Life with Shae

Pre-Christmas

2012-01-14T18:55:00.000-05:00

Wow, this is shamefully late, but without apologizing I'm at least going to archive Christmas 2011 :)

After Christmas 2010, we decided that we would like to be "less busy" for the Christmas season and spend lots of time being intentional to have fun as a family. At Christmas 2010, we had no idea that Chris would be the Family Pastor at our church and that our lives in general would be much more busy than they had been the years previous. So, with all that being taken into consideration, here are the pictures of some of the Christmas fun we had!

Looking at the Christmas lights in downtown Mooresville. These pictures are divided up between the top and the bottom but that's Ok. You can still see that the kids liked looking at the lights. It is a fairly impressive lights/music presentation for being in Mooresville.....

This was the foster family Christmas party. We don't have any foster kids right now but we went anyway. Actually, me (ashleigh) and the kids went. Chris was teaching this night. The dinner was good - at least to Creed - and then they did a 2 man show of Charles Dickens A Christmas Story. I was surprised at how much Cadence liked it! I had to take the boys to the back and let them run because they definitely weren't into the play, but Cadence watched the whole thing!

Chris and I took Cadence to the Symphony! She's growing up to be such a big girl and we often miss out on it because she's helpful and the boys tend to need way more attention than she does. So, we wanted to be purposeful about taking her to celebrate Christmas in ways that the boys couldn't participate in. And this was one of them! I'm so glad we went. We went to lunch and she was so excited that we got to eat inside, and do all the puzzles in her menu, and we didn't have to rush so that the boys didn't go crazy! She had so much fun and it was confirmed to us that she is growing up- whether we like it or not....

The symphony did a Magic of Christmas show with a sacred half and a secular half. It was so good! complete with sing alongs in both halves :) But Cadence mostly enjoyed sitting on her Daddy's lap for the concert and playing in the doors that go around and around.

Cadence wanted a Christmas tree in her room so we put hers up and she got to decorate it - with a little help :)

Our youth group sponsored a Drop-n-Shop for the families in our church. Cadence, Creed and I went because Chris and Caleb spent this night in the ER with his stomach issues :( We had a great time tho, and Cadence LOVED the puppet show that our youth kids wrote, created, and performed!

This is how I always imagined our kids - right in the middle of a bunch of teenagers!

Opening Advent calendars from MiMi and PopPop!

One Thursday in December, we made the trek to Raleigh/Wake Forest to hang out with the Lourceys. It was also Aunt Melissa's Christmas play which happened to be "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and she was Imogene Herdman! So, there was no way we could miss that :) Cadence and I read the book together since we were seeing the play. My hope was to read it before we saw the play so she would know better what was going on, but it didn't work out that way :( and so we only read the first chapter before we saw the play and then finished the book afterwards. We took absolutely NO pictures of us at the play - but that's OK. We remember that it was good :)

We do have pictures (and video) of the kids eating Cookies before the play. Chris stayed with the babies so that Emily and I could just take Jane and Cadence to see the play .

The next day, we met up with KayKay at the mall to hang out. We played, rode the train, and ate - all bonuses to getting to spend time with KayKay!

My friend Hannah and I took Cadence to see a singing Christmas Tree! Hannah had never been to one and wanted an excuse to go :) so Cadence and I gladly obliged her :)

Cadence got to experience making real Gingerbread Houses from scratch with the youth kids! They were making them to give to shut-ins and Cadence helped them out.

and the last of the picture from the begining of this post! Watching the lights downtown - well most of us did.....Caleb was way more interested in the iPod than the lights....

We also did a Jesse Tree this year as a family. It was really fun for the kids to get to put the ornaments on every day and a great thing, as a family, to do to help us be prepared for properly celebrating- not all the busy-ness that is crammed into the 30 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas- but the fact that we have this life at all because Jesus chose to take on flesh so that we could survive the craziness. Without Him coming to be our Savior, none of the celebrating would be worth anything. We are so grateful for God becoming flesh and our prayer is that as our children grow, they would not lose the hope of the Gospel in the middle of the chaos of life.

Miracles DO still Happen!

2012-01-10T14:32:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty long post but it's been a couple of years in the making, so we're pretty excited! and as neglected as this blog has been the past few months, a long post is due ;)

When we first received the call about Shaun in September of 2009, other than his heart condition and paralyzed vocal cords, there was the issue of his feeding tube. He basically took nothing by mouth and had an aversion to anything being in/around his mouth area. It was uber-sensitive and due to lack of stimulation, any touch even on his face or neck would cause him to start gagging. It was so sad and made us pretty nervous about touching him from his neck up :( Over the past 2 and a half years, things have certainly changed for this little man! His vocal cords have definitely become "unparalyzed" and in the last year, he started eating! The touch thing is way better too! I love to tickle him under his neck because it's such a great reminder that God has redeemed a place on his body that once brought him so much pain and discomfort and now brings his great joy!

Here is a journey thru pictures of the "feeding tube" adventures of our Caleb Shaun

The day we brought him home from the hospital. All "plugged in" and eating The black backpack or white cord hanging out of his clothes is an indicator that he's "eating" :)

A decent picture of his feeding button - oh the adventures we have had with this button! Replacing it, looking for it in poop, the rawness of his skin when it leaks, and of course, all of this with a rare button. Not the standard MicKey button - but a BARD button that is hard to get parts and accessories for...

This tube became such a part of us that we sometimes weren't even aware of it! Here's a video showing you what I mean.

The feeding tube at Halloween.....

going to church....

at Thanksgiving and Christmas!

it even traveled in the stroller with us :)

I love this picture because it's a reminder of the fights we had with Caleb's feeding supply company to get the right kind of tubes sent to us. Chris literally had to take pictures like this and send them to the company for them to understand what he was talking about.

The older he got, the more it just became portable with him.

Sometimes it wasn't in the backpack, instead it was on a pole that we carried around. Mostly the pole stayed by his bed for overnight feeds.

Caleb's first Birthday (8/2010). He's finally OK with stuff on his face but you can rest assured that none of this was actually ingested into his body :(

Then last year around the middle of January (1/2011), we had several snow days where Chris was home from school. We ate all of our meals at the table together because there was nothing else to do and I guess somewhere in all of that, Caleb saw that eating wasn't terrible. In this same timeframe, God, in His providential timing, worked it out that his feeding tube broke and Shaun had to go a couple of days without us using it. I guess he got hungry enough and it flipped a switch in him for our food adventures! We were literally at the mall and gave him a pizza crust to play with. Well, when we looked a little while later, we noticed that it was missing and then realized that he had eaten it! We couldn't believe it! But were super glad that we had turned a corner with his feeding. The past year we have tried so many foods to help him enjoy eating. It has been so fun to watch his life and the miracle that it is transform right before our eyes. There are days that it's terribly frustrating, but overall when we look at the last year, it screams of the goodness of God moving in Caleb's life.

A VIDEO of one of our early eating experiences.

Because him eating is a big deal, we have lots of pictures to document it :)

Before he ate with regular utensils, we would use these little pink stucks. They were basically lollipop sticks with foam on the end. We would wipe things on his lips with them, or try to get them in his mouth, whatever the therapist, Mrs. Heather, said to try.

With all this eating going on, we had slowly weaned him off of the feeding tube and have asked over and over for the drs to remove it. There are alot of drs (pediatrician, cardiologist, surgeons that help with button replacement, Developmental pediatrician) involved in Caleb's life so that's a harder job to get done than you would think! But after months of asking, in November, we finally got permission from all the powers that be to have his tube removed! This happened as it broke off and was going to need to be replaced again anyway so that helped encourage the drs to not put a new tube in :)

This trip to the hospital was right after it broke off (12/2011). It was amazing to watch the outside of the tube break off one night and the next morning for his skin to basically have closed up - except for a small part. The problem with this? We thought the inside of the button was still in it's track between the outside and his stomach! So, Chris took Caleb to the ER to have the surgeon there look at it. They were sent home with instructions to just let it be and see if it would close up on its own. :(

So, home they came. It was pretty gross because whenever Caleb ate - which was often - parts of the food and digestive juices would come out of the hole! Which is cool the first couple of times but once the juices starting burning his skin and making it raw, that was less fun :( Changes bandages with food muck and blood isn't as much fun as you would think it is! Every meal became a trial because as soon as he would start digesting, it would burn the raw skin around the hole and he would start screaming. It was miserable! For him and us...

