School has Started!

We are officially in school mode. I have to be at school by 7:20, so Cade and I have been working on getting our sleep each night. I put him to bed between 8-8:30 and wake him every morning around 6:20. It has been quite the adjustment for the both of us. I am coaching middle school volleyball this year,so we are at school everyday until 5.. it makes for a long day for him, but he has done great!
He loves coming to school with me and actually knows his way around pretty well. In fact, he seems to think sometimes he owns the place. I am so thankful that he enjoys being at CPA. He loves all the attention he gets of course!!

Something happened last week that I think is too cute not to share. The other night, after Chris got Cade out of the bathtub, he and Chris were conversing about something. I overheard their conversation and it melted my heart. I am not sure what they were talking about, but I heard Cade say, "daddy, i have one eye." Chris and I both have heard him say this before and we always tell him, "no, you have two eyes.." He looks in the mirror quite often when getting out of his bath. I then heard Cade say, "God take care of my eye." Love it! At three I so hope he understands that statement and if not he will!! So true, that He has already taken care of Cade and continues to! I am so proud of him, but he is growing up toooo fast!!!

What's up with the Brians?

Summer is almost over for us and we are beginning to wind things down as Chris and I both start school in two weeks. Cade's pre-school doesn't begin until September, but he will be going with me and will be kept by Ms. Pam whom he loves.
Chris has started two-a-days for football, so it has been mommy and Cade the last few days. We haven't done alot in the past few weeks, but I will highlight some end of the summer fun. Of course, everday consist of playing with Caleb and Ace during the day, which could be riding their battery-operated vehicles, playing baseball, finding big rocks in the yard, mowing the grass, playing with sidewalk chalk, playing with play-doh, taking walks, and maybe a few tantrums scattered within. They do love each other though.

My friend Jennifer and I took the boys to Chuck E Cheese and they had a blast. We also tried to take them to the splashpad at Burns Park one day, but none of the boys wanted anything to do with the water. They wanted to play on the playground instead... keep in mind part of the reason we went was that it was so hot, and we both thought the water would cool them down...nope, they could care less it was 95 degrees that day!

Cade and I took daddy down to the river one day. He had never been and Cade wanted to show daddy how far he could throw the rocks. Even at 3 boys try to out-do themselves--Cade kept insisting to pick up the rocks that were way to big for him to throw...so cute.

On Thursday, Cade and I drove to Chattanooga to see Nana and Papa and to celebrate Brody's birthday. (my brother's little boy) Nana took Friday off and we did some school shopping for Cade and he rode the train in the mall. Later that day Nana and Papa took him to the zoo. He had a great time and loved seeing the big turtles and watching Nana hit her head on the turtle tank. (LOL) It was so much fun!

This week will be hard for Cade. We found out 2 weeks ago that he will need another set of tubes in his ears and they want to remove his adnoids. That will be done on Tuesday. I tried to figure out a way for him not to have another surgery for a while, but this fluid has been in his ears for about 3 months and is affecting his hearing. The thought of him getting upset at the hospital just breaks my heart and makes me hurt for him. The surgery is only about 30 minutes, but it is all the pre-op stuff that he freaks out about and I can say I can't blame him.

Also, today he has an eye appt. with his vision doctor and surgical doctor. I am praying for positive words and that his vision has improved. This visit doesn't scare Cade, but just the thought of going to the doctor makes him upset. On a side note, we will be scheduling an appt. with the cornea specialist in Ohio in weeks to come to remove the scarring on the cornea.. Praises that he is already in our insurance network!! THANK YOU JESUS!!

Cade, I promise you there will be a day when you will not have to visit the hospital as much. I know the Lord has big plans for your life! You are a very strong little boy whose strength comes from the Lord. I pray that you will be a young man who others look up to for enduring strength and confidence that God is good, all the time!! We love you and you are "OUR WARRIOR."

Josh. 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous..for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Down by the river...

So I try to find some different things for Cade and I to do together once Chris starts football in July. We live very close the Harpeth River and live about 5 minutes from a park that leads you to the river. We have passed this park many times and often wondered what it was all about.. it certainly didn't look like a park.
Well, I got a little adventurous one day and decided to take Cade to see what this park was all about. We walked a little while and it led us to a shallow place on the Harpeth with lots of rocks.
We ended up spending about 40 minutes down there. Cade threw small and big rocks, but he kept wanting to pick up the bigger rocks of course. We walked down the river some as well and continued our fun. I tried to perfect my "skipping rocks" skills, but could only get two skips.
I decided the next time we would visit the river we would ask Cade's buddies next door-Caleb and Ace. He absolutely adores the two of them and loves being with them. Jennifer was the wise one and brought along her camera to take some of these pics.
Love them! They definitely had fun at the Harpeth!
Sometimes I wonder if God made rivers, creeks, and other types of water, not just for our pleasure as adults to gaze at His beauty, but for little boys who just want to have fun throwing rocks. Thank you Lord for these small wonders that bring so much pleasure to children!

