Photo Challenge - Day 5

Today, I had a little elf come and help me make cookies for our church Christmas party. That elf just happened to be named Kendall.

Officially, this is my picture for the DPP...



But I can't just stop there. Those of you who know us really well, know that we try not to give Kendall too much sugar. We figure she'll have plenty of time in her life to eat plenty of sugar, and since right now she's still relatively unaware of sugar, we just try to not give her any. That being said, this was a real treat for her. She got to lick the batter AND eat a cookie once it was out of the oven. I had to give my elf a reward for being such a big help!

Photo Challenge - Day 4

This is the advent calendar that I wokred on before we went to Pensacola. It's not totally done, that's why it's not a picture of the whole thing! Hopefully, I'll finish it up in the next few days.

Photo Challenge - Day 3

Okay, I didn't post a picture yesterday. What can I say - I was busy!

Anyways, this is my pile of Christmas decorations that I'm slowly working on putting up. And I haven't even thought about the tree yet!

The Lord's Prayer

I just have to brag on my daughter a little bit here. I don't know why we didn't start this sooner, but I started going over the Lord's Prayer with her a few times, and she's really picked it up quickly! I started out having her repeat the last word of every line, and now she says it by memory. It's pretty impressive!

Thankfully, she was in a pretty hyper mood and I was able to get her to do it on video for me. It's super cute. Plus, you can hear her cute little raspy voice from her cold that she's getting over.

Photo Challenge - Day 2

Here's my two little sweeties. Kendall just loves all over her little sis, and I love it.

Photo Challenge - Day 1

Okay, it's my first day of the Photo Challenge, and I'm already cheating. This picture was taken last Saturday, but we're on an airplane today flying back to Cali, so I think I should be fine, right?

Anyways, this was from our family photo shoot at Pensacola Beach.

Isn't Cameron the cutest little thing you've ever seen in a bucket?

December 09 Photo Challenge!

Last year, I participated in the Photo Challenge, and I decided to do it again this year. Join me, won't you?

Family Pictures!

We've been having a fantastic time here in Pensacola for Thanksgiving. Something that made it even more special was having my side of the family's pictures taken on the beach.

You can check some of them out here...oh, and if she gets over 20 comments on our post, we'll get a free gift! I might be biased, but they are beautiful pictures.

Knott's Berry Farm

For most of the month of November, Knott's Berry Farm is free for military. We took advantage of that on Veteran's Day, which kind of turned out to be the worst day to go. It was so packed! But we still had a good time. We spent our time there exclusively in Camp Snoopy, and Kendall loved it! This was the first time she could really go on rides - they even had some rides she could do by herself, which was a little frightening for me. She ended up going on two by herself. She's such a big girl now!

Pink's

We were watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network, and saw an episode that featured Pink's Hot Dog Stand in Hollywood. So while Grant was still on paternity leave, we decided to go up there and try it out. Kendall and I made sure to dress in pink for the occasion.

Us

Kendall absolutely loves her new little sister. She hugs on her and kisses her constantly. When Cam cries, Kendall tries to make her stop by holding her hand, and patting her head. She's so sweet with her, it brings tears to my eyes sometimes.

Things have been going really well with two! I've been really suprised and blessed. Don't get me wrong - we've had some moments. Like the time I took both girls to Trader Joe's. It went so well there, that I thought I could make a trip to Target also. That was too much. Once we were finished, I was trying to leave the store, but Kendall wanted to sit in the chairs at the Starbucks. I figured instead of having her throw a fit about not being able to sit in the chairs, we'd go sit there for a few minutes.

She ended up hitting her head on a table, which started a screaming fit. Which started Cameron screaming, too. Cameron was in the Moby, but I ended up having to pick Kendall up and carry her on my hip out of the store, because she refused to walk. You should've seen all the sympathetic gazes I was getting. I became "that mom."

But really, those incidents are few and far between. I've been blessed with two little sweeties, and I love it.

Playing Catch Up

I know I've been a blog slacker lately. So the next few posts will be catch up on what we've been up to since Halloween.

Trick or Treat

We were pretty excited about Kendall being old enough to go trick or treating this year. Before Cameron came, I made them both matching tutu's, and bought semi-matching outfits from Target. I think they looked pretty cute, myself, but I might be a little biased.

At first, Kendall didn't quite know what to make of the whole trick or treat thing, but she got the hang of it pretty quick, and even though she didn't ever say trick or treat to anyone but us, she got pretty brave about the whole candy-getting thing.

We even ran into Mookie, and they were two of the cutest little besties I've ever seen!

Cameron Denise

Most of the people who read my blog - if not everyone who reads it - already know this, but our new daughter was born!! And, we finally figured out a name for her!

Cameron Denise was born on Saturday, October 24th, at 3:43 am. She was 9 lbs 12 oz, and 21 1/2" long.

I'll post more of the birth story later, but to sum up...it was pretty incredible! More painful than Kendall's, but much quicker, and I feel MUCH better afterwards. Just really, really tired - but that's because we lost an entire night's sleep, and didn't get much sleep Saturday night.

