For my enjoyment!!

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!!

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Twilight and other weekend stuff

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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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!!!

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

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.