Love this time of year!

Cameron has been a total blast with all of the Christmas stuff going on. He loves the "Crimpas Tree with the Ormanets" He loves his "Baby Jesus toys" He is excited to wrap presents for little friends and cousins. He loves all of the yummy Christmas treats.

We have been waiting for snow but only got a little dusting over Thanksgiving Weekend (when we were down in the valley). I am really dreaming of a White Christmas but of course it has been "unusually warm and snowless this year" Just my luck!

Graydon is doing great, almost 6 months, in the 94 percentile for his height. He cut an upper tooth but it's a lateral or canine (Not the front ones) It totally tripped us out but the Doctor said it can happen it looks like the front 2 are not too far behind. You could say that all I want for Christmas is for those 2 front teeth to finally pop through. (and yes we have been singing the song) Could someone get Gray the manual for how to cut teeth for Christmas this year. Between being incredibly early, taking too long, and coming out of order he really needs to study up!

Lastly , I have finished Cameron's big Christmas Present! Thanks to a lot of help from Mom and her trusty friend Berni. I will post pics after Christmas... I know you can hardly contain your excitement!

Halloween Wrap up

The Star Wars Clan: Luke, Leia, Hans and Yoda

Trunk or Treating

All Gray did his entire first Halloween

Momma's Little Monsters!

Grateful

I am so grateful for these boys! They are the world to me!

I am grateful for their friendship with each other.


I am grateful for Gray's First Thanksgiving, his sweet spirit and love of laughter!


I am grateful for Cameron's fun personality, love of learning, and excitement of everything!

Fall Fun

Lots of Fall Fun last month!

Fall Playdough Mats with Orange Pumpkin Pie Spice Playdough and Apple Pie Spice Playdough

Played with Corn Kernals
M&M Tree Game with Fall M&M's
Foam Leaves on a Tree from Mawgie

Happy Fall!

Croup

We had a wonderful, although short, visit from Pete's brother David and Jenny and their little kiddos Olivia and Owen (or Owenyaya as Cameron calls them... does he think they are one person?) They are so much fun! Next time they have to stay longer...
We were trying to arrange family photos but alas it was not to be. Things were just to crazy and by things I mean kids... Also all of the beautiful trees we wanted to take pics by had lost all of their leaves in four days. The wind was CRA-ZY this week (it tried to blow us away and freeze our hands and faces walking to preschool this week... I wish I had a car!!!) Never fear, we will try again Thanksgiving weekend down in the valley. I know you all can't wait to see them.

In the middle of it all Cameron got Croup again. Last time was at Disneyland 2 years ago and totally bummed out the first part of the trip. Croup totally sucks and sounds so scary, it freaked me out last time he had it, hopefully Pete thinks I reacted a little calmer this time around. He slept in our bed last night (Owen and Olivia were in his room), kicked me in the face a few time, grinds his teeth like there's no tomorrow and needless to say after the baby woke up several times last night too, we will be having a comfy cozy, hopefully quiet and calm, jamma/movie day at home... with lots of snuggles and maybe some hot chocolate... mmmm I'm going to go make some right now.

Last but not least... Snow is in the forecast for next week! WHAT!!!!?? I can't tell if I am freaking out because I am excited or scared pantsless. (hopefully not the latter since it will be very cold ;)

P.S. I will be trying to post a picture of our family in all of the Halloween amazingness soon. Is amazingness a word? It is now!

Just a thought...

I just saw this quote on a friend's blog and had to share it! It is so how I feel right now and have been trying to live my life like, since I have been home with these little ones.

"The tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled, will all disappear all too soon, and you will, to your surprise, miss them profoundly... find joy in the journey - now." -President Monson.

Love your family... love your life Right Now! not (when we can buy a house) or (when this stage is over).

Halloween fun

Cameron and I have been having lots of fun celebrating Halloween. Here are just a FEW of the things we have done this month...

We made a Mummy Buddy using craft sticks and felt

Surprised Daddy with carrot cake cupcakes all dressed up!

Had several versions of a Lightsaber Lunch like this one


Made hand print ghosts

These are the beans Cameron has been playing with


We also read a ton of Halloween books from our Halloween box.

These are some of our favorites this year...

I also printed out some fun games like this movement one

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1aN6aNndLRyOGI1N2I3YmUtYzA0NS00OWM5LTk1MDctMTBkMGEyMmFhZDdj&hl=en&authkey=CLWrlMIL

and this matching one (she also has a shapes and a letters one that we played)

http://lilmoptop.blogspot.com/2010/09/halloween-memory-game-free-printable.html

Anyway tons of fun at our house, so happy and grateful I can be home with the kiddos and do fun activities like these all of the time!

"Lucas Schoolwalker"

Lucas Shoolwalker with his "washoo washoo" (the sound that a light saber makes and what he calls one...

