1st Birthday!

My little Cameron just turned 1 on January 7th, and I'm finally getting around to posting about it. 

Tara made cakes for Kayleigh and Cameron while my Mom was still in town for Christmas.   Aren't they cute? They were also DELICIOUS!

I used the leftover marshmallow fondant to make cupcakes when we got together with Randall's side on his actual birthday.  My kids LOVED helping me decorate them.  I bet you can't tell which ones I made and which ones the kids did! (I don't know if I'm complimenting the kids, or insulting myself with that last comment.) Ü

The cousins liked how the fondant made their tongues turn colors.

Cameron wasn't too afraid to dig right into his cake.

I'm pretty sure he's my messiest kid so far, which is kinda sad considering this is the end result.

 

 

He received lots of fun gifts...

 

and played with TONS of fun cousins!

Cameron is in such a cute phase right now.  He pretty much can walk, he just prefers to crawl.  Grandpa Bob is determined to get him walking, but for now Cameron's just content standing nice and tall while clapping his hands and looking around for praise...then carefully lowering to his knees and taking off.   He's been standing up in the middle of the floor without any assistance (no chairs/tables for him to pull himself up with) for a really long time now but he's just recently figured out how to lower himself to his knees rather than just crashing to the floor.

He also has a really funny laugh that he does all the time.  I wish I could describe it better, but it's just a really long, somewhat deep aaaa haaaaa sound that is just HILARIOUS!  It almost sounds like he's trying to impersonate our laughs instead of just having the usual baby giggle.  He especially likes to do it when his brothers and sisters are entertaining him or when we're watching America's Funniest Home Videos. 

We always seem to come up with some sort of a nickname for our kids and for some reason we call him Cameronian.  I have no idea who came up with it, but I love it when I hear Meleah call him "Cam-ern-on-i-an."  It's just so cute! We also call him Cam on occasion. 

Cameron is very similar to Meleah in nature.  He's very busy, determined, and curious.  It's very rare to see him sitting in one spot for more than ten seconds unless he's playing with something that he thinks is very cool.  The cool item doesn't even have to be wildly entertaining with lots of bells and whistles.  He just latches on to things sometimes (one day it was a pez dispenser) and then he hauls it around with him all day. 

Cameron also has a thing for Grandpa Bob.  Now that he's discovered how to go up and down the stairs safely (it only took FIVE trips down the stairs the unsafe way to teach him), poor Bob just can't get a moment to himself.  He'd much rather be with Bob than me, which is a little hurtful I'm not gonna lie.  I mean, I've spent the last year nursing him, changing his diapers, and waking up every two hours at night to soothe him back to sleep. Not to mention the nine nauseating, back-breaking months that I carried him in my womb.  I can't complain though, because Randall's the one that should really be upset.  Cameron calls Bob "Da."

I just want to write down all the cute little things that he does lately so that I'll never forget...like holding out his little chubby upturned hand when he wants something, or pulling his sister's hair over and over to hear their high-pitched reactions...but in an effort to get to bed before he wakes up, I'm going to just say that I'm so blessed to have such a fun little guy to chase around every day. 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Well, it happened.  The most horrible, upsetting, horrendous thing has actually happened.  Somehow I thought it would never happen to me.  I thought that maybe my children sensed how insanely devastated, how completely crushed I would be.  But alas, it has happened.

I originally thought that the only victims of the heinous crime were poor Hannah Montana Barbie and brand new Barbie Loves to Ride Her Bike.  Yes, I know...I need a new camera.  

But upon further inspection I found this...

I made an appointment to have her hair fixed IMMEDIATELY, which was unfortunately canceled.  I then took a moment to think about it and an image came into my mind...  Pretty sad that my scanned picture from 1985 is more clear than the stinkin' pics I just took yesterday!

Do I really want to re-create this?  My brother Steve cut me a cow-lick(?) when I was a little girl (I would NEVER have done such a naughty thing) and this is what my mother was forced to do to "fix" it.  I decided to experiment a little bit and came up with this...

