All the Christmas joy!

Well Christmas has come and gone and I haven't had time to get on my computer to do anything, so you get all of our holiday fun in one dose!

It started with going to get our Christmas tree. We always go cut our own down and Cameron had a great time helping Dad. He also kept pointing at every tree and saying " oh, this one is the perrrrfect tree for us!" Kasey on the other hand decided to fall asleep on the way up and woke up just as we cut the tree down. It was a lot of fun and Cameron really had fun getting his hands dirty.

Next came the Gingerbread house making at my Mom's house. I think Cameron ate more frosting than ended up on the houses. It was the first time to try this with Cameron and it was so much fun!

Then we had to decorate the tree. We decided that when we got married we would by an ornament each year to represent what happen in our lives. This year Kasey is the biggest change in our lives so we got a babies first Christmas ornament for us and a picture ornament that we can put a picture of both boys is. The boys also get an ornament each year too. Cameron discovered his love of boats this year so he picked out a Santa driving a boat. It was a new experience having little ones help decorate the house but it was so much fun!

Of course we had to make and decorate cookies at both our house & Chris's parents house. Cameron loved doing this as much as he loved doing the Gingerbread house. Especially when he piled the sprinkles on a cookie!

We of course had to see Santa at the Church! Thank you all for inviting us it was a fabulous evening.

Then came Christmas Eve at my parents house. Both of our kids got way to many presents from the grandparents. My parents got Cameron an art easel which he is enjoying practicing his letters on. I got a pull golf cart. Chris got some photo software and Kasey got a train. Kasey loved a dancing snowman.

Apparently my boys have been really, really good this year because Santa brought way too many toys too. Santa brought some tractors and a real camera for Cameron and a walker and little piano for Kasey. Chris got a new sand wedge from me and I got the DVD set of the Anne of Green Gable movies which I love. Cameron wrapped my present himself (w/some guidance from Chris) he was just sooooo proud of it and it made me smile that I had to put it on my blog (in case you can't read it Chris wrote the "to & from" Cameron wrote the Mommy and Cameron).

Then we were off to Chris's parents house. Chris's family also spoils our boys so Cameron got a read & write Leappad, a truck with a four wheeler and some art supplies. Kasey got some more animals to play with and a Baby touch Leappad. There were also Wii games & movies and a lot of other things from everyone. Cameron also seemed to love all of Kasey's toys and wanted to play with them too.

What can I say we are really loved by our family and very blessed to be able to get so much this year. It was a great holiday. On the drive back from Chris's parents yesterday, Cam fell asleep at like 5:20 in the evening. He wouldn't wake up all evening so we finally put him in bed and he slept until 3:30 but then he just went to the bathroom asked for a quick snack and went back to sleep until 6:30! I don't think he has ever slept that much before!

Cute moment at the Doctor's office

Through all the stress of the last week, I am happy there are still moments that can bring a smile to my face. We (Cameron, Kasey & I) were at the doctor's office waiting to be called back when this cute little girl walks in with her mom. It was obvious to me she wasn't feeling the best, but Cameron didn't take any notice. He runs up to her with a cute little smile and says "hi." The girl only wanted her mom so after a minute Cameron came back to me and our conversation went like this:

"Mom she didn't say hi to me"

"Well, she looks like she isn't feeling well and maybe she might be a little shy"

"but she didn't say hi to me"

"I know that, but I think she just wants her mom now,"

"but I want to talk to her"

"Why"

"Because she is cute and I want to hug her"

At this point I cracked up laughing. I had to tell the other mom and all she could say was that when he was a teenager I was in trouble! I think she is right!

Please just let them sleep!

Since a couple of days before Halloween, our sleep has been almost non-existent. We have had a series of colds, ear infections and Cam needing to go to the bathroom disrupting our sleep. The one night that both kids slept, our fire alarm in our bedroom started beeping at 2:00 AM. Of course it is so high up we have to get a ladder out to fix it. Now, Kasey has a nasty case of croup that seems to be morphing into a full chest cold. He has been waking up several times a night (last night was 9 times before a 4-6 o'clock cuddle during which I got no sleep). In short, I need some sleep! Okay enough of the complaining, but sometimes you just need to vent!

Cake class

As some of you know, my mom and I took a cake decorating class from JoAnn's. Well the last class was last night and it was a blast. It was four weeks long and we decorated three cakes. The rainbow cake was the first week and I didn't have enough time to do all the colors I would have liked or to make the writing or border to look good.

