The French Pirates Richards

Sledding, Hockey and Buzz

2012-02-02T07:41:00.006-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we got a fair amount of snow, and so Cameron and Samuel went out to enjoy the sled that Santa brought Samuel for Christmas. They had a blast outside, and came home soaking and smiling! :0) Samuel loved his new sled, and had fun making a couple of snow angels, too.

Caleb was napping while they were outside, but we've let him have a lot of fun, too. He got to wear Samuel's Buzz outfit, even though it's a little too big for him...
And he's been getting to use Samuel's hockey stick, too, and is honestly getting pretty good at it! I'm glad our closet doors are durable because they tend to get whacked a fair amount, but he does pretty well with a stick that's almost three times his size!
My poor boys both have pretty nasty colds right now so we haven't been able to enjoy the beautiful weather the last couple days, but I'm glad we have lots of fun things to do inside. Hopefully they'll kick these colds soon so we can get out and about again! :0)

Updates on Samuel's Skating Lessons

2012-01-28T20:07:00.002-05:00

Samuel is still loving his skating lessons!! He just has his fourth one, and he made a lot of progress. He's not the fastest in his class and he needs to learn to bend his knees, but this week he was keeping up pretty well and was even going backwards (we've been working on twisting a lot at home with socks on the kitchen floor). He falls way less than most of the kids, and what makes me the most proud is what a good listener he is. I've been a little nervous about him going to kindergarten because he can be a bit spacey and gets distracted from what he's supposed to be doing very easily (before any of my sisters or mom leaves this comment, I will point out that I was the same way at his age - it's all my fault). But we've talked a lot about listening to the teacher, and he's really doing a great job and following all of her instructions. He even went between the cones in a "slalom" fashion, and got in between every cone! So we are very proud of his accomplishments. :0)

Last week it was kind of ironic because he was SO SLOW!! He was going slower than he had in his first lesson, and I felt terrible when I realized why. During his second lesson, some of the other boys decided it was really fun to play on the ice by digging their skates into the ice and crawl around and lay down on the ice. Since Samuel decided to follow suit and kept falling on purpose so he could play on the ice, we had a big chat with him about how it's okay to fall on accident, but not on purpose, and how you have to get right back up when you fall. Well, apparently we made too much of an impression, and in his third lesson he was trying so hard not to fall that he was barely moving!! So we had more chats this past week, and I'm glad that he did such a great job today. I have to admit, I'm awfully proud watching him out there on the ice. :0)

He's been practicing his hockey skills a ton off the ice, so maybe someday he'll actually get to put the two skills together! :0) (The videos are from his second lesson, we'll remember our camera next week!)

Life is Good

2012-01-28T19:53:00.002-05:00

Lately, Caleb hasn't been sleeping well at all, and it has been making me a little bit grumpy at times. A couple of nights ago, he woke up at 9:00 and wouldn't go back to sleep until well after 11:00, and he kept me up the whole time. Then he woke up three hours later, and two hours after that. It feels like I have a newborn again! So yes, I was getting a bit grumpy. But you know, every once in a while things happen that help us keep our own lives in perspective.
This morning at 3:30 I was woken up by a fire truck blaring its sirens and traveling at full speed past my window. A little later, Cameron and I realized that there was a cop making sure no one went down a nearby street, and we knew something serious had happened. So the boys and I took a walk today to see the damage - 8 apartments a few buildings over were completely burnt down. It was very sobering to realize that these poor families have lost almost everything.
The miracle is that no one was hurt; a nearby neighbor was a hero and ran around getting people out of their homes and called the fire department, so there were no injuries. But when I think of the things I would lose if our apartment were to catch fire, it breaks my heart. It's not like we really have anything of value, but the pictures and books and all those things that are only important to me and my family that would be lost... I can't imagine the pain those 8 families are going through right now.
So even though life is never perfect and I'm pretty tired these days, I am very blessed in so many ways, and I'm very thankful for the wonderful blessings I have.
P.S. Just so you know, I didn't ask the boys to mop my floor. They saw me mopping, and begged to get to try after I had finished. ;0)

Research Month

2012-01-24T05:50:00.005-05:00

This month has been so fun!! Cameron is on his research month, which means instead of being in the OR, he's been home a ton!! A fair amount of that time has been him collecting data for his research, but he's been home and it's been wonderful. We've had a chance to do some really fun things with him, like going to the park to play some hockey and lacrosse, going to the PA Farm Show (the biggest farm show in the whole country!), and checking out the Milton Hershey School. We've also just had a lot of time relaxing at home and playing with the boys which has been great. It sure is nice to have him home this month!!! :0)

I just love these pictures of Caleb running with Samuel's cape!

Checking out the chickens

Cameron did the Marine Challenge, and did a really good job! He got

several pullups, which is especially impressive when you consider how much

exercise he's had time for since starting med school (none).
Go Cameron!! :0)

And of course, the Farm Show isn't complete
without the butter sculpture!

A couple of Alpacas

The cutest baby goat ever!!

The Milton Hershey School. The more I learn about Mr. Hershey, the
more I realize that he was an amazing and wonderful man!!!

Inside the rotunda of Founder's Hall at the school.

Our tour guide of the rotunda was a wonderful elderly woman whose father actually worked for Mr. Hershey during the Depression. A man came along offering to sell Mr. Hershey a machine that would replace 40 men and save all kinds of money; Mr. Hershey said, "I'd rather keep the 40 men." She said that in Hershey, the '30s didn't even feel like a Depression, thanks to the Hersheys. They have helped so many children during the last several decades, it is really incredible what this school has done.

Caleb's Almost a Toddler!

2012-01-14T08:02:00.002-05:00

I can't believe what a big boy Caleb is getting to be! He has gone to nursery twice already and, while he's cried a fair amount, he's doing pretty well and I think he's starting to have fun. He's been very helpful around the house, helping clean up his toys and even getting plastic bags and trying to put them in the garbage for us. He's still not really talking much, but he's starting to call Cameron Dada instead of Mamamama (I'm just Mama, and Cameron has been maMAmama), and I swear he tried to say bonjour yesterday! He's certainly understanding a lot, in French and in English, and getting to be such a big boy.

Our little Caped Avenger running fast!

Yesterday was a big day for him. His hair had been getting pretty shaggy in some areas, and so we finally broke down and Cameron cut his hair!!! He did pretty well - we put him in the bath, and then Cameron just used the scissors. He cried a little, but mostly was very patient and didn't move too much. It looks much better, especially in the back where it was looking very long. It's sure fun to see him growing up so much!!!!

Before:

During:

After:

Samuel's First Ice Skating Lesson

2012-01-07T13:38:00.005-05:00

For Christmas, Samuel got ice skating lessons from my parents! He has been so excited about hockey lately, so he's been dying to learn how to ice skate. It went really well, we were so proud of him! He went right onto the ice (it had been about a year and a half since the last time he skated, and he was pretty nervous that time, so I wasn't sure how he would do) and started trying. They taught him how to fall well, and he figured out how to get back up really fast. He could get up within a few seconds after about 15 or 20 minutes on the ice! He even went almost a full half length of the rink by himself without falling towards the end of the lesson! They were already working on going backwards, and he didn't do that quite as well (he doesn't really understand what it means to twist, we'll have to work on that at home this week), but overall he did a really great job! And most importantly, he LOVED it! He's already excited for his next lesson. :0)

The funniest part of the lesson was when he finally realized where we were, and he got a bit distracted. He was supposed to skate back to the middle of the ice, but instead joined in the other (and more experienced) class! That teacher actually let him stay in there for a few minutes, but then he very kindly helped Samuel get back with the brand new skaters. It was pretty funny, and Samuel thought it was pretty fun being with the better skaters.

Samuel and Papa playing hockey with his new
stick from Santa on Christmas morning

Caleb and I waiting for Samuel's lesson to start

Samuel on the ice!

Christmas!!!

2012-01-07T09:46:00.004-05:00

This year for Christmas, my sister Alanna wanted to have the entire Bentley clan at her house, and we came awfully close!! My sister Leah and her family weren't able to make it from California, but everyone else was there!! It was really wonderful spending time with so much family, it was a very special Christmas. The older cousins were so excited for Santa and everything, and even Ryder and Caleb got pretty into opening presents after realizing that fun things were hidden in all that wrapping... ;0) I have a million pictures to share, so here's a start. These are all pre-Christmas, and I'll do another post soon (hopefully) with all the actual Christmas pictures!

Samuel and Grandpa Rex

Samuel and Grandma Patrice

Bentley being Bumblebee (the Transformer)

More pictures to be coming soon! :0)

Early Christmas Presents

2011-12-17T08:55:00.004-05:00

Some very generous family members have given us some fantastic early Christmas presents, which we have been thoroughly enjoying!!! First this arrived on our doorstep from our Cousin Jan:The boys have enjoyed this immensely!! Caleb seriously carries it around all over the apartment with him and they both love dancing along with him while he sings Jingle Bells. Then a couple of minutes later, this arrived:I literally had been thinking a day or two earlier how much I wished we had a real advent calendar for the boys, and my mom sent us this!! It's so cute, and Samuel looks forward every day to getting to put a new person/animal on the calendar. A few days later, this arrived:It's a bad picture, but it's a Santa Clause snow globe from Jan!!! It plays Silent Night, and is such a wonderful collection to our few Christmas decorations. I really love snow globes, so this was just perfect. Now as if this weren't enough, we got yet another amazing early Christmas present for the boys. Cameron's parents sent the boys a Christmas train to go around the tree!!!! If you know Samuel and Caleb, I'm sure you can imagine the HUGE smiles on their faces as they saw the train!We used up the first set of batteries in less than 24 hours, and they just love watching the train go around the tree while they make the bells clang and the whistle blow. Samuel even likes being a tunnel for the train to go through!Once when we were still in the Caribbean, Cameron asked what I would like to spend money on someday when we had extra money to spend. I remember telling him I wanted holiday decorations, especially for Christmas. So here is a huge thanks to Jan and Grandparents for all of the wonderful presents that are making this Christmas so special!!! :0)

Milk

2011-12-17T08:38:00.002-05:00

Back in August, Samuel accidentally got some milk, and since he thought it was soy milk, he was drinking it. We realized the mistake quickly and made the change fairly quickly, but we didn't actually see any reaction which was an exciting event. We waited a while, and started challenging him with cheese and chocolate. He would eat couple of bites of whatever we gave him, and we wouldn't see anything wrong. He would promise that he wasn't reacting and that it was really good, but he just wasn't hungry for more right then. We weren't sure what that meant; did he not want to admit he was reacting but he really was and therefore didn't want more? Was he totally fine but just didn't like it so he wasn't eating more? We kept trying to give him more and he would keep eating just a little at a time. We were getting really excited - is he past his allergy?!! But then one day, this happened:
A piece of Kraft cheese shouldn't do that; he's still allergic to milk. :0( We were really sad and decided not to challenge him anymore for a while. A couple of weeks ago, however, he went to his 6 month allergy check up, and we were given heartening news. They drew some blood, and when the doctor sent us the results, she was very heartened. He's still allergic to dogs and cats (according to the blood, we've never noticed any problems when he's been around them), and he's still very allergic to raw egg (but at least that's very easy to avoid), but the doctor wants to start challenging him with milk products!!! She wants to start with breads with milk in them, etc., and advised us to wait until they can do a controlled trial in the clinic. Since we couldn't get that appointment until April, however, we've gone ahead and given him a couple of things with a small amount of cooked milk, and so far so good!!!! THERE IS HOPE!! :-D Maybe someday we'll be able to take our little boy to France afterall...
I was very proud of Samuel, too, because he was very brave when they drew blood. He was pretty scared at first, but the nurse promised him that the "magic cream" would help a lot and that everything would be okay. He didn't even flinch when they took the blood, and was very excited to show off his bandage afterward. :0)

Philadelphia! (Day 2)

2011-12-15T12:47:00.002-05:00

We had a lot of moments whens we felt we were being helped so things would go smoothly. One of them was definitely Wednesday morning. We had asked the day before about a continental breakfast, and the lady told us it started at 6:00. Actually, the really nice and expensive buffet breakfast started at 6:00, but there wasn't anything continental about it. When we showed up that morning and realized our mistake, we started walking away and she called us back with a wink, and she said, "I can get a coupon, you can have breakfast on us!" It was such a nice thing for her to have done, we were very much appreciative (and we also made sure we only ate enough instead of gorging ourselves like we would have done if we had paid). It was very nice of them, and a great way to start off the morning.

Then we went to Macy's to see the huge pipe organ and Christmas tree, and even got to see a bit of the Dicken's Christmas Land they had set up (though we realized after seeing half of it that the door wasn't supposed to be opened, so we left). That was fun, but then it was time to check out of the hotel and start heading to the actual reason we were in Philly.

We drove across the river and got to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where Cameron had his first interview for a pediatric anesthesiology fellowship. I was a bit nervous about driving in the city, but it went well, and we got him to his interview in plenty of time. His interview went great, and the boys and I had a lot of fun walking through the U-Penn Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. I was really excited to see it, but I wasn't sure how the boys would do. They actually really enjoyed it! They were very well behaved, and Samuel especially enjoyed the Egyptian sections, which made me very happy. He was very good about not touching anything, and Caleb was very patient in his stroller.

We then wandered around the hospital (they had some fun stuff in the entrance) and outside for a while. We saw some ambulances parked that Samuel wanted to see, so we got closer. The driver came back with the stretcher, saw Samuel, and asked if he wanted to turn on the lights! So Samuel got to turn on the lights, and was a very happy boy. A few minutes later, we met up with Cameron at the car and headed home.

It was a short trip, but a whole lot of fun. We thoroughly enjoyed out time in Philadelphia, and I'm very happy to have finally had a chance to go. Cameron felt really good about his interview and loved the hospital, so that was very exciting, too!

