goodbye mikey.

This weekend we said goodbye to our beloved Michael Meowgi. After Simon died, he lost all love and lust for life, stopped eating, cleaning himself, making those adorable cat screeching noises that I had become so accustommed to when he was hungry in the morning. He his under the bed 24/7, and his breathing started to get really labored. We took him to our incredible vet (seriously, she could NOT have been nicer during this whole situation), and she said he was having a really tough time breathing and it looked like it could have been kitty leukemia. It was a really hard decision to make, as we really didn't want to let him go for our own selfish reasons, but he appeared to be in an enormous amount of pain, and we couldn't watch him go through that anymore. Now he and Simon are together and are the coziest snuggle bunnies in kitty heaven.





~new bike. I get misty at this pic...he looks SO big!

Some of the latest random Kadenisms....

*kaden likes to scream "STOP" to the cars when we are looking both ways and crossing the street. Not sure where he gets this, but I find it hilarious every time.

*kaden and I shop a lot, but we rarely buy anything that is not of absolute necesity. I have this thing about entitlement in the kids I work with, and I am slightly militant about trying to dissuade him from having entitlement when he is older. Lately, whenever we are at a store, he asks random people to buy things for him. I am so mortified in the moment that it's hard to address it with him. Thankfully, people think it's hysterical. We now have pep talks before we go into a store about what NOT to say to people!

*while over at mamaw's house, kaden heard "this land is your land". Kaden was blown away by the part that says "from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters"....he said "How did they know my name?" teehee. Little does he know he was named after a beautiful, ginormous tree.

Kaden loves The Lion King, and even more he loves the chanting at the very beginning when they sing The Circle of Life. Here's his version....


Tonite we ventured out to the Taste of Colorado to see a free show of Boyz to Men. Good thing there were 1,000 other things to do there, because we couldn't squish by the zillion other people that were psyched to see them as well! Kaden loved the festival and we saw a lot of cool bands and had so much fun walking down 16th street mall afterward. We met up at Old Spaghetti Factory with Unk Bri and daddy and had a yummy spaghetti feast. Such a fun day.


playing in legoworld...I love legos. I think I love them as much as kaden.


~he was head over heels for this violin guy. The guy ROCKED!

kaden's first camping trip....pic heavy!

~kaden's favorite part about camping!



We took Kaden on his first camping trip this weekend, and aside from the fact that we realized we left the tent waiting in our living room, it was a wonderful time! Thanks to Aunt Gloria who happens to live in the mountains close to where we were camping, we were able to sleep in utter cozyness! It rained sporadically throughout the trip, but it was really peaceful to sleep to. Kaden slept like a rock, probably because we skipped his nap that day, but his favorite part was definitely peeing on trees and rocks. It must be very confusing for a freshly potty trained toddler to be told that he can go ahead and go pee on a tree!



We all loved it so much and are hoping to go camping again sometime within the next month before the cold weather comes. I tried to pick out the best pics to narrate this little photo post, but I know there are a ton! So many good times! If you make it to the end of this post, I found two cute videos that I posted as a reward for making it to the end!













~after a bit of coaxin, kaden agreed to just "sit" on the four wheeler, but he was adamant about not going anywhere.





~inchin forward a teeny weeny bit....





~going for his first ride!





~he absolutely hated it ;)









We got a visit from Dave, Caleb and Jack who all rode in on their dirtbikes...so cool!





~rock climbin with Mamaw.









~daddy's lil helper.





~the gorgeous rockies...still with some snow!









~I love camping!





















~daddy made a sweet racetrack in the dirt.































~The left behind paraphanelia.











Kaden has been obsessed with the song "Ol Dan Tucker" (via The Wiggles, though Bruce Springsteen's version is pretty sweet too!), and I have been trying to get a video of him rockin out to it for weeks now.

*silly songs*

I am in love with kaden's daycare for many reasons, one being that he is doing AWESOME with potty training, he told me two times today that he "had to go". woohoo! And I also adore his teachers because they teach him the craziest songs and then we are completely entertained and curious for days what exactly he is singing about!

and this is his newest love..."turkey in the hay"

update extravaganza

I know I have not posted in what seems like forever, I miss keeping up on things. We have had a busy busy few weeks...and I just thought I would take a moment to wrap it all up and post some quick updates.

First of all, Happy Birthday to my Daddy!!! I wish we could be there to celebrate your special day, but were hoping we will get a chance very soon when you *hopefully* come for a visit!

We went through a mini ordeal a few weeks back when we took Kaden to the doctors and they recommended we take him right to Children's Hospital for possible appendicitis. Poor little man. It was a scary experience for all of us. Seeing him in so much pain was heartbreaking. It started out with a really bad stomach ache and then crazy shooting pains in his abdomen. They did some Xrays and said that they saw a lot of *poo* in his tummy and that it looked like it was severe constipation, and possibly due to potty training. Neither Chad nor I are convinced that is the case, as there seems to be a crazy tummy virus spreading around quickly. Poor Chad has been bed ridden for days with it this week. Whatever it was...we are relieved he is feeling better!!!


~my poor baby at children's hospital.

One of my favorite people on the entire planet also visited this past week and we had a FANTASTIC time! Sometimes we all need a bit of refueling, and having her here was exactly that. So good for the soul. And I realized that traveling around with her and showing her all the awesome things in Colorado made me appreciate it so much more, seeing it through her eyes.





Another incredible soul, our amazing friend Audrey, also happened to move BACK home to Colorado during Pammy's visit, and we celebrated with her in style with an adventure of our own!








I freaking love colorado.


~pam snapped this doozie during naptime. my boys fast asleep.









In other fun news, Mamaw and Papaw have been waiting for the perfect moment to show Kaden the new mini motorized 4 wheeler that they got for him. He was surprisingly a little freaked out by it, so Jack was trying to show him how it is done and he warmed up a little bit. Soon he will be riding that thing all over Colorado...




~Mamaw and Cheryl were visiting from Ohio, and we had everyone over for a bbq.


~hugs for mamaw bryant.

Chad has had his phone for over two years and I think we just now figured out how to upload the pics from it onto our computer. Here are a few favorites that I found!








~lil mountain man.



~pammy "in it".


~pure joy.

I may not be posting as much over the next few weeks. I am taking a course (finally!) to fullfill my licensure requirements and it is online and INTENSIVE!!!! I am not a fan of it at all, but i will get through it and get this license that I SO deserve after all my hard work!!!

have a lovely day everyone!!!