Lake Powell 2008

I have so many pictures from my trip back home so bare with us! We went to Lake Powell a few days after we arrived back in Utah and I've decided it's the best place on earth. Drew's brother Chris is so great and every year we're able to spend a week on their houseboat, go out on his boat and ride on Thomas and Haley's jetskis. Sean designed some great t-shirts this year, as you can see, and took all these great pictures. We eat a lot of great meals and snack on a lot of crap and just have a good time.

So I've included some of the highlights....

Drew spent some quality time making a replica of his dad, Mel, in the sand and I think it looks pretty good!

Here we are doing some serious cliff jumping!

I think Drew looks pretty bad 'a' right here at the highest point of the cliff and here is my impressive jump!

Yes....he jumped and next to him is his brother Chris.

We also got in some quality wakeboarding time.

And of course, we played a little Mario Kart and I pretty much dominated...on one game.

And these are the pics I took...

Kaden kind of liked the water but was not a fan of the bright sun. He should be happy next to all these cute cousins!

Kaden had an awesome time with his awesome Grammie who took care of him a lot while mom played!

And finally...me with my Cubs fans. I'm embarassed to say this but with all these pictures, we were actually only there for two days!

Happy 4th of July!

Drew, Kaden and I spent the holiday with some great people out here that are a part of the business program. Some friends had a barbecue and we pretty much just ate a lot and laughed a lot and came home! Kaden had a little break down at the party and I think he was a bit over stimulated so we came home and watched the fire works from our door step. I'm sad we didn't get many pictures so this is it! We are doing great and Kaden seems to be doing something new everyday! This has been such a fun age and he keeps us laughing. We are so excited to come home in two weeks and can't wait to see our family and friends!

Thanks Aunt Julz!!

Thanks Julz for this cute Notre Dame blanket and Kaden's Santa Suit! It's actually a U of U sleeper but he sure looks festive in it. Anyway, she looked high and low for Notre Dame fabric and couldn't find it so she ordered a shirt and cut it up and it looks fabulous. Kaden is quite the envy around here and this smile pretty much says it all!

Obsessed Parents

So I have a part-time job as a research assistant for one of the professors up at the business college and I can do most of it from home so it's been nice. I've been staring at the computer for the last few hours and decided to take a break and post some random pictures of our son! We are becoming those obsessed parents but whatever. Drew only has one class right now so it's been nice to have him around and he's been able to spend a lot of time with Kaden. Here are some pics of their quality time together!

Here they are sucking on their fists!

Drew was trying to see if he could get his hair to go forward and not stick straight up....it didn't work so we tried to comb it down after he got out of the bath.

And I just think this little grin is so funny....now you can see why people still ask me if he is asian!

White Sox Game

Drew has been working really hard with school and has done great so we were all excited that he had a break this week. We decided to head to Chicago again for another baseball game. This time we went and saw the White Sox play against the Pirates with our friends, Jeff, Melia, and son Jacob. As you can see, the stadium is freaky huge and we saw it all cuz we were pretty much on the top row of the stadium! We had a great time but are honestly a little partial to the Cubs!

Kaden loves his daddy....

And mom & dad sure love their candy!

Mom & Kaden with Melia & Jacob.

Father's Day

So I know I've been blogging a lot but Father's Day warrants a new blog as do these pictures of Drew playing video games with Kaden by his side. I just about wet my pants every time I look at them and that little grin melts my heart! They are too cute together and I couldn't be any more grateful for both of them! Happy 1st Father's Day to a wonderful new dad and a big thanks to his parents who raised him! Kaden is already a daddy's boy and pretty much thinks he's the best thing since formula.

Fun Firsts!

So Kaden had two new firsts this week. He went to his first baseball game (a Cubs game at that) on Tuesday night and as you can see, he was really into it! Drew's brother and wife stayed in Chicago this week and came to see us for a tour of campus on Monday and took us to a Cubs game the following night! It was so fun and so great to see them. Thanks again so much to the Vegas Yergys for the great seats!
We also went to the pool today with Chantele, Kelly, Melia and her son Jacob (who is Kaden's best friend) and it was pretty funny. Here's Kaden in his bumbo just chillin by the pool and looking more obese than ever. We tried to take Kaden and Jacob for a dip in the pool but it didn't go too well because the water was a little cold and then we got hit by a serious rain storm! Thanks to Chantele for helping us gather up all our baby crap and run for cover!

Chubbs

So here's our chubby man doing a few of his new favorite things right now...watching baby einstein and chewing on as many fingers as he can possibly fit into his mouth (and those are some chubby fingers). He's also been testing out the new Bumbo we just got him and he's become quite a fan. As you can see from this other pic, he wasn't too excited at first, which may be because his chubby legs get stuck every time we try to take him out.

Speaking of new things for Kaden, I made a purchase that may not be necessary but I had a freak out moment. I got a flat tire, probably from hitting a curb pretty hard, so I went to get it replaced and sat by some lady from here. She asked about Kaden and showed me a picture of her niece that just died of SIDS last month at only 4 months of age. She said there have been 10 cases in the last few months in this area and the average is 1-2 per year so they are launching an investigation to see if there are similar factors involved. Anyway, she told me that the most important thing any new mom should invest in is a SIDS monitor, which I didn't even know existed. And, of course, I came home and ordered one. At least I'll have piece of mind after hearing that story. I couldn't think of anything worse happening as Kaden has become the center of our universe so I think it's a good investment.