Philadelphia! (Day 1)

2011-12-15T12:34:00.004-05:00

On Tuesday, Cameron was post-call, so he came home and slept for a few hours, and then we all piled into the car and headed to Philadelphia! We were able to stay in the heart of the city (thanks to Cameron's dad and uncle!!!!), and we had such a great afternoon and evening. We walked to Reading Terminal Market and got some lunch, and then continued walking over to see the Liberty Bell. It's hard to convey the significance of something like that to a four year old, but both Samuel and Caleb were quite fascinated with the bell, and Samuel was wondering if we could ring it (we told him no, of course). We walked around quite a bit in that area and saw the visitor's center, and then we got to see Independence Hall.

We got a lot of funny looks as we were walking around, though, because our turkey Caleb kept taking his shoes and socks off!! It wasn't freezing, but it wasn't warm, either, and he had bare feet! I kept trying to cover him up with my jacket, but he would pull it up so his feet would be exposed! We really were trying hard to be good parents, but I was a little nervous that one of the security guards were going to call CPS on us... ;0)

Anyways, when we got to Independence Hall, it wasn't super crowded which was nice, and our tour guide, Ranger Mike, was really great. He loved kids, so he was very patient with Caleb wanting to run around a lot and he was playful with Samuel. After the tour he pulled Samuel aside and gave him some fun cards talking about Washington, Madison, the Declaration of Independence, etc. So that was really awesome.

Then we walked over and saw Benjamin Franklin's grave, and just walked around those historical sites for a little while. It was very awe-inspiring getting to be where such impressive and admirable men spent their time creating such important and historical documents. Even though we were chasing Caleb around and trying to keep him quite, we could still feel the aura of significance that resides in Independence Hall. I can't wait to get to DC sometime and see the actual Constitution and Declaration of Independence!!

By then it was starting to get dark and the boys were getting hungry. We walked to China Town and went to a little noodle restaurant that my friend told me about, and enjoyed excellent Chinese noodle soups. We got back to the hotel, put the kids to bed, and hid out in the bathroom reading books until they went to sleep so we could, too. So far the only thing that didn't go perfectly was my own fault - I forgot the camera... It was sad to be seeing such amazing things without being able to document it, but at the same time I think sometimes I worry so much about getting good pictures that I forget to really take in what I'm seeing. I really wish we had something to document our trip, but it was a really wonderful and special day.

The Hershey Bears!!!

2011-12-07T08:10:00.002-05:00

A couple of days after Thanksgiving, a friend of ours had some sweet tickets to the Hershey Bears game, and she couldn't use them so she gave them to us!! They were in the third row, just a few seats away from the penalty box, it was amazing!!!!

With Coco the Bear, before the game

Excited about our awesome seats!!

It was the boys' and my first ever hockey game, so Cameron explained a lot about what was going on to us. We didn't know if we would make it past the first period because of the boys, but they were troopers and we stayed the whole game!! Caleb got pretty tired by the end, but Samuel enjoyed the whole thing, and now wants to be a hockey player!! My dad suggested we check with his other grandpa (the dentist) before we enroll him in hockey lessons... ;0)

Since we were right next to the rink, every time the players would smash up against the side of the rink the boys would jump a mile high! It was pretty funny. I didn't realize that hockey players actually do fight so much, it was pretty funny. They didn't look nearly as wussy as baseball players fighting... ;0) The sad thing is that we had a couple of really awful referees, and the Bears ended up losing to the Monsters 5-4. The final goal happened with less than 2 minutes left of the game, and it was a very questionable goal. But it was still a ton of fun, we had a great time. I think a few new hockey fans were born!! :0)

Christmas Candylane

2011-11-28T08:52:00.004-05:00

After taking it easy Friday morning and letting Caleb nap (he woke up at 4:40...), we went to Hershey Park and enjoyed all the Christmas lights they put up for Christmas Candylane. We had a great time on some rides, but also got to see the Christmas singing and dance show they put on in the theater. Both of the boys enjoyed it a lot, we had a great time.

We even got to have a surprise visit to see Santa Claus! Samuel was very excited, but Caleb wasn't so sure... We might have to see Santa a few times this year so that Caleb will warm up to him a bit. ;0)

Thanksgiving!!

2011-11-28T08:39:00.004-05:00

We had a really great Thanksgiving. Cameron was given an extra surprise and got put on call Tuesday, and then got the rest of the week off!!!! The last three weeks he has been working on the OB floor in Allentown, which means he's only been home on the weekends. It was pretty tough having him gone so much, so it was really wonderful to get to have him around for so many days.Since we didn't know for so long when he was going to get home, we didn't make any plans until Wednesday night. We decided to spend the day in Lancaster, and it was a blast. We walked around a bunch of Amish shops and looked at their fun Christmas decorations, as well as a little farm we found. Then we went to an all you can eat buffet at the Fireside Tavern, and ate a TON!!! Caleb ate more than any of us (at least pound for pound), but we all enjoyed a huge dinner.

It was a great day, and we ate such a big late lunch that none of us were hungry until the next morning. :0) Thanksgiving also was Caleb's 17 month-iversary, so here he is with Penguin that morning, and also Caleb and Samuel enjoying playing with Thomas.Speaking of trains, just south of Lancaster is Strasburg, where they have a huge train museum! The museum was closed for the day, but we drove around and saw tons of trains, including the craziest motel where every room is actually a caboose!!! Samuel was in heaven, and just loved running around and seeing so many cabooses. So all in all, it was a very perfect Thanksgiving.

Decorating a Bit Early

2011-11-22T19:58:00.003-05:00

When Cameron came home from Allentown last Friday night, Samuel and I had a surprise for him - we had put together our Christmas tree!!! He was happy but wondered if it wasn't a little early to have put it up. I'm usually pretty staunch about waiting until after Thanksgiving (or even until December 1st) to decorate for Christmas, but there was something different this year - WE HAVE A CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!!!! I love love love Christmas trees, it's my favorite secular part of the whole Christmas season, and Cameron and I as a couple have never had one before. When my friend Katie (the one in VA) left Hershey, she gave us some things that they didn't need anymore, and one of them was a fake Christmas tree. That was back in June, and I've been dying to get to put it together ever since.Samuel helped give me the branches so I could put them all together, and when Caleb woke up from his nap he was very excited. We've been having so much fun with it! I bought lights, and we put up the few ornaments we have. I need to go out and get some tinsel and a star so we can finish it up. It might look a bit bare to others, but to me it's the most beautiful tree I've seen in a long time because it's in my apartment. :0) Thank you Katie for my own little Christmas miracle!So I know it's two days before Thanksgiving but... MERRY CHRISTMAS!! ;0)

More from Virginia

2011-11-19T16:43:00.007-05:00

My sister Leah had a conference for a couple of days during her stay in VA, so while she and her family were gone, the boys and I did a whirlwind tour of southern Virginia. We got to see our friends Katie and family in Lynchburg on Tuesday (they moved from Hershey several months ago), and on Wednesday we got to see my friend Kathryn on Wednesday (we've been friends ever since our freshman year at BYU) in Lexington. We got to see some incredibly beautiful scenery, and Kathryn took us around Washington and Lee University where her husband is now working. We had a great trip, and we loved getting to catch up with good friends!!

Keersty and Caleb

Jaydon and Samuel

Washington and Lee University was founded around the time of the American Revolution, and it is where Robert E. Lee working when he died in 1870. It's also next to Virginia Military Academy where Stonewall Jackson worked before the war, and Lexington is where both Jackson and Lee are buried. Kathryn took me on a tour of the little city, and I got to see Jackson's grave, and also the chapel that Lee had built and where he and his family are now buried. They even had a little museum and you could walk into Lee's study, which is still set up as it was when he passed away. It was a really neat experience; it's a place I've been wanting to see for a very long time, so it was pretty awesome to get to go.

Me in front of Lee's chapel (they didn't
want pictures taken inside)

Not long after Lee's death, Traveller, Lee's favorite horse, died as well, and his remains were kept at Washington and Lee University on display for quite sometime. Eventually (about 40 years ago), they decided to bury the horse's remains just outside the door of the crypt where Lee and his family are resting, so that Traveller could be next to Lee. The tradition is to put pennies or an apple on top of the grave.
It was a really awesome trip, I'm so glad we had a chance to go down south and see friends and some great historical sites. Wednesday evening we headed back up north so we could see Brian and Eliot for a couple more days before heading home. The cousins all had so much fun together, we just had a fantastic trip! By the time we got home Friday night, the boys and I were all completely exhausted, but it was awfully good to come home and get to see Cameron again (he made it home about 15 minutes before us). Here are some of my pictures from our stay in Manassas:

A Week in Virginia - Meeting Eliot!

2011-11-17T05:58:00.005-05:00

Last week, my sister Leah, her husband Brian, and their son Eliot were visiting the east coast from California!!! Cameron had to spend the whole week away, so the boys and I decided to make a week-long Virginia trip. It was a lot of fun! We had a great time getting to see Leah, Brian and Eliot - we hadn't seen Leah or Brian for almost two years, and it the first time for us meeting Eliot and for them meeting Caleb! It was very special because Caleb and Eliot are only a month and two days apart; it's very fun having cousins so close together!! :0) They, along with Ryder who's only four months younger than Eliot, got along so well and had a lot of fun sharing toys together. We realized that we actually had all of my parents grandchildren together, so we tried to get some group shots, which turned out pretty funny. I have some of my own that I'll try to get on the computer later, but for now I'm going to steal pictures from Alanna's blog, which I think she actually got from Brian's camera. Brian, who's a professional photographer, got some really amazing pictures - thanks for sharing them, Brian! :0)

Poor Eliot was adjusting to a three hour time change

I love Bentley's face - "It's just one of those days..."
We had a bit more success with Leah and me in the picture
Aren't they a good looking group of cousins?!
I love this picture! Trying to get downstairs together
The older cousins dressing up
Eliot looking super sweet
Ryder with a huge smile
Ryder and Sockless Cal (instead of Shoeless Joe)
Not sure what Samuel's doing, but it's a great picture!
Have you ever seen a happier Buzz?
I think this is the most perfect picture I've ever seen of Caleb

We also headed down to Southern Virginia for a couple of days, which I'll hopefully blog about later today. But we got to spend three days with family, and it was sure great to get to catch up with the California branch of the family!!! Thanks Leah and Brian for such a wonderful visit!!! :0)

Trick or Treat!

2011-11-02T07:25:00.004-04:00

For some reason, Hershey broke with tradition and instead of trick or treating last Thursday, we got to go on Halloween this year!! It was a ton of fun, and Cameron even made it home just in time to get to go with us! The boys had a ton of fun, dressed up (in muggle clothes) as Harry and Ron. There wasn't much we could do for Ron, but he had his "rat" and a blue car, and of course a magic wand. I also put some "dirt" on his nose to make him a little more authentic. ;0) The boys made a killing in candy even though we weren't able to stay out too late (it was pretty cold and the boys were both very tired), but we had a very fun night!! :0) Here are pictures of the boys dressed up beforehand, and then of them in action:

Happy Halloween!!!

2011-10-31T15:52:00.007-04:00

We have been having so much Halloween fun the last week or two! This should probably be three separate posts, but since I'm behind, here we go:

Samuel got a coon skin hat from Grandpa Mark and Grandma Donna which he and Caleb have been having lots of fun with!We also got to go to the zoo at night and see lots of fun animals, and even got to touch a few! It was fun to see the "creatures of the night," and see all of the extra set ups. The only sad thing was that our batteries died almost as soon as we got there - next year I'll remember to bring back ups! ;0)Samuel and Caleb have been playing tons together. Their favorite games are being Linus with their blankies, and hiding behind the chair in their room.We've also gone to Hershey Park with some friends (poor Cameron didn't get to go at all this month - we are VERY grateful that today is his last day in the SICU!!!!!).And we even got to be in the Hershey Halloween Parade with some friends last Tuesday! It was a lot of fun, although we ran out of candy almost right away - we had no idea the Hershey Parade would have so many people watching!!! But it was a fun night, Samuel was Harry Potter and Caleb was Ronald Weasley. I didn't get a picture of us, but Cameron and I were Mariners. My friend Christine was Rosie the Riveter and her son was Anakin Skywalker (I didn't get pictures of her daughters who are older than Samuel). Sarah was Robin Hood and her son Porter was Fireman Sam! And a special thanks to Sarah for getting our little group organized! :0)And of course, what's October without a huge snow two days before Halloween?? Here's Samuel trying to catch snowflakes and then with our snowman.We can't wait to go Trick or Treating - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! :-D

Old Cell Phone Pictures

2011-10-23T18:50:00.007-04:00

Here are a bunch of pictures from my cell phone. The oldest ones are from two or so years ago, but they get more recent with each picture:

Trying on a baseball helmet at Walmart

Samuel being Samuel :0)

Enjoying the fall leaves in Hershey in '09

Samuel's first time ice skating!!

Caleb the day he was born

Just a few months oldSamuel looking cute asleepCaleb's first time in a swingCaleb wearing his friend Jaydon's cowboy hatMe with "Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain"

Newest Stats

2011-10-23T18:38:00.003-04:00

I'm afraid this is already a few months old, but here are Samuel's stats from his 4 year old appointment back in early August. I meant to put them on the blog back then, but then I couldn't find the paper where they were written, and now I finally found them again. So here they are:

Height - 49 3/4 inches (59%)
Weight - 37 lbs 11 oz (65%)

So he's doing pretty well and is looking good! The cutest thing was that they even gave him a little gown to wear, so I got a picture of it with my camera:And while I'm sharing pictures from my phone, here are a few more. First is Samuel being silly at church back in March or so (?) and sitting in Caleb's car seat and then the picture I took of Samuel the very first time he ever climbed anything. It was back in October a year ago. He had sometimes tried to climb something by a step or two, and then would get scared and would stop. This time I don't know what was different, but all of a sudden he climbed all the way up!!! Pretty crazy, right?! It was a very exciting moment, so it's about time I show it off! :0)There are a few more fun pictures I got on my phone that I just managed to get on my computer a month ago, so hopefully those will be coming soon. :0)

Ward Temple Day

2011-10-21T18:39:00.005-04:00

October is our Stake Temple Month, and as much of our ward as possible headed down on the 8th to spend time on the temple grounds. The first miracle was that Cameron got the day off (he's on in the SICU and has been super busy this month!), so that was amazing! We headed down with our friend Emily and her kids which was very fun. The next miracle was that we didn't get lost on the way there or on the way back!!! That's a first for us going to the D.C. temple, so that was a huge miracle. :0) The next miracle was that it was an amazingly beautiful day; since we've been getting more rain the last few months than people believe Seattle gets, that definitely was a miracle! So it was a beautiful day, and we had a "tour" around the grounds by a few of the members of the ward and then just had time to show the temple to the kids. There were a couple of friends there who were taking professional family pictures, and it just a perfect morning. It was really neat to be there with so many friends, and the ward even provided pizza which was very tasty (luckily I had brought a sandwich for Samuel since I didn't know what lunch they would be providing). So all in all, it was a truly wonderful day. What better place is there for a family outing than the temple?? :0)

The Pumpkin Patch!

