Kids in the pool

We have finally started having nice weather here so I decided to get out our little kiddie pool. I didn't feel like looking for Cameryn's swim suit so I only put in about 2-3 inches of water for her to splash her feet in. It quickly turned into much more.

I was so glad that I remembered to bring my camera out to our backyard. Unfortunately, my memory card was almost full and my battery was also going dead. I had wanted to take pictures and a little movie of the kids but I didn't have room. Oh well, what I did get is still priceless. I have very silly children... especially my little girl.

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The song is a little silly and doesn't really fit the scene but Cameryn liked it so I used it. She loved watching herself being silly over and over again.

Just some cute pics

I forgot to take pictures of my kids in their new Easter Sunday clothes (horrible right) but I did take pictures of Luke in his Easter outfit this past Sunday. He looks like he should be giving a talk or passing the sacrament or teaching a class in his cute little suit. Isn't he adorable. Everyone at church thought he was so cute and they of course were right. Just look at him.... I can hardly stand how adorable he is sometimes. Ahh the price of having cute kids.

I didn't get a picture of Cameryn in her dress but boy did she love it. We were calling it her Cinderella dress and she put it on and was twirling around and singing any song that popped into her head. She was so beautiful. Wi I'll get a picture of her in it up here eventually. I did get a picture of her dressing up with her Dollar Store Princess jewelry that Mike bought her though. She was in heaven when he brought it home.

Here is Cameryn just being silly with a bucket on her head that usually holds blocks and with Daddy's shoes on. This girl loves her shoes. I have so many pictures of her in my shoes or Mike's shoes.

Two more pictures of my favorite boy. This is right after a bath with his hair just everywhere. It's getting so long now that it only sticks up in a mohawk in the very back now. Right after his bath though it will stand up everywhere then slowly lay down in the front. I'm going to have to get it cut soon though. His hair grows so fast.

His eyes are a little crossed in the one picture but that will hopefully be fixed soon. He has a eye doctor appointment this coming Monday to schedule surgery (hopefully). Still cute though.

Anniversary

Mike and I had our 6th Anniversary this past Saturday (April 14th). We all had breakfast together and then Mike went out to run errands with Cameryn. Then we all went to my parent's house for Cameryn to play, Mike to go shopping with Luke and me to mow lawns. Sounds like a dumb thing to do on an anniversary but I had promised my dad.

There is this old lady, Barbara, that lives next door to my parents and we have always tried to help her out with different things. My dad tries to take her once a week to go grocery shopping and they always invite her over for Christmas dinner. She doesn't have any family near here and never had any children so she enjoys the company. When I was younger I would always help her clean her house and I mowed her lawn up until I graduated from high school. I was paid (not very much of course) and after me my younger siblings kept it up. Last summer my dad and my brother Andrew took turns mowing and raking but they are so busy now. Her lawn is very big and VERY thick so I told my dad that I would once again take over the job. It's not much money, but I'm saving it for our trip to Utah this summer. Plus, I just don't think that my dad should have to do it.

Anyways, it took me a long time to mow it but I finally finished and Mike and I went home to shower and go out to eat. We took Luke with us but left Cameryn at my mom's so we could have a little bit of time to ourselves. She was having more fun there anyways. We went to T.G.I. Fridays and it was so good. I love that restaurant. Luke of course was the cutest thing in the whole restaurant and our server couldn't get enough of him. We had a nice dinner and went to pick up Cameryn from my mom's. She didn't want to leave of course even though she had been there since about 1:30 that afternoon. We finally all got in the car and went home.

Mike got me a beautiful necklace with diamonds in it on this really pretty, really thin silver chain. I can't wear it too much though because Luke is drawn to anything dangly, like hair and necklaces. I'm never one to really make big deals about days, birthdays, anniversaries, Valentines Day (which I really don't like) so in my opinion it turned out to be a very wonderful, nice anniversary. I don't even mind when we have to bring kids along with us either.

This is just a cute picture of Luke that I took yesterday (and really when is he not cute). I always thought this outfit that someone bought him was kinda ugly but as I am running out of winter clothes that fit his hunky chunky little body I put it on him. Lo and behold it was so adorable on him that I am kicking myself for not putting it on him earlier.