This all came to a head for us on 12/19/2011. That evening as we tried to force him to eat dinner (while he was screaming and pulling at the bandage on his belly) Chris and I realized that he hadn't eaten all day long. So, off to the ER we went again with our minds made up that we wouldn't leave the hospital until they had closed up the hole in his stomach. Very long story short, on Wednesday morning after much prayer from lots of people, we found favor with the surgeons and they came in that morning and asked what we wanted to happen. Chris said for about the 50th time that we wanted the hole closed up, and they agreed! So, surgery on Wednesday around lunch time we had! Caleb ate dinner that night and breakfast the next morning, and we were sent home! - just in time to pack for Christmas and head to FL for a week :)

Here are some pictures - and a video of our time in the hospital

Eating in the Hospital complete with VIDEO (it's a little gross)

That is one precious miracle sleeping in that hospital bed right there! This was right after surgery where he was still sleeping great as a result of the anesthesia :)

Since that surgery day, we haven't had a single problem with Caleb eating! It's crazy to think that a year ago he didn't eat at all and in 11 months he went from eating nothing to having his feeding tube removed because he now eats enough to sustain growth without the extra nutrition. We know that we have been blessed with unbelievable drs, surgeons, therapists, and friends to help us along this journey but we ALSO know that Caleb Shaun's life is a miracle. One that has been provided for us to witness with our own eyes by God Himself.

So, don't try to tell us differently because we KNOW who we believe in and are persuaded that HE will keep this little boy in His keeping until the day of His return.

Mooresville Christmas Parade!

2011-12-05T16:24:00.007-05:00

Growing up in Wauchula, my expectations for parades weren't ever very high. Don't get me wrong, a half-day of school so that we could all meet at the Junior High to walk down Main Street in a parade is great, but we were no New York City! Lots of horses, every rescue worker in town, and the band and we were good to go. Well, this year I realized that even tho I now live about 700 miles from Wauchula, I've basically found it all over again in NC! With a few things that are specifically Mooresville-ian added in just for fun :)

PS I laughed out loud as I wrote this post so if you don't think it's funny or even find it offensive, I'm really sorry! I realize that my sense of humor is much different than most people's so if you just want to look at the pictures and not read the words or just wait 3 weeks for the next post, it's all good in my world :)

here we are waiting for the festivities to begin!

Mooresville's Finest - I have yet to get a ticket from one of these guys and I'm really hoping to keep it that way!

These were high schoolers so that's pretty cool

I think this is the Mooresville High School Band! I say "think" because there were 2 other bands in the parade that wore the same colors so I'm not sure of what band this is.....but we'll go with Mooresville High :)

Could you have a parade in Mooresville without a salute to Nascar? evidently not...

Obviously it was a captivating parade!

not really sure what this is all about but they're festive none the less

Remember when these cars were cool?!? Oh wait, it's in a parade in Mooresville so it must still be cool here....

These people weren't the king and queen of anything! They're actually the photographers from Hannah and Justin's wedding! Advertising at its finest right here on our blog. So, if you really want to get your name out there, dress up like you're getting married and ride down Main Street on the back of a car!

At least it was an equal opportunity parade :)

This truck coming up the road is the remax float complete with small hot air balloon and gigantic hot air balloon fire that would send an actual hot air balloon up in the air.

Creed (kind of) liked it :)

Our collection of trash and candy

your eyes aren't deceiving you, that is a charter bus and a dump truck - both in the parade

and the sad part is that our kids were genuinely excited by it!

Well not Creed, I think the fire did him in - but he's super sweet all candied up sleeping on Hannah!

Camel - for a minute I thought I was at the Story of Jesus - but no - just the Mooresville Christmas Parade...

and there he is friends, the pinnacle of the entire event - Santa Claus! In a too red outfit being pulled by a pick up truck.

and the assumption is that this is Mrs. Claus - in her red buick following, literally, right behind the Santa Claus float. and then the parade was over.

Fun in Raleigh

2011-11-23T21:08:00.003-05:00

A couple of weekends ago while Chris was busy with the youth at church, we took the opportunity to go to Raleigh and hang out with all our people over there! We had so much fun with KayKay, Amanda, Brandy and her girls, and Emily, Rob, Jane and Cora. It's so great that they're all so close together so that we get the bonus of seeing everyone at once :)

On Saturday, in KayKay's neighborhood, they were having a Fall Festival that we all met up at.

Here we are on the train ride. The kids really did enjoy it!

They had these big hamster balls that we convinced Cadence to do. She's such a trooper and did great!

all while the brothers cheered her on.....

Playing the dancing video games with Mya

Trying to fit 3 kids in a double stroller! Caleb Shaun wasn't having anything to do with it!

After lunch at Subway where KayKay loaded everyone up with Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Creed enjoyed his :)

Something other than church stuff :)

2011-11-22T08:38:00.006-05:00

Not a ton has gone on in the Andersen house as we're gearing up for the holidays but since this blog has been way more neglected than it should be, here are some pictures of some of the stuff we've done lately. Nothing spectacular, just everyday life!

An afternoon at the park - always a good distraction while Daddy is teaching.

Look at how big this girl is! I love her big self!

Caleb climbed up and went down the big slide all by himself! He was so proud :)

Corn on the Cob for dinner. I love Creed's fat squishy fingers. and he LOVES corn on the cob! Seriously, if we all had the passion for life that he has for corn, we could accomplish great things :)

We were all so thankful for a warm day in November! Everything stopped and we just played outside instead...

Middle School girls learning how to cook! So fun and Cadence wanted to go - and why wouldn't we let her? If Cadence is going to aspire to be like someone, these girls are definitely on our list of people for her to look up to! She got to make the brownies and then lick the bowl so it was a good day in her world :)

Songs for Hootenanny

2011-11-08T07:43:00.005-05:00

Here are the links to all the songs in one place! Happy Learning!

TAKE IT ALL

YOU'RE WORTHY OF MY PRAISE

Halloween!

2011-11-01T21:55:00.005-04:00

This year for Halloween the Force was with us! For all the drama that Christians bring around this time of year, it is still super fun to get to dress our kids up, load them up with sugar, keep them out way too late, and have them entice strangers to give them the candy :)

All that aside, here are our 3 Star Wars people trying to pose for a picture. Caleb obviously wasn't much into it but he's 2 - so what do you expect? Creed wouldn't stay still - which is why he's being man-handled by his sister AKA Princess Leia (and yes I did her hair myself!) :)

Caleb at least got a little less zombie-like once we let him have the light saber - although both Cadence and Creed look a little worried in the pictures where he has it.....I wonder why...

Creed excited that Caleb and his light saber walked away!

Caleb saying "cheese" again. I don't know why he tilts his head to the side to say it - but he always does!

and of course our beautiful Princess. She's pretty much awesome!

From 3-5 our downtown businesses hand out candy. So, us and most of Mooresville, dressed up early and headed out to get free candy.

The boys - perfectly content with their lollipops from the bank.

The ridiculous line of people that crawled along the sidewalk to get a piece of candy. We didn't do that...

we walked the opposite of the flow of traffic on the OTHER side of the street and got our candy that way! Chris wasn't thrilled about this, but I thought it was a good idea.

Creed in a sugar coma. The muck on his face is where stickiness from candy has mixed with the felt of his $5 costume and made his face ultra-dirty.

We went to the Kales along with the Devines, Lewis', and Starings and busted out the fire pit for the evening. It was so fun! Our boys are way into fire - which is scary - but thankfully with enough adults around, we were safe!

and this is the sign of a really fun day....

Girls Weekend!

2011-11-01T14:48:00.006-04:00

This past weekend Cadence and I went on a trip - just the 2 of us - to Florida! It was Tara's baby shower, Terica is in the states, and overall I was in need of some time "south" so Cadence and I headed out.

Killing time in the airport

I took no pictures of our time at Terica's but it was lots of fun just hanging out and letting our kids play. It's so fun that we all have kids that , for the most part, enjoy playing together.

The next day was Tara's baby shower - which I also took no pictures of :) and then we went back the the Allen's house to hang out. Cadence and Xander played during the shower and then we all went back to their house. Tara and I worked on the Myra's nursery and caught up while the kids played and watched a movie.

That evening, Xander's school was having a Trunk or Treat so we thought it would be fun to go to! Xander was already planning to be a pirate and since we didn't bring Cadence's halloween costume, we put together a girl pirate outfit and off we went!

Getting Candy!

This truck was by far the best "trunk or treat" trunk I've ever seen!

There were games to play and inflatables to jump on and of course pictures to color (Cadence was really excited for the coloring)

After a full day with the Allen's we headed south to Green GiGi's to spend the night. Lellow GiGi had been shopping and brought back a coloring book so they got to color some more!

