Milestone!

Weekend before last, Cade reached a huge milestone. He learned to ride his bike without training wheels! We were heading to the park and Dana asked him if he wanted me to take the wheels off so he could try it. He agreed but only if I promised to put them right back on if he didn't like it. I took them off, gave him one quick boost for about 3 feet to get him rolling and he was off. Just like that. And just like both of his brothers, he quickly proclaimed he was ready to ride the dirt bike.




Not quite 3-1/2 yet!!!


Two thumbs up!

And in other news, last week was Spring Break around here. It felt like Christmas week at work because almost everyone was taking time off and all the meetings were cancelled. With long boring days like that, Dana didn't have to twist my arm too hard to convince me to take Friday off. We went to Cathedral Caverns and De Soto National Park and had a great time. We walked about a jillion miles throughout the day and Cade was with us every step of the way up until the last 1/2 mile or so. That's like 2 jillion miles to his little legs. He finally asked to be carried as we were headed back to the car.

Waiting for the tour to start at the caverns. The caverns were nice but not as good as Carlsbad Caverns. It was worth the trip though. I only took a couple of pictures inside but nothing worth sharing.

Still waiting. We got there 45 minutes before the first tour so we had plenty of time to kill.

Now we're at De Soto National Park. We walked to several water falls throughout the park.

Obligatory boy shot.

Dana doesn't like this photo because she thinks Kevin looks really big. I have to agree but I do like the waterfall in the background. We plan on going back to this place in the summer when it's pretty and green (and HOT) and again in the fall to catch the explosion of colors.

The boys and me.

The wife and me. Kevin took this photo. He has a future in photography!

Guess who fell in the water. Again. Cade was trying to cross the creek where I was. I picked him up and stretched as far as I could to put him on a big log that was on the edge of the creek. He only had to take about 2 steps to be safe. I figured he had a 50/50 chance of staying on or falling off and if he did fall, a 50/50 chance of going in the water or falling on the bank. Pretty good odds, dontcha think? Cade grabbed firm hold of that 25% and plopped himself in the creek. The water was cold and he was not happy for quite some time. Poor little guy.

Just another pretty waterfall. Can't wait to see it later this year.

And another.

Dana, Kevin, Cameron and a dry-by-now Cade.

What a Difference a Week Makes

One week ago today we were playing in the snow and today we were basking in the nice, warm weather. We took advantage of the weekend's beatiful weather and spent some time outdoors. Yesterday we drove down to Decatur to visit the Wheeler Wild Life Refuge. The kids had a good time walking along the paths and watching the ducks and turtles through from the observation room.




One of the many turtles we saw.



Family photo op.

I guess we should get a tripod so we can all be in the picture at the same time.

This is in the observation room. There weren't a whole lot of ducks left but enough to entertain the kids.

Today we loaded up the kids' bikes and headed to a local walking/bike trail down by the river.

We stopped to throw some rocks in the river and Cade made it all of about 3 minutes before slipping on a rock (by Cameron) and wallowing around in about 3 inches of water. He wasn't very happy.

This place will be beautiful when summer gets here. I probably won't see it though. I'll be curled up in a ball in the house with the A/C on high.

Riding buddies.

Cute shot of Cade.

This next photo was almost worthy of a post of its own. The obvious title would be "Like Father Like Son"

Remember when I accidently shaved the side of my head a couple of months ago? Look what Cade did. Fortunately, it isn't quite as bad as it looks in this shot. His bald spot is sort of covered up when his hair is brushed to the side. Thank God he only buzzed a couple of inches and not half his head.

He Made It!!!

Our snowman thingy made it to Tuesday! Barely. Here's proof. This photo also serves as proof that, nooo, our snowman was indeed made of snow and not rocks like some people have suggested. We, from the drier climates, just know how to build quality snowmen even if they do provoke uncontrollable laughter from someone who takes snow for granted. How do you like all the grass it picked up as we rolled the snowball? That's a composite snowman for you! Much stronger than wimpy, solid snow snowmen.


Mr. Snowman looks a little different than he did the last time the boys posed with him.