The next cake we did had clowns on it. This was by far the most fun. The clowns looked terrible until we put the heads on and suddenly it looked cute. I think we disrupted the whole store with our laughing. In the end, I think it turned out decent and I think it brought a smile to my brother-in-laws face (he had surgery the day before Thanksgiving - he is doing fine).

The last cake was a little challenging, but once I got the consistency of the frosting right it went smoothly. I think it turned out pretty good. It isn't professional level, but what an improvement. If anyone wants to learn some of these techniques for a cake, I would be happy to help you. It is easier than it looks!!! The hardest part is frosting the cake to begin with!

Boy, am I in trouble now!!!

My world has just changed forever and it has gotten way more difficult. I also couldn't be more excited. That's right everybody, Kasey is mobile! He has started the crawling process and I am in trouble now. He seems to want to be around Cameron all the time which may mean that he will be happy out of my arms. However, I think it will mean having to watch him every second to make sure that Kasey isn't eating some small toy of Cameron's. I also think that Cameron will have issues with Kasey touching his toys. I think Kasey may end up with a couple of bumps from this. :( If anyone has any advice how to deal with it I would be very grateful. Below are a couple pictures of the crawling & falling. Luckily he isn't very consistent yet, but that won't take long. He mainly goes backward!

100 things about me

Alright, I have had a couple of people ask me if I am going to do this so I finally decided to.

