The Harrells

Caden Michael is 5!

I cannot believe that our little boy is 5!! Happy Birthday, Caden Michael! You have truly been a blessing in our lives for the last 5 years. I cannot believe that 5 years have passed since you were born...it seems like yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital. We celebrated Caden's birthday in style with a party at the Tallahassee Museum with some of his favorite animals!

What an awesome cake...the dinosaur on top was motion activated and jumped out and roared at you when you walked by.

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They even brought a baby alligator for the kids to touch/pet. Caden was soooo excited about this part of his party.

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He loved every minute of it. Then on Monday (his actual birthday), he had birthday chapel at school!! Mommy and daddy got to go and sit with Caden's class during chapel. [Side note...my birthday is 5 days before Caden's. He sang me "happy birthday" and then said Amen at the end, because that's what they do at birthday chapel :)] He was beaming from ear to ear :)...

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So cute...we brought cupcakes for the whole class. Caden was so excited. The birthday continued with hibachi! Nana was in town, so she got to join us and take a picture of our little family of four :)

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Then for his surprise present when we got home...a fish! The kid loves animals :).

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He named him Yoyo. Yoyo sits on his nightstand and keeps him company at night so he's not scared in his room by himself.

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His other big present will come later this summer...a swingset for our backyard! Now that we finally have a yard to put it in!

Boys Trip

This post is a little out of order but before our awesome spring break trip, daddy and Caden took a boys trip one weekend to see monster trucks in Pensacola and then to Mobile to see the battleships. Ensley and I were going to go too and hang out on the beach while they were at the monster truck show, but she still had her cast on...and a baby with a cast at the beach does not sound fun. I gave them the camera so that we could have some memories of their first "boys" trip.

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Looks like they had a lot of fun :).

Ensley milestone update

At 11 1/2 months old, Ensley is taking a few steps and standing very well on her own! And finally 8 days before her first birthday a tooth appeared! You can sort of see it...:)

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She now holds the record in the family for being a late teether...mommy was the previous record holder at 10 1/2 months. So far, she was the biggest baby (beating out Uncle Ryan by an oz.), the longest baby, and the latest teether.

And do you think she looks like Mommy? Ensley at 10 1/2 months and mommy at 9 months.

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She is very busy these days...whenever anyone lays on the floor, she is right there trying to lay on you and crawl back and forth over you...sweet girl.

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She also claps (working on the waving), gives "5", dances, says mama, dada, and something that sounds like ball. Just a quick post about some of her milestones.

Wee Ball - Season 2

We started our second season of wee ball! Caden is starting to get the hang of it. He definitely tries to the field the ball this year, but he tries to field EVERY ball...no matter if he is close to it or not. ;)

From 2013_04_12

The Moon

So, a letter comes home from school that Caden is in a pre-school program at school. It had a list of all the kids with their assigned parts and said that the parents usually make the kids costumes and to let them know if there was any problems with that. So, I look at the roles...princess, butterflies, superman, a dog...and then there's Caden...Caden is the moon. What the heck?!? I'm thinking...why oh why couldn't my kid have been assigned a part in the program that you could buy a costume for. I am not one of those moms who makes stuff! I tried googling "child moon costume" and nothing...except for homemade ideas. So, I motivated myself to take on the task....

Plan A...paper mache. I bought a 36 inch balloon, sought guidance from my friend's sister, the art teacher, and spent about 3 hours doing it. Next morning, the thing was not dry...so I panicked.

Then went to Plan B...fabric that resembled a moon stapled and ducktaped to foam board with a strap around his neck and waist. I added the American flag to be funny. The teachers loved it!

Next time, I know to start with Plan B. Plan C involved a hula hoop, so I'm glad we didn't end up there. And I thought I had it bad...I really felt bad for the kid's parents who was "hot mayonnaise".

