Mykenzi's 4th Birthday - Morning

These pictures were taken on the morning of Mykenzi's 4th Birthday. Jonmark fixed her sausage, eggs, and french toast for breakfast, and then we got ready to spend the day at Kings Dominion. That was Mykenzi's first time there ever, and our first time there in 7 years. We were talking when we got there how odd it is that before we had Mykenzi we never went there together because we both love amusement parks, who doesn't? We went to Busch Gardens in Tampa on our honeymoon after the cruise, and later that summer we went to Six Flags with some friends, so I don't know why we never went to KD during college together or after we moved back to the area after college.

Just waking up to house decorated with balloons,

and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to wake up.

She just had to have a birthday hat, so Mommy got

her one that can be used again on future birthdays.

The happy birthday banner that I plan to hang for all of her birthdays, until it's worn out.

Ready to hit the road to KD, showing off her Birthday Girl pin,

which she actually did wear half of the day.

Doesn't she look so much older with her hair up like this? I recently stopped wearing my hear in ponytails and switched to clips. In trying two different kinds of clips out I realized some that I bought don't work well for my hair, so she's taken them for herself and she really does look so cute with her hair up like that. That peice of hair to the side naturally falls because those are what should be her bangs I guess (she's never had bangs, I wanted it all to grow out), and it's just so cute!

More pictures and video to come from Mykenzi's first trip to Kings Dominion and later that evening at home for presents and cake/ice cream!

Potomac River Festival

To start the parade the firehouse siren goes off, so we quickly put ear plugs in their ears, and were just waiting for the parade to start rolling by. They both left the ear plugs in for the full 30 minutes of the parade. It's a good thing too, I don't know if you've ever been to a Firemen's Parade but other than the beauty pageant girls riding by on cars, the parade is nothing but firetrucks and ambulances with flashing lights and blaring sirens for the full parade. It sounds like the worst disaster has happened there, but it really is a cool parade. Jonmark couldn't believe it years ago when I first told him about this, he had never heard of it or been to it, but when he first saw this parade he loved it! I'm a girl and I still think it's really cool. I love hearing all the sirens at one time, especially when there isn't an emergency.

We haven't seen this before, State Troopers on motorcycles leading the parade.

CBVFD

I wanted to get a picture of a big fire truck right in front of them sitting on the sidewalk, but there was too much tall grass to my right so I couldn't get directly behind them, so I just snapped this one when the ambulance was going by.

Mykenzi did enjoy the parade, but it was very hot that evening.

Camden waved at the firemen and the girls a lot, which I always missed, but I did get him pointing as they went by.

This was day 2, the Grand Feature Parade. Also, so very hot, but we had a lot of cold bottled water and we sat in the shade. The parade last over an hour long, which was way longer than I've ever seen it or expected it to be that day, but it was a good parade.

After the parade, we went to the pool for the first time this summer. Camden isn't crazy about the pool yet, he prefers to play in buckets of water outside of the pool, but I'm sure by mid summer, or at least the end of the summer, he'll be more into it. This picture was taken after he had played in water outside of the pool for a while.

Back home playing on the deck while grilling hot dogs before the fireworks!

What a face!

He was inching closer and closer to the steps that he knows he's not allowed near because I'm afraid he'll fall down them. No worries now though, Jomark built and intalled a gate at the top of these steps yesterday. We also bought a piece of indoor/outdoor carpet to put down so that the kids can go out there barefoot to play in the playhouse or with toys or in a little pool. Camden loves to be outside, especially during the day when we go out on this deck. When it's time to come in he always throws himself down on the kitchen floor and cries for a few seconds until he sees another toy in the house to play with.

Anniversary Weekend Away

We made a last minute decision to go away for the weekend of our 5th anniversary, and we were very glad that we did. We had fun and the kids had fun, everyone was happy!

Our room had a balcony, which Camden loved. He was out there all 3 days that we were there, and both mornings when he woke up I took him out there for the longest time while Jonmark and Mykenzi slept in.