We just got back from Game Stop where Kevin finally got his copy of the new Halo Wars game. He's been saving his money for months for this game. You should have seen how excited he was to finally get his hands on it. Once again, Cameron ducked in at the last second to add some pizazz to the picture.

I didn't have time to get the camera , but when I got home we had 4 little deer in our backyard. That never happened in Las Cruces.

SNOW!!!

Woo hoo! It actually snowed! Ok, so it was no more than an inch and it was pretty much gone by noon and all of you from North of here are laughing at us but we'll take what we can get.

Kevin, Cade and I are doing "The Big Race" as Cade calls it. It's very important to him and this race takes place at least 50 times a day - usually from one end of the house to the other. It goes like this: Cade says, "Osay. (He can make a 'k' sound but we have to remind him) On your maaarrrrk. Get seeeeet. (He takes off about now) Go!" And we run to the other side of the house or wherever the finish is trying to catch up to the little cheater.

Gotta catch snowflakes on your tongue. That's what snow is for.


At this point I was still trying to convice Cade it was OK to catch snowflakes on his tongue. I think he preferred to keep his face tucked in and warm.

Like all 3 year olds, Cade can't walk anywhere. Always running.

Cameron after a snowball fight.

Cameron is about to get his head dragged through the snow. You can tell he's terrified by that giant smile on his face. He was so traumatized he asked me to do it again several more times. The other two boys were tortured in the same way. Their giggles of pain were probably heard throughout the neighborhood.

Cade was asking Dana for help because he was having vision problems and instead of adjusting his hat, Dana grabbed the camera.

This was during out second outing later in the morning. By then the snow was excellent for packing and snowman building. Unfortunately, it was getting pretty thin by then.

All 5 of us had a hand in building this beautiful snowman. Dana was the one who got the whole thing started. Don't laugh. I told you the snow was getting pretty thin.

After Dana wimped out and went inside, we added another section to our snowman to make him even bigger. Our goal was to make him big enough to last until July. This is as far as we got. We decided lasting until Tuesday instead would be ok. An hour later his head had already fallen off.

Obviously this was taken a few days ago. Cade asked Kevin to take him for a walk in his wagon and big brother was happy to oblige.

One of our many boxes around here. This one became Cade's garage.

I walked into Cade's room to tuck him in the other night and found him like this playing his Pixter. What a cutey!

Plain Cardboard

I couldn't think of a title to this post so I named it after Kevin's future band. Not that he wants to be a musician, he just thinks that would be a cool band name. I agree.

Earlier this evening I was complaining to Dana about not having anything to do in the evenings. So I decided what better way to spend the evening than sharing some new pictures of the boys? Then I tried uploading the pictures and almost decided it wasn't worth it. Gotta love the way this site works sometimes.

Ok, so we got the boys signed up for soccer this weekend. I keep hearing that soccer is big around here but it isn't like what we're used to. The Spring season is almost like an afterthought. The kids don't get on one team and stay there. Instead they go through a "draft" each year. We'll see how that works out. Also, soccer and baseball completely overlap each other so we're down to one sport now. Both boys chose soccer without a moment's hesitation.

We also took the boys by the Space and Rocket Center to see the free stuff. (We'll save the paying trip for later) They were quite impressed with the Saturn V as well as the SR71. We spent quite a bit of time in the gift shop too. Neat stuff if you ever get the chance.

And one more note. I was late getting home today because I WAS DOING SOMETHING! Yay me! I'm finally starting to earn my pay. Sort of.

On to the pictures:

The boys got some dinosaur tattoos and stuck them on their arms. I tried to get them to show their guns for a photo but Kevin wouldn't really cooperate. I couldn't decide which one to show because they both came out cute so I'll show them both.

I just love the look on Cade's face. Cameron has a usual Cameron look. Kevin wouldn't flex.

Less intimidating shot of the boys. I like Cameron's look.

Cade drug out this old Spiderman puzzle this weekend. He wouldn't pose for the photo though.

I had to include this photo of Kevin and Cameron when we first got this puzzle way back two houses ago. They've grown a little. Please excuse Cameron in his underwear. He didn't have any idea this photo would ever be posted on the internet for the whole world to see.