And his master Baby Yoda

Here he is with his game face on

A couple action shots

Getting "Darf Bader"

and the Stormtroppers

"The force is strong with this one"

Some Jedi training

"Hmmmmmm, much to learn, you still have"

The Pumpkin Patch

Cameron's awesome preschool teacher took the class on a field trip to the local farm and pumpkin patch. I went for a trip out of the house. We went through a corn maze and Cameron was more interested in the corn, then the maze.

Then in the pumpkin patch, all he wanted at first was to play with the lady bugs

Now he is excited about the pumpkins!

Here is the whole class!

All our pumpkins (I got such a kick out of the grayish green one, I had to buy it!)

No preschool today (fall break) so we made homemade play dough tinted orange and scented with pumpkin pie spices. Then we played with our new fall play dough mats. We also played with some black beans in a bucket with measuring cups and spoons...
Later today we did a photo shoot of our Halloween costumes and they turned out great, but they were with my bigger camera, so I have to figure out how to get the pictures on this laptop.

Autumn is here!

If you don't live in the desert you will not understand my excitement in this post, but.....

Autumn is here!

I can't believe we live close enough to take a little drive with our family and see this!

and this!
And we were able to dress warmly in October and take pictures like this.


And this!

One more shot of our beautiful drive.

And, OH MY HECK! There are deer just "hanging out" on the side of the road! WHAT! I think we moved to paradise!

we had such a great time, ate at a yummy restaurant in Springerville, went to the coolest little shop in town and really enjoyed our Saturday.

Later in the week, it rained and really chilled down! It's so awesome to put on our long sleeved Halloween shirts and not feel bad for Cameron that it's still 100 degrees outside!

Quick Update

Still no camera hook-up, but I wanted to share what has been going on.
Last week Gray popped 2 teeth out like it's nobody's business! I can't believe it, he is only 3 months. Besides teething week, he laughs and coos all day long and it is music to my ears. He is also trying very hard to wean himself and we had to start supplementing with bottles. Since then, he has really packed it on. Every day he looks just a little bit fatter!

Cameron is LOVING preschool and always wants to stay longer. He comes home singing a little song, or saying a little poem almost every time. He wants me to read to him all of the time and just last week earned his first BOOK-IT for a free pizza. He is incredibly excited for Halloween and Christmas and we have been doing tons of fun crafts and activities.

The weather has really cooled down and with the chill in the air I have been really getting excited for the holidays. I have taken on a few homemade projects for both the boys so we'll see how that goes. I hope I haven't bitten off too much, but the good news is if I don't finish, Cameron's Birthday is in February, so I could give it to him then, right? ;)

I'm still here...

So incredibly busy and happy... but still here. We have moved to Taylor, Az population 4,000 and are loving every minute of it! It's right by Snowflake and the temple. Pete got a job with APS and we are renting a fun home on 2+ acres! That's right 2+ acres! The views are incredible and the weather is beautiful... I would post pictures, but our main computer with my camera software is not up and running yet. I am so excited to finally be back home with my babies. Cameron is in a little preschool class now and it's just two doors down the street. She is really sweet and cute with him and he loves going! Gray and I love the little walk it gives us too. Even better than all that, Cameron is finally potty trained! Hooray! What Pete couldn't (or didn't) do in a year, we accomplished in a month. We are getting used to a totally different pace of life and enjoying every little bit (except maybe the snakes, tarantulas, and centipedes we have run into so far) Our house sale closed this week, down in Gilbert and we are so grateful for the blessings we have received.
The weather is getting slightly chilly at night and it's been making me excited for the holidays! We are talking about dressing the family up as the Star Wars characters and the other day Cameron asked me about School walking, I said no, it's not a school day today. He thought for a minute and said "Oh like Lucas" I am totally confused, Lucas is my cousin who is just a little older than Cameron, Then it finally clicks.... (after several light saber and blaster sounds emitting from Cameron) "Lucas School Walking" Cameron's costume is Luke Skywalker, hahahaha. He calls Yoda "Like Baby Yoda" (that's what we told him Gray will be)
Gray is doing great and turned 3 months old already! Cameron and I are doing fun little crafts and learning activities everyday. Now if only I can get a Target to get built up here, we'd be all set... and maybe a mall! Okay okay baby steps (and frequent trips down to the valley to go shopping, um visit family)
I will try to post more when I can upload my pictures! In case you were wondering, I like exclamation marks! (and parenthesis)

The April Photo Shoot

Jenny took these quite awhile ago and in my very pregnant state, I forgot to post them. As always... beautiful.

OH. MY. HECK.....

Yes my sis-in-law Jenny has blow me away yet again! She took so many incredible pictures of our new little guy that I had to share them with you. Not to mention the family photo shoot that she took in April that I still haven't shown you. Seriously look at these! Is he not just the sweetest little guy EVER! I can't stop staring them and at the little model himself. He is such a good baby and everyday I can't help but look at our little family and feel so very blessed. Cameron is such a good big brother and loves to help. Pete is so amazing with both of our boys. And Gray is just... perfect.