We had a wonderful long weekend from school this weekend and had such a great time actually spending some time together as a family of four. After 10 nights in a row with Scott busy and out of the house, it was a welcome change to have the opportunity to just be together! On Saturday we took a day trip to Portland, ME to visit Brian and Sarah and we had such a blast!
We had a wonderful time at the Children's Museum. The boys loved exploring all the different exhibits - their favorites were the fire truck and the little Whole Foods grocery store! If I lived in Portland we would definitely be regulars at this place! So fun!
My little fireman!
After the museum we went for a long drive all together (yay for our minivan) and explored the different areas in and around Portland where Brian and Sarah may someday buy a home of their own! So fun to see the different towns and neighborhoods and the boys got a nice nap in the car!
My sleeping children make my heart ache.
We finished off the afternoon with a delicious meal at Flatbread Pizza...yummy! Yes, we did just about polish off three large pizzas! :)
After dinner we walked around the harbor and watched a ferry boat head out to sea.
Love this one...
Camden loved watching the boat!
Love him.
After some more hangout time at Uncle Brian and Aunt Sarah's apartment we hit the road. The boys were great and fell asleep on the way home.
Thanks for a fun, adventurous day Brian and Sarah! We love you guys!
I am loving watching my boys grow up. A huge part of me wants them to stay little forever. I can't seem to get enough of their kisses and snuggles and giggles, and truth be told, I'm terrified of having teenagers. I mean, it's just so scary to think of all the trouble kids get into these days. I just pray that we raise good boys with a strong conviction and a strong faith - and even though they will still mess up, hopefully they won't kill me in the process!
Anyways, Camden has been such a joy recently. From the time he turned two until sometime this fall following his third birthday he was very challenging. He is very strong willed, and we were in a season of many tears, perceived injustices and frustration. But recently he has been so much fun. He's more patient with Micah. His imagination is incredible. He loves to act out stories (we "played" the Three Little Pigs four times in a row today!). He loves to read. We will sit and read for 45 minutes at a time, sometimes multiple times a day. He loves games - he honestly beat both Scott and me at Go Fish recently and we play a round of Guess Who every morning at the breakfast table!
Lots of games in the closet...
Playing in their kitchen...
Camden loves to strum on this little guitar and make up songs...
A masterpiece!
Camden wrote his name all by himself!!!!!
And he's drawing people now!!! This is our family. Love it! :)
One thing I love about Camden is that he has no sense of what is expected of him or what the world deems appropriate or acceptable for a young boy. This is probably due, in part, to the fact that he's not in daycare or preschool and he doesn't have the huge influence of other children in his life yet. We have plenty of play dates and he goes to Sunday School at church, but he's not as influenced on a daily basis by other children as he would be if I wasn't home with him. We also don't have a television, and although he watches a few select shows that we get out of the library and watch on the computer (his favorites are Curious George, Thomas and Word World) he doesn't see any commercials and he doesn't know what toys boys are supposed to play with. As a result, two of the things on Camden's Christmas list were a dollhouse and a tea set. Many parents would probably cringe if their son asked for these things, but I was proud to give these gifts to him. We gave him my old dollhouse that I played with as a child and my sister passed along an extra tea set (a real, breakable one!) that she had and he loves both of them!
In his own little world...
Tea with Paige...
Apparently, three year old boys can't smile like a normal person!
Although Camden is happy to sit down and have a tea party with friends, he is also a crazy, active, energetic little boy. He loves playing trucks (his new thing is causing huge crashes with all of his matchbox cars). He loves to wrestle, play basketball and football, have pretend mountain bike races (which consist of him sprinting around the circle in our house), put on circuses and tons of other fun and imaginative games.
The boys in their three-point stance...
Here is a short clip of the boys playing basketball and football in the house. This happens on a daily basis!
A couple months ago we had the following conversation while we were driving in the car. Be still my heart!
Camden: When I'm 29 I can
drive this car. You and Daddy can say, "Take Micah to the store"
and I'll take him in the car with me. Mama: That would be so nice of you. You know, you can probably drive
this car when you're sixteen...that's when you're allowed to drive. Camden: No thank you. I'll wait until 29. Mama: You might have a family when you're 29. Do you think you'll have
a wife and maybe some kids? Camden: No, I think I'm going to live with you forever. Mama: Awww....I would love that! Camden: I want to stay with you forever so I can play with Micah.
He is always coming up with new ways to make us smile. I'm so thankful for the little boy he is turning out to be.
So, maybe it's because I live in New England and maybe it's also because I'm a Christian and there's a ton of discussion surrounding Tebow's faith, but I can't open my computer without seeing a lot of hype about tomorrows Patriots vs. Broncos game! I have to say...I'm excited. Unfortunately, we don't have a television, so Scott and I are planning on huddling around our little laptop after the kids are in bed and live-streaming the game onto our computer.
So here is the question. Who should I root for? I mean, I was born and raised in New Hampshire, went to college in Boston and have been a Boston sports fan for most of my life (I'm not going to claim that I'm a die-hard, because I'm not, but I've always cheered on the Sox, Celtics, Patriots and Bruins and living in Boston from 2000-2005 was pretty amazing - there was a lot of winning going on during that time)! So naturally, I'm a New England fan. But...This Tim Tebow character has gotten my attention. He's fun to watch. He's a stand-up guy. He has his priorities straight. In this great article, Rick Reilly explains how every week "Tebow picks out someone who is suffering, or who is
dying, or who is injured. He flies these people and their families to
the Broncos game, rents them a car, puts them up in a nice hotel, buys
them dinner (usually at a Dave & Buster's), gets them and their
families pregame passes, visits with them just before kickoff (!), gets
them 30-yard-line tickets down low, visits with them after the game
(sometimes for an hour), has them walk him to his car, and sends them
off with a basket of gifts. Home or road, win or lose, hero or goat."
Wow. Who does that?!?! The article goes on to quote different people who have been lucky enough to be on the receiving end of this generosity and their lives have truly been changed.
Now, I know it's not fair to make this comparison, but I'm going to anyways. I just couldn't get this image out of my head when I was reading about Tebow:
This is the $25 million custom-made 22,000 square foot mansion that Tom Brady and his wife, Gisele Bundchen, are building in Brentwood, California. This article notes that they will be sharing it with their two-year-old son. Wow. I know they are rich and they can do whatever they want with the money that they both earn (and there are many green features in this home which is good), but it just stands in such stark contrast to what I know of Tebow.
Two great quarterbacks. It's going to be an awesome game. I guess I'll be happy no matter what the outcome is. Afterall, I am from New England and it would just feel wrong to root against them, but I'm loving the underdog story and the self-less nature of Tebow and the Broncos! I just hope it's a good game!
Here's a little money-saving tip for you. You're welcome.
We eat a lot of yogurt in this house. Micah's favorite food is yogurt with frozen blueberries in it and since he only eats about 5 things, we have that at least once a day. I'm on a yogurt and granola kick (i know...i'm so healthy. This helps to offset my huge bowl of ice cream every night) and Scott and Camden both eat yogurt every day as well. Yogurt is not the cheapest food, especially when you buy organic. We try to buy organic as often as possible, and although we can't afford to buy every type of food organic, yogurt is one thing that we always do.
Scott often gets frustrated with me because I leave the tops of the yogurt containers lying around the kitchen counters so that I can enter the codes and earn points on stonyfield.com. It is kind of a pain, but it has paid off! I cashed in some of my points a couple weeks ago for some coupons for free yogurt and came home with four free quarts of yogurt. That's right my friends, I just got $13.96 worth of free food! Yahoo!!!
Free Yogurt! :)
If you are someone who buys stoneyfield often, open an account on their
webpage and take the two minutes to enter the codes and it pays off! :)
On another note, I received an AARP card in the mail a couple days ago with my name on it. Seriously?!?! I mean, I know I just turned twenty-nine and a half and am starting to finally feel like an adult (sometimes...), but I'm not quite ready to join the American Association of Retired Persons. Sorry, Betty!
We needed to get out of the house today so we bundled the boys up and decided to go on a little adventure. One incredible thing about living in rural NH is that an adventure always awaits literally out your front door. We went for a little walk down the rail trail and ended up slipping and sliding our way through the frozen meadow. The boys loved the excitement and had a blast "skating" on the frozen dirt road that connects the meadow back up to our house. Here are a few pictures of our adventure!
Camden pretending to be asleep in the stroller. This kid refuses to look at a camera and smile like a normal person. Oh well. Maybe someday when he's 15 or 25 or something.
Thanks for the cute hat, Aunt Amy and John!
So certain people in my life (ahem, my father-in-law) like to make fun of Micah's hair and tell me that he's going to go blind because his bangs are too long. I just can't bring myself to cut them off though...he's too cute! Maybe someday, but I'm not quite ready yet!
Mr. Independent didn't want to ride in the stroller.
The meadow had flooded and then froze - we debated whether we were up for the adventure or not.
We're so crazy! :)
The river was super high and we barely made it across the swinging bridge.
Our house is hiding out between those two visible houses through the tress. If you look closely you can see the awful green color (we are painting our house this summer! Yahoo!). How lucky are we that this is our back yard?!?! Amazing.
Camden loves to "skate." His squishy hat saved him from cracking his head open a couple times. We had a couple close calls!
School starts again tomorrow for Scott, and although I'm
kindof-almost-alittlebit ready for more of a routine, I've loved every
second of our vacation together as a family of four.
