santa

yea, we finally saw santa. third time was a charm and a hour and a half wait. yep, an hour and a half i waited in line for the kids to see santa. it was the same santa though that cayden saw his first time. we went to the children's museum and that it how they advertise it. the legendary santa. it seems to be a pretty big thing here. anyway cayden and kylie got to sit on his lap. santa asked cayden what he wanted and nothing came out. it was rather funny the whole experience. check the pictures and hopefully a video below. merry christmas!!!!!

12-20-2008

its been a busy few weeks. getting presents for everyone, cayden had an ear infection, christmas party, trying to see santa, the list goes on...
charity's company christmas party was about a week ago and we thought we would try to see santa before hand. well he left 5pm that week and we got there just before 6 so that didn't work. we tried again today and the wait was about 2 hours, so needless to say we didn't do it again. the childrens museum of richmond is where we go to see santa because they have the legendary santa. anyway santa hasn't happened yet.
today we went to see sesame street live, elmo's green thumb at the richmond coliseum. cayden got a pretty good kick out of it. he got an elmo balloon and some sort of spinning light up toy.
kylie is turning over now, finally. she had been trying for the longest time but kept getting hung up on her arm. now the only way she sleeps is on her tummy. she is almost sitting up but not quite there yet. she will sort of say da-da, i work with her on that everyday. so thats about it, i hope everyone has a great christmas and a happy new year!!

12-2-08

we had pictures taken this past saturday and it is not so much fun anymore. trying to get both kids looking and smiling at the same time has got to be the most impossible thing in the world. i think the pictures turned out ok overall but it is such an ordeal anymore. anyway, here are some pics from saturday and some from our family session with scott hayne photography back in august. check my picasa album for more.

Happy Thanksgiving

happy thanksgiving!! i hope everyone has a wonderful day with family on friends.

halloween

so for halloween this year we decided to go up to church where they were hosting "trunk or treat". i wasn't really sure what this was but it was pretty cool. rather than walking house to house around your neighborhood not sure about the candy you're getting you go here and walk around the parking lot to the back of someones decorated vehicle. there were 20-30 vehicles along with pony rides, a bonfire for smores or hot dogs and it was all free.

update

figured i should post an update on things in our lives for the hundreds that follow our blog....kylie had her 6 month checkup yesterday...its hard to believe it's been 6 months already. she is doing great, she had to get like 6 shots yesterday. here are her stats at 6 months.

wt---16.5
ht---25.75

cayden is doing well, definitely going through the two's though. for the most part he is good but all it takes is the smallest thing to not go his way and the world is ending. he does really well with kylie. i believe charity wants to try and tackle potty training over thanksgiving. it would be nice if he picks up on it quickly. here are a few pics from the past couple of weeks.

metro richmond zoo

we went to the zoo on saturday, its kinda funny cause we have lived here for 3 years and the zoo is only 10 min away but its the first time we went. we have heard good things about it and were pretty excited to check it out. we pulled up and were a bit skeptical at first cause its doesn't look like much from the parking lot. there was actually a house at the front and then a building to the side where you pay to get in. once inside it definitely needs some more work which they are in the process of doing. the zoo is about 13 years old but it has a lot of animals and most of them you can get really close to. you can actually feed the giraffe's by hand, pretty cool. it's on a more personal level i felt than other zoos i have been to. we had a good time. check out more pics http://picasaweb.google.com/oliver.bess



bird poo

pumpkins

we decided to go pick some pumpkins this year for the house plus we thought cayden would have a good time. so we headed to the chesterfield berry farm sunday after church to get a few and we were definitely not prepared for what was in store. neither of us had been there before but had heard about it. first off i thought it must be a piddly thing cause we drove about 10 miles down back roads to get there but when we pulled up i thought "what have we done?" there were cars everywhere, police directing traffic it was like an amusement park. there were rides for the children, concessions, games, and of course pumpkins. so we got something to eat and then headed over to get on board the hayride to take us to the pumpkin patch. there must have been 5 or 6 tractors pulling trailers of people non stop out to the patch. so we got a couple of pumpkins and cayden had a great time running around, it was an experience we won't forget for sure.
www.chesterfieldberryfarm.com

post dedication

we got kylie dedicated yesterday at church. there was a little misunderstanding to start the day off so we ended up walking in late with the pastor. the other couple was already standing on the stage. kinda funny but oh well. after church we had a little cookout so everyone could hang out for awhile. i believe everyone had a good time. thank you to everyone that made the trip from the hampton roads and shiloh area, we loved having everyone.

dedication

well, pretty much the same ole is going on. we took cayden to the doctor today. we thought he may have an ear infection. he's been a bit more on the challenging side the last few days plus a runny nose and cough. no ear infection but a sinus infection, which is perfect for the upcoming weekend. we are having kylie dedicated at church and will have family and friends in town to visit. i'm sure a little sinus infection won't distract him much from having fun with everyone here.

kylie had her 4 month check up just recently and she is looking great. she has however picked up the talent of squeeling just about as loud as possible while at the same time hitting this unbelievable pitch. its funny yet slightly painful to listen to.