2011-10-20T13:56:00.004-04:00

Every year, we go with PIM (Partners in Medicine) to the Risser Marvel Farm in Annville for a hay ride and to pick out a pumpkin! We had a great time as always, it's our favorite playgroup outing the whole year! Samuel and Caleb both got to pick out a pumpkin this year, and they had a great time. We even went through the corn maze and then they got to play in a "sand" box with dried corn instead of sand! It was a very fun outing, with lots of pictures to show just how fun it was!

Samuel and Carter in the wagon

Me with Caleb on the wagon

Pumpkins!!

Samuel chose right away

Caleb chose, and then chose a few more times... :0)Standing with his pumpkin while we listened to Farmer Greg Samuel loved listening to Farmer Greg, and was
busting up the whole time. I"m not sure why he
was laughing so much, but it was making everyone laughWe had a fantastic time, I just love FALL!!!!! :-D

Caleb Phrases

2011-10-18T07:30:00.003-04:00

I totally forgot to tell about Caleb's 15 month appointment a few weeks ago! As of 9/27, he was measuring at 24 lbs 4 oz (45%), 32 inches tall (78%) and 48.5 cm (84%). So what this all means is that he's finally growing into his head!!! No wonder he finally started walking, his body finally got big enough to really hold his head up! ;0) He has a phew new phrases, too:

Aaa-whoo!!! This is my personal favorite, and he loves it when you repeat it back to him.
Bweeah bweeah bweeah is the one he repeats the most often.
He doesn't do his dadadada as often as before, but he still does when he's super happy.

It's pretty fun watching him grow up and starting to learn new sounds. He sounds like he says "arbre" (tree) sometimes, so I think he's close to his first word. :0) He and Samuel have a lot of fun together, too, and Caleb is already learning to tackle and tickle his older brother and have some fun with him.

Samuel Phrases

2011-10-16T06:54:00.005-04:00

A couple of Samuel quotes along with pictures from my cell phone from spring 2009:
"On fait des nez bisous." ("We're giving nose kisses" - we made up a "nez-à-nez/nose to nose, so Samuel decided to make up his own name for it.)"When your nose is filled with love, others will love noses!" (It's supposed to be "When your heart is filled with love, others will love you.")

End of Summer Pictures

2011-10-13T05:50:00.004-04:00

Here's a picture dump from the last few weeks! I've been super busy getting applications ready for Cameron, so I'm way behind on posts. In an effort to start catching up, I'm just going to put up a ton of pictures of fun stuff we've been up to lately. Most of them are Hershey Park, but they're not in any order, just by how they got uploaded:

Going "WOOOO!" in the roller coaster car

Cameron and Caleb on the train

Samuel and me on the train

On the Convoy

Erik and Samuel on the helicopters. If they
look little, I took this with my cell phone
LAST summer and finally uploaded it

Cameron with his boys on the Convoy

Happy Caleb

What's more fun than making a couch tent with Papa??

Samuel wearing my dad's old sailor suit (and saluting)

On the Red Baron (Samuel will only sit in a green airplane)

Grandpa Mark's October Visit

2011-10-05T14:39:00.004-04:00

We had a very fun visit from Grandpa Mark last week! We had a lot of fun together, even though the weather didn't cooperate very much. But Samuel got some new shoes and a new suit, and he even got to go see The Lion King in 3-D (his first ever 3-D movie)!! But especially the boys just loved getting to rough house in our apartment with Grandpa, and getting to play with him outside during a couple of breaks in the rain.

We were very lucky, though, and it didn't rain on Saturday morning, so we got to go to Hershey Park with Grandpa!! Poor Cameron had to work, but the rest of us had a really fantastic day. Samuel showed off by going on the Super Dooper Looper, and he even convinced Grandpa to go on the Comet with him! Here are a few pictures from our very fun morning:

I was pretty proud that I timed this one just right

Before bouncing

After bouncing (Mark is more daring
than me, I won't go on this ride)

My timing on this one wasn't quite as good,
but you can just barely see Mark and
Samuel in the upper left corner

And this picture is actually from last April when
he came for a visit. I finally got this from my phone
onto the computer.

We always love it when Grandpa comes to visit! Anytime grandparents want to come, just say the word and we'll be very excited to see you!!! :0)

Thanks for the very special week, Mark!

Who Am I?

2011-09-15T13:41:00.004-04:00

The last week or so, I have been questioning who I really am and if I truly know myself. From whence comes this deep introspection? Well, for the second time this summer, I have gone through a "sorting ceremony," and both times I was placed in Slytherin. The scariest part about all of this is that I actually find it rather exciting. So I am now forced to wonder: Who am I?!?

The first sorting was just a fun get together with a few friends where we were doing some Harry Potter trivia, had some Harry Potter treats, and we took a sorting quiz. So while that was pretty interesting, I didn't take the sorting too seriously (it was just some random quiz found online, so it couldn't be too serious, right?).But the second time was a quiz that was created by JK Rowling herself, so it must have some validity to it! And this leads us to my new obsession: POTTERMORE!!!! This is seriously the coolest website that has ever, ever been created. One of my friends managed to get me an early entry, so she and I have been comparing notes, and we are both totally obsessed with it. Registration opens soon, and if you are a Potter fan, than you don't want to miss out on this. And once you join, we can even be pottermore friends, as long as you're willing to befriend a Slytherin...One thing I will say for myself, however, is that when I asked Samuel what house he would prefer, he chose Gryffindor, so at least I'm teaching my son to be good, right! ;0)(I got the Slytherin image from Entertainment Earth; click on the image to see its original page.)

A Summer Full of Hershey Park

2011-09-15T13:24:00.005-04:00

We have had a very fun summer here in Hershey, though I have become quite spoiled. I have always loved going to Disneyland for one day, and running around the park making sure I do every single ride I possibly can in the hours between 8 am and 1 am when the park is open. But now I live a few minutes away from a theme park, and I can come and go whenever I want with my kids and spend as long or as short a time as I want. And honestly, I think we went to Hershey Park about two or three times a week since May. I'm afraid that whenever I make it back to Disneyland, it's going to be very weird only having one day there! Anyways, here are some pictures from our summer at Hershey Park, along with a couple of random fun ones:

Samuel showing off that he's a Reese's

Since two Saturdays ago it was too wet to go to
HP, Samuel and Cameron went outside and played
in a rain storm (this storm was one of the precursors to The Storm)

Caleb pretending to be on a roller coaster

Samuel's favorite thing, of course, has been the sea lion/cowboy show, and I finally managed to get a few pictures of it a couple of weeks ago.

Samuel's favorite part: "Boss, the wagon spit on me!"
The cowboys are Gummy, Sticky and Tacky

Darlene Dynamite (Bonnie) and Chef Lagoosea (Makia*)
The cowboys pretending to be sea lionsSamuel being a cowboy (with Caleb's hat)

________________
*Just a side note, Samuel's favorite sea lion is Diego, but he wasn't doing the show the time I remembered my camera. We have a couple of pictures of Diego that Samuel drew hanging up on our fridge. :0)

More Flood Pictures

2011-09-09T18:02:00.008-04:00

After Caleb's nap, we went to a couple of the flood sites and got some pictures. First of all, here are a few pictures from the outside of Hershey Park. First of all, the sea lion show a week agowhich now looks like this (courtesy of Hershey Park's Facebook page):Here's the recently created river under the Cometand where they were making a new roller coaster Then we went to Hershey Park Drive. The whole thing was under water two days ago, but most of the water has gone back to the river now. That will put into perspective that while this is still frightening, it was a whole lot worse less than 48 hours ago... We have a ton of friends who live a little ways down this former street. I'm honestly not sure how they're getting to Hershey anymore, this whole thing is just mind-boggling. It's worth clicking on the pictures to make them bigger.Notice where the road signs are over that guys left shoulder
Way out in the distance, you can sort of see a 45 mph sign just clearing the water
There were a couple of cops there making sure no one did anything too dumb...

Can you tell that the water is over half way up the trees??And just a few seconds of video, just so you can get a feel for the water moving over the barrier of the former road. I didn't bring our camcorder, so I'm sorry it's not the best quality.

Just remember, the river has gone down considerably in the last two days!!! We saw a lot more crazy things, but these are the best pictures I got. After we left this site, my camera wouldn't turn on anymore. But this gives you an idea of what's been going on around here.

Floods

2011-09-09T13:37:00.005-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been totally insane! An earthquake, a hurricane (though we didn't get much of it, honestly), and now a huge flood!!!! Hershey has been under a crazy amount of water the last few days. Today we actually ventured out a bit, and most of the roads are pretty dry now, but there are still some that are completely underwater, and others that have been completely destroyed by having been under so much. It's really crazy, I've never experienced anything like this before. But we're lucky and are fine. We have a 6x1.5 inch water mark on our ceiling, but it's mostly dry now so I think we're okay. Phew!

Perhaps the craziest pictures for me are the ones of Hershey Park. It's just insane to think that the boys and I were there on Monday, and by Wednesday night this is what it looked like. Here is Samuel's sea lion show amphitheater. We actually went to see the very last cowboy show on Monday night. It was already pouring rain then, but we sat through it and got soaked and loved it. I never dreamed this would happen to it in a couple of days! And now I'm wishing we had bought fries and a hot dog before this stand went under.

Here are a bunch of pictures of what's been going on. None of the pictures are mine, they've just ones that I've found online from news sources:

The main road near the hospital, about five minutes from our house

The Pizza Hut a few minutes away from us

Flooding of the Swatara "Creek"

A lot of my friends on Facebook have some amazing photos, but I haven't really gone out much to take any. It's been pretty intense, I sure appreciate all of the policemen and firemen who have been working so hard trying to keep people safe and get things cleaned up!!

Care to donate?

2011-09-05T14:38:00.005-04:00

One of my sister Alanna's best friends, Carla, is one of the coolest people I know. Unfortunately, Carla is currently struggling through a really aggressive cancer right now. The doctors first discovered cancer about a year ago when she was pregnant with her second child. They were able to remove the cancer, and the baby was born healthy, but shortly after the birth, the doctors discovered that the cancer had come back and had already spread to several places in her body. One of the masses was so large, that the only doctor they could find who would treat it is in Florida. So she just recently headed from California to Florida to go through a very rough chemo. Even though the doctor gave her the biggest discount he could, it still is costing $40,000, and because they went out of state, their insurance is not covering it. Meanwhile, her husband just graduated from law school, and they're trying to take care of their two kids.

Since I couldn't be at Alanna's wedding, Carla
replaced me as a bride's maid with my other sisters

I usually never ask for any type of donations on my blog (at least not serious ones) because I know most of you who read it are in tight financial situations, just like my family. But if you have a few dollars that you could give to Carla, this is a great cause. She is such an amazing person, and she has overcome a lot already, but still has a ways to go. You can read more about her recent struggles with cancer on her blog, and if you have anything that you could donate, I know she would greatly appreciate it.

These Feet Were Made for Walking

2011-09-03T13:44:00.002-04:00

Caleb is now 14 months old (and has been for over a week now). He still prefers crawling as his mode of transportation, but he is starting to walk up a storm! A couple of weeks ago at the park, he was cruising all over the playground only holding onto one hand! And a few days ago, he suddenly put his feet under himself and stood up, and then took a few steps!! This morning he was doing laps between me and Cameron, it was so cute! And a couple of nights ago, he walked from Samuel's bed into the bathroom all by himself!!! He still walks like a cute little zombie (with his arms outstretched ahead of him, so cute!), but he's really doing a fantastic job and even making corners all by himself. Very exciting!!The cutest thing is that he is always sticking his tongue out. Whenever he's concentrating or trying to go fast, he has his tongue hanging way out! It kind of reminds me of a little puppy dog when he's crawling, but it's very cute, too. He is a very têtue (stubborn/hard headed) little guy, too - if he wants something, he is going to do whatever he can to get it. I've been having to put him in his crib when I'm getting his lunch ready, because he wants his sandwich right then and there. We're working on patience...
When we leave Hershey Park, we take a pretty windy and hilly road which Cameron dubbed "the last roller coaster." So whenever we're on it, Samuel puts his hands up in the air and says, "WOO!!!" just like when on a roller coaster. Just in the last week or so, Caleb has started doing it, too, and he doesn't the funniest little "aah" sound with it. I need to get a picture of them doing it together, it's so funny! Caleb has really been imitating Samuel a lot this week, which makes me glad that his big brother is such a good boy!! :0)

Mamma Mia!!

2011-08-31T14:31:00.003-04:00

Last year I went to Seattle for my sister's wedding. While I was at my parents' house, I noticed that my mom had two copies of Mamma Mia, and since no one needs two copies, I asked if I could have one. I've been thoroughly enjoying it for over a year now, so you can imagine my shock when talking to Rachael a couple of weeks ago, and she mentioned she couldn't find her copy of Mamma Mia. It occurred to me right away that it was probably sitting happily on my shelf at home...Me: "So Rachael, how long has it been missing?"
Rachael: "I don't know, for a long time."
Me: "Before your wedding?"
Rachael: "Yeah, I definitely haven't had it since then. Why?"
Me: "Um, is there any chance you left it at Mom and Dad's?"
Rachael: "Yeah, I thought maybe that's where it was."
Me: (Inside) Curses!