I later found out that the kids made up the entire script by just adding lines to the story after the teacher said "once upon a time". Caden's class had a dog and batman that travelled through Alvin Space (no...not outerspace....Alvin Space!) and came across all kinds of friends in the process. (the Hot Mayonnaise was another class' villain).

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Easter

Caden had an Easter Egg hunt at school that I got to go to...He came up and whispered "Mom, there's the Easter Bunny"...."I need to tell him what I want". He told him that he wanted a ship, but I told him that was way too big to fit in his Easter basket. :)

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Easter weekend, Ensley wasn't feeling well, so we stayed close to home all weekend...for fear of vomiting in public. But the Easter Bunny came to see us :).

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And Caden had a good time hunting eggs by himself...we had about 6 egg hunts. In the end, he hid them so he could find them :).

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But Caden's all time favorite Easter activity is dying eggs...we don't eat them, we don't hide those...we just carry the, around for a few days in cups and then throw them away :)...but the process is the most fun to him!

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Hollywood got herself a new pair of sunglasses from the Easter Bunny...

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The outtakes from trying to get a good picture...I just laughed at most of these.

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I did manage to get this one somehow :)...

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Best Spring Break Ever!

Spring Break 2013!! Woohoo!! Well, okay, it's not that kind of Spring Break anymore. Ensley and I started out Spring Break by making a trip to her doctor in Charleston for the hemangioma and we got to see Uncle Ryan and Aunt AJ, too! And eat all of the amazing food that Charleston has to offer. The good news from the doctor was that the hemangioma was gone! Yes, gone! The medication broke it up. She still has some capillaries on the surface, which is why the skin is still a little discolored, but the mass is gone! So, we are wiening her off of the medication and then we will do a few more laser treatments to take care of the capillaries. Our goal is still by age 2 1/2 that she will never even know it was there. We are very pleased with the results and that the medication not only stopped it from growing but broke up the mass.

Ensley and I got back from Charleston on a Tuesday and we were off on our Spring Break adventure on Wednesday...First stop, the Clearwater Aquarium to see Winter the Dolphin (the dolpin without a tale who stars in the movie with Harry Connick, Jr., A Dolphin Tale). Caden was excited to see her and ride on the pontoon boat, but other than that...not a whole lot to the Clearwater Aquarium. We went back to the hotel that night and got up the next morning for stop #2...

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Stop #2, Busch Gardens. Caden loved all of the animals and the skyride. Ensley was so good the whole time, she even got to ride on the skyride!

Love this picture...

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On a side note, the last show we saw at Busch Gardens was this ice skating acrobatic show. We were in about the fifth row, so we were pretty close. Well, Ensley loved it...maybe a little too much! She was standing on my lap, smiling from ear to ear...and screaming at the top of her lungs at the performers. Screaming so loud, that she and I left the performance :) as to not disturb the rest of the audience :). We got up Friday morning and headed over to Orlando for Stop #3, SeaWorld! We ended up visiting SeaWorld twice (once on Friday afternoon and then all day Saturday).

Ensley was enamored by the dolphin show...

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The best thing for Ensley and I at Sea World was by far the infant house...SeaWorld has a little house that is air conditioned with rocking chairs, sinks, microwaves, a nursing room, a changing room, and restrooms for families with infants. Thanks, Sea World, that was awesome!

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Family pic...so mommy got in at least one...Mommy's friend, Terri joined us one day. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics with her, but at least she took one of us. :)

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We fed sharks, sea lions, had lots of soft serve ice cream, and ate dinner by the sharks! Excuse the quality of the photo, but I could not find a setting that worked really well with the tank glass...

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Caden with his loot! After daddy bought him the HUGE Shamu, he was singing a song about it..."I got Shamu, oohh ooohhh, I got Shamu, oohh ooohhh".

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Then, Sunday, on the way home, we made a last minute decision to make a stop #4 so that we could extend our spring break a little longer. Stop #4...Gatorland. By far, Caden's favorite place...Who would have thought this beat out SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. Heck, if we knew this was the favorite, we could have saved a lot of money! Just kidding...