'Tis the Season

I love the Christmas season and all that comes with it!  It is a lot of work decorating the tree, the house, the yard, shopping, wrapping, etc, but it is also so much fun.  Even though it is early in the month we have already been enjoying things.  At some point I want to make a gingerbread house with Emerson so she can help decorate.   We have not driven around to see the Christmas lights, but we will do that soon.  We have visited Santa though, which went as I expected.  Cameron was delighted and Emerson was apprehensive!  She looks really ticked off in the picture!!  Bless her heart, she was not sure she could trust Santa!    

So here are a few pictures so far this Christmas.

Seriously, could he be any cuter?

Such a sweetheart!!

We have amazing kids

I really love this picture

Emerson loves playing in the leaves!

With CC and GrandPaul

Emerson was playing with the snowman while we decorated.

This is when Emerson was saying "It's beautiful daddy" when he turned the lights on.  :)

I wanted to see how similar Cameron looks to Emerson's first picture with Santa.  They look so alike!! And poor Emerson looks so mad.  I was glad she did not cry, but I hope next year she will smile again. I just need to convince her that Santa is a nice guy!  

Cam is 7 months!

So seriously, where has the time gone?!  I really feel like this last month FLEW by and that they just keep getting faster.  I sort of expected that it would seem like time would pass by faster with our second because we are just busier than before, but I wasn't expecting it to be like this.  Some of it is the time of year with the holiday season so I am going to hope that the months of January-April are not as much of a whirlwind!  

It has been an exciting month for our little man... the biggest news being that he finished his Star band that I posted about before.  You talk about a huge relief... it is so nice not having to worry about that any more!  At first it was strange to look at Cameron because we were used to seeing him in his helmet 98% of the time, but now it is back to normal!  We had other exciting things happen over the month so I will just list the highlights and everything with where he is on things...

• We started Cam on solid foods!  By solid food I mean the pureed baby foods!  He likes everything so far it seems.   At first we were feeding him just sweet potatoes, carrots, or peas once at night, but now we have some fancier pouches that have a mixture of foods that he likes as well.  So far so good with all the food and no reactions.  He is eating 2 times a day, lunch and dinner, where he eats around 2- 2.5 ounces each time.  (This is one small container or maybe half a bigger pouch).  When we started it was a little messy and he was confused, but it got better each time. It has been fun feeding him and now he bites the spoon and I have to really pull to get it out of his mouth! :)
• Our poor little guy has 6 teeth!! Yes, 6!  It is a little crazy.  He got his first at the end of last month, and then 5 more pushed through.  It feels like overnight he went from a little baby to big baby.  No more toothless smiles, there are giant white teeth everywhere now!  And it looks like 2 more are getting close to coming through so we will see!  He has been a real trooper with all of tis because it has to hurt!!
• Now Cameron is sitting up on his own fully without needing any support.  Earlier in the month he needed some for stability, but he is good now.  He is so interested in toys that he intentionally falls forward to try to scoot and reach for toys.  
• He enjoys standing and holding on to our ottoman.  We will help him with his balance, but he seems pretty tickled to be standing!  It is cute.  
• Here lately he has done a little bit of the rocking motion, but not a whole lot.  He may not crawl as soon as Emerson so we will see!  
• His sounds are changing some and he will do this "MaMaMaMa" sound.  I know he is not saying this because he truly understands I am "Mama", but it is fun hearing him say that and I of course encourage it often.  :)
• We get him in bed around 8:30 and he will sleep until 6-6:30, where we change his diaper, and then usually he will sleep a little longer until closer to 7 or 7:30.  This varies of course.  I don't think this will get much better. :)
• He is wearing 9 month clothes or the 6-12 month size.  The weather has been so much warmer that we still have not been able to get some of the cooler temperature clothes on him!  When is the next cold front coming in for goodness sakes?!!  
• Size 3 diapers and they still fit well which is a good thing because I have a big box or two to go through that we bought before!
• At night Cameron will sleep with his pacifier more.  He used to always spit it out, but he will keep it some of the time now.  I think it helped that I moved to the bigger size.  
• Cameron still has 4 bottles each day with 8 ounces.  He recently started only wanting around 6 ounces for his lunchtime bottle though so now that one is smaller.  The bottles still have rice cereal, which I plan to stop at some point.  I am not sure when though.  His first bottle is around 7:45, then he eats around 11:45 with a bottle after, then 3:45 or so, eats around 6:30, with his last bottle at 7:40.
• Not to gross anyone out, but I will just comment that now that he is eating food there are some pretty downright awful smelling poopy diapers.  It is hard to understand how it can smell so terrible... I mean BAD.   Just wanted to make that comment.  :)
• Cameron is absolutely a joyful little baby.  He is always, always smiling.  He loves to cuddle and bury his face in your shoulder.  He hugs back and grabs a hold of you so tightly.  He is just so, so, so sweet.  He loves his big sister and smiles ear to ear watching her dance or play around.  He makes us all so happy every day!

