giraffe

happy halloween!

dig in

After her first ever pumpkin-gutting experience, Camille exercised her culinary expertise by making pumpkin pancakes. 

First she mixed the pumpkin guts. Then she used the 1/3 cup measuring cup (which, by the way, is the same one we use to pour pancake batter onto the griddle) to scoop the perfect amount for a pumpkin pancake.

Then she patted it between her hands and slopped it back into the pumpkin guts bowl.

And repeated the process over and over and over and over again. 

Meanwhile, Aaron carved the pumpkin.

There were pumpkin guts everywhere.

Everywhere.

Ta da!

Bathtime!

fun-filled fourth

I am so exhausted and should definitely be sleeping instead of blogging. But I know some of you (you know who you are) get antsy for photos and don't like it when I dawdle.

Our day began much like any other Sunday. The kids got up early-ish as usual and we all got ready for church. The service was particularly enjoyable because there was a large musically-inclined family leading the special music. After church we ate lunch and had naps.

Ok, Levi took a nap. And so did my dad.

Camille did not.

And that's almost always a sign that the afternoon and evening will be rough.

After not sleeping for two hours I got her up, sunscreened her, and we went outside with Dowie (what she calls my mom) and Daddy to play on her slide.

Little did she know that Dowie was surprising her with a new (to her - thank you Craigslist) slide! The first thing she said as we were coming down the hill to the backyard and she saw it was "Thank you, Dowie!"

Talk about melting my mom's heart!

So time was spent climbing and sliding and swinging and sliding and climbing and swinging and sliding...

You get the picture.

Then we had to hurry to the front yard to make sure we got good seats for the big Maple Island Parade.

Good thing Boppa (what Camille calls my dad) had brought the lawn chairs out for us! We settled in and waited for the parade to come around. So did our neighbors.

Camille even went next door with our neighbor for a few minutes to visit with her good friend Shadow (the black lab next door).

The parade began with a fire truck, had a mini marching band, a king and queen of the island, several kids with water guns, an air band family, and a Smart Car.

We watched.

And clapped.

And had a very nice time enjoying it together.

Especially when my mom got hit with a water balloon! (I do have a photo of this but am using my better judgement in not posting it, lest my family be kicked out onto the streets.)

After gathering up all the candy that was thrown, Aaron and the kids and I scrambled into the car to make it to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner and some swimming fun.

Camille had a great time in the water with Aaron and practiced all the things she learned in swimming lessons earlier this spring.

Levi, on the other hand, was less than thrilled to be in the big pool.

So after two dips into the water up to his knees we decided not to torture him anymore.  Ok, maybe once more. We tried putting him in the smaller and much warmer baby pool. Turns out he didn't think that was too bad.

Especially when big sister Camille is there to make sure everything is ok.

Though I'll admit I'm pretty sure he didn't exactly enjoy the experience.

But enough of this baby pool stuff. Camille wanted back in the big pool. This time Uncle Bryan was her excort.

After a yummy dinner we headed home, skipped Camille's nightly bath, and (miracle of miracles) had both kids in bed and asleep within 30 minutes.

Now if only we can keep the firecrackers from waking them up tonight.

Happy 4th of July!

happy father's day

The kids and I are wishing these great guys a happy Father's Day!

We love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our lives!

mother's day

Have I really been a mother for three Mother's Days already? And I have two kids? It seems so surreal. It's true, I've seen a good many blessings come my way the past few years. I had a wonderful Mother's Day today, and enjoyed spending it with all of my favorite people - not to mention my two favorite kids!

springtime fun

Spring has finally arrived, and we are enjoying it in full force! We spent much of this Easter weekend outside, both in the back yard and at various local parks.

Yesterday Aaron and I took Camille to a nearby park they had been to earlier in the week. It's big enough that it keeps her occupied, but not such a "big kid" park that we have to worry a great deal that she'll get hurt. I found her to be much more bold in going down slides than she has been in the past, and she very much enjoyed being pushed on the swings as well!

This morning we began our Easter celebrations with breakfast at church. For the first time in many years there were pancakes on the menu and I was absolutley thrilled! The church service got a little long for Camille, and it took lots of our energy to keep her occupied. Aaron was eldering, so my parents and I were on Camille duty. The wonderful people in the pew behind us also pitched in to keep her quiet some of the time!

After lunch and a nap Aaron's parents joined us at our house for some visiting and dinner and dessert. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed sitting outside while the brats and burgers were grilling. Camille and Grandma went out to the backyard and Camille parked herself in her usual spot in the sand to scoop and pour sand. I believe I heard that she even made Grandma some "chocolate soup" while they were out there!

