Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice.

Twice a year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the general conference of the church. Everyone, members and not, are invited to listen to a prophets voice, and hear the words of God. It is the most awesome 10 hours one can dedicate in any given weekend. And I look forward to it every year. This year was no different. Though sometimes the talks can tend to lull me right into a slumber, I always go back and study all the talks to pick out any and all instruction that I need to know to better my life as God would have me do. I found some cute conference journal ideas on pinterest, which I duplicated for myself in an effort to pay attention more, and longer. Victory to the n-th degree.

It was awesome. I learned so much. My testimony was strengthened. I came out a better, more spiritually minded woman than I was when I went into it.  I know God speaks to his children today through those men called as Apostles and Prophets in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Make time to study the word of God, given for his children today. Go here.

Favorite Things

Several weeks ago, the young women had a favorite things night for our mutual activity. In an effort to really make the scene better than a bland room with chairs in a circle, I had a whole themed spread with tons of cute Pinterest printables and ideas. It turned out so cute. And, rather than bring in just one thing, I put together a whole pile of my favorite things to share. It was awesome. It gave me a reason to contemplate the good things in my life and what I have that brings me joy and happiness. I collected little things around the house that represented each thought; oh how I wish I took a pictire to accompany this post. Alas, here is a list of the things I thought up. 

(1) family: I have an awesome family, both those that I grew up with and those I live with now. I have an awesome in law family too which is a triple bonus. I know that I am lucky to have such a perfect companion in my husband. How much he cares for and watches out for me, encourages my interests, and works for my happiness is unusual in many family circles. I son is just an awesome buddy to have around. He is fun and happy and curious and smart. He is talkative and quiet, busy and still. He is everything I prayed for in a kid and The Lord has blessed me beyond my wishes. My family is one of my favorite things.

(2) teaching: I have a folder in my drawer with an envelope full of all the notes that I received during my stint as a high school teacher. I frequently think back on my days in room 101A and 3002. I remember being exhausted, annoyed, burned out, lazy, and frazzled. But I also remember the funny kids, and the feeling of satisfaction in my career choice, and living near Disneyland, and yearbook class, and watching the sandlot and remember the titans every quarter for freshmen seminar. Today I try to get my fix in preschool and YW lessons/mutual activities. Teaching is one of my favorite things. 

(3) travel: I love to experience places. I love to see the world, especially the history of the people and events that once were. If I had a million dollars, I would spend a majority of it paying for myself and my loved ones to travel together. Cruises, Europe, luxurious DisneyWorld trips in the fancy hotels - so much. Traveling is one of my favorite thigs. 

(4) yearbooking: I love to put my year if pictures into family yearbooks. I have been especially busy putting 2013 together these past several days and it reminds me how excited I am for it to be printed and then to have for generations to come. I love to look back and see the pages of my life, and love to share it with others. It's awesome and wonderful and is most defiantly one of my favorite things. 

(5) lists, colored pens and calendars: I always feel a need to buy more. I love writing lists of everything; menus, to dos, goals, to get, to call, to write. Using a note pad and a myriad of colors just makes my day feel good. Like I am on top of everything. I am super excited about my 2014 planner that is on its way. I found the Mormon Mommy Planner, purchased, and now want January to get here immediately so I can start using it. It's out of this world perfect for me and just writing about it now is making me want to hold it and look at it's organizing pages for hours in anticipation of using it. Google it - it's awesome. These are a few if my favorite things. 

(6) food. I am on a constant diet. That I constantly disregard. It's horrible and awesome all at the same time. I try to be healthy, and have moderation on all things, but it isad constant battle between what I want to eat and what I want to look like. I eat when I am sad, stressed, happy, celebrating, tired, bored, watching TV, relaxing with a book, on the move, in my car. Food is certainly one of my favorite things. 

(7) cafe rio: yes. I put it on the list separate from food. It is unreal how much I love this place. I would go 4 . . . Maybe 5 times a week if my metobilism could keep up. I.  Love. It. 

(8) Pinterest: genius the person who made this forum of all things creative and Orginizational and printable and doable. I love to sit with the TV in in the background and scroll through it's many idea boards. It's soothing, motivational, and awesome. Pinterest is defiantly one of my favorite things. 

