Breakfast with Santa

Camille was NOT a fan of Santa last year, but this year I had high hopes! Camille and I had taken a trip to the mall at the beginning of December. I was looking for a shop that sold suckers to keep her entertained for a little while longer while I shopped, and around the corner was Santa...with suckers! I was so excited to get her a sucker and see what she thought of Santa all at once! There was no line and she was in no outfit for pictures, just practice. We talked about Santa, his suckers and how nice he was. When I asked if she would sit in his lap, it was "no!". She wasn't quite brave enough to walk up to him, but as she clinched my arm, we walked up, gave him a high five, touched his hat and said "thank you" for the sucker. From then on, she talked about Santa all the time. She loved seeing Santa's but anytime you mention sitting his lap, it was always "no!".

So then our church had Breakfast with Santa. They had a bounce house with a huge slide in the auditorium, breakfast in the kitchen and arts and crafts in the classrooms. She went in the bounce house probably 15 times and was actually able to do some of the crafts on her own this year. Santa arrived on the fire truck and she talked big! She acted like she was so brave and just loved the man! But nope, fear sunk in again. We still have no good Santa picture. These are the closest she got to him at first. Just before he left, she walked by and freely gave him a high five all on her own...that was a huge step!

Camille also got to sit on Santa's firetruck!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Austin and spent a week with Clayton's family. We all stayed together in his parent's house with all 5 of our children. It was so much fun to all be together. This was our second experience with Camille sleeping on a pallet. She moved around some, but did great. I think we're getting close to a big girl bed! The kids had a blast playing together and learning to share some of the favorite toys, the stroller and pow pows. We really enjoyed our time there watching movies, playing games, shopping at midnight, baking and eating! Here are all the kiddos in their matching PJs from Bubbie!

They also enjoyed helping Bubbie fix brownies and fudge! Those spoons look good!

Go, Team, Go

Camille and I bundled up and went to Zach's Playoff game while Clayton went to a men's campout. This was their team's first year in the playoffs in around 10 years...it was a big deal! They had a huge community pep rally the night before at their stadium. Camille and I met my aunt, uncle, cousin and the cheerleading squad at Chick-Fil-A before the game. Although they didn't end up winning, it was a great game and we enjoyed it from the front row! Camille practiced "Go, Zach" all the way to the game and she loves yelling "Touchdown" with arms up and "Go, Go, Go" whenever she sees football. I had her hat on her, a scarf wrapped around her neck, her jacket on her and a pair of my gloves on her hands. Everything lasted most of the game except the gloves. When she stood up to clap, she couldn't hear it so she lost the gloves quickly. The next week we went to Target and I found some mittens her size. When I showed them to her she said, "football game?". She definitely loves football and her daddy is proud! She loves all the excitement of the game and the band!

Here is Zach blocking an extra point kick in the 1st quarter.

My hometown had also made it to the playoffs and they sadly lost this week in the 2nd round. We are so proud! Neither teams have a history of being good, so when we make it this far, it's big!

She's Growing and Growing and Growing

For her 3rd Halloween, Camille was a flower! This was her first year to go Trick-or-Treating and she LOVED it!

We headed to Kaufman and stopped off at the C of C Fall Festival first to say hi to my mom, dad and sister. Brooke then joined us for Trick-or-Treating down Houston St.

Camille had her pink pumpkin pail and she wouldn't let go of it! She would walk up, say "Trick-or-Treat" and then "thank you!". Everyone thought she was so cute!

Then we headed back to the Fall Festival and Camille enjoyed spending time with Nana and Grandad there while we headed to a high school football game. My cousin, Zach, is a senior this year and we hadn't been able to see any of his games this year, so this was it! It was a great game and they won, marking their place in the Playoffs. Camille enjoyed getting her face painted, making a mask, eating chili and being spoiled by all of Nana and Grandad's friends.

A Colorful Party!

We celebrated the 2 years we have been so blessed with our precious daughter, Camille! They have been 2 years that Clayton and I would never trade for anything! We are so thankful for the opportunity to be this crazy girl's parents! She is amazing us every day right now with all the new things she is coming up with! She is beginning to talk up a storm! She is such a girly girl! She LOVES her babies! She feeds, rocks, burps, changes their diapers, takes them on stroller walks, gives them "wipey" baths and pats them to sleep. She is so sweet with them! She loves to dress up and she actually loves to wear bows now! I knew this day would eventually come! She is also beginning to enjoy tv for the first time. Her favorite DVDs to pull off the shelf are The Incredibles and Annie. I was so proud when she loved Annie...it's my all time favorite movie! She loves to find choo choos, cool (school) buses and motorcyles on the road.

We celebrated her 2nd birthday at our house the weekend before her birthday. She had a crayon themed party.

We had a great cardboard house outside for all the kiddos to color and decorate themselves.

The markers weren't such a good idea. Camille immediately had blue marker on the front of her shirt and Titus enjoyed decorating his face and arms. They dissappeared quickly!
I also had huge sidewalk chalk for them to draw with and colored shoelaces to string fruit loops onto for the big kids. Camille didn't really get the stringing part of it...she just enjoyed the fruit loops!

I found Crayola rings that I put in the colorful cupcakes and my mom helped me find Crayola drinks to serve to the kids. I also found crayon shaped popsicles.

It was a beautiful day and everything was great! It fun to see her really enjoy her party and gifts for the first time!

