Yikes, it's the middle of October!

And my last post was in June. June 24th, the last day of school I believe, and the day before my baby girl's 6th birthday. Wow!
Rest assured, we are still alive and kicking.. I'm just majorly slacking in the blog department.

We had a busy summer filled with camping, a trip to the ocean, camping, eating s'mores, camping and lots of fun. Cadynce has been back to school for over a month now and she is really enjoying first grade. I think a lot of it has to do with her teacher. Cadynce started cheer leading in September also - competitive cheer at that. Another excited chapter for us, and a big first for this family. Pike jump what? Before you ask, no, Camden still isn't potty trained. He's a tough cookie to break. He is talking up a storm and his sense of humor is starting to come out! Both kids must have hit some sort of growth spurt and it's making me wish I would have started a wall with their measurements. Guess it's not too late to start now right? We're painting the inside of our house. (oh, by we I mean I pick out the paint colors and Colby paints) Slowly, we're trying to fix up this place... not sure if the moving to a dream house will ever happen so we gotta make the best of what we got, right?

Nap time is over. I'll do my best to write again soon. Post some pictures even.

kid pictures.

Here are some pics of the kids, we have gotten, maybe 2 days of sunshine. Okay, maybe a few more, but it feels like 2.

Grandma Cleone spent a few days at the hospital, and then at Regency Care facility while she was getting her strength back. They held a fundraiser for Relay one Saturday, so Grandma got a walk, and Sis got her face all done up.

<3

Um, can you sit like this?

Memorial Day weekend at G-ma Cleone's. (Her b-day celebration and Carson's grad party.) Cam found an anthill. Kept him busy for hours. Well, that and basketball.

The kids love jumping on the trampoline with the Klein kids. :)

it's been a minute...

...or ten, since I've been on here. I guess, really the last goings on - were that I was bummed out and missing Rhonda. My phone broke, so I got an iPhone (that I can mobile blog from and I just haven't) and so much stuff has happened. Well, gee, Tisha, it's only been what? 2 months.

Okay, moving on. In April, we had Camden's 3rd birthday (and NO he's still not potty trained!) Cadynce was student of the month - AGAIN! We went to a fun pirate birthday party for our friend, Kelan.

This is my favorite picture from the party of us, because it's just so us.

Colby was gone right before Easter, so Papa came over and dyed Easter eggs with me and the kids. We went to the city of Arlington's Easter Egg Hunt, and the kids had a blast. Papa even brought Great Grandpa Ben to come and watch. We celebrated Camden's birthday on Easter at Grandma Cleone's house with the family, an Easter Egg Hunt, and cupcakes.

The day before Easter we had a fundraiser for Relay For Life and raised just over $500.00! We had a good time, but definitely learned some things we will do different for next year. During the weekend of paint the town purple (relay fundraising weekend in May) Cadynce needed a haircut. I picked her up from school and she said, "mom, tomorrow when i get my haircut, I'm really going to get it cut. I'm ready, and somebody else needs my hair." Kid, in one moment you make me so proud and thankful that I have you.

And just like that, 11 inches of my baby girl's hair was gone. Debby even reluctantly agreed to a picture with sis. Debby has been cutting the kid's hair forever & her son passed away a few years back from cancer...

In May, Colby and I had a quick weekend trip to L.A. for Carson's big graduation from UCLA Law. Everyone is so proud of Carson. (I did tell him, he has used up his allotted graduations though.) We enjoyed our quick break from the kids and were thankful to have great friends step in and watch them for us.

We got to do a lot in our short little weekend, including taking in a Dodgers Game! (I was going to put a link here to an older post about Colby and me wanting to eventually visit every ball park, but evidently I never wrote about that...so I guess it's a "note to self" to write about that. duh!)

That pretty much sums up May. The first weekend in June was Relay. What's that you say? How was it? Ah-maz-ing of course! It's always hard for me, thinking of Rhonda (or anyone else affected by cancer for that matter) but, a  great weekend all the same. I think we raised over $290,000!! Pretty good stuff right there.

mr. cam-man

Camden is turning into the most amazing little man. He's really starting to talk, he's caring, loving and just a sweet boy (most of the time). When I leave for work, or to go anywhere really, he walks me to the door and his last thing to say is, "I love you mom." He has this deep little boy voice and it just melts my heart.

