Ava Katherine is here!

I have a niece!! Yesterday my sister gave birth to little Ava Katherine. She was born at 12:32 AM. Came in weighing in at 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19 inches.

She is precious and we can't wait to meet her! Her are some pictures my brother-in-law took from his phone.

Big Brother Coleman holding his little sister for the first time

Ava in her first outfit. I wanna sat this outfit was also picked out by big brother Coleman.

I think the story went: he and my sister were shopping and he said, "Mommy Ava needs this." So, how could she say no. It is a very cute little outfit. It has hearts all over it. So much love from her big brother :)

This is how Coleman passed the time away waiting till it was time for him to go see his little sister Monday morning. Yes there is no kitchen table...we ordered a new table it will be in this Wednesday. Having no table made for a wonderful basketball area for the kids.

Best buds! These two cousins love each other!

I will post more pictures of little Ava once we all get to go and see her. I cannot wait to meet her!!



Public Safety Chili Cook Off

What is a public safety chili cook off?
It is an even where local residents can take a day to meet their public safety folks while munching on homemade chili.
The Alpharetta Public Safety Foundation is inviting the public to its first Chili Cook-off event. Numerous police officers, firefighters and other public safety staff will put on their chef hats and aprons to deliver dozens of pots of tasty homemade chili.

So what do you do...

You go up to each chili pot with a cup and they scoop a lot for you to try.
Once you have tried them all of just found one that you really like, you then go and vote for it.
At the end of the time aloted the fire chief adds up all the votes and announces the winner.
And of course they had drinks and deserts to snack on.

Nana and Cayden practicing walking.

Fox 5's Chief Meteorologist Ken Cook even came with his grand children.

There were plenty of firetrucks for children to walk through, sit it, and climb on.

Such a fun day. Next year Cayden will be able to go though the firetrucks and try the chili.
Such a great even to be part of. They also had raffle tickets to win prizes. The cost of the tickets I want to say were around $5.00 per person.

 The winner gets a belt and bragging rights of the best chili. The winner this year came from the restaurant Olde Blind Dog.
Congratulations!

The Greenway

You might ask...what is the greenway?

Well, a "greenway" is a linear park. It offers an ideal setting for walking, jogging, roller skating, and biking. In Forsyth County it is a 12-foot wide concrete and boardwalk path going through the woods along Big Creek.

Wildlife such as blue heron, deer, ducks and Canada geese can be observed in this preserved water setting. When the all the phases are completed in 2012 or early 2013 for Forsyth County it will be approximately 15 miles long. Right now it is only about 6.8 miles in Forsyth County. There are also greenway trails in Fulton County and Gwinnett Country.

When we lived in Alpharetta we did not use the greenway that much. It was just easier and quicker to go to a park and walk/run around that park. Now that we live in Forsyth the greenway is much closer to our house.

So here is what the greenway looks like. Cayden and I went for

a run on 3-17. He enjoyed it :)

Welcome to Big Creek Greenway

all cozy and ready for the run

sunscreen...check. handsome boy...check. water for mommy and Cayden...check.

We are ready to go!

here we go...

the creek

just a short vieo of the peacefullness

this is what the trail looks like after a big rain and the creek floods

some of our little friends we saw that day.

we saw  rabbit also, but I could not get the camera quick enough to get a picture.



It was such a beautiful day out.

I think that every county needs to have a greenway. This is such a great way to enjoy being outside and get exercise all at the same time.



Mowing the carpet

My mom had gotten Cayden a toy lawnmower for his birthday and now loves it since he can walk with it.

He wanted to mow the carpet for us ;)

cheese for the camera

 



what a little ham acting like his Aunt Kate

As many of you know my sister Kate is pregnant, and we are just waiting on the arrival of little Ava in a few weeks.

Cayden loves his Aunt Kate so, so much and just does not understand why her belly is sticking out and why she can't hold him like she used to. 

Therefore, he thought that the reason must be...

she must have just had dinner like him...lol!



Little Ava Katherine will be here sometime at the end of March. When she arrives I will post a blog :)

Practice makes perfect

Cayden has been doing so well with walking. Practice makes perfect. And this little boy is always practicing. He even now will push your hands away so he can try it himself.

