Camo Turns 4

I can't do a blog post all about TJ without doing a post about my Camo. He recently just had a birthday and turned 4. He insisted that we get him a monkey cake. I knew I wasn't up for the challenge, but good ol' Albertson's was. They made an adorable monkey cake. He loved it! We celebrated with family and friends on Super Bowl Sunday. It was a fun night for all of us. We had a lot of food!

Camo is such a thoughtful, observant boy. He is always asking questions. If somebody is hurt he will constantly ask me if they are doing better. If I lose something, he can almost always tell me exactly where it is. He keeps me in line. He is a rule follower and if anybody is breaking a rule he will let me know. He is really starting to love to play with his brother. TJ is getting a bit tougher so they like to wrestle with each other. Camo's favorite food right now is popcorn. His favorite cartoon is Team Umizoomi and Wallykazam. He has also recently been fascinated with dinosaurs and always asks to watch dinosaur shows on netflix. He loves to dance and we frequently have dance parties. He is starting to understand humor and loves to tell jokes. We love this boy so much! He has brought so much joy into our family. Happy 4th Birthday Camo!!!

My Baby TJ

Except he's not a baby anymore. He will be 2 in about 5 months and I can't believe it. Time really does just keep getting faster and faster. In the moment it seems long, but then you look back at the years and realize how quickly they go by. There are so many things I can say about this little boy. He is such a smiley, happy boy. It definitely didn't start out that way. We dealt with a lot of colic from him as a baby. He still loves his blanket and thumb. He is starting to transition to 1 nap a day instead of the 2. He shares a room with Camo and they both sleep great through the night. TJ loves to talk. We started noticing him jabber a lot over Christmas in Texas. Now we are starting to understand a lot of words he is saying. Some of his favorites are cool cars, ready set go, one two three, eggs, water, cereal(with all 3 syllables), Camo, daddy, mommy, bebe(blanket), penguin, doggie, kitty kat, go, bite, and train. I could probably go on and on. This kids vocabulary is unbelievable. He absolutely loves his daddy. Whenever J gets home from work he runs to the door yelling daddy and lifts his arms up. TJ does have a cranky side to him. He likes to throw tantrums which we didn't deal with as much with Camo. I guess it just means he will be determined. He can be a picky eater at times. One day he will eat something and the next day he won't even take a bite of it. Some of his favorite foods are french fries, applesauce, yogurt, noodles, cheese, and believe it or not I fed him mushrooms the other day and he was gobbling them down. He doesn't like driving in the car for very long. He loves being outside. He is always saying outside, outside. He loves to dance and our family has dance parties quite frequently. TJ also likes to read. He will grab a book and sit right down on my lap and yell read.  TJ also adores Camo. If Camo is reading books Turner will sit down right next to him and read books. If Camo is playing cars TJ is right next to him doing the same. We love you TJ!!!

Merry Christmas

I love Christmas! J doesn't feel the same. I told him now that we have our new house we are going to start some really fun traditions. Christmas will soon be his favorite holiday. This year we had the opportunity to go to Texas to visit my parents and two brother's and their families. I was there for about 2 1/2 weeks and J came for a week in the middle. There wasn't a day that I or the boys were ready to come back home. We had a blast. We had a few warm days while we were there which was a nice change from the cold Oregon weather.

One of the days we went to Sea World with my parents, brother and his little girl. It was so much fun. I think our favorite was the walrus show. It was so funny and those animals are fat!!! According to Camo we can only say fat if we are talking about an animal.  The shows were all really fun, but I think Camo's favorite part was all the kiddie rides. He loves any kind of amusement park. There was also a baby Shamu that was only about 15 days old. That was really fun to see.

We also went to a place called Morgan's Wonderland. It was a park that was specifically built for children with disabilities. Though it was built for disabled children, anybody was welcome to spend the day there. There were swings that you could attach wheelchairs too as well as all the playground structures having ramps for wheelchairs. It was really fun for the boys. I think Camo's favorite part was being able to drive the cars. There were a lot of other activities like fishing, a petting zoo(TJ is obsessed with any kind of animal), carousel, and a train to name a few.

I also had the chance to visit one of my best friends from high school. We were able to go to lunch with her. It was so fun catching up. Every time I see her it feels like we just pick right up where we left off. We had an awesome visit. My boys were a little wild at times, but I was still able to visit.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is looking at Christmas lights. Something about them is so magical and I look forward to them every year. My parents neighborhood did not disappoint. I couldn't believe how many lights were on some of these houses. We also went to a neighborhood that is specifically well known for awesome Christmas lights. We originally went on Christmas eve, then realized that was a bad choice and then went back a few days later. There were a lot less cars. Christmas eve and day were also really fun. We went to my brother's house for Christmas eve soup and then had Christmas at my parents house the next morning. Camo's favorite present was Pop the Pig. He loves that game and we have played it many times since Christmas.

In J's opinion, going to  The Incredible Pizza Company was probably the highlight of the whole trip. It really was a fun day spending it in an all you can eat buffet plus an awesome arcade room with go carts as well. Camo and J went on the go carts together and they were loving it. I liked the games of course. I think deep down I have a gambling personality. It's probably a good thing the church teaches us to stay away from gambling. Ha. I would probably have no money. It's okay to gamble with a few arcade games right!?

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation and Camo is still begging to go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Maybe I can convince J to go there during the summer one of these years. He thinks it is way to hot in the summer which is why we always plan Christmas vacations.