5 Already?

When we first became parents people often told us how fast time will fly when it comes to your children.  Of course it was one of those things that kind of went in one ear and out the other.  We still made sure there were plenty of baby snuggles and took far more pictures than even we thought possible, knowing that those baby times don't last long.  Never in our wildest dreams did we think that the last five years would seemingly disappear.

We look at this amazing five year old and wonder when our tiny little "punkin" turned into our "ding-dong".  I'm not going to  use the old cliche, "It seems like just yesterday that we brought her home" because it's really not like that.  It just doesn't seem like she's been ruling the roost for five years already.  I'd say it was just some sort of cruel joke, but we really have enjoyed watching Camden grow up.  She truly is something else.

Here are some of our favorite things about Camden now:

Her self portraits.  No camera is safe around here.  Every time we clear pictures from the camera we get lots of silly Camden faces taken by herself.  She also loves to video herself.  Most of the time the videos are her just jabbering on and on, are way too close to her face to really see her and she moves the camera so much it's hard to not get dizzy.

The model pose.  We can't take pictures of her without one of them in the group being this pose.  She loves her picture taken which is lucky for her because we'd take them of her anyway.

She absolutely loves her daddy time.  Jered has been teaching her real wrestling moves and she remembers every one of them.  When  she wants to play dolls she almost always asks daddy to play before mommy.  She calls for daddy at night when she wakes up.  She is a much better listener to daddy and loves to help him work.  This is all pretty good for daddy because he's a big sucker for her too!

She's very artistic.  Her favorite things to draw or paint are our family and flower gardens.  She loves to do "projects" and especially loves to give them to her friends.  She likes to write notes and is learning how to write more actual words.  The first word (besides her name) that she could write on her very own was LOVE.  She writes LOVE on everything.  Her latest family portrait (above) we are all saying "love".  I receive a picture from her almost daily.

Her infectious smile and laugh.  How can you not love this?  Those beautiful white teeth and the dimples...what more is there to say.

She's full of energy and loves for us to be active and exercise with her.  When she hears music she can't help but start dancing.  When a movie ends we have to leave the credits running so we can all dance to the music.  She also likes to sing.  She makes up songs all the time and LOVES for us to turn the music up in the car so she can sing along.

She's a HUGE dare devil.  We catch her jumping and flipping off the couch all the time.  She likes to swing on the monkey bars.  She seems to not be afraid of anything.  We saw some hang gliders the other day and she immediately said, "I want to try that!"  The dare devil in her is part of what convinced us to put her in gymnastics.  We thought maybe she'd learn a safer way to do some of those dangerous things.

Camden is a great friend.  She has so many good friends in the neighborhood and at gymnastics.  As soon as she's dressed and ready for the day she will ask for a friend to come over.  99% of the time they play so nicely that I barely know they are here.  She was pretty excited to find out that two of her closest friends will be in her kindergarten class.

She is such a ham.  She loves to be silly and make everyone happy.  She'll do almost anything to get a smile or laugh from those she's around.  She likes to tell jokes.  You know the five year old kind that they think are hilarious, but really make no sense.  We've been working on teaching her some real jokes.  That being said, she can also be quite the drama queen.  She can still cry at the drop of a hat and blames most of her tears and sass on "being tired" and "missing Tiger".  In fact we're a little afraid of what the teen years are going to bring us.

Camden is becoming more and more beautiful every day.  She is very picky about the way her hair is done.  She loves to wear dresses and skirts, especially those that flow out big when she twirls, and is a big girly-girl when it comes to her clothes.  Although she loves to dress girly, she loves to dig in the dirt, make mud pies, find bugs and worms and just get dirty.

We love this girl!  Thanks Camden for making us smile and for showing us all the best things in life!

