Caden is 4

Here are the things that make a great birthday for Caden.

Tongues-they are very useful for opening presents.

Brown wrapping paper-excitement often comes before even seeing the present.

Sisters and Brother -who are more than willing to point out every exciting feature of new presents.

Trying on his new cowboy hat.

Showing off his cowboy hat and gear, given to him by his sisters and brother.

Kisses- to say thank you.

Bubble wrap- (found on Grandma and Grandpa's presents) can be so fun to pop, and a little distracting.

This present-apparently, Caden really liked the present from Grandma and Grandpa Jones.

Playing with the new toys.

Finally getting what you want-Grandma and Grandpa Bassett sent Caden some money to let him pick out his own gift. This is what he choose-a lunch box and garbage truck (he loves standing on our porch and watching the garbage truck at our apartment). He has been wanting a lunch box ever since the girls started school, he was so excited to finally have his own.

Getting his first big boy bike. (He hopped right on and took off without any help.)

Brownies-Caden does not like cake.

Oops! Apparently, it was not a very good idea to stick candles into brownies fresh from the oven (the bottom half completely melted off).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE BUDDY!!

Favorite color? Orange and Green

Favorite food? "The Worlds' Greatest Hamburgers" (aka Fuddrucker's; Ken and I took him for an afternoon date and now he can't stop talking about it)

What do you want to be when you grow up? an army guy and a dad or maybe a superhero

Favorite thing to do? play with toys

Who are your friends? Sarah,Sara, Isaac, Justin, Katie

What is your favorite toy? cars and army guys and being a chef

Favorite Story/Book? Dump Truck Dan

Where do you want to live when you get big? in a house

How many kids are you going to have? a lot like 4 or 5 and one of them is going to grow up to be the mom since I'm not going to grow up to be a mom

Favorite song? The Armor of God

Favorite movie? Blue's Clues, Bob the Builder, Elmo

What makes you happy? when Chase comes in my room and then I be happy

What makes you sad? is I get an owie and then I be sad

Number Five is Alive!

We are so excited to announce that we are expecting! We went in Friday for an ultrasound and found out we are having a ....

GIRL!!

We are all very excited for her to join our family around March 5.

PS The kids just found out Friday that we are having a baby and then bit into the above cake pops (pictured above) to find out the gender

Online Piano Recital, Come One, Come All!!

So, we were hoping to have some special guests this weekend. The girls have been working on piano pieces to play for their grandpa and grandma. Unfortunately, due to unexpected events in the family, the grandparents will not be able to come after all. So, we are posting their piano recital for all to see. We are hoping for lots of comments (hint, hint), as we will be sharing the comments with the kids. Since Shelly and I are the piano teachers, we don't expect to have a real recital with true applause for awhile.

The following clips are the new songs that the girls have learned over the past 3 weeks. We are SOO proud of the girls and their progress.

Kailyn has learned the following: fermata, eighth notes, ritardando, de capo al fine, double repeats, accents, and THE DAMPER PEDAL!!!

Jordan has just started playing the piano. She is learning the basics, including time signature, measures, counting, quarter notes, half notes, whole notes, dotted half notes, dynamics, repeat signs, etc.

Caden Update

A little about our soon-to-be 4-year old, Caden.

Caden has the greatest imagination. He loves to pretend. Some of his favorites: superman, chef, T-Rex, a dog named Butler, and army guy. When he is pretending to be one of these characters you must refer to him by the correct name. You can't say, "Put this away please." Caden will quickly correct you, "You mean Chef put this away please."

I can't believe how big Caden is getting. He is definitely going from looking like a toddler to looking like a boy.

Caden has always been a really light sleeper. The littlest noise wakes him up at night. He also has the problem that he just can't seem to unwind at night. Even if he is really tired he just can't seem to drift off to sleep. This whole sleeping thing has become very frustrating to me. He isn't getting enough sleep at night cause it takes him forever to fall asleep and then he wakes up at the first noise in the morning, so he is tired during the day; but if I try and get him to take a short little nap during the day it makes the nights even worse. Right now he is going through one of his phases where he wakes up multiple times during the night and comes into my room to inform me at 1am, 2am and 5am that he is hungry, scared, or can't sleep.

