Welcome Baby Jacob!!

At 1317 on June 11, 2011 we welcomed Jacob Dale Caywood into this world!  (As with Chase, dad is making the post so please disregard all typos and organizational errors!)  Janell did amazing and we praise God that he came on his own without having to be induced like Chase was.  Both mom and baby are doing great and we hope to take him home from the hospital on Monday.  Here are a few pictures from Jacob's first day.  Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers!

Mom (Mum for our British friends) and Jacob just after he arrived

The official stats.  He measured in at 22 inches long as well!

Chase giving his little brother a kiss after they met for the 1st time!

Grandmom has been here to help and a huge blessing!  Thank you so much Sandy for taking care of Chase and helping us out through everything.

Our family

I'm sure Janell will have more to add soon.  Thanks again to everyone, we are very blessed with wonderful friends and family!

Baby Shower

Over Memorial Day weekend a couple friends from England got together to throw me a shower. It was fun to get to catch up and nice that my mom was able to make it as well since they were coming down for the weekend. 

The food was delicious. Chicken salad on fresh croissants, fresh fruit, peanut butter m&m's!

Opening a few gifts. Most girls went in on getting me my last big item I wanted - an ergo baby carrier! Everyone I know that has one loves it so I am so excited to try it. I think it will come in handy when I am chasing a toddler around as well!

4 of us are pregnant in this picture! Thanks Julie so much for hosting and coordinating the gift! I am so blessed!

The shower was at 38 weeks and I finally got Brad to take some pregnancy pictures so this one is at 39 weeks. I posted it on facebook so I am sure most have seen it.



We are slowly getting settled. My parents and brother and Tiana came down over Memorial day to help us get a lot of little projects done on the house.  I intend to do some before and after pictures - hopefully that post is coming soon. Our stuff got here last Saturday so we are slowly organizing and my mom came in yesterday to help us get the house ready and let me rest a bit before the baby comes. We are also getting settled in a church which is a huge blessing. They even coordinated to bring us meals while we didn't have our kitchen stuff.

In baby news - I had a doctors appointment yesterday and he went ahead and put me on the books for an induction next week. I am going to go back to the doctors on Monday to check again. If we feel he will come on his own we might push the induction back but I feel pretty comfortable going forward with it. I am pretty uncomfortable and feel just like I did with Chase -that he will never come on his own!!  My mom is putting me in her baby boot camp hoping he will come this weekend. 

AHH... Single Digits (and beach)

Are we really in single digits? I remember when double digits sounded close. I feel like it is such a gambling game. Chase was induced at 11 days overdue and was 9 lbs 2 oz (face up too). Needless to say I never thought I was would have another kid. The labor and delivery was terrible (no sugar coating here). I don't want that big of kid again but I want to give boy #2 as much chance to come on his own. I hear inducing is a lot harder labor as well.  We will continue praying that he comes on his own THIS WEEK!

We had to go pick up Brad's truck one weekend and it happened to be by my grandma's house who happens to live close to the beach. We had to take advantage. Didn't get too many pictures. I am scared to get sand in the picture.

We shouldn't have put his puddle jumper on but I think it gave him a little sense of security. Turns out at his age you don't really swim in the water just play in the waves. The matching swimsuits is kinda an accident. Brad forgot his with our stuff so had to run out and buy some. They are different brands but I think its cute that they are semi matching.

My hottie! He is going to kill me when he sees this picture.

 Thanks Grandma for letting us stay the night! It was so good to see you!

Chase and Tiana

Must get blog up to date because....our stuff is coming in 2 days!!! That will keep me busy. Oh yeah and a baby is due in 10 days. Then I will have a whole new subject to blog about. I saw a cute bib that my sister in law got it said "Star of Mommy's Blog." I think I need that. And guess what I can go get it because a Target is just about a mile away. Have I mentioned that I love America!!!

Anyways, I always try to do a little photo session with Chase and Tiana when we are in Maryland. I didn't get a picture that I just loved but here a few of my favorites...

Always have to allow them one or two silly pictures!

Commissioning

While Chase and I stayed in Maryland Brad had the privilege to fly out to Kansas for his cousin's commissioning into the Air Force and to swear him in. This is when we originally were planning on going as a family but we switched it to February when we realized I was going to be too pregnant to go. Thanks to Barb for emailing the pictures!

Mark even gets to go to the same pilot training base as Brad! Fun times down by the border! 

Brad also got to see his parents, brother, cousins, uncle, my brother and a few friends. Not bad for a quick weekend!

Congrats Mark! Hope our Air Force paths cross! It would be fun to be stationed together! 

Annapolis and Nature Center

Here are a few more pictures from our time in Maryland. One day when everyone was working we headed to Annapolis since Brad had never been.  We stopped by the state capitol. It is neat to see how Maryland's history and beginnings are very intertwined with our nations history. I learned that this served at the Nation's Capitol from Nov. 26, 1973 to Aug. 13, 1974.