So I fessed up and told her I would get it back to her as soon as I had a chance to watch my favorite songs one last time. It was a very sad moment.

But this story has a happy ending! I got a call from Rachael last week, who had described to my mom the mix up. And my mom, feeling bad that she gave me my sister's movie, decided that she would buy Rachael a new copy so I could keep the old one!! So that was pretty awesome, and now I'm off to watch some of my favorite songs!!! Thanks Mom!! :-D

Sisters!

2011-08-27T20:16:00.005-04:00

Last weekend, Tracy, Rachael and Ian all left NYC to visit Alanna and her family. I wasn't sure if we would be able to make it because it was supposed to be a bad week for Cameron, and we were all pretty exhausted. Miraculously, Cameron's week ended up being fairly light, so we decided to surprise the New Yorkers (it seemed unfair to surprise the hosts), and we showed up in Manassas on Saturday morning! We pulled up and Cameron stuck his head out the window asking Tracy and Ian, "I think we made a wrong turn. Any idea how to get to Hershey Park from here??" They were very surprised, it was pretty funny. :0)

Ryder

Ian and Rachael

Cousins in their swimsuits

Cameron with the cousins

Kendra in Samuel's clothes because after
swimming, I forgot to get clothes for her
before putting Caleb down for a nap in her room!

Rachael putting the older kids to bed

We had a fantastic time with our family. We went swimming, played outside, rode bikes, ate at Cafe Rio, and then some of us got to go see the Glee Concert in 3-D at the movie theater!! Yup, it was a blast. :0) The next day we all went to church, hung out a bit, and then it was time for us to head home. We kept putting it off, waiting for the storm to hit, and finally decided we'd better just got. And, of course, as soon as we left the porch, the storm hit and it POURED on us!!!! It was pretty funny, really, and it didn't last long so driving was totally fine.

After church we took a lot of pictures:

Alanna and CraigTracy with Ryder (and his cute suspenders!)All the cousinsRachael and IanAnd sleepy Samuel

We had a great time, it's always so good to see family. Thanks for hosting, Alanna et al, and thank for letting us join in on the fun!!! :0)

Sooper Dooper Looper!

2011-08-23T19:33:00.003-04:00

Just for fun, I put Samuel against the Hershey Park Height thingy, and he was SO CLOSE to being a Reese's, that we decided to see if we could get him on a real ride. Cameron got home from work super early today (I love good surprises!), so we headed out and put him and Samuel on the Sooper Dooper Looper!! Admittedly, I was pretty nervous and was praying that Samuel wouldn't be too scared, but he took on that loop with a huge smile, and was laughing as he got off the ride! He loved it so much, that I went on it with him, too. Wahoo! I'm really glad that Samuel loves roller coasters, it makes Hershey Park that much more fun!!! :-D His favorite part is the tunnel and the really fast part after that. We were going to try a couple of wooden roller coasters, but the lines were too long and Caleb was getting hungry, so we'll save that for next time. :0)

"I feel the earth move under my feet..."

2011-08-23T14:34:00.002-04:00

So my sons just experienced their first earthquake. Samuel was quietly playing in his room and Caleb was supposed to be sleeping in his pack'n'play in my room. I was sitting on the couch getting ready to eat my lunch, when it hit. Luckily it really wasn't a big deal, but I ran in and grabbed my boys just in case it got worse and we needed to stand somewhere safe. I usually make Samuel stay in his bed and read books during his rest time, but this time I let him have his marble game, with a warning not to be too loud with it. So the poor kid, when I opened his door to get him he said something about it not being his fault. I wish I remembered his exact wording, but it was something like, "I was just laying in my bed, I didn't do anything." I assured him I knew he was being a very good boy, and within a minute it was clear that everything was fine. So it wasn't actually that big of a deal or even scary, but I did think I had gone crazy - everyone knows you don't get earthquakes in Pennsylvania, right?? I was relieved when my father-in-law called to see if we had felt the quake so I knew I hadn't made it up. :0)

Hogle Zoo

2011-08-19T14:16:00.003-04:00

Our last big adventure in Utah was going to the Hogle Zoo. We got to see pretty much everything, it was a very fun and full day! It's a really great sized zoo - not so big that it's overwhelming, but lots of really great animals. They're doing a special "Zoo-rassic Park" exhibit, too, so they have robotic dinosaurs all over the zoo! It's pretty awesome, and I had fun telling Samuel about all the dinosaurs. They even had a mama and baby dilophosaurus that would spit at you! Very cool. The first dinosaur we ran into was a styracosaurus, and it was pretty funny because it wasn't moving or anything, but all of a sudden it made a big growling noise and moved - poor Samuel wasn't expecting it and jumped pretty high! He liked it, though, so it was pretty funny. The other funny thing is that, going through my pictures, I just realized that I didn't take any pictures of animals that were actually alive, only of dinosaurs and a rhino statue! I guess they were more cooperative... But we had a great time and saw lots of cool animals.

Caleb touching the rhino's head

Learning how to work a bulldozer

How big are you compared to a gorilla?

The Mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex

Actually, the best thing was the bird show. If you ever go to the Hogle Zoo, you should definitely see that! The birds would come swooping down inches from your head, it was pretty spectacular! And they had some really impressive birds, too, so I would definitely recommend seeing that. :0)

Parasaurolophus

Another T-Rex; this one took us for a ride!

Poor Cameron had to get several stitches to fix up his leg...

...but even worse was what happened since
he couldn't run very fast anymore!!! ;0)
And here's Caleb in his super cute zoo onesie!!

So as you can tell, we had a phenomenal time while we were in Utah! We got to do and see so many things, it was really fantastic. Thanks to Mark and Donna for letting us come and see you and for spoiling us with so many awesome things - I can't believe how much we managed to fit into just one week!!! :0)

The Heber Creeper

2011-08-18T19:42:00.005-04:00

Samuel is a big fan of trains, so he was very excited when he got to go on a special trip on the Heber Creeper alone with Grandma Donna and Grandpa Mark! I hear tell that he was very excited, and enjoyed being in the train and looking out the windows. Here are a few pictures from their trip:

They almost got robbed by some cowboys!!

I love this picture:

Since we didn't think Caleb would enjoy sitting on a train for three hours, Cameron and I went up and saw where the Winter 2002 Olympics took place, which was pretty awesome. We even got to see some ski jumpers practicing (they would jump into a swimming pool!), which was very interesting. Caleb was pretty exhausted, so we didn't stay for long, but all three of us went home and got a nap! :0)

Thanksgiving Point

2011-08-16T12:45:00.004-04:00

Ever since I first saw the big building with a T-Rex on it at Thanksgiving Point, I've always wanted to go there. But since I never had a car of my own while I was at BYU, and was therefore at the mercy of others, I never got to go. (I know, life is hard, right? It was also because I just didn't have much time between classes and homework, but not having a car made it harder.) But I mentioned to Mark that Samuel might really enjoy seeing the dinosaurs there (oh, and I might, too!), and he and Donna thought it sounded like fun, too, so we all got to go! It was a blast. We started out at the petting zoo, which was a great idea because as the day progressed, that part of TP got really crowded. Samuel got to go on his first ever pony ride, and we got to go on a wagon ride. We even had a miracle while we were there! We got off the wagon, and as I'm putting Caleb in his stroller, someone called my name. I turned around, and there was my good friend and mission trainer, Carrie!!! It was really a miracle, and it was so awesome to get to catch up! :0)

Then we headed over to see the dinosaurs, and they didn't disappoint! I've mentioned before that I have always loved dinosaurs (my dream was always to be a paleontologist), so this was a very exciting trip for me. I loved walking around and seeing all of the dinosaur bones, and I was really impressed with the set ups they have for them. The dinosaurs were really well displayed and were in really awesome positions, so that was super cool. And everybody else seemed to enjoy it all a lot, too. It was a day very well spent!

With a Seismosaurus

With the Triceratops
Not the best family photo, but the only one of all four of us we got...
In front of the T-Rex's getting ready for a fight!

One of my favorite dinosaurs - Pachyephalosaurs.
They had incredibly thick skulls and would fight
with each other by butting heads. Cool, right?

Aren't you glad these sharks aren't in the oceans any more???

Like I said, they had awesome set ups! These two T-Rex's
looked like they were about to duke it out, it was very impressive!

If you haven't gone to Thanksgiving Point yet to see the dinosaurs, you should definitely go! It was a really fun day, and they have a lot of cool things for toddlers/small kids to do. We were limited with time because of Caleb, but Samuel could've gone digging and excavating, and there was even a real paleontologist that you could watch while he was working with fossils! It was a very full and fun day. :0)

Fun in the Sun

2011-08-13T10:05:00.002-04:00

We got to have some truly gorgeous days while we were in Salt Lake, and it was nice to be out of the insane humidity (although it was surprisingly humid for Utah, but nothing like back East) so we spent a lot of time playing outside. Grandpa Mark was helping Samuel learn to catch a ball, and Samuel was actually doing pretty well at it until he decided it was more fun to let the ball hit him and then fall down (crazy kid)! ;0)The boys also helped Grandma Donna with her garden, and even picked the green beans!
And here's Samuel exhausted and thirsty after running around playing tag with his Maman and Papa.
It was fun having a back yard for a week! I honestly haven't missed not having a back yard, but now that Samuel is getting bigger and wanting to really run around more, it was awfully nice having a safe place for him to go. The Richards also had a blow-up whale pool, and Samuel loved that! He would stand inside the pool with the hose and spray Grandpa and Papa, or he would blow bubbles with his little bubble maker, or just sit and enjoy the cool water. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that, but it was a lot of fun!

Samuel's Fourth Birthday!

2011-08-13T09:47:00.005-04:00

I can't believe it's already been four years since Samuel was born, time is flying by! We got to spend his birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Richards in Salt Lake this year, and he was a very lucky boy! After church (his birthday was on a Sunday this year), Cameron's Aunt Judy, Uncle John and cousin John Kelly all came over for a huge Sunday lunch. Poor Caleb was exhausted and slept through almost the entire thing, but the rest of us all had a great time.After we were all stuffed and had had lots of fun conversation, it was time for the thing Samuel had been waiting for - cake!! He even managed to blow the candles out this year (though admittedly it took him a couple of tries), and he loved his pumpkin cake!
Then he got to open up his presents, and he got some very good ones. You'll remember he already got this one from his Grandma and Grandpa Bentleyand now he got some more presents from Grandma and Grandpa Richards and from Judy et al to add to the collection. There was a definite (and fitting) Toy Story theme, but he also got some moon dough, a Transformer, a cool truck and crane, a pop-up pirate, and lots of other fun things.
It was a very fun and special day, and by the end of it Samuel pretty tuckered out! :0) Happy Birthday, Samuel!!!!

Salt Lake City!

2011-08-11T18:30:00.005-04:00

We were lucky enough to have a chance to visit Cameron's parents in Salt Lake City last week! We left late Friday night, and got to their house about 3:00 am our time - WAY past all of our bed times! It was a bit of an exhausting beginning, but it was good because it got the boys on SLC time right away, and that was very helpful for the rest of the week. The boys were pretty good on the flight, although it did take Caleb a bit of crying before he was finally able to sleep well on the plane. But boy were he and his brother excited to see Grandpa Mark and Grandma Donna, and we did a TON while we were there!

I can't have a post about a trip to Utah without mentioning how spoiled we were. We got delicious breakfasts of French toast and bacon and eggs, and Donna's dinners are second to none (sorry Cameron, I don't think I'll ever be as good a cook as your mom!). Donna and Mark also changed tons of diapers and gave lots of baths, so Cameron and I got to rest a lot. It's been a bit of a rough back to reality the last few days... ;0)

Donna and Samuel heading to the "Amazon"
while at the aquarium in Sandy

After getting a few hours of sleep Saturday morning, we went to an aquarium! We saw all kinds of exciting things, like

jelly fish an octopus, a crocodile

and a ton of other awesome sea creatures. The best were the penguins, they were so cute! One especially was swimming all over the place and then leaping out of the water onto land. It was hilarious. Samuel was very excited about all the fish, especially when we found "Nemo." And Caleb seemed to enjoy it all a lot, too, which was nice.

There's a lot to talk about, but I'll stop there for now. Hopefully I'll get more posts up very soon with lots more pictures. :0) Oh, and since we went to the aquarium the day before Samuel's 4th birthday but we couldn't fit his penguin on the plane, here he is with this one instead:

Spells

2011-08-11T14:22:00.002-04:00

Samuel and I have been having fun casting "spells" at one another, and his favorite happens to be Harry's favorite, too! Uncle Ian got it on video when he was here a couple of weeks ago, so here you go:
We spent an excellent week in Salt Lake City with Cameron's parents last week, so hopefully lots of fun stories and pictures will be up soon! :0)

Visitors and Visiting

2011-07-25T13:23:00.006-04:00

This weekend was a very fun and busy one. First we had visitors - Rachael and Ian came into town and stayed with us for a couple of nights during their move out east (they're moving from Utah to NYC so Ian can start podiatry school!). We hadn't seen them since their wedding day a year ago (happy anniversary yesterday!!!), so it was really awesome to have a day to catch up with them and get to know Ian better. We cruised around Hershey some, saw Chocolate World, and even got some Ugly Cookies, so it was a very fun day. Samuel had a blast crashing cars with Uncle Ian, and Ian even came up with a new nickname for Samuel. Since they were here during the end of the Tour de France, and Samuel was wearing a yellow shirt, he is now Maillot Jaune, and Ian is Maillot Vert (because he was wearing a green shirt).

