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!