Biker Babe

Camden has been asking Jered for weeks to teach her to ride her bike without training wheels.  She does awesome with her training wheels and pretty much has no fear when it comes to that.  Jered has been really busy, like usual, but he took some time between chopping a tree down and chipping and cleaning up all the mess to work with her.  We got her all decked out in safety gear; tennis shoes, helmet (these two are ALWAYS required at our house), elbow and knee pads.  I grabbed the camera (no way was I missing this BIG moment) and just about had to wipe the tears from my eyes.  When did our baby get so independent and who told her it was OK? (Whoever you are, I will find you and you will pay...)

Before the actual training began she got the safety/pep talk from daddy.

Things were a little questionable at first with her trying to find her balance and trying to convince her that the handle bars worked the same way they worked when the training wheels were on.  She did relatively well and with very few crashes.  She did try to bail a few times though.  Each time Jered just reminded her that all she had to do was "brakes first then put your foot down."

In no time at all she was riding on her own and daddy got his workout.  She was pretty tired from her day of playing with cousins and friends so she didn't last too long before she was done.  Luckily she'll have plenty of time to practice since the weather is getting warmer.  Soon we'll be wondering why we gave her this new form of freedom.  We're just crossing our fingers that she remembers all of those safety rules we taught her (and that she uses them).

When I asked Camden if she had fun learning she replied, "Yeah.  Do you wanna know what the best part was?  That my friends were cheering me on."

This was one of the sweetest thing I've ever seen.  Some of Camden's friends were outside playing while she was learning to ride.  They stopped what they were doing, sat on the curb and literally cheered Camden on.  "Come on Camden, you can do it."  "Keep trying Camden."  "Camden, you did awesome!"  At one point they said, "Camden, if you can ride from there to here we'll give you some popcorn."  It's so amazing to me that, even at five years old, her friends love and care for her enough to stop everything to help her succeed.  I truly think that made all the difference for her.  I'm not sure she wanted to get back up a few times, but her personal cheer section lifted her back up with their encouragement.  This is one of the reasons we LOVE our neighborhood so much.  Thanks kids for making, not only Camden's day, but mine too.

Camden, we are so proud of you!  We know this will just add to the fun you have with your friends.  We can see some great adventures in your future.  We can't wait to learn and explore more with you.

She was so excited before and here's a video of the fun.

Feeling OLD

Do you ever have those days when you feel WAY older than you really are?  Well, I have them quite often.  It's not from aching joints, or the fear of falling and breaking a hip.  It's not that I may forget to take my medications, or run out of adult diapers.  It's not even that any small peep out of a child really grates on my nerves, or that we eat supper at 4:00, watch our program and are in bed before 8:00.  So what is it that makes me feel so old so often?  It's my MAIL.  Collecting the mail is always an adventure.  I walk out to the mailbox a young mother and by the time I get back to the house I feel like I'm at least 70.  Just so you completely understand what I'm talking about, I've created a little sampling for your viewing pleasure.  Please pay particular attention that these (all but one) are addressed directly to me and NOT to CURRENT RESIDENT which makes it even better.

First, we'll start with some hearing information.  These were some of the first types of things I received in the mail.

I do understand that the elderly are not the only ones suffering from hearing loss.  In fact Jered has said that I should really follow up on some of these.  He thinks I can't hear, but I say it's more like selective hearing and choose not to listen to him.  Besides, they ALWAYS hold their seminars/free dinners at buffet restaurants and HE of all people should know that I'm not a fan of buffets and will avoid them at all costs.  I get something from House of Hearing at least once a week.  Maybe they know something that I don't.  The plus with these is that if I ever decide to follow up on any of them I'll get some pretty sweet deals.

Next up are the Medicare and Social Security letters.

Check out the underlined parts on the one above;  "you may be eligible for MEDICARE benefits within the next SIX MONTHS."  I'm pretty sure I'm not that close to 64, unless of course my parents are trying to trick me and that I'm really my mom's older sister.  If that's the case, man I've aged well.  The very next section says, "PLAN NOW and have your selections ready before age 65."  Again, I think I have PLENTY of time to make my selections.

