Do they look alike?

People keep asking me if Cameron and Maggie look alike.  So I went back and found a pic of him from around the same age.  I don't think they necessarily look exactly alike, but there are faces and expressions that she makes that I used to see Cam make when he was a baby.  They also both inherited putting one eyebrow up, from Chris.  I think she's got more rolls on her than Cam did at the same age.  Not sure how that's possible, he had quite a few rolls on him, as you can see.

Cam in December 2004

Maggie in June 2008

Both of my babies in July 2008

Acrosports Monday

On Monday we headed to Acrosports for just regular open play time with our playgroup.  I, of course, forgot my camera, but Kim was nice enough to send a few shots to me.

My little trapeze artist.  Here we come Olympics!

Our playgroup has had a baby born almost every month so far this year.  January was Morgan with Gwen (not pictured), then it was Marissa with Miranda in March (far left), then me with Maggie in April, then Heather with Slade in May (second from the left), and finally Kim with Irelynn in June (next to me).  It's been a real baby boom so far this year.

At our church we've also had babies born every month except July, 11 total so far!  It's going to be so nice for Maggie to have all these great friends to grow up with over the years.  

Swimming at Nana & Pop's House

The pool at Nana & Pop's new house down here in Friendswood is very nice.  The kids have both been enjoying their time in the pool.  Cam will even go down to the bottom to retrieve hoops and diving sticks.  He doesn't quite remember to kick and use his arms so we all stay very close when he's in the water.  Maggie likes to float and check things out, see below.

Story about Cam's Grandpa

My grandmother sent me a story about my dad when he was in kindergarten.  I think Cameron has a bit of his grandfather in him in claims to holy fame.

I just read your latest Blog entry.  It reminded me of something that made us laugh many years ago.  Kindergartens were not yet part of the public school system when our children were young.  Your Dad attended private kindergarten at St. George's Episcopal Church.  Of course they had Chapel and a Bible lesson each day.  We car pooled 3 boys and 2 girls and often their conversations revealed whatever that day's discussion had been.  As we drove home one day, the first boy said, "I'm the Father!"  The second boy said, "Well, I'm the son!"  In a loud voice your Dad said, "Then I'm the Holy Ghost!"

 

Give our love to Cameron and "Nacho MoJo"  !!!!

 

Love you,

Grandma

I love getting to hear stories about our family.  It is so funny how history repeats itself.

Kaiden's Birthday!

Kaiden's birthday was on July 16, but Bek scheduled his party for this last weekend.  It was so awesome!  The theme was animal safari.  Bek made binoculars for the kids out of TP rolls, then read an animal sounds book, played Monkey See, Monkey Do, and had the kids go on an animal safari.  There were animals spread all over the front yard and the kids captured them and put them in a cage.  Then they received stamps in their passports for each animal they captured.  It was very funny to watch them searching the yard with their binoculars for the animals and get so excited.  I've shared a few pics from the day below.Kaiden's alligator shirt I made on my embroidery machine.  Check out behind him, it's the binoculars.

Cameron and his Woody shirt that I also made on the embroidery machine.

The cool cake that Nana made for Kaiden's party.

Chris holding Zachary (February) and Maggie (April).  I think my daughter is gaining a bit of weight!

Nick broke a foam bat when he broke open the pinata.

Cute Kid Stories

Sorry it's been forever since I blogged (10 days), but a lot has gone on in that time.  We've had grandparents move to town, started our summer MDO program, and lost our minister at our church.  I have two cute stories to share from the last week.  

The other night Chris made nachos to eat.  I was holding Maggie and he jokingly offered her one.  Well, it must have looked good because she lunged for it!  Now, if you've seen Maggie lately you can't say that I've been starving her, she's got rolls everywhere.  I can't wait to start her on foods because I think she's really going to enjoy eating.  But I think we'll start with rice cereal, not nachos.

My son is quite the comedian at church and just about every week we have an interesting story on his take of the Bible.  Mrs. Holly stopped me in the hall yesterday to tell me what Cam said during first hour.  I think the topic of the day was about loving our neighbors so I'm not sure how the kids got on the train of thought that they did.  Here's the conversation:

Cam: Mrs. Holly, when I grow up and get big, I'm going to be God!

Other little boy: Well, my daddy waved a magic wand over me and made me Jesus.

Mrs. Holy thought: Wow, we're just missing the Holy Spirit.

We've been trying to tell Cam that instead of setting his sites on God's job, maybe he could be God's servant.  He seems to like that idea too.

