Updates

It seems like not lots have been going on lately in Andersen world and yet when I think about it - and am reminded by family who see my kids after a month of not seeing them - there have been changes over the past few weeks.

Cadence is such a great big sister. she loves Caleb Shaun so much and tells everyone that she loves her "Shaunie SO MUCH" She is so observant of the therapists who come in to work with Shaun. I don't even realize how much she is picking up about his care until she models it later.

For instance, this morning he had physical therapy for the first time and the therapist was talking about how one of our main goals for right now is to stretch out his left side because he has a tendency to always lean to the right. So, she showed me some stretching exercises to do with him. We then went to the pediatrician and as Shaun was laying on the table and the dr and I were talking, Cadence jumped up on the table with him and began to stretch him out. Exactly like we had been shown! And I thought she was watching Little House on the Prairie while the therapist and I were talking!

She's also jumped in on the feeding therapy. Here she is feeding him one night as I cook supper.

I think he was stunned :) That's pudding on his face in case you're wondering. At this point he will open his mouth (occasionally) for pudding, pixie sticks, lollipops, lemonade, apple juice, and some fruits - mostly pears. He DOES NOT like a frozen banana ;)

Shaun is also beginning to hold himself up more. We can now sit him in the bumbo and he will play with the toys around him without fussing! A tooth came in sometime over the last couple of weeks (you can see it in the top picture of the 2 of them) and over the past couple of days he started saying "dada" What a fun age!

And for the 3rd Andersen child; he now officially has a name.

So, introducing Creed Samuel Andersen!

The REVEAL party

April 16th, 2010 - the Andersen Reveal Party!

We, Andersens, have some of the best friends around and they are so excited about the new baby and how God continues to show His sense of humor with how He grows our family. So, they wanted to have a Reveal party to let everyone know what the sex of the new baby would be.

We had our appt at 9:15 on Friday morning and spent the day trying to keep a secret :) We did call our parents and siblings and tell them what the baby was but other than that, we tried to keep it quiet.

My Mom got this as her reveal

Chris' Dad got a balloon as well but I don't have a picture of it yet.

On to the party. We showed up and the decorations looked like this...

Our Peeps that came to celebrate with us - we are so thankful for the people - and many more!

Cadence with some of her peeps :)

A meltdown over who knows what?!?!?

Everyone gave name suggestions so Chris was reading some of them.

And then, the Reveal itself. We worked hard to make sure that Cadence didn't know what the baby was because we wanted her to be a part of the Reveal. We went back and forth all week on how to tell everyone what the newest Andersen was and eventually came up with a new doll for Cadence. However, this doll wasn't just any doll.

Years ago when we still lived in FL, I had a friend, Joey, who prayed for Chris and I lots with our struggle with infertility. Her family even tried every avenue that they knew of us to help us expand our family. So, the night before we moved to NC, Joey and her husband came over to our house to say good-bye. They showed up with this Cabbage Patch Doll and a card. In the card Joey explained that this doll was a physical reminder that there were people in FL who loved us and were believing for a family for us. Joey was convinced that not only would we somehow have a racially mixed family, but that the Lord would also give us a son. So, for 4 years this Cabbage patch doll has sat in the top of my closet and everytime I would walk into the closet and look at it, I was reminded of her dear friendship and the fact that the Lord had promised us something that we just had to wait on. We can now attest (like we couldn't before) that the Lord is faithful and not slow to keep His promises. Not only do we have a racially diverse family, but we have been given not 1 son, but 2! Our sweet Caleb Shaun, and this newest Andersen :)

Cadence was pretty excited about the present until she realized it was a boy! She has been sure that the new baby was a girl because in her brain, we already have a boy baby in Shaun. No worries tho, she's warming up to having 2 brothers :)

and loves her new baby named Alex Deree - I have no idea of where the name came from!

So, the Andersen family in it's latest completion!

Who knows what God has in store for the Andersens next. We're thinking an oriental girl would round us out pretty well but as we've learned over and over again thru the years, our best plans often aren't what God has for us........what He has is SO MUCH BETTER!

It's A .....,........

