Silver Dollar City 2009

Before Christmas, we decided to take Kaden on his first trip to Silver Dollar City to see the festival of lights. Of course he loved it!! He was so disappointed that he could ride any of the rides though...I'm not kidding either...he was mad when we would pull him away from them. It was definitely super cold when we went, but he didn't seem to mind...he just sat back and enjoyed himself. The one thing he didn't like though, was the gingerbread man at the end of the day parade...he punched him right in the face...funny for us, but not so much for the gingerbread man!! Hopefully we will get to do this every year...make a family tradition out of it!!

Christmas Tree oh Christmas Tree

Sorry about his messy face and clothes...we just got done eating dinner and usually wait to clean him completely up until bath time...

...We are totally excited about spending our first Christmas in our new house. It seems so much more warm and inviting than it did in our old house. I can't wait to start all the traditions with Kaden in our new home. This year I think it will be a lot more fun with Kaden and Christmas. He is understanding more and more about things going on around him.

Speaking of Kaden, he is now 17 months old. He is just as ornery as all get out. He repeats EVERYTHING you say, and remembers everyone he sees. He loves to help us clean up, especially after dinner. He scoots his chair in and puts his fork in the dishwasher. He is saying close to 100 words in his everyday vocabulary. He is starting to speak in sentences right now too.

I have gone back to work, just for something to do, and also to give us a little bit of extra money to put back in our savings account. The days that I work Kaden stays with his "Dee-Dee" aka Kyle's mom. He loves to slide down the little slide that she got for him...he shows off on it every time I go to pick him up. ;) He also loves to watch Handy Manny right before his nap time.

Kaden has names for all of his favorite t.v. shows including, "Mick" (mickey mouse), "Pooh" (winnie the pooh), "Mammie" (handy manny), and of course "ELMO"...he LOVES Elmo!!

We are all doing wonderful here in the Ulrich house. I hope that everyone is enjoying their holiday season...I know we are!! :)

Some Videos

The first video is of Kaden telling me what the fish said to the Cat in the Hat (he loves that book). The second one is of him doing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes...one of our favorite dances!!

We're Moving!!!!

We are moving to Ozark...hopefully by the middle of October!! We couldn't have been any luckier on getting the "house of our dreams"!! It all just fell into place and we are super excited!!! :)

What we've been up to lately

To see Pictures bigger, just click on it!!


So, like I said in my earlier post we've been spending a lot of time outside. Kaden loves the water, and loves the jet ski (just like daddy). I feel so blessed to have a child that actually enjoys doing the same things that Kyle and I enjoy doing...it makes things so much easier and enjoyable.

Kaden is now walking, and running, and getting into everything. He has learned how to crawl over things, on things and out of things. He knows how to turn our t.v. on and off, and how to change the channel. He knows where the food and drinks are, and gets frustrated when we open the fridge and we don't get anything out for him. He can go up and down stairs easily. And he plays fairly well by himself.

He can now say "Mom" and "Dad", "Jack" (our dog), "what's that", "want that", "oh no", "hi", "bye", "quack quack", "ahhhh", and he makes truck noises when he plays with is cars and trucks. He is also waving hi and bye, and he wants to go everywhere with us.

He has a ton of teeth. A couple of molars, and almost all of his front teeth. We are working on feeding our self. He is done with the bottles...we actually had no problem with it at all, which surprised me. He wants to eat 24/7. He isn't really picky about anything. He eats really well. His favorite is anything tomato based, such as ravioli or spaghetti. We hardly give him any juice, lots of water and milk.

He is still hooked on Baby Einstein videos. His favorite is the farm one. He can sign one thing now, "all done". He is attached to his monkey's. If we ask him to go find it, he will look for it and bring it to us while kissing it all the way there.

It's so hard to think of all the things he has been doing lately. I feel like he has grown up way to fast. He is to smart for his own good. He is a big boy in a little body. He's just now getting into 12 month stuff...some of his shorts this summer are in the 3-6 month range.

Like always, I feel blessed to have a healthy, happy little boy!! He's awesome and so far it's been a blast watching something that Kyle and I created grow into his own!! :)

Kaden's First Birthday

I realize that this is over a month late...but, we have been incredibly busy with all sorts of fun stuff lately. We are in the process of getting ready to put our house on the market and buy a new one out in Ozark. If anyone has moved (which, really, you've had to have moved at least once) knows that this task is no fun what so ever...especially with a 1 year old.

We've also been trying to enjoy our summer outside instead of in, so we've been at the lake a lot this summer. I'm sorry that I've been slacking once again.

So here are a few of Kaden's first birthday pics. The monkey cake was made by me!! I actually surprised myself on this one, I didn't think it would come out looking anything like a monkey, but it turned out pretty cute.

We had his party at the Dickenson Park Zoo, in which Kaden LOVES!! We had a pretty good turn out, lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends!! Thank you to everyone that was involved and for all of the AWESOME gifts that Kaden recieved!!