Rocky Mountain Volks

Valentine's 2012

2012-02-18T14:30:00.002-07:00

This was hands down the best Valentines ever! We had such a fun day/night. The girls woke up to some fun treats: flowers, balloons, candy, etc. They even got special Valentine's cards from their daddy.

Cameron went to Papa and Mimi's house for the morning so I could work. Then, when she got home, we made Valentine's cards for daddy. The paint was a tad bit messy, but that makes it memorable, right?

And I made one for my wonderful hubby.

Then Papa and Mimi came over to our house to watch the girls so Ryan and I could go out for a date. It was so much fun! He made all the arrangements which was awesome. He made reservations at this little sushi place, which was so good! I can't remember the last time I ate sushi. After we finished dinner we still had a little time before we needed to be home so we went to Starbucks and got coffee and talked. It was so nice. He also surprized me with chocolate covered strawberries and this other dessert of chocolately goodness (he knows me too well!).

Such a fun day!

A Birthday 2 Year Old Style

2012-02-15T15:23:00.003-07:00

Cameron's birthday was so much fun this year! Here is how the day went...

She was obviously very excited about all the birthday goodies that greeted her when she woke up and came downstairs!

And Sydney was pretty excited too.

Cameron had fun opening her presents.

And was really excited about her new Knuffle Bunny books.

She was a little hesitant about her new bike, but did test it out for a few seconds.

Then Cameron and Sydney caught up on some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while Ryan and I made breakfast.

This is what a two year olds birthday breakfast looks like. Surprisingly, she was the most excited about the bacon!

Then she picked out her favorite pink dress to wear and sat down to color a few pictures.

While she was coloring we put Sydney in the jumper for the first time. She really liked it!

Cameron thought it looked like fun too, so we put up our other jumper so she could bounce around too.

Then we went outside and Ryan taught Cameron how to pack and throw snowballs. She actually did pretty well!

After that we walked over to the park.

And played.

Daddy had fun playing too.

When we started getting tired we headed back home for lunch. Cameron had a heart shaped sandwich. Yum!

Then I worked on the Minnie Mouse cupcakes and Cameron took a nap. (I don't even want to tell you what my kitchen looked like!)

After her nap the birthday girl got cleaned up and ready for her party. Papa, Mimi, Superpop, Granne and Uncle Ross all came over for dinner.

Superpop and Granne showed up with a new wagon, so Cameron and Sydney jumped in and took it for a spin.

We had baked ziti for dinner... and cupcakes for dessert! Here's the birthday girl blowing out her candles (Mommy and Daddy helped!)

Then it was time to open more presents. Cameron got a lot of really cool stuff. Thank you everyone!

By the end of the day we were all ready for bed, but a fun time was had by all.

My Loves

2012-02-14T12:10:00.003-07:00

I have three loves in my life:

Jesus Christ

My Husband

My Girls

Seeing as it's Valentine's Day and all, I thought I'd talk a little bit about these loves of my life.

God's love for us is compared to a father's love for his children over and over again in scripture. Now that I'm a mother, I have such a better understanding of what that really means. The love I have for my girls is so strong, I couldn't possibly imagine what my life would be like without them and if anything was ever to happen to either one of them I would be completely crushed. To think that God's love for me is like that, but much more is just overwhelming. I am so blessed to be one of God's children.

Ryan and I have been together for over 6 years now. It's funny to think about how little I really knew about his when we got married. But God had a plan, and I have definitely benefited from that plan. The more and more I learn about Ryan the more I love him. He is an incredible person, a hard worker and he has a huge heart. I love sharing my life with him. My heart melts when I watch him interact with our girls. To me he is the most perfect man in the whole world and I'm glad I can call him mine.

Cameron and Sydney are more wonderful than I could have ever imagined, and to think that they are my little girls just takes my breath away. I could not be more blessed to be their mommy. I could just sit and look at their sweet faces all day long and never get sick of it. I find such joy in taking care of them, teaching them, watching them grow and become their own little people. When I look at them I know that God is real because each one of them is truly a miracle.

Happy Valentine's Day My Loves!

Miss Cameron is Two!

2012-02-13T22:34:00.007-07:00

It's February 13 and that means our little Cameron is two! I can hardly believe it. I absolutely love being her mommy. I seriously wouldn't trade it for anything in the whole world. I'm so blessed to be able to stay home with her everyday and watch her learn and grow. She is the perfect combination of sweet and spunky, which makes me smile...and pull my hair out...but mostly just smile.

We had Cameron's two year wellness check with the doctor last Thursday and she is doing great. She's very healthy and meeting all the 2 year milestones. She weighs 24 pounds, 1 ounce (42nd percentile), she's 35.5 inches tall (88th percentile), and her head circumference is 48 centimeters (72nd percentile). So basically she's still tall and skinny.

So Cameron, what are you up to at two years old?

You love to dance and be silly, play outside, sing, read books, color, watch movies and shows, swim, "drive" the car, talk on the phone, help clean
Your favorite foods and drinks are noodles, goldfish, cheese, rice, juice and chocolate milk.
You are very opinionated and don't hesitate to tell us exactly what you do and do not want.
You love your little sister and are very proud to tell people about her.
You love "Mouse!" a.k.a. Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Anything Mickey and Minnie is a big hit including books, toys, shows, decorations, etc.
You are talking extremely well. You can communicate very clearly and are putting together more and more sentences everyday.
You are very sweet and give kisses and cuddle, when you're in the mood.
You are very attached to your "Phire" a.k.a. pacifier. We're really not looking forward to breaking you of it.
You're favorite movies are Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Tangled and Toy Story 3.
You're favorite TV shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
You absolutely love books, and to be honest you read such a variety of them I can't even list your favorites.
You are very beautiful little girl, people are constantly telling us how cute your are!
You love older kids. Whenever you see them you are fascinated by them and when you have the chance, you love to join in their games.
You are very smart, which is a good thing, but definitely keeps your daddy and I on our toes.
You are getting very good at counting. You can count to five and then kind of keep going to 10 (it usually is something like this 5, 6, 8, 10).
You're favorite outfit is a pink dress that I got for $1.50 at a consignment sale. Every time you see it you ask to put it on and if it goes into the wash, you get upset.

Cameron, you are such a joy! You're daddy and I are so incredibly blessed by you and we are so thankful that God has given us such a wonderful little girl to raise. We pray every single day that God guides and directs us a we parent you so that you grow up to be a woman of strong character who knows and loves the Lord. We love you so very much Peanut!

How is it possible that this was already two years ago?

Happy Birthday Toots!

Four Months Old!

2012-02-11T22:13:00.003-07:00

Sydney is four months old!

February 11, 2012

Weight: 14 pounds, 5 ounces

Length: 25 inches

Head: 41.5 centimeters

Our little sweet pea Sydney is 4 months old! She is getting to be such a big girl, I can’t believe it. It’s fun to watch her slowly come into her personality.

Sydney had her 4 month check up on Thursday. The doctor said she looks great! She is very healthy and is pretty average in size: 54th percentile for weight, 75th percentile for length and 77th percentile for head circumference.

So Sydney, what are you up to at 4 months old?

You had your surgery at Children’s Hospital on January 12. Hopefully that’s the last time you ever have to stay in the hospital.
You are a fantastic sleeper, sleeping from about 9 or 9:30pm all the way through the night until between 7 and 8am.
You are usually a big cat naper, but recently we’ve be trying to be a little more intentional about having you go down for naps at about 9 or 9:30am, noon, and then again sometime in the afternoon/early evening. If we swaddle you in your bed you do a great job with your naps.
You learned to roll over from your back to your tummy and you love to show off your new skill.
You love to be held. You’ll let pretty much anyone hold you without complaining.
You are a great eater. You eat 5 times a day now (7:30am, 11:00am, 2:30pm, 5:30pm, 9:00pm). We actually just dropped your 6th daily feeding (11:00pm) a few days ago and you seem to be adjusting really well.
You are an extremely happy baby, always smiling and laughing at us and your big sister.
You have gotten really interactive, talking and cooing at us all the time.
You are getting really strong. You can hold you head up really well and you can sit in your bumbo chair for more than a few seconds at a time.
You are wearing 6 months cloths and size 2 diapers.
You loved to ride in the Baby Bjorn carrier. I carry you on walks, to the park, around the house when I’m cleaning or cooking, in the store, etc.
You are so darn sweet! It’s so much fun to talk and cuddle with you. We are so lucky to have you as our little girl.

Snow Day

2012-02-07T23:22:00.003-07:00

Last Friday we got a mini snow storm. All the schools in the area were closed, and so was Ryan's office! Which meant we got to have a fun snow day with Daddy! Here's how things went down:

Cameron was excited to see all the snow out the window when she woke up...and she was even more excited that Daddy was home.

In honor of the snow day, we made a special pancake breakfast. Cameron helped with the mixing and was pretty stoked that we made her a Mickey Mouse pancake.

Sydney crashed while we were making breakfast. All this snow day business was making her tired!

After breakfast we watched Monsters vs. Aliens, a cute animated movie that had showed up from Netflix the night before. About 3/4 of the way though the movie, Cameron decided to throw her cup on the floor, which lead to a 15 minute Mommy vs. Cameron "battle of the wills". We literally went back and forth to time out about 10 times before she decided she would pick up the cup and take it to Daddy in the kitchen.

Once the movie was over it was time to bundle up and hit the snow. Cameron and Ryan made an awesome little snowman! Sydney and I mostly provided moral support.

Then it was back inside for lunch and naps. Playing in the snow is a lot of work! After her nap, Cameron made a b-line for the iPad (she is seriously addicted to the thing, ugh!) and put on a movie. Yes, she knows how to work it all by herself, we've created a monster!. (Mac, notice the Basset shirt!)

Fortunately, we were able to lure her away from the iPad with the idea of a dance party, which turned out to be pretty darn awesome!

And that pretty much covers the highlights of our day. It really was a fun family day. :)

Miss Sydney

2012-01-31T22:32:00.000-07:00

As you all know, Sydney is now rolling over! It cracks me up because she loves to do it over and over and over. Every time I leave her for a few seconds I come back and she is on her tummy again. She hasn't quite figured out how to go from her tummy to her back yet, so we have to help her out a little bit, but I'm sure it won't be long before she figures that out too.

Sydney slept in her room all by her self for the very first time last night. I know, I know, she's almost 4 months old...it's about time. I never intended to have her sleep in our room for that long, but it just kind of happened that way. She did great. Didn't wake up once the whole night!

This is Sydney's new favorite position—hands behind her head. It totally cracks me up.

We had a follow up appointment with Sydney's surgeon today. He said everything is looking really good and she is healing up nicely. Yay! We'll have to go in and see him again in 4 to 6 weeks so he can check her out again and make sure everything is continuing to progress well. This was a picture we took of her today at the appointment. She looks like such a big girl!

Potty Training Fail

2012-01-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

Today marked day 4 of potty training....and we're using the 3 Day Potty Training method. So I think that tells you how successful we've been. Day 3 was more of the same from days 1 and 2. We had accident after accident after accident. At one point last night she yelled potty and ran into the bathroom and sat on the potty for a second. I was hopeful, thinking maybe we had reached a turning point. But it never happened again.

This morning, I was getting super frustrated. I held up a diaper and a pair of panties and asked her which ones she wanted to wear. She pointed to the panties. That had to be a good sign right? No. A few minutes later I asked her where she was going to go to the potty when she had to go again and she pointed to the floor. Clearly she knows what's going on and is making the choice not to go in the potty.

So, we're done. At least for now. I'll wait a few months and try again, hopefully with more success. It would have been awesome if it worked. But it didn't, so that's that. Part of me is mad about the whole thing, but then I look at this sweet face and I can't stay mad for very long.

One good thing about throwing in the towel, I got to leave the house for the first time in three and a half days. I've never been so excited to go to church in my whole life.

Messy Kitchen, Happy Kids

2012-01-28T09:23:00.001-07:00

I started a new blog—Messy Kitchen, Happy Kids. It's not going to replace this blog. Rocky Mountain Volks is still how I'm going to update everyone on our family happenings. It's going to be a place where I can talk about mommy things, post recipies, share DIY craft ideas, etc. etc.

Definitly go check it out:
messykitchensandhappykids.blogspot.com

If you want to start following the blog, just click on the "Join this site" link in the lower part of the left column.

