15 weeks

Today Cade is 15 weeks old. I am still amazed whenever I look at him at how good God is. We are loving the time we have with him. It's something to watch him grow and see how much he has changed even in this short amount of time in the world. He is getting bigger and filling out great. He still eats a ton. We think he's up over 14 pounds now. He's been sleeping a lot better now too. He'll usually go to be around 8 or 9 and sometimes sleeps up to 6 or 7 hours. So a lot of nights he'll get up around 3 or 4 am and then sleep the rest of the night. The fact that he only gets up once most nights is huge. That allows one of us to sleep through the night and the other doesn't feel like a zombie the next day. I'm still extremely biased, but I think he's one of the cutest babies I've ever seen. It had been a while since we've had a picture session, so here are a few pictures we took yesterday (and one from a week ago sporting his Rockies gear which is unfortunately seeing little use this postseason).

That's right Cade, C IS for Colorado Rockies. You'll grow into that hat and we'll get you another uniform that fits you when you do.

Within the last week or two he's started to figure out he can clasp his hands together. It's pretty cute. He's been doing the tongue thing for at least a month and a half. But the hand thing makes him look like a scheming baby.
He smiles a lot more now too. It's really a great feeling to walk into the room and see him smile at me when he notices I'm there.
All I can think of when I see this picture is Cartman singing "O Holy Night."
Pre to mid-sneeze. Post-sneeze. Bless you!

That sneeze felt GOOD!

He had just FILLED his shorts in this picture. The bombs he drops have been getting larger and larger. I am convinced Pampers Swaddlers are a gift from God. Diapers are truly a product where you get what you pay for. Leaking is bad. Containment is good. Containment produces smiles all around.

I think he looks less and less like a wrinkly infant all the time. Compare this picture with one from right after birth and it doesn't even look like the same child. It's kind of hard to see in this smaller picture, but he has beautiful blue eyes just like his mommy.

My baby and my baby.

Here are a couple smiley pictures. He has a drool-covered lower lip more now. We wonder if he's starting to cut teeth a little bit.

These last couple pictures were taken last Wednesday at youth. Our kids did a great job and wrapped between 80 and 90 shoeboxes in preparation for our church to fill them for Operation Christmas Child. I wasn't sure how the church would respond, but we had over 200 total boxes (wrapped and unwrapped) and on Sunday only a few were left over after people came and took what they wanted to fill. I was blown away with the support of our congregation. This is a great ministry that helps kids all over the world experience the joy of a Christmas gift. Please take the time to fill a shoebox or 40 and find a place to drop them off sometime before collection week (which is November 17-24). The website has all the details you need like what to put in the boxes, what not to put in the boxes, and where to take them.

We sang "God of Justice" by Tim Hughes during the service on Sunday. This song has great lyrics about acting out God's love instead of just providing lip service. The lyrics in the bridge say, "Fill us up and send us out." I know he's referring to people, but I kept looking at the boxes on the stage. Pretty cool.

Here's a video where Cade shows you about 80 different expressions in about 30 seconds while kicking his legs like a crazy person. He finishes up with a little smile. He also shows off his newfound hobby of grabbing his hands.