Camryn's First Birthday

Camryn turned one year old on Friday, November 18th.  She began her big day with a check up appointment at 8:30 am.  She weighed in at 22.6 lbs (75%) and was 31 in (95%) tall.  (Erin had the exact stats at her one year check up!)  She is a healthy little girl. She is eating like a champ and pretty much wants to eat what we are eating.  She says hey, bye, dada, mama, yay, grandaddy, Granny Gay, and Bible.  She also shakes he head yes/no when she is asked a question.  This is very helpful.

She loves the phone, especially the iphone.  Her favorite toys include her baby dolls, the play kitchen, the red car and anything she can tote around like a purse.  Camryn loves to play outside on the swing set.  She squeals with delight when we go for a ride on the golf cart and she loves to visit the donkeys behind our house.

We celebrated, as tradition, with a cupcake on her actual birthday.  She was not bashful!!!  She has a sweet tooth like her mama (and daddy : )

Camryn's party was on Saturday.  We were lucky to celebrate with our family.  She seemed to enjoy herself too!  Check her out with her cake!

Airplanes and Caterpillars

This past Saturday the annual air show came to town.  Stephen and my dad try to go every year.  They usually take Grant, but he couldn't go this year.  He had a birthday party to go to that was smack dab in the middle of the day.  We decided to let Erin go because she was not invited to the birthday party. 

She had a blast!  I think she enjoyed the air show more than Grant.  (Stephen said it was so much easier with her too.)  She came home with the new career goal, "the driver of the Blue Angels!!!"  We will see what her future holds : ) 

On Tuesday Grant and Erin had their first field trip of the year.  I was able to take the morning off to accompany them to the theater.   They went to see the coolest puppet show!  The puppets performed three books buy Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar,  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me.  The entire show was put on by two puppeteers and they did a fabulous job!  The picture above is Erin and her teacher Ms. Megan.  We love Ms. Megan!  The picture below is Grant and his best buddy.

Halloween Hoopla 2011

Halloween seriously lasted for days around here this year!  We kicked off the celebration on Thursday with Erin's school party.  I wasn't able to go this year because I had to work : (  Granny and Camryn got to go join in the fun.

Friday evening we took the kids to the local pumpkin patch.  The kids were so sad that we didn't get a pumpkin at the corn maze and I was sad that I did not get any pumkin pictures, so we made a special trip.  We got there a little later than I had planned, (Stephen had to work late) and I thought I did not have enough light to get any pictures without my flash.  I cranked the ISO settings on my camera up and got a few good ones.  They are a little grainy, but they will do!  The kids each picked out a pumpkin to carve.

We had a Halloween themed birthday party Saturday morning.  The kids got to wear their costumes and they had a great time!  Saturday night our Care Group had a Halloween party too!  It was so much fun and Mrs. Plante had a bunch of games for the kids to play.  She even had prizes for them!  When we got home Grant told me that "This was the best day ever!" 

Sunday night was Trunk or Treat!  We always have a great time with all our friends.  I love seeing all the little ones dressed up in their costumes!  Grant was the black Angry Bird.  Erin was Cinderella and Camryn was a little flower!

Camryn got the hang of this Trick or Treating thing right away.  Just beware....don't take away her candy!!!!

Monday night we did a little more trick or treating with our cousin Dixie.  I think it's safe to say that I am over Halloween : )

Conner's A-Maize-ing Acres 2011

We had are annual trip to the corn maze and pumpkin patch this past weekend.  This was the fifth year we have gone, and we had to get the kids' picture behind the tractor!  There was quite a crowd when we arrived.

The weather was absolutely beautiful!  We met up with a bunch of our friends from church.

Camryn was thrilled to oblige with the traditional picture : )

The family picture, however, was pushing it too far : )

Here we are riding the cow train.  This is always a favorite!

Grant and Rebecca had their first date  : )

Grant loved climbing and jumping off the hay bales!

We conquered the corn maze!

Camryn's New Word

Erin has been singing this song to Camryn all week and she just started saying Bible today.  It's so sweet!  

an

Now that I have figured out how to publish videos on the old blog, (Stephen has been out of town all week and I just had to learn to do it myself ; ), I wanted to share this video of Grant.  Here he is doing Bible Reading at Lads to Leaders back in April.  It was his first time up in front of a crowd and we weren't really sure what he was going to do.  I love his little voice just asking "for a wittle help!"  I missed seeing him because I was outside holding fussy Camryn, but it sure made me a proud mama! 



The End of the Season

These sweet little ladies are ready to cheer for their teams!  Grant's soccer team was playing a team that four of our friends from church are on.  Camryn and Erin enjoyed sharing the sideline with Grant's favorite girl, Becca.  He told me that he played so well because she was there : )

Grant had a great game and even scored a goal!!!  We were so proud of him!

Grant was so excited about his very first trophy.  I am sure we will play again in the spring.

The Children's Way 5K

Me and my co-workers, Missy and Mia

(ignore the poor quality iphone photo)

Yesterday morning Stephen and I ran The Children's Way 5K benefiting the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Jacksonville.  There were quite a few runners for this race, as I had expected.  Many families came out to walk the entire course to give back to the Ronald McDonald house.  I finished the race in 32:06 mins.  I really wanted to finish it in thirty minutes, but I knew that was going to be a hard goal to obtain.  I was satisfied with my time, and hope to finish my next race in 30 minutes! 

