The windy city

  On Day 1 of our traveling adventures we picked up Cameron from work at noon and began our trek to Boise, Idaho.  Our resting place for the night. 
   The most fun to be had was at a rest stop in Idaho, in the middle of nowhere.   Whoever said Chicago was "the windy city" has obviously not been to this rest stop. 
   It was dinner time, so we decided to pull out our picnic and eat under the sheltered pavilion.  Little did we know that our entire dinner time would be spent weighing down our plates, napkins, and other food items as well as chasing our plates, napkins, and other food items because of the wind.  It wasn't long before we understood why we were the only ones utilizing the tables...many were enjoying their dinners in a windless environment, their cars.
   The pictures do not do the wind justice but please notice the girl's wind-blown hair.  I would have loved to have captured the "damage" of the wind but I was too busy chasing our dinner so these will have to do!

                                                                   (Kaitlyn)

                                                              (Ella and Cambri)

At the end of the day we were grateful to arrive in Boise without any casualties from the wind and better yet, we ALL made it alive, even after the long car ride.  Good thing because there would be much more driving ahead of us, we had only just begun!

Pre-Pre-School

I can hardly believe I have a child old enough to begin school! Our little Miss Cambri began preschool last week and I have to admit she was excited to start school and I was just as excited for her (and for me). With her birthday being in October she will just miss the cut-off for Kindergarten next year. So lucky her, she gets TWO years of Preschool AND from what she displays now, she will be the brains of her Kindergarten class.


We love you Cambri! You are such a joy to raise and have in our family. You are constantly molding me and teaching me how to be a more Christ-like mother and I love you for that. You are an incredibly active and busy girl. I am convinced that your high level of energy is due to the fact you have a very lively spirit that wants to be set free and accomplish greats things in this life.

We wish you the best this school year and the many more school years to follow! We hope you continue having a love for learning and strive to learn all that you can. We are here to guide you each step of the way. Good luck Cambri!

Something Right

Despite my many short comings as a mother, I must be doing something right.

While the girls and I were stuck in traffic, Cambri and I had some cute conversations. One of which was...

Cambri : "I can not wait to be a mom!"
Mom: "Oh yeah? Why is that?"
Cambri: "Because I can take my kids to do fun things."

Although I am not PERFECT and am not always the BEST example to my children, I was happy to hear that Cambri already had the desire to one day become a mom and care for her own children. The most rewarding but most challenging work we as women can ever do!!

I suppose if I am instilling anything in my children, it is the joy that can be had through mothering, through the bearing and raising of children.

The Living Scriptures

Every night before we put the girls to bed we sit down as a family to read from the Book of Mormon. As of lately, Cambri has really been applying what she learns to her everyday living. Here are two examples:
1. To set the stage, I was changing Kaitlyn's diaper while Cambri and Ella were "playing" in their bedroom. Ella began crying so I called the girls in to see what was going on.

Me: "What happened girls? Why is Ella crying?"
Ella: "Cambee hit me."
Cambri: "No, no, no. I didn't hit her. I whipped her because she was a Lamanite"
Me: "Ella is not a Lamanite. She is your sister. Please don't do that again."

*NOTE: Cambri did not really "whip" Ella.

2. Cambri was sitting on the couch looking at books while Ella was running back and forth between the couch and the hallway, being noisy. Eventually Cambri was getting bothered and asked Ella to stop. Ella continued.

Cambri: "No Ella, stop! Go and sin no more"

Most nights when we sit to read we do not have everyone's full attention so I was happy to know Cambri is catching on. She may not have it down pat but she is indeed learning and finding ways to use that knowledge everyday.