 Although I don't have Social Security Income (just yet), it's good to know that all of these companies that are "not affiliated with any government agency" can tell me how to reduce my taxes on it and how to supplement my Medicare at reduced rates.  I get lots of Social Security and Medicare mail telling me how much I qualify for and how simple it is to get started.  I suppose they just want me to be really educated on all of this so in 40 years I'll be ready.

These next two are DEFINITELY for someone older than I.

 The dead give away here is the big, bold SENIOR COMMUNITY.  I'm pretty sure they wouldn't approve of us moving in with our rambunctious four year old.  I do however appreciate being informed about how great it could be living in a community like this.  The back of this one has "thumbs up" and a "thumbs down" list (very literally). The UP's: Clubhouse & Theater, Pool & Exercise Facility, Fun, Friends, Activities (I'm guessing Bingo), Attached 2-Car Garage.  The DOWN's: No Yard Work, No Snow Shoveling, No Maintenance, No Stairs.  Now I'm no Einstein or anything, but shouldn't ALL of those things be UP's?  You know there is some senior out there saying to his wife, "Mable, look at this great community we could be part of.  Oh wait, I don't get to shovel snow anymore and none of the houses have stairs.  Forget it!"

Why yes, that is my actual hand.  No, not the child's hand.  The wrinkled, age spotted hand with bright pink nail polish is mine.  They asked me to be the hand model for their post card.  I had to say, "Yes."  Who wouldn't want to do THAT?  They are very right about me though.  I have "spent many years working to provide for [my] family and [my] future."  If only I weren't so close to the grave and still had a lot more life to live and enjoy all of my hard work.

For our final preview you get this:

FYI this was the only one not addressed directly to me, but I couldn't resist adding it here.

I hope you enjoyed my little stroll down "I'm way older than I appear" lane.  I hope you got a little laugh at my expense.  Jered sure laughs and I'm finally coming to terms with my age.

LOVE Your Hair

After really stretching the Christmas twists for as long as possible, Camden has a new hairstyle.  She was so sad to say goodbye to the beads, but her hair really needs a break from the elastics and beads.

She had a twist out for a couple of days.  This is so adorable, we really wish it would last longer than a couple of days.

Man she knew just how cute she looked in this style.

No photo op is wasted in our house.  Camden loves to pose and pose and pose.  Most of the time, however, we get this silly grin of hers.  Still stinking cute though.

Camden decided she was ready for Valentine's Day hair.  After some searching on the Internet for some ideas, we had a style ready to try.  I thought I could make some criss-cross braids in the shape of hearts work, but much to my (and Camden's) dismay it was a total failure.  I tried a few other ideas and NOTHING seemed to be working in my favor.  With the morning of failures causing both Camden and I some frustration, I called it a day with ZERO braids completed.  I figured it was better for both of us to call it a "fun" morning together and attempt a different style the next day.

Day two we were met with much more success.  Although I'm not really happy with how it turned out.  Don't get me wrong, I think its cute.  Camden loves it which is the most important thing to me.  It just didn't turn out the way I had envisioned it.

Only two randomly placed hearts (because they suck to braid) and then some free braiding around them.  I'm really not too sure they can even be called hearts.  They look more like triangles rebelling from having perfectly straight sides.  Some day I'm going to figure out how to make them look more like hearts.  Once all of the braids were in I used a yarn needle and sewed some red yarn around the heart braids to make them stand out.  Camden also has some pretty thick hair on the back of her head.  It makes for some pretty wonky braids, especially with the length her hair is now.  It needs about another inch to help those braids look more normal.  We're just crossing our fingers that it stays looking okay until Valentine's Day.

Primary

One of Camden's favorite things to play by herself is Primary.  I hear her playing it almost every day.  (Not even exaggerating.)  It started out pretty simple, but it has evolved into literally hours of play and she has even created a stand complete with microphone (a kitchen stool with her toy microphone standing upright on the edge).

