Cutest Valentine EVER!

This arrived in the mail today and isn't it the cutest valentine card ever? Camden was SO proud of his creation!

How funny is that? It TOTALLY fits his personality too!

Really, It's February?

Where Oh Where did January go?
We had lots of fun in January, including an entire week with no school, unexpectedly, and now we're battling through what feels like really long weeks, although we are just really back in a "normal" schedule. A few pics from our snow days and fun times last month!

Camden and his best friend, Gracie!
SNOW cones. . . Literally:
Just so we remember how big they were in Jan. 2011 when we had 6 inches of snow!
And of course, to remember how beautiful everything looked. I love a snow covered yard and house! Now, the driveway . . . that was another story. Took days for it to be truly serviceable again!
We had a great week! We ventured out, slowly, a couple of times; watched lots of movies; burned enough firewood that now we need to restock, and had a great week just together as a family!

June 2010

We kicked off June with lots of fun. Jeff had the camera, so i have no pictures of Molly and myself, but Griffin and Jeff went to Auburn for two games of the College World Series. They saw Auburn vs. Jacksonville State and Clemson vs. Southern Miss. Griffin got two autographs of guys that signed with the major leagues the week after the world series! Camden stayed with Khaki and Papa and Molly and I went to the cabin - thanks to the Brauns! Jeff and Griffin picked up Camden and met us at the cabin when they were done with their overnight in Auburn. .. when Griffin naps, you know he MUST be tired!
Taking the field:

(Griff and Jeff had purchased tickets to both games, but did a little spiritwear shopping when they arrived in Auburn). While at J&M Bookstore, the girl working the register asked if they had tickets to which Jeff replied yes. She then told them that was too bad because the owner had been given tickets, but also had a tee time he didn't want to miss, so he had 2nd row seats to Clemson game! She was kind enough to "exchange" their tickets for the better seats and what a thrill that was to sit right the Clemson dugout!
Camden is just like the rest of the men in this family and L-O-V-E-S ribs! TASTY!
BIG BITE!
As i mentioned in a previous post . . . we love spring/summer fruit! Taking a bite out of our first watermelon of the season!
Camden has already learned how to enjoy every last DROP!
Jeff has to travel just a few times each year, so we kept busy while he was in Seattle for business. We visited the new Babyland General and met some new friends:

The doll in the blue and white dress sitting next to Molly is my doll that i "adopted" in 1981! I was only 5 years old. She is one of the "original" dolls. If you visit, check out the cases in the lobby of "originals" and you'll see why Molly is not allowed to play with Pauline very often!
Griffin despised having to visit with all those babydolls, but he found a special place "all his own" so we had to stop for a photo-op!After Babyland and a little further in the car, we made it to Unicoi State Park! We have a favorite swimming hole and picnic area that we try to visit a few times each year and we always take pictures so we can see how the kids grow! Doesn't matter what time of year it is, or how old they are, they (we) still love the creek! Lots of memories are held in this small section of the creek! Birthday celebrations, father's days, and just trips just for fun!!!
Shew, doesn't matter if it's winter or the dead of summer - the water is still C-O-L-D!
Skipping rocks!
As of these pictures, we felt like summer had just started, but now that it's the middle of July, i can't believe summer is so close to being over! Makes me so very sad! We WILL make the most of these last three weeks!

April 2010

It's April which means FRESH FRUIT! We love spring and summer in our house for all the yummy things it brings to our table! We avoid vegetables at all costs if we can get our 5 with fruit only! Washington Farms is a short drive from here, so we visited them on several occasions and picked our own strawberries! They are absolutely the best in the world to go straight from the vine to our mouths. There's even a few animals to visit when you're done picking!

A baby cow that tried her best to lick Camden some kisses!: Camden broke all rules (as usual) and ate as many strawberries as he picked! The fields are huge and it wasn't crowded anytime we went, so he'd tromp up and down the rows and just snack away!
Hidden by vines! Gotta love that toe-head!
Evidence of the crime:
A little trip to American Girl to spend some money she had saved since Christmas! A Just Like Me Doll was the selection of the day! (Sorry the pics are out of order. Drives me crazy, but the loading process isn't cooperating so great tonight!)

Griffin and his loot! He thoroughly enjoyed this!
Molly and her prize pick! She loved the long stem!
Concentrating hard on which one is just-ripe!
"Whadya think mom?"

January 2010

After a busy Christmas season, January was kind of quiet! We celebrated a 2nd birthday -- choo-choo style!
And visited the aquarium with our annual passes -- always a favorite for the TWO year old!! He loves trains and fish!

