Two Princesses, a pajama baby and spiderman

Katelyn's best friend Emily came over to play at our house yesterday. although my kids have been to Emily's house countless time this was the first time Emily had come to our house and stayed. usually she is with her mom dropping something off. we had a great time hanging out with her.

we started off with a little "tea" party. Grant was thrilled to be a part of the fun. in fact after this he refused to sit in his high chair all day. Grant has been a bit under the weather the past few days, so yes in deed those are his PJ's... for the record he is feeling much better.

Next we broke out the play dough. The kids had a great time creating funny looking animals and "cookies" Thankfully most of the cookies went uneaten.

after that we turned on the music and before long the princesses came out in full bloom completely accessorised.

Dallin wasn't about to be left out and went searching for his "prince" outfit. (it's actually a pirate costume, but we would appreciate it if you didn't let him know...) unfortunately, the prince costume was no where to be found. but have no fear for Spiderman and Super Underwear Boy appeared in his place.

A day such as this wouldn't be complete without Dallin's classic "Cheese"

Animal Kingdom here we come!

Cameron had the day off so we decided to go to Disney once again. the only thing we had to work around was the pesky radiation appointment, so I scheduled it early, 7:15 in the blessed AM. and since the hospital is 40 minutes away and on the way to Orlando it meant we had to get the kids ready and out the door by 6:30am, yeah it didn't happen, but we were close. and before long, actually to tell the truth, it was probably my longest radiation appointment yet, we were off to Disney's Animal Kingdom and that's when Katelyn got eaten by the skeleton of a tyrannosaurs Rex.... oh wait that's a different story...

.... or is it?

the kids seemed to have a great time, and they even remembered our lesson about smiling and looked at the camera a few time. Now if you are thinking to yourself, "hum, I wonder if Katelyn wears that dress everyday." you just might be onto something, because in fact she does, or at least she would if I would let her, and often I do because it's just not one of those battles I'm willing to fight every time, and it's a cute dress, although getting shorter everyday.

you also may be thinking, "hum I wonder if Dallin and Grant match everyday?" but alas no, unfortunately Dallin and Grant only have three matching shirts because frankly that's what we can afford and most of their clothes are hand-me-downs and strangely, not too many other people have their boys 18 months apart, weird huh?

but speaking of Grant, he loved Animal Kingdom and was much more excited to be there then he has ever been. Grant was Thrilled to find out that the curb was the perfect height for him to sit on, he would wander over and sit, then grin up at us with glee then stand up and clap for him self and sit again. It was very entertaining, He was having so much fun that the other decided to join him.

He was in fact very sad when it was time to leave.



Dallin on the other hand was ready to go.

and it would seem Katelyn was too...

but she is faking it.

Smiles

Katelyn has a strong dislike for taking pictures. Here you see some examples of classic Katelyn pictures. It is rare indeed to get a shot of her looking at the camera and smiling.

Dallin on the other hand seems to like having his picture taken he just needs a little encouragement to smile so we are always prompting "say cheese!" and that's what he does.

so last night I was in charge of Family night and I decided to have a lesson on smiling... I'm serious. This has become one of my major contentions with the kids and it shouldn't be but I really would like to have more than two cute pictures of the million and one pictures I take. so we talked about smiling and how it makes people feel good when we smile at them and then we played a game of hide and seek, the kids could hide anywhere in the house and when they were found the got their picture taken in their hiding spot and then ran to a new hiding spot. it was great! The kids had fun and we got to practice taking nice pictures.

Katelyn's philosophy on Ouchies

Yesterday Katelyn tripped and fell on the cement and scraped up her ankle pretty bad. today while we were driving she said,
"I can't wait to see Emily and tell her all about my new ouchy."
Then she stated in a very matter of fact voice,
"Mommy, when you get ouchies you have to show them to your friends and tell your friends all about it, because that's what friends do."

Grant must have quite the grip.

the other day while we were driving to pick up Cameron at the airport, Grant was reaching to hold Dallin's hand, Dallin seemed to be completely oblivious to it so I said, "Dallin I think Grant wants to hold your hand" he replied, "but Mommy I can't hold his hand because if I hold baby Grant's hand my fingers will fall off!"

