It pays to be little...

Because when you're playing, you can really get in there and play! Asher left his dump truck alone for a few seconds, and Cambria took full advantage of it! I'm not sure why she took her pants off, though....lol. Luckily, Asher got a huge kick out of it and proceeded to push her around for quite some time. They were both laughing and having a great time.

My kids are Trouble (with a capital T!)

Nobody believes me when I tell them I have crazy kids that literally DO get into everything. So I've had to start taking pictures to prove that I'm really, really not stretching the truth.

Peanut butter all over his nose, forehead, AND in his hair...

This was Balmex.

Kyrie and Asher went through a phase where they'd tear her room apart (literally). Drove me nuts!

Yes, she has BUTTER. But "nobody knows" how she miraculously was able to reach the counter to get the butter down...

This, my friends, is an entire box of Cream of Wheat. At least Asher fessed up to being the culprit there.

This is my son, aka The Monkey, on TOP of our entertainment center.

And last, but certainly not least, an entire brand new can of Ovaltine.

Cambria's officially one year old!

Her party was cute. Her theme was "pretty in pink". The cake didn't turn out like I hoped because I decided to try and use homemade whipped cream as the frosting. I hate cake, but the only cake I do like is strawberry shortcake. So I decided to make that, hence my reason for wanting to try using the whipped cream. Don't ever try it. It doesn't work. Doesn't hold up, and it drips really badly (as you can see in the picture).




My mom and some of my siblings came, and Derk's family was all there as well (except his brother and our sister-in-law because they live too far away....We sure missed you guys!!!). And my best friend in the whole world, April. I really, really wanted her to be there, but she couldn't make it like we hoped she'd be able to. Sooooo sad.

Cambria only got her early morning nap, so she was beyond exhausted by the time opening presents and eating cake rolled around. We thought she'd just dive into her cake like the other 2 did, but she really had very strong reservations about it. She just sat there staring at it for the longest time. When she finally did pick it up, she picked it up very delicately and took the most dainty bite I've ever seen. It was too funny. Asher had his cake downed in 2 seconds flat, but she wouldn't even finish hers.

She got some really great gifts from everyone. We're so blessed to have such wonderful family. My sister, Abby, and her family got her this really fun bath toy to help her stop screaming during bath time (and it's worked great!!), my mom got her some cute overalls and boots and another "baby" (lovey), my other sister, Katie, got her this adorable purple stuffed bunny and a darling sweatshirt, my sister-in-law, Jessica, got her a Bible book, Kyrie didn't know what to give her, so she said she wanted to give her sister her most favorite stuffed animal (how sweet is that?), and my in-laws got her this tigger that bounces and an adorable outfit. We got her this play-and-learn laptop. She always tries to play with mine or Derk's, so we figured why not get her one of her own? She had more presents than she even wanted to deal with opening.

Opening the adorable stuffed bunny from my sister.


Cute boots from my mom.

Singing happy birthday!

Not so sure about that cake...

M'mmm!

Sampling the punch (no pun intended).

I just can't believe she's one year old already. Where has this year gone? She's the most precious, beautiful child. So sweet, so loving, so attached. I don't know how I lived without her now that I have her in my life. I feel so blessed with all my children, and that only multiplied when I was blessed with this beautiful child. Heavenly Father knew I had my hands more than full with Kyrie and Asher, and He knew I needed a child just like Cambria. I know my Heavenly Father loves me and hears my prayers because of this little girl.


And now some pictures for nostalgia's sake. Just a little then and now.

Cambria Claire~ November 20th, 2006, 6:30pm, 6 pounds 8 ounces, 18 inches long

I love you more than you know, sweet Cambria! Happy first birthday!!

Our latest adventure

We decided to take the kids out to see Enchanted last night. Cute movie, by the way. I highly recommend you take your whole family to go see it. Anyway, I asked Derk if he really thought taking Cambria to a movie was a good idea. And by asked I mean very, very, very strongly hinted in my "question" that it was not a good idea. He said, "Oh yeah, she'll be fine! And I'll stand with her if she gets fussy." Okay, I think you're totally off your rocker, but whatever you say! He's got to learn sometime, right? lol.

So off we go to the movie. She lasted all of 4 minutes before she was starting to lose it. Luckily popcorn and her sippy cup were good enough distractions so that I made it through about the first 15 minutes of the movie. She gets irritated, and I automatically get up and go stand with her at the side of the theater. Then I realizeafter 10 minutes or so, "Hey! What on earth am I doing over here? It was HIS genius idea to bring this child, so HE'S taking her!" So I marched straight back to our seats and handed her off. Muwhahaha!

In all fairness, we did trade off several times. I finally got her to fall asleep the last 5 minutes of the movie (go figure). He was right, she did do okay. Now I certainly don't mean okay, as in take her to every movie we fancy okay, but we did make it through the movie alive. I thought that was our biggest accomplishment. Gold star to us.

But then we get home, and I realize that I'd left my Nike jacket and Cambria's sippy cup at the theater. And of course the only number they have listed in the phone book is their automated line. So I jump on their website and email the manager. He says nobody has seen either of them, but he'll check again. So I tell him the precise location in which we were sitting, but I haven't heard back yet. That's what happens when you have 3 crazy kids distracting you at the theater. I'm really going to miss that jacket.....

First blog!

My good friends, April and Marcy, got me onto this site the other night, and I thought I'd give it a shot. I made up a myspace page a while ago because people had been on my case about getting one, but I think I'll like this one better.