Shipley Look-alike Meter

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

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Cameryn's new do

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

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

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?

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?

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

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

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

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

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.