Here is a video of him laughing and you can see his huge teeth!  :)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Co2hF8D80

These are the highlights... I am sure I am forgetting something so I will have to add more if I find that to be the case!!

Here are some pics from over the last month!  The first few are from our family picture session with Alecia that I love.

Cameron eating real food for the first time!

So happy playing with his toys!

Happy baby!!

Hanging out before bedtime

He loves GrandPaul

His 2nd and 3rd tooth!  

The 4th and 5th (next to his first)

One of the last pics with his helmet!

His first time in the highchair while we ate dinner.  He loved it!!  

Our big 7 month old sitting up in his chair!

Turkey Day 2012

We spent Thanksgiving in Austin this year and had a wonderful visit with Frank's family.  Since we both had the whole week off we drove down Tuesday and stayed until Saturday.  It is nice to be able to stay put for several days since it's almost a 4 hour drive if traffic is slow and packing up stuff for 2 kids requires some prep work!  I spent some of the week shopping with Dorthy and Sarah and Frank was able to golf a little with Big Frank and Glenn.  On Thanksgiving we enjoyed a feast like most people with turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, and more!  We also had beef tenderloin that was delicious.  :)  We took a few family pictures after our late lunch on Thanksgiving and got some really cute pictures of Frank's parents with the kids.  On Friday we spent some time hanging out with Team Ross (Todd, Lane, Halden and Sloane).  We ate hamburgers and enjoyed the visit. The time always passes so quickly when we visit Austin, which really is not very often!  We will be heading back for 2 nights for the Paul family (big group) Christmas on the 22nd.  It will be so much fun to see Frank's cousins and visit with them.  

I have been so busy that I am behind with posting about Thanksgiving and everything that comes to mind.  Over the month of November there were all these people posting daily about what they were thankful for on Facebook.  While it was pretty annoying and cliche, I do have to hand it to those people for making sure they stopped every day to think of what they have to be thankful for.  Maybe for some it was a show, but they certainly remained vigilant with the posts EVERY DAY.  I obviously did not participate... this year I actually didn't post anything on Facebook that day.  But I am thankful for so many things in my life.  I am thankful for my precious family... Emerson and Cameron mean everything to me and so does Frank.  There is no greater joy than the joy they bring to us every day.  The giggles, shrieks of laughter, the running around, in Cameron's case the scooting he does to reach toys while clasping his fingers as he tries to reach a toy, the way his eyes light up when you talk to him,and so much more.  Watching them brings a smile to my face whether they are playing or sleeping.  They are our angels and we are both thankful for them.  I tell Frank this I think pretty often, but I am so thankful for his love and his friendship.  I watch him with our kids and know he will always be the very best father.  He is patient and calm, two words you would not use to describe me and he helps me chill out when I get too twirked up at times.  He doesn't complain when I ask him to do things, he helps so much around the house, and he is always able to rub my shoulders and neck when I have a headache.  He takes care of me always.  I am thankful for our extended families.  Both of our parents are still happily married (happily most of the time anyway!  ;)) My parents have been married for 40 years and I can say that I am extremely blessed to have been raised in the loving environment that I was, and the same for Frank.  I am also proud of them because it is such a rare thing these days, but they have always overcome challenges together and they have put us first.  They are the best role models and I hope when our kids are as old as we are they will feel as strongly about us and we do about our parents.  I think pretty often how thankful I am that my dad is healthy and still here with us today.  It has been almost 7 years (in January) since we found out he had Esophageal cancer and we were told he had a 50/50 chance of survival.  He has been cancer free now for over 6 years and when I see him with our kids my heart swells because I can't imagine how different it would be without him.  I am thankful for our siblings.  Growing up we went through periods where we did not get along as well and we really did not enjoy spending time together.  I talk to my sister pretty often though I wish we could talk more.  I am so thankful for her wisdom with situations and for reminding me that everything is ok since she knows I worry too much.  :)  My friends are also very special to me and I am thankful for their support, their shoulders when I need to cry, their ear when I need to talk something through, and their laughter when we share fun times together.  Several of you will read this blog and I hope you know how much I value the friendship I have with you.   I have so much more I could continue to list, but I will stop here. :)   Frank and I have not been to church in a while, but I know we have God to thank for all of these blessings.  There have been times when I have been angry with God because I did not understand why things would happen, but over time my heart has changed.  I should say I am thankful for God's unending patience while I sometimes still struggle with understanding!  

