BYU Splash and Dash

Over the last 3 weeks we've been strapping up our laces and goggles in preparation for the BYU Splash and Dash!

Kelv and I have been training for a triathlon in April and Kelv convinced me that doing the Splash and Dash would be good practice.

We decided to do the Team Event which meant I would be swimming a mile (that's 66 times across the pool just so you know!) and Kelv would be running a 10K. That is something he has never done, and I haven't really swam competitively since I graduated from high school 7 years ago, and had a baby a year ago, so we were excited for the challenge!

Our goal going into the race was to finish. Whew! We achieved our goal! And actually, we did better than that too! We ended up getting 4th in our heat and then 7th overall. Hurray!(Too bad that 2nd heat was fast too!) We're pretty pleased with those results and figured they weren't too bad for two people who have only trained for about 3 weeks! I finished my mile in about 26 mins and Kelv did his 10K in about 46 mins. That's 7 min miles for Kelv! I'm glad Kelv whipped it out so we could finish so high in the ranking!

In the end it was a lot of fun being able to achieve something together as a team/couple, and a big shout out thanks to my parents who were kind enough to watch little Camden while we competed!

What do you do with a free balloon from Macey's?

So, I don't know if my shopping trips just take too long, but the last couple times I've been shopping at Macey's Camden has been pretty fussy by the time we get to checkout. Needless to say, the last couple times the cashiers at Macey's have given him a free balloon. He loves them! It really does help. The only question I have, is what do you do with your free balloon when your toddler still tries to eat them? You clip it to the bottom of his binky! :-D

This video is just a fun little clip of how Camden spends his time when hyper during the day. It's like he just can't say enough or reach enough places! So much ground to cover... in our one bedroom apartment!

Camden's Birthday!!!!

Back in February we celebrated Camden's 1st Birthday! Hurrah!

It was such an exciting day and time! On his actual birthday we kept the celebrations to a minimum since he was teething and having just a bit of a hard time. We just tried to do things that he enjoys all day, and gave him all the foods he enjoys eating as well. Then later that night, we had our neighbors the Billman's over, whom Camden just loves, for some cupcake ice cream cones and it was a fun time!

The next day, Kelv's parents, Camden's Miga and Poppa, made the trip down from Boise to be here for his birthday and it was a wonderful visit! Camden loves his Miga and Poppa, especially all the one-on-one attention they gave him! :-D

Then on Saturday we had a big family birthday bash! (Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us crash your place!) Camden absolutely loved seeing all his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who came out for the event! We made him a safari cake which he thought was very interesting, but didn't really dig into much until we gave him a fork with which to attack it! (Thanks for the tip about the fork Marianne!)

Camden's little cake

The Cake for the rest of the family

Some of the family there...Thanks for coming!

So as you can see, it was a fun and eventful weekend! One of my favorite parts was seeing Camden respond to the traveling "Homey Birthday Frog" that each member of Kelv's family gets to enjoy on their birthday! :-D

Valentine's Day!

Hey All!

So we've been sort of neglecting blogging lately. Life been busy! Between school, church responsibilities, work, and life with an active toddler we're learning to balance our time. So... we wanted to share how our Valentine's Day went! Camden was born after Valentine's last year and so it was fun experiencing his first Valentine's together!

We started off the holiday by putting up the adorable decorations my Grandma Sanders sent Camden!

He was so excited! It was hard to catch him holding still!

Camden looked so handsome in his "Future Heart Throb" Jammies from his Miga and Poppa (Kelv's awesome Parents!)

Then to top it all, my little sister "Heart Attacked" our door with President's Day quotes. It was awesome. Thanks Ruth!

Update on the little guy

He's learned a really neat skill so stay with me all the way until the end...

For starters, he had great Christmases (yes, plural), both in Orem, UT at Alene's home and my home up in Boise. Alene was scheduled for an "on call" shift Christmas Eve but didn't have to go in :-D! My parents and the rest of my family including our 1.5 year old nephew didn't mind calling Christmas day Christmas Eve, so we finished Christmas morning at the Duersch home and 6 hours later began Christmas Eve at the Cutler home. Pretty AWESOME if you ask me! A big thank you to all my family for allowing us that option!

Here's a pic from Christmas with my cousin's little girl (not all that close of a relation, but Alene thinks they look so similar in features and of course Camden is very cute in it so I'm including it)

Here's some picks of our little guy with crazy faces and a full-ish set of teeth (6 of 'em)

Here is a video of his craziness :-D:

And the BIG news....

Camden is taking steps!!!! He's basically there! He can walk!!!!!!!

We've spent a fair amount of time and effort into getting him to walk on his own, but no fruit whatsoever while we're trying. He would (and still) just immediately plops down on his rear end whenever we try to get him to walk and we let go of his hands.

I wish we could say it was all our effort that paid off (and maybe it helped), but he took his own first little steps when we weren't really even paying him much attention - in fact, Alene wasn't there! Alene had gone off to do zoomba (dance aerobic exercise), and I was home working on my computer while Camden played by himself in the room with me. He doesn't usually let me do this for long before grabbing at my laptop so I was enjoying this time. The trick to his contentment this day (yesterday - Saturday), was my toothbrush. He LOVES my toothbrush and I rarely let him have it. So while thoroughly enjoying his time with and being caught up in the excitement of standing up and playing with his "toy," he took two small steps! I was lucky to have been watching him at that moment. I called Alene - no answer, left an excited message for her. He stands a bunch more times, and does the little step (just single steps) thing a couple more times.

Since then I got him to / we distracted him with fun toys until he took some steps for mommy (Alene), and then today at church he took a few more steps. Tonight he started actually realizing what he was doing (you can see in his face how clever he thinks he is) and we could get him to actually make some walking steps. We caught his best run, 9 steps! Enjoy the video!

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!)