Big Boy

Cameron, my very first baby, is now my no longer a baby, big boy... sniff sniff. He just turned 4 which can't even be considered a toddler anymore, definitely a big boy now. He gets himself dressed, goes potty, clears the table, helps unload the dishwasher, brings his own laundry into the laundry room for me, helps with his baby brother, goes to preschool...

Seriously, look how old this kid is!

Four things about you at 4

1. You have the cutest way of talking! We love how great you are at expressing yourself and you have your own way of doing it. Just today, you called your breakfast Yum-licious!

2. You still love all things trains, dinosaurs, sharks, but I would have to say that right now, trains might be your fave.

3. You love to learn and explore, experience new things, and go on adventures. Even if it's just to Walmart, you get so excited, and you can't wait for Disneyland later this year.

4. You have the best smile, sweetest kisses and yummiest hugs! I don't get these often so when I do, I eat them up!

Don't even get me started about next year... when he is five... and school age... sniff sniff

So Cute!

I have tons of things to share with you all, photos of Christmas and the Christmas Eve Polar Express, Gray trying new food, a photo shoot with Gray. But about a billion things have been thrown at me since my Dad died and I am just barely, barely recovering. I actually got up today and folded laundry, put some things away, and even organized... all before lunchtime! I felt like a new woman and even called Pete at work to tell him how excited I was to be feeling better. Then I sat down with a snack to blog about things (don't wanna over do it ya know).
I will share above mentioned photos and things later (hopefully this week) but I just had to share something cute Cameron does right now. When something breaks, he begs me to "BLue it back togever wif yours BLue gun" When he goes to play in the snow he wants to wear his "BLoves" and the cutest of all so far is when we did a snowflake art project last week and he was so excited to use the "BLitter" I have yet to correct him too much on this one since he is talking so great and I miss some of the cute baby talk. In fact I may just go look up more words that start with GL (maybe some more with the sound TH come to think of it) and find ways for him to have to say them. Any Ideas?

We will miss you Poppa/Dad!

I can't believe I am writing this post, thinking these words, feeling this pain...

I always thought there would be more time, another time, next time... More time.

I am so grateful for the time that we had together, the vacations and camping trips, holidays, visits, working together, lots of lunches out. Those last few days at our house were so very special. Playing cards, playing with the remote control cars, watching movies, playing your new hunting game on the wii, eating lots of good food, shooting fireworks, laughing, talking, playing. I am so glad we had that time.

I am having so many emotions. Sadness, Anger, Gratitude, Frustration, Heartache, Love, Pain, Shock, Disbelief.

I am sad for the lost time. quad rides, playing games, trips, shooting, visits, camping. Watching your grandsons grow up. Seeing even more grandchildren added to the family. Seeing Morgan graduate from high school, seeing her marry, bringing out the shotgun to greet her prom date, seeing her children. Growing old with Mom, taking vacations with Mom. I am sad for Cameron missing his Poppa (you had such a special bond). I am sad for Gray who will never know his Poppa, I never even got a picture of you holding him (I am kicking myself for that). I am sad for Pete and me, we were so excited to find a rental up here that had a guest room, so excited to set it up so you could visit us, wanted you to visit us. We are all going to miss you so much, miss having you there.

You loved your family so very much and would never have chosen to leave us. I don't understand why this happened, how this happened, why it had to happen so soon... so young...
I don't know if I ever will understand it in this life. So much time that we should have had together has been lost.

Hug your loved ones, tell them every chance you get, that you love them. You never know when it's going to be the last.
I saw this on Becky Higgins blog, she said "May 2011 be the year that we cultivate a better life- for ourselves and those we love most"
We didn't even celebrate New Years this year, but I guess this will not only be my New Years resolution, but the way I want to live my life... better together. Realizing what's most important.

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.