New Year Goals

I decided to come up with a list of things I want to accomplish or things I want my family to do during 2009. I have never really been much of a new years resolution person, but I thought I would try it out.

1. Get back to my pre-baby weight, so loose 5lbs. Although I would love to loose 10 or 15!
2. Be a better housewife, Im horrible at keeping my house spotless all the time.
3. Hopefully be pregnant with our second child before the end of 2009.
4. Start going on monthly dates with Bret.
5. Get better at budgeting money.
6. We started reading the Book of Morman and we want to be finished by December 09.

There are lots of other things but this is a good starter goal list. I am excited with what this year will bring. Cameron is going to change so much, he will start crawling, walking, learning words, he will turn 1 in May which I cant even believe. I hope I can accomlish even just a few things on that list and I will be happy:)

Another Cute Craft

I was feeling rather crafty and had to do something, so I did this tonight! My friend from church has a vinyl business (Phraseworthy) and I recently ordered something from her. It only required 4 vinyls but she gave me two extra. I couldnt decide what to do with them, I thought about having Bret cut some wood to do the same thing with the extra two that I did with the other 4, but I changed my mind. So the vinyl is one of the extra two and the snowflakes I cut with my handy dandy nifty Cricut machine:) I love making things like this, they are quick and fun and they make your house look nice. I know its a little too late to use as decoration this year, but it will be out next year!

So Close!

Cameron is really close to crawling! He gets up on his knees and rocks, he has gotten into a sitting position from his tummy a few times too! He can crawl backwards a little bit but not forward. He is also starting to try to pull up on things. He likes to grab onto me and pull up and now with his new toy he got for Christmas he has been working really hard to pull up on it. I feel like he has changed a ton over the last few weeks. He also learned how to wave and he started turning the pages when I read him books. He is growing too fast for me! I hope he learns how to crawl forward soon, although that brings a whole new hastle to having to really baby-proof my house.

Aubrey Rae

My good friend Sheila had her baby last week and we went to visit her today. I wanted to go see her sooner but our weather has been kinda crazy and the roads have been really bad so it took me 9 days to get out there to see her and the baby. She is so adorable! It was really fun getting to hold a newborn baby again and see Sheila. Cameron is not a fan of me holding other babies but he seemed to do pretty well today.

Me and Aubrey
Aubrey

Christmas With The Madsens

Last night we had our Christmas get together with Brets side of the family. Cameron got lots of cool gifts from his Grandma and Grandpa. A Crawl and Cruise Jungle, some really cute clothes from Gymboree and Old Navy, a few bath toys, socks, toy cell phone, shampoo, lotion, baby wash and a toothbrush with baby toothpaste. He also got some really cute slippers from his cousin who drew his name. He loves all his gifts, especially the Crawl and Cruise Jungle, he played with it all morning.
I made Maggie some photo blocks for Christmas. They are wooden blocks that I painted and then put pictures on.
We also made her a footprint stepping stone with Camerons foot prints. We tried to do handprints but all he wanted to do was grab the cement so we resorted to feet instead.

Cameron and his cousin Brody had fun playing together. They are 6 months apart. Cameron gets really excited when he gets to play with his cousins.

Me, Bret and Cameron in front of the tree at Maggie and Richards house.

All the cousins that were present with Brets Grandparents. That makes them Camerons Great Grandparents!

Peyton loves to play with Cameron and he loves to play with her in return. It was fun for Cameron to get to spend some time with his cousins. I wish we all lived a lot closer to see eachother more often!

Camerons First Christmas

I let him pull his toys out of his stocking. Lots of fun things!

Heres the loot, at least just from "Santa." I tried not to overdo it considering he is only 7 1/2 months old, I think I controlled myself alright. He also got a walker last night. My parents got him a learning puppy and a custom onsie, and Christopher got him a teething polar bear toy that I know he will love to knaw on as those teeth pop in. From Santa he got a mini piano, shape box, hot wheels(guess who picked those out...), bathtime tugboat, Vtech Smart Wheels, a number of different kinds of balls, a Baby Einstien DVD, A Very Hungry Catapillar book and toy set and a toy hammer.

Opening his bathtime tugboat. It comes with a few different toy sea animals too for playing in the bath. We tried it out tonight for his bedtime bath and he really liked it.

