Busy Mom

Family bowling

2009-04-21T14:12:00.005-04:00

I thought it would be fun for my birthday to go bowling with the kids. Yes, my birthday was almost two months ago but I haven't been blogging and I'm slowly trying to catch up on some of our fun family stuff. I actually got my best score that day. I'm not a good bowler so I was super excited about it. Anyways, it was a really fun activity and the kids had a blast. Here are some of the pictures.

They had these cool tracks for the kids to push their balls down the lane so they would go straighter.

Cameryn wanted to try it without the track but only tried it once.

Here's my cute hubby!!

Here is me with my super long hair.

Luke wanted to bowl with Mike's heavier ball and he actually did pretty good with it.

Luke jumping up and down after knocking down his pins.

Just a cute picture of Cameryn!

Our final scores and as you can see I won (yay!!) and Luke actually got second!!

Surgery

2009-04-04T10:58:00.002-04:00

Luke's surgery went really well on Thursday. The surgeon's office called me on Tuesday and told me that they were actually moving up his surgery from 9:30 to 8:30 which was great. The less time he has to wait and be hungry the better. Mike's mom, Robin came over Thursday morning at about 6:00 so she could watch Cameryn for us that day. I was so grateful for that too.

We were a little late getting to the hospital though.. early morning traffic and sprinkles of rain are never good. There was a really nice lady that happened to be walking through the front lobby area right as we rushed in and she worked in the Outpatient surgery area. She led us there, checked us in and rushed us back to her office so we could register. While I was answering all the questions, a nurse from the pediatric wing came and got Luke and Mike so they could get Luke's vitals and stuff. They were all so nice and helpful with getting us in and ready in time. When I was finally finished, I got to go back with Luke and wait. They had given him so many stickers and Luke was passing them out to me and Mike as well as putting them all over himself. He was so happy and pleasant that all the nurses kept complimenting us on how well behaved he was. I felt so awful though that soon he was going to have to be in pain.

His surgeons came back to take some measurements of his eyes and go over what exactly they would be doing in the OR. They ended up changing how they were going to fix his eyes. It's kind of involved so I'll try to be simple. His first surgery was to keep his eyes from crossing so they weakened the muscles on the insides of both his eyes. Then we found that his right eye would drift out occasionally and his left eye drifted a little but up (this was harder for me to see but I'm not a doctor, plus I see Luke everyday so I'm used to it and don't notice as much with the glasses). Since our eye muscle work together they usually would adjust the same muscle on each eye but because Luke's were so different it made it a more difficult situation. At first they were thinking of 1) only working on the left eye to correct the up/down muscle on that side and the outside muscle hoping that it would correct the right eyes problem or 2) doing both eyes the same. The first choice could have ended up with him having to eventually get another surgery on his right eye anyway and the second could have caused his eye to cross again and for the right eye to end up with the same up/down problem of the other eye. Thankfully we didn't go with either of those and they decided to fix the up/down muscle on the left eye only and the outside muscle on the right eye only. I felt really good about this decision and so did his surgeons. I'm really hopeful that this will be his last surgery.

Mike took Luke back to the OR since I did it last time and then we grabbed a quick breakfast in the cafeteria. The surgery ended up being only an hour which was great! We talked to the surgeons and then waited a little bit longer for them to call us back when Luke woke up. That was probably the most heartbreaking thing to go through. We walked back with a nurse to the Recovery room and Luke just looked so scared and in pain, it was awful. I walked over and put my stuff down and grabbed him from the nurse (gently of course). It was so hard to not break down in tears myself. Everything was hurting him and this time he was old enough to tell me. He wanted to pulse monitor off his toe, the gauze wrapped around his arm off, the IV out, his socks off, his eyes hurt, his belly hurt and he just wanted to go home. They asked if he was this upset last time but I told them I had still been nursing him way back then and the nurses let me nurse him and he just fell asleep.

The nurses were really nice and they took off the pulse monitor and they even took the gauze and IV out of his arm but then they said we really needed to get him to drink something. We tried to give him juice, popsicles, water, jello anything but he just wanted to go home. He finally did calm down for the most part but we had to keep stopping him from rubbing his eyes which he didn't like. He only wanted me to hold him (which I knew was going to happen because, well I'm his mom and when kids are hurt, they want their moms- Mike didn't quite get this) and I wasn't allowed to sit down, that just made him upset. Mike tried to relieve me but Luke got upset but I felt better myself being able to hold him. I had been so stressed all week and especially all that morning that I think I just needed to hold him too. Not that Mike wasn't feeling the same but he understood, he's a great dad and husband.

Mike finally got him to drink like 2 sips of water which wasn't enough but they said that he probably just needed to sleep of the rest of the anesthesia at home and then he would be better and would start drinking and eating. We got in the car and Luke was asleep within 10 minutes. I put him right into his bed when we got home around 12:00 and Mike and I took a nap too. We woke up at three and Luke was still sound asleep. We both were worried about him not drinking anything yet so we woke him up with us also to give him some more Tylenol. He was a little grumpy at first but once we gave him some juice and animal crackers, he got better. We sat with him on the couch and we all watched cartoons and he was actually happy. He still seemed a little bit out of it but he was happy and talking. Someone from church brought dinner over and Luke actually ate it. I was so happy he was eating and drinking.

Cameryn came home about 7:00 and was so sweet to her little brother. We gave them a quick bath and then Luke was in bed a little after 8:00. Cameryn, we found out from Robin, didn't wake up that morning until 10:30 so she definitely wasn't tired. She stayed up with me for a while and then we all finally went to bed.

Luke stayed asleep all night long and I ended up waking him up at 9:00. I am so proud of my little guy. He was so good and he is dealing with everything so well. He is one of the happiest boys I've ever met and I'm such a lucky mom to have him. We have to put this ointment in his eyes twice a day which he hates but he gets over it quickly and then he's happy again. Thanks for all of you who kept him in your prayers, it really helped all of us I'm sure. He had his post-op appointment yesterday which was fine but I'm bringing him back in 2 weeks for another followup. I just hope things keep looking good and that neither of us have to go through that again.

Luke

2009-03-31T10:25:00.005-04:00

I can't believe how much Luke has grown and how much more he is talking now. He is for the most part an extremely happy and helpful little boy. He is so patient and sweet and loves to do anything with his daddy. Our kitchen sink broke a few weeks ago and Luke didn't move from Mike's side until it was all fixed. He followed him all over the house while Mike was getting all his tools and such. It was so sweet and I love to watch him "help".One of my callings in church is to help out in the nursery. I'm not really that happy about it because I feel like I've been in there forever already just because Luke would never want me to leave. Finally a few months ago, I could sneak out during snack and he was fine the rest of church. Then they decided it would be a good idea to call me into the nursery... thanks a lot. I'm feeling better about it now because even with me in there Luke is blossoming into a very fun and talkative outgoing little boy and I love to be able to see it happening. He answers all the questions and always wants to say the prayer. In fact no matter who is saying the prayer, Luke is repeating everything they say.. even during sacrament meeting. It's pretty funny.

I brought my camera to church one Sunday to take pictures of all the nursery kids so they could find their name and picture when they come in on Sunday and put it on this little board we have for that purpose. I just loved the picture of Luke that I took and a lot of the other kids too. One of the boys, Eli, followed me around when I had the camera and kept trying to tell me to take another picture of him doing different things. I would try to take a picture of someone else and Eli would pop up in front of the camera, it was pretty funny.

I'm still hoping that this calling doesn't last much longer than 6 months though but for now I'm actually enjoying being with all the kids. My job is to do singing time which is always a challenge... what am I saying, everything in nursery is a challenge. It's fun though and I really do feel a lot of love for all the kids in there with me (there are about 10 already and it's only March.. yikes), they are so special and I'm glad to have a chance to spend a little bit of time with them every week.

Luke's best friend is Landon. His parents have been our friends for a long time. Anyways, Luke and Landon are about the same age and they used to argue a lot and fight over toys and such like most kids do, but for the past month or two, they have gotten along so well. They play without arguing and they share toys and laugh and just have a great time. It's quite amazing to Jessie and I to not have to break them apart after a few minutes. We can let them play upstairs while we talk downstairs and not fret that they are fighting with each other. It is really fun to see them playing and getting along so well. In fact Luke is always saying to people that Landon is his friend. When they go to the story time at the library, they will now sit in the front next to each other and participate in everything. That is completely amazing to me because before I could never get him off my lap to go sit on the carpet with all the other kids. Cameryn was the same way, but with Landon, Luke is really outgoing and they have so much fun. In fact, Landon gets really upset sometimes if someone tries to sit in between him and Luke. It's really cute. Here is a video of them playing one of their favorite games... wear Cameryn's "clacky shoes" and make lots of noise in the kitchen.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Luke also has another eye surgery coming up this Thursday, April 2nd. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

I haven't been in the mood

2009-03-28T09:09:00.003-04:00

I haven't been blogging in almost 2 months and I'm not even sure why. I have tons of funny stories and cute pictures to post but I just haven't felt like it. I haven't really even been checking my friend's blogs either. Sorry everyone. I like to try to comment on most of your posts just so you know I've been reading them. It always makes me happy when I get any comments, even a simple one like "nice post" or something like that so I try to do that same thing for all my friends and family who have blogs. I've just been very blah lately when it comes to blogging. So please inspire me to continue by letting me know that you're reading whatever drivel I post up.

So anyways, I have a lot of catching up to do but I'll try to make it short.

Here is Cameryn trying out her new bike which she got for Christmas for the first time. We had about 2 weeks of super nice weather at the beginning of February (yes I'm starting way back then) so Mike decided to let Cameryn try out her bike. She did really well but she kept looking down at her legs or just at the bike and not steering. We've been trying to work on that but the nice days are here for good yet. But she really loves to ride her bike. I always feel proud of her when I see her skinny little legs pumping so hard on those peddles!

Luke was really excited about Cameryn's bike so I went and got his big wheel so he could ride outside too. Unfortunately after this picture my battery died on my camera so I had to recharge it and didn't get any pictures of the both of them. It was a really nice afternoon with my family.

It's amazing what 2 inches of snow can do

2009-01-30T12:13:00.010-05:00

Tuesday this week, we actually got some snow. We don't get much snow here so with even just 2 inches of snow of course schools were cancelled that day. I had a doctors appointment for my thyroid so I dropped the kids off at my moms and went to my doctors. It was a pretty quick and basic appointment. I go into the office with the doctor and she asks me how I'm feeling, and some other basic questions. Then we go into an examination room where she feels my thyroid and takes my blood pressure and then leaves. Someone else comes in and take some blood to check all my levels again. I had this same lady take my blood before and she is awful. I'm pretty good with needles, they don't really bother me cuz I've got good veins. But this lady hurts me every time. She doesn't hold the needle still when she changes the vials (3 times) and then hurts me again when she pulls it out. I don't know what the heck she does but it hurts and I get a big bruise on my arm (my arm is hurting just typing this and thinking about it). They told me it was because I didn't put enough pressure on it but that's a bunch of crap. At least this time I didn't almost pass out after she was done.

Anyways, I drove home and hung out at my mom's house talking for a bit while my kids played. My mom told me that at 2:00 she was taking the kids to the church to play and some of our friends were going to be there too and play some basketball. I definitely didn't have the right shoes for playing basketball (my Doc Marten boots since there was snow) but I went anyways. I ended up just playing barefoot (socks were too slippery) which isn't the greatest idea, not because I got stepped on or anything but my feet hurt sooooooooo bad later!! It was really fun though. I haven't had the chance to play basketball in so long (or do anything physical for that matter) and I loved it, even with sore feet and no shoes. The kids ran around and played in the nursery or just in the gym. Luke saw me dribbling the ball and started trying to dribble the soccer ball he was playing with. He would hold the ball and then smack it with him one hand. Not really dribbling but he's only two so I of course thought it was wonderful. Later he just started kicking it around the gym and did a pretty good job at that too. I barely saw Cameryn the whole time. She was playing with Devon's friends sister and loved all the attention.

Luke with his little shovel "helping" me.

We left the church at about 4:00 and went home where I had to shovel. I dressed the kids in some extra clothes and found all our hats, gloves etc. I even dug through their frozen sand box to dig out their sand shovels so they could "help" me. Cameryn went in earlier than Luke did but she was probably colder than he was cuz mostly what she does when it snows is eat it. Of course it started snowing again before I was even finished but I knew if I left it all for the next day it would be ALL ice and even harder to shovel. Luke and I were out there for probably over two hours. He was such a cute little helper. Here's a video of him with his little shovel though it was taken at night so it's kinda hard to see. Also, sorry for all my sniffling in the video... it was cold.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I knew he was going to be tired so I made sure he was in his bed by 7:30 that night (it was actually 7:25 when I left his room so he was probably already asleep five minutes later- GO ME!!). Cameryn was probably asleep around 8:00 and they both still didn't wake up until 9:00 the next morning. I LOVE when it snows!!

The next day as I predicted everything was iced over. We stayed inside most of the day and waited for the temperature to go up so I could go shovel again without breaking our shovel or my back. It was so much fun again. Not that I really like to shovel but it was fun being out there with the kids again. I've probably spent more time outside with the kids in the past three days then I have all winter long. They were both so cute with their little shovels trying to help me but really just putting more snow and ice ON the sidewalks then taking it off. We stayed out for another 2-3 hours on Wednesday night. I ended up with a horrible neck ache though to go along with my horribly aching body but I still had a fun day with my kids.Thursday, I could not keep Luke OUT of his snow boots. He loves putting them on and wearing them everywhere 1) because he can put them on all by himself and 2) they have Spiderman on them (who he keeps calling Batman). So we went outside again after lunch. The snow was icy on top and slushy underneath but still fun. They wanted to shovel more so I let them play with the shovels again and they shoveled the snow off the grass... how thoughtful!! I dug through our shed and found a sled and we went down the tiny hill next to our house a few times. Cameryn loved it!! Luke only went down twice and I practically had to force him.

Here's another cute little video of them with their shovels and just being their cute selves. Cameryn kept talking about "snow gas" or something but I couldn't get her to tell me what that meant. I also got some video of them sledding and then Cameryn took one of me and Luke too.

Family times

2009-01-28T11:01:00.004-05:00

These are just some cute pictures with some of my family. The day after Christmas my parents had a little get together at their house and my mom's parents came up for the day. Some of my cousins did too but I forgot to take pictures before they had to leave. It was a pretty fun day though.

I have missed Andrew so much since he moved to Portland so it was wonderful to see him the few days that he was here. I also loved visiting with my grandparents (we call them Mammy and Pappy). The conversation is never boring when they are around. I talked with Pappy a lot about books cuz he is a big reader too (more so than me actually- he practically has his own library). Then we all talked about politics which probably bored Mike to death. But it was fun anyways.

After Mammy and Pappy left, the adults all went downstairs and kicked the little kids off the Wii (which I brought from home) so we could have a turn. Me, Andrew, my dad and my mom all did bowling first. Mike wasn't feeling well so he watched for a bit before going home to rest (poor guy had had to go to work that day too). Then we played some tennis, tried out the baseball but it was too boring and my dad and I took turns boxing. It was so much fun!!

After we got tired of playing, I let the kids get back on. Devon played a few games with Kathryn then started playing this boxing training game. Luke thought it looked fun so he went over and tried it out too. Then we gave the kids the controllers (they each held half) and let them play for real. It was so cute!! So of course I video taped some of it. Enjoy!!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Late holiday post

2009-01-28T10:25:00.008-05:00

I haven't been in much of a mood to blog. Lots of cute or funny things have happened that I've thought I should blog about but I just don't feel like it. I'm going to just post a little bit about the holidays though.

I usually like to record a little video of when they come down and see the tree but as soon as Mike brought both the kids down, Luke burst into tears because he wanted "Thomas the Tank Engine" and he didn't see it immediately. It was actually kinda cute/funny at first because my parents had gotten him a train table (from one of Devon's friends) and Mike and I had bought him a little Thomas train and put it in his stocking. But he would not calm down and open up the stupid present so I wripped it open quickly and gave him the Thomas. He finally calmed down enough to open up the rest of his presents which he really enjoyed doing. I think he had more fun opening them then actually playing with them, except the Thomas of course.Cameryn loved everything of course. She got another Princess doll (Jasmine) and was so excited for that (now all I need to do is find the Cinderella one). They both got some Star Wars toy sets that they loved!! And our family present was a Wii!!! I was so excited for that one. I'd love to get the Wii Fit and the Guitar Hero World Tour. Some of my friends have those ones and they are so much fun. Mike and I played the Guitar Hero one at our friends house up the street on New Years Eve and had a blast. I especially love the drums!!

Mike's parents came over and we opened presents with them (Cameryn got a new bike- too big for her right now but we were all excited) and then had our traditional waffles with fruit for breakfast (which I made from scratch). After they left, I tried to clean up a little bit and then my family came over. My brother Andrew was home for a few days and I was so excited to see him. I've missed him so much and wished that he could have stayed longer. The kids were so excited to see him too. They talk about him and Ezra (on his mission) all the time. In fact (quick little side story here), Cameryn and Luke like to pretend they are reading my scriptures all the time and in the Bible there are old maps and stuff that Cameryn will show to Luke and point to random places and say "this is where we live" or "this is where Ezra is on his mission" and other cute things like that. It is so funny!!Anyways, we opened presents with my family and we brought Luke downstairs for his train table present. Mike had set it up with all the trains and put a cool little track together with bridges and all sorts of stuff. Luke was so excited and played with that until I forced him to come upstairs to eat and take a nap which he totally needed. He was so happy and excited but kept periodically bursting into tears over nothing... he was completely overwhelmed in my opinion.We had a slow afternoon and I made a yummy piecrust from scratch. We were having dinner with our friends up the street who have a son Luke's age. It was a lot of fun to not go anywhere on Christmas and I really hope we keep up that tradition.

New Years Eve was spent with those same friends and we played some board games and some Wii games and ate lots of junk food. My dad offered to come out and sit at our house and watch over the kids so we could go out which I was so grateful for. Overall we had a really nice holiday.

Inside activity to wear your child out

2008-12-23T10:15:00.003-05:00

What are you supposed to do when it is 20 degrees outside with a horrible freezing wind?!? Plus you have boys that need to get some energy out in a way other than trashing your house and tackling you and his sister. My friend Jessie and I decided to get out our small trampoline. This kept all the kids occupied for over an hour. It was great!! I don't know why I haven't thought of this before. I told her she should buy one for Landon cuz that boy has more energy than any other kid I know.

Don't they look cute here all dresses like twins practically!!

We let them jump 2 together until one of them kept falling off and then it was one at a time which worked okay as long as we remembered who was after who and that they all had equal time.

If you have one of these I highly recommend it. It even works well in small houses with limited space as you can see.

Crafty kids

2008-12-22T19:24:00.002-05:00

I've been having the kids make lots of homemade stuff for gifts this year. Cameryn has really been enjoying all the painting and stuff. I only let Luke use watercolor paints though so most of the painting is done by Cameryn.

So today I was having Cameryn finish up the last three gifts that needed painting and Luke of course wanted to join in so I got out the watercolors too. Then I noticed how he was painting. Look at the picture below and tell see if you notice anything different.

Here is a closer look:
If you didn't notice, I'll tell you. He is using his left hand!! But that's not all, I have also seen him using his right hand too. YAY!!! I have passed it on!! I am ambidextrous and so was my Grandma on my dad's side. Unfortunately, I stopped doing it at a young age because I wanted to be like my sister who was right handed. I can still do a lot of things with both hands but my handwriting with my left hand isn't very good anymore. It's still probably better than most people trying to write with their left hand but I wish that I had kept writing with both hands. I hope that he keeps it up too.

Here is one of the ornaments that Cameryn painted today too. She is such a good little artist and I love watching how quickly she progresses with all of that. I had more to write but I have to go bath some kids and put them to bed.

Toys in timeout

2008-12-16T10:23:00.002-05:00

I love that my kids play together so nicely for the most part, but boy Cameryn can be bossy. I know I know, typical older sister right. It's just so annoying to listen to sometimes. Like today for instance, Cameryn and Luke are playing with the Little People house and some Star Wars toys. I'm hearing them while in the kitchen and they are playing nicely together. Suddenly all I can hear is Cameryn saying "NO NO!! That's not right!" and on and on with a bossy tone of voice. I peek in the living room and all seems okay but I tell Cameryn that she needs to stop telling her brother what to do and let him play however he wants to. She then tells me "That was the toy, not me". Okay, yeah, sure... I then say "Fine then, if your toy can't start being nice and stop being bossy than the "toy" is going in timeout".

That stopped it for a little bit and they seem to be playing nicely again. I don't want to interfere in their playing too much, but I also don't want Cameryn dominating the playing all the time and not letting Luke do what he wants to do. Most of the time I just leave them be as long as there is no loud screaming and crying because I want them to learn to work things out (even at their young ages) by themselves. But sometimes I just get so annoyed with Cameryn's bossy yelling (or the toys bossy yelling, whatever) and I have to say something. Is that wrong? Should I just let it go as long as Luke doesn't get mad? I go back and forth on this all the time. Sometimes I figure as long as he doesn't mind, why should I? But seriously, it is soooooooooooo annoying sometimes and I really can't help myself.

Like I've said a million times though, I am lucky with my children. They play together so well and I really can't complain too much. I was shopping with my mom last Thursday at the mall (I had to pick up their pictures) and they were so cute and happy running all over together. I won't lie though, I did get annoyed at how hard it was to keep track of them and I did try my best to control them better in the stores (without much luck). When I think about it now though, it was really sweet and I love seeing them holding hands and running together. Though it doesn't work so well in a crowded mall with them zigging and zagging and cutting in front of everyone else walking along. Oh well, most people didn't seem to mind, though I'm sure in their heads they were thinking "That mother should control her kids better" which is actually what I was thinking. Shopping with kids is never a good idea but it's just a part of life and we all deal with it.

For my enjoyment!!

2008-12-06T09:09:00.004-05:00

I have really been enjoying my kids recently. Luke is becoming so talkative and funny and he and Cameryn have been getting along so well. He has started calling her "Cam" out of nowhere and it is so beyond adorable. I LOVE it!!

His new favorite thing is doing somersaults.... naked of course is best. He still does them with clothes on but as soon as he is out of the bath, he is doing his little dance and then doing the somersaults. I couldn't get Cameryn to do them forever. She was scared for whatever reason but my mom brought out this little exercise mat at her house and now they both love to get it out and do somersaults for long periods of time. Of course I have a video of it. Well this is before the mat so it's mostly Luke. And I convinced him to let me put a diaper on before I started videotaping. I didn't think anyone else needed to see the naked ones.