These are from my cell phone, so sorry about the quality of the pictures, but, this day, Camden was hammering away on those pegs. He'd stop every couple seconds and say, "I can't help you mom." After a lot of questions and me trying to help him about a million times and him getting mad at me, I realized, he was trying to say, he didn't need help. He could do it.

Eating sammiches at the table, he turned around. Colby and I couldn't figure out why, until...

We walked around to see he was pulling his sammich apart and didn't want us to see it. How cute is that?!

Lopez Pictures

Our attempt at a family picture, they never turn out quite right. Oh well, guess they just show our true colors right? Do you see how fat Summer Dog is?! She had so much fun on the island though, she had lots of energy and ran around a lot. Pretty sure she slept the whole week after we got home though.

Camden took about a 5 gallon bucket worth -o-water back from the beach everyday in his boot. Colby is trying not to get wet. :)

Oh sister.

Me and dad.

Our last walk on the beach, Cadynce had a fever but wasn't willing to give up another walk on the beach.

Beach walks 2011.

Jan. Feb. Highlights

January:

• My birthday month! We enjoyed family dinner at The Stanwood Grill! And I got some really great birthday presents. (At this moment I'm thinking about how this is my last year in my twenties. Yikes!)
• Cadynce was student of the month and she had a whole entourage there to see her.
• Ha, uh, my car broke down. Or blew up rather. Had to get a new engine put in that puppy.

...I feel like there should be more, but I got nothing. I think we really spent a lot of January just trying to get our feet back underneath us...

February:

• We went to Lo-Lopez! I'll post an entry with some of my favorite pictures.
• I got my car back, to the tune of $3800, bye bye tax return.
• Cousin Kayci turned 21, so we got to have a fun night out at the casino. Have I mentioned that I can't stand cigarette smoke. Kayci, so funny, says, "So, is this all people do, is sit in a bar and drink?"
• Baseball Preparations begin.
• Valentine's day. <3
• We came home from Lopez with a sick Cadynce, which led to a sick Camden . . . (all leading up to barf fest 2011)

Some kid highlights:
Cadynce is learning so much these days. She has jumped from knowing a lot of numbers and words, to knowing what feels like them all. She can rote count up past 100, is through her complete set of sight words and is on to a second list, knows greater than and smaller than for numbers 1 - 10 and can identify and write her numbers up through 31. We're still struggling with rights and wrongs since she's been in school and how to stay true to yourself, but I think these are things we're going to struggle with until she's fully aware of who she really is and what she stands for. How do you help your children know it's OK to be who they are and not someone else?

Camden is speaking in big long sentences now! Everyday more and more words are there. He is so caring and compassionate as well. The other day, Colby and I were having a "discussion" (OK, it was a loud discussion) over T-ball for Cadynce, and when Colby walked out Camden came running in and said to me, "Mommy, I need to hold you." "Are you okay mommy, whatsa matto mommy" *sighs* He is such a sweet little boy. I could tell you cute sayings and stories for hours about him; he is just in such a fun stage right now.

last november

Last November we got some gooood snow. The kids waited patiently for enough to be down that they could actually play in it. It was super cold outside though, so we were never out for very long at a time. Usually, we followed up with hot chocolate too.

I love this picture, dimples and snow. So cute, right?

Hey ladies... wanna smooch?

Serious cheese face going on.

Halloween oh-ten

 This year, the kids finally got some good use out of their costumes. We went to a Halloween birthday party for Cole. We had downtown trick-or-treating, actual Halloween trick-or-treating, and I won a Halloween photo shoot for the kids! Wow! Cadynce was Tinkerbell and Camden was Buzz Lightyear. You can see that downtown trick-or-treating was a little on the cold side, in fact, by the time we were finishing it was starting to rain.

 Camden wasn't overly excited when we headed out for downtown. It was nearing nap time, a little chilly, and his costume may have been a titch too small. (I got a size 5, sheesh!) I did enjoy walking behind him though because you could see his cute little diaper butt through the white bottoms. Ha. I'm sure he'll thank me for that later on.