1. I was born and raised in Sherwood, Tigard & Tualatin, Oregon (in about a five mile radius)
2. I went to Catholic School for a year, then it was too expensive.
3. I did the rest of my schooling in public schools.
   I got to meet the Marc Brown who is the author of the Arthur books (I have a book that he signed)
4. I have one older brother who lives in Washington DC, whose name is Jer.
5. I played soccer for 6 years when I was little.
6. My mom was my coach for part of it and it is still one of my best memories.
7. I used to have a really bad perm when I was in 3rd grade it looked like a cross between a mullet and an afro.
8. I did gymnastics for a year or so, but my wrists couldn't handle it.
9. I was student body president my junior year of high school (I wasn't popular only eight people ran for 8 student body spots) Between the 8 of us, they decided that I was the president.
10. Because of this I planned all the homecoming activities & the prom for my junior year.
11. I did not like high school (I always related better to people who are older than me & it was way too cliquish for me)
12. This year will be my ten year reunion & I have no plans to attend.
13. I played volleyball all four years of high school & was on an all-state team my senior year.
14. I ran track for 2 years (lettered both years) and hated it (100m, 4x100m & 200m)
15. I had hoped to play volleyball in college, but half way through my senior year I tore my ACL in my left knee. I was devastated.
16. It ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me (up to that point) Instead of going away to play volleyball I stayed at home and went to Portland State.
17. I met Chris my freshman year at PSU. It was a Tuesday, we went to lunch on Thursday & snowboarding on Saturday. We have been together ever since.
18. Chris was my first kiss.
19. Chris's pinky finger is the same size as my ring finger (it made it easy to pick out the ring)
20. We have been together for 8 and a half years and married just over 6 years.
21. We went to Mazatlan for our honeymoon.
22. We have had three kids, most of you know Cameron & Kasey.
23. Laura was my first and she was born at 23 weeks & 5 days and lived for two hours.
24. My heart still aches for her everyday.
25. I got to tell Chris I was pregnant with her on Valentines Day it was our best Valentines day ever. We were on vacation in Vancouver BC.
26. Chris & I went back to Mazatlan after Laura passed to recover. We layed around the pool for a week.
27. I will probably have another child someday. (this thought completely terrifies me even though I have now had two successful pregnancies)
28. I graduated with my bachelors degree from Oregon Health & Sciences University with my degree in Dental Hygiene.
29. I was the only one in my class to graduate with both clinical and academic honors.
30. I will get my Masters degree someday.
31. I just started to take a cake decorating class.
32. I have a sewing machine, but no time to learn how to properly use it.
33. I do make pillows & simple curtains.
34. I also love to do counted cross stitch. This has come in handy with all the bed rest of pregnancies.
35. I have also learned how to crochet.
36. I have tried to knit, but I need someone to actually teach me.
37. I like to take pictures.
38. Someday I want to go across the US taking pictures.
39. Chris would go with me in a heartbeat and fight me for the camera every step of the way (he loves photography too.)
40. While I have lots of little hobbies I am a not great at any of them.
41. My two boys and my husband are my world.
42. I can't imagine having better kids or a husband.
43. I get intimidated in crowds until i have met the people a lot of times.
44. Even then I don't typically talk a lot (I am working on this)
45. I am worried nobody will care about anything I say and other people are so much more interesting.
46. I do much better in conversations when its one or two other people
47. I almost always feel completely stressed out.
48. Lately I have been taking my stress out on my Wii
49. Because of it I have bowled 2 300 games in bowling.
50. I love movies (Anne of Green Gables & Anne of Avonlea are my favorites)
51. I also like romantic comedies like Runaway Bride.
52. I like reading but never have time to get to it.
53. Once I consider you a friend I would do almost anything for you.
54. My closest friend just moved to Utah (any guesses who this could be?) I miss her a lot.
55. I love butterflies.
56. I got to see thousands of them in Costa Rica a couple of years ago.
57. I have a great recipe for apple pancakes.
58. I love to experiment with cooking (recipes are guides for me to play with).
59. My favorite dessert is Cheesecake (just plain old cheesecake no topping)
60. My favorite meal is anything with marinara, cheese, garlic & pasta.
61. Favorite restaurant is Papa Hydens on NW 23rd but I only go for the desserts.
62. Flowers in spring are the best.
63. Someday I will own some acreage (at least a 1/4 acre will all be bulbs)
64. I love roses, but when I grew up we had 80+ rose bushes and I got sick of taking care of them.
65. Now I have five rose bushes and that is all I will ever have.
66. I like art and my favorite artists are Ansel Adams, Thomas Kinkade & Monet.
67. I saw the Monet exhibit when it was hear a long time ago.
68. One of my favorite gifts I ever got was when I was in the hospital with pre-term labor with Laura and my Father-in-law, Tom brought me a little stuffed pink cat. (If you know him he is a really thoughtful guy, but this is not a normal thing for him to buy and that's why it means so much too me)
69. I have seen every episode of Matlock, Murder She Wrote & Perry Mason while I was pregnant.
70. I play golf, I'm not very good, but I still have fun with it.
71. I have a cat who I named Alley cat (called him Alley) we later found out she was a he and now we call him Al.
72. I like to sing, but I have a bad voice.
73. My favorite color is purple.
74. My feet are so sensitive that I rarely go without socks to protect them.
75. Despite that I love pedicures
76. My maiden name is Galvin
77. I am extremely competitive, except at Bunco (yeah right!)
78. I have two birthmarks on my right leg.
79. I want to have my own business someday.
80. I can't decide what that business would be (florist, photo studio, B&B and about 10 other ideas)
81. At this point I am going back and rereading everyone's 100 things for ideas.
82. I love to go to the Portland Winterhawks Hockey games, but hate watching hockey on TV.
83. I attended some classes at PSU with some of the players. One of them is now the Captain of the Dallas Stars (Brendan Morrow).
84. I really want to go to a Broadway show.
85. I am already trying to figure out where to go on Chris's next sabbatical.
86. It's hard to plan when you aren't sure how many kids you will have or what there ages will be.
87. I love the outdoors.
88. I once went on a backpacking trip & it was great.
89. Right now I am fighting off a bad cough.
90. Because my kids have also gotten this same cold I haven't gotten more than a three hour stretch of sleep since Halloween.
91. Luckily, Kasey is better, I am on the mend and Cameron's ear infection has gone away, but his cough remains.
92. I have decided to get rid of my gym membership (i only go about once a month so its a waste of money)
93. Maybe in a couple more months I will re-join and actually have time to go, or not.
94. I am excited for the holidays this year since Cameron is actually old enough to get the whole Santa Claus thing.
95. I plan on letting him decorate some cookies himself (I think I will have to hose my son & kitchen down when we are done).
96. I envy my brother's family for being able to travel so much, but with two kids and pregnancies that stop any travel we don't get to do much traveling. Maybe after we are done with kids.
97. All of our kids are named after Chris & I in some way. Camerons middle name is Christian (a combo of Chris & how we felt like he was a gift from god). Laura Kay (Kay is a nickname of mine) and Kasey Dean (Kasey is a spelled out version of my and Chris's initials K & C) We didn't set out to do it this way it just happened.
98. Some people think Kasey is named after my favorite Nascar driver, Kasey Kahne. This is so not true, but I think its a funny story.
99. We let Cameron pick out Kasey's name (we gave him a choice between Kasey & Kaleb). It made him feel so involved in a very stressed out time for him.
100. The fact that I am talking about my kids names should tell you that I am completely out of ideas, but luckily this is the last one.
     