Potty Training

2012-01-27T17:52:00.002-07:00

So we started potty training yesterday. All I have to say is Cameron is definitely not one of those kids who trains themselves in a day. To be honest, it's been a pretty tough couple of days.

When Nick and Annie potty trained Cole, they used the 3 Day Potty Training method. Basically you go all out for 3 days, throw away the diapers and go for it with panties. It worked pretty well for them, so I read the literature and decided to give it a try.

By a lot of standards, Cameron is still pretty young to be potty training. But according to the lady who wrote the 3 Day method, any time after 22 months a child is fully capable of being potty trained. She actually even said that 22 months is the ideal time to do it because they will be less resistant. Cameron's 23 months and she's seemed to be a little ahead of the curve with a lot of things so far, so I figured I might as well give it a try. It would be awesome if we could get her out of diapers by the time we go to Hawaii in March.

Yesterday morning we "threw away" all of Cameron's diapers, put on some Elmo panties (which are super cute on her) and I proceeded to tell her every 10 minutes, "Remember, if you have to go potty, tell Mommy." By noon we had gone through about 8 pairs of panties and she only "went in the potty" once. I put "went in the potty" in quotes because the only reason the poo poo ended up in the potty was because she was still going when I set her down. (Yeah, being a Mommy has its "perks" HA!)

Even though it was only a semi success, I still made a HUGE deal out of it. We put a star on her potty chart, did the potty dance, gave her a gummy bear, etc. I was hoping that would help the whole concept to click. It didn't. By the end of the day I had stopped counting how many panties we had gone through. It was at least 30.

This morning I was feeling pretty defeated and even contemplated giving up on the whole thing. But then I decided that I better stick it out for at least 3 days. After all it's the 3 Day method. I have to give it at least that long.

Today I tried to lighten things up a bit, because it was starting to get a little tense. I gave Cameron some sparkling cider to drink in the bathtub. I figure she needs to enjoy the process to be successful, and since the whole potty part wasn't going very well I figured that this might might help. And it did. She LOVED drinking "bubble juice" in the tub. But then she pooed. In the tub. Awesome.

So I'm just praying that things click for her soon. And if you want to shoot up a quick prayer for us too, that would be much appreciated.

Sydney has been a good sport throughout the whole thing and has spent her extra time on the floor mastering her rolling over technique.

Sydney Rolled Over!

2012-01-27T17:16:00.001-07:00

Our little munchkin learned to roll over! She did it for the first time yesterday. I put her down on the floor, walked into the other room for a second and when I came back she was on her tummy. Then this morning she did the same thing again. And ever since she's been a rolling fool!

A rundown on the last few days

2012-01-23T16:57:00.007-07:00

Friday: Two sweet little girls playing on the floor.

DADDY!

Saturday: We went to Mikaela's birthday party at BOUNCE!

Cameron was in heaven when she saw this bounce castle.

She got a little nervous at the top of the big slide.

But with Daddy there anything is possible.

My little reader found some books to read.

And the cake was yummy!

Like father, like daughter!

Sunday: For our East Coast fam we had a pregame pep rally.

Monday: my little peanut woke up with a tummy ache (she threw up all over, poor baby), so we watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in bed.

Glad to be home

2012-01-18T16:04:00.002-07:00

We got to come home from the hospital late Saturday night. I was super relieved we didn't have to stay until Sunday or Monday like the doctor indicated right after he finished the surgery. As you can tell, we are all glad to be home.

Sydney is doing great! We're taking special care of her incision but other than that we're getting back to our normal routine. She's been a little more fussy than usual and she wants to be held a lot, but that's understandable considering everything she went through. She also doesn't hesitate to let me know when she's hungry now. She is NOT going to let us allow her to be hungry again! Ha

Cameron has been really into coloring lately. She sits at her little table with her crayons or markers and a piece of paper or coloring book and works very diligently on her pictures. I think she gets that from her daddy. :) (Now if only we could get rid of that stupid pacifier!!! I'm aiming for when she turns two.)

This is a little picture she drew for us yesterday. Didn't she do a good job?

Cameron has also been really into Chitty Chitty Bang Bang lately. We bought a copy on iTunes after Christmas so she's been asking to watch it on repeat. (I'm starting to get a little sick of it, but that's not the point). I'm not really surprised that she likes it so much because my nephew has been a big fan for awhile. Anyway, she's been walking around singing "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang we love you" just like how they sing it in the movie. It's super cute. I was able to get her on video today.

Well I've got to go pick up my house. I cleaned yesterday, but you'd never know it by looking around! Oh the joys of being a mommy!

Surgery's Over!

2012-01-14T17:13:00.002-07:00

Sydney's surgery is over and she's doing great. Thank goodness. I feel so relieved that it is finally behind us.

We got to the hospital a little after 5:00 am Thursday morning. Once they got us checked in we were escorted to the pre-op area where we answered and asked a billion questions and got Sydney changed into a mini hospital gown. Around 7:30 am the doc came in to talk with us about the procedure and let us ask him our remaining questions. After that, we prayed for Miss Sydney and the nurse carried her off for surgery....and I cried.

I, of course, cried on and off though out the entire morning. It was hard having them carry my little girl away. :( But according to most everyone we talked to, our surgeon is a really wonderful guy, one lady even said the reason he was really great was because he was a husband and dad first, and then a surgeon—he gets it.

My mom and Ryan's work chaplain stayed with us while Sydney was in the surgery, which was a nice distraction. Before we knew it 3 hours had passed and the doc was walking though the doors to give us a report on the surgery. She did great, everything went smoothly and the doc was very pleased with the outcome.

After that we were able to go and see her in recovery. She was super groggy and out of it and a little puffy from the anesthesia, but it felt so good to hold her in my arms. The recovery nurse said she'd gotten VIP service, someone carried her into the operating room, someone carried her out and handed her to the recovery nurse who then just passed her into my arms. Normally kids are wheeled in and out in beds or cribs, but not our sweet Sydney. :)

When a room opened up, we were moved to the floor for the rest of our stay at the hospital. The orders were to give her pain meds and antibiotics around the clock and not to feed her anything for 48 hours. I had no idea that this would be the hard part.

The rest of Thursday went alright, Sydney mostly slept as the effects of the anesthesia were wearing off. But by Thursday night she was getting pretty uncomfortable and hungry. Ryan and I had to switch off holding her through out the night because she didn't want to be put down. Friday was even worse. She would only sleep for 45 minutes or an hour at a time before she woke up crying because she was so hungry. Ryan and I pretty much spent Friday cuddling her and trying to keep her distracted from her hungry belly. Poor baby. :(

By late Friday night I think that Sydney had sort of adjusted to being hungry. She ended up sleeping fairly well, and was much more relaxed. Same with Saturday morning.

At 11:00 am this morning (Saturday) we got the word that we could start feeding her! I've never been so excited to feed my baby. I pumped a 3 ounce bottle and she went to town on it. At one point I pulled the bottle away to burp her and she was NOT happy. She wanted more! After that we waited an hour to make sure she was keeping everything down alright (which she did) and then I was told I could feed her normally. YAY!

Now we're just waiting for that milk to make its way through her system. They said that they'd like to see her have a normal bowel movement before we go home. So now we wait. Hopefully it's sometime this evening so we can go home today. If not it should be tomorrow.

Cameron has had a great time hanging out with Mimi and Granne the last few days. We miss her like crazy but are so grateful that our family is here to help us out. FaceTime has been awesome because we've been able to see her and talk to her every night.

So that's the run down. Thank you Jesus for keeping our little girl safe! I'm so grateful that the surgery is behind us now and that everything seems to have gone well. Now we're just praying that everything heals up well. Thanks to those of you who have been praying for us. The prayers are greatly appreciated.

Sydney's Surgery Update

2012-01-11T15:53:00.004-07:00

Here's the update on Miss Sydney's surgery:

The surgery is scheduled for 7:30am tomorrow morning. She will be under for about 3 hours while the doctors work on her, and then she'll be in the hospital for a couple days while they monitor her initial recovery. She hasn't been able to breastfeed since 7:30am this morning, I guess because they want to clear out her system before the surgery. She is, however, able to have Pedialyte. Surprisingly, she seems to be a fan of it so far. She's taken two bottles of it today without a problem, which has been a total relief.

Please keep us all in your prayers the next few days. I know she will be in good hands—God's and a very talented medical team—but she is so little and I can't help but be nervous and emotional thinking about it all.

We will try to keep everyone updated with blog posts or emails. Thanks in advance for your prayers.

Three Months Old!

2012-01-11T15:29:00.002-07:00

Sydney is Three Months Old!

January 11, 2012

Weight: 13 pounds

Length: 23.75 inches

Head: 41 centimeters

I just love being a mommy! Watching your kiddos grow up is such a treat. Some stages are more challenging than others, true, but every single stage is fun in it's own way. I'm sad that my little newborn Sydney is growing up, but at the same time, she has gotten super smiley and interactive and you can't help but love that! I fall more and more in love with this little girl every day.

I don't have three month growth stats yet, but I hope to get them in the next couple days, so check back.

So Sydney, what are you up to at three months old?

You are a great eater eating 6, sometimes 7, times each day.
You are super smiley, which we absolutely love.
You love to talk! You just coo up a storm and it is very cute.
You are growing wonderfully. You wear 3 month clothes and size 1 diapers, but you are getting close to moving onto the next size in both.
You are a fantastic night time sleeper, sleeping between 8 and 9 hours, but during the day you're a total cat napper.
You celebrated your first Christmas and New Years. Apparently you were a pretty good girl because Santa brought you lots of nice presents.
You started wiggling your arms out of your miracle swaddle blanket, so we had to change to the kind that Velcros.
You still sleep in your pack-n-play in our room, but we'll be moving you to your own room after your surgery.
You are fascinated with the lights and colors on the TV.
You're getting close to rolling over. You can get onto your side and are starting to try and leverage your head to give you the power to flip.
You are super sweet and I just can't help but squeeze you because you're so darn cute. Your daddy and I are so lucky to have you as our little girl.

12

2012-01-09T16:00:00.009-07:00

Annie did this on her blog and I loved it, so I'm copying her...

The Big 12 Countdown for 2012

Random things I'm thinking

I'm really not looking forward to Sydney's surgery this week

I'm finding it very difficult to fit working out into my daily schedule

I love that Cameron is starting to sing along to songs, it's so sweet

I'm definitely a summer girl, I want the weather to warm up

Getting out of the house takes forever these days

I really want to plant some veggies and herbs in our backyard this year

I want Ryan and I to start a business, we just need a good idea

Laundry is seriously a never ending task when you have kids

Some of the shows they make for kids are really strange/creepy

For the most part I really like what I'm doing for work right now

I would really love to have someone clean my house on a regular basis

I just finished reading The Hunger Games and it was awesome

Things I do every single day

Read Yes Yes, No No (Cameron's favorite book right now)

Check email, Facebook and blogs

Wipe little bottoms clean

Sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Search for missing pacifiers

Pick up toys, crayons, books, etc.

Check my calendar

Hold my sweet Sydney while she sleeps

Talk to Ryan

Go on walks/runs (at least I try)

Watch Disney Junior on TV

Things I can reach from where I'm sitting

Sydney's baby book

My wallet

A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD

Our 2011 health insurance records

A House of Blues event proposal (for work)

My favorite Christmas cards (the ones I want to keep)

Our Christmas memory book

A pair of Cameron's tights

Baby nail clippers

Checks waiting to be deposited into the girl's college funds

Things currently in my family room

Dirty clothes waiting to be washed

Changing pad and baby wipes

Coorslight cooler (classy right!)

Cameron's red mittens

A purple basketball we found in our front yard

A copy of Competitor Magazine

Sydney's car seat

Ryan's running vest from his run this morning

A princess camping chair

Books on my reading list

Catching Fire

Mockingjay

Water for Elephants

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoos

The Glass Castle

Bitter is the New Black

Cutting for Stone

One Day

Things I love to eat

Chocolate

Royal Red Robin burgers

Spinach salads

Soup - veggie, lentil, sweet potato, chicken noodle

Pasta salad

Clementines

Homemade cookies (store bought aren't worth it)

Things likely to be on the TV at our house

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

ESPN

Fox News

The Big Bang Theory

Mary Poppins

Future vacation destinations

Hawaii - in March

Lake Tahoe - this summer

Disney World

Alaska

Europe

Things we'd like to purchase/are saving for

New bike for Ryan

Repainting the outside of our house

A 7-foot trampoline for our basement

A cruise for two for me and my honey-poo

Things I'd like to accomplish this year

Run a few organized races

Fix up our yard

Organize my life :)

Things I couldn't live without

Family - my wonderful husband and sweet girls

My iPhone (not sure how I feel about that)

Picture that I love

A friend of mine called this sort of thing "Mommy Porn" :)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T20:11:00.001-07:00

We rung in the New Year at 8:00 pm with Cameron. It was great! The celebration was complete with a countdown, pot and pan banging, blowers, poppers, and sparkling cider. Cameron thought the whole thing was pretty cool, especially the "special juice".

Ryan and I stayed up late enough to celebrate the New Year on east coast and central time, but we fizzled out before we made it to mountain time. Oh well, I guess we're just getting old!

Here's our first picture of 2012! Cameron still looks a little tired. I guess she partied a little too hard last night! haha

Here are a few other pictures from this week.

Santa left this grocery cart in Superpop and Granne's basement and forgot to tell them, so this showed up at our house a couple days after Christmas.

Santa brought Cameron this mini coffee mug for Christmas. She LOVES it. She'll sit in front of the sink forever just filling it up and drinking out of it.

Cameron was wearing her cowgirl hat, just like Jessie! And she had her new Jessie jammies on.

2011 in Review

2011-12-31T21:12:00.009-07:00

2011 was a very eventful and busy year for our family! We had a lot of exiting things happen and we are grateful for how God has shaped and changed our lives. Here are the highlights, both good and bad.

----------------------------------------------

January

We went to Keystone with Papa and Mimi and took Cameron snowshoeing for the first time.

We spent the weekend in Breckenridge with our friends the Solomons.

February

Cameron learned to walk.

We celebrated Cameron's 1st birthday.

Our condo was put on the market.

We found out we were having another baby.

March

We started to tell friends and family about our little bun in the oven.

We went to the Baylor vs. CU women's basketball game.

April

Cameron and I went to New Jersey to celebrate Grandma Summer's birthday.

We celebrated Easter at Superpop and Granne's house.

May

Our sweet niece, Finley Marie, was born.

Cameron and I got to got to Texas to meet Finley.

We found out that baby #2 was a girl.

Ryan and I went to the U2 concert at Invesco field.

I left Cameron for the first time to go to Memphis for a few days for a work meeting.

I got to celebrate my 2nd Mother's Day with my sweet girl and hubby.

Grandma and Grandpa Volk came to visit from North Dakota.

My cousin Jeff and his family came to visit from Nebraska.

June

We moved into our new house.

We spent a week in Breckenridge relaxing and playing.

Cameron and I went to Disney World.

I coordinated USAV's trade show presence at InfoComm.

We celebrated Ryan's 2nd Father's Day.

July

We went to North Dakota to celebrate Grandma & Grandpa Volk's 60th wedding anniversary.

Ryan and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

Ryan got bursitis in his knee.

August

I got selected for jury duty.

We went to Sonoma, CA to celebrate Blake & Emily's wedding.

Mr. Shakespeare (my doggie nephew) went to doggie heaven.

Ryan got to go to the USA Pro Cycling Challenge finish in Denver.

I got a new doggie nephew, Longfellow.

September

Cameron started sleeping in her big girl bed.

We started a small group with several couples from our church.

My Uncle Stewart and his family came to visit from Kansas.

October

Our sweet baby, Sydney Kate, was born!

We hosted an Open House to show off our new house.

Annie and Finley came to Colorado to meet Sydney.

Cameron dressed up as a skunk and went Trick-Or-Treating for Halloween.

November

Ryan and I celebrated our birthdays.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving in our new house.

We took Cameron to her first movie theater movie.

December

We celebrated our first Christmas as a family of four.

Cameron and Sydney went to go see Santa.

Aunt Mac came to visit from Virgina so she could meet Sydney.

----------------------------------------------

There you have it folks. That pretty much sums up our year. Yay for a great 2011 and here's to 2012 and the memories we have yet to make.

Christmas Recap

2011-12-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

Christmas was a huge success! By Monday we were all exhausted, but in a good way. Sydney made out pretty well. Look at all her loot!

I didn't take a picture like this of all Cameron's stuff, because honestly, I don't think there was any way I would be able to collect it all into one area for a photo. Let's just say, she was a very blessed little girl this year.

Ryan was off work Monday so we got to hang out as a family. It was really wonderful. I wish we had more uninterrupted time like that.

As I reflect on the last few days, I am reminded of how truly blessed we are. We had such a wonderful Christmas. It was so much fun to spend time with our girls and with our families. And the greatest gift of all... the little baby that God sent to earth to die for us. All the "things" are nice, but that gift is truly the greatest.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS!!! I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas too!

Christmas Part 2

2011-12-27T15:19:00.002-07:00

Not only did Santa stop at Papa and Mimi's house and our house, but he also made a stop at Superpop and Granne's house! Cameron and Sydney must have been REALLY, REALLY good this year!

Like I said before, Cameron really got into opening presents this year. She loved ripping paper and digging through her stocking.

One of the highlights of the day (at least for me), was a scavenger hunt that Santa set up for Ryan and I. We had rhyming clues that sent us all over the house and eventually lead us to the upstairs office where we found...a double BOB stroller!

Cameron knew what to do with the BOB right away! She was ready to go for a walk. Too bad there was still a lot of snow outside.

Dinner was my favorite, turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce! Cameron ate blue cheese dressing with a fork (hmmmm) and a ton of turkey!

Jenna had to work Christmas night, but she had some super festive scrubs on. Of course we had to take some pictures!

Cameron also scored a pretty cool t-shirt! Now she can be properly dressed for her missions with Superpop!

And before the night was through, I had to see if Sydney would fit in the doll bed! HA She was definitely too big!

Christmas!

2011-12-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well, Santa definitely showed up at our house. I guess Elmer, our Elf on the Shelf, delivered good behavior reports to Santa this year.

Nice Cameron, just go ahead and pick your nose kid!

This was the aftermath. If you ask me, I think it looks like a pretty darn good Christmas morning was had by all!

Of course, we had the token box to play with. Why even bother with toys, right?

After presents we had breakfast (French Toast Casserole and Bacon, YUM!), played with our toys for a bit and then got ready to head over to Superpop and Granne's house for part three of our Christmas extravaganza!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-27T13:47:00.005-07:00

We had so much fun sledding on Friday, we decided to play outside in the snow again on Saturday. This time Daddy was able to come along too! Cameron totally scored a ride to and from the sledding hill. (For those of you who were at our wedding, does this not remind you of Ryan and I's "get away ride" when we left the reception!! HAHA)

Okay back to sledding :)...Cameorn was smiling so big her eyes were closed!

Sydney and I even took a turn going down the sledding hill.

After sledding, we went home, ate lunch and put Cameron down for a short nap before it was time to get ready for church. Before we left for church, Cameron left cookies and milk for Santa. She of course wanted to sample the cookies too, so she ate one and left one for Santa. :)

After church (we went to Life Bridge with Ryan's family), we went to Papa and Mimi's house for dinner and presents! Sadly this is the best family picture we got :/ Cameron wasn't really too into posing for pictures at this point.

Ryan and Ross did most of the clean up after dinner...and then it was onto the presents! First up, Christmas jammies for the girls.

Cameron really enjoyed opening presents this year. AND she was really excited about everything that she opened. It truly is wonderful to watch a little kid enjoy Christmas!

Sydney just kicked back and soaked it all in. I'm sure next year she'll be going gangbusters like her sister! :)

After we finished opening gifts, we headed home and hustled to bed so that Santa could come!

Kicking Off Christmas Weekend

2011-12-27T13:15:00.002-07:00

We kicked off Christmas weekend with a little sledding adventure on Friday afternoon. Superpop and Granne came up and we met up with Cameron's friend down the street, Ian, and his family. Ian had a really cool purple sled which was great.

When we got home, Cameron was stoked to find out that Daddy had brought home a sled so she could have one of her very own!

Then we spent some time playing with the singing frogs. I'm going to go ahead and say these frogs are hands down Cameron's favorite Christmas thing this year. She loves to sit and watch them sing, and I'll often catch her dancing with the froggies too!

Before bed, Cameron thought it'd be pretty cool to try on Mommy's snow boots! HA It was hilarious watching her walking in them. :)

And so ended Friday night...stay tuned to hear more about our Saturday, Christmas Eve excitement!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T08:00:00.002-07:00

Dance Party

2011-12-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

Cameron is super into dancing lately. It's hysterical to watch her run around in circles and get her groove on. Multiple times a day she'll come up to me and say "Mommy, dance", so as you can probably guess, we've had a bunch of impromptu dance parties lately...oh yeaaah! Tonight's dance number consisted of Ring Around the Rosie with Daddy. I was cracking up because she kept saying, "Again Daddy" and "On your feet Daddy". Priceless. Here's a little sampling of the dance party.

Christmas Festivities

2011-12-23T09:53:00.004-07:00

'Tis the season, which means lots of fun Christmas traditions! It's been exciting this year because Cameron is getting big enough to actually participate. Plus, it's Sydney's first time doing all of these things! Being a mom is the greatest. It's like you get to relive all the excitement from when you were a kid.

After Christmas last year we bought Cameron her very own purple Christmas tree. It's been a big hit so far this year. She loves to help plug it in and is always really excited to show it off when people come over to our house.

Cameron has been very interested in our Christmas tree this year. Luckily, I thought ahead and put some ornaments that are safe for her to play with at the bottom of the tree. But, of course, the safe ornaments only keep her attention for so long before she goes after the other ornaments. The biggest fascination, the glass balls...go figure!

The weekend that Sydney was supposed to have her surgery, Cameron spent the night at Superpop and Granne's house and she got to go to a Christmas party with them! It sounds like she had a lot of fun doing crafts and eating Christmas cookies. I tried to snatch a quick picture of her in front of the tree in her Christmas outfit when they brought her home.

I had Sydney dressed up in a cute Christmas outfit for BSF last week, so I figured I should take advantage and take a few pictures of the girls in front of the tree. Let's just say Cameron wasn't into the whole idea of a photo session. But I did get a few cute shots of Sydney!

Last weekend Aunt Mac came to visit us from Virgina. It was so great to see her! She is a great baker, so while she was here we made some Christmas treats. Cameron jumped right in and helped us out. It was a hoot. Her favorite...licking the spoon!

This isn't holiday related at all...but Sydney is getting really good with her tummy time lately.

Last year we never made it to see Santa, so this year I really wanted to take Cameron to meet the jolly ol' guy. We got there right when it opened, but the line was already over an hour (ugh!). But we decided to wait it out anyway. Cameron wasn't in the best of moods to start with, and Santa can be a little intimidating, so Granne and I ended up posing in some of the pictures too. Sydney however was a champ and was perfect for Santa!

When we got back to my mom and dad's house after seeing Santa we decided to take a few more pictures. I'm going to venture to say Cameron is a little bit bigger fan of Superpop than she is of Santa right now!

After our Santa adventure I made some coffee cake with my mom while Cameron took a nap. I couldn't resist the temptation to put Sydney in one of the cooking bowls!

Yesterday we had a big snow storm! I love days like that. The girls and I stayed in our PJs all day and watched movies and read books. I was a little bummed because we were supposed to make roll out Christmas cookies with some friends, but because of the snow we decided to cancel. I already had the dough in the refrigerator though, so Cameron, Sydney and I pressed forward with cookie making. It was quite the undertaking, but fun none the less.

Cousin Pictures

2011-12-20T09:13:00.001-07:00

While Nick and Annie were here over Thanksgiving we had professional photos taken of the 4 grandkiddos. Let's just say it was a little bit of an adventure! We were all cracking up the whole time. And the kiddos...well let's just say by the end they weren't loving it. :)

I love Annie's blog entry describing the whole thing so definitely check it out: 2 toddlers + 2 babies = hysterical disaster!

Stories About Miss Cameron

2011-12-13T16:36:00.003-07:00

Cameron loves to be the center of attention. A couple days ago I put Sydney in this cute little red dress/top that Jenna made for Cameron when she was little. It looked so cute that I wanted to get a few pictures of her wearing it. Well, of course Miss Cameron wanted her picture taken too. So she managed to push her way into the chair for a few shots. Although, I couldn't convince her to put her pacifier away.

More often than not, we find Cameron camped out by her door after we put her to bed. Sometimes she'll lay down with her feet up and kick the door hoping that if she makes enough noise we'll come in to see her. We usually just let her pound away until she eventually gives up and falls asleep. Every once in awhile we'll walk by the door and see her little fingers peaking out under it. The first time I saw it I was cracking up. Then the next time I grabbed the camera. HA

Sometimes Cameron isn't too interested in taking her afternoon nap. But even if she's not sleepy, I make her stay in her room for awhile. Well the other day this is what I walked in on when I went to get her up from her "nap"! She had pulled every single book off her bookshelf an put it on her bed. HAHA Seriously, what a crack up!

I bought Cameron this cowgirl hat in North Dakota when we were there this summer. She wasn't very interested in it for a long time, BUT she has gotten really into Toy Story 3 lately (we watch it at least 3 times a week) and I think she took note that Jessie and Woody wear cowboy hats. So the other day she spotted her hat and asked to get it down so she could play with it. She makes a pretty darn cute little cowgirl if you ask me!

Cameron is still sweet as can be with Sydney. And Sydney loves it when Cameron talks to her...she just smiles and smiles!

Getting Cameron dressed has turned into quite a battle lately. She is so darn busy you can't get her to hold still for two seconds before she is running down the hall. Thus, getting dressed is usually a multi part process. Last weekend I managed to get her tights and skirt on before she slipped away. Deciding it wasn't worth the battle, I let her go and started getting Sydney dressed. After a few minutes Cameron came tromping down the hallway with my ginormous slippers on! HAHA I was cracking up. What a silly girl! (Please excuse the toplessness...like I said, we hadn't made it that far in the getting dressed process!)

That's all I have for now, but I think you now have a little glimpse into Cameron's personality these days. She really does keep us laughing. :)

Two Months Old!

2011-12-11T16:47:00.003-07:00

Sydney is Two Months Old!

December 11, 2011

Weight: 11 pounds, 4 ounces

Length: 22.5 inches

Head: 39 centimeters

I swear, days are slipping away faster and faster all the time. Today we celebrate Sydney's two month birthday. It's hard to believe. She is such an important part of our daily lives now I have a hard time remembering what it was like before was born. This month held a little bit of drama for us, Sydney's surgery that was scheduled for December 8 had to be postponed because she was sick. Talk about a whirlwind of emotions for Mommy and Daddy. But, we learned early on that God is the ultimate Father of our kiddos and we need to trust Him and His timing. Easier said than done though!

Sydney is in the 47th percentile for weight, the 50th percentile for height and the 71st percentile for head circumference.

So Sydney, what are you up to at two months old?

You are eating and sleeping great. Eating 7-8 times and day and sleeping a 5-7 hour stretch at night.
You're getting big! You're already wearing 3 month clothes and size 1 diapers.
You got sick for the first time this month with a yucky cough, congestion and low grade fever.
You started smiling! It's so incredibility sweet I can't stand it. We just love talking to you and watching you respond to us with a huge smile on your face.
You drank your first bottle and did it without any problems at all.
You like watching your sister and checking out what she's doing all the time.
You're still sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's room. The plan was to transition you out after your surgery, but now that it's been postponed we may have to rethink that one.
You are such a fun little girl. God really blessed us when he brought you into our family.

I just had to include this photo too. Look at that huge, sweet smile!

Sydney Update

2011-12-08T08:27:00.002-07:00

We've had a slight change of plans...Sydney's surgery that was scheduled for this morning has been postponed until January. This weekend Sydney started to come down with a cold—congestion, coughing, etc. I wasn't surprised because Cameron was sick all last week. I tried to be super careful washing hands and keeping them apart, but I've come to realize that there is no getting around it. If one sibling gets sick, eventually the other does too.

I ended up taking Sydney in to the pediatrician yesterday morning so the doctor could give us a recommendation on whether or not we should move forward with the surgery. The doctor checked Sydney out and said she probably wouldn't have the surgery. Better for her to be 100% before putting her though something like that. The doctor said there's a chance Sydney has RSV, but since she seems to be doing pretty well that the best course of action is just to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't get much worse. RSV or not, it will most likely run its course in a couple days.

When I called the surgeon's office, they said that if she does have RSV, they want to wait another 6 weeks to allow her to fully recover before having the surgery. So that puts us into January.

I'm totally bummed because we really got ourselves mentally prepared for this (I spent a lot of time in tears over the weekend just thinking about it) and we were ready to get it behind us. But at the same time I am thankful that the doctor's first priority is keeping Sydney safe.

So that's the update. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. We've very much appreciated the encouraging words that you have sent our way. We'll continue to keep you posted. Now we're just praying that Sydney gets healthy again fast. It's so sad to listing to your little baby hack up a lung. Poor little girl. :(

Thanksgiving Week

2011-11-27T20:21:00.001-07:00

I am so incredibly thankful for everything that God has blessed me with. I couldn't even imagine my life without my wonderful husband, my sweet little girls, our extended families, and all our friends. We are so lucky to live in a free country where we can worship the Lord how we want when we want. Ryan and I have a beautiful home and lots of nice things. I could go on and on listing all the gifts God has given us...but I won't :). I'll just make it simple and say Thank You Jesus!

Now for a quick update on our week:

Saturday
Nick, Annie and their kiddos flew in from Texas last Saturday. We were so excited for them to be here for the holiday. For Ryan's mom's birthday in August we gifted her professional grand kid photos, so on Saturday afternoon Corrie Kraft came over for a photo session. Let's just say it's not exactly easy to get four little kiddos to all cooperate for photos! It was actually pretty hilarious. Even if they weren't all happy the whole time, they all looked super cute and I'm sure we got some good shots. After the photo shoot we had dinner at Ryan's mom and dad's with a bunch of other family members. Cameron was a trooper, she stayed up until almost 11pm that night.

Cameron hanging out in her jammies at Papa and Mimi's house

Sunday

We went to brunch with the whole fam on Sunday afternoon. It's so much fun to get Cameron and Cole together now because they have so much fun. They had a great time being silly at the restaurant. Then on Sunday night we got a sitter for all the kiddos (minus Sydney) because we had a special little outing planned...a surprise party for Annie's 30th Birthday! She was completely surprised since her birthday isn't for another two weeks.

Cameron and Cole being silly at lunch

Cameron and Cole holding hands as they walked out of the restaurant...so cute!

Annie, Courtney (Annie's good childhood friend), and me when we walked into the surprise party

Monday

We celebrated my wonderful husband's birthday on Monday. I had the fam over for a birthday dinner at our house. On the menu: Abo's pizza and carrot cake... some of Ryan's favorites.

Tuesday

Tuesday the girls and I hit the store to get groceries for Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted to get it done a little early so that I didn't have to fight any crowds.

Wednesday

Annie taught me to make the super cute bows. I'm so excited that I know how to do them now. Cameron and Sydney are going to have bows to match every outfit! I love it. After bow making it was home to start prepping for Thanksgiving dinner. Ryan and Nick went to the Avs game on Wednesday night, so it was just me and the girls getting the food ready. Cameron actually "helped" with ripping the bread for the stuffing and a few other things. I love that she is getting old enough to participate in holidays. It's so much fun.

Thursday

Turkey Day! Yay! Ryan and I got the turkey ready and then we took the girls to the park for a little while before we needed to get everything else ready for dinner. Ryan's family and Jenna all came over for our Thanksgiving feast. I think we did pretty well for it being our first time to host Thanksgiving dinner. My tummy was definitely happy.

Getting the bird ready

Cameron chillin' watching the Macy's day parade

Jenna and Sydney

Ryan, Annie and the grub

Nick and Annie's sweet family

The closest thing we got to a family picture

Daddy and Cameron

Sydney swinging while we ate

Finley hanging out on the blanket

Cameron and Cole playing with Uncle Nick

Uncle Nick and Cameron

Friday

Friday we had a little family day. Ryan and I took Cameron and Sydney to see The Muppet movie. It was so much fun. Sydney pretty much slept the whole time and Cameron LOVED it. After the movie we went to a pizza place for lunch and then ran into REI for a little bit. By the time we got into the car to head home, Cameron was pooped. She zonked out right away. Friday night we got together with a whole bunch of Ryan's family again. Brady and Kinsley were there so again, Cameron had a bunch of kiddos to play with.

Walking into the movie theater

Getting ready for the movie to start

In the hall after the movie

Saying hi to Alvin in the lobby of the movie theater

Lunch at the pizza shop

Tired girl

Saturday

We had lunch with Nick and Annie before they left for the airport and then we came home and everyone took naps. We were all pretty exhausted from a busy week. Ryan also gave Sydney her first bottle on Saturday evening. She was great. She took it without any problems and drank almost the entire thing.

I love that Sydney has started to smile! So sweet.

Drinking her first bottle

Sunday

Today we got to go to Cameron's friend Mason's 2nd birthday party. Cameron had a blast playing with all the other kids, eating snack mix and ice cream, and helping Mason open his presents. (Yeah that's right, she got right in the middle of everything and started opening presents with the birthday boy. Good thing he's a nice kid! At least we know she's going to get into Christmas this year.)

Now it's back to our normal schedule for a couple weeks. Thank goodness! We absolutely love having family around, but we are always so busy when everyone is here that it's kind of nice to slow down a little bit afterwards.

This and That

2011-11-19T13:18:00.008-07:00

I'm back to running again. I was officially cleared by the doctor yesterday at my 6 week follow up appointment, but I cheated a little and went for a couple runs last week. It's nice to get out again, even if I am slow and my body hurts. Tuesday Cameron spent the morning with Mimi, so I bundled Sydney up and we hit the road. I thought she looked really cute all bundled up in the stroller, so before we left the house I grabbed the camera for a few quick shots. After all, I need to keep up with the ungodly amount of photos we took of Cameron when she was a new baby. :)

I had to get a picture of this. Cameron is so great with Sydney. This particular day she was helping cheer Sydney up when she was crying by giving her a pacifier and saying "Sydney, it's ok", very cute! (Don't mind the fact that she smothered her while giving her the pacifier, HA!)

This just makes my heart melt. What a good daddy!

Last Saturday, we got to go to Cameron's little friend Madi's first birthday party. Madi is super cute and Cameron had a blast playing..and eating ice cream at the party.

We're going to be celebrating Thanksgiving with the Volks this year, so we had an early Thanksgiving celebration with my parents. I don't really have any pictures of Sydney with Superop, so we got a few really cute ones. My sister made that hat for Sydney.

And of course we had to get some pictures of Cameron and Bullseye. (Side note: Bullseye is on his last leg...I noticed that he's close to breaking like Freddy did. Yikes, we might be in trouble if both Freddy AND Bullseye bite the dust!)

Ryan's Aunt and Uncle were in town last weekend from North Dakota so we got to spend some time with that part of the family. Cameron had a blast playing with her cousins (or second cousins...or something like that) Brady and Kinsley. I love that she can play with other kids so well now.

Our Beautiful Girls

2011-11-13T20:19:00.002-07:00

I'm definitely bias, but we have the most beautiful, sweet girls in the entire world! Ryan and I are so lucky. The photos of Cameron are from a photo shoot we did with her in August and the photos of Sydney are from a few weeks ago.

Cameron Brianne

Sydney Kate

Sisters

2011-11-12T12:28:00.001-07:00

At first I thought Cameron and Sydney looked exactly the same. However, now that Sydney is getting bigger you can totally tell she is her own little person...but you can definitely tell they're sisters! Here's a few pictures so you can compare and decide for yourself.

On the day they were born...

SYDNEY

CAMERON

Going home from the hospital...

SYDNEY

CAMERON

Hanging out in the Boppy pillow...

SYDNEY

CAMERON

In the swing...

SYDNEY

CAMERON

One month old...

SYDNEY

CAMERON

One Month Old!

2011-11-11T23:58:00.001-07:00

Sydney is One Month Old!

November 11, 2011

Weight: 9 pounds, 11 ounces

Length: 21.25 inches

Head: 37.5 centimeters

Here we go again. Our little newborn is not so little anymore...she's already a month old! And she's growing like crazy. She's gained over a pound since she was born and grown an inch and a half. That's a lot for such a little girl. She's in the 63rd percentile for weight, the 54th percentile for length and the 78th percentile for head circumference. We had her doctor's appointment today and the doctor said she looks great. Yay!

So Sydney, what are you up to at one month old?

You love to be held and carried around. Does this mean you're going to be a cuddle bug? I sure hope so. :)
You grunt a ton! Mostly when we lay you down.
You are a great eater (obviously by your weight gain). You eat about 7 or 8 times a day.
You are still wearing newborn diapers and clothes, but we're in the process of transitioning to the next size because they're getting a little tight on you.
You're a pacifier girl like your sister.
You like the water when we give you baths.
You are sleeping in a Pack n' Play in Daddy and Mommy's room.
You are starting to sleep longer stretches at night. Most of the time it's 4 hours but your getting close to 5 hours now!
You are a tough cookie. Getting bonked by your sister doesn't even phase you.
You are beautiful, sweet and such a joy to have around. We are so lucky to have you as our little girl Sydney!

Of course Cameron wanted to sit in the chair and have her picture taken too! Sydney wasn't too sure about being "loved on", but she really is a sweet big sister.

Miss Sydney

2011-11-09T22:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a little video of Miss Sydney. Nothing too exciting, but I thought it was cute because she's so awake. Plus I haven't posted any videos in awhile so I figure I'm due.

The Latest

2011-11-09T21:24:00.006-07:00

Big Sister In Charge

This was just too tempting! I couldn't resist putting Sydney into the play stroller. Doesn't she look huge in there? I couldn't have picked a better time to do it either, Cameron was wearing her big sister in charge shirt...it was perfect! She sure did think it was pretty cool to push her baby sister around the house, even if it made me a little nervous!

The Girls
Cameron is really adjusting well to having a little sister. She is so sweet to Sydney. She loves to give her kisses, and when she cries she'll say "Sydney, it's ok". She likes to help give Sydney her pacifier when she's crying and when Cameron wakes up from her naps she'll run out of her room and go looking for Sydney. It's so much fun to watch. I just can't wait for when Sydney is big enough to interact with Cameron, they're going to have so much fun together!

Freddy Bites the Dust
Cameron is definitely a pacifier girl. Every since she found her fingers at about a month old I've been a pacifier pusher. I figure it's easier to take away a pacifier than to break a finger sucking habit.

Anyway, Cameron has become really attached to her pacifiers. She has two Wubbanubs—the pacifiers with the little animals attached—and they have become her "thing". They are what sooth her when she's upset and what calm her down when she's falling asleep. She doesn't have a stuffed animal or a blanket or anything like that. Just the pacifiers.

Well, yesterday Cameron kept trying to tell me something and I couldn't figure out what she was talking about for the longest time. Then I finally realized. She was trying to tell me that Freddy was broken. With all the use that he's gotten, the tip of the pacifier finally wore down and cracked. And as you can imagine, a pacifier is kind of worthless if it's broken like that.

So now I'm faced with a dilemma. Do I replace it, or do it just use this as an opportunity to start breaking the pacifier habit. I'm definitely leaning towards starting to break the habit. But it's kind of hard because it's her "thing" and she doesn't have another "thing" that comforts her right now. Hmmm what to do what to do. I guess I need to start being a blanked pusher. :)

Mommy Bling
When Cameron was born Ryan got me an awesome necklace that had a charm with her name on it. Well for my birthday last week he got me a new one with both Cameron and Sydney's names on it. Isn't it perfect? I seriously love it. My hubby is the best!

Sydney Update

2011-11-02T21:35:00.000-06:00

I mentioned this briefly before, but when Sydney was born the pediatrician noticed a small abnormality with her bottom and recommended that we have her transferred down to Children's Hospital so she could be examined by the specialists there. Long story short, the specialists determined that it would be necessary for Sydney to have surgery when she was two or three months old.

We had an appointment with the surgeon yesterday afternoon so we could go over the details of the procedure and ask him questions. The surgery will be 3 hours long and they will put her under. Then she'll need to be in the hospital two days after so they can monitor her and keep her on an IV. She's not going to be able to eat for 24 hours before and 48 hours after the surgery so that her system will be cleaned out for the procedure and the initial recovery period.

To be honest, I haven't really let myself thing about the whole thing too much yet. It just makes me too sad to think about my little baby having to go under anesthesia for three hours. Poor thing. But the good thing is the surgeon seems to be really confident about the procedure. It's nothing out of the ordinary for him, even if it is a really big deal for us.

The surgery is scheduled for the second week in December, which I'm sure sill be here before we know it. We are just trusting God in the middle of this all and praying that He keeps Sydney safe. Please keep us in your prayers.

Halloween

2011-11-02T20:46:00.001-06:00

Halloween was a huge success at our house this year! We started the day off by carving a pumpkin. I have wonderful memories of carving pumpkins with my Uncle Gummer when I was a kid, so I really want to make craving pumpkins a fun tradition with our girls. Cameron wasn't hugely interested in the whole process, so I ended up doing most of the work. But she did use the spoon to try to scoop out some seeds and she liked putting the top on the pumpkin when we were all done, so I count that as a success. After all, what more could you expect from a 20 month old?

Initially my plan was to have Cameron dress up as a clown. My mom made me a clown costume for Halloween when I was two years old, so I figured it would work great to have Cameron wear that same costume. But sadly we weren't able to find it. I think the basement trolls got their hands on it. Luckily, a lady in Ryan's office had a costume that her son wore when he was about Cameron's age...a skunk! I put a little bow on the skunks head to make it a girl and it turned out really cute.

On Halloween night Cameron went trick-or-treating with her little friend Ian who lives down the street. Ian was Bob the Builder. I'm not sure if they ever really figured out what was going on with the whole trick-or-treating thing, but they had blast running up and down the street, knocking on doors and getting candy. And we had fun watching them!

Miss Sydney went trick-or-treating too, but she stayed cuddled up in the baby bjorn the whole time, which I think she rather enjoyed. :)

Adjusting to Life as Four

2011-10-31T14:55:00.004-06:00

Life has been pretty crazy the past few weeks, but the good news is we are adjusting well to being a family of four. Cameron is a great big sister. She is so sweet to Sydney and loves to show people "our bebe". Sydney is growing like crazy. I think she has gained over a pound since she was born. You can totally tell too. She already looks different from when we brought her home a few weeks ago.

Ryan is a great daddy. You can just tell he loves his girls. As for me, I'm feeling good. I had a great recovery from Sydney's birth and only had one minor bump in the road a long the way (I got a breast infection about a week ago...not fun). The nights are still pretty long, Sydney is up about every three hours, but I actually feel fairly well rested considering.

Yes, our lives have been a little hectic, but every time I get the chance to stare into the face of our sweet baby while she sleeps, or hear the laughter of our our big girl as I tickle her on the floor, I am reminded of how blessed we are. I'm so thankful that God had entrusted us with the lives of these two precious little girls. What an honor. I can't even imagine what our life would be like without them. We are so incredibly lucky!

Here are the highlights from the past few weeks:

What a sweet little girl

Proud daddy admiring his little girl

The big sister...just saying hi

Sporting the "Big Sister In Charge" shirt

First bath...she didn't love it. :(

Playing with play dough

Helping to rock Sydney in her swing

Cameron and her friend Ian thought it was pretty cool to play in the leaves in our front yard

Annie and Finley came to visit for a couple days

Cameron playing with Miss Finley

Zonked out!

I can't get enough of these pictures of Ryan with the girls, it's just so sweet

Finley showing off a new hat

I think every parent has a gazillion pictures of their baby sleeping, but sleeping babies are so sweet, how can you not have a ton of pictures of this?

Lil Sis!

I can't believe Cameron used to be that little! Look at her now. :)

Sweet baby sister smooches!

The Nursery

2011-10-26T15:15:00.000-06:00

I am so completely excited about Sydney's new room! It's super cute, but I'm not taking any of the credit for the cuteness. A friend of mine (Annie, another Annie...not the Annie's you guys already know) has a background in design, and she offered to help me decorate the nursery a few weeks ago. At that point, I only had a purple blanket that my sister made and a bed skirt for the room, so I took her up on her offer to help without thinking twice.

I really wanted Sydney's room to be different than Cameron's was. I don't want her to get stuck with hand me downs all the time, so I decided to do something very different than what we did with Cameron's room. And if you ask me, the room turned out great! Annie is so talented and has such a great eye for putting things together. She took some of the most basic things and pulled them together into these great combinations. I wish I had more of an eye for those sorts of things.

It's kind of funny, when Ryan started painting the room the color purple we had picked out we were both questioning our decision. It seemed so bright, too bright and I was a little worried. We thought about starting over with a different color, but eventually decided to go with what we had. I'm glad we did because it ended up looking great. The white and brown accents we added really helped to tone down the brightness and it ended up being the perfect, girly, but not too girly color.

Welcome Sydney!

2011-10-17T21:43:00.000-06:00

We are so excited to introduce you to the newest addition to our family...

Sydney Kate Volk

Born October 11, 2011 at 3:40pm

7 pounds 7 ounces, 19 3/4 inches

She came in a hurry. I went into labor around 11:00 am on Tuesday morning with a faint ache in my back. I wasn't completely convinced I was actually in labor until about 1:30 pm when I decided I should start tracking my contractions. Ryan got home about 2:30 or 2:45 pm. We started making our way to the hospital a little bit after 3:00 pm, and Sydney was born at 3:40 pm, just 10 minutes after we walked (well I actually was wheeled in a wheelchair) into the doors of Labor & Delivery at the hospital. The doctor barely made it in time, to be honest, I don't even think he had time to get his gloves on before she was out.

The whole ordeal was VERY different than when I had Cameron, but it definitely makes for a good story to tell. I felt like we were in a movie!

Our "adventure" didn't stop after Sydney was born either. When the pediatrician came to check Sydney, she discovered a little problem with her bottom. We ended up transferring her down to Children's Hospital by ambulance at about 10:00 pm Tuesday night so that we could have her looked at by some specialists.

It turned out to be a really good thing that Sydney came so quickly and I didn't have time to have an epidural or any other pain meds when she was born (although I wouldn't have ever said that in the middle of it all!). I think that the fact that I didn't have any drugs or anything enabled me to be discharged right away so I could go with her to Children's that night.

Long story short. She is fine, but she is going to need to have surgery in a couple months to get everything aligned properly in her bottom region.

We are just so thankful that our little girl is healthy and that what had the potential to be a really big problem ended up being relatively small in the big scheme of things. All I have to say is God is good!

We were in such a rush heading into the hospital that we didn't think to bring the camera in, so sadly we don't really have that many pictures. But we did manage to get a few...enjoy!

And now we wait...

2011-10-09T20:53:00.000-06:00

Pre-Baby Check List

Get the house in order - CHECK

Wash and put away baby clothes - CHECK

Get hair cut - CHECK

Locate infant car seat - CHECK

Get a mani and pedi - CHECK

Get baby's stuff ready for the hospital - CHECK

Stock nursery with newborn diapers - CHECK

Decide on, and get, big sister present for Cameron - CHECK

Agree on baby's name - CHECK

I think we're ready...come on baby, let's GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD!

A couple other random things...

A few girlfriends put this diaper cake together for us. Isn't it awesome! I think it's the cutest thing ever. I don't want to take it apart because it's so pretty!

Even though the weather was pretty crappy yesterday, I convinced Ryan that we needed to go on a walk...walking is supposed to help induce labor, right? So we bundled Cameron up and headed outside for awhile. Unfortunately, the walking didn't help entice baby to come out, but we did enjoy the time outside. I was cracking up as we were walking out the door though. Cameron looked like such a scrub! I had to grab the camera and snap a few pictures.

38 Weeks

2011-10-03T21:28:00.003-06:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 38 weeks, 1 day

Size of baby: 6.8 lbs, 19.5 inches (like a leek)

Total weight gain: 36 or 37 lbs

Maternity clothes: I've been raiding Ryan's t-shirt drawer on a daily basis trying to find shirts that fit.

Gender: Girl

Movements: Still moving around like a crazy woman. Seems like between dinner and bedtime is her most active time of the day.

Sleep: I've stared waking up at about 4 or 5 a.m. every morning and can't go back to sleep. Maybe it's my body's way of preparing me for what's coming! Or maybe I just need to learn how to control my crazy mind.

What I miss: My bellybutton (the turkey popper has popped!), comfortably cuddling with Cameron on my lap, running, moving around easily, my energy level, my normal clothes, bending over and not looking completely awkward...can you tell I'm kind of ready to be D-O-N-E? :)

Cravings: No

Symptoms: Feeling pretty good, although I can feel my body "getting ready" i.e. pains in my hip joints, etc. A couple of weeks ago I had a day where I felt horrible. I was having contractions and was just not feeling quite right. I thought for sure that I was going into labor. Luckily it passed and I'm back to my normal preggo self now.

Best moment of the week: Changing the calendar to OCTOBER!

Our Home

2011-10-03T21:01:00.002-06:00

We are so blessed to finally be settled in our new house and we wanted to do something to share it with all our friends and family, so Sunday afternoon we hosted an open house. The afternoon was perfect! The weather was beautiful and we had the opportunity to see and catch up with a whole bunch of people we haven't seen in awhile. It's times like these that really remind us just how lucky we are to be surround with so many wonderful people in our life.

We planned the party at just the right time too...there's nothing like inviting a whole bunch of people over to see your house to give you some incentive to finish up those last few lingering projects. And let me tell you, this nesting momma feels a huge sense of relief now that pretty much everything is "done". I finally feel like we can sit back and relax while we're waiting for Baby Volk #2 to make her debut.

I know I've been promising to post pictures of our house for awhile now, so I sent Ryan around to take a few pictures as were were getting ready for the party. They'll give you an idea of how everything looks, but to get the full effect, you really need to stop by and get the official tour!

Entryway

Dining Room

Family Room

Family Room from the other direction

Kitchen

Loft

Family Room from above

Family Room and Kitchen

Our Room

Baby's Room (this is just a teaser, I'm going to take some more pictures and talk a little more about how awesome this room is in a later post!)

Cameron's Room (she was still napping, so all you get is the door!)

Well, that's just about it. Thank you to everyone who was able to come and join us. We feel so lucky that God has given us the opportunity to live in such a wonderful home and we pray that we can use this space to glorify Him on a daily basis.

A Few of My Favorite Things...

2011-09-27T21:55:00.001-06:00

...well actually a few of Cameron's favorite things.

She has been REALLY into bubbles and driving lately. And when I say REALLY, I mean REALLY. I think we've spent time playing with bubbles in the driveway and sitting in the car "driving" just about every single day the past week.

It actually works out pretty well for me because I'm able to just sit there and watch her play, which is awfully nice considering my uber preggers status right now.

It seriously cracks me up though, she's so intent on these activities. And I love how she impersonates what she sees us doing...very cute!

Adjusting the mirror...

Putting on some chap stick...

Putting the keys in...

Pasta Night

2011-09-27T13:52:00.003-06:00

Last night was pasta night at the Volk's house. I'm not talking pasta from the box. No, no, no...I'm talking fresh, homemade pasta made from scratch! My friend Sarah has become quite the pasta expert lately. She took a cooking class awhile ago where she learned how to make it and has been working on perfecting the process ever since.

Yesterday afternoon she came over—fresh eggs and flour in one hand and her snazzy pasta maker in the other—and helped Cameron and I make fettuccine. And let me just say, it was AWESOME! I put together a chicken wine sauce and the dish was amazing. Too bad it takes so long to make the pasta or else I would be doing it a lot more often!

Painting & Pinot

2011-09-26T21:27:00.001-06:00

Saturday night Ryan and Cameron had a father daughter date night (they went to Chick-fil-A for dinner), and I went out for a night with the girls! We went to this cute little art place in Lafayette for Painting & Pinot.

This whole Painting & Pinot thing is starting to get really popular. I'm hearing about it more and more lately. Basically, you go, drink wine, and paint. There is an art teacher there who walks you though each step of the painting process so that it actually turn out halfway decent in the end.

I, of course, couldn't partake in the Pinot portion of the evening (I opted for a chai latte instead), but the painting portion was awesome. It was fun to feel like a "real" artist mixing paints and painting on a canvas. I wouldn't say my painting was "wall hanging quality" but considering the complexity of the painting we were doing, I think it turned out ok.

I think I'll definitely do it again at some point...perhaps when I can actually drink a little wine. ;)

Broomfield Days

2011-09-20T21:03:00.006-06:00

Cameron and I made sure to make the most of our girl time while Ryan was gone at the church men's retreat this past weekend. On Saturday, we went to Broomfield Days. There was a parade, lots of booths with crafts and other cool merchandise, and even a petting zoo. Missy and Madi met us at the parade and then my mom came and met us afterwards.

Cameron was a hoot. She loved the parade and stood up dancing, clapping and waving as all the different floats came by. She was really excited when someone gave her a sucker...and then a beaded necklace...and then a beach ball...and a flag...I guess she made out pretty well! The flag made me a little nervous. It was pretty big and she was waiving it around like crazy, thus putting the rest of us in danger of getting our eyes poked out! Luckily we all made it out unscathed.

The petting zoo was another adventure. While we were waiting in line to pay to get in, Cameron somehow managed to sneak into the animal pen all by herself without anyone noticing! Then one of the goats tried to eat her gold necklace, luckily my mom was on the ball and tossed it out of the pen before the goat completely malled her. Then some other animal (I can't remember which one) kind of cornered her near the fence with its horns, which made her a little nervous. I just wish I had a video of the whole ordeal. It really was pretty funny!

We did miss Ryan, but it was kind of fun to have some girl time too!

A Morning With Grandma

2011-09-18T20:49:00.001-06:00

We love when Granne comes over! She always comes with fun projects, books, etc. for us to play with. (I think that's just what happens after you've been a teacher forever like she has—the teacher mentality just follows you!) Last week she came with all the supplies to paint New Jersey sea shells! Cameron actually really got into it. I was surprised by how long the project captured her attention.

We also got to spend some time reading books while Granne was over. It's funny because I totally remember reading Go, Dog. Go! with my dad when I was little. I loved the dog party in the tree!

YAY BOO

2011-09-16T22:05:00.002-06:00

Yay Boo Yay Boo

It's lots of fun to do.

If you like it holler yay,

If you don't, you holler boo.

My work bought me a new iPad, YAY!
I can't get it to work with my computer and Internet, BOO!

Baby Volk is due exactly one month from today, YAY!
I feel gigantic, tired and sore, BOO!

Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) started this week, YAY!
I'm already two days behind with my homework, BOO!

It's the weekend, YAY!
Ryan is gone so he can't play with us, BOO!

35 Weeks

2011-09-14T23:03:00.001-06:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 35 weeks, 3 days

Size of baby: 5.25 lbs (about the weight of a honeydew melon), 18 inches

Total weight gain: still at about 35 lbs

Maternity clothes: starting to get sick of them...

Gender: Sill a girl. A few friends and I were having a conversation yesterday about people who have had surprises in the delivery room even after having several ultrasounds confirming the baby's sex. I can't even imagine that! After all the time you put into mentally (and physically) preparing for a little baby of one sex and then having a little Bobby pop out instead of a Sally...gosh, that would be quite the little surprise!

Movements: It really seems like this little girl moves around a lot more than Cameron did. I don't know if its just been so long that I don't accurately remember the amount that Cameron moved or what, but all I have to say is this little girl has some serious power behind those limbs!

Sleep: Still sleeping pretty well considering I have a beach ball as a belly right now.

What I miss: Being able to move around easily. It's getting more and more difficult to do those everyday tasks. I was thinking about it and when I'm carrying Cameron I'm actually carrying around like 60 extra pounds when you add up the baby weight and then Cameron's weight. That's a lot! No wonder my body is getting tired.

Cravings: Nope, nothing really.

Symptoms: The right side of my lower back, kind of in the sacrum area, has been getting really sore. I've been very thankful for the chiropractor because she's been able to get things lined up a little better so the ouchie-ness isn't quite so bad.

Best moment of the week: I think Ryan and I finally decided on the baby's name! Don't get too excited though, we're still going to keep it a secret until she's here. (Oh it's so much fun to drive you all crazy!) ;) Also found out at my doctor's appointment this week that I'm 1cm dilated. Not that it really means that much (a lot of people start progressing early like this, especially after their first pregnancy) BUT what it does mean is we're getting close! I can't believe that NEXT MONTH we're going to be a family of four!

Kirk & Annie's Shower

2011-09-10T21:11:00.000-06:00

Kirk is one of Ryan's best childhood friends. They lived right down the street from each other when they were little and have tons of crazy memories from growing up together.

Well, Kirk and his wife Annie are expecting their first little baby in December and today was their baby shower. They live out of state now so we don't get to see them all that often, which is a huge bummer, but we were so excited to get to see them for awhile this afternoon. Annie looks absolutely beautiful. They are going to be such great parents, we can't wait until we get to meet their little babe!

Getting ready for the shower...

The momma and poppa to be (they don't know if they're having a girl or a boy so if you thought they are going to have a boy, you got cake from Kirk and if you thought they are going to have a girl you got cake from Annie)...

Playing at the shower (Cameron had a blast with all the kids and fun play equipment!)...

Since Cameron has pretty much moved into her "big girl room" we decided to get a little painting prep work done in the new baby's room when we got home from the shower. Ryan had some fun with the paint when he was done...

Operation Big Girl Bed

2011-09-09T21:01:00.002-06:00

We're finally doing it...we're moving Cameron into her big girl bed! It makes me a little sad. I can't believe she's big enough for this already. But baby's going to be here soon and I don't want Cameron to think that her baby sister is booting her out of her bed (even though she kind of is). So this week I decided to toughen up (I was positive I was going to cry when we made this switch) and move her out of the crib and into the toddler bed. Good news is, I haven't cried yet!

I decided it would probably be best to ease into it, so on Wednesday afternoon Cameron took her nap in the big girl bed. She was a rock star! She went right to sleep and stayed in her bed for the whole nap time. Same thing Thursday and today. So with several successful naps under our belt, Ryan and I decided to take the plunge and put her in her big girl bed for the entire night tonight.

So far so good, although she's not asleep yet she's still rolling around and singing to herself (which I can tell by looking at our awesome new video monitor that I'll tell you more about in a minute). But she is still in the bed and she's twirling her hair, so I figure those are good signs. Keep your fingers crossed!

I really wanted to get a video monitor for when we moved Cameron into her new room and her big girl bed. I figure it would be really helpful because we would be able to see what's she's doing without actually going into the room and distracting her. Plus, they have video monitors where you can get a second camera and monitor several rooms at the same time. Perfect for the new baby and Cameron, right?

Well Papa and Mimi and Uncle Nick and Aunt Annie decided to get us the Rolls-Royce of video monitors as our gift for baby #2...and it's awesome! It has a touch screen color monitor, the ability to scan around the room and an intercom so we can talk into the room without actually going in. It is so neat to watch and see what Cameron is actually doing while she's falling asleep and waking up...and what crazy positions she falls asleep in!

Of course after she fell asleep the first time I snuck in to take some pictures of Toots in her big girl bed. This is a momentous occasion, so it definitely had to be documented! And then today she fell asleep with a Berenstain Bears book over her which was so cute, so I had to take some more pictures.

First time napping in the big girl bed

Fell asleep with a book on her, teacher Granne would be so proud!

This is how I found her after her nap today.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-06T14:44:00.003-06:00

Three day weekends are so nice! I wish we could have more of them. We love having Ryan home for an extra day. :) This weekend he wasn't feeling a 100% though, which was a bummer, but we still had fun.

Saturday we got to watch Ryan's cousin, Nichole's, two little kiddos for a few hours. I was so glad they we're able to come over and hang out with us! We had a great time. Cameron loves playing with other kids, although we quickly learned that sharing her stuff isn't always her favorite thing to do (she threw a few little fits because she wanted what the other kiddos were playing with, like she doesn't have enough toys!).

It has obviously been awhile since we saw Nichole and her family, because the first thing Brady said when he got out of the car and saw us was, "Mom, Cameron can talk!" HAHA.

Ryan with all the kiddos, Brady (3 years old), Kinsley (11 months) and Miss Cameron

Cheese!

We got this bouncy chair at a garage sale for $5, Brady and Cameron thought it was pretty cool.

It's a good thing she doesn't weigh too much, because she loves testing out this little chair!

After watching the three kiddos we were a little wiped out (I can't believe people actually have that many kids that close together...we would never survive!), and with Ryan not feeling completely well, we all just decided we would take it easy for the afternoon. Cameron and Ryan took naps and I worked on my blog book (yes you read that right, I'm turning my blog into a book! Yay, I'm really excited, although it's taking me awhile to get it all put together!)

Later that evening, Ryan decided to wash his car...and of course, Cameron was wanting to help him! Needless to say, we went though a few extra buckets of water, but she was a good little helper.

Sunday we spent the afternoon with my dad's brother and his family. They were here from Kansas. Cameron had a blast playing with Brett (8th grade) and Braden (5th grade). They were both really good with her.

I decorated this birthday cake for Braden...BEAUTIFUL, I know! I had a little difficulty getting the sprinkles to stick to the side.

Monday Ryan played golf and Cameron and I went to hang out with some friends for the morning. Good times were had by all.

Ryan and I also got Cameron's big girl room mostly put together! I think it's looking pretty cute. Next step, sleeping in the Big Girl Bed. Yikes, I don't know if I'm ready for that yet.

Random Things

2011-08-31T21:44:00.002-06:00

Last Thursday, I ended up going with my mom to a big consignment sale at the fair grounds near our house. I got quite a few cute outfits for Cameron and baby sis, as well as a few other things including this play vacuum...which Cameron loved! Totally worth the $1.50 I spent on it.

Last Friday, after I was done with work, Cameron and I got to go out on the lake with some family friends and Mimi. We had a great time! Cameron even got to swim in the lake. The water was a little cold for her, but she had fun overall. Plus she looked very cute in her little life vest.

Friday night was the Fair on Main Street in downtown Longmont. Cameron was completely wiped out from our day out on the lake, but we decided to go check it out for a little while anyway. They had lots of booths set up, music, kids activities, it was one of those summer time type events. This one area had a big bubble tower which was a hit.

My Aunt got a new puppy! He's a 7 week old Basset Hound and his name is Longfellow! He is so incredibly cute! I can't wait until I get to meet him in person.

Sunday, Ryan was invited to go downtown for the finish of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (a huge professional cycling event that was in Colorado last week). A lot of the guys from the Tour de France participated in this race, so that kind of tells you the kind of event it was. Ryan had a blast! He was totally pumped when he got home, it was right up his alley. The tent he was in was only about 75ft from the finish line so he got to see everything up close and personal. Very cool.

Sunday afternoon we had Cameron's 18 month pictures taken by Corrie Kraft (she's an awesome photographer if you're looking for someone to do your family photos). Here are a few teaser shots. I'll definitely post the rest when I get them.

Every since the pictures, Cameron has taken a special interest in our cameras! Perhaps we have the makings of a little photographer??! It's very cute, but makes me a little nervous at the sametime. I can just see her dropping the camera and breaking it!

Yesterday, Cameron and I had a little bit of a mishap. I had an appointment scheduled with my OB at 9:30am. When I was getting ready to leave I was walking down the stairs holding Cameron and I accidentally tripped and took a pretty good spill down the stairs.

Jenna was coming over to watch Cameron while I was at my appointment, and I was pretty thankful that she happened to walk in right as we were collecting ourselves at the bottom of the stairs. Cameron was pretty upset, and I was a little rattled too because I had not only fallen on Cameron, but I had also fallen a on my belly a little bit. Luckily, Cameron seemed to be okay, but she was definitely upset from the whole ordeal. At that point we were running late, so I loaded everyone up in the car and we all headed to the clinic for my OB appointment.

I told Dr. Finnegan about the fall and he told me that his recommendation was to go over to the hospital to be monitored for 4 hours to make sure the baby was okay. Apparently that's the standard procedure for falls like that. I was a little hesitant to go, because the fall didn't seem like THAT big of a deal. But after thinking about it for awhile I decided it was better to be safe than sorry and I headed over to the hospital. I spent the day sitting in a hospital bed listening to baby's heartbeat and reading my book. Everything ended up being okay with the baby, thank goodness! And I'm fine too.

Jenna ended up staying with Cameron for the afternoon, THANK YOU JENNA! What a godsend that she was there and was able to stay with Cameron for the day. Based on this picture, I think it's safe to say that Cameron had a good time with her Aunt Jenna.

Today, we met a few friends at the zoo. We had quite the crew with 4 mommies, 6 crazy little hoodlums, and two babies in the oven. Most kids are back in school now, so it was a great day to be at the zoo...no crowds at all!

Sorry for the randomness of this post!

33 Weeks

2011-08-28T23:02:00.001-06:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 33 weeks, 0 days

Size of baby: A little over 4 lbs (about the weight of a pineapple), 17 inches from head to heel

Total weight gain: ~35 lbs...and only 4 of that is actually baby! Oh well, it is what it is.

Maternity clothes: I've been very blessed to have gotten some great loaner maternity clothes, which has been really nice for expanding my wardrobe choices. (I think Ryan was probably getting sick of seeing me dressed in over sized t-shirts and workout shorts all the time!)

Gender: Still a girl :)

Movements: Baby girl is moving a ton! She is usually the most active at night right after we put Cameron to bed and before we go to bed. It's so crazy to watch my belly move around. The other night I put my phone on my belly and you could REALLY see how drastic the movements were then.

Sleep: I've been sleeping pretty well considering, so I can't really complain.

What I miss: Being able to move around "gracefully". Not that I was ever really that graceful, but I just feel kind of big and bulky now and it's not as easy to bend over to pick things up, etc.

Cravings: I really haven't been having any big cravings. However, I am really digging carbs—crackers, breads, etc. I also bought this new kind of peanut butter which turned out to be awesome, so I've been eating quite a bit of that recently too.

Symptoms: A few weeks ago I had this side pain that didn't go away for almost 24 hours. It was SUPER uncomfortable. I asked the doctor about it and he said it was most likely just a result of all the stretching that's going on in that area right now. Boy am I glad that it hasn't been a recurring thing (knock on wood!)

Best moment of the week: It's actually been a couple weeks since I've done this, so I'm going to give you some highlights from the past few weeks. We got our house painted and a lot of pictures hung up which is really making our house start to feel more finished. We also got Cameron's big girl room painted and we put her toddler bed in there, which she LOVES! I bought the new crib skirt for the baby's room, which sets the tone for the rest of the room (I'm really excited to get it all set up now!). I went to a kids stuff consignment sale and got some great clothes for both girls, as well as some toys and other random things. I went to see The Help with some girlfriends which was a really fun girls outing. Cameron and I got to go out on the lake in a family friend's boat and had a blast. Cameron had her 18 month doctors appointment and the doctor only had positive things to say to us. We had Cameron's 18 month pictures taken at a park near our house. Realizing we're starting to run out of weekends before baby comes!

Cameron wanted to take belly shots with me...

Fun Weekend!

2011-08-22T08:13:00.002-06:00

What a fun weekend we had!

Saturday morning was Mimi's 3rd birthday party! (Mimi's mom and I did a bible study together last year and we've gotten together for play dates a lot this summer). The party was at Bounce, which is basically a warehouse with a whole bunch of those blow up jumpy castles. Cameron had a blast! At first she got a little frustrated because she wanted to play with all the big girls and she couldn't quite keep up with them. But she eventually figured out what she could do, and then there was no stopping her! I had to drag her out of the place when it was time to go.

The birthday girl, Mimi, driving the blowup police car

Cameron and her buddy Mason playing in the kitchen

Another little friend, Analucia

Cheese!

Climbing up the ladder for the big kid slide (I got to go up and down this one with her...which was interesting with my prego belly!)

Going down the little kid slide, she loved this and went down over and over and over!

Wheee!

Birthday cake time, cheese!

The birthday girl (in the middle)

Cameron loved the frosting on the cupcake

While Cameron and I were bouncing around, Ryan and his mom where home working on painting Cameron's big girl room! We have to get her big girl room ready because we're getting ready to switch her into her toddler bed soon so we can have the crib ready for the baby. (This is a whole other topic. It makes me sad to think about my baby in a big girl bed, but I'll save that for another post). They did a great job, the room looks awesome! Now I'm excited to get it set up.

I did try to take some pictures of the painting operation, but realized afterward that I didn't have my memory card in...ooops!

Saturday night we had dinner at our friend's house to celebrate another birthday, our friend Todd. We used to be in a small group with Todd and Rachael before we all had kids. They have a little 3 year old and a 9 month old now, which Cameron thought was awesome! She loves playing with other kids. Cameron basically followed Beau, the 3 year old, around laughing the whole night because she thought he was so funny. It was pretty cute to watch.

Sunday we met some friends at the zoo. They have a little girl who is just a few months younger than Cameron is. We haven't really seen them in awhile so it was great to catch up...and see some animals while we were at it.

We absolutely love the zoo. I got a pass this year so we've been able to go quite a bit. But this was the first time Ryan was able to go since last summer. Cameron was excited to show her Daddy all the animals. When we got there in the car she said "Daddy Zoooo!"

Ryan, Cameron, Emily and Presley watching the sealion show

Daddy and his little girl

A little drink from the drinking fountain

Goofs!

By the time we got home from the zoo Sunday afternoon we were all tuckered out, so we had some much needed family nap time. A great way to finish up a great weekend!

Doggie Heaven

2011-08-16T15:59:00.000-06:00

Those of you who have followed my blog for awhile have caught glimpses of Shakespeare and Abbey—my Aunt Mac's basset hound doggies. They are the coolest dogs ever and catch people's attention everywhere they go.

Well today I got some awful news, Shakespeare went to doggie heaven. My aunt found out a week or two ago that he had cancer and apparently it was pretty advanced. I'm so sad. He was the sweetest dog, really mellow and happy. When we went out East last April he was great with Cameron and let her crawl all over him without a complaint.

I wrote a little poem in honor of Shakespear...have fun in doggie heaven little man!

Here's to you Shake

Our good friend Shakespeare has gone away,
Why did it have to happen today?

He was sweet and fun and plain old great,
I would say, of course, he was first rate.

But while we’re sad we can surly know,
Doggie heaven is the place to go.

There is endless fun with other pups,
Going on walks and chewing on cups.

So here’s to you our furry friend,
It’s your beginning not the end.

18 Months Old

2011-08-13T15:01:00.007-06:00

One And A Half!

August 13, 2011

Cameron is now one and a half! I can't believe how fast the summer has flown by, and how big my little girl has gotten. She is doing so many fun new things, it's just a blast to watch.

So Cameron, what are you up to at one and a half?

You are starting to talk a lot, mostly just saying single words, but you have said a few short sentences too. Your two favorite words are probably MINE and NO (go figure), but you have been saying a ton of other things too. You can also sign several words including: more, thank you, please and all done.
You love your baby doll and stroller, those are probably your favorite toys right now.
You are wearing mostly 18 month clothes, although you do sport a few 12 month outfits still.
You can eat pretty much anything at this point, although it's pretty hard to predict what you're going to like and when. One day you'll pound down a whole banana and then the next you won't even touch one so it's kind of hit or miss. However, if we ever offer you ice cream, cookies, candy, etc. you don't hesitate for a second.
You have a lot of teeth now. I'm not exactly sure how many but I'm thinking it's probably right around 12.
You love to play outside. We go to the pool, the park and play in our yard quite a bit and you love it.
You really like pushing things around (brooms, golf clubs, sticks).
You are always ready to jump in an help me clean. I usually pull out an extra rag so you can clean with me. You are also fascinated by the vacuum cleaner and the floor mop.
You are still pretty attached to your pacifiers. We're starting to talk about when/how we should break you of the habit, although it makes me a little nervous because the pacifier works magic when you're cranky or tired.
You are completely obsessed with my phone, probably because we sometimes watch movies on it. You ALWAYS want to hold it and play with it, and will usually throw a little "MINE" fit when we don't let you have it.
You have discovered the TV and love to watch movies and shows.
You are starting to show us a little bit of your sassy side. We hear a lot of very enthusiastic "No's" from you and there are a lot of times when you'll look at us continue doing something intentionally that we just told you not to do.
You know to hold our hands and bow your head when we say grace before eating meals together.
You love playing with other kids and love watching big kids. It makes me nervous sometimes because you get a little too confident and try to do what the big kids are doing!
You love your "pretties" (bows, bracelets, necklaces).

Gosh, there are probably so many more things that I could add to this list, but I think it provides a pretty good snapshot. Cameron, you are a little ham and make us laugh a lot. Your daddy and I absolutely love watching you grow and discover new things. We are so proud to be your parents.

