Christmas spirit

This year after putting it off for far too long, we decided not to put the tree up.  The idea of all of our ornaments being shattered was a bit too much to handle, so we thought we'd all be safer without it up.  But that means our house wasn't looking very festive.  So last night Hibby and I got busy crafting and made a toddler safe Christmas tree!!  

We cut it all out of felt and stuck it to the door with removable poster tape.  I found the idea on this blog- http://www.pepperdesignblog.com/2012/10/30/pinterest-challenge-christmas-comes-a-little-early-this-year/

Cameron loves pulling the ornaments and lights off and putting them back on.  (And pulling the whole thing off the door.... But we're working on that!)

It's really nice to have a tree that we don't have to worry about being destroyed!  Now it feels a little more like Christmas around here! 

healthy habits

Cameron's favorite activity lately is brushing his teeth.  

A couple of nights ago he started pounding on the bathroom door.  I was trying to figure out what he was up to.  Then he went to the kitchen and tried to pull his step stool over to the bathroom.  He decided that was too heavy, so he gave up and pointed up the stairs.  "Duh, Mom!  I'm ready for bed but I need to brush my teeth first!" 

We've been busy practicing different parts of the body.  He loves pointing to his nose and showing off his belly button.  It's amazing how fast he catches on to things.  He knows where most of his toys go so he helps clean them up most nights before bed.

We had another prenatal appointment yesterday.  I'm currently 15 weeks.  Baby's heartbeat sounded good!  She said it was about 130-135.  I can't remember what Cameron's was so I can't make a prediction of boy or girl.  ;)  we have our big appointment with ultrasound next month, but we haven't decided if we want to find out yet!

And now we are off to visit Santa! 

a pregnancy craving?!

Tonight I think I had my first ever pregnancy craving.  So far it's been a struggle of what sounds the least unappetizing, but tonight I couldn't stop thinking about tortilla chips with guacamole and queso!  Since avocados are healthy I decided this was a perfectly acceptable supper.  (For a first supper anyway.  I generally eat supper at least two times before I go to bed.)  

I'm hoping this is a sign that I will be able to enjoy an entire Thanksgiving meal without any aversions!   So far the worst things are chicken and orange vegetables.  Eek!  I can hardly even think about them without feeling gaggy.  It's so weird because normally I love those! 

In other news, Hubby had eye surgery to repair the tears in his right retina.  He had the left side fixed in February.  This side wasn't as bad as the left, so his recovery has been a little bit easier.  It will still take a while for his vision to be back to normal, but at least he has been able to go most of the day without sunglasses on!  Cameron has been loving all of his extra time with his daddy.  

Cameron's Big News

Cameron has some big news!  He will be a big brother late May/early June!  

Our official due date is June 1st, however Cameron was 5 days early so I am estimating that we will have a May baby this time.  We are currently 11 weeks.  I've had this post saved since I took the pictures, so I think it's time to publish it!  :)  

 

As far as symptoms go, pregnancy and I don't get along very well.  I've had some people tell me that morning sickness is a sign of healthy fetal development, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant.  I'm just hoping that it doesn't last my whole pregnancy like it did with Cameron.  I've made friends with my super stylish sea bands.  They are acupressure wrist bands that people usually wear for motion sickness, but I've been wearing them for the last month and I haven't been nearly as sick this time.  We had our first real prenatal appointment today and got to hear Baby Cook's heartbeat!  That's my favorite part!  

Washing windows

This morning Cameron and I washed all of the baby hand prints and puppy nose prints off the windows.  

And then Cameron decided the windows were a little too clean.  

Playing outside (16 month update)

We had awesome weather this weekend.  Cameron still loves being outside!  

Cameron found himself the perfect walking stick for our hike through the pasture.  He loves to carry sticks.  The leaves were a bit too thick for his little legs, but we still had fun! 

Pepper loved being outside, too!

Cameron is way too busy for pictures lately so attempting to take pictures of him by myself was almost impossible.  Cameron still loves cows.  Mooing is his favorite trick.  He can show off his belly button.  He loves shoes.  His shoes, mommy's shoes, daddy's shoes, any shoes he can find!  He calls them "ishish."

Cameron has been busy learning to use a fork, too.  Sometimes he doesn't want to eat without it, other times he throws it on the floor.  I can't think of any foods that he refuses to eat, although fruit is definitely his favorite.  He's getting better at drinking out of a real cup, although I only put water in it and I usually end up wiping the floor afterwards.  But hey, at least my floor gets a little cleaner every time.  ;)

Our little boy is obsessed with Thomas the Train.  It's the only show he will sit down to watch.  I don't like to encourage a lot of TV watching, but sometimes I'll use any excuse to get a snuggle!  As soon as he hears the theme song he starts to dance, and sometimes I can get him to stop and dance if I sing it myself!

Cameron has his routine down pretty well.  When he is ready for nap time, he goes to the stairs.  When he is ready for his bath, he goes to the sink.  (Yeah, that is life without a bath tub.  He's still getting kitchen sink baths!)  He heads right to his high chair for meals, too!  When he needs a diaper change he will grab a clean diaper, so that has been helpful.  :)  

We are working on getting him to sleep better, but we haven't had a lot of success.  We've stopped nursing in the middle of the night so sometimes when he wakes up I've been able to tuck him back in and start his night time music.  Hubby has been super helpful getting up in the middle of the night to help me break Cameron's night nursing habit.  We are hopeful that we'll sleep all night again soon!

Fall Adventures

We had a fun time at the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago! 

The toy catalog came out so Cameron was busy picking out Christmas presents. ;) 

Then we went to another pumpkin patch with auntie!  We got pie pumpkins and have made two pies so far!  Yum yum!

I'm not the best at making pie crust, but it worked!! 

Today we harvested the rest of the carrots from the garden!  Some got buried in sand to be kept in the basement (the ones on the ground) and the rest got chopped and froze (the ones in the bin)!  (And we had some glazed with supper.  Delish!) 

Good thing we all like carrots.  They were the most successful part of our garden! 

New record!

Last night Cameron had his first 12 hour sleep!!  And I had my first "wake up rested" since he was born.  I'm still amazed that he slept from 9-9!  He has been snuggly all morning so I'm taking advantage of it and watching Thomas with him.  Choo Choo!! 

Country Tea

On Friday we had the pleasure of attending the Twelfth Annual Country Tea.  The tea this year was Mao Feng Noir.    

We started off with a roasted vegetable soup.  Cameron's menu started with cherry tomatoes and goldfish. 

Up next were the assorted tea sandwiches and savories.  My favorites were the curried egg salad with mango chutney (quite possibly the best egg salad I've ever had!) and the delta chicken salad with spiced pecans.  Cameron had his own kiddie sandwiches, but his favorite still came from my plate, the pane cioccolatta with goat cheese and raspberry jam.  He is lucky there were extras so I could share with him. ;)

We continued this delicious meal with ginger scones, Welsh scones, and crumpets.  I'm not sure I can pick a favorite, because I smothered them all in the huckleberry jam or lemon curd.  Yum! 

By the way, I was so excited to chow down that I only took pictures of my sandwiches.  The rest of the pictures are from my cousin Laura, so that's why you can see her name tag.  If you want to see her thoughts on the tea, you can check out her blog http://bfamilytwins.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-most-wonderful-time-of-year.html?m=1

All of the desserts were amazing, but my favorite was the chocolate cheesecake with chocolate ganache.  This was Hubby's favorite out of his goody bag, too.  Cameron's dessert menu included animal crackers, chocolate teddy grahams, and banana slices.  His favorite were the bananas and carrot cake.  

We finished the meal with Dom Pedro, a delicious blend of ice cream and kaluah.  

Oh, did I mention the champagne?  This tea party doesn't mess around.  We were served Pannier Brut.  

Cameron did really well considering he doesn't like to be confined to his high chair for longer than a quick meal.  

Here he is on the way to the tea.  We love his new hat that I scored this spring on super clearance from Gap.  

Don't mind our paint challenged house- we had been busy scraping with plans to repaint, but we've been busy with everything else so that has gotten bumped to the end of the to-do list.  

Nap time!

Well I have a lot of catching up to do.  But I don't even know where to start.  So here is a photo from Cameron's visit at his great grandma's house today.

  

And this is everyone except me trying to fit in the recliner. 

Story time!

Cameron has been busy with his new favorite book lately.  

I don't blame him.  It's one of my favorites, too!

Nap Time

I'm always amazed at how much Cameron understands.  Today he was starting to get fussy so I asked if he was ready for a nap.  I told him to go upstairs if it was nap time. So he led me to the gate.  I told him to go to his room.  He did.  I asked if he wanted to rock and he climbed into the rocking chair.  Nap time without a struggle is awesome!  

Yesterday we were visiting my grandma and he decided it was time to go outside.  He went over to the front door and opened it!  What a fun trick!  Time to start locking the doors!  

Cameron loves going to the park!  Although his favorite part is going up the stairs.  

Yum yum!  Speghetti is good! 

Fabric Collection

Have you ever wondered how I got into quilting?  (Of course not! You're here for pictures of Cameron!) 

 ;)  

Here's a story from my pre-baby days.  

My mom and aunt tried many times to get me interested in quilting.  I wasn't.  They drug me (and my sister and cousins) to fabric stores.  We died of boredom.  Sometimes the stores had candy, so that was ok.  One store had a basement play area where we could watch movies.  Because it took that long.  We watched whole movies.  (At least that's how I remember it.  And now that I think about it, that store was brilliant!) 

Fast forward to college and I still wasn't interested.  Crafting- sure.  Quilting- no.  They would ask "Isn't this fabric beautiful?"  Eh.  Thimbleberries just weren't my thing.  

They had probably lost hope.  And then it happened.  I came home for a weekend and caught sight of the most awesome fabric.  It was Java by Deb Strain for Moda.  The bells went off and the quilt books came flying off the shelves.  We'd find an easy pattern.  Of course we could get more of that fabric!  So this is all it took?! 

Now, if you don't care about fabric, you don't know that fabric is limited edition.  All of it.  So by the time I had finally found a fabric I could love, it was also incredibly hard to find.  Not only this, but when they showed me the patterns, they were all "lap sized."  That wasn't going to do.  I needed something that would fit my bed! Nothing smaller than queen!  (I knew that one day I would move on from tiny college apartment twin beds and finally have a real bed someday.  So my mom scoured the internet, bid on fabric on eBay, and we hunted down complimentary fabrics at quilt shops.  

This is how I know they love me, by the way.  And they really wanted me to love quilting.  A queen size quilt is intense, especially someone who is clueless.  And fabric is expensive, especially when you have to resort to buying it from eBay!  

I think it took me two years and a really intense quilting day (LuAnn handed me the strips, I sewed them together, and my mom ironed) to get the darn thing finished.  I don't think they were going to let me leave the house until it was done.  I did quilt it myself (it even has my name in it! And the year- 2010), but I didn't have anything to do with the binding.  

Pepper is glad I finished it, too.  

And that was all it took.  I don't think I sewed another quilt until after I met my Hubby.  We had moved from an apartment into a house.  It was winter.  And one day I said "I wish I had a sewing machine.  I feel like sewing something."  I was surprised that he reacted much like my mom and aunt.  We headed to Joann's that day to check out the machines (sadly they were out of the one we liked).  But I had one in the mail a few days later!   

Now I love fabric.  Sometimes I love it so much that I can't even cut it.  

I feel just like my mom and aunt blabbering about their thimbleberries.... But look how beautiful it is!! 

Amy Butler is my favorite!  However, I found a new fabric love that rivals my love of Amy Butler.  Meet Cotton + Steel. 

(This is a combination of August and Mustang.  I had to have August because it's my birthday month.  Obviously it was meant to be!)  

I could go on with my fave fabrics all night long!!  I considered doing a "stash shot" but I've been busy digging in my cupboards and it's looking like a disaster in there.  A really gorgeous, expensive disaster.  

And if you've stuck with me this long, here is Cameron.  He has been loving boxes lately.