Hot Wheels, making daddy proud.
This is him opening the shape box, its one where you have to put the shapes in the slots they belong to get them inside the box. He really liked the wrapping paper. He barely noticed the toys, I think he could have just been given wrapping paper and been totally happy.

I happened to get the coolest thing I have ever gotten for
Christmas, at least in my adult years. Im sure barbies were quite amazsing when I was younger. Bret got me the Cricut. If you dont know what that is, its a die cutting maching for scrapbooking, card making, it cuts vinyl and stencils and everything in between. It cuts out letters, words, shapes and all kinds of cool things. He also got me two cartriges for it and it came with two so I have four. It was way more than I was expecting but Bret is such a sweet husband he said I deserve it because I have had a big year this year with having a baby and stopping working and staying home and all the other life changes that have happened. I made a card for my friend who just had a baby with it, the picture doesnt even do it justice of how cute it is. I am excited to get to make lots of fun things using it:)



As for Bret I got him a crawler for working on his car, one of those things you lay on to roll under your car. Also, two new hats and some hat cleaner and care products to keep them clean, wrenches, a new lunchbox for work and two diecast model cars to add to his collection.

We had a really great Christmas! My parents and brother spent the day with us and we had a delicious dinner together. We have another Christmas tomorrow with Brets side of the family. We love this time of year because between Thanksgiving and Christmas we get to spend a lot of time with our families, which is one of our favorite things to do!

T'was The Night Before Christmas...

In my family we had the tradition that we could open one present on Christmas Eve and that gift was our Christmas pajamas. So I decided to keep it going with Cameron and our family. I wrapped up his cute little PJ's, which let me tell you were totally made for a skinny little baby. We had to buy them in 18 month size just to fit his chubby little arms and legs in them! It was so fun letting him open them up and putting them on him.
I think this picture is so cute, his little bottom in those striped pj bottoms.I stuffed his stocking with a couple different kinds of balls, "The Hungry Catapillar" book and a stuffed Hungry Catapillar toy and toy hammer that makes sounds when you pound it. I cant wait to get up tomorrow morning and let the real fun begin!

Elf Yourself, So Funny!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Santa

We took Cameron to see Santa today. I must admit I was afraid for how this was going to turn out... We have all seen the Santa picture with the kids face bright red screaming. I was pleasently surprised! He sat on his lap and showed off his new skill of waving. He just kept waving to Bret and I with a smile on his face. At that moment I was so proud of him for giving us a good first Christmas picture with Santa, and for being able to wave to us, so cute! I swear that everytime he goes in for pictures he scratches his face somehow. I hasnt failed yet. So yesterday he scratched his cheek pretty bad, so you can kind of see it in the picture. I contimplated momentarily putting a little concealer on it, but that left my mind quickly. Besides, Bret would never approve of his boy wearing makeup. I cant wait for Christmas day so Cameron can open his presents!

All Cameron Wants For Christmas...

Is his two front teeth! This morning when we woke up I felt some little points poking through his gums on his bottom gums. I was SO excited! I have been waiting and waiting for these teeth to pop through for forever. He started acting like he was teething around 5 months and has been drooling like crazy, chewing on everthing and knawing on my finger ever since and finally some pay off. I hope they really come up through the gums completely soon because I think he will look so cute with two front teeth:)

Once There Was A Snowman...

Courtney (My Friend and Neighbor) and I wanted to build a snowman so we set to it. It started out just Me , Courtney and Hank and then a few neighbors joined in on the fun. It was perfect snowman building snow. We had a lot of fun!

He is a bit tall... Probably about 6 feet. He is quite a grand snowman!

SNOW!!

To the rest of the world I am sure in Seattle we are total snow wussies because we get a half inch of snow and life comes to a halt, church is cancelled, people hibernate in their houses, car accidents happen left and right... We are amazed by this beautiful thing, or rather terrified! We NEVER get it here so when we do its a wonderful thing! Last Sunday we got maybe an inch, probably between a half inch and one inch. Then it was calm but freezing for a few days. It snowed again on Wednesday and that time I measured it and we had 3 1/2" of snow (picture above). Then again it stayed rediculously cold and it barely melted. Then today we started getting snow again. At about 2:30pm it started out slow and slowly increased to a heavy snow fall, it has been snowing ever since. Its so pretty outside, I love it! We are supposed to continue to get snow through the night. Its about 10pm right now and I measured it and we are coming up on 3". We will see what its like in the morning. Its only 27 degrees outside, its so cold! I want to build a snowman but Bret wont go out in the cold with me to do it. Maybe tomorrow since church has already been cancelled.

