Oh no... we have a climber on our hands!

So, we put our Christmas Tree behind our chair for a reason! But if you can't go around it, and you can't go under it, guess you have to go over it!

Yup, our kid is crazy!

And cool...

And fast...

And cute!!!

Our Kid's Got Skills

Camden is 9 months now!

He has 3 teeth and one more (to mirror the other top tooth) that has almost erupted! He crawls like crazy and so many other things!

We've decided to document a few of them for you here. Enjoy!

Camden loves to crawl on top of things... (he gets up there all on his own)

AND under them too!

Loves to talk and make sounds!

Here's his attempt on his own! (He does this all the time... I love it!)

A little fall fun

The leaves here in our neighborhood have been beautiful...AND plentiful as they fall to the ground.

We couldn't help getting Camden out there so he could frolic in the leaves for his first time! Enjoy!

Little Update

First, Camden has learned to crawl!

Yes, we officially had to really get down and baby proof the house.

Camden has also enjoyed trying on different hats of sorts!

And he's enjoying reading more and more everyday too!

What a wonderful life!

Tie!

My little man.


So we finally got Camden a little tie. I love it!

Jumperoo!

So a few months back we posted about how Camden got a new Jumperoo. At the time, he couldn't even reach the floor or move enough to activate any of the features at all!

But now, we've even had to raise it up a setting he's gotten so tall and whenever he's in it, he can't help but activate EVERYTHING--Including a big grin from both himself and his parents!

We also took Camden on his first plane ride! For being the tired boy he was, missing his nap time before the flight and all, he did very very well. He only got upset as we were just starting our decent into Boise, and I was able to hold him and rock him to sleep, so that was wonderful. He just loved everything about the plane!

BYU Football!

The leaves are starting to change, the days are getting shorter, the temperature is getting a little cooler, that must mean one thing... BYU FOOTBALL SEASON is HERE!!!


Although Saturdays game was less than desirable, we still had a fun time just being there as a family and with friends!

Here are the Jello Jigglers we dyed and made for the neighborhood tailgate/BBQ party we had in the afternoon.

This game was Camden's first time in good ol' Lavell Edwards' Stadium! We are sure he'll be there many more times with both his parents and then again when he comes to the Y as a student. Maybe he'll even play there some day!

It took Camden a little getting used to the loud excited outburts from the surrounding fans, but with the help of some ear plugs and happy looks from parents and other fans, Camden did really well. He was the reason we were still somewhat happy by the end of the game because he was so hyper!

We sure love our little guy! AND we love BYU Football! (yes. even after the FSU game)

Adventures in Canning

So like last year, my parents were generous enough to let us have some grapes to can grape juice!

Hooray! Grape Juice IS Delicious!

Well, everything was going well, and having already done the process once before, things were going much more smoothly than last year. Until.... the jars started to cool.

I was sitting in the living room working on the computer while Camden was napping, when I hear this "POP!" sound from the kitchen.

I knew this wasn't "the sound of success" that you get from a properly sealed lid since I had the jars tipped upside down. Tipping them upside down with the hot juice helps them seal without having to process them. Anyway, so I get up to see what has happened, and this is what I saw.



I don't know if you can tell well from the pictures, but my GLASS jar had caved in! I couldn't believe it! I quickly called my husband, mom, and dad to consult what I should do, or if they had ever had that happen to them. Dumbfounded my parents just couldn't believe that happened and in all their years of canning foods, had NEVER had that happen. My dad thought it was possibly a weakness in the glass and that once the juice had cooled, I should get the juice out of there and not use that jar in case it imploded some more. Crazy huh?!

Well, to wrap this up, do not fret, because it didn't implode. And we can happily announce that we will be enjoying 32 quarts of grape juice this year!

Camden gets a new bed!

It was time.



Although we were holding onto the days when Camden would still fit in his little cradle, for the sake of sharing our one bedroom, he's just now too mobile! For instance, in the picture above, he started the night swaddled in that blanket and perpendicular to where he ended up!

So we went over to my parents' home and brought home the crib we'd been storing there.
A huge shoutout to both my parents for letting it live at their house until we were ready for it AND to my sister Marianne, who is loaning us the crib in the first place!!!



We're pretty pleased with how well it fits in the room and don't really feel like we lost too much space, with the reorganization we've been able to do.


As you can see, Camden has much more room to sleep and maneuver. (We still find him totally turned about in odd angles-- including 180 degree turns-- each morning)


He seems pretty happy with it don't you think!?!

Ouch!

All for the love of the game...

So Kelv and I were on an intramural softball team together this summer. It was a blast!!!

But a little painful too...

2 weeks ago today, we had our first 2 tournament games as double headers. Well, during our second game we were pretty evenly matched and playing hard. Keeping this in mind, when I saw the ball flying towards home just after rounding the bases from 3rd to home, my competitive instincts kicking into full gear I realized to make it safe, I'd have to slide. So I did... and I made it home....SAFE!!! wOOt! And we actually ended up winning the game!

Well, 2 days later however, my leg wasn't as happy about my choice to slide to home over the hard and sandy ground.