OK, so that is a little about me. I will follow with Chris's list soon.

Halloween Fun

Our Halloween fun began with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We had a lot of fun going on a tractor ride and Cameron had to pick out pumpkins that were at the end of the field. Cameron didn't know what to think of cleaning out the pumpkins, but once he got his hands covered he thought it was funny for a minute then he wanted them cleaned up. He did think it was "really cool" when they were all carved and lit up.

For Halloween Cameron decided to be a cowboy and Kasey was a lion. We had so much fun at the trunk or treat. Kasey fell asleep in the front carrier by the end (it's hard to see in the last picture).

What a growing boy!!

At Kasey's 4 month appointment the doctors were a little concerned because he had not put on much weight from his 2 month appointment. Well they are not worried anymore. Kasey had his 6 month check-up on the 16th and he weighed 17lbs on the dot. Up almost 4 lbs in 2 months. He is now working on being able to sit up (next is crawling and then I am in trouble). Here are a few pictures I took of Kasey & Cam.

Can I have a milkshake?

So both of my boys have come down with a cold/fever. It doesn't appear to be anything serious. Chris & I were sitting on the couch and Cameron climbs up on Chris and goes "Can I have a milkshake, please?" he then gives Chris a hug and a kiss and follows up with a huge lower lip and "it will make me feel all better." How could we resist? So it was milkshakes all around.

I am also a complete sucker for kids discovering their toes. Cameron completely skipped that stage and I was so disappointed. Kasey however found them and continues to delight in eating them.

Cameron has a wonderful sense of style. He went outside to help Chris mow the lawns. When I went out to talk to Chris this is what met me...you got to love the panda slippers to mow the lawn.

A few odd ends

Chris's best friend, Tim, just had his first baby. Jacob is adorable and has his father's nose. It will be nice that Kasey will have someone to play with as he gets older, although he got a little jealous when I was holding Jacob in the hospital.

We got to see the pirate ship when it was in town. Cameron thought it was cool.

Kasey has hit a couple of milestones lately. He started sleeping through the night part of the time, has rolled over and is working on getting his first tooth. One of his favorite activities is to be in his walker teething on the toys.

Cam was also excited about the first real rain of the year. He wanted to go jump in the puddles. He was soaked by the time we were done, but it was a blast.Last but not least Chris built Cameron a computer using old parts. He absolutely loves it. We have a couple of games for him to play, but if anyone has any ideas for some computer games that are kid friendly let me know. It is funny that he won't sit down at preschool to finish a project, but will sit at the computer for 30 minutes. Oh well at least he will sit down for something now :)

The Ranch

For those of you who don't know, my in-laws own a house and land near Ione, OR. It is a beautiful place that we visit every once in a while. We went over there for a long weekend to play. They own a couple of tractors, which Cameron has named the "BIG tractor and the little baby tractor."

Cameron truly loves the outdoors and absolutely adores his Grandpa. So he followed Tom around the whole weekend and "helped" him whenever possible.

When he wasn't helping Tom he was taking turn asking everyone else to take him on four wheeler rides. We went on a long ride with everyone and Kasey fell asleep.

The deer also love their ranch and we had a great time hanging out and playing games.

When we finally had to go Cameron cried. It was a great weekend.

Washington DC

Okay, this is going to be the final blog about our trip. Besides going to southern California we also flew to Washington DC to visit my brother Jer, his wife Cecile and their daughter Pauline. My mom, who lives in Portland, was also visiting them.

One of the best things we did was go to a splash park near my brother's house. The kids had a blast. Kasey even got into the water some to stay cool. Cameron was a little shy at first, but then thought it was great and was running through all the water. Pauline, as you will see in the pictures, is quite a character. She was being silly, then practicing her dance moves in the water.





The Smithsonian has added a second Air & Space Museum. The one on the mall has more to do with the history of flight and how a plane works. The new one has a bunch of cool planes and the space shuttle. It was a lot of fun. The kids had fun running around.
That is me holding Cameron in the lower right corner. You don't realize how big the shuttle is until you stand next to it.

They had a little Cessna that they let kids get into. Cameron thought it was fun to "fly" a plane.Now I know they may hate this picture when they get older, but I had to include it because it was cute. Pauline was taking a bath so Cameron just got undressed and joined her. Needless to say the bathroom was soaked by the time they were done.
They also enjoyed dancing together. Its a shame that we live so far apart. The kids have a great time together.