Rough Week

It's been a rough week trying to get back into the swing of things.  I'm not feeling like I'm getting through very well to Cam and am having to repeat myself a lot.  I am not sure if it's being back in our own place, or baby sister getting quite a bit of attention, or just being a 3 (almost 4) year old.  Maybe a combo of everything.  I was trying to take it slow this week and hang out at the house a bit because next week Cam will start at a summer MDO program.  We didn't really plan anything, except running a few errands for the in-laws and laundry galore (I think 10 loads worth in 3 days).  I thought a week with very little to do would be good for all of us, however it seems to have backfired by the end of the week.  And Chris was out of the house last night doing a second sleep study, which meant I had all the nighttime duties for both kids by myself.  

Luckily daddy decided it was time for a boys night out and they headed to see Wall-E together tonight.  It gave me a chance to just worry about feeding, clothing, and getting to bed one child.  And I got to do the dishes and fold yet another load of laundry.  

Summer can be a lot of fun, but I think I've learned that getting Cam out of the house actually creates more sanity for me, not less.

Amy's Ice Cream

Two more pics from Amy's Ice Cream that I had to share.  They had this billboard up that the kids could put their faces in ( a baby, mommy and daddy).  I went ahead and got shots of both kids with the baby cow.  

It's kind of funny, because the nickname my dad gave Maggie is Maggie Moo, so this actually goes perfect for him.

The Bats!

If you've ever been to Austin in the summer, there's this phenomenon you have to see - the bats that fly out of the Congress Street bridge every night.  Actually I lived there most of my life before I saw them for the first time.  I thought, however, that I might take Cameron to see these little creature make there assent on Wednesday night.  I have to tell you, he was not that impressed.  We walked on the bridge to see the bats flying by, they had already started when we got there.  Down below is a small park area that's been set up to watch them as well, and a man was selling blue light-sabers.  So pretty much all Cam could talk about was the light-sabers and how he wanted one.  He had been asking to see them for 2 days, but I guess the idea of doing it was way more exciting than actually being there.  

Statue commemorating the bats.

All those little black dots in the picture are bats
Cam is all smiles.

I did finally have to tell him to stop asking for a light-saber or he'd get in trouble.  So first thing the next morning our conversation went like this:

Cam:  Mommy you didn't buy me something.

Me:  What didn't I buy you? (very puzzled)

Cam:  You told me not to say because I'd get in trouble.

So I realized he was still finding a way to talk about the light-saber without actually saying the word.  Very clever!

Playing with our cousins

We spent last Monday (7/7) with my family out in Caldwell.  My parents recently purchased some land and had to meet with the electric company.  So while they were out sweating, we stayed with my Uncle Melvin and Aunt Margie.  Cousin Patrice came over with Madison & Brayden and the kids had a ton of fun running, riding and playing.

Yes, this might be the first time he's been close up with a chicken.  Shortly after this pic he sat in an ant pile and had to be stripped down so we could get all of the bugs off of him.  A country boy my son is not.

This is Brayden's 4 wheeler that Cam was having so much fun riding.  The thing is really quite fast, almost like driving a car.

Next we headed out to my Uncle Herbert & Aunt Erline's property to play.  They had more farm animals for us to meet.  The cows would not cooperate and come to the fence so we could pet them.  Imagine that. 

After the rousing day of play, Cam crashed in the car on the drive home.  In hopes to keep his head propped mom was using everything handy.  

Silly Faces

We ate dinner at Phil's Ice House and Amy's Ice Cream (they are joined together in one building) tonight in Austin. They had one of those old fashioned photo booths so Cam and I sat down to make some silly faces. Disregard the first pic, as the machine started flashing before we had deposited all of the money. And this was our second attempt to get pics out of the silly thing! Anyway, the burgers were so yummy. I had a collection of mini burgers - one with blue cheese and onions, one with chili-cheese, and the last one with bbq sauce. They also serve these awesome sweet potato french fries, sinful! Definetly worth a visit for anyone headed that way.

The location has a playground outside, so after dinner Cam played on the equipment and the cows that they have out front. He pretended to be a waiter and was asking what everyone wanted to eat. Very imaginative play time. Again, another busy day and evening in Austin. We are ready to return home and be a little less active for a week or so.

Playing with the Hale's & the Lytle's

My best buddy from HS, Christianne (better known as Tane) and her hubby, Kevin, invited us out Saturday night to visit and see their new house. I've actually known both of them since Jr. High, so about 16 years now. They got married back in March, right when the doc told me I could no longer travel and I was extremely sad to miss the wedding. However, my family went as a stand in and got to see the beautiful ceremony first hand. I was so excited to see the both of them and get to check out the wedding pics. Cam was excited to have their cats (4 of them, only 3 wanted to talk to us) to play with for the evening.

