In Anticipation....

Kamden absolutly LOVES to watch Sesame Street! Who she loves on Sesame Street came as quite a surprise to me, seeing as most little kids adore Elmo. Kami's face lights up only when she's watching Cookie Monster! It is so cute! As soon as he comes on the TV, she'll get this huge ear to ear smile on her face! So, this is Kami the other morning, watching Sesame Street knowing that any minute her furry blue friend will be on! Looks like Sesame Street Live is coming to OKC the very end of March, so I think we're going to plan on taking Kamden to see that! She'll be a couple months older, so she may enjoy it a little bit more. If not watching the characters, the other kids around her will keep her interest peeked!

Baby, it's COLD outside!

Well, it's really not anymore! This was a couple weeks ago when we got that ice storm. I wanted to get a picture of Kamden in her cute snowsuit! I seemed to have lost my hat, and when we went outside it was still "raining" ice. So, that's why the funny face! As for Kami's funny face, she likes to taste the cold air and wind.

What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?

Sometimes Kami likes to "help" Mommy by sorting through all the utensils. She "cleans" them off for me, if they need it (just kidding!)!!

No Nap!

Okay, so Kamden did this to me the other day, you know, the day my battery wasn't charged! Anyway, I put her down for her nap, and after a little while I hear her....I open her door and what do I see??? Kami sitting up in bed!!! I was certain that I hadn't put her down sitting up! Wow! She's growing so fast!

Pictures to come.....

Alright, I got on here tonight to post some recent pictures and as I pluged my camera into my computer, I remembered that I've been needing to recharge my camera's battery for the last week. Where is my brain???

So, anyway, I'll try and get some photos up here on the blog tomorrow. Meanwhile, things are going great here! Kamden and I survived a week without Drew last week. He had some meetings to go to in Washington DC. Kami and I enjoyed our time together, but were so happy when Drew came home! You never realize just how helpful it is to have another person around until you're doing things all by yourself! I think Kamden started to get sick of me! :^)

Speaking of surviving, we've also been surviving this crazy weather we've been having! The entire state of Oklahoma was practically iced over a couple weeks ago (I've got a really cute picture of Kamden in her snow suit....just as soon as the camera's up and running!), so we were pretty much home-bound for a couple of days. Although we did try and venture out after Cabin Fever started to settle in (we've got 4 wheel drive in one of our cars)! Target and WalMart saw a lot of us that week! Our place is so small, we just needed a place to get out and walk around! I think homes tend to become smaller once you add a baby to the mix. We were also supposed to get about 8-10 inches of snow again this last weekend, but it ended up coming down as rain instead. So, that was a good thing. I know there are a lot of people without homes right now, because they got hit so hard the week before. I think most people at church were counting on church being canceled again this last weekend, as well because some of the lessons seemed to be prepared last minute! LOL!

Well, Kami and I are looking forward to our trip to St. Louis here in a couple of weeks! I'm wanting to do a Scrapbook of all the places Kami's been during the first year of her life, and the only place I know that will have everything I need is The Scrapbook Factory! What places as Kami been, you're thinking to yourself? Well, let's see! Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, Utah, Texas, Nevada, Oklahoma, Florida and an upcoming trip to Washington State. Crazy, huh? She's a well-traveled baby, for sure! I also found out that we're having my high school's ten year reunion this summer! So, we'll make the trek back to Utah for that in July!

I think that's about all I can think of that's been going on here! We're keeping pretty busy! I work on Scrapbook Factory projects when I can, and when they're sent to me; I'm also taking a Digital Photography class through OSU's contiuning education program. Drew is keeping busy at work with another Master's class as well as an Air Force Officer class.

Okay, hopefully I'll succeed in pictures tomorrow! :^)

Hawaii Trip!

Okay, as promised, here's my Christmas present from Drew! Sorry it's a little cut and paste, I had to scan everything in onto my computer. To view better, click on the picture! It was so much fun opening this! I hope you enjoy reading!

