Cade's First Christmas!

As you can imagine, Christmas this year was quite exciting and busy at the Thorne household! Not only did we get to spend lots of time with both of our families, but Cade also decided to start crawling...and has not stopped since! Even though he did not totally understand what was going on, he definitely had a great time. We spent Christmas Eve morning with the Linvilles and Brad, then had dinner that night at the Thorne farm. On Christmas Day, we spent time with our extended family, and Cade had an especially good time trying to keep up with his cousin Maddie. He got so many neat gifts, but like most babies do, enjoyed the boxes and tissue paper as much as anything. Here are some pics from our first Christmas as a family:

First thing Christmas morning


Mama's favorite present:)

"Mama- hurry and open up this Elmo!!!"

Opening gifts...

New Leap Frog learning table

Lounging in my new chair with Mickey and Pluto






LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Santa Claus brought Cade his first car- a Push and Go Buggy. He absolutely loooooves this thing! Heath and I have actually had to hide it, because he screams when he sees it- he wants to ride in it so bad. We laugh because I swear that you could push him around all day long. I am sure that we are going to have a path worn down around our house! The funniest thing is that sweet little Tucker just follows along beside Cade everytime.

"Look what I got!"

Professional Race Car Driver

"Go, go!!!"

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Congratulations to Aunt Wendy!!!

On Friday, December 21, Wendy and Brad Davis got engaged. Little did Wendy know, our whole family was in on the plan, and we had driven to Brad's mom's house near Spring Hill to suprise her. After Brad proposed, he convinced Wendy to stop by his mom's so she could take a picture of them. We all knew when they were en route, because poor Wendy kept trying to call ALL of our phones to tell us the news (of course none of us answered:). She was so suprised and excited to see us there. We had a delicious meal cooked by Ms. Robin and had a great time celebrating with the happy couple. Cade was especially glad that Jay (Brad's brother) and Angela (Jay's wife, one of my dearest college friends) were able to come, so he could play with his friend, Tucker!:)

Celebrating with my Aunt Wendy!

The Happy Couple- Aunt Wendy and soon to be Uncle Brad

Cade and his Pa laughing (I think Pa is smiling because he hasn't remembered yet that

little girls' weddings=Daddy's checkbook:)

Angela checking out the bling

Wendy with Cade and Tucker

The family: Robin, Jay, Tucker, Angela, Cade, Heath, Billy & Kelly

Catching up...

Between the holidays, Cade's first stomach virus (yuck!), a Gatlinburg trip and two birthdays (Heath's 12/3 and mine 12/5), I have not blogged quite as much lately. So sorry! I added two new ones today with several recent pictures. Enjoy!

The Happy Hiker!

The first weekend in December, we made our annual trip to Gatlinburg with the Thornes. As tradition has it, we also went on the mandatory hike (Rick's favorite:) Obviously, we had to figure out how to get Cade up the mountain to Grotto Falls. Luckily, Pam found a baby hiking backpack that turned out to be a huge hit! Cade absolutely loves being outside, and had the best time...

Trying out the backpack

Halfway up...

Cade and Daddy at the top

Mama and Cade at Grotto Falls

Too much fun can be exhausting! This is at the end of the hike:)

First Visit with Santa...

Well, Cade had his first visit with Santa on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Heath and I cracked up because while Cade sat in his lap, he just kept studying him the whole time with a look on his face that said "something is not right with this guy." In fact, we could barely get him to look at the camera because he was so intrigued with Santa. Not scared, just curious:)

Ready to go meet Santa

Not sure about this guy!