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.
We had a wonderful time visiting with some of my college friends earlier this week. We drove to upstate NY on Monday and had so much fun at our friends Courtney and Adam's house. They have a beautiful little 2 1/2 year old daughter and a 9 week old son. It was so great to be near a tiny little baby. It made me so excited to meet my own little guy and it was fun watching Camden interact with him. He was very curious, very gentile and didn't even throw a fit when I held the baby! Hopefully these are all good signs for how he'll react to his own little brother! On Tuesday Nina and Jen joined us with Nina's adorable son. It was so fun to have the four of us girls together again. We haven't all been together since our W3N reunion last summer here at our house! There were eight of us girls who were practically inseparable at Gordon and we still exchange group emails on a daily basis. We all were placed together on the same floor - Wilson 3 North (aka: W3N) - my freshman year and built amazing friendships starting our first night on campus. I'm SO blessed to have these friendships and I know we will stay close for life. We missed Tina, Kirsten, Amy and Mer and their little ones, but it was great to spend time with those of us who were able to come! We had a blast just sitting around chatting, chasing our kiddos, going to the county fair and just being together. Thank you Court and Adam for a wonderful time!!!
Scott and Adam catching up in the backyard...
These two had SO much fun on this little car! It was hilarious to watch!
Here's a little video clip of the fun...
We found a huge pig named Bubba at the fair! Couldn't resist this photo op!
Crazy to think that we've all been best friends for ten years! We're getting old!!!
Checking out the Monster Truck...
My friend Jen is a super talented photographer. She captured and edited some amazing pics over the weekend...here are a few of my favorites...
Think they'll all go to Gordon and be besties too??
We celebrated the two boys' birthdays! Hard to believe they're both turning two this summer! AGHH!
Here are a couple pictures from our house last summer! We had 6/8 last year and only 4/8 friends together this year...hopefully this isn't a trend!
The girls (minus Kir and Mer)...
The babies last year...
And...for old times sake...us in college (we were such dorks!)...
I've been working on burning our home movies onto DVD's the last few days and these two clips are just from the last few weeks. Camden keeps us on our toes and makes us laugh every day! Sorry to those of you who may have already seen these on Facebook tonight...we have family and friends who don't have facebook (shocking...I know...) and wanted to see them on here! Enjoy!
Camden LOVES to help out with housework. He likes to sweep, wants desperately to help cook (which I occassionaly give in to), points out the lady bugs to suck up when we're vacuuming (yes, our house is still infested with lady bugs...). He also loves to help with laundry. He pulls it all out of the drier and shakes it out. When we're folding it, he picks up each piece of clothing and states "Mama, Dada or Bubba" to make sure we know who's laundry it is - it's pretty funny to watch him sort the laundry at such a young age! Hopefully he'll like helping this much when he's 15 - I'm not counting on it!