It is an adjustment getting used to running in a large group of people.  The first mile you are dodging and weaving aound those that are slower than you.  We picked a place in the middle of the crowd knowing that we would probably average around a ten minute mile.  We started out a little faster than we normally run, at a 8:30 mi/min pace.  I felt good and thought why not go with it.  As we approached the one mile mark I was ready to slow down and scaled my pace back to 10:30 mi/min.  I made Stephen stop and walk with me somewhere right before mile two.  He obliged and we continued to run and walk the rest of the race.  I kept getting a cramp right under my left arm.  I thought it was a strange place for a cramp.  We will see if this happens again. 

Afterwards my right achilles tendon started killing me.  I know I don't stretch enough, but I am going to now!  I have been resting and icing it today and it feels much better.  I am also (strongly) considering going to the local running store and letting them properly fit me for shoes.  I know I overpronate on my right side and this can really give you problems.  (and I don't have time for problems!)

I will be running another 5K in October, followed by a 10K mid November.  I am looking forward to improving my time!

Love the Baby

Camryn has taking a liking to one of Erin's baby dolls.  She loves this doll and has been toting her around all day.  If you say "love the baby" she will give the baby a kiss.  It is just the cutest thing ever!!!! 

Here she is kissing her baby.

I am not sure how this happened so quickly, but I had a little baby just a few weeks ago....now she's all grown up!  She's walking, saying more words on a daily basis, and gives high fives.  She loves to "talk" on the phone and can even play some games on my iPhone!  She's mastered her sippy cup and is eating like a champ!  It makes me happy and sad all at the same time!

Grant's Fifth Birthday

I found these cute invitations on ebay!

I used this tutorial, from the craftingchicks.com, to make cupcakes.  They were so cute and, most importantly, Grant liked them.

I used these free printables, from Tip Junkie ,to make Angry Birds balloons.  The "Appy Birthday" banner came from thepartyanimal-blog.org. 

All in all, it was a great fifth birthday party!  Grant received lots of legos which are quickly taking over the house : )  He also got some Angry Birds stuffed animals which are a favorite.  I think I am going to like this year!

Camryn is Walking!!!

I am such a slacker mommy!  Camryn has been taking a few steps by herself for a couple of weeks now.  Just this week she has stepped it up a notch.  I guess I am a little behind, but she is now officially walking! 

I must admit I had not had the chance to document this milestone with a picture or video.  Luckily, Stephen came home an took a short video tonight. 

The Disney Princess Half Marathon 2012

Yes, you read it right!  I might just be crazy, but I signed up for a half marathon.  No, I am not a runner.  I guess I am now!  It just happened so quickly.  I was talking with my sister in law, Liz, out by the pool on the Fourth of July.  She asked me if I would like to run the race with her.  She made the race sound so exciting!  I doubted myself for a second, but then, the very next day (after watching the You Tube video about the race), I signed up!  There's no backing out now!

I knew the motivation of a half marathon was just what I needed to get out and do something for myself.  I had figured out that I have either been pregnant or nursing sixty one months of the past seventy two months (six years)!!!   That takes a lot out of you!  Deciding to do this race has given me a chance to take time out just for myself.  I have only been running for a little over a month and I can already feel a difference.  I  know I have a long way to go before Febraury, but I will get there!

The tricky part has been finding the time I need to train for the race.  Luckily, my loving husband, has been training with me.  I am so glad to we are doing this together.  We aren't able to get every run in together.   He is in school two nights a week and we have Bible Study on Wednesday night so our training schedule is not ideal.  He does get to run between work and school.  I am going to have to try to fit in a run on Mondays by myself.  I am hoping once it cools down a little bit I can squeeze some time in on Monday afternoons.   It helps to have him running with me because he doesn't let me give up and he runs faster than I do, so he pushes me harder.  We are going to run the Gate River Run together a couple of weeks after the half marathon. 

So, now I have put it out there on the blog that I am training for a half marathon.  I have a few little races scheduled in the coming weeks.  I will try to update on my progress!

Our Week: An Instagram Recap

Erin decided she needed to "paint" her finger nails with blue marker the morning of her preschool orienation.  No, it wasn't washable!

 It was consignment sale week and I was tagging all the baby items we were going to sale.  I was going to sale this stroller, but Erin convinced me to keep it a little longer!

As I mentioned in the last post, Erin likes tumbling class now.

Grant and I had a little treat while we were waitig on her class to finish up. 

Camryn did not get any chocolate, but she enjoyed playing in the driver's seat. 

This little guy greeted us the on Erin's first day of school.

Camryn and I enjoyed a little mommy/daughter time while the big kids were at school.

Which included some laundry.

We found this little guy in the yard on Tuesday.

Grant got an award at preschool for "great leadership"....I wonder what that means : )

What I woke up to on Thursday morning.

What happens when baby goes on a one side nursing strike for the past month and a half due to an ear infection!  This not a good thing.  It stresses Mommy!

We have had a rough week.  All three kids have been sick off and on all week.  Grant only went to school today and Tuesday.  We have had fevers, runny noses and sore throats.   I just checked Erin and Grant's temperatures and they both have fevers again!  (I could tell because they were sooooo cranky!)  I am one tired mommy.  I am looking forward to this weekend.  I am hoping every one is well and we can enjoy some football, swimming and time with the family!