What a full weekend in FL leaves you feeling like :)

After a super long (5 hour) delay in Punta Gorda, we were finally on the plane to go home. Probably the only advantage to the delay was that the sky was beautiful as the sun set while we flew. So, we took some pictures of it for Daddy to see :)

I'm so thankful, not only for great friends and family in FL, but for the chance to spend some one-on-one time with our girl. She's growing up much too fast for my liking and with the

busy-ness of the 2 boys I feel like I often miss sweet moments to just enjoy being with her. So, when there's a whole weekend full of fun - Cadence style - it's a great chance to recharge my tank with her and at the same time savor every moment with her because they're going by way too quickly!

Fall Fun!

2011-10-31T11:29:00.008-04:00

We're full on in the swing of things having to do with "Fall" around the Andersen house. Halloween costumes have been picked (that post will be tomorrow - hopefully), we're decorated for fall, eating fall foods that have to do with pumpkin or a crock pot :), and so with that we needed to carve and decorate pumpkins and make pumpkin cookies.

Emily and Mary came over to play and so we decided to make pumpkin cookies with them. The girls had so much fun decorating their cookies. It's funny how detailed they are these days!

Hard at work

Caleb did way more eating than decorating :)

Look at that - they even did their own icing!

Creed pretty much just ate candy!

Finished products

The next day we decided to carve and decorate pumpkins. We waited patiently (kind of) for Daddy to get home from work so we could get started on the pumpkin. Cadence couldn't remember cleaning out a pumpkin before so it was kind of new for everyone. It didn't bother Cadence and Creed too much.

Caleb was much less sure about it :)

Posing with and attacking Daddy with pumpkins. I look at this picture and can hear Caleb saying "cheese"

Cadence's pumpkin was a little bigger because she's bigger than the boys :)

Everyone hard at work!

After much coaxing, Caleb decided that the pumpkin brains weren't so bad after all!

Happy Fall!

Love, the Andersens!

Kids Worship Rehearsal

2011-10-12T22:02:00.004-04:00

Here are links to the motions for the CCCM kids worship service.

Video 1

Video 2

Have Fun!

Other Stuff

2011-10-11T22:09:00.008-04:00

Life lately has been a little busy. With Chris transitioning from his job at the school to the new job at the church, plus lessons - it's a little overwhelming. However, in between all the busyness there have been pockets of treasure that we have found and enjoyed with the kids.

Caleb learned to climb a ladder that is straight up. This is exciting to the PT because it uses different muscle groups that we have been specifically targeting and this means that they're getting stronger.

His fashion sense has lessened but that's OK because he's usually happiest in a spider man outfit with boots on :)

Sometimes Creed is just too tired to keep going so he sleeps like this :) Now that he's WALKING he needs a little more sleep than before. Here's a VIDEO of some of his early walking.

Caleb has been teaching Creed to love the drums as much as he does. And it's working! Between the 2 of them, there aren't many days that go by without someone getting some quality time in on the drums. And we're so grateful not only that the boys get along and play together but that it centers around music! There are also moments where they drum on each other's heads but we're choosing to not document that as much :)

Here is a VIDEO of some of the drum techniques that Chris has been working on with Caleb :)

Cadence lost a tooth! Seriously this is one of those milestones that we weren't quite prepared for, but it came and so we dealt with it as best we could. Kagan was pretty concerned about the entire situation :) but I (ashleigh) just pulled out the loose tooth and it was only after she saw that it was out that she cried! More for dramatic effect I'm pretty sure... The tooth fairy came and she got a gold dollar so she's hanging on to that until just the right thing comes along to spend it on.

Art projects have been getting done with Daddy on the weekend. This particular one introduced her to her address and phone number. And it was all done at Dunkin Donuts with Daddy.

Another "win" for the homeschooling adventure!

Hannah and Justin got married! It's been so cool to walk on the journey of their engagement and to watch them honor the Lord with their decisions. We're quite convinced that God has great plans for them and we're thrilled out of our minds to get to watch it play out. And they love our kids lots too - which is always a plus in our world!

Chris and I got to spend a couple of days together - with the worship team from church - at Catalyst in Atlanta! The speakers were great, the time together was unbelievable, the church planters shirts were hideous (that's the brown shirt guy) - sometimes you just shouldn't be that "relevant" ya know?, time with Annie was so fun, and dinner at the Melting Pot was way more yummy than anything we've had in a long time!

School Days, School Days

2011-10-10T21:45:00.003-04:00

So another long, over-due post is finally making it up on the blog..... in case you didn't know, we're homeschooling!

After much prayer and conversation, Chris and I both felt like the best thing for Cadence, for this year, was to homeschool her. We don't know what we'll do in the future, we're honestly not even discussing it at this point in the game, but for this year, we believe that this is a good decision for all of us. And so far, it has proven true - for the most part :)

Knowing my lack of discipline coupled with the complete chaos that we live in, we decided to go with an all-in-one curriculum. We knew that we wanted it to have solid Biblical teaching as a big part of it, and for someone else to be the main teacher, so we went with the A Beka Academy. Basically what this is is a video (and a very dated one at that) of a teacher teaching a class of kindergarten children. Other than how out of date her hair and clothes are, we love it! The teaching is great, Mrs. Bere (the teacher) tells Cadence what to do in her books so that we can't argue about it - we just do what Mrs. Bere says. :) Cadence is convinced that i email Mrs. Bere every day to let her know how she is doing - and for now, we're not telling her differently...

The hardest part has been that all the writing thru A Beka is done in cursive and so Cadence has had to re-learn how to write her letters in cursive. So far we have done all the vowels lower case and the letter "t" After a couple of threats to break her hands (not my proudest mom moments) and lots of prayer from my small group and Ladies Bible Study, we're gaining victory and Cadence still has the use of both of her hands! Praise GOD!!

Here are a couple of pictures of our school set up. The desk is in our dining room so that I can be doing other stuff and still keep her on task. We use the big monitor, not the laptop, it just so happened that this day I couldn't make the regular DVD player work so we were improvising with the laptop.

Her books - they actually do still (for the most part) stay lined up on the shelf!

In case you're interested in what she's learned so far, here is a VIDEO we took tonight of some of the highlights of her school career thus far.....:)

Old Salem

2011-09-19T08:06:00.011-04:00

Old Salem is this super old area up around Winston Salem. Really close to the hospital where we always take Caleb. Who knew this was like 2 exits up? Anyway, they were having homeschool days last week so we took advantage of it. The Andersens (minus Chris) along with Ella, the Lewis girls, and a couple of Kales, all piled into the vans and headed back in time.

This is the covered bridge that takes you into Old Salem.

This church was a black church that the slaves went to once they converted to "moravian-ism"

hanging out before the official tour started

This lady told us all about electricity and how this church was one of the first (if not the first) black church in NC to have electricity. This is also where the slaves say when they heard that they had been emancipated - yes it was all that old and original!

This man was also talking about electricity and told us about some black man who helped invent light bulbs. and then we got to play with light bulbs and electricity!

I think this was the tavern. Not like a drinking alcohol tavern, just a hotel/restraunt that was called a tavern. George Washington even stayed here at some point!

These ladies told about different parts of the tavern like the bedrooms and kitchen.

The boys weren't very interested in any of it.....

Look at Cadence and Ella taking themselves tot he woodshed :)

This man was doing some kind of gun demonstration.

Pumping water. Everyone had fun with this since it was still hot on this day.

We watched the men of the town look at the equipment in the Fire Department and then it was time for an old-fashioned fire drill! So, everyone came out into the street to be a part of the bucket brigade. It was so fun to watch all the kids work together to fill the "fire truck" with water. It's a good thing we didn't live in Old Salem a long time ago because the whole town would have burned down :)

Some of us chose to watch instead of participate - although i'm sure Caleb, given the opportunity would have been right in the middle of it!

Click HERE to watch a video of all the fun!

This is a really old pipe organ that was in the Moravian church. I don't have lots of details on these next pictures because I chose to stay outside with the boys so that maybe our kids could actually learn/hear something.

Using flint to make a fire.

In Old Salem, there's also a real Moravian bakery. It had lots of breads and cookies that were super good.

Blogger is being stupid, but there were also plenty of modern-day drinks to choose from. Cadence always wants a Tummy Yummy from Target but I never buy them for her. So, she was pretty excited that Mrs. Karen took her into the bakery so that she could get one :)

This is what the boys did while Cadence was in the bakery.

We all had such a fun time at Old Salem. and I'd say that our first field trip was a success!

Creed would agree :) I think every post should end with a picture of this boy smiling because it's just so darn cute!

Creed's Actual Birthday

2011-09-13T14:08:00.011-04:00

So, since we had Creed's birthday party early, his actual birthday was much more low-key. Although he did sport his "Birthday boy" shirt all day to let people know that he was having a birthday, we pretty much just played at home all day. So, here are the things that Creed did on his actual 1st birthday :)

Played with his sister

Got plenty of chalk-intake to last him for his entire first year!