Cameron exploring the snow. He was really confused at first but then he started to like it. He danced around for a little bit until it got too cold.

Me and Cameron in the snow.

Bret and Cameron in the snow.

A Few Cute Pictures

So excited!!

Being mischievous... When I tell him no or not to do something he looks at me and grins like this and then goes right back to what he was doing.

Visiting Grandma Moen at work.

Its Always Something... This Time Its Croup

Cameron is sick, yet again. After they looked at his chest xray from our last ER visit she said to watch out for Croup. And here it is! Yesterday morning he woke up with a really runny nose but I just figured it was because it was so cold. Then last night he woke up around 10pm with a barking "croup cough" and gasping for air like he couldnt breath. We turned up his humidifier, we took him in a steamy bathroom, but nothing was working and he was having a hard time breathing. We remembered the doctor said to take him to the ER again if he sounded like he was getting Croup...So off we went again, to the ER. They gave him medication with steroids in it to open his airway and he was acting so much better after that. His cough is still around today but its more congested sounding than the barking cough he had last night. We have to watch out for it to develop again in the next few weeks. I hope it doesnt! I want more than a week without him being sick.

Messes and New Found Toys

Cameron has discovered our magazines! We keep a basket next to our coffee table with magazines in it and he loves to pull it over and dump out all the magazines. Then he proceeds to tear them apart! They are mostly old magazines now so I dont care, he really seems to enjoy it. The other day he started in one place and pulled the magazine around with him ripping out pages as he went and he left a trail of crumpled pages behind him. This went on for over an hour! He loves to feel the pages between his fingers, crumple them up, rip them out and turn the pages. I think its so cute!
His other newfound discovery is the wipes. He could sit there all day and rip out wipes from the box if I let him. He loves to play with the container and open and close the flap and then pull out wipes and play with them. Sometimes when Im changing him and he is being fussy I just give him a wipe now because he loves them! He also likes to do this with our Kleenex bloxes, good thing I stop him after a few minutes from pulling all of them out or we would have no wipes or Kleenex's!

December Craft Night

Courtney and I had another fun craft night. We had it at my house and we made really cute Happy Holiday blocks. Not to mention the yummy desserts we all enjoyed. Its fun getting together and doing things like this.

Finally A Rolly-Polly Boy... Kinda

Cameron finally has been rolling over a little bit more. He mostly does it to get to a toy or binky but occasionally he will roll over just because he doesnt want to be on his back. I am so glad he is finally catching on!

Decking Our Halls

(A friend of mine had poincetas as her tree topper and I thought it was so beautiful, I had to copy her!)

The Saturday after Thanksgiving I was determined to get up our Christmas decorations. I love Christmas, its by far my favorite holiday. We got up early and pulled out the boxes and started pulling things together. I wanted to do a real tree this year, but stubborn Bret said no, so fake tree it was. Cameron was enchanted with the tree, he stared it down for quite a while not sure what to think of it. I would love to have all the decor my way, but its mostly hand me down ornaments from my mom. Its still beautiful but one day I will have all my own ornaments. Since we got married I have bought a few things each year, I think I am going to make a post-Christmas run this year and get some things while they are on sale.
My mother in law made our stockings. She is very talented and I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into them. I would never have the patience!
We put silver beads around our tree and so I let Cameron play with them a little bit to explore. He really like them and was a little upset when I took them away to put them on the tree.

We are working on getting our lights on our house. We have it half done, silly I know, but our roof is really steep in one area so Bret is going to bring home his harness from work to do that part this weekend. I will post a picture when its all done.

Finally... A Good Day!

Today was the first good day we have had in over a week! Cameron didnt throw up once or have any "messy diapers" and he ate all his bottles like normal, just an ounce less than normal. And he ate his baby food meals too. I am so relieved! I have been so exhausted from his lack of sleep because in turn it makes me not get much sleep. Its amazing how when they are first born your body kicks into overdrive and even though your exhausted beyond reason you survive. But then once you get used to getting more sleep again it kills you to have one bad night, and I have had at least 7! I am so thankful that he is doing better. I have been so worried about him. He was so playful and giggly today which he hasnt been in a while. He had lots and lots of wet diapers which means he is well hydrated, he was having only 3-4 a day while he was sick. We bought a humidifier the other day and it seems to be really helping with his coughing at night and helping keep his runny nose somewhat under control. I am really glad we got one. Anyway, I think we are over the hump and finally on our way to full recovery!!

