Easter weekend

What a busy weekend we had with family! This is your warning that this will be a LONG post as Easter is a key holiday in our family. Easter is one of my favorite holidays cause it is all about Jesus and how he has risen! As the Pastor spoke this morning, I enjoyed his message being focused on LIFE, the LIVING, and what we are doing to make an impact and create CHANGE in ourselves/the world. What a powerful day today is for us Christians, I pray we never lose sight of what our Lord did for us.

One of my favorite things right now in life is watching Cade learn about God and his interpretation. Every night this week, we had to read his "Easter Story Book". Last Sunday, his Sunday school teachers (we love you Mrs. Jaime/Mr. Nick!) had the kids make huge palm leaves in class. Every night after we read the book, Cade would march around the room saying, "and then Jesus rides in on a donkey Mama, and then all the people shout Mama, and you know what they shout? You know what they shout Mama? They shout, 'HOSANNA'!" What a beautiful spirit he has!

We also have an awesome PRAISE that we found out about last night!! Uncle Christopher and Aunt Heather are EXPECTING!!!! We were so excited! The told us after we had colored Easter eggs. Cade began bringing us eggs with numbers on them...After a second, we realized what the numbers meant...10-13-12, the DUE DATE! We could not be happier for them during this special time, but also for us as we will have more Cousins!!

This morning, we went to Church with Nana/Papa and then went to Gamee/Grampee's for lunch, Easter egg hunt, and to see what the Easter Bunny brought. Gamee cooked a brisket dinner with broiled okra, sweet carrots, baked beans, cheese grits, and croissants. Shortly after lunch, we ran outside to find our baskets filled with surprises! Caelin received lots of snacks, bubbles, the movie "Bambi", books, bows, and so much more! Cade had a blast opening up his surprises also! Cade's was pretty much the entire table! I know, we have to get better about not having so many gifts...we blame it on Gamee/Grampee and Nana/Papa! Cade received books, puzzles, candy, snacks, bubbles, 2 movies "Toy Story 2"/"Lady and the Tramp", an airplane, dinosaurs, toy animals, and so much more. We had fun watching him open his mouth so we could hear the pop rocks candy sizzling and him playing with the eggs that had toys in them. After opening our surprises in our baskets, we had an Easter egg hunt for Cade and Uncle Christopher. Uncle Christopher loves the egg hunt the most! Cade has some good egg hunting skills and gave Uncle Christopher a run for his money! Some of the eggs even had coins in them...Whoo hoo! Caelin even got to search for some eggs with Daddy. Once that excitement was over we ate some bakery treats that Nana/Papa brought over and enjoyed visiting on the deck with the afternoon weather. What a beautiful Easter it was.

It was such an amazing week for us...Parent Committment, Days off, Easter, new babies on the way, and both sets of parents in town! Thank you Lord for LIVING life with us daily, family, friends, happiness, and health.

Parent Committment for Caelin

Wednesday night we had the honor of making a parent committment to raising our precious Caelin up in a God fearing home. We were surrounded by family and friends which made the night perfect! Both sets of Grandparents were there, as well as Nonnie/Poppie, Uncle Christopher/Aunt Heather, Aunt Laura "Lala", and cousin Stephen! After the service, we enjoyed cake and punch and were able to just hang out and be together. Charles and I have really been encouraged by the new direction our church has taken. Rather than a "Baby Dedication", CFBC has changed to a "Parent Committment Ceremony". This puts the focus back on the parents and guardians to not only have a Godly home, but be held accountable to teach your child how to live a Godly life.

Here we are, 9 months today!

Ok, I sit here totally balling because my little Princess is now 9 months old! I just don't know how I feel about this. I am happy, sad, proud, and crying all at the same time. This month has been my favorite thus far (I feel I might be saying that A LOT in the future too!) as her personality and interactive nature is coming out. BIGGEST milestone is her crawling! She started this 5 days ago and I have seen it everyday. Each day it is maybe a little farther, and she is getting a little faster too! You can tell she is proud of herself and loves that she can now be a little more independent and get something herself. She can also wave hello/bye, stick out her tongue, and nod her head back at you. She is such a character to watch! Her babbling is getting more frequent and longer in nature. I guess we will give it over to "dada" as her first word, but I am still holding out for "mama"! Her absolute FAVORITE person is her brother Cade. She will light up when she sees him, and he is the one person who can truly make her laugh till she looses her breath. Of course, when Cade is having a 2yr old moment, she can also give him the furrowed eyebrow look as if saying, "WHAT IN THE WORLD are you doing?" I personally laugh at those looks too. Caelin continues to LOVE her pacifier and is toothless as well. I hope we can start getting some teeth soon so our food options can widen...but we shall see. Her food intake is the same as last month, and she continues to sleep about 10-11 hours each night. She is such a happy baby and keeps us laughing at all her entertaining faces. Just recently she has learned that crying will get our attention if she needs something. Of course, since she really has never cried, we tend to be in panic mode to make her stop...thus we are learning to find the happy medium. She will also gravitate toward any toy that lights up or makes sounds. I love watching her little finger hit a switch or push a button as she is really starting to understand cause/effect. She is right at the 50% mark for height/weight, and wears 6-9 month clothing. At our 9mo check up with Dr. Kravitz we measured with the following stats: 18lbs 15oz (50%), 27.6in (48%), and head circumfrence was in the 75%. We are so very lucky to have such a fun and energetic baby. She is truly the most beautiful little girl in the world. We love you Caelin Roe!