Cade's 1st Trip to the North Pole!

Cade met Santa today! Santa just so happened to be right by our house.... imagine that.... of all the places he could go, Santa chose to visit Fashion Island. I wasn't sure how the picture would turn out, but our Love Bug did it again! He flashed those gorgeous gums of his:) Check out his very 1st picture with Santa. I just LOVE it!! The picture above is the professional one. The ones below are from my camera.

Here we go... almost to Santa!

Santa was feeding his reindeer in this house, so we had to wait outside for an hour until he was done. Oh, the excitement!!

Our turn! Cade is trying to figure out who the Big Guy in red is and why Mommy & Daddy are not holding him.

Now he is getting used to the idea:)

Light bulb just went off! "Oh, THIS is what Mommy has been talking about all week! This must be the Big Guy that brings me all the presents! I am happy now!"

Cade picked out his outfit. He insisted he needed something new to wear for when he meets Santa. It says, "Santa's Little Man".

Thanks Santa! We will see you soon in 14 short days!

Christmas at Disneyland

What fun! Cade & I met some friends at Disneyland to see the Christmas parade. It always get me in the spirit. Here was the Little Man all decked out to see Mickey:) Just chillin'... Cheese:)

Here comes the parade!!

We got front row seats! Although we had to save a place for an hour before it started.

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus! BTW, I refuse to say Happy Holidays. That is total crap. Why are Christians the only ones not allowed to express themselves??

Guess Who's 5 Months Today?!?

Our Pride & Joy is 5 whole months... or 22 weeks..... or 153 days to be exact.

He is still smiling like crazy and now giggling a lot too. It melts my heart to hear his little laugh. Life doesn't get any sweeter than that. He is still trying to get used to the rice cereal and we have put solid foods (jar pears, etc) on the back burner for now. Cade's sleep schedule had a bit of a hiccup since he was out of his routine while we were in Vegas, but we are just about back into the rhythm. Cade is now sitting with support and I think he may be in the early stages of teething.

We are so thankful for the 5 months we have been blessed with to share with this Little Guy. He makes us smile bigger than ever before. I still have to pinch myself that he is OUR little boy. How did we get so lucky?

Cade Man,
Happy 5 Month Birthday, Big Boy! I love you so much! I feel privileged to be able to call myself YOUR MOMMY:) You make me sooo happy. You are the happiest little boy I have ever seen and it sure rubs off on me. I am new at this 'mommy' stuff so please bear with me as I am learning the ropes one day at a time. You are my sidekick and I love our daily adventures together. We get to experience so much just you and I and I cherish the time we spend together. I am so sad that I have to go back to work next month. I fear I will cry on a daily basis and miss you like crazy. How will I even be able to focus on work? But rather than dwell on that now, I will savor every moment of this last month that I am home with you. I love you to the moon and back!! You bring me unexplainable joy. I would give anything in the world to protect you, baby. You and Daddy are my world. You have the best Daddy ever. He loves you so much and he gets so excited to come home from work and see your smiling face. It brightens his day. He is so good with you. I love watching Daddy be a Daddy:) And I love to see you two having your 'Boy Time'. We have had the best 5 months of our lives. Thank you for being our son.
Love,
Mommy

5 Month Stats (these were measured by me since we don't go back to the Doc until next month - so take them with a grain of salt):
25 inches long (14th percentile)
14 lbs on the nose (6th percentile)
So... either Cade is slowing down in the growth/weight departments, or I measured wrong. We will see what happens next month at the Dr. office.
We were so excited to have Grammer come over and visit yesterday! Daddy was away at a work conference and Grammer came over to hang out! We had so much fun. Cade loved to stare and smile all day at Grammer.

And who could forget our monthly treats!? Mimi made these cookies for Cade's 5 month birthday! Don't worry Cade - you'll be able to share in the treats soon enough. But for now, Mommy will eat your share:)

Cade,

You are such a big little boy. We love you so much. Happy 5 Month Birthday, my Son. Let's always remember to thank Mommy for doing such hard work to bring us all together. You make our lives infinitely more meaningful. I am so proud to be your father.

Love, Daddy

P.S.

I forgot to 'show and tell' you what awaited us when we arrived to pick up our most prized little boy. He (with the help of Mimi) made me a Congratulations card! He told Mimi what to write:) But he DID sign his name... can you see it? Left side of the page in blue marker. I just love this card and will keep it forever!

Oh, and Mimi bought him a new toy too! It sings and dances to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". Mimi & Cade have a special dance they made up for the song. Here's to memories at Mimi & Poppy's house. Thanks for watching Cade, Mom & Dad! I know you love it, but it was a huge help, so THANK YOU!!