Cameryn is really loving her Preschool playgroup. She is making friends which I'm very excited about. I love asking her what they did that day. Her stories usually revolve around what dress ups she wore that day and what the snack was but I can sometimes get out more info by asking more questions. One of the girls, Katrina, loves to invite Cameryn over to her house, which Cameryn of course is more than willing to do.

I'm so proud of her. She is mostly past the horrible horrible three year old stage and is really a wonderful big sister. She and Luke both love to look at books and "read" then to each other. That usually consists of them turning the pages and "beating up" the bad guys on them and then laughing (they just lightly punch the pages). They will play for hours with all our Little People and their house, the Star Wars toys, of course the Princesses and toy cars to fit them all in. I love to watch and listen to their play. Luke's imagination is very hilarious compared to Cameryn's. He mostly follows her lead but sometimes the Princesses or whatever he's playing with just have to use the bathroom multiple times. They must have eaten something bad or just too much birthday cake which is another of his favorite scenarios. It's pretty hilarious to hear while I'm cleaning in the kitchen or something.

There are so many cute things that Luke says now and of course I wish I could get them all on video tape. I know I'm going to forget some of the really cute things that he says. It's pretty interesting because Cameryn spoke so well as a toddler and almost always enunciated everything perfectly. She practically started speaking in sentences. Luke was more your typical child in learning to talk. Little new words picked up every day or so and then suddenly he is non stop talking and saying hilarious things. He talks a lot more than the other kids his age but I think that's mainly thanks to having an older sister who talks a lot too (at least they both do at home). It's still pretty difficult sometimes to understand him without a translator (me) but for the most part other people can understand him to. Then there are those news things he says that no one knows what he means until a day or two later when I finally figure it out.

I am really enjoying having two kids now and I love that they are so close and love each other so much. They love to play anything together and both love giving hugs. Except that has now turning into wrestling. Luke runs and gives Cameryn this huge hug but then lets his knees go under him so that she is holding him up and since they weight about the same and he came at her running, it turns into a tackle. It is another hilarious thing that I love watching. They laugh and laugh and then do it again.

Luke also broke his glasses that he is supposed to wear to help straighten his eyes. My dad fixed them for him once and then he broke them again. They are now fixed again but I desperately need to buy him a new pair. Thankfully we just got new insurance through Mike's work that has some vision coverage and covers one pair of glasses a year (or something like that). I'm just waiting for it to go into effect. He was very excited when my dad fixed his glasses. When his Grampa asked him who fixed his glasses, he looked up all happy and yelled "YOU did Dampa!!"

I haven't been taking as many pictures as usual for whatever reason but I'm excited about decorating my house for Christmas and will definitely take lots of pictures of the kids then!! For now enjoy the video of Luke's almost naked somersaults, along with a few songs by Cameryn and Luke!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Twilight and other weekend stuff

2008-11-24T09:43:00.005-05:00

So Twilight has finally come out!!! I was so excited that I couldn't wait until my girl's night out to see the movie on Saturday at 7:00. So I convinced my husband to come see it with me on Friday night. We went to a late showing hoping that not so many teen girls would be there giggling and screaming... no such luck. We went at 10:00 and my sister Kathryn came over to watch the kids though of course they were already in bed.

So we get there and walk right in (no line thank goodness). We find perfect seats on the aisle way in the back where I love to sit. I was so excited so before the movie started, I was texting my sister to brag that I was seeing the movie tonight. I also sent a text to my dad since he was coming home from a business trip, just to say hi and stuff. He sent me one right back cuz he was already off the plane.

The movie finally starts with lots of previews first of course. I had my phone on vibrate and saw that someone sent me another text. It was from my brother so I decided I would just check it later after the movie. (I know this is random stuff but bear with me cuz it becomes relevant later) So anyways, we're watching the movie, which I'll talk more about later, my phone vibrates again and I see that my dad is calling me. I think he doesn't know I'm at the movies and is just calling me while driving home. Later I get another text from him, then later another phone call and finally one more text. Finally my brain catches up and remembers that it is after 11:00 so why would my dad be calling me and texting me so much even if he didn't know I was at the movies. I open my phone and look at the most recent text and see that Luke is at home barfing and poor Kathryn is there with him not knowing what to do. I show the message to Mike and we get up and leave immediately.

So I call my dad on the way out and he fills me in on everything while we run to the car and drive off. I call Kathryn and tell her we're on our way home. I was driving and Mike (trying to be funny) kept telling me to slow down, that I wasn't a vampire so I couldn't drive that fast safely... yeah haha. Kathryn calls me on the way home apologizing because she just couldn't clean up all the barf which I wasn't expecting her to do of course. I've had a situation like that while babysitting once and I didn't clean it up either... barf is just too hard to deal with if it's not your own kids.

We get home and Kathryn had cleaned up Luke twice already. Mike went to go take care of him while I went clean up his barfy bed. I got all the dirty stuff off and wiped down the mattress cover cuz it still smelled, put on all fresh clean stuff and then went to clean up the dirty stuff in our room on the rocking chair. We get Luke back to bed and then 10 minutes later he is crying again and I've got more barf to clean up. This time Mike just gave him a quick bath because he smelled really bad now. I got an old pillow to prop him up on and just covered the mattress with a blanket just in case so it would be easier to clean later. He finally went back to bed and slept the rest of the night.

He was fine all day Saturday and I went with my friends to go see the movie again. Later of course Mike tells me that Luke was sick again. I ended up staying up with him a lot that night and stayed home from church with him on Sunday but he is fine today.

So the onto the movie stuff. It was so much fun going with all my girlfriends!! I loved going with Mike of course but that night was kinda ruined so Saturday really made up for that. There were about 17 of us there and we all carpooled together. There was definitely less squealing and stuff but those annoying little girls did ruin the very hot kiss with their giggles. Most of us all went to TGI Fridays afterwards and had a blast. We stayed there for well over an hour just talking about the movie and other stuff. I definitely need to do that more often.

So I really liked the movie overall. I had had my expectations too high the first time (I tried not too but I couldn't help it) so I liked it better the second time. There were a few really cheesy spots were I wanted to laugh that they probably hadn't intended to be funny. I thought they did really well with casting the movie too, with a few exceptions. The girl playing Rosalie wasn't really that beautiful which normally I wouldn't care but she is supposed to be GORGEOUS. Of course thinking about it logically, how are you going to find someone inhumanly beautiful, so that one didn't bother me as much as the guy playing Jasper. He was supposed to look like he was "in pain" I guess from struggling to be around humans all the time and not eating them, but he just looked constipated and weird with his buggy eyes. The guy playing Jacob was okay for this movie but there is no way that he is tall enough or big enough to play Jacob in the other movies. Jacob is supposed to be like 6'2" by the END of Twilight!! They are gonna need someone really tall and built to play him in the other movies.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED Emmett!! He was just like I imagined him to be from reading the books so he was the perfect cast. Bella and Edward were sooooooo good too. They had great chemistry and that kiss was AWESOME (despite all the girls giggling). I loved it when they "go public" at the school that they are dating and Edward has this huge grin on his face and puts his arm around Bella when the whole time before all he could do was look moody and bored. I wish that they could have developed a few of the relationships better between Bella and the rest of the Cullens but I understand that the movie is about her and Edward mainly.. duh. I loved the scenes of them talking in the tree and then in her room when she falls asleep next to him, so sweet.

I thought the guy who played Charlie was really good too. The scene where he "officially" meets Edward with his guns out on the table was so hilarious and perfect. Isn't that how every dad wants to meet their daughters boyfriend?

My favorite scene was the baseball game!! It was just like I thought it should be and funny too. I loved the song playing. That song is my favorite one from the band Muse which, by the way, is Stephenie Meyer's favorite band. I also liked when she meets the whole family for the first time and they were cooking for her all smiling and cute. Also all the high school kids did really good acting like immature high school boys and girls. I loved the scene were Jessica and Angela meet Bella outside the restaurant and they get all "dazzled" by Edward!

A few disappointments though... like Alice. I thought she was cast really well but she was barely in the movie. Also, it might seem like a small thing but I was disappointed in the fact that they would go to a diner to eat instead of Bella cooking. That was a big part of her character in the book because she was always taking care of someone, first her mother and then her dad. I couldn't figure out why they would leave that part out. It's not like they needed to constantly show her cooking or something but they could have implied it somehow. It just didn't make sense to me. Also the scene in the car after he saves her in Port Angeles, they didn't talk at all about anything.

Another thing I was upset by was they didn't once say "I love you" to each other. Yes it was implied but why couldn't they say it. I guess since they are already so intensely in love that they have to slow it down somehow in the movies. That would be difficult to maintain that intense love throughout three movies and still make it interesting and appealing to audiences without becoming repetitive and monotonous.

Sorry for the long and rambling post but it was a very busy and interesting weekend for me overall even without all the Twilight talk. I tried to organize my thoughts kind of but i think I failed at that. It was hard when I had so much to say. I'm so happy to have finally seen the movie after looking forward to it for so long. I'm also glad that they have already decided to do New Moon!! At least it's one thing to look forward to.

I love that fall!!!

2008-11-23T10:59:00.002-05:00

One more quick post before I talk about Twilight....

Since I have the tiniest yard ever and a very few small trees, my kids don't really ever get to play in the leaves or "help" me rake unless we go to someone else's house. I was visiting my friend Chrissy and got some pictures of our kids playing in the leaves together. I got a few cute little videos too. They had so much fun together and my kids have been asking me practically every day to go back.

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I also helped my dad (on a different day) rake up all their leaves so my kids got to play again in someone else's leaves. I forgot my camera for that unfortunately but I'm hoping my dad will email me all those pics one day.

Sorry for all my friends and family out west that miss out on this awesomeness that is fall and big piles of leaves!!!

Exciting announcement

2008-11-23T10:58:00.001-05:00

I will go in more detail later about my Twilight and barf filled weekend but first I saw this on Stephenie Meyer's website. Check it out and celebrate with me!!!!

Halloween

2008-11-22T09:04:00.004-05:00

I know these are like a month late, but I have been so busy lately and forgetful so I haven't been blogging much. I'm still playing catch up.

Cameryn was too busy being excited to actually look at the camera and Luke would only wear the mask for the picture so these are all I got from that night. I won't go into details too much either. We went to my mom's neighborhood and went house to house until we got to the church and then stayed there for Trunk or Treat. The kids had fun and were very sleepy and ready to go to bed when we got home. The end.

Bathtime

2008-11-22T08:58:00.003-05:00

This is just a cute video I took of my kids during bathtime. They are always so cute and I wanted to capture it for a little bit. Cameryn is always singing!! And I love how Luke says the monsters name from Monsters Inc., Mike Wasowski. He used to call him Ous Ousi and now it's progressed to Mike Ousi. So cute!! Hope you enjoy.

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Singing in the car

2008-11-10T16:14:00.003-05:00

This is a video I took in the car. Cameryn loves to sing and of course she loves to sing about Princesses. Well sometimes she'll start singing and then Luke will start singing too and copying (as best he can) what she is singing. It is beyond cute when they both start singing "So this is Love" from the movie Cinderella. I didn't get that on camera but I got Cameryn singing her own made up song. Also just to defend myself, though I was driving, I did nothing but pay attention to the road while holding my camera over my shoulder. Please don't think that I would ever endanger my kids by driving recklessly just to video tape something cute. I can drive perfectly well with one hand, I just couldn't pass up this opportunity to get this cute in the car singing.

Also sorry that it's hard to hear because we are in the car but it's the best I could do. If I hadn't been driving and instead been the passenger I think it would have been better but oh well.

My favorite parts are when she sings about eyebrows and then yellow hair. It would have been a longer video but my camera ran out of memory. Oh well, enjoy!!

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Big Boy Bed

2008-11-10T10:16:00.007-05:00

I don't know why I am constantly getting behind in my blogging. Oh wait, yes I do. I'm lazy. Oh well. I'll just have to always be behind on things. There is so much that happens that I find myself thinking, "Oh I should blog about this" and then I remember all the things I haven't yet blogged about and I'm like oh well.

So a few days before my surgery we realized that I wouldn't be able to pick Luke up out of his crib or put him in there at naptimes. Sadly I agreed to set up the toddler bed and take down his crib. I didn't want my baby to be out of the crib but he's a big boy now and like he'll tell you constantly, "I'm gowin up. I'm a be big ike you."

Luke was so excited for the "big boy bed" and he loves it still. He is so good too!! Cameryn still has problems staying in bed and gets out CONSTANTLY. It's extremely annoying. With Luke, he knows he can get out of bed and he can do it himself but he NEVER gets out during naptime or bedtime unless you come and get him. Many people told me this won't last and I know from dealing with Cameryn that it doesn't but it's been over a month and he is still a little angel. By this time with Cameryn, she realized that she could get out and would open the door and cause many problems trying to putting her to bed. With Luke though, he knows how to get out and that he can do it all by himself but he knows that he isn't allowed to get out of bed without permission.

It is wonderful. I don't want to make it seem like Cameryn is always a big brat or something and Luke is an angel all the time cuz thats not the case. But man he makes bed time soooooooooo much easier that I'm glad he always wants me to put him to bed. I feel very lucky to have such a sweet and patient little boy. I will admit that Cameryn was much easier as a baby to put to bed and took really awesome three hour naps every day (when she got old enough to have a regular nap schedule) where I could sleep with her. But once she got old enough and we switched her to the toddler bed, night time became really hard for me and Mike. We still don't have a solution that works all the time. I won't go into all the different things we have tried cuz it's a long list.

Now Luke on the other hand was VERY difficult as a baby even straight home from the hospital with sleeping during the day. He just wouldn't do it. I didn't get it at all. I mean how can a newborn only need one or two 20 minutes naps during the day. I was so tired with him all the time because I didn't get to take naps anymore because HE wouldn't nap. It took me a LONG time (I'm talking he was already a year old) to get him taking regular naps and they were never as long as Cameryn's used to be. But when we got on a good schedule and he knew how to fall asleep by himself (something I've never been good at "teaching" either of my kids), he made it so easy. Cameryn never took naps in her own bed, it always had to be my bed, but Luke will climb in himself and after two songs will usually go right to sleep with a little talking to himself. Same thing at night time only even easier (unless he gets hot and then he cries cuz he can't sleep if he's too hot).

Anyways, here are pictures of him jumping in his "big boy bed" and a cute video of it too. You know I can't help myself with the videos. Just listen to his cute little voice tell me that he's jumping in "my big bed, not my big boy bed". Too precious!!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Also I got to see one of my best friends while I was growing up recently. She moved here when we were in third grade and we were really good friends right from the start. Then when we were freshman, her family moved to Arizona. I was sad but we wrote each other and kept in contact sporatically until college when we kind of lost each other. I found her on facebook a few months ago and she had already been planning a visit to this area to see family and friends for the first time in four years. I was so excited but then realized that she would be visiting here right after i was having my surgery. No problem though, she rearranged some things and drove up to see me at my house. My dad very nicely offered to watch the kids since Luke was napping and we went to lunch in Frederick together. It was fun catching up and laughing about how weird we were and some of the fun things we used to do, especially in elementary school since we ended up going to different middle schools. Anyways, we forgot to ask my dad to take pictures of us, so we took them ourselves. Forgive my horrid appearance, I had just had surgery and I don't usually wear makeup anyways, so I look kind of off. Oh well. I made the picture small just so it wouldn't be so easy to notice how rough I look, hahaha!!

I finally got it!!!

2008-10-21T12:07:00.003-04:00

Okay. So I've been mentioning a lot on my blog lately about how cute Luke says things, in particular his own name (he calls himself Hoot). Well I finally got a video of it!!

We were looking at pictures on the computer and he was saying everyones name including his own. So I grabbed the camera and started recording it. Of course he was sitting on my lap so it's not the greatest shot to look at but it's so cute to hear him talk that I have to share!!

The first part he decided to be a punk and kept saying the wrong name but after that I got him saying the right names. Enjoy!!

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Surgery went well

2008-10-21T11:25:00.006-04:00

I am so behind but I'm trying to slowly catch up. So here is what I should have posted two weeks ago.

I had surgery almost two weeks (Thursday, October 9th) ago to repair a hernia I've had since I was pregnant with Cameryn. It was no big deal and went really well. I actually had is scheduled back in May but with all my thyroid stuff that started happening around the same time (just in case you want to reminisce with me about all those issues they are here, here and here) I had to cancel the surgery. As it turns out, thyroid issues like the one I was having are bad and would react badly with the anesthesia and I could die or something. Though, if I hadn't had everything figured out with my regular doctor and if I had still showed up the day of my surgery with my heart rate all out of control like it was, they wouldn't have done the surgery anyways... so that was really good to know.

This time I also scheduled it way in advance so I could have the first scheduled surgery of the day. Last time it wasn't supposed to be until 4:30 pm and I was supposed to be fasting since midnight... no thank you!! I had to be at the hospital at 6:30 am and my surgery was scheduled for 8:30. I was right on time too. They wheeled me into the OR and the clock said 8:29. Does anyone know why it has to be so FREAKING cold in the surgery area and especially in the ORs?

The surgery took about 2 hours and I woke up about an hour after that. Though it took awhile to fully wake up. There was a clock right in my eye sight that I would see every time I opened my eyes and each time I looked at it, it was like 10, 15, or 20 minutes ahead from the last time I looked. And here I thought I was just blinking. My mouth was so dry and my throat hurt from the tube they have to put in you to help you breath while your under. Then the nurse said I couldn't have anything to drink (meaning I couldn't have any pain meds either) until I could move over to this reclining chair they brought in. So I sucked on ice cubes for awhile until it just wasn't enough then had the nurse and Mike help me over to the chair. Man, that hurt so bad.

Finally they gave me some graham crackers and some juice which I sucked down quickly and kept asking for more. I finally got dressed and they wheeled me out to go home around 2:00. The main area that hurt was where the hernia site was. I had laprascopic surgery so I only had three small incisions on my stomach (though the one straight through my belly button does hurt pretty bad). The only other thing that hurt was the fact that they have to kind of pump your stomach with some gas so they can move around with their instruments better. Well, they get out as much of it as they can but you're still left all bloated and fat. Plus the gas would get up into my right shoulder somehow and HURT!!!!! That was the worst part though, feeling like I had an air bubble in there. My mom's wonderful shoulder massages really helped though.

I had so much help from friends in this Mom's Club that I only joined about 4 weeks ago and people from church watching my kids for me. It was so nice and I got alot of rest that way. Plus the kids got to play with friends and they had a ball. I'm so grateful for those people that helped and are still helping me out. My mom came over and cleaned a lot of my house for me on the Friday after and the Mom's Club people are bring me six meals all spread out so I'm still getting them this week!!! I'm also grateful that I have such wonderful kids that adjust to anything it seems!! I am one lucky mom.

My parents watched my kids that day for me and of course they had tons of fun. I'll just end this post with some pics my Dad took from putt putt and other outings that day.

I love the fall

2008-10-14T09:12:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite things in the fall is to take the kids to the pumpkin patch. This year I went with my friend, Jessie and her son Landon to a different pumpkin patch than the one we usually go to. It was a lot of fun too. They had a small petting zoo, hay bales to climb on, etc. Unfortunately we went on a Thursday and their hay rides to the actual pumpkin patch only run Fri-Sun. But we still had fun letting the kids run around and play.

Here's Luke and Landon as flowers.
It's called Jumbo's Pumpkin Patch, so here's Cameryn riding a tractor.
He looks so cute here with his glasses on.

Cameryn and Landon on the very top of the hay bales.
Me and my adorable kids on the very top too.

They had a ball playing with this car. They loaded up the back with the small pumpkins, then one of them would drive somewhere and Luke would say, "We're here!!" and then they would unload. Luke was so cute and talking the whole time. I'm still trying to get him to say his name on camera but it hasn't happened yet. I'm going to keep trying though, it's too cute to not get on camera!!

Two very handsome boys!!

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Actually getting along

2008-10-11T11:51:00.003-04:00

Landon, Luke and Cameryn all playing on Cameryn's bed under the sheets. They actually got along and didn't fight for like 30-45 minutes while playing here. They usually are stealing toys and just being regular two year olds (at least the boys) but they had so much fun playing under the sheets, I just had to take some cute pictures. Luke loves this picture, when he saw it he said "It's Hanen, Tamen and Hoot with gasses on"- translation "It's Landon, Cameryn and Luke with glasses on". I love how Luke says his name but I haven't been able to catch it on camera yet!! I will though one of these days.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tire Park

2008-10-11T11:23:00.004-04:00

I'd never been to this park before but my kids had so much fun here. Everything is made of recycled tires, even the ground, so I didn't really have to worry about anybody falling and getting hurt. It was a fun relaxing day. We were going to go hiking too but it got too late for me and my kids so I took them home so Luke could have a nap. I know I am behind on posting again (nothing new here) so I don't have any good stories to tell right now. Just pictures, but that's my favorite part anyways.

I went with my mom, my brother and sister, my mom's friend Terry Smith and her daughter and granddaughter, Ellis (above). Ellis is so cute so I got a couple picture of her and Luke.

Random things

2008-09-23T14:45:00.007-04:00

Luke loves his Hulk glasses and likes to wear them all the time so I knew it would be relatively easy to get him to keep his new glasses on. He's just so cute!! He still likes to wear the Hulk ones so he puts them on OVER his other glasses- it's really funny.

Oh and I forgot to mention in my previous post that I cut Cameryn's hair shorter. I don't have a really good picture but she wanted me to take this one of her and our cat so I thought I would post it up anyway. Actually you can probably see the haircut better in my last post.

Here is just silly picture of our cat playing fetch with her favorite toy. I took these two while Luke was playing with her, throwing it into the kitchen while she chased it down and brought it right back to him so he would play some more. So cute!!
Yes another dorky cat picture, oh well.

These next ones were taken by Cameryn. I laughed so hard when I was uploading my pictures from my camera to my computer and I saw these ones. Look at his sweet little face cheesing for the camera right in his face.

Oh WHOOPS!!! How did this picture of my butt get in here?? HAHAHA!! Not bad for never having time to work out- hahaha- I crack myself up!! Oh and Cameryn took this one by the way.

Always playing catch up

2008-09-23T13:51:00.007-04:00

Again, I haven't really been in the mood to blog. But there is a lot that happened that I would like to catch up on.

Cameryn's birthday party went really well. I don't know why I was so stressed!! Well, actually I do since it looked like it was going to rain all that day and we were having the party at a park, plus I invited WAY too many kids. It was a really great day though and everyone seemed to have a blast. Cameryn was so excited to have all those people there but she was still so shy with everyone. Unfortunately, we were in such a big hurry to leave the house to run our last few errands since the party was at 11:00 am that I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!!! I was so mad and my mom didn't know where theirs was either. She was so sweet though and went out to buy me a disposable one so I could at least get the pictures developed later. So I don't have any pictures of the actual party, but I do have one of Cameryn wearing her favorite gift of the day.

