Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at Clint's Mom's this year. Brent and Laura came up from Florida with the boys to meet Kai for the first time. Kai was awake a lot of the day, and we had one of the best Thanksgivings we've ever had.

Clint and Brent are huge FSU fans. Brent and Laura gave Kai some fabulous Nike onesies and a mock beanie. Laura said that the true beanies wouldn't have fit him until he was four. Kai loved Brent.

Mom and Dad came too.

The first picture of Dilyn, Tyler, and Kai... Tyler told Laura on the way here that he wished is name was Kyler...haha.

Kai modeling his Thanksgiving outfit that we've had stashed for months...

Kai is here!

On the morning of the 21st, Clint and I had to be at the hospital at 6 am. We took one last shot of the three of us like this before we headed out the door.

At 8:40 am, he arrived, and boy, was he screaming...haha. His mouth looked big to us, and it sure sounded like it too...

We got to our room in the middle of the morning, and Kai got to come with us. That was such a relief, and so much different from last time.

This was his first time in the car seat. He fit pretty well, and as soon as we put him in, he stretched out like he had been waiting for that his whole life.

We made our first trip to the pediatrician on Monday the 26th. It was hard to believe that he was already five days old. After this picture, Clint turned around to go inside and he knocked Kai's car seat against the railing so hard...haha... It freaked him out a little.

He doesn't suck his thumb yet, but this sure came close.

He was very suspicious of the pediatrician.

The last five days have been some of the most amazing of our lives. Already we aren't sure who we were before he came. We feel like two of the luckiest people in the world.

I think it's been a long, long time...

The last two months have held many exciting things.  We've moved twice, and we are getting closer to Kai every day.  Things are hectic, but we are finally getting settled.  Here's to fall...!

Amanda and Joseph threw us a baby shower where we got lots of great things that we needed.  We also got to play games, which Clint was THRILLED about...haha.  Chastin won, but he cheated.  Integrity isn't a big deal, I guess... :).

The shower was luau themed, which works great for Kai's name because its origin is Hawaiian.  Amanda totally planned that...haha...

All the girls...

Notice Clint's coconut bra.  I'm about 33 weeks along here.

This is a onesie I had made for Kai.  I got it at Spoiled Rotten on Oak Ridge Highway.

These are some shots from Kai's room.  It is totally different from Cade's room, and this one feels like such a big boy theme already.  That's been a bit of a struggle for me...haha...

We are three weeks away from the biggest change of our lives.  We can't wait to meet him, but it's a scary time too.  Losing Cade the way we did, there is no time that we feel totally secure that Kai is coming home.  But, we take it day by day, and we make it.  We found a great photographer to take Kai's newborn pictures who has walked just where we have, and I consider that such a blessing.  Hopefully soon, this blog will contain pictures of a brand new baby boy...  :)

On a Lighter Note...

"We went out last night, like we swore we wouldn't do."  Everything has been so hectic lately that we haven't had any down time.  Clint got off at 8, and after a flat tire, we booked it to get ready, and went out for dinner and a drive.  We didn't even let ourselves feel guilty that there were still things on the walls that needed to come down...  Notice Jackson who had just run in from the garage like he had somewhere to be...haha.

Here is a shot of the 25 week bump.

A few weeks ago, we got Kai's first polo.  Clint took some pictures before I took the tags off, and when I saw them on the camera, I was so glad he did.

Cade's Space

As we are packing our house, the one room we've avoided belongs to Cade.  It will always belong to him in a way that no other room in any other house will.  We collected things from lots of trips to create that nursery, and all of it is exactly the same as it was when we put it together.  The hardest thing about this move will be taking it down.  He, of course, will move with us, but I will sure miss his space.

Before his first shower, which was held at our house, I insisted that we have his name on the wall.  The only letters we liked were polka dots, and that simply wouldn't do...haha.  We skipped church the morning of the shower so Clint could paint over the dots with white paint.  We had a huge altercation about the "d" being crooked.  As you can see, Clint won that one...  :).

It's hard to see here, but there is a boat on the left side of the chest, and on the right side is a picture of Dilyn and Tyler with Cade's clay hand and foot prints.  The boat came from a little fishing village in Michigan called Fish Town.  How original, right?  We found it last summer as we searched shops up and down for the perfect addition.  The picture was a gift from Brent and Laura.  Even in this way, it is nice to have the three boys together.  

The Lake Michigan sign came from Traverse City, Michigan during our first trip in 2006.  We didn't intend to use it in a nursery, but it found its place there.