Racing/crashing cars with protective eye gear on

After a very fun visit, Rachael and Ian left early Saturday morning for the city, and we left on their heels for Pittsburgh! Cameron lived there for a while when he was in high school, so he was excited to see it again, and it was my first visit! We got to stay with our good friends Luke and Kat, who we also hadn't seen since Rachael and Ian's wedding. It was a great weekend to catch up! :0) We hung out at their place for a while, and after Caleb's nap we went out to see the city. We were trying to find a particular view point where you can really see the city, but between construction, closed roads, closed bridges and a car race, we ended up driving all over the city. I'm afraid it may have been a bit stressful for Cameron and Luke who were driving and navigating, but I enjoyed an up-close view of the city and getting to chat with Kat.

We thought it would be fun to see where Luke spends most of his time, so we parked and walked around Carnegie Mellon for a while (Luke is getting his Masters in computer securities). There was a park for Samuel, and a nice air conditioned building for us to cool off in, too. Then we walked over to The 'O' where we had some very tasty hot dogs, and the biggest pile of fries I've ever seen! Then it was time for the main event - we all got to go to a Pirates game!!! Samuel was very excited to see pirates playing baseball, and he enjoyed the game very much. Both boys were squirmy, but they seemed to have fun and did exceptionally well when you take into account that the game started after their regular bedtime. We managed to stay until the end of the 7th inning, and had a great time with incredible seats (it helps to buy tickets before the team starts being competitive). Unfortunately, our camera decided not to work (again), so we don't have any pictures to document it. We got to go with some good friends from Hershey, though, so hopefully I'll be able to steal some pictures from Emily soon. It was a really great game, we had a very fun time.

We left late Sunday morning, though a little earlier than we had intended. Everyone was pretty worn out, though, from our long weekend, so we thought it best to get going. Here's proof of just how tired the boys were:
It was a really fun weekend. It's always so great to see family and friends again, and I thoroughly enjoyed my first time in Pittsburgh. Thanks to Ian and Rachael for stopping by, and thanks to Kat and Luke for your excellent hospitality!!! :0)

"Expelliarmus!!!!"

2011-07-20T10:41:00.003-04:00

There's been a bit of an obsession with Harry Potter in our apartment lately (ie even more than normal), and it's been very fun. A friend of mine was willing to watch the boys for us last Friday night, so Cameron and I got to see it on opening day!!!! Oh my goodness, we LOVED it!!! They did such an awesome job, it was really great. A few days previous, a friend sent me this video, and I think I've watched it 50 times in the last week.

I seriously can't watch that without cracking up, and the girl on the broom is in Centennial where Alanna and I both lived (not together) for a while! Fun times.

The day after I found out about that video, I got a letter in the mail with Hogwarts as the return address!!!! Yes, that's right, I am not a squib!! ;0)

To cap off all the HP Mania, the boys and I decided to do a bit of pretending, so we made Caleb into Ron (with a dirty nose, a hamster for Scabbers, and a blue toy car), and here's Samuel:
If you look really carefully, you can tell that I dyed his hair black (just with black hairspray, it washed out right right away), and he's holding a magic wand in his left hand. I think I have an idea of what to do for Halloween this year... :0) So yes, we've had a lot of Harry Potter things going on, and all that's left to say is that I can't wait to get back to the movie theater and see it again!!!

Swimming Lessons and Fun Stuff

2011-07-20T10:18:00.002-04:00

We have been really busy lately with a bunch of things, which have mostly been lots of fun. Samuel did two weeks of daily swimming lessons, which just ended last Thursday. It was really fun, and I was very proud of him. The first two days were, admittedly, a bit rough because Samuel is such a shy boy, and he is always nervous to do something new for the first time (I can't imagine who he inherited those qualities from...). He kept swimming away from his instructors, and was always very upset when water touched his face. But luckily Cameron was pre-call and got to be there for the second lesson, and then had a great idea. We got home, and we put some water in a "sea lion pool" (a tupperware container), and Cameron and Samuel practiced blowing bubbles!!! It was such a brilliant yet simple solution, and the next day Samuel participated and warmed up to his instructors, and from then on he had a great time. He's not quite Michael Phelps yet, but at least he was comfortable in the water and was having fun. Cameron and I are very proud of all the progress he made!!Caleb is up to seven teeth now!!! His favorite pastime is eating and banging his head on things (walls, doors, you name it). His favorite place is on the back of his highchair, which means he often eats like this, in hopes of not getting a concussion:He is a very patient kid, even when I do this to him with sunscreen:He's so sweet, he loves to cuddle, and when he's tired he just plops his head on the floor wherever he is. He won't actually sleep there, it's just a way to say he's tired. He hasn't started talking at all, but he's definitely trying to more and more which is fun. He loves his big brother and follows him around a lot, and he is just a great kid.

We got another penguin - thanks, Jan!!!

The boys love playing together, which always makes me so happy. They're great kids, we sure have fun with them. Speaking of fun, Cameron got today off and took Samuel to Hershey Park!! I seriously just love living in Hershey!! :-D Oh yeah, speaking of Hershey Park, they have a sea lion show there with some cowboys, and it's Samuel favorite thing in the world! He crawls around the apartment barking like a sea lion, he acts out parts of the show ("Boss, the wagon spit on me!"), and is really quite a riot. That's why he and Cameron pretended the water in the tupperware container was a sea lion tank. If you ever come to visit, we'll take you to see the show! ;0)

Tracy's Visit!

2011-07-13T09:09:00.003-04:00

So it's taken me a while to get pictures uploaded onto my computer, so here finally is my post about Tracy's visit here in Hershey. We had a great time - the boys were so happy when we got home from the reenactment, they had clearly had a wonderful day with their aunt! And church was a whole lot easier having an extra set of hands to help with the boys! :0) It was a really special way to spend the 4th of July, it was so great to have Tracy here with us!! Here are a few pictures we took while she was with us. The first one is of me and Cameron before we left for the reenactment - it's the only picture our camera took the entire day. Oh well. Be sure to notice that we were wearing blue and grey... :0)And just for fun, here's Samuel being a goof. I was surprised that his shorts were so tight, and then I realized that he had gone and put on a pair of Caleb's pants!!Last Thursday, Samuel was in his swimsuit getting ready for his swim lesson, and what does he put on? His snow boots! The really funny thing is how perfectly they matched his swimsuit!
And here's Caleb wearing Samuel's Batman cape. First he destroyed the train tracks, and now he's going in as Batman to save everyone! ;0)

Sixth Anniversary!!

2011-07-09T21:35:00.006-04:00

UPDATE: I tried to take a short cut with loading the pictures yesterday, and it didn't work on anyone's computer but my own. Oh well, hopefully you can see the pictures now! :0)

************************************************************************

Today marks Cameron and my sixth anniversary! It's hard to believe it's been so long, until I think about all of the places we've lived and the things that have happened in the last six years.
We've gone from Grenada, to St. Vincent, to SLC, to Brooklyn, to Seattle, to SLC, and finally here in Hershey for two years now. Interestingly enough, we've been in Hershey longer than any other place for our whole marriage!! It's been nice to be in one place for a while. :0) And, of course, we've had two very important additions to our little family in the last few years, too.

Anyways, we got to celebrate by taking the boys to Hershey Park this morning and we got some good Chinese food for dinner (I love not having to cook once in a while!). Our big celebration was last Saturday at the reenactment, so today was just a happy and relaxed day all together as a family. It was a great day, but I didn't think to get any pictures which was too bad, so instead I'm putting in a couple of our engagement pictures from March 2005 and one from Grenada just before our first anniversary.

Happy Anniversary, Cameron - thanks for six wonderful years! :0)

A Patriotic Weekend at Gettysburg!

2011-07-05T07:13:00.005-04:00

In order to celebrate our anniversary, Cameron and I did something I've wanted to do for a long, long time - we went to the Gettysburg Reenactment!!! It was really incredible, we had a great time. We went on Saturday, which was the second day of the battle. We weren't very sure what to expect, but it didn't disappoint!

There were a ton of people dressed up as real Civil War generals, and they were all pretty awesome and really looked like the pictures you see in history books. When we got there, we got to listen to James Longstreet, and then we went to another tent and got to see several Union army generals. The best was when Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain got up to talk, and suddenly a lieutenant came running through the tent saying, "Lawrence, we got a dispatch!" For anyone who has seen the movie Gettysburg, you could tell that the guy with the dispatch was Chamberlain's younger brother Tom who always had a hard time remembering to call his brother Colonel. So of course Chamberlain said, "Tom, don't call me Lawrence! Now where's the dispatch?" It was hilarious and really awesome. :0)

The only hard part about the day was that our camera wasn't working!! So instead of getting any pictures, we have a bunch of short videos. Here are Sherman and Grant:

Here's part of the cavalry charge on the battlefield - it was really impressive!! Before they started, they had all of the veterans stand up so we could thank them with applause for their service. Then we sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and the Star Spangled Banner - it was so patriotic!! It was a really powerful experience to have so many people singing all together. And then we got to see some artillery and some skirmishers, followed by the horses charging!

Then the Union army rode past all the observers...

followed by the Confederacy.

The highlight was, of course, getting to see Robert E. Lee!!!

He had a very interesting lecture about why he chose to resign from the Union army and stuck with Virginia instead. He actually did an entire history from the Declaration of Independence, through the writing of the Articles of Confederation and then the Constitution, and talked about how many times before 1860 states had tried to secede. The interesting thing was that every time the president said, yeah, you have that right, but let's talk about it, and convinced them to stay. It wasn't until Andrew Jackson that any president threatened at all to try to keep them in the Union, and Lincoln was the first president to actually use force to keep them in the Union. It was a very interesting talk, and it was interesting how the actor managed to weave several actual quotes from Lee into his lecture. He definitely portrayed Lee very well (at least according to how I've always pictured him). :0)

And since our still camera wasn't working, here's a 4 second video of me shaking Lee's hand:

The only problem with the whole day was that we didn't bring enough food or water, and by about 4:00, Cameron and I were both absolutely exhausted and dehydrated (it was only 92 degrees and very humid, I can't imagine why we were thirsty...), so we ended up going home early. I was really sad to miss the second battle, but we definitely made the right decision - we would've gotten stuck in a TON of traffic getting out of the parking lot, and I don't think we would've been safe driving home if we had stayed any longer. It was an incredible day, we had so much fun!!!

The rest of the weekend we got to hang out with Tracy, who is such an AWESOME sister that she came to Hershey to watch our kids while we went to the reenactment!!! It was really awesome to have her here for Independence Day, more details on that coming soon!! :0)

New Stats for Caleb

2011-07-03T18:47:00.002-04:00

Last week on Tuesday, Caleb had his year check up with the doctor! He looks great - he's learning well and growing well, and the doctors (resident and attending) said he's just perfect, and that sounds good to me. :0) At his appointment he weighed 20 lbs 9 oz (16th%), was 30 inches long (43th%), and his head circumference is 47.5 cm (80th%)! So he's still a skinny guy with a big head. :0) We love our little Caleb!!

Travels

2011-06-29T13:13:00.004-04:00

I already wrote about getting to see the Mariners play last week, but I haven't written about the rest of the week! The boys and I headed down to my sister's house the same day as the game, and enjoyed a fun day with cousins. The kids all had a wonderful time together, and here's a big shout out to my brother-in-law Craig who was willing to stay home and watch all 5 kids (including two who were less than a year old) so Alanna and I could go to the game!!! It was really nice for Alanna and I to have a night off and just be able to enjoy the game, and very generous of Craig to be willing to stay home. His parents came over, too, to give him a hand with all the kids which was very nice of them! :0)

The next morning, I took Samuel and Caleb over to see their Great-Grandma Helen and their Great-Aunt Monica. We had a really nice visit and got some cute pictures:
It's been really fun living so close to some of Cameron's relatives and being able to give the boys a chance to get to know one of their great-grandmas. We had a really fun time visiting and playing with Lincoln Logs, and Caleb had fun showing off all of his new skills before he started letting us know that nap time was fast approaching.

It's always fun to get to go down to Virginia and see family, and the baseball game was a perfect reason to go down for a visit. :0)

More of Caleb's Birthday

2011-06-27T12:44:00.004-04:00

After naps, we decided to celebrate in fashion - we had dinner at Red Robin! We don't go out to eat often, so it was a very special treat. It was doubly special for Caleb because he got to sit forward in the car for the first time ever!!

" 'Sup?"

Looking out the window

Then we went home and got to eat some cake. Caleb seemed to enjoy his first taste of dessert - it's good to turn one. ;0) He had a wonderful birthday, filled with lots of fun and well wishes from friends and family.

The next morning I suddenly realized I had forgotten to take a picture of him with Penguin!!! I don't know where my brain is these days, but oh well. At least I got it the next day, and they're pretty cute ones if I may say so myself. ;0) Here's also one of Samuel being his new favorite animal, a "seal lion," and balancing a ball on his nose (we've been watching the cowboy and sea lion show at Hershey Park).One last very happy birthday wish to Caleb, we sure love him lots! :0)

It feels like only yesterday...

2011-06-24T14:35:00.006-04:00

...that I was getting sent from my regular check up to the L&D to be induced, and that we finally got to meet our little Monsieur LeRoux!!! But in fact, today is his first birthday, and I can't believe it. Here he is when he woke up this morning

And then during breakfast, he seemed quite excited that it was his birthday - I think he was saying "HOORAY!" inside. ;0)

We're only half way through the day today, but it's been a wonderful day thus far. We had a little "birthday party" at the park with some friends. Caleb practiced walking a bit (holding onto my hands), tried to eat the mulch around the playground, and even got a bit of juice for the first time ever. We got rained on quite a bit, but it actually felt good because it had been so humid. Here are a few pictures from of our day thus far:

At the park

Then we went home to have some lunch before naptimes, and Caleb got a surprise present - Cameron got to come home super early and eat lunch with us!!!! Caleb also showed off a new trick of his - he can drink from his water bottle all by himself!

I just pulled Caleb's birthday cake out of the oven and need to get some frosting on it soon. I'm sure I'll have more pictures from the rest of the day soon, but for now...

