Search and destroy...

Nothing is safe from this kid! Cadiem has now figured out that the coffee table is full of goodies... Yesterday I was distracted by homework, and he managed to pull a box of tissues off and was pulling them out and trying to eat them when I noticed. Haha. My cell phone is especially at risk! He seriously dives for it when he sees it. He's already ruined one, and now Jeff's is being funky--we think from drool. This morning he was saying "da-da" and looking at Jeff. We have got to get it on video! Last night our heat went out around midnight--and it dropped twenty degrees into the fifties by morning... Brrrr! But they came over right after we called them this morning to fix it. It took most of the day to get the house back to a normal temperature. I'm so glad it's fixed!!

We were all bundled up this morning trying to stay warm. Jeff is off tomorrow and Wednesday--yay! Unfortunately I have to spend most of that time catching up on more homework... almost done, almost done! Our new mattress (thank-you mattress fairy!) is coming in a few days, we are SO excited. Our current bed is buckling--and is probably 20 years or more old. I found an excellent deal online--we even got a free mattress pad and a $100 Best Buy gift certificate. Yay! I'm so excited to wake up without a backache!

I'm also very excited to go home for Christmas :) I'm out on the 17th! Woohoo! I wish Jeff could fly at the same time as us, he can't leave until after the weekend, but at least we'll be on the same flight home. I love Christmas! We've been trying to get our Christmas music adjusted on Pandora... Jeff put in Run DMC, holiday... It came up with some weird station called "hollis" something or other... But he's decided to call it, "Christmas in the holler" (or hollas). Hahaha. It's actually not a bad station--it plays Stevie Wonder, Jackson 5 and Otis Redding... Haha. I tried to make a Wham-"Last Christmas" station, in hopes that it would play some modern stuff--but it's like it's stuck on Perry Como and Dean Martin. Sigh. I still haven't heard Wham! Well, the crappy covers. And my Waitresses "Christmas Wrapping", that one either. I love that song! Bri says it's not a real Christmas song--whatever biz! But my all time favorite will always be "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Love it! And I don't care what version it is--although, I like the instrumentals from Mannheim Steamroller and Trans Siberian Orchestra. Pandora has also played some scary country version--and there's the exception. No country permitted in my Christmas music!! UGH! Not sure where that Christmas music rant came from... But it's time to sleep!

9 months old!! (well, tomorrow :)

Hola! Cadiem is 9 months old tomorrow! He's crawling like a fiend--and has started pulling himself up. He hasn't figured out how to get back down (from standing), which is pretty interesting to watch. Haha. His babbling has some added variety :) We both have also heard him say "mom". I swear! He crawls after me and says "mmmoom". I need to try and get it on video!

We had a great Thanksgiving. We went over to Jeff's boss's (Leslie) house and took part in their feast. It was very tasty--even the turkey, which I usually don't care for :) Cadiem had one of his gourmet baby food dinners--turkey & sweet pea--yum! We took his bouncer over there so he could bounce while we ate--but he wasn't having it. He ended up sitting in Jeff's lap and then of course he wanted to take part in the Thanksgiving dinner. So we let him have some sweet potato casserole and some mashed potatoes :)

Jeff went to DC this past weekend to visit Jeffery, and I spent the weekend trying to catch up on homework... We put up our tree the day before Thanksgiving, since Jeff was off. We got some retro-style LED lights that we're pretty proud of :) This is one thirsty tree. I can't remember the last time we had a real tree at my mom's--but I wasn't ever in charge of watering it anyway. Haha. I think it drinks about two quarts/day. Crazy!

Grandma Shultz just sent Cadiem a Leap Frog music table--which he really likes. He also likes using it to pull himself up :) It plays music and teaches colors, numbers, etc. Apparently she got it on some crazy lighting sale on Amazon. Haha--what's up with cyber Monday? When did this start?

Jenni and her boyfriend Garrett were here visiting us the week before Thanksgiving--we had a great time of course :) We got to go to a VT game too.

I made some stroganoff the other day--to prepare for the stroganoff-off... SNEAK ATTACK! I think it's almost perfected... I might have to up the anty and use steak instead of hamburger... Jeff has another idea--but it's a secret... ;)

Jeff has tomorrow off--which is weird, but awesome :) This is really old news--but while we were in Florida--we got a pretty funny video with pooh & tigger--can't remember if I already blogged about it or not. But it's on my pic site--It's pretty funny. Tigger is making fun of Jeff's dreads the whole time. Haha.

I am so excited to go home for Christmas. Two more weeks! YAY!!

Poo Plosion... 2009...

