Basketball Skills

Who needs Chuckie Cheese when you can have your own personal basketball toss game where the ball actually rolls back to you?!

Someday, I'll be able to beat my Daddy on the court!

What's On Caden's iPod???

Building Blocks

Building Blocks
Uploaded by emersonstogo
Brett found these unused building blocks while helping the interns clean out our team's schoolhouse. He washed them off and brought them home and Caden immediately began playing with them. He is trying SO hard to put them together himself but will often ask for "huh" which means "help". So cute!

Check Me Out

Like my new scrape? I got it from falling on some steps at the local hotel pool. I was so excited to see the parrot they have that I wasn't watching where I was going and completely fell down these two steps. I cried, but I'm o.k. now. This isn't the first time I've fallen this week. Earlier, I fell down some steps at our house. I really was trying to be careful that time and just lost my balance. Oh well, I guess these little bumps and bruises are what becoming a little boy is all about. It definitely won't slow me down any!

Sleepy, Sleepy Boy

We have now transitioned Caden to one nap a day. However, some days he barely makes it through lunch. Here's what we caught on video one day....hey, what parents don't have a story about their child falling asleep while eating lunch, right?!

Sleepy
Uploaded by emersonstogo

For the Grandparents...

...but the rest of you get to enjoy it too! On hot days in Togo, the only way to beat the heat is to be in the water. I may find myself "swimming" with Caden more often as my belly grows and my tolerance of the heat diminishes.

Swimming
Uploaded by emersonstogo

Making Pizza

Yes, this is another post about Caden helping in the kitchen. No, he does not help with every meal...but it sure does make for some good photos and blog posts, right?!


Making_Pizza
Uploaded by emersonstogo

Cooking with Caden

While Brett was in Accra, Caden and I decided to venture into the world of making cookies. Since I was by myself, I wasn't able to get any action shots of the process. Here's a few of the aftermath...

Our workspace.

Caden's first taste....mmmm, yummy!

Let the frosting begin.

Finished product.

Caden's taste of homemade frosting. He wasn't too sure what to do with it.

The World Is Shrinking....Again

We have faster internet again...and it seems to be faster than last time. The best part is the unlimited access we have through DSL. OK, it's more of a DSL lite....but we love it! It seems to be fast enough to run Skype, so call away friends and family (334) 239-3109. You can call us in Africa for whatever it would cost you to call Montgomery, Alabama. We haven't tried out the video feature of Skpe yet, but we'll let you know how it goes.

18 Months

Our little boy is 18 months old! Mattie the bear has traveled great distances to be with us here in Togo for these pictures, and as you can see Caden has just about outgrown him!
Caden is special in everyway. He is smart, outgoing, playful, sweet, and loving. You can see his little heart just broken in two whe he has to be disciplined, but he takes it well and always gives us a hug afterwards. He currently loves dogs, puzzles, books, swimming, being outside, watching movies and spending lots of time with his mommy and daddy. We praise Caden's Maker for the precious gift that he is to us, and we thank Him that He has given us everything we need to bring him up healthy, happy, and full of His Spirit. We love you Caden Darrel Emerson!

New Furniture!

We are blessed to live in a part of the world where we can get cheap exotic woods for all of our furniture needs. We also have lots of skilled carpenters, guys who work with simple tools yet make beautiful pieces (think Jesus' job way back in the day).

Here are a few things that our carpenter, Mr. Germaine, had ready for us when we came back. All of this stuff is made of teak, which we could never afford in the States, but it costs a fraction of that cost over here. Thanks Mr. Germaine for your hard work and dedication. May God bless your work!


New_furniture
Uploaded by emersonstogo

12 Weeks

Here is a pic of my beautiful wife at 12 weeks with our 2nd child! How is it that the larger my wife gets during pregnancy the more beautiful and radiant she becomes? Must be a part of God's plan...We'll be updating every 4 weeks or so from now on, more often as she gets closer to the December 3rd due date. Please keep my princess in your prayers as she deals with the burdens that come along with being pregnant. Right now you can pray that she will have the energy to keep up with Cade and me, her two boys who require lots of attention! She has been tired alot during this 1st trimester, and we're hoping that her energy during the 2nd trimester will be "normal", if I can even use that word. She has been doing her exercises, her appetite has been good and she has otherwise been very healthy. Thank you for blessing us with your prayers and words of encouragement!