Played in the mum

Worked on Cadence's bike

Played Mr. Potato Head

Walked up the slide (he does this often)

Then that evening, before bed, we opened the last of the presents that had come in the mail for creed.

A new shirt from MiMi and PopPop

A couple new outfits from Aunt Connie!

and a super-cool new Mickey airplane from Aunt Lisa, Uncle Joe, and Jackson!

These pictures, tho Creed isn't really on the airplane much, are very true to the way things went that night. Caleb and Cadence both really enjoyed the airplane as well and so , since they're bigger, they pretty much took over the airplane :)

This picture was snapped as Caleb pushed Creed off the plane!

Creed and his ears..........I think we overwhelm him :)

Even Cadence got a turn! We then put Caleb to bed and Creed finally got some quality time with his airplane. And he loves it!

Such a happy boy on a day that makes all of us in Andersen-ville super happy!

Happy Birthday Creed!

Creed Turns 1!

2011-09-09T14:23:00.009-04:00

I know that everyone says that it's hard to believe that another whole year of life has gone by, but when I look at this little man, it really is hard to believe! It's hard to remember life before Creed or what it would be like without him. His smiles, that fact that he is the most cuddly baby I've ever known, how he watches (and imitates)his brother and sister, we're really fascinated and often over-joyed by this little miracle that God has given us.

So, to celebrate that we've sustained his life for an entire year, we threw a pirate party! We totally stole the idea from April and some of her friends who were also throwing a pirate party, but it came off pretty well for a bunch of idea-stealing amateurs :) The original plan was to have it on the lake at some friends house, but a weekend full of rain changed our plan to an inside party. So, we made due.....

Creed all dressed up in his pirate shirt from Aunt April!

The Andersen 3 chilling and watching pirate videos while we finished setting up the party.

We played "tape the eyepatch on Larry"

The thing I love most about bday parties is that it's a great opportunity to be reminded of just how much God has blessed us with our "NC family" It's slowly becoming that there are more and more Murdock/Wilson people in NC and that's great too! But out NC people have become so important to us that it's hard to imagine life without these people in it.

It was an added bonus that Lellow GiGi and Kagan's Memee were both in the state this year for the party! It's so fun to look around and see our 2 worlds (family and friends) colliding so well.

Sweet Cora Sue and big ole Garner both made it for the day too!

Present Time! Creed was not really into the present thing but we made do ;) Luckily he's cute!

I love that this picture was captured because Creed sits around holding his ears like this alot. We don't really know why, but it's kind of his "thing" So it's appropriate that he would be at his own party holding his ears. :)

and then of course there was the cake......the cake was very interesting because it didn't really go as planned and maybe that will make it into another post, but for now, Here's out little Creedster chowing down on some homemade chocolate icing.

Cocoa and confectioners sugar - a great combination for a 1 year old!

Janey enjoyed her cupcake too!

To end the party we had a Treasure Hunt. The big kids really enjoyed it and the littles just liked that they got a bag full of goodies! I'm so glad that Chris is the kind of Daddy who will act like a crazy head leading a Treasure Hunt. Our kids are so blessed!

Happy Birthday Creed! While we certainly didn't expect you, we're so glad that God has given you to us. You were a great surprise that we are grateful for every day!

Caleb Shaun turns 2!

2011-09-09T08:28:00.003-04:00

So after doing so well at being caught up with the blog, I fell off the map :( Oh well, pride does always come before a fall :) and since I know that the 3 of you who actually look at this blog want to see Creed's party, I figured that I needed to blog the rest of Caleb's first since his birthday was in August! So here it is,

We went to Fuel Pizza to celebrate his birthday with the Kales - his best friends. He loves Pizza and we love outside restaraunts, so it seemed like a good thing. I made cupcakes with Toy Story characters on them. He loves all things with characters, Veggie Tales, Toy Story, Cars, etc. So, Toy Story seemed like a good option! He was so excited for a Buzz LightYear Candle.

We did sing Happy Birthday and there is a video of it HERE! well kind of, a video of the birthday none the less :)

I love how Caleb is looking at Creed in this picture. It's hard to tell if he's impressed with Creed's eating skills or repulsed by them :)

Happy Birthday to Caleb Shaun! We're so grateful for all you've taught us in the 2 years that God has given us with you.

Blogging Machine!

2011-08-11T09:42:00.005-04:00

I am killing this blogging thing for August! I guess we've taken lots of pictures lately :) and even tho most of them are of nothing special, just every day life, I like having them documented. Last night at youth group, Chris had a questionnaire for the kids to fill out about their expectations for their future life so that they can begin to make choices so that their expectations will become reality at the appointed time. So, I was thinking about my life at their age and I don't know that I had any expectations really about what my life would look like but I don't know that it involved living in NC and being a stay-at-home mom of 3 kids. However, when I look at these pictures, I realize that there is no place in the world I would rather be than staying home every day with these 3 crazies!

He looks more sweet than crazy here, but trust me, there's another side :)

I was trying to get a picture of him in his "bob" shirt that I can put in the picture frame that his Grammie gave him for his birthday. I got a couple :)

We start them young helping out in the garden! Whether or not you like it, if you're going to eat it, you have to help tend it! and then get hosed off outside afterwards :)

Lately, we've spent time most days playing and singing. I love that right now Cadence is in this phase of life where she wants us to sing and she follows us. In fact that's exactly what she says "you yust sing Mommy and I'll follow you" so we sing and she plays :) But Caleb prefers for us to sing "bob" so we all sit down and go thru every Veggie Tale that I can think of - and a couple of extras too. Here is a VIDEO of us singing together.

Mr Cool

Cadence was so proud of herself this day. I was cooking dinner and Creed was ridiculously tired. So, she offered to hold him while I cooked. She's super helpful like that these days! So, they sat down at the computer together for her to hold Creed and play at the same time - she's not only helpful but a multi-tasker too! Well, within a few minutes he had fallen asleep on his sister and the look of pride on her face nearly made me weep. After I had taken some pictures of them together, I asked her if she wanted me to take him and lay him down but she said no that she would just hold him and keep playing - and she did for his entire nap! She's so big that I can't hardly stand it.

This might be one of my favorite representations of summer at this point. Because everyone looks better in a pair of Dora Goggles :)

The Rest of Vacation

2011-08-09T15:46:00.008-04:00

This post pretty much is just random of the pictures that I had from vacation (thanks to April actually taking some pictures of our vacation). So, if it seems random, it is!

To start off our vacation we had a big family party at the beach. It was to celebrate all the Summer birthdays and Caleb's adoption. I loved starting vacation seeing most of the family at one time! Sadly Cadence was sick so she and Chris missed the fun. But the rest of us had a great time.

Dad, I know you'll hate this picture of you and Creed sleeping but I love it and want Creed to know that he got to take naps at the beach with his Poppa ;)

They LOVED this big tub at the Fountains! How can you go wrong with 2 of your favorite people in a bath tub with you? :)

What Vacation Should Look Like!

This was part of Caleb Shaun's Birthday. He absolutely loves both Veggie Tales and Mr. Potato Head so the combination of those 2 things was fantastic!

The POOL - what could be more fun than a pool with a Daddy in it?

Grammie brought the hook up with these ice cream cones. Sadly, Caleb wasn't real sure of how to eat it....... it still went down just a little differently than how I would have done it! What was hilarious was than when the ice cream would fall out of the top because he took a bite of the side, he would just pick up the glob of ice cream and put it back in :)

I LOVE THIS FACE!

Seriously? How is she this big?

Thank You Lord for vacation with these 3- although it's not nearly as relaxing as it used to be, it's definitely worth the exhaustion to have these crazies with us!

Day At The Lake

2011-08-06T07:27:00.008-04:00

Some people who are a part of our church have a house on the lake. Every year they like to host a "day at the lake" for all the teenagers to have a full day of fun on/in the water. Chris had gone once before a couple of years ago but this year, our whole family got to attend. It went from 11 - dark and while Chris was there the entire time, the kids and I were just there from about 12:30 -8. Still a pretty long day on the water! But the kids had such a great time that it was hard to even make them leave at 8:00!

Cadence is such a fish! She loved being in the water and with a life jacket was an excellent floater :)

Caleb enjoyed the kayak more than he did being in the water swimming.

One of the pontoon boats is a double decker with a slide. The kids (big and little) loved it! Our youth kids kept it busy all day but sometimes, out kids would get a turn too.:) They were pretty apprehensive at first but after a couple times, they were pros! Caleb didn't love it as much :( But we were glad he did it once........

Playing on the tubes that were not being used, were much more the little guys style. One was a trampoline so that was lots of fun too!

