Our first family Christmas!

Ok, so let me just start by mentioning that I was not trying to take good photos today. Really, I just wanted to enjoy the day and capture the moments as they happened with snapshots, nothing more. I ended the day, or few days actually, with hundreds of pics. They are great to me, even if they are not composed well with good technique. They are time frozen still as Cameron dug into his first stocking, opened his first presents and hammed it up for all of his family to see. I wanted to be able to witness these things through a mothers eye, not just behind a lens.

Ok, enough about that. Christmas this year was GREAT! We had a blast with our little guy! He seemed to love it, too, which was all we intended for. We started the festivities Christmas Eve with Marks side of the family. We always love spending time with them. Cameron was especially social and friendly this night! He "stole the show" as people kept saying. He stayed up until way past his bedtime but did great!

The next morning, we did stockings and gifts at our house, just the three of us. It was fun that way. After Cam's morning nap, we went to my parents house and did presents and brunch with my sisters and brothers and nephew. It was alot of fun. We even brought Cameron out in the snow with his new sled! Next, it was my Aunt Leslie's house for dinner and finally Marks parents house to finish off the night. Again, Cameron made it through the whole day with only one nap and stayed up pretty late! Here are a few of the tons of pictures I took!

First haircut!!

Okay, think back to when Cameron was born: He had the tiniest bit of light brown peach fuzz growing on his head. That stayed around until about a month, when one day, I gave him a bath and when I dried him off, all the hair was gone. Down to the scalp. And he stayed like that through the whole summer. We invested a lot of money into the cute little hat's to protect that bald head of his!! At around 8 months, hair started growing back. Slowly, but surely nice, thick, dirty blonde hair started filling out his head. It was adorable hair, but when it started growing in over his ears and down his neck, something had to be done! So yesterday, just in time for Christmas, Mark and I brought our little baby to the hairdresser for the very first time!! It was a little place in town, called Stylin' Kidz. Its geared towards kids specifically to make it an enjoyable experience for them. Jen, the hair dresser, did a great job! He didn't cry once and stared intently at the mirror, watching the women cut his hair. After it was done, he was excited to see his new hair cut and gave her the smile of approval! I was sad to see his hair cut, especially since it made me feel like he's a little boy now, not a baby. But once I saw how happy he was, I wasn't sad anymore. He's aloud to grow up. I just have to always remember that he'll always be my little bald baby, regardless of everything else. :)

Friends, Family and Christmas Lights!

The countdown to Christmas has officially begun! This past weekend was packed with Christmas stuff. We spent almost the entire day on Saturday shopping for gifts. I swear, it gets harder and harder every year! We have quite a few people to buy for and I think we've got 3 people done! Pathetic! Not only did we not get a lot done, but we some how found a way to spend lots of money regardless!! Oh well, 'tis the season, right?

After we shopped for most of the day, we decided to meet up with Steph, Justin and Ashlyn to go to the La Salette to show the kids the lights. It was freezing out, so we dressed Cam really warm, stuffed him into his Bundle Me and he couldn't have been more happy! He was babbling like crazy and really enjoyed looking at all the bright lights. Ashlyn was pretty funny! She acted exactly like I would have has a kid. She didn't move in her stroller for the first half of the night. She knew it was cold and didn't want anything to do with it. She got used to it, though, and had fun looking around.

On Sunday we had the annual King Family Christmas. The Kings are my mom's side. After years and years of having the party at my Aunt Sharon's house, this year the party took place at my mom's house. Nice short ride for me :) My mom is one of 5 children so all my aunts and uncles and cousins and there kids were there. Never a dull moment! Cameron and Ryan were the new ones to the family this year and a few of my cousins hadn't met them yet. They were a hit, of course! Cam was so well behaved, but such a ham! He is a friendly little guy and will go to almost anyone that wants to play with him. Its pretty funny to stand back and watch him crawl over to some one that he hardly knows and hang out with them. There are lots of kids on this side of the family, too. They were so funny watching them play with Cam and helping him do things. Its going to be so much fun next year when he will be able to actually keep up with all the action! He's getting there!!

Here are some pics of the night:

Tina with Ryan (6 mo), Candace with Will (5), Wendy with Sadie (3), Michelle, Stacey with Cameron (10 mo), Alison with Starla (18 mo), Melissa with Summer (3)

Snow!!

Being in New England, you expect lots of cold, snowy weather. With the warm weather lately, I never thought we would get any! Snow was in the forecast for this weekend, but I didn't believe it. How could it go from 68 degrees and sunny, to a mini snow storm in just a few days? But to my great surprise, we actually got some snow!! I woke up Sunday morning to about 3 inches on the ground. Everything looked so pretty! It was the first snow that I could actually bring Cameron out in too. Being born in January, he was around for lots of snow, but he was to small to enjoy it. This time, I bundled him up in his little snow suit and pretend snow boots (more like waterproof slippers), put on his hat and mittens and brought him out to see what he thought. He had fun! I still didn't want to keep him out long (it was about 5 minutes all together!) but it gave me an idea of how he will be in the cold weather to come. I love to winter and the snow and everything that comes with it, especially snow days, and I hope that he will too. In these pics it sure looks like he likes it!

