Christmas

Christmas this year was really relaxing this year. I was having a bit of a hard time because I was really missing my family. It has been a few years since I have seen my family for Christmas and most of them were in Utah this year. On top of that, J had to work Christmas Eve and didn't even get home until 6. I tried to make the best of it and still planned our family traditions.

We started a few new one's this year. There are a lot of tree farms in the area so we decided to go and cut down our own Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun especially because this is the first time I have ever done that. It didn't disappoint Camo either. He had a blast.  Not to mention we enjoyed some delicious pumpkin donuts that the farm sells. I have made quite a few stops at this farm just to pick up pumpkin donuts. The only downfall was that the Christmas trees at a farm are so dang expensive. I think we paid almost 30 dollars for our 4 foot tree!! It fit perfectly in our house though!

 Next we decided to start the tradition of making gingerbread houses. We decided to do this because now we have kids that will really enjoy this activity.  J and I quite enjoyed it ourselves as well. I think J ended up building most of it because he couldn't stand to have pieces and frosting all out of place. He is a bit of a perfectionist. Maybe next year we will have to make two gingerbread houses so Camo can do whatever he wants to his.

Christmas eve I decided to do my family tradition of soups for dinner and acting out the Nativity. J wasn't so thrilled about the acting part, but I'm hoping each year he will be more willing do it. I had great memories growing up of doing this with my brother's and sister's. We invited his parents and J's sister and her family over. We made broccoli cheese soup and Zuppa Toscana soup. We also celebrated J's sister's birthday since it is on Christmas eve. We enjoyed some delicious cheesecake. Since J's mom could not be at our Christmas eve dinner because of work, we decided to go to her work and surprise her. She works at a nursing home. We decided to bring a few items to act out our Nativity while we were there. I think the boys quite enjoyed going to visit their Grandma.

Christmas day we opened presents from Santa at our house. Camo loved all of his gifts. His favorite was probably the play dough. He also really enjoyed his remote control car. We then went over to J's sister's house for a brunch. We made waffles and she made her sausage egg bake. The rest of the day was really relaxing and all the cousins played really well together.

In no particular order, here are some pictures from the month of December.

Polar Express

We recently had the opportunity to ride the Polar Express in Mount Hood, Oregon. J's parents treated us and J's sister and her family to this. They even made us little treat bags. Camo devoured all the treats in the bag about 10 minutes into the train ride.  Camo was super excited the 2 weeks prior to going. Every day he would say it's getting closer. We had a blast. Camo was super excited to see Santa and sit on his lap. We read the entire book on the train while they passed out cookies and hot chocolate for everyone.  Then halfway through, the train slowed down so we could see Santa waving to all the kids and to see his house all decorated in Christmas lights. We then picked up Santa and each kid got to sit on his lap. He then handed a Christmas bell to every kid.  After the train ride we went to a hamburger joint with the whole family. It was a super fun day!

Deck The Halls

One of the exciting things about moving to Wilsonville, Oregon is that there are farms everywhere. There are pumpkin patches and Christmas tree farms. This year we started a tradition of going and cutting down our Christmas tree. The best part about having an almost 3 year old is that they are super excited about all the festivities of Christmas. Camo had so much fun cutting our tree down and decorating it. Every morning he wakes up, that's the first thing he does is turn on the Christmas tree lights.

Turkeython 5k

This was my first race post baby and my first 5k. I didn't really think that racing a 5k would be fun. I actually quite enjoyed it and want to run another to try to beat my time. I have always like running longer distances  better than shorter distances because every time I run shorter distances my body builds up lactic acid and makes me feel like puking. I hate that feeling so I always try to avoid racing shorter distances. Not anymore. I actually think the next race I sign up for will be another 5k or 10k. Don't get me wrong, I  loved doing the Sauvie Half last summer, but I think I might stick to shorter distances for awhile. Not to mention it's easier to train for these races with 2 small children that require so much time and attention.

I wasn't so sure how I was going to do come race day. I was feeling a little nervous because I was having some major stomach issues. It might be due to eating Little Ceasar's the night before and having a pumpkin doughnut for breakfast. I know, what was I thinking. The funny thing is, is that it didn't stop me from running 30 seconds faster per mile than most of my training runs. I finished in 24:01. If only I could have pushed it a little harder at the beginning. I say beginning because I was sprinting as fast as I could towards the finish line which goes to show you that I had way too much energy stored up for the end. I could have probably pushed it a little harder at the beginning. I was just so worried about losing steam at the end if I went out too fast.