Doctors Office Runs and One ER Visit

(My sick little man sleeping in his swing, which he never does so you know he is feeling rotten!)

My poor little Cameron got very sick right after Thanksgiving. He started running a fever, throwing up and having really explosive diarrhea. He wouldnt take a bottle and if he did he would throw it up, we tried pedialyte but he wouldnt take it. He stopped eating solid foods. He started having a runny nose and droopy eyes and grabbing at his ear. We gave him Tylenol for his fever and it helped a little but all he wanted to do all day was cry, poop, sleep and throw up. We took him to the walk in clinic on Sunday morning and they diagnosed him with a flu and ear infection. We tried giving him the medication they gave him for his ear infection but he would throw it up everytime. The diarrhea and throwing up continued so I took him to his regular doctor on Thursday and he told me his ears looked ok so I could stop giving him the amoxicillin and to watch his fluid intake and keep him hydrated which I was trying really hard to do but its hard when he refused and fights you to take anything down at all. And he told me to try soy formula to see if it would be better on his tummy. He had also lost almost 2lbs so he is back down to 20lbs now.

So we got soy formula and gave him a bottle and he went to bed. Then at 1am I woke up to him gagging and coughing so I ran in his room and he was throwing up all over the place and so I pulled him out of his crib and it continued. We got him changed and he started dry heaving and then a slimy mucous started coming out when he would try to through up. He was having a hard time breathing because he was dry heaving so much and having to gasp for air. Bret gave him a blessing and we said a prayer but in the end we decided we needed to take him to the ER. They gave him and IV which was so sad to watch, he has really deep veins since he is so chubby and he was dehydrated so they were small anyway. They tried to get one in his foot and failed so they found another vein in his arm and that one worked after a long time trying. I felt so horrible for him. They gave him anti nausea medication and filled him up on fluids. Not to mention the horrible raspy congested cough he woke up with Thursday morning... and for that the doctor was worried so she ordered a chest x-ray which was so hard to get him still for. My poor little guy was so exhausted he fell right asleep the second everyone stopped messing with him. In the end he was diagnosed with a virus and some kind of infection in his lungs and the flu. I have to watch his cough and breathing to be sure it doesnt turn into croup or pneumonia.

After getting the fluids he seems to be doing better. Yesterday half the day he only was allowed to have pedialyte and apple juice. He has had a few bottles and seems to be doing better. He even at some baby food last night at dinner. It is so scary when you baby gets sick. I felt so bad having to do all those things to him in the ER and I wish I could explain to him that it was only for his own good. He has a bruise on his foot and his arm from the IVs and Im sure its sore too. I hope he continues to get better.

Thanksgiving

We had a really fun Thanksgiving this year. My Aunt Jenny came up from Utah to visit and she hasnt seen Cameron since he was 3 weeks old. It was fun for him to get to spend some time with her since he doesnt see her much. My parents and brother came over along with Jenny for Thanksgiving dinner at my house. We spent most the morning cooking and preparing for dinner. But we didnt forget to enjoy our ever famous meat and cheese platter we do every year. I sure love cheese! Our cheesecake had it rough... we made a pumpkin cheesecake and we mixed the pumpkin in with the wrong half of the cheesecake filling and it looked a little funny in the pan, then it fell out of the fridge and got a little dinged up. But in the end it was delicious! Cameron really enjoyed his Turkey and Sweet Potato baby food and he gummed on a roll for a few minutes too. After dinner we had to let our food settle and Jenny had never seen Monty Python so we watched it. Sadly my family knows almost the whole movie by heart. Then we enjoyed our fabulous pumpkin cheesecake and cranberry apple pie, yum!
While Jenny was here my Mom, Jenny and I went to get pedicures, hallelujah! I needed one! Then we went out to lunch to one of my favorite places on Alki Beach in Seattle. Cameron tagged along for the ride. We had fun playing with him and watching him laugh and babble. (Isnt his had adorable!) Then Jenny and I went to the Super Mall and we got Cameron a cute Christmas outfit and Gymboree. I had a lot of fun having Jenny here and getting to spend Thanksgiving with my family:)