Start Smart Basketball

Cameron did the Start Smart Basketball program through the Rec Center. He was by far the youngest participant by as much as two and a half years, but loved every minute of it. I think he was most excited though to be doing it with his cousin Logan. He surprised me when he would come home and tell me how you're supposed to dribble with your fingertips, or about chest and bounce passes.

Logan, Cameron, Baylee

Getting a treat after class.

Cameron's intense defense!

Showing his dribbling skills. Not a big fan of passing. Just dribbling and shooting.

Uh-oh, I guess he's already a ball hog! :)

Reasons

Here are some new reasons we love to live where we live. This spring we've seen many deer, bunnies (brown with white fluffy tails), foxes, and a skunk all within a mile radius of our house. Forgive the poor picture quality. It was dusk and they wouldn't hold still.

The Stats are in!

Cameron and Billy went for their well check-ups shortly after Cameron's birthday. The visit went well even though Billy had to get some shots. I absolutely LOVE our pediatrician. She is SOOO good. Cam was a little nervous to be there, but she put him at ease right from the start. She called him Dr. Cameron and let him help her check out Billy, even letting him use her stethoscope. Cameron was convinced he was such a good doctor he thought they were going to let him give Billy the shots.

Anyway, the boys are healthy and growing. Just as I suspected Billy hit the 16 pound mark. Four months old and 16 pounds and 1/2 and ounce to be exact. Cameron only weighed 19.5 pounds when he turned one, so they're very different in this regard. Billy was also 26 inches long which put his height percentile higher than his weight. I don't remember Cam's exact stats, but he broke 30 pounds weighing 31 I believe, and was over 40 inches tall.

Unfortunately, they didn't stay 'well' for long. We all got some virus that eventually turned into other illnesses: worst sinus infection I've ever had, Billy got 2 ear infections and pink eye, and they never would give Wes or Cam antibiotics even though they had the same symptoms as me. I can't complain too much though because we made it through the winter without anything major. Although I hate being sick in the spring, especially when it lasts for 2 weeks and counting!

He's Rounding Second and Sliding Into Third!

Well, he already slid into third. Cameron had his third birthday in April. I can't believe he's that old already! Where does the time go? I took him to the store to choose the theme of his party. Fully expecting him to choose Diego, or Sponge Bob, I was very surprised he immediately settled on a baseball party. Cameron loves baseball. We had the family up for a barbeque, cake and ice cream, games, baseball cards, and cotton candy. It was a lot of fun. The only thing I didn't do this year was make a fancy cake. Our oven wasn't working at the time, so the cake wasn't high on the priority list. Cameron had a blast and was totally spoiled with all the presents.

Cameron has really grown up this past year. We do a little preschool with 6 other moms and rotate houses. Just since the beginning of preschool I've seen him really come out of his shell and be a big boy. He's such a boy. He wants to hunt with his Dad, ride horses with his Dad, pretty much everything with his Dad. If I let him outside for two seconds he does things like fill our garage with gravel, or start hiking up the hill in the sage brush with his dogs, or completely cover the dogs with dirt. Give him his dogs, or a shovel, or rocks, or his little dump truck, and he's happy for at least an hour. We gave him a big kid bike (with training wheels) for his birthday, and he already zooms all around our garage doing figure 8's. I have a feeling he's going to want the training wheels off before the summer is over. He's growing up WAY too fast!

WICKED

Completely, totally, utterly AMAZING! I was absolutely mesmerized the entire time. It was one of those experiences that leaves you thinking..."I WANT to do that!"..."I want to be on that STAGE!"..."I will do anything to do THAT!"...And then a few short seconds later reality sets in and you realize...I don't sing like Donna Vivino...I've never done a musical-though I'd like to...even if it were possible to make it into a cast...the traveling...the boys...the late nights...my headaches...

Then I totally laugh to myself over my train of thought. There are so many wonderfully different roles to have and places to be in this world. I think the secret is to be happy with the one you have, and I must say, for me, mine is pretty GREAT!