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, CALEB!!!! :-D

THE MARINERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-06-23T14:33:00.008-04:00

In order to celebrate making it half way through Cameron's residency, my father-in-law, Mark, wanted to do something special for me. He thought it would be fun for me to go to a Mariners game with Alanna, so he got us a couple of incredible tickets to the Mariners vs. the Nationals game on Tuesday!!! For 17/18ths of the game, everything was perfect, and we just won't mention that last half of an inning and focus on the very happy parts of it instead. We had a wonderful time, and it was very special getting to see the game from such awesome seats!! I hadn't seen the Mariners play in about two years, so that was an added bonus. Here are our best pictures from the game, be sure to click on them to see them bigger and better. :0)

Alanna at the front of the stadium

Me in front

Our seats!!!

Getting ready to catch a foul ball

Ichiro heading to the dugout after batting practice

Gutierrez coming to sign some baseballs
before heading to the dugout

Finley making a perfect throw

Ichiro getting ready to hit the ball

During the 7th inning, we had a "presidential run"

Big smiles during the top of the 9th

As you can tell, we had a real blast!! Huge thanks to Mark for giving us the chance to see our favorite baseball team!!!!!! :-D

GO MARINERS!!!!!!!

Catching Up

2011-06-20T13:53:00.005-04:00

So I'm afraid I've fallen so far behind in life, so here are some pictures as I try to play catch up. We've been having a lot of fun going to Hershey Park, going swimming, and just enjoying summer. I've also been trying to upload videos and get pictures on my computer (it's so hard adjusting to a new computer and figuring out how to use new programs!), but I think I'm finally getting there. Hopefully I'll be able to stay caught up soon! So anyways, here are some things we've been doing:

Standing and some cruisingSharing
More sharing
Styling (just before baths)
Learning (from Cameron's anesthesia book)
Reading (yes, Caleb did that in about 45 seconds)
Fighting with squirt guns

Swimming and Eating yummy treats!

Those cookies that Samuel is eating are very, very special. When we go to Missy's,* she always feels bad that she doesn't have any milk-free cookies for Samuel, and so yesterday at church her daughter gave us special cookies that she had made just for Samuel!!! He was SO excited to get real cookies without milk, it was very sweet of her and helped Samuel feel very special. :0)

*BTW, you can order cookies and have them delivered from her website! ;0)

A Tale of Two Beds

2011-06-09T14:09:00.003-04:00

I mentioned before that Cameron's parents very generously bought us a new bed. It's been really wonderful having a brand new bed, and we've been sleeping great at night - the only bad thing is that it's tough to get up in the morning now. ;0) When the bed arrived, we were working on getting Caleb to sleep through the night, which meant a lot of screaming all night. That meant that we had to sleep in the living room, so he wouldn't keep Samuel up all night. Therefore we decided it made sense to put our old bed in the living room, so we wouldn't have to blow up the air mattress every night. Well, we haven't had to give up our room to Caleb for a while now, but we still haven't gotten rid of the old bed yet. That comes with a few inconveniences, but there are definitely some good reasons to hold on to it a little longer. For one thing, it's a great footrest. But more importantly, Samuel and his friends have been really enjoying having a makeshift trampoline in our living room!!We'll be getting rid of it pretty soon, so I thought I'd better get some video of Samuel having a blast before the old bed heads to the dumpster. Samuel will be very sad to see it go! Thanks again to Mark and Donna for the new bed! :-D

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-09T13:28:00.002-04:00

The last few months, Cameron's rotations have been lighter than normal, so we decided to take advantage of his last totally open weekend by going to see my sister. It was a pretty quick trip, but we had a lot of fun. It happened to correspond with Memorial Day weekend, so we got to see some really huge and awesome American flags and a TON of vets on motorcycles on our way down (we didn't see anyone famous on a motorcycle, though).
While there, we were lucky enough to be protected by some pretty stellar caped superheroes!
The cousins all had a very fun time running around together and enjoying Bentley and Kendra's new playground outside. It was nice to be gone for a couple of days and to enjoy hanging out with my sister and her husband. Alanna even made us the most incredible ice cream ever - Nutella ice cream! Is that even legal??We didn't stay the whole weekend but left Sunday morning and went straight to church so we could see the bishopric be released and see who would be the lucky new bishop. The next morning we had a blast at the Boardwalk at Hershey Park. When it's crazy hot out, what better place to go then the water park?? :0) It was a very fun weekend, and I was really excited that Cameron actually got the whole thing off (that was a surprise, we didn't know until Friday that he would get Monday off).

Everyone ready for church, first the hilarious pictureand then the cute one:I love those faces! And be sure to notice Samuel and Bentley
in their matching suits from Rachael's wedding. :0)

These Are Two of My Favorite Things

2011-06-01T14:22:00.006-04:00

I've always loved really cool chess sets. You know which ones I mean, the theme ones where the pieces are really nice and decorative - chess is a really awesome game anyways, and add a theme and it's even cooler! My parents have an Asian one made of marble-y material, and I've seen Robin Hood sets, Harry Potter sets, Revolutionary War sets, all kinds of fun ideas. But the one I've always, always wanted was a Civil War set. So you'll never guess what landed at my door step last week!! Make sure you click on the images so you can see the detail!

Look at the outline on the board - it's the eastern
half of the US with the Mason Dixon line!

Here's the Union Army

And my favorite part:

The kings are Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant!!!!! Yeah, it's very cool. My mom found it online and sent it to us, and all of a sudden playing chess is a whole lot more fun than before! We also got a book to help us teach the boys when they get a little older - how perfect to be able to learn chess and history all at once. :0) I've seriously wanted one of these sets since middle school, so it's pretty exciting to have one!

Speaking of chess, if you haven't ever seen "Searching For Bobby Fischer," be sure to Netflix it! It's one of my favorite movies.

May 24th

2011-06-01T08:11:00.009-04:00

On May 24th, Caleb turned 11 months old!! I can't believe he's so close to being one, where has the time gone?? He's been getting more teeth, and unfortunately was biting his fingers and actually hurt his middle finger on his left hand. In an effort to help it heal, we tied his sleeve so he couldn't suck on his fingers. He was a very sad boy that day, but at least his finger started healing, and he's doing much better now.
Here's his 11 month photo next to Penguin:
And here's his funny brother, who put puppets on his feet as slippers:
To celebrate Caleb's 11 month mark, we headed to Hershey Park! It was a perfect day - a little hot, but a cool breeze and not too humid. The park was practically empty, so we got to go on tons of rides, too. And to top it off, we got to go with our friends, too:
Melissa showed me the ropes of Hershey Park last year, and it hasn't been the same not getting to go with them this year. They decided to go one last time before heading off to residency, and we were super excited to get to go with them. Samuel had a blast getting to go on rides with Erik again.
It was also a noteworthy day because I managed to get Samuel into short sleeves, shorts, and I got him to put his sandals on without any socks - SUCCESS!! Thank goodness, too, because it's been crazy hot since that day.
So we all got to have a very special and fun day to celebrate Caleb's 11 month mark (who, BTW, is getting quite adept at getting past and through things).
I can't believe he'll be one this month!!!

Bikes, Pools, Pirates and Parks

2011-05-20T14:59:00.003-04:00

Samuel's friend Erik got a new bike for his birthday last month, and Samuel's been so excited about it that we thought we would get him one for his birthday, too. As I was talking to my mom about it, she offered to get it for him for his birthday, but suggested we get it early so he could enjoy it all summer. And so we did! We let him choose a bike last Monday, and he has been enjoying it very much all week!
He's still learning how to use it, figuring out when to turn and remembering to keep moving his feet, etc. The hardest part is learning to look up instead of at his feet, but he's picking it up quite well and gets very excited every time we take it outside.

We also signed him up for swimming lessons for July, so that should be a lot of fun, too. I'm excited for him to start learning how to swim, and will be a lot more comfortable going to the pool with him once he has some of the basics down. Our pool is opening this weekend, as is the Boardwalk (the water theme park at Hershey Park), so we should have lots of fun things coming up!! Speaking of Hershey Park, the boys and I have gone several times already and had a ton of fun. During the week, there haven't been any lines on the kiddie and Samuel got pretty spoiled about not waiting in lines, it was pretty fun.

Samuel's favorite ride, The Trailblazer

On Saturday morning we all went outside and played soccer with Samuel and helped him ride his bike which was fun. He's getting good at dribbling the soccer ball, and he does a great throw-in. Then Cameron took me to Pirates 4 for my birthday, and it was awesome! We really enjoyed it, it was quite an adventure. If you go to see it, make sure you sit through the credits for the last clip at the end - the music during the credits is fantastic, and I always love their little end-clips. After we got home from the movie, we went to Hershey Park. It was a bit crowded, but we had a blast, and Samuel got to go on his favorite roller coaster twice. By the end of the day we were all pretty exhausted, but it was a very fun day. When we got home, we all ate a quick dinner, and we all slept very well. Cameron and I have been getting extra good sleep since we've been sleeping on a brand new bed that his parents bought us!!! I think this is the first time I've ever had a brand new bed, and it's been nice waking up refreshed with a happy back.

It was a really fun week, and an exceptionally fun Saturday. I just love those perfect days when everything goes so well. :0)

The Big Three-Oh

2011-05-20T14:05:00.008-04:00

Well, it's official - I'm thirty! I had a very fun birthday on Wednesday, with lots of happy birthday wishes from friends and family. No birthday could start off better than having this face smiling at me (notice the crazy pillow hair, too):That smile was followed by a few small miracles. The first miracle of the day was a nice break in the rain that morning so I could go to Hershey Park with the boys. It was practically empty, so Samuel got most of the rides to himself, and we never had to wait in line. Later in the day, Cameron got part of the afternoon off which was another miracle - he had an extra meeting that night and wasn't supposed to be home until 8:00. Since he got to come home, though, we had dinner all together and he and Samuel even sang happy birthday to me and watched me blow out a candle. It's amazing how much the little things count! The boys gave me the present of being extra good for me all day, which just made everything that much easier.

Cameron and me before he had to go
back to the hospital

The boys and me

As a side note, I was going to put on nice clothes and some make-up since it was a big day, and then I thought, wait a minute - this is my day, and I'm going to do what makes me happy. So instead I decided to be as casual and comfortable as possible. If I'm going to turn thirty, I may as well do it my own way. :0)

So anyways, who could ask for a better day than that, right?? Well, to top it all off, I got to have the best cake I've ever had to celebrate with. I got it from my friend Missy's shop, and when I arrived to pick it up, I had an added bonus that one of my sisters bought me a dozen cookies to bring home along with the cake! So all in all, it was a very incredible birthday. I still can't quite believe I'm thirty, but it was a really great birthday.

Notice I forgot to buy candles, so I'm using
a normal one. Doh!

My peanut butter and chocolate cake

Samuel couldn't actually have any of my cake (it has milk and butter
in it), but he definitely enjoyed his own "special" cupcake.

Thanks to everyone for all of the birthday wishes and for helping it be such a wonderful and special birthday!!! I'm very blessed to have so many great friends and family. :0)

Samuel

2011-05-12T14:35:00.000-04:00

Samuel is one crazy kid (in a good way)! His most recent thing is that he has to wear long sleeves, pants and socks. He loves to wear his sandals, but won't take his socks off. I've managed to bribe him into shorts and a t-shirt a couple of times this spring, but he'll only wear his Hawaiian outfit, no other shorts or t-shirt. It's not a big deal right now, but it'll have to change once it starts getting hotter!!He's very determined and really wants to be independent. We have to figure out ways of making him want to do what he needs to do, which has been a bit of an issue sometimes, but he's a good kid and at least most of the things he's determined to do are good things. For example, he loves to take good care of his little brother. He keeps cords away from him, tells me whenever Caleb goes in the bathroom, and makes sure he doesn't touch the space heaters/fans. He loves to feed him, too, which is very cute. And once in a while he might get a little jealous of the attention Caleb gets...

Regressing back to infancy

He was called to give the scripture in primary a couple of weeks ago, and was all ready to say, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men," but he chickened out and just played with the microphone instead. Oh well. He's said it to me and Cameron almost every day since... Hopefully next time will go better.

First time dying eggs

We got to go ice skating with a couple of friends a few weeks ago!!! It was a lot of fun. Samuel did quite well, and could probably have done it all on his own if he had been a little more confident. It helped a lot when I said, "Let's be Buzz!" Then he would put his arms out, say, "To infinity, and beyond!" and would really cruise around the rink.

Buzz On Ice

During General Conference, Elder Nelson testified that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God, and Samuel said, "No, that (the prophet) is President Monson. Thomas is a little blue train!"
He's learning his letters now and sees "s"s all over the place, and reminds us that "s starts with Samuel, and p starts with Pinocchio!"

Putting "hooves" on Eeyore

We've been having a lot of fun together, and he has been a VERY happy boy since we've been able to start enjoying the beautiful weather with his soccer ball, his baseball stuff, a tricycle his friend is lending him, and especially going to Hershey Park again. :0)

Happy Mother's Day from Samuel

2011-05-08T16:41:00.003-04:00

In primary, they transcribed some one liners from the kids, and here's what Samuel said about me:

My Mom's favorite food is...chicken nuggets.
My Mom's favorite TV show is... Harry Potter.
My Mom teaches me... about the Rocky Lion and Moses.
My Mom likes to... cook bear food with me.
My Mom looks like... scary T-Rex.
I like to "cooking bear food" with my Mom.
I love my Mom because... because I love somebody else.
Heavenly Father made Moms because... at home.
I know my Mom loves me because... she gives me a kiss and a hug (but not a Hershey's kiss because I'm allergic).

Happy Mother's Day!

Updates on Caleb

2011-05-03T10:29:00.004-04:00

Here are a bunch of things about Caleb I've been meaning to blog about for a while now. He turned ten months old a little over a week ago, I can't believe he's getting so big.

