Almost halfway

First and foremost, my Dad and Grandpa Goettsch had birthdays yesterday. Happy birthday and all our love!

The beginning of the year brings a lot of birthdays in our family. Mine was last week and it was definitely memorable. Brian went above and beyond. Breakfast in bed, homemade tiramisu, cards and flowers, a surprise party with the neighbors including ice cream cake...what more could a girl want? I treated myself to some shopping as well. Caden cooperated, aside from knocking over a clothing rack. Embarassing.

Brian's tiramisu masterpiece


Anyway, thank you for all your well wishes and cards. I felt loved. It was Ash Wednesday as well, but we still endulged ourself on some cake anyway. Well, aside from those that gave it up for Lent! (Sorry girls...)



Brian has been around, which is great. A month without trips is virtually unheard of. He had a positive experience in Florida for his triathlon training camp, although it was hard on his body. Five hours of workouts a day would make anyone sore. He found out that he will be sponsored with a (free!) Cannondale ITU bike to use for the year. We haven't made it to Philadelphia yet for the fitting, but plan to go in the next few weeks. He starts racing again next month.

I'm road tripping four hours to Pennsylvania this weekend for a church retreat with my friends Angel and Brandee, minus the boys! The retreat focuses on helping military wives stay connected to God and family throughout the process of moving around the world. I can't wait. Brian absolutely wanted me to go, but I knew he was inwardly calculating two days of meals, coordinating babysitting for workouts, and adhering to the basic daily schedule. They'll survive. :)

Caden is talking up a storm. He will attempt to say any word you ask of him and learns a couple new ones every day, especially 2-syllable words. Daddy taught him "tattoo" recently. Uh hem, I tend to lean toward more constructive words. He told both Grandpa's "Happy Papa," which is close enough to happy birthday. He folds his hands to pray before meals and says amen. He runs everywhere, loves to wrestle, and generally obeys our wishes, which is helpful. We sometimes let him drive the car around the alley (1 mph, and assisted of course) and he plays in his own Cozy Coupe car nonstop when we're outside. He eats sizable meals but still grazes 24/7...definitely his father's child.

Cheese! Now can I open?!


Weekly playgroup with Caryn, Brayden, Cade, Me, Gabe, and Paige


The pregnancy is going smoothly. Would you believe I'm almost 19 weeks?! That's nearly halfway! I'm definitely showing (too much, I think) and feel movement. The ultrasound is March 19th. We are not going to find out the gender again, so we're sorry to disappoint the curious ones. I'm feeling well, minus some chronic headaches.

17 weeks, and I think I've doubled in size in the past week


Caden understands that a baby is on the way. Early in February, during the pre-nap story, he spontaneously sat up, lifted up my shirt, and kissed and hugged the baby. I melted. Now he does it frequently, and often at inopportune times, specifically Sunday mass. He likes to share his frog, his pacifier, and his trucks by pressing them to my stomach. So, I think he'll like being a big brother.

He got a chance to practice this weekend when my friend Laurie visited with her 13-month-old daughter Honor. Caden shared his toys and enjoyed her company, minus being disgruntled about infringements on his space here and there. She's a sweet kid and the experience made me want a little girl.

Spoonfeeding applesauce to his girl...ahhhhh.


The bath pics they will hate us for during their teenage years


Pillow mountain


Having Laurie around was AWESOME...I miss her. We even took advantage of Brian's babysitting expertise and left both kids with him so we could have a girls night in DC.

Neighborhood girls' night + Laurie + a baby (Nice hat, huh? Thanks, Beal.)


This is a hard way to end my blog, but I have something very important that I need you to help pray about. My Grandma Klindt (my Mom's Mom) has been diagnosed with colon cancer. She was supposed to have surgery on her shoulder and that's how they stumbled upon some spots on her lung. They are still doing some tests and will start treatment soon. She's very upbeat about it and feels well most days. Grandma said they're just going to take one day at a time. That's the right attitude.

But please keep her in your prayers. We love you Grandma, and we'll help you fight through this.

Birthday Boys

January brings a lot of birthdays for the Geraghty family, including two of the most important ones...MY BOYS.

Caden turned 2 on the 21st. Grandpa Bob and Grandma Bernitta flew in on Inauguration Day (which turned out to be a surprisingly painless drive). Caden was thrilled to see them and was jumping around the house upon their arrival.