A Big Event!

Look what happened in our house last night!

At barely 2 1/2 this makes his "mom" (as she is already called) a little sad! Where is the "mommy," the crib, the itty-bitty-ness? He did however, still require his "bee banbeck" (bee blanket) and paci to go to sleep, and that makes his MOMMY a lot happy! He's the last, so he better stay little a bit longer! He earned a cookie monster tattoo for his success and i'd say sleeping until 9am is success when you're only 2 1/2!

Speech Therapy

So, Camden is 22 months old and we're still working on building his vocabulary. He definitely has a delay, but he's #3, so we're sure with our prior experience of speech therapy times 2, we can help him along for a few more months.

So tonight at dinner, Griffin (who is completely exhausted) is fussing and just plain whiny at the dinner table. So i say, "Camden, when Griffin is fussing, say waaa, waaaa, waaaa!" Camden looks him square in the eye after the next word out of Griffin's mouth and says, clear as day, "Waaaaaaa, waaaaaaa, waaaaaaa!"

Griffin couldn't help but cheer up!

Camden's sweetheart!

Camden's bestie is sweet little Gracie down the street! They spend every Monday and Wednesday afternoon together and Tuesday all day! Here they are! Is she not the cutest best friend a guy could have? Maybe there will be prom dates in their future together! Looks to me like they're thinking about holding hands, but decided they might be too young for that!

Story of the Night!

Camden is obsessed with gagging noises. He thinks it's so funny to pretend to burp. But, in his 2 years (almost) of living, he has never thrown up - except for his reflux issues as a baby. He has no idea what a stomach virus feels like. Tonight after dinner, we gave him a small bowl of ice cream and when he was finished, he was sitting so nicely entertaining himself with the bowl and spoon. Then, it progressed to gagging himself with the end of the spoon (he does this game regularly - in the car, in the stroller, etc - sticks his finger down his throat until he gags). He thought it was terribly funny, until . . . .
You guessed it, he threw up! All over his lap. And obviously, it didn't taste so good. Then he cried for himself, because no one else, namely Jeff and I, felt sorry for him. And then it moved to being grossed out. And repeating over and over, in his precious way, "eeeewwww, eeeeewwww, eeeeewwwww!" All the while scrunching his nose and pursing his lips!
He's in the tub now, getting cleaned up! Hoping he learned his lesson on the gag reflex thing! Perhaps he'll find a new way to be funny from now on!

We are having FUN!

So sorry for no posts about Disney, but we left the card reader for the digital camera at home, so we can't dump the SD card every night! But, Papa took this picture yesterday. . .

If this doesn't say it all, i'm not sure what would! We went to Animal Kingdom yesterday. As our last ride, we told the kids, we could ride Kali River Rapids before we left (since we knew we'd be soaked). Camden is too little to ride, so he received the consolation prize of Mickey ice cream while the grandparents took turns riding/staying with him. As you can see, he was not disappointed in the prize!

We are having a wonderful time! All my guilt of missing school and work is now gone as this is worth every bit of it! The kids have been so good, have been very agreeable, and truly are enjoying themselves. Camden has yet to fuss, except for the 5 minute fit he pitched when Dumbo ended and he had to get off of the ride! It was hilarious and if i can figure out how to load videos from my camcorder when we get home, i will post it here!

Hope everyone reading is having a great week. Ours is quite "Magical!"

More Creativity!!

Once again, it's 1am and i've just finished the creative project du jour! Special thanks to Andrea for the fabric. . . i truly did not have time to go to Hobby Lobby today and stand in line for approximately 10 inches of fabric. So Andrea let me raid her stash of fabric scraps instead! You're a lifesaver, and quite honestly, have almost as much fabric as Hobby Lobby!

Here is what i created - a whole set of mickey and minnie shirts. From the littlest peep, all the way to the big dude!

For CLM:

For MGM:

For GMM:

And a closeup of Minnie. . .

Sorry for the blurry pictures. . .it's late and i wanted to post these before we leave. The boys' shirts are red with black mickey. MGM's shirt is black with checked minnie and red bow! I'll take good ones the day they wear them!

Camden with the Days!

Camden is loved by my friend Gina and her girls on the days that i work at the preschool! Gina graciously agreed to pick him up on his school days and take him home for a couple hours, and also watches him on Tuesdays when i'm at work. The one thing i fear when he is there, is that he might become a big UGA fan!! Yikes!