This was my best shot of both of the kids. Not the greatest I know, but it is sooo hard to get both kids to look at the camera and smile while there are a million other kids in costumes walking around.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of Cadynce's super cute Tinkerbell wings. They just made me happy. Even with them over her coat she still enjoyed flitting around in them.

I had to include one of Cadynce's hair too! I did it all by myself, 4 times even. No, 5 times, because we had a test run before any of the dress up festivities took place!

At the end of downtown trick-or-treating, we had one tired little boy. He was a good sport though, getting all dressed up so many times, knocking on doors, smiling for the camera and saying "trick-or-treat." All in all, Halloween was pretty good this year!

random pictures.

Cam is always lining up his cars like this. The Zhu Zhu pet really cracks me up though!

The kid has a few McQueens.

Cadynce was student of the month in January for "being responsible for her learning." Can you tell she was a nervous Nellie up there? Wierd considering the ham she is.

 

She was so excited to see us all there. We come in full force. Grandma Cleone, Papa, Uncle Tom, me, Colby and Camden. We are so proud of her.

reading. writing. talking.

Since Cadynce has started school she has learned so much. She absolutely loves school. Some of the things she's learned/learning are:

• sight words (31 to be exact - so far)
• sounding words out and starting to read some of her books on her own
• counting to 100, and identifying 0 thru 31
• she's finally mastered writing her name with a capitol C and lower case the rest
• greater than and smaller than 5
• her coloring is great, and her attention to detail is getting better and better

It's been amazing watching her grow and change. I think the other day at school I really was amazed at how many children she has had a good impact on, I mean, the other kiddos wouldn't be talking about her at home to their parents if she wasn't right?

Camden lost his binki on Christmas, which I'm sure you remember from (yeah I was going to post a link because I was sure I had blogged about this, but evidently I didn't!) ---scratch that. Back the bus up. Christmas Day at Mike's house I had found a hole in one of Cam's last 2 binkies, so I threw it away... later on the same day at Grandma Cleone's I found a hole in the last one. We figured okay, we're done. On the way home after our exhausting Christmas Eve and chaotic Holidays, we realized that was probably a crazy idea to give it up on Christmas Day. Well, I searched - no where was open -- and we had no hiding binkies in the house. So that was it, we were done. I found a different kind of binki stashed in his closet, but he didn't want anything to do with that...So we were binki-less on Christmas Day night. Camden was a trooper and only whined a little bit, he still has blankey so I think that helped. He really didn't need it and it was more for us I think at this point, but he has only ever asked for it maybe twice since then, so we have been really lucky. Okay, back to the here and now:

Camden was talking more and more, but I didn't see just how much his bink was inhibiting his words... he has come leaps and bounds in just a few short months. Every day he is saying more and more and his words are clearer and clearer. (Like other people can understand him now, not just me and Caydnce) He says things like:

• mommy, i eat a snack
• mommy/daddy i need a rink (drink) peeas (please)
• oh-uh the moowiee (movie) is over
• oh, okay, gooooodnight mommy/daddy/issy
• uh, no summer, get on yooo bed
• oh, i go a Tina's today?

He's ready for a big boy bed for the simple fact that he's just too big for the crib, but we haven't gotten one yet. As for potty training......well, eventually that will happen. I hope. I'm so done with diapers.

I'm thankful for my children. They are amazing.

part 3.

my little girl is not so little anymore.

park cont'd. part 2 of 3

it is so much fun for me to watch my family playing happily together. i am so blessed with them. and to be able to capture these moments on camera...is amazing. these pictures will be treasured forever.

playing at the park (in pictures) part 1 of 3

the girl loves her dog

all boy

does this need words?

my pretty girl

while the kids are napping..

I guess I should try and post something. I've been in a bit of a rut lately. Sad for lots of reasons, stressed for even more reasons and crazy busy. Between work, getting Cadynce ready for school, swim lessons, weddings and camping things have been go - go - go!

