Big Slide and a Girl!

My little boy is growing up so fast! Today at the park I climbed the steps with him to go down the slide with him, but he slid down before I could sit down! I'm starting to get less agile these days with a growing belly! He made it just fine all the way down. Here's a little video of his 20th or so time down. Haha!



He was so excited. This was after freaking out at the doctor's office this morning and not even wanting to stand on the big boy scale or even to get his height measurement...so I think he was proud of himself!  We are definitely going through a 2 year old I'm going to do what I want when I feel like it phase...after all, I can relate, we are all mostly that way! However, there have been more tears and frustrations on both of our ends, but we are gradually getting better at obeying mom. Or as I hear every 5 minutes...mommy, mommy, mommy! He's not quite sure how to put in to words something like "Come watch me", or "Let's play cars together", so it's just a lot of Mommy right now. We will slowly get there. I was reminded this week that God is working His story through us and not the other way around. I feel so inclined to my way life should be most of the time, when I really need to ask God for help! The giver of life abundant and the one who knows all. :)

A side note is that we are having a girl! As most of you know I was very keen to have another boy. After all, it's familiar, I already have the clothes, and Camden is just so much fun. The idea of a prissy, girly little thing waltzing into our lives I just wasn't sure about! However, I prayed Tuesday night that God would give me a peace whether it was a boy or girl Wednesday morning, and He totally answered my prayers. I am now relieved to find out that we are having a healthy girl, and I am actually excited about it! It's still going to take some more getting used to, though, especially because I hate pink!

Jumping

Here is a video of one of our favorite things to do these days...JUMP!

We really can't get enough! Haha!

Here is 30 seconds of solid jumping followed by...man...that was tiring!




We are getting excited for buddy's 2 year old birthday coming up on November 2nd!

We are also excited to share with everyone now that we are expecting baby #2 in April. More details on that later!

Happy 22 months!

Camden turned 22 months yesterday! I can't believe I almost have a 2 year old.

Lately he has been repeating everything that we ask him to. Jared even taught him to say "cheers" and clank their smoothie glasses together! He is also running faster than I can walk now (I am at a slow jog now).

He has also been putting on me and Jared's shoes every morning and walking around the house. Excuse the diaper butt. :)

End of Summer

As the summer draws to a close (although the heat seems to linger), I wanted to make a short pots of all the fun we have had these last few weeks.

We just got back from a great trip to see my Meme in Alabama, and a trip with Jared's parents to Destin, FL. We It was so great for Camden to get to see his great Meme in Alabama. She took him to the explorium in downtown Mobile, and she also had a birthday cake for Jared while we were there. It was filled with good southern food and of course, Krispy Kreme.

Jared's parents picked us up in Mobile and drove us the rest of the way to Destin. It was a long journey to get there, but it was a really nice condo and we had a great time with them. We got our share of beach time and pool time where Camden could show off everything he has been learning in swim lessons!

We took 4 total weeks of swim lessons this summer. It was totally worth it and he love being in the water now. Here are some shots from the lessons.

 Camden loved all the songs and splashing in the pool. I think he has learned the wheels on the bus bc of singing it everyday at the pool!

 His favorite part of the lessons was jumping off the side. Pretty much the entire lesson he would struggle to get back to the edge of the pool to jump again. By the end of the 4 weeks, he was jumping unassisted in to the water and going under water. Then with my help, doggie paddling back to the side of the pool. :)

 Ignore my ridiculous face!

Our good friend Kimberly and her daughter Amelia. Camden's BFF for sure. He only says her name 5 times a day looking for her! :)

On a total side note, this summer has been filled with challenges as well with Camden growing up and becoming an individual....A toddler!!! Dun, Dun, Dun! We have had our fair share of ridiculous tantrums (one complete with me getting a huge bite mark on my arm that bruised and looked like I had the worst hickey ever!! Haha!), but Camden has really started to settle in to our routines, understand his choices, and understand mom and dad better. We also have a lot of new words, now, and he even is starting to sing along to some songs (on pitch!!).

Well, hope you enjoyed the update! I will try not to wait as long next time between posts!

Basketball

The school park across the street was open yesterday, and we had some fun with a mini basketball that another kid at the park was letting us play with. Camden got his first slam dunk! He was so happy going up to the basket!



We had such a nice visit with my parents last week, too. We went to the Hollywood Bowl, a screening of The Amazing Spider-Man at Sony, ate lunch on the Sony lot, and also got to go see Brave. It was so nice to see Camden starting to recognize both of our parents and he definitely started to form bonds with them this time. I am so grateful they could come help us out this week! Thanks Nana and Pop Pop! You were a huge blessing to us this last week!! Miss you!

Fruit and Veg

Here is a link I found on another blog I read that has some interesting info on food digestion. I've always wondered why sometimes it's harder for me to digest certain fruits and vegetables. Hopefully this will be a good jumping off point in figuring out better food combinations for easier digestion.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/444046-should-fruits-vegetables-be-mixed-together/

We have also started making smoothies with different combos of fruits and veggies for Camden. Sometimes I sneak in my own while making his. He is obsessed with smoothies. I can get him to eat so many greens and vegetables in a smoothie bc he will drink 3 cups full! Another tip I learned is to drink them alone within an hour of eating anything else to absorb all the nutrients.

