2014: Weeks 2 & 3

We are full force into January.  I always feel like January is a longer month, with the colder weather and the stuck indoors feeling, but this month has been full for us and we've enjoyed time indoors together.  These little ones are growing so fast!  We've had a pretty quiet/normal week 2 & 3, here's a glimpse of daily life around here.  

 Carter loves puzzles right now and will do the same ones over and over.  I love his concentration and determination as he works them.  

 This sweet thing turned 13 months.  Crazy.  She's had a rough go the past 2 weeks battling a cold and those pesky one year molars all cutting through at the same time.  Let's hope they come through soon!

 This kid....He loves dressing himself and I just never know what kind of outfit he will come out in.  This is just your usual casual Friday look.

 We had a family movie night and watched Planes.  Cade got it in his mind that we needed to make Braums shakes.  So we made a special treat of homemade chocolate oreo shakes.  They were delicious!

 This soundtrack in on repeat at our house right now. We all know all the words and there are frequent dance parties.  Carter is by far the most attached to it and wants it on constantly. Its the cutest thing to hear him sing all the songs.  Matt had the brilliant idea of bringing out the headphones today.  My hero.

 After a rough week with this one a Mommy/Cade date was just what we needed.  He is so much fun and constantly makes me laugh.  He is such a great thinker and dreamer and always comes up with some awesome ideas.  How is he going to be 5 in 8 days?!

 A little after naptime snuggles with the babe.

 Cade started basketball at the Y.  Its so cute and he is super into it.  He scored a basket at his first game!  He's always had a love for basketball and I'm excited to watch him play this season. Four year old basketball is quite the experience.

Cambrie Mae 12/13 Months

 This sweet thing is 13 months old!  Time is just flying by these days and she is growing and learning more everyday.  Cambrie Mae is at such a fun stage.  The stage of not such a little baby anymore but not quite a toddler.  She's not walking yet, but attempts steps daily, but is also content getting wherever she wants by crawling. She's very chatty and even though she doesn't have many words that are clear she babbles all day long.  Her words consist of "bye-bye" "dada" "tito" (Pico) "ni-ni" "nak" (snack) and "ma-ma".

 She got lots of fun new girly toys for her birthday and Christmas.  Her favorites are probably her babies.  She got a couple of soft baby dolls and she just loves them.  She will rock them and put them night night.  It's so cute!  Her brothers are still her favorites and she's always wanting to get in the middle of what they are doing especially if its wrestling!  They are so sweet to let her play with them, most of the time.  Cambrie Mae and Carter play together the most and they play well together but they can also quickly aggravate one another.  I love seeing their little friendship grow.

 At her 12 month appointment, Cambrie Mae weighed around 18lbs.  She's still in the lower 20th percentile for height and weight.  She's wearing size 9-12 month clothes and size 3 diapers.  She is a happy baby most of the time, but she has her moments.  She can throw a pretty good fit and can make the tears flow at a moments notice.  She's sleeping so much better and sleeps from about 7:30 or 8 til about 7:30 the next morning.  She takes two naps most days that are about an hour to an hour and a half.

 Cambrie Mae is a great eater!  She eats three meals a day with us and about 2 snacks a day.  She's drinking almond milk and loves it!  Her favorite foods consist of yogurt, applesauce, bananas, graham crackers, strawberries, cheese, beans, animal crackers, and her happy baby pouches.

We love you baby girl! You bring much joy, laughter and fun to our home!!

Weekend with Friends

Our sweet friends the Birkenfelds moved overseas a little under a year and a half ago.  We love this family dearly and have celebrated many milestones with them such as getting married within weeks of one another, living daily life together in the same town for over 2 years, and having all our babies within weeks or months of each other.  Although we hadn't seen them in 18 months we've kept up through Skype and email, but we were finally able to meet in person last weekend while they are back in the states for a bit.  It was like no time had passed since we had last seen them.  We all had such a great time and it was a very refreshing time.  Our kids all played great together and Cade cried when we left because he was going to miss Sawyer so much.  So grateful for the time we were able to spend together!  Theres something so special about friendships such as these.

Storytime before bed

Enjoying a ride on Poppy's tractor.  These 4 had a blast at the farm.

Palo Duro Canyon Cowboy Dugout

Digging for 'treasure'

These two were inseparable the whole weekend

The whole crew

So thankful for this sweet friend.  I miss her like crazy!!

2014 Week 1

Since this blog is all about our daily lives and basically the way I scrapbook for our family I'm really hoping to keep it more up to date with the ins and outs of our days/weeks. So maybe weekly posts will be easier to keep up with then huge monthly dumps.  We will see:)

Here's a peek into our first week of 2014...

The year started off with this little one not feeling the greatest. I hate having sick babies but I do love the cuddles.

 I snuck in a quick shower one morning and came out to these two having lunch by the fire at 10:45am. Cade was so proud that he made lunch all by himself.  Pretty impressive.

 Our sweet neighbor Ms Gail.  We love going to visit her and she treats the kids like her own grandchildren.  She always has a special treat for them and they love playing with the toy horses at her house.

 Baby Selfie

 Spider Man or Carter

 Cade has been begging me to bake banana bread so I finally obliged one afternoon.  He was so happy.  How is he almost 5?! 

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013 was a crazy whirlwind of fun.  We spent Christmas here at home and then traveled down to Texas the few days after.  This was our first year to spend Christmas Eve and day at home with just the five of us.  Matt was working nights but when he woke up on Christmas Eve we went to the Christmas Eve service at church then came home and had chili with close friends.  It was such a fun, meaningful night to reflect on Christ birth with our family and church family.  Christmas morning brought presents and cinnamon rolls.  After Matt went to sleep the kids and I just enjoyed being together and playing with new toys.  I was worried the day might get long or boring without Matt or other family, but it ended up being a really sweet time for me and the kids.  We had one of Matt's coworkers and his family over for fajitas for dinner.  We were so thankful for such a sweet time as a family of five and are excited to continue some of these traditions in the coming years. 

Best of 10 shots

The next day we headed out to spend the next few days with both sides of our families.  It was a crazy trip filled with three more 'Christmases' but we enjoyed all the family time and seeing lots of people we don't get to see all that often.  My grandparents came up from Houston to see us on Friday.  Saturday we were with all of my moms side of the family, aunts, uncles and cousins galore.  Then Sunday we enjoyed a lazy Christmas pajama day with Matt's parents and grandmother.  We love all of our Texas family! The kids were spoiled with way too much and enjoyed seeing everyone.  By Monday we were exhausted and packed the car to capacity and headed back home.  I'm still in recovery mode two days later.  Ha! 

You try to get a picture of this many people and ornery kiddos to look at a camera at the same time...

I love her

So many great memories from Christmas 2013!

Sequoia Express

 We continued our tradition of the 'Sequoia' Express taking us on a ride to look at Christmas lights.  This is on of my favorite things we do this time of the year with the kids.  They LOVE it!  We have 'tickets' in their stocking after they get all ready for bed.  Then the 'conductor' shows up ready to punch tickets and in a hurry to get us out the door. Carter has been really into the Polar Express movie this season and this was right up his alley.  However, I do think he was convinced we were actually going to the North Pole and was a little upset when Matt tried to punch his ticket.  He wanted the 'other' guy to punch it aka the real conductor from the movie. Ha!  We had a great time looking at lights around town even if we didn't quite make it to the North Pole.  

Merry Christmas!!