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!!!

*it a beautiful day*

~my little music man.

kaden has been saying this delicious phrase a lot lately, especially after these sweet long pauses where he gazes out the window sizing up what the world looks like. pure innocence and wonder.

This weekend we hit up Kidspree which is a ginormous festival just for kids and is free! It is held in Aurora every summer and it is ridiculous amounts of fun! We spent about 4 1/2 hours there in 100 degree temps, and I feel crazy overstimulated and in dire need of a nap. Kaden is a total sweaty betty and was pretty much delirious when we left. There were bouncy houses all over the place, pony rides, drums and a ton of musical instruments that the kids could play...kaden was so excited about the violin and demanded to hear violin music at the dinner table this evening.


~life size Candyland obstacle course....he loved this!






~making his debut on stage. she asked for volunteers and he said "mama I wanna go der", and up he went, for about 3 minutes...and then he ran off the stage laughing!








~he was incredibly smitten with this guy...we followed him all over the place for about 35 minutes.


~rockin out on his clarinet, which he insists is a guitar.


~anyone wanna join my drum circle?






~total popsicle weather.


~kaden and I had a jam session to The beatles "Let it Be"....this is him after jamming for an hour or so.

*rain and other complete randomness*

It has been raining in the afternoon here for the past 36 days (ok, total approximation). And when I say rain, I don't mean just rain, but some serious holy cow crazy thunderstorms with strobe light continuous lightning. I always wanted to live in eattle for a bit, so I think this is my taste of what it might be like! I was always told it is rare that it ever even rains in Denver, and I have held off buying purchasing polka dot rain boots for this very reason. Now, I think it is time I make them mine.

I love me a good thunderstorm. Chad and i have spent many nights sitting outside watching the lightning and oooooh-ing and ahhhhhh-ing at the beauty of it all. Until last night. Last night, there was this insane rainfall, that was like nothing I have ever seen. Chad was out on an errand and I decided to cozy up with a movie in our basement family room. All of a sudden, I heard the craziest sound. Niagara falls decided to make an appearance in our guest room in the basement...completely pouring through the window and not showing any signs of stopping. The laundry room window started to do the same. I wish I was better under pressure. I grabbed a few bowls and a big ol bucket, but it was too little too late. It went on for twenty minutes, and then stopped, leaving these rooms completely beyond repair. Our amazing landlord showed up after 5 minutes of calling him, and Tony the carpet man was there soon after. By morning, the smell was gone, and miraculously, the water was completely dry.

I left for work this morning feeling better, until I realized my car door was open. Ummm, first thought, hello crazy rain. But then i noticed my glove compartment and console were open and stuff was thrown everywhere. Ahhh....so THIS is what it looks like when someone breaks into your car. I soon realized that my steering wheel and ignition for jacked up a bit, and silly me had left my office keys in that cozy compartment next to the drivers seat. This crazy fool had tried to force them into the ignition so many times, absolutely certain that I of course would have left my car keys there for safekeeping, and pretty much bent them into some crazy abstract design. Thankfully, everyone was safe and my car is fine and is in decent condition. How amazing to find out that my neighbors actually have 24 hr security cameras outside their house, and unfortunately I parked on the wrong side of the street, and they weren't able to see quite that far. But how incredibly sweet were they to go through an entire night's footage (so exciting!) to see if they could catch someone in action.

The highlight of this whole drama was the police report. A very nice police officer came out to the house and Kaden was in complete awe of him. he even flashed his lights several times for him and let him play with the high beam light that hangs out of the passenger door. This guy was all kinds of amazing, and he put a total positive shift on things, I can totally forget about the fact that some smelly dude was fiddling with my car and my keys for a bit.


"I a drummer".


Kaden is completely obsessed with having a drum set like his big cousin Nick. Yes, Daddy is a drummer, and he does have some pretty amazing drum sets in hiding, but we also feel his maybe a bit too young for a drum set of his own. So we make him fun imaginary drum sets. He is smitten with the cymbal. How could you not be?




and in other wonderul news....mission accomplished!!! Kaden was able to start in the Big Boys room this week at daycare! He is super psyched and did not cry when dropped off, which is a HUGE positive! (he has cried for the past 6 months pretty much!) He is pretty much potty trained at daycare, and they thought he was ready. This is a bit different than our experience at home, as i can count the times on one hand when he has hit the potty...but hey, at least he is doing it somewhere!!!

here he is showing off fun with chalk in his superman big boy panties.

two and a HALF!

~taking a break from drumming to model his new big boy undies gifted from Pammy.

This weekend is Kaden's Happy Two and a Half year birthday weekend, and to celebrate...we are doing potty training bootcamp! How exciting, huh? Up until now, we have been going very slow with potty training, and have just been waiting for him to get more comfortable with the whole idea, and I was feeling completely okay with the fact that it is a process and could take a while. Then the amazing Miss Linda, Kaden's daycare teacher, gave us a pep talk about potty training and shared that she feels he is bored there and ready to move up to the next age room with the "big boys". He of course, cannot do this until he is potty trained. I was skeptical about rushing things, but after dropping him off one morning and sizing up all the kids in his room, and the fact that he is the oldest and all of his friends have moved on, I was determined to try to get this thing done.

some favorites:

favorite pastime - drums. or anything that remotely looks like a drum.
favorite song - old dan tucker.
favorite show - yo gabba.
favorite food - chips or pirate booty (thanks aunt kerry!)
new favorite imaginary friend (actually his first!) "Gabba"

recent favorite kadenisms

~where santa been?
~mama please put a new shirt on. (whenever mama is wearing a tank top)
~mama,eat your veggies. (while waggin a finger at me.)
~kaden, what's your full name? "kaden monkey sausage redwood miller". he will tell everyone he meets this exact name. a little girl asked him his name last night and he took a deep breath and told her his "full" name.

So this weekend we started the 3 day potty training method. In a nutshell, you throw all the diapers away (uh yeah no, we kept them in a safe place where he can't see them), and have him wear his big boy underwear all the time, trying to pay attention to his cues and making sure you rush him to the potty when he looks like he may have to go. So far, it is quite a reality show in the making. Everytime he has an accident, he says "what was that", so I guess he is at least getting more used to the sensation...but anything more than that, well we shall see!

Even though, the training method says not to leave the house at all, we have been celebrating the holiday weekend in the evenings. Last night, we went down the street to see the fireworks, and they were kaden's first! It was an amazing display, you would have thought Pearl Jam had just performed at the way the crowd hooted and hollered when it was finished. Kaden had mixed feelings about them, he clapped for about 5 seconds when they finally got started, and then screamed that he wanted to go home. We put his headphones on since they were unbelievably loud, and I held him tight while we layed down in the grass watching them above us. He seemed to relax a little more and enjoy them, and then fell completely asleep, face down in the pillow. Hw woke up after the grand finale and said "that was fun and a little bit scary" (showing me lil bit with his fingers). Tonite we are going to kazz in the park and we are hopefully going to catch a glimpse of more fireworks over at Civic park. Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend!!


~our spot waiting for the fireworks to begin.


~his initial reaction.






~sound asleep.


~his new personal waterworld in the backyard. yep he's in his underwear, I didn't want to screw up the "process" by putting a little swimmie or suit on.