After seeing the boats go out most of the day, our kids decided that they wanted a ride too. So, one trip was just for the Andersens and Teagues (our pastor's family) with their littles. The kids had so much fun!

David and Chris all ready to go on the tube :)

The Daddy's Fan Club! making sure they don't fall off the tube :)

What too much fun at Day at the Lake leaves you feeling like :)

Other than Birthdays......

2011-08-05T09:42:00.002-04:00

Other than birthdays lately, life has gone on as usual. Here are some pictures of the past few days and some of our fun(ner) moments.

Creed (aka Guy Smiley) is happy most of the time. His unhappy moments come when he's tired, being slammed into the floor by his brother, or being told "no no" He also loves to eat everything! including chalk :)

It RAINED! It's been so hot lately (in the 100's) and last Sunday it finally rained. The kids and I were playing outside when another rain blew up so we decided to play in it! The thumbs up from Caleb is a new thing but a sure sign that he is really enjoying something. We love it. Here is a VIDEO we took of Cadence doing a dance in the rain.

and these boys!.........I'm not sure of what to do with them some days but we're grateful for them and the relationship they are forming. Granted, it's usually being formed over things that aren't right like pulling all the DVD's off the shelf, or emptying a box of whales on the floor, or eating lots of dog food. Either way, we're learning what life is like with boys.

Caleb Turns 2!

2011-08-04T15:56:00.007-04:00

Some of Caleb's birthday came early, while we were at the beach. Since he loves veggie Tales so much, Grammie got him a pirate ship for the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, and a dress up Larry - basically like Mr. Potato Head but with a cucumber instead of a potato :) He loves them both! and plays with the all the time. So, the day before his birthday, here he was playing with Larry and sporting his new shoes. With physical therapy, he now has little braces that he wears on his feet (maybe one day we'll get a picture of them) and he needed new shoes that would accommodate the extra room the braces were taking up. So, the therapists suggested New Balance tennis shoes. So, here he is in his new shoes!

I think they make him look really big :(

On to the birthday! The night before with all his presents waiting for him :)

As soon as both kids were up, we tore into presents. They had so much fun and it was a great way to start off the day because who doesn't like presents first thing in the morning!??

The blocks were from Mommy and Daddy because Daddy is working on a new table that will be for both boys birthdays that will be a LEGO table on one side and a car table on the other but that will be another post :) So, the blocks came with Caleb's birthday.

Working on a puzzle from Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Shannon.

After presents, we had a birthday breakfast of pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles. Caleb ate it all up!

Getting in on some of the good from Aunt Lizzie's present to Cadence!

While Cadence had all her friends over for her party, Daddy took the boys and went out for lunch at McDonalds! What better way to celebrate being 2 than with chicken McNuggets :)

After McDonalds, Daddy took the boys bowling! I think that basically meant lots of food for the little boys while Daddy and Camryn bowled, but the pictures make it look like it was fun :)

Caleb Shaun ended his night skyping with Grammie and Poppa.

We will finish his birthday celebration with Cake and Ice Cream when his best friends, Garrett and Evan Kale, get back from the mission trip they're on in Alaska :)

Cadence Turns 5!

2011-08-04T13:24:00.008-04:00

For Cadence's Birthday this year she was very specific about what she wanted for her cake and party. She wanted a cake with a rainbow, unicorn, and flowers. She also wanted a number 5 candle on it. For her party she had lots of ideas, a pool party with her friends, nail painting, a pizza party, and going to chuck E Cheese. So, we did our best to accommodate :) It really was fun for her to take an interest in her birthday. Other years I've planned what I wanted to, so this year was much different - but definitely not bad!

She also wanted a pink cake, so I bought the pink cake mix and the night before her birthday, started baking. The cake came out of the pan like this........

and I almost died! I didn't have a back up cake mix and it was 1030 at night so I was just going to have to make it work. 2 full batches of icing later, we pulled it off!

I honestly impressed myself with how well it turned out! Thanks to skittles and my little pony, a unicorn and rainbow aren't so hard :)

The table was all set with presents and ready to go when the kids woke up on their birthday morning.

She loved all her presents this year! Her Hello Kitty dress from Aunt Connie is being worn for day 2, she was surprised that Aunt Debbie knew she wanted to be a ballerina and is ready to start classes, the towel from MiMi and PopPop was so much fun, the bouncy ball from Aunt Lisa has already gotten lots of use, etc :)

We've worked really hard this year to not buy extra stuff for the kids. At Christmastime, we realized that our kids just weren't excited about it. It bothered us because thinking back to being kids, we lived for Christmas morning and what would be under the tree. So, after that we made several changes in our family - one of them being not buying stuff throughout the year and instead, just being grateful for what we have and saving presents for special occasions like birthdays. So, when it came to be birthday time, we asked Cadence what she wanted and the only thing she came up with was the "tangled" barbie and other than that she "was just grateful for all her other barbies and they were enough" That was a direct quote! Praise God it's working! Once she realized that she could ask for more than one thing, she added a couple more but mostly wanted the tangled barbie. So, that's what she got :)

Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Shannon sent 5 presents for our 5 year old to be opened throughout the day. It was so much fun to have things to do all day!

Birthday breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles on top - except Cadence just wanted syrup :) Click HERE to watch them blow out their candles

Our Birthday Babies!

More presents from Liz and Shan!

We did have a party for Cadence and hit several things on her list.

A pool party

that she didn't swim at because it was too splashy

Pizza that we didn't take a picture of because 10 little girls killed 2 medium pizzas before I could get the camera out!

Our Girl with her special order cake :) I really can't believe that she is 5. It kind of makes me sad and proud all at the same time!

All her friends sang Happy Birthday you can watch it HERE

and of course nail painting. I'm so thankful for Jenn and Big Mary hanging out to help with all the nail painting because there were lots of girl with special orders for their fingers and toes!

Another present from Liz and Shan

and present #5 for our 5 year old! A book to read at bedtime that made me cry (thanks Liz)

and introducing Camryn, our newest foster kid! He's only staying for 10 days while his normal foster family is on vacation but we've really enjoyed him being here and he and Cadence are the best of friends ;)

Happy Birthday to our beautiful Girl! We love you so much and are proud of the person you are becoming. We can't wait to see what God does with you next!

Downtown Disney!

2011-07-30T22:00:00.007-04:00

So, this year on vacation, instead of spending lots of money to take the kids to an actual Disney park to be miserable in the July heat, and due to our lack of a "hook up" with free tickets, :) we decided to spend the day at downtown Disney instead. And I must say, it was a brilliant plan - if only it had been mine.........

anyway, the kids had a great time in the stores and playing in the water. There was a singing/dancing group that we got to watch perform while we ate our picnic lunch, and overall it was a really great day together. I'm so grateful for those kinds of days!

Here are some pictures of our day. We didn't take them of everything we did, but still, it did a pretty good capturing our fun!

The little splash pad areas were a huge hit with all 3 kids! and we were actually smart enough to dress them appropriately!!

I love that Cadence would try so hard to wait for the water. The few times that she actually timed it right to get the shot of water as she was at the hole, were amazing in her world :)

The boys had a great time too! especially once someone coming off of a bus gave them a balloon to play with. Balloons make everything better - even Disney fun!

We played in several stores - which is brilliant on the part of the Disney people - but while the big 2 had fun playing Mr Potato Head and Legos, Creed sat (or slept) in the stroller. His sister thought she would be helpful and give him a toy to play with while he sat, except she didn't tell anyone and we left the store with it! So, here is our little man with his stolen merchandise. He enjoyed it while we walked around the shops and then we took it back to the store and gave it to one of the nice Disney people who gave us stickers in return!

We loved the Mr Potato Head stations. You could just take whatever pieces you wanted to an just play. However, you're NOT allowed to sit on the tables. and when the man came over to tell us that Caleb had to get off the table, he gave us stickers as a consolation prize. We were really racking up on the stickers as a result of things you're not supposed to do :)

The big 2 had lots of fun at the LEGO store but poor Creed needed a rest. So, while he did this..

The other 2 did this.......

Caleb is at such a fun age with characters. Whether it's Veggie Tales, Cars, Toy Story, Yo Gabba Gabba, or Sesame Street, if he recognizes a character, he's immediately excited- and very loud about his excitement. He's pretty much loud about everything but that's a different post :)

I love this picture because it's exactly what Chris Andersen's son should look like in the LEGO store. Don't ya think?!?!

Cadence was all about having her picture taken with characters. Thankfully tho, when the characters are fake, the lines aren't nearly as long so she can have her picture taken with all of them! Free and no lines: Downtown Disney is brilliant and worked out perfectly for our day!