(9) Disneyland. Another thing separate from travel. This place is so magical for me. It removes my worldly cares. It makes my heart leap. It makes me feel like I'm on a permanent, romantic honeymoon. Lucky for me, my husband loves it too so it isn't too much to go 4 or 5 times a year despite the 10 hour drive. When I loved close, I would just go there and sit on Main Street and listen to the crowds and the music and eat a chocolate covered Carmel Apple. And maybe a churro. I still think those moments were wonderful and would do it again if I could. Disneyland is certainly one of my favorite things. 

(10) spiritual conferences: I love all things spiritual. I love getting into groups and talking about or listening to spiritual things. I love the encouragement my heart feels when I listen to truth and take notes in how to apply Christlike principles into my daily habits. Women's conference, general conference, education week, EFY, firesides, books, even going to Deseret Book on a Saturday afternoon is awesome. The church if Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is probably my most favorite thing. 

New Hair

I am pretty excited about fall finally making it's way to Utah.  Fall has been so beautiful and crisp - all the things that I just love about this season.  I have been thinking for quite sometime now, that come the fall, I would change the color of my hair.  And by "quite some time" I mean, several years now. I always knew that I wanted my cousin to do it for me, being that she is just really good at hair, has blonde hair naturally herself, and is my muse in hair life. Conveniently, we were going through that part of town on our way up to Yellowstone National Park. The timing couldn't have been more right, and the change more perfect.

I have found that I have to reintroduce myself to basically everybody - but it is exactly the look that I was going for. I have been blonde my entire life - except for that one summer when I decided to be a redhead.  It was just a college phase that ended in pink hair for the summer. What a mistake! But this - this is nothing like that and I am so excited about it.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with my roots so that I don't look like a scary granny when the blonde grown in and looks gray! Love it!


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An unrelated side note about my neglected blog.  I'd like to say that I've been too busy, or that I don't have much to blog about. But neither are true.  I've been lazy.  But - these past few days I have been working really hard on catching up my family yearbook and am so glad that I do have phases when I am diligent at keeping this current. It helps me remember trips and moments and photos. It help bring a little life to my books. And it helps me keep all things in chronological order. So - I've planned to get in at least 6-8 posts before the end of the month.

Our First

I know it looks a little ragged in this picture, (I don't have the post renovation pics yet.) but this is our first Investment property! Open for renters immediately. We just closed on it yesterday and couldn't be more excited with this first step in our new Business venture! Celebrate with me!

Here is my quick story, for memory's sake.

About 6 weeks ago, Mark and I were introduced to a Real Estate Investment group. Going to our first meeting, I remember that I was Mad at Mark (capital M intended) for making me go listen to another pitch about the perfect solution for all our financial goals.  It was a waste of my time for sure.  Well, I walked out of that meeting eating my words. We sat with the president of the company, Kris, and everything he said just resonated perfectly with me. Everything was exactly what I was wanting. This company, Strongbrook, is exactly what Mark and I have been looking for to meet our financial goals.  We have always known we wanted to invest in real estate property, just didn't know that way to go about doing that exactly.  Well, Strongbrook is unique in that they have created a system that does the work for us. They research the markets, they find the homes, they get us in touch with a realtor in that area to complete the sale paperwork, they then set us up with your property managers who will rent the home and manage it's needs, and then, they continue to watch the market for us and will let us know when it is time to sell, refinance, or whatever. It is so awesome.

We are loving what they have for done for our financial goals, and are already looking forward to purchasing our second (and other) properties.

Dear world: if you have EVER had any interest in real estate investments, but aren't quite sure how to go about doing it for yourself, I would strongly recommend looking into Strongbrook's system and see if it resonates with what your looking for like it did for us.  Let me know if you'd like more information. Click below for the website where you can check it out for yourself.  If you want to speak with someone from the company directly, you can sign up for a "gameplan" on their website or just contact me and I'll get you started. I highly recommend their company!

