Happy First Birthday KADEN!!!

We know you have read this a million times in our blogs, but man... time flies! It's been a year since we started this blog. Thank you for reading it this year... joining in the adventures of being parents and watching Kaden grow along side of us. He's been such a joy this past year... we have experienced the love of God in a new way and are continuing to see Christ in a different light. It's Easter weekend and as we are remembering Christ's death and celebrating his resurrection we see the sacrifice that God the Father gave us when he sent his ONLY son to earth to live and die for US. To be separated from his son... wow... that's huge LOVE to see him being beaten and hung on a cross... we freak out when Kaden falls down and gets a scrape. We are daily thanking God for his son that he sent for our sins... and we thank God for blessing us with a son that brings such joy and love to this family! Happy Birthday Kaden... we love you so much! We love watching you take your first steps... we love seeing you explore things and dislike grass... we love that you care for others... especially other babies when they are crying. We love your hugs and kisses... we love how you sing and dance! We love watching you look out the window and wave hi and bye to people. You are a blessing to us and we hope and pray that we will be a blessing to you too! Hope you can look back to the pictures of this past year and the blogs and stories we have written down and know that you are very loved by many people. But most of all loved by your creator... Happy First Birthday Kaden! 

First Full Haircut

Kaden has gotten a trim from Lisa's hairdresser, Jo Anna... but for his first "official full" haircut we took him to one of those kid shops that have all the cool cars and stuff to sit in. They have movies, toys, bubbles... everything you can think of to entertain kids... it was a little over stimulating actually. Kaden did a great job and now looks like a little boy, not a little baby! How they grow so fast. One more week and he turns ONE!!!

Potty Trained?

WARNING: This blog contains contents about poop. :-)

Kaden hasn't pooped in a diaper for almost a month now... it's amazing! :-) The boy is pretty regular. He pretty much goes potty every morning when he wakes up, or shortly after he eats breakfast. So, we noticed he would get into his poop stance... 

and rush him to the bathroom and set him on the toilet. :) Then he goes and we get him ready for the day! I think he actually doesn't like to poop in his diaper anymore. It's so nice not to have to mess with that... so, first step to potty training! We will take it! :0) I love this pic of him on the toilet... his smile is enough! :-)

Kaden is growing up entirely too fast... he is becoming a little boy now... he took a few steps the other day, but really loves to crawl...or scoot across the floor. It's not really crawling. Anyways, his first birthday is only 16 days away... we can't believe he's almost ONE!!!! WOW!!! He is such a joy... we love the new things he is learning every day. We love that there are no more poopy diapers!!! YEAH!!!

11 Months!

Kaden is 11 months old! He's one month away from being a year old...that's so crazy to us! He is so much fun right now... picking up things SO fast!!! He spent one morning with Co Amanda and started sticking his tongue out at us that afternoon! We have to really watch what we do now... cause he's watching. We love making him laugh... when he starts giggling all of life's worries and stresses melt away! Kaden is very mobile now... he loves stairs! Going up and then down... then back up and then back down... he entertains himself for ever! Right now he's eating a lot... he loves to feed himself and then pat his head and get all the food into his hair! :-) We aren't sure of Kaden's stats... he's heavy, long, big. :-) Hhehe!! We need to weigh him and measure him. Maybe tomorrow... oh... and the other thing... he likes to crawl under tight spaces... LOL!

Joel is wrapping up school, only one more month left... please pray for him and that he finds time to study and finish papers, study for finals, etc. The balancing act is always difficult. 

Lisa is wrapping up the last of four conferences in April. Then hopefully her work world will slow down a little. She finds herself working a lot after she puts Kaden to bed at night. 

Please pray for Kaden to continue to be healthy... we are supposed to schedule another test for his kidneys to make sure he's progressing well. We have been procrastinating a little on this test because the ultra sound costs a little more than we have right now... and we think Kaden is doing great! But the doctors wanted to check him before he is one. 

