Channeling Clark Griswold

 The past 3 Christmas seasons Mark and I have spent together, our tree has most defiantly left something to be desired. Last year, (I should have photoed) we hit an all time low with our Christmas Branch. Literally. A Non-decorated branch. So-Mark put his foot down this year and decided to bring Christmas home from Costco. Bless that establishment. And so, I busted out all my Clark Griswold Christmas cheer and brought this shining tree to life! Well, it was already pre-lit, but lets not get into the technicalities.

 Of course we had the lad help out. For one ornament, and one photo op. He has been mesmerized by the lights, but not so much anything else. Sadly, he is a little young for Christmas cheer this year.

A little Morrell tradition is to watch Home Alone on the night we bust out the tree (or branch, depending on the year). Love that movie! I even ventured out and tried a new cinnamon roll recipe. Hot coco on the side made for a perfect evening flick.

Christmas is such a fun time of year, where we try to say we are watching what we eat, but really we mean we'll restart our diets in January with the rest of the world. I think Cameron's expression sums up our feelings about this month.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Give me 5

Height: Tall

Weight: Heavy

-- Loves his spit. It is everywhere. He especially loves blowing raspberries, added bonus? raspberries with food in his mouth. Makes dinner cleanup extra special.

-- Will not stay on his tummy for more than a minute. He'll probably never crawl, scoot, or move for that matter being that he is not a fan of the floor.

-- Sits up nicely. Mostly unassisted. Prefers to sit over laying on his back. Will try to sit himself up if when we put him on his back. Will stand all day if you let him.

-- Eats a myriad of foods. I'm anxious to get him on meats and dairy so I can just grind up whatever is on the table. I still make all his food for him. I have a huge cooking fest on Sunday nights where I make 20+ cups of food. I have a storage of 4oz Tupperware that I line up and fill to the brim with apples, broccoli, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, peas, peaches, & mangoes. Throw in some purchased prunes (i don't go there), bananas, avocados, oatmeal/rice cereal and we're good for another week. He eats 2 meals per day, between 8 to 12 oz of some kind of mixed concoction.

-- Sleeps well. Good not great. Down at 7pm. Up between 4 and 5. Bottle. Down again until 6:30 or 7. We're feeling pretty good about our "sleeping in" until 6. Now if only I can get out of bed before him to be dressed and ready for the day.

--Big. Big. Big. Our ward friends keep saying he looks so much older than he is. Easily mistaken for a 9 month old kid.

-- Loves to look at pictures in books or on the TV. Especially entranced with pictures of himself. The screen saver on the computer can keep him still for a happy amount of time. Because I have 2 computers on my desk (work & home) he'll happily watch the screen saver while I work. Bonus.

Visits with Trent

First off, I apologize to myself. My annual goal to "double blog entries" will have to go down in the books as Fail. Well, I'll give myself a C for a valiant effort even though I tried to push it all in at the end of the year. But - I will say that I bolstered up my annual scrapbook to look mighty nifty with all the extra thoughts posted.

That being said - here's another blog marathon to the end of the year. 

My little brother Trent is awesome. Although our days somehow are busy enough to keep us from invading each others' lives constantly - we do manage to get together every so often. Last month Jennifer was brilliant at inviting us over multiple times!  Jennifer was a great support to me when I had to move Cameron to formula earlier than expected, and Trent had great insight into the financial side of that path. It was great for me, and I've really loved that they live so close so our relationships can grow stronger.

They are always up for a game, and Jennifer has a marvelous space heater that she lets me park myself in front of all night. They've got more toys than a toy store for Cameron to be entertained with. Shame on we boring parents who only have 3 things total! (Don't worry, Christmas is going to be good to him this year.) Its amazing. And, Cameron is a trooper of a sleeper anywhere we put him down. (I'm enjoying these days while they last as I hear it is limited) So we're able to stay late and eat junk food and play games and laugh at memories of tents and "tree" and life. As I mentioned before, my brother is awesome.

We so love having them close by and wish that we could get out to see each other more frequently. Before they up and move away as always seems to be the case. Love my family.