Click here if you're wanting more information

AZ Cousins

I am a fairly spontaneous person by nature. I can't say that I play on this characteristic a lot, but I do have a history of making sudden plans.  So, it was no surprise to my brother when I sent him the text saying, "I'm coming down in 2 weeks. K?" He took a few days off work and we got to just hang out and enjoy the AZ lifestyle. And it lived up to it's HOT HOT HOT stereotype. OOo-Whee.

We escaped the heat by heading over to their community swimming pool most days. Cameron was really timid around the splash pad at first, this being his first time. But, before long he was walking right through the shooting water like a toddler. Oh be still my mother's heart; it was darling! I still can't get him to love the swimming pool, but he sure loved that splash pad. He learned the word swimming while we were visiting - and that was beyond darling when he would repeat it back to us when we told him that is what we were doing.

 Lesley did great and planned several things for us to do during our visit.  I suggested that we go to the newest Arizona construction site. To my surprise, they are almost done, so there wasn't much to see other than the missing landscaping. But, we took a short gander, giving a little personal thanks for the blessing of having temples on the earth today. (to learn more about LDS temples, click here)

 I was really lovin' that Cameron got to hang out with his cousins. He and his cousin Spencer are only a few days apart, so the closeness in their relationship is really important to me. It took Cameron a couple days to get comfortable playing with the boys, but by the end of our trip, he loved chasing around the house with them and playing without my immediate supervision. Glorious.

 Lesley did a great job satisfying my History loving heart. She planned a whole day in Phoenix to visit a few museums and just enjoy the city. Sadly, the first museum/old house was closed for the annual refurbishment. (boo) so we headed over to the second stop - the Arizona State History Museum; free of charge-bonus! Sadly, we got there just as it was closing so only got to run through a few of the exhibits. Some highlights included a piece of the USS Arizona from  Pearl Harbor, items from the French Peace Train, and a replicated Senate house where the Arizona constitution was drafted. The boys ran around like children would in a museum, which was a damper on the read-every-plaque part of me. That and my son is a whopping 30 lbs, so carrying him around is a bit of a work out. Whew!

 I loved that I got to go and see my brother. He and I have always had a great relationship, and I'm lucky to have him in my family. The boys are darling, and I must capitalize on their newfound friendship while it is still fresh - I guess that means another trip very soon.

P.S. Dear Lesley - I suppose you'll be wanting some of these photos. I'll need to be getting them to you right quick so you can scrapbook them away with your renewed scrapping skills! Done and done.

Little Dude.

Nicknames: Cam-a Ram-a, Cam, Poops (uncle Tom).

Most Common (unprompted) words: Daddy, Dog, Kitty, Treat, Drink, Outside, Bath, Shoe, Lamby, Nap, Mickey, Woody, Dinner, Eyes, Up

Other words (with prompting): Book, Adventures, Please, Lunch, Breakfast, Church, Dressed, Car, Banana, Swimming.

Size: 18-24M clothes.

Most common food loves: Ice Cream & Watermelon. Fish crackers over Pretzels. Paper, grrr-are we not out of the mouth phase yet?

Typical: Will hear the dishwasher open and come running. Closes himself into rooms all the time. Standing too close to the TV. LOVES the Pad or Phone; always wants to "play" on it when he sees it sitting out. Wakes up about 6:30 or 7 which is a nice relief from his prior 5:30 routine. Dances to music, sings in church during the hymns, reads books, love errands, stranger danger is pretty intense. Likes to put pencil/crayon/pen to paper. Loves to sing or listen to singing. If he hears us say "outside" he will run to the door and cry when we don't go out right away. Will ask for a bath in the evening when we start going upstairs. Waves incessantly to perfect strangers, but will not say "hi" to people we are talking to. Loves to pull out all the tupperware and towels from the drawers. Gives kisses and "loves" to mom and dad.

It's been so fun to watch him learn and grow.  I take him to preschool already (since I am teaching it...I'm not that crazy) and he learns nothing but I like to think that he is. I am thankful everyday that God gave this boy to our family. Every. Single. Day.

Grilled Pizza Pie

Another fun first happened this summer in our adventures in Grilling Pizza Pies. I had never had grilled pizza before this; and I must say it was really great! Bryan manned the grill while Mark tossed the dough. It was pretty low key, but really fun to just be with the family and have a few laughs.

