Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

It's a GIRL!

We had our ultra sound yesterday and we are having a little baby GIRL! Kaden predicted this early on. He was calling the baby her and she for awhile. We had many talks about it could be a boy. And he was like "ok" but the look in his eyes was more like "yea right.". Hahaa! I guess siblings have crazy intuitions. Kaden had the biggest smile on his face when the tech told us it is a girl. She wasn't shy to show us she was a girl. She was moving around a lot so it they were able to get a good look at her. Everything looks good except she has one tube out of her kidney that is a little dilated. kaden showed the same thing in his ultra sounds. Pray that it heals so we don't have to have any surgeries when the baby is born. We are not worried. Now to figure out a girl name for this little one in my belly! I'm not a huge pink person but we had to go out and buy a "little sister" shirt to match kaden's "big brother" shirt. We are so blessed to have wonderful friends and family sooooo excited for baby Girl To! Thanks for your love and support.

Half Way!!!

The baby will be 20 weeks on Monday! Can't believe we are half way there! We find out if it's a baby boy or baby girl on December 9th. We have a lot more girl votes than boy votes... we will see! :) The baby is super active and kicking a ton. Kaden got to feel some of the big kicks last night and he's super excited! I feel great! Sleeping on my side has been a little challenging... but that's a minor complaint! Here's a picture of  me and the baby belly...and Joel's baby bump too... silly guy! :)

Oh Christmas Tree

You would think we had enough holiday festivities with Thanksgiving... but we wanted to bring in the Advent season! Sunday morning it was a fairly good weather...so, we packed up the warm clothes and mud boots and went Christmas Tree hunting... we found the perfect tree rather quickly. The Labrum's joined in the tree hunt along with Lori, Kyle and Kris. Kaden wore his beaver hat to chomp down his tree. haha! The minute we got the trees loaded up on the car the rain came pouring down! 

We took our time decorating the tree to have intermissions to race cars. Kaden is at such a fun age of participating and getting really excited about every ornament that came out of the box. I got to tell him about all the ornaments he's gotten in the past three years and the memories that are attached to them. 

We also had some time to play with some Christmas crafts... a felt Christmas tree to practice hanging ornaments...and decorating a gingerbread house. 

We hope to continue to point Kaden towards Jesus during this time of year and why He came to this earth, that it's not just about the lights, the sounds, smells, and activities... but it's about the birth of a Savior... 

"For to us a child is born,to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year was super low key... we had 11 of us crashing in the To house the entire weekend... two more added to the mix the night after thanksgiving. Throw in a handful of friends that came by for dinner another night...and you have a party weekend! We decorated cupcakes, cooked an entire thanksgiving feast and several other meals thrown into the mix. The kitchen was grooving with dishes and yumminess! The kitchen aid mixer decided to die but was quickly resuscitated by the amazing husband. Food was consumed, laughs were had, shopping was abundant, cars and toys were everywhere, games were played and memories were made. We had a lot to be thankful for this  year... health, jobs, kids, family, friends, community and above all Jesus.

Fall Fotos

It's been a while since I set out to take pictures of Kaden to document his growth instead of candid shots of an activity or an event. So... we ventured out to capture a beautiful autumn day in Portland. Leaves were abundant, the sun was shinning...the park was bustling and Kaden was all smiles. He's such a little man now. He even says the most grown up sayings... "Hi Dad, what are you up to?" "Wow, did you see that amazing moon, Momma?" Kaden tells me not to scratch my belly because I will hurt the baby. Well... here is my big boy Kaden at 3 years and 7 months.

Goodbye Jen... A Long Overdue Post...

This post is long overdue... so, most of you know that I got a new job in July... and left my home at the Alliance Northwest District Office. It was a sad day... it was more sad to say goodbye to my friends that I have made there. Jen then turned in her two week notice shortly after I did to move to Idaho. The staff invited me to her goodbye party... Our boys are around the same age... and played together really well. Jen and Bryan were in our Life Group at Mosaic for a period of time and it was awesome to grow along side of them, becoming parents together, and working together. Going to miss these kiddos too... Much love to the Shoemaker family and your new adventures in Idaho.