To continue on, here are some pictures from the wonderful week we had in Austin! 

Cameron with Granddad

Cameron's "I'm sexy and I know it" pose.

Frank's parents with the kids

Our beautiful Emerson

I love this picture of Cameron with MomMom

Our family with Frank's parents

Sloane was feeding Cameron

Granddad was playing with Cameron

Cameron is finished with his Star band!

We had Cameron's FINAL Star cranial band appointment this morning.  The shape of his head has really improved over the last 3 1/2 months!  His first measurement was on 7/23 and his Assymetry was 14.4 mm and the cranial index (how wide versus tall his head is) was 87.6 % (+2-3 standard deviations), which is above normal.  Today (11/13) his Assymetry is 2.2 mm (WOW!) and his cranial index is 85 % (+1-2 standard deviations), which is normal.

It was a weird and exciting thing to be done with his helmet... we can get used to looking at our sweet little baby and seeing his beautiful hair and give him kisses all over without the helmet being in the way!  We are glad we did this and so glad we are finished!  Here are some scans from the visit this morning and a picture of sweet Cameron NOT wearing his helmet!  :)

Here is our champ and his nearly perfect head!  :)

The left is the original scan and the right is from this morning.

The red line is the original measurement/shape and the blue is the shape today! 



Scottsdale!

Frank and I just returned from the most wonderful vacation!  We left last Thursday evening for Scottsdale and enjoyed 5 nights/4.5 days of relaxing, shopping, dining, sight-seeing, and sleeping in!  :)  This was the longest we have ever been away from both kids, but it was so nice for us to enjoy time with it just being the two of us.  With Emerson we have been away from her for I think 3 nights one time before and when Cameron was born we were away from her for around 5-6 nights, but we saw her a few times during that time.  I was worried that I would be sad, but I am happy to say I was having so much fun that I was not sad... we talked on the phone a few times and I could tell she was not concerned in the least that I was not there.  Ha ha... she was having a blast with my parents.  And Cameron was as content as he coiuld be even though his second tooth is trying to poke through!  With that said, Frank and I were definitely looking forward to the hugs and kisses from our kiddos when we returned home Tuesday afternoon.

You can do a lot of stuff in 4 full days, so I will go over our itinerary. :)

Friday- Day 1- Downtown Scottsdale

Friday we sort of walked around the resort a little to see the layout and such after breakfast.  It was a beautiful resort... Hyatt of course.  Those of you who know me well know I really love Hyatt hotels.  :)  We decided what we wanted to do over the next several days, one of which was the Tomcar adventure for Saturday!  After scheduling that we made spa reservations as well for Sunday because it is not a vacation unless I get a massage!  Then we decided to go shopping at the mall and walk around downtown Scottsdale.  While in the mall I found a few Christmas gifts and Frank and I completed our outfits for our family pictures we plan to take this weekend.  Then we had lunch at Grimaldi's, a popular pizza restaurant that we also have in Texas before walking around downtown Scottsdale.  The weather was absolutely beautiful the entire trip so it was nice when walking around... maybe a little warm, but when in the shade it was perfect.  There were lots of interesting shops and a TON of shops with artwork and sculptures.  It was relaxing to just walk and enjoy the surroundings.  Here are some pictures from the afternoon.

View from our huge balcony looking straight out.  We could see the mountains in the distance as well... very nice.  

The view looking to the left where you can see some of the pool area.

The sidewalk in downtown Scottsdale explaining the self-guided tour.

I just thought that was neat.  

The downtown area

Outside of one really cool shop.

I think ivy covered walls are so pretty.

I thought this was pretty too.  

After getting back to the hotel there was a Native American dance demonstration that we caught the end of as well.  It actually woke me up from my nap so we went down to see what was going on!  :)

 Saturday- Day 2- Green Zebra Tomcar Adventure Day!

