Happy 4th Birthday Kaden Samuel

My sweet baby boy is 4. Wow! I can't believe how fast my kids are growing up. I get so bogged down in the day to day "stuff" that comes with having 4 small children, but I definitely thank God every day for all of my blessings. Kaden is one of them!

Last night I laid in bed exhausted from a full day of swimming. We went to a friend's house to swim. We were there from 11-3 and then we went swimming again from 5:30-9:00....so I was exhausted. As I laid there, I thought back to Kaden's "beginnings". I previously called Kaden one of God's blessings, but he was also one of God's surprises that I didn't think I was ready for. Brock and I had two kids and we were unsure whether we were going to have another child or not. Brock was determined that our kids would be about 4 years apart because of the cost of college, so we definitely had no plans of having any more kids for awhile. Jaxson was only 18 or 19 months old. So, one November day, I was not feeling all that well and we were eating dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Brock and I started talking and I couldn't remember exactly when my cycle should start, but I thought that I might be late. So, Brock begged me to stop on the way home and get a pregnancy test just for peace of mind.

I stopped at CVS to buy the test, of course I saw one of my student's parents and tried desperately to hide the test because I definitely didn't want everyone talking about it before I even knew if I was pregnant. I got home and took the test and it was a faulty test (or so we thought). It just never turned to anything. Brock was desperate to know at this point and wanted me to go out and get another test. I was not driving back to Rockwall so I told him that I would go in the morning. That was not good enough so he decided he would go up to the Dollar Store in town right before closing to get another test. I took it and it instantly showed that I was indeed pregnant. I was really scared...I didn't think that Brock was ready to have another one, I didn't think that we could afford another child, my worries were plentiful.

It didn't take me long to get out of the shock that I was indeed pregnant and start getting excited that I was being blessed with another baby! This pregnancy wasn't as easy as Connor and Jaxson's, but I didn't have any big issues.

I desperately wanted to have a vaginal birth with Kaden because I had one with Connor and it went perfectly, then I had a c-section with Jaxson and it was horr-i-ble!!! Well, that didn't happened so I really wanted to have my c-section scheduled for 7-7-07 because I thought that would be a really cool birthday for him. Well, that didn't work either and they scheduled it for 7-13-07...FRIDAY, the 13TH. Okay, that doesn't sound like a big deal to most people, but I'm not most people. I am the biggest wimp and scaredy cat and to get completely cut open on Friday the 13th didn't sound like a good idea! It ended up being fine and it wasn't nearly as painful as it was with Jaxson.
All of it was worth it because I was blessed with this little one. The minute I saw him, I noticed his chin...Brock affectionately calls it his "butt-chin". We instantly thought of my grandfather...I have an "indented chin" but my mom's dad really had one. I wanted to show him to my mom right away because my grandfather had passed away a few years before and I knew that my mom would get a kick out of it! We named him Kaden Samuel Callaway. Connor actually came up with the name Kaden. Samuel is my grandfather's name and he is one of my very favorite people, I was so happy for my son to carry his name.

I won't lie to you...the transition from 2 kids to 3 kids wasn't easy but it wasn't because of Kaden. He was a great baby. Jax acted out quite a bit when Kaden came home. He would go into Kaden's room when I was pre-occupied and take all of the wipes out of the container...one by one. This happened quite often and drove me crazy!

Kaden has always been a good boy. He is loving and a bit ornery.

On his 4th birthday, he is sweet. Everyone loves his voice and he makes us laugh every single day. He does not try to be funny, he just is. He loves to swim. He is a little fish. He took swimming lessons this year and Mrs. Laura said that she has never seen a kid as young as Kaden do the things he does in water. He loves to watch Wow Wow Wubzy. He loves to do anything his older brothers do. He has beautiful eyes and dimples and some times it is just way too hard to say no to him. He loves to be naked.all.the.time. We are constantly having to tell him to go put underwear on....seriously! He does by many names...Kaden, K, K-dog, Samuel, Sammie, K-dog squarepants. He does not like to wait his turn and he has very, very little patience. He eats pretty much anything. He loves pizza, chicken, green beans, macaroni and cheese, chocolate milk and he LOVES donuts.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Kaden's 4th birthday at Chuck E Cheese with his friends and our families!

Kaden Samuel I love you so much and I am blessed every day by your sweet smile and your big hugs. I love you to the moon and back!!!