I thought I'd mention this story that happened last week. We get some of the same questions about his race out here and people often thinks he is polynesian. But this 3 year old girl at church sure got it right last week and I thought it was kind of funny. She was sitting in front of us on her dads lap facing backwards looking at us. I was holding Kaden and feeding him a bottle. Pretty loudly, she let her dad know what was going on and said, "Dad...that lady is feeding that black baby!", like there was something just not right about this picture. I do often worry for Kaden as he gets older and clearly understands he is not the same race as his parents. I'm constantly looking for information on transracial families and am trying to gear up for these types of incidents when Kaden is old enough to understand that we have a different situation then most. Anyway, we sure love him and will do our best!

Kaden

So enough about Drew & I....I just want to post some pics of Kaden! It's so fun to have him out here the humidity is sure great for his hair, which is now always curly. It's weird but since we've moved here, he no longer likes his binky and I can rarely get him to just lay on the floor. He just wants to be sat up or stood up on his feet with help and is totally happy. These new changes make things a little difficult for us to do anything else and we got desperate at one point and put together his bouncy for him to try even though it's for 4 months plus. He is in it in this picture with the yellow blanket propping him up and he liked it for a

minute but his feet don't touch so he lost interest. And since he's standing up so much I thought I'd put him in some real shoes for the first time and I think he has the cutest chubby legs I've ever seen!

Here he is with dad on a fun stroll. Drew's actually been able to spend more time with him lately and has been loving it! We did just found out a few days ago that he was accepted to USC, which he was supposed to have found out about when Notre Dame got back to him but had some issues that post-poned the results. If he had attended USC he would have been working and doing the part-time program. We'd be living in a house in Southern California but I'm sure we'd never see him! We don't regret the decision and know we'll have some great experiences here.

Sweet Apartment

So the fam has been asking to see some pics of our sweet new pad. We decided to move into on campus family student housing even after we found out the apartments were 500 square feet! We'd heard it's worth it for the community life that we'd have here and it's a lot closer to the business building. I'm realizing that it's not the size that's hard but the fact that we don't have cable or a microwave. Seriously...how am I supposed to cook! It will actually be good for me so I can become more domestic. As for the cable...I sure miss the E channel but I think it will be good for me as well. It would also be way too big of a distraction for Drew, especially when football season hits! So as you can see, the front room and kitchen are pretty much one and the same. I know what you're thinking....what's with the TV....but we couldn't part with it, even if it's pretty much just for an occasional movie (and of course...video games). And believe it or not, we do have 2 bedrooms but Kaden's is pretty much a pile of random things with a swing in the middle until we get the crib up and the room organized. So far, we're really enjoying it and it's sure easy to clean. Without cable, when Drew has some time in the evenings we go on walks and ya....we play darts on our Jazz dart board. It is actually pretty quiet around here now but I guess a lot more families will be moving in for fall semester. We have met some great families and I go on a walk every morning with a friend who also has a 3 month old boy.

Notre Dame

Our first week here was orientation for Drew and on his first day, the families were invited to join the students for lunch in the stadium pressbox. We got to go on a tour and if any of you know Drew, you know he was pretty stoked. The campus is absolutely beautiful and Notre Dame puts a strong emphasis on families. They connected us all through a Family Life Commitee and we have many upcoming activities planned and have gotten to know a lot of other couples pretty well.

Good-Bye's

I had such a great job and I was really sad to leave!

Here are some of the hot ladies I had the priviledge of working with and I sure miss them!

And more hot ladies that I'm going to miss. We squoze in a Chili's trip so I could get my chips and salsa fix. We looked it up and it didn't look like we would have one in Indiana but I spotted one last Saturday and made Drew take me! But I will miss the girls nights out and, of course......bunco!

The Drive

So I thought Kaden would be quite the nightmare for this 24 hour drive but he was loving having mom and dads non-stop attention and the budget really helped with the sleeping. I wish someone would drive him around in one every night! Drew and I were also able to have some good chats and get stoked for the upcoming year.

We're Here!

Boy do I have some blogging to do! We've been in South Bend, Indiana for a little over a week now and I've been a little crazy with the camera. I'm getting my butt into gear as Suzy has been calling by the hour telling me to update the blog! It's really not about Drew or I but I think she misses Kaden the most! Anyway, I'm excited to make a scrapbook of this blog at the end of the year so I really want to make sure I get all my pics in. So, bare with me!

Our little family of three headed out of Utah in the Budget for a 25 hour drive to Indiana on May 24th. We just want to say thanks again to everyone that helped us out so much! We had Helen hanging out of windows to clean them, 7 months pregnant Shelley cleaning cabinets out until 11:00 pm, my mom scrubbing bathrooms and Krystal as Kaden's nanny as well as all the guys doing all the heavy lifting! We also appreciate all the meals the Yergensens brought and Tineka stocked us up on treats to last us until Christmas! Let's be honest...that's really what was most important. And thanks to my sisters for babysitting on numerous occasions and being such great support! And thanks to Brooks and Melinda for helping us find a renter and also for the storage space! This was such a quick decision and Drew worked up until the day before we left so we couldn't have done it without everyone's help. (Drew wasn't too stoked about the matching shirts and onsie but I made him wear it anyway!)