Paradise Pond

Last week Caiden and I discovered Paradise Pond. I'd actually heard about it awhile back and just had never gone. I was really impressed with this play area at First Baptist of Grapevine.  We were lucky that our friends Angie and Addison were up for an impromptu play.Caiden just loved it.

Of course, there's a playscape to climb in.

But there's also other play areas around it- a dress-up station, trucks, dollhouses, dinosaurs, trains, hospital, you name it.

There's even a bounce house. Caiden wasn't too sure about it though.

But, best of all.... there was a "roller coaster". Caiden just couldn't get enough. He'd ride down and push the car right back up. I had to introduce the idea of "turn-taking" so other kids could play on it too.

My little helper

Caiden is such a big help around the house. He helps me dust, mop, do laundry, unload the dishwasher and groceries. Hopefully we're not breaking any child labor laws :)

16 weeks

How far along? 16 weeks, 3 days

How big is the baby? The size of an avocado

Are you in maternity clothes? Wearing maternity pants, just got a pair of maternity skinny jeans!

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep? Sleeping fine, right now

Miss anything? Blue cheese & Feta cheese

Feeling movement of the baby? Not quite yet, maybe once?

Food cravings? Tator tots, salty foods

Gender of the baby? Too early to know, should be able to tell in Feb if baby cooperates

Mood? Fantastic, now that my restrictions have been removed!

(PS. I stole this interview idea from a blog I follow A South African in New York . I thought it would be a great way to remember some of the details of this pregnancy.)

Growing by 2 feet

After much anticipation, we are so excited to finally make this announcement!

Bye Bye Bradford

I feel kinda bad, but we are tree killers!  I love trees. I really do. And I would love to have a large yard full of big trees, but that's not really how it works in the middle of the metroplex. When the builders built out house they put a beautiful Bradford Pear tree in the front yard. While it looked nice at the time, there are 2 problems. First, they planted it about 10 feet from the house. Secondly, Bradford Pears get really big (so I'm told). We started to get concerned about the tree becoming too large for the area and potentially causing foundation damage to the house. Also, since it is right outside Caiden's bedroom, we were concerned about a big storm sending it through his window. So... we had it removed. 

I dug out an old picture of when we bought the house.  You can see it was a nice size.

And here it is 4 years later. It looks even bigger when it has leaves on it.

Here's a view from Caiden's window: 

Caiden monitored the chopping. You know, to make sure they did it right.

And now.... we can spy on our neighbors even more easily :)

May our dear Bradford rest in peace.

Way better than Mr. Rogers

As you may recall from prior posts, we are good friends with our neighbors across the street (the R family). They are such a sweet family with a 6year old princess, a 4 year old sword wielding knight, and a 15 month old curious explorer! It seems like we play with them all the time but I never take pictures. (those everyday moments that get taken for granted). so anyway, the little guy came over to play yesterday and I was able to snap some pics.
Also J is such a kind soul that she watched Caiden last weekend so Eric and I could go out together! I didn't even ask her to, she just called me up and offered! We are so grateful to have them in our lives!

Highlights of 2011 (July-Dec)

In July, We had some friends over for the 4th, celebrated both Grandma's (Vickie) and Nana's (my mom) birthdays, and Caiden and I took a day trip to Houston to see our friends Melanie and Anderson.

August-
We made a trip up to Iowa and had some fun playdates with friends.

September-
We started off the month spending Labor Day at TableRock Lake with my family. During the rest of the month we swam, went to parks and the zoo took Caiden to his first Rangers game, and played with friends.

October-

Lots of Fall fun, a visit to the State Fair of Texas, trick-or-treating at Eric's office, and around the neighborhood

November & December-

These months were pretty low key. Had a nice Thanksgiving dinner courtesy of Eric and Christmas in Texas.



2nd Annual NYE Zoo Day

New Year Eve day was 73 degrees and beautifully sunny here in Dallas, so we decided to go to the zoo. We actually went last year on New Years Eve also, and didn't know we were starting a tradition.

Here's a pic from last year so you can compare:

And some pics from this year.

We asked Caiden what his favorites were at the zoo and he said the "roar" and "ee-ee-oo-oo".