Saturday was the day for the Tomcar adventure!  Again another day of beautiful weather so after breakfast we boarded the giant van to go to the desert!   While on the way the guide was telling us how all the land was owned by the Yavapai Indians and how many businesses they owned.  The Green Zebra adventure company leases the land for the adventures from the Indians.  It was interesting to hear about it and see how powerful the tribe is in the area.  But back to the Tomcars!  Frank and I both enjoyed driving the car through the rocky and dusty desert terrain.  There was seriously one point where I thought the vehicle could turn on its side, but I doubt it was close.  Truth be told I am not the adventurous type when it comes to moving vehicles, but it was a lot of fun driving the tomcars!  We were given green bandanas to help us breathe with all the dust flying around and that was definitely necessary because it was incredibly dusty!

A view of the desert area right before getting in the tomcars

Outside our Green Zebra Tomcar with our bandanas!

Frank is ready to go!

You can see some of the bumpy trail.

I got to drive as well!

We stopped halfway through at this beautiful riverbed.  

Would you believe this was in the desert in Arizona?!

You can see how dusty it got!!

After getting back to the hotel we enjoyed lunch and then I went and got a pedicure while Frank went and putted and chipped at the golf course.  :)

Day 3- Sunday- Gainey Ranch golf

Sunday morning we went to the Gainey Ranch golfcourse.  We actually only played 9 holes, well, I played 1.8 holes and frank played 9.  :)  I took some pictures along the way.  It was a beautiful course, but Frank was really disappointed that they didn't tell us they had over seeded the greens and fairways.  So the fairways were like the rough and the greens were S-L-O-W... I mean for real, slow.  I hit a couple of tee shots and did well, then on one tee shot I hit a ball in the water and was annoyed.  :)  Since the course was not in the condition he hoped we decided to just play 9 holes and go hang out by the pool at the resort.  That was nice because it was a sunny and warm day... perfect for lounging by the pool!  Later that afternoon we both had spa appointments for massages so we definitely that!

Outside the putting green.

Yes, I just hit a tee shot!

It was a pretty course!

Some of the holes had some mountain views.

On the 9th hole.

Day 4- Monday- Sedona

Since we had a full day with nothing scheduled and we heard how beautiful Sedona was we decided to drive out to enjoy it ourselves!  It was just over a 2 hour drive through the desert and mountains and was well worth it.  As soon as we saw the red mountains we were glad we came... they are really beautiful.  I was wishing we could see them at sunset because I am sure they look even more amazing.  After driving to get good shots of the mountains and sort of hiking up a couple of hills in my sandals (ha ha) at one rest stop we drove around to some shops.  The concierge at hotel told us about Tlaquepaque, this beautiful little shopping village area in Sedona.  It is right along a creek and is inspired by Mexico.  We enjoyed lunch in The Secret Garden, which was so delicious.  I took tons of pictures of both the mountains and the village.

Frank was silly and found that the driver's seat reclined fully.  :)

I love how the leaves on the trees are golden.

See the moon?

When we went hiking sort of...

Tlaquepaque

The entrance to the shopping village

One of the courtyard areas in the village.

A beautifully decorated fountain.

I thought this door looked so neat.

A view of the chapel

Inside the chapel...

I think this is a pretty darn cool picture.  

Just another view of the shopping area

They celebrated Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and had this out still...

Enjoying lunch in The Secret Garden

As we were driving back to the hotel we actually got pulled over for speeding... and we got a ticket.  :( That was not good, but we didn't let it ruin the beautiful day we had in Sedona.  After we got back to the hotel we got back out to the pool for just a few minutes.  Then we hung out before dinner.  It was a really wonderful day!

I also want to comment on how absolutely delicious all the food was on our trip.  While in general resort food is good, the food at the restaurants on site were beyond good, they were fantastic.  Our hotel had the SWB- Southwest Bistro where we enjoyed breakfast daily and also had lunch a couple of times.  One night we went to dinner at La Hacienda (not to be confused with la Hacienda Ranch) and the food was unique and tasted so good!  Our last night we ate at Alto, the italian restaurant and it was also incredibly tasty.  After that dinner we enjoyed a gondola ride through the water channel between the resort and the golf course and we were serenaded with a lovely Italian song.  So that was romantic.  :)  Here are pictures of our favorite breakfasts.

A version of french toast made with egg whites served with agave nectar!

Whole grain and oatmeal pancakes... so delicious!

We are just so glad we were able to enjoy this vacation together... it was very special to us to have the time together.  And it was comforting to know our kids were in great hands while we were gone and that they were having so much fun.  Thanks for my parents, my sister Amanda, and my brother, John Paul.  Thanks for taking care of our little angels so we could get away for a few days!  :)