeting on Tuesday morning at 9:00. It also said that if you couldn't be at the orientation then you couldn't be in the program that semester. Brad decided that he was just going to drive up there and find someone to talk to in person about what was going on. In the admissions office for his program, there was absolutely no one. So, Brad went to the director of the program, that was also doing the orientation meeting. He told him what was going on and the director told him that if someone didn't show up, he was in. Well, two people didn't show, so Brad got in! What a blessing! He starts classes Aug. 20, and clinicals Aug. 21. We are both very excited. It'll be interesting to see how things work out. But, at least I now know why I wasn't supposed to be going to school this fall. It would've been awfully difficult for both of us to drive our only car in opposite directions at the same time of the day, every day.

I just wanted to post this, I'll put up some pictures soon. There are a lot: the Fourth of July, camping at Willow Flats, and swimming in our "pool." Aaron's just super fussy right now because of his teeth, so hopefully in the next day or two.

I am a Child of God

Brad was putting Kaden to bed one night this week, and Kaden said, "Daddy, I wanna sing you." So Brad asked what song he wanted to sing, and Kaden answered, "Tog." That's what he calls "I am a Child of God." So, they sing it together, Brad would say the words first and Kaden would repeat them. After I finished feeding Aaron, Kaden was calling for me so I went back there. He told me, "Mommy, I wanna sing you." I sat down and he started to sing. He made it through the first line, then got all shy and hid his head. I told him I would sing with him, but every time I tried he got mad at me. So he sang to me. It was so cute. We sing that song to him every night before he goes to bed, and he's actually picked up on the words pretty well. Then last night Brad went to the store to get diapers, so I was putting Kaden to bed. I sang to him, then Aaron started crying, so I told Kaden if he wanted more songs he'd have to sing them himself so I could go feed his brother. As I started to walk down the hall I heard, "I am a child tog..." How precious, I just hope that he understands it, especially as he gets older. Here are a few pictures from this past week. Enjoy!

I was playing with Kaden on Monday, and we were having grapes for a snack. He put two in his mouth and slid them into his cheeks so he looked like a chipmunk. We had a lot of fun that day, we even played hide and go seek. That was entertaining.

Today he was playing with blocks. Notice the line of them in front of the tower he's building. It cracks me up; he always lines them up like that, usually by color.

Here's a better picture, showing his face.

This is Aaron right before church on Sunday. I thought his little outfit was cute, so I had to take a picture. It's actually from when Kaden was a baby. Don't tell Brad, this is why we were late leaving to get to church--I just had to take a picture!

Here is a classic picture of Kaden taunting his brother. He loves to try to get in the carseat with Aaron. It drives me crazy. He is a good older brother though, and loves Aaron so much!