He loves her...

When Cadence was around 18 months old, I started getting the itch to try for another baby. We were happy as a family of three, but I always knew I wanted to have more than one child. I also never felt like we were "complete" as a family. Due to different issues (including a devastating miscarriage that led to the start of this blog, Henry did not come into our lives until February 25, 2008.

He and Cadence are just shy of being 4 years apart. Being 4 years apart and being male and female, I did not expect them to be so close. However, they are incredibly close! I've had people make comments on how I probably wished my son was first so he could protect my daughter. Are you kidding me? First of all, I have no doubt that Cadence will hurt anyone who attempts to hurt her brother! Secondly, she has been a miniature mommy since the minute he was born (she was present for his birth).

Over the events of the last year, I feel like they have grown even closer. Four months ago they started sharing a room and they love it. It is rare that Cadence complains about not having anyone to play with or not being able to play with Henry. As much as Cadence adores Henry, he worships her. Our route to school and work is set up where Cadence is dropped off and picked up first. On the few occasions that Henry and I did not pick Cadence up immediately after I picked him up, Henry has cried for his sister.

Today, I took Cadence to my aunt's house to spend the night with her cousin. When it was time to leave, we said goodbye to Cadence and went out to the car. Henry started saying "Cadence in there mom" over and over as if he though I was forgetting her. The whole drive home he alternated between crying for Cadence and reminding me that we left her there. Once we got home, he was very melancholy. Throughout the evening, right up until he fell asleep, he kept asking "Where's Cadence?". I feel bad for him because I know he is so sad with her being gone. But it is also good for both of them, because they need to get to do their own things too. At the end of the day, it warms my heart to know how close my kiddos are. I love knowing that no matter what happens in their lives, they have each other. I can only hope that they continue to be as close and stay close as adults.

Creative Christmas

This Christmas, I really wanted to do alot of creating with the kids. All three of us love crafts and I wanted to start some new, "just the three of us" traditions. I am really happy to say that we actually accomplished it this year.

First, we created our own Christmas ornaments. Henry's first Christmas, I did not put ornaments on the tree because I knew I would be putting them back on every day! I just used plain white lights and fell in love with the simplicity of the look. I have not used ornaments since then, but this year I wanted to add something special and of course, create. The kids and I got a book of Martha Stewart scrapbooking paper and our cookie cutters and made ornaments. We all loved the end result and everyone got to contribute. Please excuse the picture being sideways, I can't get blogger to act right!



Next, I knew I wanted to do some type of small, easy and inexpensive gift for a large group of people in our lives. These people (Henry's daycare teachers, Cadence's after-care staff, women I work with) are all individuals who help us on a daily basis and I am so thankful for them all. I really struggled on how to show then we care without breaking our budget. I finally stumbled across this article and knew this was perfect for us. Here is what we came up with.


To go along with the magnets, I wanted to write a note to tell the recipients how thankful we are to have them in our lives. Over the last couple of years, I have accumulated a ton of Christmas cards. However, they have disappeared since we moved! So instead of buying cards, we made some with our left over scrapbook paper and cookie cutters.

We also did a couple of baking projects!