6 Month Review

I can't believe it's been a half a year since Kamden came into our lives! Wow! What a joy and challange all in one! Anyway, Kami had her 6 month well-visit check up with the doctor yesterday. She was all smiles until she got her shots. But, then by the time we got out to the check out desk she was over it! What a big girl! I'm still nursing, and that is going really well. I think I'm about ready to stop though. She's not too fond of the bottle, although she'll take it with water in it. So, I've been trying to get her used to the cup. Some advice from my doctor that I wish I would have known earlier, when using sippy cups, take the "no-spill" device out, so it's easier for baby to use! She also sitting up very well! So well, in fact that just sitting up isn't getting good enough for her. She's started this past week to lean forward getting on her hands and knees. She hasn't figured out how to move quite yet, and just falls to the floor after that, but, I think it won't be too long before she's totally mobile! Time to baby-proof the house! One of her favorite things to play with is paper! Weird, I know. Yesterday at the doctors office she tore apart the paper that they put on the table, and when the doctor was making notations in her chart, Kami tried to grab it from her! PAPER!

On a different note, guess where I'm going this summer! HAWAII!!! That was one of a few trip that Drew got me for Christmas! I'll have to post how he "packaged" the Hawaii trip. It was very fun! I'll try to do that here before Kami wakes up from her nap!

Another Blog-Worthy Recipe!

This cake recipe from Better Homes and Gardens is FANTASTIC!! I made it once for a Visiting Teaching Luncheon we had at the beginning of the month and twice in Florida while visiting my sister and her family. I doubled the recipe for my party that my niece had...but everybody ate the fruit pizza instead. The only exceptions were me and my sister, Mindy, who didn't get any fruit pizza and my nieces friend, Zach (but he'll eat just about anything). Crazy kids! They'll never know what they missed! Unless they read this blog, in which case, here's the recipe! It's incredibly easy to make! Just have a glass of milk on had when you eat it! Enjoy!

Chocolate Harvest Cake

One-Bowl Cake:

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup water

2/3 cup cooking oil

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Pumpkin Cream Filling:

1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Chocolate Glaze:

1/2 cup whipping cream

4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

Cake Toppers:

Seedless red grapes, whole blackberries or raspberries, toasted hazelnuts, or shredded orange peel.

Directions:

1. Prepare Oven and Pans: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9x1-1/2 inch round baking pans; set aside.
2. Combine Ingredients: In an extra large bowl combine buttermilk, water oil, sugar, eggs, baking soda and salt. Using a large wire whisk, whisk until well combine3d. Add flour and cocoa powder; which vigorously until smooth. Divide batter between prepared pans.
3. Dot the Touch Test: Bake for 30-35 minutes until top springs back when lightly touched in center. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely.
4. Prepare Pumpkin Cream Filling: In a medium bowl, whisk together cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar and cinnamon until thickened. Place one cake layer on plate. Spread filling over top. Top with second cake layer.
5. Make Chocolate Glaze: In a saucepan bring whipping cream just to boiling over medium-high heat. Remove from heat. Add chocolate (do not stir). Let stand 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Cool 15 minutes or until slightly thickened. Pour over cake allowing glaze to drip down sides. Chill until set, about 30 minutes. Top with desired toppers.

Catching Up!

My goodness it's been a crazy month! Most of this month was spent in Tampa, FL with my sister. Kamden and I went down on the 11th while Drew was at a conference in Orlando, he joined up with Kami and myself later on for Christmas. We just got back a couple days ago! So, here's some pictures I thought I'd share while on our trip!

Kamden is doing GREAT eating solid foods! Among her favorites are carrots (displayed here), peas, applesauce, sweet potatoes and bananas mixed with rice cereal!

Here is Christmas morning playing with the toys she got in her stocking!

This picture is out of order, this is Christmas Eve opening her Christmas PJ's! Just as she was opening this, her two little 5-year old cousins showed up and she got a little overwhelmed!

Again, the pictures are out of order here, too! Just some of her opening her presents! She LOVES paper!

I can't believe how big Kami is getting! She's really mastered sitting up by herself and developing quite the little personality of her own! Somedays I just look at her and I can't believe she's really here and she's really mine.