I would probably have to do this exact style every day for MONTHS, but is it worth it?   Unfortunately, a couple of hours later it looked like this...

In her defense, she just finished throwing a massive tantrum minutes before I took this picture, which is part of the reason why she looks so tore-up tired.  Right now I'm just grateful that she doesn't look like this...

I found this random picture online when I was googling haircut ideas for little girls that chopped their own hair. 

Ever since the incident, whenever I mention pretties, brushing, or anything that has to do with hair, Meleah promptly says "I not cut my hair anymore, Mom."  That would be quite comforting if she didn't have the same response about eating my lipgloss, because I just found her slurping down my last tube of Victoria Secret Beauty Rush two days ago.  (I know... DISGUSTING!)  So, now I have to decide.   Shall I work with what I've got?  Shall I chop it all off (if for nothing else than to stop Randall from calling her mullet-eah)?  And while I'm asking...does anyone know where I can find an affordable camera that takes great pictures and lasts for more than 3 years? 

10 YEARS!

My sis-in-law Taryn did a blog post on the past decade and it made me start thinking about all that's happened to us in the year two-thousand...in the year two thou-sand!  (If you watch Conan, I meant for that to be said in the creepy sing-song voice he used to do for that segment.  If you don't watch Conan, you'll have no idea what I'm talking about.)

1999

I graduated from Basic High School and cried my eyes out after my Mom dropped me off at SUU.  Randall was serving his mission in Oregon and cried his eyes out every time his Mom wrote him a letter.  :)

 

 

 

2000

I dropped out of SUU and started working at the Safekey office and attending CCSN and UNLV.  Randall came home from his mission and worked for the family embroidery business while he searched for the woman of his dreams.

2001

I continued to go to college and work for Safekey along with becoming a substitute teacher.  Oh yeah, and I met and fell in love with a super-hot guy and got engaged to him during Thanksgiving weekend.  Randall met the woman of his dreams at a wedding reception for one of his former companions, (even though he didn't remember her because he was on a date with some other chick) and later his companion set them up on a blind date.  He too fell hopelessly in love and became engaged Thanksgiving weekend. 

2002

I moved to Utah and we got married on April 20th.  We discovered that we were expecting our first child on our two month anniversary.  (Go ahead and laugh.)  After that my memories are somewhat blurred, but I have glimpses of me dozing on the couch while holding a puke-bucket and also laying on the bathroom floor enjoying the nice cool feeling of the tile on my cheek.  Fortunately I was laid off the day after I found out I was pregnant, and have been blissfully unemployed ever since.  (I honestly have so much respect for women who work while they're pregnant.  How do you do it?!) We also moved out of our basement apartment in West Jordan and into Randall's parent's basement apartment in Pleasant Grove. 

2003

We welcomed our son Carter to the world on February 25th, and moved into our home in Eagle Mountain at the end of August.

 

2004

Randall was still working for Sew What Embroidery and we found out that we were going to have a little baby girl with spina bifida. Ben, Taryn, and Stryder lived with us for a couple of months, and after they moved out Randall's parents moved in.

 

 

2005

On March 23rd our sweet Lyddies was born.  It was so nice to have my in-laws living with us to help out during a pretty stressful time.  I will never forget how loved we felt throughout this entire experience thanks to all of our amazing family members and friends. 

 

2006

We found out that Carter and Lydia were going to have a sister even though the pregnancy was exactly like Carter's and she was such an active little thing.  We didn't care if it was a boy or girl, I just thought I had a "mother's intuition" or whatever they call it.  Apparently mine's broken along with half the stuff in my house.  

 

2007

Randall's parents moved into their new house, and Meleah Susanne was born on May 26th in our home...without the use of drugs.  (Go ahead and laugh.)  I did a preschool trade-off with some of the ladies in my ward for Carter that was actually pretty fun.  Especially on the weeks that it wasn't my turn to teach.  ;)

2008

Randall and Carter started school on the same day, Randall to Physical Therapy Assisting school at Provo College and Carter to Kindergarten at Eagle Valley Elementary.  Lydia switched from Kids On The Move (an early intervention program that we'd been working with since she was born), to the school district.  This picture is Lydia with one of her KOTM teachers, Aubrey, on her last visit.  We also discovered that we were going to have another boy, a little bit earlier than planned...