pictures

well, we got some pics back from scott and as usual they look great. here are a few to look at but check out his blog for the rest. www.scotthayneblog.com
thanks scott, adina, and hunter

update

i'm not sure why i feel the need to keep this somewhat up to date, i'm sure no one reads it except for charity, which is very rare. anyway i'll go ahead and update. we had family pictures taken last sunday by our friends scott, adina, and hunter from scotthaynephotography.com. my sister and her family were in va. beach visiting the parents for the holiday so we went down for a couple of days also. anyway back to the pics, it was the first time we had everyone together so we figured why not. overall it was a great experience. it proved to be a bit challenging keeping the boys attention long enough to get some shots but they are at that age. once i get some pics i'll post. so for all you reading this stay tuned....

the little gym

we went to the little gym last night. we have been wanting to get cayden involved in something with other kids his age other than just the nursery. surprisingly cayden did really well. not that i didn't expect him to do well. he is just usually a bit on the shy side at first when around a group of people. he was still attached to charity to start off but it didn't take long and he was all over the place. charity went in with him while i sat with kylie and watched. they started off by singing, then a couple of group activities, some free time and then more singing to finish up. afterwards we made a stop at chick-fil-a for dinner, ice cream, and the playground.


olympics one day??


waiting

routine

well, not much new is going on right now. just the regular day to day activities. my day basically goes like this
0230 wake up
0300 leave for work
0800 get off work
0900 meet charity at work to switch vehicles
0930 get home eat breakfast
try to stay awake
1100 feed kylie
try to stay awake
1300 lunch time
1400 feed kylie
1500 everyone takes naps (hopefully)
hopefully 1 1/2 - 2 hour nap
1700 feed kylie
start supper
1800 charity is home (yeah!!!)
eat
play
2100 bedtime

that's about it....

there is some good news though, kylie has been sleeping through the night for almost a week now. awesome.

i'm bad

i admit i'm not that good at keeping up to date with this blogging thing. i tend to start one and then it sits as a draft for a week or two and then i don't see the point of posting it then. so to bring everything up to date i went back to work two weeks after kylie was born, we got a van (finally), took a trip to nashville, kylie turned two months and charity went back to work. charitys first day back to work was yesterday. she wasn't very excited about that. i don't blame her though i'm very lucky to be able to stay home with the kids. i hope that one day the roles can be switched and she can stay home but it just makes sense this way right now. i really am lucky to have her. anyway i'll try to keep this up to date better than i have been. here are some pics...

1st Week

oh, how time flies! kylie is 1 week old today. maybe we shouldn't say it, but it has not been too difficult a transition. i admit, charity is taking on the night duties and usually only wakes me for one diaper change...i can deal with that. and since i took two weeks off from the 4am shifts, i'm getting more sleep than ever. i try to take on more daytime duties so she can get some rest. kylie has been sleeping really well at night, though. there was one night where she woke up every 2 hours, but other than that, she's been sleeping for 3 or 4 hours at a time. she definitely does not like to get cold for a diaper change, but once she eats, she usually goes back to sleep pretty quickly. but boy, that girl can create tons of dirty diapers. we know she works, that's for sure. cayden has been really good with kylie. he still gets plenty of attention and doesn't seem to be jealous when we're holding her. he's pretty much past the cuddly stage so as long as someone is chasing him, taking him outside to play, or just engaging him in some kind of play activity, he's fine. he likes to cover her with a blanket in her swing, and as soon as she gets in the swing, he wants to give her a pacifier - he also has been caught putting it in his mouth a couple of times. he even asked to hold her for the first time a few nights ago. that was the cutest thing ever! he's really gentle (so far) and will give her a kiss and hug night, night. the only thing he doesn't like is when she cries. he doesn't seem to know what to make of it. he knows something is wrong but doesn't know what to do. he gets that shy look on his face and stays close to mommy and daddy. the two of them, too sweet for words. ok, time to chase cayden and feed kylie :)

Kylie comes home

we got to bring kylie home yesterday. i know it was only two days we were in the hospital but it seemed like two weeks. it gets pretty boring sitting in the hospital room for so long. thank goodness there was free wifi. it just takes so long to get discharged you have to wait for so many different people to show up. doctor comes in to check mom, doctor for baby, someone for birth certificate, nurse to make sure tags on baby, mom, and dad match it's a pretty big ordeal. finally about 2pm we were on our way home. cayden was pretty excited to have us home. he has been good with kylie even saying her name finally, minus the k but replacing with a t good enough though.

Kylie Rheya

kylie rheya is here!!! charity was induced tues. morning around 1045am which is better than the original time of 600am. the hospital called us at 500am to let us know there were no beds available so we could hold off. anyway kylie was born at 300pm 7lbs. 11oz. 21in. the first few weeks should be fun getting adjusted to two little ones in the house although cayden feels he can do everything himself these days.

kisses from big brother

new blog

i decided to start a new blog for the family. i will really try to keep it up to date with posts and pictures. i will still maintain caydenonline.com and hopefully soon transition over to one family site. hope everyone enjoys!!