Camryns 1st Birthday and Happy Halloween

So Camryn turned 1 in October and I am VERY slow to get this up but here it is.

weight: 18.5 lbs (13th %)
length: 28.5 in (32 %)
head: 17 %

We are so thankful to have Cami in our lives, she is so full of personality and love. We absolutely love her smile which we get a lot except for when the camera is out. She actually cut her first tooth on October 4th and then 2 weeks later she had 2 more and then 2 more, and it looks like a few more are trying to come through so it has been a bit of a rough couple of months for her. She has the cutest little giggle, she LOVES to squeal, she definitely knows how to hold her own against Ellie, LOVES Ellie so much and just always wants to play with her, she loves to bug people - especially Ellie, she loves to climb and is just amazingly coordinated, she loves to eat chicken and cheese and peas and carrots, she has so much energy she just never stops moving, she loves to tease, she gives the best hugs and kisses, she is just amazing! Love you Cami!!!

Also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Mickey Tutu Time

End of summer fun

More splash park with friends, pudding painting, cousins, and just hanging out. Elliette has also started helping us cook. Fun, fun, fun times.

Ellie's happy visit at the dentist with aunt Mandy, Being a farmer for a day at the state fair, and Cornbelly fun.

2 little monkeys ...

2 years old

Our little Ellie Belly turned 2 this past month and I can't believe it. She is such a great little girl who is definitely to smart for her own good sometimes. She is so funny and most of the time really nice to her sister playing with and looking out for her (although we do hear "Cami NO" way more than we would like), she loves to smile and be a weirdo, she has such an infectious giggle that I just love, she is growing like crazy and has a TON of energy.

Weight: 26.5 lbs (49%)
Height: 34" (56%)
Head: 18.75" (54%)

I don't know why her cake pictures are so dark but the one where she is standing behind it and smiling is when we were singing Happy Birthday to her and she stood there with the biggest grin on her face the whole time loving every minute. I took her out for a ride on her trike the other day which I had to push her the whole way (still haven't quite gripped the concept of peddling) but she looked up at me and said "ride bike mom, I yike it".


Mandy and I took Elliette out for 2 year pictures up at the amphitheater and she was such a little model posing at every place. She did so well taking pictures till the end when we started bribing her with a sucker and she finished great.

Picture overload

Randoms of the girls and pudding painting...

Water fun...

July activities...

Camryn also had her 9 month check up in July; she is weighing in at 18.1 lbs and 27.5 inches long (weight: 32 %, height: 46%, head: 41%) This little girl is just amazing and is growing up so fast. She is so close to walking already but doesn't want to do it until she knows she can. She is a determined little thing and can be rather aggressive at times as well. She definitely loves her sister and wants to play with her always even if Elliette doesn't want her there. She is starting to be more cuddly also which has been really nice to get so many hugs and kisses. She is such a beautiful little girl who loves to smile and giggle and be a part of everything; we feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

I have also been busy with some cakes and cookie bouquets that I have posted on the other blog.

Busy busy busy

Ok so this wont have pictures since I don't have my camera hooked up but I will try to get some up of all our fun soon. We have been busy just playing mostly, out in the yard, at the parks, feeding ducks, pudding painting, and anywhere in between. Most of the summer has been pretty fun so far, the first of July I was able to go back to Nashville to help run the track and field and badminton events for the DAAA (Dwarf Athletic Association of America) in association with the Little People of America (LPA) convention. It was a lot of work but a ton of fun, and as a plus, I think it went rather well. I have a few cakes coming up that I am trying to get things figured out for so that should be fun. Camryn turned 9 months already, I still can't believe she is that old; and Elliette turns 2 next month - Holy Cow! On the sad side of things Elliette was running and playing outside today when she tripped and chipped one of her front teeth pretty bad on the cement steps, the poor thing.
Well I thought I would give a brief synopsis of what we have been up to. I will try to get some pictures up of all our fun and Ellie's tooth soon.

past while

So it has been a few weeks since I have posted and A LOT has happened. On May 4th the girls and I packed up and drove with my dad back to Utah; Justin stayed behind and packed the stuff up and joined us in UT on Sunday. For the couple of weeks we had from when we found out and when we moved we tried to enjoy the area with Justin more since he actually had a little time off. It was a TON of fun eating at Bubba Gumps (thanks Hsu) and other good seafood places, aquarium trips, walking the wharfs, seeing the birds, family pictures on the beach (thanks Kim), hanging out with friends, carmel, and visiting the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk which was AWESOME! We had a lot of fun playing in the arcade and other carnival games (which we won cause we are awesome) at the Boardwalk and enjoying corndogs and funnel cake.

On May 6th my sister had a beautiful little girl and named her Clover. She is so tiny and cute and I love being able to see her in person and not just through pictures. I stole the announcement off their blog, hope you don't mind but you never sent me one.

(smith pix photography)

For mothers day Justin took Elliette out and she bought me some purple petunias that she picked out and paid for herself and then helped me plant. She also helped my mom plant her flowers the other day. While she was "helping" plant the flowers we had Cami out in a Bumbo since I was also outside staining a dresser and she started trying to eat a flower called a bleeding heart when I looked up said it was toxic so I had to call poison control. Thankfully she didn't swallow any and she was fine, they said it was more of a skin irritant. Later my dad was getting ready to take the girls on a walk and Ellie was so excited she started down the sidewalk without anyone, thankfully she stayed on the sidewalk. After that she decided she was thirsty so she grabbed the plant water which had plant stimulator and started to sip it, thankfully Justin got to her really fast and she only swallowed a little tiny bit but I told him he had to call Poison Control that time since I had already had to call once that day. Thankfully she didn't get much and just had to drink a little water so we finally made it through that day, phew. That has been most of the exciting stuff I guess, oh, we made a cake that is posted on my treaty treats blog.