December already???

Oh my goodness! I can hardly believe that it's December already! I leave for my sister's house in Tampa next week for Christmas. Christmas! Can you believe it? Didn't we just have Halloween??? Okay, anyway! So, it's been a little busy, as you can probably tell! We went to Colorado for Thanksgiving and had a great time with Drew's family! We went to the Denver Aquarium where Kami had a fantastic time looking at all the fish. Coming back was a little crazy. Long story short, we were on the tarmac in Denver for a while before we took off and Kami got overheated and sick....all over me! Which didn't bother me that much since that's not the first time I've been thrown up on by Kami; but I did feel bad for the people on the plane with us. She was crying so much!

We had a pretty bad winter storm here this last week. It was so cold and the roads were covered in ice and snow! Drew didn't even go into work it was so bad. And of course Kami and I have been pretty much homebound.

Alright, so here's some pictures of our trip in Colorado I thought you all might enjoy!

My New Toy

Hey Everyone! Just thought I'd share a couple pictures I took today just messin' around with my new toy that Drew got me for and early Christmas present! I got the new Cannon Rebel (XTi) Digital camera!! Now I can get pictures of Kamden without the delay of our other digital and not have to worry about the graininess of the 35mm! I thought the pictures turned out great! It took the picture so quick I was even able to capture a smile on Kami!

Grandma & Kami

Just thought I'd post a quick picture this morning. This is my Mom reading to Kami a couple days ago! We're doing much better here! And since we have one more day before my mom leaves, today we're going to try to go up to Gutherie, OK and go see the Memorial later this afternoon! Oklahoma City in a day! Let's see if we succeed!

Sick Again!

Ugh! Can you believe it? Our second cold this season! Poor Kami, too! And this one, I swear is the worst one I've had in a long time. So, hence the reason I haven't updated the blog lately....been very busy caring for a very sick baby and trying to keep myself afloat! My mom came in the night we all got sick, so although I feel so bad that we really haven't left the apartment much, I'm so grateful for her help with Kami! I ended up calling Kami's doctor yesterday to see what medications she could take and what ones I could take that wouldn't effect my breatmilk. I had been taking some cold medicine and noticed that Kami wasn't eating very well. Ends up I was taking the one thing that effects the milk, which would explain why Kamden wasn't eating. So, I ended up pumping and dumping about 8oz of milk. Today Kami's doing a lot better with eating. And she's doing a really good job sleeping at night. ALSO, she finally learned how to roll from her tummy to her back today! I was so proud of her! I just wish I had the energy to be more enthusiastic! Poor baby!

I Stand Corrected!

A few posts ago, I refered to the St. Louis Cardinal's scoring another "point". I have since been informed that they did not score another "point", but rather another "run". I apologize and stand corrected. Must've been my upbringing! ;^) Thanks, Sheri! LOL!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Here's some fun pictures of Kamden that I took this morning!

Enjoy! And may everybody's "treats" be as good as mine!

4 Months and Counting.....

Kami had her 4 month doctors appointment yesterday! All went well and I survived the shots. Oh yeah, so did Kamden! ;^) No, really. The doctor said Kami looks great! And she said we could try and start her on solid food if we wanted to. I did this morning and she did okay. I think she was trying to just figure out what I had put in her mouth! But, I think she'll get the hang of it quickly enough. I've also been trying to give her a sippy cup with formula in it. She's figured out how to hold it and put it in her mouth - she's still working on sucking and tiping the cup up so that she can get the drink out. I've got some pictures in my camera that I've got to get developed of that. As soon as I do, I'll post them. And she got 4 shots yesterday. She did okay; at least she didn't throw up all over me, which is an improvement from the last time! She was very mad at the nurse who gave her the shots, though! It was really funny. As soon as she was done giving her the shots, I picked Kami up and she settled down a little, then looked at the nurse and got this really mad look on her face and started crying. So sad. Kami was a little sore yesterday, but I think more so today. She hasn't rolled over as much today and will cry for no reason and especially when you move her legs too much. Poor baby. She's so helpless. Riding around in the car today was the only thing that really seemed to calm her down.

