We have had a lot of events take place in the past couple of weeks...some good, some not. I have many pictures to post from our trip to Asheville and Halloween, but we have been pre occupied around here. As many of you know Carson's aunt (Lindsay's mom) passed away on Halloween night. It was very sudden and very shocking. She was 57. I knew her well and saw her often, and will miss her a great deal.

I promise happy posts in my future!

The fair and Grandma's birthday!

Last Thursday was my Mom's birthday. We went to Columbia to celebrate and decided to go to the fair while we were there. We went back to the house for cake, ice cream and presents. It was a long but fun day. Charlie had a great time and is looking forward to the Coastal Carolina fair next week! We hope Grandma had a great birthday!!

Camden and Grandma watching Charlie and Aunt Phoebe on the swings!

Camden would point to them every time they came around.

Su was not in the mood for riding anything

Charlie on the teacups!

In loving memeory...

My last living grandparent passed away this past Thursday. My Grandma was 90. This picture was from her birthday party and was also the last time I got to see her. I am so glad she got to meet Camden and see Charlie over the years. Her funeral was yesterday in Lake City, and although I wish it was under better circumstances, it was nice to see that side of my family. She was a great lady who was never afraid to tell you what she thought. We will all miss her dearly and we have peace knowing she is with my Grandpa and the rest of her family. Rest in peace.

YOU MUST READ BEFORE SCROLLING DOWN!!!!

For those of you who do not know, Charlie befriended a little boy named Griffin at the beginning of last year, and they have remained the best of friends over the year. We have had a few play dates at parks and pools etc. over the past year, but we have not been so personal as to play at each others house. Well, Griffin's family is moving next week and I remember all too well the stress of moving with children, so I offered to keep Griffin for the afternoon so his mom could get some packing done. The two of them had so much fun and when it was time for Griffin to go home he wanted to stay longer. It was fine with me, but I think if he comes back again his parents might insist that I invest in some toys that suit boys a little!!!

Griffin had lipstick, painted fingernails and Ariel dress up clothes on while at my house. His mom laughed so hard when I showed her this picture, and we agreed if I know Griffin 10 years from now I defiantly have blackmail!!!! How great to be 4 and not have a care in the world!!

Camden goes Green!

While at Earth Fare the other day I came across these diapers (g diapers). I am all for saving the environment and I know conventional diapers are one of the worst things for landfills, but I could never bring myself to use cloth diapers. I came home and did a little research on these 'g diapers' and thought they looked like something I could actually do. I usually use Pampers and they are the same price (although I know Pampers are on the high price end), so I decided to give them a shot! So for any of you who have babies and are looking for an alternative (or maybe not looking, but think they sound good) I recommend them. You can go on their website to check them out, but in a nutshell...the outside of the diaper is a reusable cover and you put a liner on the inside. The liner is what you throw away (they say you can flush it, but Carson took one look at it and vetoed that!!) Since there is no plastic they bio degrade in 50-150 days instead of the 500 years that it takes diapers to. So in this era of environmentalist...Camden is the newest member~diaper wise!

My life in a photograph!

This picture sums up about 85% of my days. One (if not both) of my children has little to no clothes on. Camden is pulling anything off any surface and defacing it ~ obviously during this particular time it happens to be my magazines and now over half of the pages are missing. Good thing I have read what I wanted to out of them ~ Charlie is running around dressed up as Tinker Bell, and of course I have to grab the camera to get a few shots. Life with two kids is great...chaos, but great!!

the great outdoors

The weather has been so great that I have been trying to get the girls outside as much as possible. This summer was a little tough since Camden was so little, but now that she is older and a little more mobile it is easier for me to take them both to the same places. We went to the park last week and these are a few of the pictures. Camden LOVES the swing and there are a few pictures where you can really see her top front teeth. There is one picture where she is laughing so hard you can't tell if she is happy or mad! Anyway, we have a friend that "donated" her old swing set to us, so this past weekend Carson pressure washed it and I stained it and it looks brand new. We are going to make a few more adjustments and modifications to it this weekend to fit our girls needs, but we have been getting much use out of it already. Charlie has been on the swing every chance she gets. I hope to have some pics of them on their new play yard soon. I highly recommend everyone getting a used play set and putting a little elbow grease into it...it saved us about $1000 in these tough time!!!

Just some random shots in the playroom!

These pictures were taken while Charlie was outside on the front porch and Camden was in side watching her. Camden turned around when I took Charlie's picture. Cam is, unfortunatly, out of focus, but both girls look so cute in these pics.

I had a newborn photo shoot last Friday, so my mom came to town to watch the kids. I needed to make some adjustments to lighting, camera settings etc. and since Charlie won't be my guinea pig I made my mom and Camden sit in for me. I did manage to get a few of Charlie wearing mom's glasses!!

Camden update

The following pictures were taken on Camden's 10 month "birthday." I really meant to post them on that day, but somehow she is already almost 11 months (which is SO hard to believe that she is going to be a year in 5 weeks!!!) She is such a happy girl. She is so interested in everything. She imitates anything you show her and she seems so eager to learn (keeping up with her big sister, I guess!) I have always heard that the second child usually does not talk as soon as the first, but that is defiantly not the case here. She already has a vocab of about 6-8 words. They, of course, are not perfect, but you know what she is talking about. They are...ball, baby (her two FAVORITE toys. Especially baby dolls!), more (I was trying to teach her the sign and one day she did the sign and said "more" at the same time. Guess I will not need signs for long), bye-bye, mama, dada, she said cha (for Charlie) the other day, but I don't know if that is a solid one yet. Anyway, she is finally on a great schedule and be left with anyone, which is nice for me. She eats whatever, whenever. She has not met a food she does not like, and she is totally on solids now. Her top two teeth just cut last week and you can only see them if she is upside down laughing. We think the two next to them are coming in as well. She learned to crawl by dragging her left leg on the ground and we thought that would change after she crawled for a few days, but she still does it and can get around FAST. She has now discovered if she holds on to a car with wheels that she can go even faster. Anyway, the next few pictures sum up a lot of Camden's personality.

One thing that Camden can't quite catch on too is getting down the one step into the living room. We have showed her many times how to do it, but she just does not seem to want to learn. This is the closest we have ever seen her come to it, but most of the time it looks like this...

I think she really enjoys hanging her head over the stair to see how quick Carson or I will jump up to move her. She has fallen a few times so she is very cautious to get close, but she still does not understand that her head ways more than her body and she will topple over. This is the one spot that we hope she will master soon.

The girl LOVES to eat, and will eat anything you give her. Totally different from Charlie for those who remember.

If she sees something she wants this is how she asks for it. Her cheek is always pressed against her shoulder, and her hand is open like that pointing in the direction of whatever she wants while making a small whining sound.

Posing for the camera...she a little ham!

Mom says she looks like Charlie when she makes this face. There is a picture from Charlie's 1st Valentine's Day that she made this face. I will have to put them side by side to compare!

She pulls up on everything with no problem now. She even lets go and can stand on her own for a few seconds.

It is faces like this that make me think she is going to be my little trouble maker!

Camden is a little in to things these days!

So, I was loading the dishwasher the other day while Camden was playing in the pantry (I believe in whatever keeps them happy and occupied (and safe) is fine with me). There was a little noise, but I was a little shocked when I turned around to see how much destruction she had done in a mere 30 seconds. That is a full bottle of Bacardi and 7 full apple juices and she slung them out like it was nothing. I guess I need to rethink the bottom shelf!

Charlie's rendition of me!

I mean...could I be any better looking? (No answers please)

Mommy's little helper

Charlie's Butterflies

Gabby and Poppie gave Charlie a Butterfly garden for her birthday. It was a 3 week process, so we decided to wait and start it once school started. We were sent 5 caterpillars and were told that most likely we would have some casualties, but we were lucky and got to see all 5 form crysalise(SP) and turn into butterflies. We observed them for a day and then let them go. For any of you who may be thinking of getting one of these, I highly recommend it. It was a very neat process to witness and I think I may have enjoyed just a little more than Charlie!

Going to space.

Today in the car Charlie told me she wanted to go to space when she got older. I told her she had to work really hard to do that. She had to work really hard in school and then go to college and work really hard and then some more after that. I finished by saying "you have to work A LOT!!" She said "Wow, Daddy works a lot is he going to space soon!" I had to laugh a little:)

A day at the park!

I have been getting a little fall fever the past couple of days. We have been inside more that I like this summer because Camden can not handle the heat for too long, and I can not handle Camden for too long either! I keep fooling myself into thinking it is cool out and taking the girls outside. I am quickly reminded that no matter what the calendar says, it is sill summer! Here a some pictures from the park. Sometimes I get caught up in taking pictures so I can remember the moment that I spend the "moments" taking pictures. I committed to taking pics for a few minutes and then put the camera in the car and we had a great afternoon at the park. Camden LOVED the swing. Charlie wanted to swing next to her, so she got in the baby swing. Camden actually turned herself sideways so she could look at Charlie. I hope my girls love each other this much for the rest of their lives, it is very touching! Anyway, enjoy!