She got a full dress-up outfit for Snow White decked out with crown, gloves, necklaces, purse, dress and high heels from her Aunt B. She walked around in those high heels like she knew what she was doing. She would fall down, but keep the shoes on and keep on going.

On the following Wednesday, her actual birthday, she got the stomach bug! While I was getting her dressed that morning, she gagged a little but I just thought it was from some conjestion. I tried to get a cute birthday picture before we left for school, but she wasn't really in the mood! She had asked for milk before leaving but I just gave her a cup of water instead...thankfully! Halfway to the sitters house, she got sick everywhere! I just hated it for her! I called my school so they could start looking for a sub, called the sitter and then called Clayton to let him know we were back home for the day. He offered to stay home with her instead and I said 'Sure!' I hate having a sub and especially 15 minutes before I was to be there! When I called the school back, they had already found a great sub so they talked me into staying home as well. So the three of us enjoyed a day home together on Camille's birthday. Once 10am rolled around and we began giving her 1 tsp of Pedialyte every 10 minutes, she was fine. She never ran fever and never slowed down! It was very sad because every 10 minutes when we gave what seemed a drop of liquid, she would wine and say "milk, milk". I felt so bad for her because she didn't understand at all!

Fall Fun

Our neighbors told us about Nash Farm this year and Camille and I loved it! It was a free fall festival in Grapevine that we will make a yearly tradition. Camille and I went alone because Clayton was enjoying the OU/UT game at the Cotton Bowl. I enjoyed our time together that weekend!

There was a scarecrow contest so I took her picture next to the "real" scarecrows. This was right as we got there and she wasn't too sure about these scarecrows.

She enjoyed playing with the ducks in the pond and getting a prize. She chose a jumping frog.


There was a petting zoo with cows, goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens and donkeys. She even got to see a sheep being sheered.

She rode Marshmellow the pony and was so brave. I did walk around with her, but she was loving it!

There were tables and tables set up with little pumpkins, markers, stickers and crayons for decorating. She loved it, and I loved the blue sharpie on the front of her brand new shirt!


We rode a hayride around the festival. Camille enjoyed waving to everyone she saw.

She also practiced her horse racing skills with stick horses.

We participated in almost every activitiy except for the cotton picking. They had grown rows of cotton for people to pick and keep. Maybe next year.

This is what happens when you have too much fun with mommy at the Nash Farm. It's a must next year!

Early Birthday

The month of October fills up quickly in our household. This year we have 2 birthdays, my 10 year high school reunion, Clayton's 5 year ACU reunion, and many more football games and fall festivals to attend. When you have a child, their birthday trumps your own (especially when it is within a week). Sometimes I have to remind myself that my birthday still exists. That is perfectly fine with me because I enjoy getting ready for her big day and celebrating her birth day! This year, Clayton decided to give us a nice weekend alone in a hotel. Camille spent the weekend with my parents. Clayton and I booked a night at the Fairmont Hotel downtown Dallas. We wanted nice, but we got NICE! I felt like there was a huge sign on our car saying "We don't frequent luxury hotels!" when we drove up. We found the garage just as we drove up, but it had a sign saying Do Not Enter. So we drove up to the front of the hotel and two gentlemen opened our doors quickly. Clayton asked where we were to park, and they said, "We park it for you." I was immediately embarrased! Our car was a disaster! It hadn't been washed in months and it was definitely clear that a two year old rides in our car! They asked our names, took our luggage and began checking in for us. Clayton and I just kept looking at each other with grins and thinking "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

Our suite was on the 15th floor and it was larger than our first apartment! It was beautiful and much more than I expected! That evening we enjoyed some good BBQ in the West End, rode a trolley to the West Village for some shopping and then had some ice cream before heading to the hotel for the evening.

Right next to our hotel was the Fountain Place. It was gorgeous! I could have sat there for hours just watching the fountain. There were probably 100 jets of water that would shoot up at different times. Just as I got the courage to ask a lady to take our picture, our camera wouldn't work...just about right! So there are no pictures of the two of us from the weekend. On Saturday we enjoyed sleeping in, watching tv on BOTH of our flat screen tv's, and just relaxing...no hurry, no milk, no diapers, no mess and no cute little Camille (we did miss her tons!) We then went to the Galleria with hopes of ice skating. Clayton forgot his socks and they were giving ice skating lessons to little kids, so we enjoyed lunch at the Corner Bakery and a little shopping. It was a wonderful birthday together and I'm so glad we took time to be alone together.

I'm behind!

I officially have 246 posts to read of Google Reader! I feel like I'll never catch up at this rate. One night I'll get under 200 and then next I'm right back up.

Update on the potty: Camille's has pooped in the potty 2 times! That's 2 less dirty diapers I've had to change! Yeah!

TeeTee in the Potty!

About a month ago I purchased a potty for Camille because when she would see us use the restroom, she would say, "potty, potty". So I bought it but did not push anything. She has sat on that thing so many times and...nothing. Yesterday I went to the restroom and she says, "potty", so I take off her diaper and sit her down. Then I hear the music! I yell for Clayton to come in there and we made a huge deal about it! I couldn't believe she just sat down and teeteed! I know it is probably a fluke deal, but it was her first teetee in the potty! We were so excited! She wouldn't sit back down for a picture, so here's the picture of the potty (and teetee).