After a trip to the urgent care, the doctor put me on 10 days of antibiotics, Lortab for the pain, and home with a whole lot of bandages, Neosporin, and tape, to help heal my infected and very painful wound. Here's what it looked like that Saturday after being treated with Neosporin all day. And to be honest, the wound was looking better than it had that morning.


Well, having won our games, we were still in the tournament and had 2 more game (double headers again) the following Thursday which was one week ago. Well, come the second game again, I came into a situation where I was in danger of getting out, but this time at 3rd base. So as I ran hard into the bag, I sort of tripped/dove into the 2 players standing on the 3rd base bag. I sort of took out the tall guy in my way, taking his cleats to my hand and already wounded left leg (thank goodness it was wrapped), but that caused him NOT to catch the ball, so I was SAFE AGAIN!!! My knees and hand were bleeding, but at least I didn't get out right?! This is what my leg looked like after that game:


So today, after another painful week, I can finally walk normally, without fear of pain or reopening any wounds!


Man... who knew that coed, lower division, BYU intramurals could be so exciting!?!

Happy 4th!

We had a really fun Independence Day!

After a delicious patriotic breakfast, Camden decided to show us how he can try and sit on his own!


Then, we couldn't help getting outside to enjoy the beautiful day. We played an exciting couple games of croquet!


Camden and Daddy did awesome and actually won both games! Poor mommy. :-(

Then after a yummy BBQ with family, Camden head off to play with his cousins, while mommy and daddy went to Stadium of Fire! Although we didn't know the lyrics to the Jonas Brothers' songs, we still had a wonderful time!

Thank you to all who fight, and have fought to keep us free!

R"eat"ing

We feel blessed that Camden has always liked books. Even as a newborn, one sure fire way to help distract him for a bit was to put a brightly colored book in front of him and read away.

Well, he has now taken reading to a whole new level... or should I call it r"eat"ing since the books seem to get eaten a whole lot more these days!

Beating the Summer Heat!

After noticing how mommy and daddy drink a lot of water from water bottles to beat this summer heat, Camden wanted to give it a go as well!



Not quite... but it was a great attempt son! :-D

Dad's Day

Well it was the best Dad's Day I've had while being a dad! It also happened to be my first! All the same, WOW, it was a great Father's day! I think the meal we had just a little while ago (yes, a very late Sunday meal), was a nice finishing touch to it all. However, I think I'll start at the beginning...

First of all, aside from waking up very briefly a few times in the morning to put Camden's binky back in, Camden slept well through the night as he has kindly done for the last 2-3 months AND after waking up, he let me sleep a bit longer while he kept himself happy as can be babbling while Alene prepared breakfast. We had ham and eggs - Yum! I opened my gifts and put on the tie that Camden and Alene made for me. Those ties were the fun primary project Alene thought of - she had the kids color them and then we stapled rubber bands to the back and had the kids present them to their dads after singing the classic "daddy comes home" song. Here's the happy dad and happy Camden:

As a side note for those who don't know - which is an important detail behind my next Father's day joy - I am now the 2nd counselor in the bishopric of my ward. So, another big reason I could sleep in and be happy (sleeping in being 8am ish), was because they had us only do minimal meetings today in honor of the dad's in our ward. That meant I only had one half hour meeting at 9:15am (and then some stuff to take of during and a little bit after church). That part was great!

Then... a NAP!!!! Wahoo! that felt good! I love sleep! I love naps!

Then a visit to Alene's Parents to say "Hello," "Happy Father's Day," and "Camden's here to play with Grandma and Grandpa!" Then home and preparation for dinner as Camden took a - much shorter than should have been - nap. He woke up, we fed him and then began to scarf down (ok, ok, so only I was scarfing - hey, I was hungry and the food was incredible!) our dinner. We splurged. It was a definite splurge, made ok by the fact that we got it from Costco and with a coupon, but we had... RIBS! BABY BACK RIBS! So delicious. We also had veggies and cantelope (from Costco too)! Yumm Yumm!

At the end of dinner we got a skype call from my parents! Camden was a happy playful guy for that. Life is good. Being a dad is awesome!

Happy Father's day to everyone else out there who's a dad! And thanks to Alene and Camden for making this day possible for me! :-D

So Strong!!

Over the last week, Camden has been trying to show us just how strong he is!


He's been showing us by trying to sit up on his own by doing a pike! He'll even use his hanging toys to help him pull up if they're accessible! (It's a little hard to see in the second picture, but if you look closely, you can see his head and feet are lifted up.)


He's also been trying to eat his feet. This isn't a great picture of him attacking them, but sometimes it's hard to catch those!


I can't believe how fast he's growing up!

He's Growing!

So, I don't know if I'm just in denial that Camden is growing so much but I had another "he can't be that big" moment today.

I was looking through his "bigger" outifts that I had set aside til he grew more, and I found this cute overall set! I looked at the tag which said 3-6 months, and figured, "Hey! It will probably be a little big but let's try it out!" It was so cute I couldn't help it! Well... as you probably guessed... it BARELY fits him. I'm really hoping I can get him to wear it 2 or 3 times before he grows out of it! Oh well, hopefully we'll have another little boy sometime in the future and he can get some good wear out of it!


Hard to tell in the picture, but I could barely snap up his onsie shirt and had to extend the overalls to the longest strap setting!


He loves his little inch worm! Especially those knobby green "legs"!