Standing with Penguin on his ten month mark

Caleb has been doing great without his Zantac - hooray!!! Perhaps even better, we've been giving him cheese and yogurt - he's not allergic to milk!!!!!! This makes me very happy, it's a huge relief. Admittedly, though, I almost cried when Samuel went to try some of Caleb's first yogurt and I had to stop him because it wasn't "special" yogurt - poor Samuel, I sure hope and pray he grows out of that allergy!! I hope it won't be too hard on him that Caleb can have so many things that he can't, but I am awfully glad and relieved that Caleb isn't allergic to milk.

Enjoying his mobile

We've started giving Caleb baths in the big tub a while ago, and he LOVES them! He's totally opposite of our cautious Samuel; Caleb will just crawl all over the place having a grand ol' time. And when his face plunges into the water, he just laughs and gets back up (Samuel gets VERY upset any time the water touches his face). The really funny thing is that Samuel is quite paranoid that Caleb will go down the drain with the bath water! He keeps saying, "Mom, can you cover the hole so Caleb doesn't fall down it?" It's very sweet of Samuel, but I keep trying to explain to him that Caleb is much too big for that little hole.

Laying next to his cousin Ryder (6 months)

He's now pulling himself up quite easily, but he isn't cruising yet. The cutest thing is when he wants to be held; he crawls up to you, and hits your shins gently with his head! He also sometimes likes to carry a toy in his mouth as he crawls, giving him the appearance of a very cute little puppy - I know that's terrible to say, but it's true!

His first time in grass! He didn't like it much...

He's had a couple of bottom teeth for a while now, and it looks like the top two are finally about to pop out, so he and I are suffering together with sore mouths. But while I can only eat liquids, Caleb is starting to eat more solid food! He's had bananas, strawberries, Cheerios, and even some slightly ground up spaghetti and sloppy joes! He's definitely enjoying food more and more.

Playing soccer on our balcony (with our new gate!)

He's learning all kinds of things, and he and Samuel are starting to play more and more together which makes me very happy. And now I hear him making noises in the crib, so I guess I'd better go get him! ;0)

A Trip to the Fire Station!

2011-04-27T19:18:00.000-04:00

Last Monday's PIM playgroup was a trip to the Hershey Volunteer Fire Station! Samuel was very excited to get to see the fire trucks, and we weren't disappointed. We got to see five trucks, including one that was brand new (they had bought it five days before!). Samuel got to go inside two of the trucks, and got to watch one of the firemen put on his suit, and he even got to let a little bit of water out of one of the nozzles in a truck. It was definitely a great time, and the fireman who was presenting was hilarious, too. He kept making jokes about how Hershey fire trucks didn't use water, but instead used chocolate to put out fires. ;0)

Caleb in front of the fireman and the new truck

Samuel and the fireman in front of
the Chocolatetown Express

Samuel sitting in the fire truck

All ready to head to a fire!

After our tour of the fire station, we got to go on an Easter egg hunt at one of the nearby parks! It was Samuel's first egg hunt, and I think he enjoyed it quite a lot. It was a very fun day, and I was very very glad that Caleb helped us enjoy it by taking an early nap so we could make it! :0) Because of naps, we hadn't been to a playgroup in a long time, and it was awfully good to see our friends again. Hopefully we'll be able to make it again soon!

Everyone searching for eggs

An action shot of Samuel

Finding the last eggs

Caleb keeping warm in the stroller

I know it's a bit late by the time I'm actually getting this posted, but HAPPY (belated) EASTER!!!!

Punched and Burned

2011-04-27T16:17:00.003-04:00

My dentist told me in January that I had gingivitis* and I was going to need something done on my bottom front tooth. I went to the periodontal guy a week ago, and my left tooth was at stage 4 and the right tooth was at stage 2 - apparently I was just born with bad gums over those two teeth, and my braces may have separated the tooth from the gum which would have quickened the process. So today I went back to the periodontal expert and had a skin grafting procedure done. It was done fairly quickly (it only took about an hour or so), and thanks to a ton of Novocaine it really didn't hurt much at all during the procedure. The worst part was when I saw them taking bloody gauze pads out of my mouth, along with the taste of the blood in my mouth, and then when they were stitching me up. There's something really unsettling about knowing someone's sewing your gums, even if you can't feel it.

They took the skin out of the roof of my mouth, so now I have a stent (basically a retainer without the wire in the front) to protect that from my tongue and food, and I have some icky gunk protecting the front of my gums (I think it's the same stuff they use to make impressions). After four hours it hasn't been as bad as I feared (knock on wood), but it isn't fun either. It feels a lot like a really, really bad burn on the roof of my mouth and like someone punched me in the teeth really hard. But if it means not losing my front two teeth, then I guess it's worth it! And hey, at least I get to eat a lot of pudding...

Speaking of losing teeth, here's a terrible but funny story from my mission. There was a lady in La Louviere that Soeur Cherrington and I used to run into almost every day. We never saw her sober, whether it was morning or night, and she had some really awful teeth, even by European standards. One of her front bottom teeth was especially bad, and every time Cherrington and I would see her in the distance, we would wonder if that tooth had come out or not. Eventually, just before we closed the area, we ran into her and the tooth was gone! I joked with Cameron that that could be me, but I don't think he thought it was a funny joke. I think he's happier with me having had this procedure than being the toothless lady of Hershey! ;0)

*I've known for a few years that this gum area was getting bad, but I didn't realize it was gingivitis levels yet. For the record, I do take good care of my teeth and have never even had a cavity, just so you don't think I never brush my teeth or something.

Grandpa Mark's Visit!!

2011-04-25T13:16:00.003-04:00

We've had some very fun last couple of weeks! Almost two weeks ago, Grandpa Mark was able to come and pay us a visit! Samuel was so excited - we were waiting for the knock on the door, and when it came, Samuel jumped up and ran to the door saying, "It's Grandpa Mark!" We got to go to the park together and he and Samuel had fun playing in the sandbox with Samuel's bulldozer. The rest of the trip was, unfortunately, very rainy, but we still had a lot of fun. Grandpa Mark read to Samuel
fed Caleb
and bought some new things for the boys. Caleb got a new gate around our balcony so I'll actually let him go outside, and Samuel got a Lightening McQueen tent with a tunnel!
I'm not sure who will enjoy it more, Samuel or Cameron! ;0)

Caleb enjoys the tunnel a lot, it's a perfect fit for him!

We had hoped to go to Hershey Park all together on opening day, but since it was raining cats and dogs all day, we watched Toy Story II instead and enjoyed each others company at home. We were very glad that Mark was able to come and visit, it's always nice to have family in town! :0)

"Love Never Dies"

2011-04-12T19:19:00.005-04:00

It's a pretty safe bet that anyone who reads this blog knows that I absolutely love The Phantom of the Opera, and you may even remember me mentioning that Andrew Lloyd Webber recently opened a sequel called Love Never Dies. I was able to get the soundtrack several months ago and have been listening to it and have been working on an opinion of it. So for anyone interested in that opinion, here you go!

The music is exactly what you would expect from Andrew Lloyd Webber - grandiose, beautiful, dramatic, emotional - all of the things that I love about his musicals. This definitely isn't an exception; I really love the music, and the showstoppers are really awesome. For example, here's one of my favorites:

That being said, however, Webber did a lot of craziness with the characters from Phantom! The plot has all kinds of twists and turns which are pretty interesting, but he really did some painful things to the characters that I care so much about. So in my mind I've had to detach this play from the original so as not to alter how I feel about Christine, Raoul, Meg and Mme Giry (who, BTW, has a terrible French accent in this show). The most interesting change is in the Phantom himself. A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about how the Phantom becomes more and more human in every portrayal, and less of an ugly, murdering psycho who is utterly repulsive. Well, this is no exception. The only time anyone says anything bad about him is when Raoul calls him a "hell spawn demon," but even then, it comes off more as jealousy than as an actual critique. There's no mention of the fact that he's a murdering madman, just a genius who happens to wear a mask. It's pretty interesting to see him become such a normal guy, and it definitely holds up my theory.

So overall, if you like Andrew Lloyd Webber, then you'll definitely enjoy Love Never Dies. I've been listening to it a ton and really enjoy it a lot. Just remember that the names of the characters are the same, but try not to think of them as the same people from Phantom. And make sure you're holding on tight for one crazy ride!

Just one more note of interest, the play starts in the future and goes back to the past after a song or two. As I was listening, I got thinking that Webber sure likes starting his plays like this. For example, think of

The Phantom of the Opera
Evita
Sunset Boulevard
Joseph and the ... Dreamcoat (sort of, not exactly, but pretty close)
Love Never Dies

Basically all of his plays that I'm relatively familiar with! Does anyone know any more of his plays and if it uses the same gimmick or not? I'm just curious; it clearly works well, so more power to him, I just thought it was kind of a funny tidbit.

Fun Pictures

2011-04-11T14:06:00.004-04:00

Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to lately:

Watching Conference together
Sitting together
Smiling lots!
Making Gingerbread cookies (a bit late, I know!)
And being (silly) big babies ;0)

Antique Car Museum

2011-04-11T13:52:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Cameron got an unexpected day off!! One of the other residents had gone on an interview, and ended up being gone several days longer than she was supposed to be gone. The other residents on that rotation let Cameron have an extra day off since he had done so much overtime for her. The boys and I were, of course, thrilled!!! Deciding to make the most of it, we went to the Antique Car Museum here in Hershey, and had a blast! :0) Here are some of the highlights:

Cameron getting to drive an old car

The family car
Samuel out to do some farming
The original Herbie!!
Caleb driving!
Samuel taking a break next to a Shelby
The original Swagger Wagon!

We had a great time, if you ever happen to be in Hershey, it's definitely a good place to go. Yay for unplanned trips on surprise days off!!

9 Month Check-Up

2011-04-05T15:02:00.004-04:00

The boys and I just got back from the doctor's office where Caleb had his 9 month visit. Aside from the cold and cough he's getting over, he is in great shape! He was very smiley and happy for the resident and doctor, and they said he's doing everything he should be doing. He's still a skinny kid with a big head - 18 lbs 10 oz (16%), 28 inches long (40%) and 46.5 cm head circumference (79%)! He's tracking along as he should and is developing well. Hooray!His doctor suggested we try taking him off of the Zantac and see how he does, so that will be an interesting experiment. Hopefully it will go well, it would be really nice not to have to give him medication. He's still on the same dose they started him on when he was 3 months old, so he really shouldn't need it anymore, at least that's my hope. ;0)Poor Caleb picked up a pretty nasty cough on Friday, and it was keeping him from sleeping well at all during the weekend. The poor guy is so exhausted - he took four naps yesterday, and went to bed at 5:15!! He's doing much better now, but Sunday night he kept waking up coughing and it was starting to make Cameron and me nervous. So at 2:00 in the morning, Cameron gave him a blessing. It definitely helped a ton - Caleb finally went to sleep and slept for a few hours. When he woke up, he was still coughing a bit and congested, but he was clearly way healthier than he had been the day before - phew!! I'm very grateful for the priesthood!And just because who doesn't love a comparison, here's one of my favorite pictures of Samuel when he was about the same age as Caleb is now:I forgot about that outfit, I need to go through Samuel's old clothes and find it for Caleb. :0)

A Week of Family!

2011-04-03T10:06:00.003-04:00

I'm afraid I'm terribly behind on everything internet related, including email, friends blogs, and my own blog. I'm working on catching up, so here's a post that I meant to post a few weeks ago!

Back in the middle of March, my parents came to the east coast for a visit!! They spent a couple of days in NYC with Tracy, then a few days in Hershey with us, and then we all went to Virginia for Ryder's baby blessing! While we had almost all of the cousins together (we missed you, Eliot!), we decided to have a couple of cousins theme pictures. So here they are in their track suits on Alanna and Craig's front lawn:
And here they are with my parents in their Hawaiian shirts! My parents spent some time in Hawaii for my dad's birthday, and came back with a special Hawaiian outfit for each of their grandkids. :0)
So after going to Virginia Saturday and coming home Sunday, on Monday I went to NYC with the kids!! My good friend Cherrington (my mission comp) let us leave our car at her place so we didn't have to drive into the city, and we had a wonderful couple of days with Tracy and a few friends. I'd been hoping to make it to Tracy's for a while, and then she found the perfect time for us to come - when her office was renting out the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink!!!!
I had always dreamed of getting to skate there, but when I found out how much it cost I decided it was silly to spend that much for a short skating session. So it was a real treat to get to go this time and enjoy skating in the middle of New York City. :0)
The ice was pretty slick, so Samuel didn't stay on the ice for too long, but he still made it around at least two or three times. And he said he had a lot of fun, even though he was a bit nervous.
It was sure fun getting to see Tracy, and I was pretty proud of myself for getting myself there with the kids all by myself. Being in the city made me remember just how much I loved living there, but it also reminded me of the harder parts of living there, too. We were hoping to head to Brooklyn our last day there, but the weather wasn't cooperating so we ended up heading home a little earlier than expected and getting home Wednesday afternoon. The next day was not only Match day for our fourth year friends, but also Saint Patrick's Day! So here's our little Irish boy:
So that was our crazy fun week of lots of family and traveling! Hopefully there will be more to come soon; we've had a lot of fun the last few weeks! :0)

Nine Months

2011-03-24T19:30:00.005-04:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I last wrote. A ton has happened since then, including our computer screen getting broken, rendering our computer almost completely unusable (hence my being behind on everything computer related...)! We finally got a new computer yesterday, so here we are again, back online. :0) Hopefully I'll get caught up on the fun things we've been doing soon, but first here is Caleb's nine month mark!

He's crawling all over the place now, and is even starting to try to pull himself up! Samuel got to play with a couple of friends and Caleb was doing all he could to keep up with them (but his mean mommy kept pulling him back so he wouldn't get run over). A couple of times he straightened his legs while he was crawling, and he's managed to get up onto his knees, too. He also has two teeth (both on the bottom), and the cutest little scrunchy-faced smile ever! :0) He still has his "red hair moments" - it's true what they say about feisty redheads - and he is very determined. If he wants to grab something just out of his reach when you're changing him, good luck getting a diaper on him!! ;0)

Samuel's really learning how to be a big brother. He's learned how to take cords out of Caleb's hands gently, and is starting to have more fun playing with him now that Caleb can interact more. It's sure fun watching them interact together, they're good boys. :0)

Silly Samuel

2011-03-07T20:11:00.004-05:00

Here are some funny pictures of Samuel being a bit crazy and having some fun. :0)

Having fun with his friend Jaydon

The T-Rex was eating Samuel's blanket!

