Home Depot, Ikea, and our house is ALMOST done!

We've been playing hard the last few weeks! Ben completed his first triathlon, outlasted me shopping in Ikea, and made us salads for dinner. He is seriously winning in the hunky hubby department!

Kaden has officially learned how to swim. His happy place is anywhere with water!

This handsome boy pulls my heartstrings everyday. His song about his favorite stores "Home Depot and Ikea" is pretty phenomenal.

Even though most of Texas was flooding like crazy, our house has been progressing and is almost finished! Ben goes down there next week for us to close! We love it!

SUPER awesome-ly LONG Vacation

Well, I am very very behind on this blog! SO much has happened and I'm sure I might miss some details but here are our highlights:

Went to Universal Studios in Orlando...Kaden was spoiled by all the attention from Ben's family!

 

Harry Potter World definitely lived up to its reputation...especially the Butterbeer! If you get some, make sure you get the frozen slushy version. Mmmm!!!

Kaden was a little grumpy until we found a dark corner in Diagon Alley to put him in for his nap!:)

Kaden's favorite was Jurassic Park...he LOVED the dinosaurs! Wasn't scared at all!

He kept trying to feed this big dino and was brave enough to touch the teeth! 

After a great vacation in Orlando (i'm missing all my pics from the beach there!) we headed to Oregon and hit up the coast on the west side!

                                              

Kaden love love LOVES the beach and was completely happy throwing rocks into the ocean for hours! He still asks daily to go "Jump wa-wa wit daddy at da beet!" Ben also enjoyed his time and built his own clamming gun! Bad luck though: I think he caught 3 clams in 3 hours! haha sorry honey:)

We celebrated my 25th birthday by getting fancy desserts in downtown Portland. We shared 3 massive portions and the waiter and table next to us thought we were crazy. Worth it.

my fav...the delicious Baked Alaska...and a delicious bicep on my man!:)

And of course, the BEST birthday present ever was running a half marathon and getting another PR! Won first place in my age group and took home a fancy wine glass for a trophy haha

After our trip in Oregon we headed to Utah. Its been great catching up with my side of the family as well as cousins Claire and baby Weston.

Claire and Kaden get along great when Kaden is Claire's baby:)

Catching up with The Greens! 

Kaden got another haircut! This kid's hair grows crazy fast!

Some other highlights include the buying of our scooter...

...And family pics taken by my SIL Bri!!

Thanks for reading!!! Next up...the progress on our house!

A lot of Firsts...

BEN IS DONE WITH SCHOOL! After one of the longest weeks all year (in terms of late hours spent at the hospital) Ben finished his last rotation and is officially done with Medical School! My hubby is a doctor!!!! Next chapter: moving to Temple, vacationing at Disneyworld, and loads of time catching up with family and friends!!

So..this weekend was one for the memory books. We had a lot of "Firsts" and I felt compelled to record every one!

1. First Moving truck! We are so indebted to great friends who helped us pack! It took a lot longer than we planned! When we first moved to Texas for med school, we just took all we could fit in our car! Now that we've accumulated more furniture, we needed a large sized truck!

Kaden was super upset we wouldn't let him drive to Temple...

2. It was my FIRST time driving on a road trip by myself! (road trip=longer than 1 hour) I was super nervous but Kaden slept most of the ride and was a pretty good sport for the 3 hour journey. I listened to podcasts and enjoyed the most picturesque scenery of texas hill country in the springtime: wildflowers and tall grass and hay barrels. Perfection.

3. FIRST snowcone! Kaden and I stopped immediately at a park after we got to Temple because he was getting way too ansy. We ran around and got the wiggles out before cooling off with a FREE snowcone! Honestly the people in Temple are the kindest, most generous people I've ever met!

My boy is always a little messy:)

4. FIRST hotel room all by myself. Since Ben was coming later with the moving truck, I booked and got set up in the hotel all on my own. It sounds silly, but I got married at 19 and so for every trip I've been on I've had the luxury of a husband taking care of all of that! But I gotta admit I felt very cool:)

(also, this is Kaden watching his first motorcross event on TV while I unpacked...he was way into it!)

6. FIRST HOUSE!!! Eeek!!! We are so excited and feel so blessed. I can't wait until it is finished in early June!

7. FIRST flower bouquet that Kaden picked and I feel honored to receive it. I'm sure many more flowers will be picked for girls as this little boy is a flirt and a charmer:) But for now he is all about his mommy and I love it! ha

One more long drive back to Houston and then we head to Florida for Vacation!!!