Happy Birthday Eric!!

Eric entered the last year of his 20's in May and all the birthday boy wanted to do was GRILL! We had a fun little gathering of friends and family and all feasted on a wonderful meal of tri-tip, corn and Mama Coop's famous baked beans.

Husby, you are a gift to our family and I thank God for the wonderful husband and father you are to us. You continue to grow into a man of God I hope our son will someday model. I pray for another year of blessings and sweet times with our beautiful family. Thank you for being my best friend and my most favorite person :) Love, Wifey
Yes, I know, we look exactly alike :)

It is a family tradition to start the birthday boy or girl's morning with a donut cake! My mom started this tradition when we were young because she didn't want us to have real cake in the morning, but what would a birthday be without birthday cake all day long! Cade brought his daddy a donut cake along with his first present, a hat for fishing on the houseboating vacation. That evening we had dinner with the Cooper's and the Sutherland's. Ella made the birthday boy, whom she fondly calls Prince Eric, a birthday dessert of strawberry shortcake. Our favorite moment of the evening was when we were done opening presents and suddenly another one showed up (wink, wink). Ella's face was priceless and I think I caught it pretty well!

5months, 6 months...boy I'm getting BIG!

Our little munchie is just the sweetest baby boy. He is now 6 months old and getting bigger by the minute. To me it seems like every time I turn around he is doing something new or growing another inch! We had our 6 month doctor appointment and Cade is 15lbs 14 oz and 25 1/2 inches. The doctor says he is just perfect!

Some of his new tricks include rolling over from tummy to back and just recently from back to tummy. He has 2 bottom teeth, which he decided to cut at the same time. Poor kiddo had double the trouble with those teeth, but handled it like a champ. We were gone for the weekend and you never would have known his gums were bothering him! Cade has also begun to master sitting up (with a little assistance). He can manage to sit upright and not fall over for a good couple of minutes or until I see him start to lean so far forward that he has practically folded himself in half :). Cade has made some friends too! He loves to touch the other babies, which at this point is very sweet. We will have to teach him about personal space soon enough!We have ventured into the land of solid foods with adventures in rice cereal and oatmeal. He prefers the rice cereal and makes some very funny faces with the oatmeal. Mom just needs to master the art of getting the food in when the mouth opens. I've misfired a couple of times just about the exact timeCade sneezes and food ends up all over the place. It's actually pretty comical.Cade is such a joy in our lives. He smiles constantly and loves to "tell us stories". I continue to thank God for the gift of this child. He definitely brightens our days, but I get more joy out of watching him make other people smile and tell me that a little dose of this child has made their day better. Isn't that what we should all being doing? Serving each other in a way that when we leave someone's company they feel like their load has been lightened and have a renewed sense of joy. This is the way Christ serves us when we are in fellowship with him and what a privilege it is to serve others in the same way. I pray often that Eric and I would teach Cade these valuable lessons so that he would grow into an incredible Christ-like servant too.

A little side note, I captured a hilarious series of Cade in his Tonka truck at 5 months. I haven't taken Cade's 6 month Tonka truck pictures yet, but will post them as soon as I do :) ENJOY!

These last two are my favorite. He finally realized mom had put him IN the truck!