Mykenzi also enjoyed running in and out whenever we were in the room for any length of time. At one point she even locked Camden and me out there, shut the screen, shut the door, locked both locks, and closed the curtain. She thought this was hilarious, and I'll admit when she was laughing, so was I.

Climbing to the top of the Kid Cabin bunk bed, not that she ever slept in what she called "her room".


She thought it was awesome that she could stand up there and touch the ceiling.

Little Mommy taking Camden's shoes off.

Sibling love!

Kisses for big sister!

Walking to dinner.

Mykenzi loves that she can get ice cream and sprinkles for dessert here.

Dinner both nights, all you can eat surf and turf = one happy Daddy!

And Mykenzi. We're big seafood eaters here, and Mykenzi hasn't turned down any seafood she's tried: fried shrimp, steamed shrimp, shrimp scampi, grilled shrimp, crabs, crab cakes, she crab soup, hot crab dip, snow crab legs, lobster tail, rockfish, flounder, catfish, mahi mahi, grouper, tuna, and that's all I can remember that she's tried so far, but she likes it all.

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Camden's 12 Month Session

Here are Camden's 12 month pictures that I took over the weekend. It didn't seem like it was going very smoothly because he was very cranky since I took these in the morning right before his nap, but I'm pleased that I was able to get a few good ones out of it. I didn't take many pictures at all because he was so fussy, but I'm happy. What do you think? Post your favorites in the comments or email me because I haven't had them printed yet.

This shot was to show what Camden does when we ask, "how old is Camden?"

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I did have another problem in that one side of his collar kept turning upward,

so I do see that as well.

Camden's First Haircut

Camden got his first haircut today! I thought it was about time since his hair was starting to look a little shaggy and sloppy. It was touching his ears, which Jonmark says tickles and is really annoying, and the back was starting to get curly just like his daddy's and big sister's hair!

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BEFORE:

DURING:

You might not be able to see it on this picture, but there is a little tear underneath Camden left eye. He did not like this experience at all! First we tried with him sitting in the chair alone because a lady suggested it, and then Daddy sat with him, that's who is wiping away the tear there.

Really wanting to get away now. Here comes the trimmer!

AFTER:

I don't know if you can even tell a difference between the Before and After pictures, but we certainly can. We were very surprised at how much hair he actually had. When she first started I got a little upset and "freaked out" on her as Jonmark put it because she asked what I wanted, I said around the ears and even up the neck, then she started cutting on top and I believe an inch fell to the floor. I told her to stop because we part it on the side so the top was fine, but she realized that and knew what she was doing, and she was right, his hair does look fine. I've had 2 really bad haircuts in my life where I did not get at all what I was looking for, so it worries me when I put one of my children in those chairs and let someone loose with scissors on them. I know it's just hair, but that's my baby's hair!

And a shot of big sister just because! I was proud of her for not yelling at the lady cutting his hair because she's very protective of Camden (when someone else is making him unhappy). When we were first walking to the chair and another lady there suggested that he just sit by himself since he's a big boy, Mykenzi gave her a ton of unexpected attitude saying, "NO, HE'S NOT, HE'S JUST A BABY." She was worried that Camden wasn't going to like getting his haircut because she doesn't like it, so she was anxious from the start. Mykenzi has only had her hair cut twice in the last 4 years, first when she was a little over 2.5 and then 6 months later just before starting preschool. After seeing how upset Camden got today, she's convinced that she does not need another haircut!

Boys are Way More Adventurous Than Girls....

Life with a boy has been more of a reality in the last few months. Until now the only difference between Mykenzi and Camden was that Camden has been a much easier baby since labor/delivery: labor was so quick and easy, epidural took (not that it was Mykenzi's fault during her labor/delivery that it was one sided), he arrived within 2-3 pushes, slept all the time as a newborn baby hardly ever making his presence known, he still sleeps pretty well during the day, he sleeps in his crib at night (unlike his sister who refused to sleep anywhere but the infant car seat until she was about 17 months old), and he's quite the little lover, always handing out hugs and kisses.

He's still doing all of those things, and the huggs and kisses once he's in trouble do help him soften Mommy quite a bit, but he's disovered mischief since he learned to walk 3 months ago. Here are a list of his favorite methods of negative attention (is it that or just that he's a boy?):

-- Camden discovered early on that he could climb up on and stand on the top of their picnic table, which I have yet to move outside (I'm thinking a picnic outdoors is in the near future with that picnic table).

-- While I'm folding a basket of clean laundry or have a basket sitting near the laundry room full of dirty clothes, Camden likes to take articles of clothing one by one and make another pile some 10-15 feet away.

-- If no one is looking, actually to be honest he doesn't care who is looking, he'll take the lid off the trash can and walk as far as he can get with it, acting as if he doesn't hear a word we're saying. Yesterday he actually found it laying in the floor because Jonmark had taken the trash can outside to prepare corn on the cob, and Camden walked over and said, "uh oh." I like that it's an uh oh when someone else does it, but perfectly fine for him to do it. I should have known the trash can would be trouble for us once he started walking because when he was in the walker around 6 months he liked to run into it hard enough to knock it over.

-- Camden loves to pull up the central air vents in every room. He usually just brings it right to you and says "dit," which we believe must mean "here" because he says this often when he hands you something. It doesn't matter how many times I put them back, he'll still walk over and pick it up when I walk away. So yesterday Mykenzi decided to sit on top of the one he was most interested in, and he got really frustrated with her, started screaming at her, and then realized there are more just a few feet away, so off he went to the first one in the family room and proceeded to pick that one up. I can see all of this from the kitchen and he just ignores my directions to leave it alone.

-- If he thinks about it, which I say because he doesn't do this often, he will pull the folded laundry off the couch into the floor while giving me the cutest mischevious grin.

-- Mykenzi also has a new doll house here that's been handed down from my cousin to my niece and now it's here, which she likes to play with often and since it's so large we keep it in the family room for now. Camden likes to come over and play too but he's usually like King Kong over there just grabbing up the bed or the people and putting them in his mouth (people go head first, which is a big no no because I'm afraid the head will pop off - choking hazard). When Mykenzi gets after him for that, he goes around behind it (to the actual front of the doll house) and climbs up on the second floor balcony. A mini King Kong wreaking havoc on Mykenzi's pretend play!

-- When the mood strikes him, usually when I'm cooking, Camden likes to pull all of the plastic bowls out of my cabinets. Sometimes I find pots and pans, cake pans, muffin pans, etc. strategically placed throughout the house.

-- When we're in the refrigerator Camden likes to take out everything he can reach on the bottom shelves of the door and set them on the floor. Same with the pantry.

-- Here's one that really makes Daddy upset. Like all children, Camden likes to climb into cabinets, and the only one with any room is the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Most people keep cleaning products under there, but once Mykenzi started walking I moved them into a cabinet in the laundry room (makes more sense to me anyway), so we keep new rolls of paper towels under the kitchen sink, and when they start to dwindle down there is room there for little tiny bodies, so he climbs in and is working on a regular basis to remove the stickers inside that Daddy says prove our house is a modular and not a doublewide (something to do with the regulations listed, I have no idea, I just get him out of there before Daddy sees him if I can).

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I do not yet have any of these things caught on camera, since during the act my first thought is to keep him safe, and I also don't want to encourage this behavior, which really he needs no encouraging for. Also, don't worry, Camden's attempts at those which are not safe are thwarted from the start now that I'm on to him and know what he's thinking when these obstacles present themselves. However, that also means once one act has been stopped, his mind starts working harder to find another means of mischief. Don't let all this fool you though, we love the chaos and excitement that having a little boy and that having 2 children have brought us!