A Solid Mess

 Our adventures in Parenthood has crossed the line from bottle to spoon in the last few weeks. I wish I could report that it was all smooth sailing from the start, but that would be a lie. I am sure all babies have a tough time transitioning from bottles to spoons, but I wasn't prepared for the stress of trying to train the lad into being comfortable with this form of nutrition. We started primitively with just rice cereal - making it so liquid-y that it could be sucked from a bottle with a modified nipple. It didn't go well. I don't know if it was the texture or the taste or both, but he was NOT having anything to do with that. He would scream, and spit it out, and wiggle around until I finally gave up and made him up a regular bottle. After enough valiant tries however, the lad seemed to be more open to the idea, so we boosted up the rice cereal with a banana. He wasn't too sure about that.

He is always so excited when we get him in the bumbo and all prepped for a meal, but as soon as it starts going down, he gets this concerned look on his face. Mom, are you sure about this? It is then a bit of a struggle to assure him it's all okay and we manage to get several bits down.

Some days were better than others in the beginning. If it wasn't so cold out, I would have probably stripped him naked to save me a bit of laundry. Oh but he sure is a cute little banana mess. Things went from bad to Amazing in a matter of days. He is really quite the eater now, doing a great job of keeping his hands out of his mouth while we eat, and opening up, getting the food down, and smiling all in one motion. It's usually not much of an effort at all anymore. 

 We now have quite the pallet of options when it comes to food. Banana's still seem to be his favorite. I can put them in just about anything and the lad will eat it right up without even a fuss. Peas, Carrots, Apples, Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, Avocado, Brown Rice, and Oatmeal. I make all my food myself - pat on the back to me - mostly because mom gave me a grinder for Christmas several years ago, and I got a Baby Bullet on the clearance rack at Target. Scored that for only 8 bucks. So - why not right? We did buy some jars of food when we were Thanksgivitizing at my mom's - mostly for a project I found on Pinterest that called for baby food jars. And I thought - this is SO much easier - why am I making my own? But alas, it makes me feel so good that I just keep making my own. For now. They say it's cheaper. At least that's what I tell myself and my pocket book. 

So there you go. We're growing up even more. So blessed to have Cameron join our family.

"Garbage Father"

Mark has an awesome Father. I just love his smile, and his laugh, and his overall personality. He has such a quiet sense of humor that if you're not paying attention, you'll miss his clever jokes. Like today - I am still laughing at his sauerkraut joke. We're making German food for the youth's dinner activity. (he having served his mission in Austria is a dynamite German food chef). He had just made the most delightful batch of purple sauerkraut, from scratch might I add, that I was eating by the bucketfuls. We had purchased a bottle of white sauerkraut. So Clyde wanted to give it a taste to make sure it was at least edible. His response was "it's not bad. Just rinse it off and start over." See what I mean? If you're not paying attention, you'll miss it. Love this man.

One of Mark's memories of his dad is that his Father was always in charge of taking the trash out to the curb each week. When asked by the children what he was doing, Clyde would respond, "oh, just being Garbage Father". So cute. Mark has automatically taken this responsibility in our family as well; cleaning out the house trashes on Sunday night and taking it all to the curb for Monday Morning pick up. How I love my Garbage man, just doing his garbage father duties. And double bonus that he didn't roll his eyes when I asked him to pose for this post. Love that man of mine.

Thanks "for" Giving

 I'm not going to get all gushy and even pretend that my Thanksgiving was amazing. Because - honestly - it was the worst Thanksgiving ever! It "blew", quite literally. Wednesday night the family was together and ate a delightful little meal, only to have the grim reaper himself knocking on all our doors at 1am. Yup-all 7 of us (less Mark and the babies) were hit with food poisoning in the nth degree. How did Mark escape you wonder? He served his mission in Brazil so his belly was prepped for this kind of situation. Its the only thing I can figure. So - instead of celebrating all that we're grateful for over turkey and pie, we were cursing life over the porcelain throne. So I say Thanks-for-Giving me the runs - I lost 6 pounds in 1 day!

A day late and a little weak in the bellies, we forced ourselves to gather on Friday and have some food. Mostly we had to empty Mom's fridge before the masses left the next morning with more food than 2 adults can consume alone. Spencer and Cameron, only a week apart, were troopers in the festivities. My SIL Lesley is my role model mom and does a great job at taking it all in stride. I find when I'm more chill like her, having Cameron around is a breeze.