Cameryn is really enjoying her preschool too. She loves to go and always has a lot to tell me when I pick her up. I only wish that it was more than twice a week now. If I'd have known she would love it that much, I might have looked around more. I wasn't really even going to put her in one though so I'm glad she at least has this one. She is so cute with her little backpack on with nothing in it but a folder and a change of clothes (just in case). She is always so excited to see me and Luke come to pick her up. Actually I think she is more excited when my mom picks her up on Wednesdays. That is the only day I work now during the week so my mom comes out to my house to watch the kids and take Cameryn to and from preschool. Yesterday she asked me why Gramma didn't pick her up and when I told her she would next time she got all excited.

Luke also seems to like his alone time with me or Gramma. He always wants to go to the park or to his friend, Landon's house. Mike and I have friends that live on our street that he has known since high school (maybe longer, I can't remember) and they had a little boy about 6 weeks after we had Luke. It's really nice to have a close friend who also stays home with her little boy to hang out with all the time.

So onto my other news about Luke. He had another appointment with his eye surgeon/doctor the beginning of this month. I really loved the doctor that did his surgery and that I had seen since he was 4 months old. But she moved to a practice that was closer to where she lived so I've been having to take him to the other doctors that I don't know- still in the same practice but I really miss his other doctor. Anyways back on topic now- as most of you know, he had eye surgery a year ago this September (13th to be exact) to correct an eye problem. He had/has intermittent strabismus (ohh I'm so knowledgable and technical- sike!! I had the doctor write down the name since I always forget what it is actually called) which really means that his eyes would cross sometimes and it needed to be corrected with surgery. His left eye was his stronger eye so I would patch that eye for about an hour everyday to force him to use the right eye. Well his surgery was successful in that his eyes don't cross anymore but they are still not straight. His right eye moves outward occasionally and his left eye moves a tad bit up.

So at his most recent appointment, the doctor wanted to dilate his eyes again to check and see if glasses would help at all. They had done this at his first ever appointment and came to the conclusion that it wouldn't help then. So she put the drops in his eyes which he did not like but he is such a sweet patient boy that he calmed down as soon as I was holding him close again. We had to wait another 30-45 min while the drops worked. She checked his eyes again and recommended he get glasses. He is a bit too far-sighted (interesting fact: the Dr. told me that kids are all far-sighted when they are little but Luke is too far-sighted- weird huh) and he has a slight astigmatism on both of his eyes.

I didn't really understand what all that meant but I went to get him fitted anyways. A guy who goes to my church works at the office they recommended to get him fitted for the glasses. He saw me sitting in the waiting area and came out to talk to me about Luke's glasses. He has been helpful throughout the whole thing with Luke actually but especially while I was there. He looked at his prescription and explained the whole far-sighted thing to me so I could actually understand it. He said that this is not a permanent thing for Luke (most likely). He said the glasses will help his brain to not have to work so hard to focus on things close up then far away and back and forth ALL the time which is what Luke's brain and eyes have been doing. He can focus since kids brains are still developing and they are more adaptable and doesn't have real vision problems but his brain just has to work harder. This will just help his brain relax a bit and work on making his eyes straighter instead of all this constant focusing and refocusing.

He was so cute trying on his glasses!! I liked this one pair that were thin rimmed and brown (to match his hair of course) with the cable ear piece to it stays on more securely but Luke really liked these blue pair. I figured since he was going to have to wear them all the time, I should let him pick out the ones that he likes so I got the blue ones. The optician (the guy that fits the glasses) was really nice and funny. Luke was having so much fun with the kid glasses that he started pointing at the adult glasses. The guy goes and gets him a pair to try on and Luke was laughing at himself in the mirror the turned to Cameryn and said "Tamen, look at me" then they both busted up. It was so cute!!

Mike went and picked up the glasses the day of Cameryn's party and he's been wearing them ever since from when he wakes up, to when he goes to bed. I didn't really like the glasses once I saw them with the actual lenses in them but they are growing on me. He is cute no matter what so I don't worry. Mike was kinda mad at first that I didn't get the other glasses cuz he thought the blue ones were dorky, but Luke is the one that has to wear them. Boy those glasses get dirty though. I have to clean them constantly because he is such a messy boy (what boy isn't). He is going back to the eye doctor in December for another evaluation so I'm hoping these are helping. It sucks though because kids grow so fast but they need to have snug fitting glasses too so I really really hope that this is not a long term thing cuz glasses are expensive! My friend did have his office give me a 20% discount though, so YAY!!

Okay so here are a few pictures of Luke with glasses and some of him and Cameryn playing outside.

Four year old preschooler

2008-09-03T17:14:00.009-04:00

Yesterday was Cameryn's birthday and today was her first day of preschool. She has been excited since Luke's birthday for her birthday to come. She was so good all day and couldn't wait for Daddy to come home so she could open up her presents. We wanted her to have stuff to open on her actual birthday since we can't have her party until Sept 13th (2 Saturdays from now). We are having a bigger party than normal with her little friends instead of just our family. I'm excited and nervous for this. It seems like so much more to do and I want it to be fun for the kids.

She got to open up her presents from Mike's parents on Monday. They got her a Leapster2 with a Princess cartridge. She has been loving that and plays on it really well. She also got a lot of winter/ school clothes. We got her a backpack and a folder, a Barbie nightgown, a dress for her first day at school and a few small toys. She was very excited about the nightgown and backpack especially.

She woke up so nicely today and was so excited to wear her new dress. I had to continue to talk her out of putting her own toys in her backpack and lots of other stuff that was not necessary. I took some pictures and put the kids in the car.

It only takes about 10 mintues to get there which is another plus with this preschool. I dropped her off and had to drag her attention away from the dressups to say goodbye. Luke and I played at the park and went to a friends house for the remainer of the time.

Cameryn was so happy to see me and tell me all about her day. She was a little upset that she didn't get to use scissors today but she did get to use glitter so alls well.

It is so nice to see her happy for what seems like a really long time. She is slowly getting better about not being a punk most of the time and I have really enjoyed these two days of relative peace from Cameryn.

So here are a few pictures from her two special days. I will post the pictures from her party when it happens. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can pull off a fun party for about 12 little kids!!

This was me trying to say goodbye while dragging her attention away from the dressups, shoes, and play kitchen.

Luke at the park while waiting to go pick up Cameryn. He loves his Hulk glasses as you can see. He wears them all the time. He even took them to church this past Sunday. But hey, if it helps me to leave him in the nursery and go to my class, I don't care what he brings.

Pics from Harpers Ferry

2008-09-02T18:15:00.012-04:00

Me and My kids went with my mom, my sister Kathryn and my brother Devon to Harpers Ferry the Friday before school started back up. Kathryn and Devon had slept over at my house the night before to watch the kids so Mike and I could go to the movies. My mom called about when she could come and pick them up and I suggested Harpers Ferry for the afternoon. We made up a quick picnic to take with us and just drove out. We ate our little lunches and then played in the river some. Kathryn was trying to not get to wet while wading out to the big rocks but slipped and fell in anyways. The water felt perfect though so she wasn't cold or anything. If you stood really still, the minnows would come and nibble on your toes, it was really funny. Cameryn didn't want to get in but Luke came in with me and got in just to his knees. They both had fun throwing rocks into the water.

After the river, we all walked (including my kids) up the stone steps to the top of Harper's Ferry overlooking the rivers where there is an old graveyard. The kids had fun running around and looking at all the old grave stones. Cameryn liked to pretend to "read" them and was telling us some interesting stories that were "written" on them.

After climbing back down all the stairs (this time with Luke on my shoulders- I didn't have the patience for the slow climb down), we got ice cream cones in the little town. It was a very nice afternoon and my kids were so worn out and tired. They went to bed really good that night!!

Kathryn after falling in the river.

Cameryn throwing rocks and shells. Devon chilling one of the big rocks.

My handsome boy watching minnows in the water.

Kathryn watching the minnows on her toes. I love this pictures of Devon in a tree!!

"Boss" and Devon climbing rock walls. Bamma with Luke and Cameryn watching the climbers.

Two cute kids!!

I just like these pictures!

Cameryn "reading" a story to Luke.

Singing

2008-08-27T14:09:00.002-04:00

Here is a cute video I took of Luke singing his first song.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Don't you love when he jabs his finger at the camera when singing "to you". So adorable!!!

Beach Trip

2008-08-24T18:27:00.000-04:00

I really don't know how this keeps happening to me BUT somehow part of this post got erased and I was so frustrated that I put off finishing it again till this weekend. Anyways, I tried not to make it to long since I added so many pictures.

We went to Ocean City, MD last weekend. We left on Friday night at about 10:00 (I had a work party that I had wanted to go to) and got to Ocean City about 1:30 with a few stops in between so we made really good time going that late at night. My mother-in-law, Robin, rode down with us and kept me company while I drove the last half and Mike slept in the back. We stayed with Mike's family; Aunt Shirley, Aunt Vicki, Grace, Ben and Ben's girlfriend, Jenny. They had been there for over a week and invited us to come stay with them if we wanted. Mike, me, Cameryn and Luke all slept in one room with Mike and Luke on the floor on a blow-up mattress and me and Cameryn in the bed. Unfortunately we got woken up early so I was so tired all day but it was still fun being on the beach. I haven't been to Ocean City in about 10 years.

We spent that whole first day on the beach and boy did Cameryn have fun. She played and played and played. She dug holes for herself and buried everyones feet. She ran down to the water (always supervised of course) picked up handfulls of sand to throw in the water and then run away from it before it could get her wet. She had almost everyone take her into the water with them and had so much fun especially with her Daddy. Ben, Grace and Jenny started building this huge sandcastle which Cameryn had fun destroying later. She was so busy all day.

Luke, on the other hand, would not have anything to do with the sand. I was all for making him get used to it but everyone else picked him up and sat him on chairs or their laps. Somehow it didn't occur to me to go get Cameryn's crocs for him to wear, but I'm an idiot sometimes. He spent most of the day sitting on Aunt Shirley's lap or in the chair next to her and he talked and talked.

Everyone came in between 4-6 and got ready to go to dinner. Cameryn and Luke both fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner. I guess it's exhausting at the beach even when you do nothing but sit all day. Luke woke up when we got there and ate a ton of pizza but Cameryn somehow stayed asleep. I figured she would wake up when we sat down, but not so. Then I had to go to the bathroom and handed her off to Aunt Shirley thinking she would wake up then, no again. She slept all through dinner in a loud restaurant. I took her back to carry her to the car when we were leaving and she whimpered in the car cuz she wanted to go home to sleep. She screamed a little when I put her pj's on and then made her go to the bathroom but as soon as I laid her down in the bed, she was out. She slept 13 hours that night, poor little tired girl.

We went to the boardwalk on Sunday after packing up the car and Robin bought Luke a little outfit and Cameryn a pretty dress that she picked out herself. We left at about 12:30 to go home. We stopped shortly after though to eat lunch before Luke fell asleep. Somehow with 13 hours of sleep Cameryn was still tired and she was the one to fall asleep. Luke stayed awake the whole 4 hours home and all through traffic too.

It was a fun weekend but I would love to have more than one day at the beach, it's just not enough!!

Luke with Vicki in the waves.

Luke's spot for almost the rest of the day, there or right next to Aunt Shirley on the chair.
Cameryn with Robin digging a hole for her to get into. I love her cute face!!

Ben and Jenny starting to build a big sand castle for Cameryn. She had fun getting into the big hole they dug and then she had even more fun stepping on all the castles and the whole outside of it, too bad I missed it cuz I fell asleep.

Here he his again with Aunt Shirley, talking up a storm I'm sure. He talks so much now it's crazy.

Luke playing with Grace while we were waiting for everyone to get ready to leave for dinner. He had so much fun with her and kept saying, "Grace, chase me" though of course it sounded more like "Gace" and not Grace.

Poor tired Cameryn on the boardwalk. She really wanted to go home. She wanted to carry her own dress though and wouldn't let me carry it with my stuff, not like it was heavy.

I couldn't get her car seat to recline though I really tried. I would have had to take her out first and then do it. So she was stuck like this.

Luke awake the whole time!!! Little punk. He was complaining right then about wanting to get out of his seat.

Maybe an artist

2008-08-21T13:24:00.002-04:00

Looking at the two pictures, does anyone else think Cameryn did a really good job drawing the one eyed monster from Monsters Inc., Mike Wazowski?

I've posted some of the pictures she's taken with my camera but I should start putting up some of her cute pictures that she draws. Most of them are typical kid pictures with a head and the arms and legs coming out of the head but every so often there will be a really good one.

I love my little girl. She is so creative and she loves to make up stories to tell to me and bring me pictures that she has drawn for me or other people. She also comes to me occasionally with pictures to send to Ezra out on his mission. Oh and speaking of missions, Ezra is now out of the MTC and in Uruguay!! Please remember to keep him in your prayers.

Anyways, maybe I'm over reacting since she's my daughter but I really do think that the picture above is pretty good. Oh well, what is a blog for if not to brag and show off our kids most of the time, while complaining about them the other times. Haha, just kidding about that part.

100 Things about ME

2008-08-21T13:21:00.002-04:00

This is my 100th post!!! (took me long enough) YAY for me!! Anyways, I've kinda been looking forward to doing this (and kinda not) but I wish that I had started compiling this awhile ago so I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed with it, but I'm a procrastinator so, oh well. I hope you enjoy this, it took me about a week to do.

1. I love my name!!
2. I don't have a middle name and I like it that way (I mean really.. what goes with Daisy besides something non original and country sounding like Daisy May- thank you mom and dad)
3. I was born on Leap Day (February 29th).
4. I have had only 7 real birthdays.
5. There are 5 girls and 3 boys (including me) in my family. (Lindsey, Jessica, me, Mary, Andrew, Ezra, Kathryn and Devon)
6. I love love love having a big family but only wish that we all lived closer.
7. I have a big extended family as well with lots of awesome cousins on both sides.
8. I miss running Cross Country in high school.
9. I always said I would never miss high school and I don't but for the running and competition at the meets.
10. I helped my team to win States in Cross Country my sophomore year of high school!!
11. We actually won the Triple Crown that year (States in XC, Indoor and Outdoor track) although I didn't place well enough in Indoor or Outdoor to make a difference but at least I did in XC.
12. I need at least 3 miles to be really competitive in running and be able to pace myself better- I am not a short distance runner.
13. Yes, I think the 1 and 2 mile event is short distance (it's like a 2 mile sprint and I can't do that- can you? especially not indoors- not enough air and too dry)
14. I started running in the 4th grade and placed 4th in my first race ever.
15. I got 6th place the next year.
16. My Elementary school gym teacher was very encouraging and I'm still grateful for him.
17. I made it on the XC States team my freshman year of high school.
18. I loved the States meet, it was sooooo hard with TONS of hills but it made me feel so tough and strong and awesome.
19. I am SUPER competitive but I hide it (hopefully pretty well). I don't like people to know how much losing makes me angry.
20. I took a weight training class once a semester in high school and loved it.
21. One reason was to help me stay in shape and gain more muscle for XC and track.
22. Another was because not many girls used to take those classes which made it more fun for me.
23. Out of the few girls that did take those classes, I was almost always the strongest despite my size (like 98% of the time and I'm not exaggerating) and that included all 4 classes (we were on a block schedule at my school- 4 classes a day per semester).
24. Once a girl I didn't like beat me during testing on the rowing machine by like 1 or 2 seconds and I was so pissed, I couldn't wait until retesting.
25. I never got beat again on the rowing machine.
26. I used to be deceptively strong and hope one day to be that way again. I miss my old body.
27. I love playing most sports.
28. I'm not super good at any one in particular but I am decent enough in most of them that people like me on their team.
29. I worked for one summer at my friends golf course for my first job when I was 17.
30. My next job was at a car dealership during my senior year.
31. I went to Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) for 3 semesters.
32. I had the best roommates, Kiirsten and Tara!!
33. We did have a little bit too much fun though... *cough* a visit to the Dean's office *cough*
34. I met my husband Mike when I came home for summer break to Maryland.
35. I went back to Ricks for one more semester after that then came home and got a job.
36. I started working at a law firm in Rockville, Maryland.
37. I really liked working and being a legal secretary. Though it was a family law firm (divorce, child custody, etc.) and sometimes it wasn't fun dealing with the lawyers, I loved the office staff.
38. I have 2 kids- Cameryn and Luke (duh- this blog is for them).
39. I nursed both of my children. Cameryn for 17 months then she weaned herself and Luke for 19 months.
40. I love cats but unfortunately have to have a dog in the house too cuz that's what my husband likes.
41. The cat we have now is a pretty decent cat too and not at all a psycho (at least not yet)(I think our house is cursed against cats or something but I can't get into my cat problems now).
42. When I was still at home during high school , I drove my dad's old Ford truck or the family big blue van.
43. In 1999, my parents bought a car from the dealership that I worked at, a '91 Dodge Omni which I LOVED!!!! They let me use it as my car though they made it clear that it wasn't MY car.
44. Since meeting Mike and being married to him we have had about 8-10 cars. Not because they broke or anything, just Mike's ever changing want for a different car.
45. My Omni was my favorite car until Mike and I bought our Nissan Sentra (six speed manual, blue, and AWESOME)
46. I took my drivers test on a manual and passed the first try.
47. I prefer driving a stick but I'm stuck with a van for now- boooooooo.
48. I have lots of fond memories of vacationing with my family.
49. I hope that I can give my kids those same kinds of memories. Even in some of the same places.
50. One of my goals as a parent is to have my kids be as close to each other as I feel me and my siblings are now.
51. I hope to have 1 or 2 more children.
52. I had no problem getting back down to my pre-baby weight.
53. In fact, after Cameryn I went down to less then I was before (thank you breast feeding!!)
54. We didn't mean to get pregnant with Luke, but he has become the most wonderful accident ever.
55. I loved to swim when I was pregnant and recommend it to anyone else who is- it is the BEST!!
56. I gain a TON of weight when I am pregnant, about 50-60 pounds even though I walked a lot and ate healthy (but I still had a few guys hollaring at me when seeing me from behind, so somehow I must have still looked good- go me)!!
57. I am naturally thin and I used to be in shape, but with two kids, I don't seem to be able to find the time anymore. I hope one day to be toned and in shaped instead of just thin.
58. Once I start working out, I am happier and I love to do it. I just have to get started.
59. My favorite thing to do in the world (besides spend time with Mike and my kids) is to read. Ask anyone. (Last summer when the last Harry Potter came out, I was on vacation in Utah for 3 weeks with my family. I was going to wait until I got home to buy it and read it but I only lasted a day. I bought it at Target the day after it came out and read every possible second while trying not to be rude and cut into my time with my sisters. I guess I wasn't as successful as I thought I was cuz I think they got a little offended- sorry about that L and J)
60. I can zone out almost anything in order to read and hate to be interrupted (my often frustrated husband can definitely testify to that).
61. I get REALLY into some books. I cry and laugh and can get really into the emotions of the book sometimes. I have even gotten depressed FOR a character while reading a book recently.
62. I can be the same way with movies and TV shows too. I cry easily.
63. If I find a book or movie that I really like, I can read it/watch it over and over. But I never buy it before I've read it or seen it. (I can add TV shows in there I guess since you can buy seasons on DVD now).
64. I like to play video games too though I don't consider myself a "gamer".
65. I hate to cook but I love to bake.
66. I like to color still. I especially like to color with/for Cameryn with crayons and markers.
67. I would love to start buying art supplies for myself and painting in any spare time.
68. I want my kids to know that education is important and that they should develop and continue developing as many talents as they can, not just get by at the bare minimum.
69. I would love to have a big backyard with a nice garden, a couple of small playground things for my kids, lots of trees and a trampoline.
70. I was born in Frankfurt, Germany.
71. My family moved to Utah for four years while my dad went to BYU.
72. After he graduated, we moved to Indiana for two years where I met my best friend, Heidi. Our families are still really great friends to this day.
73. We then moved to Maryland when I was six where we have lived ever since.
74. I love my straight brown hair and brown eyes (with a tiny bit of green in them). I have always had a thing for those same traits in others (obviously my husband has those same features).
75. I'm happy that my little boy is a brown haired, brown eyed cutie!! And of course I still love Cameryn with her adorable blond hair and brown eyes (just like mine with a little bit of green) but I'm still hoping her hair will darken up a tad.
76. On my dad's side of the family, there are only two of us out of 20 cousins that have brown hair AND brown eyes (me and my cousin Jeff).
77. I love living on the east coast and am sad that so many members of my immediate and extended family have moved to the west and a lot of my friends are there too.
78. I have always enjoyed history and like being so close to so many historical and awesome places to visit.
79. Though I wouldn't mind living out west either (I love the no humidity thing and the mountains are awesome), I still like the east best with it's beautiful green trees everywhere, rather than brown brown brown with some pine trees thrown in here and there.
80. I rarely ever wear makeup. I used to wear it everyday but with kids now, I find it annoying and pointless. Plus I think I look fine without it.
81. I don't really fix my hair either (of course I brush it though). I can do ponytails for a short period (headaches) and a few other simple fixes but I just don't see the need. Plus I can't do it.
82. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
83. I grew up going to primary and then when I was older going to youth activities.
84. I especially loved Youth Conferences.
85. My favorite one was when our Stake did handcart companies like the pioneers. We were all in families (4 guys, 4 girls, a mom and a dad) in our wards and we each had to put our belongings into our own handcart and pull/push them on trails for 3 days.
86. It was exhausting but so much fun and we all got really close in our "families" (there were a few exceptions like in one of my sister's family) and as a ward. When we were finally done and the whole stake was gathered, our ward had the most fun together playing games (hehe- my sisters remember how much fun).
87. I was also able to go up to Palmyra, New York twice for Youth Conference, but they weren't as fun as the hand cart one.
88. I love Root Beer and a close second is refreshing cold water.
89. I used to take horseback riding lessons in middle school and I would love to have my own horse that I could ride whenever I wanted to; sigh maybe one day when I'm rich (hahahaha).
90. I love jeans and t-shirts and could own hundreds of each if I had the money. I am most comfortable and feel most sexy in an awesome pair of jeans and a cute t-shirt.
91. I would like to start wearing earrings again and maybe occasionally other pieces of jewelry when the situation calls for it. But mainly the earrings.
92. I love my husband and I need to say it more. I appreciate him so much and he does so many wonderful things for me.
93. I enjoy doing crafty, fun and creative things (except scrapbooking- can't seem to get into that one, I do photo albums) though I don't really own anything but crayons and markers and a sewing machine so I should probably work on getting some more of that kind of stuff.
94. I hate getting into cold swimming pools no matter how hot it is outside. The water needs to be a tad warm or at least like when you first turn on the tap water and it's not too cold or too hot.
95. I love to get pedicures and I only put nail polish on my toenails.
96. I hate my hands and fingernails and don't want to draw attention to them so I don't paint them. I have very weak nails and they grow out weird so I have to keep them short.
97. I love playing any kind of game especially with family. I'm a lot like my mom that way.
98. I daydream a lot and can get a little carried away.
99. I want to travel more but will have to wait till the kids are older.
100. I have put off posting tons of cute funny stories to finish this because I wanted it to be my actual 100th post.