Growing like weeds

No longer my tiny cowboy.

I cannot get over how fast my boys are growing. Much too fast. Most of Cameron's 3T clothes all became 'floods' about 2 months ago, and according to my scale Billy is somewhere around 16 pounds! I take them to the doctor in about a week so I'll know for sure then. Cameron will soon be turning 3 and I just can't believe it. He is so grown up. I guess becoming a big brother, getting potty trained, and growing an inch or two really makes him seem so much older. He is so fun, smart, hilarious...I could go on. He is really coming out of his shell--even walking over to Steve Hardman after sacrament mtg to shake his hand and tell him goodbye.

Just recently I've really felt the weight of the responsibility I have to teach my children the 'important things'. So before Easter we had a little lesson which Cam loved. His favorite part of the story is about the angels rolling the stone away from the tomb. I recently looked at a friend's blog (the Scott's) and got some great ideas for next Easter from her and her sister. There is a link at the side of my blog if you're interested.

Cameron's most recent gospel centered question: "Does Jesus have a car or truck?" We laughed, weren't sure what to tell him, but when he persisted we told him "He can probably have whichever one he wants." Leave it to a little boy to be worried about cars and trucks!

An earlier discussion was him in the bathtub pretending to drink the water from one of his toys proudly exclaiming he was drinking "Copy" which he confused with coffee. He caught me off guard and after we figured out that he learned about 'copy' from TV I fumbled through an explanation that coffee isn't good for our bodies so we shouldn't drink it. He didn't really seem convinced so I then said, "Mom and Dad don't drink coffee because it isn't good for us, do you still want to?" To which he replied "Yep." So I took the discussion a little further explaining that we learn at church and from the scriptures that we shouldn't drink it. He liked this a little better, but what totally convinced him was that "President Monson doesn't drink coffee and tells us we shouldn't either." Well, I guess if he won't follow mine and Wes' example I definitely won't complain if the one he wants to follow is President Monson!

A Few Pictures

Thrush, thrush, go away! (Purple medicine)
Billy loves to be by Cameron. Cam was still half asleep.

CHUBBALICIOUS!

The boys hanging out.

Journaling

I used to be... not awesome, but pretty great about writing in a journal. Now, if I could even find my journal in our basement, I wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't been written in for a year. So I'm going to try out using the blog as a journal. Now I recognize that most of it won't necessarily be interesting to anyone but me, but at least I'll be documenting things I want to remember right?

First of all Cameron is at that very funny stage. He is always saying silly things. And, MAN, does he ever have a memory. I swear he remembers everything, even if he's only seen or heard it once. Which is great if it's educational, but frequently he remembers things I'm not that excited about. Here are some funny things he's said in the past few months I'd like to remember:

Shortly after Billy was born Cameron had no choice but to become more of a 'Daddy's Boy'. Commenting on it one day I said, "You're such a daddy's boy!" and he excitedly stated, "Yep! And you're Billy's boy!"

He frequently changes the names/nicknames he has for people. My new name is Mama-girl. Wes is called Weswee. My dad is Gramps. Also Cameron is asking to be called Gus. (Which is one of our dog's names.)

Cameron absolutely loves his cousins and regularly asks about them. However, he's been a little nervous about babies that crawl and hasn't been quite as interested in Will's and Isabelle's little brother Joey. (He walks now, so we'll see how it goes.) One night while praying he was thankful for Will, thankful for Isabelle, and then not being able to remember their little brother's name said, "and thankful for somebody else" and just kept on praying. He likes to say long prayers and will sometimes repeat everything 3 times just to keep it going.

I love how good Cameron is with Billy. He's quite observant with regard to Billy's needs and emotions. I was almost done getting ready this morning when I heard Billy fussing, and before I could get to him I heard Cameron say, "What's wrong Bud?" He's always referring to him as Bud and Buddy.

