Cozi

So I came across this website on the Growing Up Mom blog. It looked pretty interesting so I thought that I would give it a try. It is a free family organizer. It can help you manage and coordinate schedules (color coded!), organize grocery lists, create reminders, store recipes, store pictures, etc. So I had Matthew put in his schedule and I put Cayden and my schedule in and now if I need to know what we have for each day I can just look on the website. I think it is pretty cool because I like to be organized and even though I am not very busy it is just the thought of being organized that I like :)!! Here is the website if you want to check it out: www.cozi.com

P.S. Our air conditioner broke and it is in the 90s so please pray they can send someone before the weekend to fix it!! It has been getting up to 85 or more in here the past few days, not so good for a little baby trying to sleep :)!!

Time to Represent

While we had to represent both the Seattle Mariners (even though they had a horrible season) and the Iowa Hawkeyes. Also I decided it was time to change the look of our blog and add a family picture :)!! I need to figure out how to enlarge it still so you can see it! One last bit of information, we added more pictures to our smugmug if you want to take a look at those. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Busy Busy Busy

So it has been awhile since I have written. Sometimes it is hard for me to get motivated to write since I always want to post so many pictures and that can be a little time consuming. I don't know what it is but maybe our Internet connection is slow??? Hmmmm. So last weekend was a packed weekend. We hung out with some friends on Friday and just had a low key night playing games and talking. Then on Saturday Matthew's cousin and husband were visiting from AZ and we got to meet their 3 week old baby Riley Robert. He was soooo tiny (he was currently 6 pounds when we saw him, Cayden was never that small so it was crazy to hold such a little baby). We decided to take them to the Griffith Observatory and it was pretty cool. It was neat to walk around and "weigh" yourself on other planets. Let's just say that I liked what I weighed on some planets more than others.

From there we went down to Hollywood and walked around where the "stars" were (on the ground). And no Katie unfortunately we did not get bombarded by the stars while we were down there :)! I guess that we were missing Kyle and Schur for that to happen :). Sorry for everyone who has never heard the story but let's just say that a few years ago Matthew and two of his friends were hanging out down in Hollywood and thought that they were bombarded by stars . . . ask me about it sometime it was pretty comical.

So we had a very busy day and even had time to take a few "cousin" pictures at the end. It was tough to keep both babies posed long enough especially our energetic little boy but we got a few good shots.

This past week was filled with trips to Gymboree with Cayden, hanging out with some friends, and trying out another mom's group. I decided that I was not going to continue to go to MOPS at my church because it is pretty far away and I really wanted to connect with moms in my area. So my friend Janna knew of a moms program at her church that she said I should try out (GUM-"Growing Up Moms") and so I went on Thursday and really enjoyed it! So we will see how that goes.

Matthew's week went well. He is really enjoying his internship. He is doing therapy with a number of clients and really feels like this is what he is supposed to be doing!!! It is so neat to see how God showed him the path he needed to take. It is so true that our ways our not always God's ways but His ways are always the best ways!! This is something I still continue to learn even when times get tough. So this weekend has been a little more relaxed which Matthew needed. We did manage to go to our first APU football game with Janna and Troy and then had a good time just hanging out with them. Tonight we start Bible Study again and Cayden will be babysat by good old Uncle Brett. So it will be a welcome break for me!!

8 Months and Full of Energy!!

Look closely, you can see my two bottom teeth!

Crawling away from Mommy

I like to sleep in crazy positions and then wake up with crazy hair!

Look at all the messes I can make! I just wanted my peach puffs!
How can you say "no" to this face?

Cayden is now 8 months and what a complete joy he is in our lives! He is growing quickly and is so full of energy I can barely keep up with him!! He is consistently trying to stand more on his own and occasionally takes a couple of steps. It could be any day now before he is walking. I enrolled him in Gymboree play gym so that we have a place to go to release some of his energy and so he doesn't go stir crazy. It is one class a week with his age level and then we can attend the open gyms each afternoon if we can get over there. So far he seems to love interacting with the other kids and we still have to work on getting him to "sit still" during circle time :)! We start MOPS tomorrow so we will see how that goes. We are getting a little busy between his nap times which makes the days go more quickly! We keep praising God for good health and strength for Cayden even when we are so exhausted at the end of the day!