We were lucky this summer to spend quite a bit of time with the Morrell's. Cameron has grown quite a liking to his cousins, even though he just follows them around endlessly; and Mamma Morrell made her delicious fruit Ice Cream a delightful handful of times. It's been great bonding time, and I've loved it all!

Grandparents

Conveniently, this post comes on Grandparents Day. I didn't plan this, I swear! A few weeks back, my mom and step-dad came to town for a visit. Cameron just loved playing with them. They took him to the park, spoiled him with treats, and played ball outside at least a dozen times. It was so charming to watch them laugh and play. I can't express how grateful I am for stalwart examples for Cameron.

I too love when my mom comes to visit. Since the wedding, our relationship has been more distant than it was in years past. Albeit, I did move 2 states away, and that can put a damper on the closeness of any relationship. So, suffice it to say, it is different now. So I was really glad when she was passing through town and stopped to stay with us. She encourages me to be a better housewife and mom. She supports my hobbies and ambitions. And she just keeps me on the path of being anxiously engaged in a good cause, rather than falling into some "idle-woman" habits. Some of our other activities included a splash pad visit which turned sour due to rain. An ice cream trip to Macey's where we pushed Cameron around in the cart with the car attachment. He was in heaven! A date night for the Hubs and I; to the temple of course which was great. And dinner out to P.F. Chang's.

It's so great to see both Joe and my mom feeling like they have purpose to their lives again. I sure do appreciate all that Joe does for my mom. We feel so blessed that they found each other, despite that their marriage has made them harder to keep track of!

Love that they are the grandparents to my son. Love them both.

Summer Days

My horrifically neglected blog. I must admit, I took an intentional break from blogging last month, mostly because things just got crazy, and I got overwhelmed with my ever growing "need-to-do" list and my much more exciting "want-to-do" list. So I put my wants aside and tried to just focus on getting the dinner on the table regularly.  A feat that requires goal planning and mental dedication for me. I'd like to say that I was successful, but alas, I still feel too busy to blog but my desire to journal overtakes the realist in me. Thus, I am going to blog a ton this month! Some new, some from last month's adventures. Just a myriad of life to remind myself that there is more than what I seem to remember.

And so we start where we left off. 

The family farm has been a fun hit this summer. We've gone up a few times and took a gander at the sites of Brigham City; which are minimal. We went to see the new Brigham City temple grounds, which were lovely, and across the street to the historic tabernacle which turned out to be much less than I expected. Luckily we didn't have to drive far to see it. We love the little cafe there where we ordered enough food to feed an army (can you say crunchy french toast? yum!), and shopped at the Amish store which I don't think is owned or operated by Amish people. Alas, that's the name of the store so we're sticking to it. We purchased a bit of Traffic Jam there, a delightful mix of citrus and berries to spread on your toast; yummy, and some Ice Cream for the drive home. 

Uncle Tome acquired a few kittens to help manage the mice and other rodents that have become pests. They are so tiny and cute, they make me forget that I don't care for cats! Cameron, on the other hand, is enamored by animals.  "Kitty" he says over and over again.  He pets them and follows them around all over the farm. It's too cute to handle! When he hears their baby meow's, he will burst into smiles, jump up from what he is doing, and start looking for them, "kitty?, Kitty?" he is so fun!

The cousins and Uncle Mike have joined in on the visits once or twice. Activities always include several games of horseshoes, climbing on the tractor, playing tag in the vineyard and orchard, and relaxing under the mister that Uncle Tom installed on the Bunk House. It's beyond nice to relax there and watch the others play! I just love it.

 The smell of mint sails through the air from the field on the property. And the shade tree over the well creates a perfect place to sit and read a book while taking in a summer day. It's hard not to love this place. Mark has such dear memories of his childhood and grandparents here. But for me, it's just a wonderful retreat from the world. Farewell, until next summer!

Lastly, this picture has been in the works since our first trip to the farm, and every trip after. A side by side of Mark and Cameron on the farm. It makes me smile every time.  That Morrelly-Belly. It is legit!

