So here he is with his mom. Caden LOVES his mom! There are lots of times when only a mom will do, and Caden knows his mom will always be there to take care of him. What a blessed responsibility to be entrusted with the care of this young life. Don't they look happy together?!?!?! 
This second picture is just funny because of his expression. Aren't you just dying to know what he's thinking? Try this one: "How is my car seat going to fit into the backseat of this tiny car?!?!?!" Post a comment with your own caption!!! 
We thought about taking a cable car up the side of the mountain, but they wanted 70 Euros for the ride, so we just got this picture instead 
Another interesting place we visited was called Gran Saint Bernard, which is known for only one thing: it is the place of origin of the famous Saint Bernard dog, rescue hero for thousands of alpine mountaineers! It is also the border between Italy and Switzerland, and we stopped and got yet another stamp in our passports from the border guard. One thing Gran Saint Bernard has in abundance is Saint Bernard’s – stuffed of course. Tourist traps are not just an American phenomenon, and we couldn’t resist buying Caden a little stuffed rescue dog. Turns out it’s one of his most favorite toys ever, and he loves to give it kisses and talk to it. A name is surely forthcoming, but for now, it’s just “puppy”. 
So this is the first of our many adventures while at language school! We have loved traveling Europe by rail in the past, but it looks like cars are the way to go if you actually live here. It’s more affordable for one, and on top of that, it allows the traveler to see more of Europe off the beaten path, or “through the back door” for all of you Rick Steves fans out there!
We will never run out of things to do during our 4 months here in Albertville. Yesterday we strapped Caden onto Brett's back and walked several kilometers around town. Today Brett borrowed a bike from another guy at the language school and took Caden for a ride around town. Caden loved the journey, making lots of happy sounds all throughout the trip. Next up: rock climbing, with Caden tied to Brett's belt!
Hopefully being in France will be so stimulating to him that he will be walking soon. He just turned 10 months yesterday, but we'd love to have an early walker!
Caden helped us out by carrying this straw around in his mouth. It's the little things that add up to make a big difference...
Caden sure is gonna miss playing with his cousin Nate! Nate (Nathaniel) is Brett's sisters first born son. He will be three soon, and he is definitely becoming a fun and rambunctious little guy. This weekend we'll be taking a pic of all the cousins together, so watch for it on the blog next week!
After catching a few raindrops, we were able to spike Caden's hair just to show you that he does indeed have hair. Although it is Emerson tradition to not have hair until after your first birthday, we thought the rest of the world should get to appreciate the few tufts Caden has for now.
While we were in Franklin last week, Caden got to spend some time with his newest cousin, Mallory Joy Baynes. Truth be told, Caden is fascinated with every baby or toddler he sees, but for the sake of a good post, he was particularly enamored by Mallory. She is the closest in age to Caden, so even though they are different genders, they will surely have some good times together in the future.
Gatlinburg was a much needed break. We had a great time with friends from our days at Harding University. Caden was a trooper through all the travels. He even rode in his hiking backpack for the first time and didn't cry once! Here's a picture of us at the waterfall we hiked to at Cade's Cove (no, the husky bald gentleman is not in our party).
Caden also strummed his first guitar...thanks Erik.
We haven't posted a picture without Caden since...well, I'm not sure if we ever have...so here's a great shot for ya. ;)
Well, we're done with traveling until we move to France, a nice window of...less than 2 weeks. We'll be blogging alot leading up to our departure, and here's a late night post just to tide everyone over until tomorrow. It looks like Caden is ready to get one step closer to his new home...
Check me out! Thanks to Gamma I'm ready to go!
Are you sure I can't fly to France in my new suitcase? 
We're in Texas right now, visiting friends and family and doing some fundraising, and Caden is having a blast. We'll be posting several pictures and videos in a row of our time here, starting with Caden's new love: the piano! He will just sit there and pound on the keys all day, and Granny Dot is of course more than happy to help him out.
Caden and Mallory (Ed & Amy) are the two babies in the family...at least until Cullen (Chad & Betsy's) is born. These two are only seven months apart. Right now, they are very different. But give them a year or two and they'll be running around together not knowing they weren't born the same year. 
As you can see in this picture, Caden is quite interested in baby Mallory. I think Caden just wanted to give her a kiss...but Aunt Amy stepped in and stopped the madness. Don't worry Mallory, we promise to not let your cousin slobber you with too many kisses. I'm sure you two will be best of friends as soon as you can say each other's name.
Well we finally got Caden's passport back from Uncle Sam. It's really funny to us that 5 years from now, when his passport has to be renewed, he will still have the same 8 month old picture that will look almost nothing like his nearly 6 year old face. Oh well, it wasn't our idea, and we're not running the government of this or any other country, so what can you do???
Gran'Pa has been very anxious to get little Caden out to the workshop with him. The day finally came when the two of them went exploring among the tools.
Don't worry, Gran'Pa was quite careful to have the proper eye protection for Caden while working on the lathe.
Gran'Pa and Caden make quite the cute pair in their matching red shirts and overalls...don't ya think?!
Caden loves it when we put tupperware on his head. Add that to a spatula that feels great to chew on, and you've got a very happy baby boy! With Cade crawling like crazy and pulling up on everything, he seems to think that every single household item was put there for him to play with. Life changes drastically with a crawler!
Today we went to visit with April's grandparents on her dad's side, Granny and Daddy Dick. This will be the last time we see them before we leave next month, and we wanted them to see how much Caden has been changing and growing. Caden was a total showoff all day as usual. He was smiling, crawling, pulling up, laughing, babbling...basically pulling all of his tricks out of his hat to make sure that Granny and Daddy Dick know just how special he is. We had a good visit, and we had the chance to snap this picture of 4 generations on the Gillespie side. We thank God for the blessing that Granny and Daddy Dick have been to us over the years. They are truly amazing and special people to us; we cherish their love and support, and we know that they pray for our family everyday.
There are lots of things you can use a packing box for...here's one of them. This is also a great way to keep your baby busy and out of things while you are trying to pack.
This is what Caden looks like with a white thing on his head. Also, he is dancing on the bed with his mommy. AWESOME!
AWWWW, such a cuddle bug!
As you might notice, the bumber pad had to be removed from his crib. Caden was using it as a step stool and reaching higher on his crib than his parents were comfortable with. Now if we can only convince him to let go of the railing and sit back down to take a nap!
We celebrated Brett's first Father's Day today. We celebrated his incredible involvement in Caden's life with a few special presents. Brett enjoyed reading a new book, "Ten Tiny Tickles" with Caden and looking at his own personal photo album from Caden entitled, "Just Me and My Daddy". Brett chose to eat at Smokey Bones for lunch and later he and Caden went swimming.