I'm leaving Kamden with a sitter for the first time next week. Our Stake here in Oklahoma has a tradition here called "The Days of Thanksgiving", where members go to the temple in shifts doing various work and the temple has special hours where the open early and close late for the two days of this event. So, during RS a couple of weeks ago they passed around the time sheet for people to plan what they want to do and when, and I didn't even look at it before I passed it on to the next person because I figured with Kami, there'd be no way I could participate. Well, my Visiting Teaching companion saw me pass the time sheet on and offered to watch Kamden while I went to the temple! So, I'm going next thursday at 7:30 AM! I'm excited to go, but nervous with how Kami's going to be for Liz. I guess I shouldn't be. I won't be gone for that long and Liz is a very capable person. I'm sure they'll do fine.

That's about it from here! Things are going great and we're having fun here!

The Calling, The Photos and The Award Winning Chili!

Hey Everybody! I can hardly believe this week has gone by so quickly! Crazy how time can fly you by! Anyway, first and foremost......GO CARDS!!! Wahoo! They won the World Series last night beating Detroit 4 to 2! Too bad I fell asleep! Ooops! Yep, I'll admit it, I fell asleep at about the 7th inning. I told Drew to come and wake me up when the Cardinals got closer to winning, and I did recall him coming into our bedroom at one point in time telling me that they had scored another point, and I mumbled something like, "yeah! go cards!" Zzzzzzzzzzzzz! Oh well, what can ya do?

On another note, Drew and I got callings in our ward this week. Drew is the assistant Cub Master to the 2 Cubs we have in our ward (I guess they are combining with another ward) and I've been called to the Relief Society Board as....LOL...I can't even think about this without laughing.....The Birthday Card/Birthday Specialist! Ahahaha! Isn't that funny??? Of course I accepted the calling with a laugh and a "of course I'll do that!". To back up about a month ago, the Relief Society had asked the sisters at church if anybody would be willing to make birthday cards, to make them up and bring them in. So, I though that would be fun to make some up and it would be an easy, creative thing to do while tending to Kami. So, I did up about 25 or so and brought them to the RS President. Fast forward to this week and I've been called to to do that as an official calling!

ANYWAY, here are some pictures of Kami that I just got developed from my camera. Sorry it's pretty grainy. I think the film is bad. But, I thought they turned out pretty cute despite that. The first and third picture she's playing on her play mat. The middle picture is her in the bath. She's got a pretty bad case of "Cradle Cap", so I had put some Baby Oil on her head and we had fun playing with her hair in the bath!




So, our ward also had their Halloween Party last night and Drew and I (ahem, I) entered the White Chicken Chili in the Chili Contest and won 3rd Place! Not bad, considering there were about 15 pots of Chili on the table! Here's or ribbon to prove it:

Want the recipe? Here you go! It's actually originally derived from a Pampered Chef recipe, but I've made it so many times I put my own twists in now and then.

White Chicken Chili

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 3-4 pieces)
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 2 cans Northern White Beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bottle Salsa Verde (I usually buy medium)
• 1 can green chilis (a small can will do), chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 4 corn tortillas (I like the "Mission" White Corn Tortillas), grated or broken into small pieces
• 1-2 cloves of garlic or 1-2 teaspoons of the bottled garlic
• ground cumin
• 1/2 onion (optional), chopped
• 1 bunch cilantro

Cut chicken into bite size pieces and mix with ground cumin, just until chicken is coated. Cook chicken in a pot. Add garlic, green pepper and green chilis (and optional onion). Saute with chicken. Next add beans and chicken broth. Mix well. Then add your grated tortillas, this will thicken the chili. Carefully add the greater part of your Salsa Verde (depending on how big the bottle is and how hot you want it, you can potentially add the whole bottle). Simmer for about 15 minutes or until the green pepper/onion are tender. Add in sniped cilantro to taste. Serve with tortilla chips! See? Very easy and award winning! ;^)

Copy Cat

So funny! Kamden is already starting to copy Drew and I! Her favorite thing to copy? Sticking her tongue out and spitting! In fact, she thinks it's so funny, that when we go to get her out of her cirb in the morning, she smiles at us and spits! What have we done? LOL!

Last night was a little rough. I'm not sure why. Kami had a hard time taking a nap yesterday and then had a little bit of a tough time getting to sleep last night. Then she woke up about midnight and I couldn't get her back to sleep until about 2AM. Then she woke up again about 6AM. At that time Drew was getting up to get ready for work, so I just brought her into bed with me. A couple times I found that she had rolled onto her tummy. So, we're going to work on getting our naps in today. I wonder if that had anything to do with the sleeping at night.

Not much else happening here. It's been getting pretty cold here in OKC. But, Kami and I did make it to the park by the lake last week. She absolutly LOVES being outside. And I think she really liked watching the older kids play. Speaking of, we went to our first play group last week, which was pretty fun. I think it was much more for me than it was for her though. It gave me a chance to get to know some of the other ladies in our ward here. And from that I was also invited to a girls night out the next night. So, it worked out well.

Working Out, Rolling Over and a Sunday Story!

Yesterday I went to the gym and took an aerobics class! Oh my! I haven't worked out in such a long time and felt like the biggest goof with my eyes glued to the instructor trying to do the moves! Not even half way through the class my face was bright red and I was exhausted! Thank goodness I'm resilient! But, I must say I was striped of pride and brought to total humility seeing old men twice my age in much better shape then me! Oh well, ya gotta start somewhere, right? It felt good to work out and have some time to myself without Kamden. Drew droped me off at the gym and took Kami grocery shopping. When class was over and I got back in the car, Drew told me that there were other husbands waiting in the parking lot for their wives. I laughed and said, "Yeah, it's all the other husbands who have to drop their wives at the gym to make sure they actually make it to the gym!" Were I to drive myself, the mall would have been a tempting deture!

Also, some fun news! Kami started rolling over from her back to her tummy last night! She'd been working on it for about a week now! We're so proud! Only problem is, she hasn't quite figured out how to go from tummy to back. So, she gets frustrated when she realizes she just gave herself tummy time. Then she gives you the look like, "What did you do that for, mom??"! Oh well, I'm sure she'll figure it out soon enough.

And as for my Sunday Story, this is par for the course for our ward here in OKC! The RS President announced during Relief Society that there was a new sister that just moved into the ward, who just had a baby and her husband is gone alot with the military. So, the RS President asked people to sign up to bring meals to this sister for the next couple of weeks. Knowing what it's like to be in her shoes, I waited for the sign up sheet to get around to me. By the end of RS it never made it my way. So, I approched the RS President after our meeting and inquired about the sign up sheet. She said she wasn't sure what happened to it and she'd ask the Compasionate Service person about it and get back to me. That night I got an email from our RS President. Apparently, the sign up sheet didn't even make it past the first row before it was full!! Crazy, huh? I've never been in a ward where you have to be the first one to sign up to provide service! I thought that was pretty great.

In other news, I listed my first item for sale on ebay! I've never done this before so I'm a little nervous. Which is why I've only listed ONE item. I'll see how things go with this one before I add more to ebay.

And here are some random pictures of Kami the last couple of days. The first one Drew was giving her "rides" around the apartment in a box. The second is the best of the attempted photo shoot I did for Kami's first halloween. She didn't cooperate very well yesterday, so I figure I'd try again another day and see if I can get any better!

Overdue Pictures

OK, here they are! FINALLY! We got the camera out from Drew's car, so here's some pictures of everyone while Rachel and Robert were in town.

It was a hot day in downtown OKC and Kami was tired.

Again, it was a hot day in downtown OKC and Kami was tired! LOL!

Charlotte lent Kami her ducky for the day at the Zoo.

Me and Kamden at the pool in our apartment complex.

Rachel, Charlotte, Kamden and me!

Kamden chillin' out with her Uncle Robert!