The Cathcarts

Not really, but Jaxson started crawling this weekend!  For the last week or so he has been inching forward with his scooting/crawling, but this weekend he really took off.  He’s going from one end of the room to the other and he moves pretty fast when he spots something that he wants.  The boys had a busy and fun weekend while I was at work missing the beautiful weather.  On Saturday, Heath came over and the 3 boys watched the NFL draft all day.  I’ll just say that I was glad to be at work at that time. They also put up Jaxson’s new baseball ceiling fan in his room, so they did get something accomplished.  Then Tanya came over later on to get her "fix" of Jaxson and to see his new moves. Grandpa and Grandma Cathcart came down on Sunday and took Jaxson to the park.  Then we had our weekly Soprano night at Ben and Jacquie’s, so I rushed to Ankeny when I got off work to join everyone else and enjoy a wonderful supper.

the finished product

"Hey Dad, take my picture"

I have to send out a big "Congratulations" to my friends Erik and Belinda Sheldon on the birth of their 4th beautiful child, Evan Tyler, who was born on April 24th.  Belinda is a good friend of ours that we met while working at the hospital.  Brad and I both got to work with her and it was a good thing too, because without her, Brad and I probably would have never met.  She is the one that got us together for our blind date. . . and the rest is history. We’ve missed having her around since they moved to Texas over a year ago, but we are able to keep in close contact with our blogs.

It’s been a dreary week with all of this rain that we’ve gotten.  It is nice to look out the window and see everything so green, but that’s about the only nice thing.  We’ve been stuck inside all week and I’m getting a little antsy.  The little crick that we have in our backyard was pretty full at one point this week; Brad and I commented about being able to go tubing down it.  One other nice thing about all of the rain was that Grandpa Winter was able to get off of work early yesterday because there wasn’t much for them to do at the co-op, so him and Grandma Winter came down for a couple hours in the afternoon to play with Jaxson.  Here’s some pics from their visit.

"Oh come on Grandpa, just let me have it."

"Hey Mom, look where I can get stuck."

We had a very nice, fun, and busy weekend.  On Saturday, we went and saw new baby Abbie (see the previous post) and then came home and had a BBQ with Heath, Tanya, and Kade.  It was wonderful being able to sit outside and eat and just enjoy the weather.  The boys had fun playing basketball and throwing the FB around. 

On Sunday we went to church and got poured on as we were walking/running to the van. Pastor Mike preached a wonderful sermon on "The Secret."  To make a long sermon short.  He doesn’t recommend it at all and showed clips of "The Secret" to show how shallow it is.  I felt kind of stupid after the sermon because I bought the DVD for my mom for a birthday present after seeing it on Oprah.  Well, on Oprah all she showed and talked about was the power of positive thinking or approaching issues with a different way of thinking and if it’s on Oprah and has her seel of approval then it must be good, right?  Wrong.  The clips that we saw of it in church are downright shallow and idiotic and I never would have bought it for my mom if I had seen the whole DVD.  Sorry Mom.  If you want to check out the sermon go to www.hopewdm.org. 

Sunday afternoon, Tanya, Susan, and I went and tried on a couple bridesmaid dresses for the wedding.  We decided on the one that we want and it is going to be beautiful in the wedding.  Then that evening Brad and I hosted Soprano night.  We had 3 other couples over and enjoyed a nice dinner and watched the Sopranos. 

We’re off to church and Jaxson is so excited

We have a new niece!  Her name is Abigail Jane French and she was born on Friday.  Her parents are my stepsister, Jodi, and her husband Tim.  They also have Kenneth, who is 2 1/2 years-old.  We went up and saw Jodi and Abbie in the hospital on Saturday and everyone is doing well.  Here’s some pics of the new baby.

Jaxson didn’t know what to think of her

Well, it’s finally nice again today, so I am excited to get outside a do some much needed yardwork.  Hopefully this nice weather is here to stay.  Brad was anxious to get started on the yard yesterday, but couldn’t really do anything with me at work and having Jaxson all to himself.  They went up to Andy and Mindy’s lastnight for Soprano night.  I didn’t go since I didn’t get off of work until after 8:00.  I’m looking forward to having this next weekend off so we can get some things done around here and go bridesmaid dress shopping for Tanya’s wedding. 

"Daddy, I see you"

Lastnight Brad and I had Matt, Amanda, and Grady Fowles and Mike and Crystal Arkovich over for some pizza.  We thought it would be a good chance for all of us to get together and so Jaxson and Grady could play.  It’s kind of funny how we all met and know each other.  Crystal and I go way back to our preschool days.  Mike and Matt worked together in Ames several years ago and became good friends and Brad and I met Matt and Amanda after the boys were born through our moms.  So if you’ve followed me up to this point your doing good.  And one day when Amanda was looking at our blog, she saw a picture of Crystal on it and when Crystal looked at the blog, she saw a pic of Grady on it. . . and so we all put things together and had pizza lastnight.  We had a great time talking and catching up on everyone.  I think we all had fun giving Mike and Crystal advice on pregnancy and being new parents since they are expecting their first in July.  I just hope that we didn’t scare them. Here’s some pics from our fun evening.

Crystal getting some practice with Jaxson

Grady’s lounging in Jaxson’s Hippo chair

"Play with your own ear, Grady!"

No, not us. . . I wish.  This morning, Jaxson and I took Grandpa and Grandma Cathcart to the airport for their long awaited vacation to Hawaii.  They came down lastnight and we went out to supper at Christopher’s to celebrate Brad’s birthday.  We all had so much to eat that we couldn’t even cut into the birthday cake that I made.  Brad took it to work where it will probably be gone in a matter of a couple hours or less. 

Jaxson getting more Easter treats