Haircut

You would have thought gum in the hair was enough for one week but......it isn't. The gum episode happened last Wednesday and the very next morning our sweet little Ella had her FIRST haircut. It was the cheapest and quickest haircut ever. The stylist to thank for such great service, Cambri. :) I can't blame Cambri because we have let Ella's bangs grow a bit too long and she is in great need of a little trim.
Just like our gum incident, it could have been much worse.
Cambri received a bunch of crafting supplies for her birthday which she loves AND we, as her parents love. One of her newest supplies was a small pair of scissors. Her new fascination has been cutting paper and ribbon into the smallest pieces possible. That morning, she had been working on some "art" in her room while Ella and I were in the Living Room. Cambri walked out with her scissors (which I did not know at the time), over to Ella, picked up some hair and ***chop***. Thankfully, I caught her in the action and numerous clumps of hair were not removed, just one.
Ella's face was priceless. She looked at her hair that had fallen on her clothes with puzzlement, bewilderment, shock, surprise, sadness, etc. Just about every emotion, was expressed across her face.
Unfortunately I do not have pictures to show. It actually took me awhile to even find where Cambri had made the cut, up at the top of Ella's head. With the amount of hair that girl has, I suppose she can afford to lose a chunk on occasion. The only time you may notice her haircut is when she wears pigtails because her 'shorties' stick out.
I knew it was bound to happen. I think every girl has a desire to be a hair stylist/beautician at some point in their life. For a few that does not occur until later in life but for the majority it occurs in the early years of childhood, which is ever so unfortunate for the mothers and the victim.
Just for the record, Cambri is temporarily band from scissors so you will not be hearing any snipping at this place!

The Latest Fashion

Who knew?

And yes, she has worn her hair like this in public a time or two.
It was not a battle worth fighting.
If you saw her like this, who would you think did her hair, me or her?
I kept telling myself everyone would know it was her choosing.
Am I right?

Laugh of the Day

This morning the girls and I ventured over to the park for "Mommy & Me". First stop, the swings. Each time we go to the park, Cambri has requested that I give her an underdog on the swing. For those unaware, it is when you run under the swing as you push it up.

Here was Cambri's request:
"Mom, can you give me an under-wear dog?"

I could not control my laughter. It was just too dang cute. Perhaps we have been talking a bit too much about the potty and all that accompanies it. Regardless of the reasoning, I hope you found it just as humorous as I.

Public Potties Here We Come

We have got ourselves a potty trained two year old. Hallelujah! It took a great amount of effort and incredible patience on both ends to achieve success. Back around her second birthday (October) she was showing many of the signs of potty training readiness so we gave it a whirl. She did make it in the potty several times the first day so I thought we were off to a great start. Needless to say, we hit many bumps along the road, and using the potty became a battle. After dealing with a fighting two year old for quite some time the thought came to me that I needed to take a break from the potty. I was not thrilled about this option but decided to go along with the prompting. We took about two weeks break then jumped right back in to using the potty and VOILA! It worked, it stuck, and all are happy.

Now that we have mastered the obstacle of toilet training (other than nights), I have mixed feelings. I am SO grateful I do not need to buy nearly as many diapers and I do not need to clean dirty diapers from 2 children all day long...just one. However, on the down side it makes shopping all the more interesting. I encourage Cambri to use the bathroom before leaving our house but it is hit or miss on whether or not she will try. If she begins throwing a fit, I just let it go. I am finding somethings are not worth fighting over. To no avail she "needs" to use the bathroom just about everywhere we go. It is not an easy task as you may know. I have to hold Ella in one arm, lift Cambri onto the toilet and hold her there (public toilets= GERMY YUCK) so she does not touch the filth. Washing her hands is the exact same story. I suppose with some more potty usage and a few growth spurts she will be able to handle it all on her own.

But for now I will be content with my bicep workout each time I go shopping! Who would have thought shopping could be an exercise?!

Library Lessons to be Learned

1. Library books are fun to read
2. Library books are not to be ripped
3. Library books cost money to replace
4. Library books are expensive
5. Library books are replaced with money from my "Money Jar"

These are lessons Cambri has most recently learned about the library. We have had a great many struggles with Cambri lately, one of which is the way she treats her library books. It baffles me to no end because checking out books from the library is no new thing around this house. We have been taking Cambri to the library to check out books for TWO years and NOW we are having problems?! Little Miss Cambri loves and has always loved reading books. Going to the library is a highlight for her. Why she is having issues now, we are unsure, but we do hope she has learned a lesson.

