SNOW! Thats right, snow in Seattle!

We were all stoked to find snow falling outside. Its rare here so when it comes we all get so excited. Not to mention chaos often occurs. It snowed a little bit on Sunday then more Sunday night. By Monday afternoon it had almost all melted so Bret, the kids and I headed up to mall to get Cameron a nice warm coat since his from last year was a little small. We were in the mall maybe an hour and we came out and it was like a blizzard! The wind was whipping the snow around and it was falling so fast, accumulating quickly. We of course started home but since we live in Seattle no one was moving we were stuck up on the hill, cars sliding all over the place... Finally we got onto the highway but even there we were barely moving, there were cars slid off the road here and there and semis jack knifed blocking the road, it was crazy. Luckily we made it home safely. Bret got to stay home from work on Tuesday and Wednesday so we enjoyed a nice long week at home together as a family. It gave us some fun time to go out and play!

Cameron and I built this little mini snowman during Connors nap one day:) I wanted to build a bigger one but he was too impatient.
Bret and Cameron starting on a big snowman, but the snow wasnt compacting well so the changed their plans and just played.

Even Connor got to go out in the snow for a little bit!

Halloween

I know, I know, this is a very belated post. I have been so incredibly busy lately and just keep forgetting to post on here. So, finally, here are a few pictures from Halloween and Trick or Treating. Cameron LOVED it this year! He could have totally kept going but we reined him in after about 4 blocks worth of houses. We went with our friends Courtney and Hank, Max joined us for just a little bit but then went home to chow down on his candy. Hank and Cameron had a lot of fun. This year my mom came down and stayed at our house with Connor and handed out candy so that Bret could come with us Trick or Treating. Connor was a little pumkin' boy and Cameron insisted on being a Garbage Man. Since he wanted to be something that there is no costumes for we had to make it up a little bit. So this is what we came up with. And to make it all come together Bret made him a little garbage can to drag behind him to collect his candy in, it was really cute! All in all we had a ton of fun this Halloween:)

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving was a lot of fun this year, Cameron really got into it and enjoyed it. He loved the mess we got to make doing it. He especially loved it because he got to be naked, well, besides his diaper. He would run around naked all the time if I let him... Here are a few pictures:)

Connor getting in on the fun

The finished bunch!

Little Balls...

The other day I was filling my beanbag for newborn photography and Cameron insisted on helping. Of course a big mess was made in no time. Camerons new favorite chore to help with is vacuuming and sometimes I dump a little bit of Cheerios out and let him vacuum them up. So when it came time to clean up the mess of course he wanted to do it. He had soooo much fun! It entertained him for way longer than I thought it would. He kepts yelling "More little balls! More Mama!" I guess I will have to keep this in mind for a rainy day:)

Snuggle Buddies

In the morning while I get dressed my boys like to lay in bed together and watch cartoons together. I just thought it was a cute sight so I had to snap a picture! I tried to get one just before this of Cameron cuddling up with Connor but by the time I got my camera he had stopped. Love these boys!

My Grandma

As many already know my dear Grandma Compton passed away on September 25, 2010 at 1:20pm. She was very very sick and as much as I didnt want to loose her I was thankful she was freed of her pain and suffering. I had a really hard time with her death. I dont think I was really as prepared for her passing as I thought I was. Since I knew she was so sick and we had gone to visit her in July I thought I had prepped myself as best I could but no matter what you think I dont think your ever ready to let someone you love go. I know she was so happy to be reunited with her parents and sister on the other side. One of things I have a hard time with is that she will never know my future children and she wont be able to watch all of my children grow up. But really since she lived so far away and was unable to travel she didnt see them at all now so truely now she will be able to see them all the time and watch me and my family as we grow and change. I love my Grandma so much, she was the best Grandma anyone could ask for! I cant wait to see her again someday.

My Grandma, Lillie Deaton Wilkerson Compton. This photo was taken while she was in highschool.

Me on my Grandmas lap when I was a baby.

This was the last time I saw my Grandma alive. We were able to go see her in Indiana in July. I wish I had really realized this was my last time with her alive. I would have hugged her more and told her I loved her more times.

My Photography

I just posted pictures from all 5 of my sessions I had this weekend, have a peek and let me know what you think! www.madsenphotography.blogspot.com I had the opportunity to work with twins for the first time which was fun and a little crazy lol. I feel like my photos are improving every session and there is nowhere to go but better! Im loving this so much, its so much fun to meet all these new people and spend time with and meet so many beautiful children. Im thankful that my business is doing so well in such a short time!

Am I Crazy...?

I miss being pregnant. Im either insane and very very forgetful of what I just experienced a number of months ago or its just Heavenly Fathers way of making sure Im not done having kids...

Puyallup Fair 2010

I LOVE the fair and look forward to it every year. Now Im trying to instill the same excitment in my children. This year was Camerons first year he could ride rides and he loved it! We took him on the Tilt a' Whirl, me and my moms favorite ride, and that was a little too much for him. But other than that he enjoyed every second of his flying helicopters, driving cars, racing quads, etc. We gobbled up our own weight in scones and fair food Im sure but I loved it! Here are a few pictures from our adventure!

Yummy! Cotton Candy!

Quickie Family Pictures

Today after church my mom came over and so I took us all back to the river and asked my mom to snap a few photos for me. I just wanted one good picture of my family of four since I dont have one, is that too much to ask? Last time it turned to disaster. We went to the river, I set the camera settings for my mom and told her what I wanted and she took them quick before anyone could start screaming or running away and then I edited them real quick when we got home. Happily we got a few decent pictures. I like the first one the best and the others are extras. It was all I wanted, one photo of my family to hang on my wall. Thanks Mom!

Jammy Day

This morning I woke up and decided it was going to be a jammy day. We didnt have any plans and I didnt feel like fighting the kiddos to get ready to go anywhere. So we all showered and instead of putting on clothes we all put on a comfy pair of PJs. This is my kind of day! Cameron got excited when I told him he got to wear PJs all day. Here are a few pictures of my cute little guys in their comfies!

Are they not the cutest boys you have ever seen!?

4 Months

Connor turned 4 months old on the 2nd and I cant even believe it! I feel like he was just born and here he is only 2 months away from being halfway to 1! Time is going way to quickly. He is such a good little boy. He sleeps through the night and has since he was 8 weeks old. He has a really calm easy going personality. Every now and then he has a fussy day but overall he is really good. We lost the sleeping through church a few weeks ago, bummer. Cameron and Connor are starting to play a little bit together. Cameron loves to show Connor his toys and explain them to him. Its so cute. He will give Connor cars to hold and then he tells him all about the car.

Connor had his 4 month check up the other day. He is a growing boy that is for sure! He now weighs 14lbs 15oz, so almost 15lbs! And he is 24.75" long, almost 25". He is 50th percentile across the board. Funny because Cameron at this age was almost 20lbs!

Four things I LOVE about Connor:

1. His big smile. He has the most heart melting grin in the world. Its a huge open mouth grin that makes you smile yourself.

2. His giggle/squeal. I love it! I think its the best sound in the world. He is so ticklish so I spend a lot of time tickling and playing with him so I can hear it!

3. His calm disposition. He is so easy going. He pretty much will go to anybody, sit in anything (bumbo, bouncer, etc.), laugh at any and everything and just plain is a happy baby.

4. This one might sound corny or cheesy but I love that he is mine. I love that little boy so much. He makes me smile every day and brings so much happiness and joy to my life and our home as a family. I am so thankful to have been blessed with him in our lives.

New Things!

I love this age! From about 4-8 months is so much fun and so many new exciting things happen. The other day Connor had his first tase of rice cereal. He wasnt super fond of it, but do you blame him? I blended up some banana and mixed that into the rice cereal and then he liked it much better. He was pretty messy the first time he had it but he is getting better at swallowing it. I seriously cant believe my baby is this big already!
Welcome back, old friend! We spent a lot of time using this excersaucer with Cameron and here it is, back again. Connor isnt 100% in love with it yet, but he is starting to like it more and more. The problem is Cameron thinks its for him to play with so he smothers Connor in it trying to play with it himself. Cameron even climbs in when Connor isnt in it. Hopefully he will start leaving Connor alone so he can play with it!