NC Zoo

2011-07-25T23:21:00.006-04:00

Before we left for our actual vacation, we decided to take a family day and head to the zoo. So, we loaded up with the Kales and a few extra kids :) and off we went. We had been told that the NC zoo gave you lots off opportunities to walk and that was not a joke! Our legs hurt for several days as a result of the amount of walking we did in one day! It was ridiculous. But, there was lots to see and the kids had a good time - inspite of the heat - and so overall, it was good.

Cadence loved looking at all the animals.

The Polar Bears were a big hit with everyone. Not only was the viewing area underground so it was cool, but the animals themselves were incredible! Click HERE for a video of the polar bears in action.

There was a super fun playground which is always helpful on a hot day!

Sometimes heat has the potential to make someone feel like this :)

A huge (fake) geyser!

Animals - real and fake - were fun to look at, play on, and be impressed by.

The boys both held out pretty well for such a hot, long day! It's always helpful to have Mrs. Karen along - she's lots of fun! and then sometimes, you just need a nap..........

Caleb's an Andersen!

2011-06-29T20:28:00.015-04:00

The social workers had told us that Caleb's adoption would be final by the end of June so, we planned his party for June 25th. We wanted to make sure that this party was lots of fun with everyone that has been involved in his life invited to be a part of it. Lots of people came and we had such a great time!

There were plenty of people to pass Creed around :)

We took the drums because they're his favorite thing in the world. They were a big "hit"!

But probably the biggest success of the night was the pools/water pumps. When it's the end of June, it's hard to go wrong with lots of water!

and of course there was food. From the time that we started thinking about having a big party for his adoption, my one thought was corn on the cob. Regardless of the time of year this party could have taken place, we were going to grill corn and then have a mason jar full of butter to dip the corn in. I didn't care about any of the other food, only the corn. All the other stuff was good too, smoked boston butts, potato salad, baked beans, but the CORN was where it was at!

A couple of our "posed" pics

More water fun........

There was also lots of talking and hanging out. I love this picture of Cadence, although she is probably saying something ugly to Ally because that's definitely the face that we get when she's saying something really smart-alecky

The cupcakes and cake were so good - although we forgot to cut the cake at the party, us Andersens have enjoyed it all week :)

Some of Caleb's faces throughout the afternoon

We also had cornhole and volleyball set up. They were pretty fun too.

Like I said, the water was a life saver for the littles!

This is probably my new favorite picture!

I love that Cadence is eating one cupcake and has another one in her hand. Obviously she didn't know a picture would be getting taken at this moment :)

We had so many great friends there, along with therapists, and social workers. We are so grateful for everyone who has been involved in getting Caleb to where he's at today! and recognize that we wouldn't have him at the place he is today without all these people involved with our lives. God has blessed us way beyond what we deserve!

This picture makes me laugh because, again, Cadence has her bossy face on!

Have we mentioned that the kids loved the water?

and of course the drums what Andersen boy doesn't love a drum set?

What makes this party so great is that first thing Monday morning, we got a call from our adoption social worker saying that Caleb's adoption had been finalized with the Clerk of Courts on Friday afternoon, June 24th! So, although we didn't know it at the time, this party was the perfect day to celebrate his adoption because it fell exactly the day after he actually was finalized as an Andersen! Although Caleb Shaun has been in our house - and therefore an "andersen" - basically his entire life, we're so glad to have this chapter finished.

It's still hard to believe that God has entrusted us to take care of this little man but it makes us want to work as hard as we can every day to live and teach Caleb, along with Cadence and Creed, that following Jesus is the best decision that you could ever make. Without Jesus Christ as the leader of our lives, Chris and I most definitely would not be the people/parents we are today and would probably have never taken a kid like Caleb into our home. On our own, we're way too selfish. But thankfully, the Holy Spirit has molded (or hammered) us into people that strive to be obedient and in our world, one of the best ways to show other what Jesus has done in us, is to take the Word seriously when it tells us to take care of orphans. The blessing on the back side of this one, has been way more than we could ever have imagined, but just goes to show that the God we serve can be trusted.

For Dad

2011-06-29T12:26:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures of our garden, so far, this year.

Regular tomatoes, with the okra that I transplanted behind it.

I think the okra is gonna make it!

See? The okra that I left in the same spot is bigger than this.

These are the black beans. See the pinkish flowers?

Corn and cucumbers

cherry tomatoes

the super weird squash. Same seeds from the same package have made 2 very different plants.

They are a perfect split with one half being the same and the other half being the same but the two halves being very different. Who knows why?

40

2011-06-28T15:31:00.006-04:00

We started this journey like this, young, dumb, and having no idea of what God had in store for us. The journey has ben incredible and there is no one in on this entire planet that I would rather share it with.

We added Slang to the mix (a dumb part) and became a quasi-family of 3

5 years and 600 miles later, God gave us this "gift" and the journey began to get exciting.

Everyone watched you grow into a more Godly man and Daddy when you stepped out to love these little guys like they were your own.

Then, this adventure showed up and we all learned how to love like Jesus does, even when we're terrified and only have faith to lean on. You led us well and taught me so much about unconditional, fearless love.

And our family looked like this.

Then just a little while later, this ridiculous surprise/miracle, healing showed up on a stick! and you led us all thru another transition for our family. You stepped up and loved me thru pregnancy, and tiredness, and labor, and learning to breastfeed, more sleepless nights, and way more than I could write down.

and he looked like this!

You have learned so much in the last 40 years! You wear a tie at the right time, make a great snowman, take care of sick babies like it's nobody's business, and love us so well. Thanks for all you do. If you're just at 40, I can't wait to see what God does with and thru you in the next 40 years!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Cleaning off the Camera

2011-06-22T15:20:00.005-04:00

There hasn't been a whole lot of excitement at the Andersen Crib lately. Just normal summer stuff. However, we're gearing up for Caleb Shaun's adoption party and so I was cleaning off the camera memory card and found all these unblogged treasures :) So, I thought you might want to see them too!

We got a new pool (that involved some drama) but this is the original pool with Cadence and some friends playing in it one afternoon. She has really enjoyed being able to swim at our house and it has literally kept her entertained for hours! Here is a VIDEO of her and a friend showing off their mad diving skills.

This is hands down Caleb's favorite cabinet to play in. We don't know why.

Big Mary came over to play one day and I guess that Cadence captured some of their fun! She loves big Mary because she has long hair and lets Cadence fix it, even when she gets the brush caught in it over and over...

Big Mary is fabulous with the boys too and so we let her hang out with them :) Creed loves to sleep with big Mary in the nursery at church and at our house too! Big Mary laughs at Cadence's jokes - no small feat - and so we love that about her too!

Some self-portraits by Cadence Shae Andersen

Caleb being his cute self!

Someone entertaining the boys in the car. I think this was on the way back from a long trip and we were a little stir-crazy!

The boyz morning routine.

This Past Weekend

2011-06-16T17:33:00.002-04:00

Caleb had to go in this past weekend (June 10) for a heart catherization (sp?). Dr. Cook, his cardiologist, had done an ECHO in April at our every six month check up and had thought that his left pulmonary artery was smaller than the right one. So, she showed it to the heart cath specialist who agreed and a date was set up to balloon the artery.

We decided to take all the kids with us because there hasn't been a normal weekend where we were all together for over a month. Chris was gone, I was gone, the kids were gone, it was kind of ridiculous. Pair that with the fact that I (ashleigh) had been struggling with some post-partum muck that had definitely upset our home life, and we thought another weekend not together, wasn't the best thing for the kids.

So, early Friday morning, we loaded up 3 sleeping kids into the van and headed for Winston-Salem. Chris stayed out with the kids while I took Caleb back to the holding area for people needing surgery ( i totally forgot what it's called)! While the other 3 ate breakfast, I wrestled Caleb in our holding cell while trying to give background medical info that I only know thru hear-say :) Finally they brought me the great little syringe full of stuff that makes him drunk. YAY!! A nurse walked him around until he was waving at everyone in a VERY drunken state saying his souther drawl "hi" and we decided that he was ready to go. So, we got on an elevator and headed to the cath lab. After riding on an elevator with the anesthiologist (sp?), they were best friends and so Caleb went right to her and off they went into surgery. Meanwhile, the other Andersens were fed and ready to settle in for however long they were going to work on him.

Here we are waiting in the cath waiting room. Creed (and Chris) slept like pros!

Cadence (and I) were way more into technology. She watched Wall-E and Toy Story 3 and part of Tinkerbell before the drs came out to say we were done. She also found the time to make this chicken for Caleb on Daddy's iPhone :) I played lots of Angry Birds but there is no photographic proof.

