Caden's 1st Birthday!

Happy First Birthday Caden!  Today he is one.  I cannot believe a year has passed since Caden was born.  So much has happened in a year.  Collin and I are truly blessed with a wonderful child.  We love him dearly. 

We had a birthday party for him yesterday. He had six friends over and their parents for a total of 16 people at our house. All of the kids got along very well. Caden has a very friendly personality and loves playing with and watching other kids. We bought him some play tents for his party with tunnels. The kids enjoyed playing in that and with his other toys. I made him a healthy oatmeal cookie cake and he loved it. I also made peanut butter cookies for people who didn't want the healthy cake and we had ice cream along with strawberries, veggies, cheese, meats, and crackers.  Here are some pictures from his birthday party. 

Is this for me?

Yummy, I love Oatmeal Cookie Cake!

Oatmeal Cookie Cake

Playing in my ball pit with my friend Katelyn

Action shot of some of the kids playing

I like playing with Miranda too

Katelyn and Miranda

Peyton is one of my best friends

David was the only boy who was able to come to my party.  We are just a month a part in age.  We get along great!  Maybe he and his sisters, Maya and Emma, can teach me German.

Kids love Collin

 

My Mom loves me!

Thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts!  Come over again and we can play together.

Today I made cupcakes for his birthday and Father's Day. Happy Father's Day Collin! We decided to let Caden have one cupcake without icing. He loved it. Hopefully he will forgot the taste of sugar and never ask for any!  Haha.  I honestly try to only give him healthy foods and don't add salt or sugar to foods he eats. We've been making most of his food this past month. I try and give him at least two servings of veggies and at least 3 servings of fruit a day plus grains and protein.

First bite of "real" cupcake

  

This past month Caden started walking.  He has been cruising for several months but finally took off a week ago.  We knew he could do it.  He's also amazingly pretty stable.  When a lot of people are around he prefers to hang onto mom or dad but when we're home or there are not a lot of people around he'll walk around the room.  We hope to get a well baby appointment this week.  Once we go we will give you his biometrics.

A year ago.

A year ago I had just given birth to the most beautiful baby I have ever seen.  I was beyond exhausted but had more energy than I ever had in my life, especially on such little sleep.  My world was changed forever.  I became a mom, what I view now as the most important role in my life.  I had a precious child that could not do anything for himself.  It was up to me and Collin to take care of this child and help him grow up.

Sweet newborn

Today.

Now Caden is walking, "talking," and exploring his surroundings.  He laughs and makes us laugh.  He can even feed himself.  Caden has grown up so much this past year and yet still has so much more to learn and more to grow.  He has almost tripled in his weight and I look at his infant clothes with joy as I think back to the days after we brought him home from the hospital and dressed him in his tiny clothes.

Active sweet toddler!

Dear Caden,

We are so blessed to be your parents.  God graciously gave you to us and we love you more than words can describe.  This first year has been fun and we are enjoying raising you.  We are trying to treasure every minute we have with you and we look forward to all the days to come! We love you son, happy first birthday.

Love,
Mom and Dad

28 is not that old

This past week I turned 28.  I used to think 28 was pretty old.  Now it seems young.  I had a great birthday this year.  We kept things pretty low key.  Collin took me and Caden to a wonderful restaurant in Mannheim called Skyline.  It's in a tower overlooking the city.  The top of the tower is shaped like a globe and it revolves around the city just like the Reunion Tower in Dallas.  The food was fabulous.  Collin also bought me beautiful roses and a gift card for a full day at the spa.  I picked myself up an ice cream cake and I also bought a Senseo Coffee Maker.  We have been wanting one for a while.  This past week I met a babysitter so hopefully I can redeem my present soon.

It is strange, I used to be more excited about my birthday.  In fact, Collin used to think I celebrated my birthday twice a year, my actual birthday and my half birthday.  He actually still buys me a cake and card for my half birthday even though my half birthday is close to Christmas.  Now that I'm a mom and knowing that Caden's birthday is just 5 days after mine, I have been more involved planning and preparing for his first birthday party.  I think that is natural.  