A Dallin Moment

last week while I was bathing the kids, Dallin was singing at the top of his lungs, enjoying the sound of his voice echoing around the bathroom when he stopped all of a sudden and said "mommy, we better be quiet or the Holy Ghost will get us."

birthday

my birthday was relatively quiet this year, the kids had doctor appointments and we saw an armadillo at the park. we think it must have some sort of disorder because it wasn't remotely scared of us, and believe me three kids can do wonders in terrorizing any crawling creature. personally this was my first armadillo encounter, I've driving by a few who didn't quite make it across the road and seen a few in zoos but this was my first "out in the Wild" exprience. It was pretty cool and would have been much more enjoyable if Grant had been content to watch from a distance, but he really wanted to pet it.

the rest of the day went went well, The kids were excited to help me open presents, (new shoes) and the best part was the carrot cake.

your eyes are not deceiving you, this is indeed the carrot cake birthday cake Cameron and the kids made for me, I would like to say it was mostly the kids who created the frosting design but most of the credit goes to Cameron. the kids did let loose with the sprinkles. isn't it fun!

the biggest reason I am posting this is because my sister requested a picture with my growing hair. pretty impressive huh?

I had my first appointment with the radiologist. everything went well, I had been warned beforehand that she was "scary" so expecting the worse she seemed fine to me. she explained a bunch of things that I had heard before, so nothing new, they highly recommend radiation because of the size of the tumor and my age, I will have radiation everyday for 5 weeks, I can't lose or gain weight during that time, (so sad, I really was planning to put on a few pounds this month.... oh wait maybe that was last month... ) it will feel like a sunburn, you know, the usual stuff I had never heard of before I started this whole process. it should be great times. can't wait to start.

Cameron has his Tampa interview tomorrow, they invited us to go to a dinner with the residents tonight, Amy Sharp came over to watch the kids, she is amazing! but the boys were both screaming as we were walking out the door. unfortunately as we were going down the steps I realized I forgot my hat, but I couldn't go back and get it because I couldn't make it harder then it already was for Amy or the boys, so I went without. my hair is starting to grow back but it's certainly not at the stage where I'm comfortable going to an interview dinner without something on. oh well, it went fine, and I think it was more disturbing for me then anyone else in the room. I think most people can tell I wouldn't choose to have this crazy short hair but you never know...

Rambling

it's 9:30pm and I should be going to bed but I wanted to feel like I accomplished something, plus Cameron is out of town and I took a nap today so I don't think I could fall asleep right away and I don't want to lay in bed wide awake listening to every creek in the apartment and every noisy neighbor outside. so here I am rambling.

I went to the gym for the first time since the beginning of November, it felt good to go back, I just wish my kids would cooperate with me. sometimes actually getting out of the house is a chore but if I don't then by lunch time the kids and I are stir crazy but then it's too late because after lunch is naps and that's not a good time to leave the house. I so was determined to get out but it was a struggle. lets just say I finally made it to the car with both Grant and Dallin in my arms screaming, them, not me, though I was close.

I have been a beast the last few days. It seems like the slightest things irritates me. I think it's because life has been a bit crazy with the holidays and now that we are home we've been up late and so we are all grumpy. well mostly the girls, the boys have been great except for this morning. When Katelyn gets upset with me she tightens her fists, pushes her arms down stomps her foot and says is a growling voice "augh! I'm not happy with you" I'm not sure what to do with her lately, she is not very nice. Last night one of her best friends Emily invited us to the circus and Katelyn refused to sit by her. which of course hurt Emily's feelings. so I took Katelyn aside and explained that this was a special night for Emily, it was her birthday and she got to invite one friend to the circus and she choose Katelyn, so She needs to be extra super nice and help Emily have a special day." after our little talk she looked up at me and said, "but mom I can't sit by Emily, I have to go to the bathroom." I don't think she is trying to be a mean person. She did similar things with her cousin Lauren while we were visiting Miami. I'm not sure what to do about it.