So, finally surgery was over and Dr. Williams (the heart cath guy) and Dr. Cook (our normal girl) came out to update us on what all they had done. They did balloon his left pulmonary artery and thankfully the balloon made it stay open so that no stint was necessary. They also saw that several other "collateral arteries" had formed off of main arteries so they coiled them off to make blood-flow stop going thru them and flow thru the main arteries instead. We weren't totally surprised by this because they had done the same thing (with the collateral arteries) the last time he had a heart cath right before his heart surgery. We were told to expect a low-grade fever due to all the metal coils they had put in and also to do everything we could to make him lay flat for the next 6 hours! right........ due to the fact that they had had to go in thru his neck and groin in a couple of different spots in order to get all the work done they needed to do. After a little more waiting, we were on our way to a room to get settled in for the night.

As promised, he was very uncomfortable coming out from being asleep and so Chris opted to take the other 2 to the movies while I got the job of trying to keep Caleb flat. Morphine became our friend because it helped him stay very still - and out of it.

Creed waiting to see Kung-Fu Panda in 3D

After the movie and some excitement trying to find a pizza place, they came back to the hospital where we all had dinner (our 6 hours were over and Caleb was hungry!) After dinner and a little hanging out while Creed got fed, Chris, Cadence, and Creed headed to the hotel and Caleb and I settled in for the night - kind of. More morphine later, I held him in the hospital bed while he tried to sleep on me, with 18 lovies, and a piece of pizza in his hand! He finally was asleep enough for me to lay him down about midnight and then of course, it was time for a vitals check. I love hospitals (sarcasm). So closer to one, we settled in for the night. Meds at 2:45 weren't very helpful for sleeping, and then at 6, we were up waiting to be discharged.

Caleb wanting Da to hold him for a while.

Praise the Lord, we were on the way home before lunchtime! We're so grateful for our drs an nurses who do their jobs with excellence so that our son can have the best possible life.

One happy boy on the way home!

Cadence Graduates! :(

2011-05-28T09:51:00.005-04:00

I know all parents say it, but we really can't believe that our baby girl is big enough to have graduated from Preschool. What a ride it has been! She has learned so much this year and grown up so much. We're really proud of the girl she is becoming. She is so loving and helpful that it often amazes me. She most always thinks of her brothers before herself and if we're trying to go somewhere, she is gathering lovies, pacis, and everything else we could possibly need to keep the boys happy. She has learned all her letters and numbers (except 15 - it doesn't exist in her world) She now writes her name and lots of other words. She does simple addition, and can even recognize some sight words! We are really pleased with her preschool experience overall. Because this is basically my scrapbook, I'm going to list some of her friends so we'll remember them in the years to come. Of Course there was Mary, although she wasn't in her class, Kelsey, Molly, and Gracen - all 3 from church, and then the school friends she talked the most about were Tatum ,Campbell Exie, Kendall, Otis, Andy, and Steven.

Here we all are at her graduation!

Cadence and Mary

Mrs. Kristen and Mrs. Melissa - we're so grateful for them!

The Graduating Class of 2011 from First Presbyterian Church Preschool

Here is a video of her performance - it's about 6 minutes long so only watch it if you have the time :) She's on the top left on the back row.

Here is another video from her "Spring Sing" that took place in April and we never posted the video! She's on the bak row 2 people down from the girl with the bright orange hairbow

Common Sightings around the Andersen House

2011-05-25T08:53:00.006-04:00

Not alot has been going on lately around here. We're wrapping up the pre-school year this week with Cadence's Graduation, lessons are gearing up for the recital, and there's the normal chaos of May. However, the weather has taken a turn for the best and so we've spent lots of time outside lately. Here are some of the pictures of random things we've been up to.

More meals outside than inside - one of my favorite things about warmer weather!

How Caleb looks after basically every meal! This one happened to involve a cupcake :)

We swing alot.

Cadence has become a master of all kinds of tricks on the swing and even involves her brothers in them when we're not looking.

Paint has come out of the closet. Thankfully it's all been used up for now :)

Check out this carrot that came out of our garden!! We love eating out of the garden and can't wait for everything to start to bloom.

Creed is busy. He full on crawls now and loves to eat everything that will fit into his mouth. He's not at all picky about what it is. Needless to say, I'm working hard to keep the floors free of really gross stuff! When he crawls, he usually ends up under the table. Chris calls it his clubhouse and I"m beginning to think it's true. 9 times out of 10 if we're looking for Creed he's under the table - he's under it right now!

The Yahtzee box on the table is a good reminder of Cadence's new favorite game. She loves to play it with her Daddy. She can't remember the word "Yahtzee" so it gets called lots of different things like "Nachos" and "Schatzie" but we know what she's talking about and we usually play with her once the boys go to bed. Baby boys and dice aren't a good mix.

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-13T22:09:00.007-04:00

So, another Mother's Day has come and gone. It's not an officially recognized holiday in our household because as the mom, I think it's a dumb holiday. I'm grateful everyday (or at least most days) for my children, the way God has given them to me, and the birthmothers involved in the making of Chris and I parents. So, to take a day to single out and "honor" the people who actually have kids to show off, is dumb. However, it was also baby dedication at our church, Christ Community Church Mooresville, so we were all dressed in a way that at least coordinated and made for a better opportunity to get a picture of all of us.

This was the best we could come up with :) It's not a bad attempt considering the other holidays we've tried to take pics of.

After church and small group, we came home, slept for a little while and went out to enjoy the nice day. Caleb of course needed an accessory! Cadence got her scooter for Easter and loves it! She's super fast on it and we're glad that she enjoys it so much because it's great exercise - at least for one leg!

These boys make me smile most of the time - except for when Caleb is sitting on Creed's head or something like that. But when they're getting along, it's one of my favorite things in the entire universe.

Creed was being his normal cute self so we took advantage :)

In case you're not totally bored by pictures of an average day in the Andersen house yet, here is a video of even more cuteness from the same day :)

An Entertaining Drive

2011-05-13T22:00:00.001-04:00

We were in the car going somewhere this week and Caleb Shaun was doing his best to keep Creed entertained. Thankfully, I had the camera near me so I caught it on video :)

click HERE

Spring Break 2011

2011-04-30T20:14:00.009-04:00

For Spring Break this year, we did something different and went to Myrtle Beach. We stayed at this place called Compass Cove. It was a resort with lots of water stuff. lots of pools, hot tubs, a kid water area, a lazy river, and water slides. It was so much fun! A little cool, but fun. Caleb mostly liked the hot tubs but Cadence loved the pools. We pool-hopped a lot looking for just the perfect spot to swim.

THe 1st day, I took no pictures. But basically, we drove there, changed into bathing suits and spent lots of time trying to find a warm, not-so-windy place to hang out. We ended up at an indoor hot tub :) We ordered pizza for dinner and put the kids to bed. It was a good day!

The 2nd day we were there it was supposed to be really bad weather so we planned to not swim that day and instead, go to the aquarium. It ended up being a really nice day but we still went to the aquarium. Here are the kids waiting to leave for the day.

The only picture with Daddy. We were waiting on the Kales to get there so we could go in the aquarium together. The Kale "big boys" all went to the Nascar SpeedPark instead of the Aquarium ( I couldn't imagine why) and so Chris opted to go with them. So, our aquarium time was spent with Karen and Garrett.

The Ray section. You could pet them but Cadence was too scared and Caleb just wanted to splash the whole time.

We basically could have played on the slide all day and my 2 big kids would have been happy. I think it's universal that you pay money to expose your kids to something different than what they see everyday and their favorite part is the ordinary within the extraordinary.

Garrett and Cadence both liked going up into the little hump thing to look at the sharks from a different angle. I think Cadence just mostly liked talking to the other kids in there.

The Horseshoe Crabs were really cool. You could pick them up as long as they didn't have a baby with them. Only Garrett was brave enough to pick them up but Caleb touched one while Garrett held it. Cadence wouldn't have anything to do with it!

These wheels were something to do with the salination process for the aquariums. After the slide, they were the kids second favorite thing to do. Just turning wheels and climbing on big pipes............I totally don't get it.

Creed was there, he just spent most of his time like this :)

In the Dangerous Reef Tunnel. It was really cool and the sharks and turtles literally swam right over us! Cadence liked that you didn't have to walk and could ride the conveyor belt instead.

These fish were so cool. They were in the water outside of the aquarium and we fed the vanilla wafers. They really liked them!

Friday morning, our last day, turned out to be beautiful. So, we packed our stuff, loaded the car, packed a lunch, and headed to the pool. The kids had a blast playing in the water. I think we probably spent close to 4 hours swimming and eating and playing before naptime hit us hard. So, after that we changed the kids, put them in their seats and started the drive home. Cadence literally slept 3 of the 4 hours home. Creed literally slept NONE because he had taken a 2 hour nap at the pool.

