Another Busy Week...

This has been a very busy week for us. Brady is finally starting to feel better! Thank goodness! We recovered from a great weekend and I am getting ready for a very fun girls weekend this weekend! We leave tomorrow for Minneapolis. Just us girls. No husbands. No babies. Will we remember what it's like to just be girls? Not wives. Not mommies. No one to depend on us this weekend...wow! Although I know there will be the occasional phone call home to make sure everything is going okay at home, essentially we are on our own! I know that I will miss my favorite boys all weekend long but this little get-a-way will rejuvenate me and make me an even better wife and mommy. So thank you again honey for the awesome Mother's Day gift!!! Below are some fun pics of Brady that Jen took while the boys were playing outside yesterday. He's gotten in a lot of outside fun this week! The weather's been awesome!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

So I know I am totally late on my post but we've had a few rough days in this Cathcart household. But I will back up and give a re-cap of our weekend first!

On Friday the Furhmans, Dillingers, Cathcarts and Waters all met at Jon and Jen's house so the men could tell us our Mother's Day Surprise! The guys even took care of making appetizers for the get-together. Each of our husbands gave us a nice card and inside the card was a nicely typed out agenda for our weekend. The 4 girls (Jenn, Ashley, Meggie and myself) are going up to Minneapolis on the weekend of May 21st. The guys reserved a two bedroom suite at Embassy Suites, scheduled spa services for Saturday morning and made reservations at a very nice restaurant Fogo De Chao and we'll get to do some great shopping! It sounds like a wonderful girls weekend! Thanks honey!

On Saturday we headed back to Kimballton for my cousin Carson's graduation party. He had a nice turnout and of course my aunt Jana did an awesome job. The food was yummy! Brady had so much fun running around on their acreage. He was pretty wiped out by the end of the night.

On Sunday we had breakfast with my parents and then headed to West Des Moines for our nephew Holden's baptism. Andy and I are two of his sponsors and we were honored to be a part of his day. Church is always interesting with Brady. He WILL NOT sit still. He wants to run around and he will throw a fit if he has to be still. So Andy and I took turns taking him back behind and letting him run around. Not ideal but it kept him happy for the most part. After church and the baptism service we headed to Brad and Steph's for some burgers and chicken. Brad did a great job on the grill and we wish we could have stayed longer but Brady was in desperate need of a nap. He usually goes down around 12:30 and by this time it was 2:00 and he was on edge! When we got home, I just relaxed a little and we did a few things to get ready for the garage sale this weekend. I had noticed in church that Brady felt a little warm but thought maybe it was due to him running around. Well when he got up from his nap he had a 102 fever...over the course of the afternoon/night his fever would come down to 100 and then go right back up to 102. After a VERY long night(with him waking up every 1/2 hour), I decided to stay home with him and take him in to the pediatrician. Well of course he has a double ear infection again and a couple more teeth coming through. We spent the day together which was great, I just wish he would have felt better!

Now we are up to Wednesday and last night was a LONG night too...he was screaming in his crib around 1:00 a.m. so I rocked him a little and every time I'd move he would scream. He must have thought I was going to set him down...so needless to say, very little sleep was had by anyone. We'll see how today goes!

Sorry, no pics from the weekend but I'll take some this week to post!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommies out there!

These are a few of my favorite things...

1. Monkey...Brady has a big time attachment to his stuffed monkey. I'm hoping the monkey can hold up as we can't seem to find a replacement anywhere.
2. Animals...he LOVES kitties and doggies. One of his new favorite things is to sit in his high chair, look out the window and see the neighbor's dogs. He will go nuts when they're outside...he loves to watch them!


Here he is with #1 and doing #2...do you see the dog in the pic?

3. His Wagon...he is such an outside boy! He loves to go for rides in his wagon. When we go outside he walks over to it and wants to get in!


4. Outdoor Play Equipment...we got him a new toy for outside and he loves to climb on it and slide down it...although most of the time he tries to climb up the slide! Ha ha!



Here are some pictures of his #2 favorite thing...

Look at his face in this pic below! Priceless!


5. FRIENDS!!! I have to laugh at this one...he is NOT a TV watcher, he will pause for a couple seconds if I put on some Nick Jr or Sesame Street but he could really care less. He won't really watch it but if an episode of FRIENDS is on, he stops what he's doing, wants to get up on the ottoman/toy chest and will watch a 1/2 hr episode...this is Brady and my daily tv watching...every day at 4:30 we watch FRIENDS re-runs...too funny!


6. Bath Time...he is a water baby! He loves taking baths and can't get his clothes off fast enough when he hears the water running.

He loves to shoot some hoops in the tub!


I will have to do another post and include the rest of his favorites soon!

Fun at the Park

We had a great laid back weekend which was nice as our May is HECTIC! We have something every weekend and some weekends are packed full of multiple things! After a break in the rain last weekend we took Brady to the park. He just LOVES to swing! We couldn't get him out of the swing. Here are some fun pics!



Push me higher!

Look at me daddy!

That's better!

I am one cool dude!