We walked down to the harbor with a 2 year old who was not wanting to take any pictures. The streets were very quaint and reminded us a lot of some English villages.

We also got to walk onto the Naval Academy. 

We were hoping to see the formations but they were inside that day. I am 35 weeks pregnant here.

Later in the week we headed to the Nature Center with Chase and Tiana. I remember going here on class field trips and such when I was younger and it was fun to see Chase also enjoy it. He wouldn't go in the cave (was too scared) and slide but he loved seeing the snake. Go figure.

Telling them to act silly!

They are ready for 2 more cousins this summer!!!

Donuts!

Again sorry for the lack of posting. I still can't get the hang of iphoto on Brad's mac. I need my computer back! I have so many pictures to post but I got these two uploaded so that is good enough for me.  Sometimes you get so far behind you just want to give up. I kinda feel that way now but will try to push through :)

We are now living in our new house....just without the majority of our stuff. We have a bedroom set (we've been needing to buy one for a while now) a toddler mattress for Chase and 2 bar stools to sit in the kitchen. I am so ready for everything else to get here so I can start nesting! I have been uncomfortable lately and not sleeping well so I am ready for this baby. I know he will come soon enough!

I will try to go back and post from our time in Maryland. I am so grateful to have 2 very good friends in Maryland that I get to hang out with when I am back. We have been friends since we were young and it is so fun that now are now hanging out with our own kids! One morning we took the kids to Krispy Kreme for some donuts then to the park to burn off some energy. 

Checking out the donuts being made.

Some balloon fun.

All the kiddos just before the donuts. We all knew donuts were yummy who know it was also fun!

Chase was so quiet eating them that before we knew it he had 7 donut holes. Yikes! 

At the park with daddy! 

More updates to come soon - I hope!

Back in the USA!

Sorry for my lack of posting. As you can imagine things have been busy since getting back to the states. From recovering from the flight (Chase did well but it was still tiring) to jet lag (which includes a lot of behavioral issues) to dealing with the house stuff it was busy to say the least. We did close on our house and are homeowners and went right to work painting, getting contractors to replace tile and get rid of wall paper. We have new appliances and bedroom furniture also being delivered. I took some before pictures but want to wait until I have after pictures to post. 

We were so grateful to be able to stay with friends who helped us a ton with Chase and had some fun playmates for him. I originally asked to stay for just a couple nights but then closing got pushed back then we wanted to paint before going on leave. So a couple nights turned into 9 nights! Staying with friends is so much nicer than the TLFs! I didn't get any pictures of our time there.

So now we are on leave enjoying a little bit of time with my family while waiting on our stuff to get here. It was nice being here for Mother's Day. Even though it was low key we enjoyed being with family. Brad spoiled me with a Panera bagel in bed! Then after Chase's nap we went with my parents on a walk then out to dinner. I think the house, van, new bedroom suite etc was plenty of mother's day gifts for me! 

Here is a family picture on mother's day and also my 35 week belly shot.

There can't be water around without boys throwing rocks!

I love this picture of Chase and my parents. He normally doesn't like smiling for pictures but was in the mood this day.

A happy belated Mother's day to both our mothers. We are so blessed to have godly mom's who love the Lord and their families, who serve selflessly, who pray for us and are a great example for me to strive to be like. We love you!!

Fini Flight

We made it here to the US of A!! It is so nice to be back to the land of wide roads and lots of fast food :) We are still adjusting to the time change as Chase has been getting up early the past few days. I plan on getting up with him tomorrow to watch the Royal Wedding so watch tomorrow he sleep in super late! I really wanted to take some pictures of us getting through the airport but all our hands were busy. Chase did pretty well on the flight it is just a long time to entertain a 2 1/2 year old! 

Anyways, here are a couple pictures from Brad's last flight in England. A lot of people from his squadron were gone and he is going to fly the same jet here but it was still fun. Chase of course loved seeing daddy's airplane. At first I had to bribe him to wear his flight suit but then when he saw daddy he didn't want to take it off the rest of the day.

We had to walk a little ways out to meet the jet so thankfully Bow could carry him. He was supposed to be in the flight but only 1 of the 2 jets took off. By the way all these pictures but the last are taken by the very talented S. Russell Photography (Bow's wife). Thanks so much Shanna!

Watching daddy taxi in. Please remember I am 8 months pregnant in these pictures. There are no really good pictures of my belly so I feel like I just look chunky around the middle!

Giving a wave!

 Spraying him with water - part of the tradition.

Sorry for the rear end shot. Wanted to show a picture of us spraying daddy.

Love this family picture. Not sure if I like color or black and white better so I'm posting both. I have to hem the legs of Chase's flightsuit up so whenever we hold Chase it looks like he has shorts. Oh well.

And a picture of him out flying his jet over the countryside. He had to coordinate this with a guys who sits at a particular spot and get these pictures. Pretty cool if I do say so myself.