Yup... Another poo story. Today, Cadiem was having a great time in his bouncer and I picked him up to take him upstairs... and he was wet... and not from pee!! The poop had managed to make it all the way down his leg and into the foot of his jammies. It was SO disgusting! Then I had to basically wash the jammies before I could put them into the washer. Nasty, dirty baby!! Oddly, his poo still doesn't smell that bad. Although--the other day he ate beef--and that was pretty gross. Okay, now that we're all disgusted!! Hahaha...

Cadiem is crawling like a fiend--he looks like he's in the army, on a mission... A mission to find and "destroy" (EAT) every thing he sees :) He's doing really well with his finger foods, and he'll be trying tofu this week :) yum yum!

Grandpa Shultz is coming to visit this weekend! Cadiem is excited--I can tell :) I think we're probably just going to hang out at home, probably make it to Sharkey's, and probably Gene & Nickie's... He's making a pretty quick trip in between business trips.

So, last week, Verizon decided to "accidentally" shut off our internet service. You would think that it would be a pretty easy fix. Flip a switch to turn it back on, right? Wrong! After spending several days/hours on the phone, and both Jeff & I getting disconnected, transferred... blah blah blah... They also told us three times the problem was resolved when nothing had been done. Finally, we got someone who knew what the hell she was doing--and even knocked $10/month off of our bill! Woohoo!

STROGANOFF-OFF... When Bri and I lived together, she would make us beef stroganoff once in awhile. And I've called her a few times to get the recipe or have her list off ingredients to me while I'm at the grocery. Well, a few months ago, I forgot (yes Bri, it is possible) the mushroom soup--and didn't realize it was missing when I made the stroganoff. But I did notice that it didn't taste right, so I added Dijon, wine, flour and worcestershire. And I've made it several times since then without the mushroom soup, still not realizing that it was missing (also started using the fatty sour cream--haha). Well, apparently Bri finds this unacceptable and claims that I have desecrated the "family recipe". Umm... family recipe with CAMPBELL's soup??!!! Maybe if our last name was Campbell... But, it isn't bri... It isn't... Anyway, we're now planning to have a face-off at Christmas while we're both home--and having everyone taste test to see which one is better. Bri thinks mine must suck since it's missing the holy mushroom soup... We shall see BIZ!!

The witching hour draws near...

In other words, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I've been running around all morning getting all of our pirate stuff together :) We're going to downtown Blacksburg for Cadiem to trick-or-treat, and then on to Sharkey's. After that Cadiem and I are headed to Gene & Nickie's for dinner :) There's some new pics on the pic link--and I'll post some of all of us in our pirate costumes soon... So, apparently Nickie thinks that the pumpkins look like us... So does that mean that i have an evil grin and Jeff is spookily happy? Hahaha.

He's on the move!

Cadiem is a crawling machine! He's also a drooling machine :) We have a drool song for him that he loves (he giggles when we sing it):
Baby is a droolin' machine!
Droolin' droolin' droolin' machine
Droolin' baby!
Today he was after Ari's bone again. He crawled from the other room to come and grab it from her. He was smiling and sticking his little tongue out the whole way--haha. It's funny that both Ari and Two seem to know that he's a baby--and they let him do whatever to them.
I was attempting to work on Cadiem's costume today... We're planning to take him trick or treating in both downtown Radford and Blacksburg. I've got it(his costume) planned out--but I went down to the cellar to get some of my sewing stuff, and the most ugly, gigantic bug was sitting right above the container I needed. I was planning a quick grab and dash--when it jumped toward me--I have no idea what that thing was--needless to say, I ran screaming up the stairs... Jeff will have to get it for me!! I will not be returning to the cellar!! Anyway, we're going to be a pirate family. Yup! Haha. Jeff and I both already have pirate costumes--so we figured it would be pretty convenient. I think Nickie & Gene are also having a thing at their house on Halloween--so I'm looking forward to that too :)
Nickie, Gene, Eric and Nichole came over for dinner on Saturday--Cadiem was in a little bit of a mood--but we all had a good time :) The house is also pretty presentable on the bottom floor... The upstairs is another story... Haha. But I'm hoping to make another dent in that tomorrow afternoon while Jeff is still home.
Did I mention that Cadiem has totally switched his schedule?? He's been getting up between 8 and 9am. AHHHH!! So, we're still trying to shift our bedtime earlier, but have been taking naps trying to catch up on sleep. Tomorrow Cadiem is trying cheese--exciting stuff!! In a few days some veggie pasta, and we also got some turkey and chicken baby food :) Well, I guess that's about it for now!