Girls Camp

I loved it. I hate to admit that I dreaded going, mostly because I felt that my obligations at home were too much and too heavy to leave behind for a whole week. But, with enough luck and just-do-it attitude, I made the trek up to camp and couldn't have been more in love with the experience there. Something about being in the wilderness with teenagers brings out the crazy in me. I could almost see myself back at Rucker Lake with Tabitha and Susie, singing too loud in the kitchen and playing with the snake bite kit. The week was awesome.

 One thing that really made me hesitate going was I knew it was going to be very different from the Girls Camp that I grew up with. Just in the few planning meetings, I worried that my camp experience was going to trump anything that they tried to do here. And now that I've done it, I can't say that it was better than Camp Liahona days, but it wasn't really worse. Just different. For example: I remember the priesthood being a real presence at camp - not so here. And Camp Liahona; the overnight hikes as you progressed through your years at camp was the best. They don't take more than a sunrise hike here. That was weird.

But - we did spend a day down at the "lake" (it was really a pond) and working the challenge course which was awesome. One of my favorite memories for sure. One of the challenges was the trust fall, where you stand on a platform and then fall backwards into the arms of those below you. (Think Mean Girls...) I did it and to my surprise, it was a lot higher and scarier than I thought it was going to be. Cheers to me. The canoe time on the "lake" was partially fun, if your into getting wet. I wasn't. Tradition is this obscene splashing war where you just canoe over to another group and splash them as much as possible. I didn't have any spare clothes to dry off so I wasn't really enjoying that bit. I tried to be a decent sport about it, but I whined more than I should. the other girls in my canoe were not thrilled.

It must be mentioned that we drove down to the "lake" when every other ward there walked. That was cool! And after putting the seats down in the car, I fit 15 people in it. Party Bus!

 My other 2 favorite parts of camp were (1) learning Calligraphy. I'm not great at it but I did love learning. And (2) Roll Call cheers at flag. I came up with some cute ideas for roll call that the girls happened to think were fun too. So that was a fun memory for me.

I made 2 new friends who I just adore. Bonus. I bonded with the girls in my YW class which I desperately needed. Two points for that. I missed my whistle and beads from my girls camp days. Next year for sure! Loved me some girls camp. I hope to be able to do it again next year!

This is The Place Park

I am happy to report that in the last few weeks, I have done a little more than surviving at home! Mark is always so good to take us out on little "adventures". Sometimes, I need a little extra push. We drove the short distance to Salt Lake City to visit the This Is The Place historic park. Both he and I had been to the large monument that is right off the parking lot, but neither of us had seen the pioneer village. So, visit it we did! And of course, my history heart loved every plaque, story, and original stone they had.

 I tried to go on a day when the park would have actors posing as pioneer's living in the village. I can't say that it was what I expected, but it was neat to get a few stories here and there by the few who were there that day. We didn't get a chance to go down the little house lane, which I think would have been the most interesting; so I suppose that guarantees us another visit

I was fascinated at a few of the chores that they had us try out. Today, they would be known as hobbies! We cleaned the wool and watched it go on the spindle. Then saw the ladies work the loom into glorious quilts. Such a craft. I also learned another quilt technique with a hook and yarn. I was fascinated at how young this boy was whipping that ax down on that wood. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing! It was awesome.  And of course, my little teacher heart leaped with joy at the site of my boy in the school house desks. 

 I think my favorite parts would be the school house and the Brigham Young farmhouse. The schools then were from 8-5 and the teachers were usually 15-18 years old. They would teach writing, some science, agriculture, manners, and light math. The Brigham Young farmhouse was being refurbished when I was there last time so it was neat to go inside and see what they had done. It was built in Sugar City as a experimental farm. Being the first settlers to the valley, the Saints didn't know what kind of crops the land would support. This farm's purpose was to see what would grow from the seeds they had brought with them.

 Cameron LOVED the train. It is so fun to watch his excitement at everything. We went through the splash pad for some relief from the heat, another cute moment with the lad. And finished off the day with some Ice Cream and candy from the first ZCMI building ever! Loved our little trip out. Happy that my hubs got us going for a fun family outing.

Life Today

I'm terribly behind in my blogging. And the most I can do right now is a pictureless list. Just a quick journal entry of right now. 