Cameron used to say he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up, but there were a few conditions. "I not give any shots though. Billy gives the shots. I take the temperatures."

He can't say the /v/ sound. It's a /b/ sound instead.

After waking from his afternoon naps, he always tells me good morning.

Gratitude

I feel the need to express a little gratitude about Motherhood. I was reading an article about the deaths of Natasha Richardson and Jade Moody, both mothers of young children, and it really hit a sensitive spot. Since I don't really know how to put a better link, here is the address http://www.newsweek.com/id/190782?GT1=43002.

I have been trying to keep on a happy face while Wes is out of town for most of the week, and trying to gear up because he's starting to travel much more. Earlier today and again when I was reading this article I realized number one, how lucky we are to have a steady income even if it requires travel, and number two, that I have two handsome, fun, intelligent, wonderful, rambunctious little boys to keep me insanely busy and help pass the time while Wes is away.

I definitely need to do better at focusing on the positive things in my life, instead of these minor inconveniences like having Dad gone.

Out of the mouths of Babes...

This is a cute idea I stole from Jenny's blog. The rules are, you copy this note, ask your child the questions and write them down exactly how they respond.

Cameron: 2 years 11 months
*He had just woke up from his nap, and was pretty irritated with the questions by the end, but here they are anyway.

1. What is something dad always says to you? No way!
2. What makes dad happy? ME!!! (while forcefully pointing to his chest)
3. What makes dad sad? Daddy don't get sad, just happy!
4. How does your dad make you laugh? Don't really know.
5. What was your dad like as a child? He would clap his hands. Yep clap his hands w/ his teacher.
6. How old is your dad? 2
7. How tall is your dad? Bigger than me and STRONG!
8. What is his favorite thing to do? Work
9. What does your dad do when you're not around? Work
10. If your dad becomes famous, what will it be for? (He didn't really get this one)
11. What is your dad really good at? Work
12. What is your dad not very good at? Being a swiper
13. What does your dad do for his job? Works for money
14. What's your dad's favorite food? Basketti (This is Cam's favorite, Wes really dislikes it)
15. What makes you proud of your dad? Poop (We kept telling Cam we were proud as he was being potty-trained)
16. If your dad were a cartoon character, who would he be? Diego
17. What do you and your dad do together? Shoot some deers, play with Kate and Gus
18. How are you and your dad the same? Both boys
19. How are you and your dad different? (He couldn't come up with anything.) He thinks they're exactly the same. Or at least wants to be.
20. How do you know your dad loves you? hugs, kisses, and plays bouncy ball game
21. Where is your dad's favorite place to go? Work make money

Now I must add that Wes isn't obsessed with work, but Cameron is truly devastated everyday when Wes leaves. Even if he's asleep when he leaves we have the following conversation almost daily:

C: "Where's Dad?"
M: "Work"
C: tearing up "But I don't want him to go to work."
M: "I know, but he has to go to work."

repeat 3 - 5 times

C: "Why?"
M: "He has to go to work to make money so we can have food and clothes and a house."
C: "But I don't want him to go to work!"

repeat

Finally I or we distract him with something else, and a promise that Dad will be back later to play with him.

Timing

I'm not a super scheduled person, so when I have to be scheduled, it's a little difficult for me. I like to try to be organized, but I'm not great about things like having naps and bedtimes at the exact time each day. Maybe it's because I'm slightly lazy, okay...mostly because I'm lazy, but I also want my kids to be able to go with the flow and not 'lose it' when there is a schedule change. I definitely need to be more scheduled, however I'm 'scheduled out'.