Later in the evening Tane's sister (Misty) and her family came over to play too. Cam ran up to Laura & Peter, announced himself and said "Let's play." No beating around the bush with my kid. They decided that Kevin made a really fun horsy to ride on, all 3 of them at once!

It was a trip to drive out in Manor and see all the growth that's been going on over the years. There is a park with playgrounds, splash pad, and sports fields that is in a field I'm pretty sure we used to party in back in the day. There are houses and schools popping up everywhere. I'm often sad to miss the changes, but glad that the area continues to grow and evolve. What was our HS is now a Tech school for students to learn computer graphics, programming and more. You have to apply to get in, and only 100 students are accepted. PJ, Tane's nephew, is one of those exclusive students. I can only imagine the great minds that will be coming out of Manor with all of the advancements they are making now. Wish we could have had some of that when I went there, but we did have some really great teachers.

4th of July

We spent the 4th in Austin with my family to celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. All the standard celebration food was on the tables - barbeque chicken, sausage, potato salad, beans, cake, ice cream and more. The kids ran around the yard, sometimes chasing the dogs and sometimes each other. Maggie was loved on by all her aunts and uncles - as this is the first time many of them had seen her. And to finish off the night Chris, Cameron and I headed to Pflugerville to watch some fireworks.

Maggie with her BIG bow, courtesy of RibbonAllie.

Cam in his holiday attire, with a strange face.

Laying on a blanket to watch the fireworks.

Unfortunately Cam got tired of watching the fireworks and asked to go back to the car (it was 9:30PM). So I put him in the car, windows rolled down, and returned to watch the fireworks with Chris. We were only 50 feet away from the car. When we walked back up to the car 5 minutes later, he was crying and saying "I wanna see the fireworks, you left me in the car." Unfortunately the display we were watching was over with, but there were plenty to be seen from Grandma & Pawpaw's house when we returned. He was too tired to enjoy them at that point, but at least saw one or two before we sent him on to bed.

Saturday - What an Adventure

Last Saturday we had a whirlwind day.  We started out in Arlington, drove to Frisco for our friend's, Joe & Erica, son's birthday party, then headed out to Granbury for our other friend's, Shawn & Brandi, baby shower.  The birthday party was at the Wiggly Center, basically a Wiggles indoor playground.  There were slides, bouncers, red cars to drive and so much more.  Cam & Maggie hung out in the car the most.

Then Cam got to play with Shawn's cousin's at the shower and beat each other up with balloons.  They kids thought this was an absolute hoot, and kept popping them as well.  After the shower, on our drive home, Cam fell asleep - awkwardly . . . 

For a boy who does not nap, it was a crazy day.  He was asleep by 6P, woke up at 4A to go to the bathroom and a drink of water, and then slept until 8A.  I couldn't believe his contortionist self in the car seat.  And once in a bed, he kept flipping around and finally ended up with his feet on the pillow!

Ms. Maggie was also content to sleep, but as long as her Momma Dot was holding her.  Every time I tried to set her in the crib or the swing she was right back awake again.  I guess Momma Dot just has the touch that babies love. 

It was a very exciting weekend and we are looking forward to some of the same this week.  We are headed to Austin for the Forth of July and to celebrate my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary.  60 years is amazing!   

VBS - The Treehouse

Here's one more pics from VBS - the tree house was so cool!

A cute story about this pic.  It's supposed to have Cam in it, however he refused to go on stage.  Apparently during the morning routine at VBS, there were puppets on stage at some point.  When I tried to get Cam to go on stage to take his pic he said " No mommy, there are puppets up there."  I asked if he was scared of them and he said yes!  My son is afraid of puppets?  He would only go as far as the stairs and then race back over to me.  So I only have a pic of the treehouse by itself, no posing for Cam on this one.  In all fairness, I think Mrs. Karis has one puppet that's a green boy.  Now that is a little scary.

Miracles For Fun

I want to keep everyone up to date on our friends Brad & Jenny.  They are back in the states right now, getting a short reprise from the full treatment he was receiving in Germany.  There are still medications Brad has to get daily and Jenny is playing nurse to him right now.  I think at the beginning of August they will return to Germany to have Brad checked over and new scans done to see how he's doing.  Our hope, our prayer, our belief is that this treatment will have shrunk his cancer and he will be considered healed or at least on the road to recovery.

In addition, the gentlemen of our church are putting together a golf tournament in September to raise money for the treatments, travel expenses and anything else the Wims family needs.  The tournament has various sponsorship levels, foursomes, and there will be a raffle.  If you would like to participate in anyway, all of the contact information is on the website - http://www.miraclesforfun.blogspot.com/