Mark

-- Spent his wife-less week due to girls camp watching Lord of the Rings, extended edition. Rewarding. 

-- Loved being the "Disneyland dad" to his boy while mom was at camp. Daily trips, learning words, playing, playing, playing. 

-- Starting a First Time Home Buyer seminar series. Very exciting. 

-- Hired to mow his parents lawn until dad is healed from his shoulder ordeal. 

-- BYU football starts in 22 days. Enough said. 

Kaylinn

-- I Loved girls camp. Spent most of the week coming up with roll-call cheers and rocking it. 

-- I feel the school prep season in full force. Must avoid the "seasonal" aisles in the stores for fear of loading up on unnecessary folders, pens, and notebooks. Missing the idea of going back to school. 

-- I need a revamp of my schedule and motivation again. 'Sigh' as always. Summer has become long and hot and blah. I need to catch up on my journal, my blog, my scrapbook, my grocery shopping and diet, my life! Luckily, September and fall are just around the corner. 

-- enjoying a bit too much TV. Bachelorette, SYTYCD, food network star, design star, project runway, face off.  19 kids and counting, are you coming back?

Cameron

-- Walking. Still a little wobbly which makes it the cute walking phase. Also climbing stairs like an expert. We're working on climbing down. Not quite there yet. 

-- Very talkative. Words he knows: drink (ree), treat (tee), lamby (yamee, his favorite stuffed toy) Woody (doddy), daddy, mommy (when prompted), and a few randoms when we say it first. (Book, shoe, milk)

-- when asked "where's _____ ", he can identify lamby, woody, Mickey, Minnie, goofy, & Donald. 

-- not a picky eater. I know his favorite foods but I don't think he has foods he doesn't like. A really good eater! 

-- Dances when there is music on. Just a little bounce. When in the car, it's a full on head bang. Darling. 

Walking History

As a part of the Provo City Freedom Festival, the city advertised a "self-guided historic walking tour" with free brochures available to anyone who wanted them. Although I missed doing it during the month of June when they were sponsoring the tour, I did manage to find a friend who was as excited about it as I was. To our great fortune, the library still had copies of the tour so I didn't have to use my personal printer! So off we went. 

The tour was beyond delightful. I am such a fan of history and couldn't help but imagine who lived in these houses and what their lives were like then. It was fascinating to me. The blurbs in the tour book didn't seem to provide nearly enough information for my curiosity of their lives, but it did give a good bit about the time period in which the buildings were built. 

This one was one of my favorites. It is in the process of being refurbished so it looks really old and lived in. Sadly, as with most of the homes we saw, this one has been turned into 3 different apartment units. What was once a grand estate in the early 1900's is now 3 very small apartments. boo. Despite it's dilapidated state, Elizabeth and I peeked through the windows and walked around the weeds to peer in for better understanding of the possible past. Oh my historical heart.

 The evening caught up to us far too quickly, so we had to cut our tour shorter than it probably could have turned out to be (which was probably for the better). It filled my head with stories and thoughts of what this town use to look like.

 It's really fun to take a few days out of the month to try and find things to do that I wouldn't usually think of. I realized, when we moved away from California, that there was so much that I wished I had taken Mark to. So, now that we are here, I want to make sure that I take advantage of what is right here in my backyard before we surprise ourselves and move away again.

Self - great day!

YW all afternoon

I have been doing YW stuff all afternoon, and I am loving it. There is so much good stuff created by so many creative people out there, I can't even begin to compare myself to that kind of creativity and ability! I've been taking and using so many ideas from other generous leaders out there, I thought I'd share a little of what I did put together. You know, give back to the universe mentality. Maybe some stranger somewhere might find it useful or interesting or time saving on their part. Thus, I share with y'all.

