Six Months Old

Great Grandpa Monroe with Caden

Family bowling

Cousins Playing (Jackson and Caden)

Happy Saturday to you all. Sorry for the delay in posting however with work and schedules, updating sooner just has not been possible.

Caden Marshall is now 6 months old and doing really well besides a bit of a cold. He is now 15lbs 8oz, eating like a rock star, and very active. Caden has mastered the art of rolling over and appears to get stronger every day. Melissa and I are really enjoying parenthood. For me, I love coming home to my family. No matter how bad the day has been at work (more and more lately) when I get home Caden greats me with a big smile and a lot of limb flailing. It is the greatest part of my day. Life is good.

Over the Labor Day weekend the Smith family headed down to Marion, IL to introduce Caden to his great grandfather, extended family, and great family friends that have supported Melissa and I through our journey. The weekend was fantastic however there was one highlight that stood out above all the others. Melissa and I pray everyday that Caden will have the opportunity to do certain things in his life. One of those things that we prayed for early was for Caden Marshall to have the opportunity to meet his great grandfather, Charles Monroe. Charles is a great man and in my opinion a member of Americas greatest generation. Aside of being a WWII pilot, Charles is smart, proud, funny, and a very strong man. We hope that parts of Charles have worked down the family tree into Caden. I don’t think I can express the happiness that Melissa and I felt to see Caden being held by ggpa Charles. Another prayer answered, thank you God.

During our fantastic weekend, Caden Marshall also got to meet Uncle Randy and cousin Ryan for the first time. Hopefully Ryan took in the training opportunity with Caden as she, and her husband Jason, are expecting their first child in December! Additionally Melissa’s brother Eric, sister-in-law Janelle, and nephew Jackson coordinated a visit home with ours so we had a nice extended family visit all under Fred and Rita’s roof. We also got to spend lots of time with the Edwards clan which I always enjoy.Another great part about our weekend was the open house that Rita hosted for us.

Caden Marshall has such a great fan club down in Marion, IL. Friends of the family from the community, church, and school have been a wonderful support and prayer network for Melissa, Caden, and myself so it was our pleasure to have them meet our son. The open house was perfect because packing up Caden and trying to travel around to see the amount of people that came by would have just been impossible. Thank you so much everyone for your generosity, constant support, and never-ending prayers!!! I hesitate to call anyone in particular out because I really enjoy everyone that I get to see when we are down in Marion. That being said I would feel remiss if I did not mention Carol Tyner. Carol lost her true love and husband Bruce to cancer the Sunday prior to our visit. Carol still made the time and considerable effort to come and see our son. Thank you Carol and thank you everyone!

Here are a couple of more notes of appreciation before I sign off on this post. Fred, thank you for showing me some fishing tactics as well as attempting to teach me how to filet the bass I caught. Also Fred, thank you for hooking us up with the Miners baseball game. What a great time at the ball park with family. Loved it! Thank you Edwards family for letting me fish in your pond, setting up bowling, and the wonderful lasagna dinner. I love hanging out with you guys!. Randy, Jim, Dave, and Dutch, thank you for expanding the foursome to allow me in as the fifth to get in some golf while I was down there. Dutch, if you are out there ball hawking, let me know if you find my three Titleist nxt’s and my one top flight ;). And finally Rita……Thank you for always, always taking care of us while we are down there. You always make me feel so welcome when I am there and I know Caden likes being with g-ma Monroe as well. xoxo

That is all for now. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures. We will be posting next week as Caden reaches another important Milestone.

Thank you Marion!

David and Melissa