Brett

Back in Africa

We've been back for e few days now, and things are going well. We had a couple of days at WAMR, the West Africa Missionary Retreat, and now we are in Accra. We are going to do some much needed shopping in the next two days and then head back home to Kara. We have to stock up on all kinds of food items beause the 12 summer interns from Harding will be arriving in just a couple of weeks. Should be a great and crazy time!

Here are some pictures from WAMR. I was an amazing and uplifting time for our family and for the rest of the missionaries in attendance. Thanks to Joe McReynolds for speaking God's truth to our hearts and to our colleagues in West Africa for making us feel like a part of the family (for a group pic of all of the missionaries at WAMR, check out our Africa blog http://emersonstogo.blogspot.com ). We love you all!

Caden sitting on an elephant

He thinks he's so cool

Caden helping out the tour guide at the Elmina Slave Castle

Brett and Caden enjoying a beautiful day outside

To All of His Family & Friends...

Caden would like to say, "Thanks for love, the kisses, and the fun times while I was in America. I wish I could give you all a big hug!!!"

Introducing...

Baby #2 !

due to arrive December 3rd
(sorry for the poor quality, I was too anxious to post it to wait for a scanner)

What?! That little strip of paper means I'm not going to be the baby anymore?! Are you sure?

The Looches Came to Town

We are blessed with so many great friends in life! Erik and Sonya came from Knoxville to visit us here in Montgomery for 2 days, and we had an amazing time as usual. We laughed until or faces hurt, talked about life and the future, prayed together, and just enjoyed our friendship.

We are just 4 days away from our return to Togo, and we have had a fast but amazing time with so many friends that our cup is overflowing. God provided the reconnecting and encouragement that we truly needed, and for that we are thankful... TheEmersons and Luchauers at the Truman Show


Sonya loves Caden so much that here eyes are popping out of her head!Playtime!Word

I've Got the Best Nephews

One of the best things about being back in the States is spending lots of time with my nephews. I've been blessed with 4 little guys to love on and play with, plus a precious little baby niece. Today I went searching for animals with Owen and Dawson around my brother's neighborhood, and we didn't find anything besides some dead fish and some drunk fishermen, but we still had a blast. Owen discovered that he could step on my shadow and that I would pretend that it hurt me, and we wore that game out for almost an hour. Good times...

As the years go by and the boys continue to change, I know that I will cherish these times when they are young more and more...

Spoiled Rotten...And Loving It!

We are discovering what it means to have a child who is spoiled rotten...thanks to grandparents! Caden is quickly learning who he can go to to get his way. But don't we all remember those days?! Isn't that what God created grandparents for...to spoil our children?! And of course, we love it! This picture is of April's grandmother....Caden's great-grandmother, GrannyDot. Her grandparents, parents and brother are all visiting this weekend in Montgomery. We are

so thankful for this time with family while we're back in the States. That is the biggest sacrifice of missionary life...family.

Our Little Gardner

If you have any plants that need to be watered, or even if your grass is a little dry, please give Caden a call. He's taking appointments now for our time in the States.

Look What I Can Do!

Any 17 month old can stack blocks, but it takes some serious skills to stack film canisters...

Wait till you see him...

This is upside down Caden. Why is it always more fun to look at people upside down?

This is Caden playing with a kitchen set. He is putting his wooden animals in the microwave. What this picture doesn’t show is that after he stretches on his tippy toes to get the animals in there, he shuts the door and proceeds to push the buttons as if he is really starting the microwave.
You think these pictures are cute…just wait till you see him in a few weeks! We can’t wait to show off our little guy. Caden will celebrate his half birthday while we are in the States. That’s right, he’s one and a half….a very fun age.

Working Hard

We have lots of workers around our house everyday. Caden wants to help each of them in any way he can. We found him climbing the ladder just yesterday and would have climbed to the top had we not stopped him. Sorry for the lack of posts...we are really busy. We look forward to seeing most of you in about three weeks!

Truly blessed...