This past few weeks Ryan has been in training and every night when Ryan would get home Cayden wanted to show him how much better he was doing.
On this particular night Cayden was walking for a good while all by himself. I did not get all of it on video being that we both thought that he was going to fall and start crawling. But that is not what happened. So I grabbed the camera and got a little bit of him walking!

He did so well and just kept walking and walking around the room. Well until he saw the camera.

 

And yes that is American Idol playing in the background :)



First steps

We had a milestone in our house at the beginning of March. That's right Cayden took his first steps with no help from Ryan or I, and no toys!!!!

What a proud moment! It did not last to long, but we are so so proud of him :)



13 months!

We are a 1 year and 1 month old :)

We are always on the go. With tons and tons of crawling and walking with help from Mommy and Daddy. Slowly we will get him walking on his own.

Hanging out with Daddy before bed time. Thanks hun for smiling ;)

Walking with Daddy's help

A new favorite food...hot dogs!

yum, yum, yum

he kept doing the sign for more food. so precious!

Cayden's first video of walking with help from either Daddy or Mommy. Once he sees the camera though it is all over with. He will come straight for the camera wanting it and wanting to hit all the buttons on it.

LOVING the weather!

Beautiful day here in Georgia. It is 70 degrees in February!!

We are just loving this weather of shorts, and flip flops :)

on the move and loving it

trying to figure out this whole walking thing.

he thought it might be easier in the grass. not so much, but what a determined little man.

oh so cute even though we are not smiling 100%

there we go with our smiling happy little boy :)

Cayden loves to dance. Well, I should clarify he just likes to bounce

(aka dancing for a 12 month old)



It was such a wonderful day outside. We even went on 2 walks that day and played outside the whole time and he LOVED it!

Helen 2011

Ryan and I decided to take Cayden to Helen, Ga. at the beginning of February.
It was a beautiful day and a blast spending it with my two loves <3

Ryan pushing Cayden in the swing. He is still warming
up to the swings.

As you can see it did not last long.

Going down the slide with Daddy

And yes it is a little kid slide so Ryan really just sat on it and moved a few inches and the ride was over. So we then tried it with just holding onto Cayden.

He loves it!!!!

All smiles about doing down the slide :)

 Watching the Chattahoochee River pass by us.
In the summer time you will see tons of people tubing down this part of the river.
I have done this quite a few times and we look forward to taking Cayden as he gets older.


Cayden had a ball! We were just a little upset that most of the stores were closed the day we went up there. But the good thing is we found a place right in the downtown area that you do not have to pay for parking :)
We are looking forward to driving up there again this summer. It is just a little over an hour drive from our house.

First warm day 2011

Yay it is starting to get a little warmer here!

I know I am loving this since Cayden and I stay home and he is always looking out the windows wanting to go out and play. Now that he is learning how to walk it makes it fun to try the grass.

He is not always a fan of the grass...and mommy is not a fan of the grass clippings on his clothes.

Loves crawling in the grass

Paying attention to the leaves blowing in the grass. It's the

little things in life, right?

It was such a beautiful day. We are looking forawd to many many more this spring :)



Learning to brush his teeth

It is never too early to start good teeth hygine.

The first few times were hysterical watching him try to brush his teeth. Kept holding onto the bristles and placing the bottom of the tooth brush in his mouth.

we of course helped him and got his little teeth brushed that night.

A few days later he wanted to try on his own and he got it!

Such a proud little man. We still brush his teeth for him of course, but afterwards he likes to try himself. Happy to know when the time comes he will know how to brush his teeth and will like them being clean.





Basket time

Cayden has now found a new place to sit/play in the family room.

in the basket

thinking about his next move

ok now time to get out of the basket

 nope now we are back in the basket

always fun to find new things around the house for little man to play with.

he is such a happy little guy :)

This is just  little video of Cayden and his new learning dog he got for Christmas.

Cayden loves hitting the button to where it says "Can you give me a hug?"



Giving Daddy Kisses

Cayden wanted to be with Ryan outside, but instead Ryan made a game out of it.

always has lots of kisses for Daddy

Ryan making Cayden laugh through the door