Dallin is being very sweet on the other hand. His only flaw is that he wants to be held all the time. he is by far our cuddliest. He is such a good boy, he plays well with Katelyn and he plays well with Grant. He has a slight obsession with eye color, he is constantly telling us, "ta-lyn has blue eyes just like baby rant has blue eyes too. I want to have blue eyes too, Brown eyes are yucky!' I'm not sure where he got that idea. so now every time he talks about eyes I tell he that brown eyes are beautiful. I think he is starting to believe me a little, but today while we were at the YMCA, he was looking at himself in the mirror and said, "mommy I think my eyes are green now, look mommy my eyes are a little green like yours are!"

Grant is getting big, we are working on weening him from the bottle, he only has it at night and when I'm desperate in public, which is not very often. I didn't give him one tonight and he went to bed really easy, but then 3 minutes after I shut the door he started crying, I think as he was laying their falling asleep he must have been reviewing the day and realized that I skipped a step in his bed time routine. He is a sweet baby who is quickly losing his babyness.

I am excited for Cameron to come home tomorrow after Church. unfortunately he is likely driving to Gainsville that night because he has interviews there Monday and Tuesday. and then he has one out in CA and then i think he is done, I should be starting radiation by that time. fun times!

well I've rambled enough, I need to get some sleep so I can stop being such a grouch.

Guess who got a new Camera for Christmas....

That's right. Cameron is amazing! All I wanted for Christmas was a SLR digital camera, I have an SLR film camera I got when I took a photography class 4 years ago but that was pre-kids and now film just doesn't cut it. unfortunately the digital cameras are expensive, but the kids are getting bigger and I would love to capture some cute pictures of them while they are still young and adorable.

Somehow Cameron pulled it off and he did it with out me suspecting a thing... sort of.

A month ago after being on the computer for a while Cameron got up at announced, "I have gotten your Christmas and birthday presents for the next few years" that made me suspicious until I was searching for something under the bed a few days before Christmas, honest I wasn't looking for hidden presents. While not being able to find what I was looking for I did run across a box for a GPS, another of my top Christmas wish list items. This was mostly for Cameron's sanity, because I get lost every time I blink, and unfortunately I have to blink. and he has gotten too many desperate calls for help and directions while I am on the road.

so then I figured that the GPS must have been the expensive gift Cameron had referred to. Despite my slight disappointment I realized that a GPS is probably a better gift anyway because we will be moving somewhere this summer and it will come in handy.

well come Christmas morning I got both. Cameron had Ordered the GPS months ago and had been using it to go to his interviews, sneaky... I just figured he was amazing with directions from the Internet. He even let my sister use it while she drove to Naples to drop my kids off. they were both very sneaky.

SO now I am a proud owner of a SLR camera and a GPS. Thank you Cam!

Arriving Home

Days of Thanksgiving

My Mom and Sister were here for Thanksgiving Amy and Mom both had to leave the day after Thanksgiving so we decided to stay in Tampa and then drive down to Naples to see the kids after they left. it would be nice if Tampa and Naples were less then 3 hours away but that's ok...

Cameron's Cousin Jen invited all of us over to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a fantastic time. We always love spending time with them.

the day after thanksgiving we joined the crowds and went shopping I wish we could say we found some amazing deals but truthfully we ended up returning nearly everything we bought. sad huh? After our unsuccessful shopping spree we drove to Naples and joined the festivities there. fun times! It was only at this point that we remembered to pull out the camera.

Katelyn and her cousin Lauren love being silly together. They insisted on having matching hair, and who wouldn't?

We decorated Grandma's Christmas tree after thanksgiving, the kids had a great time "helping" some were a bit more helpful then others, but they were all cute.

On Sunday morning we took advantage of having everyone in their Sunday best and snapped some pictures with Cameron's great Grandpa Bennett.

Of course we had to take a family picture while the cameras were out.

I know the wigs not doing much for me but hey it's better then nothing... believe me.