Shortly after my January post, Wes had shoulder surgery to repair a failed previous surgery. Cameron was nearly potty-trained months ago, but I let it go when I was nearing the end of the pregnancy, and for some strange reason I decided to finish up about 2 weeks before Wes' surgery. The week following Wes' surgery went something like this:
Give Wes medicine, get Cameron and Wes food, take Cam to the bathroom, feed Billy, change Billy, take Cam to the bathroom, give Wes medicine, feed Wes and Cam...then repeat each day for 7 days.
I've never been so frazzled in my life, and am so thankful for living so close to our families. They totally saved me! Wes thought he would return to work after only 3 1/2 days, but it was difficult when he returned a full week later. Luckily everything is settling down. Wes is feeling much better, and Cameron was so easy to finish potty-training. I guess it's nice because what used to seem crazy now seems much more simple. I guess it was a blessing in disguise.

Don't forget to look at the post below with all the pictures. Billy is growing and changing so much. He was just blessed and also had his 2 month doctor's appointment. He and Cam are similar in height, but Billy is way ahead in his weight percentiles. He's getting cute rolls on his thighs and I'm in love with his chubby cheeks! Life is good.

WARNING! Picture Overload!

This post is long overdue, so sorry for such an extreme picture overload. For some reason...actually I know the reason...I've not made time to post lately. I still manage to browse other's blogs, but am too lazy to log in and comment. I've had some sort of aversion to blogging. Here is my attempt to get over it. Pictures for now. Mostly of Billy, but a few of Cameron. I'll write more later.

Details

Well, I've finally made it to a computer with a few seconds to spare. So here are some details about what's been happening in our lives.

Baby Billy was due yesterday, but made his appearance 3 weeks ago. Billy was not a name we had ever considered, but his birthdate and time led us to name him Bill (Billy). He was born 10 years to the day and very near the time that Wes' dad (Bill) passed away. It was too much of a coincidence to ignore and it just felt right. Needless to say we have our little Billy.

Maybe I shouldn't refer to him as 'little'. In fact my doctor said it was a VERY good thing he wasn't ANY bigger or it would have been much more complicated. Good thing he came 3 weeks early! He was 8 pounds 11 ounces and 19.5 inches long. He has skinny arms and legs, so I think all the weight is in his cheeks. Cameron loves his baby brother and regularly touches, kisses, and holds him. He has been very good about being soft and not trying to do anything without first asking. Unfortunately Cameron was sick when he was first born and we couldn't let him get by Billy, so it's been a little confusing for him but he's adjusting well.

I wish I could say he's adjusting to the new house as well!!! He sleeps in our room along with Billy. For the time being (at least I hope it's temporary!) we have a family room, and a family bedroom! I love our new house and will hopefully post some pictures of it soon. We're still in limbo...some stuff still at Grandma Bethel's and not much put away at the new house.

We had a great holiday season with the wonderful present of a healthy baby boy. However, I do NOT recommend having a baby, Christmas, and moving all at basically the same time. (I didn't even throw in the infections I got!) I pretty much missed Christmas which was kind of sad for me. I did all the work, but missed the fun. I'm just glad I got to come home and see Cameron though. He was very excited about his presents. I was amazed at how well he understood the "being good for Santa" concept.

I'm looking forward to life settling down a little, if that's ever possible. I'm looking forward to getting more sleep (I doubt that's possible!), having some lazy winter days indoors, and cherishing this new little one before he grows up too fast. It's kind of nice the pediatrician said not to go out much and definitely not to real public places because of all the sickness. Now I can relax and not feel so obligated to be everywhere and doing everything. Now the trick is getting Cameron to want to stay indoors and relax too. Wish me luck!

Pictures for now

I wanted to hurry and post some pictures before our computer is unplugged because I imagine it will be awhile before we have the internet up and running at the new house. So I'll make sure and do a writing post from another computer sometime. Here are a few recent pics from our crazy past few weeks.

Cameron's favorite present from Santa. Now he plays guitar like Uncle Robbie.

Awful no makeup picture, but happy he finally arrived.

Cameron not so sure about his little brother.

Chubby picture.

Awake and alert.

This is what he looks like now. Except a little more chub in the cheeks.

Another sleeping shot.