The last thing we added to this nursery is the angel you see hanging from the curtain rod on the left side.  They gave it to us when we left the hospital, and it broke my heart to put it in that room.  Beside it is a shelf.  On that shelf is a little blue frog from an artist that we got in Orlando.  Clint and I went there after we lost Cade.  The frog is handmade from bronze, and painted over in blue and black.  His name is Storm, and it captured that time in our lives perfectly.  I couldn't have asked for anything better.  The other thing that is the most important thing in that room to me is a painting that a local artist made for us.  One of my best friends, Beth, commissioned the painting.  It shows a sailboat sailing off into the horizon, and Cade's name is lightly drawn into the sky above it.  It includes stamps from all over the world.  It is the most moving thing in this entire house.  

I have shared a lot today that I haven't shared before.  A little part of this chapter of our lives is coming to a close, and that is overwhelming.  But, everything about Cade was beautiful, and I think he deserves the right for people to see what a cool room he had...haha... :).  Hope you guys have a great day!

We Sold Our House!

At the end of May, we listed our house with Frances.  At the beginning of July, it had a contract, and we are scheduled to close on July 31st.  It has been a stressful few weeks trying to get everything organized to move, not to mention that it is a little sad to leave a place we've loved so much.  I've included a few pictures of things we've loved at our house...

Most importantly, we loved Cade.  It is really hard to take down his room and leave a piece of him here.  But, we are moving to fulfill a dream that we had for him and want so much to share with his brother.  We plan to build a house in a year or so.  Kai will have lots of space to play outside, and we are really excited about that.

We loved hanging out with each other and doing lots of fun things like UT football.  This was our first "real" house, and we grew up a lot here.

We LOVED sharing our summers with Dilyn and Tyler.  Jackson loves having them here. I didn't have a picture of the two boys in the house together, so you'll have to imagine Tyler...haha.  Some days were tougher than others, as you can tell.  :)

We loved and lost Boo here a couple of years ago.  He lived with us at our first house in college, and he lived here for two years too.  He worshiped Clint, and he could tolerate me.  

After we lost Boo, we learned to love Ellie.  She is such a part of our lives now, and I am not sure what we would do without her.

Our house is so special to me.  We created amazing memories here, and we leave a little piece of something so important behind.  On moving day, I'm sure tears will be shed, but I consider us very lucky to have lived in such an awesome place.

The Story of a Name

Kai

Kai is a different name.  It is one that we came across in a magazine on a long drive to Tampa, FL.  I asked Clint what he thought about it, and he liked it, so it was something we decided to think about.  When we got home, I pulled out the baby name book that we bought when we first found out Cade was a boy.  It took us FOREVER to decide on a name for him...haha.  Clint was determined to have a good “quarterback name” just in case.  When we finally decided, we circled that name, and put the book back on the shelf.  After we lost Cade, and found out we were pregnant again, we again began the name search.  For a girl, we knew we would name her Kate.  For a boy, we were back to square one.  I pulled out the book I had stored so carefully on the shelf, and I flipped to the spot where we had circled Cade.  In this particular book, each name has the origin, meaning, and suggestions for siblings.  Under Cade, it said “brothers of Cade:  Kai."  Besides that, Kai means “ocean” in Hawaiian, which is so special to us because the nursery for Cade was done entirely in sail boats with an ocean theme.  Things seemed too coincidental.  It seemed meant to be.  That is the story of a name.  

A bit of a bump...

So far, my face hasn't gotten too big... That will surely change. :(

We went to the Outer Banks the day after we found out we were having a boy. We are about 17 weeks here, and there is a little bump...

Kai is Coming!

I am new to this, and new to sharing news so publicly. It's a little strange. Though I've used Facebook forever, I always edit what I say because my students follow EVERYTHING. And then we talk about it.... :). This isn't something I'm totally ready for them to know. Though I will say if I run into them, it will be hard to hide... We are expecting a baby boy on November 1st. This is news we've kept to ourselves (or at least we think we have...haha) for many months because of losing Cade around the same time last year. The second time around is much scarier. So far, everything looks great. We are 22 weeks along, and he is quite the mover-much more so than Cade ever was. I think we have a very different baby on our hands.... :). I am posting some pictures of the ultrasounds. I am also going to post pictures of Cade for those of you who did not get to meet him.

Every time we have seen him so far, his hand has been in his face. We can't tell for sure, but we think he may be an avid thumb sucker...haha.

Our ultrasound technician, Cathy, thought he was a boy at thirteen weeks, and she confirmed it at both the seventeen week appointment and the twenty two week appointment. Judging by this, I think she's pretty sure!

This is Cade. For those of you who don't know, he was born on October 21st, 2008, and he died the next day. We didn't know anything was wrong, so, naturally, we were stunned. The thing that made it so hard was that he looked so perfect. He weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces, and he was 19 1/4 inches long. If we had carried that child to term he would have been HUGE. Losing Cade was, by far, the worst thing I have ever experienced. But, in losing him, we have had the opportunity to meet his brother, and for that we are grateful. If I had my choice, I would have them both (how crazy would that be...haha), but since that isn't the case, we will set about raising Kai knowing that he has an extra special angel watching over him.