This girl loves the water!

Mrs. Karen bought Cadence and Caleb an ice cream from the ice cream man. She's so nice :)

Of course Creed got in on some of the ice cream action too!

The Boy Who Didn't Eat

2011-04-30T20:03:00.002-04:00

After a year of feeding therapy, and feeding tubes, we are firm believers in miracles because yet another one has taken place in our house! This child eats ALL THE TIME! It's comical these days because we literally have to tell him to quit eating and go play. If ever there was a true scripture it is that He is really able to do EXCEEDINGLY MORE than we could ever ask or imagine :)

Easter Candy

Cupcakes

Yogurt

Cereal

Ice Cream

The list could go on and on..........popcorn, all meat, chips, anything spicy, tacos, salsa, spaghetti.

I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin.......

Milestones for Creed Samuel

2011-04-24T18:00:00.004-04:00

We've hit a week where it's more and more evident to us that our baby is not so much a baby anymore :( This past week he has cut 2 teeth, started sitting up on his own regularly, and can even get around with his own version of "crawling" it's more like an inchworm than crawling but it get him around regardless! Last night was the first time that for his bath, he got to sit up in the bath tub seat instead of laying back in the baby washer thing. Now that he has the ability to sit up, he really doesn't want to lay back so it just wasn't working to wrestle him to take a bath. So, we pulled out the tub seat and he was so happy! Just look at what a big boy he looks like!

Since he could sit up and I knew he was safer, I left the boys in the tub to run and get their pj's. While I was gone, I heard them both laughing so hard so I ran for the camera too. I'm so glad I did because I caught them having so much fun together! The older they get, the more I am looking forward to seeing the relationship between these 2 little boys develop. I'm praying that they become the best of friends that will help each other, and make each other laugh, their entire lives. Here's the VIDEO that I got. I hope you enjoy!

These pics are my attempt to get a picture of Creed's tooth. The other one on the bottom came thru yesterday so now he's sporting 2 little teeth. I'll try to get a picture of that soon!

Super fun Easter Weekend with Grammie/Lellow Gigi and Poppa

2011-04-24T17:03:00.006-04:00

The Yellow GiGi and Poppa made a quick trip to NC to see all the grandbabies/Callaway kids for the weekend. The plan was for Emily and Rob to pick up GiGi and Poppa from the airport and spend a couple of days with us too but Janey was sick, and Em was sick, and so plans got changed :( But GiGi and Poppa still came and we were super glad to see them! Mom(GiGi) had sent a box earlier in the week and it happened to come in on the same day they were flying in. So, as soon as they got to our house, the box had to be opened!

3 Andersens waiting for a picture to be taken :)

GiGi and Poppa helping with the opening

They also brought a purse for Cadence that matched her Easter dress. She was pretty excited about that! Everyone also got bunnies with their names on them. The boys aren't much into bunnies - or presents for that matter - but Cadence was plenty excited!

For Good Friday, we all headed to the Callaway's house so that we could hang out with them and Mom and Dad could meet baby Garner - who I did not get one picture of the entire day.

I did get this little man who is now not the baby :( and could play in the play room with the big kids.

THe plan was to color eggs so that we could have an Easter egg hunt and make cupcakes so it was like a party. Christa bought confusing Easter Egg dye so here she is trying to figure out how to color the eggs :)

Cadence and Kagan thought they could be helpful..........

We finally figured it out and after everyone was suited up to not ruin their clothes, we were off

Caleb pretty much just ate jelly beans and marshmellows

Here are our finished eggs. Aren't they beautiful!

Next we decorated cupcakes. It's hard, serious work to decorate cupcakes!

Caleb pretty much just ate :)

We did other fun stuff but that's all the pictures I took - mostly hanging out and drumming. Either way, we're so glad that we got to spend a couple of days with GiGi and Poppa and grateful for cousins so close that we get to hang out often.

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's way!

2011-04-20T08:04:00.004-04:00

Packages have started arriving in the mail, so the Andersen 3 have figured out that there must be a holiday coming. Today's package was from Aunt Connie. Cadence was so excited and could hardly wait for her brothers to wake up so that we could get started on the fun of opening everything.

Here they are waiting so patiently to get started.

She pulled out a carrot full of gum and her brothers were definitely interested.

Then out came the balls!

Creed found the Ring Pops and knew he had found something good!

See? It was that good :)

Cadence thought her pink one was pretty good too. and Caleb Shaun decided he liked the eggs better than the Ring Pops :)

Thanks Aunt Connie for adding to our Easter Celebration. We miss you and hope to see you soon!

Spring is coming.........

2011-04-14T21:28:00.005-04:00

Spring: with lots of pollen, bees everywhere, beautiful days followed by really gross days, 80 one day and 56 the next........it's a good season :) One of the reasons I really like Spring is because the good days are SO Good that they totally outweigh the bad ones! Chris and I went to a concert a few weeks ago and the artist said that one of his top reasons for liking spring is because it is a time of year when it is so visible that the Earth itself shouts the Resurrection Story. And it really made me think about what a true statement that is. Not only does everything come back to life and bloom again, but as I thought about it with people, it's the time of year when all the neighbors come out after being cooped up inside all winter. It's amazing to see how much everyone's kids grew or what new things they're doing now. And it's pretty amazing to think about our own kids and how they've changed over the winter. It provides me with hope that everything is truly "just a season" and that there is good and bad to come from all of them!

But speaking of new life, Garner Matthan Callaway decided to show up last weekend! He tried to beat Creed out for the weight record but didn't quite get it. Weighing in at 9 lb 7oz he's still a big boy! Christa definitely beats me tho, because she actually birthed him and I took the easy way out :) We're so excited for our new cousin!

One of the great "spring" things that we've picked up as a tradition is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's. This year wasn't a great year because all 3 kids without Chris is always hard. Thankfully Karen and Garrett were there to help us out! Either way, I had to wake up both boys to go in order to be back home to teach a lesson so that didn't really help anything.

Cadence is in the bounce house - and yes she picked out her own outfit and I let her wear it to school!

Creed loved him some ice cream! Caleb Shaun did nothing picture worthy so he didn't get his taken - remember he was woken up to even go and he doesn't love ice cream so it was pretty much a bust in his world.

Spring coming means that the bikes come out! We went for a walk last Sunday all together and it was so much fun. I can't believe that we have 2 boys who can each ride in their own thing and not need to be in the stroller, but we do!

The picture of Cadence on the tricycle makes me laugh because I so remember when she could really ride the thing! Now, her legs are definitely too long but she had a good time anyway!

Caleb Shaun prefers his walker if we're going to make him walk outside and so, he gets to use it - mostly because it's super cute.

Here is a video of him with his walker outside.

Christmas Day at Disney

2011-03-28T11:18:00.008-04:00

Chris and I spent lots of time talking about what to do for Christmas this year. As we talked, we both had the feeling that the Christmas season was getting lost in all the busyness of life at the holidays. Church programs, school programs, recitals, parties: all good things, but certainly things that became huge distractions to our family this year. We believe that God has called us first and foremost to live and speak the gospel over our children in every way possible and so, for our family, we decided that this year instead of making a big deal of presents that will be fun for a little while and then be thrown into a corner with all the other toys, we would take the money we would spend on Christmas presents for the kids and have a big family day on Christmas instead. So, for this year, we thought that Disney would be fun. We decided to go to EPCOT because we figured that Magic Kingdom would be ridiculously packed and we love EPCOT so it seemed like the best choice for us. So, Christmas morning, we packed the kids up, put on our matching Mickey Mouse shirts (because we were that family) and headed to Orlando. The kids had such a good time and it was such a simple, not stressful day for - until it got dark and cold - then it wasn't so much fun. :( But until that point, it was great and here are some of the pictures of our Day of Fun.

Heading into the park - I told you we had matching shirts :)

PLaying with a fire truck - just what you think of with Disney World, right?!?

in Finding Nemo, playing fish matching games

and looking at the real fish!

Playing in a fountain while I fed Creed

See?

Chris and Cadence entertaining themselves in line for a ride - by far my favorite pictures of the day :)

Racing Cars

Stopping by the potty for the millionth time

EPCOT's Christmas Tree - one of my favorites

Mary Poppins decided to go to EPCOT for Christmas too!

Playing drums in Africa

Proof that Creed was there!

and the beautiful crashing of the kids at the hotel!

We so enjoyed our day together and will definitely make this a bigger Andersen tradition. It only makes sense really that we would take the focus on Jesus' birthday off of what earthly stuff we could have, and focus instead of the gifts that God has given us. Jesus - the greatest gift ever! and our family - a pretty close second :)