Springtime busy

I have been having such a busy few weeks that I haven't had any time for blogging, let alone even getting on the Internet. I have been having lots of play dates for Cameryn which have been fun for her and me. It's nice to talk to other adults during the day when usually my conversations are limited to quick ones on the phone, trying to reason with a 2 year old, talking to an 8 month old and talking to myself (which unfortunately happens a lot).

Cameryn went to a birthday party last weekend for a friend that we met at the library reading time for little kids. Cameryn is really shy in big groups until she gets warmed up so she ended up having a lot of fun. They had a little Easter egg hunt in the back yard since it was so close to Easter and she loved it. Every time she picked up an egg she would shake it to hear if it had anything in it. She very quickly filled up her little basket with eggs and came back over to me to start eating the candy that was in them all.

Here is Cameryn doing an impersonation of Cinderella. She was singing the song from Cinderella in these pictures (A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes).

Luke is still not crawling and I'm getting impatient. I know I shouldn't but I can't help it sometimes. He is so close but at the same time he's not. I thought that he was close 2 months ago and by the things he was doing was positive that he would be crawling by the end of the month. He didn't and doesn't seem any closer to figuring out the whole crawling thing. I know sometimes boys are slower at the developmental things like crawling but he'll be 9 months old on April 25th and I'm starting to worry that he won't ever crawl.

I LOVE when they start to crawl. It is so cute and it makes them so happy to be able to move around on their own. I have no problem with him getting into things because all the stuff on his level already is child safe. All I'll have to do is block off the steps which isn't a problem either. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to help him along either.

I wonder if his legs are too chubby still to crawl or something. Is that possible? He can't stay up on his knees when I put him like that, he just falls back onto his belly. He has no problem with staying up by his arms because I've always put him on his belly. But he doesn't do the rocking back and forth or anything. The closest he gets is when he is sitting up and he leans as far as he can over until he's on one knee and then he falls on his face and cries. It's quite annoying.

Oh well, I'm just going to keep hoping (and praying) that he'll get it eventually. Here's hoping...

Stickers

I caught Cameryn hiding in the corner of my living room with a page full of her Princess stickers that she was putting all over her shirt.

I have been trying to find a way to avoid arguments with her over the same things every day, for example: getting dressed, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, etc.- pretty much everything except playing with toys. So I made up two little charts for her on which I drew little pictures of her doing different things. I have one chart for the day time and one for bed time. Everytime she does something on her chart, she gets to put a sticker on it. We even bought her some special Princess stickers to get her to want to do all the things on her chart even more.

Cameryn is quite the procrastinator, especially at bedtime, so I made a chart of all the things she asks me to do for her when Mike or I are trying to get her into bed. She asks for water, to go potty, and sometimes even to brush her teeth. So I figured that if she could mark all these things off on a chart with some fun stickers that she wouldn't ask me over and over again about them all.

It has been working pretty well I must say and I am so happy about it. She loves to fill up another day of stickers and is getting better about sticking with her routine, especially at night.

Though, she still gives me a hard time in the mornings most days. Sometimes I can't get her to eat breakfast until 10:00am. I don't know how she can wait that long when I feel hungry sometimes in the middle of the night. Oh well, it's always a work in progress with kids.

Messy baby food

Today while Mike was feeding Luke at dinner, he made a grab for the whole jar of food. He actually got a hold of it but it was quickly snatched back by Mike. Luke got so upset and was crying and crying because it had been taken away from him. Mike kept feeding him and he seemed okay but in between each bite he would stick out his bottom lip and start crying again until the next bite came. He did that for at least 2 or 3 minutes until he finally forgot why he had been crying. It was so cute I had to run to get the camera and get his sweet, sad little face on film.

He loves eating anything I will give him as far as crackers and pieces of what I am eating, but it has been slow going with the actual baby food. Everything seemed to give him gas when I tried to start earlier so I took like a six week break and am now starting up again. It seems to be going much better this time, so hopefully it will stick.

I actually don't really like feeding babies food (until they get older and feed themselves, then I don't mind them eating food). It is so messy and then their diapers start to stink cause it's not just breast milk anymore. Plus I never get to eat my dinner with everyone else. I can usually get a quick bite here or there but most of the time I have to wait until Mike is done and then we switch places so I can eat and he feeds Luke the rest of the baby food.

