A new additon...

Baby Kayden...all 5 lbs 8 oz of him!!

T & A LOVE their new cousin!! And so do I!

This is baby Kayden. He is the newest member of our extended family. He was born 8 weeks early weighing 3 lbs 10 oz, but he is showing he's a tough little guy and doing very well. He was born into a difficult situation. Please keep Kayden, his mom (my cousin K), and her parents in your prayers. They all need a lot of prayer! We love this little guy already, and we want everything to work out for the best for everyone!!

Future Rescue Hero!!

See how happy little R is? Of course, PaPa is pretty happy, too!

R LOVES firetrucks and police cars, and since my dad works for the city, he has access to both. We spent one afternoon letting R sit in the big ladder truck and in a police car that Dad was working on. Little R LOVED it!!!! He threw a fit every time I asked him if he was ready to go...he was having so much fun! If there was a heaven on earth for little R, this was it...the only thing that could have made it any better was to throw in a tractor and a motorcycle!

The Birthday Boy!!

Lighting the candle on baby R's #1 cake...

The first taste...

OOOHHH....YUK!!!

The tractor cake...just like PaPa's real one!!

A made a very special birthday present for R to hang in his room...he wasn't too impressed now, but I assured her that it will mean a lot to him someday!

Well, it's true!!! Baby R turned a year old on Sept. 8th. We had a party for him on the 6th here at our house. We had quite a houseful of family and friends here to celebrate with us, so that made it very special. We had a cookout, a hayride (thanks PaPa!), and then we had cake and ice cream. R had his very own #1 cake...chocolate with chocolate frosting! I was very much looking forward to him digging in and enjoying it because I usually won't let him have anything that unhealthy for him. As you can see from the pictures, he was not impressed with his cake!! He didn't like the way it felt on his hands or the way it tasted, and he couldn't figure out why everyone was staring at him and laughing!!! It was a great evening...thank you to everyone who came to share the fun of celebrating our first year with baby R...and what a fun year it has been!

Fair Pageant

R in his cowboy gear!!

A along with the other winners of her pageant.

Again, I must point out how much taller A is than all the other girls her age!

I thought she looked very grown up and beautiful!!!

Our local county fair was this last week, and they always have a fair pageant as part of the festivities...so of course A and R were entered in it!! I was in the pageant when I was about T's age, and I tried to get her to do it, but she very quickly told me "No Way!". So we entered A and R. R's was a "western wear" theme...he wore Wranglers and Ropers and all that good stuff! He had a "Tough Enough To Wear Pink" Wrangler shirt...part of the proceeds go to breast cancer research, which I thought was great! A's theme was just "Sunday dress". The pageant was supposed to be on Wednesday, but because of bad weather it was postponed until Saturday. That meant we had two pageants and R's birthday party on the same day!!!! It was total chaos!!! But, it was fun even though R didn't place in this one. A didn't place, but she won "audience favorite", so she was thrilled! Her exact words were "There were like 10,000 people in the audience and only like 11 judges, so it's more important what the audience thinks anyway!" (In reality there might have been 150 people in the audience and there were 3 judges, but it's neat to hear how it looked to her!)

Labor Day Hike

This is at the top, where it all began!
The girls are "ready to go"!

Taking a little break...halfway there!

T and A braving the falls!

We made it back to the top!! YEAH!!!

For Labor Day we decided to go to Petit Jean State Park and take a hike! We have this great backpack for R that he loves to ride in, but we just haven't used it much. So, we decided now was the time to break it in right! I had been on one of the trails before, and I remembered it ending at a waterfall, so I thought that would be a great one for the girls to see! So we packed up a picnic lunch and loaded the van with all 3 kids, myself, and my parents, and we were off!! We found the trailhead and it said it was 2 miles long. No problem, we think!! The trail is mostly made up of natural steps made out of stone...you go down hill pretty much the whole way in to the waterfall. At the end you are in this deep canyon with the waterfall pouring down over the rocks into a pool of water. It is beautiful, and the girls enjoyed it, but man was it hard with little R on my back!!! I carried him the whole way down (and survived)! After a short break for the girls to play in the water, we headed back UP the trail with little R on PaPa's back. PaPa made it almost the whole way...he had to give little R up near the end. We kept saying the whole way down and back up "who's idea was this"? But, after about 15 minutes to recover at the end, we all agreed that it was fun...T is ready to go again!! (By the way, I know I am going to hear it from R when he sees this, and others will probably think it...but YES little R has his binky in his mouth in EVERY picture...I know! He is getting several teeth at the moment, including his two top teeth, so he has been quite the "binky baby" lately! I figure if it helps ease his pain, then that's okay! Once the teeth are in, we will make sure he has it less! So no nasty e-mails!! Remember, I am single parenting right now, and whatever makes things easier on me usually goes around here right now!)