Vegas, Baby - Will's 21st Birthday

The crazies in the van at Will's 21st. Pictured from lt - Jason, Sonya, Will, Jet, Malori, Mariah, Kimber. Not pictured - Tora, The 2 Mikes, Breezy, Teri, Donovan, Eric, Ryan.
"I love US and A"...

We have our first tooth!! During Will's 21st birthday trip in Las Vegas NV the weekend of Jan 18th, Kimber's first tooth finally broke through her little gum. And yes, Will is finally 21! Jason, Mariah, Jet, and Kimber all flew up for the day to Las Vegas on Saturday. As everyone knows, Vegas is just not a place for kids - I think people even scowl when they see them there. But, seeing how it was Will's one and only 21 yr birthday, we wanted to make a small showing to give him big, fat kisses.

We left on the 8am Saturday morning, arriving in Vegas around 9, and had breakfast with Breezy, Teri, and Sonya. After everyone else arrived, they accommodated Jet and Kimber by going to Circus Circus for a few hours. Jet played all the games, winning several stuffed animals and his Auntie Malori paid for him to ride on the hot-air balloon ferris wheel with Jason while Tora took pictures and Kimber slept on Teri's shoulder. Then, just as quickly as it started, it was time for us to head back to the airport and catch the 6 pm flight back home. Sunday, we all slept in as the rest of the crazy crew was still living it up in Vegas....baby.

2008 Off On The Right Start

Jet is officially potty-trained!! Yeah! When we were in El Paso, we were at the grocery store buying pull-up diapers (the potty-training kind). They were $14.99! It's amazing because we pay and we pay, and sometimes we really don't realize how much we're paying until we stop and really think about it....$14.99...a somewhat decent bottle of wine from Albertsons....$14.99...three pair of underwear from Victoria's Secret...$14.99....dinner for 4 anywhere in El Paso...Well, almost! Anyway - we said "This is it - that is the absolute last $$ we spend on pull-up diapers for that boy", (not to mention the really stinky crap that goes along w/ it that one of us would get the benefit of cleaning). A week and a half later, it's done. It only took two horrible accidents (one in Best Buy), and an extraordinary amount of candy and treats. Our kid is amped-up on sugar, but at least he's pooping in the toilet! He'll then be so proud of his feat that he has to show you, and runs out and sticks his butt straight up in the air for proper cleaning. We are so proud of him!

Kimber Elle just turned 7 months, and she's teething pretty heavily. It is neat to see her completely different personality and preferences - she's chill most of the time right now, and a total extrovert. She loves to be held, is an absolute snuggle-bug, and she smells like mama's milk as she's still nursing. She wants to always be in the same room that everyone else is in, even when she's dead tired. She's got amazingly soft skin, long fingers and eyelashes, and a light olive complexion with brown straight hair and blue eyes. We're all smitten.Isn't it amazing that we have two beautiful children that adore each other so much? As Kimber Elle came into our lives, we were all afraid of jealousy, acting-out, and Jet's overall change with the adjustment of a baby sister. He had us all to himself for 2 1/2 years, so we didn't know what to expect. To our amazement, he has been Kimber's biggest fan and care-giver thus far. Kimber's eyes light up when Jet comes around. She thinks of him as her non-stop 24 hour personal entertainment. He makes her laugh like nobody else can. We hope to see much more of the same in the years to come.

Year In Review 2007

New Year's Resolution: Take more pictures...

Christmas 2007

Since everyone in Utah seems to have a tradition of having a family blog, we thought we'd try it out. We think that it might be due to the large families in this region, and after having some familiarity w/ a large family ourselves, we thought that it might be a great way to keep everyone connected, and at the same time keep a running journal for our children of their develoment and progress that we, and they, can look back upon (thank you, Mike Harrison for the great advice)!

How awesome is it that our children have 5 sets of grandparents and 4 sets of great-granparents! What amazingly lucky children! The only problem is that many of them live in different cities and states...they also have 4 sets of great-grandparents. Between trying to see everyone and make sure that people have ample time with their grandchildren, we've pretty much wore ourselves out this year, but we are so lucky, and we know it.

This Christmas, we are so thankful for good friends and family. Mariah had time off from December 14- December 26th, so we traveled to DFW to spend time with Mariah's lifelong friend, Beth Belk and her husband Chis Jones to attend their annual Christmas party and viewing of the lights in Dallas TX. We spent several days there visiting with them and Gail and Gary Wicks along with their son Eric, Jason's lifelong friend who came down from Oklahoma for the holiday. It was also an opportunity for Jet and Grandma June to visit with each other, which he always enjoys. Jet stayed with June for the duration of our visit, and came back with lots of toys and clothes!

When we went to DFW airport to leave for Utah, we could not get on the flight due to it being oversold, and it looked like we wouldn't be able to get back to Utah for several days...so, in true fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants Cade fashion, we got on a shuttle to Love Field airport and caught a flight to El Paso on Southwest. Because Jet and Kimber fly so much, they were very well-behaved and received several compliments...I kept thinking "if you only knew...."!!

Thank God for Tora & Mike Harrison. Mariah called them when we couldn't get onto the flight and asked if we could be there in 5 hours or so. Tora met everyone at the El Paso airport, and then we surprised Breezy, Malori, and Will with the visit. We stayed for a week at Tora & Mike's house, leaving on Christmas afternoon. We didn't want to leave - it was such an amazing Christmas - being able to see and spend good, quality time with family and allowing Jet and Kimber to spend time with Breezy, Tora & Mike, Auntie Malori & Uncle Will. One night, we came home to Jet and Mike asleep on the floor - snuggling together. The dogs were so protective that when Jason bent down to pick up Jet to put him in bed, one of them growled at him. A couple of days later, one of the other dogs brought Jet his pet monkey, Freddie, when he was crying. Jet didn't understand, but we all did - the dog heard Jet crying in a different room for some reason, and she picked up the monkey with her mouth and brought him to Jet. So cute.
Please see our attached Christmas card, which we e-mailed this year out of convenience instead of sending regular mail. Also, we've attached a couple of our Christmas time photos for your viewing.