On Thursday it was such a nice day so I took the kids to lunch at the Chick-fil-A where my mom works part time and we had lunch. Then when my mom got off work we all went at the park and played. It was Luke's first time in a swing and he just loved it. Of course I forgot my camera but got a picture with my cell phone. He was laughing and kicking his cute little feet. He liked watching Cameryn come down the twisty slide too. He would laugh to see her at the top and laugh even more when she suddenly popped up at the bottom.

Cameryn did not want to leave. She was running around with Kathryn and Devon (my younger sister and brother) and laughing and chasing ducks and playing on all the equipment. She kept getting mad though because there was a little boy that would occasionally follow her around. She's already got the boys lining up and she's only 2 and 1/2!! Just kidding!!

It's supposed to rain for the next week practically but it's that time of year so I'm going to try not to complain. I've been trying to line up some play dates just to be able to get out of the house and get Cameryn to play with other kids. People are so busy now a days that it is so hard to set up something that is a good day for everyone. I'm trying though, so hopefully with all the people I've been calling a few play dates will be had.

Hello there

Luke has this cute habit of looking at me sideways and I was finally ready with my camera to get a picture of it.

He really enjoyed last weeks beautiful weather. He wasn't sure about sitting in the grass at first, especially in his summer clothes. He cried the second he felt the prickly grass under him, but once I got him interested in playing with the grass and other toys, he quickly forgot about it.

Cameryn was a very attentive big sister as well. She would talk to him and play with him and get him more toys. He loved all the attention and being outside in the fresh air.

He was so excited when he got to see his daddy driving up and coming up the walk. You can really see his cute little mohawk in the picture with his dad. I love his cute little smile and he is just so cuddly and happy. He's my cute chubby little man.

I can't wait for this summer when we get to go to the park and to the pool with my mom and brother and sister. Kathryn is so good with Cameryn at the pool and loves to play with her in the water. I am hoping that Luke with like the pool as much as Cameryn does though. He likes baths but pool water is much different so we'll have to wait and see.

Mike got out his little dirt bike and took Cameryn for a ride on it. She actually does enjoy being on there even though she doesn't look too thrilled in the picture. It is supposed to be warmer again towards the end of the week again and I'm looking forward to walks in a stroller and to the park.

Busy week

I have a lot to write about but so little time that I am going to try to make a few separate and small posts today.

I finally got some pictures of Cameryn kissing her Mr. Potato Head. She is so silly. I was just glad that I actually had my camera right next to me when she was doing it. I love seeing her little imagination come to life and watching her doing these adorable things.

We've had a very interesting week as far as weather goes. All last weekend it was beautiful weather; sunny and warm enough that all you needed was a light jacket to go outside. Then Monday and Tuesday it was so warm (in the 70's) that I needed to get out Cameryn's shorts and t-shirts and find some rompers for Luke to wear. Mike went to Toy's R Us and bought Cameryn and new tricycle to learn to ride. She was so funny. She would try to pedal herself but then would stop paying attention to where she was going, so we would have to remind her to steer which would then cause her to take her feet off the pedals. I never knew there was so much to teaching kids how to ride even a tricycle. She has been having a lot of fun with it though.

Well, Wednesday it started to cool down and got really windy and a little bit colder but not too bad. Then Thursday it just kept getting worse and by Friday it was snowing and sleeting. We got about 6 inches. Cameryn just loved it though. She went outside like 3 different times and was out there for at least an hour each time. She was eating the snow and jumping up and down making feet prints. I let her play on our deck out back so I could watch her and work on another blanket that I was making for someone. We also went out again on Saturday and made a small snowman together. I tried to make it bigger but there wasn't much snow on our deck left to make a big one. Mike also moved her playhouse outside (it was in our basement taking up a lot of room) and she played out there for a while, of course still trying to find as much clean snow as possible to eat. I early on instructed her to not eat any other color snow but white as we have a dog and that would just be really gross.

Today, it is much nicer outside again. Still windy and cold but sunny again and the snow is almost gone already. She is actually taking a nap right now which is a rare thing, but as she has been so incredibly grumpy the past few days in between her periods of fun and happiness, she definitely needs one.