Please keep us in your prayers as Joel is done with school, we are unsure of next steps. (Especially with the state of the economy) We would love for Joel to be able to find a full time paid ministry position in the Portland area... but are holding things loosely and making sure we are using our gifts and talents where God wants us to.  Sorry the blogs are rare these days... but we really are glad you are reading and praying for us!!! 

DYC 2009

Last year at District Youth Conference I was about 7 months pregnant... and this year there's a 10 month old crawling around! Kaden was so good at the conference. 

But prior to DYC Kaden had his first slumber party! He stayed at Co/Duong 3 house (Thanh and Thu's) Thursday afternoon until Friday afternoon. So that Joel and I could concentrate on  setting up  for the conference. (especially since I was overseeing the whole thing).  Kaden did very well playing with his cousins and hanging out with Auntie and Uncle. 

Auntie Lori, Uncle Kai and Co Christine came down from Lynnwood to staff DYC this year! It was amazing to have them around. And everyone down here fell in love with the three of them!!! :-) Yeah!!! Go LYNNWOOD!!! :-) Kaden loved having his aunties and uncle around!!! What a great event... there were almost 800 high school students, staff and youth pastors/leaders there. Very high energy and an amazing speaker! You can check out pics and blogs on pnwdyc.com 

Kaden was great! He would play and go to anyone. And would sleep in the MOBY (I love my MOBY)!!! We would put him under the information table to sleep during evening sessions! Hehehe!!! He's growing so fast... in the past few weeks he's mastered talking on the phone-he will hold the phone up to his ear... it's very cute! He loves giving me (lisa) kisses... but will turn away from Joel... we think it's the facial hair! :-) He learned the vietnamese clapping song... with the movements! And explores everything!!! What a joy he is to our lives! Sorry blogging hasn't been very active lately. Life has been filled with much activity! :-) 

Kaden 10 Months!!!

Kaden is 10 months old!!! Only 59 more days until his first birthday!!! Wow! 

25 Random Facts about Kaden:

1. Weighs 21 pounds

2. 29 inches tall

3. Loves his froggy

4. Favorite toy is his music table thing Auntie Lori and Uncle Kai bought him for Christmas

5. Takes 10 oz of formula at night... 8 oz during the day!

6. Will not hold his own bottle 

7. Sings himself to bed (hums)

8. Has pooped on the toilet 4 or 5 times... we put him on there every morning

9. Has six teeth... two came in on his 10th month birthday!

10. loves to eat "puffs" and hates cheerios

11. Dances when there's music on 

12. ALWAYS does his "tricks" when people look away

13. Thinks webcam is the greatest thing!

14. Will jet off crawling when he's naked... he likes to be naked!

15. Loves brushing his own teeth

16. Has gotten used to taking showers with us, but prefers playing in the tub

17. Plays peek a boo, even if it's just with himself and a blanket

18. loves to play chase and will tease and call for us until we chase him

19. does amazingly well on car rides/trips

20. calls out for "dadda" when he's bored

21. Calls out for "momma" when he's hungry or when dadda is changing him

22. likes to wake up to eat in the middle of the night, but it's getting better

23. enjoys pushing anything that will hold him up across the room

24. tries to put on random things on his head like hats

25. loves to go to church and play with his buddies in the nursery! 

Happy 10 months to Kaden!!!!

Urban Hiking

We are not very out-door-sy people... we love the city though! So today the sun was out and we wanted to take a walk... so, normal people would go to the park... but we packed up the boy and headed towards the city to walk around downtown! There's so much people watching to do down in Portland! We love it!!! Kaden loves to people watch... he actually stares! It is embarrassing sometimes... cause people don't know how to respond to his staring! You can definitely tell who are baby people and who don't know what to do! :-) Anyways... it's interesting! I feel that we get more comments from strangers now in passing than we ever did before! I think if we had a dog it would even be twice as much!!! Hhaha!!! Kaden loves the comments and the smiles. He smiles back and stares!!! At least he isn't talking yet and says random things to strangers! I think that will be entertaining! So... here are some pictures of our little urban boy! Anyone wants to pay us to have Kaden as a model??? :-) Hhehee!!!