4 months old

TJ just recently had his 4 month checkup. He is getting so big. He weighed in at 16 pounds 4 oz, which means he has doubled his birth weight already. He was 24 1/2 inches long. He is already rolling over from his back to stomach and just recently started rolling from his stomach to back.. I think he is going to be a lot more active than Camo. He still eats about every 3-4 hours and wakes up at least 1 or 2 times in the night. I can't wait until he sleeps through the night. I could use a full nights sleep. He takes great naps during the day. We just recently started him on rice cereal and he likes it okay. We tried sweet potatoes tonight and he seemed to really like those. I wanted to start him on baby food in hopes that he would be more full at night. This may help him to sleep through the night. He also just recently discovered his thumb and loves it. J and I aren't quite sure what to do about it. We are nervous because I was a thumb sucker and had a hard time breaking the habit. We like it because it helps soothe him. He absolutely hates the binky so we feel this is our only option. He is super smiley and very chatty just like his brother. We love him so much. I just realized I have not taken hardly any pictures of the boys lately. I promise to have lots more pictures on his 5 month update.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year.. We started the Halloween week out with carving pumpkins. We didn't get into as much as we did last year. Jordan attempted an Oregon Duck helmet, but only got halfway through. I carved a pumpkin with stars and a moon. We didn't get any pictures of the finished product. Then the day before Halloween we went to the ward trunk or treat. Does anyone else agree that ward trunk or treats are mad chaos? I think Camo enjoyed it though. For Halloween this year Camo decided to be Thomas the Train and TJ was a giraffe. TJ used Camo's costume that Camo wore when he was 9 months old. Kind of surprised me that TJ could fit into it at 4 months. On Halloween night we first stopped at the assisted living home that my mother-in-law works at. The residents like to pass out candy. Camo scored lots of candy. Then we got some pizza and headed over to my sister-in-law's house for some trick or treating. Camo was super excited to go trick or treating. He kept up with his older cousins at the beginning but soon ran out of steam. He still ended up with lots of goodies.

                               Handsome boys

                           The cutest little giraffe

                                 The boys and Grandma

                                 Camo and his cousins

 

 Love this picture of Camo and his cousin.

Rainy Days

We have officially hit the rainy season here in Oregon. I am not talking about the thunderstorms that come and go like in Texas, but the constant drizzly, pouring rain. Luckily I don't mind the rain too much and can usually find fun things to do even during the rainy season. Even Camo is learning how to enjoy the rain. He had the idea of going to get some rain boots at the store and jumping in the puddles. So today we did just that. He was having a blast getting soaking wet, splashing and jumping on and over all the puddles. This might become an everyday activity.

Camo

Ever since TJ was born, I have not done a blog post about his best big brother Camo. There are so many things I need to update about Camo. He has definitely hit 2 years old. He is such a smart kid which leads to talking back and plenty of time outs in the last few months. He loves to go out and do fun things just like his mom. We have enjoyed the zoo, children's museum, gymnastics center, library, Oaks Park, parks, spray parks and the swimming pool this summer. I tell you this kid is not deprived of fun. He still really loves to read and has a few of his favorite books memorized. His favorite TV shows right now are Dora the Explorer, The Backyardigans, Go Diego Go(he is learning lots of Spanish), Super Why, and of course Caillou. He also loves riding his scooter. He is a daredevil on that thing. He scares me when he goes up a hill and then comes down it. He still really loves drums and will put on my sunglasses and use 2 pens as drumsticks and play pretend drums. I am wondering if I should break down and buy him a drum set. Actually I don't think that's happening. His favorite song right now to sing is Take Me out to the Ball Game which he knows all the words too. He knows all his ABC's and can count to 15.  He also absolutely loves to dance and begs for us to turn music on. Another favorite thing he likes to do is watch old videos of himself. It's pretty cute when he laughs at the videos. He is finally in his big boy bed and never gets out of it. He sleeps wonderfully unlike his brother. He still isn't potty trained, but we have taken a few steps towards it. He has been saying some pretty funny things lately. He articulates words so well and is such a great talker. We love you Camo!

"Uh oh, I think I just pooped. Uh maybe it was just a toot"

Me asking,  "Camo do you want to go to the big boy potty?"
"Um no, I'm not quite ready yet."

"Baby Turner, your my best friend just like Travis"(Travis is a friend of Camo's from our old ward).

Elderly man at church asks, "Can I have a sip of your water?"
"Um no, it's not for big boys.(I think he was trying to tell the man he was old.)

Our car was having a lot of issues before we finally bought a new one. I think I must have been talking about it breaking down a lot. This was Camo before we had purchased our new car.

"Mom we can't drive to the park because our car is going to break down. We need to get a new car that works."

Beach Trip

We recently took a trip to the beach. We wanted to test out our new volvo s40 that we bought a couple days before. We originally were going to go with some friends, but it ended up just being our little family of 4. We had a lot of fun just relaxing on the beach and eating our lunch that we packed. Camo was a little worried about getting dirty from the sand, but he eventually started to play in it. After we played on the beach a bit, we hit up the Lincoln City outlet malls, stopped and got some saltwater tafffy, and then made our way home. On the way home we saw Spirit Mountain Casino and decided to stop and try their buffet. Thank goodness for a portable dvd player because it allowed us to stay twice as long. If any of you want to enjoy a buffet with a 2 year old, don't forget the portable dvd player. I obviously know that a buffet is a waste of money especially if you don't eat a ton, but the experience was well worth it. They had so many different choices of food. Overall it was a fantastic day and hopefully we will have many more  trips as a family.