Clara and Gracie (Gina's girls) are the sweetest little girls around and Camden LOVES to spend his days with them. (Any mention of their 3 names and Camden starts blowing kisses any which-a-way!) Here is a picture of all of them, sitting on a bench, sharing a drink together! If they could talk, i wonder what the two littlest would say?

PS - Don't tell Jeff, but notice the BRACELET on Camden's arm!!! HA - do you think he'll be any worse for the wear by spending his days with two girls? I love it! This would make Molly proud!

First Haircut!

This post should have been made over a month ago, but i never posted it, and these pictures are too good not to share! Camden went for his first haircut in late May or early June. His hair was soooo long and curly; but when he would sleep, it would just get fuzzy!
Hanging waaaay past the ears:

This is what it looked like after rubbing the blankets and sheets while sleeping:

During the cut with Ms. Tina: (It's amazing how still a little boy will sit if given a HUGE lollipop to eat while getting his haircut):

This is the back after the cut - MUCH better:

This is the HAPPY face after the cut! Not sure if he was more excited about his new cut or the lollipop?

It was hard for me to face the first haircut of the last baby in the McCreary house. But i admit now that it's over, he really does look better and cuter with a little shorter hair!

Camden Loves the Game!

For anyone who believes 16 month olds don't take in their surroundings more than anyone else . . .get this. . . these pictures were taken at 10:15 last night. Thankfully, Camden had taken a good nap. The bigs were spending the night with Khaki and Papa and Camden sat down to "play ball" at approximately 10:04. OR, at least that's when Jeff asked me "Hey, how long do you think we've been doing this? About 3 minutes?" I said, "Oh yea, at least 3 or 4 minutes." So, we all 3 played and played for the longest time. Amazingly, Camden has a pretty good arm. We joke with Griffin all the time that after watching all these hundreds of ballgames that Griffin plays, Camden will be the one to go to the major leagues because he's learned so much from Grif. And sure 'nuff. . . his arm is that of a 3 year old. Pretty precise throws, right to us. Jeff was thrilled. And you ask, how long did this go on? We timed it at about 24 minutes!! Yep, i'd say the boy can "attend to a task." Check that one off the developmental checklist. He would shag the balls he overthrew and sit right back down at "his place" and start throwing again. It was so much fun, and the only reason we quit, was because he was spending as much time rubbing his sleepy eyes as he was throwing the ball by about 10:22!

Camden's Morning!

Playing with Q-Tips. . . among other things from the bathroom cabinet. . .isn't that every child's idea of a fun morning? Poor Camden, it always stinks to be him if mom doesn't get her shower before he wakes! FYI DFCS. . . .there is nothing harmful to children found under this sink and the child was monitored at all times!

Camden's First Ice Cream. . . and cone!

Again, Saturday, March 7, 2009

It was a day of firsts. After Molly's soccer game we had a quick lunch, headed over to a cool store called Wee Monsters and bought a new swing set for the kids. The first one we had, that Jeff built (with a little help from family) didn't quite survive the move. Yes, we paid to have it moved, and what a waste of cash. It's just not holding up. SO, we vowed that IF there was any money leftover from Jeff's severence package last year, we would buy the kids (namely Camden) a new swingset to enjoy the next . . . hopefully, MANY years!! And this time around, it comes with INSTALLATION!! Jeff strongly believed that hazing of a new father (i.e. assembling a big-ass swing set) should only be mandatory once. Perhaps, he should have quit having children if this was his belief, but really, this Wee Monsters is a local company and they INCLUDE installation in there price . . . or at least that's what they tell you! HA!

ANYHOW, this post isn't about the swingset . . . i'll post on the 18th about that (after it's installed). This is about Camden's FIRST ICE CREAM CONE!! Khaki said she'd treat everyone to Bruster's to celebrate Molly's first soccer game and our new purchase, and really, we all know the McCreary family doesn't have to be talked into ice cream, so off we went. At Bruster's (in case any one out there is loser enough to have never been) they give anyone under a certain height a free "baby cone." Well, Camden got his first --- thin mint ice cream. Yes, it is girl scout cookies crushed up in Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. That's all i'll say. The pictures say the rest!

A little taste . . .

Really enjoying it . . .
Enjoying Molly's tossed-aside cone . . .
And, really, does anyone else think this last one might say, "umm, why in the heck are ya'll snapping all these pictures of me? But, i could use a napkin here!!!"
If you're ever going for ice cream, Camden would love to be invited along!