First Santa Pictures: Success!!

Now that Thanksgiving is over with, I am officially allowed to get in the Christmas spirit! And it could not have come fast enough! I have been listening to Christmas music secretly in my car for weeks now and can't wait to get get the decorations up in my house!! I don't know if its because we have Cam this year or because last year I was on bed rest and wasn't able to really celebrate the way I'm used to. What ever it is, I'm overly excited for the holiday's this year!

So while having a play date with our BF couple, Steph and Justin and their daughter Ashlyn, we decided to attempt a trip to visit Santa! We had heard that they did a pretty good job of decorating the Bass Pro Shop in the next town over and thought we'd try it out. It was a good choice! It was more then just a Christmas tree and chair for Santa to sit in. It was a little village with a little forest with snow and lights and even a little train. The line wasn't to bad, even when Santa went on his dinner break. It gave us a chance to take some pictures around the store. We waited for about 30 mins all together.

When he came back from his break, he even stopped and said hi to Cameron! I thought something about his costume or his beard would freak him out, but he did fine! He sat great on his lap, not a big smile, but a little happy face, none the less. I was so proud of him! I will scan the official pic when I have a minute, but for now I have a few pictures that Justin took for me. (I actually forgot my camera! Can you believe it?) Cameron has met Santa! Let the celebrations begin!!!

Turkey Day!

Today was our first Thanksgiving Day with Cameron. It was a pretty low-key holiday for us, which is very rare! This year, my side had the H1N1 flu! First Kevin, then PJ, then my parents. There was no way I was going to spend time with them and risk the chance of passing it along to Cameron. Instead, we got to spend the entire day with Marks family. It was alot of fun! We had a great dinner with his parents, brother Matt and his wife Katie, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Greg, Aunt Dori and cousin Emily, along with some of Katie's family. I don't know how, but Joann fit us all at one table!! Cameron even had his first bite of turkey. He seemed to have loved it!!

I have so many things to be thankful for. Not just today, of course, but it is Thanksgiving! A few things I am thankful for are:

My family, both my big, loving family and my new, tiny family.

My awesome husband.

My husbands awesome family.

My job, and of course Marks job :)

My friends, both new and old.

The health of my friends and family.

Sleep!

My faith.

Food on the table and food on others tables.

Soldiers fighting for our peace, present, past and future.

And last but not least: My beautiful, healthy, cuddly, growing, unconditionally loving baby boy.

Little Mister Music

Ever since Cameron was born, he has loved anything that made sounds. He loved the mobile in his crib, his little caterpillar and especially his rain forest activity mat. Now that he is a bit older, he absolutely loves to making noise from anything! Whether banging wooden spoons together (then throwing them on the floor) or pressing the buttons on Daddy's Blackberry, as long as its loud, he likes doing it.

This past weekend, Uncle PJ let Cameron try playing his guitar. After a few minutes of "what the heck is this thing?" Cam realized that pulling the little strings made noise. He was very serious about doing this. Like his dad, he always wants to figure out how things work. He takes a few minutes to investigate and once he thinks he knows, he has a blast! Here he is rockin' out on the guitar:

Another way that Cameron has learned to "play" music is on Daddy's electric piano. Mark grew up taking lesson and playing on his family's baby grand piano, which still lives at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Father like son I fuess, Cameron loves smashing his hands into the keys and laughing at the loud noises that comes from the piano. He loves it so much that we have added it into our daily routine. He plays music for me while I make the bed in the morning. What a sweat little guy. Already trying to please his mommy!

Halloween!!

Our first Halloween with Cameron has come and gone! We were expecting a yucky, rainy day, but it turned out really good! It was actually close to hot, around 70! We started out the day by getting both our kids dressed for the occasion. By both our kids, I mean Cameron, of course, and our 4 year old beagle, Riley. We bought little Halloween themed t-shirts for both of them and tried to get them to sit still for a picture. Yeah, not happening! And it was more Cameron's fault then Riley's. When clothes are put on Riley, he goes into shock mode and you can get him to do anything you want! We even put him in his pumpkin costume from a few years ago and treid to get a cute pic of that as well.

In the afternoon, we went to my sister Tina's house. We thought it would be easier to invite everyone who wanted to see Cameron and her baby Ryan there, instead of carting the costumed babies all over creation. So we were met with my parents, sister Michelle with fiance Chris, Marks parents, Aunt Dori and cousin Emily. Tina's inlaws were also there. It was pretty funny to see the babies all dressed up and being silly together. Of course, they were conked out by 7:30, so we just ordered pizza and hung out for awhile. Fun night though! I can't wait for next year when they will be able to walk around a bit and actually trick or treat. Ugh, do babies really grow up this quickly??