This is Cadence's Belly. She loves to show it and this day I picked up the camera to take a picture of her and this is what I got....so I thought I'd share. She's such a girly girl and I cam in to see her doing this in the bathroom. She "put on" her doedorant before I could get the camera and so it is lying on the counter. I think she has hair stuff on her hand that she is showing me.

That would be turning on the water to brush her teeth - one of her favorite things in all the world
Brushing her hair after many explanations that we don't a brush on her hair only mommy's. But she still likes to use a brush. It's really quite painful to watch a brush for a white girl's straight lifeless hair try to go thru that many curls. I know that she's just pulling her hair out as she tries to get a brush thru it.
Lastly, all dressed and ready to go bye-bye...........she loves to go bye-bye because that is the place that all of you live. When I ask her where someone is she always says "bye-bye" and then she wants to go there. She still doesn't get that you're not in this state (for the most part) and we never see you when we go wherever we're going but she asks about you the whole time )mostly Emily and GiGi but it means whoever we were talking about last)

Mr. Potato Head

Today was a cold rainy day in NC - I'm jstu gonna say right here, for all you FL people who have sun and temps over 40, you should be grateful because it's really hard to keep an 18 month old engaged for several days in a row where you have to be inside the whole day. So, because it was one of those days, I pulled out Mr. Potato Head for the first time for Cadence. We made a normal looking one first and Cadence found the eyes, ears, teeth, shoes, and hat. After that, Cadence wanted to put the pieces in herself, so these pictures are her very first, very own Potato Head creation. I love how serious her face was in this one while she tried to pick which hole to put the tongue in.


Later on, she brought the shoes out into the living room and was trying to put them on her feet. It didn't work but it made me laugh pretty hard.

Changes in the Andersen House

Well, it's been a busy couple of days in the Andersen house. As some of you know, we are in the process of moving our music lessons to a new location. With around 40 students in and out of our house every week as well as a lively 18 month old, it is getting too difficult to keep all the balls in the air. So, as of the first week in February, MusicTime is moving to Main Street. I have combined all my lessons to Tuesday and Wednesday with just a couple of exceptions on Monday and Friday. So, Cadence will go to Renee's for childcare on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and I will teach without a child vying for my attention.

With all the business changes, the other great part is that we can finally make Cadence a playroom and get the to factory out of our living room. This is by far the most exiting part of this transition to me. So, what was my teaching place/office is becoming the playroom and our whole office has been moved to our bedroom (which thankfully is huge) So, we got a rolltop desk (thanks mom for the idea) to put our office in so that if it's messy, I can just close it and my bedroom is clean again.
We had to rearrange our bedroom because of the boat/desk that is now in our room so this is the new furniture arrangement.
We moved this table to the dining room and so finally I can show off my wedding album and scrapooks instead of them being in our bedroom.
This is the playroom/where I teach for the next week but Cadence is excited about her toys being in with mommy for now.
And lastly, we had to move the chaise lounge chair that was in our bedroom to the living room because of the desk (see picure 1)
I know you all wanted to knkow what my house looks like so now you do. And some days i do actually make my bed, today just happened to not be one of those days :)

I Shot the Sherriff.......

I had pulled out this hat to wear outside and Cadence wanted to put it on. Chris said she looked like Bob Marley. I think it's really cute.

Snow Day

Mooresville seems to completely shut down if it snows, so it's our first official snow day of the year. We woke up to all this snow on the ground and the best part is that Daddy got to stay home!!!!!!

This was what Cadence's swing looked like when we got outside.
Luckily, we have a spare that wasn't filled with snow so she still got to swing.

She wanted us to swing with her but this is what the other swing looked like so we told her no.

I don't think we'll be grilling today.
Making a snowball.
This is our very sad attempt at a snow man. He has black bean eyes and a candy cane that Cadence really wanted herself.
Pitching a fit over now getting the candy cane.
Snow days are so much fun!! I wish we had them all the time so that Daddy could stay home with us. But we will be thankful for the time we have to play.

First Trip to the Hospital

OK, so I'm gonna be really honest in this post. I debated on telling a lie about the reason we're at the hospital but have decided taht if you are reading this blog, you know me and Cadence pretty well and therefore, will understand how this could happen. Cadence had got to ply with Ella while I went to Wal-Mart yesterday. When it wtime to leave, she didn't want to get in the car (imagine that) and so she would run the other way. So, I grabbed her hand, she went limp so as to not walk to the car, and so I just pulled her to the car. Well, she started crying and cried all the way home. When we got home, she fell asleep on Chris and so we decided to see how she acted when she woke up. After her nap, she wouldn't move her arm and just kept ccrying and saying "ow" over and over again so we decided to take her to the emergency room. Sure enough, I had pulled her arm and she had what is called a "nursemaid's elbow" which is ligament that gets pulled the wrong way. The doctor worked his doctor magic and put the ligament back in place with like 2 moves. (he then showed both Chris and I how to do it because this is a really common injury in kids until about age 4 and if we can fix it ourselves, it saves the trip to the ER)Then came the motrin, and the waiting to make sure that she would move her arm. So, 2 hours later, we were good to go.


When we first got to the hospital.
Crying because the people had been messing with her arm.
After the motrin up and playing but not moving her arm still. (It was the left one)
Finally up and playing with both arms working again.
When I was 4 my mom pulled my arm out because Angie and I were playing in clothes at a department store. So, I guess I was just carrying on the tradition> However, this is one that we can be finished with. I think from now on, I'll just pick her up by her body and not by an arm ;)

Reading Books

Last Monday while Chris was at Youth Group, Cadence and i laid in her bed to read before she went to bed. She loved it so much and asks for us to read books now every time she gets in the bed. I love this time that we get to spend reading and she seems to really enjoy it more and cries every night when we're finished. Last night we had gone out to eat and got in after 9 and she had been asleep in the car. Well, as we were changing her diaper and getting her into pj's she was still very asleep but was still asking for me to read a book. It was way cute. I'm so glad that Cadence enjoys books.

Watching a "woovie"

One of Cadence's favorite things lately is to watch movies. She wakes up asking if she can watch one. One day during a lesson, she was screaming for a movie and so I had the brilliant idea to pull out our portable DVD player so she could watch one while sitting on the couch. Well, ever since then, it is the only way that she wants to watch a movie. She loves that she can carry it with her wherever she goes. On this day, I was working at the desk and this is how she landed to watch her movie.

Christmas with the Palahnuks

This past weekend we went to Raleigh to see Emily and Robby and also to see the Palahnuks. We always have such a great time at their house and this time especially because Cadence collected all her Christmas stuff from them. This year the Palahnuks decided to do a Princess themed Christmas because we all know that Cadence is one ;) So, everything that we opened had something to do with princesses. There were clothes, pajamas, shoes, a baby, and most importantly, a very large princess tent.


Look at this tent, I can stand up in it. We're gonna need a bigger house.

Kathy was hugging Cadence's new baby Ariel so Cadence was hugging one of her other babies that we had taken with us.

Dressing Cadence in her new princess outfit.

Shoes, tiara, and all.
Cadence discovered (with a little help from Amanda and Kathy) that she could climb into the cabinets in the living room. She had so much fun going in and out. Kathy even turned one of the knobs around so she didn't keep smashing her fingers trying to shut the door.

After another awesome dinner from Andy and before we left, Melissa wanted us all to play a game of Disney's Scene it. So, we were all on teams except for Chris who wanted to be by himself, and we played a game. Cadence just danced around in the middle of it all to ad to the chaos.