Caden turned 10 today. Last night he got his football gear, and all 3 older boys got all dressed to go play in the backyard and my heart about died. I don't know when they got so old. It seems like it's taken FOREVER, and at the same time, I still remember like it was yesterday how dang scared I was to have my third little boy. He was like a little angel sent from above. He was such a good baby, and used up all the good then! Just kidding... kinda!
All Caden wanted for his birthday was $100. He waivered back and forth on it for a while, but settled on that when he saw me pay for something with a $100 bill. He knew then that he wanted to hold that in his hands and claim it as all his. But... how fun would a 10 year old have on his birthday if that was all he got. So, what to do? Get 100 $1 bills and tape them up all over the house and make him find all 100 and then trade it in for the $100 bill. Everyone but me fell asleep waiting for Caden. He was too excited for his birthday. Finally I told him to go snuggle up in bed with dad. Minutes later I was waking everyone and the taping began. Carter, Carson, Chet and I had a great time taping them everywhere (Cael and Colby are in Casper with Nana and Papa). When Caden woke this morning he went crazy finding them. It took him a good 30 minutes, but he loved it. After that long, he was missing just one. He then opened his gifts from his brothers. Carter found a UA football chin strap that Caden has wanted SOOOOOO bad at a second hand store when Caden wasn't with us earlier in the year, and although Carter would have LOVED it too, the first thing he said was, "I want to give this to Caden for his birthday." What would have been very expensive, Carter found for $4 and selflessly gave to Caden. Caden was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY excited. (I was proud of Carter for not only finding it, but thinking of Caden and not himself!) Then, earlier in the week, Carson had found a total sale on some good candy bars. He bought a ton of them and gave several to Caden. Caden was super excited about those too. I was just so proud. The boys didn't spend over $5 total on his gifts, but he was SOOOOOO happy about them. I think that is what gift giving is all about. Buying what the person really would want, and who cares the price. I love that Caden didn't care AT ALL that the chin strap was used either. Proud proud mom moment. By this time it was a mere 6:45 in the morning.
At 10:30 we started rounding up his friends. He had invited a bunch of people to lunch at Taco Johns, so I drove around and got everyone. It was 11 of us total (2 were the missionaries. Isn't that so dang cute! Every year he invites the missionaries to some meal with us. I love it!) He also had to two teenage boys that live close to us and spend a lot of time over here. He calls them his Mormon friends. They are really good to my boys and the boys love them to jump and play video games and eat dinner with us, and now celebrate birthdays I guess. It was a great time. We even got a 10% discount because it was so much! Haha, never had that happen! $75 to fast food!
After taking everyone home, except one boy, Connor, we headed to ask his parents if he could go golfing with us. Conners cousin was over (same age) and an EXCELLENT golfer and wanted to join (Caden knows Jaxen really well from playing with Connor so much) so SURE... come along. The more the merrier... right? So five boys ages 8-11 went golfing. It was Carter and Caden's first time, and Carson's second. Conner and Jaxen were little pros. They were so encouraging to my boys and so helpful and fun. It was a lot of fun. Caden was discouraged because he wasn't as good as them (Jaxen hit a 33 on a par 3 course... he was good!) but in the end he knew that he did really well for his first time. He hit about half the balls into the air. I kept telling him, "That was a great practice swing, now lets hit it" when he would swing and miss. I don't think he knew that I knew he was just missing it. He would just smile and hit. I was very proud of him. He hit a 68. On the final hole I told them that if anyone got it to the green (after Jaxen had already hit and missed) I would take them to DQ for anything they wanted. After everyone missed Jaxen asked if he could try again since he didn't know that when he hit. I smile and said sure. Can you guess where we headed next?
Onto DQ! Everyone ordered ice cream so big they about puked. Chet met us there and we just smiled as these boys just laughed and messed around. I sure love to see my boys happy! We then took everyone home, and Caden played his ipod until dinner, his favorite thing in the world to do. I have to keep tabs on him with it, or he will play all day. He loves having unlimited time to play in a day!
Then we went to dinner at our family favorite restaurant. Caden ordered fish tacos and strawberry lemonade. He wanted to be sang to so bad. Chet and I HATE that, but it's not about us! So... with fried ice cream in hand, they all came and put a sombrero on his head and sang in Spanish and then in English. Then the table next to us that was Japanese sang him Happy Birthday (while recording themselves) in Japanese. After they were done, a lady told him she could sing to him in Portegese. He said no thank you. He was all sang out!
Our little Cade-A-Babe is a highlight of our family. He fights like CrAzY with his older brothers, but while they were gone to camp, he told me that he really missed having them around. Quite a bit different than he usually says. That was a nice moment for me. For him to realize how nice it is to have so many brothers. He really missed them. Caden is a football fanatic. He didn't have a great year last year (mental mistakes from complete fear. He would do great in practice and played a star position, but would mess up in the games) but he never stopped talking about football all year. As Chet always says, ""Football never ended at our house." He is super excited for it to start. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and is easy to read. He is the biggest pig of the family and knows it!! He has a REALLY hard time keeping anything clean. Clothes, hair, hands, table, room, bathroom, you name it, he messes it up. It drives me crazy, but it is just him!!! I sure do love him. He still loves to snuggle. He is very particular about how he looks for church. He likes to be "just right" and takes it very serious. He loves church at the moment. He cannot wait to get the priesthood and go to the temple. He talks about it all the time. He loves to tell me when he feels the spirit or "makes Heavenly Father happy" I love that he recognizes it!!! I love his passion and love for all things life!
He loves all breakfast food. He would eat waffles, French toast, Swedish pancakes, etc every meal. He loves candy and sugar. He is really getting into baking. I hate for him to because he is SOOOOOO messy, but I let him cook about once a week. He loves it. He has started asking to help me with dinner. He is intrigued with chopping things lately. He loves to get one on one attention with either Chet or I. When he does get to spend time alone with us, he will always talk nonstop about ANYTHING, and then always thanks me later for listening to him talk so much and spending alone time with him. He has started delivering papers again because he is interested in money again. He loves to run and ride his bike and just be running! He hates to just sit around, unless he can play his ipod. He rarely gets sick. He starting diving this year and loves that. He told me today that he never wants to play soccer again. He has too many other sports he loves. If he can get his nerves under control, he will be an AMAZING athlete someday. He just doesn't realize it yet because he has ALWAYS played with older kids. It will be fun to watch him this year. He is getting into his muscles lately. I will have to watch carefully to make sure that it is always a healthy love. He's a little obsessed!
I cannot believe that I was the lucky one that gets to raise this amazing bundle of joy! He is so special to me!!! I love this corky, crazy, passionate, heartfelt, not so little anymore boy! Happy Double Digits Buddy!!!
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