Any other good fruit/veg tips out there?

dancing and playing the piano

Here are a couple recent videos of Camden. The first one is at my friend Kimberly's house. Her daughter frequently has little dance parties and requests a song to be played on the computer. This one happened to be Fun and Camden was way more into it than Amelia was this time. Usually she is the one dancing away! He had a pretty good groove going on so I had to post it!





This is a video of Camden playing the piano after I had it set up to practice for church. My mom always let us "doodle" on the piano when we were little and has all these cassette tapes of us playing, so I thought it would be fun to keep the tradition alive and let Camden do the same.

Lil Bro got married!

My little brother (not so little anymore) got married last Saturday and I couldn't be happier for him and Lauren! It was a beautiful wedding (outdoors in the hill country) and Jared, Camden, and I had a fun time seeing all our family while we were there. 

Here are some shots from the rehearsal dinner and wedding

 Me and the beautiful bride!

 My mom and her sister, Molly. We got to see her stunning new house in the hill country while we were there, too.

 Bride and Groom

 Me and Jare Bear

 Me and my Meme

 Me and Andrew at the wedding

 Me and Jared with his sister Jordan and Mark

We got to go back to Houston for 2 days post wedding and were able to get all the babies together for a  picture. This is the best we could do! Mason, Estelle, and Camden...toddlers...doing their own thing!

Old Easter Pics and A Bridal Shower

I just uploaded the pictures from our camera today and found some fun ones from Easter that I never posted.
We had a great day at church with friends and then had a little egg hunt with Camden in the front yard with our friend Casey.

 So excited to get more cars at Easter

 playing in the front yard!

Wanting to play ball with Casey!

This is just a silly photo from yesterday. He pulled out the basket in the living room with the blankets and thought it was really funny!

I also attended a bridal shower for a friend Saturday. She is actually from the town where Jared and I grew up and is marrying an old friend as well. Here are some shots from the party. 

Me and Jenn

We had such a fun weekend (our first one in a few months together as a family without Jared working Saturday). We had a BBQ for some friends and neighbors which was also really fun! Next weekend we are planning a little getaway with some friends in the mountains of Malibu. We are excited to get away from the city and our routine for a couple days and relax in nature and enjoy God's presence. Here is a great verse I read today from the desiring God blog that was super encouraging!

The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah 3:17

Sometimes I don't believe that the Lord wants to rejoice over me. I know we all struggle with our own guilt, fears and failures, but the fact is, He wants to rejoice over you in spite of these. He gave us great freedom through His son Jesus and I'm learning how to live in that place and learning to fear Him and not anything or anyone else. :)

Start of Summer

We are enjoying the start of summer here in LA! It's warming up a lot more and we have even been to the beach twice! We have been enjoying going to the school park across the street, too. 

We are full on running now! :)

Trying out the swing for the first time.

Baby sized picnic tables! Always wanting to take other people's snacks and water cups.

Imagination

We officially have an imagination!

Words Words Words

This week has been full of fun, new challenges now that I have a toddler, but I'm going to share with you some of the exciting things that have been happening in Camden's world recently instead of boring you with my dronings of tantrums and discipline woes.

It's absolutely amazing to see all of the light bulbs going off in his little head, now. He's connecting some many words to the actual object/person/animal, etc. A few weeks ago, he started saying car and pointing to the cars outside. I don't think that I had made a big deal about showing him cars when we were out or anything, but if you are around us for more than 5 minutes, you will no doubt hear the word car at least 10 times. I bought him a race track for Easter and a little red car he can ride in outside. He absolutely loves it and plays with his cars all the time. I have even let him watch 15 minutes of Cars the movie at a time and we finally made it all the way through the other day. I don't think he could believe that they made a full film just about cars! 

He also has a lot of animal noises and names. Here are some favorites:
mooo for cow
quack and duck
aerrrr for elephant (with trunk motion)
Hoo Hoo for Owl
Bird

Some other favorite words:
Tuck for truck
vroom
beep beep
car for milk because he has it in his cars cup...that gets a little confusing sometimes.
mama
dada
mum mum for more food
No (not my favorite)....but he will say no and point to things he's not supposed to touch. He will also say it if he doesn't fancy doing something.
Ball

My favorite:
Night Night
He says it when he gets tired. I think that it is in reference to wanting his blankie because he always reaches for it when he says night night. He runs in to his room to grab it off his bed. He will usually go down pretty easily after saying night night, too. My mom told me that I always did that when I was little. I would just disappear and then they would find me asleep in my bed. It's been a bit more of an issue as of late because he knows he's tired but doesn't always want to stop playing. :)

Disneyland!

We got to go to Disneyland this past Saturday with our good friends Lindsay, Gwen, and Firat. Lindsay works at Pixar and can get us passes for free so we thought we could go and see how Camden liked it. Well, he loved it! There were surprisingly a good amount of little kid friendly things to do!

