Happy Birthday Collin!

Collin's birthday is today and although our plans didn't go as we had hoped.  The restaurant ended up being closed today that Collin wanted to eat dinner at and I didn't make him a cake (he wanted me to wait).  We still had a great day and I wanted to share with you a few wonderful things about him that you may or may not know.

Collin is the best friend I know.  He genuinely cares about people and tries to help others when he can.

Collin is a great dad and is funny.  I love watching Collin and Caden play.  Collin can get the biggest and longest laughs out of Caden.  It is so cute and funny to watch!

Collin is a hard worker.  When he does something he puts 110% in it.  He wants to make sure something is done right and will put forth the extra effort to accomplish that.  He also works hard to provide a good living for our family and thanks me in return for my hard work at home.  I know a lot of guys don't show their appreciation to their wives.  But as any mom out there knows, taking care of a baby is no easy or light task!

Collin is one of the smartest people I know.  Not only does he pick up new languages he also has a great memory and knows about a lot of things.  I love listening to him give a sermon or teach a class.  I love just sitting and talking to him.  I learn something new pretty much every day from him.

Collin is very good looking!  This comes as no surprise because you all have seen his picture.  It's so nice to be married to a handsome man!  =)  The nice thing about it is he doesn't let his good looks get the best of him. 

Collin believes in me.  He is very supportive of my dreams and ideas.  He encourages me to be the best I can be and to go after my goals.

Collin is a Christian.  I have to add this because I truly believe that all of the good that comes out of him is from God.  He strives to be like Christ and tries to love me like Christ loved the church.

There are many more wonderful things about Collin but I am going to end here and just remind the world that I love this man!!  Happy birthday Collin!!  I hope you had a great birthday!  I am so glad you were born today. 

The past 8 have been great!

Caden is 8 months old today. This past month he has really developed a lot more skills. He is so much fun to have around! We love playing, singing, reading, and enjoying life. Here is an overview of some of his new milestones:

- Caden can crawl forward! This past week he finally discovered he could move forward. He not only crawls on his hands and knees but also in a bear crawl (knees off the ground). It's so funny to watch. The ladies at the nursery who watch him while I attend MOPS and my ladies' Bible study say he's really strong and it won't be too long before he's walking.

- Now Caden can feed himself cheerios. A few weeks ago we decided to introduce him to a few finger foods and this was the first one. He can now pick up a cheerio and put it in his mouth.

- He drinks water from a sippy cup all by himself. I'm still breastfeeding so between feedings and with his meals he gets water in a sippy cup.

- He eats two meals a day of solid foods. On average he eats about 2 Tbs of dry grains mixed with water and two Tbs of a fruit or vegetables or a mix of the two.

- He can take a few steps while we hold his hands. It's so cute how he pulls himself up and wants to try and walk with our help. He can also now walk backwards in his walker.

- He can go from tummy to sitting. He practiced this a lot once he discovered he could lay flat on his belly and then sit up. When he first did it I was super surprised and excited. No more "forced" tummy time, he now gets plenty on his own.

- He is babbling more. He'll say "ahh, baa, caa, daa, hi, hey, dada, daddy, and several other babble sounds." Still no mama or ma, just maaahhh when he's upsit and wants me. It's in a cry form so I don't know if that really counts.

- He can bring his hands together and bang two objects together.

- He now has 8 teeth! Yes, that's right, 8! He had been teething and drooling so much for months. I'm so glad his teeth have finally decided to make their presence known. He has 6 on top and 2 on bottom.

We took him to the doctor yesterday because he has a cold and were able to get his 8th month growth measurements. They are:

- 29.33 inches (87th percentile)
- 21.67 pounds (76th percentile)

Caden is still a big healthy boy. Sadly he has a cold but he's getting better everyday. He really grew a lot the first few months he was born and is now on a more slow and steady pace.

A few more notable things:

- He wears size 12 month clothes
- He sleeps 10-12 hours through the night and takes 2 naps a day, one morning and one afternoon anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.

We are enjoying parenthood and really love our sweet baby. Caden is so much fun to have. We're looking forward to seeing my parents next week. The hardest thing about living in Germany is not being around our family and friends.

Here are some recent pictures of our sweet baby.

You can see my two front teeth!

Caden likes standing

I love his laugh and smile!

This was after his haircut, he was really tired

Caden the morning before his haircut, he has a lot of hair! =)

Caden's First Professional Haircut

Wednesday we took Caden to get his first professional haircut. This was actually his third haircut, his first two haircuts were done by us at home. Since he's so young he sat in Daddy's lap while the barber cut his hair. At first he was smiling and seemed to think it was pretty neat. However, his laughter and joy didn't last long. Before it was over he was in tears. I'm not sure if was the giant comb, scissors, clippers, or the barber that scared him the most. Overall I think he did really well. I miss his longer hair but his new haircut looks super cute! Also his hair is much blonder now. I was born with dark hair and it turned blond during my childhood so maybe that is what Caden's hair is doing too.

Here are some pictures of his first barber haircut. I forgot my camera so these aren't the best pictures since they were taken with Collin's cell phone.

Caden happily sitting with his Daddy

I have a cape on, so cool!

Hmmm...who is this guy and what is he doing?

Is that comb a toy?

Amost done and I have had enough! Do you like my blond hair?