Weekend Recap

We had a wonderful weekend! On Friday Kris and Steve came down and got Brady and had him all weekend. So Andy and I had a much needed break and were able to get SO much stuff done!!! On Friday night we got started on a lingering house project---painting our trim. When we finished our basement we put white trim in and I loved it and was wishing we had white trim throughout our house. For some reason, our house had white doors and light oak trim...I never understood that! I really thought it was not going to be a possibility to change our trim and then Andy decided he'd try to do it in our downstairs bathroom and it turned out great! So way back in October he surprised me when I was gone running the marathon and he did the whole firs level! Well it's been tough to get the upstairs done with a rowdy 16 month old around so we took advantage of a 'baby free' weekend and got the majority of the upstairs done.
Now I didn't want to spend ALL weekend just painting so we set a goal of completing Brady's room, the guest bathroom, the hallway (including all doorways and linen closet), the trim going up the stairs and the master bathroom. We got that all done! Now we just have the guest room and the master bedroom!
After a day of painting we got cleaned up, did some shopping and went out for dinner. It was great to spend so much time just the two of us.
On Sunday we got up and ran a few more errands and then headed up to Gowrie to pick Brady up. He had a great time with Nana and Papa over the weekend and I'm told he was pretty good. It was great to see him, I missed him a lot! So far we are having a much better week than last week! I have to remind myself how truly lucky we are to have such an amazing little boy in our lives. Sometimes it can be easy to forget!

Here are some fun and random pics!

Frustration........

Well the last few weeks haven't been easy in the Cathcart Household. It all started over a month ago. Brady had a double ear infection. We thought 'Wow, he's gone 15 months and hadn't had a single ear infection and had never been on antibiotics...we've been so lucky'. Well I think it's all catching up to us now. We have been to the Pediatrician's office every Wednesday for over a month! We had to take him back 1 week after his double ear infection appt for his 15 month appt. Then he still wasn't back to normal so we took him back in. Yep, another double ear infection...after another FUSSY week we took him in yet again---the antibiotics weren't working so he got put on stronger meds...well to say the past month has been challenging is an understatement. It has really tested my patience. He has been extremely whiney and fussy (ALL THE TIME) and only wants mommy most of the time. He isn't sleeping or eating well at all. He has also started in with TANTRUMS!!! I feel like we can't take him anywhere anymore. He will go nuts in Target, when we're out to eat, on walks, playing outside...the list goes on and on...and I love the evil stares we get from people when we're out and about...they're thinking 'Get your kid under control...why don't you get him to stop crying/screaming/yelling'...I know this is all a phase (hopefully) and that most everyone goes through it in their parenting life but it doesn't make it any easier. I feel horribly guilty as a parent (and I know Andy does to) when I start to think 'Okay, how long before he goes to bed?'. And for the first time ever I am relieved that he is going to Nana and Papa's for the weekend. We need a BREAK before I reach my BREAKING POINT! What also gets to me is that I get my daily report from my daycare lady and it's the same every day: Brady was wonderful for her, didn't act up...ate well, slept well...GRRRR! And it's usually the same for the grandparents (unless they're not telling us the truth!!). Now, I am thankful that he acts better for other people. We don't want to have THAT kid that no one wants to watch or spend time with because they're so difficult but mommy and daddy would like our fun/happy/loving/non-tantrum throwing little boy back!!!

Happy Easter!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We got to spend lots of time with family which was really nice. On Saturday morning we headed back to Kimballton so we could take Brady to the Kimballton Easter Egg Hunt. Well we went to the hunt and he saw lots of kiddos his age which he liked but the hunt was less than ideal but we made the best of it and he had fun running around. We later went to the Elk Horn Easter Egg Hunt and it was much better. He got lots of treats and toys and even got to see the Easter Bunny and Great Grandma Parker came to watch the hunt as well. After all of his hunting Brady went down for a nap. When he got up it was time to go to Great Grandma Parker's townhome for the Parker Easter. We had some yummy food and got to catch up with everyone. We headed to bed early to get enough rest for 'sunrise' service. Kimballton doesn't mess around with this term. Church started at 6:30 a.m.! We made it to church on time and Brady was pretty good for the most part. He must have been a good boy because the Easter Bunny came...he got lots of goodies! After church we headed out to Jana and Scott's for a delicious brunch! Brady and Taryn (Tom and Jen's littl girl) are only a couple months apart and they were so cute playing together. They would hug and try to give kisses, so cute! We were able to see my cousin Nicole for the first time since her exciting news---her and Travis are engaged and are getting married next April. Her ring is absolutely beautiful! And I am so honored that she asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I am so happy for them and excited for their big day. She will be a stunning bride!
After brunch the little kiddos had an Easter Egg Hunt to go on. Brady and Taryn had their own section to 'hunt'. By this time Brady had gotten the hang of it and did a great job. He and Taryn had lots of fun! After the hunt we headed back to Ankeny so we could get a few things done before dinner. We ran and got some groceries and unpacked from the weekend. We then headed to Jethro's (by Drake) for dinner with the Cathcarts. Dinner was really yummy! After dinner we headed to Brad and Steph's for some dessert (we were on full feed, I swear)! Brady got spoiled a little more as the Easter bunny also stopped by Nana and Papa's. We then headed home to rest up for another busy week! Enjoy the pics below!




At the Kimballton Easter Egg Hunt





With his cool new shades from the Easter Bunny

Family Pic before Church

Brady with Great Uncle Tom

Brady and Taryn

They love each other

And had fun playing together


Finding some eggs

He loved walking around holding his basket

After he was done hunting, he was ready to hit the road...he started walking down the driveway...too funny!


Nana with Brady and Jaxson

A pic of all 3 boys...it was the best we could do!