Wearing his pants on his head

Modeling my vest

Hiccup flying with Toothless

And just being Samuel. :0)

Eight Months!

2011-03-01T08:10:00.004-05:00

Caleb had his eight month-iversary last week!! He seems to like to accomplish things just before the deadline. He learned to roll just in time for his 4 month mark, started sitting up on his 6 month mark, and he started crawling last week on the 23rd (the day before turning 8 months)! He was still pretty slow and could only go a few steps at a time, but now he's doing pretty well. He's still not quite ready for a 100 meter crawling dash, but he's getting better and better. :0) I have some video from last week I need to get uploaded - hopefully this afternoon during naps.
Another milestone for Caleb is that his first tooth started popping out on Sunday!! So he was just barely eight months, which is WAY earlier than Samuel, who was already one when his first tooth finally broke through. So there are some very exciting things happening for our little boy. :0) He's definitely a feisty redhead - he'll be totally happy, and then all of a sudden let you know that he needs something right now. Whenever he's hungry, he doesn't seem to mind a bit until he knows you're about to feed him, and then you'd better be quick! He has this cute little facial expression where he puts him gums together and lets his mouth go wide, and he looks like the cutest old man. He's quite a kid, it's been awfully fun getting to know his personality better.

Peeking out of the crib at us getting Samuel dressed on the floor

On the flip side, poor Samuel ended up with the stomach flu yesterday. It's been going around the ward, but he had a nasty cold last week and missed church so I thought we were in the clear. Luckily he's only thrown up once, and seems to be doing better already. Of course, he hasn't eaten anything yet either so... Hopefully he'll be okay, and hopefully none of the rest of us will catch it!Anyways, we're very excited for our little LeRoux, he sure is a lot of fun. In one important way, he's totally opposite of Samuel - Samuel didn't care much about sleep, and was happy as long as he was well fed. Caleb doesn't care much about eating, and is always happy as long as he's well rested. They balance each other out well, don't they? :0)

Getting Better

2011-02-23T06:22:00.005-05:00

The poor boys have had some pretty nasty colds the last few days, but are on the mend now. One of the problems with colds is that it makes them tired, but keeps them from sleeping well. Hence they kept going to bed earlier and earlier, but also waking up that much earlier. Yesterday morning, Samuel woke me up at 5:30 to fix the buttons on his pajama shirt. That wouldn't be that early, if I hadn't just gone back to sleep after Caleb's third waking of the night. Argh!! The hilarious thing is that Samuel's been doing a lot of imaginative play, his favorite of which is him being Pinocchio. So he walks in and wakes me up saying, "Jiminy Cricket, can you fix my buttons?" Cameron's Geppetto, and Caleb is Figaro. At least there was a bit of humor to being woken up for the fourth time in 7 hours... Yesterday I managed to get them both to take naps, and both boys went to bed at 7:00, and we had a much better night last night. Phew!

Samuel's been saying a ton of funny things lately. We've been working on being polite with friends and thanking them for coming over. So when Cameron was heading to work the other day, Samuel said, "Thanks for coming, Dad!"

We had a couple of maintenance guys come over during potty training week to look at our dryer, and one left before the other. Samuel knowingly told the one who stayed an extra minute, "He's going to the potty train."

And just yesterday he informed me that I was a scary robot, and he was "Pinocchio the scary T-Rex with a tail!" Alrighty, then! :0) I've also been pulling donkey ears and tails out of Pinocchio's head and bum. It's pretty hilarious.

We've been pretending to be scary monsters and scary T-Rex's and scary robots lately, and sometimes we have to fight off scary monsters, etc. Whenever we get "hurt" by one of them, it's always time to perform "Sleepy R" - but only chest compressions, never mouth to mouth.

And just yesterday he informed me that I was a scary robot, and he was "Pinocchio the scary T-Rex with a tail!" Alrighty, then! :0)

So here's our most recent family portrait (click on the image to see everyone; I'm taking the picture so I'm not in it):And now "Pinocchio" just woke up and is singing, "I Got No Strings" in his bed, so I'd better go get him before he wakes up Figaro. ;0) Happy Wednesday!

Forward Ho!

2011-02-18T07:50:00.003-05:00

Well, Caleb isn't quite crawling, but he is managing to move around nonetheless. He's getting his knees underneath him, and is still just working on coordinating his hands and knees together. But he is doing some pretty good lunges forward and eventually getting to where he wants to be. For example, just now as I write this, he managed to go from the couch to the buffet (about 6 feet away) all by himself! Unfortunately his favorite things to find are cords, something we're learning to be more careful about. Isn't it good that things like this happen slowly at first?! He's making great progress - hooray!After almost two weeks of virtually not leaving the apartment, we finally got out yesterday!!!! It was sure great to be out of the apartment, and since it was a BEAUTIFUL day, that made it even better. We went for a walk in the morning, and to the zoo in the afternoon. It was a very great day, and Samuel continues to do a great job going to the potty.

Nothing's better than reading with Papa on post-call days

And today happens to be my niece's birthday, so let me take this opportunity to wish Kendra a VERY happy birthday!!! :-D

Here's Kendra enjoying her sandwich last summer

A Landmark

2011-02-13T19:42:00.004-05:00

We didn't have any accidents at all today!!!!! Even away from home during church, he didn't have any accidents.

*Sigh of relief.*

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. :0)

(Poor Samuel, I always catch him just
before he finishes his smile.)

Playing with his favorite Christmas presents:
HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!

Progress!!!

2011-02-10T19:36:00.002-05:00

Thanks to everyone for all of the support and well wishes, they must have worked because today was a really good day! We didn't have any wet pants today!!!! And even better, Samuel told me twice that he needed to go, so he seems to be understanding what he actually needs to do - WAHOO!!! So it was a very good day. We told him we could have something special for dinner, and he wanted a McDonald's burger and fries, and you should've seen how excited Samuel was to eat dinner tonight!! :0) Then, after Caleb was in bed, we celebrated a little more with a dance party and had a lot of fun. I'm sure we still have a bit of a haul in front of us (ie when we actually start leaving the apartment...), but we are very excited about the progress that Samuel has made. :0)

Some other good news, we got everything figured out with Caleb's Zantac and he's back on his medication - PHEW!!! I had hoped that he had outgrown his reflux, but based on how much he spit up Wednesday, I'm very relieved to have more medicine for him.

What a good day!!! =)

What a day...

2011-02-08T20:32:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we filled Samuel with liquids and sat him on the potty. After sitting there for an hour, he finally couldn't hold it in anymore and, for the first time ever, used the potty - breakthrough!! He had three successes yesterday, but unfortunately only had one today. Sigh.

Today was pretty crazy. Caleb woke up at 5:00, and didn't go back to sleep until 10:00. At 10:30 Samuel locked himself in the bathroom, and as we were taking the doorknob off we woke Caleb up. Doh. I also ran out of Zantac for Caleb and there's some confusion with the pharmacy keeping me from getting it refilled, which just made everything that must extra stressful today. As I was trying to figure that out, Samuel had an accident; when he heard me getting upset, he thought I was upset at him (hence locking himself in the bathroom), which wasn't at all the case. Ever notice that everything always happens all at once??? Once we got the door open we got it all cleared up with Samuel and he felt much better after a chat. Poor kid, he's going through a lot right now.

We all took a rest after freeing Samuel from the bathroom (for the record, Samuel knows how to use the locks, but he didn't want to open the door) and the rest of the day went way better. Samuel even managed to use the potty once and didn't have any accidents, and Caleb got a lot of sleep. So there is some hope for the future. It was awfully nice having Cameron home to help yesterday and today!! Here's hoping for lots of successes tomorrow.

Awesome Song

2011-02-06T19:09:00.001-05:00

If you haven't seen "How To Train Your Dragon" yet, go check it out. The animation is great, the plot is fun and intense at the same time, and it's got a terrific soundtrack - what could be better than that?? Here's my favorite song, I've probably listened to it at least 10 times since I found it on YouTube (I especially love the last 45 seconds). :0)

Inching Closer and Closer

2011-02-04T13:58:00.003-05:00

Caleb is just itching to crawl, and he's almost there! I think he'll be crawling by next week, which makes me very excited and, admittedly, a little nervous. His whole world will open up when he can suddenly get wherever he wants, which has me looking all over the apartment and wondering what I need to baby-proof!! ;0) I love watching him learn so many new things, he just keeps getting happier and cuter. Here he is up on his knees, rocking back and forth trying so hard to go forward. He does actually manage to move, but usually in a circle or backwards. ;0)Samuel's still being a terrific older brother, and is slowly working his way towards potty-training (yes, he is 3 1/2 now, but he has never been one to be pushed into doing something he doesn't want to do, and for some reason he really does not want underwear). Yesterday morning he woke up and, for the first time ever, actually wanted to wear big boy underwear!! It only lasted for a few hours, and he hasn't actually managed to go potty in the potty yet, so we still have our work ahead of us. But at least he's wanting to try once in a while, that's huge progress. We're going to try taking the diapers away from him on Monday and see what happens after a few days. Wish us luck and say some prayers for us!! ;0)

A Must Read!!

2011-01-29T15:18:00.003-05:00

Cameron's dad, Mark, heard about a new book that just came out at the end of last year, and, feeling sure that I would enjoy it, got it for me for Christmas. He must know me very well, because it was seriously one of the best books I've read in a long time! The book is Unbroken, written by Laura Hillenbrand, and it was amazing. Previously, I had just finished reading The Hunger Games, which were definitely page-turners that you couldn't put down. Unbroken is just as much of a page-turner, only it's all real and true! The book is about the life of Louie Zamperini, and Olympic runner who served in the Pacific Islands during World War II. Even when he was five years old, his life was interesting, and it just got more and more fascinating as he got older. I don't want to give details because I think it will spoil it when you actually read the book, but he was quite a person.One of the things I loved was that she wrote it as if it were a novel, but still put in all kinds of details and statistics, etc. She never tried to exaggerate any of the wonder or horror that happened, just told it was it was. In my history classes, we were often told that no historian can tell a story without putting in his personal bias, but I think that Hillenbrand did a truly remarkable job of telling the facts, hearing all sides of the stories, and telling the reader what happened without letting her own lens show through.

So once you finish whatever book you're reading, I strongly encourage you to go find Unbroken; you won't regret reading it! :0)

Caleb's Baby Pictures

2011-01-29T13:54:00.003-05:00

My friend Christine is an excellent photographer, and as a baby present she generously took Caleb's baby pictures. I wasn't able to do this for Samuel, so I was really excited to get professional pictures of Caleb as a newborn. He was four weeks old when she took the pictures, and here are a few of my favorites. It's hard to believe just how much red hair he had when he was born!!!

Happy 6 Month-iversary!!

2011-01-24T13:47:00.003-05:00

Today marks six months since Rachael and Ian got married!! Since I finally got my videos uploaded, I thought I would help them celebrate a bit by sharing the videos we got from their big day. I remember hearing once that if you can get past the first six months of marriage, then you would make it through all the rest. So, Rachael and Ian, I guess you've made it! ;0) Congrats again, and Ian - we're glad to have you in the family. :0)

And just for fun, since I still can't believe Rachael got my dad to wear a tux, here he is:

And one last quick note, as of today Caleb is now 7 months old! Here he is standing (with help from his papa) next to Penguin:Congrats again to Ian and Rachael!!! :-D

Videos!!

2011-01-22T20:44:00.004-05:00

I'm trying to catch up on a few things that I've fallen way behind on, one of which is updating my youtube account. I think I downloaded about 50 videos the last two days!! Here are just a few of my favorites:

Not What I Was Expecting When I Turned On the Camera (I love Samuel's reaction):

Cameron and Samuel reading the Book of Mormon together:

Samuel feeding Caleb:

Brothers Together:

Funny Statements/Conversations

2011-01-20T10:40:00.006-05:00

We've had some pretty funny things that were said around here recently, so here are a few of them. The pictures are just for fun, just to show how much Caleb resembles his big brother. :0)
Just before Christmas, Tracy came for a visit. She had been to see "Messiah" the night before, and as she told me about it I was surprised that she had seen the New York Philharmonic perform it. I told her I thought she had only seen a local/community production of it, and she reminded me that in fact, that was her community production! There are definite benefits of living next to Lincoln Center!Samuel's been watching a lot of Toy Story recently, and is learning all kinds of new words and expressions from it. So here's a conversation we had during dinner a few days ago (Cameron wasn't yet home from the hospital when we had this discussion):
Samuel: Look, a cannibal!!
Me: Samuel, do you know what a cannibal is?
S: Yeah...
Me: What's a cannibal?
S: Papa!
Me: No, Papa's not a cannibal!!
S: No, Papa's a doctor now, he's not a cannibal!
...Papa's a doctor, he can't be a cannibal.
...I want to EAT a cannibal!!! (That's especially funny because he doesn't have any clue what a cannibal really is.)
Cameron and I were eating ice cream one night, and I was enjoying the melted ice cream left in the bowl and told Cameron that someone should come up with a way to drink ice cream. In my defense, it only took me a second to think of the word, "milkshake."
Here's a prayer that Samuel said the other night: "Merci pour Jesus, et merci pour Jean-Baptist, et merci pour les Lamanites. Aide-nous a bien dormir...Amen."
And just this morning, as he was eating his applesauce, he said, "Mm, mm! What's that wonderful smell of applesauce?!"I'm afraid I don't quite have any quotes from Caleb, but he is making all kinds of cute noises and sounding very much like R2D2, and making us all smile a lot. :0)