We're home now, and very happy to be. Kendall is absolutely in love with her new little sister, and can't stop touching her. Unfortunately, thanks to the swine flu, Kendall wasn't able to come to the hospital to meet Cameron. Not because she has the swine flu, but as a precaution, the hospital set up a rule just within the last few days, that there are no visitors under 18. So, the first time she saw her was when we came home. She was really excited.

Ryan

One year ago today, Grant's little brother, Ryan, passed away at the age of 17. Honestly, I don't really know what to say about it all, because it still seems so surreal. Since we haven't been living near family for almost 7 years, there are days that I have to tell myself, "Ryan's gone," just because I already wasn't used to seeing him that often.

We miss him. I hate that he only met Kendall twice, and that he'll never meet his new niece. I hate that we weren't able to spend more time with him. I hate that he's dead.

Grant was reading a passage in the Bible the other day, and shared it with me...it gave us such reassurance...

This passage from John 11 is talking about Jesus' friend, Lazarus, who died. Jesus is talking to Lazarus' sister, Martha.

Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives in me will never die. Do you believe this?" "Yes Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

Even though Ryan is dead in body, he's alive in spirit, because he believed. Do you believe?

Forever

There comes a point in (probably) every woman's pregnancy, when she thinks she's going to be pregnant forever. That's where I am right now. And I want to make it clear that I'm not saying that in a complaining kind of a way. I'm saying it in the surreal kind of way - like, I can't imagine not being pregnant. But that could and will all change any time now.

Now, a week ago, I would've totally said it in a complaining kind of a way. I was stressing about so many things that were going on, and I just wanted this baby OUT! But then I went to my mom's group Bible study on Wednesday (I almost didn't go - I'm so glad I changed my mind). We're going through Beth Moore's study of Esther. This particular week, Beth was talking about God's timing. She said something that really stuck out to me - it was something to the effect of, we shouldn't wait on the thing, we should wait on God. She even mentioned waiting for a baby to come! I mean, was she talking directly to me, or what?

This was something that I was really struggling with. And I would openly admit it to anyone who asked.

So being at that study on Wednesday....well, I just really needed to hear it. I can honestly say that right now, 8 days after my due date, I'm totally fine with whatever timing God has for this little girl.

Not Yet

There's still no baby, but Melissa recently suggested that I put up belly pictures like I did when I was pregnant with Kendall.

I apologize for the gross-outness of these pictures, but I guess they're kind of cool to see the difference.

The first was taken when I was 7 weeks pregnant, and the second is from the 39th week.

Soon...

The reality is starting to sink in that very soon, we'll be a family of four. Grant normally takes the bus to work every day, but next week he'll start driving in. My mom comes out here next week, too.

Baby clothes are washed, car seat is cleaned up, baby's outfit for coming home is packed...now we just need her.

October

October is really turning out to be a bittersweet month for us.

The sweet part, is that very, very soon, we'll have a new addition to our family. And that's really exciting!

But we have two bitter parts of October that we won't soon forget. The first is something that happened 2 years ago today.

Our very dear friend, Brent, died unexpectedly. By the time I had found out, it was after midnight - I had been in Pensacola for the weekend, and Grant didn't want to tell me sooner, so I wouldn't be an absolute wreck on the plane. So he told me when I got home.

I'm so glad that I can still remember what Brent's voice sounds like, and remember word-for-word some of the things that he said, and I can laugh outloud to those things, as if he were standing in front of me, saying them for the first time. He was an amazing guy, and he left behind an incredibly amazing family.

When we moved into this house, we propped up a funny picture of him on our little upstairs overhang, and it hasn't moved since. We look at it every day and remember our very good friend.

If you have a minute, please read his wife's blog - it will be a blessing to you, I promise.

The second bitter thing that happened in October, is Grant's brother passing away. We still have a couple of weeks for the anniversary of that, so I'll wait and give him his own post.

With both of these losses that we remember this month, there is a peace to it, because I know where they went after they died - and not because they were "good people", but because they were followers of Christ. And that's such a comfort to me...because as hard as it is to think that we'll never hear their voice again, or see them again on this earth (and it is very hard), I can rejoice that they are with Christ, and that we will see them again someday.

Kendall and Daddy Time

We kind of copied Dan and Haley, and started implementing outings with just Kendall and Grant. Not only does it give them time to bond, but it gives me a little break, and helps Kendall with her "mommy issues," which will come in handy when the baby comes.

Anyways, they have lots of fun together, and Grant takes great pictures of her. I thought I'd share some...

It's October!

Wow...this pregnancy has just flown by! I can't believe it's October, and the baby will be here before we know it!

Anyways, now's the time to take a guess as to when the baby will be here. As far as the due date goes, I've always said it was the 17th, because that's the date I was given by the first doctor I went to. But my current doctor says it's the 15th. So why don't we just cut it down the middle for this little game and say it's the 16th, okay?

Also, since we're still pretty clueless about a name for this little girl, feel free to put in any name suggestions. We need a first and a middle this time (last time, even though we didn't have a first name, we knew the middle would be Elizabeth). Thanks.