Okay, so I finished!! YAY!! Comment away! (please, I need more comments)

Hershey Park

2008-08-15T13:14:00.015-04:00

This is my 99th post!! So I've been busy working on my 100 things about me and have forgotten to put up pictures of our trip to Hershey Park.

It started out a rainy, poopy day and we weren't sure if we were even going to go but ended up very nice and sunny. We went with Mike's parents Jeff and Robin. Robin's work was having a thing there and the tickets were cheaper and included lunch as well.

I was glad that here at least Luke would be able to ride some of the rides. They actually had a ton of rides for him. And boy did he have fun. Him and Cameryn would run from ride to ride and get really impatient when we had to wait. We went on the big carousel first and Luke did not want to get off. I had to gently and nicely talk him into letting me pry his fingers off the horse. I didn't want a scene of crying so early in the day but I told him we would take him to more rides and he finally let go. The funny thing was, he rarely looked like he was having fun. He mostly had this serious look on his face and it took him seeing Cameryn laughing and having fun for him to smile. Luke loved all the train rides too, what is it with boys and choo choos.

Yes, my eyes are closed but this is what Luke looked like on most of the rides so I thought I would put it in anyways, even though I look stupid.

Don't you love that face!! She was all smiles and laughing and then we saw her put the end of the seat belt in her mouth and told her to stop. So of course right as she got close enough to take a picture this was her facial expression. I thought it was funny so I kept it. She was very sweet though with Luke. She kept putting her arms around him and hugging him the whole time.

We went on this one ride called Rodeo. Mike rode with Luke and I rode with Cameryn. It was a big circle and would go around and around while going up and down. Well Cameryn was laughing and giggling the whole time saying that it was tickling her belly (you know like when you go up and down a steep hill really fast and your stomach drops). Her laughing is so contagious and had me laughing as well. Then Luke sees the kids sitting in front of him raising their arms up and he puts his up in the air as well. It was so cute!

Mike went on a lot of the rides with them which they both loved. Don't you just love Cameryn's sweet little face. Too bad Luke looked down right before I took the picture.

Luke loved this ride on the "hetopter". Though most of the time he called it an airplane but hey, close enough.

After some more rides we went to have lunch. It wasn't that good but we all ate it anyways. Plus there was free ice cream!

We took the kids over to the little mini swings after we ate lunch. Luke LOVED the swings. It was so cute. He kept making the cutest faces at us and laughing when we made faces at him on each turn.

Look at that sweet smile!! I can't get enough of that boys little face.

After the last ride (above), we went to the Chocolate factory to go on the tour there (and get into some AC). The kids enjoyed it and we all got to rest for a bit. Robin bought both the kids a souvenir T-shirt and we all got cookies, yummy!!

It was still only about 4:00 I think but we were all tired anyways so we headed to the car, Mike's parents had driven with us. Somehow Mike had gotten on a different road on the way home. It still took us home and we knew where we were but it was a longer way around. I wasn't paying attention even though I was in the front seat because I was reading (Breaking Dawn there and back in the car- as long as I'm in the front seat I won't get car sick while reading). It took so long on the way back that we were all hungry again so we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner. I always order breakfast when I'm there, it's so good!!

Anyways, it was a really fun trip with the kids and Luke only took a short nap in the car, which turned out well since he went to bed right when we got home instead of wanting to stay up. I should have my hundredth post up soon!! I'm excited that I've actually done that many! It'll probably be after this weekend though since we are trying to go to Ocean City this weekend. Here's hoping!!

Luke is 2!!!

2008-08-03T20:12:00.001-04:00

Okay so after my ANGRY post, my friend, Gina, commented and told me how I might find my post and viola... there it was. I guess I was just impatient after all the time I spent on it and wasn't thinking rationally. Anyways, thanks Gina!!

Luke's birthday was over a week ago and I'm finally getting around to posting it now. I was going to do it on Sunday since I was busy Friday (his actual birthday) and Saturday (his birthday party), but I got to into changing my blogs look and never got around to actually writing in it.

So I have given Luke his very late summer hair cut. I hate cutting it so short but he is such a hot sweaty boy and a few minutes outside was enough to plaster it to his head. Plus he is usually not cooperative when we cut his hair so I just buzzed it all off. He was so good though. He just sat there and didn't cry out once. After I was done, I took him outside to brush all the hair off and he was starring at his reflection in the door and rubbing his head. He loved it. I still am catching him rubbing it, unfortunately a lot of the time with food all over him. The other day we were eating spagetti and his head was all orange by the time we got him down from him rubbing it with spagetti all over his hands. I do love to feel those buzz cuts too though. Everytime I ask him where his hair went he says, "hair all gone, ____ did it" I did ___ because he always says that someone else did it besides me, Opa (my dad), Boss (Kathryn), Devon, Bamma (my mom) and the list could go on. He laughs cuz he knows he's just being silly.

Anyways, back to his birthday. We didn't do alot for his birthday on Friday except tell him it was his birthday and keep him busy and have fun. We had the party on Saturday at a park near my parents house. I have usually had all my kids parties at my house but it's so much more preparation to clean and get ready and then you have to repeat it once everyone is gone. I am just too tired and worn out and busy to do that this year. Mike reserved it (using my parents address since we aren't living in the city so it was only $15) so we would would have dibs on the pavilions in case there were other people there. It a really nice little park and I loved having his party there. It's got a small basketball court, a net set up to play with, swings and a playground.

We still only invited family and a few friends cuz Luke is still only 2 and I'm not into the huge kid parties for little kids. I've decided to let Cameryn have a bigger party this year with friends but she will be 4 soon and I think thats a better age and she will enjoy it more. None of our friends were able to come so it was just my family (whats left of them here, though poor Devon didn't feel well) Mike's parents, grandmother, two of his aunts and his cousin Ben. It was so much fun though. My mother-in-law, Robin, really did a lot for the party on Saturday too. She bought a lot of the plates and all that kind of nesecary stuff along with ballons and brought lots of food. Everyone else brought at least one thing and Mike and I did hot dogs and hamburgers for everyone.

The kids had a blast playing on the playground and were running and laughing with Kathryn and Ben. Cameryn especially had so much fun playing with Ben. She would hide in some of the equipment and then tell Ben to come and find her and then scream and squeal when he did. It was so cute. Luke was everywhere running and sliding and climbing and laughing. After we ate and played for a while, a bunch of us played badmitton. Mike, me, Ben and Kathryn against my mom, Robin, Aunt Shirley and Aunt Vicki. Yeah, not the most fair teams but no one seemed to care and we had so much fun playing and laughing about everything. My mom and Robin were really good too. The bugs started to be too much for us though and we called it to go eat some cake.

This was the only picture I managed to get of Cameryn and Ben playing. they were running around so much and I had to quickly snap this one but I think I got a good one.

Mike's Aunt Shirley made the main cake for Luke in the shape of a motorcycle. It was so awesome. It was pretty good too. Though I have a preference (obsession) for those whipped cream cakes too so we bought a very small one from a store for people who wanted a choice.

After cake, it started to look like rain so everyone ran around and packed everything back into the cars and then Luke opened up his presents. He got a tricycle, some pool and sandbox toys, a sandbox (didn't get that till Sunday when Mike's parents brought it over), some Matchbox cars, a track to run them on, clothes and a little potty seat that plays music when you use it.

** breaking news- as I was typing this Luke made me stop so I could change his diaper saying there was poop in it. So I get a clean diaper and wipes and there is no poop. I'm about to put on the new diaper but Luke is yelling no and I can see that he is about to poop. I pick him up and run him over to his new potty. He sits on it and then gets scared and tries to get up but - too late- I hear the music play and there is poop in the potty!!!!! My baby boy just pooped for the first time in his new potty. Of course he really isn't completely ready for potty training but I thought, why not, he hadn't pooped in the diaper yet and it was going to come out anyways. Back to my other story now**

You can see what his favorite toys were. He would get upset if anyone even touched one of them.
So after we packed up the toys, we all talked for a while longer until it started to sprinkle outside and decided it was probably time to go home, especially since Mike drove his motorcycle. It turned out so well and I didn't have an entire house to clean afterwards so it was great on so many levels.

I'm so proud of my little boy. He is growing up so quickly and talking so well now. More people can understand him now and he is just so funny. He loves to play play play but is so well behaved when it is naptime or bedtime. He makes my life happier just by being in it and am so glad that he is mine.

He is learning how to do more and more things and can be a real menace on his new little tricycle though I guess we shouldn't let him do it in the house, but there are too many mosquitos outside. The way he jumps to me or anyone in the pool and laughs and smiles just makes me happy no matter what is going on in my life. I love to see him and Cameryn playing and getting along and laughing together. They really love each other so much already and I love to see them so close. Luke is also the hugging and kissingest boy in the world sometimes. He will be playing and periodically just get up and come over and kiss my knee or arm or whatever it is he reaches first.

He likes to pick out his own clothes now and can be kinda picky sometimes too. He loves to look at books and be read to. He loves to be outside and at the park or the pool but especially at his Bamma's house playing with Boss and Devon!! I am so lucky to have them living close and I am so thankful for their willingness to watch my kids. Luke and Cameryn love to have them over at our house too. Okay well I guess this is long enough already (I can't seem to do a short post can I) but I just couldn't settle with just a few pictures so here we are, yes, another montage by me.

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ANGRY!!!

2008-07-31T15:04:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I spent at least an hour this morning typing out a nice post about Luke birthday last week and his party this past saturday. I saved it cuz I was uploading stuff to put on it before I could post it and closed it and when I came back just now, IT'S GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where the blankity blank blank did it go?!?!?!? I am so upset. Now I have to upload the dang pictures again and type it all out.

I know it was saved!!! Heck, it saves it for you every few minutes! Does anyone know what might have happened and can you help me. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I just want to throw something or scream but Luke is sleeping and that might be a tad over dramatic, but I really don't want to type it all out again.

I had it all perfect and worded right and nice and now NOTHING!!! Stupid poopy thing!! I don't want to type it out again. *sigh* Oh well, I'll try again later. I'm too mad and I don't feel like being on here all day typing the same thing twice. I'll get something up about his birthday somehow.

There's a lot going on

2008-07-17T17:46:00.012-04:00

There has just been so much going on and I just haven't felt like blogging in a while. I have been having a really nice summer though. I'll just mention a few things I haven't posted in the past few weeks.

We went to the Land of Little Horses a few weeks ago and you would think that I would have written about something so fun for my kids but for whatever reason, I have been forgetting to bring my camera. I was so mad! I had made Mike turn around shortly after leaving cuz I for got something else but still didn't remember to grab my camera. I did feel like I was missing something but we were meeting Mike's parents and he didn't want to be late so I just dismissed the thought. Anyways, I've noticed I'm less likely to actually want to post something if I haven't taken pictures of said event. I just like there to be pictures to go along with everything plus it's something for anyone who reads my boring ramblings to look at when they are done reading.

Okay so back to the Little Horses. They were so cute. They have these cute little big bellies (I know it's weird when I say little big bellies but that IS what they look like, you know what I mean). Even being so small though, Luke was terrified to get too close. They had a few of the horses and one miniature donkey that just roamed everywhere too. There were even little Stallions. They had other regular animals that you find at petting zoos like goats, sheep, pigs, etc. They had llamas and alpacas, and even a few peacocks which were so gorgeous. They also had this huge camel but it was really dirty and gross looking so we stayed away from him. Mike finally got Luke to pet one of the horses who was just standing there in the barn thing not moving cuz he was asleep. Luke thought he was so cool and brave after that. Cameryn got to go on a pony ride which unfortunately was the shortest pony ride on earth. It was one lap around this small enclosure that was about the size of a bedroom. Oh well though, she was in heaven. My mother in law got some pictures for me but I only have the prints so I can't post them.

Another fun thing (at least for me) was a semi reunion with friends that ran cross country with me in high school. We went to a park on a Sunday after church and the kids played and we ate and got caught up. On of my friends is pregnant and due any day now. Her and her husband actually live and work at a school in Cambodia. They came back to the States for the birth and are going back a month after she is born. It was really fun to hang out with everyone and their husbands/boyfriends. It makes me miss running even more than I already do. I miss the competition (yes, there is tough competition in running) and the meets and the practices and the friendships and awesome victories. I was able to be apart of the team that ran and won States my sophomore year (4 out of the 5 in the picture below were on that team). I have a lot of very fond memories of cross country.

Jessica (expecting a girl soon), Chrissy (Noah), Me (Luke), Tiffany (Tanner), Heidi

Cameryn and Trinity (Chrissy's oldest)

I forgot to mention that I have never had to keep such a close watch on Luke before. There were a lot of other people there and he just kept taking off to go look at ducks, go back over to the swings, go to the creek, go here go there, run run run!! He was exhausted that night so good for me though!!!

The only picture of Luke somewhat still that day. Mike and the other guys played some weird game kinda like horseshoes.

Cameryn had a week of swimming lessons about two weeks ago. It went about as I expected; lots of crying and whining about being cold, then laughing and playing with the other girls and then she was done. She didn't like being in the baby pool cuz it was actually colder then the big pool so that was were a lot of whining and sulking happened. Once they moved into the big pool and she got to have lots of one on one time with Rachel (friend from church and instructor), she did a lot better. She has never been a big water baby (sigh) but really neither am I so I don't know why I would be surprised. She did okay though and I'm thinking of signing her up again later this summer for another week to refresh her memory and to help her get it better.

My kids love to go down to the river (C&O Canal) and just throw rocks (for hours). We went down there for a family activity and the kids had a lot of fun throwing rocks and walking everywhere, watching people come in with their boats and dogs and tubes. Not much else to that story just more pictures.We went to a fair with Mike's parents last Monday. It was fun but poor Luke, who was SO excited to go on the kiddie rides like a train, cars, slides, Ferris wheel, carousel, etc. was one and a half inches too short for EVERYTHING. We kept asking if he went with us would it be okay but no go for everything. Mike's mom had bought the tickets for the rides so, since Cameryn was the only one able to ride, she gave Mike money to go play the games with Luke instead. He was getting upset when Cameryn got to get on the rides and he wasn't allowed so I really appreciated that. He did end up having fun but I still felt sorry for him. Cameryn of course had a ball.

Cameryn was so funny on the Ferris Wheel. She kept putting her arms up like it was a roller coaster and screaming (not in fright but because she thought it was funny) She LOVED being up high. Scared of the water, but not heights, hmmm.

I also had Jury Duty last week which was the same week that my mom was going to girls camp. I asked my visiting teacher if she could watch my kids for me which she was happy to do. I only ended going in on Monday and I pretty much read for 3 hours and got $20 dollars that they said was for lunch. Hey, I would go in everyday if that was the case. I was trying to finish reading Atlas Shrugged (an AWESOME book but a very big undertaking- I recommend it to everyone, it's still so relevant to today but it IS over 1000 pages and the main character makes a 55 page speech at the end, so be prepared. I read the first 10 pages of the speech then skipped ahead to be done with the book for my book club on Friday, then i read the rest of the speech in small sections- it was good though) so I could have used those three hours of uninterrupted reading plus, who actually needs $20 dollars for lunch. Anyways, the kids LOVED going to this ladies house. She has a daughter about 9 years old I think and Luke just loves her now. He is always talking about her and excited to see her at church. Cameryn loved it there too which made it so easy for me and I didn't have to worry about them misbehaving (they only do that at home of course). She even watched them for me on Wednesday when I had to work since I didn't have jury duty that day. I wasn't sure if she would be able to cuz i have to be at work at 7:00 but she said her son is always up by 6:00 so she would already be awake anyways. I was so thankful for her last week and this week too since my mom had a procedure done on her legs for her varicose veins and couldn't watch them on Wednesday.

Anyways, I think that's about it for now. I'm really going to try to make myself blog more cuz I always enjoy it while I'm doing it but it's just making myself stop and sit at the computer for longer then to check my email.

We've heard from Ezra too. He writes a letter each week to my family and I read them when I'm at my mom's. They are what you would expect from Ezra (if you know him) funny and weird but you can tell that he is happy and is having many spiritual and wonderful moments. He enjoys his district and his companions and I'm so proud of him.

That's all for now!!

Farewell to Ezra!!

2008-07-02T08:41:00.000-04:00

My brother, Ezra entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center) on June 18th. I drove with my parents to take him to the airport the day before super early in the morning but it was really fun to see him so happy and excited and ready. My two older sisters picked him up and they all went to the Temple together in Bountiful, Utah. The next day they (along with my younger sister, Mary) took him to the MTC. He is going to the Uruguay Montevideo west mission and is learning Spanish as we speak.

My parents had thrown a fun picnic thing for Ezra the weekend before he left and we invited all our friends and family in the area. I (or my mom) took lots of pictures of everyone and I was just going to do a video of those pictures but I got behind on it and then started adding all the ones from the night before he left and the ones from when we dropped him off at the airport. Then my mom wanted me to add in some more from when Ezra was little. So it's taken me a while to get this all up. I had to go to my parents yesterday and have my dad scan in the old pictures and then save them on a disc for me to take home. Then I figured I'd throw a couple more in there from ones that I have taken. So, sorry to my sisters that watch this if you think it's too much of Ezra and just my kids, I just wanted to be done with it and post it up here. Plus I had to finish out the song cuz it just seems better with a full song on there instead of cutting it off somewhere towards then end.

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Oh and sorry for those of you that think the song is a weird choice since he is going on a mission. Yes, Ezra is out on his mission (or preparing for it), but he is still Ezra and he even said in his farewell talk that he doesn't like, actually that he hates the song "I hope they call me on a mission", so I figured a rock song would be more appropriate for him. I fiddled around with some different songs but I know he really likes the one I chose, my mom suggested it actually.

Some news

2008-06-27T17:27:00.006-04:00

I have a whole bunch of pics I am trying to put together about my brother Ezra leaving on his mission. I'm waiting on getting some more pics from my sister Jessica when her and my other sisters dropped him off at the MTC.

Anyways, not much else going on here. Devon gave Luke a hat and he now wants to wear it all the time. He would never really keep any hat on but this one he just loves. He thinks Devon and Kathryn are the best so I'm not surprised that he loves that hat. It is really too big for him but he loves it anyways.

He can say Devon pretty well but for whatever reason he calls my sister Kathryn, "Boss". It is really cute!! He's been saying that for awhile but I never knew what he was talking about until he said it around Kathryn and pointed at her. It is so funny. Who knows how he came up with it though. It's not anywhere close to her name.

He is starting to speak better as well. He is putting together sentences and other people can tell what he is saying now too. I don't always have to decipher his words and meanings for everyone. Last Sunday, he even was good in nursery after I left with about 45 min. left of church. He only cried twice and for just a short time period!! Yay, he's slowly getting better. He will be turning 2 in one month!!

Cameryn is still being her difficult 3 year old self right now, but we're dealing with it. I still have no new ideas but I'm really looking forward to her being four. I've heard good things (mostly) about four year olds.

I still like to peak in at her while she is playing by herself in her room. She is usually playing with something Princesses and it is so cute to hear her sing and do her little voices for the princesses and the one or two princes she has. Usually while I'm watching her the princesses are nicely arguing and/or sharing one prince. It's so cute.

We've been going to the park and just outside alot recently. Luke is starting to think that he doesn't need naps anymore and I'm not ready for that yet. I need to make sure he is nice and tired out from a morning of playing.

I'm doing okay myself. I have finally decided that I needed to go see the dentist. I haven't been in years (stupid I know, but I'm learning my own lesson now so no lectures). We don't have dental insurance so I've had to save up some money to go. I had my initial visit on Monday and they took x-rays and pictures and did a whole work up on all the things that I need to do to have my mouth be perfect (or close to it). I've never had a cavity so this kinda sucks but that's what happens when you neglect yourself. I decided to get the most expensive stuff out of the way first and got my two upper wisdom teeth out on Tuesday. They had an opening for the very next day so I thought, why wait. My wisdom teeth on top were already out so they only had to pull them instead of going digging which was nice. I've already had my left bottom one out in an emergency thing right after Cameryn was born. It was impacting on my gums and was making my whole mouth hurt so they took it out. That was really expensive though cuz it was partially under my jaw bone so they had to break the tooth in half and pull out both halves. My other one on the bottom is almost completely under my jaw bone, so he said I'll most likely not have any problems with that one and can leave it be. Anyways, it was very quick and easy and I've had relatively little pain from it which is really nice considering that the vicodin they gave me makes me really super nauseous. They gave me that and some 600 mg Ibuprofen which work good during the day. I do take the other stuff at night though that way I can sleep off the gross feeling but also be pain free at night. I've got my super-de-super cleaning coming up that I scheduled but couldn't get in sooner then a month later and then after that all my money will be gone for awhile. I'll have to save up some more quickly to get all my fillings taking care of cuz I really don't want to charge them, but I might have to if it takes to long to save up the money. They have a really good plan for that stuff though so I should be fine either way.

I'm still on medicine for my thyroid so I'm feeling good. I went to see my specialist this past Wednesday and they took more blood to redo the tests and see were my levels are right now. There is another test that they wanted to do but I have to be off the medicine for at least 10 days and I'm not ready to go back to being sick again. My doctor said they will adjust my medicine if they need to after they get my results back and then we will go from there. She doesn't want me to have to go off the medicine either since I have two little kids so I'm grateful for that. I have to go back and see her again in about 6 weeks.

After my appointment, I went out to lunch with 2 people I used to work with down in Rockville, where my specialist office was. It was really fun to hang out with them and talk again. I have been seeing Amanda more often lately and we email back and forth too but I haven't talked to Carolyn in a while. It was so nice to see her. We sat next to each other for about 3-4 years so it was fun catching up. I told them we could have lunch again when I have my next appointment in six weeks so at least I have one thing to look forward to.

Luke with his new hat on.

Cameryn dancing to Princess songs

Cameryn with our kitten Chipmunk (she named it).

They're at it again!!!

2008-06-22T07:41:00.006-04:00

Just look at what those stupid mosquitos have done to my beautiful baby boy!!!

Saturday morning
Right after he woke up from his nap on Saturday
Sunday morning

I have got to do something about these stupid mosquitos around my house. My poor little baby Luke is just getting attacked!! He was outside one late afternoon with Mike for like 4-5 minutes and got about 6 huge bites on his legs. I forgot to take pictures of those ones. So we've been remembering to put on the bug spray everytime we take him outside evern for a few minutes.