So much happened last year with the birth of Caden and traveling all over that I hope to have a little more down time this year.  Like always I want to continue deepening my relationship with Christ and try and be the best wife, mother, daughter, friend, and sister I can be.  27 was one of the best years of my life and I plan on 28 being just as good if not better.  I don't want to look back when I'm 80 and say, "remember the good old days?"  I want to make every year good, even though bad and sad things will happen.  Since we don't know how long we will live I think it's important to live each day to the fullest.

Here are some pictures from my birthday.

I love this boy!

Caden loved looking out over the city

I had the Spinach Strudel with mixed veggies, it was delicious!

Collin had the Pork Medalions with mushrooms, spaetzle, mixed veggies, and kohlrabi - it was wonderful too

You can just visit the observation deck right below the restaurant

Luxembourg makes 12!

This post is from Caden's perspective and is mostly taken from his new blog.   

Saturday I took my first trip to Luxembourg.  Luxembourg is the 12th country I have visited.  My parents wanted me to experience twelve countries before I was twelve months old.  Thankfully living in Europe makes this pretty easy to do.

I had a great time in Luxembourg.  We visited the Casemates du Bock.  The Casemates are full of mystery.  They were an immense underground military defense system.  To me they looked like giant mountain caves.  I enjoyed walking around and exploring the different tunnels.

Daddy loves Luxembourg because he gets to practice a lot of languages.  We ate lunch at a really good Italian restaurant and one of the workers told us to follow him to the Casemates.  When we got to the Casemates it started raining.  The waiter offered to give us a ride up the hill to the entrance so we wouldn't get wet.  Mommy thought he might hold us for ransom.  The man was from Portugal and mainly spoke Portuguese.  Daddy thought it was safe so we got in a stranger's car.  He was nice and did what he told us he would do, dropped us off at the entrance.  It's nice to know there are trustworthy people in the world.

The Casemates are behind me

Caves and tunnels are fun!

I thought this cannon was pretty cool

Hello world!

View from inside the casemates

Would this make a good walking stick?

Here you can see some of the different levels of the casemates

I love my parents!

Fun at Leimen Tierpark

Today Caden and I went on a play date with some of my friends from MOPS.  We went to the Tierpark (animal park) in Leimen.  The kids had a lot of fun.  There were some goats, deer, and some neat things to play on.  Caden loved feeding the goats until one bit him.  Poor little guy!  Caden also loved seeing some of his friends and being outside.  One of the best things about the park was it was heavily shaded.  Believe it or not it does get really hot in Germany.  It was in the 80s today and unfortuantely we do not have AC except in our bedroom.  We're going to buy three more air conditioners this week.  Our house is hot!  So is every store and restaurant in Germany that doesn't have air conditioning, which is almost everywhere.  I'm just glad I'm not pregnant this summer.

Here are a few pictures from today.

Caden enjoying feeding the goats

This was taken right before he got bit.  I felt horrible!

Caden and Peyton eating lunch

Gracie and Caden playing

Happy Baby!

Ireland continued...

Here is the second part of our time in Ireland.

Day 5 - Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough, Powers Court, and Bray Head

Today we drove through the Wicklow Mountains to the coastal town of Bray.  On our drive we saw where scenes of several famous movies were filmed such as Braveheart and PS I Love You. We stopped in Glendalough, walked around, saw the monuments: Round Tower, Church, and Cemetery, and then drove to Powers Court, the home of the most beautiful gardens in Ireland. We had a wonderful lunch at Powers Court and spent a few hours in the gardens.  After Powers Court we drove to Bray Head, a touristy beach town.  Caden fell asleep so we decided to drive through Dublin before dinner.