I've had an interesting week. I decided on Saturday that I had had enough of Luke not sleeping in his room so I cleaned it out. I fixed the crib bumper (some of the tie things had gotten ripped off from a certain 2 year old playing in the crib), I washed the sheets again (cat hair), moved the monitor from Cameryn's room into his, and moved some stuff around. I was really nervous about how many times I was going to have to get up and if his crying was going to wake up Cameryn and other worries but it turned out very nicely. He only woke up twice!! Wonder of wonder, Miracle of miracles!!

He's not the soundest sleeper but has so far managed to stay asleep as I move him into his bed down the hall after nursing him in mine. Unfortunately that is THE ONLY way to get him to sleep and stay that way for now. Even when he was a newborn, if I nursed him sitting somewhere and then moved him into his bassinet or where ever, he would always wake up. So I have to nurse him laying down in my bed. For nap time I leave him there and at night, I of course move him to his own bed.

Before if he would wake up while I was moving him I would make him cry himself back to sleep. I hate doing that, it's so hard to lay there and listen to them cry and scream, but soooooooo worth it in the end. At least it was with Cameryn, I draw the line at letting them cry for more than an hour, which he does sometimes. With Cameryn, when she would wake up the first time during the night (mostly out of habit) I would make her cry herself back to sleep. It usually only lasted for 30 minutes then became less and less. Then the second time she woke up I would go get her. She pretty quickly started sleeping for a lot longer and it was really WONDERFUL.

With Luke, the whole crying himself to sleep isn't working so well this time. He just screams and screams, then just quietly sobs and you think he will fall asleep, but no he just keeps crying and crying. He is slowly getting back to sleeping for longer periods of time all by himself though so I guess I'll just wait and see how this goes.

Cameryn did the sweetest thing the other night. We were coming home when it had already gotten dark and Luke HATES to be in the car driving while its dark. He screams the whole time and no matter the time and distance traveling, will not fall asleep. So I decided to try something new, I turned on one of the car lights in the back. It didn't seem to be working, then suddenly he was quiet. So I'm sitting there thinking I'm so smart when I look in my rear view mirror and see that Cameryn had reached over and was holding his little hand in hers. It was the most precious little thing. I almost started crying it was so sweet. She looks up to see me watching her and she just said, "Luke was crying, so I'm holding his hand and he's not crying anymore." She held his little hand the whole way home. I felt so lucky to have such a sweet, thoughtful little girl. He even fell asleep until we got home and I was picking him up out of the car seat.

Lately, we have been having trouble with Cameryn going to bed and letting us leave the room. She is in a regular toddler bed so can get out whenever she wants. She usually doesn't but lately will sit up when we try to leave, after singing her every song we can think of and talking to her about what we are going to do tomorrow and what we did today and also holding her for awhile in the rocking chair, and scream for us to hold her again or that she needs water or to go potty or more songs, etc. We know she is just procrastinating but we also don't want her screaming to wake up her brother in the next room. So on Saturday, Mike, me and the kids went and ran some errands together. We went to Toys 'R Us and bought her these Disney Princess sheets for toddler beds. She was so excited!! Unfortunately it hasn't worked as well as we wanted but it helps a little. She's not always so bad but some nights she REALLY REALLY tries your patience. It's a work in progress with her all the time, but I guess it is with all children.

New Blanket

I decided to finally go to a fabric store and buy some material so that I could make Luke a blanket. He already has plenty of them, but I wanted to give him one from me. Plus, Cameryn has this blanket that my sister, Lindsey, made for her that she absolutely loves and takes with her everywhere. She calls it her "bay" because she didn't know how to say blanket when she was first starting to talk and bay was as close as she could get. Anyways, she loves her blanket and so I modeled Luke's after hers as far as the material and the binding on the edges.

Luke seemed really excited when I gave his new blanket to him. He loves to chew on the soft satiny binding and Cameryn is so excited for him to have a "bay" just like hers. I just love the cute clover pattern too. Someone asked me if he was Irish because of the blanket. I didn't want it to be blue because so many things that you receive from other people when you have a boy are blue and the clovers just popped out at me. It only took a few hours (spread out over 2 days of course) but I think my first baby blanket turned out really well.

Doesn't Luke have the most adorable smile!!