So I was out front picking cherries off our cherry tree so I could make a pie (yummy sour cherry pie!!). Luke was running around with Cameryn in the front yard (mosquitos aren't as bad out front) and around our cars. I didn't put any bug spray on him cuz we were out front and he was fine while with Cameryn. He comes over to where I am on the side of the house picking cherries and he's stealing them out of my bowl to eat them. Next thing I know, I'm smacking mosquitos off him and I left and right. Finally after they got him right on his eyelid (and I killed that one for sure- it left blood on his face), I pick up the bowl, him and tell Cameryn to come inside. I got about 3-4 bites and somehow he only got two of all the ones I killed while landing on him but the one on his eye is just awful, as you can see. That's the way they all get but this one is especially bad cuz he's rubbing his eye and it's just way more sensitive right there next to his eye.

I've been putting Calamine lotion on it and we give him Benedryl but it doesn't seem to help too much. There has to be something that I can do for him!! I think I'm going to take all the pictures I took last year from all his many bug bites and the ones from this year and go to the city to try to get them to spray in this area. There is this very small creek around here and we also have a storm drain right next to our house. I don't know where they are coming from exactly but I know we aren't the only ones with a problem around here. I just hate those stupid bugs!!!!

Cameryn's going to preschool

2008-06-12T19:01:00.004-04:00

I have been so forgetful and lazy about doing my blog lately that there are so many things that happened awhile ago that I'm just now remembering that I wanted to put on my blog.

I signed Cameryn up for a preschool. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do that just because they can be so expensive and I really doubt that they make a difference really. I'm sure once the kids are all in 5th grade that you wouldn't be able to tell who went to preschool and who didn't. Anyways, I was going back and forth when my mother-in-law, Robin, said that she would pay for it if Mike and I wanted to put her in a preschool. I still wasn't really looking into it too much though until a friend of mine said that she was going to check out this one for her daughter (who is around Cameryn's age).

I decided to check it out with her and I really liked it. It is a small classroom so there are a ton of kids which I really liked. They had all sorts of toys for boys and girls and they also had dress ups which Cameryn went right over to. They do crafts, story time, snack time, outside play on this nice playground and they have a big black top with tons of tricycles and other things for the kids to ride around on. They of course do the usual school stuff of learning their ABC's and numbers. They do fun field trips and lots of other events that the whole family is invited to. The two women in charge were really nice and it is held in a church, which I think of as a plus. It's pretty inexpensive too. I liked it so much, my friend and I put down our reservation fee so our girls would already have a spot saved for them for September.

I probably should have checked out more places, I guess cuz that's what people normally do but I don't care. It was small and close and cheap. What's not to like? So, I'm kind of excited about it and nervous. I think she'll do really well. Cameryn does good in a classroom setting. I am always hearing praise of her from the leaders of the Primary. She'll even say prayer during her classes.

Her birthday being in September has become kind of annoying now. The cutoff here for entering Kindergarten is August 31st. At the preschool it's Sept 1st and her birthday is Sept 2nd. They have gotten pretty strict with those deadlines now too. I'm not to upset about it though cuz I really don't have a problem with waiting another year for her to start school. If I fought and got her into Kindergarten in the year she turned 5, she would literally be the youngest in her class. I would rather her be one of the oldest by waiting till the next year to start her. She would have another year to mature and be really ready. I don't really know why I worry about it sometimes. I guess I worry about people thinking something that I don't want them to think, like she isn't smart or whatever. I don't know... I'm just worrying like usual about everything that I don't really know about. I have no idea about any of this stuff and I don't even know where to begin, which is probably why I signed up with the first preschool I saw, though I still don't regret that so my good feeling must have been for something.

I am excited about it though, I can't wait to take pictures and pick her up on the first day and let her tell me all about it. I love being a mom!!

Luke is the Hulk, who'd a thought

2008-06-12T15:55:00.002-04:00

Somehow I forgot to post this funny video with Luke wearing Hulk hands. It happened back in May and I just forgot to upload it. Enjoy!!

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Where's the sweetness gone to?

2008-05-29T08:21:00.008-04:00

I am really struggling with Cameryn right now. She has suddenly just... I don't even know how to put it. I know no kid wants to hear no but she used to not take it so badly like she does now. She can be so sweet and nice and funny and then you tell her no to something and it's a little devil popping out and taking her place. She glares at me and screams and throws things and tells me she doesn't like me anymore. She throws the biggest fits I've ever seen and all I feel I can do is take her up to her room for a timeout. She screams while she's up there and I hear lots of banging and crashing. Sometimes she comes out into the hallway to scream down the stairs and I go back up put her back in her room and tell her she's not allowed to open the door unless she is quiet and calmed down.

I know it's her testing her boundaries and limits with me but I just wish that it wasn't everyday! I miss my sweet little girl who was so nice to her brother. Now it's just a back and forth with them too often for me. Cameryn takes a toy from Luke, Luke pinches her, she hits him, he hits back, she cries and pushes him, he cries and bites her wherever he reaches first. It's the most annoying thing. It's impossible for me to take showers during the day anymore cuz I'm afraid I'll come out of the shower and one of them will be bleeding or something. Cameryn doesn't always instigate it cuz Luke is older now and tries to take stuff from her as well.

Of course they still have their really nice moments with each other and they still get along most of the time, but it's seems more and more that I have to breaks up their squabbles. Cameryn is just a very very very very very stubborn girl. I think I have something over her so she'll cave in but no she comes out telling me, "okay". I've stopped trying that now and just take her up to her room. That always works (so far).

Especially with meal times. She has been sneaking snacks while I'm doing things and then doesn't want to eat any of her meals. Mike and I got fed up and hid or got rid of all the snacks. Her and Luke both like snacking way too much (what kid doesn't) so I've had enough. I'm not going to make dinner 3 different times with 3 different things. Mike and I are not a restaurant. Cameryn either eats what we give her or she goes to her room where she screams for the whole 3-5 minutes of time out and says she wants to eat, she's hungry. I calmly open the door and talk to her for a minute to explain why she's up here then take her downstairs where she usually will start eating her dinner. The other night though, that didn't work because she had snacked for what seemed like all day. I would find her eating a string cheese, then with some crackers or asking me for fruit snacks and cheetos. She gets out the popsicles or eats the fruit in the fridge. Of course I know that she's hungry cuz she didn't eat her breakfast or lunch that I made her that she asked for.

Anyways, the other night we were having leftovers and Cameryn was crying that she wanted something else which we said no to. She sat there for I don't know how long and then I took her upstairs then brought her back down. She took the smallest bite possible and then cried that she was done. I knew she probably wasn't hungry because she had been eating Goldfish all afternoon from my bowl, Luke's bowl and her own. She spent the rest of the night in her pj's in her room while we played with Luke and gave him a bath.

I hope that with no more snacks that this will stop soon and she will revert back to my good little princess Cameryn but it feels like it's been forever (when it's only a recent thing actually). I have been allowing one snack that the three of us eat together on the front porch outside after Luke wakes up. Yesterday it was the cherries that I bought at the store and Cameryn and I were spitting the seeds and seeing how far we could get them. She was just using her tongue with hilarious results and the day went really well. I think she just has too much sugar and she gets mean after it wears off. That stuff never really affected me (still doesn't and neither does caffeine). Anyways, I went to see a movie with my friend last night and Mike fed the kids and put them to bed. He said that they both ate every scrape of food on their dinner plates (nothing new for Luke) and were really good. This no snack policy seems to be working already!!

I am just going to have them be outside constantly cuz that seems to help them get along better. I am sooooooooooooooo glad that it's warmer now too. I don't know what I would have done if Cameryn started this attitude thing during the cold winter. But most of the winter all I dealt with was this:

and this:

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Update on me

2008-05-21T07:36:00.002-04:00

I am really starting to feel a lot better. Thank you for all of you that have sent me emails and comments hoping that I would feel better soon.

I had my ultrasound done last Monday and there were no nodules on it, which was good. But I got a letter from my doctors a few days later saying that I have an enlarged thyroid, which I'm not sure if it is a side effect from hyperthyroidism or just another symptom.

I still wasn't feeling that great even though I was taking the medicine last week. I kept getting horrible headaches, insomnia, and I was still nauseous, shaky, weak and most of my other symptoms. On Thursday, I went to the chiropractor to try and help lessen this horrible throbbing headache I was having in the right side of my head (it was so bad I felt like my brain was contracting or something). That helped a little bit but since these headaches are caused by my thyroid and not my usual neck issues, it didn't completely go away. But it did lessen a little every day and would go away completely for a few hours if I took medicine. By Saturday, it was finally completely gone and I haven't had a headache since!! I still get shaky and still have muscle weakness but most of my other symptoms seem to be so much less that I barely notice them. I love feeling better!! You never appreciate good health as much as after you've been sick for a long time. I'll have been on the medicine for two weeks on Friday and I'm so grateful that I'm already feeling better.

The only bad thing is now I have very little excuses for not cleaning my very dirty house. Oh well, I'd rather be feeling better then I was before this medicine any day!!

Luke ate veggies!!!!!

2008-05-21T07:21:00.002-04:00

I was so excited last night cuz Luke finally ate some veggies with dinner without us having to hide them!! Luke never eats anything green which of course means almost every veggie out there. He'll eat corn and I think that's it. We can hide stuff in spaghetti and other pasta things but other then that he won't even try them. Last night we had zucchini that mike cooked on the grill with salt and pepper and probably some other stuff. Well Luke was only eating his potato and he would put the steak in his mouth and chew for awhile and then spit it out (and try to give it to me for my plate).

He started pointing to the zucchini and then his plate, so I decided, sure, what the heck. I put one small piece on his plate since Mike, Cameryn and me all like zucchini and I didn't want to waste it. He ate it (obviously from my title) and then demanded more. Mike and I exchange shocked looks and I give him two more pieces. He eats those before I can eat another bite of my own food and still wants more. More surprised looks and I give him more and then more again and more again until it is all gone and he has eaten half of it. I was so surprised and happy!! Though I'm sure it won't happen again, but you never know.

More Pictures by Cameryn

2008-05-12T11:12:00.003-04:00

She is getting better with some of her pictures. I sure am glad that I have a digital camera though. I would hate to develop a roll of film and find nothing but pictures of door, knobs, drawers, light switches and up close faces. Anyways, these ones are pretty good. I did delete all the doors, etc though. Enjoy!!

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Results

2008-05-12T09:36:00.003-04:00

I meant to write this on Friday but I just haven't gotten around to it. I wrote about getting my blood taken on Monday and then on Wednesday the nurse called me back and scheduled me to come in to talk about my test results. She made it for Monday but after thinking about it, I didn't want to wait 5 more days feeling like I was so I called and rescheduled for Friday.

The doctor went over all my results starting with my blood sugar (and some others that i don't know what they are but they are all fine), my cholesterol is PERFECT, and some other one that was fine too. Then we got to my thyroid tests. Bear with me as I try to explain this. They had at first ordered one test on my thyroid to measure the hormone coming from the pituitary gland (called TSH) that told the thyroid to produce it's hormone. The normal results are 0.350-5.500 and my TSH was 0.021. As you can hopefully see that is really low. My pituitary gland didn't need to send much of a signal because my thyroid is over producing by a lot (obviously). After they got that test in they ordered more to find out how much my thyroid was overproducing. They got those while I was there on Friday. The normal level for the hormone that a thyroid produces is between 0-40. Can you guess how high mine is? My level is 329!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's just a tad over, right.

I am just glad to know the reason for all of my problems. And I do mean all. The symptoms are nausea, headaches, shaking, heart palpitation, insomnia, high metabolism (weight loss), increased hunger, muscle weakness and there are more that I can't really remember, but these are the ones that I had. I was also extremely tired but my doctor said that the reason is probably because all my systems are going going going because of my hyperthyroidism which is making me VERY tired. I am now on medicine to get my thyroid under control and a beta blocker for my heart so it will slow down too. My resting heart rate was 110 beats per minute which is way too fast since I think it's supposed to be somewhere between 70 and 80. I keep reaching to feel my pulse because it's so nice and normal now, it's weird to think for three weeks it was pumping so fast. If hyperthyroidism goes too long without treatment, you can have heart failure and I can definitely see why.

So, I am starting to feel a little better but the thyroid medicine probably has to be in my system for longer to completely work. I did have to cancel my surgery because of all this but I would rather be on the safe side, especially with having to be on heart medicine. I feel all old though having these problems. I have to have a ultrasound done of my thyroid to see if there are any cysts or gouts on it making it go crazy and then I have to go back in to see the doctor. She also referred me to a specialist in Rockville. My mom went there to that practice and she really liked them. When they tell me that my thyroid is back under control then i can reschedule my surgery. I just hope it's soon, I wanted to be all healed and better by summer. I know that's dumb to worry about with all my problems now but still. I want to go to the pool!!!

Twilight Movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

2008-05-05T21:43:00.001-04:00

I found this today and I just had to post the first official trailer for the Twilight movie!!! I am so excited. Of course I have to wait until December but it looks good from some of the other stuff that I have seen. I hope that they follow the book at least pretty closely. Eeeeeeee!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Enjoy the preview!!

Too much

2008-05-05T11:56:00.002-04:00

I haven't been in the mood to blog in awhile. I love doing it but I just have been too busy or tired. I actually have tons of stuff that I want to post, along with pictures of my kids and videos and other things. I have been sick though and then after I was feeling better from the head cold, I have been weak, tired, shaky, nauseous and have been getting constant headaches. (I also am having surgery next Wednesday for a hernia I have had since being pregnant with Cameryn) I have a lot going on and I am sick of feeling sick!!! I have been like this for over two weeks now and I hate it. I can't get any work around my house done because I don't have the energy. I can do the kitchen cuz that is really easy but the rest of the house is pretty gross now. I tried to clean my upstairs bathroom and all I could manage was the bath tub, after that I was tired and had no energy to do the toilet, sink and floor.

On Wednesday last week I finally called my doctor and scheduled an appointment for Friday morning. I went in and talked with her about what has been going on and she ordered a bunch of blood tests. Oh and she said that my heart is beating too fast as well. I don't have heart problems but it is weird and probably connected to this other stuff. I had to get blood taken before my surgery too so I went this morning (I had to fast and that makes my shaking A LOT worse) and got it all done. I hope they find something from these cuz I don't know how much more I can take. I don't want to constantly feel exhausted. They are going to test my thyroid, blood sugar, cholesterol (nothing to do with the shaking just might as well while I'm there) and they are going to see if I'm anemic. I really think it's my thyroid just because of the horrible hair loss after my pregnancies (it was not normal hair loss, I had two almost bald spots). I just hope that they figure it out.

I have been taking naps almost everyday with Luke because I am so tired. I feel bad for my kids too because I haven't been doing any fun things with them for awhile. I just want to feel good.

Child Photographer

2008-05-02T17:03:00.002-04:00

A week ago, Cameryn decided to play with my camera and take some pictures. She wanted me to look at them so of course I did. Well, some of them (from a certain point of view) were actually pretty good and others were just silly. I couldn't post all the ones that I liked up here because it would be too many pictures so I did a quick little photo montage. No one really has to watch it cause it is not really any interesting pictures but I thought they were cute to I'm posting them anyways. I did edit out a whole bunch because even if someone decides to watch it, I'm sure they don't want to watch 3 minutes of pictures of cabinet door and walls, so it's only about a minute long. Enjoy my budding artist who draws and paints and takes pictures!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sick and stuff

2008-04-21T16:17:00.002-04:00

We are all sick here in my house. Well, Luke actually only has a runny nose and is otherwise fine, but the rest of us here are miserable. Cameryn is better today but Saturday night and yesterday she had a fever and was pretty sick. She woke up like 6-7 times both Saturday and Sunday night and I am so tired. I was feeling crappy Saturday night as well and wasn't sleeping well anyways without her coming in my room so many freaking times. I'm so used to not being allowed to take anything while being pregnant or nursing that I had no cold medicine in the house (for adults) at all so I didn't get much sleep.

I really don't even feel like blogging now but I haven't done it for so long that I thought I should at least do a quick post. All I want is to sleep but having two kids, I don't get many naps. I actually got a short one this afternoon but it definitely wasn't enough.

I actually have some other things to write about but I don't really feel like it. I'll catch up more when I feel better.

A Portrait of Mama

2008-04-07T19:22:00.004-04:00

Last Wednesday while I was working, I was trying to get Cameryn to stop getting into things so I got her to draw a picture of me. After she would draw each thing, she would yell to let me know that she drew my eyes, ears, nose, mouth, chin, etc. Finally, I went to the play room to check out her picture and this is what I saw:

Lovely huh. Did you notice my beautiful breasts? Of course you did and no you're not mistaken, they are boobs, I asked. I had hoped that maybe they were something else but when I asked her what they were, she pointed to my chest and said "it's those things mama". She drew those before she gave me arms and legs. I had to remind her to add those in.

Isn't my daughter such a good artist!! I also have three eyes in the picture and she said that I am sad (probably cuz I'm naked- just kidding). I have to say that's a pretty good shape of a head though. That small extra circle below my head is my chin.

Once I had looked at the picture, I quickly got out of the room so I wouldn't laugh in front her. I called Mike on the phone and told him about the picture then took a picture with my camera phone to send to him. I laughed on and off about this picture for most of the day. I made sure I took it home with us after work. I'm saving this picture for sure.

Hope I gave you a good laugh!!

Princess Party (and Prince)

2008-03-31T12:41:00.006-04:00

Cameryn and Luke were invited to a Prince and Princess party this past Saturday by a girl named Casey (her mom is Lori) that we met going to reading time at the Library when Cameryn was only 6 months old. I could have dressed up Luke since I do have his cute little Easter suit but I didn't want to go through that hassle and have him get all dirty. But Cameryn sure LOVED getting dressed up in her Princess dress for the party. She was so excited.

Cameryn's dress isn't technically a Disney Princess dress but she's none the wiser and I told her she was dressed as Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). I was glad too for this dress because every other little girl was Cinderella and there were like 6 or 7 girls there. Cameryn just loves her little brother!!
Luke and Cameryn eating their heart shaped baloney sandwiches at the Royal table.
Lori had even hired a professional face painter (if that can be a profession). Cameryn absolutely refused to sit and get her face painted but Luke was an absolute angel. I wasn't sure how he would react so she only did something small to start with. She showed him his face in the mirror with the spider web and spider on his face and he loved it. I asked him if he wanted another picture and he nodded his head. So she drew a Spiderman face on his other cheek. She showed him his face in the mirror again and then we got down. There was one other little boy there named Dominico and he had half his face painted like Spiderman. When Luke saw him, he smiled and pointed to his own cheek to show Dominico that he was Spiderman too. He babbled something which I didn't understand but I understood the pointing. It was so cute!!

After all the kids (except Cameryn) had their faces painted, we all went outside for a treasure hunt. There were tons of these plastic gold coins spread all over the back yard along with a few other "treasures". Luke was so cute running around not really spotting anything (unless I showed it to him) but shouting "Money!!" the whole time. He would laugh with delight every time I showed him another gold coin and put it in his little bag. He didn't want to go back inside for cake but it was getting a little chilly with the wind so I dragged him in anyways. He was fine once I showed him that he was getting cake!! They all got really fun little goddy bags when it was time to leave.

This is after we got home and I was about to put him down for a nap. The Spiderman is a bit smudged but still looks pretty good for being on a busy little boy. I had to go wash off the face paint before nap so I had to get a picture of the Spiderman.

I just had to make this picture larger cuz of his sweet little innocent face. Just look how adorable my little man is holding onto his Curious George and all ready for a nap. I could look at this sweet picture all day!!

Update

2008-03-28T14:59:00.004-04:00

I wrote earlier this month (I think) about my weaning Luke. Well, I was kinda complaining and saying how long it was going to take to finish weaning him. Boy was I wrong!! The day that I wrote that post was March 7th and that ended up being the last day that I nursed Luke (sigh). The next day, he was so good at nap time and bed time and I haven't had a problem since then.

I am happy about this of course but also miss my special time with my little boy. It was time though. And he is an angel about going to bed. It used to take me so long to get him to sleep and Mike was always done putting Cameryn to bed so quickly. I would be laying in bed wishing that I was done and that he would just go to sleep!!! Now all I have to do is tell him it's time for bed and pick him up with his stuffed animal Curious George. He tells everyone, "nighnight" and then lays down cuddling with George. This is so much nicer from the earlier days of me having to spend what felt like hours putting him to bed at night and nap time and then sometime he wouldn't take his naps. I definitely don't miss that.

He is like a thousand times easier to put to bed than Cameryn now, who finds every reason to get back out of bed, she's thirsty, she has to go potty, she needs to brush her teeth, and my personal favorite, "I need you". That's not even a reason! It is really quite frustrating. I make sure that we do all those things before we put her in bed so she can't have any excuses. We even got her a light that she reads book with in bed after we have said prayer and read both kids a book. For some reason, she just feels compelled to get out of bed every night. I have told her that if she gets out of bed she gets a smack on her little butt and yet she still gets out of bed and when I go to smack her butt, she yells, "no, don't do this". It is annoying and funny at the same time. The spanking seems to usually work for her only getting out once but if Mike goes out to put her back and not me, she doesn't get spanked so of course she gets out of bed again. I have told Mike over and over that he needs to be consistent with me and follow through on this, but he goes out there and it never happens. Dads are too soft. I don't like to be the mean one either, but I'm not going to put her to bed 10 times just to avoid spanking her or give in to letting her have sippy cup in bed or let her read even more books after she's done with the two small books we give her in the first place.

Anyone have any other ideas? We got her a new twin bed, decorated her room, give her lots of her stuffed animals to sleep with, read her stories, let her read more stories, gave her the light to read them with, got her her Princess bed set, and we are just out of ideas. I really think if both Mike and I got really strict with the whole spanking if she gets out, it will work. It's not like I'm asking him to beat her bottom, all I do is give her a small swat on her bottom and she gets more offended then hurt, but hey, it works. I do that then I tuck her back in bed and leave. No talking, no promising or bribing, I just leave. I just need to get dad on board.

Odds 'n ends

2008-03-28T14:26:00.002-04:00

Cameryn has said some especially funny and weird things this week. Unfortunately I lost the little piece of paper that I had written them all down on. Yes, I wrote them down because she says sooooooooooooooooooooo many things now that I forget a lot of the really funny ones. I can only remember two of them right now.