Women of Faith

This past weekend I (Melissa) had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Women of Faith conference in Anaheim. I went with my friend Tara Schuring and we had a great time hanging out and listening to all of the great conference speakers. Some of the speakers included Natalie Grant, Nicole C. Mullen, Sandi Patty, Patsy Clairmont, Luci Swindoll, etc. They were absolutely hilarious to listen too and all shared some of their lives which was neat to hear. It was so nice to get away and be an adult for a weekend. Granted on our breaks our husbands came and picked us up so I could feed Cayden still but overall I was on my "own" for a day and a half. Our husbands were amazing though as they took care of Cayden all day and ran us back and forth from the conference. They got us a hotel room so we could stay close to the conference center so it made it for a very fun weekend! This is definitely something I would recommend if it comes to a city near you! Now it is back to another busy week as we begin Gymboree and MOPS. We are looking forward to a few more scheduled things in our weeks and for me meeting other moms! Matthew on the other hand will be back to his CRAZY schedule. The other day Matthew told me, "I only have two years left and I will be done for good!" As exciting as this is, it sometimes seems like a long time left but God continues to be faithful! Hope everyone has a great week!

New Pictures

I just wanted everyone to know that we posted the new pictures from our vacation on smugmug. So if you have a few minutes, check them out! Click on the link on the left hand side that says "Our Smugmug Pictures". Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

Visit from Uncle Shaun

This past weekend (I know that was almost a week ago) we had my brother Shaun come down from Seattle to visit us. He and my younger brother Brett drove down from Seattle so that Brett can have his car here at college. Shaun was able to stay an extra couple of days to hang out. That is pretty much all we did was hang out and help Brett move into his new place. We are glad Brett joined us back down here in Azusa! Cayden however, loved going swimming with Uncle Shaun. Matthew and I tend to let everyone else take Cayden swimming and we stand outside the pool and take pictures :)! It is way easier that way!! Shaun left again Tuesday and now it is just the three of us. Matthew is in full swing of work, school, and his internship. He is SUPER busy and has been gone the past three days the entire day . . . from 8-8 or later. This leaves for some very long days for me but I am trying to stay busy and keep Cayden occupied!

To Seattle, Port Ludlow, Iowa, and back to Seattle

Where do I even begin? The past 3 weeks have gone crazy fast and have been filled with lots of family and friends. After our miserable plane situation, we made it to Seattle and started off visiting with family and friends.

Cayden in the airport trying to get some sleep before our flight got cancelled.

We started out at Uncle Shaun and Aunt Courtney's house where Cayden climbed his first flight of stairs and was pumped about it.

The first few days we hung out at my parent's house, went to the Locks with the Fousts, out for lunch with a few different friends, and went to the park. Cayden enjoyed the swing a lot better than his first time and enjoyed going down the slide with mommy.

On Sunday we took off with my entire family to Port Ludlow. This is just a short ferry ride over to the peninsula from Edmonds, WA. We stayed in a awesome house with an awesome view. This house included big screen televisions, a hot tub over looking the water, and let's not forget the sauna. Let's just say that the boys decided to be "men" and stick it out til it was I think 150 degrees before they all almost passed out. That was the end of the sauna after that. We spent four days there relaxing, playing games, golfing (my first time), kayaking, and playing the Wii. It was a great time. While we were there, Cayden got his first tooth! Not very much fun while he was teething but I am glad it finally came through. Not anywhere close to being done with this fun teething stuff.
Wednesday night Evan Michael Foust was born to Luke and Sabrina so on Thursday before we took off for Iowa we went to the hospital to visit. We then headed out for the weekend to see Matthew's Vermeer side of the family. We, of course had bad luck with the planes and ended up being rerouted and getting there much later than planned. It was a good few days of hanging out with Matthew's relatives, some of whom we haven't seen for a long time. Some of them had never met Cayden so that was good too. Derek and Lindsey were willing to house us for a few days as Matthew's parents had his Aunts staying with them. This trip the girls dominated in Rook (go us Lindsey!) to bring back the running score of girls: 3 and boys: 5. We will catch them!

Evan Michael Foust

We came back to Seattle on Sunday and enjoyed hanging out with my family the next few days and getting our family picture. This included one more round of the hat game where the girls only lost by one :(. It was so close! We also made one more stop to see the Foust family.

Matthew left on Tuesday morning to head back to work and his internship. I guess his clients needed him but we missed him all the same. The next four days I spent seeing a lot of my high school friends and visiting people I haven't seen for awhile. It was so nice to be able to catch up with everyone. It made me realize how much I miss everyone over there. During this time Cayden got his second tooth on the bottom middle, tried a teething biscuit, and oh yeah took three steps! Crazy but Cayden has been starting to stand on his own a lot more and I guess he decided that after playing with his friend Alyssa that he wanted to walk. He wants to keep up with her so he secretly practices his skills so that when he sees her next he can show her. Too bad she will always be a few steps ahead of him. Sorry Cayden!

Cayden's first kiss from a girl

Saturday Cayden and I flew home and thank the Lord we had no complications on this flight (maybe I will be able to fly again . . . we will see though!). We have been so blessed with such awesome family and friends. What a great time we shared with each and every one of you! We miss you all!!