Check out our post on our Africa blog to see one reason why we feel blessed right now.

http://emersonstogo.blogspot.com/2007/03/thank-you.html#links

Pendjari Safari Family Style

This past weekend, 12 missionaries, 3 MK school teachers, 2 civilians, 1 former missionary and 18 missionary kids piled into 6 trucks for a Pendjari Safari Family Style! What an amazing time of fellowship with great friends and seeing God's creation out in the wild. Just one of the many blessings of living here and serving God in a foreign land. Seeing lions and other animals out in nature is God smiling down on us, and we are full of praise after an amazing weekend!This is just outside the gate to Pendjari. Thanks to our team's school teacher, Rachel Phillips, for snapping this pic and for being such a great traveling companion. Caden truly loves Miss Rachel!One of the lions we saw, relaxing after she killed a cape buffalo. There are lots more pictures, so visit Brett's travel blog at http://theplacesivebeen.blogspot.com or his Facebook album at http://harding.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000176&l=45943&id=1013940033 for more. Caden's first safari was a huge success! He traveled very well despite some sleep issues at night. We think he was just too excited about seeing wild animals with his daddy! If you look close in this pic, you will see a baboon in the background. Praise God for an awesome weekend!

16 Months!

Sports Time!

Throw_the_Ball
Uploaded by emersonstogo

We're pretty sure that he's the next great thing...

Il est tres fatigue!

Well, the diagnosis is out....Caden has Roseola. Nothing serious, in fact it's common in the States. Basically, he had a fever for several days and then a rash broke out on his body. I'll spare you those pictures, it's quite pitiful. The rash doesn't seem to bother him......just his mommy. So we're on the mend and trying to get back on our schedule. I usually try and wait till close to 10 AM to put Caden down for his nap so he will be asleep during our language lessons. Today at 9:15, this is how I found him:

When I first noticed he was on the floor, I panicked a little thinking he was hurt. Then a closer look revealed closed eyes. I have read several posts lately of my friends about their kids falling asleep in places other than their beds. Brett and I commented how Caden would never do that because he is too curious about the world around him...guess I was wrong.

Thank you to everyone that has been praying for our little boy during his sickness. We praise God that is was nothing serious and that we now have peace about what is wrong with him.

Caden's Vocabulary

Caden's Vocab
Uploaded by emersonstogo

I hope this works.....I know most of you have been dying to see another "Caden video".

Communication & Teeth

Before Caden was born I signed up to receive some books for free. One of the books we received was "Baby Faces." It is a board book with large pictures of happy, sad, angry, sleepy, shy, messy, and silly babies. Caden has always loved the book and will look at the pictures for quite a long time. Today he surprised me. He brought me the "Baby Faces" book with it opened to this picture... I asked him if he wanted to go night-night and he looked at the book again. I told him to go give Daddy night-night kisses and he went straight to Brett. After a shortened nap-time routine, he went to sleep with no fuss and slept for an hour and a half! He is learning so much about communication these days, it's exciting and frustrating at the same time. He knows what he wants to say but doesn't always know how to communicate it.

Many of you know that Caden has been cutting both of his top incisors for a week or so. I know they are hurting him (in addition to the fussiness) because every time I give him something hard/crunchy he takes a bite using his new tooth (his right side). Poor guy! He usually does very well with new teeth, but these seem to be coming in really fast and I think they hurt more. Pray that these teeth will come on in and give our little guy some relief.

Bringing Joy To Your Heart

Improvised Toys

We are still waiting for our container to arrive from the States, so the only real toys that Caden has at his disposal are what we were able to bring with us from France. He sometimes gets bored with these, and when he does, he finds other ways to entertain himself...

Since we can't drink the water out of the tap here without filtering it first, we wind up with lots of big bottles full of filtered water in our fridge. Once the bottle is empty, watch out! One of Caden's favorite games right now is to whack Mommy and Daddy with the bottles and giggle at our reactions. Sometimes Daddy lets him hit him on the head, and then he pretends to fall over in a very dramatic fashion. Caden thinks this is absolutely hilarious, of course. Mommy lets him hit her in the legs, and then she starts dancing and wiggling, which just about gives Caden a heart attack! While we are excited about his new toys that are arriving on the container, we are also glad that our little boy is learning to improvise and be creative with his environment...Other favorite "toys" include buckets, DVD cases, shampoo bottles, shoes, and the occasional lizard or gecko!
Watch out!!!!!