Galleria with Grammie!

Grammie took Caden to the Galleria yesterday to see the ice rink and shop. She sent these pictures to us and it looks like he had a ton of fun!

Sitting on the trunk of an elephant!
The 'fake' water looks so real!
Navigating around the rocks.
Pointing to something and talking about it no doubt.

Riding on a camel! He loves playing with the camel in the Nativity Scene at home.

KING OF THE WORLD!

Coming out of the tunnel!

Riding on the zebra!

Here he is watching the ice skaters.

Thanks Grammie for a wonderful time! We know he's having a blast!

Christmas Party at MDO

Caden's class had their Christmas party today and it looks like they had a fun time! Thank you Mrs. Alisha for taking photos for me!

Here is Caden, Jack and Carson enjoying lunch.Here they are again! Look at that spread of food! They had Chick-Fil-A! YUM!
Mr. Serious!
Jack and Caden. I love the death grip Jack has on his buddy Caden!
J.D., Jack and Caden.
The big guy made a surprise visit! I'm told Caden cried at first and then pretty much kept his distance.
Thanks to all the teachers at M.D.O. for the kids' party and the goody bag!

Not My Child

It has been a while since I posted one of these and since our son provides us with endless 'Not My Child' moments, I thought I would pause and reflect on a couple. Enjoy!

1. Night before last Caden was playing before it was time to go to bed. He was watching TV and walking around with his books, etc. Tim and I were in the kitchen and he walked in and saw our family Christmas card up on the bar. He turned to me and said, 'Mommy? Up!'. I picked up our precious son and handed him the card so he could look at the pictures on it. As I looked at his precious little fingers gripping our card I realized he had not eaten any chocolate and yet his fingers looked LIKE HE HAD BEEN INTO CHOCOLATE! I jerked the card away after getting a whiff of THE NOT SO CHOCOLATE SCENT and rushed him to the sink to wash his hands and then on to the bath to clean him up! Not My Child!

2. Last night I was sitting on the floor wrapping a few presents while the above-mentioned child was quietly playing on the floor with his little snow plow truck. Just playing like he always does, pushing the truck on the floor while I wrapped gifts. I was thinking how nice it was to be on the floor by the Christmas tree in our living room enjoying the moment. My sister called during the 'moment' and I had just started talking to her when - Cut to him jumping up like the house was on fire and grabbing a roll of wrapping paper and choking up on it as if it were a bat and taking a swing at my beautiful Christmas tree, completely destroying one of the large glass balls! Shards of glass shattered everywhere, into gift bags, onto branches of the tree, etc....etc....etc....I was shocked, mad, shocked, MAD, shocked, EVEN MORE MAD!

It is the big red ball on the left below in the picture that was D.E.S.T.R.O.Y.E.D.! But not by MY CHILD.

That is all for now, but I am sure I will have more soon! :)

ICE! at the Gaylord Texan

Last night we went to the Gaylord Texan ICE exhibit. Tim always gets 4 free tickets per year and we try to take different groups of people with us each year. This year we took Micheal, Sara, Micheala and Jack. Caden stays with Sara on Mondays and Fridays and goes home with her after MDO Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. We had a fun time and enjoyed watching the kids enjoy it so much!

Here is Caden, Jack and Micheala on one of the wooden trains at the Gaylord before we walked over to ICE.

Sara, Micheal, Jack and Micheala.

The Iveys before making our way to ICE.

Caden and Mommy walking down the corridor to go to ICE. It was a crisp 9 degrees inside so they provide you with Parkas to stay warm!

Here is the entrance! The theme this year was the Grinch!

Caden was not so sure about the HUGE ICE GRINCH!They have these huge slides made of ice within ICE. Caden was unsure about going down it at first until Jack headed down. Here he is waiting his turn to slide.
Here comes Caden down the slide! I love his look of determination on his face!

Caden almost to the bottom! He kept sliding down and running back up the stairs and saying 'AGAIN?'!Here comes Jack!
Here comes Micheala!

Caden and Mommy posing with the Grinch. Caden 'cheezing' with Daddy while he was 'freezin'!

The Gilberts

I love this picture of them!

We 3 Iveys

After ICE, we walked through the hotel and looked at all the trains. Caden had so much fun watching the 'Choo Choo Trains'!

We had such a great time last night! Thank you Micheal, Sara, Micheala and Jack for going with us!

Wordless Wednesday WINNER: GiGi

Ohhhh....This peanut butter and jelly sandwich just dripped on daddy's keyboard,

but you're not going to tell him...Right???

A Day with the Gilbert Kiddos

Saturday I had a blast getting to keep Jack, Kellison and Micheala while Sara and Micheal went shopping. They are so well behaved and it was so fun watching Caden and his buddy Jack play together.

Micheala and I read magazines and 'rested' while the little ones slept. I put Kellison in our bedroom and Jack in the guestroom and Caden in his own room for naps. I cracked Jack's door and closed Caden's all the way. I was sitting in the living room and I hear Caden's door open so I went in to find them both playing on the floor! They woke up at exactly the same time!

Here are Kellison, Caden and Jack having a snack after their naps. Micheala relaxing while the little ones played!
Kellison stopping to pose!
Caden and Jack decided to read in Caden's bed.
Later in the evening Tim turned on some Christmas movies and they all watched those! We had a great time and I am glad that Micheal and Sara got to get out and get some shopping done!

Wordless Wednesday WINNER: GiGi

You said you was going to stuff a rag in my mouth if I didn't quit whining,

but I didn't think you'd reeeeealy do it...

GiGi's Visit

TO CLARIFY FOR MY FRIEND MELANIE: CADEN DIPPED HIS FINGERS IN THE SUGAR AFTER THE COOKIES WERE BAKED! THIS WAS LEFT OVER SUGAR SPRINKLES! HA!

Every year around Christmas Mom comes up to visit and we spend the weekend baking. This past weekend we had a blast! We baked until we could bake no more! Here is a sampling of what all we created!

Mom always makes Texas Trash, which I LOVE!Tim put in a request for Sand Tarts so Mom made those as well.We also made sugar cookies. Caden had a blast licking his finger and putting it in the colored sugar!Here he is dipping his little finger in the green sugar!He loved it and kept saying, 'More! More!'.Here he is sampling a green sugar cookie with GiGi.Here is my famous Crockpot Candy.

Here are my Buckeyes that I make each year as well.These are the Peanut Butter Krispies.Tim requested some Banana Pudding, so Mom made some for him and he loved it. It is almost gone already! After running around baking and shopping a little, Caden was ready for GiGi to read to him. He chose 'Charlie Brown's Christmas'.He loved it when GiGi was reading about Charlie Brown's tree. GiGi acted like she was crying and Caden kept looking at her.I caught him sneezing and thought this was cute!Here is GiGi and Caden on Saturday night. GiGi had to tell Caden bye when I put him to bed since she knew she would have to leave so early Sunday morning. Here she is explaining that she was going bye bye!

Thanks for coming up GiGi! We miss you already! We had a great time and cannot wait until next year!