Camille's grandparents also lovingly brought her an Easter basket! In it was Camille's very first bucket of sidewalk chalk. So of course she had to try it out right away.

She thought it was just the greatest, and I have a feeling we'll go through many buckets of chalk over the course of the spring and summer.

She asked Aaron to draw a picture of her, so he drew a lovely purple stick figure. Then she wanted a picture of mommy, too. As you can see, he was creative in this drawing and she thought it was pretty funny!

But alas, every wonderful weekend must come to an end at some point. Camille's now sound asleep in bed and we are relaxing downstairs. Even though we already had dessert (a brownie and some cheesecake) I think I may still need a bowl of ice cream.

Not much planned this week, which means that it'll probably go by too slowly! I'm still feeling well, although as my belly continues to grow I'm finding that moving around gets more difficult. Hopefully I can keep up with Camille this week!

Happy Easter to you all! Blessings!

all dressed up

These days Camille is sporting a new (to her) hat, given to her by some friends from church. She loves it, and it's perfect for Valentine's Day. And it's reversible. Pretty cute, I think.

What do you think?

what we've been up to

I wanted to share with you the pillow and blanket Aaron and I gave Camille for Christmas.


I custom ordered the bamboo velour blanket from a work-at-home-mom who sells her beautifully dyed goodies online. Then I went to the fabric store and picked up this adorable (and matching!) flannel print out of the clearance bin and made her a lovely Camille-sized pillow for her to use in her crib. She's had a quillo (you know what that is, right?) in her crib as a pillow for quite a while now, but I thought it was time she had an upgrade! It amazes me that some nights I put her to bed and she plays in there for 30 minutes or more before she falls asleep. But when I go to check on her before I go to bed her head is on the pillow right where it should be!

***

We've kept pretty busy this past week, and I finally realized that I hadn't been keeping you up to date! Camille's been busy making good use of her Christmas presents. She recieved a puzzle/book of ballerinas from Aaron's cousin Teresa and has fallen in love with the characters. Her favorites are Odette, Aurora and Clara. She loves taking the pieces out of the puzzle and placing them into their spots on the book's pages.

We've also had fun getting back in to full-time cloth diapering. With me out of a job, we're trying to save money as much as we can. And now that I can stay up later than 8 pm (which is when I was going to bed at the beginning of this pregnancy) I have plenty of time to wash them every two or three nights. Most of the prefold diapers we had been using last year are too small for Camille, so we've been using the pocket diapers we had and are borrowing some from a friend for a bit because they're not currently using them.

There's nothing like a stack of freshly washed, freshly stuffed, colorful pocket diapers to bring a smile to my face. Well, except maybe the sight of Camille running around wearing nothing except for one of them!

Camille has also been giving my parents' cat Buttercup her "treat" (the treat is actually a pill pocket for her medicine) every morning and evening. She holds the treat as she climbs up onto the bed and gently holds it out for Buttercup to eat. Then Camille plays on the bed for a bit, slightly annoying the cat, and usually lets out lots of giggles.

And of course she can't get down before she tries out Boppa's pillow. You know, just to make sure it's still squishy enough.

On our reading list these days is the Jesus Storybook Bible that Auntie Megan got Camille for Christmas. I absolutley love this book, and apparently Camille does too because she will sit for the five minute stories without much fidgeting! She calls it her Bible and wants to read it every night before bedtime.

One think I love about this book are the colorful pictures. I also love the way the author paraphrases the Bible into kid-approved language while still holding on to the important messages.

Speaking of Jesus, Camille also spends quite a bit of time sitting on or in front of the fireplace hearth playing with her "dollhouse." She arranges and rearranges the people and animals all the time.

We often find this lil' guy in the kitchen, on the coffee table, or on the floor. Usually his manger isn't far away from him!

It's been a great week! I've really enjoyed having two long weekends in a row. But this past weekend was particularly relaxing. It's been so cold out that we haven't gone out much, and it's been nice to have Aaron home from work.

But today everyone was back to work and Camille and I were home just hanging out. You know, in laundry baskets. Anything below zero is just a bit too cold for me to venture out without a very good reason!

so this is christmas

So this is Christmas.

We slept in.
I stayed in my pajamas all day.
We ate Christmas cookies.
We had hotdogs for dinner.

And after opening presents this morning we played outside in the 13+ inches of snowman-perfect snow.

When we were done we were wet, tired, hungry and content.

Then we took naps.