Merry Christmas!

What an awesome Christmas we had!  We had a full house as my (Melissa) whole family was here as well as my Grandpa and Grandma Van Essen.  This made for a lot of fun and excitement and many people for Cayden to entertain.  I am pretty sure he likes to be the center of attention!  On Christmas Eve (after being snowed in for almost a week!) we went to a Christmas Eve service at my parents church.  We came home for the traditional candlelight dinner with lasagna with our sparkling apple cider.  We then opened up our stockings and exchanged presents between the siblings.  Cayden did great but got a little bit tired at the end of the night. 

Here he is with his reindeer slippers . . . so cute and he even kept them on!!

Reading his new train book with Grandpa.
All the guys opened up nerf guns in their stockings.  They thought they were pretty cool and even had quite the war, it was crazy with all those "bullets" flying around.
The girls had to have a picture too!
Cayden getting ready for bed in his snowman pajamas!
The grand kids decided to get Grandpa and Grandma V.E. a game that had rules with it!  They often make up their own rules for games :)!!
Here is Cayden on Christmas Day in his relaxing Christmas outfit.  He wanted to play the game too!
I had to put this one in!
Cayden opening his Christmas presents!
He finally got his own laptop, we will see if it distracts him from ours (I kind of doubt it but it is worth a try!).
Yes!  His own cell phone, this child has all the technology!

His own little piano/xylophone, he loves it!
Maybe he was more interested in the paper . . .
or the boxes!
Here is Cayden hoping Great Grandpa can get the ball on the tee . . . it is a tough game though!
Cayden had so much fun and was so tired that he was pretty much letting me know it was his bedtime.  I think that his first Christmas was a success! 
I hope that everyone had a great Christmas!  We are blessed to be able to celebrate the real reason for Christmas.  We are thankful that God sent his son so many years ago just for us!  Merry Christmas everyone and have a safe and happy new year!

P.S. Our Christmas miracle was waking up at 8:30 am on Christmas and realizing Cayden slept the whole night through (12 1/2 hours!).  This was the best present we could have received!  He then slept the next night through as well!  Hopefully this will be a new trend!

Happy 27th Birthday Matthew!

Happy Birthday (yesterday) Matthew!  Cayden and I are so blessed to have you in our lives!  You are such a wonderful husband and father!  We pray that you have a great year and that God blesses you beyond measures!  We love you!

Cayden "made" a card for his daddy!
We were able to celebrate Matthew's birthday last night with my entire family including an ice cream cake!

He got the iron gym from my parents along with some drill bits.  He feels as though this was one "manly" birthday!  

First Snow for Cayden and the First Tier Snowman!

We flew into Seattle yesterday morning and to our surprise, it was a winter wonderland.  We did not have too many problems flying here and we even had a whole row to entertain Cayden with.  So it all went pretty smoothly.  We got to my parent's house and decided that we should take Cayden out experience his first snow.  He wasn't quite sure what to think about it but as soon as he adjusted to the cold, I think he enjoyed it!

Wasn't so steady on his feet but was a good sport!

Notice the socks on his hands, I guess you can tell we don't dress warmly very often.  Maybe we should get him some mittens!
His favorite part was walking in and out of the house over and over and over. 
Our first family picture in the snow!
So this as the real reason we were outside.  We made an awesome snowman and had a blast doing it!  We decided to put sunglasses on him so we could feel at home!
Wow!  This is the first tier snowman we made after it snowed some more!
So I guess we will get to have a white Christmas after all!  It is so nice to be snuggled up inside when it is snowing outside, enjoying good food, and hanging out with the family.  This was a good start to our much needed break from the "normal"!

Busy Busy Busy!

Wow! We have actually been super busy lately.  It must be that time of year with the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, Christmas gatherings, hanging out with friends one last time for a couple weeks, and of course for Matthew finishing up those last papers and tests.  So much to do and there never seems to be enough time to just sit and enjoy everything.  I guess our relaxing will come tomorrow when we travel to Seattle for the next couple of weeks.  It will be a good break from the "normal" and we will be able to catch up with lots of family and friends (not to mention the unlimited babysitting we will receive!). We have been able to get in the Christmas spirit over here as we had a weekend full of Christmas celebrations.  On Friday we opened our family of three Christmas presents.  Cayden was a pro at ripping the paper off those packages and to our surprise he was interested in the actual present!  This year he got bubbles, fake keys, and a drum set with other instruments.  He has really seemed to like the musical instruments so far so at least that is a plus!





After we opened presents we went to Griffith Park with our friends, Matt and Robyn.  There was a huge Christmas light display so it was fun to walk around there.  The lights weren't super great but it was definitely nice to get out and do something Christmasy.
Saturday night we went to the Schurring's house where they had a bunch of people over for a dinner party.  The food was awesome and it was nice to meet some of their friends.  Cayden especially liked the bunny as we was trying to get to it through the cage.  This child is definitely a tough one to keep your eye on, especially in a non baby proof house.  We finished the weekend with going to the Living Nativity at the Church of the Open Door on Sunday night.  This was pretty cool and really reminds you of the true meaning of Christmas.  It was a great Christmas weekend!  Praying everyone has a great Christmas and we will try to keep you updated while we are in Seattle!