What Happens in Vegas, Comes to the Blog :)

Last Friday Brad & I packed up the car and headed out to Las Vegas for my 1st marathon post baby (3rd ever marathon). For those of you who don't know, we are talking 26.2 miles! Here is a recap of my FULL marathons:
1st marathon: January 18, 2009 - Arizona Rock n' Roll - finished in 3:45
2nd marathon: May 31, 2009 - San Diego Rock n' Roll - finished in 3:43
3rd attempted marathon: November 15, 2009 - San Antonio Rock n' Roll - found out I was preggo 3 weeks before so I couldn't run the entire thing. I ran the first 3 miles with my bro and then cabbed it down 13 miles and waited for my brother to reach me. We then ran the last 10 together.
4th marathon: December 5, 2010 - Las Vegas Rock n' Roll - finished in 3:57

But before I tell you about the run, let's talk about the par-tay:) We had a few stops along the way. Stop #1 - drop the dogs off at Dr.Tom's to be boarded. Stop #2 - drop the Cade Man off at Mimi & Poppy's house. Then we were off to the races... literally!

Once checking in at the Mandalay Bay, it was time for a cocktail.
We made it! No traffic... we were cruisin'.

Off to the bar... so many choices....

Cheers!

Then, Yours Truly got a new Michael Kors bag:) You like?

Next on the list, we went to The Bellagio to see this:

The show was great!!

Day 2 - first on the agenda was to hit up the Marathon expo to check in and pick up my bib, goody bag, etc.

I picked up these babies too! I had wanted to try these shoes I have read about but no local stores carried them so that I could try them on. The expo had them so I cashed in!! Hopefully I can try them out for a run this week...

After the expo we went to Carnival Court at Harrah's - a fun outside bar with crazy singers and bartenders that flip bottles 'cocktail' style. It was an early night since the big run was the next morning. So early, in fact, that we (ok, I) woke up at 1am rested and ready to venture downstairs for some food. I figured it was time to 'carbo-load', so we went to a 24 hr cafe so I could get some pasta. Brad had the sliders....

And I got the spag and meatballs... by the looks of my empty plate, I think I liked it:)

We then headed to the tables to gamble for a few hours before I needed to head upstairs and get ready...

I am ready! How do I look?

At 6am, I headed over to meet Jeff. Do you remember Jeff? I met him 1.5 months ago while we were running the LA Half Marathon. He lives in Arizona and we decided to run this race together. He dressed up in full Elvis gear.

Because it was freezing outside, most people stretched and waited in this room until the last possible minute.

And we're off! Just for you, I ran with my camera again. You're welcome:)

Jeff & I met the girl in the pink hat (bottom right corner) as we were waiting for the race to begin. Turns out Sandy lives by me in Huntington Beach. She & I left Jeff around mile 5. And then I left Sandy at mile 11. I felt great and was running pretty fast.... until about mile 13 when I lost some of that energy.



Still going....

Feeling great! We had the whole strip to ourselves. It was closed down for about 5 or 6 hours.

You can't tell here but we are going over the overpass. It was pretty darn steep and we were on the last mile. The Mandalay Bay is straight ahead and that is where the race ends.

I was NOT having fun at this point. My exact thoughts, "why did I do this to myself?"

I'm done!! I can now smile... if I don't throw up first from drinking way too much water, way too fast! Now we gotta run up to the room, grab our bags, and hit the road to pick up Cade and the dogs.

Except..... we didn't anticipate the traffic. It took 2 hrs to get onto the freeway since the race had closed the roads down. Once on the freeway, we were flyin' for about 5 miles until the freeway came to a stop. Evidently they were doing construction. Who knows why they would do this on a Sunday afternoon. It took us 2 hrs to get to The Gold Strike hotel (which wasn't even to State Line)! We got off the freeway there, had lunch (along with many other drivers) and ended up getting a hotel. We decided to sleep and get up when the traffic would be gone. So we set the alarm for 2am. Not ideal, but much better than sitting in bumper to bumper traffic the whole way home.

Here is our $30/night room. You get what you pay for, right?

Brad was out 'like a light' within 15 minutes of hitting that bed.

Not me! I can never sleep well... I was a few hours behind him. I watched tv and played Suduko until I was tired. Good night!

P.S. Did I tell you who we ran into? Being the Bachelor fan that I am, right away I noticed Jason Mesnick & Molly Malaney as they walked past us in the Mandalay Bay/Luxor bridge. I stopped them for a picture - although the camera was turned on 'video' so it took a 2 second video instead - darn! Brad later apologized to them on my behalf for 'stopping them'. Hey.. what's wrong with stopping them?! I have to laugh at the pic (video) though... I have my arm around Molly like I am her long lost best friend! haha! Hey, it's not everyday you run into people from The Bachelor! :)

It's Christmas in Newport Beach!

Just a glimpse of the decorations inside our home....

We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!