Making our house a Home

During the summer Chris really only has about 2 weeks off. He has football workouts every morning and then it all begins the second week of July, so we spend one of those weeks at the beach as you saw in my previous post. The second week we both decided we wanted to do some things to the house. We have been in our house a year and still had not decorated our walls. There were just a few extra things we wanted to do. The first thing we did was paint our bathroom. I love the color! We replaced the old brass light fixtures in our bedroom and bathroom. That made a huge difference. Chris was trying to be such a handy man-I do have to give him props-he tried to install our vanity light for about 4 hours and finally had to ask someone to come do it. He really tried and was so mad he couldn't get it to work. He kept saying, "nothing can be easy, can it?" I tried to hold my tongue and encourage, but he kept pressing hard to get it done. (btw, it took our friend 10 minutes to install the light..hee-hee)

Anyway, the next day my friend and I took an excursion to Old Time Pottery! Wow, love that store. We found many things for our walls, many prints, and many canvas prints. I absolutely loved everything she picked out!! She not only picked out some beautiful pieces, but she helped me place them in our living room and bathroom once we got home! So thankful that a decorator lives next door and a great friend as well!!

I am so blessed to have this wonderful home the Lord gave to us and thankful that it now feels like a home as well!!

Seagrove Beach

Something we look forward to every year is our time at the beach with our family. This year we traveled back to Seagrove Beach, Florida. We have been making these annual trips since I was in highschool, and it Never gets old! We love it!!
Cade had a great time this year, but hated getting "messy" as he would call it.. meaning sand on his hands and feet. He had to wipe them off each time he got sand on them..ugh!
Each day we would head down to the beach in the morning and spend a few hours and return for lunch. The week we were there happened to be the hottest week in Florida so far.. one day, the heat index was 111. So hot! We kept the kids under the tent most of the time and in the kiddie pool.
Cade was not so sure about the ocean. He loved watching everyone get in, but wasn't so sure about the big body of water in front of him. The last day of our vacation, he finally decided to get in the raft with Chris and I and he didn't want to come in all day! He had so much fun in the water. He kept saying the "water going up and down, that's funny."
At night Chris and "Papa" would take the kids to catch crabs. This was a highlight of the trip for Cade. Nana bought him a net and all he would talk about during the day was catching crabs. It was a blast!
We are so thankful to be able to spend time with our extended family every summer. Thank you Nana and Papa for our trip to the beach! Can't wait until next year!

Growing up....

paci is gone!











beating mommy at chuck e cheese














shooting hoops with daddy..he's a lefty!





So this was a very big week in the Brian household. We knew coming back from Texas that we had some work to do with Cade-potty training and getting rid of the paci. I was not looking forward to either one, but was very surprised by our big boy! Last week we began potty training and Cade did great. He has always been one who hates a mess, so everytime he had an accident, he hated it because he hated being wet! Awesome! So from then on, he used the potty every time he felt his "pee-pee coming." That is what he tells us now. So cute and he has done great! Chris decided that he was going to take Cade to Chuck E Cheeses if he pooped in the potty. We both knew that it might take a while for him to do that, but Cade had other plans. It took him one day to poop in the potty and he is on the road to being completely potty trained. NO, we are not taking him to Chuck E Cheeses every time he poops, but I did assemble a surprise box filled with little things from the Dollar store and that has worked pretty well. (thanks Jennifer for the idea)

The other agenda for the summer was Operation Paci...getting rid of our lifesaver. Man, I think this one was more hard for Chris and I than for Cade. It took one day of sleeping without it and paci was gone forever. I thought it would be alot harder, but once again Cade amazed us. He has not even asked for it and is so proud that he tells everyone he doesn't have his paci anymore.

All of this is wonderful, but I was somewhat sad that this all ocurred so quickly. My little boy is no longer a little boy and he is growing up so fast. Tears come to my eyes when I think that I no longer will be changing his diapers or seeing him sleep with his paci. Don't get me wrong, so thankful for not having to buy pullups anymore, but a little sad..

I know this is all part of life and I am so thankful the Lord gave us a healthy little boy who loves playing cars, riding his truck, throwing the frisbee, playing golf, wrestling-W.W.E. style, and many other things. We are so proud of you Cade and all that you have accomplished this week! You are so grown!! We love you!!

Texas-Part IV

Whenever we travel to Texas we get to stay with Chris' grandmother-his Nana. It is always a special time for us as we visit with her and listen to her love for the Lord. I thoroughly enjoy it! She has so much wisdom and she is definitely one after God's own heart. She lives alone since the passing of her husband several years ago, which happened to be the same date of Cade's birth. She is an intercessory prayer warrior and I know that she fervently seeks the Lord's face and listens to His still small voice. Chris and I both envelop her wisdom each time we visit her. The Lord's face does shine upon her daily and she exemplifies consistency in her walk with Christ.

One challenge we do face is what Cade call's her. He has a Nana, Grandma, Mamaw, and for some reason he thinks he has a MeME, so we decided that he would call her "GiGi" for great grandma. He called her everything but GiGi most of the time, but he loves his "GiGi."
Every morning when Cade would wake up she would take him to get the mail, and then they would eat their breakfast on the deck while they watched the birds. He loved this!! Every morning, if she wasn't there when he woke, he would ask where GiGi was. He loved spending his mornings with her and he loved watching the birds, especially the hummingbirds! Thank you GiGi for allowing us to spend the week with you!

Cade also enjoyed playing with Grandpa-Chris' dad. Everytime he saw him he wanted him to play cars or wrestle..of course. He loved playing at Grandpa's house and jumping on the trampoline, playing with Darby and Emily, and hitting the golf balls at the driving range. He must get his love of golf from Grandpa!
We loved our trip to Texas this year and we can't wait to go back next summer! It was a blast!