 

P.S. Oh and if any of you are wondering how Cayden is eating, he is eating awesome!  It seems that the flu has helped him get his appetite back and then some.  Cayden has now eaten spaghetti, chicken, manicotti, vegetables, and chicken lasagna.  YEAH!!  Thanks for all those who have been praying out there, it has definitely helped and we pray this good eating continues.  I guess we need to get Cayden sick more often :)!  

11 Months Old!

Happy 11 month old day to our beautiful baby boy! I feel like I was just on here writing his 10 month post so this month has gone crazy fast. I guess that is what the holiday season does to you! Our precious Cayden is becoming so smart and despite being sick with the flu this past weekend he decided that he wanted to start signing "more", so cool! We were in shock so we tested him again and sure enough he continued to sign "more" and so far has kept it up! Along with that he now waves "bye bye" and has started to clap his hands. All of these milestones are so much fun to see and we are now ready to start teaching him more! We had a little bit of outside time at our park in our complex and Cayden now absolutely loves swinging! Here is a picture of my two favorite boys, it is hard to coordinate them smiling so I had to go with this one! I love you guys!
He is starting to look so grown up. Notice the long hair by his ear . . . maybe we should get a haircut. But isn't the surfer look "in" in California?

Enjoying his swing time! So much fun now that he likes to go to the park, it gives us more to do!

Our little drummer boy. He really does like to keep a beat so we made him a drum this week to distract him from being sick, he really was a trooper!

So we are now one month away from the big birthday . . . it is too hard to believe, our little baby is growing up. We love you so much Cayden!

P.S. On the sick front, I Melissa did end up getting the stomach flu on Sunday :( but Matthew didn't! Cayden and I are now almost all the way recuperated and we are so glad it is almost over . . . for now! Thanks for your prayers!

A Long 24 hours (warning: this post includes intense scenes of disgusting and possibly disturbing images, read at your own risk)

So about 24 hours ago I was feeding Cayden on the couch and he proceeded to throw up all over me, himself, and the couch. This wasn't just a little bit of spit up, it was the full on thing. I started scrambling with stripping Cayden down, throwing him in the bath and changing out of my nasty clothes. Let's just say that Cayden was screaming throughout this entire process as he did not understand what was going on. All he wanted was to be held. So I called Matthew who was working so diligently at the library and told him that he had to go rent a steam cleaner so we could clean our couch. That was the start of what was a very long day as we worked on steam cleaning all our furniture and all the carpets. What a job that is! So later that night we put Cayden down to bed and watched a movie. We were both so exhausted that we decided we needed to get to bed "on time" (11:00) so we were almost there when Cayden began screaming. We went in to his room and there was throw up everywhere. So we stripped him down, threw him in the bath, cleaned up everything, and got him back to sleep. We are just praying that we could sleep the rest of the night. But at 4:30 am he cried again so I got up with him. This time I thought he was hungry, so I fed him and just as he was finishing up, he threw up all over me and our bed. So once again we stripped Cayden down (thankfully we didn't have to bathe him as it was mostly on my clothes and bed), changed our bedding, I changed my clothes and we got back to bed. What a long night! Cayden slept til 9 and when he woke up, he had pooped out of his diaper so we went through the same process all over again. Fortunately, we had placed a towel on his bed sheets so we didn't have to change his sheets again! Poor guy has been through a lot and it has only been 24 hours. He is completely exhausted as I write this so he is now sleeping again. Hopefully this is the end of it I don't think I could have ever prepared myself for dealing with a baby who has the flu. There are just so many things that go wrong and he has no way of preparing us for them! Thankfully niether Matthew nor I have not gotten sick so far. We are praying that we don't as we have a lot going on this week! So if everyone could please keep us in your prayers, that would be very much appreciated!

P.S.-This is Matthew. Melissa failed to mention in the above post that last night we also went out for supper with Troy and Janna. Just before our food came, Cayden made "the face" which we have come to realize means his bowels are moving. Out of the goodness of my heart, I told Melissa I would take him to the bathroom to change him. I layed Cayden down on the changing table and as I was undoing his diaper I realized that the mess was not confined to the diaper, it was in fact, all the way up his back. Melissa has this pretty handy little diaper changing bag which contains a diaper and some wipes. This is what I brought with me. Unfortunately, the amount of Cayden's discharge far exceeded the number of wipes that were left in that little pack, so I pulled out my cell phone, thankful that I had brought it. I called Melissa (no answer), Troy (no answer), Janna (no answer), Troy again (still no answer). I coudn't leave Cayden in there and I didn't want to carry a half naked and dirty baby back through the restaurant. I had to strip Cayden down and wipe him up with toilet paper and wet paper towels. Remember I'm doing this in the men's bathroom so guys are constantly walking in and wondering what is going on. Finally, I guess Melissa decided it was taking just a bit too long (no sarcasm there on my part), so she sent Troy in to check on me. Fortunately, Melissa did have a change of clothes for Cayden in the diaper bag. Just a little story I thought might give you a little better "flavor" for what we have been dealing with.