His birthday was jam-packed, and that is an understatement. He opened his scooter from Grandma and Grandpa first and cards from family and friends. We took him to Kids N Motion next, which is a huge indoor playground complete with inflatable slides, bouncy houses, and roller coasters. Basically, a kids' haven. Caden took on the roller coaster with the valor of a Marine. And he was more than willing to fight to keep the other kids off it too.

A boy's gotta have wheels


Watch out for stuntman


Tickle monster


I rock


Hang on, Grandma


After he ran off plenty of energy and gave Grandma a run for her money on the slides, we headed to Chuck E. Cheese's. Brian took time off from work to join us. You couldn't tear Caden away from some of the games, especially the carousel. It wasn't long before he figured out that tickets meant prizes, aka lollipops. Brian was equally thrilled and kept acquiring tokens from my Mom to play games. Brian also had a gem of an idea to get ice cream afterwards. Um, who's birthday is this?!

Dad, I've got this


WHEEEEE...okay, more tokens, Grandma


Tunnel masters


We ended the day with cake and ice cream and more presents. I baked and decorated his Cars cake myself. It was a grueling process (yes, GRUELING) and I cannot say that I enjoyed it. All right, I basically wanted to chuck the thing off the balcony by the time I finished. But the look on Cade's face when he saw it made it worth it. Maybe a store-bought cake next year though.

My "semi" masterpiece


I'm just going to make sure this is okay for everyone to eat


Phew


Caden's big boy bike (And yes, for you bike lovers, that's a Schwinn Tiger)


Brian had a fun birthday too. After church, we hit up Best Buy, a well-known Brian mecca. He also took the day off from training, played some video games, ate blueberry pie and ice cream, and went on a date with me that night. We enjoyed a meal at our favorite new Thai restaurant, shopped a little, and took in a movie, Slumdog Millionaire (impressive film). Brian generally doesn't care to celebrate his birthdays (especially birthdays that make him almost 30) but told me that it was a really awesome day. Gold star for my parents...thanks for watching Cade!

Russ, thanks for the (random?!) argyle sweater


Wow...that's a lot of smoke


Thanks for the help


A date...yay!


All in all, the week with Mom and Dad went well. We kept plenty busy and the weather even cooperated Friday so we could see some of DC. Saturday we took Caden to a children's museum in Richmond, which I think tops my list of all activities we've ever done with him.

Love you, Bapa


Iwo Jima...what an inspiring sight


Caden picks apples (and more apples) at the Children's Museum


He spent 75% of his time in the amublance


And now you're probably wondering, what did we NOT do that week? Well, we didn't see the Presidential Helicopter.

Oh wait...YES WE DID! Our friend Rob works for HMX and he arranged for us to have a private tour to see Marine One. I can't post pics online but I promise it happened. We all sat in the President's chair and felt semi-important. And I will tell you that President Bush enjoys sticks of gum and Starbursts. Caden "borrowed" several pieces and I might have had a few too. (Hey, it's for the baby okay.) What a memorable night. Thanks again to the Patterson clan.

We're lonely now since Mom, Dad, and Brian all left. Brian is at his annual training camp with the rest of the Marine Triathlon Team for the next several days. He sent me a text message today saying that they had a heinous aerobic strength training workout, which was one of four workouts. Have you seen the show The Biggest Loser? Well, they pretty much do that much working out, only on a MUCH more intense level. On that note, while he's working his butt off, my pregnant self is here at home, eating cookies and watching The Biggest Loser from my comfy sofa.

Caden and I are fighting off colds. Caden couldn't care less...I tend to notice my illness more. Quantico received its first snow of the season Tuesday so we took advantage and went sledding. He mostly occupied himself with eating snow and making snowballs. Don't eat the yellow snow buddy.

Snow, FINALLY!

Gotcha, Mom


Thanks to everyone that sent birthday gifts and cards! I'm in the process of writing thank you notes so bear with me.

Happy New Year

It's been a month but I'm finally updating the blog. Happy 2009 everyone!

Christmas in Iowa was a whirlwind 12 days. The celebrations themselves were great. Our family let us kick back and spoiled us with an abundance of incredible food (Prime Rib twice). We were able to spend Christmas on both sides of Iowa, and attended the Geraghty Christmas for the first time in 9 years. This year, they decided to forgo a gift exchange and donate gifts to a flood family instead. Very cool.