Last night I was thinking of some of the really funny things that have happened to share with you all:

• Cadynce asked our friends son, Skylar (12) if he would play with her (he had been just prior) and he said, "no, not right now Cadynce." Her response. "Skylar, let me tell you how this works, I'm going to ask you again and say pretty please, and then you're going to say yes." * where does she get this from!? hilarious, right?
• Colby and I recently started a new work out called p90x and we had to take "before" pictures. There are 4 poses we did, forward facing hands on hips, forward facing arms up all muscly like, same as before from the back and then the side. Colby takes my picture and instantly says, "you don't wanna look at those." haha... gee thanks babe!
• While down at the river at our friends house we were all swimming and Camden was playing in the sand area where it just meets the water (he's not big into swimming or being in the water this summer). Camden was naked and slinging mud...Stacie just happened to capture this:

On the not so funny side of things: Camden has had double ear infections, strep throat and tonsillitis while Cadynce has managed to escape all these for the most part. Work has been really stressful and as most of you know us and our situation - it makes home a little hard too. But we're doing our best to make things work and to keep work and home separate.
What has summer been like for all of you?

Happy 4th of July.

Ours was definitely different than usual. Because of our busy schedule we didn't go to Lopez, which in the long run, ended up being a good thing. Friday night we enjoyed a BBQ at our friends house and kept the kids up way to late, but they had so much fun. Saturday night we went to papa's house and tested out his new fire pit. It works great. Camden had his first s'more and we all had a sleepover. Camden woke up a few times in the night, but we didn't think anything of it because it's the first time in a long time he's slept in a crib at Papa's house. (usually he sleeps with papa)
*here's where the story gets good.
We decided to go to family breakfast at the Steak House in town on Sunday morning. My kids are big breakfast eaters so they ate a bowl of cereal at Papa's when they got up... we don't get breakfast til about 11 usually anyhow, so it's more like lunch. Anyways, we get our food ordered and are readily enjoying it. Camden was hoovering down his pancake, a little too quickly, chugging water, and hoovering some more. Yep, you guessed it, he started to choke on a piece, which turned to gagging, which turned to, yep... barf. In a restaurant at the table. OH - EM- GEE! This really is one of my worst nightmares. I hate barf, hate hate HATE barf. More than the average person. ICK! But I held it together, Colby took him outside for some air, all the while Camden was screaming cause he wanted to finish his food and I cleaned up barf off the floor. EWWWWW! Luckily it was nothing more than a case of eating too fast. Colby took Camden home and I ran over and snagged a delivery car from work and parked it in a good spot for the parade and had Grandma Cleone run me home. Cadynce went home with Papa to enjoy the afternoon with some one-on-one time. I walk in the door and realize somewhere along the way I've lost Cam's blankey. Great. Thank goodness I called the Steak House and one of the ladies found it outside. Colby went to pick it up and switch out his truck for the delivery car.
Enter nap time. Camden goes down, but then poops, so Colby gets him and changes him. He still won't go to sleep and begins freaking out. We tried all the stops and after a few minutes I realized he was really messing with his ear. Our normal doctors office was closed, the ten minute walk in clinic was closed and so our only option was the ER. We headed up to the hospital hoping to beat all the normal 4th of July injuries and we did. Got in and out in no time at all. However, Camden has double ear infections, bad and worse. So bad, they even gave him Vicoden and a prescription for it too! Whoa!
He got in a little nap, and Colby and him met me and Cadynce down in town for the parade. After that we went to John and Lauren's to celebrate John's birthday and play with fireworks. We were home by 8:30 with kids in bed shortly after. Cadynce ended up in our bed about 9:15 or so because all the booms were scaring her. Camden was out cold until about midnight when he joined us...


Happy Independence Day! Hope you all enjoyed a less eventful holiday than we did!

Mi Vida Loca

I swear, someday I am going to have a chance to sit down again. SOMEDAY! As of last week Camden is crawling and pulling himself up to standing. He has 5 teeth. It happened so fast it's crazy. I go to help Cadynce with one thing and turn around to find him tangled in Colby's video game cords. Actually, not so much tangled but chewing on them and pulling down everything he can get his chubby little fingers on!
Now that Cadynce is 3 1/2 she has completely gotten the hang of the Christmas season as well. EVERY single commercial/advertisement that comes on t.v. for some kind of toy that we have managed not to fit into our little house - she "needs it" or "wants it" or would "really like to have that" for "Halloween." I say, don't you mean Christmas? Oh yeah, that's what I meant Momma. I'm hoping that later today, or just sometime this weekend I will get a chance to sit down and write something more than just this short blurp of me whining.... Until then: