Celebrate our first Thanksgiving with Toots...check!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend. Here's the "official" summary of our activities:

~Thursday~

We flew down to Texas to spend the holiday with Nick, Annie and Cole and the rest of Ryan's family. We got up pretty early Thursday morning so we would get to Dallas in time to help Annie with the final dinner prep and, of course, partake in the scrumptious turkey dinner. (I have to be honest here, I didn't really help with any of the food prep, that was all Annie, Kathy and Tracy.) The food was wonderful and Cameron got to try roasted turkey for the very first time! I was really impressed with the spread, especially considering Annie's been battling the first trimester yuckies and has been really turned off by most foods lately. She did great though, all the food was really yummy!

 Cameron hanging out with Uncle Rossco at the Denver airport.

Cameron getting ready to get on the airplane.

Our first Thanksgiving as a family of three!

 Cameron and Cole playing.

 The food.

This was so funny, Cole would pull Cameron over closer to him so he could take some food off her tray, then he would push her away again.

~Friday~

We decided to pass on Black Friday shopping, I don't think anyone was in the mood to wake up early (side note, I can't believe how early some stores open...3am? That takes a serious shopper!). Instead we slept in and just hung out watching football for most of the day and then we went to Blake and Emily's house for dinner (Nick's sister and her fiance). Then it was back home for baths and bed. For some reason Cameron really didn't like taking baths while we were there. I'm not quite sure why, but she threw a fit both times we gave her a bath. Usually she loves her baths...I guess it's one of those many kid mysteries.

 Playing in the tub, this was right before Cameron lost it and started crying.

 If you look close you can see Cameron's teeth in this picture.

Mr. Cole

~Saturday~

Saturday morning we got up and walked to Starbucks. I was totally bummed because they were out of pumpkin spice lattes...I'm not a big coffee drinker, but those are my favorite. I settled for a vanilla latte instead, which still tasted pretty good. Then we took our coffee across the street to the park and hung out while Cole played. That afternoon the boys went to top golf (which is basically a driving range on steroids) and the girls went  to the mall to get Cole some new tennies.

 All bundled up for our walk (it was actually really cold in Texas while we were there).

 Cheese!

 Playing at the park.

 Awww...what good daddies!

 Ready to be done shopping.

~Sunday~

We went to church Sunday morning and then went home and rested for the rest of the afternoon. Gosh it felt nice to just veg and nap. When I'm home I usually feel like I need to be doing something, so it was a nice break. Sunday night we went to Dennis and Tracy's house for dinner (Nick's parents).

 He's got his backpack on and he's ready to go to church.

 Pretty girl in the rocking chair.

Look at that face...nice!

~Monday~

Nick and Annie both worked on Monday, and Ryan's parents stayed at Nick's parent's house so that left Ryan, Ross and I to care for both the kiddos. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous. Watching a toddler is very different than my little 9 month old! We had fun though. Cameron went down for her nap at about 9:30am, so that gave us some time to play with Cole alone. Our primary task: unloading his toy box and checking out all the cool toys.

Monday evening we went to the Gaylord Texan and went to Charlie Brown ICE!, which was really neat. They gave us huge coats and then we went into a a room that was basically a freezer (I think they said it was 9 degrees) and walked though a bunch of Charlie Brown scenes. Everything we saw was made of ice, it was awesome! About halfway through they had an ice slide which very cool (no pun intended!).

 Silly girl!

 Me and Cameron getting ready to go into the "freezer"

 Heading into the freezer!

 Ryan, Cameron and Snoopy snoozing on top of his house

 How cute is she in that giant coat?

 Cole and Gigi (Nick's mom Tracy)

 Sally and Charlie Brown

 Cameron looks a little cold in this one!

 The ice slide.

 Ross, Kathy and Annie

 Papa and Mimi

 I love Christmas time!

 O Christmas Tree

 Ryan and Cameron in the ice tunnel.

 The Nativity in ice. I love that they had this there, how neat!

Merry Christmas!

Warming up afterwards.

~Tuesday~

Our flight left Dallas at 6:45am this morning so we got up really early again and headed home. Cameron did really well on both flights, I'm so proud of my little traveler.

Every year around Thanksgiving Ryan and I stop to reflect on all of our blessings. This year we are so incredibly grateful for the people that God has placed in our lives and the things he has provided for us—each other, a beautiful baby girl, amazing parents and siblings, wonderful friends, the opportunity to live in a country where we have the ability to live, work and worship in freedom, but more than anything, we are thankful for the gift he has given to us in His son Jesus Christ.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hope ya'll had a wonderfully blessed holiday.

Crawling

What? Crawling? Hasn't Cameron been crawling for awhile? Yes, you're right, Cameron has been army crawling for several months now, but just in the last day or so she has made to transition to real crawling on all fours! Yay! What a big girl we have. Here's a little video. It's kind of funny because I was trying to catch her army crawling because I wanted to make sure that I had a video of that so I don't forget what she looks like because it's so funny to watch her... but this is what I got instead. Oh well!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Meeting an Old Friend

I met Jessie when she was 4 years old and I was 7. She lived across the street from us on Manorwood Lane, so we basically grew up together. She went to Baylor after I did and ended up getting married and staying in Texas after she graduated. Now her and her husband Daniel are getting ready to move to Houduras for two years to do mission work. Jessie is fluent in sign language, so she will be teaching deft kids while they are there. How cool is that?

Jessie was home for a few days this week for her Thanksgiving break and we were so excited that we were able to spend an afternoon with her before she heads off for Central America. She hadn't met Cameron so it was really fun for me to introduce the two of them.

Jessie gave us some great tips on baby sign language. We're going to have Cameron talking in no time!

Toots with her buddy Jessie

Ryan the Birthday Boy

Yesterday my dear husband became another year wiser! To celebrate, Cameron and I woke him up and gave him a homemade birthday card, then we ran to Starbucks before making blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast, yum! After we got everything cleaned up, we dropped Cameron off at Grammy and Papa's house so we could go see the new Harry Potter movie at the theater (which I thought was pretty good). Then we had dinner and birthday cake with Ryan's mom and dad. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Happy Birthday Ryan! I love you and am so thankful that you are my husband. You are a huge blessing to me. I pray that your next year of life is truly wonderful.

I didn't really get any pictures of the birthday festivities, so these randoms from the last week will have to do until I have a chance to pull the other pictures off of Clair and Kathy's camera.

 Having a little fun with the TP

 Yay!

 Smashed up against the end of her crib...babies sleep in the strangest positions!

Learning how to bang on pots and pans

Trying New Foods

This is a video of Cameron eating cauliflower tonight. Oh my goodness, the faces she was making were so funny. I was cracking up!

This is what I mean when I say Cameron is a little ham...what a silly girl we have! 

Special Visitor

My Aunt Mac came to visit from Washington DC this weekend. It was so much fun to see her. The last time Mac saw Cameron she was only two months old and she has changed a ton since then. We had fun showing off all the new things she's been doing!

On Saturday morning we ran the Longmont Turkey Trot. It's a 10k race on the southwest side of town. It was a pretty chilly morning, so my mom and dad stayed and watched Cameron at our house while Ryan, Mac and I went to run the race. I had such a great time running! I haven't been able to get out and run a lot lately, so it was a good reminder of how much I enjoy it. I think we'll definitely try to make the Turkey Trot a Volk family tradition. 

Cameron with Aunt Mac, she loved her necklaces! Notice the "My Aunt Loves Me" shirt.

 Cameron with Gma

 Cameron and Aunt Jenna at dinner Friday night.

 Cameron with her daddy.

 Pre race photo #1

Pre race photo #2

Post race photo #1

Post race photo #2

Cameron and Aunt Mac again.

 

All bundled up and ready to head home.

Thanks for coming to visit Mac! It was fun to see you. 

Nine Months Old

Cameron is Nine Months Old!

November 13, 2010

Weight: 15 pounds, 9 ounces
Length: 28 inches

Head: 44 centimeters

Well, Cameron has officially been outside of my tummy just as long as she was inside my tummy. Part of me can't believe she is only nine months old because it's hard to remember what our lives were like without her and another part of me can't believe she's already getting so big. Her weight is in the 5th percentile, height is in the 70th percentile and head circumference is in the 50th percentile. They said it's pretty normal for the weight to drop a little bit at around nine months because babies tend to be getting active around now, which is definitely true of Cameron.

It was kind of funny because this morning Ryan and I were at Santiago's getting a few breakfast burritos and I reminded him that exactly nine months ago on a Saturday morning he was standing in exactly the same place doing the exact same thing while I was sitting in a hospital bed in labor. We joke about it, but he was determined to go out and get a breakfast burrito from Santiago's that morning. So once I had my epidural he snuck out to get himself a burrito...the anesthesiologist actually jumped on the wagon and had Ryan bring him a burrito too! HA

So Cameron, what are you up to at nine months old?

• You are still eating solid foods twice a day. You've tried butternut squash, ground turkey (which you do not like, I think it's a consistency thing), asparagus and blueberries. You just started eating finger foods—cheerios and sweet potato puffs.  
• You are a master army crawler. You can get around really quick. It's the funniest thing to watch.
• You have crawled on all fours a couple of times, but you generally transition into the army crawl pretty quickly. I guess you must just think it's a faster mode of transportation.  
• You love to pull yourself up on things—tables, chairs, the TV stand, legs, the bookcase, the dishwasher—pretty much anything you can get to.  
• You make some of the funniest faces. People comment all the time on how expressive you are.
• You are a little peanut, you are still mostly wearing 6 month clothes.
• You had your first bout with the stomach bug and your first trip to the ER this past month. It wasn't very fun for any of us. But we're glad you bounced back quickly.
• Your first two teeth have broken though, the bottom middle teeth.
• You celebrated your very first Halloween and dressed up like a little 50's girl.
• You're sleeping patterns are mostly the same, sleeping from 8:00 or 8:30pm until about 7:30am and taking two naps a day. You've grown out of taking an evening cat nap.
• You've started getting much more opinionated about your surroundings. If we take something away from you that you really want you'll cry and you've started to put up a little bit of a fight when we put you down for a nap or to bed.
• You love to talk, make funny noises, blow raspberries and mimic the noises we make.
• You are such a ham! You are constantly making us laugh and smile. What a joy it is to be your parents.

Pictures from the past months:

October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March