My new roll recipe is addictive as all get out. A shout out to Julie and her famous rolls. I make them all the time and just love that they are always perfect! Makes me feel good and domestic when the crowds are raving about the rolls. Mom was a trooper and made up supper, despite wanting to just sit and be as far away from food as possible. We all sat around a beautifully decorated table, and picked at the food like little people on little diets. So sad. Mark undoubtedly had his choice of anything he wanted - with too many scoops of ice cream to make up for everyone else who passed it up.

It wasn't something that I want to do again. In fact, it was awful. I was sad that I didn't get any shots of my brother and his families visit. And I did only got one photo of the lad with his cousins. Dreadful. Here's to hoping for a better holiday season and more success in the photo department.

As we round out my favorite season, and welcome in winter - I do recognize that I indeed have so much to be thankful for. I somehow, miraculously, escaped death for one. And that is a pretty big deal.

A Real Agent

I am so proud of my husband and his consistant energy and excitement to do what he really wants to. Not just in his working life, but in all that he is involved in. His newest venture in Real Estate is no different; jumping in with both feet and eyes wide open.

He had his first open house last Saturday for a property here in Antioch. He had the house smelling delightful with a little music in the background to make it look so inviting. And it really was. I tried to top out my spously love by surprising him with Peppermint Hot Coco from Starbucks and homemade Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies. I know, bonus points for me. He saw about 6 families in the 4 hours he was there and the property will probably sell before the end of the week.

I am so thankful for such a great man.We are really excited about the new real estate business because Mark is such a people person. The backyards of our pool clientele wasn't really giving him the social outlet he so misses from his Disney days. So this is going to fit him great. Helping people find what they need is going to be just the best. We are so blessed.

As a completely unrelated side note: this same day I took the lad and myself to the Contra Costa County Fall Craft Fair. I needed an excuse to get out of the house while Mark was at the open house, and all my friends were busy with other engagements. So I went alone. And I was really glad that I did because-I was there a total of 10 minutes. It was quite drab to be nice. And its a little awkward when you're the only patron in the whole warehouse so each vendor is eying you like their next meal. I didn't dare go into any of the booths to look more closely at their merchandise for fear of being attacked and heckled into buying something I didn't want at all. So - I pushed the lad around the 2 wear houses and then right back out the front gate. As I walked away I thought how disappointed I was because it really was a beautiful fall day. It had just rained so it smelled clean and fall fresh; there was a beautiful fall breeze, and the fair grounds were lined with trees changing colors and smells of popcorn coming from the one food stand inside the gate. But I loaded up the lad and left empty handed. Pat on the back for at least getting out of the house.

Vanity

 I'm just going to come right out and say it. We're a good looking bunch. As Christina Yang from Grey's Anatomy once said "I could do hot in jeans. I could do hot in scrubs. I am a Hot Hot person." Replace I with "we" and there you have the feelings I have about my family.

My very talented BIL took our photos for us this year - and will every year from now on as long as he lives. I am so in love with them that I've been sharing them on every social network about a hundred times over. Call me vain, or free advertising for him, or just sharing my cute family. Call it what you will - but here is our darling photo shoot.

My little dude made for a fun few pictures. Mike was excellent at catching his personality which was sort of hit and miss.

How in love with my Hubs I am. I couldn't have dreamed up a better life if I had all the power to do so. He really is the best man for me.

Which one do I choose for my Christmas card? And I may or may not have my walls scattered with every shot I could possibly print out without feeling like it was overkill. Thanks Mike. They're darling.

Football with Father

I missed 2 days in my "catch up on my goal" blog spree. Basically blogging about everything I have a picture of.  But they are fun memories none the less.

We have always been a football family. Mostly college ball, but we won't pass up a pro game when they're on. I may or may not have lied slightly about my interest level in said sport while Mark and I were dating - all to just seal the deal. It worked, and now he's stuck. So when the little man came along, Football games have had that much more meaning. Even if Cam's attention span is less than a fraction of one quarter. :)

Why do I like football? It give me at least 4 hours of computer work/bonding time with my Hubs. Granted my nose in the creative world of Photoshop but my heart is in the game.