First off, we have just called a brand new class presidency and this give me the new found determination to be more organized than I was the last presidency. I tend to get lazy and "don't fix what isn't broken" mentality when in actuality, there are improvements that can be made everywhere. First stop was my class presidency meetings. It's been far too long since we've had a productive meeting. I have been trying to get the girls more involved in the leadership part of the meetings, and have been failing miserably at directing them how this is done. I looked everywhere I knew on the internet for cute agendas already made by the crafty ladies out there - but couldn't find what I liked. So - I made one myself. It fits my needs and will give the girls direction for our short, productive future meetings. :)

YW Agenda here

Secondly, the girls in my Mia Maid class are struggling with activity ideas. We have a very small group, and seem to be repeating the same activities every week! So - I did some research and compiled a list of 100+ things to do for Mutual night. I realize this list is all in my jargon, but most of them are easy to understand and adaptable for any geographic location or class size.  By putting it onto one sheet of paper, I can now give the girls a copy and we can go down the list; filling in the weeks that need Class Activities planned. This should help us meet the "3 month's ahead" request from the Bishop.

YW Activity Idea list PDF here

It isn't much, and it isn't as creative and cute as some of those other things, but I am excited for what help it could bring for me. If you find it helpful, let me know in a comment and I'll be more apt to post other things that I am doing for my class.

One Year

I've had my sweet little boy in my family for one year now and I couldn't be more pleased with how the days have passed. Many will say, "it is so weird, how fast it goes and that my baby is 1". However, I don't really feel that way. I feel like he should be 1. Perhaps because our family has had such a busy year; or perhaps because his scrapbook is already going to be over 100 pages. Whatever it is, I feel like this little boy is definitely 1 year old.

Before we get into the birthday events, here are a few of his One year shots that I took. I am really so very proud of them. I am by no means a photographer, but my camera is amazing and does all the work for me. Throw in his favorite stuffed animal "lamby" and we have some pretty rock star shots.

 So - the Birthday. We all got together at Mark's parents house, and invited those sibilings who lived close (and Cameron's cousins) to join us in some food, gifts, and cake. Fairly standard and low key; but still memorable. I wanted to make an effort to not combine his birthday with the 4th of July get togethers mostly because I knew that if I did it this year, then every year for the rest of his life, he'll have a 4th of July birthday. At least I tried to make it more of a birthday party for him.

The gift opening wasn't too eventful. I do think that Cameron enjoyed ripping the paper off more than those christmas packages 6 months ago. Naturally. So that was fun to watch. The cousins were bored after the first box, but the uncles and granny and gramps were kind enough to stick it out to the end. We had accumulated several gifts over the year, and when they were all compiled together, I was shocked at how many Disney items we had gravitated toward without intention. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it was pretty funny.

The cake show down was a fun moment to capture as well. I had made an effort to decorate my own little cake like my mother had done for all us kids our entire growing up lives. She was an expert, I am a first time novice. And - I was pretty proud of how it all turned out. (I should really have more confidence in myself considering I am usually really proud of the outcomes)

Like most kids, Cameron was really timid at first, but seemed to start diving in once he knew that it was tasty. I'm not sure it was really worth it having to do the clean up afterwards. It was everywhere! Well, at least we have the pictures.

Happy birthday to my little dude. Love having you around.

A few tidbits about you at this moment in time:

• You're crawling everywhere. Mostly it's fun to have you mobile, until I see how dirty my floor is based on the condition of your feet. That, and you are very curious about the kitchen cuboards and drawers when I'm cooking dinner. That makes things a little hard.
• Your favorite foods are pickles, watermelon - right off the rind, crackers, yogurt, and ice cream. You'll eat melons without complaint, oatmeal if it has applesauce and cinnamon in it, and jelly sandwiches most days.
• Your favorite toys are your walker, Lamby and Monkey, and your new Woody doll.
• You are wonderful company to take on errands. All smiles and laughs when we're out and about. It helps break up the day when you've been cranky at home. Sit you in your carseat and you're pleased as punch.
• We dropped the Binky at your birthday and haven't looked back. You didn't seem to even notice it was gone. 
• You know peek-a-boo and when daddy asks "what does the lion say?" you give him a quite, mouse like "roar". You're wave is always late; usually when people stop waiting around for it. Your sign language for "all done" is mixed up with "more". So that's super confusing! Boppy is still your most frequent word.
• Since the walker came into the house, you have been a walking fool. You've even taken a few tiny wobbles on your own since it's been around. 
• You're far more aware of strangers. Won't go to anybody but a few tried and true faces. Even Granny and Gramps make you a little nervous when we leave the room.