Here are some pics from the day:

 After a long day of play...looking a little spaced out!

 Camden held up his new toy to cover his face from the photo!

 look at the parade!! So excited!

 loved pointing at everything!

 petting zoo! who knew

 Ship in mickeys toon town. There's Lindsay, Gwen, and Firat, too!

 Water ball!

 Not real sure about the plastic eyes that dont move

 He loved the carousel!

Ladybug tea cups. They went a little faster than anticipated! He laughed for a minute, them was looking at me like, are you sure, mom??

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! I'm looking in to a year pass for Cali residents just to go for the day here and there. :)

A Quick Update

There's been a lot going on out here the past month since I posted anything. My Uncle passed away 2 weeks ago unexpectedly so I took a trip to Texas last week with Camden. It was such a nice trip even though it was filled with many tears and heartbreaking moments. My Uncle Herman was one of the most intentional, loving, caring, supportive, and encouraging people I have ever known. I am so blessed to have had him as an uncle. It was so incredible to hear all the stories of what a great man of faith he was as well as an incredible lawyer, husband, friend, father, grandfather, and role model in his community and church. Remembering his life inspired me and I know so many other people to live out more intentional lives while here on this earth.

In other news, we've really been enjoying watching Camden learn and change so much since we moved in to our duplex 6 weeks ago. Even in the last week, I've seen how much better he's getting at different sounds and words. Here is a little video I took of him while I was teaching him to say "mumble"

He also said "car" for the first time today and pointed to the car when he said it. He's making more word associations to certain objects now too instead of just saying them. 

Here are a few recent shots:

My friend Kimberly took this one today...We call him our smile boy

2 days after we got back from Texas, our dear friends from London (Dave and Jo) and their daughter Bella came to visit us. They are currently still here and this is a pic we got of the two kids outside the other day. Camden was so cute trying to reach out and hold Bella, so we just plopped her on his lap!

This was from Texas last week with Camden's cousin Carson. They had a lot more fun playing this time since Camden could walk!

We are going to Disneyland tomorrow (Camden's first trip!) with a few of Jared's college friends, and I can't wait to post pictures from our day!

<3

Finally settling in

So here we are at the end of February...over 2 months since we left England and we are finally settling in to our lives here in LA...well, sort of!

The last 3 weeks have been so hectic with moving out of Katie and Andrew's house and into our own place. We held out for a duplex that our old landlord's friend was buying and all of their paperwork finally went through and we got to move in on the 6th of February. It was a little weird that first Saturday just the 3 of us in our new home, but we absolutely love it. Before we moved in, we all had a round of sickness, and then the day before we moved in, I went to the doc and had a sinus infection, and then the day we moved in, Camden had a high fever (teething related...last molar coming through) and I had to take him to the doc to make sure it wasn't an ear infection. All the while dealing with the crazy doctor situation because we didn't have our member number but had coverage...long story but I'm glad it's over!
We finally got well and my mom came out last week to help us unpack and we got everything in it's place for the most part aside from waiting on a couple pieces of furniture. The night she left, I came down with a stomach bug and then the day after I got well, Jared came down with a virus with a high fever and is just starting to feel better today. Camden still has a little cough (a lingering cold) and I think our bodies are just so run down and we need to REST! So I feel massively out of touch with the world, but I've been learning a lot to just slow down and not worry about all of the little things of life (dishes, laundry, tidying up the house, etc.), but rather enter the Lord's rest.

Hebrews 4:10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
I feel like this is a continual lesson I have to learn here on earth bc of my personality and how I'm wired, but I know it must be important to rest that even the creator of the universe needed to take a break! So, if any of you have any good ideas on how to enter rest, let me know!


P.S. Camden is literally running everywhere now! He's starting to make a little more sense when he "talks", too! Here is a short "dance" video Camden wanted you all to see, too!

Stationery card

Struck By Love Valentine's Card

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Apple Sorting

This is a video I took today of Camden sorting some fake apples back and forth between a bowl and Max's bumbo seat. He usually just pulls stuff off of shelves and out of bags, but this was the first time I observed him putting something back in something else. I know it seems silly, but I love watching him learn more and more everyday. He's also been starting to communicate to tell me when he's hungry by sitting in front of the fridge and making noise. Haha! Whatever works I guess!

Park Day

We went to the park Saturday to take photos of Max for his 6 month old birthday. They hadn't taken a family picture since he was little and we had to change that! It was a gorgeous day. It's the warmest January day I've experienced in a while (80 degrees). 

Max and Katie

Andrew, Max, and Katie

Max and Camden...the cutest buddies!

Family photo

Jared and Camden :)

 Camden's new thing is pointing at everything. He loved to point at the ducks and run towards the lake.

                                                                          Family shot!

 Camden in the swings! He was having such a great time even though it was 80 degrees and HOT!!

Camden passed out in the pram on a walk around the neighborhood because he had expended so much energy at the park. He even had cookie crumbs on his mouth from some snacks he had on the walk. 

Below are two family shots from New Year's Day that I forgot to post. Camden had just had his second hair cut ever and he looked so old!!

Brients

                                                                         McGregors