Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas...

We are heading into 2011 now, but I wanted to at least post some of our Christmas celebration. We had a memorable Christmas celebrating with some familiar traditions and new events.

Even though it was Cade's second Christmas, it was the first that he was awake for ;). We celebrated tradition at the Buron home with Grandma's famous brisket. All the grandkids had a professional picture taken for Grandma, and she was thrilled to receive it.

Christmas morning we woke up early and did our Matthews' family Christmas and watched as Cade played around with his wrapped presents. As any 1 year old would be he was more interested in the paper then he was the actual present.

We headed to Gramps and Grammie Cooper's for Christmas morning brunch and opening presents with the Poladians, Mimi and Uncle Tom. We were busy on Christmas because I then made my first Christmas dinner for Eric's parents and his sister Katrina. What a blessed day it was! Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year and it was so wonderful to be able to share it with so many very special people.

Gramma's excellent brisket. It just isn't Christmas Eve without it!

My handsome little guy

The mama's with the photos of their kids and Gramma with all the cousins :)

Jenny and I were so excited about our homemade gift from mom and dad. Using old window frames they added cork board and made these really fun and beautiful cork boards for us! Something I found out later was the window frames came from our realtor's old home. She just about cried when she saw it in the new home she had just helped us purchase! I love it even more!!

Oh that face!

Cade with his new truck from Grammie and Gramps

Happy Birthday Little Man

One week ago Cade turned the big ONE! We had a little party to celebrate a week earlier and had a ton of fun. It was a beautiful December day, much like the day he was born. Much warmer than a typical day in December, but we were grateful because we were able to host the kiddos outdoors!

We wanted to have a party that was fun and kid friendly all at the same time. My mom and I thought of having a grilled cheese bar with lots of fancy fixings (for the adults of course) and a yummy bowtie pasta salad to keep with the little man theme. A BBQ never looked so beautiful ;). We grilled the grilled cheese sandwiches on the BBQ using cast iron griddles.

Fancy fixings!

I had fun playing around with "little man" things for the centerpieces, which ended up being a mason jar filled with buttons and a tie, mustache cut-outs that made for fun pictures and white mums. Loved the mix of soft flowers with the masculine tie!

The ties also served as a backdrop that we attached pictures to with tiny clothes pins. The photos were from his first year of life :)

My mom and I had a fun mother/daughter moment making Cade's cake. I baked some sheet cakes and cut them out in the shape of a tie and she helped me frost them. They were very homemade with a lot of love (and even some tears...I'm such a perfectionist!)

Cade's friend Peyton and her parents Ryan and Leslie

Ford and Cade are just 6 weeks a part and already buddies!

Cade and Grampa. Can you tell Cade is a Matthews???!!!

One of my favorites from the dad ~ Eric and his Dad

Our dear friends the Gutierrez family. Now a family of 4!

Cade's birthday buddy Zoe. Born 1 day apart, they met in the hospital :). Zoe's dad and I went to high school together and have become good friends of ours as we go through parenting together!

Great Mimi, Great Uncle Tom and Melanie. They are too young to be "great," but we think they are pretty GREAT anyway!

The Sutherlands! We are SO glad they are back from Florida and here to celebrate.Cade had a mid party outfit change gearing up for the cake! I couldn't resist the little onesie with a tie on it. Too cute!

First taste and he was hooked!

The most classic shot of the day! He just went all in and stuck his face in the cake. What a kid!

Auntie Jenny and Uncle Matt having fun with the mustache lollipops. Thank you Auntie Jenny for taking beautiful pictures that captured this event in such a special way! Gammie and Gramps. Thank you for hosting this special event!

Cousins and Cade with his mustache lollipop!

You can see finger and teeth marks. Love it!

You'll notice Cade isn't in this picture, but the big kids loved opening his presents for him!

Thank you to all who celebrated with us. What an incredible year this has been. We are constantly reminded what a special child we are blessed with. Though it seems like just moments ago Eric and I were looking at Cade on his changing table just after we had brought him home from the hospital and saying to each other "Wow! we have a son. Now what?!!" Ha ha. We learned to love each in sleep deprived moments and celebrate Cade's milestones big and small as proud parents would.

Our greatest prayer for him is not that he would grow up to achieve huge success, become a powerful business man or a respected teacher. We pray for his salvation. That he would become a man of God with a heart for serving his church. God will honor that, direct his life accordingly and bless him abundantly for following his will for Cade's life. It isn't the typical prayer of most parent's, but one we know honors God and that is our greatest joy!

We love you Cade!

xo,

Mommy and Daddy

Where's Waldo???

For Christmas this year Grandma Matthews knitted the great grandsons cute red and white hats. They reminded us of Where's Waldo, which immediately brought back some fond memories of scouring the pages of those books looking for Waldo's red and white hat. Anyway, Greg, Ana and Tommy came down for Thanksgiving this year and we had a chance to get the boys together again. The last time we were all together was this summer on our houseboating trip! Mom thought it would be great to take a picture of the boys in their hats and send to Grandma Matthews for Christmas.

Eric and I were cracking up as we were looking through the pictures because this time it was our child who was a little unruly. Cade isn't into hats these days (just in time for winter!) and on top of it he had POOPED! I wouldn't want to sit still for a picture either with that in my pants! So we put together this little collage and I thought I would post it.

I hope this makes you smile. We sure got a laugh out of it!

November Randomness

So lately Cade has been helping me in the kitchen.... well he's become very good at destroying the kitchen in less than 5 minutes. He's allowed into just a few cabinets, and he likes to take everything out of them. It keeps him happy and I get a few things done so the mess is worth it! I had to capture this particular day because it cracked me up. At least I can have a sense of humor about the mess :)

I've been taking walks with my friends Jana and Kristin around a local park and the other day I decided to stop and take Cade over to the playground. He really likes swings, and he has never really been in sand so I thought it would be fun. Plus he looked so cute I had to get his picture. Here are just a few of the fun pictures...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here Cade discovered that there was sand under his feet. I had to capture the moment, it was a first :) I feel like this is a foreshadow to a couple years down the road when he is talking to his friends. He just looks like he has something to say. Ha ha!

Cade has recently discovered that he can climb the stairs at Grammie and Gramps house and he is very proud of himself! We have to keep a close eye on him because he beelines to them as soon as he spots them. We haven't mastered going back down them quite yet, but I'm sure it won't be too long!