I was working up at the Prop Shop (I work at a friends golf course for those of you that didn't know that) and Cameryn was being an especially big punk. She wasn't listening to what I was saying and was running amok in the pro shop. I told her that she needed to behave (being the key word here, I'll put it in bold) or she was going to go in time out and that she wouldn't get any fruit snacks (yes, bribery folks... what?... I'm up there for 5 hours with 2 kids on Wednesdays and I was getting really frustrated). She looks at me and says, "But mama, we are being have!!" I guess she doesn't quite know what behave means yet if she thinks that you can "be have" I just thought it was so cute!!

The other time, Mike was giving her a bath and she was using the lufa thing to "wash" the bath tub. Mike told her to stop since that is for washing bodies and not the tub. She said, "I'm just washing it a little bit so I can do two more lickings. I just want two more." Mike left the bathroom so we could laugh quietly together about how silly our little daughter is. She says so many weird things I wish I could remember more of them.

I took this next little video while at my parents house on Easter Sunday. The kids were playing with one of those Darth Vader masks and they looked so cute. Enjoy!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

P.S. I miss hearing from all my friends and family in the comments!! (hint hint) (except of course Jessica and Gina, who I hear from quite regularly- thank you!!)

Good things are good things to do...

2008-03-17T17:56:00.003-04:00

"Good things are good things to do and bad things are bad things to do" Words of wisdom from Cameryn given to me and Luke while eating lunch the other day. That girl is so funny. Everytime she does somethings nice she looks at me and says "Mama, I'm a good grrr (though she is saying girl it comes out sounding like grrr), I'm so nice to my brother, I such a good grrr". She can be very sweet some of the time, though I think Luke gets a little sick of her picking him up and smothering him with kisses and hugs. She is getting better at not grabbing every toy away from Luke and asking him first to have it or just trading with him.

Luke can stick up for himself though or at least he's getting better at it. There is plenty of smacking going on on both sides. He really loves his sister though and is very protective of her around lots of other kids. He gets very upset when someone tries to take a toy or food away from her.

They are so cute playing together. We bought a lightsaber for Luke so they could each have one and play with them together (yeah, I know we're just asking for it aren't we but we couldn't help it; besides they fight constantly over Cameryn's). So Luke was playing with his in the living room and hitting the dog and his daddy and most everything in sight. Cameryn had ran to her room to get her lightsaber so when Luke goes to try to hit her with his, she blocks it. It was so cute and then he started getting upset because he couldn't hit her. He wasn't swinging it around really hard so no one think that I let my kids hit everyone and everything for fun. I'm just glad that they like to spend so much time playing together and that they make each other so happy (mostly).

Here's art and crafts time with watercolors:

Luke painted mostly in that same spot the whole time and then after awhile only wanted to "paint" with the water.

Cameryn is a very good little artist so far and colors very well between the lines. She likes to color all the small things first though like eyes and parts of the face. She can paint or color for hours though. We have tons and tons of her artwork just laying around the house. I hate to throw it away but what do I do with it all.

The new thing

2008-03-13T11:06:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I saw a video on my friends blog with a video from these guys, Flight of the Conchords, called Business Time (check it out here). Mike and I have been obsessed ever since. We downloaded a ton of their songs and have been watching them on YouTube almost everyday laughing at their hilarious songs and comedy. This video (Bret, you got it going on) is probably my favorite along with "If you're into it". I love these guys!! I'm trying to rent their show they had that played on HBO over the summer.

I have also noticed in the past two weeks that so many people are talking about them. I just want to throw in my two cents about how hilarious these guys are. Hope you enjoy the video. Let me know what you think.

Update: Okay my links don't seem to work because when I try to edit this post in Blogger, the video disappears. So I've got to just post this through YouTube and you'll have to check out those other videos on your own if you haven't already seen them before. Sorry.

Blue and Gold

2008-03-08T15:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the Blue and Gold banquet and since Mike is a cub scout leader we were all there as a family. Their theme for the year is Chinese New Year and it is the Year of the Rat, so we had a Chinese food buffet and they had up some cool decorations and had spelled out all the boys names in Chinese letters. We also had the cake decorating contest. Every cub scout and leader were supposed to bring a decorated cake to be judged and everything on it had to be edible. I had tried to get Mike to make his own the night before but we got too busy so I ended up having to do it.

Luke and his daddy. Cameryn impatiently waiting for food.

Devon, Kathryn, and her friend Maddie.

Mike had already bought a mix so I was thankfully spared from having to do one from scratch. I had wanted to spend a good part of the day reading as I also had my book club last night and had about 150 pages left to read of the book. (I hadn't gotten it till recently because it had already been borrowed from the library and I had to put it on hold) I hate going to these things without having read the book but I had chores that needed to be done and I also had to make and decorate a cake. I had no idea what to put on it do I just went and bought a whole bunch of different goodies to play around with as decorations. I had M&M's, Hershey kisses, chocolate chips, sliced almonds, walnuts, raisins, marshmallows, black and green decorating icing and sugar cones (for ice cream). This is what I came up with from all those things:

The first one is mine and the one next to it is Devon and my dad's cake. I personally think that my dad's rat looks a lot better than the one I drew, I mean it actually looks like a rat. Whereas mine looks like some weird, fat rat that some little kid drew. Hey, I never said I could draw.

These are just two of the other cakes that I thought were really cool looking.

So they called each of the tables to eat and as they were walking up they were supposed to vote on which of the cakes they liked best and that cake would get the "People's Choice award. I voted for my dad's cake cause I like chocolate and I thought it was a really good drawing with icing of a rat. After quickly eating though I had to leave so I could go to my book club. Mike called me later on his way home with the kids and told me that I had won this:

Pretty cool huh!! Hey at least I at a good excuse for not finishing my book on time for book club.. I was baking an award winning cake- haha.

I really enjoy going to the Cub Scout activities. The boys are so fun and they really like Mike and I think that he really enjoys himself. I took all the pictures cuz I knew that I wanted to do a post about it but it was an added bonus that I also got to brag about my awesome cake decorating skills (seriously kidding- I think people only voted for it cuz I had so much candy and color on it. They seemed to like the end of the ice cream cone for a nose too).

Poor kids

2008-03-07T14:31:00.000-05:00

Cameryn

Cameryn has started to watch the Star Wars movies (the original ones only). One Saturday Mike watched Return of the Jedi with her and since then she decided that she likes them. She calls them "the one where they rescue Leia", "the one with all the snow" and "the one with Jabba the Hutt". I would have thought she would call it "the one with the Ewoks", but guess not.

So Wednesday, I let her watch Empire Strikes Back while Luke was taking a nap. I was talking on the phone to my sister, Lindsey, when she starts calling me from downstairs. I go down there and she is very sad (not crying, just upset) because "Han's gone mama". She kept saying it over and over. I told her that his friends would rescue him so she didn't have to worry, but she was still a little bit sad.

It was so cute. She has watched it before and never really said anything about it but this past time, I guess it got to her. It was just too adorable. Lindsey thought it was so funny and cute too.

Luke

I've been trying to wean Luke for a while now. I have only been nursing him at nap time, bedtime and if he woke up in the middle of the night (also sometimes in the morning if he woke up to early and I wanted to get just a little bit more sleep). So I started with putting him in his bed while still awake; yes I know I should have been doing that for at least a year already, since he is 19 months old, but he would NEVER cry himself to sleep and I could only listen to so much screaming and crying and choking before I would give up and go in and get him. That was very slow going but he was getting better about it at least at bedtime. Nap time is a completely different story with him.

Then he was still waking up at night which I thought ridiculous since he is old enough to sleep through the night. Well, that it turns out is because he is getting his second molars in on the bottom already so he's been doing better now. Plus, I won't nurse him at night time if he wakes up. I will go in and pick him up but I'll just quietly talk to him and give him a drink of water if he wants one and wait until he calms down and then he'll quietly go back in his bed and sleep again.

All this was very slow going until he suddenly got attached to this Curious George stuffed animal that Mike bought for Cameryn at the hospital when she was born (we joked that she had monkey toes). One night he was hugging it and kissing it and Mike asked him if he wanted to take it to bed and he definitely did. Since then it has gotten easier and easier to do this whole weaning thing. It also is so cute to see him holding tight to this little monkey when he goes to bed and then when he wakes up. I've now stopped nursing him at night since Monday this week. He was okay with it until last night when he really freaked out and was crying and throwing himself around and pointing for me to lay down on my bed with him so I would nurse him. It was so sad and I wanted to just give in but I also would really like to be done at the same time. I didn't give in though and I gave him some water and got him calmed down finally by telling him that George needed to go to sleep and so did Daddy. He let me put him in his bed then but I still stayed in for another minute or two and patted his back.

He absolutely refuses to give up nursing at nap time though (at least right now- I will wear him down in time- haha). He will not calm down at all and doesn't want anything but me. George is a little bit helpful in at least cutting the nursing time down to only 2 or 3 minutes but I can't seem to get any farther then that. But I've only cut out the nursing for bedtime for not even a week so I'm still willing to give him more time for naps.

This was so much easier with Cameryn!! She weaned herself at 17 months and I didn't have to do anything. I guess they all can't be that easy.. to bad though.

It's finally gone!!!

2008-03-07T14:17:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to get rid of my mom's old black upright piano for almost 2 years now (I think- but it feels even longer) and finally IT'S GONE!!!!!!!!! I put it on Freecycle.com back in December or early January and had a few responses that came to nothing. One guy even said he would take it and then came and looked at it and said no. I was so frustrated. I placed a new ad with even more info about the piano. It's old, black and ugly but it plays well and can be fixed up easily. Finally I had another response and then a phone call which turned into another person coming to look at it. His company was looking for a very sturdy piano to give to a handicapped man who liked to play but could be kinda rough. I told him this piano would be perfect for him. He looked at it and then said they would take it. He was going to talk to his company and they would hire some movers to come pick it up from me within a week or two!!

Well, that was on January 23rd or 24th. I sent them an email two weeks after to see what was going on and never heard back from them. I started to get upset that they had changed their minds and no one was ever going to take this thing off my hands. Finally this past Monday, I got a call from a different guy who was making the arrangements with the movers to come get my piano. He said that they would call again in a week or two. I stopped him right there and said that I hadn't heard from anyone in over a month about this and would prefer that they picked it up this week since I had already been waiting too long in my opinion. He said he didn't realize it had been that long and that they would come get it this week.

They came yesterday right around 11:00 and took it away. Cameryn was very upset that they were taking our piano but I told her she could always play with the one at Gramma's house. Mike called while they were moving the piano and asked if they were still in the house. I said no that they were in the yard trying to get the heavy piano up to the truck. He said good and to quickly lock the doors so they couldn't bring it back. Of course I couldn't do that since they still needed to take the bench but I was tempted.

It's so nice to have that big space open again in my kitchen. Of course now I have a ton of work to do. We are now going to move our computer desk and a small two drawer filing cabinet into the kitchen from our bedroom and then we will be rearranging our room. But I'm happy about having to do those things. I need to work on making my room nice and livable since I have already done that with Cameryn and Luke's rooms. So YAY for me (and Mike)!!

Pictures of the birthday girl

2008-02-29T16:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the three posts in one day but I decided after posting my other two that I should take some pictures real quick with my kids even if they didn't turn out very well. I've never been a fan of those close up pictures we all take of ourselves. I always feel that it makes my nose look big or my cheeks look fat or something. Anyways, I got a couple of good ones, so here's me and my kids.

Winter always gives my kids these cute little rosy cheeks (which are also very dry). I actually look kinda pretty in this picture (hope that doesn't sound conceited or anything).
Luke loved posing for all these pictures. He kept running over to sit on my lap for more pictures.
Cameryn's kinda cut out by accident but she wouldn't lay on the floor for any more photos so this was the only one I got like this.
Look at her cute little face and big beautiful brown eyes. What an angel. Luke thought this picture was so funny. He wanted me to leave the camera on this picture forever. He kept laughing and pointing at himself.

Luke tried to get in this one at the last second so it's kinda off center (ya think?).

I took a few others that I will have to post later along with a cute video of Cameryn playing in her room. I'll try to post it tomorrow.

My little Ariel

2008-02-29T16:09:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures of Cameryn after she has followed the example set by Ariel in The Little Mermaid and tried to brush her hair with a fork. Of course, Cameryn is not that good at brushing her hair with a comb or brush in the first place. So here she just kinda twisted the fork around in her hair a few times and pulled it out oblivious to what the end result looked like. She was just waiting for us to put dinner on the table and say prayer and this is how she decided to pass the time I guess.

Pretty creative way to curl your hair I guess. It looked much better before I tried to get it out, then realized that it would make for some great pictures and a story on my blog. At least she did it before eating instead of afterwards with a dirty fork.

The Big 7

2008-02-29T14:59:00.000-05:00

Today is my birthday so I thought that since I only get one every four years I would wish myself a happy birthday. I have gotten a lot of emails and phone calls from my friends and family to wish me a happy birthday, so thank you all. I wish I had a silly picture to post of myself but I'm always the one taking the pictures, not in them and I can't seem to get my camera to do the timer thing, so oh well.

Since it's my birthday, I'm just going to ramble on about whatever I want. I will try to be somewhat organized though or I'll at least keep separate topics in separate paragraphs, but don't expect to much.

So to start with since it's most on my mind is my favorite show ever, LOST!!!!!! Oh my gosh, (if you don't watch the show you can skip this paragraph cuz you won't understand what I'm talking about anyways) WOW!!!!!! Last nights episode was so awesome. Definitely one of the best this season, if not THE best so far. I LOVE LOVE LOVE DESMOND!!!! He is just such a great character and the guy who plays him is awesome. Enough about Jack/Kate/Sawyer!!!! Who cares about them. I want to see more Desmond/Penny. I was almost crying last night when they finally talked on the phone and had a big (goofy, I'm sure) smile on my face. Mike probably thought I was an idiot. I was like, "FINALLY!! Something on this show that is happy!" I mean really, what a great scene. On Christmas Eve too, how cute and sweet. Those writers never disappoint on special occasions do they. They were killing me with all those rings before Penny finally picked up though, but I knew she had to cuz they had to keep Desmond on there, I mean if they killed him off.... I don't know what I would do. That's like no Locke or Ben or Jack. I know a lot of people don't even like Jack but still, you gotta keep him on the show people, he's pretty much the main character even though it's an ensemble cast. It is weird to think thought that they have only been there three months and all that stuff has happened. How many people have died, all the relationships that have formed (good and bad), the fighting with the Others and now the supposed "rescue" boat. The "time travel" thing was so awesome and the editing back and forth was really great. I like that new guy, Daniel too. He is super weird of course but I like his character. So what I'm now wondering about is, does Penny's dad know that Desmond is one the island? Is he in charge of the people on the boat and is that why they were not allowed to answer the phone when Penny kept trying to call for Desmond? He bought that journal by the first mate on the ship the "Black Rock" which is of course now in the middle of the island that Desmond is on. This show is too good for words!!! What was happening to Desmond must have been what happened to all of Danielle's (the French lady) shipmates. She said they all died from a sickness and if you didn't know any better (it seems no one knows but the new guy, Daniel) it would seem that they were getting sick. People would think they were just delusional and with the aneurysm and then of course death, who wouldn't think everyone was just getting sick. I wonder how none of them (the people on Oceanic 815) had that happen to them in the first place when they arrived on the island. I just love that show. Please if you watch it, send me a comment or even multiple comments on what you think about this season or just yesterday's episode. I could talk about this show all the time so please let me know what you think or even just that you love the show too and watched last night if you don't feel like typing out a big long comment.

I have been playing basketball every Wednesday and am really enjoying myself. I'm not that good but I enjoy playing and having fun while I'm doing it. We play the same night as the young women so we always scrimmage them about half way through for practice and fun. I just have to say that a lot of those young women are really lazy. Most of them don't play defense and just stand in the same position every time they are on offense. They stand there like it is your job to get them the ball instead of their job to move around to get open so you can pass it to them. They had one of the adults on their team and she was the only one, along with her 9 or 10 year old son, to run down the court to play defense against my team. The rest walked to maybe half court and then stood there. We took a 2-3 minute water break and half of them collapsed on the floor like they had never worked so hard in their lives and were dying they were so tired. I was like, okay all of us adult women have had at least 2 kids and we are all on our feet waiting for you guys to make this harder for us. This past Wed. it was more fun cuz we were in the smaller gym and they had some girls show up that actually try hard. Since it was so much smaller, it was way more intense running back and forth and stuff. I did so awesome though. I was on fire on defense. I got most of the rebounds, blocked so many of the girls and made some really great passes. I've never been much of a scorer but I had a few good shots as well. I made this one block that was so awesome. I jumped so high (at least it felt that way, it probably looked like Luke did in the video I posted of him recently- haha) and just smacked that ball down and right into the arms of a teammate. I wanted to scream "GET OUTTA MY HOUSE"!!! HAHAHAHA, just kidding, I thought of that just now and laughed so I had to type it. I was so tired and sore when I got home and slept so good from being so worn out. I'm trying to get in shape starting with basketball now and when the weather warms up, I'm going to start running again.

I got something for my 10 year High School reunion coming up this year. I am actually a little bit excited to see the people I graduated with. I pretty much never see anyone from my high school except a few friends that I ran cross country and track with. I know a lot of people still live around here and in Baltimore and Virginia though. That's another reason for me to get in shape. I want to look GOOD!! I mean, really, who doesn't want to look good for those things though. I'm sure no one is thinking, how can I look really horrible for my reunion. I can't believe that it has already been 10 years, I know that sounds really cliche to say, but I don't feel 10 years older. It doesn't even feel like it has been 10 years. It's just weird to think about and I know it will be weird to see all those people again. You spend most of your life (at least the beginning) with these same people through elementary, middle and high school, play sports with them and get to kinda know most of them and then suddenly, you all graduate and you don't see them anymore. Even if you weren't friends with a lot of them, you still would see them all the time from 5-18 years old. Well, it'll be interesting at least to see what people have been up to, to see guys you used to have crushes on and friends you lost contact with.

Well, this post really has no point other than for me to just ramble on with whatever thoughts I had today. I like to every once and awhile talk about something other then my kids, like me for example, haha. I could talk about how wonderful or annoying my kids are all day long but I've been trying to get more "me" time in and this counts as a little "me" time. Thanks for reading my ramblings and I hope that I wasn't to random and scattered to understand.

The Reverant Stuntman

2008-02-23T17:54:00.000-05:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I love when Luke does things like this!!! He thinks he is jumping so high when he just steps off stuff. Kids are so cute.

Luke has started occasionally folding his arms for prayer and the day that I took this video he was doing it constantly. It was so cute. He has even started folding his arms and mumbling something before we eat like he's saying the prayer for our meal. I love that little man!!!

Pine Wood Derby

2008-02-23T17:37:00.000-05:00

Mike is the assistant Cub Scout master and so they recently had their Pine Wood Derby. Mike made a car for it and did pretty good. I brought the kids to watch all the boys and their cars and Luke thought it was the coolest thing to watch all the cars race. They held it in this store called HobbyTown. They had the track hooked up to a computer and each car went down each of the four tracks and then they averaged all the boys times to come up with the winners. My brother, Devon, was there and he got a trophy for the fastest Weeblo (sp?). He was second fastest overall too!! Anyways, I didn't take too many pictures but here are a few of the kids before the race started sitting with Grandpa and then one waiting for the cars to go down the track. Luke was so cute I should have taken a video of how excited he was getting.

Not a very exciting post but I am kinda far behind on my posting so I'm trying to catch up on all mine and the kids doings.

Cameryn's "new" room

2008-02-23T14:10:00.000-05:00

Mike and I have slowly been changing Cameryn's room to make it more like a little girl's room and less like a baby's room. A few months ago we painted her room. It was already painted purple when I first had her but we painted it a softer purple with semi gloss so I could clean the walls as well (the previous purple was flat paint).

Almost a year ago (I think), I had started coloring these pictures for her out of her Princess coloring book just for fun coz I liked to color with Cameryn. Well, I got the idea that I could frame and hang up these pretty pictures in her room. I have a whole bunch still that I want to color for her but I got really tired of procrastinating and waiting to have them all done. So I used the frames that my mother-in-law had bought Cameryn for Christmas (for the pictures) and finally this week I hung up five of them. Cameryn was so excited and really loves them up. I had six of them framed but didn't have enough room (yet) to hang up the sixth so that one is sitting on her dresser.

Cameryn just LOVES Princesses (what little girl doesn't) so she is so excited about her "new" room.

On Monday, my mom drove to my house with Kathryn and Devon and they watched my kids (Luke was down for a nap) while we drove back to my mom's house to get a twin mattress that she was giving us. Cameryn had been in a toddler bed since before Luke was born and she was just too big for it. We don't have a frame yet for the bed but while she is getting used to her new room, I'm glad that it's only on the floor so she won't fall out or something in the middle of the night. She actually bought her first set of sheets with a gift card to Target that she got for Christmas. We found these flannel sheets that were on sale and she bought Hello Kitty ones.

Even though it's been slow going, I have been having so much fun rearranging and decorating her room. Little girl stuff is so much fun!!!

I just wanted to show everyone a close up of some of the pictures I colored. Don't I color just beautifully!!! Look at all those colors. I even tried to shade on some of them. I am awesome!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

2008-02-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

I just watched the trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie coming out this year! I didn't think I was going to be that excited for it to come out but the trailer looks really good and it made me all giddy! I can't wait!!!

Check it out here.

I love Harrison Ford!!!

Fighting style

2008-02-08T14:22:00.000-05:00

Luke and Cameryn thought it would be funny to dress in Daddy's pj's and run around while Luke was wielding a light saber. I'm glad I actually had my camera handy because of course it was hilarious and adorable.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Silly Luke, I don't think he knows that a light saber is supposed to cut through anything it touches.

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

2008-02-05T17:14:00.000-05:00

I am just posting a bunch of pictures that I never got around to putting up because of... well... my addiction (see previous post) and just being busy and lazy at the same time. Is that possible?

This was from mid January when we finally got some snow. Luke was not happy with having to wear his boots but he loved the "no" (snow in case you didn't figure that out). The other one is just a daily cute picture of my baby boy.

This is Cameryn and Luke being "spiders". I don't know how having shoes on your hands makes you a spider but to them it does.

Mike likes to buy the kids those rub on tattoos and they of course love them. They are hard to see in these picture but Cameryn has Storm (an X-men) and Luke has some fiery dice. I had an even cuter one of Luke's tattoo but it also had him in all his glory so I couldn't really post it. I don't want weirdos on my site.

Luke has finally started allowing us to read books to him. He could never sit still long enough for it before but he LOVES "Go Dog, Go". He tries to go to sleep with it too. The one in the picture though is a different book. Just another cute adorable picture of my girl.

Luke and Cameryn were having tons of fun playing in Daddy's sleeping clothes.

Don't you love the sneaky look on his face. He's up to something, as usual.