If you don't already know, you'll have to go HERE to find out and see Cadence's reaction to the news :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjh_vm__SAM

Batman or the other guy

Cadence has been really into markers lately. She's loving drawing, coloring, anything that has to do with putting color on something - she likes it! We've had to lay out some guidelines about markers because she has her Crayola ones but upstairs in Daddy's room she can use his dry erase markers - on his board - or even permanent markers that tend to lay around upstairs. So, I've had to clarify to her that Daddy's markers can't be used except when we're watching her and in the right spots. She's pretty good about this line of thinking and so we haven't had many issues with the markers.

This past Saturday, I was doing something and she came up to me with a pink crayola marker and a permanent black marker. She asked me if she could use the pink one but not the black one. I said, " that's correct you need to put the black one in Mommy's desk drawer and use your pink one" I'm so glad I did because I went on about my business and a few minutes later she came up to me and looked like this..........

I nearly died, but tried to keep my composure and asked her why she colored her whole face. Her answer was that she was "batman or dat udder guy" we're not sure of who the other guy is and she often confuses spiderman and batman so there really is no good reason for her to have a pink face but she sure did. So, I did what any mom would do and told her to go show her Daddy while I looked for the camera :)

PS whoever invented washable markers should be made a saint because they are incredible things. Probably better technology than electricity or inside toilets!

Carowinds

It was Spring Break this past week and we decided not to travel this year because of all the uncertainty with Shaun's heart surgery. So, we stayed home, taught lessons a couple of days and had family time the rest of the week. On Wednesday we took Cadence to Carowinds for the day. The thing with Carowinds is that it is certainly NOT Disney World - or anything close. But, it's not horrible for a day trip for a 3 year old either. So, because we're not traveling a whole lot this summer to get ready for the new baby to show up, we were entertaining the idea of season passes to Carowinds. They also have a waterpark which I thought would come in handy as it gets hotter and I get bigger this summer. We decided to go for a day and see how Cadence liked it and if she enjoyed it then we would get season passes to keep going thru the summer.

She loved it! I was a little unsure about some of the rides because we figured that she would either love everything or be terrified and hate it. But, she really enjoyed herself - as long as Mommy or Daddy could ride with her :)

Shaun was hot - but did alright with the day considering he pretty much rode in the stroller all day long.

This is definitely my favorite picture from the day. This was the biggest roller coaster she rode all day and came off of it loving it - even tho from this picture I expected her to be hysterically crying!

Easter Sunday

I think this is the last of the Easter posts! Sorry for having so many but if works better for me to scrapbook later if it's divided up on the blog first.

So, after a family filled week with lots of fun being had, we made it to Resurrection Sunday. All week in the middle of the fun stuff we continued to talk to Cadence about how everything that we were doing for the week from Easter eggs, to the Gigi's being here, to Daddy getting to stay home were all because of what Jesus had done on the cross and the party we had for it. So, with a week-long celebration, we were so ready to head to church and be with our church family to celebrate Jesus being alive. Daddy had to go to church early to set up but thankfully the Gigi's stuck around to help me get the kids dressed and lunch in the oven.

Cadence was way into her Easter basket this year. Shaun, not so much, but he does enjoy chewing on the cup and teething ring that were in it :)







All dressed and ready for church! Now if only we could get a picture of the 2 kids looking at the camera with sweet faces at the same time........it's difficult. and in my opinion, I look as exhausted as I felt by the time we got to the picture taking on Sunday morning but hey, at least we have a picture of the 3 of us and sometimes that's enough.

The Easter Party

So after all the cupcake making, egg coloring (see post below), getting everyone dressed, napped, and the stuff packed for a picnic, we headed to the park (actually only about 30 minutes late which is really good for us!) While the charcoal got ready the kids played on the park stuff.

I think Kagan was getting hungry :)

After hotdogs and fruit for lunch, we started the egg hunt. Emily, Mary and their friend Neely showed up to hunt eggs with us. We were so glad they came!

Cupcakes after egg hunting

and then once we got home, we tried for some posed pictures of the kids. It always seems to work better in theory than in reality but we did the best we could.