New Beginnings

Caden is growing so much everyday! Two weeks ago (Feb. 4th) he started going from flat on his stomach to sitting up as well as from being on his hands and knees to sitting up. He also learned how to pull himself up on his crib! He has been doing a lot more pre-crawling, he loves going from sitting to on his hands and knees, sometimes all the way to his stomach depending on what he's trying to reach to sitting up. He still is moving backwards and he scoots around on his bottom. It's so cute to watch him. It seems like any day he'll realize he can crawl forward, of course then we'll be in trouble. Haha. As we'll have to keep an even closer eye on him. Collin has now installed baby gates on two of our staircases. On the first floor where our living room, dinning room, and kitchen are, and on our top floor where our office and a HUGE loft is. We have another baby gate coming to us in the mail for our second floor where our bedrooms are. One of my biggest fears is Caden falling down the stairs!

As Caden continues to grow and learn I'm discovering more about myself as well. Yesterday was Valentine's Day, also the 16th anniversary of my mother's death. It is always a sad day for me and now that I have a child of my own there are days when I miss my own mother even more. However, this year I decided to try and be more cheerful and rather than mope around and try and avoid the whole day like I do most of the time, I decided to make a Valentine's Day card to Collin from Caden and I bought him one from me. I also bought Collin a watch. I NEVER buy gifts on this day except for maybe a card.

This year I thought I'd be different and try and let my mother's spirit live through me. Why should I weep? She's in Heaven. What greater joy than for her to be with God? There is none. Her days on earth have ended. She no longer makes history on this earth, but I do. She would not want me to stop living because she isn't here living with me. She'll always live in my heart but that doesn't mean I should deny myself joy and happiness. I talked with Collin a lot about this last night. For many years I have closed people out. I've been scared of making close friends and have not been honest and completely true with the ones I have. I love Collin's boldness and bravery in how he is able to be real with people even if it puts him in a bad light and shows he's not 100% strong in an area. I on the other hand tend to avoid the whole situation and not welcome the closeness and bonds of friendship by not being open. I think part of this has to do with losing my mom when I was 11. I was not taught how to be open and became scared of losing friends so I purposely limited the depth of friendships. It is such a shame that I have been living like this.

Friendships are some of God's greatest gifts! One of my friends in middle school asked me how I could really be loved if I didn't let people in. She was right. I can't. So not only is Caden going through new beginnings so am I. I am going to try to be more open, honest, and vulnerable. I'm going to try not to worry about what people think of me. This is really hard. I have always wanted to be liked but it comes with a price. If someone doesn't like me for me then I am going to be okay with that. I want to teach Caden the value of friendships and relationships. I want him to know it's okay to be real with people and open and honest. Life is short and I believe we will have a much better life having a few really close friends than a lot of acquaintances.

I wanted to share my thoughts with the few people who read my blog and ask you to be in prayer for me during this time. I appreciate you and value you. I normally avoid writing really personal thoughts publicly but felt the need to share this here. I feel like I have been trapped for 16 years not able to fully express myself and I want to be free from that. I want to enjoy life and live life to the fullest. Don't get me wrong, I know I have a really good life but I want to let people in and be more open and honest. May you all have a wonderful and beautiful day. Thank you for taking the time to read this really long post.

Great Marriage Retreat

This past weekend we went to a marriage retreat in Heppenheim, Germany. We stayed two nights at the hotel the retreat was located. It was really nice. The retreat was sponsored by the unit Collin works for. There were around 30 couples there. The retreat started Friday night, during Caden's bedtime. They offered childcare but we decided Friday night to just let him stay with us. Saturday morning we let him go to the childcare and after about 20 minutes I heard a child screaming and crying. So I left and walked next door. Caden was fine and happy but there was one child crying in a corner and another one throwing up! I took Caden from one of the caregivers and told her I'd watch him (I didn't want her cleaning up the throw up with my baby in her arms). I also didn't want him to get sick! Needless to say he stayed with us through the rest of the sessions. He's an easy going baby and everyone there was impressed with him and commented on how happy he is. He has yet to meet a stranger and is always smiling and laughing!

Saturday night I left the session early to put Caden in bed. He was getting pretty tired and it was past his bedtime. Sunday morning was the last session and it was great. The retreat was on Understanding the Love of Your Life and was created by Walk Thru The Bible Ministries. Friday night we all took a personality test. Saturday the sessions were about understanding our mates personalities, and Sunday was combining our personalities together to form a stronger and happier marriage. Collin's personality type is IC and mine is ID. So our highest score was the same.

Saturday afternoon we took a short day trip to Worms, Germany, and did a driving tour of the town. It was snowing and very cold outside so we decided not to join the tour group. Caden took a nap in the car and Collin and I got to talk. Worms is known for several things, the first complete translation of the Bible in modern English was printed there in 1521 and Martin Luther was declared an outlaw after refusing to recant his religious beliefs. Worms is a cute town and we hope to go back when the weather is nice.

We had a wonderful weekend. We probably got the biggest snowfall of the year this past weekend and the road conditions for our area were red, meaning don't drive unless you have to. We had to drive home and we just took it slow. Thankfully not many people were out driving. Unfortunately, I got sick at the conference. Several people were sick and I tried to wash my hands frequently like I always do and avoid people coughing but I somehow still caught something. Other than that we are glad we went and hope to go again next year.

One more thing, Caden's 4th tooth broke through Saturday. He now has four teeth. Two on top and two on bottom. Here are a some pictures from this past weekend.

Collin and Caden at the restaurant Saturday night - Caden fell asleep during dinner

The band playing at the restaurant

Some of Collin's co-workers and their families that were at the retreat

Martin Luther statue in Worms

Church in Worms

Caden smiling at McDonalds, you can see one of his front teeth

Heppenheim, Germany

Lots of snow in Heppenheim

Marisa standing outside the square in Heppenheim

Pretty snow, Heppenheim