Mike's birthday was this past Saturday (Ground Hog's Day) and on Sunday we made him a cake. Cameryn wanted Daddy to have a "Bob cake" (Bob the Tomato from Veggie Tales) so here it is. Not too bad huh. Kathryn actually drew the face on him. I know it looks pink but I couldn't put too much dye in it and the camera's flash made it look really pink. Everyone loved it and Cameryn got to help blow out the candles.

I have a ton of videos that I want to post but they'll have to go into another post. This one has enough I think.

My addiction

2008-02-05T15:47:00.000-05:00

So I have been reading a ton of books lately. I think it's the weather and we've been inside so much and I have just been really in the mood to read, a lot. I joined a book club in October or November last year and we have been meeting the first friday of every month. I have really enjoyed being introduced to new books and authors that I wouldn't have read otherwise. The only thing is I'm a really fast reader so I'm usually done reading the book club book in about a week depending on how long it is and how quickly I get into it. Well this definitely wasn't enough for me in a one month period so I still borrowed other books from the library, re-read some of my favorites and also borrowed one from my brother.

So in December, I read the book for book club then borrowed Red Dragon from my brother, Ezra and after that read my favorite book again, Shadow of the Moon. I decided since I had read Red Dragon and liked it, I would read Silence of the Lambs next. All during those books I had another book to read for book club that I didn't get until about 3 days days before our meeting so I hadn't finished it by the first friday in January. Well, I finished that a few days after book club and then finished Silence of the Lambs (had to take a break to read the book for book club first... just a quick side note that just popped into my head, am I the only one that gets slightly annoyed when people don't finish the book for book club? I mean, come on, you have a MONTH. I understand if you don't like it or have trouble getting into the book, you might take a while to finish. But you're in a book club and of course not everyone is going to like all the books but at least read it and finish it so you can participate in the discussion and tell everyone why you didn't like it even if the book discussion is only a few mintues long and the rest of the time is spent gossiping and talking about politics. Sorry, it's just a pet peeve.... on with my original thought...)

I really enjoyed both the books I had read so far in the Hannibal Lector series so I decided to just finish the rest. So I read Hannibal, which I did not like but finished anyways, then the book for book club, which I really enjoyed called The Book Thief, really excellent book. A week or so before I got to reading The Book Thief, I read a post on my cousin Nikki's blog about this book that she read in her book club and that she had really loved. So I went online and went to put a hold on it through the library. It told me that I might have to wait 50 DAYS to get the book. I thought wow this must be a good book. So while waiting for this book, I finished the Book Thief and started Hannibal Rising (hated that one too). Thankfully it didn't take 50 days for me to get this other book but when it arrived at the library I was in the middle of Hannibal Rising and even though I hated the book and it was stupid, I am one of those people who has to finish it no matter what. (When I read The Three Musketeers for "pleasure" reading -trust me, NOT a pleasure- it was actually painful almost to finish, I hated it so much, what a stupid book. That's the first time I have ever liked the movie better then the book.)

Finally I finished the boring book and started Twilight. I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!! I was into it in a matter of minutes and it was so difficult to put down even when I could barely keep my eyes open at bed time. I dreamt about it and then woke up in the morning impatient to pick it up again and read more. I read the first one in less then 2 days and went online again to the library to place holds on the other 2 books. I wished that I had had some money to just go and buy them myself but I was content to read through the first one again and again if necessary. Thankfully I only had to read it through one more time (slower this time though to enjoy it even more) before the library had BOTH of the other books available for me. I read those both so quickly as well and am so EXCITED for the next book to come out. I think it's supposed to come out this year sometime. I will definitely be waiting impatiently to get my hands on the new book. Now I'm reading all three of them at least one more time before they are due back at the library.

I'm actually super excited for my birthday this year because I've been hinting at everyone that I would love these books for my present. I'm not a person to be all "yay, it's my birthday give me presents and celebrate me"!!! Not because I am at all worried about aging, I really don't care about age, I just never feel comfortable being the center of attention and I don't really care about my birthday. Maybe it's from being teased as a kid because I'm a leap day baby and only have an actual birthday every 4 years. It never hurt my feelings or anything, I thought it was funny and cool to be unique this way. All I ask on my birthday this year is for someone or mutiple someones to give me these books and for my mom to make me my favorite wheat cake with her yummy homemade icing. Most of my younger siblings don't like the cake (they think I should get boring chocolate with boring chocolate icing) so it just means more for me!!!!!

Anyways, my point to this post was not just about Twilight, though that's a big part. I was talking to my mom on Saturday about how I have been reading so much lately and I think I have literally become addicted to reading. When I am without a book or have just finished one and don't immediately have something else to read, I feel very lost and like I am forgetting something.. It's kinda hard to explain exactly how I feel actually. It's like impatient and anxious that I should have something to read RIGHT THEN. I have always enjoyed reading, even as a really really young girl (like Cameryn's age) but lately I HAVE to have something to read or at least waiting for me to read. I have been having to make myself stop reading just to get house work done. I will load the dishwasher and then read a chapter or two and then wash the counters and table and left over dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher and then read another 2 chapters and then sweep and wash the floors and then read more etc. It's gotten a little bit ridiculous (maybe that's an understatement). That has also been the reason for my lack of new posts and pictures lately. I've been so addicted to my books and acquiring more books to read that I feel like any free time I have (after kids go to sleep or naptime) is wasted if I'm not reading my books. Needless to say, my husband is trying his best to be patient with me so I am really really going to try to control myself for the next little while.

Though, with that said, if any of you out there have any other really good book suggestions, I would love to have them. I AM going to really try to be better at pacing myself so don't worry about that, but I haven't read a book that I have enjoyed as much as Twilight and the two sequels in a LONG time. If anyone wants to comment and gush about how awesome Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse are feel free. I could talk about this book for hours. Gina, I'm waiting for your call, haha!!!

Missing myself

2008-01-24T15:32:00.000-05:00

Just recently a lady at church decided to send around a sign up sheet for whoever wanted to play basketball after the young women have their practices on Wednesdays. I of course signed up because I loved playing church basketball growing up and though I'm not the greatest, I always have lots of fun.

We had our first "practice" last night. Only 5 people showed up but it was so fun. I am actually sore today, mainly my butt and back. Also I jammed my left middle finger, have many new bruises on my legs and for some reason my toes hurt on my left foot. I don't know how, but I always seem to jam at least one finger when I play basketball. Maybe my fingers are too long or something, I don't know. It's not too bad actually, I've definitely had worse jammed fingers then this one. It's just a little sore and bruised (like the rest of me). I am so out of shape!!

I ran cross country and track pretty much my whole life, from fourth grade through my senior year in high school, and I was really good at that. Plus, in high school, I always took a weight training class to get in even better shape, it also helped me not be so skinny and instead become thin and toned. I like being in shape and I miss it.

A lot of people are surprised (or don't even know) how competitive runners are and how hard it is to be a really good runner. It's a good thing too that I liked and was good at running because I only liked to play other sports for fun. I didn't realize how much I missed playing basketball though, or any sport for that matter. I may not be really good at anything (but running), but I'm pretty good at most sports I play when playing for fun. I even used to be pretty good at football when I played in my gym classes in high school. Anyways, we all had so much fun last night that even though the practice was supposed to be over at 7:00 we all stayed till about 7:30ish. We kept saying "okay 5 more minutes then I need to go" "okay seriously, 5 more minutes" and then kept playing and playing.

I loved playing church ball back in high school. It didn't hurt either that my ward won probably 95-99% of all our games. But it was fun, it was exercise and it was being with my friends and I realized last night that I REALLY missed that. I miss working out period. I know most people say they need to get in shape and I'm one of them, but I truly miss just being a physical person. I love competition, running, sports, and being active. Last night made me miss my old self.

I rarely even get to watch sports on TV, though I think I'm bad luck when I do. The past few years when I actually get to watch a game, football or basketball, the team I'm rooting for loses. ALL THE TIME!!! I was so happy that the Packers might make it to the Super Bowl this year so I made sure to watch the championship game against the Giants this past Sunday. Well, guess what, they lost. I really think it's better luck if I just don't watch them or any team that I like anymore.

Anyways, I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel this way either. I miss being my own person without my kids or my husband, not that I don't love them cos of course I do. I just miss being Daisy. I am in a book club now that actually makes sure they meet regularly and I love it. I love reading and having other people to talk about the book with, even though we definitely talk about a lot of other stuff during our meetings as well. Both my parents like to read like me so up until being in a book club, I have had only them to talk about books with, which is why I wish my brothers and sisters would read more (HINT HINT). A few months ago, I let my dad borrow all my Harry Potter books and he read them all and we would talk about them, it was great. Every time I read my favorite book of all time, Shadow of the Moon, I always talk about it again and again with my mom (I read it at least once a year-usually more). I always have to have something to read or I feel kinda lost or like I've forgotten something.

I love being physically active. I love artsy things like photography, painting, sewing and even silly crafts. I think times like these are the only times where I miss being in high school (yuck, I know but....). I had time to do my own thing and no (or almost no) responsibilities. I know I can't be the only one to feel this way, but sometimes I feel guilty for feeling that way which is silly. Just because someone becomes a wife and mother doesn't mean that they don't get some "ME" time anymore and I am determined to find as much me time as I can!!

Luke's amazing tricks

2008-01-24T15:28:00.000-05:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Luke has started doing this when we go into Cameryn's room at night to say prayer. He thinks he is so cool and of course he is. Sometimes he even goes around to the other side of the bed to do it. I can only say, wow he is amazing!!

So Thirsty

2008-01-21T13:42:00.000-05:00

Quick story...

So I was making some lunch for the kids and Luke, as usual, was hanging around me talking and getting into this and that. Usually when we are cooking, he likes to get into the drawer with all the cooking utensils; spatulas and wooden spoons etc. So he was playing in the drawer and pulls out a ladle. At this point I stop paying attention to go to the sink and put something in it. I turn around and Luke has the ladle up to his mouth pretending to drink out of it. Then I look again and he is not pretending anything. He had taken the ladle and dipped it into the bowl of dog water and was drinking the yummy dog water. He had the cutest little grin on his face like he was so smart to think of such a thing, what a genius way to get water when you are thirsty. I laughed and then told him no and took the ladle away to the sink. His little smile was so priceless though. I wish I had a picture of it to post.

Video- Some Good G.O.B.

2008-01-11T09:44:00.001-05:00

I tried to find some videos of the show to go along with my last post and this is one of the best mainly about Gob. I'm trying to find others but most of the other videos on YouTube are just picture montages and weird stuff.

Don't you just love his chicken impression!! Plus the awful magic show, ahhh, so good.

You just have to watch it

2008-01-10T18:50:00.000-05:00

After Christmas, we were in Target because Cameryn had a gift card. She had so much fun picking stuff out to get with her gift card, it's given me good ideas for gifts for other kids. Anyways, while in Target I saw this TV show that I LOVED (loved loved loved in fact) on DVD, they had the first two seasons. Since there hasn't been really any good/new programming on because of the stupid writers strike, I have been watching lots of stuff on DVD. I was just curious how much it was and so I checked it out on one of those scanner things they have in Target. Well, they was only $19.00 so I just had to get them.

I don't know if any of you watched Arrested Development when it was on TV but it is one of THE best comedy shows I've ever watched. It is so completely different than any other comedy and just plain hilarious. I have really been enjoying watching it again. I wish that it could have been on air longer but it was just one of those really great, perfect, wonderful shows that never really got the audience that they deserved (like Firefly). I think that is the only thing wrong with the show, that it was cut short. Plus it was on Fox which I'll just say probably doesn't have that intelligent of an audience in the first place.

It's about this completely dysfunctional family and what happens when the father goes to jail supposedly for business related stuff. It is the most comically genius show ever. I crack up just thinking about some of the scenes. The cast is just perfect together. It has Jason Bateman who plays pretty much the only normal person in the family and Michael Cera plays his son (from Superbad, Juno) who develops a crush on his cousin, Maeby, who is a compulsive liar and always trying to "get back" at her parents by doing stupid things. The guy who plays her father is a "never-nude" (he always has a pair of jean cutoffs on) and her mother tries to be this liberal do gooder who never does any good. The older brother, Gob (like job but with a g) is played by the hilarious Will Arnett, who tries to be a magician and is the worst you have ever seen. He makes me laugh so hard that I could pee myself. The younger brother, Buster, still lives at home with his mother who is this controlling , overbearing manipulative woman.

I don't know if you even know who half these actors are but this show is priceless. I would recommend it to anyone who needs a good laugh. If you are a fan of subtle and INTELLIGENT humor, you really have to check it out. They only did three seasons total and the third was tragically only 13 episodes but well worth watching. This show also has some physical humor as well and it is constantly making fun of itself.

I know it's kinda out of nowhere for me to post about some show but since I've been watching these first two seasons, I've just been in better moods it seems. There are so many priceless lines in the show and I'll be cleaning or whatever and something will pop into my head and I just laugh to myself. If my kids were older they would probably think I'm going crazy, but at their young age, if they see me laughing, they just think I'm smiling at something they are doing.

I just read what I wrote and it sounds like a review for it or something (poorly written review but whatever, I wasn't an English major). It's just a show that has made me laugh and I think everyone should watch it. I think it helped pave the way for other genious comedy shows like The Office to come to American TV's (since it was a British show first). Even if you don't like The Office (Nikki) I really think that you all would love this show.

http://arresteddevelopment.msn.com/#episodes

Yes, I think I am a little bit of a tv-aholic but hey, I need a little bit of a break and I read tons of books too, just ask anyone in my family. Just don't get me started on talking about LOST cause I could go on forever about that show. I just got my brother, Andrew, and my mom obsessed with it!! Last year, it was my sister, Mary and now we are all working on our dad.

Shipley Look-alike Meter 2

2008-01-09T10:04:00.001-05:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Shipley Look-alike Meter

2008-01-08T15:31:00.001-05:00

I saw this on Nikki's page and thought it would be fun to do.

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Cameryn's new do

2008-01-04T14:41:00.001-05:00

I think I'm trying to make up for the lack of posting the past few weeks or months. I finally cut Cameryn's bangs though. Christmas morning after presents and breakfast, I put in one of the new movies the kids got and sat her up on a high chair and cut her bangs. They just kept getting in her eyes and she was rubbing them so much, they were getting red and puffy and I was worried she might be getting pink eye.

I left it like that till Friday night and then I decided that I needed to trim her hair too. It was just so thin and stringy. It was still her baby hair since I had only cut like a half inch off the bottom to even it out. Well, I think it turned out really well. I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. She was really good too standing on the toilet in the bathroom. It looks healthier now to me and I really like it. I am going to let it grow out again cause I like it long but I'm hoping that it will get a tad bit thicker now.

So here's the pics:

Here is Cameryn the Sunday before Christmas with long bangs and all.
If you look carefully in this picture you can see her puffy and red eyes. This is from Christmas Eve.
This is Christmas Day at my parents house (Luke had spilled candle wax all over the place including his shirt). You can see her pretty new bangs now.
I took these a few days after I cut her hair since it was already bed time when I decided to cut it in the first place.
So what do you think?

Semi old videos

2008-01-04T14:28:00.000-05:00

I meant to put this video on a few months ago (I took these back in November).

Luke has always been really fond of animals, not just ours but any and all animals. Anyway, Mike was flipping through the channels one night and stopped on Animal Planet. They were having this show on about wolfs and Luke got so excited. It was so cute and I ran to get the camera. I just love how big his grin is and how excited he gets. He keeps turning around to look at his daddy and laughing.

About a week later, he was babbling about puppies again (everything is a puppy, sometimes a kitty; they are just easiest to say I guess). So Mike thought it would be fun to sit him in front of the computer on YouTube and type in puppies. He was so happy!! Though, he still thinks that anytime you get on the computer, he is going to get to watch "puppies". That kids gets old cause he always trying to climb on my lap and then gets upset when I don't let him watch the videos. Oh well.

I can see we are going to have our hands full with this boy though. He's probably going to be taming squirrels and birds and bringing home injured animals... or just live gross ones. I guess that's boys though.

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Christmas

2007-12-31T14:58:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty good Christmas this year. The Saturday before Christmas, we went to my Uncle Bill's house for a White Elephant gift exchange and a before Christmas dinner. It was pretty fun. We ended up with a chocolate melting pot to dip stuff in and some chocolate to melt in it. Yummy!!

Cameryn had fun playing with all the other kids there, especially Katelyn. I barely saw her the whole time we were there. Luke loved playing on the steps and in the upstairs hallway. He kept "scaring" Andrew.

Luke and Erica, isn't she cute. Luke having fun on the steps.

More fun on the steps. On the way home in the car holding hands.

Luke really likes to play with little kids that are his height or smaller. He walks up to them and stares for awhile, then he will hug them. After that he likes to follow them around and then hold onto the backs of their arms and lead them around. He was doing that to his little cousin Erica while we were at my uncle's house. It was so cute to see him hugging her. He didn't get to the part where he's holding onto her which was probably a good thing because after that step comes the tackling and laying on top of them. He was doing that to this new little boy in the nursery this past Sunday and it was so cute and funny. The little boy didn't like it too much but it was so adorable. The boy was on his stomach on the floor crying and Luke is holding onto his arms and laying on top of him on the floor with his head resting on the boy and smiling.

Christmas Eve, we went to my parents house and did our little Nativity play. Cameryn played Mary with a little penguin playing the baby Jesus. Devon was Joseph and Luke was kind of a Shepard with me but he didn't really cooperate. He kept getting on Mary's "donkey" which was really a rocking horse. Ezra, Andrew and Mike were the Wise men or as my dad calls them the wise guys. Kathryn was the Angel.

Christmas morning, we opened our presents and had waffles with fruit and whipped cream with Mike's parents. We went to Mike's family thing at his aunt's house and ate some lunch there and visited for a while. Luke actually took a really decent nap while we were there too. About 3:00 we left and spent the rest of the day at my parents house eating more and playing games. The kids of course got way too much stuff and I'm still trying to organize and put things away. They both got one of those toy shelves with the plastic bins and that has been helping me find places for everything.

These are only the presents that they got from us and that is already too much in my opinion.

Luke got really overwhelmed though with all the presents and noise and too many new toys to play with. He would start playing with one new toy he just unwrapped and then someone would be handing him something else to unwrap. He did become an expert at unwrapping presents though. I think that was his favorite part. Cameryn got lots of Princess stuff of course. Thankfully, she also got some clothes as well, they both did. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to but I kinda forgot in the middle of all the other stuff happening.

Winter Blues... for kids?

2007-12-13T14:02:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure what is wrong with both of my kids, but they have both been acting weird this past few weeks. They cry about the silliest things and then go on crying for what feels like hours sometimes (though it is in reality maybe 20 minutes... but hey that's still a long time). Luke will be happy as a clam then will trip over something and fall down while not really hurt himself at all. Usually he will just get up and continue on his way but no, now I am treated to a total freak out and crying session and he will get up, stumble to me and cry and throw himself around for a while until I can get him interested in something else.

Luke has always been a mama's boy but he has never been this clingy and crying and fussing over little things. Cameryn too will cry about the silliest things. I love being able to comfort my babies but I don't want them to run crying to me over every single little teeny tiny thing. Lately though, if I don't come running, they will just continue freaking out. I really think they have the winter blues or something.

Now Cameryn has been sick since late Sunday night so I know why she has been so sensitive but that has only been this week that she's been sick. I took her to the doctors yesterday. She was complaining that her ear hurt and she has had a fever, so I took her to get checked out. Her ears were fine but it turns out she has strep throat so they gave me a prescription for her. This week has been hard though with her sick. She's so skinny already that when she gets sick, she just has no energy and is so weak and cries a lot. Add that into the already bad attitudes in the house and I have both of them crying at the same time. When one starts the other one is sure to follow even if they were playing happily 2 seconds before.

Luke is especially like this. Yesterday, Cameryn fell asleep on my bed while she was cuddling with me around 7:30. I had to go to the pharmacy to pick up her medicine so I left her there on by bed while Mike was playing with Luke downstairs. Well she ended up having an accident on my bed and she got really upset about it naturally. She took off her clothes and went downstairs and was crying to Mike who was in the middle of something and had to wash his hands before he could help her. I came in about that time and Cameryn was crying and then suddenly Luke was crying and they both wanted me to hold them. I helped Cameryn get dressed and calm down a bit and made her hot chocolate while the whole time Luke is crying and crying and stumbling around the house falling into things and making himself cry more. It was an interesting scene.

I'm not sure what they are both thinking but it sure is annoying and I wish that it would end soon.

Miss me?

2007-12-10T14:20:00.000-05:00

I have missed blogging. It's almost been a month since my last post. I have just been so busy and had so many things going on that when I did have time, I just wanted to relax and read or play around on the Internet.

Luke is getting bigger, smarter and more of a little punk by the day. He is trying to talk more and repeating a lot of what we say. Mike called him a bean the other day and he laughed and nodded his head then said "bean". Of course he says it in that cute little boy voice too. Cameryn was a big talker and could speak really well by the time she was Luke's age already but that boy can convey his meaning just as well with his pointing little fingers, his head nodding or shaking and one word here or there. He is such a smart little guy.

He always brings a smile to my face even when he is making messes and getting into EVERYTHING. Nothing is safe from that boy. Today I found him in Cameryn's puzzle drawer and he was ripping the puzzle pieces up, the cardboard puzzle pieces. Oh well, she needs some new puzzles anyways, some harder ones.

I really would like to start weaning Luke from the breast feeding. I really only nurse him before bedtime and nap time and then sometimes once during the night if he wakes up but I just want to be done. The only thing is that I wouldn't know how to get him to take a nap otherwise. Bedtime I could deal with the crying and him fighting to not fall asleep without nursing but he has never been a good nap taker and I really do need that 1-2 hours of peace and only having to deal with Cameryn. I don't know how to do it though. Luke does not cry himself to sleep. I have tried that and it won't work with him. A few times maybe but that is only after I have tried everything else and he and I are both worn out.

It's only been recently though that I felt like this. I was fine nursing him until whenever but now it seems that he's forgotten how to nurse and as soon as he starts to drift off to sleep (mainly at nap time) he starts practically gnawing on me and I want to cry it hurts so badly. I've been trying to put him to bed at nighttime before he is fully asleep from nursing so he will get used to doing it by himself and I'll stay in the room while he cries from his crib and I'll rub his little back while he lays there. It worked a few nights in a row then one night it didn't and then we've been so busy the past few nights that he is fully asleep within like 5 minutes so I haven't got back to that routine. I guess I'll just stick with that for a while though and see how it goes then try it with nap times too. Here's hoping!!