Cameron and I went for a bike ride this weekend out behind the neighborhood and found this new-to-us short trail through the trees. The boys have probably ridden their bikes more in the last month than they did all last year. Cameron was going to take Kevin to this place yesterday but about 30 seconds into the ride Kevin crashed. He's ok though. The gravel broke his fall. He came limping back home with some gnarly road rash on his arm and leg.

Sometimes Cade rides his "special bike" and sometimes he rides with me. For clarification, his special bike is his bicycle. His dirt bike is his plastic 2 wheeler. And his "loud loud bike" is his dirt bike (which he isn't allowed to ride yet but wants to).

Two quick stories I have to share about Cade. Last week Dana and Cade were paying for the groceries at Wal-mart. When they finished and were leaving, Cade told the cashier, "Thank you for shopping at Wal-mart!" Does that mean Dana goes to Wal-mart too often?

A few days before that he was telling Dana he wanted to get bigger. Usually, when he does this he says he wants to get bigger so he can ride the loud loud bike. But this time, when Dana asked him why he wants to get bigger he replied, "So I can drive." Where did that come from? I guess he just decided to skip the small stuff and go big.

On a related note, Cameron recently told Dana he's worried about learning to drive because he's afraid someone might hit him from behind when he's stopped. Where did he get that? When I was his age I was poking sticks in the dirt and pretending to shift. Rules of the road never crossed my mind.

Settling In

Well, we're slowly getting into the swing of things around here. The boys are getting more comfortable and learning that they have to work a little harder in school than they used to. Kevin finished last semester with straight A's and started this semester with, well, let's say NOT straight A's. Or even crooked or alternating A's. Pretty much no A's of any kind. After he realized what his grades looked like on his progress report he just about had a cow. Needless to say, since then he's been working harder and his grades are improving dramatically. I have no doubt he can bring every one up to an A.

Cameron is mostly having some issues with his behavior in class. It isn't really bad but he stands up and sometimes talk when he isn't supposed to or just doesn't pay attention like he should (surprise!). Apparently, New Mexico kids are much more rowdy and undisciplined than Alabama kids because no teacher has ever mentioned any problems with Cam until now. But we talked to him about it and he too has improved dramatically according to his teacher.

Dana and Cade continue to hold down the fort during the day and have their own routine set. Now that my wife is retired, I keep telling her she should be getting up and making my breakfast every morning and having a snack and my slippers waiting when I get home but she tells me she's a union organized housewife now and that doesn't fit in with her break times and payscale. I figure it's cheaper, quicker and just easier if I do it all myself.

I still don't know what I'm doing at work.

Enough chatter. Here are a few new pictures I've taken over the last couple of weeks.

A couple of weeks ago we all wandered through and around the wooded area behind our house. We ended up doing a loop around our part of the neighborhood. I thought this moment with Kevin and Cade made for a good photo opportunity.

The boys, especially Cameron, like to ride their bikes down a nearby dirt road to another wooded area. Cameron likes to go over there to watch the sunset. I thought Cade, Cameron and I were going out for a quick walk when I got home from work today but we ended up being gone for an hour because Cameron wanted to see the sunset through the trees. That much walking in my work clothes and shoes was not much fun. We pretty much missed the sunset too.

This is how much room Cade normally has to ride his "special bike". It's a far cry from our huge ol' honking - and empty - driveway in Las Cruces. He only gets this much space when I pull the Expedition out of the driveway and into the street. Poor little guy. Notice, our side of the street doesn't have any sidewalks either. Grrr!

Here's one of our normal evening activities. Playing dominos! This is how you play, right? Here, Cade is racing the line of dominos after me and my apparently fat, round head got them started. Someone please tell Dana to never, ever take a picture of me from this angle again.

Cade, unlike his father, looks cute from any angle.

Sometimes.

Cade had just pushed his bicycle off the curb and into the street when I took this. I just thought he looked cute. (There is no nothing on this street by the way. So no danger of him getting run over.)

One quick, soon to be funny fact: Yesterday, when the temperature was in the mid-sixties or so, Dana said she liked the feel of the humidity and thought it felt good. Remember that and compare it to what she says this summer.