Here is the story:
It has been routine to read two books at nap time as well as bedtime each day. We keep her library books, in a book bag, in her bedroom. Following one of our routine readings, when she should have been sleeping, she apparently went through one of her library books and made about 5-6 tears on the bottom of each and every page. She did not rip any pages out, thankfully, but the book was basically destroyed. I made a phone call to the library asking what the process is to replace a book as we have never had to do so. I was told to meet up with a Librarian in the children's section to let them assess the damage because perhaps, it does not need to be fully replaced. I very well knew that they would want to replace the book but to help Cambri learn a lesson and to be accountable for what she had done we went in to the library. She walked with me up to the counter, carrying the damaged book, as we told the librarian what happened. As I expected, she did want the book replaced. When Cambri's library books were due we went in to the library to return her books and then carried her damaged book as well as Cambri's jar of money up to the counter. (*Note: You are not allowed to replace the book and bring the new copy into the library, it has to be ordered through their system so you will pay the cost of the book plus a processing fee) The sweet woman behind the desk pulled up the book in her system to request a new copy and gave us our total to replace the book.
$16.95 (book) + $5.00 (processing) = $21.95
At that moment I experienced, in a very small way, how our Savior and Heavenly Father must feel when we make mistakes and have to suffer the consequences. As a mother, I was heartbroken. I wanted so much to pay for the replacement but what lesson, if any, would Cambri learn? I knelt down beside her, as she and I pulled out the money necessary to pay for the damage. All the while, she said, "Don't take all of it, just one, two, three, four!" After we gathered enough money from her jar I had Cambri hand it to the librarian. I wanted this experience and learning opportunity to be as real as possible to her. I wanted her to play an active role in making right what she had done. The cost of the book ended up wiping out half of the money she had saved in her jar. Even though she is still so young I hope she will remember this experience and will be able to gain strength from having done the right thing, even though it was not easy.

Just as I love my daughter and want what is best for her. I know our Father in Heaven loves each of us, his children, and wants what is best for us. What is best for us is not always what is easy. At times in life we will have to watch our children suffer from their decisions just as our Heavenly Father but we must continue to love unconditionally regardless of their choices. I am so grateful for Cambri and the wonderful teaching opportunity this experience provided for the both of us.

Here Comes the Sun

After many long days of low temperatures and clouds, the sun has finally decided to make its grand appearance this weekend and I must say we LOVED it. Every minute of it. On Saturday we went strawberry picking, which was a first for Cambri. She enjoyed the picking for a few minutes and then decided walking up and down the rows, and watching others pick was much more satisfying. Ella, on the other hand did not have the freedom to walk around (we are working on the walking thing) so she was strapped in a Snugli. The Snugli, may not have been the best option for her as I had to bend over to look for and pick the strawberries. After a short time she noticed the leaves of the strawberry plants and would try to swipe a few...being successful a few times. Needless to say, picking strawberries this year took a significant amount of time, with Cambri trying to explore the fields, Ella trying to destroy the crop, and two parents trying to pick strawberries while monitoring the kids. This particular farm, Casale Farm, had just opened a few days earlier and had a very wet season with very little sunshine. With me not being familiar with Oregon strawberries(their taste, color, size, etc.) and their climate needs I was a little unsure what to expect when we went to the farm. There was not a tremendous amount of "ready-to-pick" strawberries but we managed to walk away with 5 lbs.....just enough for eating. I think we will give it another try in a few weeks when the strawberries are in full swing.

Once we finished our Saturday run-around, which included the farm, shoe store, Mattress World, and grabbing a bite to eat we came home and made an attempt at getting our girls down for their naps. When we were unsuccessful, rather than try again and waste away a perfectly good swimming day, we lathered on the sunscreen, threw on our bathing suits, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at the pool.

What a perfect Saturday!!!