Cameryn is sick today, my poor sweet girl. She got a fever sometime in the middle of the night and says that her throat hurts. She is so cute and helpless when she is sick. She never takes naps (except maybe occasionally in the car on long trips) but she has been falling asleep everywhere today. Though the poor girl keeps jolting herself awake again and saying that she almost fell off the bed/couch/whatever. She is so sweet. She sleeping on my bed right now as I type this with her bay and some books.

She mostly plays really well with Luke and I love watching them run around chasing each other and giggling. Though the other day they were playing and Luke got a little too excited and bit her right on her cheek. See picture below.

Luke also gets really jealous when she wants to sit on my lap or anything like that. He has this sneaky (well, he thinks it's sneaky) way of sitting next to her on a chair and then slowly scooting over to her and gently pushing her off. Or if she is on my lap he will start crying over nothing and come over to me and try to sqeeze between her and me and cuddle. She gets annoyed and upset but she can defiantly hold her own and it's probably good for both of them that he will fight back in his own sneaky (and bitey) way. Overall, life is going okay right now.

I am so excited because tomorrow I'm getting LOST Season 3 from Netflix (love it!!) and then I'll let my family borrow each disc after I'm done with them. Ezra got into LOST at college and I had bought seasons one and two last year and I made Andrew and my mom watch them and they really love it. We are all excited to watch it for the first time or (for me and Ezra) the second time. Ezra watched all season three except the first 6 episodes at school last year. So anyways, that's my exciting life that I'm looking forward to. I can't wait for it to come back on TV in February.

Embarassing things

2007-11-16T14:47:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm trying to get my kids in the car to go run some errands on Wednesday. Luke always wants to go on a walk when I put his shoes on and we go outside, so I figured I'd let him walk around some while Cameryn buckled herself into her car seat. She gets mad if I even touch one of the straps on her seat because she wants to do it all by herself. If I lift her into the car and into her seat, she will climb back out and then climb back in again all by herself. It can be quite annoying when I'm in a hurry, but she's a big girl and likes to do things herself.

Anyways, back to my story... So Luke is walking around the cars in the driveway and Cameryn is supposed to be buckling in. I tell her to hurry and buckle in and I hear her shouting something like "here comes the big belly... I see it... look at that big belly". I'm thinking, okay whatever just get buckled in so I can put Luke in the car and go. But I keep hearing her talk about a big belly and it's coming etc. I'm thinking she's sticking her own belly out and making it big. Then I hear someone at the mailbox (we have a community mailbox for 16 houses right in front of our house) and look to see this really really fat guy that lives a few houses up from us opening up his mailbox. I turn around quickly and go to the car to see what Cameryn is doing (I had been watching Luke the whole time) and she is turned around in her seat watching the guy at the mailbox. I quietly told her that she shouldn't say things like that because she could hurt his feelings and that it was rude, while trying not to laugh. Yes, I know, very immature to laugh at a fat guy, but I wasn't laughing at him really. No seriously, I was laughing because children can be funny/embarrassing and not even realize it. I was laughing at Cameryn because right as I got up to the car she's like "he has a big belly and I have a little belly. Well that really made me laugh (not out loud though). I laughed for about 5 minutes while driving and then again occasionally when I would think about it again later.

I knew he heard her say those things too, how could he not with her yelling them in the car. Oh well, I'm sure he didn't go home and cry or anything, it's not like he thinks he skinny. Okay that sounded rude, so sorry about that (but seriously.... come on).

Kids are so funny.

Late Pumpkin Patch pics

2007-11-13T10:28:00.001-05:00

I forgot that I had wanted to post some cute pics of my kids at the pumpkin patch. So even though it was a while ago, I just couldn't let you all go on without seeing how cute my kids are. I took a ton of pictures but I tried to pick the best ones to post.

We went on a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. Luke had fun walking around out there just aimlessly. Cameryn and my brother Devon just took off running and laughing. The kids played in some hay and with these gigantic pumpkins. My mom also decided to buy a real pumpkin pie while we were there (meaning it was actually made straight from a pumpkin, not the canned kind) It was soooooooooo good.

In fact, I looked up a recipe for how to do it and Mike and I made two pies ourselves from one of our pumpkins. They were delicious!! We were quite proud of ourselves. We have one pumpkin left which we are saving until Thanksgiving so we can make two more pies and impress our families with our baking skills.

On the hayride wagon after we picked our pumpkins. Cameryn had fun running and playing with Devon.

Cameryn and Luke with one of the pumpkins. Such a cute candid shot.

Luke had fun climbing on these big pumpkins.

Ezra is such a good sport for coming out there with us. I'm so lucky to have cool brothers for my kids to enjoy. Too bad the older two brothers will both be leaving soon:(

Siblings

2007-11-12T16:14:00.000-05:00

I think every child needs a sibling. It is such a special, wonderful and different relationship. Of course that doesn't mean that I look down on people that only have one child because I don't. My husband is an only child so I have nothing against him (of course) or his parents. Everyone is not going to feel like I do and is of course entitled to do what they feel is best for them. I guess I feel sad sometimes because I feel like he missed out on so much. I know not everyone can be (or is) close with their family but I am lucky to be close to mine so I have a different point of view.

Anytime I get to sit and watch my children play together, my heart just beats faster and I can't stop smiling. It is such a special thing to watch a brother and sister play together and get to know each other and love each other. I can't quite describe what I feel but it makes me happy.

Luke just loves his big sister so much and follows her all over the place. He will come up behind or in front of her and hold her around the waist and try to make her walk with him. It is the cutest thing. He just giggles and giggles whenever he does it. Cameryn has also started picking him up. It is so funny to watch because she only weighs a few pounds more then he does. She grabs him under his arms and lifts with all her might. Luke loves it and will wrap his legs around her so he can hold on better. Of course they always end up falling over but that makes it even funnier.

Luke is usually the first one up in the morning so when he hears Cameryn coming downstairs, he gets so excited and smiles so big. Whenever Cameryn is sad and crying about something, Luke will go over and get right in his face and babble at her, then lay his head on her and give her kisses. He seems to do this especially after he has been the cause of her crying.

Cameryn is also (most of the time) a really wonderful big sister. She is pretty good at sharing her toys and food with him. She also likes to try to lead him around the house by holding onto his hand. He obviously is not too thrilled with that part but handles it pretty well. I am always happy to see them play well together.

I think that me and my siblings (there are 8 of us) are pretty close and I love that. I wish that we all lived closer because I love spending time with them all. I had too much fun this past summer with my whole family out west. That's always to bad part to getting older and getting married and having kids. I love having my own little family of course but I miss all those fun and care free times I used to have with my brothers and sisters. We have so many stupid inside jokes that are fun to reminisce and laugh about.

I just hope that my children will continue to grow and love each other like I love my siblings. We had our ups and downs growing up (and really, who doesn't) but I think that we all turned out well and I can only hope and pray that my children will love and respect each other like I do all my brothers and sisters.

Halloween pictures

2007-11-07T14:12:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures I took from going out with the kids on Halloween. We went in my parents neighborhood and then to our church for trunk or treat.

Luke just wanted to get down and walk, walk, walk. Cameryn was real excited that people were giving her candy for nothing.
Isn't that the cutest little Lion you have ever seen?

Don't you just love her princess slippers?Simba and his dad.

Lions and Tigers and Hippo's?

2007-10-24T11:35:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday we all went to the National Zoo with a guy Mike works with, Steve, and his wife. We met for breakfast at Bob Evans and then drove to the Metro station to go to the zoo. Cameryn and Luke LOVED riding on the metro. Cameryn looked out the window and told us every time we went under a bridge or into a tunnel and Luke just bounced around pretty much everywhere. He did keep trying to put his mouth on things (I prevented it thankfully) which resulted in me finally putting him back into the stroller cause that's just gross. He still had fun from there though.

We got off the Metro at the stop that the Metro guy had recommended we use when we bought our tickets so we wouldn't have to push the stroller uphill which was really nice but we forgot to ask him which way to go after we got off the train. We asked some girl who didn't sound too sure but we followed her advice anyways. She of course ended up being wrong. Mike asked someone else a few blocks later and she said it was the other direction and on the other side of the street. So we got some good exercise that day.

It was the perfect day to go to the Zoo. There was a nice breeze and it wasn't too hot so all the animals were out and pretty active. Except unfortunately for the Pandas. They were sleeping in the sun so I didn't get any good pictures of them. I got one picture of one of them sleeping and you can see his face but that's it (it's the first picture in the video). Plus there were two levels to go on and stupidly we went on the bottom one and no one but me wanted to go back around to the top level so that we could actually see them, oh well.

We went onto the enclosure that has all the Elephants, Hippo's and used to have Giraffes. The gave the Giraffes to another zoo because they are in the middle of building up this new area they are calling an Elephant Walk. It supposed to be done in 2011 so hopefully they'll get the giraffes back after that. They had this huge Hippo in there. The picture that I took doesn't do him justice but I only had one hand to use since I was holding Luke who was trying to get down and climb into the enclosure. He loved the animals and kept making silly noises. It was like he was trying to talk to them. Anyways, this Hippo was HUGE- Mike kept saying he had to be at least 5,000 pounds and I don't doubt it.

Cameryn loved looking at the Elephants too. Right near where they were there were all these monkeys loose in the trees. Of course they are allowed to be loose but the zoo people keep tabs on them. They were so teeny and cute. There were a lot more of them in the Small Mammals building. That was a really fun building to be in. I was watching the Meerkats and they had three of them all standing up kinda standing guard or something and the rest of them would climb around and get into this little pile (below). It was so cute. The others were standing guard so they could cuddle. When someone walked up to quickly the guards would give a signal or whatever and the little pile of Meerkats would disperse and run away to hide only to come back out again and pile together again. So cute!!

They have these cables (or something like it) that the Orangutans (I can't say that word without thinking of Monty Python, he he) climb on. I've never been able to see them climbing on them but Saturday there were three of them up there together totally showing off for the crowd. I got a video of it (below) but my hand was again a little shaky since I was only using one hand to do it so sorry if you get dizzy when you watch it.

For some reason they had the make and female lions separated which was neat for us though because they were "talking" back and forth. It was really cool to see. The tigers were also really active. There were two of them the were playing and chasing each other around. Stupidly I just sat there watching instead of getting it on the camera that was sitting there in my hand. I could even tell when it was about to happen. Anyone who has had a cat can tell when one is about to "get" the other one.

Over all it was a really nice day and the kids had so much fun at the zoo watching all the animals. Luke fell asleep in the stroller while we were walking out and stayed asleep while on the Metro. It was a busy but really wonderful day.

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It smells like bug poop

2007-10-12T09:47:00.001-04:00

Me, Cameryn and Luke were outside when Cameryn wrinkled up her little nose and said that it smelled like bug poop. I just laughed and said to myself, what a perfect title for a blog entry. It was just so cute and funny and very random. I mean, I didn't smell anything. Children say the funniest things. Does anyone know what bug poop smells like?

I just thought I would post some pictures I took recently and a video.

Here is Cameryn modeling her Princess shoes. Isn't she an adorable little model? I don't know why she thought it a better idea to put the shoes on before the underwear and pants but it's cute anyways. You can just barely see her teeny tiny bum.

Here is Luke "riding" the dog (notice the nice straight eyes) and one of him walking. He doesn't really have a favorite blanket but lately he likes to walk with something draped over his shoulders.

Cameryn was fixing her own hair in this picture. She clipped in two barrettes and it looked so stylishly messy so I took a picture.

I came into Cameryn's room to see if she was dressed yet and found her "nursing" her monkey, Bobo. She said she couldn't get dressed yet because he was hungry. What a good little mommy. She even switched sides.

Warning: Video contains a cute little naked bottom.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

That screaming in the background is Cameryn in time out in her room for hitting and biting. She is usually a very sweet girl with occasional tantrums but lately she has been so horrible. She hits me and Luke and has started biting again. The only thing I can do that seems to work slightly is to put her in her room with one of those child safe things on the door knob so she can't keep coming out. It sounds mean but she won't listen to me until she has cried herself out and I don't want to constantly be spanking her bottom or something like that. Anyways, I just wanted to explain the screaming in the background of the video of Luke. Sorry.

Lazy times and Nightmares

2007-10-11T14:17:00.000-04:00

I have had so much to say recently but have not really felt like blogging. I haven't even been taking that many pictures lately. I feel so lazy and bored so much of the time. I wish I could sit and read all day long sometimes. I have still been doing things around the house but it takes all my will power to make myself do them; like dishes and dusting, yuk. I am not unhappy or anything. I guess I'm just sick of my house and the monotonous duties required of having any kind of abode. I just need to keep making myself do things and hopefully I will get out of this slump.

On a happier note:

Luke is walking like crazy now. He still crawls a lot like when he wants to get somewhere really fast but more and more he has been standing up and walking. He is so funny when he walks. When he first started trying to walk, he would try to start going before he was even fully standing or he would try to go way too fast. It took him a while to realize that he couldn't walk as fast as he could crawl yet. It was just so adorable to see. He gets so excited when he does anything and he has to most adorable little toothy grin. He wrinkles up his little nose and squeals with delight. I'm going to try to get a video of him walking cause he is just oh so cute.

He is so adorable. It's hard not to pick him up and cuddle him all day long. Not that he would mind. That boy is a very cuddly little guy. He crawls/walks up to me and will sit on my lap for 10, even 20 minutes sometimes. He even likes to lay his head on my chest and just have me hold him. I'm going to enjoy all that while I can too. Though Cameryn still occasionally likes me to hold her so that's nice to know that I still have a few more years of cuddling. I know it can't last forever though.

Cameryn's little imagination is definitely not little anymore. She is always pretending something and playing with her Princess Barbie's and other toys, just making up stuff. It is so wonderful to see. The only bad part is she has so many nightmares and is scared to sleep in her bed now. Mike and I have been at our wits end to try and come up with a solution for this but so far we have only found temporary things that work kind of. Most nights she falls asleep in the rocking chair in her room and later we go and move her into her bed before we go to bed. Usually when I go in to mover her, she has her blanket over her head too. Poor girl is all sweaty under that thing too but she likes to do it. She comes into our room at least once on most nights now and I let her fall asleep with us and then move her back to her bed. I just don't want her to get accustomed to sleeping with us. Sometimes she wants the dog in her room while she falls asleep and we let her out later as well.

We just don't know what to do anymore. It seems that as soon as she turned 3, her imagination just kicked into high gear and now she is scared of her room at night. She is terrified of snakes and other reptiles for whatever reason. When we would try to put her to bed in her bed, she wouldn't lay her head on her pillow. I asked her why and she got all scared and said that a snake would say "Hello". She would lay her head half way down her bed and curl up into a little ball. She also has some dream about my sister, Jessica, pushing a button and a snake coming out of it. Still even after talking and stories and songs, she still gets out of bed right after we have left and closed the door. She lays in the hallway covered in her blanket and waits for us to come back. I have had to resort to telling her that if she gets out of her room again that I will have to spank her bottom. That usually works but not always, so I end up having to spank her which I don't want to do but I have to so she will learn.

I've thought about moving Luke's crib in the room with her and they can sleep together. It's not like they have to have separate rooms so why not. I was actually planning on doing that when they got a little older anyways. Mike is not sure about the idea but I think it might actually work. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them, we really don't know what else to do.

Here are a few recent pictures of my kids. Mike bought Cameryn a Princess tea set and she has been having lots of tea parties with her Barbies. The other picture is Luke and Landon riding together on Luke's battery powered 4-wheeler. It was so cute. Luke was zooming (as much as he could in our crowded small house) around the living room and kitchen and Landon just climbed on behind him. I tried to get a better picture but the dumb dog was just too hyper and kept getting in the way so that's the best I could do.

I hate Mosquitoes

2007-10-01T11:21:00.000-04:00

Mike took the kids into the backyard yesterday to play while he washed the dog. Well, I guess the mosquitoes are still everywhere back there because this is what Luke looks like this morning. (scroll down for pictures) He has three bites on his face, two on his ear and two on each leg. The ones on his right leg are HUGE!! His ear is so swollen that it sticks out from his head.

The poor little guy is loved by those horrible bugs just as much as I am. They never bother Mike or Cameryn, but Luke and I are one tasty dinner for them.

I have been pretty good about putting bug spray on him and I before taking the kids outside and our backyard is so small, I rarely go there anyways. Mike thought is was cool enough to not put the bug spray on but after about five minutes, he looked over and saw one on him. He killed it and then noticed all the other bites. Needless to say, he took the kids right back inside.

Poor Luke though was up scratching at the bites on his leg at about 5:00 this morning. I was able to get him back to sleep right before 6:30 (I was still too tired to get up for good and so was Luke).

I hate those stupid horrible pointless bugs!!!!!

Catching up

2007-09-14T10:58:00.000-04:00

In the week leading up to Luke's surgery, there was a lot that happened around here but I was too busy and preoccupied to write about it then. So I'm going to catch up as briefly as I can.

Last Saturday we had Cameryn's birthday party. We just invited our families and some of our close friends to come around 3:00. Mike's family was moving into their new house that same day so they couldn't come, but Robin (my mother-in-law) had come on Wednesday to give Cameryn her present and to play with her for awhile as well.

Cameryn had a really fun time and got some really cool presents. My parents got her a princess dress and some shoes for playing dress up. Mike and I got her the movie Monsters Inc., some Toy Story figures to play with and a Sleeping Beauty story book play house. It folds out into parts of a castle and then some woods. She has really been having fun playing with that too. Of course it has a bunch of tiny tiny pieces to it that Luke just loves to try and get. She also got some clothes, a Barbie doll, Play dough, and some bath time finger paints from our friends.

My family got their first and we were all in the kitchen eating when out of no where Luke up and takes 7 steps over to me!! It was so weird. Luke hadn't shown the slightest interest in walking before that and then suddenly when there are all these people there he takes his first steps. It was so awesome and surreal at the same time. He was so proud of himself too. After that Kathryn and Devon kept trying to get him to do it again but again, he wasn't interested.

After we all ate, Cameryn opened up her presents and we had some Princess cake. Mike took Cameryn to the store with him and she picked it out all by herself. Mike said at first she wanted a "Larry cake". Larry is the cucumber from Veggie Tales which Cameryn loves. They didn't have that so she of course picked out Princesses instead. It would have been a nice change of pace if we could have gotten a Veggie Tales cake but oh well, maybe next year. This year Cameryn finally blew out her own candles too (one by one) and thought it was hilarious. I gave Luke some of him own cake too and he had fun making a mess of himself and anything else within his reach. He looked like he had a blue icing beard.

Poor Luke was also having some pooping issues that day and had the worst rash, so I got some of Cameryn's training underwear and let him wear it to air his poor little bottom out. He looked so cute in them too. I didn't get a very good picture of him wearing them unfortunately. We were all joking about it though saying that he still looked like he was wearing a diaper because of how big his bottom is. I mean it really is a pretty big bottom for a little boy. Overall it was a nice day for a birthday party.

The rest of my week leading up to yesterday was spent going to the doctors for his pre-op check up on Monday, working on Tuesday and trying to get things done on Wednesday.

So far today Luke is acting himself though. He slept pretty well last night going to bed at 8:00 and sleeping for over 4 hours. I think he only woke up though because the medicine had worn off. He was up for good at about 5:00 though. I tried to get him back to sleep; he didn't want to so I gave up at 6:00 and took him downstairs to play. He played and ate until about 9:30 and then he was tired again. Hopefully he will take another nap later too. I am so proud of my little man and how well he is recovering from yesterday. What a brave little boy.

Surgery Day

2007-09-13T17:03:00.000-04:00

Luke had his surgery today and it went so well. I was so proud of him.

We left the house this morning with Luke at 6:15 am. My mom came over to watch Cameryn when she woke up because we couldn't take her with us (I didn't want to do that anyways). We got to the hospital at 7:15 and luckily didn't have to wait around much. They took us back to Pediatrics and did all those pre-op poking and prodding that they have to do and Luke took it all in stride. He just stared around and when they were finished, we took him over to where all the toys were and he played for awhile. We had to wait till about 8:45 for them to take us up to the 3rd floor were the surgery center was. Luke was so adorable with his little hospital gown on. Unfortunately I left my camera with our bags in Pediatrics and forgot to take a picture when we were down there. Just take my word he was so cute.

When we got to our little cubical thing in the pre-surgery area, he started to get a little fussy. He was really hungry by then and kept trying to lay down in my lap in nursing position. It was so sad and I hated not being able to nurse him (plus I was really full and needed to nurse him). Finally the doctor came in to do some final measurements, then the anaesthesiologist and finally the OR nurse. I got to back into the OR with Luke while they were putting him to sleep. It was so heartbreaking to see him in there. They used the mask to give him the anaesthesia and when he finally fell asleep, he was whimpering in his sleep. It was really hard not to cry after that. I was pretty good about controlling myself though. I knew that everything was going to be fine so I was able to relax a little and not feel so stresses out.

It was over in about an hour and they let us go back into the recovery area. Luke was very upset as they were trying to feed him a bottle of plain water!!! How dare they!! Actually Luke likes water but only in a regular cup, not in a bottle. If it's a bottle, it has to have a little bit of juice mixed with the water or it has to be milk. They tried to see if he would take the water from me but he still didn't want it. Then we tried the sugar water and he still didn't want it. Finally they let me nurse him because they didn't want him to stay that upset.

They left in his IV until they were sure that he wasn't going to throw up. I forgot to get a picture of that though. They put it in after his was under and they had his whole arm all wrapped up like a cast so he couldn't pull it out when he woke up. It was so cute. He didn't like it much. He kept swinging it around trying to get it off and I got hit in the face once. He was very disoriented though and kept thrashing around and arching his back, that is until they let me nurse him. It was so nice and he quickly fell back asleep. He was so worn out and hungry from the whole day I just was so happy that it was all over. I finally remembered about my camera and we took a picture of him nursing in his cute little gown.

He slept the whole way home and then actually played a little when we got into the house. I was so surprised that he was handling it all so well. He crawled around a little and played with the dog but was quickly tired out. I put him down for a nap and took one myself. He slept for another 2 hours.

His eyes look kinda gross right now. They look all bloody on the inside corner of his eyes and they told us that if he cries, his tears will be pink. The redness should go away in about 10-14 days but he is already eating better and is keeping it all down. We are alternating giving him Tylenol or Motrin every three hours. I know it's usually every four hours but they don't want him to be in a lot of pain so they said every three hours is fine.

Someone from church brought us dinner tonight and my mom brought Cameryn back home around 5:00. She was very happy to be home again with us and was very sweet to Luke.

So it's finally over and I happy that it all went well. Thanks to all of you who kept us in your prayers and thoughts today.

Luke nursing and then right after we got home, already smiling. My wonderful boy!!

Playing with Leia (actually, hitting her with a piece of paper). After his nap, happy and crawling.

My silly little man with his Cheerio bowl.