Caden always loves his Iowa visits because of all the new playmates and things to do. He spent hours exploring Grandpa Bob's new machine shed, full of farm vehicles, which we had fun driving too. And he adores his cousins. This video of Caden, Lawson, and Isabella jamming out to Ice Ice Baby is a must-see.

Lawson shows Cade some love


Um Bella, that's MY Cars sippy


Allie performed a private concert


The cousins




YES...my 500th truck!

Outside of the family gatherings, the travel itself left something to be desired. Here's the gist...Midwest Airlines lost our luggage for about 6 days. I did a poor job packing so I blame myself for the important items (especially the camera and my bridesmaid dress). We never did get our bags during our Cedar Rapids leg of the trip. We spent a lot of time on the phone and they told us something different daily. Brian's bag finally arrived the morning of the 23rd and they told me mine would be an additional day, because it was sitting at some lady's house in Grand Island, Nebraska. Huh?! I got her name and phone number, called her, and coordinated for my sister to pick it up on her holidays travels to Avoca. Jen was a lifesaver. But geez, what a mess.

At least we got everything before Christmas Eve and nothing was missing. Midwest gave us 3 round trip tickets to use in 2009. I guess things turned out okay, but we definitely learned from it. (Um, don't trust airlines.)

Another travel dilemma was Iowa snowstorms. This is nothing new to us, but every time we set out on I-80 for a new leg of our trip, we were greeted with a brand new storm. Luckily, Brian got us to our destinations safely, but not without some undue stress.

Goettsch Christmas

Knock knock...who's there?

He wanted to sleep with his Mack truck.


The fam, including Jeff's girlfriend Tina

The Mule

Brian plays with the loader

Dad and his pride and joy


Grandma shows off her skid loader skills

Haven't seen these lights in Red Oak since I was a kid


We fit in a wedding on top of all the holiday festivities. My friend Laurie got married Dec 27th. The wedding itself went well, but much like our travels, there were some setbacks. Their 11-month-old daughter Honor caught pneumonia the week of the wedding. She was miserable, and her parents, likewise. Luckily, Honor was doing much better the day of the wedding, which I think helped Laurie and Jason enjoy their day a little more. Of course, Honor could not attend and Laurie's family rotated watching her. Laurie and Jason also left the reception fairly early to spend the night with Honor at the hospital.

The wedding was in a gorgeous Catholic church in Laurie's tiny hometown ( about 400 people, which is smaller than Avoca). Brian came along so we had a whole night to hang out while Caden stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in Avoca. My friend Steph entertained us as always and we had a good time.

Beal does anything we tell her to.


The happy couple

Steph Sandwich

Our transition back to Quantico was rough because Caden was scared at night. We slept with him for several days out of guilt, but we soon realized that we were creating a destructive habit. After one rough night of tears, we got through it and we're back to normal. Our upcoming arrival in August will result in a lack of sleep...we don't need our toddler adding to that as well!

The pregnancy is going well. I'm at 12 weeks and we had our first ultrasound 2 weeks ago. The baby was moving all over and had a fast heartbeat of 180. I informed Brian that fast heartbeats tend to be girls. I'm nauseous and tired, but that's normal (unfortunately). The Hasley's found out that their fifth will be a boy. The whole family is excited, even Lawson, who's first response was, "But, I'm the boy."

Junior G's First Photo (Look for a hand and feet)

Caden continues to get taller AND louder as time goes on. He escaped under the pew at mass yesterday. A source of problems lately is sharing. Everything is "mine." He wants to snack constantly and thinks canned whipped cream is an hourly luxury. (Thanks, Brian.) He has started calling all his friends Bryce, which I guess is a compliment to our 5-year-old neighbor Bryce. Caden turns 2 on the 21st and Brian will be 29 on the 25th. My parents arrive tomorrow to help us celebrate. And yes, that means we're driving in DC on Inauguration Day. Crap. Wish us luck!

Brian will be here as well, although he's jumped right back into a busy TAD schedule. He participated in the All Marine Cross Country Championship 2 weeks ago in California and placed 7th. He finished first out of Quantico runners and their team placed 2nd. Not a bad start to 2009. He goes to his All Marine Triathlon Camp in Florida in another week. His buddy Ethan will be there so he's pumped.

Thanks for reading. I hope you had nice holidays and I'd love to hear from you. Maybe someone else has interesting travel nightmares to share...