Wine Country

2011-08-11T21:56:00.003-06:00

Last Thursday we were on our way to the airport yet again. This time we were heading to California wine country for Blake and Emily's wedding (hang with me for a second, Emily is Annie's husband Nick's little sister, so she is sort of family...in a very extended sort of way). We were so excited to be invited to share in the festivities and were stoked to be heading to California for their special day.

As usual, Cameron stayed awake for the entire flight...until about 5 minutes until we touched down in San Francisco. I don't really get why she does that. She is normally exhausted when we're flying, but for some reason she gets super amped up until the last few minutes of the flight.

When we landed at the San Francisco airport, Cameron, Mimi, Uncle Ross and I hung out at the baggage claim while Papa and Daddy went to pick up the rental cars. The baggage claim was deserted, so Cameron had a blast running around being goofy. She kept trying to jump, which was awesome because she can't quite manage to get any air yet. ;)

Checking out the airplane

Cheese!

"Where is Daddy?"

Taking a little break from all the "jumping"

High-five!

"Hello, can I help you?"

"Well, let me just tell you how it is Mr. whoever you are!"

We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on our way out of the city. It was a little foggy, but we could still see the bridge, most of it at least. (Cameron didn't see any of it because, of course, she was out cold in her car seat.)

Ryan was stoked to be crossing the bridge

Friday, we enjoyed lunch at In-N-Out Burger and then headed over to the pool at Nick and Annie's hotel. Cameron made instant friends with Nick's cousins Anna and Emma. They were AWESOME at keeping Cameron and Cole entertained during the trip.

Saturday we decided to do as the winos do and go wine tasting, (although I didn't really do much tasting seeing as baby isn't a huge fan of wine. :)) Instead I got to hang out with Cole and Cameron, which is always entertaining. Plus, the wineries are beautiful, so it was a lot of fun to just get to see them. We went two different places, Simi and then Coppola. Simi was a little bit smaller winery, but Coppola was huge and had a pool, restaurants and lots of fun things to look at.

Cameron hanging out in her blue stroller in the winery gift shop.

She is totally obsessed with this stroller.

Wine and cheese ain't got nothing on juice and cheerios...just ask these two!

The boys tasting at the first winery, Simi

Checking out the creek behind the Simi tasting room.

Uncle Nick and Cameron outside of the Coppola winery.

Big hug! They are so sweet.

Saturday night there was a welcome dinner for all of the wedding guests. Cameron, of course, found Anna and Emma right away.

Anna, Cameron and Emma

Annie and Miss Finley

The girls...Cameron was way to busy to join us for this Kodak moment.

Cameron practicing her big sister skills

The wedding was Sunday at Paradise Ridge Winery. The setting was beautiful, the ceremony was beautiful, the bride was beautiful...the whole thing was just perfect. Cameron did great during the ceremony and we all had a blast at the reception.

Dennis and Emily

Nick did a reading during the ceremony

Cameron was really good during the ceremony...yay!

Nick and Finley

A natural dad, look at how well Uncle Nick is multitasking!

Isn't this a beautiful setting? (And two beautiful people too of course!)

Ryan and Cameron during the father-daughter dance.

Cameron, Emma and Anna on the dance floor

Uncle Ross and Cameron

Cameron even participated in the bouquet toss!

Monday, we visited a few more wineries. My favorite was Kendall-Jackson. They had a beautiful garden area out front.

Making a few calls before heading out

Cole and a ginormous wine bottle

This gate kept them occupied for a LONG time!

Running around with Uncle Nick at Kendall-Jackson

Waiting while Papa, Mimi and Daddy finished up with the wine tasting

Tuesday we headed back to San Francisco so we could catch our flight. Yes, you can go ahead and call me mom-of-the-year...my child is chowing on fruit loops and drinking juice. Talk about a sugar overload. (But strangely enough it didn't make her conk out. She was awake the whole flight until the last 5 minutes...AGAIN!)

Our trip was so much fun. We always love hanging out with Nick, Annie, Cole and Finley and it was so much fun to see the rest of Nick's family. I just can't believe the trip is already over. When we were planning this trip I kept thinking, "that's right before the baby comes" and now it's over. I guess that means we better get our act together and get prepped for baby!

Mommy Friends

2011-08-04T14:09:00.000-06:00

I have been really blessed the past year to have made some great mommy friends. It's so nice to have the opportunity to hang out with other mommies who are going though the same sorts of kid related dilemmas as I am.

Last Wednesday night, Ryan and I got to have dinner with a few of my mommy friends and their husbands. It's really cool to see how much all of our kiddos have grown and to watch them start to be able to play with each other. It's crazy how a couple months age difference can seem so huge at first, but gradually it becomes less and less of a difference. Before long all these kiddos are going to be running around like crazy people together. I can't wait! :)

The girls, Madi and Cameron

Cameron playing with Madi's toys

Holt and Madi, they are almost exactly one month appart

Cheese!

Mr. Holt

Miss Madilyn

All three of the kidds playing, so cute!

Boulder County Fair

2011-08-04T13:42:00.000-06:00

After all of these years living in Longmont, I've never been to the Boulder County Fair. It's kind of sad considering it's just right down the street at the fair grounds. Since Cameron is big enough to really appreciate it this year, I thought it'd be fun to go check it out.

On Saturday morning, they kicked everything off with a parade down Main Street in Longmont. It was incredibly hot, but it was also a lot of fun. We randomly ran into a friend and were able to hang out with her and her kiddos which was a fun little treat.

Cameron loved seeing the animals and fun floats in the parade, and she especially loved the candy. (She is definitely my kid!)

Then on Wednesday morning, Cameron and I went with our neighbors to see all the animals at the fair grounds. It was a lot of fun. Cameron and Ian had a blast seeing all the animals. I thought it was really cool too (minus the smell in the bird room...when I walked in there I honestly thought I was going to throw up it was so disgusting!)

We took John Deere picture especially for Papa! (He used to work for John Deere back in the day.)

Jury Duty

2011-08-02T19:00:00.000-06:00

About a month ago I received the ever so dreaded juror summons notice and, like most people, I was so not excited about the prospect of getting chosen for jury duty. I was instructed to call in last Friday to find out if I needed to show up Monday morning. Low and behold, my juror number was selected, so Monday morning I found myself heading to Boulder to report.

When I walked into the room there was a face that I recognized, it was my high school locker partner! I haven't seen her since I graduated. What are the chances that I would run into her at jury duty? It was crazy, but very cool. We got to spend some time catching up which was awesome...and very helpful for passing time.

Long story short, I ended up "making it through" the juror selection process and was selected to serve on the 6 person jury. To be honest, I really wasn't upset. Yes, it was a bit of a pain coordinating people to help watch Cameron at the last minute, but it was really cool to be part of the whole process. (I think that it helped that the case was only scheduled to last 1-3 days. I'm pretty sure I would be singing a different tune if it had been a case schedule for 6 weeks or something long like that.)

The case wasn't very exciting. It was a civil suit, a small ambulance chaser type car accident deal, and we were responsible for determining damages owed to the plaintiff (the guy suing). The most difficult part of the whole thing was deciding what dollar amount should be attached to the "emotional stress, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life" that the guy experienced due to the accident. Seriously, how can you really determine that?

Somehow we were able to come to a decision and, after two days, the case concluded. It was definitely an interesting experience. I learned a lot and fulfilled my civic duty for the next year (which is probably a good thing considering serving on a jury would be a little tricky while nursing a new little baby).

Cameron's "Pretties"

2011-08-01T13:30:00.000-06:00

Aunt Annie made Cameron the absolute cutest bows and headbands and Cameron loves them! She is such a girl. It just makes me laugh. She'll come up to me as ask for her "pretty" now, i.e. a ponytail and a bow. Here are a few pictures of her modeling her "pretties". It cracks me up because she has started to say cheese and pose for pictures. Very cute.

Keep your eyes peeled, these beautiful bows will be making appearances in a lot of future pictures, because like I said, Cameron LOVES them.

Bursitis and Bubbles

2011-07-28T15:43:00.002-06:00

Last weekend Ryan was supposed to ride in the Courage Classic, a three day bike ride up in the mountains that raises money for Children's Hospital. He left on Friday night and was really excited to spend the weekend enjoying the nice weather and getting some quality time in the saddle (do you like how cool I sound with my "cyclist talk"? HA!).

Well, on the way up his knee started to swell up and by the time he was done with dinner that night he had a full blown infection—I'm talking swollen knee, fever, chills, the works. He decided to stay the night to see how he felt the next day hoping that he would be feeling better so he could at least participate in part of the bike ride. The next morning he was worse so he decided that he better come home.

He stopped at urgent care on his way home and they told him he had knee bursitis, an infection of a bursa sac in his knee joint. They gave him some heavy duty antibiotics and told him to stay off it for awhile.

He is finally starting to feel better, but I'm guessing it's still going to be a few more days until he gets back to 100%.

So basically instead of doing this...

He got to do this all weekend...

Poor guy.

This is what his knee looked like, and this was after a couple doses of antibiotics had already started working their magic. (The blue line is where the doctor marked his swelling the night he went into the urgent care.)

I already looked up some other bike rides that are happening in the area the rest of the summer, so I'm hoping that he'll be able to participate in one of those. While none of them will be quite like this one that he missed, I'm sure he'll still enjoy getting out and participating.

Cameron and I tried to stay out Ryan's way as much as possible so that he could rest and get better. We ended up spending some quality time outside playing with bubbles, which Cameron liked a lot! (Although half the time I was trying to stop her from eating the bubbles! Crazy kid.)

We even got the bubble machine out one day, which was really cool!

A couple other fun things we did this week, Tuesday night we went to concert in the park. It was very cool. There was plenty of room for Cameron to run wild, so that was great—for her and for us—and we got to meet up with some friends which was nice too. I just wish we had started going earlier in the summer, this was the last concert in the park for the year. Here is a picture of Cameron and two of the other kiddos we met up with there.

We also went to the zoo this morning, which again Cameron loved because she could run around all over the place and check out all the animal exhibits. She especially liked the tropical exhibit where they have a lot of fish and reptiles.

Well, that's the latest from the Volk household. Enjoy the rest of your week!

28 Weeks

2011-07-24T16:01:00.000-06:00

Pregnancy Highlights

How far along: 28 weeks, 0 days

Size of baby: 2 lbs 4 ounces (about the weight of a Chinese cabbage), 14.8 inches from head to heel

Total weight gain: When I went to the doctor this week, I weighed in at 28.5 lbs more than when I weighed myself the day I took the positive pregnancy test.

Maternity clothes: Yes

Gender: Pink, pink and more pink (and a little bit of purple too)

Movements: Baby's movements are starting to be big sweeping movements across my belly, as opposed to just the small jabs or kicks that I felt at first. I guess at 2+ lbs she's just starting to get a little crammed in there. It's really fun to feel her move around, and just think about holding those same little hands and feet that are currently boxing inside my belly.

Sleep: Still sleeping pretty well at night. I think I've just about mastered the "walk to the bathroom without hardly opening my eyes" shuffle in our new house. My new bed to bathroom path took a little bit of getting used to, but I've got it pretty well down pat now...which is very important for handling the 50 gazillion trips I take to the bathroom every night. (It's ridiculous how much you have to pee when you're preggers!)

What I miss: My normal clothes. I know it's kind of strange. Most people love their maternity clothes because they are so comfy (which, don't get me wrong, they definitely are comfortable). But I kind of miss getting dressed up and looking cute in my normal clothes.

Cravings: Nothing really.

Symptoms: Just a little soreness, but nothing crazy that I can really think of.

Best moment of the week: Having a date night with my honey and going to see Harry Potter. It was really nice to spend some one on one time with him. It's amazing how little of that time you get once you have a little hoodlum running around all over the place!

Also, this week I realized how close we're getting to welcoming this little girl into the world! Throughout the majority of your pregnancy you go see the doctor once a month. Then as you get closer to the end, your visits get more frequent moving to once every three weeks, two weeks, and then every week at the very end. Well at this weeks appointment, the Doc said he'd like to see me in three weeks, and then to go ahead and make another appointment three weeks after that. He said we'll probably do one appointment two weeks after that and then we'll be down to every week.

Okay, so that may not seem like very soon to you, but to me, that seems like it's pretty much tomorrow! It's funny, part of me is so excited for it be October so we can meet this little girl, but then another part of me doesn't want to rush the summer too much. Summer is my favorite time of year and I'm going to have to wait forever for it to be summer again, so I figure I better enjoy it while it's here.