She will open books and pretend to read church-type stories.  She pretends to whisper in someone's ear, or that someone is whispering in her ear.  Just like you see parents doing for their children when they give a talk in Primary.  We hear some pretty great "talks" and we are a little surprised sometimes by what she says.  She opens each meeting with a "Hello, Brothers and Sisters."

She even throws in singing.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a musical performance like the ones she does in church before, but I guess we all have our dreams.  Her rendition of "Mary Did You Know" was particularly interesting.  "Mary did you know that your baby boy would grow up and be famous?"  I'm fairly certain that this is nowhere in the actual song, but Jesus is pretty famous so at least she got that part right.

Sometimes she will dance while she sings.  Those are the times I think about writing "Primary" the musical.  If you've ever been in Primary, you'll agree that this could be quite an entertaining musical.

All of this makes me wonder, just a little, about what that teacher of hers is teaching in class.  Not really.  Camden has the sweetest teacher, Miss Lyndsie.  She and Camden share a special bond.  I tell people all the time that they are kindred spirits, or twins born 15 years apart by different mothers.  It's seriously the craziest thing I've ever seen.  We all truly love Miss Lyndsie and are so thankful that Camden gets to have her for a Primary teacher for the second year in a row.  It's obvious that she loves all the kids she teaches.  She has a great love for the gospel and enjoys sharing that with the kids.  Camden will forever cherish the time she has been able to learn the gospel from Miss Lyndsie.

Christmas 2011

Christmas this year went well.  It was a week full of fun, excitement, family and togetherness.  Jered took Friday off so we spent the day playing and finishing the last of our Christmas preparations.  He basically kept Camden entertained so I could get things done.  There is truly no better sound for me than when the two of them play together.  There is always plenty of great imagination play, lots of giggles and running around and the occasional tear or two thrown in.  In truth, Jered was almost banned from playing with Camden this weekend.  I'd almost had my fill of the fun and laughter ending in Camden being hurt.

Friday evening we went to temple square to see the lights.  It was so great to be there in front of the manger scene with Camden listening to the prophets teach us about serving others and capturing the true meaning of Christmas.  It's pretty incredible to see trees, seemingly on fire, ablaze with tiny red and orange twinkle lights.  It was really cold so we rushed through the nativity scenes and went for some yummy warm dinner.

Here's Camden moments before we were supposed to be leaving for Christmas Eve lunch.  She was trying to get away from Jered and nearly put her teeth through her lip.  Yep, nice one daddy.

Christmas Eve we had lunch with my family.  We ate a delicious turkey dinner then had some wild and crazy minute-to-win-it games.  The last time I laughed so hard was when my sisters were all together.  We ended the festivities with gift opening and a great lesson from grandpa James.  Grandma Susan made all of the girls headbands and the boys hats.  Our heads will definitely be warm from now on.  Thanks for all of the hard work grandma!

Since I was in charge of the games and Jered was doing who knows what, we failed to get any pictures with our camera.  My brother-in-law, Chase, made a video of the day's festivities (and a few not-so-festivities: dad reading the paper, O on the kitchen table drinking from the water picture...)  You can watch his video here. (Yes, we did keep all of those tissues. With our family being sick they've sure come in handy.)

We stayed way too late and Camden actually fell asleep in the car.  Poor thing didn't even get to put cookies out for Santa.  Luckily we'd made them earlier in the day so we made sure there were plenty of cookies and hot chocolate for Santa and carrots and candy canes for the reindeer.  Camden said the carrots were the healthy part the reindeer need to be strong and the candy canes give them more magic.

We invited my parents over for Christmas morning and told them to come between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning.  We had ignored our alarms going off and woke only when my parents called at 8:00 to say they were waiting on our front porch.  I'm not too excited for these sleep-in Christmas mornings to end.  I'm really crossing my fingers that we have at least one more year.