Here is where I found him at 4 o'clock in the afternoon when things just seemed too quiet in the house.

This is where we found him during snacks, at 3 o'clock.

Caden has become quite the talker. He can just talk and talk and talk. I went into a little shop downtown the other day and Caden was his chatty little self. He was telling me everything about everything. As we were about to leave the shop, the owner said to me, "You have the cutest little boy. I don't think he stopped talking once." Caden has always had the cutest sound to his voice, which makes all his talking even cuter.

PS I just have to mention a conversation I had with Caden the other day. I was organizing our front closet and Caden was talking to me. Seemingly, out of the blue he says to me, "Mom, I want fake nails for Christmas." A bit shocked and wondering where in the world this was coming from, how he knew anything about fake nails, and why in the world he wanted them, I turned to him and asked, "Really? And why do you want fake nails?" "So I can build a table and fix the chair." "Oh, you want fake nails to go with your fake hammer. That sounds like it would be fun!" Phew!

Chase

Get to Know Chase. Our little 20 month old, red head.

This kid cannot seem to keep his eyes open in the car. The other day we were out looking at garage sales and he fell asleep before it was even 10am (his normal nap time is noon). Thank goodness he transfers well from his carseat to his bed.

He LOVES to make a mess. Anything that can be dumped or spilled, he will do it. Here he is dumping out the salt shaker.

Chase loves this baby-doll stroller. He is constantly climbing into it.

He LOVES to swim. The other day Ken said, "I think I will take the kids swimming today after the girls get home from school." Apparently, Chase heard the word swimming and thought we were going right then cause he immediately went and grabbed his swimsuit and got ready to go. He also loves to squint his eyes when he smiles for pictures.

He is also starting to talk more, although, he does not copy us when we say things. We try to get him to say things but he just smirks and stares at us. The thing I love is that he says "Goodbye Chase" and "Hello Chase" to US (not "bye mom").

He has also learned to jump with both feet. He loves to jump now (not so good when you live in an apartment). He is so much better at actually jumping into the pool instead of belly flopping into it.

Chase loves to go anywhere. If anyone is leaving the apartment Chase wants to go. He will grab his shoes and coat and even start getting shoes for everyone else. If he is left behind (like when Ken leaves for work) he is completely heart broken.

He has to eat anytime someone else eats. For example, the girls get up for breakfast and he eats with them. Then Caden will wake up and eat and Chase eats with him. Then I will finally get the chance to sit down and eat and Chase wants to try some of my food and then Ken will wake up from working the night shift and eat, and guess who feels the need to eat...yep, Chase.

Jordan

Jordan got to be the 'K-Star' of kindergarten this last week. She was so excited. She found pictures of herself growing up and took them to the school to display on the classroom bulletin board, and she got to bring home the class teddy bear, Robert Bear. Robert Bear spent the week with our family. He even got to go swimming with us (though he was a little shy about getting into the pool with us).

Here are the questions Jordan had to answer for her class:

My name is Jordan Bassett

I am 5 years old

I have 2 brothers and 1 sister

My favorite game is Uno

My favorite color is pink

My favorite food is chicken nuggets

My favorite TV show is Strawberry Shortcake

I help at home by cleaning my bedroom

My favorite toy is Barbies

My favorite animal is a unicorn

My favorite story is There's a Mouse About the House

My favorite song is Let Me See You Boogaloo

My favorite letter friend is Rr

That Friday the whole family (minus Kailyn who was in class) got to go to Jordan's class so her class could meet us. We also got to play a game where we tried to guess the answers to the above questions. We knew all of them except Strawberry Shortcake (I don't remember her ever watching this), unicorn (didn't know this was considered an animal), and favorite song (it is a class song so I have never heard it).

Jordan is our silly girl. Everything is a game or a joke. She loves to be doing things. The flip side of this is when she is tired. She becomes totally irrational and has a hard time controlling her emotions. Going to her room to vent for a little bit (normally like 30 minutes) does wonders for her.