We were blessed with kind friends who boosted Cameron's BYU collection in addition to his Disney gear - so we have been set all season! And let it be known that we are not fair weather fans! Died in the wool - true blue - united we stand - go Cougars.

Now that the season is wrapping up, (it is wrapping up isn't it?) we (I) look forward to all the new seasons that start in the wintertime. -Top Chef anyone? Sister Wives? Hala back.

Meet the Mouse

 When asked how old our son would be when we took him to Disneyland - our answer was always firm - 4 months! Well, it appears that trip has been postponed due to funds being diverted someplace else for now. But - that still wasn't going to stop us from an official meeting.

Cameron - this is Mickey. You will like him.

It is so fun to think of my little dude being 4 months old. He is a whopping 18 lbs and 27.25 inches tall. And I love every bit of him. He is a slobber king, and when he wants to get his hands in his mouth you can guarantee he's going to need a new shirt. He really likes bananas and apples, but not so much a fan of rice cereal. We had to start him on solids because he was going through formula like it was water - and I'm sick of draining 50 bucks a week on that stuff. He's got rolling from his belly to his back down, but enjoys being on his back enough to not be interested in trying the other way. He does play with his feet a lot and will get onto his side - but won't make the effort to go all the way over.

He's pretty darling if you ask me - and we just love him to bits.

Traditions

  My mother is amazing. Its obvious to anyone who knows her.She has taught me more about the importance of family, how to be a Homemaking Executive, and still have time for hobbies and projects. I have a great example.

One of her many hobbies that she has always been great at is cross-stitching. She took it up many years ago, and when the grandchildren started coming, she decided she would make a gift for each one as they came. Little did she know that they would start coming 2 at a time! Heaven forbid we ever get 3 families all having kids at once.

This year Mom took on Cameron's gift as well as Spencer's; born only 8 days apart. She would leave early for work to beat the traffic and then sit in the parking lot and stitch. She stitched on her lunch breaks, and then again when she got home - late into the night. She would basically take vacations so she would have no interruptions to her stitching! We are so grateful for this keepsake that we will always have for our babies. Thanks mom! It's perfectly beautiful.

Day-cation

We decided to take a day - in the middle of the week - and pretend that we were on vacation in our own town. I grew up with Mt. Diablo as my backyard - quite literally; so it was only fitting that we take a jaunt up the mountain for some sightseeing and moments just away from life.

We started out close to noon and went to a little bakery for lunch and treats. Delicious! Then made an impromptu stop at a second hand toy store to score some great Christmas Gifts for the lad. Bonus. Another stop by a grocery store for some more fun treats, (what is a vacation without good food eh?) and made the 11 mile drive up the hill with a perfect vacation playlist and the windows rolled down. It really was lovely.

 I can't say that I ever visited the visitor center and was impressed, but we did get our photo at the summit of the mountain. Which was new. The Restrooms smelled horrific, which made for the diaper change in the car a little interesting - but at least it was successful. Cameron appreciated that.

 It was such beautiful weather, and a perfect day to pretend that we didn't live here and we were just vacationing. We laughed as another tourist commented to his traveling companions that you have to be out-of-staters to be taking pictures; because all us locals see this everyday. Yes sir - we do see this everyday, and it is only fitting that we take a moment to stop and enjoy the view. Welcome Home.

Sunday Naps

I feel the same way kid...Sunday's wear me out!

Sister Dunn was out of town yesterday, so I was asked to fill in as Primary Chorister. Holy WOW - I had no idea that calling was a mini workout! The Junior Primary just needs a lot of direction, and activity to make them pay attention. The Senior Primary just need a show of extraordinary proportions to get them to pay attention at all. And so, a show I gave-mixed in with some stories, some pantomime, some actions to words that I made up on the spot. It was wild and when I was done I was sweating a little. 

Mark takes the lad on Sunday's for the last 2 blocks while I do primary. Now that I'm the pianist, it's hard to rock a distressed baby and play at the same time. So now the Young Men have an even larger distraction. Sorry guys.

Besides the work, church is just the best. I love my ward and am especially overjoyed at the arrival of a new couple with there 3 month old girl. THEN another couple came and their girl is 1 month. We couldn't be more thrilled. I've been praying for more young couples to come so I feel the Lord has answered my prayer again. I told Him, if I needed to stay in this ward, then He would have to help me find some young kids for Cameron to grow up with. I guess I should have specified gender, but it's a start. Love the Gospel. Love my Family. Love my Life.