A Week of Firsts :) (7 months 3 weeks)

Yes, it's been FOREVER since my last post--I suck. On with it! Cadiem has been quite busy in the last week :) He can now sit on his own and crawl. He's also got two teeth showing on the bottom/front. They're so cute!! And he keeps biting his lip with them--which makes him look like he's thinking really hard. In the above pic, he's dragging all of his books off of the bookshelf, pausing to drool on a few of them. Haha. He really likes Ari's dog toys. I got some video of he and Ari trading her bone back and forth--it's pretty funny. Perhaps I'll remember to post it in the near future! His babbling is starting to sound more like words... I could swear he's said "mom" a few times, and we've definitely heard "hi". He also tried his first finger food, apple puffs--and had his first go at the sippy cup :) I showed him twice to tip it back to get the water--and by the end of the day, he had it! We're also trying to eliminate the dream feed--so far he's gone once without it.
We went to Florida at the beginning of the month to visit Nate and Bri plus my mom and Marty. We also got to spend a little time with Jeff's family. We had a great time--we even made it to my favorite, Epcott, for the Food & Wine festival :) Which, by the way, was nothing like I thought it would be. They actually set up little "extra" countries and cities in between the existing countries--and you have to pay for every morsel and sip. I naively thought that since it was a special festival that it would come with the ticket... Nope! Whatever--Jeff and I loved it :) We had several things that were really good--but our favorite was a lamb slider from "Australia". I'm also very impressed with Disney's "baby care center". They have a room for breastfeeding moms/babies that is dark and quiet with several rocking chairs facing in different directions. They also had a room with high chairs. Pretty cool! Cadiem also got to meet Pooh & Tigger. I was a little tentative, I thought he might be afraid of them... Instead he practically jumped out of my arms to grab them! Haha. Tigger also had fun playing with Jeff's dreads and acting like they smelled--hahaha.
Anyway, Florida was great--I wish we could get down there more. And it was great to finally meet Jeff's mom and sister. Thank you Mom & Marty!
Soooo... back in the 'burg... It's freaking freezing Mr. Bigglesworth!! Actually, today was beautiful. Cadiem and I even read a book on the front porch :) But we've had the heat on almost since we moved into our house. Speaking of the house, we love it! I still am trying to get us unpacked, the downstairs is pretty much done, we're just adjusting wall stuff and curtains. Upstairs, ugh... scary! I did actually work on Cadiem's room a little today. I've been scoffing at the vinyl decals that are out everywhere--but I found some really cute ones at Target with owls, birds and a tree. I put them up on a really long wall in Cadiem's room--and it's SO cute!! And cheap!! Yay! Slowly but surely, it's all coming together :)
Last week (i think?), I went to Eric & Nichole's for dinner (plus Nickie, Gene and Sam :) and Nichole made pumpkin and sausage pasta. It was damn tasty. I think I had thirds! Haha. We also got to eat some smores once the fire got going (i think either lighter fluid or gas was involved--IAN! i blame you for not being there!).
Well, I'm sure I have fifty other things to blog about--but, it's shutdown time for my poor brain... Night night!

We found a house! Woohoo! (6 months!)

That's our front door :) I have some pictures posted on my site--they're "dingy" as Bri put it... But It's covered in dry wall dust right now because they had to replace a piece from the last renters. We had to fight for this place because they were mad that we had so many pets and didn't tell them. It's owned by Jefferson Apartments. So we'll be moving next week--yay! I'm trying to motivate myself to pack. We are so excited about having more space! However, there is a downside... The house does not have a shower! Yeah... I'm not kididng! If you look at the top picture, the top window on the right is the bathroom window. The bathtub is under the slanted part of the roof--so, you can't stand up in it. Haha. I wonder what retard came up with that design. We've don't care though--for the amount of space we're getting--it's super cheap for Blacksburg. I can't wait! We'll even have enough room to have a playroom downstairs and a den upstairs. Yay!

Cadiem is 6 months old today! (Friday) He's making more and more sounds, and this past week he's added pppbbbt! I think he's getting close to crawling. He's definitely scooting around--and he's an expert at the ninja roll :) He's also expanded his food repertoire... We've added more fruits and veggies--and I think I'm probably going to start giving him yogurt as well.

We had a great time while Mom and Bri were here. We got to check out the Valhalla winery, which was a nice change from the usual Chateau Morrisette trip. We also went to dinner at the brewery in Radford... The name of it is escaping me right now... But we liked it--good beer and food :) Bri got some great pictures of Cadiem--which will be posted soon. Jeff and I still need to decide which ones we like so she can edit them. My mom was itching to buy Cadiem something--so she got Cadiem an awesome jumper/entertainer thingy. Do they have an actual name? Anyway, he's not quite tall enough yet--his feet barely touch the ground--but he likes it :)

School is back in... Football is starting tomorrow I think (boo!), and of course that means that Jeff is working like crazy (double boo!). Anyway, that's about all my news... I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged!