Easter Part 1

Saturday Night. We went to the 4pm church service. It was wonderful. After church we headed home to snap a few pictures before starting to cook.

Cami and Mommy!
Cami and Mommy! Say Cheese.

Cami and Daddy! Love these two SOOOO much!

Cami and Daddy Smooching!

After Church we went home. The Altman's joined us for dinner. Kaitlyn and I split up making the food and we had a delicious meal! She took pictures of the food, so you'll have to check out her blog if you want to see evidence. Ham, honey roasted potatoes, cream peas, fresh rolls and banana pudding for dessert! YUMMO.

During dinner, the easter bunny came and hid the eggs in the backyard! It was so fun to watch the girls hunt for eggs. All these holiday traditions are so wonderful and fun with little ones around. Especially little girls as sweet and Cami and Olivia!
Cami wasn't to sure about getting in the flower bed. I guess she remembers how many times mommy has told her not to play in the flower bed.
Olivia hunting for eggs
Running to find all the eggs. Sorry about the hair in the face in all these pics. Her hair clip came out.

I see one. I see one!

Looking through the eggs and opening to see all the treasures! So exciting!
Dancing. Such sweet little friends.
Dancing to the finishing music of Toy Story
I'm not sure how....but we started playing this game where Matt was the scary Lion / Dragon. He would come out and ROAR at the girls and tickle them. I was protecting the girls!
Ahhhhh....the scary Lion / Dragon is attacking us! The girls were just screaming with delight. They kept asking for more, poor Matt was horse the rest of the evening.

Family Resemblance

This week when I was talking to Grandma, she mentioned that she had been working on photo albums. She said that when her and Papa had been struck by the resemblance of two of their granddaughters. She said that she had put a card in the mail with a couple of pictures.

Peyton
Cami
Peyton
Cami

Grandma said (as you can see) that Peyton and Cami are built very much the same at this age. This bodes well for Cam since Peyton is now 6 feet tall and an uber athlete (at almost 13). Same cute little nose and big eyes and beautiful dark hair with little waves. Peyton's eyes are brown like her mommies and Cami's are blue.

When Matt showed the pictures to Cami, he asked her who is that girl. She said me! When we told her they were of Peyton she said...no, ME!

Its funny, whenever we go anywhere people comment on how much she looks like me. I've always thought that she favored the Williams side. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The new and improved Playhouse

Let me say that all of these pics were taken with my phone. I did all this while daddy was out of town for work and he had our camera.

When we moved into our house almost 4 years ago, there was a playhouse in the backyard. We tried to get the old owners to remove it prior to leaving the house. When that didn't work we tried to get our real estate agent to come and remove it. FAIL. So needless to say we still had the playhouse. It has been used more as a storage shed than a playhouse. About a month ago I asked Matt if we could move the lawn mower etc into the garage so that I could fix up the playhouse for Cami. She is at the age where her imagination is growing everyday and she loves to fix pretend food and play kitchen indoors, so I knew she'd love it.

April 16th, a few of my girlfriends (also mommies) and I went to this huge second hand consignment sale called the Motherload Sale. My goal was to buy a kitchen for the new playhouse. I found one! I paid $18 for this great plastic kitchen and it included food! Perfect. So the next day I went to work.

Cami playing with her new kitchen up on the patio while mommy was cleaning out the playhouse. It was no easy task....It had YEARS of accumulated sand and dirt!
We went to the dollar store while we were waiting for it to dry out to buy a few decorations and containers for the inside. You can see Cami was enthralled by the wind catcher.
inside... complete with a couple of 'area rugs'
Table and chairs. Matt's parents had bought Cami this table and chair set for her first Christmas. I had put it up in her closet until she got bigger and completely forgot about it. After I go the kitchen inside the playhouse I realized how much more space there was and the table/chairs set popped into my head! It is a perfect fit! Thanks Grandma and Papa.
Playing! The playhouse has been a huge hit. We have been out there every single day since I cleaned it out! It is so much fun to see her sweet imagination so hard at work! It doesn't hurt that we've had some beautiful weather (minus the nasty afternoon winds). I think there is a whole summer of fun to come!

Adventures in Potty Training

Adventures in Potty Training.

Let me preface that these pictures are from about 2 weeks ago when Matt's folks were here. When our adventure began.

For several weeks prior to their visit, Cami would wake up in the morning with a dry diaper. So I would sit with her in the bathroom and eventually she would potty on the potty. However throughout the rest of the day....she didn't show much intention or interest. I figured some success was better than no success and one day it would click. The Friday that Grandma and Papa were her she wanted to wear panties...call it showing off for her grandparents or it just clicking, but she went potty 3 times. 3 times again sunday and then 8 times on monday. I have quit keeping track at this point.

Two weeks later we are doing well, but not completely ready to say that she is potty trained. At home she wears big girl cotton panties and when we are at the gym or out and about its pull-ups. For the most part we have had very few accidents and she rarely goes potty in her pull-up. She has even mastered telling the workers at the gym when she needs to potty and pottying for them! She will even go in a public restroom as long as I have her potty seat that sits on top of the big potty (thank you Vanessa)!

Although she hasn't gone #2 on the potty, we are getting close to being fully potty trained! I would venture to say by the beginning of the summer Matt and I will be saving a great deal of money by NOT buying diapers! YEAH!

Here are a few pictures of this adventure. Did I mention I bribe with gummy bears?!?

Me sitting on the floor in our bathroom. I have spent more time in that bathroom sitting, singing, playing patty-cake and painting nails than I care to admit!
Did I mention that my 2 year old adores nail polish and having her nails painted. But be aware her fingers and toes MUST MATCH!
Getting to pick a candy after a successful trip to the bathroom!

Keep it up Cam!

Grandma & Papa's Visit

For those of you who do not know, Matt's parents live in Kansas. So our visits with them are unfortunately few and far between. This last absence was the longest since Cam has been around 4 months! Way to long! So needless to say, we were all really looking forward to their arrival.

Unfortunately, Cami came under the weather that morning (my birthday mind you). After a really rough night sleep she had a fever and threw up twice that day. As fortune would have it, she had her two year check-up that morning. Needless to say she wasn't in the best of spirits when grandma and papa arrived. That didn't stop her from cuddling right up to Papa when we stopped for dinner.

The first couple of nights were a little rough as sleep was concerned because Cam was just not herself. But as the week wore on she felt better and better.

We went to the park Tuesday morning and had the whole Park to ourselves. Papa and Daddy went golfing in the afternoon and Grandma Cami and I played bubbles (thank you Piper) around the house.

Wednesday we went out to eat at outback for my birthday dinner! See the princess pictures below. After outback, Matt and I went to a movie and Grandma and Papa took Cami back home.

Thursday: Papa, Grandma, Cami and I went out and about to Trader Joes and kohls and then to lunch. Thursday night Papa and Grandma kept Cami so that Matt and I would go to life group. Not to mention watching the Master's a good portion of the afternoon! :)

Friday: Papa and Daddy played golf again. Cami, Grandma and I went to the mall and let Cam play on the inside playground (cause it was pretty windy) and had a caramel apple. That was a big hit!

Saturday: we ran around town a little in the morning and went out to lunch. The afternoon was spent hunkered down avoiding the wind and enjoying the Masters

Sunday: Church and Costco. Our normal routine!

The trip was much too quick! Hopefully July rolls around fast! We miss you guys already!

Cami is just getting very interested in princesses. She insisted on wearing this dress out to outback for dinner. With stick on earrings and all!
Cami and Grandma playing the flutes (ie...old tupperware straws)
Princess dancing ...spinning
Cami's sad / worried face. sitting in her new wildcat chair

Giddy Up Papa
Puzzles with Papa. Althoguh I think Cami enjoyed taking them apart more than putting them together.
Baking Cookies....measuring ....adding and of course tasting
Baking Cookies with Grandma. I'm not sure if the batter got more nuts and raisins or Cami's mouth. But it was a good time. I promptly cleaned the kitchen after. Not accusing anyone of being a messy cook though!
Morning time with Papa. She definitely is a papa's girl.

Cami's 2nd Birthday

What a special day. I am still not sure how our baby is already two! Matt and I spent a lot of time over the last week reminesing about the day we brought this blessing into the word. Time flies when you are having fun!

Well, technically we have been celebrating Cami's birthday for a while now. She was able to open a few presents early....from my Aunt Arlene and Uncle Gordon and from my sister Crista.

The morning of her birthday, both Matt and I went upstairs to her room and sang to her and then we opened some presents before daddy went to work. (we are saving some presents for when Grandma and Papa get here on Monday). The rest is in the pictures. There was one thing that I didn't get very many pictures of, after lunch we went up to daddy's office and had a little celebration up there. Miss Barbara got Cami a cake and some presents. She is such a lucky and loved little girl!

buzz light year cupcake
make a wish
Blowing out the first candle of the day.
Opening presents

New snack bowl. Star shaped with toy story characters

Cami enjoying her breakfast cupcake! Notice the jewelry...part of the present from Aunt Karen and Uncle Mike, also the Jessie t-shirt she is wearing later in the day came from them.

After our cupcake for breakfast, we were able to skype with Nana and Pop and Cami was able to open her presents with them right there on the computer. That was so fun and I know that my parents enjoyed seeing her open the presents.

After our morning festivities we headed over to "the cow place" (chick-fil-a) for her birthday lunch. Cami and I went a little early so she could play in the play area a while before eating. Daddy met us there from work and the Altman girls joined us too! It was a perfect little celebration for our sweet 2 year old!
Cami's very good little friend Olivia and her mommy joined us at chick-fil-a for her birthday lunch. We had a great time.
Cami opening the present from the Altmans. It is this adorable ice cream set. Cami has been playing with it non-stop since we got it home! She Loves IT!

Kaitlyn and Olivia joined us for lunch. They are keeping track of the cow when he headed over to our table.

Look who is coming to our table...The COW!
The staff and Cow sang to Cami and brought her a free ice cream
After they sang happy birthday to Cami and brought her ice cream. She was a little nervous if you can't tell from the picture
After lunch and our interaction with the cow and ice cream, it was photo time. Friend Birthday picture. This was the best picture I could get .
Earlier in the week, I asked Cami what she wanted Mommy to fix for her special birthday dinner. Without a moment hesitation she replied "roni and cheese", so macaroni and cheese it was ...for all three of us. We were all toy story all day, so we each ate off of toy story paper plates!

After dinner, we hurried off to life group. I made cupcakes for Cami to share on her birthday. It worked out perfectly that life group landed on her birthday since we didn't have an official party.

Tower of Buzz cupcakes
A little shy when everyone started singing.
Her very own cupcake. She blew out the candle in own very non-chalant try....hence the surprised look on her daddies face!
Getting ready to blow out the candles for the 3rd time today!
The kids and mommies enjoying the birthday cupcakes. Vanessa and Olivia, Cami, Hailee and Piper.

I think Cami had a wonderful day. It was so special for Matt and I too. On days like this it is easy to see all the people that love our sweet family. Thank you all for the sweet calls, texts, and messages on facebook that we got throughout the day. Cami says thanks for all the presents!