October 08 pictures

Apple picking in Tehachapi



These are just at my front door, but I thought he looked really cute with the pumpkins.



This video is showing how well Kaden is walking, with just one hand! He'll be doing it on his own shortly!! Just a side...look at Kaden's hair...doesn't it look like he has a dark mohawk right down the middle?? He's so blond all the way around, but his hair is dark on top. It's pretty cute, actually.

October 08

Hi friends! I've been adding pictures, but I haven't really told you guys much lately. Ed and I have really been making friends, learning our way around this area, and marveling at Kaden's growth and development. He isn't quite walking on his own yet, but he certainly does well when holding his hand. KK even took 2 steps on his own last Sunday! He hasn't done that since, though. It's like he gets nervous, and just sits down. He can stand on his own, and he loves to see how long he can stay up by himself.

Last weekend, the three of us went to Tehachapi, CA to go apple picking and just enjoy an area OUTSIDE of the desert!! It's only about an hour drive, but the town is in the mountains, so it's cooler and actually has four seasons. It was a beautiful day that day.

Ed is leaving tomorrow for a month :( He and some of his coworkers are driving down to Tuscon, AZ to attend Freefall jump/ parachuting school. He will be skydiving rather than just jumping out of the plane and having it open autimatically. He is very excited for the qualification, but we are not excited to be apart. Since the drive is about 8 hours, I am thinking of making a weekend trip out of going down to meet up with him. We have friends that want to go camping in Yuma, so I may make the first leg of the trip with them...take a few days there, and then drive the rest of the way a few days later. That way I won't have to strap Kaden into the car for so long...by myself!

Ed will be home on Nov. 22nd, so he will be back for Kaden's first birthday as well as Thanksgiving Day on the 27th! Isn't it great that the baby's first birthday is on Thanksgiving??? We certainly have a lot to be thankful for :) Hopefully, family will be able to come out and visit in December, and I have two great friends from Okinawa coming to visit that month as well! I am SOOOO excited to see everyone and have them see our new house and lives here.

Please keep in touch...especially while Ed is gone. you can call me or email me anytime.

Love you!

Settled in our house

Here are some pictures of the house on the inside...now that we are settled and there is paint on the walls and pictures hung. We feel like it is finally HOME!

Kaden 10 months

This is a video clip of Kaden walking with his shopping cart!- he was really about 9 months old in this video. The pictures are all newer...within the last week.

Family Photos

These pictures were taken right before we left Okinawa by our friends Matt and Crystal. They are a few months old, but I'm so glad we were able to get them. Kaden is barely looking at the camera for any of the portraits, but most are candid any way. Also, Mama knew how to make him smile while Daddy was holding him, but Dad didn't make him smile for any of mine, so he just lays there staring off at the ground when I hold him! :) sheesh. Here are a few!

This week...Aug. 11-18

The plane before Ed jumped out....
There he is!


Doesn't he look so cool? That's MY husband! :)

Right before the next jump



This past week was a nice one, but it started out hard. I am still struggling to set up the house, make friends, and just being in such a secluded area, BUT, this past week was a turning point for a lot of these issues. Ed went TDY for a week down to Lake Elsinore, which is about 2 hours away, and I was somewhat jealous that Ed could go skydiving all day everyday with all of his friends, and then go out to eat and stay in a nice hotel all for work, while I sat at home with Kaden. I was so excited when he invited us down to watch him jump and go out to dinner with his team and then stay overnight. We went down on Thursday and stayed until Friday morning. The drive down went fine, and the GPS helped me find the site easily, but the drive home was a different story! The GPS took me a new route, and I had to drive on CRAZY California freeways that are like 5 lanes of packed traffic going no slower than 80 mph, and I was so nervous, my blood pressure was through the roof! But it was a great time.

Next, I decided that we had so much stuff crowding the house and garage that we needed to have a yard sale STAT! So Ed and I had a yard sale this weekend and did so well. We used some of the money to buy a new dresser, and will use the rest to go toward a new dining room table! :) So excited about that!

Kaden is doing great. We are meeting other kids every day, and he enjoys crawling everywhere. He had a bit of trouble with his eczema last week, but it looks to have cleared up well. One exciting thing is that he is getting 2 teeth! They are SO CUTE and are coming in the bottom. I will get pictures of them as soon as they grow in a little bit better and are easier to see.

We have jumped right into the chapel here on base, and the service is called Change Point. It is the Contemporary service, and it is very small, only about 50 people attend. There isn't even a nursery! So I volunteered to start a nursery for the babies, and we've made some friends through church already. We went to the potluck after service and met some nice couples. I'm excited to get to know them better. I hear there is a Calvary Chapel in North Edwards (a podunk town just outside of the north gate) of only about 25 people, but we may check that out too, since we enjoyed Calvary in Okinawa.

Things are going well, and I know this week will be a good one already, and it's only Monday. Praise God!

Our new house!!

I lost my feet!
Samson and Kaden are such good friends! They really love each other.
Kaden fell asleep on daddy's shoulders

The front of our new house- 36 Blackbird St.
Look really hard- there is a park right across the street from us
We're driving, but here is the basic view on base. Our housing area is called Mountain View-These are not quite mountains, but I guess they'll do.
More desert!!
We went to the fireworks display on Edwards the first day we got to base. Kaden stayed awake until about 8:50 and the fireworks started at 9. He slept through them!