Oh Cameron... What am I going to do with you?

The twos so far are a ton of fun and a lot of messes! Cameron is so much fun, he is talking more and more and he brings such entertainment to each day, whether it be bad or good. Lately we have been having a lot of disaster strike by the hands of this child. We have had a spike within the last week of messiness, here are just a few...

First of all last Monday I had a friend from my ward over to look at knitting patterns for newborn photography. We were sitting on the couch looking at them on the laptop when I hear Cameron say something about a mess. I look up and he has dumped an entire bottle of calamine lotion on my living room carpet. If you dont know what calamine looks like its very similar to pepto bismal, bright pink, chalky, impossible to get out of carpet! It was my fault for leaving it in the diaper basket but holy cow he is fast! So I tried with all my might to remove it on my own but alas I couldnt get it out and ended up renting a rug doctor. Well since I had it I decided to clean all my carpets thinking I would be able to keep them clean for a while... little did I expect needing it again within a week. But I will get to that later...

Next disaster... One day I was nursing Connor while Cameron was in his room working on going to sleep at nap time. He usually sits up there and talks or plays around for about 20 minutes before he falls asleep. Well I heard a bit of a bang, listened for a minute and he didnt cry or anything and since I was in the middle of nursing and didnt want to get up and check I figured he was ok. When I finished feeding Connor I headed up to be sure he was ok. I walked in and noticed a strong strange yet familiar smell. I looked at him sleeping and noticed his hair was soaking wet, or so I thought. I reached out to feel his head and realized it wasnt sweat like I thought, oh no, it was A&D ointment. The bang I heard was his dresser crashing to the ground. He had pulled out all his dresser drawers and since that made it front heavy it fell forward and everything on top of it, including the A&D fell to the ground. Anything in a tube he thinks is hair gel so he squeezed it out and smeared the whole tube all over his head. When he woke up I washed his hair 6 or 7 times but couldnt get it out. It took days before his hair didnt look like a giant grease ball!
Finally to top it off. One morning exactly a week after I had cleaned all my downstairs carpets Cameron was insisting on coming downstairs before I was quite ready. Usually he just comes down and plays with his cars and waits for me. So I sent him down expecting his to do as usual. Little did I know what he was going to surprise me with. I came down about 5 minutes later to find him in the bathroom with the water running. I peeked in to see what he was doing and he turned around to me and held his hands out and said "Cameron needs to get clean!" Oh dear, paint was all over his hands, clothes and feet of all things! It was smeared all over my white pedastool sink. I said "Cameron, where is the paint? Did you make a mess?" He proceeded to lead me over to a corner in the living room and said "Right here, Mama." As if he were proud of the mess. I saw globs of finger paint on my carpet! He apparently figured out how to open the baby proof locks on the drawers in the kitchen and decided it would be fun to squirt big globs all over. So, off to get the rug doctor again in a week. Im thinking I should just invest in one!

What next?

3 Month Photos (a little belated...)

I have been meaning to get Connors 3 month photos taken for a while... needless to say it hasnt happened. He will be 4 months old in about a week and I just today got around to taking a few. While Cameron was napping today I pulled out a backdrop and took a few. Happily I think they turned out super cute, but how couldnt they with a face like that!? He is the cutest sweetest big blue eyed boy if ever I saw one! Here are just a few of my favorites...
I love this little guy and his big blue eyes!

Slow Down Connor!

I swear it was just yesterday I was pregnant with this little guy wishing he would hurry up and get here. But here he is 3 1/2 months old already! Time is going way faster than it should. He is really starting to enjoy sitting up, he likes to hang out in the Bumbo. Even when I put him in his bouncer or lay him down he is lifting his head up tryin to pull himself up. He has really developed a good out loud giggle/laugh and it just melts my heart, I love it! He is all smiles a lot of the time and is still such a good baby. He has his 4 month appointment in 2 weeks so Im excited to find out how much he has grown. I wish I could just slow down time for even a day. I already miss the newborn stage, its come and gone so quickly!

Dont tell me thats not the cutest little boy you've ever seen! (Besides Cameron, of course:)