2009

Cameron Michael was born on January 7th.  We downsized the business, rented out our house, and moved in with Randall's parents (apparently we just can't stand to live apart from each other).  Randall finished all of his book-learnin' classes and his first clinical.  Who's idea was it to have students work full-time for free (making it nearly impossible for them to have a job) in order to graduate?

So basically, a TON of stuff has happened in the last ten years.  Randall always makes fun of me because when he started talking about marriage I may have mentioned something about still feeling like a little girl and not really feeling old enough to get married.  The crazy thing is...I still feel a little on the immature side and I don't really understand how I can have been through so much and not have grown up yet!  :)  It's been an amazing ten years and I am so incredibly blessed.  Here's to hoping the next ten years are as full of laughter as the last ten, and perhaps a couple fewer pregnancies and a little less stress?!

Happy Holidays!

Time has flown by and somehow the holidays are already over.  We spent Thanksgiving in Las Vegas and had our Christmas party that same weekend while we were all together.  Unfortunately almost all of us got the stomach flu during the week.  Luckily it was a pretty quick recovery and my sisters and I were all able to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving together.  December went by in a flash and before I knew it we were celebrating Christmas Eve over at Laura's house (which I still call Grandpa's house when I'm not thinking).  It was fun to carry on some of the same traditions that we've always done, even though it sometimes seems to accentuate the fact that Grandpa is no longer with us.  On Christmas Day we opened presents, played with our new toys and games, then had the Stewart family gathering.  Everyone was able to come and it was so much fun to see all the cousins playing together.  The Saturday and Sunday after Christmas we went back to Laura's house to hang out with my Mom and Dad while they were here.  Last but not least, we celebrated New Year's at Laura's and once again there was lots of playing, eating, and chatting.  I'm feeling pretty bummed that the holidays are over, but fortunately I had Cameron 8 days late last year so I still have his Birthday to look forward to on the 7th.  After that, let the January blues begin...

Some of the kids hanging out at my Mom's house.  This is actually a picture from September, but since I didn't remember to take any pictures over Thanksgiving (I was too busy puking!), I'm putting this in to represent that time.  We also hung out with Lindsey and her family before we realized that we were exposing them to the plague.  Fortunately I don't think they ever came down with it.  (Right, Linz?)

 

 

 

My kids like this freezing cold weather A LOT more than I do.  I'm a Vegas girl at heart, and I have an especially hard time staying warm during the rare occasions that I'm not pregnant. 

I asked Carter what his favorite gift was and he gave the politically correct answer "Everything."  He has played the most with his Didj, Nerf guns, bakugans, and Hooked on Phonics workbook so far.

Lydia's favorite gift was her Barbie "Pambelina" (Thumbelina).  She also really loves her jewelry box and jewelry and her pink Leapster.

Meleah was the fastest unwrapper of everyone.  She just kept saying "I need nother one."  I don't think she even realized what she'd been given until all her presents were opened and she took the time to actually look at them.  She has really loved her Barbie with a bike, her ABC's baby, and her jewelry/jewelry box.

 

Cameron was really not all that excited about his gifts.  He would just tear off a piece of paper then continue to tear that piece into tiny little pieces, not even bothering to look at what he was unwrapping.  He has since fallen in love with his Mickey mouse music set (especially the drum and the maracas), and his ball popper.  My favorite gift he received was his new booster seat that he can't get out of and is super easy to clean. 

 

Cameron kept stealing the clementines Grandma and Grandpa Stewart gave to everyone and eating them before they were peeled.  I thought he would learn after the first bite, but he just kept going for them.

I didn't take very many pictures at all the gatherings held at Laura's but here's a picture of my Dad and Randall chillin' on the couch.

 

Looks like I got a little carried away when I was wrapping...