All Hallow's Eve

 Would you believe it that in all our years of togetherness - we have not carved one pumpkin? I know, tragic. So, now that we have a child, we didn't want to miss one year of new traditions. So we broke out the knives and carving equipment and had at it like the best of them. Pandora had great Halloween Music playing while Cameron played on the floor not having a clue what was going on. I brewed up some Apple Cider and we just enjoyed an evening of willing the Fall Season to officially get here.

 And, much to our surprise, they turned out really cute. Merci to Pinterest for the Mickey cutout. Our porch would not have been ours without it.

We tried to document the carved pumpkins with the baby moment, but Cameron was not having a wit of it. So we have several with him screaming while I try to console him enough to capture one fake shot. Epic Fail.

2 weeks later we learned that you're not suppose to carve them until the week of Halloween. Holy Mold on our porch. Sick.

On the actual evening of Halloween, we were tickled pink when our friends the Manions invited us over to relish in their evening traditions. (some we may adopt for ourselves). We sat in their driveway with Chili and bread and welcomed the trick-or-treaters without having to intruupt our conversations or get out of our chairs. Double Bonus. The evening had the perfect amount of chill - and we just loved it. To conclude our fabulous holiday celebrations, what better movie than one with a Sloth, Some really disgusting people-the Fratelli's, a Pirate with one eye named Willy, and a bunch of kids trying to save their town from developers who want to build a golf course over their neighborhood? Yes my friends - an evening of Goonies is the perfect choice. 'sigh'

Happy Halloween.

Over the Mountains, and Through the Desert, to Grandmother's house we went.

Our trip to Utah was amazingly wonderful. We spent a whole week there, which gave us enough time to relax, see our friends and our family, and eat hoards of food that I am still wearing. (blast it). Our first stop was up to Midway where we stayed in the WorldMark timeshare condos for several nights. Our dearest buddies met us for an evening there which was delightful as expected. The Sullivans brought Elk which Mark nor I have ever tried, so that was an experience. I say it tastes "gamey" because that's what Sullivan kept saying - and he's the man who killed the animal the day before so I figure he knows what he's talking about.

We spent most of the afternoon in the park to let the kids run off some energy while the adults dreamed of our next get away together. We cruised with these guys exactly 2 years ago to the date so April helped us all remember we were overdue for another trip. Done and done.

 While in Midway we took several walks to enjoy the landscape and fall colors there. The hot pots were something I had never seen before so I got quite the kick out of going in and seeing what it was all about. I can't say I can see myself swimming in one-the whole thing seemed a little creepy to me-but it was neat to look at all the same.We hit up the outlet shops in Park City (and of course Cafe Rio) where more money was spent then we anticipated. It doesn't take a genius to realize that this annual Utah Trip is the only time we spend money on clothes. So I was glad to see that it wasn't all at the BYU Bookstore as previous years have been.

 On the way back from Midway to Happy Valley, we stopped at Squaw Peak to take in the views. Another thing I had never done! It is suppose to the the place to go parking - so we were sure to go early in the day. We were the only ones up there and it really was breathtaking. Majestic. Peaceful. Just amazing.

Don't you just love my attempt at a panoramic photo op? It's a little choppy but - you get what you pay for. And another too-close-for-comfort head shot to document our being there. Although I must say this is one of our better ones.

 

We headed down to Orem next to take in all the family. It was so nice of them to come and visit us every day! I realize that it isn't so much us as it is my son that made them come down, but we appreciated the gesture all the same. The Bouche's and Gammons watched "Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors" about 7 times in the 3 days we were there. Which was a bit of an overload if you ask me. And if it wasn't that, they were on the Wii. Lauren became a master at getting Cameron to sleep, and the rest of us just laughed and talked all night long.

 

Cameron was a trooper the entire week. Sleeping much better than he does at home. We think it's the time change. He just doesn't like Pacific Standard Time. (I am NOT excited for Daylight Savings time to end!) And these photos may or may not have been planted. We're just gearing him up for his unavoidable Disneyland trip coming very soon.

Please excuse my 76 run on sentences. I did go to college but sometimes my English doesn't show it.