Wicklow Mountains

Round Tower in Glendalough

Church in Glendalough

Powers Court

Powers Court

Caden practicing his new walking skill

Gardens at Powers Court

Powers Court fountain and castle

Bray Head Beach - not too exciting

Dublin Castle

Prettier coastal town

Day 6 - Day in Dublin

We decided to spend our last full day in Dublin. We ate a nice Irish lunch and walked across the Ha'Penny Bridge. We visited some nice bookstores, bought some books in English, and went to Trinity College. Collin saw the amazing library and Book of Kells. I decided not to go in and let Caden play while Collin walked through. We ended our last night in Ireland with a very fancy dinner. I wish I had my camera. The food was not only delicious but very artistic too.

Ha'Penny Bridge

Ha'Penny Bridge

Trinity College

In honor of U2 - too bad we didn't have time to stop and eat something here

Day 7 - Back to Germany

We went to the airport early this morning and flew back to Germany. We had a great vacation! The Irish people are friendly and the country is beautiful. We'd love to go back some day.

We love Ireland!

We just got back from a week-long vacation in Ireland. We had a wonderful time. The only thing we planned before we went was some key things we'd like to do, the first and last night hotel stay, and we booked a rental car. Other than that we thought we'd take it day by day to see how Caden would do as we traveled across the country. He did great!

Finding a B&B or Farmhouse was easy. Ireland has lots of them! We stayed two nights at a B&B, one night at a Farmhouse, and three nights in a hotel. We had a crib every place we stayed. We also enjoyed a nice Irish breakfast every morning.

Day 1 - Arrived in Dublin

Our plane landed really late in Dublin last Wednesday. Sadly our flight was delayed by 30 minutes and Caden fell asleep for the first 30 minutes on the plane until the guy made an announcement that it was time to take off. He immediately woke up and wouldn't fall asleep again until close to midnight when we were at the hotel. (Collin's note: The rental car company, County Car rentals, picked us up outside the terminal and took us to their office in a nearby hotel. It was nice to have a short and less hectic practice period for driving on the left to help orient me for the long drives ahead. )

Day 2 - The Rock of Cashel and the Blarney Castle

Day one we visited the The Rock of Cashel and saw Cormac's Chapel. (Collin's note: Cormac seems to be the English form of the Gaelic Cormaic. The Mc before many last names means "son of" or "family of". So, I've read that McCormack and McCormick derive from that root name. It was cool looking at all the names in Ireland. What will we find in Scotland?) After lunch we drove to Blarney Castle and saw the Blarney Stone - neither of us kissed it for sanitary reasons. Both castles were quite impressive. My favorite was the Blarney Castle. The grounds were beautiful too and there was a nice grassy area that we were able to let Caden play on.

The Rock of Cashel

Collin & Caden in Cormaic's Chapel

The Blarney Castle

Someone kissing the Blarney Stone - they have to lean upside down and hold onto poles 90 feet above the ground! It looked kind of scary.

Blarney Castle

We stayed the night at a B&B in Kinsale, a cute coastal town in southwest Ireland.

Day 3 - Ring of Kerry and Dingle

The next day we took a scenic drive and drove part of the Ring of Kerry. We ended up in Dingle and spent the night there after visiting the Gallarus Oratory (Collin: a stone church which some think was built between the 6th and 9th century.)

This is how Caden spent the scenic drive, sleeping, thankfully

Gallarus Oratory

Our B&B for the night in Dingle

Day 4 - Dingle Peninsula and Kildare

We drove the Dingle Peninsula (beautiful!) and stopped at the Beehive Huts. (Collin: fascinating to imagine people huddling together during a cold winter with their families.) After spending some time around there and admiring the beautiful coast we continued on. Caden fell asleep so we decided to drive until we woke up and make our way back toward the east coast. We ate lunch at a Pub and spent the night in Kildare at Castle View Farmhouse B&B.

Cliffs along the Dingle Peninsula

More of Ireland to come!