Elliette has also loved being her aunt Beanie's little shadow. She misses her little friend Isa and asks for her at times but thankfully she has found herself a friend with Beanie and her friend Justin (can't wait till you guys move back). Camryn has also decided that she wanted to move and in the past couple weeks has gone from rocking back and forth to all out crawling, LOVE these girls! Oh, and Justin turned the big 3-0 this month, Happy happy birthday!

Breaking Monterey

So, check this out. My wife and daughters went to Utah on Tuesday so I am here all alone(Justin is writing this) packing up our stuff which I am really not used to, it has been a really long time since I was alone for more than a few minutes. Anyway, at about 10 pm I went to change the laundry while talking to Melissa on the phone and I guess I was distracted just enough that I didn't realize I didn't have my keys, and the door was locked until I heard the click of the door latching. "Oh No!" I said, "I just locked myself out with nothing except a dollar in quarters, phone and my pajamas...I immediately started using my phone to find a locksmith, call like 3 with no luck and my battery was getting very close to dying. I called Melissa to ask her to see what she could do since my phone was about to give out. While she was doing that I called a friend that I thought may know how to pick a lock...he didn't. As we all know I live on the second floor and I don't have a balcony, so pushing open a window seemed out of the question...or was it? I used my superior intellect to devise a plan to break into my apartment without causing a seen. My amazing pan was to roll one of our big trash cans under the window of the back bedroom, balance on it, pry off the screen, push open the window and climb in. since the building is built into the hill my window was probably 10 feet up instead of the normal 16. The funniest thing is the trash can was empty and I weigh 200lbs so I was caving in the lid and balancing on this wobbly trash can poking at my window with a car key. I pushed up the screen put the car key under it and pried it out. "Ok" I thought, "Now if the windows latch is low enough I may be able to cling to the botttom of the window with one hand and push with the other where it latches and open it." I tried and tried and just as I was about to give up IT OPENED!! Thank goodness I've been working on my lats cuz I was able to pull myself up into the window into my apartment and write this post.

I am lonely without my family, but at least I have fun stuff like this happen to keep things interesting.

Camryn 6 months

Well she is almost 7 months now so it is about time I get around to this. At her 6 month check up Camryn weighed in at 15 lbs 14 oz and was 25.5 inches long both falling right around the 50%ile for her age.
We are just so in love with this little girl; she is just such a cutie who LOVES to smile and jabber and giggle. She absolutely LOVES her sister and gets frustrated at times when she wants to play with her but just can't keep up, she does put up with a lot from Elliette though just so that she can be included in play time. She loves to be held but doesn't really cuddle a lot, just wants to be doing what you are doing. She has been sitting up for a while now and is pretty good at it but still takes the full nose dive if something she wants is just out of reach. She is SO close to crawling, up on hands and knees and rocks back and forth. Lately she is so funny, she lays on her belly holding herself up on her arms and rocks her head back and forth like a bobble head; cracks me up but have yet been able to get her to do it on camera. Of course she is beautiful and just has the most peaceful sleeping face I have ever seen. She is incredibly stubborn, no surprise there, but very sweet also. She is little miss grabby hands and the other day grabbed the formula can and sliced her little fingers (only cried for a few seconds) so I had to cut up some small band aids to wrap around her tiny finger to stop the bleeding, she was really good and even though everything else automatically goes into her mouth she left the band aide alone the entire time.

Easter

We have been a little busy having fun, enjoying the weather and the holidays, and making cakes so there are quite a few posts, sorry. Enjoy...
We had a great Easter this year. Elliette was invited to attend an egg dying party which was fun and we also dyed eggs here, she was also invited to attend a flashlight easter egg hunt held by a family in our ward who did an amazing job and all the kids came out with their baskets FULL including Ellie who is an egg hunting pro, they also had a blow up Easter bunny to take the kids pics by but Ellie thought it was pretty scary and ended the night with a great lesson of the resurrection of Christ. When we got home Justin and I put her candy into a baggy, I looked over once to see her grabbing as much as her little fist could hold and shoving it into her mouth just as happy as could be. I sewed their Easter baskets the night before barely getting them done in time but very pleased with the results considering they are fully machine sewed, no hand stitching at all and my fingers are full of pin pricks. They got super cute clothes from their grandparents including their Easter dresses and headbands they look so adorable in. We also enjoyed the little amount of conference that we were able to actually hear.

Good Friends, more Parks, beach, and Aquariums

We have had some beautiful weather amidst the rain and have tried to take advantage of it. Ellie and her cute friend Isa have a fun time running, climbing, and sliding all over at the parks and seeing all the fun new animals at the aquarium. They are so cute together and whenever we tell them to hold our hands so we can go somewhere they run over and hold each others hands. Elliette actually wouldn't move the other day at the aquarium if Isa let go of her hand. They also like to make sure the other is ok. I took Elliette out for a moment at the aquarium since she was being a bit of a stinker for a moment and Isa noticed so she had to come make sure Ellie was ok. That happens quite often at church also if they notice one or the other going out and being sad they have to go see what is wrong.
(warning lots of pictures in this slide)