Camden thought that the orange in the toe of her stocking was so funny.  She couldn't believe that Santa would think of such a great thing.  Santa also put a new toothbrush, tooth paste, fun hair things, Lalaloopsy pencil toppers, candy and a juice box in her stocking.

Santa brought Camden her very own camera. Yes, we know she is only 5, but we made sure Santa brought a  cheap (aka free), used one.  This was more for my sanity than anything else.  Camden was ALWAYS stealing my phone and taking so many pictures and videos I didn't have any memory for the the things I needed.  (I may have to do a Camden video post just so ya'll can see how funny she is.) Now she can load this camera up with whatever she wants and I don't care.

I think this is the gift she was most excited about, a Sleeping Beauty doll.  It was the only thing she told Santa she wanted.  I guess Santa thought she was a good girl because he brought her more than just that.  Like some new Polly Pocket dolls, some new movies and new shoes.  I also spent some time at the sewing machine making some new dolls clothes for her babies.

I know I look so lovely, but I really didn't feel to great...oh let's be honest, this is what I look like every morning.  Jered bought me a laptop.  I got him a meat thermometer.  A little one sided eh?  Well, in all fairness he went WAY over the agreed spending.  We are planning a trip to Thailand in May so we were supposed to get a little something and then save for our trip.  However, our home computer decided to die an untimely death (as did our microwave) and I think Jered was tired of hearing about it.  (P.S. He even made the wrapping paper.)

After present opening we had hot, fresh, homemade bagels and quickly got ready for our 10:00 church meeting.

Our meeting was very nice and the perfect fit into our morning.  Next came a pulled pork lunch and lots of play.  Since my sister Kim's husband was working, we invited her and O over for some more play and fun.  Camden is so sweet with O and he adores her so it works out nicely for all of us parents when we get together.  We can rest a bit and not worry about the two kids getting along.

With the rush of the morning and the excitement of the day we almost forgot to take our family Christmas picture.  Gathering together by the tree was the perfect ending to a fun day.

The day after Christmas we headed off for a week in Washington, Utah.  We arrived Monday evening at the "Red Neck House" and spent a few hours washing sheets and towels.  Tuesday morning we played a bit then headed out for some errand running.  During our running around we got the terrible phone call that Jered's grandpa had passed away.  We decided to wait to hear when the funeral would be before we headed for home.  We heard Wednesday that the funeral would be held Friday, but that Jered was invited to help dress grandpa Thursday morning.  Instead of rushing home we stayed Wednesday and relaxed a little (aka Jered went golfing and Camden and I stayed home to watch a movie and play).  We woke early Thursday morning and headed for home.  We arrived at the mortuary just in time for Jered to meet his brothers.

Even with the unplanned event and cutting our vacation a little short, our Christmas break was great.  It's always wonderful to spend time with family and friends.  We are truly lucky to have such loving and caring people in our lives.  How blessed we are to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, at this time of year.    We will ever be indebted to Him for His life, teachings and especially His infinite and eternal Atonement.

We hope your holiday was full of love, laughter and a little cheesiness!

Shake, Shake, Shake

Camden got a new do for Christmas.  She has been wanting beads for quite awhile and a few beads were not going to cut it.  She wanted them all over so her hair would shake really well.

 I tried a diamond part, which looked really awesome, but made for a few very interesting shaped sections.  Luckily those are hidden on the sides a little so no one but me knows they are there.  This was also my first attempt at twists instead of braids.  I love the look of them.  I also love that it is giving her hair/head a little rest from being pulled too tight while still being a great protective style.  I'll be doing this more often, minus the beads.  I'm still trying to get the hang of most of Camden's hair stuff and I'm so thankful that she is so patient with me.  Hopefully some day I'll be good enough at this stuff that we can do a style in a few hours instead of days.